Defenses Down

Kitty Invictus

Author's note: In this chapter, I want to give a little clue as to what the cylons are up to. I wasn't sure what the model number was for Simon, so I decided that nine would be appropriate. If I'm wrong, please review and tell me.

Also I'm sorry that this chapter is shorter than the others. I liked the ending so much that I didn't want to continue. Sorry it took so long. It's so hard to find time to write with school. My workload is really heavy. I'm halfway done the 5th chapter so hopefully it won't take so long this time.

I enjoyed hearing from of few of you on the last chapter. Thank you for your thoughts.

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Chapter four: Questions He Wanted To Ask

The transport to Kobol was much more comfortable than most of the passengers were used to. As Kara entered the compartment where she would be sitting for the hour and a half journey, she looked around, and whistled. "What's with the fancy ride." She exclaimed chuckling.

"Oh. Didn't you know." Helo said. "Captain Adama swung us the ride. Something about some luxury liner he saved when they had troubles with life support." The way he said Captain held more than a little contempt. She assumed that Sharon had told him about the little conversation where Lee pointed a gun at her again.

Kara quickly grabbed a chair near the door. She liked to be near the exit. Wherever she was. She enjoyed knowing that in case something happened, she could either be the first one out, or be the first to the door to help others escape.

"Maybe I should start saving luxury liners for a living." Helo joked passing by and going to sit four rows behind her. She smiled at his joke and settled into her comfortable seat. As the rest of the passengers entered, they split up into groups of two sitting in separate areas of the compartment. Sharon went to sit with Helo, Elosha and the President, Zarek and Meier; each one seemed a reasonable group.

The hatch closed and the pilot chimed in on the speakers. "We will be taking off shortly, the trip is expected to take one point five hours." The way he said it sounded awkward, his usual speech was probably much longer and cheerful; talking about all the features and safely procedures. She felt sorry for the pilot. Since the attacks he wouldn't have had as many passengers aboard the transport. She understood that this had been his life. Many of the civilians, had continued trying to live as if nothing had happened.

A few minutes after take off, Lee came out of the cockpit. He looked around at the groups. They all seemed to be having their own private conversations. He also spotted Starbuck who was sitting by herself. Her back was to the door he had come through. She didn't see him until he slid into the seat beside her. She looked at him unsurprised.

"How was your jog earlier?" He wanted to ask her how she was, what she was thinking. There were a lot of things he wanted to ask her. He understood though, that it would be her story to tell.

"What?... Jog?... Oh." She had forgotten about their conversation that morning. "I um..." She stalled. "It turns out the Astral Queen doesn't have many good places to jog." She made an excuse cursing herself for her stupid joke. That had been the last thing she was expecting to be asked by him. He didn't ask her about it though, for the whole trip. It was unnerving. Usually, he would have asked her by now.

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"How much longer?" An impatient number six asked the model known as Simon; who was currently standing over a desk full of papers test tubes, computers, and other medical supplies. He was agitated by her question. The six models tended to be quite aggressive when they wanted something. The sixs looked down on many of the later models such as him. He was a number nine model.

"The tests are taking more time than was expected. There was an anomaly in the blood work." He said calmly. "The last of the tests should be done in less than two hours, then work on the final product can be finished." The six nodded.

"Then how long will it take for the product to be effective?" She continued questioning. "I've been informed that the process of growth has been sped up considerably."

"Oh yes. Considerably. Once the product is finished, it will take no longer than one month to reach our goal. After that, the aging will continue at a natural rate." He was more enthusiastic to be giving this news. It had taken his team the better part of a week to perfect the work so that the growth could take place at a much faster rate.

"Have you heard what they plan to call it?" Her tone turned more personal. The business side of things had been covered. "The threes want to call it Eve." She sneered. "I don't believe it needs a name." she said.

"Well we can't give it a number, It's not cylon." He said.

"It wouldn't be necessary if you had not lost the original subject. A heavy raider will be here to pick up the product tomorrow. It had better be ready for transport." She left then. Simon frowned as he looked back to his work. The loss of the original subject had been a setback. But he had gotten them back on track. They were only a month away from the beginning of a new age.

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When the transport landed in Galleon Meadow, it was pouring rain, and the passengers were reluctant disembark. Lee stood up and stretched his arms above his head. The trip had taken longer than expected. There was unexpected turbulence due to the weather. The president took charge immediately.

"We should all prepare the gear to hike in the rain." She smiled kindly to everyone. "It will hard enough without wet gear."

Everyone set about quickly to do as instructed. "This should be interesting." He said to Kara. "I haven't felt rain for a long time." They walked over to the storage area where all the gear had been packed and started passing things to people.

"It rained enough for me on Caprica thank you." said Lt. Agathon as Lee passed him a pack. "You wouldn't believe what a couple of nukes will do to the climate."

"It didn't rain that much while I was there." Kara said passing packs to the president and Elosha. She regretted what she said immediately. She looked to Helo, silently asking him not to mention Caprica again. She had not told anyone else what had happened down there yet.

She didn't look at Lee, but she could tell he was watching her. She could feel his eyes following her every move. She knew he had questions. She just couldn't handle it yet. She loved Anders and she couldn't let herself be that vulnerable with Lee. He meant too much to her. She couldn't let him be the other man in her life.

She pulled herself out of thought to grab the last pack for herself. Many of the others had already left the transport. She felt a hand on her shoulder. "You ready?" Lee asked her innocently. She wanted to slap him. Why did he have to be so nice?

"Yeah." She tried to smile. But she was not sure if it reached her eyes. "Lets go get ourselves a map." When it was just the two of them left, Lee looked back to Kara one more time then started his climb down the stairs into the pouring rain.

Before he had gone down one step, there was an awful racket from behind him. The pilot was frantically pulling open the hatchway between the cockpit and the passenger area. When the pilot saw that they were still on board, he waved his hands wildly as he made his way over to them.

"Get out. Get out." He was shouting at Lee and Kara. Lee didn't ask questions. He turned and jumped down the stairs. Before he had taken two steps, there was an explosion behind him. He could feel the intense heat on his back despite the cool rain falling all around.

He hit the ground hard and something heavy landed on him. He ignored the pain as he rolled over knocking whatever scrap it was off his back. His ears were ringing loudly from the explosion. He couldn't hear anything else. He turned around quickly to see what had happened. He didn't even see the wreckage because his eyes focused on a body lying face down on the ground not three meters away.

His heart stopped. It was Kara and she wasn't moving.