How to Be Human
By Carolina Blue
A/N: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I finally finished this chapter! It's been a bitch to write, sorry, and I think it was so hard to do because it's basically a filler/exposition chapter until I get into the action and darker stuff later. And this one took so long because I'm in major life upheaval right now. I just got a job in New York City so I've moved there, but I'm still apartment hunting. My home right now is an air mattress on my sister's floor. And so unfortunately, I'll be posting the chapters to this story and "Light of Apollo" as soon as I can, but I don't think it'll be as steady as it was before. Hopefully once a week, but I can't promise. (As the late posting of this chapter indicates.) Wish me luck!
Ammonite7: I looked into this dirtybadwrong stuff of which you speak, and I think you'll have to wait a chapter for that! I've got it mostly done and while I don't go that far, it does get bad. And wrong. And maybe a little dirty. But that's the next chapter; this one's less dirtybadwrong and more sadscarypainful. Is that a word I can use? Thanks for all your reviews, by the way. And I know I reviewed "Planes and Chocolate," but I wanted to say again that it's a great little story!
A/N: Takes place in Season 4 but AU so I can make the show fit my story, instead of my story fitting in the show, of course. So some things from season 4 will be in here, others won't! Enjoy! There is an original character in here too, but she's not a Mary-Sue, she's not my attempt to put myself in the universe, or anything like that. I needed her for narrative reasons earlier in this story, and I brought her back for those same reasons in this chapter.
Thanks for the reviews! Keep 'em coming, please!
xxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxx
CHAPTER SEVEN
They sat around the tables in the war room. It was the meeting you were supposed to have when something like this happened. Strategy and planning. Information gathering and tactics. Kara had sat in on numerous meetings like this in the last few years.
No, not like this. People had been taken off of Galactica, right out from under them. And not just people, but children. Of course she had never thought of Lee as a child, he was undeniably Bill Adama's. And he wasn't the only grieving parent, as Sharon and Karl Agathon were very much present in this meeting as well. The whole thing made Kara want to throw up.
"We, uh…" Gaeta cleared his throat. "We figured out how they got past DRADIS." He slid a photograph across the table towards Adama and the President. "From Hot Dog's gun camera footage."
Bill stared at it for a moment. "Carbon composite," he murmured. If it weren't for the circumstances, he might have smiled.
"The sons of bitches stole our idea," Kara wasn't really asking. Next to her, Helo looked down at his hands, jaw clenching. It had been his idea in the first place. They had stolen his idea and his child. He might have stood up and walked out right then, if Sharon's hand hadn't slid into his, squeezing tightly.
Gaeta took a deep breath before continuing. "From what Lieutenant Hoshi and I have been able to figure out from the footage, it's a short-range jumping ship."
"But not a heavy raider?" Laura asked, her voice ringing out as steady as always. Kara admired that about her. If Laura was shaken in any way, she wasn't showing it now. Though her hands did look to be clasped extra tight in front of her.
Gaeta shook his head. "It's more like… like a heavy Raptor. Or the Cylon equivalent."
"So they couldn't have jumped far," Adama half-commented, half asked. His eyes moved to Gaeta for confirmation.
"Not in that first jump, no. Now, we can't say whether they may have jumped multiple times or if they transferred to another ship, or if they're floating next to us right now." He sighed, looking at the group around him- Adama, Roslin, Tory, Tigh, Kara, and the Agathons. "We just have no way of knowing."
"They're close." Sharon's quiet voice, almost a whisper, still managed to echo around the room. They all turned as one to look at her; it was the first words she had uttered since the meeting started.
"How the hell do you know that?" Tigh's voice cut the silence.
Sharon spoke to all of them, but her eyes were locked on Bill's. "Lee and Hera aren't just any people in the fleet. They're… they're important. Why would they risk taking them if there wasn't something for them to gain?" Bill nodded silently.
"You think they'll want to trade them for something?" Laura asked.
"Or someone," Sharon still spoke quietly.
"The Final Five. They're after the Final Five?" Starbuck breathed out, leaning back in her seat. From that angle, she caught Tory and Tigh exchanging a look but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what it was. She filed it away in her brain for later thought and went back to the conversation at hand.
Sharon took a deep breath, shuddering a little on the intake. Unconsciously, she leaned against Helo's shoulder for comfort. He squeezed her hand under the table. "I don't… I don't know, they may think we know who the Final Five are. Maybe they think we're imprisoning them, or that we'll kill them? I don't know." She shook her head desperately. "There has to be some reason they'd risk coming on Galactica of all places to take hostages."
"If that were the case they'd contact us. And they haven't," Laura pointed out.
"Yet," both Bill and Kara murmured.
"But that doesn't leave us with many options," Laura pressed on. "What do we do? Launch a Search and Rescue? We have nowhere to go. Do we wait for the Cylons to contact us? We'd be keeping the fleet out here like sitting ducks."
"So you want us to keep on our current course?" Tigh asked, slightly incredulous.
Laura didn't- couldn't- really say yes. "They found us before, they'll find us again. If they want to contact us then they will."
"That's a big 'if' to base this decision on," Kara couldn't help but say. She felt her pulse quickening, as though panic was about to set it. We can't leave them behind. We have to save them. We have to save Lee. Her eyes moved to the Admiral, pleading.
But Laura got to him first. "Bill." Her voice was quiet, but firm. Regretful, but not placating. It held his attention and everybody else's in the room. "There's nothing else we can do right now."
Part of Kara agreed, but a bigger part of her was flashing back to Lee in a hospital bed, unconscious and fighting nightmares. No no no. Her hands were balling into fists almost against her will, her body screaming for some kind of action. In this moment, she found herself hating the President and her relationship with the Admiral.
"I'm not leaving my daughter!" Sharon voice definitely had more life to it now. Next to her, Helo remained silent, but his eyes fixed with icy defiance on the President. Sharon continued, "You can't ask me to- you can't order me to." Her own gaze zeroed in on Roslin. "You took her from us once. Please don't expect us to follow your lead again when it comes to our child."
Kara had a moment of grim satisfaction when Roslin flinched at that. "There's got to be something we can do," she threw her two cubits in. "Maybe the Cylon in the brig will know something? Is there… I don't know… something in Baltar's old lab we can use to find the Final Five?"
"And what, do a trade? We can't contact the Cylons, and we have no way of knowing what these last five models are like." Laura maintained her control on the conversation.
"We can't just leave," Helo couldn't even maintain his control on his voice.
"Lieutenant Gaeta," Adama was restrained but steady. It wasn't until he spoke that Kara even realized he had been silent this entire time.
"Sir?"
"Start plotting out the next jump with the nebula's coordinates," he ordered, not looking at anyone. Sharon stood up quickly, her chair falling away from the table. Helo was right behind her, a little more calm but just barely. Kara followed soon after.
"Sir!" Helo's voice rang out first.
Bill silenced the three of them with a look. Kara couldn't help but quiet down. They may not look that much alike, but whenever the Admiral glared at her like that, she was reminded of Lee. Painfully reminded.
"Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be able to make that jump for a few days," Adama continued. "There are ships in the fleet that need tylium refueling, and we'll have to do them one day at a time," his eyes flicked over briefly to the President. "For protection. We don't want the Cylons showing up in the middle of a giant refueling mission, do we?"
It wasn't the best stall in the world, but it would do. Kara felt herself relax just a fraction, saw the Agathons do the same. Laura even seemed relieved; she hadn't really wanted to leave Lee and Hera behind either. She and Bill exchanged a small, frightened smile. It wasn't a lot to go on but it was better than nothing.
"No, we don't," Laura answered. She stood, as did everyone else not already standing. They all filed out, Kara being the last to leave. She closed the hatch behind her and watched the others go off in their own directions. Tigh and Gaeta back to the CIC, Tory and the President back to Colonial One. To her right, Sharon and Helo headed off to their quarters. To her left, Adama did the same. And Kara just stood still.
She wanted to follow someone. But she didn't know who, or if she was allowed. She just knew she was upset, worried, and had no one to share the feelings with. She couldn't share it with the people who would understand the most: the Admiral and the Agathons had lost their children, their loved ones. Kara had lost her… Lee. Her friend? Her wingman, her almost-brother-in-law, her almost-soul-mate? Gods, what a great frakking time to try to define that relationship.
She laughed quietly to herself, surprised at the anger in it. The Agathons had gone off to her right, the Admiral to her left. And the Cylons were out there, gods-know-where, but they were out there. Kara couldn't go in any direction, so she stayed where she was, eventually sliding down the bulkhead until she was sitting on the floor, head leaning back. Idly, she wondered where Sam was, if he was still hanging out with Tyrol (why was he hanging out with Chief so much lately?).
"Starbuck?" a quiet voice caused Kara to open eyes she hadn't even realized were closed. Adelaide was standing in front of her, holding herself in that restrained-anxious way she so often did. Kara wondered how long she had been waiting there. Probably since the meeting had started.
"We're going to hold here for a few days," she murmured, answering the question before Addy could ask it. Addy let out a breath- in relief? in fear?- before leaning back against the wall opposite Kara, lowering herself to the floor. She looked at Kara warily, as though Kara might be angry at the company or angry Addy was copying her stance. But Kara was neither. She simply sighed, head leaning back against the bulkhead again. Adelaide stayed silent, playing with an errant string on the sleeve of her shirt.
"Do you think they'll kill him?" the question startled both of them. It took Kara a second to realize that she was the one who had asked it. Addy's eyes watered almost instantly, and she hastily tried to wipe them before Kara noticed. (She noticed.)
"I don't… no, I don't think they will. Not right away," Addy's whisper echoed against the metal bulkheads. Her lips pressed together tightly, eyes furrowed, in an expression that was so Lee-like that Kara knew Addy had to have picked it up from him. It almost hurt to see, much like the Admiral's look had earlier. She didn't ask Addy to elaborate, but the aide did anyway. "They're going to want to play with him first. They must have taken Lee so they could…" she swallowed convulsively before continuing, "…finish what they started on Colonial One."
"That's good," Kara said, sounding overly-strong and just a little bit desperate. "It gives us time to find them. Gives me time to kill them."
"Kara…" Addy shook her head, eyes watering again. This time a tear fell, but Kara was too busy trying to remember when the last time was the Addy had called her by her real name to notice. "…I was there when they found him after the first attack. I treated him in the Raptor on the way over here. The- the bruises on him, the hand and finger prints-" She tried to keep her voice stoic, the voice she had used when she had been a medic, but it didn't work. She locked eyes with Kara. "-He may want them to kill him."
And Kara felt like throwing up again.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Lee felt like throwing up again. He already had once (technically twice, but the second time was really nothing more than dry heaves) after he had woken up. That plus the disconcerting feeling of not knowing what had happened in the last six hours left Lee feeling incredibly… freaked out. It was not a phrase he usually equated with himself, but right now he definitely could say he was freaking out.
The last thing he remembered was waking up in his room on Galactica just as the hatch was forced open. When a group of Cylons- including Leoben and a Six (was it the same Six?!)- entered, at first Lee thought he was in a nightmare again. By the time he realized it wasn't a dream they were on the attack. He was sure he had fought back, but there had so many of them and Lee still wasn't up to his full fighting strength. He hadn't even remembered leaving his room, but obviously he had. He had also apparently left his ship, and lords near if they were still even in the same star system.
"Frak," he murmured, leaning his head back. He was sitting on the floor against the far wall, across from the door so he could see if anyone tried to come in. There was a chair in the room, as well as a small table, but he refused to sit in it; he had some pride, after all. He didn't know what his pride had to do with not sitting in a chair, but it felt like he was fighting them in some way. Frak you and your frakking chair.
And there was no way he would sit on the bed. He had awoken there, tucked in under the blankets. That had worried him, and for some reason, just looking at that bed was disturbing. (The Six? Was she here?) He was still wearing his cotton drawstring pants and tanks that he had put on this morning (and it had only been this morning, he knew, because he was also still wearing his watch), but the shirt he had remembered putting on was now folded neatly and lying on that chair. What the frak had happened?
And then there was the headache. It wasn't a normal someone-hit-me-on-the-back-of-the-head headache; those Lee was familiar with. This was a pounding from deep inside his brain, leaving him dizzy, unfocused, and terribly nauseous. Hence, the complete upheaval of his stomach. Now, awake for about forty minutes, he sat on the floor, willing his body to get back to full strength. It wasn't working.
A slight movement out of the corner of his eye brought Lee's attention back to the door. Through the tiny slit of a window, a figure approached his room. (Cell? Room? Whatever it was, thinking about it hurt his head even more.) He tried to push away his discomfort and push himself up off the floor when the door opened. Leoben and the darker skinned man- Simon?- made their way inside.
While Simon stood quiet and still by the door, Leoben approached with a boldly casual air about him. He sat down in the chair, knocking Lee's folded shirt to the floor as though that would piss him off, and purposefully glanced around the room. "It's step up from Galactica, isn't it Apollo?"
A dozen replies ran through Lee's brain, some profane, some witty, all insulting, but he chose to say nothing. Partly because he knew it would accomplish nothing and partly because he was afraid he'd throw up again. It must have shown on his face, because Leoben let out a chuckle as he studied him. "What you're feeling right now? It's a side effect. Simon here," he nodded to the still-silent figure behind him, "fed you a test-drug a few hours ago called thiopentalam. And according to Daphne, it worked."
'Daphne? Who the frak is…'
Leoben smiled again, an apparent mind-reader. "She didn't have a name when you two first met," he said oh-so-casually.
The panic hit him full force a moment later. The Six was here. Had been here, in this room while he had been drugged. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember a damn thing that might have happened. Frakfrakfrakfrakfrak. The weight of possibility slammed into his chest, nearly knocking him back to the floor. While he continued to glare at Leoben, his right hand unconsciously reached up to his left forearm, feeling the bruising and puncture of a needle mark there. 'No. She didn't do anything. She couldn't have. I would know if she… if she did something,' he tried to convince himself.
Leoben chuckled at the internal struggle in their captive. "It's okay if you can't remember what happened," he spoke soothingly, his smile twisting, his features turning sharper. "You'll have plenty of other chances to work on it."
Gods, he really kept twisting the knife, didn't he? Lee wanted to throw himself across the room and snap the Cylon's neck, wipe that smile from his face, but he couldn't. Instead he worked to calm himself down, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed defensively in front of him. "What do you want this time?" he finally asked, his voice hoarse and biting.
"What do you mean 'this time'?" Leoben prompted, in a way that told Lee he already knew the answer.
Lee couldn't help but play along. "On Colonial One, you said you wanted to leave a message to some friends of yours. So why am I here now?" The dizziness was finally starting to fade, making Lee feel bolder. "The message didn't get through, did it? Something was supposed to happen but you failed."
The Cylon didn't move an inch, but Lee could feel the tension in the room rise. "It's a prophecy, something spoken by our hybrid." Lee glanced over at Simon, but the tall Cylon had yet to move, seemingly content to observe the human as though he were a test subject. 'Which I am,' Lee somewhat fearfully reminded himself. Leoben continued, "She spoke of the Message in Blood. Human blood spilled on human grounds would cause the Final Five to re-awaken. Using the blood to write the Hybrid's words was supposed to bring the Final Five back to us."
Re-awaken? "Soon you will know," Lee murmured more to himself than the others in the room. Leoben nodded anyway. "But it didn't work," Lee needlessly reminded him.
"Which means your father and the President know who they are and are keeping them from joining us."
"What?" Lee shook his head at the absurdity of that, pleasantly surprised that the motion didn't make him want to throw up. "That's the conclusion you draw? I thought machines were supposed to be more logical than that." He gave a little laugh. "Has it not occurred to you that you may have misinterpreted that Hybrid's words? Or that maybe they meant nothing? Or there are no Final Five to begin with?" Leoben had stood up while Lee spoke, but he ignored the Cylon, pressing on. "It's like you're all going on some fool's errand. And using me to do it…" his thought process caught up with his mouth just then. "Gods, you're holding me hostage, aren't you? This is so ridiculous, no wonder you toasters are-"
Leoben's fist connecting with his face shut him up. Lee's body was thrown to the side, but he managed to stay upright. Slowly, he straightened back up, facing Leoben head on. He reached a hand up to wipe the blood away from his lip, eyes maintaining contact with Leoben. "You know," he continued, quieter, "I always thought the Cylons were insane, but I never thought of you as this desperate-"
Another punch, though this time Leoben's hands shot forward to catch his shoulders before he could tilt to the side. This hit had connected much more solidly, and it took Lee a few moments to get his bearings back. In that time, Leoben twisted him around and shoved him into the wall, binding his hands behind his back. "Let's go for a walk, Apollo," he said, still casual, still cordial. It was enough to make Lee want to rip his heart out through his throat. Or something violent like that. But he could do nothing as Leoben turned him around again to face him. The Cylon nodded over to his companion, who was finally approaching the two of them. "Simon and I, we'd like to ask you a few questions." They each held an arm and dragged Lee towards the door. "And Lee? Trust me when I say if we don't like your answers, you'll regret it."
Out of instinct, Lee tried to pull out of their grasps, but it was useless. They were machines, after all. Their grips were like steel bands on his shoulders. But still he tried. He wouldn't let them see anything but contempt from him.
But of course, once again Lee Adama was karma's bitch. No sooner had he resolved that within himself, when Leoben twisted that knife just one more time, going in for the kill. "And when we're done with you, we'll see what Daphne and that little wonder drug can do. After all, it's like you said Apollo, she is a little desperate…" And with that Lee was pulled from the room, door slamming shut behind them.
xxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxoxxxXxxxo
TO BE CONTINUED…