The Defector
By Jojobevco
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Battlestar Galactica story or characters. I do, however, reserve the rights for any characters I develop and the plot of this story.
AN: Congratulations to Caroline (anonymous reviewer who correctly identified that the previous chapter's title and format (having the ending at the beginning) came from the first season finale of The West Wing, where there was an assassination attempt on the president, his daughter, and his personal assistant.
This chapter covers the events of Scattered, Valley of Darkness, and Fragged
Chapter 10
For the Sake of Sarah
2001 Hours
CIC
Battlestar Galactica
Directly after the shooting.
Chaos.
That was the only word that could describe the state in the CIC, sheer and absolute chaos. Bill was still trying to stem Sarah's bleeding, Sharon was on the ground asking what happened, Saul looked helpless, only Lieutenant Gaeta was still functioning, barely. About a minute later Ishay and the rest of the medics arrived, they got Sarah on a gurney and rushed her to sickbay.
After that things calmed down a bit, Bill looked at his hands, with his wife's blood on them. He was lost. So, Saul stepped up to the plate,
"Sergeant of the Guard, get that thing to the brig."
"Yes, Sir!"
He looked at Lee, and then at Bill, and groaned.
"Release Captain Adama." The Marines undid the handcuffs and Lee walked over.
"Get your dad down to sickbay; he can't stay up her, not like this." Lee nodded and gently led his father away. Bill arrived down in sickbay where they had intubated Sarah and hooked her up to monitors. This shocked him out of his comatose stated, allowing him to regain his composure.
"Sitrep."
"Her vitals are dropping; she most likely has some internal hemorrhaging, her left lung collapsed from one of the bullets and the second impacted in her upper abdomen, probably puncturing her liver. We need Doctor Cottle to operate, immediately, or we will lose her."
"He picked the worst day to make house calls."
Layne just nodded
Then the Condition One alarm sounded, followed a few minutes later by the jump clock.
"What the frack?"
Bill ran out of Sickbay with Lee on his heels. They didn't even stop when the ship jumped.
Meanwhile, back in the CIC
"Sir, the fleet, it's not on DRADIS." This shocked Colonel Tigh
"What? Did we have the right jump coordinates?"
"Yes, sir, we did…" it dawned on, "I'm sorry, sir, I forgot to update the Fleet's Emergency Jump Coordinates, I was going to, then…"
"Okay, Mr. Gaeta, now how are we going to get back?"
"Someone give me a Sitrep." Bill Adama arrived on the scene.
"The Fleet jumped to the wrong coordinates, we forgot to update the coordinates at the start of the shift."
"Oh," Bill really couldn't get angry, not now. "Mr. Gaeta!"
"Yes, Commander?"
"I want a plan on how we can get back to the fleet right frakkin' now. Clear?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Colonel, you have the watch." Bill had to get back to Sickbay, things just got more complicated, and he was losing his cool.
1100 Hours Local time
Delphi Museum of the Colonies
Caprica
Right after impaling a random Six.
"Oh, great, Boomer's a Cylon? Seriously, are all my friends Cylons?"
Helo interjected, "I'm your friend, and I'm not a Cylon."
"True. But I thought you were dead, so you don't count," she paused, "so let me get this straight, she's says she's pregnant, with your child?"
"She is."
"How would you know that?"
"I trust her."
Kara's experience with humanoid Cylons was fairly limited. She only had two examples, Leoben Conoy, a lying manipulative headfraker, and Major Inviere-Adama, one of the finest people she had ever known. The question was which category did this new Sharon fall into?
"Why would you abandon your own people?"
"I love him."
"You love him? Why?"
"Does anyone know why?"
"Good answer, okay, so what's the plan then?"
"We get out of here and back to the Fleet."
"Well, Helo that's a good plan, except for the issue of transportation, a raider can only hold one."
"Leave that to me."
"You, how do I know I can trust you," Kara asked.
"You don't, that's the definition of trust. Head north out of the city, there aren't that many Cylons out that way, I'll be back in a few days."
"Where are you going?"
"To get a ride."
2030 Hours
Sickbay
Battlestar Galactica
"Sir, I really need Doctor Cottle here. If she doesn't have the surgery soon, she'll die."
"It's going to be a while until we can get him here. Can you do the surgery, Layne?"
"Commander, I'm a paramedic, not a doctor."
"Today you're a doctor, get ready."
"Yes, sir."
Bill left sickbay and headed toward the brig. When he arrived Valerii was tied to a chair in the center of the cell with several marines pointing guns at her. She was crying.
"Open cell."
The cell opened and he stepped in. Bill walked around the chair a few times, until Sharon finally spoke up, "How's Sarah, sir?"
"Clinging to life, barely."
Sharon starts sobbing again, "Oh, no, this is all my fault."
"Yes, it is. You missed and you hit her." He picked her up and threw her into the wall, grinding her injured cheek into it. "Why did you try to kill me? Why?"
"I don't know! I don't even remember trying, I'm sorry!"
Bill held out his hand, "Sidearm."
A marine put a sidearm in his hands. He points the gun at Sharon's head.
"Why did you try to kill me?"
"I don't know!" Sharon was hysterical by this point, "just do it, please, just kill me."
Bill thinks for a moment and hands the gun back to the marine, "that's not my decision, it's Sarah's." He lets her go and she drops to the floor, and curls up into a fetal position. He walks out.
Bill returns to the CIC where he finds Captain Kelly, Lieutenant Gaeta and Saul standing over one of the tables, looking at a map. He stands back and watches them
"They could be anywhere in this sector, sir."
"A sector, really, do you have any idea how big a sector is Mr. Gaeta?"
"Some, sir."
"What if we go back to our previous coordinates and plot it from there, how long would that take?"
"Well, if we purge all non essential functions from the FTL Core, about twelve hours."
"Twelve hours, we can't hold off a Baseship for twelve frakkin' hours."
"Well, there is one other option."
"What is it Mr. Gaeta?"
"If we network the FTL, Fire Control, and Navigation systems we might be able to get a fix and the coordinates in about seven minutes"
"Are you crazy Lieutenant, we will not network the computers on this ship, then we'd be sitting ducks for the Cylons."
"I can devise a series of software firewalls to buy us some time."
"Software firewalls, against an enemy that lives and breathes computer code?"
"Sir, it's the only way to get back to the fleet before Major Inviere-Adama dies."
Bill spoke up, "do it."
They turned around and looked at him in surprise.
"Do it now, Felix, we're running out of time."
"Yes, sir!" Felix returned to his station. Saul confronted Bill
"Bill, are you sure about this?"
"Saul, I've hurt Sarah with too many of my frackups today, The President, forcing Sharon to go on that mission. I refuse to let her die when I could have prevented it. Besides, this ship has no purpose without The Fleet."
"You didn't always used to think that."
"I know, it was one thing Laura was right about. What if she was right about other things too."
Bill left the CIC again in a daze. His feet carried him back to Sickbay, where Sarah was being prepped for surgery, he turned to Ishay, "give us a minute."
"Hurry, sir, she doesn't have much time."
Bill nodded and turned back to Sarah, "dear, I'm so sorry, you're right, I messed up, I felt so betrayed. It was a difference of opinion, one Laura and I blew out of proportion. I forgot my promise to get to Earth, I ruined this fleet, and I forced you into an impossible position. You have become the most important part of my life—I, I don't know if I can live without you. Please, Sarah, Please wake up." Bill then left and returned to the CIC.
0110 Hours
Brig
Battlestar Galactica
After reuniting with the Fleet
Bill and Laura stood on opposite sides of the brig, staring at each other, and staring at each other, and staring at each other. Finally Laura broke the ice.
"So, how's Sarah?"
"She's in surgery now, Doc Cottle's still not here though."
"She's a strong woman, Bill, she'll make it through."
Bill nodded, more silence. Bill broke the silence this time.
"We need to talk about this."
"I did what I thought was right."
"You broke our agreement."
"I know. But then again, you wanted to pass up on the only possible road sign to Earth."
"It was a pretty thin lead."
"It was our only lead."
"You put my best pilot in danger."
"No, she volunteered."
"Fine, I can't do this anymore. Laura, I forgive you."
"I didn't ask for your forgiveness, pal."
"We have to move on past this, if we don't it could divide the fleet, and it would divide Sarah."
"We need to put this past us."
"For Sarah's sake."
"For Sarah's sake."
"Corporal, door."
"Yes, sir."
Then the lights started flickering.
"What's going on?"
The lights go out.
"Emergency power should have kicked in by now."
"It didn't."
"The sound-power phone should still work."
Bill cranked the phone and dialed the CIC, but couldn't get through.
"Lines are jammed."
"It's probably just a power outage."
"Battlestars don't have power outages, Madam President."
"I've got to get to the CIC."
Then they heard muffled gunfire and shouting.
"What's going on out there, Corporal, sidearm." Bill hand out his hand and Corporal Venner handed him his gun. A few minutes of tension passed before,
"Corporal Venner, don't shoot, it's Captain Adama with a fire team."
The door opened and Lee stepped in with a few marines.
"Dad?"
"Yes, Lee, what the hell is going on?"
"We've been boarded there are Cylons of the chrome toaster variety all over the place, and only explosive rounds will stop them."
"I've got to get to the CIC, the president, Mr. Keikeya, and Corporal Venner will be coming with me."
"Right, Sergeant Harder, go with them, and make sure they don't do something stupid like get themselves killed."
"Sir," Harder nodded and joined the other group.
"Lee, get to an arms locker and get some explosive rounds, then go to Aft Damage Control, that's where the Cylons are going."
"Aft Damage Control?"
"It's a hunch, call and check with the CIC at the locker."
"Aye, Sir."
"Right, let's move out."
The group split in two parts.
After walking, climbing ladders and seeing nothing, but death for about ten minutes, they finally came across a living person, who was in quite a bit of shock
Dee.
Billy ran over to her, "Dee, Dee!"
No response.
Commander Adama gave it a try, "Petty Officer Dualla!"
That got her to snap out of it.
"Sir?"
"Good Morning, Dee. How are you?"
"I'll be fine, Sir."
"Good, then, let's keep moving."
They walked through a couple corridors before they saw the back of a single centurion, walking away from them. Bill charged the thing and jumped on its back, grabbed its head and pulled, snapping its neck. Everyone just stared at him with their mouths hanging open. Finally, Laura recovered her power of speech.
"Bill!"
"Cylon necks are still weaker than human necks." Silence. "Well, what are you all standing around for; we need to get to the CIC."
0600 Hours
Sickbay
Battlestar Galactica
Life onboard was slowly returning to normal. Doc Cottle had arrived after the Cylon issue was dealt with and had determined that Sarah was doing fine and would make a full recovery, but he wouldn't say when she would wake up.
Laura and Billy returned to Colonial One to start restoring the faith of the people in their government. She was also spending a lot of time with Elosha examining the Book of Pythia.
Bill was keeping a vigil over Sarah's bed. She was breathing on her own now, and looking better. But, she was still unconscious.
Bill was reading Searider Falcon to her when she woke up.
"Bill?" She asked in a raspy whisper.
"Sarah, are you awake? Oh, Sarah, I'm so sorry about that fight we had before…"
"Bill, where is she?"
"Who?"
"Sharon, where is Sharon?"
"Don't worry, she's in the brig, under heavy guard, you're completely safe here."
"I have to see her."
"Why? You just woke up after she shot you."
"No she didn't, not really."
"Sarah?"
"Bill, I remember everything, and I think I know what happened to Sharon."
AN: Please review, thanks to those who have.