Cellmate 11
"Well this isn't good." Xander stood next to Adama, looking at the blueprints for the bar on the Cloud Nine, "Have they said what they want yet?"
"They want Sharon handed over to them for execution." The gruff old man sighed, "And they want you: seems that some of them are linked to a group called The Earth Protectorate."
"Name rings a bell." Xander nodded, "I think Captain Thrace said something about them once." He cocked his head to the side, "Then again, I find it hard to get her to shut up."
"Starbuck's very religious: she sees you as the fulfillment of the Prophesies of Cordelia." Adama explained, "You're a walking, talking validation of everything she believes in."
"That aside; what do these guys want with me?" Xander asked, "Because from what Starbuck told me, their reality check bounced."
"Well, they may just want to talk to you: you've done your best to keep away from the general populace since your arrival." Adama took a deep breath, "Or they may want to kill you: you are the only solid link to Earth that we've uncovered, and that makes you a target for any Cylon agents hidden within the fleet. And since word got out that you're living in the same cell as our resident Cylon defector, there is talk that Earth might be more willing to accept them then us."
"Bullshit: if there's one thing that I know about my home world it's that we'd never welcome the Cylons if we knew what they'd done." Xander shook his head, "Is there a plan that doesn't involve handing Sharon and/or me over to the nut-cases with the guns?"
"That remains Plan B." Starbuck appeared out of nowhere, dressed as a crew member and carrying a toolbox, "Plan A is we talk them out, after I go in under the guise of repairing the ventilation system."
"That's the dumbest idea I've heard in, well, since I got here." Xander shook his head, "You guys ever hear the saying that to a man who only has a hammer in his toolbox, every problem looks like a nail?"
"You have a better plan?" Adama asked.
"I have A plan." Xander nodded, "I'm not saying it's better, but it's no worse."
"And the plan is?" Starbuck asked, feeling more than a little put out by the way she'd been compared to a blunt instrument.
"I go in and try and talk them down." Xander let out the breath he'd been holding, "Did I actually say that out loud?"
"Evidently." Adama nodded, "Have I explained the bit where these people might want to kill you?"
"Believe me Admiral, that is forefront in my mind." Xander nodded, "And if you have such a thing as a bullet-proof vest, I'd much appreciate it." a marine handed him a flack jacket, "Ok, that was a little quicker than I'd anticipated." He pulled it on, "Ok; I go in and try to talk them down. If I fail, you can come in guns blazing." You guys got a microphone or something you can give me so you can hear what's being said in there?" Another marine stepped forward and clipped something to the collar of the flack jacket.
"You know that if anything happens to you, I have to explain to an awful lot of people why I let you in there." Adama shook his head, "I'm not happy with this."
"Yeah, there is that." Xander nodded, "If anything happens, tell Sharon I'm sorry and I hope everything works out. Tell the President that there are stranger things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in her philosophy. And tell Helena... tell her it would have been nice to get to know her a little better, and not to give up." He turned to Starbuck, "I've seen enough people cheat their destinies to know that nothing's written in stone."
He walked over to the door, and one of the marines pulled it open for him. The inner door was closed, and Xander waited until the one behind him was closed before knocking on the inner one. There was a hushed conversation on the other side, before the door was opened and a gun pointed out, straight in Xander's face.
"Word is you guys wanted to talk to me." Xander managed to retain his poke face as he was roughly grabbed and pulled into the room.
"I'm surprised you came." A woman stepped forward, a gun held tightly on one hand, "I'm more surprised that Adama let you in here."
"Yeah, he wasn't happy with the idea." Xander nodded, "He's even more unhappy with what you guys are doing, so I guess he saw this as the lesser of two evils."
"Are you a Cylon?" The man who'd dragged him in asked, pointed his gun against the side of Xander's head.
"According to all the tests you guys can come up with, no." Xander sighed, "If you're going to shoot me, just get it over and done with: I have other things to do today."
"That'll be hard to do when you're dead!" The man pulled back the slide on his gun, chambering a round, "Earth has to be protected, even if that means we all die out here in space."
"Hate to tell you this, Ringo, but you can't kill me." Xander smirked, "I'm here for a reason, and the guys who sent me aren't the kind to let the likes of us mess with their plans." He looked at the woman standing in front of him, "Go on; try and shoot me."
The woman raised her gun, pointed it at Xander and pulled the trigger. There was an almost deafening click as the hammer fell, but the gun didn't go off. She pulled back the slide, ejecting the bullet and tried again, but still there was no gunshot. Looking at the gun, she ejected the magazine and checked to make sure it was properly loaded.
"Like I said: they don't like people messing with their plans." Xander rolled his eyes, "Now you have two options: A, you put your guns down and this all ends peacefully, or B, the Admiral sends in the marines and a lot of people get killed who don't need to." He held out his hand, "Give me the gun."
The terrorist looked at each other, unsure what to do.
"Give me the gun; no one's been hurt so far." Xander took a step forward, "You don't have to be the bad guys: but if you start killing people, you'll be no better than the Cylons, and I think that's the last thing you guys want." The woman nodded slowly, turning her gun round and slowly handing it over. Xander ejected the magazine and cleared the chamber before looking at the others, "What about you guys? You want to leave this room in handcuffs, or body bags?"
There was silence, then one by one, the others put their weapons down. Apollo grabbed one, passing another to Dualla to cover the prisoners as doors opened and the marines came in, led by Starbuck. Adama followed as soon as the room was secured and, after making sure his son was okay, walked over to Xander.
"That was a brave thing to do." The gruff old officer offered his hand, "How did you know that these 'Powers That Be' would step in and protect you?"
"I didn't." Xander shook the offered hand, "But I could tell from the way she was holding her gun that she didn't have a clue how to use it: no one with any idea how to handle a firearm would ever try and threaten someone with the hammer at rest and the safety catch on."
"You saying that that was the only reason she couldn't shoot you?" Starbuck asked.
"Like I told you outside, destinies are made to be cheated." Xander wiped the back of his hand across his brow, "The Powers That Be aren't that big on direct action: they would have let me die here today and not even lifted an omnipotent finger to save me. They're more interested in The Big Picture." He swayed slightly, "Now if you don't mind, I do believe I'm going to faint..."
His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he slumped to the side, only Starbuck's quick reactions stopping him from falling to the floor.
"So much for the Great Warrior of prophesy..." Adama lamented as a pair of medics lifted the unconscious Xander onto a gurney.
To Be Continued...
The Earth Protectorate is a part of the current storyline in the Battlestar Galactica comic: I'm just using it to add a little extra depth to the story.