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.
This chapter covers the events of Resistance, The Farm and the very beginning of Home Part 1
Chapter 11
For the Sake of Sharon
1400 Hours
The Brig
Battlestar Galactica
The day Sarah woke up.
Tick, tock, tick, tock. The clock in the brig was ticking, there was silence, the guards had all been sent outside, and the cell was just occupied by two people.
Or Cylons if you want to be specific, one of whom just shot the other.
Awkward.
Sarah had learned a lot about the Cylons when she remembered everything. She now knew that there were twelve Cylon models the "Significant Eight" and the "Final Five".
One was the man she once knew as John Cavil, who she briefly had a relationship with. Now she was certain that the mastermind knew exactly who she was. Incestuous bastard.
Two was the man known as Leoben Conoy, mindfracker who fancies himself a prophet and is very religious. She was quite happy about Laura airlocking him.
Three was a female, driven, curious, yet thinks she's always right and will do what she must to prove it. She seemed to remember seeing her somewhere in passing, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Four was a logical guy, didn't have much in the way of religious beliefs and liked medicine. Sara would have liked him if he had a bid of a heart.
Five was a sleazy bastard; Sarah really didn't like him, especially after arresting the Aaron Doral copy.
The Sixes, her sisters, from what she could tell she had nothing in common with them, except for her closest "sister" Gina. They were seductresses, nymphomaniacs and sweet talkers. The seemed to like platinum blond hair for some reason. Although, she had to say she liked him.
Seven was a mystery; there was limited information on him, Daniel, artistic, yet failed during early development.
There was next to nothing on the Final Five. They were from Earth and apparently lived separately from the other Cylons.
An Eight was the problem she was facing. Apparently, she "switched on" and tried to shoot Bill. Tried being the operative word because Sarah had gotten shot instead. This Eight, Sharon, had been her best friend for two years and was in her wedding. Now, she didn't know what to believe, even about herself.
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
She had to make sure Sharon wouldn't shoot Bill again, so she decided on a plan.
"You missed."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Sorry you missed?"
"No, sorry I shot you."
"Well, you should be sorry you missed, because it was in The Plan."
"What?"
"You're not following The Plan, you made a mess, and now, I need to clean it up."
"Are you saying you wanted me to shoot the Old Man?"
"That is exactly what I am saying. You need to kill him."
"Why did you jump in front of him then?"
"It secured my cover, you were supposed to actually hit him the second time."
"But I don't know why I shot him in the first place."
"It's a preconditioned program. Once you were switched on, your mission was simple. Kill William Adama. You failed. But luckily, I'm giving you another chance."
She pulled two sidearms out of a bag.
"Bill and I set up a test, to make sure you were on the right side. We would give you a gun loaded with blanks and see if you shoot him. However, these guns are not loaded with blanks; they have live ammo in them. Keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that the consequences of failure will be severe. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Sharon whispered. She picked up one of the sidearms and Sarah picked up the other, holstering it.
"Good, then let's get started."
Sarah went over to the phone and dialed, "Bill? It's Sarah, you two can come in now sweetie."
A minute went by before the hatch opened and Bill and the Chief stepped through, they walked up and stood at the table. Bill started growling at Sharon.
"Lieutenant, I want an explanation, now. Why did you try to shoot me, hmm, why? Because you missed! And you hit my wife instead! So now, do you want to try again?" He put his sidearm on the table and pushed it toward Sharon. "Do it, do it now, shoot me!"
Sharon was hysterical again, "But, but I don't want to, I didn't mean to, I don't know why I tried to, but I don't."
Sarah pulled out her sidearm and pointed it at the Chief, "Do it, or I shoot your boyfriend."
The Chief looked at Sarah with fear, "Major, what are you doing?"
As did Bill, "Sarah, put the gun down."
"Shut up, human. And you, my darling husband should know better than to trust a Cylon. Do it now Sharon, I'll give you to the count of five. One."
Sharon brought the gun that Sarah gave up into position. Bill's eyes widened.
"Two."
Sharon stared at the gun
"Sharon, don't do it."
"Three."
Sharon aimed at Bill.
"Four."
Sharon twisted and fired.
At Sarah.
There was a loud bang, a flash, and then nothing, no splatter, no cries, no second shot.
She blinked.
Sarah had holstered her sidearm and started clapping, slowly.
"Congratulations, Sharon, you passed."
"Passed what?"
"The test."
"But what about everything you said earlier?"
"Mostly lies and damn good acting if I do say so myself. You shooting Bill was a preconditioned response, you had not control over your actions at the time, it was like you were running on autopilot. Shooting me was not your fault. Call it not guilty by means of temporary insanity. I needed to make sure that what we saw was just that, and that you still did not want to shoot Bill. From what sense I can make of the data in my head, you shouldn't have anymore hidden protocols or programs. However it's difficult to be sure."
"So you're not a Cylon?"
"No, I am, I just don't work for them."
"So what am I then?"
"Do you still want to be with the humans? Or do you want to join the other Cylons?"
"No, of course not."
"Good. Well then in that case, your punishment is as follows. For the unauthorized discharge of a firearm endangering the lives of your crewmen you will receive thirty days in the brig and undergo mandatory psychological counseling. Also you will need to requalify for your sidearm."
"What, Why?"
Bill chuckled at this, "you missed."
At this point Sarah started swooning, Bill caught her.
"Sarah, are you alright?"
"I think I know why Sherman said I should stay in sickbay."
Bill slowly guided her over to the hatch and opened it; he turned to the marine standing outside.
"Sergeant Harder."
"Sir?"
"Could you escort the Major back to sickbay, she's not feeling that well."
"Yes sir." The marine slung her rifle across her back and gently took Sarah down to the infirmary.
Adama left and motioned for the Chief to follow him. The reached his office, Bill sat behind his desk and pulled out a bottle of ambrosia and poured two glasses
"Do you love her, Chief?"
"'Scuse me?"
"Sharon. Do you love her?"
"Thought I did."
"Well, when you think you love somebody, you love them. That's what love is. Whatever else she is doesn't matter."
"But she's a machine."
"She's more than that to us. I love a Cylon. You can't love a machine. I care for Galactica, I go as far to say I love her, but can I love her as much as Lee? No. I love Sarah more than anything in the world, she's not a machine. If you think Sharon's a machine could you have loved her?
"No, sir. Guess I couldn't have."
"Don't stop loving her because of what she did. If I can love Sarah, then you can love Sharon."
"I'll think about it, sir."
"Do that, Chief, dismissed."
1000 Hours
The Brig
Battlestar Galactica
The Next Day
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
Silence.
Overnight the deck crew had moved Sarah's lounger and psych couch out of her office and into the Brig. It was a statement. She was going to be spending a lot of time here.
"So how are you today, Sharon?"
"Confused."
"How?"
"How am I not confused? I don't know where the programming ends and I begin, or if there is even an I, or if that is just a program also."
"Well, think about it this way, when you shot Bill that was a program, just as say Colonial Officers snap to attention when the commander comes into the room. Even humans are programmed. I'm having many of the same problems. My memories for example. I know which ones are real, and which ones aren't. Humans dream, they can be very imaginative they can start to question their own memories. So what's to say that our memories are any less real?"
"Honestly, why am I still here, why am I not dead, what value is there to keeping me alive, or talking to me. You should be torturing me or raping me, or executing me."
"Why?"
"Because I shot you, you should hate me!"
"But I don't. Hating you, for shooting me would be like hating the gun you used, or hating an automatic decompression sequence, or hating the firing solution the flak guns put out that ends up getting a pilot killed. It was a program! Not you! As for the torture, well, I doubt you'd talk anymore. Killing you would solve nothing and just drive you to the Cylons. And for the raping part, you're really not my type. Your punishment is enough, Sharon. You always have to live with what you did, every day when you see me or Bill, you'll remember. Would it be easier for you to go over to the Cylons? I honestly wouldn't blame you; there at least you wouldn't need to remember."
"But I would anyway. I feel the need to stay. In my mind I feel like I've committed an unforgivable offense. I feel like I need to atone."
And so, this circle went around and around for the next month. As hard as Sarah tried to convince Sharon that she wasn't responsible, Sharon continued to blame herself. Sarah believed that if Sharon had another councilor, one that she hadn't shot, she might have forgiven herself. Eventually, Sarah decided to let Sharon forgive herself on her own terms.
This however, had an unexpected side-effect. Sharon seemed to become devoted to Sarah, and extremely loyal to her, the full effects of this wouldn't be seen for some time.
1200 Hours
Cockpit
Colonial One
In orbit of Kobol
Two Weeks Later
Sarah and Bill sat in the cockpit of Colonial One waiting for Starbuck to return with the Arrow of Apollo. It was decided that moving the entire fleet to Kobol was a unanimously bad idea, because it was dangerous, and might prove to be a temptation to the many people who were tired and wanted to settle. Besides, "any human return to Kobol would be paid in the price of blood" or something like that, so best to keep to a minimum. Therefore, everyone had been moved off of Colonial One, including the pilots, leaving the Adamas to pilot the ship.
The "Roslin Expedition" as it was called after the whole dying leader revelation, was very small. It consisted of Laura Roslin, Elosha, and Billy Keikeya from the President's office. Felix, Dee, and the Adamas (all three of them) from Galactica, as well as a marine detachment led by Corporal Venner and Sergeant Harder. Also in attendance was Sharon Valerii, who had attended at Sarah's instance (so she could continue the mandatory psychological counseling.) Sharon had remained restrained for the entire journey (at her own insistence, she really didn't trust herself.)
They had been sitting around for a week and were about to give up when it happened. A Heavy Raider appeared on Dradis and everyone on Colonial One panicked, trying to spin up the FTL Drive while taxing the engines to the max and buy some time.
Everyone sighed with relief when Starbuck hailed them. Which led to everyone waiting by the Airlock for Starbuck's ship to dock.
"Wonder where she got the new ride?"
"We're talking about Starbuck here, I really wouldn't ask, she probably did something crazy like blow up an airbase."
"I hope she's got the arrow."
"If she doesn't then we're really screwed."
"Hmm, how would that conversation go, 'sorry everyone, we lied, we can't find earth?"
"Cut the sarcasm, Sarah. I'm sure she has it."
The airlock cycled and Starbuck stepped out, she came in and handed Laura the arrow.
"Thank you, Kara, this means a lot to everyone. I hope your trip to Caprica was productive?"
"Yes it was, I picked up some lost puppies actually."
Karl Agathon stepped through, "Hello, everyone."
Bill discreetly looked at Sarah, who shook her head, Helo was not a Cylon.
Of course they weren't ready for who came in next.
In walked Caprica-Sharon and everyone went crazy. Several things happened in quick succession.
The Marines pointed their weapons at her, flicked the safeties off and prepared to fire.
Galactica-Sharon immediately stepped in front of Sarah, shielding her with her body, while Lee had done the same thing with his dad and Billy shielded the President.
Dee then stepped in front of Elosha, as Karl stepped in front of Sharon.
Sarah just gave a barely audible groan, turned to Bill and said, "Well, this complicates things."
AN: Please review, Thanks to those who have.
The next chapter will cover the time period of "Home" through "Flight of the Phoenix" and will focus on the crew's reaction to Caprica-Sharon as well as Galactica-Sharon's relationships with Sarah, Bill, and Chief Tyrol. The Adamas' will get a few surprises.
Then, we're on to the Pegasus Arc, which will be very different from the show, although I have no idea what it's going to be like. I've already know how it will end (I've written the ending) but the rest is a blank and open to suggestions.