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THIS OUGHT TO BE DIFFERENT
Chapter Eleven
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Six felt uneasy. Leaving the humans in the control center was careless at best. What if they found the way to operate the ship? It was unlikely, they didn't have her cylon intelectual abilities, but they had Starbuck. And Starbuck was the great unknown. Six still wasn't sure about the pilot's role, but she was starting to get a clue. Kara Thrace had never been on Gemenon. She'd been born on Libron, but had never returned there. There was some mystery surrounding Kara Thrace, her father and her mother. And the cylon was one step away from solving it.
It would be wiser to stay with Thrace, observe her. Yet Six was standing inside the alien lift, going up to the ill Major. If she abandoned him, neglected her promise, he might die. If he died, there was no way of telling what would happen. There were the five of them, and this was the Temple of Five. Whatever the connection was, Six saw the hand of God in it. And she wouldn't dare oppose Him, even for a reason to watch the Chosen One's every step.
Because it was becoming more and more obvious to Six that Kara Thrace was the Chosen One.
The lift stopped and the cylon walked out. Her high heels hitting the floor, she neared the still form on the floor, looked at the man's pale face, chest moving up and down in each strained breath.
"Major Adama," she called, kneeling down and reaching for his arm. "Apollo."
What was his connection to Apollo, the god?
At first he wouldn't wake up. Six shook him several times and when he did not respond, feeling her throat constrict, she checked for his pulse. Ridiculous! He was breathing so loud she didn't need to worry that he'd died already! Loud an irregularely. Then his eyes cracked open, eyelids fluttered, and immediatelly shut tight as he struggled to stiffle the cough that threatened him.
The cylon squeezed his arm lightly, and whispered, "You'll get better soon." There was no way of knowing if that promise would come true, but she sounded convincing. Hope flickered in the ill man's eyes, and Six experienced compassion. Sincere compassion, she realized. She really cared. "You have to rise now," she whispered softly. "I'll help you get below, there's real ship there, command with all that pitch, trigger and stuff. And computers. And sleeping quarters. Food and water. Maybe medications," she kept talking softly, but stopped when realized Lee was drifting away again. "Wake up." She shook him, and he focused on her. "We have to move."
He was warm, hot even. When she moved him, helping him up, his breathing grew even more irregular, and before he managed to sit up, he started coughing. She held him fast, and kept stroking his back, until the fit subsided.
"I'll carry you," she offered, but he started then, shook his head stiffly. They were ambitious those human men.
Slowly they managed to stand, though he swayed. Then step-by step they walked to the center of the room. Looking at the column and the pillars Six rememberred she'd wanted to do it fast. Quickly return to Kara Thrace. Was there any way to do it faster?
"Where--?" One word spoken in a harsh voice recalled her.
She guessed what he wanted to know. "Below," she replied with a sigh. "Those pillars are some kind of lifts." She paused, seeing his frown. "Everyone else is down there already. You'll rest there."
He stopped before the pillar. Just like the others, wasn't willing to enter the cramped space – the cylon assumed. The alien technology seemed surreal, Six suddenly felt weirded out too, and she guessed that through feverish haze it all must look much more scary.
But shooting Lee a glance she learned he wasn't looking at the inside of the lift. His head bowed, he was struggling to draw in a breath. When he finally managed, it was followed by another couging fit, that wrecked his whole body. Six couldn't even hold him up, fell to her knees, all the time protecting the falling body from hitting the ground.
When he started breathing again, each tortured gasp sending deep rumbles through his chest, he wasn't conscious any more. She gently lifted him, and his head rolled and rested limply on her shoulder. Carrying him she entered the lift and it moved down immediatelly. On the lower level she walked to one of the other four pilars, and it transported them one more level down.
It looked similarly to the one above, with a central rotunda encompassed by writings and punctuated with symbols of mandala. But in the other wall, opposite to the mandalas, next to the pillars standing a few feet aside from the wall, there were openings, each leading into a single living quarter. There were six pillars, six openings, and six spaces, the last one -- right below the control room -- being the head and the mess.
The cylon entered one of the quarters and gently put Major Adama in his rack. She was ready to go back to the command center, intended to send someone else here to take care of the injured man, when she thought better of it. He required more than simple holding his hand and watching over his breathing. For starters he needed a bath, and suddenly Six remembered how embarassed the Major was each time she helped him to the head, how he struggled, despite of his weakness, to take care of his needs by himself.
She knew without a doubt, he'd feel humiliated if any of the other three people did the job. Dee, because she was the wife he was supposed to protect and care for, not the other way around. Starbuck because . . . Well, because their relationship was complicated. And Anders was that other man, the stronger, healthier one. Apollo wasn't even willing to accept a glass of water from him as far as Six knew. Her however the Major hated enough, not to be bothered by. She could do it. But would she?
The realization was shocking, and her digital brain had toruble comprehending her own motives. She quickly walked to the head, took a bowl of warm water and a rag. Human physiology -- it was something she'd never dealt with before. Gaius seemed to have no physiology at all, even his apartament was the paradigm of order and neatness, almost like everything in the cylon world. In the inside of his brain, she deliberatelly cut herself off the biological part of his body. Well, except for one aspect of it, but that was different.
Now she looked at the battered, sick, filthy body, and all she felt was compassion, no disgust.
Slowly and carefully she removed his cloths and bandages from his chest. He moaned a few times, but other than that did not respond; didn't even open his eyes. When he was naked, she covered him with a sheet, to prevent him from getting cold, and started gently washing his face and arms.
Then she uncovered his chest, and looked at the marks left by the crash. The bruises on Apollo's chest turned grayish yellow, there was no swelling any more, though the spot was still tender; the man winced when she touched it. At least there were no cuts, so the threat of infection didn't add to the probable pneumonia.
When he was bathed, Six carefully dressed him in plain white attire she found in the locker. Lee coughed harshly and whimpered a few times as she turned him and moved his limbs. She did all she could, and reluctantly rose and left his side. Lost in thought went back to the head area, to put away the water bowl, when she stopped dead in her tracks, watching the mandala oposite from the room entrance.
Its sun rays were slowly revolving.
She dropped the bowl where she stood, and run to the lift. Once on the upper level, she hurried to join the humans in the control center. What had they done while she was busying herself with Lee Adama's needs?
As she run into the room filled with monitors, and controls, she stopped dead once again. All the monitors were showing the same round object, in various sizes, described with various symbols, some of them showing clearly that was where they were headed.
The three humans heard her steps, and turned to her, all of them pale as paper.
"I think this is some star," Kara blurted out. "We're going toward--" She stopped suddenly, went even more pale, green even, turned away, and heaved on the console.
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t.b.c.
