Chapter 12

The Apple Orchard

Zeus, unrepentant lover of beautiful women- -nymph, goddess and human.
Hera, his jealous and wily wife, learns that Zeus has taken his infidelities
Away from Mount Olympus to the quiet glens and valleys of Kobol where his
Current passion has fixed upon a beautiful woodland nymph who dwells there.

In the heat of a summer afternoon Zeus steals away from the mountain to spend
A few hours in the arms of his lover. Hera waits a few moments and follows.
With stealth and cunning learned from eons of being married to a deceiver,
She trails her husband to a lush, hidden mountain grove and there encounters
Echo, an Oread, a mountain nymph, a teller of tales, in love with her own voice.

Here the accounts differ depending on who relates the saga, but all agree that
Echo's beautiful voice and amusing stories distract Hera while her husband
Escapes back to Olympus. Whether Echo is knowledgeable of her part or
An innocent maiden who wishes only to impress Hera with her story-telling skills
Makes no difference to Zeus' wife when she discovers her husband's escape.

Her wrath falls upon Echo. Henceforth, Hera says, Echo's only power of speech
Will be to repeat the words of others. Zeus feels no guilt at Echo's fate.
A gossiping woman deprived of her speech is not the worst disaster that
Could befall Kobol. His brother Posiden laughs. She is not made
Completely without the power of speech. Be careful 'tis not your
Cries of passion with your nymph that she repeats throughout the valley.

Zeus broods and vows to stay away from the mountain abode of Echo.
Hera smiles. Echo's Gift to mankind is also Hera's gift to herself.

- Kataris, from A Poet's Dream, The Torches of Other Worlds

The rain finally drove John off the balcony and into the living room. He got another cup of coffee, stood behind the sliding glass door and watched gusts of wind drive sheets of water down the street. He wondered if the ship carrying D'Anna had gotten airborne before the storm had started. He wondered how long the creators would keep her. Simon had told him nothing. The Cylons obviously felt no obligation to keep him in their information loop. He was their prisoner. They told him only what they wanted him to know. He'd gotten more information from Doolittle and Sonja than he would have thought possible. He believed that Doolittle told him the truth, or what he thought was the truth. Sonja he didn't know about. Nothing she had said sounded like a lie, but how would he know?

The Six on Caprica had been a master at manipulation. Laura had told him how often during the negotiations that Natasi was the one who had come up with some small concession that had made the humans feel like they were getting much more than they were. She'd had only one weakness and that hadn't emerged until after the negotiations were over. She had fallen in love, or the Cylon equivalent of falling in love, with Gaius Baltar. Of all the humans from whom she could have chosen, he was a poor choice for the bestowing of her affections. Brilliant and narcissistic, Gaius Baltar was in love with only one person…himself.

John had never had any personal dealings with Natasi, but Sonja was like Caprica's Six, beautiful, manipulative and seductive. He hoped she had learned from her experience the previous day and now stayed away from both D'Anna and him. He wondered if Sonja had any idea what had happened to D'Anna. Was she in the Cylon information loop or not? She had seemed exceedingly well informed, but maybe they all were. Maybe Sonja had just chosen to tell him what she thought would work to her advantage.

The rain was so loud that John sensed rather than heard the door open. He turned. Doolittle entered with his breakfast tray.

"Morning, sir."

John followed him into the kitchen. "I hope you got here before the rain started."

"Long before. I didn't see D'Anna on the couch. Did she wake up?"

"Simon came and got her just after sunrise. He's taking her back to the lab. Do you know how long they might keep her?"

"Sorry, sir. They don't tell me things like that."

"I thought maybe they would tell you to hold her trays for a day or two."

"She don't usually get no tray. Sometime I get an order to fix one of them a tray like after she was beat up a couple of days ago, but not often. Most of the skinjobs eat in the dining hall."

"Which is where?" John asked.

"On the first floor behind the lobby. I brung you something. I found it on the sidewalk when I come to work this morning. I started to throw it away and then I thought of you." He picked up a ball from the tray and tossed it to John. "It's not much, but I know you said you was bored. You might set the lamps on the floor and try a little handball off the wall."

John caught the ball in his left hand and examined it. It was a child's solid red rubber ball that fit the palm of his hand. He squeezed it. "Thanks. Where do you think it came from?"

"Probably from one of the kids. Ever now and again I see women pushing strollers down the street in front of the building. Sometime there'll be another kid, maybe four or five years old, tagging along."

"Human women?"

"Yes, sir. Them what the Cylons brung from the settlements, I guess."

"I never see any women on the street back here."

"The sidewalk's too broke up on this side. Too hard to walk much less push them strollers."

"I see centurions go down the street a couple of times every hour. It looks like they're making rounds."

"Yes, sir. Sentries."

John bounced the ball on the floor and caught it with his right hand. He repeated the move and caught it with his left. Maybe it would help him get back any hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity he had lost during his months at the prison.

"This is good. Thanks, Doolittle. Any luck on getting me a bottle of booze and a couple of books?"

"I passed your request along, sir. That's all I can do."

"Passed it along to who?"

"Don't know. There's a clipboard in the kitchen. Each time somebody asks for something, we write it down along with the apartment number. You're 12-H. One of them must take the list each night. The next morning there's a new page on the clipboard. Anything they want us to bring up is left on a table with the apartment number. That's how I got the coffee maker I brung you."

"How often do the Cylons give people what they request?"

"Not often. Most just quit asking for anything."

"How many people live in this building?"

"About a hundred. There's about thirty what live in the building I live in. We all work for them doing something…cooking mostly. Some do maintenance work what the centurions can't do. There's another building with the human women and children. I don't know how many live there. They do their own cooking and cleaning. One of the men heard that the Cylons want it to be as normal as possible. They don't have no centurions in that building because it scares the kids. Scares their mothers, too."

"The Cylons must not be worried about them trying to escape if they let them take strollers out."

"Where would they go, sir?"

"Good point. How many humans in this building?"

"Fifty to sixty. The rest is Cylons, maybe a few more humans than them. That's all I know, sir. I need to be getting back to my deliveries. Them oranges on your tray, they're a gift from the one called Sonja. She said you'd understand why she give them to you."

"Thanks again."

He couldn't meet Doolittle's eyes. He knew what the man probably thought he had done to earn a gift from Sonja.

At the kitchen doorway Doolittle turned. "I think your apartment is on the list to be cleaned today so don't be surprised if a little centurion comes in and starts running a vacuum cleaner."

"Centurions do the cleaning?" John said in surprise.

"Yes, sir. They got those what carry weapons and those what push mops. They's smaller than the ones what's out in the hall, but them mop-pushers can kill you just like the other ones can and they's no friendlier. They get around to each apartment about once a week. Just let it do its thing and you'll be fine, sir. It'll take your dirty laundry and bring it back clean tomorrow. There's some big washers and dryers in the basement."

"Centurions run those, too?"

"Yes, sir. They do all the laundry for the building, humans and skinjobs. They's even got a couple what knows how to iron shirts and pants."

The door opened and Doolittle was gone.

John remembered the centurion mopping the lobby the day D'Anna had brought him to the city. The thought of a centurion scrubbing the toilet brought a smile.

He sat down at the table and took the cover off his plate. Eggs and toast and a generous helping of potato pancakes. He picked up one of the oranges, his gift from Sonja. An apology for yesterday or a thank-you for pulling D'Anna off her and allowing her to escape? He didn't really care. He peeled the orange. It was good, ripe and juicy, the first fruit he'd had in months. The food here in the city must come from the settlements. That meant regular air transportation routes. Lee's recon footage had shown no roads.

He ate the meal, then washed and dried the dishes and utensils and put them back on the tray. He poured the last cup of coffee and took it into the living room. The red rubber ball reminded him of his son. John had taken one away from him when he was younger because Brae wanted to gnaw on it. Just before that fateful night when John had taken the Raptor to the basestar, his son was finally beginning to understand that a ball was for throwing instead of munching.

In some ways, thinking about his son was as painful for him as thinking about his wife. Unlike Kara's childhood, John had thought he would be around for Braedon's. He'd had so many plans for them that would probably never happen.

He wondered how many human women and children were in the city now. Doolittle had said the Cylons were studying them to see how mothers cared for their children. He hoped that was all the Cylons were doing with them. He walked to the sliding glass door. The rain was still coming down but not as hard, and the wind had died down. The sky seemed lighter. The storm was passing.

Finally he sat on the couch and threw the rubber ball against the wall with his left hand and caught it with his right. He was not as accurate throwing with his right hand. Practicing would temporarily alleviate his boredom.

Thirty minutes later the rain had almost stopped. He got up, opened the sliding glass doors and smelled the freshness of the morning. The rain had cooled the air. It felt like a day in early spring back on Caprica. He thought about how nice it would be to get out and walk, just walk for miles.

Eventually he sat back down on the couch and threw the ball against the wall again and wondered what the Cylons did to pass the time. He tried to imagine some of them sitting in the cafeteria playing Triad or some other card game. Did they understand the concept of boredom? How did they communicate what was going on with each other? Certainly their communication wasn't all word of mouth. Did they have mobile phones? Did they have Cylon television? A wireless station? He wondered if there was such a thing as a Cylon News Network, a CNN like the Caprica News Network. Was there a Cylon internet? Maybe they didn't need computers. Maybe their brains were wireless communication devices.

Did they read books? Did they look at art? He'd never heard of a Cylon creating anything. Back on Caprica when Kara had first taken him to meet the Leoben who ran the bookstore, John had told him that Cylons had no culture, no art, no literature. Leoben hadn't argued with him. Maybe when D'Anna got back, he would ask her what they did all day to pass the time.

He threw the ball against the wall again. Compared to yesterday, today was going to be a long, boring day.

...

Colonel Saul Tigh was standing outside the officer's ward room by the time Lee and Kendra and Gaeta reached it. The three of them stopped and came to attention. Lee even managed it without gritting his teeth. Tigh was Bill's best friend and had been for longer than Lee had been alive. Bill and Saul had bonded as young Viper pilots during the First Cylon War, although Lee knew Tigh hadn't been at the controls of any kind of ship for a long time. When Bill had been given the Valkyrie as his first command, he'd brought Tigh aboard as his XO. He'd taken Tigh with him to the Galactica, his second command, but when Bill had been appointed as the senior military advisor to President Adar, he'd had no need of an XO. Tigh had stayed aboard the ship although Lee knew his father and the colonel spent time together every time Tigh got shore leave. Their friendship had remained strong.

Bill had saved Tigh's career more than once…his life, too, but Bill had to have known about Tigh's drinking problem for years and what drove it. Or had Bill simply ignored Tigh's problem the way he had ignored Carolanne's? It seemed to Lee that his father had a nearly unlimited capacity to ignore what he didn't want to see, often something that was right under his nose.

Kara had told him that Commander Cain tolerated Tigh but did not like him. She had inherited the colonel and she seemed to have done a good job of dealing with a problem that was not of her making.

"Lee Adama," Tigh said in his slightly raspy voice. "It's been a while."

"Yes, sir," Lee said. "This is Lieutenant Kendra Shaw."

"Shaw?" Tigh looked momentarily puzzled and then apparently remembered. "You must be the one Commander Cain mentioned. Daughter of the Quorum representative from Caprica."

"Yes, sir. Marta Shaw."

"Well, we're just running over with the offspring of the famous. All we need now is Starbuck and we'd have three of a kind instead of a pair."

Oh boy, Lee thought. Tigh was in an ugly mood. Lee knew that the colonel didn't like Kara because of her friendship with Sharon and because Kara had protected Sharon's identity as well as that of Leoben.

If Tigh's day was running true to the way Kara said they normally ran, the Galactica's XO had already taken a couple of discrete sips from the flask he always carried. If he knew about Picon, he may have had an additional sip. Both Tigh and Adama had lost friends and a great many fellow officers when the Fleet's headquarters had been destroyed. They now knew that the rest had died of radiation poisoning, an ugly and very painful way to go.

Kendra said sweetly, "I didn't get to meet you at the inaugural dance, Colonel Tigh, but I saw you and your wife. She's a gorgeous woman."

Tigh grunted but said nothing. Lee didn't know if Kendra had made a mistake mentioning Ellen or not. It probably depended on whether Ellen was being blatantly obvious or discreet about her infidelities at the moment.

He preceded them into the ward room and turned on the lights.

Gaeta said, "I'll go get the images and radiation readings."

"It's all yours," Tigh said and gestured to the room. Lee and Kendra entered and put their leather binders on the table.

"Thank you, sir," Lee said.

Tigh turned to go and then turned back around. "Your father's put a lot of faith in you. Don't let him down."

Lee stood with his jaw clenched and looked straight ahead until Tigh had disappeared. "Let's get to work so we can get out of here," he said to Kendra.

"What's his problem with you?" She asked.

"Who knows. He told Kara one time that I was still wet behind the ears. I'm sure he thinks my father made a mistake assigning me to this mission. Maybe Tigh thinks he should have been the diplomatic liaison officer."

Kendra snickered and perfectly imitated Nylund's accent. "How much have you had to drink today, Colonel Tigh?"

Lee smiled. Kendra either had foreknowledge of Tigh's problem or she had gotten a whiff of his breath.

"I think we should just lay out the facts for Dr. Nylund," he said. "I think we should show him the drone photographs and give him the radiation readings. He's a smart man. I don't think we're going to get any argument from him about visiting Picon. I think he'll be ready to move on to Tauron where he knows his people can get on the planet."

"I agree. I'll think he and Commander Cain will have the ceremony first thing in the morning and then we'll leave."

"What ceremony?" Lee asked.

"The one honoring those who died on the planet. My mother told me that no matter what we found on each planet, there would be a ceremony honoring the dead and then a Raptor would drop a memorial wreath."

"My dad forgot to mention that to me. He's not big on ceremonies. When he got his promotion to admiral, I think he would have preferred to have it done quietly in his office. President Adar thought otherwise."

"I saw the picture. The current President on one side and the future President on the other. They were pinning the admiral's bars on his collar. So he and Laura Roslin were tight even then."

"He and Laura have known each other since they were young. Their fathers were good friends."

"He's functioning as her official escort now. Any chance they might take it further?"

"I don't think so. But what do I know? I'd be the last person to find out."

"How do you feel about it?"

"Feel about what, Kendra?" Lee snapped. "Being the last one to find out?"

"Your father and the President of the Colonies."

"It's none of my business. He's made that more than clear to me."

Lee was saved from any further discussion of his father and Laura by Felix Gaeta's return. He handed Lee a small USB drive. "These are the photographs we were looking at earlier. The radiation readings are on there, too."

Lee took the drive and put it in his pocket. "Thank, Felix. Kendra and I will head back now. I think we're going to present the facts to Dr. Nylund the same way you and Commander Cain presented them to us."

"Good luck. If you and Lieutenant Shaw would like to come back one evening, we've usually got some good Triad games going on. The commander made sure we were stocked with some good ambrosia, too. I know we could find a couple of empty bunks if you didn't want to fly back to your ship."

"That sounds nice," Kendra said. "Maybe we can."

On the way back to the hangar Kendra said, "Who's Shelley?"

"Someone who graduated from the Academy with me and Felix. They're friends."

"Are you and her friends, too?"

"I dated her for a few months when we were students. It never got serious."

"Did she date Gaeta, too?" Kendra asked skeptically.

"They're friends like I said. I hope they've got a Raptor ready for us to take back to the Penelope. I don't want to hang around here right now."

Lee wasn't surprised to find that the Raptor was still being prepped.

"Sorry, sir," Chief said. "We weren't expecting you back this soon."

Lee paced. All he wanted to do was get back to the Penelope, talk to Dr. Nylund and draft his reply to Major Parker's message. Parker had probably already gone to Bill with his discoveries. Lee was now certain there were humans on Nereid. If there were orchards and farms, then it wasn't an insignificant number.

"Are you sure you know how to fly a Raptor?" Kendra asked. "I was watching Racetrack. It looked complicated."

"You're welcome to see if she can give you a ride back," Lee snapped again and then added sarcastically, "You two seemed to have hit it off so well."

Kendra turned around and walked a short distance away. Lee knew she had done it so the deck crew wouldn't see an argument like they'd had in the corridor. He wasn't sure why he was in such a foul mood. Kendra had already backed down once. He couldn't expect her to keep doing it. Kara would have been in his face a long time ago over his behavior. In many ways she had much more of a temper than he did. He started to walk after Kendra and apologize when he heard his call sign.

"Apollo."

Lee turned. Dwight Saunders was walking across the hangar deck toward him. Alex Quartataro was with him. Both were wearing flight suits. Lee waited for them.

"Flat Top, Crashdown" he said. "I heard you volunteered."

Flat Top was grinning. "Nobody will ever accuse us of having good sense. How are you? I haven't seen you out at the base in a while."

"Too much going on," Lee said.

"So who's your partner?" Crashdown asked. "I'd like to meet her."

"She's got a boyfriend."

"So? I'd still like to meet her."

Lee motioned for Kendra and she walked over. He made the introductions. Saunders was sharp. He recognized her name immediately. He asked her which way her mother was going to vote on sending more troops to Sovana. Kendra told him she wasn't privy to her mother's thoughts on the matter. Saunders teased her and said that he bet after a couple of beers she would remember. Kendra smilingly told him he wouldn't be that lucky. They all chatted for a few more minutes and then Saunders told Lee he wanted to talk to him privately. They left Kendra and Crashdown talking and walked around behind a Viper.

"Tell me about Noel and Kara," Saunders said.

"I was ordered to keep my mouth shut."

"Come on, Lee. Noel and I have been roommates since the Academy. He's a good friend. Crash and I took a transport out to the salvage yard north of the city to get his car on Tuesday morning. There were MPs all over the place. He had to sign his life away just to get his car back. What the hell happened out there?"

Lee shook his head. "I can't talk about it."

"Yes, you damned well can. Kara is my friend, too. What did they do? Are they in a brig somewhere?"

"No, they're not in a brig."

"One of the pilots at the base told me that Vipers were scrambled Monday just after midnight. They had a Cylon Raider on dradis that jumped away before they got to it. Were Kara and Noel in that Raider? Did the Cylons take them?"

Lee didn't say anything, just shook his head.

"You have my word as an officer. I won't say anything. Just tell me what happened to them."

Lee looked down for a moment. He wanted to tell Saunders something, but didn't know exactly what to say. Flat Top wouldn't accept an explanation of on a dangerous mission, and let it go at that.

Saunders went on. "There's another rumor going around. They were testing some kind of secret FTL technology and instead of jumping away, they crashed into the ocean or the ship went somewhere and they can't get back. Is that what the military is covering up? Are they dead?"

"No! They're not dead!" Lee shot back. He took a deep breath. He had to be realistic. It had been five days. If Kara and Noel had made it to Nereid, there was no guarantee that they were still alive. Yet he couldn't let himself believe that anything bad had happened to them.

"I think they're okay," he finally said. "But I don't really know. We have a…prototype ship, a modified Raider. Kara knows how to fly it. She took it."

The shock on Saunders' face was clear. "Are you saying she stole it?"

"Let's say borrowed it."

"Why?"

"That's all I can say."

"What was Noel doing with her?"

"My guess is that Kara couldn't do all of it by herself so she asked him to help her. They tripped a silent alarm. She took him with her rather than leave him for the MPs."

Saunders angrily hit the Viper with the side of his fist. "Oh, man! They've both frakked their careers all to hell."

"It's not their careers I'm worried about."

"Where did they take this prototype ship?"

"I've already said more than I should have."

"Did they go off chasing Cylons? Some secret mission the two of them cooked up? Because that sounds like something Noel would be idiotic enough to do. He's hated the Cylons since his sister got killed when they bombed the big temple in Delphi. If he thought he was going to get a chance to take out some more toasters, he'd have gone with Kara in a microsecond."

Kendra walked around the side of the Viper with Crashdown following her. "Chief said our Raptor is ready."

Lee said. "I've got to go. Dr. Nylund is expecting us back with the news about Picon."

Saunders nodded. "Thanks, Lee."

Kendra smiled at Flat Top. "You can corner him some other time. He'll be back as soon as we get to Tauron."

Flat Top grinned. "I hope he brings you with him."

Kendra was still smiling. "He'd better. We're a team."

They boarded the Raptor. Lee said, "You can sit up front if you'd like…unless you don't want to see the way I handle a Raptor. I might crash into the launch bay doors, maybe miss the landing bay altogether. I might not even be able to find the Penelope."

Without a word Kendra got into the copilot's seat. "You're way too serious, Lee. I should have just kept my mouth shut."

When they had cleared the launch bay, Lee said, "I'm sorry I'm in such a rotten mood. I shouldn't be taking it out on you. This hasn't been a good week."

"That's an understatement. What were you and Lieutenant Saunders talking about?"

"He and Noel Allison are roommates. Enough said?"

She nodded. "He's a very nice-looking guy."

"Saunders?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, Colonel Tigh. Who else would I be talking about? What do you know about him?"

"He was valedictorian of Kara's class at the Academy. He took top honors in the Raptor division in their Flight School class. Kara says he's nice, not to mention polite, the kind of guy you wouldn't mind bringing home to meet your parents. He helped her on the obstacle course. She likes him. She and Saunders and Noel hung out together a lot during Flight School."

"What do you think of him…one Academy valedictorian to another?"

Lee shrugged. "He's a nice guy. He makes friends easy. I don't know anybody who doesn't like him."

"Does he have a girlfriend?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Just curious."

"Kara told me that he dated Diana Seelix off and on while they were at the Academy and during Flight School, but she was killed during the fighting."

"Were they serious?"

"I didn't get that impression, but I don't really know."

"Maybe he's not interested in dating anyone yet."

"I'll be glad to ask him for you."

"I'm not that interested in him. Most good-looking guys have a girlfriend. Of course he's a pilot and some pilots don't like to get tied down to one woman."

Lee smiled. "That sounds like experience talking."

"Why would you say that?" He picked up a slight defensiveness in her tone.

"No reason. Should I tell Saunders that you'd like to get better acquainted?"

"No…because I'm not."

"Then why did you ask about him?"

"I told you I'm just curious."

"Aren't you curious about Quartararo?"

"He already volunteered the information that he's available."

"He hit on you?"

"He asked me if he could buy me a beer on our next trip over."

"What did you tell him?"

"Only if you and his friend were invited. I said we were a team."

"I'm surprised Quartararo made a move on you. I told him and Saunders you have a boyfriend."

"Thanks," she said in a peeved tone of voice.

"What? I shouldn't have mentioned your boyfriend?"

"Lieutenant Saunders probably has a girlfriend anyway."

"Then what does it matter if I mentioned your boyfriend to them?"

"Just frakking forget it," she snapped angrily. "Gods. Forget I ever mentioned it."

Lee didn't say anything else and concentrated on bringing the Raptor into the Penelope's small landing bay. If he had just had the same conversation with a guy, there would have been no doubt what was going on. Of course he wouldn't have had the same conversation with a guy. A guy would have done like Quartararo had done and hit on her. Lee decided that he had a better chance of understanding the Cylon brain than how some women thought.

...

Laura knew how much her guards hated unplanned trips, and she rarely asked them to take her anywhere that hadn't been put on her agenda early enough for them to carefully plan her security. But after Elosha had left and Laura had gotten her son down for his afternoon nap, she called the security supervisor on duty and told him she needed a car brought around that would not attract any attention. He didn't argue with her. He knew better. She was the boss. All he asked her was if he had missed something that should have been on her schedule for the day. She politely told him that she was making an impromptu trip. He asked for the address and then asked her to give him twenty minutes.

Laura was sure that she would not have wanted to hear what he said after she hung up. She turned to the woman who would listen for Braedon. Laura's plans were to be back before her son awoke from his nap.

"I shouldn't be gone but an hour. I'll have my mobile phone. Call me if you need me."

She went to her bedroom, got a jacket and tucked a scarf in the pocket. She wrote a personal check to the Delphi Sisters of Hera, then folded it and put it in her other pocket. Her chief of security was waiting for her when she got downstairs.

Edgar looked at her skeptically. "The address you gave us is not in the best part of town. We need additional guards. I'd like to take several cars."

"No. One car, my driver and two additional guards will be sufficient. I'm not going to make this into a motorcade. I don't want to attract any attention. My visit will be brief."

"I don't recommend you getting out of the car once we get there. Tell us who you need to see. We'll bring them to you."

"No. The whole point of going is for me to speak with someone inside. In private. Are we ready?"

Laura did not want to speak to Keshia in the transport vehicle because she didn't want anyone, even her trusted guards or her driver knowing she had come to ask a woman about the words of an Oracle.

When they left Marble House, she had three additional guards instead of two. Edgar was with them. He was in the front seat with her driver. A guard sat on either side of her in the back seat. Laura thought of the many times she and John had gone out to eat with just the two of them in his car. Of course she hadn't been President of the Colonies then. She sighed.

The building that housed the shelter was in an older, rundown section of the city. On the way they passed a free medical clinic that was closed because it was Sunday. Kara had once delivered medicine to it on a motorcycle.

Laura remembered the time that Kara and her father had gone back to the refugee camp after it had been dismantled and part of it had been turned into a memorial garden. Neither John nor Kara had ever talked to her about what they had experienced there. All Laura knew was that it had strengthened the bond between them. She was now filled with hope that Kara was alive on Nereid and that she would find her father also alive and well and that she would bring him home and they would be together as a family again.

The car stopped at the curb in front of a nondescript three-story structure that was sandwiched between a shoe store and a small mom-and-pop grocery store, both closed for the day. The narrow alleyways between the buildings were clean instead of littered with trash like so many of those nearby.

The sign on the door of the shelter was small. The front windows on the ground floor had heavy bars on them. The inhabitant's safety was a concern. They housed battered and abused women as well as homeless women and children. They didn't want to advertise their presence. One of her guards got out. He looked both uneasy and out of place in his dark blazer and crisply pleated tan slacks.

Laura tied the scarf over her hair, put on her sunglasses and exited the car.

"Wait a minute, ma'am." the other guard said.

Laura walked up the three steps to the door and rang the doorbell. A disembodied voice over an intercom asked her to identify herself.

"Laura Roslin. I'm here to see Keshia."

By now two of her guards were hovering behind her. Edgar was on the sidewalk looking up and down the street. The immediate area was deserted except for an old man sitting on the steps of a building across the street. He was drinking something out of a bottle wrapped in a paper bag and barely glanced at them.

The voice on the intercom said, "Step in front of the peephole, please."

Laura complied and heard the door click as the lock released.

"Wait for me in the car, please," she said to her guards.

She quickly entered the building and closed the door. She removed her sunglasses and pushed back her scarf. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. She was in a hallway with two larger rooms on either side. One looked like a reception area. Both rooms were empty. A woman in slacks and tunic much like Elosha always wore stood just inside the door. From somewhere in the back Laura heard the faint sound of women's voices and a child's laughter.

She held out her hand. The woman took it. "So it is you. I thought someone was giving us a false name. It happens frequently. Some come to us too afraid to give their real names."

"It's really me, but I don't need your services. This is a social visit."

"I'm honored. I'm Sister Eirene. I run this humble place. If I'd known you were coming we would have been better prepared with some refreshments."

"That's not necessary. I apologize for dropping by unannounced. I've come for two reasons…to bring you a small gift and to see one of your workers, Keshia. I hope she's available." Laura took the folded check from her pocket.

She heard a faint but audible gasp from Sister Eirene as she looked at it. "Your generosity is…"

"Long overdue," Laura smiled. "The gods have blessed me so richly. I can't think of a better place to return some of that blessing."

Another woman had come into the hall. Sister Eirene turned to her. "Go get Keshia. Tell her she has a special visitor."

"Is there somewhere private she and I can talk?" Laura asked.

"My office. This way."

Five minutes later Keshia walked into the small office. She was dressed much the same as when Laura had last seen her many months earlier. She wore a long skirt and colorful blouse and had a narrow multi-colored scarf wound through her dark hair. Her skin was no longer pasty-looking, though, and her clothes no longer hung on a thin frame. She looked more like the robust, bronze-skinned woman Laura had met over a year previously.

"Madame President, this is a surprise."

Sister Eirene quietly backed into the hall and closed the door.

Laura took Keshia's outstretched hands. "Please call me Laura. You look much better then when I saw you last."

"My work here has been a comfort. The need is so very great."

"They're lucky to have someone like you."

"Yolanda foresaw it. She told me that my gift was to serve others. Everything I do here is to honor her memory."

"It's Yolanda I've come to see you about. I hope my question doesn't cause you too much pain, but I need to know what she said to Kara in the hospital."

"She said very little. She was already…breathing was difficult for her…the pneumonia…"

"I'm sorry to have to ask you to try to remember, but it's very important to me."

"Will Kara not tell you?"

"I can't talk to Kara right now. She's undertaken a dangerous mission. I think her reason for doing so has something to do with what Yolanda told her that night."

Keshia rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers for a few moments. There was pain on her face as she made the mental journey back to the night that Yolanda had died.

"She spoke of Kara's lover falling from the sky and she spoke of a child. That day she spoke several times to me of a child…even before Kara got there. I thought she was talking about a young boy we knew at the temple in Delphi, but she was very confused by then. She could have meant another child."

"When she spoke of Lee falling from the sky do you remember exactly what she said?"

Keshia shook her head. "Something about light and a long way up. Kara told us that Lee had fallen into the ocean from far up in the sky. This is what I believe Yolanda saw. I don't remember anything else. I'm sorry."

"That's all right. You've told me what I need to know. She called Lee by name. That's what she saw."

"No, she called him the one named for a god. Kara had told us many months earlier that he is called Apollo by his fellow pilots. We both knew who she was talking about."

Laura's breath caught. Yolanda hadn't said Lee's name. Laura tried to temper her hope. Yolanda hadn't said Lee's name, but she hadn't said John's name either. The one named for a god could apply to either of them.

Keshia went on. "The doctors told me that Yolanda's brain was not getting enough oxygen from her lungs despite the extra they were giving her. It caused her to be very confused. She thought we were in Delphi at the temple where she served as a priest. Early that morning she thought she should get dressed and offer the sunrise prayer. Later in the day before Kara arrived Yolanda first spoke of a child, a boy. Several times she said that the child must live. Once she told me, 'he will be the peacemaker'. I still don't know what she was talking about."

So Yolanda hadn't been speaking of Sharon Agathon's child at all, but it made no difference now to Laura. She had followed her conscience and her beliefs and her feelings as a mother when she had cast her vote deciding the fate of Sharon's unborn child. If the gods were willing, the child would be born and would live, the first human-Cylon child born of a Cylon mother.

Laura reached out and grasped Keshia's hand. "Thank you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you've told me today. I'm sorry I asked you to recall those painful memories."

"Yolanda was very fond of Kara and her father as well. Were it not for their generosity and kindness, Yolanda would have died several years ago. I think of them often. I will pray for Kara's safe return from her dangerous mission."

"Thank you. Now I had better go before one of my guards decides to break down the door."

Keshia walked down the hall with Laura. "Your visit will be the talk of this humble place for weeks."

Laura smiled. "I'm certain life around here isn't that dull."

Sister Eirene was waiting at the door. She took Laura's hand again. "Thank you for your generosity. Your gift will feed and clothe many women and children for a long time."

"I would prefer you keep my donation our secret. I'm sure you understand."

Laura put on her sunglasses, pulled her scarf over her hair and exited the building. Her guards were waiting for her. When she was in the car, Edgar handed her a mobile phone.

"Admiral Adama is on the line. He's been trying to get in touch with you. He finally called the security desk. They transferred the call."

Laura felt in her pocket and realized that she had left her mobile phone on her desk back at Marble House. She took the phone from him.

Her first words were, "Oh, please tell me that Kara is back safely. Please."

"No," Bill answered quickly. "We've had no word from Kara. I'm calling about her friend Agathon and his wife. I think you should come to my place. I'd rather not discuss this on mobile phones."

"I'm on my way." She ended the call.

Bill still lived in the small apartment in the historic district near where Laura and John's apartment was located. She knew the street name but not the number. She gave it to her driver. Bill would never have called her and asked her to come to his place unless something was wrong. She sighed. She would have to think about Yolanda Brenn's words and her reference to a peacemaker another time.

...

Kara was still trying to decide what to say to Hunter about the Oracle's words when Dessa joined them.

Hunter finally looked away from her to his sister. "Where have you been this morning?"

She held up a basket. "I got some tea leaves for Aunt Emmie, and I went to see Daniel. He was drawing a picture of a woman. He thinks her name was Lucy."

"Does he draw a lot of pictures of people?" Kara asked.

Dessa smiled. "He drew a picture of me one time."

"I'd like to see it. Can I go with you next time you go to see him?"

"Sure. Daniel likes company. He sings while he paints. Sometimes he says rhymes."

"Poetry?" Kara asked.

"That's right. You're smart. Daniel will like you."

"We're going to the apple orchard," Hunter said to her. "Want to go with us?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

"We need to stop by Targa and Beck's place and see if Kara's friend wants to go?"

"I'll go get him," Dessa said and quickly darted down a path in the opposite direction.

"She really is like a kid, isn't she?" Kara asked.

"She thinks she's eleven years old. She's sweet and she's innocent. Your friend would do well to remember that."

"Narch would never make a move on Dessa. He values his life. Besides, I'm sure Targa and Beck have already had a talk with him."

Dessa came back almost dragging Noel Allison. "What's this about an apple orchard?" He asked.

"Road trip," Kara answered him. "We're going to see part of the valley. We thought you might want to go along. We've got food and mead."

"Sure, why not. What's mead?"

"Aunt Emmie won't let me drink mead," Dessa said. "I'm not old enough."

Hunter explained. "It's brewed from honey. Emmalyn's own recipe. It's good."

Narcho grinned. "You had me at brewed. What are we waiting for?"

Kara walked up beside him. "I thought that would get your attention. You know in that outfit if you let your hair grow long and grow a beard, you and Beck could pass for brothers. It looks like you've already started on the beard. When was the last time you shaved?"

"Monday morning. A person I was helping steal a ship failed to mention I'd need my shaving kit."

Kara grinned. "The person you were helping steal a ship didn't mean for you to come with her, either."

"Somebody must cut hair around here. Hunter's is short. He must know where they keep the razors, too."

"I shave with my knife," Hunter said and winked at Kara. "I keep it sharp enough."

Kara grinned and said to Noel, "Just make sure you tell me when you're going to do it. I want to watch. It'll be a good story to tell everybody in prison. You'd better stay away from that Noel Allison. He's so tough he shaves with a knife."

"I can't wait until you have to wash those jeans and sweatshirt. I'm sure Emmalyn will loan you something to wear. That'll be a good story to tell the rest of the pilots. You won't believe how she looked wearing a long dress…with an apron. I even saw her milking a goat."

Kara started laughing and shoved him. "Not going to happen."

He laughed and pushed her back. "Is, too."

"Is not."

"You've already got your hair braided. They'll have you looking like a valley woman in no time."

Kara shoved him again. "Will not."

Will, too."

"Enough," Hunter said in a good-natured way. "You two are worse than Targa and Beck, and I didn't think that was possible."

They came to a large wooden structure, the only one of its kind in the valley.

"Our communal gathering place," Hunter said to them. "It serves as our temple, too, only we don't have any ordained priests anymore. They all died. There's two women who know most of the rituals and ceremonies and how to burn the sacred fire. They do the weddings and funerals and dedication ceremonies."

Dessa said, "It's fun when people get married. We dance and sing and laugh and have good food. The grownups drink mead."

"I'll bet you're a good dancer," Kara said to her.

She smiled shyly. "I like to dance. It's fun."

"Your communal building has windows," Narcho said. "None of the other structures have windows."

"That's because we don't have any way to make glass. These windows all came from glass in the Hyperion. During the winter a lot of people come here during the day and work because they have enough light to see."

"Work doing what?" Kara asked.

"Sewing, knitting, weaving. There's two small looms in there. Someone is usually teaching something to the kids, reading or how to do numbers."

Dessa said, "We learn about the Hyperion so no one will forget."

"Let's keep moving," Hunter said. "You'll get to see the inside of the communal building in a day or two."

The apple orchard wasn't as far as Kara had thought it would be, but it was higher up on the side of the valley. After about a mile they took a path that veered southwest and began to climb, switching back and forth several times as it ascended. By the time they got there, all had stopped talking and were concentrating on breathing. The trees were in full bloom, their white blossoms tinged with light pink. The unfurled buds were darker pink. Their soft fragrance was all around and the air buzzed with the bees that were busily flying from flower to flower.

Narcho looked uneasy. "I don't want to get stung."

"Then don't bother the bees," Hunter said. "They won't bother you. They're way more interested in the pollen. These trees don't self-pollinate. Without the bees there won't be any apples. We have a couple of people in base camp who keep bee hives."

Dessa took Narcho's hand again and began pulling him up the hill. "Come on. I'll show you a bird's nest."

Kara found a grassy spot under the first row of trees and plopped down. Emmalyn had been right about the wind. There was a strong breeze that would have made a tangled mess of her hair. She looked out over the entire valley. The view was breathtaking. She saw a small lake and a winding river in the distance. There were plowed fields and pastures filled with grass and colorful wildflowers. Another herd of goats was grazing nearby under the watchful eyes of two young boys. There were paths or roads leading around the valley. She saw a cart on one being pulled by a shaggy horse. She didn't think she had ever seen anything as beautiful.

Hunter sat down beside her. "What do you think?"

"The word paradise comes to mind." They sat without speaking for a minute until Kara said, "You know something about an apple orchard as well as hunting Cylons."

"When you grow up in a small group of people, you learn a little bit about a lot of things. I know how to plow and plant. I can shear a sheep but I'm slow. I can even milk a goat. I can provide you with a list of my accomplishments. The list is long, but the entries are very short."

Kara smiled. "I'm impressed."

"Are you making fun of me, Wildcat?"

"No, I'm not making fun of you. Before I went to the refugee camp I lived in a little stone cottage with a guy who was like my brother. I was thirteen and he was fourteen. We both learned how to do a lot of things."

"The two of you lived there alone?"

"That's where I learned to use a slingshot and skin a rabbit and other stuff. Karl taught me how to fish, too. We had a garden. We lived there for almost eight months before some soldiers found us and took us to a refugee camp."

"Pond fishing or stream fishing?"

"Pond. There was a creek close by but there wasn't much in it but crawfish that were too little to mess with."

"We've got streams and ponds here in the valley. Maybe tomorrow we'll go fishing."

"You said we'd get word from the city tomorrow."

"I said tomorrow or the next day. It'll happen, Kara. Neither one of us can make it happen any faster than it will. Relax and enjoy this while you can."

She thought about what he had just said. He was right. She had to stop obsessing about her father for a day or two. She couldn't change his circumstances right now even if she knew where he was. That would take some real planning. She had to face the fact that rescuing him might not even be possible. But she wasn't ready to go there yet. She would wait for word from the city to see if any of Hunter's people knew anything.

"You're right. This is a beautiful place. You've got everything you need to live here in your valley. You said the Cylons don't bother you in base camp. Why don't you stay here all the time? Why even go out in the forest at all?"

"Because eventually they'd come looking for us. It's part of the agreement."

"Make a new agreement. Tell them you're not going to kill them anymore and to leave you alone. Tell them you want to live in peace. Maybe they'll let you. Maybe they'll let you trade with the other settlements and the city. Just because you've done something the same way for years doesn't mean you have to keep doing it that way."

"It wouldn't work."

"Why not? You'll never know unless you try."

Hunter leaned back on his elbows and looked at the sky through flowering branches. "I don't mind going out in the forest and hunting them."

"So what you're saying is that you don't want to change it."

He shrugged. "They've got no reason to want to change. We have to go along with it. This arrangement suits them just fine."

"It suits you, too. You enjoy it," Kara said, wondering why she hadn't seen it before. "This place is just too damned peaceful for you. Farming and fishing is too tame to do all the time. You like the adrenalin high you get when you're stalking them. You get off on planning your strategy to catch them and destroy them. You like shooting the skinjobs and knocking out the brains of the centurions with that gadget in a soup can."

"Listen to who's lecturing me. You can't tell me that a fighter pilot doesn't get off on shooting down their Raiders. You can't tell me you don't like the feeling when you get a good kill."

She didn't answer him because he was right and they both knew it. She has stayed on an adrenalin high the whole night she had fought the Cylons. She had become a pilot in order to fight the Cylons.

Instead she said, "When you killed Leoben, I could tell you and Targa and Beck had done it before. How many times?"

He shrugged again. "I don't know. I'm not keeping score. I've been doing this for fifteen years. And it isn't just Leoben. We've killed all the skinjob models, even the females. They come out in the forest hunting us, they know what they're going to get. So you're right. I like it. I'm just like my father. He liked hunting them, too."

"And it got him killed, didn't it? How many of you have died since you started doing this?"

"I can take you to the cemetery. You can count the stones. Besides, none of us is going to live forever."

"Except the Cylons because they download. You'll never be able to even make a dent in their numbers. Don't you see how stupid it is what you're doing? On Caprica we didn't fight them until we could kill all of them. What you're doing is just crazy. It goes against any kind of…good battle strategy. It's insane. You can't kill Cylons one at a time."

"This is our war with them, Wildcat, not yours. We do what we have to do."

Suddenly Kara realized something that she should have seen earlier. "You let Leoben take me and Narch on purpose, didn't you? The rest of the time I was with you, we never traveled on a path. After you captured us, you marched us straight down that path like lambs to the slaughter."

He didn't answer her.

"Son of a bitch," Kara said angrily and started to get up.

He grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her down beside him. "Not so loud. You were never in any danger."

"Never in any danger? Those centurions were…"

"Shooting at us, not at you."

"That doesn't matter. You frakking used us as bait."

"Listen to me, Wildcat. We'd been out there for almost three weeks. We were a long way from base camp. We were out of food and we were getting tired. We could never get the jump on them until the gods dropped you out of the sky. You were a gift. You can't blame us for taking advantage of it."

"You never thought me and Narch were skinjobs, did you? You knew we were humans from the start."

"No, I didn't know at first. That's the truth. I didn't know for sure until Leoben didn't recognize you."

She sat in angry silence, refusing to look at him.

He said, "You'd have done the same thing if you'd been in our place."

"What makes you think I would have done the same thing and risked someone else's life?"

"You brought Narcho here not knowing what you would find. I call that risking someone else's life."

"That's different," Kara said quickly. "His chances were…"

"Not as good as they were on the planet you came from. You had no idea what you were going to find here."

"I did have some idea. I'd been here twice before."

"Not on the ground, you hadn't. And you risked my life to take us through that waterfall and hide your ship. You didn't even hesitate."

"Then why'd you go with me?"

"Because my gut told me you could do it. My point is that you and I are more alike than you think. So come down off that moral high road you're trying to walk. I didn't notice you shedding any tears over that dead Cylon. Didn't you say you'd killed two of them on Caprica? Didn't they download?"

She snorted. "They didn't consult me afterward. So you let Leoben prove we weren't skinjobs and then you killed him."

"He and his centurions would have killed us if they could have. That's why they're out there. That's what they do."

"Don't you ever get tired of it? Don't you ever just get frakking sick and tired of it?"

He finally let go of her arm. "Sure. I get tired of it. And when I do, I come back here and I spend a little time. I help out with whatever needs to be done. Then I go back out again."

"What the hell kind of life is that?"

"It's the only life I know. Don't you understand, Kara? Everybody in this valley depends on me and those like me. Without us going out there, the Cylons would take this place and make slaves of everybody." He gestured out over the whole valley. "The way of life that you see would be gone along with our freedom."

Kara wrapped her arms around her knees. "When I was fifteen, I was living in a refugee camp on Caprica. We lived in tents. We had to walk a quarter of a mile to take a shower, almost a mile to eat in the mess tent. I was glad to leave that place. More than glad. There's got to be a better way, a better life for you, for all of you."

He smiled. "Maybe that's why you're here. Maybe Posiden's green-eyed daughter is going to change all that."

Before she could answer him, Narcho and Dessa rejoined them. Dessa came over and sat down beside her. She rubbed the sleeve of Kara's sweatshirt.

"That's soft. I like it."

"So are we ready to break out the mead?" Narcho asked.

Hunter handed him the basket. "It's in the old canteen. The other one is full of water."

Narcho made a face. "Water? I've drunk enough water in the last couple of days to last me a year or more."

"You'd better get used to it," Kara said. "I think our days at McGee's and Zeno's and The Shark Rider are over for a long time."

"When we get back to Caprica. But we're not there yet, so I'll take some mead."

"What's Caprica?" Dessa asked.

"It's a place outside base camp," Hunter said. "A long way from here."

"Have you been there?" She asked him.

"No, I haven't been there, but Kara and Narcho have. That's where they live."

"Are they going back?"

"Someday," Kara said. "But I've got to find my father first. Hunter's going to help me."

Dessa smiled and put her head against Kara's shoulder. "I'll help you, too."

"Of course you will," Kara said.

The wind ruffled through the apple trees and white petals fell down around them. The breeze was cooler higher up on the side of the valley than it had been down in the camp.

Dessa cupped her hands and let some petals fall in them. "Like snow. Does it snow in Caprica?"

"It snows," Narcho said. "A couple of months ago it snowed and we couldn't fly that day so we had a big snowball fight out at the base, the Raptor pilots and the Viper pilots. We kicked their…behinds."

At the mention of snow, Kara's thoughts traveled to another time later that same day. She and Lee had taken Braedon out on the back lawn of Marble House to play in the snow. Brae had been bundled up in a one-piece suit with a little hood. She remembered his rosy pink cheeks and the way he had looked at the snowflakes on his mittens, how he had tasted them. He had laughed, even when he had fallen down in the snow. Lee hadn't been able to do much because he was still walking with a limp and he didn't want to reinjure his healing leg. He had taken pictures of them, though, of Kara holding her snow-suited brother. Her father should have been there to see Brae enjoy his first snow. At that moment under the falling apple blossoms, Kara wanted her father. She wanted to sit beside him and feel him put his arm around her shoulder and kiss her on the top of her head. She wanted to hear him say, I love you, baby. She missed him so much. Tears stung her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Hunter asked softly.

"I was just thinking about my little brother. About him playing in the snow. About how my dad should have been there to see it. He's a good father, a really good father."

"You have a little brother?" Dessa asked. "Where is he?"

"He's back on Caprica," Kara said.

"How old is he?"

"He's seventeen months old now, but I still think of him as a baby."

Dessa smiled and leaned over and whispered to Kara, "Hunter has a baby. Her name is Esmari."

TBC…