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 "Home," "Final Cut," and "Flight of the Phoenix"

Chapter 12

Repairing Rifts and Making More

1215 Hours

The President's Office

Colonial One

In Orbit of Kobol

In the office of the President of the Colonies, a very interesting argument was taking place between two groups of people over the existence of the third willful Cylon collaborator the fleet had encountered and what to do with her. They had marooned the first one and airlocked the second, so what do they do with the third. Every situation was different.

On the 'keep her around' side of the argument was Karl Agathon, Kara Thrace, and, of course, the Cylon, a Number Eight that goes by the name of "Sharon."

On the airlocking side was Laura Roslin, Bill Adama, and Lee Adama.

In the middle and trying to get everyone to shut up so she could think was Sarah Inviere-Adama.

The Galactica version of Sharon was sitting in the back with her restraints on (even though everyone else was just short of ordering her to take them off) studiously keeping quiet, with the little feelings of self preservation she had left.

As the shouting continued, Sarah had enough.

"Will everyone please SHUT UP!"

Everyone looked at her in surprise, Sarah never yelled.

"Thank You. Okay, let me sum up the situation, we have a Model Eight Cylon who willfully collaborated with the enemy and now is claiming to be defecting. She claims to be responsible for keeping Mr. Agathon alive for the past few months, as well as assisting Starbucks escape, something that she can actually attest to."

Helo was about to interject when Sarah cut him off, "Helo, your judgment on this issue is compromised, to say the least, so just stay quiet." Helo nodded. "Oh, and let's not forget the fact that she's pregnant."

"Claims to be pregnant," Bill adds.

"She is, Bill, just trust me, I know."

"On the other side of the issue, she was at the least complicit, if not accessory to or perpetrator of genocide, so that's an automatic death penalty. But then of course, she's pregnant," Sarah turned to the Eight, "Is there any reason why I should keep you alive?"

"I can find the Tomb of Athena."

Sarah nodded mutely and started pacing before turning to Boomer, "Sharon, what do you think?"

Sharon was surprised that Sarah asked her opinion, she thought for a moment before responding, "She could be an asset. I certainly can't find the Tomb, and it would be a double standard to execute her and not me. But on the other side she is a threat. She, unlike me, knew what she was doing the whole time and didn't try to stop it."

"Thank you, Sharon, that was a good answer." Sarah resumed her pacing, before she reached a decision. "This is what we are going to do, you," she pointed at Caprica-Sharon, "are going to help us find the Tomb of Athena, but if you mess up, or try to kill us, or get us lost, or even look at us the wrong way, I'll cycle the airlock myself. Got it?"

Caprica-Sharon nodded.

"And as for the rest of you, well. Karl, you're clearly too close to her, you have to take a step back, look at the situation objectively, and remember to see the other person's faults in a relationship."

"Look who's talking."

"I do the same thing in my relationship with Bill, it's a good idea for any relationship, Karl, look into it. Starbuck, you were actually sort of sane in this whole conversation, so good job. Bill, stop transferring your hatred of Sharon onto other Eights, I got shot, I forgave her, you forgave her, but this anger is going to tear you apart. Got it?"
"You're just a soft cuddly stuffed animal aren't you?"

"Yes, but I'm your soft cuddly stuffed animal."

Lee and Kara started making gagging noises.

"Right, sorry."

Laura clapped her hands together, "right, let's get this expedition on the road, people

1530 Hours

The Roslin Expedition

On the Surface of Kobol

It was raining as a strange group of people made their way along an ancient road toward what they assumed was the Tomb of Athena. Taking point were Lee and Kara, closely followed by Sergeant Harder and three random marines. Following them was Galactica-Sharon and Sarah. Sharon finally got out of her restraints, for the simple reason that they were needed for Caprica-Sharon. They in turn were closely followed by the resident navigators, consisting of Caprica-Sharon, Laura, Felix and Elosha. Karl and Bill brought up the rear. Dee and Billy along with Corporal Venner and three of the Marines had stayed with the ship.

Then, the shooting started.

There were a number of Centurions on the ridge above them. Eloshia was hit right away, along with the marine that had the grenade launcher. The rest of the group ran over and took cover in small crevices along the ridge line. Kara and Lee, along with the marines, were returning fire, to little effect, the normal ammunition wasn't having any effect and they were having trouble aiming the explosive rounds. Galactica-Sharon pushed Sarah into the rock and covered Sarah with her body. Karl had done the same with Bill and Felix had covered the president. Caprica-Sharon had crouched down, because she couldn't do anything else.

Sarah just groaned at Galactica-Sharon's antics and pushed her so that she was next to Sarah, instead of on top of her, "you really have got to stop this, Sharon."

"I don't want to see you hurt, sir."

"Nevertheless, we have to discuss your responsibilities—"

Lee was getting a bit annoyed, "Oi! Girls! Shoot now, gossip later!"

Sharon and Sarah just rolled their eyes. Sarah drew the two side arms she had been carrying and tried handing one of them to Sharon, who just started shuddering and shaking her head. Sarah groaned and moved over to Caprica-Sharon. She handed her the gun and an explosive round."

"You get left, I'll get right, on three, one, two, three!" They stepped back from the rocks and fired, blowing the heads off of two of the Cylons, leaving only three. They threw themselves into the wall again, Sarah handed the Eight another round.

"Again, one, two, three!"

BANG! The two centurions directly over them blew up, and promptly fell down, almost hitting them on the head.

Sarah checked, she didn't have any explosive rounds left; she crouched down, while she tried to think of a new plan.

Caprica-Sharon, meanwhile, ran out to where the dead marine was, picked up the grenade launcher, ducked behind a tree and fired, blowing the torso out of the final centurion.

Everyone then pointed their guns at Sharon, who promptly dropped the launcher. Sarah walked up to her, "nice shot."

"Thanks."

1300 Hours, the next day

Colonial One

En Route back to The Fleet

Sarah Inviere-Adama sat in Colonial One's main cabin, she was lost in her thoughts about what she had learned. A pregnant Cylon, it actually happened. It made her wonder…until her musings were interrupted by said pregnant woman.

"Why did you decide to trust me?"

"Hmm?"

"I asked why did you decided to trust me."

"I didn't."

"What, but giving me the gun—"

"Was not a risk, I was watching where you were pointing that gun, if you pointed it anywhere except the Centurions, I would have blown your head clean off before you could fire."

"What about the launcher?"

"Same situation, I had my weapon on you the whole time. Actually, I had more than a half a mind to shoot you."

"But I led you to the tomb."

"I have the same information in my head, Sharon, if you had come to a conclusion I didn't like you would have been overridden and then executed when we got back here."

"So what was it then?"

"A test, I wanted to see what choices you made in situations if you thought I couldn't tell the difference. But, unbeknownst to you I had the answer key the whole time."

"How did I do?"

"In my book, you passed. That's one down 47,854 to go."

"You're not a soft cuddly stuffed animal, you know."

"I have claws."

1500 Hours, several days later

The President's Office

Colonial One

Back in the Fleet.

President Roslin was currently trying to pitch an idea to Commander Adama and Major Inviere -Adama

"We need to show the fleet who you are, who are the men and women who keep us safe. Most of them have just heard of your crew, they have no idea what you do, who you are."

"But her, Biers, seriously, she criticizes us at every move."

"Bill, the point is that she'll led us credibility."

"Who is this Biers any way?"

"D'anna Biers, fleet news service, a documentary maker before the attack, she now spends her time criticizing us. People, mostly don't like her, she tends to get into everyone's business, she's more of a gossip monger than a reporter."

"And you think she'll give a good piece?"

"A fair piece, Sarah, not a fluff one."

"Well then let's meet her."

"Good, she's on her way here."

"Typical, assume the results before it happens."

"Hey, I would have ordered you to do it, remember, you have final cut, Commander."

They sat laughing for a few minutes while waiting for her to show up. Eventually Biers arrived in a yellow shirt, she looked surprised to see them.

"Well, this is an honor Madam President, Commander I never thought you'd want to meet me."

Sarah was shocked, though she didn't show it, Biers was a Cylon, a Three, all their lives were in danger. She would have to play this very carefully. As discreetly as she could she unclasped her holster and took the safety off her sidearm.

"Well, Miss Biers, we were wondering if you would like to do a documentary on Galactica."

"I don't do fluff pieces."

"No, we want the truth an objective piece of truth."

Sarah decided to jump in here, "we just need to know if you can maintain an objective point of view even though the fact that you're a Cylon might present a conflict of interest."

Sarah waited for her words to sink in.

It didn't take that long. Biers elbowed one of the Presidential Security Agents in the stomach and drew out his pistol and spun to fire at Commander Adama.

She wasn't fast enough though, by the time she had gotten the pistol out, Sarah already had her sidearm out, aimed at Biers and put two in her chest, followed by one in her head.

Bill and Lara were shocked, eventually Bill recovered, "well that was interesting."

"We should leave, she knows our current position."

"Agreed, the Cylons could be here any moment."

Bill picked up the phone and called Galactica, "Dee, order the fleet to spin up their FTL drives and jump to emergency coordinates, we're going to have Cylons here any minute."

"Copy that."

Of course, then the Baseships hopped in, almost right on top of them.

"Frak."

"Indeed."

They missed the rest, because Colonial One jumped away.

1900 Hours

Pilot's Lounge

Battlestar Galactica

Karl Agathon was not having a good day. The pilots all hated him. They hated Sharon and he didn't know why, he had only one friend, Starbuck. After trying to introduce himself to the pilots he left. But, the talk didn't leave with him. Starbuck kept defending him though.

"I don't get it how could anyone love a toaster?"

"Hmm, good question Duck, maybe you should ask Commander Adama, seeing as he's married to a Cylon."

"But, the Major, she's not a Cylon, she's with us, she always has been."

Racetrack decided to throw her two cents in, "but you can't forget what she is, she's a toaster, just like the rest of them, she might be nice now, but she could turn on us at any minute."

Starbuck got up and walked over to Racetrack, as she was about to punch her lights out she was interrupted, by the subject of the conversation.

"Stand down, Starbuck!"

Everyone turned to see Major Inviere-Adama in the door, with her arms crossed, looking angry, and a bit resigned. She turned to Racetrack, "Lieutenant Edmondson, my office, now!"

Their walk through the ship was silent, awkwardly silent, Racetrack at least had enough dignity to feel cowed by the Major. They reached her office and Sarah pointed to the therapy couch, which was moved back in yesterday, because Boomer was being released.

"Sit down, Margaret." Racetrack sat down and started to apologize.

"Major, I'm sorry for the remarks I made in there, they were uncalled for—"

"No, you were angry at the time, I should apologize to you Margaret, between me being shot, then counseling Sharon, Bill, going to Kobol, and getting another Sharon on my patient list, you sort of slipped through the cracks. You were with Sharon when she visited the baseship and then again when she shot me. Tell me what you're thinking. You've heard the report, like everyone else, Boomer wasn't responsible for her actions, no more than a missile you launch from your Raptor is responsible for its actions."

"I feel betrayed, used, like I don't know what to do anymore, I feel like I can never trust anyone again."

"Do you know where Sharon was earlier that day?"

"In sickbay, I remember talking to her, she had an accident with her firearm."

Sarah just looked at her and waited.

"Oh, gods, it wasn't an accident was it, she was trying to kill herself."

"When she went on that mission, she had every intention of blowing up that Baseship. Hell, she did blow up that baseship, the nuke still went off."

"But she told the Cylons where to find us."

"Actually, she didn't, you both did."

"What, how?"

"The Cylons would have only had one way of finding The Fleet's current position, tracking something to the Fleet. They used the IFF transponders you two brought along on your mission to track you back here."

"So that means…"

"I and Sharon discussed what happened, suffice it to say, it provided her definitive proof that she was a Cylon. It was the triggering mechanism for the program that shot that caused her to shoot the commander. However, it was a discussion in the vaguest terms, nothing specific was discussed."

"But still, if my partner was a Cylon, who can I trust."

"I don't know the answer to that. I only know the appearance of seven of the twelve Cylon models. They could be anyone; they might not even know that they are Cylons."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"First of all, you should have gotten counseling sooner, second of all, Boomer will be returning to active flight status this week, and I was hoping you would be her copilot."

"Why me, why not say, Helo?"

"Helo has enough problems right now, without dealing with having to work with the effective twin sister of his girlfriend. So, are you up for it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, dismissed Lieutenant."

Racetrack got up to leave before Sarah stopped her.

"Oh and thank you, by the way."

"For what, sir?"

"The second bullet, that Sharon fired; it would have gotten Bill in the head if you hadn't tackled her. You saved his life."

"And almost cost you yours."

"Nah, that one was not the worse of the two." (Truth be told it wasn't, the first one had punctured her lung The second one just went swimming around in her intestines, missing the vital organs.)

0800 Hours, the next day

Firing Range

Battlestar Galactica

Today was Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer" Valerii's first day back on the job, she was happy about it. She wanted to get back into the air. But she was not happy about what she had to do to get there. Her firearm requalification.

Since she almost killed her best friend, she had only discharged a weapon once, at said best friend when she thought she was going to kill her commander and her lover. Since then, she had become a complete pacifist, not even shooting back at centurions that were trying to kill her. Until about a week ago she had been in restraints or her cell, the whole time, of her own choice. Luckily, none of the crew had tried to get revenge on her for what happened to the Major. She probably wouldn't have tried to stop them, she might have welcomed it.

Truth be told, she felt she wasn't being punished enough for what she did. No one blamed her, they all said it was out of her control. But Sharon blamed herself, she wanted to punish herself, she just didn't know how. So she did the next best thing, she swore an oath to herself, that she would do her utmost best to protect Sarah and Commander Adama, that she would do anything they ever asked of her, and that she would lay down her life for theirs at any moment.

Sharon was worried about her firearm requalification. She wasn't worried about passing, for some reason she was absolutely sure she would. No, she was worried about what she would do with the gun once she had it. And to compound her problem, Commander Adama, the man she had tried to shoot little more than a month ago, would be doing his requalification at the same time.

The Commander had visibly noticed her nervousness, "don't worry about it Boomer, you'll pass fine. I remember how worried I was at my first qualification back at basic over fifty years ago. At the time, I set the range record. Now, with all these calcified bones and old people issues. I'm lucky if I pass."

Sharon snorted at his modesty; the commander still had the number four spot on the range record sheet. After Sarah, Starbuck and his son. Sharon remembered the day last week when Sarah took her requalification and beat Starbuck. Starbuck was still pissed and spent almost every day on the range trying to beat her record. When Starbuck asked Sarah how she did it, she replied, "sometimes it sucks to be human."

So, Sharon grabbed her sidearm, pointed it at the target and fired. When her clip was empty, she reloaded it and holstered it before Bill walked over to the wall and took a look at her target.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant, you pass, and you've tied the range record, hmm, must be a Cylon thing."

"Thank you, sir, I think.

They took down the target and replaced it, They walked back and Bill took out his sidearm, (which he never carries), aimed, and fired. When he was finished, he reloaded the gun, and holstered it, before walking back to the target.

"Not bad, sir, you passed with flying colors."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Now let's put these away and get to work." Boomer noticed that he was slurring his words a little.

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Just feeling a little light headed that's…" he collapsed on the floor.

"Commander!"

She knelt down next to him and noticed his lips were turning blue. Then she noticed that she was having trouble breathing. She walked over to the wall and saw that the atmospheric pressure in the room had dropped. She walked over to the door, a bit more unsteadily, and tried to open it, to no avail. She was trying to think of something to do, she had to save the commander, but she couldn't do that if she couldn't think. What to do?

She spotted a box of explosive rounds on a nearby table. She crawled over to it and pulled one out, before loading it into the chamber, aiming at the window in the door and firing.

BOOM! The door blew open and air came rushing in. Sharon took a deep breath, before rushing over to the commander. She checked, he had a pulse, and was breathing. Then he started coughing. After he was done he turned to Sharon.

"What happened?"

"We lost pressure, sir, I managed to fix the situation, but um, sort of had to blow out a door to do it."

Bill looked over at the now busted door and laughs.

"Doors are fixable, we're not."

0900 Hours

Blackbird Construction Area

Hangar Bay

Battlestar Galactica

After Doc Cottle had cleared her for duty (with him muttering the whole time about crazy environmental systems) she walked down to the Hanger Deck. She saw the Chief working on his plane on the day off. Sharon knew why he was doing it. He was trying to keep his mind off her. She knew she had to make some sort of gesture, he never would. She walked over to him.

"Need some help, Chief?"

His reaction was not what she was expecting. He jolted and banged his head on a support beam.

"Ow."

The Chief stood up and they sized each other up, the deck crew all stopped and watched.

"Sure, Lieutenant I could use your help with the hydraulic lines."

They both got under the plane and got to work. It was a small step, but a step nonetheless toward what they had before.

1000 Hours

CIC

Battlestar Galactica

Sarah, Bill, Saul, and Felix were standing around the CIC command table trying to figure out why the ship was on the fritz.

"So let me get this straight, the environmental control system suddenly decided that there was too much air in the firing range and decided to bleed it out almost killing Boomer and me?"

"Yes, sir."

"The question now, is why."

"Felix and I have been looking over the code in the computer system this morning and we think we identified the problem?"

"You think?"

"I'm not positive, but I think it's a 'logic bomb.'"

"A Logic Bomb?"

"A learning computer virus designed to infiltrate our systems, find weaknesses. It's probably in every single system on the ship now."

"Frak."

"Indeed, Colonel."

"So how do we get rid of this virus?"

"The only way is to completely erase the computer core and replace it with our pre-war backups."

"How long does that take, Mr. Gaeta?"

"A while."

"And we'll be completely defenseless."

"Bingo."

"And the Cylons could just come in and destroy us."

"Bingo, again, Bill."

"So what do we do then?"

"Maybe our local expert in all things Cylon will have an idea."

Everyone looked at Sarah.

"I wasn't talking about me."

"I hate that man!"

"Not him either."

"You have got to be kidding."

"I trust her."

"I don't!"

"Like I said Bill, we really need to work on you transposing your anger, it wouldn't hurt to just talk to her."

"Fine. Do it."

Sarah walked down to the brig and opened the door. She walked in and sat down.

"Hello."

"We have a bit of a problem on our hands; you might be able to help us with it."

1130 Hours

CIC

Battlestar Galactica

While the Cylons are waiting on the doorstep

Caprica-Sharon was hooked into the computer systems, when they all went offline. Bill, feeling that she had betrayed them, grabbed his sidearm and pointed it at Sharon.

"If they're coming for you they're going to be real disappointed."

"Bill, this is right, I think?"

"You think?"

"Actually I have no idea what we're waiting for. But you can't shoot her."

"Why not?"

"She's pregnant."

"With a Cylon/Human Hybrid, a freak, it doesn't count."

Bill knew he had gone too far, when he saw the look on her face.

Saul, of course never had a sense of tact, "What are you waiting for."

"This," Sharon replied.

The systems came online while the Cylons turned off.

As everyone else was celebrating Bill turned back to the guards.

"Guards, take her back to her cell."

He then turned around to try and find Sarah, but she was gone.

He raced down to their quarters, to find Sarah packing her bags.

"Sarah, dear, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it, it's just been."

"Bill, stop, for the past month we've both been under a lot of pressure, hell for the last six month's we've been under a lot of pressure. Maybe we need a break."

"A break, wha-, what do you mean?"

"I'm going to Cloud 9 for a few days, with Sharon. You know, to get some girl time. I'd say for you to come along but I knew you couldn't take off."

"I'm sorry, is there any way I can fix this, I don't want you to leave."

"Bill, that's the only way to fix this. I need some time to myself, to think, you need some time to decompress and think as well. I'll see you in a few days." She kissed him on the cheek and headed to the hanger bay. She threw her stuff in a Raptor, took a seat next to Sharon and turned to her.

"Let's go, I really need a vacation."

AN: Please review! Thanks to those who have

Next chapter will cover Pegasus.