This was written in response to a drabble challenge of 'another chapter'. This fits into the universe between chapter 11 and 12 somewhere obviously. :)
Title: Penance
A drum roll again stilled the sombre crowd gathered on the deck.
"Eight!" Mr Tigh shouted.
Mr James cried out in pain as another lash split and welted the pale skin of his back.
The Commander stood alone, shoulders squared, on the upper deck. His eyes never wavered from where the young member of his crew was bound by the wrists and ankles. Unlike the others on board, the Commander never flinched with each blow.
The Priestess Elosha prayed aloud until the sound of the drum once more silenced her.
"Nine!"
Lady Laura watched her new lover and ally as he bore witness to the boy's punishment. Perhaps, she thought, no one else observed the way his fingers tightly gripped the wooden railing in front of him.
Somewhere behind her Doctor Baltar muttered 'barbaric'. She bit down on her tongue until she tasted blood. Barbaric would be if the Commander administered random floggings to ensure subservience. Mr James had been seized pilfering rations from the galley. Men were known to be hanged for a lesser crime on shore.
Until the drum pounded, she added her voice to Elosha's, praying to the Gods to end their desperate circumstances with much haste.
"Ten!"
She left her place and climbed the steps to the bridge. The Commander had turned his back on the slowly dissipating crowd and was staring out at the wash trailing behind the ship.
She placed her hand over his. "You did what we had to do."
"We?"
"Every decision shared, remember? Never again shall we suffer alone."
She exhaled audibly, her stomach rolling, not from the ship, but from the realisation that her words were true. She would face every new pain with this man at her side.
His only reply was to twist his fingers and squeeze hers.