'The Stars In Your Hand ... '
Chapter Fourteen - Answers
'One world, one dream, the stars in your hand ...'
"Did you have to bring her here?" Roslin asked acidly.
Lee leveled a look at her in which venom was the main ingredient. "She is my daughter. Do you have a problem with her being here or would you just rather she not be alive at all?"
Helo held up a hand, silently pleading for a time out. "Hey, go easy on each other will you?" he implored, looking between the two angry faces. "I know we're all getting frustrated here but we have to have patience with each other."
He sighed inwardly. Standing between people arguing seemed to be becoming a daily occurrence for him. Tigh had taken on some of his old XO duties after his recovery from New Caprica but he'd never been quite the same so Adama had kept Helo on as his assistant - the one who dealt with the interpersonal problems. Tigh just wasn't up to that anymore - what little store of patience he'd had before his captivity was now gone and he tended to just make the situation between arguing crew members worse.
"Patience? It's been two months since she disappeared." Lee didn't have to say who; even if they hadn't known his tormented expression was enough to fill in the details. "Two months! And all we've been doing is frakking around in a holding pattern going nowhere! I would have thought by now someone would have figured out the way to Earth." Lee's frustration, sorrow and general state of helplessness was making it hard for him to hold his temper. That calm, measured stoic ability to keep himself under control was a thing of the past since Kara's disappearance. He lost it regularly with the pilots, as Kara herself had frequently in the past, and found himself crying a lot more than he ever had in his life. Kristy could attest to that, having heard him cry himself to sleep on many occasions, and having heard Kara's name whispered in dreams more times than she could count.
"Well maybe we could have if your precious Captain Thrace had actually given us something to work with instead of leaving us with a bigger mystery than we already had on our hands."
He'd seen the sarcastic smile before but never used directly on him. It cut roughly through his heart, like the blade of a samurai warrior taking his own life. She'd been a good friend once, and an ally. Now it seemed she disliked and distrusted him. Her ... of all people. The one he would have expected to understand that not everything can be explained rationally. But all she did was ride him hard now, as though punishing him for not having the answers she sought.
"You leave her alone!" he shouted, face suffusing with colour.
The hatch slammed open at that moment, silencing the next words he was about to speak.
"What the hell is going on?" Adama demanded, instantly taking in Lee's red, angry face, Roslin's bitingly sarcastic look and Helo's expression of dismay and knowing something was very wrong.
Clea started screaming.
Lee walked away, taking her into the corner of the room where he muttered sweet nothings to her in an attempt to calm her down. He knew his temper was on a razor's edge these days but this was the first time his loss of control had affected his daughter and he felt horribly guilty for it.
He was barely aware of Helo's calm, quiet voice explaining the situation to his father. The three of them talked amongst themselves quietly till Clea's wails began to subside.
"Lee, can you join us?" Adama called out to him, the only show of sympathy for his predicament being the use of his fist name instead of rank. Lee however, could read his father well enough by now to know how the Old Man felt. It warmed his soul.
"Yes sir," he replied quietly as he walked back to join the others at the table.
The talk of cylons began the meeting and Lee soon began to tune out, focusing his attention on the baby in his arms. He shouldn't have had her along, Roslin was correct on that point, but Kristy had taken ill at the last moment, Sam had been on a training run with Racetrack and several other nuggets, and he just hadn't had the time to seek out anyone else he knew would be willing to babysit. So he'd brought her along.
She was a very good child - quiet for the most part except when she was hungry or tired. Obviously having a parent yell from up close didn't exactly help that sunny disposition though. As he watched her he realized she was very warm - beads of sweat were forming by her nose. Probably from the crying, he reasoned, having noticed that happen on other occasions.
"Do you mind?" he interrupted briefly as he began to undress her.
"Go ahead Apollo. Hera always gets boiling hot when she screams too." Helo smiled proudly, for once in an arena where he knew more than Lee and could give him advice for a change.
Lee laid her on the table as the conversation resumed, pulling at the snaps of the sleeper like a seasoned pro. He flipped her onto her stomach gently to get to the snaps at the back of her neck, then pulled the garment slowly off.
The conversation stopped dead a moment later and Lee looked up in embarrassment, hoping it wasn't because his father had realized he wasn't paying attention. But Helo was the reason for their silence. His eyes were wide as saucers and he was gesticulating at Clea, mouth working but no sound coming out.
"What's wrong Helo?" Lee asked, as Adama and Roslin looked on, too stunned to speak.
Helo pointed at Clea. "Those markings on her back ... " he stumbled out incoherently.
"What, these?" Lee asked, running a gentle finger over the pattern of moles and freckles. "It's just a birthmark. Kara has one just like it."
"Kara has one ... " he echoed, falling silent as he realized the implications. "I've seen it before," he said decisively.
"Well of course you would have. It partially shows when she's only wearing a bra and I know you two used to be workout buddies."
Helo shook his head vehemently. "No, not there." He leaned over the table and traced the markings on the infant's back. "These swirls ... Kara painted a mural of this in her apartment on Caprica."
Lee's eyes went wide with shock. "How would she ..."
Helo interrupted. "She said it was a pattern that she'd been doodling since she was a kid, this swirly mandala pattern. When she got her own apartment she painted a huge picture of it on one of the walls. She showed it to me when we were on Caprica together."
At this point Roslin broke into the conversation. "Kara ... Captain Thrace has these identical markings on her back as well? And this pattern is something she's been seeing all her life?" She paused and her eyes went glassy. "Apollo and Artemis ... maybe the Chief was right."
Adama frowned. "What are you talking about?"
In a hushed voice she explained. " ' The son and daughter of Zeus will be the protectors of humanity on their journey, one fighting with the fire of purity, the other with the arrow of truth.' "
"Apollo and Artemis?" Adama questioned.
"The Chief theorized that referred to Apollo and Starbuck."
"So that would make me Zeus?" Adama asked skeptically, a trace of amusement in his voice.
"Yeah, but Kara is Starbuck, not Artemis," Lee objected. "Besides, they're just silly callsigns, not real names."
"Oh my gods." Helo looked as though he'd seen a ghost.
"What?"
"Kara's callsign was supposed to be Artemis - that's what the instructor suggested. It's been so long I'd completely forgotten."
"So why isn't it then?" Adama asked curiously.
Helo cleared his throat, as if embarrassed. "She said she thought it was rather egotistical to name yourself after a god." He glanced at Lee apologetically.
"Apollo and Artemis," Roslin said meditatively.
"Protectors of the fleet," Helo added.
"Makes sense to me," Adama chimed in. "But Zeus?"
Roslin giggled. "Well you are the most powerful man in the universe now."
His shaggy eyebrows raised.
"Does that help us in any way?" Helo asked.
The smile faded from Roslin's face as she stared at Clea, now resting in Lee's arms. "Do you suppose ... there's some sort of message in that birthmark? I mean if Captain Thrace has it, her daughter has it, it's similar to a painting she painted ..."
" ... and it was in the Temple of Jupiter as well. The Chief showed me the picture he drew of the amulet he saw."
The table fell into stunned silence. Adama broke it by pushing his chair away from the table roughly and walking over to the phone on the wall.
"This is the Admiral. I want to speak with Mr. Gaeta."
A pause.
Suddenly it began to click into place for Lee as he stared at the markings on his daughter's back. He knew. He'd seen them somewhere before and not just on Kara's back. Somewhere ... out there ...
"Mr Gaeta. I'd like the star charts for the algae planet sector, the Lion's head nebula and our current position sent to the wardroom immediately."
oooooooooooooooooooooo
Kara stared at him long and hard. He looked very similar to the Lee she knew ... very similar. Yet there were differences. He held himself differently, more proudly, as if happy to be who he was. And in his eyes there was a much different look - a look of peace and contentment, one she'd never seen in her Lee's eyes. They always held such a complicated look - joy, love, sorrow, anger, confusion, responsibility ... truly he was the most contrary person she knew. And she loved him for it.
"I can't believe you're one of them."
"Why not? If you can be, why can't I?"
Kara shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Apollo - the name of a god. How ironic."
"It is one of my names."
"And I suppose he ended up with it as a callsign because of that."
"There was a certain ... deliberateness to it," he admitted with a smile. "Just as you were to have been Artemis."
Her lip curled into a smirk. "How could I have teased Lee about being so high and mighty with a god's callsign if I had one myself?"
"You've always been one to shy away from your destiny."
"What's that supposed to mean?" The smile left to be replaced by a scowl.
"We've been through many a cycle because you've refused to admit your destiny."
"And my destiny was to lead humanity to Earth," she stated, knowing the truth already but needing confirmation from this Lee-lookalike.
"Yes."
"So why didn't someone just tell me? 'Your destiny is to lead humanity to Earth' - wouldn't that have been easier? I'd have been perfectly willing to do my part then."
He smiled. "I admit I would have preferred it that way myself. I like things to work simply - in a straight line. But the Wise One who decides always tells us life is like a puzzle and all the pieces need to fall into place as they will."
"Let me guess ... my piece was the last one needed," she said somewhat sarcastically. Gods those blue eyes - those same blue eyes!
"Your piece and his had to fit together properly before completing the puzzle. While you've tried many times you've never gotten the match quite right before."
Her voice turned bitter. "Yeah, and now that we've finally gotten it right we get separated - our family pulled apart and forced to suffer."
He walked forward a few steps and placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "It won't be for long, I promise you." Something flowed through her at his touch - something reassuring, warm, peaceful ... loving.
"We need to go Second," the First said, quiet until now.
"We will return later," he assured her.
"What am I supposed to do?" Kara asked, now at loose ends and feeling lost.
"Sit and think. The Wise One will be with you soon."
"Huh," she sighed, expelling all the air from her lungs. "I hate doing nothing."
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
For ten minutes not a sound was uttered. It was as though even Clea knew to be absolutely silent in order to allow Adama to concentrate.
Several times Helo opened his mouth to speak but shut it again immediately, respecting the Admiral's need for silence. Roslin too, had questions and thoughts to share but she recognized the grim set look on his face and knew the response she'd get. So she waited.
Only Lee was willing to brave the silence. "Dad?" he asked softly, eyes lifting from the star charts to look on his father's determined face.
Adama was silent a moment, as if he hadn't heard.
"Here it is," he said definitively a minute later, tapping the charts. He'd arranged the three in layers such that the layout of stars, planets and moons matched the swirl of moles and freckles on Clea's back.
"Holy frak," Helo said, eyes widening in awe. "Pardon my language sir."
"Pardoned," Adama said absently, never taking his eyes off the pages on the table.
"You've figured it out Bill, you've really figured it out," Roslin said, voice warm with admiration. He looked up to find a matching smile on her lovely face.
Lee tucked Clea under one arm and reached out to trace the spiraling pattern. "So this is when we were at the algae planet, this was the Lion's Head nebula, and we continued along this path here, till we ended up at our current location."
"Here are the twin gas giants we discovered when we first entered this planetary system," Helo added.
" ... and here's the planet we're orbiting now." Lee stopped for a moment, a lump beginning to grow in his throat. "And this ... this wild jumble here, this is where Kara disappeared." He swallowed involuntarily.
Helo's eyes met his in understanding. "Sure looks like it."
Adama cleared his throat gently. "The problem is that all we've done is figure out where we've been. How are we supposed to know where to go from here?"
The words rang through Lee's head - 'take care of Clea, take care of Clea ... Clea ...'
"We have the map right in front of us," he blurted out as understanding hit him like the rays of the sun poking through a thick layer of clouds.
"Where?" Roslin demanded.
Lee held out his daughter. "Right here."
TBC