Chapter 24
Caprica
As the weeks passed by, Anders still could not work out if Lee was fearless or downright crazy. His defiance of Admiral Cain's orders had not stopped at sneaking survivors onto the acquired Tylium ship. He would also suddenly disappear for long periods of time, sometimes as long as a week. Anders had lost count of the times a member of Pegasus' crew had approached him, wanting to know where Captain Adama was. He was running out of excuses for him. Most of the crew had been willing to report back that the Captain was leading a mission out into Caprica City to search for resources.
Also whenever Lee was around, he was very quiet and eyed Anders as if he considered him to be something bad under his shoe. Anders knew instinctively the source of Lee's animosity, and the reason wasn't even there to stir up the trouble. Unfortunately Anders knew the situation was not going to mend itself and that one day soon, he and Lee were going to come to blows.
Anders walked up the long road to the crest of Megara, a large hill that loomed over the outskirts of Caprica City, which lay to its South. To the east was the small town of Eretria, which met up with the coast line. The majority of wealthy commuters to Caprica City had lived in this small town. Just prior to the attacks Anders had brought a small beach house with a great view of the ocean, it was meant to be his escape from the limelight and his twentieth floor penthouse in the City.
Anders found Lee sitting on a rock on an outcropping overlooking what was left of Eretria. There was a slight breeze and the rain was light. The Captain was just sitting there in silence, ignoring his approach, so Anders walked up and just sat down on the rock next to him.
Lee shifted slightly away, giving him some room.
"They didn't have a chance did they?" said Lee quietly, still staring out into the dusk sky.
"What do you mean?" asked Anders slightly confused.
Lee gestured towards the former town below him. What had once been a bustling home to hundreds of thousands was now reduced to nothing. The cylons had wiped the entire place from existence and there was nothing left that resembled its former habitation. Surprisingly the majority of Caprica City was still intact, which Anders had discovered was because the cylons had wanted to live there. They had obviously not shared the same sentiments towards Eretria.
"Did you have a home here?" asked Anders, feeling that there was more to Lee's subdued behaviour then just sadness towards the loss of so many lives.
"Yeah," replied Lee sadly and pointed towards the base of the hill. "I grew up just down there."
"I'm sorry."
"It must have been quick for the ones down there, no pain or suffering," replied Lee in a morose tone. Anders was about to ask Lee if he was okay, when suddenly he broke out of his trance and pushed himself to his feet. "Come on, we have work to do. Did you gather together the last group?"
"Um, yeah, they're awaiting your go ahead," replied Anders looking up from his still seated position.
"Tell them to be ready by 0100 hours. I'll send Showboat over to meet you."
Without emotion the Captain turned and walked away from the crest of the hill leaving Anders looking out over the ruin town.
There's definitely something not right about that man he thought. Anders admired what the Captain was doing for the remaining survivors of the Colonies, but there was something that unnerved him. Lee was in deep thought all of the time, about what he was not sure, but Anders had an idea it was about Kara. He was also worried about her, wondering if she was still alive and if she was suffering. Anders could not even begin to comprehend what Lee was going through, knowing that he had probably left her behind and there was nothing he could do about it.
Anders sighed and took one last look at Eretria. He knew it was the last time that he would see the painful reminder of what they had lost. Tomorrow the survivors would be leaving Caprica and starting the long journey to gods knows where. Lee had not been explicit about the Admiral's plans. All Anders knew was that Lee had been put in charge of the search of Caprica and that other officers had been deployed to the other Colonies. They would convene after ten weeks and formulate into one crew under the Admiral's command.
Anders had not met Cain yet, but the stories were enough to convince him that he didn't want to either.
Battlestar Galactica
Karl was having a wonderful dream about Sharon when he was rudely awoken by a distressed whimpering emanating from somewhere in the room. It took a few moments of staring at the top of his rack to get his head straight before launching himself down his ladder. The noise was definitely coming from one of the other bunks and whoever it was seemed to be terrified. Karl walked around the room leaning his head up to the closed curtains.
"What's that frakking noise?" grunted Hotdog as he stuck his head out from behind his curtain.
Karl ignored him however as he had found the source of the noise and was crouching down in front of Kara's rack.
"Kara?" he said softly, ignoring the other occupants of the room leaning out of their bunks. Karl gently pulled back the curtain to reveal Kara, who was covered in sweat and thrashing around on her back, gripping her belly in a protective embrace.
"Kara?" repeated Karl as he gently shook her shoulder waking her up immediately. She jolted violently and pushed herself upwards to as much of a sitting position as her belly would allow. The sweat was pouring down her face and she was panting. "Whoa easy there," said Karl holding out his arms. "You were having a nightmare, everything is fine."
Kara sniffed sharply and then Karl realised that her nose was bleeding slightly. "Frak, Kara did you knock your head?" he asked and then addressed the room, "someone get a tissue."
"I'm fine," said Kara throwing her legs over the side of her and rack and wiping away the blood with her hand, which only helped to smear it across her cheek. "Frak, that hasn't happened since I was about thirteen. Quit staring at me Helo and help me up."
Karl held out his hand and Kara used his forearm to help herself up. Hotdog then came over and offered her a tissue, which she snatched out of his hand and held it to her nose. Karl led her out of the room down to the head where Kara splashed water on her face.
He wished that he knew what was going on inside her head.
"You okay Starbuck?" he asked concerned.
"Frakking fantastic."
"You were having nightmare, do you remember what it was about?"
Kara said nothing and stared up at the mirror. Karl looked at her reflection and almost saw sadness in her eyes, not at herself, but towards him. "What? What is it Kara?"
Kara splashed water into her face again before shrugging, "nothing, it was a nightmare, no biggie. I get them all the time."
For some reason Karl didn't believe her, "You woke up the entire bunkroom thrashing and crying out, you were covered in sweat and it was so bad you got a nose bleed. Sure didn't look like it was nothing."
"Well in a few weeks I'll have my own quarters so you won't have to worry about me keeping you up."
"I don't care about that," replied Karl turning Kara around by her arm.
"Look, I don't need you to stand guard over me Helo, I'll be fine," said Kara, her face stern and resolute.
Karl had known Kara long enough to know that she would not change her mind. He held up his hands in surrender, "okay, you win. But you know where I am if you need me."
"I'm going to take a shower," said Kara, walking back towards the bunk room to no doubt collect her wash kit. Karl, now alone, leaned back against the sink and wondered what he had seen passing across her eyes. He wondered if she had dreamt about something horrific involving him.
Later that evening at about 0800 hours most of the officers were gathered in the Rec room, enjoying a couple of games of triad and drinking lots of ambrosia. Karl sat at a table watching Kara who was sitting alone at another table, staring at an untouched glass of ambrosia in front of her. It was as if she was willing herself not to grab it and swig it down with one gulp.
The room was loud, full of pilot banter and the talk wireless blaring away. Karl rolled his eyes as the newly inaugurated President Baltar gave his speech to the press. Two weeks before a group of raptors went out with Sharon on board, in order to experiment with FTL jump technology. They were hoping that Sharon could provide a way for the fleet to make longer jumps, maybe even jump back to the Colonies with only ten jumps. Racetrack and Skulls' jump went awry and they had ended up going beyond a gas cloud, which was hiding a small planet able to sustain the colonists. Baltar had made it the head of his campaign, the promise of a new home, hope and a future on the inappropriately named New Caprica. The planet was nothing like the original Colony; its weather systems were a lot more temperate, evidence indicated cold winters and mild to warm summers, nothing like the blazing heat that beat down on Caprica seventy percent of the year. After a long election Baltar had won and now he was in Galactica's press room crowing in his victory. Karl did not know the man well, having only really met him on the day of the attacks. He had given Baltar his seat, a decision he had regretted a few days later, but now looked upon as the best choice he had ever made. Had he acted differently he would not have found his Sharon and he would not have had his daughter for the precious few hours that she lived.
"Mr President," said one of the reporters over the radio. "Former President Roslin held a policy of keeping the press in the dark about a number of issues, what is your stance going to be?"
"Unlike my predecessor," started Baltar in his usual arrogant way. "I intend to be open with the members of the fleet and that includes full reports on my dealings with Commander Adama and the rest of the military."
A loud noise, along the lines of "shut the frak up" was hurled across the Rec room by a number of pilots who obviously disagreed with Baltar's new policy.
"Frakking Baltar doesn't know what he's talking about," shouted out another pilot who then lit up a stogie.
"Put that frakking stogie out Knuckles," shouted out Kara over her shoulder.
"We can't even smoke anymore Sir?" shouted back the pilot.
"Not if you don't want my foot up your ass," replied Kara and then she continued to stare at her glass.
Kat made a tutting noise from next to Karl, "she thinks she owns the frakking room."
"That's enough Kat."
"Why?" replied Kat looking like she was ready for an argument.
"Sssh Kat, drop it," whispered Hotdog.
"Why?" whispered back Kat, "what's her problem?"
"Didn't you hear about what Private Fox overhead?"
"No, I've been pulling triple CAPs for the past five weeks."
Karl rolled his eyes knowing that it was fruitless to try and stop the gossip, "take it somewhere else Hotdog."
Hotdog ignored him however and leaned in towards Kat, "apparently Starbuck had a run in with the Commander when she was in hack and confessed that he's going to be granddaddy."
"No frakking way!" shouted out Kat and slapped the table with a loud whoop. "I bet Duck twenty cubits that it was him."
Karl waited for the fallout, but it didn't come. Kara merely kicked out the chair next to her, which made Hotdog jump out of his skin, and then rested her feet onto the seat seeming to ignore the gossip. She must be getting used to it he thought, and then thought that it was a very frakked up thing to get used to. Karl blocked out Kat and Hotdog's chatter and continued to listen to Baltar; it was only a small reprieve.
"Mr President," said another reporter. "We understand that the Gemenese community made numerous attempts with former President Roslin to identify a woman in the fleet who is pregnant with twins, claiming that the babies are special and need protection?"
Karl winced, he had heard this rumour. He looked over at Kara who was still focused on the glass and unfazed by what was being said. The rest of the room however, had gone completely silent. They had all heard the rumours, even Kara had joked about it once, but until now no-one had really taken it seriously, mainly because it had never been broadcast to the entire fleet before.
"Ah yes," said Baltar, the arrogant tone resounding throughout the Rec room. "I am very privileged to actually know the impending mother."
This time Kara seemed to react and lifted her feet back to the floor looking decidedly annoyed.
"Yes," continued Baltar in response to another question. "The woman in question is a pilot on board the Galactica, Captain Thrace, and the father is the late Major Adama."
"Motherfrakker!!" shouted out Kara and grabbed her glass of ambrosia, chucking it hard at the wireless, which she of course hit squarely smashing the glass. She then pushed herself out of her chair and stormed out of the room.
The contents of the glass had coated several of the pilots in warm ambrosia, and the wireless might never play again, but they were all frozen to their seats including Karl. He knew that it was useless to go after her, knowing that if she didn't want to be found he would not find her. Karl walked out of the silent room to go and visit Sharon, perhaps she might be able to think of a plan to get his best friend back amongst the pilots.
Caprica
It was 0100 hours when Anders liaised with Showboat as planned. It was now dark but the moon lit up the woman like a beacon. She signalled silently for him to follow her down through the woods where the ship was waiting. Anders acquiesced and followed her, leading a small group of four children and ten adults with him. The children were excited and one started to giggle. Anders stopped and turned to them, holding his finger to his lips to tell them to be quiet. The smallest child laughed again before placing her hand in front of her mouth.
They had been performing the same routine every couple of nights for weeks, bringing down survivors in the dark as Lee created a distraction at their destination. Fortunately at night the ship was not heavily guarded and it was relatively easy to sneak people on board. Lee would then guide the new arrivals to the lower part of the ship's hull, below where the Tylium was refined, and hide them in a locked storage bay. The conditions were not great, with no beds and limited food rations, but it was better than being left on Caprica waiting for the radiation meds to wear off.
Lee was waiting as he always did, sullen and deep in concentration. He signalled across to the approaching Showboat to tell her that the coast was clear. Anders then ran across to the ship with the stowaways in his wake and then quickly ran on board.
"Where's the fourth kid?" whispered Lee angrily.
Anders looked round suddenly realising that the smallest child had gone. "Frak," he whispered. "She must have run off."
"Godsdammit," muttered Lee and ran away from the ship with Anders in tow. "We've got ten minutes before the guards come back so lets' start looking and fast. What's her name?"
"Kia, she's only four."
"Right," was all Lee replied as they ran into the woods.
It was clear to Anders that Lee was angry but they worked together to scour the woods finally finding the child sitting on a log in a clearing. Despite only having minutes to spare, Lee flung his gun and helmet into Ander's arms nearly knocking the wind out of him. Lee then approached the little girl with caution, crouching down in front of her.
"You gave us the slip there," he said with a smile but the girl didn't respond. "How bout I show you around your new home?"
Despite his apparent confidence, Anders guessed that Lee had not interacted with children much and that he was nervous.
The little girl sucked her thumb before saying in a muffled voice, "I don't wanna go on the ship, it's dark and it smells bad."
Lee scrunched up his nose, "yeah I don't like the smell either, but I tell you what, all your friends are going to be there and they'll have to smell it too. I bet that you're braver than anyone on that ship." The girl nodded her head. "And I bet that as soon as you're with your friends you'll forget all about the smell."
Again the girl nodded and held out her arms. Lee smiled and then lifted the girl onto his hip and made his way quickly out of the woods. As he passed Anders he gestured for him to follow, which he did without hesitation.
Fortunately the guards were still absent from their posts. The three dark figures managed to run across the clearing, the moonlight lighting their path. They then took the child to her new home. The ship was dark and pokey and the girl had been right about the smell. But Lee had also been right, as soon as Kia was placed on the floor she was running around with the others as if they had been living there forever. Anders envied the way that children were unaffected by the world around them, completely content with everything.
He had been so busy watching the happy scene he missed that Lee had already disappeared, like he always did. Anders walked off the ship, careful to avoid any of the returned guards. He decided to walk the arduous journey back up to the top of Megara and sure enough the solitary Captain was sitting back on his rock looking out over Eretria.
Anders turned to walk away but stopped himself, "you did a good job there, with the kid."
"Did you know that I puked right over by that tree after racing my brother and Kara from my mother's home to the top of the hill," said Lee gesturing to a large tree to the side of the rock.
Anders didn't know what to say in response. As far as he had been concerned, Lee knew Kara from being stationed together on the Galactica. It was a kick in the gut to find out that he had known her for what sounded like a long time before the attacks.
"Zak had challenged Kara one morning to a race to the top," said Lee with a small laugh. "She had taken up the challenge without hesitation, goading him that she would win with her eyes shut. I had just eaten a full breakfast but Kara dared me to go with them, practically dragged me out of the door." Lee laughed again, obviously enjoying the memory.
"Who won?" asked Anders, only half wanting to know the answer.
"Me of course, I used to run that hill every morning when I was training up for the academy. It was only when I reached the top that my breakfast caught up with me. Kara was in hysterics, like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen."
Anders didn't respond, imagining Kara laughing. He felt the jealously strike through him that this man had known her before the end of the worlds. "How long have you known Kara?" asked Anders, again not sure he wanted to know the answer.
Lee ignored him, smiling at the now destroyed view, but obviously smiling at the memory. He then stood up and started to walk down the hill towards the Tylium ship. Half way down the hill he turned back, "about four years, she was engaged to my brother."
Anders held Lee's gaze for a moment before the Captain turned away, this time without looking back. Engaged to his brother!? Now I'm really confused. He walked down the hill following in his rival's wake, thinking that he had walked blindly into the middle of something and he really didn't know what the frak was going on.
Battlestar Galactica
Karl knew that he was taking a risk but he didn't care as he collared Kara in the head two days after the ambrosia incident and led her down the corridors.
"Where the frak are you taking me Helo?" she asked.
Karl noticed that she seemed better today, more like the old Starbuck, and she had slept through the night without waking everyone else up. "We've got your new room ready."
"Yeah I know, the old man told me yesterday. It's just a larger room with a shower."
"Come on," said Karl taking her arm and leading her round the corner. After the incident two days ago Karl knew that he needed to do something. Kara was getting bigger and bigger by the day and inevitably the day would come when there would be two mini-Starbucks in the fleet. As far as Karl was aware, Kara was spending all her time preparing herself for the birth but she had no idea what to do afterwards. It had been the same for him with Hera.
After the last corridor they came to the family quarters and stopped outside a door.
"Wow, it's a hatch, I've never seen one of those before," joked Kara.
Karl gave her a disapproving look, "close your eyes."
"What? No way Helo, you know I don't like surprises."
Karl laughed, remembering that she didn't even like gifts on her birthday. In fact it was only by accident that he had found out that it was her birthday in the first place. "Fine, have it your way," he said playfully and opened the hatch. The room was large with two doors leading off to a second room and a small bathroom. It looked bland and nothing special but Karl led Kara through to the second room.
Kara smiled immediately when she saw the work that had been done.
They had erected two cots in the room complete with some blankets and each had hanging mobiles of little model vipers and raptors above them. Kara pointed to two matching bouncing chairs set out on the floor, "Where the frak did you get those?"
"Courtesy of the deck crew. The Chief made them out of some material and spare parts." Which was an understatement, they were like a work of art. "Um, we also managed to gather a few items of clothing, some blankets, bottles, they're all in the boxes," said Karl gesturing to the corner.
"This is too much Helo, why?"
Karl shrugged, "perhaps people actually care about you."
Kara didn't respond instead she went over to the boxes and started rummaging, "who got all the pink stuff?"
"I think that was our former President," replied Karl laughing. "She's convinced you're going to have two girls."
Kara laughed back, "even if they are, none of my offspring are going to look pink and fluffy."
"She got the best stuff though. I don't know how she managed to get it all."
Kara stopped rummaging and sat back on the floor resting her hand on her stomach, "do you think we'll ever see him again?"
"Who?" replied Karl slightly confused.
"Lee."
"Do you?"
"Yep, I have no doubt about that," replied Kara, which shocked Karl. He had no idea that she had such faith in seeing Lee again, thinking that she had been mourning his death all this time. "How the frak am I going to tell him about this?"
"I really don't know," said Karl not knowing what else to say.
"Where did you get all this stuff anyway?" asked Kara, turning the conversation back to the boxes.
"The clothes were mainly Roslin and the old man. Hotdog and Kat went and played a long game of triad on Cloud Nine and won this," said Karl and then handed over a package to Kara.
She opened it eagerly finding an old camera inside, "seriously?" she said, obviously shocked by the gift.
"On the one condition that Constanza gets to take a picture of you at this size for posterity."
"Frakker," replied Kara and then laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"Look at me Helo; I could make a small hole in the hull."
Karl then joined in the laughter, but not really knowing what he was laughing about. They then both sat there in Kara's new quarters talking about nothing in particular, just enjoying their solitude.
Battlestar Pegasus
Cain overlooked the dradis screen as the Pegasus jumped away from the last Colony. Her plans had gone perfectly, the cylons were gone and she had managed to obtain numerous resources from the remaining Colonies. There hadn't been much of anything but they had managed to salvage a Tylium ship and some weaponry. They had also managed to gather about three hundred able-bodied men and women to add to her crew and about fifty crewmen to work on the Tylium ship. Cain had been shocked by the number of survivors still alive on the various planets, however they had only found people on Aerlon, Caprica and Libron. The rest were completely devastated. Most of the useful survivors had been found on Caprica, including a Pyramid team. Cain had made them all into marines and deck crew for the time being until she could decide if they had the ability to become pilots.
She looked across the CIC briefly at one of her new marines, who stood alert with his gun at his side. They would never be as good as her own crew, no matter how much she trained them. All of the people she had salvaged along the way would never be military.
Captain Kendra Shaw walked over to Cain and saluted sharply, "the ship is ready to start jumping Sir, just give the order."
"Thank you Captain, back to your post," replied Cain. Shaw obeyed and turned immediately, walking back to her consol as Cain turned her attention back to the dradis monitor.
Later that day Cain made her way down to the hangar deck, where numerous raptors were still being unloaded of the hefty cargo they had gathered from the Colonies. Lee was heading the operation, guiding people to where they should be going as Cain watched from the balcony area. She still had her reservations about Lee Adama but he had performed well on Caprica and she was willing to give him more responsibility, maybe even promote him to Major. She was, however, still uncertain about Lee's mental state, having tried on numerous occasions to contact him when he was on Caprica, knowing that her men were lying about him always being out on his mission, but Cain had decided not to make it an issue.
Another raptor was brought into the hangar, which Cain understood contained some men from the Tylium ship who she thought would make better additions to her own crew. They may not be good soldiers but they could be utilised elsewhere. She watched as one by one the men left the raptor and walking down the wing.
It was as that moment when all hell broke loose.
Cain heard a yell from across the hangar deck, but she could not make out the words. Suddenly Lee had run across to the raptor, his gun raised at one of the new arrivals.
"Hands in the air!" shouted the Captain fiercely. "Now!"
A man wearing a hat slowly raised his hands and looked down from the wing at Lee. "What seems to be the problem here?" he asked in a voice that seemed to irate Lee further.
"Get down on the floor now!"
Cain watched the scene intently from above. The marines on the deck followed Lee's lead and aimed their guns at the unarmed man, but no-one seemed to be taking the next step. Cain decided that she had seen enough and shouted down from the balcony, "What's going on Captain?"
Everyone on the deck apart from Lee, who was focused solely on his target, looked up towards her.
"He's a frakking a toaster Sir."
The man in the hat just stared down at the Captain, not refuting the allegation.
"Are you sure?" asked Cain making her way to the ladder that led down to the deck.
"Pretty frakking positive," spat out Lee, the hatred in his voice evident. "I saw him on the baseship, he tortured me and..."
"Well my brothers didn't do a very good job did they," said the cylon in a sarcastic tone of voice.
Cain had heard enough, and ordered the shocked marines to take the toaster away and put him in a cell next to the other one. She then walked up to Lee, "good job Captain."
"Thank you Sir," said Lee without much conviction behind his words. "What are you going to do with him?"
"It Captain, what am I going to do with it?"
"Sorry Sir, what are you going to do with it," he repeated without concern.
"We will get information out of it, and if it resists then we'll make it talk. After we have all we need it'll be flushed out of the nearest airlock as I doubt any of the crew would want to play with it."
Cain watched for Lee's reaction, wanting him to volunteer to be the interrogator, to get his revenge. But Cain was bitterly disappointed. The Captain only looked broken as he saluted and walked back across the deck to carry on deploying his supplies.
Cain sighed to herself in defeat and walked away from the deck deep in thought.
One day I will get to him and only then will he truly become a member of my crew.
AN: sorry for the delay I had a serious case of writer's block this week, nothing like seeing Jamie Bamber to bring the muse back! The good news is that due to my writer's block I started writing the next chapter instead, so shouldn't be long before an update.