I do not own Battlestar Galactica
Just something I should say in advance, in this story Roslin has not relapsed
Chapter 34 – Strange Bedfellows
In his quarters on the Battlestar Galactica, Galen Tyrol lay on his bed with Cally on one side and Boomer on the other worrying about how they were going to react to his truth nature. He carefully extracted himself from his sleeping wives and got dressed as quietly as he could before carefully opening the hatch door which creaked causing him to anxiously look over to his girls but both kept on sleeping much to his relief. He carefully closed the hatch behind him and made his way quickly down the maze of corridors till he arrived at the empty ammunition storage bunker that he and his comrades had chosen for this meeting. He carefully opened the hatch and peered inside becoming highly nervous, almost expecting a team of marines to be waiting for him but he felt better seeing that the only people waiting for him were Colonel Tigh, Ellen, Sam and Tory all looking as nervous as he felt.
"For frak's sake Galen get your butt in here." Tory said sharply looking past him expecting to see someone coming along any moment even at this late hour of the night. Galen stepped inside and closed then dead bolted it behind him. He looked at his 'brothers' and 'sisters' and the one thing that was universally felt was the feeling of not wanting to be here. They had been forced into this situation by the 'switch' going off and revealing their true natures, but despite that they still had their human minds and memories. Galen himself was angry about that; he remembered sneaking into his father's study to look at his papers or his mother baking in the afternoons. But he gritted his teeth in anger it had been all fake, a lie to cover up his machine origin. His hatred at Cylons was perhaps greater now that he knew that he was one of them, a plaything that they had abandoned. The only exception to this rule was his wife and those in front of him as he knew the former loved him and had no idea of who he was and the other four had been put in the same boat as himself.
"So now that we're all here what's this about Ellen?" Sam asked hoping to get it over with and get out of here as soon as possible.
"We've been avoiding this for weeks and now we have to come to terms with what we learned in that nebula or it is going to tear us apart." Ellen said firmly, she had of course been fully aware of what she was before then and had more time to come to terms with it all and her full memories which the others did not have yet. But they seemed to want to forget about it and pretend it had never happened. For Saul at least this was putting an even greater strain on his shoulders as he confided in her the nightmares that he had been having of suddenly shooting Bill like Boomer had done years ago. She had held him and soothed his fears, reassuring him that he was not like Boomer, a bomb waiting to go off. But she knew that the nightmares still haunted him, he had been her husband for so long she read him too well for him to hide it.
"Go to hell Ellen!" Sam snarled at her for saying such things, the others looked repulsed by the notion but she spoke before any of them had the chance to say anything else.
"I'm not saying we turn traitor! I still want to be human" She snapped at him quieting him quickly. "But we have to accept it and move on. We are and always have been Cylons. What do we need to do with this information? Nothing at all, we don't have to tell anyone if we don't want too and we certainly don't have to stop helping out." She added firmly stunning them all in to submission. Galen looked towards his feet as his mind churned with indecision before speaking.
"I want to tell Boomer and Cally. I'm their husband, they should know." He said unsure of this course of action but felt in his heart that it was the right thing to do. The others looked alarmed before Ellen bit her lip and said.
"If you really feel you have to Galen." She said surprising the others and making them all feel more worried. "Just think about it carefully. You know how people feel towards Cylons, the more people you tell the more likely someone is going to try and take you out."
"I know." Galen said feeling better now that he knew one of them was with him. It was different for them; Sam's wife was a Cylon but she was not here or his daughter, Tory had no real relationships with anyone being such a loner and Saul and Ellen had each other. He on the other hand had two wives and a son that he was keeping this huge secret from.
"Just leave us out of it Chief." Tory said with a tone that was as warm as an iceberg. "You don't have to drop us all in it."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On an Asteroid base far from the Colonial Fleet, the 2nd Generation Cylons were dealing with the arrival of the Thirteens. Bella and Alex were sitting together eating in the mess hall when a group of Model Seventeens led by their prime model Rachel entered. The new arrivals looked over to them and smiled hoping they would join their table but the Seventeens giving them suspicious glances watched over to the canteen, got their food and sat on the table furthest away from Bella and Alex who looked up hurt at their new 'sisters'.
"I'd hoped they'd be more open minded." Bella said to her long-time best friend and partner in crime.
"Well let's hope the boss can get them to come round." Alex said sharply, still not over the fact that their leader and 'mother' had been keeping all this a secret from her and her sisters for so long.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Completely irresponsible!" Arden yelled at Kendra who sat there without expression as he vented his feelings at her. She had expected this kind of reaction, bringing her sisters here so she waited for them to let their feelings out before explaining herself calmly.
"This compromises our security so much that I can't ever begin to analyse it." Ashley said with a worried frown. "How do we know that none of them are going to betray us?"
"Because we can't." Kendra said in her normal tone, not allowing emotion to distort it like those around her, showing why she was the leader by staying calm and in control. "It was a calculated risk but now that the Rebels have split with the Cavil loyalists I had to put my model on one side and I couldn't continue to sneak away as easily if we had gone with the other rebels and my sisters would never have been parted from me or Telia. And finally this was the best way to keep my daughter safe and out of the line of fire." The tension towards her started to drain away as she spoke, her reasons beginning to make things clear to them. "Also now that the rebels have split from Cavil we can attack his forces without restraint. That manoeuvre my model pulled has cut Cavil's fleet down to twelve baseships all of which we have tagged not counting the Colony." She said pulling up the tactical display on the display panel showing the divided forces.
"So now we really step up the pressure." Zoe said with a grin but her eyes held a dangerous glint that promised pain for Cavil where ever possible.
"Finally." Tamara said feeling relieved.
"What about the other Rebels?" Lacy asked wondering why she hadn't brought them too.
"The Twos, Sixes and the Eights are going to join the Human fleet." Kendra told her people which brought a few frowns. "Saving the models that had yet to succumb to Cavil's madness is only one part of the mission." She said now with their complete attention. "Now we have to make peace with the humans."
"That might be impossible." Sullivan said, he had many doubts about whether the humans would be able to distinguish between the good and the bad Cylons or whether they would be able to move past what had happened up to this point even if they could to work with the models that would help them.
"Perhaps." Kendra conceded. "But we have to try and if we do nothing and let the hatred fester without doing anything to stifle it, in future it would be even harder to create a decent dialogue with the humans."
"Well enough of this doom and gloom." Ashley said with a smile planted firmly on her face. "Let's start smashing Cavil's fleet."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On the Battlestar Galactica, Galen was mentally debating as to whether he should tell his loved ones what he was. He was standing outside his own quarters, unsure if he should go in. His nerves felt like a piece of elastic at full stretch over the possibility of losing them. But he resolved, they had a right to know what they had married. Taking a deep breath, he opened the hatch door and stepped inside. He smiled at the sight of his two wives, Cally was feeding Nicky while Boomer was getting dressed into her flight suit. They both looked up when he entered and Cally lifted Nicky up and told him in a happy tone for their son.
"Look Nicky, Daddy's here." Nicky made a cute little laugh which made all the adults in the room smile. Galen watched forward and placed his hand on his son's head while giving Cally a morning kiss before going over to Boomer and giving her one too. Both women returned the kiss warmly but Boomer asked looking concerned.
"Where have you been Galen? We woke up and you'd gone." She asked and he quickly glanced towards Cally and saw that she was worried too. He sighed and decided to tell them before he lost his nerve.
"Girls, there's something I have to tell you." He told them feeling downcast as the worst case scenario for how this turned out ran through his mind. "When we went into the Ionian Nebula, something happened to me."
"What is?" Cally asked holding Nicky close as Boomer came closer both of them looking really worried now. "What happened?"
"I found out I was a Cylon." He said blurting it out before he lost his nerve.
The two women he was talking too just stared for a moment before Boomer frowned and told him.
"No you're not. I know the faces of the seven models and believe me you are not one of them." She told him worried that maybe he was suffering from delusions of some kind.
"I know that, but I just heard this noise and when it stopped, I just knew that I was a Cylon. It's instinctive. I don't have any new memories to go with it but I just know that I' am a Cylon." He told them. The knowledge of what he was stung deep but he knew that it was true in his heart.
"Galen did they do anything to you on New Caprica?" Cally asked thinking that this was some kind of brainwashing left over from the occupation that had just been triggered. She didn't remember him going missing but then again if they had got hold of him for a while they could have messed with his head.
"No Cally. I don't know how to explain it but when we entered that nebula I just knew that I was a Cylon. At the core of my being I felt it. I just wanted the two of you to know, if you want to stay with me?" He asked hoping to the gods that they would not leave him.
The two of them looked at him, even Nicky was silent as he picked up on the tension in his mother. Both women looked at him with unreadable expressions as they processed what he was staying. Even though the two of them doubted what he was saying, they knew from the certainty in his expression that he believed it and they were unsure of what to do. So Cally decided to ask him.
"So what are you going to do?" She asked carefully waiting to see what he said next, determining the course of action that she and Boomer would take.
"Nothing." He told them who had been concerned over what he might say. "I will fight this fight and keep this ship going for as long as I possibly can, to protect the people I love." He told them with conviction and stared at them intently. The women in the room smiled as they saw the man they both loved appear out of the nervous wreck he had been before.
"Then so be it and this does not have to go beyond the three of us." Boomer said with a relieved look on her face.
"Nothing has changed." Cally said with certainty, she was in the relationship with one Cylon sharing the same man already, so what did it matter if Galen thought he was a Cylon too. Whether he was or he wasn't their relationship didn't change he was still the man she had married and was the father of their son. She was glad now that she had refused Hotdog's 'offer' when Galen had been busy and not able to spend time with her. He had been a busy man on New Caprica.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On the CIC of the same ship things were quiet. Admiral Adama stood on the command centre of his ship with Colonel Tigh at his side as always, Lieutenant Gaeta at tactical, Dee at Communications and Captain Agathon the ship's second officer standing with him. This was only a small part of his team but the fact that he had such talented people had always been a source of pride for him and the salvation for the fleet all these years.
"All clear sir, looks like the Toasters decided to stay in tonight." Helo said to his commanding officer.
"Looks that way." Adama agreed feeling tired as his age and insane work schedule caught up with him. "I think I'll turn in for the night, you too Colonel." He said looking at Tigh who had been on duty longer than he had over the last week, acting like a man possessed over his duty, reinforcing the protocols to the letter. Bill had had to take him aside to get him to calm down a bit but he had refused to lower his work hours.
"Alright sir." The Colonel said reluctantly, knowing that if he stayed on duty any longer Ellen would come looking for him. Just as he and the Admiral were about to step off the CIC, the dradis alarm sounded. Both men whipped around as the well trained and experienced crew went to battle stations.
"Two Cylon Baseships incoming, sir they're not launching Raiders and their weapons aren't hot." Gaeta reported to his commanding officer, adding the second part with confusion.
"What are they up to this time?" Tigh asked without expecting an answer.
"Something is wrong with this picture." Adama said and Helo commented.
"Yeah they're not shooting at us." Helo said, everyone in the CIC all stood waiting with baited breath and the only sound was the action stations alarm till Dee told them.
"Pegasus and Resolution are moving into engage." Dee said then she got a signal on her channel. "Sir the lead baseship is signalling they are here to negotiate." She told her commanding officers astounded at the message.
"It's a trick." Tigh said with his usual dismissive attitude but Adama felt differently.
"What do they want to negotiate about?" He asked Dee who sent his words to the baseship, the reply was as quick as its contents were surprising.
"They say they need our help." Dee told them looking mystified as did everyone. Adama looked intently at the dradis display as he thought about what was being said. The two baseships just sat there with no raiders deployed or weapons hot while the three battlestars of the fleet stood ready to blast them to pieces. Feeling there was more to this story that they had to learn, he turned back to Dee and told her.
"I will meet with their representative on Pegasus in one hour. Just one representative and no centurions." He said causing his officers to look at him like he had lost his mind. Well he thought to himself, I've thrown the gauntlet, let's see if the Cylons pick it up.
Dee swallowed before sending his instructions to the baseship. A few moments past with the atmosphere growing increasingly intense before a response came.
"Sir." Dee said after she had received it and said in disbelief. "They agree."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On the flight deck of the Battlestar Pegasus an hour later, Admiral Adama stood with his son Commander Lee Adama on one side and Laura Roslin, the President of the Colonies on the other. All three were as tense as their marine guards who watched with increasing concern as the heavy raider carrying the Cylon representative was lowered on to the deck. When the rear hatch opened, their hands gripped their weapons tightly enough for them to turn white and their arms loosen ready to swing them up at a moment's notice. When the heavy hatch door had fully opened, a Number Six Cylon came walking out looking just as nervous at the humans around her. She wore a black tank top with matching slacks above black heeled sandals. Her hair was a darker blonde than was usual in the other sixes they had seen and as promised she was unarmed and without Centurions. Seeing the Admiral she walked over to him slowly, very aware of the marines around her given her new mortality.
"Admiral Adama." She said looking him straight in the eye, not flinching as he intensified his own gaze before turning her face slightly. "President Roslin." She added earning a slow and uncertain nod from the President.
"Do you have a name?" Lee asked hoping she did because it would certainly make telling her apart from her sisters easier.
"Natalie Faust." She told him before asking. "So should we get down to business?" She asked, eager to get this meeting over with so she could retreat to the more familiar setting of the baseship.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"After the near battle in the Ionian Nebula a dispute started between one faction made up of Sixes, Twos, Eights and Thirteens against the other including Ones, Fours and Fives. After the raiders retreated Cavil decided that they had to be lobotomised to ensure they obeyed orders in the future, but we believed that it was an affront to our people. When we prevented him from carrying it out, he tried to destroy us in an ambush but thankfully we were forewarned and managed to escape." Natalie told the fleet leaders in the wardroom on Pegasus.
"We, the Rebel Models have come to belief that we should seek out the Final Five. The Original Organic models that made the rest of us and that they will lead us to Earth. Our legends tell us that they were from that world so they could lead us to a safe place." She continued after a minute. Adama looked thoughtful and asked.
"What about the Threes? Where do they stand on this?"
"After the events with the Temple of the Five the Threes were all boxed as one of them had seen the faces of the Five in the Temple. But as time has gone on we have come to the conclusion that it was the right thing to seek them out. Now we need the information in D'Anna's head but she remains boxed on the Hub, the source of the resurrection network and this is where we need your help." Natalie said coming to the point.
"Our help?" Laura asked sceptically. Natalie gritted her teeth at being so dependent on getting help from the humans but as Kendra had told her, it was necessary. They would not survive long on their own once Cavil found out they were alive, food and weapons would be nearly impossible to replace without help which only the humans could provide.
"Even if we do manage to get D'Anna, the Five are likely to be in your fleet." She revealed putting looks of shock on their faces which gave her the slightest sense of satisfaction. "The baseships don't have the ability to mine for fuel, to make food or weapons. We in turn can provide you the opportunity to make Cavil and his people the faction that intends you harm mortal, by destroying the Hub."
"Won't that make you mortal as well?" Laura asked wondering why they would do such a thing.
"We already are." She answered. "Cavil cut us off from the network and as we are rebels against his cause there is no going back for us. There is an extra added bonus for you though." She said hoping that this next part would be the sweetener that would let her make the deal. "If you help us destroy the Hub and recover D'Anna, we will put the two baseships, the raiders and the centurions we have towards the defence of this fleet in exchange for safe haven and supplies of course."
The humans in the room were stunned at the offer. A baseship was a powerful vessel and in exchange for supplies and safe haven, the Rebel Cylons were willing to put two of them towards the protection of this fleet. The more practical sides of the humans in the room all were willing to accept the deal, it was godsend given the problems they had with lack of warships and pilots. The raiders were excellent fighters and the centurions' efficient soldiers.
On the other hand the emotional parts of them were screaming to dismiss it. These were the same people that had been trying to kill them for nearly four years now. The people in the fleet would hate this move but the chance to strike a major blow against their enemies even if they had to work with the rebels was an opportunity they could not afford to miss. Admiral Adama decided to speak next.
"If we assist you in this attack, we expect your full co-operation and no secrets being held back. After we'll work on a formal agreement." He said with an edge as hard as stone in his voice.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Unaware of what their fellow rebels were planning, at the hidden base of the 2nd Generation Cylons Kendra was watching a sleeping Telia while Alex and Bella were telling her about the issues they were having with the other residents of the station.
"They just keep holding us at arm's length boss." Alex told her with frustration stamped on her face. "I just don't know how to connect with them."
"We just have to give them time." Kendra said with an exhausted sigh, she had been in conference with the leader units of each model trying to ease the situation but the 2nd Generation was being remarkably stubborn in its attitude towards the newcomers.
"Well I just hope we have it." Bella said with an annoyed tone.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After Racetrack and Skulls had confirmed the Hub's existence and confirmed its co-ordinates, Adama, Lee, Saul, Laura and Helo all came together in the planning room aboard the Galactica to discuss tactics.
"It's been agreed that we provide some Vipers to assist in the attack on the Hub." Adama told them all. "So to prevent them being detected, they'll be towed into position by some heavy raiders powered down. When the time is right, they detach and strike the Hub's FTL drive so that it cannot escape." He said moving some models on the tactical map. "We will use one of the Rebel baseships to get close before deploying the small ships, the heavy raiders then launch nukes into the accompanying enemy baseships." He said moving the models again. "While a group lands on the Hub to recover D'Anna and then return to the baseship before it nukes the Hub." He said telling them the plan that he had been presented with by Natalie.
"What if we just nuke the thing without recovering that blonde toaster?" Tigh suggested, while on the surface he was just acting on hatred of the Cylons but in reality he was incredibly worried that D'Anna would expose him and the other members of the Five.
"If the Five prove uncooperative then maybe we should hold them as insurance." Laura suggested. Lee nodded.
"We need some leverage at the very least." He agreed and Tigh looked very uncomfortable which was missed by the rest of the people in the room. Reluctant to be going back on his word but knowing that they were right, Adama nodded.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After while Roslin had to contend with the difficult Quorum, the Five that everyone was so interested in met in the same bunker as the night before.
"Oh hell!" Tory said scared as she tore at her hair. "D'Anna will expose us! We could be air locked!" She nearly screamed but managed to keep her voice down.
"Not on Bill's watch." Saul said with absolute certainty. He knew his best friend well enough to know that he would not kill them if they cooperated. Going against his word was something that Bill Adama hated more than anything.
"Yeah what about Roslin?" Sam said as he stood brooding the corner.
"She will want us as insurance against the Rebels." Ellen pointed out siding with her husband. "She'll fight to keep us alive, we're no use to her dead."
"I don't feel comfortable as insurance." Galen said with a sense of dread. While he agreed with Saul and Ellen he was still weary of other members of the leadership in this fleet.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Led by Racetrack, the Colonial pilots despite their misgivings of working with the Cylons moved their vipers to the baseship chosen for the attack. They attached the cables to the heavy raiders and got in their cockpits waiting for the off. As the attack began they became more nervous as the real fear of the Cylons betraying them grew. But to their great surprise the Cylons were on the level and stayed true to their word. The heavy raiders detached themselves from the vipers who disabled the FTL drive on the Hub before the heavy raiders used nukes to destroy the two accompanying baseships while a company of marines, Centurions painted with a red strip to distinguish them from their evil brothers and a company of humans and organic Cylons boarded the Hub.
In one of the tanks near the centre of the Hub, a Cavil crouched down next to the inert body of D'Anna who suddenly woke up and gasped for breath.
"Now." Cavil said as her eyes managed to focus on him as she tensed in the tank wondering how long she had been boxed. "You can end this." He said as the Hub shook under the attack. "Talk to them, we can work it out." But before he could say any more, D'Anna reached up and snapped his neck and climbed quickly out of the tub and over his body before glancing down in disgust.
"If you think it's that easy, you deserve to die." She said, rushing over to the console, beyond which she could see about thirty of her sisters still boxed. She quickly started the unboxing program and breathed a sigh of relief as they started to come back to life. As they gasped for air after their bodies had been inert so long she began looking for other boxed Cylons when the door suddenly opened and a squad of human marines came rushing in. D'Anna looked on at them with her sisters, most of whom had now got out of their tubs and the human males struggled not to stare at the nude Threes. The leaders of the humans Captain Helo Agathon stepped forward looking her squarely in the eyes.
"D'Anna, we're here to get you come on." He said simply nodding towards the door, she looked at him with disbelief till an Eight came through the door and to D'Anna's surprise it was not one of the small number of defectors but Amber, the Eight that represented her model line on the main council.
"D'Anna." She said with a mix of relief and urgency. "To cut a long story short; civil war broke out, Cavil tried to kill us all and we allied with the humans to get you out so you could reveal the Five. Now we need to go." She said urgently but D'Anna shook her head, her hair still welded together by the gel from the tub.
"We need to get as many of the boxed Cylons as we can. Can't you hold the Hub?" She asked turning to Helo who told her with a desperate shake of his head.
"There are too many enemy centurions, we are holding them off for now but that is not going to last." He said with mounting nerves as he realised their situation was growing untenable every moment they stayed here.
"Not without getting some of our brethren, unless you want me to keep what I know to myself." D'Anna said threateningly causing Helo and Amber to look at each other with expressions of worry before Amber compromised.
"On the way to the landing bay, we'll free the Rebel units we come across okay?" She asked desperate for D'Anna to agree. With a pout, the blonde nodded her head and Helo said urgently.
"Then let's get going."
After that it was a dash to the landing bay, being forced to stop by D'Anna every time they came across a storage area were boxed Cylons were being held. By the time they reached the landing bay, the human marines were dwarfed by the naked one hundred and fifty reborn Cylons they had been forced to rescue. Many of them had been boxed for post-traumatic stress disorder sustained in combat since the fall of the Colonies and a few had been dissenters over the war that had been boxed before Caprica and Boomer had started the peace movement. They were a mix of Twos, Threes, Sixes and Eights. Seeing a crowd of wet and naked copies of his wife was disturbing to Helo and as he saw the marines' eyes wandering over their bodies he felt the urge to smack over the back of the head. Seeing they needed more space to move them all, Helo looked over and saw a Heavy Centurion Transport ship like he and the others had used to escape Caprica years ago. Doing a quick headcount he saw there was enough room on the ship for everyone here so he made his decision.
"Everyone on the transport." He shouted to both humans and Cylons pointing to the transport.
They all scrambled to get on the transport and Amber dove for the cockpit with a two named Chris who had joined them on the rescue mission. The transport took off and speeded its way back to the Rebel baseship just as it fired nukes into the Hub, destroying the centre of the resurrection network in an enormous thermonuclear fireball. They had no time to savour the moment as four Baseships belonging to the Cavil loyalists arrived at the scene and the moment they were secure in the landing bay of the rebel ship, it jumped.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"So they actually did it." Rachel remarked in an emergency meeting of the 2nd Generation after an urgent message was sent by Ellen telling them of the attack on the Hub and the fact that the Five were about to be exposed. "They destroyed the Hub."
"It shows commitment." Lacy commented from her seat, remarking at the Rebels for having the guts to destroy the only ship that could ensure their immortality.
"And that they are short-sighted." Arden said still angry from Kendra bringing her sisters here and this was stoking his temper even more. "This means we can't resurrect now either."
"Maybe." Kendra said now feeling strange now that she had just one life again, the safety blanket of the resurrection network had been something she had tried to avoid but nonetheless it was always there. It was different for the others though, she had been human for a time and it was not so difficult for her to adapt. But the others had never been in her position before, except for Lacy and maybe Zoe and Tamara. "But this means Cavil is vulnerable, if he dies now he stays dead."
"That is something I like to hear." Ashley said with a cheer. "So let's go kill him."
"Easy Ashley." Zoe said with a smile. "Easy."
Kendra meanwhile was thinking about what she was going to do with her prisoner, now that killing her would not result in sending Gina back to Kendra's enemies.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
In a cell on the First Hybrid's Baseship that was once used to house prisoners being used for experiments, Gina sat in the dark and smelly room. The walls were wet with moisture in the air and the room was uncomfortably hot, causing the usually pristine Gina to sweat. She had woken up in this horrible room after being knocked out on the Baseship and apart from food and a flask of tasteless water being shoved through a slot in the door, there had been no contact with anyone else. From the condition of the walls around her she knew that she was on the First Hybrid's ship. Originally like the sisters that she now looked down on, she had been in awe of the old organic and machine man and listened to his insights with rapt attention. But after a while with Cavil she had seen the thing for what it really was; an obsolete and useless pile of scrap.
But she was broken from her wish to dismantle the rusty old wreck by the door opening. She looked up to see Kendra Shaw come in with a pistol in hand. The two women's eyes met and neither one made a physical move towards the other. Gina mindful of the pistol in Kendra's hand asked.
"So what is it you want? I presume that you kidnapped me for a reason." She said in as confident a tone as she could manage but she was really out of her comfort zone.
"You changed the direction of my life." Kendra told her without expression or emotion in her voice. "Maybe I could have found my way to this point anyway or maybe I would have died before even reaching here, I don't know. As it is the Cylons as a race are broken, maybe that too would have happened without either of us but as it stands, the Collective is no more."
"Maybe it should be this way?" Gina suggested now feeling bolder. "The weak are now separate from the strong where they will be destroyed." She said feeling even more so like she had made the right choice by siding with Cavil.
"Yes maybe. Now Cavil is alone and we can strike him without fear of harming the models we have allied with." Kendra replied using her own words against her. "But now that the Hub has been destroyed if we kill him it is forever and final."
"And me." Gina said wanting to doubt that she was telling her the truth but knew in her heart that it was true.
"Yes." Kendra said rising the gun to point it between Gina's eyes. "This seems familiar." She added remembering the same situation years ago on Caprica.
"Yes it does." Gina said with resignation at her fate.
Before Kendra pulled the trigger.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The rebel baseship command deck was silent as Natalie, Amber and Leoben all stood with their trusted lieutenants operating the ship as it prepared to make the next jump back to the fleet. They were disturbed from this task when D'Anna now washed clean of the gel-like substance that had coated her body on the Hub and dressed in the white suit her model was known for. She was wearing her most self-assured smile as she walked with a confident stride. Natalie looked up as did the rest and she gave her a smile.
"D'Anna welcome back." Leoben told her.
"Thank you after having a hand in shutting me down, it must relieve you that I stand here now." D'Anna said with a smug look, her barb causing the others to whine slightly.
"But I promise not to hold a grudge, if you as I say make some concessions." D'Anna told them. The three leaders all nearly gave exasperated sighs, they should have seen this coming. Barely out an hour and D'Anna was already reaching to take power, holding her imprisonment against them and they suspected planning to use her knowledge of the Final Five to gain more influence. Sick of this attitude even before the Collective fractured, Natalie left her station and walked right over to D'Anna and stood face to face with her and stared her most intense and intimidating stare before telling her in a deadly cold voice.
"You were too fickle to ever choose a side before the Collective split in two, we risked our lives to save you from remaining boxed forever and we had to go to our former enemies to get help to do it. If you think that you can use your knowledge to usurp control of our forces you are fooling yourself. I won't let you risk our survival just because you lust for power, even if it means giving up on the Final Five I won't let you do it."
Stunned by the declaration, D'Anna's eyes flickered over to the other Cylons on the deck and saw all of them giving her the same intense stare. Realising that she was going to have to cooperate if she wanted to have any kind of influence over the situation, D'Anna nodded slowly.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
At the door to the Admiral's quarters, Colonel Saul Tigh hesitated. He knew what he had to do but he was scared of facing his best friend with the information he was about to impart. But before he could let his fear convince him to pull away and he knocked on the hatch door.
"Enter." He heard Bill say and with a steadying breath, he pulled the hatch open and walked into the room.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you thought by leaving a review.