Chapter 51
Zero Hour
It wasn't that he trusted her now - he was aware that there was a good chance that she was still just as dangerous- but Boomer's veiled suggestion that he should pretend that Juliet was his wife had given him a small amount of reassurance that she may, in fact, be on his side after all. Not that he was going to bet his life on that or anything, but at least it gave him the excuse to close his eyes for a while. Whatever they'd given him to knock him out had left him feeling like he'd been hit by a truck.
Rest. That was all he was going to do. Shut his eyes for a few minutes and take a little rest.
He must have fallen asleep in the chair. He knew that because suddenly he was waking up in it and his neck and back hurt. There was also the sound of a blaring alarm and he was jumping six ways to Friday as it pulled him from deep sleep to high alert in two seconds flat.
'Action stations action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill.'
He sat up quickly and looked around, the blood thumping in his head. The view was the same as he'd left it. Hospital beds, white covers, gray metal, cabinets, drapes, the same cloying clinical smell that hung around all these places. The same nurse was there too, looking uncertainly at Doc Chimney Puff, who was standing in the middle of the ward, listening, his head cocked to one side. Not that there was anything else to hear but the blaring of the siren and that irritating voice on a loop.
'Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Repeat. Action stations, action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Repeat…'
'Yeah, I got it,' Sawyer muttered, pushing himself up uncomfortably, trying to shake the insistent noise out of his head.
The voice finally stopped, the silence a relief. The Doc was still standing at his listening post as if more information was going to ooze into him through the silence. 'Probably just some prank.' he declared with an air of finality. 'Some Knuckledragger's idea of a good send off.' The nurse gave an uncertain smile and a slight shake of her head.
'Oh well. You know the drill.' The Doc looked around without any enthusiasm, aiming his comment to the empty space and lone nurse.
'What's going on?' Juliet was sitting up in the bed, frowning, her hair tousled from sleep. Sawyer couldn't help noticing that one of the buttons on her shirt had come undone. He could just see the edges of her bra poking out of the side.
He pulled his eyes away and shrugged. 'Some drill.'
'It said it wasn't a drill.'
'Yeah. Well the Doc thinks it is.'
'Oh, and of course he knows everything. I forgot.'
He gave her a withering look. 'You feelin' better?'
'I slept off the migraine. It's gone now.'
He grunted.
'So what now?' She looked pissed.
'How the hell do I know?' He paused, then sighed. 'Plan's the same. Wait 'till we land and then get out of here.'
She nodded, chewing her bottom lip. 'You any nearer to figuring out who these people are?'
'No. Are you?'
She ignored his question, continuing to chew her lip thoughtfully as she looked about her. There were different sounds now. He could hear them. Busy sounds. He guessed the whole 'actions stations' thing had sent the calm looking crew they'd seen earlier scurrying about like little ants. It was less than a minute before more hospital staff arrived, looking breathless and flustered, bursting into the hospital room and flocking straight to the Doc's side. They huddled around them while he gave them monosyllabic directions, then they scattered and started bustling around the place, giving it an air of brisk efficiency.
'No need to panic, folks,' the Doc sauntered over to their bed and chair combination. 'Probably just some joker having a final laugh. Sorry it woke you up. How are you feeling?'
Juliet nodded. 'Better.'
'Good. Still feeling sick?'
She shook her head.
'Vision OK – nothing blurry?'
'No. I'm fine.'
He nodded thoughtfully, then paused as the tannoy beeped again followed by a different voice, deeper and older sounding. 'This is the Commander. Moments ago this ship received word that a Cylon attack against our home worlds is underway. We do not know the size or the disposition or the strength of the enemy forces. But all indications point to a massive assault against Colonial defenses. Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the fleet aboard the Battlestar Atlantia, following complete destruction of Picon Fleet Headquarters in the first wave of the attacks. How, why, doesn't really matter now. What does matter is that, as of this moment, we are at war. You've trained for this. You're ready for this. Stand to your duties, Trust your fellow shipmates and we'll all get through this. Further updates as we get them. Thank you.'
There was a chilled silence. Sawyer looked up at the Doc. His face was frozen.
Sawyer frowned. As he looked round the hospital ward he could see the shocked faces of the nursing staff. No one moved. All eyes were on the Doc, standing statue still in front of them. Sawyer watched it all curiously. He didn't feel part of this, and the speech that had just come over the tannoy confirmed that these people weren't regular military at all. 'Picon Fleet Headquarters' and 'Colonial defenses' meant nothing to him. And the phrase Home Worlds seemed a little extreme. And in spite of the assertions of the pilots he'd met on the Island, he'd never heard the word 'Cylon' before. The only thing he could think of was that this was some gang war, and yeah, Home Worlds did sound like it was some sort of slang for their turf. It looked increasingly as if he'd stumbled into the middle of a drug cartel.
Great. So now Ben was some drug baron and he'd just found himself in the middle of a war. Not good. He sighed. It all fit now. All that irrational, mindless violence from Ben's side of the Island. He didn't understand why he hadn't seen it before. And drug wars were vicious. Ben was probably using the Island as some sort of base. Which would explain his aggressive behavior towards the crash survivors.
Now that he saw it, it was so obvious. He should have guessed before.
The sheer size of the ship told him that this was a huge operation with a shit load of money behind it. This crowd were playing to high stakes and that alone made him nervous. He still wasn't clear about his part in it all or why he'd been drugged and brought here in the first place, but it was getting more and more likely that he wasn't here because Boomer and Racetrack had suddenly decided to try and rescue him. At least he didn't think so. Or maybe they had tried to save him – it sounded like Ben was as much their enemy, which put him and Boomer firmly on the same side. That was a good thing. Especially as he'd followed Boomer's advice to bring Juliet to this hospital room. It would be good if it wasn't a trap.
And Juliet?
Juliet was silent on the bed. Her eyes were wide and she was watching the hospital staff scurrying around getting stretchers, beds and piles of bandages ready. She wasn't giving the impression that she knew what the hell was going on any more than he did. Sawyer frowned in frustration. It didn't add up. All he knew was that he was probably in the middle of a gang war and the nurses were arranging a lot of bandages into neat piles. He moved uneasily in the chair.
After a couple minutes the frenetic movement died down. Sawyer watched as Ishay nodded to the Doc. He was standing in the middle of the room, nodding approval. 'Well folks, I guess we're ready.' He sauntered over to Juliet and Sawyer. 'You're best off here,' he said. 'If it gets busy I'll send you packing, but for the moment this is probably the safest place on this ship.'
Sawyer swallowed hard. For some inexplicable reason he still felt more detached and curious than afraid, like this wasn't his fight and he wasn't really part of it. Which was dumb, because, of course, he was right in the middle. He didn't say anything though, and the Doc turned away without waiting for a reply. There followed a tense silence, all the hospital staff were on alert, waiting. No one spoke.
A beep from the intercom made him jump. He recognized the voice of the Commander again. It began with no preamble:
'Preliminary reports indicate a thermonuclear device in the 50 megaton range was detonated over Caprica city 30 minutes ago. Nuclear detonations have been reported on the planets Picon, Sagittarius and Gemenon. No reports of casualties but they will be high. Mourn the dead later. Right now the best thing we can do is get this ship into the fight.'
Planets? That was the word that stuck in his mind. After the bit about the size of the nuke. The planets Picon, Sagittarius and Gemenon. Then he remembered Boomer talking about Picon and gravity mixes.
This was all some elaborate hoax.
Crap.
He could almost see Ben sauntering into the room, that familiar little sneering laugh on the bug-eyed bastard's face. This was the sort of thing Ben would do, the same kind of elaborate twisted mind game that he'd played when they'd been captured the last time. And yeah, it had worked. It had gotten him confused and disoriented. Just like it was supposed to.
Sawyer replayed the events of the last few hours; Juliet in the store room. Boomer and Racetrack conveniently bumping into him. Juliet's sterling - and rather disgusting - vomiting performance. Boomer directing them here to sickbay talking about planets and gravity mixes on the way. Tiny little hints that he'd let slide. So this was some huge and improbable charade – a massive piece of theater - though when he thought about it more carefully he realized that there were very few players involved. Just Boomer and Racetrack and the strange chain-smoking doctor and one nurse. Plus a few more extras who'd just turned up in the last few minutes.
He'd never been convinced by the Doctor. Ben was no doubt laughing enough to pee his pants.
And the point was...? He guessed that the point was to show what sort of muscle Ben had at his disposal. From what he'd seen of him, it was clear that Ben wasn't a guy who liked losing. And he liked playing games to show how clever he was. And the dressing up - yeah, he'd covered that one already.
He guessed it wouldn't be long until Ben appeared and he was recaptured and had to put his life on the line again to attempt an escape. Ben was probably pissed that he'd been out maneuvered by Jack enough to let him and Kate go. At least Kate wasn't with him. They had less leverage when she wasn't around. She was a weakness. He cared too much and they knew it.
Of course it was getting quite obvious now that Juliet was either in on it or being hoodwinked by Ben because, like she'd said, she really had fallen out of favor. Or maybe she was still working for him but he liked his actors to have the freshness of not knowing what the hell was going on so he'd kept her purposefully in the dark. Either way the act had gone far enough. Time to call this one out.
He was about to stand up and say something when he felt a tug at his sleeve. The Doc started speaking at the same time. He frowned and waited, curious about what he was going to say. The Doc raised his voice and directed it round the room, 'This is a shock for all of us, but we need to stay calm.' He could feel the tension oozing from everyone in the room. Sawyer rolled his eyes. He should tell them they could drop the act now. Ben had made his point. He was a very clever and a very funny guy. Now why don't they just get right on back to the torture and the killing and get it over with…
'James?' Juliet was still tugging on his shirt, her voice a desperate whisper. 'They're talking about nukes-'
He stared down at her in exasperation. 'Oh c'mon, Blondie, I ain't that dumb.'
She looked genuinely confused. And scared. Kind of white and terrified-looking. Maybe she wasn't in on it. Either that or he should start clapping now, she was that good.
He sighed. 'It ain't real.'
She stared at him, wide-eyed. 'But they're talking about nukes, James.' She hissed back, 'What if the States-'
He shook his head, 'I never even heard of any of those places, have you?'
She frowned.
'My Geography ain't that bad. He's talking about dropping massive nukes on places we've never heard of.'
She looked confused. 'But they're talking about a nuclear bomb-'
He gave an exasperated huff. 'Yeah. Right. And the planet Picon is the target. Or maybe it's just a problem with the gravity mix. Funny. You think I'm that dumb? Why don't you just drop the act now, it's getting old.' He raised his eyebrows at her.
She frowned back at him and turned slowly to take in the rest of the hospital. 'So you think this isn't real?'
He gave a snort. 'That just depends on how high you wanna fly, don't it?' he drawled. 'You wanna trip out on all this stuff, then go right ahead. I'm sure Ben's shittin' himself laughin.'
'Attention! Inbound Dradis contact, rated highly probable enemy fighter. All hands stand by for battle maneuvers.'
'Here they come,' the Doc muttered. 'They didn't give us much time.'
Sawyer sat back in the chair, shaking his head. It was a bit like being on a movie set. The only thing missing was the director and the cameras – though of course they were there, just hidden. He felt like giving Ben a little wave and a smile.
The boop of the PA made him look up, 'Inbound enemy contact bearing 247 range 115 closing.'
The Doctor waved over at Juliet and James,
'I'd hang onto something solid,' he said.
Sawyer was getting off the chair when the impact hit him. He was thrown hard against Juliet's bed, knocking into her so that she tumbled onto the floor yelping in pain. He grunted as he rolled over and landed on the floor next to her. There was the sound of crashing, glass breaking, another huge jolt that slammed both of them into the cabinet behind the bed. He felt the breath leave his body as he fell onto her, and he tried to twist his shoulders so that he didn't crush her under his momentum, wincing as he heard her head connect with bottom of the cabinet. He really wasn't doing this on purpose. Another wrench threw him back off of her, pushing him roughly against the legs of the bed. Then everything went still and eerily quiet. He could just about hear Juliet's staggered breathing.
'They've got nukes.' He heard the Doc's irritated voice punctuating the silence.
