VII

Admiral Adama's Quarters

"Laura, what if she's telling the truth? What if she's not a Cylon? She can't explain what happened, and neither can we. Even after threatening to shoot you, she's sticking to her story. Even after you shot her."

Roslin snorted. "You can't be serious, Bill. We could put her on trial instead."

"For what?" Bill didn't like the way this was going. "Maybe she walked in there with a gun, but again, you shot her. What if she was just looking for a way to get through to you?"

"You're serious, aren't you?"

Bill had retrieved drinks for both of them, and pounded his back. "If your so sure she's a Cylon, then why didn't you kill her?"

"Nerves frak with your aim, Admiral. Especially if you're not used to shooting people."

"So does doubt, Laura." He leaned in looking at her seriously. "Do you want to look back, in a year or two, raising Kacey and your unborn child, and realize that you might have sent your wife-the mother of one of your children, out an airlock?"

"She's the one who let me take the gun. I took the shot, I'd do it again", Laura said in a tone that was alien to Bill Adama.

"I think convincing you meant more to her than her own life, Laura. Did you hear the grief in her voice when they took her away?"

"Here's what's going on, Admiral: you want to believe Kara. Hell, so do I, Bill. You would rather risk your own demise than to lose her again. That's what all this is about."

"What it's about, Madam President", Bill said with equal coldness, "is the fact that you may have been given the miracle of second chance with your wife, and you're flushing it down the shitter." He stood up, looking at the President with a clear sense of annoyance. "Maybe you should think of that? But stay out of my frakin' head, OK?"

He strolled out of his own quarters, leaving Laura Roslin with a gaping mouth.

The debate would soon be taken out of both their hands.

Karl Agathon walked into the very large room that was adorned with different pictures of Gaius Baltar. He wanted to smirk, but felt that this wasn't the time nor place to do so. He was here on very serious business, and felt that time was of the essence. He wasn't going to waste any time learning about the cult of Gaius Baltar.

He had put on civvies for this visit, knowing that the military was less-than-welcome in this place. A few people still glanced at him, knowing full-well who he was, but the fact he was not in uniform put them more at ease. He found Baltar surrounded by about half a dozen people-all but one a woman, he noted.

Baltar looked up at him. "Lieutenant Agathon, I didn't know you were among the...faithful", he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Karl shook his head. "I'm not, Doc, but I'm here on some serious business."

"And what kind of business is that?" One of Baltar's female followers stood directly between Gaius and Helo.

"Marla", Gaius said, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder, "it's OK. Mr. Agathon is truly one of the good guys, I assure you." She still wasn't convinced, but Gaius gently slid by her. "What kind of business, Helo?"

Helo nodded to talk to him to one side, Gaius nodding his head at his followers that he would be right back. When they had some semblance of privacy, Karl spoke up. "Last night, I was talking to Doc Cottle. I'm sure you've heard about the return of Starbuck?"

"Yes, despite the palpable dislike for the military, information does get back here rather quickly", Gaius said with a shrug. "I hear Madam President shot her wife?"

Helo gave Baltar a warning stare, but he ignored the barb. "Yes, and Kara's doing better." He explained to Gaius of how Laura believed Kara was a Cylon, and that Kara was still denying it.

"Yes, well", Gaius said matter-of-factly, "her return to The Fleet is rather suspicious, wouldn't you think?"

"Be that as it may, Gaius", Helo said, starting to get fed up with the man, "I'm going to try and convince the President that she's wrong, and I and Cottle will need your help."

"My help", he said with obvious surprise. "How?"

"I quietly met with Caprica last night in the Brig", Karl explained. "She has agreed to let Cottle draw a blood sample from her, and the Doc has already drawn one from Kara. Also, Athena has agreed to have a sample drawn from her as well."

"You do know, my dear Helo", Baltar interrupted, "that my...Cylon test isn't exactly accurate?"

"That's not why I'm asking, Doc." He paused for a moment. "Cottle wants to see if you can find any minute differences in Kara's blood, and that of Caprica and Athena, to see if there's any deep-down similarities between Caprica's and Athena's, that doesn't show up in Kara's?"

As brilliant as Gaius' mind was, he clearly had never thought about something like that. His "Cylon Detector" was a bunch of garbage, and he knew it, yet he hadn't delved deeply into if there were any real differences in Cylon and Human blood.

"I could ask why the hell I'd do anything to help Laura Roslin see any logic, or even save her marriage, Lieutenant." He would never get over his hatred of that woman, or so he thought at that moment.

"Let me ask you something, Doc", Karl said reasonably. "It's obvious you care about Caprica, am I right?"

"Well, yes, of course", the Doctor said uncomfortably, "but..."

"And it's possible that, by doing this, perhaps Caprica earns a little trust from the President and the Admiral by doing this? Would that be worth it for you?"

To his chagrin, Gaius knew Karl had him there. It was true. If he could get Caprica out of the Brig, he'd be very thankful, and maybe, just maybe, his own life would be a little easier as well.

"Very well, Lieutenant. I understand why you're asking me, as Cottle doesn't know how to use the advanced equipment I have in the lab I used to run. And I do believe that if there is a marked difference in Human and Cylon blood, I can find it."

"Thank you, Doc", Helo said with a genuine smile. "I'll be back, probably tomorrow, or maybe the next day. The samples will be ready for you by then."

"Does the President or the Admiral know about this?"

"You think I'd be out here in civvies, talking to you in hushed tones if they did?"

Gaius had to admit the man had a point.

That afternoon, the four who had discovered they were Cylons met in an abandoned area in the ship's bowels, trying to figure out the events of the last few days. Most especially the possibility that Kara was a Cylon.

"Wouldn't she hear the music, just like we did?" Layne Ishay thought that was a good point.

"Maybe", Galen countered. "We've traveled quite a way since then. I have to believe the Ionian Nebula was a trigger for that."

"That may be", Tigh added, "but she keeps telling us the further we get away from the Nebula, the less she can sense what she felt when we were there? She keeps telling us she knew the way, but since then, she's almost lost what she says she felt."

"Wouldn't we, for lack of a better world, feel it if she were a Cylon? Colonel, you've been near her more than any of us since she returned. Did you get any kind of vibe from her?"

"Not a frakin' thing, Tory. I thought about that, but the only 'vibe' I got is that she'd gone insane, but to answer you, no, I didn't sense anything."

"If I had to guess, I don't think she is a Cylon", Tyrol said, still not certain he was right. "I would just think she'd have tried to seek us out. But if she wasn't resurrected, what the hell happened to her?"

"I don't think anyone knows", Tigh said with no more certainty than the Chief. "I honestly don't think she knows. But she's one confused lady right now."

"Wouldn't you be if your wife wanted to toss you out an airlock, Chief?"

There was no malice in what Ishay had stated, but it was a legit question.

"If she finds out I'm a Cylon, she still might", he said, trying to lighten the mood and failing. "But yeah, if Kara is still Kara, that would frak me up something fierce."

"I've never gotten along particularly well with Kara", Tory added, "even after she and Laura got married, but gods, I can't believe Roslin is being so hardline about this. She loves Kara so damn much."

"Yeah, but she doesn't think this is Kara", Tigh countered. "I didn't think she was, either, but now, I'm not so sure. We've seen some unreal things since we fled The Colonies. Hell, we didn't even know there were Cylons like...hell, like us", he finished the thought ironically. "We thought they were all simply like Centurions."

"You've got a point, Commander", Tigh said thoughtfully. "Is there anything we can do about it?"

"Don't even think of it, Chief", Tigh responded in his full command voice. "We get involved, it could mean all of us out an airlock. We have to let this play out."

Ishay looked hard at all of them. "Even if it means the President chucks her wife out an airlock, and we follow her out afterwards?"

With that troubling thought, they went their own way.

Two Days Later

Helo again was in the compound that Gaius was living in, again in civilian attire. Doc Cottle had drawn blood from Kara when she was asleep, and had drawn samples from Caprica and Athena, who both were enthusiastic about finding out if Kara was one of them, or if she Human. Athena Agathon had lost Kara's friendship when Boomer had shot the Old Man, and Athena had understood that, but when Kara returned from New Caprica, happier than she could remember seeing the blonde, and with a daughter to boot, she had made a legitimate attempt for them to reconcile. It had gone quite a ways until that day Kara's ship exploded. She simply didn't want to see the President, whom she had sworn, indirectly, an oath to, to make a mistake that couldn't be rectified.

Gaius made his way over to Helo. "I assume the samples have been prepared, Lieutenant Agathon?"

"They have, Doc", Helo confirmed. "Fortunately, I know where the keys to just about every door on this old bucket is kept, and we can get in without any problem. Cottle will meet us three in about fifteen minutes, so we gotta go."

They were at the door on time, and Cottle was there. Helo made sure the coast was clear before then entered. It was one of the few real doors on the ship-not those submarine-like contraptions that could be dead-bolted with a few revolutions of a wheel. Once inside, Helo took a towel that was in the facility and placed it over the window, another covering the crack in the floor, so it still looked dark. The lab wasn't in a high-traffic area, but Karl didn't want to take any chances.

Gaius cleaned the equipment that he hadn't used in over two years, while Cottle prepared slides for each sample, being careful to mark them correctly, one saying "Kara", one saying "Caprica", and one saying "Athena."

He and Cottle got to work. This equipment was beyond Cottle's ability to operate, but once Gaius got some results, he was confident that the older man would be able to interpret them easily enough.

Helo had no idea what they were doing, but the two doctors were thorough and took their time. About forty-five minutes after starting, Gaius let out a low whistle.

"You got something there, Baltar?" Cottle had been setting other possible attempts, but the whistle made him move toward the scientist.

"Yes, I believe I do, Doctor Cottle", he said with a slightly awed voice. He had three high-powered microscopes set up, each with a hand-written label of whose sample was whose. "Take a look at Kara's sample first, Sherman, then those of Athena and Caprica, and tell me what you notice?"

Cottle looked at the samples in that order, his eyebrows raising, then looked at the samples again, finally turning to Baltar. "How is that possible?"

Baltar smiled. "That, I could not tell you, Doctor, but did you see what I saw?"

"The Cylon blood cells seem to have more protein attached to them than the Human blood cells. Wouldn't that make the blood a little thinner?"

Gaius nodded. "Perhaps it's because a Cylon's body is more...disposable, than their human counterparts? Perhaps their evolution has made it so clotting isn't as important as bleeding out, and getting into a new body? Conjecture, I grant you, but on a cursory look, that might make sense."

"You might be on to something, Professor", Cottle said, impressed by the work, and the magnification of Baltar's equipment. "I also noticed that the Cylon blood seems to be slightly darker than the human blood-hard to tell with the naked eye, but at least my old orbs are telling me that."

"I thought so, too."

Helo had been listening. He was no scientist, but he understood the portent of what was being said. "So there is a distinct difference between Kara's sample and the other two?"

"There certainly is", Baltar said, for once with a genuine smile. "Kara Thrace-Roslin is no Cylon, and despite my difference with her spouse, we need to let the President know that Kara is her spouse."

Cottle intervened. "Let's look over these one more time-take one more sample of each, just to make sure. If they turn out the same, I will call a meeting with the Vice-President, and Admiral Adama."

"How about including Kara and the President?"

Gaius shook his head, as did Cottle. "Let's wait to present this to the others", Cottle said, beating Gaius to the punch.

A half hour later, they had two different, clean samples from all three subjects, Cottle hurrying out of the room, and insisting on an immediate meeting with Lee, and Bill Adama. They didn't invite Laura Roslin, as they wanted to show the information to the two men first.

"You're certain about this?" Vice-President Lee Adama looked at the information hard, giving looks just as hard to Sherman Cottle and Gaius Baltar-especially the latter.

"We ran the test and results three different time, Mr. Vice-President", Baltar said, using that title to Lee Adama, sticking in his craw to some degree. Three different samples, the same results. There is definitely a difference between the blood."

"Then how do you explain Hera?" That part Bill Adama had trouble understanding. "If the blood is different, how can she survive?"

Baltar shook his head. "I want to have a closer look at Hera's blood, but obviously, on some level, the blood is not incompatible. Why we never thought of looking deeper at this, I'll be damned. I should have thought of this a long time ago."

"None of us thought of it, Doctor", Lee said evenly, knowing that statement was the truth. "But this proves-to both of you-that there's no doubt that Kara is...Human?"

"Kara's blood is one-hundred percent Human, Lee", Cottle informed him. "I drew a little of my own as a control sample and to compare it to Kara's. We have different blood types, but our blood, at a cellular level, is exactly the same."

"Damn", Bill Adama groused. Laura had been right when she observed that he wanted desperately to believe Kara, yet her whole attitude, of completely denying the possibility had rankled him to no end. "And you want us to give the news to both of them, correct?"

Baltar actually gave a small smirk. "I don't think anything coming from me will be believed by the President", Gaius said, not being able to keep the disdain out of his voice. "I think Doctor Cottle should be the one, along with you and the Vice-President to deliver this news."

"And that begs the question", Lee noted, "what do we do with Kara's belief that we're going the wrong way?"

"Lee and I will discuss that with both of them." He looked up at the two doctors. "Thank you, Gentlemen. Dr. Baltar, dismissed. Sherman, can you wait outside for a few minutes?"

When they had departed the room and closed the door, the two Adama's looked at each other. "Gods, dad", Lee began, "what scares me is, I don't know how the President will react. I don't know if she'll be happy, relieved, or pissed that she was wrong? This is her wife we're talking about."

"That's why we let Cottle show them the results. He can explain it in both technical and layman's terms."

"Do we mention that Gaius had a part in this? I'm afraid Laura will reject the results out-of-hand if we tell her."

"Cottle will set her straight. He isn't scared of either Laura or I, and he is direct as hell when he needs to be. I think we need to be as transparent as possible with this."

Lee contemplated this for a few moments. Right now, he was the top government official, and it was his responsibility to see this through. It wasn't just a family matter between Laura and Kara Roslin, but damned important to The Fleet.

Bill Adama sensed what his son was thinking. "Don't even go there, Lee", he said with a grin.

"Go where?"

"You want to take this upon yourself, and go by yourself. Forget it. Sherm and I are going with you. Besides", his father grinned again, "you might need us in there if those two woman decide to beat the shit out of you."

Lee couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, you have a point, Admiral", he said, shaking his head. Then he became serious. "Let's go do this."