Responses to Earlier Comments:

War Sage, thanks for the great write-up. Agreed - I don't like even insinuating what the kids were being taken for, but it slaps Cru in the face on defending the ship as if everyone beyond its airlocks, is a potential threat to him and the crew.

Thanks, Chronus1326, per usual. :)

Chapter 15.5 Conversation with a Dying Man (Continuation of Previous Chapter)

Please note: I own no part or share in the Battlestar Galactica realm, either commercial or otherwise. This story is submitted for entertainment purposes only.

Reminder: I did not spend time making up non-earth names for common things; candles are not "Flaming Wax-Ons/Wax-Offs" and unicorns aren't "Stabbie Horses".

"Evvie makes strong coffee - really strong - like, 'clean off rusty parts', kind of strong. She's awesome."

~Cru's journal, if he had time to keep one.

Bree's Twin, Early Morning - Caprica Time, Day 35

Cru, with loaded weapons, slowly and methodically worked his way aft, checking the empty crew cabins, storage rooms, and the several electro-mechanical termination closets that were large enough to hide in. His movements were like the old days when he and other marines did house-to-house sweeps in combat zones or raids into hostile compounds.

He checked the Hawkins' rooms and found the woman Evvie had fought and killed.

Tanner had declined to move into one of the open cabins and instead, took up residence in a small storage room next to the machine shop. Tanner had been taken by surprise, tied up, and gagged. Cru released him and walked him back to the receiving deck.

Cru searched what he could of the living areas and locked them out from the rest of the ship, but, there were many hiding places aboard BREE'S TWIN. If other members of the attackers were still aboard, he and John would have to find them using the ship's electronics.

"Where are the children?" asked Tanner. That was his first concern upon stepping onto the receiving dock and seeing the blood and the dead. Tanner was a good man.

"They are safe," said Cru. He nodded to the office where Evvie had locked them in for their safety.

Tanner nodded his understanding.

John hobbled onto the deck. His knee had been wrenched and he walked with a limp. He braced himself on the wall. He had Cru's computer tablet in hand.

"Did you get into the systems?" asked Cru.

"Most of them, I think," replied John, "the important ones anyway."

"Okay," said Cru. "Where's Hawkins?"

"She wanted coffee. She's making a pot. The powdered stuff wouldn't do."

Cru nodded. He looked around the room. "Okay, this is a big mess. I don't want the kids to see this."

"Clean up?" asked John. "Do we need to call somebody first?"

Cru shook his head. "I've heard it from some of the other captains. This lawlessness is happening everywhere. Tanner, you've probably seen it."

"I have," said Tanner. "Aboard the Pyxis, we were taking out the dead most mornings, some from failed health and some from foul play."

"And, by foul play, you mean murder," said John.

"I do," said Tanner. "Folks are desperate."

"They are," said Cru. "But look at these people. They haven't suffered like the others. They're well-fed."

John nodded. "Yeah, they've had plenty to eat. They're in good health - well, they were in good health - not so much now. They're clean…"

"Matching gear," said Tanner, "guns, coordinated attack…"

"Yeah, there's that, too - well-coordinated and heavily armed. Why go without anything - food, supplies, whatever, if you don't have to."

~~~~~/~~~~~

"I'm not sure how you are alive," said Cru.

Cru shot and thought he killed the two intruders at the entryway to the receiving deck, just after killing the man who entered his cabin. The man and woman heard the loud report of Cru's .45 pistol and came running with weapons ready. Cru shot them both, multiple times. One of them, his name was Jaskins, gurgled and coughed up blood, but was still breathing. He lay on his side, against the wall.

"Me neither," said Jaskins with a rasping voice. He tried to shrug but nothing below the neck was working much.

"You've got three wounds to the chest," said Cru as he crouched down next to the man. Jaskin's pistol had dropped to the deck. Cru slid it out of reach, as a precaution. He did a quick check for additional weapons. "There's no saving you."

"No, I wouldn't think so," said Jaskins. He coughed again and spit up blood.

Cru sat down next to the man. "You want me to finish this? Make it quick?" He took note of a tattoo on the man's arm and the thick callouses on his ham hock hands. Jaskins was a powerful man and no stranger to hard labor. His haircut was short and trim. His face was clean-shaven. His fingernails were clipped in tight.

"It don't frak'n matter," said Jaskins. "I'm not feeling anything. It doesn't hurt - not really."

"Okay," said Cru.

"Ask him why they were taking my children," said Evvie with a tired but pointed voice. She had arrived with her usual silence of feet.

Cru nodded without looking. "Can you help us out with that - why the children?"

Jaskins coughed again. "I don't know. We were raiding your boat - not our first. We heard you had a lot of food and over-the-counter medical shit - booze too."

"We do…and?" said Cru, urging Jaskins to continue.

"The kids weren't a thing until we got aboard." Jaskins gave a series of weak spasms. "It was a change of plans, you see. But, I knew something was up - I heard some talking."

"What talk?" demanded Evvie.

"What talk?" said Cru.

"Those kids are Virgonese."

"They're Caprican," said Cru.

Jaskins gave a scoffing snort followed by more coughing. "They're from Virgon. You and I both know it. They look like they just stepped out of a tourism poster."

"Fine, okay, they're Virgonese," said Cru. "What of it?"

"You need to understand, I didn't come for the kids," Jaskins voice was getting weaker and weaker. "I disagreed when the plan changed. But Holk, over there, and me, we've done some shit and we lost the ability to say 'no'."

"Fine, I get it, you're an upstanding guy," said Cru with a note of impatience. "Why did the plan change? Why does Virgon matter?"

"There's some whacko on Cloud Nine wanting Virgon children," said Jaskins, "on account of there being so few."

John spoke up. "Not as many Virgon children got away - if I remember it right."

"You do," said Cru. "There are just short of three hundred Virgon children and young adults - that's it."

"That's a lot less than the other planets," said John to Cru. He turned to Jaskins, "is that what this is about?"

"I guess that makes them rare," said Jaskins with another cough. It was a weak cough. He was short on time.

Jaskins' words hit Evvie hard. Emily and Fletcher - nicknamed Cookie and Badger, were her husband's children from his previous marriage. Both Mark and his wife were Virgon. Both were accomplished people with their smart children rippling with the promise of future success. His wife died young. Years later, Evvie and Mark met through their respective jobs. They took to each other in short order and were married. Evvie loved Mark's children as her own. To that point, and weeks earlier, Evvie had admitted to Cru that she feared the children would be taken from her. Virgon law allowed for such things in certain matters. A shortage of children might be ample justification. Jaskins wasn't wrong, both Cookie and badger were very recognizable as being Virgonese; they had all the typical differences that marked Virgon children from others.

"Alright, new topic," said Cru. "On your arm - that bee tattoo with the machine gun, wrench, and hammer, you're a Seabee - Construction Battalion."

"Prize to the winner," said Jaskins with a suppressed cough. It wasn't difficult to note the military regulation haircut, close shaving, and clipped fingernails. The tattoo was a modified version of the Navy Seabee's logo.

"You still…," said Cru with a pause. "Are you still serving?". He was momentarily distracted by a black and white cat sitting quietly on the top most stair, across the room. He would need to come back to that later.

"Well, I was serving, up until this particular moment." He coughed out a laugh.

"Why were you running with these guys?" Cru gestured to the others. His face gave a look of, "You should have known better".

"They had a nice fringe package, benefits if you will. Contraband, ladies, action, they got all that."

"Ladies only?" said Evvie with a restrained voice. She still had the knife and was still ready to use it. "Or are you into children too?".

"They got pretty ladies, like you, if you can forgive a dying man for saying so. But no, I'm not into that and neither is anyone I know."

Evvie did not reply.

"That fellow over there - you called him 'Holk'," Cru continued. "He's a Seabee? He looks too small. He got the coffee, am I right?"

"A Coffee Bitch?" Jaskins laughed. It hurt. "Nah, he's Supply." Jaskins gave a thin smile. "He folded laundry. But yeah, we were buds. Our families knew each other."

Cru nodded. He concluded that Jaskins and Holk were opportunists. He was ready to believe their interests went no further than the theft of goods and that neither were the decision-makers for the attempted kidnapping. This was a small bit of comfort for Cru. He knew a tough conversation with someone over on the Galactica, was forthcoming.

Jaskins fell into a coughing fit that continued for half a minute. "I guess this is about it for me," he said after a pause.

Cru nodded again. "Anyone I need to call?"

"Nah," said Jaskins. His voice was barely a whisper. "I don't know, maybe tell Galactica...maybe tell them...that me and Holk are gonna miss muster."

"I can do that."

Jaskins paused to draw a good breath - his last and final. "Holk…Holk had a girl on the Big-G." Jaskin's voice trailed. "Her name was Tina…someone should…tell…her."

Cru looked over at Holk's body, crumpled up against the far wall. When he looked back at Jaskins, the man was dead.

~~~~~/~~~~~

"Mrs. Hawkins-" Cru began.

"Call me Evvie," said Evvie in a quiet voice. "I'm done with honorifics"

Jaskins' death gave Evvie a release from the anger and the defensive posture she had taken - her "Mama-Bear claws" as Cru had put it. Without the tangible threat of Jaskins and the others, her body fell into a sense of weariness. Exhaustion washed over her in a single wave, and she leaned heavily against the wall. She had a mug of coffee that tottered in her shaking hands. She tried to take a sip from it but didn't have the strength to bring the cup to her lips.

Cru didn't know what the word, 'honorifics' meant but guessed it involved the use of 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.'. "Okay, you can call me Rich, Richard, or Cru," said Cru as he stood. "I answer to them all."

Evvie nodded.

"Evvie, why don't you go be with your children?" said Cru as he gently took the cup from her hands. "We'll clean this up."

"I can help," said Evvie with a hollow voice, as her arms dropped to her sides. She was drained both physically and emotionally.

"Yeah, I know, but we got this."

Evvie gave a slight nod. "There's someone in my room when you get there," she said. "She's on the floor."

"We got that, too."

"Cru offered his arm to Evvie. She took it and they walked together across the blood-spattered deck, back to the office where her children were sleeping.

This ends Chapter 15.5

What I was thinking while writing -

This was originally attached to the previous chapter but had made it too long. I chose to separate this piece out, but it's not really a chapter.

Cru and the others are about to clean up a crime scene. I think the days of calling the police and a big long investigation are over. And, the bean-counters over with the president, on Colonial One, might consider it fewer mouths to feed.

There are a lot of weapons on BREE'S TWIN now. Cru will not be handing them over.