Chapter 7
Lee awoke with a start, taking just a moment to orient to where he was. The unit was still dark, so it wasn't morning just yet. He stretched out the stiffness of sleeping on the ground, and the twinge in his right thigh brought back the events of the previous evening.
He needed to apologize to Kara. Turning on his side, he reached towards her and found only empty mat. That brought him fully awake as nothing else could have. He grabbed his hand-held lamp and flipped it on, but she wasn't in the unit. Her bag was still in the corner next to his, and her weapon was sitting on top of it, so it wasn't likely that she had gone back to the Raptor to camp out away from him.
Ice seemed to form in his stomach as he realized the truth. She wasn't here. She didn't have her weapon. A quick glance at the door confirmed that it was unlocked. Either she had been taken awfully quietly, or he was going to have to bawl her out again instead of making his intended apology.
It took him only a few moments to pull on a uniform over his underclothes and shove his feet into his boots. He wrapped the strings around his ankles rather than taking time to complete lacing them, and tied a quick knot. Every second caused the fear inside him to double, and it was getting to an unbearable level. When he got his hands on her he was going to do more than give a verbal reprimand. This was going on report, whatever trouble it would get her into.
He stepped out into the darkness of the night. Cloud cover had come in and blocked out the natural light the nights here could provide. With no artificial light sources, he relied on his hand lamp to make a quick sweep of the area around him and then began to jog towards the latrine. His leg was painful, but he ignored it. He figured it was the most likely place for her to be. Leaving her weapon behind was still puzzling him, but that had to be where she had gone.
He checked both of the stalls, first calling her name and then opening the doors to confirm that she wasn't there. Panic began to creep into him, but he kept it at bay with action. He had to find her, and damn the consequences. He jogged to the area where they'd landed the Raptor. It was locked up tight, but he had it opened and checked in only minutes. She wasn't there.
"Kara?" he called out loudly. It wasn't likely that she'd gotten lost, but he supposed it was possible. He went back into a jog, this time towards the gathering area they'd been in the evening before. Maybe she had gone back to try and mend fences. "Kara?" he screamed again on his way in the door. Nothing. No reply came in response to his call.
And so he began his search. From unit to unit he went, calling her name, his voice rising with each repetition. At some point worry turned into pure terror. She wasn't answering him. That could only mean that she was either too far away to hear him, or someone was preventing her from responding. He didn't care for either option.
The first couple of units were empty, or at least their occupants didn't reply to his banging on the doors and calling out her name. The third unit opened after only a moment of shaking the door and revealed Dooler standing there rubbing his eyes with one hand and covering his weapon with the other. "What the hell's going on?"
"Lieutenant Thrace is missing," he replied without preamble. "Get your team together."
"She probably went to the latrine," he muttered, starting to close the door.
Lee didn't let him. "I've checked there, the common building, and the Raptor. I've been yelling for ten minutes. If she could answer me, she would."
Across the narrow walkway between units, another door opened. Cable stuck his head out with the same confusion that Dooler had initially shown and considerably more interest. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"She's gone," he told the man simply. Their previous discussion would supply who he was talking about. "Where would they take her?"
"Who would take her?" Dooler asked, honestly seeming puzzled, but Lee's attention was on Cable.
"The mine," he said simply. "It's where we found Caya and the men."
"You're crazy," Dooler countered, but he had a look that was almost like fear in his eyes. "Nobody'd take a Colonial. Even Cops' crew isn't that stupid."
"Give me thirty seconds," Cable requested, and then ducked back into his unit.
Lee found himself standing there feeling more than a little impatient. Dooler still wasn't cooperating. "I'm going to say this once," Lee said in his most diplomatic voice. "If anything happens to her, I swear I'll get in that Raptor and drop a flare into your frakking mine on my way back to the Galactica. You can either help me, or you can plan to fry on this rock very soon."
Dooler gave a grumble, but ducked back inside for his boots and a second weapon, this one larger and more powerful looking than the one at his side. "Cable, wake up Conly and Daves. I'm not going down in that mine without some firepower."
Cable was just returning, fully dressed and carrying a weapon as large as Dooler's. Lee didn't know whether to be pleased or more frightened by the way they were taking this. He was getting help, yes, but the mere fact that they were willing to go told him how much danger Kara might be in. One woman had already been murdered, and two men nearly that. Kara didn't stand a chance if they didn't move quickly. A glance at his watch had told him that he'd slept only a couple of hours, but that didn't tell him how long Kara had been gone. A hell of a lot could happen in two hours.
The few minutes it took to wake the grumbling remainder of the security force seemed more like hours. Lee had a hard time staying calm, and couldn't keep himself from looking around frantically, half expecting her to walk out from between some rocks with a big smile and the joke on him. He knew in his heart it wouldn't happen, but God how he wanted it to.
Finally their team began the hike to the mine. Lee wound up in back of the group due to his leg, but he didn't consider that entirely bad. His weapon was the least powerful of those in the group. It hadn't occurred to him to grab something more substantial when he'd been at the Raptor. He'd been too busy looking for and not finding Kara.
In the mine shaft, his lamp didn't provide much in the way of illumination. He tried not to notice. He kept his ears open and his gun out, praying that he'd hear something to reassure him. As they got lower down into the rock, he finally heard something, but reassuring was not what it was.
"Hold that leg," a voice muttered furiously. "Pull it over some so I can get where I want to be. That's better."
There were sounds of struggling, and then the sound of flesh striking flesh. "Lay still you bitch," the voice growled. "I'd hate to have to kill you before I teach you a lesson."
Lee's breath caught in his chest as he realized what must be happening. His view was blocked by the men in front of him in the narrow corridor, but he didn't need to see it. The words and the voice told him more than he wanted to know. He tried to edge past the guard immediately in front of him, but got elbowed back for his trouble. He had to get up there. He had to do something.
"Playtime's over, boys," Dooler said loudly as they entered a more open area of the mine. Lee could finally see around the men, and his heart froze. He couldn't see Kara for the man on top of her, but he could see the knife in the man's hand, and the blood on it, even in the dim light of the cavern.
"Get out," one of Cops' men told them. "You ain't welcome at this party."
"No party tonight," Dooler said simply. "Let her go. You take out a Colonial Warrior and we're all done. It's not going to happen. Let her up." His weapon was pointed directly at Cops to make his point.
The big man twisted around, but didn't get off Kara. He swiped sweat from his brow, and Lee caught the dark shine of blood left behind. He had blood on his hands, and now on his face. "Go ahead and shoot," Cops growled. "Just be sure you don't miss. Send any fire into this mine and we're all blowing sky-high."
He had a point, but Dooler just shook his head. "Let her up," he repeated, leveling his weapon on the man and pulling something back on the side of it. "This is your last chance."
Lee, the diplomat, knew that ultimatums were rarely good, but he couldn't get a word out past the tightness of his throat. Cops had a knife in his hand and Kara's blood on him, and she was ominously still beneath him. He couldn't have uttered a word if his life had depended on it. Or if Kara's had.
And Cops wasn't moving. He had a lurid smile on his face as he shook his head. "Tell ya what," he offered. "You take a walk, and I'll be sure you get a turn. She's tough enough to last a while."
Lee didn't have time to react before Dooler's blaster went off and struck Cops full in the chest. He stayed almost comically suspended for just a moment, and then fell forward onto Kara. She still wasn't moving.
Lee moved to step towards her, damn the consequences, when Cable put an arm out to block him. It took Lee a moment to understand why. The other three men hadn't backed down when their leader fell, but were instead advancing towards them. They didn't have weapons, but he didn't think they'd need them to tear the guards apart — and him, for that matter.
Dooler and the man to his right fired simultaneously. Two of the miners, hit in the chest just as Cops had been, crumpled directly to the floor. The third man, who Lee now recognized as Danner — the man at Cable's table when Lee had spoken with him — put his hands up in the air and stopped.
"I'm not armed," Danner said simply. "And I didn't touch the woman."
Cable stepped forward to check that out for himself, snarling, "You didn't do a damn thing to stop it, either."
Lee had heard enough. The miners were out of the way, and he needed to see to Kara. He prayed quickly as he approached her, terrified of what he might find.
The first thing he saw was that her eyes were wide open and terrified. He didn't blame her. Lee grabbed the large body of Cops and did his best to move it off her. After a moment, Dooler came over to help him. The man was dead weight, literally, and Lee didn't have the leverage he needed to get Kara free.
Once he did, he almost wished he hadn't. Her hands were taped together, still over her head as though she was too afraid to move to bring them down. Her uniform was in shreds, exposing most of her body from neck to ankle. Her face had blood smeared on it in various locations, and her body was bleeding in several places. There was a piece of tape over her mouth — the thick kind used for electrical work — which explained why she had been silent.
Even as Lee reached for her he saw the terror flash in her eyes. "Oh, God," he whispered fervently. A piece of clothing appeared to his right, and he looked up to see Cable handing him his work shirt. The other guards were in the process of removing both bodies and their prisoner from the cave. He didn't bother with thanks, but instead spread the shirt over Kara to block the majority of her body from any curious eyes. All he cared about was the woman before him.
"Kara, I have to get this tape off," he told her with his voice just over a whisper. It wasn't out of any gentleness or care that he was so quiet, but because it was all the sound he could get out through the tightness in his chest. He had no clue how badly she was hurt, but it was definitely bad enough. "Kara?" he called again, a little more clearly. She wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were dodging back and forth in clear panic, and she was starting to struggle. "Kara, eyes on me!" he finally got out in a clear voice. He placed one hand on either side of her bloody face and held her still even as her body continued to strain against it's bonds.
It took several seconds of her panic before she did as he said and focused her attention on his face. He just looked at her a moment, drinking in the sight of terrified eyes calming and finally closing in obvious relief.
"I need to get the tape off," he told her again, speech coming more easily now. "Are you with me? Do you understand?"
She gave a minute nod that he took for assent, and then he gently began to peel the tape away. The adhesive was a tight stick, but he went slowly so as not to take any skin with the tape. When he finally had it off, he put his right hand back on her cheek, opposite the location that his left had never moved from. "Look at me, Kara," he asked softly. "Please, open your eyes and look at me."
After another couple of seconds she did so, her eyes focused clearly and the fear finally easing a little, but not completely. He almost could feel the relief wash through him at the small victory.
"Where are you hurting?" he asked her gently.
She shook her head, but didn't speak.
"I don't want to move you if you're hurt," he explained. "But I want to get you out of here. Are you hurting?"
Her lips moved, but no sound came out. She licked lips that had to be sore before trying again. "I'm okay," she whispered.
"Not by a long shot," he corrected. "Where are you hurting?'
Her eyes closed again, and he was afraid she was going to shut him out. After a moment though she began to speak. "My shoulders," she admitted. "And a few places on my chest sting. I can't feel much, really."
"How's your head?" he asked as he moved his fingers from her cheeks to her neck, reaching behind to gently probe. He didn't withdraw even when she tried to pull away from him. "Your neck? Your back? Can you feel everything, wiggle fingers and toes?"
She spent longer than he could have imagined processing his questions. It was as though she were only hearing about half of what he said, or as though he were speaking another language. She just didn't seem to be able to focus. He watched as her fingers wiggled despite her taped wrist, and looked down to see her doing the same with her toes. "My back's a little sore," she admitted. "But not my spine. I think I'm okay."
"I need to get you back to the Raptor, he told her gently. "We have to get you up to a doctor."
"No!" she said urgently. Then, more calmly, "Please, no. Just help me get back to the unit. I just I'm okay. I'll be okay."
"You need a doctor," he corrected, noting the few locations where blood had already soaked through the shirt he'd thrown over her.
"No," she said again. "Please, Lee. I don't want anyone touching me right now. I don't want I can't." Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes and turned her face away from him. He didn't know what to do.
"If I lift her up, can you carry her?" Cable asked him. He hadn't been aware that the guard was still around. The others had left, dragging as they went. Lee hadn't really missed them.
Lee didn't know how his leg would hold up, but he knew he had to try. "Kara?" he asked. He waited until her eyes opened before he continued. "This is Cable," he told her softly. "He's going to help me get you back to the unit. I can't do it by myself."
She just shook her head. He might have tried to ignore that, but the look in her eyes was back to pure fear.
"Kara, I'm right here," he told her very gently, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers. "I won't let anything happen to you. I'll be right with you the whole way."
Her eyes squeezed shut again, and she shook her head. "I can walk," she told him. "Just get this tape off."
"I'll be okay," he told her. "You don't have to walk."
"Let me cut her arms free, first," Cable suggested.
Lee had forgotten that her arms were still restrained by the tape, because she had lowered her arms as soon as Cops was off her, and her wrists were beneath the shirt. "Can it wait until we get her back to the unit?" he asked, not wanting to uncover her in front of the guard.
Cable was quiet a moment, then nodded. In retrospect, it was probably better anyway. She was just disoriented enough to try to fight, and this way Cable was less likely to get hurt.
Lee watched helplessly as Cable bent down and tried to take Kara into his arms. She wasn't having any of it. She brought her arms up like a club, knocking the shirt aside and nearly toppling Lee in her panic. How she managed to move her body so quickly while bound he had no clue, but somehow she wiggled and kicked her way back against the wall behind her. Her hands were back above her head, the shirt left behind on the ground, and her eyes showing clear panic, He knew she'd scraped the shit out of herself on the rocks with her movements.
Cable took a step back, his hands up as though to show he wasn't going to touch her. Her eyes were flashing from side to side, and any calm that had been there before was gone. So much for getting her to trust him. He wondered how much damage he'd done with that single misjudgment.
Lee took a deep breath and tried to remember what he had learned in the crisis courses he'd had to take before he'd begun teaching. The only thing he could really remember was that listening to the victim was always preferable to fighting with them. So Lee shook his head at Cable, and went back to trying to calm Kara.
"Kara?" he called quietly once she had stopped swinging her arms. He didn't get any closer then where she had knocked him back to. He just remained balanced, kneeling down on his good leg, and gave her the only thing he could: time. Again there was a long moment before her eyes opened, but they were faced towards him and her glance unwavering. "I'm right here," he reminded her, holding out a hand to her but not going so far as to touch her. "I'm not going anywhere."
It was a long moment before she reached out and grabbed the hand he'd extended with her own two, still tightly bound. Cable passed him a knife, and it took Lee a moment to even figure out what it was for. Finally getting the drift, he reached forward and slid the knife carefully beneath the tape and managed to cut through it so that he could get enough of a grip to peel it away from her wrists. As soon as her arms were free, she placed one on either side of her and pushed herself up to a sitting position at the wall.
The next thing Cable handed him was the bloody shirt. In his concern, Lee had kept his eyes on Kara's, and hadn't even realized that her attempted flight had removed what little had remained of her uniform and had dislodged the borrowed shirt. He didn't think she realized it either, because as he extended the shirt to her he saw another instant of panic in her eyes. Lee kept his voice as calm and even as possible. "If you're going to walk, you need to put on the shirt, Kara."
Once more, there was a wait before she could process what he'd said. She finally looked at the shirt he was holding out, then blushed as she clutched at it. He wanted so much to help her, but he didn't dare reach for her again as she struggled to get the oversized shirt into place. When she was dressed, however scantily, he finally gave her a forced smile.
"Ready, Kara?" he asked softly. "I want to get you back where it's warm."
She gave a nod, and then finally reached out and took the hand he'd extended with one of hers. He tried very hard not to take it personally when she yanked her hand out of his just as soon as she was on her feet, her body pressed back into the cave wall behind her as though she needed it to hold her up. Lee could see her shaking from where he was standing about a yard away. He offered her his hand again, but she didn't take it. Wrapping her arms around herself, she took a cautious step, and then another. Cable moved out of her way, subtly leading her towards the exit from the cave. Lee followed just behind her, not bothering to pick up the shredded uniform that was on the ground. She wouldn't be needing it.
The walk back was slow and tedious. Kara had no shoes, so her steps were careful and cautious. Lee managed to move up close enough so that if she needed him he was no more than an arm's length away, but she never even acknowledged him. He still couldn't believe that she was upright. Her shaking was visible even from a distance, and she paused every few steps to steady herself.
Once back at the unit, Cable opened the unlocked door and then backed away to allow her to enter. She did so without even looking at the large man, much less speaking.
"Do you have a medical kit?" Cable asked as Lee moved to follow Kara into the unit.
"Yes," Lee answered. Then, taking his eyes from Kara for the first time, he looked Cable in the eye. "Thank you."
Cable nodded, and then closed the door before leaving them alone.
Lee stood just inside the unit and didn't move at all for a moment, just letting the adrenaline rush ease and battling the exhaustion that inevitably would follow. Kara had lain down on their mats, curled onto one side with her body taking on the fetal position, her knees tucked up into the shirt, probably for warmth. It reminded him of the way she'd been lying when he'd gone to sleep, and guilt settled heavily in his stomach. But guilt wouldn't get a thing done for her, and she had to be his priority.
He walked over to his bag to reach in and grab one of the mandatory first aid kits that they all carried. Kara had one down in her bag too, and he would probably need that one as well. She was a mess. He would do this for her, but he was withholding judgement on whether he would take her back to the Galactica. If he saw anything that really worried him, he wouldn't have a choice.
When he touched her shoulder to get her attention, she flinched away from him. He'd half expected that. On an impulse, he reached over and grabbed one of the blankets to toss it over her. She had to be cold. "Kara, I need you to turn over," he told her. "You're bleeding, and I need to find out how much and from where."
It took a moment for her to respond, but he gave her the time. She winced as she rolled onto her back, extending her legs beneath the blanket, and he realized he'd need to get a look at that as well. Blood was soaked through the shirt in a dozen different places, but it didn't look like a lot. It was hard to tell with the shirt on, and he hated to ask her to take it off.
"Can you sit up?"
She nodded, and let him help her into a sitting position by taking his offered arm and doing rest of the work herself. She tucked her feet beneath her so that the shirt covered most of her body and the blanket covered the rest.
He hated what he had to tell her next. "Kara, the shirt will have to come off. Do you want me to cut it, or can you get it?"
Kara squeezed her eyes shut again, her face going beet red.
It was a measure of how out-of-it she was that she didn't bother to argue. She sat silently for a moment, then pulled her arms inside the shirt and lifted it over her head with a muffled gasp. Lee moved behind her as she held the shirt up against her breasts with shaking arms. She appeared to have forgotten about the blanket, and he wasn't going to bother with reminding her.
"I've got to clean this up, or it'll get infected," he told her. "It may hurt a little. Okay?"
He waited a long moment before she nodded, but she didn't speak.
Her back was black and blue with scratches all over it, most likely from the rocks. He reached for one of the sanitizing wipes in the kit and ran it gingerly over the abraded skin, apologizing when she gritted her teeth and hissed in a breath. Salik had the best products available to prevent infection, but he hadn't bothered to add an anesthetic to them. When her back and shoulders were clean, he turned his attention to her front.
Kara had closed her eyes again, and was holding the shirt so tightly that her knuckles were white. Lee took the opportunity to run another of the wipes over her face, flinching himself as she jerked back from him. Her left cheek was bruised, and she would likely have quite a shiner, but there were no cuts or scratches. The blood there had come from somewhere else.
He moved down to her neck, and found a couple of gouges that had to be cleaned and bandaged. They didn't look deep, but they would be sore if they weren't treated. He added some of Salik's ointment to those before using small bandages to cover them. Then he looked down at her covered chest.
"Kara, do you want to do this, or do you want me to?" he asked soflty. Her eyes opened and she focused on him, but she was a long time in answering. He wondered absently just how long it would take for her brain to unfreeze, and what kind of shape she would be in when it did.
He couldn't deny that he had dreamed about her shirtless many times in the past, but tonight had nothing to do with romantic fantasies. When Kara finally reached for the wipe he was holding, he had to force himself to look at her while she released her grip on the shirt and ran the wipe over her neck, upper chest, and stomach. He wanted to give her some privacy, but he needed to know how badly she was hurt.
Thankfully she didn't seem to be paying any attention to him. She cleaned herself methodically, her cheeks only a little pink as she did so. He watched as closely as he could without getting into her space, and passed her clean wipes as the ones she used became covered with dirt and blood. At the very least he could see where the bleeding had originated now. There were several shallow cuts down the center of her chest, and one that looked rather deep near her navel.
It took a couple more wipes to get the rest of her chest clean. He had to grit his teeth against the fury that rose in him as he saw the bruising on both breasts. She was going to be really sore. Down on her stomach he saw a couple more nicks, but only the one was serious enough to need bandaging. He passed her a small adhesive bandage, pointing to the area that was still bleeding when she gave him a blank look. Almost absently, she applied it. As she finished with her upper half, he reached into her bag and tugged out a clean undershirt. When he offered the garment and she wouldn't take it, he dressed her gently, and for once she didn't seem inclined to pull away. As he did so, he checked over her arms, noting that they carried finger-shaped bruises, but otherwise were okay.
"Kara?"
"Hmm?"
"We're half-done," he admitted gravely. "I need to get a look at your legs, too."
She didn't even resist, but unfolded her legs from beneath her so that he could get to them. He thought about letting her do it, but her eyes had closed again and her arms were wrapped tightly around her body as though she were trying to hold herself together physically. He didn't think she had it in her. Cautiously he reached for the blanket that still covered her"
"Kara?"
"What?" she asked after a pause, even opening her eyes to look at him, clearly wanting to get this over with as little discussion as possible.
"Did he I need to know if I need to check"
"No," she whispered. "He didn't get that far before you got there." She took a gulping breath. "He would have," she said as her eyes closed, effectively cutting him off from her. "He told me what he was going to do, but he didn't get the chance."
"Thank the Lords for that," he told her with heartfelt emotion. He moved the blanket then, finding the same nicks on her legs as he had found on other parts of her body, results of a quick and careless pass of the knife. Her legs were at least cleaner than her back had been, needing only a quick pass with the antiseptic wipe to get them clean, and a couple of small bandages and ointment for the cuts. "Turn over on your stomach," he asked her softly.
She did so, but winced in the process. Given the shape of the front of her body he didn't blame her, but he needed to check her lower back and buttocks to be sure there weren't any serious injuries there. He did his best to keep the blanket over anything he wasn't actually looking at, grateful that she wasn't fighting him over the necessity of checking her body. Thankfully there weren't any more cuts, but simply more bruising and scrapes from where she had been ground into sharp rocks. He wiped her off as impersonally as he could, and then grabbed the underwear he'd dug out when he had found her shirts. When her eyes opened he showed them to her. She didn't argue when he helped her slip them on, and he considered that to be a good sign.
"Do you want a uniform on?" he asked her softly.
She didn't answer, but she did shake her head and reach for one of the pillows.
He reached over and grabbed a couple more blankets as she lay down, covering her carefully and tucking her in. "Better?"
She nodded, again keeping her silence.
He sat next to her for a long while, letting her rest if not sleep. He needed to make some decisions. Regardless of where his heart was, his responsibility was to the mission. He had three men dead, and another hopefully in custody. That was something he had to deal with. At the very least Dooler was doing his job now, and Cable too. He had no clue why they hadn't just done that in the first place.
He had no clue about a lot of things, but he just didn't have the interest or energy to pursue the answers. He needed to know what the hell Kara had been doing when she left the unit without her blaster. He needed to know if Cops and company had been responsible for the attacks and death that had occurred before their arrival. He needed to know why the security team had taken so frakking long to just do their job. He needed to report back to the Galactica, and check in with Salik to be sure he had done all he should for Kara.
He needed to do a hell of a lot, but all he was capable of was sitting there beside Kara, keeping one gentle finger at Kara's temple, one of the few places where she wasn't bruised or cut. He wanted so much to hold her, but knew she wasn't ready for it. She might never be ready for it, and he didn't know what he could do about it.
It was a long time later when he heard a faint knock at the door to the unit. He stood carefully, surprised when Kara's arm flashed out to grab him just above the ankle.
"Where are you going?" Her voice wasn't frantic, but it was definitely more than curious.
"I'm just answering the door," he assured her. "I won't leave."
It took her a moment to let go of him, but finally she nodded and tucked her arm back under the covers. He watched her for another moment before answering the door and stepping just outside so he wouldn't disturb her.
"How is she?"
Lee glared at Cable. He was grateful for the help the man had given — he doubted he could have gotten her out of there himself — but he resented both his initial reluctance to do his job and his current intrusion. "How the hell do you think?"
Cable sighed deeply, but didn't press the issue. "I wanted to tell you that we have Danner in custody. He's talking some, and admits he was active in one of the attacks. I guess it all started when Aikens went after Caya and then accidentally killed her, and then Danner and Case went to Cops with it, and they went after the guy. Toller — that was one of my men — saw them do it and so they beat the crap out of him, too. They were just afraid they'd get caught. Dooler didn't know what exactly had happened and he didn't want to implicate Toller, so he kept his trap shut and threatened the rest of us to do the same. As it stands now, Aikens is still on the Galactica on life support, and Cops and Case are both dead."
What about the third man you killed?" Lee asked.
"Barkley," Cable answered. "He was Caya's husband, and Cops' brother. He was just there by family obligation."
"He paid for that," Lee said.
"Yeah. A lot of people paid for one man's stupidity."
Lee glanced back towards the door that he was holding open with one foot. He had promised her that he wouldn't leave. He wouldn't break that promise. "So it's all under control?"
"Yeah. Once the security team realized that someone was in danger that shouldn't be, it really woke them up. I guess they figured if the miners wanted to kill one another it was one thing, but taking out a Colonial Officer was something different."
"No shit," Lee said quietly.
"So, what are your orders?"
Lee had to think about that for a moment. "Keep Danner locked up tight," he suggested. "Until I hear differently from Kara, he's just as responsible as any of them. As for the rest, I'll contact the Galactica tomorrow and see what they want us to do. Can the mining operation continue?"
Cable nodded. "We know enough about the job to fill in the gaps. We've got the wild cards out of the deck, so things should be pretty straight from here. Dooler's being a pain in the ass, but I'm used to that from him. He's just worried about how much trouble he'll be in for not taking care of it all himself."
Lee sighed and nodded. "Then I'll wait until I get further orders to get in the middle of it. Right now I need to be here."
Cable nodded gravely. "Are you going to need to take her up?"
Lee thought a moment. He'd been asking himself the same question. "Not immediately," he decided. "There's nothing life-threatening, and she doesn't want to go, so I'm going to wait a while. It's the least I can do for her."
Cable nodded again. "Go take care of her," he instructed.
Lee didn't even bother to acknowledge the command. He just stepped back into his unit, locked the door behind him, and seated himself at Kara's head so that he could watch her sleep.