FLIGHT OF BELLEROPHON Chap. 3

"Welcome to the Pegasus, Dr. Baltar. I'm Lt. Minerva Athens. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, uh, yes, thank you," Baltar said, smiling and shaking hands with the young woman.

In the past few hours since the Pegasus had made her appearance, there had been shuttles running back and forth between the two ships almost non-stop. Baltar had just arrived on the Pegasus on the most recent shuttle. As the young lieutenant had approached him, Gaius couldn't help but notice that she was very attractive. She was tall and slender, with long, dark red hair, worn in a single braid, and pale green eyes.

"Don't even think about it," a low, sultry voice dripped into his right ear like honey.

Baltar glanced to his side, where the beautiful statuesque blonde, that only he could see, was currently hovering near his right elbow. He gave her a quick look of quizzical innocence, as if he had no idea what she had meant by that statement.

"Oh, don't even try the innocent act with me. I'm in your head, Gaius. Not that it would require a mental link to figure out what you were thinking."

The young lieutenant, who had been chattering away the entire time, oblivious to the man's inattentiveness, now turned and started to walk off the flight deck. Assuming that he was supposed to follow her, Baltar trailed along, a step or two behind her.

"I mean, she certainly is a pretty little thing, isn't she?" the blonde said, falling into step beside him.

"R-really? I hadn't noticed," Baltar whispered.

The young woman in question immediately stopped and turned to him. "I'm sorry, sir. Did you say something?"

"No, no, I didn't say anything."

The woman nodded, turned and resumed her walk. Baltar followed. He glanced to his side again, but the blonde was gone. He was not surprised. Sometimes she was there and sometimes she wasn't. It was quite nerve- wracking, really. He had no idea when she was going to appear or disappear. He had no idea where she went when she was gone, or even if she ever was truly there to begin with. For all he really knew, she was simply an extended hallucination. She claimed to be an image implanted in his brain, but how did he know that was true? At this point, he preferred to believe that there was a Cylon device implanted in his brain, rather than that he was going insane. But, then again, wasn't the whole idea of a Cylon brain implant, a fairly paranoid thought all by itself?

She also claimed to be privy to his every thought, but he didn't know whether or not to believe that either. It was certainly a disquieting thought, to be spied upon, even in one's own head. Wasn't the mind supposed to be everyone's final refuge? If one couldn't hide even there, what was left?

Realizing that they had reached their destination, Baltar looked up. They were standing before a hatch door with a plaque that read 'Science Lab'. And other than this identifying plaque, the door looked exactly like a hundred others they had passed on the way here, or like a hundred others on board the Galactica. The corridor looked exactly like every other and Baltar realized with a sinking feeling, that if he were ever to have to find his way back here on his own, he wouldn't be able to.

Wonderful, he thought wearily, now I can get myself lost on two ships. Learning to navigate the maze-like corridors of a battlestar must be something that's taught in basic training. He truly didn't know how all the others managed it.

Following Lt. Athens into a large, but non-descript and sterile- looking, lab he gazed around. The lab was well equipped and well organized. Everything he might need was right at his fingertips. Seeing that Athens was watching him rather expectantly, he went through the obligatory social niceties.

"It's a very nice lab," he said. "Very well equipped."

Athens smiled in obvious relief. "Thank you, sir. We're very proud of it. We're one of the few ships to have a fully equipped science lab. So, is there anything that you'll be needing that isn't here?"

"No, no, this is more than adequate for my needs," he assured her. Especially since I'm not really going to be doing anything, he thought.

"Your Lt. Gaeta and some of our people have already made a preliminary sweep of the ship. They turned up one mysterious piece of equipment up in CIC. It's right there," Athens said, pointing to a small, white device, identical to the one found on the Galactica.

"Oh, yes, it's a Cylon device, all right," Baltar said, knowingly.

"Oh, wow," the woman breathed, staring at the innocuous-looking device with something like fascinated horror. "Well, Lt. Gaeta said that you would know what to do with it."

"Yes, yes, I'll take care of it."

"Yes, sir. We've also started collecting hair samples from the crew. Those there, are from CIC. We'll have more for you later. So, if you want to get started, you can show me how your program works and I can help you with the testing. When we're finished, we can double-check each other's work. That would probably be the most efficient way of dealing with this, don't you think?"

She's lovely and efficient, Baltar thought dismally, wonderful.

"Oh that's quite alright, Lt. Athens...Uh, may I call you Minerva? Or is that against some military protocol or something?"

His rather blatant efforts at seduction were rewarded with a quick blush and a shy smile. Frankly, he was relieved that he'd managed to remember her first name at all. Of course, how did one forget a name like Minerva...yikes. Pretty girl, ugly name.

"Oh, that's all right, sir. You can call me Minerva."

"And, please, feel free to call me Gaius. There's no need to address me as sir all the time. After all, I'm not an officer."

"As you like, sir- uh, I mean, Gaius," she said softly and actually giggled.

Oh, this is too easy, he thought, smiling smugly at the girl, entirely too easy.

"As I was saying, Minerva, I think I can handle this by myself. I'm sure you have much more interesting things to do than help some old man with a boring program."

"Oh, you're not that old! And I'm sure your program is quite fascinating. Besides, I have my orders, so really, I don't have anything else to do."

His ego already reeling from the "that" old comment, Baltar took another blow below the belt when the girl failed to respond to his charms and do as he had suggested. All in all, Lt. Athens was starting to become rather irritating.

"Alright, tell you what, why don't you go and find Lt. Gaeta and get the rest of the samples from him. I'll get everything set up and started here. When you get back, I can show you what I'm doing. How's that?"

"Well, I suppose that would be alright," she said. "Well then, I guess, I'll be back in an hour or so."

Baltar took a moment to watch the way the girl's hips swayed enticingly as she walked out of the lab. He gave a soft sigh as the hatch closed behind her.

"She's going to be a problem," the honeyed voice said, close to his ear.

He turned to find that his blonde phantom was back.

"Don't worry, I can handle Lt. Athens," he said.

"Oh, really? You didn't put her off. You just delayed her. Eventually she's going to want to see your program. And what are you going to do then? Show her the complete drivel that you showed to the Galactica's colonel? She'll see right through it. What then?"

"I can handle her," he repeated. "It's just going to take a little time."

"You don't have enough time. Not even you could charm her into disobeying her orders."

As she spoke the woman ran her fingers through his dark hair. It was most distracting. As she had pointed out, he didn't have time for this. Gently, but firmly, disengaging her hands, he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the printed version of the bogus program he had devised to fool the Galactica's senior officer. It had worked like a charm on the man. He was older and obviously not well acquainted with computers. He had barely even glanced at the program. But Athens was another story. She knew computers and would know immediately that the program was useless. And while she did seem to be flattered by his attentions, she did not seem to be distracted or influenced by them.

"Perhaps you could help me rewrite the program so that it looked more authentic?" He suggested, looking up at the taller woman, his eyes hopeful, pleading.

"In an hour? It can't be done, Gaius."

With a sigh, he flung the pages down on a nearby table and sank down on the stool beside it. He was so tired. He didn't think he had had a single full night's sleep since the attack. He constantly had to lie, and then lie again to cover his previous lies, and he was living in constant fear that someone would discover the truth and the part he had unwittingly played in the Cylon attack. Frequently, in his dreams, he saw the faces of all those people that had been left behind on Caprica. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take.

"What am I going to do?" he moaned, laying his head down on the table in despair.

"Oh, my poor baby," the blonde woman cooed, caressing his head. "Tell me, Gaius, what were you originally planning to do? Just randomly pick a crew member to label as a Cylon spy?"

"Well, yes, that was the original idea, but n-," he stopped speaking, and with a sudden gasp, sat up. "Athens! I'll implicate her. They'd believe me over her, wouldn't they?"

The blonde shrugged elegantly. "I doubt Cain would. I don't think she trusts you."

"But Adama would. He trusts me. He'd believe me and he's the one in command."

"Well, then, there you are. Problem solved."

"Yes," Baltar whispered. He was suddenly completely drained. He never would have guessed that it would be so exhausting just to maintain a few lies. He understood now why so many people advocated the truth. He needed to sleep. Just for a few minutes. He laid his head back down and on the table and closed his eyes...

Almost three-quarters of an hour later, Athens returned to the lab to find the doctor, slumped over one of the tables, sound asleep. She called his name softly, but he didn't wake. Wow, he must really be exhausted, she thought, in concern. Glancing around, she noted that nothing appeared to have been done. None of the hair samples had been touched, the program had not been loaded onto the computer, nothing.

Feeling sorry for the obviously worn out man, Athens retrieved the papers with the program printed on it and decided to get started by herself. She was an intelligent person. Surely she could figure it out without the doctor's help. Taking the pages over to the computer, she sat down to enter in the commands. But as she flipped through the pages, she realized that the program was useless. If run on a computer, it was designed to create colorful images on the screen, but those images would mean nothing. The program wouldn't actually analyze anything, but it would look like it was. It was a fake.

Athens turned to look at the sleeping man. You bastard! She wanted to scream at him, but she didn't. She was too shocked to do anything except sit and stare at the man in amazement. She had heard about what with this "Cylon detector" had been used for. You sent a potentially innocent man to die, just so you could look like the hero in front of Commander Adama, she fumed silently. And you were going to do it again to one of our people! You bastard! And I actually felt sorry for you!

I have to show this to Commander Cain. I have to tell her what this son-of-a-bitch has done. Standing, the young woman folded the program and tucked it into the chest pocket of her uniform. She left the room quietly, hoping the man would continue to sleep for the next few hours. She headed down to the flight deck at a run, hoping there was another shuttle to the Galactica leaving soon.

~*~*~*~

"So, we're going to try to take out a Cylon basestar?" Kara asked, in an attempt to start a conversation.

"That's the plan," Lee said.

The two were alone in Lee's office. He had just made the announcement of the mission to the pilots assembled in general quarters. He had told them that they still had a few hours before the formal briefing for the mission and had suggested they all try to get some sleep before then. He had excused everyone from any non-essential duties until further notice. Afterward Kara had followed him into his office and now she was pacing restlessly in front of his desk, where he sat doing paperwork.

"So, who's brilliant idea was this?" she asked.

"Cain's."

"Of course... Speaking of her, do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" he asked absently. Engrossed in his work, he was only peripherally following the conversation. He hadn't even looked up at her.

Kara stopped and leaned across his desk, placing her hands in the middle of his work, forcing him to look up.

"You know, earlier... You, Cain, alone in this room together..."

"Oh, that... No, I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Okay," she said and backed off, allowing him to return to his work. "So, did she try anything?"

"Kara, what did I just say?"

"Sorry," she said and resumed her pacing. After she had made two or three passes by the desk, she stopped in front of him again. "Okay. So, it is over between you two, right?"

"I am not discussing this with you."

"Why not?"

"Kara...!"

"Okay, okay," she said quickly, holding her hands up defensively.

She knew that she was annoying him, but she also knew him well enough to know that she hadn't yet crossed the line far enough to truly piss him off. But if she were going to get any information out of him, as she was determined to do, she would need to proceed very carefully. As she was planning her next mode of attack, she heard a noise behind her and turned to see Bridget Cain standing in the open doorway. Kara quickly turned back to Lee, giving him a significant look.

"Be nice," he ordered quietly as he stood to attention.

"Oh, can't I just hit her?" Kara whispered.

"No!"

"Please..." As soon as the word was out of her mouth, she regretted saying it. She had only been joking about hitting Cain, but it was obvious from Lee's expression that he was not amused. Damn, as usual, she had taken that one little step too far. Maybe Tigh was right, she thought, I don't know when to keep my mouth shut.

"Am I interrupting something?" Cain called from where she still stood in the doorway.

"No, sir," Lee said, glaring at Kara, "Lt. Thrace was just leaving."

With a sigh, she started towards the door, but stopped halfway there and turned back to him.

"I'm just going to be in general quarters," she said, gesturing over her shoulder. "So, if you need anything, just give me a shout."

"Fine," he said tightly.

"Right," she sighed as she turned back to the door.

"Lieutenant," Cain said, with a smug smile as Kara passed her.

"Commander," Kara said, deliberately not saluting.

"You know, I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that she doesn't like me," Cain commented dryly, after Kara had left.

"Can't imagine what gave you that idea. I'm sorry about her behavior, sir. She can be a little single-minded sometimes."

"It's quite all right. I seem to remember a few times in my life when I behaved a little single-mindedly, Cain said, staring at the captain intently. When he looked away, pointedly ignoring the comment, she stepped into the room, holding out a sheet of paper. "A list of all my surviving pilots," she explained. "Adama asked me to give it to you."

"Thank you," Lee said, accepting the page.

When he continued to stand at attention, Cain gave an exasperated sigh. "At ease, Captain. You may sit." After he had done so, she perched herself on the edge of the desk and gazed down at him. "Lee, do you think we could, please, dispense with all these wearisome military formalities?"

As there were no other chairs in the room, Lee did not bother to protest her choice of seats, but he did choose to ignore her question and instead, concentrated on the short list of names she had just given him. "There aren't very many," he commented.

"No, there aren't," she agreed sadly.

"Well, they can bolster our ranks. They'll be welcome additions."

"You know, Lee, I'm no longer your commanding officer. There would be nothing wrong with us having a relationship now. Hell, I don't even think it would matter now, if I were still your CO. From what I've seen around here, the rules against fraternization seem to have been relaxed a bit."

"Could we, please, stick to the topic at hand?" Lee asked.

"Wasn't that why you wanted a transfer off the Pegasus? You were concerned about what would happen to your career if someone found out about us? A valid concern, I will admit, but one that no longer applies."

"That wasn't the only reason and you know it... Now, tell me about these pilots. What kind of experience do they have? I need to know how I can integrate them in with my squadrons."

"They're almost all rookies. That's why they weren't out with the initial group."

"Oh, great, more rookies. Already got plenty of them... So, how many of them have you slept with?"

"Oh, did I just detect emotion peeking through that icy exterior? A note of jealousy, perhaps?" Cain asked, smiling.

"No!" he said quickly, but was forced to look down to hide his rising blush. It was one of the things he hated about being so fair-skinned; even a slight blush was blatantly obvious on him.

"I assure you, Lee, my bed has been empty since you left the Pegasus."

"I very much doubt that."

"It's true, Lee."

Looking into her eyes, he saw that she was telling the truth and immediately, he regretted the tactless comment.

"There were a couple of others before you," Cain continued, moving around the desk so that she was now facing him. "But there was no one else while we were together and there has been no one else since you left. Is that what the problem was? Surely you weren't thinking that I was a virgin?"

"Uh, no! ...It's just that Ronin said-."

"We've been through this, Lee," Cain interrupted. "Ronin was jealous of you. He wanted you off the Pegasus."

"Why would he be jealous of me? Because he wanted you?"

"Because he knew that you could do his job better than he could."

"Yeah, well, none of that changes the fact that you admitted that the only reason you offered me a commission was because you wanted to sleep with me. How the hell do you think that made me feel?"

"I never said that was the only reason. I offered you a commission because you were a damn good pilot. The fact that you were also damn good- looking and damn desirable simply meant that I also offered you my bed. But I would never offer a commission to an incompetent pilot regardless of how attractive he was."

"So, you would have made me the offer, even if I was... the ugliest man alive, even if I was... a woman?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"If all you were interested in was 'damn good' pilots, why didn't you offer a commission to Kara Thrace?" Lee asked, gesturing vaguely towards the general quarters.

"For the same reason that no one else offered her one. She had already established herself as a discipline problem. I don't care how good that pilot is, no commander wants a discipline problem on his ship."

With a sigh, Lee nodded. He couldn't argue with that. It was true. The only offers Kara had received upon completing her Viper training had been the offer to teach at Flight School and an offer from Adama. Kara had chosen the teaching position, claiming that it would allow her to stay close to Zac, which was true, but Lee had always suspected that it was more a matter of pride that had prevented her from accepting Adama's offer.

"Lee, when this is over, when we've destroyed that basestar, I'm going to need to rebuild my squadron and I'm going to need a good CAG for that. I want you to come back to the Pegasus."

"What? I can't... What about the Galactica?"

"Well, you and your father both seem so impressed with this Lt. Thrace, she can take over. She is senior pilot after you, isn't she?"

"Yes, but..." This was too much for Lee. There had already been too much emotionally charged information heaped on him in these last few minutes for him to try and assimilate this as well. Abruptly standing, he moved to the middle of the room, as if to physically distance himself from his conflicted feelings. "How do you know all this? Did you talk to my father about this?"

"No, not yet. I just asked a few questions, that's all."

"Well, don't. I'm not leaving the Galactica."

Cain stood and moved to join him. "Now that your father has you on board his ship, he's got you under his thumb. Right where he's always wanted you. How long do you think it'll be before he starts trying to control your life, just like he did Zac's? I mean, for the Lords' sake, Lee, he's got you flying his old Mark 2 Viper. Is this some egocentric way for him to relive his youth and glory days vicariously through you?"

"No, no, it's not like that. The Viper-thing, that wasn't his idea... It's a long story."

"Fine, whatever. Please, just think about my offer."

"I don't need to. I can't leave him now. I'm all he has left and I've hurt him enough already. I won't leave him."

"You've hurt him?"

"Yes, I've hurt him badly and I don't want to do that anymore. I won't leave the Galactica."

"You've changed," she said, reaching out to lightly caress his face.

"Losing everything will do that to you."

"Was it really so bad when we were together?"

He didn't answer, but turned his face away.

"You have to admit the sex was pretty fantastic," she said.

He had to smile at that and again, felt himself beginning to blush.

"Lords, you are so easy," she whispered, sliding her hand to the back of his neck and drawing him into a deep kiss. After a moment, she let her hands drift down to rest on his hips and anchor him in place. She had him alone. She was not going to let him slip away again.

Lee knew he needed to stop this before it went any further. He had been down this path before and it wasn't a healthy one. He needed to stop this. He raised his hands to her shoulders to push her away, but he didn't. His hands just rested there, as if awaiting further instructions. His brain was screaming at his body to push her away. But it seemed that his body was no longer taking orders from his brain. It was now taking orders from her body. With only the slightest pressure from her, his lips willingly parted to allow her tongue access to his mouth. One of her hands snaked around to squeeze a firmly rounded buttock and Lee involuntarily rewarded her with a deep-throated moan.

It was supremely unfair, he decided, that women were able to have so much more control over their bodies than men. A woman could say no to sex and her body would not betray her, but there was very little Lee could do to disguise his obvious growing need. At some other point in his life, he probably could have maintained enough control to take charge of the situation. But not now, not after all the intense, emotional upheaval he had been experiencing these past months. His defenses were already weakened, leaving him vulnerable to this type of attack and he had no reserves to help him combat this. It had been so long and his body was so desperately craving this contact, this release. He was somewhat embarrassed to realize that he was trembling in anticipation.

Feeling that he needed to offer some sort of token resistance, he forced himself to break away from the kiss to, at least, verbally protest. Unfortunately, all he managed was to weakly gasp out, "No, Bridget, don't, please..."

Cain gave a low, throaty chuckle, easily overriding this pathetic attempt at defiance. "Your lips may say no, Lee, but your body is definitely saying yes," she purred, moving in for the kill.

Leaning in close, she pressed her mouth to his neck to suckle and lightly bite the tender flesh. She actually felt the exact moment when the last vestiges of his resistance crumbled away and his body surrendered and became pliant in her arms. He groaned softly and arched his body slightly into hers. Oh yes, her victory was close at hand. She had learned long ago, that when it came to this deeply repressed young man, sometimes one had to push the issue. Granted Cain knew that she had taken unfair advantage of her prior carnal knowledge of her conquest. She knew quite well that Lee's highly sensitive neck was a primary erogenous target. Once that objective was achieved, the effects were immediate and satisfying. She had the young captain completely at her mercy now. He was no longer putting up the pretense of fighting her, but was returning her kisses in earnest. Lords, she had forgotten what a talented kisser he was.

Lee Adama could often come across as cold and unfeeling. Cain remembered that on the Pegasus he had often been referred to as the Human Cylon behind his back. He was as efficient, skilled and dependable as any machine, but also like a machine, he could be perceived as dispassionate and uncaring. But Cain had had the privilege of learning first hand that that exterior of cool reserve was just a façade. With patience and persistence, she had managed to ease past those defenses to discover a very conscientious, fiercely private, and surprisingly vulnerable, young man. And while he had been relatively inexperienced in the ways of men and women, he was quick to learn and eager to please, a most endearing combination in any lover.

Sliding one hand up to Lee's chest, she undid the buttons of his black duty uniform. Pushing the shirt off his shoulders, she tugged the tails free from his pants and let the garment slip to the floor. Attacking the two regulation undershirts next, she pulled them off and was at last able to slide her hands over the bare skin of his flat stomach and firm chest. His flesh felt fever-hot and she pressed herself against him, wanting to be consumed by his heat.

She experienced a thrill of possessive dominance as she felt his body shiver at her touch. It had always delighted her, that for someone who took such pride in his rigid self-control, his body was amazingly responsive to tactile stimuli. She also found it incredibly erotic to see all that careful restraint come completely undone and to know that she was the cause of it.

His breath was coming in ragged pants now and she knew that it was time to move this seduction along. Once again grasping his hips, she began to maneuver him back towards the bed. When the backs of his legs come in contact with the bed, she pushed him down. Lying back, propped up on his elbows, Lee watched as she stepped back to undress.

Despite her age, Bridget Cain had a firm, well-toned body. The fact of the matter was, she enjoyed the company and attentions of much younger men and in order to hold those attentions, one had to look better than the competition and Bridget worked very hard to maintain her athletic figure. And from Lee's appreciative half smile, she knew that her efforts had not been in vain. Climbing into the bed beside him, she finished divesting him of his uniform. As she did so, he reached out and withdrew the long pins from her hair, releasing the mane of black curls. Laughing as he buried his hands in those luxurious locks, she leaned in and began to seriously reacquaint herself with this body that she had so greatly missed and had thought lost forever...

To be continued...