A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews. Glad everyone is enjoying this.
Chapter 3
Colonial One
Elosha listened attentively to what Roslin described to her. As she continued, Elosha took on an air of deep thought.
"You speak of the prophecy of the outsider," she said once Roslin had finished. "It tells of a man who will have risked his very life to cross the galaxy, only to be found by humanity. He will come with wondrous things, but he will also be suspect as he will not share humanity's culture."
"Is this man from Earth?" Roslin asked.
"Most likely he is. He may already be on Kobol. We will have to wait and see what happens."
"The Galactica jumped to Kobol a few hours ago," Billy told them. "Obviously we haven't heard anything since then."
"Then perhaps we should initiate a jump of our own," Roslin suggested.
But Billy shook his head.
"The pilots have the coordinates, but they're under orders not to execute them until they receive word from Galactica, or if there's an attack."
"Then all we can do is pray," Roslin sighed.
As if someone were listening, the pilots came on the speakers at that moment.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we've just received word from Galactica that conditions around Kobol are safe and will be jumping to meet them momentarily."
"Someone's listening," Elosha pointed out.
"So it would seem," Roslin smiled.
Amongst the fleet, ships began to wink out of normal space as they quickly covered the distance from their position to Kobol.
Caprica
Kara crouched behind a pile of rubble and watched as another group of Centurions attempted to enter the Delphi Museum of History. Again, she aimed and fired her gun, taking each out in turn. She'd seen the blonde, hiding behind her own pile of rubble.
So she's not dead, yet, she'd thought.
Helo had filled in the rest. Each model had an undetermined number of clones. When one died, their conscious was transferred to the next one to become active. Apparently when Kara had killed the blonde in the museum, something had happened to cause this one to want bloodthirsty revenge.
Beside her, Helo fired another shot and took out an approaching Centurion. He'd had more experience against these new models, on more levels than Kara would have liked. She shot the Cylon Sharon a hard glance and turned her attention back to the battle at hand.
It seemed that no matter how many Centurions they shot, there were always more to take their place. This had been the case for several hours now and Kara decided a new plan was in order.
"You," she said to Sharon, "why don't you go out there and tell your friends to lay off."
"They're not my friends, not anymore they're not," she told her. "If I go out there, they'll kill me."
"Which'll give us enough time to get out of here," Kara said, indicating just her and Helo.
"No, Kara, I won't let you sacrifice Sharon like that. There has to be another way."
"And you're just a fracking toaster lover!" Kara yelled at him.
She nearly turned her gun on him, so consumed with rage she was. At the last moment she checked herself.
"No, it's what they want. They want us to kill each other."
She scanned the battlefield before her. Something about the layout struck her as very familiar.
"The tylium mine," she whispered.
"What?" Helo asked.
"I have an idea," she said and disappeared into the shadows.
"Kara? Kara? Frack!" he said, turning his attention back to the Centurions.
He shot several more Centurions down, but still they came for him. A movement near the blonde caught his eye.
"Miss me?" Kara said, appearing behind Six as if out of thin air.
"You…" she tried but was cut off as Kara launched herself at her.
Kara managed to land a few punches before Six was able to recover. Once she did, her counterattack was brutal. A few well placed punches to Kara's head, face and chest launched the human towards the pile of rubble she had been using for cover. Up ahead, all of the Centurions turned their heads, ready to assist their leader.
"No, leave her to me," Six commanded, making her way over to the fallen Kara.
"By your command," they chorused in unison.
Several more fell as the humans in the museum ahead kept firing at them. A few shots came in Six's direction, but missed.
Six moved closer to Kara, revenge blazing in her eyes. The human had been so foolish to sleep with the man she loved. She knew she was jealous, but she was not angry at Gaius Baltar. He was only human, after all. She had not cared that he'd been with other women. This one, however, had pushed her jealousy over the edge. "Killing" her had not helped matters.
But it appeared the human wasn't unconscious, as Six had thought. Kara suddenly came to life and grabbed a piece of concrete and launched it at Six, narrowly missing. It was enough, however, to distract the Cylon. Kara got to her feet and launched herself at Six once more, knocking the machine off of her feet.
Pinning her, Kara picked up another nearby piece of concrete.
"Take this, you Cylon bitch!" Kara yelled and raised the concrete over her head.
"It doesn't matter what you do to me, Starbuck. I will never forget you. I will find you and I will kill you," Six said as Kara brought the concrete violently down on her head.
"Kara, stop!" Helo yelled, having emerged from his hiding spot. "She's dead."
Kara dropped the stone and stood. She kicked Six in the side for good measure. The machine did not get up.
"See you later," she said spitting on the immobile form.
Helo and Sharon stared at each other.
"Now we get off this fracked up planet," Kara said and walked away.
Galactica
Captain Lee Adama sat in the cockpit of his Mark VII Viper. Around him, ground crew readied his ship for launch as well as several Raptors filling up with Marines. A movement out of his eye drew him out of his quiet reflection.
"Almost ready?" Colonel Tigh asked him.
"Just about," he responded. "As soon as the Marines are ready, we'll launch and recover our men."
"Good. As soon as we have this mess behind us we can jump out of here and move on."
"Maybe we'll find Earth now," Lee told him.
"Now I don't need you worrying about the hallucinations of a madwoman right now. I need you focused, Lee."
"Of course," Lee said resignedly.
"I know you'll do you're job, Lee. If not you'd be in the brig right beside Valerii, gods have mercy on her soul."
"I'm not doing this just for you, Sir," Lee told him. "I'm doing it for my father and because it's what's right."
Tigh nodded, glad to hear that Lee was thinking of the mission.
"Good hunting," he said and left.
Ground technicians placed Lee's helmet on his head and ensured that the seal was intact. Satisfied, they tapped on the glass and gave the thumbs up. Closing the canopy, Lee waited as they moved his Viper into the launch tube. When he was given the go, Lee tensed as the pressures of the magnetic catapult launched him down the tube and into the silence of space.
Once there, Lee checked to ensure the Raptors had gotten off fine.
"Let's go in," he ordered.
One Viper and three Raptors angled towards the blue planet of Kobol, and thus closer to fulfilling humanity's destiny.
Kobol
Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol could not believe his eyes. Approaching him where two people he knew, but also a man he had never seen before in his life. And what they carried was equally unbelievable.
"Cally, Doctor Baltar?" he asked, unsure of himself.
"It's us," Cally told him.
"And you are?" he asked, casting an eye towards the man with them.
"I'm…" he began to reply.
"Chief, he's from Earth," Cally interrupted, excitement in her voice.
"What? How?"
"I'm not sure myself," the man told him. "We didn't even expect to meet any humans when we set out."
"We?" Tyrol asked, looking around for others.
"They're probably dead," the man told him. "The hard drives containing them were corrupted.
"What?" Tyrol asked, completely confused.
"It's a rather long story," Baltar said, trying to move things away from the strange man. "But it is clear he's not from here."
Tyrol looked from the Doctor to Cally and then to the strange object Baltar and the man carried.
"What's that?" he asked.
"My ship," the man told him.
"Not possible," he whispered.
A noise in the sky made everyone look up. The unmistakable form of a Mark VII Viper flew low over the trees and over their position. Cally waved, recognizing the ship of Captain Adama, while the man stared in awe.
"What in the name of God is that?" he asked, drawing a stare from Baltar.
"Mark VII Viper," Tyrol told him, knowing the ship well. "Best fighter craft in the entire Colonial Fleet."
"Makes the F-18 look like a recreational plane," the man observed.
"Well I don't know what that is," Tyrol observed, "But seeing that Viper is the best thing I've seen all day. We're going home."
The man looked again and saw more ships. These struck him as familiar, even though they weren't.
"More Vipers?" he asked.
"Raptors," Cally told him.
The three ships circled their position, before leveling off for a landing several feet away. Their doors opened and disgorged their complement of Marines. The troops fanned out, while a few made their way to the survivors of Raptor 1. Seeing the man, though, caused a few to raise guns.
"It's alright. He's human," Cally told them.
"We can't be sure," the sergeant in charge said.
"I can vouch for him," Baltar said, though he did cast another stare at the man.
"We saw indications of a battle down here. Everyone ok?"
"We're ok," Tyrol responded, wondering what the Marine was talking about.
"Where are the rest of you?" the Marine asked.
"We're scattered. The Cylons caught us by surprise and we fanned out. I had to carry Socinus," Tyrol said, indicating the still unconscious deckhand.
"Sir, we've found some of the others," another Marine reported over the radio. "Or at least what's left of them. They're all dead, sir."
Cally and Tyrol looked down at the ground, quietly remembering their fallen friends. Baltar only looked away, knowing it could have been him had Six not taken him to the ruined opera house.
"I'm sorry," the man said after a moment's silence.
"They did their duty," was all Tyrol could say.
"Let's get you all home," the Marine sergeant said.
The four survivors nodded and as Tyrol carried the still unconscious Socinus, Baltar and the man each picked up his craft and made their way to the nearest Raptor. A few Marines cast a suspicious glance at the man, but none moved to prevent him from bringing his craft along, thinking it to be something they'd found on the planet.
As the three Raptors took off, no one saw attached to the bottom a small device.
Caprica
Helo stared at Kara's captured Raider, wondering what to make of it. He shook his head at Kara's story as to how she'd captured it.
"So this is our way out of here?" he asked, somewhat incredulously.
"Unless you have a better idea, then yeah, it's our way out of here," Kara told him.
"Do you think there's enough room?" Sharon asked.
"You should know," Kara glared at her.
"Kara," Helo warned.
"She's right, Helo. I should know, but I don't. I was never briefed on the abilities of the military, just the nature of humanity."
"Or so you say," Kara said.
Helo sighed. This had to stop.
"Ok, look Kara. She's a Cylon, ok. We know that. Can we settle this when we get back to the Galactica?"
"I can," Sharon said. "Can you, Starbuck?"
"Yeah, Boomer," Kara said, using Sharon's callsign with scorn.
"Enough!" Helo yelled. "I just want off this fracked up planet."
"Sure, let's go," Kara said, gripping the Arrow of Apollo and climbing inside the Raider.
Helo helped Sharon into the interior of the Raider and then climbed in as well. Once he was inside and had dogged the hatch, he realized how tight the fit was for the three of them.
"I sure hope we can take off like this," he observed.
"Only one way to find out," Kara said as she powered up the systems.
Helo let out a deep sigh of relief when the Raider did indeed lift off from the ground. With awe, he watched as Kara worked the controls, or whatever passed for them, and maneuvered the ship up through Caprica's ruined atmosphere.
Once they were in space, there was a tense moment as a squadron of Raiders passed by their ship, but, as Kara had said they would, they passed without incident. Punching in the Galactica's last known coordinates, Kara spun up the FTL drives and prepared to jump.
"Are you sure the Galactica's still where it was when you left?" Sharon asked.
"Why wouldn't it be there?" Kara asked.
"I'm not sure. I believe I received a message from my clone on Galactica saying they had jumped. She didn't say where."
"You said you weren't with the Cylons anymore," Kara growled.
"I can still hear them. I just choose to ignore them," Sharon told her.
"Well, there's only one other place they could have gone," she said, punching in a new set of coordinates. "Stand by for jump."
As they left Caprica behind for the last time, the Raider winked out of normal space.
