A Book By Its Cover

This story and all themes and ideas contained in said story are the sole ownership of J.L. Scott. Any copyright infringements can be prosecuted in a court of law.

To borrow a phrase: Battlestar Galactica no mine...no money, no sue, please?

"They're landing"

"What?" Ariel was in a tree. Lee had given her a lift onto the first branch and she had climbed almost all the way to the top, where she stopped to look out over the gorge where her village had once been. Lee hadn't even realized they were near it until she said something. He'd had to admit that she was more familiar with the territory, knew where to go, should be in charge for now. She started climbing down, and he moved to stand under the last branch. He put his hands up for her to slide into. Her bare feet lightly touched the ground. His hands were still on either side of her. She looked up into his eyes. Hers were like the ocean, in the tropics, on Caprica. Aqua, tranquil, mysterious. He let her go. She stepped away.

"They're landing" she repeated her earlier report, "Why would they be landing? They destroyed the village, there's nothing left"

"I don't know" he replied, "Why were the firing on the village in the first place?" Her mouth opened and then shut.

"I have no idea what robots would be looking for in a village with almost no technology."

"They had to be looking for something, think something was here" Lee said.

"If that's true, they're going to be sending out search parties" Ariel surmised, "We're going to have to keep moving" Lee looked at her like she was crazy. His uniform was sweaty and his eyelids were heavy. She wasn't tired. He only knew one person who never got tired, no matter how long the days were or how hard the work was. Despite that suspicion, the logic it made in his head, he couldn't believe it. Wouldn't. Simply didn't.

"We have to rest" he replied, "We're both exhausted and we're going to need food soon" Ariel was quiet for a second.

"I only know one place to go, and it's going to take us a while to get there" she said. Lee nodded. Ariel looked up at the sky through the trees, then back towards the village. Where the village had been anyway.

"It's going to be dark soon. We'll have to find somewhere to sleep. And it's going to rain"

"Great" Lee said, not excited about spending the night in the rain with the Cylons starting to comb the area. He raked his brain, trying to think of a reason, any reason, why the Cylons would be interested in the small planet. Why they would want to destroy the village of human beings that had never even heard of them. The only thing he could come up with was that they were immoral murders, bent on the complete destruction of humanity for no bigger reason than that was what they were programmed to do. Programmed by who, though?

"Grab some branches" Ariel was saying. She had laid the strip of cloth ripped from her dress on the ground and was filling it with twigs and bigger bits of wood, "Might as well get wood before it gets wet" Lee bent and gathered some larger branches that were littering the ground, and wondered how she could stand to walk around barefoot out here.

"We rarely wear shoes" she told him, though he knew he hadn't said anything out loud. His eyes narrowed. This was not the first time she'd answered something he'd been thinking but hadn't actually said. His suspicions rose again, but his mind was fighting with his feelings. He trusted her, and he didn't know why in light of the fact that there were more than enough signs that she was a Cylon for him to hold a gun on her. He wasn't used to his feelings being strong enough to fight his mind.

Ariel tied the ends of the cloth together to cover the wood and straightened up. The sun shining through the leaves brandished her hair with an ethereal glow, throwing her face into soft shadow, making her seem like something from the story books his mother read to him as a small child. Those creatures had been magical.

"We're going to be heading into the mountains, away from the sea" she told him, "If someone comes back for us we won't be anywhere near where they left us"

"They'll expect us to be on the move" Lee assured her. He saw the doubt in her eyes, though.

"They'll be back for us" he promised, "Starbuck'll make sure of it" Another look crossed her eyes but Lee couldn't figure out what it meant. She nodded at him, took a deep breath and started walking.

"Starbuck" Adama warned her quietly. She spun around, angry eyes throwing daggers.

"They just left him, sir!"

"He volunteered to stay with the President, sir" the pilot who had been flying the last raptor and had been suffering Starbuck's vicious tirade for it tried to defend himself, "And we didn't have much of a choice. President Nimon gave her spot up to get the last two children onboard"

"We have to go back for him, sir" Starbuck said, ignoring the pilot now.

"We will" Adama promised, "But we're not going to be able to just fly back and make a landing. We need a plan" Starbuck was quietly fuming, knowing that the Old Man was certainly right. The Cylons weren't going to be leaving that planet anytime soon.

Night had descended more quickly than Lee would have thought. The rain started soon after, but by that time they already had a fire going and Ariel had constructed a roof of sorts out of tree branches. It was just big enough for them to huddle under. Their feet were still getting wet. Lee leaned against the tree that was helping to provide cover, just thinking maybe the fire wasn't the greatest idea. If the Cylons didn't spot the light it was giving off, they could see the smoke.

"This wood burns pretty pure" Ariel said, poking the fire with a stick, "It doesn't give off much smoke and the light is dim. Under the cover of the trees they probably won't see it"

"How do you do that?" Ariel looked at him, startled.

"What?"

"Know what I'm thinking before I say anything" Lee expounded, although he was thinking she'd probably known what he meant.

"I don't know what you're thinking" she laughed, but nervously, "It was a logical thing to be thinking about. You're a solider, after all"

"I'm a fighter pilot" Lee corrected.

"You still had to go through some sort of basic military training" she replied, "And I'm sure they said something about the pros and cons of building a fire in enemy territory" Lee supposed she had a point. The fire was small, after all, though it was providing quite a bit of heat. Lee wondered if there was something about the wood that made it burn hotter.

"It seems odd to think of my home as enemy territory" she said. The fire was reflecting in her aqua eyes. She shivered as a rain drop rolled down her back. The night was cold and the rain wasn't helping. Lee wished he could offer her a coat, but he didn't have one. The notion was more chivalrous than he considered himself to be anyway.

"I know what you mean" he replied instead. The Cylons were inhabiting his home now too. Living in his apartment, his father's house. He thought of them looking down at his brother's grave, next to his mother's, and a stifling rage started to build up inside him. He quickly changed the images playing in his mind to something happier, a childhood scene of him and Zach.

"It's not easy to lose everything in an instant. Homes, family, friends" she went on, staring into the fire without really seeing it, "Did you have family, Apollo? Wife, kids?"

"No" Lee answered, somewhat painfully. No, he'd never found a woman that had pierced his heart. He had finally given into the fact that he probably never would, long ago, before Zach had ever found Kara.

"I had a brother, but he died a few years ago. You?" he asked, although he already knew the answer. He would've known had she had a husband and children. Siblings, perhaps, though. Perhaps she too had lost a sibling. She shook her head.

"No"

"We should get some sleep" Lee suggested, trying to put his body in a more comfortable position for that purpose, "We'll need to start as soon as the sun comes up" He waited for Ariel to close her eyes before closing his.

"We would first like to thank you for saving our people" the stricken middle aged woman Laura remembered as being named Leslie said earnestly, leaning forward slightly, "We realize it put your Fleet in danger, and want you to know it is much appreciated"

"I'm sorry we couldn't save more" Laura replied with a sad smile of her own. There was a light dancing above the woman's head. It wasn't real.

"We were wondering, however," the large man, Andrew, continued, "If there is any hope of rescuing Ariel, that is, President Nimon"

"I'm sure that Commander Adama is planning a rescue mission" Laura smiled at the four council members who were all white and wane, still trying to cope with the fact that less than a hundred of their people had survived the Cylon attack.

"Is it true that Apollo is with her?" Anna, the younger woman, asked. Laura nodded.

"Yes, Captain Apollo stayed behind with her. I'm sure he'll make sure that she's fine" Laura answered, believing in her own promise. She must be careful of that. The last three months had jaded her.

"Please, will you tell us…if anything changes?" Leslie requested and again Laura gave her that small sad smile.

"Of course"