Chapter 12

Kara hesitated again as she approached the hatch to her quarters. She wanted to kick herself over how utterly ridiculous she was being, but every time she returned to that room she felt a near overwhelming sense of dread. It usually eased off once she was inside, but only if she didn't stay for long. She didn't plan on staying long this time. She had just completed her morning run and only needed to grab her shower kit and a change of clothes.

Bracing herself, she pulled open the door. As soon as she did, she saw Ensign Karo snooping around inside her locker. "What the frak are you doing Stinger?"

Stinger jumped back, looking very much like a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Um, I was just..."

Kara walked right up to the junior pilot and held out her hand. "Hand it over," she ordered him.

"It?" he replied with exaggerated innocence.

Kara glared at him. "I know damn well you're the one who's been filching my stogies, you klepto. Now hand it over!"

Looking very sheepish and contrite, Stinger produced the stolen cigar from his sleeve and placed it into Starbuck's palm. "I didn't think you were using them any more."

Starbuck snatched back her cigar. "What the frakking business is it of yours whether I do or not? And didn't Apollo bust your ass once already for swiping other people's property?"

Stinger fidgeted under Starbuck's harsh gaze. "Well, yeah but..."

"But what?"

"That was just a pack of gum. He just gave me the lecture and let it drop."

"I don't give a frak!" Starbuck shouted, making Stinger wince. "Now you've had all the warnings you're going to get. It stops! Now! Do you understand?"

Stinger was visibly shaken. "Yeah. Yeah, I understand."

Kara calmed down and her harsh expression softened. "Look Stinger, it's not about gum and cigars. We need to know that we can trust you. Can we?"

"Y-yeah," Stinger said, still obviously nervous. "Yeah, sure."

"Apollo trusted you," she said.

Stinger looked downright scared now. "Wh-what?"

"When he talked to you about this before, I'm sure you told him it wouldn't happen again. Didn't you?" Starbuck inquired keenly.

Stinger didn't reply. He just dropped his eyes guiltily.

Kara actually felt a little sorry for being so hard on the kid, but he needed to learn this lesson. "Just because Apollo didn't write you up or toss you in the brig, did you think your word didn't matter? Did you think he'd forget?"

Stinger winced. He couldn't look Starbuck in the eye.

Kara still wasn't ready to let up on him yet. "Or did you just think that because Apollo isn't around to keep an eye on you, it was okay to break your word to him?"

Stinger shook his head. "No, I just..."

"You just didn't think you'd get caught."

"I'm sorry," Stinger said softly.

"I hope so," Starbuck said. "Because I'm not as forgiving as Apollo. If you break your word to me... Gods help you."

Stinger fidgeted and cleared his throat. "It won't happen Starbuck."

"Good. Now get going." Stinger took off out of the room at a half-run. Kara just sighed and almost cracked up laughing. "I swear that kid still thinks like a ten year-old."

She stepped up to her locker, which still had the door standing open, and took a quick look around. Nothing else appeared to be out of place. She crouched down and slipped the stolen cigar back into the box on the floor of the locker and shoved the box toward the back where it belonged. Stinger had been right about one thing. She hadn't smoked in almost 2 weeks. The last time had been at the card game with Apollo on the night that he'd...

She shook her head to clear that train of thought. She grabbed her towel and shower kit. Then her eyes settled on the photograph taped to her locker door. Lee's miniature image looked back at her. She missed him. She missed him terribly. He had been gone from Galactica for two days now, recuperating on Colonial One. It was true that she hadn't visited Lee even when he was recovering locally in sickbay, but it was somehow different when he was at least nearby, instead of completely inaccessible on another ship altogether. She couldn't drop by and see him now even if she tried. That thought brought yet another familiar pang of guilt. She'd felt them a lot over the past several days.

She stared at the photograph and whispered. "I couldn't see you Lee. I just couldn't. I'm sorry."

The photograph stared back silently. Lee's face almost looked like he was frowning at her, disappointed. "I'm sorry," she said again, then hurriedly shut the locker door.

Kara was almost feeling like her own self again by the time she showered, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed down to the flight deck. There was something oddly soothing to Kara about the bustle of Vipers and Raptors, pilots and mechanics, all going about their daily business. It conveyed a sense of normalcy that was missing from Kara's life in so many other ways. She descended the ladder to the crew deck, looking forward to having nothing more to worry about than slippages in the repair schedules due to supply shortages. Instead she was greeted by the very grim expressions on the faces of Chief Tyrol and Crewman Specialist Cally.

"What's up?" she asked warily.

Chief Tyrol responded gravely, "Cally has just confirmed with the flight crews that two more Red Needles have gone missing."

Kara took a very slow breath. "Great," she muttered. "One idiot tries it and gives everybody else ideas." Cally frowned at the lieutenant, but held her tongue. "Who are we talking about?" Kara asked.

Cally exchanged a quick look with the Chief, and then replied, "Ensign Karo and Lieutenant Mullins."

Kara's eyes opened slightly wider. "Stinger and Frosty?"

"Yes Sir," the Chief confirmed.

"Frak me," Kara breathed.

It took over an hour to locate both Karo and Mullins and get them seated in the pilots' briefing room. Starbuck let the two pilots sit in there by themselves for several minutes while everything else was arranged. Finally she entered by the door at the back of the room. The two men were talking in low tones as she stepped inside.

"Relax Lou," Frosty was saying. "I told you, you've got nothing to worry about."

Starbuck walked in and as soon as they noticed her arrival both men rose to their feet at attention. "As you were," Starbuck told them. They sat back down with questioning looks on their faces. Starbuck stood directly in front of them and fixed them with a steely gaze. "Now," she said, "anything you boys want to tell me?"

Frosty and Stinger looked at each other. Then Frosty replied, "I'm sorry Starbuck. We don't know what this is all about."

Kara kept her face stern, but calm. "Sergeant Hadrian is at this very moment conducting a search of your lockers. She is checking your racks. She will check inside your socks, in every pocket, and through every single one of your personal possessions, inch by inch. Now, would either of you like to tell me if she is going to find anything of interest?"

Both men looked at each other again, but still appeared mystified. Stinger spoke up, "It was just the one cigar, I swear! Okay, I – I took one about a week ago, and another one a week before that... maybe two. But I don't have them anymore. I smoked 'em already. But I'll pay you back Starbuck."

Kara licked her lips and shook her head. "We've already talked about the cigars Stinger. What I want to hear about are needles."

"Needles?" Frosty inquired.

"Yes. Bright shiny red ones."

Stinger looked thoroughly confused. Frosty echoed his partner's unspoken sentiment. "Lieutenant, we don't know anything about Red Needles. I mean we know about them, of course, but as for what that has to do with..."

"Yours are missing boys. The Chief's confirmed it. Now I want to know where they are."

"Starbuck, we don't know," Frosty said.

"We? You can read Stinger's mind?" Starbuck asked.

"He's not that hard a read," Frosty quipped. Stinger just looked blankly back and forth between Frosty and Starbuck.

Starbuck fixed her gaze on Stinger and asked, "Well Stinger? If it's there, we will find it."

"I-I don't have any idea where it is. Really," Stinger insisted nervously.

Starbuck crossed her arms and regarded them both coolly. "We'll see. Won't we?"

They waited for nearly half an hour before Sergeant Hadrian appeared at the back of the briefing room and waved to catch Starbuck's attention. Starbuck met with the Master-at-Arms just outside the room.

"Did you find them?" Starbuck asked.

"No," Hadrian replied. "However, we did come across something odd." She handed a file folder to Starbuck. "It was tucked way in the back, underneath Lieutenant Mullins' mattress."

Starbuck flipped open the folder and scanned through the pages inside. "What are these?"

"I'm not sure," the Master-at-Arms replied. "They look like message transcripts of some kind."

Starbuck nodded. "Yeah they do. Looks like inter-ship communications. Pretty boring stuff but..."

"But why is Lieutenant Mullins hiding it under his mattress?"

"Exactly." Starbuck closed up the folder. "Show this to Petty Officer Dualla in CIC. See if she can confirm what it is. I'll keep Frosty here for the time being."

"Yes Sir."

Starbuck walked back up to the front of the room. "Hey Frosty... you sure there's nothing you want to tell me?"

Frosty looked up at Starbuck calmly, but Stinger looked stunned. He stared at his partner. "You took the Needles?" he gasped.

Frosty rolled his eyes. "Of course not," he said to Stinger. Then he looked at Starbuck and insisted, "I didn't."

"Okay," Starbuck nodded. "But was there something else that Sergeant Hadrian might have found interesting?"

Frosty sat back in his chair and dropped his eyes down. "Okay. I confess."

Starbuck and Stinger both perked up.

Frosty looked up again. "I confess. I like looking at pictures of naked women. I know it doesn't conform to regulations... but... I'm a guy!"

Starbuck closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Frosty," Starbuck growled, "if you need to get off on photographs because you can't get near the real thing, I don't give a shit!"

"Then what the frak is the problem?" Frosty asked.

"You've got porn?" Stinger asked his friend.

Starbuck rolled her eyes. "Stinger, why don't you just take off for now. But don't forget... we will find those Needles. So help me, if you're lying to me..."

"I'm not lying," Stinger said.

"Get out of here." Starbuck jerked her head toward the door. Stinger hurried to leave the room.

"He's not lying," Frosty said. "Come on Starbuck. He's a pretty decent pilot because he loves to blow things up and he's got a good eye for targets, but we're not talking about some evil mastermind here. The kid can barely find his way to the head without being lead by the hand."

"Well it's a good thing he's got you to lead him around then isn't it?"

"I look after him," Frosty agreed. "That's what friends are for. Just like you and Apollo, right?"

Starbuck wasn't sure if Frosty intended that remark as a dig or if he was being sincere. "Right," was all she said.

Commander Adama felt like he had been chasing shadows for two days. He poured over the wireless logs every day, but came up with nothing suspicious. The Red Needle that Lee had allegedly used to kill himself was sent back to the lab for additional testing. Nothing was turned up except confirmation that traces of Lee's blood were on it. Sergeant Hadrian conducted subsequent interviews with every pilot, including all of Lee's roommates. The only thing that remotely tied anyone to Tom Zarek was the fact that both Lt. Mullins and Ensign Karo were from Sagittarron, Tom Zarek's own home world and the colony that he represented on the Quorum of Twelve. It was a fact that William noted, but he didn't want to proceed down the path of profiling people solely on the basis of their birthplace. After all, Petty Officer Dualla was also from Sagittarron and William knew she would never ally herself with Tom Zarek for any purpose whatsoever.

Repeatedly, William found himself returning to the same point at which he'd begun. And the truth of it was that all of the real evidence surrounding Lee's near-death pointed to attempted suicide. There was absolutely nothing concrete to indicate the existence of a murder conspiracy. If it was a conspiracy, the mastermind had covered his tracks very well.

William had no contact with Lee while he was on Colonial One. He only kept tabs on his son through his own visits with Doctor Marsh. She shuttled over daily for her scheduled sessions with Lee, and reported to the commander that Lee was resting up very well and rapidly gaining his strength back. She also told him that while Lee was well-rested, he was also growing increasingly restless and bored. He was also frustrated by the fact that his lost memories still remained elusive. In fact, he hadn't made any progress at all in that regard.

"If he still isn't remembering anything, what does he talk about with you?" William tried probing Doctor Marsh one day.

She had just given him the evil eye. "You know better than to ask that. My conversations with Lee are strictly confidential."

"Then you don't tell him anything about your conversations with me?"

"Absolutely not. Of course that doesn't mean that you can't raise those subjects with him yourself."

"That's a lot easier said than done Doctor."

"Isn't everything?"

The commander was roused from his ponderings over his son's situation when he received two visitors in his quarters. Colonel Tigh and Petty Officer Dualla approached his desk.

"Yes Colonel?" he addressed his XO.

The Colonel deferred to PO Dualla with a nod. She produced a file folder and held it out to the commander. "The missing transcripts Sir. They've turned up."

Adama reached for the folder. "Where were they?"

Colonel Tigh answered this time. "They were found in Lieutenant Mullins' possession."

Adama's brow furled. "Lieutenant Mullins? Frosty?"

"Yes Sir," Tigh confirmed with a nod.

As Adama flipped open the folder to inspect the pages inside, Dualla informed him, "I've already checked through them Commander and unfortunately one of the messages in question is still missing: the one sent from Galactica."

Adama looked up from the folder with a dark expression. "Still missing?"

"Yes Sir," she said softly. "The other one, the one to the Astral Queen, is marked there with the red flag on the edge. You previously noted it in the morning report."

Adama pulled out the flagged page. He read the computer-transcribed message. "Job completed ahead of schedule." Adama did vaguely recall seeing this message on his report. He'd thought little of it at the time, assuming it was merely a repair crew declaring they had completed their assigned task and were returning to the Astral Queen. Now, however, the meaning of the message took on a potentially sinister twist. On the other hand, it could still be meaningless. They needed to know the content of the other message.

Adama scowled in frustration. "Does Lieutenant Mullins have an explanation?" he said darkly.

"We should find out soon," Colonel Tigh told him. "I've just sent Sergeant Hadrian to escort the lieutenant to the interrogation room."

Adama nodded grimly. "Tell her I want to know exactly what that missing message said and I want to know who it was sent to. I want names. Do you understand Colonel?"

Tigh nodded. "Yes I do."

"And verify whether or not there was even a work crew from the Astral Queen on the Geminon Traveler that night."

"Will do."

"Thank you Dee, that will be all," the commander said to Dualla. She saluted and departed from the room.

Colonel Tigh said, "We should also check with Doctor Baltar and find out if Frosty's blood sample has been tested yet. Can't be too careful."

Adama shook his head. "If he was tested, the result was negative or the doctor would have reported it."

Tigh inclined his head. "Unless it was a false negative... like Valerii's. Mullins had even more time to tamper with his blood sample than she had."

"In which case any prior results don't matter," Adama pointed out. "After Sergeant Hadrian has completed her questioning, have Doctor Baltar draw a fresh blood sample and test it immediately."

"Yes Sir." Tigh paused for a few seconds rather than heading right off to carry out his orders. "I hope I'm not out of line by saying that I actually hope this pans out."

"What would be out of line about that?"

"Think about it," Tigh said. "We're actually hoping that we have a murder conspiracy or a Cylon spy rather than a suicidal CAG. That's kind of backward, don't you think?"

Adama offered his XO a slight smile. "Maybe so, but I know what you mean."

As evening crept on Sergeant Hadrian made her report to Commander Adama and acting-CAG, Lieutenant Thrace. "Lieutenant Mullins still won't admit to any knowledge of the transcripts," she told them. "He also denies knowing anything about the missing Red Needles."

"In spite of the fact that the folder was under his bed?" Starbuck commented bitterly.

"He claims it must have been planted there by someone else," the Master-at-Arms replied.

Starbuck rolled her eyes in reaction.

"Commander," Hadrian said, "if we are going to keep him confined, I need to know what to charge him with. The fact is we really don't have any evidence of criminal activity other than the misplacement of some innocuous message transcripts that were due to be removed from archive and destroyed in a few more days anyway."

Adama considered the dilemma glumly. Frosty was hiding something. He was certain of it, but the big pilot had been completely steadfast in his denials. They could accuse him of misplacement of documentation, but that was all, and under most circumstances it would barely justify a reprimand.

Starbuck suggested, "How about possession of pornographic material? I know it's not much, but it could at least justify one night in the brig."

Sergeant Hadrian cracked a smile. "I'd forgotten about those."

Adama asked for clarification. "Those what? A few dirty pictures or something?"

"Yes Sir," the sergeant confirmed with a nod.

Adama gave a single chuckle. "Ordinarily I wouldn't care one whit, but if it keeps him contained for now, do it. And no visitors at all. Doctor Baltar will be by in the morning to take a blood sample, then I want you to talk to Frosty again and see if he's willing to change his tune any."

"Yes Commander." Sergeant Hadrian saluted and left the commander alone with Lieutenant Thrace.

Starbuck shook her head sadly. "I just can't see it," she said. "Frosty. I can't even count how many times both Lee and I have trusted him to watch our backs, and he's never let us down."

"Neither did Sharon," Adama said bitterly.

Kara was surprised to hear the commander mention that name. Sharon Valerii, the trusted pilot who had turned out to be a Cylon assassin, was usually a taboo subject around the commander. William Adama had nearly been killed by a woman whom Kara had once called a friend. "So," Kara said carefully, "you believe that Frosty might actually be a Cylon?"

"I don't know," Adama said quietly.

"But if he is," Starbuck said, "then what's with this whole conspiracy theory? Why would a Cylon bother with Tom Zarek?"

"I don't know Kara," Adama said. "Maybe they'd prefer to have Zarek in charge than President Roslin. Maybe there is no conspiracy and he's just a lone assassin. Maybe he's not a Cylon at all and this is just pure human weaknesses at work. As a species we are a very flawed creation."

"Why are we, as a people, worth saving?" Kara said softly, quoting one of the commander's own speeches. Adama reacted with a gentle smile to his recognition of her words. "We are pretty frakked up, aren't we?" Kara said. "We even seem to inflict the most pain upon the people we love the most."

Kara wasn't looking at him, but Adama watched her face carefully. "Lee should be back on board tomorrow for at least a few hours. He has a checkup scheduled with Doctor Cottle."

Kara still didn't look toward the commander. "Well," she said, "I hope he gets a clean bill of health. I guess we're also both assuming that Lee was right all along. He didn't do it."

"I am becoming more convinced of that," Adama said.

"No luck with his memories though?"

"According to Doctor Marsh, no. And apparently it's really pissing him off."

"Good morning Lieutenant," Doctor Baltar said cheerily as he stepped into the brig and greeted Lieutenant Mullins. "I trust you slept well last night?"

"Hardly," Frosty grumbled. "What's all this?" He pointed toward the bag that Baltar brought into the holding area with him.

"This," Baltar explained, "is so that I can take a blood sample." He turned to the guard who was standing right behind him. "Thank you, I can take it from here."

The guard looked uncertain. "I'm not sure you should be alone with the prisoner Doctor."

Baltar laughed. "Please, Sergeant. The prisoner has only been charged with possession of pornography. Now tell me honestly, what teenage boy hasn't done the same? Hmmm? Now please wait outside. There is the issue of doctor-patient confidentiality here after all. I won't be but a minute."

Ignoring the marine, Baltar turned back to the prisoner. "Now Lieutenant, please extend your right arm through the bars for me." Frosty complied without complaint. When the marine saw that everything appeared to be under control he stepped outside.

"What's this all about Doc?" Frosty asked.

Baltar wrapped a strip of stretchy plastic around Frosty's large bicep and pulled it tight. "I am taking a blood sample to determine whether or not you are a Cylon."

Frosty's eyes bugged. "I'm no frakking Cylon!"

"Then you've nothing to worry about. Do you?"

"I'm not so sure of that," Frosty said. He dropped his voice considerably in volume before he spoke again. "I think they suspect something," he whispered.

Still acting calm and casual, Baltar removed a needle from his bag and positioned it over a bulging vein in Frosty's arm. "You have nothing to worry about," he said very quietly.

"Why should I believe you?" Frosty whispered.

Baltar didn't bother looking up from what he was doing as he replied, "I told you that if you just followed my instructions with the IV, Captain Adama would never get his memory back. Didn't I?"

"Yes."

"Well has he?"

"Not yet," Frosty hissed.

"And he's not going to," Baltar said as though speaking to a very slow child. "Just trust me. Everything will work out just fine." Frosty's blood filled the sample tube.

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one behind bars."

"You're only here because you had some dirty pictures in your locker. Now relax. It's all under control." Baltar sealed up the collection tube and began writing on the label.

"Yeah right," Frosty muttered anxiously.

Baltar finally looked the lieutenant directly in the eye. "Listen to me Frosty. You must never forget that there are other people counting on you. Important people. They trust you not to let them down. Don't disappoint them. Besides... you have nothing to worry about. Trust me... don't say anything... and all will work out fine."

"What about these frakking transcripts they keep asking about?" Frosty asked. "I don't know anything about those. Where did they come from?"

Baltar sighed and slipped the blood sample into his bag. "All right, all right. We'll make this easier for you. When they ask you again about the transcripts, I want you to confess."

"Confess?" Frosty looked panicked.

"Let me finish," Baltar scolded him. "Just listen up and I'll tell you exactly what to say."