Billy Keikeya had searched Galactica for an hour before he found the President standing in front of the glass wall in sickbay. His search had actually been rather entertaining. He had the privilege of accidentally stumbling upon Cally and Crashdown violating the fraternization policy under a Viper. He had had a nice discussion with the Chief about how the President thought he was supposed to go about doing his job now that one of his crew was going to be the mother of his children. Billy had thought it rather funny to watch the Chief and Selix tiptoe around each other while trying to fix a Viper. And then there was the scuttlebutt circulating every corridor about where Starbuck was. She had mysteriously disappeared and no one had seen or heard from her in hours.
Sighing, Billy started crossing the floor of sickbay. Life on the Galactica was never dull. Not for a moment. He stood a few feet back from the President and watcher her as she was stared intently at several technicians who were rushing back and forth. He should have known she would be here.
"Do you think this was the right decision?" she asked him after a moment.
"Excuse me?" Billy stepped up to stand beside her.
She smiled at him out of the corner of her eye. "The repopulation program. Do you think it was the right decision?"
"I thought you had gotten over your doubts, sir."
"About the process, yes. But the actual program?" Roslin turned to look at her young assistant. "It seems so ridiculous. If this works, there will be young children running all over the Fleet. In that sense, it will be good. The continuation of humanity is a necessity. But a lot of the matches have chosen to maintain their parental rights. It doesn't matter for all those who are the civilian ships…"
It suddenly dawned on Billy what the President was hinting at. "But for those serving on Galactica, it won't be so easy."
"These people are in charge of keeping us all safe. They shouldn't have the distraction of children, lovely as it may be. I can't imagine why I thought to include the military in this program."
"It gave them distraction for a little while, sir. That was your goal."
Roslin shook her head as she turned back to stare through the window. "We can't let these children be a distraction any more. The people on Galactica still need to put their lives on the line to keep us safe. They have to be committed enough out there to die for what's right. It's a harsh reality, but most of the children of these fine people will never know their parents. And I'm the one who sentenced them to that."
"There are a lot of children in the Fleet who lost their parents in the Cylon Holocaust. This is no different. And there are plenty of civilians who will step up to care for the children without parents. Things will work out, Madam President. There's no other option."
"That's a very bleak thought," the President said with a small laugh.
"It's reality. And in terms of you worrying about the spatial logistics of when the children arrive, this ship was running on a skeleton crew when the Cylons attacked. There are hundreds of rooms that have been sealed off because there weren't people to fill them. Bunkrooms can house a majority of the children. Civilians who have no jobs in the Fleet can be brought on board Galactica to watch over them. The children can be partitioned off from the dangerous parts of the ship to keep them safe. And having them on board the strongest ship in the Fleet will insure that there is a next generation for us to leave behind."
Roslin gave him a suspicious look. "You've been thinking about this a lot, haven't you?"
"I figured you might start having doubts, sir. I wanted to be prepared."
"Well done."
Billy noted the lines of exhaustion that were beginning to show on her face before she turned back to watch the scene that was unfolding in front of them. "It's been hard for you to wait these ten weeks for the first results."
"It's been impossibly hard, Billy. So much is riding on this." She turned to give Billy a bright smile. "But imagine how much we stand to gain if this crazy repopulation idea of mine works. If even one child is created…" Her voice faded off as she continued to stare at the doctors in front of her.
"Do you think it will work then?" he asked hesitantly.
"I'm praying to the gods. Because you're right. We need this more than anything right now."
The President and her assistant returned to a comfortable silence, watching the doctors walk from one test area to another. Soon they would know if all this stress and worry was going to pay off. Soon.