Spoiler alert (sort of): Having watched The Farm (and boy am I glad that I don't have that annual check up for a while!), I thought I'd better warn you all that some of the themes about Cylon reproduction that I'm bringing into this chapter and subsequent ones might be construed as spoilerish. I actually came up with this part of the story and wrote most of it before I saw the episode (spooky!), and as this story is now on a completely different path to the actual show I think it's fairly safe, but I thought I ought to include a little warning if you want to see that episode in all its unspoiled glory first!
Chapter 10
No longer having any trail to follow Lee and Kara decided to head for the top of the nearest mountain ridge to see if they could get any clues as to the whereabouts of the Cylons. The climbing became harder and the air considerably cooler as they climbed. At the end of their second day of climbing they reached the top of the ridge as the light was fading. They were both exhausted and Alex was getting increasingly fractious; high spots of colour on his cheeks warning of impending trouble. Their only option was to find somewhere to camp for the night and survey the area in the morning.
They settled for a rocky ledge which was at least sheltered from the wind. The pair of them huddled closely together for warmth. They didn't dare light a fire for fear of alerting the Cylons to their presence. They had Alex tucked carefully between them to try and stop him from getting chilled. He was flushed and feverish and it took a long while to get him to sleep. By now even Lee had come to the conclusion that running for your lives on a Cylon-infested planet with a teething baby was not a very sensible idea, and Kara was very far from happy about the whole situation.
"I can't believe that we're doing this to him. What kind of parents are we to be dragging him around like this?"
"We didn't really have much choice. We couldn't exactly leave him behind at the base. You shouldn't blame yourself, Kara. He'll be OK." She was silent for a few moments, stroking the baby's soft, warm cheek.
"Bringing him into this wasn't fair of us."
"We didn't plan for the Cylons to suddenly appear, Kara."
"I didn't mean now, Lee. I meant at all: it wasn't fair of us to bring a child into the universe in the middle of all this conflict and uncertain existence."
"Are you saying that you regret having him?" He looked at her incredulously. He thought she had gotten over this a long time ago.
"I don't really know. I don't regret it for my sake, but I do for his. Now that he's here I love him to bits, you know that. But what I meant was, when we took the decision to have him we only considered the issue from our own points of view. We never considered the point of view of our child; whether it was right to inflict our current situation on a child. Look at him Lee! He's not even a year old and he's almost lost both of his parents on more than one occasion and now we've put him in danger of being injured, loosing his own life or worse still, captured by the Cylons."
"I won't let that happen, Kara. I'll do everything in my power to make sure that he's safe; that you're both safe." She looked up at him, a sad smile on her face.
"That's my Lee, always the ridiculous idealist."
He was silent for a few minutes as he watched her, his hand mechanically rubbing up and down her back. He was troubled by her words, but thought that may be they were just a reflection of the difficulties of their current situation. There was no doubt that she loved their son deeply, but he knew that Kara suffered from many fears about her fitness to be a mother. She didn't have a very good example from her own childhood to work from. He had no such doubts about her abilities and he tried to tell her as often as he could. For a viper pilot who hadn't really looked for parenthood, she was actually a natural; firm, no nonsense, yet fiercely loving. Somewhat like she was with him, his father, everyone she cared for, only with Alex it was more obvious. He thought he would try and lighten the mood a little.
"So I suppose another one is out of the question?" he smiled slyly at her. Kara just snorted.
"Lords Lee, you never give up do you! We're alone on a mountain top, abandoned by the fleet on a Cylon-infested planet and you think that it's a good time to bring up the topic of more children. If these past few days have shown us anything, it's that planning for any long term family life at the moment is pointless."
"It's not pointless to me, Kara. It's what keeps me going; knowing that I'm fighting to give my family a better, safer existence in the future. It's what you told me we were fighting for just before Alex was born," he reminded her.
"OK, I get the message. You'd like us to have another baby. Well let's just get this over and done with once and for all. Yes, I absolutely want us to have more children, eventually: please note the key word there. I was an only child and I wouldn't want Alex to miss out on siblings like I did: I could have done with their support during my childhood. I was always so jealous of you and Zac. The pair of you were always 'my brother this' and 'my brother that' and I want Alex to have that. I just don't want to have another child now or any time soon for that matter. I want to wait until things are more stable."
"We could be waiting forever for that," he replied.
"Yes we could, but I just can't do it at the moment, Lee." She looked at him steadily, willing him to understand.
"That's fair and it's actually fine by me; I don't want to push you into something that you're not ready for. Whenever you feel you can, just let me know!" He winked at her and pressed a brief kiss on the tip of her nose, his face telling her that he had accepted her point of view. He pulled her into a closer hug. "Let's get some sleep. I've got a nasty feeling that we're going to need to be rested to face tomorrow."
−
As soon as the sun rose in the morning they concealed themselves as best they could in a spot with a good view of the area below. The ridge on which they were perched dropped off quite sharply on the other side, creating a deep ravine between their mountain and the next one. On the other side of the ravine, the mountain rose steeply at first; there was then a small plateau before it rose again, much higher than the one they were on currently. A small, round lake had formed, covering much of the plateau, almost like the crater of an extinct volcano.
Lee trained the binoculars down the ravine but there was no sign of any Cylons. Moving up, his gaze was caught by a brief flash of movement on the far side of the lake. There was definitely something or someone moving over there, but it was too far away to get a clear view. He handed the glasses to Kara and pointed out the spot where he had seen the movement.
"Yeah, they're Cylons alright. How the frak did they get there and what are they doing out here in the middle of no where? I don't understand this at all. If they only came to this planet to exterminate the humans what are they still doing here? Why are they over there rather than chasing us?"
"Hey, don't even tempt fate by saying that. I've been thinking about this and I'm pretty convinced that they've been here all along. We haven't picked up any ships in this system at all. We haven't got the full surveillance system working, but we've been putting out enough raptor sweep patrols to notice a cylon ship arriving. No, they had to have been here already. Think about it: who was it that recommended this planet so strongly over the others?"
"Baltar."
"Exactly. If he has been working for the Cylons then he may have been leading us towards this planet for some time."
"But why didn't we find them when we surveyed?"
"Our equipment is only so good. Their spies in the fleet probably warned them when to keep a low profile and, of course, who was analysing the data…..?"
"Baltar! Gods, he's really taken us for a ride, hasn't he?"
"Yes he has."
"We need to get down there to find out exactly what they're doing. We also need to find Baltar and when we do I'm going to rip the frakker's heart out." Kara's expression didn't bode well for the vice president's future well-being!
"Get in the queue, sweetheart! I think I might have first dibs on that one."
"Hey, I don't care as long as one of us kills the bastard!"
"It's not going to be easy getting there: this ravine looks like its going to be tough to get across."
"Well we haven't done a good field exercise in a while. It'll be a good way of keeping us in the peak of condition!" she said, tongue firmly in cheek. He laughed quietly.
"After a night sleeping on a rock I think my condition has fallen into more of a deep trough than a peak." He stood up and tried to work out the cricks in his neck. He picked up his son. "You up for a bit more mountaineering little fella?" He received a contented gurgle in return. It was amazing what a full night's sleep, some food and a change of clothes seemed to have done to change him back to his normal, happy demeanour.
−
They started off down into the ravine, zig-zagging their way through the trees and rocks covering the side of the mountain. It took longer but was much safer than the direct 'free fall' route. There was a roaring noise coming from deep in the ravine which got louder and louder as they got closer to the bottom. A river was running through the ravine; not very wide, but very, very fast. There was no way that they could get across without being swept away by the churning current. Lee moved back up the river in the direction from where the loudest roar of the water was coming from. Round the next bend they were met with the sight of a high, fast-flowing waterfall. Making his way right to the side of the fall, Lee's instincts were proven to be right; there was a wide ridge of rock running behind the great sheet of water all the way to the other side. They took the opportunity to stop for a rest and a refreshing wash: their first one for more than three days. The water was cold and the pressure of the fall made it all the more bracing, but that only helped to ease their tired limbs.
"Nice one Apollo. You've found a route across and an instant shower as well! I don't know about you but I was kinda getting to the gagging stage."
"Enough said, Starbuck. You know what I think of your hygiene!" She threw him a look.
Alex' face, as Lee splash-washed him in a cold pool, was a picture as he tried to decide whether he liked it or not. Fortunately, he decided it was fun and his father got a good splashing in return, much to his mother's amusement. Having rested and re-stocked their water supply they set off again, reaching the other side and beginning the climb up to the plateau. They reached the lakeside as night began to fall. They quickly found a sheltered spot to rest for the night, taking it in turns to watch the movements of the Cylons on the other side of the lake.
−
Baltar awoke in a strange room. He had no recollection of how he had gotten there. His last memory was of leaving the mountainside clearing with Six. At least things seemed to be looking up now as he realised that the bed he was lying on was extremely comfortable. There was also a bowl full of fresh fruit on a nearby table. By the time he was dressed and no longer hungry, he was starting to wonder what he was supposed to do next when Six appeared. She had changed into her white dress (or may be she had just changed, he mused).
"Come with me, Gaius. It is time for the next stage of the plan to be revealed to you."
She led him by the hand through a series of underground passages until they came to a large room which resembled a laboratory. Several model Sixes and another Cylon model that he hadn't seen before were working at various work benches and machines. There were large vessels full of some sort of opaque liquid with strange shapes inside all around the lab. Some seemed to be wired up to banks of computers at the back of the room. In some the strange shapes were moving.
"What are they doing?"
"They're making our child, Gaius; our daughter."
"They're making her! Can't we just make her in the usual way?" As soon as he said this her face took on an alarming twitch.
"What you regard as the usual human way. You don't think that I'd let something as important as our child be left to the vagaries of a biological gestation process do you?" It was clear that this was a touchy subject. He looked from her set face to all the strange shapes in the vessels around the lab, realisation dawning that these were probably the products of the various experiments to produce a Cylon child. He shivered at the thought of what had gone on in this lab.
"But why is making a child regarded as the next step in Cylon development? Surely it's much less efficient than producing fully formed models. I would have thought that the next step in your evolution was natural reproduction." For once she didn't have some smart reply for him. He thought for a moment and started to put two and two together. "Cylons can't sustain pregnancy can they? The pregnant Valerii model that came to Galactica miscarried."
"We don't need to," she replied defiantly. "We are close to perfecting the production of children by much more certain means. Our daughter will be the first ever Cylon baby and she'll be made from your DNA and from mine," she said, pride in her voice.
"Where the hell did you get my DNA from?"
"You gave me endless samples of it during our two years together on Caprica, Gaius. I didn't waste them." He smirked in remembrance.
"Of course."
"She'll be our child Gaius; the first of our new generation. We'll take all the best parts of you and me to make a perfect child."
Baltar wasn't too sure that he liked the idea of this genetic manipulation or this way of having a child, but he certainly liked the idea of being the father of the next generation: the first of a new super breed of human-cylons.
"She'll just be the start, Gaius. God has chosen us to be the parents of all new Cylons." He reached up and caressed her face.
"That's wonderful. It's only natural that he would choose the best from both species, but tell God that I'm very honoured."
"You can tell him yourself when you meet him. A base star has arrived to take us to him."
"Marvellous! When do we leave?" he asked, thinking that things were finally getting somewhere. He had had to endure some pretty rough times over the last two years, close calls when his treason against the human race had almost been discovered, but now his patience seemed about to be rewarded.
"Not just yet. We still have to perfect our daughter and then God wants us to create a son."
"What's the hold up? Anything I can help with? I am accounted a genius you know." He gave her that ingratiating smile that had served him so well with any number of women.
"We need to understand how the child will develop more, understand whether the generation process will affect their development at all," she admitted. "That's why it is taking so long. We want to be sure that we have it right and that the child will develop normally as any human child would. We haven't had enough examples of actual human development to study."
"Yes, well it was hardly our fault that you nuked our entire civilisation. May be you should have thought about this part of your plan before you destroyed or irradiated the vast majority of human children." For once he was angered by her dismissal of what they had done to the human race. He was such a capricious mixture of conceit and contrition that she sometimes found his reactions unpredictable, but she could usually guarantee that his self-obsession would win over his guilt eventually. This proved to be the case this time as well as she appealed to his scientist's inquisitive nature.
"Come Gaius, let me show what we've done so far. Perhaps you might have a brilliant idea to help." He followed her with little hesitation to the first work station.
−
Lee and Kara moved stealthily around the lake in the grey light of the early morning. There were no Cylons in sight, but they couldn't take any risks that the area wasn't being closely monitored. Once on the other side they saw that there were several openings in the shear rock face rising up away from the lake: it was clear that there was some sort of cave system within the mountain. They chose the entrance which looked to be the least frequently used and slipped in. They moved down into the dank depths of the cave before coming out into a vast underground cavern. This just seemed to be full of some sort of storage tanks: the Cylons were obviously up to something here and had been for some time, confirming Lee's suspicions. They moved on as quietly as possible. They still hadn't encountered any Cylons, but they weren't letting down their guard. Again selecting a smaller, uncommonly used route they continued their exploration. The passage became so narrow that they had to crawl in single file at one point, Lee almost on his belly to keep Alex from knocking against the roof in his backpack. Eventually they came out into a larger cave, but this was just an antechamber high above the biggest cavern they had seen so far. Looking into the cavern they both gasped in awe at the sight that greeted them. The sheer scale of this underground cathedral was enormous. There were several large pods throughout the length of the cavern, each fed by any number of tubes and wires. Lee counted twelve in all. And from each one was emerging Cylon after Cylon.
"Frak me!"
There were hundreds of them. Everywhere they looked was familiar faces: Sharon, Leoben, that blond bitch that Kara had fought on Caprica. There were other models too that they hadn't seen before. Lee tried to impress their features in his mind so that when they got back to the fleet they could search for more spies and agents. One he definitely recognised: it was one of the deck hands, Lamma, Lanner or something. He couldn't quite recall his name, but now he understood why this guy, who seemed so timid, always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They turned to look at another line and both he and Kara gasped.
"Oh frak, not Helo! He can't be one of them!"
"He isn't," replied Kara quietly, recovering from her initial shock. "See, it looks very like him but there are differences. I'd take a bet that this is Helo's son or cloned son at least."
"Holy shit. But the Boomer model you brought back with you from Caprica lost their baby, and this one is twenty something years old, not two."
"I don't pretend to understand it Lee, but they've obviously experimented on a new model based on Helo's DNA. She got away from us on Caprica for a while; they could have gotten hold of it then. May be that's why she miscarried: she was probably just as much of a lab rat as Helo was." She shook her head in wonder at the sight before them. "We have to destroy this place. It might not stop them entirely but it should set them back far enough to give the fleet some breathing space once more and may be it will convince the Cylons that they don't wanna frak around with us." Her expression was full of determination and purpose.
"Or make them come after us with even more vengeance, but I agree with you and I think that it's a risk worth taking. The question is how to do it?"
She smirked at him "Watch and learn from the master."
"You're not in a viper now, Kara."
"No, but the same principles apply: let's use their tactics to our advantage."
They started to plan out how they might destroy the facility when they were interrupted by a familiar voice from behind them. A model Six stood at the entrance to the cavern, flanked by two centurions.
"Well, well, well. What have we here? Starbuck and Apollo! How nice of you to drop in. Our centurion raiding party on your base obviously wasn't as successful as we expected if they left you two alive." She caught a glimpse of Alex, securely strapped into his backpack and her expression became calculating. "And who is this little one? I'd heard that you had a son so I guess this must be him." Kara didn't like the way the Cylon was looking at Alex. She quickly lifted him out of the backpack on Lee's back and pulled him tightly against her chest with her arms securely round him.
"What a beautiful child. May I hold him? I find human children so fascinating."
"Frak off! You touch him and I'll kill you." Kara's natural mothering instincts came to the fore and she was like an enraged lioness protecting her cub.
"I asked you nicely the first time, Starbuck. I won't ask so politely again." She moved towards Kara, her arms outstretched, ready to wrest Alex away from his mother. Kara didn't think twice but pulled out her weapon and fired. Six staggered back as the centurions started to come to her aid. Lee had obviously been preparing for this move and hurled a grenade towards them. It exploded between the two centurions, taking them both out. Kara managed to get off another shot to finally kill Six before she could pounce again. She turned to run after Lee down the corridor the Cylons had appeared from, Alex still whimpering in her arms.
"Lords of Kobol, how many times do I have to kill that woman?"
"Probably a hell of a lot more before we're done."
They kept running and made it to the outside before the Cylons were able to react further to their presence. They started to run as quickly and quietly as possible through the trees around the lake and didn't stop until they made it to the other side. Lee darted behind some rocks and stopped to see if they were being followed. A group of centurions were coming out of the main entrance, lead by one of the Helo models.
"Quick, Kara, this way."
He ran back down the side of the mountain and headed for the waterfall. When they reached it he dashed back behind the flow of water along the rock ledge. Half way along he found what he was looking for: the entrance to a cave carved out behind the fall.
"I noticed this when we were here before. Come on. Hopefully we'll be safe in here, but it's going to be pretty dark and dingy."
"Dark and dingy is OK by me if it's Cylon-free."
They flopped down, both breathing heavily with exhaustion. When they had recovered their breath Kara turned Lee.
"Am I just being paranoid or was she very interested in Alex?"
"She was very interested in Alex." Replied Lee grimly.
"I haven't changed my mind. If anything I'm more determined than ever to destroy that operation."
"Yeah, I'm right with you there!"
-
Author's note: Phew, finished it. Still not entirely sure that it's 100 per cent right but I have finally completely run out of inspiration and am now at the tinkering rather than improving stage so I'll leave it to your tender mercies and move on to trying to get the next chapter right!