Author's Note: I will preface this, the final chapter of Seek Ye First, with a bit of a lengthy note, so please bear with me.
The tale is now drawn to a close – at least this portion of it. I would like to offer thanks to my muses, in all their incarnations, and to you, my readers, for your kind words and feedback from beginning until now.
I would also like to request in depth criticism. If you please, leave no stone unturned. Be gracious, and thereby be as mean as you can be. This chapter was difficult for me to capture, and I am concerned about its quality. While it is my favorite of the ones I have written, I am hoping to improve upon it. No criticism is too slight to be noted, and I would be in your debt.
Also, I am sorry. Twas not done to spite you. The plan was carried out as it was worked long ago.
There are so many little dyings that it doesn't matter which of them is death. Kenneth Patchen
It was remarkable really, how silent the interior of the Raider was. It had been packed to capacity with fighters of various competencies for the assault on the Caprica City farm, and while there was little room for the two groups to move any distance from one another, the Galactica and Resistance people were unmistakably polarized. Kara Thrace did not understand the tension. She supposed it was Lee's influence on the others, but did not say anything about it. If they all were content to pass the ride in uneasy silence, that suited her fine. They would only be fighting if they spoke anyway, that she was certain.
The fact of the matter was that she would not have been unsettled by it at all if not for the eyes. Anyone who spent any time with Starbuck noted her uncanny ability to shrug off even the most palpable tension, and on those few occasions when the tension and aggression came near enough to knock her around a little, she would punch it in the face and have done with it. That was her way, if not always, often enough that it seemed to be. And it would have been her way now. She would have sat there and talked to Anders and Tenpoint in low voices, and ignored that her own people were ignoring her. Except that not all of them were. Regardless of every other set of eyes, which skittered off of her the moment they touched, as if she was coated in an invisible oil to which they could not stick, there was one pair that did not waver from her.
Lee's dog, that bear of a thing that had subtly dominated them since her appearance, watched Kara Thrace intently through chocolate eyes. It was a habit she had that they had all noticed; the dog always watched the ones she was not sure of that way. Kara had seen Seek eye Sharon, in the first day or two after Lee had been brought in, when she had still spent a lot of time with the Galactica crewmen, before they had decided that they did not trust her. She had taken it to be the look a predator gave its prey. Sitting here now, though, watching the dog watching her, she saw the way Lee's hand rested lightly on the dog's head, and imagined all his furious energy traveling down to the tips of his fingers, and into his gentle guardian.
Lee himself feigned sleep. He sat directly across from her, with his head leaned back against the ship, and his eyes closed. She knew he was faking though. Lee Adama had a particular quality about him when he was sleeping, and she did not see it now. His eyes twitched restlessly under their lids, and ever down and then, with a sudden jerk, his fingers would flex. He was trying to control his pain, trying to calm his mind. He was trying to settle the frak down so he could do his job. And he did not want to talk to anyone, that was obvious. The others, for now, seemed content to leave him be. They all spoke around him though, in hushed voices, and Starbuck knew he was absorbing every word. She could not hear what they were saying, but, once, Lee flinched.
Starbuck was not the only one who noticed that Apollo was not actually asleep. He was not doing a very good job of faking it, if truth be told, and did not especially care. Samuel T. Anders had seen it too. He had been chatting absently with Kara, and noticed that her attention was not so much focused on him as scattered everywhere else but. Following her eyes, he had been brought to Lee Adama.
Of course, Anders' mind followed a different track that Starbuck's did, seeing the Captain so obviously avoiding the rest of them. He did not for a moment believe Lee was sleeping. Adama's right hand gripped the butt of his rifle a bit too tightly, it seemed. Anders did not like the deception. Possible reasons why the Galactica captain would be avoiding confrontation as they journeyed towards their fate played through his mind. When this plan had been presented to him, he had almost argued it, if for no other reason than it was the cagey Captain Lee Adama who had contrived it. It was not only a matter of not liking the new boys stepping on his experienced toes on his home turf, although there was some of that resentment as well. He did not share Kara's righteous indignation as Apollo placed himself in a solitary and, to her mind, vulnerable position. Instead, Anders viewed the move as further proof that Apollo was not has he seemed, because his plan removed him from the thick of the fighting.
Even by air, the journey to Caprica City from Delphi would take a nearly an hour. Helo and Sharon had made the trip overland and on foot in a few weeks, and were quietly amazed and how quickly they were covering the distance now. Neither was a stranger to the marvels of technology, obviously, any more than either could understand why the trek felt cheapened somehow, being made so easily.
They were all a little startled when Sharon walked back from the bow and stood among them.
"Five minutes," she said.
Lee's eyes snapped open. Jarred out of their conspiratorial reverie, everyone began talking at once. Firearms had to be checked and rechecked. Did the Assault team have their explosives in order? For a moment Kara thought Lee would refuse the arm Walker offered to help him stand, but his pride had its limit it seemed. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and made his way towards the back of the Raider, where, in only a few minutes, the ramp would drop and he would too, onto the roof of whatever building Sharon selected for him.
Kara watched him. Gods, this was idiotic.
"Is everyone clear on the op?" Lee asked. There were a few "yes sirs," and a few grudging grunts. Lee scanned their faces, holding Kara's eyes a heartbeat longer than any of the others'.
And not only idiotic, it was happening too fast. Was it only yesterday that he had hatched this fool plan? Why hadn't any of them tried to talk him out of it? Because he's the senior officer, obviously, and they were still members of the Colonial Fleet. Only she was brazen enough to offer direct opposition, and she had been too resigned to put up much of a fight.
Were they here already? Was Lee Adama about to jump, bum leg and all, onto a recently shelled roof from the ramp of a hovering Raider?
How the frak had this even happened?
No one could tell her.
She couldn't ask.
"Good hunting," he said.
Be careful out there… she thought bitterly.
It went off without a hitch at first. Sharon brought Joe to bear on the roof of a bank building across the street from the hospital. It was patrolled, as they had guessed, but the centurions pacing mechanically back and forth were dispatched easily enough by Joe's guns. With their presence so artfully announced, they could waste no time.
Joe swung around and dropped its ramp, letting Lee off just a few feet over the roof. Seek leapt after him.
The Raider dropped to street level without raising its ramp again. Sharon directed the Raider to rake the front of the hospital with fire before they touched down, to take out as many of the defenders as they could. As Joe swept its guns across the face of the building the Perimeter force began to offload.
They came under fire immediately. There were groups of centurions stationed in buildings flanking the Farm, and across the street.
"Suppressive fire!" Landin barked. "Move move move!"
The Perimeter team dodged back behind mailboxes and the shells of cars. They heaved grenades in the direction of the centurion fire, shouting to each other over the din. Landin shot the glass out of the hospital doors and pitched a couple of grenades into the lobby. The Assault team boiled off the Raider behind them.
It moved very fast for Starbuck. She and the Assault teams sprinted from the Raider and through the hospital doors, sheltered by the Perimeter team's cover fire. For now, her team and the main Assault team were one mass. Walker was first through the shattered doors, shooting down everything still moving inside.
"They'll be in the surgical wing!" Anders called.
"I want every floor swept," Starbuck countered. "Nothing half assed. Walker!"
"Sir!"
"Bottom to top. Let's clean this place out. Check every room for survivors."
"Yes, sir."
"You honestly think there are survivors here?" Anders demanded skeptically. All of the women would be alive of course…but not survivors in the strictest sense.
"We take no chances. If there are any women here that haven't been hooked up we're not blowing them up along with the rest," she growled.
That was, after all, why they were in here boots down instead of just having Joe blow the place to bits and heading home.
"Assault team!" Walker was shouting. "We want a clean sweep. Let's move people we're on a clock here!"
"Secondary team with me!" Starbuck ordered. "We make for the surgical wing."
Joe dusted off the second the last of the Assault team dismounted. The ramp was not yet fully raised, and already the heavy Raider was firing into the surrounding buildings. Between Joe's burst of fire the Perimeter team could hear the crack of Apollo's rifle.
But it didn't last very long. The cylons had not been as surprised as they would have been before the first Farm was destroyed after Starbuck's visit, and their defenses were heavier than they might have been. Still, the shear speed and force of the hit the defenders sustained, combined with Joe's strafing runs and Lee's sniping, dispatched the cylons nearest their location with almost startling efficiency. After only a few minutes the guns fell silent. Joe hovered over the street, the white noise of its roaring engines becoming as much a part of the landscape as birds in a country garden…when there had been birds…and gardens.
It would not last long, they all knew that. Caprica city was crawling with toasters who would have heard the brief, fiery battle, and would be responding. Maybe even Raiders would come… They could hear the sounds of gunfire inside, as the Assault teams moved rapidly from floor to floor. The quiet, the inactivity, was crippling.
"Ok team," Landin said. He had to shout over the engine noise, but they were all wound so tightly they would have leapt at a whisper. "We'll be facing the big ugly soon enough. Let's drag as much cover as we can to this position. We leave room for them to get out behind us, but no one else gets in."
"Unless they use the back door," Tenpoint muttered.
No one heard him.
From his place on the roof, Apollo could look down and see the Perimeter team setting up their meager fortifications. It had surprised him as much as anyone, how easily the primary defenders had been dispatched. More surprising still was how disappointed he had been by it. He had not even realized how eager he was for a good fight.
Now all there was for him to do was watch. He could see the Assault team, or vague shadows of the Assault team, through the hospital windows across the street. He could see up the street in either direction, as well as the airspace for miles over the tops of buildings. From this vantage, he would be able to warn the team below of any enemy advance, and begin firing upon the cylons well before the others could even see them. This allowed Sharon and Shields to maintain a relatively low altitude with Joe, which would increase their response time when the inevitable reinforcements arrived.
Unless of course those reinforcements were Raiders, but there was no point thinking about that.
Lee shifted his weight a little, keeping as much off his injured leg as possible. He squinted slightly, then laughed softly at himself as he realized the folly of expecting to be able to see Kara through the glass.
"Open that nose, pup," he sighed, dropping a hand listlessly on Seek's massive brow. "I don't think we'll have long to wait up here." Seek eyed him innocently.
Starbuck's sweep team was making good time. She and Helo were point, side arms held easily and readily in front of them as they jogged with smooth, practiced strides down either side of the corridor. They had decided to check the outpatient surgery first, because it was on the first floor, and they were sure the stairways would be heavily guarded. Since the sweep team consisted of her, Helo, Anders, and a wiry slip of a Resistance girl called Caden, and that was it, they decided to make sure the first floor was clear and give the more heavily armed and manned Assault force time to clear the stairwells.
They checked every room with coordinated precision, taking special care to avoid crossing directly in front of any glassed in reception areas before they had tossed grenades to clear them. That they met with hardly any resistance did not bide well for the prospects of the outpatient surgery wing.
A shrill whistle sounded, reverberating off the buildings. Everyone stopped to look skyward, at the outline of Apollo on the roof across the street. He was waving down to them, and when he saw he had their attention he pointed east, down the broken boulevard. They heard the report of his rifle as he took aim and fired.
The outpatient surgery wing was cleared. It had been used recently, and several key pieces of equipment had been removed, but there was no one here.
"This is creepy," Caden whispered. "We haven't seen one fraking cylon…"
"Yeah well don't complain. Let's get going." Anders looked around quickly, then turned and ran back the way he had come. Caden followed.
"Hey!" Starbuck called.
The two slid to a halt and looked back at her. Neither she, nor Helo had moved. The latter wore a bemused expression on his face as he watched their unobservant comrades move away. The former arched a brow and jerked her chin.
Anders and Caden ran to catch up as Helo and Starbuck started cautiously up the stairs.
Lee placed each shot carefully at first. The centurions, clanking with a slow and deadly purpose towards them, came down the street and out of the adjoining alley ways as if they had always been there, waiting. There were no Raiders in the air, which surprised him a little, but the centurions by themselves were intimidating enough. They were so unhurried. Even when Lee gunned them down, even when Joe blew whole groups of them away almost carelessly, they strode on, unconcerned.
Now Lee just wanted to slow them down. They were coming from both sides of the street now, in a pincher. When they came in range of the Perimeter team's guns, the men and women on the ground opened fire as well. As one body the centurions collapsed their spindly hands into weapons, and added their furious staccato to the song.
They could hear the sounds of gunfire, from ahead of them and from the street, when they emerged onto the third floor. The second floor, like the first, had been surprisingly undefended. Clearly that particular bit of luck was not meant to last, as it sounded like Walker's boys had met with their first real fight.
"Surgical suit's on this floor," Caden pointed out. There was a plaque on the wall, indicating as much.
"Cocky bastards. Don't care if we find it at all."
"I don't think so," Helo said. His voice had a quizzical tone, and he was examining the wall sign critically.
"Helo?"
"This has been moved here from somewhere else. See the dust on the floor from when they drilled it into the sheet rock, the little scratches around the holes in the corners? I bet if we take this down we won't see any signs of fading around it. This was done in a hurry, and recently."
"The shooting down on the other end?"
"They're trying to draw us, get us to waste time maybe. I say we keep going."
Exchanged nods were all that was necessary to seal the agreement. The four of them ducked back into the stairwell, and continued up.
"Why don't they guard this one?" Caden asked. "It's like a free pa…"
"Down!"
Starbuck pitched forward, grabbing a fistful of the other woman's vest and hauling her back. A shower of bullets from above slammed into the concrete around them, ricocheting from the floor and walls as they scurried back down.
"There's your answer. You shut the frak up from now on."
"Got any ideas on how we get up there?"
"We could grenade them out, like we did in the lobby."
"I thought I told you to shut up," Starbuck growled, only half paying attention to Caden.
"But…"
"They're above us, moron. What happens if our grenade hits a wall or railing and bounces back down?"
Caden was quiet. So were the defenders' guns.
"How many do you think?" Helo asked, checking his clip and sliding it back in.
"They wouldn't need many. Stairways' only two centurions wide, tops."
"I've got an idea," Anders put in. "Can you distract them on the platform?" He nodded towards the half-way platform, where they had been when the centurions opened fire.
"Where will you be?"
"Climbing."
Helo, Starbuck, and Caden looked where Anders indicated, and saw with equal measures of admiration of alarm what he intended to try.
"Nice."
The stairs they were on went up perhaps ten more steps from where they stood, then flattened out to a platform, where they had taken fire, which was at a ninety degree angle to the stairs. Another block of steps, running parallel to theirs but higher and angled up, ran at its own ninety degree angle to the platform, and ended at another platform, whereon the centurions stood. There was a space between these, so that if one were to stick his head out and look down, he would see the ground floor, and if he were to look up he would see to the ceiling.
Starbuck, Helo, Caden, and Anders made their way careful up the last ten steps to the platform, keeping low and close to the wall. All they had time for was to duck their heads out and rack out a few rounds before the eruption of centurion fire forced them back. But that was fine, because as soon as the shooting began Anders had dropped down into the space between and caught hold of the slowest bar of the railing. He made his way, hand to hand, up towards the next platform.
Anders cursed himself under his breath as he made his way up the inside of the railings, sure he would be seen and blown away at any moment. Bullets zinged by his fingers. Fortunately, he did not have far to climb. Unfortunately he had not even considered how he would get back down when he rolled the grenade onto the platform. Too late now.
Right hand reach, grab. Left hand up to meet it. Right hand reach. Slow and easy. Mother frakin' fool show off cocky frakin' bastard…
Starbuck and Helo kept up the pressure on the centurions, in a much as pressure could be maintained on a superior enemy with superior weapons and superior ground. It did not take as long as it seemed to for Anders to reach the platform. Miraculously, he was not seen. As quickly as he could move and still be secure, he dropped his left hand to his belt, fumbled for his last grenade, pulled the pin with his teeth, and rolled it out onto the platform.
The centurions stopped firing. Anders let go of the railing.
Lee imagined he could see their outlines through the windows of the hospital across from him. He glanced up only occasionally. He had had to duck down more than a few times, pulling Seek with him, as bullets smashed through the hospital windows. The Perimeter team, below him, wrapped their arms over their heads in attempt to shield themselves from the rain of glass.
They were holding. With Sharon, Shields, and Joe mowing down the advancing centurions, the men on the ground were sheltered from what could have been a bloody battle. Lee kept on expecting to see Raiders flying in at any moment.
A low growl rumbled in Seek's chest, and Lee glanced over at her in surprise. It wasn't a snarl really, like he would expect if there were cylons somewhere on the roof with them. Her teeth were not even bared. The dog just growled softly, her hackles raised slightly, her gaze focused on the hospital across from them.
Lee looked where she was looking, and it did not take him long to see what had upset her. There, on the hospital roof, were two cylon men and one woman, all of which he recognized. They were standing with a pair of centurions, and looking down at him with interest. By the time Lee swung his rifle up they were gone, as if they had never been. But only for a moment. He saw them again briefly, or thought he did, through the windows, moving down. They were on the seventh floor. He judged walker to be on the third. Where Starbuck and her team were, he had no idea.
Anders catching his arm on the rail he had started off on and the grenade exploding happened simultaneously. Bits of metal and concrete flew through the air. He was dimly aware of Starbuck, Helo, and Caden shielding themselves from the blast; they had come down the stairs as soon as they saw him pull the pin. Helo grabbed hold of the back of Anders' vest and pulled him back over the railing.
The enclosed stairwell had amplified the blast; all their ears were ringing. They were all scrapped up to, bruised and bleeding and dirtier than they had been before. But that was all. The gods were with them. The centurions were destroyed, and the steel re-enforced concrete stairway had held up under the blast. Mostly.
They rested a moment before hauling themselves up the stairs, weapons at the ready. The fourth floor doorway had been blown open, and there were signs of scorching on the opposite wall. Starbuck and Helo took position flanking the doorway, backs to the wall, weapons held in front of them. They ducked their heads out, checking the hallway in either direction. Nothing.
Starbuck nodded to Anders and Caden, who dodged out of the door and took covering positions. Helo and Starbuck followed them out. With only wordless signals passing between them, the four split, with Helo and Starbuck taking the west corridor, and Anders and Caden going east. They moved as quickly and silently as they could, staying close to the walls, opening each door carefully to check inside. It was not that they expected their presence here was a secret, especially given the explosion on the stairs. If there was anyone up here, though, they wanted to see them before they themselves were seen.
They were halfway down the hall when Starbuck raised a fist and pulled to an abrupt halt. Helo, coming along just behind her, skipped over to the opposite side and dropped to one knee. A door opened ahead of them.
Number Six emerged, followed closely by the one they knew as Simon. Their expressions were strange in that they were not urgent, or even, it seemed, aware that they should be. The former wore a translucent black dress, the later wore a white lab coat and carried a clipboard. Starbuck shuddered.
She and Helo opened fire simultaneously, dropping their targets after only a short burst. With a jerk of her head, Kara indicated that Helo should advance. He nodded back, and advanced quickly to check both cylons for signs of life. His right hand made a knifing gesture across his throat. She nodded, and advanced.
Step by step, they were cold, efficient, and precise. She was a pilot, he was an ECO. Basic ground assault was something they had gone through a long time ago. For these two, though, it was only as long ago as their last visit to Caprica, as their sojourn on Kobol. Only a few short months ago this kind of scenario would have been unthinkable to either of them. Starbuck shook off the thought. Live in the present or die in the future.
The door the cylons had come out of had been left slightly ajar; they had been gunned down before they had closed and relocked it. Starbuck and Helo took up flanking positions again, making eye contact and nodding to each other before Helo reached out and pushed the door, just slightly, and let it swing inward.
No one shot out at them from inside. Nothing made a sound.
Starbuck went in first, with Helo on her heels.
Rhea.
That was the word that shot through Kara Thrace's mind. She felt her rifle lower, saw Helo's pistol doing the same out of the corner of her eye. The children stared at them, eyes wide and terrified.
There were eleven of them, all girls. The oldest was perhaps thirteen or fourteen, and it was that girl that had inspired Starbuck's initial thought. She was a stout young lady, with black eyes, mousey brown hair, and sharp features. Not a pretty thing really, but not ugly either. She held the littlest girl on her hip; that one was maybe two. The others were all roughly the same size, though in reality they ranged in age from four to ten. They clung to the older one, to her hand if they could get hold of it, or to bits of her clothing.
The room was sparingly furnished, but clean. The children were clean as well. They had been clothed uniformly, in sturdy, nondescript gray garments. Though they were lanky and hollow looking, they had been fed; remnants of plates of food could be seen set aside on the small card table in the corner.
"Who are you?" the oldest girl demanded. She had a surprising strength and clarity of voice. And a quick mind; she had immediately that these were not the same brand as her usual visitors.
"My name's Kara. I'm with the Colonial Fleet. This is Karl." And that was the first time Helo had ever heard Starbuck use his given name. The corner of his mouth jerked in a quick smile. "Who are you?"
"My name is Abrianna. The girls call me Abri." Her face took on a ghostly pallor, and she clutched the child a little tighter. "But I'm not anyone anymore. I'm just a breeder. We're all just breeders."
Starbuck was horrified. These were human children, there was no doubt about that. The implications flooded her mind, and stirred in her a rage the likes of which she had seldom known. Human children, girls, recovered from the villages and towns and farms, had been brought here, to this farm, to be fed and cared for and raised up, until they were old enough to bear children. Abri looked near old enough herself. What had happened to the boy children, if they'd found any? What had they done to the girls who were too sickly?
Helo was thinking all of these things as well, because though he was simple he was no fool. But there was a difference in his thinking. Helo saw those little girls and he thought of his daughter, just starting to make her presence known in her mother. He saw them, and felt a fear and rage of his own.
"Come on," he said shortly, sweeping one of the littlest into his arms. "You're coming with us."
The girls hesitated for only a moment, then, at Abri's urging, fell in behind him. Starbuck took up the rear.
Anders and Caden found what they were looking for. The surgical suite here had been converted, just as it had been everywhere else they had been, to sustain the human incubators. A dozen or more women were hooked up to the softly beeping machines, unconscious or semi-conscious.
This was one area at which the Resistance people had infinitely more practice than their Galactica counterparts. Though the Farm in Caprica City was by far the largest they had had to deal with, it was not the first. Caden hated how calm and detached she was able to be, shooting out the breaker box and killing the power to the machines. Anders felt only a vague sorrow and muted rage as he placed the explosives.
There was one thing that could shock them though. It was difficult to imagine anything more astounding than the scene that confronted them when they jogged back out into the main corridor to alert Starbuck and Helo to the impending explosion.
Starbuck and Helo were there, as expected, but they were not alone. Helo was carrying a child. And if that was not enough, ten more children followed after him.
Anders shook of his surprised stupor. There would be time for an explanation later.
"We have to go!" he barked. "Now!"
Windows had been blowing out of the hospital since the fighting began. They had all grown accustomed, even in so short a time, to the sight of it, to the sound. But this sound was of an altogether different quality. This was the sound of an entire wing of the hospital blowing outward.
Lee had seen many explosions in recent months. But there is no sound in space. When the east end of the fourth floor blew out, there was such a roar that he fell back from it. And he was not alone. Even the centurions below him seemed to pause for half a heartbeat.
In the dust and smoke, he could hardly see anything. Lee squinted hard, practically willing the air to clear. He had to see, if he could, his people through the hospital windows. He had to see them moving, alive.
It seemed like a lifetime. Finally, the haze lifted enough that he could see their outlines. There was Walker and his Assault team, where Lee had last seen them on the northwest end of the third floor. They were falling back, rushing to meet another group coming at them from the opposite direction. Starbuck, and her people. More than her people. There was a mass of them, mostly small, making their way towards the relative shelter of Walker's many guns. He could imagine her telling him it was done, ordering that they fall back.
Time for him to get moving as well. He could no longer get a good angle on the centurions; most of them were directly beneath him now. Anyway, it would save time if he was there with the others when Joe picked them up, to gather them all at once instead of making a separate trip for him. Apollo began to edge back slowly, not wanting to stand until he was back away from the edge.
He stopped short. There, across from him, were the cylons he had seen on the roof. They were on the fourth floor, in one of the rooms. When had they come down? How had he not noticed them?
That did not matter. What mattered was his people were just one floor below. They were making their way down, sure, but they had no idea there were cylons just above them, following them down. He did not know why he was so upset. They had, after all, been fighting cylons all this time. They had also been killing cylons all this time, which was evidenced by the fact that they were all still breathing. But Lee was thrown off regardless. Something about the very idea of these particular cylons following Starbuck and her people down sent his mind spinning.
Seek whimpered, looking at him curiously.
"Let's go," he grunted. Using her for support, Lee pushed to his feet and half limped, half ran down the twisting ramps of the three-story parking garage. He could not have said what he hoped to accomplish, but to move was better than to watch anyway.
It happened so fast.
People looking back on it hours, days, weeks later would still not be able to believe how quickly and brutally it all happened. Those who would bear the scars for the rest of their lives would still look at them, at those puckered pink marks on their skin, and imagine they were there and gone in an instant, hardly felt or noticed.
It all happened so, very, fast.
Lee had a shorter distance to go than his counterparts in the hospital, and an easier way to get there. He was not hindered by the many twists and turns of stairwells, nor by panicky children, nor by a force of fighters far stronger than it had seemed going up. Still, even with Seek's help going was slow for him. His leg screamed violent curses at him with every step. His shoulder, abused by the kick of the rifle, protested angrily. His slightly anemic body woozed at him. It was like his spirit faded in and out, unsure of its seat. It was like the invisible crutch that had carried him since Seek had found him had been kicked out from under him.
So he made it to ground level at about the same time Starbuck did. In the time he and she had been making their respective journeys down, Joe had all but cleared the street. More cylons were coming; he could hear them. But he could not yet see them, and they were not in range.
He started across the street.
Joe began to make its descent, pivoting in the sky so that its ramp would open to them when it landed.
Apollo began his trek across the avenue. He could see Starbuck, Helo, Walker, and their entourage in the lobby. Where there more of them than there had been? What was Helo carrying?
He was half-way across when Seek snarled and leapt away from him. She tore the collar, held loosely in Lee's hand, from his grip so abruptly he nearly toppled. He had never heard her howl so. He saw her mark in the next instant. The cylons he had seen, had half convinced himself were only illusion, were coming out of the stairway now. No. Just one. Where were the others?
Lee began to run, haltingly, and desperately.
Starbuck and company were just coming out of the door. Anders was at point.
Tenpoint had made his way towards Joe, exhausted, limping from a shrapnel wound, and ready to be the first one onboard when the Raider touched down. He turned with a start when he heard someone shout in wordless surprise, saw Seek with her fangs bared, barreling at the man who had just emerged from the hospital lobby. He saw Lee in pursuit, rifle in hand.
Tenpoint did not even think, did not even consider. He reacted, as a man reacts when he sees his friend, his leader, faced with the jaws of death.
His rifle was to his shoulder.
A shot ripped the air.
Everything stopped.
Lee's feet stopped so suddenly that the rest of him pitched forward. For an instant, it looked as though he would catch himself, but if his body still had strength enough, his heart now lacked the will. Shocks of needling pain stabbed through his legs and back as he slammed to his knees.
There was a brief, startled hitch. With the enemy advancing from all sides, all anyone could do was stare.
Seek twitched.
Starbuck saw the shift, from shock to stony rage on Apollo's face. She saw the flare, as his eyes shot up and skipped over the Assault team, marking something in the lobby behind them.
Starbuck and Apollo sprang into action in the same instant. Lee brought his rifle to his shoulder hard, with the kind of speed and fluidity no one ever seemed to expect of him. Kara spun, sending two rounds deep into Doral's chest as the cylon man strode purposefully towards their exposed backs.
Seeing his target gunned down, Lee changed direction before he had even brought his rifle to bear. He whipped around, raising himself up to one knee with a barely noticeable wince.
Not three seconds had passed in the lifetime since Seek had gone down. Tenpoint had not even lowered his rifle.
Lee's body quaked. His face was twisted and hard. By the time Kara pivoted back, Lee had racked a round into the chamber, and Anders was already moving.
The rifle cracked when Anders body-slammed Apollo flat, winging Tenpoint's arm.
Landin had begun moving an instant after Anders. His boot met the C-buck's gut before he grabbed Anders by the shoulders and hauled him back, throwing him to the street. He took Lee by an arm and pulled him to his feet.
Seeing Anders struck, Caden jerked up her pistol in response. Walker, standing near her, with barely a flutter in his expression, rammed his rifle butt into her abdomen and up into her jaw when she doubled over. He disarmed her, almost casually, as she fell back.
Anders rolled to his knees and swiped a rivulet of blood from his chin; he had bitten his lip when he fell. Tenpoint was up again and taking aim, blood blossoming on his arm. This time his eyes were on Lee.
Walker wrenched around from the fallen Caden. His rifle he raised one-handed to point it towards Anders. Caden's pistol he brought around on Tenpoint.
And everyone was pointing their gun at someone, so quickly it stole the breath away. The Galactica people were outnumbered, but furious, and well-trained. It would not have been their fight, but they would have made it a nasty one.
Abri and her "sisters" shrank back behind Helo.
Lee was standing unmoving now, staring hard at Sam Anders.
Not even a full minute had passed.
Yet in that short time, in barely a minute, the cylons had come within range. Walker swung his arms together and just to the right of Anders, firing at a centurion that was about to make a pin-hole target of Landin's back. Anders dropped, realizing only afterwards that the Marine had not been shooting at him.
They all started firing at once, out at the cylons that were almost upon them. Joe touched down then, lowering its ramp as it did. Starbuck and Helo herded the girls towards the ramp, where they were met by Shields and a fascinated Sharon, and ushered on board. The others fell back in twos and threes, leaving their dead where they lay.
Apollo had not moved.
"Lee! Lee come on!" Starbuck called. "Oh frak this!"
She ran back down the ramp, followed closely by Helo and Walker. Landin had stayed with Apollo. Helo, Walker, and Landin lifted Seek, and ran as best they could with her bulk between them back to the Raider. Starbuck practically grabbed Lee by the scuff of his neck and dragged him after them.
"Go go go!" she cried as soon as she, and Lee with her, cast themselves down onto the deck.
She need not have bothered. With centurion bullets chasing them, they were already in the air.
"You son of a bitch!" Lee bellowed. He fought savagely, albeit weakly, against the restraining arms or Helo and Walker, who were sorely tempted to let him go and join the fight. "Why would you do that? Why?"
"She was going after Sam," Tenpoint shouted back defiantly. "I did what I had to do."
"She was going after the cylon, you idiot. She was protecting Anders."
"Ok everyone just calm down!" Starbuck barked, not sounding especially calm herself. "We've got a long flight back to Delphi and it'd be nice not to kill each other on the way."
If it was possible, Joe's passengers were more polarized now than they had been on the trip to Caprica City. And they were more crowded. Even though they had taken some losses, the little girls they now carried took up a lot of space. They were packed up towards the front with Sharon, Shields, and Seek. The rest of the space was taken up by furious, shouting, frothing men and women. It looked as though their survival between here and Delphi really was in question.
Sharon sat back, away from the battle, watching Starbuck and Helo try to keep the peace. Try half-heartedly to keep the peace. Her back was to them; she had placed herself as a barrier between the seething mob and the huddled girls. And the dead dog.
Tenpoint's shot had been well placed; it had gone right through Seek's throat. Some of the children recoiled from her. Others stroked her fur with the loving fascination of children that have not seen any dog at all in many months, had half convinced themselves dogs were just something they had imagined, like loving homes, and schools, and families.
Sharon touched her too. It was the first time she had been able to, and the sensation surprised her. Warm, even in death. Warm in the heart, chilling in the body. Her eyes welled up with tears.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. And she was.
She did not know what compelled her to run her hand down the length of the dog and rest it on her belly. Thoughts of children, perhaps, and the belief Shields had had that this dog had been pregnant.
Something shifted under her hand.
"Calm the hell down, Apollo!" Anders was saying. "It's only a dog for frak's sake!"
"Right Anders. Only a fraking dog, is that they way you want to play it? Least on your long list of crimes, isn't that right?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what, frak you alright!"
"Enough!" Starbuck shouted. "Gods Lee just take it easy." She stood between the two men, one hand on Lee's chest, one on Anders. She did not know what she expected them to do if she let her hands fall, but she felt more secure with them there regardless.
"No," Landin growled. "Why should he? Why should any of us?"
Sharon leaned closer to the dog, pressing her ear against the cooling belly.
"God," she breathed. "Corporal, give me your knife."
Shields edged closer, drawing his knife from his belt and handing it to her, while placing his other hand near Sharon's on the dog's middle. His eyes widened.
"Ok what's going on here? Landin what's all this about?"
"Frak, sir, don't you know? Wasn't enough for the bastards to shoot Marcel, shoot up the Cap. Trigger happy sons of bitches have to shoot the damn dog too. What's next? Huh? You frakers not gonna be happy 'til you've got all of us?"
The children whimpered and shrank back when Sharon carefully inserted the knife just under Seek's ribcage. All except Abri. The girl was sturdy in spirit as well as body, and had realized what Sharon was trying to do. She and Shields together hesitantly pulled the skin and muscle aside as Sharon cut. They held the dog open while Sharon reached for the uterus, pulling it half out. Some of the other girls moved closer now.
"Get a grip, Marine. Cylons shot our guys. These guyshave been helping us every since we got here."
"Due respect, sir, but frak off."
"Corporal!" Apollo snapped, wrenching his arms free of Walker and Helo's grips. "That's enough!"
With Shields whispering instructions, Sharon carefully sliced into the uterus. The puppies were each in their own placental sacks. She lifted them out one by one, cutting the placentas away, sucking the fluid out of their mouths and noses. There were six of them. Soon each was held by eager hands, which rubbed their backs vigorously trying to get their blood flowing, trying to get them to breathe. Sharon felt Seek's dead, mother eyes watching her, pleading with her, cheering her on.
"Come on baby," she said softly. "Come on."
"Please puppy," Abri begged, with tears in her eyes. "Breathe puppy."
"I'm sorry sir, I am." Landin was shaking with rage now. By the looks on Helo's and Walker's faces, they were not far behind him. "I did like you ordered. I didn't say anything. But now this bastard with his 'it's just a dog.' They knew. They knew all the time. How could they not? They came up and met us where Marcel was gunned down and they knew right then it had been people they were shooting at. But they didn't say anything. Hell, if the fraking cylons hadn't told you we still might not know. And them making nice all the time."
Starbuck let her hands fall from Lee's and Anders' chests. She turned to face the captain of the C-bucks, taking a step back to stand closer to her men. Her face was confused, angry, accusing.
"You…"
"We didn't know… Kara…I swear we didn't…"
The tiny puppy in Abri's hands mewled. The little girl squeaked delightedly, hugging the pup to her chest.
"Until you got up on that ridge. You knew then, didn't you?"
"What about him!" Tenpoint demanded. Having taken the first shot that day, he was not inclined to follow this line of conversation. "Held by the cylons three days and he's walkin' and talkin' like they had him for tea."
"I'm not sure I'd characterize it that way."
"Yeah, well can you explain it? They just cut you down and leave you! Why would they do that? You give them something maybe? Or maybe you're one of them yourself!"
"Gods are you really as dumb as you look? They left me, because they wanted me to make a trail. They were after Sharon, and her baby, and when I wouldn't tell them where she was they put a tracker in me and cut me loose so that I would maybe move around a little and draw any searchers deeper into their territory."
"Likely story. And you just happen to find a cabin with all the necessities of life. With a fraking dog for gods sake! That doesn't seem a little too convenient for you?"
"Well what can I say Tenpoint, cylons don't like being inconvenienced any more than we do. Took me to where they were, and where they were just happened to be killing some old guy in his cabin in the mountains. My good luck." He scoffed that last part.
"And you healing like you are? Never even had your arm in a sling!"
"Disappoint you does it? Make you doubt your marksmanship?"
"Don't dodge the fraking question. Why are you healing so fast? Healing like a cylon!"
The puppy Sharon held hiccupped, began squirming in her hands. It had been a long time since she had felt such joy.
"I don't know," Lee bit out. "Maybe I am a cylon. Maybe you'd better throw me out right now!"
"They were treating him! Your own doc and Sharon both said so. They wanted to keep him alive."
"Why! What's he to them?"
"To interrogate him longer. Or maybe so he could run, make that trail."
"Lot of maybes in there Starbuck. Maybe we should pitch him right now."
"No one's getting pitched!" Anders cut in. "I think we all just need to take a minute here."
"Frak that. I say we need to dump your asses back in Delphi and go home."
Shield's pup squirmed a little.
"Sharon? Shields? Don't you have anything to say here?"
"No. Not particularly."
And all eyes were on them then. All eyes widened at the sight of a cut open Seek lying in a pool of her own blood; of tiny, damp, writhing puppies in the reddened hands of their companions. Lee could hardly believe what he was seeing. Step by step, not tearing his eyes away for fear it would be an illusion, he walked to them and lowered himself to his knees with exaggerated care. Puppies. Tiny, sightless puppies seeking warmth and love and nourishment. He accepted the one Shields handed to him gingerly, pulling it close to his chest and staring in awe. He was barely aware of the others coming up behind him, barely aware of anything, but this last, greatest gift his Seek had given him, given all of them.
Lee Adama was not a tearful man. Even at his own brother's funeral he had not cried. The day his father had been shot in CIC was the first time he could remember crying in many long years. But then, in that moment, with all of the events of these last days crashing down upon him in torrents of fury, and agony, with the inescapable knowledge that he could not change any of it, not one minute, not one breath of time, and not one of his friends that was dead now could ever come back, and his soul would be changed forever and he could never go back, and so many innocents had died with and for and by him, and now he would go home and he could not take her with him…but for this. He was going to return to Galactica with everything gone and everything gained lost again and he had nothing at all to show for it… Had had nothing at all to show, but now this.
He wept.