This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the first half of the second season (I'll be posted in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!
There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilities are endless.
Kara Thrace's first instinct was to gasp. She managed to hold that in, telling herself that maybe eyes could lie. They had in the past.
Her second instinct was to reach out and grab Helo's hand as they piloted the Heavy Raider towards the Fleet. At least she thought that was the Fleet. She couldn't really tell. Her eyes were still lying.
Her third instinct, the one she let herself indulge in briefly, was to cry as the ship registered no signs of power, no signs of movement, no signs of any life at all as they inched their way cautiously through space.
The air was torn with pieces of metal, bits of ships with which Kara was all too familiar. She tried to keep her eyes from focusing, all too afraid of seeing a battered name plate from a Viper or a recognizable ashen shell of a transport. Her eyes couldn't avoid the ship standing in the center of the space wreckage.
The Galactica.
Or as she liked to call it, home.
Her home was scarred. There were gashes on every visible surface as if hundreds upon thousands of ships had rammed themselves straight into the Battlestar. The only section that did not show signs of bombardment was actually a massive, gapping hole in the top of Galactica, and it suddenly struck Kara that the Combat Information Center had stood there once. The walls of the portside launching tubes the Heavy Raider was slowly creeping past were completely bent in upon themselves. Kara had to stifle a cry when she saw the cracked windows of the observation deck she had spent so many hours forgetting herself in.
"I don't understand, Starbuck," Helo said, breaking her from her thoughts. "You told me that the Fleet was holding out."
"They were, Helo," she hissed, glaring at him. The tears disappeared as anger quickly took over. "Do you think I would left if I didn't think they were fine?"
"She didn't know."
Kara turned to glower at Sharon Valerii. The Cylon hadn't spoken a word since their fight before leaving Caprica. Somehow Kara got the feeling that the fight and everything else that had happened to her on that planet was not just some accidental occurrence. And the anger intensified. "I'm sure you knew, though. Kind of ironic that you pressed us so hard to leave the Resistance behind to get this stupid piece of metal back to the Fleet. We could have been doing some good on Caprica if we had stayed."
"You could have done some good if you stayed with Galactica, too, Kara."
Kara's jaw tightened as she fought to keep her fury in check.
"I want you to know that I had no idea about this," Sharon said, her expression still blank. "I've separated myself from them."
"You expect me to believe you can just turn off your nature?"
"We are what we choose to be."
Kara felt the urge to punch those holier-than-thou-art words right out of her mouth. The impulse really wasn't all the surprising. There was only so much of this she could take. Now that her secret was known, Sharon, someone Kara once considered a friend, seemed to have lost any sign of the emotions that could identify her as human. She spoke of things that would cause any person to break down in anger or guilt or grief as if they meant nothing to her.
Helo stared at Kara for a few moments, watching her struggle to hold back her rage, before turning to the other woman on the Raider. "Sharon. Do you have any idea what happened?"
Sharon inched herself close to the window to get a better look at the horrifying sight in front of them. "From the looks of it, we are witnessing the aftereffects of humanity's final stand. There are Raider parts mixed in with the rest of the ships, maybe enough to be a whole base star squadron. No sign of the base star, though. Must have jumped out of space when the job was complete."
"Okay. Nothing we didn't know," Helo said, turning to give her a small smile before looking back once more at the grisly scene before their eyes. "The starboard side looks just as bad."
"The flight pod has a hole in it," Kara pointed out. "Must have happened sometime in the fight."
"You're not actually thinking about landing this thing in Galactica?" Sharon asked.
"I'm not thinking about it. I'm doing it."
"Wait a minute!" Helo cried. "Didn't the starboard flight pod get turned into a museum?"
"It's still part of the ship," Kara said, steering the Heavy Raider closer. "That's all that matters."
"Don't you think we should discuss this a little more?" Helo continued to yell.
"No. My ship, my decision."
"Technically, I got the ship for you," Sharon interjected.
"Technically, you would still be rotting on Caprica if I hadn't showed up." Kara powered down the thrusters as the Galactica loomed in front of them. "I win."
"Fine. We'll land. But what do you think we're going to do when we get in there?"
"Look for survivors, Helo. Load them into the ship and go down to finish the mission on Kobol or take them back to Caprica. We can't stay here."
"How do you propose we look for survivors?" Sharon asked. "I mean, we're landing in an area of the ship that probably has little to no pressure. We'll suffocate within seconds."
"Oh? Do you need air?"
Sharon sent a glare Kara's way. "Of course I need air."
"That's too bad." The Raider jolted slightly as Kara eased it into the remains of the Battlestar. "Though it does make the concept of flushing you things out the airlock a lot more interesting."
"And you call us cruel."
"Enough!" Helo yelled. "If you two would stop bickering for a second, you might realize that the pressure isn't a problem. It seems someone out there is watching over us."
Kara gave him a puzzled look before leaning over to check the read-out. "The ship's pressurizing around us." She turned to look angrily at Sharon. "Almost as if they were expecting us."
"Do not start accusing her again," Helo warned. "Let's just take this for what it is. We can get out of the Heavy Raider now, do your little search and rescue, and be gone before anyone knows we were here."
The ship banged against the launching tube floor with only a slight bump and whirred to a stop. No one said a word as they all disengaged their safety belts on their seats and stood up. Kara only paused slightly to bend down, pick up the tube containing the Arrow of Apollo, and sling it over her shoulder. "Okay. We need to move towards the hole in the middle of the ship. That's where the CIC and the main bunkrooms were. If anyone's alive, they'll be assembled close to the supplies."
Helo gave her a small nod, and after checking to make sure Sharon was behind them, started to climb the ladder out of the flight tube behind Kara. The hangar bay was a mess, partially from the attack by the Cylons and partially from the obvious efforts by the Fleet to turn it back into a functional space. It looked unquestionably abandoned. Helo decided that had to be a good thing.
"Sharon?" he called down the tube.
"I'm here," she said as she reached the last rung and accepted Helo's hand up into the hangar.
"Oh goodie," Kara said, rolling her eyes as she watched Helo check Sharon over for injury. He was way too concerned about that toaster's welfare, she decided. "Can we get a move on before the Cylons realize we brought their lost appliance home?"
"Always with the toaster jokes. Such racism."
Kara's eyes went wide as she twisted to see they were no longer alone. "Sharon?" she whispered taking a step towards the woman she had known for seven years. There were cuts and bruises adorning her whole body, but she looked as stubborn as Kara had always remembered her. It was hard to adjust to the idea that she had never been the person that Kara thought she knew.
"Thrace." Boomer's eyes shifted past where Kara stood and her face went pale. "Helo?"
"Hello, Sharon," Helo said, a slight twinge of sadness in his voice.
"I left you on Caprica."
"You brought him back from Caprica, too," Kara interjected. Helo turned his body to let her see the third party in their group. "Sharon, meet Sharon. She's pregnant with Helo's kid. Other Sharon, this is the woman Helo fell in love with and the one I thought was my friend all those years. Now that that's out of the way maybe you can tell us what you did to the Fleet, Boomer? Perhaps betray everyone who ever cared for you to by calling in your little mechanical friends? Or maybe you just shot them all yourself?"
"She didn't do this."
Kara looked over Boomer's shoulder and realized the Cylon was not alone. Her eyes fell first on the man who had addressed them as he stepped up to stand beside Boomer. It took her a few seconds to recognize him. Hot Dog did not look like the fresh nugget she had left behind. He was holding a rather ominous looking gun and actually looked like he knew how to use it. Standing to his left was Billy Keikeya. Kara felt ashamed that her first thought was to wonder how a man like that managed to survive a Cylon attack. But then her eyes locked with the last person of their group, the one person she had always trusted, as he hung in the background, and it all made sense.
"Lee?" she said hesitantly taking a step towards where he stood.
Boomer's hand shot out to stop her. "He's not the man you remember so don't try to make him that way, Starbuck."
Lee held her gaze for a moment before finally dropping his eyes. She desperately wished she could say his eyes were full of fear or determination or even anger, but none of those emotions were there. Instead, he just stood there, his whole being vacant of anything. And he wasn't saying a word.
Kara was pulled away from her study of him as Boomer, who seemed to be in charge of these three men, tossed a gun at her. "Suit up. You can tell us your story as we go, but right now we have to move out."
"Explosive rounds?" Kara asked as she took a good look at the gun in her hands.
"They're the only thing that will stop the Centurians," Hot Dog interjected as he turned to hand Helo his own weapon. "There aren't many left so don't waste them."
"Where are we going?" Kara asked, stepping into stride alongside Boomer as she led their group into the dead ship's corridors. She noticed that Lee had purposefully maneuvered himself to the back, but she didn't have time to dwell on it.
"It's inconsequential to you right now," Boomer informed her.
"Inconsequential my ass!" Kara yelled. She unholstered the gun Boomer had just given her along with the gun she picked up on Caprica and trained them on the Cylon. "I feel like I've stepped into some kind of bizarre alternate universe here, and I want some answers now before we take another step."
"Never one for patience, were you?" Boomer said calmly. Her eyes drifted to something over Kara's shoulder.
The faint click of a safety being released sounded in her ear, and Kara twisted slightly to see that Lee was holding a gun to the back of her head. She was suddenly overwhelmed by how wrong this whole situation felt. "What the frak?" she whispered, turning to look at Boomer as she put the gun back into the belt around her hip. "All right. That's it. When did you toasters learn how to brainwash people?"
Boomer rolled her eyes. "Always looking for the easy answer, Kara." She motioned to Lee, and Kara felt the gun being lowered away from her. "I promise you'll get your answers when we have time. For now we have to move."
Not sure if she really had any other option, Kara did as she was told. The group slowly made their way through the familiar corridors while she took the time to take an inventory of those around her.
Helo and Sharon were keeping close together in an obvious display that like her, they didn't trust the others. She couldn't fault them for wanting to stick with what they knew. Support was the kind of thing you wanted in a time like this. Kara's eyes darted to where Lee stood at the back of the group, but she quickly looked away.
Hot Dog was walking right behind Kara and Boomer. Kara was still in awe of how at home he seemed in this environment. This was a kid who washed out of the Fleet Academy because he was too damn cocky for his own good. And now he appeared to be at the level that Lee was when he graduated War College, practically perfect in every way. Kara scolded herself for bringing her thoughts back around to her friend. She didn't have time.
Billy was hanging towards the back, right behind Helo and Sharon. Kara noticed he was favoring his right side and was surprised to realize that there was a small circle of red on the left shoulder of his shirt which was rapidly spreading. He must have gotten hurt right before the two groups stumbled upon each other. It was odd to imagine Billy fighting.
Kara watched as Billy turned to whisper something to Lee. Lee smiled and gave him a nod of assurance which sent Billy jogging up to the front to talk with Boomer. Kara started to wonder if maybe the Cylon wasn't in control. At least that would mean one thing hadn't changed. Lee had always been the man with the plan.
The group of seven walked in relative silence until they were about halfway to their destination. At that point, Helo abruptly admitted that the quiet was starting to creep him out and began to explain what had happened on Caprica as a way of eliminating the eerie calm. Kara found it odd that she hadn't realized how much she was dreading having to explain the ten days she spent away from the Fleet until Helo took the pressure right off her shoulders. Not to mention that he was being so fraking thorough she didn't even feel the need to inject or correct him in any way.
The sudden, honest offering of information seemed to please Boomer. She motioned for the group to pause for a break, and most seized the opportunity to get off their feet. There was wreckage here and there throughout the whole corridor which made it easy to find a place to sit.
"The Cylons attacked ten days ago when there was a confusion with FTL jump points. You had been gone maybe half a day at most, Starbuck. The Galactica was separated from the whole of the Fleet and when it returned, it accidentally brought a Heavy Raider back with it. The Cylons got word of our location and sent a large part of their force." Boomer turned to look at Kara. "Before you ask, I knew nothing about it."
"Don't be offended. She's suspicious of me, too, even after I saved her," Sharon threw in from her place sitting next to Helo.
"You're toasters," Kara defended with a shrug, trying her best to focus on what Boomer was saying. She hadn't realized it would be this hard to keep herself from staring at where Lee sat. Something was definitely off about him. It was more than the fact that he seemed to be avoiding her at all costs. He hadn't spoken to Helo or Sharon either.
"The Fleet was gone within an hour. There was nothing I could do, no way I could warn anyone. Tigh had locked me up in a cell in the brig."
"For what?" Kara asked.
"Shooting the Old Man." Boomer's words seemed to almost challenge Kara to get angry and attack her. Kara wished she could say that she didn't want to rise to the task, but her hands were already instinctively moving to draw her gun.
"It was a blessing in the end," Hot Dog said, cutting in before Kara could act on her impulse. "She saved Adama the agony of watching his Fleet die."
"Hell of a blessing," Helo said.
"You weren't here," Hot Dog said. "You have no fraking clue what it was like."
"That's right. Because a man who struggle to stay alive on a planet experiencing a nuclear holocaust would have no idea what it's like to watch everything die around you."
Boomer could feel the focus slipping away from her as a old school/new school fight bubbled up between Helo and Hot Dog. Rolling her eyes, she motioned for Hot Dog to back down. They had to stay focused. "Regardless of whether it was for the best or not, I shot Adama and I was locked up for it. After the initial attack, I was in my cell for two hours, sitting there in the eerie quiet. I thought everyone had been destroyed, but I had no idea how. All I knew was there was something inside me that was calling out, and I wasn't liking what it was saying."
"That was before Captain Adama and I showed up," Billy added. "We had been protecting the President when the Cylons first attacked, trying to find a way to the CIC."
"You were the only two to escape unharmed?" Helo asked.
"It depends on your definition of unharmed. I mean-" Billy started to say as his eyes drifted to look over at Lee.
Before he could continue with whatever he was about to say, Boomer stood up. "Let's get moving again. We can continue this conversation as we go."
Kara nodded but filed away whatever had just gone down for future questioning. She knew that everyone would just assume he was talking about the wound to his shoulder even though it had only recently happened. But she had seen his brief glance at Lee. This whole situation was starting to send up red flags all over with the most alarming part of it being that Lee had yet to say a word. She figured at the least, Lee would have gotten into a mild shouting match with Helo by now.
"They figured that there was nothing to lose in letting me out of my cell so, as a group, we made our way to the CIC. Hot Dog was the only one alive there. He had managed to get clear of the main blast the Cylons sent to take out the head of Galactica."
"We've been trying to keep away from the Centurions ever since," Hot Dog added.
"They're still on the ship?" Sharon asked from her position walking beside Helo.
"They know we're here so their job is not done," Boomer answered.
"You don't have a lot going for you here," Kara pointed out as they turned down a new corridor. "I don't know how you've kept alive this long."
"We have two Cylons. Three now that you showed up. That should amount to something," Billy replied.
"Three?" Kara's brow furrowed in bewilderment as she looked around at their group in panic. There were only two Boomers which meant that the third Cylon had to be someone else, another one of her friends. She couldn't take another blow like that.
"Well, two and a half if you want to get technical," Billy added.
"Now's not the time," Boomer said, stepping in before Kara could ask more questions. "The Cylons have picked up on our location."
"You're still hardwired in with them, aren't you?" Sharon asked her counterpart, the shock evident on her face.
"Aren't you?"
"She gave up her connection to protect the baby," Helo informed them. "I'm surprised for someone who seems to dislike the Cylons as much as any human that you wouldn't have done the same thing."
"The connection is useful," Sharon said as if that explained it all. "Plus, there are circumstances that keep me from pulling away. Let's just say that I need to stay connected for specific reasons."
The group lapsed into silence as they approached a small arms locker. Boomer instructed Hot Dog to take point as she fell back to stand next to Helo and Sharon. Kara found it odd that Lee and Billy also shifted over to stand next to her two traveling companions. Figuring that was probably enough protection for them, she walked up to Hot Dog. "Go ahead and pull the door open so we can get this over with."
Hot Dog stared at her for a moment before responding. "I don't need the permission of a deserter."
She was left blinking in surprise at his harsh words as he pushed the hatch and ducked into the open arms locker. "It's clear," he yelled out a few seconds later.
"Get in," Boomer instructed, pushing the group forward. She grabbed Kara's arm as she was about to enter the locker and pulled her to the side. "Don't mind, Hot Dog. He's been through a lot in the past ten days, a lot of it we don't even know about. He won't talk about what happened to him when the CIC was taken out."
Kara was taken back at Boomer's sudden need to explain. Why would a Cylon care what she thought of her old student? "Thanks."
Boomer nodded and stepped into the locker with Kara at her heels. "Shut the door, Hot Dog," she instructed as she set down the large gun she had been carrying over her shoulder.
Kara started looking around along with the others. There were several shelves filled to the brim with explosive rounds and the cabinets beside them had a wide selection of guns. "What is this place?" she asked, purposefully turning to look at Lee as he stood by the closed hatch. He barely glanced at her.
"The Cylons didn't think we'd be stupid enough to come so close to the depressurized hole they created," Boomer explained as she pulled a few small detonators off of the shelf in front of her. "So this is where we've been stockpiling our supplies. This is pretty much all the weapons this ship still has. There's some food in the cupboards down below if you're hungry. It's just normal wartime rations we took from the wreckage of the mess, but it'll do."
Kara watched as Helo immediately pounced on the possibility of food. He pulled out a few pouches and handed them to both Sharon and herself. Kara knew exactly how he felt. Caprica didn't have many fine dining options these days.
"Before you start eating, there's something I've been wondering about," Boomer said, staring intently at Kara. "That second operation the Cylons put you through? What was that?"
"I don't know, and I don't think I want to know," Kara said shortly.
Boomer turned to look at Sharon briefly, and the two Cylons shared an unreadable look. "You said you were at an abandoned hospital? Was it one of the farms?"
"You know about them?" Helo cried, eyes going wide. He hadn't mentioned the new intel they picked up on Caprica about the Cylons and their sadistic baby farms.
"I pick up new information every day now that I've accepted my nature. If you were indeed at a farm, then whatever they did to you had something to do with procreation, Kara. The Cylons are fascinated by humanity's need to continue their line through love."
"You speak as if you're not one of them," Kara pointed out.
Boomer didn't pause. "You have a destiny, Kara."
Kara looked over at where Sharon was eating. "So I've been told."
"It's not what you think. Whatever they did to you, it did not cause permanent damage. You can still have children."
"Don't tell me the Cylons have a training course on the reproductive systems of Starbuck and how they can not be harmed," Hot Dog said with a laugh from his position lounging on the bench in the middle of the room. Most of the room joined in his laughter, but it was quickly apparent that Kara wasn't finding the humor in the situation.
"Starbuck?" Helo asked hesitantly.
She continued to stare into space with a horrified look for a few moments before turning to glare at Boomer. "Frak. Do not tell me that the repopulation of the human race is all on my fraking shoulders. I never wanted kids."
"Repopulation won't be a problem," Lee whispered into her ear. "We're going to find Earth."
Kara jumped in surprise. She hadn't realized Lee had moved from his position by the hatch. Not to mention that he had chosen now to speak to her for the first time.
"I think we might need some of the more creative weapons that are stashed by the port hangar bay," Lee said, turning to look at the others. He walked over to where Hot Dog stood and whispered something to him. Hot Dog nodded in reply, and Lee turned to look at Billy. "Billy? Go with him and take Helo and his Sharon with you. It'll be good to have a Cylon there in case you run into trouble."
Billy nodded and motioned for the others to follow him. Helo told them to hold on and walked over to Kara. "Let me take this just in case, Starbuck," he said as he slipped the almost forgotten case holding the Arrow of Apollo off her shoulder.
Kara didn't even think to object until all four had left her alone with Lee and Boomer. Suddenly she was all too aware that she was stuck in a small arms locker with a toaster and a man who hadn't shown one ounce of concern for her since she showed up on this ship.
Lee waited until the hatch door was closed before stepping over to stand next to Boomer. Kara watched in awe as he reached out and brushed a patch of dirt off Boomer's face. It hurt her to suddenly recognize the look in Lee's eyes. It was a look that he usually reserved for her and only when they were alone.
Suddenly she felt like a stranger intruding upon an extremely private moment.
"Would you leave me alone with Kara for a little while?" he asked. Kara tried not to stare at the way his hand lingered on her cheek.
Boomer shot a look in Kara's direction before pulling away from Lee's touch. She walked to the hatch and pulled it open before turning back to speak. "Give him a chance, Kara. Like I said before, he's a different man now, but he's still the Lee you love." The hatch clicked closed behind her, leaving them in silence once more.