Thirteen

Chapter Forty-Three

Maternity Leave

Boomer was officially a Ranger now, but her pregnancy had forced her to stay planet-bound. She chafed at flying a desk these days, but she also knew that she had to think of her baby first.

She had gotten pregnant because the others had told her that it was part of God's plan. However, the more she thought about it, the more she began to wonder if the Cylons really knew what God's plan was. Yes, she knew that the Colonials had created the mechanical Cylons to use them in virtual slavery, but weren't the human Cylons created by the robots to serve the same purpose?

She didn't know the whole plan that the Cylons had, only the part that involved procreation and giving birth to new humanoid Cylons. She did what she could to break into the programming that the Cylons had placed inside her mind, but could not figure out a way to crack it.

Starbuck and Helo had taken off on board Whitestar 525 again, this time with Starbuck in command, while Helo served as her pilot. Boomer would have been weapons officer, but her pregnancy hindered her from that. She didn't regret getting pregnant, or at least not all of the time.

Delenn came by one day to check on her. Boomer was surprised to see her come into the office, as Delenn rarely had the chance to come by the compound with her duties as Interstellar Alliance president. When she was Entil'zha, she was here quite often, but since she had essentially swapped jobs with her husband, John Sheridan, she was more preoccupied with political matters.

"Madam President! What can I do for you?" Boomer said as Delenn came into the office. Boomer had been assigned to working in the pilot training program, which was basically a paperwork job, logging in training hours and scheduling training sessions.

"I came by to see how you were doing and how you were handling your pregnancy." Delenn replied.

"Oh? Well, I'm handling it as best I can. This is my first one, and since it's also the first time a Cylon has become pregnant with a human…" Boomer shrugged.

"As you humans sometimes say, 'been there, done that, bought the t-shirt'. I was the first of my people to mate with a human and bear a child with them. It was a difficult pregnancy, not that I had many problems, but we were all fearful of something going wrong. Thankfully, my son has grown up to be a healthy young man."

"And a damn good pilot! David Sheridan has been logging in a lot of training hours lately. It seems like he's in here every day trying to get simulation time." Boomer remarked.

"Like father, like son!" Delenn laughed. David Sheridan had to be one of the youngest Rangers in the Anla'shok order. Despite the obvious connection with his parents, David Sheridan earned his reputation with his work ethic and sheer talent as a pilot. His father was immensely proud of him, and so was his mother.

"If I may be a little impolite, you didn't come down here for a chat, I assume." Boomer asked.

Delenn nodded. "We just received word from Earth. Apparently some of the Cylon prisoners have been asking about the baby, specifically where you are."

Boomer wasn't really surprised at this, but it still sent a chill down her spine. "Have you told them anything?"

"Basically we've told them that you're on Babylon 5. Whether the Cylons believe it or not is unknown to us, but if we can get them to focus on trying to attack the station, then we have the advantage. Especially now that the Drakh appear to have an alliance with them, we need every advantage we can get."

Delenn paused, and Boomer noticed that she was about to ask something difficult, which gave her an idea of what she was about to ask. "Do you have any suspicions about any Cylon agents we've not accounted for? If they were to infiltrate the Rangers…"

"I've already been looking for that, Delenn. So far as I can tell, we've accounted for the dozen we've found, but that doesn't mean that they haven't developed new models. Ever since I got back, I've been looking for them, but nothing has turned up yet."

Delenn nodded and they wrapped up the conversation soon after. Boomer went back to work, but her mind never fully was able to commit to the task. She was worried about what those who had created her were up to, because they surely would try to use her against the Interstellar Alliance to get at the Colonials. Try as she might, she could not keep her mind from worrying about what was to come.

Many light years away, Vacit and Bester were talking about the pregnant Boomer. "I lost Fiona, and I'll be damned if I lose this Sharon model. If she is at Babylon 5, we need to get her."

Bester nodded and added, "It's possible that they may have sent her to Earth to better protect her. Then again, for all we know, they may have sent her to Minbar!"

Vacit waved that off, saying, "I doubt she's on Minbar. The Earth government wouldn't want to lose the chance to get at our technology. The mundanes would love to have a chance to give themselves a weapon to use against us, and wouldn't want the Minbari or any other race to have that kind of weapon! No, she's more than likely on Babylon 5 or on Earth. If it's the former, we'll deal with it soon enough. If it's the latter, then the baby will be born and we'll be able to discard Boomer."

"So when do we go after the station?" Bester asked with some relish.

"Very soon! I know you've had your problems with the place. No need to worry, Alfred, because we'll beat them there. Once that's done, we'll be ready to go after the real target: Earth."

"It won't be easy. Even with our vastly superior Centurions, it'll be extremely difficult to take over the Earth."

Vacit nodded and replied, "Indeed, but we're ready for a long fight. We have millions upon millions of Centurions, as well as other Cylon models. And our newer human models will be coming on line soon, so Ms. Winters will be able to work her magic and help them integrate into Earth society. If we don't defeat them from without, we'll beat them from within.

"But I want that baby, Alfred. No matter the cost, I want that child. I managed to get you away from the resistance, and I don't want the mundanes to get their hands on my other creation!" Vacit looked out the window of his office and out towards the spaceport. Transports were loading with Centurions as well as their Cylon commanders, and, as they finished loading, they took off for space. He smiled and said to himself, "Soon! Very, very soon!"