"Quid Quo Pro"

" I don't like it," Colonel Tigh muttered. He paced around Adama's quarters. " I think we should just space the damn thing and be done with it." He glared at Adama. " We don't owe it any mercy."

Adama tried not to get angry. It was just another sign of stress on a ship where there would be no breaks and precious little hope. Tigh was just as affected as everyone else. Lately the negativity, unreasonableness and spiteful behavior had outrun the drinking. He almost preferred the drinking. Almost. " It's not mercy, it's necessary. She's a Cylon with technical and strategic knowledge." He looked over at Dr. Baltar. That was another one showing the signs of stress, but Baltar had been a twitchy mess since the beginning. "What do you think, Dr. Baltar?"

"In theory, interrogating the Cylon should provide us with important information. However," and Baltar began to visibly twitch, " I haven't had time to spare to even consider it. Also, I seriously doubt that this… version of Sharon Valerii will willingly give up useful information without imminent threat. Considering her reactions to physical interrogation…." Baltar's voice trailed off, his tone one of distaste.

"I was thinking of a softer approach," Adama said after a moment. Recent events had certainly shown the harder approach didn't work at all, but he would be damned if he just allowed the Cylon in the brig to use resources, eat, sleep, chitchat with his male soldiers, and have half human babies. He was tired of having to force Sharon Valerii at gun point to help them. It was time they found a lever.

Tigh snorted. " Don't we already know how that turns out? How many men do we need to have running around in love with this thing?"

"No," Baltar said suddenly. He looked at Adama carefully, clearly understanding what was being proposed. " You want to play with its head, have someone get inside and twist the information out in a friendly way, without her realizing it. That's tricky. Tricky and time consuming. I'd need to spend time every day cultivating a relationship… It's time I don't have, to be quite honest, and your people just don't have the technical qualification to divine what is useful and what isn't."

" Most of them don't, but there are a few," Adama said easily, willing himself to not belt Baltar in the face. Baltar had a certain intellectual snobbery that offended Adama. The man behaved as though the officer corps of the Galactica were ill-educated children, which simply wasn't the case.

" Yes, yes, but so few of them can be spared for any extra duty," Baltar said quickly. "Why, last week I asked for Lt. Gaeta… to help with the testing but I was refused and really, I've tried working with some of your other officers and frankly hardly any of them have any passion for their work."

" They're tired," Tigh shot back angrily. " That's why I wouldn't give you Gaeta last week. You keep him for hours and he spends the next watch half asleep. Everyone you want to use has critical work to do." Which was a gross exaggeration of the situation, but Adama let it pass. If Gaeta was falling asleep on his feet, he was just joining the majority of the crew. At least he wasn't coming on shift drunk. The problem was that Baltar dismissed or offended most of the people who tried to help him. Tigh didn't like how high handed Baltar was either, and the few other officers that passed Baltar's muster made morale much worse with their complaining. Gaeta was at least seemed to enjoy scientific work.

Or, at least he didn't complain. People who didn't complain or argue were in short supply as of late.

" Why don't I let you have Mr. Gaeta for three extra hours a week and you let him try the softer approach?" It wasn't ideal for a number of reasons, but Adama sensed that Baltar, if left to his own devices, would never find the time. " Of course, this extra time will be for this project alone." Because if it wasn't specified, he had no doubt that Baltar would keep Gaeta for longer and for different tasks. Adama wasn't surprised about that. Baltar liked an audience, that had been obvious to Adama. Gaeta liked to be an audience for Baltar, which was a problem but not a significant one. He needed someone to keep an eye on Baltar, and Adama was willing to tolerate a junior officer with a touch of hero worship since it kept him well supplied with information on Baltar's behavior. Plus, the reality was that Baltar simply wasn't very stable. The day would come when they would find Baltar hanging from a homemade noose in his quarters, Adama had no doubt of that and that the day would come sooner than later. Someone needed to be able to step up in that event. The next generation had to be taught. He hadn't consciously chosen an heir, but the fact remained that he wasn't a young man. Neither was Tigh, and the preparation had to be made early.

He also had reason to remove Baltar from at least one facet of Cylon research. He still didn't trust the man. Something just didn't feel right. He tried not to be as disdainful of Baltar's ideas as Tigh was. Tigh could be a self defeating bastard, especially when he was drinking. At the same time, he couldn't let himself put his trust in Gauis Baltar.

" Well, " Baltar began, clearly not happy about the fact that he was being gently overruled. " It's unlikely to work, regardless of who you use, but I must say… Lt. Gaeta hardly seems like the mostly likely interrogator among your men. Why not Lt. Thrace? A female is less likely to fall for any… enticement." Baltar paused. " He is your tactical officer and my assistant."

" Lt. Thrace can't be spared from training new pilots. She's also unlikely to recognize if the Cylon gives up useful technical data. If I had a technically capable officer to spare, who didn't work in critical areas, then I would use that person, but there's no one else. There's no pool of candidates, and we're not debating this, Doctor." After a long moment, Baltar nodded his assent, but it was clear he wasn't happy about it. He abruptly left.

" He's got a point, Bill." Tigh said as he poured himself a drink. " Gaeta isn't a deck chief or a pilot. We'll have a hell of a mess if he decides to fall in love with that thing too. And for what? Do you really think she's going to give anything up?"

"Maybe not," Adama said as he also poured a drink. " But we have to try."

"How do you make sure he doesn't get compromised?" Tigh asked as he downed his drink. " He's already a little soft on Valerii."

"Most of the crew is," Adama said softly. " I'm sure Mr. Gaeta will maintain his professional bearing." It would help that Adama had every intention of making sure that Sharon Valerii had no idea how closely she was watched. Or Lt. Gaeta for that matter.

The problem, Petty Officer Anastasia thought as she followed Lt. Gaeta to the special jail cell that Boomer the Cylon was held, wasn't that she didn't find the idea interesting, it was that she didn't think it would work. Sharon Valerii was a Cylon. She wasn't going to just start giving up information. Dee knew that. Cylons were tough. She didn't want to watch a friend metaphorically bang his head into a wall. There just weren't that many friends left

She also questioned how the commander was setting it up. It was every citizen's job to question the actions of the leader, her father had taught her that, and she had questions. She couldn't believe, for example, that the last best hope for Cylon interrogation was Felix Gaeta. He was a friend, one of her best, and she respected him, but he was clever, not hard. It took a hard man to stare into the enemy's face and pry information from them. Commander Adama was that hard, and he was sending Gaeta. She didn't understand it. Her orders were to assist Gaeta, help him set up a way to record his sessions with the Cylon, and to monitor the sessions as they took place.

What he didn't know was that his reports were going to be followed by her reports. Her reports, per the commander, would not be about Sharon. Dee wasn't sure how she felt about that. The commander had explained it as a need to make sure that whoever dealt with a Cylon was without reproach.

It made sense. It felt like a lie. And it felt like she was standing at the top of a very slippery slope, looking down. It was not a good feeling.

She didn't even want to start to think about how she was going to find three hours in the week to help interrogate a Cylon prisoner. If not more. She almost didn't want the project to be successful for the time reason alone. They did need the intelligence information. Hopefully, she thought as Gaeta ushered her into the small room that Dr. Baltar had cleared for their use, this will either work quickly or fail quickly.

The room was about the size of a closet. There was a chair, a metal table, and an overhead light. She set down her box of recording equipment. The room was filthy. So this is what I have to look forward to for months, she thought darkly. " I see Dr. Baltar went out of his way to be helpful.

Gaeta sighed. " He's still angry that he's not overseeing this project. I don't know why… He doesn't have time to finish any of the projects I'm helping him with. I thought he would have pleased…."

It was moments like that when Dualla wished Gaeta wasn't an officer. Or that she was, or that they both could stop taking the fraternization rules so seriously. He was too highly ranked for her to get him drunk and tell him to get over his weird little unrequited crush on Dr. Baltar. It was obvious to her that Baltar was pissed off that Adama was attempting to place a colonial officer into the role of scientific advisor. Dr. Baltar wasn't above being jealous, which Gaeta never saw because he was too starry eyed over being able to work with Baltar. Changing the subject was just easier. " You know, he's probably just tired. What are you cutting out in order to do this?"

" It was a tough call but I decided that sleep was for the weak." He started to help her set up the recording equipment. " How about you? This must be cutting into your dating time."

"Don't start," she warned good naturedly. Who she was dating was somehow the hottest topic among the CIC folks.

" Don't take out your frustration on me, I'm not one of your boyfriends." He picked the headset and put it on. " So let's make sure this works."

She put on her own head set and plugged in to the recorder. " The tape lasts for an hour and half. Can you hear me?"

He winced. " It's really loud. How old is this stuff?"

" The earpiece is at least as old as the Galactica. It can turn down." She played it back and could hear their conversation. " It's working. What are you planning, sir?"

He shrugged and ran a hand through his short hair. She was struck suddenly by how tired he looked. " I'm going to attempt to talk to Sharon and see if she will give up all of her secret Cylon info just for the pleasure of talking to me. I don't think this is going to work. I don't think Sharon ever liked me to begin with. But someone has to try." He left the room, to head down to the holding cell, leaving Dualla alone with her thoughts.

He still thinks of her as Sharon, Dualla thought as she flipped on the recorder. That was not a good sign.