Part 4
Starbuck opened his eyes expecting to see the familiar sterile surroundings of the Life Centre. Although his vision did not seem to have improved, he was getting used to the necessity of screwing his eyes up in order to get a clear vision of the world around him. But even when he did that there was nothing familiar about the place where he was and it was definitely no where on Galactica.
He was surrounded by vaporous deep pinks and reds. The transitory feeling of the place was emphasised by the walls which seemed to be made of some sort of diaphanous yielding substance that swayed slightly. Running through them were a number of pipes carrying liquids of the same hue of colours as the walls themselves. There was the distant drum of a steady beat and laid over that a symphony of squelching and sucking sounds which Starbuck found somehow strangely reassuring.
He took a deep breath and sighed. If this was a dream it was very weird – he made a mental note to ask Dr Salik what drugs he had given him, just out of interest obviously. The thought was forgotten as Starbuck opened his eyes and saw the vision before him. She had not been there before he knew for sure but now she most certainly was! The most beautifully prefect woman he had ever seen, from her long blonde flowing locks, her chiselled cheek bones and pouting luscious lips all the way over her curvaceous body to those long endless and slender legs.
He let his breath out in a panting rush as beautiful blue eyes met his own and the wave of lust that washed over him almost undid him. She smiled then, raising her hands to his. Licking his lips he took them and she helped him to a sitting position. Her skin was smooth and soft and he held on to her longer than was necessary. Her smile widened.
"Is this a dream?" he asked, voice rasping with want.
"No," her voice was sultry as a Caprican thunder storm – just the way he hoped it would be.
"Then who are you? Where are we?"
Her eyes twinkled in the dim light as she ran a shameless tongue across those wide lips. "I am inside you."
The irony of such a comment was not lost on Starbuck and he could not restrain the wry chuckle that escaped him. "It's normally me inside the beautiful woman," he smirked.
She rolled her eyes at him. "I am aware of your reputation as well as your appetites – you are revealed before me – everything that you are and everything that you could be."
Starbuck felt himself twitch nervously. Something about the intensity of her gaze along with the potency of her words made him feel uncomfortably vulnerable. He did not like the thought of anyone getting close enough to see the man behind the Starbuck myth but he sensed this woman was different. On the most basic level she was touching him, drawing him in and he absently wondered why he should bother to resist.
She seemed to sense his desire and her smile brightened. The warm feeling in his guts grew chasing away his uncertainty, making him feel safe and cherished. Her honeyed voice was mesmerising as she continued. "Tell me what you remember."
He had to obey; the compulsion was so strong there was no doubt, but what did he remember? Pain, vomit, shit, fear… he did not want to speak of such things, not to her. They seemed suddenly petty and insignificant when placed next to her brilliance. She was beautiful; he did not want to taint that with any of his own flaws and failings. "I crashed," he muttered finally, feeling nothing more than as a petulant school boy.
She moved forward then, gliding with such grace that his mouth went dry, his eyes widened and his stomach fluttered. She reached out, laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and he bit back the gasp that threatened to escape him. Who was she? Why did she have this affect on him?
"You have suffered much, my brave Starbuck," she said. "And for that I am infinitely sorry. It should not have been this way. I have asked much, expected too much even for one with a heart as big as yours. We cannot change what has gone before but at least I can explain why I have chosen as I have."
He was captivated by her voice, the movement of her lips, the touch of her hand on his shoulder, the depth in her eyes. His stomach was lurching like a viper out of control. It was more intense than anything he had ever felt before, deeper, stronger; he felt he balanced perilously on the edge of something at once exhilarating but also deeply terrifying. Words would not come, he stuttered pathetically but she placed her elegant finger to his lips and he tasted sweetness as she said, "Listen to me."
He nodded slightly, her eyes holding his as she moved to sit beside him and took his hands in hers. "I am not as you see me. This is a vision, a shell I have created out of your own imagination. No wonder you feel attracted to me – I have become the creature of your deepest dreams and desires."
Starbuck felt himself flush but he still could not pull his eyes from hers as she continued. "I took this form to please you because I want your willing assistance, however, it does not matter, for you will acquiesce to my demands."
He found himself nodding but, fighting to regain his composure, he managed to force out, "Your demands?" he was embarrassed further by the weak squeak his voice had become.
"Put simply, I need you to help me save my people."
"Save your…. But how?"
"You have something that I need." She smiled strikingly softly. "The power that flows through your soul, the love of life itself that enthuses every cell of your being. I need that." Her eyes were bottomless, sucking him in.
Starbuck gulped. He wanted so much to reach out to her, to pledge himself, anything and everything that he had, to help her but something deep down in the very pit of his being stopped him. The instinct of the shrewd and hardened street fighter from the orphanage of Caprica City stepped forward sensing the danger that the starry eyed admirer had overlooked. It was the part of his character not often seen save in the extreme exigencies of a fight but it had saved the blonde lieutenant's life on numerous occasions. It pulled him back from the hazy comfort of this place, it instantly sharpened the colours and his senses, made more distinct the lines and angles, chased away the fogginess in his mind and grounded him. He flinched and seemed to pull away from her although he did not physically move.
She sensed the change in him but it did not alarm her. The complexity of this man before her was intriguing and novel. It added a different dimension to her mission and it made him infinitely more attractive than the wide-eyed fool he had appeared but seconds before. Although she had taken the form of his deepest desire to dazzle him, he had not succumbed to it. She had not believed that he would, for it was not the shallow façade that he showed the world that she wished to appeal to, no it was the profound being he hid in the unfathomable depths she needed to entice.
He broke her gaze, looking down to the floor, fidgeting. "What do you want from me?" he asked voice emotionless and firm.
"If you will allow me I will explain why you are here, first." He gulped, eyes suddenly veiled with caution but nodded. She continued. "The planet on which you crashed was once teaming with life. My people were one of many species who inhabited it and all appeared well. But the planet was slowly dying; the jungles and the water receding, the lifeless desert slowly creeping forward and extinguishing all before it. My people saw the approaching disaster and sort to avert it. When it became clear that we could not, we looked to the stars to find a way to new planets. It took many years but eventually we developed the technology and my people left. We left behind only a memory of the things we had created, our achievements, our legacy and a seed to begin life once more; for it was our hope that our planet would regenerate somehow and live again. But the destruction continued, as the natural resources on the planet dwindled and the world was left to a dying forest and the animals that inhabited it."
She was quiet for a while, her head bowed as her blonde tresses fell forwards.
"What about those who rescued me?" Starbuck asked, still keeping his distance and squashing the strong urge to comfort her.
"They were bred as domestic servants for my people long, long ago. They have taken our stories, our scriptures and made them their own. They dream of salvation but alas it will never be. The last in a long line. Slowly they are dying like the planet. Those that you saw are all that remains and though they are long-lived, still their time is short. They that remain are barren drones, once they are gone everything, even the memories, all that was left of my people, will go. The biosphere of the planet has lost its delicate balance, it will take a long time but eventually all will be dust."
Starbuck nodded, unsure of what to say. Her story was raising still more questions in his head and answering none of the original ones. And all the time his instincts were screaming at him, warning him of the danger. He fixed her with his sternest stare, the one he had learnt from Adama after being on the receiving end of it on numerous occasions. He hoped it had a little of the power that the Commander's had. "You are still here," he said challengingly.
She lifted her head then and the perfection of her beauty hit him anew. Her eyes were pools of absolute sadness that he could no longer resist. He found himself reaching out to comfort her. She quivered at his touch and then seemed to sink into his embrace, her head rested on his shoulder where it seemed to fit perfectly. A single prefect tear meandered down her cheek.
He looked at her and reached up to wipe the moistness away. "I'm sorry," he muttered defensively. "I've never been able to do 'severe' very well. I didn't mean to upset you, I just don't understand."
She lifted her head, the sad smile playing across her lips. "You are a free spirit, Starbuck," she replied. "It is not in your make-up to be hard-hearted or unsympathetic." She sniffed. "I am here yes, but I am a part of you, without you I cannot exist."
He looked down into her eyes, his face creased with frustration. "It's getting harder, you know, not easier, all this. Can you give me the dumb–downed version please?" he moaned.
She chuckled. "Always so self-effacing on matters of true import. Why do you hide behind the mask, Starbuck?" He shrugged then, as she lifted her head and moved away slightly. "You crashed," she continued with a sad sigh. "As you said; but the consequences of that moment were titanic. For you crashed into the place where my people had left the seed they hoped would one day re-colonise their world. The pure uncontrolled energy released in your crash did something miraculous. It awakened the seed from its sleep of millennia. It started in motion the cycle of events that my people had planned so long ago."
"And here was me worrying about the cost of another damaged viper," Starbuck muttered.
"There are far more significant happenings. Once awoken the seed was immediately vulnerable. It's perfectly balanced sanctuary was destroyed. It needed to find a source of renewable energy, so it sought out the most powerful living thing it could find. Crawled inside and fixed itself to the life-force of that being."
Starbuck gulped, his bowels suddenly chilled. "There was nothing in that glade alive," he mumbled. "The crash would have seen to that. There was fire and carnage…"
She shook her head. "There was one being that still lived. Still fought to hold on to life, clawing desperately for one more breath, one more sensation as he has done since the day he was born. A being so in love with life that he refused to give it up. A being so vibrant that the seed was drawn to him instantly, envying him his courage, his vigour, his energy and needing it desperately, frantically; demanding it in order to stay alive."
Starbuck's voice quavered. "Me?" he whispered.
She nodded.
His mind was whirling as his heart raced; the pumping sound around them increasing in velocity and sound. With a terrifying certainty he understood what she was saying, what she was asking of him and a sheer shiver of crystal fear iced along his spine. Forcing himself to speak he said, "And you are…" but he hesitated unable to voice his dread.
She moved back to him then and he accepted her tender embrace as a dying man accepts the final release of death. Her voice was chilling in its softness.
"I am Kynan – the seed."
TBC
