WHTMT - chapter 13

oooooooooooooooo

Kara walked into Baltar's office, flanked by two centurions. She had her hands up in a pose of surrender and there was a calm, unemotional look on her face. Sharon's eyes narrowed when she saw her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked pointedly.

"Maybe she's seen the error of her ways and wants to surrender," Doral laughed harshly.

Kara allowed a brief look of anger to cross her face before schooling it back to neutral. She wasn't here to pick a fight, though it seemed that particular cylon thoroughly enjoyed goading her into it.

"Something like that," she said lightly.

"You're no fool Kara. We both know your resistance has the upper hand for the moment," Sharon stressed, "so why would you come to surrender?"

"I'm not here to surrender. You know we'll never be willing to do that, but for every victory we earn, we lose people too. And we don't have the luxury of resurrecting people once they're dead. We have to be concerned with whether or not our race will even survive." She threw Doral a quick look. "We want to find a compromise that can work for everyone."

Six clapped her hands and smiled. "See? Humans can be reasonable. That's what we want as well - a way for our peoples to live together. Right Gaius?"

Baltar's eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't trust her with a ten foot pole. She's probably here laying some sort of trap." He glared at Kara, who threw him just as icy a look right back.

"He's probably right," Doral agreed. Then he turned to face her. "What guarantee do we have that you're here in good faith?"

"You have me," she said simply, head held high.

"Yeah, that means nothing. You'd die for the cause," Sharon said spitefully.

"Normally you'd be right," Kara admitted. "But considering you only want me for some sort of 'destiny', it only makes sense that I sacrifice myself if everyone else will be left in peace."

Sharon's eyes narrowed again as she studied Kara. "You said you'd rather die than be part of the cylon/human hybrid plan."

"We've decided that the sacrifice must be made, regardless of what it is, and whether or not I like it."

"We?" Doral questioned.

"Me and the other leaders of the group. I'm to get word to them that we're working together and I'm unharmed, and the assault on your people will stop."

"That sounds reasonable," Six said, smiling again.

"Too reasonable," Doral growled uncomfortably.

"There's only one problem with the hybrid baby plan - I'm already pregnant." Kara took a deep breath after imparting this information, expecting the worst.

"It can wait, can't it? God's plan has already waited this long, can't it wait till she's ready?' Six asked innocently.

Doral grabbed Kara's arm and his grip was like iron. "Frak god's plan. We've got her now and we can do whatever we want with her."

Kara's heart began to pound.

Doral turned to Sharon. "Go tell her friends that they're to call off the attack. She surrendered willingly and will be staying with us as collateral."

Sharon looked uncomfortable, but left the office.

"Now look," Baltar said, as if he'd suddenly grown a spine. "You can't hurt her. She's their leader, not to mention the Admiral's pet. There's no way he's going to leave any of you alive if he finds out you've hurt her."

"If he finds out. They're otherwise occupied at the moment."

Kara's heart sank. She'd been right - the basestars had been sent to keep the battlestars occupied while they took the planet. Frak! Was anyone still alive even, let alone able to come and rescue them? She'd pretty much banked on them coming back to rescue the survivors once they'd launched their full assault. Which, by the way, should be happening soon. Two hours after her capture was the time they'd agreed upon, giving Kara some time to find a way to escape. If she could.

"You can't hurt her," Baltar repeated, now sounding somewhat hysterical.

"Forget to take your bravery pills this morning?" Kara asked sarcastically, bravado her usual defence against fear. She gave him a condescending smile.

He stared back challengingly. "I'm just trying to save your pathetic life, but obviously that's a waste of time."

"Oh come on Gaius, we both know you can't stand me, why would you even bother? No, you only care about taking care of yourself. You just want to ingratiate yourself with the Admiral when he comes back, so he doesn't throw you out an airlock for collaborating with the enemy."

"If I were you, I wouldn't be expecting the fleet to come back anytime soon, if ever," Doral said, yanking her towards the door.

Kara put on a brave face but inside she was shaking. They were going to do it to her again - force her to do things against her will and leave her bruised, scarred and broken. Hopefully they were just trying to quelch her hopes by saying the fleet was nearly dead - she couldn't believe that the only people she loved were dead already. Lee, Lee ... please ... still be alive ... come for me ... this time I need you to save me ... please ...

oooooooooooooooooooooo

The battle was not going well for the fleet. As Adama had said, the plan was a good one, the problem was that the battlestars were only half-manned, and they still had nearly forty civilian ships they had to protect while still waging war. Their resources were stretched way too thin, and the cylons just never seemed to tire. Not surprising though - they weren't human after all.

"We need another plan," Lee admitted frantically, as damage reports came in from all over his ship.

"I agree," Adama said shortly, gripping the phone hard. "I've got an idea, but we need to get to safe ground before we can discuss it. Execute jump to escape coordinates."

"Aye sir," Lee said, hanging up the phone. "FTL drive online?" he asked loudly, expecting someone to respond.

"Yes sir," came the answer from one of his officers.

"Set jump clock," he said tersely.

"We're leaving?" Dee asked timidly.

"We need to buy some time Lieutenant, so yes, we're leaving."

She nodded, beginning a check with the other officers to make sure all was ready.

"Last civilian ship safely away," his new comms officer Breck reported.

"Countdown on my mark." He paused a moment. "Mark."

The ten seconds seemed like forever to Lee as he watched multiple cylon raiders inch their way towards them on the dradis screen. He let out the breath he hadn't even realized he was holding as they appeared safely beside Galactica.

"Galactica reports the Admiral is on his way here now - ETA three minutes," Breck reported.

Lee nodded at him. "CIC is yours Lieutenant," he said over his shoulder to Dee as he walked out.

"Yes sir," she said softly to his departing back - the part of him she seemed to see most often lately.

Adama stepped off the Raptor wordlessly and the two men walked in silence to Lee's ready room. They both sat, facing each other but staring down at the ground.

"You're not going to like this," Adama stated without preface.

Lee lifted his eyes to meet his fathers. "Shoot," he said evenly.

Adama took a breath and studied his son for a moment before continuing. These months had obviously not been good to Lee. He was paler, unhealthy looking and truth be told, a bit chubbier around the middle than Adama remembered. There were dark circles under his eyes and the sparkle that had usually been present in them was gone. Lee was a man who was definitely suffering.

"We need to sacrifice your ship."

Lee's eyebrows raised. I beg your pardon?"

"We can't keep both battlestars, and I'm not willing to lose mine," Adama said, the barest trace of a smile on his face. "We don't have enough of a crew to man them both properly and subsequently we're fighting under par."

Lee nodded - it wasn't news to him. But this was a little more drastic than he'd expected.

"Okay, I'm with you," he said slowly.

Adama threw him a strange look. "I didn't think you'd agree so easily."

Lee shrugged. "It's obvious our strategy wasn't working, and equally obvious why. No, I don't like it, but I don't think we have many options left."

"No, we don't."

"Besides, this really isn't my ship. I know I'm Commander, but Galactica is home, not Pegasus."

Adama smiled and laid a gentle hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm glad to hear you say that," he said softly, and when Lee looked in his father's eyes he could see the surface happiness his comment had produced, as well as the deeper joy at his admission. He'd just told his father how much he loved him - not in those words perhaps, but the implication was there.

Suddenly Lee flinched and a look of pain crossed his face.

"What is it? What's wrong son?" Adama asked, strictly personal now.

"It's Kara," he burst out without thinking. "They're hurting her!"

"How ...?" Adama began but didn't bother to finish. There had always been some sort of connection between his son and Kara - both of his sons actually - that he'd never quite understood but had tried to respect. He knew others hadn't understood his leniency with respect to them and the frat regs they were forever breaking, especially Colonel Tigh, but he knew they'd only have been worse if he'd tried to keep them apart.

Lee jumped to his feet. "We've got to get back! We have to save her!"

Adama stood as well. "Slow down. We'll get there as soon as we can. Now, we need to work out the details of the plan. If we're going to sacrifice our ship, we're going to make damn sure we use it to our best possible advantage."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"No!" Kara screamed repeatedly as they held her down, one on each arm. He'd taken her to a cylon ship, different than any other she'd seen before - larger than a heavy raider but smaller than a basestar, and forced her down on a table. Another Doral had shown up, along with two of the blond model, both with a more vicious look in their eyes than the one she'd seen in Baltar's office, and each had taken a limb and begun to secure her.

"No - you can't hurt my baby - please!" she begged, instinctively knowing they planned on removing it so they could implant their own. Despite her yells of protest, not one of the four said a thing. The original Doral walked away for a moment and came back with a syringe in his hand.

"No!" Kara's eyes widened when she saw it, and she renewed her struggle with desperate intensity.

"No, please ... Lee, save me!"

TBC