I

One Year Ago

Saul Tigh couldn't get through a day now without being in physical pain. It wasn't so much the pain of where his eye used to be-that seemed to take care of itself, and he felt twinges there, but no overt pain. It was the constant pain in his legs, which The Cylons had abused while he was in prison. His left leg had taken the most punishment-he was sure that he had some torn ligaments in his left knee, but the human body can repair itself-at least to a point.

Yet his right leg was always killing him, too. He had to walk normally on that leg, less his left leg give out. He used a cane to get around these days, and it did help alleviate the pain that probably would always be there.

Yet the pain and the torture that the Cylons had heaped on him after he had been incarcerated-after Duck had blown up the graduating class of the New Caprica Police Force-hadn't put out the fire to pay back these human-looking toasters. It had only increased his want to see everyone of them dead.

Many people had simply vanished, never to return. Laura Roslin had been held captive, but not physically tortured. Mentally? That was another story. But Tom Zarek had been beaten, although not to the extent Saul had, and he had recovered. Chief Galen Tyrol had been spared because he was a mechanical jack-of-all-trades, and The Cylons deemed him necessary to help keep New Caprica running, even as he worked to destroy it from within.

Then there was Kara. She had disappeared long before Duck did his deed. She had vanished the day The Cylons began their occupation, and no one knew if she were dead or alive. Saul had been at Sam's bedside three weeks later, when he died of the lethal pneumonia virus that had swept through the camp, the agony in the man's voice wondering what had happened to his wife, Saul not able to give him an answer.

Eventually, The Cylons released their one-hundred-and-fifty or so prisoners who had been rounded up after Duck had blown himself up-at least the ones still alive. Some of their numbers had died in captivity, or so everyone believed.

Since that act of terror a year ago, the insurgency had only grown. It had built an intricate system of underground bunkers, some connected to each other, to allow those that were the titular leaders of this simmering rebellion to meet.

The leaders were who one would expect: Tigh himself, Laura Roslin, Tom Zarek, Galen Tyrol, Diana Seelix, on the "civilian" side there was Charlie Connor, as well as Roslin's assistant when she was President, Tory Foster. His wife Ellen sometimes was in on meetings, but she had not wanted to know a lot of what was going on.

Noticeably missing from those names were Gaius Baltar and Felix Gaeta. Baltar was elected President on the dream of this world, of New Caprica. Yet even before The Cylons invaded, he had simply lived a life of drinking, and fraking any woman who would take him in Colonial One.

Tigh had been shocked, to say the least, and more than a little angry, that Gaeta was Baltar's Chief-of-Staff, for lack of a better word. It galled Tigh to no end that the very talented officer, who Tigh had thought would have his own battlestar one day-if there had been any battlestars left-would work in tandem with that traitorous, self-indulgent son-of-a-bitch Gaius Baltar.

Tonight, Tigh would host a meeting consisting of Roslin, Zarek, and Chief Tyrol. That was the core of the leadership, and they conferred as often as they could.

To be sure, there wasn't much going on at the moment-The Cylons had cracked down on them, even after releasing all of them from prison. Yet The Cylons didn't know everything.

They didn't know that, before they had arrived, and before Galactica and Pegasus had left, that The Old Man had made sure to move scores of automatic weapons in hidden depots throughout the settlement.

They didn't know that there was plenty more of the plastic explosives that Duck had used to obliterate himself and that police class, stored away as well. The location of those depots had been memorized by the leadership. The work to stash them had gone on at night, and out of sight of civilians, who would then have plausible deniability about their whereabouts.

They wouldn't be defenseless when the time came. Saul knew what the others did not-that if the two ships were in the area, a Raptor would be out and about on silent mode, hoping to receive a message from the ground, and Saul hoped to receive one from the Raptor.

The news that Galactica and Pegasus were far away, fighting off numerous Baseships might be a bunch of bullshit propaganda, but Saul didn't think it was. He knew Bill Adama, and Lee Adama. If they could contact them, they would.

For months, someone within the official government had been feeding the insurgents information. That information had led to sever acts of sabotage, the most notable being the suicide bombing carried out by Duck the year before, that had killed about one hundred human beings, and a host of skin jobs that had, of course, quickly re-downloaded and returned. That had set off the jailing of many people, whom The Cylons eventually released.

The insurgent contact was Galen Tyrol. The system involved the flipping of a yellow dog bowl in an area near the mechanic's shops that were used to keep New Caprica in working order. If the bowl was flipped over, Galen knew there was a message that was tucked away in an old, broken-down tool chest a few yards away. When the message was retrieved, Galen would flip the bowl back over, pet Jake, the dog that was the "owner" of the bowl, then move off.

Two pieces of information had been requested from whoever this source was. The first was the frequencies monitored by The Cylons, so they could get messages in and out if they ever heard from The Fleet. The second was if anyone had an idea of the whereabouts of Kara Thrace.

Galen was doing his usual canvas of the settlement. He was not only an insurgent leader, but was head of the workers union that had been set up to demand basic rights and working conditions from the Baltar Administration. The Cylons didn't interfere, at least not much, with an internal matter like that. Because of his leadership role, Galen was often going around the entire settlement, looking over basic infrastructure, talking to citizens who may have noticed something not working right-and to check his dead-drop area several times a day.

The bowl was flipped upside down, the sign that information was being delivered.

"Hey, Jake, how you doing, buddy?" Galen smiled and scratched his ears, then rolled him on his stomach and petted him. Galen even gave him a snack to munch on, the pup wagging his tale excitedly.

After playing with Jake, he sauntered over to the tool chest, and sure enough, there was a copy of an official government document: Cylon Communication Frequencies.

"Bingo", Galen said, almost to himself. He, Tigh and Zarek would go over this later that evening. He really wished Sam Anders was still around. Sam, like Galen, was pretty fraking good at dealing with mechanical stuff, and would have been perfect for leadership.

Thinking of Sam made Galen think of Kara. When the Chief arrived back at his home, he briefly opened up the pack of information. The frequencies were laid out nicely. There also a sheet attached at the end of the other pages.

No current information on whereabouts of Kara Thrace. Will keep looking.

For all Galen, or anyone else knew, Kara, like her husband Sam, was dead.

Kara looked at the body of Leoben, sliced once again across his throat. She almost got the feeling that Leoben liked this sick game of her killing him, then being downloaded, only to show up like a bad cubit, to terrorize her once again. He had never physically beaten or hurt her. She almost wished he would. She could actually understand physical pain, like her mom had visited on her for so many years.

This psychological bullshit was worse than any broken bone, or so Kara thought.

Kara hated to take Leoben out with Kacey around. She knew the girl was probably going to be traumatized from all she had been through, but Kara didn't want to add to what the beautiful young girl had seen. But the thought of Leoben around not just her, but Kacey, made her want to throw up every time she thought of it. She was damned if she would let Leoben do anything to Kacey.

It had taken Kara some time to even acknowledge the blonde little girl, who, Kara had to admit, could very well be her biological daughter. She had, at first, taken her hatred on Leoben out on Kacey as well. Then Kacey had fallen and been injured, and it woke Starbuck up to the reality that the only person that could make sure Kacey was OK was one Kara Thrace. She changed her outlook on the toddler after that accident.

Now, Kara wanted to not just protect Kacey, but to raise her as her own, and to make sure she had a better life than she had growing up. That meant getting out of this doll house, and getting back to her people.

It would me, for all intent and purpose, putting both of their lives at risk. But it had to be done.

The Next Day

"OK, class, that's it for today."

Laura Roslin smiled as the room-full of children became noisy pandemonium, which it always did when school let out for the day. The sound of the kids greeting their parents, or playing with each other, gave her some semblance of hope for the future of her people. Hope, she knew right now, was a rare commodity.

"Tomorrow will be the test on chapter five of your science curriculum, so be prepared. And thank you, parents, as always!"

She hadn't noticed the smiling man that had made it into the tent as class let out. Galen Tyrol was smiling comfortably at his former President, seeing her in what was, even by her admission, doing the thing she loved first and foremost-teaching. She was far more than a teacher now, Galen knew, but nothing seemed to light up Laura Roslin like interacting with the children of New Caprica.

When she spied him, she smiled, and waved him over. "Hey Chief, who let you in?"

Galen chuckled. "Maybe I can take that test tomorrow, just to see how well I could do?"

Laura laughed heartily at his remark. "And if you fail, I'll keep you after school, Mr. Tyrol." They both chuckled at little more. "What brings you by?"

He cocked his head to one side, to take her away from what few students and parents remained in the school house. "We got the frequencies that The Cylons use", he said with a beaming smile. "We now know what to avoid, and how to keep them from jamming us."

Laura's eyes widened. "Perhaps now, we can find out if Tigh is right, and if a Raptor is scouting us out."

"That would be sweet", Galen agreed. "But from what we're getting from our source, Galactica and Pegasus are a long way from here. Good bet is they can't send anything right now."

"Even if it's true, the fact we can monitor for a message without being jammed, that's worth a lot."

Tyrol nodded. "That's true. It's something we may have to be patient with. Oh", he added, thinking of the attached note, "our source says that they have absolutely no idea where Kara might be."

Laura's demeanor suddenly changed. It had been heartbreaking to watch Sam Anders succumb to the virus, and the pain her felt because no one knew where his wife was. To not know if Starbuck was alive or dead cast just one more shadow over the people of New Caprica to deal with. She would have been one of the leaders of this movement, Laura was certain, and her bad-ass reputation would have been something that could instill hope into many people.

Laura hoped they found out, one way or another, if Kara were alive someday. If she wasn't, it was just another score to settle with The Cylons.

Laura Roslin finished grading the papers for the day. It had been a pop history quiz, so it didn't take long. Other days, when there were major tests for her students, it could take half the night to grade them. The teachers, of which Laura was one of fifteen or so, tried to keep days of tests free of almost anything else. One didn't want to grade tests and perhaps a writing or math assignment all in one night.

She loved teaching now, as much as she ever did. The fact she had survived cancer, and so far, they had survived the journey after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, it meant even more to her now. If they survived here, or, hopefully, somewhere else without Cylons, she wanted her charges to face their new world or worlds with as much knowledge as they could have. Not just about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but in their ability to become leaders who could thrive under pressure, and yet still keep their humanity about them. The latter was something Roslin herself admitted to not always doing. She had crossed the line more than once: tossing Leoben out of an airlock; trying to steal a presidential election; being part of a leadership on New Caprica that had approved a suicide bombing.

She wanted her students to be better than what she had been since The Holocaust.

She finished her work, then poured a small glass of bourbon-just enough to relax her after another day on the job-both jobs. Being part of the non-government leadership on New Caprica meant that she always kept her eyes and ears open for anything that might be of interest.

The news from Tyrol about the frequencies had buoyed her spirits, yet that was only temporary. Being under the daily eye of The Cylons, with no immediate hope of The Fleet rescuing them, and the constant worry the entire leadership had about where Kara Thrace was, or if she was even alive, kept hope, at least normally, at a safe distance.

She thought about the young, fiery pilot and smiled. But it was a sad smile. Starbuck had done so much dirty work for Roslin that the former President had lost count. And yet Kara had done all of it-not without complaint, but when she agreed, she went all-in and did everything she could to accomplish whatever the mission was.

If there were one person that Laura Roslin thought could talk to on this rock, it would be Kara. She and Tigh had never gotten along. She and Zarek, while on the same side at the moment, were sworn political enemies. Tyrol was busy with his union work, and was the father of a newborn and a wife. Kara had seen some of Laura's own doubts over the years, and Laura believed Kara understood her as few did. Maybe it was a whole woman thing.

But for now, Laura had no one to really converse with. So she went back to sipping on her drink, before going to bed.

"Honey, I'm home."

He was back.

"Kacey", Kara whispered, "go to your room and get dressed for night-night, OK?"

"K mama", the little girl said, skipping off to her room.

She eyed the stairs, but didn't look up. She knew he'd have that sick, smug grin on his face. She called it his "you can't kill me" smile because, well, as long as there was a resurrection ship nearby, she couldn't, and they both knew it. Yet it still gave her a raw, inexplicable satisfaction to drive a knife, or a fork, or some other sharp or blunt object into his neck, or his heart, or his brain.

There were two problems: he came back, and it was taking a psychological toll on her far more than it would on him.

"How was your day, Kara?" He had gone to the fridge and pulled out a cold beer, that smile plastered on his face.

"Oh, just peachy, you know. Kacey and I went to the grocery story, then to the park to feed the fish and the ducks. Just a normal day in paradise."

He actually laughed at her deadpan humor. "If I could let you do those things, Kara, I would. I really would, but I can't."

"You wouldn't even if you could", she spat back at him.

He looked seriously at her. "Actually, I would, and I think you know that, deep down."

Kara didn't respond. Instead she went to the fridge herself, and fetched the pitcher of iced tea she had made earlier in the day, pouring herself a glass, not bothering to look up at Leoben.

After a few minutes of silence, Leoben spoke again. "I'll...make us dinner. Speaking of fish, we were able to acquire a whole bunch of fresh fish, caught in Lake Atlantis."

"In other words, you stole them from the people in the city." Again, she didn't even bother looking up.

"No, we didn't steal anything. We left most of it for the people of the town to share it with each other. We even had Centurions deliver it."

"I'm sure you're so proud."

Kara walked into the living room, sitting down with Kacey who had pulled out her crayons and a blank piece of paper. Forty five minutes later, Leoben had prepared the fish and some fresh vegetables for dinner. Kara would never admit it, but the Cylon did know how to cook. She simply never had an appetite around him.

Leoben rambled on throughout dinner about what he did that day, Kara simply forking through her food, taking a bite every once in a while. Kacey asked for seconds, which, under normal circumstances, would have made Kara laugh.

"So we're going to dam that marsh a few miles south of here, to try and make some farmland out of it, so the people can have better land to plant fruits and vegetables. We think that large area of land will really increase production for everyone."

"Trying to fatten us up for the eventual slaughter, eh?"

Leoben let his fork clatter on to the plate. "What the frak is that supposed to mean, Kara?" He rarely got angry with her.

"Tsk tsk, no cursing in front of Kacey." Her voice was void of inflection.

"You're right, I am sorry, but I'd still like an explanation. That was uncalled for."

Kara couldn't help but laugh. "You're holding me as a hostage, and you talk about things that are uncalled for?" She laughed, looking at him with disgust.

"Godsdammit, Kara we're actually trying to make this thing work. We aren't the ones blowing up police officers, I should remind you."

"Pass me the salt, if you can", she said in a voice as if they'd been having a pleasant conversation.

That brought up Leoben short. "Fine, here's the salt." He slid it over to her. "Sometimes I wonder why I even try."

"Then don't", she said with venom, looking directly at him. "Don't try. Let Kacey and I go. I'm never gonna give into your fantasies."

For a moment he looked as if he might strike her, but as quickly as that look appeared, it was replaced with a smile. "Actually, before this is over, you will. You will admit you love me, and will wonder why you fought me for so long."

Kara simply snickered, and went back to her meal. When she finished, and Kacey had finished her seconds, they went into the loving room, Kara letting Kacey draw a little longer before going to bed. An hour later, Kacey was out like a light, and Kara did what she always did-took an extra blanket from the bedroom, and lay down on the couch.

She would never share a bed with Leoben.