A shorter chapter today, since we are in a transition in Helena's story. Do not worry, there will be more coming soon.

Thank you to all who have taken the time to review. I am truly touched by some of your comments. They are really appreciated.

Chapter 22

It was the last night in the Ridge's camp. Helena was packing up clothes and research material in her backpack for the expedition planned to start in the early morning. She had been provided with concentrated bug spray for the rainforest regions. She did not look forward to that part. She had heavy duty hiking boots, short and long sleeves to layer, hiking pants and a rain jacket in breathable Gore-Tex fabric. She printed the picture of Laura and Bill, and had it laminated, and placed in her notes binder, together with pictures of the books and some of the pages. She took a last enjoyable warm shower before going to bed, thinking it probably would take a while before she would encounter a warm shower again. She opened her laptop to continue writing before she fell asleep.

"Bill lingered after the press and the Quorum members left the room. I asked Tory for some privacy. The room was quiet and Bill walked to me, hesitant. I knew he had something on his mind. It was not difficult to figure out what it was: last time I saw him, I ran away to my shuttle after the confrontation with the marine. He congratulated me for the presidency and I thanked him.

The air was heavy with tension. He was somber and weighted by feelings, I could not even begin to decipher. I just knew that what ever he was keeping inside was tearing him down.

'I liked what you did today. That was a good gesture. Unexpected.' He nodded, as if he wanted to let me know he understood what my feelings were and share his appreciation. An amnesty? Yes, but in reality, I was not quite ready to forgive yet. I wanted to survive and we could do it only together. Bill probably gave me a lot more honorable motives that I actually had for this amnesty.

'I am just doing my job, Bill. My job is to keep the human race going until we get to Earth, until we can find a home. We cannot survive if we fight each other.'

I lowered my head at the significance of my own words and swallowed hard.

'How are you feeling?' He asked, concerned. When I did not respond, he added:

'I questioned private Buzzard.'

My breath caught in my chest, as if I had been punched. He had the right to question his marine; it was his ship and he was his superior officer. I knew that. But I could not bear the idea of Bill knowing what happened to me. Oh Gods! I was so humiliated! Could I ever look at him again? I tried to pace my breathing, as my vision started blurring. I turned away from him to face the window and braced myself, my hand pressed on the wall for a moment, ashamed and angry. Part of me wanted to know what the guard had told Bill. How much of my humiliation? Part of me wanted to run away from what he had to say. I did not want to see Bill's pity. I did not want him to know anything. His memory of me should be of this happy and carefree woman with a red dress. She didn't exist anymore.

'Laura, what happened to you down there?' He said softly.

I remained silent, arms wrapped around my chest, suddenly feeling cold.

'Talk to me, Laura. Don't shut me out.'

Bill was then behind me, his hands on my shoulders.

'What happened?' He pressed again, surely aware of the discomfort he was causing me. A wave of anger threatened to submerge me. He had no right to question me. I did not belong to him. I did not owe him any explanations.

'Admiral… Leave… Now.' I said coldly, my voice sharp like a knife.

I did not turn around or reply, when he said goodnight. I continued to stare out into the darkness of space, as I slowly let my tears flow."

"I did not talk again with Bill for several days. Then, he invited me on Galactica, to review our plan to find Earth. Lieutenant Gaeta was reviewing the maps that Baltar had put together and Bill wanted my opinion regarding the correlation between the map we had found of Kobol and the scriptures. The book of Pythia was describing the exile of the thirteenth tribe and the way they journeyed to earth. In these scriptures, we would slowly decipher the cues to help us find our way. I had become some expert of the book of Pythia after I experienced a set of Chamalla induced visions, when I got first treated for cancer. By now, I had studied the text over and over again. When we got to Kobol, we found the holographic map left by the thirteen tribe in the tomb of Athena right before their departure. The text was mysterious and was speaking in metaphors. But careful examination of the text and its correlation with star maps had been exactly what Baltar had been studying before the elections and from his notes, Gaeta had been able to work some of the clues. We had now a destination for our own journey. We had a map and a way to get there. The Lion Nebula seemed to be the landmark the scriptures were referring to, with a supposedly beacon waiting for us there pointing the way to Earth. We were headed in that direction, we would find the signposts left for us. I was very excited by the discovery and explained the scriptures passionately to Bill, who never really cared about religion and did not know much about it. He never mentioned again our conversation about New Caprica and I was happy to let it get buried under the excitement of this new direction to Earth: something to look forward to, to redirect our crushed hopes and to motivate our people. We should never have abandoned the search for Earth at the first place. That was a mistake, which we would not make again. Hope. Like the hope we first instilled to our people, Bill and I, upon the destruction of our world. A magic trick, really. Some Earth fantasy that he concocted to keep the morale high in the surviving population. We had then nothing left. It was a lie. Just, with the book of Pythia, my visions, and the revelation that the thirteenth tribe had indeed searched and found Earth, we ended up believing it. And then we found the map on Kobol, which validated what we had discovered. Here it was again, in the very dark days following our rescue from New Caprica, we needed again that renewed hope. For us. For me. Bill knew it too. I knew that he set that up with me in mind. A way to reach out for me, maybe."

Helena got up early and placed her laptop in front of Takashi Inoue, who was sipping his coffee quietly. "Look at this".

"There is a mention of a place called Kobol, the tomb of Athena, and the Book of Pythia. There is mention of a map to Earth and a thirteenth tribe in exile going there. Where is Kobol? Is that another planet they visited? The Book of Pythia seems to be one of many scriptures, their own mythology, and that particular scripture refers to earth, as the place where the thirteenth tribe escaped. We, of course, do not know if this is their mythology is grounded in reality, still according to this, they were able to locate Kobol, explore it and find that map, which she calls a holographic map."

Takashi looked at Helena. "This is something we really have to find out about, and it is hard to know yet what to make of it."

He became all business again as we heard the UN helicopters hovering over the camp and landing nearby on the landing pad.

"Ready?" They exchanged excited looks "Let's go".

Thank you for reading. We have now completed Part II. And we will be starting Part III: The Villages soon. As always, your reviews and comments are welcome!