Thank you for all of those who are continuing reading! Thank you for your comments.

I hope you enjoy another long chapter before classes resume on Monday and I have to become a serious adult again.

Chapter 29

Helena woke up early and got out of her tent to a gorgeous landscape. The sun was not up yet. A purple dawn light barely filtered through the tree canopy. Wisps of fog were hanging from the branches and were floating above the ground and the water of the pool. Some birds were chirping in the distance. The air was cool and it had this sweet smell of flowers. Helena moved slowly and walked toward the waterfall, looking for a path in the rock face that would lead behind the water. She could not find any and she could not see any access from where she was. The white and wide curtain of water falling obstructed the rock, such that it was impossible to see if the recess behind the waterfall had any cave entrance. She sighed and sat on a rock nearby listening to the water. She closed her eyes. Water always had this healing power on her. She wondered if that is how Laura felt by her lake on New Caprica. She was glad she had been able to get an insight into the life of this remarkable woman. She wanted to carry her voice into the modern world; she wanted to fight for her so that her experience would be heard generations later and not forgotten. Laura, who was looking for Earth, taught so much to Helena and Helena felt transformed by her. She had found Earth and died there. Helena felt she needed to translate the book of scriptures to understand some of the clues that were left there, and have a better insight into these people's mythology. She did not yet have a way to understand that particular language and from Laura's diary, she could tell that their scriptures were a lot older. It was no surprise that the language would be different and Helena was hoping she would find the necessary information allowing this translation in the villages. Helena and Laura had a timeless connection and Helena sadly reflected how they would never meet. Helena's thoughts drifted to Takashi. They had known each other for so long. They had been friends and colleagues. In this expedition he was her boss. She knew she should not forget that fact. Even if he seemed more casual with her than he never had been before and even with their previous histories, she did not think she could initiate a relationship with him. They had been very close for a time right after graduate school. He had married someone else. Since the death of his wife two years ago, she had lost touch with him, as he remained secluded, out of the academic life and the public eye. She felt bringing their undeniable attraction up would be very inappropriate, as if soiling the memory of his late wife, which Helena held in high esteem. They could be friends as they always had been, comfortable enough with each other for banter and casual talks.

Suddenly, Helena jumped when she felt something in her hair. She opened her eyes and turn swiftly around. A little girl maybe ten years old was touching Helena's blond hair. The child looked a little bit like Sharon, dark skin, although not as dark and black hair with soft curls. She was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and sandals.

"Well, hello there!" Helena said with a big smile. The little girl smiled back but said nothing and of course Helena knew she would likely not speak English. As the little girl unabashedly continued to stare at her with wonder, Helena decided to try to speak Laura's language. She could not be sure of the correct pronunciation and she was approximating it based on proto-Indo-European languages. That was a long shot. Helena decided it could not hurt.

"Hello. What is your name?" Helena said hesitantly in Laura's language.

The little girl looked at Helena with the strongest surprise!

"Alexa," she replied with a big smile.

"Helena," Helena replied shaking her little hand.

"Nice to meet you, Alexa." Helena said in Laura's language. The little girl started giggling. Then she heard movements in camp and she ran away towards the cave. In a few seconds she had entered one of the cave on the distant part of the cliffs and disappeared. Helena looked at the cave entry for a long time hoping she would come back. She heard members of the team getting up and starting to prepare some breakfast. Takashi was walking towards her.

"Good morning. How are you?"

"Well that was quite something!" Helena replied to Takashi's surprise. She continued. "A little girl saw me and talked with me. She is probably from the villages. She did not understand English, so I attempted to speak Laura's language and she understood me. I asked her what her name was and she replied. But then, when she heard people getting up, she ran away. Up there, in the caves."

Takashi nodded. "It seems like you have the right language. We cannot talk to Sharon about all of this until all of soldiers and porters are gone. Then, when only our team is here, we can start talking to her about our discovery."

The UN soldiers were starting to eat and they already had assembled their gears for the trip back. Sharon was showing the path on a map to their leader, writing notes with a pen on the topographic map and marking a trail. One of them was chatting with John Evans and apparently showing him how to operate a small pistol he was going to leave with him. John was listening to the instructions and demonstration very seriously and talking with the soldier. Helena and Takashi made their way back to the camp center to east some breakfast. Then, the soldiers put their blue helmets on, grabbed their bags and some weapons and they left, followed by the local porters. Helena, Takashi, John, Liang and Evelyne were left in the camp with Sharon.

"Well, we are on our own now. Let's hope for the best." Takashi said.

"Later I went back to Bill's quarters with my copy of the scriptures and was reading it again, when Bill entered. I was at his desk, reading and commenting aloud, when he told me… He told me, Hera, the half human half-cylon baby, was alive. A cold wave washed over me. Hera. My first emotion was this extreme sense of relief. I had believed her to be killed on New Caprica. I had grieved her death deeply. Hera, who I had sworn to protect! Hera saved my life, as her blood had stem cells, which cured my cancer, when I was dying. Baltar administered the transfusion to me, as I was unconscious, slipping into nothingness. Cancer had spread all over my body and all I remember is the unbearable pain, tearing through my flesh like a thousand knives. Dr. Cottle was giving me painkillers and I was slipping in and out of oblivion, experiencing visions of my past and hallucinations. I did not allow the transfusion to take place. It was done without my consent. Had I been conscious, I probably would have refused it. I had accepted my death. I was ready. I had put my affairs in order, written a letter to Baltar, who then would succeed to me as president, said goodbye to Bill. I was surprised to be alive, when I woke up. My hallucinations had brought me back to the day of the attacks. I am not sure how many were actual memories distorted by pain and drugs, but I saw Baltar with a blond woman in my visions, looking alike the blond cylon model Six. I am quite sure it was her and the realization that Baltar might have been involved in the betrayal to the cylons was troubling. He was a scientist involved in the government systems then. He must have had high security clearance. His relationship with the cylon number Six, could not possibly have been a coincidence. It became clear to me that she had seduced him for that purpose."

"I am not sure why Baltar chose to save me that day. It would have been easy to let me die. But, he took samples from the unborn child and tested it. It became clear that the blood could destroy cancer cells. He did inject fetal cells and within a few days, I had been saved from the cancer. I do not know how long these stem cells will protect me, but I did survive against all odds. When Hera was born, I felt a special attachment for her. I had decided to stop the pregnancy, once we found out that the baby was different, not abnormal, but biologically altered. Human enough, but not quite. It was the first time cylons and humans procreated. The baby certainly lacked the electronic and mechanical systems of the cylons, but the cylons had been also biologically and genetically engineered. We did not know what would happen combined with human genes. I couldn't take the risk to have a hybrid child, being raised on our ships. So as I was dying, I ordered the forced abortion. I know those who read this probably would think of me as a monster. At the time, we did not know what we were dealing with. It potentially could have been a dangerous situation. But I was wrong. The child saved my life and I certainly did not have the heart to be responsible for her death. The news that Sharon Agathon had given birth to a baby, half cylon, half human had started to circulate in the fleet soon after."

The fear of cylons was very strong among all of us. Yet, after Hera saved me, I realized that my fear of the unknown was grounded in hatred. We hated the cylons, because they destroyed us. Before that, we hated the cylons because they rebelled. We did not want to recognize them as human beings, because they were not, but we also did not want to acknowledge the fact they had evolved. They were not quite machines anymore. They were thinking on their own, not just following a programming. And while that fact was reassuring, it was also scary. It is easy to dismantle a program, but a lot more difficult to predict individualized, intelligent behavior that does not follow some kind of prewritten programming. Cylons had become unpredictable. They had become individuals. Yet, at any time, the old programming could kick in. Sharon had been helping us. Would Sharon Agathon do the same? Could she just revert, when the child was born, and would she raise her in hate? After all, the cylon had come back from Caprica already pregnant. She claimed that she willed her programming away out of love, but there was no way to be sure it was actually true. A number of bad scenarios could have happened with the birth of the baby: Sharon could raise her as a cylon and revert to her old programming. It was a difficult time. I was quite sure that many humans would not tolerate a cylon-human hybrid and would try to kill mother and child, putting all of us at risk. Then of course, the cylons would want to get access to that baby, since they had been trying unsuccessfully to reproduce physically rather than transferring their consciousness through the resurrection process. They would stop at nothing to put their hands on that child. She was in danger either way. Cylons had tried to procreate for a while without success, according to Kara Thrace, who witnessed their attempts on Caprica in procreation farms, when she went back there. The cylons did not want just to depend on their resurrection technology to reproduce. For many reasons, normal reproduction would provide them with a much more effective way to spread and evolve quicker. I couldn't kill the child who had saved my life. All it took is one look at her and I, who never had children, fell in love with her. She was just a baby, innocent, harmless. Yet so much harm could come about because of her existence. I felt she was in much danger where she was and she also was putting us in danger."

"I arranged with Dr. Cottle to have her placed in the care of another woman, who just had lost a child. Hera became Isis and Maya became her mother. Sharon and her husband Karl Agathon were informed that their baby had died from complications due from being so premature. I hated to subject the parents to such pain, but I felt it was better for the whole fleet and our survival. I never told Bill, who had become, in my belief, way too trusting of Sharon Agathon at the time. Was he right? I could not take a chance. I made the decision and never questioned it, until now. I became close to Hera, when she was housed near me on New Caprica. She was a lovely little girl. And when she disappeared with her mother during the evacuation, I grieved deeply for them. I felt as if I had lost my family again, a sister and a niece. When both my sisters and father died in the car accident after the baby shower, I knew I would never have the joy to hold her little girl, who would have been born in less than a month. I knew also I would never have children. It was a long time ago, but the grief never really faded. It was there with me each day. When Maya took Hera, I felt I had found my younger sister again and her child. I swore to protect them as my own. I failed. Gods, I failed miserably."

"The iridescent bubble of trust had popped between Bill and I. I never told him about my sisters and I never told him about Hera. Nobody knew except Tory and Cottle. But Hera had been taken by the cylons, during New Caprica evacuation. She was alive. Surely Maya had been killed, either by accident or willingly. It took a few seconds for such news to register, followed immediately by a deluge of implications. I felt submerged by waves of emotions, elation because she was alive and I loved her, fear that the cylons had her, guilt, remorse, pain, shame… yes, so much shame… at what I had done. Bill, rightfully so, was upset. I could feel his restrained anger, like a volcano about to erupt. He left the room and retreated in the head, his private bathroom, unable to face me. I waited a second, but decided to explain myself. I had to remind him of the circumstances in which I made the decision to hide from him the existence of the baby. It would be so easy to let our emotions control our reason. Nobody knew at the time if Sharon Agathon was to be trusted. I made the decision as a president, not a woman. I made the decision, which I thought was the best at the time under the circumstances and I would make the same decision today knowing what I knew then. Bill said that any parent would want to recover their child. I knew he was right and that, now, we were put in jeopardy because these parents would want to retrieve their child. He left me and went to their quarters. I stayed, pondering for a few minutes on the irony and the twist of fate of our situation."

"I knew Bill talked to them. He came back to CIC, jaw clenched, unable to make eye contact to me. We were in a stand off. The cylons wanted to Eye of Jupiter. We did not have it. They launched six raiders to go to the planet. It was a race against time. Bill had told them that, if they set foot on the planet, he would bomb it with our remnant nuclear weapons. He knew this would destroy the planet and our hopes of finding the way to earth and kill our people on the surface, including his son, Lee. Was he bluffing? I could feel the tension mounting. The air was electric. I reminded him of Lee, shaken by his determination, not sure what to think. Would he really kill his son to prevent the cylons from going to the planet? He was arming the nuclear weapons. Launch keys turned, launch codes entered. He did not seem to care, hard as steel. He was calm and exulted strength. He was reminding everyone why he was the Admiral. Just in case we had forgotten. Just in case we thought he was becoming soft. When all but one of the cylon raiders turned around, he withdrew and disarmed the nukes. I released a long breath I did not even realized I was holding. There was a spark in the look he gave me, like he had pulled a good trick on us."

"When Agathon called, Bill and I ran to their quarters also, suddenly overwhelmed by a dark premonition. She was dead. The blood of Sharon Agathon was splattered all over the walls. I knew she killed herself, or actually he killed her on her order, so that she would be resurrected on the cylon ship. She would download there. They would have access to her memories, confidential information, everything. I knew the anger of Karl Agathon. I knew he felt betrayed. Well, I had betrayed him. I was ready to take the blame, but I never was the one to take the easy road. Sharon Agathon was a cylon, she had shown great dedication to us, but there still was a possibility that her mind could be probed during the download process willingly or unwillingly. There was a remote possibility that she could be having somewhere buried in her brain a program, which could have been started at any time and she would not even be aware of it. She took a very big risk, doing this to get her child and all we could hope is that she would not turn against us. I was not ready to admit to Agathon how upset I was by the whole idea of Hera being a prisoner of the cylons. Gods know what they were doing to her to find out how she was conceived. They were after human cylon procreation for some time. I turned around and left. I could not make eye contact with him, plagued by anger and shame. I did not want to show him how I felt. But I knew Bill had placed his trust in Sharon Agathon as well, unconditionally. If she was human, I would find this quite remarkable, but as a cylon, I was not sure she had complete control of her actions. I was the president. As I did so often, I had made a decision, which I could not completely reconcile with myself as a woman, and I had to make this decision as a president. I turned around and briskly left the room. The thing about being president, Adar told me once, is that you do not have to explain yourself to anyone."

"Of course, Sharon Agathon returned with Hera and a blonde number Six cylon, which was taken to jail immediately. The helium flash signaled the star was going to go Nova and we had to evacuate the teams on the planet surface. They brought back an unconscious Baltar with them, which was also jailed. But the good thing is that they did identify the Eye of Jupiter, another nova, which exploded at the time of the thirteenth tribe exile and which was marking the road to Earth. We decided to follow this signal, just like they did. In minutes, we had jumped away from the nova, in the direction of the 4000 years old road post that was left for us, 17000 light years from here, the Ionian Nebula."

Thank you for reading. Please, as always, your comments, suggestions and constructive criticisms are very welcome.