Sorry for taking so long updating this story. My daughter was here for a little while. I wrote a grant and I also had to cover an extra teaching assignment for a colleague on sick leave. Two weekends ago, I took my students to competitions (they all came back with awards) and finally I was in Chicago last weekend for the C2E2 Con, which allowed me to see the BSG panel and reconnect with long time friends. Fortunately I will have a few day off for Easter, and I hope to have some time to write.

For your patience, you get an extra-long chapter.

Thank you for those who have stayed with me through this journey and keep on commenting.

Chapter 32

Helena had so many questions and she assumed the older woman did as well. Members of the team barely could contain their excitement, as everyone started to talk all at once. A quick warning look of Dr. Inoue, however, calmed them down. They did not know Elosha nor Sharon well enough and they certainly did not want to overwhelmed them with an avalanche of questions and information. It was important first to establish a good relationship with Elosha and her daughter, Sharon, in everyone's best interest. Information should be exchanged in due time and with respect. It was not the time for an interrogation, however eager each member of the team was to learn about the history of these people. Takashi immediately intervened.

"We all have a lot of questions to ask and I am sure you do as well. We would like to know your people better. Would you like to share a meal with us and then maybe in the afternoon we can all talk some more?"

Elosha nodded. "Yes, we would like to join you." She turned to Helena, "my dear, would you like to take a walk with me?"

Helena glanced quickly at Takashi, who looked worried, and smiled reassuringly. Helena watched the tall old woman as she stood up and took her cane. Helena was mesmerized by her eyes, so light blue, which contrasted with her very dark skin and created a spellbinding effect. She had never seen anything like this and she knew it was extremely unusual. She thought that Evelyn would be so excited to look at the genetics of this population. Elosha took Helena's right arm and held her cane with the other hand. The two women walked slowly together in silence in the direction of the waterfall. Elosha was strong and Helena was quite sure her cane was more a sign of status than a needed help. She kept on looking at her face, her sharp aquiline profile and her almond shaped eyes, wondering which secrets lay buried in the history and knowledge of this old woman. She carried herself with great authority and she could have been very intimidating, yet Helena felt immediately a deep connection with her. The silver bracelet, the old woman was wearing on her left arm, was shiny as new, bearing no trace of tarnish. It was brushing against Helena's wrist as they walked. Helena wondered if it was the same bracelet or if copies had been made over the years after millennia of use.

"Is he your husband?"

Helena was so surprised and shocked by the question that she turned her hear swiftly to Elosha, wondering if she heard right.

"Whom are you talking about?" She replied.

"Your team leader."

Helena was puzzled. "No. He's not my husband."

"He loves you." The woman replied as matter of fact, looking in front of her and continuing walking. It was not a question. Helena was not expecting this turn of conversation and she felt awkward. She did not know what to say. She felt lightheaded and was relieved when the old woman sat on a rock by the waterfall and invited Helena to sit with her.

"You are a scientist, you are working very hard. But your heart is not open." Elosha said. Helena looked down and felt tears burning under her eyelids. She did not answer.

"He is the only family you have." The old woman continued.

"How do you know this?" Helena asked weakly, thinking of all the time she had known Takashi, since her college years.

"I don't know this. I feel it." And it was the only reply she got. They sat together in silence for a while.

"When you arrived here, you said that your people were afraid. Why? Whom?" Helena asked, changing the conversation.

"Those who can come back from the skies. We made sure we blended into the nature. Invisible! Our ancient history says that the survivors decided to let everything behind and start anew. They created monsters. They did not want to repeat history."

"The cylons?"

Elosha turned her head to look sharply at Helena's eyes.

"We do not speak of them." Elosha sighed. "You see, history keeps on repeating itself. We need to break the cycle."

"There was nothing fun about preparing for Baltar's trial. My daily routine included meetings with the government and colonies' representatives, meeting with the press, and reading ship reports. We were having problems more often on some of the ships. Fights were breaking out. There was a lot of unrest and ferment, which was, of course, catalyzed by the press and their non-stop coverage of the upcoming trial preparations. Tory arrived carrying a small booklet that she put sternly on my desk. I could not believe what I was seeing. Baltar had written a book? More some collated sheets of propaganda, rather than a book. I picked it up and read it. Poor farmer boy from Aerelon, forced to work on a farm, making his way up to Caprican society and becoming a scientist. He was spilling a workers' rights rhetoric of class warfare. Baltar! Out of all people, an indulgent, rich, capricious being, who never looked at a worker his entire life, living like a prince, in limos and lounging in expensive hotels! It would have been laughable, if it were not so dangerous.

'Where did you find that?' I asked Tory.

'These pamphlets are circulating all over the fleet' She explained frustrated. Most definitely this was encouraging rebellion and probably was the cause of the fights we were experiencing on all of the ships. The text was incendiary, blaming the Caprican 'aristocracy' for the lack of mobility among the classes. It was clear that Baltar was getting back at Bill and me in the only way he could, through the people. I decided I would go speak with him later in the day, once I finished taking care of all of this paper work."

"I never got a chance to go over Galactica. As I turned my head, I saw a raptor flying right at Colonial One. In a second the ship shook, as if a bomb had exploded. Tory and I were thrown on the floor. All of the furniture slid sideways, with all of the files falling down. We lost power and light. And the automatic battery powered alarms started blasting their strident warning. It did not look like there was a breach in the hull. I grabbed Tory who screamed in pain and while the ship was still shaking, I dragged her downstairs and along the corridors to the other end of the ship along with all the personnel who was running down. Our captain was screaming orders to seal the upper compartment. Some people were bleeding and screaming. We had to be fast just in case the hull was about to breach. When we passed the second hatch, I started to feel a bit better, since the door would seal at any pressure differential. The other end of the ship still had power. Tory was as pale as a ghost and sweating. I looked at her for traces of blood, but could not find any. She was shaking and managed to say 'my shoulder'. This is when I realized the odd angle of her shoulder. People were running around us, and helping the wounded on chairs. The captain inquired about my well-being. I just said 'Dr. Cottle?'

'He's on his way!'

Remembering my basic medical training on New Caprica, I started to sort our wounded by type and gravity of the injury. Fortunately, most suffered from scratches, and minor injuries when they fell. There were mostly bruises and a couple of people had hit their heads. I was very lucky to be unharmed. The captain and I retrieved the emergency kit and started treating minor scratches, which required only cleaning, antibiotic ointments and simple bandages. The more serious injuries would have to be evaluated by the Doctor when he got on board. It took only 15 minutes for Dr. Cottle to get on board and immediately he started barking orders. He took those who were in immediate danger and sent them back to Galactica in the shuttle with Ishay, who needed to take care of them in sickbay. They mostly were those we suspected of concussion and another who probably had a broken arm. Cottle looked at Tory, who was contorted in pain in a chair. I had covered her with a blanket and given her a mild analgesic. Her shoulder was dislocated and there was no other way but pull the arm back in its socket. I learned she had an anterior dislocation and it needed to be reduced. Dr. Cottle massaged her muscles for a little bit to relax them and then he ordered me to hold her torso, while he twisted and pulled on the arm. She was fighting it unconsciously and tensing up. Cottle gave her a stronger shot of analgesic and we waited 5 minutes for her to relax. I had to hold her again against my body both of my arms around her chest and her head resting on my shoulder. He pulled and twisted the arm again. Then when the arm was is the right position, he made briefly eye contact with me to warn me and he gave it a sharp pull. I heard a crack from her shoulder and her scream. He let go and she collapsed in my arms, the shoulder realigned.

'You would have made a good nurse' he grumbled at me in a rare compliment.

We wrapped her in a blanket and let her rest on lying down on the chairs. I moved back with Dr. Cottle.

'How are you doing?' he asked gently.

'I'm ok,' I said. 'I am tired I guess. I'm sleeping better now, but I cannot manage to find enough rest.' I walked him back to his shuttle.

'Why don't you stop by sickbay next time you are on Galactica? And I will run some blood tests.' He said and patted me on the arm, as he left. Truly, I had been tired and the stress of dealing with Baltar had not helped. I really did not have the time to think about this as I went back to the compartment to call the Admiral. I needed to find out how this accident happened. I was glad to see that Tory was asleep. Dr. Cottle had left for her a sling, which she should wear when she woke up. I woke to the back and found a phone.

'Admiral Adama, please?' I waited to be connected.

'Madame President, How are you doing?'

'I'm fine. We do have some injuries.' And I added: "How are your pilots, are they safe?'

'Yes, Madame President, they ejected as one of the engine caught fire and they lost control of the raptor.'

'What is going on, Admiral?'

'We are trying to find out. There seem to be some problem with the Tylium. I will have some answers by the morning. We are sending a crew to secure the area and start repairs on your ship right away. Once we know there is no breach, we will be able to transfer some of your possessions and files. I will stop by in the morning.'

'Thank you, Admiral, have a good night' I replied as softly as possible.

'Same to you Madame President, try to find some sleep.' There was warmth in his tone that indicated how worried he had been. I hung up and find myself deciding where I would sleep. Many were already occupying the seats and were trying to be comfortable in the much more cramped cabin. I found double seats in the back and I thought I would have enough space to stretch my legs. So much for that shower I was going to take. Grabbing a small pillow and light blanket, I settled for the night."

"As promised, he sent a team to evaluate the bulkhead section, which had been damaged. In the morning, Bill came over. Once the engineers were sure that no air leak was possible, they reopened it so that I would be able to transfer all my files and my personal belongings downstairs, while they did the repairs. Bill helped me carry boxes of files and then my personal belongings. We talked a bit, and he told me how worried he had been when the accident happened. We were so glad that there were only 12 wounded and nobody had been killed. Tory was recovering, her arm in a sling. I had to find myself a private place in the lower end of the ship, which was not easy and establish an office. We moved to the back section and cleared up some space to put a cot and nearby my desk. I was complaining on how crowded it was when he said: 'If the quarters become cramped, you're always welcome in one of my beds…' I looked up at him until he caught my eyes, realizing what he said and promptly added, 'in a matter of speaking.' I could not help but smile at the unconscious meaning of his slip, and had to keep control of my laughter. Then we turned to more serious matters, when he explained that the accident was caused by some contamination of the Tylium fuel during the refinement process. The refinery used to be the most reliable ship on the fleet and recently all kinds of accidents and incidents had been happening on board this ship. I am getting every day messages from the chief of operations. Bill reminded me of his name:

'Zeno Fenner.'

'Fenner,' I vented my frustration, 'complaining about working conditions and deliveries, and, spare part and compensation. If you can believe that, we are on the run for our lives and the guy wants to talk about over time bonuses.' Clearly, Bill was thinking along those lines too, he voiced how much he wants to go back on the road to find earth. Bill, who thought of earth foremost as a way to distract his people, but did not believe it. The irony of his statement was not lost on me. I leaned over to him, whispering: 'Is that a hint of hope I hear? Is the skeptic suddenly decided, that we are on the road to earth after all?' I loved to tease him on this topic.

'Did I ever doubt it?' He answered and I smiled at him, playful. With all the men working, we were able to transfer all of our files quickly down. Bill and I organized the back end of the cabin to make some decent quarters and he helped me put away some of my stuff. He wanted to go back to continue the investigation of the accident and I had an entire office to organize quickly, as fleet matter did not wait. He left me with a quick kiss on the cheek, whispering 'I'm glad you're ok'."

"The next day, I went to Galactica to go over the situation with him. He had summoned Fenner in his office. He kept on telling us how hard the work was on the crew, who had not had a break since the attack by the cylons. Indeed, nobody had a break. There was no vacation, or time off. We had to survive, make the ships function. With barely enough fuel to jump twice, how could possibly escape another cylon attack? If they were to find us again? And then Fenner started to quote Baltar's book. That Baltar's writing was responsible for this unrest made me furious. He was indeed poisoning the minds of our people with his writings about class and revolution. We had to nip this in the bud and immediately.

'Did you say the book?' I said. He nodded. 'Guards, arrest him for extortion and interrupting vital services during a time of war.' My voiced must have sliced as a knife, because Bill looked at me with surprise.

'Go ahead, take him away, now. That's it, go. Out of here. Gone' Bill kept on looking at me, wondering what was happening and why I was so angry.

'What the hell was that?' Bill asked

'He was quoting from Baltar's book'

Anything having to do with Baltar fighting his little war against us, using the people, would make me lose my mind in anger. I explained: 'he is having it reprinted and passed out within the fleet and he is calling it: -My Triumphs, My Mistakes- by Gaius Baltar. I am thinking of having a good old-fashioned book burning.'

I was standing fuming, when Bill called Tyrol and told him that I had arrested Zeno Fenner.

'He pissed off the President' was what he said, Bill, really? Mostly, Bill wanted to get the refinery back on line. We were vulnerable, should the cylons attack. The refinery had work again."

"The thing with Baltar is that the man has a gift to infuriate me. His false pretenses, his hypocrisy, his natural sense of self-preservation wrapped in his narcissism drive me mad with anger. I have a very hard time to contain myself when I see him, despite by best intentions to remain calm. He puts a mirror in front of you, which absolutely gives you the reflection of the worse person you can be. I have seen it with Bill. I have seen it with Gaeta. I have seen it with myself. When you are facing Baltar, your worse emotions, anger and hate are brought up to the surface and flaring up. I went to his cell to get pages of the book he is writing. Can you believe he was flattered I may have read it? I certainly did not want to give him the satisfaction to let him believe that his pages got out to the fleet. I told him we had intercepted them. I had the guards search his cell but could not find additional pages. Then of course I figured he must be hiding them on his body. The temptation to have him stripped naked was strong. I remembered my pledge not to torture him and go as low, or lower, than my jailors on New Caprica. It was not necessary to humiliate the man. My eyes locked up with his. I was not interested in looking at his body. I wanted to assert myself over him. Fortunately, he handed the pages, saying, 'perhaps you'll consider writing a blurb for the back cover.' Infuriating!"

"I went back to Bill's quarters furious. The good thing about our friendship is that we did not have to pretend with one another. I told him how I thought Baltar was bringing up my worse instincts. He did agree. 'Narcissist personalities do that,' he said, ' Baltar is a psychopath and a manipulator. Seeding discomfort and anger is what he does best.' Both Bill and I were angry at a situation, which was getting more dangerous as time went on. Bill sent Tyrol to look at the conditions on the Tylium ship and when he came back to say that the workers had removed the seals on some of the piping, which prevented the refinery to operate, we knew we had a unacceptable situation. I understood the working conditions on the fleet were miserable for some of the toughest work, refining the fuel, processing algae for food, recycling waste. Even teams doing laundry, preparing meals or cleaning the ships were having a harder time. We knew that. However, sabotage was not a good way to start negotiations. It was putting all of us in danger. I told this to Tyrol and he gave us the name of the guy who was a leader of the workers. Now we had Cabot in prison in a cell with Fenner. I hated to jail workers who were protesting. We had to make them understand that we would only start negotiating when they would stop their acts of sabotage. If we bowed to such acts, they would start to occur all over the fleet. Soon enough we would have complete unrest and possible accidents. When Tyrol left, I took a sip from my glass and looked at Bill.

'You know, they have a point. These people are stuck there, Bill. They have nowhere to go, working conditions the same, day after day without an end in sight. It's not like they had some vacation coming or anything to look forward to. Since the attacks, they have been there working and don't tell me their lives are pleasant. I'm very concerned about the fact that all of our equipment is breaking down. Accidents are more and more frequent. Those guys are doing a hell of job if you think about it. We have to consider the fact that sabotage may have been their only way to get our attention.'

'I know, but we cannot let anyone dictate us using such methods. This is mutiny.'

'When I was secretary of education, right before the attacks, we had this huge teachers' strike. The schools had been paralyzed for weeks. Kids were not going to school, not learning. Parents had to stay home or hire sitters to take care of the little ones since they had nowhere to go. Teenagers roamed the streets and got in trouble. All of this was creating so many problems.' He lifted his face from the papers he was annotating to listen to me.

'Everyone was blaming me, as secretary of education, for not doing anything to stop a situation that was worsening by the hour. In fact it was president Adar who refused to negotiate. He just would not bend. He did not want to even start a negotiation with those he called terrorists.'

'Adar was an asshole.' He replied.

'He felt his government was attacked and that negotiating would weaken him. He felt that once we engaged in negotiations every part of our society would start to strike to obtain what they wanted. So he was ready to send the troops. Force people back to work. It could have degenerated easily into a blood bath.' Bill was looking at me intensely. 'What would you have done, Bill?'

'I don't know. That's why you're the politician. In the army, it's easy. You follow orders. If you don't, it's mutiny.'

'They were teachers, Bill. Not terrorists. He was ready to send the troops without even listening to what they had to say. I met with the teachers' union leader without Adar knowing and I decided on a formal meeting to listen to what they had to say. Just to listen and give them a voice. I was not thinking we would give them anything. But at least, there was no harm in listening and trying to understand.'

'How did that go with Adar?' He took a sip of his wine, with a smirk on his face.

'It was the day of the attacks. The teachers' union guy saw me after my lunch break by the water on the market place. It was hot. I had let my foot go in the water for a bit. I had just found out I had cancer. Everything seemed different. I was in shock. And then I see this guy and he really wants to talk to us, to express what is going on with the teachers. And so I feel I have to put things in perspective. We had to listen to them or we would go in a unrecoverable situation.' I closed my eyes remembering that day that seemed so long ago. 'Adar was not pleased. He was very angry with me. I could not understand why he would not at least listen to the teachers' complains. Adar had become obsessed with power. He had become hard and heartless. Power does that. I broke up with him that day.'

Bill's head shot up, 'you… what?'

'I had an affair with Adar, Bill. I was frakking him.'

'He was married.'

'Yes, he was.' We looked at each other for a moment. The person I was then did not exist anymore. He nodded with a small smile. I continued. 'He told me that after the trip to Galactica, I would have to resign. Ironic, isn't it? I should not even be president! Of course I never resigned.'

Bill took his glasses of and pinched the bridge of his nose. 'Wow' He could only whisper.

'They all died that day!' I sighed. 'I don't know what would have happened if the attacks did not occur.'

'But they did. And, you are president. If anything, I am grateful for that.' He replied.

I remained silent, thinking about what I just said. Power was easy to abuse. We had to be mindful not become like Adar. We had to listen to them. I told Bill that I decided that I would go speak with Cabot and Fenner in the morning in their prison cell. I had so much work to do that I took back my papers and continued working through the night at Bill's desk. Maybe two hours later, Bill got a call that the chief had managed to have Fenner cave and give them the location of the seals. The refinery would start again in the morning. Disturbingly, we also found out that Cabot broke down in his cell and had to be seen by Dr. Cottle. I did not realize he had been in detention on New Caprica. Gods know what happened to this poor man there. I had a painful knot in my throat thinking about it.

'Oh my Gods, Bill, what are we doing?'

'We are ruling the fleet and making sure that we stay alive. That's what we are doing' he replied, sternly. I knew that as well as he.

'We need to allow some kind of negotiation, Bill'

'Right now, let's start by putting back the Tylium processing on line. And then we will see.'"

"I went back to Colonial One during the night. I was glad I could get some work done in Bill's quarter, because it was very uncomfortable working with so little space. Fortunately the repairs were taking place and in a few days, I would be able to move back to my old office and quarters. The next morning, Chief Tyrol came to see me. He described the conditions on the Tylium ship: children as young as twelve, who barely could remember the attacks, working shifts in the refinery. I knew that we had kids in terrible conditions on all of the ships. We had to survive. Parents were passing the skills to their children and children also had to operate the machineries. Our life was hard. 'There is nothing ideal about this fleet', I told him. We were at war. What could we possibly do?

'Do you see what's happening? Jobs are starting to get inherited, Madame President. We don't know how long we're going to be on these ships. What's if it's fifteen years? So I train my son to be a deckhand because that is what I am? And that's all he can ever be? Is that the future we want?' I looked at him, reflecting on his words.

'That's a really good point!' I was a teacher, for Gods sake! We could not let our children go without proper training. And additionally, we needed to establish a rotation among the workers. Establishing a registry of all the fleet personnel with jobs relevant to the work in the refinery and creating rotations would be a first step to give some relief to the workers. I immediately instructed Tory to get on this task and Tyrol would coordinate these efforts. We would start to use a lottery system to assign qualified people on shifts until we find a better way to establish rotations. Immediately my mind started working on how we needed to change the working conditions and implement educational programs. Apprenticeship programs would probably the best way since we were lacking schools beyond the elementary levels. We needed to train the teenagers properly and give them enough knowledge to have them take over us. The next level of intervention would be to start putting in place teaching programs for higher grades, recruiting among engineers for math and sciences and other professions for the arts. I could see that we could not even find decent lawyers on the fleet, because nobody was there. Yes, Tyrol was right. We needed to start thinking of the future."

"I wish that it would have been that easy. As soon as we started to implement these rotations a few days later, a terrible accident happened with one of the young guy working rotating there and he nearly lost his arm. This prompted a general strike on all of the ships. Bill, furious, put Tyrol in jail and threatened to execute his wife, if he was not calling it off. All he wanted was to negotiate. And I had already started it by allowing rotations. I didn't agree with Bill's method. But it was a military ship and he could not have half of his crew on strike. For him it was simply mutiny. And mutineers get shot. Not surprisingly, Tyrol called off the strike. And I got a call from Bill to let me know that he was sending Tyrol over for negotiations. I am glad, that he allowed the negotiations to take place. After all, maybe my recollection of the education strike gave him pause. We could not risk a fleet-wide revolution. We needed to hear them. When we met, Tyrol brought up some good observation about how our society was. Depending on where you were born, we ended up in various professions, some of them more valued than others. It was true. Our colonial society had been a caste system in reality. We may claim we had opportunities for all. And surely there were. Yet, those born on poor planets did not get as many opportunities and they were looked down by others. If we were to survive and build a new society, we couldn't hold on to these ancient systems and prejudices. We had to reject them. We needed to move forward. The planets were gone. And anything that stemmed from the planets' geography was gone with them. There was no reason someone from Sagittaron would not have the same opportunities as someone from Caprica. Here in the fleet, we are all the same, only people stranded on ships. And so our old prejudices have no ground here. They were wrong before. They even more wrong now. Tyrol was right to propose ideas to 'level the field' as he put it. I agreed to let people on Colonial One rotate in shifts to help low-level maintenance. It was important to have everyone pitch in and help. We could not have a caste of rulers and a cast of servants, if we wanted to continue our world. I was glad that Tyrol also proposed some training program for the young people, which was along the lines of what I was thinking of doing. We needed to train people if we wanted to establish safe and efficient rotations. Clearly, he had put a lot of thought in this. This would take time to get implemented. In the mean time, we needed to have work resume and the union would have to work with the workers to make sure that work would resume seamlessly. Tyrol was surprised I mentioned the union. I really had thought he had resurrected the union they had created on New Caprica, the colonial workers alliance, and that he was coming for collective bargaining negotiations. When he hesitated, I reminded him how important it was that the workers be represented and clearly he was the man for the job. They needed to be unionized so that the unrest we saw did not have a chance to happen again. The best way to fight Baltar and his dreams of social revolution was to organize the workers and give them a way to be heard. It was critical to unionize that and have them take part of our plan for improvement of our society. If they felt heard and if they had a say in our decisions, there would not be any cause for a revolution. Baltar could say whatever he wanted, people would know that we are moving together in the right direction. I was proud of Tyrol and I was proud that we would make the choices best for our society.

I said to him: 'If this society is becoming truly polarized between an entrenched political class and a disenfranchised underclass, then we are doomed. We won't need the cylons to destroy us; we'll destroy ourselves. The fleet that arrives on Earth will not represent colonial society at all. I am willing to fight for that society until my dying breath. I would love it if you'd fight for that society as well.' We need to work together. We need to survive and our survival depended on working together. He left happy, I think. So was I. I felt we really had accomplished a great deal of work. It would take time and a lot of work, and we would make it work. We needed to rebuild this society."

Thank you for reading. Please comment, it motivates me.

March and April are the busiest times for me, as we compete all over the state and I have to get my students ready for their exams. I will do my best to keep you updated.

Do not fear, though, I am writing a few chapters ahead, thus allowing me to reflect on the text and make any changes as the story goes along.