Thank you very much for all of your comments. They really are motivating me and so I would like to encourage you to comment even more.

A bit of a longer chapter with some development in the modern time story and a continuation of Baltar's trial.

I hope you like it.

Chapter 38

It got a little cooler that night, as the group just sat around the campfire; Helena had wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and was sitting next to Takashi. They were speaking in hushed tones, worried that their conversation could be listened to. All were waiting to hear what Helena had to say.

"They have a cylon."

"What do you mean, a cylon?" John Evans asked.

"The mechanical kind… I saw it! A robotic head, quite scary to be honest!"

"Not a tribal mask? Or something you could have mistaken for it?"

"Look, John, I saw it, alright? It was definitely one of the scariest things I have ever seen. It had a slit in a V shape for eyes and where the neck would be you could see some wiring coming out. It was not a mask. It was made out of metal. Also it was inside a crate very similar to the one where we found the books."

Helena shivered. Everyone was silent. After a minute, Helena continued: "This was not human, it was so different, and alien. Elosha said that was a cylon and she denied that cylons could also have human physical appearance. She seemed very upset when I suggested that some of the cylons might have human characteristics. She pointed out to some of the text recorded on their walls, calling the original settlers 'children of the one and unique God'.

"Are you sure about your translation of Laura's diary?" Evelyne asked.

"Without the shadow of a doubt! Laura talks about skin jobs, cylons who can rape, cylons who had a child. There is no question that some cylons had a human appearance, were made out of flesh. And, if some of them settled on the planet, then, of course those would have been friendly ones. In such conditions, it would have been in their best interest to assimilate them within the population and accept them rather than perpetuating a conflict. It seems that for social and political reasons, the original settlers and their immediate descendants wiped out any reference to skin jobs and their mythology grew into what I would call a 'creation story'. In a few generations, their true story was forgotten."

Takashi looked at Helena and added:

"Well, it is clear they are hiding from them. There is absolutely nothing visible about these villages; they are settled inside caves."

Helena nodded.

"The village I saw is beautiful. There is an underground lake and river. Accommodations are carved into the stone, little houses if you want. It is stunning. There are openings in the ceiling of the caves and light does filter through. The population looks completely self-sufficient and independent. Oh, Evelyne, there is an incredible genetic diversity."

"What do you mean?" Evelyne asked, curious.

"I have seen blonde people, blue, brown and green eyes, some of them look Asian, others Africans, others Caucasian, a complete gradient of skin color from very fair to very dark and, as we have seen with Elosha, dark-skin people with light blue eyes."

Evelyne nodded: "For a population that was isolated, that is very unusual. There is certainly something going on here and I cannot wait to find out their genetic history."

"What about the cylon?" Dr. Evans interjected, "We need to study that thing…"

"Definitely, we need to have some chemical analysis, look at the circuits, try to figure out how it works." Takashi said.

"We also need to be careful about what we share with Elosha. As she is very adamant that cylons cannot be made out of flesh, she will not accept Laura's story easily. She became very upset when I suggested otherwise. It can be very traumatizing for them, if they find out that some of their ancestors were cylons, albeit a different type. We need to be diplomatic and break the news to them slowly. She wants to read Laura's diaries; I say we need to be careful what we share until we break the news to her." Helena said. Everyone nodded. They shared a few more bits of information and a plan for the next few days and in the silence of the night the team retired into their tents.

Helena and Takashi remained by the fire in silence for a while. The fire was almost out and only dark red ambers were glowing.

"You got scared…" He said. It was not a question.

"I have lived and traveled in the desert, explored ruins in the rain forest in South East Asia. I have been alone in strange places, decrypting old languages. Takashi, I've never seen anything like this." She shivered again. He pulled her closer to him, an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder.

"A penny for your thoughts…" Takashi whispered.

"You know, she said that sentence again: -all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again- It's from their religious texts. The cylons keep on coming back. Do you know what that means?"

He pulled back suddenly, lifting her chin and looking in her eyes.

"They are going to come back…"

She nodded.

"They have been here 150,000 years. No signs of cylons. How long do we wait before we start panicking? Or maybe they have just given up the chase. I still have several pages from the diary to translate. I suspect that, as I reach the end of her diary, I will find out probably what happened. So far Laura's diary is more reliable that what they have on their cave walls. And you know, if they were some flesh and bone cylons in that original settlers population, maybe they will not come back. Maybe we are missing a piece of the puzzle."

She rested again against him.

"If we show that cylon head to anyone up at the United Nations, the governments…"

"They would pull us out… or classify the whole thing and bury it forever. I can see the military getting involved, a threat to national… well, –in this case- planetary security…" he sighed.

"It's possible… This information is already quite overwhelming, if you think about it. If we add cylons in the equation, they will bury it… You know they will. Even now, with what we know, do you even think they will let this information get out? Really?" Helena whispered, "How about us? Will we have a gag order? Go back to our previous jobs and shut up about this discovery for the rest of our lives? The greatest discovery of humankind?"

Takashi held her a little tighter.

"We are in the middle of one of the most remote place in the world, with hardly any communication with the outside. We have equipment, computers and power generators. There are only five persons in our team. We can… we need to keep this hidden until we know more. We can control what we share with the officials for a little bit longer. I have no intention to lie to them ultimately. I would like to know what we are dealing with before we release any information. I say we wait."

Helena looked at him.

"For how long? Until they send a chopper in and want the reports? And then what? We are sitting on an information time bomb. There are governments that will not hesitate to kill for the information we have, Takashi, to put their hands on cylon technology, reverse engineer it, and to prevent the public from knowing that 150,000 years ago a technologically advanced society arrived on earth and likely were the source of the greatest evolutionary jump in the human species. Their mythology has survived in our mythology. Only time has erased the traces, except for here, in this place. But their influence is everywhere: ancient stories of lost civilizations, Greek and Roman mythology, even in South America, you have traces of it. And I have the feeling we are not at the end of our surprises."

Takashi was silent for a moment, and then he said:

"We need to back up all of our computers on hard drives, multiple copies, our work, the diary scanned pages and your translation work, and all of the scientific information we have. We need to hide the drive. We need to do this now and then the others too."

He held his hand out and they both got up.

"Tomorrow I go back inside the cave and I take pictures. John can come with me and take samples of the metal from the cylon head, and start studying it. I can photograph the caves and the writings on the walls. Evelyne can start sampling DNA. We will have Liang look at the village," Helena said as they were walking back to their tent.

"Bring your laptop to my tent" Takashi said quietly as they were walking back.

Helena grabbed her laptop and followed him.

"How much power do we have?" She said.

"We are going to have to run the generators some more, especially if we are going to use instrumentation to do some testing tomorrow. We can recharge all of our electronics. I have a two Terabytes drive, where we can back up your current files and then the stuff you have stored on your data drive. We will need to back up our files onto a couple more drives, just in case." Takashi said. He connected the drive to the usb port and started to copy the encrypted files. It would take the night. The computer was plugged in the generator. They sat down together on the cot, watching the slow loading bar, which soon displayed ten hours of wait.

"We wait..." she said.

"This is our insurance card." He said looking at the drive.

"Come on" he said to her, lying down. "Let's get some sleep"

She looked at him and hesitated for a minute, but the idea of going back alone in her tent was overwhelming. She was anxious and it had been an emotional day. She lay down next to him and he pulled his unzipped sleeping bag over them like a cover. She was exhausted. In the comfort of his arms, it did not take long for sleep to claim her. Takashi ran his hands in her blonde hair and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"The familiar Chamalla took me along a road I knew all too well. Chamalla gave me visions and vivid dreams. The extract, I took with tea, had powerful effects. Some of its anti-cancer properties had been documented and I would have loved avoiding its hallucinogenic side effects. They had a way to creep on me at the least expected moments. I expected them and taught myself to carefully avoid reacting to such visions, if they were to happen publicly. Still they were disturbing. Moreover, the Chamalla was addictive and it could not be stopped abruptly without dire consequences. For two nights in a row, I had the same recurring dream. A dream so vivid, I knew it could only come from the hallucinogenic effect of the Chamalla. I felt I was caught in a storm of feelings and emotions. I knew I could not get out of it; I simply had to ride the storm. The Chamalla induced visions had taken me on the path to find Earth. I had seen the capital of Kobol on the maps of the ruins, as if I was there. I had seen Baltar talking to the blonde cylon six model back on Caprica, as life was fading from me the last time I encountered cancer. I knew I could not ignore those visions as mere dreams. Chamalla enabled me to see some message that was destined to me. Others, numerous priests over the years who had used Chamalla to induce visions, never had anything close to what I experienced. I could not prevent myself from pondering how timely it was that, as we were approaching the nebula with our supposedly next clue to Earth, my visions came back with my cancer. In those vivid dreams, I found myself running inside a large and beautiful old theatre, an opera house, like there used to be on Caprica. Dressed nicely as I would have for going out in such a setting, I kept on running along the beautiful corridors in a panic, looking for Hera, the daughter of Helo and Athena. Hera, the half cylon child, whose blood saved me from cancer! Hardly a coincidence! Then, I encountered her mother, Athena, who was running after her just as well on the other side of the theatre. We both were panicked and we knew we had to catch her. We had to protect her with all of our power. Hera ran into the arms of Caprica Six, who picked her up tenderly and entered the seating area of the opera house with Baltar. Doors closed before I could reach her, and I screamed. Each night since I started to take Chamalla again, I had woken up drenched in sweat as the doors closed in front of my face, unable to reach the child. I have not told Bill about my dreams and those restless nights. He is an atheist, who, I believe, never quite considered Chamalla and my visions as messages from the Gods. He took a more pragmatic approach, believing me and following my lead, more, I suspect, because of me rather than of the visions. I was uncomfortable sharing this with him without any other claim to back me up. Besides, today was the beginning of the trial and I wanted to avoid any distractions that would disturb him. I knew we could not talk. I would be a witness, he was part of the jury. This trial was an emotional moment for me. I felt raw, as if my skin had been peeled alive. New Caprica and its horrors was going to be brought back to my consciousness and I was hoping for closure, but I also knew it would hurt."

"My presidential mask put on, not betraying any of the emotions that were tearing me apart, I sat in the court room as both defense and prosecution made their opening statements. As the prosecutor started to talk, I was taken by a wave of heat and dizziness and excused myself quietly to visit the ladies room with a bodyguard tagging along. My heart was racing and I do not know if it had anything to do with the Chamalla or simply the anxiety that this trial was bringing to me. In the bathroom, I took some deep calming breaths and splashed my wrists and face with cold water. When I came back into the courtroom still a bit sick, I was verbally assaulted by Romo Lampkin, pointing his finger at me.

'Especially her', he said forcefully.

He was of course making his introductory statement, designating me as the one who wanted Baltar dead. If it had been the case, I would have accepted Bill's offer to get rid of him. I wanted a trial. I wanted him to be convicted for his crimes. Romo Lampkin proved himself to be a formidable lawyer and opponent. He was making the statement that Baltar had no choice but surrender and hinted I would have never surrendered and hereby would have rather let the cylons kill us. But again, had I been president, we would never have gone down on New Caprica. The settlement would simply not have happened. I put a smiling mask on my face, avoiding betraying my feelings. It was a game and Romo Lampkin was a master at it. I was disturbed seeing Lee by his side, sitting on the defense bench. An ominous feeling took over me and I did not know what to make of it. It increased my anxiety, the feeling that I was sliding down along a path without any control. The courtroom was on Galactica and we took a recess for lunch, during which I joined Bill and Lee to CIC. At each jump we made in the direction of the Ionian Nebula, we left a raptor behind to track the possibility that the cylons were following us. For the first time, they reported seeing them behind us and escaped by a hair. We knew we were now discovered. It would be only a matter of time before they caught up with us. When we all met in CIC, Bill suggested that they must have had a way to track us and follow us. That would be the only logical explanation why they had found us after so many weeks. I had just taken a sip of Chamalla laced tea that Tory brought over, and suddenly I had this powerful revelation that Caprica Six was on our side. She was carrying Hera, comforting her; she was protective of her. There was not a hint of malice in her behavior. No, she protected Hera. If the cylons were to find the half-cylon half-human child, they would without a doubt hurt her. I was certain in this moment, that she was an ally.

'I think that we should ask the Six, she may be willing to help." I said, knowing perfectly well how that would sound.

Tigh said "Baltar's girlfriend, why would she want to do that?"

"Because she would not want Hera to go back to the cylons."

Of course, Tigh did not believe it.

"I have a feeling that she would lay her life down for it."

Bill, of course, reacted, doubtful.

"A feeling..."

Why could he not trust me? I snapped at him, exasperated that he would question my judgment. I did not want to have to explain myself further.

"It's more than a feeling, alright! Why don't…" I sighed, "Just do it! It doesn't hurt to ask!" And, angry, I walked up the stairs by the weapons control section to find a moment alone to collect myself. I generally was better at containing my temper. The trial, the cancer and the words of Lampkin had eroded my self-control. A minute later, Bill joined me up after ordering Tigh to go talk to the Six.

"What's going on?" He said talking my hands in his.

"I had a vision," I whispered, upset.

"What do you mean? A vision? Like before?"

I nodded. "I'm taking Chamalla again, Bill." I added in a whisper, afraid I would be heard by the crew "Doc Cottle thought it would prevent the cancer from spreading until I can get Doloxan." We looked at each other for a few seconds, enough for me to let go of a long tensed breath I had been holding since maybe this morning.

"Alright" he said. Now was not the time to have a private conversation. I broke eye contact to look on my right to the main console. My eyes met Lee's. He immediately shifted his gaze away, avoiding mine. His expression was unmistakable, one of guilt, jealousy and resentment. I gasped and let go of Bill's hands. It was again like a flash of knowledge: Lee knew. It struck me all at once. Lee knew that I was taking Chamalla. Lee knew that I was intimate with his father. He hated it. In a sense, he never was able to hide his feelings. I don't know how, he knew, but I was certain he did. Bill turned around to follow my gaze and look at him, surprised, but Lee had already directed his attention to the screen monitors."

"It turned out that Caprica Six did tell Tigh that the cylons were following a radiation signature from the Tylium ship. I was right; the Six did let us know how we were followed and my intuition about her was correct.

In the afternoon, we started hearing the testimonies. Members of the New Caprica resistance testified. They described the horrors of the New Caprica prisons and their unsuccessful attempts to fight the cylons. Of course, Romo Lampkin challenged them on their suicide missions, which killed many human lives. There is no honor in war. We think there is, when we bravely send armies defend our freedom, but in reality we send people to be butchered. The resistance attempted to destroy an immortal enemy. In doing so, they destroyed humans. Cylons enlisted humans as collaborators for their police. Those were the ones killed. Human against human. And the cylons winning. I always had been against the suicide mission. They were criminal as well. This afternoon, this was fully exploited by Lampkin. Then they put Colonel Tigh on the stand. It took only a minute for me, and everyone else for that matter, to realize that he was drunk. He went on a long rambling about Baltar and the atrocities of his collaboration with cylons. He talked about his jail time. Bill was listening without moving. I could almost believe that he was not feeling any emotion, if it was not for his eyes, which closed when Tigh mentioned the detention tortures. Then he started to mention his wife, Ellen. Last I had seen of Ellen was in the underground tunnels as we were preparing for the rescue and evacuation of New Caprica. I assumed she had been killed during the rescue mission. So many were killed, when the cylons started shooting at us as we were running to the ships. During the cross examination, Lampkin pointed out Tigh responsibility for the death of many humans during the suicide mission. And then, he brought up Ellen, Tigh's wife. Sensing the danger, Bill tried to stop him. But since his wife was brought up during the examination, the subject could be further explored during cross-examination. Lampkin must have been tipped off, because he asked Tigh if his wife was a cylon collaborator and Tigh did not deny it. He instead tried to excuse her, by saying that she was faking it, which was of course used by Baltar's lawyer to say that Baltar also was faking it. This was getting ugly very fast and I was holding my breath, sensing an imminent disaster. Tigh admitted drinking, or having a drink before taking the stand. Then he completely lost it. His face went blank and he started to become incoherent, talking about some music he was hearing. Taking the opportunity to press, Lampkin asked him who killed Ellen. Then finally Tigh admitted killing her, because she was collaborating with the cylons. Gods! What a horrible story! So that was it! The abuse, bruises and cuts I saw on Ellen on New Caprica that time in the medical tent; she collaborated to save her husband from detention. She had been raped and abused by the cylons and forced to continue to collaborate to keep her husband safe. And then, when she was discovered, her husband had to kill her. I wondered how many of those stories had happened on New Caprica, stories of war and horror. The occupation had been a nightmare for all of us. None of us came out of it untouched. We all had been exposed to various levels of abuse, ordeal and suffering. All of us had come out of there traumatized. I saw Bill look down at his hands, upset by what we had heard. I wish I could say I was surprised. But the fact is in this hellhole of New Caprica, so much abuse, betrayal, terror had happened that I could see how Tigh would have killed his wife for collaborating with the cylons, rather than expose her to an illegal court martial held by the resistance. He saved her dignity and took the only outcome that would free her from the cylons' grip. She was forced to collaborate. If she did not, retaliation would have hit her husband who had already lost an eye in detention. She was trapped. I closed my eyes and fought tears very hard. Ellen had not been a friend of mine. Yet, I could see she genuinely loved her husband. Despite our differences, we had suffered similar ordeals. I had no right to judge her. I had no right to judge him. Bill and I exchanged one look loaded with sadness as we exited the courtroom for another break. I was scheduled to testify last in the evening. I wanted to look confident and presidential despite the very long day. I refreshed myself in the hour break we got and changed into a white shirt, hoping to keep my body cool in the hot atmosphere of the courtroom. This brief respite allowed me to gather my energy for what I knew would be a difficult testimony."

"When the session resumed, we first listened to several more witnesses describing the terrible conditions of the New Caprica jails and the abuse they had endured. Then, I was called to the stand. The prosecution asked me to describe what I witnessed on New Caprica. I talked about the New Caprica police and the humans who collaborated. I talked about my work with Dr. Cottle and how we catalogued those who disappeared and those who were tortured. I gave copies of some of the pictures that we took of families gunned down in their tents, graphic pictures of recovered tortured bodies. Looking at those again made my stomach heave. The prosecutor questioned me on my detentions. I knew it would happen. I was prepared for the questions. I was not prepared for the emotion this would generate inside me, as I focused on a spot on the wall on the other side of the room, unable to hold anyone's eyes.

'I was taken in the middle of the night and dragged to the prison through the snow…'

'Who arrested you Madame President?'

'Humans, members of the New Caprica police.'

'Were you accused of any charges? Did you have a trial?'

'No, I was just put in detention.'

'What happened during your detention?'

'There was an attempt, which failed, to sexually assault me. This type of torture did happen to many women, men and children in detention. Most of these were more severe than what I experienced. I was more lucky than most. I was left in detention for days, and at some point I was interrogated and beaten, such that I lost consciousness. I lost track of time; I got ill with a fever. I also suffered superficial injuries, which were treated by Dr. Cottle when I was released. My injuries were certainly less severe than most who were in detention.'

I unconsciously brushed the side of my white shirt, covering the now barely visible scars on my skin. Romo Lampkin tried to take advantage of my discomfort. I knew he would use everything he could to discredit me. I saw Lee lower his head and look at his hands.

'Madame President,' Lampkin said, 'You said the sexual assault you experienced failed, how is that?' I heard Bill draw a sharp intake of breath; I did not look at him.

'Is it really necessary to ask the witness to recount such traumatic experience?' Bill interjected.

Doyle Franks, captain of the Prometheus and head of the five judges of the trial, replied: 'If the witness brought this up during examination, it can be questioned during cross-examination. Overruled. Please proceed.'

I became uncomfortable. I steadied myself and continued: 'one cylon, Cavil, attempted to rape me. The guards did not try to prevent him to do so. They let it happen. A cylon number Six model came and stopped it as it was happening.'

'So you are telling me that you were assaulted by cylons. Not humans. They did not assault you, the cylons did. Did you fight it?'

'Exception! What is this line of questioning?' Adama roared at Lampkin.

'Withdrawn… Why did the number Six cylon rescue you?'

I took a deep breath and another, trying to control my emotions.

'The humans did not assault me, but they restrained me physically thus allowing Cavil to assault me. I defended myself and kicked one of them. I fell down and the human guards pinned me down on the floor. The number Six came because she heard me scream. I do not know why she chose to spare me.' I am certain my voice was shaking. I was ignoring the whispering of the audience.

'Do you know who the guards were? Can we call them to testify and corroborate this?' Lampkin addressed the court.

'One of the guards was Jammer, who was executed as retaliation after the liberation of New Caprica. The other guard, Buzzard, committed suicide.' The questioning of Lampkin took another turn.

'You said you were beaten up. Do you have scars?'

'Yes' I whispered.

'Did humans beat you up? I am wondering.'

'Doral and Cavil beat me up.'

'Again, the cylons tortured you and beat you up, not the New Caprica Police. It is very possible that Gaius Baltar did not even know you were in detention.' Lampkin concluded.

The prosecution asked me about my second detention and, of course, Lampkin jumped on the opportunity to show that Baltar indeed released me from jail. Finally, I was asked to recount the last time I was arrested and I detailed the fact that we were going to be executed on Baltar's order and that he signed a death list of about two hundred persons. I knew my testimony had made a certain impact on the jury; the crowd looked at me with respect. I'm aware that no-one knew about my detentions, except for the last one. It was late in the day and we all needed a break. The questioning certainly rattled me and I suddenly felt very tired. As we were dismissed, I waited a little bit for the crowd to disperse. I mostly wanted to avoid the journalists and any questions they probably would ask me about my detention. Tory went out to let the press know that I would not answer any question at this moment. I lingered in the little office next to the courtroom. The door was open and Bill joined me. I could tell that he was upset at the line of questioning I had experienced.

'How are you?' he whispered, while putting his hand reassuringly on my arm. He was looking at me with emotion, definite tears pooling in his eyes.

'I'll be fine.' I replied softly. He bent and kissed me on the cheek 'Get some rest…' and then he left as Tory entered the room to take me to my shuttle. As I turned to grab my jacket, I saw Lee starring at me. How long was he there for? Did he see that small exchange with his father? I had no time to wonder, as I was hushed out to shuttle bay."

Thank you very much for reading. Please leave some comments... It really feeds my muse and helps me focus my work into some of the ideas you suggest.