A/N I know it has been a very long time since I have posted a new chapter . I have been quite busy. Almost exactly one year ago I had brain surgery to remove a grade 2 glioma and they could not remove all of it. I had six months of chemotherapy and I am happy to say that the tumor is now stable and not growing. I did not stop working, but I used every ounce of my energy for my work, my students and a couple of volunteer projects I am working on. I simply was too exhausted to do anything else.

This Chapter has been long in the making and I will be posting hopefully more regularly from now on. The academic year is starting soon. I will be there.

Please review this chapter and not not hesitate to let me know of any typos I may have missed. As usual no copyright infringement intended. This is for creative purpose only.

Thank you for staying with me all of this time... 3

XO

Christine

Chapter 49

As soon as the sun rose, helicopters were already circling the mountain and dropping blood sampling supplies to the village, kits, bags and coolers with dry ice with the drop line. Helicopters would be back. In the Gemenon village, the two doctors organized themselves quickly, making lines and starting to sample blood from the villagers. Evelyne and Takashi could not directly help since they were still under watch for infection, but they were just providing support with the organization and avoided direct physical contact with the villagers. It was hectic and Takashi welcomed any activity that distracted him from thinking of Helena. Everyone collaborated efficiently. Elosha, Rya, and Sharon were making huge efforts to reassure their friends of the villages and to make them understand the urgency of the matter. Once they told the villagers that they were trying to save Helena, everyone was willing to comply. Helena had become an icon to them, the carrier of Laura's voice, her message and her testament. John and Liang were helping and sorting the villagers, bringing food and drinks while they gave blood. The whole operation went smoothly and after a few hours they had retrieved blood bags from everyone. As each person returned to their family and house, the team finished packing the samples and soon the dry ice coolers were secured and sent back up to the helicopters.

Joanne went up with the blood samples, harnessed and attached to the line. Nathalia stayed. They had decided that one of the doctors would stay on site in case new cases of the hemorrhagic fever developed and to monitor the current situation. Takashi was still being watched for symptoms and so was Evelyne. Joanne was committed to oversee the processing and extraction of immunoglobulins, which would create an antiserum. They did not know if it would work, but that was all they had. She would personally administer it to Helena and conduct some research on Helena's samples to identify the virus. Meanwhile to prevent further infections and spreading of the disease, the UN and the WHO declared the entire region quarantined with nobody allowed to enter or leave without clearance. Only limited medical personnel would be allowed to come into the villages. Simply, without further characterization of the virus and until it was deemed safe, nobody was allowed to travel in or out of the villages. Helena was patient zero and so far, there was no spreading of the illness. Takashi, John and Liang were relieved that the villages would remain isolated for the time being.

While Takashi agreed with the confinement measures, he wanted to go and travel to Nairobi to find Helena. With no news from her, and no confirmation that they were able to isolate an anti-serum, it was very hard to just be idle and wait. A couple of days passed in very slow motion. Takashi focused on the tedious but necessary task of photographing the Gemenon prayer book and the Book of Hera that Elosha had brought for Helena. He saved the scans of the books to their documents and hard drives. Nathalia was checking him and Evelyne each day and they still did not develop symptoms. They started to relax that maybe the virus was only transmissible through blood or open wound. The village returned to his routine and a few more quorum meetings were held where the Book of Laura was discussed and the elders read the text eagerly. It was at the end of one of these reading session that Elosha came to find Takashi.

"How are you?" She said as she joined him in the house where he was staying. He was sitting at the table backing up the files on hard drives.

"I am well. No symptoms yet!" He answered with a smile. She pointed at the laptop.

"How is this going?" She asked.

Takashi marveled each day at the ability of Elosha to understand technology. Their villages had been isolated for centuries, yet nobody seemed surprised by the laptops and other scientific equipment that the team had brought with them. Clearly Sharon was educated and she had been out of the village, interacting with the main stream Tanzanian society. Several persons knew English and they understood computers and cell phones. Neither Takashi or Helena had thought about asking how they had acquired such knowledge. But now, with time to think, Takashi was wondering. He certainly did not want to make the assumption that their geographical isolation meant isolation from society or lack of culture, but there was no electricity going to the villages, there was no cell phone signal and, unless these people travelled to the city of Morogoro or to Dar es Salam, there was no chance they had been exposed to modern technology.

"How do you know about computers, technology? How is it possible?" Takashi asked bluntly.

"There are many of us. Our little group here in the mountains is just a small part of our society. We travel, we go out and our population lives in cities, not just in Africa. They have jobs and families. But we all come back in the mountains every year or so. We have vows of secrecy. We are all bound by the book of Hera, which says that we shall return."

"Everyone returns?" Takashi asked Elosha.

"Most do, yes! Some get lost, when they get married outside of our community. Some forget our roots. It does happen, as it would over centuries. We see that many chose to come back to the mountains and stay. They do not miss modern society. It is peaceful here. But lately, younger people leave. There is no medical care, no electricity; some of the young people do not believe the scriptures. They reject the old ways." She said sadly. Takashi nodded in understanding, listening.

"We are hoping," Elosha continued, "that Laura's diary and your discovery will reaffirm our culture and tradition."

"Protecting it is critical as well. Your population will have to remain discreet. I am not sure the outside world is ready to find out how your population came to be." Takashi added.

"We have many secrets. They have been guarded for generations and generations. We all know the importance of keeping our knowledge safe."

"Greed?" Takashi asked. Elosha sighed.

"It is human nature to want more. We know the risks are not just to be discovered, the risks also lay in the cylons returning. While you are here, I should guide you to the thirteen village, Terra, so you can see the consequences of greed. Nothing lasts, nothing is permanent. This is the lesson from the Terra village. All of us have been there. We all have learned our lesson. All of this has happened before and will happen again."

"Why would the cylons return? I mean, the mechanical cylons…" He asked.

"They know we are here," she replied, "you will understand soon."

Takashi wondered what she meant and trusted she would explain in time. He found that often it was better not to press for answers, but let them come naturally.

"I was already working when Tory showed up, a large smile on her face, decidedly happy. She was disheveled. I swear I could smell Baltar's sex on her. She also was glowing. I was brutal, determined to hurt her as much as she hurt me with her betrayal. Baltar out of all people! I should have known! Sending Tory back to find out who was leaking news I was sharing dreams with cylons was just a pretext to humiliate her. 'I don't care if you have to spend the night on your knees praying or just on your knees, I want a name, I want to know who's responsible for these lies.' I turned around because I did not want to see what I was inflicting her and when she called me 'Madame president' and then 'Laura', I just replied 'you have a job to do' and dismissed her. You cannot work with me unless you are loyal. It hurt. I could not trust her. Once I heard her footsteps fading away, I had to take a deep breath. I lowered my head, angry, unable to read the lines on the report in front of me. I missed Billy dearly. I loved him like a son. It would never be the same. I needed to focus on my work and quickly, since I had another round of Doloxan today. I would not attend the quorum session today. I had to go back on the Galactica to see Cottle, get a medical exam and then the infusion. So tired of this! So tired of the side effects of Doloxan, the fatigue, feeling always cold… So tired of putting my life on the line, just to be betrayed. I was hungry but did not feel like eating. I would end up miserably vomiting anything I ate… what was the frakking point?!"

"When later I made my way to the Galactica, I found an unbelievably busy sickbay. Gaeta was there, out of surgery, in what seemed to be a quite depressed mood and most definitely in terrible pain. Of course, the poor guy had lost a leg… I was hidden on a side bed, just another patient in the crowded room, as Cottle put the IV in one vein of my hand. Too many veins of my arms had been destroyed and were unusable. Bill was on duty in CIC and I had retrieved Sea Rider Falcon from his quarters to read it. I wanted to read again the parts Bill had read me. His soothing voice rang in my ears, while I was reading the familiar chapters. After all, he did not want to finish it. I would have to do that for him. I would have to finish the story. My story would finish just as well. I had taken anti-emetics to prevent the nausea and closed my eyes to rest somewhat as the fatigue was overwhelming my body. I was back in the Opera house, running and running out of breath along the balustrade, going down the stairs as I was hearing singing… a male voice singing a lonely song… I woke up startled as I saw the doors of the theatre close behind Hera. Gaeta was singing. His low voice was what I heard. Could I not even close my eyes without this dream, this vision, coming to haunt me? Unable to erase the visions from my mind, I refocused on reading the book. This had to stop. I could not understand it. I needed to know what it meant."

"I was not pleased to see Lee Adama coming to talk with me, as Cottle was changing the IV bag to a bag of saline to rehydrate me. Could I not get some peace? He was, however, in a better mood than in the morning. Gaeta was still singing his melancholic beautiful song; it was making me deeply sad. We commented on how moving his singing was, sharing a more peaceful moment than earlier. Did Lee come to make amends? How did he even find me? I had no energy, but when he mentioned that Tory told him I could help but say 'needs to be horsewhipped'. He came down to sickbay to warn me, that the quorum was considering a vote of no confidence to me. To remove me from power. Thinking that I was incompetent to govern, really hating the possibility of an alliance with cylons. Another betrayal. After Tory, now the quorum. Rather than anger, it brought sadness. They did not understand. I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh, holding back the tears threatening to fall. Not in front of Lee. One just escaped the corner of my eye, I did not even bother to wipe it off.

'I won't compromise the success of this operation or the safety of this fleet to indulge in the neediness of twelve perpetually unhappy representatives' I said. The quorum members have been consistently doubting my decisions. I felt I had to explain myself over and over again. They just could not trust me and were listening to Zarek or others who instilled doubt in their minds. Didn't they know by now that I wanted only the safety of the fleet? It is not as if I put myself first, I was even working while being treated for cancer. 'I can't' I added shaking my head. Lee looked a bit embarrassed maybe or certainly reflective. He started to explain how he was with the representatives when we had the emergency jump yesterday, when the basestar jumped among the fleet ahead of the Demetrius. He described their feelings, how they had moved beyond fear, into the emptiness of hopelessness. They did not know everything I did. They were for the most part left in the dark of our decisions and operations. Maybe not knowing was the worst possible state to leave them. No hope. No control. No strategy to discuss. Maybe they simply were trying to recover some kind of control over a situation that seemed hopeless.

'It was the only way that they could cope with the uncertainty, to presume the worst', Lee added.

'You felt their suffering' I replied understanding his emotion, 'now try holding their lives in balance… every day'. Nobody was asking how it was to lead… To make the decisions, which could back fire and ultimately destroy us. Nobody was wondering how it felt to hold in my hand what was left from humanity and be responsible for their survival. To never stop, ever, and continuing to have to make the decisions that could be potentially destroying lives or just saving them. I never felt as if I made any decision lightly. And then I had to continue and not make any mistakes, despite the illness, the tiredness and the bouts of nausea. It was relentless. Since those first few days, when I slipped in my suit pocket a little paper with the name 'Olympic Carrier' written on it, I never forgot my responsibilities. There were lives at stake, the future of humanity. I questioned each one of my decisions, sometimes losing sleep over them. Every single number on my white board represented a life, which I was responsible for. The only reason I attempted to steal an election, was to prevent Baltar from destroying us. He nearly managed to do so on New Caprica. We lost so many then. I was never power-hungry. All I wanted was to keep our people safe. Would Lee ever recognize and feel the burden of leadership? The price to pay to lead; never any time off, the weight of responsibility to carry each day, the absence of privacy, the complete dedication that removed me from any human endeavor, just to be simple woman… things I was not allowed… to live. I felt bitter at the lack of the quorum's understanding. Sacrificing my life was not enough of a commitment for them, I suppose. As I was approaching my death, I was starting to realize how little time I had left, not time to lead, but time to live. To live as a woman… Would I die a bitter woman? A woman angry, her life stolen first by duty, then by cancer? We had fought the cylons for weeks, months, years, of course, and, suddenly, I wanted the representatives to accept an alliance with some of them. Suddenly they had to follow me with blind faith. By switching his perspective, Lee allowed me also to see the situation from their point of view. He convinced me to change their opinion by simply presenting the facts, by allowing the cylon number six who claimed to be on our side, to explain why they were rebelling against the other cylons. He wanted me to let them in. As soon as I heard him, I knew he was right. They were scared. They needed to face the reality, to face the facts. They did not need to hear about five cylons left in the fleet, but just to see why we decided to ally with those cylons rebels. By the time we finished our conversation, I had made up my mind to address the quorum personally on this matter. I sent Lee to let the quorum know that I would speak to them later today. I knew I was very sick from the Doloxan and I barely had any energy left when I left sickbay, but it was more important to address the quorum immediately. I returned to Colonial one, and changed clothes to be 'more presidential'. Then I made my way to the extraordinary session of the quorum, that I had convened so late in the day. Bill was there, as officers brought the number six cylon from the Galactica. Lee had taken his place as the Caprican representative. Zarek was standing behind me. I was weak and hated it. I hated putting out the display of my illness for all to see. Feeling the nausea and dizziness, I had to grab the large table to prevent myself from falling.

'I did not come here to beg, or plead, or apologize, or to keep my job. You know me better than that, And I did not come here to create sympathy by parading my illness in front of you. On the contrary there are some that probably believe, that along with my cancer and drugs, I have inoculated myself against compassion. That is a joke.' I wanted them to know that I knew very well what was said behind my back. The rumors of my hunger for power, of my toughness, of my so-called inhumanity, that my cancer had made me bitter and angry. Rumors that I slept with Bill to gain power over the military, much of them, which originated with Zarek. All of these rumors were circulating and I wanted to make everyone aware that I knew about them and that they just represented delusions based on no reality. Several representatives looked down in shame. It was time to introduce them to what we had been dealing in the past few days. Time for them to become adults, with the responsibility we had to take regarding this rebellion of cylons. 'I'm here because I want to tell you face to face that believe in this mission and what it means for our future. I am here to profess my trust in our new allies. I'm here to ask you to listen. I'm here to ask you for your support.'

I stood very straight and tall, on top of my authority when I gave the order to bring the cylon in. She had not been briefed. We knew she would not mention the five cylons in the fleet, but try to make a case for us to support their group of dissenting cylons. I did not realize however she would get philosophical, talking about the meaning of death, explaining that their group, having broken from the mainstream cylons and away from any resurrection ship, had come to realize that death changed the meaning of their lives. That it made it more worthy. Death… I was dying and I would have given anything to continue being the leader of this fleet, but with the treatments making me so sick day after day, I could see clearly how I would not be able to continue to lead. I would soon have to stop working, I would soon die. It was only a matter of time. I almost snorted at the number six glorifying death, as the great revelator of the meaning of life. Death was certainly a lot less romantic to me, who was living the pain of dying each day of my life, feeling my body disintegrating due to, ironically, the cancer treatment. I was not ready to die and the only meaning of my life was to lead this fleet to safety, to a home, to Earth. 'Mortality, she said, is the one thing that makes you whole.' She talked about their destiny and their future and how this was meant to be. I felt her look on me, as I was struggling to keep straight and not collapse. And then it was over. There were more discussions among the representatives after she left. I was in no condition to stay in the room and I returned to Galactica's sickbay, where Dr. Cottle immediately saw me and gave me medication to lower the fever I had started to develop in the evening. I was shaking. I had a small infection which was a direct result of my immune system depressed with the Doloxan. Gaeta was still singing. He was singing to evade the pain of his amputation. He was singing his hopelessness. I went to sleep right away as soon as I reached my quarters. I don't know if it was a result of the medication I was given, but I had another series of dreams, chasing Hera in the corridors of the Opera house, Athena was running for her too and Hera went in the arms of Caprica Six who was accompanied by Baltar. Baltar! I woke up drenched in sweat, panting, sure that I had been screaming, certain we had lost Hera forever. I knew that somewhere on this ship, Athena and Caprica Six had been experiencing the same dream. It took forever to fall back asleep again."

"I was back in sickbay the next morning, receiving another treatment, reading the familiar pages of Searider Falcon. Kara Thrace came to visit me. I had not seen her alone since the incident when she asked me to shoot her. I had not talked to her directly since she came back with the Demetrius. I was still not completely convinced that she wasn't a cylon. Something was not quite right about her. Maybe she was something else entirely. I just knew she was different than she had been. I felt it. Half a joke, half the truth, I teased her about being a cylon, but I nevertheless let her come close to me and talk. 'Dangle yet another way to Earth, throw in the hub, the final Five and, the real kicker, put the final Five on the fleet. Even I couldn't pass this one up.' I was speaking the truth of my feelings but still there was a bit of irony in my tone. It was too good of a plan to be just made by the cylons. They would have known we would see right through it. No, it was something else. Something different entirely. Something that I needed to understand.

She looked at me and answered 'You are having those visions, aren't you?' I shook my head unwilling to answer her, wondering if she had come there fishing for information. And then she said it, clearly.

She said: 'Thus shall it come to pass. The Dying Leader shall know the truth of the Opera house.'

It felt as if she punched me. One single word 'Opera house' and I knew she knew. My reaction, spontaneous, validated her statement even more.

'What did you say?' I asked, barely able to talk. How could she know what was in my dream? I had not told anyone. Well, Sharon and Caprica knew, but they unlikely told Kara. How did she know? She repeated her sentence.

'The Opera house' I questioned… and she repeated the sentence. 'Where… Where did you hear that? Who told you that?'

'The hybrid from the baseship before they unplugged it' she replied without hesitation. I knew she was not lying. Hybrids were beings who controlled the cylon baseship with their consciousness, part cylon, part computer, where they also part human? Why were they called hybrids?

'The hybrid' I replied. I was in shock, 'how does the hybrid know what's in my dream?' I whispered.

'I wish I knew' Kara replied.

I opened up to her: 'This has got to stop… these visions… I've got find out about these visions… I've got to know'. My mind was in turmoil, the hybrid, Kara, the basestar, Sharon and Caprica Six. What did it mean? How was I in the middle of some vision involving cylon… and Baltar? What was the link? Maybe the hybrid knew. Maybe it would talk to me.

'Will you help me?' I asked Kara. She answered yes, and immediately I started to think of a plan. I needed Captain Agathon, the husband of Sharon. They would help us, because they knew about the dream, they knew about Hera. I needed to go on the baseship and interrogate the hybrid. I decided not to talk to Bill. He would dissuade me to go there. I needed to find out and understand these visions, which were invading every minute of my sleep. I asked Dr. Cottle to remove the IV as soon as I was done and I went to hangar bay, as planned with Kara and Helo, to board a raptor to the baseship, still holding the book, Searider Falcon, in my hands. Agathon, on my orders, had brought Baltar to meet me in the raptor. Baltar was in the dream. Baltar had to know. I told Baltar that I was sharing vision with Sharon and the Six. He was not surprised. I told him about the hybrid and told him that we were going to talk with the hybrid. He did not seem to understand why, until I told him that he was in my vision. I did not let him have a choice. But I believe he was intrigued as well. I believe he wanted to know how he was involved in those vision, the same ones Caprica Six was having. We took off and arrived on the baseship where cylons welcomed us. I was surprised not to see the six model who spoke to us, which they called Nathalie. They said she was on her way to the Galactica. A lot of our marines were on board of the baseship and a Leoben, and a number nine model escorted us to the hybrid. I had not visited a baseship before. It felt strangely foreign, totally computerized and yet somehow alive. We passed displays of fluorescent purple lights with digital coding. The wall emanated a strange warmth, as if we were inside the bowels of a giant body. It was unsettling. We arrived in the room with the hybrid, glowing red lights. The hybrid had a female body, bathing inside the thick liquid in one of those regenerating tubs, which maintained the cylons bodies alive. It was connected to the computer of the baseship. This one was unconscious, because it was disconnected from the computer. The hybrids, I was told, talked gibberish, part computer code parts words without meaning. But the cylon Leoben had said they were a higher form of consciousness. I ordered the cylons to plug it in and thus give it back its consciousness. Baltar, of course, had to predict some religious bullshit. I was determined to get some answers from the hybrid."

"I had of course no idea what was happening on the Galactica; I would find out later. As I write these lines, these events are now past. I wrote bits of my experience on the baseship on notes of paper that I hid in my pants pockets as not to forget. And now back in my quarters, on Galactica, I can reflect and write what happened when I was on the baseship and what happened in my absence.

When we plugged the hybrid, it immediately initiated a jump. In a panic! And suddenly we were very far away from the Galactica, lost in the universe."