After about a half-hour in the Life Station, Kara was quickly realizing that she'd made a promise that she might not be able to keep. Cottle had no idea what was wrong with the little girl – physically she was fine, but felt absolutely miserable. Her brain was much more active than a normal human toddler's but they had no idea if that was normal for Kacey or not. All he could do was try to keep her fever down while he ran some more tests.

"Hey, what's going on?" Helo asked his friend as he came into the room. Kara looked away from her daughter.

"Doc's not sure yet," she replied, her voice almost trembling. Helo was immediately concerned; truth be told, Kacey looked like hell.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Go down to the squad room and tell Hotdog he's in charge for the day. I think Midnight should be available to take my shift."

Helo nodded. "Got it."

"Um…Anders wasn't awake yet this morning when I got Kacey up, and all I was thinking about was getting her to the Doc, so – "

"I'll take care of it. Anything else?"

"Yeah…I need to see your wife."

Sharon arrived in the Life Station a half hour later, having been quickly filled in by Helo when he got back to their quarters. "Kara?" she asked her fellow pilot as she approached. "How is she?"

"About as good as she looks. Cottle's got no idea what's wrong with her. Do you?"

Sharon shook her head. "I'm not a doctor."

"But you're a Cylon…I know that she's different from humans, I just need to know how. Maybe that would give them a better idea of what's wrong."

Sharon nodded. "I can try."

One of the med techs brought over Kacey's latest test results. Most of it meant nothing to her – but the EEG readings gave her pause. "How long have her results been like this?" she asked.

"Since she was brought in."

Sharon turned to Kacey, taking the little girl's hand. "Hey, sweetie, can you look at me? Just focus on my voice, okay? Block out everything else in your mind; can you do that?" Kacey tried to obey. "You feel a little bit better?" She nodded slightly. "Good girl." Sharon turned to the med tech. "Keep talking to her, just give her something to concentrate on."

"What's going on?" Kara asked her.

"We've got a problem."

They very quickly pulled together a meeting in Adama's office with the Admiral, Tigh, and Helo. "There's a connection in every Cylon's mind to the overall data stream that we share," Sharon explained. "It's how we upload on death, and how information is shared quickly and easily. For the most part, I cut off my link when Helo and I were on Caprica – it can be used as a two-way connection and I didn't want to be tracked with it."

"Kacey has a link as well?" Adama asked.

"I wouldn't have thought so. Her body is more organic."

"I asked her once how she knows the things that she knows," Kara added in. "She said that she just did. Was that because of the link?"

"Probably," Sharon replied. "She's so young that she most likely doesn't realize what it is."

"If someone is using this connection to access her instead of the other way around, does that mean they know what she knows?" Tigh asked. "Like where we are?"

"I can't say for sure, but probably," Sharon replied. The Colonel looked to Adama, who nodded. Tigh got up and went to the phone.

"Put the fleet on alert," he told the officer who answered on the other end. "Tell everyone to keep their FTL's spun up."

"We need to cut the link," Adama told her. "The question is, how?"

"I don't think it was meant to be used as a two-direction connection," Sharon replied. "That's why she's getting sick now; her mind and body can't handle it. Giving her something to concentrate on keeps her mind focused on what's going on around her instead of on the data link, but it's just a temporary fix. Unless they disconnect."

"He's not going to give up," Kara cut in, voice low. Everyone turned to look at her. "Hurting her isn't one of his concerns, he just wants us back."

"That's not an option," Adama softly assured her.

"I don't know if Kacey would understand how to sever the link herself," Sharon told them. "I can try, but…" She looked away, deep in thought.

"What?" Helo asked her.

"If it doesn't work, I think I could link to her and do it myself."

When Kara got back to the Life Station with Sharon, Sam was sitting by Kacey's bed, talking to her. The little girl's attention instantly shifted to her mother and Sharon as she saw them come in the room. She reached her arms toward Kara.

"It's okay, I'm back now," she told her, taking Kacey's hand. "Sharon's going to try and make you feel better, okay?"

"Okay."

Sharon took Kara's spot next to Kacey. "Hey, sweetie. I need you to try to do something for me, okay? You're going to have to think about it really, really hard. You think you can do that?" She nodded.

Kara and Sam stepped back, moving just out of earshot. "What is going on?" he asked her. "Helo said before that she was sick, but no one knew much."

"It's Leoben. He's trying to connect to her, probably to find us. Her brain can't handle it."

"He's doing this to her on purpose?"

"Kara!" she heard Sharon call before she could answer. Turning back toward Kacey's bed, she realized that half the medical staff was running over. The little girl's body was trembling violently – she was seizing.

"Kacey? Kacey, can you hear me?" Kara asked her, taking her hand. "It's okay, honey, I'm right here, all right? I'm not going anywhere." Slowly, the tremors faded. "What happened?" Kara asked.

"We were getting close, just…she can't do it herself," Sharon replied.

The overhead speaker started blaring. "Action stations, action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. Action stations, action stations. Prepare for FTL jump."

"They found us," Sam pointed out. The fleet had been ready, though, and all the ships quickly used their FTL engines to get away. Once they got through the jump, they were safe, but that would only be a temporary fixture.

"They're going to find us again," Sharon pointed out to Kara. "If they really want her, they're not going to stop."

She nodded. "What do you need?"

"A data cable. And a knife."

TBC...