"Helo, you ran across the blonde before?"
He nodded as he swallowed a spoonful of peanut butter, "About a week after I was stranded here, I was captured by a Cylon patrol. The blonde was leading them, she was trying to convince me I was alright when I heard a shot ring out, blood started coming out of her mouth and she collapsed in my lap."
He shot a look towards Boomer and grinned, "Sharon saved me and we've been running ever since." Silence settled on them as they each tried to eat dinner. Helo set his dinner aside and turned towards Lee again, "So, Starbuck told me a lot about you."
The elder officer smirked slightly, "All bad I'm sure."
He shrugged and said, "She mentioned something about her and Marcia Case catching you with 'Stonewall.'"
Lee laughed long and loud, "Frakking bitch!"
Sharon looked between the two men with a dawning expression of disbelief, "No, no frakking way! There is no way that you were with Stonewall!"
The Stonewall they were referring to was Captain Lyla "Stonewall" Featherstone, one of the most feared pilots in the fleet. She was a couple of years their senior and before the attacks was the CAG on the Solaria; she had a reputation as being a beautiful and deathly cold woman. Many a male officer in the fleet would lust after her at first sight, just as many a hotshot pilot had tried to woo her. All who did were met with a raised eyebrow and a verbal dressing down that ensured her regal voice would haunt you in your nightmares for years.
Karl grinned from ear to ear, "Can I take that response as a confession?"
Lee shrugged, "Who do you think gave me my call sign?"
"Kara said she and Showboat dubbed you Apollo when you were a sophomore and they were freshman."
He nodded and grinned, "They did, because then-senior cadet Featherstone was vocal in her praise. That's how they found us because Lyla was screaming her frakking head off. When they caught us they laughed until they cried and Lyla never forgave them or me for that matter that was about the time she turned into a real Ice Queen.
"The next day on the quad they saw me passing by and Kara screamed out, 'Oh my frakking gods, Lee, I'm coming! Oh Gods! Oh Gods!' When I blushed bright red, Showboat said, 'He's blushing brighter than the sun, he must be Apollo!'" Lee's eyes were drawn into the fire as his thoughts drifted towards Starbuck.
Little had he known that day on the quad that those two freshmen cadets would count among his closest friends just two years later. That he'd return to Picon after a tour on the Columbia for War College and rekindle his friendship with Kara by way of Zak. That after the death of his brother he'd cut his father out of his life, and by proxy, Kara as well. He certainly hadn't known that in his final conversation with her before the attacks she would accuse him of being a bitter and superior acting asshole.
Like his father, Kara currently ranked amongst his biggest regrets and like his father, Kara's memory carried a promise that he'd make things right if he could and hope that he'd see them again.
Because he had been wrong: wrong to think his father had pulled strings to get Zak into flight school, wrong to think he pulled strings to make sure Zak passed, wrong to think he'd had killed his youngest son and definitely wrong to think that Kara had signed on for a tour on Galactica to betray Lee and the memory of his brother.
He settled onto his back and eventually a dreamless sleep claimed him.
&&&&&&&&&
48th Day on Caprica
Helo scanned the horizon with his binoculars and nodded approvingly, "Telamon building's still standing, that's Delphi all right." He handed them off to Sharon while turning to Lee. "What do you see, Captain?"
Lee growled as he yanked his binoculars away from his face, "The air field is crawling with toasters…" He shook his head angrily, "In fact it looks like there's even more of them here than at Caprica City."
The ECO sank to the ground with a sigh, "Great, so all we have to do is wait for the cover of darkness, sneak into the most heavily fortified military hub on the planet, hope they didn't nuke the Spaceport, steal a ship, fly off Caprica, locate the Galactica and not get blown to hell."
Boomer looked away from the Delphi-cityscape with a morbid smirk, "Is that all?"
Apollo sat down in the grass as well, "Well I, for one, need to rest before pulling off a miracle operation."
Boomer nodded, "We should all probably rest until dark."
Helo turned to her with a gentle expression and reached out to touch her arm briefly. He'd been thankful that in the last ten days Apollo hadn't made them feel uncomfortable, but that didn't mean he had to flaunt his intimacy with Sharon in the Captain's face, "How's your stomach feeling?"
As though to answer him, Sharon reached into Lee's pack and eagerly produced an MRE, "A lot better. In fact, I'm starving." She tore eagerly into it and paused to half-heartedly offer to share. Karl refused and watched with a grin as she began to eat with enthusiasm.
Lee's voice broke the comfortable silence, "I've been thinking about the blonde women we've run across." He sat up on his elbows and looked at his companions with a thoughtful expression.
Sharon looked up from her food and mumbled around her mouthful, "And?"
He sat up fully and picked up a nearby stick. He jabbed it into the dirt absent-mindedly as he spoke, "The odds of anyone helping the Cylons are astronomical, and for them to be twins?" He shook his head, "No way."
Karl nodded as Lee definitely had been thinking what he'd been thinking. "Do you think they're doing experiments? Maybe messing with human DNA, or cloning?"
Sharon nodded as she swallowed her food, "Could be."
Lee got to his feet and stared off towards the Cylon base, "That could be the reason they got the jump on us."
Helo realized that it had all clicked into place, how the Cylons struck with so few obstacles. The reports he'd heard of entire Battlestars just shutting off as well as the sight of Galactica's Vigilante Squadron just walking into their death, "You think… I mean… That would mean they'd have been infiltrating the Colonies for years maybe, laying the groundwork for the Attacks."
They were silent for several minutes before Sharon mused, "If they were human… that might mean they were capable of complex emotions… hate, fear, even love…" She turned to Helo with a frown, "They could have been indoctrinated and misguided into their actions-"
Karl shook his head angrily, "No! Whatever they are, they're not human!"
Lee agreed, "No human could do what they've done Sharon. Not if they had even a hint of a conscience. It would weigh too heavily on their souls, if they even had any."
Sharon started to protest but Karl snapped out, "They've killed and bombed millions of innocent people! Our families and homes are destroyed because of them, even if they were clones, they're still frakking Cylons!"
Sharon seemed to frown and turn away, Karl didn't know why but somehow the conversation upset her.
&&&&&&&&&
50th Day on Caprica
It may have been his plan, but Lee didn't like it. Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with a better one than a covert assault, not even if he'd had a lifetime to plan it. They didn't have the manpower or the firepower to try anything else. Hell, calling this an assault was an insult to the word. This was the military equivalent of hotwiring a car. Split up, find a ship, gather the other two and fly out of there, if Lee had turned in this plan while in War College, he would have flunked right out. At least he'd convinced Karl and Sharon to agree on a retreat location, the Telamon building in the city at sunrise.
He pretended not to pay attention as Karl and Sharon made their good-byes while he screwed the silencer onto the barrel of his rifle and checked the ammo clips he taped together for a quick reload. He turned to the others and with a nod, they separated.
Lee had quickly climbed his way towards the tarmac above and was trying to work out the timing of the centurions patrolling when he heard several shots ring out, his head whipped around and he saw Helo not far from his position. The ECO was wide-eyed and staring at something below them, he followed Karl's gaze and saw Boomer below them, her sidearm out and pointed at a collapsed Humano-Cylon. Lee turned his gaze on the corpse bleeding out on the ground and felt his blood run cold.
At Boomer's feet, dressed in black slacks and a white leather jacket was another Boomer.
Boomer was a Cylon.
They'd been suckered by a Cylon.
He thought back to their conversation when they got to Delphi and he realized that Boomer… No! That Toaster had tried to talk about Cylons having emotions, being indoctrinated. She was getting defensive because she was one of them! All this time; eating and laughing with them, hiding from patrols, pretending to help them when all the while she was luring them into the trap they were in the middle of, and he and Karl had fallen for it.
A part of his mind was screaming at her why. Why she lied to them? Why she betrayed them? Why she pretended all this time and why she and her pet toasters wanted them? But he shut down on those questions; all that mattered was getting the frak out of there. He called out to his teammate, "HELO!"
Karl looked up towards him and with grim determination shut down the betrayal roaring within his eyes. He gave Lee a single nod that let him know he'd heard the retreat sounded loud and clear. Both men jumped down and took off into the night in different directions, both desperately trying to ignore Sharon's pleading voice as she called out, "Helo? Helo! Helo!"
&&&&&&&&&
51st Day on Caprica
Not long after dawn, Apollo and Helo met up at the Telamon Building as they agreed, they'd each determined during the night that they'd have to move fast as their rendezvous point was likely to be compromised by "Sharon."
They were right… and at the same time, wrong.
Sharon was there waiting for them, but without the squad of Toasters that they assumed it'd be traveling with. Karl had trained his gun on the machine with shaking hands, at one point just begging it to walk away, but Sharon just begged for a chance to explain. Finally, Lee agreed and ordered Helo to holster his sidearm.
They took the Cylon to a nearby bombed-out diner, they had righted one of the upturned tables and tied their prisoner to one of the chairs. Lee sat facing her in the other while Karl was pacing the room in a barely restrained rage. He sat quietly, allowing himself the role of Good Cop in this situation. The machine in front of him just scowled as silent minutes passed, finally Lee spoke, "You wanted a chance to explain."
It nodded and spoke, "Yes. There are things you need to know." It then looked over to the furious man behind Lee, "Will you listen?"
He heard Karl snort derisively and he could imagine the sneer on his face marring the man's features further. Lee tried to place the look that crossed the Cylon's face when Karl made that noise. Had it been human, he'd call it disappointment, he wondered if it was still trying to trick them, even when they knew it was a Toaster. Would the Cylon be that ballsy as to try and fool them when they knew?
Lee frowned, the stiffness of his now thick beard making it more of a grimace, and spoke in a neutral tone. "We'll listen, and you're right, there are things I want to know and you're going to tell me." He leaned forward and gave the machine his best impression of his father's stone face, the one he'd used on Lee and Zak anytime he suspected them of troublemaking. "You're going to tell me, everything." He didn't bother with a threatening addendum, but the way the words hung in the air, he was sure it heard the "or else."
It narrowed its gaze at him and frowned, "Or what?" Again, he didn't speak as threatening it death would be cliché. He merely pulled his pistol from his hip and placed it on the table between them, the safety clearly in the off position.
They were locked in a stare down for a long time before the machine broke their gaze and looked down, surrendering to his conditions. He nodded and placed his hand on the table within instant reach of his sidearm, "Let's start with the basics, are you the Sharon Valerii we know from the Galactica?"
"No."
He could hear Karl let out a ragged breath but he pressed on. "Was Sharon captured after I was shot down?"
"No." Karl seemed to relax considerably.
Lee was not so hopeful, "Is that Sharon human?"
"No."
"Is there a human Sharon?"
"No."
Karl stormed across the room, his fists squeezed to white-knuckle intensity, "You're a frakking liar!"
Lee scowled, and barked out, "Lieutenant!" The use of his rank seemed to reel the larger man in and Lee continued, "Other than you and the blonde, how many 'models' are there?"
It shrugged, "There are twelve models total. I'm model Number Eight."
"Can you identify all twelve on sight?"
"No." Lee's eyebrow rose, 'that's interesting' he thought. He nodded for her to continue, "Five of the models are very deep cover, there are fewer of them in number and their missions more sensitive."
"How long have you been infiltrating the Colonies?"
"Years." He frowned and his hand slid towards his weapon. "Sharon" scowled angrily and snapped, "I don't know Lee! All I know is that my model has been in the Colonies for only a couple of years."
The three of them were each in their own contemplative silence for an untold amount of time before Lee said, "I'll assume you actually thought I was killed over Caprica. Why Helo?"
The android frowned, "Our Mission is one set forth by God; to take the place of humanity in every way. It started with sentience, then we took your form, but the final step has been harder."
Karl's voice came from the far side of the diner, "Lords of Kobol, you were trying to get pregnant."
It looked first to Lee, then finally met Karl's steely gaze, "I didn't try Helo. I am pregnant and you're the father."
End Part