There'd been a brief recess while Major Adama had dealt with a private matter, but when he'd returned the prosecution had an opportunity for some re-direct examination for Sgt. Mathias before they concluded for the day.
The next morning, they dealt him another strong blow in the form of testimony from the Admiral. Adama testified about the incident with the Number Six Cylon posing as Shelly Godfrey and her attempt to seemingly discredit him in the eyes of the Fleet. How the Cylon had also attempted to ingratiate herself to him, going so far as to attempt to seduce him one evening in his cabin. Baltar had to restrain the flash of jealousy within him at that point.
Adama then brought up a comment from Gaeta that was seemingly harmless at the time, that the photo evidence she'd tried to incriminate him with was doctored in such a fashion that she seemed to have wanted to get caught. Adama even suggested that it may have been intentional on the Cylons' part to further ingratiate Baltar to the people of the Fleet.
Gaeta had objected when Captain Thrace suggested it was because Baltar was known to the Cylons to be a sympathizer but from the look on the three officers' faces and the lazy tone of Tigh's "Sustained" the damage of that suggestion was heavy.
Felix tried to cross-examine his CO admirably, but Baltar could see the elder officer was unfazed by Gaeta's line of questioning and attempt to paint Baltar as being an unwitting pawn in Shelly Godfrey's plan. So unfazed was Adama, that Gaeta's "No further questions" sounded damn near defeated.
Had that not been enough, Thrace followed this hammer blow to his defense with another witness destructive to his case.
Himself.
They put him on the stand and they asked hard questions. First, she cornered him by using his lack of surprise at Godfrey's presence on Galactica to corner him into admitting that a Number Six had worked with him and the late Dr. Amorak. He was able to avoid admitting how closely she worked with him, or that he had an affair with her and he was extremely thankful that they hadn't pushed him into admitting that he was directly responsible for the ease with which the Cylons defeated the Colonies.
The trial would have been over then and there if she'd been able to make that connection, he imagined Major Adama himself would drag him down to the nearest airlock and flush him personally.
Instead, Thrace had moved on to his experience with Gina. The same hard questions began to paint him as being manipulated into helping because of either a fascination with the model or a want to help the Cylons. She left him stuttering after three hours of testimony with a smug, "The prosecution yields the witness to the defense and rests its case."
There was a long silence as Gaeta gathered his thoughts and looked over the notes he'd been almost frantically writing the whole time Gaius had been testifying. Finally he spoke, "Dr. Baltar, Admiral Adama's testimony stated the Number Six known as Shelly Godfrey was engaging in an affair with Dr. Amorak. Were you working closely with her as well?"
Gaius took a deep breath and regained what composure he could, it was then that he felt the phantom touch of Six, she smiled as she crossed the room then perched casually on the desk Gaeta had been sitting at. Her serene expression was almost mocking and it most definitely unnerved him now. Finally she spoke, "I warned you Gaius, the price of failure would be swift and severe, you turned your back on God and cost Him our child, now you're on your own. I'm just here to see you suffer."
He swallowed convulsively and Gaeta's voice captured his attention, "Doctor?"
He shook his head, "Not terribly close with her, she was a-uh… well, that is to say she was posing as a contract employee. Dr. Amorak and I were wary of her to an extent as it seemed she was pumping us for information. I had believed at the time that she was actually seeking information for a rival defense contractor's company in the hopes of outbidding the company he and I worked for."
Felix nodded, "Forgive me for being personal Doctor but were you engaging in relations with her?"
Gaius sighed; he did not want to answer this question judging from the almost hungry look on Captain Thrace's face. This would be damaging, even if Felix could spin it with further questions. Tigh's annoyed voice startled him, "Dr. Baltar, please answer the question."
Finally he nodded, "Yes, yes, I had slept with her a few times. She had a charm, and she appealed to my vanity and sense of self-importance." He looked Six directly in the eye, "She manipulated and lied to me with every breath."
The young officer nodded, "Dr. Baltar, do you think that perhaps, the reason that Gina was able to manipulate you into helping her escape was because of the time you spent with the other Number Six?"
"Yes, I think that was a big part of it."
"Perhaps, she knew of her double's past with you and used that intentionally. Would that sound logical?"
"Yes."
Gaeta nodded then paused and asked, "Dr. Baltar, when you tested the Cylon that had posed as Lt. Valerii, what was her mental state?"
"She-um… She was frazzled, she'd been having nightmares and blackouts- Likely a result of her programming asserting itself- she was worried that she was a Cylon. Word had spread of my experiments so she volunteered as a test subject."
"We established during Dr. Wilker's testimony that she was in the room with you when you received her result. What happened that evening?"
"I was making small talk as the test was being completed, as it happened her view of my monitor was obscured. When the test came up positive, I… Well, I panicked t-to put it quite simply. I knew that she would likely kill me as opposed to me compromising her cover so I covered it up. After that, I was afraid to let word get out that I covered up her results, so I said nothing. That is my biggest regret."
He had to bite his tongue when Six laughed musically, "Oh Gaius, we both know that you only regret getting caught."
Felix nodded, "Very well, Doctor. No further questions. The defense rests."
Gaius' eyes went wide and he looked between Felix and the panel of judges. "Rests? Rests?" He stood out of his chair, "You can't just rest! I'm innocent! I… They're going to put me out an airlock, you can't just REST!"
Tigh scowled, "Take your seat, Doctor! Right now!"
Gaeta took his forearm, "Sit down, Gaius. Please." He allowed himself to be led to his seat when he noticed the marines scowling with their hands on their rifles. He then heard Gaeta's harsh voice in his ear, "I've done the best I can, but I'm not a lawyer and there's not a lot I could do."
Tigh scowled at him a moment longer before he adjourned until the next day for closing statements. Gaius spent the night in his cell alternating between going mad with worry and praying for some sort of miracle.
He fidgeted in his seat next to Felix the next morning, under a rather cold glare from Major Adama. When Tigh entered the room, he noticed that Admiral Adama, Commander Cain followed behind him. Behind them, Billy Kaikeya wheeled a very ill looking President Roslin in.
He knew that they were all here to watch him be sentenced because he seriously doubted that the three officers would take very long debating their sentence. Not long at all.
Tigh took his seat and called them to order then he turned to Captain Thrace, "Your closing statement Captain."
Kara got to her feet and stepped forward, "To put it in the most basic terms possible, Gaius Baltar is a traitor. Before the Attacks, he worked on the Command Navigation Program. His pride was what allowed him to be manipulated by a Cylon spy. It is very likely that the reason the Cylons were so affective in their strikes on our fleet was the CNP.
"He also formed some sort of sympathetic bond with the Number Six model, that sympathy combined with cowardice in the face of a Cylon Sleeper agent allowed him to let the Cylon posing as Lt. Valerii free. She would go on to shoot then Commander Adama. This makes him an accessory to attempted murder, even if he was an unwitting one.
"The question is; does being a sympathizer and a coward, make someone guilty of Treason? No. However, what happened next does. The defendant, during the course of his interrogation of the Cylon prisoner on Pegasus, made a conscious decision to help her escape. In the course of this escape she killed a Marine brutally. Baltar then armed her and led her out of the brig with the clear intention of escaping Pegasus. No one knows what she would have done from there.
"It was happenstance that Major Adama and Colonel Fisk were on their way to release two other prisoners and that Major Adama managed to shoot her but the damage was already done. She shot a command officer of the Colonial Fleet, murdering him. The defense might have you believe that he was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. I argue that Dr. Baltar had made a conscious decision to actively help the Cylons when he withheld Boomer's test results from the Commander and modified the program to hide the test results of any future Cylons for his own devices.
"The Cylon on Pegasus presented him with an ally and an opportunity; the opportunity to bring himself to the attention of the Cylons and he took it. That is the scope of Baltar's crimes; he intended to help the Cylons to their eventual goal of destroying the Human Race. Gaius Baltar is a traitor, and he should be punished for his crimes." Kara turned and took her seat, while the room seemed to be taking in her statement.
Gaius watched Tigh to turn to Gaeta and he signaled for him to speak. Felix rose to his feet and spoke calmly, "Before the Attacks, Gaius Baltar was an arrogant man entirely convinced of his own greatness. That isn't a damning statement, many of us were far different before the Cylons attacked; I was finishing up my tour to prepare to go to grad-school for genetics, the current Commander of the Air Group was on the brink of a dishonorable discharge and the Admiral was preparing his retirement plans and hoped to publish his memoirs.
"The Attacks changed us, forced us into new positions and new challenges. Many of us rose up to the occasion and found out what we were capable of, but some of us gave into our darker natures. Dr. Baltar had been under a tremendous strain since that day. He'd come to realize that a Cylon had used his work to disable the fleet and leave us defenseless, and then he was told to find a way to ferret out Cylon infiltrators. He succeeded but when confronted with the Cylon sleeper agent, he panicked. Like so many people would do in his position.
"Captain Thrace mentioned being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is exactly what happened, he was put in bad situations and he's made mistakes. To conclude, I ask the panel to ask some questions of themselves; 'Is Dr. Baltar a traitor, or did he make a horrible mistake?' The answer is that he's just a man who made a mistake. Also ask yourselves, does that mistake warrant his death, because that is the bottom line. Finding my client guilty means that his mistake warrants his death. Thank you." He returned to his seat.
Tigh stood Major Adama and Captain Kelly did as well, "We stand in recess until this panel has made its decision." The three officers then left the board room and several of the occupants began discussing things quietly.
Gaius continued to stare straight ahead as he felt cold eyes on him from many places around the room. He stared intently at the clock on the wall as it ticked the time away. He could feel Six's eyes on him after five minutes and thirty-three seconds passed, "You are remaining remarkably calm for a man who is about to be flushed out an airlock like garbage."
"Come to torment me one last time?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he found her smiling quite wide, "Yes."
He scowled, seven minutes had now passed. "I have a question. When I die, what will happen to you?"
"I'm touched Gaius, I really am."
"I mean, if you're a delusion, I can figure that out pretty easily, but if you're a chip in my head…"
She shook her head, "Maybe I'm something else. Maybe when you're dead, I'll move on to someone else, and guide them. Perhaps Major Adama? I have to admit that he's very, very attractive. Perhaps I'll sit on Captain Thrace's shoulder and guide her."
He turned to her for just a moment, "So, you're a virus."
She gave a mock pout and said, "What I was Gaius, was your last hope. If you had listened to me about that other Number Six none of this would have happened, and things would not be spinning wildly out of even God's control. That is why I'm here now, to see you punished for ruining God's plan."
The hatch opened and the trio of officers returned, only thirteen minutes had passed. Tigh stepped up, "Gaius Baltar, please rise." He got to his feet and looked the Colonel in the eye, "This tribunal finds you guilty on all counts and sentences you to death by airlock. This is to be carried out immediately. May the Gods have mercy on your soul. This tribunal is now adjourned." With a bang of the gavel his life was over.
He was aware that he was screaming at them, but he had no idea what the words were anymore. All he could feel was the iron grips of the two marines as they began to haul him out of the courtroom. He continued to scream as they hauled him forcefully through the corridors. He vaguely thought he could the words of a priest giving Last Rights.
The marines stopped and he was shoved out of their grip. His back collided with a wall hard and the hatch in front of him slammed shut. He was in an airlock. He turned to see Roslin, Adama and Cain in the control room, "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! I'M INNOCENT! PLEASE!" He was met with silence.
Above the hatch were two lights; one yellow and one red, the yellow was currently on. He looked around for an intercom but found none. His heavy breathing echoed strangely off the walls and only served to increase his panic. "Please, I beg you not to do this!" He saw Adama press a control, the yellow light was extinguished and the red light began flashing. "Please, I'm sorry! DO YOU HEAR ME? I'M SORRY!"
He watched the red light almost willing the yellow light to come back on, finally the red light stopped flashing and turned solid red. He turned begging eyes on Adama and whispered, "Please!"
Suddenly the force of the air rushing out into space carried him out with it and his final thoughts were of Six and how he hoped to see her again in Hell.