With the Weapons of a Woman
by Soledad
For disclaimer, rating, etc. see the Introduction.
Author's notes: As already mentioned, I work with the original concept of Boxey not being Serina's natural son. And remember that Patroclus is actually Dr. Paye from the pilot.
Corporal Kreon is the character named Komma in the series. I found the name very stupid and rechristened him. The idea of Taurean troikas was originally conceived by fellow BSG writer Karen, although never really used for any of her stories.
Chapter 05 – The Galactica
The dispatch came from the Galactica on the next day indeed, and Chella guided Serina and Boxey to the shuttle bay personally, glad to have two people less to care for. The shuttle pilot, a dark-skinned Libran woman by the name of Dietra, was a survivor of the Atlantia: tough, funny and not the least frightened by their current, dire situation. She and Serina hit off at once, and even Boxey seemed to take to her at first sight.
Her co-pilot was a sweet-faced, blue-eyed girl from Sagittara, with long, shiny hair in the colour of ripe wheat that reached down to her waist. She was called Brie (although that could impossibly be her true name), and the two of them appeared to be supremely content with their status.
"Granted, we're not considered to be equals with the Viper pilots, but it's flying nonetheless," Dietra explained. "Besides, without us traffic between the ships would be nigh impossible. One can't ferry people – or wares, for that matter, although those have become something of a rarity in these days – from one ship to another in the cockpit of a Viper."
"Of course, the fact that the Commander's daughter is a shuttle pilot herself helped raising our reputation," Brie added, laughing."
"Lieutenant Athena?" Serina, who knew everything that had been accessible for the press about the Adamans, asked in surprise. "I thought she was a bridge officer."
"Well, she is," Dietra agreed. "In fact, she's the right hand of Lieutenant Omega, who's Colonel Tigh's chief aide. But she's also an experienced shuttle pilot who regularly flies her father wherever the Commander is needed. There are so very few of us left," she added, suddenly deadly serious, "most of us must pull two jobs. There are no passengers aboard a Battlestar."
The casual remark gave Serina an unexpected cause to worry. She might have been allowed to relocate to the Galactica for Boxey's sake, but that didn't mean that she'd be able to stay there after Boxey had been brought back to his former strength. To be able to stay aboard the Battlestar, she needed to contribute – and she was willing to do so, within reasonable limits.
The problem was though – she didn't really have any useful skills that would buy her a permanent place on the Galactica. She was a well-trained newswoman, sure, but as such, she could only hope for a status aboard the Com-Tel Ship – if she ever found a way to win Sire Anton's favour, which was doubtful. She might be a celebrity, but a rather low-key one. Neither her origins, nor her former career would have been enough to impress the old man, and Sire Anton – unlike Uri – was not known to fall for a pretty face.
Once she'd been a society girl who'd received a high-end education common among the lesser Caprican nobility. Unfortunately, social graces were of little use on a Battlestar, and without the contacts of her late mother, she couldn't hope to find employment with the new Quorum. Not that she'd really want to. Working as a lowly secretary or something similar for the same people in whose houses she'd been going in and out as a popular party guest would have been deeply humiliating.
Her computer skills were fairly good for a layperson, but she'd no doubt that the military had experts much better trained in that area than she was. Consequently, she couldn't hope to find work in the Digital Archives of the Galactica, either. Besides, they'd probably prefer to have someone they trusted around sensitive information, and a newswoman would be the last person they'd want there.
Her best chance seemed to be to use her considerable social skills and find a patron among the ranking officers of the Battlestar. Clearly, Patroclus was no longer interested in patronizing her; or, to be more accurate, he'd seemed to find Boxey bothersome from the beginning. She couldn't blame him for that; he'd been a bachelor all his life, and children were of no interest for him.
It was a shame, really. The two of them were such a good match, and the informal relationship between them served her purposes well. She wouldn't Seal with Patroclus, even if he'd been willing to do so. Now that she was free again, due to the tragic death of Boreas, she wanted someone solid to Seal with. Someone safe. Preferably a man of good breeding and with enough power and influence to secure her a comfortable life. A man beyond his first youth, who could value her rare beauty and would cherish and protect her as a rare gem.
The fact that the Destruction had wiped out the upper class of Colonial aristocracy actually served her long-time goals quite nicely. No true patrician would ever consider Sealing with a woman born of a messaliance, no matter how skilled or beautiful she might be. Now, however, the second line would rise to power, as soon as the new government was formed. So many noble houses were lost forever that her blood, albeit mixed with that of a commoner, would still be considered good enough.
For starters, though, she'd have to build out her net of contacts carefully, beginning with the highest ranks. That meant the Adamans, who, at the moment, represented the strongest power within the Fleet. Commander Adama was the only member of the old Quorum who'd escaped the Destruction; plus he had the only surviving Battleship at his disposal. Of course, Commander Adama was an old man… too old and probably too suspicious and experienced to fall for her. But there were always his children.
She'd already made a good start with drawing the interest of Apollo – to Boxey, at least, if not for herself… not yet. She'd be able to work along those lines, having already won his sympathy for taking in an orphaned child instead of her own, dead one. The young captain was willing to cover for her, even helped her to get away from the Rising Star that offered no true perspective. She'd have to move slowly and carefully, but the path showed promises.
However, she needed multiple contacts to the de facto ruling family of the Fleet. And Dietra and Brie, who were apparently friends with the Commander's daughter, could help her with that. All she had to do was to befriend them – even though under normal circumstances, back in her old life, she'd never had socialized with women in the military. That was decidedly un-feminine and low-class. But things being what they were, she couldn't afford to be choosy.
"So," she said, taking a deep breath and giving them a conspiratory smile that signalled an acceptance that she didn't really feel, "what are you lady pilots doing when you're not on duty… should such miracles happen at all."
The two burst ought in laughter, although Brie, being a Sagittarian and probably accordingly suppressed in her teenaged years, showed definite signs of embarrassment.
"Same thing the flyboys do," Dietra replied with a decidedly un-ladylike grin. "Drinking, gambling, cruising… only that we chase the pretty boys, while they're always chasing the girls."
"Those interests even meet sometimes," Brie added, blushing a little, "although most Viper pilots prefer civilian women who can't catch them exaggerating when they're boasting about their so-called heroic deeds."
Serina wondered briefly which Viper pilot she might be fancying. She was a pretty little thing, of a doll-faced innocence mature men often found irresistible. Unfortunately, such girls were usually stupid enough to pine away after brash young warriors of their own age and have their little hearts broken by them.
"Never mind her," Dietra said with a knowing look. "She's suffering from the Starbuck effect. We've all gone through that particular phase; it's painful, but it never lasts."
Serina was a little bewildered by that, but she chose not to ask any questions; not yet. Showing too much eagerness to know things often led to the opposite results. They'd tell her everything soon enough. She was a celebrity, after all, even though a minor one, and young girls liked to hang out with celebrities. Her time would come.
When the shuttle docked in the Galactica's landing bay, the two pilots took their leave from Serina and Boxey and went on with their duties. They didn't have to find their way alone, though; right after departing the shuttle, they were greeted by a stocky, round-faced young Taurean warrior with short, springy hair.
"Corporal Kreon," he introduced himself, "from the Central Data Services. Captain Apollo sent me to show you to your assigned quarters, ma'am… and then to Life Station, so that the doctors can check on both you and the boy."
"On me?" Serina asked in surprise. "But I'm completely healthy… and Boxey isn't sick, either, just exhausted and malnourished."
The young warrior shrugged. "Orders, ma'am. All newcomers have to go through a basic health check. We can't afford any pathogens to be introduced to the troops. We're the only defence the Fleet still has."
That certainly made sense, even though the last thing Serina wanted right now was to run into Patroclus by accident. But there was no way to avoid that odd chance, and so she followed the corporal down one of the long, identical iron-grey corridors that, as the man explained, used to be the wing where unmarried flag officers once lived.
Right now, the only flag lieutenant still alive was Bridge Officer Omega, and as the Colonel's chief aide, he was entitled to have better quarters anyway, the corporal added, so the single rooms in this corridor had been vacated for passengers, as long as they remained on the Battlestar.
"Most warriors live in the barracks anyway, as we're under constant alert," he said. "Only those few with families have quarters of their own."
"And where are you living?" Serina asked. It never harmed to show some interest for the little man; they found it flattering, and she might need a favour from someone who worked at Central Data Services one day.
The corporal grinned. "Actually, I live on the Alcestys with my two wives. I'm only aboard the Galactica during my duty shifts… not that those weren't long enough."
For a moment, Serina was a bit shocked; then she remembered that the man was a Taurus. He seemed awfully young to have two spouses already, but again, as a rule Taureans married as soon as they reached legal maturity and usually lived together before that already.
Speaking of which, the man's name reminded her of something – or rather someone – else.
"Forgive me," she said, "but are you not, by accident, the son of a man named Bengun?"
The young man stared at her in shock.
"You know my father?" he asked, desperately eager to learn something about the fate of his family. "Do you know what happened to him?"
Serina shook her head apologetically. "I don't, I'm truly sorry. We spent a few sectares in the same emergency shelter, right after the bombing of Caprica, but got separated during the evacuation. I never learned what happened to him… or to his spouses."
"So my mothers were with him as well?" despite the lack of actual good news, Corporal Kreon seemed to perk up with new hope. "Then I'm sure they've managed somehow. Together, the three of them are practically invincible. Thank you, Siress Serina, for bringing me word about them."
"Careful with the titles, Corporal," Serina warned him, smiling. "I'm just a commoner, like you."
The round visage of the young man widened even more in a slow, sly grin.
"Somehow, I have difficulties to believe that," he said, "but thank you nonetheless. Now I know that I can at least start looking for my family. Should you ever need any help from me, don't hesitate to ask."
"I won't," Serina replied, and she meant it. She was a woman who always collected her debts.
They reached the quarters assigned to Serina and Boxey, and Kreon showed them how to key in the opening code.
"The empty quarters always run with standard codes," he explained, "but now that you've been officially registered as the inhabitant, you can change the code for whatever you want. These quarters are fairly small, but considering how crowded all ships are, I'm afraid they'll have to do."
"I'm sure they'll do just fine," Serina smiled at him in the manner of a benevolent aristocrat. "Thank you, Corporal, for your help."
"My pleasure, ma'am," Corporal Kreon recognized the dismissal and left them alone.
Taking a deep breath, Serina entered their new home. As Kreon had said, it wasn't much – but at least it was hers, on her own right… courtesy of Captain Apollo. It had a desk, a military issue locker, made of the same grey metal as apparently everything else on board (at least everything else she'd got to see so far), and a bunk bed replacing the regular military cot, with the likely purpose for Boxey sleeping on the upped bed. Two slide doors led to a tiny kitchenette and to a turbowash cabin, respectively, the latter containing a turboflush unit and a sonic shower – and that was it.
Not much indeed, compared even with the modest comfort of Patroclus' quarters aboard the Rising Star, but it would have to do – for now. Enough for a beginning. Everything else would require careful planning on her side.
At least the computer unit on her desk was a top-of-the-art military model; something a junior officer serving aboard a Battlestar would need to perform his or her duties properly. The blinking symbols on screen signalled several messages waiting for her, so she put Boxey to bed and sat down to check them.
One was, predictably enough, from Captain Apollo, welcoming her on board. One a note from the quartermaster, telling her where she can receive her food chips; apparently, food was sternly rationed aboard the Galactica, which impressed her very much. Sire Uri and his so-called friends could have learned from the military about priorities. The military clearly wasn't using their status to gain personal favours.
A third message was from Life Station, reminding her that she had to appear, together with Boxey, for the standard physical examination, mandatory for everyone who'd moved aboard the Battlestar. The message was signed by someone called Doctor Salik, presumably the head doctor of the ship, with a short afternote that she could take her time as they would need to treat the sick and the wounded people first.
That was fine with Serina, as she didn't want to run into Patroclus right away. So she went to the quartermaster's office first, where she received the so-called food chips: small, rectangular plastic chips that entitled her and Boxey to three full meals a day. People could take their meals either in the Officers Club or in he Rejuvenation Centre, the man explained, as the same food was being served in both places, exactly as many rations being programmed into the food dispensers as people were on board the ship. The machines kept tab on the people already served, so that cheating wouldn't be possible.
Serina wished there were a system like this aboard the Rising Star.
The only things one could get without food chips were the drinks and sweets in the Officers' Club; however, for those, one had to pay in real Colonial cubits. Not having any currency left, Serina considered herself fortunate when she ran into Lieutenants Dietra and Brie again, who invited her for a drink or two.
"It's a true relief to meet someone a little more…refined," Dietra, who'd studied at the Libran Academy of Fine Arts for a couple of yahrens before giving up the career of a singer for that of a pilot, explained. "Besides, being seen with a celebrity always heightens one's reputation."
And Brie, whose true name was apparently Briavael, nodded in agreement.
Serina accepted the invitation gladly. She wasn't much of a drinker, but a cup of ambrosa, after one hadn't had any for sectares, was a nice thing for a change. Besides, this was the only way for her to gain access to the Officers' Club, which was an important element of her plans for the future. The future, for quite some time, will be shaped by the military. So she needed close ties with the military to actually have a future.
She could practically feel the interested looks of the young pilots on her skin as she followed Dietra and Brie to the "brown" side of the Officers' Club, marked so because of the colour of said pilots' uniforms. There seemed to be a clear division between "brown" and "blue", as bridge officers were apparently called; also a great deal of obvious competition.
Dietra ordered drinks for them all, and for the following centare or so, she and Brie entertained Serina with hilarious stories about their fellow pilots… meaning the Viper pilots, that is, who were all young males, it seemed, and with the exception of a few of them (like that fat pilot accompanying Captain Apollo aboard the Rising Star) quite dashing.
"Captain Apollo and his wingman are the best of all, of course," Dietra explained. "But there's also Lieutenant Boomer…" her eyes became a bit misty, and Serina suppressed a smile. Clearly, Dietra was more than interested in that particular pilot. Remembering the handsome young warrior with the slight Leonid accent, Serina could understand her. She wouldn't go for a simple warrior, but she guessed that he'd be good enough for someone like Dietra.
"Are there no female pilots aboard the Galactica, then?" she asked in surprise. "None at all? As far as I know other Battlestars have trained women to fly Vipers for quite some time. And Commander Caine's daughter even had her own squadron."
"Commander Caine could never deny his little princess anything," a cool, supremely cultured voice said. "Sheba only needed to widen her eyes a little to get whatever she wanted."
Serina glanced up with interest, as such inside information was always precious for a newswoman. She saw a stunningly beautiful young woman in a silver-and-blue bridge uniform, approach their table. The lady officer was slender and strong like steel, her pale face framed by long, wavy mahogany hair that made exotic contrast with her pale blue eyes; a contrast emphasized by high cheekbones and a wide, sensuous mouth. She could have been the centre of every festival, like a queen; yet she was clearly a warrior, with a lieutenant's rank pins on her collar.
"Athena!" Dietra smiled up at her. "Come and sit with us!"
Serina could barely believe her good luck. This was Lieutenant Athena? The sister of Captain Apollo, the apple of their father's eye? The very person she'd hoped to meet and befriend eventually, to open herself a way to the highest circles of what had remained from Caprican society? Truly, this must have been her lucky day!
"I don't want to impose myself upon you," Athena was saying in the meantime. "I see you girls already have company."
"No, no, Lieutenant, do sit with us!" Serina said hurriedly. "We aren't discussing anything you couldn't hear. We haven't known each other long enough for that," she added with a conspiratory wink and a smile.
"Athena," the commander's daughter corrected, smiling back at her, a smile that transferred her stern, patrician face to that of a young girl. "I'm off-duty now," and she sat down with them indeed.
"This is Serina," Dietra introduced her. "We've just met. We brought her over from the Rising Star this morning."
"My pleasure, Serina," Athena nodded. "I've seen you on Transmission. Your report from the destruction of Caprica was… quite dramatic. It must have been terrifying for you."
Serina tried not to be insulted. She knew Athena was just trying to be friendly, but it irked her to no end that the commander's daughter obviously thought all civilians were headless gallidians, unable to face any danger without protection. Still, this was not the time to correct the military's view on things.
"It was… extremely unpleasant," was all she said. "For all of us."
"More so as you had to fear for your child, too!" Brie added, wide-eyed with amazement and compassion. Apparently, she was quite capable of admire civilians if they showed courage. "It's a good thing Captain Apollo found you on the Star and arranged a transfer for you. Imagine living with a small child in one of those terrible barracks on the lower decks!"
"Has he?" Athena took her drink from the waiter and eyed Serina warily over the rim of her cup. "How came that to happen?"
Serina felt her inner alarms go off at once. She understood that she'd have to be very careful with the commander's daughter. Clearly, under that beautiful interior was an equally stunning mind; the inherited intellect of all Adamans.
"He fell in love with my son," she replied with a shrug and a smile. "I asked him to help me with Boxey, who refused to eat, and he… he arranged for him and me to be relocated to the Galactica."
"My brother's always been a little sentimental when it came to children," Athena said, but not unkindly. "I'm glad that you're here, though. We girls on the Galactica need some other company than just our fellow pilots. It can be unnerving sometimes if all you can talk about are Vipers and laser blasters."
"A bit more finesse is always good," Dietra added, grinning. Then she looked at Athena in curiosity. "You seem a little bitter lately, though. What's wrong? Trouble in Elysium?"
Athena sighed. "Sort of. I'm not sure. Well, right after the Destruction… Starbuck asked me to Seal with him."
"And wouldn't the Commander just love that?" Dietra commented cynically. "As much as he likes Starbuck as Apollo's friend, I'm not sure he'd like him as your husband. He's an orphan of unknown origins, after all; not someone the head of a Great House would want to marry into his family."
"You don't really think that would have stopped me, do you?" Athena asked, with a glint of steel in her eyes.
"Certainly not," Dietra grinned. "I know you too well for that. But something has stopped you, hadn't it? There hasn't been a Sealing announced."
"No," Athena agreed tiredly. "I refused to Seal with him… for the time being anyway. I'd just lost Mother and Zack and our home… It was all so fresh in my mind still, I just couldn't think of Sealing right then."
"So you've broken up?" Brie asked, perhaps a bit more hopefully than it would have been appropriate. Serina remembered Dietra's throwaway remark about Brie suffering from "the Starbuck syndrome" and suppressed a smile. Perhaps Brie had a crush on this Starbuck character, too, and was now hoping for a chance?
But Athena shattered her hopes at once. "No, we haven't. We're just going through a… a complicated phase right now. I mean, I'm still grieving… we all are! But sooner or later, we'll get our act together and perhaps even make Father understand that blood isn't as all-important as he likes to believe. Not anymore. Not after the Destruction."
"Well, good luck with that!" Dietra, who was a pure-blooded Libran and thus didn't follow the sometimes narrow-minded Kobolian beliefs, said dryly.
"I wouldn't put my hopes too high if I were you," Serina murmured. "Caprican aristocracy is very settled in their ways… I'm the living proof for that. I've been punished all my life for the fact that my mother made the mistake to Seal with a commoner."
Athena frowned for a moment; then understanding dawned on her flawless face.
"Oh, right," she said. "You're the daughter of Siress Lyra, aren't you?"
It seemed than not even the daughters of the greatest Caprican Houses were completely adverse to gossip; a complication Serina hadn't taken into consideration. She wondered whether Athena knew about her liaison with Patroclus, too. Hopefully, she didn't. That would have been the end of Serina's hopes. Caprican nobles had a highly hypocritical double standard by which they judged men and women and their possible – and acceptable – choices.
"In the eyes of nobility, I've never been more than just the daughter of a commoner," she replied bitterly.
Athena patted her hand in a sudden wave of female solidarity.
"Believe me; they don't even see their own daughters as the equals of their sons," she said darkly. "Seven millennia of progress, and some things don't seem to have changed since the Era of Darkness. But this will end. It has to. There are so very few of us left, we cannot allow the old prejudices to divide us again."
Which all sounded very good in theory, but Serina doubted that theories would help her much, should her past become common knowledge. Still, for the moment, things were developing in a promising direction.
"I hope you are right," was all the answer she gave.
"So do I," Athena replied with disarming honesty that showed that she wasn't as naïve as she might seem; then she looked at her wrist chrono and sighed. "Well, I must go; my break is over, and Colonel Tigh would skin me alive if I came late to work."
"He's just so hard on you because he'll prove that he doesn't treat you differently than he'd treat any other bridge officer," Dietra laughed.
"Not half as hard as Father used to be on Apollo when he was first assigned to the Galactica," Athena grinned. "They're both so afraid of being accused of favouritism that they regularly made our lives to Hades."
"Colonel Tigh is the commander's oldest friend," Brie explained, after Athena had left. "They used to be wingmates, and the Colonel held the Commander's children in his arms on their naming ceremony; including Athena."
"Which, I'm sure, doesn't make Athena's life any easier," Serina commented. "They'll always see her as her father's baby girl. That must be suffocating."
"I'm sure it is sometimes," Dietra agreed, "But Athena can deal with it; she's strong. She knows what she wants and she's ready to fight for it, no matter the costs."
"Do you think she and Starbuck will get Sealed eventually?" Brie asked with barely veiled jealousy in her voice.
Dietra thought about that for a micron; then she shook her head.
"No, I don't think so. As much as I wish happiness for Athena, she could never tame Starbuck enough for that. No-one could."
"But he's proposed," Brie said uncertainly.
"You heard it; it was right after Cimtar," Dietra said. "None of us were thinking clearly at that time. We all tried to hang on to someone – or something – when everything was falling apart around us, just to stay sane. I don't really believe that Starbuck had even thought about what Sealing would mean. He just wanted something safe, an anchor to keep him from drifting away. Athena was right to refuse him. It wouldn't have worked."
"It still can work out," Brie was reluctant to admit it, but honest enough to take that possibility under consideration.
"No," Dietra said. "No, because Starbuck won't ask her again."
"You can't know that!" Brie protested.
"Oh yes, I can," Dietra said grimly. "It's an orphan thing. They don't take rejection kindly." Then she rose. "Unfortunately, we have to go, too. We have another flight in twenty centons, and it would do us no good to make Siress Tinia wait. She's eager to return to the Starry Diadem."
"Sire Geller's ship?" Brie frowned. "But that's a luxury liner, with its own civilian space shuttles. Why couldn't she command one of those?"
"Because that wouldn't make her seem important enough," Dietra replied cynically. "Come on, girl, we must go!"
She paid the waiter, and then both she and Brie left the Officers' Club, followed by a very thoughtful Serina.
She returned to her new quarters, picked up Boxey and took him to the Rejuvenation Centre that apparently also served as the mess hall for passengers and enlisted personnel. They got some primaries from the food dispenser, and Serina only had to remind Boxey of Captain Apollo's warning to make the boy eat them… albeit a little reluctantly.
It seemed that there were other civilians aboard the Battlestar, after all; mostly sick and injured people relocated from other ships, medical personnel, the families of the military who'd managed to get out of their home colonies and were now reunited with their husbands, sons, daughters or wives. Several women instantly took a liking to Boxey and came to their table to talk, and so Serina learned, to her surprise, that some of the Viper maintenance crew was female as well. One of them, a head technician named Jenivere, whom the others simply called Jenny, offered Boxey some sticky sweets called mushies, and the boy perked up at once.
"No more than one piece after a meal," Serine warned the child sternly. "Or else you'll ruin your appetite."
Jenny seemed quite unconcerned about that. "Boys will be boys," she said. "One will always have to force them to eat their primaries, but they'll always be willing to eat as many sweets as they can lay their hands on. Have you registered him with the Child Care Centre?"
Serina looked at the other woman blankly. "The what?"
"We have a school of some sort aboard the Galactica," Jenny explained, "since most parents are either warriors or bridge and maintenance personnel here. Child Care Centre takes the children of single parents for working hours, beyond the educational period. What shift do you work?"
"None yet," Serina admitted glumly. "I've just been relocated from the Rising Star. Unfortunately, I don't think they'd have such a big need for a newswoman here."
"Perhaps not," Jenny agreed, "but I happen to know that they're looking for people to work for Central Data Services. They've lost several people and haven't managed to find the right replacements just yet. As a trained newswoman, you wouldn't have any problems with computers, would you?"
"No, I don't think so," Serina replied. "Do you believe they'd take me? I'm a civilian, after all, and a newswoman at that. There might be sensitive data there…"
"They'll probably have you sign a declaration of secrecy," Jenny shrugged, "but they need people there. And you need a job. So, what harm would come from giving it a try?"
That was certainly very true, and so after they'd returned to their quarters and Boxey went back to bed – the recent days had taken their toll on him – Serina decided to follow the head technician's well-meant (not to mention practical) advice. She logged in to his computer, changed the password and got an appointment from Life Station for her own physical and for a thorough examination of the boy.
Then she spent some time on figuring out Lieutenant Athena's intercom contact number… and those of Dietra and Jenny, too, just in case. One had to maintain one's contacts very carefully. Those women seemed to know their way around the Battlestar; and they approached her on their own. That was always an advantage.
Having saved the contact numbers away, she went on to take a look at the employment status of Central Data Services. As Jenny had said, they'd indeed had several casualties at Cimtar, which meant they had vacancies now. Some of those vacancies still hadn't been filled.
So far, so good. Working with data was something she, as a trained newswoman, was actually qualified to do. Yes, it was dull work, not suited to make her a known face aboard ship, but at least it was work, and it would make her independent to a certain extent. Being employed by Central Data Services would mean that she could stay on board, without needing someone's protection; a protection she could lose at a whim and probably would have to pay for the usual way… something she'd have preferred to avoid, if she could. The parting with Patroclus had been humiliating enough.
She checked out the requirements to get the job and smiled. There was nothing she couldn't have done with her eyes closed and one hand bound behind her back. In truth, she was grossly overqualified for the job, but considering that they needed people with at least some qualification, she had little doubt that they would take her.
She downloaded the application form and filled it out, careful to add all her credentials, but omit the names of her former patrons. One could never know who was deciding about employment, or how the remaining members of the aristocracy stood to each other. And Sire Uri did have her enemies. Especially among the military, as he'd used to be President Adar's right hand in cutting military budget and orchestrating the Renaissance.
She sent the application to the head of Central Data Services. Then she looked up the intercom contact number of Corporal Kreon and sent him a brief request to lay in a good word for her if he could. She hated to ask favours, especially from Taurean simpletons – Kreon seemed to lack the sharp with and personal courage of Bengun completely – but she couldn't be choosy right now. Too much was at risk. She needed this job.
Besides, she owed the parents of the man a great deal. Without Bengun, she couldn't have managed at the shelter. And it wasn't so as if she'd have to socialize with the corporal anyway. Fortunately, he and his wives lived on an agroship. It seemed highly unlikely that she'd ever visit one.
She also filled in a request with the Child Care Centre to have Boxey registered for pre-school education, having the boy listed as her son. Later she'd try to fake the proper birth certificate – or to officially adopt the child, whichever would seem easier to secure her the right to raise him. She very much doubted that even Child Care would give felgercarb about it, as long as they had one less orphan to worry about. Not when the child in question already got accepted by a parent.
She allowed herself an ironic smile. Just a few sectares ago, she'd had the promising outlook to become an extremely successful career woman, unhindered by family obligations and – hopefully – on her way to fame. Now her wildest hope was to become a single parent with a dull job; one allowed to keep her child and her bleak little quarters.
No, it didn't look promising at all. But she'd survived, and she had a child again – and that fact somehow made even a dull life worth living.
~TBC~