New Caprica

Kara tried to chew burnt-ground-squirrel-like-creature...they didn't taste very good, but they were relatively easy to catch. The wilderness wasn't all it was cracked up to be. At least on New Caprica it wasn't. There had been a show back on Caprica about groups of people trying to survive in various harsh environments. Kara had watched a couple of episodes; it didn't interest her. Too much petty feuding, not enough action. If she wanted petty feuding, it was easy enough to get, hell, it sometimes felt inevitable. Anyway, she'd discovered that being uninteresting wasn't it's biggest sin: that was how inaccurate it was. Survival was hard. If there were other people with her and they were actively trying to piss her off, she would be forced to shrug it off. Vengeance to be delivered when she could muster up the energy. Admittedly, she also had to stay ahead of murderous robots or she would be killed...she smiled and mentally snapped her fingers(her real fingers were too cold), 'That's what that show was missing!'

Her mood quickly darkened though, and she found herself mentally replaying the conversation that had resulted in her endless trek:

"Kara, we've got some intel and you're not going to like it. The Cylons are looking for you for some reason."

"Who'd you get this from?"

"...Sam. They took him to a basestar the day they came; he was in rough shape. He's been there for days. They just brought him back down, he's at their new medical facility. The one the centurions put up in less than a day. He's now allowed visitors. Registered visitors. He managed to get a message to our people. Apparently its a Two that's after you."

"...Leoben."

"You know what's going on?"

"Hardly ever." The Chief snorted, and shook his head.

"If you stay in town, they'll get to you. It's just a matter of time."

"What are you suggesting?"

And that was when the Chief suggested that she play hide-and-seek with the cylons in the bush for a few months. On this iceball of a planet. That had also been when she found out that her...what did you call someone who continually asked you to marry them despite consistent and occasionally vehement refusal? partner, significant-other maybe? Well, he was alive. She and others had thought he must have been killed by the Cylons for whatever reason. Instead, it was the Cylons who had saved him.

Her shelter for the night was a tarp she'd tied up. There hadn't been time to do anything else, and she didn't have the energy either. It provided no insulation whatsoever. On the bright side, there was a fifty/fifty chance it would stop freezing rain. 'Lords of Kobol it's cold!'. 'Stop complaining.' she chided herself 'if you'd continued walking for just an hour, you could have made it to the cave, but you didn't, so stop it.' The cave was one of her more permanent shelters, and the thought of it now was somewhat agonizing: she could make it decently warm with a small oil heater she kept there. Warm! 'Shut up!'

Kara reached for the memory that kept her warm on nights like this one. She replayed what Lee said over the wireless the day the fleet had jumped away. As always, it filled her with a bright, warming rage.

"Don't worry about me Lee, there's no way I'm going to let some toaster punch my ticket; just make sure you don't either." she whispered to the darkness.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you, you self-righteous prick."

--

"You know how pathetic you are right?...I wouldn't want you to go on thinking that no one sees that you're obviously still pining away for Dee, and that this whole 'become a frakking hero resistance fighter' nonsense is a poorly thought out way of attempting to prove to her that you're the better man."

"My decisions have nothing to do with..."

"Well that's a very good thing," Tigh interrupted him "because it's not going to happen. As we speak She and Apollo have probably just finished a magnificent meal and are enjoying a nightcap as a prelude to a Good. Long. Frak. And you...you'll probably be dead before too long."

Billy woke up. Unfortunately for him, this time he remembered what he had been dreaming. As if life on New Caprica were not hard enough, his unconscious mind decided that he needed to be frakked with while he was resting. He had to give himself some credit though, that was exactly what Tigh would say to him. That is, if he gave a damn(thankfully he didn't). And if he weren't currently a guest of the Cylons.

While making his breakfast,(Cylon pancakes with Cylon syrup and Cylon coffee: this was how Billy though of the products that the Cylons were "bestowing" on the people of New Caprica. He didn't want to forget where it all was coming from; that would be the beginning of the end.)Billy once again put his mind to the task of freeing Tigh. It was intractable though. The Cylons wouldn't even admit that they had him. Ellen Tigh's plan seemed to involve frakking every Cylon she could, in the hopes of finding one who could get him out: it was a better plan than any Billy had come up with.

"Mmmm, Cylon pancakes are crafted with machine precision, with machine love." Billy chuckled to himself. "You can really taste the M-Love!" He had a future in advertising: that was clear.

'Got to drop those supplies for Kara, she must be miserable with this weather.' he thought. 'Well, she isn't the only one.'

Billy looked at his watch.'Well, time and tide wait for no man. There's a school out there that's not going to explode all by itself.'