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Chapter 18: The Plan


fifteen minutes before execution.

Athena carefully adjusted the jacket and camisole she'd been given to blend in with her people. It worked well for her walk through the market. People spat at her and glared, unaware that an ally walked among them. The Cylons, likewise, didn't suspect a thing. In fact, perhaps due to her pilot's walk, they had called out to her in greeting as Boomer.

The codes, she reminded herself. Stop thinking and find the codes to release the ships. The Chief and the Resistance were counting on her. She looked to the sky, knowing Galactica and Pegasus would soon be there.

Five minutes to execution

It was easy to sneak in, which initially worried her. She moved along the corridors, found her mission objective, and snuck out, watching the shadows of humanoid Cylons marching around the front of the building, which also blocked the way to the cells. She cursed. Of course, they were guarding the Old Man. And there was no way for her to get him herself. She had to get back to the Resistance. Only the arrival of the military could be distraction enough to save him.

"CENTURIONS!" she jumped, thinking she been found, so she ran for it. Athena burst out the doors, almost breathless. Her hand fished into the pocket of her slacks for the key codes. Their reassuring presence calmed her heart rate. Taking a deep breath, Athena took off in the opposite direction she came in.

She'd just come around the right side of the building when a door slammed open. Her hand flew to her waist before she remembered she had no sidearm lashed to her side. Damnit.

She watched for a moment, ready to run again, when the Old Man himself stumbled forward, supported by one of her sisters and Ellen Tigh.

"Admiral?!"

The Eight looked at her and suddenly she knew. Boomer.

When asked later what happened, Athena found she couldn't quite remember. Quickly, it seemed, Ellen was down and she was suddenly supporting half the Admiral's weight. The choice was made for her, even though she'd later recall there really was no other choice to make. The only thing that stood out to her was the crunch of leaves under her feet and the rasping breathing of the Admiral and Boomer.

Two minutes to execution

Bill knew he was growing delirious from both the fact that his last meal had been the one Boomer had brought him and the sudden burst of exercise. But if he could still think he was delirious, he also knew he still had some sense left in him.

He wished he had the breath to laugh as he and the two Cylon women hurried to the edge of the tent city. The surrealness of the situation was probably why he felt so out of his body. Athena, his pilot he'd learned to respect on one side and Boomer, daughter of his heart and almost his killer. His savior now.

A raptor came into view, and a jerking motion told him Boomer had stopped. She looked around him at Athena.

"Take him on your own now. Switch jackets. I'll make them think you got in there with....that you got in there and saved him. I can't go back to the Fleet, not yet, maybe not ever."

Bill felt Athena nod as she eased him to the ground. She and Boomer switched jackets.

"Sir..," he looked up into Boomer's face. She looked terribly young and vulnerable in the girlish clothing she wore. The scar on his chest pulsed briefly with pain, but he suppressed it. That she'd turned back to his side was proof that Cavil had to twist and break her after she was switched on.

For a moment they looked at one another. Then Boomer knelt down in front of him and threw her arms around his neck. Instinctively he reached out and held her to him, just as he'd done for Lee and Zak and even Kara a few times. A part of him was repulsed, mired deep in the shooting's ghost, but he felt it flicker and die.

"I'm sorry," she whispered," I tried to stop it, to kill myself, when I began to know."

He said nothing in return, merely reached up to run a hand over her hair, father's instincts proving stronger than the memory of being shot once again.

"Go," Boomer said, pulling back with bright eyes," I'll try to get Ellen."

"Thank you," Athena said. Boomer nodded and ran back towards detention center.

Bill struggled to his feet. Athena tugged at his arm while he watched her copy's retreating form and they began towards the raptor. A sudden boom almost knocked them over, but they managed to stay standing. Looking up, he saw Galactica falling through the atmosphere. Saul. Saul had come to save them all. He smiled weakly, then faltered. If Boomer didn't get to Ellen in time.

"Can you make it on your own from here, sir? I've got to get to the others with the keys."

He nodded and they parted ways, she off towards wherever she'd landed and he towards the raptor and the crowd of people running in all directions. He was panting, the long captivity making his body weaker than it had been, even cooped up in his and Laura's tent.

Almost as if his thoughts had summoned her, he caught a flash of auburn hair. His wife. His wife was there, running towards the raptor. His heart felt fit to burst. Laura was alive.

"LAURA!"

"Bill? Bill?!" she saw him then and he accepted her deep kiss and returned it with the passion of a zealot before he noticed the body in Chief's arms. It was Ellen. His heart constricted for the grief that would soon be Saul's. Boomer had been too late, then.

He blocked it from his mind. Someone needed to fly the damn ship, or the warmth of his wife at his side would soon be for naught. Jumping into the seat, he ordered Martha "Doctor" Moore to start up the ECO's systems and with a blast, they were in the air. New Caprica faded below as stars came out in a blanket of silky black. Home was calling.