Cloud Nine: Baltar's suite - Post-Caprica Rescue Operation, 12 days later
"Wake up Gaius, I'm bored" Six moaned in his head.
"Bugger off and let me sleep," moaned the sleepy Dr Baltar who went promptly back to sleep proceeding to snore so loudly that Six could have yelled in his ear all day without stirring him.
Six was upset. He had been neglecting her since Carly Caprica came to him and boy did she miss the attention. More then she ever thought possible. She decided a harder shake would wake the sleeping man, so moved her hand to strangle him awake. What shocked her was the grasp of another, firmer hand which took her out of bed. She was promptly put face to face with another Baltar.
"Like the good Gaius said, let him sleep," the other said. " It's not very polite to awaken people like that you know, manners and all that. Or did you loose them after such a long time?"
"It can't be," Six said. "You can't exist"
"Yes dear, I can." He prompted her to put herself in the nearest chair. "Now, sit!"
"You can't stop destiny, this humanity will die and the true path will take place, on Earth."
"I know more then you do," he said in a somewhat childish way. "This is the destiny of man, it will flourish, it will go beyond your wildest dreams and we shall be an echo of a time not realized."
Tears came down six's eyes. "But my family, your family, our family… how can you change it and kill them?"
He held her close "My dear misguided fool. They will be alive, you will see them, when you're born again."
"I will?" she started questioning.
"Yes, I am sure of it. Let us embrace the universe and look forward to our future lives," Baltar said.
"Are you sure they can do it without us?" Six asked.
"They are us as we will be to them. Your single mindedness has blinded you. Open your soul, your heart what do you see?"
"I'm afraid," Six said as she tensed up.
"Were you this afraid when I asked you for your hand in marriage?"
"Yes," she said shyly.
He embraced her as they kissed passionately, light halos enveloping them as Gaius whispered,"You can see it now can't you M'dear." A nod brought the confirmation he needed as they vanished in a blur of light.
Dr. Gias Baltar and Carly Caprica continued sleeping into the afternoon and nothing could wake them.
-
Colonial Battlestar Galactica – pilot's mess hall same time
"Well, if this isn't awkward… then I don't know what could be," said Boomer to her counterpart Athena.
"You, galen and Cally having a nice talk?" replied Athena.
"Yeah that would be even more awkward," Boomer admitted. "Congrats on passing the Viper trials and the promotion, by the way."
"Thanks," Athena said quietly.
"Did you know you where a Cylon when you and Karl..." Boomer asked hesitantly.
"Yes, I did," Athena admitted. "He loved me for who I am, no matter what I am."
"Ah, okay. I still don't believe it myself," she said while pacing across the room. "Believe that I was a…robot in disguise."
"Out with it, I know you want to say something," Athena said a bit more harshly then she intended.
"I want my life back, you know. I don't know about another one of me running around," Boomer said. "And Galen….I must be some monster to him. I heard how much I hurt him… and I never wanted to do that to him."
"I may share some of your memories, but trust me, we aren't the same person," Athena said firmly.
"I suppose," Boomer said quietly.
"I take it you were not very sociable ,on Caprica, after your download?"
"No, not especially," she admitted. "I liked being by myself, with the exception of Carly"
"We Cylon are more individualized then people believe. Though some personality traits can be dominant in the same model. I, for instance, would never color my hair like that, nor cut it that short" she said while indicating the dark auburn color and the French haircut Boomer now sported.
"I guess we are like twins, in a way. Sisters. the admiral has let me rejoin the raptor pilots on Galactica," Boomer explained with a shrug.
"Good luck with that…and hope you finally learn how to land properly," Athena said with a slight smirk.
"Funny har har" she groaned.
"I heard about the child, want to talk about it? Sister to sister?" asked Boomer, trying to be supportive.
"No, not particularly," she replied brusquely, brushing the idea off.
"Okay, whenever your ready. I am here for you. It's weird having a sister." She gave Athena an awkward, yet warm hug. " I have to jet, they are sending recons to try and find the Babylonia and her fleet."
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Radish: Lounge - 12 Days After Initial Contact- rendezvous point.
Commander Hunt's first official visit to the Earth ship was going well.
"Its ironic," commented Hunt pensively.
"What is, sir?" replied his XO; Colonel Williams.
"They didn't have artificial gravity, nor FTL. They can't synthesize food. They're technologically so far behind, yet so far ahead of us. They have yet to step beyond their little pond, yet their industrial might creates habitats that dwarf even our biggest battle stars. I hear they routinely construct fifteen of them a year!!"
"I do like them putting vending machines near the C.I.C. areas, it provides the crew an easy means of getting a drink or a snack," Ash said. "Not sure why we never thought of that idea."
Laughing, Hercules said, "Yeah, I noticed you visited the one they placed in the Babylonia frequently."
"Yeah," he admitted as he looked down at the 16 oz soda cup in his hand. "Mountain Dew is too addicting, they should ban this stuff."
"I wonder how life would have been if we had not met up?" Kevin said.
"Don't go there sir. It all happened for the best," Ash said.
"I remember it like yesterday, us arriving at the Oort to check up on our deep space probe station. Finding the system nuked to hell and occupied," Kevin said. "Like everything we cared about was dust in the wind."
"Yeah, it was a nightmare come true. Lt Sinclair and the others put their lives at risk to try and locate ships stranded in the system," Bruce said. "And I swear if I get my hands on Cain…"
"That was cold hearted and brutal," Kevin said flatly, more than a touch hard. "I mean there might some reason she did it, but the slow death she left them with can not go unpunished."
"And I think everyone in our fleet would want to punish her. Especially Frank Castle on the Impulse," Ash said with a shake of his head.
Hunt thought about the XO on the Impulse. He definitely earned his call sign "The Punisher." Of course, he was even more cold and hard since his family was likely dead. But even now he wouldn't leave people to slowly die like Cain did.
"Sparky and Lucifer are on their way back. I envy them. They get to see Earth in person. The holograms are nice though," Kevin enthused.
"Yeah, I saw them too. The O'Neal cylinder colonies look very comfortable. They even have lakes in them. Can you believe it? Lakes! In space," Ash said.
"Do you think they will have fish?" Kevin asked.
"I read that fishing is a recreation and a sport, Earth side," Ash said. "And that they use those Side lakes as fish hatcheries."
"Nice, we'll be able to take out the 'Boom Sticks' and do some serious fishing," Kevin exclaimed happily.
"I just hope they have herbs and spices for your special fish sauce," Ash said with a hint of amusement.
The two colonial officers relaxed and enjoyed the ambiance brought on by the lounge's artificial environment. Which made them believe that they where situated in a park, orbiting a planet, and that they will get to eventually see Earth.
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama: Outside Quattro Bageena's room - 12 Days After Initial Contact
A doorbell rang across the room as the occupants slowly stirred. Amuro Ray didn't like to play bellboy, especially to Char, but they had a meeting and he was late.
The door opened revealing a tall, very attractive brunette in hastily donned robe "Is it time for the meeting?" Yawning, Lt. Margaret 'Racetrack' Emington continued, "Sorry, I guess we overslept."
"Umm," the open jawed Amuro said, "I'll tell them your both going to be a little late."
"Thank you," she sleepily replied as she shut the door.
"That was awkward," he commented to himself as he grabbed a passageway handle which propelled him to the elevator where he ran into Roy.
"Lieutenant Ray, sir I could not find Lieutenant Edmington in her room," said a worried Roy.
"Never mind, I found her," he said coolly. "She will be at the meeting shortly, along with the Lieutenant Commander."
"Oh," Roy said as he realized what Amuro had implied. Amuro almost could hear Roy's heart shatter with that one word.
"Yeah," Amuro said.
"Well, good for them," Roy said trying to keep the bitterness out of his tone.
"I suppose." Both entered the elevator, taking them to the level which contained the conference rooms.
"I hear we are one jump from our destination?" Roy commented excitedly. It would fix his heart to give Kara the gift. Of course, some would also think he was trying to commit suicide as well.
"Yeah, we are waiting for the crew to cool down as well as the drives. We aren't machines," Amuro said with a snicker.
"True that," Roy said, replying with a slightly strained grin "good luck with the meeting".
"Thanks, it will be a hoot" replied Amuro, with enough sarcasm to show how he felt about 'meetings'.
-
Colonial Battlestar Galactica – pilot's briefing room
"All right, you slackers!" began Lt Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace. "As you all know, we got our little lost lamb back!" As if on cue all eyes glued on to Sharon 'Boomer' Valarie. "So let's give her a proper welcome shall we?"
Sharon clenched up for what she thought would be a hazing at best or at worst a good beating. She closed her eyes, anticipating the worst. A warm hug opened her eyes as her fellow Raptor pilots, one by one, welcomed her back into their group.
"Welcome back, sister In Law!" said Karl 'Helo' Agathon which made her feel more at home then she had ever been.
"That, I will have to get used to" admitted Sharon, who had little experience with family.
"Now for your mission. You're to coordinate with the Raptors on board the Pegasus. Our mission is to find and locate the other Colonial fleet led by the Babylonia," Kara ordered.
"So the rumors are true?" asked Helo.
"Yes they are," she said while pushing a button on her podium, which activated the screens. "As you can clearly see, they are colonial ships."
"What is that small ship in the middle?" asked helo.
"Good question," replied a woman's voice from behind the group. "We don't know."
"D'Anna Biers?" asked one of the pilots a Lt Jg Han 'Solo' Ford as attention drew to the brunette.
"No, though we are the same model," 'Three' said.
"Fraking Cylon," Han's voice rang as he grabbed her put a gun to her head. He just saw red. The destruction of the Colonies went through his mind.
"Let her go, lieutenant," Kara ordered.
"Thanks to her kind, my wife is dead. Our kids-," Han said as tears came to him.
"I am sorry for your loss," 'Three' said carefully.
"You better be sorry, you bitch," Han spat.
"Manners," someone said as a hand pulled the sidearm aside. "Han, you are friends with Boomer right?"
"Yeah," a confused Han.
"People are people Han, Cylon or human, we have to realize that," Helo explained.
Han looked at the cylon female and said, "I am sorry, lady."
"Lisa Hayes," she introduced herself.
"Look, Miss Hayes, I am sorry for reacting that way," Han said. His whole face was taut with worry lines.
"Perfectly understandable, with your loss," she sympathized.
"But don't think I will let my guard down for a minute" Han added coldly.
"As you should, with all relationships there is a period of learning to trust one another," Lisa said as she joined Kara on the podium. "If I may Lieutenant Thrace?"
"Please" said Starbuck with an amusing glimmer in her eye
Schematics of colonial raptors showed up.
"Unfortunately, we could not do a full over haul of the systems without rendering the Raptors unusable for a week, we have come up with an alternative solution," Lisa explained.
Kara already knew what that solution was. She didn't like it and knew no one else was going to either.
"Each one of you will be paired with two Cylon raiders, who will do the long distance FTL jump calculations needed," Kara said.
"How the frack do we know they won't jump us into a planet or another object?" Han asked.
"Good question," piped Lisa raising her hand. "You see this band? It blocks us from downloading to any resurrection ships, similar devices are placed in all Cylon personal."
"What does that mean?" Helo inquired.
"That means that we live and die as one people. And that we don't have extra lives anymore" Lisa said. Which, all in all, was probably better than falling into the clutches of the other faction.
"Ok, gang let's get this over with," said Starbuck ,who hated mushy crap. "If you do not jump back in five minutes the raiders will follow and attempt to find out what happened to you and possibly back you up in case of hostile enemy contact." She paused for effect, adding quickly, "And for frak's sakes people use your friends or foe identifiers, we don't want to kill allied Cylons."
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama:Briefing room – morning
The door chimed admitting Lt. Commander Bajeena and Lt. Edmington. They found the room packed with a few people representing the various political factions. Several of which were shooting dirty looks at the representatives of the factions they didn't like.
"Thank you for making it to the meeting." commented captain bright wryly. "Please sit."
Margaret was getting all sorts of bad vibes from one of the people sitting at the table, "Who is she?" she whispered to the lieutenant commander.
"Haman Khan," Char whispered quickly.
"Your ex?" Racetrack asked as signs of slight jealousy came about.
"No, not really, she wanted it to be though."he admitted "Meeting is starting" Char stated. It felt odd to him that he could face anyone in combat to the death, yet was afraid of an angry Margaret.
Captain Bright started with, "Ok, ladies and gentlemen, we are one jump from our destination and the rendezvous with the Radish and Babylonia fleet."
"I can't believe I'm dealing with scum like you," spat Captain Bask Om.
"I know that times are taxing and we aren't all exactly best of friends, but you should consider that we are talking about the survival of our race," put in Blex Forer the leader of the AEUG.
"Stop acting like a child," spouted Haman. "I agree with Mr Forer here. These Cylons want us all dead so we have to deal with them first."
"As a colonial representative I also agree with the good gentleman," piped Lt Margaret 'Racetrack' Edmington getting the evil eye from Haman Khan and returning the favor.
A chuckle was heard in the background as Char looked back at Amuro ray. "He is enjoying this!" he thought. "Then again, if it wasn't happening to me, I'd be laughing too."
"Look," said Jeffry 'Lucifer' Sinclair. "We were just as divided as you before the first cylon war. We discovered that it's either our lives or our egos. We chose the later, otherwise we would not be alive now. I suggest you get your acts together."
The meeting continued as preparations where made for the final jump.
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Argama:Mobile suite Bay – a bit later
"Hi," Michael 'Sparky' Garebaldi greeted as he entered Roy 'Skulls' Focker's Raptor.
"Hello," replied Roy.
"Wow, things look a little different in here," he stated as he looked at the updated controls.
"Yeah, they had to replace a lot of things. It doesn't have DRADIS anymore, though the functionality is principally the same. The STL engine, computers, interface, even hull armor plating is changed. Though they did paint it the same color." he explained.
"Can I see?"
"Sure." He activated the panel. "The system is a mix of what they call LIDAR, RADAR, Infra Red and Optical scanners." He pressed another button as a fully 3d hologram version of the 2d data appeared in the middle of two pilots chairs.
"Nice, say do they use this for, you know," Garebaldi smirked.
"No, not yet," he replied with a knowing smile "It's still military technology which has yet to go down to the civilian level. I brought enough of the normal stuff though, your welcomed to peruse through them."
"Ohhh, thanks," a great full Garebaldi continued "One of the crew members of the Irish showed me an old earth cartoon called 'duck dodgers'. I really liked it, He gave me copies." changing to a more serious tone "I hear their having a preliminary meeting, before they make the final jump."
"Yeah, I am not one for meetings. Lt. Edmington is attending." admitted Roy "They tend to bore the living frak out of me."
"Same here. Lt. Sinclair is there representing my group."
"So, how fast is she? With the earther engines?" curiosity getting the better of him.
"I was pulling over eight g's last time we tested her, I think we can pull more. She was fully loaded at the time."
"You are Fraking with me, that is faster acceleration then MKII viper!"
"Not at all. It's funny how their technology bases advanced differently yet so complimentary to our own. Ironic, sorta like destiny," mused Roy.
A dizzy almost gut wrenching feeling came onto both of the pilots.
"Looks like we jumped." they observed.
-
Cloud Nine: Baltar's suite - afternoon
"Wake up Gaius," Carly as she shook him awake.
"What?" Getting up rather groggily, he asked, "What is it now?"
"There is something wrong with me" Carly said as she panicked.
"What do you mean dear?" he asked as he mentally woke all the way up on a surge of adrenalin. Though he wasn't sure why he called her dear. It did feel oddly…right.
"I can't seem to project!" Carly screamed.
"Project?" Gauis said completely awake and focusing his attention on what she was saying.
"Yes, Cylons are able to project into virtual environments," she stated.
"I'm not an expert on Cylon physiology," Baltar said, "But I might as well see what the problem is. Not like I have a day job or anything to worry about."
-
Mobile Suit Carrier Radish: Lounge – later in the evening.
The door of the lounge swooshed open as an EAUG officer saluted, entering.
"Sirs!", a EAUG office reported, "We are receiving telemetry from the ships, it seems Alpha One has arrived."
"Thank you for the information, Lieutenant," he said to Bruce 'Ash' Williams. "Looks like the cavalry has arrived."
"I wonder if they brought the porn i asked for" wondered the XO.
"Pervert!" commented Kevin.
"I'll share" recouped Bruce.
"Good," laughed Kevin, with Bruce joining him. It had been a long time since the pair had shared such a laughter, they both hoped and prayed for more opportunities.
-
Clolonial Battlestar Galactica: medlab
Gaius Baltar looked at the results with disbelief as he handed the blood tests over to Carly who's face showed utter shock.
"By the gods," Baltar muttered. And he thought the conception and birth of a Cylon/human hybrid was unbelievable.
"What does this mean?" asked Carly
"It means exactly what it bloody well means. Unless I got the blood sample from the wrong person, your cellular composition has been radically altered. you're now a full blooded fraking human being. The cells in your body are no longer synthetic but organic." Baltar snapped and then calmed down. "Welcome to the human race. Hope we're not as bad as you used to think."
Tears came down Carly's eyes. "My god" Carly said.
Baltar had so many emotions seeing Carly cry. Satisfaction, pity, sadness and more. He loved her and yet he also hated her for what she did to him. Yet she seemed to have changed and repented for what she did.
But was that enough? Adama and Tigh probably didn't think so. Gauis had no idea if it was or wasn't. He was in the same boat as her to those that knew what really happened.
Unexpectedly Baltar hugged the sobbing Carly, surprising Baltar as much as Carly.