BSG: BUMP IN THE NIGHT
DISCLAIMER: Same as always. You guys should know it by heart now.
A/N: AAAaaaaaand back to Starbuck and Apollo. I couldn't resist the cliffie, but what can I say, it's horror. You're supposed to worry. This is the chapter I was really warning you guys about some time ago. This is the big prod to Starbuck's ego. I couldn't resist.
As for my other project, it's not on hiatus, but I'm getting a lot more reviews from this one. (and I think I Mary-Sued the poop out of the other by accident) It's still an ongoing project, but I think I fouled up and the angst is slowing me down a bit.
Chapter 5
Footsteps caught his ear. He didn't realize just how out of it he was until he felt how the sound seemed to pull him from a heavy, muzzy fugue. A barely functioning mind told him that the click of heels meant that his visitor was female. For a moment he hoped Cass had come to check on him but the step was wrong. One foot fell quicker than the other. Whoever she was had a limp. Then everything crashed back.
'The dead..? I thought we got out!' Panic clawed its way into his heart. 'Sheba! Sheba got us out. She doped me...' The fog held him, but his brain was beginning to spin up.
Starbuck was sure he was in some kind of medical bay. The hard flat of the table under his back, ridiculously cold air and the stink of antiseptics all helped prove it. A jagged pain burred through his skull with a slow, plodding pace synched to his heartbeat. He knew better than to open his eyes. He could tell from the glow through his eyelids that the bright lights focused on him would have seared into his brain like a laser. His mouth tasted like window cleaner. On any other day he might have just groaned and chalked this agony up to too much libation, but drinks hadn't ever put him in medbay before.
The limper was almost on top of him. Pain or not, it was time to open his eyes and see who was here...
A shiver arced beneath his skin when his body failed to obey. Reflex should have made him gasp, or say something, or even sit up. None of that happened.
'Oh frak...' Sudden terror should have erupted from his lips. 'Frak. Frak! FRAK!'
When the cool, fingertips made their way across his chest, he thought of the misshapen, loping horrors back on the dead ship. The caress was light, just above the lip of the blanket, tracing the same zone over his ribs twice before moving up towards his throat. Only the softness, the tenderness in the touch put a dent in this new wash of fear. An unexpectedly familiar sob overrode the pulse in his ears. Something wet and warm dripped onto one of his still arms.
"How can you..?" the woman whispered hoarsely. Her fingers brushed his bangs back. "It's not possible. You can't be here. Not now."
'Cass?' It was impossible, but he knew the sound of her voice better than he knew his own heartbeat. 'CASS! It's me! I'm still here! I'm not dead!' He bellowed inside his skull, praying that his lips would let something slip. His screams meant nothing. He remained corpse-silent.
Cass' fingertips slipped along his cold jaw, pushing more clinging haze from his mind. The distant hatch hissed open again and another set of footsteps began to fall. These were heavier. Boots. Warrior's boots. The fingers went away and the limping click of heels went to meet them.
"Hey, pretty girl. Doctor Onias said you'd be here," Athena's voice was soft and a little sad. There was a rustle of cloth. "I wish you wouldn't spend so much time around this... this thing."
'Pretty girl?' Now Starbuck really wished he could open his eyes.
"Part of the job..."
"It's not him, you know." Athena's voice was nearly a whisper. "Starbuck's gone. Boomer saw him burn almost two yarens ago. So did Major Sheba. I saw his telemetry wink out on the monitors..."
"I know, 'Thena, I know," Cass' sob was muffled, "but it looks so much like him."
'I'M NOT DEAD!'
"Baby, it's a 'monculus, or a doppler, or something else that just looks like him..."
"No. No it's not." Cass sniffled and swallowed some of her tears. "I was here with Doctor Onias for the exam. All our tests..."
"Listen to me," there was a faint pause and a tick. "You shouldn't have come down here. Especially not alone. What if this thing has some kind of pull, something we don't understand yet..."
"No," the blonde's breath hitched. "No. 'Thena, listen to me. There's nothing," Cass replied. There was that tick again, cutting her off. "Stop." Her voice didn't sound too sincere. "Listen you. It's not one of Creel's. We're sure. There's no curse-virus, no necrotic venom sacks...
Tick. "Let it be. Please."
'That's not ticking, it's KISSING.' Starbuck would have blinked if he could. 'Those two are kissing.'
"Whatever that is, it's just a... a thing. I don't want you getting torn up again because it looks like him. I don't want you to fall into some kind of trap."
"But it's testing out as human," Cass whispered.
"Pretty-girl..." Athena's voice was too low, too tender for his comfort as she continued. "...You can't let it get into your head. Starbuck is gone. I am here. Now. And I love you. I don't like the way this is dominating your thoughts."
Starbuck tried to force himself up again and failed. 'Frak. Frak. Frak.' His mind gibbered for an instant before trying to come up with something useful. 'Maybe it's some kind of anesthetic... Maybe it works on muscle groups? Toes. They wouldn't have paralyzed my toes, would they?' He concentrated and tried to wiggle his toes. He failed again.
He wasted a truly Herculean effort trying to clear his throat. He was still silently cursing, still silently struggling when a new, rhythmic sound began to intrude. Marching footsteps. Boots again. A new voice joined the conversation. It was male.
"Hey 'Cass I was..." The voice broke off. When it resumed there was a hint of a grin. "Oh. Sorry ladies..."
'Who in Dis is that?' the timbre was familiar, left him with an odd, missing feeling, as if it were someone he hadn't heard in a while. 'Who are you?'
"I didn't mean to interrupt..."
"You didn't," Cass sniffled. It was too easy to picture her wiping her cheeks for the newcomer.
"It's these things," Athena's voice cooled and somehow Starbuck knew she was talking about him. "They're making everyone crazy. Two of them look just like..."
"Apollo and Starbuck, I know. Believe me." The boots drew closer and a grimace filled the unknown's voice. "Boomer won't even come down here. Sheba already hates the cursed things. She says that the one you put in stasis looks just like her old wingman from the Pegasus."
"The one they call Bojay," Cass' voice was still thick with tears, but it was rapidly getting stronger, more controlled. "Didn't he die at Caprica too?"
"No. He lost it on a raid over Gamoray last yaren." The male replied.
"During was the defense of the Delphian Empire, wasn't it? That was when Sheba got her majority," Athena supplied.
"It got her that and a transfer here," the man confirmed. "She didn't want to stay with Commander Cain after she got bumped up. Didn't want anyone to say her promotion was because of her father pulling strings." His voice was drawing nearer.
'He's young,' Starbuck thought. It was pissing him off that he couldn't open his eyes. It pissed him off even more when he got poked in the forehead. Hard. 'Ow. Frak. Cut it out.'
"Weird. It really does look like Starbuck, doesn't it?" There was a draft as he lifted the blanket. "No scars from the pissing match with Ortega, though."
"You might want to be careful, fly-boy," Cass actually chuckled. "It's strapped down, but the paralytic we administered will be wearing off soon. The what-ever-it-is might just bite your trigger finger off."
"Yeah grin, sis." The boots turned. "Hey listen, Serena wanted to ask me if you two wanted to come to dinner tonight..."
'SERENA?'
"...Nothing formal, just family. She thinks we could all stand to be together after all this craziness."
"That would be nice," Cass agreed. "What do you think 'Thena?"
"If you like it, I love it," her voice held an oddly tender note when she spoke to the blonde. "It's a good idea, Zak. We could use something like this. What time should we be there?"
'ZAK?' Starbuck tried like Dis to move, but he stayed still. Frozen.
"She said about nineteen-hundred," Zak replied. There was the faint sound of cloth rustling. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'll be fine," Cass sounded like she was getting hugged.
"Hey, hands off my wife," Athena's tone held a joking scold. "You've got one of your own."
"And she says nineteen hundred, big sis." The young man grinned audibly. "But I know Boxey would love to see you two earlier, so get there when you can, okay?" The boots started to walk away. "And don't bring him any more noisy toys," he continued. "He about drove us crazy with that toy Adder you got him last natal day."
More boots came into the room. Lots more. Starbuck heard the two women shift and mutter, imagining that they were straightening hair and uniforms. When he heard the next voice, he wanted to roll his eyes.
"Lieutenant Zak. Athena. Nurse." He could easily imagine Sheba's terse, official nod. "Are your tests done on the dopplers? The admiral wants the results ASAP and I want to start interrogations."
"Doctor Onias has the actual files," the blonde replied, "but I can give you a quick rundown, if you'd like." There must have been a nod because she continued.
"They're not dopplers. They're also not homunculi, or drones, or clones. Their DNA is perfectly human and..."
"Charybdites, then?" Sheba didn't seem to like those either, whatever they were.
"I couldn't say," Cass replied. "All I can tell you is that their DNA has no breaks from forced growth, no unstable bonds. I can also say that they haven't had any surgeries to change their appearance. Brain scans show no trace of coercive or chemical reprogramming."
"They seemed disoriented when I had to deal with them..."
"We ran the standard battery of tests on them all. Engrams showed that every one of them had low level brain damage to a greater or lesser extent. It was almost like they hadn't taken basic health precautions." Cassiopeia continued. "We did notice that none of them had daggit tags when they were brought in. We didn't know if you'd taken them with the rest of their hardware."
"Could normal radiation and EM affects have erased evidence of mental tampering?"
"Not according to our instruments." A few limping steps took Cass' voice to a computer bank where she pressed some buttons. "Background EM affects different centers of the brain than chemical or electronic training. See here? Nothing unusual in the personality centers, where most reprogramming takes place. And nothing in the hypothalamus, which is where most of the body's involuntary reflexes are stored. Doppler change instinct is there as well. If here were a doppler, there would be an extra lobe to this little cluster, here."
Starbuck's weak shiver had nothing to do with the chill of the metal table he was lying on. 'Holy frak,' he thought nervously, 'what kind of people know about reprogramming brains?'
"I know this is going to sound stupid," Sheba sighed. "You scanned him for tattoos, and removed any subdermal items..?"
"He didn't have anything to transfer a new ego or control his. That's the first thing we checked for when we got his uniform off," Cass replied. "Though, speaking of uniforms..."
"Yes?"
"Why were theirs brown? The Cylons know a Colonial uniform when they see it. They should know that we're not going to let something so obvious slip by, not after all this time."
He could almost hear Sheba shrugging. "I have no idea. It'll be something to ask when we take them away."
"When do you plan to take them for questioning?" Athena asked.
"As soon as we can get the chief surgeon to sign off. I know Doctor Onias doesn't like for us to take his patients away, but there's something really weird going on here." The boots stepped to the bedside and Starbuck felt nails dig into his jaw. "Admiral Agathon wants the doc's reports, then after he's read them, he'll want to talk to their leader. Then he'll decide what to do. What's the condition on the Apollo-thing?"
"I wouldn't suggest taking him first," Cassiopeia replied. "Like all the others, he's got first level exposure trauma, but the degradation in his personality centers is particularly pronounced and will leave him disoriented and prone to emotional outbursts. Healing will be slow. With treatment we could heal him in a couple of days. Without, it could take weeks. It could get physical."
"Let it." Sheba shoved Starbuck's jaw and stepped away.
"Do as you please, but I don't think he'd be a good first subject."
"What about this one?"
"He's in good physical condition and most of his degradation was wider spread, but lesser in effect," Cass replied. "He'd probably respond better than the other."
"How soon can it be ready to go?" Sheba asked.
"Honestly, if you had the signatures, you could have it any time. The anesthetics should be wearing off very soon. In fact, it could be awake right now."
"Really?"
Sheba's purr sent a chill down the young pilot's spine.
BSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSG
He glanced to the two men in muddy-green uniforms who were now escorting him down a half-familiar corridor. The young lieutenant couldn't even tell if their tunics the same cut as the ones back home because they wore some kind of armor over the top. Weirder still, they wore full face helmets even though they were safe inside this ship. He'd never thought about just how intimidating reflective visors could be until now. It made them seem inhuman. Even their weapons were different. The weapons strapped diagonally across their chests were something in between a pistol and the bulky rifles he'd seen on the dead battlestar. Though he'd never seen their kind of rig before, the young lieutenant realized at once just how fast they could be reached.
The prison togs over here were a different color as well. Starbuck hated them. The orange ones from the prison barge back home were loud and obnoxious, but these neon yellow crotch-binders were practically blinding.
"We're here," One of them graveled.
The word stenciled above the blank metal door said 'INTERVIEW 1'.
'At least it doesn't say 'airlock,'' Starbuck thought.
The door opened with a familiar pneumatic hiss and the guards pushed him through. The room was terrifying. There was nothing in it but a spartan armchair and a large mirror.
"Get in the seat, freak," one of the guards commanded in a tinny voice. Both shoved him stumbling forward.
"This seems... ominous." Starbuck murmured.
"Speak when you're spoken to."
The young lieutenant didn't expect the slap to the back of his head. He did expect the shove that put him down in the seat. The guard kicked his feet into position at the chair legs didn't surprise him. The manacles flowing shut around his ankles did.
"Put your hands on the pads." One of the guards commanded.
Somehow Starbuck hadn't noticed them before. Now he saw them clearly; two translucent domes of purple capped the arms of the chair. They made him nervous.
"Do it," the other guard clicked, "or we'll do it for you."
Starbuck's hands went down and, sure enough, metal bands rotated out of the chair and sealed him down. Another slipped around his chest.
The guards gave his bonds a tug. "Good to go." Then they left. The door had barely hissed shut behind them when a new voice filled the air.
"Interrogation of prisoner Laurentia One beginning." The voice was feminine, but cold. "Prisoner, what is your name?"
BSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSG
He didn't hear the hiss of the door, or the boots. Not at first. The only sounds that reached his ears now were the odd, embarrassing sounds of his own sobs. They were thick and heavy, coming from somewhere deep in his chest. Their source was agony. Pain. Loss, oddly fresh for being so old. Captain Apollo hated that he couldn't stop.
The boots clomped in, harsh against the undressed decksole. They stopped near his door and the crystalline whisper of a detention cell opening told him that they'd brought someone new down. Apollo tried to shut himself off, to swallow his pain, but a new burn in his throat formed. Shame. Whoever had come would know he'd been weeping. Colonial Captains weren't supposed to do that.
"We take that one, the female," the guard clicked.
A cell door whispered again and Chira was dragged away. Begging.
Apollo, captain, former leader of Blue Squadron, seized his sorry pillow and wadded it hard against his face, trying to make the tears stop.
"Hey," a voice broke sounded in the block. "Who are you? Bojay? Sabas?"
"No." The newcomer sounded vaguely disoriented. "Dares? It's Starbuck." There was a shift as his friend got up from the prison bed. "Apollo? Apollo, can you hear me?"
"Don't bother." Dares' scoff made him want to die. "Something's bad wrong with him and the guards don't care."
"What do you mean?"
"When we first got here, there was a news broadcast on our screens. Some woman. The Captain went crazy, screaming and smashing things. When they cut the broadcast off, he started crying. Been that way for more than two centares."
"So that's what they meant," Starbuck murmured. Louder he called out, "Apollo, listen to me. You've got some kind of brain damage..."
Apollo felt himself cringe in terror. 'Brain damage? Frak! What's next? Will I die? Can I..?'
"According to what I heard in the medbay, you'll get better," Starbuck continued. "Your emotions are all scrambled. It will pass, buddy."
"So do the rest of us have brain damage?" Dares asked.
"All of us," Starbuck confirmed. "It just seems to hit us in different ways." His friend retuned his attention. "Listen, I've learned some things. Serena really is alive here. So is Zak. The thing is..." there was an ominous pause, "...we're not."
"What do you mean 'we're not'?" Dares demanded. "We're not alive?"
"Calm down, Dares. That's an order." Starbuck bit back.
"Yeah, well frak your order," Dares shouted. "Tell us what's going on!"
There was a long pause. "Who else is in here?" Starbuck asked. "Apollo, Dares, me, I just saw Chira go..."
"I'm here," Sinon answered listlessly. "No one else. Not even Bojay."
"Bojay's in stasis," Starbuck said.
"So what the frak..."
"Dares," Starbuck was almost ready to yell himself, but he didn't. He took a calming breath. "Listen. You guys all know that we're in a different universe. Well over here, Apollo, Bojay and me are all dead." His voice got softer, gentler as he continued. "It wasn't Zak that bought it during the peace Fleet ambush, it was you, Apollo.
"You got off the warning that saved humanity here. President Adar didn't listen to Baltar. They crash launched everything we had as soon as your... as soon as the other Apollo's signal was received.
"And my father?" Apollo's voice was hot in the pillow.
"The Galactica didn't make it. The commander took her back to Caprica, same as before, but it didn't arrive too late," Starbuck said. "It slowed the Cylons just enough. From what I managed to get, Caprica was still bombed, but the losses were less."
"What about Athena and Boomer?"
"They're alive here. And Zak. So is Sheba, obviously. And Cain. Cass... Cass is married to your sister."
That stopped Apollo's tears for a moment. Then they started again. This time, they were happy. 'Athena's alive. Zak is too.'
"Zak married Serena. Boxey's his son here," Starbuck continued. "Boomer is a captain, can you believe it?"
"Sounds like you got more from them than they did from you," Dares grumped. "Or did you? What did you have to give up?"
"My life story," Starbuck retorted.
"Frak you."
"Seriously. They didn't want to know anything about the fleet. They wanted to know about me. Where I was born, who my parents were," Starbuck said. "It was only after I told them I was from Galactica that they told me what had happened to her here."
"Did they believe you?" Sinon asked.
"I don't know. I think so. There are too many differences in our stuff and theirs for this to be just some kind of weird ruse," Starbuck said. "At least I hope so."
"So what now?" Dares asked. "What do we do? More importantly, what are they going to do to us?"
"First thing," Apollo forced his voice to smooth out. "I'm too damaged." Shame began to bite him again. He had to hurry if her were to say this at all. "Starbuck, you're in command. Of all of us."
"Apollo..." The blonde paused. "Whatever you say. You just get better before I mess everything up. Okay?"