A Cylon. Great. This is all we need… Laura massaged her forehead, trying to stave off the headache beginning to grow behind it.
"What does Dee say about this?" Bill was asking Apollo quietly.
Lee looked down. "I uh, haven't said anything to her yet, sir."
"Why not?" His tone was neutral but Laura could hear the message in his voice all the same. If your marital difficulties are interfering with your work…
Apollo still wouldn't meet his father's eyes. "It's probably just our… personal problems, but she really didn't want me going near that panel. And then I wouldn't have seen the log of the transmission if I'd just done the task she set me, but Tory called her down to help with something in the hold so I thought I'd see what else I could fix, and… well. Like I said, she's probably just pissed with me. Sir."
Bill's face was now sporting that closed, unreadable expression he only wore when things were really bad. Laura felt the urge to gulp, and judging from the expression on Lee's face he was feeling the same thing. Several seconds ticked by before the Admiral replied, during which time Laura realized that she had no idea what he was going to say. Would he really accuse his son's wife of being a Cylon?
"Lee," Bill said eventually. "I want you to go around the ship and ask everybody as discreetly as possible where they were during our flight and if they saw anybody near the communications panel. Then you report back to us. As fast as possible, please."
"Yes sir." Lee saluted and made his way down to the hold, obviously glad to be given clear orders.
"Bill…" Laura said. "This is bad."
"That's kind of an understatement, don't you think?" he replied in a low voice.
Laura looked around the cabin. It was empty, but she decided they needed more privacy anyway, and pulled Bill back into the pilot's box room.
"You do realize it's still the case that neither of us knows for sure that the other isn't a Cylon," she said, folding her arms – as best she could, anyway. There was next to no space to stand, but this wasn't the kind of conversation she could have sitting on a bed.
Bill stared at her, and for a moment she thought he was going to take offense. "No," he said eventually. "But I trust you – which may or may not be stupid whether you're a Cylon or not." He allowed her a small smile. "I also trust that if you were one of theirs you'd be too valuable to them for the Cylons to shoot you down like this. The same would, I hope, go for me."
Laura returned his smile and squeezed his arm briefly. "I trust you," she said sincerely. "I also trust Lee," she continued, letting go of him and wishing there was room to pace, "but everybody else must be suspect."
"I agree," Bill said, matching her businesslike tone. "That's six possibilities, including, Gods help me, my daughter-in-law. Hell, there could be more than one of them; there are five still unidentified …"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Laura stopped him, holding up a hand. "I think we should assume there's just one for now."
"You're right." He nodded, and looked her in the eye. "We should also be aware that, if they think they're about to be discovered, they may well try to kill us and probably everybody else onboard."
"Hmm." He was right, Laura knew, and she looked away, thinking. "We can hope that we're far enough away from any resurrection ship that they wouldn't do anything so drastic as to vent the air or blow us all up, but we definitely need to watch our backs."
"I'll watch yours if you watch mine." Bill grinned wryly.
She found herself mirroring his expression, despite the feeling in her stomach of impending doom. "Sounds like a plan."
They stood there then, conversation momentarily exhausted, their smiles rapidly disappearing as the situation began to sink in. Laura sat down on the bed, and Bill joined her.
"So…" she said, feeling slightly drained now that her initial adrenaline-filled reaction had worn off. She turned to face him. "What do we do now?"
"We wait for Lee to come back and tell us what he's found out," Bill said pragmatically.
"And then?"
"I think that all depends on what he says, don't you?"
"Hmm." Laura shook her head, slowly so as not to antagonize her headache. "Only partially. From what we can tell we certainly have a Cylon or a collaborator in our midst. What do we do with them when we find out who it is?"
Bill looked at her, and it took a moment for him to reply. "This ship does have an airlock."
Laura sighed. "Bill… what if it is Dee?"
"It can't be."
"You can't know that."
It was his turn to sigh. "I know."
Laura reached for his hand, squeezed it, smiled sympathetically.
There was a knock at the door.
Bill squeezed back before he let go, getting to his feet and standing alert. Recalling what Bill had said about the Cylon trying to kill them if it were discovered, Laura sat up a little straighter.
"Come in," Bill said.
Apollo opened the door, stepped inside and closed it behind him. There was no room for Laura to stand now even if she'd wanted to; she contented herself with shifting her position so she could see both Adamas better.
"What did you find out, son?" Bill prompted.
Lee cleared his throat. "No one saw anybody actually doing anything to the panel, which makes it impossible to say with any certainty who it was. But all but two people have at least two others confirming that they didn't go near it during the entire flight."
"So who are our suspects?" Laura asked.
Lee looked from Bill to Laura and back again before he spoke. "Dee and Tory, Madam President."
Laura looked across at Bill, and his eyes met hers as an unpleasant twisting feeling made itself known in her gut.
"You're sure?" Bill asked. His eyes took a second to follow the rest of him as he turned to face his son.
Lee nodded once, biting his lip.
"Bill…" Laura said quietly. "We saw them both standing near the panel, remember? When we were talking about food."
"Mmm." Bill nodded as well. "Bu that doesn't tell us which one of them it was."
"Dad, it's not Dee," Lee burst out. "I'm sorry, but it can't be. I know her too well; I would've noticed… something." He looked helplessly at his father.
"I could say the same thing about Tory," Laura stated. She raised her eyebrows. "But we've been taken in by the Cylons before. They're good at this."
"With all due respect, Madam President, Tory's just your aide. Dee is my wife." There was a hint of concealed hysteria in his voice.
"I'm afraid that's not enough for us to take as proof." Bill sighed. "We'll need to confine them somewhere, until we find out which one is guilty."
"How do you propose to do that?" Laura asked, taking care to keep her tone of voice neutral.
"We'll talk to them, and we'll interview the other passengers more thoroughly. Something will come up."
"I hope you're right, Dad." There was something in Lee's eyes which made Laura fearful of what might happen if Bill wasn't right. What would they do if nothing came up?
Bill seemed to be pondering the same thing. "Me too."
There was a silence as they all digested the implications of their situation. Then Bill straightened, put on his 'business' face and said to Lee, "Get Madam Vardon to help you escort Dee to the airlock. I'll get that reporter to help me with Tory."
Lee stared. "The airlock? Dad—"
"I'm not going to vent them into space, son." Bill put a comforting hand on Lee's shoulder. "But it's the safest place to keep them without having to tie them up." He looked at his son, and Lee nodded. "Go," Bill said gently.
Lee saluted and left, leaving Bill standing there with an expression Laura couldn't quite read.
"Bill," she said, "Are you sure locking them in together is the best idea? We have to operate under the assumption that one of them is innocent; someone could get hurt."
Bill nodded, setting his jaw. "Then we'll know who the Cylon is." He sighed, and didn't meet her eyes again as he opened the door and followed his son out.
Leaning back against the wall, Laura sighed herself. Crash-landing was bad enough – hell, being attacked by the Cylons was bad enough – having a Cylon agent onboard as well was something they definitely didn't need. Especially with their current suspect list. She would be heartbroken if Tory was the agent, but she could equally imagine how Bill would feel if it turned out to be Dee. And Lee… his marriage was already rocky; this was something he certainly didn't need.
But this was how things were, so Laura swung her legs off the bed, stood up and left the room to find the airlock their two suspects were being delivered to.
She was the first to arrive, so she peered through the small window in the inner door and inspected what would be the two unfortunate women's living space for the near future. It was really not large enough for one person to be comfortable in, let alone two, but Laura had to agree with Bill that it was better than trying to restrain them in some more invasive manner. Still, she would have to make sure somebody brought some of those mattresses up from the hold, at least.
"Lee…" Laura heard Dee's voice say behind her, and turned to see Apollo leading his wife by a loose grip on the wrist, with Madam Vardon trailing a respectful few paces behind.
"I'm sorry," Lee said. He was looking understandably uncomfortable.
"You can't seriously think I'm a Cylon." Dee's voice was incredulous.
"Of course I don't, Dee. Look, you have to understand—"
"And you're locking me in with someone who probably is?"
"There'll be someone posted outside. We won't let her hurt you."
They reached the end of the short corridor and drew even with Laura. Dee looked at her suspiciously. "Was this your decision?" she demanded.
Laura was saved from having to answer this by Bill, who appeared at that moment with Tory walking demurely between him and the reporter – really must find out his name, Laura reminded herself.
"It was a joint decision, Dee," the Admiral said, letting sympathy seep into his tone just a little.
The Lieutenant looked like she wanted to snap something at him, but she closed her mouth again before she said anything. Whether this was out of respect for his rank or his relation to her, or out of a reflection that being cooperative might be the smarter thing to do, Laura could not tell.
"Madam President," said Tory. "I don't understand what's going on. Why would you think I was a Cylon?"
Laura afforded her a sympathetic smile. "It's just a precaution, Tory, until we can figure everything out."
Lee opened the inner door of the airlock. Hesitantly, he kissed Dee on the lips before gently pushing her inside. Her impassive expression was impaired somewhat by something stronger and not quite identifiable bubbling beneath the surface.
Tory was led past Laura; just before she stepped over the threshold she turned and said, "I'm not a Cylon, Madam President." The look on her face was enough to break Laura's heart, but she merely nodded.
The two possible Cylons were sealed in. Lee keyed something in at the controls before announcing, "It's locked."
"Thank you, Major," Bill said.
"Yes sir." Lee turned to leave.
The reporter held up his camera, but Bill glared at him and he and Madam Vardon retreated, affording Bill and Laura some privacy.
"I feel bad, Bill," Laura declared, watching through the small window as both women tried to pace in their tiny makeshift cell.
"It's the only way. One of them most likely is a Cylon."
"I know." She turned to face him, staring at him until he met her eyes. "But one of them is innocent. Remember that."
It took him a second to nod.