Chapter Ten - The seven, now six, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time it is the sin that will consume them.

As Bill left Laura in the capable hands of her nurses, he was at once accosted by several people. Carolanne's husband, stood angrily next to a wary and concerned looking Tom Zarek, lastly, Cottle was there looking his usual impatient self.

Jameson was first off the mark. The Admiral was beginning to feel a slight dislike for the pushy man but as he thought about it, he realised guiltily his behaviour with Jack Cottle over the last few days had not been so different.

Ignoring the man completely nevertheless he turned directly to Zarek; "Tom please take...?" he turned questioning eyes to the man.

"Alan," the man supplied.

"Take Alan here off to one of our private rooms and tell him everything."

"Ah," Zarek started to protest.

"Is that a problem, Mr. Vice President?" Adama said raising an eyebrow in challenge.

Zarek squared his shoulders and answered, "Of course not, Admiral."

Bill nodded satisfied, "Thank you, if you have any questions afterwards Alan, please feel free to ask me?"

He waited until the man nodded and then turned towards Cottle, took hold of his arm and walked away from the other two.

Once they were out of earshot, Jack said, "I must congratulate you on training the Vice President so well Admiral, President Roslin would be proud!"

Adama grunted at the doctor's remark.

"Bill, Lee would like to see you, His pain med is under control now and his fairly alert, but…" the doctor stopped walking as they stood outside Lee's area and said keeping his voice low, "he is extremely emotional about what is happening, Bill, I told him about his mother, he was aware enough to see what was going on out there."

Bill nodded, but hesitated outside. Cottle frowned but laid a gentle hand on his arm and nodded slightly, as Adama looked at him. He watched as the Admiral took a final deep breath before entering to speak to his hybrid son. Cottle stood for a few extra seconds wondering if life could get anymore frakked up, before shaking his head and walking off towards his office perhaps a little drop of the hard stuff would reinvigorate him.

The moment Bill entered quietly unseen into the room, he was aware of the agitated boy on the bed, Lee's wife stood next to him trying to calm him but the look in his eyes screamed of panic.

Bill wondered briefly if he could get away with leaving before anyone noticed him, this was a conversation he felt dreadfully unprepared for. His emotions resembled a man desperately holding on for dear life, to a wire swinging about in the air. His knuckles were white and his feelings threatened to cut through like the very wire he held so tightly too. It was his duty to do this though, his record as a father was spotted at best, now more than ever before, Lee needed to feel part of his father's life.

"Lee," the Admiral snapped out gaining both occupants' attention quickly.

"Dad," Lee's frantic eyes turned hopefully to his father.

"Why don't you get some air, Dee?" Adama asked briefly taking his eyes off his son, to give her a reassuring smile.

She looked down at her husband, noted the fact he was at last still and nodded, leaving father and son staring at each other.

"Dee tells me you have been meeting your Mother." Bill started, wishing he could instantly take the ill chosen words back.

"I didn't know," Lee shook his head back and forth as tears streamed down his face, "I didn't know she was a Cylon, I promise."

Bill watched as Lee paled at the words and moved round the side of his bed to stand beside him.

Bill nodded his head and took hold of his son's hand. "I know it's alright."

If anything Lee's face crumpled further at his father's kind words. "I don't...what...she's...I met her by chance, she said she was trying to make a new life for herself. I was so cross to think she was alive and never got in touch with me." Lee shook his head before looking at the man standing by the bed, and broke down again, "And then I did the very same thing to you, by not telling, I'm sorry," he stuttered out.

"Lee, it's doesn't matter, not now."

"But she's a Cylon! I'm..." he said bitterly

"Lee, you're my son.''

Lee grew agitated again as he denied his fathers words, "No, you can't say that, I'm the enemy!"

"No, Lee, you're my son just like Zak was."

"If I'm some sort of toaster, then so was Zak and he's dead, but those frakking toasters keep coming back after we kill them - why didn't Zak, why can't he come back?" Lee sobbed.

Bill took hold of Lee's head firmly in his hands, turning it so he looked directly at his son and leaned in close, keeping his tone sharp he ordered, "listen to me, you are not a Cylon, forget about what your mother is or isn't, you are my child and I love you very much. Now you have responsibilities, so you need to get a grip and pull yourself together. Do you hear me?" Bill kept hold until he felt his son try to nod.

Lee watched his father with surprise but remained silent.

Bill continued as Lee looked on in slightly calmer manner, "Just about everything I hold dear, is down here in this life stations, so don't for one minute imagine I have any intention of walking away from it, ok?"

Lee could only muster an undignified open mouthed nod at his father's impassioned words.

"I'll be back later, and I will send Dee back in to sit with you," Bill said bending down to place a kiss upon his son's forehead and turning away to leave the cramped room.

As he drew the curtain back around his son's room, he felt a new fire in his belly.

He'd had it with surprises; now he was going to turn on the heat, and the first rule of warfare was know your enemy! This fight had only one person's name on, and as he stroud out of life stations - the search was on.

Bill managed to track her down to the observation suite and as he walked in, he was greeted by the unmistakable form of Kara Thrace; she stood touching the large observation window.

Her pale hair and white bare arms rested against the black backdrop giving her a ghostly appearance, as if she belonged to the outside rather than the in.

She was different breed to the cocky, daring pilot they had lost all those months ago and Bill had changed his opinion on her a number of times already. There was no doubting her though; she had brought them to Earth. Well, some of them would make it anyway, one not included was her own husband and her lack of using up her visiting rights in life stations was telling.

Word was quickly spreading of recent events concerning his ex-wife and his son and as Bill stopped beside her, a glance was all that was required to see it had reached Starbuck.

Bill guiltily wondered if she had considered her life was becoming simpler with Sam in a coma, but Lee, as always, had complicated it again by turning up in the bed beside him.

His fingers gently touched the large black tattoo that took up the whole of her upper arm, it was a bold design of stylised bird wing, very appropriate for her he thought, and Starbuck was the best pilot he had ever seen, she was, at one with her ship. He said with a smile, "this going to fly you home, Starbuck."

Adama was surprised by the sudden run of tears that flowed down her cheeks, and her refusal to look at him, as she bit her lip in vainly to stop the emotion streaking down her face.

"Kara?" He asked worriedly.

She turned her head slightly towards him, and said in a bewildered childlike voice, "that's...that's the first time you have touched me since I came back."

He looked at Starbuck stunned for a second before reaching for her and pulling her into a fierce hug. "I'm so sorry," he whispered into her ear. "I am so sorry, my angel."

"What going to happen?" She asked the man she now regarded as a father, without letting go.

He shook his head as best as he could from the confines of Kara's tight hold.

"I don't understand," she said as she tried to breathe through the tears. "If Carolanne is a Cylon, that makes Lee… a hybrid child...and Zak was..."

He held fast as she tried to pull away from his embrace, "a very wise woman reminded me earlier, that none of this is their fault, they were, are, the innocents in all this, they never asked for it."

He felt her smile against his chest, and cheekily said, "The old Pres, she still got all the right words hey?"

Adama felt the smile and the easy rebuke hit him, as he pulled back and held onto her shoulders at arms length, "not so much of the old thank you, young lady."

She chuckled, "oh no, because, she is like a spring chicken compared to yo..."

"Kara!"

"Well you are a sugar daddy and all," she joked like old times.

Bill continued the teasing with, "You realise we told you about us, just so we could watch you squirm and struggle, with not being able to tell anyone?"

"Hey," she said laughing, "I can keep a secret!"

He raised his eyebrows, "Mmn, how long did you manage?"

"I wasn't to know that Lee didn't know, now was I."

"No, I suppose not," Bill said thoughtfully, as he looked down, "No."

Kara's smile slipped, "I didn't know, I'm sorry, I didn't think he would react like that," she said in distress remembering that Lee had not taken the news well and it had started the whole cycle of him resigning his commission and his murky involvement in Baltar trial.

Bill smiled sadly, "that's all in the past now, no need to fret."

He pulled back and looked carefully at her assessing her suitability to take on the mission he had planned. Through the tears and the laughter, her eyes looked tired but alert. He made his decision.

"Kara, I have a job for you, and I think you might enjoy this one?" he said waiting for her to smile.

He was so right, she was enjoying herself. Getting back in a viper, after being grounded since she had returned was a thrill. She missed the buzz she felt as she hurtled through the tube, into the cool black abyss. She felt more at home out here than she did with her feet firmly on solid ground, out here she was free, free of the life she had made so complicated and unattractive.

She couldn't help the bit of showboating she performed as she steered her craft along the length of Galactica's hull. Starbuck was back and she revelled in the feel of the ship all around her. Her little exhibitionist display was soon over though and she set her course across space towards the huge, still, Cylon fleet.

Starbuck muttered to herself, "oh, which one to choose, what's a girl to do with so many offers?" She really fancied one of the resurrection ships. Kara had never been on one of them, but the Old Man had specified a basestar and upsetting him, on the first task she had been trusted with again, didn't seem a good idea, so she aimed for the first basestar available.

"This is plain freaky," she said into the radio, as she walked around the silent, eerie ship, occasionally stepping over the forms of both humanoid and metal Cylons. "Can you hear me?''

The response came back in a ripple of cracks and pops, "Barely Starbuck, what's your current situation."

"Hey there Admiral, it's all quiet here, not a thing moving, just like our tame versions back home."

"The machines too?" The Admiral asked, straining to hear though the poor connection with Starbuck.

"Yes siree, toasters too. I'm going to check out this ship a bit more, than try some of the others as well."

"Watch yourself, Starbuck, don't get complacent."

"Yes Sir, out."

It was on the third basestar that she visited, that Kara stumbled across the hybrid tank.

She wandered up to the tub, watched to see that the occupant was asleep, same as everything else around here she mused, before dipped her fingers into the thick gluey liquid.

The sudden feel of flesh upon her hand made her jump, "FRAK," she shouted, as she pulled her hand quickly from the chamber and turned to see the hybrid's eyes wide open and staring at her.

"Wooh, frak me," Kara said stumbling back.

"At last, you have come for me, Starbuck" it said.

"Ah, how come you're awake, AND, how the frak do you know my name?'' Starbuck said as she stuck her head out the door and checked for any movement outside. Once she was satisfied she turned her full attention back to the chamber.

"What do you want?" Starbuck asked warily.

"They want it finished."

"What? Who wants it finished, the toasters? Do you still think you can finish us?" Kara looked round wildly, had she missed something? Damn, she wished she still had contact with Galactica but that had frizzed out the further she had moved into the Cylon fleet.

"They want it finished," the hybrid repeated.

Kara looked round suddenly as a thought hit her, she placed a hand on her forehead before saying, "hold on are you actually saying..." she moved up close to the tank, "are you saying that you are still in contact with them? Even when they are out cold?"

The hybrid turned her head quickly to directly stare at Starbuck making her jump slightly and stated, "What do you hear, Starbuck?"

"Frak," the familiar words spoken by that thing, had her reeling backwards to stand with her back against the solid wall.

Her voice started a pitch higher in tone than usual when she finally spoke again, "Who…" she took a deep breath, "who said that?"

"One of the pillars," the hybrid said in the same calm monotones.

"Pillars of what?" Thrace questioned.

"The five pillars of God."

Kara started pacing round the room again, trying to work out the hybrids babblings, "I wish the Old Man was here he was always good at riddles and puzzles."

"Ok, think this through, there has to be an answer?"

"Five pillars, five, ok is that the five new Cylons?"

"The pillars are not Cylons; they are the path to the ancients, the guardians. They watch over the truth, the foundation."

"This is getting weird now girl, come on," she shouted, "make sense."

"They have watched over the truth, their job is done," the hybrid continued to ramble on.

"They called to us, to bring the guilty ones to their destruction, to deliver us peace and set us free."

The hybrid appeared to smile before saying, "At last, they've come for me."

Starbuck frowned, she had a good feeling where this was going, but she asked anyway, "What do the pillars want us to do with the Cylon fleet?"

"The children of darkness must fall, they must pay for their atrocities, there must be atonement for there corruption." As Kara looked at the hybrid, she was surprised to see tears in its eyes. "Bring forth the morning star."

"Morning star?"

"What do you hear?"

Kara smiled, "nothing but the rain."

"Then sink your last bottle of Ambrosia and grab you gun."

They were odd words to hear from the lips of this creature but they were unmistakable in origin, only Tigh would know the words and manage to corrupt them so.

Kara pulled herself up to full attention and for the first time in her life saluted him with respect, "Yes Sir," she said smartly.

Starbuck left the basestar quickly heading straight for Galactica, she knew the job she had to do and she needed to inform the Admiral of her stunning findings. Mind you he had looked as if he'd had enough stunning moments to last a lifetime recently.