Chapter Seven
Kara, the guards, her two potential executioners, and one possible ally had rounded a third corner on the way to the launch tube before the Admiral took note of Saul Tigh's presence.
"Colonel?"
Tigh looked back at Adama with a ready answer, clearly having expected it sooner, "I left Mr. Gaeta in charge."
There was a moment where no one spoke and only their boots hitting the ground made a sound. Several passersby made a wide birth around their solemn procession, casting curious and/or suspicious looks Kara's way.
As they reached their destination, Adama spoke again, "I have to say, Colonel. I wouldn't have thought you'd want to come along for this."
They entered the spacious room and headed for the launch tube offshoot. Everything echoed hollow now. Inside Kara's head and out.
"I have my reasons," Tigh muttered simply.
Kara found herself helped over a ledge in the floor and positioned in the center of the cold, lengthwise room. Their work here done, the guards stepped away and left her standing alone with hands bound before her. Kara thought back to the time when it had been Saul Tigh standing here instead. Perhaps that was why he was here. Perhaps a part of him knew it should have been him.
A couple of the guards filed passed the old Colonel as he started forward, walking towards where she'd been left.
The Admiral stopped and stared. The President halted on her path to the observation booth and walked back to where Adama stood, standing slightly behind him and to the side.
"Saul! What are you doing?" If Adama had been nonplussed by Tigh's presence before, he was damn near stunned by this development.
Tigh drew up alongside her and turned to face the two heads of power with her, "Preparing to be deep spaced, apparently."
Kara involuntarily expelled a rough breath like she'd taken a blow to the gut. She turned slowly to stare at the Colonel. Okay. None of this was real. She had fallen asleep on that hill on New Earth or something and her dream conscious was running wild.
There was a stunned moment of silence for all of them. The Admiral recovered first, "Get out of there! Have we all lost our minds?"
"It's possible." Tigh's gravelly voice was remarkably unmoved.
"Why are you doing this?" Adama was too busy getting worked up to see, but Kara saw a flash of appalled understanding on Roslin's face a moment before Tigh answered.
"Because, Bill. I'm one of them."
"One of what? What are you talking about?" Bill Adama's face was turning a vibrant terra cotta shade.
"One of the five. One of the Cylons. I'm one of them." Tigh didn't move a muscle as he spoke. Neither did Kara.
"Now I know you've lost your frakkin' mind," Adama leaned forward, Roslin laid a hand on his arm.
"It's true, Bill. So you might as well airlock me." The Colonel stood now, as proud and solemn in the face of horror as Kara remembered. The sense of déjà vu was strong.
"Colonel, you cannot be serious," the President finally spoke. Her tone was almost gentle, sorrow beneath the strength.
Kara was pretty sure Roslin knew damn well that Saul Tigh was serious, but it was like her to force all the cards out onto the table.
"I am."
"And the Captain?" Roslin again.
"Not a Cylon. But she's so god's damn busy trying to protect everyone from the truth while still trying to give them the truth, she's gone and frakked herself up but good."
Kara couldn't have said it better herself.
"This is some sort of Cylon trick," Adama bit out.
"Not really my brand of humor, Bill. But then, you know that."
"I know you, Saul. And you're no Cylon."
"I'd love to lie and tell you otherwise. But the truth is I've wanted to say something for a long time. It's about time I manned up and admitted it. To myself, and everyone else. I'm a frakking Cylon, and I have been from the start."
Kara could see the wheels turning in Laura Roslin's gaze even from where she stood, "Captain, is he telling the truth? Is he one of the Final Five?" Roslin walked around to stand in front of the distraught Admiral.
Kara wanted to laugh, "You're asking me, if he's telling the truth?" She continued in a mutter, "The winds of change blow mighty fast around here."
Tigh grunted in what might have been agreement.
"Is he… telling… the truth?" Roslin's escalating voice cracked like a whip.
Kara looked over at him, he barely nodded.
Kara faced forward, "Yes."
"Who are the others?"
Silence.
"You're not leaving me much of a choice."
Kara had no doubt of that but it was Tigh who responded.
"Do what you have to do, Madam President. But if I may be so bold- If you deep space the Captain along with me, I think it's possible you may be flushing the only chance we have for finding Earth out the airlock."
"So the Cylon wants us to listen to Captain Thrace," the President spoke, a note of exasperation in her tone.
"Has nothing to do with my being a Cylon. I just haven't seen any other offers coming our way."
Adama finally broke in. Perhaps he had needed the time to recover. "This is absurd. No one is a Cylon. No one is getting air locked. This has all gotten out of hand."
Laura Roslin turned her back to them and spoke to the Admiral, lowering her voice. Kara could barely make out what was being said.
"Bill….Why would he lie?"
"I don't know. But he is…He has to be." That was Adama, Kara could still hear him just fine.
Movement at the edge of the launch tube-behind the Admiral and the President, behind the guards-caught Kara's eye. Cally Tyrol's startled gaze swept over the scene before her, she was holding her small son in her thin arms. There were rings under her eyes like bruises and a pinch to her mouth like pain. The young mother took a quick step back, taking it all in, then dropped her gaze like an apology and disappeared.
"Bill…listen to me," Laura Roslin's ruthlessly gentle voice brought Kara back to the tragedy at hand.
"Stop this," the Admiral slashed a hand through the air, visibly agitated. "This is getting us nowhere. I'm not going to watch the people I love get flushed out of an airlock because they've lost their frakking minds."
Roslin crossed her arms, so calm, "And if they haven't? If they're telling the truth?"
"Then Kara knows the way to Earth and they both know the identities of the four other Cylons in the fleet. Cutting them loose into deep space isn't going to give us the answers we need, Laura."
More silence. Kara felt as if her breathing were the loudest sound in the room.
Roslin seemed to come to a conclusion, "Fine. Remove the prisoner. Arrest Colonel Tigh as well. Take them to the brig."
She brushed past the Admiral briskly, "We need to talk."
Adama was only half-listening, his eyes fell on Kara and Tigh both as the guards moved in once more to haul them away. The lookon his face. Confusion. Devastation. Fear. A heart well-broken.
Kara stared straight ahead, unable to bear the intensity of his expression; marching in tandem with the surrounding guards.
They passed by the Admiral in silence.
"Are you the fifth?"
Kara glanced up quickly, meeting the Colonel's shrewd gaze. She scowled up at him and lowered her voice for the sake of the guards though it was probably pointless.
"I thought you told them I wasn't a Cylon? Why say that if you don't believe me?"
"Not a matter of believing one way or the other. I just figured if you know the way to Earth, there was no point in dragging you out the airlock with me. It's not as if I have a frakkin' clue where it is."
Kara's frown deepened. It made sense. Sort of.
"Ellen's the fifth."
Tigh stopped walking and the guards behind them shoved him forward a bit. The Colonel threw a menacing glare behind him that had the marines re-thinking that decision.
"How can you…Are you sure about that?" his voice had dropped, almost reverent now.
"Yes. She's with Cavil now. She downloaded after New Caprica."
Tigh stared at her, clearly stunned, "How do we find her?"
The guard to Kara's left was watching them both with a mixture of disgust and fascination.
Kara glared at him in open defiance. He begrudgingly faced forward once more.
She shook her head and muttered to Tigh "She finds us."
Kara looked aside in time to see Tory Foster walking briskly past them, throwing Tigh a look two parts incredulous anger and one part concern. It was wasted on Tigh though, who was completely engrossed with thoughts of what had been his seemingly dead wife.
He spoke again after a dead pause, "And you know the way to Earth."
"It's in the song," Kara watched Tigh's expression become more alert. "The song you heard in the ship before you realized you were a Cylon. It's in the notes, in the music. They form a sequence. I'll see the pattern."
Kara hated when words seemed to just spill out of her like that. The least she could manage to spout off like that frakker Leoben in the future, the happier she would be.
"I don't believe it." It was clear by his tone that he did, but was still processing.
"Get in line," Kara muttered.
Tigh gave her a sideways glance, "How long have you known?"
These guards were just getting an earful. No matter, Kara had been torturing her guard in the brig for weeks with random insanities. He was walking in front of them right now, wearing a longsuffering expression.
"About Earth?"
Tigh nodded briskly.
"Since before the Nebula."
"How?" His voice was gruff, urgent. He thought she had all the answers.
Kara gave him a defeated shrug, "Let's just say I've passed this way before."
Tigh wore a thoughtful expression, "I've been hearing things lately-from Bill-about you. I thought you were off your frakkin' nut until I saw you for myself in the CIC today. You're different, Starbuck. You know things…React differently. A person doesn't just change overnight like that for no good reason."
She considered that for a moment, then looked over at him, almost grimacing, "You know whenever we do this whole bonding thing it creeps me the frak out, right?"
Tigh made a short sound that might have been a dry laugh.
"Agreed."
They were mutually silent for several more turns down Galactica's pathways.
When they reached the brig, two guards remained outside the hatch. Three more escorted the prisoners inside.
Kara was pushed into a cell by one marine, while Tigh's cuffs were removed by another in the cell beside her. A third stood guard.
She averted her face, stood stiffly, looking off to the corner of the brig while her guard stood before her undoing her restraints.
She rubbed the tender skin of her wrists absently as her guard slid the cell door shut behind him with that maddening clank.
Two of the marines headed out the hatch, leaving one to stand guard. Kara slapped her hands on her knees, dropping down to her cot with a heavy, ragged sigh. She glanced over at the old Colonel who was unbuttoning his uniform jacket and making himself comfortable on his own bed.
"The Old Man will come around. He just…just needs time," a note of uncertainty-fear perhaps-entered his voice, " It's a lot to process…he just needs time."
He finished unbuttoning his jacket and laid back on the cot, jacket flap lying open, staring up at the ceiling.
"He'll come around…"
She waded through a field of tall grass. The wind whispered things she already knew but didn't want to face. So low, so faint, she could still choose not to hear.
Her breathing sounded in her ears, unnaturally loud, insulating her thoughts inside herself. Like wading through water instead of grass.
She wandered without seeming purpose or direction, but deep down she knew what she was looking for.
There up ahead, an imprint in the sea of grass. Something large and heavy. Something that shouldn't be there. She stopped and turned her head in it's direction, shielded her eyes. The sky was bright under the gray cloud cover, as a gloomy day somehow is without the sun.
And then she was there, standing in front of it, though she was sure she hadn't moved.
Something ugly and charred, something that shouldn't be. A skull, no face. A body, no flesh. Strands of gossamer blond made grotesque in their setting.
"Why am I here?" she whispered.
"Why are you where?" She wasn't alone. A man with blond hair stood beside her and spoke. A man with a face she had feared until he had run from her own. He had abandoned her here in this very spot. Left her to ask the questions alone.
Kara scowled, staring at the shell of herself sitting there in that incinerated cockpit.
"Here, on Galactica. Sent back from New Earth," she answered fiercely. She gestured briskly to the blackened skeleton and continued, "Here, in this cockpit. My body lying there even though I'm still living."
"One question answers the other."
She turned on him then. Angry in the face of his calm. Tired of the word games and the destinies.
"What does that mean?"
"It means you came back for someone. Someone who died. Someone who died on the way to the new Earth."
"Who? I've tried to save everyone. It isn't working. They won't listen," Kara gritted, stepping closer to him.
He wasn't even listening.
"It's you, Kara Thrace. You came back for yourself," he looked down at her ugly corpse.
"I don't believe you," Angry tears and broken faces. One in the cockpit, one standing above, "It has to be more than that."
"It's what you wanted, Kara. To go back, to undo the thing you wish you hadn't done. To have the chance to live your life on your own terms. You couldn't do that in the shell that carried your soul. You needed to be…human...again."
He leaned in a little, brushed the side of her face almost tenderly. She flinched then knocked his hand away brutally. He only smiled as she gritted; struggled.
"This can't all be about me."
Kara reached out a shaking hand, fingered the charred dog tags hanging about her ruined body's neck." I…I've messed everything up. What's the point of any of this if I can't get us back?"
She whispered brokenly, "What if I can't get them back?"
She looked up at him then, expression fierce.
"What if I can't!"
She spoke to the air. He was always gone. The questions were never answered. The breeze blew softly, silence all around.
Kara came awake with a hitch in her breathing, the memories of her dream still strong; wrapped around her thoughts like cobwebs. Her fingers were tangled in the chain and dog tags circling her throat. She fumbled for a moment before releasing them.
It was the middle of the night. Kara was sure of it because the guard who took the night shift had been humming softly to himself as he always did while reading as her eyes had slit shut for the last time.
Her lashes fluttered open, she shot up quickly and squinted. The light in the brig was dim but still bright to her sleep softened gaze as it adjusted. Someone was closing the hatch behind them, the sight explaining what had awakened her from her deep sleep. Who would be visiting her in the middle of the night?
"I need to see the prisoner."
Lee's voice was a deadly sort of quiet, slicing through the stillness. Her guard considered him warily, clearly unsure of what his reaction should be to the Major's unexpected visit. In the end, he simply nodded beneath his helmet and sat back down.
Kara frowned a little, feeling melancholy after her near-airlocking and that cloyingly disturbing dream. She sat on the edge of the cot watching quietly, sad and still as Lee strode up close to the bars.
They both looked at each other for a moment, a hint of resignation in their eyes. His jaw was shadowed, his hair was disheveled, and he was still wearing his jock smock and the look of a threatened man.
"Kara," his smooth expression faltered a bit, his head tilted in an attentive manner, "Kara, are you alright?"
She dropped away from his gaze, studying the cell's floor, and shrugged a little.
"I came as soon as I could," he shifted on his feet, and she looked back to him. He looked so tired.
"I had just gotten off my rotation when I heard what happened," he continued. "I went straight to the Admiral but…as it turns out, my dad is…" his mouth thinned as he turned aside, searching for the right words. After a moment he leaned towards her cell and spoke in a lower tone, "I just came from his quarters…I've never seen him like that before, Kara. He's just…broken."
Kara had nothing to say to that. Nothing that could make it right for any of them.
Lee was grabbing at the bars now until his knuckles turned white as if he could press right through them to her, "Kara, please talk to me."
What did he need from her? What could she possibly say that would help this frakked up situation?
"I just need to know you're okay, Kara," impatient now, though his voice had a layer of concern laid over it.
"I'm alright, Lee," she mustered a bittersweet smile; thought about how much she needed him like this. Pushing her, caring too much when she didn't want to care at all.
His brow furrowed, "No, you're not."
She had no answer to that, slid her hand along her shin, smoothing the leg of her pants. She wanted to pull her legs up to her chest and set her chin on them- curl into herself- but it seemed self-indulgent when he was already worried about her.
Lee's hand slid up along the bar, above his head. He leaned his forehead against his arm. He sighed roughly, eyes on her.
"What are we going to do, Kara?"
She turned sharply and silently searched his eyes for a very long time, his gaze narrowed at her intense scrutiny but he didn't look away. She finally blinked rapidly, mouth pulled tight and looked away, releasing him. Hoping he would return the favor.
"I need to get out of here, Lee." It wasn't a statement. It was an appeal. She glanced back hesitantly.
The skin around his eyes tightened, his lips pressed into a straight line. She could see in his steady cobalt gaze when he'd made his decision. He gave a sharp nod and straightened, he turned towards the guard.
"Open the cell," he inclined his own head towards the padlock.
The marine stood slowly, expression disbelieving. At Lee's set face and continued silence, the other man's own look slowly took on realization and a determined edge.
"No, sir. I'm sorry, sir, but the Admiral gave explicit orders…"
There was a click and the slide of a sidearm slipping from it's holster sounding sharp in the silence. His arm stretched out to its length and the rattle and snap of a pistol aimed true followed on its heels.
Lee spoke with hushed steel, his weapon to the guards head, "Put down your weapon on the table and open the cell."
The guard just stared incredulously.
"Now, Private," Lee spoke a bit more sharply, stepping closer, gun still held high.
The marine sighed roughly and inwardly debated a moment more before slamming his heavy carbine down on the table.
"Now your sidearm."
The guard scowled and carefully reached for his side holster. He removed the weapon there and slowly placed it down.
"Open it."
The marine swore and began the walk to her cell, looking down and fumbling for the key.
Kara pushed off the cot, heart slamming in her chest, disentangling herself hurriedly from the blanket and tossing it back onto the mattress. She bent and began lacing up her boots with sharp, decisive movements.
The private inserted the key in the padlock and slid the cell door open with a disgusted sweep of his arm.
Lee's weapon hand tracked the guard's every movement as the marine finished his task and stepped to the side.
Lee flicked his wrist in the direction of Kara's cell.
"Now get in."
The guard narrowed his eyes, but moved to do as he was told.
Kara edged away from the guard as he passed by her, staying out of reach. She backed towards Lee and freedom.
"Get behind me, Kara."
And just like the marine, Kara narrowed her eyes but moved to do as she was told. There was a quiet intensity in Lee's eyes, in his voice, in the tension that ran down the length of his arm as he held the pistol steady, that told her it was safe to trust his instincts, his control.
Kara crossed her arms, standing at his back. Outside of the cage looking in.
"Apollo? What the devil? Are you out of your frakking mind?" The gravelly voice cut through the heavy silence, startling her from her thoughts.
Kara had almost forgotten all about Saul Tigh. The older man had been sleeping like the dead but was now shoving off briskly from his cot, alert and clearly nonplussed at the scene he'd awakened to.
Lee frowned at the older man for only a moment, eyes quickly returning to the guard, "Throw me the keys."
"Major Adama, allow me to remind you of the charges you face should-"
"Throw me the frakking keys, Private," Lee insisted evenly with raised brows, speaking right over the marine's last ditch effort. He caught them in mid-air with his free hand and looked over his shoulder at Kara where she stood and watched.
"Lock the door."
Kara caught the keys easily between her palms and walked forward, shutting the cell door on the guard with a decisive clang and turning the lock. She gave the bars a little rattle to make sure it was secure. She turned back to where Lee stood waiting.
"Done."
Tigh shook his head at them both, marching up to his bars, "Of all the frakking stupid things you've done, Apollo. This one-"
"Hardly rates?" Lee interrupted, walking to pick up the sidearm that had been surrendered by the guard and handing it to Kara.
She stepped away from the cell and checked the chamber while Tigh let out a surprised kind of snort.
"I suppose you're right about that," the old Colonel glanced distastefully from Kara to Lee then back again; shook his head.
Kara nodded her chin towards him, "So. You coming?"
Tigh frowned, his eye glinted with sadness, "And just where would I go, Captain? At least in here, the Old Man knows where to find me."
Lee's mouth twisted a little cynically at the older man's blind loyalty but he looked unsurprised; accepting even. Kara licked her parched lips, nodded briskly and shrugged off any guilt. It was his decision.
Kara had just taken a step back and turned towards the hatch when it began.
A tremendous shudder that started in soles of her feet and vibrated up through her limbs and torso to her head. It rumbled like approaching thunder when the storm has found you.
The entire ship quivered with the force of an impact. Kara fell forward, Lee caught her by the arm but her forward motion carried them both through, tugging him around with her as she stumbled. She slammed to the brig floor on all fours, the sidearm clacking against the floor, steel grinding into her bad knee. Lee fell over her on one knee, right hand outstretched to break his fall so he wouldn't crush her. His left hand gripped her shoulder.
They caught their breath and looked around. The guard had fallen onto his back, Tigh was gripping the bars of his cell for purchase.
Lee pulled her up by the shoulder with him, they stood together and turned about.
"What the frak was that?" that was Tigh, speaking aloud what they were all thinking.
"It felt…it felt like something just tore into our starboard side," Lee stilled. They all did.
Another impact, this one from the port side. Surrounded.
The hull groaned like a thousand steel metal beams being bent in two, the floor moved without her. Kara reached a hand to grip Lee's arm, steadying herself moments before he had the same idea. Their arms locked across each other.
Action stations. Action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill…
"You have to be frakking kidding me, " Kara muttered. Lee swore fiercely, dropped his hand and looked away.
He turned back and blew out a harsh breath, "This couldn't have happened at a worse time. Capt. Agathon is acting as XO but my dad is in no condition-"
Kara strode briskly to Tigh's cell, tried several keys, speaking sharply to him all the while, "I don't care what you have to do to make this right with the Admiral. Just do it and do it fast. Then get both of your asses to the CIC because Helo's going to need some help."
"Kara." Lee's exasperated voice barely registered as she fit in the right key and turned the lock. Tigh looked at her with a narrowed gaze but nodded, buttoning up his uniform with hurried movements.
"Kara, both of you are supposed to be cylon prisoners, you can't just go running about Galactica-"
"We'll take our chances," Kara strode up to where Lee stood tensely. Tigh marched past them still buttoning his jacket, headed for the hatch.
"Lee, I'm going to the hangar deck, suiting up, and getting in my viper. Are you coming with me?"
Lee shook his head, but there was only defeat in the gesture and maybe a measure of respect as well.
"Just keep your head down, Kara."
"Copy that," she reached out and grabbed Lee's arm, pulling him along with her.
"Hey. Hey! What about me?"
Kara threw a look over her shoulder at the disgruntled private, standing stiffly in the center of what had been her prison. She was still holding the keys.
She released her grip on Lee's arm and turned, lobbying the keys through the bars to the far inside corner of her cell. The guard turned to look at where they hit the floor with a clatter. Kara figured opening the cell from the inside shouldn't be too difficult.
She spun around, this time it was Lee pulling her forward.
"Let's go, Kara."
They shut the hatch behind them and broke into a dead run.