~ Bright, Shiny Futures - Chapter Forty-Eight ~

It was sunny and beautiful, a day like she'd never felt outside of her visions, but desperately wanted to.

The air was warm and smelled sweet. Hera knelt down and looked with wonder upon the delicate flowers at her feet. The petals were a bright, lush red and they swayed lightly in the breeze. A buzzing sound became audible and for a moment she had no idea what was making it. A small black and yellow insect flew into the flowers and nestled deep into the centre of one. It fascinated her. Another insect flew by her ear, buzzing as well but with a slightly different sound.

She rose, smiling. "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, unable to curb her enthusiasm.

"Welcome to your new home, Hera Agathon. We are so happy to see you."

She'd heard the voice in her head too many times to be afraid of it. Instead, her smile widened. "Will we be here soon?"

"That depends on you and those like you. You hold the key to finding New Earth."

"Where do I look?" The woman's cryptic remarks didn't even faze her.

"Look to the stars child. Look to the stars."

Hera woke in the morning, smile still adorning her face.

"Well aren't you a cheerful one this morning," Sharon said, tucking Hera's wayward curls behind her ear.

"I had another vision last night mom."

Sharon sat down beside her on the bunk. "Tell me about it."

"I saw our new home. It's called New Earth."

"New Earth," Helo echoed, shutting the hatch behind him as he came into their quarters. "Sounds nice."

"It was!" Hera fairly bounced as she told them what she'd experienced.

"Look to the stars? What does that mean?' Sharon asked.

Helo thought for a moment. "Maybe if she was able to see star charts for our current location ... something might become clear."

Hera's eyes lit up. "She said we all had the key within us."

"All?"

She flushed. "Half Cylons."

Helo touched Sharon's shoulder. "I'll talk to the Admiral if you'll get the children together to take a look at those charts."

"I can do that," she said, nodding.

He kissed them both and placed a soft kiss on Kiera's forehead. "I have something else I have to do first."

* * * * * * * * * *

Bill Adama watched his wife as she dressed, post showering. He'd been discreetly watching her ever since she'd woken - sometime after he had. In fact he was sure it had been the sound of the razor dropping into the basin as he'd been shaving that had woken her. He felt bad. She'd lain in their bunk rereading an old favourite novel of hers until well after he'd gone to sleep. Long after, from her tired look when she'd woken.

She flashed him a tired smile as she buttoned up her white blouse. How it had remained white after all these years he had no idea. They sat down to eat the breakfast he'd had sent to their quarters and her lack of conversation as she began to eat confirmed his suspicions.

"Are you going to tell me?" he asked around a mouthful of food. "Or do I have to guess."

"Guess what?"

"That's funny Laura. Guess what's wrong with you."

"How do you know something's wrong?"

He put his knife and fork down. "It's in everything you haven't been saying this morning. And you're fiddling with your blouse buttons. You always fiddle with them when you're nervous."

Her hands dropped to her lap as her cheeks flushed a deep pink. She lifted her eyes to his. "The cancer is back," she said flatly.

He swallowed. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty damn sure." Her voice wavered. "I've been feeling off lately. Tired and achy, but I just assumed it was because life has been crazy. Last night when I was reading ... well I found another lump. On the other breast."

He stood. "Let me see."

She opened the buttons silently and guided his fingers to the right spot. He pushed down gently, rough fingers touching her tender skin more delicately than she would have imagined he could.

"You have to get to Lifestation," he said, in a voice curiously devoid of emotion. "As soon as you're done eating."

"But I have a meeting with ... "

"Cancel it," he said gruffly.

"I can't."

"You're still the President, aren't you?"

"Well, yes."

"Then your word is law."

"Yes but ... "

"Do I need to pull rank on you?' He lifted an eyebrow. "You may be a civilian but I'm still the Admiral and when I give orders they must be followed. I'm ordering you to see the doctor this morning. Now."

Roslin giggled. "Yes sir. You know I can't resist when you give orders, although I like it much better when you order me to report to your bed."

He allowed himself to smile, just a little. "That's standing order."

* * * * * * * * * *

Lee yawned as he pulled the hatch shut behind him and headed for his father's quarters. It wasn't exactly fair, but he wanted to get a word in with Roslin before their meeting in the afternoon. She needed to know about Kara's dream/vision for the future and preparing her ahead of time would save another recess and maybe even get them on the way to meet their destiny a little faster.

He rounded the final corner and down the steps, nearly bumping into Helo who was standing in front of Adama's door with his hand outstretched to knock.

"Hey Karl," he said. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Oh hey." Helo swallowed. "You're just the guy I was hoping to talk to."

Lee smirked and raised an eyebrow."Well then you're at the wrong Adama's quarters, aren't you?"

Helo had the grace to blush. "I need to see your father and the President too but I was going to come looking for you afterwards."

"It seems you've found me. I have things to discuss with them too so let's get on with it." Lee knocked firmly three times.

The door opened immediately, as if someone had been waiting on the other side of it.

"Morning dad, Laura," Lee said brightly. "We were wondering if you had a few minutes to talk."

"Not now," Adama said crisply, pushing Roslin ahead of him through the door and between them.

"Is something wrong sir?" Helo asked, catching the same vibe that was making Lee's insides begin to feel jumpy.

"Dad ... "

Adama met his son's eyes. "We'll talk later. Help yourselves to our quarters till I get back. Shouldn't be long."

Roslin smiled weakly and touched Lee's arm as she walked past him.

Lee followed Helo in, a disquiet seeping into his soul and tainting the joy he'd been feeling since waking up.

"Something's definitely wrong," Helo said, breaking into Lee's thoughts. He nodded. "I wonder if he knows something we don't."

Lee frowned. "I don't think so. He might not share new intel with me since I'm a civilian but you're the XO. He wouldn't leave you out of the loop." He shook his head. "No, I think it's personal, and judging by the fact that Laura looked as though she was about to cry and my father could barely keep it together, I'd guess it has something to do with her health."

Their eyes met.

"The cancer's back," Helo said softly.

Lee nodded sadly. "I'd lay odds on it."

"Frakking hell."

Lee seconded that epithet heartily, but was also pleased at the other man's reaction. Laura Roslin was a good woman and leader but she had a habit of ticking people off with her stubbornness. It always made him happy when others were able to separate the person from the politician. Not everyone could, and he knew from personal experience that it could create bitter enemies.

He sighed. "You wanted to talk to me and it seems like we have a bit of time so why don't we do that while we wait."

"Oh sure." Helo took a couple of steps and looked around the room. he picked up a picture from the Admiral's desk and looked at it. "You were cute kids," he said, then he put it down and took a couple more steps in the opposite direction.

"Karl," Lee said. Helo turned around. "What's on your mind?"

"Well, it's ... I mean, I didn't mean to see ... I need to know ... "

"What? You sound like you're embarrassed about something. Just say it. We're friends, you know you can talk to me about anything."

"It's Kara."

Lee's eyes narrowed. "What about her?"

"I don't want to see you hurt her. She's been through enough lately."

Lee frowned. "What do you mean? I have no intention of hurting her. I love her, you know that."

"I know."

"Then why would you think I'd ever ... "

"Because I saw you in the head last night."

Lee flushed. "Oh."

"With Kathryn."

"It's not what you think ... "

"It had damn well better not be," Helo broke in, "but considering I saw you na ... with nothing on and your arms around her, it strikes me as awfully suspicious."

Lee shook his head vigorously. "It's not what you're thinking. Don't you trust me?"

Helo crossed his arms over his chest, towering over Lee like a powerful giant. "I'd like to. I want to, I really do but if whatever happened is something that's going to hurt Kara then I can't just let it go."

"Who's planning on hurting Kara?"

Both men jumped as Adama clanged the door of his quarters shut.

"No one," Lee said quickly. "Trust me, I won't let anyone hurt her."

"So long as you're not the one hurting her."

Adama took in the scene in front of him. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw Lee and Kathryn together in the head last night. Late. They were hugging." Helo turned accusing eyes on Lee. "I'm just trying to find out what's going on because I don't want to see Kara get hurt."

"If you'd stop insinuating and just let me explain ... "

Adama held up his hands. "Enough. Why don't we all just cool down and get whatever this is out in the open? I think we all know talking works better than accusing and I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation ... right?"

Lee fought to keep himself from reacting to his father's eyes. The man might be saying he didn't want any accusations but his eyes were saying something clearly different.

"I was showering. Kathryn came in when I was done and wanted to talk. I told her it was over and that I was with Kara now. She wanted a farewell hug. The towel ... uh ... " He flushed a bright red. "Slipped." He cleared his throat. "I left and went back to our quarters right after that."

"Our quarters?" Helo asked, his face back to its usual good-natured half-smile.

Lee raised an eyebrow. "Kara wanted me to stay."

"And you weren't going to refuse."

"Damn straight."

The two men grinned and Adama felt a smidgen of relief. He was stressed enough without having to deal with another family crisis. "Excellent. I'm glad we were able to talk things out," he said.

"You want me to deal with Kathryn?" Helo asked. "I could invent a reason to move her off this ship ... "

"You don't have to do that," Lee answered. "Although it would be nice."

"Consider it done."

"Major," Adama said warningly.

"Sir? Isn't it the XO's job to deal with personnel issues?"

Adama broke into a wry smile. "Just make sure it's legit. I don't want this coming back to bite me in the ass."

"Yes sir."

Adama walked behind his desk and sat down. "Gentlemen. You were both on my doorstep - I presume that means you want to talk to me. Are you here together?"

Helo shook his head. "No sir."

"Well then one of you go ahead."

They looked at one another. Lee nodded. "You go first."

"It's about Hera. She had another vision about the future last night. A place called New Earth." He proceeded to tell them all the details.

"You're kidding," Lee interrupted, amazement paling his face. "Kara had nearly the same vision last night."

"Really?" Adama had never looked more attentive. "Tell me everything."

Lee launched into a long description which included Sam's murder, as, once he'd mentioned Aurora, his father wanted to know why it was significant.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" he demanded.

Lee had the grace to flush. "We had planned to but everything on the planet went crazy too fast and we were all busy trying to survive. Now Kara doesn't really remember so it's hard to know what to say and what not to say. She's getting bits and pieces back but she's not sure if she's remembering or just dreaming."

"I can't imagine how difficult this must be for her," Adama said sadly.

The three men nodded silently.

"I've asked Sharon to round up the children and thought maybe we could look at some star charts. Whomever it is that talks to Hera in her visions said the answers were "in the stars" so I figured that would be a good place to start."

"Good thinking. Have Sharon bring them to the War room. I'll see what charts I can dig up for you."

"Thank you sir."

Adama nodded. "Dismissed."

Lee hung back after Helo had left. "Dad," he said, pulling his father's lacklustre eyes to his own. "What's wrong?"

Adama swallowed hard. "It's Laura," he said, voice shaky.

"The cancer's back, isn't it? She's sick," Lee said quietly.

The older man nodded. "We think so. She's being tested now so we'll know soon enough."

Lee reached a hand out to his father, stopped, then went ahead and touched his arm. Initiating affection with his father was something he still felt uncomfortable with. Adama turned and pulled his son into a large hug. Lee, surprised at first, returned it.

"It'll be okay dad. She'll pull through," he whispered.

"She'd better," Adama said and Lee was shaken by the defeat in his voice. "I don't think I can live without her."

Lee squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He knew exactly how that felt.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sam's eyes roamed over the crowd of people. Vague memories of his Pyramid playing days came back to hims, crowds all staring at him, waiting for his words of wisdom regarding his team's play.

"I still have so many questions," he said. "First, was anything in my previous life real or was it all predestined? Do I have any choice in what I do or am I just following some grand master plan like a trained puppy?"

"Do you have free will," the elderly woman paraphrased.

He nodded.

"We do have free will and each of us is unique. We make our own decisions and decide our own fates. Nothing is decided for us."

"Then why do I feel like I've been used?"

A young man stepped forward. "Because you're different."

"Do I know you?"

The man smirked. "You should."

Sam stared at him. There was something familiar about him but he just couldn't place it ...

"The last time you saw me I looked like this," he hinted, covering one eye with his hand.

Sam literally took a step back in surprise. "Frak me! You're not Saul Tigh ... are you?" He searched the other man's eyes for recognition. It was there. Barely. "Gods," he whispered.

Tigh grinned and the man he'd known suddenly popped out at him.

"You really are."

"One of them?" He shrugged. "You get used to the idea pretty quickly."

"But you look so much different."

"Use your brain boy. I was an old man when I died. I wouldn't be reborn as a seventy-year-old coot you know. You on the other hand," he said, gaze flicking from Sam to Tory and back, "look almost identical to the way you did before. Assuming you didn't suddenly age forty years since I've been gone."

Sam lifted a hand and touched his face wonderingly. He glanced down at Tory. It hadn't even occurred to him to wonder why they looked the same as before.

"I know it's a bit of a shock now since you've only had a short while to get used to the idea but it'll grow on you soon."

Sam frowned. "So what do we do now?"

The woman known as Zero smiled. "We wait for the Basestar to come for us."

~ TBC ~

A/N: Thank you all for reading, responding and adding this story to your favourites. I really appreciate hearing from you and knowing you're still enjoying it!