Siren's Kiss

by JaneAus10

This AU story begins when a young Kara Thrace is rescued from a nuked and dying Picon along with her best friend Karl Agathon. It follows them to Caprica and her eventual meeting with Lee Adama and relates the ways in which their lives are changed forever when her destiny crosses his. Image Credit: Detail of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. COMPLETE.

28. Hope

Chapter 28

Hope

After a frustrating month with no success in finding the terrorists who destroyed a lab in the North Caprica Research Park, the President's anti-terrorist task force caught a break in the form of an anonymous tip. The information led them to an apartment in Caprica's seedy south quadrant. Although agents recovered terrorist literature, several weapons and detonators of the type used in the incendiary devices that destroyed the lab, the suspect proved elusive. Later he was also found to be the registered owner of a motorcycle of the type seen fleeing the scene.

-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War

.

Monday morning Lee once again stood in front of Major Parker's desk.

"You sent for me, sir?"

"At ease, Lieutenant. I've got some good news for you. You and my other two Viper pilots are going to get to fly this week. Orders from Fleet Headquarters. In fact I've been told you're to resume your weekly flights so pick a day and work it out with Air Command and with the other two pilots. I can't have but one of you off on any given day. You can take first pick. Just let me know what day you want from now on. You can have today if you want it."

"Yes, sir. I'd like to fly every Monday."

"Head out to the airfield, and when you're through, take the rest of the day off. You deserve it. You did a good job on the Carrie Warner follow-up. Your report is comprehensive without being verbose. Did one of the others tell you that I don't like two hundred words when a hundred will say the same thing?"

"No, sir. That's just my style."

"You've become a valuable member of my team in a very short time."

"Thank you, sir. Have you talked to Sergeant Ackerman yet?"

"Not yet. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll do it today. It will probably be a good thing that you won't be here. I doubt he'll be happy about how this turned out."

"No, sir, I don't expect he will."

"Let me know if you have any problems from him."

"Yes, sir. I will. Isn't it going to make the interviewing of motorcycle riders go slower with me and two others out one day a week?"

"I don't think we'll be interviewing much longer. I can't elaborate right now, but Agent Darren and his men have a suspect. They're going to arrest him this afternoon in a surprise raid. But you didn't hear me say that and keep it under your hat. Now go fly your Viper, lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

All the way out to the airfield Lee thought about what the major had just said. They had a suspect. They're going to arrest him. It couldn't be Carrie Warner they were going after. Was an innocent person going to be arrested? Or did they have a lead on who actually blew up the lab? He wondered how long it would be before they found out. He thought about it until he got to his locker and began putting on his flight suit. The excitement of getting into the cockpit soon pushed all other thoughts aside.

Getting to fly his Viper was like a gift from the gods to Lee on that Monday. As he pulled the nose of his ship up and started skyward, the frustrations of the past few weeks began to unspool behind him. He watched the altimeter. Thirty thousand feet and the girl should be with him. He should be able to feel the green-eyed girl of his dream, but she wasn't there. Thirty-three thousand feet, thirty-five thousand feet and still he didn't feel her with him. Then he realized why. She wasn't a dream any more. She was real. She was real and she wasn't up here, she was down on Caprica. If he wanted the green-eyed girl, he was going to have to go back to the planet's surface.

John was right. He hadn't made love to a girl that night, he'd made love to his dream and in so doing his dream had become his reality.

The discipline of a year on the Triton kicked in and he cleared his mind and put his Viper through the training exercises with his usual precision and thoroughness. Later he would think about Carrie Warner, but right now his concentration was on what he had wanted to do for weeks…fly his Viper.

Off his starboard side he saw the Cylon Raider. It would be his ever-present companion on these maneuvers, shadowing his every move, reporting any deviation in the regulation exercises. This was what he had to contend with to fly, what all of them had to contend with. He knew that as long as he stayed within bounds, there was nothing to worry about. But if he did something out of the ordinary, broke for deep space for example, the Raider would be on him, guns blazing and take him out in a matter of seconds.

Somewhere above him in low orbit over the planet was a Cylon base star. The other basestars were constantly monitoring their remaining battlestars to make sure they did nothing out of the ordinary either. As Lee completed the high-altitude training exercises and pointed the nose of his ship toward the planet in order to finish the low-altitude exercises, he wondered what it would take to destroy the basestars, how much firepower and how many ships. If they hadn't been able to destroy them three years ago, how could they hope to do it now when the battlestars were disarmed and their pilots were without weapons?

His father had once alluded to a plan he had to free the Colony of the Cylons but he had refused to divulge any of the details. Lee now wondered how many of them would die if his father's plan were ever put into action. He didn't see how there was any hope that they could win. He wondered if the plan that his father was hatching was like the green-eyed girl had once been for him…just a dream, a dream that sustained his soul, a dream that gave him hope, a dream that was getting him through the long days of the Cylon occupation.

...

As soon as she heard Billy's voice on Monday morning, Laura went out to his desk. "Did you have a nice weekend? I trust you didn't come in and work."

"I didn't. How was the President's birthday party?"

"The party was nice. I enjoyed myself very much." She glanced over at Adele. They had already discussed the party.

Adele smiled in an all-too-knowing way.

"I could have told you that she had a good time just by looking at her when she walked in this morning. Chuck Winters never left her smiling like that."

Laura felt her cheeks begin to flush. Billy looked clueless for a moment and then he blushed, too. Laura hurried on. "I need you to do something for me as soon as you get your cup of coffee."

"Sure," Billy said. "What do you need?"

"Could you call your friend in the Data Center and get him to give you access to the records for the refugee camps?"

Billy picked up his phone. "I'll do that before I have my cup of coffee. It will take him all of about five minutes." He punched in a number and waited. Finally he hung up. "His voice mail says he's out of the office on vacation. I'll have to call their main Help Desk number and go through proper channels if you want it done today."

"I do. Tell them when you call that I want that access this morning. Do whatever it takes."

"Yes ma'am. What do I do after I get access?"

"Come get me. We're going to look for someone."

Two hours later she went out to his desk. "Anything yet?"

"Not yet. I told them who it was for. I told them we needed it ASAP. But it's the Help Desk. You get a number and go into a queue. A request for data access does not get a high priority. That's why I always call Todd directly."

"I'll give them until lunch. If you haven't heard anything, I'll call the supervisor."

Just before lunch Billy called her. "I'm in."

She got up and went out to his desk. "Here's the name and date of birth I want you to search on." She put a small piece of paper on his desk with Kara's name and birth date on it. She had also written the name Carl or Karl on the paper.

"I'm sorry about the other name. It's not much, but this is the first name of a friend of hers. Get me all of the males with either of those first names and all records with her date of birth. Search only the records for the big camp outside of Antioch."

An hour later Billy brought several sheets of paper into her office. "This is in an old database that hasn't got any indices that I could find except an id number and of course you have to know the number to use that. So I had to do sorts to get to any of the data. There are so many records and the server is so old and slow that each sort took a long time. I got nothing on Kara Thrace. Nothing under Thrace at all except adults and younger children, so I sorted by first name and look at this."

He put the first page down in front of her. He had taken a yellow highlighter and drawn it through a line. The name that Laura saw was Kara Agathon but the date of birth was correct.

"Now look at this," Billy said. He put another piece of paper down on her desk. That page had two highlighted lines. There was an Agathon, Kara followed by an Agathon, Karl. The relationship was also listed on this page. They were shown as brother and sister. Karl was slightly over a year older than Kara. It fit with what John had told her.

"Billy, you're a genius," Laura said. "This has got to be them."

"There's more," Billy said. "Good news and bad news. This is the check-list for the bus trip of the first group of refugees from the camp to Caprica City last spring. Kara and Karl Agathon were on bus number six. They were checked off and then back on the bus for every stop along the way and the last stop when they arrived in Caprica City. That's the good news. The bad news is at that point they vanished."

"What do you mean vanished?"

"There's no record that they went to government housing. When I requested access to the camp's records, I also requested it for the housing. Neither Kara nor Karl Agathon ever made it to any government housing."

"How could that happen?"

"Statistically ninety-three percent of the refugees were placed in government housing for at least a few months after they arrived from the camps. But roughly seven percent opted out and found something else. It looks like Kara and her brother were in that seven percent."

"They're here in the city, though. She's sixteen. He's almost eighteen. What about school records?"

"Since we have access to all of those, I've already searched high schools in the entire Caprica City school district and surrounding provinces. Nothing under either of those names. Nothing under Thrace, either."

"There have got to be records of them somewhere. How hard can it be to find two teenagers?"

"Harder than you think. I can request information from the utility companies but not access to their records. I can start the process right now, but it might take a couple of days."

"Do it. What else can we do?"

"If either one of them owns property, which is unlikely, or has a driver's license or a vehicle registered in his name, then I can request that, too. I doubt I can get credit information, but I can try."

"Do all of that as well. What about employment and tax records?"

"That data is off-limits now. The Cylons have locked it down."

"Since when?"

"Since last year. I think Cavil was concerned that someone would use that information to obtain lists of employees who worked for certain companies. You understand what I'm saying, don't you?"

Suddenly she got it. "For example those employed by a certain lab? People who might become targets of the…resistance."

Billy nodded. "That's just an educated guess. It's off-limits whatever the reason."

"And there's no way you can get that information?"

"I know how to search almost any kind of database that I've got access to, but I'm not a hacker."

"Do you know anyone who could? What about your friend who works at the data center?"

"I wouldn't feel right asking him to do something that could cost him his job…or worse."

"You're absolutely right. I'll find some other way. On the utilities and vehicles, have them search on her friend's name as well as hers, both of her names, Agathon and Thrace. Perhaps she went back to Kara Thrace once she got here to the city."

"Will do," Billy said.

"Thank you. I was hoping for more today, but this is a start. At least you found out that she made it to Caprica City."

"There are a couple of possibilities you might not want to consider, but that should probably be put on the table."

"What?"

"First, they might be living under assumed names, either one or both of them. Second, they might be living on the street. I'm sure you know that Caprica City has had some major problems since the bombings with street people. A lot of them are kids. Third, they might be involved in something illegal, dealing drugs or prostitution for example. Any one of those scenarios would keep them off the grid and make finding them nearly impossible…unless they've been arrested."

"Oh, Billy, let's hope not."

"I know. You don't want to think about any of those, but they are possibilities. Should I add a criminal background check as well as unknowns close to their ages down at the morgue?"

"Do the criminal background checks, but let's not do anything about the morgue. I can't let myself go there yet."

Adele walked into her office with another vase of flowers, not red roses this time, but pink ones mixed with small white flowers.

"I think I should retire and go into the florist business," Adele said. "Your new friend could keep me in business."

"His name is John and one day soon I'm going to ask him to lunch and you'll meet him."

"So you've promised."

Laura opened the card. There are so many reasons—far too many for this little card. I'll have to wait until I see you again. John

Only John would write something like that. It was both touching and so very much him. She picked up her phone and called his mobile number. She knew he was flying today so it went to voice mail.

"My secretary is threatening to quit and open a florist shop if you'll give her your business. Please tell her no since I need her very much. The flowers are beautiful. You know you didn't have to, but thank you anyway. My apartment tonight at seven. I have some news."

She ended the call and smiled. She had hoped to have better news for him tonight, but she could at least tell him that his daughter was probably among the seven million people living in or around Caprica City right now. She was confident that given enough time, they would find her.

...

Kara was off work on Monday. She had covered for Antwon Trevor on Saturday and Sunday because it was his tenth wedding anniversary and he wanted to take his wife on a weekend trip. Trevor was working Kara's shifts today and tomorrow. She had finished her book about the Caprican Prince. The happy ending was just like she would have written it as far as it went. Olliver completed his tasks. He found the adamantine sword of Perseus and killed the Cyclops of Seriphos and freed the people of the island from tyranny. He took the sword and the head of the Cyclops to the Underworld and freed his father. He returned to Esmari and found her in the garden. He asked her to marry him. Of course she said yes. The story's ending left them anticipating their wedding...and wedding night.

At the time she had finished the story, she had felt cheated. She had imagined their lovemaking throughout the whole book and it didn't happen. All she had gotten was the promise that it was going to happen. So Kara finished the story with the ending she wanted. She didn't write it on paper. She wrote it in her heart. It was exactly the way her night with Lee had happened, right up to the point they lay in each other's arms. She stopped her story there. Olliver and Esmari were going to be together forever on the pages of the book. That's where their love story ended. She and Lee weren't that lucky.

Kara tried looking at television but couldn't find anything that she wanted to watch. Finally she took a shower, got dressed and rode the subway to the University station. She walked the five blocks to Leoben's bookstore. There were half a dozen people in the store when she went in. She didn't see Leoben at first, but a few minutes after she got there, he came out of the back.

He carried a stack of books over to the messy counter and pushed some papers aside to find a spot for them. She walked over to the counter.

"Hi," she said to him.

"Let me see. Carrie. Is that right?"

She was surprised for a moment and then realized that remembering her name wouldn't be that hard a task for a Cylon, for a computer. She was sure he had just stored it in a file somewhere in his memory. Jared had tried to explain it to her, but she had gotten lost when he started talking about their yotta-bytes of storage capacity. He finally said to think in terms of a quadrillion. When that still didn't mean anything to her, he said to think of a billion billion. She realized then that Jared was telling her that a Cylon's memory was practically unlimited…like a human's.

"That's right," she said to Leoben. "I'm Carrie. You have a really good memory." She almost snickered at her own words.

"Names and faces seem to come easy for me," he said.

"I'll bet."

"Are you just browsing today or can I help you find something?"

"What do you have on destiny?"

"What are you looking for? Fiction? Theology? Philosophy? Mysticism?"

"Just destiny in general."

"Maybe it will help if you tell me what you think destiny is, Carrie?"

"I guess it means that you're meant to do something."

"And you as an individual are powerless in this process? Some divine force is controlling you like a puppet master controls his puppets?"

"I don't know."

"Why are you interested in destiny?"

"Because I think I'm destined to do something."

"What might that be?"

Kara looked directly at his blue-gray eyes. "Get rid of the Cylons."

Leoben smiled like he was amused. "All by yourself you're destined to rid Caprica of the Cylons?"

"Not alone. I'm sure I'll have help doing it."

"How?"

"I don't know yet. I wondered if you have any books that might help me figure it out."

"I don't think so. You're not interested in destiny in a theoretical or philosophical sense. You're interested in your own personal destiny. You're not going to find what you're looking for in the pages of a book. There's an Oracle who lives down by the waterfront, near the pier at the end of Fifty-Third Street. She was a priest in Delphi until the Cylons bombed her temple and blinded her. Now I hear that she tells people their fortunes, their destinies for a few cubits. Her name is Yolanda Brenn. Ask for her. Everyone down there knows her. Anyone can direct you to her."

"Do you not believe in destiny?"

"I believe humans have free will."

"But that doesn't mean your choice isn't part of your destiny."

"Carrie, philosophers and theologians have been debating this subject for thousands of years…tens of thousands of years. No one has come up with a provable answer yet. In the end it's really a personal belief. It's part of your entire belief system."

"How do the Cylons feel about destiny?"

"Why would you think I know that?"

"I just thought you probably read a lot. I mean you sell books. Hasn't someone written a book on Cylon beliefs?"

"The Cylons believe in one God, not many. I have a number of books on monotheism if you're interested."

"Isn't that considered blasphemy or something? There's another word but I can't think of it right now."

"Heresy?"

"That it."

"I'm sure many do consider it heretical. But Natasi believes in the one God, so the books are published. The monotheistic scriptures have actually been one of my best sellers. People are curious, I suppose."

"Have you read it?"

"Yes, I have."

"What do you think?"

"It's an interesting concept…maybe not as heretical as some think. The God of the Cylons is a perfect being without the flaws of our many gods. In some ways our gods are all too human. How can we worship beings that embody our numerous sins?"

Kara shrugged. "Do you think Cylons and humans should…date?"

"Aren't you really asking me if Cylons and humans should procreate?"

"You mean make babies?"

"That's what procreate means."

"Right. Do you?"

"If a human and a Cylon were to fall in love, then yes, I think it would be acceptable for them to have a child."

"What about making them in labs?"

Leoben frowned. "Producing children in labs? Isn't that done for humans now in cases of infertility? An embryo is started in a lab and then implanted in the mother?"

"I guess. I don't really know. Science wasn't my strong subject in school. So you think that's okay, too, for a hybrid to be created in a lab?"

"I'll have to give that idea some serious thought. My first feeling is that it would be wrong. I think either the one God or the many gods would frown on a hybrid child being created in that manner. It's not natural."

She thought about his answer. Was that what the other Leoben had been arguing with Simon about? Was the other Leoban telling Simon that what they were doing in the lab was wrong? And she'd shot him.

Two students brought some books to the counter and Kara stood watching while Leoben rang them up. When they were gone, she said, "My father didn't believe in destiny. He said that we make our own destiny…like you said humans have free will."

"Perhaps your father was right."

"I know who ordered his death and I always thought I would kill him someday, but now I'm not so sure."

"His death won't bring your father back so your concern has to be with what it would do to you. Even if you get away with it and don't go to prison, you're still very young to live the rest of your life knowing you took someone else's. Revenge is rarely the satisfying panacea the avenger thinks it will be. I sense you're very troubled right now. Is that what's bothering you?"

How could a Cylon sense anything? He was a godsdamned machine. The thought angered her…that he could stand there and tell her she was troubled…that he could read her like that. What was he… some kind of lie detector or something?

"I've got to go."

"I've upset you."

"I think I was upset before I came in here. I've got to go." She turned.

"Do you want the book on the one God?"

"Not today."

"I'll see you again, Carrie. You'll be back."

She turned around. "Is it my destiny?" She asked sarcastically.

"You'll make that choice of your own free will," Leoben said.

...

Lee went back to his apartment after his Viper flight, showered and put on jeans and a blue sweater, nothing as obvious as the Academy sweatshirt. He took the folded piece of paper from the top of his dresser and looked at it again, Carrie Warner's address, obtained from her department store credit card record. He knew it was the correct one. The one on her driver's license still listed an address in Antioch. He had looked up the Caprica City address on his street locater software back at the base. She lived about five miles from him in an older, more run-down section of the city. He looked at his map of the subway, noted exactly which route he'd take to her place.

He had called MediFirst before he'd left to go fly that morning and had found out that Carrie was off. The dispatcher had offered to leave her a message, but Lee had declined. He had another idea. He left his apartment and started walking toward the nearest subway station three blocks beyond Zeno's.

...

Kara left Leoben's bookstore and walked toward the University, but instead of taking the subway, she walked through the campus. She wondered what it would be like to be a student there. She had never seriously considered something like that. All she had ever wanted to do was go to the Academy. Maybe that would still be possible. Maybe. Maybe when she was eighteen she could leave Carrie Warner behind and become Kara Thrace again. But that meant leaving her involvement in the resistance behind. That meant becoming a member of the military that was cooperating with the Cylons. Could she do that in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a Viper pilot? She thought of her father. He had been in the military. What would he want her to do? She didn't know any more. She just didn't know.

She kept walking, past the University and through Caprica Park into the busy downtown area. Finally tired of walking she found a subway station and took the subway back to the station near their apartment. It was almost three o'clock in the afternoon and she hadn't eaten lunch. She was hungry.

She let herself into the apartment. Karl was working the early shift now, five a.m. until one p.m. and was already home. He was watching a pyramid game on the television, a game he was apparently very much into. She heard him shouting at the screen as she went into the kitchen. She made a sandwich and took it into the living room.

"Who's winning?" She asked him.

"The Buccaneers are down by one point. Anders is off his game today. Damn, if they lose this one, they'll have a hard time making the playoffs. Not to mention I've got some cubits on them in the pool down at the store."

Kara looked at a close-up shot of Anders in the replay as he missed the block of his opponent's shot and the man went around him. "He's almost too good looking to be a pyramid player. He should be a model or an actor or something."

"I hadn't noticed," Karl said. "So where have you been?"

"I went back to the bookstore."

"What for? I don't see any books."

"Leoben and I had a talk about destiny."

"Kara, I don't think you should keep going down there."

"Why not?"

"I just don't think it's a good idea to be hanging out with a Cylon."

"I told you he doesn't know he's a Cylon."

"Yeah, but you do."

"Leoben told me I should go down to the waterfront and ask for an Oracle named Yolanda Brenn. She was a priest and got blinded when the Cylons bombed Delphi. I don't know why she's not a priest anymore unless she turned her back on it. Being blind doesn't keep you from being a priest. My mother used to take me to a temple back on Picon. There was an old priest who worked there, and he was blind. When I was little I was afraid of him because his eyes looked like milk."

"Why would you go to see an Oracle?"

"She tells people their destinies, their futures."

"Nobody can predict the future. It's just a scam, a way to get your cubits. If they can predict the future, why didn't one of them warn us the Cylons were going to attack us? You aren't going, are you?"

"I don't know. You and Maggie still on the outs?"

"Yeah. I tried to talk to her last night. She's still mad at me."

"Over me?"

"I'm not sure what it is. Jared said he was going to talk to her. I think me and her are over as a couple whether we talk or not, but I don't want her hating me. We're both going to be at the Academy. I won't be able to avoid her. I'd like for us to at least be friends."

"Maybe you'll meet somebody at the Academy."

"Maybe." Karl sounded down. "September can't come soon enough for me. Not that I want to leave you, Kara, but it's time to get on with my life. I'm sick of the grocery store. I'm sick of fetching a can of sliced beets because somebody was yacking on a mobile phone and picked up whole beets. I'm sick of mopping up the spills when some mother lets her kid run wild and pull jars of olives or jelly off the shelves. I'm sick of standing in one place bagging groceries for four straight hours. I'm really sick of all of it. I'm ready for a change."

"I'll have my own place by then. I've been saving for it."

"Good. I'll come stay with you during breaks and holidays."

"That would be nice." She took a deep breath, "I slept with somebody."

"You what?"

"Duh, Karl. I slept with a guy. We made love."

"No kidding? When did that happen?"

"Last Saturday night."

"I thought you had to work last Saturday night."

"I lied to Jared so I could meet Lee at Zeno's."

"Lee?"

"Lee Adama, the guy who bandaged my eye."

"Your prince?"

Kara smiled. "Yeah."

"I should have known it would be him. You didn't waste any time, did you? How long did it take you and him to hop in the sack? A whole couple of days?"

"Look, I didn't go to his place thinking I was going to sleep with him. It just happened. But I'll never see him again. I can't. He's military and I'm a member of the resistance. It would never work. We can't be together…ever."

"You don't sound too happy about it."

"It doesn't matter how I feel. That's the way it's got to be. I made it really clear to him that we can't see each other again."

There was a knock at the door.

"Who the hell could that be?" Kara asked irritably. "The first chance I get to talk to you alone in over a week and somebody knocks at the frakking door."

"It's somebody selling something," Karl answered. "I'll get rid of them and we can keep talking."

He got up and went to the door. Kara watched Sam Anders tie the score in the pyramid game. "Anders scored," she shouted. "It's tied now."

"You've got a visitor," Karl said.

Kara turned. Lee Adama stood bedside Karl in the doorway to the living room.

Kara jumped up from the sofa. "What are you doing here?"

His hands were shoved deep in his pockets. "I came to see you."

"How did you find me?"

"That's not important. I need to talk to you."

Karl looked at her and grinned. "The prince?"

"Shut…up," she said through clenched teeth.

Lee looked at Carrie. She was blushing.

Karl said, "I'll go to my room so you two can talk."

"No, you were looking at the game. We'll go to the kitchen and talk."

Karl shrugged. "Okay. Suits me."

Kara motioned for Lee to follow her down the hall and into the kitchen. When they were inside, she shut the door. "What are you doing here?"

Lee was almost overwhelmed by how he felt when he looked at her. She was so beautiful. He took a deep breath. "I came to see you. How are you?"

"The cut healed just fine. The bruise is gone. See? You shouldn't have come here like this. We're on different sides."

"Then why didn't I take you in? Why didn't I have you arrested?"

"I don't know. Why didn't you?"

"Because I know why you did it. I understand why you did it. If I'd been through what you've been through, I'd have done the same thing. Is that your roommate-boyfriend?"

"No, he's my best friend."

"Why didn't you introduce us?"

"It's better if you and him don't start getting chummy. It's better if you don't even know his name."

"Is he resistance, too?"

"No! Gods no! None of my roommates are. They don't have a clue about what I did…am doing." She had to stop his questions. She was afraid she would reveal something without meaning to. "Would you like something to drink?"

"What are you offering?"

"Beer, orange juice, milk or water. That's all we've got." There were several bottles of ambrosia in one of the cabinets, but she wasn't going to offer him that. She couldn't handle them drinking ambrosia together.

"I'll take a beer if you'll have one with me."

Kara went to the refrigerator, took out two beers and handed one to him.

Lee smiled. "Maybe you open beer bottles with your teeth, but I need an opener."

She got it from the drawer and handed it to him. This was so awkward. She'd slept with this man. She'd been naked in his bed with him and now here he was in her kitchen watching her with those twilight blue eyes and smiling at her. She would give anything to know what he was thinking.

Lee looked at Carrie, watched the color rise in her cheeks again. For all her toughness there was still an air of innocence about her. He opened his beer, took hers and opened it before he handed it back to her. He put the opener back in the drawer. Even as he turned up his beer and drank, he knew he was stalling for time just so he could be with her a little longer.

"I flew my Viper today."

"Good for you."

He sat down at one end of the table and she sat down at the other end.

"There's always a Cylon Raider that flies with me. I don't know if it's the same one every time or a different one. They all look alike to me. We have a standing joke down at the base. We think they should paint their call signs on their Raiders only they'd all still look alike because all of them would want to be called Red Eye."

That got Kara's attention. "No kidding. A Cylon Raider follows you each time you fly?"

He took another sip of beer. He noticed that she hadn't touched hers yet. "Yeah, even though we're cooperating with them, they still don't trust us. A Raider flies with every pilot who takes a ship up on a training mission. If we were to do anything not in the flight plan, the Raider would take us out."

"Raptors, too?"

"Every military ship no matter what the size or the mission…also every commercial ship that flies above the Kármán line."

"What's that?"

"It's an imaginary line that's generally accepted as the place the atmosphere ends and space begins. It's a hundred kilometers above sea level. A little over sixty-two miles up."

"I guess you learn stuff like that at the Academy."

"That and a lot more. You really should apply."

"Maybe someday when I'm…if I'm ever ready. Why are you here?"

"I need to talk to you about the Cylons you shot."

"Only one of them was a Cylon…the doctor called Simon."

"And the other one? The other Cylon?" Lee watched her closely. She held his gaze, but there was a change in her posture. She had been leaning forward and now leaned back in her chair. His gut told him she was going to lie to him.

Kara picked up her beer and took a sip before she looked back at Lee. "Why did you say he was a Cylon?"

"Some intel has come in that leads us to believe that he was."

"Intel? Like what?"

"Someone sent a letter to a politician saying there was a fourth Cylon model, a man." He watched her closely. She didn't seem surprised.

"Who cares how many there are," she said nonchalantly. "They're governing Caprica. Adar is nothing but their puppet."

"Is that what your resistance buddies think?"

"It's what everybody on Caprica thinks who has half a brain."

"What did he look like, this other Cylon that you shot?"

Kara shrugged. "I didn't get a good a look at him. It happened too fast."

"Oh, come on, Carrie. Those security lights lit that place up like it was high noon. The scope on that rifle was top-quality. You shot him in the head so I know you got a damned good look at him. How long did you watch them before you pulled that trigger? Did you know he was a Cylon before you shot him or did you figure that out later?"

Memories from that night flooded back. She momentarily saw Leoben in the cross-hairs of the scope, saw the shock on his face as Simon went down beside him a second before she pulled the trigger a second time. He probably never heard the shot that killed him, but he heard the one that killed Simon. She got up, took her beer over to the sink and looked out the small window. He was a machine, nothing but a godsdamned machine. It wasn't like she took a life.

Lee could tell that he had gotten to her. He could feel her distress. He got up, went over and stood behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders.

"Don't," she said, but she didn't try to move.

"Did you write that letter to Laura Roslin?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Carrie, if you know who he is, you need to tell me."

"He thinks he's a human," she managed to choke out. "He's nice. I'll never betray him to you or to anyone no matter what you do to me."

"I'm not going to do anything to you…or him," Lee said gently. "We just need to know so we can watch him."

"Why? He doesn't know what he is."

"Why do you think he doesn't know?"

Kara took a deep breath. "I don't know unless the others programmed him to think he's human."

"Why do you think they would do that?"

"I don't know. I really don't know. You're the one with all the answers. You tell me."

"Let me give you a scenario that some of our analysts came up with over a year ago, long before we knew there were more than three Cylon models on Caprica. The men and women who proposed this idea spend most of their time analyzing data and projecting possible scenarios. Many of them are geniuses. They postulate that if there were unknown Cylons on Caprica, they would be programmed to think they're human in order to blend in without so much as a hint they're different. They also postulate that these Cylons would have something in their programming that will wake them up, either when a signal is sent from one of the basestars or when some external event occurs or when a certain date and time are reached."

"Wake them up?"

"Activate them as Cylons."

"I don't understand. Why would they make one think it was human and then wake it up so it knows it's a Cylon?"

"To perform a function for them. What if your Cylon is…say a Presidential aide for instance…and one day he activates as a Cylon and shoots President Adar? What if that was his sole purpose in being put on Caprica?"

Kara shrugged. "That's just a theory. It doesn't mean it will happen. And this guy is not a Presidential aide."

"What does he do? What line of work? How did you meet him?"

She shook her head. "You aren't going to get that from me."

Lee turned her around so that they were facing and held her like that until she looked up at him. The impact of those beautiful green eyes nearly took his breath. In some ways she looked younger than someone almost twenty years old. There was something else about her. Something familiar that he couldn't place. Something besides those green eyes that reminded him of John's.

"Are you around this Cylon every day?"

She shook her head.

"Will you promise me that if he does or says anything to make you believe that he knows what he is, you'll call me? Promise me. You might be in danger. The thought of that…bothers me a great deal."

She nodded. "You'd better go. My other roommates will be home soon. It wouldn't be good for either one of them to find you here. Please don't come back. It's just best if you don't come back."

"Promise me something else. Promise me that you'll think about giving up the resistance and applying at the Academy. The way you ride that bike, I think you would make a great Viper pilot."

She nodded again.

He knew he shouldn't. Why make this even tougher than it was? But he couldn't stop himself. He placed his hands on the sides of her face and kissed her. For a few long moments she softened with the kiss, her lips parted, she leaned into him. He felt the first stirrings of desire, heard the trembling intake of her breath. And then she stiffened and pulled back. He saw the anguish in her eyes before she pulled away from him.

"Go," she said.

"Carrie, I…"

She turned her back on him, he saw her hands gripping the edge of the sink, her knuckles white. "Go! Godsdamnit just go!"

He dropped his hands in defeat. "You'll call me if…"

"If he says or does anything that makes me think he knows what he is. You have my word on that. Now go."

She heard the kitchen door open, heard his footsteps going down the hall and then heard voices in the living room. He was talking to Karl. Then there was nothing but the sound of the television.

She waited, staring out the window at the brick wall across the alley. She could still feel his lips, could still smell his skin. The trembling subsided. She took her beer and walked into the living room.

Karl was smiling. "They won. The Buccaneers won. They're still in the playoffs."

"Good," Kara said.

"Lee seems nice."

"He is, but I told you we can't be together right now."

"Oh, so you went from we can't be together ever to we can't be together right now?"

"What did he say to you?"

"Not much. Just told me to take care of you. He really likes you, Kara. Even I can tell."

"I know. I really like him, too. Don't say anything to Maggie or Jared about him. Please."

"I won't. Jared is going to be devastated when he finds out you slept with him, though."

"How is he going to find out? It's none of his business! I'm not going to tell him. Are you?"

"Gods, no, Kara. I just thought…I mean are you going to…you and Jared…are you going to just keep on with him like nothing happened?"

"I haven't let Jared touch me since Lee and I…since last Saturday night. He thinks I'm in one of my moods."

"You're going to have to talk to him sooner or later."

"I know. I hope I can get a place and move out soon. That will make it easier."

"I could move with you, help out with the rent until I go to the Academy. I mean now that Maggie and I aren't together."

"That would definitely work. Damn, why didn't we think about this before? Maggie can stay here with Jared. I'll start looking for a place right away. Gods, it will be great."

Karl grinned. "Just like back at the little stone house. Well, not quite like that. You won't be shooting rabbits with a slingshot."

"You remember how we almost got into a fight when I shot the first rabbit?"

"And I ran off into the woods and started crying like a little wimp."

"And later I cried about wanting to see my father again. We've been through a lot together. Stuff most people will never understand."

"I know."

"I've been thinking about my father a lot lately. Jared told me that next month Tom Zarek is up for parole and this time it should go through. I asked Frogman to see if he could find a way for me to talk to Zarek."

Karl looked at her skeptically. "Just talk? You aren't still dead set on killing him?"

"I don't think so. Killing is…it's not as easy to live with as I thought it would be. And I know all I did was kill two Cylons, but still, one of them was…I'm not sure I could do it again. I'm not sure this resistance thing is where I belong. I think maybe next year I'll apply to the Academy. You can tell me about what I'll have to know to take the test. Then I can start reading and studying, maybe learn enough that I can pass it. If I get in, I'll quit my job and leave Carrier Warner behind."

"Did Lee Adama have anything to do with you changing your mind?"

Kara shrugged. "Maybe. Did you know that a Cylon Raider flies with every military ship, even on training missions?"

"You're kidding?"

"Nope, that's what Lee told me. See what you've got to look forward to?"

"It still beats stacking cans of peas on a shelf and bagging groceries for the rest of my life."

"You're right."

Kara heard the door to the apartment open. She turned. Maggie stuck her head into the living room, saw her and Karl and quickly went down the hall toward the bedroom without speaking.

"Now's your chance," Kara said to Karl. "Go talk to her. Good luck."

Karl got up from the couch. "Thanks."

He followed Maggie down the hall. She heard the bedroom door close. She stared at the television and watched the sportscaster interviewing Sam Anders. His shot during overtime had won the game. She touched her mouth where Lee had kissed her and suddenly felt like crying.

A red banner flashed across the bottom of the screen and a news announcer cut into the after-game interview. Kara turned up the volume. "Breaking news from CCNN. Government agents surrounded the Waverly Apartment Building early this afternoon in Caprica City. Sources indicate that their target was a suspected terrorist whose name is currently being withheld. The suspect was not apprehended but literature and several weapons were found in the apartment that allegedly could tie him to the recent fire at a research lab. Although we have been assured there is no danger, the building's residents were quietly evacuated prior to the raid and the bomb squad is currently in the suspect's apartment. Our reporter on the scene has indicated that neighbors say they rarely saw the suspect and several descriptions of him varied widely. No one knew his name. We go now to a press conference at the Government Center."

Kara turned up the volume again. She realized that her heart was beating faster. Was this the apartment of the guy who had supplied the rifle for her that night or one of the other two?

The newscast switched to a room inside the Government Center. A man in a dark blue suit stood at a podium. "Good afternoon members of the press. I'm Special Agent Vladimir Darren of the President's anti-terrorism task force. As many of you are aware, we have been diligently searching for a number of persons who were responsible for a devastating fire a little over a month ago at the North Caprica Research Park. This afternoon's raid on an apartment in the southern part of Caprica City failed to net the suspect that we were after, but evidence was recovered that we believe will tie him to the act of terrorism that destroyed the lab. Now I'll take a few questions."

"Agent Darren, can you reveal the identity of the suspect?"

"Not at the moment."

"What evidence was recovered? We've already heard they found terrorist literature and several weapons. Anything else?"

"Yes, but I can't elaborate at this time. All recovered material is on its way to our forensic labs."

"What led you to this suspect?"

"Good intelligence work and a tip."

"An anonymous tip?"

Darren smiled for the first time. "Is there any other kind?"

Kara heard the door open again. Jared walked in. "Come here and listen to this."

"I already know. Frogman came to see me earlier."

"Is he one of ours?"

"He's dead."

"What?"

Jared sat down beside her on the couch. "That apartment was a safe location. It was only used a couple of times by different people. They'll never find the guy who rented it because he died in the bombing three years ago only there's no record of his death."

"What about the stuff at the apartment, the weapons and literature?"

"Planted to make it look convincing, just like everything else they found there. This was a setup from the start, Kara, to make Cavil and the other Cylons think the investigation was going somewhere. Orders for this came from the top."

"Why do it now?"

"It's been a month. Apparently something happened last week that spooked somebody high up and he or she decided that the only way to protect you and the other two was to give the investigators somebody. They have a fake motorcycle registered to the dead guy, too."

"What do you mean a fake motorcycle?"

"Not fake, one that had been damaged in the bombing, a three-year-old Ducarvo. They'll never find the bike because it's been melted down for scrap, but the registration says it still exists. Like I said, Kara, this was handled at the top. They always do things right. Always."

"Then do you think that means they're going to stop looking for me? I mean not me specifically, but for the rider who got away that night?"

"They'll keep looking, but for a person they'll never catch...not in this world anyway. What you want to bet the dead guy's description will fit the general size of the motorcycle rider…of you. I told you when the top people get involved in an operation, it's done right."

Kara drew a deep breath as the impact of what he had said hit her. It fit with her idea of her destiny. The Fates were protecting her…just like they had from the beginning of this war…from the night her father had gotten her off Picon…just like they had that night on the road when that guard had hit a bump just before he shot her. The Fates were saving her for something bigger, for a part in whatever it was that was going to rid Caprica of the Cylons. As long as Lee Adama kept his mouth shut about her, and she believed he would, she was okay.

"Something else," Jared said, "something else Frogman told me. It seems what happened to you, getting shot and how you made it back and didn't get caught, and had to have the bullet cut out without any anesthetic, that made its way to the top, too. Word came down. Frogman is not to put you in harm's way again."

"Then what good am I to the resistance? What can I do now?"

"You can't do what I do. There aren't many other low-risk assignments. All that leaves is being a courier."

"A courier? You mean like what I do on my job? I'd deliver stuff?"

"You'd probably carry information instead of weapons and explosives. Nothing is ever written. You'd memorize stuff."

"Oh, great! That's just frakking great! That's worse than being in school."

"Are you saying you won't do it? Are you saying you want out?"

"No. It's just not what I signed on to do."

"I know, but I feel better about it. You don't know what it was like for me the night you guys blew up that lab. I couldn't live through any more of those assignments for you. Before you got back here I was a wreck."

"You weren't much better off after I got back."

"Because you had a bullet in your leg. You don't want to go through something like that again, do you?"

"No, but I don't want to think that all I'm going to do for the resistance from now on is carry information."

"A courier is an important job."

"Frak being a courier! I don't want to be a courier."

"What do you want to do? Keep shooting people?"

"No. I don't want to do that either?"

"Let's forget about this right now. I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat. We'll go to the deli. Where are Maggie and Karl?"

"In the bedroom talking."

Jared snickered. "I'll bet they're talking. They aren't interested in dinner. Let's go."

Kara started to turn off the television when another news bulletin flashed on the screen. The announcer said something about a standoff that afternoon at Caprica University.

"Wait a minute," she said to Jared. "I walked through the campus this morning. I want to see what this is all about."

"I can tell you. It was all over the internet an hour ago. We watched it at work."

"What happened?"

"Laura Roslin went toe-to-toe with Cavil on the steps of the admin building."

"The Secretary of Education?"

"It looked for a few minutes like she was going to get caught between some crazy student and Cavil's centurions. If they had opened fire, Roslin and hundreds of others would have died. She's a brave lady. Brave or crazy. I'm not sure which."

"What happened? What was it about?"

"Come on. I'll tell you on the way to the deli."

Kara followed him out of the apartment. So the leaders of the resistance were going to reward her by making her a courier. She realized that was just one more indication that she should think about going to the Academy the following year.

And if she went to the Academy, she and Lee could see each other. Maybe being a Viper pilot was her destiny after all. Maybe Starbuck was her future. Maybe in a year her destiny would lie not with the resistance but with the military. Maybe it was the military and not the resistance that was going to rid Caprica of the Cylons. That thought, once planted in her mind, began to grow and from it sprouted the tiniest seed of hope. She might have a future as Starbuck after all.

...

Lee rode the subway back to his station. When he got to Zeno's, he went inside. He sat at the bar and ordered a beer. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Carrie. Something had happened between last Saturday night and today, something that had caused a change in her. He sensed a softening in her about them being together. He'd give her a week or two and then he'd find a way to see her again, just to talk, just to stay in touch. He wouldn't push her, he wouldn't take any chances on pushing her away, but he would see her again. He'd find a way. He'd find a reason to see her.

For the first time since Carrie Warner had walked out of the door to his apartment, hope flared in his chest and began to burn, a small flame that he knew he would nourish. He hadn't been wrong. She wasn't Kara, but she was the girl in his dream.