Chapter 29

Posiden's Green-Eyed Daughter

The misguided move on the part of the Cylons to force the teaching of monotheism as a required course at Caprica University backfired when so many male students enrolled in the class after it was announced that the Cylon Natasi would be the teacher that even the largest auditorium-style classroom would not accommodate all of them. The large class was broken into several smaller ones. Natasi lost her enthusiasm for teaching after a semester and Cavil was unsuccessful in convincing her to continue. The class was quietly dropped from the curriculum.

-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War

.

Laura had just returned from lunch on Monday when Adele buzzed her. "I have a call from Chancellor Enwright at the University. He says it's urgent."

"Put him on." She heard the soft click as Adele switched the line. "Hello, Frank. What's going on?"

"We've got a situation over here, Laura. Cavil and a dozen centurions showed up just before lunch and told me we had to start requiring students to take a course on the Cylon's monotheistic religion. He said the course would be necessary to graduate. One of the other Cylons will be teaching the class. He forced my secretary to send out an email to all the students. Before he left my office, fifty or more students had gathered outside the administration building. There must be several hundred here now. I had to call in all my campus security to keep order. Right now we've basically got a standoff. The students won't back down and neither will Cavil. I would never have called you, but Cavil says he won't discuss the situation with anyone but you. He said you two have a history of negotiating. I swear, Laura, he sounded sarcastic when he said it. He's adamant that he won't talk to anyone but you."

"I'm on my way." Without stopping to grab her coat, she went to the outer office and told Adele, "Get me a car and driver immediately. There's some kind of situation out at Caprica U. I've got to go."

Billy stood up. "Should I go, too?"

"No, I need you to stay here and work on getting those records on Kara and Karl. I don't know how long this will take. I hope I can talk some sense into either Cavil or the students. The last thing we need is a confrontation that gets out of hand and results in bloodshed. He's got his centurions with him."

"He doesn't go anywhere without them now," Billy said. "At least a dozen of them."

Laura respected Chancellor Frank Enwright immensely. He had been a philosophy professor when she was a student at Caprica University, and he was known for his sense of fairness and his ability as a teacher. She knew he would have calmly explained to Cavil the folly of what he was doing. She also knew how much Cavil's demand would have rankled with him.

By the time she arrived, the entire quad in front of the administration building was filled with students. Word had quickly spread about the standoff through mobile phones and text messages. Cavil had refused to leave and stood resolute at the top of the steps surrounded by his centurions.

Two campus policemen met her car and got her through the crowd of students who were not being allowed further than the bottom of the steps. Before she got to Cavil she noticed D'Anna Biers and her cameraman in the crowd. He was filming. She was interviewing students.

Laura was allowed up the steps. "It seems we are once again at an impasse, Cavil."

"I prefer Brother Cavil today."

"Very well, Brother Cavil. Since you sent for me, what do you want?

"These students refuse to disband and let me past."

"Does that surprise you?"

"I hadn't supposed college students to be that…involved…to care that much. What's one more course out of all they're required to take?"

"Perhaps you could compromise and make your new course an elective instead of required. These students are bright and eager for new knowledge and relish being exposed to new ideas. What they are objecting to is having something forced down their throats."

Cavil looked at her. His eyes were not those of a crazy man, yet she saw something there that didn't look entirely sane either. She didn't understand how that could be possible. He was a machine. Had he gotten a virus?

"The course will not be an elective. You have lost this time, Madame Secretary."

"Is that what this is all about, something personal against me?"

"Of course not. Just like not inviting me to the President's birthday party was not a personal slight."

"I had nothing to do with that."

"Ah, but you attended. Where was your spirited protest over that wrong?" She saw what Frank Enwright had meant about Cavil's sarcasm. It had not abated during their entire conversation.

"Could we go inside and discuss this matter like mature adults? I'd also like to point out that there's a back door to the building. You could exit that way and avoid any unpleasantness."

"I will not go out the back door and we'll discuss the matter right here."

"You cannot do this! The Colonies were founded on the principle that religion and government are not to be mixed. The priests do not make our laws or tell us how to govern and we do not tell them how to conduct their worship services. This is a government-supported school. You are stepping across a line that must not be crossed. Caprica University is not the place to do this."

Cavil stepped up close to her. "It's the very place to do it. You thwarted me once regarding the refugee camps and got away with it. You won't do it again. Now either tell your students to disband and go back to their dorms and their classes or tell them that they risk death."

Laura was horrified. "You would have your centurions turn their weapons on unarmed students?"

"They must learn. You must all learn. You most of all."

"This has nothing to do with your religious beliefs, does it?"

He smiled. "I have no religious beliefs. I don't believe in the one God as Natasi does or the many gods as you do. I don't believe in any gods. Humans created their gods, not the other way around. Humans created them to keep from despairing over the knowledge that what you experience here and now is all there is."

"You would risk starting a war over something you don't even believe in?" She asked incredulously.

"I would risk starting a war because you are trying to bend me to your will, to make me conform to your human ideas of right and wrong. You believe we were created to serve you. That is true of these centurions. But those like me were created for an entirely different reason. It's time you learned that we are now your superior beings. We are now your masters. You will bend to our will."

"There is a group on Caprica that has been held in check by the very fear that you would do something like this. If you massacre these students, you will have declared open season on yourself and the other Cylons and also those who are helping you. The bloodbath will never end."

"I know the group you speak of…your resistance. Pathetic fools willing to die for nothing. It doesn't matter how often I'm struck down, another copy will take my place and each will be less inclined to put up with you humans. We could take several thousand of the youngest and most fertile humans with us and leave Caprica behind…a dead and wasted cinder in space."

Laura stepped away from him. He was serious. He would really consider destroying the planet over this issue…unless he perceived them bending to his will. She couldn't allow the current confrontation to escalate into the incident that caused the destruction of the last remaining humans. It was now obvious to her that Cavil would not budge.

She took a deep breath. "Then I will speak to these students. Allow me to do that. I will try to get them to disband, but I will not lie to them."

"Fine. Turn your oratory skills on them. See if you are any better at convincing them than you have been at convincing me."

She turned and descended several of the broad stone steps of the administration building. She held up her hand for quiet. "Students and faculty members, many of you know me. I am Laura Roslin, President Adar's Secretary of Education. A small misunderstanding has regrettably grown into a large one. I have just spoken with Brother Cavil and he agrees with me that further discussion on his edict must be forthcoming. We cannot do this under the present circumstances so I ask you to please return to your dorms and your classes and allow him and his centurions to leave. Your chancellor Frank Enwright and I will meet with Brother Cavil in the near future to discuss the matter in depth. Please do as I ask and disband for now."

One of the students near the front of the crowd shouted, "Does that mean we don't have to take his frakking class?"

"I cannot answer a question like that under these circumstances or before we have had a chance to discuss the matter. Please think about what is happening here. Please think about the future of mankind before you force this issue."

The student pushed his way to the front of the crowd and started up the steps. The students in front surged forward, pushing past the campus policemen. Behind her Laura heard what could only be the centurions' weapons locking into place. Knowing that if Cavil gave the order and they opened fire, she would be cut down first, she still started down the steps to the student and caught him by the arm. He was just a boy, eighteen or nineteen years old and yet he appeared to be the leader of the students at the front of the crowd.

"Please think about what you're doing, please. Don't bring the wrath of the Cylons down on all of humanity because of a rash and thoughtless act on your part. That…thing standing at the top of these steps looks like a man, but he is a machine. He commands other machines that have no conscience. Killing to them is like breathing is to us, just another function that they were designed to perform and they do it extremely well."

"They all deserve to die. Their bombs killed my parents on Aerilon. Both of my sisters were on battlestars. They died out in space."

She held his arm tightly and said softly. "The Cylons killed a great many parents and sisters…and husbands and mothers and children and friends…billions upon billions of them. Your death, my death, the deaths of many of these students…your friends…will not change that. Look at me! Please!" She looked him directly in the eyes. "There are other ways."

His eyes locked on hers and focused. Something she had said had finally gotten through to him. The others seemed to be waiting to see what he was going to do.

"Please. Tell your friends to leave. None of us have to die today. Save that anger and determination for another time when we stand a chance. Today we don't." She lowered her voice, "I promise you that change is coming. We just need a little more time to do it right. Please give us that time."

She felt the fight go out of him. He didn't speak again, just nodded slightly and turned and went down the steps. It seemed to serve as a signal to the other students. Slowly they began to drift away singly or in small groups. As the area in front of the administration building began to clear, she saw D'Anna Biers and her cameraman off to the side. They had gotten out of the way in case the centurions began firing, but he was still filming. Laura wondered if he had audio on his camera as well. She prayed he hadn't caught her remark to the student.

Cavil, surrounded by his centurions, marched down the steps and toward the parking lot and their waiting vehicle. He did not speak to her again. She wondered if he was disappointed at the peaceful outcome of their confrontation.

D'Anna Biers looked in her direction and mouthed, "Well done."

A sudden gust of cold wind caught her hair and blew it across her face. Chancellor Enwright was by her side and took her arm. "Come inside. We'll go to my office and I'll have someone get us some coffee or tea. You're shivering."

"Yes, thank you," she said automatically. Only then did she realize he was right. The shivers seemed to come from the core of her being. Could she call today a victory? Not if it were viewed in terms of Cavil's edict to teach his class on monotheism. He was clearly determined to teach a class on something he didn't even believe. He had clearly won in that regard, but she had saved lives. That had to count for something.

"Ms. Roslin…Ms. Roslin," D'Anna was coming up the steps behind her and the chancellor. "A quick comment for us, please. We're rushing to make the five o'clock news with this."

"How did you know there was going to be a confrontation here today?" Laura asked her.

"I have a lot of sources. I got a call after the students started gathering. I got here about five minutes before you did. What do you think of Cavil's plan?"

"The Colonies were founded on the premise that government and religion are equal but separate. As this is a government-funded institution of learning, there should be no required courses on religion of any kind unless you are a religion major. They should all be elective for everyone else."

"Do you intend to pursue this issue with Cavil…or Brother Cavil as he has asked us to call him?"

"I do."

"Do you think you will win?"

"I intend to do everything in my power to try. I owe it to these students."

"Thank you, Ms. Roslin." D'Anna signaled her cameraman to stop filming and she turned off her recorder. "I just want to say that was a very courageous thing you did today. Off the record, do you think you stand a chance?"

"Off the record. No. Frank and I are going to talk about that now. How to handle this situation so there isn't the chance it will escalate into a bloodbath in the future."

Frank Enwright looked at D'Anna Biers. "Laura needs to get inside out of this wind and she needs a cup of something warm."

"I'll call you later to follow up," D'Anna said.

Laura let Frank take her arm and lead her up the steps. She really did need to get out of the cold wind or she knew she would never stop shaking.

...

Bill was waiting in her office when she got back after six o'clock. He turned on her with a fury she had only seen from him once before in her life.

"Of all the insane and idiotic things to do, putting yourself between a mob of students and a dozen heavily armed centurions. What were you thinking?"

"That if I didn't stop them, those students were going to inadvertently begin our final war. After he massacred them, Cavil would simply take Gaius Baltar and his research team and a few ships of fertile young men and women to experiment on and then destroy this planet like they did the rest of the Colonies. I'm surprised at times that he's left us in relative peace for this long."

"Cavil doesn't want to return to a basestar. He likes living here in luxury."

"Cavil…likes living in luxury? That's a human trait. Certainly you don't think…"

"What I think is that crazy son of a bitch got you out there today hoping you'd be gunned down along with those protesting students, hoping he could get rid of you and make it look like it was your own folly for getting caught in the middle of a student riot. That's what I think."

"It was not a riot. The students behaved very well, very peacefully."

"It doesn't matter. If those centurions had opened fire, the end result would have been the same. Rioting or peaceful, you would all have been dead!"

"But that didn't happen, Bill. I'm all right and the students are all right."

"How can you say everything is all right? Something very major happened out there today. Caprica lost the freedom to educate its students as we choose. Don't you realize what's next, Laura? Cavil will close the temples, he'll force his brand of religion on the people. Then we'll have a religious war on our hands. You think the resistance has its supporters now? Just wait until Cavil takes this a step further and tries to tell everyone how they must worship."

"That's not going to happen," she said wearily. "Cavil is an atheist. It's Natasi who believes in the one God."

"It doesn't matter what his personal beliefs are. He knows that any attempt on his part to subject us to their will in regards to religion is going to be met with resistance, armed resistance. How many wars in our past have been fought over religion? Not even fifty years ago our predecessors were killing each other over differences in religion. It would take almost nothing to ignite that same zealotry again in others."

"How long until you can put your plan into action?"

"A year at least."

"I hope we can wait that long."

"So do I."

"We obviously need to talk about this some more, but I'm tired, Bill. I want to go home."

"I'll take you."

"That's not necessary."

"I'm going to do it anyway."

"I need to talk to Billy first. He's tracking down some information for me. John's daughter Kara is alive and in Caprica City. We're trying to locate her."

Bill looked stunned. "His daughter is alive?"

"I met her in the big refugee came near Antioch almost two years ago. Sometimes this planet can be very large and sometimes it can be very small. She's a remarkable girl. She's a lot like him."

She went out to Billy's desk.

"It's already all over the news and the internet," he told her. "D'Anna Biers camera man got it all and there's about fifty mobile phone videos already posted. And President Adar wants you to call him right now."

He handed her a small sticky note with a phone number on it.

Laura shook her head. "I hoped we could contain this."

"With hundreds of students involved? Not a chance."

"You need to go home. I need to go home. Do you have anything more on Kara?"

"I faxed requests to all the utility companies. I only heard back from the electric company so far. Nothing in either one of their names. Nothing turned up on vehicle registration or property or criminal background. No driver's licenses for either one of them. I checked both names on her in everything, Agathon and Thrace. I also made a call to a guy I know who works for EquiCredit, the biggest of the credit reporting companies. He couldn't find any credit information on any of the three names. If we could just get at employment or tax information…of course there's always the chance they're working somewhere for cubits, for an employer who's paying them under the table so to speak and not reporting their wages."

"You did a wonderful job getting what you did. I've thought of something else, though. What if they're living with someone who has the utilities in his or her name? What if they work at jobs where you typically find young people, waiting tables or clerking in a store? How would we ever find them?"

"You don't seriously think we can visit every restaurant and store in Caprica City do you?"

"No, of course not. But there might be a legitimate reason they aren't in any of the places we've been able to check. They're sixteen and seventeen. Neither could get credit or utilities in their names anyway."

"You're right." He gave her a large envelope. "This is what I've got so far."

"Thank you, Billy. Will you please call down and cancel my car and driver. Bill is taking me home. After you do that, you go home, too."

"Will do," he said and picked up the phone.

Laura took the envelope he had given her, took it back to her office and put it in her briefcase. She looked at her watch. It was nearly seven o'clock. John would probably be there when they got to her apartment. Bill was standing at one of the large windows behind her desk. He was looking out at the brightly lit courtyard in the center of the Dressler complex of government office buildings.

She sat down, picked up the phone and dialed the number on the small piece of paper.

Adar answered immediately. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"What the hell happened out at the University this afternoon?"

As briefly as she could, she told him.

"Be in my office tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. I've already left a message for Chancellor Enwright to be here. I've also sent a request for Cavil to attend. We'll have breakfast and talk about our options."

"You actually think we have options?"

"We always have options. Get some rest tonight, Laura. I'll see you in the morning."

Wearily she hung up the phone and swiveled around in her chair to look at Bill. "I called John today and left a message that I had some news about Kara. He'll probably be waiting at my apartment."

Bill turned. He had a drink in his hand.

"You don't owe me an explanation of John's whereabouts."

"I know I don't. It was more of a warning so you wouldn't be surprised if he's there."

He walked over to the table where he had left the bottle of whiskey and picked it up.

"No, Bill. You're driving."

She saw him hesitate and then put the bottle down. "There's nothing I can say that will change your mind about getting involved with him is there?"

"I'm already involved with him."

Their eyes met and she saw the raw pain for a moment before he turned and walked back to the window. He couldn't look at her.

"John is a good man," he finally said. "I didn't mean to give you the impression Saturday night that I think otherwise. I just don't think he's the right man for you."

"I can't talk about this tonight, Bill. I'm tired. I just want to go home. Please."

He walked over and picked up her briefcase. "Let's go."

In the car she asked him what the holdup was on his plan.

"I told you several months ago that I need another year or two. I'm doing everything I can to expedite all the parts of my plan. Some are ready but on other parts I still need a year. The main holdup right now is fuel…fuel and pilots, but we're making progress on the fuel. Tom Zarek is getting out of prison soon. Cavil has agreed to put him in charge of a mining expedition to Tauron because the only ones willing to go and work there are prisoners. They're doing it to get pardons."

"Killing themselves with radiation to get pardons?"

"Cavil assured us that the Cylons used conventional weapons and their centurions on Tauron. They left the northern regions untouched. What Cavil doesn't know is that Zarek is part of the resistance. The mining barges that will bring the tylium back to the refineries on Caprica have been modified. So have the underground storage containers. Part of that fuel will disappear without the Cylons being aware of it. It's complicated. It took some smart engineers nearly a year to get the designs right and another year to make the modifications to the storage tanks during routine maintenance. These things take time, Laura. Everything takes time."

"I don't mean to push so hard, but I sense that Cavil is losing his grip in some ways, if that's even possible for a machine."

"He's not entirely a machine."

"What do you mean?"

They pulled up outside of her apartment. "We'll have lunch soon and I'll tell you more. I know you're tired tonight. He put his hand over hers and squeezed. "Take care of yourself, Laura."

"I will. Thank you for bringing me home."

She got out of the car. John and Doug walked out from inside the glass doors and all she could think about then was feeling John's arms around her. He didn't disappoint her.

She put her briefcase down on the sidewalk and let him hold her. She was starting to shake again.

"Bill brought you home?" John asked.

"He was waiting at my office to chew me out for my insane and idiotic behavior this afternoon."

John kept his arm around her and picked up her briefcase. "Come on. You need to get inside. You're shaking."

"I need a drink."

"I can handle that." In the elevator he kept her tight against him. "Doug and I watched the news on that little television behind his desk. That was the bravest thing I've ever seen anybody do."

She smiled. "I doubt that. You were a Viper pilot. You fought in the First War. I'm sure you saw many things that were much braver."

"No, Laura I didn't. I saw bravery, but there's a huge difference between being in an armed ship going against an armed opponent and what you did today. Up there in my Viper I at least stood a fighting chance. All of us did. Today, you…I can't imagine what kind of courage it took to stand between Cavil's centurions and those students."

"I never even thought about it. It wasn't an act of bravery for me. It was the only thing I could do." The elevator door opened and they got off. She dug in her purse and handed him the keys to her apartment. "I don't want to talk about it anymore tonight, either. It's over."

He unlocked the door and held it open for her. She punched in the code for her alarm system and they went through the foyer into her den.

"Siren's Kiss?" He asked.

"Make it a double," she said and sank into the cushions of the couch. She kicked off her shoes, leaned her head back and shut her eyes. She heard John moving around and the soft whoosh of the gas logs igniting in the fireplace.

A few minutes later John sat beside her on the couch. She opened her eyes. He had turned off the lights. The room was lit only by the flames dancing in the fireplace. He handed her a glass and put his arm around her.

"Better?" He asked.

"Much better. Just keep your arm around me."

She turned up the drink. It burned going down but it felt good. It told her that she was alive and not being zipped into a body bag along with hundreds of slaughtered students. She leaned against his shoulder and shut her eyes. She was alive. She turned up the glass again. One more swallow and it would be empty.

"Take it easy," John said. "This stuff is nearly lethal on an empty stomach, especially if you drink it fast. We need to find you something to eat. Does your housekeeper leave you dinner when you're not going out? I could call Channing's and have something delivered. Just tell me what you want."

Two large swallows of the Siren's Kiss and she could already feel it. She finished the drink and carefully sat the glass on the coffee table. She was suddenly overwhelmed with the need for physical contact, with the need for him.

"To hell with dinner. I don't need dinner. I'd rather have you instead."

She put a leg across him, settled on his lap and kissed him. The skirt of her suit slid up around her thighs. By the time he slid his hands up her legs to her hips and pulled her against him, he was already hard. Their kiss, passionate and reckless from the beginning, got more so.

"Here or the bedroom?" He managed to ask a few minutes later.

"Here," she answered.

They never even got all of their clothes off, just the necessary ones. He was the one, though, who stopped her in her headlong rush, stopped her just as she was climbing back onto his lap again.

"Laura, wait a minute. We're forgetting something. Give me just a minute. I've got to get something…in my jacket over there…"

"We don't need it. I can't get pregnant."

He grasped the sides of her face, stopped her from kissing him and made her look at him. "You're sure? You're absolutely sure?"

"Yes. Absolutely sure."

Their eyes locked briefly. She saw him relent. He chose to trust her. Someday soon they would do this again and take their time, but not tonight. Tonight she needed this wild, adrenalin-fueled, headlong rush of passion. He seemed to know exactly what she needed. His hands were on her hips again, urging her, helping her. She couldn't believe how quickly it was over for both of them. How it took only a few minutes before her fingers dug into his shoulders and she cried out softly even as his hands tightened on her hips.

Their breathing gradually returned to normal, but she didn't move off his lap. He pushed her hair out of her face, pulled her head to his shoulder and kissed her forehead. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Relax," he told her. "You're safe. It's over now."

"Dear gods, where did that come from?" She finally asked.

"From facing death," he said softly. "A couple of times on the Solaria after I'd come back from a mission where I'd almost bought it, I…sometimes you've got to do this to convince yourself you're still alive. You've got to be with somebody, share this, to know you're going to be all right." He kissed her forehead again. "You didn't mention the other night that you couldn't get pregnant. You let me take precautions then. What's different about tonight?"

She kept her head on his shoulder, glad she didn't have to look at him, glad he couldn't see the pain in her eyes. "I should have mentioned it earlier, but I'm not accustomed to...It's been a very long time since a man has shared my bed."

He gently stroked her hair. "Do you want children or did you ever want children?"

"While I was married I thought about it. My husband has three children from his first marriage, but it never happened for us. That's when I realized that the problem was with me."

"I didn't know you were married."

"When I was twenty-eight. We divorced shortly before I turned thirty. I never took his name. He teaches at the University. He was sixteen years older than me. The marriage was a mistake, but we parted amicably."

He continued to stroke her hair. "I would tell you I'm sorry about you splitting up with him, but I'd be lying. I'm glad because it means you're here with me tonight."

She suddenly remembered why he was there.

"Oh, John, I've been so selfish. You didn't come over here tonight for this, to take care of me. You came about your daughter."

"Laura, I'm not even going to comment on that."

"I just feel guilty now that I put my need first."

"I'm not going to comment on that either. I've waited for three years for any news about Kara. I've thought for the last two years that if I got any news at all that it would be bad. I can wait a little longer. Now why don't we get up and put on our clothes and go in the kitchen and get you something to eat because if you keep sitting on me like this…" he grinned…"you're going to make me forget I'm forty-one years old and we'll be going at it again. The only good thing is that I might last longer than two minutes this time."

She kissed him gently. "Did you hear me complain?"

Ten minutes later they were dressed and sitting at her kitchen table. She was picking at a bowl of pasta that her housekeeper had left her. John had made tea for them.

She had taken the envelope Billy had given her out of her briefcase and had put it on the table. He wouldn't let her open it until she had eaten something. Finally she insisted on taking out the pages and going through them with him. She did it cautiously, not sure how he would react.

He didn't comment at all until she was through and said, "So to sum it up, she's alive and somewhere here in Caprica City. We just don't know where...yet."

He nodded and got up. "Excuse me for a minute."

He walked out of the kitchen. She picked at her pasta and waited. She waited nearly ten minutes but he didn't return. Finally she got up and went into the den. He was outside on her small terrace, standing in the cold without his jacket. His hands were on the balustrade and he was looking up at the stars. She opened the door, walked over to him and put her arms around him from behind. She pressed her cheek against the back of his shoulder. He held the sleeve of his shirt against his eyes for a moment and took a deep, ragged breath and then another.

"John, please come back inside. It's too cold out here."

"Kara went through hell because I quit looking for her."

"You can't blame yourself. I know you did everything you could to find her. We don't even know where she was between the time you left her at your friend's airport and the time she and Karl were brought to the camp. That was late in the winter, months after you were there. Even if you had gone back it's not likely that you would have found her. She was passing herself off as Karl's sister."

"Why?"

"Possibly so they could stay together. She may have felt safer and more protected as his sister. The day I met her she was alone so that's just a guess on my part. I'm trying to imagine myself as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl again, and I know I would have wanted the protection of an older brother."

"That makes sense. What I can't understand is why they didn't go to government housing."

"I'm puzzled about that as well. Wherever they are, I feel reasonably certain that they're together. Billy and I think they're working in typical jobs for teenagers. We also think they're probably living with someone older who has the utilities in his or her name since they're still too young. That's just a guess as well, though. But we're going to keep looking."

He turned and put his arms around her. "She's alive. She's here in Caprica City. I'll do whatever it takes to find her. I know a guy who might be able to get into that database of tax records. I'm going to call him tomorrow morning. I'll find her."

Laura smiled. "John, we'll find her. Now let's go inside. I'm freezing." They went back in and sat on the couch again. She snuggled against him.

"I've thought of something else I can do. There was a teacher in the camp, the man Kara introduced me to, who helped me get a school started for the young children. He had befriended her or she had befriended him. I was never entirely clear on that, but he may know something more about her, maybe even what her plans were after she got here to the city. His name is Hugh Connelly. Tomorrow I'm going to get in touch with him. He's married, living in Antioch and teaching there now."

"There's no way I can ever repay you for what you're doing for me, no way that I can ever thank you."

"Oh, yes there is," she smiled. "And don't forget how much you helped me find out about Baltar's secret project."

"Let's go away for the weekend. Thursday is my last day flying for the cargo company. I don't start my new job until next week. Take Friday and Monday off and go somewhere with me."

"Where?"

"Let me surprise you."

"I'll have to check my calendar."

"When was the last time you took a couple of days off?"

She laughed. "I honestly don't remember."

"See there. Doesn't that tell you something?"

"It tells me I need a vacation. This thing with Cavil…"

"Will wait," John said. "Everything will wait. Four days…Friday through Monday. Will you do it?"

"Yes, I will. I want to spend a lot of time just relaxing in bed," she said mischievously.

"With or without me?"

She smiled. "Oh, John, what do you think?"

...

Kara and Jared sat in a booth in the deli a block from their apartment. Kara wasn't hungry because she'd eaten late that afternoon and she now picked at her sandwich.

"Are you going to eat that or play with it?" Jared finally asked.

She pushed it across the table to him. "Help yourself. I'm not that hungry. I've thought about the courier thing. If that's what it takes to help the resistance, then I'll do it. But I think that next year…I think I'm going to apply to the Academy."

Jared looked disgusted. "I see you've been talking to Karl again. If he decided he was going to frak a Cylon, I guess you'd want to frak one, too."

"You can be a real jerk. You know that? Karl doesn't have anything to do with this. I've never given up my dream of being a Viper pilot like my father."

"Oh, here we go again with the I-want-to-be-like-my-father routine. He's dead, Kara. You need to bury him and move on. The rest of us have."

"My father was a hero," she said hotly. "He saved my life."

"Calm down. You're calling attention to us. I'm not saying he wasn't a hero, but ever since I've known you, you've been obsessive about him. Hell, up until a month ago all you talked about was how you were going to shoot Tom Zarek because you said he was responsible for your father's death."

"He was responsible for my father's death."

"Well Frogman thinks so much of you that he's going to arrange a meeting for you two sometime after Zarek gets out of prison which will be soon."

"He is? When did Frogman tell you that?"

"Last week. I was supposed to tell you but I forgot about it."

"Yeah, I'll bet you forgot about it."

"I did. I honestly forgot. What's going on with you, Kara?"

"What do you mean?"

"For the last week or so you've acted beyond weird. You hardly talk to me. You don't want me to touch you. What's going on?"

She hadn't planned to tell him like this, but maybe here in the deli was best. He couldn't do anything stupid.

"I've met somebody."

"You've met somebody." Jared repeated her words in an odd-sounding voice. "Meaning?"

"I met a guy, Jared. You knew this was probably going to happen. I tried to tell you after I got shot that someday I might meet somebody. Well I've met somebody and I want to date him."

"Who?"

"He's just a guy. I'm not going to tell you his name or anything about him."

"Is he your storybook prince?" Jared sneered.

Kara rolled her eyes and didn't answer him.

"Have you kissed him?"

"I'm not going to talk about it."

"Gods damn it, Kara. Have you slept with him?"

"I told you I'm not going to talk about it. And keep your voice down. People are looking at us."

"Do you think I give a frak if people are looking at us?" He stood up and took some paper cubits from his billfold and threw them on the table.

"I'm sorry," Kara said softly without looking up at him. "It's not like I planned for this to happen. I never wanted to hurt you. I'm really sorry."

"I'll just bet you are." He walked out of the deli without looking back at her.

She sat for a long time staring at the table. She didn't want things to end like this for them. She still cared about him. It wasn't anything like what she felt for Lee, but she still cared. She and Jared had been through a lot together, but she knew that he would never be able to accept her as just a friend. She had cried for him once and she knew, as she paid their bill and left the deli, that sooner or later she would cry for him again. She would cry for this man who loved her in a way she would never be able to love him. She knew how much it hurt to love someone who didn't love you the same way. She had once loved Hugh Connelly like that. She had once cried over him, too.

...

The next morning Kara stayed in bed until everyone else had left the apartment. Everything in her personal life was so frakked up right now. Tomorrow she would be back on the bike. While she rode, she could keep it at bay, but as soon as she got home it would come back. She was going to have to deal with all of it and soon.

She got up and wandered around the apartment. Maggie had stopped cleaning as obsessively as she once had. Not that Kara had ever expected that of her. She had just done it. Maybe it had something to do with how dirty a lot of the camp had been. Maybe it had to do with the bugs and the rats and not wanting to be reminded of the camp.

As Kara got some orange juice and a bagel out of the refrigerator, she noticed the sticky spots on the floor where something had been spilled and not wiped up. Karl or Jared? She wondered how dirty the place would have to get before either one of them lifted a finger. She thought of the stone house and what she'd had to go through to get Karl to help her. Guys were total slobs. And then she thought of Lee's apartment. There was nothing sticky on his kitchen floor. The whole apartment was neat and clean. So maybe all guys weren't total slobs.

After she ate she got the mop and a bucket out of the utility closet and mopped the kitchen floor. Then she cleaned the sink and stove and finally cleaned out the refrigerator. It reminded her of being back at the little stone house. The mindless work helped for a while, but she knew that if she hung around until Karl got home he would ask her about Jared. He would ask her why Jared had stumbled in drunk at midnight and awakened all of them by knocking the lamp off the table in the living room.

She didn't want to talk to Karl yet. In fact she didn't want to talk to him at all right now. He and Maggie must have worked things out because they seemed to be getting along just fine when she got back from the deli last night. They probably had done more than talk yesterday afternoon just like Jared had said. Guys were like that. A little rolling around between the sheets and everything was right with the world. He probably wouldn't want to move out with her now. Well, frak him, she was going to move anyway. If last night had shown her nothing else, it had shown her that she needed to be on her own.

She showered and dressed and left the apartment. She rode the subway down to the east waterfront station and walked the six blocks from the station to Fifty-Third Street and then three blocks down Fifty-Third to the pier. She looked around. There wasn't much down there, a couple of bait and tackle shops and some seedy looking restaurants. There was a man outside one of them washing the sidewalk with a hose. He glanced up as she approached him.

"We don't need any help," he said.

"I'm not looking for a job. I'm looking for Yolanda Brenn, the Oracle. I heard she has a place down here."

"Two blocks that way," he jerked his head in the direction she had just come. She lives above a shoe repair shop. There's a sign out front in the shape of a boot. Take the stairs up to the second floor."

"Thanks."

She found the shop without any trouble. She went inside the first door. There was another door to her left that led into the shop and a set of narrow, steep stairs straight ahead that went to the second floor. She felt like this place had been there a long time. At the top of the stairs was a metal door with many thick coats of brown paint. She knocked.

A robust-looking woman opened the door. She had deep bronze skin and a narrow headscarf that was wound through her abundant dark hair. She was dressed in a colorful, long layered skirt and flower-print blouse. Her dark eyes were bright and intelligent. She was obviously not blind. Kara tried to guess her age. He skin was smooth but she didn't seem that young, either. She could have been thirty-five or fifty.

"I'm looking for Yolanda Brenn."

The woman didn't speak, just stepped aside and allowed Kara to enter. There were candles of all shapes and sizes placed around the windowless room. The only illumination came from the many flickering small flames and the ambient light that filtered through gauzy curtains from two other rooms. There were no couches or chairs, either, just large cushions of many different fabric patterns and weaves. A dark-painted low table sat near one wall. On it were several small statues and stone carvings. A large blue pottery bowl was in the center filled with a clear liquid that looked like water. The air smelled of incense and leather and glue from the shoe repair shop below. The smells were not unpleasant but they were strong.

Kara said, "Shouldn't you go tell her I'm here to see her?"

"She knows you're here," the woman said in an accent that Kara didn't recognize. "Sit…there by the table. Take off your jacket."

Kara sat on one of the large cushions and put her jacket on the floor beside her. She felt strange, almost light-headed. It was probably the incense, but the darker-skinned woman didn't seem to be affected.

"How much is this going to cost me?" Kara asked.

"She does not charge anyone. If you wish, you may leave her a gift. You decide how much her words are worth to you."

"I don't recognize your accent. Where are you from?"

"Me? I am from many places."

"I guess I'm asking where you were born."

The woman laughed, a melodic sound. "I was born in the cargo hold of a freighter somewhere up there among the stars. My mother was a member of the crew. My father," she shrugged and laughed again, "My mother said he was a pirate, a ruthless man, a good amante, a good lover. That is important, no? For your man to be a good lover?"

"You take care of the Oracle?"

"Aye, I cared for her even before she lost her sight."

Kara heard a soft rustling sound. The gauze curtain was pulled back and Yolanda Brenn came into the room. She was a small woman, probably in her thirties, with light brown curly hair that was styled similar to the other woman's. It was tied around with a narrow head scarf that wound through the long layers. She was dressed similarly to her companion. A colorful paisley shawl was tied around her thin shoulders.

She walked over to the table and sat on a cushion opposite Kara. Only then did Kara see that her eyes were sightless. There were dozens of small scars on one side of her face such as might have come from tiny pieces of shrapnel or even glass hitting her with a great deal of force.

"Give me your hands," she said. Yolanda Brenn had no accent at all.

Cautiously Kara put out her hands. The Oracle's grip was stronger than she had expected.

"Ah," Brenn said. "Posiden's green-eyed daughter. You seek your destiny."

"Isn't that why everybody comes here?"

"Not everyone. Look into the water. What do you see?"

Kara leaned over and looked into the water in the blue bowl. "Nothing."

"Look again."

"I see my own reflection."

"You see deception. Your life today is based on a lie."

Kara was stunned. How could Yolanda Brenn know that? "It's…it's necessary right now," she stammered.

"Your destiny is not as the person you claim to be. Come back to see me when you no longer live this lie."

"That might be a while."

"Not as long as you think. Come back then. I cannot help you now." She let go of Kara's hands.

Kara got up and pulled some crumpled paper cubits from her pocket. She didn't feel like she'd gotten much for her money. Yolanda Brenn shook her head and Kara handed them to the other woman.

Before Kara opened the door to leave, Brenn said, "There are six important men in your life. One seeks you. One lives a lie, yet he is unaware of his deception. One loves you with a pure heart. One suffers because he will never have you. One is in your past and in your future. One bears the name of a god. He is your true love. He will help you when you are at your most troubled. Do not hesitate to turn to him. This is very important for he is the only one who will be able to help you."

Kara turned. "How do you…what made you say that?"

Brenn pulled back the gauzy curtain, "I only speak the words. You are the one who knows what they mean." She left the room.

"We will see you again," the bronze-skinned woman said. "Heed her words and come back. You will know when the time is right."

Kara carefully made her way down the steep stairs. No wonder they didn't have any furniture. Who could get anything up this narrow staircase?

She put on her sunglasses and walked out into the bright afternoon sunshine. The breeze was fresh and cool and coming off the bay so she turned and walked to the waterfront and then out onto the pier. She kept walking until she reached the end and stood with the wind in her face. Her head began to clear from the smell of the incense.

She knew who four of the men were. All but the one Brenn said sought her, and the one who was in her past and her future. The others she recognized. Leoben, who lived a lie because he didn't yet know that he was a Cylon. Karl, who loved her with a brother's pure love. Jared, who suffered because he would never have her. Kara firmly believed that Lee was her true love, but why had the Oracle said that he bore the name of a god?

Brenn had also called her Posiden's green-eyed daughter. The sea god's daughter.

Kara walked back up the pier toward the street and looked at the sailboats out in the bay, at the people fishing off the sides of the pier and the sea gulls circling noisily over a man who was cleaning some fish he had caught.

The gulls must have triggered the memory, a sliver of memory, but from when in her life she didn't know. She was being carried, a man was carrying her and there were the raucous cries of gulls. They pulled other slivers of memory to the surface…the ocean, the sun, a small child's footprints on a beach, the sand warm under her bare feet, her mother on a beach towel, a memory from her early childhood…the man, her father, picking her up again and carrying her into the water as she wrapped chubby arms around his neck and squealed with delight…John Gallagher…this man who loved her and had saved her…this man with eyes the color of the sea who had carried her into the ocean like a god who ruled the waves. Posiden. Somehow the Oracle had known.

She was his green-eyed daughter.