Chapter 42
Sweet Seventeen
During the fourth year of Cylon occupation, the military's Academy on Caprica was shaken when a faculty member was found dead early one morning near the jogging trail just before the end of the first term. The death proved to be murder, and cadets were ordered to travel in pairs or larger groups around campus. The perpetrator was never caught.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
"Happy Birthday!" Everyone in the room shouted at once as Lee opened the door of his apartment. Kara looked around. There was Karl and Sharon and Maggie and Zak.
"I told you not to," Kara said to Lee and ducked her head in embarrassment. "You guys didn't have to."
"Yes, we did," Karl said before he came over and hugged her. "How many times do you turn seventeen?"
She laughed. "Okay, whose idea was it?"
"You turning seventeen?" Lee asked innocently. "I think you can blame John for something he did seventeen years and nine months ago."
"No, I mean the party."
Zak grinned. "We all came up with it."
"We're not through, yet," Karl told her.
He put his hands over her eyes and guided her into the kitchen. When he removed them, she saw a cake on the table, seventeen lit candles, and several wrapped gifts.
"Lee was baking all afternoon," Zak snickered. "I brought the candles."
Kara could tell by looking at the cake that it had come from a bakery. It was far too fancy for an amateur effort.
"Make a wish, blow out the candles, and then look at it," Lee told her. "Go on. I'm not the cook because I wanted us to be able to eat it, but I did have it made just for you."
Kara shut her eyes. "I wish…"
"No," Maggie said. "Not out loud. If you want the wish to come true you can't say it out loud."
"Okay." Silently Kara wished for a great year at the Academy. She took a deep breath and blew. All of the candles were extinguished except one.
"Too bad," Zak said. "You couldn't get them all at once. I don't guess your wish about my brother will come true."
Kara blew again. The candle would not go out.
Karl couldn't keep a straight face any longer and started laughing.
"Is this somebody's idea of a joke?"
Zak pulled the candle out of the cake, turned on the faucet and held it under the water. "Trick candle," he said. "Your wish will come true. Now look at the cake my brother is so proud of."
Kara looked at the surface of the cake. The bakery had imposed the picture of a Viper onto the icing, a Mark II just like she would train in.
"Keep looking," Lee said.
Standing near the side of the Viper was a little plastic doll dressed in a commercial pilot's uniform. The doll had blond hair.
"They didn't have military pilots so the uniform is wrong, but it's the thought that counts, right?"
Kara felt for a few moments like she was going to cry. "You guys didn't have to do this."
"You're not going to cry like a big baby, are you?" Zak teased.
"I wouldn't cry if you held me down and rubbed onions in my eyes," she retorted.
Zak looked at Karl. "Has she always been this tough?"
"I've only known her since she was eight, but yeah, she's always been the toughest girl I've ever known. Hell, she's tougher than most guys I know. Get her to tell you the story sometime of how she got her job."
Kara rolled her eyes. "Let's not."
"Let's do," Lee said. "You never told me the whole story."
Kara looked at Karl. "You like the story so much, you tell it."
"Kara was walking to a job interview through a neighborhood we'd told her to stay out of and she came up on a punk robbing the driver of one of MediFirst's trucks, so she put her mother's Mossinger against the dude's head and told him to drop the knife. He made the mistake of telling her she didn't have the guts to pull the trigger."
"Lords of Kobol," Zak said. "You shot him?"
"No, I didn't shoot him. And that's not exactly the way it happened. He told me he didn't think I had the guts or the bullets. I told him that it was his choice. He could walk away or die. I told him I didn't care one way or the other. I didn't. I think he realized that."
"I guess he walked away then?"
"After he called me a crazy bitch and dropped his switchblade which I still carry today when I'm on the bike. I keep it tucked in my boot." She glanced at Lee as she thought of Ackerman and knew Lee was also remembering the day they met. "A girl never can tell when she's going to need to defend herself."
"Tell them what your dad gave you for your birthday," Lee said
"A motorcycle," she said. "Jack Fisk had an older Ducarvo that he'd fixed up. I tried to buy it a month ago, but he told me he'd already sold it. He didn't mention that my dad was the person he'd sold it to."
"Cool," Karl said. "I know how much you love riding."
"I'm quitting my job in two weeks so I can go to the Academy so I'll have one to ride when I'm home. I can get my speed fix."
"A Viper will give you all the speed fix you need," Lee said.
"I'm almost a year away from flying a real Viper. I got to do something in the meantime."
"So let's cut that cake and turn on some music and party," Zak said.
"Here, let me cut it." Maggie picked up the knife.
"Good idea," Lee joked. "Kara's no good with anything but a switchblade,"
For the next hour they drank beer or ambrosia and ate cake and danced and talked and cut up. Everyone was in a good mood.
Eventually Kara went to the kitchen to refill her drink. Zak followed her. "So what does it feel like to ride a motorcycle like you do on your job?"
"Like nothing else in the world. A couple of weeks ago I filled in for one of the night riders. I took an emergency delivery over to University Hospital about two in the morning and afterward they didn't have another delivery for me right away, so I took the long way back to MediFirst, the loop out on the I-6. There's something about laying down over the bike, riding fast at night when the weather is warm and there's not much traffic. I'm going to miss it."
"Do you think that's something I'd like to do?"
Kara shrugged. "I don't know. You've got to be willing to ride in all kinds of weather, all kinds of traffic. You've got to be dependable. People's lives are sometimes riding on that bike with you."
"Then it's probably not for me. I don't want anybody's life depending on me. Did I ever tell you I think you're about the most awesomely cool girl I've ever met, and I hope you don't hold it against me for anything I've ever said to you or for being the complete frak-up I am?"
Kara grinned. "Are you drunk, Zak?"
"I never get drunk."
His slurred words told her otherwise. She took the bottle of ambrosia from his hand. "I think maybe you are. You need to get back to your date. If you leave her alone much longer, she and Sharon might get in a fight over Karl."
"Is that why she won't frak me? She has a thing for Agathon?"
"Me and my big mouth," Kara said.
"I thought maybe she was…you know…secretly into girls or something."
Kara rolled her eyes. "So if a girl won't jump in the sack with you on the first date, then you think she's gay?"
"I don't know why I keep dating her. It's been like…I've dated her like about ten times and all she'll do is kiss me goodnight." He snorted. "Not even any tongue. She won't even kiss me with any tongue."
Kara started laughing and found she had trouble stopping. "Ten dates and no tongue? I'll bet that's some kind of record for you. I'll bet that's never happened to you in your life. I'll bet that's killing you…you being so hot and all."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"How did you mean it?"
"I don't score with every girl I date."
"Just most of them."
He grinned and shrugged. "That probably says more about my choice of girls than it says about me."
"So why do you keep dating Maggs if she won't even share a little tongue with you?"
"Sooner or later she's bound to see my good qualities."
"Which are where? Behind your zipper?" Kara laughed again. He was drunk enough she doubted he'd remember their conversation in the morning. "You're a real bad boy, aren't you, Zak. A total bad boy."
"You like bad boys, don't you?"
It was Kara's turn to grin and shrug.
"Is Lee bad enough for you?"
She thought about some of the things she and Lee had done. She thought about the couch that night after the wedding reception and the shower the next morning.
"Probably way badder than you think."
"If you weren't with Lee, would you even consider going out with me?"
"I doubt it." She smiled.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't like being just another score to a guy. Maggs doesn't either. That's all girls are to you and that's why she won't sleep with you."
"Do you like me just a little bit?"
"Sure, Zak, I like you just a little bit."
"Did I ever tell you that you're the most awesomely cool…"
"And you're awesomely drunk. Let's go back to the rest of the party."
Later that night after the others had gone, Kara and Lee sat on the couch listening to the new CD that Karl had given her. The soft jazz of the piano and clarinet duo took her far back into her childhood.
"I don't know where the hell Karl found that CD. It's the first one Dreilide Thrace ever released. He's the man I thought was my father until that night leaving Picon. He was married to my mother until they split up when I was eight. I never saw him again."
"Zak made a move on you, didn't he?"
"No."
"Don't lie to me, Kara."
"He was drunk, Lee. He's just a big kid. He doesn't know but one way to relate to a girl."
They sat in silence for a long time. She could tell Lee was angry.
"Let it go," she finally said.
"Zak's got a thing for you."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to fight with you about Zak. There's nothing to fight about."
"I can tell you like him."
"I like big brown-eyed puppies, too. That's what Zak reminds me of. I love you."
"Have you ever thought about you and him?"
"No! If you keep this up, I'm leaving. We're not going to fight over your brother. I don't want to be with Zak. I want to be with you."
"Show me then," he said.
"It's my birthday. How about you show me what a bad boy you can be."
He pulled her to him and kissed her as his hand slid under her shirt, under her bra and over her breast. His fingers found her nipple and squeezed. She moaned softly, her hands reaching for his zipper.
He caught her hand and stopped her. "Not yet," he whispered. "You're the birthday girl. This is all about you tonight. You want a bad boy…you'll get a bad boy."
She moaned again, a soft little whimper. This was going to be so good. Oh, she knew tonight was going to be so good.
...
That same evening Laura opened the door to Bill Adama and Gaius Baltar.
"Gentlemen," she said politely, "please come in." Baltar eyed her abdomen and she wondered if he had not known until tonight that she was pregnant. She had not seen him in several months, not since that morning she was leaving President Adar's office.
She closed the door and led them into the den. John was standing near the bar. "Bill," he said. "Dr. Baltar. Could I offer either of you a drink?"
"I'll take a whiskey," Bill said.
Baltar quickly said, "Nothing for me."
John handed Bill the drink and poured one for himself. They all sat.
"I realize this is a bit awkward," Laura said, "but we wanted to make this look like a social occasion instead of a business meeting. We'd like to discuss your findings about the drug-addicted women in the CMA program whom you've been studying. What have you found out about why their birth rate has dropped so drastically?"
Baltar had lost none of his haughty attitude. "First I'd like to say I resent being summoned here like I report to you. If the President hadn't…"
"We know," Bill said impatiently. "Adar has blessed this meeting. We also have a directive from the Secretary of Health and Human Services giving permission for you to discuss this with us. She spoke with you yesterday. She's the one you report to if I'm not mistaken."
"This is far above your understanding," Baltar said. "This is medical research…not budgets." His lip curled in a disdainful smile as he made the thinly veiled dig at Laura.
"Humor us," Laura said sweetly.
"I hardly think I can teach you years of microbiology in ten minutes."
Laura said, "We're not asking for a complex medical dissertation. Bottom-line it for us."
"Very well," Baltar's smile was smug. "The blood of all the women I tested showed high IgM antibody counts, also higher than normal levels of interferon of the IFN-alpha type."
"In layman's terms," Bill said, again impatiently. "We all acknowledge that you're a genius. You don't need to prove it by showing off."
The smug smile disappeared. "All the women I've tested have been infected with some type of as-yet unidentified virus. I think it's an engineered virus. If the electron scanning microscope at the government lab where I'm working right now was better… " he made a small sniffing noise and left the sentence unfinished.
John spoke for the first time. "By engineered you mean created, not naturally occurring."
Baltar gave him a small nod in agreement.
"Created by whom?" Laura asked.
"Well now that's a very good question?"
"More importantly," John said, "what does this virus do?"
"It's quite stunning in its simplicity," Baltar said. "As I'm sure you're all aware, viruses can be very selective as to the type of cells they will bind with. Once this particular virus is introduced into the woman's body, it travels via the blood stream to the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, where it lies dormant until it detects the presence of a blastocyst."
"A what?" Bill asked.
"An embryo, although technically it's not an embryo at that stage. It's just a clump of fertilized cells, the beginning of a new life. The virus attacks and kills the blastocyst before it ever has a chance to implant in the uterine wall. The woman never realizes she's conceived. Other than that, the virus does the woman no harm...except when first infected, she would suffer mild flu-like symptoms for a few days. It's actually the perfect method of birth control."
Laura was horrified. "But it's permanent. As long as the woman has this virus in her body she will never be able to have children."
"Correct," Baltar said. "Not such a bad thing in the case of these drug-addicted women. They can't care for themselves, much less a child."
"That's not the point," John said angrily.
Laura looked at her husband and shook her head slightly before she said to Baltar, "How do you think these women were infected with this…engineered virus?"
"I don't have an answer at this point."
Bill said more impatiently, "Give us a theory. I'm sure you've got at least one of those. Is it like catching a cold?"
"No," Baltar said derisively. "It's not an air-borne virus. Someone can't sneeze on you and cause this. If that were the case there would be virtually no pregnant women on Caprica." He glanced at Laura again.
"How, then, is it communicated? And when did it start?" Laura tried to temper her own impatience with a proper respect for Baltar's obvious intelligence and knowledge.
"Something they were given…a drug, an injection, a contaminated needle. Possibly even an infected partner. There are dozens of potential ways. It could be anything that introduced the virus into their bloodstream. As for when it started, I estimate slightly more than two years ago based on when we started seeing the decline in birth rates late last year."
"Could it have been an illegal drug?" She asked.
Baltar shrugged. "Possibly. Although that would not be my first guess. Your friend, my new boss, has asked me to study another group of women who are getting Colonial Medical Assistance and whose birth rate is also dropping. These women have never used illegal drugs. I'm finding the same antibodies in their blood."
Laura said hesitantly, "Did any of them mention spending time in one of the refugee camps?"
"I don't know," Baltar said, although she could now tell his curiosity was piqued. "I don't recall that question being asked on their intake interview. I would have to say that no, I certainly don't think all of them were in a refugee camp. The older sister of one of my lab technicians is part of the study and I know they've lived in Caprica City all their lives."
"That brings us back to who created the virus," Bill said. "And why?"
"I can tell you who," John said, his anger coming through again. "The damned Cylons, that's who. And I can probably tell you why. What insures the survival of any species? Females having babies. As soon as there are no human babies, we have the end of humans as a species."
"That's utterly ridiculous," Baltar said, but his voice had lost its conviction.
"Is there any cure?" Bill asked.
Baltar shook his head. "I don't know. There are a number of antiviral medications, but I doubt they would be effective against something like this. An engineered virus would need an engineered antiviral and the creation of an antiviral drug is an incredibly complex process. I was asked to determine the cause of the problem, not find a cure for it. That's an entirely different area of research."
"We need to know how widespread this is," Laura said. "The only women who are even aware they have a problem are the ones who are trying to conceive…or the ones in Dr. Baltar's study group. We need to know how many women have been infected with this virus and how it's being spread."
"Well, it obviously isn't affecting everyone," Baltar said and she saw his eyes go to her abdomen again.
Suddenly Laura had an epiphany, a moment where everything seemed to fall into place, something that had never been a consideration for her. "Oh, dear gods, it's their birth control. The virus was introduced in their birth control…pills or patch or injection or whatever. All women on Colonial Medical Assistance are offered free birth control. Would it be possible to introduce a virus that way?"
"Yes…that's certainly possible." His eyes flared with something like excitement. "Yes, it could be introduced that way. It could be introduced via a pill, but a surer way would be a sealed patch or the contraceptive injections and implants."
"The same assistance was offered to the women in the refugee camps. The government provided free birth control. We knew what a terrible environment the camps would be to raise a child. We offered… we offered them free…oh, dear gods."
"Laura, this was not your fault," Bill said quickly.
"Kara," John was barely able to say her name.
"Was not on birth control in the camp, John. I know. She and I have talked. We've got to find out who provides the birth control substances to the government, which pharmaceutical company. It's only one. The contract is put out each year for bids. We…Health and Human Services…usually takes the lowest one."
"I can tell you," Baltar said. "It's CapGen Labs. We had to use them for all our supplies on…both of my projects. They've gotten the contract each year since the negotiations."
"CapGen. Doesn't ring a bell. I'll check them out." Bill volunteered.
"They're not publically traded," John said. "I keep up with the Caprican stock market. If a company is not publically traded, it can be a lot more secretive about who owns and runs it."
"If they have a government contract, I'll find out about them. Leave that up to me." Bill said with finality.
Baltar stood. "Well, this has been an interesting evening. I don't think I have anything I can add at this point so I'll be going."
Laura walked with him to the door. She lowered her voice, "If I wanted to have John's daughter tested to make sure she hasn't been infected, what should I do?"
"Call me and bring her to the lab. I'll draw her blood and test it since I know what to look for. If I see the antibodies, I'll call you. I would then recommend taking her to a physician for an endometrial biopsy. It will show the virus if she's been infected. That's the only absolute way to tell."
"Thank you, Dr. Baltar," Laura said.
He nodded and she closed the door behind him. She closed her eyes momentarily before walking back into the den. She knew that Kara had not been on any kind of birth control in the refugee camp, but she was now wearing a birth control patch. Laura prayed that is was not made by CapGen Labs.
John had just poured another drink for himself and one for Bill when Laura resumed her seat. Both men were uncharacteristically quiet.
"Well," she finally broke the silence. "I think you can say we have a problem."
"A big problem," Bill echoed her. "I never realized how big it might be until you said that only the women who were trying to get pregnant might have sought treatment. What about the millions of women out there who use some form of birth control and aren't even aware?"
"Gods damned Cylons," John said again.
"It just doesn't make sense," Laura said. "Lissa said Cylons need humans to continue perpetuating their…species. If they need human women to be their…their baby factories, then why render them incapable of bearing children. It makes absolutely no sense."
"Unless the Cylons have a way to get around the virus," John said. "Think of the kind of leverage that would give them if they were the ones holding all the cards. What if in a few years the only way a woman could have a child was to get implanted with a hybrid? What if there's something in the Cylon DNA that renders the virus harmless."
"Dear gods. Oh, dear gods. That's just too diabolical."
"We're talking about the Cylons," Bill said. "I think John's on to something. I wouldn't put anything past them."
"We forgot to ask Baltar about a test for determining who is a Cylon," Laura said.
"I think that's the least of our worries right now." Bill downed the rest of his second drink. "We'll talk to Dr. Baltar again. We'll ask him about a Cylon test some other time. Now, I'm going to follow Baltar's example and call it a night. John, when do you start at the Academy?"
"Next week. Faculty starts a week before the students."
"Looking forward to it?"
"I am. I'm ready to train as many pilots as we can. If tonight has done nothing else, it's shown me how much we need to be rid of the Cylons before they can cause us any more harm. We'll need the best pilots we can to go against them."
"I know we do, and we'll win this time."
Laura walked with Bill to the door. "It's good to see you again. Even if the circumstances are terrible. I'm sure that without your personal invitation Baltar wouldn't have shown up tonight."
"We'll have another chance to talk to the good doctor. Something tells me he knows more than he's saying."
"He's definitely more tied in to this than he's letting us know." She squeezed his hand. "Goodnight, Bill."
When she came back into the den, John was gone. She looked out on the terrace. He was seated on one of the heavy, padded lounge chairs. She went out and closed the door behind her.
"Are you all right?"
"I didn't want you and Bill to think I was eavesdropping."
"Oh, John. Please don't. Not tonight."
They sat for a while in silence. "I swear to the gods if Kara has been…harmed…I swear I'll put a bullet between Cavil's eyes if it's the last thing I ever do."
"I hope that's the alcohol talking. What would happen to me and our son if you did something like that? Do you think the next copy of Cavil would let us live?"
"You're right. It's the alcohol talking. I would never do anything to put you in any danger."
She got up from her chair and sat down on the side of his chair. He slid over and made room for her as she wiggled in beside him. He put his arm around her.
"Kara is going to be fine. One day in the future, she and Lee will make you a grandfather. You'll see."
"A grandfather," John mused. "I cannot wrap my head around that concept. I'm not even a father again yet."
Laura took his hand and put it on her abdomen. "Feel that? Your son begs to differ. He has a pair of very strong legs."
"Don't tell Kara that. She'll try to find a flight suit for him. She'll have him dressed up like a little Viper pilot before he can walk."
Laura laughed softly. "She's probably going to do that anyway."
...
When Kara wandered into the kitchen the next morning in her pajamas, her father glanced up from the newspaper. Laura had just poured herself a cup of tea and was carrying it back to the table.
"So how was the surprise party?" John asked her.
"You knew?"
"Lee told me."
"And you didn't tell me…you rat."
Laura smiled. "Who was there?"
"Karl and Sharon and Maggie and Zak."
"You six have been spending a lot of time together lately."
Kara shrugged. "We have a lot of fun. It's going to end in two weeks, though. We'll all have to start studying…well everybody except Lee and Zak although Lee said something about going to War College in the spring." She noticed her father kept looking at her. "What?" She finally asked.
He pointed to the side of his neck and grinned. Her hand flew to her own throat. She suddenly realized what he saw. Last night she and Lee had both gotten carried away.
"How bad?" She asked.
"Very impressive."
She quickly walked out of the kitchen, down the hall and into the bathroom. She looked at her neck in the mirror. He was right. It was a very impressive hickey. She would catch hell from everyone at work the next day. She wondered what was worse, wearing a long sleeve black turtleneck in the summer or letting them see the hickey.
Laura walked to the door. "I think I have a sleeveless black turtleneck if you'd like to cover that for work tomorrow."
"Thanks. That would be great. Lee's not usually…he doesn't usually…"
Laura smiled. "You don't need to explain anything to me. Several times I've had to wear a scarf to work."
Kara looked at her and Laura wondered if she had said too much. She doubted that Kara wanted any information about hers and John's love life. Suddenly Kara laughed. "I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'll remember that if he stays on my case about this."
"Kara," Laura said gently, "one time we talked about your chosen method of birth control. You told me you had a patch. Who makes it?"
"You mean like where do I get them? At the drug store. I have a prescription."
"No, I mean who manufactures them. Which pharmaceutical company?"
Kara walked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. Laura followed. Kara opened the top drawer of her dresser, took out a small box and handed it to her. Laura looked at the box. It was not CapGen. She felt almost weak with relief.
"Have your patches always come from this same company?"
"I guess. My insurance pays for them. Is something wrong?" Kara asked.
"No, nothing is wrong. I'd still like for you to go with me and have blood drawn for a test. I want to make sure."
"Sure of what?"
"We think…your father and I have reason to believe that some patches were possibly infected with a virus."
"A virus? Like chickenpox?"
Laura didn't want to unnecessarily alarm Kara, but she wasn't going to lie to her either. "Not exactly. This virus gets in the bloodstream and causes reproductive problems."
"What kind of problems?"
"Infertility."
"Isn't that what a patch is supposed to do?"
"This virus makes it permanent."
"How did that happen? How did a virus get on birth control patches?"
"We're looking into that now. It may be more than just patches that are affected."
"It's the Cylons, isn't it? It's the motherfrakking Cylons."
"We've all rather hastily jumped to that same conclusion. Please don't say anything until we have a chance to prove it."
"But you're saying that I'm okay. I haven't got this virus. How can you be sure?"
"I can't. I'm basing it on the fact that your patch comes from a different pharmaceutical company than the one we think is making the infected patches."
"What should I do?"
"If you can get off work for an hour tomorrow and go with me to a lab, someone will draw a small blood sample and test it."
"Sure."
"Your father is very upset about this, so let's not mention it until we find out the results. Do you agree?"
"I'm not going to tell Lee either."
"No, there's no point in alarming him needlessly."
When they walked back into the kitchen, Kara looked at her father and grinned. "Don't say a word. I hear you put a couple of awesome hickeys on Laura."
John started laughing. "I was going to see if you wanted to go with me and take the ship up this afternoon, but I'm not sure I can take your smart mouth for that long."
"Oh, please," Kara said. "I can zip my lips like you've never seen. Please."
He smiled. "I need another cup of coffee."
Kara took his cup and walked to the coffee maker. "More coffee coming up, Major Gallagher, sir."
John winked at Laura. "I'm finally learning. With Kara it's all about the right motivation."
...
Laura had her driver wait in front of the drab brick building that housed the government research lab. No wonder Gaius Baltar had a sour attitude. This building was in a part of town that had never been completely rebuilt after the bombing nearly four years earlier. She knew it couldn't compare to the state-of-the-art lab in the North Caprica Research Park that had housed his former facility.
A motorcycle approached and slowed down. Kara pulled it to the curb in the space in front of the car. "Watch the motorcycle for us while we're inside," she told her driver.
"Yes, ma'am."
Laura got out. Kara took off the helmet and swung her leg over the bike. "Could I leave this in the car? I'm afraid somebody will swipe it off the bike."
"Certainly."
Kara put the helmet on the back seat and unzipped the leather jacket. "This is a crummy section of town. I'm surprised the government has something down here."
"The rent must be right," Laura said.
Together they walked up the steps. Security was better than it had first appeared. Laura had to ring a buzzer and tell someone through an intercom who she was there to see.
Kara looked up. "Security cameras," she said eyeing the corners of the building and above the door.
The door buzzed and clicked and they were able to enter. They went to the security desk and Laura repeated her request. "We're here to see Dr. Gaius Baltar."
"Someone's on the way," the guard told her.
That someone turned out to be a somber-looking young man in a white lab coat. "Come with me." He sounded like someone had interrupted either an important job or his lunch.
Laura and Kara looked at each other as they followed him down a long corridor and to an elevator. So much for friendliness. The young man twice used a badge to get through doors and then a keycode on the elevator that took them to the third floor. They went down another long corridor before he stopped and tapped on a door. He turned and left them.
Gaius Baltar opened the door. The small office was crowded with file cabinets. A desk was pushed against one wall. Everything in the room was old, the two chairs, the small table overflowing with stacked folders and the wooden coat rack in one corner. The only new device was Dr. Baltar's computer. He also had a laptop sitting on his desk.
Kara looked around. It hardly seemed like a place one would find a doctor and scientist as brilliant as she had heard he was. She tried not to think about him frakking Lissa and the Cylon.
"I would really like to thank you for doing this for us," Laura said to him. "This is Kara."
He looked Kara over, taking in the black jeans, black turtleneck and black leather jacket. He even glanced at her feet and saw the black motorcycle boots.
"Rather hot today for leather, isn't it?"
"Not when you're on a motorcycle."
"Remove the jacket, please and sit. I need to draw some blood."
He pointed to the chair beside his desk. He had what he needed already laid out, the rubber tubing he tied around her bicep, the packets that held the alcohol-soaked wipes that he used to clean the inside of her arm and the syringe and two small vials that he used to collect the blood after he stuck her.
The whole thing took less than a minute. He was good. She hardly felt the stick. He withdrew the needle and pressed a clean gauze pad over the tiny puncture.
"Hold that in place for a minute," he said.
His touch creeped her out. "How long will it take to get the results?"
"I can go downstairs and run this now if you can wait fifteen or twenty minutes."
"I'll wait. I'm on my lunch hour."
Baltar gathered the vials of blood and left. Kara got up. "Sit down," she told Laura as she wandered around the small room. There was a yellowing chart on one wall behind the file cabinets. The Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements. She opened the top drawer of one of the cabinets. The folders inside were also yellowing. Everything in this room was old.
"He must keep it all on his computer. This stuff is years old." Kara heard footsteps approaching. "That was fast. I thought he said fifteen minutes."
"That's not him," Laura said. "It's a woman. Those are heels. Hear them click?"
The door opened. "Hello, Gaius, how are…" the platinum blond stopped in surprise. She was also dressed in black, a short black skirt and sheer top over a black bra. Kara thought she looked like the hookers who walked Sixty-Fourth Street near the intersection of Medea.
"Natasi," Laura said. "This is a surprise. I thought you had severed your ties with Dr. Baltar."
"Not all of them," Natasi purred. She eyed Laura's maternity suit. "Gaius told me you'd been naughty with that handsome pilot of yours."
"He's my husband."
"And my father," Kara said.
Natasi's gaze swiveled in her direction. "Handsome father, pretty daughter." She turned back to Laura. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"My visit is social. And yours?" Natasi asked.
"Mine is business."
"What sort of business?"
"None of yours," Kara said hotly. "It's none of a Cylon's business why we're here." She stepped around the side of the file cabinet. "Come on, Laura, let's go. We can talk to Dr. Baltar later."
Natasi picked up a pen from Baltar's desk and rubbed it on her cheek. She smiled. "He'll tell me."
"Frakking Cylon," Kara said. "And he's a frakking Cylon-lover."
Natasi picked up a gauze pad from the desk. "A blood test? Do you want to become a surrogate? Do you want to bear a Cylon child? Do you think you're good enough to bear a Cylon child?"
Laura saw the anger sweep Kara's face.
"Kara," Laura said sharply and grabbed her arm. "Don't."
Her words fell on deaf ears. Kara jerked her arm free from Laura's grasp and slugged Natasi. Natasi's head barely moved. Kara's fist felt like she had slammed it into a wall. She grabbed her fist with the other hand and clenched her teeth to keep from crying out.
"Oh, dear gods, Kara, stop." Laura jerked her away from Natasi and out the door.
They met Baltar at the end of the hall. "Leaving? I thought you wanted the results."
They stopped. "You have them?" Laura asked.
"I thought that was the point of my going downstairs to the lab just now…to get the results as soon as possible."
"Well?" Laura asked.
Baltar held up a small sheet of paper. "The news is good, Kara. No antibodies. You haven't been infected with the virus."
Laura took the piece of paper from his hand and put it in her purse.
"Oh," Kara said and felt tears form in her eyes as much from her throbbing fist as from his news.
"Thank you," Laura said. "We are very much in your debt. Now we really do need to go. By the way you have a visitor waiting for you."
"A visitor?"
"Yeah, the Cylon you're frakking," Kara snarled.
The shock clearly registered on Baltar's face. "Natasi is here?"
"You never quit working with them, did you? You bastard. You traitor."
"Kara, that's enough," Laura said in her steel-edged voice. "Thank you again, Dr. Baltar."
Laura and Kara rode the elevator down to the first floor and walked outside in silence. "Let me see your hand," Laura said.
"I'm okay. My hand is okay."
"It is not. It's swollen and already bruising. You need to get it on ice. You can't ride a motorcycle with your hand like that. Let me call John. He can get a transport down here and take the motorcycle back to MediFirst. I'll have my driver take you home. If we get it on ice this afternoon, you may be able to work tomorrow…that is if it isn't broken."
"It's not broken. I can still move it."
"You probably need to go to the emergency center for an x-ray."
Laura took out her mobile phone. When she ended the call, she said, "Your father just finished a staff meeting for new faculty members. He'll be here in about twenty minutes."
"People might call them skin jobs, but it feels like metal underneath. Damn, I've never hit anything so hard in my life."
"Bill said that the autopsy of the man who shot your father looked normal except that his brain pathways were silica and he had something in his arm that could be interfaced with a computer. But everything else looked like a human including his skeleton. I'm sure you left quite a bruise on Natasi's jaw. And you really must stop hitting people. John told me about what you did to Zak."
"He deserved it just like Natasi deserved it…thinking I'd let somebody put a thing like that in me. I'd shoot myself first."
"Kara, she was toying with you. She thinks humans are rash and undisciplined and I'm afraid you've helped confirm her opinion of us. She thinks we've strayed far from the divine…far from God's plan for us. I heard all about her ideas when I met with her months ago to discuss the course she plans to teach at the University this fall."
"Do you think she's toying with Baltar?"
"Who can possibly know what goes on in the mind of a Cylon?"
Kara snickered. "With that hooker outfit she was wearing I doubt Baltar was thinking about her mind. I'll bet he's frakking her on his desk right now."
"Oh, Kara, please," Laura made a face. "That is not a picture I want in my mind."
"Sorry. It is like totally gross."
Suddenly another thought gelled for Laura as she thought of what Natasi had asked Kara. Do you want to bear a Cylon child? "They don't want humans to have just hybrid babies, they want us to have genetically pure Cylon babies as well. Masters and slaves."
"Why would they need slaves?" Kara asked. "They've got their worker drones and centurions."
"It's just a thought. It somehow fits my idea of how they want to dominate us the way we dominated them for years. "
A transport finally pulled up and her father got out. He was wearing a regulation duty blue uniform, his collar pins indicating his rank of major, and on his chest were the wings of a senior pilot. Without a word John walked over and took Kara's hand. She winced and clenched her teeth as he examined it carefully.
"Nothing's broken," he said.
"How can you be sure?" Laura asked him.
"Because I've been in enough fights to know. A little ice and it will be good as new."
Kara grinned at Laura. "Told you."
"You two are so much alike it's uncanny."
"You think you can handle the bike?" Kara asked.
"I can manage it. Now you let Laura drop you at the apartment and get some ice on that hand. I'll be home as soon as I take this back to MediFirst and tell Jack you had an accident with your hand. Then you and I will talk about why you feel the need to keep punching people."
"I didn't punch a person. I punched a gods damned Cylon."
He walked over and got on the motorcycle. "Bring me the key, will you?" Kara walked over to the bike and handed him the key. He grinned, winked at her and said too softly for Laura to hear. "Way to go, baby." As she walked away, he said louder for Laura's benefit, "We're still going to have a talk when I get home. I want to hear all about it."
"Sure thing, Dad," Kara said and smiled. "I'll be glad to tell you all about it."
...
Their small group divided between male and female on their reactions to Kara slugging the Cylon. Karl and Zak thought it was cool. Maggie and Sharon were more reticent. Lee said he understood why she did it, but still thought she had made a mistake.
They were all sitting at Zeno's on Saturday night, the last Saturday night before four of them had to report to the Academy on the following Monday.
Lee said, "What you've just done, Kara, is to bring yourself to the attention of the Cylons."
Kara shrugged. "Why do I care?"
"I just think it's a bad move. You don't want to be on the list of people they watch. Think about it."
She shrugged.
"Well, I think it was cool and took a lot of guts," Zak said.
"It doesn't take guts," Maggie said. "It just takes acting without thinking."
"Which is what you need in the cockpit if you're head-to-head with a Cylon Raider. You don't spend a lot of time thinking about it or you're dead."
"I don't agree," Lee said. "It takes more than instinct. It takes skill and brains. You do the drills over and over until…"
"Until it becomes instinct," Kara said, "until you don't even have to think. Until you know what that Raider is going to do before it makes a move."
"It's not always that easy. You'll see," Lee smiled. "Just because you flew Burgher's kindergarten sim doesn't mean they're all that easy."
"She's going to fly circles around you, big bro," Zak said. "I'll bet my next paycheck on it."
"Like you bet it on the championship pyramid game?"
"Frak you," Zak said in a tone that wasn't too friendly.
"Boys, boys," Karl finally said. "Quit snarking at each other. This is not Battle Strategy 101."
Kara smiled. "Yeah, be cool…boys."
Lee turned to Sharon. "You're awfully quiet tonight. No opinions to throw in the ring?"
"I don't blame Kara for what she did. Nobody should make a woman have a baby. Having a baby is…it's a wonderful thing…a very personal thing. Nobody should make that decision for you."
"Whoa, what's this about having babies?" Karl asked.
"That's what started the whole thing…Baltar's Cylon slut asking me if I wanted to have a Cylon kid." Kara answered him.
"You don't know that she's a slut," Maggie snickered. "Maybe she loves him."
Kara said. "Yeah, right. Maybe somebody sat down at a keyboard in the Cylon basestar and keyed, Fall in love with that creepy horndog Gaius Baltar. And then they downloaded it into her computer brain and suddenly she thinks she loves him."
Everyone laughed except Sharon. "I don't think you're being fair to her," she said.
Karl was the one who commented, and he did it with more emotion than Kara had seen him show in a long time.
"Fair? Fair to a Cylon? Since when were they fair to us? Since they killed billions of us? Since they killed my parents and Maggie's parents and my sister and Kara's mom?"
"I didn't mean to start anything," Sharon said contritely and rubbed her hand briefly across her forehead.
Lee said. "Let's forget all this Cylon stuff and have a good time tonight. You kids have got to start school on Monday."
"Us kids?" Kara playfully punched him on the arm. "Oh, you're such an old man, are you?"
"No, I'm thinking of myself as a bad boy tonight." They shared a look that made Kara suddenly want to be back at his apartment alone with him.
"Lords of Kobol," Zak said, "if you're a bad boy, I'm totally beyond redemption."
Kara smiled. "I'm not giving up on you yet, Zak. One day you'll realize that there's more to life than drinking ambrosia and frakking girls."
"There is?" Zak managed to get the mock surprise just perfect.
They all laughed, the subject of Cylons momentarily forgotten.
...
Everything Kara took to the Academy on Monday morning fit into her big duffle bag. She would get her uniforms later that day. All she brought were an extra pair of jeans, some t-shirts, her underwear and a few personal items like hairbrush and shampoo. She looked around the small room with its two metal frame single beds. There were two small closets, two small dressers and two modular study desks. The Academy-provided linens, blanket and pillow were stacked on the foot of her bed. She picked up the pillow, sniffed it and wished she had brought hers from home.
She remembered the page of instructions and the diagrams telling her how to make up her bed. She snickered at the thought. Who didn't know how to make up a bed? Step one: Spread the sheet evenly over the surface of the mattress. There was a cute hand-drawn diagram showing a sheet overhanging a mattress evenly on both sides. Step two: Tuck the top and bottom overlay tightly and smoothly under the mattress. There were eight steps in all. She snorted. It reminded her of the way her mother had inspected her bed back on Picon. She read the last sentence. Bunks are subject to inspection at any time daily when cadet is not in said bunk. Mentally she thanked her mother.
Sharon had not yet arrived and Kara wondered if she was upset about the subject of their conversation on Saturday night. Why had Sharon defended the Cylon? Was it because Sharon was defending a sister as Laura said Cavil called them? Or was it because she didn't truly understand that a Cylon was a machine, a programmed machine? Being fair to a Cylon was like being fair to her calculator or her computer.
Then Kara thought of Leoben and the lonely existence he seemed to live. Did Leoben have feelings? Did he have feelings when he thought he was a human? Was he different now that he knew he was a Cylon? She had finally asked her father what his contact had found out about Leoben. There was nothing to report, her father had said. Leoben lived above the bookstore and rarely went anywhere except to the bank, a corner grocery and occasionally to a small diner. He never went to the park or to a concert or to the Caprica Gallery of Art. He sold his books and kept to himself.
The only interesting fact that had emerged from weeks of watching him was that D'Anna Biers, the reporter Laura suspected of being another Cylon, had twice visited the bookstore, but she had purchased books each time so it might have been a coincidence. After weeks of having Leoben watched and seeing nothing suspicious, John had finally called it off.
Kara had not been back to the bookstore since the day she and her father had been there. She hadn't wanted John's contact to see her visiting for one thing, but more importantly, she didn't know what to say to Leoben now. She only knew that when the time was right for her to go back, she would know it.
She was sitting deep in thought, cross-legged on her bare mattress, when she heard a sound and looked up. Sharon had just come in with a big bag slung over one shoulder and pulling another one. She dropped the shoulder bag on her mattress.
"Wow," Sharon said. "You're already unpacked and everything."
"I came early with my dad. He had to be here for a faculty breakfast and I didn't see any reason to get a transport later. He finally bought a car a couple of weeks ago. He sat down and did the math about how much it would cost to get a transport out here five days a week as opposed to having a car and decided the car was cheaper. He said they would need it to carry all the baby stuff around anyway."
Sharon began to unpack. "When's their baby due?"
"November sixteenth. Laura says plus or minus a week."
"I know you're excited."
Kara smiled. "Not nearly as excited as my dad and Laura."
Sharon sighed deeply. "Someday I hope…"
She didn't finish the sentence and Kara decided she'd better remind Karl of what would happen if he got Sharon pregnant. They'd both have to leave the Academy.
Her father had warned her about the long lines she'd have to stand in. They stood in line to get their uniforms, to get their books, and to get lunch in the cafeteria. That afternoon they stood in line dressed in their new uniforms…light blue shirts and dark blue trousers…to file into the opening assembly where Colonel Charles Winters welcomed their class and introduced the faculty to them. Besides Hugh Connelly, there was only one other faculty member in civilian clothes, a beautiful dark-haired woman wearing a business suit who would be teaching Colonial Literature. When she stood briefly during Colonel Winter's introduction, Kara realized with a shock that it was Mrs. Peele. She was so surprised that she missed the woman's real name.
She looked at the way the faculty members were seated on the stage, Hugh Connelly was on one side of her father and Mrs. Peele on the other. Colonel Winters introduced the two physical education teachers and mentioned that they were both former drill instructors like Lee had said. Captain Reider, a male and Captain Riddick, a female. Kara wasn't sure who looked tougher.
When the assembly was over and they were filing out, Kara asked Sharon, "Who is the civilian woman who is teaching Colonial Lit? I didn't catch her name."
"That's Fiona Nagala. Her husband was Admiral Nagala. He died when the Atlantia was destroyed over Picon."
So the admiral's widow was a member of the resistance. Kara hoped she didn't have her as an instructor. Having Connelly for Colonial History was going to be hard enough, but she had no choice. Connelly was the only one teaching the course. When she got back to the room after dinner that night, she got her schedule and compared it to the class grid with the instructor's names.
"I've got Mrs. Nagala for Colonial Lit," Kara moaned.
"What's so bad about that?" Sharon asked.
"She looks like she'll be hard."
"I think she looks very nice."
Kara sighed and thought about her birthday wish that she would have a good year at the Academy. She looked at the rest of her instructors on the grid. She had the woman, Captain Riddick, for PE. That was fine. Her own mother had been a drill instructor in the Marines for a while. Kara knew most of her drills by heart. Sometimes when she misbehaved her mother would bark out an order. Drop and give me thirty pushups, now, soldier. That's an order. And Kara would obey. Thirty pushups, yes, sir. She was glad she had been working out for the last two months.
That night as she lay in her narrow new bed trying to get accustomed to the starched sheets, so different from the silky soft sheets on her bed at Laura's apartment, Kara thought of her mother again. She wondered what her mother would think of her now, going to the Academy and learning to fly a Viper like her father.
I'm going to take out as many Cylons as I can for you, Mom. She saw her mother again as she stood in the doorway of the ship that last night on Picon. It didn't matter what Zak Adama had said. Her mother would always be a hero to her.
So many things had changed in her life in a year. Last September she was still struggling to adapt to life in Caprica City after nearly three years in the refugee camp. She still thought her father was dead. She was learning to ride a motorcycle. And she was still dreaming of finding a blue-eyed prince with wings over his heart.
Now she had her father again…and a new mother…and a baby brother on the way. She was at the Academy like she had wanted to be since she was a little girl. And out of millions of people, she had found her blue-eyed prince, Apollo, the sun god. She almost pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
Kara smiled and thought of the birthday card her father had given her two weeks earlier, the card that meant more to her than the motorcycle. She thought of what he had written inside, words she had read so many times she had memorized them.
To my daughter, not my baby any longer, but who has always owned my heart, I give you something that is part of me, something that means more to me than I can express. As you go to the Academy and train to become a Viper pilot, I give you my call sign with the hope that it will bring you the luck it brought me. I give you 'Starbuck'.
She touched the pendant that she now wore around her neck on a gold chain, the pendant Lee had given her, the small round disk, the golden sun with tiny stars engraved around the outer edge and her initial, K, in the center. He swore to her that he and John had not discussed the gifts they were going to give her, but she still wondered.
They could not have given her anything more perfect.
The sun and stars. Her name and his.
Starbuck and Apollo.