Chapter 47
Suspicions
Near the beginning of President Adar's last year in office, Dr. Gaius Baltar was appointed to head a new research initiative into engineered virology. Dr. Baltar refused to disclose details of his latest government-sponsored project saying only that it was as leading edge and challenging as anything he had done thus far in his career. When asked during an interview what had attracted such a large number of female graduate assistants to the project, Dr. Baltar replied only that their success would allow all involved to 'write their own ticket in the field of virology'.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
Kara Thrace sat in the cockpit of the simulator silently thanking her father for all the times he had made her go through the drills. Colonel Burgher was quickly checking off the gauges as she named them and told him what their status was.
"Very good," he said. "I see by John's notes that you're a sim ahead of the rest of your class."
"Yes, sir. I did the second and third sims on the same day. I didn't have any mistakes in the second one so he let me go ahead and do the third one."
"That's fine," the colonel said. "It will take me a minute for me to load the next sim. How is your father doing? And how are Laura and the baby?"
"All doing fine. He's coming back to work on Monday."
"I'm sure you'll be glad to see him. I know I will be."
"Yes, sir."
"All right, Cadet Thrace. The sim is loaded. You will launch from a battlestar today. You haven't done that before."
The space flight was routine. The training exercises simple and almost boring, but on her approach to the landing bay, she couldn't get her forward skid down. Two out of three skids down was worse than no skids down. What should she do? Retract the skids and try to land anyway or wave off the landing, go around and try again?
She waved off the landing, retracted the skids and circled for another try. This time all deployed as they should have, and she made the trap and her first slightly bumpy but passable landing on a battlestar. The sim ended green instead of red. She must have made the right choice.
Colonel Burgher walked over to the simulator. "Under what conditions would you not have waved off and tried again, Cadet Thrace?"
"Um, if I had a Raider on my tail, sir."
"Under combat conditions. Correct. You would have put your ship down as best you could. That's what we'll practice next."
"Great," Kara said under her breath, forgetting for a moment that it wasn't her father listening to her. She got to practice crash landings or rather emergency landings as they were properly called.
"What was that, Cadet Thrace?"
"Nothing, sir. I hope I can manage it."
"I'm sure you can, or you will be able to after a couple or run-throughs. Think of it as another drill."
Kara grinned. Her father couldn't have said it better.
When her time in the simulator was over, she climbed down. She wished her father were there for her to get a hug. She walked over to the desk where Colonel Burgher was shutting down the computer that controlled the sim.
"Did I do okay today, sir?"
"You did fine, Cadet Thrace. You're as good as I thought you would be."
"Thank you, sir."
"I haven't had a chance to talk to Lieutenant Adama yet. Offer him my congratulations on his mission. I hear it went very well."
Kara grinned. "Yes, sir. He did some fancy flying."
"Let's just hope our engineers have as much luck extracting some information from those Raiders."
...
On Saturday night Kara once again waited in the lobby of her dorm for Lee. Front Desk duty had rotated around to Shelley Sydell again. The lieutenant had on makeup. Her dark blond hair was clipped up as usual, but it looked like lighter blond highlights had recently been added.
The door opened. Lee walked in and went straight to the desk to sign the visitor log. Kara gave Shelley a full half-minute to talk to Lee before she got up and walked over to the desk. Kara was struck suddenly by the fact that when she wasn't giving orders, Shelley was a very attractive woman. No wonder Lee had gone for her.
Lee looked at Kara, their eyes locked and his face changed. His blue eyes lit and he looked glad to see her. They shared a smile. At that moment she felt almost sorry for Shelley.
"Ready?" Lee said as he helped her into her coat.
"As I'll ever be."
"Goodnight, Shelley," Lee said, almost as an afterthought.
"What do you think about her hair?" Kara asked as they walked down the front steps of the dorm. Her breath vaporized in the cold night air.
"I don't know. What about it?"
Kara smiled. "Nothing."
"Besides being blonder, it looked the same to me."
"She was wearing makeup, too."
"I've seen her wearing makeup before. I took her to the winter dance the year we were cadets…a couple of weeks before we broke up."
"Are you going to take me to the winter dance this year?"
"Not unless you invite me. I'm not a cadet anymore. I can't show up on my own."
Kara punched his arm. "Funny. I'll think about it. One of the cadets in my Basic Flight class has already asked me. Cadet Pike."
"What did you tell him?"
"You'll know if I ask you…or not."
"Maybe Shelley needs a date. I'm sure she'll be a chaperone. Admin needs all the help it can get keeping horny cadets from sneaking off to make out."
"I'm sure Shelley would be thrilled to ask you," Kara said playing along. "She's not too bad…when she's not being a bitch."
"There you go again. What you call being a bitch is just her doing her job. And we've talked about her enough. The thing Shelley and I had only lasted for a couple of months. She dumped me when I started dating Blaire. End of story. I was never in love with her."
"I'm not going to the dance with Cadet Pike."
"I didn't think you were. So is this an official invitation? Do I need to take the dress grays to the cleaners?"
"Yeah, this is your official invitation."
"I accept. Do I get to see you in a dress again?"
"If I have to wear one."
"A couple of times a year isn't too much to ask."
"Okay, I'll wear a dress just for you. Speaking of Blaire, Laura thinks Blaire has moved in with Billy."
"I don't keep up with her. I really don't care. Could we stop talking about my old girlfriends, please?"
Lee was right. She was the one always bringing up the former girlfriends to him. He never mentioned them and he never said anything to her about Jared. Lee didn't seem as hung up on the past as she was…except when it came to his father. Kara took her hand out of her pocket and slid it into Lee's gloved hand.
"I hope you're not getting tired of going to the student union on Saturday night with me."
"Kara, as long as I'm with you I don't care where we go. Things will be better second semester. You'll get to leave campus on Friday and Saturday nights until midnight and you'll get more weekend passes. We can start going to McGee's or out to eat."
"Or back to your apartment."
"Or back to my apartment."
"How are things coming with getting the Raiders out of the ocean?"
"They've got the first one. The engineers have it at a hanger out in the boneyard. The diving crew is working on retrieving the second one. My dad said Cavil came to see him late that Monday afternoon and told him he had to open an investigation into what happened."
"Is your dad going to do it?"
"Of course. I'm sure they can come up with some official-looking crap to feed Cavil."
"You're not going to be in trouble with the Cylons, are you?"
"I don't see how. I reported an instrument problem. They've got the recording of it. I'm sure it will be presented to Cavil like something happened to me and the Raiders at the same time. I just made it back to base and they didn't."
They got to the student union, went inside and found a small table. "Are Karl and Sharon meeting us?" Lee asked.
"I don't think so. Sharon was studying when I left. She's been acting weird lately."
"Define weird."
"Twice since we got back from mid-term break she's had a nightmare. One time she got out of bed and crouched on the floor. The other time she was thrashing and mumbling. Karl told me she had a couple of nightmares while they were at the beach. I'm almost sure now that she's…what we talked about. There's just no way to prove it."
"Why do you think that?"
"I believe she was on the mining colony of Troy instead of her parents. The first time she had a nightmare she talked about the dome cracking and everybody going to die. I asked Connelly what had happened on Troy and he told me it happened exactly like Sharon said. The dome cracked and part of it collapsed and let the poison atmosphere in. Everybody died. I think Sharon was there. I think she died and downloaded into another body that was put on Caprica sometime in the six years since the dome was destroyed. I don't think any of the skinjobs have been on the planet longer than six years."
"Why six years?"
"Because that's how long Leo told me he'd been running his business. I think Laura said that's how long D'Anna Biers had worked as a reporter, too."
"That's interesting. Why did you say downloaded? I thought they called it resurrecting."
"We're the ones who called it resurrecting. Leo says they call it downloading. It fits. They've got computers for brains. Downloading is one of the terms Jared used when he talked about computers."
"When did Leo tell you that they downloaded?"
"I went by to see him the first Saturday I was home for break."
"Does your dad know that?"
"No, and you'd better not tell him. I don't want to have this conversation with him yet."
"That was stupid, Kara. Why in the hell did you go see that Cylon? He could have…you had no way of knowing you wouldn't be in danger. You said he knows what he is now. Don't you do that again. Ever!"
"He's not going to hurt me. I'm sure of it. His destiny is tied to mine in some way. The Oracle said it was."
"And you took that risk because of something the Oracle told you? Some fortune teller out to make a few cubits feeds you a line of crap and you throw all caution to the winds and go visit a…a machine that now knows he's one of them?"
"Yolanda Brenn is not a fortune teller trying to make a few cubits. Everything she told me has turned out to be true."
"Lucky guesses."
"I don't think so."
"Kara, I do not believe anybody can see the future. Your dad doesn't either."
"He didn't until Yolanda told him he was going to have a son who would map the stars on the way to Earth. Why are you so stubborn? Why can't you believe just a little bit?"
"I believe in us, Kara. I believe in humans and our abilities to control our lives and find solutions to our problems. I don't believe some all powerful bunch of mystical beings dip a quill in our blood and write our fate on some celestial wall somewhere and give a few select humans the ability to read that wall."
"You think you know everything, don't you?"
"Let's not fight about this. Our time together is too short. And stay away from Leo."
"Since when do you get off telling me what I can and can't do?"
"I'm only thinking about you. I'm only thinking about what's best for you. Hanging out with…one of them is not in your best interest."
"I would hardly call one visit in a couple of months hanging out," Kara said angrily. "I'm rooming with one of them, for the gods sakes. You don't get much more hanging out than that."
Lee almost laughed. "That just seems…different somehow."
Finally Kara said, "I want you to do something for me, two things."
"What?"
"First, I want you to go with me the next time I go to see the Oracle."
"Even though I don't believe?"
"Even though you don't believe."
"And the other thing?"
"I know you have clearance to data a lot of people don't have. Connelly said when the mines on Troy were abandoned, we lost our biggest supply of tylium. I want you to find out exactly what happened. Find out exactly how that dome was constructed and what caused it to crack and collapse. I'm sure there was an investigation. Somewhere there's a record of it."
Lee nodded. "I could probably do a little investigating. Why do you think Sharon has started having nightmares about Troy now? It's been six years."
"Before we went on break, Sharon saw something…something she should have handled differently. I think it's frakked with her mind…or whatever you call their memory processors. I think part of her…programming wants to ignore it and part wants to do something about it."
"What did she see?"
"I promised her I wouldn't say anything."
"That's great. You tell me some of it but not all of it."
"She saw an instructor having sex with a cadet."
"Consensual?"
"It was hard to tell. The girl wasn't fighting but she was crying. Now drop it. I'm not going to answer any more questions."
"That's bad. That's way past the red line. Who was it?"
"I've already said more than I should have. I promised Sharon I wouldn't say anything."
"And your promise to a Cy…to one of them means that much to you?"
"Giving my word means that much to me."
Any further conversation they might have had was cut short as Karl walked up to their table. "Mind if I join you?"
"Have a seat," Kara said. "Is Sharon still studying?"
Karl nodded glumly. "How many other cadets do you think are studying tonight?"
"Not many," Lee said and smiled. "Even I usually took Saturday nights off when I was here. There's some kind of old saying about the effects of all work and no play."
Karl said. "Sharon's working on her paper for Colonial Lit. She's having a hard time with it."
"She's doing great in everything but that," Kara added. "I think she had a perfect 4.0 in math at mid-term."
"She did," Karl said. "Colonial Lit is the only thing she isn't doing great in. Mrs. Nagala has us reading stories that make you think. Some are deep. I'm not saying that Sharon can't handle it, but she asks me a lot of questions about why the characters in the stories do the things they do. I help her if I can, but I'm no frakking shrink."
"She does the same thing to me," Kara said. "Asks me questions about character's reactions. It's almost like she's a kid trying to learn about emotions."
"What's she doing her paper on?" Lee asked.
"The Trial of Darius Leander."
"That's heavy stuff," Lee said. "It's about a pacifist who kills a child molester."
"Because he molested the guy's child?" Kara asked.
"No, the main character doesn't have any kids. He's not even married. That's what makes it so deep psychologically. You get to his motives little by little as the story progresses. A lot of it is interior monologue. Pages and pages of it. It's hard reading."
"Holy Hera, and Sharon picked that to do her paper on?"
"Yep," Kara answered him. "Maybe that's what's giving her nightmares."
"Has she talked to you about the nightmares?" Karl asked.
"Not really. I asked, but she doesn't remember having them."
"That's what she said at the beach."
"I told her she needs to talk to the Academy's counselor. I think she took offense."
"I'll mention it, too," Karl said. "That is if she'll quit studying long enough to go out with me. You don't know how lucky you are, Lee."
Lee smiled at Karl. "Yes, I do."
As Kara and Lee walked back to her dorm, he put his arm around her and pulled her to him.
"Don't get too wrapped up in Sharon's problems. Keep your mind on your studies."
"And on you?" Kara teased.
He smiled. "When you're not studying."
They stopped at the bottom of the steps in front of her dorm. Other cadets and their dates were standing on the sidewalk waiting until the last possible minute to separate.
"I love you," Lee whispered and kissed her.
She put her arms around him and held him tightly. She wanted the feel of his body, but that was almost impossible through their heavy coats. She kissed him harder, felt the desire more acutely since she couldn't have him. She could tell he felt it, too, by the way his breathing changed.
He drew back finally and put his face against her neck. He breathed in the smell of her skin and let the desire wash over him. Gods, he loved her so much.
They couldn't seem to let go of each other.
"Come on Thrace," he heard one of the other female cadets call. "You're going to be late. Don't give Sydell a reason to bust you."
"Go," Lee said. "I'll talk to you later this week."
Walking back across campus to the visitor parking lot, Lee waited for his desire to stop tormenting him. Was it facing his own mortality against the Raider that had made his senses more acute and given him a sense of gratitude for life that he hadn't felt before? Was it seeing how quickly life could be snatched away, how quickly it could end, or was it something deeper than that?
He tried to remember his exact feelings at the moment his cockpit alarm had told him the Raider had a missile lock on him, but couldn't. Was that the effect of the adrenaline coursing through his body? Had that kept the feeling from registering? Or had his conscious mind blotted out the feeling…relegating it to some corner of his subconscious? Would it come back in a nightmare at some point in the future they way Sharon was possibly now dreaming of her death on Troy?
What he did remember in sharp and exquisite detail, however, was the way he and Kara had made love the night after his mission, how much time they had taken, how much he had savored every moment, every touch, each kiss, how he had held back longer than he thought he ever could. There were times he had the sense of touching something eternal with her, the completeness of being alive and in her arms as past, present and future merged in the fire of surrender.
And the stillness afterward, the peace and contentment as she lay in his arms. He remembered that, too. And the single tear that had rolled slowly down her cheek, the tear he had touched and then tasted. Salt like the ocean, like blood, like life.
"You came back to me," was all she had said.
He reached his car in the visitor lot and got in. He still wanted Kara despite the fact that his car was almost as cold as the shower he was probably going to have to take when he got home.
You came back to me. The gift of love...the five words she whispered to him and the salt of a tear.
...
"She can't help us," Gaius Baltar said to the small group in Laura's den. "In fact she denies that they had anything to do with the creation of any virus."
Laura turned the baby monitor on the table slightly more in her direction so she could hear her son if he began to cry. "By they you mean the Cylons?"
"Who else would I mean?" Baltar snapped. "I did what you asked. I tried to get Natasi to help. She denies their involvement. I don't know what else I can do."
"You shouldn't have believed her," Bill said. "She's lying."
"Of course she's lying," Laura said. "She's a Cylon. Do you really think she would admit to anything that…heinous?"
"Then why did you want me to ask her?"
"It was worth a shot," John said. "I guess your influence with her is not as strong as we thought it was. Now you can start working on a cure."
"Don't be ridiculous. You can't cure a virus."
"If not a cure, then a way around it," Laura said. "An anti-viral drug…something that will suppress the effect of the virus and allow infected women to get pregnant."
"You're talking about years of research. I'm not a virologist."
"Job security," Bill said. "The President has already signed off on the funding."
"I would need a much better facility than I have now."
"That's being arranged."
"I would need a highly-trained staff."
Laura smiled. "You would have the means to hire whomever you want. It would be your project. Simon wouldn't be around telling you what to do on this one."
Laura could see Baltar begin to preen. "I'll admit it's…very tempting."
"I think it's time for you to dump your Cylon lover," John said.
Baltar looked at him. "You have no right to tell me how to conduct my private life."
"You're too easy, Dr. Baltar."
Baltar's smiled. "I…date other women. You of all people should be aware of that, Captain Gallagher."
"It's Major Gallagher now," John said good-naturedly. "The point is you may…date other women, but you're always available when the Cylon wants you. What do you think she would do if you'd just tell her no, tell her it's over. You think she might change her mind about helping you? You must have something she likes or she wouldn't have stuck around this long. What is that old saying about what absence does to the heart…if they have hearts."
Laura looked at her husband. "We can do without the sarcasm, John, but in theory I agree."
"Is there a chance she doesn't know what another one of her copies was involved in out at CapGen?" Bill asked.
Baltar sniffed. "I don't know how all of that works…the multiple copies thing. I don't know if they communicate or not."
"Have you thought about asking her if she's in contact with the others?" John said.
"No. It's not my concern how or even if they communicate."
"Then how do you know you're frakking the same one?"
"John, that's enough," Laura said and managed to suppress a laugh.
Baltar ignored John and looked at Bill. "Where would my new facility be located?"
"At the Caprica Institute right in the heart of Caprica City. No long commute out to a research park. The newest and best facility in town."
"Near all the best bars and restaurants," John added. "I hear the Caprica Institute gets all the beautiful graduate assistants."
Laura gave her husband a look that said, Quit baiting Dr. Baltar.
"Well, it's certainly a tempting offer. I will give it a lot of thought. Yes, a lot of thought."
"I don't think you're going to refuse," Bill said. "Not if you want to remain on the government's payroll."
"I heard a rumor, Madame Secretary, that you might run for President. Is there any truth to that?"
Laura smiled to cover her shock. Where did this man get his information?
"What rumor mill are you listening to, Dr. Baltar?"
"My source is very reliable."
"So they do apparently share some things with each other. I haven't made a decision yet. The election isn't until next year. I don't know if I want to take on something like a Presidential campaign. My priorities are elsewhere right now."
She saw Gaius glance at the baby monitor on the table. He actually smiled at her.
"I should be going," he said. "I suppose you'll be in touch, commander, about when I move to my new research lab?"
Bill nodded.
Laura saw Baltar to the door and checked on Braedon. He was still sleeping. As she returned to the den she heard Bill tell John, "We got nothing from the first Raider's memory. All we found out is that the thing is part machine and part organic. My engineers didn't know what to do with it. I heard one of them suggested calling a veterinarian."
"Organic how?" John asked.
"I haven't been out there yet to look at it. I didn't want to take a chance that Cavil is having me followed. I don't want him knowing we're dissecting one of his ships. But basically what my engineers say is that it's metal on the outside and a mass of organic matter and tubes on the inside. They think they've figured out which one of the organs is the brain, but so far they're not sure how to extract data from it. They aren't getting any kind of readings from it at all. And they don't have a clue yet how it signals the basestar that it's a Cylon."
"Is there any chance the electromagnetic pulse was so strong it killed the thing or wiped its memory completely? Lee told me the pulse was turned to maximum when he hit the first one."
"There's always that chance. On Friday I was told that the engineers want to bring in a neuroscientist. I gave them the green light."
"What about the second Raider?"
"Divers from the salvage ship have located it. They should have it in a couple of days."
"Have Cavil and the other Cylons not made any attempt to retrieve their own ships?" Laura asked. "I find that really hard to believe."
"For one thing Lee gave the coordinates over a scrambled channel so they don't know exactly where to look and for another, the Cylons don't have any salvage ships. In fact the Cylons don't have any naval vessels at all. They travel strictly by air."
"But I'm sure they could commandeer one or more of our ships to do the searching for them."
John said, "They aren't going to miss two Raiders. They've got thousands on their basestars. I doubt it's dawned on Cavil that we could or would even try to retrieve his Raiders."
"This is good news for the plan, then?"
Bill answered her. "Very good…if we can figure out the Raiders. Right now, though, it looks like shooting them down will turn out to be a lot easier than finding out what makes them tick."
...
Lee walked into the break room at the base Tuesday morning to get a cup of coffee. Major Parker was standing at one of the windows that overlooked the parking lot.
Parker glanced around. He had a mug of coffee.
"Good morning, sir," Lee said.
Parker nodded. "Did you have an uneventful training mission yesterday, Lieutenant Adama?"
"Yes, sir. It went completely according to schedule, although I think my Raider escort was six inches off my wingtip the whole time."
Parker nodded again. "You can probably expect that for a while…all things considered. Cold today, isn't it?"
"Yes, sir. The weatherman is predicting snow before the end of the week."
"That's all my son has talked about since we heard the forecast last night. He's eight. I promised him we'd go sledding if it snowed. I was too busy during our one big snow last year."
Lee remembered the destruction of the Cylon lab the previous January and the snow several weeks later. So much had happened since then.
"Sir, I'm helping a friend with a research project. I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction."
"Shoot."
"Do you remember the mining disaster on Troy?"
"A year or two before the war. Sure."
"If I wanted to find out something about how the dome was constructed, where would I look?"
"The plans would have been approved by and filed with the Central Office of the Colonial Bureau of Mines here on Caprica. Beyond that I'm afraid I can't help you much."
"That's a starting point. Thank you, sir."
At lunch Lee got a sandwich and a drink from the machine in the break room and took them back to his desk. He logged onto the government web site and found the page for the Colonial Bureau of Mines. He searched on the word Troy.
Nothing.
He searched on domes. Again nothing.
He looked at the index of Colonial mining sites. Troy was not listed.
Had Cavil made the government take everything about Troy off the site?
He picked up the phone and called his father. His office phone went to voice mail. He called his father's mobile phone. When Bill answered, Lee said, "Did I catch you at a bad time, Dad?"
"I'm eating lunch."
"I'm sorry. I'll call back later."
"No, go ahead. I'm alone."
"I'm trying to find out something about the mining colony on Troy."
"It was destroyed when the dome collapsed six, maybe seven years ago."
"I know that. Where would I find the plans for the dome and who could I talk to about the structure?"
"What's this all about, son?"
"I'd rather not say over the phone."
"Dinner tonight, then?"
"Sure."
They met at Channing's. "You really like this place, don't you?" Lee asked.
"It's convenient and the food is good. So why are you looking into Troy?"
"I'm helping Kara with a research project."
"That's what this is all about? Helping Kara with her homework?"
"It's more involved than that. What about the government's records of the disaster?"
Bill confirmed what Lee already knew. "There's nothing electronic. I had my aide check. She's very good at finding anything on the government web sites. If it was ever there, it's not there anymore. There might be some boxes filled with records in a basement somewhere, but I don't have any idea where. I think Kara should just go with what was written in the news at the time."
"That's practically nothing. I checked. There aren't even any pictures."
"Access to Troy was tightly controlled after the accident. The media ships were kept away in deference to the families who had lost loved ones. What's this all about, Lee? This is more than a homework project, isn't it?"
Lee lowered his voice. "You've got to keep this quiet for now, but we think…we think we've found another skinjob."
"I know. John mentioned him. He won't reveal the identity yet because he's not certain. How is he involved?"
"Not him. There might be another female."
"D'Anna Biers? I know Laura suspects her."
"Not her."
"Another skinjob and you've been sitting on this information?" Even though his father kept his voice low, Lee could hear the tightly-controlled anger.
"That's just it. We don't know. Right now it's just a suspicion. We can't accuse someone on suspicion alone. That's why we're looking for proof. We need proof before we do anything otherwise no one on Caprica is safe. People would be accusing their neighbors because they didn't like their religious beliefs or their planet of origin."
"Spoken like your grandfather," Bill said. "What does this have to do with Troy?"
"Kara thinks the…suspect was there and died with the others. Then she downloaded into another body and is here on Caprica. Maybe a sleeper. She's at the Academy."
"I'll see what I can find out about the accident."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Are you doing all right, son? No post-mission stress?"
"I'm doing fine."
"How's Zak?"
"He's fine, too. I saw him at Zeno's late last week. He's got a new job now. He's doing PR for the Caprica Buccaneers."
"Good. I'm glad. I'd…I'd like to see him and talk to him."
"I'm not sure he's ready."
"Life's too short, Lee. A year from now I hope to carry out my plan. Once we set everything in motion, there won't be any turning back. It will end one way or another for me…for all of us."
"I'll talk to him. I can't promise anything, but I'll try."
"That's all I can ask."
"How are you and Mrs. Nagala doing or is that none of my business?"
His father hesitated a few moments and then said, "I'm seeing her occasionally."
"I'm glad you're getting out."
"I've missed seeing you, son. I'd like for us to start having dinner again…maybe once a week."
Lee nodded. He thought of the Raider and his brush with death. Life was too short for grudges. "I'd like that, Dad."
...
Kara woke with a start, her heart pounding. She lay for a few moments straining to hear anything over the blood thudding in her ears and thought suddenly of the frigid night her father and another man had blown up a Cylon lab. Was that what had awakened her…a dream about shooting two Cylons?
She craned her neck and looked at the window. The dark night sky was featureless, clouds covering the moon, blotting out the stars. She wondered if it was snowing yet. Her eyes slowly came to rest on the digital clock on her desk a few feet away from her bunk…1:22 in the morning. She had been asleep only a few hours.
She got out of bed. The room was cold. She shivered as she walked to her window and looked out. In the glow from the security light at the far end of the building, she could see a few small flakes of snow. There was no accumulation on the ground so it must have just started.
She shivered again and went back to her bed. As she settled under the covers, she glanced over at Sharon's bunk. It was empty.
Kara waited. Twenty minutes later Sharon had not returned. Kara got up and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. Sharon's window was open a few inches. Kara closed it and quietly padded barefoot down the hall to the big communal bathroom. Inside she leaned down and looked under the stalls. They were empty, but she heard water running.
Kara walked around the far end of the wall that held the long row of sinks. The showers were behind them. The water was running in the last shower. A pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt were on the floor. Sharon was standing in the shower, her hands propped against the wall, the water beating down on her.
"Sharon?" Kara said, and when Sharon didn't appear to hear her, she said it louder. "Sharon?"
Sharon jumped and turned off the water. "I think I got sick. I was in my bunk and then I was here in the shower."
"Throw-up sick?"
"I think so. I don't remember being sick, but I had to take a shower."
"Where's your towel?"
"I forgot it."
Kara hurried back to the room and got a clean towel from the top of Sharon's closet shelf.
"Thanks," Sharon said when Kara returned with it. She wrapped it around her and gathered her clothes from the floor. Kara looked both ways to make sure the hall was clear and they hurried back to the room.
"Do you still feel sick?" She asked Sharon.
"No, I feel fine now. Did I wake you up when I got out of bed?"
"Something did. I'm not sure what."
Maybe it had been the door closing that had awakened her.
"Go back to sleep," Sharon said. "I'm fine now. Thanks."
Kara got back into bed but wasn't able to go back to sleep right away. Half an hour later she got up and looked out the window again. The snow was falling much harder. The narrow service road behind the dorm was already white. Several flakes swirled against the window pane and showed their crystal form for a split second before melting against the glass. Kara shivered again and crawled back into bed. She finally went to sleep thinking of tiny white flowers no bigger than her thumb and a man who was better than any prince in a book.
...
Laura sat in the nursery with her son against her shoulder. He wiggled slightly, the tiny fist coming to his mouth as he made soft smacking noises. He couldn't possibly still be hungry. She began to rock him gently. The rest of the world seemed far away from her right now. She had come to think of her life in two distinct phases, the time before her child's birth and after. She knew in many ways her life would never be the same.
John walked to the doorway and beckoned her. She got up with her son still at her shoulder.
"Come look," he said softly. They walked into the den. It was light enough now to see that the terrace was covered in white. "It snowed over four inches last night."
"Are you going to drive out to the Academy this morning?"
"The streets have already been cleared."
"Please be careful."
"I will."
"You know what snow makes me think of, don't you?" She asked him with a smile.
"The first time I kissed you?"
"Yes."
He put his arm around her. "Me too."
"I think I realized that night my feelings for you were more than I was willing to admit even to myself."
"And look what it got you," John said with a smile.
"A husband and a son."
"You're not sorry?"
"Never."
He leaned over and kissed her cheek and then gently kissed the top of their son's head. "I've got to go. I want to give myself plenty of time to get out to the Academy. I love you, Laura."
"I love you, too. Please be careful. And wear your heavy coat. It looks very cold out there."
...
"How do you feel this morning?" Kara asked Sharon just before they lined up in the hall to march to breakfast.
"Fine," Sharon said, "better than I've felt in a long time."
Because of the snow, fatigues tucked into high-topped duty boots were the dress for the day. They emerged from the dorm into a white world. Kara had never seen the Academy looking so beautiful.
They were allowed quiet conversation at lunch and dinner, but breakfast was still a silent meal. Perhaps that's why the young lieutenant who came in and hurried to the faculty table stood out so much.
Kara didn't have to turn her head. The faculty table was three tables in front of her. She saw the lieutenant lean down and whisper something to Colonel Winters. The colonel immediately put his napkin on his plate and got up. Something was wrong. She felt it in her gut.
When she got to her Colonial History class, Hugh Connelly wasn't there for the first time that semester. Kara sat down in the desk beside Karl.
"I wonder what's going on?"
"I don't know."
"Did you see the lieutenant come get Colonel Winters at breakfast?"
"No," Karl answered. "I was facing away from the faculty table."
Cadet Pike was sitting in front of Karl. He turned around. "There were about a dozen people including a couple of MPs out in the woods this morning. I could see them from my window when I went back to the dorm to get my books. It looked like they were on the jogging trail. It was hard to tell with all the snow."
"Gods," Kara said. "Surely somebody wasn't trying to jog early this morning and fell and broke something."
"They wouldn't have needed MPs for a broken bone," Pike said.
Hugh Connelly walked into the classroom. Kara could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong.
"There's been a called assembly at ten o'clock this morning. You're to go straight to the Admin building and the auditorium at the end of this class."
Kara raised her hand. "What's wrong, sir?"
"I've been asked not to discuss anything. Colonel Winters will address the students at ten. I realize that concentrating on history will be difficult, but please try."
At the end of the class, the cadets left the classroom in twos or threes. Kara and Karl stayed behind. Connelly began gathering his lecture notes. He didn't seem to want to look at them.
Kara walked up to the desk. "What happened? You can tell us. Karl and I aren't going to say anything."
"Jeff Reider's body was found on the jogging trail this morning."
Kara's shock was so complete she couldn't speak.
"What happened?" Karl asked.
"I don't know," Connelly answered. "I got a call from Colonel Winters' aide just before class. He told me what had happened and said not to discuss it with the cadets. You'll have to wait for the assembly."
Karl took Kara's arm. "Come on. We don't want to be late."
They trudged in silence across the campus.
Karl finally said. "I thought you had Captain Riddick for PE."
"I do. Sharon has…had Captain Reider."
"She didn't like him."
"I know."
"She said he gave her the creeps."
"I wonder what happened to him? I wonder if he had an accident last night on the jogging trail and froze to death or something."
But even as Kara said the words, a horrible thought was forming in her mind.
They reached the Admin Building and climbed the steps with a number of other cadets. Kara looked around for Sharon. She finally spotted her near the front. Kara and Karl took seats over halfway back.
Colonel Winters was brief and to the point. "I regret to inform you that one of our faculty members, Captain Jeffrey Reider, was found dead this morning near the jogging trail." He waited while a low murmur swept the assembled group of cadets. "As of right now we don't know a cause of death so I am asking all of you to exercise caution in your daily routine. Be aware of your circumstances at all times and try to travel in pairs. If any of you have any information regarding this situation, I ask that you come to my office immediately after this assembly. Because this is a military facility, investigators from a special military task force will be on campus shortly and will be questioning all students who were in any of Captain Reider's classes. I expect everyone who is questioned to cooperate fully. Now, our Academy counselor and priest, Dr. Yates, would like to say a few words."
Dr. Cybele Yates stepped up to the podium. "There are no adequate words in times of unexplained tragedy such as this. There will, of course, be a memorial service. We will let you know as soon as arrangements are made. I urge all of you to attend. My office will also be open to any of you who want to speak to me about your feelings. I'm prepared to call in extra priests and grief counselors. Please don't hesitate to contact me."
Dr. Yates stepped back and Colonel Winters stepped forward again. "I know it will be hard to resume your classes today, but that is what we must do. You're dismissed."
When they exited the auditorium, the sun had come out. The snow was sparkling like a million diamonds. Kara closed her eyes at the brilliance and thought once more of tiny white flowers and the man she loved. He was on the special task force of investigators. He would probably be here today or tomorrow, but as much as she wanted to see him, the circumstances made her feel sick.
"I wonder why Sharon didn't wait for us," Karl said. You don't think she's getting ready to dump me, do you?"
"Why would you think that?"
"It's just…something has happened. Things aren't the same with us anymore. It's like she's putting distance between us."
Kara knew what Karl meant. Sharon had been distant with her, too.
"It's probably nothing," Kara finally said, but somehow she knew that Sharon was distancing herself from them because she was dealing with a discovery that had to be freaking her out.
What would anybody do if he or she woke up one morning and realized he or she was a Cylon…a frakking machine? That's what Kara believed had happened to Sharon, and that's what Sharon was now struggling to deal with. Her implanted memories were breaking down and she was having all kinds of problems dealing with it.
...
Just before noon that day Major Parker called Lee and several of his fellow interrogators into a conference room.
"We're going out to the Academy tomorrow morning and begin questioning cadets. There was a death on campus last night, an instructor by the name of Jeffrey Reider, a captain who taught Physical Education. The preliminary exam shows that he died of a broken neck. They've now ruled out an accident and are calling it a homicide."
"Why us?" Lee asked. "Does anyone think this is related to a terrorist group, sir?"
"We can't rule out anything at this point. I'll have a written brief for everyone before you leave work this afternoon. We'll meet here at 07:30 tomorrow morning. I'll have transportation for us."
After the short meeting, Lee followed Major Parker back to his office. "I'm sure you're aware, sir, that I date a cadet."
"Well aware," Parker said.
"Is that going to be an issue?"
Parker smiled. "Not unless she did it."
"I don't think the captain was one of her instructors…" Lee started.
"I was not serious, Lieutenant Adama. Of course if she is questioned for any reason, you will not be the one doing the questioning. But you're too good of an interrogator not to be involved. You relate well to young people and all of these cadets are young. It goes without saying that you can't discuss this investigation with Cadet Thrace in any way. And you should give me a list ASAP of any other cadets out there that you know. I'll make sure you don't get assigned to interview them."
"Understood, sir."
Lee went back to his desk, jotted down the list and took it back to Parker before he resumed his monotonous checking of phone records. The entire time, though, his mind was on the murder of an instructor. His thoughts kept going to the incident Kara had told him Sharon had witnessed, an instructor having sex, possibly not consensual, with a cadet. He wondered if one had anything to do with the other.
Lee went over to John and Laura's that night. Their moods were somber. John poured two ambrosias.
"This is the first drink I've had since we finished the Siren's Kiss. I don't want to smell like alcohol when I hold my son, but damn, this was a hell of a day."
"Where's Laura?"
"Napping. She sleeps when Braedon sleeps. For the two weeks I was off, I got up at night when he woke up. I'd change him and bring him to Laura to feed. I'd have fed him, too, but I don't have the right equipment. Since I went back to work, Laura doesn't want me getting up during the night. I'll admit being awake every couple of hours takes its toll. Laura knows I can't sleep during the day like she can."
"I thought she would have hired a nanny by now."
"We've talked about it. So where does the task force figure into this thing at the Academy?"
"We're going to start questioning cadets," Lee said.
"Do they think there's some resistance angle to the murder?"
"No. I think they're just using us because it's a military facility and they need the help. Have you seen Kara?"
"She came by after my last simulator session today. I walked with her back to her dorm because she was alone."
"I don't think Kara's in any danger. I don't think any cadet is."
"Why? What do you know? Is Parker privy to something Colonel Winters didn't tell us?"
"What did Kara say to you?"
"She has a theory about what happened to Reider."
Lee chose his words carefully. "Does it involve his…fondness for female cadets?"
"It does. Kara either couldn't or wouldn't give me a name. I gave her hell for not coming to me sooner. I think it finally dawned on her late in our conversation that if Reider's bad habit had been exposed earlier, he might have been out of a job. He might even have been in jail, but he would also still be alive."
"I don't think one of Reider's victims did this. I saw a preliminary autopsy report before I left the base this afternoon. He had no defensive wounds. He was clearly surprised by his attacker. From the angle his neck was snapped, it would have taken someone tall and very strong."
"A guy, then?"
"That's the assumption. One at least five feet ten inches tall give or take an inch or two."
John looked at Lee. "I'm sure at least one of Reider's victims has a boyfriend or a father…or another male relative. If you identify the cadets who were his victims, we're that much closer to the killer."
"Don't forget, though, that whoever did this got onto a guarded military facility."
"I never thought he came through the front gate. Do you know when Reider died?"
"The cold made establishing a time of death more difficult, but the estimate is between 23:00 yesterday and 02:00 this morning. That's another reason we don't think it was a cadet. They're in their rooms at night. No way one of them got out of a dorm without being seen. We're going to start questioning cadets tomorrow morning beginning with Reider's first PE class."
"Pay special attention to the class Kara's roommate is in," John said. "I did get that much from her."
"Thanks."
"Good luck," John said. "You know Kara has another theory."
"Does it involve her roommate?"
"It does."
"Motive, means and opportunity. That's what my grandfather said the prosecutor always has to prove. I don't see but one of those in Sharon's case. Motive. She saw Reider having sex with a cadet. The girl wasn't fighting but she was crying. Sharon walked away. Maybe her guilt and dislike of Reider gave her motive, but I don't see her having either the strength to snap his neck like that or being able to get out of her dorm. So I think Kara's wrong."
"She found Sharon in the shower between 01:30 and 02:00 this morning. Sharon said she thought she'd gotten sick, but she didn't remember it. All she remembered was getting out of her bunk and then being in the shower."
The impact of what John had just said hit Lee. "I don't want Kara involved in this."
"Since she's not in one of Reider's classes, she won't be. I'm telling you so you can ask Sharon the right questions."
"John, I won't get to interview Sharon. I gave Major Parker a list of cadets that I know. Sharon was on the list. Someone else will talk to her."
"Then this thing may never be solved," John said. "Even if you find the cadet or cadets that Reider was having sex with, if Kara is right, it won't lead you anywhere."
"My dad's helping me look into the possibility that a copy of Sharon had something to do with the disaster on the Colony of Troy."
"Kara mentioned that, too. I wish I'd discouraged Kara when she mentioned rooming with her."
"Why?" Lee asked.
"Lords of Kobol, Lee, think about it. If Sharon is a Cylon and she had something to do with both the incident on Troy and with Reider's death, and she thinks Kara is on to her, what do you think she might do?"
John had just voiced the thought that had been hovering in Lee's subconscious since noon.
"Kara's going to have to play dumb. She's going to have to back off even hinting to Sharon that she had any suspicions."
"That's exactly what I told her. Until they graduate, she is Sharon's roommate, nothing else. No questions, no poking around in Sharon's life, nothing."
"She'll have to leave that to me. I intend to pursue the thing about Troy. I think Kara's right. I think a copy of Sharon might have done it."
"Whatever you do, don't you put my daughter in danger."
"No. I'd never do that."
"What are we going to do if we convince ourselves she's a Cylon, though? What then? How do we handle it?"
"I've been thinking about that," Lee said. "For days now I've been thinking about it. I think we try to turn her. I think between Kara and Karl we try to turn her to our cause without letting her know we're on to her."
"You think she'd betray her own kind for us?"
"Not for us. Not for humans. But I think she might do it for a lover and for a friend. I think Karl and Kara are our hope of getting to her."
"I hope you're right, Lee."
"I hope I'm right, too."
Laura walked sleepily into the den with her blouse partially unbuttoned and her son at her breast.
"We've got company," John said.
"I'm leaving," Lee said as he got up. "I know you want to spend what's left of the evening with them."
John walked with him to the door. "Good luck tomorrow."
"Thanks."
When John got back to the den, Laura was sitting in her favorite chair. Braedon was at her shoulder.
"I didn't know Lee was here."
"He just stopped by to chat about what happened today at the Academy."
"Have they made an arrest yet?"
"No, but I don't want to think about dead instructors or Cylons right now. What's important is this beautiful new life we created."
Laura smiled as she looked down at their son. She couldn't have said it better herself.