Chapter 49
Moonlight
During the fourth year of Cylon occupation Dr. Gaius Baltar was involved in an altercation outside a Caprican restaurant that became fodder for Caprica's tabloid press. Dr. Baltar refused to either confirm or deny that the shoving match caught on a bystander's mobile phone camera had been caused by his breakup with Natasi, the Cylon with whom he had been romantically linked for four years. The other woman involved was alleged to be a graduate assistant in Dr. Baltar's research lab.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
Lee gave up trying to sleep at two o'clock in the morning. Sitting up on the side of the bed, he put his face in his hands and though once more of Kara, of the way he had driven away without kissing her, without even telling her goodnight. He wondered if she was asleep now or if she was still talking to Karl.
Kara's feelings for Karl had to have been there all along and Lee had been blind to them. Maybe he hadn't seen it before because he'd never seen Kara and Karl together in anything other than a social setting, but tonight for the first time, Lee had seen the depth of feeling between the two of them.
Kara loved Karl. Not in a romantic way, but with a solid core of trust and concern that was as deep as, or maybe stronger than, any kind of romance could be. She'd called him her brother. She saw him as family. Lee finally admitted to himself as he sat on the side of his bed that he was jealous. And he was going to have to deal with it.
Lee knew that Kara loved him, but she loved Karl, too. Maybe that's what was harder to take than anything else. Kara had made a choice tonight, and that choice had been her best friend. No, that wasn't being fair to Kara. She had chosen the one who had the most need for her. Tonight that had been Karl.
And now they had the problem of Sharon's death and eventual return to deal with. He wondered how long it would take. Karl said it had happened four days ago. Was another Sharon already back on Caprica somewhere? How did the Cylons get a new copy from the resurrection hub? Put her in a Heavy Raider? Where would they drop her off? The spaceport at Delphi? Some secret location? How would she explain what had happened? Or would she come walking out of the ocean like a modern-day Aphrodite, born again of sea-foam and air?
Lee stood, pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and went into the kitchen. He poured a glass of milk, took it back into his bedroom, and logged onto his computer. He brought up the web site for the newspaper The Delphi Sun and scanned on the word drownings for the last week. He found two, neither of which fit Sharon and neither of which had a missing body.
He finally found two sentences dated the day before in the local news section under the tag line, Academy cadet missing from Merona's North Beach.
Sharon Valerii, a twenty-year-old cadet at Caprica's military Academy, disappeared and is presumed drowned at Merona's North Beach near the resort of Ciera Villas. The Delphi Coast Patrol called off the search three days after a fellow cadet reported Ms. Valerii missing following an afternoon swim.
It had apparently happened exactly the way Karl had said it did. Now the question remained…was it an accident or a suicide? Kara had gotten a strong reaction from Karl when she had suggested the latter possibility. And who should know better than Kara? She had been with Sharon on a daily basis for the last four months. She had watched Sharon struggle with events and seen her emotional deterioration as she dealt with the issue of Captain Reider and resurfacing memories of Troy. Sharon had also probably at some point realized what she was.
The previous week Lee had scanned the picture of the partially completed dome on Troy into his computer. He had meant to show it to Kara, but when she was over at his apartment, they seemed to forget about everything except each other. Now he brought up the picture again and read the description under it.
An innovative design will give the Troy mining colonists the ability to maintain their dome with a fraction of the cost and labor involved in the maintenance of older domes and without the need for dangerous exterior missions to monitor the dome's integrity. The external ribs are duplicated on the interior surface with lightweight and sturdy hollow tubes with enough width to allow access to the dome's airtight seals along the full length of each rib.
The picture was not that clear, but Lee could see one of the interior inspection tubes in the still-incomplete dome. Kara had been right. If Sharon had managed to get inside one of those maintenance tubes, she could have planted an explosive near the top. It wouldn't have taken much of a blast to destroy the integrity of one of the massive light-filtering panels that spanned the area between the dome's ribs. Even a small explosion would have compromised the air-tight seal and started a chain reaction that would have ultimately destroyed the dome…and killed everyone inside.
The investigation into the cause was still going on when the Cylons had attacked the Colonies, and those records were destroyed along with the Colony of Scorpia. Any reports and photographs that could have pointed to what was at fault were nuclear ash now.
Lee shut off his computer and lay down on the bed. He thought of the bond between Kara and Karl again and tried not to let it further affect his mood. He wondered what Karl would do when Sharon returned. Would Karl believe it then, or would he convince himself that his Sharon had survived? Gods, how could he accept her with even the possibility that she might be a Cylon? And what would Kara do? What would he do?
Lee closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his clock alarm was buzzing. He got up and groggily made his way to the shower. At least he had something to do at work today besides reviewing phone records. Major Parker wanted him to go over the evidence in Captain Reider's murder one more time, look at the scant forensics, and read the interviews looking for any new insights. That ought to keep him awake at least.
…
Kara's father poured another cup of coffee for both of them. "Okay, let me see if I understand what you've said. Sharon drowns and then a copy of her shows up alive in a port city over four hundred miles away."
Laura walked back into the kitchen after putting her sleeping son in his crib in the nursery. She turned on the burner under her tea kettle and stood with her back against the stove. "Your friend Karl is flying to Myonia to bring her back here?"
"I'll know more when he calls me," Kara said.
"You told him what you suspect about her being a Cylon?" John asked.
"I had to. It was past time. I should never have let him get in this deep with her before I said something."
"Do you really think you could have influenced his feelings? If he was attracted to her, it might have had the opposite effect. It might have driven a wedge between you and him."
Kara winced as she remembered Karl's words. They killed my parents! They killed my little sister! And you never said a gods damned word! I thought you were my friend.
"I probably drove a wedge between us by keeping quiet all this time. That was my mistake. If I'd said something to him sooner, he might not have kept dating her. Karl lost his whole family to the Cylons."
"Then why is he on his way to Myonia?" Laura asked. "If he hates the Cylons that much, why is he rushing to her side?"
"He loves her. And he doesn't believe me. She's going to come up with some crazy-ass story that will explain how she survived and wound up four hundred miles away, and he'll buy it."
"Do you think he'll tell her what you said?" Laura asked.
"It doesn't matter. If this copy of Sharon comes back to the Academy, I'm going to tell her what I think."
"Kara, you cannot do that," her father said.
"Why? Because we think she killed Reider and you think she'll kill me, too?"
"They are machines. They are programmed to kill. They do it with no remorse and no regret. Human life means nothing to them. I will not let you take that chance."
"I know she's a Cylon and I think she killed Reider, but she's…for the last two months she's acted as human as anyone I've ever known. When we first started rooming together, she wasn't jealous. At the dance she was jealous. Her emotions have evolved. That's human. The night of the dance she got mad because she thought Karl wanted to dance with Maggie. That's what the fight in the bathroom was about. Sharon was jealous. That's what I was trying to break up when Lieutenant Sydell walked in."
"Don't you think that makes Sharon all the more dangerous to you?" Laura asked gently. "You're very close to Karl, obviously. Aren't you afraid she'll turn that jealousy on you?"
"No. She knows Karl is like a brother to me. She knows how I feel about Lee."
"How do you explain her murder of Captain Reider?" Laura asked. "Certainly that wasn't sparked by jealousy?"
"I think that had something to do with…I don't know exactly how to say it. She saw Reider having sex with a cadet. The cadet was crying. Sharon walked away. I think it started eating at her that she should have done something."
"And that led her to kill him?" Laura said with doubt in her voice. "There are any number of ways she could have dealt with the situation other than killing the man."
"But that's just it. Anything else would have called attention to herself. That's what she was trying to avoid."
Her father asked. "So you think the murder was Sharon's vigilante way of righting a wrong?"
Kara shrugged. "You're the one who just said Cylons kill without regret or remorse and that human life means nothing to them."
"The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. How is the investigation coming?" John asked.
"You know Lee can't talk to me about it. All he said is right now under Caprica's laws that if they had proof Sharon killed Captain Reider, she would be executed without a trial."
"He's correct," Laura said. "And she should be."
"How can you say that?" Kara asked. "That's wrong. That's just as wrong as what she did."
"No, it's not," her father spoke up quickly. "They're machines. Nothing more. I don't care how much she looks like us, she's a machine. Their brains have silica pathways. They have computer data ports in their arms."
"Your father's right," Laura said. "We can't let a machine become judge, jury and executioner any more than we can allow a human to do it. She should pay for her crime."
"Crimes," John said. "If she had anything to do with what happened on the mining colony. Thousands of humans lost their lives."
"Don't you understand?" Kara asked, the emotion rising in her voice. "If you execute her, she'll just download into another body, and she'll remember what you did, and it would ruin any chance of getting to her, of turning her to help us."
"Turning her?" Laura said incredulously. "Surely you don't think you could turn her against her own kind."
"She loves Karl. And I think she looks at me like a friend. Don't either one of you understand that makes her different from the other Cylons? She's got feelings."
John said. "It's just programming. She's programmed to show certain responses to different events. That's all it is…programming. Don't let that fool you, Kara."
"I think with her it's different. I think she's evolving…changing. I think she could turn. She could help us. Leoben believes what the Cylons did is wrong. He's already on our side. He told me…" Kara realized from her father's expression that she had said too much.
"Told you what?" John asked.
"That they shouldn't have done what they did in destroying the Colonies. That they shouldn't be trying to create hybrids."
"When did he tell you that?"
"Who's Leoben?" Laura asked.
"Have you been back to see him?" Her father's tone of voice let Kara know how furious he was. "After you promised me you would stay away from him?"
"I never promised you I'd stay away from him. You told me to, but I never promised."
"Who is Leoben?" Laura said a little more insistently.
"He's a Cylon," Kara answered her.
"When did you see him?" John asked.
"Two months ago, during mid-term break. And I'm going to see him again today or tomorrow."
"Like hell you are. I will not allow you to…"
"Shut up, both of you," Laura said in her steely voice. "Someone is going to tell me what is going on. Am I to understand that both my husband and his daughter know of another Cylon and neither one of you could be bothered to tell me?"
"I told you," Kara said. "I sent you a letter last year. I just didn't name him."
"That was you?" Again Laura's voice held her incredulity.
"That was me. And don't blame my dad for keeping his mouth shut. I made him promise not to tell anyone. It was one of the conditions for going to see him."
Laura turned on John. "You've actually met this…skinjob…this thing?"
"He's not a thing," Kara said hotly.
"I've met him. He runs a business here in Caprica City."
"When? When did you meet him?"
"Last summer."
"How did you find him? How do you know he's a Cylon?"
"Quit blaming my dad for this," Kara said harshly. "I found Leoben. I shot him. I shot him the same night I helped two guys blow up a Cylon lab. Not him. I shot a copy of him. It was the copy that I met in the refugee camp."
"She's telling the truth," John said. "I was there, too. I was one of the guys who blew up the lab."
Laura sat down in a chair. "Oh, dear gods. You were both in the resistance."
"That's all in the past," Kara said. "We quit."
"And yet you didn't think it was important enough to tell me that you were…communicating with another Cylon…one we know nothing about?"
"Somebody kept an eye on him for a long time," John said. "He's harmless. He runs his business. He talks to people. That's all he does. Somebody still checks on him from time to time. Nothing has changed since we started watching him."
"None of them are harmless," Laura said. "He's probably a sleeper. They still want to exterminate us. Given enough time, they'll succeed."
"Aren't you forgetting about Commander Adama's plan?" Kara asked.
"Bill's plan may not work," Laura said almost bitterly. "You have way too much faith in something that depends on a thousand things going right and nothing going wrong. Even Bill has his doubts about this grand plan of his. He can't guarantee us a future free of the Cylons no matter how much he wants to. All he will wind up doing is getting himself killed and his battlestars destroyed, and that will bring the wrath of the Cylons down on all of us."
"No, he won't," Kara said angrily. "He will get rid of the Cylons. And I'm going to be with him when he does. Me and Lee both. We're going to be on the Galactica along with Commander Adama. And Leoben is going to help somehow. I know it. And I don't have too much faith. Your problem is that you don't have enough faith."
"I want my son to grow up," Laura said passionately. "I don't want the bombs to fall on Caprica again. I don't want a botched attempt to get rid of the Cylons to cost my son his life."
"Who says it's going to be botched? You. You're the only one who doesn't have any faith in the commander. You of all people! You should have more faith than any of us. He would never do anything that would hurt you."
Her father said, "That's enough, Kara. I won't have you talking to Laura like that."
"Somebody needs to talk to her. And to you, too."
"Lords of Kobol, Kara, zip your lips. Do you want to spend the rest of the day in your room?"
"What?" Kara almost yelled. "Now I get to go to time out because I told the truth?"
"John, let it go," Laura said. "She's been through a lot lately. And after what happened last night…"
"It's not the telling the truth part I'm upset about. It's her tone of voice. She's being disrespectful. She should know better by now."
Kara dropped her eyes, her defiance gone. Maybe Laura was right. Maybe she had been through too much lately. She shouldn't have gone off on Laura the way she had. She thought of the green dress. Laura had always been kind to her. Kara took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, Laura. I didn't mean to be disrespectful. Or to you, either, Dad. And now I'm going to my room."
Kara turned and left the kitchen. She wasn't going to cry. She was not going to cry. At least not in front of them.
Laura looked at her husband. "You handled that well."
"I'm going for a walk," John said.
"Oh, that's good. Your daughter drops the bombshell that there's not only another Cylon model and you both know who he is. You've both talked to him and now you're going for a walk."
"What else do you want me to say? I'm sorry you had to find out like this."
Laura felt a wave of anger sweep over her. "That's all you've got to say?"
"That's it."
"You don't think you owe me an explanation?"
"I don't have an explanation. He is what he is…another skinjob. I promised Kara I'd keep her secret. Kara thinks her destiny is tied to this Cylon in some way. The Oracle told her."
"The Oracle? What Oracle?"
"Kara and I went to see an Oracle down near the Fifty-Third Street Pier the same day she took me to meet the Cylon."
"You forgot to mention that as well. Or did you promise Kara you'd keep quiet about that, too?"
"No I didn't make any promises about the Oracle. It was just something Kara wanted to do. She'd been to see her before. Kara believes in her prophecies."
And you? Do you believe what a fortune teller told her?"
"I didn't believe, but now I don't know. I just went with Kara because she asked me to go. It was part of the father-daughter bonding we were both going through. The Oracle knew I was her father. She knew the name I went by in the resistance. She called Kara Posiden's green-eyed daughter. How could she have known that? And then the Oracle told me we were going to have a son. How could she have even known you were pregnant? She told me… How could she have known any of that?"
"All she had to do was look at your eyes and then look at Kara's to know you were her father."
"The Oracle can't look at anything. She's blind."
"And her blindness validates her prophecy that Kara and some Cylon have linked destinies?"
"I had him watched, Laura. I had him watched for weeks. He runs his business. That's all."
Laura felt hurt begin to replace the anger. "And you didn't trust me enough to mention any of this to me, either?"
"Trust has nothing to do with it. I made a promise. I gave my word to my daughter and I kept it."
"I'm your wife. You don't think I have a right to know something like this?"
"Your right to know wasn't the issue. My word to my daughter was the issue. Besides, it would have just upset you. You're upset now."
"Of course I am. Not because of what you told me but because you didn't tell me. Did you not think I could handle it? I've handled worse. I've dealt with Cavil."
"You were pregnant with our son. You've got a hard enough job as it is. You don't need anything adding to it."
The hurt gave way to anger again. "I can't begin to tell you how much this disappoints me in you. You lied to me."
"I did not lie to you. Not telling you something is not the same as lying to you."
"It was a lie of omission. My ex-husband omitted telling me that he'd had a vasectomy and look what happened. Given the circumstances not telling me something was just as bad as lying about it. Well, finish it. Tell me the rest of it."
"There is no rest of it."
"Yes, there is. What else did the Oracle tell you? You started to say something else and then you stopped."
"She said our son would map the stars on the way to Earth."
"What did she mean by that?"
"I don't know," John said in an exasperated tone of voice. "She says she only speaks what she sees. She doesn't interpret."
"Oh dear gods. You and Kara are listening to a…a madwoman? You are basing decisions about our lives on the word of a crazy woman?"
"Laura, please…" John took a step toward her, his hand reaching for her, but Laura backed up.
"No. Do not touch me."
She turned and rushed from the kitchen, down the hall into the nursery and quietly shut the door. She walked to the crib and looked at her sleeping son, at his beautiful cherub's face and silky brown hair. He was nearly two months old and she never tired of looking at him. She had never felt anything in her life like the love she felt for her child. And now a woman who claimed to be a prophet had pointed his future toward the dark of space, away from Caprica, away from her. She could not bear the thought of letting him go, this child that John's love had given her, a child that she believed had been conceived on a distant beach one night under the stars. Dear gods, was her fate to give him back to those same stars? How could she do that when she loved him so much?
Tears formed in her eyes as she suddenly realized what John felt for Kara, the depth of his love for her. Kara had come into his life first, years before she had. But John loved her, too. How could she doubt that? He had stepped in front of a bullet for her.
Her anger evaporated as she watched her sleeping son. Whatever his fate she wanted him to grow up free from Cylon rule. She wanted him to be free to make choices with his life, even if one of those choices was the stars. She wanted Bill Adama's plan to succeed. If Kara and some skinjob were part of it, then she couldn't interfere. She would have to find the strength to trust them. She would have to find a way to make herself believe.
She left the nursery and went back to the kitchen. John was no longer there. She went to their bedroom and heard the water running. Quietly she closed the door and walked into the bathroom. He was shaving, standing at the sink with a towel wrapped around his hips.
She walked up behind him and put her arms around him as she rested her cheek against the back of his shoulder over the scar where one of the bullets had exited.
He didn't say anything until he finished shaving.
"I was afraid you'd forgotten about us."
"No," was all she said.
He turned and put his arms around her. "I'm sorry things came down the way they did in the kitchen."
"You don't need to apologize. We've all been through a lot lately, especially Kara. No one her age should have to deal with the things she's dealing with."
"She's tough. She's got us. And she's got Lee. She's not in this alone. She knows that."
"We'll get through this together. I'm going to trust you on the Cylon. I'm going to trust you to let me know if we have cause to worry."
"You know I would never do anything that might put you or Kara or our son in harm's way."
Laura looked up and smiled. "Do you think you could postpone your walk for a little while?"
He didn't need to answer her. His body's response had done that already. Still, he managed to ask, "What did you have in mind?"
She glanced toward the shower and smiled.
…
Kara lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She had already tried Karl's mobile phone several times with no success. He must be in a ship now on his way to Myonia. She looked at the clock. 10:14. No word from Lee either.
He kept his mobile phone turned off at work. Major Parker frowned on personal calls. She debated. Call the switchboard at the base and ask to be put through to his desk or not?
She picked up her phone and called. When Lee answered, she said, "Hi."
"How are you?"
"Serving detention in my room."
"What happened?"
"Me and my mouth. I got into it with my dad and Laura."
"Does that mean you're grounded?"
"I don't know."
"How's Karl?"
"Gone when I got up. Sharon's already back. He's on his way to Myonia."
"Myonia? That must be a couple of hundred miles from where she disappeared."
"My dad says it's four hundred miles northeast of Delphi. It's a port city."
"How do you think she'll explain that?"
"I don't know. I'll find out when Karl calls me."
"Are we going to be able to see each other tonight?"
"Let me ask my dad." Kara opened her door and walked down the hall. John and Laura's bedroom door was closed. "I don't believe this. I think he and Laura are frakking in the middle of the morning."
Lee laughed softly. "What's wrong with that?"
"He's my father."
"So?"
"How would you feel if it was your father?"
"Okay, enough said. I'll call you this afternoon."
Kara walked into the kitchen and found a box of oatmeal cookies. She was munching on one when she heard Braedon begin to cry. She looked down the hall. The bedroom door was still closed. She would give Laura and her dad a break. She put the box of cookies on the table and walked down the hall.
Kara found Braedon's pacifier and changed his diaper. It wasn't as good a job as Laura or her father could do, but at least he was dry now. She fastened the snaps on his sleeper, picked him up and carried him into the den. If he was hungry she couldn't do anything about that despite the fact that one of his little hands had latched onto her t-shirt over her breast. She made silly cooing sounds and danced around with her brother in her arms. On one of her turns she saw her father in the doorway watching her. She stopped, embarrassed.
"He was wet," she said. She couldn't look her father in the eyes knowing what he and Laura had just done. "He's probably hungry."
He couldn't seem to look at her either. "Laura will be out in a minute. She's drying her hair."
"Do you want to hold Braedon?"
"You're doing fine."
"I'll go back to my room."
"No, baby. It's okay. I lost my cool. We've all been stressed out lately."
"Am I grounded?"
"No, you're not grounded, but I don't want you going to see Leoben, either."
"What about the Oracle?"
"I don't want you going down there by yourself."
"What if Lee goes with me?"
"If you can get Lee to go with you, then I don't mind. Or I'll go with you."
"No, Dad, that would just make Laura angry."
"I just don't want you getting so wrapped up in what Yolanda Brenn tells you that you make unwise choices. Nobody can really predict the future."
"So you don't believe I'm holding a future star-mapper?"
Kara glanced down at Braedon. He was watching her with his serious dark blue eyes. "Star-mapper," she said to him and smiled. The corners of his mouth turned up around the pacifier. Something melted inside her at his beautiful little smile. He was part of her dad just like she was. She walked over to the terrace door where the light was better. Could she see the slightest hint of green in those blue eyes? Not yet.
Laura walked into the den. "I wondered why he was so quiet. I'm sure he's hungry."
"Kara was dancing with him," John said.
Kara placed her brother in Laura's arms. "I'm going to take a shower."
The reason Laura and her father smiled at each other didn't dawn on Kara until she was standing in her own shower thinking about what she and Lee had once done in there.
…
Karl finally called her at 3:00 that afternoon.
"Sharon's okay," he said. "She's in the hospital. She was dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia, but she's okay. She's going to be kept overnight for observation."
"Where are you now?"
"Sitting in the hospital cafeteria eating a late lunch."
"How did she get all the way to Myonia? Surely you don't believe she swam four hundred miles."
"No. She got caught in an undertow and pulled out to sea. She said she kept swimming up the coast trying to get back in, and then a stronger current caught her and pulled her miles out. She finally got picked up by a fishing trawler. They just put into port early this morning."
"When did they pick her up?"
"Three days ago, I think. She's really hazy on everything. She can't even remember the name of the boat. She spent at least a night and a day in the water."
"Is she sunburned?"
"No."
"Think about it, Karl. She spent a whole day paddling around in the ocean and didn't get the least little bit sunburned. Doesn't that tell you something?"
Karl lowered his voice. "You're wrong about her. She recognized me. As soon as I walked into the room she said my name and started crying."
"She's playing you. Of course she recognized you. That's how downloading works. She's got all of Sharon's memories."
"There's no way she's a Cylon, Kara. She knew about us being at North Beach. She even asked me if I'd gotten all her stuff from her beach towel. She knew the name of the paperback book in her beach bag, for frak's sake. It's her. It's Sharon."
Kara sighed. "Of course she knew the name of the book. All that downloaded into her memory. What would it take to convince you? Seeing the other Sharon's body washed up on a beach somewhere?"
"Yeah, that's about what it would take."
"Okay. Well you just hang onto your delusions because that's what they are."
"I think you're the one who's having delusions. I'm going to find out who brought her in and what boat she was on."
"All that will prove is that she got picked up at sea. It doesn't prove she's the same person."
"You've got your opinion. I've got mine."
"Please be careful, Karl."
Kara ended the call and walked from her bedroom into the den. "I just heard from Karl."
Her father put down his book. "And?"
"He doesn't believe it's a copy. He thinks it's his Sharon because she knew the name of the stupid book she was reading at the beach."
"How did she get to Myonia?"
Kara related what Karl had told her. "She didn't remember the name of the boat that picked her up, though. If she was ever in a boat at all. Where's Laura?"
"She's meeting Fiona downtown for shopping and tea. She took Braedon."
"Anything good on television?" Kara asked.
"No. I already checked."
"You want to play the game?"
"Sure. Raider or Viper?"
"Viper, of course." Kara got the controls out of the cabinet and hooked everything up.
Her father laughed. "I always have to be the bad guy, don't I?"
"Isn't that what dads do best?"
…
Laura unfastened Braedon's carrier from the back seat of the transport and walked up the steps to the little temple near the Capitol Building. She had not been there since the birth of her son.
Elosha was at the altar. She turned as Laura took a seat in one of the pews and unfastened the straps that held her son in his carrier. She had wrapped him carefully against the cold and now unfolded the blanket from him. When she looked up, Elosha was beside her.
"My son," Laura said, the pride clear in her voice.
"A beautiful child. You have come about his dedication ceremony?"
"Yes, and to talk to you."
"You did not bring your husband?"
"He doesn't know I'm here."
Elosha smiled. "Secrets already in your marriage?"
"Not secrets. Yes, secrets. He held something from me. He had his reasons, but still…"
"You're hurt. I hear it in your voice."
"Yes."
"You're searching for a way to forgive him?"
"I've done that already. He thought he was protecting me by keeping a rather alarming piece of news from me, but the main reason I'm here is to ask your opinion of Oracles."
"In the past or the present?"
"The present."
"Anyone in particular?"
"I believe she lives or…works near the Fifty-Third Street Pier."
"Ah, Yolanda Brenn."
"You know her?" Laura asked in surprise.
"By reputation. I've never met her."
"Do you believe in her prophesies?"
"She's never made one to me. I have no first-hand knowledge."
"But others have talked to you about her. You have some sort of opinion."
Elosha seemed to be weighing her words carefully. "Pythia was a prophet, an Oracle at the temple in Delphi thousands of years ago. Her prophecies have endured the test of time. The tradition of prophets is as old as our religion."
Laura smiled. "You've very skillfully evaded my question. I'm asking you about a particular prophet in the current time."
"There are many who believe that Yolanda Brenn has a gift. Her ability to prophesy came when she lost her sight. The gods took one sense and gave her another."
"When?"
"When the Cylons bombed her temple at Delphi. She was once a priest just like me."
"So the Cylons are responsible for her loss."
"And her gain."
Laura thought of Elosha's words for a moment. "She made a prophecy about my son. I need to understand it."
"Perhaps you should go to see her."
"Perhaps I will. Now, about my son's dedication ceremony, would next Sunday afternoon work for you? He will be two months old on Sunday."
"I think two o'clock would be good."
"I would like for John's daughter to be part of the ceremony. Is that possible?"
"Of course. And invite your friends as well. They will fill our little temple with their prayers and their love. All the better for your son."
"I know you have others to attend to. I won't keep you."
"Is there anything else you would like to ask?"
"Can you tell me exactly how to find Yolanda Brenn?"
…
"This is the address I gave you?" Laura asked the transport driver.
"This is it, lady."
"Wait for me. Leave the meter running. I won't be long…ten or fifteen minutes."
Cautiously Laura got out of the transport with her son and entered the door with the sign in the shape of a boot above it. The shoe repair shop was to the left. Steep stairs went up in front of her. She gripped the handrail and carefully began to climb, all the while asking herself what she was doing there.
On the landing at the top she got her breath. Braedon had gone to sleep in the transport. Softly she knocked at the door. It was opened by a colorfully-dressed, bronze-skinned woman who beckoned her inside without a word.
"Are you Yolanda Brenn?" Laura asked.
"No. Come and sit. She will be out shortly." The woman had an accent that Laura couldn't identify. She looked into the carrier. "A beautiful boy, fine and healthy."
"Thank you," Laura said. She placed the carrier on the floor and sat on one of the large cushions. Beside her was a low table with a bowl of water and some small statues and stone carvings. The room smelled of jasmine and a stronger scent, a spicy scent. The bronze-skinned woman lit several more candles on the table and in holders nearby.
A curtain moved and a small, fine-boned woman with curly brown hair entered the room. She moved with a great deal of certainty for a blind woman, but as she sat at the table, Laura could see the ruined eyes and the scars on her face, the marring of a once-beautiful woman.
Without a word Yolanda Brenn sat down and held out both of her hands. Laura finally understood that she was to take them. The Oracle's hands were warm.
"You are a woman of great importance," Brenn said. "A leader."
"I…don't think of myself like that."
"You will be called upon to serve. You must heed that call. The future of two peoples rests upon your shoulders. But you are not here for yourself. You come about your child."
"Yes."
For the first time a faint smile came to Brenn's lips. "Posiden has a green-eyed son as well as a green-eyed daughter."
"Posiden?"
"The child's father."
"My son's eyes are blue."
"At the moment."
"You told my husband that our son would map the stars on the way to Earth. I need to know what you meant by that."
"Your husband spoke the truth. You don't believe him?"
"It's not that I don't believe him. I want to understand the meaning of your words."
"I told your husband I speak what I see. I cannot interpret. May I touch your son?"
Laura dropped Brenn's hands and moved the carrier beside the table. Brenn reached out and carefully touched the sleeping baby.
"His fate is linked to his sister. A dark force will try to claim him but will not succeed. That is all I see." She got to her feet.
"Wait, wait. What do you mean…a dark force? What dark force?"
"Your son will survive. He will map the stars on the way to Earth." Brenn left the room.
"No, wait."
"She has told you all that she has seen," the bronze-skinned woman said. "She can tell you no more."
"But I don't know any more now than I did when I came here."
"You should ponder her words carefully. She has told you much."
Laura was so distracted she could hardly think. "I...What do I owe? What is her fee?"
"Whatever her words are worth to you."
Laura dug in the diaper bag and found her wallet. She took out a twenty-cubit note and handed it to the woman.
"The transport is waiting downstairs for me."
"Come back anytime you wish and bring your son."
Carefully Laura descended the steep stairs, got into the transport and gave the driver the address of a downtown tea room. She took out her mobile phone and called Fiona.
"I'm running a few minutes late."
"Is something wrong? You sound upset."
"I've had a busy afternoon. I'll see you in ten minutes."
Laura looked at her sleeping son. Why had she gone there today? What had the Oracle meant? A dark force? The Cylons? Why hadn't Yolanda Brenn just said the Cylons? But they wouldn't succeed. Laura clung to those words. Her son would live. Her son would live to map the stars on the way to Earth.
…
The mood was subdued as Lee and Kara rode the elevator down to the underground parking garage.
"Where do you want to go to eat?" Kara finally asked.
"I don't care. You pick."
"Are you mad about something?"
"No."
"Is it Karl? Are you still upset because I asked Karl back here last night?"
"I said no."
"Then what's the matter?"
"Nothing's the matter."
"Liar."
"What's the matter with you? You got in your dad's face this morning and now you're going to get in mine?"
Kara had been standing beside him and now got in front of him, her face inches from his. "If that's what it takes to get you to tell me what's wrong."
"Back off, Kara. We do not need to do this."
Her eyes searched his. "It is Karl. I knew it, godsdamnit. You're mad at me about Karl."
The elevator door opened and they exited the elevator.
"This is stupid," she said.
"You're telling me."
"You're not going to do like Maggie did, are you, and accuse me and Karl of having something going on?"
"No."
"Cause you should know better."
"I don't think you and Karl have something going on. There. I said it. Happy?"
They got to Lee's car and Kara suddenly pushed him against the passenger door. She pulled his face to hers and kissed him. He didn't give in right away, but it didn't take long. A spark to tylium. That's what it was always like for them.
He finally pulled back. "Don't. Not here."
"Why? Because it makes you want to frak me in the car?"
"Get in."
He opened the door for her and then walked around to the driver's side. He got in and sat for a minute before he started the car.
"Is that what I am to you, Kara? Is that all I am to you?"
"How can you ask me that?"
Lee put his head back against the seat's headrest and closed his eyes. "I love you. I love you so much it hurts sometimes."
"I love you, too. You know I do." She took his hand. "Don't be that way about Karl, okay. I don't know how many times I have to say it. He's like a brother to me."
Lee could have denied his jealousy, he could have started the argument over with her, but he didn't. He didn't say anything and confirmed it with his silence. He would accept it. He would learn to live with it.
"When I was eight years old," Kara said quietly, "my father left. Not my real father, the musician Dreilide Thrace, the man I thought was my father. He just left. One day I came home from school and he was gone. He'd taken everything but his piano. My mother never told me why. We moved onto the base. I changed schools. I didn't have any friends. I got into trouble for talking back to my teacher. The alpha girl in my class was a colonel's daughter. She was pretty like her mother. I didn't like her and she didn't like me. I got into fights. I could hold my own against one or two of them, and they learned that they had to come after me with three or more. Every time I came home with a note from the teacher, my mom would punish me by sending me to my room and not letting me go outside. It was worse than being in prison. It was worse than a spanking."
"Kara, you don't have to tell…"
"No, let me finish. One day on the playground, one of the alpha girl's entourage shoved me because she knew it would start a fight and they would get to gang up on me and beat me up…again, and all of a sudden Karl was there and he told her to back off. Nobody had ever taken up for me before. He took me home with him after school that day. His mother fixed us a snack and he took me down to the big creek behind the base and showed me where he and the other kids played during the summer. I started pretending he was my big brother."
"You didn't tell your mom what was going on?"
"She was a Marine. She taught me to be tough and handle my own problems. I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that Karl and me, we go way back. His mom and dad welcomed me into their house like I was one of their own. I used to go camping with them. I used to hang out at their house a lot. My mom was fine with it. She never wanted a kid anyway." Kara laughed softly. "Karl's mom took me to buy my first bra after Karl told me the boys were looking at my boobs. My mom never even noticed."
Lee took a deep breath. "My mom mostly ignored me while I was growing up, too. She was too busy drinking and feeling sorry for herself."
"That's what Zak said."
"My dad was gone most of the time."
"So we both had frakked-up childhoods. Mine would have been a lot worse without Karl…a lot worse."
Lee let go then of whatever hurt or jealousy that was still bottled up in him over Karl. Twisting around in the seat he pulled Kara to him and kissed her gently, letting the kiss deepen slowly until he felt her tongue, the way it melded with his, the heat of it, the way it sent the nerve impulses racing though him, hardening him with desire. He finally made himself end the kiss and lean back in his seat once more. They were both breathing hard.
"If we don't stop we're going to do something stupid right here."
"Let's go back to your place and order a pizza."
They made it through the door of Lee's apartment. He resisted the urge to start tearing off their clothes and instead took Kara's hand and led her to the bedroom. They didn't need to turn on the lights. Thyone, the largest of Caprica's moons was full and risen well above the trees in the park across from his bedroom window. It cast a silver rectangle on the bed.
The moonlight became the canvas for Kara's body. She shimmered pale and silver on it. He wouldn't let her touch him yet. These moments, these next moments were all about her, her body, her passion. She let him do what he wanted with his mouth, his own body begging for release while he slowly took her nearer and nearer the edge.
"Oh, gods, Lee, please," she finally moaned. "Please."
He watched her face in the moonlight when he entered her, heard her soft, choked cry as she came. It was too much for him. He gave in.
When he could get his breath again he looked at her until she opened her eyes. She reached up and touched his face before she pulled him to her and kissed him, the last of their passion ebbing into the wonderful feeling he always had after making love to her, complete satisfaction coupled with complete bliss.
He started to tell her that he loved her, but realized that she knew it. The feeling was so strong that the words didn't have to be spoken between them. He rolled down beside her and pulled her against him. She settled her head on his shoulder. There were some moments that were like the moonlight, perfect in of themselves, like the painting of Posiden's beautiful daughter, perfection captured forever on canvas or the notes of a love song that haunted him, the perfect melody echoing like the beating of a bird's wings as it took flight into the night sky.
Her kiss had given him the gift of love, a siren's kiss, the call that he would always answer. He wanted to tell her about perfect moments, but he didn't know how to put it into words.
She finally did it for him.
"Do you ever wish," Kara said softly, "that just for a minute you could make time stand still?"