Chapter 54
Muse
In a quiet ceremony early in the spring of President Adar's last year in office, Commander William Adama, Adar's senior military advisor for the last four years, was promoted to Admiral. A small number of persons attended the ceremony including Admiral Adama's two sons and the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin, who had earlier announced her intention to run for President as Adar's successor.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
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"Tell me again why we have to do this." Kara said to her father as they waited in the den for Laura to finish getting ready.
Kara had Braedon in her arms. He was dressed in a soft, blue one-piece outfit with three blocks of embroidered ABCs on the front of it.
"Laura promised D'Anna Biers that if we'd let her interview us and let her photographer get a couple of exclusive photos, then she would try to keep the others from getting too intrusive in our lives."
So that's why her father looked so good today, casual and yet cool in khaki slacks and a dark green sweater over a dark plaid button down shirt. She thought briefly of Dreilide. He was probably expecting her since it was Saturday, but she wasn't going to make it today, at least not this morning. She had never asked him for a phone number. She realized now that she probably should have, but he hadn't asked her for one either.
"Am I too casual?" Kara asked eying her black jeans and t-shirt, leftover from her days of working for Jack Fisk.
"No, baby. You look fine. You look like a teenager. That's how you should look."
"I don't have on any makeup."
"You don't need any makeup. You're beautiful without it. Now remember what we said. Even if Biers asks, don't answer any personal questions. It's okay to talk about the Academy and about training to be a pilot. But nothing about Lee or any other aspect of your personal life. Laura has made it clear to Biers that certain questions are off-limits."
"Why would D'Anna Biers even care who I'm dating?"
"She probably doesn't. A lot of her readers probably do."
"Why? I'm no different today than I was two weeks ago. Nobody cared then."
"Two weeks ago your stepmother wasn't running for President."
Laura walked into the den. She also looked good today in casual grey slacks and a blue silk blouse. She reached for Braedon. "Hello, my little man."
Braedon smiled at her and then reached for her. Kara looked at her father. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing that she was. There were going to be a lot fewer moments for Laura to be with Braedon in the future if she were elected.
The doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," Kara said and stood up.
Laura said, "If you're unsure about a question, Kara, just don't answer. Let me handle it. I've been doing these interviews for a quite a while."
"She's the pro," her father emphasized what Laura had just said.
Kara walked to the door, angry that they both gave her so little credit for knowing when to keep her mouth shut.
She opened the door to D'Anna Biers and a dark-haired man with a video camera in hand and several other smaller digital cameras on straps around his neck. He was also carrying a bag over his shoulder.
Kara stood back and let them enter.
"You must be Kara," Biers said.
"That's right. This way."
She led them into the den all the while wondering whether D'Anna Biers was another Cylon or not. John had told Kara that D'Anna had been spotted several times going into Leoben's bookstore, but that could be a coincidence. A lot of people went into Leoben's bookstore. She was sure Sharon would know. Sharon had been on the basestar. She had seen all of them. She might ask Sharon tomorrow night when she got back to the Academy.
Laura handed Braedon to John and stepped forward to greet Biers. She and D'Anna shook hands while the cameraman began to look around the room for how he was going to set up the camera shots.
"It's good to see you again, D'Anna," Laura said. "You've met my husband, John, and this is my stepdaughter, Kara, and my son, Braedon."
"What a cute baby," Biers said although Kara thought her voice held little in the way of emotional warmth. It almost sounded like she thought Laura expected her to say something like that. A programmed Cylon response?
For a moment Biers conferred with her cameraman and then said, "We'd like to get a couple of still photographs first. John, could you sit on the couch, please, at the end with Braedon on your lap. Laura, sit on the arm of the couch and Kara, pull that small footstool over by your father's leg."
With infinite patience the cameraman had them turn or move slightly until he was satisfied.
Laura thought of the dynamics of the photograph, the one that would be on the cover of The Caprican View in several weeks. By sitting on the arm of the couch, her head was higher than everyone else's and yet her husband holding their child was clearly by her side. They had Kara sitting with her knees drawn up in typical teenager fashion beside her father's legs, almost in front of Laura. They formed a tight, family unit.
"Perfect," D'Anna said while the cameraman clicked away. The photograph finally chosen from the dozens of digital images that Biers showed them had Laura leaning slightly in with her hand on the back of the couch behind John and Kara turned in profile, looking at her brother on John's lap. Braedon was looking at her with a perfect little smile on his face and his hands clasped together.
Kara was fine with the picture. Her fate and her brother's were linked anyway. The Oracle had said so and she believed the Oracle.
The Oracle. Another pang of concern swept Kara. She had told Yolanda Brenn's friend that she would return today with some more cubits. She wondered if Brenn was still sick and if her friend had been able to get her to a doctor.
"You can all sit on the couch," Biers said. "We'll get started with the interview."
"Can I answer my questions first?" Kara asked. "I have an errand to run this morning."
Her father nudged her. "Whatever you have to do can wait."
"It's important," Kara said.
"So is this."
"I don't mind starting with you, Kara," Biers said. "Tell me what you think about your stepmother running for President."
"I think she'll make a great President," Kara answered sincerely. "She cares about people more than most politicians."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because she's the only one who wasn't too good to go out and walk around in the camp. She cared enough to get us food and to try to see that the little kids got an education."
"The camp?"
Laura spoke up. "I met Kara several years ago during one of my trips to the main refugee camp near Antioch. She and her father were separated through no fault of theirs and Kara spent some time in one of the camps."
D'Anna Biers almost visibly licked her lips. "I think there is a story here that all of our readers would love to hear."
"This interview is not about Kara," John said politely and with one of his most charming smiles. "It's about Laura running for President."
Biers turned her attention to him. "And how do you feel about that, Major Gallagher?"
John continued to smile. "I agree with my daughter. Laura will make a great President. Her main concern is the well-being of the people of Caprica."
"I know you asked me to hold the personal questions, but one thing all of our readers will want to hear is how the two of you met."
John deferred to Laura. "We have a mutual friend. He introduced us when I spoke at the Academy's graduation ceremony several years ago."
"Would that mutual friend be Commander William Adama?"
Laura smiled. "You're very well informed."
"And how long before you started dating?"
"Not soon enough to suit me," John said. Kara saw her father and Laura look at one another and smile. She was sure Biers wouldn't get any more from them on that subject.
She was wrong.
"Is it true that you were pregnant with your son when you got married?"
"Yes," Laura said still smiling. "I was. There are a few moments in my life when I've defied convention. I think all of us should be allowed one or two. I would certainly hate to see something like that become the focus of this interview instead of the many issues facing the government and citizens of Caprica."
"And you don't think that will have any bearing on your bid for the Presidency?"
"I don't see why it should. My personal life and my political life are as separate as I can make them. I think my qualifications for the office of President should be based on my record as Secretary of Education for the last four years and for the work I've done and continue to do for the former refugees."
John said. "I think you and your photographer were both there when she made one of her most courageous stands to get help to them. And again at the University when she kept hundreds of students from being slaughtered. That's what the people of Caprica should hear about. That's what they should care about."
"You have a true champion," D'Anna said to Laura. "Yes, I was there both of those times and I do plan to incorporate those incidents into this article."
The questions returned to politics and Kara zoned out. She was aware that Braedon was getting fidgety. He finally began to fret and not even his pacifier would soothe him. Grateful for something to do, Kara got up and took her brother. Now that they were supplementing with a bottle, she could feed him.
She took him to the nursery, changed his diaper and took him into the kitchen. She warmed a bottle of formula and carried him back into the den. She sat down in Laura's chair. Kara had only fed her brother once before, but Braedon knew exactly what to do. His little fingers closed over her hand at the same time his mouth closed over the nipple of the bottle. He studied her with his serious dark blue eyes. Again she felt emotion well in her as she looked at her brother.
"Do you help with the baby a lot?" Biers asked her.
"Not as much as I'd like. I'm a student at the Academy. I live on campus."
"Studying to be…?"
"A Viper pilot like my dad."
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Biers asked.
Laura spoke up quickly. "Now D'Anna, we agreed certain questions are off-limits for my family. I'll answer some questions about myself, but I think John and Kara deserve some privacy. Why don't we wrap things up for today?"
"I heard a rumor, Kara, that you're dating Commander Adama's oldest son. Is that true?"
Kara kept her eyes on Braedon. "No comment." That was what everybody on the news said when they didn't want to answer something.
"D'Anna," Laura's tone was still polite, but firmer. "No more questions about Kara's private life. She's not running for president."
"All right. I have enough for today. Laura, I'll come to your office later in the week to continue the interview."
The cameraman shut off the video and began packing his portable tripod and another camera.
"You're very young to be attending the Academy," D'Anna said to Kara. "Did someone pull some strings to get you in?"
"She passed the entrance exam like everybody else," John spoke up.
"And your teaching there had nothing to do with her being admitted?"
"I didn't make the final decision to accept the job until after Kara was admitted, so no, I didn't have anything to do with it."
"I had to beg him to sign the paper giving me permission to attend this year," Kara said in an attempt to validate her father's remark.
"Is this off the record?" Laura asked.
"Do you want it to be off the record?"
"I do," Laura said. "Kara earned her admission to the Academy. She's doing very well. The fact that her father teaches one of her classes could possibly be used to foster the idea that favoritism was or is somehow involved. I think you can understand why we don't want that. That certainly wasn't the case and I don't want any insinuation that it was."
D'Anna smiled. "That would not be good for the campaign, would it?"
"No," Laura smiled in a good natured way. "It wouldn't be."
"Can I ask you something, Ms. Biers?" Kara suddenly said.
"Sure."
"Where are you from? I mean where were you born? Was it here on Caprica? Your accent is different."
"I'm from Amphipolis. Do you know where that is?"
"I'm afraid not. Geography is not my best subject." Kara's eyes met Biers'. She had the feeling that D'Anna was getting ready to make a joke.
"It's a tiny little village northwest of Delphi, near the province of Thrace."
"What a coincidence," Kara smiled. "I guess you could say you've come a long way to get here, then."
"Farther than you can imagine," D'Anna said.
I don't doubt that at all, Kara thought.
Laura walked with Biers and her cameraman to the door. "It was very good to see you again, D'Anna. I look forward to the next interview."
As soon as they heard the door shut, her father stood. "Thank the gods that's over."
"It's only the beginning," Laura said as she walked back into the den. "At the very least we're in for months of this. If I win the election in November, we're in for years of interviews."
"She had no business asking some of the questions she did." John's voice was tinged with enough anger that even Kara could hear it.
Laura said gently, "John, certainly you didn't expect her not to mention it, did you? She can count just like everybody else."
"How is that pertinent to your qualifications for the job of President?"
"You know there's a segment of the population who will use that fact to question my…morals."
"That's such a crock," Kara said. "I'd like to see each one of them stand up and swear before the gods they never had sex before they got married. Everybody has sex before…"
"That's enough, Kara," John said. "We get your point."
"The real point," Laura said, "is that there is nothing in the private life of a politician these days that is off limits. I'm going to have to be prepared to answer that question again and again. If it costs me the election, then so be it. I can't change it. I wouldn't want to change it. It was my fault and I accept the responsibility."
"You didn't do it by yourself," John said.
"Can we quit talking about this?" Kara asked.
"President Adar is backing me with full knowledge of everything. He will come under fire from a certain segment, too. He's prepared. We've already talked about it."
"No wonder Adar's giving up the Presidency," John said. "He's got to be sick and tired of having to justify every aspect of his life to the press."
"It's not that," Laura said. "He's been a politician all his adult life. He's accustomed to the press and all the publicity. And don't forget how much we owe to the press and others like D'Anna. If it weren't for her, those ships carrying food and supplies for the refugees would never have left the ground four years ago."
John nodded. "You're right."
Laura went on. "I think Adar is just tired of the responsibilities now. I think the strain of dealing with the domestic problems and the Cylons has gotten to be too much for him."
"Then why do you want to do it?" Kara asked Laura.
"Because I don't think anyone else will care enough. I feel like I'm better informed about what the Cylons have done and are doing to the people of Caprica, especially its children."
"It's too bad President Adar couldn't have hung in there a little longer," Kara said. "When Commander Adama's plan works, we won't have the Cylons to worry about any longer."
Kara glanced up in time to see her father and Laura look at each other.
"What?" She asked.
"Adar thinks Bill's plan is still several years away from being put into effect," Laura finally said.
"How is the commander getting all the money to work on the plan, then?"
Her father answered. "Adar has given him a blank check as far as that goes, and he knows Bill is working on it, but he doesn't know all the details. Bill is afraid if he tells Adar everything, he'll pull the plug. Adar is a cautious man, overly cautious in some ways."
"I know Commander Adama has said the clock is ticking. When is it going to happen?" Kara asked.
"He hasn't set an exact date," her father said evasively.
"Ballpark," Kara said.
Her father and Laura looked at each other again. "It will be next winter, probably around the time of the Solstice," her father finally said. "Bill wants to maximize the time the new pilots who are graduating from the Academy in the spring will have to train on battlestars, but he wants to do it before Adar leaves office. That way if something goes wrong, Laura won't be blamed."
"So if that happens, Adar will be the one who goes before a Cylon firing squad," Kara said.
"By not telling Adar, Bill can take full responsibility," Laura said.
"Like they'll believe him. Nobody would be that stupid. Not even a Cylon. They'll know he couldn't have pulled it off without the cooperation of the government."
John looked like he was debating his next remark. He finally said, "If Bill's plan fails that catastrophically, he won't be around to tell Cavil anything. He's going to be running the show from the Galactica when the attack starts. He said if he has to, he'll use the ship to take out the basestar. He'll go down fighting. It's what we'll all do."
"We," Laura said, her voice rising slightly. "What do you mean we?"
"Sorry. Figure of speech. I didn't mean it literally."
Kara looked into her father's green eyes, the mirror of her own. Father and daughter understood each other in a way that Laura never could.
"Commander Adama's plan is going to succeed," Kara said with determination in her voice. "Nobody's going to have to go down fighting."
"Then why did the Oracle say my son is going to map the stars on the way to Earth?" Kara could hear the anguish in Laura's question.
It was her father who had the right answer, an answer he had probably been thinking about for a long time.
"Laura, Yolanda Brenn's prophesy about our son doesn't necessarily mean he's going to do that because we have no other choice…because humanity is without a home. I think she means he's going to be an explorer. Maybe one day he'll find Kobol and prove the myth is true. There are billions of star systems out there just waiting to be explored. When the Cylons are gone, we'll be able to think about exploring the stars again."
Kara looked at her brother. He was full now, the serious dark eyes almost closed in sleep. Laura gently lifted him from Kara's arms and put him against her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Laura," Kara said softly. "I'll protect him with my life."
"We all will," John said. "The children are our future."
"Not unless we find a cure for that virus," Laura said as she left to put her son in his crib. "There will be no future generations for Caprica if today's children can't have their own children."
"So what are you not telling Laura?" Kara asked as soon as Laura was out of the room.
"Nothing."
"Not true. You've volunteered for something. You're going to be part of Commander Adama's plan."
"So are you. So is Lee."
"You're not going to tell me what you're going to do, are you?"
"When the time is right, baby."
"Which is when, Dad?"
"When the time is right. I don't know any other way to say it."
"Why are you studying the Prolmar Sector?"
"Who says I'm studying the Prolmar Sector?"
Kara gave him a knowing smile. "I saw a folder on your desk in the simulator room."
"You're not supposed to be looking on my desk."
"Well, I did and I saw it."
"I'm helping Bill with a project. There's not much information on the Prolmar Sector. I've started compiling what little there is for him."
"Does it have something to do with the Cylons?"
"He thinks it does."
"And what do you think?"
"Bill may be on to something. Beyond that I can't say."
"You mean you won't say."
"Kara, I've just started working on this. Sixty plus years ago there were two expeditions from Libran to the Prolmar Sector. The first one came back. The second one didn't. Most of the information from the first mission was lost when the Cylons destroyed Libran. Everything we've currently got on the Prolmar Sector has been archived at the Academy's library. About all I can tell you right now is that it's in another solar system and the area of space between here and there is devoid of any kind of life."
"How many FTL jumps away?"
"With the older technology, more than a dozen. Our battlestars could make it today in one jump. It's thirty light years away. That's over a hundred eighty trillion miles. Nobody has been there in over sixty years. It's way outside the Red Line and I'm not talking about the Academy's red line, either."
"Does it have planets?"
"Eight or ten depending on the source. At least one is habitable, and that's about all I know so far."
"So that's not where Earth is?"
"I don't think so."
"Kobol?"
"I don't know. It's not called Kobol in the two documents I've found so far."
"So Braedon is going to have to go beyond the Prolmar Sector to find Earth?"
"Let's not talk about that. It upsets Laura. Your friend Hugh Connelly is helping me."
"How?"
"He and I were talking at lunch one day. He told me about an ancient stone altar in the woods near your refugee camp. The place where you met him. You remember that, don't you?"
Kara gave her father a look and said sarcastically. "No, I've forgotten all about that. What refugee camp? What stone altar?"
"He visited there half a dozen times after the camp was shut down. He's an ancient history buff, but you know that already. He took a lot of photographs of the altar. He's identified the symbols of the original Twelve Colonies. There's a lot of other stuff carved into that altar, too, things we can't identify, but there's a series of numbers and what looks like maybe a star chart. The numbers could be coordinates but in order for them to mean anything, we need a point of origin. I think that's where the star chart comes in. He gave me the digital card from his camera that contains all the photos. I've got them loaded into my computer at work. I've been studying them."
"Why?"
"Bill has a theory. He may be right. He may not be. I don't want to say anything else until I've had more time to work on this."
Kara grinned. "So maybe Braedon got his star-mapping gene from you."
Her father smiled. "What are you going to do this afternoon?"
Kara realized she had gotten all from him she was going to get on the subject of the Prolmar Sector. "I'm going to buy Lee's birthday gift but I don't know exactly where to find it."
"What are you getting him?"
"I want to get him a painting, not an original but a print. I want to have it framed."
"Ask Laura where you should go. She's bought artwork before."
Kara brightened. "Good idea. Would you go with me?"
John looked amused. "You don't want to ask Connelly? You actually want me to go somewhere with you?"
"Not if you're going to act like that."
"Let's eat some lunch and then we'll go before you change your mind."
Laura gave them the name of her favorite art gallery, Picasso's, and the address, and after they ate, father and daughter set out. The minute they walked into Picasso's, though, Kara knew it wasn't the place she needed to be. The gallery was far too upscale to carry a print of Posiden's Daughter. They dealt in original artwork only. The owner sent them down the street to another gallery and Kara found what she was looking for in a large rack of prints. She showed it to her father.
"You're giving Lee a print of a naked sea nymph for his birthday?"
"It's his favorite painting," Kara said defensively.
"And the fact that she looks like you just happens to be a coincidence?"
"He liked this painting long before he met me. I think she looks like my mom."
"Maybe a little bit."
"Dreilide asked me about her last week. He wanted to know what had happened to her."
John nodded.
"He knew about you and her."
"I figured he did."
The salesman in the gallery came over and asked if he could help them. Kara told him she wanted the print framed. He made a few suggestions and she picked a mat and frame that she thought went well with the print and would look good in Lee's bedroom. She paid for it, refusing to let her father help her, even though it was a lot more expensive than she had planned. The salesman told her it would be ready in five days. Kara asked her father if he would pick it up for her and he agreed.
"It will be wrapped very discreetly," the salesman assured them.
"That's a relief," John said and winked at her.
Kara and her father walked out of the gallery and started down the street to where he had parked the car.
"I can't say I'm sorry about me and your mom," John said as they walked. "To say that would mean I regret what I had with her. It would mean I regret having you. I'm sorry Dreilide Thrace got hurt. I'm sorry you got hurt when he left. That's something I'll live with for the rest of my life, knowing the pain I caused you both because I couldn't stay away from her."
"You act like she didn't have anything to do with it. She made choices, too. She was the one who used to fight with him all the time. She started most of the fights. She wasn't happy with him."
"I should have been stronger, but I loved her so much. Part of me still loves her."
Kara bumped her shoulder against her father. He put his arm around her.
It was like that with them now, the love such an understood thing between them. She didn't have to tell him she forgave him and her mom both. She didn't have to tell him that she would go back to see Dreilide Thrace either.
"Did I ever tell you about karmic justice, baby?"
"A dozen times. Maybe karmic justice was at work when Zak took that picture."
"Maybe so. You want to go out to the airfield tomorrow morning with me and take the ship up for a couple of hours?"
"You know I do." They walked in silence for a minute before she said, "Will you drive me down to Fifty-Third Street before we go home today? I'm not going to stay. I just need to take Yolanda Brenn a few cubits. She's been sick."
"How do you know that?"
"I went to see her last Saturday when I left his place. Her friend said she probably has pneumonia. I didn't see her, though. Her friend wouldn't even let me in. She was too sick."
"Kara, there's a free medical clinic a few blocks from the east waterfront subway station."
"I know. I used to deliver medicine down there when I worked for Jack Fisk. She was probably too sick to get there."
They reached the car and got in. After a few minutes it was apparent that her father was driving toward the waterfront. At the next stoplight, he took out his billfold, got out a hundred-cubit note and handed it to her.
"I'm glad our neighborhood isn't full of stray dogs and cats," he said as the light turned green. "I'd go broke."
...
Lee had tickets for a rock concert on Saturday night, tickets that Zak had gotten for him. Zak was going, but Lee wanted to see Kara alone for dinner. She had been tied up all day with a family interview and photo session in the morning and a mysterious errand that she had told him she had to run after lunch. He suspected it had something to do with his birthday coming up on the next Friday, but he knew better than to mention it. She was going to surprise him with something despite the fact that he had told her not to bother with a gift.
Lee still hadn't gotten used to the idea that with Laura running for President, his and Kara's lives were going to be a lot less private, so he wasn't surprised when his father brought it up when they met for Saturday lunch.
"You realize that everyone close to Laura is going to come under scrutiny," Bill said to him.
"Meaning?" Lee said, not entirely sure what his father was driving at.
"Your relationship with her stepdaughter."
Lee was afraid for a moment his expression had given his feelings away. "Is that why you asked me to lunch today, so you could warn me to behave myself with her?"
"I asked you to lunch today because I haven't seen you all week."
"Don't worry, Dad. I'm not going to do anything to embarrass you and Laura."
"I can do without the sarcasm, Lee."
"And I can do without being treated like I don't have any sense."
His father sipped his coffee and looked out the window of the restaurant. "How's War College going?"
"Hard."
"It's meant to be. Five years ago it was rare for a lieutenant to be selected to attend War College. It was mostly majors and colonels. Now with so many killed and others leaving the service, lieutenants are the norm. Is there anyone in your class who has seen combat experience?"
"Two majors. One was on board the Triton during the fighting and the other one was here in fleet headquarters. Neither one is on my team."
"Just be prepared for the fact that a few of the scenarios you'll face don't have any good solution. A few of the scenarios are going to be no-win."
"What do you do in that case?"
"The best you can. One of the toughest is similar to what happened to the Colonies during the last war. There are many in the military who felt like Adar made the wrong decision in surrendering to the Cylons. There are some who thought we should have fought to the last man even if it meant our annihilation. I was one of them."
"Do you still feel that way?"
"No. I've changed my mind. Adar gave us a chance to regroup and even the odds. History won't judge him nearly as harshly as I did in the beginning. Laura knew from the start that he was right. She has a diplomat's instinct. She also doesn't have quite the cavalier attitude toward the destruction of humanity that I had at the time. At first I chalked it up to the difference between a politician and a warrior, maybe even a man and a woman. Now I'm not so sure of that, either. I think Laura has a gift for making the right choices."
Lee looked at his father, and Bill looked away again. Was his father thinking about John and the choice Laura had made there?
"The last four years have taken their toll on Adar," Lee finally said. "He looks like he's aged twenty years."
"I know. I want Laura to take office without having to deal every day with the Cylons. At first I was afraid Cavil would try to have her killed again, but I think he's actually looking forward to her being elected so he can make her life hell on a daily basis." Bill grunted softly. "Maybe he's been living around humans too long. He'd rather make her suffer than to kill her."
"One of the Cylons that Kara knows said Cavil had deleted the sleep routines from his programming. He has twice as much time to plan or scheme or whatever you call it that goes on inside his Cylon brain. The human brain and body repairs itself while we sleep. I can't help but wonder if not sleeping is taking a subtle toll on Cavil."
His father let that sink in for a moment. "The first ones were so simple…generations ago, the first centurion models. They were programmed to do menial tasks. They helped build our skyscrapers and our roads and our space stations. They went into our mines. They replaced humans at our most dangerous jobs. And then Daniel Graystone and Tomas Vergis decided that they would make the über soldier. Why fight each other when you can get a machine to do it for you? And those useful giants were redesigned and programmed to kill. They were used first on Tauron during the civil war there. The models kept getting better and better at killing. Finally the artificial intelligence was so good they began evolving on their own."
"I know the history of the Cylons centurions, Dad. I studied it at the Academy."
"Then you know that what we're dealing with now is something we brought on ourselves. The children pay for the sins of their fathers or great-grandfathers in our case. The day came when we couldn't hide from our sins. We used technology in the worst way for the worst reasons and it caught up with us. Now we're paying."
"John calls it karmic justice. He believes there's personal karmic justice and cosmic karmic justice. We've talked about this before, too."
"The missing piece of the Cylon's history is where the centurions went twenty-four years ago to create the things we now call skinjobs. I found one of their facilities at the end of the last war. It was on an ice planet so far out in the solar system that we called it the ass end of nowhere. We went there because the rumor was the Cylons were manufacturing some sort of super weapon on the planet. That's not what it was at all, not in the sense that we thought."
"You found where they made the skinjobs? Why doesn't anybody know this?"
Bill stared out the window before he went on. "It's still classified. We decided later that it couldn't have been their main facility. It contained only a few captive humans and parts of humans. There had originally been fifty of them from the ship the Diana. I felt like I had walked onto the set of a horror film. The human prisoners who were still alive couldn't tell us much. They talked about being taken from the holding cell one by one. They heard screams and cries for help, but they couldn't see anything. They were treated no better than lab rats."
"I believe the centurions had help, Dad. I don't believe the toasters had the intelligence to create a realistic human-looking Cylon. I think we agree that the centurions had evolved, but not enough to create humanoids. The bigger question to me is why they would even need to or want to. So for that reason if no other, I don't think they did it alone."
"Neither do I," Bill said. "I believe there's a group of humans, scientists probably, somewhere out there who should be in front of a firing squad for what they did. They may still be creating Cylons for all we know, more and better skinjobs, and basestars and Raiders…if the skinjobs let them live, that is, and didn't start experimenting on them."
"What about Vergis and Graystone?"
"Vergis died before the end of the First War. Graystone and his wife disappeared not long after. There were rumors that they had been kidnapped and killed in retaliation for what had happened to Vergis."
"Is that what you believe?"
"They were developing some advanced technology. My father was working on some of the legal implications when they vanished."
"Do you think they might have gone to the ice planet?"
"The ice planet is still in our solar system. No, I think they're somewhere in the Prolmar Sector."
"Prolmar? Why do you think they're there? We know almost nothing about the Prolmar Sector."
"My point exactly, Lee. John has been working on something for me, compiling what little data we have. Two expeditions went there sixty-odd years ago and found one habitable planet. The second expedition never came back. "
"Do you think that's where the Cylons…the skinjobs came from?"
"That's my guess."
"Do you think they still have human prisoners? Do you think they're still experimenting?"
"I try not to think about that. Hundreds of ships went missing four years ago. We have no way of knowing if they were destroyed...or captured."
"Do you really believe we stand a chance of getting rid of the Cylons?"
"We stand a chance. The odds are in our favor this time. The clock wouldn't be ticking on my plan otherwise. Just like they surprised us four years ago, we're going to turn the tables and surprise them this time."
"Sometimes I wish we could just go ahead and do it. I wish we didn't have to wait."
"Patience, Lee. The time will come." His father took the check that the waitress had just brought. "Tell your brother I said hello when you see him tonight. Tell Kara I said the same thing. I understand from Colonel Burgher that she's shaping up to be a hell of a pilot, at least in the simulator."
"She really does have a great deal of respect for you, Dad, even if she won't tell you who the Cylons are."
"That tells me she's got the courage to stand by her beliefs even when an old man like me tries to bully her. I told Saul Tigh what she knows. That was probably a mistake. It infuriated him. He thought she should be cooling her heels in the brig until she decides to talk."
"Colonel Tigh is wrong."
"I know that, son, but Tigh hates the Cylons. I understand where he's coming from."
"As long as the clock is ticking, he should be able to live with it."
"Tigh just wants to retire so he can spend time with Ellen. He's living for the day we're free of the Cylons."
"He's not the only one."
"No, he's certainly not the only one."
...
Kara opened the door to Lee. After seeing him in his uniform so many afternoons lately, Lee's jeans and t-shirt under his ski jacket made him look younger and less serious and so much hotter. She tried not to dwell on that thought since his apartment was now off limits.
She had her coat in her hand. "Let's go. I'm starving."
"We'll walk to Channing's and eat dinner. Then I'll call a transport to take us to the concert. I don't want to take the car to the arena tonight. Parking will be a bear not to mention Zak told me they were charging fifty cubits per car just to park."
"Fifty cubits!" Kara said in disbelief. "How much did the tickets cost?"
"You don't want to know. We wouldn't have tickets at all if Zak hadn't known somebody who knew somebody who worked at the ticket office. He called in a favor."
"So that's how the world of PR works. Favors?"
"Part of it."
They rode the elevator down to the lobby and began walking toward Channing's.
Lee said, "Zak's not dating Maggie tonight. He's dating one of the Buccaneer cheerleaders. I think Sam Anders and his date might be with them, too."
"I won't tell Maggs. I rarely see her, anyway."
"Maggie turned him down. Zak said he asked her and she already had plans."
"What'd he do? Wait until this morning to call her?"
"I don't know. He just said Maggie had turned him down so he had asked somebody else."
"So is Sam bringing Tory?"
"I don't know that, either."
Kara grinned. "You're just a fountain of information tonight, aren't you?"
"Does it matter to you who they're with?"
"Not really."
"How did the big interview go this morning?"
"I thought it was boring except when D'Anna Biers was asking questions that were none of her business. I'm surprised my dad didn't tell her to go frak herself."
"He's not about to do something like that to Laura."
"I was glad Braedon started crying so I could get up and give him his bottle."
"What did you think about D'Anna?"
"She's too nosy. Laura thinks she's a Cylon."
"She's a reporter. Being nosy is her job, and I know Laura thinks she's a Cylon."
"Sharon would probably tell me, but I'm not sure I'm going to ask her yet. I don't want to do anything to cause Laura a problem. I still don't know how this accessing memories works with them. I wouldn't want D'Anna Biers tuning in to Sharon's thoughts and finding out I think she's a Cylon."
...
The arena where the concert was being held was next door to the arena where she had watched Sam Anders play in the championship pyramid game the previous spring. She thought about the way the limousine had picked her up outside of Tory's apartment and dropped her off in front of the arena. She thought about the ticket for the thousand-cubit seat.
She wouldn't trade what she had now for a lifetime of thousand-cubit seats and limousines. She wouldn't trade Lee Adama for a hundred pyramid stars like Sam Anders.
She took Lee's hand as they made their way to their seats. Zak, Sam and their dates were already there. Introductions were made.
"Long time no see," Sam said. "You're looking good."
"Thanks," Kara said. "How's the season going this year?"
"You must not have been watching the games or you'd know."
"No television."
"That sucks."
"I wouldn't have had the time anyway. I've been studying."
"Learning to fly a Viper," Sam said. "Zak told me."
Kara grinned. "Aren't you jealous?"
"Not at all. I like my feet on the ground."
The lead singer of White Hot Knights bounded onto the stage. The crowd went wild. The drummer hit four beats and the band launched into one of their biggest hits. Kara wished she'd remembered her ear plugs, but by the end of the concert, she was on her feet clapping and singing and moving to the music with the rest of the crowd. The haze of a certain illegal substance was so thick and strong in the air that she was sure that was part of the reason she was feeling so high.
She and Lee left the concert with their arms around each other. She wondered if he felt as high as she did.
"That was great. It'll be days before my hearing recovers, but that was just frakking great," she said to him.
"I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did."
"You two want to go to Zeno's with us?" Zak asked.
"I need to get home. It's nearly midnight. I have a curfew."
They had to walk almost six blocks before they could get a transport. When they got back to the apartment, it was quiet. Laura and her father had already gone to bed. One of them had left a lamp on in the den.
"You want a drink?" Kara asked.
"I'm driving. I'd better not. I feel like I'm under the influence of something anyway. That weed smoke was thick."
"Wasn't it? I'm going to have to take a shower and wash my hair before I go to bed."
They sat on the couch. Kara couldn't help but think of what had happened there once before.
She sighed. "I want to kiss you but I know what that will start."
"I'd better go. I'm thinking about it, too. What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Dad and I are going out to the airfield tomorrow morning and take the ship up. Do you want to go?"
"If he's teaching you to fly, I'd just be a distraction. Besides, you need your time with him."
"Why don't you come over for lunch then? We'll spend the afternoon together and you can take me back to the Academy."
"Okay. I'll do that."
She walked with him to the door. Lee put on his ski jacket. He held out his hands. She laced her fingers through his and they leaned in. Their kiss was gentle and hotter than she could have imagined. She felt it all the way to her toes. She made a tiny sound, almost a moan. Lee drew back a few inches.
"I may not survive this," he said lightly.
"It was your idea," she whispered.
"A moment of temporary insanity. It had to be."
"Does that mean I win the bet?"
"We're not in my apartment, are we?"
"You wish we were."
"Wishes don't count."
Kara leaned in. "I wish you'd kiss me again."
"I'm not sure I can take it."
"Yes, you can, tough guy. If I can take it, you can, too."
He kissed her again, the kiss more urgent and hotter than the first one. Their tongues came together. With his fingers still laced through hers, he turned and pushed her gently against the door, their hands out beside her shoulders. He pressed his body against hers. She could feel how hard he was. The kiss deepened.
She was just about to break, just about to pull him down the hall toward her bedroom when he let go of her hands and stepped back. He turned around and rubbed his hand against the back of his own neck. He was breathing hard.
"Frak, that was a stupid thing for me to do."
She was breathing hard, too. "I shouldn't have asked you to kiss me again."
"I'd better go."
"If you don't, I'm going to do something even stupider."
"Next weekend…"
"No. You didn't make this decision lightly. You shouldn't change your mind until you've thought about it. We can talk about it next weekend."
He finally turned around. "I love you, Kara."
"It's not that I don't want to. If you hadn't stopped kissing me, we'd be in my bedroom right now."
"I know. Don't remind me."
"As far as the bet goes, let's just call it even."
Kara moved away from the door. He touched the side of her face for just a moment.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
She nodded.
After he was gone she closed the door, leaned back against it for a moment and wondered if Posiden's daughter the sea nymph had ever loved a man as much as she loved Lee Adama.
...
"How was the concert?" Kara's father asked the next morning as they walked out of the small terminal building at the airport. He had called ahead and had the ship towed from the hangar. She felt a wave of excitement as she saw the sleek lines of the ship sitting on the tarmac. She always got that feeling when they were going to fly.
"My hearing's back to normal. So what can you tell me about Torino Island?"
"Weren't you paying attention when I filed the flight plan?"
"That doesn't mean I know anything about the place."
"It's two hundred nautical miles off the coast of Caprica City. There's a nice little air strip there, not nearly as busy as this one. We'll land, refuel, get a cup of coffee and then we'll come home. I'm going to let you handle the take off from there."
"By myself?" Kara asked in surprise.
"All by yourself. We've done this half a dozen times now. You should be able to handle it. In fact as soon as we get in the air today, I'm turning the controls over to you. I'll give you the heading and the coordinates and you'll take us there."
"Cool," Kara said. "This is just so cool."
She entered the cockpit first and slid into the copilot's seat. They put on their headsets. They adjusted their sunglasses. In less than ten minutes they were next in line to take off. Again she watched everything her father did and listened to everything he said. When they reached their cruising altitude, he looked at her and smiled.
"It's all yours. Find the airport on Torino Island. And no keying it into the onboard computer and setting the ship on autopilot. Do it manually. We went over everything. We studied the aeronautical chart. You know our cruising altitude and the wind speed and direction. It shouldn't be that hard."
"Is that why we're over water today, so I won't have any visual references even though I'm under visual flight rules?"
He grinned. "There aren't any highways to follow in space, baby."
She marked their heading and made the adjustment banking slightly to the southeast and then leveling the ship with the horizon. She adjusted her airspeed.
She looked over at her father. "Right?"
He was still grinning. "We should know in about two hundred nautical miles."
She was exactly right. Torino Island came into view on the horizon forty-five minutes later. She turned the ship back over to her father and he brought it in.
"One day I'm going to be able to do that."
"It'll be sooner than you think."
"Are you really going to let me take off?"
"Unless you think you can't handle it. Now let's go get some coffee."
Thirty minutes later, heart beating fast, she taxied the ship to the end of the runway and turned. A minute later she had clearance to take off. A minute after that they were in the air and climbing over the island.
"Good?" She asked when she could get her breath.
"Perfect, baby. I'm not going to worry so much about your first day in a real Viper now."
The bond between them tightened as Kara felt the ground and then the sea slip away beneath them. She loved flying more than she loved riding the motorcycle fast. It was in her blood. She glanced at her father and realized he was smiling. Her hand was still resting on the throttle. He reached out and covered it with his and squeezed. She knew that she would remember this perfect moment between them for the rest of her life.
...
At two o'clock that afternoon she and Lee told her father goodbye. Laura was at her campaign headquarters again for the afternoon. Lee picked up Kara's bag and slung it over his shoulder.
Kara kissed her brother's cheek. "I'll see you Friday afternoon, little star-mapper." She glanced at her father. His face gave away nothing.
In the car Lee said, "You must have a lot of studying to do if you're going back this early."
"I do, but we're going somewhere first."
"Where?"
"To see Dreilide. I didn't go yesterday."
"Is he expecting you?"
Kara shrugged. "It's not like he has a full social calendar or anything. If he's busy, he can tell me. We'll do it another time."
Lee drove to Fifty-First Street. He found a parking spot half a block away from the building Kara indicated.
"I'll wait in the car for you."
"Don't you want to meet him? I want you two to meet."
"I'll go meet him then," Lee said.
Together they walked up to the third floor. Kara knocked.
It was apparent when Dreilide Thrace opened the door that he hadn't been expecting anyone. He hadn't shaved. It didn't look like he'd even combed his hair that day.
"Hi," Kara said. "If this is a bad time I can come back."
"No. Come in."
Lee followed her. "Lee Adama. I'm a friend of Kara's." He held out his hand. Thrace shifted the cigarette to his left hand and shook Lee's.
"He's my boyfriend," Kara said.
"The other pilot. Any friend of Kara's is welcome here. Have a seat."
Kara saw sheet music spread out on the little table. A cup and saucer sat there as well.
"Are we bothering you? Are you busy?"
He followed her gaze and smiled. "I think my Muse must have followed you last week and snuck in when you left. I've been working on something new. Do you want a drink? I've got whiskey or coffee."
"No thanks," Kara said. Lee shook his head.
Thrace pointed toward the sofa with his cigarette. "Sit."
Kara and Lee went to the couch and sat.
"Adama?" Thrace said. "That name's familiar. Is your father in the government, too?"
"He's the senior military advisor to the President," Kara answered before Lee could say anything.
"You're moving in high circles, aren't you?" Thrace asked.
Kara shrugged. "I'm sorry I didn't make it yesterday. Laura had an interview. I had to be there. We're going to be on the cover of some weekly magazine."
"I'll make sure I buy a copy. What's the name of?"
"The Caprican View," Lee said.
"Are you on it, too?"
"No. It's just Laura's family," Lee answered.
Thrace got another cigarette from the pack on the little table and lit it from the butt of the one he still had in his hand.
"Those things are bad for you," Kara said.
He stubbed the butt out in the ash tray. "Tell me about it."
"My…John used to smoke. He quit. After he got shot, the doctor told him it was a damned wise decision since he'd seen the inside of one of his lungs."
Thrace laughed softly. "I'd hate to see the inside of one of my lungs."
"What are you working on?" Kara pointed to the table.
Thrace walked over to the piano and sat on the stool. "It's not ready, yet."
"I've listened to Diaspora a lot lately," Lee said. "It's a remarkable song."
Thrace nodded and shrugged. "My music is my voice."
"I have a great deal of respect for anyone who has your kind of talent."
Again Thrace shrugged and gestured to the small apartment. "I have so much to show for it."
"That's not the point," Kara said. "Art is not about having something to show for it. It's about the creation of something beautiful and timeless that inspires others."
Thrace smiled at her. "I didn't know they taught Art Appreciation at the military Academy."
"They don't. Lee took me to the art museum last week. We looked at a lot of paintings…and some statues, too." She glanced sideways at Lee and tried not to smile.
"I wish I had a cubit for every time your mother and I went to the Colonial Gallery on Picon while we were in high school. We'd go sometimes and spend the day. After her father was killed, she never wanted to go again. Something died in her that day. It never came back."
"You told me."
"Does he know you're coming here to see me?"
"Who?" Kara asked, although she was sure she knew who he meant.
"Your father."
"I told him."
"And he's okay with it?"
"We've talked about it. He's sorry for…the grief he caused you."
Thrace shrugged. "If it hadn't been him, it would have been somebody else. She and I were…I guess a playwright would say we were star-crossed lovers."
"We read a play last term about a couple like that. I didn't like it."
"It sells, though. One of my most popular songs is based on the legend of Hero and Leander."
Once again Kara felt the need to get out of the small apartment. She stood. "I've got to get back to the Academy. I've got to study tonight."
Lee stood also. "I'm glad I got to meet you, Mr. Thrace. I admire your work and your talent."
Dreilide Thrace looked at Lee and then at Kara. He smiled. "Did you have to pay him to say that?"
"No, but I did have to promise him I'd go back to the art museum with him."
Thrace laughed and then began to cough. He reached for the glass of whiskey.
When he finally stopped coughing, he rasped, "Your mother didn't have much of a sense of humor. I'm glad to see you've got one."
"Do you have a phone?" Kara asked.
"Somewhere around here."
"Will you give me your number?"
He went to the table and tore the corner off a page of sheet music. He picked up his pencil and wrote the number. Kara took the pencil from his hand and wrote her number on top of the page.
"I can't have my phone at the Academy, but I'll answer it most weekends."
"I'm not here much at night. You'll have to call during the day."
Lee walked to the door. "I'll wait outside for you, Kara."
Kara looked down at the pages of sheet music, at the penciled lines of notes. "I'm glad your Muse came back."
He smiled again. "So am I.
"I'll try to come back next weekend, but I might not make it. It's Lee's birthday."
"What did you get him?"
"A print of Posiden's Daughter. It's his favorite painting."
"The sea nymph. A wise choice."
Kara took a deep breath. "When did you know that John was my father?"
Dreilide Thrace took a drag from his cigarette. He turned away from her and blew out the smoke. "When your mother told me she was pregnant."
Kara turned around until she could get herself under control.
She felt his hand lightly on her shoulder. "I loved you anyway. I still do."
She nodded and went to the door. "Take care of that cough."
Lee was standing in the hall. He took her hand. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm glad he's composing again. There were a lot of pages of music on the table/"
"You know why, don't you?" Lee said gently.
"He said his Muse is back. She found him again."
"Yeah, she did, didn't she?"