Chapter 64
A Promise
Beginning with the second year of Cylon occupation, when the top-grossing film of the year depicted a small group of resourceful humans defeating a number of large metallic robots with human speech characteristics, Cavil's team of censors began controlling more and more of what was filmed and published on Caprica. In the third year new history books went to press that glorified the creation of the Cylons as God's ultimate plan for populating the universe. Older history books that related the Cylons' functional beginnings as helpers to their human creators were collected from bookstores and libraries and destroyed. Cavil, especially, was said to denigrate the human desire to create art and music and literature.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
Laura looked at her son sleeping on Maya's shoulder in the seat beside her on the ship taking them to Delphi, the first stop on her summer campaign tour. They were an hour out of Caprica City and an hour away from Delphi and Braedon had just now stop crying and gone to sleep. Even his father's arms had quieted him only temporarily when John had left the cockpit and had walked up and down the aisle with him. Braedon had started to cry again the moment John had handed him back to her so he could return to the copilot's seat. Laura almost regretted her decision to bring Braedon with them, but she also didn't think she could go a week without seeing her son.
Now she whispered to Maya that she was going to get up and stretch her legs. She walked to the back of the thirty passenger ship, only a third full with her staff and the six campaign volunteers who were with them.
Billy sat on the back row by himself staring out the window at the clouds below them. Laura sat down beside him.
"Are you all right?"
Billy turned and said glumly. "I guess."
"Something has been bothering you lately. Is it anything you'd like to talk to me about? I know I've asked a lot of you."
"Blaire broke up with me a month ago. We were having problems before that."
"Oh, Billy, I'm so sorry. Why didn't you say something? I could have arranged some time off for you if you wanted it. Why don't you take next week?"
He looked back out the window for a moment and then shook his head. "I'm better off working. It keeps me from thinking about it too much. Blaire was expecting a ring and a proposal for her birthday a couple of months ago. She said we'd been dating for two years. She said if I couldn't do it by now, I'd never be able to do it. She wants to get married and start a family. I'm not ready."
"Is it a case of not being ready or perhaps Blaire not being the right woman?"
Billy shrugged. "Maybe a little of both. She really hated the long hours and weekends I put in. That didn't work so well with her lifestyle. Blaire likes to go out and party. If she can't take my hours now, getting married is not going to make it better."
"You're smart not to take a big step like marriage without being sure. Is the breakup why you turned down the invitation to Kara's graduation party?"
He nodded. "I should have come. I'm sorry. I haven't been in the mood to go out. I knew somebody would ask about Blaire and I didn't want to talk about it."
"It's all right. I understand. Do you know why Tory didn't make it to the party? She told me she would be there. She hasn't mentioned why she didn't make it. Not that it mattered to Kara. She barely knows Tory."
"I don't know what happened with Tory. She's been seeing somebody lately that she's been really mysterious about. I wonder if he's married."
Laura remembered when she'd met Tory. Tory had been at the end of an affair with her married boss. Could they have gotten back together or was it someone else? If Tory were involved in an adulterous liaison, it didn't bode well for the campaign. It would only be a matter of time before someone in the media dug it out and that, of course, would reflect on her and her bid for the Presidency. Laura realized that she had another job for Romo Lampkin. Of course if might be nothing, but Laura couldn't afford to take the chance.
Billy asked, "How do you know if the person you're with is the right one?"
At the front of the plane John left the cockpit again and sat down beside Maya. She thought about Billy's question. How did one know?
Finally she said, "I would think if you have any doubts then it's better to wait."
"With your husband…were you sure?"
"No. But I wasn't in a position to wait until I was sure. I made the right choice. You've very young, Billy. Don't be in a hurry. You'll meet someone. I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but you will."
He nodded. "Thanks."
"I want you to know that if I'm elected, you'll have a job on my staff. I'm thinking of you for my Press Secretary. It's a big responsibility, but one for which you have proven yourself more than capable. I hope you'll consider accepting."
Billy finally brightened. "Consider the job accepted."
Having apparently assured himself that his sleeping son was fine, John got up and went back into the cockpit, but not before looking back at Laura and smiling.
Yes, she had made the right choice, for their child and for herself.
Before she got up she asked Billy, "By the way have you seen my ivory-handled letter opener, the one that belonged to my father? I haven't seen it for over a week. I was going to bring it with me and I couldn't find it."
"No, I haven't seen it. Don't you usually keep it on your desk?"
"On my desk or on the table. I can't imagine someone taking it," Laura said. "It's not that valuable, but it has a great deal of sentimental value to me."
"Maybe you should ask Mr. Lampkin to look into it."
Laura smiled. "I hardly think I need trouble a private detective about a letter opener. I'm sure it will turn up somewhere."
...
Lee woke up early and rolled over. He expected to see Kara next to him, but the bed was empty. Although the days on the island were warm, almost hot, the nights were cool. They had left some windows open and the bedroom was as cool as the early morning air outside. Lee got up and quickly put on jeans and a sweatshirt. He yawned, wondering what had gotten Kara up at such an early hour. He looked east out over the ocean. The sun had barely cleared the horizon.
Kara sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. One leg was pulled up, her bare foot propped on the seat of her chair. She was staring out the window.
"Good morning," he said.
She turned and looked at him. "Hi."
"You're up early. Is something wrong?"
She shook her head. "I made coffee."
He poured a cup and sat down across from her.
"You sure nothing's wrong?"
"What's Flight School like?"
Lee took a deep breath. "It's hard, but you're going to do fine."
"Tell me more. Tell me all about it."
"The classroom part is a lot like Basic Flight at the Academy, but you'll cover the material a lot faster. Aerodynamics, navigation, everything you've already done plus aviation rules and regs. They expect you to know most of it already. You'll have to learn the Viper inside and out. It's important to do well on the tests."
"I can handle that."
"You've got to do a strenuous obstacle course, too."
"I did Burgher's. I should be able the handle the one in Flight School."
"I don't mean an obstacle course for your Viper. I mean one for you, like the one at the Academy with the hurdles and the water pit and the wall and crawl."
"I did everything okay at the Academy except for the wall. I had trouble with that."
"Then you already know what you need to work on. It's timed. You've got four minutes to make it from one end to the other."
"Being able to get over a six-foot vertical wall in a few seconds is going to make me a better pilot," Kara said sarcastically.
"The point is physical conditioning and…overcoming obstacles. The drill instructor will try to psyche you out. Don't let it happen. There's a trick to doing the wall. If you see somebody who does it well, don't be embarrassed to ask for help. The DI won't mind if you spend time working on your own."
Kara smiled. "Flat Top made the wall at the Academy seem easy."
Lee almost took the bait. "So ask him for help," he said mildly.
"Maybe I'll try to figure it out on my own first. So what else?"
"You'll spend some time in a machine we affectionately call the Spin and Puke where you'll learn what it feels like to…I can't describe it exactly…but you'll learn about spatial orientation or more like disorientation. You'll learn you can't always trust your senses. What feels like up isn't always up."
"The Spin and Puke. Great."
"Then you'll do survival training in the deep space simulator where I nearly bought it. But they've made some changes and improvements since then so you'll be fine."
"My dad told me that after your accident, they revamped the whole thing. Admiral Adama insisted."
Lee shrugged. "At least something good came out of it."
"So I get through deep space simulation, then what?"
"You'll be strapped into a cage like your Viper cockpit and the cage will be dropped into the water of a big training tank. You'll have to get yourself out. That's in case you ever have to ditch your Viper in a body of water."
"Like you almost had to ditch in the bay when you shot down those Raiders?"
"Exactly."
"So Flight School is more than just doing the class work and going up in a two-seated Viper trainer a couple of times before I get to solo?"
"Lots more. But you can do it, Kara. You're not afraid of the water so that helps a lot. The worst part for me was the second dunking in the cage. In that one you'll be blindfolded."
"Blindfolded?"
"To simulate going into the water at night. You'll have to get out of the cage by feel. But they let you make a couple of dry runs before you actually go into the water."
"Oh, man."
"There're divers standing by under water in case you get in trouble. They haven't let anybody drown…yet."
Kara rolled her eyes. "That's good to know."
"You asked me about Flight School so I'm telling you. Oh, I almost forgot. Before you get dunked, they hook you up to a parachute harness and drop you into the tank. You get to practice getting out of the harness before the chute fills with water and drags you under."
"It all sounds like loads of fun, but when do I get to fly?"
"The fifth through the twelfth weeks. You won't solo until the eighth week. Not everybody makes it that far. Some wash out. A few more will probably bust their check rides with the instructors. They'll wash out, too. There's four important check rides. You'll get a different instructor each time. You'll probably take some hazing…mostly because of your age. You're going to have to prove yourself. Everybody does."
"Did you have to prove yourself?"
"More than anybody else in my class. My last name made sure of that. Just like I had to do at the Academy."
Kara rubbed the top of her foot and sighed. "At least I won't have people saying my dad is giving me good grades."
"No, but he was an ace during the First War. You'll be held to a higher standard. It's not fair, but that's just the way it is. The same thing happened to me. My father was good so they expected me to be better. Just go in prepared for it and it won't seem so bad."
Kara sighed again and continued rubbing the top of her foot.
Lee said gently, "Look at me, Kara." When she looked up, he asked, "Is there something else going on with you? Something else you want to talk about?"
"I've wanted to be a Viper pilot since I was a little girl. My mom used to tell me I'd never get into the Academy if I didn't get better grades. Of course that's when I thought I'd be going to the Academy on Picon and…I saw how you reacted when I flew Burgher's sim. This isn't some kind of competition with you. I didn't decide to be a Viper pilot because I wanted to show you up."
"I know you didn't, Kara."
"I can't change the fact that I've got some skills in the cockpit. I don't want to change it. I want to do my best, just like you do."
"You have a gift. You're going to take that gift and hone it into a real skill. You're going to live up to your potential as a pilot in that Viper."
"I don't want to let my dad down. I hope I can get my wings and make him proud."
"You will. Where is this self-doubt coming from? Is it what I just told you about Flight School? A week ago you were gung-ho. You were ready. You were going to show everybody."
"I don't know where this is coming from. I've been awake since before 05:00 this morning thinking about it. I guess all of a sudden it's real to me. I've been at the Academy for a year. That's not the real world. We've been down here for a week on the island and that's not the real world, either. Tomorrow we go home. In a week I start Flight School. That's the real world for me. I'm not a cadet anymore. When I graduate in twelve weeks, I'll be a pilot. I'll have my wings."
Lee looked at her in her jeans and zipped-up hooded sweatshirt and messy ponytail and suddenly realized what had been bothering him. It wasn't so much her potential as a pilot as it was her age. She was still so young. In five or six months, just a few months past her eighteenth birthday, she would go up in a Viper and put her life on the line to free Caprica from the Cylons.
And not just Kara. A great many young officers and enlisted men and women would do the same thing, put their lives at risk to free the Colony. Not all of them would survive. Maybe that's what he feared more than anything else, not that she would be a better pilot than he was, but that she wouldn't survive the coming battle. Maybe what he had been dealing with was his fear of losing her.
Lee stood and took her hand. "Come on. Go put on your shoes. Let's drive into town and get some breakfast. Then I want to go somewhere a couple of miles past the airport. I saw it as we were coming in over the island."
Kara stood. "Where?"
"You'll see."
The place was harder to find than he had thought it would be and he took several small roads that became dead ends before he finally found the right one. He crested the hill and below them he saw the ruin of a small temple.
The road became a path. He parked the jeep and they walked the rest of the way through a field of windswept grasses and white and purple flowers. The bluff overlooked the northern ocean and was much less sheltered than John's cottage and the little bay beyond it.
Lee took Kara's hand.
"Whose temple do you think this was?" Kara asked when they got to the structure and had walked around it.
"It's hard to tell since all the statues are gone. Based on the location, it could have been Posiden or it could have been any of the gods."
The roof was gone as well. Several of the fluted pillars had toppled and lay in sections, but the stone floor was still completely intact.
They climbed the steps. It was like walking into a skeleton.
"I wonder why it was abandoned." Kara said.
"Who knows? People move away. Priests die and aren't replaced. This isn't a heavily populated island. I doubt it can support many temples."
"Why did you want to come here?"
He reached into his pocket and took out the ring, three narrow ropes of braided gold. He held it in the palm of his hand.
"It's not what it looks like. It's not a wedding ring or an engagement ring. It's for your right hand. It's your graduation gift. The jeweler said a braided ring is a promise from one person to another. It symbolizes their intertwined lives."
The ring slid easily onto the ring finger of Kara's right hand.
She studied it. It felt strange because she'd never worn a ring before.
"A promise?" She asked.
"That I want to always be a part of your life. The three strands in the braid represent you, me and the love that binds us together…to quote the jeweler."
She put her arms around him and they stood on the rough stone floor of a long-abandoned temple that had been buffeted by the northern winds for a thousand years and still stood in defiance of the elements.
The moment reassured Lee as nothing else had in a long time. Some things lasted.
Kara held Lee tightly. Sometime during the last few weeks something had changed between them. She wasn't sure exactly when, but she knew she had first felt it last night as they had walked hand in hand on the beach under the silvery half moons of Thyone and Elara with the stars as bright as she had ever seen them.
Something had deepened in their relationship and she now felt a closeness to him that had nothing to do with the physical. The physical part had always been easy for them, maybe too easy. They touched each other and there was fire. Becoming lovers had been the easy part. Becoming friends and accepting each other with all their differences, had been the hardest part of all.
Kara knew though, that they had crossed a chasm and there was no going back. She didn't want to go back, and yet as she and Lee had pulled closer together during this last week, her doubts about herself had surfaced. Maybe her doubts had come through the now-gaping crack in the hard shell around her heart, the shell that she had spent years constructing…from the time she was a little girl who couldn't seem to please her distant yet mercurially-tempered mother and dealing with the pain after Dreilide Thrace had vanished from her life.
She had been forced to grow up and yet inside her somewhere the abandoned little girl still dwelled, fearful at times, and doubting herself.
It was easier when she was challenged…challenged to survive, challenged to get a job and live in an adult world and challenged by her decision to attend the Academy. It was especially easy when someone got in her face because the tough girl knew how to handle that. Someone pushed her and she pushed back. First Maggie and then Shelley had thrown down the gauntlet and she had taken it. Lee had doubted her ability and her hackles had come up, that old knee-jerk reaction of I'll show you.
But now that the Academy was behind her and Lee had accepted her budding skills in the cockpit, she was the one having problems with it. She took Lee's hand and led him over to the steps of the temple. They sat down and she stared out over the ocean before she looked down at the ring on her hand.
By accepting it she felt like she had made a promise to him as well. Too soon to talk of marriage, too soon to make any kind of plans knowing what lay ahead of them, but it was there nonetheless, unspoken yet perhaps more real because of it, a life together for them, their lives always touching, bound by love.
"You're too quiet," Lee said. "Do you think the ring was a mistake because…"
"No," she squeezed his hand. "The ring is beautiful. I love it. It's perfect. Our lives entwined, touching."
She rubbed her thumb across the golden braid. And where they weren't touching, the third braid, the love, was holding the other two together. It was perfect.
"Then why do you seem so sad right now?" Lee asked. "I don't understand."
She smiled. "Maybe because tomorrow we go back to the real world."
"You're sure that's all it is?"
How did she explain her feelings to him? In the past she would have shrugged it off. Now she tried. "When you were younger and your mom was drinking, how did you deal with it?"
"I concentrated on my school work and taking care of Zak and building up a lot of resentment toward my father and my mother, too."
"My mom…mostly she ignored me. Once when I embarrassed her by punching out this kid on the stage at school because he'd laughed at me, she spanked me. It's the only time she ever hit me. The rest of the time she would just send me to my room if I did something that made her mad…like she didn't even want to see me. Like out of sight, out of mind."
"My mom hit me a couple of times when I tried to take her bottle away from her. I was maybe fourteen or fifteen. "
"Did you ever tell your dad?"
Lee shook his head. "He was oblivious. He wouldn't have believed me if I'd told him. She always managed to pull it together when he was home…which wasn't often. When he moved back into the house after the treaty negotiations, she did okay for a year or two. She seemed to control it. Then as he spent more and more time on his plan, her drinking must have started getting worse. I was already gone by then, at the Academy and then later on the Triton. I think dad was always in denial about it…or his plan was more important. And then she got sick and…he didn't even realize it."
Kara took a deep breath. "I always wanted my mom just once to say, good job, Kara. I played soccer. I scored a lot of goals, but she hardly ever came to my games. She was always too busy being a Marine. Or maybe she was afraid I'd do something to embarrass her like I did when I was seven. I think she was happiest when I went off camping for the weekend with Karl and his family. I think that's when she and my dad got together. There's times I resent…I resent both of them for that. I love my dad. He's been so good to me. But sometimes I feel like he should have done more while I was growing up…especially after Dreilide left. I know he said Mom didn't want him in my life, but…I don't know. Maybe I'm not being fair to him. He always tells me, Good job, baby."
They sat silently for a long time on the steps of the temple. The breeze from the ocean lifted small strands of hair that had escaped from Kara's ponytail around her face.
Finally Lee said, "It's really hard to let go of the past."
"I don't understand why this is bothering me so much right now. I've got it great. I've got my dad and Dreilide and Laura and the brother I never thought I'd have…and I've got you. I graduated from the Academy with a 3.2 GPA. I was in the top ten percent of my class. I've got everything I ever dreamed of and then some. I'm not sure what's wrong."
"Maybe it's that post-graduation let-down. In a lot of ways this was a tough year for you."
Kara nodded. "Maybe it's because I don't know what's coming in the future."
"None of us knows that."
"I'll be fine when I get to Flight School. I'll have a lot of challenges to concentrate on. I'll have something to do."
He squeezed her hand. "I'm here for you, Kara."
"You don't believe in the gods, do you?"
"No," he said softly.
"Then why did you want to bring me here to give me the ring?"
"Because I know you do believe. I felt like it would mean more to you."
"I know the gods aren't with us the same way they were on Kobol before the Thirteen Tribes left, but that doesn't mean…just because we can't see them doesn't mean they're not still with us in spirit."
Lee was silent for a long time. Finally he said, "I believe in us…in humans…in our abilities to persevere and survive."
"You don't believe the gods stopped the Cylons from destroying us almost five years ago?"
"No. I believe the Cylons stopped because they wanted something from us. I believe they still want something from us."
"Maybe there's more of them like Sharon out there trying to learn about human emotions so they can go back and share with the other Cylons. Maybe they're trying to become more human…more like us."
"Maybe. And maybe Cavil just wants a planet full of lab rats to experiment on. Maybe he's on a power trip because they're in control of us now instead of the way it was for years when they were our mechanical slaves."
"Your dad is having a hard time believing any of the Cylons would want to help us."
"Is that part of what's bothering you?"
Kara sighed. "Probably. What if I'm wrong, Lee? What if I'm wrong about Sharon and Leoben?"
"I don't know what to tell you. I know my dad, though. He doesn't think as much is riding on this as you probably do or he would have done something about it."
"Like put my dad in the brig to make me talk?"
"No. He wouldn't have done that. He would have just given you an order to tell him. If you'd disobeyed, your career in the military would have been over before it got started. I don't think he has as much faith in these Cylons as you think he does, certainly not as much as you do. He doesn't feel like they're important to his overall plan."
"I still believe they're both going to play a part in what's coming."
"So am I. So are you."
She thought of the bright stars she had seen the previous night. One of them in that sea of stars was Nereid's sun, a solar system thirty light years away across an ocean of empty space. Kara recalled part of a line of a poem by Kataris they had read during the past semester.
Over the velvet black and deep, the torches burn of other worlds...
That's how the poet saw other suns, as the torches of other worlds, their lights, their beacons shining in the heavens like the lights of a lighthouse guiding a ship into a harbor. Somewhere out there Nereid orbited a star and so did Kobol and maybe even so did Earth.
"I think I'm going to fly Sadie to Nereid. I know you and my dad don't believe the Oracle like I do, but she told me I was going to journey to another world."
"If it turns out there are Cylons on Nereid, we're all probably going to journey to another world. My dad has already started work on another plan. Even if we destroy them here, we can't leave them there. We can't leave them to regroup and come back to destroy us on Caprica."
She looked down at the ring again…a promise that Lee would always be part of her life…a promise that she would always be part of his.
She smiled as she stood up. "We've got one more day on the island. Let's not talk about the Cylons anymore…or the past…or the future. Let's enjoy today. Come on. I'll race you back to the jeep."
...
Her father noticed the ring immediately, the minute she lifted her bag from the tarmac at the airport. He raised his eyebrows and looked at her over the top of his sunglasses.
"My graduation present," she said. "A promise that Lee and I will always be in each other's lives."
He nodded and then grinned. "I know it's on your right hand, but I wanted to make sure you hadn't gotten married."
"Not yet."
"Don't do it without me, baby. I want to dance at your wedding…a few years from now."
She grinned. "I'm going to make you give me away so we can both cry. How was your week?"
"It's over. That's the most important thing. Of course we're only home a week and then we start campaigning through the central and northern cities."
"How's Braedon?"
"We can see the edge of his teeth now, upper and lower. He's still fretful, but we'll get through it. Maya's off next week so I'll be taking care of him."
"Off? I told her we would go out one night."
"Laura has her number. You can call her."
"I'll help take care of Braedon next week, too. I feel like I've hardly seen him for the last two months."
Lee walked back from returning the rental jeep. "All done. Are we ready to go?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Kara said.
When they were in the air, her father asked, "Did you and Lee have a good time?"
Kara smiled. "The best. Maybe we can all go back in the fall for a couple of days…before I go to the Galactica."
"That would be nice."
"Even if Laura can't go, maybe you and Brae and me and Lee can do it."
"I'd like that a lot."
"This week was good for me and Lee. This island…your cottage…it's almost like a magic place."
He smiled. "I knew that as soon as I found it. You can step away from the real world here."
"I did for a while, but I'm back now."
"Ready for Flight School?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
...
Kara and Maya walked along a downtown street in Caprica City. "I'm sorry we didn't have much choice in movies," Kara said.
"There's nothing being made these days that's worth spending any cubits on."
Surprised, Kara asked, "You aren't into romantic comedies?"
"Not really. I don't believe in romance any more, certainly not the unrealistic way it's portrayed in the movies. Tonight was nice, though. I enjoyed it."
"Would you like to go get a drink? We're close to a place I've been before called Crocodiles. A lot of sports stars go there but on a week night it shouldn't be too crowded."
"That's fine with me," Maya said.
They got a booth. When the waiter came up to their table, Maya asked, "What's the best drink you have with rum?"
"The bartender makes a mean Geisha Girl," the waiter answered.
"I'll have one of those."
"Make it two," Kara said.
He eyed her. "You have ID?"
Kara gave him her best smile. "I was in here a couple of weeks ago. I was at that big table over there with Sam Anders and Zak Adama and about a dozen other people. You didn't card me that night."
The waiter shrugged. "Two Geisha Girls coming up."
Maya laughed. "That was smooth."
Kara was still smiling. "I told the truth."
"This is nice. I appreciate you asking me to go out."
"Life shouldn't be all work and no play. I got enough of that at the Academy first semester."
"How is Brae doing this week?" Maya asked. "I miss him."
"I've been helping my dad with him. Brae got on his hands and knees today…like he's almost ready to start crawling. He was rocking back and forth, but he just couldn't quite make that first move."
"It won't be long before he'll be going all over the place. Then we'll all wish he'd waited a little longer."
The waiter brought their drinks. "Two Geisha Girls."
Kara sipped. The drink was good. She tasted rum and pineapple juice. There was something else in it, too, but she couldn't identify it.
"My dad said you're going on the campaign bus with them this summer. How are you going to work that in with school?"
"I'm taking the summer off. I've got some books to read for next fall." Maya took a big sip of her drink. "Do you ever think about being in the camp?"
Kara shook her head. "Not anymore. Do you?"
"When it rains, I think about the mud …and the children…the orphans. There were so many orphans."
"Our camp was muddy when it rained, too. How long were you there?"
"Almost three years."
"Me, too. I was thirteen when I got to the camp. Almost sixteen when I left. I had my best friend with me. We told everybody we were brother and sister so we could stay together."
"You were lucky. A pretty girl like you…in the camp I was in…if you'd been alone…" Maya didn't finish the sentence. She didn't have to.
"It almost happened to me once. I was stupid. I went into the woods beside the camp. Two guys caught me. Another guy saved me. He was older and really hot. I had a huge crush on him. He's married now. I don't have romantic feelings for him anymore, but there's still something between us…a bond from being in the camp together."
Their eyes met. Kara realized that they, too, shared a bond.
"There were people in the camp I was in," Maya said, "people who could get you anything you wanted…for a price."
"A black market. I know. Our camp had one, too."
"When my little girl was sick and the camp doctor couldn't get the antibiotics to help her…I went to those men."
"Maya, you don't need to tell me about them. I know what they were."
"Then you know what I did to get the medicine I thought would save her."
Kara nodded. "If I'd had a little girl, I'd have done the same thing."
Again their eyes met.
"Laura and your father don't know."
"Do you think that would make a difference to either one of them?"
"People who weren't in the camp can be judgmental."
"Not my dad and Laura." They sat for a while until Kara echoed Lee's words. "Sometimes it's hard to let go of the past."
"Do you ever dream about the camp?"
"Not anymore. I used to dream about the camp, but mostly I dream about flying now."
Maya smiled sadly. "You're lucky."
Kara glanced at the door. Sam and Zak had just walked in. It took Sam about five seconds to spot her. He nudged Zak and they started toward the booth.
"We're going to have company," Kara said.
"Who?"
"Lee's brother Zak and his friend Sam Anders."
Zak slid into the booth beside her. "Kara. You're looking tanned and good."
Kara smiled. "Thanks, Zak. This is Maya. Maya, this is Zak Adama and Sam Anders."
Maya slid over and Sam sat down. The waiter hurried over to their booth. "Two more Geisha Girls? What can I get you gentlemen?"
Sam and Zak ordered beers. "Put all this on my tab," Sam said. When the waiter was gone he turned to them, "What brings you lovely ladies out tonight?"
"We went to a movie," Maya answered.
Sam laughed. "You mean there's a movie playing in Caprica City that's worth seeing?"
"A chick flick," Kara said.
Maya smiled. "Not exactly Antonichi, but entertaining."
"Hey," Sam said, "You're an Antonichi fan? Me, too."
Zak asked. "Who's Antonichi?"
"Only about the greatest director ever to make a film," Sam said. "Steel River…A Street in Arcadia…Night Watch."
Kara and Zak gave each other blank looks.
"I have a lot of time in the off season," Sam said. "I don't party every night. I'm a film buff…the older stuff before…." He shrugged.
"My father was Antonichi's main cinematographer," Maya said quietly.
"No kidding," Sam said. Kara could tell he was impressed.
"They were all on Aerilon filming when the…five years ago."
"So you actually met Antonichi?"
"He had a home on the lake outside of Kinsdale where I grew up. My father used to take me over there."
Sam was enthralled. "Tell me about him. What was he like?"
Maya finally smiled warmly and Kara realized just how pretty she was.
"About half your height and a mind that moved so fast it made me think of a swarm of bees."
...
When Kara got back to the apartment that night, her father was still up, sitting in the den with his feet propped up, working on his laptop.
"Hey, baby. Did you have a good time?"
"It was fun. We went to a movie and then to Crocodiles. Sam and Zak came in and Maya and Sam instantly bonded over some movie director so Zak and I said about four words the rest evening. I'll bet my first paycheck that Sam is going to ask her out. I made sure Maya got in a transport like you told me to do. For a minute I thought Sam was going to get in with her. She was nice but she made it clear she was going home alone."
"Sam and Maya," her father said thoughtfully. "I hope she knows what she's doing. He's a player. He's not her type."
Kara grinned. "It wouldn't do for Sam to snake your nanny like you snaked his girlfriend Lissa."
"I'll let that go since I can tell you you've had a drink...or two. Crocodiles must not check IDs."
"Our waiter didn't tonight. And Maya won't be a pushover for Sam. I don't think she's ever gotten over losing Peter. What are you working on? Another speech for next week?"
"I scanned all the sketches from Irina Hoshi's journal into my laptop. I'm putting together a composite of what the area around the ancient city might look like now. Bill wants every scrap of information about the terrain we can get."
"For the Raider mission?"
"And afterward...if we find what we think we're going to find."
"I asked Admiral Adama to consider me for the mission."
"I know. He told me. I wondered when you would get around to mentioning it."
"That's all you're going to say?"
He looked at the ceiling and drew a deep breath. "What can I say? You know I don't want you on that mission. You asked to be considered anyway. In a couple of months you'll be eighteen. I can't stop you. All I can do is tell you that I don't want you to do it and hope you'll listen."
"You didn't tell Admiral Adama not to pick me?"
"It's not my place to tell Bill how to do his job. He knows exactly how I feel. If he chooses to ignore it, then there's not a lot I can do about it. Majors don't tell admirals what to do."
"Do you not think I can jump that Raider? Do you not think I can perform the mission?"
"I know you can jump that Raider. There's not a lot to jumping a ship. It's the big unknown that's waiting on the other end that scares the hell out of me. I love you and I don't want to take a chance on losing you. I thought I'd lost you once. I'm not sure I could go through that again."
"What about after the mission? What about the admiral's plan? I'll be in a Viper fighting the Cylons. That will be just as dangerous…probably more so."
"Maybe it won't come to that."
"How can you say that? You think that basestar is just going to stand by when the attack starts? They'll launch every Raider they've got as fast as they can launch them."
"The plan is to destroy it before it launches any of its Raiders."
"Lee said there were always Raiders in the air over Caprica."
"A few dozen. That's nothing. A dozen good Viper pilots armed with missiles could take them out in seconds."
"Things don't always go according to plan. That basestar could get hundreds of Raiders in the air before we destroy it. It could jump away before we destroy it."
"Bill's counting on the element of surprise. His engineers have got the second captured Raider rigged so that it can be controlled by a Raptor. It will be loaded with explosives. They've got Cylon homing devices in both ships."
"Who is Admiral Adama going to get to fly that suicide mission?"
"It won't be a suicide mission. We've got it worked out. The Raptor will be well away before the explosives are detonated. The pilot in the Raptor will control the timing of it."
"You're not flying that mission, are you?"
"No, Kara." He gestured to his laptop. "This is my contribution to Bill's plan. He isn't about to ask the husband of the next President of the Colonies to fly a Raptor into a basestar for him. He's got a short list of pilots right now. He'll make his choice in about a month so the pilot can start training in a special Raptor."
"Have you worked out how we're going to be able to jump that Raider to Nereid without the Cylons detecting it?"
"I've got a couple of ideas."
"What?"
"What we're going to have to do is jump it where there's enough dradis interference, either natural or man-made that the Cylons won't pick it up."
Kara walked over to the couch, sat down beside her father and put her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her. They sat like that for a long time, neither one of them speaking.
Finally she said, "You'd do the Nereid mission if you could. You'd fly that Raptor, too, if the admiral asked you. You'd risk your life because you want your son to grow up free. I'm just like you. You should know that by now."
He didn't say anything, just squeezed her shoulder tightly.
She kissed his cheek. "I love you. Don't stay up too late. All of this will be here in the morning."
...
The Flight School instructor strode into the classroom at exactly 08:00. He was lean, medium height and dark-skinned with a prematurely graying crew-cut. Before he spoke, he wrote his name on the board. Major Desmond Valinski. Beside his name he wrote his call sign, Dizzy.
He turned to the eighteen students in the class. "How many of you in here plan to wash out?"
There were no raised hands.
"Good." He turned and wrote again on the board. NAFOD. "Many of you come in here suffering from this. Who can tell me what it means?"
Again there were no raised hands.
"NAFOD. No Apparent Fear of Death. I would encourage those of you so afflicted to develop a healthy respect for your ship and what it is capable of, but more importantly, what it is not capable of. The same goes for you as pilots. I have studied your folders. I know your strengths and weaknesses based on your Basic Flight grades and your sim scores. We're here to enhance your strengths and work hard on your weaknesses. When you receive your wings in twelve weeks, you will have earned them. Any questions before we begin?"
Eammon Pike raised his hand. "Do you expect all of us to earn our wings, sir?"
"Based on evaluations by Colonel Burgher and Major Gallagher, I see no reason why all of you shouldn't. The same goes for the thirty-four other Viper pilot trainees starting Flight School today." Major Valinski looked directly at Kara. "The Academy graduated an exceptional class this year."
She smiled. Yeah, Pike. Listen to what the man says before you make a fool of yourself.
...
Kara took her tray over and sat down with Karl and Sharon in the cafeteria.
"You look nice and tan," Karl said.
"Lee and I had a good time on the island. What did you do the last two weeks?"
Karl said, "We went up into the mountains and camped and hiked for a week. Sharon's trying to get me in shape. Then we just hung out at her apartment and relaxed."
"I thought I saw Lee on base earlier today," Sharon said.
"He still flies every Monday morning. Laura and my dad left earlier today. Laura has a tour bus for the next part of her campaign. They're stopping at a lot of the little towns on the way north. They'll be gone three or four weeks. The only town they're avoiding is Sovana."
"Did they take your brother?"
"And his nanny, too."
"I don't blame them for avoiding Sovana," Karl said.
"Lieutenant Sydell won't be back at the Academy next year," Sharon said.
"Please don't tell me she got posted to Sovana," Kara said. "I know we didn't get along too well, but I wouldn't wish Sovana on anyone…except maybe Ackerman and he deserved it."
"Ackerman?" Sharon asked.
"Long story. So is that where Shelley is being sent?"
"No. I heard she got posted to the staff of a colonel here in Caprica City. Something to do with Requisitions and Supplies. I heard it's a chance for her to move up if she does well."
Kara said, "Maybe she can requisition the Academy some better food."
"I'll vote for that," Karl said.
Dwight Saunders sat down at their table. "How goes it everyone?"
"Okay for the first morning. How was the diving trip to the Kaoli Reef?" Kara asked.
"Great. Me and Narcho and Crashdown had a great time. What about you?"
"Same here. A great time."
"You're not running us off," Karl said to Saunders. "Sharon and I are going for a walk."
After Karl and Sharon were gone Kara said, "Pike is in my class. I had a one in three chance."
Saunders grinned. "Lucky you."
"You were on his hall at the Academy. Is it just me or is he like that with everyone?"
"Pike and I didn't hit it off. Mostly I avoided him when I could."
"He asked the instructor this morning if he thought all of us were going to earn our wings. I know that was just for my benefit."
"Don't let him get to you, Kara. He's jealous. We all know it."
"From what he told Maggie, he thinks my dad told me how to beat the sims. That always just frosted me. If anything my dad was tougher on me that he was on the others."
"Pike would really piss his flight suit if he knew what you did a couple of weeks ago, wouldn't he?"
"What did I do a couple of weeks ago?" Kara asked suspiciously.
"Right before graduation I was waiting outside Winters' office to talk about my valedictory speech. He and Colonel Burgher were talking. I wasn't trying to listen but the door was open. It seems some cadet beat Burgher's impossible Viper sim. Winters wanted the cadet recognized at graduation and Burgher said that she had refused. The minute I heard that, I knew it had to be you."
"You can't tell anyone. You've got to promise me!"
"Why? I don't understand. You're a pilot. You're supposed to be cocky and proud of what you've accomplished."
"Then let me explain it," Kara said patiently. "No one would believe I did it without help. I'd rather not have every nugget in Flight School give me the same snide treatment as Pike."
"Okay, Kara. My lips are sealed."
"Do you know who the other two cadets were who got to try the sim?"
"You mean your dad didn't tell you?"
"No, and he wouldn't have even if I'd asked."
"Pike and Narcho. Noel told me while we were on vacation. Once he found out Pike had gotten to try, we figured you were the other one. They thought you'd busted it, too. I almost told them what I'd overheard, but since Burgher said you didn't want it out, I didn't."
"I owe you one. Why did you pick a Raptor instead of a Viper?"
"Raptors suit my skills better. Also I'm claustrophobic. That Viper cockpit is too closed in for me. I start to hyperventilate just crawling through the pipes on the obstacle course."
Kara said. "I guess I'd better get back to class. Speaking of the obstacle course, will you help me on my technique for getting over the wall?"
"Sure," he grinned.
"I can't put in a good word with Maggie for you. I'm afraid I'm all out of good words with Maggs."
"I'm over that. You can buy me a beer some night."
"You keep quiet about the sim and I'll buy you two."
Flat Top grinned. "You've got a deal."
...
Kara sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the couch at the apartment. The Viper manual was open on her knees. Behind her on the couch Lee sat massaging her shoulders. She looked at her new digital watch, a graduation gift from Laura. It told time in twenty-four hour digital format and would be great to have on the Galactica. The watch now said 23:33. She really needed to be in bed. It was Thursday night of her first week in Flight School and her first big test was the next day.
"Relax, Kara," Lee said. "The muscles of your shoulders and neck are as tight as stretched rubber bands. This is not a hard test. You're not expected to know the Viper like a crew chief or an engineer. This is basic stuff."
"Stuff like fuel capacity and thrust to weight ratio and stall speed and all that other minor stuff."
"A Viper doesn't have a true stall speed."
"Unless your vertical thrusters quit working. Then you hit stall speed and it goes down like a rock…like that first Raider did for you. Splat, right into the ocean."
"You covered all of this in Basic Flight with Colonel Burgher. You did fine on your tests then. You know more than you think you do. It's not going to do you any good to stay up all night studying this stuff now."
"You sound like my dad," Kara said crankily.
"I'm giving you good advice."
"Maybe I need to get a Viper study group going. I'm sure Pike would want to join," she said sarcastically. "He thinks so highly of my knowledge and skills…almost as much as he thinks of himself. Oh, wait," she continued in the sarcastic tone of voice, "I need Dad in my study group to tell me all the answers."
"Kara, you're getting all wound up over nothing. You need to quit worrying about what Pike thinks. He's jealous."
"That's what Flat Top said."
"You've been hanging out with Flat Top a lot, haven't you?"
"He usually eats lunch with me and Karl and Sharon. And Narcho."
"Narcho?"
"Noel Allison. He was in my math class, too. He and Flat Top are good friends."
"Sounds like your study group should be with Narcho and Pike."
"I wouldn't study the weather with Pike, much less anything for Flight School. I can't stand Pike. He's a total jerk."
"You're really worked up about this, aren't you? I think you've let this rivalry thing with Pike get to you. I think you've let him psyche you out. You know your dad didn't give you those good sim scores. You know you earned them. That's all that matters. You're always going to have to deal with other pilots who will realize you're better than they are. That's the price of being a Top Gun. Either deal with it or settle for being second-best."
Kara leaned back against the front of the couch and turned her face into the side of Lee's leg. "You're probably right."
"I know I am. You need to get a frak-you attitude toward Pike. He can't get inside your head if you don't let him."
She slid her arm around his leg. "What would I do without you?"
Lee smiled. "Stay up all night studying and fall asleep in the middle of the test. Changing the subject. Do you know Tom Zarek is back in Caprica City?"
"No, when did that happen?"
"Late last week. I had lunch with my dad today. Zarek came back on one of the tylium barges. He wants to talk to President Adar about a place on the Quorum of Twelve as Tauron's representative."
"He's not from Tauron."
"He has a petition with a lot of signatures supposedly authorizing him to speak for the remaining natives of Tauron."
"What's Adar going to do?"
"The Tauron seat on the Quorum has been empty since their representative was killed five years ago. There are still some inhabitants living on Tauron so legally they should be represented. Adar is in a tough spot. If he says no to Zarek, it looks like he's ignoring the will of the people of Tauron."
"We talked about it in Connelly's history class. Nobody survived on Tauron except a few thousand natives who live in the north."
"It doesn't matter, Kara. Tauron is still a Colony."
"Zarek is still a criminal, too. Criminals can't hold any elected or appointed office."
"Zarek was granted a full pardon. It was part of the bargain for leading the mission to Tauron to get us the tylium. The slate was wiped clean on him and the prisoners who volunteered. My dad and President Adar felt like it was worth it at the time. They had no way of knowing Zarek would find survivors there and come up with a plan to become part of our government."
"What does Cavil say about it?"
"I'm not sure Adar has told Cavil yet. I'm not sure Cavil would even care. He's getting the tylium he wants for his basestars. Zarek is nothing to him."
"I met with Zarek after he got out of prison. A mutual friend arranged it. That's when I still thought Zarek or one of his men had killed my father. I didn't believe him at first when he said my dad was still alive, but when told me about Dad almost breaking his jaw, that made it real to me."
"I was there. I saw it."
"If Adar appoints Zarek to the Quorum of Twelve, then Laura will have to deal with him until there's another election on Tauron. Who knows when that might be? And my dad will have to be around him at official functions."
Lee stood. "Put up the Viper manual. It's almost midnight. You need to go to bed. We need to go to bed."
Kara looked up at him. "Say the magic word. Say please."
Lee grinned. "Please."
...
Laura walked in and sat down on the couch in hers and John's suite in the fourth hotel they had stayed in that week, a different hotel every night since Monday. She kicked off her shoes and put her head on John's shoulder. They were both tired. D'Anna Biers was with them on this leg of the campaign tour, and Laura knew she was recording everything under the pretense of making a documentary about the campaign process. If Laura was right about D'Anna being a Cylon, then she knew that every scrap of information about her campaign was going straight back to Cavil.
Laura took the drink out of John's hand and turned it up just as her mobile phone rang.
"Don't answer it," John said. "It's after ten o'clock."
Laura looked at the caller ID. "It's Bill. He wouldn't call at this time of night unless it was important."
Bill said, "I apologize for calling this late, but I thought you should hear this before it goes out to the press first thing in the morning. I just got off the phone with the President. At six o'clock this evening Tom Zarek was sworn in as Tauron's duly elected member of the Quorum of Twelve."
"Oh, dear gods."
"Adar's Press Secretary will announce it first thing in the morning. I'm sure you'll get questions about it. Last week Zarek presented a petition to Adar with the signatures of almost eleven hundred Taurons. Adar has had his best legal experts looking at the situation for the last week. None of them could find a way to legally stop it. Zarek has called a press conference for nine tomorrow morning. It was all we could do to get him to wait until Adar's office made the announcement."
"Thank you for calling me. I'll try to get my thoughts together tonight so that I can make a coherent statement tomorrow. You're right. I'm sure I'll be asked about it especially considering Zarek's criminal past. Does Cavil know?"
"Adar briefed him before the swearing-in ceremony. Cavil doesn't care. He knows the Quorum has no real power. He said if we wanted to put criminals in our governing bodies, it was our business. How goes the campaign?"
"The deeper into the heartland of Caprica we get, the less…receptive my audiences appear to be."
Bill chuckled. "You were expecting that, weren't you? Women politicians don't do particularly well in the smaller, more conservative towns."
"Yes, I was expecting my popularity to decline as we travelled north of Caprica City. This morning I actually had a man in the crowd address a question to John instead of me. He asked, 'How does your wife feel about letting people worship one God like the Cylons do?'"
"What did John say?"
"He told the man that I was perfectly capable of answering the question myself." Laura smiled at her husband. "I was almost afraid he was going to add you idiot to the end of his answer, but he behaved himself admirably."
Bill said. "Your audiences should get more receptive when you get to Antioch and Kinsdale. The citizens of both cities owe a great deal to you."
"We're going to visit the park that was created on the site of the big camp outside of Antioch. I'm making a speech and placing a wreath at the memorial wall for all those who died…both in the bombing of the city and in the camp afterward."
"It sounds like you have a full agenda."
"Yes, we do."
"I'll let you get some rest, then."
"Thank you for calling, Bill. I very much appreciate the information you gave me."
"I'll keep you posted of anything else I hear."
She put her phone down and relayed Bill's news to John.
"That's just great," he said sarcastically. "Now I get to attend functions with a man who threatened to let his men rape my daughter."
"I had no idea why he was back in Caprica City."
"What could you do about it, Laura? I'm not blaming you."
"We can't blame Richard either. Unless someone could prove Zarek got those Tauron signatures under false pretenses, there's nothing we can do. Tauron is still a Colony. The still deserve representation."
"But Zarek? They deserve better than Tom Zarek."
"I agree. The man is self-serving. He could care less about a few thousand native Taurons who just want to live as they have for centuries. For the first time in five years I'm glad the Quorum of Twelve has no real power. Of course next year...provided I'm elected and the Cylons are destroyed...it will be a different story. I'm too tired to think of the implications of Zarek and a functioning Quorum right now. I think it's time for bed."
John stood and helped her to her feet. "You talked me into it."
...
On Friday afternoon Kara waited in the hallway near the bulletin board where their test scores would be posted. She wasn't alone. Most of the other nuggets were pacing or milling about with her. There would be no names on the posted list, only the military ID numbers that were on their dog tags.
She saw Pike propped lazily against the wall a few doors down. Pike always did well on tests. He'd probably aced this one. And he was acting so cool, like he was in no hurry to see his score. Like he knew he'd done well.
An ensign came out of the office with the sheet of paper and thumb-tacked it to the board. The nuggets all crowded around. Kara had to wait for a minute before she could get to the front. The class average was at the top of the page. 92. They'd done well. Quickly she found her number. She'd made 98. No one had made 100. There was one other 98. It was probably Pike's.
She started down the hall toward the exit. Lee was right. Pike could only get to her if she let him.
She grinned as she passed him. "The number one Viper spot is spelled T-o-p G-u-n and it's mine."