Chapter 65
The Shark Rider
The memorial garden created on the site of the former refugee camp outside of Antioch first received widespread attention during a campaign stop by Presidential candidate Laura Roslin. As she praised those who had survived, Roslin placed a wreath at the white granite memorial wall set into the hillside. The names of those who had perished in all three of the refugee camps was carved into the granite during the two years that it took to create the garden. Work is proceeding on plans for a museum at the site.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
Kara stood in a flight suit on the high platform above one of the training tanks as two female ensigns strapped her into the parachute rig and adjusted the harness.
Her class had been processed alphabetically today and once again, Kara was the last one to go. The sun was over halfway down the afternoon sky before she stood ready.
"Does that feel tight enough, sir?" One of the ensigns asked as she adjusted the chest strap and then the straps that came up between Kara's legs.
"Plenty tight," Kara answered, her voice echoing inside her flight helmet.
"Please walk to the edge of the platform."
Kara walked to the edge.
The harness tightened as the overhead mechanism lifted her off the platform and out over the center of the tank. A blast of air inflated her chute briefly and she was dropped twenty feet into the water. She plunged deep beneath the surface. She was surprised at how heavy her limbs felt, how much the suit seemed to weigh.
Her first impulse was to kick her way to the surface. The parachute was settling on top of her. She felt a moment of panic before she remembered the first thing she had to do. Release the chute…release the chute.
Her hand in her glove was clumsy as she fumbled with the catch. At least the helmet hadn't started filling with water. Later she would try to imagine what it would be like to go into the ocean if part of her suit were compromised, the stomach-churning feeling of realizing her helmet was filling and she couldn't get to the surface, like drowning inside of a fish bowl.
The catch released. She was no longer tethered to the parachute, but the buoyant helmet and suit kept her near the surface, not allowing her to dive and swim free of the parachute settling around her, sinking, pulling her down with it.
She grabbed handfuls of nylon and began pulling it back over her head, propelling herself forward. The watertight helmet held, but she thought she could feel moisture trickling down her sides as she lifted and pulled, lifted and pulled. Later she decided that it had simply been her own adrenalin-fueled sweat.
She reached the edge of the parachute, saw sunlight on the water above her and kicked her way up. She broke the surface gasping from the exertion, the faceplate on her helmet fogged from the moisture in her breath.
Kara raised her thumb in the direction of the side of the platform to let the instructor with the clipboard know she was all right. Not exactly graceful but she had done it. The three water-related tests were either pass or fail. She had passed water test number one.
Kara squinted into the sun as she clumsily swam to the side. She remembered how she and Lee had swum naked like silver dolphins through the water of the secluded little bay on the island. Swimming in the flight suit was almost like swimming wrapped in a blanket.
When she reached the ladder, Kara hauled herself up the rungs and stood dripping water while one of the ensigns removed the harness rig then released the catch on her helmet. The pressure changed. She twisted the helmet and got it off. She handed it to the other ensign who had come down from the higher platform. The instructor motioned for her to proceed to the locker room.
Diana Seelix was the only person inside the room when Kara got there. She had chosen the call sign of Hardball because her sport of choice at the Academy was Pyramid and she had played it well. Wrapped in a towel and with her face in her hands, Seelix was sitting on the bench in front of the lockers.
"Are you all right?" Kara asked.
Seelix looked up. "I flunked. I got tangled up in the lines of the chute and panicked. The divers had to pull me out."
"You'll get another chance."
"One more. I frak that up and I'm washed out."
"I heard you had to flunk all three water tests this year to wash out. You get two chances with each of them."
"It's still not fair. We're going to battlestars for the gods sakes. Why do we need to worry about ejecting over the water?"
Kara thought about the battle to free Caprica, now less than six months away, and about how much of the surface of Caprica was water. After that would come the battle over Nereid, which had vast oceans based on the information in Irina Hoshi's journal.
"They just want to make sure we're trained to survive anything that happens to us."
Seelix took a deep breath. "You're right."
Kara had started to shiver in the wet flight suit, partly from the air-conditioned room and partly from the adrenalin dissipating in her body. She sat down on the bench and pulled off her boots, unzipped the suit and peeled it off. She grabbed a towel.
As she passed behind Seelix on her way into the showers, Kara said, "Hey, before we get out of here, they'll probably make us prove we can start a fire by rubbing two sticks together."
"At least you can't drown trying to start a fire," Diana said.
...
At Channing's that night Kara related her day to Lee including her success in the tank. She also told him about Seelix.
"It really doesn't seem fair that she would wash out of Flight School if she can't pass the water tests," Kara said.
"She won't wash out for that," Lee said. "My dad told me the instructors have been told to be more lenient on the water tests and the obstacle course. If she can fly a Viper, that's what counts. The only thing that will wash a nugget out is flunking two check rides. My dad wants every pilot he can get right now."
"That's good to know."
"Just keep that to yourself."
Kara's mobile phone buzzed. Her father. He called her every evening. "Hi, Dad."
"Hey, baby. I've been thinking about you all day. How did you do in the tank?"
"I got out from under the parachute with no problem. How are things going for you?"
"We stopped in two more small towns today. The crowds weren't that large, but Laura wasn't expecting them to be. We're in the breadbasket of Caprica. Farmers are busy people. We ate lunch in a little café. Got our picture taken with a few locals. I just talked to the bus driver. He said we're about an hour out of Antioch."
"How's Braedon?"
"He's fine. I took him last night for a couple of hours to give Maya a break while Laura met with Billy and her campaign staff. I had Brae on a quilt on the floor in our hotel room and he started crawling. After he'd gone about three feet he looked up at me with the biggest smile on his face. He was really pleased with himself."
"I can't wait to see him. I can't wait to see you, either. I miss both of you."
"We're halfway through this leg of the campaign tour. Another week and a half and we'll be home. The rest of Laura's campaigning will be in and around Caprica City since that's where over half the population lives."
"I know you'll be glad. How's Laura holding up?"
"She's doing fine. We're both tired at night, but…like I said, it's only another week and a half on the road."
"Tell Laura I said hello. And tell Maya, too."
"I will. I miss you, baby. I want to hear all about Flight School when I get home."
"Kiss Brae for me. Goodnight, Dad."
Kara put her phone back in her pocket.
"How is the campaign going?" Lee asked.
Kara shrugged. "Okay. Dad just wants to get back here. Braedon started to crawl."
"Major Parker is on vacation this week and I was having a slow day. I spent some time on the web reading the headlines and checking out some other sites. D'Anna Biers is posting news about the campaign. There are some good pictures of Laura and John. They do make a nice-looking couple."
"Dad told me that D'Anna and her cameraman were riding on the bus with them."
"I talked to Zak. He's getting tired of the twins just like he did the cheerleader. I think he and Maggie are going out this Saturday night. Zak sounded really happy. He's made reservations at Bonnie Patrice. I think that's a first for him."
"Friday night a bunch of nuggets are getting together at a place called The Shark Rider down on the waterfront. We've been invited."
"Let me guess. Flat Top invited you."
"No. Narcho did. And he invited us…not just me. Does that mean you don't want to go?"
"Whatever you want to do is fine with me."
"Are we going to get into it over Saunders again?"
Lee managed to keep his voice even. "I wasn't aware we'd gotten into it over him the first time."
"He's just a friend. He's a nice guy. He's never said one thing out of line to me."
"I didn't say he had, Kara."
"During first semester he had a crush on Maggie."
"Look, you don't have to keep explaining Dwight Saunders to me. He's nice. He's smart. He's tall and good-looking. He's your friend."
Kara sat without speaking for a few moments. Finally she pointed to the ring on her hand. "Lee, if I'd had any doubts about us, any at all, I'd never have accepted this from you."
"It's just that…never mind."
"No. What? Something is bothering you. Spit it out."
"I believe you when you say you only look at Saunders like a friend, but you're beautiful and you're hot so you'd better believe that even if he hasn't said anything out of line, he's thought about it. He's imagined what it would be like to be with you. It's…just a guy thing, Kara."
"So what are you saying…that I should never be friends with any guys?"
"No, Kara. I'm not saying that. I trust you. I'm just saying that Saunders may look at you differently than you look at him. Just don't be surprised if some day he lets you know it."
"Okay, Lee. You're a guy. You should know. So who do you sit around fantasizing about?"
He smiled. "You."
She rolled her eyes.
"We'll go to the party, Kara. It's important for you to have fun with the other nuggets in your class."
"Didn't you ever do that?"
Lee shrugged. "I had my share of fun. Mostly I studied, though. Are you ready to go back to the apartment?"
"Sure."
Lee put enough cubits on the table to cover the bill and a tip and they walked the five blocks back to Laura and John's apartment.
Inside the door, Kara put her arms around him and kissed him. She held him tightly as the kiss deepened.
Lee pulled back, "You've got to study."
"Later," Kara whispered. "This is more important right now."
He couldn't say no to her. He could never say no to her. He loved her and wanted her too much. He slid his hands under her t-shirt and unhooked her bra. She quickly pulled him into the den. By the time he stumbled back against the couch, his shorts were around his ankles.
She kicked off her sandals and quickly shimmied out of her shorts before she straddled him and sat on his lap.
"You know what I want," she whispered.
They found the right rhythm. He watched her face, the way it suffused with pleasure, the way her body began to tense. He knew her that well by now.
His head was back against the couch. He closed his eyes, his world dissolving into the pleasure that he always felt with her.
He held her tightly against him. "Is that what you wanted?"
"Um-hm," she mumbled.
"Ready to hit the books?"
"Let's go to bed. I'll get up early and study."
He took her face in his hands and kissed her. "I love you. I'd do anything for you."
She smiled. "Even hang out with a bunch of nuggets for me?"
"Even that."
That night Lee lay awake for over an hour after Kara had gone to sleep. He didn't know why Kara's friendship with Dwight Saunders bothered him. He knew Kara loved him. He knew she only saw Saunders as a friend.
Maybe it was because Saunders was him, three years earlier, class valedictorian, but outgoing and popular, too. Lee had never been that outgoing. He'd never been that popular. He'd spent most of his time studying. He knew many of his classmates had misinterpreted his reserved nature as arrogance. He knew that in the classroom, his readiness with the right answers hadn't scored him any points with them either. But, he'd been true to his nature. It was who he was.
He'd also had to fight the stigma of his last name and the jealousy that had sometimes inspired. Son of a commander. Son of a Viper hero of the First War. Son of the President's senior military advisor. All three had been a source of pride for him, and yet all three had inadvertently been strikes against him with many of his fellow cadets.
During Flight School he'd been invited to some of the parties. He'd attended only a few. It wasn't his scene. The drunken antics of some of his fellow nuggets had been legendary. He hadn't participated. It wasn't who he was. Then the accident in the deep space simulator had happened and he'd been too busy trying to catch up after missing a week to attend any parties. Maybe his feelings right now had to do with what he viewed as his own inadequacies. He might have earned his fellow pilot's respect, but he didn't know if they really liked him, not the way Kara's classmates seemed to like Saunders.
Studying and doing well in school had always been his refuge from what he had faced at home. It was the one area he'd felt like he was in control of his life. By the time he had reached the Academy and later Flight School, it was a way of life.
As Lee finally drifted to sleep, he was wondering if he should have tried harder to fit in with the others in his class, something that didn't come easy for him, something that wasn't second-nature to him the way it was for Dwight Saunders, and something that was a lot harder for him to do than sitting in his room and studying.
But that wasn't really who he was.
...
John was standing in front of the mirror knotting his necktie when Laura walked into the bedroom of their hotel suite in Antioch. They had arrived late Thursday evening and were there for Friday and Saturday before moving on to Kinsdale on Sunday.
Today they would visit the site that had once been the sprawling refugee camp that had been Kara's home for almost three years. Laura would make a speech in which she would pay tribute to the half a million Capricans who had died in the bombing of Antioch and in the camps during the next three years. She would finish her speech with the promise of a better future if she were elected. She hoped she could live up to that promise. She hoped they would be free of the Cylons by the time she took office in January.
John turned to her. "Does the tie look okay? I can't seem to get it right this morning."
Their eyes met. Today was going to be difficult for him. She knew it. She reached up and touched the side of his face. "The tie is fine, John. You look good like you always do."
She and Billy had rewritten her speech several times in an effort to balance the tribute she would pay to the dead with praise for the survivors and references to the future. She could make no direct references to the Cylons in her speech. She could point no finger of blame for the deaths or the suffering that had followed the attack nearly five years earlier. Cavil had made it clear to her and to everyone who made public speeches that such references were forbidden. To make them was to risk arrest and imprisonment.
Bill had followed Cavil's guidelines in his speech at the Academy graduation. Direct references were not allowed unless the Cylons were being praised. Laura had yet to utter the word Cylon in any of her speeches since she could find nothing praiseworthy about them. They had murdered billions of humans and would never be anything to her but heartless killers.
John put his arms around her and she slid hers around him, feeling the warmth of his lean body through his shirt. They stood that way for a minute until he said, "We'd better go. I can handle this today. Kara's fine. She survived the camp."
"The camp site doesn't look anything at all like it did when she was there. It's a park now. There's a beautiful memorial garden. Parents can take their children there to play. I'm told there's a wonderful field where they can fly kites. To me there's no more definitive picture of the freedoms of childhood than a boy or a girl flying a kite."
"I've seen the pictures of what they've done to the camp site, but it's going to be different actually being there. I was at the camp once. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I lost my cool and got thrown out and then I…had another experience I don't even want to think about. It was after I left the camp in Antioch that I gave up hope of finding Kara."
"Maybe today will give you some closure. Kara doesn't blame you, John. She never did. You've always blamed yourself."
Before Laura knocked on the door to the adjoining room where Maya was staying with Braedon, John put his hand on her arm.
"Maya might have a rough time going to the memorial service. She lost her fiancé in the bombing of Kinsdale. She lost her baby daughter in one of the camps. Maybe we should let her stay here. I can take care of Braedon. I can hold him while you make your speech."
"You're right. I hadn't realized how difficult this might be for her. I get so focused on the speeches and the campaign. I forgot Maya was in the camp near Kinsdale."
"Kara told me they talked about it the night they went out. It's still on Maya's mind."
Laura knocked. When Maya opened the door, though, she was already dressed in a simple black dress and shoes. Two small artificial flowers were pinned in the side of her dark hair, one flower was white, the other one blood red. The flowers were small poppies, remembrance flowers. White for a loss in the camp, red for a loss in the bombing. Maya wore both.
Braedon was in his playpen. Laura walked over and picked him up. "Hello, my little man." He immediately began to babble and reached for one of her gold earrings. She caught his hand. It was wet and she realized it had been in his mouth. He looked at her and grinned, showing the beginnings of his four front teeth.
Maya hurried over with a tissue. "Don't let him get your suit wet. Those little handprints will show."
Laura handed her son to Maya. She didn't have time to change clothes.
"John and I don't want the trip to the camp and the memorial service to cause any distress for you. Would you rather stay here at the hotel? We can take Braedon. John can hold him while I make my speech."
"No," Maya said quietly. "I need to do this maybe more than either one of you." Braedon was reaching for the flowers in the side of Maya's hair and she deftly shifted him to her other hip.
Laura nodded. John picked up the diaper bag from the bed and opened the door. Billy stood outside with his hand up ready to knock. "Tory sent me up to get you. The bus is waiting. We don't want to be late."
As they walked down the hall to the elevator, Laura said a silent prayer. She hoped there would be some closure for both Maya and John that day.
...
"Come here quick," Lee said as Kara entered the apartment late Friday afternoon. "Part of Laura's speech in Antioch is on the news."
Kara walked into the den. Lee turned up the sound. The camera was focused on Laura's face.
"We are gathered today to honor those who are no longer with us and to pay tribute to those who survived the destruction of their city and the lives they had once known."
It infuriated Kara that Cavil wouldn't allow the mention of how the city was destroyed. Laura might have been talking about an earthquake or another natural disaster instead of a horrible act of war by the Cylons.
The camera pulled back. A podium was set in the middle of a garden. Kara saw flowers and the bubbling water of a fountain in the background.
"This beautiful memorial garden was created by the efforts of men and women who wished to transform a necessary but painful chapter of their lives into a place of remembrance for all of us. The creators of this garden have given us a reminder as we go about our daily lives that the past is always with us, but through our efforts we can not only survive it but can become the stronger for it. We can go forward with hope for the future."
The camera angle shifted. Kara caught a glimpse of her father along with a dozen people seated on folding chairs to the left of the podium. Her father was holding Braedon who was asleep in his arms, his plump little body shielded from the sun by a blanket and a sunhat. Maya was beside him and had on sunglasses. She clutched a handful of tissues. Kara knew this must be hard for her. It wasn't her camp, but it was her grief, her pain and her loss just the same.
The screen shifted to D'Anna Biers seated at what looked like a desk in a hotel room.
"D'Anna Biers reporting from the campaign trail. This morning Presidential candidate Laura Roslin placed a wreath at the memorial wall in a park that was once a refugee camp on the outskirts of Antioch. To hear her entire speech, visit the KTSNews web site. Ms. Roslin, traveling with her husband and seven-month-old son, continues her campaign swing through the northern cities of Antioch and Kinsdale before returning to Caprica City. Polls are once again placing Roslin's popularity well ahead of her rivals."
The channel went to a commercial and Lee muted the volume. "Have you seen pictures of what has been done to the camp?"
Kara shook her head. "I don't care to revisit that."
"I found a web site today that had some aerial shots of the camp before it was dismantled and the way it looks now. You'd never know it was the same place."
"Lee, I don't really want to look at it. That part of my life is over. I've moved on."
"I just thought you might like to see…"
"No! Why does everyone think they can throw out a few handfuls of grass seed and plant a few flowers and everything is beautiful? It's like what we all went through is just wiped away, like it never happened."
"That's not the point of creating the memorial garden."
"Well that's how I feel about it so drop it."
"Okay, Kara." Lee turned off the television. "How did you do on your aviation rules and regs test today?"
"I made 96. It was the second highest grade. Somebody made 100. Probably Pike. He always does good on tests."
"Don't forget you'll be scored on your check rides. That's where you'll beat him. Everything is added to get your final score. There's no way Pike will ever beat you there."
"I'm going to take a shower and get ready. We can go to Channing's if you want to before we head down to The Shark Rider."
"That's fine with me."
Near the end of their dinner Lee said, "You're really quiet tonight. Are you still brooding about making 96? That's a good grade for the rules and regs test."
"Says the guy who made 100 on his rules and regs test. And don't get on my case tonight, Lee. I don't need it."
"Kara, I know Flight School is stressful. I know how much pressure you're under to perform."
"Next week I do the last two water tests and the deep space simulator. The week after that I get to have fun in the Spin and Puke. I've also got to pass the obstacle course which I can't do yet because I can't get over that stupid wall. I want to fly and I'm still three weeks away."
"I know what it's like. I went through it. You'll get there. Three weeks will go by fast. You'll be surprised how fast."
"So you think I'm whining?"
"The last two weeks and the next ten weeks are probably the most intense twelve weeks you'll spend in your life. It's okay to whine a little. Now let's go so you can have some fun."
By the time they left Channing's, the sun had set over Caprica City and the streetlights had come on. They heard the music from The Shark Rider before the transport pulled up near the curb. It had to be loud inside. A long pier extended into the water on the left side of the building. Fishermen were ambling back up the pier with their tackle boxes and the day's catch or lack of it.
Part of the building was constructed on pilings and jutted into the bay. Over the door a neon sign of a mermaid riding a shark glowed brightly.
"I guess we're at the right place," Lee said.
Several nuggets from her class were standing outside drinking beer from bottles. Kara guessed they were outside because they wanted to talk. The noise level inside would definitely make conversation difficult. They greeted each other as Kara and Lee walked through the door. The inside of the bar was bigger than it looked from the outside. It was packed with more nuggets and some locals. A band with two guitarists and a drummer played on a small stage to the right of the bar.
Kara looked around in the dim light and saw Sharon and Karl at a table near the back on the other side of the room. Karl saw her, waved and pointed to two chairs.
They began working their way in that direction.
"Starbuck." Kara heard someone call.
Noel Allison got up from a table where he was sitting with Dwight Saunders and Alex Quartararo. Both had girls sitting on their laps, probably locals who frequented the bar. One was wearing a black denim mini-skirt and boots. The other one wore skimpy cut-off jeans and a halter top.
Narcho leaned down near her ear. "Was that you who made the 100 on the test today?"
She put her mouth near his ear. "Nope. It was probably Pike. I made 96. How did you do?"
"92."
"That's not so bad."
"Not so good either."
Kara introduced Lee to Narcho. "We're going back to sit with Karl and Sharon," she shouted to him. "It looks like your table is full. All you need now is a woman to sit on your lap."
Narcho laughed. "They keep switching around. I'll get one of them soon."
While Kara went to the back table, Lee went to the bar to get two beers.
Sharon leaned over and said to her, "This is not really my kind of place. The noise is...almost too much."
The music and the atmosphere were beginning to seep into Kara. She was beginning to relax and let go of the tension even if it was only for one night.
The band launched into a popular song that had a good dance beat.
Karl leaned over to Sharon. "Let's dance."
Sharon shook her head. "Too crowded."
Karl looked at Kara. "How about it?"
"Let's go," Kara said. They passed Lee on his way from the bar. "I'm going to work up a thirst."
The dance floor was packed. They could hardly move. Nobody seemed to be dancing with anybody else. It was just a big group of nuggets and a few locals bouncing and gyrating to the music.
She and Karl didn't go back to the table until three songs later. Lee and Sharon were gone. Kara's beer sat at her place.
Karl leaned over. "They probably went outside. It is loud. My ears are ringing."
Kara picked up her beer and motioned toward the door that led to the deck on the back of the building. They saw Lee and Sharon walking about halfway down the pier.
Karl found two chairs and they sat and propped their feet on the deck rail. Kara sipped her beer as the ocean breeze dried the sweat on her face and scalp. She raised her arms and the short sleeves of her tropical print shirt billowed. She was wearing cargo shorts and sandals. It didn't take long at all to get cool and dry.
"What do you think they're talking about?" She asked Karl.
He shrugged. "Flight School probably. Sharon had a hard time with the first water test. She passed, but she doesn't like the water."
This Sharon had shared Boomer's memories of drowning.
"Seelix messed up and flunked the first water test. She was supposed to try again this afternoon. I didn't see her when we came in. I hope she did okay."
"She's here. I saw her earlier."
"I'm going to miss this when we're all together on the Galactica."
Karl smiled. "How do you know we're all going to be together?"
She shrugged. "My dad and Laura were at the camp today. She gave a speech."
"I saw the news before Sharon and I left to come over here. I didn't recognize the place."
"Lee wanted me to look at some pictures. I didn't want to."
"I don't blame you, Kara."
"Do you think I need to do it to get closure?"
"Not unless you think you do."
"I wish they'd left it alone. Now it's beautiful and everybody will forget what it was like. We need to be reminded of what the Cylons did."
"D'Anna Biers said there was a fund-raising drive going on now to collect money to build a museum on the site. It will have photographs of the way the camp looked. I don't think anybody will forget what it was like if they were there. I won't. I know you won't either. I shut my eyes sometimes and see it all."
Dwight Saunders came out onto the deck, sat down beside Kara and put his feet on the rail. He was also wearing cargo shorts with an Academy t-shirt. He had a beer in his hand.
"Man, it feels good out here. It's getting hot inside. Too many bodies packed into too small a space."
"What happened to your bimbo in the cut-offs and halter top?" Kara asked.
"She's sitting on Narcho's lap. She found out he's going to be a Viper pilot. Those figher jocks get all the girls."
"Aw, she broke your heart," Kara teased.
Karl snickered. "It's not his heart that's interested in her."
"Easy come, easy go," Saunders said in a good-natured way. "So what happened to your prospective spouses?"
"Down at the end of the pier making out," Karl joked.
"So why aren't you two up here making out?"
Kara kept up the joking banter. "It'd be like making out with my brother. Karl and I have been friends since we were kids."
"Well, if you want me to stand in for Karl, there's nobody on my lap right now."
Kara got up and dropped her empty beer bottle in the recycle barrel. She ruffled Saunders' hair as she walked behind his chair. "You'd just break my heart before you ditched me for the bimbo. I'd better go find Lee. I'll leave you here with Karl. Maybe you two can make out."
Karl said in a falsetto voice, "I don't care if you're not going to be a Viper pilot, you big hunk."
Saunders spit out his beer he laughed so hard. "I'm still a few beers away from being that drunk, Helo…but you do look better than you did when I came in tonight."
All three of them were still laughing as Kara walked down the steps from the deck to the pier. She tried not to read anything into Saunders' slightly intoxicated remark. Had Lee been right? Had Flat Top actually thought about them being together? Was he coming on to her or had his remark been made in jest like hers had been to him?
Saunders never had any trouble getting a date at the Academy, but he didn't have a reputation as a guy who was always on the make, either, like Pike. For now Kara decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
...
Sharon and Lee strolled slowly toward the end of the pier.
"Thank you for coming out here with me," Sharon said.
"No problem. Crowds and loud bands aren't my thing either."
"I know you have your doubts about me."
Lee didn't say anything for a moment. "Given the history of your…fellow Cylons, do you blame me?"
"No," Sharon said quietly.
"What makes you so different? What makes you willing to betray the others?"
"I want to stay with Karl."
"I'm not sure that's enough to convince me."
"I want to stay with humans. I don't want to go back to live on a basestar…or anywhere else with the other Cylons. There're just copies and copies and copies of the same seven models. They might have different experiences, but they're basically all the same. Do you know what's it's like to run into yourself dozens of times a day?"
Lee couldn't imagine how that would be. "No," he finally said. "If you did have to go back, where would you live besides a basestar?"
"I…don't know. All I remember is being on a basestar."
"You have the knowledge of your homeworld, Sharon. It's buried deep inside your memories. You could tell me if you wanted to."
"Cavil has the knowledge. He was the first one created. He has all the knowledge. He kept a lot of it from the rest of us. I was the last one created. I got the least amount of knowledge about our beginnings. But I've got the greatest capacity to learn. That's why I was chosen to live among humans...to observe and to learn, especially about emotions."
"And to report back to the others."
"To share with them. But I don't want to go back. I don't know another way of saying it. I want to stay with Karl. I love him."
They reached the end of the pier and stood with their elbows against the rail. They were on the southern side of the harbor. Miles across the water the beacon of the Penny Point Lighthouse steadily rotated. Lighted buoys bobbed out in the bay, marking the deep shipping channel. The lights of the city were so bright that Lee had trouble seeing the stars. He thought about the stars the way he and Kara had seen them on the island. Kara had said that Kataris called them the torches of other worlds. As he stood thinking about Nereid, he was more aware than ever that they weren't alone in the universe. They weren't even alone in their own galaxy.
The ocean breeze caught Sharon's hair and blew it in her face. She pushed it behind her ears. "Maybe I've learned too much. Maybe I've learned more than Cavil ever thought I would. Maybe I see humans differently from the way he does. Karl could have turned me in. So could Kara. So could you or her father. None of you did."
"So that's why you're going to help us?"
"One of the reasons."
"Where's your resurrection hub?"
"Near the most distant planet in your solar system, a planet that's mostly ice."
"Is that where you and the other six models were created?"
"No."
"Then where did the old centurions go twenty-five years ago at the end of the First War? Where did they go to build the new basestars and create the…ones like you?"
"Another solar system."
"Which one?"
"I don't know."
"I don't believe you."
"That's the truth, Lee. I would tell you if I knew. I got the memory from Boomer but she didn't know where it was. She only knew we'd come from there."
"How many Cylons are on your homeworld now?"
"These are Boomer's memories. I don't know if I trust them."
"How many?"
"More than came to the Colonies."
"What about basestars?"
"We took all but the one under construction. I'm sure they've made more by now."
"Who made you and all the others, Sharon? And please don't tell me it was the old centurions. I know better."
"The creators, but don't ask me about them. None of us ever saw them. Only the first copy of each model was allowed to see them or speak with them. I'm a long way from the first copy of my model."
"Why did some of the others stay behind?"
"There was some sort of schism between our Cavil and a One on the planet but I don't know what caused it."
"Anything else you can tell me?"
"The others took humans to our homeworld five years ago from ships and some from the planets. I don't know how many and I don't know why but I think it was a lot. Boomer has a few memories about settlements and farms being readied."
"Readied for humans?"
"Human slaves," Sharon said. "Kara's walking down the pier."
Lee turned around. Sharon was right. Kara was three-fourths of the way to them.
"How did you know that?"
"I smelled her shampoo. Some of our senses are more acute than humans. We're stronger. We don't get tired. We don't even have to sleep."
"So that makes you better?"
"Cavil thinks it does."
"And what do you think?"
Sharon shook her head sadly. "That's not what makes someone better."
Kara came up beside him. He put his arm around her.
"Look at all those lights on the water," Kara said. "They look like stars."
"Where's Karl?" Sharon asked.
"Sitting on the deck talking to Saunders."
"I'd better go back."
She started walking up the pier.
"Is something wrong with Sharon?" Kara asked.
"She doesn't like crowds and loud music. She said some of her senses are more acute than ours."
Kara poked him playfully in the ribs. "So what's your excuse?"
"I don't like crowds and loud music, either."
"Are you trying to tell me you're a Cylon?" Kara joked.
"It's just not my thing. I've never been a party guy."
"Do you want to leave?"
"No. We'll go back. We'll go have another beer and dance. This is your fun night. I want you to de-stress and have fun."
When they got back inside The Shark Rider, the band had taken a break. Someone had fed the jukebox. The song was slow. There were fewer people on the dance floor now. Sharon was dancing with Karl, her eyes closed, her arms wrapped around his neck.
Lee took Kara in his arms. They began moving to the music. Narcho was dancing with the girl in the cut-off shorts. Quartararo was dancing with the girl in the black skirt. Flat Top sat at the table, and for a moment Lee thought he was watching them, but as he glanced back around, Saunders got up and went over to a table where Diana Seelix sat. A minute later they were dancing against one another, her arms around his neck. Saunders' eyes were closed, a beer bottle still in his hand.
...
Laura stood on the edge of a precipice, darkness all around her, her son clutched in her arms. She was frozen with fear, unable to move. Something was close by in the dark, something that was going to snatch her child from her. She tried to scream but no sound came from her throat. Braedon clung to her.
She fought her way up from the nightmare and heard John's voice. "Laura, what's wrong?"
She opened her eyes. She was sitting up in a strange bed in a strange room, and then she remembered. They were in a hotel room in Antioch. She sank back against the pillows.
"A bad dream."
He pulled her to him and held her. "It's all right. You're safe."
"Something was going to take Braedon from me. Something evil…in the dark. I couldn't see. I was on the edge of a cliff. I couldn't get away."
"Nothing is going to get Braedon. He's in the next room."
Laura got out of bed and pulled on her robe. She padded barefoot through the living room of the suite to the door of the adjoining bedroom, opened it quietly so as not to wake Maya and went over to the portable crib. Her son was sleeping soundly. He was fine. She stood watching him until the dream had completely faded.
The Oracle had once told her that a dark force would try to take her son but would not succeed. Perhaps being on the site of the camp today and seeing the haunted looks in the eyes of some of the survivors had stirred her fears? Were the Cylons the dark force? Would they try to take her son from her?
John was standing in the doorway of their bedroom as she walked back through the living room of the suite.
"He's fine, isn't he?"
"Yes. I don't know what happened to me."
He led her back into the bedroom and closed the door. "You need to go back to sleep. It's not even four o'clock."
She put her arms around him and her face against his shoulder. He had become her refuge from the turmoil that seemed to engulf her more and more lately. Her hands slid down against the back of his hips. They didn't speak. They didn't have to. He knew exactly what she wanted and needed. He didn't disappoint her. He never disappointed her.
Afterward she fell asleep almost immediately, secure in his arms, the dark dream gone from her thoughts. She had to believe the Cylons would be destroyed. She had to believe in a better future for their son. She had to.
...
The cage rattled and clanked. Made of metal bars and wire mesh with a Viper seat welded inside, it sat on rails that disappeared into another one of the training tanks, a much larger one than the one in which the parachute test had taken place. The cage was shaped roughly like the cockpit of a Viper.
Kara sat strapped in the seat, waiting for the guy in the control booth to pull a lever that would release the cage and send it sliding down the rails into the forty-foot deep tank. The yellow and black striped lever on her left was for ejecting the canopy of the cage just before she hit the water, the canopy in this case being made of wire mesh. The stick between her legs controlled the rotation at which the cage hit the water. She knew that upright and facing forward was best although in the case of having to ditch a ship in the water, she couldn't count on either.
Kara wasn't as nervous about this test as she had been about the parachute drop. The diver on the side of the pool jumped in. The one beside the cage went over the instructions once again. Keep her head back against the seat, eject the canopy before the cage hit the water, keep the cage straight up instead of on its side, release the seat harness, swim to the surface. Simple.
Not simple, but she knew she could do it.
In reality Kara knew that a Viper pilot would rarely find himself or herself in a position where flying a ship into the water was the best alternative. It was usually always better to eject before that happened. At the speed Vipers traveled, they tended to disintegrate on impacting anything, even water. That's why the previous week's test had been so important. She was far more likely to find herself ejecting over the water than riding her Viper into it.
"Are you ready, lieutenant?" The diver beside her asked.
She held up her thumb. The cage clanked again. She felt it being pulled backward up the rails. She looked down at the surface of the water as it got farther away. Lee had told her this morning to think of it as a big roller coaster ride.
Right.
The cage stopped moving. Suddenly she was hurtling downward, her speed increasing. Thirty seconds later it was over. She was free of the cage and on the surface treading water. Test number two was history. She smiled to herself as she clumsily swam to the side of the tank. She still believed that swimming in the flight suit was harder than the test.
That afternoon she went out to the obstacle course to practice again. Every afternoon that she didn't have some other kind of test, she had worked on parts of the course. She had mastered every single bit of it, hopping through the two rows of tires, jumping the hurdles, climbing the rope and the pulling herself hand-over-hand across the horizontal ladder set ten feet off the ground, walking the twenty-five foot balance beam across the water pit, crawling snakelike on her belly through the maze of pipes and under the barbed wire. She just couldn't get over that six-foot wall.
That afternoon she ran at the wall and jumped. She got her hands over the top but it was wide and she couldn't hold on. She fell back onto the sand. She tried again. The third time she felt a pain in her shoulder.
She went over to the side of the course, sat down on the grass and massaged her shoulder. She rotated it. The pain mostly went away. The guys did an eight-foot wall beside the six-foot wall for the females, the thought behind that being that men had more upper body strength than women. Some of the guys were struggling with their wall, too. Kara took comfort in the fact that she wasn't the only one who couldn't do the wall.
She was discouraged, though. She put her arms across her knees and put her head on them.
Someone sat down beside her. She glanced up. Dwight Saunders. He was wearing boots, fatigue pants and tanks. She looked at him just long enough to tell that he worked out.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"I was watching you. You're jumping too close to the wall. You can't pull yourself up with your hands. The top of the wall is too wide. You need to get your arms on top of it. That's the only way you'll be able to haul yourself over. I'll show you."
He got up, walked back to the starting point, turned and ran at the wall. He jumped with his arms in front of him and bent at the elbows. He hit the wall almost chest high, got his arms on top and swung his torso over before dropping on the other side. He made it look so easy.
He walked out from behind the wall and grinned. "See. Nothing to it."
"You're six or seven inches taller than I am."
"That helps. But you've got strong legs. You can make it up with the jump. Come on. Try it."
The first two times Kara tried it, she didn't get up high enough and fell back on her haunches. The next time she hit the wall so hard that she felt her teeth rattle. She knew she was going to have some bruises from that one.
By now she was frustrated and humiliated. "I can't do this! I've been trying for two weeks. I'll never get over it unless I sprout wings or something."
"Yes, you can. Maybe you think Kara can't, but I know Starbuck can. I'm going to put a little mark on the sand where I want you to jump. You're going to think it's too soon but jump anyway. Go as high as you can and get your arms over the top. Don't lose the momentum. Let it carry your body like a pendulum. Just swing yourself right over. You don't have to be graceful. You've just got to get over it."
Kara tried again, jumping right where he put the mark, propelling herself as high as she could. She got her arms over the rim of the wall. She was tired, and it took two tries to swing her torso high enough to hook her leg over the top and pull herself up, but she did it.
She dropped down on the other side and came around the wall with a big smile on her face.
"I told you that you could do it," Saunders said.
"I think I finally see what you've been trying to tell me. I owe you another beer."
He shrugged. "I couldn't let you wash out of Flight School over a little wall. If you did, then Pike would be the Viper Top Gun and none of us could live with that. Beat Pike and we're even. I want to see you walk away with that Top Gun trophy. You can put it beside Lee's."
"His and hers matching trophies. I'm done for today. Are you heading back to the lockers?"
"Not yet. I'm going to work on crawling through the pipes. That's the worst part for me. I don't like being in tight places."
"If you get stuck, just holler. I'll pull you out."
"Last Friday night…I'd had a couple of beers too many. I hope I didn't say anything out of line to you."
Kara grinned. "You mean you don't want me to sit on your lap and make out with you?"
"Oh, frak. Is that what I said? I'm sorry. I respect you, Kara. And I know you're with Lee. I would never make…I should have kept my mouth shut."
"It's okay, Dwight. I know you were joking. I know you really wanted to make out with Karl instead of me."
He smiled. "Don't give away my secret, okay?"
Kara turned to walk back to the locker room and the showers. Lee had been right. Saunders probably did think about her differently than she thought about him. He might even have imagined what it would be like to sleep with her, but he was still a nice guy. He had shown her how to get over the wall. That's what friends did. They helped each other.
...
Lee sat facing his father over the table at lunch on Friday. He thought Bill had suggested lunch because he had more questions about the information Lee had gotten from Sharon. Instead his father had just asked him a question that had surprised him. He had asked him if he were serious about wanting to fly the Raider mission to Nereid.
"I'm serious," Lee said.
"I need to ask you something else, son. Do you really want to do it, or did you ask to be considered because you're afraid Kara might get the mission?"
Lee couldn't keep the edge of anger out of his voice. "You think I've got some kind of competition going on with Kara?"
"No. I ask the question because I need to know. My concern is that you'd rather take on a dangerous mission than let her do it."
"I think I can do as good a job of flying that mission as anybody."
"Kara had no qualms about climbing up in that Raider."
"So that means she's more qualified?"
Bill studied his cup of coffee before looking up. "Not that she's more qualified but it does say something about her willingness and eagerness."
Again an edge came into Lee's voice. "Did I not do a good job flying the mission that got us both of those Raiders?"
"You did."
"Then what's the problem, Dad? Kara hasn't even gotten her wings yet."
"Is there any reason to believe she won't?"
Lee took a deep breath. "No. She's doing very well in Flight School."
"Son, I've got to think about the right pilot for the mission. You and Kara aren't the only pilots I'm looking at."
"But you're looking harder at Kara, aren't you?"
"She thinks fast in a critical situation. When that second Raider came after you, it was her idea for you to fly to the power plant."
"You know how John feels about her flying the mission."
"I'm aware that he and I disagree. I'm aware that we may have words over it…if I chose Kara, but in the end, the decision is still mine."
"If?" Lee said. "I thought you'd already made up your mind."
"Not yet. That's why I'd like for you to go out to the hangar with me tomorrow morning and get up in that Raider and show me that you want to fly that mission…not that you volunteered just to protect Kara."
"I'll pick you up in the morning. What time?"
"09:00."
"I don't guess you want me to bring Kara."
"That's up to you, son."
...
Lee waited to tell Kara until he had poured them both a glass of ambrosia and they were sitting on the couch.
"I'm going out to the hangar with my dad in the morning, the one where the Raider is being kept. My dad thinks it will prove something about whether or not I really want to fly that mission. Do you want to go?"
Kara didn't say anything.
"Come on, Kara," Lee finally said. "What are you thinking?"
"Do you want to fly it, Lee? Do you really want to?"
"Why do you want to fly it?"
"Because it was my idea," Kara said. "Because I know I can do it. When I crawled up in that Raider, it felt right. You didn't even want to check it out."
"It wasn't the right time."
"Tomorrow will be the right time, then. Go with your dad. I'm going to take the bike and go visit Dreilide."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure. Your dad will make the right choice."
Lee said, "Laura and John will be back on Sunday. Tomorrow night is the last night I'll get to stay here."
"I know."
"Would you like to go out somewhere special tomorrow night?"
"Whatever you want to do, Lee."
"Is this going to cause us a problem? Because my dad might not pick either one of us."
"No. It's not going to cause us a problem."
Yet even as she said the words, Kara knew there was still something unresolved between her and Lee over the mission. Lee knew it, too. They both chose to delay dealing with it. The mission was months away, and Lee was right. Bill Adama might not choose either one of them. Lee had told her they would all probably go to Nereid after eliminating the Cylons on Caprica. Maybe that's what the Oracle had meant when she had said Kara would journey to another world.
Kara sipped the ambrosia. Best to let it go for now. Admiral Adama would eventually make his choice. She had to trust him to make the best one. She and Lee would deal with it when and if it happened to be one of them.
"I did the obstacle course today in three minutes fifty-two seconds. That's my best practice time so far. I do it for real next Wednesday."
"So you made it over the wall?"
"I finally made it over the wall. Saunders helped me."
Lee nodded. "Good."
"You were right about him. He probably has thought about sleeping with me, but I've never thought about sleeping with him."
"Who do you think about sleeping with?"
"Another guy. He's a Viper pilot."
Lee grinned. "Does this other guy have a name?"
"He's got a name. I have it on good authority that he's great in bed. I've got a big crush on him. In fact I'm in love with him."
"I'm jealous," Lee said.
"You should be. He can make me melt when he looks at me."
"What about when he kisses you?"
Kara smiled. "Kiss me and find out."
She closed her eyes as his mouth found hers. If the admiral chose Lee to fly Sadie, then she would deal with. She knew Lee would deal with it if Bill's decision was her. They loved each other too much to let something like a mission to another world come between them.