Chapter 79

The Beginning of a Plan

On a cold, windy Tuesday in mid-January, Laura Roslin was sworn in as the ninety-third President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. With her on the platform as she took her oath of office was her stepdaughter, Lieutenant Kara Thrace, who was holding Roslin's son Braedon by her late husband, Major John Gallagher, who is missing and presumed killed during the destruction of the Cylon basestar.

- Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War

.

The traffic on the way to the boneyard was light at 07:00 Saturday morning. Although Kara normally drove Lee's car much the way she rode her motorcycle, today she kept to the inside lane and did the speed limit. Admiral Adama was in the back seat.

Lee had the car's wireless turned up listening to the early morning news. The night before, the Solstice celebration that had started in the big park near the heart of the city had gotten out of hand after midnight when the revelers, most of them intoxicated on alcohol which had been provided by several breweries and distilleries, began clamoring for the fireworks that were late getting started. They had quickly gotten out of control.

For the five years that the Cylons had controlled the planet, the fireworks show had not been allowed. In fact, no large outdoor gatherings had been allowed anywhere for any holidays, even Colonial Day, and the ever-present centurions had been visible in force to discourage drunken antics even at gatherings that were smaller and more private. There had been no Solstice or Equinox parades either. Cavil did not believe in public revelry of any kind and would tolerate no religious festivals for the many gods worshipped by the Capricans.

"I'm not sure the Cylons didn't have the right idea about one thing," Bill grumbled. "It will cost the city a small fortune to clean up the mess those drunks caused."

Lee added. "Not to mention the hospital emergency rooms and trauma centers being overrun with people who got into fights and fell out of trees and overdosed on whatever they could get their hands on."

Kara didn't say anything.

"I take it you don't agree," Lee finally said.

"Give them a pass this once. We're free of the Cylons for the first time in five years. You've got to expect people to go a little crazy."

Bill made a sound. "Hmmmph. I told Laura not to go visit her doorman today like she's done the last few Saturdays. I told her the President-elect didn't need to get in that mess at the medical center. It's always a nightmare for her security."

"I'll go with her tomorrow to see Doug," Kara said. "The drunks should be gone from the hospital by then."

She realized that her tone of voice was sarcastic and wished she had kept her mouth shut, not ever an easy task for her when she disagreed with someone.

"Laura feels guilty," Bill said, obviously ignoring her tone. "Doug was doing his job. Cavil is responsible for what happened to him, not Laura."

"True, but Doug will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life," Kara shot back.

"That's not Laura's fault. He's lucky to be alive."

"I didn't say it was Laura's fault," Kara's voice rose slightly. "I'm just saying I understand why she feels the way she does. Doug was her doorman for years. You barely knew him. I guess he's just like some wounded soldier to you…sir."

"Kara," Lee said under his breath as he turned the wireless to an all-music station.

She rolled her eyes, but she didn't say anything else. Neither did his father.

"Look," Lee finally said. "I know we're all uptight this morning over what Kara discovered on Nereid. Maybe we need to take a deep breath and relax."

Bill snorted. "Spoken like a true diplomat. I see a future for you in politics if you ever want to go that route, son."

Lee made a face. "Right now that has zero appeal for me. I just want to get back in my Viper."

Kara smiled. "The cast comes off next week. Then the work begins. I'll bet you have a tiny little calf muscle now. It's going to take lots of work to get that leg Viper-worthy again."

Lee glanced at his father in the back seat as if to say, See? I have to put up with her smart mouth all the time.

"You let me worry about my leg," he shot back. "You just worry about getting us to the boneyard in one piece."

"I'm doing the speed limit," she said defensively.

"And it's killing you, isn't it?"

She grinned and rolled her eyes again. There was no fooling Lee about something like that. He'd ridden with her often enough by now to know.

"Just be glad we're not on the motorcycle," she said under her breath.

...

They met in another one of the rooms with plastic walls off the boneyard's main hangar. The seats at least were comfortable. They reminded Kara of the pilot's ready room. There was a large flat screen monitor on one wall. Sealed 8x10 envelopes lay on each seat. Major Parker was the last one to arrive.

"Sorry, sir," he said to the admiral as he entered the room. "My eight-year-old had a total meltdown when I told him I wouldn't make it to his soccer game this morning. I've missed so many of them."

"Understandable," Bill said. "Come in and have a seat. I've asked you to be here today because I know you spent the first part of your career analyzing reconnaissance photos during the last inter-colonial war between Leonis and Scorpia. I'd like to call on that expertise again."

Parker quickly took a seat. Kevin Abinell brought him a cup of coffee.

Bill continued. "Outside of this room, the only ones who know what we're going to discuss today are President Adar and President-elect Roslin. I plan to brief them both later since they're less concerned about the military details than they are the overall impact. Otherwise nothing we discuss today is to leave this room."

Parker nodded.

"You know my son, of course, and Lieutenant Thrace. The other two with us are Dr. Rick Rafferty who has been in charge of part of this program for the last four years and his very computer-savvy assistant Kevin Abinell."

"I saw the Cylon Raiders out in the hangar," Parker said. "I assume they're part of the project."

"One of them has played a big part," Bill said. "Inside the envelope are two detailed reports from my son and Kara, the two pilots who flew the missions we're going to discuss."

Parker smiled. "So that's where one of my best analysts and interrogators was when you said he was working on a special project."

Bill nodded. "Let's look at some pictures first. Kevin has put together footage taken from both missions to a planet we call Nereid. We don't know what the Cylons call it other than their homeworld."

"Then we've known where it was all along?"

"Until Lee flew the first mission a couple of months ago, it was just a theory."

Kevin dimmed the lights and showed the first image, one of John's drawings of the surface of the planet.

Bill said, "Kara's father drew that based on a journal by a woman named Irina Hoshi who was on a scientific expedition there sixty-two years ago. Major Gallagher was very instrumental in getting us where we are today."

The next screen showed the high-altitude shot Lee had taken on his mission. They two versions were remarkably similar.

Bill added, "Mrs. Hoshi's journal has proven very accurate. This is what we started with and this is what Lee and Kara found. Now let's look at some movies."

For over two hours they looked at footage that Kevin had blended from both missions. Lee could tell Parker was impressed, but he said little as Lee and Kara kept up a running commentary of what they were viewing...the new sand-colored buildings on a high and arid plateau, the intact damn and reservoir behind it and many miles away, the ruined city that was being rebuilt and the temple complex.

They looked at what was in the city on Lee's mission and the new construction Kara had filmed.

"They work fast, don't they?" Parker commented. "In two months they've razed four or five buildings and started and nearly finished another building."

"Those centurions can work day and night without stopping," Lee said.

"That's why what's coming up next worries the hell out of me," Bill said. "Lee didn't make it this far north on his mission. Kara filmed it just two days ago."

They looked at her complete footage of the shipyard where the basestar was under construction.

"Interesting that most of it is below the surface of the terrain," Parker said. "Looking at it from ground level and from a distance, you'd never know anything was there."

"From above it's like looking into a mile-wide mine shaft," Kara remarked. "My estimate is that it's over a thousand feet deep."

"This is one of the things we'd like for you to take a look at," Bill said. "We'd like to know if this is a natural formation or if they excavated it or maybe started with something natural and enhanced it."

"Could it be part of a mining and ore-smelting complex? They'd need some sort of metal to make those basestars. Then again, do we even know what basestars are made of?" Parker asked.

"We assume the same thing they use to make their Raiders," Lee said. "Part metal, part organic."

"The organic component is still mostly a mystery to us," Rick Rafferty said. "It's part mineral, but there's something else that breaks down too rapidly for analysis when we try to isolate it. Now that we've got more Raiders, we might be able to identify it, maybe even duplicate it."

"Might I assume, sir," Parker said, "that you plan to destroy this facility?"

"I plan to destroy the whole planet," Bill said.

"What about the humans?" Kara asked in shock. "Sharon confirmed that there are humans being held on the planet. Based on something Lee photographed, my father theorized that there are humans living free, probably in the mountains with hunting expeditions to the forest. I totally agree with him."

"I concur that there are probably a few prisoners. As for free humans, I haven't seen anything to convince me. Lee shot a few frames of an image that could be smoke from a campfire," Bill said in explanation to Parker.

"Can we at least look at them?" Kara asked.

Bill finally motioned to Kevin. He played the shots for them in slow motion. Even at the slowest speed, there were only eight images, several of them blurry.

The room was silent until Parker said, "Without another plausible explanation, I'll go with campfire smoke. Is that all the proof we have of humans on the planet…besides the word of a Cylon?"

"Why would she lie about that?" Kara asked.

"Oh, come on," Lee said. "You know why. She knows we're going to destroy the Cylon homeworld. What better way to stop that from happening than by telling us there are humans living there? Lots of humans is the way she put it. I don't care how you look at her, I don't care where her loyalties lie, she's still a Cylon."

"The idea of humans on the planet didn't originate with Sharon," Kara said stubbornly. "Admiral Adama came up with it first."

Bill took a deep breath. "Yes, I believe there were some prisoners on the planet. The big question is whether or not they're still alive. I don't know that we can let that influence the decision as to how to deal with the Cylons, though."

"We're not just dealing with prisoners," Kara said, her voice getting stronger, edged with anger, which got her a look and a slight headshake from Lee.

It didn't deter her.

"I spent some time flying over the forest," Kara said. "I didn't see any smoke, but somebody was down there. I forgot that I was in a Raider. Something on the ground got some kind of lock on me. I think someone fired an RPG at me. Lee doesn't agree. Show them, Kevin. Show them what happened just before I jumped back to Caprica."

Kevin waited until he got a nod from the admiral before he showed the last twenty seconds of images recorded before her jump. They saw the forest and then the bright flash a second before the screen went dark. The next images were the clouds below her as she completed her jump back into Caprica's atmosphere.

"I don't think the flash looks like it came from any shoulder-held launcher," Lee said. "I think it's too big. I think it's a reflection of sunlight off the top of something metal."

"Play it again," Bill said to Kevin.

They watched the footage several more times. Even though at first Kara disagreed with Lee, she could see why he said what he did. The flash was big, maybe too big for a shoulder-launched grenade. Maybe Lee was right. Maybe it was the reflection of sunlight off metal.

"How high were you?" Parker asked.

Kara said, "Kevin can tell us exactly, but about two miles."

"Definitely within the range of a laser-guided RPG," Bill said.

"Something did cause an alarm in Sadie to go off," Kevin said. "The problem is, I'm just not sure how. I've been over all the instrument recordings a dozen times or more. Absolutely nothing was picked up on her dradis."

Kara grinned. "Sadie knew somebody was pointing something lethal at me and her. She let me know."

Lee gave her a look.

"What?" She asked him. "I guess you think I should have stuck around to see if it hit me or not."

She got another look.

"Something did hit you," Kevin said. "Before you left, I photographed every square inch of Sadie. I did the same thing before Lee flew his mission. It's nothing to do with how you fly. I repeated the pictures when you got back. We do it to make sure the hull still looks good. Look at these before and after pictures of the right wing. This was taken near the right wingtip about an hour after you got back."

They all looked. The hull looked relatively smooth in the picture taken before her flight. The after picture showed two round and deep indentations.

"What are we looking at?" Bill Adama asked.

"It looks like bullet holes," Kara said. "Not exactly holes, but where bullets hit. Let's go look."

"We can't," Kevin said.

"Sadie's right outside this room. Why can't we go look?" Kara asked.

"It's already healed," Kevin answered her.

"Explain," Bill said.

Rick Rafferty spoke up. "We took out Sadie's brain, but the partially organic material she's made of can still heal small wounds…if that's what you want to call them."

"You think the flash I saw was from gunshots?" Kara asked incredulously. "I was over two miles high. No way. There's just no way. The muzzle flash from a rifle wouldn't even show under the trees."

Kevin shrugged. "My personal feeling is the flash and these wounds to Sadie didn't occur at the same time."

"So what are you saying?" Bill asked.

Rick said, "Kev and I have talked about this quite a bit since he discovered the indentations on the underside of Sadie's wing. Kara, we noticed that when you flew over the forest for the first time, you were substantially lower in altitude."

"How low?" Lee asked.

Kara shrugged. She knew she was probably in trouble. "I'm sure Kevin can tell you exactly how low."

"I'd…have to…look it up," Kevin almost stammered. Kara knew he didn't want to put her on the hot seat.

"Ballpark it," Bill snapped.

"Approximately six hundred feet above the treetops," Kara said quickly.

"Holy Hera," Lee said, unable to control the fury in his voice. "You went over that forest at six hundred feet?"

"A very short distance. Then I realized I couldn't get the big picture being that low, so I…adjusted my altitude."

Rick Rafferty said, "We think somebody on the ground took a couple of shots at Sadie. They knew they couldn't bring a Raider down with rifle or small arms fire. It was probably a Screw You moment of frustration."

Bill said, "So you think a human on the ground, tried to put a couple of rounds of rifle fire into a Cylon Raider because they were frustrated?"

They could all hear the doubt in his voice.

"I'd do it," Kara said. "If I were on the ground in that forest and saw a Raider coming toward me at a low altitude, I'd take a couple of shots at it."

"You're sure the indentations couldn't have been caused by space debris?" Bill asked. "Something that occurred just prior to the jump or during the jump?"

"The angle is wrong," Rick said. "The wounds, if that's what you want to call them, were on the underneath side of the wing. They came from directly below it. Another reason we think they occurred before the return jump is that by the time Sadie got back here, the wounds were already beginning to heal."

"Why are we just dancing around this?" Kara asked, her voice registering frustration and impatience again. "All the humans living on Nereid aren't prisoners. Some of them are free. They thought I was a Cylon. They shot at me. They tried to bring me down with an RPG or maybe even some other kind of artillery, maybe something bigger than a shoulder-launched grenade."

Her remarks were met by silence until Bill looked at Kevin. "Using a map of the surface, would you be able to tell me exactly where something locked onto the Raider?"

"Yes, sir," Kevin said.

"What about the bullet wounds?"

"I can give you a general idea of where she was low enough that a high-powered rifle could have hit her."

"Do it," Bill said. "I want to know if we could be talking about one group of humans or two."

"You're overlooking another possibility," Lee said.

"What?" Kara snickered. "One of the bears in the forest decided to pop off a couple of rounds at me?"

"The Cylons themselves. Centuruions."

"Living in the forest?"

"Maybe a hunting party looking for escaped humans."

"And why would they shoot at one of their own?"

"Sadie's homing beacon belongs to the Cylons that split from them five years ago. Maybe they didn't recognize the signal."

"Then why didn't that signal bring more Raiders from one of the basestars to check it out?"

"Good question," Parker said.

"Lee's idea is farfetched, but I can't totally disallow it," Bill said. "At this point I can't disallow anything. But that's not our most important issue here. Our most important concern is that shipyard. I want to know how long it takes to crank out a basestar. I want some idea of how many they might have produced in the last five years. That's a hell of a lot more important than a few humans that may or may not be living in the forest on Nereid."

Parker said, "Should we try asking the skinjobs about the basestar production?"

"It can't hurt. I'm sure you and Darren aren't through talking to them yet."

"No, sir."

"If you want me to, I'll ask Sharon," Lee said.

Bill nodded. "I think we're through today. Study the photographs. We'll get together again next week. If you leave now, Major Parker, you just might make your son's soccer game."

Parker stood and smiled, "Yes, sir. Thank you."

When he was gone, Kara turned to the admiral. "Are you still determined to destroy the planet?"

"I haven't taken the other option off the table yet."

"Good. Because I think humans have been on that planet a long time. I think the second Hyperion mission had survivors. I think you've had a lot of scientific brainpower living there for a long time. I know they'd be old by now, but I'm sure they had kids and even grandkids. Maybe they're the ones who shot at me. Maybe it wasn't escaped prisoners at all."

Bill gave her an indulgent smile. "Maybe you'd like to get the roster from that mission and see who they were, see what you can find out about them."

"The first expedition had mercenary-type guards. Irina Hoshi said they were really the ones in charge. They had weapons. There's no reason to think the second expedition would have been different. They had robots with them, too. Older models, but still robots with a level of artificial intelligence."

"Then see what you can find," the admiral said.

When they left the boneyard, he had them drop him at his office back in the city.

When Bill was out of the car, Lee said, "What we've got are just more questions that need to be answered. For everything we find, we get more questions."

Kara waited to speak until she had pulled back into traffic. "I need to take Sadie back to the planet, set her down in a clearing in the forest and take a look around."

"You're not serious, are you?" Lee asked.

"How else are we ever going to know what's down there?"

"It might be better if we don't know."

"Meaning?"

"If my father decides to destroy the planet…"

"He said it was still open to discussion."

Lee shook his head. "That's not how he put it, Kara. He said he hadn't taken the other option off the table yet. I didn't hear anything in there about discussing it again. Even if he does discuss it, believe me, it won't be with us. It will be with Laura. She'll be President by then."

"I know how she feels about it. So the admiral is going to destroy the planet? Just jump right in there and nuke the basestars around the planet and then the planet itself. Kill humans who might have been there for sixty years. Kill the prisoners the Cylons took during the last war. Blow the whole frakking planet to kingdom come and with it any chance of finding Kobol and Earth?"

"Please don't get started on that again."

Kara didn't say anything.

"I know you don't agree," Lee said.

"Frak no! I don't agree. How would you feel if you'd survived five years of hell only to have a Colonial nuke dropped in your lap? Those humans on Nereid deserve to be rescued."

"I'm not disagreeing with you on that. It's just that we need to destroy the Cylons no matter what the cost…otherwise a lot more humans in the galaxy might die. Just think about what would happen if they reach Earth."

"What brought that up?"

Lee couldn't keep the exasperation out of his voice. "You're the one who keeps bringing it up. You're the one who's convinced a baby is going to find it."

"I never said Brae was going to find it while he was a baby. And don't you dare try to use that as a reason for justifying killing innocent humans. You don't even believe in Earth," Kara said angrily. "You don't believe in the gods. You don't frakking believe in anything."

"Why are you taking this out on me? Is it because I won't just come out and say I think my dad is wrong to consider destroying that planet? Because if that's what you want, it's not going to happen."

Kara didn't answer him and they rode in silence for a while.

After three blocks, Lee said, "This has something to do with your father, doesn't it?"

For a moment Kara thought he was on to her. She had to be careful or she would give away her belief that her father was alive and on Nereid, maybe with the free humans or maybe a prisoner of the Cylons, but he was there. She would never believe otherwise. The Oracle had seen it and she had never been wrong. She had even sent Keshia to find her so she could tell her.

"My father believed those prisoners should be saved. So do I. Now let's not talk about it anymore," Kara finally said. "We're just going to fight and I don't want to fight about this with you."

"It's not that I don't know how you feel," Lee said gently. "It makes me sick to think hundreds, maybe even thousands of innocent humans will die on Nereid, but if that's the only way to insure that the millions on Caprica will be free from the threat of Cylon attack, then that's what we've got to do."

"If you were in a Viper over the planet and your father ordered you to send a nuke to that prison complex, would you do it? Would you, Lee? Would you do it and then sit back and say, I was just following orders?"

"If the President of the Colonies and her top military advisor had made the decision, then I…" He stopped and took a deep breath.

"Then what, Lee? Would you do it or wouldn't you?"

"If I'm not willing to carry out orders based on a decision of what's right for saving humanity, then I should probably resign my commission right now. So should you if that's how you feel."

"There's right and there's wrong."

"And in a perfect world those are always very clear cut. But we don't live in a perfect world. We didn't start this war. We're fighting for the survival of the human race."

Kara gave up. She knew she would never win this argument with him. It wasn't even about winning anymore. It was far more complex than that. Kara just knew she had to do something. She didn't know what, but she would think of something. Before Admiral Adama took his battlestars to Nereid to destroy it, she would think of something.

...

Laura stood in her closet at Marble House on the morning of her inauguration. Her pantsuit and heavy coat were already laid out on her bed. Her hairdresser would be there soon to help her put up her hair. The prediction for the weather that day was cold and sunny, but windy. The last thing Laura wanted was her hair whipping in her face as she stood on the platform in front of the Capitol Building and repeated her oath of office.

She reached out and touched the sleeve of John's bomber jacket, the one piece of his clothing that she had brought from the apartment with her, the jacket he had kept since he had been a young Viper pilot on the Solaria. She lifted the soft leather sleeve against her cheek as she had done many times and momentarily put her face against the collar. It still smelled of him and the faint scent of his aftershave. For a few moments taking a breath was painful.

She sighed and turned around. If she lingered any longer in here she knew she would start to cry and she did not want to be sworn in as President with red and swollen eyes. She looked down at her wedding ring, the beautiful circle of diamonds that she still wore, the ring John had slipped on her finger with such love in his eyes.

She missed him the most in the late evening and in the early morning. She missed the way he always had a smile for her and a kiss no matter when she came in at night during the campaign. And she missed him early in the morning when she would snuggle into his lean body and feel his mouth against her as he gathered her to him. She missed his whisper of love that belonged to her alone. She missed his gentle caress and the way he would kiss her neck.

She did better during the day when she was busy, when there were so many other things crowding her mind, but she missed him so terribly much at night and in the quiet hour of dawn, especially on those cruel mornings when she was not quite awake, when she still reached for him and thought he would be there. She missed him. Gods, how she missed him.

She missed him when she looked at their son, especially when Brae smiled at her. She saw John so clearly in Braedon at those moments. John had asked her in his letter not to let their son forget him, but Laura also knew that as long as she looked at their son, she would never forget his father. Captain Jessups had been right. One day their handsome son would probably break a lot of hearts…just like his father had surely done.

She walked out of her closet, quickly put on her blouse and slacks and began absently applying her makeup. Several times she stopped and simply stared at her reflection in the mirror of the dresser. It hardly seemed like in a few hours she would be sworn in as President of the Colonies. So much had changed in her life since she had made that fateful decision to run for the highest office in the land.

Twice since the memorial service Bill had joined her for dinner. Both times the dinner had simply been an extension of a late afternoon meeting…or at least she had told herself that's what it was. Since Bill's comment on the night of John's memorial service, a comment that she attributed to the amount he had drunk, their conversations had been circumspect almost to the point of being impersonal. Yet what he didn't say in words, he conveyed with his eyes. He still loved her and she knew it.

What her feelings were for him were far more ambiguous, and where their relationship went in the future was not something she could think about right now. She had never tried to purge him from her heart. He was her first love, the only man besides John that she had ever really loved. Laura had done what Elosha had suggested all those months ago. She had put her feelings for Bill Adama in a special place and used them to build a bond of friendship and trust, a relationship that had honored their past as they had worked together for Caprica's future.

With John's death she knew that relationship would inevitably change but where it would go, she had no idea at the moment. It was too soon, far too soon to think about what the future held for them.

There was a light tap on the bedroom door. "Come in," she called.

Maya pushed the door open and Braedon ran in.

"I think I should have waited to dress him until a few minutes before we're supposed to leave," Maya moaned. "He won't leave the suspenders on. I even tried crossing them in the back and he wiggles right out of them."

Laura smiled at her son. The red suspenders hung down in loops on both sides of his dark pants. His little white shirt was partially untucked.

"He'll be fine once we get his sweater and coat on. Have you seen Kara this morning?"

"She was in her room talking to Lee on her phone when I checked. She's going to wear her dress uniform."

Laura sighed. "It's too cold for that uniform. I bought her some very nice wool slacks and a winter coat. The salesgirl in the boutique assured me that they were appropriate for a young woman Kara's age. I didn't want her to think I was trying to make her into a fashion clone of me."

"She has a heavy gray overcoat that goes with her uniform. She'll be warm enough."

Laura sighed. "Fine," she said and tried not to let her hurt feelings bleed through.

"Please don't be angry at her. She's honoring her father," Maya said.

Braedon reached up to Laura's dresser and got her lipstick. Maya picked him up and removed it from his hand.

"No," he said and squirmed to get down.

"Has he started the terrible twos already?" Laura asked. "No has become his favorite word lately."

"We'll go back to his toys until you're ready to go," Maya said. "I think he senses that today is special. He's been wide open since he got up this morning."

Maya handed Laura the lipstick case and left with Braedon squirming to get down. Laura stared into the mirror again, still thinking of John. He should have been with her today. She would not have been here without his support.

There was another knock. Kara stood at the door. She was wearing her dress grays.

"I just want you to know…it's not that I don't like the slacks and coat. It was nice of you to think about me, but…you know why I'm wearing my uniform."

"It's fine, Kara." Laura struggled a few moments as tears flooded her eyes and then she grabbed a tissue. "Please come in. You don't need to stand at the door like that."

Kara walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. "Braedon's wild this morning. I hope he doesn't start saying no and trying to get down while you're saying the oath."

"If he does, then motion to Maya. She'll come up and get him. I want you to stay with me."

Kara nodded. "Can I help you do anything?"

"I think everything is done. I'm just waiting for my hairdresser. I'm wearing my hair up because of the wind."

"That's why I put mine in a ponytail."

"You look very nice this morning. The uniform does become you just like it did your father."

"Do you remember that book you sent to Hugh Connelly to give me when I was in the camp? The third volume of The Caprican Prince?"

Laura smiled. "Of course I do. What made you think of that?"

"While I was packing some things to bring over here, I found it in a drawer. That was your personal copy, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. I must have written my name in it."

"I found a dried flower between two pages. I always wondered if you put it there."

"I'm sure I must have. That was so many years ago. I was a young girl dreaming of a prince when I read that book."

"Did you ever find him?"

Laura smiled and the tears came into her eyes again. "Yes, I found him."

"So did I. I'll let you finish getting ready."

"Kara…thank you."

As Kara went out, Laura's hairdresser came in. "I brought some extra hairpins," he said. "That wind is absolutely brutal this morning."

Laura sighed again. Some would take it as an omen. Adar's regime was ending and hers was beginning. She was almost tempted to take it as such herself…the winds of change.

...

The swearing-in ceremony was short. Kara stood beside Laura with her brother in her arms. She had his pacifier in her coat pocket, but so far Braedon was too busy looking around to need it. Caprica's Chief Justice stood in front of them. Elosha held the ancient leather-bound book that contained the complete scrolls of Pythia. Laura placed her hand on the book and repeated the oath to guide and protect the Colonies and to uphold the Articles of Colonization.

At the end of the ceremony, Vipers flew overhead in the classic V formation. Only at Laura's request this morning they flew the missing-man formation in honor of her husband. As the four ships reached a point directly overhead, one of them peeled away while the other three continued in level flight.

"Look," Kara said to her brother whose eyes were on the sky.

He raised a small hand. Kara knew inside his mitten, he was pointing.

"Dada," he said for the first time in nearly two months without being shown John's picture. So he hadn't forgotten.

Kara smiled and put her mouth against the earflap of his cap. She whispered to him. "Your dada is up there and I'm going to bring him home to you. I promise."

Her brother's eyes followed the three ships across the sky. He squirmed, but instead of trying to get down, he was trying to get higher. Both little hands reached for the sky.

"Go," he said.

Laura heard him. She reached out for her son and took him in her arms. She was nearly overcome with emotion. She kissed his cheek.

"One day you'll go, my little man. You'll go all the way to the stars."

The swell of applause from the mass of citizens gathered on the mall in front of the Capitol Building began. Laura smiled and waved at them. Her son mimicked her.

Billy was standing with the members of the press who were waiting to take pictures and interview the new President.

Kara walked over to him. "Look at Braedon waving. What a little ham. You'd think he was just sworn in."

Billy had a huge smile on his face. "You're looking at a million cubits worth of publicity. The people of Caprica will eat this up. You should be standing with them."

"Not my thing. If I'd had my choice, I'd have been in one of those Vipers that just flew overhead."

"It's not over yet," Billy said. "You get to hang around for a photo-shoot. I'm sure there will be a few questions for you."

"I'm not going to talk about my father," Kara said. "That is totally off limits."

"I've already made that clear to the press per Laura's instructions."

Kara smiled. Laura understood her better than she thought.

"The rest of the day won't be so bad," Billy said. "After the dinner and dance tonight, it will be over for you."

And just starting for Laura.

...

Kara and Lee stood with several hundred people on the edge of the grand ballroom at Marble House. Lee held out his hand.

"Shall we?"

"Your cast has been off exactly six days. We don't have to dance. I don't care if it is the inauguration. Laura will understand."

"Humor me," Lee said as he took Kara in his arms. "Unless you're ashamed to be seen with me limping around the room."

"You can lean on me if you want to."

He grinned. "Why, so I won't limp?"

"So you won't hurt your leg putting weight on it. You've been on your feet most of today. I can tell you're in pain."

"What gave me away? The expression on my face or the limp?"

"Probably the way you've been gritting your teeth with every step. Why haven't you taken a painkiller?"

"I can manage." They danced in silence for a few moments until he said, "I like the green dress."

"You liked it when I wore it to the Academy's winter dance last year, too."

"I'm supposed to remember that, am I not?" Lee said, still grinning.

She smiled and shrugged. "Laura wanted to get me a new dress, but I told her there was nothing wrong with this one. I've got three dresses. That's enough."

Lee glanced down at the gentle swell of her breasts at the neckline. "I remember the dress now and why I like it so much. Are you going home with me tonight?"

"You want me to?"

"Not really. I mean you were just there, what, twenty-five nights ago?"

Kara snickered. "Two."

"I guess it just seems like twenty-five."

"You know why I stayed at Marble House. Maya needed a break. I've been taking care of Brae."

"I know. And you're the only other person on the planet who can take care of your brother."

"Laura's had something going on every night for the last week."

"Kara, I'm okay with you taking care of your brother. I'm kidding you."

"I know," she said softly. "Next time I do it, you'll have to come over. You need to spend some time with him. I want him to get to know you."

They danced in silence for a while.

"Your leg's really hurting, isn't it?"

"I'll tell you when I need to sit down. Laura looks good tonight. That dress is…nice."

Kara glanced over at Laura dancing with Scott Mickelson. She had danced with a lot of men tonight, but Kara knew it was just political. Even if John had been there, Laura would have danced with her political supporters. But she would have danced the first dance, the important one, with her husband. Tonight she had danced it with Bill Adama. She would probably dance the last dance with him as well.

"She does look good," Kara finally said. "I thought she'd wear a black dress. That's all she's worn for two months…black. I thought she was still officially in mourning for my dad. I guess not."

"White is a color of mourning, too, in some of the Colonies," Lee said. "Aerilon and Sagittaron especially."

"It's okay, Lee. You don't need to make excuses for her. I'd be tired of black by now, too."

The song ended and they walked to the side of the dance floor. Kara noticed that Lee was deliberately trying not to limp and almost pulling it off.

"Let's sit out the next one," she said. "I'm ready for a drink. Go ahead and sit down. I'll get us something."

She walked over to one of the bars that had been set up in the huge ballroom. Bill walked up beside her.

"You look very nice tonight, Kara."

"Thank you, sir."

"I appreciate the help you've given Laura lately."

"My dad would want me to help out."

"Laura cares a great deal about you."

"I know."

"She's trying very hard to be…she's just been busy lately. She's not ignoring you."

"I didn't say she was. Meaning no disrespect, sir, but Laura and I are doing fine. My father…never mind."

He turned and leaned on the bar with his elbow as he looked out over the crowd. "If there's something you want to say to me about your father, forget my rank. Just say it."

"I feel the same way he does about destroying Nereid. Killing those humans is wrong."

Bill sipped his drink.

"I've got to get back to Lee…sir."

Bill nodded.

Laura walked over to him. "My feet are killing me. I haven't danced this much since…forever." When he didn't say anything, she said, "Problems with Kara?"

"I don't think I'm one of her favorite people right now."

"She misses her father, Bill. If there's one thing I've learned about Kara, it's that you can't push her. It appears she's accepted the loss, but she's still grieving even if she doesn't wear her feelings for everyone to see. I'm trying to give her room…let her come to terms with it in her own way. She doesn't want to talk about it."

"She's adamant about wanting to rescue the prisoners on Nereid."

"Must we talk about that tonight? That's still months away. Forget about the future for a few hours. I'm trying to."

"You're right. For the last five years I've done nothing but make plans to destroy the Cylons and now I've got to continue making those plans. They're still out there, still bent on destroying humanity. If they find out their counterparts are no longer controlling Caprica, they may decide to come back and finish what they started. We've got to be ready. We can't afford to let down our guard."

"And we won't. I know you. But please try to enjoy tonight, Bill. Let the soldier, the warrior rest and have a little fun. You deserve it."

"Always the humanitarian, always thinking of others even when my plan cost you so much."

"It's who I am. It's who I've always been."

He sipped his drink without looking at her. "The night we met I knew two things were going to happen. I knew that one day you'd be President of the Colonies."

When he didn't continue, she asked, "And the other?"

He finally smiled slightly. "I haven't had enough to drink yet to say something else I probably shouldn't."

She gently squeezed his arm. "I need to circulate, but don't forget you owe me the last dance."

He nodded again and she walked away, aware that temporarily and very uncharacteristically, Bill Adama, a man who had spent the last five years with his eyes toward the future, was lost somewhere in the past.

...

Lee made it as far as the couch back at his apartment before he sat and began to massage his leg. Without a word Kara walked into the kitchen, got the prescription container off the counter and a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Take it," she said and put a pill in Lee's hand before she held out the water to him.

"I don't know. I've been drinking."

She sighed and kicked off her shoes before she put the water on the end table. She walked over to the CD player and flipped through the stack of CDs.

"What do you want to listen to?"

"I don't care."

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm tired. Let's go to bed."

"How romantic," she teased still flipping through the CDs. "That really gets me in the mood."

He swallowed the painkiller and stood. "I love you."

"That's better. Keep going."

He walked over, unzipped her dress and slid it off her shoulders.

"I didn't get to do this the night of the winter dance. All I got to do was walk you back to the dorm."

"What a difference a year makes."

He turned her to him and kissed her. "Are we okay, Kara?"

"Why wouldn't we be okay?" She asked while she was unbuttoning his tunic.

"No reason."

"Then why did you ask?"

"You seem different somehow?"

"I am different, Lee. So are you. The last two months have changed both of us."

"For one thing I don't walk as well as I used to."

"You will. The doctor told you it was a bad break. He said it might take three months or more before you'd fly again. It's going to happen. Long before your dad goes to Nereid, you'll be in your Viper again. You're just pushing yourself too hard right now and expecting too much."

He wrapped his arms around her and held her against him.

"Sometimes I ask myself why I'm still here, why I didn't die up there during the fighting or in the ocean."

"Don't," Kara said. "Don't start questioning it. We could both have died. Don't ask yourself why we didn't. It'll make you crazy. Just accept it."

"Make love to me."

She sensed his need and touched his face.

He turned his mouth to her hand and kissed her palm.

"That's better," she whispered.

He took the hand he had just kissed and pulled her into the bedroom. She stepped out of the dress and threw it over his desk chair.

His hunger when she touched him was so strong she felt it.

"I love you," she said softly. "No matter what happens to us, that's not going to change."

After that they didn't talk for a long time. The act at once so familiar was hotter and more sensual. The two days since they had last made love seemed much longer, his hands tender and at the same time urgent, her desire stronger than she had felt in a long time.

He rolled over on her and she welcomed him, urging him, helping him. She sucked in her breath at the pleasure of feeling him inside her. Tonight all they wanted was the release they could give each other.

Afterward was better, too, as they lay in each other's arms, breathing hard, letting the feelings carry them.

"I love you," he said, and she could hear the effect of the painkiller in his voice.

"Can I believe a guy on drugs?" She teased him gently.

"Umm, it's like truth serum. I can't lie."

"That's good because I'd hate to hurt your other leg."

"That's all right. I've got a refill on the painkillers."

She snuggled into him and got comfortable. "Go to sleep, druggie."

"You'll be here in the morning?"

"I'll be here in the morning."

Long after Lee had gone to sleep, she lay awake and thought about Nereid. She kept coming back to the same thing. She had to get to the planet and that meant doing something that would probably get her court-martialed…if she survived. But she knew that she could never sit back and do nothing. Her father was on the planet along with a lot of humans. She had to do something to save them all and the only way to do that was to stop Admiral Adama from jumping in and nuking the basestars and then the surface. No matter how many ideas she had come up with, she believed only one of them would work.

She was going to have to take Sadie back to the planet. She was going to have to figure out a way to steal a ship that the government had invested a million cubits in and land it on Nereid without getting caught by either the military before she left Caprica or by the Cylons after she landed on the planet. And she was going to have to depend on someone back here on Caprica to stop the admiral from carrying out his plan.

That person had to be Lee. If Lee couldn't stop his father, then she would die with the rest of the humans on the planet. If Lee did succeed in convincing the admiral to mount a rescue mission, then she would probably go to a military prison if she survived. But it would be worth it to save her father and the rest of the humans. Five years earlier when her father had taken Tom Zarek and his men away from Singer's airfield to keep them from hurting her, and two months ago when he had gone back to that basestar knowing it would probably mean his death, he had taught her the true meaning of sacrifice. She could take going to prison on Caprica if it meant she had saved innocent lives. She could take anything if it meant bringing her father back to his son.

Kara gently caressed Lee's shoulder. She had promised him that she would be there in the morning, but one morning before the admiral went to Nereid, she wouldn't be.