12 Days After Cylon Attacks
Coordinates Unknown
"I have two conditions before I release my captives. First, the government which controls our fate is illegal and illegitimate, and it must submit to the will of the people. I demand the immediate resignation of Laura Roslin and her ministers. Second, I demand free and open elections to choose a new leadership and a new government that represents all of the people.
"These demands are made not for me or for the former slaves held o n this ship, but for you, the people, the survivors of the holocaust and the children of humanity's future. I am Tom Zarek, and this is the first day of the new era."
-xxx-
"When are you going in?" demanded Roslin.
"I assumed you were gonna talk to him first."
You assumed wrong. "We don't negotiate with terrorists."
"I said talk."
"There's nothing to talk about. What he wants, I can't give him."
"We're not ready yet. Talking to Zarek gives us a little more time."
"That's what he wants, he wants legitimacy. He wants to be recognized. He wants his crimes validated. I watched President Adar offer him a full pardon if he'd apologize and give up violence as a means of political change. He refused."
She could still remember Zarek's veiled contempt, his sneer-laden reply. "Thank you for the offer, but I must respectfully decline. I trust my refusal will have no bearing on my parole hearing."
She told Adama, "No commitments, no deals," and resisted the urge to add; I don't care what you do, just get our people out alive.
"I'll let you know what happens," he said.
She sighed, clicked the wireless receiver off and tried to reassure herself. Billy is going to be fine. Adama would take care of it. Lee will be fine. They'll all be—
"I came at a bad time, didn't I?"
Laura mustered a thin smile at the sight of Wally Gray standing in the doorway. He had been on vacation, on Cloud Nine with his wife and son, when the Cylons attacked. The ship had recently been evacuated and was under repairs, so Wally had finally taken a shuttle to Colonial One.
"It's all right." She gestured to the empty chair in front of her desk. "If it isn't the Cylons, it's a problem in the Fleet and if it isn't that…" It's the cancer.
"A President's work is never done," he said as he came in and sat down. He slouched back into his chair, trying to look relaxed, but she could see it in his eyes, the anxiety, the unease and she knew that it probably had nothing to do with the water crisis or Tom Zarek. It had everything to do with why he was in her makeshift office.
By virtue of a special advisory position to the President of the Colonies in addition to his cabinet duties as Director of Budget Management, Wallace Gray had been thirty-seventh in the line of succession.
He should be sitting where she was.
There were any number of reasons why he'd been skipped. A power outage, jammed wireless, time delay…
"Wally, you're the highest ranking government official that we have left—"
He cut her off before she could voice the implications of that fact.
"You were sworn in. I wasn't. If you want my support, Madam President, then you have it. Beyond that…" He sighed. "You should know that right now, government official or not, my only concern is for my family."
"Be that as it may, you have valuable skills that this fleet needs in order to survive." Her tone made it clear that he shouldn't argue with that assessment. "Managing the distribution of supplies is a crucial task and it's perfect for someone with your gift for logistics. I need someone who I know will be fair, who I can trust. There aren't many candidates Wally."
He was the only candidate and he knew it.
"Can my family stay with me on Colonial One, until the repairs on Cloud Nine are finished?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Then I'm your man."
"Good. I'll have—" She caught herself before she said Billy's name. "I'll have one of my aides forward you the necessary information in the morning. Thank you, Wally."
He nodded and stood up. "It's good to see you, Laura."
"You too."
As Wally left her office, she had to fight down another rush of worry over the situation on the Astral Queen. She hadn't realized until now just how much she had come to rely on Billy. The way he hovered about, always ready to take care of the details of whatever job that needed doing. He'll be fine.
She was about to ask for an update when one of the other aides whose name she hadn't learned yet passed her a note.
Recovery underway. Will report to Colonial One when complete. –Adama
-x-
Bill only half listened to the launch chatter from the Raptor team while they departed on their mission to board the Astral Queen and neutralize Tom Zarek.
Tom Zarek. He had hoped never to hear that name again. Even after twenty years and the end of everything, Zarek was still finding ways to wreak havoc, but this time it wasn't Marine units or squad mates whose lives were at stake. It was Lee. It was his son that was the bait for this trap and he needed more time. Time that Roslin hadn't been willing to give and that Zarek had refused to provide, time to figure out what the trap was. Because when it's Zarek, there's always a trap and there's never enough time.
Adama had learned that lesson long ago when the SFM had hijacked a passenger transport just weeks before the Labor Ministry bombing. Zarek's statement of intent had been much more concise in those days. "This vessel and its passengers are mine. I am Tom Zarek, and Sagittaron will be free." The military response had been swift after the transport had veered off its normal departure vector and toward the heart of Sagittaron City. "Zeus of Fourteen Bravo moving to intercept, ETA one minute."
While the memory continued to intrude on his thoughts, Bill watched the Dradis readouts above him. Galactica's Raptors had closed in on the Astral Queen and their transponder reports had merged.
"Galactica, Raptor One, rendezvous successful. Soft seal pressurized."
Catching up to Zarek had never been a problem. "Ground Actual, Zeus. Target is in sight and refusing all orders to return to safe vector." He had always invited his enemies to pursue him. "Target is spinning up his FTL! Request instruction!" Tried not to give them a chance to react. "Zeus, Ground Actual you are ordered weapons free. Use any means necessary to prevent Zarek's escape." It was how he got them to make mistakes…
Starbuck's voiced snapped Adama's focus back fully into the present.
"Alpha One, we're in."
Now Bill strained to hear what was happening, to piece together the situation from secondhand information. More than ever, he hated being forced to listen while others acted. Relying on wireless communication as the basis for command decisions was potentially treacherous. Last time it had been the trap.
Sudden silence over the speakers made him glance over at Gaeta. There was no sign from the lieutenant that the transmission had cut out. Starbuck's team must have frozen in reaction to something.
Amid the low level static, he heard the unmistakable pop of distant gunfire.
"They're killing the hostages, let's go."
Adama's hands gripped the edge of the console in front of him. If Lee's been hurt… He barely registered the chatter from the other teams while he waited for Kara's sitrep.
"All teams, sniper in position. Galactica, Alpha One, I've spotted one injured hostage in one of the cells—I think it's Cally—and there's an armed prisoner in the cell with her looking really pissed off. No joy on the other hostages. One of the guards is armed and moving freely. Lee's—"
Before she could finish three more gunshots echoed in background of the transmission and Adama heard her whisper, "Lee got the guard's gun, we have a prisoner down. He's got another at gunpoint—Looks like our target. Come on, Lee, take out the son of a bitch—
"Alpha One, what's your line of sight?"
"Partial only. Lee's got him and he hasn't fired—"
"Can you make the shot anyway?"
"What are you doing, Lee? What are you doing? Come on."
"Starbuck! Can you make the shot?"
"No. Lee's in the frakking way. Wait—LoS is clearing, the prisoners are lowering their weapons. I think they're surrendering. Request instruction."
Bill didn't want to make a martyr out of Zarek, but the man was too dangerous to be left alive, he had been then, he still was now.
"You get the shot, you take it," replied Adama. Use any means necessary. No matter the cost. The same decision as before.
"Gotcha."
The sound of the shot came moments later and so did the shouts for a cease fire.
"All teams, hold positions. Frak." Starbuck sighed. "Lee pulled him out of the way. I missed."
Adama resisted the urge to slam his fist into something.
"Find the rest of the hostages, get them out. When the ship is secure, tell Lee to report to Colonial One immediately." Bill shared a dark look with Saul across the command table. "Colonel Tigh, I want a Raptor prepped for launch and inform President Roslin that I'm on my way."
He didn't wait for Tigh to acknowledge the order. Instead, Adama stormed out of CIC toward the hangar deck. He spent the trip to Colonial One with the memory of the disastrous SFM hijacking and its terrible consequences fresh in his mind.
"Zeus, Ground Actual you are ordered weapons free. Use any means necessary to prevent Zarek's escape."
There had been three hundred civilians aboard the transport, but Adama's superior officers had insisted that the loss was acceptable if it meant stopping Zarek. Upon that, everything had hinged. "Wilco, Zeus, weapons free. Firing warning burst." And in that, they had been wrong. "FRAK! The transport—it's been destroyed!"
A bomb had denoted moments after the warning shot had been fired and Zarek's trap had been sprung.
Despite the voice confirmation and origin of the signal, Zarek had never been on board the transport. The SFM cell that had been deployed to hijack and blow up the Colonial Light had been one of Zarek's last and they had carried with them a recording of his taunting proclamation. "This vessel and its passengers are mine. I am Tom Zarek, and Sagittaron will be free."
His trick had worked.
The media and the conspiracy theorists blamed an overzealous military instead of the SFM. The military tried to pass it off as a tragic disaster. And since Zarek had been tentatively presumed dead, he got just enough breathing room to pull off his next desperate act. Three weeks after the hijacking, he issued a brazen call for a press conference in front of the Sagittaron Labor Ministry and denoted his last bomb.
Even locked away Zarek hadn't entirely ceased to be a threat; he would never cease to be a threat. That Lee didn't seem to understand that simple fact was apparent during his debriefing on Colonial One and Adama didn't hesitate to express his disapproval.
"It's unacceptable."
"It's done," replied Lee with an undertone of finality that bordered on defiance. "The prisoners have full control of the Astral Queen."
Bill turned away from his son in an effort to stifle his frustration, but also because the way that Lee was standing there, so ramrod straight, it made Adama's back hurt just to look at him.
"We evac'ed all the guards and support personnel. It's their ship."
"They're a threat to the entire fleet." That much should have been obvious, even to Lee.
"They've been disarmed. The ship itself has no weapons."
"The ship itself is a weapon!" snapped Adama. A vessel the size of the Astral Queen could undermine the safety of a battlestar even as well armored as Galactica, not to mention what it could do to the other ships in the fleet.
"They're totally dependent on us for food, fuel, and they've agreed to organize the workforce for the water detail on the moon."
"You've committed me to holding elections within the year," interjected Roslin.
"Madam President, with respect, you're serving out the remainder of President Adar's term. When that term is up in seven months, the law says there's an election. I only committed you to obeying the law."
"You sound like some kind of a lawyer—" Using technicalities and loopholes as a shield.
"I swore an oath," Lee replied, "to defend the articles. The articles say there's an election in seven months. Now, if you're telling me we're throwing out the law, then I'm not a Captain, you're not a Commander and you are not the President. And I don't owe either of you a damned explanation for anything."
Adama moved from his isolated spot near the window fully intending to give Lee a thorough dressing down for his insubordinate remarks, but the look on Lee's bruised face made Bill's resolve falter. Then he saw it, Zarek's trap. Lee hadn't just been bait; he had been the goal, to drive a wedge into the leadership. It nearly worked,but Lee had proven himself more than a mere pawn.
"He's your son," said Roslin.
That he was. Proud, stubborn and angry.
"He's your adviser," countered Adama.
More than willing to stand up to both of them.
"An election…" Her expression was thoughtful, and Bill could see that she had been swayed by Lee's appeal to duty and the rule of law. There was no sense in pushing the issue any further.
"I guess you finally picked your side," said Bill. And it wasn't his or the president's or Tom Zarek's. Lee had picked the side of his own ideals and all of them were going to have to live with the consequences.
Adama spared Roslin a parting acknowledgment on his way out and headed toward Colonial One's transport bay.
-xxx-
After the commander departed, Lee remained in Roslin's office in order to complete a written report before taking a shuttle back to Galactica. Laura excused herself from the room saying that she wanted to take a break before the next crisis hit. The truth was that she was exhausted. She didn't know if it was all the recent disasters or the cancer or both, all she knew was that the only thing that had kept her going for most of the afternoon had been her worry over Billy.
Once she knew that he and the rest of the hostages were safe her body had decided that it was done. She'd had to lean on the back of her chair just to stay standing during Lee's debriefing. Now in the quiet of her quarters, only sheer force of will helped her change out of her clothes into her comfortable pajamas and as soon as she lay down on the couch that served as a makeshift bed, Laura wasn't sure if she'd be able to get back up again.
Even though her body refused to anything useful, her mind was still caught up in a swirl of thoughts. What if Wally had been chosen as president instead? What if something had gone wrong during the assault on the Astral Queen? What if the cancer made her tired like this all the time? What if Billy or Zarek had ended up dead? What if Adama found out she was sick—
Laura tried to stifle the inner chatter by picking up the copy of Dark Day that she'd left on a nearby table. It may be the end of everything, but there was still time to read. She fingered past the first few chapters trying to where she'd left off.
The pages carried the faint scent of aged paper, leather and traces of cigar smoke, a distinct blend that brought to mind Commander Adama's quarters. When she had visited those quarters for the first time during the water crisis she had expected to find an austere space, not a scholar's den overflowing with antiques, pictures, maps and books. It had been a surprise, like when Lee had told her that all the pomp and protocol had been a gesture of respect, and yet it fit him all the same.
Laura put a stop to further errant thoughts, sighed and found her place in the novel, finally letting her thoughts settle into the words in front of her.
-xxx-
...He spotted the body of the third victim by the reflected glare of his flashlight on her white dress. He found her just off the main path on the north side of Cap City Park. Dark hair with a pale face like porcelain, sprawled in the slick grass as if she had fallen asleep under the trees and might wake at any moment. A jagged red line across her neck made that wish a lie. The rain had washed away all the blood and the evidence with it, except for a note clutched in her hand.
He pulled the soaked paper from between her fingers and as he read it, he could almost hear the killer's laughter in the wet dark around him. I spared her the pain of love untrue. Fear not. I'll join her soon—
Laura lowered the book, pulled off her glasses and tried to rub away a sudden pulse of tension in her forehead. Before she could return to the story, she heard a faint a knock from the doorway. It might be Billy, she thought and pulled herself up from bed. When she pulled back the curtain, however, she was surprised to find Lee.
"I'm sorry," he blurted, "I can come back."
"No, it's all right. Um, come on in." Now that she was already up, might as well indulge him.
"I just wanted to say goodbye before I head back to Galactica. And to tell you…I hope you understand, I wasn't being disloyal, Madam President."
"I understand. You're upholding the law. I admire it."
"I believe in you," he continued. "In what you're doing, and for what it's worth, seven months from now, you'll have my vote."
She meant to say thank you, but the words wouldn't come. He went to leave, but she stopped him.
"Could you sit?" She nodded to herself; it was time. He'd stood by her from the beginning. He deserved to know.
When they were both sitting, she took a preparatory breath. "There's something I need to tell you. The truth is I might not be here in seven months."
"Are you planning a vacation?"
"I wish." Her strained smile passed quickly. "I told your father that I…" she cleared her throat and forced herself to continue, "had allergies, but I have cancer. I found out the morning of the attack."
Laura picked up a nearby glass of water and took a sip to clear the knot in her throat, but it did nothing to distract her from his reaction, the way his face fell and his whole body tensed in the space of a few blinks.
"I'm so sorry, Madam President. I don't know what to say."
"I understand." No one ever knew what to say. "I'm going to fight this, but there is a great need for secrecy." I can't afford to trust very many people.
"Of course."
"Whether or not I survive this illness, it is of great importance to me that there's a future for the people and I fear that knowledge of my illness will erode hope." You can't tell your father. Not yet. "So this has to stay between you and me."
"You can count on me."
"I know I can." Her smile was genuine this time. "You're Captain Apollo."
AN: So that chapter took forever...no idea why, but it was the hardest to write in my life. Story's not over yet. It will be sooner or later. Many thanks to all who have been kind enough to read. -SVR