Major Simone Bellringer's bunk

After she's been crying for an hour

"Sir," a gravelly voice inquired, "could you use some company?" The speaker came into view, a young lieutenant. "I...I was the last person to see your sister alive - Commander Citona told me about you, sir." He sighed. "Unless you'd rather -"

"No, come in, Lieutenant, I guess I shouldn't be alone right now," Simone shook her head, drying her tears.

"If you feel I'm intruding -"

"No," Simone said quietly. "I'd appreciate you telling me what happened." But she wasn't making it an order, though she did outrank him.

Adama sighed again and sat. "Truth to tell, I'm not 100% sure. I was posted mistakenly to Pacifica. I was reporting to the CAG as ordered. Then Action Stations sounded, so the CAG ordered all pilots to their Vipers. But apparently a Cylon ship had broadcast a software weapon. It subverted Pacifica's systems - CIC went into lockdown, and the entire hangar deck was electrified. Every Viper and all but two offline Raptors were hit. The pilots were electrocuted...including Captain Bellringer.

"An ensign called CIC, received orders to abandon ship. So we booted up the Raptors and got the frak out of there. Got fired upon by the automated defences, they must've been compromised too. As we were heading away I realised Pacifica's FTL drives were out of sync, so we jumped away. Just in time - she tore herself apart."

"You couldn't have performed CPR on the Captain?"

He sighed a third time. "The CAG got a similar lethal shock when he tried. Plus I remember my EMT from when I was an ensign - she'd been down too long. There was nothing I could do," he told her regretfully. "And we had our orders."

"I understand, Lieutenant," Simone murmured. "Sounds as if you had a close shave. So, the toasters have a new weapon?"

"Seems so," he nodded. "The XO knew we had to get that intel back to the Fleet. That's why she gave the order to leave."

"The XO? What about the Commander?"

"Dead, apparently. His console blew up in his face."

Simone nodded. "Sounds like Terry McAndrews, alright. Yeah, she'd put the Fleet first, Gods bless her. The Commander told me we picked up the bogey, too, but our CAG destroyed it before it could get to us. Good."

Citona poked her head in. "Simone, as of now I'm granting you shore leave on compassionate grounds - I know Virgons have elaborate funeral rites."

"We don't have a...a body, sir," Simone pointed out listlessly.

Carmen looked gentle. "Does that matter? As I recall, your rites involve blessing of the spirit."

"No," Simone conceded, "it doesn't matter, you're right. Thank you, sir." She turned to Adama. "By Virgon custom, as you were there when she died, you have a right to attend. Will you come with me? Please?"

"I only knew her briefly," Adama protested mildly.

But now Simone looked near tears again. "Briefly or not, you knew her. Please come. I...I don't want to tell my parents alone."

He sighed, but nodded. "I'll need to get permission from my CO."

"No, you won't," Citona shook her head, "I'm giving permission. I'm a CO too. I'll argue it with the JAG if I have to."

"Um, I'm not sure Commander Nash or Colonel Makin will like that, sir," Adama said uneasily.

Citona looked fierce. "Simone needs you. She's one of my best. So I don't give a flying frak what they'll like. Simone, I can give you a day. Two, max." She looked apologetic. "If it were up to me you'd get a frakking yahren, but Masters insisted. She's planning an op and we need every pilot. You too, Husker," Citona addressed Adama, "temp transfer to Atlantia. For this op, your ass is mine."

She and Adama saluted. "Thank you, sir."

The Maiden's Forest, 200 klicks south of the Equator, Virgon

Later that morning

At first the ATC for the Maiden's Forest, the suburban district in which Simone had grown up, seemed obstructionist towards a Colonial Fleet Raptor - until she explained why they were there. "Lords forgive me, I'm sorry, Two-Nine," the ATC apologised, "landing clearance granted. By Athena's grace, welcome to Virgon, Defenders of the Colonies. May the Gods keep your honoured fallen."

Simone declined to comment, taking the (essentially spare) Raptor down to the landing field. They hailed a cab (Colonial Warriors, by long-standing Virgon tradition, travelled free, whether Fleet or Marines). As they travelled, Adama looked around, fascinated. Virgon was quite heavily forested; indeed, Simone's family lived in a forest. "Caprica's mainly cities," he noted, "I'm not used to the suburbs. So many trees."

"Oh, we have cities, too," Simone told him, "but my family has lived in the Maiden's Forest ever since the Exodus from Kobol."

"Your family's that old?" he asked, impressed.

She nodded. "We've always maintained a connection with the land, with trees and grass. Not such a civilised environment as you Capricans," she teased.

"Hey, Caprica has her share of wilderness," Adama defended his home, "and we were Taurons originally - plenty of trees and grass there."

"Belinda's favourite colour was green," she said sadly. Then she brightened a little. "You know the history of the Forest?"

"No, sorry."

"When we first came to Virgon, there was a lot of land competition - our continents are small compared to Caprica's. So any land was fought over...especially this. D'Anna Bellringer claimed it, and fought off her rivals. It took her ten yahrens, but she did it."

"And why was it called the Maiden's Forest?" he asked...intuiting the answer.

"Because when she staked her claim, she was a maiden," Simone replied.

A little cynical when it came to women, he inquired, "For how long?"

Now she grinned, in a way that reminded him vividly of Falcon. "About ten minutes."

Adama laughed.

Her house wasn't what he'd expected. Largish, clearly the home of a fairly well-to-do family. "Not that Bell and I never had to scrimp and save our cubits like everyone else," Simone commented wryly.

"Nice place," Adama nodded. "Early Vitoan style, if I had to guess." Vito Doraine was a legendary Virgon architect, his work famed all over the Colonies but especially favoured on Aquaria, Libran and his homeworld of Virgon.

But definitely not Sagittaron - he'd once had a dispute with the Primus which had escalated into violence, and his work was absolutely forbidden to Sagittaron architects on pain of death (though the Capricans had tried to reason with him).

Now she was impressed. "Well done. Most people guess at Early Menosian." Alendra Menos was an architect of some two hundred yahrens later, a bit of a copycat, though she had her own unique style, popular on Picon, Canceron and, to a lesser extent, on Leonis. "Very similar, but these pillars are slightly barrelled," she indicated. "You have an eye for art," she readily complimented him.

"Picked it up from my father, even though he was a lawyer," he told her. "He knew fine art when he saw it, whether it was a painting, a sculpture or architecture."

They were interrupted by the front door opening and a middle-aged couple emerging. They were talking pleasantly - then they saw Simone, and cried in delight, "Simone! You're home!"

Sobbing, she hugged them both. Her father ruffled her blonde hair affectionately and chided, "But how is it that you're here? Carmen isn't what you'd call a taskmaster, but I'm sure you aren't due for shore leave for another half-yahren. Unless," he scolded, "you're taking after that wayward sister of yours and you've gone AWOL!"

"I'll never get used to the fact that you know Commander Citona well enough to call her by her first name," his wife chided. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were a name-dropper."

Simone sobered. "No, Dad, the Commander gave permission. I...I'm here about Belinda, actually."

Cornelius didn't see at first how close to tears she was, and quipped, "And what's that little madam up to now, mmm?"

"She...she's not up to anything, Dad," Simone managed. "She...she..."

Then Elizabeth got it. "Simone, what's happened?"

Brokenly Simone told them, "She's...with the Gods..." Now her tears started.

So did Elizabeth's. "No...Gods, no...!"

"Simone?" Cornelius asked in a low tone, and then he too understood.

The now-truncated family cried together.

A discreet distance away, Lieutenant William Adama thought sadly, I'd rather be facing a phalanx of toasters than these three. Gods, I wish I wasn't here.

But I want to show respect. Simone deserves that. So did Belinda.

The living room

An hour later

"Sir," Adama began, "if you and your family wish to grieve in private, I -"

For the first time Cornelius seemed to see him. "And who are you, young man?"

Even though they were civilians (though he suspected Cornelius, at least, had served in some capacity), he saluted. "Lieutenant William Adama, sir, callsign 'Husker', Battlestar Galactica."

Cornelius frowned. "Simone serves on Atlantia. Belinda serves - served," he choked back a sob, "on Pacifica. So why are you here?"

As grieving Virgons often did, Simone adopted a formal air. "I requested his presence, Father. He was the last person to see her alive. By Virgon custom, it is his right to be here. So it has been since the Exodus, without change." She dropped the formality. "I couldn't bear to tell you alone, Dad."

He sighed. "Long have I prayed for either of you to be given an honourable discharge and come home. The worst part of serving in the Colonial Marines was being apart from your mother. I was almost glad to be invalided out. A knee injury," he explained to Adama, "during the Second Sagittaron Uprising. But," he added with fierce pride, "I got the frakker who caused it!"

Adama saluted again. "Good for you, sir. What rank were you?"

"Oh, I was a Gunnery Sergeant," Cornelius smiled.

"Way to go, Gunny," Adama nodded.

Elizabeth fussed over Virgon tea, a concoction much favoured on other colonies which tasted mostly of mint. "Oh, don't get him started, William, he'll be bending your ear with his military stories next!"

"Those military stories paid for our daughters' education," Cornelius tartly pointed out.

Adama recognised that this grieving old soldier wanted to reminisce. He smiled. "Actually, I'd like to hear them."

"I knew it," Elizabeth moaned in faux complaint, "another warhorse! On your own head be it, Lieutenant!"

Simone found a laugh somewhere.

The next day, the mourning ceremony was intended to be just for family, a few friends and Adama. Instead, many of her Dad's old friends showed up, as did Belinda's friends from the Academy. Even a beggar showed up; whilst on shore leave Belinda had once been kind to him, buying him a meal, and he'd since turned his life around and now looked quite dapper. He'd begged Cornelius for the opportunity to say farewell to the "beautiful forest sprite", as he put it.

The Forest Sprite was an important figure in Virgon mythology, and so Cornelius was touched beyond measure, he and Elizabeth embracing him as if he were family.

When invited to speak, Adama told them, "I didn't really know her, to be honest. Actually I was there by mistake. But from the little I saw, I liked her. I've heard she was a superb pilot, on course to become the next CAG, so Pacifica's current CAG said." To a few puzzled frowns, he explained who the Commander Air Group was and why s/he was so important. "But I can assure you she did not die in vain.

"Not in combat as she expected, but not in vain, either. Her tragic death showed me clearly what the new Cylon weapon had done to Pacifica. Her loss will be avenged - by all the Gods, I swear it. For now, please remember and mourn her, and the 2,793 Colonial personnel who died with her."

"Technically a breach of regs, Adama, telling civvies about combat losses," a new voice interrupted quietly. "But I'll let it slide." Commander Citona saluted the Bellringers. "My friends, I beg leave of you. I'm truly sorry for your loss. But I need your daughter back aboard Atlantia."

"I take it back," Cornelius returned, "you are a taskmaster, Carmen."

Citona had the grace to look distressed. "Cornelius, I am so sorry. But...I have my orders. Simone?"

Simone kissed both her parents. "It's okay, I expected this. I swear by Athena she has no other choice. Dad, you were a Marine -"

"Still am," he thrust out his chest proudly.

"- so you know about the chains and exigencies of command. If the Commander says she needs me, you can take that as read." She looked gentle, and many yahrens older. "Bell would understand."

He still looked reluctant, but Elizabeth kissed her cheek. "Go, daughter, with our blessing. Gods keep you." Then, for once, she descended to cruder language. "Make those frakking toasters pay for Belinda!"

Simone hugged and kissed her parents one last time. "By all the Gods, I swear I will."

"So will I," Adama growled determinedly.

"So say we all," Elizabeth said in the oldest dialect of Virgon she knew.

Everyone else echoed her.

"Then let's make it happen," Citona ordered with equal fervour.