Adama considered whether there was any danger in telling her. The
time seemed to have rrived to employ Athena's strategic acumen.
"I think it just might be a troop carrier."
It took a moment for the information to sink in, then Athena said,
"Cylons?"
"Possibly."
She returned to her duty. On the scanner screens, movements which
had seemd strange to her previously now began to take on a military
aspect.
A bridge officer turned away from a scanner console, and reported.
"Picking up a large body of objects closing toward us rapidly. They
seem to have come out of nowhere."
"From behind an ambush screen, no doubt," Adama muttered.
"What was that, sir?"
"Nothing. Scan the objects for life forms."
"Yes, sir."
Athena glanced away from the consle, into his daughter's concerned
eyes. Obviously she had heard his muttering.
*****
Before her father had alerted her to danger, Athena had been
wallowing in self-pity about being left behind aboard the Galactica. Her
mind had been filled with pictures of Starbuck chasing after that
socialator. She wished she had not reacted so rashly, throwing the key
down like that. If she had had any sense, she would have lured Starbuck
to the guest quarters, used all her abilities to make him forget the
Gemonese woman. It did not seem to her that men developed permanent
relationshisp with socialators, and that comforted her for a while, until
she recalled that Cassiopeia could not really be considered a socialator
anymore. She was an ex-socialator, able to use her considerable trainng
within new social systems.
Now, however, there was no room for jealousy. If her growing
suspicions were correct, and what was happening on the planet below and
space above was another Cylon secret assault, then ther was no time for
petty emotions. Why didn't her father order up the warriors, rather than
leaving them in the chancery? The odds were already against them, and
the time wasted in lifting the warriors off Carillon's Lot might make all
the difference between defeat and victory. She was not used to her
father being hesitant in his command role. On the other hands, she had
not been prepared for his resignation from the council, an act that
seemed to indicated emotional disturbance. Was it possible that her
father was cracking up, that under the tough surface pressure was
building toward an explosion of madness? She shook her head, not wanting
to even consider that.
Switching on the comline to Tigh, who had left his transponder open,
she asked him for a report.
The Ubbo-Sathlas're collecting in droves," he said. "We might have
to make a move very soon. If we can get this stupid crowd moving..."
"What do you mean?"
"They're buying up every word Zalto says. How can they? Listen,
I'll turn up the transmitter, and you can hear..."
Zalto was speaking."
"...to use this occasion to invoke a rebirth in all of us. A wiping
the slate clean of animosities and prejudices against any living
creatures, whether a former friend or enemy..."
The cheer that went up almost deafened Athena. The man's speech was
effective, all right. How could their people be so gullible? She
remembered her father saying once, panaceas were a cubit a dozen but
solutions cost much, much more.
"Athena?" Tigh came back on the line.
"Yes?"
"Tell your father I can't keep the lid on here much longer."
"Righto, whatever that means."
"You'll know soon enough."
Athena's fright seemed to have doubled as she turned away from the
scanning console.
*****
For the moment, Starbuck and Apollo had outdistanced their Cylon
pursuers. Cylons were not known for ground speed. Unfortunately, their
last turn had led them into a dead end.
"How do we get out of here?" Starbuck asked.
"I don't know."
"Am I correct in assuming that, in addition to finding ourselves in
a cul-de-sac, we are also hoplessly lost?"
"That's correct, Lieutenant."
"I always like to know the odds. Especially when they're a thousand
to one against me."
"You can't always measure life in gambling odds, Starbuck."
"Is that so? Do you suggest an alternative measurement?"
"Starbuck, those Cylons'll located us at any micron. This is no
time to..."
"Yeah, yeah. But what do we do? Go shoulder to shoulder, run out
there blasting away like we did that minefield? And what about Boxey and
that growling machine of his, what about..."
"Muffy's not a machine!" Boxey protested.
Muffit perhaps felt the insult, too, for he started barking.
"Quiet, you daggit!" Boxey said.
The daggit started running away from them. He ran a few steps, then
ran back.
"What's he doing?" Starbuck said.
"He wants us to follow him," Boxey said. "C'mon..."
"Boxey, I don't think now's the time to..." Apollo said, but before
he could finish Boxey had leaped out of his arms and begun to follow the
running daggit down the corridor.
Apollo and Starbuck rushed after them. When they had almost caught
up with the boy, the daggit turned into a dark area in the wall that
looked like a shadow. Boxey followed him into it. Starbuck and Apollo
changed glances. Closer examination showed the dark shadow to be a small
tunnel that ran between the corridor and what proved to be, when the two
men had crawled through the tunnel, a large cavern. At first Apollo
thought it was just one of the mining areas until he looked closely at
the ground.
"What're those?" he said to Starbuck.
"Looks like some kind of funeral parlor to me but..."
"My God!"
They simultaneously perceived the humans inside the pods. Starbuck
crouched down by a nearby pod and touched the plumpish young woman bound
inside it.
"I think----I think I was playing Def-Ice with this woman that first
day I found the chancery. Her name was---was---aw, I forgot it already."
"Is she alive?" Apollo.
"Just barely. She's got a pulse, though. Let me see if I
can...ulp!"
"What is it?"
"Her body. It's like she's dying, but somehow not really dying.
Something's bitten her on the neck. I see two puncture wounds there
and----Apollo, this woman's blood is being sucked right out of her veins!
We've gotta----"
"We can't help her now, Starbuck. C'mon, let's get outta here."
"But this woman. The others. We can't just leave them, we..."
"And we can't sort out who's salvageable. We'll send a team back.
Right now there's the Cylons. C'mon. Follow Muffit, he seems to know
where he's going."
They crossed
the chamber, carefully stepping over the pods, trying
not to look at their grim contents.
Ahead of them, a group of Ubbo-Sathlas entered the cavern, carrying
four new pods. Apollo grabbed Muffy and crouched behind the nearest pod.
Starbuck and Boxey fell to the ground beside Apollo.
"What's going on there?" Starbuck whispered.
"I think they've been siphoning off people from the chancery,
bringing them down here. That's' the reason for the chancery, the reason
they keep everybody winning and happy and fat."
"But why?"
"I think that should be obvious, Starbuck. The Ubbo-Sathlas are a
race of vampiroids. They're drinking our blood."
"Vamp...Apollo, vampiroids are a myth, tales to frighten immature
adults. They don't exist."
"I guess somebody forget to tell them that."
"Do you realize what you're saying?"
"You saw the neck wounds on that poor woman back there. How else do
you explain them?"
"But if all they want is our blood, why fatten us up like cattle."
"I'd say it's because the fatter we are, the more blood there is for
them to drink. Hey! Those first pods they just brought in, the men in
them look familiar."
Starbuck squinted at the pods, which were being delicately held up
horizontally, while one of the Ubbo-Sathlas, a female, opened her mouth
as wide as she could. The blond lieutenant nearly gagged on his own bile
as he beheld the woman's hideous fangs. He watched in horror as she
began to sink them into the man's neck.
Suddenly, Starbuck said, "They're the three men we were looking
for!"
"I thought so. Even from here the uniforms look like bad fits."
"And the other one----Oh no! It's Cassiopeia!"
Starbuck had stood up and began to run before Apollo could stop him.
He rushed toward the pod carriers like a competitive runner, leaping over
the pods underfoot as if they were hurdles. With a last running jump
Starbuck hurled himself on one of the Ubbo-Sathlas who had just propped
up the pod containing Cassiopeia, making ready to dine on her.
Starbuck's move seemed to activate Muffit Two, who ran after him.
Naturally, Boxey followed the daggit. Apollo, still crouching behind the
pod, muttered, "Damn!" then started crawling toward Starbuck, around and
over the pods.
*****
Bar-Lo, alerted to the disturbance by a messenger, rushed into the
pod chamber. From another entranceway came Nor, aaccompanied by the tall
Cylon centurion.
One of the humans, the brash young man called Starbuck, was
struggling in the grip of tow Ubbo-Sathla warriors. As Nor approached,
she heard him say:
"What kind of sick heathens are you? You can't---drink her blood!"
"Oh, but we can, Colonist," Bar-Lo said. "It would do no good for
me to explain our origins to you, as I judge your mind too primitive to
understand our history, or even the dark powers we once served until the
Cylons conquered us. "
Starbuck appeared to be sick.
"You're right," he said. "I probably wouldn't understand why you do
what you do. I don't think I'd want to understand."
Bar-Lo showed no reaction to his remark as he continued.
"We Ubbo-Sathlas drink your blood because it provides us with all
that is best in your race in order to sustain our immortality. And other
races, for that matter. Minerals, antibodies, plasma, calcium for our
bones. We can even extract knowledge from your RNA, improve our DNA by
using your own. We are not vampiroids for nothing, you see."
Bar-Lo laughed harshly.
"You should be flattered, Colonist. We find your blood useful,
unlike our Cylon masters, who..."
Barking and yelling distracted Bar-Lo's attention. The young human
boy waws pulling at the uniform on the leg of one of his warriors, while
his detestable pet was biting at the Ubbo-Sathla's leg. The queen,
clearly amused by the situation, walked to the scene, and pulled the boy
away from the warrior.
"I have special plans for this child," she said to the warrior, who
had drawn a weapon. "He's mine. But, if you wish, you may dispose of
the droid."
The Ubbo-Sathla coolly pointed the weapon at Muffit Two, who was now
leaping in anger. Squeezing its trigger, he shot the daggit at the high
point of a leap. Sparks flew from Muffit's hide as it fell to the ground
in a crumpled, inert heap.
"Muffy! Muffy!" Boxey shouted.
"Why, you..." Starbuck shouted. Twisting his body violently, he
pulled out of the grasp of the two Ubbo-Sathla guards. Leaping up
suddenly to Bar-Lo's left, Apollo fired at the Ubbo-Sathla who had shot
the daggit, sending a killing beam through his neck. Starbuck, in
reaction, rolled to his left and came up shooting. His aim was true, as
he sliced the Cylon's helmet in two. Suddenly the two men were blasting
away, and an Ubbo-Sathla warrior seemed to fall with each shot. Bar-Lo
ran recklessly through the fire toward Nor, to protect her. Nor held the
child, who was now crying fiercly as he looked down at his fallen pet,
tightly in her arms.
The firing behind her stoopped. Looking back, he saw that all of
his warriors had been killed by the two humans. Starbuck was now
advancing toward her and Nor.
"Stop right there, you damn she-monster!" he cried.
Bar-Lo moved sideways, placing himself deliberately between the two
men's weapons and his queen. Whatever else happened, Nor must be
protected. It would be final proof of Bar-Lo's love of his queen to die
for her.
"Starbuck, stop!" Apollo shouted.
"I want to kill both of them!"
"You might kill Boxey, too."
Apollo's cautionary message seemed to make Nor hold the boy all the
more tightly.
"Disarm them, Bar-Lo!" Nor screamed, her voice shrill. Conditioned
to respond automatically to an order from his queen, Bar-Lo jumped at
Starbuck. The warrior, surprised at the Ubbo-Sathla's lunge,
nevertheless got off a shot at at him which burned through his left arm.
He finished his leap and knocked Starbuck off balance. Bar-Lo grabbed at
his arm to try to wrest the warrior's sidearm from his fingers. The move
jostled Starbuck's arm, made the warrior accidentally fire the weapon. A
high pitched scream behind him ended in a gurgle. Bar-Lo turned to see
Nor falling, her head half-severed from her neck by the chance shot.
Bar-Lo's scream took up where Nor's left off, and he ran to his fallen
queen. Boxey, having been released from Nor's arms as they went limp,
ran to Muffit. Starbuck aimed his weapon toward Bar-Lo's head.
"No, Starbuck,' Apollo shouted. "We've done enough. Take care of
Cassiopeia."
Starbuck ran to the pod containing Cassiopeia as Apollo rushed to
the sobbing boy.
As soon as Cassiopeia had been released from the pod, she fell i
nto
Starbuck's arms, drugged, half-conscious, but alive. He hugged her to
him briefly, then set her down while he released the three men in the
Galactican uniforms. He was about to interrogate them, but he could tell
from their glazed eyes they were in no state to produce any explanations
at that moment.
At first Apollo didn't know what to do about Boxey. He figured that
the crumpled daggit-droid's body must remind Boxey of the death of the
real daggit back on Caprica. Only this time nobody shielded the boy from
his pet's fallen form. Would the boy be able to get over such a loss
again? Or did it have to be a loss? Perhaps not.
"We have to go, Boxey. We can't stay here."
"I won't leave Muffy."
"I know what you're thinking, but are you a Colonial Warrior First
Level or not?"
"Yes, but..."
"Then get moving, officer. I'll bring Muffy, I promise you that.
Now let's go or I'll have you court-martialed."
Boxey, responding to the authority in Apollo's voice, sprang to his
feet. Gently, Apollo picked up the daggit-droid. A few wires inside it
hung out, frayed and burned. Ordering Boxey to start moving, they
collected Starbuck, along with Cassiopeia and the three uniformed men,
all of whom could respond to orders in an android fashion. They made,
Apollo thought, an odd-looking platoon as they trudged toward the
entranceway of the chamber. Starbuck brought up the rear, looking back
with his weapon raised at the mourning Bar-Lo. He took aim at him, but
Apollo said to leave him in sorrow. He was no threat now.
Bar-Lo, aware of their departure, maded no move to follow them.
There seemed no point. Nor was dead, the first death of an Ubbo-Sathla
queen in a million yahrens. Soon the centuries would catch up with her
and her corpse would disintegrate into dust within centons.
Without his queen, Bar-Lo was without function. There was nothing
he could do to assuage his misery. Wounded by Starbuck's shot, he could
only sit and allow the life to drain out of his body. For a long while
he bent over the dead queen and muttered prolonged, high-pitched sounds
that were the Ubbo-Sathla version of keening. Eventually,
unconsciousness relieved his misery and he fell forward across Nor's
body.
*****
"I think I've got my bearings now," Starbuck announced, after they
had traveled some distance from the pod chamber. "The elevator's that
way."
"So's that bunch of centurions," Apollo shouted.
"Hades' hole!"
Pushing the dazed men in uniform against a wall and forcing one of
them to hold the inert form of Muffit Two, Apollo and Starbuck took cover
behind a pair of jutting wall-rocks as the Cylons opened fire. Laser