THIS OUGHT TO BE DIFFERENT

( previous chapters )

Chapter Five.

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This was a long day for everyone, but for this Six it was a day that changed everything. Earlier this morning she’d been nothing more than a vision in Gaius Baltar’s mind. Now she had a body that obeyed her will and her will only.

Earlier this morning God’s plan had been laid in a clear path ahead of her, now all she had was confusion.

She stared at the woman standing next to her, entranced, stroking the golden, green and red circles. "We're here," Kara whispered, touching the golden sun-rays.

Shelly, startled, looked over at the spacious hall, and other humans cuddled in the dark.

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The day was long for them, too. For Lieutenant Dualla it started with disappointment, when she’d seen her husband rushing to greet the unruly pilot he was in love with. Then everything had gone downhill. Cylons had cut them off Galactica. Starbuck had crashed, and, of course, Lee had sent his wife to save his lover. Then Starbuck had been in too much pain for Dee to loatheher. Then Dee had realized she’d have to fly them both out of there, but at the same moment Lee and Anders had came out of nowhere, dragging a tied up cylon, model Shelly Godfrey, with them. Despite Lee’s efforts, their raptor hadn’t flown more than few hundred yards, when it’d crashed into the mountain side, resulting in everybody, except Dee and the cylon, getting hurt.

And now, instead of hating and reproaching her husband, Dee crouched beside him and whispered soothing words.

Anders’ scream must have woken him up, because he looked around frightened and confused.

“What--happen--” he breathed out, his hand clutching his chest.

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re hurt, you have some broken ribs, that’s why you can’t breathe--”

“No--” he shook his head feebly. “Not that--cylon--where?--what’s she doin?--”

“She’s--” Dee looked up just in time to see Six and Starbuck get up and walk to the column. “She’s right here.”

“Watch her--Learn--Can’t let’er--”

“No. It’s okay.” Dee grasped his hand in an attempt to be reassuring, but giving the vibe of desperation rather than reliability. “She doesn’t know anything. She’s just as confused as we are.”

“So?--” his eyes finally focused on the woman next to him. “How’s she goin’ to--the Temple--save us. How?”

“Oh. We’re safe. We jumped away from the planet.”

Lee blinked, not wasting precious breath on asking how the frak was that possible. His expression said enough.

“The Temple,” Dee tried to explain. “It’s some kind of a star-ship. And when we entered it spun up FTL and . . .” She spread her arms. “Shelly didn’t do anything, I saw it. I was there.”

“Where are we?”

To that Dee could only nod and say, “That’s a good question.”

Lee was lucid enough to finally take in his surroundings. He looked at the tall obelisk towering above the round room. He looked at it’s base . . . just in time to catch the sight of Kara falling into the cylon’s arms.

“Kara!” he wheezed, his first impulse to leap up. But his body refused; soaring pain shot through his chest, and he collapsed on his side, gasping for breath.

“Stay down, Lee. Stay down!” Dee desperately tried to hold him still.

At the same time, she desperately wanted to run and save Starbuck from the cylon’s hands.

That was the moment Sam chose to wake up from his pain-inducted coma, and groan.

Dee shot a glance at him, “Stay down, Sam!”

Then she looked back at Lee; eyes tightly shut, mouth wide open, struggling to remain conscious, but inevitably slipping into oblivion.

Then she gazed at Kara. Shelly already got up, carrying motionless body in her arms, and walked back to the humans.

“What happened?” Dee run to her.

“She collapsed--” Six hesitated. She was aware that those people were crucial to her survival, Starbuck most of all. But she’d told them enough already to gain their trust. Proof enough that she was still running free. “I did nothing, we just walked over to the column, and there she collapsed.”

“Put her down.”

Kara was breathing, and her heartbeat was steady, she was only unconscious. Only, but more than enough. Dee didn’t think she’d be able to do anything for the pilot at that moment.

She run back to Sam.

“Don’t move, I need to splint that leg of yours, finally.”

“What’s wrong with Kara?” his voice was thick from worry and pain. He needed to be there, at Kara’s side. But he couldn’t move.

Dee injected him with another dose of pain medication – not morpha, though – and sighed. Tried to explain the situation as best as she could, “Kara has a concussion. And she lost consciousness.”

“In other words it’s bad?” Sam was sure the slender brunette wouldn’t be able to look him in the eyes.

She did, though. Stopped bandaging his knee, and looked straight at him. “Chances are she’ll wake up,” she stated. “But she may not.”

He nodded. She nodded too, and returned to her job.

Then she requested his assistance in bandaging Lee’s broken ribs. Then, very carefully, she removed Kara’s flight-suit and took care of her burned fingers.

Finally she looked at the only two conscious people in the room. One was an enemy, whom she could not trust; the other was not even military, was immobilized and not really of any help as he only had eyes for unconscious Starbuck.

“We should try to decipher the symbols on the column,” the cylon said.

Dee spun to look at her. “The symbols?”

“You have any better idea?” Shelly mocked. “Maybe you’re going to entertain yourself with staring at the ceiling and listening to his breath?”

“No!” Dee spat through clenched teeth and got up. “I’m going to look over the stores left by Tyrol and his gang.” She rushed to gather the containers, boxes and lamps in one place, attempting to sort them.

“Whenever you get bored with that, I could use your help,” the cylon smiled broadly, and walked in another direction. She snagged one of the lamps, but Dee grabbed it, too.

“We must preserve the energy,” she hissed. She was so edgy, she thought she might jump the cylon and hit her.

“Oh, really?” Shelly jerk the lamp from the Lieutenant’s grasp with ease. “You think you’ll live longer than those lamps will shine? If you don’t help me with those writings, you’ll rot away in here.”

“I thought with that digital brain of yours, you’d crack it in no-time!”

Shelly cocked her head to the side, her eyes sparkling dangerously, and curiously all the same. “I will decipher it. But if you don’t help me, you’ll regret it.”

“You’re threatening me?”

“No. I’m stating a fact.”

When Shelly walked away – so tall and dignified in her slim black dress and high heels – Dee kept looking at her for a moment. Until she heard Sam clear his throat.

“What?”

“Maybe she’s . . . Right? You know? Maybe that writing contains some instructions on, I dunno, how to operate this ship? Tyrol tried to translate it too, maybe he left some notes?”

“That’s right,” Dee replied coldly. “I was going to take a look at Tyrol’s stuff.”

But she wasn’t going to look for any translations. She didn’t know what she was going to look for. Probably the cylon was right; they weren’t going to survive. The Temple had given them shelter, helped them escape, but what now?

Dee catalogued their resources; they had unprocessed algae stock for five days, with Tyrol’s field-stove as the only means to process it . They had processed algae left by the crew as well, but that wouldn’t last longer than a day. Water supplies would run out in three days, maybe five if they were careful; algae contained lots of water, so that gave them a head start – if they could say that under the circumstances. Three blankets, three lamps, four shots of morpha – bless Tyrol for leaving a med-kit behind – ten shots of lighter pain-meds, and other medications, that Dee assumed wouldn’t be necessary. Or so she hoped. They also had guns and plenty of ammo . . .

She wasn’t pessimistic, or at least she tried not to be. But she was in a position she wasn’t trained for – as the one responsible for the safety of everyone else. Yes, she had been given the Lieutenant pins, and had undergone training onboard Pegasus. She was still a junior officer, though, she was still very young and inexperienced.

She looked back at Lee, willing him to get well suddenly. Met Sam’s anguished eyes.

Lieutenant Dualla knew, that she was the only one who could take care of her companions.

Not knowing what else to do, she returned to them with blankets. The ground wasn’t cold, it still bore the heat of exploding nova, but it couldn’t be comfortable lying on the hard floor. She wrapped Starbuck in one of the blankets.

“I need to give the other two to Lee.” She looked at Sam apologetically. “He should be in half-sitting position, it would ease his breathing.”

“Hey, I had pneumonia. I know what you’re talking about.”

Lee woke up when Sam lifted him, so Dee could fix his makeshift bed.

“Get--the cylon--” he choked out.

“It’s okay, Lee,” Dee whispered.

“Can’t--trust her.”

“I know.”

“Dee, I’m serious.” He looked at her intently, hoping that his eyes said, what his voice failed to say. That he wanted them to prevent the enemy from harming anyone. That he thought it would be the best if Shelly was tied up, knocked out, or even killed.

But Dee didn’t get it. “Lay down, Lee. I’ll take care of everything.”

She understood how he felt. Out of place, just like her. Feeling the need to control the situation, but not even aware of most of the things that happened.

“Just rest, Lee,” she whispered, stroking his damp forehead, but he was already asleep. “Just rest.”

She inhaled and exhaled deeply. The cylon. The damn cylon seemed to at least have a vague idea about what to do. And had saved their lives so far. Dee decided she had not choice, but to follow Shelly’s suggestions.

But first there was one more thing she needed to do, and it kept reminding about itself with a stinging pressure in the bottom of her bowels, for quite some time now. “We have to--” She looked around, disgusted and angry with her human physiology. “Frak!” she cursed.

Sam looked up, with an odd look in his eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t be of assistance,” he said and Dee wasn’t sure if he was joking, or was completely somber.

“I’ll figure out something!” She got up abruptly. “And then I’ll get to those mysterious writings of hers.” She strode to the other – dark – side of the hall, grabbing one of the empty containers on her way.

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t.b.c.