“What the hell?” She sat up and found Lee there. He was looking at her over a tray of covered dishes.
“Supper,” he said. “You said you were hungry.” He lifted lids as he spoke. “Algae soup. Algae salad. Algae bread. And for dessert, algae tapioca pudding. Yum yum!”
Kara stared down at green piles of glop, then burst out, “You frak-head!” She scooped up a spoonful of goo, ready to fling it at him, but Lee had already fled, the sound of his laughter trailing behind him. Kara put a hand to her mouth to stifle relieved laughter of her own. Then she sniffed the tray and picked up the spoon again.
The tapioca was surprisingly good.
President Laura Roslin slumped into a chair and leaned back with her eyes shut. The CIC conference room was empty of people except for Bill Adama. Baltar, the clergy, the camera crew, and even Billy Keikeya had left, thank gods, and that meant she could slouch all she wanted. Bill Adama wouldn’t tell anyone.
Laura suppressed a snort as she realized that the only two people in the Fleet who she felt comfortable showing weakness to were both named William.
“How are you feeling?” Adama asked from his own chair.
“Like I could sleep for a century,” she said.
“Want a drink? I got the good stuff.”
She opened her eyes. “No, thanks. That would really lay me low. Wouldn’t do for the president to conk out on her way to Colonial One.”
A moment of silence fell between them, a comfortable silence Laura enjoyed sharing with him.
“Did we do it right?” Adama asked at last.
“No way to know for sure,” Laura said. “I mean, the riots calmed down almost immediately after Dr. Baltar’s broadcast, and people are accepting the inoculation, so that’s a plus. But declaring Gaius Baltar the Unifier… I don’t know. He took to the role a little too well for my taste.”
“I suspect that part of it will die down after a while. After all, the Unifier has already performed his duty by saving humanity. Nothing else for him to do, really.”
And Laura Roslin laughed.
Helo put a hand to the wire-enforced Plexiglas barrier that separated him from Sharon’s cell. She sighed, then pressed her own hand to it. Helo tried to pretend they were touching skin-on-skin, but it didn’t work.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I feel like a dog who slipped her leash for a while and then got thrown back into the kennel,” Sharon said.
“I’m going to try to get you out of there, Sharon,” he said. “I am. Commander Adama will listen to reason eventually.”
“Right,” Sharon scoffed. “What do you think’s going to happen? That I’ll put on my uniform again one day? That Adama and I will sit at a little table together all buddy-buddy and he’ll tell me his personal problems?”
“Who knows?” Helo said, trying to remain calm, though his voice was cracking. “It seems like something weird happens every frakking week around here, and you can never tell one day to the next what’s going to happen.”
“Easy to be optimistic when you’re outside the jail instead of in it.”
“I know.”
“Be honest, Helo,” she said, and he detected a hint of nervousness in her voice. “Did you really think I killed that marine?”
“No,” he said promptly. “I did wonder how else he could have died, but I knew it wasn’t you. Even when other people were calling me toaster-lover and giving me shit, I never thought it was you.”
Some of the tension visibly went out of her. “Okay. Thanks.”
“I have to go,” he said reluctantly “I have to get some sleep before I go on duty again. I love you.”
She nodded. “I love you, too.”
He turned and left the brig, not at all sure that he had told Sharon the truth but knowing there was nothing else he could have said.
“No, no, really. I have work to do. Thank you for coming. Really! It’s quite all right. Yes, yes. Blessings on you all. I’ll be giving a lecture just as soon as everyone’s on their feet. Thank you again. More blessings, more blessings! Good day!”
Gaius Baltar closed the door to his laboratory, locked it, and leaned his back against it. Muffled knocks and faint pounding thudded on the metal. A smile stretched Gaius’ face. Ah, the price of fame. Never a moment alone, even in his lab.
“That went well, Gaius,” said Number Six. She was leaning against the door beside him, but her posture was casual.
“I liked it,” he said with a grin. “Being the Unifier could have its advantages.”
“Even though you lied about how long it would take you to find the cure so you could swoop in at the most theatrical moment and save everyone,” she said.
He faltered. “Well, I did find the cure.”
“And they won’t ignore you ever again.” Her gaze was hard and penetrating.
“I thought that was the whole idea.”
“It was.” Six swayed seductively toward him. “How did you put it? ‘An invisible hand guided me’?” She put both hands on his shoulders, then slowly slid them down his chest, past his stomach, past his waist. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “‘I was touched by a greater power’?”
He shuddered deliciously as her fingers worked. “Yes. Yes, I was.”
“And it’s a good thing I reminded you to set up that little display with the priests.”
“Yes, it was.”
“But you haven’t remembered everything, Gaius.”
He sighed. “Now what?”
“The other parts from the Book of Glykon. How did they go? ‘And the Unifier shall walk among the Enemy, and He shall return both changed and unharmed.’”
“I… I suppose that fits me, doesn’t it?”
Her fingers continued working on his body, playing it like an instrument of pure pleasure. “‘The Unifier will bring together all Humans into one Tribe under one God.’ I wonder what that could mean?”
“I haven’t the foggiest.”
“Don’t forget the best one. ‘And the Heads of those who defy the Unifier shall tumble to the Ground.’”
Her caressing fingers made him shudder. “That has a poetic ring.”
“Just so you never forget it, Gaius,” she murmured. “Never, ever forget who you are and who got you here.”
“I,” he said with a sudden grin, “am Gaius Baltar.”
He took her into his arms and danced her across the room, swirling in gleeful circles all by himself.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steven Harper lives in Michigan with his wife and three sons. When not at the keyboard writing books and short stories, he sings, plays the piano, and collects folk music. He maintains that the most interesting thing about him is that he writes novels. All four books in his Silent Empire series were Spectrum Award finalists. Visit his web page at http://www.sff.net/people/spiziks.
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