Fic: Twice In A Lifetime 3/6 StarGate: Atlantis/BattleStar Galactica
Title: Twice In A Lifetime Author: Lopaka Tanu Disclaimer: I do not own BattleStar Galactica or StarGate: Atlantis. Characters: Gaeta, Lorne, Caldwell, Sheppard, Weir, Rodney, Woolsey Hermiod, Carson, Teyla, and Kate Heightmeyer. Words: 23,232 Prompt: Galactica jumps to alien planet, is destroyed. SGA rescues. Fandom: StarGate: Atlantis/BattleStar Galactica Pairing: Pre-Lorne/Gaeta Rating: Teen Warnings: Language, Violence, Character Deaths. Summary: After rescuing a group of strangers from a debris field, Lorne and the rest of Atlantis become embroiled in a three millennia old mystery that leaves them asking who can they trust. Author's Note: More SGA style than BSG, which means it tends to be humorously bad in parts. Spoilers: BSG 2x09; SGA 3x06 ______________________________________ Part 3. The Great Kissoff.
Felix came awake as he felt the world around him shift back in to normal space. He felt a little disoriented mainly from the fact he hadn't been aware they were jumping. Now that he could sense it his system took a moment to come back to normal.
In that time he opened his eyes to look around. He felt disappointed that it hadn't been a bad dream. That he was still stuck in this alien infirmary was a fact he would have to get used to. Something new, however, was the presence of someone else in the room.
Two someone elses to be precise.
They had stuck guards on his room. He supposed this meant he was a prisoner now. Since these men were unlike anyone he had seen before it was safe to assume this was not a Cylon plot. If he were to accept that as fact, then that left the question of where was he?
His cheeks burned with shame. These were questions he had been taught to seek answers first. Know your situation was the first lesson of survival that they taught back in the academy. Well, it had been when there was still an academy.
He was certain there was a lovely crater right where the academy had been. There was probably some lower lifeform like roaches inhabiting that crater, creating their own families and dramas. Life would flourish even in the face of destruction.
He hoped the Cylons enjoyed the barren worlds they had created for themselves. If what Helo had described was true, they were pretending to even be their creators. What a joke. A collection of subroutines and circuits thinking that it could ever possibly compare.
Clearing his throat, he went to sit up. His muscles instantly protested the action and started to shake. Through sheer determination he made it up enough to lean over his bent legs. Pale and shaky, he grinned at the guards.
There was no response from them.
That was just fine with him. He didn't particularly care for them either. When his strength had built up enough, he turned to push his legs off the side of the bed. He smirked at that. It was little more than a gurney, far from a bed.
The moment he was relatively certain that his feet would hold him, he slipped off the bed. His legs gave a few jerks but his knees held out in the end. With that settled, he turned to face the doors. At this point he wasn't really certain what he would do next.
Beyond those doors, if he was allowed through them, lay an alien world. Did he really care to see it? Suddenly feeling tired he sagged against the bed. Why had he even gotten up?
Felix knew that his feelings were fluctuating erratically, but didn't have the strength to control them and his body at the same time. It was an uphill battle just to remain standing. For a distraction, he looked to the guards.
Unsurprising, they hadn't even given him a second look. He was clearly no threat to them or the ship.
He frowned. He was pretty sure he might get in one good shot if push came to shove. That was all his reserves held. It would have to do.
Taking one hesitant step from the bed, he leaned his weight on the shaky knee. To his amazement and relief, it held. That done, he put out his other leg. Before he knew it he was several paces from the bed.
Looking up revealed that he was only two steps from the door. The guards made no move to intercept him which was all the permission he needed to walk through them. Felix wasn't certain what to expect when the doors withdrew on their own. The sight beyond them soon distracted him from that though.
It was indeed an infirmary. Lined up along the walls in various states of recuperation were people he finally recognized. Each of them was attached to some form of lifesupport. It was as that man had stated with one exception.
There were only three people here.
He snorted. A moment later his eyes started to sting. They were four people, the last four humans in all the Universe. How utterly perfect.
A thought occurred to him. He should just go over and turn off those damned machines. Better that they never wake up than know the truth. Felix was seriously debating just that when the hissing sound of doors opening to his right drew his attention.
Looking over, he heard a gasp. What he found did not impress him at all.
Standing frozen in the doorway, a group of four people stared at Felix. For several moments they did nothing but look at him.
The one at the front swallowed down his nervousness. Taking a step towards Felix, he ran his palms over his brown and red uniform. Clearing his throat he smiled to try and reassure the unstable man. "Hi. Can you understand me?"
For a moment Felix considered growling at the man. Obviously he believed Felix enfeebled or worse, primitive. There was one thing Doctor Baltar had taught him and that was how to deal with people like him. "The real question is are your auditory functions capable of distinguishing normal speech patterns enough to understand me."
A man in a blue uniform to the leader's right snorted. He smacked the leader's shoulder with the back of his hand. "Sounds like you've finally met your match, McKay."
"Then obviously he is too smart for you." The one designated as McKay almost snarled at the one in blue. Comment made, he focused once more on Felix. "One question down, let's get to some others. What do you know about the ancients?"
"Rodney!" Smacking the leader's shoulder from the left, the woman there plastered on a sympathetic smile. "You really must learn to be more tactful."
"I must get some answers. How can I do that if you people keep interrupting me?" He finished the question in a snappish tone. McKay was actively glaring at everyone and anyone now. A small shove by the taller man from behind made him sigh. "Fine. How are you doing? Are you up to answering some questions? I hope the genocide of your people hasn't haunted your dreams too much." He winced as he was hit from three different directions at once.
Having been watching this going on, Felix felt his numb shock turn to a simmering anger. These people were the closest source of hostility he felt safe enough venting on. "If I had a weapon, I would kill all four of you right now."
That certainly shut them up real quick. Blinking at him in surprise, they clearly hadn't been expecting that response.
The one a little taller than the leader man stared at Felix with slightly widened eyes. "Right. Well, okay, I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot here." He pointed to his chest. "I am Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard, this is my team. The woman over there is Teyla Emmagan." He gestured to the short man. "This is Dr. Rodney McKay, and the big guy back there is Ronon."
Teyla nodded her greeting. "It is a pleasure to meet you..." She left the end hanging for a response.
Well, here it was. This was his chance to finally reveal himself to these people. Scowling, Felix considered letting them hang there. It would serve them right. Still, rules were rules, even if there was only him to follow them.
Raising his head, he held it high. "I am Lieutenant Felix Gaeta, third officer of the BattleStar Galactica." When he received no sense of recognition from them he snorted again. "I guess that makes me the highest ranking survivor of the Human Race."
"I don't know, I like to think a Colonel beats a Lieutenant." Sheppard's comment was greeted by an elbow to his ribs from McKay. "Hey! I was just trying to make him smile. Something you apparently suck at, Rodney!"
Letting his eyes wander over them, Felix took in their distinctive garb and weapons. They were definitely not Colonial issue. Well, most of them, the big guy's clothing looked like something from the pleasure resorts on Tauron. This stray thought caused him to snort.
"See. He gets it." Sheppard gestured at Felix with a bony finger.
"You are not funny, even for a Colonel." Felix's words had the desired effect, the man stopped pointing at him. "I do not recognize your uniforms. What colonies do you come from?"
"Colonies? Hardly." McKay took control again. The superior smirk looked natural on his face. "If anything, your people are from our colonies."
This sent a shiver through Felix. Could it be possible? "You cannot be from Kobol."
Despite a warning growl from the man behind him, McKay snorted. Crossing his arms, he stared Felix down like he was the feeble one. "Right on that one, genius. Try Earth."
The words hit him like a Viper at full burn. Staggering backwards, Felix barely maintained his balance. His shaky stance drew the others towards him. Holding up his hands he warded them off. "I am all right."
"Forgive me, but you do not look it." Teyla tried to take a step towards him, but stopped at his head shake. "Please, let us help you."
"You are from Earth?" Felix waited for McKay's eye roll before he sucked in a quick breath. "We have been searching..."
"A Wraith worshipper, I knew it!" Pointing at the unstable man, McKay's eyes lit up. He turned to smirk at Sheppard. "Pay up! That will be twenty-five Canadian, thank you. Don't try slipping me some of that devalued American crap."
"Wraith?" Blinking, Felix tried to clear the spots from his eyes. "I have never heard of them." When blinking didn't help, Felix swallowed and reached up to rub at them. "My people worship the Lords of Kobol."
"Who is that?" Teyla ignored McKay and Sheppard to stare only at Felix. Her soft voice lowered in pitch to be comforting. "We have never heard of your gods."
"Not mine. Others." Finding it hard to keep focus, Felix shook his head. That failed to help and he rubbed at his temple. "We came from Kobol. Legends say that we had to leave, it wasn't safe. The Lords sent us away for our protection." Felix felt himself sway as his vision blurred. "We were searching for you."
"What happened to your people?" Teyla was closer now. Her voice was almost hypnotic. "Why were you searching for Earth?"
"We needed a new home." Felix's chuckle came out almost a sob. Growling to himself, he shook his head harder. He had to get answers while he still could. "Where is Earth? Are you really from there?"
This was greeted with silence.
Clenching his eyes shut to stem the rising tide of his nausea, Felix dropped his chin. "You're not are you? This is all just a trick." Feeling his body weaken, he staggered. "Gods damned Cylons." Strong hands caught him before he hit the deck. "Just let me die. Please. Haven't I....suffered....enough?" He found it hard to concentrate and speak at the same time.
"Help me, John, I think he is about to pass out!" It was Teyla again. She sounded really far away.
Felix tried to break away, but their hold was too strong. "Please, let me die. Let me die." His words came out in a choked gasp. "Please."
"Just tell him!" She sounded angry. Her fingers, for they were soft and motherly, ran over Felix's brow. "It is all right, Lieutenant, you have found your final tribe. We will take you to Earth."
Felix didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the end he wasn't conscious enough to do either.
~~~~~~~~~~
Turning the page, Lorne mumbled the words as he read them. His ink stained finger traced the words across the paper. After several hours of reading he had needed a guide to keep his place.
He knew that he should take a break, but the reports were fascinating. An entire culture summed up in just a few lines seemed fantastic. It was in a plain military dialog that was easy to follow along for someone with his experience.
There were a few references that he didn't get. Frowning as he came upon one, he paused to consider it. "FTL drive." There were numerous reference to the use, function, and malfunction of it. He couldn't be certain, but he believed that it was the Star Drive they used.
If that were true, though, it was completely different than anything he had ever encountered before. Goa'uld Tech, Ancient Tech, and now Asgard Tech, none of them even mentioned in passing the effects described by the BattleStar's final Commander.
Going back to the logs, he scanned the final entries on the page. The Cylon War had taken many lives. But the sheer level of devastation mentioned in the second invasion was staggering. Picking up the pieces and running for their lives had taken a lot of guts. He wasn't certain that he could have done it.
It was just a damn shame they had encountered the Wraith.
Flipping to the next page, he read the casualty report for a bomb that had taken out a number of the pilots. Improperly stored ammo with aging equipment had killed three and injured another six. This made stark the reality of their situation.
This had truly been a refugee fleet. There was denying the words and their effect. No one had been prepared for the attack. That anyone had survived was a miracle.
He was about to begin the next report when his comm beeped in his ear. Reaching up, he tapped it with a little more force than necessary. Annoyed that he had been interrupted, he cleared his throat. "Lorne."
"Major. My office, now!" It was the Colonel and he sounded pissed.
Alarmed, Lorne looked to the window. His heart nearly stopped when he realized they were back in normal space. He was late for his duty shift!
Swallowing, he nodded. It was only after he had done that he realized how stupid that had been. "On my way, sir."
~~~~~~~~~~
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Head throbbing, Caldwell rubbed a hand over his forehead. "Do you have any idea how much strain your little interrogation put on his system?"
"Well, to be honest, sir, we didn't actually interrogate him." Sheppard tried for a liter tone, but it fell flat at the Colonel's serious expression. Shifting a little, he shrugged. "We didn't go there with that in mind. Rodney wanted to examine our, your, guests. None of us thought they would be awake."
"I don't give a damn what you thought!" These people really seemed to have it out for him. It wouldn't be so bad if this kinda crap only happened once in a while, but Caldwell was coming to expect it from them. "How in the hell did you even get on this ship so fast?"
All eyes quickly went to McKay.
Standing behind Ronon's shoulder, Rodney tried to appear like he wasn't part of their group. When he noticed they were looking at him, his eyes widened a little and his mouth automatically opened. "What are you looking at me for? It was Sheppard's idea."
"You wanted to see them as much as I did." Sheppard's belligerent tone was punctuated by a pointed finger directly at the scientist.
"That's what this is about?" Caldwell's headache increased throbbing to match his pulse. "You wanted to be the first people to have a look at the survivors?" When they wouldn't meet his stare he suddenly had a feeling of being back home twenty years earlier. These weren't his teenagers caught smoking, they weren't even his people. "Major!"
Standing at attention, Lorne met the Colonel's stare. "Sir?" The repressed anger made him glance off in the perfect stance.
"Where were you when all this was going on?" Folding his hands behind his back, Caldwell clenched them in to fists. "I ordered you to be on duty when we arrived to brief Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard on the situation."
Clenching his jaw, Lorne swallowed. "I was in my quarters, reading, sir."
For a moment, Caldwell almost asked what he could be reading to that would be so distracting. Before he could voice it though, he remembered. In other circumstances he would have asked what the man found out. The actions of Sheppard and his team decided against that however.
So, instead, he simply shook his head in disappointment. "We are expected to maintain our discipline at all times, Major. Until now, you've been a model soldier." Caldwell could tell by the way Lorne's spine stiffened more with each rebuke that his words hit home. There would be no further slip ups. "You can make up for this mistake now."
"Sir?" Raising an eyebrow, Lorne glanced to his superior's face.
A small twinge formed in Caldwell's chest. "Escort these damned idiots off my ship!" The shocked expressions from Sheppard's team made the twinge tighten. "I will be filing a formal complaint against the four of you."
"You can't do that!" Having had enough, Rodney shoved Ronon aside so he could step up to the Colonel's desk. "We had a legitimate claim..."
"Bullshit! These people need medical attention, not a bunch of gawking yahoos too stupid to realize their own arrogance." Leaning over his desk, the Colonel lowered his voice to a threatening growl. "Your stunts may fly with that civilian bureaucrat, but this is a military vessel! This is my ship! The rules don't fly out the window just because you don't care for them!"
By the time Caldwell had finished yelling, Rodney looked as if he had been smacked with a two-by-four. Licking his lips, he took a shuddering breath. That didn't seem to help compose himself very much though. "I see." His words were almost a whisper.
Standing erect once more, Caldwell refused to break the eye contact he had with the scientist. "Major, I believe I gave you an order."
"Yes, sir." Glowering at the now sulking team, Lorne raised a hand to guide them towards the hatch. "Come on." Stepping towards the team, he put a hand on Teyla's shoulder. That earned him a glare from Sheppard but that didn't stop him from doing his job.
Watching as the five people filed out of his office, Caldwell sighed through his nose. What the hell was wrong with these people? The sad part was he knew they would most likely get away with it. The IOA didn't give a damn unless it was something they wanted.
Well, there was something he could do. Punching his ear piece, he glared at the doors. "Get me Dr. Weir."
~~~~~~~~~~
Walking behind the head offworld team normally made Lorne feel like he was second fiddle. Today, that wasn't even close to how low he felt. To be told off about having to do his job in front of Atlantis One was probably the most humiliating thing to happen since he left boot camp.
If there were stones on the deck, Lorne would have been kicking them. They would have all gone in the same direction too. "I can't believe it." He ignored the glances his way. "My first solo assignment and Lieutenant Colonel Kirk here makes me look like a Jackass in front of my CO."
"Hey!" Stopping, John spun to glare at the shorter man. "For starters, I resent that remark. Second of all, I am your CO."
"Only when I'm assigned to Atlantis!" Lorne's dejection quickly turned to anger. Stepping up to John, he squared his shoulders. "In case you forgot, I don't work for you personally."
Snorting, John cocked his head and put a hand on his vest. "Yeah, we'll see about that when we get back."
"All right, I take it back." The smirk on the Major's face was devoid of any humor. "I can believe it. You're always pulling stupid stunts like this, Sheppard." He snorted at John's look of disbelief. "Every situation you get in is your own making. Everyone else just happens to get dragged along for the ride!"
"Oh please!" Rolling his eyes skywards, John snorted. The man was obviously delusional. "Once in a great while I make a mistake..."
This time it was Rodney's turn to snort. "By my calculations, try once a week."
John shot his teammate a quick glare. "Stay out of this!"
"John, please." Stepping up to the man's side, Teyla put a hand on his shoulder. "This time the Major is correct, we stepped over the line, as it were."
"See!" Pointing to Teyla, Lorne's smirk turned smug. "Your fault."
Now facing an assualt on two sides, John shifted so he could see all four of them. "Oh, please. If anyone's, it's Rodney's!"
"Mine?" Eyes nearly popping out of his head, Rodney took on a strangled look. His voice rose during his indignation. "You're the one who wanted to find out why the IOA was giving us the end run-around! I only came up with how to get us here. Don't shoot the messenger...or the delivery boy-man!"
"Yeah, and a fat lotta good that did us." His familiar arguing partner starting up put on Sheppard's blinders. All others were forgotten as he focus solely on Rodney. "Some bodies and a crazy person who probably works for the Wraith. This continuing plot to find Earth is getting old."
"Find Earth?" Lorne frowned. This was news to him. "What are you two jabbering on about now?"
Teyla chose that moment to step in again. "The man in the infirmary made comments about Earth." A snort from Rodney made her smile. "He says that they were looking for Earth. They, I assume, are or were, his people."
"The Colonials." The word was a whisper, but Lorne might have shouted for the effect it had on the team. Looking at all of them, Lorne cleared his throat. "They called themselves the Twelve Colonies."
"We know." It was to take command of the conversation that Sheppard spoke. Suspicion showed on his face. "What do you know of them?"
"There were six billion of them at one time." The memory of the words made Lorne's skin prickle. Closing his eyes he took a calming breath. "What you saw in the infirmary are all that's left thanks to a group calling themselves 'The Cylons'."
Sensing the three men from Earth stiffen, Teyla shared a look with Ronon. "John, how many people are on your homeworld?"
"That doesn't matter." Waving it away with a slice of his hand, John scowled. "Whatever happens, these people aren't going to Earth."
"Agreed." The new voice caused all five people to jump.
Heart nearly beating out of his chest, John frowned at the newcomer. "Elizabeth, what are you doing here?"
Walking towards them, Dr. Weir glanced from him to the other members of his team. Her stare caused them to look away. "I got a call from Colonel Caldwell. It seems some people under my command, as he put it, were snooping around on his ship without his permission."
"And that's our cue to leave." Rubbing his hands together, Rodney looked to Lorne expectantly. "Major, I believe you were escorting us off the ship."
Finding himself at the center of attention, Lorne chuckled nervously. "Hello, Dr. Weir." He rubbed at the back of his head to give himself a distraction from her stare.
She nodded in way of acknowledging him. "Yes, Major, I believe you were doing something."
"Right." Face now flushed, he glared at Sheppard. "Let's go."
"Actually, I have a few questions for Colonel Sheppard." The smile on Weir's face wasn't pleasant. "The rest of you can go, we'll talk later."
Lorne all but stuck his tongue out at John as he passed the man. The feeling was strong, but he found strength to resist the urge. Only that man could reduce him to acting like he was back in grade school.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ah, Dr. Weir. Glad you could join me." Waiting outside the infirmary, Caldwell had his hands stuffed in the pockets of his pants. He smiled at her look of long suffering. "You're late."
"Sorry, it couldn't be helped. I ran in to our mutual problems on the way over." Reaching up, she pushed the edge of her hair behind her ear. She took a quick breath as she came to a stop next to him. "I want to thank you for offering me this opportunity."
"Your background made you more than qualified. I figured it was about time someone who actually knew what they were doing got a crack at him. To examine him before..." he left it hanging, both of them knowing what was to come next. That brought up another subject he wished to discuss. "Do you have any idea..."
"Not a clue," she interrupted. "The IOA contacting me was as much a surprise to me as it was to you. Mr. Woolsey has been remarkably tight lipped about everything since he arrived." They shared a look of mutual annoyance over that.
"Well, shall we?" He gestured for her to preceed him through the hatch. "I hope your plan works."
"Thank you, and so do I." After nodding at him, Weir tugged on her uniform and stepped up to the hatch. It opened only after a slight hesitation and she walked through. The sight of three people on lifesupport gave her a moment of pause.
Coming up behind her, Caldwell pointed to the hatch across the room. "Right through there."
"Right. Thank you." Composing herself along the way to the door saved her time. Like before, the hatch opened after only a slight hesitation.
The first thing that she noticed were the guards. There were a pair of them on the inside. She glanced back to Caldwell with a raised eyebrow.
"They were requested by the staff for his protection. Our guest has a bad habit of getting upset and passing out." He smiled at the memory of their request.
"I see." Putting it from her mind, she turned back to the room. It looked pretty standard for one of their ships. Her attention was then drawn to the bed. There was a nurse standing on one side and a doctor on the other. She met the doctor's stare. "Is he awake?"
The man glanced down at his patient, then up to the monitor on the wall above him. Seeing the vitals he nodded.
"Thank you." Her spine went a little rigid when she looked at the man in the bed. He looked so pale that it made her heart hurt to see him. Weir almost gasped when he opened his eyes to look at her. "Hello, Lieutenant Gaeta. My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir. I am the head of the Atlantis Expedition."
Hearing her words, he smiled slowly. "That's not possible." His quiet snickering filled the room.
Unable to keep herself from smiling, Weir looked down. "I assure you, it is very real. In fact, we would like to transfer you down there soon."
That made his snickers turn in to giggles. "Next, you'll be telling me that you know the Lords of Kobol." Raising his head up a little, he glanced about her. "Is that Zeus behind you?"
Caldwell scowled at him. Things were fast going no where and he wanted to move them along. "My name is Colonel Caldwell. I am the commander of this vessel you are currently on. We rescued you two days ago."
That sobered the man up real quick. Face now blank, he let his head drop back on the pillow. Sweat made his hair stick against his forehead. "As far as I'm concerned, you should have left me to die back there."
Weir put a hand up to silence Caldwell's response. "That is not what we do."
"I don't care." Turning away from them, he looked to the blank wall beside his bed. "Do what you want to me."
"We are trying to heal you." Having had enough, Caldwell stepped out from behind Weir. "In the mean time, you could be a little more cooperative and give us some answers."
"What do you want to know?" His tone was defeated. Closing his eyes, he took a pained breath.
Relief filled Weir. This was easy, this she knew. "All right, for starters, where do you come from in relation to where you were found?"
"Approximately two thousand light years following along a three degree inclination of the XY-axis." Turning to face her, he stared her directly in the eyes. "Staggered, of course, since we were occasionally being followed."
"How long had you been on the run?" She hoped it didn't seem like pushing. From the look on his face it didn't matter even if she did.
"Five months." He frowned, taking a moment to think it over. "Just five months. It feels like years." He snorted, then faced the wall again. "Five months ago, life in the Colonies came to an end. In less than ten hours almost every man, woman, and child were wiped out by the Cylons."
Clearing his throat to get their attention, Caldwell licked his lips. "Who are the Cylons? Are they the ones who attacked your ship?"
"I don't know who destroyed the Galactica, so, may be." He shrugged then said no more.
Weir gave the Colonel a serious look at the interruption. "Do you know the gate address of your planet?"
"Gate address?" That got the man's attention drawn back to Weir. "What gate?"
"Uh, I believe some people here call it the 'Ring of the Ancestors'." When that didn't clear up his confusion, she looked to Caldwell for assistance. "It's a circular gateway that links planets together through a astrophysical phenomenon we call a wormhole."
His vision once again grew distant. Forehead wrinkled in concentration, he sat up a little against the pillows. "The Astria Porta."
Both Weir and Caldwell's heads snapped to him as one.
"I was reading about that in the President's books last month when I had some down time." He smiled for the first time. "I was reprogramming the FTL drive on her ship and she gave me leave to read her books during my breaks."
"Where is the Astria Porta of your people?" Weir spoke the words slowly, almost at a whisper to keep him from breaking his thought process.
"Gone, buried during the great upheavel on Kobol, under the Necropolis of the Gods." His words were whispered in an almost dreamy voice. "It was used by the Thirteenth tribe so they could go to Earth. Seeing this, the gods wept and sealed the Astria Porta away forever. That's all the book said."
Silence settled over the room, thick and heavy.
When he opened his eyes to look at them, they sparkled with unshed tears. "We only wanted to find them so we can start over. I guess after what we did we didn't deserve to. It's the only explanation." He looked up to the ceiling when it became too difficult.
"What did you do?" Weir kept her voice light, curious. There was no need to upset him further.
"We enslaved them." A sudden welling of anger had him sitting up. Using an elbow to brace himself he glared directly at them. "They were machines, we created them to make our lives easier. Frakking toasters with legs is all they were supposed to be. Only, some idiot gave them the ability to reason. For that, they repaid us by committing genocide!"
Seeing the effect those words had on Weir, Caldwell took a step forward. Things were fast growing out of control. He cleared his throat loudly to draw the man's attention fully upon himself. "All right, I want you to listen up. I'm the senior military authority in this galaxy. That means I'll be making all the tactical decisions."
The man looked unimpressed with the pronouncement.
"I want you to tell me everything you know about these Cylons, including just how they kicked your ass so easily." Caldwell felt a moment of triumph when he saw the man's entire demeanor change.
Narrowing his eyes, he laid back on the bed. He knocked away the hands of the nurse as she tried to attend him.
Caldwell kept his pleasure at the man's reaction off his face. Sharing a final look with Weir, he gave her a nod. Their job was done. It was time for phase two.