Agent Fox Mulder (i_want_2) wrote in multi_fiction, @ 2009-04-07 08:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | galactica, rated: adult, slash |
Fic: Pathways: Blown Clear 3/5 BattleStar Galactica 2003
Title: Pathways: Blown Clear.
Author: Lopaka Tanu
Disclaimer: I do not own BattleStar Galactica.
Characters: Gaeta, Jammer, Tyrol, Calley, Starbuck, Baltar, Adama, Tigh.
Words: 3121
Prompt: Gaeta discovers he is a Cylon.
Fandom: BattleStar Galactica 2003
Timeline: Flesh and Bone.
Pairing: Gaeta/Jammer
Rating: Adult
Warnings: Language, Violence, Mentions of Execution.
Summary: The furthered revelations continue to try Felix Gaeta.
Author's Note: The shortest part.
______________________________________
"So, what do you guys think?" Bumping Gaeta with his boot, Jammer nodded towards the far side of the hangar deck.
After sighing about his uniform being scuffed, Felix looked up from his sandwich. "What do you mean?" All he saw was Boomer and the Chief arguing again. He was surprised they hadn't taken it in to the supply room like usual.
They tried to hide it, but all of them knew about the relationship.
Before Jammer could respond, Calley shoved his shoulder so that he would be distracted by keeping his balance. "Quit being such a jerk." A bit of her hair fell over her lips, which she quickly knocked away. "Ignore him, Gaeta, he's being stupid."
Snorting, Jammer bounced his knee against Felix's shoulder. "We have a pool going as to what's bothering them. I say she's pregnant." His grin took on an almost feral quality. "Calley thinks she's a Cylon."
"I do not!" This time it wasn't a playful shove. She knocked Jammer completely off the blast divider they were sitting on.
Acting quickly, Felix stood up and took the empty spot. His motions were so fluid there wasn't even a pause in his chewing. Swallowing, he took a quick sip of his tea. A throat clearing to his left made him look over in polite interest and raise an eyebrow.
Jammer pointed to the floor in front of the barrier. "You're in my seat."
"Am I?" Bending forward, Gaeta checked out the barrier beneath him. "I do not see your branding or a mark to indicate this is your spot."
"You were late, Gaeta." Reaching in to Felix's cup, Jammer grabbed one of the lemon wedges. He stuck it in his mouth, then winced. Tears were in his eyes as he pointed at the floor again.
"Is it true?" Calley tugged on Felix's jacket with her free hand. The other held a small container of fruit paste. "I heard they caught one this morning."
That gave him pause. He knew one of what she was talking about. Everyone did. Glancing up from her expectant face, he found Jammer and a couple others watching him. Closing his eyes, he took another sip of his tea.
"Come on." His voice strained, Jammer swallowed a couple times. "You have to at least warn us if we're to expect more work."
With Calley's hand on his arm insistently tugging, Felix sighed. The rumor was already going around. If he confirmed it, that would only add fuel to the fire. Then again, it wouldn't be long before everyone was aware. The President was going to make an announcement in a few hours.
So, he nodded.
The hand on his arm constricted until he winced in pain. It was immediately withdrawn.
"Sorry." Calley took a shuddering breath. Glancing quickly up to Jammer, she shook her head once. "Is it a new one, or one of the three we know about?"
"Three?" This was news to Felix. He turned to her in question. "Who else do you know is a Cylon?"
Rolling his eyes, Jammer smacked Gaeta in the shoulder. "Shelly Godfrey. It's all but been confirmed." His tone indicated how dumb the question was. "Rumor has it that there are more, as many as ten."
"Twelve." Gaeta's eyes widened at his slip up. Noticing he had made himself the center of attention again, he sighed. He stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth to keep himself from blurting out any more stupid things.
"Artemis' damnation." Staring at Felix, Jammer shook his head. "At least we know a little something." At the sound a tool hitting the deck, he jumped.
This caused the others to chuckle.
All except Felix. After swallowing his sandwich, Felix dusted his uniform and hand off. He stood up with his drink. A quick swallow finished that off too. "I've got to get back to the CIC, my break is almost over."
"All right." Calley checked the clock in the wall behind them. What she saw made her sigh. "That goes for the rest of us too."
"I'll see you later." Handing his glass back to Jammer, Felix gave him a lingering smile. He made sure to drag his fingers over the back of the other man's hand.
"Good bye, Felix." Jammer pinked around the edges of his shirt collar. When he saw Calley appear over Gaeta's shoulder, making kissy faces, he scowled at her. "We'll be waiting in the usual place."
"Some of us more eager than others." Taking a deep breath, Tyrol puffed out his cheeks. He patted Gaeta on the shoulder as he passed by. "Nice to see you, sir. Sorry I couldn't eat lunch with you and the rest of these grunts."
"Not a problem, Chief. They kept me mildly entertained." The guilty looks they shot him made Felix smile on the inside. On the outside, he kept his expression pleasant. He leaned a little towards Jammer as he passed. "See you this afternoon."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As was become the custom of recent, most of the chatter in the CIC was silenced by his arrival. Gaeta didn't mind, so long as they did their jobs, their opinions mattered little. He was proud of the fact he scared them in to silence.
Or may be it was just a stigma. Either way, he was glad of the relative quiet.
Walking to his station, he relieved Lieutenant Hausman and accepted his headset. He nodded to the Commander at his post while he logged in. There were no urgent messages and his work schedule had not been updated.
Sighing, he ran a check of the DRADIS' systems. The scan would take a few minutes, so he went about checking the other systems under his purview. FTL was functioning within limits, as were thrusters. Fuel consumption was within tolerable limits, but they were running low.
He scheduled a refuel with the Tillium ship. It would have to be cleared with XO and CO, but that was no problem.
Water levels were at optimum limits. There were three ships awaiting refreshing of their own supplies. A quick check with their pilots confirmed that schedule was on time.
His console beeped. The DRADIS maintenance cycle was complete. Bringing up the results, Gaeta checked each line carefully. There was nothing out of sorts.
All his systems checked out fine. So, aside from a Cylon in the fleet, everything was normal.
Sighing, Gaeta checked the DRADIS screen. It was easy for him to keep busy. The wonderful thing about a BattleStar was that there were so many systems that needed monitoring. Without a centralized computer network, that meant a lot of human oversight. He could handle that.
He was Human after all.
"Sir!" Dualla's voice rang out in the CIC. "I've got Lieutenant Thrace on the wireless. We have a problem."
Closing his eyes, Gaeta shuddered. Apparently everything was normal after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The silence in the CIC was more subdued when Gaeta heard someone stomp their way in. A quick look revealed it to be a brash looking Starbuck. Obviously something had happened that was upsetting her. She usually only got that look around the Colonel.
He kept his head down to keep out of her line of sight. Anyone caught in her crosshairs was usually given a quick, painful demise.
Strolling up to the Commander, Kara hung her thumb through her belt loop. The cocksure grin on her face was the only hint of emotion she wore. "It's done."
"So I hear." Adama lowered the front of his glasses to watch her. "Did you learn anything useful?"
"Not a damn thing." The grin on her face shifted. Then she cocked her head to the side. "Well, they can take a lot of abuse without cracking."
Snorting, Adama slowly turned away to face the map console. "That's useful."
"I think that president of ours is a little stronger than we gave her credit for." Her expression ratcheted up a notch as she swallowed. Chuckling, she shook her head. "I swear half the marines about shit themselves when she told them to airlock the frakking thing."
Felix jolted in his seat. Raising his head, he stared at them in shock.
Kara's cocky bravado started to falter as she stood there. "Cool as a cucumber, like she was placing a take out order." Shifting her stance, she glanced about the CIC. "Glad I'm not frakkin a Cylon."
Paling a little, Gaeta forced himself to look back down at his console. The President had ordered the Cylon airlocked. That explained the blip he had picked up on DRADIS. A smack to the back of his console made him jerk and look up.
Standing there with her manic grin, Starbuck stared down upon Gaeta. "We're having a little tournament tonight, Lieutenant. Bring the usual."
He was too stunned to deny her. All he could do was give her a terse nod. Gaeta wasn't sure which bothered him more, the savage fate of the Cylon, or the fact she had snuck up on him and he hadn't even noticed.
Patting his console, she grinned then turned away. She started for the hatch, but paused to look back at the command Console. "You're invited too, Colonel."
"I'll be there." Raising his mug, Tigh saluted her.
Feeling a little shaky, Felix performed a maintenance cycle on his equipment just to give himself something to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Uniform jacket undone, Felix stalked down the corridor. He was twenty feet from the lab, yet it might as well have been twenty light years. Felix knew he shouldn't have been there. Colonel Tigh had given him strict orders to return to his bunk for rest.
And yet, something was dragging him away. Oh sure, he was going to his bunk. He just had to make a tiny stop along the way, but that was fine. He was fine.
The hatch was suddenly in front of him. Felix blinked, then frowned. How in the hell had he gotten twenty feet in less than a second? He wasn't sure, but he didn't like the implications.
Turning the handle, he pulled the door open. It was late and he was expecting the lab to be empty. Therefore, he was surprised to see that it was not only occupied by Dr. Baltar, but by Boomer as well.
Both of them turned to look at Felix in surprise. Boomer looked guilty, while Dr. Baltar seemed immensely relieved.
"Felix! Come! Come! We were just about to check the results of Lieutenant Boomer's Cylon test." Eyes imperceptively wide, he swallowed and looked over to Boomer. "Weren't we?"
She gave him a stunned expression. Nodding, she swallowed nervously. "Yeah. Just checking."
This made Felix frown. He hadn't heard of any active testing yet. Then again, he had been rather busy and this was Dr. Baltar's pet project.
"Oh, good. Good." Running a hand through his hair, Baltar turned his nervous attention on the monitor. "Let's see here." Reaching up, he activated the control program. "Just a second. The computer is analyzing the results. Any second now."
Coming up behind the good Doctor, Gaeta put a hand upon the man's shoulder. He frowned when Baltar jumped. "Is there a problem, Dr. Baltar?"
"No! No." Closing his eyes, Gaius lowered his head. He took a slow breath to compose himself. "I've just been under a lot of stress lately. Too many long nights, that's all."
"I understand completely." Felix glanced out of the corner of his eye at Boomer. "We both do."
For some reason, this made her swallow.
Before Gaeta could inquire, the monitor came to life. The images quickly drew his attention. Eight bricks of green bars flashed on the screen. For a moment, Felix's vision swam, making him blink in confusion. "That's not right."
Baltar's back went straight. His head whipped around to face Boomer. "Of course it is. She's not a Cylon. Not any more than you or I."
"The screen." Almost as if in a trance, Felix reached out a finger to trace along the monitor. The colors shifted to a bright red as he stared at them. "That's more like it." Smiling, he flicked the screen. "Much better."
By now, Gaius was staring over his shoulder at Gaeta. He had a preturbed look on his face. "What is it you see?"
"Red. All red." Snickering, Felix traced his finger over the bars. "See, all red, just like it's supposed to be. See, she's a Cylon." He pointed at the bars again. "And you're a Cylon." The world began to swim under his feet, so he had to clutch at the back of Baltar's chair for support. "And me, yes, I'm a Cylon. We're all Cylons, I believe it says so in the manual some where."
"Are you all right, Gaeta?" Almost as if by magic, Boomer was at his side. Putting a hand under his arm for support, she reached around to hold his shoulders. A quick sniff revealed the secret of his malady. She frowned at him. "He's drunk."
"Of course I'm not. Who says I'm drunk?" Shaking her off of him, Felix tugged on his tank. Knocking imaginary dust from his jacket, he stood there proud. "I am an officer of the BattleStar Galactica, I do not get drunk."
Having turned his chair around to watch, Baltar put a hand over the lower half of his face. "Lieutenant, I do believe you are correct. Mr. Gaeta is indeed drunk." His eyes quickly traveled over the disheveled looking man. "I must say, I find this side of you much more agreeable."
"Un uh!" Felix held up a finger and shook it at Baltar. "Doctor, I'm well aware of your reputation. I respect you too much as a colleague than to let something such as harmless flirtation to get between us." He blinked once. When he opened his eyes, he watched everything as if seeing it for the first time. "I believe we should alert the Commander, this room is tilting at a slight angle."
He hit the deck a second later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His head hurt.
Groaning, Felix tried to find a position that would alleviate the symptoms. Nothing worked so far. He realized he probably looked ridiculous, but he didn't care. "Did anyone get the registry of that cargo transport that landed on me?"
A few snickers filled the room. There wasn't much echo, which meant close quarters.
From the smell, Gaeta realized he was in a bunk, a very familiar bunk. Warm fingers traced along his brow, dragging a cool cloth. He moaned with relief and pleasure.
"It's good to see you're alive." That sympathetic voice belonged to Calley. Her fingers trailed through his short hair. "We were kinda worried when Boomer and the Chief brought you in."
"Leave him be. He wanted to get shit faced, he can live with the consequences." That was Jammer. He sounded a little relieved and whole lot of pissed off.
Felix could understand. He had promised to show up last night, and hadn't. There was a very good excuse. If he could just get his tongue to work he would tell him. He opened his mouth to try, only to have a foul tasting substance shoved inside. A ration bar by the taste of it.
"Save it. We've already heard from the Captain." That was Jammer again. He rubbed a thumb over Gaeta's eyebrow. "He wants his cubits back, by the way."
Relief flooded through Gaeta. If they knew and were still speaking to him, then it would be okay. He might have to make it up to them, but he would do it. He swallowed down a mouthful of the awful flavor. Reaching up, he pulled the bar from his mouth and grimaced.
Snickering, Calley took it from him and pressed two pills in to his hand. "Take these, they'll make the pain go away and help you sleep." Her hand traced up his arm to the back of his head. "You're kinda cute this way. Too bad you're Eron."
"If this is what you find attractive, then it wouldn't matter what their orientation is. You could just drug your boyfriend." Jammer started to snicker as he rubbed a circle in to Gaeta's back. "Then again, I'm not sure that isn't what you do already."
There was a smack followed shortly by Jammer's yelp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The squeal of the wireless in his ears woke Felix from the stupor he had slipped in to. Whatever was going on with DRADIS, it wasn't interesting enough to hold his attention. He knew he should have seen Dr. Cottle about a stimulant to help him this one time, but hadn't been fast enough. As it was, he was almost late for his duty shift.
Part of him blamed his subconscious. After the near two weeks of constant jumps and the stimulants, he was gun shy about taking any more. Addiction after that had been projected to skyrocket. There were already enough closet junkies in the fleet thanks to the Astral Queen.
Checking his DRADIS, he made sure there were one hundred and fifteen blips. The entire fleet, all that was left of humanity. That still gave him pause after three weeks. Closing his eyes to steady himself, he rubbed at his forehead.
"Feeling the effects of last night, Lieutenant?" The voice was smug and not at all sympathetic.
Opening one eye, Felix glared at Starbuck. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"
"Nothing." Her smile grew as she leaned on his console. "I was just remarking to Colonel Tigh how I had never seen you put away so much Ambrosia as you did last night." Everything about her stance was full of sarcasm.
"I felt like getting drunk." He adjusted his headset then looked down at the DRADIS screen. There was nothing out of the usual there.
"Now, I gotta wonder why is that." She wasn't going to go away until she drove him nuts. It was obvious. "What is our boy Felix hiding that he would show up to a poker game only to get drunk?"
This made him look up. "Actually, we all drank the same amount." His irritation was quickly beginning to show. "As I recall, you also seemed to hit the bottle stronger than usual. Do something that didn't settle well with your conscious, Lieutenant?"
That wiped the smirk off her face. Leaning back, she watched his body language for more information. When he didn't give anything away, she snorted. "We'll see you again tomorrow. The ante is a full bottle, bring it if you got it."
"I have." Spinning his chair, he clearly dismissed her from thought. A short time later, he heard her boots head away from his station.
TBC............................