Thanx go out to DawnAZ for the idea.
–*--
“What can I do for you, son?”
For the past hour Hotdog paced outside sickbay. When he finally entered, Doc Cottle was staring him in the face. Hotdog leaned closely and whispered in his ear, “I’ve got this rash.”
Cottle squinted and took a long drag on his cigarette. He exhaled and said, “Let’s take a look.” He motioned Hotdog toward a bed and pulled the curtain. Hotdog removed his jock smock. Cottle sat and wheeled his chair closer. “You know if it wasn’t a presidential order, I’d tell you viper jocks to keep it in your pants.”
Hotdog hadn’t been with anyone for months. He was too embarrassed to admit that but the rash wasn’t going away and the doc needed to know.
Cottle smiled, “Sure, son. I believe you.” He opened a cabinet and grabbed a tube. “This will sting but it should clear that up in a few days.”
–*--
It hadn’t.
Hotdog was in his bunk. The curtain slid open and Starbuck jumped in. She grabbed him and ripped his shirt open. They kissed passionately. Straddling him, she pulled her shirt over her head and revealed her breasts. Hotdog couldn’t believe what was happening. His heart raced. Starbuck moaned and screamed. She was so alive. Then Hotdog woke up.
He was still in his bunk but no Starbuck. Yet he could still hear her moaning. Puzzled Hotdog opened his curtain and looked down. Starbuck lay in her bunk. She panted and bit her red, bulbous lips. She was flush. Suddenly she opened her eyes. Hotdog leaned forward, “What’s up?”
She looked aggravated, “Nothing. Go back to bed.”
Hotdog leaned back. The dreams were getting more intense. Was he going insane? He hoped this last one was real but Starbuck’s reaction proved differently. What did they mean? It all started with the rash. Then the dreams of people and places he was familiar with but something was always different somehow, even this last dream. Even though he hoped it was Starbuck, he knew it wasn’t. It was someone or something else. And now this frakkin song in his head.
–*--
Galactica jumped to the Ionian nebula. Hotdog was already in the flight-tube and prepared to launch. Once the jump completed, Hotdog launched and was in space. He had done it dozens of times but this time he was flying point. Normally, either Starbuck or Apollo would be flying this mission. Starbuck was dead and Apollo was Baltar’s lawyer. He began to ponder that thot when power went out on his console. He tried contacting Galactica. All communications were dead. What was happening? Was he dreaming again?
His viper was enveloped in light. Hotdog wondered if he had bought it. He lay in a blanket of white. From beyond his veil of vision, Starbuck emerged. She grinned and looked very different. Hotdog realized once again that this was not Starbuck. What the frak was going on?
“Brendan, you’re not dead but you have reached an important point in your journey.”
“My journey?”
“No, you don’t understand. The journey of your fleet. The journey of everything. The Five are awoken.”
“The What?”
“We have chosen you.”
“Me? We?”
“Now forget until you reach Earth where all will be revealed.”
–*--
A bonfire blazed on the beach. Kara sat beside it and the light flickered off her face. She stared into the flames. While the fire burned and the smoke billowed into the night sky, she thot of how their hopes and dreams had disintegrated. The promise of Earth turned to embers.
Sam walked toward her, “So are you gonna talk to me or continue to ignore me?”
Kara gazed at the bonfire, oblivious of her husband.
Sam tried to think of something that might get her attention, “Alright. I think you should know something.”
“Besides the fact that you’re a frakkin cylon.” It didn’t take much.
Sam decided to follow his train of thot, “I used a few women to get over…”
She cut him short, “C’mon Sam you think I don’t know my own husband?”
Desperate to go toe-to-toe with her, “You didn’t know I was a cylon.”
“How long have you known?”
He should have known better, “I found out after you died.”
She scoffed, “There you go.”
A different approach perhaps, “C’mon Kara. It’s still me.”
She wasn’t falling for it. Too much had happened since they fell in love on Caprica and married on New Caprica. They were two different people, “Look I don’t know what you’re trying to do here but we’re finished. Go hang with the rest of your cylon buddies.”
She wasn’t going to give in. She never did. He would have to get personal, “Kara, how do you know you’re not a cylon? You came back from the dead.”
Bad move. Kara jumped up pistol drawn and caught him off balance. Her forearm cut off his air supply, “Let me be perfectly blunt. I will kill you if you don’t leave me alone. Are we clear?” Sam couldn’t answer but he muscled an affirmative nod. “You frakkin toasters showed us how to get here. Tell us what the frak we do now.”
Right before the darkness took Sam, Kara released him. He sucked in much needed air and clutched his throat, “You can’t say I didn’t try, Kara.”
In the shadows, Lee watched Sam walk away.
Kara threw her pistol into the night and buried her face in her hands. Was this the end the hybrid spoke of? What was her destiny? Why was the man she sacrificed so much for a cylon? She could sense no deception in Sam. He was as honest and innocent as always. How could these machines mimic human behavior so closely?
Lee walked out of the shadows. Kara laughed in disgust. “Why can’t you fools leave me alone?” Then the sarcasm, “What do you want Mr. President? Doing your own recon now? Wow! Government IS shrinking.”
Filled with love and concern Lee responded, “Kara, I’m just trying to help.”
Kara struck with venom, “Help? Help?!? How are you gonna help? We’re on a destroyed planet and I lead us here. I’ve finished the job the cylons started. So tell me Lee how are you going to help?”
Understanding his friend’s anger and frustration, Lee sat next to her in the sand, “I just thot you could use a friend.”
Hotdog emerged from the darkness. Kara and Lee stared at him. Bewildered Kara said, “Looks like I’ve got too many friends. What I need are answers.”
His impetuous action was out of the ordinary and the couple waited for his apology. Instead he said, “Kara, I’ve got a message for you. It’s from Leoben.”
This was turning into a very interesting evening. Unfazed Kara responded, “Great, more friends.”
Hotdog didn’t falter either, “No, not that Leoben.”
Kara’s mood quickly changed. She thot Hotdog had gotten lost and stumbled on them. She figured it ironic the type of evening she was having. But now, “What are you talking about Hotdog?”
It had all been revealed to him and Kara Thrace was the key. He began, “It all started with a rash.”
But …but …(sob) what about my pony?
