Hiding in plain view. ((open to anyone!))

[chiron_survivor]

She didn't flee to the Nexus immediately. At first, she was just in shock. The cylons were back, except this time, they were running the government. A "coalition" government, but everyone knew what that really meant.

It didn't make sense to her. They hated humans. Why not just destroy them and be done with it?

Her boyfriend assumed it was some sort of elaborate revenge plot, or a way to salvage the aspects of humanity the cylons considered worth keeping. He wanted her to agree with him, to be red-hot about it, too, but Adia was too distracted. She kept seeing Caspar's face -- the one she thought she knew -- and comparing it with the ones she kept seeing, wherever she went.

She could tell it was bothering him, that her attention was elsewhere.

Later, in the middle of the night when she knew she wouldn't be missed by any humans, and prayed she wouldn't be missed by any cylons, she PINpointed to the Nexus.

She sat at a Nexus terminal and typed out a message for anyone to read.

The cylons are on New Caprica.

Only then did she cry.

Comments

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

She opens her eyes again. "It's how we detect other objects in space non-visually," she explains. "It's tied into our navigation system so we can jump through space without crashing into anything. I'm guessing the cylon version works the same way." Her voice becomes steadier -- technical talk helps. "But the DRADIS can be fooled by certain phenomena. New Caprica is in a nebula, which the DRADIS can't see through."

Options. Adia hadn't thought that far. "They're offering a truce in exchange for setting up a provisional government with us. We don't have a choice."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"And... I assume there could possibly be a way to fabricate an invisibility result, but it would be experimental for something we can't afford to experiment with. Too much could go wrong."

She holds onto the oar with both hands, vertically, forehead resting against the handle, right above her hands. "Yeah, that gives them all of the control. I wonder what their preoccupation is with you folks."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Our ships are all grounded anyway. The ones that were in orbit jumped into FTL drive as soon as the cylons arrived." She understands why, but she still can't help but feel abandoned.

Adia laughs suddenly. It's a dark, unhappy laugh, and it sounds all wrong coming from her. "They hate us, Victor. We treated them like slaves and then tried to destroy them when they rebelled. Or at least that's how they see things. They hate us so much that they chased us halfway across the galaxy, and this is after destroying all our colonies and killing almost all of us. The only thing I wonder about is why they didn't just kill us all when they found us."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

FTL; faster than light. "Is there any way to contact them?"

Victor scratches at her elbow, the way she does when she's nervous or upset, scratching at her scars. "I'm sorry. It's hard for me to understand hate like that. If someone hurts me deeply, I remove the threat and get on with my life because it's a waste of time and effort to pursue, and... rationalizing that with them would also be a waste of time and effort. It... might be worth thinking of to find a different universe for you and your refugees."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Without the cylons finding out?" She shifts in her seat. "I don't know. Maybe."

"I don't understand it either..." She sighs, looking defeated, "Or maybe they really do want to stop fighting with us and this is the only way they know how." She shakes her head a little at Victor's suggestion. "That sounds complicated. It'd be like moving a city... and if the cylons knew where we were going, what's to stop them from following us?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Contacting them might be something you'd wanna pursue. But that could prompt an ambush. Similarly, encryption may be tricky." She scratches a little harder at her forearm, pursing her lips in thought. "Well... they wouldn't have the technology to jump whole universes, would they? Do... do you think you folks might have a cylon mole? That could be how they saw through the nebula."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"If it's possible, someone will try to do it. Will's already mentioned talk of resistance." Which makes her even more scared. She's afraid of the cylons, but she doesn't want to fight, either. It means more war.

"It never ends," she says quietly, to herself, then looks at Victor, mildly alarmed, before shaking her head. "No... no. There are seven human-looking models, and we knew who they all were by the time we found New Caprica."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Unbidden, 'resistance is futile' echoes into her brain. She silently curses Star Trek. Now is not the time. "I know. I know. It... really, really, really sucks. For once, I want you to be able to go home and feel bored, have your biggest worry be whether it'll rain on your pretty clean car, gosh, Adia. I think you need to get your people out of there. Or... or timetravel into the future of your 'verse, or somehow gain intel on what the cylons's real motives are."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

The Borg and Cylons do not have too much in common, for better or for worse. At least Adia does not have to worry about being assimilated.

She smiles -- a small one, but genuine. Victor is trying so hard to make her feel better, and not with some tired old cliche, either. "Actually, April was here earlier and used her clairvoyance to find out what the cylons' true intentions are." She sighs. "Turns out it's a mixed bag. Some of them really want to co-exist with us peacefully. Others don't."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Okay... that's something. Is there any way of determining the proportions of good cylons versus bad cylons? Maybe getting together an embassy system of some kind? To make sure you're always in communication? Both sides are scared, if I'm reading the situation properly." Victor's a problem-solver, it's what she does. Everything feels better when you have a plan.

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"I would hope that's what the government ends up being. They know an awful lot about us, but we barely know anything about them." She frowns at her hands. "If by good you mean the ones that want to co-exist with us peacefully... well, they must be in the majority, or at least very persuasive, because the cylons do everything as one unit."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Unless they're putting up a front to trick you later, she thinks, but does not say, because that is not a productive thought and it should not be shared. "At least there's that. I'd say... I mean, gosh, I wish I could go up there, march right up to one of 'em and say, 'Could you please clarify your intentions because people are scared of you and if you're after a mutually beneficial relationship, why is that more important than setting off on your own and forgetting all about the humans so you can both live in peace?' Or something to that extent. I just want you folks to feel safe, you know? I wish I could give you that security."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Victor doesn't have to share that thought, anyway. It's on Adia's mind, and every other human's on New Caprica. She looks up and smiles a little. "I don't doubt you would, if you could. I wish I could do the same thing. Maybe President Baltar knows more about their true intentions and that's why he isn't pressing them for more information."

She looks back down again and swallows. "You know, I... I knew one of them. He was a sleeper agent on our ship. He killed himself, but I found out recently that they can download their consciousness into a new body, so he might be out there. If I knew which one he was..." Then she shakes her head. "No, I don't think he would tell me the truth anyway. He knows he isn't human."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

That's a rough situation. She wets her lips, weighs each possibility, and settles on the idea that makes the most sense to her. "I'd, um, I'd see it this way: if you do run into him again, it would be sweet serendipity, and if he's too nervous to talk to you as himself and he has to pretend that he's not him... that's not on you. So, don't cling to too much hope for it, but don't discount it; even if he never approaches you you know that he's probably out there, somewhere, and he's one of the good guys. Like a guardian angel."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia knows what guardian angels are because she has learned a little bit about Christianity. She does not have the heart to tell Victor that they don't have such a thing on her world. But her words are comforting in that they give some grounding to her own confused thoughts. "That's probably the best thing I can do... I just don't like even having any hope, you know? Not so much because I shouldn't hope, but..."

Tears prick the corners of her eyes but she perseveres, words coming out in a tumble. "It was so awful when he died, so awful and even worse to find out he was a cylon, but I managed to move on, and now all of a sudden, he's alive again, and it's-- I had to deal with all these emotions and he just starts over." She grimaces and looks down. "And despite all that I still want to see him again. What is wrong with me."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Nothing's wrong with you. The way you're feeling is natural, it... when I died, the only thing thst got me through it when I came back was pretending to be okay for the sake of my family." She links her fingers together, leans forward, elbows on her knees. "There's no handbook on how to feel in situations like this. It just feels terrible, all around, from both sides of it. He might think he's doing you a kindness by staying away. He feels betrayed, but by himself, and that's the worst kind of betrayal."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

She had forgotten about that, that Victor had died, too. And here Victor was, alive and well, and she clearly didn't think it was a walk in the park to deal with. "I... I hadn't thought of that." She just assumed Caspar shrugged off his humanity when he downloaded into a new body, but she didn't know how that process worked. Maybe it was painful. Maybe he really did feel just the way Victor described.

"I just wish I could feel one way or the other. Just... feel sorry for him and take his hand, like I used to, or hate him for what he did. For what he's doing." She wipes at her eyes. "And the best part is that there are many copies of each human-looking model, so I keep seeing him, but it's not him."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She winces, fingers carding through her hair, catching through tangles, because Victor's hair is untamable. "I've had nightmares like that. It's really normal for feelings to be confused, and seein' him everywhere doesn't help. And it's easier said than done to compartmentalize, especially when they all look the same. And you can be sad and sympathetic and still hate him a little bit, and that's okay, to let the feelings sort themselves out."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia exhales -- sharply at first, then slow and steady, as if finally getting her bearings. "I just don't know how I'm going to deal with all this. Seeing him everywhere, I mean. But at least you get it. Nobody else I know understands... I mean, maybe my friend Maggie and some of the other people who knew Caspar from before. But even Maggie would say, 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.'" She laughs softly, sad but a little mirthful. "She's say that even if he were just an ex-boyfriend and not a cylon. So."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I know it's hard. I really, really do. But I hope it'll get easier, with time. I don't know if it will, so I'm not gonna give you hollow platitudes, but there's a bright side. At least he's alive. He's alive, gaining new experiences, learning new things, having beauty in his life. And you know they're not all bad. It's a small comfort, but I hope it'll be enough of a comfort to help."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

It is a comfort, in some ways, to know that Caspar is getting a second chance, but a chance to do what? Slaughter humans? Subjugate them? "I just hope he's one of the good ones." She smiles weakly, but the turmoil is obvious in her eyes. "He... it wasn't good, how he died, but at least he hadn't taken anyone with him. Unlike his... clone, I guess. Another one of the same model."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"...oh, gosh," she murmurs, hand sweeping her hair back, fingers gone a tad trembly, she can't imagine how hard it must have been to see him kill others. "The fact that he... that he killed himself rather than be a cylon, the fact that he'd rather die than do what he was scared that they'd do, I think that speaks to him bein' on the good side. I mean, suicide is a crummy option, always, but I think he showed you where he stands."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"He was very scared," Adia agrees, gaze dropping, trying to will some unsavory images from her mind. "But he was scared of what the military would do to him, too. I think." She sighs heavily then and curses to herself, very softly. "I don't really know. But he didn't know he'd come back to life, so it was a very real sacrifice, whatever the reason."

Her expression hardens slightly and she adds, "His clone wasn't implanted with false memories. He knew he was a cylon when he blew himself up and part of Galactica. So I guess I knew he was going to get a new body, too."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"That's horrible," she says, voice a quiet mumble, face puckered into a frown as she thinks about this. "Sounds like he's a pretty good guy. Not the explody one. The other one. I think it's natural to kinda hate him, and to be angry, and to have resentment. I think that'll just take time."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia laughs weakly, but at least it's genuine this time. "I guess I should be glad the one I knew was the non-explody one. It's tempting to compare them. I mean... they're the same model. But they're still individuals."