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Post by Amy81 on May 4, 2005 15:36:02 GMT -6
Security officer Lt. Magon knocked gently on the door to Urdea’s bedroom, where Abby had been resting since her near nervous breakdown. Lt. Magon had helped Abby try to come to terms with her grief, and then Urdea had brought Abby to his quarters so she could have some privacy and rest. “Hello, Abby?” she said through the door. “Are you awake?”
She heard a voice from behind the door reply, “Come on in.”
Magon opened the door, and was surprised to find Abby up, sitting on the edge of the bed, with a fumerette dangling between the fingers of her left hand. The smoke curled up toward the ceiling where the circulation system snared and pulled it in.
“I didn’t know that you smoked” Magon observed.
“Well then” Abby replied, “how could you since we barely know each other.” She took a drag on the fumerette, inhaling deeply, looking at Magon with cold eyes.
Magon tried to disguise her hurt. She’d thought she and Abby had formed a bond of some sort, since only microns earlier they’d both bared their souls to each other, sharing their pain over lost loved ones. Now she looked at Abby sitting there, legs crossed, back rigidly straight, taking deep pulls on a fumerette… it was like someone entirely different.
“I gave them up when I met Elmer” Abby continued. “I gave a lot of things up. I’ve kept these smokes sealed for over 20 yahrens, too afraid to pull them out.” She took another pull, the tip of the fumerette glowing bright orange in the dim light. “So, where’s Urdea?”
“He had to go back on duty” Magon replied. “He left me here to keep an eye on you. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, once I downed a couple of those bovine tranquilizers.” They weren’t really for bovines, but they were big and had knocked Abby out in no time. “Any news on the Agro ship?”
“There’s still a crisis over there. Just bits of information.”
Abby nodded. Both women just looked at each other, Magon feeling awkward as the millicentons passed.
“Um” Magon started, “Medlab wants to see you, if you are up to it.”
Another deep pull. “Any change in Amy’s condition?”
“Nothing that I’ve heard, but they’d probably not tell me anyway.” Magon half smiled, but got nothing from Abby. “Are you okay, Abby?”
“Fine” she replied. She stood up, inhaled one last time before snubbing the fumerette out in the half filled glass of water on the nightstand. “Let’s go.”
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Post by Amy81 on May 4, 2005 15:38:55 GMT -6
The doctor stood up as Abby entered. “Ah, Abby is it? Please sit down.” Abby took the offered seat on the other side of the doctor’s desk. She immediately pulled out the pack of fumerettes. She looked up to see the doctor’s expression.
“You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.
“Ah, well…” he seemed ready to say more, then simply got up, shut the office door, and flicked a switch to start the circulation unit. “It’s been a long time since we’ve used it” he said, looking up. “If you feel more comfortable smoking, then by all means.” He walked back to his seat behind the desk, looking at Abby as she lit up.
“How’s Amy?” Abby asked.
“No change I’m afraid. There’s been no sign of brain activity since she was brought in.”
“Then what did you want to see me about?” Abby asked. She inhaled deeply, cocked her head, and blew the smoke out in a long stream up toward the circulation unit.
“Well, we’ve run a variety of other tests on your daughter, and based on the records, well, frankly there are some discrepancies. We were wondering if there was anything you’d like to tell us.”
“You mean like, Amy’s adopted?”
The doctor nodded. “Why are there no records of it?”
“Does it matter at this point?”
“Abby, I think you know that there is no hope for Captain Amy. Not to be cold about it, but frankly resources are tight, and we feel it’s for the best if we step back and let nature take its course with her. That decision, of course, rests with you, but if you know who Amy’s true mother is…”
“I am Amy’s true mother” Abby interrupted, leaning forward. “I raised her from the micron she was born. Amy’s biological mother gave up all say in anything about her the micron she gave her up to me.”
“Do you know who the mother is?”
“No” Abby lied. She sat back. “Look. There weren’t a lot of rules back then. After all, we weren’t expecting to still be floating in space 25 yahrens later. And out of the few couples lucky enough to survive the holocaust, Elmer and I weren’t able to have children. So we made arrangements to take a baby in. One less orphan in the fleet. That’s a good thing, right?”
“Of course” the doctor agreed. “Uh, I don’t see it in my records where you are unable to bear children.”
“It was Elmer who had the problem. But there is no point in dragging any of this out now. My husband is dead. My family is ruined. If it all this has no bearing on anything, why stomp on what little remains?”
The doctor nodded. After a moment he cleared his throat. “I, ah, don’t see a need to take this any further under the circumstances.” He shuffled several papers. “There are other things to consider though.”
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Post by Amy81 on May 4, 2005 15:40:53 GMT -6
The doctor shuffled several papers, then looked up at Abby. “There are other things to consider though.”
“Like what?” Abby asked, looking for something to flick her ashes into. The doctor leaned forward with his empty coffee mug. “Thank you” Abby said.
“Aside from the lack of brain activity, Amy seems to be in pretty good health.” He sighed. “I know that sounds strange. But did Amy give any indications that she would consider being an organ donor? With the nature of our existence out here, we try to encourage this as much as…”
“What do you need, some papers signed or something?”
The doctor just looked at Abby. When Abby looked up, she caught his expression. “Look doctor, I’m coping here the best that I can. You want me remorseful? Crying? Well, I’ve cried. Cried myself sick. Nearly had a breakdown. I’ve had nightmares. But none of that changed anything, did it?” The doctor said nothing, but his expression softened. “Amy was committed to helping people” Abby continued, “I think she’d want to donate. I think she never discussed it, because in her line of work there isn’t much to donate when death comes.”
“I have the paperwork here.”
“Then I’ll sign it. And believe me, I wish things were different. But there is no hope, is there?”
“I’m afraid not. Techs continue to work with the discs Captain Lazant brought back. They supposedly contain Amy’s memories. But there isn’t any way to put the information back into her, short of going back to the basestar where it all happened. And that’s too far behind us now. And even then there’d be no guarantee. It’s not like we can just put it into a pill and have her swallow it. No the best we can hope for is to decipher the discs, and learn more about Cylon technology.”
“Then I want work on those discs stopped.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I want the work on the discs stopped at once. You’ve said yourself they will not help Amy. But what those discs contain, if anything, is every personal, private thought Amy ever had. No one has the right to dig into that. No one. That isn’t science, it’s voyeurism. I want the work stopped.”
The doctor leaned back, sighing. “That too is your decision, though I’m sure you’ll be hearing from someone about it. Perhaps even the commander. But I’ll pass word along.”
“I can wait” Abby replied, stubbing out the remains of her fumerette into the cup.
The doctor looked at Abby, then reached for his com.
“One more thing, doctor. How soon will all of this be done? The donations and all that?”
Once again the doctor just looked at Abby.
“It’s just that I’d like to take Amy back to the Agroship for burial” Abby explained. “There’s this one tree, in the fruit orchard dome. Elmer insisted on pulling it out, but Amy wanted to save it. She fussed over it so much…”
“And you’d like to bury her under the tree.”
“If I could” Abby replied. “But Elmer pulled the fracking thing out anyway. It really broke Amy’s heart. But when I think about all that’s happened, I think of Amy and that tree, wanting to save it…” Abby’s voice broke. She cleared her throat. “See doctor? I’m not as cold as you might think I am…”
“I never said you were” the doctor said softly. “To answer your question, we’ll give Amy a complete final physical, and determine the state of her organs. After that… it should only take a few days.”
Abby said nothing, and the silence began to stretch.
The doctor reached for his com. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll call the techs now. Tell them to stop.”
Abby just nodded, looking down.
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Post by Col. Charybdis on May 5, 2005 10:32:51 GMT -6
I sat next to Amy in her room. Beeping sounds came from the machinery.
"Why is it that each time I love someone, they end up taken away from me?" I spoke to no one in particular, even though it was meant for Amy.
I still held her hand in mine. I would not let it go...
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Post by Amy81 on May 19, 2005 11:27:19 GMT -6
While the doctor made the call ordering the techs to stop work on the discs, Abby reached for her fumerettes. She thought twice about lighting another one up, but in the end did so anyway. She sat back, listening to one end of the conversation.
After a few moments, the doctor closed his com link. "Well, that went as well as I thought it would", he said with a faint smile, though he knew there wasn't anything funny about it. "But they agreed. Work has ceased, though as I said earlier this might not be the end of it."
Abby exhaled a long plume of smoke toward the circulation screen above her, acting as if as far as she was concerned, it WAS the end of it. "Do you know if Amy is feeling any pain?" Abby asked. "She seems so serene, yet..."
The doctor shook his head. "Don't be fooled at all by Amy's appearance. I know she looks like she could get up and walk away, but in fact she can not. Her body is there, but inside there is nothing." His voice softened. "The spark of life, that something that makes her who she is, that was taken from her."
"The Cylons raped her mind, is that what you are saying?" Abby's voice was flat, emotionless.
"You could put it that way. They took what they wanted from her by force. And to answer your other question, that moment was when Amy experienced pain. She's beyond all that now."
"Do you think her consciousness is alive somehow, on those discs?"
"I suppose it might be possible. But we are in very uncharted waters here. And the fact still remains that we can not put thoughts and consciousness back into someone's head."
Abby shook her head, leaning forward to flick ashes into the cup. "What could the Cylons have possibly wished to accomplish by doing this to someone?"
The doctor too shook his head. "One can only guess. Information probably. If they have the means to accomplish the removal of a person's thoughts, they must have the means to process it."
"Could it be that they might have restored Amy had she not been rescued by those two that brought her back?"
The doctor sighed. "Those thoughts, though I'm sure they are going to come, can only lead to more misery. We have to face what has transpired. It's not healthy to dwell on what ifs."
"I mean, if not that then, then what did they plan to do with her consciousness? As some sort of computer? A human brain for a... a..."
"Cylon centurion?" The doctor squirmed. "Now there's a thought. But we can only speculate. Only guess."
Abby nodded, seeming to realize that speculation was pretty hopeless. She stood up, and mashed the remains of her fumerette into the cup. "Thank you doctor. For your directness and honesty. I'm going to see if I can get something to eat, and see to some other affairs." She stopped halfway to the door, and turned back. "Please see to it that my wishes are followed? I want no more work done on those discs. Let my daughter rest in peace."
The doctor nodded. "I'll notify you when Amy's physical has been completed, and then we can finalize the donorship."
Abby nodded, turned and left the office without saying another word. As soon as she was gone, the doctor activated his com once again...
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Post by Amy81 on May 27, 2005 6:57:15 GMT -6
The nurse came into Amy's room, and was pleased to find it empty of visitors. She thought she'd seen Colonel Charybdis walking out as she approached. She didn't want to have to tell him to leave, or anyone else for that matter.
She shut the door and walked over to the comatose warrior. She shook her head as she looked at Amy. So young...
But she couldn't allow herself to get emotional, and she'd seen a lot worse than this. She got to work, starting the final physical exam that would pave the way for organ donorship. Many people were in need of organs, and the nurse focused on that thought, about how many lives would be saved rather than on the one young life that was already lost...
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Post by Amy81 on May 31, 2005 6:19:45 GMT -6
As soon as Abby had left his office, the doctor activated his com link again. He wanted to speak with Science Officer Fallel again about the discs. After a moment, Fallel was once again on the line.
Not bothering to say hello, Fallel merely lied through his teeth. "Work has stopped, doctor, as you ordered." He had complied initially, but Lucian had told him to continue while he went off to get to the bottom of the situation.
"Like I said before, Science Officer Fallel, it wasn't my order. It was the wishes of Amy's family. But that's not why I called."
"Then what?" Fallel asked.
"Just a thought. I was discussing the entire thing with Abby, Amy's mother, and we had a thought. Now this does not have her approval, but quite frankly I'm concerned about her state of mind. The woman desperately needs some closure regarding her daughter."
"But how can she get this if we give up on Captain Amy?" Fallel asked.
"Instead of trying to decode the discs and pry open the information, what if you tried to complete the experiment?
"I don't follow."
"There is a possiblity that the cylons planned to plug Captain Amy's thoughts into a blank centurion brain." The doctor half expected some humorous comment in reply. Lords know he'd thought of a few himself. But it was just a way to deal with tramatic events, he'd told himself, yet from Fallel there was no wise cracks.
"We hadn't looked at the discs for the purpose of using them as intended" Fallel said. "We've been trying to decode them..."
"Is it possible to give this a try? There'd be no invasion of privacy, and if it worked, it might provide a way for Abby to, in a sense, talk to her daughter. If of course, these discs contain what Captain Lazant insists they do."
"There are deactivated centurions on board" Fallel said.
"Then you'll try?"
The science officer sighed. "I'd better get back to work."
The doctor smiled as he closed the link, then sat there staring at his office door, thinking again of Abby...
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Post by Amy81 on Jun 1, 2005 15:56:37 GMT -6
The nurse continued with Captain Amy's physical, trying to keep her mind off the entire situation. As the physical was proving, the only reason Amy wasn't getting up and walking out of medlab was because of what the cylons had done to her mind. Other then that, she was in good shape. A few bruises and scrapes of various degrees of seriousness, but nothing that wouldn't have prevented her from doing whatever she wanted.
It won't prevent her from being the perfect organ donor either, the nurse thought. And that was the best thought to keep in mind. A lot of people would be given second chances out of this tragedy.
The nurse was checking the results from the last round of tests, when her eyes grew wide in surprise. "Oh dear Lords..." she whispered, nearly in shock. She ran the tests again, saw the results, and ran for the door, running straight into Ange.
"Excuse me" he said as she backed up, wiping at her wet eyes. "What's the matter? Anything I can do?"
"Who are you?" the nurse asked, regaining some of her composure.
"I'm Ange", he replied. "I work security on the Agro ship. I watched our Captain Amy grow up there..."
"Oh" she said, understanding. "You are here to visit. Have you checked in at the desk?"
"Checked in, gave blood too."
The nurse smiled. "Give me a moment to get the patient ready for visitors again. I've been running some tests..."
"Sure" Ange said, backing up through the doorway. As the door swung shut he watched the nurse turn her back to him and bend over the bed...
Several microns later the nurse emerged from the room. "The patient is ready now. Excuse me." She had all her equipment with her this time, and seemed more composed. Ange stood aside to let her by, and gave her a last glance as he entered Amy's room.
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Post by Amy81 on Jun 2, 2005 6:44:40 GMT -6
Ange walked into Captain Amy's room, and heard the door click shut behind him. He was pretty sure that the door was supposed to remain open, but he did nothing but walk slowly up to Amy's life support unit.
"Aw kid" he said, shaking his head, "what in hades did you go and get yourself into?" He pulled up a chair and sat down, taking Amy's hand with both of his.
"I hope you know I feel partly responsible for you being like this. I never knew all those stories I told were having such an effect on you. I did try to talk you out of enlisting, remember?"
He studied her face for any sign of life behind the blank expression, but found none. He remembered back to the days when he watched her grow up. From the little kid, maybe 8 yahrens, who'd taken a wrong turn and found herself in the security wing on the agro ship. How he'd gained her trust that day, and how surprised he was to see her come back again and again to hear his stories...
"I never wanted you leaving the ship" he reminded her as he ran his hand over hers. "I sided with your parents on that point. But they never did listen to what I had to say. Why would I want you to go? You were growing up so beautiful." He reached over and ran a hand over the side of Amy's head, through her hair. "So beautiful."
He stood up, looking down at the fallen warrior. "What a waste" he said. "I am sorry, Amy. I hope you know how sorry I am."
As he turned to walk toward the door, the nurse returned with the doctor who'd spoken with Abby. "Oh", the doctor said, "I didn't know Amy had a visitor."
"That's okay, doc", Ange said. "Just going." He walked past them and out the door. It clicked shut behind him.
The nurse walked over to Amy. "Geez, her hair is all messed up."
The doctor walked over to look. "Who was that guy?"
"His name is Ange" she replied. "He's known her a long time, he said. From the Agro ship."
The doctor nodded. "I've heard the name. Well, this whole case has hit a few people very hard, I wouldn't think anything of it. Now, let's run the test again. We have to make very sure we aren't wrong about this."
"I know what I'm doing" the nurse snapped.
"I never said you didn't. But go ahead anyway."
A short time later, they both stood there studying the results. "Well, this changes things, wouldn't you say nurse?" She nodded. "Amy's mother should be made aware..."
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Post by Amy81 on Jun 17, 2005 6:09:49 GMT -6
After having had her discussion with the doctor about stopping work on the discs, Abby had gone for something to eat, and then had placed a call to the agro ship. Communications had been restored there to a small extent, but she had been given priority status due to her position as lead farmer.
She laughed at the thought. She never wanted to be in such a position. It was all Elmer, and now the whole mess had been dumped into her lap. She thought about him, and although the grief was there over losing him, there wasn't a hole in her heart like the one she had for her daughter. More than once while she conducted her business, her facade cracked and she felt ready to break down again, whenever she thought of Amy.
It was hard for Abby, to say the least. She'd tried her best to raise Amy right, and from some of what she'd heard from the warriors here, Amy had turned out pretty well. But Abby felt mostly failure looking back on Amy's life. She hadn't been able to keep her interested enough in farming, and no amount of yelling on Elmer's part could do it either. And small wonder. She's not of our blood. How could we ever have expected otherwise?
And now, suddenly, Amy was gone. There was so much left unsaid, so many things that were lost forever, never to be resolved...
Her thoughts were interrupted by someone who stuck his head into her com cubicle. "Miz Abby? Docs from medlab called looking for you. They want you to go over there." Abby turned and nodded. "Thank you" she said with a sigh. Probably to finalize the organ donorship. Suddenly she felt tears ready to come, but she willed them away. She gathered her things and headed to medlab.
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