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Post by Brie on Oct 13, 2005 10:37:24 GMT -6
Note; this is continued from "Choices." That was getting a little bit long, I thought it was about time to start a new thread. Besides, the title didn't make a whole lot of sense... **
"But, back to the subject. I suppose Astraea being back might change things for Charybdis and me, but how did she change things for you back then?" Amy asked.
“Funny thing about Lucian,” Brie said, changing the subject. “Did you know that I had found out that Lazant was trying to find dirt on him and so I decided to keep an eye on Lazant? That’s how the ladder-climbing Captain and I first became friends. Lazant really isn’t a bad guy if you get on his good side.”
“Lazant has a good side?” Amy was half serious, half joking. “And you’re avoiding my question.”
“Yes I am,” Brie agreed. “I’m sick of talking about Charybdis.”
“You’re the one who brought up Astraea,” Amy reminded her.
“Okay,” Brie said with a sigh. “Here’s what happened. After Turner died and I did my little stint in the Catharsis Center and was then reinstated, a lot of people had a hard time trusting me. They acted like I was going to flip out in front of them or something. But Charybdis was cool. When the opportunity came to move to the Callisto, he not only took it himself but requested that I be transferred to Gold Squadron as well. In some ways I got my life back.”
“So you owe him,” Amy commented.
Brie glared at her. “Then he was promoted to the bridge and I was elected Gold Squadron CO. It was awesome, going from the loony bin to squadron leader? I was back, stronger than ever. But Charybdis was dating Astraea, and Astraea was in Gold Squadron...”
“Yeah, I get it,” Amy said. “Been there, done that.”
“He tried to talk me out of sending her on the mission where she ‘died’,” Brie continued. “It was supposed to be routine, and with Astraea being a historian she was one of the most qualified people for it in the entire fleet. I even tried to go myself, but I had just returned from another mission and Commander Sheba wouldn’t allow it. I filled it with some of Gold Squadron’s best people; we lost a lot of good warriors because I was trying to protect Astraea. But still, I always got the feeling that Charybdis blamed me for her ‘death.’ Things were never again the same between us. It was like he didn’t trust my judgment anymore. And then he started dating you. In secret, a slap in my face as your CO. And after your relationship became public he started the same thing, questioning every mission, every assignment, every move. Even when you two were no longer together! Right after I was arrested he came to see me in the brig, but was it to see if I was okay? No, he wanted to know about you. After I was kidnapped by Pierce and almost died he came to see me in the med lab. Did he want to know how I was feeling? No, he wanted to know the truth about...” Brie stopped abruptly.
“About what?” Amy wanted to know.
Brie thought quickly. “On the Agro Ship, I had told the workers an incredible tale to get them to believe that I care about you, because they blamed me for your condition. When I returned to the Callisto somehow that story started to spread as fact. Charybdis heard it and wanted to know if it was true.”
“What kind of story did you tell them?” Amy asked quickly.
Brie grinned. “Come back with me and maybe you can get Jeb or Star to fill you in.”
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Post by Amy81 on Oct 14, 2005 5:35:19 GMT -6
"Jeb?" Amy asked. "As in my old Uncle Jeb? Em's Jeb?"
Brie shrugged. "I'm not sure. How many Jeb's are on the Agro ship?"
"I haven't a clue" Amy replied. "But I only know the one. He was okay, not like Em was. I never took to Em, even when she and Jeb were together. Jeb though, he was always nice to me."
"He did seem fond of you" Brie admitted. "They all did, actually. The whole pitchfork carrying mob of them. They couldn't say your name without adding 'sweet little old' or something like that in front of it."
Amy laughed. "Yeah, I was a cute kid I guess."
"You guess? They wanted to poke me full of holes for how I mistreated you."
"But you set them straight, right? With the story you told?"
"Yes, sort of, I guess" Brie replied.
"They had to understand that it wasn't your fault. You had to get away or everyone would have died. You gave us all the time you could. And we were so close to making it. We were just outside the bay when you guys blew the charges to escape. Another micron, and we would have made it."
"It was that close?"
Amy nodded. "Once you were gone though, we had to find another way out. That led us to Baltar, and having to deal with those purple cylons. It was pretty messed up."
"I'm sorry I didn't wait longer."
"Not your fault" Amy replied with a shake of her head. "And anything you told Jeb and the others to convince them of that was worth telling. Are you really going to make me go back and ask Jeb?"
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Post by Brie on Oct 14, 2005 9:23:31 GMT -6
The guilt was starting to overwhelm Brie. “I can’t believe that you were that close.”
“It’s not your fault,” Amy repeated. “You didn’t know. Now about this story...”
Ignoring her, Brie started to recalculate things in her head. “We lost a couple of people on the Pylos.”
“The Pylos?” Amy repeated. “THE Pylos?”
“We had set the bomb on the automatic timer, then placed it on the Cylon shuttle,” Brie continued to herself. “If we had just given it a couple more centons, although by the time Agelastus and Whatshisname made it back aboard the Pylos we were already getting shot at. But a couple more centons...” She looked at Amy. “I told Lazant when we were going to leave, and even gave him extra time. And he DID send a message back, telling us to stick to schedule.”
“Brie,” Amy said reassuringly, “you couldn’t have known that we were there. Now what’s this about the Pylos?”
“They told me that Sergeant Brinfort would have died within the centon if we hadn't returned when we did,” Brie said sadly. “Your life and Deke’s, in exchange for Brinfort’s.”
“Deke probably wouldn’t have made it,” Amy said.
“It still stinks.”
"Yup.” Amy waited a micron. “Okay, back to the Pylos. The same ship that’s in the legend? I thought that was a myth.”
“Some people say that about Earth as well,” Brie reminded her.
“Including you. But you found the actual Pylos?”
“Yeah,” Brie replied without much excitement. “Turns out she’s been in Cylon hands for over 500 yahrens. I guess that maiden voyage didn’t go all that well. The Cylons had transformed her into a mini-baseship for that system. It was weird, some of the rooms were untouched. But the controls were now Cylon, and the computer...” Brie gasped.
“What?” Amy asked.
“When we left, the Cylons were updating the information in the Pylos’ computer,” Brie said excitedly. “Recent stuff, including Turner’s death. Maybe there’s information there that could tell them how to decipher those damn discs and help you get your memory back!”
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Post by Amy81 on Oct 14, 2005 10:44:39 GMT -6
"Yeah" Amy replied, "I think they felt the same way about the cruiser we came back in."
"Cruiser?"
"Yeah" Amy repeated. "Baltar showed us where it was hidden on the base. It was the only thing flyable that was left. It was nice too. State of the art technology. Used to transport dignitaries from their ships to the base."
"Maybe the technology there could help?"
"Yeah" Amy said again, "but I'm pretty sure Fallel turned the discs into goop."
"How do you know that?"
"Vibes. They're all around us. You've picked up on them too. It's how we know some of what's going on 'down below'."
"Here's a question" Brie announced. "If the ship was Baltar's, why didn't you bring him back with you?"
"Yeah" Amy said for the umteenth time. "Him and Lazant fought. Baltar was acting like he was helping, but he had something planned to make prisoners of us all."
"And it worked? You were all prisoners on a basestar, right?"
"Yeah" Amy said, "and no. That was a different basestar, after Lazant ditched Baltar on the base."
"Where were you when this happened?" Brie wondered. "Why didn't you stop Lazant from turning Baltar loose?"
"I was sort of tied up at the time" Amy replied. "It's a real long story. Baltar won round one, and ditched Lazant. Baltar had me prisoner and was going to take me to his basestar. But I managed to knock out his navigation. Lazant sent a trick message using a severed cylon head..."
"A severed head!"
"Told you it was a long story. Anyway, it tricked Baltar into returning to the base, and then it was his turn to be marooned. As far as I know, he's still there."
"So your time in a coldcell..."
"Was on the other basestar" Amy answered.
"All cause of a few microns that I didn't wait..." Brie said, shaking her head.
"Yeah" Amy joked, "but it was nice to get out, see the galaxy a little..."
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Post by Brie on Oct 14, 2005 16:22:44 GMT -6
“I’m never going to be able to forgive myself for leaving,” Brie stated.
“Brie, you didn’t know,” Amy said again. “It’s not your fault.”
Brie chuckled. “There is a bright side.”
“What?” Amy asked.
“With memories like those, maybe having lost them isn’t such a bad thing!”
Amy laughed. “That’s true.”
“At least you have a good attitude about my having ruined your life,” Brie remarked.
“Brie, IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT!”
“I’m sure there are other things you wouldn’t mind having forgotten,” Brie continued. “Actually, when you think about, the chance to start out with a totally clean slate? Doesn’t sound all that bad after all.”
“Except for the fact that everyone else’s slate is full,” Amy reminded her. “They’ll fill you in on some things, but you’d always wonder what they’re NOT telling you.”
“Yeah, kind of like the morning after you’ve had too much to drink...”
Amy stared at Brie. “When have you have had enough to drink that you couldn’t remember the next morning?”
Brie glanced around. “Gee, I wonder where Turner is. I was sure that he would have shown up by now, insisting that it’s time for me to go back.”
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Post by Amy81 on Oct 15, 2005 5:17:38 GMT -6
"Yeah" Amy replied, "I wish he'd stop by if he's going to. Or my dad. Cause my mom is coming soon, and whatever she's going to do, it's going to happen soon."
Brie nodded. "And then you'll go back."
"Or not" Amy replied. "So tell me, I know I've put back a few too many now and again. Care to tell me anything in your past?"
"You first."
"Well" Amy said, "There was the time I was staying at your quarters... well, maybe I shouldn't tell that one."
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Post by Brie on Oct 16, 2005 12:01:25 GMT -6
“My quarters?” Brie asked sternly. “Maybe you should tell me...”
“No,” Amy said, “I think you’d fail to find the humor. Besides, nothing got hurt, nothing got broken.”
“But still,” Brie replied.
“I never said it HAPPENED in your quarters,” Amy pointed out, “only while I was staying there.”
“You also didn’t say that it DIDN’T happen in my quarters,” Brie added. “But okay, I’ll let it drop. What do you want to talk about now?”
“Let’s see,” Amy started, “we’ve covered Charybdis, my parents, Turner, how I ended up here...”
“The weather, triad, Lazant, Astraea...”
“Ange...”
“And your misplaced faith in him,” Brie added.
“Come on, Brie,” Amy implored. “I thought we had reached a compromise about that. Just because Ange didn’t help you for some reason doesn’t mean that he’s not my friend or a decent person. And I’m sure he had a good reason for not helping.”
“I’m sure he did,” Brie said bitterly. “Amy...” She stopped.
“What?” Amy asked impatiently.
“If we’ve run out of things to talk about, do you think that maybe it’s time for me to go back? I hope not.” It wasn’t what she had originally intended to say.
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Post by Amy81 on Oct 18, 2005 13:42:03 GMT -6
"No it's not time" Amy replied, "at least not until you've seen this."
"Seen what?" Brie asked.
With a shudder that seemed to run through everything that surrounded them, Brie suddenly found herself standing in a corridor of the cylon moon base. She looked at Amy. "How did you...?"
"I really didn't want to tell you" Amy replied. Brie said nothing, but her expression did the asking for her. "I was pretty sure before that I could do this" Amy continued to explain. "It's how I'm nearly positive I'm not going back. I seem to have the powers that the other beings on the ship of lights have."
"Oh Amy..."
"It's okay Brie, really it is." Amy smiled reassuringly. "The power is only good up here. And it's why I used it now, before you go. You really need to see this. It's not like you'll remember any of it consciously, but your soul will remember. So you'll be at ease."
"About what?"
"That it wasn't your fault" Amy replied.
Suddenly there was motion at the far end of the corridor. Lazant was in the lead, followed by Amy and Deke, neither of which were in very good shape. They passed by the ghost forms of Amy and Brie, heading for a door at the end of the corridor. "They can't see us" Amy explained. "Brie, this is how it happened."
"We made it" Lazant said, breathing heavily. "The Pylos is still there" he added after peering through the viewport. He began working on the keypad, attempting to open the door.
Deke leaned heavily against the wall, and Amy helped keep him on his feet. "Just a micron more" she told him. "Hold on."
Lazant started having trouble with the lock. "Come on" he muttered impatiently. He looked back once over his shoulder at a sound coming from the other end of the corridor. It was alien, yet familiar.
"Hurry Lazant" Amy was saying. "Those purple cylons aren't far behind us!"
Lazant kept trying, then looked into the viewport again. "Oh no" he said. "No." Then, "Down! Everyone down!" They barely had time to duck when the shock of the explosion rocked the corridor, throwing the three of them to the far wall in a heap. The door Lazant was trying to open started to buckle, but somehow held it's shape.
The ghost forms of Amy and Brie felt nothing, as if it was all taking place on a vid screen. Amy turned to Brie. "You had no idea Brie. You couldn't have known. Lazant wasn't going to get that door open in a hundred microns. Plus, if he had, the purple cylons would have stormed into the bay right behind us. Or we could have been inside the bay when the explosion went off, and died instantly. So there was no way it could have turned out any better. It wasn't your fault."
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Post by Brie on Oct 20, 2005 12:46:23 GMT -6
I'll be removing this from my post in a couple of days, but I wanted to encourage everyone to check the Misc. board for announcement concerning one of our members. **
Brie waited for several microns before simply saying, “Justin.”
“Excuse me? What does Justin have to do with any of this?”
“Justin wanted to go back,” Brie replied sadly. “He had landed on the Pylos. I told him that we had left and weren’t sure if the three of you were alive. He volunteered to look, but I stopped him. So see, Amy, it is my fault.”
“And Justin was supposed to do what, stick the three of us in the back of his viper?” Amy asked. “No, he probably would have taken Deke because he was the most severely wounded, but he would have died anyway. So see, it’s still not your fault.”
“But I...” Brie realized for the first time what had been nagging at her since they left the Cylon moon. “I should have gone after you, not Lazant. It was my mission, my responsibility.”
“You were wounded,” Amy reminded her.
“Not that badly,” Brie said. “A broken elbow, big fracking deal. You should have seen what I did on the Agro Ship! I was in worse shape there, but I pushed past the pain. Lazant, when he left the Pylos, didn’t have a scratch on him. I don’t think his uniform was even dirty. I let him talk me into staying behind...”
“And you saved the rest of the team’s lives,” Amy said. “A very noble thing.”
“They didn’t need me there anymore,” Brie said sadly. “Curemode could have gotten them out of there.”
“Curemode would have then been responsible for the decision to leave you behind,” Amy pointed out. “That would be a lousy thing to place on someone else’s shoulders, especially since you were in charge of the mission, so he probably wouldn’t have left. So then again, everyone dies.”
“But still...I would have been with you,” Brie said. “With my best friend.”
Amy smiled. “That’s awfully sweet of you, Brie, but friendship only goes so far, especially when the entire fleet is at risk.”
Brie stared blankly at Amy. “Haven’t you ever wondered why we’re so close? Why someone like me, who has a hard time getting close to anyone, would totally let down my guard and actually enjoy life when you’re around?”
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Post by Amy81 on Oct 22, 2005 17:44:30 GMT -6
"No" Amy replied. "I haven't wondered, but I've been thankful for it. You know how hard it is for women to make it as warriors. Without your support, your acceptance, your friendship, I might not have had the strength to stick it through to the end."
They both stood there watching the past, as Lazant, Amy, and Deke dusted themselves off and recovered from the blast.
"The Pylos just left" Lazant was saying. He looked around, right through where the ghost forms of Amy and Brie stood.
"Want to stick around?" Amy asked Brie. "We crawled through that duct there just before the purple cylons came through." She watched as Lazant fingered the covering to the duct, and with help from Amy and Deke pried it loose.
"I would like to see a purple cylon" Brie answered.
"Then we stay" Amy replied. She looked away from her past self, and looked at Brie. "So" she continued, "is there some special reason, aside from me being likeable as all hades, that you enjoy life so much when we're together?"
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