Chapter 28U - (is for Urdea...)

[LucianG]

A little later, Wheran and another officer wheeled the covered body out on a gurney, and Proteus and Atropas followed with the crime scene equipment. Urdea pulled the sheet back and reflected on recent events: Abby’s sudden appearance at his door, Amy’s sudden arrival back on the Callisto, and Urdea’s unexplained departure from life. Urdea had been considering Charybdis’s parting words, and he agreed. It really was a shame Elmer never knew his daughter had been found alive, but now, Urdea’s duty was to determine WHY he died. He covered the body once more, and said, “I’ll escort the body with the two of you to the Med Lab since I need to personally notify the next of kin. Proteus and Atropas, please secure everything in the crime lab, and get some rest so we can get started with the tests tomorrow.”

Everyone left the Colonel’s quarters, and Urdea sealed the door with a “Crime Scene-Do Not Enter” sticker. A little later, the group escorting the body arrived outside the Med Lab. Urdea said to the others, “The body must be taken directly to the morgue. Make sure the sheet is secure, and don’t allow anyone to observe the body.”

“Yes, Sir!” said Wheran, still thrilled by assisting with the crime scene investigation. His mind was rapidly running through potential suspects, even though, after studying the scene carefully and in depth, he’d almost convinced himself that it had to have been suicide.

As he entered the Med Lab, Urdea saw Lorna and said softly, “They are taking this body to the morgue." They moved through the doors to the morgue. Urdea continued, "Is Abby still with Amy?”

“Right this way, Sir,” she replied, leading the way to Amy’s room.

When Urdea stepped into the room, he felt deep pangs of sadness for Abby. He hated what he was about to do, but he had to do it. He cleared his throat quietly and said, “Abby, we need to talk…outside….”

[Amy81]

Abby looked over her shoulder at Urdea, happy to hear the sound of his voice. It was like she hoped it would one day be, her and Urdea and Amy together as a family.

"She's so peaceful looking" Abby said, turning back to her daughter. "I can't remember her ever looking like... well, she always had so much going on. Never took the time to relax..."

"Abby" Urdea repeated, "we really need to talk. I'm sorry, but something's happened." He took her by the arm, but Abby resisted the gentle pressure.

"I can't leave Amy now" she said. "I just got her back. She needs me." Her voice sounded strange, as if in her mind she were someplace else. She pulled her arm free and went back to smoothing back Amy's hair. "What else could possibly be more important than my daughter right now?"

[LucianG]

"What else could possibly be more important than my daughter right now?"

Urdea hated what he was forced by duty to do. It was his duty, despite the fact that it felt as if a knife was twisting inside him. His thoughts screamed once more about the stupidity of the whole situation. As unlikely as it seemed, and as much as he felt it was wrong, Urdea had to consider Abby, however remotely, a suspect in Elmer’s death. It was a suicide, or if it was not, it was a diabolically planned murder. Someone who would do such a thing would do anything, and Urdea knew Abby was not like that…unless she had changed drastically over the past 28 yahrens...and he didn't believe that for a millimicron.

“Abby, it is important. It will just take a few moments, and then we’ll be right back with Amy. I promise,” said Urdea. She looked into his eyes and saw the pleading look.

Moments later, they stepped into Doc BKJ’s office. Urdea closed the door and said, “Abby, you’d better sit down. When you left Elmer earlier today, what did you do?”

[Amy81]

Elmer! “I didn’t leave Elmer,” said Abby indignantly at the thought that Urdea would think such a question could be more important than her being with Amy. Surely he wasn't jealous? “He walked off and left me! He was going to see Colonel Charybdis.”

“What did you do then?” he asked.

“Who cares? Why is that important when my daughter is in there?” she asked, becoming angry.

“Please Abby,” he pleaded.

“If you must know, I had to find out if it really was you, then I went looking for you.”

“Did you speak to anyone while you were looking?” he asked.

“A Warrior told me you were in Fleet Security. After that, it took some time to find your office, but I didn’t talk to anyone else. Everybody’s always so busy on a Battlestar. Like me right now. I'm going back to be with Amy,” she said. She started to rise from the chair.

“Abby, sit back down for a centon,” Urdea said. “I’m so sorry to have to do this—On behalf of Fleet Security, I must inform you that your husband Elmer has been found…dead.”

Abby's mouth opened slightly, as if she were going to say something but thought better of it. She looked at Urdea, searching his expression for signs of a punch line. "If that's your idea of a joke, Urdea..."

Urdea shook his head, saying nothing.

Abby sat in silence, her eyes darting as if searching for something that couldn't possibly be there. After a moment she focused on Urdea. "How...?" she asked. "Was it his heart? I always worried about him working himself too hard. And then the grief over Amy... Lords, did he know she'd been found?" She shook her head, ran a hand through her hair. "By the Lords of Kobol, Elmer... and Amy... I've lost them both...?"

[LucianG]

“Abby, Elmer is gone,” he said with a degree of finality, but compassionately, he added, “but there is still hope for Amy. While there is still a chance for her, don’t let her go. Hold on to her, pray for her, talk to her, and just…break through to her. She loves you and you know that if anyone can get through to her, you can. You’ve got to be strong for her.”

Tears ran down her cheeks as she looked up at him and nodded. “And Elmer?” she asked.

“I can’t discuss the circumstances since the investigation is ongoing, but they are somewhat suspicious. I’ve got my best people on it and we’ll figure it out soon. I’m heading to the lab now to oversee everything. I’ll let you know what I find as soon as I can.” He didn’t add that if it proved to be murder, it might be quite some time before he would be able to tell her much.

As he was about to leave, she looked up at him and said, “Urdea, please…”

He kneeled down next to her and placed his arms around her….

* * *

Number Two, the second ranking Organization operative aboard the Callisto sent a note to Number One. When Number One saw what had been done and what Number Two planned, he clenched his fists involuntarily, as if crushing his underling in his grasp. The damage was done; the question was, would the Organization’s Hierarchy approve the proposed implementation? In Number One’s opinion, the chance of success was quite small, and failure could potentially be quite damaging. Despite his doubts, he forwarded the proposal, in a one-time use cipher that resulted in a short and innocuous message, to his bosses elsewhere in the Fleet, following an ever changing circuitous route that insured the message could not be traced to either sender or receiver.

After sending the message, he gave serious consideration to the situation that his Number Two had forced upon him. It took little time to make his decision. If the Heirarchy approved the plan, he would stay out of the operation as a matter of mission security and compartmentalization. If it succeeded, he would get part of the credit. However, if it failed as he believed it would, as the Organization’s Number One aboard the Callisto, he would be in the market for a new Number Two. That, after all, was his right. He silently started considering ways of eliminating the problem.

[Col. Charybdis]

I finally had gotten a micron of free time and I knew where I needed to be. I headed back to the Med Lab to try and see Amy.

I entered and as I passed Doc BKJ's office, I saw Urdea and Abby talking together. She was just about sobbing. Had a terrible look on her face. For a micron, I thought the worst had happened to Amy. But then, I realized that Urdea was probably telling her about Elmer.

I decided to move on quickly so they would not see me. I approached the nurse and told her that I needed to see Amy. She looked in and then said, "OK, Colonel. Just keep it short."

I entered the room and got my first look at her. She looked so frail. So helpless. I walked over to her bedside...I couldn't stand seeing her like this. She had a peaceful look on her face, as if she had no cares at all in the world.

I sat beside her. I took her hand in mine. She was warm a bit, she still had life within her and that was good. So much had happened, I realized right then and there that I loved her so much. I couldn't still lose her, could I?

"Amy," I whispered. "I'm here. I heard that you did some really crazy things out on that moon. But here you are. Silly girl, trying to get yourself killed." My eyes began tearing up a bit. "Amy, we've always had it rough. Nothing we did was every easy. Everyone always talking about us and making it seem as if was a bad thing, you and I being together. But, it's not like that. You know. I love you. I would never use you like they said I did. I want you to be my wife. Frack, Amy! I do love you!" I pulled her hand up to my face and held it to my cheek. "Come on, Amy. You will pull through this. You will come back to us!" I had tears in my eyes...

[Amy81]

Urdea comforted Abby for as long as he could, but regretfully he finally had to pull away. "There are things I have to do, Abby" he said. "but I'll be back as soon as I can." He got her to look him in the eyes. "Are you okay?"

Abby nodded, fresh tears starting down her cheeks. Urdea stood slowly and gently kissed Abby on the top of her head, then left Abby alone in the room.

Abby tried to pull herself together, but there wasn't much use in trying. Her family was destroyed, and all in such a short time. First Amy, and now Elmer. She'd gotten to where she couldn't stand to be with Elmer anymore, but she never wished him dead... And what would happen now? Without Elmer, control of the farms fell into her hands. She'd been prepared to leave it all behind, but what would she do now?

Elmer...

She wiped the tears from her eyes, and knew she looked a mess, but what was the use? Her appearance didn't matter here. Her body felt stiff as she stood up, walked from the room and down the short distance to Amy's room. She took two steps in before she realized somebody else was in the room.

"Oh" she said as she stopped in her tracks, wiping the tears that kept coming. The man who was huddled over Amy stood and looked back at her. It was Colonel Charybdis! Abby felt a wash of emotions flood through her. She remembered his testimony, what Elmer thought of it all, and how she'd felt about it because of the influence Elmer had on her...

But how did she really feel about Charybdis?

She saw his sad look, and put all that out of her mind as best she could. She saw the discoloration on his chin. Had Elmer done that? So much pain, so much heartache and death... She walked toward Charybdis, wanting nothing more than to embrace a part of Amy's life that was still living, to try and comfort the man who'd wanted to marry her daughter...

[LucianG]

After leaving Abby in the Med Lab, Urdea started back toward the Security Office. He was extremely tired, but on the way, he decided to make a stop at Colonel Charybdis’s quarters. On entering, he went into the turboflush room…

* * *

A short time later, he arrived at the Security Office. Whitcher was off duty, so another sergeant was staffing the front desk. Urdea looked into the lab and saw Sergeant Atropas working diligently on some test data. Rather than disturb her, he moved away quietly, and headed toward his office. He passed by Proteus office and was surprised to see the light on inside. He stopped just outside when he heard Proteus speaking, “Yes, Captain Suttir, I understand your situation and I am sorry for the loss. I will pass your messages along to Captain Urdea and the deceased’s wife. Good night.”

Urdea stepped into the room and said, “Late shift, Proteus?”

“Captain! Yes, I was just speaking to Captain Suttir of the Agro Ship. I had to inform him about Elmer’s death, and now he and the Agro Administrator are having fits. It turns out that Elmer was the lead farmer, and made many of the decisions regarding planting, crop rotations, and so on. They’re blaming us for not protecting him, and they’re requesting increased security in case it’s a plot against the Fleet’s food supply! After thinking about it though, we might want to add yet another suspect to Wheran’s list.” He rolled his eyes slightly, and Urdea laughed for the first time in centars.

[Amy81]

Abby released the Colonel, and took a step back. It was rather awkward, she realized. She hadn't exactly shown Charybdis much of anything close to approval or acceptance when he'd visited the Agro ship several yahrens ago. When Charybdis and Amy had come to visit, hoping for the one thing neither Abby nor Elmer gave them...

It had been that damn Elmer, forcing his views on her, and she dutifully taking them as her own...

But I didn't want you to die, Elmer...

She turned to look at Amy, lying there on life support. "She does look good, doesn't she?" she said in a quivering voice, "so peaceful..." She took a step back. "Lords, listen to me. I'm talking like she's dead. But she is, isn't she?" Abby had a confused look. "I don't know what to think. Even though Amy hadn't been around to see us, I knew she might. But now... now she never will..." She wiped another tear, and ran a hand through her hair, a nervous habit Amy had done so many times herself.

"I'm sorry, Colonel... you should have some privacy. Some time alone. I'll come back in a while." Abby turned and left the room.

She was nearly out of medlab when she noticed the security guard following a short distance behind her. She turned around. "Can I help you with something?"

The guard stopped walking, and shook his head. "Sorry to disturb you, M'am, Urdea's orders."

"Urdea? What orders?"

"You are now chief farmer. Your family has been in charge of food growth and distribution for over 20 yahrens. Since you're the last surviving member of your family..." He stopped, sorry he had phrased it that way.

But Abby just nodded. It was true, after all...

"Urdea felt better having someone make sure you are safe during your stay on the Callisto", the guard finished. "In fact, Captain Suttir of the Agro Ship has been calling, and would like to speak with you when you feel you are up to it."

[Col. Charybdis]

Abby left the room. There was so much I wanted to say to her as well. I hope that she did not lay blame on me for this. Such are the fortunes of love and war.

I turned and looked back down at Amy. I grabbed her hand and held it softly. As I did so, my comm unit buzzed and announced for all warriors and security officers to meet in the Commanders' briefing room. This was not an ordinary meeting!

I leaned forward and gave Amy a kiss on her forehead and a gentle sqeeze of her hand. "I'll be back." I said.

I quickly left for the bridge...