Chapter 28V - The New Secret Survival Society

[Brie]

Comeek was growing bored, watching the footage of Brie in her cell. Something important might happen, so he continued to watch. He knew that he was probably paying closer attention than the blackshirts who were being paid to watch the same footage. That was okay, his payment would come.

Twice so far Comeek had been able to report strange occurrences to Master Pierce. The first was when the footage looped. There was obviously something happening, but Pierce paid it no mind. Comeek had been slightly disappointed, he had hoped that Master Pierce would reward him then. The second occurrence was more interesting. Major Skyler had logged in to the brig, and had somehow managed to turn the cameras off. Pierce had been much more interested in how that had happened. Comeek vowed to find out.

The other thing Comeek was to report on was visitors. So far Brie hadn’t had very many. Master Pierce seemed to find it particularly amusing that Colonel Charybdis had yet to even attempt to visit Brie. “So much for friendship,” Pierce had told Comeek.

With nothing new happening on the illegal tap that he was watching, Comeek allowed his mind to wander just a little bit. He dreamed of what it would be like when the New Secret Survival Society came into power. Master Pierce would be a great leader, there was no doubt about that. Comeek hoped for a good position in the new administration, one that would bring him respect. He longed to have people look at him with the same amount of fear on their faces that Pierce already received. Yes, once the military and the council were no longer in charge, life would be better for everyone.

But now there was nothing to do but wait. Master Pierce had promised Comeek that there would be more exciting things for him to do, that his skill at a computer would come in handy very soon. But until then, he’d have to be content watching Brie sit on the floor. Brie, the Widow of the Great Traitor. Maybe his current job wasn’t so bad after all.

[Brie]

Kyla had always wanted one thing, to live on a planet. Born not long after the holocaust, she had always heard stories about the Colonies. Rain, snow, oceans, clouds, volcanoes, tremblers...there was nothing that she heard that didn’t fascinate her. Her warrior father would hold her in his lap, even when she was too big to fit, telling her stories of how wonderful life on Earth was going to be. Then he was killed by the Cylons.

Although Kyla had wanted to become a warrior like her father, it wasn’t meant to be. She was blind in her right eye, a condition since birth that might have been avoided if there had been better medical staff on the freighter where she had been born. Instead of flying through space and exploring planets Kyla decided to become a med tech.

But her dream never died. While she was studying for her chosen profession she would spend all her free time reading about Earth. She longed to again hear her father’s voice, telling her how incredible it was all going to be. The more she read, the fainter his voice grew. She began to realize that it was all just a dream. Earth was a fable, a myth, a legend dreamed up by drunken star voyagers. The last survivors of the great Colonies were betting their lives on a bad joke.

Master Pierce had changed all that for her. He gave her another dream, one in which the remnants of the human race lived on a REAL planet, instead of crammed inside broken-down ships. He promised that as leader of the new administration there would be joy to life once again, instead of just merely surviving. He had brought joy to Kyla’s personal life as well. Although at first she had resisted, the closer she grew to Pierce the closer she wanted to be. He was hypnotic. He was over twice her age and was also involved with other women in the New Secret Survival Society, but that didn’t matter. He made her feel special. There were other Kyla’s in the fleet, but Pierce told her that she was the only Kyla that mattered. He promised that once he came into power he would make polygamy legal, but Kyla hoped that she would be his most special bride.

Until that time came there was nothing for Kyla to do but wait. She had traveled to the Callisto for the first time on the shuttle that brought Pierce from the Galactica, claiming she was needed to help with some of the wounded. Until the call came she would just continue to help out in the Sick Bay. Master Pierce had promised that it wouldn’t be too long.

[Brie]

A little bit here, and a little bit there. The key was to make sure that nothing would be missed, that no one would notice. The right combination of ingredients would produce the desired effect. Of course larger amounts of explosives were being purchased through the black market, weapons as well, but these small amounts would cause no one to pay attention.

Rue smiled as he looked at his stash. Surely Master Pierce would be pleased with what he had gathered so far. If he did well, maybe he would be offered a prestigious position within the new administration. That would be good, a chance to be revered, respected, feared. He would no longer be looked down on, laughed at. He would never have to clean up after the viper crews again. He couldn’t wait until the New Secret Survival Society came into power.

[Agelastus]

Fellis was surprised when a woman she didn't know bumped into her. Clumsiness was not often a Colonial trait.

She was more surprised when, after the woman had muttered apologies and disappeared around the corner, she, more out of habit than anything else, checked her pockets and found a scrap of paper in one of them that hadn't been there before.

Keeping her face impassive, she continued until she reached a turboflush. Making it seem as if she'd suddenly realised the need, she went inside, sat down, and carefully unfolded the note.

She shivered. She'd been helping Pierce with his plans for a long time, but that didn't mean that she was used to all this cloak and blade stuff.

Her leader needed weapons for the scheme to succeed. She knew that, just as she knew from her conversations with him that progress in acquiring those weapons had been slower than expected. She herself had been involved in some contacts with the Fleet's underbelly, but Pierce's need for secrecy was defeating their efforts to find the right people.

And, despite all their precautions, the word had obviously spread.

The note was simple. A time. A place. The name of one of the people she'd unsuccessfully hinted to that someone was in the market for a purchase. And a single explanatory line.

'We can provide the condiments he was not able to.'

She needed to contact her leader, and quickly. Hastily flushing, she went in search of Opposer Pierce.

[Brie]

Long after her shift was over, Nedra continued to work. As long as she stayed in the back corner no one really even noticed her. It had been a huge inconvenience when Master Pierce had told her to accept a position on the Callisto, but what Master Pierce wanted, Master Pierce would receive. She had learned to not question his commands the hard, painful way. Once when she had asked Master Pierce his logic, he threw her experiment at her, the chemicals burning through her clothes and attacking her skin. Her flesh had yet to grow back, but a young med tech with a blank right eye kept changing the bandages and making sure that it wasn’t infected.

As a member of the New Secret Survival Society, Nedra felt important. One of the few female scientists, she was tired of being ignored by the men around her. What she had to say was just as important as what they said, her ideas as important as theirs, but they just didn’t seem to care. Nedra knew that she was just as smart as anyone in the fleet, smarter by far than most. Master Pierce had promised her that he needed her, and that she would finally receive the respect due her in his new administration.

She continued to work. If anyone realized that she was building a bomb she would be joining the Widow of the Great Traitor in the brig. She shuddered at that thought. But she knew no one would notice. No one ever noticed her. No one, except Master Pierce.

[Brie]

She had been involved since the beginning. A member of the original Secret Survival Society, one of the few who had stayed with Master Pierce all these yarhens. She was proud of that fact, even prouder still of the role she had played in the execution of the Great Traitor. She couldn’t wait to leave the lie she had been living behind, to finally let everyone know who her priorities really belonged to.

[Brie]

The micron that Captain Lazant entered Brie's cell Comeek started to record his illegal video feed. He knew that Master Pierce would want to see this!

[Brie]

Comeek was slightly startled when her heard the knock, but he realized by the coded signal that it was his roommate, Chip. Comeek quickly threw a blanket over this equipment to hide it for the few microns that the door would be open. Chip stood outside, pretending to be looking for something in his pocket. Exactly one centon after he knocked he keyed in his code and entered the room. He waited until the door had closed behind him before speaking. “Anything new?”

“There’s something that Master Pierce might be interested in,” Comeek told his friend. “I’ve already sent him a coded message.”

“What happened?” Chip asked, slightly excited. He had walked across the small room and taken his own unauthorized equipment out from under his bed.

“Captain Lazant came to visit,” Comeek said.

Chip grinned. “Back from the dead. So, what did the Widow do?”

“She seemed happy to see him,” Comeek replied, “unlike any of the other visitors that she’s had. I recorded the exchange, I thought that maybe Master Pierce would want to see if a lipreader could make sense of it.”

“Good thinking,” Chip replied. “So what’s she doing now?”

“Lying down on her bed, her head under the sheet.”

Chip laughed. “Really? Let me see!”

Comeek had already uncovered the screen. “She’s been doing that a lot lately. My guess is she’s trying to hide from the cameras.”

“Makes sense,” Chip said. “It would drive me crazy having people watch me all the time.”

“The Widow was already crazy, remember? Came out during the tribunal. She went crazy when the Great Traitor died.”

“So what else are you working on?” Chip asked.

“Just some information for Master Pierce,” Comeek replied. He wasn’t going to say anything else. Even though he and Chip were friends, his allegiance was to Pierce. “How about you?”

“Same thing.” Chip sat down on his bed and started again on his research, making sure that Comeek couldn’t see what he was doing. The only person that he truly trusted was Master Pierce.

[Brie]

Upon hearing the secret knock again, both Comeek and Chip covered their equipment. Comeek then answered the door. A young woman was standing there, the most beautiful woman that Comeek had ever seen. “Someone told me that you might be able to fix my wrist chrono,” she said.

“Huh?” Comeek had to think for a micron. “Oh, yeah, come on in.” The woman entered. No one said another word until the door closed. “My name is...”

The woman quickly closed her eyes and put a finger to her lips. “Shhh! No names. We’re supposed to know as little as possible about each other, you should know that.” Comeek did know, but had lost himself in her beauty. “Master Pierce said something about wanting me to try to read the Widow’s lips.”

“You can read lips?” Comeek was in total awe of the woman.

The mystery woman rolled her eyes. “I’m deaf, so yes, of course I can read lips.” She had lost her hearing at the age of seven, due to an explosion on the overcrowded ship that she grew up on, but she wasn’t going to tell Comeek that. She wanted him to know as little as possible about her.

“Oh-kaay, iiitt’s riiiight ooveer heeeeeere,” Comeek said.

The woman rolled her eyes again. “Don’t do that. Just speak as you normally would, I can tell what you’re saying.” She looked at the monitor. “Did you know that you’re still recording?”

Comeek was visibly embarrassed, across the small room Chip held in a laugh. “Thanks. I guess Master Pierce doesn’t want two centars of the Widow hiding under the covers.” He turned off the recorder and found the spot where Lazant entered the room. “This is where it started."

The woman watched closely. She pulled out a recorder and repeated what had been said in a very monotone voice. “'There’s no such thing as privacy around here.’ ‘Ow. What was that for.’ ‘You told me to leave. You knew how much time we had, you even sent a message back for us to stick to the schedule. If I had known you were alive.’ ‘You would have stayed, and the entire infiltration team would have died. I don’t blame you, Brie, so don’t blame yourself. I’m just glad that you had the chance to see this handsome face again.’ ‘You’ve looked better. Everything check out.’ ‘Just a few bruises. Amy’s in bad shape, though. She’s on life support. I really want to fill you in, but I don’t think I should talk about it until after my debriefing, and the Commander is in the middle of something right now.’ ‘I understand.’ ‘Speaking of looking better, I’m not used to seeing you like this.’ ‘What, I think I look great in Prison Barge gray....’ Frack, they turned away from the cameras.” She looked at Comeek. “Does the Widow know that she’s being watched?”

“By Security,” Comeek replied, “but not by us.”

“Well maybe I can still pick something up,” the woman said, turning her attention back to the monitors. Start it again where they sat down.” She stared even more intensely. “'warrior’s uniform.’ ‘I was dead....’ I WISH! ‘A better protector. Brie, what they frack is’ ‘I was responsible’ ‘But we’re not dead.’ ‘charges modified’ ‘Wait a centon. Did you say Major Pierce. From Military Inquiries.’ ‘transcripts’ ‘Maybe we can get your conviction overturned....’ I HOPE NOT! ‘then get’ ‘What does Charybdis say.’ ‘I haven’t even seen him since he testified.’” The woman let out a small laugh. It had become a big joke in the New Secret Survival Society that Charybdis was ignoring Brie. “'Martinzi.’ ‘Martinzi.’ ‘Galactica.’ ‘How.’ ‘prisoner that you rescued’ ‘Martinzi is alive.’ ‘first missions....’ Okay, they’re getting up, this is better. ‘I’ll be back again soon. Hopefully with some good news about Amy.’” She watched the footage of Lazant leaving, then turned off her recorder. “Well, boys, I guess that’s all. I’ll get this to Master Pierce immediately.”

Comeek followed her to the door. It opened with a small whoosh. “Thanks for fixing my chrono,” she said to Comeek. She bent down close and whispered in his ear. “I wasn’t here, and you didn’t hear ANYTHING on that recording. Master Pierce’s orders.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. Blushing, Comeek stood at the door, watching her disappear down the hall, while Chip finally burst out laughing.

[Brie]

Chip had never been so excited in his young life. He had found it! A planet, small compared to most, but with plenty of potential for human living. There appeared to be fresh water, plant life, and an extremely comfortable, breathable atmosphere. The gravity appeared to be close to the level of the artificial gravity that everyone was already used to. There didn’t appear to be much tylium, but once the inhabitants of the fleet settled onto their new home tylium wouldn’t really be needed. Besides, there were always alternative fuel sources. Preliminary reports on the planet looked like it was exactly what they were looking for. Unfortunately, because of the narrow mindedness of those who were currently in command, they weren’t even headed in the right direction. Chip rushed to send a message to Master Pierce.