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Post by Col. Charybdis on Jan 28, 2005 9:20:36 GMT -6
I made my way to the security area which was near the brig. Prisoners and undesirables were taken to this area to undergo analysis and investigation. I didn't go there much, but I was familiar with the place from times past.
I went over in my mind about what I had heard: that this 'Astraea' was found on a Cylon basestar and piloted the cruiser with Lazant and Amy and actually helped them escape. A brief thought passed my mind that I had not seen Lazant yet. I didn't really care to see him either, but he knew a lot about the mission. I'm sure we would be hearing his story very soon.
As I approached the security area, I checked in and started for the interrogation room. Several security personnel were standing outside. They were heavily armed. "Sergeant, what's the status of the prisoner?" I asked.
"Well, sir. The commander isn''t exactly holding her as a prisoner. She's just...strange, sir," he said as he looked over at his buddy.
"What do you know about her?" I wanted to know.
The grunt replied, "All we know is that she says she is a Colonial Warrior. And that she served onboard the Callisto, if you can believe that! She might be a Cylon spy." he said almost laughing.
"Onboard the Callisto?" I said in a whisper. I was still in confusion. It couldn't be her...it just couldn't. She died almost five yahrens ago. It's impossible...
There was one way to find out about this...
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Post by Col. Charybdis on Jan 31, 2005 9:32:13 GMT -6
(RPG note: this post was written by Astraea and posted by me)
Astraea sighed as she glanced around at the gray walls. She had been in similar rooms too many times to count. She could practically recite the questions that would be asked. Where had she been? What had she been doing? How did she survive? Then they would lead back to questions of her life before her capture. She squeezed her eyes shut. That was the one thing that they would never know.
Astraea blinked her eyes open. She just wanted to get this over with and get back to her cell. She was tired of all the games. “Lieutenant Astraea, Gold Squadron, Battlestar Callisto,” she stated for the record.
The chief investigator looked at Astraea curiously. She seemed surprisingly dispassionate for someone who was just rescued from Cylon clutches. “Do you know where you have been?”
“On one Cylon basestar after another,” she answered elusively. The Cylons were well aware of her movement within the Empire and she knew better than to reveal exactly how detailed her memory actually was. They Cylons had been probing her for yahrens and she was careful not to reveal what she knew or what she had discovered since her capture.
“And what were you doing while in Cylon captivity?” he asked carefully.
“Playing lab vermin,” she said sarcastically. “Like now.”
He frowned at the flippant comment. It wasn’t the first time that they had heard of Cylon experimentation on recovered warriors, but Astraea seemed almost blasé about the torture she must have endured. “What sort of…tests did they run on you?”
Her eyebrow rose. “You want the whole list or should I just hit the highlights?”
He exchanged a look with the other evaluator then turned back to Astraea. “We will eventually want a full account, but, for now, a brief description of your time there would be helpful.”
She shook her head. It was always the same old thing. They would question her to see how much she remembered and then try to get her to divulge Colonial secrets. She leaned against the table to stare at him accusingly. “They like to play mind games.”
He felt a chill run up his spine. There was something about her eyes, a cold resolution as if she wasn’t afraid of death or perhaps it was that she wanted to speed him along to his. “What sort of mind games?”
“The kind that twist a person’s thoughts so much that they have a hard time distinguishing what’s real and what’s not.”
“Is this real?” he asked carefully.
She chuckled lightly as she recalled a phrase by a favorite philosopher. “Reality is only a matter of your mindset.”
He shook his head slightly. “I don’t understand.”
I’m not surprised, she thought. “There are a lot of holes in my memory,” she returned instead. “Some of that was due to the crash and some to injuries I sustained while trying to escape.” She gave a thin smile as she leaned back in her seat. You won’t get anything out of me that you don’t already know.
“What sort of injuries?”
She shrugged. “Broken bones mostly. A few concussions, laser burns…that sort of thing.”
He jotted down a couple of notes then looked back up at Astraea. “And what did you do while in Cylon captivity?”
“A little shopping. A little sight seeing. You know, the usual.”
He growled deep in his throat. “Frankly, Lieutenant, I find your attitude more than a little bizarre. Aren’t you at least grateful to be around humans again?”
She gave him half a smile. “I’ll let you know once I am.”
He glanced over at his companion who merely shrugged his shoulders. Neither of them was sure what to make of the lieutenant’s responses. “Okay,” he said with finality as he laced his fingers together and leaned against the table separating them. “So why don’t we go back to what you remember before you were in Cylon hands?”
She shook her head as her smile grew. “You’re wasting your time. I was just a Viper pilot and I don’t have any command information.”
He frowned again as his confusion grew. “I wasn’t speaking of command information. I just want to know what you remember before you were captured.”
She scratched at the scar behind her ear and allowed her mind to wander back for just a centon. Charybdis. Lord how she missed him. He had asked her not to go on the mission, but she couldn’t resist the temptation of seeing an actual relic from the Colonies.
She had often been tempted to reveal her connection to him in the hopes that they could recreate his likeness, but she couldn’t allow the Cylons to twist his memory for their own designs. There were times when his memory was the only thing to keep her going. “All I remember is that I was a Colonial Warrior,” she lied. “I don’t think I was a pilot for very long, but I can’t be sure. The crash affected my memory.”
“The crash?” he repeated and saw her jerk slightly, but she quickly collected herself.
Her mind raced. Had she mentioned that she remembered the crash before? Yes, she had. Hadn’t she? She tried to separate her memory of the actual event from what she had told the Cylons. She had been knocked out for several centars and her head had throbbed like never before. “I was told that’s where I was found,” she corrected. “At a crash site.” His eyes narrowed and she could tell that he was skeptical. How could she slip up after all that time?...
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Post by Col. Charybdis on Jan 31, 2005 9:33:59 GMT -6
(RPG note: this post was written by Astraea and posted by me)
“Do you remember anything before the crash?” he pressed.
Here it comes, she thought. Questions about the Callisto, the commander, destination plans. You would think that they would be tired of asking by now. “I barely remember being a Viper pilot,” she lied once more.
He sighed as he leaned back in his chair. He could tell she was holding back. “What about the people that you were associated with? Friends? Family? Colleagues? Do you remember any of them?”
Her gaze dropped to the table as she thought of Charybdis. Friend, family, colleague…he was all that and more. “No one,” she said softly. If only she could see his face again…
“Lazant mentioned in his report that all of the cold cells were off line except for one. Would you happen to know why?”
Astraea smiled slyly. “There was a bit of an accident a couple of sectons ago. They’ve only managed to get one operational again.”
“What sort of ‘accident’?” he pressed.
She shrugged her shoulders. That was information that they already knew so there was no point in lying. “A couple of detonators went missing from the ammunition compartment and just happened to find their way to the cold cell level.”
“Chief,” the voice over the com-line interrupted. “The Colonel has just passed through security and is on his way there.”
“Thank you,” he acknowledged. He wasn’t certain why the colonel would suddenly take an interest in their debriefing and unconsciously smoothed his uniform as he stood from the table. He looked over at his companion. “Do you have the reports ready?”
“Yes sir,” he replied and tapped his hand against the data pad on the table.
Astraea rubbed her hand against her eyes and wondered who they would send in this time to try to coax her into divulging classified information. She would have laughed when they sent in a replica of Adama if she hadn’t been so pleased to see him. They Cylons had been unaware of his death and tried to use his likeness to entice her. She had never really had the opportunity to get to know the commander, but she had admired him a great deal.
She was vaguely aware of the chief’s greeting when the door behind her slid open, but the sound of the colonel’s voice drove through her chest like a centurion’s sword.
“We haven’t quite finished with…” the chief began.
“Can you leave us please?” Charybdis asked as he stared at the back of Astraea’s head. She hadn’t turned when he entered, but stiffened at the sound of his voice.
“We should…”
“Now,” Charybdis snapped, but didn’t bother to spare him a glance. His eyes were locked on the woman slowly rising from the table.
Astraea’s heart was pounding in her chest as her body began to tremble. It couldn’t be, she insisted and instinctively took several steps away. No, they couldn’t know. She pressed her hand over the scar behind her ear and closed her eyes. She heard the shuffling of feet and then the door closed. She put her hands against the cold metal of the bare wall to steady herself as she strained to hear the sound of his breathing.
“Astraea?”
A sob escaped her before she clamped a hand over her mouth. She shook her head as she squeezed her eyes shut. It simply couldn’t be! She thought that her knees would give way when he placed his hands on her shoulders and repeated her name.
“Astraea.” His hands were shaking as he gently turned her to face him. He took in a startled gasp when he saw her face. He could hardly believe it was really her. So many yahrens had passed and hope had faded long ago. Tears were already streaming down her face as she kept her eyes firmly closed. “Please look at me.”
Astraea shook her head as her chin trembled. She wouldn’t be beguiled by yet another Cylon ploy. But what if this was real? What if she had actually been rescued and the one man that she had loved above all others was standing in front of her, speaking her name? So many times he had been with her in her dreams. So many times she had yearned to feel his arms around her. Could she allow herself to believe? Should she?
She drew in a steadying breath. The temptation to look up into his face was simply too much to resist. As her eyes opened, she stared at his chest for a long moment. They can’t know about him, she told herself and shored up her courage to raise her eyes to his. She couldn’t stop the sobbing laugh that escaped before her heart lodged in her throat.
He shook his head as he took her face in his hands. “I didn’t believe it when they told me,” he confessed. “I didn’t believe it.” He gathered her in close as she collapsed against him. They clung to each other like never before as Astraea wept...
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Post by Col. Charybdis on Feb 1, 2005 9:27:13 GMT -6
Astraea sobbed almost uncontrollably, half laughing half crying. I was dumbfounded. It was her! It was her!
"Astraea," I said tenderly. She looked up into my eyes. I swear right then and there that I was looking into a ghost's eyes. But quickly, I thought that this had happened before. My very own sister. I thought she had perished so many yahrens before during the destruction of the colonies, yet, she survived and we found her.
History was repeating itself again!
The emotions came flooding back. This was the woman whom I had convinced to join the Callisto when she was first commissioned. She came to be with me. I had made the decision to step down as Captain of Gold squadron so we could be together and possibly be sealed! But then, she was lost on that fateful mission.
The pilot had seen the ship she was on go down in flames toward the planet. There was no way she could have survived, yet, here she stood, more than 5 yahrens later in my arms!
"Charybdis?" she stammered almost in a whisper. "Is this really you?" as she touched my cheek so softly as if I was ghost to her.
I clutched her arms around my neck, "yes, Astraea. It's really me." I hugged her all the more. She felt different from what I recalled. A bit thinner and sort of frazzled, but that was to be expected if she had been in Cylon captivity for 5 yahrens.
Neither one of us said anything as we kept clutching each other...
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Post by Astraea on Feb 4, 2005 15:07:12 GMT -6
Astraea could barely make out his face through the onslaught of tears. She was giddy with disbelief. She hadn’t allowed herself to hope that she was actually returning to the fleet and, now that she was standing in front of Charybdis, she was even more certain that she was living a dream. She ran her hands over his arms and his face then buried her fingers in his hair. “You’re wearing it shorter now.”
She didn’t know why she had commented on his hair when there were so many other things that she wanted to say, so many things that she needed to tell him, but they all escaped her.
Charybdis was stunned, but only for a micron. It was just like Astraea to come out with something completely inappropriate for the situation. “Well I’m rubbing elbows with the commander now,” he teased lightly. “I’ve got to look my best.”
“As if you could ever look any other way,” she breathed then struggled to hold back a fresh flow of tears. “I didn’t tell them about you. I couldn’t. I didn’t want them to use your likeness in their hallucinations. I wanted you to myself.”
His expression was one of genuine confusion. He could only assume that she was speaking of the Cylons, but the Empire was the last thing on his mind at the moment. “I’ve got a feeling that’s a very long story and I want to hear every micron of it, but right now I just want to look at you.”
She wiped at her face and brushed back her hair. “I must look like I’ve gone through a Triad tournament. I can’t even remember the last time I had a turbowash.”
Charybdis smiled a soft, warm smile. “Considering that you’ve just returned from the dead, I’d say you look pretty good.”
Astraea wrapped her arms around his waist and held tight. “I still can’t believe it,” she beamed. “If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up.”
He cupped her cheek with his palm and lightly stroked his thumb across her face. “If this is a dream, it’s the best one I’ve had in a very long time.” He pulled her close to kiss her forehead then wrapped his arms around her again. She fit so perfectly against him, her head tucked under his chin. He squeezed his eyes shut as his emotions swelled. He had missed just holding her.
The chief interrogator stepped back into the room and stopped abruptly when he saw the colonel with that irritating woman in his arms. He judiciously cleared his throat as he dropped his gaze to the deck. “Excuse me Colonel.”
“Not now,” Charybdis returned in a husky voice.
“I’m sorry sir,” he persisted, “but Whitcher from security is trying to get in contact with you concerning someone named Elmer?”
“Elmer? Of frack,” he muttered. With everything that was going on, he had completely forgotten about Amy’s father sitting in his quarters. Amy! Charybdis shook his head slightly as he felt a stab of guilt. He was holding another woman in his arms while his on again off again fiancée was in a coma in the Life Station. He took Astraea’s shoulders in his hands and pushed her back so that he could see her face. “I should take care of this. Elmer is Captain Amy’s father and he still thinks that she’s dead.”
“Oh! Of course,” Astraea said as she slowly slipped her arms from around his waist. Every fiber in her being was screaming not to let him go, but she knew that he had duties. It was one of the things that she admired most about him, his devotion to the Callisto and her personnel.
Charybdis gave her a reassuring smile. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
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Post by Astraea on Feb 6, 2005 1:21:22 GMT -6
The chief interrogator took special note of how Astraea’s eyes never strayed from the colonel until he disappeared out the door and then her knees seemed to give way. He took a step toward her instinctively, but she caught herself and shakily moved back to her seat. “I take it you know the colonel?” he asked.
Astraea blinked several times to prevent her welling eyes from spilling over. “I knew him when he was Gold Squadron leader,” she returned softly.
His eyes narrowed as he stared down at her. From the expression on her face, he would say that she knew Colonel Charybdis more personally than simply a former squadron leader, but he didn’t press. Instead, he waved at his people still standing in the corridor and returned to his seat. “Why don’t we start over,” he suggested.
Astraea straightened in her chair and brushed her hair back from her face. “Lieutenant Astraea, Gold Squadron.” She let out a heavy sigh. “Historian.”
The chief raised an eyebrow. She had left out the fact that she had been a historian in their initial exchange. He made a note on his data pad then looked back at her. “Do you know where you’ve been for the last several yahrens?”
She closed her eyes as she drew a deep breath. “Initially a Cylon basestar over Carticon Central where I was restored to physical health. Duration unknown. From there I was transferred to a basestar in the Bartennet sector where I spent seven sectars then transferred to an experimental colony on Jartis Station in the Tarsus quadrant for three sectars. I was moved to another basestar for two sectars before being sent to the moon base on…”
The chief looked to his counterpart in bemusement as Astraea rattled off the growing list of locations. Getting anything out of her had been worse than pulling teeth and now she was suddenly a font of information. “Are we recording this,” he whispered and received a nod. He looked back at Astraea who had continued her dissertation until she concluded with the basestar where she was discovered. When she finished, she opened her eyes and waited. “Okay,” he said slowly. “And what where you doing while in Cylon captivity?”
“Mostly I was used in a type of dream enhancement experiment. They Cylons have developed a process of linking human dreams so that several individuals can experience the same vision in an effort to extract information.”
“What sort of information?”
“Anything that they deemed valuable. Whereabouts of human settlements, supply lines, large mineral deposits, transmission codes and, of course, the fleet location.”
He studied her for a long moment. Had the colonel said something to her about cooperating? “And what sort of information did you divulge?”
Her gaze dropped to her lap. She only wished that she knew. “I can’t be for certain exactly what I passed along, but the one thing that probably saved my life was when I revealed that I was the fleet historian. They Cylons are trying to understand human logic so that they can ultimately track down the fleet. I suppose that they hoped my extensive knowledge of past movements in the fleet could help them determine where they were.”
He looked back down at his data pad for direction. “Let’s go back to the crash where you were captured,” he suggested. “You mentioned that…”
“Excuse me Chief,” Astraea interrupted as she sat up on the edge of her chair. “Might I suggest that you point me to the nearest computer terminal? I can have put all this onto a compudisk in less time than it would take for you to question me. It would save us both a lot of time.” She gave half a smile. “Besides, I have a mission report to fill out that’s five yahrens overdue.”
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