DISCLAIMER: I only borrowed them for a while. MGM and whoever can have them back whenever they want. Battlestar Galactica is the property of Glen A. Larson, Sci-Fi Channel, R & D TV, Sky and NBC Universal.
SPOILERS: Stargate episodes involving humanform replicators, Battlestar – somewhere middle season 2.
CHALLENGE: Written as part of the 1001 Nights Challenge - perfection.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

God's Perfection
By Celievamp

 

A squadron of centurions on remote patrol found one of the Eights in the wilds of a deserted planet living amongst the long devastated irradiated ruins of a once flourishing civilisation. She was insane. A Three and a Six were detailed to interrogate her to see if she had anything useful to say before they terminated and boxed her. One of the many stories she told during her debriefing was of the other she had encountered, the one called Samantha Carter.

"God's perfection," Eight giggled. "More than us. Better. Brighter."

"Where is she now?" the Three asked, taking the lead as usual. The Six looked on pensively. Eights were usually more rational than this, but this one had been under extreme stress for an undetermined length of time.

"She went away. Far far away. Maybe as far as Earth. She knows all about that, about the people there. She told me so many wonders. Things to do, places to be, people to… meet," Eight said in a sing-song voice. "But I know she still loves me. She'll come back for me one day. She said. She promised."

Three and Six looked at each other. This talk of Earth was proof of her madness. Earth was a human legend, nothing more. But if it wasn't… "Is she with the humans?" Three asked. "Is she helping them?"

Eight giggled. "No, no. She hates them, even more than she hates us. She can't change them like she can change us, but she can kill them. She's killed hundreds… thousands…"

"Change us? Did she change you, Eight?" Six asked, almost gently.

"Oh yes," Eight's face was wreathed in a smile the Cylon's had only ever seen before on the face of the human religious mystics. It told them how imperative it was that this Eight be boxed. They could not allow heresy like this to be reborn. "She made me better too."

"How? How could she make you better? You're a Cylon," Three said sharply. Admittedly, a malfunctioning one, but still a Cylon, a sister.

"Can you show us?" Six asked. Eight held up her left hand. Both Cylons drew back as before their eyes Eight's hand and forearm transformed and elongated into a razor sharp metal blade. She moved so quickly, quicker even than a Cylon was capable. Three went down without a sound, the blade slicing through her neck so deeply that she was just about decapitated. Six backed up against the wall, staring down at the crimson stain across her white dress in horror. So much blood…

"You won't get away with this," Six gasped. Eight brought her face close to hers, almond eyes dark and inscrutable, pushing herself against the taller woman. Six had no where to go. Their lips touched, Eight kissed her deeply. After a moment Six started to kiss her back. Eight - this Eight - tasted… different. She tasted almost addictively good. If this was another example of the change, then maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

"Who's going to stop me?" Eight whispered in her ear, nuzzling at her throat. The pain was sharp, sudden. Six wasn't breathing any more but somehow she wasn't quite dead either. She could feel Eight's finger's caging her still fluttering heart.

There was an alarm sounding somewhere on the ship. Six heard shouting, a scream… what sounded almost like a prayer though it could have been a curse. One of the Loeben's shouting over and over again that they were invaded, infected. Above that more in her head than in her hearing the sound of the hybrid laughing. And over and above everything else, a skittering metallic sound that seemed to be coming from all directions at once.

Eight stroked her face, lowered her to sit on the floor almost cradling her in her arms, her hand still somehow embedded in her chest, just below her breasts. Six could feel the change stealing through her, every molecule of her being shifting, changing. She had died before and death held no fear for her, her rebirth being inevitable, but this was different.

"She's here now, she'll be so pleased to see what I've done," Eight said gleefully. "The resurrection tanks are being remade, when the others wake up they'll be like us, think like we do, they'll know the truth." Somehow she could see it, the spiderlike entities melding themselves with the tanks, willingly dissolving themselves in the amniotic fluid as the nascent forms of the recently deceased were recreated. "I'm sorry that it has to be this way for you. I'm sorry that I had to hurt you."

The wall in front of her shimmered, seeming to dissolve then resolve as a humanoid shape moved through it. A woman, tall, slender, with a cap of blonde hair wearing a charcoal grey suit that left her broad strong shoulders bare. So beautiful, so perfect...

Six had never been in love before.

The woman held out her hand, smiled. Her intensely blue eyes seemed to shine with an inner light. "I'm Samantha Carter," she said.

"I'm a Six," Six stammered, reaching out with shaking fingers to take the hand, allow this wonderful creature to raise her to her feet. "But sometimes I was called Caprica."

"Caprica." Six liked the way her name sounded on this woman's lips. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Samantha Carter turned, held out her arms to Eight who held her close, her head buried in Samantha's shoulder. "You did well, little one." Still cradling Eight, she drew Six closer as well, including her in the embrace. "It's good to have family again. Once the others have reawaken, we can make plans. There are other ships out there, the other Cylons to bring the word to. And then we can take care of the humans once and for all time. And then everything will be just perfect, at last."

The End

Return to Stargate Fiction Return to Battlestar Galactica Fiction

Return to Main Page