02: Video

[itstopped]

[Felix is sitting for this one, his lower body hidden, but the sharp-eyed might notice that his crutch is nowhere in sight. His uniform is also gone for good (for now). He's at the long metal table in his barracks, and the surface is absolutely covered with wires, cables, microchips... It looks like he's dismantled an entire fleet's worth of communicators.

He seems a little annoyed about it.]

Does anyone have a spare computer they could lend me? Or even just a motherboard and a serial port connector cable.

[Private to Dr. McCoy]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now, Doc. I... thank you, really. It's a big improvement.

[Private to Sarah Connor]

You said you're Gaius's Warden, didn't you? We should talk sometime.

Comments

[itstopped]

[Disappointed xenophobe is disappointed and xenophobic!] I see. Very interesting.

[Gods, it really is half the frakking ship, isn't it? More than half, even, it seems, aliens and subspecies and whatever Time Lords are and other non-humans, and it's pretty hard not to pre-judge based on his limited but quite extreme experience with the subject.

On the other hand... it's not that he exactly has much faith in the workings of this ship (or any ship, anymore), but it's starting to dawn on him that he's silently committed himself to hating over half the population. People who aren't giving him much of a reason to (well, the Time Lords, maybe).

And besides...]

...But you are... you're mostly human. [Not, for example, a machine that really really looks like one.]

[truth_is_cold]

Don't worry. I'm not anything that eats people or even kills for fun. The latter is more than some humans can say.

[He can tell there's some nervousness, but after Harper he can't blame Gaeta at all. Harper saw his world destroyed by Nietzscheans. Why should he have any love of them. He doesn't know or can't say what Gaeta's been through, and even if he hasn't met another race before they can be nerve-wracking.]

But I'm made of the same genes and cells, yes.

[itstopped]

That's not as reassuring as you might think it is. [Not when Cylons can't even be genetically tested for, and not when Cylons can reproduce.

But Rhade's not entirely wrong, he knows. Not that he knows any humans who are actively worse than the Cylons, but there are Kara Thrace some like Kara Thrace who take just as much pleasure or are just as blind to themselves as the toasters are. So he takes this in quietly, and after a moment, returns with:]

But you killed someone? To get here, I mean.

[It's completely an assumption, but the way Rhade said it -- not for fun -- has him wondering.]

[truth_is_cold]

I made decisions that I thought were for the greater good regardless of the people that would be affected by them. Even after I switched sides, and tried to rebuild what I destroyed. I thought I was right.

[itstopped]

[Well, that's interesting.]

And you've since changed your mind.

[truth_is_cold]

I have. Little else has changed.

[itstopped]

But that... led you to graduate? That decision?

[truth_is_cold]

Yes, that's what graduated me. It's difficult to reconcile something necessary with something that's wrong.

[itstopped]

[Well, that definitely seems to strike a chord with him. He stares at the screen for a moment, clearly a bit nonplussed-- then abruptly clears his throat and looks away.]

Well, you've given me something to think about, Mr... it was... what did you say your name was?

[truth_is_cold]

Rhade. Gaheris Rhade.

Good luck with your motherboard. [He still doesn't mind too much what the inmates do, because inmates knew things that wardens didn't frequently.]

[itstopped]

Felix. Thank you. [And now he's going to have a good think. :c]