01: Video

[itstopped]

[The screen turns on to show Felix, new to the barge and newly free of the breach. He's standing in the middle of a metal room, the walls honeycombed with bunk beds -- industrial in appearance, but spaced with a certain military precision.

As with the breach, he's missing the lower half of his right leg. But now, he has a clunky-looking metal prosthetic attached, extending down to a black boot, and he leans on a single forearm crutch instead of the awkward things he relied on back in town. He's neat and trimmed and wearing some kind of uniform.

And he looks very, very confused.]

What the frak was that? I thought it was a dream, or maybe even one of those visions everyone keeps having. Some last flash before the end...

...But then, how could I possibly be back on Galactica? There's no way I'm a Cylon, too... if nothing else, I don't think they'd let me resurrect like this. [He taps his crutch against his leg, with a hollow metal sound.]

Comments

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[He reduces his tone of hyper-pragmatism, a bit, unbending.]

Inmates do revolt, but against who? The wardens aren't a cohesive unit and can't make policy, and there's no finding the admiral. Most of them make what they can of this place.

Lieutenant. I'm not your warden, to tell you what you have and haven't done wrong. I don't know. But you've died to come here. All the inmates have. Graduate this place and you've got a chance to go back and live for your freedom. Or request to be put ashore in any universe that strikes your fancy. You don't come away from this with nothing.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Felix lets out a cold, bitter laugh.]

Come away and go where? If I go back to my world, my only choice is to turn traitor for real and go over to the enemy. So I should go somewhere else and start with nothing, on a planet I don't understand, with this? [He nods down to his leg again.] I saw how people treated me back there. You were kind. A lot weren't.

Who says I want to go anywhere at all? Maybe I wanted to be dead.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Where are you? The Admiral brings people back from the dead and collects them from every universe. Creates matter, heals bodies. And you think that your choices are that limited.

If you still want to be dead when you're done, then it's on the table. But there's a man aboard who started an inmate. And stayed to warden, too. When his man graduated he left a while. Walked by the prison he'd died in and got to make them mend their ways.

Don't assume there's so little waiting.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

There's no mending those people. Not our Admiral, not our President. The moment they realized that-- [He cuts off, shaking his head angrily. There's a long story, there, long and full of bitter memories.] There's no going back to that place, Brachi. It's just as likely humanity won't even exist anymore by the time I get out.

[And he doesn't want to hear any more about chances. He raises a hand to forestall any argument.] But you raise a good point, anyway. If your Admiral can bring people back from the dead, why do I still have this? Why can't he just... put my leg back the way it was?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[The use of his first name by someone he doesn't know well is starting to feel a little aggressive, but he'll chalk it up to a difference in styles. And they knew each other, after a fashion.]

Ask your warden, when you get one. It's possible it'll get fixed. It's happened before.

[He never knew Rex before his face was healed, but he's seen the records on the network, and frankly the man gave him a run for his money in local barge ugliness. He would have risen to the challenge if necessary, though.]

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[It's more about himself than Stildyne -- he'd mostly stopped using military titles the last time he'd stopped being in the military, and he's not sure what the hell he is now, but he suspects he's a Felix and not a Lieutenant, so the Chief gets to be a Brachi.

And what Brachi says grabs his attention, really for the first time.]

...Are you joking?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Yes. You can tell my jovial and friendly expression.

[It's more sardonic than either of those.]

I'm not joking. I can't promise it'll be done for you but I know that it's possible to be done.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[This is the first thing anyone's said that makes him actually want to do something other than airlock himself at the next available opportunity. The shock coincides with the fatigue in his wounded leg becoming sort of overbearing -- he's not used to standing this long on it -- and he sits down heavily at the room's long steel table, a hand to his mouth.]

Gods...

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

How long's it been since you ate, Gaeta?

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

What? I don't know... a day or so, I suppose.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

You should probably get some food in you and then see the medical staff. Someone could bring you something if the leg's hurting.

[Someone meaning Stildyne, but it sounds so damned mother-hennish when he out and says it. He has a reputation of bastardry to keep up with.]

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

It's not, really. It stopped hurting when I died. I'm just... tired. There's a lot going on, if you haven't noticed.

[Woke up, started a coup, got some people killed, failed to take over, was executed, woke up homeless, found himself on the Barge... He guesses in that time he technically ate and slept, but it feels like it's all been one long, long day.]

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

I'm tangentially aware. Do you know where the mess is?

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

All I know is that I'm apparently on level five.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

First level; large room, people coming and going, sign above the doors. Hard to miss.