nexus_crossings | Closed Paths

"Ah, Light's sake." What do you say to that? She rubs at one of her antenna, shaking her head a little. "That sounds like a mess. I hope you're working toward some kind of equilibrium. How are they treating you now?"

At least introducing her partner is an easy topic: the little Ghost drifts out into view on being referred to, its shell spinning for a moment around its bright blue optic. It's almost small enough to fit in Adia's palm, a delicate contrast to the Titan in her heavy fieldplate.

"I am a Ghost," he says softly. "

It's my job to guide and assist my Guardian in her duties. Which include protecting humanity. I just feel I should point that out.

"

"They leave us alone for the most part. But they built a detention center, and every so often someone goes missing..." She frowns softly and adds, "I think that even if they really wanted peace, there is too much pain on both sides for it to work."

She follows the Ghost with her eyes. She's never seen anything like it, in the Nexus or otherwise. She certainly doesn't expect it to speak. "Hello," she says to it, letting its words sink in after a moment. Her expression turns regretful. "Our world must be very different from yours."

"Not with that kind of dishonorable, underhanded stupidity it won't." Blaze lets out a synthetic grunt, exasperated already with these strange new cousins. But they aren't here, and it's only Adia who receives the focus of her fierce golden stare. A measuring look, perhaps.

"Well, being different isn't necessarily a bad thing." Not that the strange civil war sounds remotely good, but the Ghost is thinking of the terrors that claw at their own gates. Hopefully Adia's people have been spared that kind of threat.

"Seems like most people we meet aren't too used to sapient machines," Blaze observes. "But we've been around on our Earth for at least a thousand years. Exos like me, that is. Ghosts aren't human-built, that's a whole other story. We just live and fight alongside our organic brethren like anyone else."

Adia has heard Cylons called lots of things, but "stupid" is not one of them. She's not about to disagree with Blaze's assessment, though, not while under the scrutiny of that formidable stare.

"Wait -- you're from Earth?" Adia asks, astonished, before shaking her head. "Sorry, it's just... on my world, Earth is a myth. But you're the first person I've met from an Earth that has sapient machines that humans made. Have you gotten along with humans all this time? A thousand years, you said?"

"A myth?" That makes a change. The two machines share a look, though Blaze is quick to return her attention to Adia with a nod.

"Sure. We were created to defend Earth and her colonies back during the Golden Age. It's our home and humans are our people. Our cousins. It's hard to imagine going to war against them." She doesn't even like thinking about it, from her tone. "Our creators never tried to make us anything less than they were. Soldiers, yes, but never tools."

"Yes." She wonders at the look Blaze and her Ghost share, but she's not surprised. It must be strange to hear that your home planet is little more than a fairy tale in other universes. "Where I'm from, humans originally lived on Kobol, but there was some sort of catastrophe that made it uninhabitable. The twelve tribes fled and founded the twelve colonies -- different planets in another solar system. But according to the Sacred Scrolls, there was a thirteenth tribe that had left Kobol before everyone else, and settled on a planet they called Earth."

Adia takes in Blaze's explanation with a wistful, almost longing expression. What a different world hers would be if Cylons had been created with the same intentions. "And they made you in their image? There are Cylons who are organic. They look human. But we didn't do that. Sometime in the forty years between the first and second war, they created human forms for themselves."

Blaze listens raptly, taking in the story with all the more interest precisely because it's new and foreign to her. She likes stories, and the Titan class of Guardians have a particular respect for tradition.

"We're pretty sure Earth is our point of origin, but considering how many legends we keep finding truth to, I wouldn't rule anything out. Maybe we'll get out into the galaxy and find a dozen cousins already out there." That's sort of an exciting thought. Hopefully their hypothetical kin are in better shape, though.

She nods at Adia's question, and doesn't miss her expression. It's one of the reasons her tone's eased to something warm and friendly, the heat of frustration dying down for now.

"Psychologically and physically - heh, to a point, obviously." She taps an antenna to illustrate, the plates around her optics shifting enough to convey the amusement her mouth can't. And conversely, her figure manages to be discernibly feminine despite the sturdy build and heavy plate she's wearing. Leave her helmet on and it would be easy to assume (as people have) that she's just another human woman.

"So why the organic bodies?" She frowns. "No offense, of course, but when you have the chance to customize your own forms that's a strange direction to go. Even aside from all the disadvantages of going organic. If there's so much bad blood there, why adopt the shape of your enemy?"

It's a story that Adia has told a dozen times before, at least. She doesn't expect Blaze to be so interested. "How far have humans traveled from Earth, where you're from?"

She takes a closer look at Blaze's form while she speaks, notes with growing ease the differences between her and the weaponized robots she sees back on New Caprica. "No offense taken," she says with a small smile, before her expression turns thoughtful. "Some of them had infiltrated the colonies. Made it easier to blend in, I guess."

"So far as we can tell, we were working our way to the edge of the solar system during the Golden Age. After that, we got hit hard by a hostile power. We got knocked back hard, and we're still fighting our way back. Nowadays no-one can travel much farther out than the inner planets. Our shipwrights are still working on recreating Near-Light-Speed drives, so for now we have to salvage and repair old ones." She chuckles. "Almost makes me jealous when I hear about humans in other worlds roaming the galaxy with warp engines. But I'm glad, too, because I know one day we'll make it out there ourselves."

Limited as it is, her expression darkens again at Adia's explanation. "Hnh. Guess that makes sense. I'm not one to get squeamish about intel-gathering, but- that doesn't exactly sit right. I always used to figure we were built so similar to humans for social integration."

She has to remind herself that, advanced technology or not, these are effectively pre-Traveler humans. Of course they'll be inclined to bitter wars among themselves, no matter what they're made of. It's just a sorrowful look at how differently their society could have turned out. And the idea of choosing to convert to organic forms is... particularly odd given what she might have learned recently about her own people.

"No FTL drive?" Adia asks, surprised. Blaze is, frankly, amazing, an inorganic life form that the Cylons could only wish to replicate, so it seems strange that their exploration is limited to their home solar system. "I hope you're able to go exploring, too. Although it sounds like there is more in your universe than just humans and androids?" She spares a quick glance at Ghost. "We haven't met any aliens in our travels."

"It's how they were able to get the codes to our inter-colony defense system. I don't know why they needed seven different models, or so many copies of each." She pauses, and twists the ends of her scarf again before adding, "Some of them were sleeper agents. I, um, I was close to one of them. He seemed very human to me."

"We're far from alone, but it's been uh, a mixed experience." Blaze gestures an invitation at the bench beside her, since they're still swapping stories and it seems inconsiderate to leave the poor woman standing around. "The first alien we made contact with was the Traveler. I'll spare you the long story, but luckily for us it turned out to be friendly. More than friendly. It terraformed entire worlds for us to build colonies on, kickstarted the Golden Age. And in the end, it created the Ghosts." There's a definite affection in her voice when she looks at her little partner; he drifts closer as if in answer.

"On the other hand, we have about four races of alien trying to wipe us out. Record's kind of hazy on what happened, but between them they destroyed our cities and pushed us to the brink of extinction."

Her optics flare bright again at Adia's story, though it's honest sympathy rather than anger offered in her voice. "I'm sorry. Must have been rough to go through that kind of betrayal."

Adia sits down on the offered bench, grateful for the invitation. "What was the Traveler like?" she asks, wondering about the intentions of a being so powerful that it can bring about a Golden Age.

She cringes at the mention of extinction. "I'm sorry. Are they still attacking? How many humans are left?" How awful to not even know the details of their destruction. It's cold comfort, but at least Adia knows why the Cylons attacked.

"He didn't... he didn't betray anyone. He killed himself as soon as he found out he was a Cylon." She looks away, almost guiltily. "Maybe he volunteered to be a sleeper agent before he was given false memories. I don't know. It didn't seem like it."

"It looks like a small moon: this huge silver sphere a few miles across. But that's just what we can see. The Traveler is a being of pure Light, and its power alters the world in ways that defy conventional physics. It can change the gravity of a planet, give life to the dead. Imbue weapons and armor with new properties. When the enemy came, the Traveler fought to defend us, and suffered terrible wounds in the battle. Now it's dead, or dormant, but it still floats above our city and protects us. Sometimes we call it a god, though I don't think it ever asked for that."

"Not even we know much about it."

She hmms over the numbers a bit, glancing at Ghost to correct her when she answers, "We have one last city, and I think a few million people there. Our enemies never stop pressing us, not for the last few centuries, but the Wall holds strong. The Darkness isn't snuffing us out any time soon."

She can't help but peer a bit closer when Adia looks away. "...You think maybe the first he knew about it was when they activated him- his mission programming, I mean? That'd be a damned dirty thing to pull on someone. I don't know if suicide was his only way out, but you have to respect that kind of courage."

"Maybe the Traveler had its own history with your enemies," Adia muses. "I can see why people would call it a God, I've never heard of a being so powerful that wasn't one." She pauses thoughtfully before adding, "Even the gods of our religion aren't as powerful. Not that... well, if they exist in my universe, they've never shown themselves."

"A few million... that's good. There are less than 40,000 of us." She smiles sadly. "We don't have anyone like you to help protect us."

She doesn't say anything for a little while, just stares at her hands in her lap. "We were on our ship -- a research vessel -- when the Cylons attacked the colonies," she says finally. "They were broadcasting news of the attack on a vidscreen in the entertainment room, and they showed a picture of Caspar. I mean, the same model as him. He ran, but... but there really isn't anywhere to run on a ship. And then he --"

She takes in a shaky breath, trying her hardest to keep her composure. "I tried to help. I told him that I could... I don't know, vouch for him, or something." She wipes at the corner of her eyes and laughs bitterly. "Like that would have done any good... an organic Cylon in military custody? They would have taken him apart like a science experiment."

More quietly she adds, "Then, much later, I found out that Cylons could download into a new body, their memories intact. So... I don't know. Maybe on some level he knew that. He might even have been programmed to take his own life if he was caught."

"Wait, that's all? You said there were multiple colonies - just how hard did those wars hit you?" Her dismay is evident - as bad as these Cylons can apparently be, she sort of assumed a foe bent on occupation wouldn't need to inflict massive casualties.

Blaze is starting to wonder if she's said something tactless when Adia speaks again. She keeps quiet and listens, though when the woman struggles not to cry she reaches an instinctive hand to her shoulder. It occurs to her a second late that maybe a friendly robotic touch isn't the kind of comfort Adia wants, but she's a tactile kind of person. It's more polite than a hug.

The matter of tactical suicide, on the other hand, is something she can offer a real opinion on. "There's logic to that. I'd do it, if I didn't want to fight for some reason. But that's not so much about programming, I don't think. Not sure how a normal survival instinct would factor into it either. Do other Cylons do that if they're captured?"

"There were fifty billion of us, before the war. They dropped thermonuclear bombs on all of the colonies, targeting the major cities. Everyone who escaped did so by ship." She looks almost apologetic, as if she's disappointing Blaze somehow with their staggeringly low numbers. "They hit our military fleet, too. Only two battlestars survived, one because it was being decommissioned and turned into a museum."

The hand on the shoulder surprises her, but she doesn't move away. It's the first time in a while that someone has tried to comfort her with touch (in the Nexus, anyway). "There was another copy of his model who blew himself up Galactica. But he wasn't a sleeper agent." She thinks some more, and adds quietly, "There was another Cylon who killed herself by blowing up one of our ships. But she had been a prisoner beforehand and tortured pretty horribly... I don't know how many of us, human or otherwise, would want to live after that."

The Exo's optics dim as she considers the scale of that destruction, and the hovering Ghost looks down sadly. There's no shock in it, for them - they and the world they know were born to such things. But it's never pleasant to learn yet another civilization had to endure that devastation - self-inflicted, no less.

"I understand," she says, a kind of grim sorrow in her voice. There's only one way to answer that kind of horror, and it starts with soldiering on no matter what. "Good thing you got as many people out as you did. The Cylons, though - they've got some strange ideas if this is how they make peace. That and some arrogant damned nerve. What's the status of your military under the occupation?"

That said- she's no better pleased by how the human side has apparently behaved under pressure. "Better to die well, when it comes to that. Reincarnation wouldn't have been much of a kindness to her, unless she underwent a full reboot and wiped her memory. Still doesn't answer your question, of course." She considers, shrugs. "Suppose you could just corner a Cylon and ask them about their sleepers' escape protocols."

It's funny how Adia can tell that Blaze and Ghost feel sad for her, despite them being androids (or... whatever Ghost is). It's more emotion than some of the human Cylons show, when interacting with humans, and she appreciates it. "At the time the Cylons wanted complete genocide. I think a few of them spent enough time with humans to decide otherwise." She shakes her head. "But you're right, this isn't any way to make peace."

"Our military jumped into hyperspace when the Cylons arrived. They were orbiting New Caprica, and it was either stay and get annihilated, or leave and try to come back for a rescue mission... it felt like abandonment at the time, but I understand why they made that decision."

"I hope she found some peace," Adia says sincerely. She holds back a sigh at Blaze's suggestion. "They are very good at keeping their secrets. And anyway..." She trails off, not wanting to sound selfish, but Blaze has kindly listened to her, the least she can do is be honest, "...I only really care about what Caspar was thinking."

"Glad to hear they got away intact, but I've got to admit it makes me wonder about the Cylon strategy. They don't seem like people with qualms about using civilians as hostages." She sounds aggravated by that.

She frowns at Adia's explanation of Cylon secrecy - though the 'huh' she lets out is more puzzled and concerned than angry. At the young woman's admission, though, Blaze considers her words and nods slowly.

"Think I understand. Who cares what the programming said, right? He's your friend. His decision is all that matters."

She winces at Blaze's assessment, as if reliving a painful memory. "I was... I was Caspar's hostage. Briefly. So he could buy himself a little time to think. He didn't hurt me, though. He looked horrified that he had frightened me at all..."

"But you're right, without our military, we're sitting ducks. Even with the military, it would need to be a surprise attack to save us. We're outnumbered."

She gives Blaze a small smile, grateful that she understands. "Most people see them as a monolithic unit, like cogs in a machine. But I believe that they're still individuals. No matter how much coding they share with one another."

The Exo actually goes quiet for a minute. She may never have had to go through the same things, but there are parallels here and there, places where she can sympathize with Caspar's story more than she'd like to admit.

Her Ghost interjects, covering for her. "I don't know how anyone could react well in that situation. He must have been terribly lost... and afraid."

"See, that I can understand," Blaze says, breaking her silence in a low voice. "It's a hell of a lot easier to forgive a scared kid for doing something dumb. But now the Cylons are holding all the cards, and they've got no excuse to act like cowards."

She tilts her head and teases Adia outright at that last though, trying to lighten the mood in her own awkward way. "Hey, you organic types are the experts on 'sharing code'. The rest of us keep it to ourselves. But since we're talking individuality, I kinda skipped over asking your name. I'm Blaze-37; most people just call me Blaze outside of formalities. And Ghost already introduced himself."

Adia doesn't miss Blaze's thoughtful silence, even as she listens to Ghost talk. She nods slowly at his assessment. "I've spent whole days picking apart every moment from when he found out he was a Cylon to... to the end. I do think he was scared, and desperate." She looks over at Blaze, her expression sincere. "I forgive him that much, easily."

The joke has its intended effect on Adia -- she lets out a surprised laugh, loud enough that she covers her mouth until she's quieted down. "You have a point there... It's nice to meet you, Blaze. And you, too, Ghost. My name's Adia."

The look Blaze gives her is focused, a moment's keen study before the Exo nods to her. "Too bad your people don't have more like you. On both sides."

Adia's laughter seems to make the Guardian relax even more. Blaze is honestly quite delighted that her joke worked, and it shows in her voice. "Pleasure to meet you too, Adia. You said you worked on a research vessel? What's your normal post?"

Adia smiles wearily. "It's hard to see in shades of gray when everyone around you insists that there's only black and white. But thank you. I don't know how open-minded I'd be if I hadn't been so close to Caspar." Maybe things would be easier if she'd never bothered to get to know him in the first place, but she doesn't voice that thought.

"I'm a microbiologist," Adia says, perking up a bit at the subject change. "We studied infectious diseases. It was research-only on the Chiron, but since we settled on New Caprica, my work became more practical -- trying to prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases, mostly. It was a crash course in public health."

"Not everyone who has the chance to learn is willing to," Ghost says quietly. Blaze half turns her head toward him, then nods and claps Adia on the shoulder. Gently, for her, so as not to bruise their new friend.

"Guess it isn't easy to put a war to rest. But you've got the capability, all of you. The people of our Earth treated one another viciously for thousands of years. Go back a thousand years and I'll bet they wouldn't believe they could ever make peace, either. And yet they did." There's a fierce earnestness in her voice, a deep faith in what humanity can achieve.

"With everyone crammed into ships or trying to build a settlement from scratch, right. Must be a worthy challenge trying to keep them all healthy. I don't know too much about the fine points of epidemiology, but public health seems like a major concern down in the City."

Closed Paths

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