Her Enemies, Closer
Are you as shocked as I am ?
I mean, about me gifting the election to Baltar.
"You'd die inside," said Bill Adama, which was true, since I know he was really talking about himself. "We're not criminals."
Shocking how the military can't get their head around doing evil that good may come.
Given what they do for a living.
Anyway.
Bill said that, I knew I'd lost him. And the Galactica, and the Pegasus, and their marines.
So.
No way could I steal the election and make it stick. That time, I had to let it go.
The battle, perhaps. But not the war. Bill said that, warning me he was in earnest about letting Baltar be president, but not to give up hope, and to wait. Bless.
There's always a back-up plan for victory.
One year later, here we are on New Caprica. Only difference from old Caprica, this one is pre-nukes.
Otherwise, same devastated wasteland, same disaster for humanity.
Bill's in orbit fretting about his battlestar as it falls to pieces around him, and I'm planet-side teaching elementary school.
Just like old times.
You might think I've got nothing out of this, but no. For one thing, I've got a fourth outfit to last me the rest of my life. A huge grey sweater, for the cold, and boots against the mud.
Gifts from Maya.
Don't ask me whose sale of effects she bought them from. Also, I've got Maya.
Tori's idea. Knows how to cut to the chase, that girl. Easiest way to keep an eye on the thing we tricked Maya into fostering, sleeping with its new mother.
Only it's called Isis now, I gotta remember that. She's called.
Half-Cylon, half- human. Half meaning not.
Deep down, Bill Adama and Gaius Baltar know I'm not corrupt, or dishonest, or a criminal.
They've said as much to my face, more or less.
Me? I'm - relieved.
Even made a vow to Maya. A lover's vow.
That sweet, lost girl.
I raised my right hand and said, "I vow and affirm, without any moral reservation or mental evasion, that I will protect and defend Isis with every fibre of my being."
I didn't say, to what end.
There's always a back-up plan.
We should be true to what we are.
When the Cylons come back, humanity's gonna have something to bargain with.