CHAPTER

16

In what she had to think was the most admirable display of restraint she’d ever shown—and, sadly, no one was ever going to know it—Laura Roslin sat at her desk and watched blood pour from Sarah Porter’s eyes and ears and mouth without giving the slightest indication that anything was wrong.

Porter was the representative of Gemenon, an extremely hard-nosed and intelligent dark-skinned woman who had never hesitated to get into Laura’s face on any topic. Of all the members of the Quorum, she and Roslin had the most fractious history, going back to when Roslin had denied Porter’s request for additional water supplies on behalf of her constituency. Porter had retaliated (or at least that was how Laura had seen it) by backing Tom Zarek as vice-presidential candidate, but she’d been outmaneuvered when Laura had brought in Gaius Baltar who had, in turn, coasted to victory.

Since then Laura had wondered whether or not Sarah had, in fact, won out in the end. It wasn’t as if Baltar was any picnic as vice president. But she kept those thoughts to herself.

“The Midguardians?” Sarah Porter was making no attempt to mask her sheer disbelief that Laura Roslin was bringing up such a subject. “They’re clamoring for recognition… and you’re actually thinking of giving it to them?”

“That might be too drastic a way to put it,” said Laura. Under her desk, she was jabbing her fingernails into the palm of her hand, endeavoring to keep herself steady in the face of what she was certain were more delusions. I am awake. I am awake and this is not happening, she kept telling herself, and it was all she could do not to scream. “More accurate to say that I’m… thinking about thinking about it. That’s why I wanted to speak to you.”

“Me?” Porter looked amused. “Do you see me as a potential ally, Madame President?”

Laura wasn’t sure how to take that, plus it required all her effort not to become ill from the sight of Sarah Porter’s eye slowly seeping out of her head. Behind her, Sharon Valerii was mouthing, “Sagittarius is bleeding.” Laura forced a smile that bore far more resemblance to a grimace and said, “Of course it is.”

“Of course what is?” said Porter.

A part of her mind heard the disconnect between what she was saying and what Porter was hearing. It sounded vaguely familiar to her for some reason, and then she realized why: It was like having a conversation with Gaius Baltar. He likewise spoke in a disjointed manner. For one wild moment she wondered if he, too, was speaking to invisible Cylons that only he could hear, and then dismissed the notion as just too crazy for words. “Of course… I do,” Laura corrected herself with effort. “I think, if you look at the issues that we typically face, you’ll find we’re united on far more things than we disagree upon.”

She wasn’t wild about the look that Sarah was giving her, as if there was something that should have been obvious to her that wasn’t. Finally Porter said, “Perhaps you’ve forgotten, Madame President, but I vouched for you.”

“Vouched…?”

“There is no one in the Quorum more conversant with the Pythian Prophecies than I am,” said Porter with a clear touch of pride. “No more who is more familiar with the Sacred Scrolls.”

“Ahhh,” Laura said, suddenly comprehending. “I understand.”

“Do you?”

Laura rubbed her eyes, partly from fatigue, and partly in hopes that when her vision cleared, Sarah Porter would look normal once more. “You verified that the Prophecies spoke of a dying leader. You stated that you believed that leader to be me.” She lowered her hand and tentatively looked up at Sarah. The blood was gone and, mercifully, so was Sharon Valerii. Laura let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s exactly right,” Porter said stiffly. “The leader whose vision would send us toward Earth… but who was dying and so would not live to see us arrive in the promised land.”

“You said it was me, and suddenly I’m cured.”

“Yes.” Porter didn’t sound particularly happy about it.

“What can I say?” asked Laura Roslin with a shrug. “Pardon me for living.”

“Madame President, I staked a good deal of my credibility to the notion that you were the leader of prophecy,” Porter said, giving her a defiant look and tilting her chin in a pugnacious manner. “With your miraculous cure, that credibility has taken a hit. Plus we have not seen satisfactory disclosure over the manner of your cure. People are asking questions.”

“They can ask all the questions they want, Councilwoman,” said Roslin calmly. “My cure is a matter of doctor/patient confidentiality. A radical new treatment for which I agreed to volunteer.”

“A cure that will be made available to others who may be ill?”

“If long-term observation of my recovery indicates that it would be appropriate, then yes, absolutely,” Laura told her. “But it would be premature to attempt to duplicate my cure. Anyway… Sarah… that’s not why I brought you here.”

“A rather clumsy attempt to change the subject,” Porter observed.

“I prefer to think of it as a clumsy attempt to bring us back to the original subject.”

“The Midguardians.” With the air of someone who not only doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but would prefer to see them all roasting on a spit, Sarah Porter asked, “What do you want to know? If I will support their petition to become part of the Quorum? Absolutely not.”

“Why not?”

“Because they are heretics. Because they do not worship the same gods as we.”

“Should that make a difference?” asked Roslin.

“Of course,” said Sarah Porter. “Of course it makes a difference. What are you suggesting?”

“That perhaps we should consider putting aside religious concerns when it comes to government. That perhaps they should be two different aspects of life, not commingled.”

Porter tried to stifle a laugh and failed utterly. “You’re saying there should be a separation of church and state.”

“It has occurred to me.”

“President Roslin,” said Porter, looking at her with amazement as if seeing her for the first time, “I knew that you had many ideas others might consider… aggressive. But they were always steeped in tradition. The deviation came from those people who believed the traditions and writings to be sweeping cautionary tales, as opposed to others such as myself, most of the residents of Gemenon, and other more spiritual colonies who accept the divine wisdom of the Prophecies. But no one has suggested simply operating as if religious beliefs don’t matter.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that at all,” Roslin replied. “You know how deeply rooted my convictions are. I was simply suggesting that perhaps just because they’re my beliefs, and your beliefs, doesn’t mean they should guide our decisions in terms of the rights of others.”

“With all respect, Madame President, that’s absurd. Our very morality stems from our beliefs and the lessons that the gods have taught us. If we don’t root our decisions in those beliefs—if we don’t allow the Sacred Scrolls to guide us—then we have nothing. We might as well be soulless Cylons.” She paused and then said cautiously, “Certainly you’re not advocating supporting this… this Midguardian bid for power.”

“I don’t feel as if I know enough about it to advocate it one way or the other.”

“They are unbelievers,” said Sarah. “What more do you need to know than that?”

“Well, for starters… I’d like to know about their writings. This ‘Edda' that one of their leaders discusses. That’s really why I wanted to talk to you; because you’re so knowledgeable in these matters. Do you know anything about these writings that were supposedly excluded from the Sacred Scrolls?”

“Just rumors,” Porter said. “The Midguardians have always been an insular people. The Edda itself is written in an ancient language that’s handed down by their leaders, and they’ve kept entire portions secret even from their own followers. Their followers, amazingly enough, are satisfied with that. They have that much confidence in their historic leadership.”

“I’m almost envious,” said Laura with a hint of jest. Porter didn’t respond to the humor, and Laura opted not to press the matter. Instead she said, “Certainly in the ancient writings there was some discussion of what the Edda had to say. Some record of why it was stricken from the main prophecies.”

“As I said, rumors. For starters, it celebrated gods we didn’t accept. But of even greater concern…” She paused and Roslin waited patiently. “Of even greater concern was that the Edda supposedly focused mainly on doomsday prophecies.”

“Considering what we’ve been through…”

But Sarah Porter shook her head. “As you well know, our recent… travails… were predicted in the Pythian Prophecies. As is often the problem with such prophecies, they were easier to understand in retrospect than before the fact. The Edda writings… they were nothing but gloom and doom. The end of humanity with no hope of survival, of redemption… of anything. I don’t know the specifics, but from my studies, that’s the general gist of it. Now I ask you, Madame President… why would we want such dreary portents to become public knowledge?”

“Perhaps because the people have a right to know,” replied Laura. “Because they have a right to make a decision for themselves.”

Porter stared wonderingly at Laura Roslin. “Do you actually believe, Madame President, that we have the wisdom to gainsay our elders? To make these prophecies of the Edda a part of our teachings? And what if the fleet embraces it? What if they decide that humanity truly is doomed, and there’s no point even in trying to survive?”

“I doubt it will come to that,” and she continued before Porter could interrupt her, “and so do you, Sarah. All we’re talking about is the prospect of giving them something new to think about. Where’s the harm in that?”

“Where else but from new ideas does harm come, Madame President?”

Laura Roslin considered that a moment, and then shook her head. “I can’t accept that,” she said firmly. “I cannot accept the notion that new ideas should be suffocated. Without new ideas, new thoughts… we have nothing. Nothing.”

“Madame President…”

But Roslin talked right over her. “We are being tested, Sarah. You, I, humanity. We are being tested, and how we come through that test may well determine our right to continue to exist as a species. If we put a stranglehold on even discussing new concepts, what do we have left?”

“Survival,” replied Sarah Porter.

“There’s more to life than survival.”

“Perhaps. But without survival… what does the rest of it matter?”

“It matters,” Laura said firmly. “I know it does. And furthermore, Sarah… I think you do, too. As much danger as we face on a day-to-day basis, I think we wind up seeing danger in everything. And if we’re seeing danger even in the simple act of talking… what’s that going to lead us to?”

Sarah Porter didn’t reply immediately. Her lips twitched a bit, and it was impossible for Laura to discern what was going through her head.

“Let me get back to you,” she said finally.

Never one to miss an opening, Roslin immediately said, “When?”

“Soon. Very soon.”

Laura nodded slightly and then they both rose. Laura shook her hand firmly and Sarah Porter turned and walked out of the room. The moment she was gone, Billy entered, a look of concern on his face. Displaying no interest in what had just been discussed, he said immediately, “How are you feeling?”

She turned to face him and saw blood covering his chest.

Her expression frozen, she replied, “Fine. You?”

Sarah Porter entered the shuttle that would take her back to her home ship and said, “My apologies. I didn’t know it was going to take that long.”

“That’s quite all right,” said D’anna Biers, smiling graciously. “May I ask how it went?” She did not have her cameraman with her, but a compact camera rested on the seat next to her.

“It went as well as could be expected.” She paused and then said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, “Are we on or off the record?”

“Are we even talking?” asked Biers with wide-eyed innocence.

Porter then proceeded to tell Biers everything that she had discussed with Laura Roslin. When she finished, Biers did nothing to hide her interest. “So what would happen next? A gathering of the Quorum of Twelve to discuss the prospect of allowing a thirteenth member?”

“It seems a waste of time.”

“You never know,” replied Biers.

Sarah Porter was as openly skeptical as Biers was anticipatory “They’d never go for it.”

“Who cares?”

“What,” asked Sarah, “is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that it presents an opportunity. You’re a Council-woman. I’m a reporter. And both of us are…” She hesitated and then smiled. “…Instigators. People who like to see things shaken up. Personally, I think it would be criminal to miss out on this opportunity to bring everyone together and see what happens.”

Porter drummed her fingers thoughtfully on the seat next to her, and then picked up the phone that was hanging on the wall. “Patch me through to the president, please,” she said. D’anna gave her a thumbs-up, a cheerful gesture which Porter returned, and then Sarah continued, “Madame President… yes, it’s been ages.” She smiled slightly at the weak but expected jest. “I was calling to say that it didn’t take me much time at all to realize you were right. What are we coming to if we’re faced with ideas and concepts so dangerous that we’re even afraid to discuss them. You set up the day and time for the Quorum to convene, and I will make damned sure that everyone’s there. Yes,” she paused as Laura spoke, “yes, I’m sure there will be some resistance to the meeting once they learn of the subject matter. There are some ancient tensions with the Midguardians that go back generations. But that’s why you spoke to me, isn’t it. To make certain that I would convince the Quorum to at least consider it.”

She chatted with the president for a few moments more, and then assured her that she would eagerly wait to hear from her. She hung up the phone then and looked challengingly at D’anna, as if daring her to say something.

All D’anna did was smile and say, “It should make a hell of a story.”