Work Text:
The Songs of Polyhymnia
Laura stared in shock at the five people she'd known as Kara Thrace, Saul Tigh, Tori Foster, Galen Tyrol and Samuel Anders. Whether Cylons or something else entirely, Laura knew that she would never be able to look at these people in the same way again. And she got the feeling that only Kara could reveal whether they were friend or enemy.
With the guns of every Colonial soldier in the room pointed at them, Laura found herself praying that they were not enemies.
From behind the bars of the brig, Kara shifted her gaze to Bill. "Please, Admiral--if I've ever meant anything to you, please trust me and don't interfere," she said.
Bill said nothing, but he nodded, still keeping his gun trained on her.
Suddenly Kara began to sing softly in an incomprehensible language, something that sounded to Laura's ears like "Frera jaka, frera jaka". The lilting repetitive nature of the song reminded Laura of the numerous lullabies she'd learned when she'd begun teaching the younger grades early in her teaching career.
As Kara finished with the repetition of the final "Ding, dang, dong" line, the other four began to sing with her, as if by rote. Their voices were flat and had a mechanical quality to the singing, but the same song was sung in comprehensible Caprican.
Are you sleeping, are you sleeping,
Brother John, Brother John,
Morning bells are ringing,
Morning bells are ringing,
Ding, Dang, Dong,
Ding, Dang, Dong.
Then on their own, Tyrol, Anders, Tori and Tigh began to sing another sing-song lullaby in those same flat voices.
Ring around the rosy
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down!
As if they were puppets whose strings had been cut, the four all collapsed onto the deck.
"Oh Gods, we are all Cylons," Tori wailed brokenly.
Kara smiled. "No we're not," she said firmly. "I promise we're not."
"But we've all being hearing the same strange music and no one else could hear it," Tori protested. "It drove us crazy ... made us all congregate--and now we all know those songs."
"I know," Kara replied. "But that's because the music is the trigger signal from the Nodal relay station of the hyper-tunnel. When the second set of hyper-traces showed up on the Terrans' FTL sensors after each of your jumps towards the nebula, we knew the Cylons had to be following you, so we caused the Node concealed here to send its trigger signal. It was supposed to be the failsafe to wake you up, Colonel, or at the very least, make you guys remember the Watchtower codes to open the tunnel entrance. But you did your job too well, Uncle Paul--you all need the priming post-hypnotic suggestions to release the memory block."
"Give me the music player, Chief," Kara said, holding her hand out. "Please, trust me, Galen." Tyrol climbed to his knees and handed the silver marble to her before rocking back on his heels.
"It's cued to my genetic make-up," she said. "And anyone who thinks of laughing at me for what I'm about to sing is gonna meet me at the next dance--and I'll knock your ass flat in the first round," she groused good-naturedly, flashing a broad grin as she began to sing in a clear, sweet soprano along to the bright, happy music. Laura found her foot tapping along to the jaunty tune, but Tigh and the three young people sat staring dead ahead ... strangely still as if frozen to the floor.
Good Morning Star shine
The Earth says "hello"
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below.
Good Morning Star shine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singin' song
Gliddy glub gloopy; Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo...
Sabba sibby sabba; Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo...
Tooby ooby walla; Nooby abba nabba
Early morning singin' song.
Good Morning Star shine
The Earth says "hello"
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below.
Good Morning Star shine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singin' song
Gliddy glub gloopy; Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo...
Sabba sibby sabba; Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo...
Tooby ooby walla; Nooby abba nabba
Early morning singin' song.
Singin' a song, humming a song
Singing a song...
Loving a song, laughing a song
Singing a song...
Sing the song; Song the sing
Song song song sing
Sing sing sing sing song
Song song song sing
Sing sing sing sing song
Suddenly, a cacophony of instruments filled the air, and the four outside the cell all lifted their hands to their heads as if in immense pain, screaming, sobbing as a voice began to wail recognisable lyrics above the music.
"There must be some way out of here", said the Joker to the Thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
"No reason to get excited," the Thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
Laura clutched Bill's hand, glancing at him in worried anticipation as the wailing music died away; he shook his head as if to say "Don't look to me for answers!"
Still confused, she turned her attention back to the scene in front of her. The young people all seemed to recover quickly, throwing themselves into each others arms with shrieks of laughter and tears and expressions of wonderment as if seeing each other for the first time.
"Welcome back, you guys," Kara said brightly, "but we still have some work to do." She nodded pointedly to Tigh, who still sat on the deck, his one eye staring ahead with a fixed, blank expression.
"What's wrong with him?" Bill demanded, concern shading his voice.
"Twenty-five years ago, before he gave us kids up for adoption," Kara explained. "He used a deep psycho-hypnotic technique to suppress our memories of our origins."
"But he added another layer to his memory suppression, sir," Tyrol said, kneeling beside the catatonic-looking man, "for extra security."
"And we're the last key to retrieving his memories," Tori said as more soft music began to play. She opened her mouth; a surprisingly rich alto issued forth. She was joined by Kara's lighter soprano, before Tyrol's baritone and Anders' smooth tenor joined them.
If it be your will
that I speak no more,
and my voice be still
as it was before;
I will speak no more,
I shall abide until
I am spoken for,
if it be your will.
If it be your will
that a voice be true,
from this broken hill
I will sing to you.
From this broken hill
all your praises they shall ring
if it be your will
to let me sing.
If it be your will,
if there is a choice,
let the rivers fill,
let the hills rejoice.
Let your mercy spill
on all the burning hearts in hell,
if it be your will
to make us well.
And draw us near
and bind us tight,
all your children here
in their rags of light;
in our rags of light,
all dressed to kill;
and end this night,
if it be your will.
If it be your will.
Laura felt a chill down her back as she listened to the lyrics--the beautiful, haunting melody--and she watched Tigh awaken with tears in her eyes; it was like watching dawn break over the Olympia Mountains back on Caprica.
Tears streamed from Tigh's one good eye as he gathered the three young people outside the cell into his embrace as they laughed and cried with happiness. They helped him rise to his feet and he stumbled towards the cell, his hands held out to Kara.
"Oh, Sheba!"
Laura and Bill looked at each other. " Sheba ?" Bill mouthed in surprise.
"They promised they would keep your beautiful name as a tribute to your parents, Sheba," Saul cried brokenly as he hugged her through the bars.
Kara laughed and shrugged. "Kara is just as good, Uncle Paul," she said smiling through her tears. "But I'm sorry Kara Thrace turned out to be such a brat towards you."
Tigh laughed. "You always were a brat," he said, stroking her hair affectionately. "But you did good, Sweetie--oh, but you did good."
She blushed. "Thanks, but call me Sweetie again and--uncle or no uncle--I'll pop you one," she said grinning. "After all, I do have a reputation to uphold!"
Tigh chuckled happily and turned to Bill, who lowered his weapon, looking at his friend with the same awe Laura knew was on her own face.
"Can you let her out of here, Bill," Tigh asked. "I promise that we'll explain everything."
"But we'd better hurry, sir," Kara said as Bill motioned to Venner to open the cell. "The ships from Earth, Achilles and Tecumseh, will be here in about eight hours and they'll pop out right into the Cylons' teeth!"
"Why didn't they accompany you?" Bill asked as Kara left the cell.
"Hyperspace physics," she replied. "These tunnels are over five millennia old, sir, and the Node generators haven't been maintained. There's an upper limit to the size of ships that can use them and the speed they can pull before the tunnel becomes destabilised. Something as small as my Viper can push top speeds, but the larger the ship, the slower and more cautious they have to be."
"Furthermore, when they leave the hyperspace tunnel, it will take time for them to rig for normal space activities," Tigh said; there was new urgency in his voice. "During that time, they'll be without weapons and completely defenceless."
"It will take five to eight minutes to reconfigure their engines, and bring their weapons and energy shields online," Kara said. "We have to buy them that time, sir."
Bill nodded and extended his hand to her; as she took it, he drew her into a fierce hug. "Well, you certainly dragged one frakking large cat in, Starbuck, but you everdo that to us again and I'll shoot you myself," he husked, smiling through his tears before stepping back.
Her insouciant grin was back, but it was also tempered by tears. "Boom, boom, boom, sir," she replied hoarsely. "Boom! Boom! Boom!"