x
And, oh, how eagerly did the peoples of the known galaxy await the arrival of the Galactica!200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZA5BJOIwSg
On Tauron there was a newly trained team of three hundred contact specialists. They had been training for yahrens, living in the environments of alien species, learning alien languages, acquiring medical skills and absolving themselves of the taboos of Kobol. It was on Tauron that the Galactica first paused. Apart from being a teaching planet, Tauron was also the main supply depot for all the Mercystar Fleet and there was a constant coming and going of spaceships in that planet's skies.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUpOf9IvA4Y
The Galactica anchored off-planet and began taking on supplies. Uniformed caterers, with lists of the needs of all the varied life-forms the Galactica would carry on its maiden voyage, swarmed through the storage bays. Exotic fruits were planted in the hydroponics tanks. Some livestock was brought aboard. Where possible set meals were prepared and placed in deep-freeze chambers. In all, the provisioning of the Galactica took over thirty standard days.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8LtlmvZEH
Then the ship withdrew its anchor rods and slipped through space to Sagitarra where were waiting many of the Close Metabolism Lifeforms. As I have mentioned, "close" means close to human. Here were Callrines who would help in the running of the ship and would stay with it until the eventual return to Gemon. Here also were a colony of the Klaxondors who quickly established themselves in the same chamber as the female Klaxondors we had met.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23nDD4DJnB
Bloobis came aboard, gray and dignified, each wearing the insignia of its tribe and bristling with weapons. They were returning to die on their tight cluster of planets far out on the rim. Bloobis could endure up to three sectars without sleep or food or water and during the War of Stupid Fools they had been used as occupation troops. Spread throughout the galaxy were many pockets of Bloobis who had adapted and settled and whose new mythology told of a home of happiness and plenty far away in the sky. The Bloobis were long-lived and those who came aboard were the children of an expeditionary force.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MoZJJbdbw
There were the Yuons, or Yuans, or whatever they called themselves. They grew no taller than five-yahren-old children and their lifespan was about ten human yahrens. They achieved maturity within sectans of birth and their main task in life was to keep the song of their people going. A mature Yuon could recite the song of its particular line or family, telling of events which happened many thousands of yahrens earlier right back to the time when light was born in darkness and all the Yuons' ancestors emerged from the "great mountain." I describe the Yuons as "its" because they do not have a sex as such but have three sexes all waiting to be revealed in the one individual. They believe that the more people who can be at a mating the better. At a mating, the one who is not to bear or inseminate sings a special song that has the extraordinary effect of changing its body. It swells and the palms of its hands emit a hormone which the other Yuons lick. The hormone determines sex changes that occur during the course of one evening. Copulation is a public affair, like going to see a play in a theater. Apparently the song is so powerful that human males upon hearing it have been known to lie down with their legs spread like women. Women upon hearing it have mounted their men or one another in a delirium of desire. Such scenes cause great merriment to the Yuons and of course are incorporated into their songs.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzTwHKhBGsR
More seriously, the Yuons songs are an important reservoir of information on the War of Stupid Fools. I must tell you that the reason the Yuons are widespread is because they were once considered as mindless as ovines and were used as a quick source of protein. Humans don't talk about that much now.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6alUJ4Pjwj
And there were more species, many more, but they will hardly be present in this story and so I shall not mention them.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiH705Z34wd
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInx1VE9vA4
After Tauron the Galactica journeyed to Sagitarra which is the planet where the far aliens are housed. Here the Galactica was to complete its cargo.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZABIPnThP
Now it was on Sagitarra that an event took place which as great bearing on this biography and I have no choice but to tell it to you in full. As is so often the case in human affairs, the significance of a particular moment was not perceived until much later and the story I am about to tell you I have had to put together, bit by bit, from the Galactica's records and from Adama's memoirs.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8YrK0XuQHA
I trust you will pardon a slight flamboyance in the telling for I wish to put flesh and plumes on the bare bones of history.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyyevuSF574
On Sagitarra there live the young trainee contact specialists who have dedicated their lives to serving the Mercystar Fleet. You have already met Contact Nurse Hawk so you know something of their natures. Well, this is the story of Starbuck, a boy of fourteen yahrens of growing but who had already been alive and learning for over forty yahrens. He was just entering his manhood.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHcZc9RjW90
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6btdSowj2K
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyZFSyKCFi9
The valley where Starbuck endured his vigil was totally enclosed in mist. All that he could see were the dark shapes of everblue trees as they climbed up the valley walls and vanished into the drifting grayness.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3sPK8g2CjS
A fine rain was falling from the invisible clouds. Occasionally the air in the valley darkened and the rain became heavy, pelting down into the lush green grass of the valley floor where a river moved with at the rapid pace of a brown snake. On its back it carried gray branches which had been stranded in the riverbank since the last heavy rains. That had been in the springtime. Now it was fall. Mixed with the bare branches were dark-rooted shrubs, torn loose by the cascading white streams that tumbled down into the narrow valley.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHmxcRMisL
Where the river narrowed there were rapids. Here the branches, logs, shrubs and weeds tangled together and gradually formed a dam. The brown water churned to lather and swirled and deepened as the dam bound fast. Below the dam the water level dropped away, until with a roar the branches snapped and the water broke through, carrying the tangled parts of the dam like swamped rafts down the humpbacked rapids.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qLJbNylw6
The creation and destruction of the dams was part of the valley's rhythm, a rhythm which had endured since the very forming of the river.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmf6OalU9Y
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx7fYQANeTW
Watching the tumbling water from the dry security of his rough stone cote is the young shepherd called Starbuck. He has fair hair and freckles and mischievous blue eyes set in a rather plump face. The plumpness is puppy fat. He is already growing toward manhood. Soon he will be tall, rangy and weathered, but for the moment it is the boy that looks out with wonder at the world. He is a junior contact confrere of the Benevolent Order and he was picked for this role while still a baby. Long sleeps have delayed his maturity and during these he has been ready for the raw ordeal of being a contact confrere.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzQ30ih4K0g
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt7RWmgcyNI
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOBtW7WgBv
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9hELGoMLQh
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNvmzLz438d
Starbuck was enjoying his vigil. The solitude and the dismal sky did not depress him. He knew, though he did know quite how he knew, that he had already been selected to join the Galactica. This placed him at the forefront of his colleagues and he was proud and pleased and happy.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡduNCLCKhRH
He watched the latest dam break and then settled himself back comfortably under the dripping eaves and felt inside his habit for his pipe and small tin of tobacco. At the same time he stretched out a leg and kicked the embers of his little fire together. A breeze tickled the glowing wood and a blade of flame perked up and he was able to select a spill of straw and light his pipe.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9LMhUq6UhO
Two black daggits, which lay stretched out by the fire, moved in the sudden warmth and their tongues lolled out and wiped their noses. Their brown eyes watched Starbuck carefully, alert for any movement of his that might indicate the imminence of food.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBrw9YuJJ0
Starbuck puffed contentedly and stared down the valley. His flock of large woolly rodents were on the hillside well above the marshy river flat. From this distance they looked like fat gray maggots. Apart from the occasional bleating, the only sounds that came to the young shepherd were the dull roar of the river and the sudden, sweet, bell-like calling of the birds as they made their territories known. There were no sudden movements either. Just the nodding of flowers as they filled with the fine rain and tipped their heads to empty themselves. Even the breaking of the dam seemed to take place in slow motion.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSifTECEC2B
All was normal.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqWhVYTnP0
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4WnV2DNf1N
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHZzHhRuBu
And then suddenly all was not normal.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJaldZoY0NS
Within the cote an alarm bell shrilled. A brilliant white light flashed on. The daggits reared up, snarling and baring their teeth. Starbuck threw his pipe aside and scrambled over to the viewscreen which was situated in the wall angle at the back of the cote. He hit the "open" switch.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhvKiYi0Om
Seconds later the little platform above the machine effervesced and a gray-green, ghostly head appeared. It was the Senior Contact Consoeur, the Magistra herself, calling directly from the central hospital at Saggitarra Central.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0qQ4YA3Ki2
Reception was bad due to the weather and the high valley walls. The face lacked solidity and Starbuck could see the grainy surface of the rough stone wall behind it. The colors were reversed.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFhDwlNsrF4
The gray-green head seemed to peer into the gloom of the sheep-cote. "Can't hardly see ya," came a faint nasal voice. Starbuck adjusted the light on top of the machine so that it shone fiercely down on him. "Ah, so there y'are."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pGnjnStjy
Starbuck could feel his heart beating. It was unknown for the Magistra to contact a trainee while on vigil. This could only be the news which he had foreseen.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGtttjoWiK
"I have exciting news for you, young Starbuck. You are to be given your first assignment. It is aboard the Galactica." Magistra Sheba paused to allow this news to sink in. "You will be in charge of a parasite entity called a Guell. It is a rare specimen. One about whom we know nothing except the planet of origin. On its homeworld it links with an animal called a Dron, a giant multi-legged creature with the carapace of a crab and there are few of these now too, since the War. You shall carry the Guell back to its homeworld and protect it until a true host can be found. Are you happy with this news? Do you feel ready?"200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx7edUa9DdA
To both of these questions Starbuck merely nodded. Magistra Sheba accepted this. She knew that young boys were often tongue-tied.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbqwJnBcoAS
"So," continued the Magistra, "the Galactica has been with us for several days and is now fully assigned. The Guell is aboard in its present host and is waiting for you."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxYSSRtP4L
"Why does the Guell not remain with its present host all the way to its homeworld? They must be happy together," asked Starbuck, a bit stiffly.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGqQ3TgsSU
The gray-green head smiled. "They are happy, as you say. But the host will die soon and we need a high intelligence to prepare the future of the Guell. You may with draw if you wish. No penalty or disfavor will....."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Ll2tHOQY6
"No. No. No. No." called Starbuck. "That was merely a question. I am ready to serve at any time. The sooner the better. When can I join the Galactica?"200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjs44RkDiGc
"The Galactica will find you. It has already departed from Saggitarra Central. It has your coordinates. It will be with you within centons or days. It will send down a space-ram to collect you. Any more questions?"200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQr8eBQ8m9
"Who will guard my flock?"200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOsMi5FPxqV
"There is a young confrere already en route. Do not worry about your flock. They shall be well cared for. I hope you enjoy your first mission. Remember to keep plenty of notes of your experience as we taught you. Good luck."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QDkulVJHO
There was no more to say. Magistra Sheba smiled and waved and then her sharp-featured face abruptly vanished leaving the space where it'd been milky. The brilliant light which had shone down on Starbuck faded slowly and the filaments in the lamp glowed golden and red.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCze06PGzfs
Starbuck made his way to the door of the sheep-cote and looked out. The rain was still falling and the valley was darker. Evening was coming. The Magistra had said that the Galactica would arrive "within centons or days." The great ship would surely not try to find him in the dark. He had no beacon. He would have one final night of peace before the most important day of his life.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc87o5fiGnB
He began to think about food and about cleaning up the little station before his departure. He had not checked his snares since morning. He hoped there would be a nice fat coney to savor his pot. Starbuck had a liking for fresh meat and this was part of his training for he was schooled to take charge of the tigron but not the lamb and hence had to understand the hunter. The snare killed quickly and cleanly.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmA6xKOFXk6
Starbuck whistled to his daggits and pulled his hood up over his head and was about to step outside when one of the daggits reared up on its hind legs with a low growl and bared its teeth. At almost the same moment Starbuck felt a tingling in his scalp, an itchiness, as if there were ants in his hair. He ran out of the low enclosure and stared at the sky. There was nothing to be seen except perhaps a faint luminescence behind the clouds. He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled short imperative messages which sent his daggits like black arrows through the blue meadows. Behind them rose a bright arc of spray.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVigsQyahve
The sheep heard the whistling too and began to mill about in their absurd fashion, waiting for one of them to take the lead. And then the daggits were on them, from different sides, growling and creeping and threatening until the sheep had no choice but to pour down the hillside like so many grains of sugar from a broken bag towards the enclosure.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOCtA9C1zOF
Starbuck knew what he was experiencing. The tingling was an anti-grav rake He had felt such before but never so intensely. The daggits were in pain. One of them twitched as it ran, twisting its head up over its back and snapping as if to remove a predator. The other ran with its tail down and then rolled on the ground and squirmed in the mud.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡft5oh33X3v
The sheep began to panic too. Most entered the pen, but some ran straight past despite Starbuck and his widespread arms. Others blundered into the water-meadow and became stranded in the mud and sodden. A few with their mouths open and their eyes showing white plunged straight into the river and were gone in an instant.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1iGjuBUL7b
Starbuck slammed the gate to the enclosure as soon as the last sheep had entered. Then he staggered around the building and in through the door. He tore at his hair and tried to scratch inside his heavy water-blackened habit.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzyXctigNKE
The air beyond the enclosure began to glow a fierce vivid green. Starbuck heard the sheep begin to clamor in fear. Of the daggits there was no sign.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2vycpzMxSp
From outside there came a noise like thunder and the walls shook. Then there was silence and brilliance and Starbuck remembered nothing more.
He woke up aboard the Galactica.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfNbNPJ8heI
Do you who are reading this believe in omens? I do not. However, I can recognize that some ventures begin well and others begin ill and retrospectively these beginnings can be accorded significance. Contact Confrere Starbuck's entry into the Galactica was accompanied by disaster. The coordinates given to the Galactica were wrong by a fraction of a degree. The giant ship used as one of its anchor points the very valley where young Starbuck was waiting. The brilliant green light that he saw and the tingling that he felt on his scalp were both the effects of his being placed almost directly under the anti-grav boot of the Galactica. Luckily, Contact Confrere Starbuck was not directly under the beam or he would have been killed. Also, he was protected by the thick walls and the roof of the small cote. But the sheep and the daggits were not. All died.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdQ7NiyNHp5
The spaceram dispatched to pick up Starbuck discovered the error and rescued him.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXhTj0O0ql
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKM3t1bKOd9
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdImlzjMl6C
Apart from the loss of two highly trained daggits and the entire flock of sheep, the damage was not great. It took Starbuck just twenty-four centons to recover and then he declared himself ready to accommodate the Guell. The doctor/techs aboard the Galactica demurred and he spent another sectan recovering.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl1n2yV4l0x
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXW217Nj3D
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4DB7iKGnT6
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3NCdIn56r
The Galactica was now full to capacity. Aboard the ship there was a crew of two thousand, four hundred. There were eight hundred and twenty Close Metabolism Life-forms and a hundred and thirty Distant Metabolism aliens.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RF1Oza754
The ship was tight. All of its operating systems were stretched in a proper and complete way. The analogy with an athlete suggests itself: the runner when racing is good and complete: such a thing was the Galactica.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVGxxPM70v
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnYCCM2ce6k
Starbuck was introduced to the Guell as soon as he had completed his short convalescence. It was the very night that the Galactica was shifting from the orbit of Saggitarra and out into free space. Adama accompanied Starbuck down into the DME section where Hawk was in attendance. She had taken a special interest in the Guell for they were so rare and so strange even by the standards of the DME adepts.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhukld4I7q
A room had been created which resembled the simple, pleasant cell that Starbuck had occupied during his training on Saggitarra. The room had its own small garden off to one side and was filled with flowering plants. All Starbuck's few possessions were there.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF58LLSv1wa
Standing on a table in the middle of the room was a cage and in this was lying a cat with blue fur. Judging from its stillness and the regularity of its breathing the cat seemed to be asleep, but its fur stood out as can happen when a cat meets a daggit. This was present host to the Guell.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡco5AK5z3C0
Since the death of its natural host several hundred yahrens earlier the Guell had maintained itself among a family line of cats, moving from mother to daughter down the generations. Slowly, it had outgrown the capacity of its hosts.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nrM83ylyo
As a parasite that lived inside the body of its host, the Guell thrived in the physical systems such as the circulation of the blood in the nervous and mental systems. It caused certain minor physiological changes in its host (with the notable exception of its natural host) such as turning the skin or fur blue. It also brought the power of speech to creatures which, in their natural state, had no verbal language. Speculation about the origin of the Guell held that it was a hybrid being of spirit and matter. That it was life without a distinct form of its own and that it had come into being in the chaotic times when the universe was young. At some point in their evolutionary history the proto-Guell had joined with the Dron, which was regarded as one of the oldest species in existence. There had been Dron and Guell, living in one body, and crawling in the cold seas of their homeworld long before the land was formed.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlRBtgbr00
The cat's eyes opened as they entered the room and it stared at them fixedly. Then it yawned showing all its teeth. Its face twisted as if an unseen hand were pressing and pulling it and the lips moved. A voice spoke, manufactured from a nose and throat that had been developed for no more than mewing. "Are you my new vehicle?"200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnsiMtS87Ga
Hawk prompted the young boy with a nudge.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lGVWSiECJ
"I think so," said Starbuck.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsCBvDL2Sx8
"Come closer," said the cat. "My eyes are weakening. Damned poor biology. Failing under stress. I want to see you." The cat stood up and arched its back and stretched its claws and then sprang up onto the side of the cage and held on there, more like a siminoid than a feline. There were flecks of saliva at the side of its mouth. The eyes stared at Starbuck and Starbuck felt himself threatened. Once, while guarding his flock of sheep at night, he'd been awakened by panicked bleating. In one movement he had rolled from his sleeping bag, grabbed his electric probe and run outside to discover what was wrong. In the darkness he had met the glaring yellow eyes of a mountain lynxor, a beast that was as large as an equine and with jaws that could bite a sheep in two. Both had been surprised and while the lynxor growled like a saw blade upon ferreg, Starbuck instinctively struck with his probe for the eyes and scored. The probe released its charge and the eyes closed and the beast slumped. Microns later, when the charge in the probe had accumulated, Starbuck set it to high power and killed the lynxor by burning its brain.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbb6YEWgh8E
Such were Starbuck's memories when he met the blue cat which hosted the Guell face to face. What the Guell thought at the moment of contact remains to be seen.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHnbq6pEna1
Adama reached up to the cage and thrust one of his fingers through the mesh and tickled the cat under its chin. He was rewarded with a gentle "meow." He turned to Starbuck. "You will sleep here tonight, Starbuck. None of us are sure about how the transference will take place. You must discover that." He turned back to the cat. "Can you help us, Guell?" he asked. "Starbuck is willing but none of us has experience of how to make such a move. You must help us."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26SjqRKf1f
"I shall help you," said the cat, screwing up its face. "Sympathy is all, but I am already hurting. I need to move. This fur-bag can no longer contain me. Starbuck and I will soon be acquainted."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETNgEdyf87
Hawk had been listening carefully and she placed her hand on Starbuck's arm. "I shall be near," she said. "Do not hesitate to summon me. I may be able to help."200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2GYwCF5A3F
Let me say now that Hawk had already detected trouble. She could not have specified what, but she was uneasy. Adama too, to his credit, also felt uneasy but he, not being deeply trained in alien contact, thought that problem was in him, in his own sense of strangeness and newness. It would never have occurred to either of them to think that the Guell might be insane, but I fear this to be the case.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLcsUzM8b2I
I, the historian Vulpa, assert this. Had either of these two sensitive beings acted upon their feelings and requested a deeper diagnosis and assement of the needs of the Guell, then the Galactica would have been saved along with all the life-forms within her, and Adama would now be a champion of Life to rival St. Dionysos himself. Historians cannot rewrite the facts of history no matter how they gloss them.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Tw9XHKHQs
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpIBlTBTiOk
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWw6AoDLdsv
200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjqaOhbF0yi
Adama and Hawk left Starbuck alone in his cell with the blue-furred cat. They returned to their different duties though Hawk made sure before departing that her call line was open. This meant that Starbuck could contact her directly. It also meant that if she so chose, she could listen to what was going on in Starbuck's room at any time.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq8iXHZqlkY
Left alone, Starbuck suppressed his memory of the mountain lynxor and released the cat from the cage. It immediately ran into the small garden enclosure and defecated among the flowers.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnIDGxLjx81
While Starbuck prepared for bed the cat prowled the room. Occasionally it spoke to him, sitting back on its haunches and fixing him with its sharp yellow eyes. It spoke of the splendor of the Guell's home planet and the joy of a union with a sympathetic mind.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMKK4HiUnOO
Eventually Starbuck slept and the cat sat watching him.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDhKBhZ9bK
At about the middle of the night the cat crawled into the sheets and curled up between Starbuck's arms. The boy murmured and turned and the cat spoke to him uttering words of comfort and peace.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDyoUPBsg5d
Hawk heard those words and hurried to Starbuck's cell. She slipped through the door and was in time to watch the Guell possess the sleeping boy.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyzF62Gpok0
The cat was crouched on its stomach with its legs spread and its fur standing out stiff from its body. The boy was asleep on his back with his arms thrown wide.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4FGroe7us8
The Guell emerged like water. It seeped from the cat's eyes and ears, mouth and anus. It became a pool of rippling silver, which lapped around the cat's stiff body and then flowed up toward Starbuck's mouth and nose. The boy moved and sneezed as the Guell attempted to enter his nose. That stopped it. It lay around his throat like a pool of silver, like fish scales, like moonlight on water, like a silver scarf, like the traces of a snail over slate.....and then it gathered and thrust itself into his body through his mouth and ears and nose. Starbuck stopped breathing while the last bead of the Guell found its way inside him. Then he sighed and the sigh turned into a snore. He twisted on the bed and his legs and arms thrashed for a moment and then reached out stiffly. The fingers and toes flexed. To Hawk it looked as if Starbuck were imitating the movement of the cat. Then the boy curled into the fetal position, turning onto his side. The dead body of a blue furred cat slipped from his chest and onto the bed. It lolled back, indecent in death, and Hawk removed it carefully and placed it in the cage.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOlI4LFYA3R
Starbuck seemed to be sleeping peacefully and Hawk withdrew quietly carrying the cage. She hoped that all would now be well. She contacted Adama and told him what had happened. He seemed relieved.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJakF9qb1tZ
Centons later the symbol transformation generators meshed in a blinding release of power and the Galactica disappeared as it tore spacetime like cheesecloth and set out on its first mission.200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOB1Y7pUM4
