United

On Caprica, a Cylon commander approaches "Caprica Six."

"Hello," she said, "I trust all is well with you."

Six's natural loyalty compelled her to say no. To explain that she was seeing visions of Dr. Gaius Baltar, the man she was ordered to befriend and then betray. She wanted to explain how the Cylons needed to change their ways toward the humans, that slaughtering them was perhaps not what God actually wanted. She wanted to explain everything… but instead she hesitated. And then she glanced over her right shoulder, where she saw him.

_"She wants something from you," Baltar said._

_Six contorted her face, subtly asking herself and Baltar for more information. She was not disappointed._

_"And she's going to reveal something important to you," Baltar added, "but only if she thinks everything is, oh, shall we say, hunky dory."_

"Yes," Six replied, after the brief pause, "I feel I have successfully re-assimilated."

"Good," her superior said, "our hidden probes show that the human fleet is headed toward a trap we have devised: a small asteroid cluster. One of the asteroids is much larger than the others and we have planted a large deposit of gold there. Greed will compel them to stop there for a while."

"And we will destroy them there?" Six asked, unable to hide a hint of concern in her tone.

_Baltar, who never left her side now leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Careful…"_

"We could jump over a large attack force and annihilate their entire fleet… but that does not serve our number one interest right now." She knew of the Cylon fetus and knew there was a chance it was alive and on one of the ships, but she would not tell Six this. "We have two new models and we would like to implant them in the fleet for espionage. We want to send a small task force to the asteroid cluster, arriving just before the humans. We have two of their wrecked Vipers that we have recovered. We need to place our operatives in the human vessels and leave them near the gold infested asteroid, where they will be discovered and integrated into the human fleet."

Six was not exactly intrigued by all of this. She had her own agenda to focus on with Sharon. "What does this have to do with me?"

The Cylon commander smiled at Six, "We want you to lead this operation."

"Me?" Six asked, seeking confirmation.

"There is nobody we trust more to lead a mission of discrete contact with the humans. You've had stoic success in dealing with them."

"Gaius," Six said quietly to herself, realizing that she would be going so close to a place where she could reunite with the real Dr. Baltar.

"What was that?"

_Baltar walked around in front of Six and placed himself in between Six and her Cylon companion. "Deny, deny, deny," he advised her, before stepping aside._

"Gracious," Six said quickly, "I'm thankful for this gracious opportunity that I have been given."

"Oh, don't be so modest. After all, you are 'Caprica Six."'

Three weeks later. On the President's ship. President Roslin was having a conference with Admiral Adama and Commander Apollo.

"The word is out on the large supply of gold present in the asteroid cluster," Roslin reported to her military leaders, "many of the civilian ships are already demanding that we stop and mine the ore."

"I don't like it," Apollo said, "it's never a good idea for us to stop moving. And gold's not a resource we need."

"It might raise morale," Roslin said.

"Let's give the gold diggers 48 hours claim to their prizes, then we move on," Adama said decisively.

Lee began to nod, not wanting to question his father's firm suggestion. He then looked at President Roslin, waiting to see if she also agreed.

Roslin smiled. "Very well," she said, "I'll make the announcement to the fleet."

Number Six was sitting in her command center, which was manned entirely by original Cylon models, the metallic "toasters" the humans tried to associate with the Cylon race, something she insisted upon. She was dressed in a sleek, black, knee-high skirt, a white tang top, and a dark gray button up sweater blouse over that. Rather elegant attire for a mission where she was to make no contact with anyone but the cold Cylon machines. Her hair was also nicely styled, wavy, identical to how she had worn it when her previous body expired. Her make-up was also done nicely. She was studying inter-fleet communications, learning everything she could about the human fleet's make up and arrangement, strengths and weaknesses. Learning what the function of each ship was… just as she was instructed. Although she studied this information more thoroughly than she might otherwise have done, knowing that a more personal, and certainly unauthorized action would be performed.

"I need to send out two communications. Send them through the fleet's communications grid in a feedback loop so that the source cannot be traced," Six instructed one of her drones. "For the first message, I need you to book me a room abroad Cloud Nine. The second message is to be sent to a Dr. Gaius Baltar."

Dr. Baltar was not in good sorts. He was extremely distraught over the thought of the hybrid's death. He was wearing black dress pants, a white dress shirt, only half tucked in, with the top three buttons undone. He wore his tie loosely and he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. He was in his quarters drinking shots.

_"Is this the image you want to create for yourself," Number Six said to him, wearing one of her stunning red dresses, "future-Mr. President."_

_"Oh, you seem so sure," Baltar responded, "Well, how do you know? How do you know that I'll be the winner of this election? President Roslin is very popular, you know? Very popular..." He took another shot._

_"We will win," Number Six told him, "because we won't fail twice."_

_"We?" Baltar questioned, "We're going to win the election? I can't see that you'll be doing much for the campaign efforts now will you?"_

_Number Six stared across the room at him—studied him carefully. Then she went over and sat beside him on his sofa. She put her arm around him, softly stroking the far side of his face._

_"You've been under a lot of stress lately," Number Six told him._

_"Oh, so you noticed, did you?" Baltar sarcastically responded._

_Number Six remained calm and soothing, "You need to take some time to just relax."_

_"Yes, perhaps you're right," Baltar said, seemingly putting some thought into it. "I don't suppose you have any suggestions."_

_"Being here, alone with your love isn't good enough for you," Number Six said in her sexiest voice._

_Baltar pushed her arm off him and rose from the sofa. He just looked at her with a look of amazement on his face as she sat there, tugging up on her skirt to expose more of her legs to him._

_"Love?" Baltar said, "You think I still love you after all you've put me through?"_

_Number Six sighed in frustration, "I don't need your love to continue our work, Gaius. But I still have it, don't I? There's no sense trying to hide it from yourself."_

_"Oh," said Baltar, "and who clued you in? God, I suppose."_

_Before Number Six could respond, Baltar's computer started beeping indicating an incoming message. He went to read it._

_"What is it?" Number Six asked._

_"My presence is being requested in a private room aboard Cloud Nine," Baltar announced aloud._

_"You'd better go," Number Six prompted him, "a leader must have the image of being there for his people."_

_"Fine," Baltar said, grabbing his blazer and storming out to catch a transport to Cloud Nine. Upset because he felt like he did not have a choice in the matter._

Upon entering Cloud Nine, Baltar immediately headed toward the room where his presence was requested. As he walked the corridors Number Six was with him. He carried on a conversation and got odd stares from those walking by who perceived him to be talking to himself.

"This had better be good…" Baltar was whining as he approached his door. He stopped. Took a deep breath and entered.

Once inside he was alarmed to find that the lights were off.

"Hello?" Baltar said cautiously, wondering if a strong supporter of Roslin had plotted an assassination. "Is anyone here?"

Silence.

"You know I really don't find this funny… if you don't turn these lights on I'll leave right now."

Silence.

"I'm not kidding. I'm not in the mood for these sorts of games, so if you insist on keeping it this dark in here then I'm just going to have to…"

The lights came on. Baltar, who was still close to the door, looked to the far end of the room where he saw her. But it wasn't _her _because she was still standing beside him, dressed in red. But it was another Cylon looking like her.

"Hello Gaius," she said. At first her face lit up with a smile and her eyes began to tear, but a look of surprise clouded that reaction when she saw herself, wearing a skimpy red dress standing beside him.

Baltar might normally be suspicious of this woman. Thinking she was a Cylon duplicate of the Number Six he knew, looking to trap him, exploit him, but when he noticed himself, in his formal black suit with the light gray pint stripes, clean shaven, hair combed nicely, that thought dissipated.

"And hello… me," Six continued.

Baltar was shocked. "You can see her?" Six nodded. "And him?" he asked gesturing toward his double standing beside her. She looked over at him, then back at Baltar, and nodded. "So…" Baltar paused, absorbing this confrontation. His eyes glanced from this women, to the women in red behind him, to the bed to his right, back to her. "…it's really you?" Again, Six nodded, as Baltar started to creep toward Six.

"I was just recently reconstituted back on Caprica," Six explained, "they sent me here, and… I had to see you." Six took a step toward Baltar her own self. "I've missed you, Gaius."

Baltar's jaw dropped. He had dreamed of this encounter for so long, and in recent months stopped, having tried to convince himself that he never actually fell for a Cylon. But he did. He thought his feelings were gone, but not entirely. His eyes started to tear up. He ran over to her.

"It is you? You're real?" he asked. He had done everything there is to do with the Number Six that had been invading his mind since the attack. At first it satisfied him. But it wasn't actually real. It wasn't quite the same as the real thing. That is why he sought the companionship of other women from time to time.

He put his hands on her face and leaned in to smell her hair. Six's eyes also began to tear.

"Yes," she said simply, softly.

Baltar slowly ran his hands down her arms, then slid them around her waist and kept moving them lower and he crouched down in front of her. Then, as he had his hands gently gripping her thighs, he kissed her stomach, then rose, rubbing his face against her body on the way up. He looked into her eyes, their noses nearly touching.

"Do you still love me, Gaius?" Six asked him.

Baltar looked over his shoulder at his lady in red, who hadn't moved, nor had Six's incarnation of Baltar. Then he looked back into Six's eyes.

"Yes," he said.

As soon as he said it he kissed her passionately and pushed her up against the room's far wall forcefully. Six was not injured, she enjoyed it. The two continued to make out furiously as they undressed each other. Once down to under garments, Six jumped up and wrapped her legs around Baltar's waist. He allowed the momentum of this to carry them backward until they fell onto the king size bed.

For the first time, the metaphysical incarnations of Number Six and Dr. Baltar moved. Number Six stepped forward and took a seat on the very edge of the bottom corner of the bed, as far away from the two lovers in action as she could be. Dr. Baltar walked over and stood beside, smoking his thin cigarette arrogantly.

"We have much to do," Number Six said, twirling her finger around the red strap of her dress and speaking in a cold, robotic voice.

"Yes, we do," Dr. Baltar agreed, puffing his cigarette, and using the same computer-like tone "much to do, indeed."

_**To be continued…**_


End file.
