| PHD #419: Children of God is God is… |
| Summary: | Khloe confronts Wade about his vision on Gemenon. |
| Date: | 19 Apr 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | A Lamb In Wolf's Clothing, Long Live The Queen |
| Players: |
  |
| Ready Room - Deck 7 - Battlestar Cerberus |
|---|
| With the hatches at the rear of the room, the walkways on both sides slope down towards the dais at the front of the room. The stadium seating forms a partial semi-circle around the speaking podium and provides enough seats for all three hundred members of the Air Wing. The walls are adorned with the patches of each squadron aboard and their mottos stenciled in white lettering above each one. Behind the podium is a set of large LCD screens that can display any matter of material from reconnaissance to maps to gun camera footage. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #419 |
It's been a few days since the adrenaline of the mutiny of Rudolph "Rudy" Kepner and the subsequent battle between the Cerberus and the Areion. Things have quieted down enough such that old business can be addressed - and there is old business between Khloe and Wade. Something about his clearance to fly during the final clash between both ships' air wings. Something else about his experiences on Gemenon, no doubt.
The Knights SL is sitting in the front row, clicking through flight footage of the fight. Unsurprisingly she's reviewing Drips' gun camera, and the rather masterful takedown of LCOL Baer's Raptor. When he enters, though, she pauses the playback. "Drips. Let's talk," says the Captain, rising to her feet.
And as requested, Wade steps into the Ready Room, wearing his flight suit, carrying his helmet on his right hand. As soon as he steps in, he takes a good look at the screen and finds Papa's Viper going boom. Good times, good times. That frakker killed his friend, and apparently he is still unaware that he punched the CAG, not that it makes a difference now. He nods to Khloe "Captain" offers the man, followed by a quick salute. He places the helmet on a close by chair and he says "What's on your mind?"
"I have questions for you," Khloe begins, moving to head over to the podium where she retrieves a folder. Flipping it open, Wade might recognize his entire service record. "First things first. Have you ever been to Gemenon before the events that transpired on April Oh-Three of this year?" It seems Khloe is intent on drilling him on his 'walking vision' that he had on Gemenon before succumbing to the effects of the flu.
"Alright" says Wade, following the woman with his gaze as she walks to the podium. He, he just turns around and heads to the closest seat, taking it and leaning back. "No, I have never been to Gemenon." offers the man with a straight forward answer. He clears his throat and idly looks at his helmet, moving some dust from it with his left hand. His attention drifts to the paused image on the screen, just for a few seconds only to then return to Khloe.
"I see." Khloe flips a page to what looks like an AAR. "You are noted as having passed out from suffering effects of the sickness that swept through the ship. Notably, this sickness had the potential to cause hallucinations and mental breakdowns. I'm sure you heard that I had an… episode." Curling her lip slightly, likely still displeased with herself over that, she continues. "You are recorded as having said, before you passed out, 'Time is the undammed river that plunges over the falls. The falls. Remember you the falls, Children of God is God is…' And then you repeated that bit until you went unconscious. What does that mean, Lieutenant?" She glances up from her papers, peering expectantly at Wade.
"I've heard that you had problems but I didn't really went into all the details." offers the man with a nod of his head. He peels off his gloves and sets them on top of the helmet, looking back at her. "What does it mean?" asks Wade arching both eyebrows in surprise "I don't know what that means, I don't even remember saying those words. I do remember…" he stops himself for a moment and takes a deep breath, thinking "I remember a voice….but I don't remember what that voice said." He just shakes his head at that and looks at the woman again "I've heard from others that I did say that, so I believe it but I can't remember speaking those words"
"Mr. Duncan, I have two courses of action right now, based on what I've read as testimony from others, read from the AAR, and heard from your own lips," Khloe states. "Either I'm to believe that you just had a mental breakdown and uttered these words with no intent behind them, or you've actually gotten some sort of 'vision', and I'm to just let this go… or you are some sort of Cylon monotheism sympathizer and I should ground you pending an investigation. I'm certain, though, that if I ground you, Cidra will take a pound of my ass. So I'm going to give you a chance to defend yourself and convince me that you're not a frakking skinjob." She flips the folder closed as punctuation.
Wade listens to her in complete silence and arches both eyebrows again "Defend myself?" He presses his lips together and rubs his left hand over his shadow beard, taking a deep breath "Poppy, what could you possibly expect for me to say and accept it as a valid defense?" He shrugs casually at that and says "I'm not a Cylon, I'm not….that's as much defense I can throw I guess." He clears his throat and says "I mean, McQueen and that guy Rejn, they are Cylons; did we suspect? Not a frakking chance. I don't think there's /anything/ I could possibly say that would make you think otherwise." Another deep breath taken "I mean, I'm not a Cylon, that's that."
Khloe holds the folder out to him, more as evidence than for him to take it, although she won't stop him from taking it if he does. "Then explain to me why you, out of the blue, spouted that monotheistic Cylon bullcrap on Gemenon! Explain it to me, because I don't understand, and I'm not about to take 'the gods spoke to you' as an answer!"
The Viper pilot stands up and walks towards Khloe, extending his hand and taking the folder. He gives it a quick look, flipping through the pages and not really reading anything in particular "Poppy, I have no frakking idea why I said the things I apparently said, I don't. Ok?" He is actually pretty calm at the moment. "I saw something and I remember hearing a voice in the back of my head, and that's it, nothing more than that. I have no way possible way to explain why it happened, I don't." He clears his throat and shakes his head "I don't know Poppy, if you want to throw me in the brig, go ahead and do it but I don't have the answers that you are looking for"
"Damnit, Drips! Give me something! Even if it's bullshit. Because I feel like the number of people I can trust to watch my six is shrinking, and you're not helping any." Khloe folds her arms across her chest, narrowing her eyes at him.
"I always watch your six, what the frak are you talking about!?" finally says Wade raising his voice considerably. "I don't frakking know why I said those things, but I do want to know because it is my hope that what happened…." he stops himself, takes a deep breath and calms down "I'm not a Cylon, so I don't think that what happened points me as one but I do want to know what it means. I've been wanting to go to Gemenon since the dream." He nods "I'm not going to sugar coat things for you, either you trust me or you don't. But what are you going to do Poppy? Are you going to place mistrust in all of your Pilots?" He shakes his head at this and says "If my Captain can trust me, then you might as well transfer me to another Squadron"
Khloe shakes her head. "'Since the dream.' Listen to yourself. You are placing stock in dreams and visions and stupid frakking people who are naive and want to believe that there is still something for us on the Colonies. The Colonies are dead, Drips. Stop looking backward, and start looking forward. We have to survive, and it's not going to be through scrolls or visions or skinjobs living with humans and singing frakking Kumbaya. The Cylons are the enemy."
"The Colonies /are/ dead, right you are" says Drips, nodding at that. "I don't give a damn about the Colonies right now because they are so frakking irradiated that we can't live there anymore. Nor I give a damn about singing Kumbaya or whatever the frak that is with Cylons. What I want, Poppy, is for us…" he makes a circular motion with his finger "…what's left of us, to find a place to live. Because you know what? We just can't keep jumping from place to place without course or direction. We are chickens without our heads Poppy" He takes a deep breath and shakes his head "I am not looking backwards and you are damn wrong if you think that's the case. I always look forward, because forward is home, wherever that place is." The man narrows his eyes and he says "Don't get confused Poppy, I very well know the Cylons are the enemy"
Khloe eyes Wade as if she were sizing him up, judging his words and re-assessing his character. "You're the only person in the Knights that I can trust to take over for me if I'm dead or incapacitated, Drips," she says, her voice even, no longer showing signs of being angry. "And it just boils me to think that you might not be the officer I think you are." She holds out her hand for the folder. "I don't give my trust easily, but I think you know that. You are one of the few pilots in the Black Knights I would trust, with my life, in your hands. I'm not even talking piloting. I'm talking trust."
Wade says nothing during the first part of Khloe's speech, he just listens to her. When she requests for the folder, he hands it over to her and then says "I'm not a Cylon, that's the best I can give you on that end" says Drips, nodding his head. "Good, and I will keep protecting your ass, just the way I have been doing it since you assumed command of the Knights. And I expect that you protect mine" Another firm nod from him and he adds "Trust, yes, I know what you mean." The man takes a step back "It boils you to think that?" asks the man now, showing a faint smile "Is it because you secretly love me?" Yep, he is still smiling.
"You wish. Get bent," she responds quickly. Then, allowing herself to smirk slightly, she says, "Get out of here, Drips. Just stop having visions and spouting off about gods in the singular and we won't have a problem."
Wade snaps his fingers and shakes his head "Someday, someday…" with that, he extends his hand to take his helmet and gloves, offering a quick salute to Poppy. "Well, I can't really promise that Poppy but how about this, should it ever happen again, I'll buy dinner and we meet up so you can yell at me again, sounds like a fair trade" With that, the man turns around and walks towards the exit.
Khloe sighs with frustration, and turns to switch off the flight footage. "Frakking idiot," she mutters, but at least her concerns are assuaged.