Part 1 Battlestar Galactica: Back To The Colonies: Of Droughts And Grudges

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

July 2044, New Caprican State Maximum Security Prison Facility, Fort Dodge, New Caprica

Former Lieutenant Tia Morilio sat in solitary. She sat in solitary for twenty hours a day, every day, seven days a week. She had been convicted in April on twenty-eight counts related to the various terrorist attacks, including terrorism, accessory to terrorism, accessory to murder, accessory to the assassination of the New Caprican President, and a host of others. In June, the Federal Court sentence her to Life with the possibility of parole in thirty years.

This would be her life until she died, no doubt.

Rarely did she get visitors. Her mother came every few weeks. Carmen's health had suffered when she found out the depth of her daughter's involvement with The Cain Mutiny. She was declining fast. Her son was long dead; the father of her children also long dead, and her daughter imprisoned for life. Tia wondered if she'd last till the New Year.

But today, the guard approached her and informed he she had a visitor. Usually, an inmate had to talk to a visitor via a phone hookup with thick, bulletproof glass separating the visitor from the prisoner. This time, however, she was taken beyond the normal visitor room, and down the main hall of the facility. The guard in front of her stopped at a door to their right and opened it. The guard gestured for Tia to enter. Both guards took up stations on either side of the door.

She came entered the room, and...

"Hi Tia", said the diminutive voice.

"Agathon?" She was so flabbergasted that she couldn't get angry. Hera Agathon was the last person she expected to see come calling on her. After a moment, bitterness did enter her voice. "You hear to gloat over me, Cylon?"

Hera shook her head and sat forward in the chair she was occupying. "No, I wanted to see how you're being treated." Tia snorted in derision at that remark.

"Oh, it's great here; food is slop; smells like an outhouse; locked in this room for twenty hours each day. What's not to love about it, kid?"

"I'm not here to gloat, Hera countered, "and I'm not trying to piss you off. But you need to come to terms with the fact that you did this to yourself. No one did it to you."

"Just why the hell are you here, then?"

"I wanted to let you know that before your sentencing, Pembers let me know that the judge was going to have you executed", she said with more than a little sadness in her voice.

"Yes, I had heard that too. My lawyer said it was a done deal", she said in a normal tone, as if discussing the weather. "I wonder what changed his mind?"

"I changed his mind, Tia", she informed the woman who wanted to kill her.

Tia was at a loss for words, confusion sluicing through her mind. Hera continued.

"I went to the Judge and pleaded with him not to sentence you to death, and to give you the possibility of parole"

"Why in the name of the gods would you do that, Mutt?" Tia used Hera's call sign derisively.

"Because there's been enough killing, that's why! Over one hundred and fifty people died in the three attacks that day, Tia. Most of them were Human Beings, just like you. And your group killed two whole Cylons."

"What's your point", she inquired with curiosity.

"My point is that is it worth killing hundreds of Humans to take out the few Cylons that are left?" Hera paused, then plodded on. "The ones that are left are my mother; Admiral Baltar, Chief Tyrol, and Leoben. That's it! We're going to die off. It's a matter of a relatively short time."