Same Mind

The last time she was here, in this part of space, her life was different. Very different. For one, she knew who she was: she was Starbuck, a hotshot Viper pilot with balls of steel, metaphorically speaking. Now, her memory has a blank space that she can't seem to fill, no matter how she tries. And she has a suspicion – a suspicion that chills her to the bone – that maybe she isn't the same person as she used to be: not just figuratively, but literally.

She has the same mind, in a sense. But her body…

She should have died. Building steadily within her is the thought that maybe she did. Maybe she did die and she's a frakking cylon, planted among humans to live as one until the right time came along. Maybe that time has come and she's been… reborn.

That she can't remember the time she has been separated from the others makes her insides twitch, until she is left with a sick curiosity that she can't shake. She needs to know. She needs to find where her Viper supposedly crashed and find out if it's true.

Are her dead body and ship lying in ruins out there?

Her tracker leads her from her ship into the sparse landscape. Grass clumps, dried and tall, cover much of the ground, while a few trees bunch together. Otherwise, it's wide and empty. She spots something in the distance and stops walking, leaning forward and putting her hands on her knees. She breathes in deeply.

This is it. This is the moment she has been dreading.

Gathering up her courage, she straightens and plods through the grass the rest of the way to the ship. Sees the rotting corpse within. Her heart stops, then continues on without her.

Her dog tags. Proof that the corpse is her.

She doesn't remember anything about how it ended. She feels she should. The corpse is indeed hers, and so she should surely remember. But there is nothing. Seeing herself lying there in the dead ship does nothing to trigger her.

Just the same black space in her memory, and now more questions.

Who is she? Perhaps, more importantly, what is she?

fin.