Chapter 7
(Adama's POV)

"Care to repeat that question, lieutenant?" I ask, before turning my attention back toward the bed where I can't help but see the look of fear on Kara's face, a look that is obviously not missed by Lieutenant Agathon.

"I'm sorry, sir."

"I didn't ask you to apologize, lieutenant. I asked you to repeat that question," I remind him.

"I asked her what Sharon meant when she said that Leoben had told her she was special, sir," he says, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation and throwing an apologetic look at Kara.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Agathon. Now, Lieutenant Thrace, care to answer that question?"

"I don't know, sir," she flat-out lies and I know that that is not a good sign.

"Don't give me that crap. What was the cylon talking about?" I push, wondering what the frak it is that I've stumbled on.

"When I interrogated Leoben back on the Geminon Carrier he said some things that had nothing to do with the questions he was being asked. What Sharon said was related to that," she says without really explaining anything.

"What did he say?"

"He was just frakking with my head, sir, that's all."

"What did he say, lieutenant?" I insist.

"With all due respect, sir, that's personal."

"Not any more."

"He said that I have a destiny, that I'm special, that they've been watching me, that they know who I am," whispers Kara after hesitating for a few seconds and all of a sudden I am reminded of just how shaken she sounded when she first told me that Leoben had guessed her callsign. At the time I rationalized the whole incident away by telling her that he had probably heard it on a wireless, that it didn't mean anything, but --even though that remains the most logical explanation-- I'm beginning to suspect that there was a lot more to his words than I was led to believe.

"And what else?" I push, all but certain that there is more to it than that.

"That was it, sir."

"Don't lie to me, lieutenant. If that were it you would not have kept his comments to yourself," I point out, knowing that what she's told me so far is not what's making her this nervous.

"As I said, he was just frakking with my head, just like you warned me he would," she insists, though I can see that she doesn't really believe her own words.

"Yes, I told you that he would probably try to mess with your head but I also told you that the problem with that particular model wasn't so much that it lied but rather that it mixed lies with truths," I remind her. "You've told me the lies and now I want to know what the truths were."

"He knew things about me, things he had no business knowing," she finally admits and I can see how much telling me even that much has cost her and that bothers me, especially because the only reason I can think of for her reluctance to come clean is that what the cylons know about her is something I don't know, something she's never told me about... something she doesn't want me to know. I thought we had left all these secrets behind when she told me the truth about Zak's death but apparently we haven't and that is something I am determined to put an end to once and for all... whether she wants to or not.

"And that brings us back to my original question: what did he say, lieutenant, what did he know that he had no business knowing?" I insist, wondering just how far I should be pushing this. I need some answers here, there's no denying that, but at the same time I know we are getting dangerously close to the point in which Kara could actually be accused of disobeying a direct order by refusing to answer and with Lee, Cottle and Lieutenant Agathon here there's no way I could ignore something like that. The problem is that sending her to the brig is unlikely to do me much good and I know it.

"He told me that he had a soul, that he could see patterns... and that I was damaged."

"Damaged?"

"Yes," she whispers, not looking up.

"There must have been more to it than that," I say, wondering what it was that Leoben meant by that and why it hit Kara so hard, knowing that that word had to mean something to her.

"It..."

"Don't even try it, Starbuck. I want an answer," I warn her, smelling yet another evasive and deciding to nip it in the bud.

"He said I was special, said that my mom believed that suffering was good for the soul... it had nothing to do with their plans or anything like that, that's why I didn't say anything about it. He was just trying to frak with my head, that was all," she insists, though I'm not sure whether she is trying to convince me or herself.

"He obviously did more than try. What were his exact words?" I ask, having had more than enough of these games and knowing that, even after all this time, she still remembers.

Kara looks up at me at that and for a moment I wonder if maybe I've pushed things too far but I need to know and the truth is that up until now this whole thing just doesn't seem to make any sense at all... especially Kara's reaction to Leoben's words because as far as I can tell those words sound like more of the cylons' usual pseudo-mystical crap.

"He said that I was born to a woman who believed that suffering was good for the soul so I suffered... that life is a testament to pain and it surrounds me like a bubble but... I can't, I'm sorry, sir," she says, closing her eyes and I can see that she means it but at the same time I'm still reluctant to let this go. I know that sooner or later we are going to have to get this over with and, based on what I've seen here so far, I have to say that I don't think putting it off is going to make this any easier.

I am still trying to figure out what my next move should be, if I should keep pushing or if maybe the time has come for me to try to find a way to back down when the decision is taken out of my hands as Cottle interrupts us again.