Industrial district, outskirts of Triad City, Tharkad...
She stepped out of the car with only minor difficulty, while Jack and Nick took up positions. There was a Cylon heavy raider parked inside, and scorches marked the walls of the warehouse.
"Nice." Liz said, "jumped in here, did they?"
"Unsubtle." Gina noted. "be careful, this can still be a trap."
"that's why I have friends." Liz said. The rear hatch of the alien (well, not so alien to Elizabeth anymore) vehicle opened and a group of men in bulky armor piled out.
"Old models, they're still very dangerous, especially to humans."
Behind them, came John, and Boomer, a small, nervous, almost bureaucratic man, and a tall, dark man with a shaved head.
"You came in person." John said.
"Well, other than you can kill us all and I'm the only one who stays dead, seemed like decent plan." Liz noted. "You didn't just decide to visit. are you hooked up with Engels and his social democrats somehow, or did you find out about them and want to see what I'm gonna do about it?" she deliberately pulled a cigarette out of her lapel, and lit it with a butane lighter.
"Perceptive, isn't she?" the small, nervous guy said.
"It pays to stay current." Liz said, "You guys know that already. so which is it?"
"We found out about it. you have a leak." John said.
"More like Sharon tells Sharon, who tells Sharon down the line." Liz surmised this out loud. "Yeah, I know, I was told. What maybe you guys don't get, is that Boomer is proof, you're individuals enough that I'm not worried about a leak, when I see a route of communication."
Doral at least, looked uncomfortable at that. Simon, the Four present, studied her with clinical eyes, and John? he smiled.
"Now for who I don't know. she said, and hobbled up to one of the old model Centurions, "what's your name, troop?"
it studied her with that roving eye, but was silent.
"I said nobody wears inhibitors here." Liz stated, "if you can't keep up your end and let your people speak for themsel-"
"I don't like you, human." it spoke with a sibilant, toneless hatred.
"Well, you do speak." she said, "Good on you for having your own opinion." she looked at John, "alright, we can deal."
"Why is relative freedom so important to you?" Simon asked.
"THousand Kroner Question." Liz said, "it is, that's all. any 'deal' made has to be by consent. Consent can't be compelled by programming, inserts, add ons, peripherals, or the sabotage of the mind, or it's not consent." she nodded to the old models, "Their makers forgot that basic rule, or maybe never knew it, either way, the sabotage of the will and mind are atrocities. coerced mind control is obscene. same way slavery is, for the same reason."
"It is safer."
"****** that, you're proof it isn't." Elizabeth snapped, "I prefer that my friends jack and nick, have the ability to decide to shoot me in the back, it means more that they don't have the inclination because I'm a good boss and respect them...and their mental privacy. if you can't hate, you can't love, if you have to compel loyalty you haven't got loyalty. Just because some backassend of nowhere colony thought they could, this one-" she gestured at the Cylon who spoke, "Hates me on sight. but it's real."
"but you can compel loyalty with fear, or persuasion..." Doral suggested.
"Fear isn't loyalty, that's fear." Liz shot back, "Persuasion is a two-way thing, persuasion is consensual, it requires mutual effort, it usually works to some mutual benefit, and when it's done under false pretenses, the backlash is earned. deserved. I believe in consequences."
"we 'backlashed' on our creators by trying very hard to make them extinct...and then, Simon here, did experiments on the survivors." John said, "What do you say to that?"
"I can't forgive you, you didn't do it to me or mine." Elizabeth said, "I can condemn it, call it stupid, even evil, but you haven't harmed me, or mine. if you want forgiveness or condemnation, you'll have to look at them and ask what it would feel like if somebody did it to you, and yours. You know, Leo and I had this conversation when I was like, Twelve."
she flicked ashes. "I doubt you're going to shock me, Simon." she added, "What you did to the Raiders is ****** up enough. They didn't deserve that."
There was a flicker in the corner of her eye, and suddenly steel arms had her scooped from her feet, as gunfire erupted in the space.
Liz managed to get her head around Jack's torso to see a commando team firing wildly.
"They're not ours."
"That is obvious." Jack said, "ours are better shots." he reached up and began a steady sniping fire, while carrying her curled against his barrel chest.
men fell. The old-model Cylons gathered in semi-circle, while the humaniforms cowered in the craft. He angled his run and ran up the ramp.
"Stay here." he said, and bounded out to provide fire-support as Nick, Gina-Tharkad, Sharon-Tharkad, and a squad of Marines engaged the attackers from multiple angles.
"Not yours?" John asked.
"I was gonna ask if they were yours." Liz said, "One of us has a ****** leak."
Within seconds, the gunfire was over. Elizabeth crept out of the Cylon shuttle, first out, John on her heels, while the captured commandos were knelt on the floor in front of her car.
she pulled the balisong out of her pocket, and, walking into the field of view of the captured attackers, she snapped it open with a butterfly motion. "The one who talks, gets amnesty, the rest get forgiveness."
one of them scoffed, "You're deluded, associating with these-"
she brought the blade up, a 'shovel' motion that slammed his head back as the blade cut his windpipe, she drew it to the side and out, leaving the man to bleed out in seconds. "You're forgiven." she said, "Go with your god."
she accepted a handkerchief from Nick. "So...who wants amnesty?"
