Word Count: 441
Date: 4/15/05
Series: Season 1
Rating: K
Category: Character
Pairing: William Adama
Warnings: None
Summary: Commander Adama introspection set in KLG2
Spoilers/Disclaimers: KLG2 / I own nothing.
Contact – isis_uf@yahoo.com
Notes: Feedback is my drug of choice. This is the first fic I've written in years and I'm more than a little nervous about it.
As his son, his XO and a dozen Marines left for Colonial One to arrest the President, Commander Adama's first thought was that this in no way bore any resemblance to the retirement he'd envisioned for himself.
Thirty years of serving the colonies in one fashion or another had led him to mandatory retirement, as the old ship he'd commanded for the better part of a decade followed in suit. Now, however, both he and the aging Battlestar found their retirements postponed indefinitely.
In his thirty years of service, he thought he'd understood and fulfilled his oath to serve and protect his people. But, since the worlds ended, he found a new level of meaning to his lifelong oath. His responsibility to his people was no longer abstract and part of a larger plan in which he was little more than a pawn. This was real, and he suddenly found that he was not only the top of the chain of command, but the last bastion of hope for his people.
It was a weighty and unexpected burden, and one he had to carry alone. He had just one surviving child, but some days it felt as though he was a father to the nearly 50,000 people left. He had precisely 47,968 mouths to feed, lives to protect, and it seemed an increasingly difficult task in the face of unruly children.
President Roslyn seemed to see herself the matriarch of the remnants of their race, but in truth she was more like a babysitter than a mother to their people. A powerless disciplinarian who could chastise with the best of them, but could do nothing to enforce the rules she set.
She considered herself his equal. The civilian mother to his military father. But she was powerless, and she'd overstepped her bounds in an attempt to test exactly where they lie.
Now, with her imminent arrest, even the illusion that he was not alone at the top was gone.
His duty was a heavy charge and one he knew he had to undertake alone. It was not a path he had chosen, but one that the fates had chosen for him, an unforeseen consequence of the Cylon agenda. There was no one left to share the responsibilities that remained.
He was tired, and somehow knew he would be for the rest of his life. But, the day the Cylons attacked, his life had ceased to be his own. Like any parent, his duty, above all else, lay in protecting his children, all 47,968, at all costs. And, try as he might, he knew there would be no retirement in his future.