edge_of_forever | Blood Work [Open]

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Blood Work [Open]

Gaius Baltar is standing in the science labs of the third floor of the Prosperina, eye pressed against the eyepiece lens. This felt so familiar to Gaius; in a way, it was almost disconcerting. What was that phrase that Six liked to use? 'All this has happened before, and all this will happen again', was it? It certainly seemed to be the case now. Mostly, anyway. Instead of being surrounded by thousands of blood samples all in need of testing for Cylon pathogens, he was surrounded by four in need of just simple investigation.

One from him, one from Julien, one from someone he hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet, and one from the Commander.

Only one woman aboard the station had deigned to pay a visit to the science labs, and it had to be her of all people. What Gaius wanted was someone young and pretty like the girls he slept with on Caprica. Someone who would think he was all charm and intelligence. Someone who thought he was utterly irresistible.

And the Commander it seemed, had developed an immunity to his charms. In fact, she didn't seem to like him at all. And that alone Gaius couldn't stand; he didn't like the thought of anyone disliking him. Even Shepard.

"Cubit for your thoughts, Gaius." Gaius jerks up quite suddenly to find Six sitting there on the countertop next to him. She's quite lovely, in that red dress that he really loved. The one that seemed to hug every inch of her body, leaving very little to the imagination.

"When did you get here?" he asks her, though it comes out as more of a demand than a question.

"Just a second ago." Six smiles. "Are you going to answer my question?"

Gaius runs a hand over his sweatshirt, smoothing out the wrinkles. He'd feel more comfortable in a suit -- or if that weren't possible, a lab coat would probably do. But unfortunately, the ship had not seen it fit to outfit them appropriately.

Or at least not him. The rest of the space station's denizens could feel just at home in this kind of clothing, for all he knew.

"I was thinking about women," he says, finally. "The only one I've seen since I've cooped myself up in this lab is Shepard and frankly, she left a great deal to be desired." He peers through the eyepiece again and frowns down at a sample of her bloodwork. It sits on a microscope slide, bound to the stage with a set of stage clips.

Six pushes herself out the counter and steps towards him. She leans over him, breasts pressed against his back. Gaius briefly recalls the last time the two of them fooled around in a science lab, and remembers Kara Thrace walking in right in the middle of it.

Any desire he might have felt was killed with that very thought.

"Learn anything new about women by examining their blood?" she asks, her lips so close to his ear that she can feel the warmth of her breath there on his lobe.

"Abnormalities," he answers, somehow managing to squelch his newly-resurrected desire, however barely. "But I've seen a lot of abnormalities from the samples I've taken thusfar. I'll need more samples before I can draw any definitive conclusions."

He's both thankful and remorseful when Six decides to pull away a second later. "Well, then," she says. "I'll leave you to your work."

And in a blink of an eye, Six is gone again, leaving Gaius standing there, wishing very much that he was in some other place -- some private place, rather -- alone and with Six.

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Gaius is not quite sure what to think of the man's initial response. If he wasn't here to give a sample of blood, why was he here, then?

The answer comes quickly after that, and it's enough for Gaius to transform that perfectly-practiced smile into one that is truly genuine.

He was here for him.

"I'm not surprised," he remarks. "Putting aside the fact that we are likely both from two very divergent realities, the Twelve Colonies simply don't exist the way they did several years ago." He won't go into that further right now, not while they're having such a pleasant conversation.

"If you're not here for a sample, surely you must have some reason to visit the labs besides meeting me," Gaius says. He is hopeful that whatever the reason for his visit, Kraus will give him some small opportunity to flaunt his intellectual prowess.

"Aside from curiosity?" Klaus asks, rhetorically, because it would have been impossible not to notice the change in the man's demeanour the minute Klaus had started flattering him, and making it all about him. He's even wondering how long it will take for President Doctor Gaius Baltar to ask for Klaus's name in return. If he even ever asks. Still, he's not going to lay it on too thick, and he moves on.

"Actually, yes, I was also wondering whether you'd found anything yet," Klaus answered. "In our blood, from the injections."

"We have discovered something. An abnormality. I worked quite a bit with blood samples back aboard the Battlestar Galactica, though the tests I was running back then were quite different from the ones I'm running now." Here, Gaius wasn't looking for Cylons. As much as he wanted to locate those Final Five (and determine if he himself was one of them), he did not have the technology on hand to perform such testing.

He did, however, plan to keep the blood samples he had on hand in case there was a time in the future when he could submit the samples to a new and improved version of his Amazing Cylon Detector.

Of course, he had no intention of letting the others know that.

"There is an abnormality," he says. "So far it's been present in all the samples I've collected, though further samples would need to be collected and further testing be done before I can provide a more definitive, concrete explanation."

He smiles charmingly. "Of course, analysis is taking longer than usual. While most of the samples I have on hand are most decidedly human, even those samples differ slightly, on a genetic scale. I suppose that much is to be expected, with us coming from divergent realities. Our cycle of evolution may have been different for each of us depending upon the time and space we come from."

Gaius still has neglected to ask Klaus for his name.

"I wouldn't expect any different," Klaus agrees, with a slight smile, although he is not exactly thrilled by what the doctor is saying. The scientific chit chat is all well and good, but to him it's just like listening to yet another witch go on about the balance of nature. For the same reason he tended not to let his irritation show when he wanted the witches to work for him willingly, he doesn't let it show now either. Best to keep the good doctor on his side, although the good doctor would very probably see it the other way around.

"How long do you expect the analyses to take?"

"Well, that depends on a number of things, actually," Gaius says. "Mostly on the number of samples we're able to collect, though the amount of time Dr. Bashir and I spend on this project of ours will definitely play no small part in its completion. I plan to work around-the-clock until we have some semblance of an answer."

It wasn't as if he had anything better to do -- especially with the apparent lack of women aboard the station. Besides, even despite their contrasting reasons for wanting to do so, both he and Six wanted to establish himself as a man of character and intelligence and trust, something that this project may very well accomplish.

Reliving the days of glory back on Caprica. Gaius longed for it.

Then, finally: "I don't think I ever got your name," Gaius says, almost as an afterthought.

Klaus does nothing to hide his smile at the final question, but it looks like the smile of one who is glad to be asked by one President of the Twelve Colonies, rather than the smile of one amused by a clearly self-centered scientist. Klaus cannot fault him for it; he is the epitome of self-centered himself.

"Klaus," he answers, and leaves out his last name, as he usually does. He refuses to be defined by who his father is. "It's Klaus. Have you met Sherlock Holmes, doctor?"

"It has been very good to meet you, though I must admit that I'm a little disappointed you have not decided to contribute your own sample to the meager number we've acquired thusfar." He waves an arm toward a simple stand holding four vials of blood -- three red, one amber. It's not very much unlike the one he had aboard the Galactica.

"I haven't," he says. "Is there something I should know about this Sherlock Holmes?"

Best to simply evade saying anything about Klaus's refusal to give his blood. Admitting that your blood is a precious, one-of-a-kind commodity is not quite in line with wanting to remain his own man rather than a test subject called upon to heal any odd thing. Although with the way the rest of him is not as it once was, it is entirely possible that his blood is not as efficient as it used to be, if it still works at all.

"You might want to get him on board, he has quite the brilliant mind, and a fondness for research and puzzles," Klaus lets Gaius know. Ozzie is just as smart, but as far as Klaus knows, less versed into biology, although he could be wrong. Best to check with him next time Klaus runs into him. In a station this size, it would be soon enough.

Gaius' lips twitch slightly at the word brilliant. That was a word that was -- at least back in his own reality -- a word that was synonymous with Gaius Baltar. One could look up 'Brilliant' in any dictionary and find a picture of him slathered next to it.

Sherlock Holmes is most certainly not a person he wants to work with; he's now firmly rooted himself into the 'rival' category.

"I'll do that," he says, smiling tersely, though he most certainly will not. "But for now, I should return to my work; there's a lot still to be done with the samples we have on-hand now."

Ah, ego. That particular form of ego is only the issue of those that do not truly and entirely believe themselves to be superior. Klaus will have none of it, especially if it might stop brilliant minds from allying their efforts and figuring things out more quickly.

It's worth trying a compulsion although, as usual, there is no telling whether it will take.

"Doctor," Klaus calls him back as he starts to turn back to his work, reaching out to lay his fingertips on the sleeve of Gaius's hoodie. He looks him in the eye, and gives it his best shot, but just in case it doesn't work, he can't risk phrasing it as the simple order it really ought to be, hiding the compulsion between and behind his words instead. "It would be a shame to let rivalry stand between yourself and speedier results, wouldn't you say?"

"I," Gaius says, looking at Klaus. He licks his lips, and for a second, it looks as though he might be on the verge of saying something to the affirmative.

"Gaius," comes a hiss from behind the other man. As if by reflex, he looks past Klaus, at something behind him.

That something is Six. She's wearing the blue dress now. Not his favorite, but it's still very nice on her. Brings out the color of her eyes.

"You're going to have to cooperate with the others if you plan to get off the Prosperina." There's menace there, lingering somewhere beneath the surface. He's long become an expert at recognizing it. "This is God's plan, do you understand me?"

Gaius swallows. His expression is distinctly nervous.

"Answer me!"

"Y-Yes," he somehow manages to sputter in response to Six. He turns his gaze back to Klaus. "Of course. You're right, how silly of me," he says, pressing a hand against his forehead. "How silly of me to have not considered the importance of having so many great minds working together."

Klaus is not sure what is going on, and goes as far as to turn around to check that there isn't anyone behind him, since he can't rely on his senses the way he used to. The compulsion didn't work, that much is for certain, but what is going on here? There is no one behind him, and he isn't sure what Gaius is looking at for so long, or who he says yes to before looking back at Klaus.

"Silly," Klaus echoes, with faintly amused confusion, because he would have used the word crazy right about now. Or maybe not, who knew. If vampires, werewolves and ghosts existed, who knew what else might in other universes, that Klaus might not be able to perceive? "Is there someone else here with us, doctor?"

"Someone else?" Gaius repeats, chuckling nervously. He tries his best to fight the compulsion to look over at Six for her reaction to Klaus' words. "Why would you ever -- someone else, really?" He tries his best to feign amusement, with mixed results.

"But really, I meant what I said earlier," he says, hoping to cut this conversation short. "I should really get back to my work. I'm sure there are many others who are just as anxious as you to see the product of our research."

He tugs the slide from the grasp of the stage clips, then replaces it with a slide sample of his own. "We'll talk again soon," he says, glancing up just long enough to flash Klaus what he hopes is a charming smile. "I hope."

"We will," Klaus assures him with a smile of his own. One that doesn't say how much he's looking forward to figuring out more about the good doctor. "It's a small space station, after all." But for now, he is letting it go, letting Gaius weasel out of it, because it doesn't matter that much, and the position Klaus has assumed so far, in this tiny society they're in, is not that of the bully. It's a change, but in his weakened state, it is more viable in the long turn.

"Good luck on your research, doctor," he tells Gaius, still smiling, still charming right back at him, and heads out of the laboratory, whistling an old Beatles song.

(That was really fun. Thanks so much for playing!)

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Blood Work [Open]

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