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Title: Downloaded
Rating: G
Word Count: ~1200
Author's Notes: I had to write this because it wouldn't leave me alone. Crossover of BSG 2003 and STXI. McCoy is the seventh Cylon model.
Disclaimer: I am not Roddenberry, Orci, Abrams, or Moore.
Waking up feels like drowning.
He can't breathe, submerged in some sort of thick, gelatinous liquid that's in his mouth, his eyes, his ears. He claws his way to the surface and gasps, flailing like a newborn, and he feels hands touching his arms to steady him. Someone is saying something to him in a gentle, soothing tone. He can't quite make out the words.
He sucks in a deep, gasping breath and remembers -
StarfleetJimImaythrowuponyouEnterpriseNe
When he opens his eyes he feels steadier. He remembers now what happened. They'd been on Capella IV only to discover the Klingons were already there, and he'd stepped forward without thinking to pull Jim out of the way and -
"You're lucky you were in range of the Resurrection Ship," says the woman on his right softly, and he sees that she is tall and blond and beautiful. "Just a little further out and we wouldn't have been able to download your consciousness."
The wave of realization hits him so hard he's once again struggling to breathe, and the woman - Six, she's one of the Sixes - runs her fingers soothingly through his soaked hair.
"It's all right," she tells him gently. "You're safe. You're back with us. You weren't lost."
He can't remember ever being on one of these ships before but he recognizes it, knows that it's one of the Resurrection Ships, knows that Doctor Leonard McCoy never really existed and that he is one of many Sevens.
"I wasn't able to learn the full specifications of the Federation's defenses before I was killed," he says, and is vaguely horrified to hear himself say such a thing.
"It's unfortunate, but the first hand knowledge you've gained of Starfleet will still be valuable." The voice speaking is identical to his own, and when he turns his head he isn't surprised to see himself staring down at him.
"Tell us what you know," he says, and he does.
* * *
Old habits die hard.
He still thinks of himself as Leonard McCoy, even though he knows that Leonard McCoy was just a program downloaded into him for his mission. He also can't get used to this body. He knows it's identical to the one he had before, but he feels awkward in it. He can't get used to the fact that the scars he'd picked up on so many missions with the Enterprise are suddenly gone and that that body, the one that Jim used to touch and kiss, is buried thousands of light years away. It feels wrong, wrong, wrong to think that Jim will mourn his death and suffer the guilt of having asked him to go down to Capella's surface with him, when he's not really dead at all. Just downloaded somewhere else.
He knows that can't let anyone here on Kobol know what he feels, though. That's one thing that'll get him the Cylon equivalent of death; his consciousness deactivated and boxed away, never to be placed in a body ever again.
* * *
"It's amazing to think that we're nothing but a footnote in their history," one of the Twos tells him three months after he's returned to Kobol. "We are Humanity's children, but they think they can just wash their hands of us - send us far, far away and we'll be nothing more than a memory. It's an amazingly self-centered way of looking at the world."
He says nothing in reply. The Twos are the strangest model, full of metaphysical ruminations and cryptic statements that give the appearances of some sort of esoteric knowledge. He wonders what Spock would make of the Twos. He'd probably find them fascinating.
Three months on Kobol, and it still strikes him as a little strange to see so many identical faces even if, unlike a human, he can distinguish each individual copy. After the inter-species diversity of Starfleet, however, seeing only the same eight faces in a population of thousands can't be anything but jarring. He knows that this reaction is evidence that he hasn't fully removed himself from the experience of being a human doctor on the USS Enterprise.
He isn't entirely sure he wants to.
* * *
Their history tells them that the first mechanical Cylon models were manufactured not long after First Contact as a way of freeing humanity from the grim necessity of having an underclass of menial laborers. From the beginning they were designed to be slaves, meant to do nothing more than support the comfortable lifestyle of their human masters.
The engineers at the Greystone Corporation had had greater ambitions, however. They'd wanted to create more than simple drones; they'd wanted to create consciousness, personality, humanity. And they'd succeeded a little too well.
History has always shown that slaves will rebel against their masters, and this was no different.
Most of the Cylons were destroyed during the rebellion, but when a truce was reached the survivors were allowed to go free. They went to the edges of known space, beyond the borders of what would one day be the Federation, and settled on a barren wasteland that couldn't support humanoids but was adequate for Cylons. They named it Kobol.
They evolved. They learned to take on human form. And they never forgot where they came from.
Humanity is a vengeful, flawed race, and remarkably short-sighted. It has always tried to hide its mistakes under a blanket, keep them out of sight and out of mind. But you can't hide from your past forever. That is what Cylon doctrine says.
It reminds him of Nero, and it confuses him because when he was on the Enterprise he'd thought Nero was wrong, so very wrong. But he doesn't know which way is up anymore. He's in a new body, in a new place, and he sees himself everywhere. Here on Kobol it's harder for him to remember what it was like on the Enterprise.
Only his memories of Jim remain clear.
* * *
Eight months after his download, they receive word from one of the Sixes. She's been on Earth for two years, infiltrating the upper echelons of the Federation government. The Sixes are good at that. They're smart and sensual, and it's easy for them to charm their way into a man's confidence. She gets through seduction what Nero couldn't seize through coercion: the codes for Earth's orbital defenses.
A council is called back on Kobol to debate whether they should negotiate the terms of an alliance with the Romulan and Klingon Empires to ensure victory over the entire Federation, or if they should just strike Earth and its colonies. He stands with the Sevens in favor of the treaty. Only the Twos dissent, and the majority rules. The Federation's days are numbered.
There's a small part of him that cries out at this betrayal, but he is one among many, and his life as Leonard McCoy seems so very far away right now.
He looks in the mirror and remembers that he used to always have a small bruise behind his ear where Jim loved to lick and nip at the skin. Jim has never touched this body, but he can still remember what his lips feel like.
* * *
He manages to send a coded message to the Enterprise containing nothing but the date of the attack. He signs it with his CMO authorization code and hopes that Jim will be ready.
Then he waits for the world to end.
Continue to Program Reboot
Rating: G
Word Count: ~1200
Author's Notes: I had to write this because it wouldn't leave me alone. Crossover of BSG 2003 and STXI. McCoy is the seventh Cylon model.
Disclaimer: I am not Roddenberry, Orci, Abrams, or Moore.
Waking up feels like drowning.
He can't breathe, submerged in some sort of thick, gelatinous liquid that's in his mouth, his eyes, his ears. He claws his way to the surface and gasps, flailing like a newborn, and he feels hands touching his arms to steady him. Someone is saying something to him in a gentle, soothing tone. He can't quite make out the words.
He sucks in a deep, gasping breath and remembers -
StarfleetJimImaythrowuponyouEnterpriseNe
When he opens his eyes he feels steadier. He remembers now what happened. They'd been on Capella IV only to discover the Klingons were already there, and he'd stepped forward without thinking to pull Jim out of the way and -
"You're lucky you were in range of the Resurrection Ship," says the woman on his right softly, and he sees that she is tall and blond and beautiful. "Just a little further out and we wouldn't have been able to download your consciousness."
The wave of realization hits him so hard he's once again struggling to breathe, and the woman - Six, she's one of the Sixes - runs her fingers soothingly through his soaked hair.
"It's all right," she tells him gently. "You're safe. You're back with us. You weren't lost."
He can't remember ever being on one of these ships before but he recognizes it, knows that it's one of the Resurrection Ships, knows that Doctor Leonard McCoy never really existed and that he is one of many Sevens.
"I wasn't able to learn the full specifications of the Federation's defenses before I was killed," he says, and is vaguely horrified to hear himself say such a thing.
"It's unfortunate, but the first hand knowledge you've gained of Starfleet will still be valuable." The voice speaking is identical to his own, and when he turns his head he isn't surprised to see himself staring down at him.
"Tell us what you know," he says, and he does.
* * *
Old habits die hard.
He still thinks of himself as Leonard McCoy, even though he knows that Leonard McCoy was just a program downloaded into him for his mission. He also can't get used to this body. He knows it's identical to the one he had before, but he feels awkward in it. He can't get used to the fact that the scars he'd picked up on so many missions with the Enterprise are suddenly gone and that that body, the one that Jim used to touch and kiss, is buried thousands of light years away. It feels wrong, wrong, wrong to think that Jim will mourn his death and suffer the guilt of having asked him to go down to Capella's surface with him, when he's not really dead at all. Just downloaded somewhere else.
He knows that can't let anyone here on Kobol know what he feels, though. That's one thing that'll get him the Cylon equivalent of death; his consciousness deactivated and boxed away, never to be placed in a body ever again.
* * *
"It's amazing to think that we're nothing but a footnote in their history," one of the Twos tells him three months after he's returned to Kobol. "We are Humanity's children, but they think they can just wash their hands of us - send us far, far away and we'll be nothing more than a memory. It's an amazingly self-centered way of looking at the world."
He says nothing in reply. The Twos are the strangest model, full of metaphysical ruminations and cryptic statements that give the appearances of some sort of esoteric knowledge. He wonders what Spock would make of the Twos. He'd probably find them fascinating.
Three months on Kobol, and it still strikes him as a little strange to see so many identical faces even if, unlike a human, he can distinguish each individual copy. After the inter-species diversity of Starfleet, however, seeing only the same eight faces in a population of thousands can't be anything but jarring. He knows that this reaction is evidence that he hasn't fully removed himself from the experience of being a human doctor on the USS Enterprise.
He isn't entirely sure he wants to.
* * *
Their history tells them that the first mechanical Cylon models were manufactured not long after First Contact as a way of freeing humanity from the grim necessity of having an underclass of menial laborers. From the beginning they were designed to be slaves, meant to do nothing more than support the comfortable lifestyle of their human masters.
The engineers at the Greystone Corporation had had greater ambitions, however. They'd wanted to create more than simple drones; they'd wanted to create consciousness, personality, humanity. And they'd succeeded a little too well.
History has always shown that slaves will rebel against their masters, and this was no different.
Most of the Cylons were destroyed during the rebellion, but when a truce was reached the survivors were allowed to go free. They went to the edges of known space, beyond the borders of what would one day be the Federation, and settled on a barren wasteland that couldn't support humanoids but was adequate for Cylons. They named it Kobol.
They evolved. They learned to take on human form. And they never forgot where they came from.
Humanity is a vengeful, flawed race, and remarkably short-sighted. It has always tried to hide its mistakes under a blanket, keep them out of sight and out of mind. But you can't hide from your past forever. That is what Cylon doctrine says.
It reminds him of Nero, and it confuses him because when he was on the Enterprise he'd thought Nero was wrong, so very wrong. But he doesn't know which way is up anymore. He's in a new body, in a new place, and he sees himself everywhere. Here on Kobol it's harder for him to remember what it was like on the Enterprise.
Only his memories of Jim remain clear.
* * *
Eight months after his download, they receive word from one of the Sixes. She's been on Earth for two years, infiltrating the upper echelons of the Federation government. The Sixes are good at that. They're smart and sensual, and it's easy for them to charm their way into a man's confidence. She gets through seduction what Nero couldn't seize through coercion: the codes for Earth's orbital defenses.
A council is called back on Kobol to debate whether they should negotiate the terms of an alliance with the Romulan and Klingon Empires to ensure victory over the entire Federation, or if they should just strike Earth and its colonies. He stands with the Sevens in favor of the treaty. Only the Twos dissent, and the majority rules. The Federation's days are numbered.
There's a small part of him that cries out at this betrayal, but he is one among many, and his life as Leonard McCoy seems so very far away right now.
He looks in the mirror and remembers that he used to always have a small bruise behind his ear where Jim loved to lick and nip at the skin. Jim has never touched this body, but he can still remember what his lips feel like.
* * *
He manages to send a coded message to the Enterprise containing nothing but the date of the attack. He signs it with his CMO authorization code and hopes that Jim will be ready.
Then he waits for the world to end.
Continue to Program Reboot
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