"Cree. Boyar. Giles." Apollo looked up in surprise at the last name he read off from the sealed envelopes. Giles shrugged and gave an embarrassed grin as he took his. "Brie. Cabriolet. S-st-starbuck?" He choked over the name printed on the last envelope.
Starbuck had been standing to one side, maintaining a carefully neutral expression on his face and nonjudgmental body language. He knew what the envelopes meant and agreed whole-heartedly with Apollo's decision on how to treat those so unexpectedly reminded of a former lifestyle. He watched the expressions of those whose names were called. Some were clearly delighted; others, like Giles, embarrassed. He had been relieved that none appeared fearful, although from the calculating look on some faces, not all intended to remain at their renewed status for long. Then Apollo stuttered out his name. He sighed and made his way to the front. He had hoped all had been legally disposed of, but had steeled himself against this very occurrence.
Clearly Apollo had not. Starbuck took the envelope held loosely in Apollo's hand, murmuring, "It's all right. I half-expected it."
Apollo shook his head, violently negating Starbuck's words. "No. You know I..."
Starbuck cut him off. "Not here!" he hissed. "Dismiss them first."
Apollo blinked, then nodded. Of course his second in command was right. "All right everyone. I'll just remind you one more time, especially those of you who *didn't* receive a notice. The Council's decree affects off-duty status only. Those who choose to accept it as a full-time status will be given honorable discharges. Those who choose to renew their status on a part-time basis, will remain warriors in good standing - at least if they were in good standing until now." That brought mild chuckles. "Finally, if you choose to dispute this notice or to change your status and the ... other party does not agree, the Commander has placed the full legal and financial capabilities of the military at the disposal of those who received notices and prefer not to return to their previous status. You can see me or Colonel Tigh to discuss the possibilities you can pursue." He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Now I will reiterate what I said originally. No one - and I mean *no one* - no matter what his or her choice - is to be treated any differently than they were before. This applies to on-duty or off. I will not tolerate any show of bigotry or discrimination from warriors. I don't care what the Council has said is acceptable behavior. You will be summarily dismissed from the Service if you are found to be treating any current or former warrior as anything but an equal and full citizen. Dismissed."
The warriors filed out. Starbuck noticed Giles hesitate, then square his shoulders and virtually march towards his destination. Brie and Cree, who had never shown any indication of knowing each other before becoming cadets, met and hugged at the door, before walking away arm-in-arm, Brie rubbing herself sinuously against Cree's side. 'Well, you never know,' Starbuck thought, smiling at the two. 'They'll be applying for discharges I'll guess. Hope their master or mistress can afford them!'
"Very good," Starbuck praised the Captain teasingly as the latter sagged against his desk. "Now I probably won't get raped on my way to..." he paused to unseal the envelope and scan its contents. "...Your father's quarters. Well, that's a relief."
"A relief? A relief! How do you figure that one? He gave you to me!" Apollo went from appalled to irate at Starbuck's words. "And I freed you."
Starbuck did something he hadn't done since their second sectare at the Academy. He leaned forward and kissed Apollo softly on the lips. "I know. You wanted a friend, an equal. And I'm ... grateful." The last word sounded awkward, forced; Apollo's eyes narrowed, and Starbuck hurried on. "And I have been your friend and equal, haven't I?"
"Always, Bucko," Apollo's voice was tenderly reassuring. He, too, did something he hadn't since their second sectare at the Academy. He reached forward and stroked Starbuck's cheek. "So why are you relieved that it's my father?" he asked, confused and somewhat hurt.
"Because it could have been Uri," Starbuck whispered. In a more normal tone he continued, "I was never quite sure that the Commander had made the ... exchange legal. I mean, he actually stole me right out from under Uri's eyes, sneaking me out the bedroom window. When Uri was going to give me and Boomer the Cluster, it was great fun 'cause I knew he hated knowing I was still around, let alone honoring me. But then this had been banned, so I was safe."
"But if it wasn't legal, wouldn't he have taken action at the time?"
Starbuck shook his head. "He had abused me physically as well as misused me according to the law. He couldn't risk that being known. Better to lose me. Now, though, if an exchange of title hadn't been made, he'd be my owner of record." Starbuck shuddered. "I don't even want to think about what that would have meant."
"But you could..."
Starbuck smiled at his best friend's naiveté. "The wheels of justice grind slow, remember? Undoubtedly I'd eventually be freed or remanded to someone else, like your father, but Uri would have had me until then." He shook the thought off. "But it doesn't matter. Apparently your father somehow forced him to give me up legally. That's good."
"Well if my father was so diligent about the legalities there, why didn't he take care of them when he gave you to me?"
"Don't know. I can ask him. I'd better get up there before Security comes for me. The way this thing's been scheduled out, I *know* the Colonel's had a hand in it."
Apollo couldn't help but smile. "You're right there, Bucko. But I'm coming with you. I'll ask my father myself."
Starbuck put a hesitant hand on Apollo's shoulder. "Apollo, I just lost the right to ask any favors," he waved the notice in his hand. "But, for our friendship's sake, I'd rather you weren't there."
Apollo shook his head. "Not because you haven't the right, but because it's *my* right to know, I'm coming with you."
Starbuck bowed his head in a submissive manner that Apollo had hoped he'd never see again. "All right, my master's son," he acquiesced.
The notice fluttered unnoticed to the floor as the two men left. A few centons later, Boomer came in to take his shift as duty officer. He picked it up and read:
To the former pleasure slave known as Starbuck:
Be it known that by decree of the Council of the Twelve Colonies, the legal ownership of both utility and pleasure slaves and indentured servants is resumed. Those slaves who have masters and mistresses surviving within the Fleet are remanded to the custody of said masters and mistresses. The citizenship status of these slaves is hereby revoked with the exception of career status, which may be maintained at the discretion of the slave.
Fleet records indicate that you are the pleasure slave of the master known as Adama, currently Commander of the Fleet and residing on the Battlestar Galactica. Your citizenship in the Fleet is revoked with the exception of your status as Warrior Lieutenant and Viper Pilot. You are remanded to the custody of Commander Adama.
You are hereby ordered to surrender yourself to Commander Adama no later than 1300 on the day of receipt of this notice. Failure to comply will result in your arrest and incarceration at the whim of your master.
Signed, Sire Adar, President, Council of the Twelve Colonies
Boomer folded the notice carefully and put it in the inside pocket of his jacket. He sat heavily in the desk chair and put his head in his hands. "Poor Starbuck," he murmured. Then he shook his head. "Poor Apollo."
***
"Get the door, Tigh."
"Yes, Master."
Tigh opened the door to greet Starbuck and Apollo. He was not surprised that Apollo had accompanied his best friend. Too bad slaves couldn't bet with their masters. Adama had thought Apollo would show up alone, having hidden Starbuck somewhere. Tigh knew the ever-so-proper, not too say slavishly devoted to regulation, Captain would never do something like that. Besides, Starbuck wouldn't let him risk his career that way.
Starbuck returned the greeting with a murmur, casting his eyes down, as he walked past Tigh and into Adama's quarters.
But Apollo stood and gaped at the sight of the Colonel out of uniform. Way out of uniform. Almost out of clothes.
Starbuck turned back at the tap on his shoulder.
"You want to do something about this?" Tigh asked, smirking.
Starbuck considered just closing the door in Apollo's face. It would be easier all around. If Adama wanted him, Apollo was just out of luck. And Apollo only wanted him as a friend anyway. "Should we ask our Master?" Starbuck said submissively.
"Well, he is a member of the household, so to speak."
"Apollo?" Starbuck waited until Apollo blinked and tore his eyes away from Tigh. "You really should go now. You've delivered me safely."
"That isn't why I came with you and you know it." Apollo turned back to Tigh, forcing himself to look only at the Colonel 's face. "I want to see my father. Now."
"Take it easy, Captain," Tigh said, posing provocatively. "I'm his first pleasure slave, not his butler. You want to see him, go ahead."
Apollo pushed past Tigh and Starbuck, and into the main room. Tigh stared after him, then commented to Starbuck, "You'd think he'd never seen a pleasure slave before. He grew up with us around him all the time."
"He has selective recall," Starbuck said. "Where's my outfit?"
"You need to see the Master first," Tigh informed him. He hoped he'd be able to explain to you what was going on before he had to face Apollo, but I guess even a Commander doesn't get all his wishes."
"I can't go to him in uniform, that's not right," Starbuck protested.
Tigh nodded approvingly, but said, "I have nothing for you to wear."
"Well, then," Starbuck said, beginning to undress. "Nothing is what I'll wear. Maybe that's what the Master wants."
"No, Starbuck," Tigh assured him. "You don't have to..."
Starbuck shook his head. "I know you're my superior, even here, as first slave. But maybe I need to remind myself that I am a slave." He finished stripping, folded his clothes neatly and put them in a pile next to the door. Then he got down on his hands and knees and crawled into the main room.
***
"Ah, there you are, Starbuck. You may walk upright in these rooms." Adama interrupted Apollo with an upraised hand as Starbuck entered the room.
"Thank you, Master," Starbuck murmured as he rose, eyes on the floor.
"Come, sit by me," Adama invited.
Starbuck obediently walked over to the Commander's chair and gracefully folded himself onto the floor next to it.
Adama stroked the down-turned head. "You should hear this, too. Apollo, I would like you to take a seat and hear me out. Then I will listen to your objections."
"Very well, Father," Apollo said coldly. "But I would like my slave, the slave you gave me, to sit with me, not you." He sat on the couch opposite Adama's chair and folded his arms belligerently across his chest.
Adama sighed. "As you wish. Starbuck, go and sit by my son."
"Yes, Master."
"I was against resuming this whole business of owning people. I want you to know that," Adama said after Starbuck has seated himself at Apollo's feet only have Apollo pull him up next to him on the couch. Both of the younger men nodded. They had no doubt this was true. "However, I have only one vote on the Council and the majority miss their ... pleasures. So I was outvoted." He rose and paced. "Tigh and I searched every military and governmental tome we could find for a precedent, but we could find no way to declare an end to slavery under military jurisdiction. We consulted Solon, who was also appalled to see this practice restored, and he, too, failed to find a way to prevent it." Adama sat again. "I'm sorry, son. I had the paperwork filled out to transfer Starbuck to you when slavery was repudiated. But I never finished the last details because the ban came through just then."
"At least you filed the paperwork to show your ownership of me," Starbuck murmured without looking up.
Adama cleared his throat. "Well, that's the other thing. I had to get Uri to sign Starbuck over to me before I could sign him over to you. We were negotiating when the universal ban on slavery was declared."
"But, my letter said I belonged to you!" Starbuck cried out in horror. Immediately he fell to his knees and crawled to Adama. "I'm sorry, Master. I didn't mean to raise my voice at you, but ..."
Adama stroked the blond head again. "It's all right. I don't blame you for yelling at me. I've been cursing myself since the issue first came up. I worked out a deal with Uri. Not quite as good a deal as the one I had been finalizing on Caprica, but the best I could manage under the circumstances and time constraints."
"What kind of deal, Father?" Apollo was looking at Adama with narrowed eyes.
"Uri signed predated paperwork showing that Starbuck had been my pleasure slave before the original ban," Adama began.
"Fine. Then sign him over to me. Now."
"I wish it were that simple, son. But I know that the first thing you'll do is free him."
"Of course. I've already done so, yahrens ago."
"I know. But it wasn't legal then. You do understand that, don't you?"
"And now?" There was menace in Apollo's voice that made Starbuck look up at him and shake his head warningly.
Adama sighed and reflected he was doing that a great deal. "Uri was only willing to sign Starbuck over to me under certain conditions."
"One of which was that you couldn't free him, I presume." Adama nodded. "But if you transfer him to me, you won't have freed him."
"Uri's not a stupid man, Apollo," Adama said. "He foresaw that loophole. Any transfer, be it gift or sale, has to have the same codicils attached to it."
"Meaning I can't free him if he becomes my slave?"
"Yes. That and the other things."
"Which are?"
"When he's off-duty - and that was put in only because the Council voted down Uri's amendment to deny career options - when he's off-duty and not in his master's private domicile, Starbuck must be completely unclothed and tethered. He's not allowed outside on his own under any circumstances, except when he's on-duty."
"In other words, Uri's determined he'll either be under house arrest or humiliated - your choice."
"I think humiliation is his goal. Of me as well as Starbuck." Adama shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "There's one other condition."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Ah, Uri gets the use of Starbuck once a secton for twenty-four centars."
"Frak."
"I actually used stronger language. But it seemed better than letting Uri have ownership and then fight him in the courts."
"Just barely."
"No, my master's son. Much better. Believe me." Starbuck spoke softly but passionately. He turned his face up to Adama. "Thank you for saving me again, Master," he said with deep sincerity.
***
"All right, I'll do it." With those words, Apollo sealed his fate - or so he thought. But it had taken him three sectons to come to the conclusion that there were no other alternatives, so he didn't get the reaction he expected.
"You'll do what?" the Commander asked. He looked down at Starbuck, curled in his usual spot at the Commander's feet, then over at Tigh, who had followed his son into the living area after greeting him at the door, but both slaves looked as confused as he was.
"I'll abide by Uri's rules," Apollo sighed.
Starbuck's head jerked up. He looked frantically from his Master's son to his Master. 'No, Master, don't let him do this. He doesn't really understand. He won't be able to,' he pleaded silently.
"Apollo, are you sure?" Adama asked sternly, at the same time stroking Starbuck's head to let him know he understood.
"Yes. I'm sure; very sure," the Captain responded equally forcefully. He looked squarely at his father. "He's mine, Father. I want him legally. I'll play by Uri's rules as long as Uri does."
I've offered..." Adama began, but Apollo brushed him off.
"I don't mean that," he said curtly, then saw Starbuck sag in disappointment and amended his statement. "Not while he's yours."
"So that's why you've declined every invitation I've given you," Adama said.
"Yes," Apollo admitted. "I can't bear seeing him like this, even just among the family." At his father's frown, he hurriedly added, "Not that I think you would..."
It was Adama's turn to brush his words aside with a gesture. "You're right. I wouldn't. But do you understand what we've been waiting for?"
"For Uri to overstep and break the Council's edict?" Apollo asked. "That was pretty obvious the first time Starbuck showed up with a cut over his eye."
"I have to allow him to keep pushing the limits." When Apollo did nothing but press his lips together in a disapproving line, Adama added, "And so do you."
"I understand," Apollo ground out from between clenched teeth. He stared at the discolored bruises around Starbuck's nipples. He was almost afraid of what else had been hidden under the uniform until now. "What do we have to do?"
"We have to make an appointment with Solon or Anton to make the exchange in the presence of one of them - they were the only two people in the entire Fleet the Council could all agree would be impartial." Adama shook his head; the pettiness of the Council never failed to surprise him. "We'll fill out the paperwork in advance, but sign it in front of one of them and he'll witness it." He hesitated. "I'll bring Starbuck."
"You mean..." Apollo began, his voice quivering.
"He'll be off-duty, that's required of course or he couldn't be present. So he'll have to be ... as described in the agreement with Uri."
"Can't we have the exchange here?" Apollo asked desperately.
"No, it has to be in a public setting."
"I swear, Starbuck, this is the only time you'll be humiliated this way," Apollo said to the blond.
"Don't," Starbuck said quietly, then looked down. He shouldn't have spoken without leave.
"Don't what?" Apollo asked.
Starbuck sighed. "Don't make promises Uri will ensure you can't keep. I have to go to him and return to my Master each secton. I can go one way direct from duty, and that counts as the end of 'on duty', so I can be in uniform. But the other way..." He shrugged.
"Frak!" was Apollo's immediate response.
"Besides," Starbuck added in an entirely different tone. "I like being naked and cared for - in private."
Adama petted him and pressed Starbuck's face against his leg until both noticed Apollo's glare.
"Starbuck sighed as Adama let go of him. "Okay. I know. We've had this conversation before." 'And we will again, before I let you free me,' he finished silently.
Apollo was thinking the same thought. Changing the subject, he turned to his father for advice. "How have you been working it?"
"We've been arranging Starbuck's schedule so that he goes to Uri at the beginning of his secton-break. So he goes directly from his duty station to Uri's quarters. One of Uri's paid servants brings him here and he still has a full three-cycle period to recover before he's due on duty again."
"Frak," Apollo repeated.
"Do you still want to be Starbuck's Master?" Adama asked gently. He nudged Starbuck and nodded that he should speak, too.
"It's all right if you don't, Apollo," Starbuck said quietly, but with obvious sincerity. "It won't be easy for you."
"And I suppose it is easy for you?" Apollo burst out.
Starbuck shrugged. "I've gotten used to it. It's only once a secton; it used to be all the time. I keep that in mind."
"Do you ... goad him, Starbuck? Try to make him break the law?"
A grin flitted across the blond's face. "I just have to be me, Apollo; I don't have to do anything special to upset Sire Uri." He turned serious. "If I thought it would work, I'd egg him on, but ..." He shuddered. "I can't. I know what he's capable of. If he thought I was purposely misbehaving ..."
"If he thought Starbuck was trying to slip him up," Adama interjected, "there's a good chance Starbuck wouldn't survive Uri's 'disciplinary action'. And Uri'd claim Starbuck must have had an undisclosed physical weakness." Apollo started to object, but Adama held a hand up to silence him.
"He's done it before, 'Pol," Starbuck whispered.
Apollo looked at his father, who nodded. "And if the slave being disciplined doesn't survive, who's to naysay him?"
"Oh Gods," Apollo said, sinking into a chair, face in hands.
"You don't have to do this," Adama and Starbuck said together. Adama continued. "We're working on it. But I have to get Starbuck back alive in order to file a complaint and have Starbuck testify to abuse."
"No." Apollo straightened and dropped his hands to his lap. "*I* have to get Starbuck back, injured enough to be unable to go on duty, but able to testify." He thought for a micron. "We'll have to reverse the order to push things a bit, but that will seem reasonable with a change in owners, won't it?"
Adama looked thoughtful then nodded. "It might speed things up at that. It would be harder to prove you or I didn't cause the abuse if the bruises aren't the proper age, so to speak, and so far Uri's been careful to make sure Starbuck will be able to go on-duty after a turn's rest. But if he had to go directly to his viper from Uri's quarters, that might be a different story."
"I can push him a little, Masters," Starbuck offered grimly.
"All right, but be careful. Don't endanger yourself," Adama admonished. "In any case, we'll have to finalize the exchange first. It has to be published for a secton and is open to public viewing. I've no doubt the good Sire will attend to see to the legality of the transfer."