BSG Ficlet: Alchemy (Spoilers!)
Aug. 25th, 2005 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andverygingerTitle: Alchemy
Rating: K+ (heavy themes abound)
Fandom: BSG
Characters: Zarek. Roslin. Adama.
Summary: Tom Zarek reflects on his education in political science.
Note: SPOILERS through last week's ep. (And don't ask me the names. I wrote this under duress.)
Characters not mine, used only for entertainment. Blood:turnip::money:me.
Force times will equals power. It was an often repeated quote from an old poli sci textbook. The author -- whose name I’d instantly forgotten -- droned on for reams about politics and warfare. This phrase had been the one thing I took away with me. I knew even then that I wanted power, and this little quote provided the simplest formula I could find. For the past months, I had watched this theory in action, the strange alchemy between force, will, and power.
Laura Roslin supplied the will. She was a survivor. Faced with the choice to live or give in to the cancer that consumed her, any lesser woman could have given up. She had seen her mother die of the disease -- watched the slow, wasting away, the pain, and the frustration. Despite this, she found within her the will to live; the needs of humanity outweighed her own grief. She has a duty to fulfill and will do so unto her dying day.
Since her announcement to the Quorum, fifty-thousand survivors of the Cylon attack now recognize that sacrifice. Well, 49,999 do -- myself excluded -- and a large percentage of that population believe she carries with her the will of the Gods. The scrolls, after all, speak of a woman who would languish with illness and lead the Children of Kobol to some ‘promised land.’ But does she have the will of the Gods? I don’t believe it, but so long as the people believe it, she wields their will. Or at least most of their will.
Supplying the force was Commander William Adama. Willful in his own right, two direct shots to the chest had not been enough to stop him. He is a stubborn old goat, to be sure. But it was not this will to live that is of interest to me. It is the force he commands that interests me most.
As far as battleships go, the Galactica is an antique. Built during the Cylon war, she was (at the time) a new antique: she offered sound-powered telephones and lacked the cohesive network structures found on the most formidable Colonial battleships. They were the tools of the time, a way of confounding enemy hacking attempts and keeping us in the fight. As we find ourselves facing a similar threat, I still see her value. It was her antiquity which saved us before and will have to save us again.
But the force Adama wields is not confined only to Galactica or even the fleet, though formidable. He also exercises a force of personality. He engenders trust, affection, responsibility -- draws people to him who are willing to ‘do the right thing.’ As charismatic as I am, I’ve never had that affect on people. Maybe it’s because I use my charisma to enrich my own purposes and he, like Roslin, uses his talent for the greater good. If the Gods of Kobol do exist, then maybe that’s something they can explain to me when all is said and done.
Together the two elements -- force and will -- should have coalesced into something greater than either of them. Instead, it’s been like watching two magnets of the same polarity try and connect: Drawing close, but repelling each other at just the key moment. Adama can’t be happy about the ‘religious card’ played so well by Roslin. I can see now that it fuelled everything -- the mutiny, the rebellion, my own presence near her side; even without admitting it to herself, Roslin has been living out the role of the prophet. For whatever reason, though, the Old Man can’t let himself believe her...but he also knows he can’t let the fleet continue to be separated. That’s why he’s followed us here.
Before Galactica’s arrival, Lee Adama was the only thing that stood in my path to Roslin’s right hand. With the arrival of the Old Man, however, the rules change somewhat. I might have been able to replace the kid in the president’s graces, if not in her trust...but I could never replace William Adama. Despite their differences, the two realize they need each other. But can they mend fences well enough to get us to a ‘promised land?’
Reconciled, they would be unstoppable.
Reconciled, they would wield power I could only long for -- the type of power that would keep me from rule. It's a compromise I can’t afford. And so I might just have to sell my soul to a lesser demon to balance the equation.
Rating: K+ (heavy themes abound)
Fandom: BSG
Characters: Zarek. Roslin. Adama.
Summary: Tom Zarek reflects on his education in political science.
Note: SPOILERS through last week's ep. (And don't ask me the names. I wrote this under duress.)
Characters not mine, used only for entertainment. Blood:turnip::money:me.
Force times will equals power. It was an often repeated quote from an old poli sci textbook. The author -- whose name I’d instantly forgotten -- droned on for reams about politics and warfare. This phrase had been the one thing I took away with me. I knew even then that I wanted power, and this little quote provided the simplest formula I could find. For the past months, I had watched this theory in action, the strange alchemy between force, will, and power.
Laura Roslin supplied the will. She was a survivor. Faced with the choice to live or give in to the cancer that consumed her, any lesser woman could have given up. She had seen her mother die of the disease -- watched the slow, wasting away, the pain, and the frustration. Despite this, she found within her the will to live; the needs of humanity outweighed her own grief. She has a duty to fulfill and will do so unto her dying day.
Since her announcement to the Quorum, fifty-thousand survivors of the Cylon attack now recognize that sacrifice. Well, 49,999 do -- myself excluded -- and a large percentage of that population believe she carries with her the will of the Gods. The scrolls, after all, speak of a woman who would languish with illness and lead the Children of Kobol to some ‘promised land.’ But does she have the will of the Gods? I don’t believe it, but so long as the people believe it, she wields their will. Or at least most of their will.
Supplying the force was Commander William Adama. Willful in his own right, two direct shots to the chest had not been enough to stop him. He is a stubborn old goat, to be sure. But it was not this will to live that is of interest to me. It is the force he commands that interests me most.
As far as battleships go, the Galactica is an antique. Built during the Cylon war, she was (at the time) a new antique: she offered sound-powered telephones and lacked the cohesive network structures found on the most formidable Colonial battleships. They were the tools of the time, a way of confounding enemy hacking attempts and keeping us in the fight. As we find ourselves facing a similar threat, I still see her value. It was her antiquity which saved us before and will have to save us again.
But the force Adama wields is not confined only to Galactica or even the fleet, though formidable. He also exercises a force of personality. He engenders trust, affection, responsibility -- draws people to him who are willing to ‘do the right thing.’ As charismatic as I am, I’ve never had that affect on people. Maybe it’s because I use my charisma to enrich my own purposes and he, like Roslin, uses his talent for the greater good. If the Gods of Kobol do exist, then maybe that’s something they can explain to me when all is said and done.
Together the two elements -- force and will -- should have coalesced into something greater than either of them. Instead, it’s been like watching two magnets of the same polarity try and connect: Drawing close, but repelling each other at just the key moment. Adama can’t be happy about the ‘religious card’ played so well by Roslin. I can see now that it fuelled everything -- the mutiny, the rebellion, my own presence near her side; even without admitting it to herself, Roslin has been living out the role of the prophet. For whatever reason, though, the Old Man can’t let himself believe her...but he also knows he can’t let the fleet continue to be separated. That’s why he’s followed us here.
Before Galactica’s arrival, Lee Adama was the only thing that stood in my path to Roslin’s right hand. With the arrival of the Old Man, however, the rules change somewhat. I might have been able to replace the kid in the president’s graces, if not in her trust...but I could never replace William Adama. Despite their differences, the two realize they need each other. But can they mend fences well enough to get us to a ‘promised land?’
Reconciled, they would be unstoppable.
Reconciled, they would wield power I could only long for -- the type of power that would keep me from rule. It's a compromise I can’t afford. And so I might just have to sell my soul to a lesser demon to balance the equation.
