Dead End I'm unsure, as I head forward to the front deck. The message was ambiguous at best. Starbuck is up to something, that much I've figured out, but what? Why send me a cryptic message to go to the front deck? 'Dead End'. I haven't been to the Dead End since the destruction. I doubt anyone has. As much as I'd rather not think about it, my mind remembers the warriors we lost. The ones who'd been trapped in the enlisted warriors lounge, Dead End, when the Cylons betrayed us at Cimtar. The lounge had been located on the front deck. I had been a rowdy place. The techs had repaired the damage, but no one had thought about rebuilding the lounge. Now what could Starbuck want there? To talk about a new lounge? He had been known to used the size of the lounge to hide his more disreputable gambling endeavors from security. Could this be why he was sending me down here? The only way to find out is to take the bait. So here I am, heading in to a Starbuckian uncertainty. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. The lighting in the corridor is growing dimmer the farther forward I go. There are only a few light panels working down here and they are creating long eerie shadows along the corridor walls. One panel, well on it's way to shorting completely out, is sputtering with intermittent brilliance. It adds a unwelcome strobing effect to the already ominous corridor. Despite myself the hairs on the back of my neck are standing straight up. If Starbuck jumps out at me down here, I will kill him. As I pass the sputtering panel I realize it is the last one still working in this corridor. It's spasmodic bursts are all I have to navigate by beyond this point. Feldgercarb. Now almost in complete darkness I notice the cold. No, it's more than cold, It's like a freezer down here. Starbuck, what are you up to? Behind me I hear a shuffling sound. I turn, expecting to see Starbuck creeping up on me, but there is nothing there. I jump as a warm breath blows across my neck. I spin around, ready to take Starbuck to task for this prank, but again, there is nothing there. I lower my hand from my laser and steel myself. I'm letting the atmosphere down here get to me. Determined to find my errant lieutenant, I march on. If he thinks a darkened corridor will stop me, he's sadly mistaken. Although, I admit to myself, I do wish I had a hand light with me. By the time I reach the end of the corridor I'm shivering from the cold. I can barely make out the door before me, and there isn't enough light, fleeting as it is, to read the sign. This must be it. I reach out my hand and trigger the door's opening sensor. Nothing. I sigh. I try again, knowing it's futile but I can't help myself. Is this it? And where is Starbuck anyway? I put my hand to my forehead as I realize just what bait I have taken. He sent me on a pointless journey, far away from wherever he is engaging in some kind of disreputable activity. I'm such a dope. I sigh one more time for good measure then turn back the way I came. The flickering light leading the way. Shadows come and go in the strobing effect. My mind starts to see sinister images in them. I chide myself for my over active imagination. A face. Did I see a face? In between the flashes? No, it couldn't be. Again! Closer. I pull my laser, automatically running my thumb over the safety switch to make sure it is on stun. "Who's there?" I call out, but there is no answer. There can't be anyone there. I relax. Lords my imagination is getting the better of me. All the same, I head back down the corridor as fast as I can walk. A face. I stop. My heart is hammering in my chest. Frak! What's going on? Whatever it is, it's still too far away to make out. "Okay, whoever you are. I don't like practical jokes. I promise, if you don't stop immediately you'll be cleaning the warriors bathroom with a toothbrush for the next century". I wait. They'll have to give. This has to be a joke. A face. Closer! I take an involuntary step backwards as air is sucked into my lungs as I Gasp. Blood. There was blood. I can't move. I want to run the rest of the way to the lift, but my feet are frozen to the spot. A face. Inches from my own. Then gone. I stumbled back, breathing hard, my heart jack hammering in my chest. A face. Covered in blood. Rushes towards me. I scream! It hits me. Cold. Wet. I feel it entering my body. I reach out to push it away. My hands flow through it like mist. Cold. Sickening. Inside of me. Through me. Out of me. I turn, gasping, and watch as it disappears through the non-working door at the end of the corridor. Away. Get away. I don't remember turning around, I'm just running. Running as fast as I can. The lift door is still open and I throw myself in frantically pressing the close button, then clawing at the button that will take me as far away from here as this lift will go. I back up until my back is against the lift wall. I can't stop shaking. I can't calm my breathing. I'm sweating. I raise a shaking hand to my face to wipe the sweat away. I stare at it. Blood. Oh Lords it's covered in blood. I look down and see that I'm covered in blood! No! No, this can't be. No, it can't. I can't catch my breath. The lift stops. My vision is dimming. The doors open. ----- Voices, muffled and distorted, are all around me. I open my eyes but my vision is to blurred to see. I take a deep breath trying as hard as I can to clear my head. The blurred shapes take form. "What?" I try to say, but my words are too soft for them to hear. I try again. "What?" "Apollo!" Starbuck maneuvers around the person leaning over me. "What were you doing? Didn't you see the warning signs?" "Signs?" I repeat dumbly. What is he talking about? I remember... a corridor... the door wouldn't open... The rest comes flooding back and I push Starbuck out of the way as I sit up. "The blood." I cry out as I look at my hands. They're are clean. I turn them over back and forth, but there is no sign of the blood. "Apollo what are you talking about. What blood?" "My hands, my uniform, I was covered in blood..." My words trail off as I stare at myself. Where the cold red stickiness was, is now clean. There is no blood. "Captain," the med Tech says as he pushes me back down. I don't resist. What's going on? "You were in a level that had the life support turned off. You're suffering from oxygen deprivation. You'll be fine". He affixes a mask to my face and I feel the air blowing in. "But the blood", I mumble around the mask, still trying to sort it all out in my head. "You've obviously suffered from some hallucinations. You're going to be fine." "Why didn't you come back when you saw the warning signs." Starbuck asks again. "I didn't see any." There weren't any, where there? Starbuck looks like he's about to argue but Boomer pulls him out of my line of vision. A hallucination. Lords, what a nightmare. ---- Boomer watched the figure on the gurney as the med tech head off with it. "Should we tell him?" "No." Starbuck turns back and look inside the lift. "He's better off not knowing." In the lift, the shiny, wet, red streaks slowly spread down the walls distorting the words written there. Dead End.