XLIX

APOLLO

2,058 Years Before the Final Exodus

 

"I can't believe you're going to this," Leto said.

Apollo had learned to ignore much of what she said. He found that even when he thought people weren't listening, often times, they were. He wanted to appear as sane as possible, even though he regularly saw and conversed with someone no one else could see.

"Another temple to you." She shook her head in disgust. "It is blasphemy, you know?"

Apollo still ignored her. He was alone in the cabin of this aircraft with no flight attendants around. He still hadn't spoken to her.

"I wish you could know just how displeased God is about all of this."

Apollo looked over at her for the first time in a while. She had said a name he hadn't heard in quite some time.

"Not happy." She looked out the window. "And there's more to come. Just wait."

Apollo finally spoke, quietly, "If he's so 'displeased,' why hasn't he done more to tell us what he really wants?"

Leto whipped her head away from the window, "Oh, so you do speak." She stood and walked to a chair across from his. "Don't worry. God spoke to the ones for whom his messages were intended, but you Olympians frakked all of that up. I tried to tell Zeus, but … I would have thought it was understood to not establish yourselves as gods."

Apollo shook his head and looked toward the cockpit. "That's not what we intended. You know that."

"Of course not. The path to evil is laid with stones of good intent." She looked back out the window from her new seat at a passing cloud. "I'm thinking Zeus probably wanted to be a god, though."

Apollo grinned. "True."

The loudspeaker came on, "Lord Apollo, we'll be landing in Cyme in just a few moments. A car will be waiting to take you to Megara."

"Thank you."

The two of them rode silently for the next little bit as the aircraft hovered into place at the Cyme airport. Apollo stood and adjusted his suit. He pulled his case from the storage bin and walked toward the door, looking back at Leto as she sat, staring out of the window. He didn't wait and instead walked out of the craft, down the stairs and toward the open door of a silver executive car. He sat in the roomy backseat and was not startled when he found Leto already sitting next to him.

"At least gods get to ride in style."

Apollo sighed and the driver drove the vehicle away from the airport. The ride was smooth and silent, as Leto kept looking out of the window at the passing buildings and people. Soon, they arrived in the outskirts of Megara and Leto gasped. "Cylons. All of them. Amazing."

Apollo inhaled and tried to covertly speak to her without drawing the driver's attention, "You've seen Cylons before."

"Of course. I'm looking at one now," she said, staring him up and down. "What if I told them that?"

Apollo grinned, "Only I see you."

"I choose who gets to see me, son." Apollo's grin left his face and Leto looked back out to the people they passed. "If they found out what their precious Lords were …"

"Society would collapse," Apollo finished.

"Yes," Leto said as the vehicle pulled into a crowd near the new temple. "But it would be a justified, perhaps even holy collapse."

"So why don't you do something about that?"

Leto looked at Apollo harshly and then shook her head to the side once. "The most sacred of my directives is to preserve free will. You must all make your own decisions, regardless of how bad they may be."

Apollo ignored this and stepped out of the car into the throng of waiting people. He immediately smiled and brushed his arms into the sea of hands, touching many. They felt blessed and stepped away so others could touch him, as well. He waded through the people toward the imposing sight of his new temple and the dignitaries waiting there.

"Lord Apollo is here!" a priest said into the microphone.

Apollo smiled and touched as many people as he could. He neared the steps to the temple and a few priests and acolytes managed to hold back the crowds. He started up toward the lectern and saw Leto already standing there.

"Admit it, you loved that, 'Lord Apollo,'" she mocked. Apollo felt a wave of nervousness because, in his mind, he heard her voice as though it was magnified through the microphone system.

He got to the top of the steps and shook the hands of the various dignitaries. He recognized a Mylene, a Cimon, and an Iris. Aurora's designate, Iole, was standing on the far side of the platform, smiling. He turned from the dignitaries and looked out at the crowds. He waved and smiled again. This time, he recognized hundreds of faces as being of the twelve models. But, there were lots of other, natural-born Cylons, too.

"Thank you, Lord Apollo, for attending the dedication of this new, lovely temple in your holy name," Iole Auroratous said. There was applause from everyone, to which Apollo nodded. "Over the years, you have been an advocate for Megara and Megaran citizens. Second only to Aurora, you, among the Lords, have worked the most for acceptance of the Thirteenth Tribe into Kobollian society. And for that, we thank you." The crowd applauded again. Apollo lowered his head sheepishly. He didn't know what he had really done, other than treat them all as people.

Leto leaned in toward Apollo's ear, "Here comes something really interesting." Apollo tried not to listen. "Seriously, Apollo. Look to your left. Down behind the acolytes who are gazing up at you with those vapid expressions."

Apollo didn't respond, but he did look. He saw the acolytes. They were smiling. Behind them and for all of Apollo's field of vision, thousands of Cylons, gathered for the dedication. But … there was one human making his way through the crowd toward the front. Apollo's smile flattened and Leto saw it.

"You see him." Leto wasn't joking. There was no teasing in her voice now. "In a sea of Cylons, there is one human who isn't holding a camera or a microphone." Apollo instinctively glanced to the news crews along the left and right sides. Humans, mostly. "No. This is one human who is here just for you."

Apollo forced his smile back while the temple's newly anointed priest made his way to the microphone. "Let us pray …"

The crowd and Apollo lowered their heads but Leto spoke louder and more quickly, "He's a monotheist who has wandered far from the love of God." Apollo looked up and saw the man sidestepping an acolyte and starting onto the steps. "He's here to detonate a bomb."

Apollo leapt from the top and down the steps toward the man, whose eyes grew wide at the sight of a two-plus-meter tall Lord of Kobol lunging at him. "Move!" Apollo yelled at the people who were startled from their prayers and immediately fell to the ground at the sight before them and the angry Chara that began to surround Apollo.

"No! Don't stop him!" Leto yelled.

Apollo scooped up the man into a bear hug and carried him through the crowd to the small hill and freshly planted trees to his left. He held him tightly, ran up the slope, and was at the crest when the assailant managed to free a hand. Apollo tightened his grip, hearing a rib crack and squeezing the air from his lungs, but it was too late. The human had activated his bomb and it exploded.

Moments later, Apollo awoke inside a resurrection pod. He sat up, opening the gray cocoon, and coughing up globs of clear fluid. His head was ringing, but he didn't know if that was from the bomb or from the download. He looked down at his hands; they were shaking and still dripping with goo.

"Father?" Asclepius said as he entered the resurrection room.

Apollo tried to grab onto the edges of the pod, but the gel made him slip. "I'm … I'm alright."

"What happened?" Asclepius grabbed onto his arm and guided him out of the tub and onto a soft mat. "I was doing some research when the alarm went off." He grabbed a robe and brought it over.

"I was at the temple dedication in Megara." Apollo coughed again, dislodging some of the clear fluid. "And there was an explosion."

"Explosion?" Asclepius was studying a readout on Apollo's pod. "What kind?"

Apollo almost answered, but then he paused. He couldn't tell him how he knew everything without revealing Leto. He didn't know how Asclepius would respond to that. "A bomber. He had explosives strapped to his body."

Asclepius stopped what he was doing. "Are you kidding?"

Apollo raised his eyebrows and motioned to his younger, still-dripping body. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"That's … remarkable."

"Not the word I would have chosen," Apollo said as he wiped himself off. "I need to find out what happened."

Asclepius nodded. "What do we tell Zeus?"

Apollo walked over to a locker and removed a jumpsuit. "At this point? Nothing. I don't know anything." It was a lie. He knew some things, but he didn't want to share that info with his father. "Where is Zeus?"

"Tending to a family matter, or so he told me."

Apollo paused as he zipped up the jumpsuit. "'A family matter?'" He looked off into the distance and thought, "When has he ever tended to his family?"

"It does make one wonder."

Apollo began to speak but then it hit him. "What has Hecate done now?"