Authors Note: Now that I've had some sleep I'm posting chapter 4. Thank you for everyone who has read and reviewed.

Begin Chapter 4.

While from a strategic point of view Thor's logic for following them was sound, but Laura still couldn't help but feel they'd been played. She hadn't thought much on it at the time but now looking back onto their previous conversation she could see that Thor and SG1 had given in far too easily and should've known that they were up to something.

If their positions had been reversed she would never have abandoned them to an unknown fate. After a very brief explanation Bill had been sent back to the Galactica leaving Laura, Lee and Kara to deal with Thor and SG1, he wasn't entirely happy about that but he would already be missed and could cover up for Laura until she came back on board. He was a little worried about leaving them there but they had proved themselves trustworthy more than once now and there was little he could do about it without telling the whole fleet just how powerful Thor was.

Glaring out at the room in general Laura was finding it hard to orate what she was currently thinking and feeling. A quick glance at Lee and Kara told her that they were leaving it all up to her.

Narrowing her eyes at Jack O'Neill she quickly decided that he would be the easiest to get information out of, she had noticed that Daniel and Sam tended to go off on tangents that just ended up confusing her, Teal'c would simply nod and raise that eyebrow of his (or say indeed). It was another aspect in which Kara and Jack were highly similar, if she pushed the right buttons then he would simply blurt out the answer she was looking for, Laura had no doubt that he was a formidable man and under most circumstances would not break easily. Fortunately Laura wasn't most interrogators and was very good at getting the truth from people when she was so inclined, sometimes treating an adult like a recalcitrant child worked best.

That is as long as she kept her temper and didn't show her hand too early.

"Really it's your own fault that we're here anyway" Kara was impressed, Laura hadn't even had to say anything, the silence alone was frustrating the Colonel enough to cause him to speak.

Laura raised her eyebrow, she hadn't expected that.

"If you'd just accepted our offer then we wouldn't have had to sneak around and chances are that Baal wouldn't have even attacked you while you hung out with Thor. The Goa'uld may be the school yard bullies around here but none of them want to go against an Asgard mothership unless they're assured a win, and the only one with the stones to think he can win is Anubis and if he'd been the one to show up you would have been space debris before we even got here."

Crossing her arms over her chest Laura's silent stare dared him to keep going.

"And don't try and pull that 'they're our problem' BS with me, if they're a threat to us that makes them our problem and now that they've tangled with the Goa'uld and lost then good. They might just back off for a little while and give you some breathing room and even if they get to Earth we can look after ourselves so you don't need to worry about us. We've been doing a pretty good job at not being annihilated over the last 7 years."

The room dropped into silence with the only disturbance being Daniel muttering under his breath.

"In this reality…"

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Jack was getting really frustrated, he didn't know whether President Roslin was just being stubborn or had serious reservations about accepting their help and it was annoying the crap out of him. He was beginning to suspect that she would refuse their help again when Thor spoke up.

"You need not be concerned for the Tau'ri, they are more than able to defend themselves. Also I believe it to be quite advantageous that there has already been one battle between the Cylons and the Goa'uld, despite his victory Baal did not come out of this without losses of his own. He will not be pleased about this and will be seeking out the Cylons in an attempt to get rid of them before they can become a larger threat to his already precarious position. As will all the System Lords once they received news of this battle."

The glare on Laura's face broke into a completely neutral mask before she turned away from them and walked slowly over to the view port. Out there in space was the fleet, Her Fleet, she counted every one of the ships naming them in her head. Every ship had a number attached to it, and everyday that number fluctuated, Tory updated her on the headcount every single day telling her of births and deaths throughout the fleet. Every ship had a Captain and she knew all their names, she knew who their Co-Pilots were, she trusted them to get their people Her People to the next set of co-ordinates to keep their civilisation going and their people Her People safe. She knew that many wanted to lay down their burdens, herself included, but could they risk it again. They had tried it before, they had been found and the Cylons hadn't just tried to kill their bodies but their hearts and souls.

Could they risk it again? Could she risk their civilisation on a dream, they'd tried it before and it hadn't worked.

Her inner argument was interrupted when she spied Lee and Kara in the reflection of the view port; they were doing some sort of elaborate miming communication. Should they disturb her, talk to her, would she listen to them? Which one of them should it be? She nearly laughed out loud when Kara tucked her hands into her armpits and waggled her elbows up and down accusing Lee of being a chicken.

Finally it was decided that yes one of them should go and talk to her and a rather violent game of Viper, Raptor, Battlestar took place to decide which one of them would actually risk interrupting her.

Laura found all of this highly amusing and didn't let it show – as per normal, but then again she and Bill spent quite a bit of time laughing at the two of them. They were quite possibly the most amusing not-couple she had ever come across.

Lee eventually won Viper, Raptor, Battlestar and did a silent victory dance until a glaring Kara punched him in the arm. Pretending to play the gentleman Lee bowed at Kara and made a sweeping gesture with his arm, which earned him a kick in the thigh that nearly dropped him to the floor, as she stalked past him.

Schooling her feature so that there was no trace of amusement in them Laura pretended to be startled when Kara dropped a light hand onto her shoulder.

"Madam President, maybe they're right?" She started, Kara took a deep breath to continue but Laura spoke up before she could continue.

"I know, but I need to speak to Bill and Tom first. I can't be objective about this, too much has happened, and I…" she couldn't finish.

Kara nodded in understanding the last time they had thought it was over and they could rest they had all been burned badly and many of them were still hurting. Kara loved her husband, and she loved Lee, throughout her life she had never had much faith in others, it was always only in herself and her faith in herself had been ripped away in those months trapped in those rooms with Leoben. While she had admitted as much to Laura and regained some of that sense of self back Kara still had trouble putting it in others. Other than the Admiral, Laura had never fully trusted another with the well being of the fleet, Gaius Baltar had done to much damage, and as pragmatic as Laura was the damage was too deep and still four years later there was still a deep distrust of her own decision making ability that had been a gnawing in her stomach since the day Laura had chose Baltar over Wally Grey to run as her Vice-President.

Turning back towards Thor and SG1, Laura walked back towards them.

"We'll need some time. This isn't just my decision." She turned and looked directly at Jack "Would one of your team be willing to attend a meeting with the Quorom to answer any questions they might have?"

"Carter?" He turned to his 2iC.

"Happy to Sir."

There was a flash of light and Laura found herself back in her office Sam Carter standing by her side.

"Tory! I need you to get in contact with the Vice President and the Quorum, I'm holding an emergency meeting as soon as everyone is aboard, the meeting will be closed, no Press, no Aides, and no Public. It'll be The Quorum, the Vice President, The Admiral, Major Carter and myself. That's it no questions, no excuses."

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Laura was beginning to regret including the Quorum in this decision. After explaining the events of the last few days and repeating what they had been told by Thor Laura had been forced to sit back and listen as chaos reigned and different members took to yelling at her, Major Carter and each other. Sitting to her left Sam leaned in to mutter in her ear.

"Are they always like this?"

"No" Laura grinned wryly "they're actually taking this quite well."

"Ah" Sam leaned back in her chair and continued to watch and listen.

Across the room Tom Zarek regarded Laura with a thoughtful gaze, letting the cacophony wash over him. The night Laura had been healed by Thor, he had come over to Galactica and been told everything by Laura and Bill, when they first told him of their high handed decision he had been livid and had threatened to have her impeached for this particular decision. It had taken all of Laura and Bill's combined persuasive power to get him calmed down enough to listen somewhat rationally to their reasoning.

He had agreed with them… eventually

Now watching the rest of the Quorum explode in anger he sat back and watched Laura; watched the whispered conversation between her and the woman who was from Earth but not their Earth. It was all very complicated but very simple at the same time. Deciding he'd had enough of the yelling Tom stood and waited for the room at large to quieten down and turn their attention to him. After close to a minute it finally happened, when the last whispers petered out he spoke.

"First of all, no matter what you think President Roslin didn't have to include us she could have simply told us what was going to happen and left it at that, now it comes down to this. Are we going to accept their offer and find ourselves a new home or are we going to keep running. I don't like the idea of spending the rest of my life on a ship, but I don't want to risk our population on the off chance that the Cylons won't find us again."

"That's not what you were saying when we wanted to settle New Caprica, Tom" Sarah Porter pointed out nastily.

"Times change Sarah and people change. I'll admit, this scares me, we've barely survived the Cylons and we've already had to fight these Goa'uld once but…" he took a deep breath "we can't spend the rest of out lives running, and we can't spend it afraid. This decision is not a light one, I want to hear more from Major Carter about the situation with the Goa'uld before we go any further, and I'm not willing to say yes or no on what I've heard so far."

End Chapter 4