Chapter 10: Fading into History

"So" Laura Roslin paused and looked around the large conference room, "Does anyone have anyone they'd like to kill?"

The treaty between the Federation of Planets and the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the Cylon Rebels had finally been agreed to. All that was left was to be signed by the needed parties. It had taken time. Several weeks after the death of the Queen of the Borg, but now everything had been settled on.

All crimes committed by both the Cylons and the Colonials would be forgiven. They would start fresh. That meant ALL Crimes. Many of the Cylons wanted to punish Boomer for betraying them. Especially the Threes. The other Sharons. What she had done had never been done before and they felt betrayed in such a deep way that seemed to them as unforgivable, but they agreed to forgive, at least for the sake of the treaty. No one was sure if she would ever really be forgiven.

All other crimes as well were forgiven. It didn't matter how big or how small. Everyone was starting from scratch. Everyone was starting over again.

"No." Roslin smiled several of the Colonials and Cylons smiled, giggled and outright laughed, "Well then I guess I'll sign."

Laura Roslin was more then happy to sign the treaty. It was time to put the war to rest. It was time to stop running. They had a home now. She had convinced Bill to agree to settle on the planet she had killed the Borg Queen on. He had tried to talk her out of it but she had been adamant.

"Are you sure about this Laura?"

"It's a good planet. A strong planet. It would make a good home for us. For all of us."

"What about the Borg?"

"The Borg will always be an issue. They are a part of who I am. They are a part of this universe, but I don't think they will be back for some time now." Laura paused, "We have a home now Bill."

"A home." Bill smiled, "And a child. A magic baby."

"We have got to stop calling it that. It will get a complex."

Laura smiled, the new Quorum and the Cylons had both agreed to settle on the planet and now they were just a pen stroke away from having a new home. A new life. The treaty with the Federation would bring them hope. Yes, they still had a ways to go, the Colonials and the Cylons didn't quite trust each other but they weren't at each other's throats either.

It was a start.

Laura Roslin picked up the pen and signed her name.

"Damn!" Kara Thrace said suddenly, "I just remembered that list of people I still want to kill. I guess I have to wait for the next Apocalypse."

Again the Colonials and Cylons chuckled.

Saul Tigh wasn't a man who loved easily. He wasn't by any means a poet. He didn't have pretty words to tell a woman he loved them. He didn't love with words. Not with words. Never with words.

It was actions that mattered to him. He loved with actions. With emotion. He might not have loved well, but he did love. He had loved only two women in his life. In what appeared to be a long long life. Two thousand years if what Laura told him was true. In those two thousand years he had only loved twice.

Ellen and Caprica.

Two women who were very similar and yet very different. Two women who loved him with both words and actions. Two women who loved him completely.

He still missed Ellen more then he could say. She had died protecting him. He wondered if she had known what he was. He knew now that Cavil had always known. He wondered if he had used Ellen as a way to get to him. It wasn't beyond Ellen to protect him, even from himself.

Ellen might have known he was a Cylon.

Ellen might have loved him anyway.

Or she might have killed him in his sleep.

Either way he still missed her.

Caprica was another story. The hero of the Cylons. Someone who felt as much guilt as he did. Someone who wanted and needed redemption for all the sins committed in the name of war. She understood him. He didn't understand why she loved him. He just knew she did. She loved him and he loved her.

And now they were having a child.

A pure Cylon child.

He had no words for that.

Will Riker wasn't sure what to make of things. Everything had turned upside-down. Laura Roslin wasn't just President of what was now being called the planet Kobol. She was given almost legendary status among both her own people and the Alpha Quadrant.

According to Captain Picard, the Klingons thought she was the second coming of Kahless, the Ferengi thought she was a demon, the Cardassians and Romulans were afraid of her, and the Vulcans were taking a wait and see approach. Picard had said that they hadn't been this worried about a species since they ran into a little planet called Earth.

Ok, maybe he was exaggerating a little. Maybe the Klingons didn't really think Roslin was the second coming of Kahless but they did think she was a warrior of the highest caliber and Worf had a serious crush on her. The only thing that stopped him from making a play for her was the fact that she was all but engaged to Admiral Adama and the fact that she was pregnant. Two things that Worf's sense of honor couldn't get past.

Even now that her own people knew she was a Cylon. The last of the Final Five, they still loved her. No one seemed to really care. She had done everything she had said she would do, everything else didn't seem to matter to them. Well at least to the ones she hadn't already killed.

Laura Roslin was a dangerous woman. He just hoped that the universe didn't pay the price, because he didn't think the Alpha Quadrant or the Federation could handle another war. Laura Roslin had exactly the right personality to start one if she really wanted to. She could gather forces with her strength of will alone. She had done it before. Who else but her could have kept a rag tag fleet of bickering politicians, soldiers, miscreants and assorted others together? Will hated her with passion, but that didn't mean he didn't respect what she had accomplished.

He really did hope he was wrong.

"So what's in store for you now Madam President?" Picard smiled as he took a sip of his glass of wine.

Captain Picard and Laura Roslin were talking amicably in his ready room. Admiral Adama and Will Riker had both been invited but they had both declined having other matters to attend to. Bill was having a difficult time keeping order now that it had become known that Tory had killed Cally Tyrol. Galen had tried to kill her in an act of vengeance but had been stopped. Now that the treaty had been signed any act that kind would be seen as murder. What Tory did no matter how unforgivable had been forgiven. Galen would just have to live with it.

Tory had been sent to the Cylon Base ship and told to stay there until further notice. Captain Picard had offered her temporary asylum aboard Enterprise until Galen could be calmed down. Things only got worse when it was discovered that his son, wasn't his son. That had thrown him for a loop and he had gone on a tirade. It had taken one of the Federation officers shooting him with what they called a stun gun to stop him from killing Hotdog. It had all been too much. Added to that; the Cylons still wanted to make Boomer pay for her part in the Cylon civil war. Some of the Threes had tried to kill her. Ironically it had been Caprica who had saved her. Boomer had asked for temporary asylum on the Enterprise. Both Galen and Boomer were now in Enterprise cells. Galen until he cooled off. Boomer until….until who knows when.

"I'm not sure. Honestly I was thinking about retiring." Roslin chuckled at Picard's stunned looked, "Don't be so surprised, I never indented to go into politics to begin with. I was a teacher. That's all I ever wanted to be. Or at least that's what I thought."

"And now?"

"And now, I think I want a house on a lake. I want Bill by my side. I want my child to grow up with grass under his or her feet." Roslin paused, "I want the future to take care of itself. I'm done. I'm ready to fade into history."

"And what about Admiral Adama?"

Roslin smiled, "I have no doubt he will stay in the fleet for at least awhile. The truth is that he loves Galactica, probably just a little more then he loves me." Roslin shrugged, "Our universe is changing though, he will fight it but he will adapt. Eventually he will join me in my little house on the lake."

"To fade into history?"

Roslin nodded, "To fade into history."