Thank you for the reviews.

This is set right after Home because I thought that Adama's willingness to accept Sharon's help with the logic bomb was a little hard to understand if there wasn't more evidence that Cylons could be swayed away from their programming.

Before I give away too much….back to the story.

Nya bursts back into the conference room with Tom on her heels. Her eyes are wide and fevered looking as she rounds on Harstock. "Cap, they're going to kill him!"

"Nya, sit down."

"Cap…" she pleads.

"SIT DOWN!" Harstock's voice roars through the room. "By the Orai! Sit down, Nya!"

She trembles as Tom's hand touches her shoulders and guides her to a seat. Her black hair has started to come free of the queue and she has lost much of the poise that she had upon arriving to Galactica.

Xanthes looks up briefly as she sits next to him, but the tears that he's trying to hold in are squeezing out despite his best efforts. He neither weeps, nor gives in, just sits there as heavy tears roll out from his eyes.

Nya reaches over and grasps his hand tightly.

Adama gives them time to regain their composure. "There are no words that can lessen the shock of this. Cylons are to be executed."

"Ma'am?" Harstock queries the President. "Leoben is a member of my crew. Despite what he tried to do, he's never harmed anyone."

"How did you stop him?" She asks softly.

Harstock's gaze turns to his pilot. Nya matches it and tries to regain her equilibrium. The memory is only too fresh in her mind. Her fear and horror as she watched him start the cycle on the airlock….

…"Leo?"

He looks up at her with confusion on his face but doesn't stop.

"Leo, what are you doing?"

"I don't know."

Nya grabs at his arm and he throws her off. She whirls and slams a hand on the inner seal, locking them both within the airlock. Now the ship is saved but if he does this, if he opens the lock, they will both die. But he's anticipated that and his fingers fly over the keypad, overriding her authorization and preparing both doors to open simultaneously.

"What are you doing?" She whispers from the floor. "We'll all die."

"Nya?" A questioning tone enters his voice.

"You'll die. I'll die. Everyone single one of the crew will die. Leo. Leoben. Don't do this." There is fear in her words and this seems to speak to him more than the words themselves.

He shakes his head as though there's a tick. "I'm supposed to do this. Open the airlocks at the appointed time. I have to do this. I'm supposed to do this."

"Why?"

"I don't know." His hand drops away and his head drops as he tries to find the reason within himself. "I don't know."

"Everything in this world is a choice." The words echo as the cold, dark part of space seems to suck the heat from the room. A chill descends over both of them as his hand steals back toward the keypad. She won't be able to outfight him, weekly games of Pyramid have taught her the futility of that, his frame hides tremendous strength.

"It's a choice, Leo. Your choice. There is nothing out there except for death. Come back to us. Come back to me."

Long seconds pass and he pulls his hands back down to his side. She lunges for him and hugs him tightly to her. He leans down on her for comfort as he can't reconcile his actions with anything else inside of him.

The crew of Journey is banging on the hatch as they turn back toward the light.

"I'm very sorry." Laura Roslyn has come across the room to the young woman from the Journey. She hates the deception that the Cylons have used almost as much as the needs of state that require her to make the decisions she has to make. "These are treacherous beings full of lies and dangerous programs."

"How can they make a machine…to fool a man?"

"I'm not entirely sure. But you haven't been the only one misled by them." Laura turns towards Commander Adama and gives him a brief nod. "We'll interrogate this copy and then order his execution."

Only Xanthes' arm across Nya's chest keeps her from bursting out of her seat. "No!"

The Journey's XO forces her back down. "They have destroyed our lives. If he is one of them, he deserves to die. For my wife and daughters. For your father's sake. One life is not enough to repay the deaths of thousands." He pauses. "Nya, Sagittaron is gone and it is Leoben's fault as certainly as if he'd been there. He would have killed us if you hadn't been there. You know that."

"Captain," Adama says in the silence that follows Xanthes' pronouncement. "I'd like you to speak with my CAG regarding the best way to take it into custody."

Harstock nods and crosses the distance to Nya as Roslyn backs away. The crew of the Journey huddle together without speaking for a long moment, drawing the comfort of long familiarity to sustain them. The Captain has lost almost all of the ruddiness within his cheeks. Long-term exploration has not prepared them to deal with decisions of this magnitude, they are going home to kill one of their crew.

"Pilot Reece." The formality is forced. "Are you in control of yourself?"

"Yes, sir." But no one believes her.

Tigh speaks in a hushed tone to Adama who nods. The older man gestures to get Harstock's attention. "We have something you need to see."

The morgue is cold and silent except for the gasps of shock. The bodies of the Cylons, Leoben and Sharon Valerii, are laid out for the Journey's crew. Doctor Cottle pulls the sheets back over their faces as Tigh waits stone-faced.

"The first Leoben tried to kill the old man right after the war. The second tried to kill the President before she shoved him out an airlock. Boomer, I mean Valerii, tried to blow up our water supply and put two bullets in Adama's chest. They're trying to kill us all."

Nya steps forward and pulls the sheet on Leoben back down so that she can see his face. The corpse was cleaned and autopsied but she can see the damage from where his head was bashed in. Her heart refuses to reconcile this corpse with the man she knows but his words in the airlock keep coming back to haunt her.

"I'm supposed to do this. Open the airlocks at the appointed time. I have to do this. I'm supposed to do this."

She snaps the covering back over them and turns back to the group. Vaguely she realizes that Zarek is watching her with a calculating look, but she doesn't care. "You'll want to capture him without any fighting?"

"Of course." Tigh answers.

Leoben is working in the engine room. His face and a broad section of his blond hair is streaked with grease and oil. He's wearing the khaki uniform of the Journey rolled around his waist and a black t-shirt that hides most of the other grease stains. He glances up as Nya steps across the doorframe.

"Hey." He's genuinely glad to see her. "So what's up with the mystery fleet? We in trouble?"

"No."

He puts down his wrench and moves to wrap his arms around her when she pulls away. "What's wrong? Nya?" A little bit joking, he weaves his head trying to catch her eyes. "You look like somebody just died."

"Leo, do you remember the airlock?"

He pulls back startled. "A touch of space sickness. That's what the Doc said. Why do you bring that up?"

Her face crumples and she slams the injection gun into his arm. One trigger pull and a heavy load of sedation punches into his system. He staggers back and grabs a hold of her. As he loses control of motor function he falls and drags her with him. They crash to the floor as Nya tries to free herself from his grasp.

"What are you doing?" His eyes start to roll as he tries to remain conciousness and his words are slurred. "Nya? What's going on? I love you. What are you doing?"

"You're a fracking Cylon! She shouts at him. "The day you tried to kill us is the same day that the Cylons attacked the Colonies! Everyone is dead because of you!"

"A Cylon?" There is confusion on his face.

Marines swarm into the room under the command of Lee Adama. Two men pull Nya away from the Cylon as it loses the fight to sedation. The very last thing it sees is the woman who saved him being passed, weeping, into the surprised arms of Tom Zarek.

Then darkness - deeper than the space all around them - and the copy of Leoben Conoy falls into it.

Stick with me. The next chapter proves that not all Cylons are easy to take captive.