Wow. Thanks to everybody reading. Hope I can keep everyone interested.

Free men

"…nd anything."

"Captain Adama!" The Marine skids around the corner. "It's loose! It killed Hebet and Morris and the Captain!"

Lee grabs Nya's arm and they run like hell for the bridge, but are too late. Leoben has already taken control of the ship and the Journey pivots away from the Fleet and starts heading out toward the black of space.

The door is locked to forbid them entry and the combined strength of the men present isn't enough to force it open. But brute strength is not always meant to prevail.

Nya steps to it and knocks gently.

"Who is it?"

"Nya." She answers. There is silence for a long moment and she turns to face Lee. "Captain Adama, if I can't talk him down…" She doesn't need to finish it.

"We can take him." Lee asserts.

She shakes her head gently. "Leoben knows more about this ship than anyone. Let me try but take as many of my people as you can and evacuate the ship."

"No." Lee's refusal surprises them all. "As long as I stay on board my father won't blow this ship out of the sky."

Zarek snorts. "Neither of you have the skills to engage in debate with a Cylon."

"You want to stay?" Nya asks him directly.

The older man nods. He's a little surprised at his own offer. The last place he wants to be is on the ship with a crazed Cylon, he doesn't trust Adama that much. The young buck was right about that much. The minute important personnel were off the Journey, Galactica would blow her out of the sky. A few deaths were a small price to pay for the safety of the Fleet. But with Apollo on board, that was going to be the least of their worries.

"I'm a politician." Tom is being utterly honest. "Rhetoric is second nature to me."

"Nya?" Comes the choked question from the interior. "Is that you?"

She lays her head against the cool metal of the door. "Yes, it's me. Leo, let me in."

"I don't want to die. Not anymore." His words are muffled to the others, but to Nya, every word comes clearly and stabs deeper into her heart. "I'm not one of them."

Tears trail slowly out of her eyes as she listens to him, bringing new pain with them, pain that doesn't feel like it will ever end. "Harstock is dead. You killed him."

"He was going to let them kill me!"

"Where are you taking the ship?"

Nya hears the soft words of Lee ordering the Marines to clear the ship. Liquid salt smears across her lips and burns them with the sudden bitterness. She's not frightened, but there doesn't seem to be any end that she can lead him toward that doesn't end in death. "Leoben, please."

The door cracks open and a hand covered in oil and blood reaches out for her. She starts to go through when Lee and Zarek grab a hold. She almost laughs at the absurdity of the tug of war.

"Wait!" Lee shouts. "She doesn't go without us!"

"Why?"

The door opens a little bit wider as Lee shows that he is weaponless. "Because you need some good will hostages or you won't make it any further out of this system."

"I can kill you without even trying."

Zarek puts his hand against the door and opens it just a little bit further. "A chance we'll take."

---

Time opens around this motley crew as they sit in silence even as the shuttles burst away from the Journey and the Galactica turns to chase her.

Baltar sits in silence with a woman only he can see crouched next to him. Six's eyes continually track Leoben but he hasn't made any other indications that he can see or hear her which has her confused. The Vice President is scared and twitchy, his normal self.

Zarek has pulled one of the command chairs out and is sprawled in it. His suit is rumpled and he discards the jacket and tie. Age rests on his face, but not as heavily as it could, his rise to power has returned some of his youth to him. But it also doesn't give away his real reasons for staying, not that he knows all of them himself.

Lee Adama has stripped off his uniform top and is in the doubled-tank top that constitutes casual dress. His eyes flick back and forth between the major players of this drama. As usual he is certain that this was the best decision and equally certain that his father will not think so.

The last two members are seated across from each other, both struggling to find the words that will be able to bridge the huge expanse that now lays between them. Leoben looks tired, echoing the copy of himself who died at Ragnar station. The burden of knowledge seems to be laying heavily upon him, more so when he sees it echoed in her eyes. He reaches out to Nya only to have her flinch, her fingers withdrawing unconsciously as he touches her. Then finally, she faces her fears and looks up at him.

"What are you going to accomplish by this?"

"I don't know." He says honestly. "But I don't want to die. And I don't want you to walk away thinking that I'm a monster."

"Would the Captain agree with that?" She asks sharply. "Or does your programming help you forget that?"

"I'm fighting it. Fighting all the stupid subroutines in my head but I need to know that you understand. I didn't have anything to do with the Colonies. I was with you."

"I don't understand."

Six uncoils from Gaius' side and stalks over to the pilot. She looks down at her and the pilot pales next to the raw sexuality of the Cylon model. But Six's attraction is tainted by the calculating cold-heartedness of her model number. "He's not supposed to be so soft. God-blessed and a prophet…what does he think he's doing?"

Gaius glances up at them. "So are you trying to make her believe that you love her?"

Leoben nods his eyes locked with Nya's. "Call it love. Call it fate. Call it whatever words you think do it justice. I heard her voice and it drew me back. I know that stronger than anything else. She is my salvation."

"Words don't take back actions." Zarek intercedes. "You weren't a murderer before – but you are now."

"Is a man justified when he protects his own life? Would you be?"

Six chortles. "There is something wrong with his programming. Synaptic dysfunction, maybe. Although, he's not a model prone to it."

"Would you shut the bitch up!" Leoben surges to his feet. "I can hear her!"

Baltar goggles and Six flattens herself on the far side of the room. The others stare at Leoben in confusion, the source of his rage is completely unknown to them. But he can't find it either. Although he can hear the echoes of her voice, the image of Six is something that his eyes can't latch on to even when she dances on the periphery of his vision. He whirls trying to focus, but whatever it is that Six is, he can't access it.

"Leoben?" Nya's voice draws him back yet again. "What are you talking about?"

"There is…" the answer balks in his mind. "It's like hearing God's voice on the edge of sleeping and waking."

Six's jaw drops open, adding shock to surprise. He is now a threat.

"Gaius, make him tell us how he circumvented programming. Now!"

"Who do you think you're hearing now?" Gaius tries for levity but the falseness of it falls short.

Leoben snarls and starts toward him but Zarek gets in his path. The former prisoner has twenty years of life behind bars backing up his bulk, where Leoben wiry frame has artificial strength in reserve. Its probably not going to be a fair fight but neither man backs down.

"What do you think you're really going to get out of all this?" Tom questions. "Even if you could prove that you're not following their orders there is nowhere for you to go. They're using human women to try and breed a new generation of Cylons. Nya would be no safer with them than you are here. What do you think you'll get out of this?"

The answer is soft as though he's never had the courage to put these things into words before. "I want to be a free man. Free from Cylons and humans."

"A free man?" Zarek scoffs. " –There is no such thing. All men are slaves; whether of money, chance, mass opinion, or the threatening law. Many are forced to act against their nature. What makes you think you could ever be any different?"

"I have to try."

"Blasphemy." Six whispers into the air.

Gaius is confused about what to do. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he sees the laser pistol that Zarek smuggled in. The butt of it is hanging out of his coat pocket on the chair. Six follows his gaze and nods.

"Kill him. Kill him, Gaius."

Leoben shakes his head roughly. "Shut her up!"

"Wait," it's the first time that Lee has spoken. "Maybe he's telling the truth. Like Sharon loves Helo, maybe they are capable of something like human emotion."

"That's part of her programming." Leoben answers just as quickly. "She's supposed to love anyone who can give her a child."

Six flies at Leoben but can't touch him. "KILL HIM, GAIUS!"

Leoben turns to Nya. "I'll never be able to prove this to you. No one ever has been able to. God told me to exact vengeance on the crew – even though I didn't know it then – I know it now. If God's purpose is to destroy the one thing that matters to me….then God is wrong."

Six shrieks at the top of her lungs. "HERETIC!"

"Nya…" he reaches out for her. "There are no absolutes in this world. Those that insist on them…can't be right. There can't always be lines that divide us. I want to be a free man. I want to chose my future."

Everyone spins at a sudden cough. Gaius has the gun and is pointing it with shaking hands. "You're a machine. A Cylon. Back away, now."

One eyebrow cocks slightly. "Because she told you to? Who's more tied to the machine, Gaius? The man who hears and ignores – or the man who follows unquestioning?"

"I'm chosen!" Gaius shouts back.

"All of God's children are chosen. You're not special."

Gaius shoots.

Thanks again for reading. New chapter before Friday. :) And I have to give credit for Zarek's speech on free men. I borrowed it from Euripedes "Hecabe".