Tyrol leaned on the railing next to the glass windows of the docking bay and watched the ships flying by. It was both a relaxing and a challenging activity. He knew Galactica inside and out, and he knew the basics for most of the other Colonial military ships.

But here … there were so many different kinds of ships in the sky of the Presidium, and he felt like he couldn't begin to puzzle out the specs. It made him want to stay here on the Citadel, rushing between docking bays, asking everyone who came in about their ship.

He saw Lee approaching from the right, apparently taking a break from grilling the VI about this crazy world they'd found themselves in. Lee leaned on the railing and looked out at the same spot as Tyrol.

"So, what's the latest?" Tyrol asked after a few moments of silence.

Lee let out a long breath. "We're in way over our heads."

Tyrol nodded. "This ... wasn't at all what I was expecting."

"Oh, if that's the case, what were you expecting?" Lee asked, anger flaring as he turned to look at Tyrol. "You're one of the people that was supposedly the key to Earth. What do you know about our destiny?"

"Frak it, Lee, not enough, obviously," Tyrol grumbled. "I wasn't thinking of … that. I was more thinking about what everyone expected out of the Thirteenth Tribe."

"No aliens, for starters."

"Yeah, no aliens," Tyrol agreed, relieved that Lee's anger seemed to have dissipated as quickly as it had arisen. "Places and people that looked like the ones on the Twelve Colonies, or Kobol."

"And instead, we get a completely unrecognizable ship, travel system, commercial hub … everything." Lee shook his head. "I'm just overwhelmed, Chief. I'm supposed to be looking out for civilian interests, and right now that means finding them somewhere to go when the war is over." He paused, then added, "If it's ever over."

"Well, if it doesn't end, you won't have to worry about finding a place for the civvies."

"I'll tell you something else that's occurring to me while I ask a million stupid questions." Lee pushed himself off the railing, turning to look behind them at the people that were just … going about their business. It felt surreal to Tyrol, and he was reasonably certain that Lee felt the same. "They - all of them - the humans, the asari, the hundred frakking other species out there - they're big. Really, really, big. Commander Shepard thought that the quarian population of 17 million was small. 17 million. Last count of the fleet's population was 39,665, not counting the Cylons on the basestar. We could try to keep ourselves separate, build back the numbers to ensure that we have enough to preserve our traditions, but how many people would be willing to invest that time and effort, when there's a much easier path in front of them?"

"It's a losing battle," Tyrol said quietly, realizing what Lee was getting at. "Gods. They're all just going to fade into society somewhere."

Lee nodded. "The people will live. The Twelve Colonies themselves will die."

Shepard ground her teeth as she looked at the four members of the Council. Udina was glaring at his three counterparts, while Liara frowned besides her.

"I'm sorry, Commander," Tevos said. "That is the best we can do."

Shepard bowed her head, accepting that the Council would not be swayed. As much as she wanted to run up there and shake them all until they did something to help Earth, she knew that it would do no good - and probably weaken her position.

She forced that anger aside. She had a decision to make here. She'd gone back and forth on it, debating with herself over whether or not she should tell the Council about her new mysterious allies. The fact that she had been right about the Reapers should give her some goodwill - but the fact that it had taken them so long to believe her suggested that they might just laugh her out of the room once again.

What are the risks? she asked herself. It was what her mother would have said. Hannah Shepard had been the one who taught her daughter to think tactically, to analyze situations instead of just reacting to them.

The risk of telling them was that the Council wouldn't believe her. The risk of not telling them was that they'd be upset with her for hiding this from them when they found out.

Or should that be if they found out?

No. That was a risk on top of a risk. Shepard cleared her throat to get the attention of the Councilors as they turned to leave.

"I have something else to tell you," she said.

"Shepard, are you sure?" Liara asked quietly.

"Yes," Shepard said in the same quiet tone, then raised her voice to speak to the Councilors again. "As we were leaving Earth, we encountered a group of ships that matched no known EM profiles. I met with them and heard a rather … remarkable story. They're a group of humans that claim to be from outside the galaxy, fleeing the genocide of their people." She paused. "Genocide inflicted on them by a race of synthetics that they created."

"Well, that sounds familiar," Valern said dryly.

"Are you sure about this, Shepard?" Tevos said. "Remarkable is one word to use. Unbelievable would be the word that I would use."

Shepard lifted her arm and tapped her omni-tool, bringing it to life. "I've just sent you all the data that I was able to gather. Scans of their fleet, and of the people that I met with. If you find something in the data to disprove their story, I would really like to hear it."

Sparatus looked down at his omni-tool and frowned. "At least you showed sense in not bringing them into Citadel space. What did you do with them?"

"Sent them to Admiral Hackett and the Fifth Fleet," Shepard replied.

Udina cleared his throat. "With the destruction of Arcturus, Admiral Steven Hackett is our highest remaining military officer. The First and Third Fleets also answer to him now."

"So what I'm hearing is that a military force of unknown loyalties and no small amount of firepower is now under human command?" Valern said. "How do we know that they won't also attack us?"

When he puts it that way, Shepard thought wryly, maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut. She sighed. "I have representatives from their military and civilian bodies on the Normandy. One of their high-ranking pilots, their chief engineer, and the Vice President." Shepard wasn't as confident about the chief engineer part, but it seemed to fit what she'd seen of Galen Tyrol.

"Representatives," Tevos said. "Who could also become hostages."

That was not at all how Shepard viewed them, but if it made the Council happy … She kept her mouth shut. Let them think that she agreed with that assessment.

"I expect," Udina said, drawing his words out for emphasis, "that Shepard will take appropriate measures to deal with these … people … if it becomes necessary."

"If it becomes necessary," Shepard said, and hoped that it never would be.

"On the subject of love lives…"

"This oughta be good," Kara said, finishing her fourth (fifth?) glass.

Ash grinned. "What's up with you and Mr. Vice President?"

"Frak you. Stay outta my business."

"Oh, hell no. You poked at Shepard's, I get to poke at yours."

"Shouldn't Shepard get to poke at mine?"

"She would, if she had been the one to tell you." Ash glared.

Kara glared right back. "Why're you asking 'bout Lee, anyways?"

"You looked to your CO for approval before deciding to join the Normandy," Ash replied. "Not surprising. But Lee didn't look at President Roslin. He looked at you. And back on your ship, before we went to Mars, you handed him your gun when Vega gave you the Avenger. Means you worked closely enough to have him be your first choice to handle your gear." She grinned. "Plus, the fact that you got all defensive when I asked about him basically confirms that you two have some kind of history."

"It's … complicated."

Ash laughed. "Oh, this ought to be good."

Kara looked down at the table. She hated talking about this shit, mostly because she didn't know what the hell was going on with Lee, with Sam, with ... herself. And also, who the hell was she going to talk to? Karl would get all sanctimonious on her, and the other person she usually confided in was … Lee. Yeah. So, that'd be no one.

"What the hell." Kara looked up at Ash. "Just remember, you asked for it."

"Yep. Definitely gonna be good," Ash said, slouching a little in her seat.

"Fer starters, I was cheating on my husband with Lee, and he was cheating on his wife," Kara said. "But when he started mentioning divorce, I wouldn't consider it. So he ended the affair. Then his wife left him anyways." She felt sorry for Dee, but she also respected the other woman's decision to stand by her principles. "And I first got to know Lee because I was engaged to his brother, who was one of my flight students, and then Zak died and it was my fault because I'd cleared him when he had no business flying." Kara paused. "And Sam - my husband -" Faithful Sam, sticking by me despite everything, when anyone else would have run the frak away from me - "he's a Cylon. One of the 'special' ones. Didn't even know he was a Cylon 'til - something." She didn't actually know what had switched him on, she realized.

Ash stared at her for a long moment. "You might need to start again," she suggested. "All I got from that is that it's really complicated."

Kara barked out a laugh. "Yeah, no kidding." How to explain things using the fewest words possible… "Zak, Lee's brother - he was before the Cylons, when everything was supposedly normal. He wanted so badly to be a Viper pilot like the Old Man, and I loved him so much, I couldn't disappoint him by telling him that he didn't have what it took to fly. So I passed him anyways." She closed her eyes. "I passed him, and he made a stupid mistake, and he died, and it was my damn fault but I couldn't admit that. I couldn't own up to it. I let everyone think it was just an accident, and it separated Lee from his father." Kara opened her eyes again and eyed her drink, starting to reach for it and stopping herself just before her hand closed around the glass. "I didn't come clean until after the Cylon attack, because they needed to start working together and they weren't."

"Okay, that explains Zak. What about the rest of it?"

Kara let out a long breath. "After that came out, I was sure that Lee would hate me, but he didn't. I guess I let my guard down a little. We were almost on the same page, and then I went back to Caprica for a mission, and met Sam." Reliable Sam. Loyal Sam. "It kinda pushed him towards Dee. His wife. So then, there was a time when I almost left Sam for Lee. I told Lee I would, and the next day I married Sam instead. Then Lee married Dee."

"Lee and Dee. Isn't that cute."

Kara barely suppressed a growl. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

Ash waved for her to continue. Kara stopped resisting the urge and grabbed her glass, finishing the drink in one gulp. "Then the affair started. There was some shit that … frak, anyway, it felt like Lee understood me. Like he knew everything and didn't flinch. Things went far enough that he started talking about a divorce, and I … wouldn't." She leaned back in her chair. "And that was the end of that. Went back to Sam." Then I died, and came back, and still don't know what the frak happened.

"You said Sam's a Cylon," Ash said. "You might have to give me more than that. I still don't understand what that really means."

"Don't think anyone does anymore, if they ever did." Kara could definitely feel the alcohol blurring her ability to reason and make good judgments. Just what she wanted. "I'll try t' give you the simple answer. Sam's one of the hidden ones. The other Cylons didn't even know he was a Cylon. Him, and Tyrol, and Tigh, and Tory." Huh. The names were alliterative. She kept talking, ignoring Ash's look of concentration. "They're the special Cylons, but no one knows why. Just that they're s'posed to find Earth." She spread her arms out wide, the last few drops of liquor splashing to the ground. "And here we are."

"Okay, I think I get it now."

"Oh really." Kara put her glass down, being as careful as her inebriated state would allow. "And what makes you such an expert?"

Ash grinned. "I've got three little sisters and our dad died when they were little. Who do you think they talked to about their relationship problems?"

"Fine. You might have some experience. So what's my problem, Williams?"

"You can't commit to anyone."

"Hey!" Kara put all the indignation she could muster into that one word. "I married Sam!"

"As a way to run from Lee," Ash said, pointing an accusatory finger at her. "Whom you then cheated on Sam with."

Kara grumbled something incoherent, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out.

"Look," Ash said after a few moments of silence. "You felt guilty about causing Zak's death, and it fucked things up. But you said that everything got hot and heavy after you made that confession. So he forgave you. Whether you forgave yourself, that's another matter."

"That isn't the only thing I have to feel guilty about." Kara paused. "Frak, I didn't mean to bring that up."

"Well, now that you have, you've gotta spill," Ash encouraged. Kara remained stubbornly silent. "Oh, come on. You can't leave it there!"

Kara eyed her empty glass. "Get me more booze, and maybe I'll talk."

"You sure know how to milk a story," Ash replied, sighing in exasperation as she flagged down a server. An asari, with darker cobalt skin, wearing a low-cut top that showed off her rather sizable assets. The asari met Kara's eyes while collecting the empty glasses, and Kara did her best not to blush. She returned a few moments later with fresh drinks, giving Kara a very suggestive glance as she placed them on the table.

Kara found herself in the frakking weird position of returning to talking about her own love life to avoid thinking about something even more awkward. She took a long sip of her drink. "I almost cheated on Zak with Lee, first time Zak introduced us." She sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Just proves my point about not being able to commit."

Kara narrowed her eyes. There was something more in Ash's tone… was it smug satisfaction? "You think you know what I should do. Well? Lay it on me."

Ash tilted her head to the side. "Just remember, you asked for it."

"I'm waiting."

"Well, honestly, you'll save everyone a lot of pain if you get back with Lee for good, this time."

Kara gave Ash her best icy, I-have-had-enough-of-this-shit glare. "Frak you."

"No thanks, you're not my type." Ash paused. "I assume that means 'fuck you' in weirdo space cousin language."

"You're a real frakking barrel of laughs." Kara turned her glare on the glass to prevent herself from finishing it.

Ash sighed. "Look, Kara. I know we haven't known each other for that long, and you've probably gotten a fuckton of advice from everyone under the sun about this. But I'm going to tell you anyways, because I have been in your shoes. There was someone I was really, really attracted to, and I didn't know if it was a good idea to go for him. He convinced me, and it was great, and then … I lost him."

"Shit," Kara said. "I'm sorry. Did he…"

"Yeah, he died." It was Ash's turn to down most of her glass in a single gulp. "Kaidan Alenko. God, but he was gorgeous, and with that voice…" She sighed. "I mentioned I was a bit prejudiced against aliens when I first joined the Normandy. That left me with fewer options for socializing with the other crew. So I wound up spending a lot of time with Kaidan. Which lead to … well."

Kara nodded. "How did it happen?"

"See, that's the worst part of it all," Ash said, seeming to understand her easily enough. "The thing that I … hated Shepard for, for a while. She had to choose. Him, or me. It was on a planet called Virmire." She closed her eyes, and Kara could see tears glistening at the corners. "There was a bomb about to go off. We were both pinned down. Shepard had time to get to one of us, but not the other. I told her to save Kaidan. He told her to save me. She … she saved me." Ash sighed. "She never told me why. Actually, she said outright that she would never tell me. She said that … it was her pain to live with. And that I had enough pain from losing Kaidan."

"I'm sorry," Kara said again. It seemed completely inadequate to the obvious pain in Ash's voice.

Ash took a drink, staring down at the table for a few minutes. When she spoke again, her voice was still ragged with grief. "Your deal with Lee is fucked up and not fair to anyone involved. Pick one. Lee, Sam, or hell, neither of them. Just stop dithering. You may not have a lot of time left. If Shepard doesn't find a way to pull our asses out of the fire, we're all going to be dead soon. How would you rather spend that time, hm?"

Kara blew out a long breath. The fact that Ash might be right, that she might have made several very relevant points in this conversation, was just making her angry. No one had any right to tell her how to live her life."Well, right now, I'd rather be dancing." She drew out the words because it was the only way to avoid slurring them, pushing her chair back from the table.

"If I'd had as many drinks as you, I'd be heading for the floor."

"I've had a lot of practice." Kara grinned, tipping Ash a farewell wave before disappearing into the crowd. She wasn't storming away from Ash, from the questions she'd raised. She wasn't putting Lee and Sam out of her mind because the subject was sensitive and painful and maybe Ash was right -

No. I'm just getting rid of anything that might stand between me and a good time.

She was lying to herself, and knew it, but she didn't care.

Kara went straight to the bar and knocked back a couple more drinks in quick succession before heading up the stairs to the dance floor. If she closed her eyes while she moved, she could forget everything that had happened. She was very good at lying to herself, given the right motivation. The Cylons, this weird new world they'd wound up in, and her own relationship problems all definitely counted as the right motivation.

After a few songs, she made another trip to the bar for a few more drinks, taking herself from pleasantly tipsy to outright drunk. That was better. If she'd assessed the situation correctly, there would be some travel time involved before Kara might be expected to fight again - which gave her more than enough time to sober up and deal with the hangover. It wasn't as though that was anything new.

She was making yet another trip to the bar when the crowd grew unexpectedly thick and shoved her into someone else. Hands with only three fingers closed on her hips, steadying her. Kara turned and found herself looking into a turian face, painted with yet another different color and pattern. The white paint was more extensive on this turian than on the Councilor and the C-Sec officers, covering most of the area above its eyes. His, Kara corrected herself, noting the spikes on his head, and remembering what Ash had said earlier. The same white coloring was present on his mandibles, a wavy stripe that extended down from the patterns on his forehead.

"Are you all right?" the turian asked.

"Fine," Kara replied, giving him an easy smile. "Too many people."

"Yes, this is quite the popular place," the turian replied. His hands were still resting on her hips. Under different circumstances she might have been offended by that, but right then, she didn't mind. Her conversation with Ash had left her rather curious about turians, and her inhibitions had vanished at least two drinks ago. The turian's mandibles twitched in - amusement? Facial expressions had to be somewhat universal, or else no one would ever be able to communicate. Amusement it was.

"I'm Kara," she offered after another moment of silence. She was content to let him draw the obvious conclusion from the Alliance uniform she was wearing, to better blend in on the Citadel.

"And I," the turian said, the rumble in his voice seeming louder than before, "am Septimus." He looked down at her hips, and then back up. His mandibles moved again. "Would you care for a dance, Kara?"

Kara's grin widened. No need to keep hitting this one over the head with her interest. She had no idea if Septimus was considered handsome by turian standards, and didn't particularly care. She was in a popular nightclub on the place where humans and aliens mingled together, and she was deathly curious about what it would be like to frak an alien.

But ... there was also no need to come off as desperate, or overly eager. Her smile turned coy, and she held out a hand to him. "I'd love to dance," she said.

Septimus laughed, taking her hand and pulling her into a spin. He was stronger than she'd expected, and it took her a minute to regain her balance. "Whoo," she said, when she was facing him again. "You've got an arm on you."

"Not bad for an old man, hmmm?" Septimus asked.

Kara peered at his face, trying to see the signs of age in it. She probably would never have noticed, without that comment. "It's not age that matters. It's what you do."

"Well said, Kara." Septimus moved so that he was standing only a few inches away from her, and they both started dancing. It had been a long time since she'd been able to let herself go like this - to surrender to the beat of the music and the sensation of bodies all around her. Kara closed her eyes and let her body sway in almost instinctive movements. There was a swell in the song, so she put her hands up in the air; the tempo slowed, and her movements became more deliberate and controlled.

When the song finished, Kara moved closer to Septimus. He was a head taller than she was, with a very broad chest, so it took her a minute to decide where her arms needed to go. The amount of alcohol she'd had made her movements somewhat uncoordinated. It also meant she didn't care if she looked ridiculous.

Kara reached her arms around Septimus' stomach, just above his hips, and locked her hands together behind his back. She felt his amused laugh like a rumble in her chest as he draped his arms over her shoulders. He bent his head so that his mandibles brushed her cheek. "You're a bold one. I like it."

"You're just what I was looking for," Kara replied. His breath was hot on her cheek, giving her a giddy flutter in her stomach.

"And what was that, Kara?" Septimus pulled her closer, pressing their bodies together. He was hard and angular. The sensation would take some getting used to.

"Well," Kara said, drawing out the word, "I just found out that my new CO is sleeping with a turian."

"And that got you all curious about what turians have to offer." Septimus let his hands trail slowly down her sides until they were resting on her hips. "How adventurous of you."

Kara grinned. "That's me. Never saw an adventure I didn't want to have."

"Well, I'm very glad you bumped into me." His hands tightened on her hips. "Shall we take this discussion somewhere a bit more… private?"

Deciding that it was at least worth trying, Kara lifted her head up and kissed him. Septimus showed that he was experienced with species that had soft lips by kissing her back. By the time they broke apart, Kara felt pleasantly flushed, her body singing with anticipation.

"I'll take that as a yes." Septimus took one of her hands in his, and Kara let him pull her through the crowd, grinning the whole time.

Want to see what happens next? Head over to my tumblr (keita52) for some shameless smut!