The door creaked open and Kestra's head shot up to meet her visitor. A familiar face stood in the open doorway.

"Get up," she said. Kestra smiled as she leapt up from her bed and hurried to the door that Boomer held open for her.

"You're late," she said as she slipped past her companion into the corridor. Boomer scoffed as she followed her.

"You're lucky I come at all. You'd get lost in a second on your own," she replied. Kestra rolled her eyes as she strode confidently down the corridor. Boomer folded her arms and walked behind her, waiting for the inevitable. About three turns later, Kestra sheepishly turned back to Boomer.

"Okay, so I have no clue where I'm going," she said. Boomer smirked and took the lead.

"I want to take you somewhere new anyway," she said as Kestra fell into step beside her.

"Where are we going then?" she asked curiously. Boomer smirked at her over her shoulder but did not answer. Kestra shrugged as she followed obediently. Countless turns later, after Kestra had completely lost her sense of direction, the corridor ended at a large open space. Inside were probably hundreds of cylons. Every model was represented somewhere and they all mingled together, Kestra thought, the same way humans do. There were groups who sat huddled by the walls talking quietly with each other. Others were engaged in card games and other tabletop games Kestra couldn't quite recognize. The most eye-catching activity was at the end of the hall where a group of cylons were racing after a ball.

"Are they playing pyramid?" she asked with a smile. Boomer nodded. "Can we play?" She nodded again. Kestra grinned from ear to ear as she followed Boomer to the pyramid arena.

"Got room for two more?" Boomer asked as they approached the players. The game came to a halt as the players all gazed skeptically at the pair. At this point, all the cylons aboard the base ship knew about Kestra, but Boomer remained the only one among them that she could call friend. Most other cylons had approached her with either fear or disgust. There were a few who observed her with curiosity, mostly sixes and eights she observed, but they never approached her. The silence after Boomer's question hung like a fog in the air. Other cylons had stopped their activities to watch the exchange with anticipation.

"Sure." It was a six who had answered. Her teammates behind her, a five and a two, scowled.

"Great," Boomer said, not waiting for any of the other's to object to her inclusion in the game. She walked confidently onto the arena and pointed for Kestra to take her place on the other team. Kestra stood awkwardly behind the eight, three, and four that had taken up position on that side of the arena. Play started but the tension in the air had not gone away. Kestra's teammates were doing everything in their power to avoid passing her the ball. She had expected something like this so she decided to focus on playing defense. She had to prove to them that she could function with the team, and by extension their race. If she could get them to trust her, maybe her journey here wouldn't be a waste. She could be the bridge between the humans and the cylons. After the game, she would reflect that perhaps a full contact sport was not the best way to gain their trust, but in the moment it was the best plan she had. The five on the other team had possession of the ball and Kestra watched as the six darted up the arena for a pass. Without thinking, Kestra leapt to intercept the pass, barreling into the six and sending her sprawling on the floor. Everyone froze. Kestra stood stock still with the ball in her hands, eyes locked with the six on the floor. The six stared Kestra down, but made no aggressive move toward her which Kestra took as a good sign. Emboldened by this, Kestra shifted the ball to one hand and reached the other down to help her up. The six hesitated briefly before accepting Kestra's hand. As she stood, the six smirked and before Kestra could react she swatted the ball out of her hands. The six freely stepped past Kestra and easily scored in the nearest basket. The silence disappeared as the arena erupted into cheers and arguments from the opposing sides. The six turned back to Kestra with a smile before jogging back over to her team. Kestra smirked as she did the same. The rest of the game passed more amiably. Her teammates still favored each other but they did not ignore her entirely which was an improvement. Boomer's team ended up winning which was greatly debated by their opponents because of the six's cheat shot. The teams dispersed at the end of the game and Kestra made her way back to Boomer's side.

"That was interesting," she said nervously.

"It went a lot better than I thought it would," Boomer said with a smirk. Kestra scowled.

"What did you think was gonna happen?"

"Worst case scenario… somebody tries to kill you," she said.

"And you were just gonna let them?" Kestra asked. Boomer rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't have let it get that far. Besides, they wouldn't really kill you. Everyone knows Cavil wants you alive." Kestra narrowed her eyes at Boomer.

"Why?" she asked skeptically. Boomer shrugged as she ambled forward into the sea of cylons before them.

"To show you that we're not like the humans. We're better," she said nonchalantly. Kestra wanted to argue the point, but so far Boomer was right. The cylons had been far better to her than the humans were. She'd already made one friend and was sure that in time she could grow to love the cylons as she had the humans. Life was great here, but not great enough to make her forget her family back on Galactica. She still missed her friends and longed for Lee every night as she fell asleep alone.

"Do you ever miss them?" she asked. Boomer stopped cold. Kestra circled her to find that she'd gone slightly pale and her eyes glossed over. Boomer ducked her head away to avoid Kestra's gaze. When she looked back up her face was stoic.

"Why should I?" she said in a measured voice, finally looking Kestra in the eyes.

"Because you lived with them your whole life and they were your friends," Kestra said softly, trying not to upset her. Boomer huffed in indignation.

"They aren't my friends. They hate me," she said forlornly. Kestra shook her head.

"I doubt that," she said calmly, "they forgave the other Sharon. I'm sure they would forgive you."

"She didn't shoot the commander," Boomer said. Kestra put a hand on her arm causing Boomer to flinch.

"Neither did you," Kestra said, "it was programming. You didn't mean to shoot him." Boomer rolled her eyes.

"They didn't see it that way. They locked me in a cell and murdered me," she snapped. Kestra frowned. She only knew the bare bones of Boomer's story. No one in the fleet was very eager to talk about her. They all thought she was a traitor. Kestra briefly wondered if she had become taboo among the fleet after her traitorous act. She deserved it more than Boomer did. She had chosen to leave, but Boomer was just a victim to her programming. Boomer wouldn't believe it, but Kestra had to hope that there were people who knew that it wasn't really Boomer who shot Adama. She couldn't be blamed for a cylon plot she knew nothing about. "You don't always have to defend them you know," Boomer said, snapping her out of her thoughts. Kestra frowned.

"I know they're capable of terrible things, but they're also capable of good. There has to be someone on Galactica who would forgive you," Kestra reasoned. Boomer got a faraway look in her eyes.

"Chief," she murmured softly. Kestra raised an eyebrow.

"Galen?" she asked. Boomer nodded but did not meet Kestra's eyes. Kestra sighed. Galen had never spoken about Boomer, but she imagined that it was probably painful for him if he still cared for her. She also knew that Callie was the one that shot and killed Boomer. "You loved him, didn't you?" she asked. It made sense with what Caprica Six had told her about the takeover. She and Boomer had been the ones who convinced the cylons to make peace because of their love for humans. Six was in love with Baltar.

"Yes." And Boomer loved Galen Tyrol.

"I'm so sorry." It was all she could say. She didn't know if Boomer was aware of Galen's marriage or not but it was a tragedy either way. She believed that the man she loved hated her and she could never see him again. "Did you see him on New Caprica?" Boomer's eyes darkened.

"Yes… he asked me to save his wife from detention," she said tersely. So she did know about Callie. "Then he organized the murder of my people and escaped." Kestra shook her head.

"Boomer, people were being rounded up and tortured. We had to escape," she explained. Boomer huffed angrily.

"He used me. He doesn't love me, he just wanted me to save Callie so he could kill me," she barked, "I don't miss any of them." Boomer turned on her heel and stormed away. Kestra tried to follow her but she was quickly lost in the crowd. Kestra looked around her at all the unfamiliar faces and began to panic. She wasn't sure how to get back to her room without Boomer and she didn't feel comfortable in this room full of cylons who would probably rather shoot her than play pyramid with her. Kestra made her way to a wall as far from the other cylons as she could and sat against it. She watched them as they milled about in front of her looking altogether human aside from the fact that she saw only the same seven faces on all of them. After a while, a shadow blocked her vision. She looked up to see the six from the pyramid game.

"You look a little lost," she said congenially. Kestra smiled, embarrassed.

"Boomer stormed out on me, and I'm not great at navigating the ship yet," she admitted. The six chuckled softly.

"Boomer's always moody. Don't let her upset you. Here." She reached down her hand and helped Kestra to her feet. Kestra smiled.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Kestra right?" Kestra nodded. "I'm Natalie."