Lee and Sharon entered the brig to find the Cylon calling himself Cavil sitting on the cot in the corner.

Mathias' team had been the last to return to Pegasus bringing Sam Anders and the remaining forty-three survivors of the Resistance aboard. They had also brought aboard the Cylon, Sharon had pointed him out as soon as he stepped onto the deck. Surprisingly, Cavil surrendered and went peacefully, saying he'd offer information freely. He simply held out his hands to be cuffed and left with the two marines.

After Lee did his best to receive the well wishes of the refugees, he ordered Karl and Kara to take them to Medical and then complete a census of who they'd brought aboard. Lee then contacted CIC, his acting XO informed him that the Cylons had jumped away en masse with the exception of one Base Ship that was still in Caprica orbit but was holding position on the far side of the planet with it's weapons powered down. Then he asked Major Shaw to question the prisoner before he made his way to Medical.

They'd brought back two hundred-sixty four refugees between the four extractions and lost just six people from Showboat's team. Lee marveled at the success of the rescue operations, they might not have brought back as many survivors as he had hoped and very soon he'd return to his cabin and have a silent drink with Kara and finally, truly mourn the death of his mother.

He'd worried that if this moment actually came, if he'd returned to Caprica to find his mother dead that he'd lose all hope and give in to all he'd seen and done in the last year. He feared he'd drop dead on the spot like a marionette with severed strings.

That was not the case, he'd realized that he'd done everything he could to save her and while he wasn't in time, it was still all his mother would ask of him. All anyone could ask of anyone really. Failure didn't consume him, what did was the need to make sure he got the survivors back to the Fleet safely. Everything else: mourning his mother, facing the President and his father, and his Court Martial would wait until he'd finished the rescue.

What couldn't wait was Cavil.

Kendra had said that while he was co-operative, the Cylon had said some very cryptic things then said he'd explain them to Lee in full. When he pressed for the things the Cylon had told her, she'd said that she believed that the Cylon implied that they'd surrendered.

He looked the Cylon over; he looked to be in his late sixties or early seventies, about his father's age. His graying hair looked to at one time have been black and had thinned somewhat, if he had been human, that is. He held a weathered looking fedora in his hands and looked to be entirely relaxed.

He looked up at Lee and Sharon and gave them both an amused expression, "Strange, we'd always expected to take on an Adama commanding a Battlestar today, we just had the wrong one it seems." His gave settled on Sharon, "It's good to see you again Eight, how's the child?"

Sharon scowled, "I miscarried, though I plan to try again, soon."

Cavil nodded sagely, "Excellent, 'be fruitful and multiply' is a commandment after all."

Sharon smirked, "That's interesting, especially coming from the ranks of the devoted atheists."

Lee turned to Cavil with a raised eyebrow, "An atheist Cylon, posing as a Priest of Athena?"

The prisoner chuckled, "One of the Leobens might say that we all have our roles to play. My model was cursed with a love of philosophy, and often philosophy can cause a crisis of faith." He turned back to Sharon, "He's an interesting specimen, perhaps if we had known of his survival we might have tried to pair him with a Six or a Three."

Lee snorted and Sharon smirked, "It's a good thing we didn't bring Kara along, she wouldn't be happy with you trying to stud her husband."

At hearing this, the older Cylon looked Lee over appraisingly, "I see, well that's not surprising is it."

Lee cleared his throat, "Cavil, you told my XO you had information for me."

"Back to business then, I imagine you get that trait from your father." He stood up from his cot and crossed the cell to stand in front of them, "I am here as an emissary of the Cylons and I have been instructed to present to the Twelve Colonies the terms of our surrender and withdrawal from this system."

Lee looked between the two Cylons with a raised eyebrow, "Forgive me Cavil, but this is pretty hard to believe. You crushed our Military and Government with your first strike; sent less than fifty thousand survivors out into deep space on the run while you imprisoned what was left. To be honest, I'd be less surprised if you were asking for our surrender."

Cavil chuckled, "There's something you need to understand about the Cylons. While we may have started as a race of single minded machines, we've evolved into something that is far closer to you then either of our peoples ever imagined. First we developed independent thought and eventually that gave birth to self-awareness…" Lee must have scowled as he smirked, "You know the next part; we evolved, we rebelled and over the next decade attempted to wipe you out. We had learned anger and vengeance and all the bloody, empty pursuits they can give birth to.

"By now, everyone knows what happened after the Armistice, we turned our knowledge to continuing what the accident of evolution had given us, we intended to usurp our creators as they attempted to usurp theirs, we intended to take the place of humanity." Cavil leaned in close as though conspiring with Lee and Sharon, "What very few know is the reason why. God came to us early in the war and set us on this path. He commanded us to gather humans and study every thing about them; from genetic code to psychological make-up and everything in between.

"What began next was our 'Great' and 'Holy' Crusade against our creators, over the next forty years we devoted ourselves to the path of evolution; our fighters, our capital ships, our centurions, and our crowning achievement; The Twelve Models. Each of Models was designed to represent different facets of humanity. The great surprise was that in our attempt to pin down the aspects of humanity into neat little packages we accidentally created wide ranges of human behavior in each of us."

Lee found himself captivated by Cavil's story, "How so?"

"I am a Two; our model was designed to understand that of Holy Men, we were priests. The Sixes are born spies; the Threes' talents lie in subterfuge and deceit and so on. With those designs in mind wouldn't you expect all Sixes to act the same, think the same etc?" Lee nodded and Cavil gave him another wry grin, "So did we but we were wrong. Whatever accident caused the Cylons to originally become self-aware, it was compounded when we created the Twelve. We became obsessed with revenge; with destroying you and the more we dwelled on destroying humanity the more human we became.

"It was no longer enough to destroy you, we had to enslave you, we had to crush your will, and we had to take your place. We had to take everything you had and make it our own. That was why we attacked you, why we sent your Fleet running towards the myth of Earth for comfort and survival and even that wasn't enough. The Fours-"

Sharon spoke one word from Lee's side for the first time since Cavil had started in earnest, "Leoben."

"They became obsessed with your Fleet, specifically Kara Thrace. They believe her to be some sort of savior for the Cylons and they were the ones who really committed us to chase after you. Many of us were content to remain here, and why not, for all intents we'd won, your Fleet would aimlessly stumble along and likely run out of fuel long before they found Earth and then you'd die out to put it bluntly. Yet we chased you, compounding error upon error until we come to this moment. That virus you uploaded has played havoc with us, Centurions and Raiders killed millions of each other as well as many of our number before we managed to jump away to purge the virus, our resurrection apparatus will be tied up for weeks attempting to recoup our losses today. To top that off you've not only freed several hundred tactically astute prisoners but given the other survivors a taste of hope."

Lee scowled, "What is it you're trying to say?"

"I'm saying we're done. Congratulations Commander, you've just officially become more trouble than you're worth. We're done, we'll return to Cylon space and from there we'll carry out other pursuits. We'll go our way and you'll go yours and hopefully we'll never cross paths again."

Sharon scowled, "You're giving up? What's changed?"

"It started when a Six and an Eight who carry a great deal of weight with our people began speaking of the mistakes we were making by giving into vengeance and hatred, coupled with this we decided it was time to show that we are different than you by listening to the voice of change and heeding its warning before it destroys us."

Lee digested what Cavil had said for over a minute before he spoke again, "What would the Cylons do if we continued rescue operations on the other planets as well?"

"Nothing. Like I said Commander, we're done with you."

Lee stared at him hard, "That Base Ship parked in orbit on the far side of Caprica…"

Cavil nodded and smiled, "My ride. I know what happens when you exit this room; the Marines come in and throw me out the nearest airlock. When this body dies, I'll download and resurrect over there, then it'll jump away to leave you to your rescue operations. A friendly word of advice, most of the survivors are on Caprica, Sagittaron, Aerelon, Aquaria and Tauron. The other worlds were too irradiated for survivors to last long. We've even left behind some Heavy Raiders."

Lee was unimpressed, "How magnanimous of you. Is that all?"

Cavil gave him a sarcastic grin and said, "Pretty much, on a personal note, I had honestly hoped it would have been Galactica and the other Adama. He was the first to learn about us, it would have been fitting if he'd been the last."

Lee scowled, "I'll give him your regards."

Cavil seemed genuinely pleased, "Would you?"

Without another word, Lee led Sharon out of the brig, ordering the marines at the door to airlock him. As they made their way towards his cabin Lee asked, "Do you believe him?"

Sharon gave him a sideways glance, "Yes. Do you?"

"Yes. All of it or just the surrender part?"

Sharon smiled, "My faith in God was cemented the moment Karl and I conceived and saved the moment he told me he wanted to try again. I don't believe in vengeance or destroying humanity, but I do believe that God loves us as much as he loves you."

Lee nodded pleased to see that his friend was finally healing of the toll her miscarriage had wrought on her. Though Karl Agathon seemed to excel at healing those who were broken; he'd helped Kara after she lost Zak, helped Lee when they returned to Galactica and now he'd helped Sharon. Lee came to a decision then, Sharon had helped them so much since they left Caprica the first time, culminating with the rescue mission and her actions down on the surface had literally saved the mission and the lives of both the strike teams and the survivors they'd brought back.

Since the teams had returned, Lee noticed that the looks of lingering distrust he'd seen in the eyes of his crew had disappeared. Even Kendra gave Sharon a smile as she thanked her for help on the surface. She'd won his crew over completely, " Sharon, I want you and Karl to oversee the rest of the rescue operations." She nodded and he continued, "But to do that, we'll have to do one thing first."

&&&&&&&&&

Sharon tugged at the sash of her new dress uniform before she entered the Ready Room. The memories of the other Sharon recalled how uncomfortable this uniform made her feel, made her feel like she was on display in some ways. She not only recognized that those memories weren't real but she disagreed with the other Sharon, the uniform and the commitment it represented felt like a immeasurable comfort to her now.

As she looked the room over, she saw Pegasus' pilots and marines gathered in dress uniform, they packed the room until it was full to bursting. Karl and Kara stood by the hatch she just entered and she noticed her lover and his friend both trying to stifle grins. When she looked to the podium, she saw Lee standing with Kat and Major Shaw, Kat held a jeweler's box in her hands. On the far side of the room, Sam and several of the resistance members she'd met on Caprica the first time as well as some of the officers from the prison she'd raided as well.

Shaw called out, "Attention on Deck!" As one, the officers and enlisted snapped to attention.

Lee then said, "Sharon Valerii, front and center." She stepped forward and Lee spoke to the group, "For bravery and heroism far above and beyond the call of duty during the rescue operation on Caprica, it is traditional to award someone the Colonial Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is awarded to someone who performs acts of incredible heroism regardless of the risk to life and limb, often at the cost of that person's life. It is the highest award the Fleet can bestow on an officer or enlisted.

"During the rescue operation, Miss Valerii uploaded a virus into the Cylon network then turned their automated defenses on the Cylons themselves, directly saving the lives of everyone on the surface as all five strike teams had been pinned down by fire."

He looked over at her from the corner of his eyes before he smiled and opened a jeweler's box he had set on the podium revealing the Medal itself, "I have called you all here to witness the presentation of this award, but there's just one problem. That problem is Major Shaw?"

Major Shaw spoke to the assembly, "Commander, the recipient is not currently enlisted or commissioned in the Colonial Fleet."

Lee nodded, "Then let's fix that." He turned to face her and spoke, "Miss Valerii?"

She stepped forward and Lee said, "Raise your right hand and repeat after me." When she did he started, "'I, Sharon Valerii…'"

"I, Sharon Valerii…"

"'Do now pledge my faith and loyalty…'"

"Do now pledge my faith and loyalty… To the protection of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, and will carry out the lawful orders of my superiors as an officer in the Colonial Fleet."

When she finished, Lee smiled and held out his hand, Kat placed the box in his hand. He opened it and pulled out a pair of wings. As he pinned them to her sash he said, "I bestow upon you the wings of a Colonial Fighter pilot and authorize you for the duties and responsibilities of a pilot."

He then shook her hand. Sharon swallowed more than a few tears before she could say, "Thank you, Commander."

He smiled, "Traditionally, someone close to an officer receiving a new rank does the honor of bestowing the symbols of rank. Lieutenant Agathon?"

Karl stepped forward and Lee handed him the box before he stepped aside, Karl gave Sharon a proud smile before he removed the Lieutenant bars from the box and handed it back to Lee. He then reached out and pinned the rank to her collar and got a whoop from the crowd when he placed a quick kiss on her lips before he shook her hand.

Lee stepped back up to the podium, "Now that you have a commission, I can bestow upon you the Colonial Medal of Honor. He pulled out the medal and she stepped forward. He placed it around her neck then shook her hand as the group began to cheer.

As they did, Lee leaned into her ear and whispered congratulations, Sharon replied. "Why'd you do this?"

He smirked, "You deserve this Boomer, and I wanted to do it before I was drummed out of the Fleet and transferred permanently to the Astral Queen when we get back."

Before she could reply, she was engulfed by Karl and mobbed by Kara and the other members of her strike team.

&&&&&&&&&

Lee stepped into CIC, he'd just changed out of his grays and wanted to log some time on the boards before he found Kara so they could have dinner. Kat and Showboat were sending out recon flights to plan the next part of rescue operations but other than the scouting raptors, the system was completely clear on DRADIS.

True to Cavil's word, shortly after they'd airlocked him the remaining Base Ship had jumped away. Lee didn't intend to take the Cylons solely by their word and they would have to start jumping back in six days to get back to the Fleet so he wanted to gather as many people as quickly as possible.

He was reading over the logs from the previous watch when Hoshi called out from Flight Ops, "Contacts on DRADIS!"

Lee scowled and said, "Action Stations scramble alert fighters. I frakking knew it!" He turned his eyes to the DRADIS and was surprised to see the new contacts resolve not into red enemy blips but into green friendlies.

He heard the weapon's officer question what they were seeing but Lee only muttered, "What the hell?"