Lee's expression doesn't change as she sits across from him. The phrase heavenly creature crosses his mind, and the complete aptness of it lifts his eyebrow slightly. She watches the movement and answers it with a slow, seductive smile.

"Do you?"

"Everything I can think of makes you seem the worst man for the job. You're the Admiral's son, so you have can't be objective. You were the ex-president's advisor, so you're an idealist. You're a military man, so you must be willing to sacrifice civilians, but you've put prophecy before principles and principles before prime directives." She taps the table with an elegant finger. "You don't make any sense, Commodore."

"It makes sense in those things are the reason they chose me."

"Ah?" She reaches out with both her hands, extending them to him. He doesn't react, doesn't move, not even to watch their slow progress closer. "So perfectly contradictory. So perfectly human."

He shifts in his seat slightly as she slides back, relaxing in hers. "You must wonder why you're here."

"I leave that to the religious."

She laughs, her voice like thick honey. "I didn't mean in that sense."

"It all goes back to that. Why are we here, now, where we are? What steps and missteps brought us to this. What turn did we miss, what sign did we disregard? Regardless of what the questions are, the answers are all the same."

"Are they?"

"We're here because here is where we are."

"And where you're meant to be?"

"You're assuming it means anything at all."

Her eyes narrow. "They said you were an idealist, not a philosopher."

"Perhaps they lied. Humans do that. You lie too, don't you? Truth and fiction mixed together in just the right amount to make it all sound plausible." Lee raises his eyebrows and smiles, the curve of his lips dangerous and razor sharp. "Computers don't lie, you know. They can give you the wrong answer based on information you give them, but they can't lie."

"We don't lie."

"Don't you? Every time I've met one of you, you've lied. Half-truths and falsehoods falling from your mouths just as easily as every grain of truth. Computers don't lie. They don't have to." Lee leans forward, his breath escaping in a soft huff of laughter, the weight of the negotiations no longer bowing his shoulders. "Humans lie because they don't have any other choice. You're lying now. What do you think that says about us all, in the end?"

Her hand shoots out, grabs at his neck and tightens, fingers digging into the too-soft flesh. "I could end this now."

"You could," he gasps. "But you'd have to tell everyone something." He smiles, despite the darkening hue of his face, the tight bunching of flesh around her hand as it digs harder. "And I bet you'll lie."