Battlestar Galactica

In the 7th millennium of time,

a tribe of humanoids engaged in a terrifying conflict

against a race of machines.

The humans lost.

Now, led by their last surviving warship,

the mighty Battlestar "Galactica",

a handful of survivors move slowly across the heavens

in search of their ancestral brothers -

a tribe of humans known through ancient records

to be located somewhere on a distant, shining planet...

A planet called Earth.

We're down to the last, Commander. I've checked every ship.

They're all down to life support now, unless we come to dead stop.

Thank you for your report, Joly.

Well, that's just fine, just fine.

We come all this way and simply run out of fuel.

- That's not the worst of it. - What does that mean?

We're picking up Cylon transmissions.

Good Lord. A Cylon base star?

It's not military. What we're hearing is civilian.

Civilian?

I just don't understand it. We're a full star system away from any Cylon...

Commander, I can't explain it, but somewhere out there, not too far away,

is a city, a Cylon city.

That could be why our recon patrol is overdue.

- Captain Apollo, Lieutenant Starbuck? - Yes.

Transferring control to Silver Spar Squadron. Launch when ready.

Starbuck?

I don't have a thing. There's nothing in front of us.

On rear scan - they're behind us.

Behind us? Oh, swell. How close?

That close? Apollo.

- It doesn't look good. I'm going right. - I'll take left. Good luck, old buddy.

I'll pick him up on the right.

He's dead on the left. I'll be back in half a flash.

Cease-fire!

Cease-fire! That's an order!

Are you crazy? Cain will have us for dinner if we let them get away.

- They're humans. - (pilot) What?

I said they're humans.

That's impossible. We're the only ones left alive in the star system.

I'm switching to uni com.

Attention, attention. This is Silver Spar group leader

commanding Viper pilots dead ahead to slow to surrender. We are locked on kill.

- Apollo? - It has to be a trick.

This is Captain Apollo, strike commander of the Galactica. Who are you?

BOW?

I heard him. It's a trick. They're all dead.

Boj... Did he say Bojay?

- Bojay, is that you? - Starbuck?

Apollo. It is! It's Bojay!

You remember. He was in our squadron until...

That's right. Until he was transferred to... to the Fifth Fleet.

That perished in the Battle of Molecay.

Two yahrens ago. Apollo, either they're not dead or...

We are.

Bojay... If that's really you, tell us what happened. How did you survive?

You will maintain silence until we board the Battlestar Pegasus.

The Pegasus? But that's just not possible.

Apollo, do you know whose ship that was?

Cain, the greatest military commander ever. He was my idol.

Your idol will order you blasted out of the sky if you don't shut off your transmitters.

In case you clowns don't know it, we are in a quadrant controlled by Cylons.

Oh, my Lord.

It isn't a dream, and we're certainly not dead. It is the Pegasus.

They won't shut up. They act as if they've seen an apparition.

I'm still not sure I haven't.

It's so unbelievable seeing all you guys again.

How do you think we feel? We sailed over two yahrens ago to save Molecay.

Since then, we haven't seen a human soul.

- The rest of the fleet? - Destroyed.

If Cain hadn't pulled the most brilliant decoy I have ever seen, we'd be gone too.

You must have headed away from the colonies to be this far out.

That was another one of Cain's touches.

Now, he knew that they'd be lined up from Molecay to the colonies waiting for us.

He turned us out to deep space and we kept going.

- We've been fighting ever since. - Fighting? You mean running?

You forget who our skipper is. He doesn't know the meaning of "run".

- We're on strikes around the clock. - Uh, with what?

- Where do you get fuel and ammunition? - From the Cylons.

Now, if you officers will excuse our guests,

Commander Cain would like to see them in his quarters. This way.

Get them something to drink, Tolan, they look pale.

- (Apollo) It's a very great honour. - A very great honour.

Yes, I should imagine it is.

That's just a little attempt at humour.

Well, I quite resigned myself that I would never see another human,

other than my own people on the Pegasus, yet there you are.

The Galactica, sir. Under the flag of Commander Adama, my father.

- Adama? - Yes, sir.

Yes, yes. Yes, I see it.

Well, how is he? How is that old modocker?

Well, considering the load he's carried since the destruction of our nation.

Yes, yes, I should imagine.

And the rest of the fleet?

Only the Galactica survived,

along with some 220-odd ships carrying what's left of our people.

My God. And I thought we had it bad.

Only 220 ships left from all the colonies.

Yes, sir.

There's a certain young lady that I'm most anxious to find.

It's quite unlikely, I suppose, that out of all those people from the colonies

she'd be one of the few survivors, but, uh...

Well, she always did seem to know how to take care of herself.

Uh, what was her name?

Her name is Cassiopeia.

I'll never forget you, you old war daggit.

Hurry back.

Well, I can see she has the same effect on you that she's always had on me.

Uh, speaking of lovely ladies, you've met my daughter.

Happy birthday, Father. I love you.

If I'd met that young lady, I'd know it.

You've met her.

She was the pilot that almost blew you right out of your breeches.

Like father, like daughter. Well, my friends, our troubles are over.

How do you mean, sir?

Tomorrow, we go on the offensive.

We'll show those gallmonging Cylons how to fight now.

Yes, by the Lords of Kobol, the Cylon Empire is about to fall!

We're picking up something here, very odd.

- What is it? - I don't know. Some sort of a visual echo.

I mean, the Galactica's image must be bouncing off some ion field.

Feed it up to the bridge.

Omega, have this scan turret checked immediately.

Yes, Colonel.

Have Control switch to high band. There's something wrong with this.

If that's an echo, it's the cleanest transmission I've ever seen.

Nevertheless...

Commander, there's a signal coming over fleet comm line alpha.

That's impossible.

The fleet comm line is a scrambled communicator between warships.

Since we're the only surviving Battlestar,

there's no possibility of any signal like that existing.

Greetings, Adama, you old war daggit.

Might have known I'd find you and your fleet sitting dead on your astrums.

Cain! Of all that's holy!

There's nothing holy about me, Adama.

Except maybe what I'm doing to those gallmonging Cylons.

It's a miracle, Cain. A blessed miracle.

I make my own miracles. But have it your way.

- Yes, yes. Yes, of course. - I'll be aboard in a few centons.

- I'll have vintage ambrosia for you. - I should think so.

Commander... it's impossible.

Cain perished along with the Fifth Fleet two yahrens ago.

Yes, Colonel, but... that's the fabric of miracles -

the impossible.

Commander Cain requesting permission to board the "Galactica".

The Lords of Kobol bless you.

You have no idea how I feel at this moment.

Me too, Adama, me too.

I have a present for you...

Where are those space loiterers we picked up? Front and center.

My son.

I thought I'd seen the last of you.

You would have, if my daughter hadn't cut them off.

- They were heading into Gamoray. - The Delphian Empire.

It was, before the Cylons turned it into their outer capital.

It's now a model of machine efficiency.

That was a society of 50 million living beings.

Not any more.

When it was clear that the Fifth Fleet was destroyed,

I took every survivor I could aboard the Pegasus

and headed straight for Gamoray,

their most remote supply base.

We've been living off them ever since.

That's incredible. If they control Gamoray, they wield power across half the universe.

The only thing I've been able to do is to keep knocking that base down

so they can't get a full strike at me.

I never understood why they didn't send out a force of base ships to finish us off.

- It's quite clear now why they didn't. - Yes, the Galactica.

They were having trouble with some kind of rebel fleet but I couldn't break the code.

I had no idea there were any other survivors.

Oh, nor did we. You've given a tremendous lift to all our people.

And a deathblow to the Cylons.

We're gonna take them now, Adama. This is the turning point.

Oh, my old friend. The most we can hope to get from the Cylons is some fuel.

- A military victory is out of the question. - What are you talking about?

I've had them on their knees in this quadrant with one Battlestar.

With two... Ha! I'll finish them!

- At least on Gamoray. - And then what?

Oh. Then we'll have all the fuel we need,

and a base from which to attack.

We can't secure that planet.

And those base ships which hadn't been bothering you were after me, en masse.

Our only hope is to just keep moving.

- You mean run? - I mean escape.

But why? We can outfly them, we can outfight them, we...

In case you haven't noticed, I'm protecting 220 civilian ships

which crawl along in space

at a pace which is perfect for target practice.

- There must be some way. - I wish there were.

But your... your knowledge of the Cylon supply lines will be invaluable.

If we could intercept several Cylon tankers...

Why bother with tankers? Go straight for that fuel base at Gamoray.

I'm dead in space. I can't leave the ships unprotected while we take some planet.

Hades' hole, Adama! Just give me a couple of your best squadrons

and I'll take that fuel base myself.

You'll have enough fuel to take you any place in the stars.

I'll be satisfied with enough fuel just to get us out of this quadrant.

Prepare battle plans for capturing those Cylon tankers and I'll approve them.