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  Lieutenant Kara Thrace

  Kara Thrace was born on the Picon colony, but she was raised all over the twelve colonies. The daughter of a career enlisted woman, her childhood was spent bouncing from one military outpost to another. Kara's father, Dreilide, was a frustrated musician, forever trying to write songs and make it into the big time and forever failing to make his mark. Her mother, Socrata, was a Sergeant Major in the Colonial Marines, attached to an artillery company and a decorated veteran of the Cylon War.

  Kara was a tough and tough-minded child, more interested in sports than in the military, she dreamed of playing Pyramid in the big leagues someday. At every base, there was a Pyramid court and Kara was a born athlete, able to both slice and duck around opponents on her way to planting the slippery ball into the goal or to block and tackle the opposing players on defense. Her mother had won the Star of Valor in the Cylon War and this honor entitled her daughter to a place at the Fleet Academy if she wanted it. At first, Kara wasn't interested and wanted to pursue a college scholarship, but her school records were spotty at best. Finally realizing that the Academy had one of the best Pyramid teams at the collegiate level, Kara decided to enter the Academy, serve her three years required enlistment and then resign and pursue a professional Pyramid career.

  Kara played Pyramid well at the Academy, and was being actively scouted by the major league teams when a vicious hit shattered her right knee during a playoff game in her sophomore year. Even after months of reconstructive surgeries and physical therapy, it was clear that the leg would never be the same. Kara would have to look for a different career.

  Depressed, she applied to all the various post-graduate training schools, but doubted she'd be accepted to any of them with her academic record. But to her shock, she scored higher on the flight training entrance exam than anyone in the history of the program and she was accepted into the next class.

  Kara was what the instructors called a true stick and rudder woman; someone who flew by instinct not instruction. To her own surprise, Kara found herself in love with flying. She'd never thought that anything could equal the feeling she had on the Pyramid court, but flying actually surpassed it. She found a freedom in the air she'd never experienced before, a joy and effortlessness that was new and welcome into her hardscrabble life. All thoughts of leaving the service after three years were gone. She would be a pilot for the rest of her life -- that is, unless she was kicked out of the Fleet.

  Kara hated taking orders. Hated military protocol. Hated the rules and regulations that were part and parcel of the military life. Her record at the Academy and then at flight school was littered with demerits, reprimands, and negative evaluations by her superiors. She drank too much, gambled too much, broke curfew almost daily, somehow always managed to be involved in any bar fight at the local watering holes and had a reputation for leaving a string of men with broken hearts and broken backs after sexual encounters that were more akin to a game of tackle Pyramid than lovemaking. Simply put, she was a disaster as a military officer. But no one could argue with her flying. While her academic and personal record kept her from graduating first in her class, she set new records on almost every hands-on flying test she encountered. Clearly, she was destined to fly Vipers and just as clearly she would be a handful for any squadron leader unfortunate to have her under their command.

  Kara served her first tour aboard the battlestar Triton and while she was loved and admired by the other pilots, she was reviled by the ship's commander, who wanted her off the Triton as soon as possible. What to do with her became a problem, since no other ship would take her. Fortunately, a slot opened up as an instructor at flight school and Kara was immediately shipped right back where she started.

  It was there that Kara met Zak Adama and fell in love for the first time in her life. There'd never been a lack of men in her life, but she'd never seriously considered the possibility of a long-term relationship. Zak was different. Something about him touched and moved Kara, made her want to break all the rules of the heart she'd lived by all her life. :

  When she met Zak’s brother Lee, she briefly thought she’d made a profound mistake. While Zak touched her maternal instincts, made her want to protect and nurture the shy, young pilot, his brother touched her in a deeper and more womanly way. Lee Adama’s entire carriage and attitude was a challenge to Kara Thrace, and Kara Thrace had never walked away from a challenge. But then the weekend passed, and lee left to rejoin his squadron, and Kara firmly put aside the feelings as the momentary wandering of a rogue’s heart.

  Then Zak failed a key flight test. A test Kara was administering. Zak was on the bubble as far as flight school was concerned and failing this test was a sure ticket out. It was Kara's duty to fail him. But she couldn't do it, couldn't destroy Zak's dream of becoming a pilot like his father. She passed him and made a promise to herself that she would teach Zak everything he needed to know and make sure he became a great pilot.

  It wasn't enough. The board of inquiry determined that Zak Adama's plane had crashed due to "pilot error." Kara was devastated, bereft, ready to resign her commission right after Zak's funeral. But that day, Zak's father sought out Kara and asked the woman who was almost his daughter-in-law to stand with the family at the gravesite. She stood next to Commander Adama in the bright sunshine of the Caprican morning and felt his arm go around her when tears began to stream down her cheeks and a bond was formed between them. Adama asked her to join him as a pilot aboard the Galactica and Kara readily agreed. She spent the next two years aboard Galactica, for the most part managing stay out of the brig and concentrating on just flying. Adama kept an eye on her and the two of them became more like father and daughter than pilot and commander.

  Kara thinks with her nerve endings. She not only wears her heart on her sleeve, she'll throw it at you if you're not paying attention. A rule-breaker by nature and a hell-raiser by preference, she nevertheless not only respects, but reveres the traditions and customs of the military service. Few things are guaranteed to bring a tear to her eye more than hearing the Colonial anthem and watching the flag go up the halyard.

  She proud of her uniform, proud of her place in the long tradition of pilots who've gone before, and is politically conservative to the point of being almost reactionary. She's also loyal to a fault, and fiercely protective of her friends and family. If you're in a foxhole, Kara Thrace is the one you want next to you.

  Colonel Saul Tigh

  Saul Tigh was born and raised on the colony of Aerion. His abusive father was a on-again, off-again miner who never seemed to hold a job for more than three weeks at a time and his mother was a union organizer in Aerion's sprawling mining industry.

  Saul was in and out of trouble his whole childhood, and when he was caught stealing from a neighbor's house at the age of 16, the judge gave him a choice between juvenile detention or enlisting in the Colonial Fleet. Saul opted for the Fleet and entered service as a common deck hand.

  He found military life agreed with him and also found the rough and tumble of the lower deck was a world he both recognized and thrived in. He was 21 years old and about to make Petty Officer 1st class when the Cylon War broke out. Saul served aboard two front-line cruisers in the early days of the war, when the initial Cylon attacks threw the Colonials back at every turn. Saul watched as men and women died by the dozens and twice he narrowly escaped death when both ships were boarded by Cylons and the fighting was hand to hand. Each ship in turn was heavily damaged and had to be abandoned in space. He was about to be sent back into action aboard yet another cruiser when Fleet put out an emergency call for pilot candidates. Saul's former commanding officer put his name on the list and Saul suddenly found himself promoted to Lieutenant and training to be a pilot.

  Again thrust into the front lines, Saul found himself aboard the battlestar Athena during the battle of Gamelon, where Saul personally shot down three Cylon fighters. Saul was in almost constant combat for the next five years as the Athena fought some of the m
ost desperate battles of the war, when the Colonies were barely hanging on for their lives. Pilot after pilot died, and every time Saul returned to the squadron ready room, it seemed as though another chair was empty. He stopped counting the friends he lost and then stopped making friends.

  When the war ended, Saul had a chest full of medals and nowhere to go. Discharged with millions of other officers, Saul had trouble adjusting to civilian life. He drifted from job to job in the post-war world, eventually landing on a tramp freighter plying the Caprica to Picon run, where he met William Adama.

  The two ex-pilots hit it off immediately and for a time, Saul enjoyed life aboard the freighter as they swapped war stories, raised hell and bonded through the shared physical labor aboard ship.

  When Adama rejoined the Fleet, Saul was alone again and fell into a deep depression which threatened to engulf him. He began to drink. Saul doesn't remember the next two years of his life very well, but he remained aboard the freighter, drinking and drifting until one day he got a call from his old friend – Adama was a squadron leader now and he had just enough pull to wrangle Saul a pilot slot. Saul jumped at the chance, stopped drinking, and would forever be in Adama’s debt.

  For the remainder of their service, Saul and Adama would usually find a way to serve together, their friendship deepening over the years until each felt like the other was a natural extension of himself. Saul was like a new man, and although he was several years Adama's senior, he felt most comfortable as Adama's loyal subordinate.

  Then came Sherry. She was gorgeous, vivacious and everything that Saul could want in a woman. The whirlwind courtship lasted all of two months and then they were married. It was the biggest mistake of his life. Sherry didn't take to military life, didn't like the customs and protocols, certainly didn't like having her husband away for long periods of time when she was supposed to play the loving wife all by herself back at the base. Sherry had appetites and once Saul was gone, she began to feed them. Saul was no fool and he quickly became aware that he was being cuckolded. But Sherry had some almost mystical hold over him and he found himself unable to either stop her infidelities or to leave her. He began drinking again.

  By this time, Saul was approaching the end of his career in the Fleet and fortunately for him, he was serving as executive officer aboard Galactica, a position where the demands on him weren't too taxing by virtue of Galactica's semi-retirement and where he was under the protection of his old friend.

  Saul is a fractured and damaged man. He's seen more combat than anyone aboard Galactica, including Adama, and the experience scarred him deeply. He's been avoiding responsibility ever since he returned to the Fleet and if not for the patronage of Adama, he probably would've washed out years ago. But beyond the drinking and the irresponsible behavior, there still lurks the man who fought Cylons hand to hand while standing in pools of blood made by his shipmates. Deep down, Saul Tigh is a warrior. The question is, can he reach down that deeply once again or has time passed him by?

  Doctor Gaius Baltar

  Gaius Baltar was born and raised on a farm on the colony of Sagitarian. His family had worked the land for three generations, but even as a boy, Gaius hated farm life. One of his earliest memories is of getting his boots stuck in a pile of cow shit and having to walk back to the house in tears and in his stocking feet. Fortunately, his parents were not just simple farmers, but owned a large and sprawling agribusiness controlling millions of acres across the planet and Gaius could eschew farm life for the study of science and math, disciplines which seemed as exotic and exciting as agriculture was boring and mundane.

  It quickly became apparent that Gaius was more than just a good student, he was a literal genius. By the time he was 14, he was completing college-level courses and by the time he was 21 he had his first doctorate under his belt and was being hotly pursued by every major university in the colonies to set up a research lab.

  Gaius was an instant celebrity on campus. Rich, famous, well-dressed, and with a boyish charm, he was never at a loss for female attention and both faculty and student body providing him with fertile hunting grounds. Eventually, there was scandal and dismissal following an unwise assignation with a Dean's wife and her daughter following a faculty tea, but no matter -- Gaius simply picked up shop and moved on to the next university and the next hunting ground.

  Gaius' specialty was theoretical physics, but his true love and passion was computer science.

  Born in the post-war era, Gaius shared the views of most of his generation who had no memory of the sudden Cylon uprising or of the bloody conflict that consumed the Colonies for those ten long years. He saw the anti-technological edicts as being largely a waste of time and amazingly short-sighted. So what if the Cylons had learned how to infiltrate Colonial technology? The answer was not to blindly turn their back on technology itself, but to advance their technology -- build a better mousetrap, one that the Cylons can't infiltrate.

  His views, and those of the young scientists like him, were in the minority, however, and Gaius had to content himself with theoretical physics for a time.

  But as time passed and memories of the distant Cylon conflict dimmed, the strictures against computer research loosened and soon the Defense Ministry was soliciting his help on several top-secret projects designed to reintroduce computer systems into the Fleet.

  Gaius soon found himself the keeper of secrets, a position that flattered his already impressive ego and elevated his arrogance to new-found levels. Gaius was listened to by ministers and presidents, his face was on the cover of national publications, his papers eagerly read by lesser scientists throughout the colonies and he, of course, had his pick of ready and eager women.

  Still, it wasn't enough. He hungered for a chance to work on a true artificial intelligence -- not a Cylon, whose entire development history he held in contempt as the work of inferior, bumbling minds, but an intelligence capable of helping solve Man's great problems. Of course, this A.I. would have to be carefully controlled, and would have to be at the service of one man. Gaius had no doubt who that one man should be.

  As Gaius began to be recognized throughout the colonies on the level of say, Stephen Hawking is in contemporary Earth society, he was approached by a woman who seemed to understand him in a way no other woman ever had. She was beautiful, intensely sexual, funny, smart, and with an intuitive sense of Baiter's every mood and thought. She knew he loved the hunt, so she let him come to her. She knew he also liked aggressive women in the bedroom, so she made a habit of pouncing on him. She understood how secret affairs both titillated and challenged him, so she told him she was from an unnamed corporation interested in defense contracts and that their affair was not only illicit, but probably illegal. She also shared his interest in A.I. systems and encouraged him to push the Defense Ministry further into computer networking than they were initially prepared for.

  The relationship between Gaius and the mystery woman continued for almost two years. She provided him with new and innovative ideas produced by her company's research, which he then presented to the Defense Ministry as his own, and he in turn, provided her with access to classified and sensitive information on Colonial defense systems. Their personal life revolved around pushing the boundaries of sexual experience and intellectual discussions on the nature of man and machine. She asked for no commitment, seemed to have none of the usual female insecurities, and he had ample freedom to peruse other women on the side. For Gaius it was the perfect relationship -- until the day the world came to an end and his lover was revealed to be a Cylon.

  Gaius Baltar is not without conscience. Indeed, he is aware of, and regrets the harm his actions have caused to both individuals and the society at large. While his guilt is not so keenly felt as to put himself at risk of discovery and punishment, it is important to remember that he is neither amoral nor sociopathic. He is a brilliant man, whose intellect usually finds a way to both justify his own behavior and yet at the same time condemn himself for those very rationa
lizations and obfuscations. He is weak without being craven, duplicitous without being untrustworthy, in league with the enemy without being treasonous.

  His taste in art, literature, and music is quite sophisticated, but he also loves to gamble at the track, was a fraternity man in college and held court-level seats at the Caprican Pyramid games for the last ten years.

  Chief Galen Tyrol

  Galen Tyrol was born and raised on the colony of Gemenon. Tyrol's father, Iophon was a priest and his mother, Daphne was an oracle. Gemenon itself was founded by the colonial equivalent of Puritans, and its society is a theocracy, ruled by religious leaders and steeped in the traditions of the scriptures. Tyrol grew up steeped in religious training and belief, but secretly prayed to the gods for a chance to leave Gemenon and travel among the stars. His parents would have none of it, however, and the boy seemed destined to take orders just as his father did. But the day before his acceptance into the priesthood, he walked into a recruiting office and signed up for the Colonial Fleet. The impulsive decision would permanently rent the family, and Tyrol and his parents would not speak again for the next ten years.

  In basic training Tyrol was immediately pegged as a natural leader, a man the other recruits looked to for direction when the drills became too much to handle. He was honor man of his graduating class, and made Able-Bodied Deck Hand, First Class almost immediately. Given his choice of specialties, Tyrol at first sought out Intelligence training believing it held the most exotic and far-ranging lifestyle, but six months into the program, he opted out, finding the long hours of academic study boring and stultifying.