"Dreams" Battlestar Galactica #12 (Dynamite) Writer: Greg Pak Layouts: Nigel Raynor Finishes: Jonathan Lau Colors: Inlight Studio Letters: Simon Bowland Cover B: Nigel Raynor 2007

More clues to the discovery of Earth are revealed and Adama makes a decision that may haunt him the rest of his life.

Story Summary

Hospitalized due to the Returner virus, Starbuck hallucinates meetings with Zak. Some victims of the virus begin to babble star coordinates that allegedly lead to Earth, but much of what is seen in the first two-thirds of this issue is an hallucination suffered by Commander Adama, afflicted with the virus himself.

When Adama revives from the virus, he implements the toxin created by Baltar via the ventilation systems of the ship. The toxin kills the Returners, but causes no harm to humans.

On a Cylon basestar, Returner Marcus Lesa is resurrected, but is not able to accept being a Cylon and he is ordered to be boxed. Other Returners resurrect and are boxed as well.

Both Commander Adama and Captain Valerii must live with their decisions to kill/box the Returners, each asking themselves, "What would a human/Cylon do?"

THE END

Didja Know?

The issues of this series were untitled. I assigned the title "Dreams" to this issue as much of the story is focused on the dream-hallucinations suffered by Adama and Captain Valerii and it's not entirely clear how much of the past two chapters/issues of this story were real or dream.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Starbuck

Zak (in hallucinations only, deceased)

Commander Adama

Doc Cottle

President Roslin

Baltar

Marco Lesa (Returner, dies and is boxed in this issue)

Lt. Gaeta

Sister Palantia

Earth Protectorate

Helo

Colonel Tigh

Apollo

Penny Lesa

Number Eight

Captain Valerii

Number Three

Number Five

Darrin Dualla (Returner, mentioned only, deceased and boxed)

Zak (Returner, mentioned only, deceased and boxed)

Didja Notice?

Starbuck's hallucination on page 1 takes place in the woods alongside the base she and Zak were stationed at on Caprica. Apparently, it was in these woods that Zak proposed to her and gave her the engagement ring.

Though the images of Earth seen in this issue appear only in hallucinations caused by the Returner virus, notice that the globe does appear quite similar to that of our own Earth, but with the continents somewhat distorted. Possibly it is intended to look like Earth 150,000 years ago, which is when the fleet establishes a new Earth in the final episode of the TV series, "Daybreak" Part 2 (though at the time this comic book was written, the revelations of the old and new Earths had not yet occurred).

For some reason, the Returner called Marcus Lesa is reborn in a resurrection chamber aboard a basestar after he dies on the Galactica. It seems unlikely that the Cylons would bother to have Returner bodies in storage, not to mention, why is he not reborn on a Resurrection Ship? Isn't the special technology of a Resurrection Ship required for the consciousness upload and rebirth process?

Marcus is ordered to be boxed. The term "boxed" is used by the Cylons to describe the act of detaining the electronic personality of an individual Cylon or an entire line (such as happens to the Final Five for some time). Later in the issue, the bodies of the Darrin and Zak Returners are also seen to be jettisoned, along with Marcus', into a sun, so apparently Darrin and Zak were also briefly resurrected. Were the other 30 Returners reborn and boxed as well?

At the end of the issue, Adama burns his journal to Zak.