"Amazons of Space" Battlestar Galactica Annual 1978 (Grandreams) Author Unknown Artist Unknown

A world of beautiful women warriors comes under attack by the Cylons.

Story Summary

The Galactica receives a pre-recorded signal from an unknown world in which a beautiful woman named Elyana claims they are under attack by aliens called Cylons. Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer are ordered to fly there in their Vipers to investigate. The trio arrives at the designated coordinates and all seems quiet at the entrance of an underground city. They meet a group of warrior women and their ruler, Elyana, explains that this is the only city on the planet, extending underground for 100 square miles and the Cylons have launched their attack from the western entrance and are moving forward.

Apollo suggests if they can take a look at their defenses, they might be able to formulate a plan to help them. They are given a tour of the city and stumble into a battle in progress between the warrior women and the Cylons. Starbuck joins in the fight, but one of the women steps into his line of sight and is hit. They discover she is a robot.

Apollo realizes the whole thing is one huge trap designed to lure the mostly male warriors of the fleet to the city to defend the women and then the Cylons would have them at their mercy. The three manage to escape the city and begin firing on it from their Vipers. The whole city blows up, the Viper-fire having set off explosives intended to kill the humans that were supposed to have been lured down there.

They realize they'll have to watch out for Cylon-built human-looking robots in the future.

THE END

Didja Know?

This story appeared in the British Battlestar Galactica Annual 1978, a book of short stories, articles and games all about BSG, geared towards kids.

This story has similarities to "Deathtrap" in that both feature the Cylons luring the humans to a world with surrogates who promise pleasure but deliver a trap.

Didja Notice?

The story opens with Colonel Tigh in charge of the bridge. When they suddenly receive a pre-recorded distress call from a human woman on an unknown world, describing an attack by Cylons, he orders Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer to fly there in their Vipers to investigate. Wouldn't a situation like this be a time when he should rightfully call Adama to the bridge before deciding on anything but a short-term course of action?

The video message from Elyana plays on the main viewport of the bridge...but the TV series clearly shows the viewport is just that, a window into space, not a video screen!

Arriving at the only city on the planet, hidden underground, Elyana claims to the three Colonial Warriors that the Cylon attack is coming from the other surface entrance to the west and moving forward. But shouldn't it strike the three as odd that they detected no Cylon baseships or other support ships around or on the planet?

The women of the planet turn out to be robots constructed by the Cylons as part of a trap for the humans. But in the Galactica 1980 episode "The Night the Cylons Landed" Part 1 (30 years later), Andromus is said to be the first human-looking Cylon.

Reading between the lines on the last two pages of the story, Starbuck seems to be disappointed he couldn't keep one of the beautiful female robots as a sexbot!