"Search for Sanctuary" Part 2 Battlestar Galactica: Search for Sanctuary Special #1 (Realm Press) Story by Chris Scalf and Fred Prince Written by James Kuhoric Art by Chris Scalf and Robert Scott Cover by Chris Scalf April 2000

The Imperious Leader begins a bizarre transformation.

Story Summary

As the huge Goratha surround Starbuck and Razad, Razad suddenly growls in shock as he transforms within seconds into a Goratha himself. Now alone, Starbuck fears the worst, but he hears someone shout his voice and turns to find Athena running to embrace him. She informs him the Goratha have been taking care of her (apparently along with Sheba and Giles as well) and the Goratha are merely the second life-stage of the smaller Karas who took him in (in "Search for Sanctuary" Part 1). The immediate threat past, Starbuck remarks to Giles that they still need to find Apollo, whom they believe to be somewhere on the planet.

On the Imperious Leader's basestar, Lucifer finds that the Cylon leader is undergoing a bizarre metamorphosis upon his throne. Lucifer reports that the alien ship Vulpa Six has captured is about to make rendezvous and that the human fleet has been located. Imperious Leader orders ten squadrons of Cylon Raiders and three basestars to attack the humans.

Later, as the Galactica detects the massive force of 500 Cylon Raiders moving in, the alien ship arrives at Imperious Leader's basestar. But instead of disembarking peacefully, the two alien bounty hunters on board begin blasting their way to the Leader's chamber.

Didja Know?

Apollo dominates the cover but does not appear in this issue.

Despite page 1 of this issue stating "And now, the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica: Search for Sanctuary...", the story does not conclude here! Apollo is still missing, the intergalactic bounty hunters have invaded the Imperious Leader's baseship, the Imperious Leader is in the middle of a bizarre transformation, and the rag-tag fleet is about to come under attack by nearly 500 Cylon Raiders! Even more upsetting, the story was never concluded elsewhere either; Realm Press ceased publication shortly after this issue was published. The publishers seemed to be aware, without quite admitting, that their days were numbered and the BSG project would not be completed; the last half of this issue is made up of cover paintings and a few interior pages that were to have appeared in the continuing chapters of Search for Sanctuary and the later Battlestar Galactica: Season Three issues after #3. One of the bonus pages depicts Dr. Resik working on a clone, possibly a clone of his own self.

This issue also contains four pages from Realm's never-published Battlestar Galactica Colonial Technical Journal. From the text included with the technical pages, it was to have been presented as if it were a publication within the fleet itself, even mentioning that the fleet has been travelling through space for 10 years (shouldn't that be yahren?) since the destruction of the Colonies.

Didja Notice? 

Page 1 recaps the events of "Search for Sanctuary" Part 1, the first and last sentences being, "In part one of Battlestar Galactica: Search for Sanctuary..." and "And now, the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica: Search for Sanctuary..." These are similar to the opening and closing lines spoken by Lorne Green in the "part one" recaps at the beginning of "part two" of the two-part TV episodes presented during the series.

On page 3 we see that Boomer has grown a short beard. He also looks rather like LeVar Burton on this page!

On page 4 (which is actually a reprint of the last page of "Search for Sanctuary" Part 1), Starbuck and Razad's encounter with the Goratha appears to take place in the middle of the jungle. But on page 5, they suddenly seem to be in the middle of a stone temple or something. I suspect the pages presented here are from an incomplete story that was re-dialoged to (sort of) make sense as a truncated chapter; notice there's only 13 story pages instead of the usual 20-some, with the rest of the issue being made up of cover paintings and pages from never-to-be-published issues.

On page 6, Athena tells Starbuck that the large Gorathas are the second life stage of the Karas, the short, rat-like beings who led him to the Gorathas and that the two groups have been separated from each other for hundreds of yahren until he reunited them. Huh? Starbuck didn't do anything except follow Razad into the jungle for the confrontation. And both groups live on the same planet, in relatively close proximity, and were aware of each other, even if the Karas were not aware of the relationship between them. Why didn't the Gorathas reunite by themselves long ago?

In this story, Lucifer is depicted with a red face for some reason instead of a dull metallic color as seen in episodes of the TV series.

On page 9, the metamorphosing Imperious Leader says to Lucifer, "I trust that none of your IL or SR series cohorts will discover what you have seen here today." We know that Lucifer, and other similar models, are IL-series Cylons. But what is an SR-series?

On page 11, Lucifer's hand appears to be four-fingered and almost organic looking.

Unanswered Questions

How was Apollo finally found and rescued? In the first issue of Battlestar Galactica: Season Three, he is back with the fleet without the story of the search for him in "Season Two" never completed.

What is Imperious Leader transforming into? Since the story is unfinished, we never learn. In the study of "Dark Genesis" I will present a speculation that it may relate to the ancient Cylon leader Sobekkta.

How does the fleet survive the latest overwhelming attack against it by Cylons?

What happens to the two alien bounty hunters who attack the basestar of Imperious Leader?