"The Enemy Within" Part 2 Battlestar Galactica: The Enemy Within #2 (Maximum Press) Story: Rob Liefeld, Greg Aronowitz, and Robert Napton Script: Robert Napton Art: Hector Gomez January 1996

Ares’ presence disrupts life within the fleet and in the new settlement of Eden on Earth.

Didja Notice? 

This issue depicts the fleet in the midst of construction of a city called New Eden City near the ark. In "A Death in the Family", Adama suspects that the ruins they explore on Kobol may be those of the city of Eden. And in "The Enemy Within" Part 1, Adam says he was originally from Eden and it is revealed that the ark in which he and Eve were found is named Eden.

On page 2, Dr. Cyrus indicates that both the ark and Ares' craft are composed largely of a unique alloy called syilium, found only on Kobol. This is the first mention of such an alloy.

Also on page 2, Apollo remarks that, while the original Kobolians had telepathic abilities, later generations of the Thirteenth Tribe may have lost them, as the humans of the Colonies did. Of course we saw in the Hatch novels, starting with Armageddon, that Apollo himself (and later his sister, Athena), have developed telepathic abilities due to the direct Kobolian lineage of their family.

On page 3, Ares remarks to Athena on how fast the members of the fleet are managing to build their new city and she responds that the new refugees have dreamed of this for 20 yahrens. We saw that they also have practice at city building, as depicted in Paradis.

Sheba resumes her commission as a Warrior, still a lieutenant, much to her husband Apollo's consternation. (In Armageddon she was supposedly a captain and in Rebellion, a colonel!)

On page 7, panel 3, the dialog balloons of Starbuck and Ares are reversed.

A game of triad is played in the new arena constructed on Earth, the teams being Starbuck and Box against Boomer and Ares.

This issue reveals that Boomer and Dietra had a daughter named Cleo. She is also a lieutenant in the service. It is implied that Dietra died at some point after Cleo's birth. In Warhawk, Boomer was said to be married to a woman named Phaedra and that they were expecting a child, though the subplot seemed to have been dropped in later novels in the series. One might imagine that Phaedra and child died and Boomer later married Dietra, but that doesn't really hold considering Warhawk took place only a couple of yahrens before this and Boomer and Dietra would had to have become parents not long after the events of the TV series to have a child of Warrior age now! Perhaps the Phaedra character of the Hatch novels should simply be considered to be Dietra instead, with the second pregnancy of Warhawk having resulted in a miscarriage.

On page 11, Baltar, on his basestar Hades, gazes out of a viewport or viewscreen at a planet in the distance that looks similar to Earth. It must be another planet though, for the continents are different and there appears to be three moons in view. If it's not Earth then the Hades must be in an entirely different solar system since no other planets in the Sol system have oceans of water on the surface as seen here.

Also on page 11, Lucifer remarks that the Omega Project (mentioned last issue) is one of the most costly ventures ever undertaken by the Cylons.

On page 13, Starbuck is considering whether to continue in the service or retire and open a casino in New Eden City.

During a talk with Commander Cain, Starbuck reveals that Cassiopeia was killed on a mission that he was in command of. Of course, he blames himself for her death.

On page 14, Rigel is revealed to now be a Lt. Colonel.

On page 16, Lucifer asks Ares if he has taken the appropriate precautions, referring to masking the communications link between them. It may also have been intended by the writer as a bit of a joking double-entendre considering Ares has just been in bed with Athena (though Ares is revealed to be a Cylon robot in "The Enemy Within" Part 3, so he presumably could not have impregnated her nor been susceptible to venereal disease!).

On page 20, firefighters on the Galactica fight the blaze, caused by the explosion of the generator on the temporal overdrive, with boraton mist. Boraton was also used to fight the Galactica fire in "Fire in Space".

On page 22, Dr. Salik gives nidrinalline to the crewmembers exposed to the fire, to combat radiation exposure. This is the first mention of nidrinalline in the BSG universe.

On the last page of this issue, Dr. Wilker is revealed to be a robot. Upon finding the remains of the body, Apollo remarks that the skull is intact, so the positronic brain may be undamaged. The term "positronic brain" was coined by Isaac Asimov for use in his popular robot stories, beginning in 1939; many writers have since borrowed the term for use in their own works.