"Bane of Baalfarr" Battlestar Galactica Annual 1978 (Grandreams) Author Unknown Artist Unknown

The fleet investigates an uninhabited planet lying at the fringes of Colonial starmaps.

Story Summary

The fleet comes upon an uninhabited planet known only as Baalfarr in their records. Scans show it to be life supporting, but detect strange clouds of methane floating in the atmosphere. Since it seems safe enough, Commander Adama allows Apollo to take Serina, Boxey, and Muffit down to the surface to investigate the planet.

After their shuttle arrives, they climb out to investigate and enjoy the fresh air and dirt under their feet. While exploring nearby, the shuttle pilot, Crir, is suddenly attacked by a flying jellyfish. Apollo kills it with a shot from his gun, but the stinging tentacles have killed Crir. Looking up, they realize more of the creatures are approaching them. They dash back to the shuttle, Boxey and Muffit barely making it aboard before being snagged by tentacles.

Apollo pilots the shuttle into the sky, but the creatures follow and attach themselves to the ship by the dozens, straining the engines. Apollo triggers an electrification of the hull from the cockpit and soon the methane-filled jellyfish begin exploding. Free of the attackers, the shuttle is able to escape the atmosphere and return to the Galactica.

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.

Notes from the BSG Chronology

The opening page of this story tells the reader that it takes place in the barely charted fringes of the known universe which would tend to suggest it occurs around the same time as "The Living Legend" (where Commander Cain says, perhaps hyperbolically, that the addition of the nearby planet Gamoray puts the Cylons in control of over half the "universe"). But Serina also appears in the story, so it has to take place before "A Death in the Family", in which she is killed. Since the fleet was not aware of the presence of the void before they discovered it in "Into the Void", it could be argued that they were in a relatively uncharted part of space (or at least parts that were lost to Colonial history). So the story could take place shortly before then, although here Serina is depicted wearing the uniform of the Colonial Warriors, of which she was not a member until "Into the Void", and she dies shortly after joining the Colonial Service. For the sake of continuity, I feel we must ignore the uniform she is wearing here and imagine she wears civilian clothes.

Didja Notice?

As the fleet moves into a position near the planet Baalfarr to investigate it, on page 2 of the story Commander Adama comments that once they would have sent daggits down to the surface to gauge the safety of the world. Of course, now, they have no more daggits, except for Boxey's mechanical one, Muffit.

On page 5, panel 1 of the story, notice that, in the background, Muffit is biting one of the tentacles of the flying jellyfish that is reaching for Boxey.