"Doomsday Rock" Battlestar Galactica Annual 1978 (Grandreams) Author Unknown Artist Unknown

An asteroid heads straight for the Galactica!

Story Summary

On the bridge of the Galactica, Athena detects a large object in the distance of space, heading towards the fleet. The bridge crew soon identifies it as an asteroid. But, as they alter course to get out of its path, the giant rock does so as well, keeping the battlestar on its trajectory. They realize someone must be guiding it on a collision course. The rock is too big to take out with the ship's lasers, so Commander Adama orders two vipers out to set an atomic charge on the celestial body to destroy it.

On stand-by are Starbuck and Boomer, so they get the mission. They head out to the asteroid and, circling behind it, discover a Cylon craft using a powerful tractor beam to maneuver the giant rock, guarded by three Cylon Raiders. The two warriors make short work of the Raiders, but Boomer's Viper is damaged. Starbuck sets down on the asteroid and lowers the bomb onto the ground with a timer of five minutes to allow him and Boomer to make a getaway. But Adama's voice cuts in over the intercom with a report that a flight of 20 Cylon Raiders are coming up on them.

Starbuck finishes programming the bomb and finally launches off of the asteroid. He catches up with the partially crippled Boomer as the Cylons begin to pass the asteroid and head towards them. Suddenly, an atomic explosion rips the asteroid into pieces, taking the Cylon squadron with it. "The charge went off early!" cries Boomer.

"No..." Starbuck replies, "...twenty against two are odds I don't like...so I decided to shorten the odds...and shorten the timing too! I set it for one minute, not five. So it didn't go off early...it went off just on time!"

THE END

Notes from the BSG chronology

This seemed to be the appropriate place to put this story since the Cylons had earlier tried to collide a basestar with the Galactica in "Collision Course", so they may have decided to try again with a less expensive object and, also, we learned that the Cylons are capable of moving an entire planet in the novelization of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero", so it should be no problem for them to move an asteroid as they do here.

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.

Didja Notice?

Page 1 suggests that the approaching asteroid is still millions of miles away from the fleet. But then Adama orders Vipers launched to destroy it. So Vipers are capable of travelling millions of miles without refueling?

Page 5 of the story indicates that Vipers are capable of carrying a bomb that can be dropped (or set, as is the case here).