Fanfic / Did I Make the Most of Loving You?

Did I Make the Most of Loving You? is a Battlestar Galactica (2003) fic where, after their deaths at the end of the series, William Adama and Laura Roslin find themselves back in the Colonies almost two decades prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, just after Adama’s divorce and the death of Roslin’s family. The two quickly meet and realise that the other retains their memories of the Second Cylon War, starting a chain of events that significantly change the fleet’s subsequent journey after the Cylon attack.

The fic can be read here and here.

Did I Make the Most of Loving You? contains examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Richard Adar is able to control himself for the most part, but when he and Roslin are alone together he often tries to instigate an affair even after Roslin affirms that she loves her husband.
  • It is revealed that Zarek had a twisted affection for Roslin, to the extent that he tries to force himself on her after Adama’s apparent death.
• Accidental Hero: From an outside perspective, this appears to fit Adama and Roslin’s new role in the Prophecies of Pythia; Elosha explicitly reflects that Roslin is the first person she’s met who believed themselves the subject of a prophecy who didn’t want to be.
• Adaptational Heroism: In a pragmatic sense; having seen what happens if he tries to act purely for his own benefit, Baltar is more willing to take action supporting Adama and Roslin rather than just thinking about himself, as he acknowledges that the Adamas are the best leaders in this situation.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Where Adama and Roslin’s relationship didn’t have time to become more official than just lovers in canon, here Roslin immediately establishes herself as Lee and Zak’s stepmother, to the extent that Zak calls her ‘Mom’ as he’s growing up.
  • When explaining Kara to the children, Adama and Roslin initially claim that Kara was close to Roslin’s family before moving away, with the Adamas unofficially ‘adopting’ Kara to the extent that Liam considers her a big sister, allowing Kara to have a warmer relationship with Roslin overall.
  • After Admiral Cain survives past her canon death, she becomes so close to the others that she is invited to Kara’s bachelorette party.
• Asshole Victim: After Commander Dagon’s attempted mutiny, during his time in the brig awaiting official court-martial several people have to remind themselves of the military ethics that stop them just beating the crap out of him while he’s in custody. Adama nearly beats Dagon to death for nearly destroying Galactica and being willing to hand Roslin over to Zarek, and Kara only stops that to make it clear to Dagon that his court-martial will drag up every black mark in his record, including leading his men into a trap in a past conflict, allegations of spousal abuse and possible cowardice in the face of the enemy (Kara admits that the last is a stretch but in the Fleet’s current mood nobody will look too closely).
• Back from the Dead: Basically applies to all twelve ‘time travellers’, as it appears that their memories returned to the past from the moment of their deaths in the original timeline to various different points in the new one, but this trope is particularly relevant to Billy Keikeya, who died years before the rest.
• Becoming the Mask: From the Cylons’ perspective, Boomer does this, as her restored memories break her Cylon sleeper programming and she commits to the Colonials.
• Berserk Button: Roslin rejects any suggestion that she will have to be the Dying Leader again, particularly now that she has a husband and son who would have to see her die.
• Birds of a Feather: Characters such as Laura and Leoben have observed the similarities between Evelyn Adama and Hera Agathon, as both girls 'should' never have been possible and yet represent the hope for the future.
• Blind Jump: When Zarek and Dagon sabotage the FTL drive on Galactica so that the drive can’t read coordinates from the navigation systems, the only way out of a Cylon ambush is for the ship to make a blind jump.
• Blood Knight: Adama notes that this is Cain’s main weakness, as she is so eager for blood that she will pounce at the slightest hint of it, allowing Adama to provoke her into a trap during war games by faking that Galactica is weaker than it actually is.
• Cessation of Existence: Laura states that this is the fate of anyone who dies on Kobol as their souls will fade rather than pass on, making it clear to Zarek after she stabs him that she will ensure nobody remembers him once she gets back to the fleet.
• Chekhov's Gun: Roslin experiences dreams of a glowing orb that is eventually identified as the Orb of Chronos, which allowed Cavil to reset time in the first place, with the humans setting out to find the Orb to stop Cavil using it again.
  • Adama’s suggestion of using carbon composite-coated Vipers that are invisible to DRADIS on a secret mission he is assigned to. The Cylons later capture this technology and use it to launch their attack on the Colonies.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Defied; Boomer commits herself to fighting for the humans once she regains her memories.
• Closest Thing We Got: When an unknown virus affects most of the men in the fleet, Kara has to take command of Galactica as everyone above her is too ill to do so.
• Crazy-Prepared: With years to prepare for the possibility of the Second Cylon War, the time travellers are able to make various preparations, such as Cottle subtly requisitioning surplus medical supplies to Ragnar Anchorage to Roslin arranging for flight simulators to be installed on Galactica during the ship's conversion to a museum to make it safer to train pilots.
• Death by Adaptation: Helo is killed trying to protect his daughter during a Cylon raid before they reach the planet that would have been New Caprica, and Colonial One is destroyed during a Cylon attack (although Laura and most of the Quorom weren't on board at the time even if its crew are killed).
• Decided by One Vote: When the Twos, Sixes and Eights appeal to join the Colonial fleet as asylum-seekers, the Quorum vote to decide whether to accept this is initially a draw, with six members voting for and six against, requiring Roslin to cast the tie-breaking vote in favour of the alliance.
• Defends Against Their Own Kind: As well as Tigh, Boomer and Athena’s active roles in the Fleet, Caprica-Six is shown assisting Sam Anders’ resistance movement back on Caprica.
• Demoted to Extra: To a point; Helena Cain is still an admiral, but she never has the chance to try and take command of the Fleet as Adama is already an admiral in command of several military vessels when Pegasus arrives, although she accepts her status as second-in-command of the remaining Fleet military.
• Deus ex Machina: The reset of time is attributed to Cavil’s use of the Orb of Kronos, a tool of one referred to as ‘the jealous god’.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Roslin accuses Zarek of falling victim to this when he tries to stage a coup, pointing out that in the original timeline he had years to try and win over the people when he tried to take over in the mutiny and he still couldn’t get enough support for his attempted coup.
  • Roslin has the idea of issuing passes to other ships in the fleet for individuals in particularly high-stress jobs to give them a necessary change of scenery, reflecting that she only had that idea in the original timeline while she was in the medical bay getting treatment.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Tom Zarek is killed on Kobol after he attempts to stage a coup by having Galactica sabotaged, three years before he was executed in the show.
  • Helena Cain survives over a year longer than she did in canon, but ultimately sacrifices herself to try to destroy the already-damaged Pegasus before the Cylons can acquire any data from the ship.
• Double Meaning: When Roslin and Cavil talk at a party, they are each aware that the other is strongly implying that they remember the original future while apparently talking about future religious education programs Cavil is allegedly at the party to discuss.
• The Dreaded: All those who remember the future agree that Cavil is the worst Cylon, and those Cylons assisting the humans on Caprica reflect that the future Cavil is the worst of them all when they reveal that the Cylons plan to unbox that particular version of him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Adama experiences a vision of the Hybrid telling him that, as a reward for achieving their goal of saving humanity and their accompanying sacrifices, he and Roslin will have another chance to properly make the most of their love.
• The Eeyore: Lee comes across as a downplayed version of this at times, with Kara in particular calling him out on how he always seems to find something to complain about regarding his relationship with his father in particular. This includes Lee wondering if Bill and Laura had the right to change their original histories (before he learned just how bad things were, including Zak being dead and Laura dying of cancer), how everyone seems to forget his birth mother (even though Carolanne was a bad parent), or even how people act as though Bill being a good parent this time around means Lee can just ignore his previous mistakes (which Kara in particular affirms is unfair).
• Embarrassing Nickname: Liam Adama is somewhat uncomfortable with his initial Fleet-derived nickname of ‘Little Prince’, expressing hope that it won’t become his callsign; Liam eventually receives the cooler callsign ‘Falcon’ after he’s assigned to Kat’s flight wing.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Admiral Cain is uncomfortable at the notion of airlocking a baby, even if the child is half-Cylon.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Zarek in particular demonstrates this; not only does he assume that Roslin seduced Adama to secure her own power rather than recognise that they genuinely love each other, but he talks about how he and Adama were no different beyond Adama having a uniform, ignoring the lines he crossed in his quest for power that Adama would never have considered.
• Exact Words: When Adama makes his speech on what was intended to be the retirement of himself and Galactica, he makes one key change to the original speech; where he originally said "Why are we as a people worth saving?", here he asks "Why are a people worth saving?", that slight change intended to reflect how he came to acknowledge that even some Cylons were ultimately worth saving even if others were their enemy.
• Family of Choice: Most of the key time travellers form one as they come together.
• Fantastic Racism: Basically defied for the main characters;
  • While Adama and Roslin prepare for war with the Cylons even after Adar announces a planned peace treaty, this isn’t because Adama and Roslin don’t trust Cylons, but because they recognise that the peace they achieved in the original timeline required a very specific set of circumstances that can’t be easily recreated, and certainly won’t be possible in the current situation no matter what Adar believes.
  • By contrast, Commander Dagon of the Battlestar Prometheus allies with Zarek and tries to stage a coup primarily because he’s angry at Roslin and Adama giving Boomer a pardon and a commission in the Fleet just because she’s a Cylon, even though they can confirm that Boomer never participated in the Cylon attack and actually saved lives.
  • After the alliance with the Cylons is declared, a sizeable portion of the Fleet object to their new allies despite the various assurances that their key allies reject what the Cylons did to humanity and confirm that Cavil is the true threat.
• A Father to His Men: Admiral Adama is clearly presented as this as always; during a promotion ceremony after a major assault, Cain notes that Adama always has something distinct to say about every soldier receiving an award.
• For Want Of A Nail: Discounting the obvious benefits of the Adamas’ advance knowledge, such as Bill no longer pushing Zak to become a pilot, Roslin uses her political connections to ensure that Adama becomes an admiral before the fall of the Colonies.
• Freudian Excuse: Boomer justifies her past shifting loyalties, leading to her siding with Cavil in the original history, as the result of her twisted personal history leaving her doubting her own ability to make decisions.
• Generation Xerox: Roslin reflects that Zak resembles his father while Evelyn reminds her of her long-dead mother and sisters.
• Genre Savvy: Bill never believes Cavil’s ‘offer’ to spare his family if he backs up Cavil’s story about coming from the future, quickly deducing that Cavil only made that offer because he can’t convince the other Cylons of his time-travel experience on his own.
• Good Stepmother: After marrying Adama, Roslin commits herself to being a good parent to Lee and Zak, with Zak in particular calling her ‘Mom’.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Cavil suggests that he might have put himself through these, as he claims that he can't even remember how many times he might have used the Orb to reset history even as he resolves to keep doing it until all of humanity is destroyed.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Tigh suffers one in Chapter 77 when Ellen is apparently killed in the destruction of Colonial One (Bill chooses not to mention that there's a chance Ellen will resurrect because he doesn't want to risk destroying Tigh twice if he's wrong.
  • The would-be Athena basically has one after Karl's death, requiring Boomer to provoke her into the boxing ring to break her "sister" out of her funk.
• Heroic Sacrifice: During the battle to destroy the Hub, Cain stays behind to destroy Pegasus before the Cylons can access any data that the crew were unable to erase from their databases.
• Hidden Depths: During a talk with 'Head-Six', Baltar observes that Adama and Roslin were chosen to lead humanity because he recognises that Adama is a good man and Roslin's flawed humanity helps her understand humanity's flaws in turn.
• Humans Are Bastards: The Cylons agree with Cavil’s plans after witnessing some of humanity’s crimes against each other.
• Hypocrite:
  • Some of Adama and Roslin’s political rivals accuse them of this as they condemned Adar’s attempt to make peace with the Cylons but gave at least two known Cylons sanctuary in the fleet, particularly since Adama and Roslin can’t explain why they trust those Cylons and still condemn Adar’s treaty as a bad idea.
  • Cavil rants about how Adama's desire to torture him proves that humans are basically animals when he destroyed twelve planets to try and kill all of humanity.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Basically the Cylons’ new plan; with the first six models exposed and undercover infiltration impossible, the Cylons pretend to be willing to sign an official peace treaty with the Colonials, when in reality they just intend to use the new access opportunities to devise stealth technology to bypass the Colonials’ systems and attack them directly before they can fight back.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The best description of Adama’s quiet acceptance of Roslin’s death in the original timeline, not raging bitterly at his own loss but quietly mourning her so that she passes on peacefully.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: In a sense; Roslin identifies a particular Eight as Boomer, as opposed to Athena or a random Eight, because only Boomer could look at her in such a haunted manner.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Regardless of Adama and Roslin’s efforts to prepare the Colonies, the Cylons still destroy all twelve worlds.
  • During the election, Tory tries to rig it in favour of her alternative candidate, but this time around Cain’s refusal to tolerate that behaviour ensures that Roslin wins in a landslide.
  • Even when Cain knows that the Sixes are Cylons, she is still attracted to the first Six she sees in person.
  • During the battle to destroy the Hub, Pegasus is rammed by a Cylon basestar and sustains serious damage that will inevitably destroy it.
• Infinite Supplies: Defied; despite Roslin and Adama's best efforts to prepare for the Cylon attack by stocking up on various supplies, some resources are still limited, with one chapter noting that Lee had to make a considerable amount of trades just to provide Liam with porn magazines and candy while he's stuck in hospital.
• Inner Monologue Conversation: After Adar announces an official peace treaty with the Cylons, Starbuck and Boomer are shown having a brief one of these in the rec room; without saying a word, both agree that they don't trust the Cylons to keep their word on any kind of peace treaty, but they will follow Admiral Adama's plans for the worst-case scenario.
• Internal Reveal: Not directly shown, but when Roslin tells Billy Keikeya- the only time-traveller unaware of the identities of all twelve Cylons- the identities of the Final Five, Billy apparently spent ten minutes in stunned silence before managing to squeak out a response.
• Irony: After he spent the original timeline pressuring Lee and Zak to follow him into the fleet as they were growing up, Bill is amused that he let all three of his children pursue their own interests and yet Liam, the son he has literally never put pressure on, is the one most keen to follow in his footsteps (Zak joins the fleet as a doctor and Lee’s considering going into politics once he can wrap up his current service).
• It Is Dehumanising: Adama explicitly thinks of the time-displaced 'prime' Cavil as "it" while interrogating him about the Orb of Chronos after his capture, although considering that this Cavil is basically single-handedly responsible for the destruction of the Colonies it's safe to say Cavil doesn't even consider himself human.
• It's All About Me:
  • Adar goes so far as to think to himself that Roslin ‘makes’ him want her even though she’s never done anything to encourage his advances since her marriage.
  • Zarek’s only goal after his memory has been restored is to set up a situation where he can achieve power in the fleet, regardless of the fact that Adama and Roslin have already saved more lives than in the original course of events and succeeded in bringing humanity to safety in the original timeline.
• It's All My Fault: Sam Anders blames himself for the damage the Fleet suffered in the attack on the Cylon hub after he led the Colonial survivors and the renegade Cylons to the Fleet, but Kara assures him that he's not to blame for what happened and they would have needed to form such an alliance and mount an attack like that eventually even without his presence.
• Jerkass: Adar might be willing to listen to Adama and Roslin’s claims to know the future, but his attempts to seduce Laura into an affair no matter how much she affirms that she loves her husband cost him several points. When meeting Adar with some of the admirality, Adama is deliberately slow to salute the other man because he feels that he should only show respect to Adar’s office rather than Adar himself, and the final face-to-face meeting between Roslin and Adar sees Adar fire her just because she rejected him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cottle, as always; when he realises that Adama and Roslin remember the future and have a son, he is clearly happy for them, and tearfully apologises to Adama for not anticipating the return of Roslin’s cancer.
• Landslide Election: Despite Tory Foster trying to rig the early ballots in favour of Wallace Grey, Roslin wins the election by a landslide in this timeline.
• Like a Son to Me: When Billy Kiekeya regains his memories of the future, Roslin finds herself reflecting that now all of her sons are present, reinforcing how Billy was like a son to her in the original timeline even if she's now Lee and Zak's stepmother and has her own biological son.
• Like Brother and Sister: When Liam is told that Kara is family during their first meeting, the six-year-old immediately takes this to mean that Kara is the sister he asked for, and Kara tentatively accepts the title. Even after Evelyn is born, all concerned parties make it clear that Kara can still consider herself Liam and Evelyn’s sibling even before she marries Lee.
• Maternity Crisis: Laura gives birth to her daughter when she and Bill are stuck in a Raptor after another ship strikes Galactica’s hull.
• Meaningful Echo: When Bill and Laura are reunited in the new timeline, Bill says "I love you" and Laura responds "About time", echoing their reunion after the destruction of the Resurrection Hub.
• The Mole: The Colonials have at least two in the form of Leoben and Caprica Six; Leoben steals a Cylon raider to give the Colonials a chance to study its stealth technology and reveal his restored memories to Roslin, while Caprica Six gives the Colonial resistance assistance back on Caprica until the Fleet can send a rescue.
• Mood Whiplash: Bill and Laura barely have minutes to enjoy their new marriage before they see Doral in the temple, confirming that the Cylons are active in the Colonies already.
• Morality Pet: Once his memories are restored, Tigh speculates that some part of him befriended Adama because Tigh himself has never been a good man, so he chose to become friends with Bill Adama because he recognised that the other man was a good person who would inspire Tigh to become better.
• Morton's Fork: Basically the reason why the Colonial government doesn’t court-martial Adama for defying orders on a survey mission to the border over Cylon territory; they claim that actually giving him a dishonourable discharge would attract attention given his relationship with Roslin, but Adama knows that it’s really because a court-martial would require them to publically announce what he did, which would mean disclosing an illegal government operation.
• Mystical Pregnancy: Roslin's second pregnancy is a minor example of this; the child was apparently conceived normally, but since Roslin was post-menopause it's naturally a surprise to everyone to learn that she's pregnant just before the Cylon attack. This is apparently part of the new prophecies of Pythia, which tell of two leaders who will have a miracle child as a symbol of the new life awaiting their people at the end of their journey.
• Nepotism: To a point; Laura knows that William Adama deserves command, but they both know that his lack of patience for politics prevented him rising above Commander in the original timeline, requiring Laura to pull a few political strings to ensure that her husband is in a better position to defend humanity before the Cylon attack by achieving a suitable rank.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A minor point in the grand scheme, but still personally significant; Roslin’s decision to let Helo and Sharon keep their child results in Helo being killed during an attack on Galactica that was trying to capture Hera.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Only one Cavil sent himself back in time, and while some of his model accessed his memories of the future, his attempts to target the Adamas attracted so much attention that the Cylons eventually voted to box that particular Cavil, thus preventing them from anticipating the extent of the Colonials’ response to their attack until it was too late.
• Noodle Incident:
  • At some point Dee has had sex on the President’s desk (although it’s easy to assume it was with Billy while Roslin was elsewhere).
  • Lee mentions an incident when a young Liam found handcuffs in Roslin's desk at home; when Roslin wonders why Liam was in her desk, Liam explains that he wanted a game she'd taken from him earlier.
• Parental Substitute: After Kara and Roslin meet when Kara’s a teenager and confirm that they both remember the original history, Kara starts living with the Adama family. Adama obviously affirms that he will still consider Kara a daughter even with his biological family intact, and Roslin forms a tentative maternal dynamic with Kara herself.
• The Peter Principle: At least suggested when Tigh is promoted to Commander of a Battlestar after the previous commander is executed for assisting Zarek’s mutiny, as Tigh has trouble adapting his command style to be the benevolent commander rather than the ‘hardass’ XO. He eventually requests a transfer back to Galactica while his own XO is promoted to Commander, allowing Tigh to basically command Galactica in a crisis while Adama works as the fleet admiral while returning to their more traditional dynamic.
• Pragmatic Hero:
  • Bill contemplates taking advice from Cain to quell the potential mutiny in the ranks after the Cylon alliance.
  • Later, even after the alliance with the Twos, Sixes and Eights, Adama and the other time-travellers take steps to retrieve the beacon from the Lion's Head nebula to try and infect the Cylons with the virus. Caprica initially objects, but Leoben affirms that he's the one who suggested this plan, and Cottle makes it clear that he's going to try and develop a treatment for the Cylons in the Fleet before he uses the virus against the enemy.
• Precrime Arrest: Ultimately defied, as Adama in particular reflects on how he's able to move on from Gaeta's role in the future mutiny to treat the younger Gaeta like the man he was rather than the man he became, as well as the time travellers as a whole forgiving Boomer for siding with Cavil during the Cylon Civil War.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Granted, Adama doesn’t explicitly say “You suck” or an equivalent term, but he makes it clear to Lee that Lee needs to get over his habit of only acknowledging how important people are after he’s lost them or getting bogged down in the idea that things have to be black and white that he gets angry when people fall into shades of grey.
• Reset Button: The entire series gets a ‘do-over’ after Roslin and Adama find themselves in the past, even before they make contact with the other ‘time travellers’.
• Revealing Cover Up: Invoked when Adama observes that the mere fact that Cavil thinks there's some strategic value in him having Roslin as a prisoner is reason enough to ensure the Cylon leader never gets his hands on the President.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Lee gets a dramatic example of this when he asks Roslin if she knows what it's like to lose her entire family, recalling how he died alone in the original timeline... and then her shock, along with Kara and Billy's anger, reminds Lee that he was told how she lost her mother and sisters in a car crash in both realities.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Boomer realises that sketches have been submitted of all known Cylon models apart from the Eights, she assumes that this was intended to protect the future Athena, but Starbuck makes it clear that they also omitted the Eights to protect Boomer herself, this knowledge reaffirming Boomer's decision to side with humanity rather than the Cylons this time around.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Obviously all time-travellers retain their memories of the original future no matter what they change, but there is also a one-off physical detail; when Roslin wakes up in the past, she is still wearing the ring Adama placed on her finger just after her death.
• Rule of Symbolism: It is explained that twelve individuals retained their memories of the future to guide it onto a better path, with each time traveller symbolically representing one of the twelve Lords of Kobol (Cavil can be seen as representing the thirteenth tribe of Cylons and the "jealous god");
  • Zeus=William Adama as the fleet’s benevolent yet powerful leader.
  • Hera=Laura Roslin as the fleet’s female ruler, who can be ruthless when the situation calls for it.
  • Poseidon=Saul Tigh, the loyal brother to Zeus.
  • Demeter=Caprica Six.
  • Athena=Sharon “Boomer” Valerii.
  • Apollo=Kara Thrace, who dominated the skies and lived a life ruled by destiny.
  • Artemis=Lee Adama.
  • Ares=Doctor Cottle, the soldier who has seen more war than any of the others.
  • Aphrodite=Gaius Baltar.
  • Hephaestus=Leoben.
  • Hermes=Billy Keikeya, the loyal messenger of the gods.
  • Dionysus=Tom Zarek, who sought to liberate his people from their perceived oppression.
    • There is also a deeper symbolism in the new prophecies of Pythia; rather than the original prophecy of the Dying Leader, in this timeline the scrolls tell of two leaders who will lead the Caravan of Heaven to a new home and will have a daughter to represent the new life humanity will find at the end of their path, despite Roslin being post-menopause when the Cylons attack.
  • After the Cylon alliance is declared, Ellen and Billy each suggest sending out photos of Hera Agathon and Evelyn Adama playing together as a sign that humans and Cylons can be friends.
• Rules Lawyer: When the rebel Cylons ask for asylum, Roslin observes that there is a precedent for this in 'Asylum after Defection', when refugees from one Colony could receive asylum from another (before the Colonies were united) so long as they could provide actionable military intelligence.
• Sadist Teacher: Suggested; when Lee and Zak were in school early in Adama and Roslin's marriage, Zak's teacher didn't bother to punish other students for bullying Zak just because of his Tauron heritage.
• Sadistic Choice: After being unboxed, the future Cavil claims that he will leave the fleet and the 'defective' Cylons (Twos, Sixes and Eights) alone in exchange for Laura Roslin and Hera Agathon, with Adama immediately rejecting that offer even as he has to grimly acknowledge that others in the Fleet may consider it.
• Secret Test of Character: Boomer basically does this to herself when she is the first to volunteer to guard the time-displaced Cavil after he's captured; the guard would have been limited to the eleven time-travellers in the Fleet anyway, but Boomer went first because she wanted to test for herself that Cavil has no power over her any more.
• Ship Sinking: With her memories of the future intact, Kara never has any kind of relationship with Zak or Sam, but pursues Lee from the beginning and is content with her choice even after Sam rejoins the Fleet.
• Shout-Out: At one point, the author confirms that a quote about how it's possible to do everything right and still fail is paraphrased from an observation by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation).
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Head-Six is shown complaining about how the Cylon bodies have been separated from the human bodies even after they agree to an alliance, Baltar points out that considering the near-genocide the Cylons inflicted on the humans they're naturally going to need time to get comfortable treating each other equally.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: An interesting hero-on-hero case of this; Lee (who has no memory of the future at the time) starts asking if those with knowledge of the future have the right to change what came before, but Kara cuts him off and asks if he’d really prefer to live in a timeline where Zak was dead even before the Colonies fell.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • One of the first changes from canon is that Adama encourages Zak to pursue other career options rather than basically ‘forcing’ him to become a pilot.
  • A few other Battlestars survive the Cylon attack to join the human fleet.
  • Billy Keikeya’s sisters survive the original attacks (although they haven’t appeared directly), to say nothing of Billy himself living past the date he died ‘originally’.
  • Helena Cain is spared her canon death and forced to take a more moderate view of the war for a time.
  • After they arrive at Fallback Omega, Laura learns that Cami, the little girl whose ship she had to leave behind in the original miniseries, now survived the Fall when she finds the little girl part of the new school.
• Surprise Pregnancy: As well as Laura being pregnant despite being post-menopause when the Colonies fell, Kara is shocked to realise that she is pregnant with Lee's child in Chapter 80.
• Swapped Roles:
  • A clear sign of how much Commander Dagon's actions angered Admiral Adama is that he nearly beat Dagon to death while the man was in custody and Kara Thrace is the one who has to step in and stop her father figure going too far.
  • Briefly features during the battle for the Hub; when Kara and Lee have to rescue Liam after he's ejected from his Viper, Lee attempts the daring manoeuvre while Kara just watches, Lee bringing his viper up to Liam and opening the hatch to bring him inside the ship.
• Token Evil Teammate: In as much as the twelve ‘time travellers’ are a team (and discounting Cavil who caused this situation for his own ends), Tom Zarek is this, as the other eleven are committed to changing things to be better for humans and Cylons where Zarek is only interested in making things better if he’s the one in charge.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • After Adama is reassigned to the Galactica, Roslin uses her political contacts to have Galactica undergo a thorough rebuild to repair the damage and material flaws that compromised the battlestar towards the end of the series, as well as providing it with raptor training sims, under the guise of wanting it to be perfect before its conversion into a museum.
  • On a wider scale, after the Cylon attacks, when the Galactica arrives at Ragnar Anchorage they discover four additional Battlestars and various escort ships, giving the fleet greater firepower from the beginning rather than relying exclusively on Galactica for protection.
• Took a Level in Kindness: With his memories of the original timeline intact, Baltar chooses to actively support Roslin while volunteering to act as her vice-president once she’s confirmed that she doesn’t have any other viable candidates, explicitly telling her that he recognises she’s the best choice to lead the Fleet.
• True Companions: Adama reflects at least once that he basically considers Tigh his brother after everything they’ve been through, and they have a private understanding that if one of them dies first the other will look after the deceased’s family.
• Trust Password:
  • Cottle checks if Adama and Roslin have also travelled in time, after seeing them together years in advance once his own memories are restored, by telling Roslin that she reminds him of a woman he treated for breast cancer.
  • When Roslin meets a young Kara, after Kara calls her ‘Madame Prez’, Roslin tests Kara for future knowledge in turn with the ‘What do you hear?’ line.
• Underestimating Badassery: Particularly applies to Helena Cain, who assumes that Adama and Roslin are just a tired old admiral with political connections and a weak politician who got lucky, but she soon sees proof that Adama is still a skilled military tactician and Roslin makes it clear that she will use her authority as Commander-in-Chief to have Cain stripped of rank if she feels Cain has acted inappropriately.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: To a point; it is revealed that, in the original timeline, Baltar’s revelation about the role Hera’s blood played in curing Roslin’s cancer prompted the Cylons to conduct experiments on Roslin during her time on New Caprica, which led to the Cylons basically undoing the cure and causing Roslin’s cancer to return.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Chapter 77 reveals that Ellen Tigh was lost with Colonial One, but since the Hub is potentially still intact there is the possibility that she will resurrect.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After Lee’s memories are restored, he gets this from most of the other time-travellers when he starts blaming Roslin for the fact that he died alone in the original history before he’s reminded that she lost her entire family in both timelines.
• Wild Card: The Eights are basically this for the Cylons as the only model Adama and Roslin didn’t describe to President Adar, although this omission was because Adama and Roslin wanted to protect the Sharons.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Seems to be Leoben's justification for why the destruction of the Colonies still unfolded as it did before, even if he's as committed as the others to a better resolution this time around.
• You Mean X Mas: At one point, the Adamas and Kara celebrate Saturnalia, which appears to be the Twelve Colonies’ equivalent of Christmas.

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