Through the Looking Glass
by karate0kat is a crossover between Battlestar Galactica (2003) and Firefly. Starting early in the fourth season of Galactica and shortly post-series for Firefly, things become complicated for both parties when a Cylon attack forces the Demetrius to make a blind jump, resulting in the ship crash-landing on a planet just as Serenity is resting there to prepare for its next job. With most of the crew dead and the Demetrius useless, Kara and the other survivors join Serenity’s crew in time for a particularly personal mission.
Through the Looking Glass provides examples of:
- Action Survivor: Sam's experience with the resistance on Caprica has helped him get insight into whether people will cope under pressure in a combat situation, allowing him to quickly conclude that Kaylee won't fold in a crisis when the two of them are almost cornered by thieves while salvaging components from the Demetrius.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: While the Colonial Fleet could never find a reliable way to test whether someone was human or Cylon without relying on Baltar, once he learns that Sharon isn't human Simon is able to identify a unique feature in her blood that distinguishes her from humans, although he concedes he might have missed it if he wasn't actively looking for a difference.
- Birds of a Feather: Helo and Kara share a moment of this after Kara learns that Sam’s a Cylon, as Helo is the only other person who can understand what it’s like to be in Kara’s position right now.
- Boomerang Bigot: Sharon and Sam are a minor example of this due to their opposition to the Cylon race as a whole as they vow to protect their human loved ones. Sharon in particular observes that she knows other Cylons are capable of making their own choices, but so few of them actually do anything other than going along with the majority.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: While rallying the resistance on Dadik, the Colonials proclaim "So say we all", which is taken up as a chant even by those for whom the phrase doesn't have the same cultural significance.
- Canon Welding: Galactica and Firefly take place in the same universe, and it is strongly implied that the Final Five had some ties to the Alliance as Sam ‘recognises’ the interior of Serenity when first shown into it.
- Contrived Coincidence: The Demetrius crew are fortunate enough to crash-land close to the current position of Serenity, as the planet they arrived on was notoriously hostile to outsiders and the locals would have probably just killed the Demetrius crew if Serenity didn't arrive to offer help first.
- Death by Adaptation: Hot Dog, Erin Mathias, Seelix, and other members of Kara’s crew on the Demetrius are killed in the accident that led to them crash-landing.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Kara learns that John Dadik named a planet after himself, she reflects that even Baltar never went that far.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The two crews had already tentatively agreed to work together after the Demetrius crashed, but after they team up to stop a gang of thieves trying to take Serenity’s cargo and kill or rape the crew, even the revelation that Sharon’s a Cylon doesn’t deter Mal and Zoe from affirming they will now consider the other crew their friends.
- Franken-vehicle: At least attempted; with the Raptors on the Demetrius damaged, Helo and Athena try to strip out the FTL drive, along with the navigation and communication systems, from one of the Raptors and adapt it for use on one of the shuttles on Serenity. As of the last chapter, this plan hasn’t been successful, but the potential for it is still there.
- Gracefully Demoted: Loosely applies to Kara, who accepts Mal taking charge of the joint group even though she was the captain of the Demetrius.
- In Spite of a Nail: The exact circumstances are different, but Gaeta still sustains a serious leg wound, although Simon is able to treat it quickly enough to prevent amputation even if Gaeta remains in a coma for some time.
- Internal Reveal: The reader was aware that Sam was a Cylon from the beginning, but the characters only learn it when Simon runs a blood test on Sam after he's shot.
- It's All About Me: John Dadik, a double agent who helped the Alliance during the War, not only received enough money for his services to buy his own planet, but then went on to rename the planet after himself.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Seeing Jayne work to save Jean Barolay, as well as acting somewhat protective of her in the aftermath, prompts Mal to muse that Jayne’s tender moments are rare, but they make him subtly more tolerable.
- Mama Bear: Athena can’t show it directly as Hera’s still on Galactica, but when Jayne calls her ‘it’ after he learns that she’s a Cylon, she shows him a picture of Hera to reinforce that she is not just a ‘thing’ but a mother, soldier and wife, in that order.
- Noodle Incident: When Jayne confronts one of the raiders on Serenity, he mentions that they worked together on "the Torac job", which ended with Jayne betraying the other merc (who agrees that he would have done the same if Jayne hadn't beaten him to it).
- Sequel Hook: No sign that one will be written yet, but as the story concludes, Kara and the other Demetrius survivors have accepted the offer to join Serenity, Inara has affirmed that she still intends to leave the ship, the crews will continue work on adapting an FTL drive to a shuttle, and River is shown to be talking to Head-Six.
- Ship Tease: Jayne Cobb and Jean Barolay are hinted to be developing feelings for each other.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Jean Barolay has already lived longer than she did in the series, avoiding the Cylon encounter that led to her being killed by a traumatised Six and becoming part of Serenity’s expanded crew.
- Spirit Advisor: Head-Six is talking with River Tam.
