Cain (TOS)

Name: Cain

Rank: Commander

Position: Commander, Battlestar Pegasus, formerly attached to the Fifth Fleet

Status: Widowed; Presumed Dead

Children: 1; Sheba

Cain is a military leader who attained the status of a living war hero. Despite this feat, Cain manages to sometimes not live up to his expectation and seems to be quite unable to accept ideas not his own. He is stubborn, but evidently knows how to run a military battlestar and execute a plan to be a hindrance to the Cylons.

Biography

Assigned to the Fifth Fleet as overall commander, the Pegasus and that ill-fated fleet fought the Cylons at the Battle of Molecay. Presumed lost, the Commander managed to recover survivors from the disastrous battle and escaped to lightspeed. Since he knew that the Cylons would doubtless be between Molecay and the Colonies, he headed outward toward Gamoray.

Before the failure at Molecay and his presumed death, he apparently met Cassiopeia and knew Commander Adama. Both seemed to be friends of his, the former helping him recover from the death of his wife (and Sheba's mother). As so far as is known, he has one daughter, Sheba, who matured into a Viper pilot that gave Apollo and Starbuck a run for their cubits prior to their discovery of the Pegasus.

Cain oversaw the continual "knocking down" of the Cylon forces on Gamoray, stealing fuel as the Cylons unwisely replenished and rebuilt. This was done with very little interference, since the Cylons were more intent on the Fleet assembled by Adama.

Sheba and Bojay discovered the two Galactica pilots, who were subsequently brought before him to be debriefed. While Cain mourned the news of the Cylon victory over the Colonials, and the utter holocaust conducted at the Colonies, he now had two battlestars at his disposal and nearly 200-240 fighting craft. This gave him an idea for taking over Gamoray and using it to strike back at the Cylons, which he presented to Adama, Colonel Tigh, Apollo, and Starbuck.

Commander Adama, senior officer to him, told him that the plan was not advisable and said he would consider another alternative.

Sometime after presenting the plan to Adama, he was visited by Cassiopeia, who had heard of his return by Starbuck. The two, while not being able to immediately warm up to him, went down to the Officer's Club. This caused Sheba, hating Cassiopeia for what she represented, leave the Officer's Club.

Adama presented his plan on attacking the recently detected fuel tankers en route to Gamoray, using a squadron from both battlestars in the attack to raise morale. Cain, after some objection, went along with the plan as well as conjoining the two major squadrons from the battlestars (Pegasus' Silver Spar and Galactica's Blue). While Blue Squadron attacked the Cylon escort, Cain destroyed the two tankers, hoping to force Adama into accepting his plan.

Adama wasn't pleased, especially with Blue Squadron being deftly blamed for the destruction of the tankers. Cain pressed on, but to no avail. Adama then noted that the Pegasus had a large enough fuel reserve to at least get the Fleet out of the system, but Cain didn't agree with that. Needless to say, Adama had enough of Cain's insubordinate actions and relieved him of duty.

Bojay and Sheba met Cain in the Officer's Club of the Galactica, informing him that they would help him attain command of the Pegasus. He replied that he would do no such thing as that constituted as mutiny.

He was later returned control of the Battlestar Pegasus, admitting that if the two battlestars attacked Gamoray, there would be no Fleet left. As the Pegasus was on the other side of the Fleet, he managed to sneak around and pin the attacking force of Cylon raiders, causing Baltar (TOS)Baltar's forces to retreat

Adama admitted that the only way to now get fuel was from Gamoray, upon which the Imperious Leader was dedicating. Bojay, Sheba, Cassiopeia, Boomer, Apollo and Starbuck destroyed the defense systems of the Cylon's outer capital, thus allowing for fuel shuttles to take all the fuel they needed. Bojay, however, had to be shuttled back to the nearby Battlestar Pegasus, where Cain parted ways with Sheba and Cassiopeia. Cain ordered all unneeded personnel and Viper pilots off the ship via shuttle and Viper, while he, Apollo, and Starbuck attacked the two base stars. The Cylon base stars were now in a position where they could not fire without risk of striking one another; Cain, in a prime position, tackled both base stars after Apollo and Starbuck destroyed the missile launchers of both craft.

Presumably, he and the Pegasus were destroyed along with the second base star. Yet, Starbuck incited speculation with the claim that Cain may have had the Pegasus enter lightspeed before the base star's destruction.

Regardless, Cain's fate remains unknown to all those but himself and his crew. (The Living Legend)

Notes

• In the Video Game, a version of him appears as Lt. Garris Cain.
• The name "Cain" is derived from a biblical story. Cain, in the instance of the Bible, is the oldest son of Adam who slew his brother Abel. The word "Cain" can also be used to describe a murderer. Not a name one would call a "living legend", now would it? Then again, the Star Trek character of James Kirk (portrayed by William Shatner) has the middle name of Tiberius, a Roman tyrant.