Nothing but the rain

Over the course of their friendship, Galactica's commander William Adama and Viper pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace have a greeting they share on occasion. The greeting appears to have little meaning except between the two pilots.

Adama greets Thrace with the saying as she jogs through the battlestar's corridors in the hours prior to the battlestar's scheduled decommissioning (Miniseries, Night 1).

Some hours later, while Starbuck zealously defends Lee "Apollo" Adama's crippled Viper from the horde of Raiders at the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage, then-Commander Adama breaks Starbuck's fighting trance over wireless communications with their greeting to call her back to the battlestar, which had committed itself to an imminent FTL jump. The debris of destroyed Raiders makes raining noises as they impact Starbuck's Viper (Miniseries, Night 2).

Before making an unauthorized jump to Cylon-occupied Caprica in a captured Raider, Thrace tells Adama that she is "bringing in the cat" after he questions her actions (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I).

Over two years later, a distracted Thrace walks past Admiral Adama and President Laura Roslin, oblivious to their presence, when Adama uses their greeting once more to get Thrace's attention. It would be the last time Adama and Thrace use their greeting before her demise (Maelstrom).

The greeting is generally consistent except for Thrace's last line, which is an acknowledgment ("Wilco" or "Aye-aye, sir!") that she tends to improvise.

Adama: Starbuck, what do you hear?

Starbuck: Nothing but the rain.

Adama: Then grab your gun and bring in the cat.

Starbuck: Boom, boom, boom!

Notes

• According to a blog entry by Ronald D. Moore, the exchange is an excerpt of a marching chant, which are common in militaries. He suggests that it has a deeper meaning for the characters, but he never wrote out the entire chant.

• "Nothing but the rain" is a Battlestar Wiki descriptive term.