Helena Cain

Helena Cain
[[Image:|200px|Helena Cain]]
Name	{{{name}}}
Age	38 (Based on age of actress Michelle Forbes)
Colony	Tauron
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Helena Cain
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	[[{{{seen}}}]]
Death
Parents
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Children
Marital Status
Family Tree	View
Role	Commanding Officer, Battlestar Pegasus
Rank	Admiral
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Michelle Forbes
Helena Cain is a Cylon
Helena Cain is a Final Five Cylon
Helena Cain is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Helena Cain is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Helena Cain]]

Admiral Helena Cain, hailing from the colony Tauron, was the commander of the Mercury-class Battlestar Pegasus. At the time of the Cylon attack, her Battlestar was stationed at the Scorpion Ship Yards for repair and shore leave. As the Cylons attacked, Cain ordered a blind FTL jump, gambling that the result of such an impromptu (and inadvisable) act would be better than the alternative.

The events of the battle led Cain to develop post-traumatic stress disorder; a manifestation of her affliction was odd hand movements and gestures. After the attack, Cain constantly carried a sidearm holstered on her belt, never taking it off.

Somehow, she rescued survivors from the ship yards, including a Humano-Cylon named Gina. Gina summarily caused the death of 800 persons under her command when she informed the Cylons of their survival. Thwarting that, Cain led them away from the Twelve Colonies, following a fleet that had been trailing sister battlestar Galactica.

Cain not only enjoyed the sensation of power, but also the acquisition of more of it. Upon meeting up with Commander William Adama's fleet, she assumed command and transferred personnel from Galactica to Pegasus, including Lee Adama and Kara Thrace, indicating that Adama has let military discipline become too lax. Cain was more interested in fighting the Cylons, seemingly obvlivious to the point that she and the ships around her were all that was left of the human race, whose survival was more paramount than offensive assaults. While Adama initially welcomed such an attack against a mysterious Cylon force that followed the fleet (to stop it from following them), his attitude began to cool about Cain's very strict and unmerciful leadership.

Cain also raised concerns with President Laura Roslin. Cain recognized Roslin and her former role as Secretary of Education. As military command tranferred from Adama to Cain, Roslin made several attempts to call Cain to request supplies for the civilian fleet, but all of Roslin's calls went ignored.

Cain may also show brutal behavior when commanding her own staff, according to a conversation over alcohol that Colonel Saul Tigh had with his Pegasus counterpart, Colonel Jack Fisk. Fisk commented that, after Pegasus' initially escaped, the battlestar once tried to attack a Cylon communications relay -- an easy target. On arrival in the system, however, it turned out the target was a Cylon staging area, filled with 15 squadrons of Raiders. Admiral Cain ordered her former Executive Officer, a man she had served with for years, to carry out the attack anyway, but he refused the order in the face of such odds. Admiral Cain asked the XO for his gun, and shot him in the head in front of the crew in the Pegasus CIC. Cain then turned to Fisk and ordered him to launch the attack, which he did. After relating this story to Col. Tigh, Col. Fisk said he was just joking about the incident.

Although the story may be unreliable because Fisk was drunk at the time, Tigh relayed the story and suspicions that it really happened to Adama. Adama cautioned that Galactica's crew had also made some questionable actions since the attack. Even if the story were true, Adama was willing to give Cain the benefit of the doubt and not question the matter further.

After the suspect terminal assault of one of her crew members, Lieutenant Thorne, Cain arrested Tyrol and Helo and brought them to Pegasus, under Adama's protest, since traditionally a trial is held on the ship where an incident has occurred. Cain used Galactica's log against Adama when he asked for a tribunal; Cain noted that Adama dismissed the last council unilaterally when the verdict did not suit him. Cain summarily court-martialed the prisoners herself in a matter of hours. Commander Adama was far from pleased, and ordered an assault crew to head for Pegasus to bring his men back. Cain responded by deploying her squadrons of advanced Mark VII Vipers against Adama's museum collection of Mark II Vipers in a tense standoff (Pegasus).

Spoiler follows, highlight to read.
Cain is later killed by Gina (Resurrection Ship).

Notes

• Helena Cain is inspired by the character of Commander Cain from the original Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by the late Lloyd Bridges.

• Actress Michelle Forbes had a recurring role as Ensign Ro Laren during the last three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore, also a TNG veteran, wrote for her character in the episodes Disaster and The Next Phase.

• Cain's habit of expediting meetings by conducting then without chairs is borrowed from UN Ambassador John R. Bolton. (Source: "Pegasus" podcast)