Astral Queen

The Astral Queen was a former starliner converted into a prison transport, carrying about fifteen hundred prisoners and equipped with a faster-than-light drive. It survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and joined the refugee fleet led by Galactica, after which control of the ship passed to its prisoners. Under the leadership of the Sagittaron dissident Tom Zarek, the inmates turned the Astral Queen into a political power base that endured for years within the fleet. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Bastille Day"; "Colonial Day")

Survival of the Fall#

At the time of the Cylon attack, the Astral Queen was on course for Caprica carrying prisoners to parole hearings. It joined the civilian rendezvous organised by President Laura Roslin and fled the Colonies with the rest of the survivors. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Bastille Day")

Faced with the question of whether the limited supplies of the survivors should be spent on hardened criminals, Captain Wilkens was ready to abandon the prisoners. Roslin refused, threatening to leave the ship behind altogether if he did, and the Astral Queen continued out of the system with the fleet. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries)

The prison rebellion#

In the days after the Fall, Cylon sabotage aboard Galactica destroyed most of the fleet's water reserves. Lacking a dedicated crew to mine ice from a nearby moon, Roslin chose to rely on prison labour. A delegation led by Galactica's CAG, Captain Lee Adama, made the offer, presenting it as work that would count towards the prisoners' parole. (Battlestar Galactica, "Water"; "Bastille Day")

By then the inmates had banded together under Tom Zarek, and they rose up and took the delegation hostage. Galactica's Marines stormed the ship, but Lee Adama settled the standoff himself, agreeing to Zarek's core demand that free elections be held at the end of Roslin's term. In return for Zarek's surrender and the prisoners' help mining the ice, Lee left them in control of the Astral Queen, much to the anger of Roslin and Commander Adama. (Battlestar Galactica, "Bastille Day")

A power base in the fleet#

In the weeks that followed, the former prisoners began offering their services to the other ships of the fleet. This work earned Zarek considerable goodwill, and as Sagittaron's delegate to the Quorum of Twelve he very nearly won the vice presidency. (Battlestar Galactica, "Colonial Day")

After Commander Adama removed Roslin from office, the Astral Queen became the flagship of a breakaway fleet of some two dozen ships loyal to Roslin, which jumped to Kobol. That split ended when Adama and Roslin made peace on Kobol. Following the decision to settle New Caprica, the Astral Queen set down on the planet near Colonial One, where it stayed through the colony's early months and the Cylon occupation before escaping during the evacuation. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Farm"; "Home, Part I"; "Home, Part II"; "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"; "Exodus, Part I"; "Exodus, Part II")

The ship later survived a Cylon missile hit at the Ionian nebula and sided with the mutineers during Felix Gaeta and Zarek's coup. After the fleet reached the new Earth, the Astral Queen and the other ships were flown into the Sun. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; "He That Believeth in Me"; "The Oath"; "Daybreak, Part II")