Helena Cain
Rear Admiral of the Pegasus
Rear Admiral Helena Cain commanded the battlestar Pegasus, one of only two Colonial capital ships to survive the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Ruthless and uncompromising, she waged a relentless campaign against the Cylons before her assassination.
Helena Cain was a Rear Admiral in the Colonial Fleet and the commanding officer of the Mercury-class battlestar Pegasus, one of only two Colonial capital ships to survive the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. A hard and uncompromising officer, she led Pegasus on a relentless guerrilla campaign against the Cylons, stripping a civilian refugee fleet for parts and executing those who defied her, before her command collided with that of William Adama and ended in her assassination. (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus"; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica: Razor)
The Fall and the blind jump#
In the years before the Fall, Cain commanded Pegasus. When the Cylon attack came, the battlestar was docked at the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards for a refit, its networks down and much of the crew about to go on shore leave. Cylon Raiders swept in and fired nuclear missiles at the yards, destroying the ships docked around Pegasus. Cain rushed to the CIC and ordered an immediate decoupling and a blind jump to escape the combat area. The maneuver carried Pegasus far past the red line, but the ship had already lost many of its crew. (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus"; Battlestar Galactica: Razor)
A relentless campaign#
When a Raptor reconnaissance mission confirmed the destruction of the Colonies, Cain turned Pegasus to a series of guerrilla attacks, jumping wherever Cylon forces were massing, engaging them, and abandoning the area before they could regroup. Unknown to her, the Cylon agent Gina Inviere had become close to her during the refit and now manipulated her into jumping the ship into the vicinity of a Cylon staging post disguised as a lightly defended communications relay. Pegasus was overwhelmed by fifteen squadrons of Raiders and suffered severe casualties. When her executive officer, Colonel Belzen, refused an order to launch the reserve Vipers, protesting it as a suicide run, Cain had him executed on the spot and made Colonel Jack Fisk her new second. (Battlestar Galactica: Razor)
Soon after, Pegasus detected a small refugee fleet of civilian craft. Seeing the civilians as a tactical liability, Cain had their ships cannibalized for spare parts and their engineers impressed into service under threat of their families' murder. The stripped vessels were abandoned without the means to escape. Those first months under her command are shown in flashback in the TV film Razor. (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus"; Battlestar Galactica: Razor)
Conflict with Adama#
Several months after the Fall, Pegasus made contact with Galactica and the civilian fleet it protected. The initial relief at the larger ship's arrival quickly curdled. To the anger of President Laura Roslin and the civilian population, Cain repeatedly refused to send equipment to the civilian ships, resupplying only Galactica. She and William Adama came into conflict over her reassignment of his senior officers and his comparatively lenient command style. (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus")
The breach widened when crew transferred from Pegasus were revealed to have taken part in the systematic torture of Gina, and when a Pegasus officer was killed by Karl Agathon and Galen Tyrol as he prepared to assault a Cylon prisoner aboard Galactica. Cain sentenced the two men to death, and Adama scrambled his pilots to rescue them, bringing the two ships to the edge of open battle. The stand-off broke when Kara Thrace returned from a recon flight with images of a mysterious Cylon ship guarded by two Basestars, later identified as a Resurrection Ship. Cain and Adama declared an uneasy truce to attack it while secretly planning to assassinate one another. (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus"; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part I")
Death#
The mutual assassination plans never materialized. After the Resurrection Ship was destroyed, Gina escaped her cell and killed Cain in revenge for her captivity and abuse. In the aftermath, Adama was promoted to Admiral by President Roslin, and Fisk was given command of Pegasus. Cain appears in "Pegasus", both parts of "Resurrection Ship" and the film Razor, all placed in the complete episode list. (Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II")
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Helena Cain?
- Helena Cain was a Rear Admiral in the Colonial Fleet and the commanding officer of the Mercury-class battlestar Pegasus, one of only two Colonial capital ships to survive the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. She was a hard and uncompromising officer who led Pegasus on a relentless guerrilla campaign against the Cylons.
- How did Pegasus survive the Fall of the Twelve Colonies under Cain?
- Pegasus was docked at the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards for a refit when the Cylons attacked. Cain rushed to the CIC and ordered an immediate decoupling and a blind jump, which carried the ship far past the red line and saved it, though at a heavy cost in lives.
- Why did Helena Cain execute her executive officer?
- After the Cylon agent Gina Inviere manipulated Cain into jumping Pegasus into a trap, the ship was overwhelmed by fifteen squadrons of Raiders. When her executive officer, Colonel Belzen, refused an order to launch the reserve Vipers and protested it as a suicide run, Cain had him executed on the spot and made Colonel Jack Fisk her new second.
- What did Cain do to the civilian refugee fleet?
- Seeing the civilians as a tactical liability, Cain had their ships cannibalized for spare parts and their engineers impressed into service under threat of their families' murder. The stripped vessels were abandoned without the means to escape.
- How did Helena Cain die?
- Cain and William Adama declared an uneasy truce to attack a Resurrection Ship while secretly planning to assassinate one another, but those plans never materialized. After the Resurrection Ship was destroyed, Gina Inviere escaped her cell and killed Cain in revenge for her captivity and abuse.
Sources
- EpisodePegasus, Season 2, Episode 10 (2005)
- EpisodeResurrection Ship, Part I, Season 2, Episode 11 (2006)
- EpisodeResurrection Ship, Part II, Season 2, Episode 12 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica: Razor, Television film (2007)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Galen Tyrol
Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol kept Galactica's flight deck running through the long flight from the Colonies, a respected and fiercely protective deck chief who learned that he was in fact one of the Final Five Cylons, descended from the Thirteenth Tribe.
Jack Fisk
Commander Jack Fisk was a Pegasus officer who survived the Fall, rose to command the battlestar after Admiral Cain's death, and was garroted for his grip on the fleet's black market.
Kara Thrace
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace was the finest Viper pilot in the Colonial Fleet, a gifted and self-destructive officer whose attitude often thwarted her own advancement. After her death over a gas giant, a figure bearing her identity returned to guide humanity to its new home.
Karl Agathon
Karl "Helo" Agathon was a Colonial Fleet officer who, stranded on Caprica after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, fell in love with a Number Eight Cylon he later married. He became the only successful father of a human-Cylon hybrid child, Hera.
Laura Roslin: the dying leader
Secretary of Education until the Cylon attack killed everyone above her. Sworn in as President, she became the dying leader of Colonial prophecy.
William Adama
William "Husker" Adama was a Colonial Fleet officer who commanded the battlestar Galactica through the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. His refusal to network the ship spared it from the Cylon attack, and alongside President Laura Roslin he led the survivors of humanity in search of a new home.
Mentioned in31 entries
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