"Zarek" Part 4 Battlestar Galactica: Zarek #4 (Dynamite) Writer: Brandon Jerwa Art: Adriano Batista Colors: Scott Kester Letters: Simon Bowland Cover A: Stjepan Sejic 2007

On the way to his parole hearing, Zarek's prison ship is caught up in the Cylon attack against the Twelve Colonies.

Story Summary

The prison ship Astral Queen arrives at Luna Three to pick up 1500 prisoners, including Zarek and Mason, for parole hearings on Caprica. During the voyage, the Cylon attack against the Twelve Colonies begins and the captain of the ship decides to dock and lay low at a Colonial Intelligence space station near Gemenon. The agent currently in charge of the station, Anna Bazinet, asks the captain for manpower in pulling and loading the station's data servers into her ship to keep the data out of Cylon hands, as the crew complement of the station has been pulled onto the battlestar Pegasus for the defense of the Colonies. The captain reluctantly agrees to assign a handful of prisoners for the job, including Zarek.

While the work is in progress, Cylon centurions board the station and attack the remaining humans. Zarek and the other worker prisoners take up arms against the Cylons. Bazinet is forced to blow the servers to keep them out of Cylon hands and Zarek saves the life of one of the prison guards, Seaborne, extracting a promise from him that he now owes Zarek a favor in return at some time in the future. The surviving humans escape the station aboard the Astral Queen and later rendezvous with newly-sworn President Laura Roslin's rag-tag fleet of survivors.

Despite the desperate change in the fortunes of the human species, Zarek swears that his revolution is not over yet, it's simply beginning a new chapter.

THE END

Notes from the BSG chronology

At the beginning of this issue, Zarek, Mason, and Duby, along with about 1500 other prisoners, are picked up from the Luna Three incarceration facility by the Astral Queen for parole hearings on Caprica. The ship encounters Cylons during the massive attack against the Twelve Colonies and manages to fight them and escape, to soon join the rag-tag fleet of survivors gathered together by President Roslin. This places the events of this issue at the same time as those of "Serve and Protect".

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Zarek was a 4-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment, covering the origin of Tom Zarek.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Warden Purdue

Tom Zarek

Benedict Mason

Duby (dies in this issue)

Captain Owen Wilkens

Eric Seaborne

Anna Bazinet (dies in this issue)

Smith

President Adar (mentioned only, deceased)

President Laura Roslin (mentioned only)

Commander Adama (mentioned only)

Didja Notice?

The term "stumps" is used by Captain Wilkens of the Astral Queen to refer to the prisoners he is transporting. "Stump" appears to be a derogatory slang term for prisoners.

During the confusion of the Cylon attack and blocking of Colonial computer networks, the Astral Queen stops at the Gemenon Data Processing Complex, a space station run by Colonial Intelligence.

The images of the celestial body the Gemenon Data Processing Complex orbits, as seen on pages 6 and 20 are just green-tinted photos of Earth's Moon. And then, orange-tinted photos of the Moon are again used as space backgrounds on pages 21 and 22!

Zarek's saving of Seaborne's life on pages 17-18 sets up Seaborne owing him something in return in "Bastille Day", where, despite being a prison guard, he helps Zarek lead a prisoner revolt on the Astral Queen.