[martok2112]

Hello, Antelope and Muffit, and everyone,

Thank you so much for your kind words and praises about the story. I am honored when people say that it would be a worthy continuation...that's kinda what I had in mind when I wrote it. I wanted to bring this across as a genuine continuation, despite it being just a fanfic.

Muffit, thank you soooo much for your generous review of my story. I felt (with your review) as if I had done a professional job. I am so glad that everyone was able to visualize the story so vividly. I did try to strive to make the story as accessible as possible to anyone, regardless of whether or not they knew what Battlestar Galactica was. Thank you all so much.

Antelope, I will try to answer as many of your questions as possible. And thank you also for the very kind words.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Danger Will Robinson! Read no further if thou hast not read this story! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

....

Did I mention a SPOILER ALERT?

Spoiler ANTELOPE: "Steve: When I was reading fairly late in the story there is a part where President Krieger is thinking to himself and says something like if the cylons come back again that we will have some surprises for them. I thought at that time that this was foreshadowing that the Pegasus had already arrived or that the Earth people had a battlestar they found somewhere and now with the help of the colonials could operate. If President Krieger was not referring to the Pegasus what was he refering to?" STEVE: Antelope, if you remember early on in the story, when Commander Tigh is being given a video demo of some of the Earth's advanced tactical space tech, it included some experimental space planes designed for space combat maneuvers. However, they were still in the late, late prototypical stages...ready for trial runs, but not operationally ready. The surprise that Krieger mentions is that those space planes were now operationally ready...considering that the second Cylon wave came over a year after their initial assault on Earth. ANTELOPE: "Later when the Pegasus showed up in the heat of battle with the Hasari battlestars it seemed like no one knew they were there to include the colonials or President Krieger. Was the Pegasus there for some time and the information hidden from the public or did they actually show up when they appear for the first time in the story?" STEVE: No, the Pegasus had just arrived from deep space when the Cylons were deep into their second assault on Earth. Remember, Commander Cain explained that he had managed to get the Pegasus to a remote weapons outpost and foundry, to which they were able to make several production models of the Starhound II Class Viper (the ones with four laser cannons instead of two). Also, he went to the Hasari homeworld to call in a favor...considering that the Humans helped them out a thousand yahrens before. ANTELOPE: "Was the Pegasus shadowing the cylon fleet the entire time or was her arrival at that particular time just lucky? It is hard for me to believe the Pegasus showed up when it did totally as a result of random coincidence." STEVE: The Pegasus had just shown up in the nick of time during the second Cylon assault. It is generally assumed that the fleet commanders knew of the existence of Earth...Cain was just a little more certain. He wasn't shadowing the Cylons either, although he did have a few encounters with the Cylons enroute to Earth...and the Hasari were getting their combat legs during this journey. I thought it would make for more exciting prose if the Pegasus were to come out of the sun with guns blazing, and Vipers zapping. ANTELOPE: "I liked the way you described the Hasari. They seemed pretty "elf" like. It kind of brings fantasy and sci fi full circle. Was that your intent, especially since I noticed a Lord of the Rings inspired call sign on one of the human fighter pilots (Legolas)? " STEVE: Thanks on that. I did want the Hasari to be somewhat similar to humans, but to have something distinctly alien about them. I figured that the way I described them was to show how they had gone from a peace loving race to one forced to understand the ways of war...and I thought that a truly benign race would be characterized by gentle, almost graceful physical features. As for bringing sci-fi and fantasy full circle, thank you for those words. BSG is, after all, space fantasy, and although I wasn't really going for a kind of "elvin" motif with the Hasari, I think it's really cool that you saw them that way, and I take it as another compliment. As for "Legolas", I wanted a really cool call sign for a human pilot, and I wanted to tip my hat to "Lord Of the Rings" with that one. Did you notice some of the other tips o' the hat I gave to other sci-fi's? Star Wars and Star Trek? ANTELOPE: "I don't know how I felt about the beings of light. As a TOS fan I kind of thought that was where you were going when the plane with President Kerieger's family was lost in a flash. Someone not familiar with TOS would not have wondered and maybe questioned why the beings of light were in the story." STEVE: Ah, now this was definitely a part I wrote for the fans...probably one of the things that non-Galactica readers may or may not have been familiar with, but again, it was for the fans. I wrote it mostly for emotional impact. To have them revealed any sooner would've severely undermined the emotional impact at the end. Remember, Krieger had went through what he thought was a grave loss...as did Apollo and Athena. To have the families come back at the end was kinda my nod of the hat to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". It also helped to explain why the Beings of Light will not appear in future stories. Their superiors had mandated that the BOL's not interfere in corporeal affairs. This was their way of trying to get back into their superiors' good graces. Plus, I wanted to throw in that additional punch with Apollo and Athena getting their message from Zac. Those were some nice ideas you had, Antelope, regarding the BOL's, but again, I wanted to go for the coup de grace at the end with some strong emotional impact. Thank you for your honesty on that part however. Sometimes I think it is a compliment when someone is unsure of their feelings at a certain part in the story. To address some other parts you mentioned, Antelope, I thought that having Commander Tigh be in command, for at least the first half of the story was nothing short of logical. I wanted to continue portraying Apollo as the noble warrior he was, casting aside the potential trappings of nepotism which could have easily given him command. In this case, I wanted to stick to a strict chain of command. Tigh was clearly Apollo's senior, family lineage or no. I am glad you liked this approach. Besides, I wanted a fitting end for the venerable Tigh. I figured that Adama was a very long lived commander, but I thought it would advance my story, and put Apollo in command at the right time by having Adama be long since deceased. In truth, when I wrote this story, I envisioned it as a movie, keeping in mind the principal cast that was still alive today. Since Terry Carter is still alive and kicking quite well, I thought that it would be best to have him in commmand of the Galactica. It was actually very fun writing for Commander Tigh, especially in his moments of uncertainty...like addressing the fleet. I wanted to portray Commander Tigh as a very easy going officer, one whose beliefs had come even more full circle since assuming command of the fleet. I wanted to portray his sense of humor as his way of breaking his own ice when addressing large numbers of people...I never envisioned Tigh to be a natural public speaker.

Thank you for those questions, Antelope. Kinda felt like an interview. I hope I have answered your questions fully. Heck, mesa liken dis. If anyone else has any questions, as long as they do not jump into my upcoming sequel "Battlestar Galactica: Reciprocity", I will be happy to answer them. As with Antelope, please be sure to put "Spoiler" in your text, if the question mentions a specific scene in the story.

BTW, fans of Dark Exodus may be interested to know that I tried to further my story by contacting someone involved in a very important "post-production" aspect of Galactica. A select few of you know specifically whom I am talking about...but let's keep specifics on the down-low here. He did say that under very different circumstances, he would've been delighted to read my story, but for potential legal reasons, decided it was prudent not to have any connection to my story. So, a shot in the dark that fell short, but still, it was very much an honor to receive such a prompt, and nice reply from him.

Perhaps, if you fans of this story would like to see this taken further, maybe you could contact the higher ups of "Colonial Fan Force" and have them look over this story. Ya never know. Perhaps my contribution could be submitting a story that the fans may actually want to see up on the big screen. I know this might be a strange thing to ask, but hey, it's another shot in the dark. What do ya' think?

Respectfully, and with unending gratitude for your kind words and input,
Martok2112 (Steve Dunlap) ...aka General Chang