Cloud 9 (Battlestar Galactica)

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Cloud 9
Cloud 9 in orbit of New Caprica
First appearance	"Colonial Day"
Last appearance	"Lay Down Your Burdens"
Status	Destroyed
General Characteristics
Propulsion	FTL drive Sub-light engines

Cloud 9 is a FTL capable luxury passenger liner in the refugee fleet in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series.

[edit] Design

Cloud 9 was a massive vessel of unusual design that contained five-star restaurants, large casinos, several bars, numerous hotel rooms and dozens of luxury suites. Its most notable feature however, was a huge biodome atop the ventral side which contained a pressurized natural habitat, nearly a quarter-mile in diameter, that mimicked an outdoor park. This dome was actually the center hull of the ship. A narrow, spoon-shaped bridge and engineering section was situated along the port side of the dome and attached to the dome by a "V" shaped pylon structure. Two large shuttle bay pods were mounted on pylons on either side of the dome. The starboard pod was attached directly to the dome, while the port side bay was attached to the bridge/engineering section. The aft parts of the hangar pods each contained a cluster of drive engines.

Inside the dome, many varieties of trees and plants from the Twelve Colonies were grown on the grounds and were cared for by a dedicated gardening staff. The dome also contained an artificial lake used for swimming. At the center of the park was a large auditorium structure used for gatherings and festivals. This building was used by Laura Roslin as the meeting place for the new Quorum of Twelve after the attack. The dome used any natural sunlight that is available, in an attempt to replicate the atmospheric conditions of a planet's sky. However, Cloud 9 was still a spaceship, and didn't really live up to the quality of a real planet, as there were some flaws in the design — such as fake terrain used to disguise the machinery as well as the easily noticeable and massive support beams of the sky dome. Despite this, Cloud 9 was judged to be one of the nicer places to live in the colonial fleet.

[edit] Role in the fleet

The ship was primarily used as a hotel and resort which had hosted various diplomatic functions and been the site of a terrorist assassination plot against President Laura Roslin, most notably during an electoral meeting for the Quorum of Twelve council, in which the radical Tom Zarek attempted to manipulate the council into voting him into the position of Vice President.

The ship has an "open port" policy, and does not keep track of those who come and go, which has caused numerous security problems and allowed members of the terrorist group "Demand Peace" to use it as a base of operations. Even President Roslin herself fled to Cloud 9 during Commander Adama's military coup.

Cloud 9 is destroyed in the Season 2 finale episode "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", along with at least three other ships including a Colonial Movers freighter. The nuclear warhead that is used to destroy the ship was given to the Cylon agent Gina by then-President Gaius Baltar.

The radiation from the nuclear explosion leaves behind an identifiable signature that is discovered by a Cylon patrol one light-year away, one year after the destruction of the ship, and leads a Cylon invasion force to New Caprica.

[edit] External links

• Cloud 9 on the Battlestar Wiki

Battlestar Galactica spaceships
Colonial Military
Battlestar (Original | Re-imagined)		Military Vessels
Galactica | Pegasus | Valkyrie		Viper | Raptor | Blackbird | Stealthstar
"The Fleet"
Astral Queen | Colonial One | Cloud 9 | other..
Cylon Vessels
Basestar | Raider | Heavy Raider | Resurrection Ship