Battlestar Galactica Season 3, Episode "The Passage", Page 1
During a severe food shortage, Athena is sent on an exploratory mission and returns to the Battlestar Galactica, with some good news and some bad. The good news is, she found a planet that contains an over abundant amount of algae, which despite it's taste, IS fit for consumption. The bad news is, the planet is located on the far side of a massive star cluster and the fleet would starve to death, long before they could go around it. The only option is to go through it, but the cluster is saturated with deadly radiation and the civilian ships are not protected against exposure.
With no other choice, Admiral Adama decides to use the radiation shielded Battlestar Galactica to haul the civilian population through the cluster. At the same time, the radiation shielded Raptors will each escort a partially manned civilian ship through, as well. Many trips are required to get the entire fleet to the other side, so radiation exposure is an issue, even for the shielded Raptors. The longest jump they can accomplish, lands them smack dab in the middle of the cluster, which is extremely dangerous, due to the intense radiation and blinding starlight. As soon as they jump to the midpoint, the Raptors must quickly locate the civilian ship they are escorting and transmit new jump coordinates, before they die of exposure. Before the mission is started, however, Kat is confronted by her former employer, a drug runner.
During the first escort mission, a civilian ship, namely the Adriatic, is lost midway through. On the fourth trip Kat loses the ship she is escorting. Before the final trip, Kat's former employer harasses her again and Starbuck demands an explanation. Kat decides to come clean with a story about her past life as a drug runner, but she left all that behind, so that she could become a Viper pilot and is extremely proud of her new life.
Guilt stricken, Kat begins her fifth run through the cluster and initially loses the ship is escorting. Wanting so much to prove her worth, she refuses to leave another ship behind and begins searching. While being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, past the point of no return, she finally locates the ship and transmits the new jump coordinates.
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