Cloud 9 (Battlestar Galactica)

Infobox Fictional Spacecraft
name = "Cloud 9"

---

caption = "Cloud 9" in orbit of New Caprica
first = "Colonial Day"
last = "Lay Down Your Burdens"
status = Destroyed
affiliation =
fighters =
auxcraft =
armaments =
defence =
propulsion = FTL drive
Sub-light engines
primeref =

"Cloud 9" is an FTL-capable luxury passenger liner in the refugee fleet in the reimagined TV series "Battlestar Galactica".

Design

"Cloud 9" is a massive vessel of unusual design that contains a five-star restaurant, a theater, a casino, several bars, and numerous hotel rooms and luxury suites. Its most notable feature is a huge biodome which contains a pressurized natural habitat nearly a quarter-mile in diameter that mimics an outdoor park. This dome is actually mounted to the starboard side of the ship and attached to a spoon-shaped bow, which contains the ship's hotel and scaffold structured engineering section. The dome is attached to the center hull by a "V" shaped pylon structure. A large shuttle bay pod is mounted on the opposite side of the pylon on port side of the center hull. Behind the hangar is the ship's bridge and crew area and further back are the main drive engines and FTL system. Directly under the saucer dome are another set 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 Cylon attack on the Colonies. 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.

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 had an "open port" policy and did not keep track of those who came and went, which 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" was 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. A nuclear warhead was used to destroy the ship which was given to the Cylon agent Gina by then-Vice-President Gaius Baltar.

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

External links

* [http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Cloud_9 Cloud 9] on the Battlestar Wiki