The cargo ship Castora made a safe, if bumpy, landing on the mysterious planet. It wasn't long before the curious crew began to leave the ship and head for the nearest town. Apollo and Boomer joined them, hoping to find some clues to this mystery.

At the city gates, a banner stretched across the wide street. "Welcome to Vaga city Neos!" it proclaimed in basic, "Enjoy your stay here, where life is a gamble!"

The Colonials hadn't gone far when they discovered what the sign meant.

The city was full of casinos!

In fact, the city was nothing but casinos. Apollo's mind filled up with questions. What is this strange planet? Why didn't it show up on sensors? What was that black cloud, and why was the Castora brought here? Why were there so many casinos? And most of all, was this were the other missing ships had gone?

Apollo needed to get some answers. He led Boomer to a brightly lit place called The Astros.

The two warriors stepped into the large casino. All around them, people gambled and drank colorful liquids. Scantily clad women waltzed by, leaving little to the imagination. Bizarre music came from somewhere. People danced, cubits gleamed, and lights flashed. The whole scene reminded Apollo of Carillon.

"Wow, good thing Starbuck didn't come with us!" Apollo remarked.

"Yeah," Boomer agreed, "Who knows what trouble he could get into here!" He glanced around. Suddenly, Boomer noticed something very out of place in the otherworldly chancery.

"Um, Captain?" Boomer stared.

"Yeah, I see it."
At a card table in the middle of the room, a person wearing a Colonial Warrior

uniform gambled. Apollo and Boomer could only catch glimpses because the person was surrounded by men.

Apollo began walking toward the card table and the mysterious person. Maybe they were from the fleet!

"Boomer, you wait here and tell me if you see anyone from the fleet. I'm going to check this out," Apollo called back to Boomer.

He walked through the crowd of men to the person in uniform.

The person was playing Pyramid, and the pot was quite large.

"There you have it, a full pyramid! Hmm, anyone have a better hand?" said the uniformed person, laying down a set of cards.

"Excuse me," Apollo said.

The person looked up at Apollo. The mystery warrior was a woman!

"Can I help you?" she asked, a bit irritated.

"Yes, um..." Apollo forgot to talk. He had become lost in the woman's eyes. Her deep blue eyes were simultaneously sad, determined, and laughing. Her blond hair was partially pulled behind her in a ponytail, with locks escaping and falling over her shoulders. She seemed about Apollo's age. Apollo decided that he liked a woman in uniform.

"Look, you interrupted a very good card game, so you'd better have more to say than that." the young woman said, but her eyes were teasing.

"Uh, oh, yeah..." Apollo looked down, "I was...just wondering where you got your uniform."

"Why, you want one like it?" The woman quipped, eying Apollo's nearly identical warrior uniform. Her uniform was much more battered than his.

"Um, no, actually I just wondered..." Apollo tried again.

"Who I am, why I'm here, and why we obviously have the same tailor."

"Something like that." Apollo answered, a bit surprised at the woman's quick comebacks.

The young woman smiled and lit up the already bright room, "Ok, sit down, and I'll tell you all about it. Right after these guys pay me!"

The other gamblers groaned, but handed her their cubits. Then they left in search of easier games.

"They hate losing to a woman," the woman said, pocketing the money, "but at least there's always new customers here. Keeps me in business," She grinned at Apollo.

"My name's Lieutenant Celeste of Ithaca Squadron. I'm a Colonial Warrior. Not a bad Viper pilot, either." Celeste paused and made a face, "Maybe I was too good. I'm the only member of my squadron who wasn't, uh, permanently decommissioned by the Cylons."

Apollo watched the strange young woman carefully. There was something unsettlingly familiar about her. Her smile, her accent, and her mannerisms...they reminded him of someone...

Celeste told Apollo everything. She was born in a small village on Caprica, and was separated from her family during a Cylon raid. She had lived with a foster family until she was about fourteen yahrens old. Then she had gone to the Academy on Caprica to train to be a Viper pilot. Celeste had wanted to fight the Cylons, whom she believed had killed her only living relatives. While she was in training, her father found her. He stayed with her for a few sentons. He spent the time telling her how much he disapproved of her career choice. Then he'd left, promising to return for her someday.

He never did.

Celeste had graduated with honors from the Academy, and stationed on Taurus with the rest of Ithaca squadron. Her Viper disappeared during an exercise, and her fellow pilots thought she was gone. She reappeared three yahrens later with increased piloting abilities.

That was just prior to a major Cylon attack.

Ithaca Squadron was headed home to Caprica for a short vacation when it happened. The relatively new pilots fought as hard and as well as any seasoned squadron, but the small squadron was no match for an entire Cylon attack force. One by one, the Ithaca Vipers were extinguished. Within only a few centons, Celeste was all that remained of Ithaca Squadron.

Then her Viper had become lost in a black cloud.

"Next thing I know, I'm stuck here on Vaga. I walk into Neos, enter a casino, and people hand me food and a key to an upstairs suite. Been here ever since. Got really good at gambling, too. You should see my dwelling, there's cubits, everywhere!" The woman absently jingled her pocket.

Apollo was silent a moment, wondering about her incredible story. Then he asked, "How long have you been here?"

Celeste's grin wavered a micron.

"Who knows?" she answered, "You tend to lose track of time around here. Several yahrens, at least, not that it was any choice of mine."

"You had a Viper...so why didn't you try to return to the Colonies?" Apollo asked.

"I did," the woman said simply, "but my Viper was a fairly old model. Even when I boosted the backup power to the sensors, the readings were blurry, sketchy at best. In that dark cloud, I was as blind as a betit outside its cave." She chuckled hollowly, then rose from her seat and began walking away.

"Wait! Hold on a centon!" Apollo rose and followed her, "When you landed here, you were near Caprica, right? How is that possible? We're lightyahrens away from the nearest Colony."

Celeste's expression darkened. "This planet's a trap," she said, "It hides in a cloud of dark gasses. It roams the stars, following the ion trails from starships. Then it snatches ships out of space and yanks them in with its excessive gravitational field. It bedazzles the crews with its charms and promises of a life of paradise," Celeste sighed sadly, "That's the legend, anyway. Sounds pretty accurate to me." She absently reached up and fingered the pilot's pins on her jacket collar.

"When they come here, the people forget the old ways." Celeste told Apollo, "The colonies, the war...all is forgotten here. All they do here is gamble!"

The woman warrior frowned and narrowed her eyes, "But I haven't forgotten. I won't forget. I wear my uniform, even though it doesn't mean anything to them here. I lost everything to that war! My family, my friends, my homeworld...they were taken from me. People died to free us from machines. Here, it seems like it was all for nothing." Celeste glared pointedly at some people using slot machines.

The she looked at Apollo and gasped in embarrassment, "Oh, I'm sorry, here I go, pouring out my problems on a total stranger!"

"No, it's ok," Apollo assured her, "I understand." He smiled sadly, "I've lost people to this war. Not my whole family, but my mother, my wife, my little brother, and a lot of my friends." Apollo sighed heavily, "Anyways, I'm the one who asked you for information."

"Yeah," Celeste regained her composure, "Well; now it's my turn, sir."

She looked intensely at Apollo, "I heard there was a really big Cylon attack and that the Colonies were destroyed. How long ago was that?"

"That was about two yahrens ago." Apollo answered her.

"And the battlestars?" Celeste inquired.

"All destroyed but one."

Now it was Celeste's turn to look shocked.

"One battlestar? I suppose that's where you came from," she said.

"Yes, it is." Apollo answered levelly.

"And who are you?"

Apollo grinned, "I thought you'd never ask. My name is Apollo. I'm the captain of the Blue Squadron aboard the battlestar Galactica. I'm originally from Caprica."

Celeste blinked her powerful eyes, "Ok," she said. She appeared to be calculating something in her head. Then she smiled winningly at Apollo.

"I'm coming with you," she declared.

Apollo was taken aback, "What? Where?"

"To your battlestar! I'll go crazy if I stay here! Wouldn't you?"

Apollo looked like he thought that had already happened.

"You...want to come with us?" Apollo asked incredulously.

"Don't make me beg, now, Captain."

"Uh, no, it's ok, but...you'd have to leave most of your stuff here. There's not much room in a Viper, as I'm sure you know."

"Yep," Celeste jingled her pocket again, "No problems there!"

"And since you are already a trained Colonial Viper pilot, you'd have to join a squadron and help protect the fleet from the Cylons."

"Ye-es, why do you think I joined the military in the first place? It wasn't the pay."

Apollo continued," And you probably would never come back to Vega." He already had a pretty good idea what she was going to say. Her eyes had already told him all that he needed to know.

"When do we launch?"