Author analysis + reader questions answered.

Note: If you have a question not listed below in the Q&A section please feel free to leave it in a review or PM me. I will gladly answer you and then add it to the list for others to read. Likewise if you have anything you want me to add to the fic glossary I would be happy to do so.

If anyone was upset by the ending I truly am sorry you feel that way. I hope the notes below might help to explain. I had the ending for this story set before I ever started to type the first chapter so I really wanted to stay to true to it. I feel like though it wasn't the happiest of endings I tried my best to keep it in line with BSG's overall tone and spirit.

The Idea

Alpha Station was meant to be my vision for how I would have like BSG to be rebooted or continued. I found the series Caprica to be a big disappointment and Alpha Station was my way at filling the void. My husband and I re-watch BSG at least one or two times a year and every time it ends I find myself wishing there was more. Finally I just decided to make more.

Thematically Alpha Station focused largely on motherhood, the mother child connection, and nature vs. nurture. The symbolism of the family unit was largely used within BSG but some of it fell a little flat or felt overshadowed to me by the paternal relationships (Bill's, Helo's, even Saul's and Baltar's). The connection of Laura, Sharon and Caprica representing the old pagan image of the triple goddess often found in ancient religions was SO important and yet I'm not sure that it ever came through the way it was meant to. I like that aspect of the show so thematically I sort of went from there.

When I started writing I knew I wanted my main characters to be Laura and Ellen simply because they were my favorite in the series. I chose to expand on the idea of motherhood that they each symbolically represented within the series but this time throw them into it physically rather than figuratively. I took Ellen who as the 'mother of all toasters' always desperately wanted to be seen as a mother and explored how her experience might have been if given the chance. I then took Laura who was sort of played the maternal companion to Adama's 'father of the fleet' role. While she was somewhat of an emblematic mother figure, especially when looked at within the Laura/Sharon/Caprica feminine triad she never voiced any response to that one way or the other. Though Laura did have characteristics such as her protective nature and love of teaching children which could arguably be called "maternal", she had an enormous fear of the type of love and connection that the term usually embodies. I thought it would be interesting to expose both women to the same experience. One looking at it as a dream come true and the other being confronted with unwanted fear and uncertainty and see how it went.

The fic was always meant to be about those two women and the women around them and how they each responded when put in similar situations. To me none of their feelings were wrong and none of them were right. They all had complex emotions and responses that were fun to explore.

The fic was NEVER meant to imply that women are not complete without experiencing motherhood. In contrast I hope it showed that every woman is different and has different feelings about the idea in general all of which are valid. Since motherhood was the chosen theme and circumstance I just wrote how I felt they would navigate the idea of a maternal role as closely to their original character as I could.

(Strangely and unexpectedly during the course of this 3+ year experience I became a mother myself. During that time I dealt with a lot of my own emotions surrounding becoming a mom. Sometimes I think it helped me write this story more authentically and sometimes I feel like it made it harder. It certainly took my focus away from my hobbies and for that I have to say I'm sorry and thank anyone who stuck with this fic from the beginning for not giving up on it.)

A note about Ellen Tigh:

Over the last few years I have gotten some comments and reviews complaining about how sympathetic the story was to Ellen. All I can say to that, is I'm sorry if you don't like that character but Alpha Station is half her story and was always meant to be. I feel like so many people remember her from early on and how she was during the early seasons and they forget the complex women who resurrected.

I am so grateful that I got to meet Kate Vernon at Dragon*Con 2017 in Atlanta, GA, USA. She was sweet, funny and so beautiful and just a joy to talk to. I told her that I loved Ellen, that I always defend her and will keep doing so. She kind of sighed and said "Thank you. She really needs it." I thought it was so funny. We also me Michael Hogan who was the nicest guy ever and gave a dozen hugs. So unlike Saul it was crazy. I felt blessed to have met these actors who portrayed these characters who continue to be such a huge presence in my life.

Q & As

Q: Why no Caprica Six?

I chose not to include Caprica for a few reasons. The first was that I didn't feel like I could believably write for the character. I have tried in shorter fics and felt I failed. I had no interest in bringing back Baltar because I know for sure that I can't write for that man to save my life .Their family unit's story lived on through their son and luckily their absence served as one of the major conflicts with the plot. If I had to do it again I may have made a different choice, but at the time I felt like Caprica's resurrection would add too much conflict to Ellen and Saul's already complex lives. To make sure the Tigh's story was told to the best of my ability I had to leave Caprica on the other side even though the character largely fit into the way the initial series looked into the theme. I did my best to keep her alive in other ways and include her as much as possible without having her in the mix.

Q: Where did the idea of Katya come from? Why is she such a bitch? (yes, I got this question a lot!) Why is she Russian?

I knew that this fic would need a cast of original characters, most importantly Roslin and Adama's child who was ultimately raised by the Tighs. Before I could even get into who I thought that person would be I started with a simple model. Whatever/ whoever you believe Katya ultimately was she was always meant to at least "echo" Kara Thrace.

I started with Starbuck's brashness, aggressive nature and erratic immature behavior and then expanded. My second influence was Kendra Shaw from the BSG movie Razor. If you missed it find it and watch it. It's so worth it. I wanted Katya to have an elegance and stoicism to her that Kara lacked in order to give her more of her own unique identity. I took a few of those elements of Kendra Shaw and used them in creating Katya. That sense of having grace and refinement was meant to stop her from just being seen as just a Kara stand in. It also in some ways was meant to show a natural inheritance of qualities from Roslin and Adama while her humor, addictive personality and short temper showed learned behavior from the Tighs further touching on the nature vs. nurture element. Most of her anger is from her harsh beginnings and the depression that follows her because of that. I had to think about what sort of child the Tighs would raise, but also keep in mind that she had a set of biological parents as well as a foster father for her early childhood. I'm not sure she came out very likeable. She sure got on my nerves quite a bit but that was the point I suppose. BSG had a way of making its audience find love for imperfect characters who walked the line of morality every week. I tried my hand at this but it's not easy. I loved Kara Thrace even though I found her immature and obnoxious a lot of the time. I can only hope that Katya inspired similar feelings from readers.

I chose to give Katya an Eastern European background for a few reasons. One, I wanted her to have a distinct noticeable heritage from Earth. I tried to think about what region was least like any culture we saw on BSG. The colonies had a lot of Asian, American, European and Celtic elements to their cultures so I wanted something different that made her distinct to this world so I chose to make her vaguely Russian/ Polish/ Slavic.

Q:Why didn't you write Lee into the mix?

I hate him (also it really would have complicated things with the Kara/Katya connection) Anyways, yeah, I hate him so he stayed dead. Bite me, Apollo.

Q: Why did you make Bill and Laura resurrect into slightly younger bodies?

I think some readers felt weird about this. I didn't do it because I wish that Roslin and Adama had been younger during BSG or anything like that. This was used as a tool mostly when it came to Laura adjusting to her new body. It never had much to do with Bill at all. Also the discrepancy in age was meant to be very minimal. It was really a range of maybe 1-5 years difference. As Laura struggled to adjust to Alpha/ Orbit and the news of her child her new cloned body served as a constant reminder how much was truly different within her new life. Her new body still had a fertile cycle that became an issue a few times in the story. I had a few people ask why I would choose to focus on it and also voiced that they thought it was foreshadowing for the coming of another biological child. I saw it as a repeating reminder that her body was not the one she'd died in. It was a constant reminder her that it had born a child before she ever resurrected. It was mostly symbolic and almost as if her body was making sure that she confronted the fact that she conceived and gave birth to a child, even when her mind struggled to grasp it. It's a physically and emotionally painful reminder that she suddenly can't escape no matter how much she tries.

Q: Would you allow someone to write Alpha Station fanfic?

This is another question I have gotten now and then over the last few years. It's probably the most flattering thing to hear for a fanfic writer. All I can say about this topic is that BSG:2003 which this is a fanfic of, was in itself a fanfic of the original Battlestar Galactica. How can I tell people not to write their own fanfic based on my story when I just took RDM's story and did so, and before that he took the 1978 show and basically did so as well? I can't stop anyone from doing this nor do I want to. I will miss this story so much and I would love to see it live on in some way whether it be deleted scenes, side stories or sequels. I have precious little time to spend on fanfic these days with my son around so I would not be upset to see the world I created being expanded upon.

All I ask is to be credited with my ideas (original characters and settings) and that Alpha Station either be linked back to or directed to in some way. If anyone wants to let me know before they do this I suppose I would be thankful for the heads up too.

Q: Is Katya meant to be Kara?

We never knew what Kara Thrace was in the end so let tradition stand. What do you think?

Q: Is Vladi meant to be Leobin?

Good question. I don't know. What do you think?

Q: Is Vladi meant to be Jake the resistance dog?

Ooo! Aww! Maybe! I don't know. He's whoever you feel he is. Maybe he's just Vladi.

A Note about the BSG fandom and fanfiction in general:

It saddens me to see that the Battlestar Galactica fanfiction has slowed down so drastically over the last few years. I feel like I so often look for something new in the fandom to read and most often have to re-read an old favorite. BSG has been one of my favorite shows of all time and I really hope to see more related fanfic in the future. I want to encourage anyone who is thinking of writing a BSG fic to try your hand at it and give it a go! If you have written fics before and think you want to start again, go for it! I promise that if I read your fics I will always leave some kind of feedback. Please keep in mind that any fanfic you read on this site is 100% FREE content that someone worked hard to create. If you spent 3 mins reading or 3 years that content entertained you for that point in time so please consider you reviews, likes, feedback, follows and favorites as your way of paying for that content that you consumed. I think if we all did this it would encourage writers to continue writing and in turn we would have more fic to read in our favorite fandoms. Just my opinion.

Alpha Station Edits

The size of this story made it very hard to edit for posting. I could not burden a full time Beta reader for it due to each chapter being the size of the average full fic. Because of this I will continue to fix mistakes and edit typos and the like whenever I find them in back chapters.

Thanks so much and Goodbye for now:

I don't think I can properly express my thanks to those who have taken the time to read this story and let me know what they thought. This story has been my favorite hobby and my favorite escape from reality for the last few years. It helped me get through my father's illness and then his death. It helped me transition into being a mom and accepting my new life when it was really hard to do so. I think it helped me grow as I writer and delve in deep to explore a range of emotions. I will truly miss thinking of new scenes, situations and dialogue. I will miss the characters and the station as well. Mostly I will miss sharing it with all of you who cared and invested any time into reading Alpha Station.

I don't think that I will ever write something quite as lengthy as Alpha Station ever again, but I hope that one day soon I might be able to add to the BSG fandom's fanfic again in a new way.

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support over the years.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Please review and let me know your final thoughts. All comments in all languages are welcome and appreciated.

xoxo

LLA