FROM THE ADAMA JOURNALS:

Croft.

Who is he? Where did he come from? Am I really a part of his memories, or just a substitute for authority figures in general? Even when he described the incident where we crossed paths, and I pretended to remember it because he needed for me to remember it and I needed him for the mission, I could not recall a single aspect of the brief adventure.

Later, when I had some time, I went to my quarters and requested from Galactica’s computer a printout of my journals covering that time period, the time when he claimed I’d supervised the capture of his gang and the ship containing their booty while they were fleeing from their raid on the Cylon platinum mines. Studying the pages, the only reference I could find to the incident, or an episode which could have been the incident, was this:

Routine was interrupted today by an apparent pirate ship that stumbled into our sector, seemingly the result of a miscalculation in course. Ship tried to escape, but when they had our pursuers in their sights, their commander refused to fire on us, and ship and crew were easily netted. Tigh says their holds were quite rich in plundered cargo. I told him to take care of the matter fairly and to send the prisoners to the proper judges.

Could that commander have been Croft, could that cargo have been the platinum? Why didn’t I record the name of a man who allowed himself and his gang to be captured rather than firing on his own kind? Wouldn’t the fact that the cargo had been Cylon platinum be worth noting?

The note seems to indicate I didn’t even see these particular brigands, yet Croft insists we had a face-to-face confrontation. I should recall such a meeting vividly. After all, wouldn’t I have been impressed that the leader of a pirate group had once been a full-fledged commander of a garrison, and wouldn’t I have recorded my bewilderment that such a vital and intelligent man had corrupted his worth in a petty crime? The escapades of such a daring renegade commander deserve more than just a passing mention in my journal, I think.

There is nothing in the surrounding entries to indicate that I was busy with some more important matters that might have prevented my entering a full report of the incident. Further, the journal note that remains is so routinely worded, so militarily matter-of-fact, that I can’t believe that I wouldn’t have let at least a hint of Croft’s personality or the uniqueness of his exploit enter my journal. What could have been going on in my head at the time that caused me to miss the essential point of the episode? I can only believe that internal evidence suggests that the entry is about a different group of crooks and that Croft has mistaken me for somebody else, some other commander performing his normal duty.

Still, if it was Croft and his gang, I am sorry I do not remember him or the details of his capture that have been so large an obsession for him during his confinement aboard the prison grid barge. To Croft that episode seems to have been the major event of his life. It’s too bad that, while he dwelt on his hopes for revenge so fiercely, our confrontation was only a forgettable moment for me; an entry in my journal that calls forth no pictures of the event it describes.