Of course, I happen to think that Kara would mind the deaths of LOTS of the people who would be in the CIC just after an attack. Not just Adama but other comrades and friends.

Wasn't there a plan to kill Apollo too? I mean, wouldn't it make sense? How much of that would Kara see as necessary? And what would make her start to work against Cain?

I think that Cain not fighting back was a better sign of suicidal tendencies. (I mean, surely she has a marine guard or two right around the corner? Wouldn't any shots fired have brought them running?)

Oh, and I forgot my question (which I also asked over at WX.)

Does the XO of the Pegasus automatically become the Commander? Would Adama as the new Admiral have to confirm the commission? Would his XO become a Commander?

Does the XO of the Pegasus automatically become the Commander?

He would have command, (but not the rank of Commander) until the higher-ups either promoted him or found someone else to be Commander.

Would Adama as the new Admiral have to confirm the commission?

I think so.

Would his XO become a Commander?

Dunno.

It's possible for someone to have command of a fleet (and not necessarily be an Admiral) and also have command of a specific ship. The US Navy learned in WWII that the workload of having both responsibilities during battle was often too much, so I don't know if they do that anymore.

A couple years ago I toured the USS Hornet (a WWII-era carrier - Moore has talked about touring this ship as well). Carriers have a separate "bridge" where flight operations, moving aircraft about, etc. are directed. The main bridge where the ship is conned would be above that. And there's a separate admiral's bridge (only used when the ship is also the flagship) that (I think) is above the main bridge.

It's possible for someone to have command of a fleet (and not necessarily be an Admiral) and also have command of a specific ship.

In Star Trek, Admiral Kirk had command...until demoted, whereupon he still had command. Of course, any bearing this might have on BSG, or reality, is murky at best.

There was some episode of ST TOS where an admiral was on board. Kirk still had command of the ship itself, although he had to answer to the admiral. Then at some point the admiral releaved Kirk of command and took direct command himself.

I think. Perhaps I am conflating two episodes. There was also "The Doomsday Device" where an admiral releaved Spock of command while Kirk was on another ship.

Carriers have a separate "bridge" where flight operations, moving aircraft about, etc. are directed. The main bridge where the ship is conned would be above that. And there's a separate admiral's bridge (only used when the ship is also the flagship) that (I think) is above the main bridge.

The idea of this is also that, if one of these commands blows up, at least the others aren't necessarily blown up too. Not that you can run a ship from a drawing-room, but at least while trying to take out the steering wheel the enemy doesn't also take out the admiral. What the admiral does after losing his steering wheel -- different issue.

In the real US Navy, Commander is a rank, but also a title. It's confusing.

Large warships also have more than one place where the ship can be conned. Usually one is from damage control (deep inside the ship) and another is from the steering room (where the rudders are controlled). Control has to be transferred from one place to another.

During a Japanese air attack on a US fleet, a bomb hit the battleship South Dakota. The damage was slight, but there was confusion and someone transferred the conn from the bridge to damage control. Something went wrong, and the ship had no one controlling the helm for about a minute (while it was in a turn). So the carrier Enterprise, while fighting off the Japanese air attack, had to also make emergency maneuvers to avoid colliding with the South Dakota.

I'm such a Navy geek, huh?

edit to fix battleship name

eta²: Part of the confusion on the South Dakota might have been the result of the captain getting hit in the neck by a piece of bomb shrapnel, causing him to almost bleed to death.

Also, when the Cylons boarded the Galactica, they went to damage control, where they could override the controls in the CIC. There was also an episoded of ST TOS where a crazy guy took over damage control, leaving the bridge crew helpless while the Enterprise was in a rapidly decaying orbit.

That happened so often I always wondered why the captain didn't have an override implanted so he could retake control no matter which of the ship's nerve centers was currently suborned by the turncoat/alien invader/drugged-out hippies of the week.

A couple years ago I toured the USS Hornet (a WWII-era carrier - Moore has talked about touring this ship as well). Carriers have a separate "bridge" where flight operations, moving aircraft about, etc. are directed. The main bridge where the ship is conned would be above that. And there's a separate admiral's bridge (only used when the ship is also the flagship) that (I think) is above the main bridge.

There are actually two different commands on board a carrier (and sometimes three). The Captain commands the ship itself, and the CAG commands the air group (which is an independent unit), so you need a bridge for each of them. The third possible command is if an admiral is on board, in which case the ship becomes his flag ship. Admirals command task forces, even if the task force is only one ship (one famous example of this is the Bismarck, after Adm. Lütjens detached the Prinz Eugen from his force of two). There will still be a Captain. The Admiral's job is to tell the Captain where he wants the ship to go, and the Captain's job is to make sure it gets there. The CAG is also under the Admiral's command, separate from the Captain.

If a Captain winds up temporarily commanding a task force, he's given the courtesy rank of Commodore.

In the real US Navy, Commander is a rank, but also a title. It's confusing.

I think you're thinking of "Captain," which is both a rank and a title in the USN.

BSG mixes all sorts of Army and Navy ranks. Full Colonels in the US outrank Commanders. Another thing about carrier Captains in the USN. By federal law they must all be ex-naval aviators (and usually ex-CAGs).