Tory Foster

Battlestar Galactica 2004 Continuity
(Battlestar Galactica 2004, Caprica and Blood & Chrome)

Tory Foster
General infomation
Position:	Colonial One Chief of Staff
Occupation:	Government Official
Ship:	Colonial One
Affiliation:	Thirteenth Tribe Final Five Cylon United Colonies of Kobol Colonial Fleet The Fleet Cylon Rebels
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Earth (Original) Caprica (Planted)
Death:	~4 ACH, Battlestar Galactica
Partner:	Galen Tyrol (Former Partner)
Physical description
Species:	Thirteenth Tribe
Sex:	Female
Sexual Orientation:	Heterosexual
Height:	1.6 Meters
Hair:	Brown
Eye color:	Brown
Additional information
Portrayed by:	Rekha Sharma
Series:	Battlestar Galactica 2004
First appearance:	The Captain's Hand
Last appearance:	The Plan

Tory Foster was a scientist and Earth refugee. One of five people critical to the recreation of Resurrection technology, long lost by the Thirteenth Tribe, Foster survived the nuclear holocaust there and found herself living with the Cylons and Humans.

Biography

Life on Earth

Foster lived on Earth, a planet colonized by the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol, a synthetic biological race who had left their human creators behind. Little is known of her life on Earth save her being engaged to Galen Tyrol. During her lifetime, Earth was populated by a race of sentient robots, created by the Thirteenth Tribe as a labour force. In time, she was met by a Messenger in the guise of a man, who sent her to work with a group of four other people, including Tyrol, Samuel T. Anders, and Saul and Ellen Tigh. The five learnt that there would be a machine slave revolt, and that their only means of survival was the development of Resurrection and its associated technologies. Long ago, Resurrection was used as a means of digitally re-creating consciousness itself and uploading them into synthetic biological cloned bodies to further the individual's life. When the Thirteenth Tribe began to reproduce sexually, Resurrection technology became defunct, and so had to be restarted. The group were successful in their development of Resurrection and survived the nuclear holocaust, downloading into cloned bodies on a small ship in orbit over Earth. The five made it their goal to seek out the Twelve Tribes and warn them about the inevitability of a mechanical uprising should they pursue the technology for the same reasons. With their ship lacking FTL technology, they traveled at relativistic speeds, living the next two thousand years in a short span of time.

Life with the Cylons

They tracked the humans down to the Cyrannus star system, where they were already at war with their creations, the Cylons. Efforts were made to broker a cease fire by negotiating directly with the Cylons, which were accepted. In exchange for an end to war, the five promised to share with them their advanced technology. Resurrection itself already existed, but not synthetic organic bodies. Over the next decade the five worked on creating a total of eight Humanoid Cylon models, each to be mass-produced. During this time the five became adversaries of the Number One model, "John Cavil", who saw the creation of Cylons in humanoid form as limiting them. Ultimately, Foster and the others were killed by gassing, and their bodies uploaded into clones which were immediately boxed. Following a Cylon revolution wherein the Humanoid Cylons enslaved their Centurions, the five's memories were altered in a process similar to the Sleeper Agents and were sent out into the Cyrannus system believing themselves to be human.

Life as a human

When Foster was introduced into human society is unknown, but she was able to successfully blend in as a Caprican, and in the 1990s served as precinct captain for the Federalist Party in Delphi over a five-year period, giving her expertise on polling as a political analyst. During the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Foster was caught up in the initial nuclear bombardment of major cities, but survived when her car absorbed the shockwave. She was then rescued by a Raptor searching for survivors.

Following the death of Billy Keikeya, Tory Foster becomes one of President Laura Roslin's chief aides and advisors. She takes a particular responsibility for managing Roslin's election campaign. One of her first moves is to take an opinion poll, the results of which clearly show Roslin leading her presumptive opponent, Tom Zarek. She plays a part in finding a human foster mother for the half-Cylon child Hera Agathon and is one of the few people who know the child is alive. She counsels Roslin during the Rya Kibby case, as she weighs up the consequences of appeasing the pro-life beliefs of the Gemenese and the need to repopulate the human race versus the individual rights and freedoms guaranteed under Colonial law before the attack.

After Roslin's executive order criminalizes abortion throughout the fleet, Vice-President Gaius Baltar announces his candidacy in the forthcoming election, and garners Zarek's support as campaign manager (and eventual Vice-President). The discovery of New Caprica and the Baltar-Zarek campaign's pro-settlement position swings much popular support away from Roslin. With Roslin's at first tacit, and later explicit, approval, Foster conspires with Colonel Saul Tigh and others to rig the election in Roslin's favor. The deception is discovered by Lieutenant Felix Gaeta on account of a typographical mistake on one set of ballot papers, and Baltar is sworn in as Roslin's successor.

During the occupation of New Caprica by the Cylons, Foster joins the human resistance movement, again serving as Laura Roslin's aide. She works to compile a list of known Cylon collaborators among the human population. She helps to organize the swift and orderly evacuation of the civilian population to their assigned vessels and is one of the last people to see Maya and her adopted daughter Hera/Isis as the evacuation takes place. Despite having two bodyguards, Maya does not make it off New Caprica, Hera is captured by Number Three, and Foster personally apologizes to Roslin for what she sees as her failure.

Following Roslin's second inauguration as President of the Twelve Colonies, Foster resumes her former duties as a presidential aide.

Life with the Final Five

In the last few episodes of season 3, her mental condition starts deteriorating, and she starts hearing music. In the cliffhanger Season 3 finale, "Crossroads, Part II", she, along with Samuel Anders, Saul Tigh, and Galen Tyrol become aware of the fact they are Cylons, based on hallucinatory music only they can hear, and a "switch" that goes off within them (as Chief Tyrol mentions). Foster and Anders have experienced at least the beginnings of a physical relationship. As the Cylon fleet attacked, Tigh defiantly declared "Whatever else I am, I'm an officer in the Colonial Fleet and if I die today, that's the man I'll be." Following this speech, Foster reported to the CIC to aid President Roslin.

Season 4 opens with Tory Foster continuing her participation in clandestine final-four Cylon meetings (Anders, Foster, Tigh, Tyrol). Tigh suggests Gaius Baltar as a potential source of information, citing Baltar's previous time spent among the Cylons; Foster attempts to gain Gaius' confidence via professed admiration and seduction. Despite her initial objection to actual sexual relations, she has sex with Baltar during which she weeps. When Baltar asks why she is crying, she says it is just something she does, and things could be worse: she could be a Cylon. Baltar tells her he believes Cylons can feel, and touched, she stops crying and kisses him in earnest. Subsequently, she seems to be spending more and more time with Baltar, not necessarily just to gain information. She attends one of Baltar's monotheisms rallies and appears to be approving.

When she discovers Cally Tyrol has overheard one of the clandestine meetings, she follows her to a Viper launch tube, dissuades Cally from killing herself and her son, and secures the infant, but Foster then ejects the mother out the tube herself. Foster shows no guilt. She appears to have embraced both being a Cylon and her own version of Baltar's teachings, allowing her to by-pass such feelings and adopt an almost hedonistic approach to life. She declares herself to be "perfect", something that disturbs fellow Cylons Tigh and Tyrol, and is in marked contrast to Tigh's and Caprica Six's guilty consciences.

Later, Foster meets with President Roslin, who first pleasantly comments about Foster's positive change in mood any time she is aboard Galactica. Roslin asks Foster to find out who was sharing the rumors of the president's shared visions to Baltar, then sticks the dagger in, telling Foster she is very aware that she is sleeping with Gaius Baltar. Before Foster can say a word, Roslin tells her there are enough reports of her visitations to "make her a charter member of his nymph squad." Foster confesses to believing in Baltar's spiritual message, but Roslin is feeling quite betrayed and turns her back on her to do other work, ordering her away.

Out of the known members of the Final Five, Tory seems to be embracing her Cylon-self more than the others. The other three are attempting to maintain their human selves (the same way that Boomer did). This results in a change to her personality.

After Downloaded Three is unboxed, now knowing the identities of the Final Five, and brought to Galactica, Foster stays true her earlier affinity for her Cylon side. Under the pretence of bringing Laura Roslin her medication, she flies to the Cylon basestar, where she is introduced to her fellow Cylons and tells Roslin and Baltar about her true nature. During the ensuing standoff between Three and Galactica over the remaining three Cylons, she helps Three's cause by informing her of Lee Adama's perceived weaknesses.

When the fleet arrives at Earth and discovers it is a barren world destroyed by a nuclear catastrophe and once populated by Cylons, Foster and her fellow Final Five Cylons begin remembering details about their past lives on the planet. One detail she clearly remembers is how Anders used to be a musician and used to play a song he wrote for her and their friends, Galen Tyrol and Saul and Ellen Tigh. She and Tyrol were also lovers at the time.

Since being publicly identified as a member of the Final Five Cylons, Foster has taken up full-time residence on board the rebel basestar, living with the Twos, Sixes (less Caprica-Six), and Eights (less Sharon Agathon & Sharon Valerii). Her fellow Cylons appear to have also given her equal status in their command hierarchy, as evident by her behaviour during Gaeta's Mutiny. When Laura Roslin is smuggled aboard the basestar, Foster is content to abandon the fleet to its own turmoil and simply jump away to safety, a notion her fellow Cylons support. Though she repeatedly argues against involving the basestar in the counter-coup efforts, she ultimately concedes to Roslin's plan.

During Gaeta's mutiny Sam Anders is shot in the back of the skull. When he regains consciousness, he remembers his and the others former life on Earth and after. He recites the history as fast as he could to the other Final Five, including Tory Foster. Like the other Fives, she was a scientist attempting to reinvent resurrection technology. To her and Galen Tyrol's mutual shock she learned they were once lived together as lovers and were engaged to be married. (No Exit)

After Anders's apparently unsuccessful (in that he never regained consciousness) surgery and his comatose state, Foster urges the other Finals and Caprica Six to leave for the Baseship and abandon the fleet in order to strike out on their own without humanity. Then Ellen Tigh, the Fifth Final, arrives after apparently being rescued from Cavil by Sharon "Boomer" Valerii. The Final Five debate the merits of staying with the fleet versus leaving. When the matter is put to a vote, Tyrol and Foster vote to leave and Tigh votes to stay. Though Anders is in a coma during this debate, Tyrol reminds the others Anders had previously pleaded with Colonel Tigh to stay with the fleet, and they agree to count Anders's vote thusly. This means the vote is a 2-2 deadlock with Ellen Tigh holding the deciding vote. Ellen is conflicted and postpones her decision, as she is upset by her discovery of the relationship between Saul Tigh and Caprica Six. Later, driven by jealousy, resentment and anger over Saul Tigh conceiving a child with Caprica Six and the implication he loved Caprica Six more than he ever did Ellen, Ellen makes her decision and votes with Foster and Tyrol to leave humanity. However, Caprica Six's miscarriage, possibly brought on by stress caused by an attack in Dogsville and personal confrontations with Ellen Tigh over the true love of Saul Tigh, changes the situation. Foster and the others reluctantly decide to stay, since the loss of Caprica Six's pregnancy means Hera Agathon has become the only remaining hope of Cylon continuity.

As the Five recover from the tragedy of the miscarriage, Tory commiserates with the others, including a Tyrol desperate to save the life of Boomer, who was about to be transported for trial on the Baseship. She agrees with Ellen Tigh they cannot interfere with Cylon due process other than being witnesses. At Joe's Bar, Tory hears Kara Thrace playing the piano and recognizes the tune as the song switching on the Final Four in the nebula. She confronts Thrace to find out where she learned that song. Thrace informs her it was a song her father played for her as a child. Later off-screen she told them she was playing the music notes written as a drawing by Hera Agathon. By this time, Sharon Valerii had already abducted Hera and escaped back to Cavil's Baseship.

Tory continues to congregate with the Final Five, who are by now a close-knit group watching over their comatose member (Anders). However, the group temporarily loses Tyrol as he is imprisoned for his role in unwittingly allowing Valerii to kidnap Hera and escape. Ellen Tigh urges the Adamas to search for Hera on the Cylon Homeworld, and is emphatically supported by Anders's wife Kara Thrace. Tory abstains from voicing her own opinion on the matter, but she agrees with Ellen's recommendation and helps arrange the Heavy Raider reconnaissance mission after Adama gives his permission.

Tory reluctantly volunteers for the mission to rescue Hera, partially due to the insistence of Galen Tyrol. She assists Ellen in maintaining the link between Anders and Galactica during the battle. After agreeing to share resurrection technology with the Cylons in exchange for a truce, Tory becomes nervous the sharing process will involve a pooling of her memories with the rest of the Five, which will reveal the truth about the murder of Cally. Tory therefore asks the others to pledge that no matter what they find out about each other, they will forgive each other for it. Tigh agrees and the Five start the process, but when Tyrol sees her memory of murdering Cally he flies into a rage, breaks the download to strangle Tory, and ultimately snaps her neck in retribution. The Cylons of Cavil's faction see this as a betrayal since Tory's death broke the download and resume hostilities.