“Dirty Hands” is episode sixteen of season three of the new Battlestar Galactica.
On the hanger deck, a Raptor is being fuelled with a lot of attention paid to the fuel. Seelix arrives with laundry; her application for flight training has been rejected because she’s apparently in a critical position. Chief Tyrol tells her it sucks, but she is needed as she’s the best avionics specialist they have. Seelix thanks him, perhaps sarcastically, as she goes to deliver important laundry.
The Raptor is away, but one engine flames out and the other is on full. The pilots end up ejecting as the Raptor heads towards Colonial One.
Outside Colonial One, a Raptor is shining a light on the damage. Inside, Adama is telling the president they got off lucky. A dozen in juries, no fatalities. The president and her staff are transporting stuff to another part of the ship. Roslin says she hardly ever comes down this end and now she’ll be living there. The admiral tells her if it gets cramped, she’s always welcome to one of his beds. She gives him a look. In a manner of speaking. Regarding the Raptor, it seems the fuel contained impurities, most probably from the refining process. Roslin says the refinery used to be the most reliable ship in the fleet, but every day she gets a message from Fenner complaining about something. Adama thinks they’ve been more than patient.
Fenner is brought to Adam’s quarters to see the admiral and the president. He says his people have been working long hours for months. Adama says they have enough fuel to jump the fleet once, maybe twice, and that margin is too narrow. If Fenner has a problem, fix it. Roslin says when the gas is flowing, they can talk. Fenner thinks it’s funny that his calls only get returned when there’s a glitch. Maybe they should have some more. Like the book says, if you hear the people, you never have to fear the people. Which ends up with Roslin having Fenner arrested. Afterwards, she tells Adama that Fenner was quoting from Gaius Baltar’s book, My Triumphs, My Mistakes, which his lawyer smuggled out of the brig.
Cally and the chief are in their quarters; she’s still injured from the previous episode, “A Day in the Life”. Cally is upset about Seelix; Tyrol thinks Seelix should have been told off the bat the fleet’s priorities. Cally thinks that it’s because they aren’t part of the ruling class. She’s read Baltar’s book. Pilots are from the rich colonies; knuckle draggers from the poor ones. She says Dee is only an officer because she married an officer from Caprica. Adama calls the chief and tells him Fenner – Tyrol knows him from the union on New Caprica – has been arrested and the admiral wants Tyrol to take a team to the refinery and get it moving again.
Baltar is being rousted in his cell as the president is having it searched for more writings. She claims she’s the only one who read the book as it was intercepted as it left. Eventually, Gaius hands some pages over. Would Roslin consider writing a blurb for the back cover? Number Six reassures Gaius it will be okay.
Tyrol and Seelix arrive at the refinery ship. The man who greets Tyrol is pleased he’s been sent. He gives them a tour and says they need some downtime, or the next time there’s a problem, they may not just lose a Raptor. The refinery really is a big bomb waiting to go off. The chief wants to see it working, but is told by a kid that it won’t work. No-one wants to tell Tyrol why, though, and he eventually figures out the pressure seals are missing. He’s told they got lost. If working conditions improve and Fenner is let out of jail, maybe they’ll turn up.
Tyrol tells Adama and the president. He says that something worse could have been done, and the machinery does need overhauling. Most workers haven’t had a day off since the original attack on the colonies. They can’t leave or be transferred. Roslin tells him the fleet is full of people working in terrible conditions. Tyrol tells them if Fenner is released and they start talking to the workers it would help.
Both sides do have points. The fleet needs fuel for survival – and Adama points out that civilians can strike, military just mutinies – but the worst jobs are developing inherited castes. There needs to be some give on both sides.