"Maelstrom" is the seventeenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. Plot The episode begins with Starbuck restlessly asleep in her bunk and having a dream in which she finds herself in her apartment on Caprica painting the Eye of Jupiter on her wall. She becomes frustrated and splashes white paint over her artwork as the Cylon Leoben Conoy approaches her from behind. The two begin to aggressively make love until Starbuck awakens, breathing heavily. Later, Starbuck talks with Helo, who learns of her strange dreams and suggests she see an oracle. During the discussion, Starbuck catches a glimpse of a little beaten girl in a mirror; it is her younger self. Turning about, the child is not there. Starbuck then heads to Dogsville in the hangar and sees the oracle, Yolanda Brenn. She enters the tent, finding a small winged figurine. Suddenly, Brenn speaks from the shadows, explaining that the figurine is a depiction of the goddess Aurora, who signifies change and allows Starbuck to keep it. Before Starbuck can say much, Brenn says she knows why she came. She says she knows of Leoben and the dreams, repeating word-for-word Leoben's remarks of Starbuck's destiny. She tells Starbuck that it all means that her mother, Socrata Thrace (Dorothy Lyman), is trying to tell her something important. Angry and afraid, Starbuck quickly leaves. Meanwhile, the fleet is undergoing fuel replenishment in the orbit of a gas giant, using the planet's radiation to help hide their presence from the Cylons. After a rendezvous with her husband, Anders, Starbuck tells him about some of the abuse she endured at the hands of her mother. Starbuck says that her mother had an intense phobia of insects. Starbuck was angry with her mother one day, and hid plastic insects in her mother's shoes. As punishment, her mother slammed Starbuck's hand repeatedly in a door. Later, Starbuck and Hot Dog are on patrol, piloting their Vipers in the clouds of the gas giant. Starbuck catches sight of a Cylon Heavy Raider and gives chase. Because of the radiation, the DRADIS is blind and Hot Dog is unable to get a confirmation of the ship. He soon loses sight of Starbuck, who remains in hot pursuit of the Cylon. In orbit, Admiral Adama aborts the refuelling and orders the fleet to prepare for a jump. Starbuck dogfights the Cylon through