Chapter 1 – Sacrifice

Author's Notes: I would like to thank everyone involved with the Stargate franchise for the many hours of entertainment over the years and would like to thank my friends and family for their encouragement. This story is broken up into chapters, but since it's a retelling of the episodes Darkness and Light, some of the chapter breaks might be a little awkward. Please review and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: All characters and situations originating with SGU are not mine and will never be mine. I would also like to give credit to the people on who write the transcripts on Gateworld.

Out in the vastness of space, a ship named Destiny continued on its journey through the universe. It had been vacant for thousands of years, but, just a few days ago, a group of people from the planet Earth, had come through its stargate. They had used many of its resources, and the ship knew it was coming close to the time it would need to recharge, and it started preparing itself.

The people had found the sleeping quarters for the ship, and many of them were asleep including the commander of the group, Colonel Everett Young. His arms were wrapped around his pregnant fiancée, Dr. Melissa Mitchell, who was one of the scientists of the group. It was close to the end of the sleep cycle when his door softly chimed. Everett woke up and asked, "Who is it?"

"It's Lieutenant Johansen, Sir, with Sergeant Greer. Can we speak with you for a moment?"

"Sure, just give me a minute." Everett sat up and put his pants on and then reached for the gun he had been using as a crutch for his injured leg. He heard Melissa stir and ask, "What's wrong, Ev?"

"It's for me, Babe. Go back to sleep." He watched as she rolled back over and got up to limp over to the door. When he answered it, he saw the two officers who had been a tremendous support to him over the last few days. "Hey, what's up?"

Greer and TJ looked at each other and TJ said, "We were over helping Airman Becker get the rations organized, and then it occurred to me that we needed to discuss Melissa's ration."

The colonel gazed at them both for a moment, not comprehending, and then it occurred to him. "You mean because of the baby?"

"Yes Sir," said TJ. "I hope you don't mind. Scott and I were talking, and we decided we needed to make sure you two had some support. And then Greer came over."

"I guessed, Sir," Greer interrupted, "but I don't think anyone else has."

Everett nodded and said, "Why don't you come in?" The two younger officers came in the room, and the door shut behind them. "So, what are we looking at?"

TJ said, "She probably needs triple what we're giving everyone else, but I can guarantee you there will be a riot."

"I agree with you, TJ," replied Everett, "but I want to make sure she has what she needs too. God, this is a mess." His voice trailed off. "Wait a minute; I might have a short term solution for us. She always keeps snack bars in an evac bag, and we had a delivery right before the attack." He walked over to the bed, sat down, and nudged Melissa, "Missy, wake up."

"I'm awake, sweetheart. What is it?" She turned over and saw TJ and Greer in the room. "Oh, hey guys."

They nodded at her in greeting, and she glanced over at Everett. "What is it, Ev?"

"You know those snack bars you like. Didn't those come in the mail bag right before the attack, and most importantly, did they get in your evac bag?"

Melissa grinned at him as she said, "Of course, I have all kinds of goodies in my duffle." She got out of the bed and walked to her duffle. As she was searching through it, Everett looked at her in profile and noticed a roundness to her body he hadn't seen before. He thought to himself, 'It's not going to be long, and it will be obvious that's she's pregnant. I've got to protect her, but what's the best way?'

She started giving him an inventory of what was in the bag. "There is a change of clothes for each of us, toiletries for each of us, a uniform change for each of us, some other small things, and most important, Kellogg's strawberry snack bars and Propel powder mix." She pulled out the last two items both of which were stored in large plastic bags, and the others saw what looked to be 20-30 of each item in the bags. Everett gave a big sigh of relief, "You just made my morning, Missy."

She walked over, gave him a kiss, and said, "I'm glad to hear that." Then she looked at the three of them. "Ok, wait a minute. Were the three of you discussing me?"

The two men looked at TJ and she said, "Yes, we were. This is important. You're at the point in your pregnancy where you're going to start needing more calories, and I was concerned about what the size of your ration needed to be, but since you have shown us your stash, I think we can set the ration size at just double the regular portion."

Melissa nodded at TJ in gratitude. "Thanks TJ. I appreciate you looking out for me."

Greer spoke up, "I'm going to tell the both of you. Someone will still probably notice, and with you being injured, Sir, I think Dr. Mitchell's first appearance in the Mess should include me, Scott, or TJ."

"Well, we're going to have to do this in more than one group anyway." said Everett. "How about the both of you and Melissa come in the second group?"

"That'll work," said Greer.

TJ added, "Camille's organizing the groups. I'll go tell her. Do you want to do the first group in about thirty minutes and then do the next group thirty minutes later?

The colonel thought for a moment, and said, "Yeah, that'll work."

"Alright," said TJ. "We'll see you in a little while, and we'll start spreading the word.

Everett nodded at her in thanks, and both she and Greer left. He noticed that Melissa had sat back down on the bed and was looking off into the distance. "Babe, you ok?"

She came out of her reverie and said, "Yeah, I'm ok, sweetheart. Just not sure how I feel about having to be looked after, that's all."

Gently turning her face towards him, Ev told her, "Listen, Missy, I love you, and I don't have a problem telling anyone on this ship that. You know that, right?"

"I do," she said.

"TJ, Greer, and Scott-they're just being practical, and I'm really glad they're on our side. Right now, it's not real feasible for me to get into a fight." He pointed to his injured leg.

"I know, Ev. You're right. I'm sorry. I'm glad we have them in our corner too." She leaned over and kissed him. "I guess we should start getting ready."

"Yep, but let me look at you for a second."

She stood there for a moment while he observed her carefully and then asked him, "What are you looking at?"

Ev replied, "Well, for someone who knows you well, you can tell…."

Missy chuckled, "that I'm pregnant. Yes, I know that."

"Well," he remarked, "I was also going to say that you're beautiful."

A slow smile came over her face. "Thank you, sweetheart."

Everett took her in his arms and very thoroughly kissed her. Then he said, "Now, we can get ready."

Melissa shook her head and laughed, "Everett Young, you do know you're incorrigible, don't you?"

He gave her an amused grin and said, "Yep."

The two of them went ahead and put their uniforms back on. Melissa was able to do up the buttons on the shirt and pants, but just barely. She said to him, "I'm kind of glad I decided to order a larger uniform."

Everett looked at her curiously and asked, "When did you do that?

Missy replied, "On the Hammond's next-to-last mail run before we were attacked, and when I got it back, I threw it into my duffle without thinking about it."

"Babe, you are something else," said Ev, "practical and beautiful."

"Thank you."

He finished getting dressed and told her, "I will see you in about 45 minutes. TJ never said anything about amounts you should be eating out of your stash. Why don't you go find her and ask?"

Melissa replied, "I will. See you in a little while." She headed out of the room to find the medic while Everett went to the room that had been designated as the ship's Mess. After briefly conferring with Camille Wray as to what he needed her to do, people from the first group started entering the Mess. They sat down at the various tables while Private Becker and his colleagues passed out bowls of a thin gruel. The various people that the colonel had given assignments to the previous day started giving updates. Dr. Brody began, "Don't know whether the ship has electrolysers to produce oxygen, but you can see there's not much left in there. We did some calculations based on our estimates of the water depth and tank dimensions…."

Colonel Young asked, "And the winner is?"

Brody replied, "Just over ninety thousand liters."

Eli's voice piped up from another table, "Ninety-one forty sixish."

"Go Math Boy!" chuckled Lieutenant Scott.

"Sounds like a lot," said Camille.

Young remarked, "Well it wouldn't fill a back yard swimming pool."

"Still it's enough to loosen the rationing restrictions, isn't it?"

"Camille," replied Everett, "I think I know where you're going with this and believe me when I say that I too could use a shower!"

There was general laughter at his comment, but Eli is laughing for another reason. "I don't think the showers use water. They just spray a sort of mist that you kind of stand in and it sort of beads up. There's one in the compartment off the crew quarters."

Scott asked, "How do you know all that if you haven't tried it?"

"How do you know I haven't tried it?" asked Eli.

Scott replied, "Oh, we know!"

"Thank you, Lieutenant Rose Garden!" exclaimed Eli.

Chloe, who was sitting next to Eli, said to Scott, "Oh, he's right. You're worse than he is!"

The colonel chuckled at their antics. "Wow! You can tell them apart!

After another round of general laughter, Dr. Brody got back on topic, "We also identified a recycling system for liquid waste, so once we get that system up and running…." His voice trailed off as Dr. Rush stomped into the room and sat down at a table without a word to anyone.

With that, Colonel Young decided to end the meeting. "Ok, folks. Let's have a better day than yesterday. Thank you." The group broke up, and most of them left the room. As Becker brought Rush a bowl of liquid food to his table, Young limped over to talk with him. "I ordered you here twenty minutes ago."

"I've been working," said Rush, "throughout the night actually, trying to find out why our power reserves are so low. I'm quite concerned, and so should you be."

Young asked, "Ok. Well, how bad is it?

Rush angrily replied, "I haven't been able to access any of the main systems yet, so I don't know."

Camille, who had joined them, said to Rush, "You look exhausted. Maybe you should take a break."

Nodding in agreement, Young added, "Get the information we need and make some informed decisions as we'll report back…" His voice trailed off as the lights flickered for a moment.

Rush dropped his bowl on the table noisily and pointed at Young. "Could you please stop people running around, activating every bloody system they can get their hands on?"

"I will."

Rush nodded in acknowledgement, and then raised his bowl toward Becker. Sarcastically, he said, "That was delicious. Thank you very much." He got up and left the room.

Young shook his head and said to no one in particular, "That man is a lot of work." Turning to Camille, he said, "Let's bring in the next group, please." He watched the group, which included Melissa, Greer, and TJ, file in and motioned for the three of them to come and sit at the table where he was sitting. Once more, Becker and his team handed out bowls of the liquid food. When he got to their table, he quietly asked TJ, "Which one's Mitchell?"

She motioned with her eyes to Melissa, and he nodded in thanks. A moment later, Becker handed Melissa her ration which she thanked him for. As they began eating, Young updated the group on what Dr. Rush had just told him. "It could be that Rush is just starting the fire so he can put it out, or it could be that he's so far ahead of us, he can see problems that none of us can see."

Dale Volker asked, "So what do you want us to do?"

"Help him," replied Camille.

Volker laughed sarcastically, "The man likes to work alone."

Camille said, "Well, with the way he's been treated, you can hardly blame him."

Greer remarked, "I can blame him all day long."

"Yeah," added TJ, "It's pretty hard not to, considering."

Camille shook her head and said, "This isn't helpful."

"Yeah, well it's the truth," said Greer.

A voice piped up from another table. It was Sergeant Spencer who said, "Greer's right, Rush is the reason we're here." He walked over to their table, and when he walked past Melissa, he did a double take. "Hey, she has a bigger ration than the rest of us. Why's that?"

Everett squeezed Melissa's hand under the table while Greer and TJ watched the action carefully. Melissa said, "None of your damn business, Sergeant."

The sergeant sneered and said, "I think it is my business," and pinned her hand on the table. "What are you going to do about it?"

Missy had never been so angry in her life. She looked at him defiantly while struggling to free her hand, but couldn't get it out from underneath his. "Well," said Spencer.

A loud noise sounded from across the table where Everett had slammed his bowl down. He stood up and eyeballed Spencer. "Sergeant Spencer, I will thank you to take your hands off my fiancée."

There were murmurs of astonishment around the room, but Spencer had no intention of giving ground. "I want to know why she's getting a larger ration."

"Enough!" exclaimed TJ. "Dr. Mitchell is getting a larger ration for medical reasons."

Spencer sneered again, "And what would those reasons be, Lieutenant?" He pressed down harder on Melissa's hand, and said, "I'll break it."

TJ said, "She's pregnant, that's why. Now, let go of her!"

The sergeant gave Melissa a piercing gaze. "Ok, I guess the rumors of the colonel having a whore are true. No, I won't let go yet." He twisted Missy's hands behind her back making her wince with pain. "I want to see how much fun I can have. Anyone care to join me?" The other marines shook their heads. This had gone way too far. "Alright, it's just you and me, bitch. Get up." He made Melissa get up and started edging toward the door with her.

Everett walked carefully towards him hoping to divert his attention from where Greer was coming up on him from behind. He said in a serious tone, "Spencer, you are making a very big mistake."

"I don't see where you're doing anything about it, old man."

The colonel then saw where Greer was in position and yelled, "Go limp, Missy." When she did, Greer was able to tackle him from behind and twist his arms together. He next took him to the front of the room while Dale Volker, who had caught Melissa as she was falling, took her back to the table where she had been sitting so TJ could look at her wrists and hands.

Greer looked at the entire group and said, "Ok, as an object lesson to all of you. Who can tell me where Dr. Mitchell was on the night of the attack?"

Lieutenant McDonald, who had been sitting in the back, raised his hand. "I can tell you, Sergeant."

"Go ahead."

"She was on Gun 1 with me shooting at who was attacking us."

"And did you notice anything that would indicate her condition?"

"Nope, she was defending the base, like any other SGC staff person would."

"Exactly," replied Greer. "She was defending your sorry asses. I want to make myself clear. No one is to bother Dr. Mitchell, or they will have to deal with me. Is that understood?"

The marines and civilians all nodded, and Greer turned to Young, "What do you want done with him, Sir?"

Everett walked up to Spencer. "Do you understand that what he just said goes double for me?"

"Yes, Sir!" replied Spencer.

He told Greer and the other two marines holding Spencer, "Take him to his quarters so he can cool off." He then walked back over to the table where Melissa was sitting with TJ and gently took her shaking hands in his own. She stammered, "I guess you were right, Ev. I'm still shaking."

"It's ok, Missy." The colonel then dismissed the meeting, and the majority of the marines and civilians headed out of the Mess. As the group was leaving, McDonald came up to Young and Melissa's table. He said, "Listen, I wanted to tell you, most everyone sitting back there was appalled at what Spencer did, but two of them would have joined him if they could have gotten away with it."

The colonel asked, "Which ones, Lieutenant?

"Saunders and Williams, Sir," replied McDonald.

"Thank you," said Young. "I really appreciate you coming forward. Can I ask you….?"

McDonald interrupted, "Why, Sir? Three years ago, my little sister was pregnant with her first baby. Her husband was deployed to Iraq. Dr. Mitchell reminds me of her; she was a little spitfire. Anyway, my sister was two months short of delivering, and...," he hesitated for a second. "She was raped and killed by two Marines with the same attitude as Spencer. That's not how Marines are supposed to behave. Sir, anything you need, I will help in any way I can."

Everyone at the table had tears in their eyes after hearing McDonald's story. Melissa held out a hand to him and said, "Thank you, Lieutenant."

"You're welcome, ma'am."

Young added, "You can be sure I will take you up on that." McDonald nodded and left the room as Greer was re-entering. He walked over and told Young, "Spencer's in his quarters. I left two marines there and said he wasn't to come out until one of us came back."

"Those marines weren't Saunders or Williams were they?"

"Nope," said Greer. "Wait, we have more people that want to cause trouble."

"Apparently so," replied Young. "McDonald told us they were having a nice little chat in the back, and if they hadn't of thought you would have torn them apart, they would have joined in."

"Bastards!" I guess we are on full protection detail."

"Yes." He looked back over at Melissa. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

She managed a small smile. "Better. Look, TJ wrapped my wrists."

TJ said, "She'll be sore for a while, Sir, but nothing's broken."

"Alright, well before all hell broke loose, I was going to tell you and Greer that Scott was checking out the other shuttle to see if it was operational. Why don't you take Melissa with you? She can do any translating that needs to be done."

"Sounds good, Sir."

Everett touched the top of Melissa's hand gently. "I'll check on you later, ok?"

She said, "That's fine, Ev," and the three of them left the room. Camille then walked over from where she had been talking to someone on the Mess staff. Young said to her, "Please tell me that's everyone."

"We still have the question of what to do with the senator's body," she replied.

"Yeah, we'll get to him. He's not going anywhere. I'd appreciate a file on everyone by sometime tomorrow. Nothing fancy."

Becker walked by at that moment and asked, "And my assignment, Sir?"

Young replied, "Recipes, Becker. For the love of God, recipes." He limped out of the Mess intending to head to the Control Room. As he started walking down the corridor, Camille ran to catch up with him. "Colonel."

"I thought we were done."

Camille said, "There's still dozens of human resource issues we need to talk about."

"Pick one."

Knowing he wouldn't like it, but feeling like she had to say it anyway, "You and Dr. Mitchell."

"Be very careful, Camille."

"I thought there were regulations against SGC team members being together, and I also thought both of you were married to other people."

"Melissa and I are very well aware of what would have happened if we had gotten back to Earth so you don't need to repeat it. I also should tell you that my wife has died and that Melissa is in the process of getting a divorce.

"I was just concerned about you not being conscious of your responsibilities."

Young gazed at her thoughtfully and then decided to ask her a question, "How long have been with the IOA, Camille?"

"Two years next month."

"Alright," he replied, "I think Melissa and I have you beat in the history with the SGC department. We have both been there for seven years, and we know our duty. We have done stints in Goa'uld and Ori prisons and have almost died. You don't have to worry about either of us forgetting that. At the same time though, we are no longer denying that we love each other. You can take that one to the bank, Camille." He then began walking down the corridor again as she stopped and looked at his back thoughtfully.

Further down the hallway, Sergeant Riley saw him coming and called out, "Colonel, look at what we figured out." The colonel walked over to where Riley and a few of the civilians had collected together lots of the crew's battery operated equipment "We're calling it a recharging plate." He held up a flashlight and pressed the switch several times to show that it was dead.

"Ok," said Young.

Riley then stood the flashlight on his newly named recharging plate and twiddled some knobs on the device as he spoke. "We've tweaked it so it works with Earth technology. For now we have to be careful not to leave them on the plate for too long or it fries the battery, but…" He switches off the device, takes the flashlight off, and presses the switch. When the flashlight turns on, he remarked, "Not bad, huh."

Young said, "It's great."

"Isn't it!"

"Turn it off."

Riley asked, "Why? We've got all these things to recharge."

"I know," replied Young, "but Rush says we have power issues. As soon as he gives the go-ahead, you kids can go crazy. For now, help me pass the word to stop pushing buttons." When he saw them nod in response to his request, he continued to walk down the corridor.

Meanwhile, on the shuttle, Lieutenant Scott had been sitting in one of the seats slowly working out how the controls worked. He poked the end of a pencil onto a button, and two panels lowered down from the ceiling above his head. Each of those had several more buttons on them. On the console ahead of him were raised buttons, each with an Ancient symbol on them. He put a thin piece of paper over the button he just pressed and started to rub the pencil over the top forming a tracing of the symbol. He looked up as TJ, Greer, and Melissa approached the entrance and said, "It's cool guys. This one's secure."

They walked into the shuttle and TJ asked, "You think you can fly this thing, man?"

Scott replied, "I can fly an F-302."

Greer snorted, "Yeah, in a simulator! This is a real spaceship, man."

"Yes, it is," said Scott.

While Greer wandered around the ship looking at it, Scott voiced what they were all feeling. "So, pretty screwed up, huh?"

TJ said, "Yeah, yeah, pretty screwed up."

"You think they're gonna work it out?" asked Greer.

Scott stated, "Well, we're pretty frickin' far from home, man I don't know. Not today." He looked at TJ. "You should have shipped out weeks ago, TJ. It's not right."

Greer added, "It ain't right at all."

TJ said, "Well, I'm here, so what do you want us to do?"

"Help me figure out what kind of bird we've got here. I was going to radio Brody for some translating help…"

TJ interrupted, "Don't need to. We brought our own translator." She motioned for Melissa to come from the back of the shuttle where she had been examining some of the consoles. Melissa smiled and said, "Hi again, Lieutenant."

Scott replied, "Hi Dr. Mitchell." Then he saw her bandaged wrists and said, "What the hell happened to you, ma'am? Sorry, excuse my language."

"That's all right."

Greer said, "You missed all the excitement at second Mess. Spencer decided to go nuts."

TJ interrupted, "Yeah, and tried to use Melissa here as a punching bag. Anyway, the colonel wants her here for the moment." She looked at Scott and mouthed, "Distraction."

Scott mouthed back, "Gotcha," and then pointed Melissa towards the controls. "This is what I need translated, ma'am."

She sat down at the console and said, "I'll get right on it. Oh, one other thing. I wanted to say thanks to all three of you. You don't know how much I appreciate all of the support."

Greer said, "No thanks necessary. You're SGC. That's what SGC does for each other."

Missy gave him a wry grin. "It seems you learned that better than Spencer, Saunders, or Williams."

Greer patted her on the shoulder as she started working. The three younger officers then moved to the back of the ship where Scott asked, "She was attacked by all three of them?"

Greer replied, "Nah, just Spencer. We found out later that Saunders and Williams wanted to participate, but didn't have the nerve.

"Was this because of the larger ration?"

TJ answered, "Yep."

"The colonel has to be desperate to get her home. I can't imagine."

"But you would never know it," said Greer. "The two of them are professional through and through."

"That's why we're standing behind them," said TJ. "Right, guys?" The other two nodded in agreement. "Oh, I almost forgot. We have another member on this protection squad."

"Who?" asked Scott?

TJ replied, "Jim McDonald. He told the colonel he would help in any way he could. Said Melissa reminds him of his sister who was raped and killed by two Marines when she was seven months pregnant."

"You know, I really hate that my branch of the service has all the nasty bastards," said Greer.

"I think you and McDonald make up for that, Greer. Don't worry about it," said Scott. They started examining some of the other consoles while Melissa was working.

In the meantime, Dr. Rush was working on the console in the Control Room when Colonel Young limped in still using his rifle as a base. Young said, "Scott's checking out the shuttle and seeing if it's operational. Everyone else is holding the work until you give the green light."

"Thank you."

"Look," remarked Young. "I want you to know that I'm well aware that in the field of Ancient technology, you're pretty much—you're the best I've got, but we can't be working at cross-purposes."

"All I ask is that you check with me before issuing orders."

Laughing in disbelief, Young said, "Check with you? No, see, you've got it backwards. If you're doing something, I want to know what it is, and this is not a request."

"Done! Fine! I'll tell you everything," said Rush.

"If there's an issue that affects everybody on this ship, like we're running out of power…"

"I think I already told you that," said Rush sarcastically.

"I'm not here to snipe your back or piss you off, but if we're gonna be on this ship for any length of time, we need to be on the same page."

Rush replied, "I think our length of time together on Destiny may be shorter than you think."

Gazing at him and not knowing quite what to think, Young said, "Ok, I get it. Who can I bring in to help?"

"Honestly? It may take longer than we've got to bring someone else up to speed."

The colonel slapped his hand onto the console and said, "Volker it is."

"Perfect! Terrific!"

"You can tell him to sit on his hands if you want to." As Young left the room, Rush buried his head in his hands in a mixture of frustration, anger, and exhaustion.

The colonel found Volker and told him to go to the control room and assist Rush. After that he walked to a room he had appropriated to use as his office and decided to check on Melissa before starting on some work he had to do. He got out his radio and said into it, "Young to Mitchell."

"Mitchell here."

"Hey, how's it going?" asked Everett.

"Hey yourself," replied Melissa. "We're making progress, nothing significant yet though. I'll let you know."

"That's fine. And you're doing ok, Missy?"

"I'm ok now, Ev." He could hear the smile in her voice so he knew she was telling the truth. "You should come down here later. This is some fascinating stuff."

"I will. Just to let you know, I'm doing some paperwork in that room we found yesterday. Call me if you need me."

Missy said, "I will, Ev. Mitchell out."

"Young out." The colonel then started on his work glad that he had found something to distract Missy from what had happened earlier. He worked for about 10 minutes looking up when he heard a noise to see Volker walking in. "You-you've got to be kidding me," he said.

Volker said, "Oh, no."

"You were in there 10 minutes."

"He kicked me out."

Gazing at him in disbelief, Young asked, "What-what's the matter with you? You're a grown man."

Volker exclaimed, "I know that! But he said, 'Out!'"

"Well, what the hell did you say to the man?"

"I didn't say anything!" replied Volker. "I was just trying to figure out what his problem was.

Young said, "It's our problem, Volker, not just his." I need you to get your ass back in there…"

"I'm telling you, he's gone crazy."

"Well, we already knew that. Go."

Volker stated, "This isn't the old crazy. This is a whole new crazy."

"Would you like me to hold your hand, is that it? Is that-is that what you need me to do?"

"Come on, Colonel, I'm trying here…"

Thinking about how nice it would be if something would actually go right for him for once, Young stood up and said, "All right. Here we go. Let's do this. I'll take you there myself." He started to walk out of the room and thought to himself, 'Geeze, Missy has been the only one of them to stand up to that son of a bitch. I can't put her in that position now.' He then said out loud, "Oh, for God's sake, Volker. If you people can't stand up to that son of a bitch…"

Just then all of the lights went out, and Destiny exited FTL coming out into normal space. All around the ship, people looked around in amazement as the lights went out, leaving just a few emergency lights on. Young and Volker entered the Control Room, and Young asked, "Did you do that, Rush?"

Laughing bitterly, Rush replied, "Is that what you think? No! No, I didn't. But I have been standing here for the past few minutes watching systems fail all over the ship, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The FTL drive was among the last to go."

Volker said, "We could be in range of a stargate."

Rush let out another bitter laugh, pointing to Volker while looking at Young. "You see what I mean? No, there's no countdown." He pointed to the counter above the doorway.

Young shined his flashlight up there, but the display was unlit. He said to Rush, "Well, there's gotta be emergency reserves."

"I don't think you seem to understand what's going on here, Colonel. Our "reserves" are gone. All of our power is gone."

"Do you mean there's no power to the stargate either?"

"Nope, let's go to the Gate Room, and I will show you." The three men head out of the Control Room and walk towards the Gate Room. On the way, Young asked Rush, "So, it wasn't anything you did?"

Rush said, "Since we arrived, I have been unable to access any of the core systems – power, navigation, or propulsion."

The colonel gritted his teeth and asked, "Why didn't you bring somebody else in on this?"

"Because I'm the only qualified person."

"You see, this is what I'm talking about," commented Young.

Volker interrupted, "Maybe it's like a Lantean device – you need the Ancient gene to access the…"

Rush said, "Destiny pre-dates that technology."

"Do you know that for a fact?" asked Young.

Turning around with a furious expression on his face, Rush yelled, "Yes, Colonel. I know many things for a fact! I know you asked Gorman to poke around in the weapons systems, for a fact. I know you have ordered teams of people all over the ship to do things that they know nothing about, for a fact! He stormed down the corridor, and Young and Volker followed him.

Young said, "Right. You think all these things add up to this, Rush? Does that make sense to you?

Rush walked over to the stargate console and tapped it angrily, showing that it was inactive. "Look! Look! No, you're right. You are right. It was your reckless, pointless attempt to dial Earth that robbed me of the time I needed to solve this problem!"

"Maybe we're just missing something," suggested Young.

"Yes," exclaimed Rush. "The opportunity of a lifetime-because you wouldn't listen to me!" His face crumpled in anguish, and he turned away, putting his hand to his face as if he was about to burst into tears.