I've done lots of fanfic, but this is the first one I've posted for others to read. Reviews are welcome, but please be gentle with criticism.
FREQUENCY: I already have 7 chapters completed and intend to post each following chapter every 2 days. Stay tuned.
CONCEPT: Herein, I explore each character's perspective regarding Rush's death/abandonment (depending on POV). Each chapter will be about 1000 words in length and will focus on a single character's POV. Each chapter will bring forth the character for the following chapter. Think of it as a continual camera that never pans off the current action. Let's see how many characters I can cover.
DISCLAIMER: The characters, the ship, and everything depicted within are the property of their creators and the various producers of SGU. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 1: Eli WallaceEveryone knew Rush and Young did not see eye to eye. Most even guessed how deeply they resented each other. Only Eli knew what was on the kino footage that Rush had so ineffectively deleted. And Eli was no fool.
Eli wracked his brain trying to figure out why it had been so easy to recover the deleted video feed from the kino. Rush was far smarter than he was about such things – well, about everything. It had to be a test. Everything was. It was meant to be a test of his loyalty. Rush had meant for Eli to recover the information. What he did with it then, was entirely his decision. And Eli had given it to Young.
It had seemed wrong for Rush to take the gun from Spencer's quarters and hide it in the vent above Young's bed. It had seemed wrong for Rush to attempt to delete the footage. So, Eli had followed his own sense of justice and turned him in. He felt something was wrong when the colonel had decided not to show the full footage to Camile. There was an irk in his sense of morality when the colonel had asked him to lie. But he did as he was ordered, said the rest of the information on the kino was corrupt. Who could have done this? Wray had asked. Any one of a dozen people said Scott, believing Eli's lie. Why shouldn't he? Eli had never lied before. Or more he'd answered. Another lie. These past months were not turning him into someone he wanted to be.
When Colonel Young exited the event horizon of the stargate without Dr. Rush, Eli guessed what had happened. In his pursuit of justice, Eli had inadvertently condemned Rush. He'd never dreamed to be caught in a Mad Max plotline: Two men enter, one man leaves. Only in this case, two men left Destiny and only one returned. And only Eli knew why. He wished that he had shown Lieutenant Scott the entire footage. Instead, he carried the burden of that knowledge alone. Now as Eli sat in the observation room staring at the lights of FTL, he feared what the colonel might do to ensure his silence.
"Eli."
Eli jumped at the colonel's voice behind him. He said nothing when he turned to face his gaze. The colonel's scrapes obtained during the rockslide were bandaged. His eyes were cool beneath the wrapped gauze.
"Do you have my flash drive?" asked the colonel.
Eli nodded. He had deleted the video from the kino and transferred it to the colonel's flash drive just as he had been asked. Everything was a secret these days. He handed the flash drive over.
"I can count on you not to say anything to anyone else?" said the colonel, indicating the flash drive before placing it in his jacket pocket. It was an order phrased as a question.
Again, Eli nodded wordlessly. What else could he do? There was no telling what Young would do if he refused. Besides, who could Eli go to with what he knew? Out here, Young was the final point of justice. He had made that all too clear.
A flicker of a smile crossed the colonel's face so subtly that it could have been a muscle twitch at the corner of his mouth. He nodded and turned to leave.
Despite his every intention of staying silent, the single question on Eli's mind slipped past his filters. "Did you kill him?"
Young hesitated a moment before replying, "You saw the kino footage, Eli. Sergeant Spencer killed himself." He didn't even turn around.
Eli shook his head while keeping his eyes fixed on the back of Young's skull. "I wasn't talking about Spencer." He knew that. Of course, he knew that. The colonel was buying himself time.
Young turned halfway and cocked his head to one side to look at Eli. "There was a rockslide," he said evenly.
"That's what you told everyone, yes," Eli ventured.
Young turned fully to face Eli and took a step forward. Unconsciously, Eli shifted his balance backward. "You're asking me if I lied?" asked the colonel, stating the question, softly, evenly.
"I'm asking if you killed him." Young said nothing. Eli looked to the floor, averting his gaze before he tentatively pushed on, quieter now. "I need to know."
Young shook his head. "No, Eli," and for a moment, Eli thought the colonel wasn't going to answer his question, "I didn't kill him," he said finally.
It had the ring of truth about it. But how much could he believe this new testimony, given that he knew the colonel had lied about the rockslide? "You just left him there," stated Eli hollowly. He'd meant it to be a question, but the phrase didn't come out sounding anything like a question.
The colonel sighed tiredly, placing his hand on the doorframe as he started to turn away a second time. "There was a rockslide," said Young again, sounding more as if he was trying to convince himself than offering an explanation.
Eli's head bobbed slowly up and down as he watched the colonel exit the room. Both men knew he was lying. Everybody's lying! He recalled a past conversation. Yeah, Eli. Grown-ups do that sometimes. That had been Rush's response. Look where it had gotten him.
Well, he was a grown-up now. He'd had two choices when he'd discovered the footage, go to Young with what he knew or keep Rush's secret. Both involved lying. Lying about the footage that was there or lying about the footage that wasn't.
Despite his every intention to not choose sides in the conflict between Rush and Young, Eli had been forced to choose. Did he choose right? If he'd chosen Rush's side, he would still be here. He'd probably be with TJ attending to Dr. Franklin's injuries from the chair, or going over databases, trying to learn as much as he could about what had happened. Eli would be at Rush's side, helping any way he could so long as Rush tolerated his presence. Wray would be in command of Destiny. Would it be any better? Rush would still be here. It all came down to that one fact.
That, and Eli wouldn't now be afraid of Colonel Young.
Regardless, it didn't matter anymore. There were no sides anymore. Rush was gone, and it was his fault.