The slight moment of disorientation when the ship drops out of hyperspace felt, for most of the people on board Destiny, like the moment when your stomach drops at the peak of a roller coaster.
Dr. Rush was used to it though, and annoyed by the unscheduled stop. With a sigh he paused his work, and pressed some buttons to see why they had stopped.
The very low energy level made him believe that the ship found a star to refill at, but there was nothing out there. Except for a Stargate. Since they still had enough supplies on board, he hadn't reckoned that the ship would stop at a gate.
"Dr. Rush, please report to the gateroom," Colonel Young's voice came briskly over the radio.
The scientist confirmed and headed to the gateroom.
On the way Eli caught up. He had obviously been summoned too.
"I hope we're lucky this time," the young man started to babble away lively whilst walking.
Rush frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked. "What should we find except for nourishment and water?"
"Well, for once basic materials for repairs, alien technology…"
Without warning Rush stopped so that Eli almost bumped into his shoulder. The Scot turned and glared at him.
"Since when do we let the ship drop out of FTL for such unimportant matter and waste our time? We haven't even programmed such search parameters into the ship's database!"
Eli twisted the corner of his mouth quickly and looked a bit sheepish. "Well, I have. Colonel Young ordered me to," he confessed.
Rush looked daggers at him but didn't say anything as he continued on his way angrily. Eli followed him.
Of course it's Young again, Rush thought furiously. What is he hoping to find? A highly developed society who can teleport him back to earth?
"Uhm, Dr. Rush." Eli, almost had to run to keep up with him. "I thought you knew," he apologized.
"No," Rush barked and stormed into the gateroom. The gate was dialing and Rush headed quickly to the console while Eli grabbed a kino from the pile and waited.
"Dr. Rush," Young greeted him with a brief nod.
The wormhole opened and Eli sent the kino on it's way.
"What exactly do you think you'll find there, Colonel?" Rush growled, unable to restrain himself.
Young looked puzzled by the scientist's harsh tone.
"Food, like always, Dr. Rush. Water, maybe some other things we could use on board," he said as calmly as possible.
Even after two months it was strange to him, that the crew treated him the same as they had before the A.I. (which had been uploaded by Dr. Rush without Young's permission into Destiny's main computer) had put him into a nightmare scenario. The memories still haunted him every night.
"Things completely useless for us maybe?" the scientist responded bitterly.
Young sighed quietly. "I am sorry, Dr. Rush," he said with some effort, trying not to annoy the Scot any more than he already had. "I thought Mr. Wallace would tell you what I asked of him. I just thought it wouldn't be that bad to have a look for other stuff. Our everyday objects have a shelf life. If we're able to find some replacement, fine with me. That's why I asked Eli to add some more search parameters to our priority list. And it seems, Destiny found something."
Rush just glowered at him and said nothing. Although he didn't want to admit it, for once the Colonel might have had a good idea. They did have to replace or repair some things. They were also in dire need of some medical supplies, even clothes and dishes. After all they still had to live for some time on this ship.
Young was wise enough to hide his small triumph from the scientist, who had gone silent.
Before Rush could turn their conversation into an argument, Young approached Eli, who was reading the data the kino had transmitted. The first picture on it's own was causing him to get excited.
The eye was floating above a hill, showing a small city on a plain.
"Lifesigns?" Young asked at once, although he could clearly see only ruins. His eyes briefly wandered over to the scientist.
This should placate him eventually, he thought, and he was right.
Rush pressed some buttons excitedly and answered before Eli could.
"No, none at all. Not even potential specimens of fauna. But to be one hundred per cent certain I'd have to go to the city for a closer look. The kino is much too far away from the edge of the city to receive any usable data."
"Then why don't we go and have a look for ourselves?" Young said and gave Rush a slight smile. The scientist just nodded.
It didn't take long for teams to be gathered in front of the gate.
"Dr. Rush, you're with my team." Lt. Scott was standing in front of him in full gear and checked his weapon. "We're heading directly for the city. Are you ready?"
"Yes," the scientist answered and put his backpack on.
Scott nodded. "Okay, Team One, explore and secure the city. Team Two, look for supplies, Teams Three and Four cover our right and left. Report any unusual activity immediately. Our goal is the large hangar and building in the open space."
The Lieutenant waited a moment for questions.
"Let's go!" he shouted when there were none, and walked through the gate, his weapon at the ready, followed by the other soldiers in his team and, lastly, Dr. Rush.
= · =
A dry, but pleasantly warm wind was blowing over the ridge as they climbed down carefully. The path they found, leading directly into the city, had doubtless been kept immaculate for ages. But throughout the years nature crept through the marble-like flagstones, creating gaps and bumps. Another sign that the place had been abandoned.
Rush had taken a kino with him, which he sent ahead. It was still only transmitting images of the ruins, and not picking up a single life-sign.
It took them almost an hour to reach the edge of the city. The soldiers were even more on the alert and slowed down a bit.
"Anything from the kino?" Lt. Scott asked quietly. Rush shook his head.
"Team One, this is Team Two," Greer's voice sounded from Scott's radio. "We've moved into the city as well. No lifesigns at all."
"Copy that Team Two. Proceed."
"Yes, Sir."
Dr. Rush, who had been only half listening let the kino climb so they could find a way towards the center of the city. Although the city was small, Rush reckoned that they would need more than an hour to reach the hangar.
The soldier to his left entered a house carefully. The door was halfway open and hung crooked on its hinges. Scott kept the environment in mind and waited outside.
"We should go," Dr. Rush said, impatient to see the city center. If there was interesting technology here, they wouldn't find it at the outskirts.
"Just a moment, Dr. Rush. We just want to see if we get an indication of the people who lived here," the Lieutenant explained.
"If you want to find out what happened here, you'd be better off looking in a government building. Which is exactly what the one we're heading to could be."
Scott's reply was interrupted by the soldier exiting the building.
"Nothing, Sir. Just pieces of furniture. No skeletons or remains that could tell us who lived here. The technology is similar to ours, maybe slightly more advanced. There was a glass panel with embedded circuits attached to the wall."
"Probably some kind of holographic technology, like Destiny has," Rush suggested, and started walking towards the house. He was stopped by Scott.
"I thought you wanted to go the center as quickly as possible, Dr. Rush. I'm sure there are more of these things there."
The scientist scowled but stayed outside.
"Have you found a way?" Scott asked.
Rush checked his DHD display. There did seem to be a visible route..
"I think so. This way," he said, pointing towards a wide street.
"Let's go," Scott ordered, and they marched on.
= · =
They didn't encounter anything living along the way. The buildings began to get bigger as they walked, and large shop windows invited them to look inside.
Occasionally they discovered foreign lettering, and entered some of the shops to take a look at the items inside..
Dr. Rush was able to identify some things and their functions, but they found nothing that could be useful for them on Destiny. The soldier had been right though – this technology was more advanced than their own.
When the other teams radioed in they reported more of the same.
The closer they got to the center, the denser and larger the buildings became. Some time later, the third team reported that they had found some dishes and plates made of a hard, unfamiliar material. Scott ordered them to take some.
Around the next corner they could finally see the hangar with the attached building.
They had been walking for an hour. In that time, another team had reported that they found what seemed to be a hospital, and would start to search the building for medical supplies. Lt. Johansen was sent to join them, Rush preferring to stay with Scott.
Team One turned onto an avenue which led directly to the square that was their destination.
Dr. Rush set a brisk pace, which Lt. Scott wasn't very keen about it, but he adapted without relaxing his attention.
Finally they entered the square and looked almost reverently at the huge building ahead of them.
On their right, Team Three appeared and approached them.
Dr. Rush headed straight for a door without waiting for the soldiers to catch up.
"Find anything?" Scott asked Team Three's team, not taking his eyes off Rush.
"Just the dishes," the soldier said, and took a bowl out of his backpack to show to Scott.
"We can use more of those. Inform Colonel Young, maybe he can send another team."
"Yes, Sir!"
"Meanwhile, we'll have a look what's in this hangar," Scott said and gestured towards the building with his thumb.
Rush had reached the door already. He looked at his DHD and pressed some buttons on the control panel on the wall to his left.
"Can you open the door?" Scott asked when he and his team reached Rush.
"I don't know yet," Rush said without looking at the lieutenant. "It's an automatic door but the whole city is without power." He looked more closely at the panel, then put the DHD in his back pocket and dug his fingers beneath the edge of the panel, but he couldn't manage to remove it on his own.
"Lieutenant, could you give me a hand please?" "Are you sure it's removable?" the lieutenant asked skeptically, but tried to help anyway.
"Quite sure," Rush said breathlessly, both of them pulling as hard as they could. Suddenly the panel broke away, causing Rush and Scott to nearly lose their balance. A handle in the wall appeared.
"There we go! A manual device," the Scot said satisfied and pulled firmly. This time he was lucky immediately. The handle could be operated easily and the door swung open.
A gust of stale air hit them and took away their breath for a moment.
"Maybe we should wait for some fresh air to get in there," Scott said.
"I'll send the kino in," Rush said, not happy about having to wait outside. At least he could look around with the kino.
The kino had barely entered the building when Rush switched to night vision. The entrance was empty but there were several ships farther back in the hangar.
"This is a spaceship hangar," Scott said, surprised and excited.
Rush navigated the kino deeper inside, alongside the ships and then even the scientist gasped. In comparison to the gigantic ship, they could now see at the end, the other vessels were tiny. Rush guessed the alien ship was almost three-quarters the size of Destiny.
"This is unbelievable," Scott whispered and activated his radio to inform Colonel Young about the discovery.
"Go inside and look around, Lieutenant." Young sounded excited."But with caution."
"Of course, Sir," Scott replied.
"And Lieutenant," Young's voice went down to a whisper, "look especially for weapons. We really could use some reinforcements."
There was a short pause as the Lieutenant glanced surreptitiously at his colleagues, then he said quietly, "I understand, Sir."
"Stay in radio contact. I'm on my way with my team."
"Bring Mr. Wallace and Miss Hansen along, will you?" Rush interrupted the Colonel speaking into Scott's radio.
"Of course, Dr. Rush. We'll bring some transport crates as well. Just in case. Young out."
The CO closed the channel and Rush gave Scott a knowing look, but said nothing. Like the Lieutenant he was very well aware that they had to be capable of defending themselves, and the ammunition wouldn't last forever.
= · =
After fifteen minutes, Rush couldn't wait any longer and entered the hangar. Although the smaller runabouts were interesting as well, Rush headed for the huge ship at the end. The kino had discovered a potential entrance and, to Rush's astonishment, a faint light was gleaming on the panel.
"The ship seems to have an independent energy source," he noted, and pressed a button after briefly studying the symbols. At first nothing happened, and Rush almost feared they might have to open the airlock by force, but then he could hear a faint rumble followed by a hissing and the door swung open.
The air escaping the ship smelled, to their surprise, fresher than the air in the hangar.
Scott and his men entered the ship first. Rush confirmed that the kino couldn't detect any lifesigns, and they grouped up in teams of two to search the ship.
Rush was quick in finding the bridge, but it wasn't responsively any longer. Though they had managed to open the door, the ship's energy was low and would soon be depleted.
Almost the same as Destiny when we first arrived, Rush thought angrily. Fortunately we're not in space, and I have some time. At least until Destiny jumps to FTL again.
He knew he wouldn't manage to power up the systems, let alone get the ship off the ground, but the energy should be sufficient to look through the database and study the technology. Rush started looking up the propulsion system, from which he strongly hoped to get something.
Eventually he was distracted by voices and approaching steps.
"Dr. Rush?" he recognized Eli's voice. Seconds later the young man appeared in the doors, followed by Melody.
"What took you so long?" Rush muttered instead of a greeting, and gestured to the two chairs in front of him, which stood at wide console further into the room. They took the hint, and while they sat down and connected the equipment they had brought along, Eli said "We came as soon as we could. We got a little lost."
"Very interesting, Mr. Wallace," Rush said with obvious boredom in his voice. "Since you've finally arrived, try to access the ship's database. The energy won't last for long. Look especially for life support, shields and other technologies which might be useful for us. The engine looks promising. It's more complex than the ancient FTL drive and very useful, if I had just enough time to study it…"
Rush continued monologuing, but both Eli and Melody were used to it, and didn't pay him much attention, though they were also curious about what they might find there .
= · =
Lt. Scott and PFC Harper walked down the corridors of the ship for almost two hours.
"I don't know, Sir. I don't like it," Harper said, looking around nervously.
Scott sighed softly to himself. Until now he hadn't had much to do with the private, but he was rumoured to be a coward. He was starting to believe it. There was nothing wrong with being cautious, but Harper wailed constantly and looked around so often that Scott was beginning to wonder why the man hadn't gotten a stiff neck yet.
"Dr. Rush assured us more than once that there are no life signs at all. Now pull yourself together and look for weapon chambers. There's no one else here except for us."
Scott's patience was quickly running out, and he made a mental note to leave Harper on Destiny whenever possible.
The young Private kept quiet and his cheeks started to burn at the reprimand. Although Dr. Rush had assured them that no one else was on board, he knew this wasn't right. He clearly felt observed. He swallowed and forced himself to keep his eyes straight ahead so he wouldn't annoy the lieutenant.
Scott opened a door and cried out in delight.
"See? I think we found it!" he let Harper have a look inside. The lieutenant was right, he had obviously found the armory.
"Get the others down here," Scott ordered.
"Yes, Sir," the PFC said, and radioed the Colonel before heading back to find the other teams.
After Harper had led Colonel Young personally to the armory, he was ordered to find another soldier and bring down the empty crates.
Unlike Harper, his comrade was extremely curious and looked in nearly every chamber on their way down to see if he could find anything else.
"Oh come on," Harper said when the other PFC strayed off for the third time to open a door and look inside.
"Hey, I think I found something what might bring joy to the sour old man," his voice came from somewhere inside. 'Sour old man' meant Dr. Rush, of course, who had earned that nickname within the lower ranks.
Harper sighed and entered. His eyes widened when he realized that Private Dunsten had probably just found the control room.
"We should inform Colonel Young and Dr. Rush about this," Harper said, awestruck, and grabbed his radio. He told Colonel Young, who ordered him to tell Rush and hurry up with the crates.
Rush appeared a few minutes later and practically lunged at the controls. Private Dunsten, who was getting bored, had started studying the controls. He accidentally brushed some when Rush asked him if he'd touched anything, and the ship came to life..
With a startled cry he whirled around and touched a hot conduit, which burned his skin.
Rush looked at him, dismissed the injury as minor, and returned to focusing on the controls. At the same moment, the ship's energy was depleted, and everything went dark.
"What happened now?" Harper asked, as he looked after Dunsten's burn. He turned on his flashlight. A moment later Young's voice came from Rush's radio.
"Dr. Rush, what happened to the light?"
The scientist took out his own flashlight and answered, shining the light over the console.
"It seems that the last energy resources were just wasted for a pointless activation of the engines. We have to make sure that we get off the ship quickly. Life support is offline and an open door isn't going to refresh the air fast enough."
Young heard the anger in Rush's voice. He wasn't happy about the incident either, but at least they wouldn't leave empty handed.
"How much time do we have before the air runs out?"
"Approximately fifteen minutes."
"All right. Make sure you get out of here. Destiny will jump back into Hyperspace soon anyway."
Rush didn't answer, instead pointing his flashlight directly into the face of the unlucky person who had activated the system by accident.
"I'm sorry, Doctor," he apologized immediately and looked down, his hand still hurting badly.
"See to it you get back to Destiny – and out of my sight!" Rush just said.
"Yes, Sir," Dunsten replied, relieved, and hurried out of the room.
"Doc?" Eli called Rush over the radio. "The energy on the bridge is completely gone now."
Rush sighed and grimaced at Eli's statement of the obvious.
"Yes, Mr. Wallace. Thank you for letting me know." He replied sarcastically. "Grab your gear and get off the ship. We're going to run out of air soon."
"Understood, Doc."
"Bloody idiot," Rush mumbled in reference to Dunsten, and looked around the control room. Maybe he'd find an emergency power supply. He had to at least try to get access to the ship's database again.
The few precious minutes he was still able to breathe passed much too quickly and Rush didn't find anything. When his head started to pound he hurried to get off the ship too.
=·=
"Where's Dr. Rush?" asked Eli, who was waiting at the ship's entrance with Melody. Beside him stood the soldiers, who had managed to fill three crates with weapons and carry them outside.
"He has to be inside still," Melody said, worried. Eventually, the Scot appeared at the shuttle doors. He stopped and grabbed the doorframe, taking deep breaths.
"Dr. Rush!" Melody cried and hurried over to him, but Rush shook his head.
"I'm fine," he said, and the young woman backed off.
"What were you doing in there, Dr. Rush?" Colonel Young asked, slightly upset. This was a close shave.
"Was lost," Rush said dryly, and offered the Colonel no further explanation.
Of course, the CO knew that wasn't true, but he wasn't in the mood to probe. The stubborn scientist was back again and nothing else mattered. He just glared at him and said, "We're heading back to the gate."
Rush looked longingly to the ship, and followed the others. The incident had cost him four hours, and he knew for sure that the Colonel wouldn't be willing to let him try to power up the ship. But maybe he could investigate the shuttlepods…
"Colonel Young!" He shouted, and quickened his steps to catch up with the Colonel, who was leading the party with Lieutenant Scott.
As soon as Young heard Rush shout his name he looked at Scott and rolled his eyes before stopping and turning around to face the Scot.
"Yes, Dr. Rush," he said quite calmly. He could only image what the scientist wanted.
"I'll stay with my team and have a look at one of the small vessels. Maybe there's an energy source we can use for the ship."
Young said nothing for a moment. He had reckoned that Rush would ask to be allowed to return to the large ship, but he hadn't thought about investigating the shuttlepods. He took a moment to think about it. On one hand, he felt uneasy leaving personnel behind, even for a few hours, especially since they had witnessed that these old space cruisers weren't just harmless piles of junk. On the other hand, after finding the cache of weapons, he was curious about what else Rush and his team may be able to find.
"Very well, Dr. Rush. I'll leave some of my people for protection. Should you find anything we could use on board, bring it back with you. But don't do anything risky. We're on a planet where the inhabitants vanished. We still don't know how or why. Bear in mind that the reason for their disappearance could still be here," Young appealed to him urgently.
"Yes, yes, Colonel, if you have to post some guards then by all means do it. But the kino didn't detect any life signs nor radiation or anything dangerous. And who knows, maybe we'll find something in the ship's log, if there is something like that of course, that will tell us what happened here."
Young gave him another sharp look. "Two hours, Dr. Rush. Not a minute longer. You also need to get back to the gate in time."
"But two hours…" the scientist started to object but Young cut him short.
"Two hours or none. Your choice."
Rush pressed his lips together and gave him one of his famous Rush-looks. But finally he nodded.
"Two hours. Mr. Wallace! Miss Hansen!" he shouted over his shoulder and the addressed persons tried to make sure to follow him quickly to one of the vessels.
Young turned to Lieutenant Scott. "Lieutenant, see to it that it'll be just two hours and make sure that nothing happens to them. Although Dr. Rush is convinced that nothing's alive here, I am not."
"Yes, Sir," Scott said, and beckoned two men to approach. Young summoned the rest and headed towards the gate.
=·=
The small ship was technically not anywhere near the big one. This was the first, the scientist noticed. Moreover, it seemed to be designed for flights within the atmosphere, even if it had a primitive type of life support. With the help of Eli he managed to get an obsolete generator to work again, which created just enough power to bring the ship back to minimal life. Melody downloaded as much data as she could before the generator died completely.
Rush rummaged around in the ship (the data could not be deciphered before they were back on Destiny) and the more systems he found, the more confused he became. Who were these inhabitants who had built so many primitive vessels and one highly developed one? Or had they not built it at all? Had they been the victims of an invasion? But why was there only one invader ship which, moreover, was peacefully parked next to the original ships in the hangar? No, something didn't make sense at all.
"Dr. Rush!" The voice of Lieutenant Scott echoed from outside, but Rush ignored him.
"Two hours are already up. Get off the ship, we have to leave." Scott's voice was getting nearer and Rush considered hiding for a moment, to give himself a few more minutes, but at that moment Matt appeared behind him.
"Dr. Rush?" he asked attempting to be polite, but when the scientist threw "just a moment" at him, he sighed and said, "The Colonel ordered me to ensure that we're back in time. Do you want to come voluntarily or do I have to make you?"
Rush turned around and looked at the friendly smiling face of the lieutenant, which said he would certainly enjoy tying him up and dragging him back to the gate.
Of course the Scot complied and a few minutes later they were all heading back to the gate.
=·=
Shortly before they reached the exit of the hangar, a light glimmered on the large spaceship.
Some systems on the bridge came back to life and deep inside the ship the actual energy source began to gain power again.
Organic lifeforms detected, the sensors transmitted to the higher ship functions, and the A.I., which was the ship, came back to life again.
Who disturbs my rest?
Organic lifeforms detected, the system repeated.
In that first moment, the ship believed it was a malfunction and ran a diagnostic of the sensors. But it couldn't find a malfunction. Then it accessed both the inner and outer sensors and also found organic lifeforms, which were just about to exit the hangar.
Did it really fail to purge this world? Had organic lifeforms gotten away?
No, it thought and expanded its search area. The old interface nodes in the ruins were still partially intact, and the ship investigated. Eventually it noticed that the ancient stone circle was activated again, and shortly after, it also found the organic lifeforms, which were obviously heading there.
So there were even more organic lifeforms. And they had returned. There would be more of them. They would corrupt the perfection. They would be flawed. They had to be eliminated. The ship had a task. And it would fulfill it.
It would take some time until its system could be powered up again and the ship operational, but it would succeed.
The energy renewed itself constantly and more and more systems came back to life. Next it had to find out where the organic lifeforms were going to. What was at the end of the black tunnel? The ship would find out. It always did. It was already linked to the Stargate. It hooked up to the wormhole, and was surprised when it found a ship of its own art.
A conspecific, the A.I. thought, delighted, but it got furious the next second.
It's affected by flawed organic. It has to be purged. I'll help him.
It would take some time until the ship was fully powered again, but since it had a strong drive, similar to a hyperdrive, it would be able to overtake the other ship.
But the A.I. wasn't in a hurry. Right now the organic lifeforms were still here. Its energy levels would be high enough to initiate a purge before they reached the Gate.
=·=
Msgt. Greer suddenly stopped after passing by a broken shop window and looked skeptically into the dark store.
Scott and the others noticed it and stopped as well.
"Sergeant?" Scott whispered, lifting his MP and looking into the shop as well.
"I thought I saw something moving in there, Sir," he whispered back and took two steps into the shop, but he couldn't see anything.
Rush took out the DHD and Eli simultaneously activated the kino, which Rush let float into the storefront.
A few seconds later he said, "No lifesigns, no activity. Nothing. Your mind is playing tricks on you."
Greer wasn't so sure about that. But given the unfailing kinos and the fact that neither Scott nor the other two soldiers saw anything, he lowered his weapon and they continued on their way. He was dead certain that something had been there.
The small ball on the edge of the counter, which was studded with sensors and connected to the A.I., followed the organic with its optical sensors, until they disappeared behind a corner.
Thanks so much to Ellen, who did a marvellous job by correcting not even grammer and spelling but put the final touches to it.