Notes: Without beta.
I'm bored so I wrote this. It turned out to be different than what I thought at first. Yoyi eat comments. Anyone wants to feed Yoyi?
Night fell upon Destiny. It wasn't proper night, but everybody knew it was night time. People went to sleep and the only noise you could hear was Destiny's engines, the FTL hum and feel the shields' vibrations. People were in their quarters. But not Rush. Rush was awake.
Rush worked overnight, always. It wasn't because of the nightmares, but because his mind was clearer at night. He used to correct his students tests and essays at night. Staying up 'till it was too late, or too early. The numbers danced inside his head like notes of a dissonant melody forgotten long ago.
He drank water from his mug, lifting it with trembling hands. Lately, these days, his hands were always trembling. He had noticed the light blue pattern forming on his back. It was pure coincidence, really. He fell down and hit his back. He was just looking for bruises when he noticed. The delicate, intricate pattern drawn on his skin, looking like a tattoo. If it wasn't for the kino, he wouldn't have noticed it. The threads were as thin as half a hair, maybe even thinner.
He was changing, Rush knew it. His body was changing. To what level, he didn't know. Molecular? Cellular? Only his skin? So far, his mind was the same. He didn't have any sudden understanding of all the different formulae that formed part of Destiny's code. He still had to double check his own calculations with Eli and Chloe's help. He didn't have any black out, yet. And when he woke up, his work was in the exact same part where he left it.
The blue glow that came from the various lights across the room made his hands look bluish too. He wasn't afraid of that anymore. He didn't like it, but it didn't trigger any unpleasant memory. Not anymore, not after all this time. Not after they managed to make the Nakai change Chloe back. He was sure that everything she knew about the ship, they knew now. Rush grinned at it. Chloe didn't know as much as they might think. She knew half what Eli knew and Eli didn't understand a quarter of what Rush understood, and he was fairly sure the Nakai didn't have access to his knowledge now.
He pressed more buttons as the nights sounds calmed him down. He was able to sleep now. He didn't have nightmares about the Nakai, either. About the Lucians, he did.
He kept working. He knew that Young wouldn't approve of this project of his, and that was another reason why he was still awake, working, on a desert room. He drank water again, noticing his mug was almost empty. Rush didn't want to refill it now, he was at an interesting point in his work, but he had to separate from the computer, he had to walk down the hallways until he arrived at the mess hall.
It wasn't surprising to find Chloe there. It was surprising to find her with Colonel Young, though. He didn't walk in. He didn't stay, spying on them. He walked back, with his empty mug on his hand.
The darkness on Destiny was always the same, but at night it seemed thicker, denser, even tangible, as if you could touch it.
Back then, Rush could have swore he saw eyes staring at him from that darkness. Big eyes, so round he thought they lacked eyelids, with the veins so marked, it was scaring. He could also swear that those eyes were always in the company op lipless mouths, as dark as night, with sharp teeth ready to rip off flesh. Of course, it was only his imagination, conjuring there supernatural creatures, bathed in the blood of their victims, ready to abduct you and observe your every moment from the shady corners, coming from time to time to take away pieces of your flesh, leaving you alive while eating your body, piece by piece.
But now, Rush couldn't hear them anymore. He couldn't see those eyes staring at him, or the hungry mouths waiting to bite him. He didn't feel anymore those claws on his skin. The living nightmares that appeared on the first two weeks on Destiny. He didn't sleep well on those weeks. He was restless, trying to understand Destiny, trying to make the best of their situation, and on top of that, those creatures lurking on the corners.
Thanks to the Nakai, those images disappeared in the form of skinny, tall and blue creatures.
He double checked his last operation, before closing down the computer, plunging into darkness the room, surrounding himself with the night's sounds.
"Rush? Tell me that you just came in, please?"
Rush turned around and saw Colonel Young on the door. The hallway at his back was a bit brighter. He had programmed Destiny's lights to do that, simulating the day and night. The lights were brighter on day hours and they dimmed as the day passed by.
"I was going back to my quarters now," he answered.
"Did you stay awake all night?"
Rush shrugged. "Perhaps."
He walked past Young, who gave him a look, and towards his quarters. He stayed up more time than what he thought, so now he had less hours to sleep. He never went to sleep when the night started, but he rarely did when the day came.
He lied down on his bed and his eyelids closed slowly. He could feel the summer breeze. He fell asleep.
Soon, the Stargate will be open.