The End Of Silence

by Destiny001

After more than three years in stasis it's time for Destiny to awaken her crew and end the time of silence for the ship and the crew of Destiny. Old problems and demons will cause new problems. For a few it means to go back to known patterns, by trying to solve new problems with old methods. For others it means confronting themselves with events apparently long gone.

2. Off-World

2. Off World

Breakfast the next morning was quiet. It was necessary to ration the already small portions they had even more, and a few people were not happy about that. Though everyone understood the reason why.

Colonel Young and Camile Wray contacted SGC together very early in the morning to report that they were out of stasis, and to bring back the latest news from earth. In the following days all of them would be able to contact their relatives and friends on earth as soon as possible.

Young scheduled a briefing during breakfast to group people, and to talk about everything they needed to know. He and Eli where in the first group to find and collect water and food along with 15 others.

After the briefing in the mess hall, everyone went to change into appropriate clothes and prepare all necessary equipment. Eli also got the kino sled ready to transport heavy items.

The newly completed kino analysis of the planet gave them more information about the nearly perfect conditions, and the rich flora directly around the stargate itself.

"I hope we won't find any big, ravenously hungry predators down there!" Scott said playfully. He was with Chloe as part of the first team.

Eli didn't like the remark in the least. He knew the data Destiny had access to and the kino was able to collect wasn't a safe guarantee. Anything could happen down there. Although it showed, most of the time dangerous encounters between the off world teams and alien beasts or flora were rare. But nonetheless the soldiers were always keyed up and everybody was especially watchful. None of the civilians where allowed to be without the protection of at least one soldier.

Rush and Brody stood observing their control consoles in the gate room, while the first off world group disappeared through the shimmering, water-like surface of the event horizon.

One minute later Young informed Destiny that the away team arrived safely on the planet and that everything was fine: "we'll call back in half an hour, Rush!"

"All right, till half an hour then. Rush out!"

Then the event horizon collapsed with its typical fizzling noise and the gate room went into a certain silence.

"All right, Mister Brody, will you stay here to monitor the consoles? I'd like to go to the bridge and check on the systems."

Rush's statement was not meant as a question, it was clear what he wanted to hear from Brody. Brody also realized that Rush had mellowed his harsh behaviour towards him and others of the crew. Now Rush didn't irritate him as much as he did before.

"Yes, I'll do so. I'll pass on the important requests, and inform you and everyone when the first supplies come in so we'll have enough people to bring things in and store them!"

"Good. I'm on the bridge then, until I hear from you." Rush answered briefly, turned and left to go to the elevator.

~/~/~

Arriving on the bridge, Rush started immediately to turn on the consoles and check the data. After a while he got a vague impression somebody was watching him, so he turned around and looked at each station close to the niches of the windows on the bridge. But when he saw nothing unusual, he returned to his work, trying to ignore the slight nagging feeling he had in the back of his mind.

Unseen and mostly unrecognised by everybody, the ship checked on its crew regularly to make sure everything was as it should be. Also, once and a while Destiny lingered with one of the crewmembers. The ship didn't favour anyone in particular. During the first few weeks that the observation system was online, after Rush had found the bridge, but before he cut it off again, it stayed with nearly each person for a while to study them as much as possible. It tried especially to understand the social dynamics existing between individuals.

Destiny knew the man they called Dr. Nicholas Rush better than most of them. He was one of the very few who ever had a direct connection to the ship. As a result, he understood not only its systems better, but also had left a part of himself behind. This gave Destiny more insight into humans in general, but also into the man, and even his deepest hidden thoughts he'd never told to anybody else.

The abilities of the observation system were not completely telepathic in nature. The ship was able to detect even the slightest emotion and in combination with a person's body language, it could read their intentions, and also, if necessary, manipulate them somewhat. Equipped with such skills it was able to send people complex simulations to guide or simply help them through difficult times. But it was not able to force them into a specific action.

Because Jeremy Franklin had become part of its consciousness, it was also able to understand some of their emotions better than it would have before. During the time it had to study Ginn and Amanda with their respective partners, it learned something about humans it hadn't known before. Though it was no longer able to connect to those three people, they were now a part of her systems. Aside from that, Destiny was still very far away from understanding everything her human crew did.

No one was aware that Destiny had gone back into its observation status after the first stasis chambers went online in order to protect her crew during this time.

Time is change. Time spent with humans is adaption to change.

~/~/~

After one hour Brody called asking for as many people as possible to come to the gateroom to receive the water jerry cans and the boxes with food that the off world group sent.

Aside from the small bridge crew, who where helping Rush with his work and TJ who was occupied with the post mortem examination of Dr. Inman, everybody else was able to stop what they were doing to go and carry the heavy jerry cans and the boxes to the storage rooms for further inspection.

"That's a lot of stuff you collected down there!" Brody said. Young's reply from the radio didn't take long. "Yes we've been lucky. We found a small lake near the stargate with good access and pure water! And a lot of plants with fruits and eatable roots growing not far from there. We even found something that looks like some kind of nuts. Everything passed the first tests here. But before we store all of it, it must be inspected a second time aboard Destiny."

"Yes, of course. Usual routine. We'll sent back the big cans and the boxes," answered Brody.

"Okay, we'll call back in half an hour, and send more supplies back in about one hour. Young out."

Emptying the jerry cans and boxes took less than ten minutes, but required from those who had to carry them, everything they could give. The big cans and the full boxes were extremely heavy, and the women especially were barely able to handle them. But what must be done, must be done, so all of them felt like they'd done one of Scott's special workouts after the first round.

Barns being a bit out of breath turned to Greer: "Thank goodness, now we've got at least half an hour until the next round!"

Although Greer showed far less sign of effort than his female comrade, even he looked exhausted. Both of them sat on the stairs in the gaterooom, to take a breath.

After a while Greer said, more to himself, than addressing Barns: "Good to have a break. If I'd be one of the scientists, I'd be forced to continue working right now!"

"Yes!" Barnes said, but added after a short time: "In the beginning I really was pissed about those whiny civilians! I couldn't have cared less about them. But since we really started to work together I've totally changed my mind. Actually, they've earned my respect for a lot of different reasons."

"Yep, indeed", answered Greer. "At first I thought, they're nothing but a bunch of nerds, with no idea about surviving out here. They should be happy we're here to rescue their petty arses all the time. But after a while, I realised they're doing this the whole time for us too, without ever getting our approval for their work. Now, I know what they're doing, and I think they've really earned our respect for their work, too."

"Well, that's right!" Barnes said in approval, "they rescue our arses as much as we do!"

"Yeah, but you know", Greer started, and continued after a short pause with a grinning face: "our arses are in much better shape than theirs! And aside from that, we're always nice and friendly to everybody, regardless who it was. Soldier or civilian!"

"You call that nice and friendly!" Barnes replied to him playful. "I don't want to be your enemy in that case!"

But Greer answered to that whimsically: "Ah, I'm sure Lisa won't share that opinion!"

"But Lisa is biased!" Barnes said.

"No, she's not! She's the most impartial person I've ever met."

"If everything is going as scheduled, she'll be out of stasis tomorrow, and you two can be together again, after three long years!" Barns said now quiet and more serious.

"You know, I miss her!" And Greer smiled to himself while saying that. So, Barnes clapped his knee encouraging. "You both really love each other, don't you?"

But Greer knew that her question was only rhetorical, and didn't need an answer.

~/~/~

In the gateroom the drudgery went on several times and every time the jerry cans seemed to become more and more heavy, and the amount of supplies seemed endless.

'If we got for this damn fagging more than enough supplies for the next few months and we don't have to eat every piece of crap we get from most of the planets we stop at normally, making eating nothing but food intake, I'll do this easily for some more hours!' thought Brody, while he brought in all the stuff the away team sent to Destiny.

In time everybody with the exception of TJ, who was still doing the examination of Dr. Inman, helped to carry food, water and other supplies in for second tests that where necessary to make sure everything was safe before they could start to put things in storage. Even the bridge crew paused their work to go help. But after that tour it was finally time for the second party to go off world. During that time TJ finished her work on Dr. Inman and put her body in a large sheet and put her back into one of the stasis pods until they would have time for her funeral. She ran every test she could think of, and also collected samples for possible further investigation in the future, just in case.

Just before the last round came in Young was brought back aboard Destiny supported by two of his soldiers. He was clearly in pain while he angled his right foot and tried not to let it touch the flour. TJ had just arrived in the gate room to help where necessary and met them immediately asking: "What happened?"

"I sprained my ankle. A damned hole in the ground, completely overgrown, so I didn't see it!" Young said as he made a painful grimace.

"Okay bring him to the infirmary. I'll have a look at it immediately!" TJ said with concern.

While TJ took care of Young's foot, she told him about the results of the post mortem examination of Dr. Inman. As far as TJ could say the Doctor died during the awakening process. Most likely she was not aware of what happened to her. "It's not that rare that people die without a concrete reason, even as often as through some kind of trauma." She tried to explain the situation, mindful that this doesn't diminish the loss, and that such a case seems even more difficult to understand.

Young acknowledged her report with a sad face while listening to her. He knew how much weight things like this put on TJ. 'That's her biggest weakness,' he thought. 'But also her greatest strength, and the reason I fell in love with her.'

~/~/~

Half an hour later the new group met the incoming people in the gate room. Immediately, people started to group together to report and exchange experiences and tips.

Once and a while there was laughter: Volker obviously told something funny to Brody, because he started to bubble over with laughter, and everybody around them too.

Scott who had led the first team went over to Greer and a group mixed of soldiers and civilians, all of them in fatigues for the mission. They all carried a lot of different equipment, backpacks and bags. Not far away he saw Rush standing and talking to Volker and Eli. It appeared that Rush was giving them some instructions for their work on the bridge.

"It would be best if you have a group of five or six people to get the water. You can get more water if you have people for the kino sled and the others for carrying. Everybody else can collect as much as possible. The water here is absolutely clear and of unbelievable remarkable quality. We won't find another source like this for a long time, that's for sure! Aside from the fact that no one saw any creatures or anything dangerous, you should handle the situation as we did: every civilian has to have an armed soldier as companion, and make sure that no one is alone!" At that moment Scott looked especially at Rush, but then addressing everybody added: "is that understood? "

Brody said: "crystal clear!" and nodded as well as some others in confirmation.

With that the second team went through the stargate to the planet, which welcomed the new group with sunshine, fresh air and a warm temperature. Now it was their turn to do their fair share in collecting the needed supplies.

Those who were back aboard, had time enough to take a shower and change their clothes; before they began to do all the work the previous group had done before.

~/~/~

When the team arrived on the planet, a few of them stayed near the gate for a while to enjoy the fresh air and to look at the beautiful environment of the planet. TJ and Greer, who were the highest ranked officers, started to arrange the times in between.

Greer raised a hand. "Okay, all the guys with me. I need at least five people to carry the water, and another one to move the sled." Then he looked over to Rush and Brody who stood a little bit aside of the group. "This includes Dr. Rush and Mr. Brody over there!"

"But we are two of only three people who are able to do the rapid diagnostic tests on all the new plants we might find!" Brody objected.

"But a good area near this place is already cleared as you can surely see yourself, can't you?" Greer gave him as an answer.

"Yes, what you can see here, but not all. Soon we'll have to enlarge our area? We should be able to react quickly..."

But Greer stopped him: "When we do that, we'll change the teams. But first I'd like to have all the men here. The jerry cans are heavy, so I'd prefer not to make the women do this kind of work. The water group will rotate as soon as possible with all the other men and women. How does this sound?"

"Sounds good!" Broody said crisply.

With that the different groups started their work. As expected within one hour Greer's team was exhausted and completely soaked with sweat. After they'd send the first cans to the Destiny, the work was slow going. The untrained men especially had problems keeping up with the soldiers, but everybody tried his best anyway.

~/~/~

A few hours later, when they'd sent cans several times to the ship, Greer decided to change the groups. TJ asked Greer to look for fitting material to build crutches for the Colonel, and then she and Rush went off to look for supplies and plants for the infirmary.

Lieutenant Johansen knew intuitively which plants could be of use for them and which were a waste of time. Of course this didn't work all the time, an alien planet is not like earth, nobody ever knows what she may find, but she was more often right than wrong. She could nearly always bring something back to Destiny that could help them in one way or another. She chose to take Rush with her because he had aside from a deep knowledge of math and related subjects, some basics in chemistry and biology. Sometimes she wondered why he seemed to know everything, but then she reminded herself, that there was a reason he was part of the stargate program, the same as everybody else. Therefore Rush was able to do the first tests directly on location with her.

Actually the two of them were a good team, and she liked his quiet demeanour when he was focused on his work. She noted that he was normally relatively friendly with her and all the other women aboard Destiny. But unfortunately she also knew that he could be very secretive and grumpy.

They worked like this for about one hour: going, looking, squat down to examine new plants, or other material, testing it, collecting everything which passed the test, and continuing further.

Finally TJ said: "I'd like to stop for a short while, Dr. Rush. You really should drink something. I've seen you tripping slightly twice, and you keep rubbing your neck, much more often now. And aside from that, I also could use a short break, so?"

With that Rush stopped, and TJ got the feeling he seemed relieved, but that was gone as quickly as it happened, but then he said: "Yes, all right!"

So they stopped for a short break and sat down to rest on a small hill. Then both of them unpacked their water bottles and drank a few sips.

They sat there for a few moments more, and then Rush finally closed his bottle again and put it back into his backpack. Then he looked over to TJ and asked. "Should we go on?"

"Yes, we should go on!" She just said briefly.

Without wasting any more time they went back to work. After a few minutes they were so preoccupied with what they were doing that both of them failed to notice that an alien being was approaching. It was the size of a calf with scraggy brown-grey-white fur, coming toward them on medium high, thin legs with an out of proportion long, naked tail. Before it was about 20 meters away from them; TJ and Rush both become aware of the bizarre looking alien inhabitant.

TJ swore quiet, took her weapon out of her holster and unlocked it. "Damn Rush move behind me!" She pushed herself in front of him and tried at the same time to move him with her left hand behind her back. He seemed to be non-compliant, and it was not easy to put him in exactly the position she wanted him. All the while TJ was focused on that big mixture of a rat and a lizard, and hoped that the creature was neither hungry nor aggressive, so that she would have to use her weapon.

A short observation of their surroundings showed clearly that it was impossible to escape and she cursed herself that she failed to continuously watch the environment, as it was her job as a soldier. Now she and the person she had to protect were trapped in a situation with no clear escape.

The "lizardrat" came closer and closer. Its' muzzle was half open and the sounds it made as if it was trying to smell them, but because of its scraggy fur it was not easy to see anything which might be sensory organs. TJ moved slowly backward with Rush behind her, but with each step she made the thing approach closer and closer.

Suddenly TJ felt Rush's hand on her shoulder and he said in a low voice: "It's a vegetarian. Can you see the teeth? No carnassial teeth, but teeth to chew plants. It's a good chance that it may just disappear as long as we stay calm, and don't move."

TJ was able to see the teeth through the slightly opened muzzle, but she was sceptical and didn't want to take any risks. The closer the alien animal came the less were her chances to kill it with a well aimed single shot, at the same time she hated to kill an alien being she didn't know anything about. But while she still pondered the pros and cons, the animal jumped at them, knocked both of them over and hit Rush with its' long tail.

TJ wasn't able to react in any way, and while she whirled through the air and fell to the ground she had also lost her weapon, and the only thing she could see was Rush being spun through the air like she had. She heard him scream when he landed hard on the ground.

Then she saw the big mouth of the animal directly above her and all she could think was "that's it!" but the beast only produced a loud growling sound and moved slowly away from them. As both of them didn't move or try to threaten it, it finally decided to toddle off and vanished behind a nearby hill.

TJ slowly got to her knees and hands, picked up her weapon, which laid not far from her, and moved on hands and knees over towards Rush, who was still laying motionless on the ground.

She carefully squeezed his shoulder. "How are you?"

But when he didn't answer directly, she shook him slightly and asked again: "Dr. Rush, can you hear me?"

Eventually he answered her without moving. "Yes, I can hear you. ... I'm fine! ... This damn beast just punched me with his big tail in the gut ... aside from that ... I'm fine I think."

"Okay" TJ said, "Let me check you."

But Rush failed to react, so TJ asked again: "Dr. Rush? You have to turn around, otherwise I won't be able to check you!"

Finally, Rush started to move and to turn slowly, but kept his arms firm around his abdomen, so that TJ had to turn him further to his back and to press down his arms with gentle force. During the whole time she lifted her head occasionally to watch their surroundings. Then she put his jacket aside and lifted his t-shirts to examine the area. She looked carefully at his reactions every time she pressed specific points, but when she found his reactions to be not too dramatic, she finished the examination and pulled his shirts down.

"I can't find anything alarming. Looks like you've been lucky today. Though a punch in the gut really does hurt, and normally it'll take a few days to fade away. Can you sit up?"

"I'll try" Rush said with effort and began to sit up slowly. He used mostly his arms grimacing with pain. "I think I can get up, too."

"We have time" TJ said quick, "there's no need to hurry!"

"I can do it!" Rush said, still very pale, but nonetheless trying to get up, but TJ stopped him pressing her hands on his shoulders to keep him from doing so.

"Wait just a little bit longer!" And to her surprise he did as he was told. She found this suspicious, so she watched him carefully to see whether he might have other injuries he didn't want to tell her about, or maybe he simply didn't realize as being important. But, eventually she helped him to get up, collected all their things, which were scattered about, and started to go slowly to the stargate. Thankfully they were able to collect plenty of material and so their early retreat didn't hinder them bringing full bags back to Destiny.

TJ felt more tension now then she had in the beginning of their trip and she let Rush go in front of her, so she could keep him in sight all the time and be prepared if they met more alien life forms.

When they reached the stagate after nearly a good hour of walking, they could hear the voices of other members of their team, and the tension TJ had felt the whole time, started to finally wear off.

First they met Greer and Brody, who were cutting large branches with a junction for the armpits out of a shrubby like plant for the colonel.

When TJ and Rush met them, TJ said to Greer: "I see you didn't forget the crutches, Ronald!"

"I'd never forget that, lieutenant" Greer said without missing a beat.

"Of course not!" TJ said smiling.

Brody abraded one of the branches and looked shortly over to Rush who stood aside slightly bent, holding himself with one hand on a nearby shrub, the other hand clenched on his stomach. Then he grimaced, and Brody asked worriedly:" Everything all right?"

"Yes," said Rush shortly, putting on the most neutral and unfriendly face he could muster, to avoid more questions, and said to TJ: "I'll go to the gate."

Just before he was completely gone, TJ called after him: "Okay, but no more work. Just find a nice place in the shade. And in case someone asks you to carry or move anything heavy, say I forbade it. And, Dr. Rush, when we're back on Destiny, I expect you to report to the infirmary."

Rush nodded, turned around and went slowly to the clearance where the gate was.

When Rush was out of earshot, Brody said grumpy: "really, what would he lose by reacting like a normal human being, answering questions people ask him?"

TJ and Greer just looked at each other shrugging and Greer finally said: "He doesn't like to talk. I think that's not a bad thing."

But TJ contradicted him directly. "A silent manner does not equal discourtesy, and his manners are rude. Though, sometimes he can be nice and respectful, but when he realizes what he's doing, he does a 180° turn to avoid talking more than necessary."

After a moment Brody answered: "Yeah, he likes to stay alone."

"Yeah, and that's exactly what he gets."

"Well, yeah, sure!" Brody said and added after a short break: "Did something happen on your trip, Lieutenant Johansen?"

"Yes, it did. We had a close encounter of the third kind," TJ said, raising an eyebrow. "A mixture of a huge lizard and a rat with a long matted fur was suddenly in front of us. It knocked us over and punched Rush with its big, long tail in the guts. But, thankfully, it went away after the attack. I think we were lucky, anything could have happened."

Greer interjected: "That's why I always shoot first and ask questions later!"

"Yes, maybe I would too, but everything happened so fast. I just saw the beast too late!"

Brody asked suddenly while he looked around him nervously: "Did you see more of those things? I mean...where there is one, there might be another!"

"No, we didn't see anything like it on our way back here. Well, of course that's no guarantee, but since the first team didn't see any life forms at all, it may be possible that the animals on this planet stay away from the stargate. Well at least, I hope so!" And with that TJ ended their conversation and left. Then the two men finally continued on with their work.

When the crutches were finished after a short while, Greer and Brody went back to the gate. TJ and Greer started to collect the team, made a headcount, and asked whether there were any incidents. But nobody had anything to report, so TJ and Rush's encounter with the alien animal was the only one that occurred.

Now the second team was able to send several times full storage containers back to the Destiny. And their last round was as successful as the other team before them. They'll have at least a full week of enough food and other supplies, like water and minerals. The first off world mission was a success, even if Colonel Young was injured, which would last for some time.