Final Decision
Author's Notes: refer to first chapter
Disclaimer: refer to first chapter
While this conversation was going on, a similar one was going on in General Jack O'Neill's office at Homeworld Command on Earth. Thinking that he would never discount Missy's bad feelings again, Young asked in an incredulous voice, "You replaced me?"
"For now," said O'Neill.
"Without waiting to hear my answer?"
"You were going to say…"
"Give us more time."
"Then you were going to be disobeying a direct order."
"This is wrong and you know it, Sir. I spent most of my career looking up to you because you always did the right thing even if it meant disregarding the chain of command."
O'Neill sat back down at his deck. "Look, Colonel, all they're doing is some preliminary testing; nothing too serious. You can go see your family while you're here."
Young gave him a penetrating stare and said in a very serious tone, "You do mean Chloe and Eli can see their families, right? Because I know you haven't forgotten that my family is aboard that ship and that Melissa and our daughter's lives are two of the lives being risked with this plan."
"I know, Everett. I'm sorry. I don't like this anymore than you do. You can stay on the premises if you want."
"Thank you, Sir." Young then left O'Neill's office with the lieutenant and went back to the communications room. As soon as the lieutenant had left them, Young explained the situation to Chloe and Eli. After he finished, he said, "This is the last time that I won't listen to a bad feeling of Missy's. She has got to be frantic."
Chloe and Eli gave him sympathetic glances as Eli asked, "Can they really do this to us?"
"Well, for now they have, much as I don't like it," replied Young. "Look, I think it comes down to the fact that they don't trust Rush—and the truth is, I can't blame them."
"What are we supposed to do?" asked Chloe.
"They've given you permission to see your families as long as you guys follow the rules."
Noticing that the worried look was still on the colonel's face, Chloe asked, "Are you going to be okay?" When he didn't answer, she continued, "You know, you guys were telling us something last week about a link thing between you. Maybe you should try it. Then you would know for sure if she was okay."
A light dawned on Young's face as if the thought had just occurred to him. "Thank you, Chloe. I will."
"Look, I hate to go there," interrupted Eli, "but what happens if they screw up and the ship explodes?"
Young answered, "Most likely, we will die here too."
"Nice, okay, we'll see you later then." Eli and Chloe left with their handlers.
The colonel's handler then walked in and said, "Sir, the general suggested you might want to wait in one of the offices."
"Alright, lead on then." They went to an office that wasn't being used. As Young sat down on the sofa, the lieutenant asked, "Can I get anything for you, Sir?"
At first, he was going to tell him not to worry about it. Then he realized there was something he wanted. "Lieutenant, are you familiar with the country music group Rascal Flatts?
"Yes, I am, Sir. My wife and I love their music."
"Well, if you could get me their Still Feels Good CD and a CD player, I would be very grateful."
"You got it. I'll be back in a little while." The lieutenant hurried out, and Everett was alone for the first time since arriving at Homeworld Command. He wasn't sure if the empathic link he had with Missy would work from this far away, but he was worried enough, that he wanted to try. Concentrating very hard, he thought about her, how much he loved her, and sent reassuring thoughts of his own well-being. About five minutes later, he felt images from her mind coming back at him reflecting her love for him, her own well-being, and her surprise that the link worked from so far away. He sent back his own surprise, told her to take care of herself, and let her know he would be back as soon as he could. At that moment, there was a knock on the door. It was the lieutenant who had come back with the CD and CD player he had asked for. "Here you go, Sir. Can I get you anything else?"
"No, this will be fine. Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll be right outside if you need anything." He stepped outside the door as Everett was plugging in the CD player and cueing it up to the song he wanted. After he had found the song 'Every Day', he started it playing, lay down on the sofa, closed his eyes, and thought of Missy.
Back on the Destiny, a short time earlier, Scott and Greer had joined Mac and Melissa in the Mess as they were eating. The discussion revolved around what Telford was planning. Melissa said, "Leave it to Homeworld Command to try something stupid. I'm gonna get one proverbial 'I told you so' when the colonel gets back."
Greer said, "Yeah, it was nice that they made a decision without our input. I bet the colonel had a fit."
Scott replied, "Probably so." He looked over at Melissa who was gazing off into space and asked, "You okay, Dr. Mitchell?"
Snapping back to reality, Missy smiled and replied, "Yes, I am, Lieutenant. Thanks. Oh, and if anyone's interested, the colonel's fine."
Mac asked, "And you know that, how?"
"It's that link thing they have," said Greer in a low voice. "I didn't know that could work from so far away."
"I didn't either, guys," said Melissa, "but I'll take it at this point."
Mac remarked, "That is too cool." The other three nodded in agreement and continued to eat their rations. A few minutes later Telford walked in with two marines and headed over to their table. Scott raised his eyes warningly to Greer, who doesn't even need to turn around to realize who has come in and what he wants. Greer said, "Colonel Telford, I presume."
"Sergeant." Greer stood up and turned to face him. Telford instructed the escorts, "Confine him to quarters. He can use the facilities, but that's it." Greer nodded at the other three as he left with the two marines. Telford then turned back to the table where Scott, Mac, and Melissa were looking at him with carefully neutral expressions and said, "Dr. Mitchell, I think you know Dr. McCormack. She was wondering if you could look and see if she had translated something correctly."
"Sure," said Melissa. She got up from the table, and Mac got up as well.
Telford said, "Lieutenant, I didn't ask for you."
Nodding in Melissa's direction, Mac said, "But you did ask for her, and I'm under orders to stay with her so, actually, you did ask for me, Sir."
A small expression of contempt came over Telford's face before he was able to carefully mask it. He said, "This is highly irregular."
"Sorry, I have my orders."
Telford said, "Ok, she's in the Control Room," and then stomped out of the Mess.
Melissa, Scott, and Mac gazed at Telford's rapidly disappearing back as Scott said, "Oooh boy, I think you just got a big fat target painted on your back, Mac. Be careful."
Missy shook her head, "He's up to something, and I don't think he really wanted me for a translation."
"I've got three inches on him, Melissa" said Mac. "Hopefully, he won't try."
"Well, let's go check." They headed out of the Mess and down to the Control Room. When they got there, the only person in the room was Dr. McCormack. Melissa said, "Hello Dr. McCormack, I understand you wanted me to check a translation."
"Oh, hi, Melissa," said McCormack. "How are you?" She walked over to the two of them and gave her a hug. "It's right over on this console."
Melissa looked at the console and then looked at the notebook where she had written the translation. "This looks fine. No problems at all." She glanced back at their guest who was now carefully scrutinizing her from head to toe. "You didn't really want me to check any translation, Lynn, did you? Why did you want me to come here?"
In a snarky tone, McCormack said, "I guess you caught me, Melissa. You were always pretty smart. No, I just wanted to see if the rumors flying around Homeworld Command were true."
"And what rumors would those be, Lynn?" asked Melissa who knew exactly what she meant.
"You know, the ones about the dishy Everett Young getting you pregnant. And since I see that you are pregnant, I guess they are true."
Melissa started laughing so hard she almost choked, and she saw where Mac was laughing too. McCormack whined, "What's so funny?"
"Well, I've never heard of him put in quite those terms before. In all seriousness, though, Lynn, my personal life is none of your damn business, and neither is it Homeworld Command's."
McCormack took the notebook back from her. She said, "I've heard that things will be taken care of if we are able to get the ship's crew back to Earth. I've got a friendly warning for you too. All I've been involved with is the fun gossip, but Telford is really pissed off that Young is here, and he isn't. You might want to watch your back." She took a call on her radio. "There's going to be an all-crew meeting in the Gate Room in ten minutes."
As Mac and Melissa turned to leave the Control Room, Melissa said in a snarky tone, "Always a pleasure, Lynn." When they had gotten far enough away from the Control Room, they both burst out laughing. Mac said, "That is too funny. We have got to tell the Colonel that one."
"Yep, I guess 'dishy' must be the new hot male term." She sobered as she remembered the rest of McCormack's statement. "I guess I have a target on my back now too."
"Yeah, I need to talk to Scott about that when this meeting is over." They arrived at the Gate Room and watched as the other members of the crew walked in. After everyone arrived, Colonel Telford and the scientists explained the plan to the rest of the crew. Riley asked, "And what if the power flow can't be controlled?"
Dr. Williams replied, "Well, if there are any dangerous fluctuations, we just shut it down and allow the ship to continue powering up."
"Early tests show it should work," said Brody.
Telford stated, "We're not going to be putting you in any more danger than you are already in just being here."
McCormack said, "From what I gather, supplies are desperately short."
"And, given the condition of the ship, it could experience a fatal breakdown at any time," said Dr. Williams.
Camille Wray added, "No one is trying to alarm you unduly, but we can't continue to scrape by, barely surviving."
"Obviously, we can't say for sure that this is going to get you home, but the best minds that we have are working on this, and I'm sure you'll agree, it's well worth pursuing," said Telford. The meeting finished up, and the crew left talking among themselves about what had been discussed. Mac and Melissa caught up with TJ and Scott and told them what had happened with Dr. McCormack. After they all got a good laugh out of the 'dishy' comment, Mac said, "I'm concerned about Melissa's safety."
Scott said, "I am too, but we can't do anything until he actually tries something, and I'm not sure we could do anything then—you know with him being a superior officer and all."
"We could disconnect the stones," said TJ.
"He's put them under 24 hour guard," said Scott. Thinking for a minute, he continued, "Ok, here's what we're gonna do. Mac, keep her around people. He won't dare try anything where he's gonna have witnesses cause if we do get back to Earth, they can all testify against him."
"Alright, I guess we're headed for the Mess then. Check-in every hour?" The other two agreed, and they all headed in different directions.
In another part of the ship, Dr. Brody and Sergeant Riley were using the spacesuits to repair some broken pipes. Brody finished with his area and waited for Riley to finish welding. As they were doing this, Dr. Rush was sitting in the Control Room listening to their conversation. When Telford, Williams, and McCormack walked in, Telford said to Rush, "You're stalling."
Rush replied, "I'm doing things the way they need to be done."
Williams said, "Now, we've isolated power to forty percent of the operational weapons system, and it should be good enough to get us a read on our power reduction capacity."
Rush shook his head as Telford bent closer to him and said, "The next time we drop out of FTL."
Trying to explain what he meant, Rush said, "No, look, this ship is old and damaged. The computers aren't registering half the things they're supposed to. I want manual confirmation before activating any system that comprehensive."
Telford stated, "Over eighty percent of this ship is inaccessible without spacesuits right now. With only two suits, doing it your way could take months."
"If that's what it takes," said Rush firmly.
Their discussion was interrupted by a call on the radio. It was Riley who said, "Dr. Rush, we're ready here."
