Destiny is trapped. She's breathing, her heart beats… This means she's finally out of the malfunctioning stasis chamber, but nothing more. She can't move a muscle, she can't talk, and all she can hear are muffled and intelligible sounds. Destiny knows her condition is going to be over soon – the nanites in her bloodstream has begun repairing all the internal damages the moment her heart has started beating again – but this doesn't help. The searing pain she's feeling in her limbs it's unbearable. She's almost glad she can't produce a sound, otherwise she would be screaming at the top of her lungs and scare the hell out of everyone on the ship.
It's only after a long time that she finally manages to open her eyes, but she can't see a thing. Her eyes are blind, but she can feel something near the right arm. Destiny moves her fingers, and immediately a hand clutches them tightly. Eli, Destiny assumes. Who else? Destiny ignores the pain and tries to concentrate on the voices around her, that now are starting to become clearer and clearer. Her eyes are starting to work again too… she can see light and shadows, it's only a matter of seconds before she will be able to see everything else.
Destiny can't wait for that moment but, at the same time, she's terrified. She's been pure conscience for the last three hundred years of her life, and she's not sure she will be able to handle her new situation with the necessary grace and composure.
She'll just have to wait.
And hope.
"Destiny? Destiny can you hear me? Please, say something…" said Eli, clutching her hand tighter. The young man exchanged a look with TJ and Scott, but neither of them thought the woman in front of them could hear or see them. Her eyes were pearly white, and she didn't seem able to hear Eli and his several pleas. She was breathing, and her heartbeat was strong, but it looked more and more likely, as Scott put it, that the lights were on but there was no one in there.
"Or maybe she just need time!" retorted Eli. "That stasis thing obviously didn't work properly, who knows what it did to her!"
"That's why we should take her to the infirmary. I can do nothing here. We just identified a machine that should work like the medical scanner on Atlantis, it might give us a better idea of her condition."
"You do that," said Scott. "I'll radio colonel Young about this new… development, now. We'll need help to take it…" and he heavily sighed after Eli shot him a dirty look, "sorry, to take her to the infirmary."
TJ nodded, and Scott got up on his feet. A moment later, though, before he could call his superior, Eli began shouting all excited.
"Oh my God, look at her eyes! TJ, Scott, look!"
Scott came closer and bent over Destiny's face, unable to believe to what he was seeing. Her eyes were changing color in front of him, going from white to deep brown in a matter of seconds.
"No way. Are her eyes…?"
"…repairing themselves? I think they are," replied TJ, with the same bewildered voice.
Destiny blinked a couple of times, then she began looking around her and gave Eli a weak smile.
"Hey there," he said. "Welcome back. Don't worry, Destiny, we're going to take good care of you."
Destiny is finally able to use her eyes again, and the pain in her body is slightly diminishing. Breathing is not a torture anymore, and even her hearing is back to normal. She manages to move a finger of her right hand, and she's quite sure she has also moved a foot. Eli is smiling encouragingly at her, he tells her she's doing really good and that she can't give up now. Clutching Eli's hand tighter and giving the boy a proper smile is still a little tiring, but Destiny does it regardless. Eli has been loyal to her. A friend, even. If this can make him happy, she'll do it.
Destiny's voice unfortunately starts to come back when Eli and Scott try to carry her to the infirmary. The pain is still there, and she can't hide it any longer. She hears TJ talk about the medical scanner they've just discovered, but she probably doesn't know yet the complete procedure to put it online and use it. Destiny is not worried, though. She knows what to do, and now that she can feel her legs again she will program the scanner herself. Not the first time she had to use it, and Tamra, the chief medical officer of her original crew, made sure to train her well before her untimely death.
Once she's deposed on one of the infirmary beds, TJ checks her eyes and blood pressure. Scott is informing Young of what happened, and he takes Eli with him so to have someone to answer eventual technical questions about the unexpected discovery they made. After a moment, TJ decides to go with them and to leave her rest. Destiny sighs relieved, and she rolls on her side, ready to get up and reach the scanner. Her legs are not used to support her weight, though, and she falls on the floor like a ragdoll. Destiny curses silently, and she uses the bed as support to get back on her feet. Once she's found a balance, she slowly moves towards the scanner, and presses a few keys on the console. The machine goes back to life, and after that it takes just a few minutes to get through with the exam and to place her hands on the flat surface in the middle of the console, thus downloading the information and instructing the nanites to go where they're needed the most - in her joints, vocal chords and spinal cord.
The pain subsides and disappears completely in just a few minutes, and Destiny cannot even describe how good it feels to be finally able to move and speak again. She's finally back to her old self… and this also means that all her duties and obligations are back as well. She already knows the ship is not in a good shape because in the last three centuries there was no one around to do maintenance, but in order to get a clearer picture of the situation she needs to access the mainframe and see for herself.
It can wait, though. There are a few people Destiny can't wait to meet again… and like the first time, they won't probably like the experience.
Young and Rush exchanged two identical perplexed looks.
"If I've understood correctly… you three are saying that the ship's AI has a body," he slowly said.
"Exactly," nodded Eli.
"It does, sir," replied Scott.
"She's in the infirmary right now," added TJ. "She needs medical attention. Actually, I need to go right now…"
"In a second," said Rush. "You just defined her as a 'she'?"
TJ exchanged a brief look with Scott and Eli, and then she looked straight at the scientist. "Sir, she has an heartbeat, she breathes, and she's currently in pain. She's a person to me."
"It's probably just a very sophisticated machine designed to mimic the human behavior," replied Rush. "Nothing more."
"That's because she didn't take a stroll inside your mind, Rush," objected the Colonel. "She looked very much alive to me."
"Alive is not the term I'd use to define an artificial intelligence."
Eli sighed. "Destiny doesn't exactly like to be defined that way."
Rush looked at Eli with an amused expression on his face. "Oh really? Well, I'm not going to refer to it as she, Eli. It's just a part of this ship's software."
"It can hear you, Doctor Rush."
Startled by the voice almost everyone in that room has heard only in their minds, they all turned to the door. Destiny was standing right on the entrance, and she perfectly knew her aspect was far from perfect. Her hair were tangled and messy, and she was paler than a ghost, with cracked lips and bluish circles under her eyes. Her uniform too had definitely seen better days, it looked worn and stained. Destiny knew everyone was thinking she looked like some sort of weird, savage creature that didn't belong there... How wrong they are, she thought. Destiny smiled to Eli, and slowly walked inside the room, until she was standing exactly in front of Rush.
"We've never been properly introduced," she said to the scientist. "I'm Destiny."
Rush tried to keep his surprise under control. That was the girl he had been hallucinating while everyone else was falling into a coma. He thought it was just a trick of his imagination, something triggered by stress, lack of caffeine and sleep deprivation.
Apparently not.
"I've seen you before."
"Not in your dreams, I'm afraid," replied Destiny, feigning displeasure and trying not to grin when she saw Rush's reaction. The scientist firmly believed he had been chosen to come aboard that ship, that unlocking his secrets was his destiny. And Destiny knew he didn't take well the truth, that Eli – Eli! – of all people onboard had been granted the honor to talk to her while he didn't even see her in his mind for more than a couple of seconds.
"You look better," said TJ, completely surprised by the sudden change in Destiny's physical conditions.
"I heal fast," replied the woman, without taking her eyes off Rush's face.
"Good. Now that I'm finally able to express myself… What the hell are you doing on my ship?"
"Excuse me?" said Young.
"You heard me, Colonel. The ship is mine. And now that I can finally talk for myself, I really, really want to know what in the name of the Ancestors possessed you," and looked straight at Rush with a look that could kill, "to dial the ninth chevron during an emergency evacuation. I did some crazy things myself in my life, but this is pure madness."
"We needed a safe haven," was Rush's answer. "We found it."
"So you're basically telling me you've done everyone a big favor by doing this. Interesting. But let me tell you something… you didn't! Not to me, anyway. I was perfectly fine on my own before you had this brilliant idea."
"Destiny…" began Eli, but a death glare of the woman reduced the young man to silence. She tried to stay calm, but just looking at that man was bringing up the worst in her. Destiny knew it probably depended by the fact she wasn't used anymore to the downside of having a human body – amplified emotions and freaking hormones – but that knowledge wasn't helping her right now. She needed to take it all out, right there and then, and to hell with everything and everyone else.
"From what I understand," replied Rush, as ready to fight as Destiny, "You were trapped in a stasis chamber. You would still be there if we never showed up here. You should thank us for your freedom."
Destiny chuckled. "Keep waiting. I'm done following orders. That reminds me… Colonel Young? You're officially in charge of this… people, if I understand correctly? The ship as well?"
"Yes," replied Young, already fearing where that conversation would go.
"Then listen carefully: I don't recognize your authority. You're not my captain, these people are not my crew. My chain of command begins and ends with me. I won't put your crew in jeopardy…"
"Bit rich coming from the same entity that put them in mortal danger in the first place," retorted Rush, but Destiny ignored him and kept talking.
"… and I will provide to your basic needs as I've been doing since your arrival here. But my course will not change: my mission is to follow my sisters' path and to activate the Stargates they seeded in the uncharted territories and explore the uncharted territories. I move onward, not the other way around."
"You just don't care," said Rush, and Destiny clenched her fists.
"Not really. Neither do you. So please… don't you dare taking the moral high ground when you're talking to me, Doctor," she hissed.
"Your mission is over, Destiny," Young quietly said. "The Ancients won't come here anymore. They died, or ascended thousand of years ago."
"As part of my crew and my captain did. And until one of them – or any ascended Ancient, for that matter – takes a break from ascension, comes down here and tells me I have to listen to you… it's not going to happen. Don't make me angry, don't put your noses where they don't belong, and I'm sure we'll be fine. And now, if you'll excuse me, I've three hundred years of overdue maintenance to carry out."
Without waiting for an answer, Destiny turned and walked out of the room. A second later, she heard Eli screaming her name and running after her.
"Destiny! Dee, wait!"
Destiny sighed. "Eli, I wasn't lying. I really have a billion things to do."
"What happened in there?"
"I got a couple things off my chest."
"Just a couple? What happened to the 'give this people a second chance' thing?"
"Like I said, I will provide to your needs and keep you alive and well. Did I forget something?"
"Just to crack the whip."
"Good. Exactly what I went for," said Destiny with a satisfied smile. Eli felt the sudden urge to bash his head against a wall.
"I don't get it. Why do you want them to hate you?"
Destiny stopped, and stared at Eli for a long instant before resuming walking. She shouted at Eli not to follow her, and she disappeared behind a door Eli couldn't open. He sighed, looking at the door with a sad look in his eyes, and after a while he turned and went back to Rush and the others.
Destiny hears Eli walking away, and she slowly slides to the floor, her head resting against the bulkhead. She slowly puts one hand on her neck, and her eyes close tightly when she feels a thin gold chain. Destiny takes off the necklace, and stares for a long moment at the penchant in her hand – a four-pointed silver star with little golden rays irradiating from the center of the jewel, a light blue stone. It was Janek's, the highest decoration a captain and his crew could ever receive. She wasn't entitled to receive one, so Janek decided she had to be the one to wear his, because without her he wouldn't be able to accomplish any of the things he did. It would've been a constant remainder of how important she was to her crew – her family.
Why do you want them to hate you?
A tear slowly rolls down Destiny's cheek. Her crew is gone forever, she knows that. But being circled again by living, breathing people is too much a painful reminder of what she's lost. Eli seems convinced his people can become her new crew, and for a moment Destiny really believed in his dream. But Destiny swore to herself long time ago she will never suffer again like she did when she lost her crew – her family.
Living forever… her talent and her curse. To Destiny it doesn't matter if it's been a year or a thousand since that day. The wound in her heart is still there.
And now, it's bleeding again.
