Rush wasn't there when Eli and his companions reached the control room. Eli stepped to the console where Rush had been working and tried to figure out what he had done. Normally he would never would have dreamed about checking up on his boss, but this time he wanted to know what Rush was up to.
"So?", Brody asked after a few minutes, clearly bored. "Did you find anyhing interesting?"
Eli's jaw had dropped and he answered excitedly, "Yes...but I'm not sure I'm reading this right", he said and quickly pushed some buttons.
"What's wrong?", Volker asked again.
"If I'm not mistaken, and this time I really hope I am, then he just tried to shut down life support all over the ship except for the bridge."
"He did what?", both scientists asked at the same time.
"Fortunately for us, he failed", Eli said and reached for his radio. "Rush, this is Eli, where are you?"
When he didn't get an answer, Brody tried. "Rush, this is Brody, we could really use your help." But he didn't get an answer either.
"That's it, we have to tell Colonel Young", Eli said and just as he went to radio him he got a transmission.
"Eli, report to the infirmary." It was Matt, but his voice was pitched low as if he was whispering.
"Matt? What's up?", Eli asked.
"It's Rush. He's here and I have the feeling something's not quite right."
"On my way", Eli said and started to run towards the infirmary.
Shortly before he reached the doors, Chloe intercepted him and pulled him into a niche.
"Take a look", she whispered and slowly pulled him closer so he could see into the room.
"What are they doing?", he asked, when he saw them. Rush and TJ stood close together, whispering. Rush was gesturing intensely and TJ was persistently shaking her head and seemed close to tears. Eventually Rush gently grabbed her upper arms, talking intently to her. Whatever he said seemed to have calmed her down. She nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. Rush pulled her closer, hugged her and released her again.
"What the…", Matt started to say but Chloe cut him off.
"Wait, let's keep them under observation. Eli is absolutely right, something's definetly wrong with Rush. And also with TJ."
"We have to tell Colonel Young", Matt just said. "Keep an eye on them. I'll go."
"Okay", his girlfriend confirmed and Eli said, "The kino!", The next moment, he had disappeared. Matt was on his way, too. Chloe didn't have to wait long until Eli returned, but in the interim Rush had left the infirmary.
"Chloe, go...help TJ with something, anything. Just stay close and and keep an eye on her. And ask something about doctor's stuff."
"What? Why?", she whispered. Eli replied, "If I'm right, she'll have gaps in her knowledge, just like Rush does. That's the proof that something's definetely not right with them."
"Okay", she said, waiting a moment before entering the infirmary.
Meanwhile, Eli tried to find Rush. "I really wanna know what it is they caught on that planet", he murmured and decided to try the bridge first.
Rush had decided after he had left TJ that it was high time to act. He had no idea right now how to stop this ship, let alone turn it around; but to figure it out he had to make sure these humans were neutralized so they wouldn't get in his way. He also was beginning to notice that they were acting suspiciously. Rala, who had transformed into TJ, was pretty much freaking out because her original was a healer and she couldn't stand the sight of blood. It seemed time and their luck were running out.
His plan now was to get to this weapon chamber, the armory. He had needed some time to search through the transferred memories, but finally he found what he was looking for. At least he hoped he had. The brain of this scientist was so strange. He never had experienced anything like it before. He was definetely no simpleton and yet it was difficult for him to assimilate the sheer volume of information and knowledge. If they ever returned, he would take his time savoring the vast repository of Rush's brain.
On his way to the armory, something suddenly whirred past him and Rush leapt aside, staring at the sphere which floated silently behind him. On his remote, Eli saw the live pics. Rush, who had braced himself against the wall in shock, got up again, gave the kino a sceptical look and continued on determindly. Eli tried to follow him as inconspicuously as he could and observed him entering the armory.
"What the…", he burst out and in the next moment activated his radio. "Colonel Young, this is Eli."
"Go ahead, Eli", Young answered. "Did Matt already tell you about Rush and TJ?", he asked hastily.
"He did. Right now we're on our way to the infirmary…"
"Forget that", Eli cut him off, panic in his voice. "I found Rush, he's in the weapons chamber, tampering with the C4."
"Understood, we're enroute. Keep an eye on him and let us know when he leaves the armory."
"Roger that." Tensely Eli watched the small monitor and waited for Young to arrive. It wasn't long until Rush's neck snapped up, lifting his weapon and shooting. Eli flew the kino nearer so he could see everything. Fortunately, Rush seemed to be a really bad shot as he had missed. He looked for another way out of the room but was tackled to the ground. Greer and Scott had stalked him from both sides and pinned him down.
"Got him", Youngs voice came over the radio. "We're taking him to the infirmary. Meet us there, please."
"On my way", Eli answered and ran off.
When he got there he found things in an uproar. TJ, who was being guarded by two soldiers, wept bitterly while Rush flailed about wildly, red-faced with anger. Greer and Scott simply bundled him onto a cot and restrained him.
"What's going on?", Eli asked, looking at TJ.
"Obviously we have a problem here", Young said dryly and turned to Rush. "Stop it!" he yelled. "You're both have been acting completely strange. If you would stop struggling, maybe we could start to figure out what's happened to both of you!" Despite his sharp no-nonsense tone, the scientist didn't comply.
"Nothing's going on", he snarled, struggling to free himself.
"Sure, it's completely normal for you to shoot at us, mess around with C4 and forget how to operate the ship's systems!" Eli declared, giving Rush a reproachful look. "And what the hell were you trying to do to life support? Why would you want to kill us?", he screamed hysterically.
Rush glared at him and suddenly stopped struggling. He sighed and said: "Okay, you've won."
"Won? Won what? What are you talking about?", Young asked at once. Rush gave TJ a short look and nodded his head.
"It's not worth it", he said to her and she nodded back.
"What the hell are you talking about?", Young shouted, desparetly trying to hold onto his last shred of patience.
"Who are you?", Eli asked, on the spur of the moment.
"You see TJ and I came up with a bet when we went for our walk on the planet…", Rush began, but Young cut him off.
With a dangerous gleam in his eye he came closer and said with a barely controlled voice, "Rubbish. No more evasions...no more lies; answer Eli's question. Who – are – you?" He enunciated every single word, still staring intently at Rush. This time, the scientist said nothing.
"Okay", Young said and turned to his people. "Chloe, Lt. James, give them a full medical exam. Check their blood, take tissue samples, take whatever samples you can think of, but I have to know if these two are actually Rush and TJ."
"I'm not sure I'm up for it, this is TJ's area of expertise", Chloe said slightly upset.
"Maybe we should try to get an SGC physician on board Destiny?", Eli suggested. Young thought about that for a second, then said: "Do it. Without TJ, we're stuck."
"I'll do it", Chloe said and headed for the communication stones. Young informed the officer who was guarding the stones that Chloe was enroute and while they were waiting for her return, Young went over to TJ. The young woman still had tears in her eyes, but remained silent.
"TJ", he said softly, "or whomever I talking to, don't you wanna tell me what's going on? It would ease the situation". Young tried to talk her into cooperating, but she remained silent.
"Okay, we do it the hard way. Lt. Scott", he said and pointed with a nod of his head towards TJ. Scott knew what Young meant and he led her to a cot. Like Rush, she was restrained.
A few minutes later Chloe arrived, followed by an escort.
"I'm Dr. Charles, what do we have here?", she asked. Col. Young advised her of the situation and Dr. Charles went straight to work. She didn't have much to do though. , As soon as she took a blood sample from TJ, who lay still unlike Rush, everyone in the room could see that these two individuals were not their people. The blood was silver and looked like mercury.
"What is that?", Dr. Charles whispered, angling the sample slightly.
"Rush or whoever you are, you're going to have to talk eventually", Young stated mockingly. As he had thought though, the scientist kept quiet.
"TJ", he said, and went over to her bed. "You know it's over, but if you're not going to talk willingly, tell us who or what you are, we will have to use other methods. I know you don't want us do that, do you?" He talked gently, but insistently to leave no possible misunderstandings for her. He strongly felt she would soon cave in.
"Do you really want to do this the hard way?", he added. "I don't think you want us to have to cut you open…" He saw his trick would work.
"No, please don't!", TJ cried and added, when she had calm down a bit, "I'll tell you everything."
"Shut up!", Rush screamed, but Greer silenced him with a clear announcement that it was TJ's turn to speak now. It worked. When Rush saw the look on Greer' face he found he preferred to keep quiet.
"TJ, talk", Young said still softly and she began.
"My name is Rala, over there is Zair", she pointed to Rush. "We just took the appearance of your crewmates to get on board the ship."
"Where are TJ and Dr. Rush? Still on the planet?", Young interrupted her immediately. Rala just nodded.
"Eli", the Colonel addressed the math genius. "Make sure we get our people back."
"On it", he answered shortly and headed as fast as he could to the bridge. On the way he radioed Park, Brody and Volker and summoned them to the bridge too.
Young turned back to the fake TJ. "Go on."
Rala took a deep breath and said, "Maybe we look like primitive people, but we're not. However, we didn't feel we would be able to get all this new technology if we'd ask politely. We have a very old relic and found out accidentally that it's possible to copy the look and most of the memories from one person to another. Your people were merely an opportunity for us to get on board this alien vessel. Once aboard, we figured we would sabotage it and steal any of the technologies we thought we could use."
"You made all these efforts just to steal from us?", Scott butted in.
"But how did you plan to get off the ship without us noticing anything?", Young asked.
"Up until now it was relatively simple to sabotage a ship and make the crew think their vessel was going to explode at any second. Since we were always close to a gate, we could inform our people to send a team. It always worked. But your ship… it's completely different. We didn't understand everything and weren't able to gain the access we needed fast enough. We knew time was passing quickly and we realized we were too far away from the gate. Zair wanted to try to destroy some systems to slow the ship down, but before he could do it you found out about us."
"Dr. Charles", Young said to the physician, "I believe we don't need your help anymore. Thank you for coming."
"Just an everday house call, Colonel, that's my job! See you next time." A soldier escorted her back to the stone room, where she would change with Chloe again.
Young turned back to Rala. "But why? You have everything you need on your planet", he said.
This time they could hear a scornful snort from Zair and Young went over to him.
"Would you like to live so primitively? Alien technology allows us comfort, we won't give that up easily. Why should we work if we can just take what we need?"
"Of course, that's much more simple", Young said scornfully. "Where do you hide the stolen goods?", he asked Rala again. "It wasn't in your village."
"On another planet which we reach through the gate. It's uninhabited and inhospitable. Normally the address is locked. We built a storage facility and if we need something, we just go get it."
Young gave Rala a firm look when she had finished. For a moment it seemed he could look into her soul and the young woman looked away quite uncomfortably. Finally he turned away and said to his people: "Greer, James, you stay here and watch them. Scott, bridge."
"Yes, Sir", Matt replied and followed after the Colonel.
A few minutes later they had entered the heart of Destiny. Eli and his people were quite busy trying to set a new course.
"Status", Young said.
"Well, we can drop out of hyperspace, but we are still having problems turning the ship around. There is a gate nearby. If we go back through the gate system, we should be able to reach the planet with TJ and Rush. Luckily for us, this region contains many stargates, a kind of network we can dial through so we can reach them even if we're far away." He didn't look up during his explanatation but continued working with the systems.
"Very well, then we're getting them back. How long till that next gate is in range?", Young asked.
"Approximately 20 minutes", Eli answered.
"Good. Lt. Scott, prepare your teams, we're sending as many back as possible. Eli, figure out how to turn this ship around if it becomes necessary."
While Scott with a "yes, Sir", headed out to follow his orders, Eli was getting more and more nervous.
"We can try that, but we would need time to rewrite the whole system and the programs."
"Eli, that's all what I'm asking for, that you try", Young said calmly and left the bridge.
Almost 20 minutes later, Destiny dropped out of FTL.
"Okay, let's go. We don't have much time", Young shouted and Eli dialed the gate. "You know the way?", Young whispered to him.
"Of course", Eli confirmed a bit on edge. After the gate was opened and the readings of the planet checked, the teams went through.
"Good luck!", Brody shouted after them and the wormhole closed.