4. To Overshoot The Mark

After both men were released from TJ's care one day later, they began to re-join the daily routine changes on the bridge without any difficulty.

The flight through space went on without remarkable events and aside from a few stops on planets, nothing of importance happened. One of the next planets after Eli's accident was chosen for the burial of Dr. Inman. For reasons nobody really knew the burial was delayed day after day, but since everybody knew it must be done, they eventually found an appropriate place.

The sky and landscape on that planet shimmered in such an unbelievable amount of all the colours of the rainbow, that it seemed more that fitting to make this planet the last resting place for a chemist. The atmosphere was suitable for humans, so it was possible to enter the planet without any protection or breathing devices. Not a single life form was to be seen near the stargate, neither was water. Instead of that the planet offered rocks, stones and a lot of fine sand in as many colours as one could think of.

All members of the crew got the opportunity to say their goodbyes to the scientist, after Young had finished the short but beautifully done burial ceremony. Since the chemist was beloved by the whole crew, everyone wanted to have the chance to bid farewell. Young asked Volker and Brody to arrange the shifts on board so everyone was able to visit the planet for a short time to do so. Aside from that Rush also managed to arrange in between the visitations a short expedition in the surroundings of the stargate to examine the coloured rock formations. The task was to collect samples hoping it would contain some necessary minerals.

Rush was naturally one member of this small expedition, but before he joined up with the rest to collect the probes, he stood still a moment at Inman's grave, to say goodbye himself. Brody watched this little scene as unobtrusively as possible and was surprised to notice that Rush really seemed to care about the loss of Dr Inman. 'Looks like he's a mere human being like the rest of us' he thought and watched every small move Rush made. But after a few moments he decided to turn away before anybody noticed him, more importantly, before Rush caught him starring.

The samples were done quickly, so there was enough time to admire the rich colours of the rocks, small stones and sand. After the darkish grey and brown colours Destiny offered the crew, it was quite a sight. The members of the expedition group where in agreement that nobody had ever seen anything like this, and most likely would never see such an astonishing landscape again.

The chemical analysis the team had collected revealed to the pleasure of the expedition group, that the rock and the sediment contained several important minerals. Therefore the science staff sent another group to the planet to collect as much of those materials as possible. With most of the mineral reserves filled up to the rim, Destiny was on course again one day later to follow the track the seeder-ships set through the new galaxy.

~/~/~

After the accident with Eli in the control interface room Rush decided to stay away from Eli for now. It wasn't his aim to avoid him for a long time, but he could feel the tension build up every time both of them came close to each other, so it felt right for now. Aside from that he was still pissed at him, because in this case it was clear that Eli's childish behaviour towards him was the cause of the accident. He could have killed himself, and that was not acceptable. But, unfortunately to Rush's disappointment, Young decided that there was no need to have a paternal chat with Eli, though it would have helped much more than Rush moping around instead and giving everybody a hard time. But more importantly, the actual problem was, nobody understood what really was going on with Eli. He still hadn't said anything, and nobody saw that there was a serious problem coming.

The fact that Eli was one of the few aboard Destiny Rush accepted in his personal space wasn't helping either. To rebuke the members of his science team if necessary was no problem for Rush, he was used to that, but in this case he shied away from a confrontation. So he didn't say anything, as Eli did, and everybody else did too.

Two weeks had passed after this accident before Rush and some other crew members got a bit of free time again to attend to more personal matters, like cleaning his quarters, arranging his notebook sheets, which was necessary from time to time, and last but not least, to take care of his laundry.

He'd changed from his usual outfit into the fatigues he used for some off-world missions, then went with his shirts, the second white one he had, the blue jeans, his two pairs of socks and all his underwear, including his bed sheets, to the bathrooms where they'd found early on additional rooms with washing machines. When he arrived he found Chloe who apparently had the same idea.

"The big machine is free!" Chloe said in a good mood to a sleepy and therefore a bit confused Rush. "The big one for your sheets," she said, while pointing her finger at the laundry on his arms, and added finally: "But the small one is in use!"

"Yeah, right. Good, so I'll do the bedding first," Rush answered her slowly and little bit abashed while looking at her.

So he tossed the laundry to the ground, left his clothes there, and put only the sheets into the big machine, and switched it on. "I'll leave the rest here, and come back after taking a shower."

"Okay," Chloe said, and added with a grin: "I'll keep an eye on your socks while you're away, you know how hard it is to get those in this part of the universe!"

Rush looked at her sheepishly, but didn't really know what to answer in that moment, so he said: "Uh, yeah … good, so … I'll go to take a shower then." And with that he turned quickly and was out of the door, without further comment on Chloe's quip.

When he came back after about 20 minutes, he saw Chloe and Lieutenant Scott taking their clothes out of the washing machine.

"Ah, the machine is free?" Rush asked them.

"Yes," Chloe answered him, and began to clear the space in front of the machine.

"Matt, could you please help me?" she asked Scott who moved without hesitation to her. "Of course!" and said then to Rush slightly turning to him: "Morning Dr. Rush!"

"Good morning, Lieutenant Scott. Thank you," was Rush's short answer. Not wasting any more time than necessary he started to put his clothes into the machine, closed the door and started the program. Destiny's washing machines were as everything on board this ship, far more advanced than washing machines on Earth. Like the showers and the toilets they worked without any chemical additives. Though the fabrics of the clothes they had were not Ancient textiles, so some clothes didn't really look clean after washing, though they were, technically.

"The other machine should be ready, soonish!" Chloe said. And in fact at that very moment a small red light beside the door started to blink and a short high-pitched sound announced the end of the program.

"Perfect timing," Rush grinned towards Chloe, who returned smiling: "I've never seen you waiting here, how do you do that?"

"Sometime I have to wait, but most of the time I take a shower while the machine is running, and that fits!" He explained and opened the door to take the bedclothes out. With laundry bundled in one hand he closed the door with the other, put the second hand under the laundry afterwards and went out of the room, after he'd said good-buy to Chloe and Scott.

Back in his room he immediately started to make his bed ready so he would be able to just sneak under the sheets and fall into a hopefully dreamless sleep late in the evening. He knew that all human beings dreamed during sleep, and that he was of course no exception to that. But all the dreams he had since his abduction by the Nakai were nightmares, which included in one-way or the other the events which happened during that time. And if his dreams weren't about them, he dreamt of his encounter with Kiva, the commander of the Lucian Alliance group, who'd entered the ship after they'd captured him.

He would have gladly eliminated both memories, but his subconscious reminded him that he had still failed to make any progress working through any of those events. He knew he should talk to somebody about that. But to do so, he'd be forced to actually trust someone, be it on Destiny or somebody on the other end of the com-stones, and that was simply not possible. He could not trust anyone so far, and even if he could, he'd risk being declared as mentally unstable, which would lead to his deposal as the lead scientist on Destiny at least for some time, if not for longer. Because of his unhappy attraction of bad luck, it was quite possible that the wrong people, those who strongly disliked him, would get wind of it immediately. And this was something he didn't want to risk. He still couldn't trust Young or any of his people, and he'd seen signs, that this mistrust was on the other side too.

A knock on the door stopped his thoughts abruptly, so he went to the door and pushed the button to open it. In front of him stood Brody. "Mr. Brody, what can I do for you?"

"Hey, um, morning Dr. Rush. I know this is your day off, but, …anyhow, …I'd like to ask you whether you'd have some time to have look at the problems we are trying to figure out for some time now with the weapons system?" Brody asked.

At first Rush looked at him without showing any of his usual bad manners, but when he heard "weapons system" he looked thoroughly aghast and answered brusquely: "Ah, that's typical. Did Colonel Young ask you to come here? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know!"

"No, even if you don't want to know, I'll tell you anyway. No, Colonel Young didn't tell me to come to you." Brody said a little bit unsurely, but seriously committed to not being intimidated by Rush's bad manners and therefore added, before Rush could say more: "We, that is the people who work at the bridge, are still discussing the question. And I know Eli tried to get you involved in that project about two weeks ago. But then, …well the result wasn't good, as we all know. Well, anyway, we thought that now, after a bit of time has passed and the disagreements between you and Eli are more or less resolved, that you would like to have a second look at that problem, maybe?"

The whole time Rush did nothing but stand there and look at Brody, expressionless. When Brody had finished, he said in his usual quiet tone, which was worse than getting an angry answer from him: "Since that accident Eli caused, the problem is still the same. But because you seem not to be aware of that, I'll explain it to you again: the problem that needed to be solved before we'd be able to use the weapons system in an optimal way, is the large amount of energy. Destiny's heavy weapons need a huge amount of that to work properly. But the ship would only be able to get that energy if it took it away from other places, like shields and life support. As you may know, those systems are essential for the survival of the crew aboard this ship, and therefore the weapon's system can only be booted by 40%. Destiny's central computer blocks everything else for that reason.

Eli's idea to isolate those two circuits is theoretically the best way to solve this problem, but the problem is the process to do that. As things are now, we simply don't have the necessary resources to do this!"

"What kind of resources do we need?" Brody interrupted, and felt like a freshman at university who just asked his professor an incredibly dull and simpleminded question.

"Very simple," Rush answered in his usual quiet manner, which always displayed a slight touch of arrogance. "The necessary improvements fail due to a lack of capable people, replacement materials, and suitable tools. But since the Ancients thought quite a lot about less important details, like washing machines, self cleaning sanitary facilities, repair robots, supplies of the most important replacement materials and similar useful items, it seems likely to me that we'll find a solution for our problem on this ship.

We need to gain more knowledge about the ship and explore its' until now untouched areas to look for repair robots, and other necessary items. It seems to me a more effective way to solve our problems than to waste our limited resources on projects that will fail with what we presently have. Therefore my approach would be to turn off the biggest energy hogs on the ship, closing up bit-by-bit the large amount of hull leaks, and in this way gain more control and access to those parts of the ship we don't yet have.

But the damages we suffered from the drones and blue star still consume all of our regular resources. To do more repairs, we need more resources, and to gain more resources we need to look for them on the ship. That's why I will not waste my time to solve Colonel Young's problem, with his simple "fix it" approach, because nobody will solve any problems by doing so. Furthermore, I'll spend my free time as I want to, and that means, by looking for options that seem meaningful to me. Did I explain myself clearly enough, Mr Brody?"

"Yes, you did," Brody said with a slightly acidified tone and added: "It just would be good to have your input in this discussion along with everybody else's. Sometimes it is possible to find solutions by looking at them from different perspectives. Well, anyway, thank you …", and went on in his thoughts: '… that you told me so clearly you are not willing to work with anybody else on this ship, and you're not willing to change that any time, you arrogant son of a bitch!'

"Yeah, have a nice day, as well, Mr Brody!" Rush replied, recognising Brody's upset undertone. Then he closed the door, leaving the bewildered man outside without another word.

'Well, that went great! Bastard!' Brody thought. Then he turned around and went to the bridge to tell the rest of the crew what they'd predicted he'd say. He hated it when they're proved right.

Rush waited a few minutes, then left his room, slightly relieved that Brody was gone. He went directly to the room with the washing machines to get the rest of his laundry. Now he was finally able to change into his freshly cleaned blue jeans, the shirts and the vest, which he had to acknowledge had desperately needed a cleaning. He simply didn't like the military clothes, though they were comfortable to wear. He thought shuddering back to the moment when he went back to his own body, after he'd changed with Telford, realising he was in the infirmary. He did not only suffer from several bruises and abrasions he clearly didn't have before the exchange, but also his clothes were uncomfortably wet, after all the muscles in his body gave up their function in one go, when Colonel Young suffocated Telford to cure him from the brain washing he'd gone through by the Lucian Alliance. Though he knew that neither Telford nor he himself would have been able to avoid this mishap, he felt quite embarrassed at the time. So the first thing he did was to go and change his clothes, although he didn't really have time to do something vain like that.

As soon as he'd changed into his own clothes, he went directly to the science lab, where he would be able to work the whole day alone without any distractions. He sat down at one of the consoles and started to rummage through the ship's huge databases. He loved to get lost in this kind of work, when he was able to completely forget time and space around him.

Suddenly, nearly on his way to jump to the next page, he found a file with information about repair robots. In this file he found one which seemed to be suitable to do difficult fine mechanical work. His heart made a small jump and started to beat wildly in excitement. He just found something new! Now, all he had to do was to find the place where this robot was stored.

He reread the details again and double-checked them with Destiny's general map. The room was located in a far away section of the ship, which was accessible on two sides surrounded by rooms with several hull breaches.

He studied carefully the place where he'd found the file in the database and made notes about the location. Then he looked for the closest computer console in that room. Finally, he grabbed all his belongings, attached the radio to his belt and started to go to the front part of the ship, a place he'd never been before.

On his way he momentarily considered whether it would be better to contact the bridge first, but thought then that he'd only be about two hours looking for the robot and checking out what it may be capable of and decided that it may not be necessary. 'Maybe it's exactly that kind of robot which would be able to do the repairs we need to do, to obtain more parts, and we'd finally be able to make some progress with the ship,' he thought excitedly.

To reach the front part of the ship he had to use several transporters that connected the far away sections of the ship. Between these transporters he had to pass through various long corridors, and the last part was a rather long passage, aside from that nothing here looked different from the part where they lived.

He marked each door and junction he went through with an "R." At the end of a long passage was a door he could easily open. And when he opened the door a flush of stale air came towards him.

Here in this part of the ship the air was breathable though thin, and the temperature was clearly below the comfort zone they had in the inhabited area, but for the short time he'd be there, it would be sufficient. He crossed the room by passing the bright tube-like lamps connected by a lot of wires to each other, and the blank dark panels between them. At the end of the room he sat down at one of the consoles. 'Maybe this is some kind of storage room,' he thought and switched on the computer and began to search through the different file menus until he reached the file where he'd found the information about the robot.

He opened the file and entered the command "activate the unit." He waited a few seconds and he neither heard anything nor did anything happen. Just when he thought his attempt failed, one of the panels opened and a small robot rolled out, turned itself around and stopped, standing on eight long legs near the wall, dead still.

Startled because of the unexpected motion Rush first starred unsurely at the thing, but then he started to look for possible commands in the database. The file menu offered "diagnosis" and since this seemed the easiest way to see what the robot was able to do, he finally entered the command to start the program.

He observantly followed the growing list of elements that were checked one by one, and also kept an eye on the small robot. The latter didn't move but on its rounded surface several spots lit-up from time to time, then turned off again.

After a few minutes the program was over and a field displaying the result of the test popped up on the screen. The robot worked perfectly. Rush was delighted by the result and was on his way to pack up his things, when a new field showed up on the display. Now he realised that there was a second program running in the background of the first one. At the same time a hologram displaying a plan of the section appeared in front of the computer console. Now the computer asked him whether a hull breach in a nearby room should be sealed or not. The hull breach was in a room behind a smaller corridor like room that was next to the one he was in.

Rush was surprised and evaluated how long this would need or whether there was any risk for him, but then his curiosity took over and he confirmed the request in the dialog-box. A new window popped up on the display telling him he had to stay in the room he was currently in, and that the whole section would be sealed up for the time the work lasted.

Again he thought about his options: in between he had started to get cold, but the room contained enough breathable air for several hours, and the cold was bearable, so he decided after a few seconds to start the program.

Then it becomes quite noisy around him. Doors hissed closed and behind the walls of the room all hell broke loose. He studied the display in front of him to get further information, but the only message he found was that the program couldn't be stopped now and the repair would not last longer than one hour. First he calmed down and then looked at the robot that was now moving towards a door, where it finally stopped.

With an unpleasant warning sound the door slid open and the robot went through to stop again in front of the following door at the end of the corridor. Then the first door closed. Rush jumped up to open the door again, but it was sealed. 'Fuck!' he thought, but remembered then, that he'd seen a menu for a built-in camera on the robot. So he went quickly back to the console and looked for that file.

Now he realised it was not longer possible to go back to files outside of the section he was in. He tried to send a message to the bridge, but the console didn't allow him to open any file outside of this part of the ship. Anxiously he pulled out the radio from his belt and switched it on.

"Rush here, does anybody read?" Nothing.

He tried again on different channels, but the radio stayed still.

"Shite!" he said loud, rubbed his eyes and brushed some hair out of his face. Then he retried again, and again, but any further attempt failed. The more time passed, the more he got a bad feeling that there was no other way but to wait until everything was finished.

At that moment the ship dropped out of FTL.

~/~/~

"I got a strange message on my display!" Brody called backwards to Young who sat on the command chair of the bridge, seemingly dozing at that very moment.

Hearing that he come to life and asked: "Would it be possible to provide me with some precise information, Mr Brody?"

But before Brody was able to answer, Eli interrupted him: "The readout on my display says a section in front of the ship is disconnected from the rest."

Young looked at him questioningly. Now Brody took over again: "I got a confirmation on that now … some kind of repair is going on and that the ship will …"

Just then the ship dropped out of FTL, to slide slowly through space.

"What the hell! …" Young started, but before he was able to end the sentence, Brody finished his report: "… the ship will drop out of FTL!"

Young glanced at Brody and grasped his radio. "Rush, was that you?"

But when he didn't get an answer he tried again: "Rush, do you read? Where are you?"

But when he didn't get an answer the second time he looked around and asked: "Does anybody know where Rush is?"

The people around him only shook their heads. "Chloe told me she'd seen him in the laundry room." Eli answered.

"I asked him some hours ago whether he'd have a second look on the weapons," Brody threw in sheepishly.

Eli chuckled and said to Brody: "Didn't I tell you Rush wouldn't go for this again?"

"Yes, you did," Brody defended himself, "but I thought after the dust had settled, he'd be more open minded."

"And what did he say?" Eli taunted.

"He gave me a lecture why this problem couldn't be solved now!" Brody said and looked down, as if he'd done something wrong.

"Said so!" Volker said. "Rush pursues nothing but is own goals. He never takes interest in other people's ideas!"

Meanwhile, Young tried again to reach Rush as he was walking toward Eli's position using the crutches he still needed.

"Eli, would it be possible to send Rush a message through the internal com-system?"

"I can try," he answered shortly and immediately started to write the message Young asked him to. After less than two minutes he finished and sent the message.

Young turned around and looked into the faces of the people on the bridge. It was not hard to see that all of them where thinking back to the time when Rush was permanently absent, and as they'd learned later, playing with the systems on the new found bridge of the ship.

"Does anybody have an idea on which secret project he's working right now?" Young asked them with a sarcastic tone.

"No idea" and "he never tells anybody anything!" were the answers from several people.

"Whatever he's doing right now, I really hope he doesn't risk anybody's life with it." Young said quietly more to himself, than to anybody else. Then he picked up his radio again. "Sergeant Greer and Lieutenant Scott to the bridge, please!" He waited with the radio in his hand until he got answers from both men.

When Brody asked whether this was really necessary Young said: "The last time Dr Rush played on his own with the ship, I lost one of my best men. I just want to make sure something like that will not happen again, Mr Brody!"

"Of course," Brody said quietly, "but I got the impression he wouldn't do something like that again."

"I don't think so!" Eli snapped before he could go on Volker defended Brody's words. "Yes, Brody is right. I still think Rush an insufferable and arrogant turd, but I don't think he'd do something like the stunt with the bridge again.

"He manipulated the stasis pod." Eli said.

"He did what?" Volker asked Eli not sure he'd heard that right.

"He manipulated the last stasis pod. I have clear evidence of that on a kino."

Then Greer and Scott entered the bridge. "Sir?" Scott asked without further introduction.

"Put a search party together to find Dr Rush!" Young said.

Scott and Greer gave each other a questioning look.

"Some instructions where we should start, Sir?" Greer asked finally.

"No, not really. Start at the usual places and continue to the front of the ship!"

Again, Scott and Greer had queried looks after Young mentioned the front of the ship.

"The computer display showed activities over there" Young explained and continued: "Be careful, those are unknown parts, and nobody knows what could happen, or what Rush is up to."

"Yes, Sir!" Scott acknowledged the order and left together with Greer.

Now Young turned back to Eli's accusation. "Since when did you know about that, Eli?"

"Since the time you where all in cryostasis," Eli started. "I went back to the kino-footage to see what kind of repairs Rush had done. And then I saw it. He behaved very strangely when he examined the last pod."

"What do you mean with 'behaved very strangely?" Young wanted to know.

Without losing time Eli answered him: "When he started with the examination he suddenly stopped and went to the door to look whether there was anybody, but when he was sure he was alone, he did something, and then he told us the last one was broken and that he couldn't repair it."

"Yes," Brody threw in, "he first wanted to try himself to do the repairs, taking the risk that he wouldn't make it in time!"

"Rush, sacrificing himself on behalf of others? Never!" Volker blurted out laughing sarcastically.

"It was me who prevented Rush from doing it, because I didn't want to take the risk he'd panic if he failed to do the repairs in time, putting everybody on this ship in danger." Young told him.

"But what if that was his plan from the start?" Volker answered him.

"What plan?" Brody asked.

"A way to get rid of Colonel Young!" Volker said.

"That's a heavy accusation, Dale!" Brody said furiously.

"An accusation we'll investigate when we find Rush and he can explain what he did with the ship this time." And with that Young ended a discussion that would not bring any answers at that point without Rush's input.

"Eli, it would've been better if you'd told me this story in private when we came out of stasis!"

"I wasn't sure," Eli argued. "And the whole thing would've been such a serious accusation. And in case I was wrong, and now I'm not really sure about that, I'd have whirled up a lot of dust for nothing."

"Well, that's exactly the reason to have a talk like this in private. Now, it looks like Rush is guilty, before we have any real proof, or his part of the story!"

With that he turned away from Eli to tell everybody else on the bridge: "The only question I want to have an answer to right now is: Why did the ship stop to undergo repairs nobody on the bridge authorized?"

~/~/~

Greer and Scott assembled a group of three people each to find Rush. Greer went with another soldier and Dr. Morrison to Rush's quarters and the nearby rooms. Scott accompanied by a soldier and a civilian as well, looked in the common rooms, the observation deck, the science lab, the old interface control room and all the rooms next to those.

"He hasn't been in his quarters, and not in the rooms next to that for several hours!" radioed Greer and added: "At least he's not been seen for some hours now."

"Copied," came Scott's voice over Greer's radio. "The console in the science lab was used a few hours ago, which means, somebody was here and did something in the morning!"

"Ideas about that?" Greer asked.

"Um," was Scott's initial reaction, then Greer could hear nothing else but a few beeping noises in the background. Scott continued after a moment: "Somebody had a look at the plan of the ship, especially the front part!"

"Sounds like Rush. So, at least we got a confirmation that we'll find him there, as Colonel Young suggested!" Greer spoke into his radio and looked at his watch. "Meet me at 1645 at the transporter near the observation deck!"

"Copy that!" Scott confirmed. "1645 at the transporter near the observation deck!"

Greer went with his team to the meeting point. From there on, they would continue together to the front part of the ship by the only possible way.

At the meeting point both groups stepped into the transporter. After closing the doors the cabin started to move forwards and after one minute the transporter stopped and the doors opened again.

The small group went into the corridor and looked around.

"There is a "R" written with chalk!" Morrison called, who walked with Scott's team the right side of the corridor, while Greer and his party did the same at the left side.

"Looks like he was definitely here. Only question is when?" Scott asked himself, nodding to Morrison.

They went on, following Rush's marks through several corridors and transporters. After 15 minutes they stopped at a door, which couldn't be opened by pressing at the door control.

"Press again!" Greer said to Scott. But the door stayed closed.

"Okay, looks like we've reached the sealed part of the ship." Scott said.

"Yeah, looks like!" Greer repeated him.

"And what do we do now?" Morrison asked both.

"Call the bridge!" Scott answered shortly and griped for his radio.

"Colonel Young, this is Scott, do you read?"

"This is Young, I copy that, Lieutenant Scott." Young's voice came over Scott's radio.

"We've reached the sealed part of the ship, Colonel. We can't go on. Is there a way around this area?" Scott asked Young.

"No, you can't bypass the area!" Eli answered after a few seconds, instead of Young.

"Okay, Understood!" Scott replied. "What should we do now, Colonel?"

"Nothing! Right now, you can't do anything, anyway. Best to stay there and wait until we're out of this jam. Send part of the group back. Just leave two of you there to wait for Rush. Just in case!" Young told him.

"Copy that!" Scott said.

"So?" Greer meant.

"You heard it. Two people have to wait here and the rest can go back. So, who'll stay?" Scott asked Greer and the others.

"I can stay here with Dr. Morrison or Corporal Barnes!" Greer proposed looking at those two.

"Are you sure, you want to wait here for Rush?" Scott asked Greer.

"Yes, why not?" Greer asked first irritated, but after he looked at Scott's sceptical reaction, he understood, what this question meant.

"Oh, no, don't worry, I won't do anything to him! My job is only to escort him to Colonel Young, as soon as this door opens again."

"Okay," Scott said slowly, "so, who wants to freeze his butt off with Sergeant Greer here, waiting for Rush?"

When Barnes and Morrison were both ready to wait with Greer, Scott left it to Greer to choose one of them. After Greer picked Corporal Barnes, Scott went back with the rest of the group.

~/~/~

When Rush realised it was a waste of time to try to contact anybody on the bridge, he looked for the data-file to control the camera and switched it on. Now he was able to watch the work the robot did directly on the hologram in front of his console.

What he was able to see was more than he'd ever hoped to see. The devise was not only able to do serious repairs but also very fine work in small areas. 'This is exactly what we need to go forward with all the repairs we have to do, without postponing anything else. Colonel Young will like this. Finally, we'll be able to repair his beloved weapons' he thought excitedly.

He watched the small eight-legged robot for another one and a half hour. That was half an hour more than the computer originally told him, but who'd complain about something like that when the work was successfully finished? The computer analysed the data from the room, and re-established the environmental conditions. Now that everything was finished, finally both doors opened at once. Rush could now have a closer look at everything.

When he finished his inspection, he went back to the terminal and read the report of the work. The computer confirmed again the successful completion of the work, and closed all files. In the meantime the ship started bit by bit to reopen the closed area. As he picked up his radio to inform the bridge, the ship went back to FTL, and Sergeant Greer and Corporal Barnes entered the room.

"Sergeant Greer, Corporal Barnes, what's going on?" Rush asked, but when he looked in both soldiers' faces he knew why they were here. "Ah, yes, Colonel Young sent you to bring me back."

"Whatever you've done this time, Colonel Young is really pissed that you forget to inform him!" Greer told him.

"Yeah, I see!" Rush started slowly, but then he went on: "The ship trapped me here, when I tested a robot I found in Destiny's inventory. The test was to seal a hull-breach. Therefore, for security reasons the ship sealed the whole section. When I realised what had happened, it was too late to inform the bridge via radio or the internal computer system. Believe me, when I tell you, I was more than surprised. I'd never thought about something like that before. But, well, the ship did what it did, most likely for safety."

"Hum, I get that!" was Greer's reaction. "But you'll understand, that nobody is pleased with you right now. You should really stop doing things like this, Doc. You need to find a reasonable way to explain that to Colonel Young, and then everything will be fine again!"

"Yeah, alright, I just want to put everything back to the place where it belongs, get my things, and then we can go," Rush explained Greer and Barnes. And when he'd finished everything, all of them headed back.

On the way back Rush explained to Greer and Barnes what the robot was able to do, and infected both of them with his enthusiasm. They started to ask for more details, which he was more than eager to give.

It took them about 20 minutes to reach the corridor to the bridge, and at that point Barnes said good bye to both men, and Greer went back to his usual stiff soldier habit. "Remember what I told you. Colonel Young is totally not amused with your stunt today. So, you need to keep the ball as flat as possible."

When they neared the bridge, Rush answered him casually: "I don't see a problem if I explain everything as I've done with both of you."

"Just stay calm!" Greer called while Rush went through the door to enter the bridge. Then Greer took his post in front of the door as he had been ordered.

"Rush, what the hell have you done?" Young angrily greeted him, sitting on the captain's chair.

"Colonel, there's no need to be angry. I can explain everything," Rush began as quietly as he was able to, while stepping down the stairs. But before he was able to finish, Young interrupted him.

"No reason to be angry? The ship jumped out of FTL, sealed a whole section, the consoles went crazy, you sneaked away, as you've done before, not answering your radio, again, exactly the same way you did before, and you dare to ask me not to get angry?" Young roared at Rush, standing up from his chair.

"Colonel, please, let me explain the situation!" Rush pleaded, closing the distance to Young slowly, holding up his hands in a placating manor.

"You know what, Rush? You're under arrest!" But when he screamed those words at Rush, he saw Rush's gestures and facial expressions, and remembered their clash on the alien ship, when they'd learned Rush had found the bridge. He'd made the same movement with his hands, had the same fearful expression in his face, while telling him lies, over and over again. The only thing he was able to think about was a pair of two blue eyes, looking at him in desperation, trying to keep calm, so he, Young, would be able to suffocate that boy with his bare hands. Riley had tried so hard to make this easy for Young, so that he would be able to live on knowing he had killed one of his best men out of mercy. And when he'd died after the longest minutes he was ever forced to live through, something in Young had died too. And though he knew Riley's death was an unintentional accident, he'd never forgive Rush. In the end it was Rush who was responsible for what had happened.

And now, after everything, he'd done it again. He'd lied again. Endangered all of them for no good reason. Everything that Rush, here in front of him, did, was so telling about this latest betrayal, which broke all the dams. Everything came back in that moment: his desperation, the guilt he felt, and the fact that he could never forgive himself for what he was forced to do. As if remote-controlled Young grabbed one of his crutches, closing with two long steps the distance between them. He stopped in front of him, and started to roar at Rush again, more intensely than before. "It's always the same with you!"

Then he struck out and punched him hard across the face.

"You simply never learn from your mistakes, do you?"

Meeting the blow Rush crumpled down, bouncing back from the chair that stood in one of the niches in front of a window in which a deeply terrified and speechless Brody was sitting in. Rush fell down but was able to catch himself with his hands and was now on all fours. The encounter with the chair injured the right part of his face, and he could feel warm blood running down from his nose and his cheek.

Young was more and more enraged and continued screaming: "When will you stop endangering everybody's life with your selfish behaviour?"

Rush looked up to meet his eyes, wiping away the blood from his face, trying to calm Young down somehow. "Please, Colonel," he started, but was stopped midway, when Young started to smash the crutch on him.

One stroke after another went down on him, and the only thing Rush was able to do was to try and avoid the worst impacts by protecting his head with his arms. And when the crutch cracked, because of the force of the blows, Young went on, kicking him.

Then Young stopped suddenly. Rush's befuddled conscious could hear a far away voice, trying to calm someone down. After moments that seemed an eternity, he realised it was Lieutenant Scott who was talking: "Colonel Young, stop it. You don't want to kill him, do you? If you don't stop now, you'll kill him. Please, Colonel!"

When Rush realized that Young had stopped, he rolled to his side and tightened his legs carefully. His face was smeared with blood and tears and he was no longer able to suppress the quiet groans and whimpers he made. He was long beyond the means to keep the last shred of dignity he had left.

He heard Young now out of breathe, saying: "Okay, fine, I'll stop." Then he continued after a short pause: "Let me go Greer, and remove this bastard from my sight, before I forget myself, again! And Sergeant Greer, take him to his quarters. He's under arrest. And, …thank you Lieutenant Scott, I don't need you any longer."

"Yes, Sir" Rush heard Scott answering. Then he felt somebody bending down to him. It was Greer, who tried to bring him back up to his feet.

Greer shoved his hands under Rush's arms to lift him carefully. Scott was on his way to help his comrade, but Greer played down the issue. When Rush cried out loud, he nearly dropped him out of his hands, but then he managed to bring him to his feet. Then Greer put Rush's arm around his shoulder, brought his own arm around Rush's waist, and pushed his hand under Rush's belt. This way he got a better grip on him to climb up the stairs to leave the bridge. While he climbed one step after the next with Rush in his arms, he constantly talked quietly to him, with Scott still at his tail.

Outside of the hearing range of the bridge, Greer send Scott away. Finally he said to Rush: "That didn't go well, Doc? Didn't I tell you to keep the ball flat, and stay calm?"

"But I did" Rush groaned weakly, "Colonel Young didn't listen …" Suddenly he slumped down, but got back to his feet again. "He hit me, before …" But this time he never ended the sentence. Without hesitating Greer pushed his arms under the body to carry him. He considered shortly – despite Young's order – which was closer, the infirmary or Rush's quarters, but decided Rush's room was by far closer, and so he went there.

In front of the door, he pushed the button carefully, while keeping Rush in his arms, and the door slid open. He crossed the short distance to Rush's bed, and lay him down. Then he took the radio from its retaining ring and switched it on. "TJ, this is Greer, do you read?"

After a few seconds TJ's voice came over the radio: "TJ here! What's going on Ron?"

~/~/~