A/N:Thank you all for your kindness, I'm rly happy that you like it ^^
This chapter is experimental. I'll explain at the end of it. Enjoy :)
SESSION 1
For once, everything was running smoothly. The last planet they found gave them a huge supply of meat and fruits, also some herbs and roots that were supplying their nutritious meals with actual taste. The vegetables they were growing in their makeshift greenhouse were also of better quality, as well as quantity.
Rush restored most of the systems that were able to operate, fixed everything he was able to working condition and, after many days of restless, hard work and even more fights with TJ about food and sleep, he finally announced that everything was ready for him to use the chair.
They were a step closer to getting home.
The Doc was waiting for them in the chair room. A small group consisted of himself, Colonel Young, Camille Wray, Eli, Brody and, at Rush's special demand, Lieutenant Johansen. The all got settled around the chair, as the scientist was explaining something quietly to Brody and Eli, showing them something on one of the consoles. When he was finished, he stepped next to the chair and said:
"Before I begin, I want to make what will happen known to all of you. Especially you, Lieutenant," he looked at TJ, "as I might require some medical attention after the first use."
"What do you mean 'first', Rush?" Young said, his mood exceptionally foul today. He obviously didn't like the whole ordeal.
"Franklin died because he was stupid," Rush said. "But not just being stupid in that particular moment, just daft in general." Brody fumed at that but he paid no mind to it, continuing. "He generally copied the whole database of Destiny's memory banks into his mind. As most of you probably know, as I recall this is elementary knowledge, we only use a small fraction of our brain capacity. That being a fact, Franklin simply overloaded his mind with information. Even though I daresay I use slightly more of my brains, I certainly wouldn't survive that either. That is, where the smart cube the S'hottoss presented me with, comes in handy," he moved to the console where he was standing when they came in and pointed at the small object that was now connected to the machinery with two cables. "It basically does three things. It slows the transfer process, it enables dividing the data into smaller, manageable portions and, finally, allows to reverse the process."
He went back to the chair and gently put his palm flat on the surface of one of the armrests. "I will not be keeping any of the knowledge," he shot a pointed look at Young but cast his eyes sideways right after. It was clear that we was beginning to feel agitated, some worry shining in his eyes.
"My idea is to download a part of the information at a time and write it down on the paper we luckily brought, then exchange it for another part and so on. In the meantime, Eli and Adam will be processing what has already been written down." He spun around to face TJ.
"Lieutenant, I'm not sure what will happen. As I suspect the reaction varies in dependence of the amount transferred and personality but…" he hesitated, his brow creasing, "I'm afraid that the boring holes in the head part is unavoidable so…" TJ nodded her head and allowed him to search her face with his nervous eyes. Apparently he found what he was looking for as he abruptly spun around and sat in the chair, not wasting any more time.
"Miss Wray, I highly recommend you to leave the vicinity," he said and nodded his head for Eli to begin as the woman left, casting them one last look. The young man hesitated for a second but patted at the console buttons. The clasps fell with a snap around Rush's wrists and ankles, the neural-transmitting collar lowered to his temples. Now clearly nervous, Rush closed his eyes and clenched his fists. His mouth twitched in a familiar tick that clearly meant uneasiness.
There was a growing buzz and the screws moved towards the scientist's head. He let out a strangled grunt of pain as two of them bore into his flesh, the rest keeping him in place. His whole frame stiffened and he opened his eyes wide, small whimpers coming out of his mouth with splutters of saliva.
The whole ordeal lasted maybe half a minute and TJ was ready to catch his slumped body when the chair relieved its hold on the frail man. She laid him on the floor and examined his pulse and pupils reactions.
"Conscious but in shock," was her verdict, "help me get him to the infirmary." She and Young took him in between themselves and led the staggering man. He obviously did his best to help them out but every time he tried to make a firm step, his legs were buckling under his not-so-impressive weight. Blood was dripping from his temples to the ground and Eli was doing his best to avoid stepping on the droplets as he followed them.
As soon as they lay him on a cot, he spun to his side and wretched violently on the floor. Smell of vomit filled the room as he lay back, some of it dripping down his chin. He seemed more lucid and managed to focus his gaze as TJ gently cleaned his face. They all waited, Rush just stared at the ceiling.
"Can you hear me, doctor Rush?" Tamara asked, flashing a small light in his eyes. He blinked rapidly and nodded his head "Do you know where you are?" she kept asking. He swallowed and opened his mouth but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and tried again "T-the… uh… i-infirmary," he said. TJ nodded with approval. One of the crewmembers that was helping her in the sick bay came to clean the floor, eyeing the Doc curiously.
"How are you feeling?" the paramedic kept asking, dampening Rush's forehead with a wet cloth
"Like a wee bundle of pain and misery," he answered and made a move to sit but she stopped him with a firm hand. He didn't put up much of a fight. "I think the top of my head fell off somewhere in the corridor," he muttered and covered his eyes with one arm.
"Did it work?" Young asked, approaching the bed. Rush nodded his head
"This is…" he said and looked at the colonel "incredible. I feared that I won't have any conscious access to the information but I do… amazing!"
"Do you know… something useful?" Eli asked, not wanting to ask outright if there was any knowledge he got about getting them the hell off that ship.
"Oh, I always knew many useful things," Rush smirked, "but I didn't acquire any knowledge that would allow us to go back to Earth, if that is what you are asking for" Eli's arms dropped. "Still," Rush added, slowly sitting up, "I need to write down what I did get"
"Oh no, you don't," TJ snapped. She already had a small bottle in her hands and some gauze "First I clean up your head. The wounds look quite deep," she wetted the gauze with antiseptic and jabbed at the punctures with it.
"And quite painful!" he snapped and moved away from her hand.
"Don't be such a baby, Doc," Eli said but obviously he knew that that wasn't a good thing to say and shut up, backing away.
"The kid's right, you know," TJ muttered as she pulled his head towards her, now more gently padding the wounds "You do whine."
Rush glared at her but remained still "I'm a scientist. Not big with pain. This is more than I'm used to."
None of them noticed when Young glanced at them both and left, probably to announce the success of the neurotransmission trial to the rest of the crew. "What are you used to, then?" TJ asked conversationally as she applied dressing to his wounds.
"Migraines," he answered simply, not bothering with further explanations.
"Well, that explains why you're so adorably sweet most of the time," she said with a smirk.
"Har, har," he answered and rubbed at his eyes. Eli, now silently watching the two, couldn't miss the casual and comfortable way they were conversing. TJ was always a social girl and was generally good with others but the Doc didn't seem as a big people's person. And then it hit him. That is how he must've be back on Earth. He probably did have some friends back home, did he? Eli was pretty certain that he wouldn't act like a egocentric jerk towards people he felt comfortable with. Comforted with the knowledge that there was more to the scientist than they were all used to, he decided to leave them alone.
"I should probably get started with my notes," he said and slid off the cot when TJ was done. He steadied himself with one hand against the bed for a moment and made a move to the door. He was stopped by a slender hand wrapping around his arm. He looked at her with an odd expression on is face.
"Not so fast," she said, letting go of him. "Eat something before you disappear from the face of the ship," he started to shake his head but was stopped once more. "I know that if you start now, you'll be at it as long as it take to write everything down. Don't starve yourself to death in the process of saving us, ok?"
He had to admit that she was right, there was no point in arguing, especially when he was feeling that his stomach was demanding a re-fill for what it lost so abruptly twenty minutes ago. He nodded his head and TJ smiled. "C'mon, my treat," she said and he laughed. They went to the mess hall together.
***
It took Rush three days to write down everything he got to know. Even though he was saving the paper as much as he could, writing in tiny letters and on both sides of the paper sheets, it took almost one hundred of them to fit all he deemed useful or interesting. To his co-workers, he seemed to fall into some kind of trance when he was writing. During meals TJ and Eli made him take, he seemed weary and didn't speak much, just enough to complain about a headache.
The second night TJ found him asleep with his head on the table, papers scattered around him. She covered the man with a blanket and took off his glasses. They were leaving an uncomfortably looking mark on the bridge of his nose and were pressuring the wounds on his temples.
As she was about to leave the room, he stirred. She watched his brows crease and a scowl show upon his lips. One of his hands twitched and she realized that he was having a nightmare. She came back to his side and shook him gently. He woke up with a start.
"Everything all right, Doctor?" she asked and he nodded, rubbing his face. She left him like that, not prying about what he was dreaming about.
***
As soon as he opened his eyes, he had to shut them again. The light was definitely too bright. He groaned as he felt his head pounding.
"TJ, he's awake," he heard a voice on his right and recognized it as Eli's. Soon after, a cool hand touched his forehead. It felt good.
"We definitely weren't expecting that," TJ said as he squinted his eyes to adjust to the light.
"And by 'that' you mean…?" he asked, his voice sounding raspy in his own ears.
"When you were returning the knowledge to the depository, something seemed wrong, the cube was blinking red. After the chair released you, you had some sort of attack. Seizures, nose bleeding, respiratory arrest. Apparently your body didn't like the idea of loosing the knowledge," she said. Seeing him squinting, she dimmed the lights. Temporary photophobia, she figured.
"Maybe I'll need to calibrate the cube. The process isn't a natural one," he explained, looking around. He was in his own room, TJ next to him and Eli behind her "The S'hottoss understood that the Ancients were capable of maintaining a stable link designed for continuous contact with the interface. Their brains worked on much higher level then ours," he made a move to sit up but TJ's voice stopped him.
"I wouldn't get up if I were you," she said. Nicholas then noticed an odd thing. He had his shirt on but was missing the bottom half of his attire. He took a cautious peek under the sheets he was covered with.
"Why am I half naked?" he asked, suspicion of what he was about to hear creeping into his voice. TJ looked uncomfortable.
"We had to wash some of your clothes and you didn't have any spare ones…" she muttered, confirming his fears. He stared at them with a look of sheer horror on his face. "You're kidding, right?" he said but their faces said clearly that they weren't.
He groaned heavily and fell on his back, covering his rapidly reddening face with both hands. TJ tried to ease the situation by saying: "It was only me and Eli there…"
"Yes, two people too many," came a muffled reply from beneath his hands. They dropped the subject after that.
TJ had some food ready for him and he ate it under her watchful gaze as Eli reported their progress on his notes. Mainly, it were the total basics about the ship's course, some logs and technical details. They got to know a reason for Destiny's pitiful condition – about sixty years ago it was passing though an electromagnetic storm which caused a magnetic coupling transmission in the shield, which in turn fried some of the systems. Not long after that a hostile vessel attacked and the creatures tried to board the ship. The security systems were able to fend off the attackers at the cost of further damage.
They also had gotten a pretty good idea about the nearest vicinity's layout. The ship was huge and for now Rush only got what they needed the most – near areas that after adjustments might become usable. If only they would be able to repair two of the sealed off corridors, they might get access to a medical scanner, an unlabeled storage room and, most importantly, another water container – there seemed to be one for each sector of the ship. There was also an entry about a cold store, or cryogenic chamber – the translation was difficult to interpret. Whatever it was, might be valuable.
Young dropped by in the meantime to check on him and consult about the best choices for a restoring crew to start repairing the corridors. As there were only two suits, they decided upon three people – one for monitoring the progress from afar (that would be Volker, they all had a crawling suspicion that Rush designated the man only to remove him from his own sight), one of the soldiers for heavy lifting and Simmons, the Icarus mechanic. Young exchanged a few words with TJ and by the time they were finished, Rush was fast asleep, one leg dangling from the side of the bed.
***
***
A/N: Sorry for another author's note but I had to share with you some of my musings.
Every time I watch a movie or a TV show and I see someone seizing, having some sort of attack or whatever else, I wonder: why, not even once, didn't I see the hero soiling himself? Seriously, when someone undergoes such an attack, it's unlikely not to happen, especially with all the pain and suffering added for drama effect. My friend is in medic school and he agrees, he says that in moments like that all constrictors loosen in most of the cases.
One might think that in times when sex, violence, drugs and other (previously) uncomfortable topics are no longer being omitted, on the contrary – shown in most disgusting ways, urine wouldn't be a problem. Where does it come from? Creators' ignorance of facts? Actors' pride? Or is it just plain uncomfortable?
Whatever it might be, I'm breaking the taboo ;) "SG: Universe" is a show for adults and it breaches barriers. Why shouldn't a fanfic about it be the same?
