Author's Note:

I am really surprised by how much I am actually changing in my re-writes; cutting out whole sections of dialogue and replacing them, adding in character thoughts all over the place, adding in entire paragraphs. But I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.

A lot of danger in this chapter, as well as a lot of Rush vs. Young, with Scott and Eli in the middle.

I hope you enjoy reading it :D

(Revised)

Chapter Three

Destiny: Observation deck.

"Firing,"Rush's voice said over Young's radio.

A second later, every single one of the vast array of energy cannons that littered the Destiny's exterior opened fire; yellow blasts of energy lanced out from the ship in great salvos. The blasts slammed into the oncoming asteroids, breaking the larger ones up and pulverising the smaller rocks to dust.

Young gazed at the cannons firing in quick succession, blasting asteroids out of the Destiny's path. Smaller pieces of rock and dust impacted harmlessly against the yellow tinted shields, dealing virtually no damage compared to the larger asteroids.

It really was an incredible sight; the blue light from the star shining against the beautiful ship and the jagged rocks; the stars twinkling in the distance; the cannons unleashing pockets of fire from their barrels; the dust from the rocks glistening like diamonds in the star light. For a few moments, Young and Scott were too stunned to say anything.

Despite the ships age and degradation, it was still far more advanced and powerful than any kind of technology Earth currently had at their disposal. Young imagined that when the ship had just been launched, during the height of the Ancient civilisation, Destiny would have been a forced to be reckoned with. With full control of the ships systems, our battleships would not stand a chance, Young thought. Good thing we control it then.

"Is it working?" Rush asked impatiently. "My sensors indicate a decrease in strain on the shields, but also a significant increase in power consumption..."

"Don't worry, Doctor," Young replied slowly, gazing with amazement out of the observation window. "It's working just-"

Boom!

The entire ship lurched suddenly; Scott and Young grabbed hold of the hand rail again for support. All of the pulse cannons ceased fire simultaneously. The deck was plunged into pitch darkness, before the ship lurched again and began to spin, front first. The Destiny's top side began to plough into oncoming asteroids; it was then that Young's stomach plummeted with dread.

The shields are down, the Colonel thought with horror. Oh my God.

The incoming asteroids were colliding with the ship itself, not the shields. Young watched as the tiny rocks punctured the Destiny's hull all like dozens of needles into the skin. Artificial gravity prevented Young and Scott from losing their feet, but the Colonel still found the ship spinning extremely disorientating.

"What the hell is going on?" Eli yelled over the radio from the gate room.

"Power just went out throughout the whole ship!" Rush screamed in reply.

The Ancient vessel was still turning vertically, front first; smaller rocks impacted on the ship's hull like a vast meteor shower. The pulse cannons had broken up most of the larger rocks into smaller pieces that caused less damage, but were instead able to pierce Destiny's hull.

Scott and Young grabbed hold of the metal railing as the ship lurched again, gaping in terror and shock at what was happening.

"We've lost console power in the gate room!" Eli said. "We can do anything."

"Same here in the control interface room," Rush's frantic voice stated. "Wait, hang on... Consoles are back up!"

"Rush!" Young screamed into the radio. "What happened?"

"The ship stalled!"Rush yelled back. "My limits weren't enough... the immense flow of power completely overwhelmed the power conduits."

"Both the shields and the engines are down!" Eli yelled, his voice breaking; he's freaking out, Young thought.

"FTL drive is also not functioning, and the weapons have been temporarily burned out...even life support is down!" Rush informed.

"So, basically we're screwed," Young replied gruffly. "You said you knew what you were doing, Rush!"

"I had seconds, not minutes, seconds, to put a plan together!" The shocked scientist retorted. "I had to deal with very complex calculations; ones I doubt your pathetic jarhead brain would be able to comprehend!"

You bastard, Young thought, as anger rose within him. Lieutenant Scott turned to look at Young; his face seemed to be some kind of warning. Don't forget where your loyalties lie, Lieutenant.

Bang!

Young watched as a rather large asteroid scraped the top side of Destiny, leaving jagged scrap marks along the entire length of the ship. The screeching noise echoed throughout the ship, before the rock was deflected into space by one of the many textured elements that covered the ships surface.

"And at least I am actually trying to do something to save the ship!"

"For God's sake, it's always about the damn ship; never about the people onboard. People are more important than some damaged ship out in the middle of nowhere!" Young said, the anger boiling through him; spit sprayed from his mouth as he spoke. "So stop pulling excuses out of your ass, and get to work fixing this problem!"

"What do you think I'm doing, you ignorant-,"

"Shut up! Both of you just shut the hell up!" Eli's high pitched voice cut through the argument like a knife, silencing the warring Colonel and scientist; we can't be doing this, Young realised regretfully. Not now.

Matthew Scott moved closer to Colonel Young, and spoke in a whispered tone laced with warning.

"Sir, you have to stop," he said; Young snapped up to stare into Scott's eyes. "Everyone on this ship is depending on you and Rush."

There was a painful silence; he's right, Young realised with guilt. My resentment of Rush is endangering the lives of everyone under my command.

Again.

"Just fix it, Rush," Everett Young said bluntly into the radio.

Young then remained quiet, while Rush simply sighed, before Eli's stunned voice filled the awkward void.

"Doctor Rush, I've increased your power flow limits and transferred them down to your console. I'm pretty sure that they will work this time..."uncertainty was practically bursting through his voice; you have nothing to worry about, Eli, Young thought. You have a habit of saving our asses. I'm sure this time will be no different.

"I trust your ability at mathematics, Eli," Rush said calmly, before his voice turned to ice. "Unlike someone else's ability at leadership."

Ouch, Young thought sarcastically. You think I care what you think about my leadership skills, you selfish bastard? The Colonel knew that he was out of he was not doing a very good job at leading the Destiny expedition; I get that. But just like the rest of the crew, Everett Young was not supposed to be here.

The Icarus Project was supposed to have been his last tour before he returned home to his wife; I love and miss you so much, Emily. Young had not even been a part of the expedition team; Colonel David Telford, who was back on Earth, was supposed to be in Young's place. Christ, I wish he was here instead of me, Young thought. Despite the fact that he is an ass.

"Okay, entering calculations now, resetting everything..."Rush said, absent minded, as if their previous argument had been forgotten.

Young new that it wasn't; Rush was pissed off, he could tell. The Colonel had a feeling that this confrontation was going to come back and bite him on the ass. Let's just pray that Wray doesn't find out, otherwise I'll never hear the end of it. Hell, she might even try to take over the ship again. While the thought that somewhat sarcastically, Young realised that it could actually happen again.

Young pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and stared out over the darkened ship. The tiny particles of dust and rock colliding with the ship looked almost beautiful from the observation deck, even though in reality the Colonel knew that they were causing great damage.

Suddenly, there was a loud rumble from deep within the ship, and the pointed nose of the Destiny immediately began to rise. The engines are back on, Young thought. The ship was levelling itself out. The rocks and dust were once again intercepted by the yellow shield. Lights began coming back on all over the ship, and there was a quiet hissing sound as the air began flowing through the vents again.

"Well done, everyone," Young said sincerely, his dislike of Rush temporarily forgotten. "Especially you, Eli. Great work."

A distinct laugh came through the radio; Eli was clearly pleased with himself. Good, Young thought. The man deserves the ego boost.

"Thank you, Eli," Rush said. "I should have asked you to do the calculations to begin with. Well, now that certain death has been averted for now, let's get the weapons back up and running with the new power flow restrictions..."

Young ignored the techno-babble; he just stared out of the observation window at the immense silhouette of the Destiny against the stars.

Suddenly, the Destiny's vast array of double barrelled pulse turrets opened fire once more, blasting nearby asteroids into oblivion and clearing a path for the ship.

"C-Colonel Young?" a stuttering female voice said over the radio.

Everett Young put aside his resentment towards Rush for a moment; like Greer's anger, and Scott's doubt, the Colonel would deal with that problem when it next arose. He lifted his radio to his mouth.

"Lieutenant Johansen?" Young asked softly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm in the infirmary, Colonel," Lieutenant Tamara Johansen stated, her voice wavering somewhat.

Known by her friends as TJ, Johansen was an Air Force field medic. After Doctor Simms had been killed at Icarus, she had taken up the mantel of ranking medical officer onboard Destiny. She found it difficult to cope sometimes, but she made do with what she had. She's strong, Young thought; and kind, and beautiful, and caring.

No, Everett, he thought to himself. You cannot think like that; not anymore. The consequences of your actions have already reared their ugly head. This will just cause more problems with Emily.

His brain told him to stay detached, while his heart instructed him otherwise.

"We have wounded here; seven or eight people have come to me with potentially serious head injuries from the turbulence," TJ's voice seemed stronger now; good girl, Young thought. You can do it. "I need help here; I can't do this on my own."

Great; one more problem to add to the growing list, Young thought with annoyance.

"I'll get Lieutenant James to gather some help and then send her down," the Colonel said in reply. "I have to sort out this asteroid situation, but I will come down as soon as I can."

There was a pause. TJ sighed over the radio, almost inaudibly, and then spoke; her voice a little quieter than before. Is she disappointed? Or upset?

"Copy that, Colonel," she said neutrally, before deactivating the radio with a fizzle of static. Great, now she's pissed off at me too. Nice going, Everett.

Young pocketed the radio, before turning to Lieutenant Scott; he spoke heavily, as if carrying a huge weight on his shoulders.

"I'm heading to the gate room," Young stated matter-of-factly.

And with that, the troubled and conflicted Colonel walked slowly out of the observation deck, leaving Scott to stare at the huge ship and its magnificent surroundings.

This is going to be a long day, Young thought.

Destiny: Gate room.

Nicholas Rush strutted into the gate room, wearing a grim from across his face, still fuming over his confrontation with Colonel Young. He stopped for a second, looking around at the faces that had all turned to look at him.

Eli quickly looked back down at the Ancient console, checking that the power levels were nominal, as Adam Brody, a relatively short man in his late thirties, looked over his shoulder. Sergeant Hunter Riley was stood at the console on the other side of the room, along with Doctor Lisa Park; a reasonably attractive dark haired scientist.

Sergeant Greer was also stood in the centre of the magnificent gate room, gripping an assault rifle in his typical stoic manner. As he turned towards Rush, he raised the rifle by a few millimetres, just enough to be noticeable. What are you going to do? Shoot me?

Greer and Park then turned to stare at the Stargate, as the nine chevrons lit up and the ring began to rotate. The gate stopped, and the gate bearing lit up, locking the first symbol of the gate address. The gate then began spinning in the opposite direction. What an incredible device, Rush thought with awe.

"Eli," he said gruffly. "What are you doing?"

Eli looked sheepishly at Rush before replying hesitantly.

"Uh, dialling the nearby gate..." He gestured at the grey ball hovering above his shoulder. "We were going to send a Kino through."

Interesting contraptions, the Kino's, Rush thought. The Ancients had designed them to be sent through an active wormhole, and to relay telemetry back to the ship to determine survivability. They also functioned as a camera, which was useful for getting a good look at a planet before any excursion through the gate.

Eli had chosen the Kino dispenser room as his quarters, and had begun to film a documentary about their expedition to the Destiny. Rush didn't approve of this; he is playing trivial games that only succeed in wasting time when he should be working.

Despite Eli's occasional immaturity, he was still a genius and had proven himself on multiple occasions. He deserved Rush's trust; just as long as he doesn't misplace his.

"Good idea, Eli," Rush replied. He smiled a little in amusement as Eli and Brody breathed a sigh of relief. It's like their afraid of me.

Rush turned to look at the jump countdown, before speaking again. "We are relatively safe for now, and we still have twelve hours until we jump back into FTL."

"Exactly," Eli stated, as the gate locked another chevron with an electronic thump. "Might as well see what's on that planet, while we are here, right?"

Rush slowly moved towards Sergeant Riley's console, and pressed a couple of buttons. Riley frowned at the intrusion, but stepped back, shrugging in resignation.

"Well, I think that finding out why Destiny took such a big risk dropping out of FTL in the middle of an asteroid field is a better reason to explore the planet than 'for the sake of it.'"

"You really think the Destiny came here for a reason?" Eli asked curiously, as he picked up a small Ancient remote control up from the console.

It was not unlike a handheld video game console; I'm sure Eli feels right at home using it. The remote featured a small screen in the centre with a multitude of buttons and dials to both sides. The remote served two major purposes: flying the Kino ball and dialling a Stargate back to Destiny from a planet.

"Almost certainly," Rush replied.

"Well, that makes sense," Riley interjected. "We know that Destiny is reasonably intelligent. May not be a fully independent artificial intelligence, but it definitely does certain things for a reason."

"And coming out of FTL into an asteroid field is a huge risk to take, so there must be a really good reason why," Brody added.

Lisa Park was being very quiet; Rush found her to be relatively shy and lacking in confidence, but she was never afraid to voice her opinions or concerns. She was a good enough scientist, better than some of the other people on the ship, but her constant lack of certainty and confidence restricted her potential.

Then again, she might not have had anything to contribute. Then why is she even here? Rush asked himself.

"Exactly," Rush said. "And it is therefore safe to assume that whatever the ship deemed so important is through that gate."

"Or perhaps the asteroid field was not here when the seeders deposited the gate?" Eli suggested.

The final chevron of the gate address locked with another electronic sound, and the Stargate stopped spinning.

Whoosh!

Suddenly an immense funnel of energy erupted from the ring. Nicknamed the 'kawoosh', due the distinctive sound it makes, the burst of energy formed because of the creation of an unstable wormhole. After a couple of seconds, the unstable vortex retreated back into the ring, stabilising into the familiar puddle-like event horizon.

"Well, that never gets old," Eli said, a toothy grin on his face. No, it doesn't, Rush agreed.

Eli looked down briefly at the remote, before he manipulated the Kino controls and the ball began hovering slowly forwards towards the gate. It entered the event horizon with a tiny ripple, relative to the Kino's size. The two consoles instantly beeped as they began receiving data. Time to see what mysteries this new galaxy holds, Rush thought; he could barely contain his excitement.

"Whoa," Rush said, a hint of a grin creeping across his face. "That's interesting..."

"What is it?" Eli asked, as he moved round to look at Kino feed on the console.

"There is no atmosphere what-so-ever," the scientist stated. "The temperature is well below zero, and look at the Kino picture."

The video feed from the Kino was simply black; there was nothing. That's odd, Rush thought curiously.

"Is the Stargate in space?" Eli asked.

"I don't know."

"Uh, Rush? You might want to take a look at this," Brody interrupted, pointing at his console.

"What is it?" Rush asked, as he walked over to Brody's console. Can't he do anything by himself?

"I'm not sure if I'm reading this right..."

Rush looked at the screen for a few seconds, before his eyes widened in surprise. On the screen was a scan of a planetary body, with a red dot displaying the location of the Stargate. Incredulity rose within Rush; how is this possible?

The Kino feed then panned downwards, to the left, revealing a strip of grey stretching out for miles. A harsh blue light glared through the camera lens for a moment, before Eli pressed a button on the Kino remote to polarize the lens and reduce the flare. Rush then noticed hundreds of objects floating in the blackness, highlighted by the sunlight. Asteroids, Rush realised with shock.

"Eli, that gate isn't on a planet," Rush said quietly, as all of the present science team frowned with curiosity. "It's on an asteroid."