Stargate Universe: Continuation

Episode Two: Bait and Switch

Part 1: Switched


Previously on Stargate Universe

Eli and Young woke up after five years in stasis to find the ship with serious problems. Nonsensical problems with power were scattered about the ship and Eli tried to stay on top of them. Eli went back to Earth to find that they were sending help. But Young started to suspect that everything they were seeing was a lie, an elaborate simulation. He turned out to be right. Aliens were holding them hostage. To escape the simulation, Eli and Young killed themselves and everyone on board. What will happen next? Time to find out.


Eli's eyes flew open. He still remembered the explosion overtaking him and Young, and he shivered and blinked. He shook it off and looked around. Just like last time, he couldn't see far beyond his pod. This time though, he looked farther. He could see that there were pods on the other side to.

He tried to move, and found that it was pretty difficult. It felt like he was being restrained by something. But as he did this, he suddenly noticed that his arms appeared to be a lot more hairy then he remembered… and muscular to. He looked down, and he also wondered why his… parts… didn't seem to be his either. He wondered at this for a moment before dismissing it and struggling against the field holding him.

It was difficult, but he finally managed to break through it and take a step forward. The liquid around him seemed to be oxygenated, so after he had done this he immediately fell through the liquid and to the bottom of the pod. His movement also wasn't restrained because of this. He was wearing a mask as well.

He took one step and was standing against the pod screen. He tried punching the screen, but it didn't even budge and pain shot through his wrist. He looked around the pod and found a panel. He pried it off with his hand and examined the wires. It wasn't of ancient design, and as such he had no idea what wires did what. Figuring that there had to be safety protocols; he pulled all of the wires until they snapped.

He had been right, the pod went right open and the liquid spilled out onto the floor. He pulled off the mask and breathed a few times. Air was blowing up from the bottom of the pod, which he guessed had been oxygenating the liquid. Eli had noticed it was a bit thicker than water, and must've been some kind of way to enhance the simulation.

As he stepped out onto the cold metal floor he shivered against the air. When he had done this, the pod shut behind him. He looked around into the darkness and could see nothing. He turned back to the pod and was about to open it again when he saw his reflection, and breathed out. The face he was looking in that reflection wasn't his, it was Colonel Young's.

"What… in… the…?" Eli started to wonder. But he stopped himself when he heard himself speaking in Young's voice. "Oh… crap…"

Knowing that this wasn't the time, he keyed open the pod and stepped back inside. He grabbed one of the lights mounted to the side of the pod and pulled it out. There were no wires attacked to it, and just as he had hoped, it didn't turn off.

He turned it over and found that a circle was there. He pressed down on the circle and it depressed inward a bit before he let go and a cylindrical rod came out. He grasped the rod and moved the light around.

"Alien flashlights… check…" Eli said. He stepped back out of the pod and flashed the light around. He was in a long hallway with no windows or definitive details. Pods filled with liquid and the crew of the destiny lined the hallway, although he tried to keep his eyes away from people's private areas and respect their privacy. He still blushed though.

Suddenly, he noticed someone else not far away that seemed to be struggling in their pod. He couldn't see the person clearly and ran over. Inside, to Eli's big surprise it was himself struggling against the field that had held him in place moments earlier. His eyes widened as he stared at himself, and the other him suddenly looked up and at Eli and his eyes widened to.

He quickly went to the pods terminal and tapped buttons. Unfortunately, the terminal was in a language he didn't recognize. Just as he thought this, he suddenly began to understand. The letters morphed into words he could read, and he quickly found the pods emergency shutdown feature and activated it.

The pod with the other him in it swung open. The person inside pulled off the mask and stepped out before assuming a stance like he wanted to fight.

"Who the hell are you?" The other Eli asked.

"I was about to ask you the same question…" Eli asked. Suddenly, the pod next to the other him closed and he looked at his reflection. His eyes widened yet again in surprise and he looked back at Eli.

"Eli…? Is that you…?" He asked.

"Colonel Young…?" Eli asked. Young nodded with Eli's chin.

"This is beyond weird, why are we in the wrong bodies?" Young asked. It was a little disconcerting to hear his own voice come out of that mouth.

"Colonel, I'm not sure, but I have a theory." Eli said. Young stopped his fighting stance and examined Eli from head to toe, which slightly embarrassed Eli even though he wasn't in his own body.

"Well then spit it out." Young said.

"I made precautions so this wouldn't happen, but it seems that it happened anyways." Eli said. "When we climbed into the pod together, it found our consciousness's as separate entities and stored them in the appropriate storage device. The problem is, it appears that when it came time to put them back, the computer got mixed up and put them in the wrong bodies."

"Oh… you had better be able to fix this…" Young said.

"I can just use the pods to do that sir, it shouldn't be a problem." Eli said.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we would need to be on Destiny to do that…" Young said. "It looks like we're somewhere else."

"I'm just worried that these people haven't woken up yet…"

"Well, they were in stasis when we were in the simulation. It's understandable that it would take a few moments for them to wake up…"

"Either way, we should get them out of these pods." Eli said.

"How'd you get me out?" Young asked.

"It's simple, press the small button on the top right of the terminal and then the bar along the left side. That will execute the emergency shutdown." Eli said.

"I'll take this side of the corridor, you take the other side." Young said.

"Got it." Eli said nodding.

They quickly split up and started releasing people from the pods one by one. Sometimes, they would find empty ones and have to skip over that pod. As they did this, people started waking up inside and outside the pods and panicking. Young kept going but shouted over the loud conversation.

"Remain calm!" He yelled. "We are no longer on Destiny and we've been taken prisoner by an Alien species! You have to be quiet or we'll probably be discovered! Eli, repeat that to everyone you get out of their pods."

"But you are Eli…" One person said.

"Not the time to explain." Young replied.

As he did this, they quieted down. They repeated the warnings to everyone he got out of their pods. Eventually, he reached Scott who nodded and joined the crowd as he told him. Young got out Chloe and TJ. Then Eli got Greer, Dr. Park, Volker, and Brody. Finally they got Rush and everyone else they could find.

When they had freed everyone within visual range, the about one hundred people on Destiny, Eli, Young, Scott, Greer, Rush, Brody, and Volker gathered at the head of the crowd.

"Would someone care to explain what the hell is going on?" Greer asked.

"Good, we thought you were torture subjects or something…" Eli said.

"What do you mean sir?" Greer asked.

"That's not me, it's Eli. I'm Colonel Young." Young said. Greer and Scott turned to him.

"What?" Scott asked.

"Look, we switched bodies and there isn't time to explain all of this. We need to escape and get back to Destiny." Young said.

"I agree, but there is the slight problem of not knowing where we are in the first place." Rush said.

"Not to mention naked in front of the whole rest of the crew…" Brody said.

"That's not our biggest issue." Young said. "We need to get out of here before the enemy discovers we've escaped from confinement."

"But how are we going to do that if we have no idea where we're going?" Rush asked.

"We also need our equipment back; we won't be able to put up a fight looking like this." Scott said.

"Well, for some reason I understand the alien language. I could hack into their computers and try to find a schematic." Eli said.

"I understood it to while I was putting in emergency overrides." Young said.

"Maybe everyone who participated in the simulation can then." Eli replied. "Either way, I'm going to do that now if that's okay with you."

"Go ahead." Young said. He turned to the crowd. "Everyone, I'm Colonel Young, me and Eli have switched bodies. I need you all to remain calm and quiet while Eli pulls up schematics so that we can find our way back to Destiny. No questions, there will be time for that later. Just get ready to follow me when I tell you."

A few minutes passed before Eli rejoined them.

"Okay, I managed to find a detailed schematic and sets of blueprints." Eli said. "We're on a ship… it's roughly three times the size of Destiny and heavily armed. There are no docking ports or clamps that would be compatible with Destiny, so it's safe to assume that we were brought over here on ships."

"If this ship is heavily armed, there is no way we'll be able to just fly out of here. We'd be shot down almost immediately." Rush said.

"That would be bad." Volker piped in.

"Well then we'll have to go the fire control and disable them." Eli said. "There's an armory not far from here, and it appears that whatever we were wearing was stored there to."

"Good, I think we could all use some clothes." Greer said.

"They also have a tractor beam." Eli said suppressing a grin. "Their using it to keep Destiny where it is, we'll have to disable that before we leave to. There are only two ways of taking it down though. Either we go to the bridge or someone goes and blows it up."

"But we weren't carrying any C4 on us when we went into the pods." Scott said.

"On the contrary, I always keep spare C4 in the back pouch of my uniform." Greer said.

"I could hug you." Eli said.

"Please don't…" Greer said.

"Fine, then we've got a plan." Young said. "First we'll all head for the Armory and suit up. We'll outfit all of the military personnel with their weapons and some of the civilians with the pistols the military personnel carried at all times. After that, we'll split up into three teams.

Scott will lead a team with Corporal Barnes, Lieutenant James, and some other guys along with Rush, Brody, Volker, and Eli to the Fire Control Center of this ship where you can all find a way to shut down their weapons.

Greer will go by himself to the tractor beam emitter and destroy it with C4.

Everyone else will head towards the ships docking bay and get back to Destiny once the weapons and tractor beam are disabled. Then you'll all regroup in the docking bay and get back to Destiny to. Once everyone is on-board, we'll jump into FTL. Anyone got a problem with that?"

"Yes." Brody said.

"Well suck it up." Young replied.

"Greer? Stealth?" Eli asked.

"I can do it when I want to." Greer said. "You can come and watch if you want."

"No…" Eli replied.

"Didn't think so." Greer said.

"Okay then, we've got a plan. Let's get moving." Young said.