Disclaimer: SGU and it's Characters belong to their respective owners which, sadly, is not me. I do, however, own Alex and her story line and squad, etc, etc. This has come from my mind because my mind knows no boundaries.

Opera123: Here you go, don't have to wait much longer, more updates soon, I'll try and get another one up before ME3 comes out.


Stepping Up to the Plate

=Alex's P.O.V=

I let of a soft groan of pain. TJ had confirmed at least one broken rib and four fractured ones, she'd done her best to bind them tightly to keep them in place and given me orders not to do anything in a hurry.

I let out a pained sigh as I settled on one of the bench surrounding the main control interface room consoles. "So it's either someone gives up their life or we all die?"

Rush looked up from his spot and nodded. "Exactly, it will buy us a day at least to figure out a way to get the life support working" He stated.

I gave a nod before taking another painful breath, each movement of my lungs and each movement through my body causing a rush of fire and pain to course through every fiber of my being. I glanced towards Matty and swallowed roughly before standing and nodding towards one of the hallways before walking out.

"What is it?"

I cleared my throat glancing back to the Control interface room to make sure no one could hear us. "I'm injured Matty," He went to protest until I put my hand up and stopped him. "I can't ask you or anyone else to make this sacrifice, it's not right and you damn well know it"

"Alex I can't let you do this"

"And I can't ask you or anyone else do to this, Matty you've got a family to get back to, you've got a son and a wife"

He looked away for a second before looking back and laughing weakly. "Jessica's been fucking some guy that's been doing the bathroom for us"

I cocked my eyebrow up. "Really? Love why didn't you say something?"

He looked up, a broken grin slipping to his lips. "I didn't want to burden you with my shit Alex, you don't need it," He sighed heavily scrubbing his hands over his face. "Shits headed south so fast since I've been deployed off world," He sighed heavily leaning against the wall. "This is just going to make it another nail in my coffin Alex"

I hugged him tightly biting through the pain from my ribs and kissed his temple lightly. "It'll be alright love," I looked back to the CIR and sighed softly seeing Rush watching us. "Come on, this shit's about to get ugly"

We stepped back into the CIR, Rush's eyes narrowed slightly watching us. "A problem?"

I shook my head moving my eyes from Rush to Eli and then back again. "Tell me what you need me to do to seal that shuttle"

Rush shook his head light. "You can't do it"

"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do Doctor Rush; I can't expect someone else to do this"

Rush shook his head standing. "You do this and we'll lose your strengths, the skills we'll need later on down the line to survive"

"Matty's more than capable of doing the things I can do" I motioned to Matty next to me.

"He doesn't have the same training you do"

I sighed softly and brushed back my fringe bringing my eyes to Rush's. "Nick, I can't ask someone else to do this and that's final," I winced slightly grabbing my ribs and pushed away Matty as he stepped forward. "I'm fine"

A radio crackled on one of the console before Scott's voice came through. "Rush is the senator in the control interface room with you? He's not in his room"

I looked to Matty and nodded towards the door. "Go help them"

He nodded lightly turning and striding off; I watched him leave and sighed heavily. Great I'll be in the shit with him for a few days. Matty and I had known each other since we were kids, we'd grown up down the road from each other and done everything with each other until I'd joined the Air force and he'd joined the Navy, it was the last time in 5 years that we saw each other, after that I'd been told I was getting a new member for my squad, a transfer from the navy, I'd even been given his file which had disappeared into a stack of files on my desk never to be seen again and it wasn't until he'd walked into the workshop that it had registered it was him. When I'd been shot and nearly killed he'd been the one sifting through the broken wreckage of the cargo jet we'd been on to save my life, he'd been the one to stop the bleeding from the three rounds put into my chest.

"Alex?"

I broke from my thoughts and looked up to Rush nodding lightly. "What?"

"I need your help searching through the database" Rush motioned to a console.

"Aye, I bet you do" I murmured softly straightening myself up and headed to one of the free consoles.


Chloe hurtled into the room with murder in her eyes, I stepped back out of her way minding my ribs, Rush was in her war path as she shoved him towards a wall and began kicking and slapping at him.

"Miss Armstrong!" I moved forward to grab her and took an elbow to the ribs winding me briefly before Scott rounded me and tried to grab a hold of her to drag of her off.

"You! You did this! You killed him! You killed all of us!" She screamed at him.

"Chloe calm down" TJ said trying to calm the hysterical girl.

"Get away from me!" She screamed shoving TJ away before pulling free from Scott. "All of you!"

Rush brought himself to his feet and approached Chloe cautiously and nervously. "M...M...Miss Armstrong," He stammered softly. "You're in shock. Believe me, I understand," He paused slightly. "Everyone deals with tragedy in different ways, you're looking for someone to blame"

"I'm not looking" Chloe snapped taking a threatening step forward.

Rush backed up a few steps before regaining his ground. "I'm sorry about your father," He began softly. "I truly am. He was a good man and he certainly wouldn't have been my choice," He took a cautious step forward. "But you must realize, none of this was my fault. I didn't create the situation that forced us here. There was no other way"

Chloe collapsed onto a bench, her head in her hands as TJ sat next to her.

This could end badly. I watched as Rush squatted in front of her and lowered his tone.

"Miss Armstrong. I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but," He paused. "But this ship," He looked to her. "This ship could be the most important discovery mankind has made since the Stargate," TJ rolled her eyes lightly as Rush spoke. "You know the Icarus project was something your father truly believed in, enough to risk his career to support it"

Chloe raised her head to glare a deadly glare at him. "What difference does it make if we all die?" She snarled lowly.

Rush sighed softly. "A number of people died during the attack on the base. Some of them I knew very well"

"I'm sure some had more value than others" She stated bitterly.

Rush looked taken back for a second. "As human beings all of them were invaluable," He lowered his head attempting to sway her to his way of thinking. "Look, my point is, I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure no one gave their life in vain," He stood and looked down at her hopefully. "Please give me a chance"

She looked up before standing, pure hate in her eyes as she moved past him. I glanced to Rush a genuine look of hurt crossed his face as he turned away.

I settled down on the bench, pain searing through my ribs.

"Are you ok?"

I looked up to TJ. "If I had some pills I'd be better but I'll be fine"

She gave a slight smile. "I gave give you a shot of morphine..."

I shook my head. "No, save it for someone who needs it, this isn't the first injury I've had"

She gave a nod before departing to tend to others.

"We need to get back to work"

I nodded to Rush and leant against the console again, I scanned my eyes over the words and images as I flicked through them before stopping to read bits and pieces. I furrowed my brow lightly. Destiny? Is that the ships name? I searched through the databases and found it several times in the same context as the first. "I think I found a ship name"

Rush moved over to beside me nudging me out the way carefully. "Destiny?"

I nodded. "I found it several times, each time it's used in the same context while they're talking about the ship"

"Why Destiny?"

I shrugged lightly. "Perhaps she was their Destiny? Maybe she's destined for something bigger than we can comprehend"

"It's now our Destiny"

I gave a light nod before glancing to Eli. "Going to help us out Eli?"

He looked over before sitting up. "I just watched a man die"

"I know"

"Do you even care?"

I looked away before looking back to him. "I'm Colonel Eli, I've lost several people under my command, mostly recently I lost three of my closest friends... my family, in the attack on Icarus" I swallowed roughly. "One of them died in my arms Eli," I wet my lips looking back to the console. "It's never and easy thing to go through but sometimes you must put your emotions aside and do what you can to help the others around you no matter how much you want to grieve" I looked to Rush's hand as it curled around mine, no one other than Matty knew Maria had died and all I could do was assume Greg and Dan had perished too until I heard otherwise.

Eli stalled before glancing to Rush. "What about you?"

"Of course I care but I'm also trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. I'm also running several searching through the database for anything helpful"

"So what did you find?"

"Destiny" I answered.

"As in ours?" He stood coming to stand on the other side of me.

I shook my head. "It's the ships name"

Rush motioned to the screen in front of us. "It also appears as if the ancients were never actually here"

I furrowed my brow looking at the piece of information he was reading. "I thought this was an ancient ship"

"It is, they sent it out unmanned," He stated before looking up. "They probably learned to ascend before they got a chance to come aboard"

I wracked my brains briefly for a definition and gave a nod when it finally sunk in what he meant. "What's that?" I nodded my head towards the flashing on a nearby screen.

Rush growled softly tapping at the screen before taking off down the corridor to find out what was happening.