Young: "But what does that even mean?"

Rush: "We're talking about a level of order, present at the very beginning of space time that goes beyond anything we ever conceived. I believe that the more we learn, the more pieces Destiny uncovers, then the greater our power to control everything around us will be."

Young: "So it is about power."

Rush: "Yes Colonel. Power to change things …control our fate …right the wrongs…"

Young: "To play God."

Rush: "No! To gain greater understanding."

Young: "What the Hell do you want from me?"
Rush: "I want you to work with me! Together. Side by side for the benefit of everyone."

Young: "It'd be a Hell of a lot easier if you stopped keeping secrets."

Rush: "It's fair to say we've had our differences, but that ends today. You have my word."

Young: "Oh man, you are A LOT of work."

- SGU "The Greater Good"

"A garden?" Rush repeated, "This" he indicated the green landscape densely populated with fruit bearing trees and plants all growing amidst nearly waist deep grass, "is hardly my idea of a garden. A garden should look plowed and weeded and well kempt, this looks more like an overrun orchard."

"Well I'd stay away from the apples if I was you" Young quipped.

"Not a problem at all," Rush replied, "Especially as there are no apples on these trees as far as I can see".

Though every tree and bush in sight seemed to nurture some kind of fruit, none of them looked familiar. "Maybe we should've brought Greer after all" Young thought, "It'll take TJ weeks to test all of these edibles for toxins".

Before they'd gone three yards from the shuttle, at a relatively slow pace in the cumbersome spacesuits, Rush stopped in his tracks and before Young could stop him he'd removed his helmet and taken a deep breath.

Young could've strangled him. But it appeared he wasn't dropping dead on the spot from a toxic atmosphere so it was hard to argue with him and besides he had no way to yell at Rush since he'd removed his helmet, so Young quickly released his own so that he could throw it at Rush's head, "I thought you said you couldn't get any readings through the signal's interference pattern!" he bellowed, thinking better of throwing his helmet at Rush. After all it could damage the helmet.

"I couldn't" Rush said, "But there seemed little point in continuing this hike in these spacesuits. The trees ahead are so closely packed that you'll be lucky to get through them even without the spacesuit."

Young clamped down a howl of frustration and instead said a prayer to whoever might be out there to thank them for watching over the lost and the lunatics of this universe.

As he and Rush removed the rest of their spacesuits, Young noticed something, "Why are you still wearing your Christmas sweater?" he asked.

"Because the ship gets chiller every year" was Rush's terse reply.

"Well we're not on the ship now" Young said.

"Well maybe this planet feels chilly!" Rush countered.

But it didn't. The temperature was actually well, perfect and the air felt crisp and clean without even the slightest hint of the smoke and pollution or the stink of human sweat that often permeated Destiny.

"It smells divine" Scott called, "Whatever it is."

Young spun around to see that Lieutenant Scott had also seen fit to remove his helmet, "Just stay with the shuttle lieutenant and leave the smelling to the elderly and decrepit among us" Young shouted. "And who told you YOU could remove your helmet?"

"Rush didn't ask…"

"Never mind what Rush did or didn't do, lieutenant" Young said, "Just stay with the shuttle as ordered and we'll call you if we need you."

()

After returning the suits and Lieutenant Scott to the shuttle, Rush and Young continued on into the unknown. Without the suits the going was considerably easier Young had to admit as he faithfully followed Rush as he stalked off into the increasingly dense foliage, taking samples from trees and soil every few yards and testing them with a kit he'd tucked into Young's backpack when he wasn't looking.

"I wondered why this damn thing was so heavy all of a sudden" Young said, "I figured I was just getting old."

"Well you are the younger man after all" Rush reminded him as he easily kept ahead of the Colonel, who noticed that Rush didn't have a heavy pack to encumber him.

"A few lousy months" Young muttered, "Hardly means I should be your pack mule."

"You could've sent Greer" Rush reminded him.

"Did you really want me to send you down into this forest ALONE with Greer?"

"No" Rush admitted, turning to face the Colonel, "I'm glad it was you."

"Thank you Rush" Young said, surprised, "that is quite possibly the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Rush frowned, "You're not going to hug me again are you?"

"Twice in 24 hours?" Young replied, "I wouldn't dare."

"Good choice" Rush said, returning his attention to the sample he was currently testing."

"Have you found anything?" Young asked.

"Nothing but healthy nutrient-rich soil and equally healthy and nutrient-rich fruit" Rush said, "In fact I'd say we could get all the nutrients we needed to survive indefinitely here by simply eating a selection of fruit every day."

"That's nice" Young replied, hoping Rush couldn't hear his stomach growling. "Do we know yet if any of this is safe to eat?"

"It's hard to say without a detailed chemical analysis" Rush replied, "But I've detected nothing harmful with the limited tests I was able to bring with me."

"So it would be ok if I…"

"Took a bite? Dear me Colonel, weren't you the one warning me just a few hours ago to stay away from the apples?"

"Do you see any apples?" Young asked looking around them at the various brightly colored offerings of the orchard, "Because I sure don't."

"You do realize of course, Colonel that the 'apple' itself didn't appear in the original Eden myth at all" Rush said unknowingly slipping into his lecture voice, "No specific fruit was ever named and in fact many scholars believe the mythical fruit was far more likely to be a pomegranate."

"But still mythical right?"

"Right."

"So you're not at all shaken by the fact that we've traveled trillions of miles, sacrificed more than twenty years of our lives, all the time following some impossible signal, which indicated an impossible structure of some kind that existed before the universe itself, all of it leading us here to this orchard which just so happens to be filled with the exact kind of food and water and air we need to survive and you're not even a little bit awed by that?"

"I agree that it's all very convenient" Rush said, "But the very fact that this environment is so perfect for our needs leads me to the conclusion that it was in fact designed for us, which therefore leads me to the further conclusion that we have been lead here all along by some kind of superior race, for currently unknown reasons. Possibly the same alien race that created the planet we left Dr. Caine and the others on. You remember the planet that shouldn't have been there…"

"If you recall, Rush, Dr. Caine seemed to think God created that planet" Young said.

"It is a well-established fact" Rush said, "That less advanced species often mistake more advanced species for gods. Or did you miss the SGC's long standing battle against the Goa'uld?"

"All right Professor" Young said, "What's your plan?"

"My plan is…" Rush said, "that we go ahead and eat one piece of fruit each" he said, reaching up to pluck a fruit each from two entwining trees and handing one of them to Young. "There" he said, "Now we'll both eat some fruit and if you drop dead then we'll know not to eat the blue fruit and if I die then we'll know not to eat the red fruit."

"I noticed you assigned me the fruit that looks like an Easter egg that got left in the blue dye too long, while you get that relatively normal looking red finger thing" Young pouted.

"I assure you Colonel; my tests say these fruits are equally healthy."

"Your tests are also incomplete" Young reminded him, "There are still thousands of unknown toxins that could be lurking in these that your tests would never find."

"Colonel" Rush chided taking a huge bite of his fruit, "Where's your faith?"

Young hoped he wouldn't regret this. Wordlessly he brought the blue egg fruit to his mouth and took a bite.