Well, I've got a little present for St Nicholas Day for all of you: a new chapter! ;)

Thank you for all the follows, favs and reviews this story has received. Also I got an anonymous review on (okay... it were two, but I was able to pinpoint the second one to an account I already follow myself :P ) and I'm going to quickly answer that here:

Max: I'm glad you enjoy the way I'm doing things. There are different opinions about this among my readers - at least those that have left a review. In the end I'll simply tell the story that I want to tell, while keeping as much of canon as I deem necessary/important.
I'd say that Elsa is aware of the danger she can be for other creatures. Maybe even down to the details you've mentioned... after all she had around 150 years to learn quite a bit and I've yet to disclose what exactly all that is. ;)
Yes, I'm aware of superconductivity and superfluidity though I have to admit that I hadn't thought about them in the context of Elsa. I'll have to keep that in mind, thank you for the suggestion.

Well then, shall we begin? ;)

Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.


"And this suffix provides the declination of the genitive." Elsa pointed at the floating holographic display with a stick made of ice. While she waited for the people sitting in front of her to digest this she took a quick glance at her pocket watch.

"Well, time flies by when one is having fun", Elsa giggled, but her "pupils" just looked at her disapprovingly.

"Really", one of the military participants whispered, just loud enough for Elsa to hear, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Elsa sighed. "Okay, that's it for today. We'll continue tomorrow and please try to learn at least a few of the words till then."

Just as she had finished her sentence the crew got up and darted out of the room before Elsa would be able to change her mind. She let herself slump against the wall behind her, rubbing her exhausted eyes.

"Hey, you alright?", interrupted a voice. Elsa opened her eyes and noticed Vanessa James standing next to her.

"I just hadn't thought that teaching Ancient to the crew would be that exhausting." Elsa had started the lessons a day after their debacle with the jungle planet in the hope that more people would be able to do something useful on the ship. Four days had passed since then, four evenings filled with an hour long lesson in Ancient scripture and language.

Vanessa placed a reassuring hand on Elsa's arm.

"Not everyone is born a teacher", the soldier said with a smile.

Elsa snorted. "You don't understand. Back on Earth, before I even joined the Pegasus expedition, I had no problem with teaching at the universities I had been a doctor at." For a moment she wondered what her former colleagues were doing. She had basically and literally vanished from Earth and when the expedition had established contact with Earth again she hadn't sought out her colleagues. Then the next change of identity came and Dr. Maria Dahlberg ceased to exist, having died on her world tour – at least that had been the official story.

"How far in the past was that? Five, six years?", Vanessa inquired.

Elsa nodded.

"Well, I think it's safe to say that quite a lot changed since then. Stepping through the gate changes people, metaphorically. You have lived through the war with the Wraith, struggled for survival far from home and now even more so. I think no one would think ill of you if that also meant a change in your ability to teach."

Elsa blinked at the other woman, her gaze concentrated on the other's eyes – looking further down would only result in getting bad ideas after all – and took in what Vanessa had said. She was right. The past five, six years had shaped her, changed her even more than the time since Anna's demise had.

Then a thought occurred to her. She smirked. "I didn't take you for a deep woman, soldier and all."

Vanessa looked taken aback for a moment, then she smiled as well.

"Don't underestimate me; I do have my moments." Her smile then fell however, getting back to serious business. "You'll be alright?"

"Yeah", Elsa said with a nod. "Thanks for caring." She had to admit that it was nice when people cared for her. There always were those that did, first her parents, Anna of course, Kai and Gerda, then Kristoff and Sven, not to forget her snowmen, and more and more people throughout time. Sometimes she wondered whether she had deserved all this concern, but in the end she always came to the conclusion that this was what probably kept her sane throughout the decades.

"Okay, see you tomorrow then, yes?" Vanessa turned around and walked towards the door at the side of the room.

Elsa just wanted to say goodbye herself when Vanessa stopped, whisked around and pointed at Elsa with a finger.

"Oh, and don't forget that you have training with Scott tomorrow", she said with a devilish smile and then finally left the room.

A groan was all that Elsa had to say to this revelation. Not that she minded Scott's company – they still didn't talk more than the necessary – but she didn't really look forward to the training sessions that Colonel Young had arranged for the civilians of the crew. Tomorrow would start with them jogging through the ship's corridors. She had to admit however that she could use the exercise. Back on Atlantis she had regularly jogged through the big city, sometimes kept company by Teyla Emmagan or Ronon Dex, the expedition's resident alien humans, or other members of the expedition. On Icarus base there hadn't been any real space to do any jogging and here on Destiny she hadn't done anything like that either, being more concerned with surviving and all that during the past weeks after all.

Elsa switched off the holographic display, picked up her PADD and radio and left to get some sleep. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.


Oh how wrong she had been. Physically exhausted – unlike the mental exhaustion after the Ancient lesson – Elsa had taken a shower before she had arrived in the Control Interface Room to help Rush monitor the exploration of a newly reclaimed section of the ship. She hadn't expected that her stamina would deteriorate so much during the months on Icarus base as opposed to her time on Atlantis. In her current condition she wouldn't even be able to climb the North Mountain like she had done in the night after her coronation. She'd definitely have to do more training in the near future, but for now she wanted to concentrate on whatever they were going to find in these new sections of the ship.

The repair robot they had sent out to repair hull breaches in adjacent sections to the useable areas had done a good job. So far the team sent out to explore the section – lead by Sergeant Greer – had found a bunch of sleeping quarters, two storage rooms and a small lab. Elsa and Rush were keeping track of the team's progress with a Kino. While Rush was mostly keeping an eye on the Kino's video feed, Elsa was looking at the map showing the heat signatures of the team and the names of the rooms they visited. In a corner of her display she could also see the Kino's video.

The room they were approaching looked promising. It was nearly as big as the Control Interface Room and not marked as a mere crew quarter or something along that line.

"The next one might be something", Elsa said and looked at Rush.

He however didn't move his head, but at least he glanced at her, a clear invitation of continuing whatever she had wanted to say.

"The room is labeled as 'repository'", Elsa explained. "I know, this can mean anything and nothing, but I have a feeling that this is going to be something."

Rush raised an eyebrow. "Well, I think we will see soon enough." He reached for a button on his console to connect his console's microphone to the Kino's speakers. "Sergeant Greer, if you'd proceed, please."

"Sure, but I'll tell you..." Elsa could see Greer pressing the door control panel's button after which he readied his rifle. "If this is going to be another storage room I'm going to tow you two down here to look for yourself."

Elsa grinned while she watched the door sliding apart to reveal a dark room with something standing in the middle. One of the soldiers who knew a bit of Ancient moved up to one of the consoles placed near the walls. For the first time in millions of years he powered up the ancient systems which not only switched on the lights and the consoles all around the room, but most importantly the object in the center of the room, which turned out to be a chair, came to life as well. Metallic restraints where the arms and the legs would be placed moved into position as did two metallic arms at the headrest.

Elsa inhaled sharply once she recognized how significant this discovery might be and she noticed Rush doing the same.

"Don't touch anything!" Rush quickly glanced at Elsa who nodded. "We'll be right there."


It hadn't taken Elsa and Rush more than five minutes to reach the room the others were waiting at. Elsa had used the time to notify Colonel Young of their discovery, receiving a disapproving look from Rush in return.

Upon their arrival the two immediately went to work at the consoles in the room, trying to find out as much as possible before Colonel Young would arrive as well. Which he did after another five minutes.

"So, tell me, what do we have", Young said, once he had entered the room.

"Very likely an answer to our problems", Rush began to explain. "It's a neural interface to download information directly into one's brain."

"Looks more like it could fry one's brain", Greer interrupted from his place at the wall where he didn't stand in the way of either Elsa or Rush.

Elsa immediately knew what the Sergeant was hinting at. "Those are merely electrodes", she said, meaning the three menacing looking, metallic tips that were mounted on the arms on each side of the headrest. "They attach to the head to allow for the data transmission."

"And the restraints are just for fun then I guess, hmm?", Greer continued.

Elsa had to admit that she was a bit at a loss here, but the data of the console in front of her were clear. She shrugged. "Maybe it's an intense experience."

"It's basically a variant of the Ancient Repository of Knowledge SG-1 had encountered three times during the years", Rush said. It was definitely no wonder why this room had been labeled as 'repository'. Though the one's in the Milky Way galaxy definitely were much younger, and more sleek, requiring one to only look into them while it was mounted at a wall. Though from the reports that Elsa had read the device at least locked the user's head into place so that the download wouldn't be interrupted. No wonder they were often referred to as 'head sucking thingy', especially by General O'Neill.

Young moved over to the console Rush was standing behind. "And you know what happened when General O'Neill had stuck his head into one of these things?"

Elsa remembered these parts of the reports. General – back then Colonel – O'Neill had a tendency to look for trouble and in two occasions he had found it in the form of the repositories. They could only be used by those that had the Ancient genes and as luck would have it he possessed it, without him or anyone else in Stargate Command knowing it back then of course. The problem had been however that the knowledge downloaded into his brain had been too much, humans simply weren't evolved enough yet, and thus both times he had to be saved by the Asgard, their allies that committed genocide, but otherwise had fulfilled every trope of little grayskinned aliens. But despite these dangers the humans had learned much when the repository had been used. The first time among other things it was that one could dial extragalactic addresses with the Stargate and the second time they learned about the Ancient outpost in Antarctica that Atlantis had departed from ten million years ago which then managed to safe the whole planet from destruction in the present.

"But this one is much older than the other repositories, containing much less data", Rush defended. "And the master code for Destiny's systems might be in there."

"The Asgard are not around anymore to save anyone, Rush", Young stated. "Whoever sits in that chair might die."

That might indeed be a possibility... then again... the need of the many outweighed the need of the few, or the one. But would anyone volunteer to possibly forfeit his or her life on the chance of getting the others home? Would she volunteer? Then again with her being more than fifty percent Ancient herself she might be able to pull this off without any sever side effects.

"If it gets the crew home, I'll gladly stick my head in there", Greer said while looking at the chair.

"No. No one is sitting in there."

"But Colonel", Elsa interrupted. "We don't have any access to any of the higher systems of Destiny. If the master code is in there we must use that chance. I'm mostly Ancient, so I should do it."

Rush looked at her with a mixture of jealously, satisfaction and pride.

"How sure are you about this?", Young asked, now looking at her from his position next to Rush's console.

"I... uhm... I don't know", Elsa admitted. She wasn't sure at all how much her Ancient heritage would help her here. Yes, she had longevity, immortality basically, she had the powers and a nearly eidetic memory, but was she evolved enough for this?

"Then we won't do it." Both Elsa and Rush wanted to interrupt, but Young held up a hand. "That's my final word and an order. I'll post guards here to ensure that no one gets any stupid idea." He glanced at Elsa with that comment.

"But the master code", Rush finally threw in.

"Well, you'll have to find a way to access the knowledge without sitting in there." With that he left the room.

Rush rubbed his temples while Elsa deflated a bit. They had the answer to there problems right in front of them, like a bountiful table, but they weren't able to have their cake and to eat it.

"Let's get to work then", Elsa then said and wanted to concentrate on the console again, that was if Rush hadn't started to rant.

"Stupid military, stupid Young, they have..."

"Hey!", Sergeant Greer, who had stayed behind, shouted, causing Elsa to flinch. "Stop talking about Colonel Young this way or I'll make good on my plan to add a hole to your body!"

"You wouldn't dare", Rush snarled back which triggered Greer to storm from the other side of the room towards the scientist's console, murder in his eyes.

Elsa reacted immediately and erected a wall of ice between the two men.

"Both of you, stop it!", she yelled, getting the men's attention after they had eyed the ice wall in surprise. Elsa continued in a more level voice, though she left no doubt that she was the one with the authority. "You're both grown men and yet you're behaving like children! Does it really need to be like this? Military against civilians? We are all on the same ship, we are all human and we all have the same goals: To survive and to find a way home." She looked at Rush. "Even if not all of us want to go home." She finally returned to her more quiet demeanor. "Now Greer will return to guarding this chair and Rush and me will study this chair, maybe adding in some other scientists as well, so that we can either access its knowledge without someone sitting in there or we can place restrictions that will allow a human to sit in it without brain overload. Savvy?" She looked from one of the men to the other, gauging whether they've understood her and that there'd be no more bickering at least not as long as she was present.

The Sergeant was the first to react. He huffed and walked back to his previous place on the other side of the room. There he continued to keep his gaze trained on Rush, though the line of sight was still occupied by the ice wall.

Rush looked at Elsa with a mixture of hate, thankfulness and surprise for a few more moments before he simply continued to work on his console.

Elsa sighed silently in relief and dissolved the icy barrier. While turning her attention back at the console she wondered whether there'd ever be a real unity between the two groups of people aboard or whether this would inevitably lead to a divide, a moment she dreaded as she didn't know which side she'd be on.


"Faster! Come on you weak bunch! Move your asses! Faster!", Sergeant Spencer yelled through the room.

They had picked an empty storage room in which the fitness program of the military for the scientists was supposed to take place. As Lieutenant Scott currently was on Earth – he had switched with Telford to Elsa's annoyance – Sergeant Spencer had taken over and by doing so he had stepped up the training by a notch, or two or more likely ten, at least that had been how Elsa felt currently. They had to do squats, pushups including the variant in which one had to stand up in between, various other exercises and right now they were running from one end of the room to the other. Elsa felt completely and utterly exhausted, sweat was running down her whole body causing her exercise clothes to stick to her skin.

"Keep your goddamn snowflakes to yourself, Agdarsdatter!"

Spencer should be lucky that it was only snowflakes that were trailing behind her and that despite her exhaustion she hadn't yet turned the room into a fridge.

"Franklin, haul your fat ass along!"

Elsa glanced towards the mentioned Jeremy Franklin, one of the botanists of the expedition. He looked the worst of them all, his short, black hair sticking to his head as if he had used too much hair gel. He was struggling to move forward or to even hold his balance, probably not used at all to too much exercise judging by his stout body – though he was definitely less stout than Eli.

Just then Franklin stopped moving along, leaned forward while stabilizing his body with his hands on his legs and began to throw up the meager meals they were all served.

"Can't poor Franklin keep in his breakfast?", Spencer taunted. "Now fetch a towel, clean up that mess and then you'll repeat the whole exercise again!"

That was it, Elsa had enough of this. That was no exercise to improve their fitness, that was torture and she wouldn't allow this to continue.

"Stop it! Don't you see that he's beyond his breaking point already?!"

"Oh and what does a poor wandering library like you know about breaking points, hmm?" Spencer strode up to her where he towered over her.

Elsa righted herself as well, her chin held high, not giving him the satisfaction of intimidating her, despite being a head or two taller than her. In fact he fulfilled every cliché she had about the military. He was big, bigger than Kristoff, had a bald head and a face that looked as if not even a rock thrown right at it would make a difference at all.

"More than you", Elsa hissed.

"Without your powers you would be just a tiny, frail woman not even remotely able to defend yourself."

He was trying to tick her off, but she wasn't going to give him that either.

"Maybe you don't know it, but throughout my life I've mastered more than one martial art. I might not be practiced anymore but I definitely wouldn't be defenseless even without my powers." Thanks to her memory she remembered all the moves she had learned. She might be a bit rusty, but with time she would be able to translate her memories back into muscle movements. But for this grunt it would definitely be enough.

"Well, if you're so sure about yourself, Agdarsdatter, then show it. You, me, here, right now. No ice powers."

Remotely Elsa noticed how the others around them backed away towards the wall, even Franklin had found his way there. She wasn't the confrontational type. She had learned these martial arts only to defend herself, to not only rely on her powers – though she had found it quite effective to combine her powers with the techniques. Right now however she needed to show this idiot that he shouldn't agitate her, that he shouldn't think that he is superior to her. Her main problem however was that she was exhausted while Spencer had done nothing except shouting at them and thus was completely rested. She wanted to back off, but something inside her urged her to go on, to show this musclehead his rightful position of kneeling in front of her, begging her for forgiveness. Wait... where had that thought come from?

"Okay, let's do this", Elsa blurted out before she could change her mind and right away a wicked grin started to spread on Spencer's stone face. She just hoped that this hadn't been a mistake.

They moved a bit further into the room, away from the puddle that had been left behind by Franklin, the crowd moving with them.

Spencer and Elsa stood about four meters apart, facing each other. Elsa had picked a stable stance, with her feet a bit apart and her arms bent, but otherwise facing slightly sidewards to balance her. Her opponent on the other hand was standing there, hunched over a bit, seemingly pumping himself up, the grin still on his face. They hadn't arranged for a signal to start, so she wondered when their fight would begin, but a moment later the question answered itself as Spencer started to charge towards her. Surprised she dodged this juggernaut, barely avoiding his arms that were reaching for her. He slowed down, turned around and charged at her again, but unlike before she would be ready now.

Again she stepped aside, but this time she grabbed his wrist when his arm reached for her again. She turned his arm sidewards and then towards his back supported by the momentum that was still carrying his body forward. Before his momentum could however carry her along with him, she applied a bit of pressure at the joint of his wrist causing him to stumble. Quickly bringing up her other hand to his neck she managed to get him to fall face first onto the hard metal floor though without letting go of him. That Spencer's other arm reached forward to catch his fall at least a bit hadn't worried Elsa though as had she knelt down beside him and stretched the arm she had caught upward, straining the men's shoulder joint, all the while keeping her other hand on his neck. She saw his face distorting in pain, but nevertheless kept the pressure up. He needed to see that she had him locked and that he wouldn't be able to reach her with his legs or his other arm, she had made sure of this. It took a few more seconds, but then his other hand lifted a bit and hit the metal floor.

They hadn't agreed on a signal for surrender either, but Elsa had been taught that in a fight like this – thus if it wasn't a dangerous situation, though she didn't know how Spencer thought of this – she had to react to this signal, so she dropped the arm right away and stepped back just in case Spencer fainted his surrender.

Her breathing was hard, but despite her exhaustion she felt more alive than in a long time with all the adrenaline pulsing through her veins. It seemed however that the fight was indeed over as Spencer slowly got up, rubbing his strained arm.

"This lesson is over!", he barked. "Get out of my sight!"

The gathered crowd didn't have to be told twice as it dispersed right away.

"And you!" He pointed a finger of his other hand right at her. "This isn't over, bitch!" He then turned and stormed out of the room, pushing aside anyone who was standing in his way.

Only once the soldier was out of sight Elsa allowed herself to relax, sinking to her knees, her exhaustion finally catching up with her. She had done it, she had shown Spencer that she wasn't joking. Though what would be the price of this? She had seen his look when he called her a bitch. There had been pure, absolute hate and rage in his eyes. Would she now need to watch her back? Had this only made things worse?

"Hey", a voice interrupted her thoughts.

Elsa looked up and looked at the still sweaty face of Franklin, the man who had been the catalyst of the fight.

"Thank- thank you for standing up for me."

Elsa put him off. "It was nothing", she lied. "I couldn't just let him continue the way he did."

"Anyway... I owe you a favor", Franklin said and walked towards the room's door.

"Uhm, Franklin?", Elsa said upon which Franklin stopped and turned around a bit to face her.

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?", Elsa asked him with a smile.

"W-what?"

Elsa nodded towards the puddle of half digested ration powder.

"Oh!" A pause. "Oh... Right... Sorry."

Elsa shook her head and finally got up. She could definitely use a shower right now.


After a shower, changing into her usual clothes and cleaning her sports clothes Elsa had gone back to the Control Interface Room to check a bit of data she had collected when checking the consoles for the interface chair. Besides Rush and Eli she noticed Lisa Park, Adam Brody and Dale Volker working around there as well. She hadn't even really entered the room however when she was metaphorically tackled by Eli.

"You've fought with Spencer?!"

Of course news traveled faster than light on a small ship like theirs. Then again news did the same on a city like Atlantis despite it being much larger.

"Is it right that you beat him into a bloody pulp?" Eli was jumping up and down which remembered Elsa of an excited Anna. Elsa giggled with a hand before her mouth and then shook her head.

"Oh, Eli, don't believe every rumor you hear. I'm not the type who beats others into 'bloody pulps'." She leaned towards him and began to whisper. "I'm more the popsicle type."

Yes, she still remembered what she had done to her sister all those decades ago, that she had hurt her, essentially killed her, but nowadays she was confident enough that at least under normal circumstances she'd be able to control her powers enough so that they wouldn't hurt anyone. Of course she didn't know in how far normal circumstances currently applied, not with what Anna had been able to reveal to her about the other timelines and whatever was wrong about her.

Then again if she'd joke about her powers maybe others around would accept her more easily. At least those that were positive or at least neutral towards her anyway.

Eli's response of laughing confirmed what she had thought, Lisa, Brody as well as Volker smirked as well and maybe, just maybe she had seen a small twitch on Rush's lips as well.

"True, true... now tell me, Elsa, what did you do? And why?" Eli was looking at her with eager, curious eyes, again not much unlike Anna used to do.

Elsa shrugged in response. "I only had a quick combat with Spencer, because he pushed us civilians around and shouted at us as if we were the newest recruits. When he took out his anger on Franklin I stood up for the poor guy who was completely done by then. Someone had to face Spencer otherwise he'd just continue with his abuses."

"But you don't react to 'chicken', do you?" Eli looked at her with suspicion and it took Elsa a moment before she understood what the young geek was hinting at.

"No, I'm not Marty." She walked over to her console and switched it on. "Besides, my trigger word used to be 'monster', though it used to trigger another reaction of me." She looked down at her hands, flexing them. Yeah... so much for joking about her past.

"But you're past that, right? Just like Marty got past it in part three?"

A smile tugged at her lips. Eli definitely was someone. More and more she was glad that the young man was caught up with them in this mess and that she had taken him under her wing, basically her pupil, her... she smirked.

"What's so funny?", Eli inquired.

"Nothing... I-I just thought of you as my padawan", Elsa said and noticed a raised eyebrow on Rush who otherwise kept looking at his console.

Eli's reaction however was quite different as first his eyes seemed to shimmer with happiness before he ran around the apple core and the consoles to now physically tackle Elsa into a hug. Elsa was stunned for a moment; she definitely hadn't expected Eli to react the way he did. Finally however she patted him on his back.

"Now, a rule for you, I have", Elsa then said, playing with the grammar just like Yoda did. Eli released her just enough to look at her with big eyes.

"Yes?"

"No touching."

Of course she was okay with touches when they were initiated by herself or when someone really needed it like Chloe had after her father's death or simply when the one initiating the touches were part of her family. But other than that she still preferred that others kept to their own private space and didn't invade hers.

It took a moment for the words to sink in, but then Eli released her fully, dropping his arms to his side and taking back a step or two.

"Sorry. I'm sorry... master", he said with a smirk.

Again Elsa shook her head and with a smile she moved to her console, but not without noticing the look that Lisa was giving her, a look that told Elsa that the other woman thought of what had just transpired as absolutely adorable.

It was quiet for a while among the group, the only sound aside from the ship's background noise and their breathing being the clicking sound of the buttons. Then however the more or less productive atmosphere was interrupted by Rush.

"Hmm. Now that's interesting."

Immediately Elsa and Eli looked up as did the others. If Rush said aloud that something was interesting there was quite a chance that he had stumbled upon something very important.

"What is it?", Eli asked.

"Let me first notify Colonel Young." The scientist reached for his PADD, pressed a few buttons – probably to establish a connection to the Colonel's PADD – and then began to speak. "Colonel Young, this is Rush, if you'd please come to the Control Interface Room, I've made quite some discovery."

"In a moment, Rush", came the answer of the Colonel.

Elsa had tried to concentrate back onto her console, but with how tightlipped Rush was about whatever he had discovered that proved to be quite hard. Thankfully it didn't take long for Young to arrive.

"So, what is it?", the officer asked once he had entered the room.

The other occupants of the room beside Rush and Young didn't hesitate a moment and hurried around the consoles to take a look at Rush's console as well.

"Well, I've been able to access the subspace link that Destiny has with the seed ships", Rush began to explain.

"Those ships that place Stargates on planets?", Young asked.

"Yes, exactly. I've only scratched the surface, but I've found this." Rush pressed a button and a window opened. Elsa began to read its contents, but it didn't take long for her to understand what exactly Rush had found there. And apparently Eli's skills in Ancient were by now good enough that he noticed that as well.

"According to this", Eli said pointing at the console while looking at Young, "there a planet similar to the one of the Icarus base around a year out."

"So in a year we can go back home?", Volker said with enthusiasm.

"First we need to control the ship however, learn to steer her and to bring her into the orbit of a planet and I'm not even talking about feeding the power of the planet's core into the gate somehow." Elsa hated to be the bearer of bad news, but someone had to be realistic here, though Rush would have probably said the same.

"Yes", he confirmed. "But there is an answer to at least the first part of that: the chair."

Rush hadn't even closed his mouth when Young's answer came. "No."

"But Colonel Young, the answer is in there", Rush tried to convince, but it didn't work.

"And you have a year time to find an answer without someone sitting in there. I suggest you to get to work." With that the Colonel yet again left the room leaving behind nothing but a sour mood.

Elsa had held a high opinion of Young, but these newest tidbits definitely didn't improve her view on him. One the one hand she could understand why he was against it, after all it was a dangerous endeavor, but then again this was a solution to some of their problems and Elsa didn't really know how much they'd get out of the chair without someone sitting in it. At least not if she was judging by the research she had been doing before Rush's discovery. Deep in thought she returned back to her console.


"Hey, Elsa!"

Elsa turned around to look at the source of the voice. TJ was jogging towards her, a notebook tucked under one arm.

"Hey, TJ. How can I help you?" Despite being tired after their sports activities – including the fight with Spencer – and the discussion with Young after the discovery of the Icarus planet a year away, she smiled at the younger woman. Well... at least going by the real age. If they'd go by appearance then Elsa would be the younger one with her look of an around 20 year old – she didn't know exactly when she had stopped to age.

"Colonel Young had ordered me to do a psychological evaluation of the crew and I wondered whether you have time for a few questions?" By now TJ had stopped next to Elsa in the corridor.

If Elsa was honest she didn't want to have any questions asked right now. She wanted to eat a bowl of rations and vanish into her bed, preferably without having to deal more than necessary with any other crewmate on the ship. But then again she was one of the senior staff aboard the ship – if not by appearance then at least by experience – and she knew from such evaluations in her past that TJ would have a hard time to get everyone aboard to answer her questions. Probably half the crew was actively avoiding the medic by now. So of course Elsa's sense of duty – a remnant of her time as Princess and later on Queen of Arendelle – told her that she should do TJ the favor and be an example for others, even if those others should ignore that example of hers or might not even know about it.

"Of course", Elsa thus replied with a smile. "Here? Or somewhere else?"

"I've got quarters put aside for this." TJ gestured towards the direction she had come from. "This way please."

After a short walk the two women had spent in silence they reached one of Destiny's numerous two winged doors which opened after the big rusty knob on the door control had been pressed.

Elsa entered the room and did a quick glance around. Like her own quarters these had windows that showed the vast emptiness of space with – like right now – the addition of the streamers of the faster-than-light travel. There was a big, king sized bed with nightstands on both sides, two desks stood below two of the large windows. An additional, to Elsa's surprise one winged door lead to who knew where. Maybe an additional bed room? What probably had been the reason for choosing this room for the psychological evaluations however was the lounge group that consisted of two lounges, an additional armchair and a table. All in all these quarters looked like they had been for a larger group of people, a family perhaps? Had the Ancients planned to come to Destiny with their families? Then of course why wouldn't they? Likely those that would have come would have grown old here, just like they might have to.

TJ gestured to the lounge group. "Have a seat, please."

Elsa nodded and sat down on one of the two lounges with TJ taking the one opposite of her.

"Okay... uhm... your name is Elsa Agdarsdotter, born on..." TJ looked through her notebook, but didn't seem to find what she was looking for.

"On 17th July 1826 in the city of Arendelle in the kingdom Arendelle", Else provided for her.

"Yes, thanks." TJ grabbed a pen and noted the information on the top page of her notebook, probably what was going to be Elsa's file.

"For the Icarus project you were designated as lead programmer and before that you had been the leader of the language department of Atlantis, yes?" TJ glanced at Elsa who chose the right time to nod.

"How would you best describe your tasks here on Destiny?"

"Well... I'm second head scientist after Rush, thus having to deal with his antics and whatever he deems unworthy of himself." Here Elsa rolled her eyes. "Other than that I'm Eli's mentor and recently started lessons in Ancient. Oh and I'm also a possible source of water", she added with a smirk which led to a small smile spreading on TJ's face.

The medic turned psychoanalyist wrote down what Elsa had answered and then looked back at Elsa. "Uh, a few weeks ago you revealed that you're in fact around 180 years old. How does it feel for you to live amidst a group of people that don't even reach a part of your age?"

Elsa raised an eyebrow. It seemed that TJ went right to the hard questions. How much should Elsa tell her though?

"It's a bit hard not to appear as an educational figure to everyone. Compared to me you all lack around one hundred years of experience, nevertheless I want to treat you all as my equals just as I'd like you to treat me. It's already hard enough to see those people I care about grow old and die, I don't want to appear as an eternal parent figure."

"I-I have to admit that I don't have any experience interacting with people that live... well... forever."

When TJ didn't continue, apparently deep in thought, Elsa decided to mention a little hope of hers. "Simply don't treat me any different because of my age and my powers."

"I can't speak for the others, but I'll try", TJ replied with a smile that Elsa reciprocated. "So... uhm... next question. How do you enjoy your stay and life aboard the ship?"

Another hard question. She had thought about this herself sometime already, most often when lying in her bed, watching the FTL-streamers outside her windows, trying to find sleep. In all cases she had to admit that despite the dangers they were facing she really enjoyed staying on Destiny, she even felt more alive than she had for a long time, even when she had set her foot on Atlantis. It felt as if she had been meant to be here, as if Destiny truly was her destiny as Anna had said.

"I like it." Now it was TJ who raised an eyebrow in response and Elsa held up her hands in defense. "I know, I know, we stumble from one danger into the next and I'm probably the only one besides Rush who thinks so, but I really like it here. It feels as if I belong here, though I can't really tell you why. Maybe it has something to do with genetic memories or something like that."

"You are indeed one of the first who has said something like that", TJ said while she noted down Elsa's response.

"What about your powers? You had said after the ice planet that you had problems dealing with them in the past. How is it now? How firm is your control?"

Elsa's breath hitched for a moment. She knew that TJ meant well, but these questions were slowly but surely going into a direction that she didn't like.

"I, uhm, I've learned back in the, uh, 1840s what it takes to control them. They are... well... they are highly dependent on my emotional and physiological state however thus... mishaps do happen here and then, though nowadays mainly small ones." Elsa didn't see a reason to tell TJ about whatever darkness was brooding inside of her, after all she herself didn't really understand what was going on, so it was better if only she needed to worry about this. Also Anna had said that everything would turn out alright and Elsa tended to trust her younger sister.


TJ had continued to question Elsa for another half an hour, before the latter was finally able to leave, not sure whether it had been a good idea that she hadn't avoided TJ like half of the crew did. Without any further disturbances she had gone to eat something and finally to sleep.

At the next morning, after a breakfast consisting of the same, boring meal, Eli had asked her to meet with him in the Kino room.

"So, what's up, E-", she began as she entered the room, but stopped cold when she noticed Lieutenant Scott standing there as well. Was Scott already back from Earth or was this still Colonel Telford? She did a quick check of his posture and most importantly his eyes that were now looking at her and came to the conclusion that it wasn't the Colonel that was standing in front of her, but the real owner of the body. She released a breath of relief that she hadn't known she was holding. While having Telford would have been outright annoying she didn't know what to do with Scott either as their relationship was still strained from the events a few weeks ago. "Oh, hello Lieutenant Scott, what a surprise."

"I noticed", the soldier answered.

"Well, I hadn't known whether it was you or Telford. I wouldn't have liked to walk into the latter", Elsa said while sending a glare at Eli to send the point home.

"I know that you don't like him, so don't give me that look! It's creeping me out!", Eli exclaimed.

"That's the point of it, you know?", Elsa said with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, anyway. Now that you're both here, look at this." He held up a PADD in front of him and Elsa and Scott had to come close to Eli so that they could take a look over his shoulders onto the small screen.

"Remind me tomorrow to work on a way to connect the PADDs with our laptops", Elsa threw in.

Then a window opened on the screen displaying some content in Ancient scripture that made Elsa's eyes widen in surprise. No... this couldn't be!

"What am I looking at?", Scott asked.

Elsa straightened herself. "Well, if you'd come to the Ancient lessons like I go to your exercises then you might be able to read this", she deadpanned.

"At least I don't go around and twist other people's arms", Scott shot back.

"Oh, is that what Spencer told you military guys? Then let me inform you that he had it coming! He treated us civilians like we were the newest recruits, namecalling on us as if we'd be more motivated if he does so. Newsflash it doesn't work that way!", Elsa spat in response.

"Hey, hey, hey, guys!" Eli had turned around to face his two arguing friends. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but even I noticed that something is wrong for weeks and I want you to stop it! We need to work together here, we are all on the same boat, ehm... ship."

Elsa blushed red from embarrassment and turned to look away from both Eli and Scott. Eli was right of course. It was absolutely childish how her and Scott were behaving and it didn't help the relations aboard in any way. They were both leading figures of their respective parts of the crew, though Elsa also knew that it was wrong to think of 'they' and 'us' at all. They had to become just one crew to survive this, to find a way home. And the chasm that had formed between her and Scott was the right opportunity to start this process of unification. Despite she still didn't know what exactly had happened back then she knew at least that she hadn't wanted it, that something else within her had acted.

She turned back to look at Scott who was trying not to look at either her or Eli as well. From the corner of her eyes she could see that Eli was still waiting expectantly for them to do something. Elsa reached out her hand towards the Lieutenant who flinched just a little bit.

"Truce?", she asked and knew she had gotten his attention when he turned to her with a surprised look. Hadn't he expected her to do the first step?

"What?"

Elsa supressed the need to roll her eyes. "I asked whether you'd be okay with a truce?"

"I... uhm..."

"You know... I don't bite." She used her sweetest smile to calm the bit of fear that was still showing in his eyes.

A few more moments and he visibly deflated and reached for her hand as well.

"Truce."

"Great!", Eli exclaimed like a child on Christmas Day. He definitely reminded her of Anna sometime, being totally serious and adult in one moment, but giggly and childish in others. Elsa hoped that the two of them would never meet or she was sure that she wouldn't be able to survive two of that sort at the same time.

Elsa and Scott released each other's hands again, Scott nevertheless sending Elsa an unsure glance. Mentally Elsa sighed. It would probably be quite some time before their relationship is mended again and till then it would stay strained.

"Now what did that PADD say exactly?", the Lieutenant then asked.

Eli turned the PADD he still held in his hand around for Scott to view and pointed at a location on the screen probably to start on a lengthy explanation on how he had found out what he did. Elsa however decided that it was time for a short and simple answer.

"Rush lied."

Immediately Eli visibly deflated, letting the hand with the PADD drop down again. Elsa did feel sorry for him, but with news like this they didn't need lengthy explanations that would probably result in Scott getting lost anyway.

"He what?!", Scott exclaimed.

"The planet that's supposed to exist one year away... he placed it in the database."

One could clearly see Scott now processing this bit of information. He was gaping for air that he should have enough of anyway and after a few moments he staggered backwards to Eli's bunk to sit down.

These feelings were understandable. After all with the news of the discovery of this new planet not even a day ago the moral seemed to be immediately boosted, Elsa had noticed that much. And now they had to take away that light of hope at the end of the tunnel again, to go back to merely surviving day to day, hoping to find some other way home.

"I'm sorry that I had to tell you this way", Eli began. "But I only wanted to tell you two first. After all you are more experienced in only telling what is necessary." He shrugged, but he was clearly accusing not only Elsa, but also the military with Colonel Young as their leader. "It's a pity though that you won't be able to be with your son as soon as we thought."

What? "Son?", Elsa blurted out before she could stop her curiosity.

"Oh, you don't know yet?", Eli's eyes brightened again. "Yesterday Scott discovered that he had a son with a former girlfriend."

If looks could kill then Elsa was sure that Eli would have dropped dead right away with the glare Scott was sending his way. She also wondered how this would influence the relationship between Scott and Chloe.

"What did Chloe say?", Elsa thus asked in a soothing voice.

"That's none of your business", Scott snapped, but just as he had spoken the last word he noticed what he had just said and more importantly to whom. His eyes widened in fear and something inside of Elsa enjoyed this look, his recoiling.

However she managed to hold in the anger that was building in her, threatening to leash out at the young man again.

"Come again?", she asked, her voice cold, though at least she was giving him the chance to rectify his words.

"I... uhm... Chloe is... uh... fine with it. I've told her that there's nothing between my former girlfriend and me anymore. Up to now I had thought that she had aborted the child." Elsa noticed him shuddering, but not because of any action of hers, but probably because he wouldn't have met his son that way yesterday – at least Elsa assumed that Scott had met his child.

Slowly Elsa felt her contained anger ebbing away.

"What's his name?" Elsa's curiosity had gotten the better of her again.

She had asked the right question however as she saw a smile tugging at Scott's lips.

"Matthew. His name's Matthew."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. Scott might think that there is nothing between him and his former girlfriend anymore, but Elsa wasn't so sure about the girlfriend. At least not when she named her son after the father. But she'd drop that for now. Scott wouldn't be able to be with the mother of his child anyway until they've found a way home and till then the relationship between Scott and Chloe should be on stable enough grounds.

Nevertheless he did have a child to care for though.

"Will you try to take care of him when we're back home?" Elsa used the word 'when' on purpose. Even if they had now found out that this ominous planet was only a hoax planted by Rush, an action which hurt Elsa more than she would have wanted to admit.

Lieutenant Scott hesitated a bit before answering. "In a sense I already am. Uhm, at least financially. I've arranged for most of my payments to be transferred to his mother in the hope that she'll be able to care for him more than she's able to now."

"What's she working as?" She knew she was nosy, but she had to know whether he had messed up yet another woman.

Him blushing wasn't the answer she expected however. Again he hesitated before he answered. "She used to study law, but after my son had been born she dropped out and went... uhm... dancing, if you know what I mean."

Yes, she knew what he meant. The kind of dancing that could earn one enough money in a night to survive from day to day. This business had existed back in Arendelle as well, at least in some of the darker corners of the city. She had tried to extinguish this when she had been queen, but in the end all she had managed was to improve the situations of the girls – and sometimes the dancers had literally been girls.

"Uhm, Elsa, everything alright?", Eli asked with concern in his voice.

Elsa raised an eyebrow in response and noticed that both men had taken a few steps away from her, probably to avoid the small storm of snow that had started around her. Great, just great. She breathed a few times and waved a hand to vanish the storm again.

"Sorry about that", she said with a blush. "It's just... when I was queen I had to deal with this kind of business as well. And it wasn't pleasant." She could see understanding in both pairs of eyes.

"So...", Eli began after a few moments of silence. "What shall we do about this?" He waved his PADD. "You know after all that I'm not that good with keeping secrets."

"Well, a fault confessed is half redressed", Elsa commented with a smirk earning a "Hey!" from Eli in response. "Anyway, I don't know whether we should tell the crew. It gave them hope and who knows, maybe there is indeed a suitable planet in there. In a year much can happen."

"If we survive that is", Scott interrupted.

"Thank you, Mister Pessimist", Elsa said, rolling her eyes. "We should probably tell the Colonel and let him decide what to do."

"Might be best", Scott replied. "He should be back soon, he's currently on Earth", he added.

Huh? But wasn't his turn already two days ago? Something must have happened if he took over someone else's time. Though then again it had been probably nothing that affected the whole crew as otherwise Eli or Scott would have told her. Nevertheless she'd need to have a serious talk with the Colonel about that if he abused the schedule for his own selfish reasons.

"I've just messaged Caine to inform us when Colonel Young is back", Eli quipped, having written something on his PADD while Elsa had been in thought. Dr. Robert Caine had been one of the IT technicians back on Icarus base though he hadn't been assigned to her, instead his tasks had been mainly to keep the base and all its computer systems up and running.


It had taken around an hour before Eli had received a message from Caine that Young had been back and right away Eli, Elsa and Scott moved to intercept their superior.

They had reached one of the larger crossing corridors filled with couches and four corridors connecting to it on each side when Colonel Young came through one of them. Judging by his expression he wasn't in the mood to talk, but they had to do this nevertheless.

"Colonel Young, we need to talk to you", Elsa began, but the officer brushed her off.

"Not now", he grumbled and wanted to leave through one of the other corridors that lead to his quarters.

"Rush lied!", Eli exclaimed while navigating through the couches, immediately getting the Colonel's attention.

"About what now?", said Young, halfway turning towards the trio.

"The planet, he lied about the planet", Elsa said, while Eli handed his PADD to Young.

"What?!" Young looked at the contents on the PADD that Elsa had translated from Ancient to English while they had waited for the Colonel to return.

"There is no Icarus like planet one year away, Rush planted it in the datastream we got from the seed ships. Eli checked the real data", Elsa explained.

She saw Young clenching the fist that didn't hold the PADD, the one with the PADD shaking slightly. If she'd had to guess then Young was nearly exploding at Rush's youngest antics.

"Who knows about this?", he then asked.

"Only we three", Scott replied, but then his eyes looked towards the end of the corridor. The eyes of the others followed suit and saw Camille Wray standing there, a notebook clasped in her hands, gaping with an unbelieving expression. She must have heard all of this. After a few moments of the four staring at her she darted away.

"Great, soon enough the whole ship will know", Young commented.

Elsa shook her head. "I'm not so sure. She might keep up the ruse for a while. Like us, she knows that the need of the many outweighs the need of the few."

Despite the graveness of the situation Eli immediately grinned at her which Elsa chose to ignore for now.

"Hmm. You might be right. Nevertheless I'll need to have a talk with Rush", Young said.

"Yeah, we should probably head back to work." Eli still had this happy grin on his face while he turned around to walk to the Control Interface Room, Scott and Elsa turning with him.

"Uh, Elsa, one moment please", asked the Colonel.

Elsa stopped and turned back towards her superior. The other two men had stopped as well and looked back.

"Yes, Colonel Young?" Elsa was looking expectantly at Young.

"You two can go on", Young said towards Eli and Scott who looked at each other for a moment, then at Elsa and then left the room.

"How much do you know about the communication stones?"

Interesting and unexpected question. Elsa had been there on Atlantis when the stones had been encountered a second time – the first one had been back on Earth and had led to the discovery of a new foe, or more precisely to a discovery of them by a new foe – when the Wraith Michael had taken over the body of Dr. Jennifer Keller. They had solved the issue by destroying the stone terminal, but unlike the one on Earth which had been thrown into the unstable vortex of a forming wormhole this one had been salvageable. Without that they wouldn't have been able to communicate with Earth right now and they'd truly be lost. Elsa's involvement hadn't stopped though by merely being part of the endeavor on Atlantis, she had also worked on the development of the new, human made terminal which was done on the city as well. Thus she knew a bit more about the technology, though she definitely wouldn't consider herself an expert – at least she didn't know enough to solve the problem that the connection of the stones was temporarily severed when Destiny entered or left FTL, she had already tried that. Though her suspicion was that their terminals were simply inferior to the Ancient ones, nothing more, nothing less.

"Well, I've worked with the team that developed our terminals, so I know quite a bit more than the average person, though I haven't yet fully grasped the science behind it either", she said after a moment.

"It will have to do." He looked around to ensure that the two of them were alone in the corridor and then turned his attention back to Elsa. "I'm sure you're aware that yesterday Lieutenant Scott had switched with Colonel Telford."

Elsa nodded; after all she had actively avoided Scott's body yesterday.

"The thing is, uhm, this morning Scott came to me and reported that he had strange dreams, namely about my wife, having dinners with her, but he had never met her back on Earth."

Elsa raised an eyebrow and the gears in her head were turning already, checking through every bit of information she had about the stones and the terminals. She needed to know a bit more however.

"And you think Telford was, uhm, somehow involved with your wife?"

"I've seen them together during my previous scheduled visit. And a few weeks ago, shortly before the attempts to dial Earth, we had swapped during..." Here Colonel Young was blushing and Elsa understood immediately what he meant.

"It's okay, I get it", she said, putting a hand on the Colonel's arm. Apparently the officer didn't like to talk about such topics.

She remembered the moment Young was talking about. It was when her and Rush had been in the gate room to prepare their simulation and Telford had come around. After Destiny had jumped back into FTL Young had been back in his body for a moment, completely disoriented and somewhere else with his thoughts. And now that she thought about it she remembered Telford playing with Young's ring right after that.

She dropped her arm again. "So your suspicion is that somehow memories of Telford bled into Scott's consciousness or his body?", Elsa then asked.

"Yes, though so far it only seems to have happened with Telford."

"Maybe we don't know about the others, because they believe they merely had strange dreams." Elsa shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time in history. Nevertheless I think we should check this out just to be sure. I'll put up a notice on the PADDs for others to report such dreams to TJ and I'll brief her about this. What about you though? You had switched with Telford quite some time as well."

"No, nothing so far. At least not that I'm aware of."

"Well, we'll keep an eye on it. Anything else?"

Colonel Young shook his head. "No, that's it so far. Good day, Elsa."

"Good day as well." She watched as the soldier turned around and left towards his quarters. Considering that Young had just revealed to her that he had seen Telford together with his wife made Elsa suspicious about his reason to use a stone slot that had been scheduled for someone else, but she didn't want to talk about this right now. She'd have to keep an eye on this though. After all a leader with a love triangle isn't necessarily the best option to have in a situation as theirs.


Despite being in space with no reference for the time of day Elsa knew that it was around midnight with the corridors she sneaked through being empty and the lights dimmed. According to their schedule only one scientist should be stationed in the control room and two soldiers were at the ready next to the gateroom, everyone else was free to rest and most indeed did so.

Elsa walked quietly through the dark corridors, making sure that no one, be it human or Kino saw her sneaking towards her destination.

Glimpsing around the last corner before her destination she noticed one single soldier standing there in the middle of the brightly lit corridor. Not just any soldier though, but Vanessa James. She was standing guard in front of the room Elsa wanted, no needed, to get to. Ever since Eli had told her that the Icarus planet didn't exist earlier that day – only interrupted by the talk with Colonel Young – she had thought about what she could do to improve the situation and every time there was always the same solution: the chair. Yes, she could probably die from this or end up as a babbling, drooling idiot, but she had to do this. She had to try to find a way to get them all home or at least to get full control of the ship. After all the need of the many outweighed the need of the few... or the one. Now the only obstacle between her and doing something stupid was Vanessa. On the one hand Elsa was glad it was her, after all they could be considered friends more or less. They had spent a few meals together in the past few weeks, sometimes also accompanied by Lisa Park or Adam Brody. On the other hand though this could make this whole endeavor even more hurtful. She needed to try to get Vanessa to see her side.

Breathing once Elsa walked around the corner and right away the previously relaxed Lieutenant James righted herself and trained the rifle that had idly hung in front of her right into the direction Elsa was coming from. Once Vanessa had spotted Elsa the soldier's expression went from serious to relieved and finally confused.

"Elsa?" Vanessa lowered her rifle again. "What are you doing here at this hour?"

Elsa walked towards the other woman. "I had quite a bit on my mind and thought that sleep wasn't what I was looking for." It wasn't exactly the truth, but it wasn't a lie either.

"And so of all places you could have gone to you came here?", Vanessa asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The arboretum is not yet repaired." They had instructed the repair robot to repair the transparent cupola of the aboretum they had already found on their first day aboard Destiny. Their hope was that they could use that place to grow plants there. At least once the seeds the botanists and hobby gardeners aboard had started to plant in one of the hydroponic labs they had recently found were grown enough. Of course a cupola of potentially fragile transparent material was usually a bad idea on a space ship, especially with said ship's strained shields, but the room was equipped with an iris that would protect the plants in case of a leak – at least once it was repaired, a task Brody was working on.

"But why not the observation deck?"

Elsa didn't have an answer to that. After all the observation deck would have been a much better place to relax and think with this magnificent view out of the window than the chair room. But then again Elsa wasn't here to relax or think, she was here to do something about their situation.

She sighed. "You know exactly why I'm here, Vanessa."

"I can't let you do that, you know that." To Vanessa's defense she didn't raise her rifle again, perhaps hoping that she could resolve this without violence. "It's not only my orders, but I can't let you do this as your friend either. Who knows what this thing is going to do with your mind."

"Don't you think I'm aware of that? But I'm the only one aboard who has even remotely the chance to get in and out of there without any ill side effects."

"But you aren't sure of that and that's enough of a reason to stop-"

"Vanessa, please." It was seldom that Elsa was pleading for something, but she wanted to avoid violence as much as Vanessa. Elsa searched the eyes of the much younger woman and saw that she wasn't certain herself, that her resolve to keep Elsa from entering the room was weakening. "I have to do this. It's my destiny." Of course Elsa wasn't sure whether Anna had meant this when she had told Elsa that the ship was her destiny, but considering that Anna hadn't tried to convince her otherwise until now – and there had been more than enough time for that during Elsa's way from her quarters to the chair room – Elsa assumed that she was doing the right thing.

"I..." That was the moment, Elsa could see it in Vanessa's eyes. Then Vanessa shook her head and looked at Elsa with a weak smile. "Don't make me regret this."

Elsa gave the other woman a quick hug which was returned. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet", Vanessa answered after Elsa had broken away again.

The soldier then moved to the side and even opened the door towards the chair room. Just as Elsa moved past Vanessa the latter grabbed Elsa by the arm.

"Take care, please." Vanessa's eyes were drilling into Elsa's, seeking for a sign that Elsa knew what she was doing, but they both knew that this wasn't the case, that it was just a hunch, a glimmer of hope, nothing more.

Elsa patted the hand that was wrapped around her arm and after a few moments she pealed the hand away. Trying to send the other woman a reassuring smile Elsa entered the chair room and before she could develop any doubts she entered the necessary command sequence in one of the consoles and sat down in the chair. The restraints fastened around her wrists and feet and she could hear the arms with the electrodes that were attached to the headrest snapping into place. There was no turning back now. The electrodes then pressed against her temples. She flinched a bit at the unpleasant feeling, but before she could further elaborate on this she was engulfed by darkness.


Oh, look at that, a cliffhanger - and a diversion from canon for those that care about that. ;)
In all honesty I hadn't thought this when I had planned this chapter a few months ago. I had Elsa adhere to Young's orders and have the chair be used some time later. But as you can see I have changed my mind. That chair is simply too tempting and Elsa cares for the crew and their wellbeing and wants to find a way to get all those that don't belong on Destiny back home, risks and orders be damned.

Next up will be "Identity", an all original chapter. I hope to get it up still in this year. :)