Mystery Solved

Disclaimer: The characters of Stargate Universe belong to MGM. The characters of the Four Orders are entirely my own.

AU/SGU/FO: A powerful being from another universe appears on the Destiny just as Eli's time had run out. Stranded on the ship he has to figure out how to go home and the best way is to help the crew of Destiny.

Season Five – 'Adjustment'

Premise:

The crew of Destiny exited stasis only to discover two new passengers from another universe, which have spent their time fixing the ship. After some deliberations, they choose the keep them onboard as their newest allies.

Not long after, an Ancient seed ship nearly killed them all forcing them to start exploring the reason for that. Some of the discoveries they made shook them to their core and beliefs but much mystery remains. And one of the biggest ones is another powerful being that keeps obstructing Diablo in his quest for the truth.

Unsatisfied with the lack of progress of the SGC, Diablo leaves the ship and returns to the Milky Way Galaxy to dig up the history of the Ancients. Meanwhile on the Destiny life continues as the crew adjusts to the new realities.

Chapter 3

Previously:

Looking at Eli and Chloe he understood. The super being had been here but conveniently he did not stick around for him to take a look at him. Still the both of them seemed somewhat relieved. Now there was a story there for sure.

But it had to wait. They had some more pressing matters to attend to – like reviving the crew and checking out the ship. The spinning and the increased G forces had caused some structural damage. Many of the crew have been injured and most were in critical condition.

'It could have been much worse.' Viz thought. He knew of course that they had come very close to extinction. It was a fluke of a miracle that the ship's primitive sensors even picked up the subspace eddy.

And now:

The aftermath of this horrific experience left its scars. The ship was crippled as there was structural damage all over it. Jumping to FTL was not an option and after careful charting and calculation they discovered they were no longer on the charted by the seed ships course. They were off by several thousand light years. Given the amount of distance and time they spent spinning it was a sheer miracle they were still alive at all.

With the incredible powers of Viz, Tamara was able to save the lives of most of the crew but a dozen was still lost. Some for the rest of their lives would remain permanently crippled unless some other miracle happens. It was a sad day.

"How long would repairs take?" Everett asked as the command crew gathered.

"Unknown," Rush replied.

"It is not an answer I like."

"I know but we are still assessing the damage."

"Are there any worlds in range?"

"A few," Chloe said. "But a trip with the shuttles will take several days one way."

"Provided, they were not damaged too," Dr. Grace Parker added. "And nothing else goes wrong during the mission."

"Are there any good news?" Everett asked.

"Yes, life support is fully functional as it is the gravity plating." Varro replied.

Everett sighed deeply. At least the life support was still kicking. 'There is no peace for us, one problem after the other. How much more can this crew take?' He hoped that they can endure anything but the universe was currently challenging that. Their situation was not good.

Leaving the ship was also not an option as the closest worlds were several days' hard travel from their current location, provided of course it was even remotely habitable. Will this be the end of their odyssey?

They needed to know what happened. What led to this situation? But first he wanted to give the crew the time to grieve for those that were lost and also to have the time to recuperate as much as possible before diving into problem.

"Alright," Everett said. "I know you are all tired but this day is far from over. We have a lot of work to do before getting back to our feet. Let's get to it."

It was not the pep talk they expected but he was also very tired, bruised and by the order of Tamara had to remain in his quarters for the next few days. Of course, he did not listen to her as he had to be among the people to give them that bit of energy needed to get the job done. A leader's sacrifices knew no boundaries.

Viz was outside the ship assessing the damage. His head still spun with the worst case scenarios. 'Not that this is not just as bad but it could have been much worse.' Nah, it was becoming ridiculous talking to himself. He was so used to having Diablo to share his thoughts with that this current predicament was not working for him. But life was filled with unexpected turns and this was one of them.

He continued examining the outer hull and froze. He squinted and hoped he had not seen what he just did. He moved in closer and examined that something that got him spooked.

'Ouf, it is just a scratch.' He relaxed visibly. It was a crack but it was focused in the area he was in. Still it was something that needed to be repaired. He examined the location and contacted Ginn.

"Found a crack at my present location. It extends one elbow over the supporting column in the left quadrant."

"Is that one of your elbows or mine?"

Viz exhaled frustrated. Everything was a challenge with that girl. He then relaxed and answered. "Yes,"

"Which one of it is it?"

"Yes, it is one Ginn."

"Yes, it is one of my elbows, Ginn or did you call it a Ginn?"

"Yes, Ginn, I called a Ginn."

"So a Ginn elbow, ha, what's next a Ginn foot?"

"New measurements are created every second in the civilized universe, young Ginn."

"So how do you keep up with the naming?"

She was very frustrating. He began to understand why Eli liked her. He on the other hand would have strangled her by now.

"No, I think we can stick with one Eli foot."

"Not fair, I wanted to keep that for something else." Ginn replied.

"You humans are so disgusting sometimes."

"Hey, you are not exactly the ideal model of perfection."

"Would you two cut it out?" Mandy interrupted. "You're occupying the ship's intercom with your immaturities."

"Ah, Ms Perfect decided to join in the conversation."

"Excuse me!" it was Colonel Young. "Would you please focus on repairing the ship? Thank you. And when you are done I will send all three of you to Dr. Cameron for a session."

"Oh, joy,"

"Now, Ginn, can the crack be fixed without compromising the supports stability?"

"The ship says yes and I am on it."

"Good, let me know, when it is done."

The tensions continued though throughout the day. Everyone's nerves were strained of the experience. Everett had to put out quite a lot of fires. He had hoped it was over but the day was really long – it took two months to fix the ship.

At the end of it, Everett took one very long nap to regenerate and wear down the stress he had built from trying to keep everything together. Camille was a big help in that area. It felt nice for them to be working together instead of against each other.

The first few attempts to get the ship moving had their setbacks but with the diligent sacrifice of everyone they were fixed. Soon they were back in FTL trying to get back to their predetermined course. It was a miracle no aliens or AIs attacked them. They were in no shape to fight back. Everyone was just so exhausted. So Camille thought it best to give everyone a well deserved time off once they were back on track. Soon they located a promising world and got on with the R&R.

Chloe spent the day with Matt explaining everything that has happened. She knew she would have to tell it again but she felt that Matt deserved it first. He listened without interrupting for which she was grateful.

"So here we are."

Matt needed time to process this information. So she spent most of her time with Eli forced by circumstances. He was grateful though Eli did not take advantage of the situation. He knew he had feelings for her. He was also thankful she did not indulge in reciprocating. He had to admit the two have done extraordinary job. They kept everyone safe. Did it sting a bit? Yes, of course it did. But all in all she kept her loyalty.

What amazed him was that she saw the arrival of their two newest crewmembers and everything they did from a really strange place. She endured a lot. He also saw she spoke the truth when saying she couldn't tell anyone even if she wanted to. He witnessed that with Eli. Of course there was a moment or two he thought Eli was doing it on purpose but with the context now everything made sense. Still the unknown remained the intentions of that super being.

"Matt, say something,"

"Something," Matt joked. "I get it. You and Eli did the best you could under the circumstances. Does it hurt you were with him – maybe a bit but it was I who told him to find out what you were doing and he ended up stuck with you because of me. So, yeah, I am ok with it. It is partially my fault."

Chloe relaxed. That part she did not know but it made sense. Eli seemed a bit reluctant when he came in. She had attributed that to his latent feelings for her but it all made perfect sense. She was relieved Matt was taking so lightly.

"So what now?" Matt asked.

"Now, every month, Eli and I have to go to the starry forest. No, don't ask, I can't exactly explain it. I haven't wrapped my mind around it yet."

"Would that be the place Tamara and Camille went to?"

"Wait what?" This was news for Chloe.

"I guess they will have to share that with you. They can explain it better." Matt replied. "Let's forget about the super being with the unknown agenda and other weird shit and just have this day to us."

"Agreed,"

The world they had found had mostly beaches of white and yellowish sands. The water as the scientists determined was safe but they did not recommend anyone swimming in it as always there could be more than meets the eye as they all had their fill lately of obvious things. Still it felt nice walking down the beach, catching some sunlight and feeling the gentle breeze. It was almost as though being back at home.

The beaches were endless. They went for miles and miles. It was weird but the entire planet was laced with them. From above it was one big ocean with weird yellow/white stripes that turned out to be the beaches. The beauty of nature was full of surprises.

When the night came the beauty intensified. The beaches glowed with radiant light that made everything look surreal. And it was not the only thing glowing. Apparently they had missed the algae in the water. It varied from blue to red, from yellow to green, from white to weird blackish color.

But the most beautiful sight was the reflected in the water starry sky. The night sky had more stars on it that anywhere on Earth at any given time. And of course the maritime life that came to life several hours after night fell. Amazing creatures appeared from the depths of the ocean and emerged on the surface playing around, or mating or hunting.

They took as many pictures as they could. Some still had their portable devices and cameras. Eli was using the kinos to record as much as he could. The advantage of the kino was that it could fly. So there were many hovering balls around all aspects of life on the ocean surface. He figured it would make one hell of a movie and that was something they needed.

Despite that Diablo had left them the technology to build their own fantasies they really did not have the time to do so. Some simple workout programs were created but nothing sophisticated. Rush had spent more time tinkering with that but he had to present anything worth trying. Eli figured he had been there just to do something that occupied his mind while they had been waiting for Ginn and Amanda to wake up.

Eli spent the day with Ginn also explaining everything. He needed to get it off his chest so the next time he tells the story he would feel freer doing it. She was impatient at many places and interrupted whenever possible and Eli had to expand his story hence it took him longer to tell it.

She was not very happy with him admitting he had feelings for Chloe but he wanted to be brutally honest and he was. He had to explain how all this started. He actually did the selfless thing and helped Matt and ended up in this weird situation. Thankfully Ginn took it well enough.

Some things he could not explain as he did not know how. He did his best approximation but Ginn understood. She was actually amazed of the things the two must have seen. And though Eli was basically on guard duty he had glimpsed a whole new world full of strangeness and possibilities.

"Thank you for telling me," Ginn said as he had finished. "And for being honest. That must have been difficult."

"Yeah, it was. Keeping the truth from you that is. And it is a relief I can tell you now."

"I think we can move on but only if you want to."

Eli was surprised of the maturity and understanding she showed but then again she was raised by the Lucian Alliance. There wasn't there much room for redundant feelings. Given the weirdness they saw when watching the footage from Novas he had some reservations about whom he had chosen to live with but at the time he had not had any other choice. Now that she was with him he had no doubts.

"I do. There is more to share of course mostly about Novas..."

"I saw whom you chose and I get it."

"You have?"

"Well, I am the avatar of the ship if you would care to remember. I have access to all the footage from that experience and I am not mad. At the time, you made the right choice."

"Right,"

"So tomorrow – dinner?"

"It's a date."

They spent several days on the beach planet. Rest was needed by all. They had all endured a lot.

But then came the time for explanations. First was Viz. The others needed to know how he knew what to do with whatever that was.

"I have experienced this only once." Viz began. "It was a long time ago. We were in one of the most distant galaxies counted from the Milky Way. It had more star clusters than any other galaxy I have ever visited. The clusters were the birth place of many new stars.

We have been in hyperspace for many days. Diablo said he had some meeting to attend though as usual failed to mention where and with whom."

It tracked with everything they knew about Diablo. Although he and Viz were together he did not share everything with him. That had led to many comic situations where the banter between them had reached epic proportions and it had been very entertaining.

"We had just passed by a large briar patch of stars when all the ships experienced a massive pull forcing us out of hyperspace. Scanning of the region had not shown the presence of anything unusual other than the birthing stars.

The pull increased exponentially and all the systems onboard had gone haywire even the backups. The scans continued to show nothing of interest."

It appeared that their experience was the same as Diablo's. There was nothing out of the usual though the sensors on Diablo's fleet were considerably more advanced than those of the Destiny.

"All ships were trying to space themselves so they do not collide in each other creating more problems.

I was on the bridge of 'the Classical'. It is a large carrier with all kinds of small ships used for scouting and science stuff while Diablo was onboard the flagship 'The Bright Star', a warship. It is a wedge shaped vessel about two miles long with hundreds of batteries for all sorts of combat."

Eli had become rather attentive – wedge shaped vessel. It reminded him of something, something famous. This made him wonder if Diablo only copied it to have it as a big fan or it was because there was such a place where these types of ships were something normal. He could only hope. The hope dies last with diehard fans.

"I noticed his ship had started to tilt though he had cut off the main engines. It was something that he did extremely rarely. That ship's main engines were something that was always running. It looked that way even when stationary.

I started to wonder what had gone wrong with the ship and prepared a small fleet of ships to go and provide assistance."

Viz took a breath. His eyes had wondered back at that memory and it was obvious it was a painful one.

"The ships before me got pulled together despite having their engines in full reverse. It was something one observes when close to the gravitational edge of a black hole. I ordered the ships behind them to use tractor beam to pull them back."

"Did it work?" Chloe asked.

Viz shook head. "No. It made it worse, much worse. The pull intensified. The only thing keeping the ships of breaking into a thousand little pieces was their shields but they were already rubbing themselves – shield to shield."

"So what did you do?" Everett asked. This story was keeping him on the edge of his seat.

"I contacted Diablo. I needed some help. Obviously I had no idea what was happening but our ship to ship communications were down. The only way I could communicate with him was our way so I called."

"This is so cool..." Rhea exclaimed.

"Shush!" Ginn interrupted.

"For a time, he did not answer. I was starting to panic. At the very least, I ordered the ships to stop using any tractors until someone figures out what the heck."

"Does he do that often?" Camille asked.

"Every now and then,"

"That must be frustrating?"

"In scary situations, it is." Viz admitted. "But he answered. His voice showed a great deal of distress further increasing my panic. He scolded me though for being panicked and then..."

They could all imagine the little banter session between them. Even in the face of danger they did not miss the opportunity to engage in it.

"Anyway," Viz returned to the subject at hand. "He ordered all ships to shut down the main engines and tilt portside..."

"Wait a minute," Amanda interrupted. "If ship to ship communications were down how did he make his orders heard?"

"Mandy, please, let him talk." Rush intervened.

"It is a legitimate question." She protested.

"It is a fair question, Dr. Rush." Viz said. "The ship to ship issues existed only with my ship. The others did not have the same issue although I suspect he used his powers to make his voice resonate on all ships."

"He can do that?" Dr. Parker asked.

"He can do a lot of crazy things, Grace."

"We've come to notice."

"Yes," Viz smiled though they still have not seen anything of what he was truly capable of.

"What was in the barrels that you threw out?" Varro asked.

"I wish I could tell you that but I have no idea." Viz replied. He really did not. "But he had all ships throw such barrels with small explosives tied to them."

"How is it that you do not know?" Camille asked. "Then how did you know what to use?"

"Let him talk." Everett said. "But that is a fair question Viz?"

"Yes, it is." Viz agreed. "Before Diablo left the ship he left me instructions as you would care to remember..."

"Yeah, I do recall that." Camille said.

"Well, in them, he pointed out these barrels and instructed me to use them as deterrent only in the direst of circumstances such as the one I had already experienced."

"Oh, hell, that must be one hell of a reminder of bad times." Grier exclaimed.

"True," Viz nodded. He lowered his voice. He needed to get it out of his chest. "I do have to apologize though."

"What for?" Everett asked.

"I think the distance I put between the ship and the barrels was greater than it think it should have been..."

"You mean detonate even closer to the ship?" Chloe exclaimed. "Are you nuts?"

"Why would you think that?" Camille asked.

"I do because he detonated the barrels practically hundred maybe two hundred meters away from the hull..."

"Or so it had looked to you from your point of view..." Eli said. "What? I doubt your ship was next to his to be able to tell the distance, right?"

"You are right it was not." Viz felt a slight relief. Eli had a point.

"See. It could have easily been a mile or two, or more." Eli said victorious.

"It is possible. Anyway, the barrels were released and then detonated." Viz took a deep breath. "At first nothing seemed to happen, just like with us, but then the pull every ship had been experiencing reversed with such force that every ship was propelled in the opposite direction with nearly the speed of light.

I remember hitting the wall behind me and starting very seriously to become one with it. The only good thing was that it did not last long.

When I managed to get back on my feet and check the systems, I discovered we were thrown four hundred light years away from our previous location. The ship was in poor condition at best. There wasn't a system that wasn't damaged.

Long range sensors were offline only short range was still barely operational. There were no ships in the area around us. So logically I started to panic again."

Everett and the others could only try to imagine what that must have felt like.

"It took us several days to restore long range sensors and repair the communication nodes. We established contact with one of the ships and soon joined together. It took some several months to gather the rest of the fleet..."

"That must have been a relief?" Everett said.

"Not quite," Viz replied. The memory was a painful one especially when one is to use to travel with many ships. "Only a third of the fleet had survived the ordeal."

"How many ships are talking about?" Varro asked suspecting he was not talking about three or four ships.

"Diablo's standard escort for wherever he goes consists of sixty ships."

"Standard escort?" Everett exclaimed stunned. "That sounds like a whole armada."

"We have different views on what constitutes a fleet or an armada, Colonel." Viz said.

"Apparently,"

"That's horrible – forty ships lost." Matt exclaimed.

"Scattered throughout forty sectors," Viz specified. "So as I was saying earlier, Colonel, we escaped somewhat unscathed."

"What the hell was that thing then?" Camille inquired.

"I know only what it is called not what it is exactly. Diablo called it subspace eddy." Viz replied. "At the time I had been hoping it is something that we could blame on someone but he said it is a perfectly natural thing and there was no one to blame. It simply happens. One has only to be aware of it and know its symptoms in order to have any chance of surviving it."

And don't forget to review. It only takes a couple of minutes. Thank you!

Lordheaven