Heya, once again Kimmy was my genius beta! Also, CleanWhiteRoom has written me a shiny new story summary for the story listings as I thought mine was rubbish! :D Isn't it good?

The final hull repairs around the cold area were proving to be a marathon effort. A six hour repair shift each day, with a half hour trip to and from the location of the breach was the plan for today and the next three days it was going to take them to fix the largest hull breach compromising the cold area. Unfortunately once they were started it really needed to be completed, without stopping. They needed to cut away even more damaged hull to affix new panels and that compromised the stability of that whole section of the hull.

It was a pretty punishing schedule, and most of the actual repair out there was being undertaken by Brody, Greer and Atienza. There wasn't really anyone else who could manage both the suits and the repairs and they seemed to work well enough together. In addition to the repair team Young and Scott were in and out of the shuttle, delivering hull panels to order from the area where the required panels had been temporarily placed and tethered before the seedship had left. On the orders of both Susannah and TJ, Rush was still confined to non-active duties and was consequently trapped on the bridge monitoring sensors and kino feeds with Calvos.

The suits were a pain to deal with. As soon as the crew in suits returned the suits had to be stripped down, emptied of any waste (a pleasant job), recharged and the air and water refilled ready for them to go out again. Brody was going to be exhausted from the work outside, Volker and Park were on Big River, and Eli's shore leaves had now been completely reshuffled to include extra time on the planet Down Below as one of the few crew members who was not allergic to any of the plant life down there. He wouldn't be back for another three days.

Rush did not trust any of the non-science team crew with the suits, which were far too important to risk so after the initial reconnaissance the working party had made of the rift in the hull he had ended up doing the job himself with Corporal Barnes who had volunteered and appeared at least reasonably bright and competent with her hands. He had noted her steady hands as they had worked, and she had informed him she was trained to defuse bombs. Which meant she had at least a basic grounding in electronics and chemistry and therefore was more use to the science team than running around playing soldiers.

He had requested her time later today to deal with the suits, and again for the next three days. He was not sure how Young would take his poaching another one of his military personnel, he reflected later as he and Barnes racked the third suit and he sent her off to dinner. He was certain though that if he started Barnes working with Eli and Calvos on projects she would come down on his side of the debate. He would at least then gain her spare time, and the soldiers tended to have quite a bit of it. He had pretty much decided that Atienza was wasted as a soldier and Brody should start training him up on general maintenance, and he could do worse than apprentice Ramirez to Volker and gain another staff member with a grasp on sensor readings both spatial and planetary. It would keep Volker busy anyway.

He needed more trained staff, definitely needed more trained staff if they had a hope of getting very far with fixing everything on Young's list. Not that he had anymore trained staff, so Young was just going to have to let him have some soldiers to train.

He made his way tiredly to the mess hall and retrieved some tea and the dinner of the day, what was laughingly called salad and pate but in practice was sliced raw vegetables, meat paste and homemade crackers. The only thing it had going for it was that it didn't require Becker to make it up himself and the vegetables were at least fresh.

He grabbed a plate full and a cup of tea and sat down. For a few minutes he ate his way stolidly through the plate of food. He decided he actually liked three of the six vegetables represented, didn't mind two and hated another. On the grounds it was food though he finished the disgusting one quickly and first to get it out of the way before he went back to the others. The crackers and meat paste reminded him of being a small child and the food his mother fed them when money was tight, although being honest, money was always tight, it had seemed there was always more month left after the end of the money than money left after the end of the month. Lost in memory he was startled when Young sat down heavily opposite him.

He looked up. Young looked tired, as tired as he felt himself.

"You look a mess." He noted.

Young frowned then shrugged. "Long day."

"How long did it take you to shift the hangover?"

Young gave him a rueful look. "Till lunchtime."

Rush chuckled. "I guessed that was why Scott did all the flying this morning."

"Yeah, well." Young poked at his food.

Rush watched Young for a while before pushing Young's mug of tea towards him. "Drink your tea first. Might settle your stomach."

Young seemed too tired to protest and picked up the tea. He drank it slowly, before putting it aside and staring at his plate with a disinterested gaze.

Rush snorted and spoke in a low voice. "The light green stuff tastes a bit like raw turnips, but it's edible. The two dark green ones are a bit like basil and cabbage. The shredded white stuff is practically tasteless but crunchy, the yellow sticks are like melon and the orange shreds are a bit radishy." Young looks at him, surprised. Rush continued. "The pate tastes like dog food."

Young grimaced. "And you'd know this how?"

"Lucky guess. Eat your dinner Colonel." He swept up their mugs and went and refilled them before sitting back down and putting one in front of Young. He was tired himself and as he looked back to the counter, trying to remember if he'd added sugar syrup to the tea, he realised TJ was watching him.

She was sitting with Greer, opposite Scott and Chloe, eating her own dinner. The others seemed to be discussing something and oblivious to her attention wandering away from them. Her eyes flicked deliberately from him to where Young was poking the orange radishy stuff and then back to him again with an unspoken question. Is he okay? Rush shrugged, and then nodded, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring glance and wondering how soon he could get out of here. Being Young's emotional barometer wasn't really a task he wanted to take on himself.

He turned back and took a sip of the tea which turned out to be sweet, realising that Young still hadn't eaten. "It's going to make a scene if I have to bully you to eat your meal." He muttered quietly into his tea.

"And you would care precisely why?" Young replied.

"In the interests of this crew actually functioning like any kind of a cohesive unit, you have to be at least partially effective as a leader." Rush snapped. He looked up and caught Young's eye, dropping his voice again. "Being half dead on your feet is unlikely to be conducive to that. You need food and sleep."

Young didn't reply but started working his way through the food. Rush finished the last of his own and sat there, drinking his second cup of tea and watching Young eat. Young finished then looked up at Rush again. He shifted his shoulders as if they were stiff and looked around to see who was near them before looking up and speaking with what appeared some discomfort.

"Look," Young said very quietly, "I'm sorry about what I said last night." His eyes darted out again, as if to check no one was listening. Rush could understand why. "What I said before the lights were out, I was...out of order."

Rush looked at him for a long moment, trying to read his mood, the sentiment certainly appeared genuine. "It's okay." Rush said eventually. "You were still drunk, and you were angry about a lot of things. I didn' take it personally."

Young laughed bitterly. "Just for a change you were the one person I wasn't pissed off at, at all."

Rush had to laugh at that. Their eyes met for a moment and Rush nodded, he understood what Young was saying. Young's expression looked grateful and Rush was suddenly uncomfortable. He stood, downing the last of his tea and taking his plate.

"I'd best go, I've got simulations running."

Young nodded back and Rush walked away quickly. He needed to finish working through his latest interaction with the manufactory on the seedship before it came back with the materials for the glasslike panels and he would actually need to programme it.

xxxoooxxx

TJ tried to observe Young and Rush without being noticed, either by the two men or by Chloe, Scott or Greer. She watched Rush get up and walk out. Young finished his dinner and stared at his cup of tea. Scott dragged her back into the conversation, but when it slowed again, Young was still sitting there. She managed to keep an eye on him as Scott and Greer started to argue about something related to flying the shuttle, and saw him finally get up, return the crockery and leave. After a moment she got up, made her excuses and followed him out. He realised she was following her after about two corridors and turned to see who it was.

"TJ." He said. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." She said uncertainly.

"You don't sound like it."

She looked at her feet. "I'm just a bit confused." She admitted.

She looked up at him and realised he was blushing. She smiled weakly.

"I'm sorry about that TJ."

"No!" she said quickly. "You don't have to feel bad about it. You're entitled to..." She tailed off, not wanting to hazard a guess as to whatever their situation was and get it wrong.

"Exactly." He said in response to her confused expression. "Look," he glanced around then walked to a door, "come in and we'll talk."

The room was a storage area, now full of crates of supplies from the planet. She sat down on the edge of one and he stood in front of her.

"So," she said uncomfortably. "What...do you want to tell me?"

He shifted to the other foot. "Uh, what do you want to know?"

She sighed. "I guess the whole situation surprised me. I was surprised when you said you and Rush were sharing in the cold, but that you're still occasionally sharing..."

Young looked uncomfortable and TJ frowned. "Is there something wrong?"

"The cold wasn't the first." He admitted. "It's been occasional since the volcano beach planet."

Her blue eyes widened as she gave him a shocked look. "Wow!"

He ducked away and flushed.

"You've been having a relationship for a while then." She said.

"It's not a relationship." He said quickly.

"Well, you're sleeping together."

"Not sleeping together, just sometimes sleeping in the same bed. Like, when we need company, when things are kinda difficult."

She still looked puzzled.

"He started it I guess." Young said. "On the planet, I was having trouble with my bad knee in the cold and I guess I was moving about a lot," he paused, replaying the memory in his mind, trying to describe it in a manner that would actually explain what had happened. "And he complained and when I said it was the cold he hauled me in with him and wrapped my blankets round us too." TJ's face was almost incredulous, but Young ploughed on. "Then, the next night he had a lot of muscle pain so I returned the favour." He scratched his head, looking away. "Then, when I had a bad patch after...you know, the argument with Camile...well, I wasn't sleeping, he kinda hauled me off to bed, made me sleep." TJ was still staring at him. "And, kinda, that's been it, when things go bad...it's..." His voice tailed off, looking for her reaction.

TJ sat back on the crate for a moment, looking at him. "Sounds like you're looking out for each other." She said. She went to speak and stopped herself.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm sorry, I just have all these questions, which is rude, but it's just...a surprise."

"Yeah." He nodded ruefully. "You can say that again. Well, ask I guess."

"Well, how often?"

Young shrugged. "All three nights we were on the planet, and again on Big River," he thrust his hands in his pockets, "it seemed pointless to share with anyone else. The cold. Maybe five other times I guess."

They stared at each other. He pulled his hand out of his pocket, reached out and stroked her face and she pulled back. "No Everett." She said. "Just, no." She took his hand and squeezed it. "Even if I was...able to manage a relationship, I won't be the other woman again."

"You wouldn't..." He protested.

She cut in. "I don't want a relationship and you have a relationship with Rush."

"I don't have a relationship with Rush." Young's voice was raw.

"Okay, you have a something." She said. "An agreement, an arrangement, but I can't do a relationship like that."

"TJ…"

She patted his hand. "It's okay Everett."

She walked out.

xxxoooxxx

Rush sat at the console, scrolling slowly through a list of standard components in the manufactory's database. This would be a lot easier if he actually knew what all the components were or had worked out what all of the sections of the ship were called. The items were tagged by area, type and a selection of other things, but none of them were particularly helpful overall. In no category did he have a full understanding of the list.

He had got as far into the peripheral systems as requesting mining for primary materials, that system seemed straightforward enough, it was the same system used to request the retrieval of air and water. At the moment the seedship was mining silica, the base material for the glass.

However the manufactory itself had, unsurprisingly a considerably more complex control system. The programming which controlled the scheduling of creating components or other items evidently had two options, create and enter the full blueprint for the item in question using the correct format and terminology or select an item from the list of standard replacement components. From the list of almost seven thousand standard components.

Creating a blueprint for dome panels was out of the question, even if he did have the facilities to analyse the glass and establish what it was made of, the actual recipe for the glass would require a chemist, ideally one who could read and write Ancient. That left the list, but until he could find the dome panels in the list, presuming they even were in the list, he would not even know what else to ask the seedship to mine. He had a strong suspicion that if he queued up the appropriate item in the manufactory, the seedship would take itself off to obtain the appropriate materials anyway. However, considering their limited timescale he did not have the spare time to test this hypothesis on a random item from the list.

He sighed and went back to the list. He was damned if he was going to admit he had not got it all in hand before he had suggested it to Young. Being honest to himself he probably would not have gone so far if Telford had not been so fucking annoying. He set up another search with different terms on Destiny's database, perhaps this search would yield a component name or description and save him some time. He scowled and sat back in his seat watching the Ancient text scroll in front of his eyes.

At least searching the list was more annoying and time consuming than anything else. He would eventually find the data and then everything would just tick over. He would send the seedship mining, it would come back making panels and again he would have miraculously provided the required solution. It was definitely the allegory of the swan, all serene and in control on the surface and paddling like fuck underneath. He stifled a slightly sarcastic chuckle and scrolled on down the list.

xxxoooxxx

Rush was in the command chair monitoring the hull sensors on the second to last day of repair shifts. He watched as Brody and Atienza cut away a large chunk of damaged hull, the first of the day. As it slipped free, Greer caught it and restrained it's movement on his own for just long enough that Brody and Atienza could get a grip on it. They grabbed for it, firming their holds on it so they could begin to move it to the storage area where they would tether it until it could be moved with the other chunks to an airlock or into the shuttle to be retrieved for recycling.

On another display the shuttle made it's way from the panel storage area, inconveniently not near the hull breach to prevent any excessive stress on the damaged and structurally weak hull in that area.

The sound of the hatch and footsteps caused him to look up as Camile and someone in Dunning's body walked up to the railing.

"Rush." The tone explained who it was straight away.

"Colonel Telford." Rush tried to keep the anger out of his voice. Telford was irritating enough at the best of times, but sleeping with his supposed best friends ex-wife without admitting it was low, very low.

"Rush, I'm surprised you're in here, I'd have thought you'd be out there?" Telford gestured at the larger holographic display showing the kino feed of Brody, Atienza and Greer.

"Dr Macarthur and Lieutenant Johansen have withdrawn Rush from any activities which would risk him being exposed to excessive cold." Camile said.

Telford nodded.

"What can I do for you Colonel?" Rush asked pointedly.

"Nothing, just checking in. I'm here to discuss another visit for Doctor Gutierrez team with Everett." Telford stayed up on the platform looking down at him.

Rush clenched his teeth momentarily in irritation. That was going to be pleasant. Well, he guessed Young would have to have a conversation with Telford eventually, but Young had not looked in a good state either yesterday or this morning. Something appeared to have unbalanced Young again and Rush was fully expecting that if the mood did not lift he would find Young either drunk or in his bed again or both once this breach was fixed tomorrow evening.

"Unfortunately Colonel Young is unavailable." Rush told him. "He's on the shuttle delivering a hull panel to the repair team. Can I help you?" He tried to make the offer sound at least a little genuine and not entirely sarcastic.

"I wanted to speak to Everett about another three day fact finding trip for Gutierrez' team. Doctor Gutierrez is keen for them to come back here."

"What do they want this time?"

"They're eager to take another look at the seedship when it's back." Telford said, leaning on the railing. "Gutierrez wants to get a feel for the manufactory systems."

Yeah, I'll bet he does, it makes stargates. "I'll have Eli and someone else working on the manufactory systems, monitoring the production of components and presuming the mining is successful, dome panels." Rush said. "I see no reason why Gutierrez and a colleague can't join them without too much disruption." And it still won't help you because I'm the only one who knows how to work the control systems.

Telford raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought Everett would have needed to make that decision." He said.

Arsehole. "The work on the manufactory is a science issue, and as such is within my remit." Rush said bluntly. "And as the seedship is unlikely to return for at least another few days I think I have plenty of time to arrange a time with the Colonel when he has suitable crew for your scientists to exchange with."

Telford gave a brief nod.

"Did you want to speak to Colonel Young about anything else?" Rush asked. "I can contact him and ask him to come back to the ship in the next pause in the work." Rush did not prevent the edge of sarcasm coming through in his voice, deliberately giving the impression he thought Telford was being needlessly disruptive.

"No, I'm sure that's not necessary. You obviously have it under control."

Too fucking right I do you conniving bastard. "If you'll excuse me then." Rush gave him a sour look and turned back to the sensor display.

"Do you have time for a discussion before I go back?" Telford spoke quietly. There was a pause and Rush flicked a look back up to where Camile was looking at Telford curiously. "I just need to discuss some crew related matters." Telford said easily. "Potential for promotion, things like that. Particularly the military personnel. Everett has recommended some field promotions to regularise the command structure here, and I've been asked for my views."

Camile frowned. "Is that usual?"

Telford shrugged. "Nothing about this posting is usual." He said

Which doesn't answer anything, Rush thought, looking back down at the console.

Behind him he heard Telford step away from the railing. "Obviously I'd value your opinion as IOA representative but also in a professional capacity."

"If you're not busy we can have that discussion now David, if you have the time that is?"

"Of course."

And they left.

xxxoooxxx

The rest of the day drifted past in it's rotation of removal of hull and replacement of hull. Telford apparently did not stay long after his discussion with Camile and he was long gone by the time Rush got away from the bridge and had finished recharging the suits. It was the evening by the time Rush saw Young in person, though Young seemed to be avoiding him. He attempted to catch a discussion with him about Gutierrez' team at dinner. Camile had obviously already discussed Telford's earlier visit with him, but Young's response was brusque.

"Fine, get Camile to alter the schedule." And he walked off.

Rush watched him go, wondering when the explosion would happen. It did not happen that evening though and he did not try and raise the issue at the brief meeting the next morning before the final day of repairs. They were ahead of schedule by two panels and Rush fully expected them to be complete after about four hours out there.

Volker and Park were back from shore leave. Rush handed off the monitoring and suit maintenance to Volker and spent the morning working on the manufactory programming issue. Time away from it had given him fresh perspective and thinking time and he finally made a breakthrough in the mid afternoon in identifying parts made by the constituent material when a series of items he could actually identify showed up with the same reference codes. It did not take too long to start establishing codes for raw materials and an hour or so later he had a list of over forty elements and substances. He was finally able to move on.

With a better grasp of this fundamental issue he started another search through the manufactory's list of pre-programmed items it could make, running a query based on raw materials needed which produced a much shorter list of two hundred and fifty seven items. It took less than twenty minutes to locate and add dome panels to the seedship's currently empty work-queue. He also noted the tag on the listing for the dome panels that the broken sections should be recyclable, if they could cut away what was left and feed it back into the manufactory. Rush watched in satisfaction as the seedship suddenly diverted from it's current mining task to move back towards Destiny, directing itself towards one of the system's two asteroid belts.

He sat back with a satisfied sigh, contemplating what to do next. Dinner, then maybe the much needed discussion with Young.

xxxoooxxx

"Young, this is Rush." Rush had heard the earlier radio chatter and knew Young had left the bridge twenty minutes ago.

"What is it Rush?" Young did not sound like he was in a good mood. A little closer to the explosion maybe.

"If you have a moment I need to discuss the potential repairs to the dome."

"Where are you?"

"Core interface room."

"I'll be there in five minutes."

Young strode into the core room looking annoyed. He walked up and leaned on the console that Rush had been working at. He looked up from the time estimates on the mining.

"I wanted to let you know that the seedship now has dome panels fully queued up in it's manufactory work queue, and the mining estimate suggests it will start construction of the first panels in two days."

Young tilted his head with a scowl. "You called me here for that?"

Rush paused a moment then spoke. "We need to discuss Telford." Rush said. "How we're going to manage him."

Young was silent, face angry.

"He's only going to keep pushing for his pet scientists to have access to Destiny which means he's going to be back here on a regular basis." Rush persisted. "I need to know if you're capable of dealing with him."

He waited but Young stayed resolutely silent.

"Look, Colonel," Rush said sharply. "This is not something we can ignore. He will be to-ing and fro-ing between Earth and Destiny as long as Gutierrez wants to play with the seedship, and I'm not willing to have to manage you having a meltdown every time you have to deal with him."

"That's none of your business Rush." Young snapped.

"I think it is," Rush interjected angrily, "I'm the one who had to field his further demands we baby sit Gutierrez and his trained monkeys so you didn't have to talk to him."

"This is none of your business!" Young repeated, raising his voice. "I didn't ask you to talk to Telford."

"Like you would have managed it?" Rush scoffed. "You can't even manage to talk to me about it."

Young glared. "And that's a really good indicator is it?" He growled.

Rush glared back at him. "You can't just ignore this."

"Why not, you do. Being avoidant and elusive is practically a trademark of yours." Young said angrily. "Back. Off."

"At least I think about things. I possibly might even talk about them given the right opportunity. You won't even consider this."

Young's knuckles were white on the edge of the console as he leaned in threateningly. "He is fucking Emily. The manipulative bastard has wormed his way back in to my wife's bed again."

"Ex-wife." Rush interjected coldly. "And forgive me if my only concern in this matter is for how it impacts on your personal effectiveness, The fact is I have absolutely no concern at all for the welfare of your ex-wife, who left you and is now engaged in a relationship with your best friend." Rush's voice was icy. "Or maybe that's ex-best friend."

For a moment Rush was convinced Young was going to hit him, then Young shoved himself away from the console, spun and stormed off.

"Fuck!" Rush swore slamming the heel of his hand into the edge of the console in frustration. "Fuck!"