A/N: Here is the next chapter.... I hope you like this and please do review it!

Shorty McGee: A bit of patience goes a long way... normally.... and who needs patience! I don't Rush has any :D Anywho, enjoy!

KaseyKC


"Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted." Paul Pearshall


One

If he were to consider himself a lucky man then he would also have the logic-based opinion to reason that Murphy was out to get him with an argument of whether or not the luck he happens to have in bundles is good or bad. At this present moment in time he found himself to be leaning towards the common idea that he had the worst luck of all of the human race. As always, anything that could go wrong – especially after he had spent the last several days working almost non-stop simply to allow them a few weeks worth of breathable, non-toxic air – would have to go wrong when he was on his way to his quarters to catch-up on the much-needed sleep that he had been ordered to take.

Not that he enjoyed the prospect of leaving his lab in the hands of others, regardless of who those others were. No, it was the simple fact that he was so exhausted that the walk to his quarters took him, on average, ten-minutes – when he was partially functioning and not running on adrenilin – but now would take more than double that due to the uncharacteristicly slow pace he had adopted as his tired muscles refused to work as efficiently as he expected them to. As a result he found his patience lacking severely and it was not helped by the loud claxon sounding down the corridor he was currently traipsing down.

He tapped the comm in his right ear and spoke into it, his voice sounding weaker than he would normally have preferred but he reasoned that the lack of sleep was starting to take a more noticable toll on him, 'Lieutenant? What seems to be the problem?'

In response to his question he received a burst of static that had him hurriedly ragging the comm from his ear and quietly cursing. The static, though he only heard it for a moment, made his head ring and his mind freeze momentarily as the synaptic responses occurred to happily inform him that the pitch of the static hurt his ears. Not that he couldn't already figure that out for himself of course.

He turned around immediately and made his way along the corridor, back the way he'd came, his earlier exhaustion forgotten as his body created more adrenilin and his muscles sadly continued to work, thankful for the fuel they desperately needed to complie with his minds demands. He stormed along the Ancient-corridor, his mind working furiously and his right hand gripping the comm with an uncanny strength that turned his knuckles white from the effort.

Upon his entrance into his lab he immediately took note of several things; first was that the Lieutenant looked like he also had been the reciprocant of a burst of static, if his slightly pained expression was anythign to go by, and second was that Eli was frantically hurrying around the consoles whilst one of the bumbling excuses of a scientist looked absolutely terrified and kept out of the young man.

He was about to open his mouth and demand to know what was going on when Eli spoke to the scientist, not even bothering to glance at him as he continued to tap hurriedly on various consoles, 'I told you not to initicate the program! Scott told you not to initicate the program! Rush told you not to initicate the program! Why the heck didn't you listen to us? Did you think that we were just joking around?! Just saying no to annoy you?! I thought you were intelligent!'

He stared for a moment, at a loss for words. Did he really just see, just hear Eli insult a scientist in the same manner that he did daily? Surely he must not have heard correctly. Apparently he hadn't though since Scott happily chose that moment to focus back onto the goings on in the lab and laugh at Eli's insult and the scientists subsequent... stare of shock.

Eli then continued with his ministrations for a few more moments before another claxon sounded, this time less imposing and less... worrying. He smiled widely at the screen and looked up from the console to see Rush standing in the door. Immediately he started speaking, 'He activated that nifty little program that we told him not to, being so all knowing as to already know what would happen and so on. It activates a temporary override of the hyperdrive allowing us to drop out of FTL for what looks to be the standard twelve hours. Unfortunately what mr-know-it-all here didn't realise was that there was a security failsafe in place that meant half of the ship would be sealed off, the atmosphere vented and the people stuck in that section would die of asphyxiation, luckily I managed to override it and make Destiny believe that it was an accidental initiation of the program so she didn't enact the failsafe.' Eli took a moment to draw in a breath, in order to continue with his exhilarating speech but Scott cut-in.

'Okay. So we have twelve hours out of FTL that we can use to scout out the local system?' Scott looked at the console beside Eli before looking back at him, 'I'll take that look as a yes then.'

Eli glared at Scott before sighing, which turned into a yawn. Scott grinned at Eli and Rush had to bite back a grin at the sight of Eli looking like he could happily sleep right where he was.

Rush finally decided that he'd best declare his presence and so said, 'Eli. Go to bed, you look more exhausted than I do. You,' he focused his cold, angered eyes on the scientist who positively looked like he was trying to blend into the wall, 'get out of my lab before I throw you out!'

The scientist scarpered, fleeing past him with such speed that the found it humourous that the people aboard Destiny avoided Eli when he'd had little sleep during a week or so... they seemed to hang around him quite often. He waited for a moment or so, until he was certain he could no longer hear the fleeing scientists footfalls on the Ancient-flooring, before entering the lab and thinking the door shut. Luckily, after he and Eli searching the database for a week or so they had found that Destiny had the same ability as Atlantis in terms of ATA technology, except that it was mostly restricted to the doors and the main lab that he was currently standing in.

He looked at Scott who deftly avoided his look, choosing instead to focus intently on the Ancient characters that were blinking on the console beside Eli as though they held the secret to eternal youth. He glared at the Lieutenant before focusing his gaze on Eli, his glare softening to become something more akin to a parent's stern look when dealing with a young child who refused to go to bed, 'Eli. Go to bed before you collapse where you are now.'

Eli glared at him and replied hootly, his normal restraint gone along with his patience due to the lack of sleep, 'I will when you do.'

Eli knew that was a childish response but he didn't care. He was too tired to put up with anyone whinging, whining or trying to act as though they were the one-and-only... and that went for Rush as well. Though he knew he was exhausted he could only imagine how tired Rush was, and so he reasoned that if he had to sleep then so did Rush.

Rush held his stare with Eli for as long as he could but a yawn suddenly made its self known, causing him to break eye-contact and blink which Eli interpreted as a sign of defeat. He groaned to himself as Eli thought the door open again; at least he knew that Eli had the ATA gene as well. Eli gently pushed him out into the hallway, saying to Scott at the same time, 'Give us a call in four hours.'

Scott looked at Eli and asked, confused, 'Four hours? You need more sleep than four hours?'

Eli rolled his eyes and said, 'Yeah. But I want to see if we can access any of the planets in this system around us and I can't do that if I'm still asleep. Besides, I only need four hours to be able to function relatively well.' He turned and looked at Scott with a slight smirk, 'It must be in the genes.'

Scott laughed and nodded, 'Alright, four hours.'

Eli and Rush then turned away and made their way down the Ancient-corridor side-by-side as they headed towards their quarters which, funnily enough, were directly opposite each other. Talk about coinsidences.

-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-

After a relatively relaxing four hours of light dozing Eli found himself with enough energy to amble into the main gate room without glaring at everyone who made any sort of noise whatsoever. Unfortunately, it didn't make many of the scientists any calmer with his presence, I'm turning into Rush, he thought absently as he looked over the crates that were being moved out of the gate room months after their arrival... just hadn't got around to it had been the most common excuse that everyone was coming up with.

He smiled at the nearest scientist, who seemed to finally realise that he wasn't in his "Rush mood" and wasn't about to rip the poor guys head off... not yet anyway. He waited for the guy to start speaking but when it looked like the guy was about to a loud 'get out of my way' echoed across the gate room. The shout having a scottish lilt to it gave Eli the most obvious idea as to who had shouted out but not to who they had shouted it at.

He turned around in time to see a scientist, who was carrying a case that was probably filled with paper or something, scurry out of Rush's way as he positively stomped his way across the gate room over to Eli. Eli waited patiently, even though everyone in the immediate vecinity happily choose to move at apparently the same moment, and when Rush finally reached him he said, 'who's annoyed you this time?' sounding as though he was rather bored with the whole thing.

It only served to anger Rush even more and everyone in the gate room suddenly felt the urge to disappear into the walls but not leave... no, if they did that they wouldn't be able to watch what was about to happen.

'That stupid, ignorant...' Rush was so worked up that he couldn't even describe what a fool the idiot had been, so Eli happily assisted.

'Backwards?' He suggested as Rush paced angerly in front of him. He didn't grin, that wouldn't help but, on the inside he was laughing like crazy.

'Yes! That stupid, ignorant, backwards-'

'Waste of flesh?'

'Backwards, waste of flesh that-'

'Can't figure out what a kindengardener can?'

'Waster of flesh that can't figure out what a kindengardener can and-'

'Couldn't find his way out of a box with no sides?'

'And couldn't find his way out of a box with no sides! If he even considers coming within twenty-feet of me in the next week I am going to find a way to jettison him into space!' Rush finished his ranting as he stopped pacing and stood in front of Eli who still was not grinning... well, maybe a little.

'Scott,' Eli declared more than asked the agitated scientist. He definitely would have to find out what Scott had gone and done to annoy Rush this much, he could use it to his benefit one day.

'Who else!' Rush snorted, his accent thicker than usual but Eli had no difficulty understanding him; that professor he'd had in college really did come in handy, he and Rush were both Scottish so he had no real difficulty with the interpretation of the words he spat out.

He chuckled quietly and noticed that Scott had just walked into the room. He grinned to himself and called out, in a cheery, innocent voice, 'Hey Scott!'

Rush's glare made his day strangely enough... especially when it was directed at Scott.


Okay. Here is the second chapter. It's late now and I'm exhausted, hence the reason why I'm about to go and get some shut-eye.... more than four hours, hopefully!

I like reviews and do remember the more you review the more I'm inclined to update and the more you have to read.

Oh, btw, I'm trying to make these chapters longer than the ones I normally do for most of my fics so if I succeed you'll probably find that the one after will be either a LOT longer or a little shorter... either way, they should be at least more than two A4 pages per chapter :D

Ambitious aren't I??

KaseyKC