Here's chapter eleven of this; I'm updating this now but I don't think I'll be updating this again until the weekend... possibly. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and this one is SO MUCH LONGER than my others so enjoy!
KaseyKC
Eleven
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov.
Science; it originates from the Latin word 'Scientia' which means 'knowledge'. It is probably quite an apt meaning if one thinks about it; science is mankind's way of gaining knowledge about anything and everything, in the physical world at least. Observations, experiments, measuring, mathematics, repetition... all of these are methods used in modern day science to understand and comprehend what happens in a star, in the body, in the heart and in the head. Science is used by many to explain in greater detail what religion hasn't, or doesn't try to, science is an ideal, a concept that has to be believed just as much as a religion because you are putting your life; the way you live, on the line for something that is explained by numbers and chemical processes.
Science has hypotheses which are ideas and possible theories, or guesses to be more precise, about the nature of the universe, science also has theories which are ideas that have been proved via the repetition of experiments that have been observed and data recorded. A scientific theory is usually given in a mathematical form, most usually an algebraic equation, and are always subjected to constant doubts and retesting; afterall, these theories are used to explain the nature of the universe itself, they have to be accurate don't they?
Rush had always found science to be fascinating to him; even though he wasn't exactly the most happy of children when younger, he had always found that science was one of the few things that could bring a smile to his face and laughter into his heart. When his father had come home from working at the docks in Glasgow he would hide away in his room, fearful of how he father would be acting after working so hard and going to the pub with a few fellow workers for a few hours, and would study the stars from his small bedroom window; he had none of the great luxuries that many of his classmates had but he found that he had no use for them, the stars were more than enough of a luxury for him.
As he'd grown, and survived all his father's drunk-rages, young Nicholas had discovered that he had the best ability; he could do maths to a degree that far surpassed his fellow students and most certainly his teachers. With this newfound knowledge Rush chose to head to the small library that wasn't too far from his home every day after school; knowing he had to be home in time for his father to return or he would get an extra hiding from him. So for almost two years, from his fourteenth birthday, Rush attended the small library; soaking up all the knowledge on science that he could, learning every little thing that he could find about the stars, about mathematics, about physics, and he loved it. He loved every moment of it; it was his way of escaping the world, of escaping his father, of escaping his awful life.
He'd been seventeen years of age when his father had finally declared him a fellow dock worker, and his world shattered. No college, no university, no more science; no more star gazing for him. No, reality was knocking at his door and had come to repossess his life. And that had been that; he had began working at the docks, hour-upon-hour of hard, back-breaking labour that made his harder, stronger, tougher than he'd ever been before. He learnt how to fight on the docks; to save his own skin because his father had made it abundantly clear that he wasn't going to save him.
And when he turned eighteen he continued to work on the docks; doing the same thing day-in and day-out, never changing, never having enough energy at the end of the day to look up and marvel at the stars. The stars were a dream, a million missed opportunities away, and he was too exhausted to dream any longer. But mere weeks before he was to turn nineteen his father died; an accident on the docks it was wrote-off as, but it didn't hurt Rush, it didn't break his heart, he didn't lament the loss of his father. No, he smiled and felt free again, he felt life's opportunities open up to him again; sure, he had missed two years of learning, he had to catch-up fast and get to a college for at least a one-year course before he could go to university, but he was free! And that was all he thought about as they had carted his father's carcass through the streets, to the cemetery, into the grave and buried it six feet under, that was all he thought until he realised he had to get moving.
He gained possession of the home that he'd lived in since he was young, and recognised that though it was only two-bedroomed, that it was too much space for him and decided to sell it on to a young couple who were looking for a first home; they didn't mind that it was sort of run down, it lowered the price of it anyway, and the man said he'd been looking for a 'fixer-upper' so they bought it, he got the money and found a small flat in Glasgow city that wasn't too far from the docks but close to the main library and the college also. Realising that he would need some sort of job to support him in his studies he chose to continue working at the docks but fewer hours, and though he would still be doing the back-breaking labour he was now accustomed to, he would also be working in the office as an accountant for the boss; gaining a bit more cash that went under the table and not on his pay-check.
Life slowly improved for him as he joined the college when the next term began and studied physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and, for an extra degree, psychology. His class load was sometimes a bit high for him, and he occasionally found it difficult to juggle his job and his learning at certain times of the year, but on the whole his learning was pretty easy and his work slowly began to turn away from manual-labour and more into accountancy, which allowed for him plenty of energy and more time to learn. But the time he was twenty he had already completed two-year courses in all of the subjects he was taking and left college with the best grades a dock-worker like him could ever have hoped for. But university was next; and competition was wrought between students vying for places.
But Rush didn't have to worry about that all too much; the dean of the university was a regular poker player at the weekly game his boss at the docks held, and after he worked his mathematical genius on the books at the docks his boss did him the favour of getting a guaranteed place at Glasgow university. And Rush's path was set in stone from then on.
Spending two years in university was like a heaven to Nicholas; to be surrounded by dozens of people who wanted to learn just as much as him, and engulfed in endless amounts of knowledge, it was nirvana to him. His first year was filled with inspiriting speeches and sermons from his professors to him about 'how he could go far in the field of science' and 'his mind was one of the greatest upon the earth', and his first year was also the year that he met his true love; the one woman who he would always cherish and adore, no matter what. Gloria had been her name and he'd walked into her on one of the corridors outside the arts theatre, sending them both crashing to the ground in a hail of falling books and flying papers; and he'd stared into her eyes at a loss for anything to say when he'd seen who he'd crashed into. His heart had been all aflutter with feelings he'd never felt before, not for any girl he'd ever known in his life prior, and not any girl since.
She'd smiled at him and apologised for walking into him, not him into her but the other way around; like she was to blame. And Rush had never heard such an absurd thing in his entire life; ignoring the idea that that dimwit in college had about the moon being made out of cheese of course. He smiled at her and had corrected her, stumbling over his own words as he'd apologised to the beautiful lass who'd smiled and laughed at his lame attempt to joke, and blushed when he'd said he'd walked into her because he'd been so distracted by her beauty.
Pretty soon after that they had got together, and at the behest of her parents had married because they both vowed to never part from the others company; and then it had all ended in a blaze of explosions and destruction. Four months after they had married, she had come to the science labs and had been watching him and his friends absolutely insane experiment; the reaction between Aluminium and Iron Oxide, which can also be known as a Thermite reaction. The experiment would have been fine had it not been for the incorrect measurements of the two substances as well as the presence as hydrogen gas from a recent, separate experiment.
As a result of the incorrect measurements and the presence of hydrogen the experiment was indeed spectacular and full of explosions caused by the reaction of the substances, but those explosions shouldn't have been as... destructive as they were. After the initial explosion, the lab looked like it had been the setting for an epic war film, and the casualties were quite plain for those to see; the ones who survived however would live with the knowledge for decades to come.
Rush spent three months recovering in hospital, three months living without her, three months of survivor's guilt before it came to a head. Her father had come to visit him; and Rush had dearly hoped that he was going to end his life there and then but no, he came to talk to him and make him realise that she would never want him to just give up. His rallying speech had made Rush realise that though she was gone, she wouldn't be gone from his heart and mind and all he needed to do for her was live, live life and go back to work. Go back to science, go back to the stars and just imagine her face smiling at him in each and every single one of them.
When he was finally able to walk again; four months after the entire incident, the first place he went was to her grave with a single white rose held in his grasp. And he left it for her, left on the headstone that marked her resting place and the place where he hoped one day to rest alongside her.
A place at Area 51 opened up, after one of the scientists had an unfortunate run-in with an alien device that was less than hospitable to human brains, and he took it when the Air Force knocked on his door looking all professional and cold. He left Glasgow, he left Scotland, he left the United Kingdom and went to the other side of the Atlantic; finding that the climate was too hot, the people too fat, and the technology far too fascinating and deadly to be in the hands of so many bumbling idiots.
-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-
"Is he awake yet?" Young asked T.J as he walked into the infirmary; it had been near-enough two days since the incident on the planet with the raptors and both Rush and Eli were still out of it. He stood in between the two beds which had Rush and Eli on them; Rush on his left and Eli on his right.
"No, neither of them are; I've kept Eli sedated since I want him to be able to heal quicker and Rush is absolutely exhausted so I didn't even need to use a sedative on him," T.J sighed feeling like she reliving groundhog day over and over; for the last two days Young had checked on them, asking the same question every few hours and every time T.J answered the same. She was rather certain that if he asked her again that she wouldn't be held responsible for what she would do to him; although then she'd have to spend more of her time patching his sorry-ass up once she was finished with him.
Young watched her as she checked Eli's pulse and pupil reactions before asking, "How badly were they injured?"
T.J busied herself with checking Rush once she was done with Eli, and used that time to try and find a way of explaining their injuries without crying, shouting, or threatening them with more harm when they awoke, "Badly... three of Eli's ribs were cracked, one of them broken and almost pierced a lung. The laceration had signs of an infection, and the anti-coagulant that was in his blood made treating him harder; it's a good thing Rush found that coagulant or I doubt I could've save Eli..." she swallowed and took a deep breath trying to control her breathing, "Rush's shoulder was dislocated; how that happened neither Scott or Greer can really explain in enough detail, his right hand is bruised to buggary and two of his fingers are broken; I've strapped them for now but he won't be doing much with that hand for a good few weeks. His other hand," she shook her head as she turned to look at Young, "it's a mess; at first I thought that he'd crushed his hand, maybe under a rock or boulder, but when I looked closer I discovered that he's ripped the skin and first layer of muscle to heck! If I didn't know better I'd swear someone had tried to skin him and hadn't done it right!"
"Scott said something about a creature that attacked them; apparently Rush 'caved it's skull in'," Young said slowly as T.J moved away from her two patients and over to her office. He watched as she sat herself down and ran a hand through her messy hair; if he didn't know better he'd swear she hadn't slept in over a day, "when did you last get some shut-eye?"
She didn't answer him and instead shot him a glare, she didn't want to tell him that she hadn't slept in over eighteen hours because she knew that he'd literally kick her out of the infirmary with an order to get some sleep; but she had patients she had to care for. Of course, her not wanting to tell him when she'd last slept was pretty much a giveaway to him as well as a perfectly timed yawn.
"Go, at least four hours," he ordered looking at her sternly. Knowing she was going to protest that she needed to be here for her patients he added, "I'll keep an eye on them, now go."
She yawned one last time before standing slowly and saying, "I'll be back in four hours; if anything happens... use a trumpet to wake me up with."
Young smirked as he watched her leave her office and he followed her out into the infirmary, not taking his eyes off her until she was out of the doors and had turned in the direction of her quarters. He then turned his attention to the two sleeping beauties on the beds and muttered, "Oh they best not wake-up until she's had at least five hours," as he moved a stool over towards their beds and sat down on it; in between their beds so he could check on the pair of them without moving from one side of the infirmary to the other.
-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-
When T.J finally managed to get some shut-eye she found that she had slept like the dead and that over six hours had passed since she'd been kicked out of her own infirmary; which, if she hadn't been so utterly exhausted, would never have happened. She quickly got a shower, conserving the amount of water she used; even though Rush and Eli had assured her that Destiny was capable of recycling over 90% of used water, she still was reluctant to waste supplies. Throwing on her army uniform she realised for the first time that it was covered in blood, 'oh... I'm not going to wear that now,' she thought as she discarded the clothing in a pile on the floor by her bed. She looked at the wardrobe, or she figured it was a wardrobe, and decided to be brave, 'let's see what type of clothing Destiny invests in.'
Moving over to the wardrobe she tapped the screen next to the door and it slid open to reveal an entire shelf full of plain clothes that looked to be of varying sizes and styles, "wow..." she breathed as she pulled out a plain white, knee-length shirt and a pair of white pants that she guessed went together. Quickly throwing them on before she could change her mind about them, she grabbed her army uniform and left her quarters; detouring to the washing-room where she placed her clothes in the pile of dirty washing that looked to be steadily mounting, before heading to the infirmary.
Ignoring the strange looks some of the scientists gave her and her attire she quickly entered the infirmary to see Young snoring and Rush about to doodle on his face; how he was able to hold the marker pen was as intriguing to T.J as where he'd got it in the first place. She swiftly made her way over to his bed and grabbed the pen just before it landed on Young's face; Rush looked at her innocently and Young awoke with a startled grunt. Quickly letting go of the pen Rush lay back down on the bed and said in a falsely-innocent voice, "T.J... what are you trying to do to Colonel Young?"
Young frowned at the pen that was less than a centimetre from his face and said, "T.J?" his voice a quiet growl of mixed curiosity and annoyance.
T.J's eyebrows raised as she realised how it must look and she made a mental note to strangle Rush when she had the chance; and wouldn't be charged with murder for it, as she moved the pen away from Young's face and said lamely, "sorry sir."
Young resisted the urge to give her a dressing down as he looked at Rush and noticed a pen lid by his elbow, "it's alright T.J... I'm sure you were only stopping Doctor Rush here from giving me a moustache," he glared at Rush who blinked innocently at him.
He leaned towards Rush and picked up the pen lid, then holding it right on Rush's eye-line he said, "next time you want to lay the blame on someone else, try and hide all incriminating evidence," before he tossed it at Rush's head with a smirk.
T.J watched the interaction before saying, "how long have you been awake Rush?"
Rush looked at her and answered, watching as she held the pen in both hands, "about twenty minutes, snoring beauty here woke me," he frowned as he took in her attire, "where are you regular clothes T.J?"
She shrugged and answered, "In the wash," Young looked at her and she expanded, "they're covered in blood and I found these in the wardrobe in my quarters; there's enough in there to cloth half the people on Destiny sir."
Young nodded and said, "It goes with the decor."
"Is Eli awake?" Rush asked as T.J glared at Young, he looked across at his son and noticed that he was still wearing the oxygen mask and his chest was wrapped in a fair number of bandages where the raptor had caught him.
"No, I've got him sedated since I thought it'd be easier for his body to recuperate that way but," she checked her watch, "he should be waking up in the next ten minutes or so."
Rush nodded silently and Young stood up and moved out of his line of sight, realising that Rush was only comfortable when he could actually see Eli and know he was alright. He observed his son and noticed how strange it was for him to be so still and so silent; Eli was meant to be running around with a childlike enthusiasm and talking at a hundred miles an hour about the Kino's or referencing some absurd Star Trek episode. He wasn't meant to be quiet and stationary; he was too much like a star that was just coming into existence, too alive and too full of energy to be so still.
"He'll be fine Rush, after the sedatives worn off he'll be back to being the Eli we all know and love," T.J said gently as she laid a hand on his arm and squeezed it reassuringly, "but I need to make sure you're alright."
-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-
After almost half-an-hour after T.J had re-entered the infirmary Eli's eyes slowly opened to be greeted by the blinding glare of penlight and the sound of her talking.
"Eli, how do you feel?" she asked as he groaned and tried to turn his head away from the light, which she wisely put away once she was satisfied that he didn't have a concussion, "come on Eli; I thought you liked to talk?"
He glared at her and she smiled at him as he pulled the mask off his face and croaked, "Rush?" before coughing slightly at the dryness of his throat.
"Easy, here have some water," T.J held out a glass of water with a straw in it and helped him sip some of the cool liquid, "you've got several cracked ribs so don't talk too much."
Nodding slowly he asked again, "Rush?" his voice sounding less like a bullfrog's and more like his own. T.J looked behind her and smiled, he looked over to where she was staring and found Rush smiling at him, like a father. He smirked at him and said, "You look like crap."
Rush grinned and replied, "you don't look too good yourself junior," he laughed when Eli glared at him. He found it incredibly fun to tease Eli sometimes and by calling him 'junior' he'd discovered another term that he could torture his son with.
"You look worse old timer... I'll get you a simmer-frame for your birthday; you'll need it," Eli breathed as Rush laughed at his insult and Young snorted; T.J just sighed and decided to stop their arguing before it did them damage, or she did depending.
"Rest now, argue later, "she declared glaring at Eli and then at Rush, she wasn't going to have them torturing her like they did last time they were in her infirmary, "and no attempts at the great escape; my sanity can't take it."
Rush grinned at Eli and Young looked from Rush to Eli and then to T.J before asking, "Great escape?"
TBC...
