Hello again to everyone reading this. Firstly, I want to thank everyone that commented on or added my story to their fav list, your feedback helps me heaps. Special thanks to AlexanderD for pointing out a couple of "my bads" that I missed, I have since corrected a few things in upcoming epp's. The chapter may surprise you with the direction it goes, but I have tryed to retain a similar SGU style the way I wanted it. There are some new "people" introduced that might be seen later on... this is the rounding up of the first 3 chapters and will "open up" to more... twists... yet to come...

Enjoy.

SGU s03e04

Changes

A very angry General Young slammed the door button of Camille's quarters, and stormed in.

"What the hell were you thinking Camille?" yelled General Young: "I explicitly told you no-one is to attempt to open the stargate to Earth!"

"It's a ship Colonel, not a person... it's just a floating metal tin can..." Camille retaliated with fire in her voice.

"It's General Young... and after all that's happened, you still think this is just a ship...?" he corrected her as his own feelings of failure about their situation began to surface.

"We have the power, why can't we just dial home?" she was crying by now, "I just want to go home..."

Camille finally broke down, with her hands free, she cried into them rocking gently on her bed. It was all too much for her anymore; she had lost the love of her life and was stuck on a ship across the other side of the universe. She felt an emptiness beginning to fill her heart with pain. Everett understood; it wasn't fair and he knew it, but now it was his job to make a difference and give hope to everyone. He knew Camille to be a good person and she wouldn't put other people's lives in jeopardy intentionally. Calming himself down, he sat across from a very upset Camille Wray and spoke to her with understanding.

"Look, Camille; I don't think it's fair either...but we are all in the same situation. For the sake of everyone here, please...don't put other lives at risk by trying to test a theory." He spoke with compassion in his voice he didn't know he had, and surprised himself at how much he felt for Camille's situation.

Everett got up and walked to the door; he asked 2nd Lt Vanessa James to "keep her company for a while" rather than "guard the door". Vanessa stepped inside, closed the door and sat on the bed with Camille.

"Are you here to guard me?" Wray asked still sobbing gently.

Smiling at her she said softly; "No, it won't come to that."

Vanessa put her arm behind Camille's back and wrapped it around her pulling them together. Camille, turning towards her, put her hand around Vanessa's shoulder; laying their heads beside each others, Camille began to cry uncontrollably. She needed a friend, someone to comfort her; like all of them, she had woken up from stasis after 3 years, and all that she had known would be different. Vanessa cradled her, rocking slowly on the bed with her for some time; finally Camille looked up at Lt. James, with tears still running down her face. Vanessa knew that feeling of emptiness Camille was going through, and placed her hands for support alongside Camille's neck.

"I miss her so much...it's so hard...I told her not to wait for me before going into stasis" sobbed Camille.

Lt. James wiped the tears away with her thumbs, now holding Camille's sad face softly in her hands;

"I know what it's like to lose someone...not being able to touch them" Vanessa swallowed, thinking about losing Matt to Chloe.

Camille affectionately put her hand around Lt. James wrist. They rested their foreheads together for a few moments, both in deep sorrow; slowly they began to smile and chuckle at their hopeless position stuck on the other side of the universe.

"Huh...we make a good pair don't we..." Camille's sorrow was starting to fade, replaced by the warmth that Vanessa's compassion was giving her.

Camille lifted her head and looked into the gentleness of Vanessa's soft feminine eyes; they shared a moment looking into each other... Then, out of the blue;

Vanessa leaned forward tenderly to Camille...;

And kissed her

General Young knew it was time to speak to everyone on board. They didn't need to know all the details, just a brief outline of what happened while in stasis. Destiny would arrive to recharge from the star soon, and he wanted to inform everyone of what was going on; he asked Rush to join him. Standing on the bridge he engaged the ships intercom system and began to speak:

"Attention all personal...there will be a meeting in the gate room for everyone in ten minutes; Young out."

Slowly everyone milled around the gate room. General Young asked the marines to only carry small arms just in case someone made an attempt to open the gate; he didn't want to scare people with military might. He and Rush stood atop the stairs in the gate room in a show of unity; Young began.

"First of all, welcome back. I wanted to give everyone time to adjust from stasis for a few hours before I spoke to all of you together. We have quite a few things to discuss as you would of noticed, lots of things have happened while we were in stasis."

Everett explained as straight forward as he could about what took place while they were "out". He told them what had happened to Amanda, Ginn, and Franklin and that they now resided in cloned bodies; although none of them were present at the meeting to avoid reactions. Most of the people seemed to understand now; they had all worked with alien technology before and surprise was just a part of it. At the mention of the planet with the power to dial Earth, General Young stated to all of them:

"There will be a list in the galley for anyone to put their name on to stay onboard Destiny and not return to Earth. No one will be pressured to put their name on the list; it will be entirely your own choice. Anyone caught pressuring another person, or forging someone else's name will face a disciplinary hearing made up of three military and three civilian personal...none of which shall be me; are there any questions?"

Varro asked a question; "General Young, are we able to explore the ship more now that it's functioning properly?"

"Yes we will, but only on my orders. No one is to go off "exploring" on their own without permission. To put it simply, this ship is huge and it would be easy to get lost."

Another civilian asked "Sir, have we found any planets yet?"

Young looked at Rush; he took the question: "Destiny is showing two planets in this system with gate addresses, only one appears to be operational. We may take the shuttle to the other if it appears inhabitable."

Rush asked "Is there anything else?" No one replied.

General Young then told them "Everyone will have the chance to use the communication stones over the coming weeks. There will be an 8 hour limit per person, and exceptional cases will need to be considered by myself and Camille Wray."

"Ok, that's all..." said General Young.

People started heading back towards their normal stations. Many went to check out the dome and see it for themselves. Lisa Park went to see T.J in the infirmary with the help of her "seeing eye dog" Ronald, who was becoming more than just a friend.

"How are you feeling" asked T.J

"No magical cure yet" she said laughingly, the distress still in her voice.

T.J, careful not to get Lisa's hopes up told her about what Rush had found; "We now have a whole database of information about different species. I have had a quick look through and there appears to be some information on eye injuries and diseases. I'm sorry but I haven't had much time to look through yet."

"That's alright T.J, I'm not the only one in need of attention" she spoke as T.J flashed a light into her eyes to test her pupils' reaction.

Lisa blinked uncontrollably in her left eye as the light flashed past; she gasped "I just saw light!"

T.J responded by flashing the light at Lisa's eye without suggesting anything.

"The light is flashing..." said Lisa with a smile on her face.

T.J looked at Lisa "That's right. Good...it seems to be healing, but it's way too early to tell how it will go yet."

Greer spoke up; "It's a good sign isn't it?"

T.J put her hand on Lisa's and carefully said "Its early days and this is a good sign, but we have no way of telling if the damage will repair itself over time. I will look through the database and see if there is more I can do, but please be patient."

T.J gave Lisa a supportive hug for a moment.

Lisa, looking in T.J's general direction said "I understand T.J; I'm starting to get use to it."

Greer squeezed her hand with affection and put his arm around her to assist getting off the bed. They thanked T.J and left the infirmary, with Greer asking Lisa where she would like to go.

"The dome please, if I can't see it, I still want to at least smell and feel it."

She asked Greer to describe what he could see when they got inside. He picked a strange fruit and handed it to Lisa saying;

"They told us all of this is safe to eat for humans. I've tried one of these and there well, not bad..."

He handed her the fruit which looked like a stretched out blue coloured pear, with a soft furry skin similar to a peach. He helped her peel the skin off with his combat knife; she smelled it, enjoying the aroma before taking a bite. The flesh was soft, sweet, and surprisingly juicy with a slight tart after taste. The flavour was like a cross between an orange and a passion fruit. She giggled as juice squirted out on her hands.

"Wow, that tastes really nice" as she devoured it like a hungry animal.

It was the nicest thing she had eaten in a long time. They sat there for a while, with Lisa enjoying the cool misty rain and fresh scents of the dome.

"I can't believe it rains in here constantly; I know I can't see it, but in my mind I can...It is beyond amazing..." She couldn't describe it either.

Greer started to move, "I've been awake for more than 24 hours, I gota get some rest" he said as Lisa got up with him.

"General Young, you copy?" he waited for a reply.

"Sergeant Greer, this is Dr Rush; General Young has retired for the moment, and so has Lt. Scott. He asked me to let you know that you can as well" replied Rush.

Greer, always suspicious of Rush asked "So why are you still up Dr Rush?"

"I won't be shortly, just briefing Franklin and Brody on what's going on with the ship..." Rush tried not to antagonise MSgt Greer. He was telling the truth as Brody and Franklin had been resting for the last 10 hours to take the second shift on the bridge.

Satisfied, but still untrusting of Rush; MSgt Greer left the dome with Lisa on his arm.

Lisa said to him quietly, "I might need some company..."

Ronald smiled; he didn't need to be told twice.

Back on the bridge Rush was finishing his handover instructions with Franklin and Brody. Franklin noticed something about the new life support system that had only arisen once everyone was released. It had dropped back to 90% after having been stable at 110% as Eli had found out. Although it was a perfectly safe level, the unbalancing far exceeded the extra amount of CO2 gases released from the rest of the people onboard. Rush instructed him to keep an eye on it, and if it continued to drop, alert him directly.

As Destiny closed in on the star with only hours to go, Nicholas and Amanda were still fast asleep in his quarters. Brody called them on the ships intercom, assuming Amanda (correctly) had stayed with him. Rush awoke, hearing the call with Mandy in his arms, decided to asked Destiny to switch his intercom rather than going over to the CI console and pressing the button.

"Destiny could you please engage my side of the com's system" he asked politely still holding Mandy in his arms.

To his surprise, a beep signalled the channel open; so he spoke "Yes Mr Brody, what is it?"

"Um...we'll be dropping out of FTL in just over an hour to recharge, over."

"Ok, thanks Adam...How's the life support been?"

Brody, a bit shocked the impatient Dr Rush had called him by his first name, replied with Franklin's and his theory; "Yeah, it seems to have stabilize back at 105% and has been steady ever since. We think it may have been all the traffic opening and closing the doors constantly that caused the imbalance."

"Good work Mr Brody that makes a lot of sense. We'll be there soon; Rush out" the console beeped and turned off.

Amanda, looking at her love, she placed her hand on his rough unshaven face and said;

"You should say thank-you...to her"

He got the hint; "Thanks Destiny..."

Amanda and Nicholas went to the mess and ate before heading to the bridge. They met General Young along the way greeting each other with small talk.

"Have you seen young Mr Wallace or Ginn this morning yet General?" Rush appeared to be in a very good mood for a change.

"Not yet, but I believe they would be in Eli's quarters" he commented with a knowing smile.

As they reached the bridge, Brody and Franklin were talking to Chloe and Matt. Chloe was going through some calculations of the path Destiny had chosen to follow through the star.

Chloe spoke to all of them "Destiny's path looks good... we'll drop out of FTL in 25.00 minutes" she brought the trajectory map on the screen; "We are going around this gas giant for 145 degrees to increase speed" she motioned to the planet symbol on the screen.

"Thanks Chloe..." replied Young. Turning his attention to Lt. Scott he asked in a casual way;

"Scott, after we have made the pass through the star and all is safe, I want you to take several teams of people and begin exploring the ship. If the radios go out of range, use the ships com's to report in. Make sure the teams have an armed soldier with them at all times. Oh...and Matt, Varro can carry a small arms weapons kit if he chooses too, but not body armour." General Young was starting to trust Varro, but he would need to continually prove himself for a while yet.

Matt nodded, then gave Chloe a quick kiss on her forehead and left the bridge to inform Greer.

"Well we better wake up Eli then" Rush said as he took "Kirks chair" (now affectionately renamed by Eli after Young had said "I'm not Captain Kirk") and opened a com.

Eli was awake, as someone had already woke him up in a very physical way. Ginn was now lying on his chest, her fingers intertwined with Eli's. She looked at him and giggled softly thinking about something.

"What so funny...?" Eli smiled broadly at her.

"I believe, Mr Wallace...that you just took my virtue..." she giggled again.

Eli, a bit confused by the term looked at Ginn momentarily before realizing what she meant; "Oh... oh... um... I get it, ok...it's your new body and you haven't...um...been...um...tested yet?"

Ginn started to laugh at Eli's geeky embarrassment not knowing what to say.

She asked coyly "Well it has now Eli...did I pass?" to watch his cheeks turn a darker shade of red.

"Hell, Yeah...!" he was interrupted by the com.

"Eli this is Dr Rush, please respond"

Before he could ask, like Rush did to open the channel, a beep signalled it was open.

"I'm here Dr Rush"

"We'll be out of FTL in 20.00 minutes making a sweep toward the star...Can the two of you please come to the bridge" Rush had a gentleness about the second request knowing full well what they would have been up too.

Ginn responded before Eli; "Ok Dr Rush, be there soon...Ginn out."

Amanda was smiling sitting at the console listening to the conversation. Everett and Nick just looked at each other with a grin shaking their heads knowingly; they would have been the same at Eli's age. Before they arrived, Everett asked Amanda if she had retained any of the ships medical database information. She hadn't given it a second thought for some time, but after a moment to "think" she found she could recall incredible amounts of medical knowledge and more.

"Wow, it seems to still be all in there..." she had replied pointing to her head.

"Ok, I'll need you to go and talk to T.J about Dr Volker's condition and make a plan...thanks Amanda" Everett smiled at her as he asked.

Eli and Ginn arrived on the bridge about ten minutes later. Young and Rush brought them up to speed. Eli, looking for a place to sit asked Dr Rush if he could have "Kirks" chair as there was some calculations he needed to do;

"As long as you don't play with the com's system...ok, Eli" Rush had a happy tone to his voice. Eli figured it was Amanda who was responsible for that.

Destiny dropped out of FTL not far from the planet, a greeny brown coloured gas giant; it was enormous being about 20 times larger than Jupiter.

"I'm reading large clouds of helium, sulphur, and ammonia in the atmosphere; this is weird...the planet appears to have a molten metallic core with an unusual magnetic field pattern around it: It doesn't seem to be affecting Destiny's systems. There are no detectable asteroids or belt around the planet; we should be safe to make the turn" informed Amanda.

Everett motioned to Eli "Let 'em know what's happening Eli."

He pressed the com switch; "Attention everyone, we are about to make the turn around the planet and head for the star; it might get a bit bumpy..."

Destiny started to skim around the edges of the gas giant, picking up tremendous speed in the process. The shields were at 100% which was a new experience for her human crew watching from the bridge and observation deck. All of them were amazed at how smooth the ride was this time, the new shields and dampeners working perfectly.

As they rounded out the planet at maximum sub light speed, plus their gravitational inertia of the turn:

A wormhole opened up directly in front of them and the Asgard ship "The Jackson" appeared; headed out on a direct frontal collision course within seconds of Destiny.

"AH...!" Eli yelled; Rush and Young screamed; "Eli...!"

Eli's lightening fast gamer reactions on the console overriding to manual control of Destiny; banking hard left, he threw her into a huge barrel roll around the Asgard ship and disappearing wormhole. Destiny's bulkheads groaned under the enormous stresses at this speed; systems blew out all over the ship and on the bridge behind them; people that were standing not hanging on to something got thrown around.

The manoeuvre only took a couple of seconds to complete, but it felt like hours to the crew. Eli steadied the ship and continued on the trajectory to the star.

"What in the hell was that?" General Young was in shock, like the rest of them.

Ginn, trying to calm herself down: "I think it was...the seeding ship...that repaired us..." she was panting, trying to catch her breath.

Rush, still recovering put his hand on Eli's shoulder "Good move Eli...good move..."

Eli finally took a breath, and sighed "Holy shit that was close..."

As the crew on the bridge was collecting themselves, T.J was busy in the infirmary already treating the injured. Varro and Amanda were helping along with Camille and Vanessa, to get any injured to the infirmary. There were a few broken bones but mainly small cuts and grazes on most of the patients. T.J, Amanda, and Varro did their best to keep up, treating the worst cases first. Varro was doing his best to prove he belonged here, and besides he had taken quiet a shine to T.J and didn't want to let her down.

Ginn was having trouble opening a com to the infirmary. In her frustration she found that there was damage in the system between them, so she tried another way;

"Destiny, can you please establish an open com link to the infirmary?" she asked politely.

A message appeared on her screen "Please wait, re-routing link." Then another a few second's later "Open communications link established" and a beep sounded.

They immediately heard the commotion in the infirmary; Everett took over "T.J this is an open link, how you guys doing?"

"Sir, we have a lot of minor scrapes and bruises, and four maybe five broken bones so far. Amanda and Varro are helping with the worst ones. Camille and Vanessa are assisting too. What the hell happened, General?"

"We had to avoid something that came from nowhere directly in our path...Eli did the best he could before we would of ploughed straight into it; caught us all by surprise." Everett didn't want to say what it was until things calmed down. "Do you need anyone there T.J?"

"No, I think we're ok for now Sir" she replied.

"Ok, if you need me just press the two top left hand buttons on the CI screen and talk, Young out"

Destiny continued her journey into the star to recharge. The shields were still at 98% only sustaining minor damage from the roll. The collectors automatically deployed and started charging; amongst the aftermath of the mayhem that had just happened, Rush was watching the amount of energy Destiny picked up from the star.

"This is incredible... she is recharging at a staggering rate" his scientific demeanour returning, then added; "I never thought those gaming skills of yours Eli would be useful for anything practical..." Rush was still grinning at Eli.

General Young, walking over and giving him an affectionate rub on the shoulder; "Thanks Eli..."

Destiny continued to collect energy through the star and eventually came out the other side to a welcoming party. This time, well and truly at a safe distance, the Jackson was holding at a full stop. Eli scanned her out of caution and found that their shields were resting at only 5%, and no weapons were armed. Slowing Destiny down to a halt only several miles from the Jackson, he lowered their shields to the same level. The CI beeped; a video communication was coming through.

"General Young, I'm getting a communications message..." said Eli as he fed it to the main screens.

"I am Asgard Daniel Jackson; we are sorry to have nearly collided with Destiny. We were not expecting you for another two days; we believe the magnetic field from the planet may have caused the wormhole to shift, and lock on to Destiny's power core; our sincerest apologies for the error... This is High Commander Ra'toli (pronounced ru-toll-e) of the Ursini High Command. We have come to complete some of the testing aboard Destiny now that the ship has recharged. May we beam onboard?"

General Young had a quick look around at everyone on the bridge. Eli had his finger on the hold button waiting; Young asked all of them:

"What do you think?"

All of them nodded; Rush looked at General Young:

"I think we need to trust them, General...they did repair the ship after all" it was a straight forward reply from Rush.

"Rush, quietly call Lt. Scott and have him wait outside the door...armed, just in case" replied Everett. "Eli, open the channel."

Standing in front of the screen General Young introduced himself; "I am General Everett Young of Icarus Base and Stargate Command of Earth. We accept your apologies for the near collision; it was just one of those things. You are welcome to come aboard."

With that, the two beings materialized on the bridge. Everett held out his hand in friendship to them. Asgard D.J knew of the traditional Earth greeting and shook his hand gently; Ra'toli followed suit.

Addressing Eli still seated in "Kirks chair", Ra'toli spoke; "You have great skill young pilot Eli Wallace, clever manoeuvre."

Eli still coming to grips with what he had managed to do; "Thanks, but it was more reaction than skill I think."

"Huh, you are modest too." Ra'toli smiled at Eli, although Eli didn't quite realise it.

"General Young, can we offer our assistance for any medical treatment or repairs sustained in the incident?" Asgard D.J inquired.

Everett thought about it for a moment knowing they would have everything to repair the ship's damage. "Thank-you, that would be a welcome gesture; please give me a moment to inform the crew."

Eli opened the com; "Go ahead General."

"Attention all personal, shortly we will have some guests arriving from the Ursini High Command off the Asgard ship called Jackson. They are here to finish off several maintenance issues and any other repairs we have just sustained. Please extend our full courtesy to all members of their party. You may notice a minor delay when speaking directly to the Ursini, as the ship is converting one language to another both ways; Young out."

Asgard D.J bowed his head to Ra'toli who then pressed something on his armband. Ursini technicians beamed in to the damaged areas of the ship. Two Ursini Medics beamed into the infirmary and introduced themselves to the crew. One of them recognised Amanda, as he had helped the Asgard reconstruct her body. They were impressed at T.J's and Amanda's abilities with the Ancient medical equipment they had mastered. The Ursini had brought some new equipment and technology with them to assist. They carried a gold coloured box about the size of a suit case; everyone that could, watched as they opened the box. There were several large black straps with rectangular metallic boxes attached to them. They sat on three pins that were attached to what looked like a control box with a small screen and several buttons.

"This equipment will assist you with healing times. It speeds up recovery by creating an artificial genetic bridge over the affected areas. In the case of a bone fracture, wrap the band around the area and leave on for 24 hours. It will be strong enough for normal use after that, and fully healed within 72 hours. The bridge will dissolve in the body within 48 hours of completed healing, and is painless."

T.J spoke to them "That man over there has a fractured left femur proximal to the patella, would this help him?"

The Ursini medic showed T.J which buttons to press to release the healing band. Both of them went over to the scientist who was in a great deal of pain.

T.J asked him, "What's your name?" Henry was his reply. "Well Henry, may we try this on your leg?"

He nodded a quick approval then added "Will it hurt?"

"You may feel a slight heating sensation at first, but the pain will dissipate quickly after that" was the Ursini's explanation.

Everyone watched as T.J helped the Ursini medic carefully slide the thin black belt under Henry's leg without causing him much pain. Henry felt a mild burning sensation for a few seconds and then the pain completely disappeared within about a minute.

"I can't feel any pain now; my thanks to both of you" said a slightly happier Henry.

"It has a desensitiser built in to shut down electrical signals from nerves, but he cannot walk on it for at least 24 hours. When it is healed, remove the band returning it to the box for charging. The case can be charged on Destiny's power plate system. Any red flashing buttons indicate charging required for that band. If all of the buttons flash, the case needs charging." The Medic was very clear in his explanations to T.J, knowing she would use this device on a very regular basis.

"Thanks, you have been a great help. There is one other thing I need to ask you before you leave..." T.J told him about Dr Volker's condition. The Ursini medic listened;

"It would be my pleasure to assist you" he kindly replied.