Hello everyone reading. I must have read this chapter a dozen times before submitting it, and it wasn't easy to write. My suggestion would be "put yourself in their shoes" as you read this, and you will (at least I hope you will) understand the title "Choices". (AlexD thanks for your help) Please enjoy...

PS to Col Bishop, look out for episode 08 and somewhere around ep 15 answers are coming; you weren't the only one asking that question about the Asagrd. As for "Millions of Galaxies"... my bad, should have read something like; "Hundreds of thousands of Planets" (BTW, I haven't watched the first series for quiet a while, maybe 2 years) thanks for the review, and I do try to stay around the lines of the original, blending in to new directions, evolving technology and people...especially Destiny's "abilities".

Hope you all enjoy this one...

SGU s03e06

Choices

Te'arly and Matá were holding onto the guard rail in front of the observation deck window, at a complete loss for words watching the shimmering bluish white glow of FTL flight. They had only been onboard for just over 3 hours, one of which was still being spent in the same position. Both of them were experiencing things they never dreamed possible, and their minds were trying to adjust. General Young walked into the observation deck and stood beside Te'arly, and just watched the exceptional view with them.

"I could watch this forever, General Young..."Te'arly didn't take her eyes off the view.

"It's pretty amazing...isn't it?" He replied, and then added "You can call me Everett if you like..."

She turned towards him and spoke "So, what happens now...Everett?"

Everett looked back at her and smiled "Amanda Perry has some tests that she will need to do, on the both of you. She will need a sample of your blood to try to isolate what is causing...the problem."

"Will that hurt?" asked Matá

"No, it's painless...and only a very small amount will be required" he said reassuringly.

"I need to go check on Lt. James..." he smiled at Te'arly who was beaming back at him; "Enjoy the view."

They turned back to the window as Everett made his way to the infirmary. Camille had been woken up by Amanda after T.J and Varro helped Vanessa to be as comfortable as they could. Amanda kept to herself the knowledge about Camille and Vanessa; she had been keeping a lot of secrets lately. Varro was hard at work examining the Cell-serpent creature using the alien equivalent of an electron microscope combined with a mass spectrometer; another gift from the Ursini. Camille was sitting by Vanessa's side gently holding her hand, and in a position that Vanessa could see her. Everett walked in as T.J and Varro were standing close together looking at the results being displayed on the machine. He strolled up to them quietly until Varro turned around, sensing he was there;

"General, come and look at this, it's really quite remarkable" he said with a smile on his face.

T.J immediately took a slightly nervous step to the side as Varro spoke, and then added; "Sir, this machine is amazing, it has identified the toxin already!" She sounded excited by the discovery, but some uncertainty was hiding behind her words.

"Can you create an antidote for it..." he asked Varro, in a slightly uneasy tone.

"Yes General, I believe we can but it will still take some time" replied Varro positively.

"Ok, good work; stay on it" Young headed over to his wounded soldier.

He looked directly into Vanessa's eyes and placed his hand on top of hers, hoping she could feel it.

Speaking softly to her he said "Hi Vanessa, were all here for you. T.J and Varro are making progress, but it may still take a while..." Young fought back his own tears, and sat with them for a few minutes, until Lt. Scott called.

"General, where ready to do the ship search...we'll meet you in the gate room in five, Scott out."

Eli and Chloe were on the bridge with Franklin and Brody. Chloe's mathematical ability was increasing every day, so Eli had given her Kirks Chair for a while. She had no difficulty in controlling the ship's systems from the CI, and was going over there course calculations when a blip appeared momentarily. Destiny's long range sensors had detected something, but only for milliseconds.

"Eli, we just picked up a signal of something...but it only lasted milliseconds" said Chloe in a surprised tone.

"It might of been just some deep space radiation, can you try and isolate it?" asked Eli;

Chloe replied "I already did, but it didn't last long enough to get a trace...we lost it"

"Just keep an eye on it in case it returns..." Eli not fazed by her discovery, continued his search of Destiny's new areas on the CI. Brody was chatting to Franklin about the two new arrivals, keeping their opinions toned down since Chloe was sitting right there. The girl's presence on the ship had caused a great deal of scuttlebutt, especially by the male dominated "crew". Chloe finally lifted her head and said in a sarcastic tone;

"I am here... and female...remember guys?"

Franklin and Brody turned to each other with a "busted" expression on their faces.

"Sorry Chloe..." they both apologised in unison.

They got back to work with Brody announcing shortly after; "We'll be in shuttle range of the next planet within an hour and 30 minutes."

Eli asked, "Has there been any readings from there yet?"

"Yeah, we're not really that far from it, and I'm starting to get some sensor info back; looks like it has huge mineral deposits..." Adam was busy looking at the early data.

General Young and three other teams of military and civilians went out exploring the ship. Eli was feeding them door codes and other info from the bridge, directing Everett to the armoury he found. They reached it and opened the door;

"Wow...mother lode" said Greer

The CI com just inside the door lit up; Eli said to Young, "There are full instructions on how to use all this gear General, and weapon specs; stuff like that..."

"Ok, thanks Eli...Young out"

They walked through the rows of handheld arms; Greer went to get a closer look at one of the alien "rifles", but the General stopped him.

"Not until we know what were dealing with Sergeant, I don't want to risk any damage to us or the ship." Walking back to the com he pressed the button "Eli, can you display the handling procedures for their infantry weapons on this screen?"

"One minute General...you should have them now" with that, they popped up on the screen with a message on the bottom.

"Virtual Holographic Instruction"

Greer looked over Everett's shoulder; "What do you think General...give it a go?"

Looking at Sergeant Greer and smiling, Everett touched the screen.

"Initializing Holographic Presentation...please wait";

The lights in the room dimmed down and in the centre of the room a circle about four feet in diameter appeared; an instructor from the Ursini appeared in holographic form up from the circle and spoke:

"Please gather around for the presentation." He looked around the room at the guys standing there; "This is an interactive hologram and I can answer questions, but please wait until after your instruction."

Greer said quietly to his General, "Now this is cool...pity we don't have this back home."

Everett nodded with a grin on his face, enjoying the alien training program. The Ursini commenced with the presentation and instructed the humans about every weapon at their disposal. All of them watched as demonstrations of their power and range was given. In short, the rifle was about the size and shape of the HK416, but worked similar to a rail gun that could fire a "bolt of plasma type energy" at nearly 10,000 meters/second without recoil; with a firing rate of 2000 rounds/min.

It had a reusable magazine that held enough energy for 3 minutes of continuous use, and two weapons could be connected together side by side and fired with one hand. A motion sensor and range finder was built in, being very accurate to a distance of 2 Earth miles; it could be fired immersed in water, sand or dirt. Everyone was extremely impressed, it was a formidable weapon. There was a "pistol" version with less power, range, and capacity; that looked strikingly similar to a "Desert Eagle" .50cal pistol from Earth.

Greer said it best "Awesome, I want one!"

The presentation ended and several of the men asked technical questions about some of the weapons. When all were finished the hologram ended saying it could be replayed anytime, anywhere in voice form on the ship. They dropped out of FTL a few moments after it finished.

"General Young, we have arrived near the other planet Sir. It doesn't look to friendly, but I'm reading huge mineral and raw material deposits" announced Brody.

"Ok...where on our way back, Young out" he walked out; several of the men, especially MSgt Greer, carried some of the new weapons, and locked the blast door.

Destiny slowed almost to a complete stop within 20,000 miles of the planet. From this point they could get a good picture of what the surface was like as Destiny slowly navigated her way around the planet with Chloe at the controls. They scanned the surface until they picked up a signal from something orbiting around the planet; General Young entered the bridge with Dr Rush.

"What have we got guys?" Young asked.

Franklin spoke "There is some sort of satellite in a decaying orbit around the planet. Our scans indicate it may be from the planet" he was still making sense of the data.

Rush thought for a minute, "You mean they put it there, like a communication satellite?"

"I believe so, although the temperature on the planet is over 250°C; there's no life on the surface that's for sure."

"There may be another answer for that..."said Brody with a sad note to his voice. "It looks like the planet has sustained a direct impact from a massive asteroid very recently, like within the last 200 years."

"How massive, Dr Brody?" asked Rush with a nervous wait for the answer:

"About...about the size of Alaska...a planet killer" he had trouble getting out the words as the lump was building up in his throat.

Chloe Gasped as an eerie silence of realization came over all of them; the population of the planet may have been completely annihilated within hours; or died from the nuclear winter that would have followed.

"Oh, God..."Chloe, putting her hand over her mouth, stated to weep.

General Young moved to her and placed his hand reassuringly on her shoulder as she began to silently cry. A real sense of loss and sadness enveloped everyone on the bridge; all they could see was our own worst nightmare before them. This would have been a blue planet around the same size of Earth, now it was becoming Earth's sister planet, Venus. The green house effect from the dust cloud had warmed the planet quickly over a hundred or so years; the planets oceans were now in the atmosphere, crushing the surface.

"General, I know this is a terrible loss, but we need to talk about it...there are resources we need...for us to survive" Rush had great compassion in his voice.

Everett looked at Nick standing next Eli who had tear stains down his face.

"Ok Rush, I agree: We all need to talk about this; apart from the obvious danger of the surface temperature, there are a lot of what if's...Dr Brody, Dr Franklin; I want you to do the most comprehensive search for life possible, if anyone has survived we need to help them in some way. We would want the same if our own planet had suffered this, I'll be damned if we do nothing to try and help." Everett had a fierce determination in his voice now; if by some miracle someone had survived, they were going to find them.

"Eli, open the com across the ship please" asked General Young;

Eli replied with a silent nod.

"Attention all personal, this is General Young; I am on the bridge and will address you all from here. We believe that the planet near us was impacted by an asteroid about the size of Alaska, not less than 200 years ago. I am sorry to inform you all, but it appears that the planet was completely inhabited at the time. The surface temperature is now at 250°C with no signs of life; however, we are performing more scans to see if any life has survived underground."

"The planet is still rich in mineral and ore deposits that we need for our own survival. I will open a 30 minute debate in the gate room for everyone to discuss our options. See you all there in 15 minutes, Young out."

Eli shut off the com. Young radioed Lt. Scott and told him to take six men to the new armoury and suit up for a possible landing on the planet. He then gave everyone on the bridge the chance to talk:

"Do any of you want to say anything?" he asked with genuine concern:

Eli spoke; "I'd feel like a vulture taking anything from this place..."

"Yeah, that's true" said Brody, "but it wasn't our fault that this happened, we are not responsible for this...it could have happened to any planet; including ours." He had made a good point.

They all went silent digesting the conversation. Everett spoke next;

"I agree with both of you; but as tragic as this was, we still need to survive. Keep going with the search guys, we owe them that." With that, Everett left the bridge and headed to the gate room.

Just about everyone had gathered in the gate room, with many opinions being thrown around. Everett stood on top of the stairs and waited until Camille and Rush had joined him and quickly briefed Camille; then asked for quiet. A hush came over the crowd.

"As you are all aware, we will need to take a vote about this situation. I am sure we all feel for these people, but we also have our own lives to consider as well. I will hand over to Camille Wray." Young looked at Camille; she knew this would be tough.

"I know that we didn't cause this to happen, and the people's fate was out of our control. What we need to understand now is how do we proceed for our own survival?" Camille was careful how she worded the question.

Rush then spoke up; "There are certain minerals and ores that we need to replenish our supplies, especially if we need to repair the ship after damage, and some elements in our life support system. We won't know when the next planet will come along with the same materials."

Camille looked at the crowd, weighing up her own opinion; finally she spoke to the crowd of people:

"We will take a vote in ten minutes, with a simple yes or no to go down and collect what we need. This will not apply to any mission of rescue."

The ten minutes slowly went by. Lt. Scott had his men, along with MSgt Greer in one of Destiny's shuttles awaiting orders. General Young gave them a green light to "search" for anything including life on the surface. They undocked and headed toward the planet, scanning for the best deposit sites...and anything alive. Camille began to speak after everyone fell silent.

"We have launched the shuttle to look for signs of life. Can I please have a show of hands for "no"?"

Only a few put their hands up. T.J called out to Camille.

"Camille, we all feel sad for what happened...but we also need to be practical about our own situation. We still have a planet to go home to, even if it is across the universe; and that will take time and resources. The amount that we take won't hurt whatever happens to this planet..."

This seemed to be the general consensus with most of the crew. Everett contacted Scott and told him to get all they needed and get out. On the bridge, Brody and Franklin looked at each other with a heartbreaking stare. They had scanned the planet with Destiny's help up to 40 miles below the surface. There were signs of underground tunnels with large rooms that were intacked...but nil life forms; not even animals had survived. They passed the grim news on to Everett.

The shuttle skimmed through the sky after entering the atmosphere of the planet. Under the clouds they air was hazy with scorching temperatures; they could see ruins of a once great cities that spread for hundreds of miles. They honed in on the highest reading of deposits just outside the city area. Scott ran several passes over the area and although it had been destroyed, it was clearly what was left of some type of mine or storage area for mined materials. They were reading all types of metals, elements, and ores so Matt found a sheltered place to set down the shuttle nearby in what would have been a well built old storage warehouse of some kind.

Everyone in the shuttle went to full suits as Matt got ready to open the door.

"I have dialled back the shields, so we can walk through them, but I will have to remain here and increase them after you get out. If this heat gets inside the shuttle where all dead! Sgt Greer, you're in charge." Scott counted down from three and opened the door.

Greer was the first one out, carefully walking through the reduced shields; it felt like breaking through a thin plastic wrapping that sealed around him as he moved, the others followed suit. It was a strange sight that greeted them with a blistering heat haze making everything blurry, regardless of the distance.

MSgt. Greer spoke to Cpl. Reynolds through the suit com, watching the alien detection device readout. "I'm picking different materials all around us. Looks like it some kind of staging area for a lot of stuff...what we need is over that way."

He pointed in the direction of huge stock piles of ore about 100 meters away; there were several different looking materials beside each other. The troop headed over toward the mounds carrying stretcher nets made from large alien chainmail that they had found in the armoury; they had tested it with heat before they left Destiny, to see if it would survive. It would have been a strange sight to see if anyone had been left alive; six aliens in space suits, but this time humans from Earth were the "little green men".

They made it a short time later, having moved around several remains of old machinery now wasting away under the heat and pressure of the atmosphere. Greer's detector was telling him that it was a slightly balmy 255°C air temp with a pressure of 16 BAR (16 times the earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level; the equivalent of being 150 meters under water).

"Nice day for a suntan..." said Greer through the com.

Looking at the wreckage of one machine, Cpl. Reynolds suddenly jumped back:

"Um, Sgt. Greer...I got a body...um remains over here..."

Greer moved swiftly to the machine. The bleached skeletal remains were crushed under the machines cabin area, probably the driver. From what they could see, the bones looked identical to a human skeleton. The reality of this event sunk home; these were human beings like them: Such a great loss.

Greer said compassionately "Come on Corporal, we've got work to do..."

Another soldier called Greer, "Sir, it looks like we hit the jackpot; we have four out of five of the minerals we need. There are some others that will be useful as well; the only missing one is bauxite, but I'm getting a reading some 300 meters to our left."

Greer answered "Good work Airman, start collecting as much as we can."

"Copy that Sir" he replied.

Greer looked at Cpl. Reynolds and said "We'll go check it out..."

Cpl. Reynolds nodded a reply with the two of them setting off following the device signal. It took them several minutes to reach the mound they needed; looking at it together, they turned to each other:

"Ok...now what...?" said Greer.

The pile was fused together, which may have been from the heat generated by the impact. Greer moved to the bottom of the mound around some type of rusted machinery to get a closer look. He tried to pick up some of the ore but it was just a solid mass clumped together.

"There's only one way to fix this..." he looked at Cpl. Reynolds smiling, "let's try one of these!"

Greer pulled out one of the alien explosive device which was the equivalent of C4 plastic explosive. It worked in a similar way and could be triggered from the detection unit he carried. Remembering what he had seen in the training hologram, he and Reynolds set about positioning the explosive. Greer then called the other men on the com to warn them about the blast. After he was happy the explosive was correctly placed, Greer armed the device. They then moved away about 200 yards and hid behind a small mound of earth. He opened the suit com and raised his voice somewhat;

"Fire in the hole; fire in the hole... three...two...one..." he pressed the button.

The mound of ore exploded with a massive boom, and the two of them got covered in small debris.

Greer lay on his back and yelled "Woo Hoo...!" happy to blow something up.

Scott was party to the conversation linked into the shuttle's com;

Smiling he said: "Ok Sergeant...there's work to do remember?"

After waiting for a few minutes for the dust to settle, they ventured back to the mound to find lots of small chunks of ore scattered around the base. Both the men had a good look around to make sure it was safe to start collecting; the opened the mesh net and picked up some of the smaller pieces, moving closer to the mound. It didn't take long to fill one net, so MSgt. Greer closed it off and dragged it out of the way. Corporal Reynolds continued to collect ore close to the bottom of the mound and the old machine.

"Just like candy from a baby hey Sir..." said Reynolds to Greer

Greer had started to make his way back and just gave a short laugh, but then;

"Corporal, LOOK OUT!" screamed Greer over the com.

The top of the mound dislodged and started to crash down the side toward Reynolds; he turned on the spot and stared to run as fast as he could. He made about ten paces until he tripped on a boulder of ore that sent him crashing into the broken machine; sharp jagged metal easily tore a big gash through the flexible leg join of his suit, breaking its integrity. Instantly, the pressure from the atmosphere crushed the soft parts of the suit, as the internal gases escaped. Reynolds screamed in horrific pain as he tried to cover the hole with his hand.

Greer was now racing toward him, but he knew there wasn't hope to save him. Ronald had seen the footage of a Navy diver in a deep sea suit that had his whole body squashed into the helmet from a rapid deflation, and high pressure. As Reynolds kept screaming in pain from the crushing effect of the atmosphere, MSgt. Greer took the only action he could:

He drew his ancient pistol, and fired:

Two blasts of plasma energy hit Corporal Reynolds in the chest, killing him instantly; each shot went clean through his suit. Ronald turned away with tears in his eyes as the lifeless body became crushed beyond recognition within moments.

Back on Destiny Amanda and T.J had started there tests on Te'arly and Matá. The ancient style injection gun was a painless way to inject medicine or draw blood; the two ladies had never seen technology like this so everything was new experience to them. After Amanda question them both about what they knew of the illness and their history, Matá struck up a conversation with Dr Volker who was in the last days of his recovery. Even with the new healing bands, life-threatening injuries like he had still took time to repair.

Dale Volker was struck by how easy Matá was to talk too and like most of the guys onboard, thought she was hot. He tried his best not to sound geeky, but still found himself stuck for words at the worst times; Matá found it kind of sweet and funny, and unknown to him at the time, she liked him. Soon though, T.J told them that they could leave, and she would keep them up to date with how things were going. Te'arly stopped by Vanessa's bed as she was leaving; Lt. James was still paralysed but T.J had given her a mild sanative to keep her calm. Te'arly looking at Vanessa's eyes smiled and gently brushed her hair back:

"It will be ok...this will wear off soon" she looked up and deep into Camille's eyes and then back to Vanessa's; "You are surrounded by people who love you...that's all that matters." Te'arly gave Vanessa an affectionate kiss on the forehead, like a mother to a child; and left the infirmary.

General Young was sitting at his desk staring into nothingness when Chloe's voice cam through the com.

"General Young, I have Lt. Scott on an open com, I'll put him through..."

"Thanks Chloe" he replied; the com beeped "Go ahead Lieutenant."

"General" he paused, "um...Corporal Reynolds is dead Sir" Scott's voice couldn't hide the sadness he felt.

"What the hell happened...?" Everett's asked in shock:

"It's a long answer General, but in short..." Lt. Scott stopped and looked at Sergeant Greer who now had tear stains on his face staring out the shuttle windscreen.

"Scott...what happened...?" Everett repeated the question raising his voice.

"Um... his suit tore and..." he paused again looking at Greer's hollow eyes; "and...we couldn't save him Sir. Where on our way back with the ore...and Cpl. Reynolds. I'll debrief you when we get back Sir; Scott out."

"Yeah...you will Lieutenant..." General Young had harshness about his voice.

The shuttle docked back on Destiny; General Young organized a six man honour guard made up of Air Force and Marines awaiting the arrival. As the doors of the shuttle opened, the men inside just sat, heads bowed, and waited in silence. Three men marched in on each side and turned facing each other; they lent down and lifted the black body bag to waist height: no one spoke. They took Cpl. Reynolds remains to a make shift morgue in a storage area near to the infirmary; they placed the body on a table, stepped back, saluted, turned and left the room. General Young closed the door and evacuated the air to preserve the body until burial.

MSgt. Greer was still sitting in the shuttle; he had lost men before, but not by his own hand. This was something he really felt; was it right...could he of done something different...was there another way...the questions were swirling around his head.

"Sergeant..." called T.J at the door; no response; she spoke louder "Sergeant!"

Greer snapped his head around with a quick "Yes Ma'am..."

Lt. Scott was behind her and had quickly briefed her and Everett on what happened, before she approached Greer.

"Please come with me Sergeant..." she used a softer voice.

He looked at her and got up saying; "I've done a terrible thing Ma'am..."

"It's ok Sergeant Greer...we can talk about it..." She held out her hand, and placed it behind Ronald's back to steady him out the door; taking him to the infirmary with Matt's help.

About a half hour later, Lt. Scott made his way to General Young's quarters, knocked, and entered.

"How's Greer doing?" he inquired.

"Not good, he's a mess..." Replied Scott

"Damn it Matt...what the fuck happened down there!" Everett was really pissed now

"I think he just made the best call at the time Sir, I mean, he only had seconds to react; what else could he do?" Scott was trying to make sense of the events.

"What call would you have made...try and help or just shot the man..." Everett's anger was plainly evident; Scot was not sure what to say next.

"General...I believe I would have made the same call...Sir!" Scott fired back at him.

Everett raised his hands in front of his face; pushing forward as if pushing Scott away, grunted and turned away. He placed his hands on his hips and looked up; throwing his head back...General Young sighed and finally spoke.

"He was trying to save him from a painful death: I couldn't imagine what Reynolds must have felt in those few seconds. At least this way...it was quick..." he turned back to face Lt. Scott who was also dealing with it "The guy survives an attack by a wild animal only to get shot by one of his own..."

Young paused; then added "That will be all Lieutenant..."

"Yes Sir" Scott left him alone.

On the bridge Chloe was still in Kirks chair going over the new jump calculations. Franklin and Brody were assisting her, but Chloe was doing most of the work. She had learnt very fast how to control the ship, much to Dr Rush's disappointment, but he wasn't surprised by it. The countdown clock had almost finished and they had a few minutes left so, without anyone's permission she decided to take Destiny for a "spin" around the planet. She keyed in a request to Destiny and asked "her" permission to take a quick run; Chloe had worked out how to "talk" to the ship through the CI.

Destiny seemed to understand the human joke attached to what she was doing, and gave her complete manual control. Smiling to herself, Chloe increased the sub light engines and shields and "steered" her way around the planet gently so as not to alert too many people. Franklin looked up and turned to Chloe;

"Are you doing that...?" he was looking intently at her; Brody looked as well.

Chloe smiled and just put a finger to her lips and whispered in a very sexy way; "Shhhh..."

She completed the loop of the planet and set Destiny to her course for the jump to FTL. With less than a minute to go, the long range sensors picked up a faint but definite signal; the same time frame and signature as before. The boys were too busy getting over what Chloe had just managed to get away with and didn't pick up on the tiny signal. This time Chloe paid close attention and told the guys to "shut up" forcefully, while she tried to track it; she asked Destiny to help locate the signal and after a moment a message appeared only on her screen:

"We are being watched Chloe Armstrong."

Destiny jumped to FTL.