Young stood in the gate room, it was quiet and that was just how he liked it though soon everyone would be awake and everyday life aboard Destiny would start anew; except for that girl of course. The Colonel ran a large hand through his scruffy hair and it came away a little greasy, oh how he longed for a real shower and not the vapour stand in that Eli had found, to Everett that was more like standing in humidity and sweating; certainly nothing like a calm relaxing shower. He'd kill for new clothes as well, especially socks and a pair of boxers; at this point he didn't care if they were neon pink and had little hearts on them. His stomach rumbled and he knew he'd have to go to the mess hall at some point in the near future. Maybe Destiny would drop out of FTL and give them a planet covered in deer-like or cow-like animals and Greer could finally get everybody that barbecue he was always going on about, no one was going to turn down a stake especially not him.
Young turned his mind away from thoughts of luxury and back to his crew, everyone was alive and safe – except for Eli – and Young hoped it remained that way. He looked up to the gate wishing he could just dial Earth and take everyone home but unfortunately that wasn't possible and they just had to make do with the cards they'd been dealt.
Adam Brody had gotten Hydroponics up and running again so there was enough food and he hoped to have the still working by the end of the day and then they'd have the option of a night cap again. Young missed beer.
Finally Camile appeared walking towards him down the hallway towards the gate room, he stood silent waiting until she came to a halt by the staircase on the right hand side of the room.
"There you are. What have you learnt about the girl?" He asked quickly getting right to the point, no good morning Camile just straight to the questions.
Camile cleared her throat before answering his questions.
"She's with TJ at the moment." Said the dark-haired woman. "We already know she can speak so there's no language barrier. TJ estimates her to be about seven or eight years old, but when I asked her she told me she didn't know her age."
"How is that even possible?" The Coronal asked in a bewildered tone.
"I'm not sure." Camile responded honestly. "I didn't push her though, if I had she may have shut down and stopped talking all together. I'm not a child therapist. She gave the same response when I asked her name. I quote, Mommy and Daddy never gave me one."
"And Daddy is Rush or someone else?"
She just had to choose Rush didn't she? The one person Young didn't trust as far as he could throw him.
"I think it's likely her actual father shared some resemblance with Rush, you can't deny they have very similar eyes so it's probably that. She's scared and has latched onto something that's familiar. In this case Rush reminds her of her father. Let's face it, there's no way Nick has a seven-year old daughter. I saw his file, he's never been a father. And even if he did there's no way she could have gotten here from Earth."
"No one could have gotten here but us, Camile." Everett paused for only a moment. "So she's something pretending to be human." He accused.
"We can't go jumping to conclusions." Camile tried to reason. "We've seen other humans out here, she could-" Young cut her off abruptly.
"Or she could be something sent to kill us all and take the ship."
"She's a little girl." She declared with a frown coating her otherwise beautiful features.
"No, she looks like a little girl."
"I don't think she's something in disguise, she started to say something about bad things and that she didn't come from Earth, I think someone or more likely something hurt her."
"I want her in quarantine." Young said quickly,
"You can't just lock up a child because you're scared of her! You did that last night and she cried all night but you wouldn't let Corporal Barnes in the room just made her stand guard outside." Camile couldn't believe Young was really suggesting this.
"I'm not afraid of her, I'm concerned for this crew."
"Well she is part of this crew now unless you plan to jettison her into outer space." She shrieked.
Young signed, he didn't want a fight, just to take care of the crew as best he could. Most of them weren't even awake yet, that was the job of Lieutenant Scott for the day. He tried to be a reliable leader but he wasn't perfect and sometimes he had to make the hard decisions, the Colonel knew locking a child up in a room was cruel but he couldn't just let her wander around and find she wasn't human at all, that she was a threat. A wolf in sheep's clothing.
"Of course not. What is it you suggest?" He asked trying to calm his tone and find a compromise.
Camile thought for a moment, her dark eyes gazing off into the space behind the gate, Young could almost see the cogs of her brain moving as she thought. Finally she looked back up at the ageing Colonel with a plan in mind.
"For the time being I think it best that she spend time with me or TJ. You should post Corporal Barnes or Greer to watch her, maybe Lieutenant James . She's already seen Greer and Barnes, and James is another woman so she should be more comfortable around her. I also think we should have Rush spend time with her."
Young raised an eyebrow at that.
"Wouldn't that just be feeding the delusion?" It was a valid question.
"Yes, but his presence would help to keep her calm and to feel safe and comforted. Over time she'll hopefully accept that Rush isn't her father and treat him like anyone else on the ship."
"You're acting like this is a long term plan, entirely forgetting that she randomly appeared in an alien vessel attached to the ship, with God knows how many tubes sticking out of her and covered in some kind of gloop. And that she's told us little to nothing about herself."
It was Camile's turn to sigh as she shifted her weight and looked the military man straight in the eyes.
"I understand your concern, I agree she's not from Earth but that doesn't mean she's going to try and kill us all or sabotage the ship."
"Chloe did." He deadpanned and Camile fell silent. "Just because she looks innocent doesn't mean she is. If you were going to send someone to sabotage the ship or hurt us wouldn't you make it look innocent and harmless?" Camile chose not to answer that so Everett continued. "General O'Neill isn't happy about her either, I think you should be the one to swap with the Paediatrician when she's sent here, the girl already knows you so she'd not panic or anything." The woman nodded in acknowledgement. "At least after this child doctor looks at here we'll know if she's human or in a person suit."
With that Colonel Young stomped off like he usually did.
XXXX
Chloe swished her long dark curls back over her shoulders and sighed, she'd been in the stasis room all morning with Brody trying to figure out a way to free Eli. Brody seemed to think that since he was the engineer he'd have Eli out in a jiffy but after hours of work he'd only succeeded in annoying himself. Half of Eli's notes weren't readable so Chloe had been translating for him. Each time the beautiful young woman with ebony hair looked up at his frozen form she wanted to cry, all Chloe wanted was for her friend to make some stupid joke and hug her, is that too much to ask? Apparently it was.
Volker had been up on the bridge for more hours than he cared to think about going over the very last of Destiny's systems and making sure there were no surprises, for once Rush and Young agreed that it was best to check everything just in case. So far the worse they'd come across were some blown out panels which was probably just old age and looked to be easily fixable by cannibalising parts of the unused sections of Destiny. Nicholas himself had been going back and forth supposedly supervising but Chloe knew he was just as worried about Eli as she was, most wouldn't believe Rush to be a caring man but he was, he felt things deeply like a hot spring hidden inside himself; unfortunately he also excelled at steeling his emotions. He'd been jotting away in his practically full notebook with a tiny almost non-existent pencil each time she saw him, and every time Rush came into the room he'd reassure her that they'd soon have Eli back: which was more than Brody had done all day.
Eventually Rush couldn't take his hunger any longer and had ended up in the mess hall with Volker who'd only sat with him because of the lack of seats. Nicholas had asked Chloe if she wanted anything but she'd muttered something about staying to help Brody and Rush hadn't questioned her.
Doctor Rush didn't speak he just got his bowl of so-called food and sat down to eat it, whatever it was tasted bland and grainy on his tongue but it was the best they could do for the time being until the crops had started to grow again or they found a planet, for some reason since waking from the stasis chambers he'd craved cheesecake. However, there were small dried purple fruit that looked like red grapes but tasted more like oranges; at least those had some real flavour. He'd just about scraped the bowl clean when he heard a happy and high pitched voice not far behind him.
"Daddy!"
All eyes were on Rush as the child pulled away from Tamara and James then raced towards him with a huge grin on her face, he couldn't deny the strange feeling he got from someone being pleased to see him. It was actually a little amusing to watch as she forced her way into his lap and cuddled him, she'd been determined. Volker and the others knew better than to say anything and just pretended they weren't watching the scene unfolding before them. James, who'd been watching the child along with TJ, grabbed herself a bowl of... whatever it was and started to eat with her eyes still on the girl. James thought her cute and nothing but a normal little girl yet she'd obey the orders Young had given.
"Come on Sweetheart." TJ began holding out her hand for the girl to take. "Let's get you something to eat and then go back to the infirmary, or maybe the observation deck."
Her soft smile faded to shock when the tiny brunette screamed defiantly at her.
"No! I want to stay with Daddy!"
Nicholas tensed, he wanted her off him, she would be happier with Tamara and Camile in the long run but he couldn't yell at her like the rest of Destiny's crew and he'd become so touch starved that his body was reluctant to release her; his physical form had turned on his mind.
"He needs to work."
The blonde tried to reason but his so-called daughter seemed to be just as stubborn as Rush himself if not more. He actually liked that. The brunette little girl looked up at him with those eerily familiar eyes and a pleading look on her delicate features.
"I'll help. Please Daddy? I want to stay with you. Please?"
The grumpy chief scientist sighed audibly and gave in far to quickly, that feeling of being needed prevented him from saying no to her.
"Fine."
He shifted her from his lap so she stood beside him and rose to his feet before walking off out the mess hall, in seconds she followed grabbing his hand that hung by his side. Lieutenant James wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and set the finished bowl down on the table closest the door.
"I'll watch him. Rush is an asshole but I don't think he'd hurt the kid."
Before Tamara could respond Vanessa had followed the father and daughter out the room and down the halls.
Matt, who'd been eating quietly at the far table, stood and discarded his bowl before walking over to the blonde. He straightened out his BDU jacket as he went.
"Do you think it's wise to leave her with Rush?" He asked with more concern as to Rush's plots and plans rather than the child's welfare.
"I don't know." Tamara told him honestly. "But Camile seems to think it's a good idea and for now we have to work with what we've got."
XXXX
Rush made his way to the control interface room with a sweet little girl holding his hand and almost skipping down the black metal hallways, the borrowed black t-shirt she wore swishing around her knees. It amazed him that she could be so happy, clearly she remembered something horrible about where she came from and she was surrounded by strangers. The child didn't seem phased though and Rush didn't know if that made her strong or in denial. Once inside Nicholas sat her down in a chair and wandered over to the mass of wires Brody had managed to overload while running tests the previous day, he sat cross-legged on the floor and started to search the huge lengths of wires; Lieutenant James just stood and watched by the door. The child wagged her feet back and forth and she actually looked like a normal little girl rather than an utter mystery at the edge of the universe.
"Daddy, can we go to the room with the big window and see the lights?"
"I have work to do." He responded gruffly before realising it was the girl asking and not one of his incompetent scientists. "Lieutenant James could take you to the observation deck, I'm sure she wouldn't mind."
"I wanted to go with you." She told him in a sad tone staring at the ground. "The lights will be there later right?"
Rush didn't look up from the huge pile of wiring on the floor that surrounded him, just continued to rip out dead wires and throw them across the room out of his way. James watched the child's face drop and instantly wanted to make her happy again, she didn't like it when children were upset; it was that parental instinct inside her.
"He's right, I can take you to see the FTL lights." She offered with a smile.
The girl shook her head and watched her father going about his work.
"No thank you, I want to stay with Daddy." She responded quietly.
Rush let out a grunt of success and pulled two wires into his hands twisted the metal together and leaned up to push a button on the control panel but ground to a halt when his alleged daughter started speaking in a worried tone.
"Daddy, that's the wrong wire. You want the one that looks greeny-blue."
Rush's brow furrowed as he examined the wires he held while James' eyes grew wide.
"You're right." He admitted. Had he pushed the button to restart the power flow he'd have likely electrocuted himself and damaged the electrical panel even more.. For the first time the little girl truly had his attention. "How did you know that?"
She tensed and looked down as though she was preparing to be scolded.
"I don't know." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I... I just do. Are you angry, Daddy?"
"Hmm? No." How could he be angry with the girl who may have just saved his life? Suddenly he was beyond curious about her and wondered just how much intelligence she had locked away in that tiny brain of hers, Nicholas quickly formed a plan. "How about you come over here and help me?"
"Rush this isn't wise." James tried to say but she went unheard because the girl talked over her.
"Really?!" The nameless girl grinned from ear to ear and Rush nodded.
James didn't like this idea but the child seemed so happy and she knew Young would just lock her away again, so she didn't reach for her radio, Rush would know if she tried to damage anything.