Fic: Stone
Title: Stone
Author: corycides
Fandom: SGU
Characters: Nicholas Rush x Vanessa James
Rating: NC: 17
Spoilers: To the most recent
Summary: Sometimes it isn't possible to let sleeping dogs rest - even if it would be best after the events in 'Hurry'. An emergency on Destiny threatens the lives of everyone on board.
Disclaimer: I do not own SGU or the characters used in this fic.
Rush hadn’t looked at her since they’d fucked on the floor of the console room. Of course, he hadn’t looked at her before either. Vanessa ignored him in turn, collecting her rations and going to sit with Spencer and Laws at what had become their table.
It wasn’t marked yet, but people were...flocking: them and us, military and civilian, officers and NCOs, Rush and everyone else. The ship was finding its fault-lines and people were picking sides.
Only to be expected, of course. Each group was tight knit and had their own ranking systems - chain of command in the military, degree type and IQ for the scientists - they fit better with each other.
If it got worse, though...
Vanessa shrugged to herself. Leadership classes and nights spent sweating over texts aside, she was a Second Lieutenant. This was up to Young and Scott.
She was just glad that her commission was new enough that no-one at the table squinted askance when she sat down with them. Spencer just shifted up to give her room on the bench and Laws grunted a welcome as she scraped the last of her rations up.
“Any news?” Vanessa asked.
Most conversations started with some form of that question. Anything new? Any developments? Has there been word from above or from earth? It stood in for the non-existent weather.
Laws dropped her spoon into the dish and sat back, rolling heavy shoulders. The left clicked audibly as the damaged joint rubbed.
“Nope,” she said. “If they know anything, they aren’t telling us. And visits to earth are still suspended.”
“Aw hell,” Vanessa muttered, rubbing her forehead. None of her family were cleared, but she’d wanted to go back and check on them anyhow. Jeremy’s wife was pregnant - seven months now - and Aunt Marnie would have had the results back from the doctor...
“Colonel Young was the last one to go back,” Spencer muttered into his chest without looking up. The muscles of his shoulders were clenched even though all he was doing was sitting. “Jumped to the head of the queue to get there, too.”
No one said anything. Vanessa shifted and broke the silence.
“Privilege of command,” she said. A joke about officers and booty calls threatened, but she wasn’t sure if it would break the tension or make it worse. “Probably something to do with the glitch over the FTL.”
Laws grinned, dark eyes flashing wickedly.
“Or Telford don’t want stuck in Young’s body while he could have Scott’s,” she said. A foot poked Vanessa’s under the table. “What you think, James?”
Her mouth dried with a mixture of irritation and hurt.
“I think I hate to think what Telford is doing with the bodies if that’s he worried about,” she said, grabbing a drink of water to get the words out better. “I’m sure...”
The familiar down-shift of the ship interrupted her and she tilted her head, listening to the small sounds of Destiny settling. Not that she knew what it would sound like if something wasn’t wrong. She glanced quickly over at the guy who would, but Rush was already gone.
Laws drained her glass and pushed herself to her feet.
“Planet lottery time,” she said. “Let’s see how it’s going to try and kill us this time.”
Vanessa grabbed two more spoonfuls of broth before scrambling to her feet and catching up with the others at the door.
****
Rush hunched over the console, the ache in his spine so familiar it was almost comforting, and studied the calculations that Parks and Brody had been working on. Irritation tightened the corner of his eyes. The mathematical equations were correct - he couldn’t fault them on that, this time - but they weren’t enough.
It was like he’d told them to make a horse from a skeleton. They had all the bits in the right place, but without the connective tissue to knit it together it was just a pile of bones.
He pushed his glasses up onto his forehead and rubbed dry, gritty eyes with his thumbs. It had been over twenty four hours since he’d slept properly and he would have sold a kidney for a cup of coffee.
Unfortunately, there was no-one he could depend on to take up the slack while he snatched forty weeks. Brody and Parks had abandoned him the minute the unusually upbeat SGC team returned from the planet and Eli, who at least had the gumption to see when something was wrong, had been conscripted in service to Young’s paranoia.
Rush tapped his glasses down onto his nose and adjusted them so they were straight. He banished the clumsy equations with a flick of his finger - they weren’t urgent and it was possible that being presented with the carcass of horse bones in the cold light of what they’d agreed to call morning would enlighten them - and called up his own work.
His life’s work.
He was so engrossed in picking his way through the Ancient computer systems that he didn’t even notice someone coming into the room until they cleared their throat.
“Doctor Rush.”
“Colonel Young.” He took his glasses off and sat back, polishing the lenses on the hem of his shirt. “Can I help you?”
Young picked up a pencil, looked at it and put it down again. It was probably the only thing in the room he could understand.
“Everyone is celebrating.”
Rush slid his glasses back onto his nose and cocked his head to the side. Laughter and music echoed through the halls.
“Yes,” he said, sardonically. “I did assume that Eli or Brody had made some breakthrough in mastering Destiny’s systems and enabling our trip home. Even better though. We have fruit.”
Young’s jaw tightened and relaxed, his mouth forced into a smile.
“It’s a win,” he said. “We’ve not had many of those.”
Rush rolled his eyes. “It’s fruit,” he said. “We still haven’t.”
Young stepped forwards and braced his hands on the console, leaning in.
“It wouldn’t hurt you to go out there, Rush. I didn’t think it possible to become less popular than you were on Icarus, but you’ve managed it. If you want people to lift a hand for you: join the party, eat an apple and show you’re human. “
Rush shook his head and looked back down, squinting tired eyes.
“I think I’d prefer to stay here and, ah, work on saving all our lives,” he said.
Young sighed and stepped back.
“You can’t say I didn’t try.”
“No,” Rush muttered without looking up. “I wish I could.”
He started to patch a link around a dead system and paused, fingers hanging over the controls, as he heard - or didn’t hear - something. Young had noticed it too.
Music still echoed but the human voices had gone silence.
Rush’s radio crackled and he grabbed for it, ignoring Young’s attempt to snatch it off him.
“There’s something wrong,” Eli stammered. Voices murmured anxiously behind him. “People are...They...”
Second Lieutenant James skidded around the door in her sock-soles, grabbing at the wall for balance. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her face was grim. Awareness twitched Rush’s cock and dried his lips. He shoved the distraction aside irritably.
It was understandable - she was attractive, his body was missing the usual addictions he’d sated to control it and hope did spring eternal - but he had no interest in playing the horny old fool.
“Colonel Young,” James pulled herself upright and saluted swiftly. “There’s been an incident in the mess, Lieutenant Johansen wants to see you now.”
“Incident?” Young said, already heading for the door.
James shook her head, scowled when her hair got in her face and shoved it behind her ears unceremoniously.
“I don’t know, Sir,” she said. “People just started falling over.”
“Drunk?” Rush suggested.
Both SGC gave him a sharp look and James shook her head again. “No,” she said. “They’re aware and alert, but they can’t get up.”
Young nodded and strode out the door.
“Get your boots on, James,” he said. “And bring Rush. He was eager to start saving lives.”