Summary: After Young's order to turn the ship, and a journey of four weeks Destiny arrives finally at the planet Rush was left two months ago. The mission to find him has to be done old fashioned since they lack advanced equipment. All they have is their wits and choosing the right people to find the right place, and hopefully arriving there at the right time to accomplish what they came for.

Notes: Real live and all the circumstances that come with it resulted in postponing this story for quite a while. But I hope all those who still follow the story will enjoy this new chapter despite of the delay.

As always, I'd like to thank my beta reader Jeri33, who brought my translation into a readable English text and Neotoma for doing a second read for the science related stuff. And last but not least – I guess it's unnecessary to add – that all left mistakes in the text are due to my inattentiveness.

11. New Hope

Young came out of the event horizon and stopped at the entrance giving himself time to collect first impressions of the planet. He was the last going through the Stargate, so there wasn't a need to hurry. Therefore, he took his time and closed his eyes for a moment. He could sense the slight, warm breeze on the back of his hands, which were relaxed and folded in front of his body.

The sky was blue and the temperature perfect, not too warm, not too cold. The air smelled a bit musty, as if coming from humid soil as he remembered from home. He recognized a very faint scent from flowers intermixed with the earthy notes. The ground around the Stargate was encircled by knee high plants, with tennis ball like fruit on top of a strong stem, which grew out of grass like leaves. These kinds of plants covered the whole landscape in all directions up to the visible horizon.

In a not too far distance this plant-carpet was interrupted by a grove with bushes and larger tree-like plants. Even from afar he could see that their large pointy leaves shined green at the bottom and yellow, red and orange at the ends.

'What a spectacular sight.' Young thought.

At first glance, the planet seemed to have the most ideal conditions one could think of. Unfortunately, Young knew this was partly contradicted by the botanical probes they'd taken this morning. TJ told him she would need to collect more and different plants to get a better picture of what she feared the first samples indicated. Now, hours later, Young made his first visit to the planet to see the new results first hand.

Early in the morning Eli and his science team left for the planet through the Stargate after the soldiers secured the area around the gate. Now the gate was surrounded by makeshift tents, equipped with technical equipment of different kinds, stored in large and small boxes. The now empty larger boxes were converted into tables with smaller ones used as seats. They'd brought a lot of technical gear including a box full of kinos and several remote devices.

The first thing they built as soon as possible was a laboratory for TJ and the other scientists to do their preliminary tests. Close to that was Eli's intelligence headquarters for coordinating search parties.

They'd agreed a few days before their off-planet visit to limit their efforts in finding Rush without a hot lead to a week. To stay longer would be with each additional passing day, fruitless, and it would become more and more unlikely to ever find him. However, if they found a hot lead, which all of them hoped to find, they would stay as long as necessary. Simultaneously, Young ordered, in consultation with Wray, a stocking up of their food supplies. Thus, in case they couldn't find Rush, they'd at least depart the planet with well-filled storerooms. Though the last agreement was more due to Camile's, Brody's and TJ's persuasiveness than his idea. He still had this deeply seated fear of losing any of those lives entrusted to him. Whatever he did, this fear was his companion and would be forever. The only question was, would he be able to turn it into something good.

That he feared for Rush of all people was still somewhat surprising to him and he asked himself at what point he'd changed his mind to include this troublemaker into the circle of people he truly cared for. Even right before they entered the stasis pods, he still had excluded the audacious scientist from that inner circle he'd call friends. But now, everything had changed. Now, he hoped desperately their rescue mission would be a success.

"Sir, I think you'd like to see this!" said Lieutenant James standing directly in front of Young, yanking him out of his thoughts. Still somewhat engrossed in thought, he looked for a moment blankly at the woman, who quietly indicated with a move of her hand, the direction that would lead him to TJ's tent that had been assembled as a work station.

After they entered, TJ acknowledged him with a short nod of her head. "Colonel, I examined more samples and made a surprising discovery."

"I'm all ears!" Young mindfully replied.

"First, I tested this grass-like stuff that's growing all over here. I found the leaves are unsuitable to eat; but the fruits," and with that TJ pointed at the tennis ball-like umbels, "form a starch substance suitable to make flour when they're ripe."

"Okay, but, but this is a good thing, isn't it? It would mean the plants from this planet are edible in general." He asked wondering.

"Well, I cannot answer just like that. I'm afraid it's more complicated." Young still looked at her bewildered, until she went on to explain what she meant.

"Two months ago, when Rush was marooned on this planet, the plants were merely eight inches high, as I was told by Lieutenant James and Sergeant Greer. Additionally, they hadn't yet grown fruit."

"Which means it was not nutritious enough at that time", Young realized directly. "Okay, but what about the green stuff over there, with the trees and bushes? The plants look quite different from the material growing around here." Young wanted to know.

"Exactly, and that's the weird part." TJ started to explain. "The genetic material from these plants here and those over there are completely different."

Young watched her still unsure what her words meant. "And that means?"

"The only explanation I can think of is these plants are from a different planet. This looks a little bit suspicious so close to a Stargate. I'd say and we should pay attention to that."

Young needed a few seconds to fully understand what this could only mean. "That means we should consider that this planet is inhabited by beings that most probably are able to use a Stargate, or had used it at some time in the past. Do we have indications that the Stargate was used lately?"

"No, we don't." Eli verified that directly on the Stargate. "We were the last to use the gate two months ago, and have been the first for ages to use it."

When Young looked questioning at her again, she added an explanation. "Don't ask me, he's the expert", while pointing to Eli, who was standing outside in view, talking to someone. "Anyway, we should assume we are not alone here." She explained further, looking as if she had more bad news to share.

"And what else did the samples tell you?" Young asked, noticing her uneasiness.

"All the plants from the grove over there are toxic for human consumption."

That was clear and Young asked without thinking: "How toxic?"

"Toxic enough to cause significant health problems", she said.

"Rush went through the off-world training, he knows how to test substances without equipment." Young tried to reassure her and himself.

"Yes, I know, he's smart, but there's so much that can happen. Aside from that, this made it necessary for him to move away from the gate. Meaning it will be more complicated to find him, and, it's also more likely that eventually he met whoever lives here."

Young went silent, still looking uneasily to the ground. While he thought about their options, he tried to ignore his again growing fears, while sorting through all scenarios he could think of.

"Did you already search the complete grove over there? What about water?" He asked eventually.

"We are going to assemble teams to investigate the entire area around here." This time it was James who answered, still standing at the entrance of the tent. "If somebody passed through this area, or left from here, even two months ago, we'll find evidence of them. We're trained to do this, and I'm confident that we'll succeed." James told her superior, when she saw his worried face.

"Yes, of course. I know I have a good team, the best team I can think of." He smiled at her, though he sounded not completely convinced, and he could sense that James and TJ knew too. He had hoped for a somewhat easier start.

"Okay", he finally said: "That means we cannot refill our supplies here."

"Well at least not this close to the Stargate." TJ considered. "But I'd like to take these starch plants here with me to grow in our hydroponics. When the fruit is ripe, they may make a pretty good flour. I'm sure Becker will appreciate it."

"Oh, most likely not only Becker!" James reminded them she was still there and added: "If those plants are not from this planet, wouldn't it make sense to look for the planet they do come from?"

"It might be risky," TJ objected. "We'd draw attention to whoever may live there and in the worst case we may be forced to break off our mission here as well."

"Hmm", Young thought, "it will be risky when we use the Stargate, but maybe less if we proceed more carefully. What if we don't go through the front door, using the Stargate, but sneak through the backdoor?"

"Using the shuttle?" James asked

"Yes, why not." Young answered. "Potentially, it would attract less attention, if any, and we'd be able to explore the planet further than we'd be able to by using only the Stargate. Additionally, we planned to refill our stores, so that would be the perfect opportunity to do both."

"Good, the moment we're able to start our search here, we'll assemble a new group to investigate this other planet." TJ affirmed his idea, contented.

~/~/~

The utmost unwelcome cold that enclosed him dragged him out of the peaceful nothingness, and he remembered what he did just before they knocked him out.

After a few fruitless attempts, he managed to activate one of the alien consoles. At last he'd found a way to follow Destiny's path through the galaxy and with a remote device it would be possible to jump from one Stargate to the next using the correct direction, ending up with Destiny's gate to finally go back there. Unfortunately, he had no remote device.

He hadn't thought about that. Not ever had he imagined Young would maroon him on a desert planet to rot. The bloody communication stone Jackson or whoever once gave him for further investigations or whatever, he wasn't really sure about that, was still lying useless in his backpack. It won't work without the station device. He knew he theoretically was one of those few who was able to use it without the device, but under these circumstances, it would be a gamble of pure chance where he'd end up. A random place somewhere in the universe would not help, but possibly endanger him even more.

He'd finished his water bottle hours ago and the thirst was unbearable by now. In this exact moment, they came out of nothing, bright blue and luminous, where their dark suits didn't cover the skin. They took him out without a warning.

Now he had regained consciousness, and felt how something penetrated his lower body, causing infernal pain. His whole body was raw, whatever they'd done to him was intolerable. He wished desperately he could go back into the nothingness he was before. But something pulled unrelenting at his consciousness, urgently trying to bring him back with calming words. As comforting this voice was, he knew it must be false. And before he became further aware of the aliens, or really see them, he went back into the night, wrapping his mind into the realm of oblivion.

~/~/~

Only one hour later the five teams that were already assembled before they'd reached the planet, equipped with all they needed, went in five different directions. The groups moved away from the base camp at a moderate speed, each person cast their eyes on the ground for possible traces. One of the groups included James, Greer and two civilians – the biologists Dr. Miller and Dr. Jacobson. Their task was to investigate the grove and from there to follow the direction of the tree array.

The four entered the grove after they'd methodically searched the ground up from the Stargate with their eyes. During the whole time one of the kinos was flying above them showing the terrain they moved on from a bird's eye view. But here between the trees and bushes it was of less use and the navigation became more and more difficult because of the smaller stems or leaves preventing it to go in a straight course. This job was done by Dr Miller, since she was better in working the sensitive controls of the remote than her colleague or the soldiers who constantly had to hold their riffles in position.

It turned out the tree grove was larger than it looked from afar, and contained aside from the huge trees, a lot of green bushes and other smaller plants. With each step, Dr Miller studied carefully the small screen of the remote device to see what laid in front of them. This way they proceeded slowly and found aside from the rich flora, no other signs of life. After about one hour they reached a small waterhole.

"This is James! We found water", the female soldier reported to the base camp.

After a few moments, TJ answered. "Johansen here! How much is it?"

"Only a small pond, big enough to not dry out, though!" James answered.

"Anything else noticeable at the location?" TJ asked further.

"No. No traces or anything of interest at first sight, but it would be good to send someone over here with a quick test kit. The water may be suitable to supply our needs, so then we won't need to bring water from the ship."

"Copy. I'll come myself, where do I find you?" TJ replied.

"Pretty much in the middle of the grove, I guess. I'll send Greer to meet you halfway," James told her. Greer who'd listened to their conversation, acknowledged the command with a nod and set forth to meet TJ.

"Why don't we look around here without touching anything or climbing trees while we wait? It doesn't make sense to just hang around here doing nothing until Sergeant Greer comes back." Dr Miller proposed. Her uneasiness with the military during the beginning of her time on board Destiny had shifted since then into a matter to fact but friendly routine. When her colleague also argued in favour of her suggestion, James hesitated first but finally agreed.

"Yeah, why not. I guess nothing speaks against it. Okay, let's start, just be careful and don't do anything risky."

They started to search the region surrounding the pond carefully. After a short time, Joja, as Dr Jacobsen was usually called by his colleagues, asked Lieutenant James for a flashlight to check a huge hallow in a giant tree trunk. It looked to him as if there was something strange lying in its far end. James came directly and took her flashlight out of her backpack.

"This looks as if it doesn't belong here", she said, inspecting the hole by looking closer at each angle. Then she put her hands at the edge of the hollow trunk to lift herself up until she squatted at the entrance, still observing the walls and the ground. Finally, she stood up as far as the height of the shelter made it possible for her to go into the rear part of the hollow.

"Oh, my god," she called out agitated, "we've indeed found something!"

"What is it?" Dr Miller asked curious, who now stood aside Joja, trying to get a glimpse of what James had found.

James pulled a piece of cloth and a metal water flask out of a pile of greenery. When he shook out the cloth it turned out to be Rush's trademarked vest. Without hesitating she searched the clothing for objects. Eventually she opened the bottle, and smelled it to find it was still half filled with the sweetened tea she'd given to Rush, though the smell was more than scruffy. She also found the small parcel with a piece of what once had been pasty.

"Okay, this is our first lead!" James spoke more to herself than to the two scientists. She was surprised when instead of her team members TJ answered her. "What did you find?"

"Some of Rush's belongings." James told her.

"What is it?" TJ asked with interest.

"His vest, a drinking bottle, and the rest of the food from Becker that I gave him. And, as it looks, he's left pieces of everything." James reported a little bit worried.

This looks very strange!" Dr Jacobsen called out, suddenly. The biologist was now standing close to the tree and the pond, after he'd an eye on the surrounding, because TJ and Greer blocked the entrance of the hollow.

"Um, what looks strange?" His colleague asked curious.

"Over here, at the bottom of the trunk is a pile of rotten plants that don't belong here," he explained.

Dr Miller and Greer looked at the small pile of decayed parts of plants and compared them to those plants close to their location.

"Yeah, you're right, it's not from any of the plants here." Dr Miller acknowledged, getting a nod from TJ.

"It looks like plants to me!" Greer stated surprised.

"Yeah, that's because you know nothing about plants!" TJ argued factually, though she got only a quiet shrug from him.

"Okay, let's think, what happened?" Greer asked the unavoidable question of the day, while the rest of the group came close to him with James at the centre, now sitting at the entrance of the hallow.

"Rush found the pond …," James started. Suddenly TJ interrupted her. "Keep talking, meanwhile I'll examine the water," and with that she went over to the basin to unpack the testing kit.

James continued. "So, again: Rush found the pond, tested the water, found the hollow and decided to use it as a makeshift shelter."

"How long?" Greer asked to nobody specific. Of course, he already knew the answer, and thought that James and TJ would know too, but he'd like to know the opinion of the two biologists. He didn't know them well enough to get an impression of their capability in the field.

"Not long. One, two, or three days at maximum, I'd say," Miller answered smiling with a side glance to James. "The smuggled provision you gave him was not completely consumed. If they are still laying here like this, with his vest and the half full bottle, it can only mean he had to leave abruptly."

"Yep." Greer acknowledged pleased. Wasting words was not his thing.

"The water is clean and drinkable" TJ, still sitting at the rim of the basin, called over, getting up and wrapping up the kit, while she spoke. "I'll take the news to the base camp, but I want to know how you'd like to proceed!"

"We need to know in which direction he went." Dr Jacobsen said.

"My suggestion would be to go straight ahead, following the direction we already decided to take, and proceed looking for traces as we've done up to here." James threw in.

"Okay, should I take Rush's belongings with me, Vanessa? I'm going back to the base camp, anyway." TJ proposed.

"Oh, yes, that's a good idea." James answered her, and handed her the vest and the water bottle. Then she sprang out of the hollow trunk, and told her team: "Okay, you heard it, let's find Rush!"

It took about one hour until the small group reached the rim of the grove, which was actually more a small forest. They investigated the border area especially thoroughly, and just in the moment they wanted to move on, Greer called them. He was in the centre of a higher, dune like area, almost circular, of about 20 meters in diameter, that was stranding out of the greenery growing in front of them as far as they could see. He'd inspected the sand, using a stick he took with him from the grove. Obviously, he'd found something.

"What is it?" James asked, looking suspicious at the object, that hung down at the end of Greer's stick.

"Fabric." Greer answered.

"Well, yeah, I can see that now." James said while rolling her eyes.

"But it doesn't look like the clothing Rush wore." Dr Miller commented.

"No, it doesn't. The fabric is much coarser than what we wear." James took the rag from the stick to have a closer look on it. This looks as if it is hand-woven, but the material is still astonishingly soft, although it looks old. From whatever it is made, it's nothing I know."

Then Dr Miller inspected the snippet. "It looks similar to cotton, but you're right, it's also much softer than what we have. It completely contradicts the simple weaving technique to produce the fabric. Very strange."

"Maybe TJ could have a look at it?" James asked the biologist.

"Maybe to figure out the plant's origin, but I doubt we'll find DNA on it that we'd be able to analyse."

"I thought we can identify DNA?" Greer questioned.

"Well, yes we can do that", Joja started to explain, "but it takes time, and we can only do this on-board Destiny. If we find genetic material, we have to isolate it before we can start to sequence it …"

"What does that mean?" Greer interrupted him.

"To specify the bases of the genes," Miller now explained. "And after that we have to duplicate the material as long as we can get clear measurement results."

"I think it would be worth the time in any case," James pointed out. "This was made by rational beings, since we know it didn't belong to Rush. For whatever reasons, he left in a hurry, leaving all of his few belongings behind. And I think this has something to do with it."

"But we don't know how long it's been here." Greer argued, while he started to poke the sand again. After a while he'd found another small darkish brown clump of agglomerated material, and wrinkled his nose in disgust, but continued to investigate it further with his stick.

"Looks like faeces." Miller, who observed him, noted dryly.

"Yeah, looks like." He said thoughtfully.

"More probes to examine?" James asked interested.

"Definitely," Greer remarked. "Before we go on we should know what this is. Then he took a small box out of his backpack and pushed the excrement with his stick into it and closed it prudently. Then he put it back into his bag and the fabric into one of the bag's outer pockets. Eventually the group went back to the Stargate.

~/~/~

Without wasting time TJ went back to Destiny to examine the two samples. The result she reported was for everyone shocking and encouraging at the same time.

The fabric was indeed of plant origin and the material was related to the plants of the grove. That she could say, but no more. The result of the other probe was an unexpected surprise, nobody had anticipated. It was unknown, though clearly human DNA. Knowing that, Young ordered all teams back to the Stargate and since all of them were still in radio range, they didn't need much time to find their way back. Except James's, no other team was lucky to find a useful lead, anyway.

After everybody had gathered at the Stargate, TJ told them about the results of the samples.

"And there is really no doubt of the DNA test result? Some kind of secondary contamination, maybe. I mean, it is actually not possible, isn't it?" Morrison asked unbelieving.

"Well, it is not impossible, only highly unlikely." Eli responded dryly.

"Why? And what does that mean now?" One of the soldiers, whose name was Atienza asked.

"That means, we met humans before, not in this galaxy, though, but still in this part of the universe." Eli explained. "To sum up, it would be unlikely to find more descendants from Novus here, but it is not impossible."

"However, what we have are facts," Young reminded everybody briefly. "I'm not interested in how it is possible that we found humans here. It is a fact that they are here. The question I'm interested in is, what are we going to do with this information? Will that be a higher or a lower risk for us? Will it reduce or increase the chances of finding Rush?"

"We now know who we're dealing with." James asserted. "And what we've found so far, doesn't indicate that the inhabitants are much evolved, or recently used the Stargate. The whole region looks pretty desolate, and most likely, only once and a while somebody may come here."

"Hmm," Young laughed without humour, "but we're not sure and we can't be. But at least we may be able to talk to these people. And that is more than we could hope for when we arrived here this morning. We'll proceed with the usual care. Aside from your group" and with that he looked at James and Greer, "nobody has found anything. Therefore, I recommend you follow the one good lead we have so far, and regroup the team for safety reasons." With an eye on the civilians, who participated in the teams in equal number to the soldiers, he continued finally. "This is not meant as an affront to you. All of you did a good job. Without you it would be impossible to have five teams off-world at the same time." Now he met their eyes, one after the next. "I want those who will continue the search to go further into the interior of the area. They may need to defend themselves. The soldiers are trained for this, it's their job, as it is your job to keep the ship together and flying."

"It might be helpful to have two teams staying in contact to each other. This way we'd be able to cover a larger area." Scott suggested.

"Good, I'll keep that in mind!", Young answered quietly, "and tell you tomorrow morning how we'll proceed. Aside from the search for Rush, I'll determine what we'll do concerning the neighbouring planets. Because of the plants around the Stargate it appears as important to me. I'll need you for that job, Lieutenant Scott. You along with me are the only pilots we have and it makes sense to use the shuttle to investigate the planet."

Scott acknowledged the order of his superior with a nod and listened quietly to what Young and the rest of the crew continued to report.

"If this planet is inhabited by humans, then at some point they used this Stargate. Therefore, I think the neighbouring planet from where the plants came from were brought here by those humans, who also cultivated them. Tomorrow Destiny will jump into the vicinity of that planet. Chloe, will you be able to calculate the jump?"

Yes. All I need would be the coordinates. How close do you want?" She asked.

"Shuttle range, so that the flight will not take too long, is what I'd prefer! But also, as far away as needed to make sure that, let's say, standard sensors as we know, would not be able to detect us." Young spoke, fixing his gaze on her.

"Okay, no problem. If there's a moon or another planet close to that one where we can hide, we should be safe." Chloe answered and Young wondered for a second where she learned all this stuff. She had no idea before she came to Destiny.

"And how do we decide which planet we'll visit?" Volker asked sceptically.

"Hmm, we'll use the information from the database of the ship and compare that to the data I got from the Stargate that we could extract with the remote device. Shouldn't be a problem!"

Young listened to Eli's explanations and observed Volker at the same time, who seemed still not convinced. He'd realized more than once that the astrophysicist reacted this way when Eli gave the answer that any of the other more experienced scientist should come up with. Lately, he'd started to understand Rush's displeasure when it comes to Volker. Even if it was clearly not a good idea to react with open disdain and arrogance to your subordinates, Rush was not completely wrong.

'Volker always sees his uncertainty and inability to solve problems he was supposed to solve as a personal failure. His strength simply is in other fields.' Young thought. Unfortunately, because of the lack of people they had on Destiny, it made it impossible to give him other tasks. Everybody had to do what needed to be done, according to what they'd learned. He usually tried to compensate for his inability to adapt to new situations by being petulant, to make sure nobody will see it. But he was actually too often a fish out of water, with the expectation he'd continue just like that. But he was not able to live out of water and Young asked himself how to solve this problem, so that he and the rest of the crew will benefit from it. 'It's time for our replenishment. It would make our lives much better.' He mused, while Eli continued his nerdy talk.

"Good Eli." Young said eventually, "do this, and then give the data to Chloe for her calculations."

And with that the gathering was closed. Young remained with a few people, who came in with question for the teams; to discuss left over details. Early the next morning both teams were supposed to start their search, two teams on Rush's planet and two other ones to the second planet. The team for the latter included aside from soldiers also scientists. Among those Mr. Brody and Dr Volker was scheduled to look for any traces of human activity or other intelligent beings, but to look for supplies as well. The team on Rush's planet was still on the spot. All of them soldiers, mostly to protect the equipment in the tents around the Stargate. The rest, TJ, Greer, James and Varro, who directly asked to be part of TJ's team, were expected to go off-world the next morning, with more needed equipment.

Young agreed to Varro's urge to be a part of the team mostly because he knew Varro was by far more skilled if it came to search for leads than any of his soldiers. That he'd proven before. But another reason was, that he was sure, TJ would be in good hands, in even better hands than Greer's and the other soldiers. Though he'd never admit something like that, but her well-being was still tremendously important to him.

~/~/~

He didn't know how long he'd been without consciousness, he'd lost all feeling of time since the blue shimmering aliens caught him.

'If only this nagging pain would stop', was the only thing he was able to think.

He could feel cold hands. It felt as if they poured water over him and then he was again in the water tank with all that much too cold water around him. But before the panic could crawl even more into him, he'd lost consciousness again.

~/~/~

On board Destiny people started to prepare for their respective off-word missions early the next morning, after Chloe brought the ship with pinpoint precision out of FTL behind the small moon – that orbited the planet. She mastered this ability with such an absolute perfection that even Eli was in complete amazement.

Scott entered the shuttle together with three more soldiers, one of them Airman Dunning, and three scientists, Drs Miller and Volker and Mr. Brody. In the shuttle, they could approach the planet as discretely as possible.

Two hours later they'd entered the orbit to get a first impression of the world, which showed an incredibly inhospitable climate on its surface. All in all, it was low on water, with spots of water here and there, but those spots presented a green, impenetrable and jungle-like plant life. The complete planet looked uninhabitated, and appeared to be without evidence of settlements, as far as it could be evaluated from above. They kept flying high above the surface until they'd completely orbited the whole planet, without seeing anything that would count as traces of intelligent lifeforms. Then they radioed Destiny, which was still in shuttle-radio distance despite being behind the moon.

"Destiny, this is Scott, do you read?" Scott spoke into the radio. First, they heard the typical crackles and whirring and Scott started to get nervous, but after a few seconds the voice of Colonel Young answered: "Destiny here. I can read you, Lieutenant Scott, but it's not really good."

"We orbited the planet completely now and didn't find traces of buildings or other intelligence here. I think we can risk dialling the gate. Furthermore, it would give us a chance to find the Stargate. So far we haven't been able to locate it."

It took some seconds again until Young answered. "Eli is not here at the moment, but Chloe said she can do that."

"O-kay", Scott said pausing before continuing with his normal voice: "She may have to do that several times until our scanner is able to get the signal."

After another pause, Young said: "She said it won't be a problem. I'll tell you when she starts. Young out."

"Acknowledged, we'll start scanning," and with that he turned around to Brody, who was already in position to access the necessary files on his display. When he finished, he gave Scott a nod, who confirmed the gesture in the same way.

Inside the shuttle for a short moment there was nothing to be heard but beeping and rattling, produced by Brody, when he switched on several buttons to let the systems run, then he said: "Scanner is online, the moment we have something to scan, we can start."

"Let's wait until Chloe is ready", Scott said, and in that instance the radio went on again.

"Lieutenant Scott, do you read?" Young asked.

"Scott here, I read you." And then he waited for the next order.

"Chloe will now start dialling the Stargate."

"Got it. Mr Brody said our scanners are online."

After another ten seconds Young eventually said: "The gate is activated."

"Acknowledged, the scanner is running." Scott answered shortly to add a question. "Colonel Young, is there news from the two parties looking for Rush?"

"Eli just told me, they've found a well-trodden path behind the grove, Not too clear, but clearly visible. They've been following the path for several hours, now."

"Then all I can say is, I wish them luck." Scott told Young disappointed, but was interrupted by Brody, before he could continue. "I located the gate, sending you the coordinates to your display now."

"Okay," Scott answered Brody and informed Colonel Young.

~/~/~

TJ's group, consisting of Greer, James and Varro, followed the path now for more than five hours. As the second group, they made good miles by a tight pace. After a walk of three hours, the original range of about 5 miles for the radios was exceeded, therefore they had to bring their first kino into a position so that both parties could reach it. It was also important to make sure to use the radios sparingly, so that the kinos would be sufficient for a week and with the second set each group got, would work for another week, if necessary. The possibilities of recharging the devices was not an option under the given circumstances.

Each group followed their own path, which was not too far away from each other, but still out of view. Obviously both ways led them in the same direction. The difference was that TJ's group took the lower path and the second one under the leadership of Airman Atienza took the high path that went up constantly to the left of the other team.

Even after a good walk of six hours the landscape around TJ's group hadn't changed really. About two hours ago they'd passed a place that was in Varro's opinion a regularly but infrequently visited over the years.

'Only a trained eye is able to recognise the subtle differences in the vegetation, and Varro clearly had an eye', Greer thought, while listening to his explanations. Varro had long since earned the respect of the Destiny crew, even if there were still people who were not willing to trust him fully.

Another hour later, the landscape started to change dramatically. The knee high, luscious green steppe gave place to a more and more sandy, dry, and hilly terrain, colonized once in a while by bush-like plants.

They still followed the narrow path, and two hours later they arrived at a flat, sandy hill with a comfortable hole filled with fine, soft sand in the middle of the top, which looked perfect for a longer rest. Greer, who led the squad suggested after short eye contact with Varro, to make a stop for further investigations.

"Why this early?" Lieutenant James asked Greer.

"Not to rest", Greer answered, but when James and TJ looked at him questioningly, Varro explained the situation. "This place is perfect for a night camp, and the sun is actually pretty far down for us now. Even if we still have daylight for a few hours, a slower-moving group could have chosen this place. I'm sure Sergeant Greer shares this opinion with me".

Greer nodded short. "Let's look around here, and then go a little bit further. A short rest won't hurt me or anyone else." And with that he finished by looking at each person one by one. Now everybody laid down their field packs in the middle of the sand hole, and they divided the area in four parts, and began carefully searching the hill from the top to the rim of the hill. All four used their eyes, dug in the sand with their boots, and used sticks they all made way back in the grove, after Greer brought that idea up.

It didn't take long until TJ was the first one who called from the bottom of the hill. "I think, I found the latrine, folks!"

"That was to be expected, if anybody used this place as a camp, I think." Varro told, while stopping in his search to answer her.

"Clearly, and I'd say it must have been several people." TJ explained.

Then all four went on and after another five minutes Varro called. "I think, I found something as well." With that he bent down to lift a small greyish cloth, tucked between two stones, and half covered with sand.

"That looks like one of the handkerchiefs, I've seen with some of you!" He said surprised.

"Show it to me!" James replied agitated, while putting her stick in the sand to mark where she'd stopped to go over to Varro. The moment she arrived she took the still folded cloth by holding one of the edges and tugged it. "I think I've seen Rush with such a handkerchief!"

TJ and Greer went to Varro as well to have a close look at the cloth, and both not only acknowledged James assumption, and said they're sure about it. But most importantly, they had a new real evidence, that finally gave them certainty.

"Do you think this is a clue that Rush indeed was here?" TJ asked Varro, who could not share the same enthusiasm.

"Hard to say. Those who surprised him in that grove, and by the evidence it looks as if that exactly happened, could have taken the cloth and buried the body somewhere between here and the Stargate. There are uncountable possibilities, nobody can be sure it came out of Rush's trouser pockets. However, this cloth is yet another item of his belongings and therefore an important trace. Even if we don't find him, following this evidence, it might bring us to someone who has met him and can tell us what happened."

"Varro is right, TJ", Greer pointed out. "The handkerchief shows we're following the right track. We should contact the other team. It's about time, anyway."

A short talk with the second group brought the information that they were standing at a junction from where one path went steadily up and lead to a distant mountain range, as far they could see, while the other one would bring them into the direction of TJ's group. TJ's group had found evidence of rest places, but nothing of importance. However, because of Varro's discovery they decided to merge the teams again. TJ went on with her people along the path leading them to two rock masses, still about 20 miles afar, although visible for some time to each side of the horizon. They'd surely need a days-walk to reach them.

Before they went on, TJ reported to the base camp. Eli, who was in charge, welcomed the news and promised to tell Colonel Young immediately. Then he told TJ that Scott's team didn't find any trace of a civilization on the other planet. TJ was glad about that news as well, because she knew it would make their situation safer and easier to carry out. After she'd finished, all of them put their backpacks on and started walking again.

Only three hours later they met again with Atienza's group. His group was able to adjust their data with the kino so that they were able to see the other team more than half an hour before they met again. When they finally arrived with their comrades, it was dawn and both teams walked for some time further, until they'd found an acceptable rest place for the night.

~/~/~

The shuttle flew about one hour straight ahead after Brody had entered the data, until he said abruptly: "The readings say we should arrive at the Stargate at any time!"

But before he could continue, he was interrupted by Lieutenant Scott, "What the hell?" Was all he was able to say, while stretching his neck to see better what was outside below them.

"What's going on?" Volker asked, who sat quiet and passive beside Scott, keeping his eyes at the console in front of him. But at the moment he cast his eyes in the same direction as Scott, he felt speechless and looked with an open mouth out of the window. Then he looked at the people behind him, unable to understand why they didn't move directly. Finally, curious about what was going on, Brody got up to see what they looking at.

And there it was: A giant spaceship. Partly covered with sand and rampant plants. The dark and bulky looking form of the hull peeked out between the tendrils and dunes. Because of its huge outline, it still appeared rough and menacing. Most impressive was the size of the ship. It seemed to be even larger than Destiny, and judging from its appearance, it must be old. The whole scene was spooky and the more he saw, made Brody shiver.

"Holy shit, I didn't know it was possible to build such a big ship. I always thought Destiny is the biggest ship I'd ever get to see", he commented with a low voice.

"Compared to ships of other cultures we've met, the Destiny isn't the biggest ship by far," the voice of Airman Dunning spoke from the back of the shuttle where he sat with the rest of the second planet team.

"It's the biggest ship I've ever seen," Brody replied.

"When will we get to see the thing too?" Dr Miller, whose interest awakened, asked.

"Soon." Scott started slowly to then comment on Brody's words. "This thing is not only huge, it's black as the darkest night." The way Scott said that showed clearly that the ship was as creepy for him as for Brody.

"I bet it was completely invisible in space." Commented Volker into the silence that occurred after Scott's words. "The perfect camouflage, without any technical frippery.

"Well it might be invisible for our eyes, but it's not to higher evolved sensors." Brody said dryly.

"Yeah, sure, but no matter. It still looks like a menacing monstrosity from hell." Volker responded captivated and unpleasantly touched by the sight at the same time, and with that he said aloud what most of the others felt.

"The Stargate is over there." Scott said eventually. "I'll keep circling a bit to have a better view of the surroundings." Then he switched on the radio to report to Young what they'd found.

A little bit later they landed at the Stargate, where another group of soldiers and technicians, led by Colonel Young personally, welcomed them. As expected, the news about the spaceship that looked as if it had passed off a smooth crash landing, was received with surprise.

Eli was more than excited when he was informed, and first, he wanted to come as soon as possible to the new location by handing over his radio station to someone else. But Young wanted him to stay where he was, mostly because he was the most capable man for the task, but also to give him the opportunity to make up for what would have gone a completely different way if he'd decided to behave differently. Even though Eli was disappointed he did what he was told and stayed with his radios, kinos and remote devices.

Although Scott and his team as well as the new team from Destiny, already had a full day's-work behind them, they got ready for another shift. The day at this area of the planet had scarcely started when they arrived at the Stargate, while it had ended for the people on-board Destiny and on Rush's planet.

~/~/~

The next morning started for the re-united teams of TJ and Atienza with a taciturn breakfast after about nine hours of darkness that had been enlightened by a bright moon. Then the re-united team followed the path further. They had observed that the day on this planet was 25 hours long, and with that it was one hour longer than the standard day they had on-board Destiny. At least the daylight hours were with 16 hours, long enough to give them plenty of time to trek a good quantity of miles.

Around noon they took a rest to eat something. The mountain ranges they could see from afar the previous day moved away from each other the closer they came, and now it become clear that they framed a vast plain. Even the stony and slightly hilly surroundings they passed through before changed into a vegetation-rich flat plane. It didn't take long for the vegetation to exhibit in more regular structures. Eventually the group went through a clearly built street, girdled by fields on each side. This meant they had to be more careful and keep their weapons ready.

From now on, it only took one more hour until they could see regular hilly elevations in the distance, which turned out to be buildings the closer they came. With their weapons still ready, though not in firing position, the eight soldiers went into the village to have a first look at the population of the planet.

As the Destiny crew knew from the evidence they had found so far, these people were humans. Somehow, they must be the heirs of their descendants from Novus. The people let the strangers pass with a mixture of curiosity and more uncertainty than fear, neither trying to talk to them nor to stand in their way.

The uncertainty was by far not one-sided. Destiny's crew had similar feelings, but TJ and Varro, leading the team, transmitted a unique calmness as if they went for a walk through their own hometowns. With them in the lead, the rest of the group followed as calm as they were.

Notable was the difference in appearance of the people compared to the crew of Destiny. All the village people had the same dark skin and long dark hair. The men had beards, and women and men had the same clothing. What they spoke to each other sounded melodic, very strange and completely incomprehensible. The houses made the impression that they were sufficiently solid and architecturally well thought out. All the people looked well nourished, and healthy, but more and more it appeared that this civilisation was not very industrialised.

TJ knew she had to take the initiative to establish first contact, but she was still looking for a good opportunity. She looked for a building that could be some kind of tavern, or at least a more official building that people used for meetings. She didn't doubt that where humans live such a place would exist.

They walked along the street for a while now. Then TJ saw about 50 meters away, a woman who stood arms crossed at the entrance of a big house with an arched doorway, observing the strangely dressed folks going along their street

As they approached within 20 meters, the woman came closer, stopping at 10 meters. She was in her middle age, and made a resolute and confident impression, which was supported by her gender-neutral clothes. She made an impression on TJ and just before her team came close to her, she gestured them to stop. Finally, this was the opportunity she'd waited for to make first contact.

Initially the woman monitored the strangers closely, then she took a closer look at TJ and started to talk. When TJ looked puzzled towards her, it seemed to be clear for the alien woman that neither of them were able to understand the other. Still TJ hoped to find new evidence that would tell them where Rush could be. Then she remembered the picture of Rush she got from Eli. So, she took it out of her uniform pocket, unfolded it and held it up in front of the woman. At first, the woman seemed to be irritated, and judging by her reaction, it was clear she'd never seen paper before. At first, she was more interested in the material than in the picture. But when she finally looked at the picture her expression changed so abruptly that TJ knew directly she'd seen Rush before.

Eventually she looked up and stared at the strangers one by one, and again and again at Rush's photo. The comments she made were incomprehensible for the crew of Destiny, but when she pointed her finger at the picture, at her own arm and then at TJ's and Varro's hands, TJ started to understand.

An important difference between the crew of Destiny and the people of this village was that they didn't have different skin colours, as in white and black, but something in between, that would count as coloured by earth standards. Therefore, the mixed group made of black and white people must look pretty alien to the inhabitants of the village, and there was no question that Rush must have been as alien to them. But the more important question was now, what happened to him? Was he maybe still here somewhere? Was he still alive? A complete list of queries went through TJ's head and she didn't know how to put them across, when the woman abruptly turned halfway. She nodded at them and went back to her house.

"I guess we are invited to follow her." Varro said, while looking at TJ and the rest of the team, who still were hesitating. "You're not often enough with people who don't understand English, otherwise you'd know that some gestures are close to universal among human beings."

"Yes, Mr Smart-Ass," Greer commented by rolling his eyes, half earnest, half smiling and followed the woman with the rest of the team; she was back at the door, waiting for them.

The door led to a large, square-shaped courtyard, surrounded by buildings with arcade galleries. The arcades were supported by numerous dark wooden columns. The white painted walls, back in the shadow of the ambulatory, were regularly interrupted by massive wooden doors. In one corner of the courtyard stood a series of tubs and troughs and close by a well, framed with stones. On the opposite side of the square courtyard stood a big table with benches and chairs, where they were now invited to sit.

Only now TJ saw that the woman and all the other people they'd met so far had burn-scars on their upper arms. Now she realised she'd seen them before but didn't attached them value. But now that she could see the scars up close, her heart skipped a beat when she could identify them as one of Destiny's gate glyphs.

"Did you see that, Ron?" She asked Greer in a low voice.

"Saw what?" He asked back.

"The arms, upper left? That looks like burn scars," Varro commented. "Wait. Damn, isn't that a sign from Destiny's Stargate?"

"Yes, that's what I mean." TJ told him.

Greer added surprised: "Freaky!"

"What's going on?" James asked now, looking puzzled to the three of them on the other side of the table.

"Do you see the burn scars all of the people have on their left upper arm?" TJ queried to her comrade, while also looking at the rest of their team members.

Suddenly, as if by command, all of them stared at the persons who began to put earthenware and pots with food and large jars with water on the table.

"Yes, you're right, TJ. That's one of the signs," James confirmed.

"Not that we knew before, but I think this makes clear where these humans are from, doesn't it?" Atienza said on the whole issue.

"Well, looks like!" TJ ended the discussion.

Meanwhile, all of the dishes stood on the table. Then they brought several large flat boards with round, longish objects wrapped in green and put them in the middle of the table. Then all of them were invited to eat by gesture.

Only after they'd finished, the woman explained to them using hands and feet and pantomiming about the events alongside with a torrent of words that nobody understood, that she had to treat Rush because of some kind of sickness that seemed to involve the food he ate. She also told them that she knew where he was, and that it will take them two days to go there. Eventually she introduced a teenaged boy named Tōmí, who by the likeness was most likely her son. It turned out he was supposed to lead them to the place they would find Rush.

TJ checked her watch, and realised they had four hours left before sundown, and after she'd mentioned that, Greer urged them to start as soon as possible. As it happened, all of them were not only relieved to have this information, but also happy because they'd most likely be able to fulfil their mission.

The young man who was placed at their side procured plenty of provisions, which were equally divided among him and the eight soldiers.

While they stowed everything, TJ gave a new report to the base camp at the Stargate, to share the good news. Eli, who received the call, was audibly relieved about the positive message. He wished them luck, and reminded her not to forget to set up the kinos at regular intervals and to use the radios only if necessary.

All in all, it took only half an hour until they were ready to go and TJ thanked the alien woman who'd been so helpful and amiable. She hugged the woman shortly to give their thanks and to say good-bye. All of a sudden, she felt for a brief moment something she was not able to describe. As quick as the feeling came it was already gone when she released the embrace. Deep inside she had a feeling and was sure there was more to these folks than the eyes could see.

~/~/~

In the meantime, the scouting team had arrived at the stranded and mostly overgrown spaceship and had now spent six hours trying to find a way inside. They had circled the ship once but had no luck so far. It was indeed huge and as they'd seen from above, completely black where they could see the outer hull.

"A Shadow vessel." Brody said all of a sudden, while walking together with Volker alongside the exterior of the ship. In the last six hours, they had gone as close as possible along the ship, or as close as the vegetation let them.

"A shadow vessel?" Volker asked irritated.

"Yeah, Babylon 5", Brody explained, "the ships of the so-called Shadows. They were black, well, kind of."

"Never heard of it, what was that?" Volker answered bored.

"Really?" Brody was surprised.

"No!" Volker affirmed, while he looked at Brody as if he'd said something obscene.

"I thought everybody working on the Stargate program watched all the classic sci-fi shows and owned a whole bookcase of novels, written by folks like Asimov, Clarke, Douglas, Lem, Pratchett, Wyndham. Well, you name them." Brody replied surprised.

"Yes, I know some of those authors, and of course I know about Star Trek, Star Wars and other shows, but I've never heard about, what was it called 'Babylon something'?"

"Babylon 5. Dale, you let me down." Brody said, pretending to be indignant to his friend following behind him. But before Volker could answer he made a discovery and as it was with all groundbreaking discoveries by pure chance.

Only seconds later, Brody heard a hollow noise and a scream followed by a torrent of curses. When he turned around he saw Volker sticking half way in the ground. And although he was frightened by the view, the moment he realised his friend was well and just fell into a hole, overgrown by thick creeping plants, he calmed down immediately. He shook his head smiling, since it looked too odd how Volker tried to free himself out of his unfortunate position, and went over to help him. When Volker finally stood on safe ground they investigated the hole further, and found that there was a ramp under the plants. To have a closer look at it, they'd need help. So, Brody radioed Scott for some extra helping hands to report to him.

Five minutes later Lieutenant Scott, accompanied by Airmen Dunning and O'Hara came along. They used their combat knives to cut through the tendrils to expose the whole area. It turned out they'd found an entrance at last. The door was relatively small so they could only speculate at that point whether this was a side or a main entrance.

At first the door stayed locked, but Brody's vast engineering knowledge helped them in the end to find the door mechanism. 'Engineers always have an ace up their sleeve!' He thought pleased when the door opened with a loud squeaking noise.

The space behind the door was pitch black, it was not possible to see anything. Therefore, they asked for stronger flashlights and other equipment and waited until everything was brought.

Half an hour later the soldiers came with the needed supplies so they could start to investigate the inner part of the ship. They were surprised how different the ship looked from there. And although everything was covered with a fine layer of dust and on those parts with unprotected metal, they saw few signs of corrosion. Aside from that the interior was kept in bright colours that reflected the flashlights perfectly.

It didn't take long until they'd found Latin characters, which brought confirmation that the ship had a connection to the neighbouring planet, where they'd found humans. But to their surprise and in contrast to Novus, these labels were mostly incomprehensible, and showed some unknown letters too. But the more they saw, the clearer it was that this ship must be from there. And when they were able to switch on the lights and the ship computers with the remaining energy, everything they'd suspected, was validated.

Whereas Volker, Brody and other IT specialists looked through the databases, the soldiers went systematically through the ship. Aside from plain living rooms and common areas of different kinds, they also able to find the bridge. In its structure, it was astonishingly close to Destiny's bridge, and of all people it was Airman Dunning, who made another interesting discovery. In the middle of the room a metallic plaque was attached to a wall projection under the ceiling. This wall projection was positioned directly above a gallery with chairs, that were placed in a semicircle in front of window niches. On that metallic plaque was a portrait engraved, and this portrait showed none other than Nicholas Rush. And this finally confirmed that this ship was not build from the civilisation on Novus they knew, but from those they'd only known as Futurans.

When Brody heard about that, he asked to have a look at the bridge and eventually a soldier accompanied him there. To his surprise, Colonel Young was there too, looking around the room lost in thought with his eyes stuck on the silvery etching of the portrait.

"A. B. That's you, isn't it?" He asked Brody, who stood there, his mouth half open, not knowing what to answer.

"I don't know. Possible." He stuttered embarrassed. "I mean, if, it was my doppelganger, on Novus, most likely."

"Looks good. I didn't know you're an artist." Colonel Young said quietly with a sideways glance on the engineer.

"Well, yes, I used to draw more often in the past." He replied quietly, swallowing awkwardly. "But I stopped some time ago. No time, no paper, no pencils, you name it."

"You've got talent, pity you're not using it." Young countered to add after a short break: "So, this ship is from Futura."

"Well, looks like." Brody answered after he regained his composure again. Then his radio rattled.

"Volker here. Do you read me, Brody?"

"Sorry, Colonel, I should answer that," Brody said quickly looking at Young, who just nodded his approval.

"I read you, Dale. What's up?"

"It would be good to see you back here, as soon as you've finished whatever you're doing right now. We found a giant database and you won't believe what we've found in it!"

"I'm on the bridge right now with Colonel Young. There's a picture of Rush here, on the bridge, I made it… well no, I mean, my doppelganger on Novus, made it. And as it looks, this ship was built by the Futurans. Well, whatever, I'm on my way back to you. We'll have to think about how to copy the complete database. See you and out."

With those words, he nodded shortly to Colonel Young, who released him with a knowing smile, and therefore Brody prepared to go back to his team. He was not able to be useful here on the bridge with whatever needed to be done, other than to feel uncomfortable trying to explain what Dunning had found. The other science team would do what is necessary, with a group of soldiers who were able to work on Destiny's consoles.

Back with his team in the first room where they had first found the consoles, Volker showed his friend what they'd encountered, full of enthusiasm. The first folder of the database contained an archive that went back to the founding era of Futura. Not only did it include the kino episodes of Brody and his followers, but also those of everybody else from Destiny. And although the language became more and more incomprehensible with ongoing time, they included records of the Tenarans as well. The more they saw, the clearer it became they'd found most, or maybe the whole archive of both of the Novus civilisations.

While a part of the crew searched the ship for useful artefacts or information, the team around Brody was mostly occupied by saving the huge database. Volker, he himself, and some other people too, were more than pleased that this time they'd be able to copy all of the files. It was no matter how long it would take, since now they had plenty of time.

One of the following mornings, after they'd spent two days saving everything of interest, Colonel Young got up early as he usually did and questioned himself whether it was really just pure coincidence that they had reached this planet in this region of the universe then and now, or whether something or someone might have had their thumb on the scale. He was not sure from where this voice in his head came from, but at some point, it was there, nagging and mocking at him, just to remind him that lucky incidents was nothing that used to happen in his life.

That morning Eli radioed him from his base camp to tell him that TJ's team had found the pivotal track, and that they now went there in the company of one of the natives. The first time for so long that he got the feeling the streak of bad luck was maybe over, so he rejected his former questions about pure coincidences and started this day on a more positive note.

~/~/~

TJ's group had been close to two days under way by now, and if she'd understood their native guide right, they'd reach the place where Rush was supposed to live in the late afternoon or evening.

After the first day travelling alongside large fields, those vanished on the second day to make way for a stony plateau with a few hills here and there, and small, shrubby plants. It was a landscape that was similar to the one they went through a few days before they reached the village. On the horizon, they could again see the mountain range they'd lost sight of before. The steppe stayed with them most of the second day, until the mountains on their left side came closer to change the steppe landscape into fields again.

At the bottom of the rock slope a long and narrow lake came into sight. The slight wind brought up small waves on its surface, sparkling in the afternoon sun. The beauty and peacefulness of this landscape, cast a spell on all of them, which could be seen on the faces of all the men and women. 'I just hope Rush is alright, and is willing to come back with us, after all that happened, and after all we did to come here.' TJ thought worried, while going ahead with practised footsteps.

A little bit later, they could see in the far distance the same soft hills they'd seen where they started their journey two day ago.

"What do you think, are we there?" Lieutenant James asked TJ.

"After what he'd said," and with that she pointed to the young man, who was now going ahead of them alongside with Greer and Varro, "this should be our destination."

"Tōmí," Atienza said suddenly from behind, repeating exactly the sound of the name as he was taught two days before.

"Right, Tōmí." TJ repeated, while making sure she got the sound right and giving the man behind her a smile, "Thank you José."

For the rest of the way both women went into silence again. The people at the place, or to be more precise, at the farm, looked the same as those they'd met before. Men and woman wore the same clothes, and had the same long hair, some of them in braids, slackly in ponytails or loose. Most of them had the bright and simple clothing they'd seen before, but in the distance coming closer from the direction of the lake, they also saw a large group of men completely naked.

"Oh god, do you see that?" James meant grinning. "Imagine Rush's face, if we see him like that."

"No, I'd rather not" TJ commented dryly, looking at the faces behind her to see they seemed to have the same thoughts. While ahead of her, Varro and Greer looked shortly at each other and Varro's sight backwards showed, even they must have had the same idea, which made TJ finally grin as well.

Now that they were close enough, the inhabitants of the farm were also able to see the weird looking strangers. But their only reaction was to stop what they were doing and watch the newcomers approaching them.

All of a sudden, the search team saw a little girl running towards them to exchange agitated words with Tōmí. Meanwhile the whole group stood still, waiting.

When Tōmí looked worried at each one of them, still talking to the child, TJ started to become uneasy. Somehow, she had a bad feeling and the good mood they all had been in just moments ago imploded. Eventually Tōmí nodded at them and made a gesture to follow him and the girl.

They walked in silence into a large building encircling an open court from four sides, where they were led to benches standing at one of the corners. TJ saw that the people here had different burn marks than those from the village two days ago, and asked herself whether this was maybe some kind of family affiliation. In the meantime, they sat down to wait patiently for their guide and the little girl to come back.

It took about ten minutes until both of them came out of a door again, accompanied by an older, white haired man. He looked at the strangers with interest but also with a worried face and carefully accentuated his name, Dāíl. Then he pointed at TJ, Varro and James, then turned to look back at them again and finally started to go, which they interpreted as to follow him. The others got water to drink and something to eat.

The three followed Dāíl out of the rectangular court and building to another substantial house close by.

The inner part of the house turned out to be a large pillared hall. The pillars and the floor where made out of a bright wood with only a very few signs of grain if at all. The bottom part of each pillar had niches deepened, where smaller items of different kind was stored and in front of the pillars lay flat mattresses with pillows and blankets. At some places two of the sleeping mattresses were put together.

In the middle of the room sat a woman beneath one of those mattresses and coated a long strip of cloth with an ointment she took out a smaller clay pot. Her frame covered another body lying in front of her, of which they could only see a pair of legs and a part of the head. Coming closer TJ saw shoulder length brownish hair with silver strands in it spread out of the pillow and she knew immediately they had finally found Rush, though not the way they wished they would have.

Without thinking further, she ran towards the pallet. When she reached there the view of what she saw would have made everybody sink to their knees in disbelief and shock, and although she expected many different scenarios, this was not one of them, but her responsibility as a trained military medic was to act now.

Meanwhile, the other three had arrived, to stand still in a half circle around them. Only now, after her first shock was gone, TJ tried to get a look at the woman who was kneeling beside her. Her face was, despite her dark skin, noticeably reddened and her eyes swollen from crying. The old man, who'd come close to her, talked to her in a low voice and her answers were barely audible as she looked at each of the three strangers around her.

Now that TJ had collected herself she tried to explain to the woman and the old man that she was a medic and therefore wanted to have a look at the unconscious man on the floor. But the two obviously didn't understand her, and when she came closer to Rush, the woman prevented her from coming closer.

Unnoticed from all, a young girl approached the group, moving briskly between TJ and the woman. She showed TJ and her comrades her flat hands in way, that made clear those three should move away. Then she started to talk to the woman on the floor, pointing several times to the three foreigners and at Rush. The discussion went on for more than five minutes, became more and more agitated, and included the old man in the end too. Then the woman had a sceptical look at TJ, and finally beckoned her over, so she could now have a look at the battered man. Still suspicious, she pointed at a water basin that lay alongside Rush with a clean cloth and a whitish chunk, while watching every move of TJ. Then she went with the young girl and Dāíl away, so that TJ could do her work.

The awkward formed chunk turned out to be soap, so TJ and Varro washed their hands, before they got in contact with the patient. Rush had countless bruises and scrapes on the whole body and on the face. His right arm was wrapped in cloth up to his fingers and stabilised with small straight branches. The bruises and scrapes were only a few days old, but the still terrible looking encrusted welts on his back seemed to be older. When TJ touched him, she felt that his temperature was alarmingly high.

She started her examination of his broken arm, removing the bandages first. The fracture was fixed perfectly and the splints were applied correctly. She couldn't had done that better herself.

The welts on his back and the scratches were also well treated. But what gave her reason to worry was a cloth soggy with blood and pus, that was stuck close to the body between his legs. Only when she moved him to have a cautious look at his backside, did she get it. He had been brutally violated. She could see a long rupture that needed to be closed and it was not clear what kind of inner injuries he might have. TJ didn't want to poke around in the injured private parts without suitable tools, fearing she might make things worse. Wounds reaching into the abdomen could easily lead to fatal infections, that she knew. But astonishingly, even here the patient received well done first aid and as far as TJ was able to see, the area was cleaned thoroughly and treated with some kind of a strong smelling, most likely antiseptic ointment.

"If he's not treated as soon as possible under better conditions with suitable medical tools, I don't think he'll survive another week." TJ said anxiously. "If we want to save him we need him to be taken directly to Destiny with a specialist brought in via the stones.

"I'll radio Eli that they ought to send us the shuttle!" James said immediately and went out without asking her superior officer.

In the meantime, Varro and TJ discussed how to stabilise Rush and TJ finally decided that what they're now able to do was to bring down the fever. To do that they only needed water and towels and both was available.

During the following hours, they got a lot of support from the woman, who called herself Lísā. With her help, they not only brought the fever down but also were able to disinfect all the injuries anew. In all of that Rush stayed completely unmoving and unconscious.

After James told Eli in what condition they'd found Rush, he immediately informed Colonel Young. But beforehand James had asked Eli to bring in a specialist for internal injuries via the com-stones, who should be ready the moment they brought Rush back to the ship. He promised to do everything she'd asked for and then told James what the other team had found on the second planet. And although James reacted to that with surprise, she was not completely surprised, since it was clear that the humans on the planet she was currently on must have come from there somehow. Furthermore, she wondered why the people at some point decided to choose a technology-free life as opposed to what they obviously came from, since that would hardly increase their possibilities of survival.

When Young heard about the news, he chose to fly the shuttle himself. But to do that he first had to fly back to Destiny and move the ship closer to the other planet, then take the shuttle to the planet and go to the farm to pick up Rush and the off-word team. If everything went according to the plan, the whole operation should take no longer than 12 hours, but it was unlikely to make it in less time.

~/~/~

On the farm TJ, Varro and Lísā spent a restless night, then about daybreak Rush revived again. To their utter dismay, he completely freaked out and fought against them tooth and nail the moment he saw the people from Destiny, and although he was far too sick and too weak, they still had their hands full to settle the man down. In the end, Lísā and her daughter Tēmá were able to calm him down without using any kind of drugs. Neither TJ nor Varro were able to find an explanation how that was even possible, though it happened, and so they decided it would be wise to take at least Lísā with them. Surely it wouldn't be a problem to send her back the moment Rush was stable and safe on the ship again.

But what they didn't expect was that Lísā insisted on accompanying Rush permanently. First, they weren't sure they understood everything correctly, and even if a part of what she, the old man, and her daughter said got lost in translation and in the negotiations, it was clear they weren't willing to give in. TJ wasn't sure how far those people would go to push their demands, but she couldn't see any harm in letting them do what they wanted. So, she agreed quickly.

During the following hours while all of them waited, Rush's condition was more or less stable. He was awake but unresponsive. The moment TJ, Varro or anybody else from Destiny came close, his breathing accelerated and he started to panic until Lísā was able to calm him down again.

Two hours later a loud noise announced the arrival of the shuttle. In between it was bright as day and not only the rescue team of Destiny went out but also a lot of the residents to see from where the strange noise came from. To the soldiers' relief the people were neither in panic nor especially nervous, but curious. When they saw their leader Dāíl along with Lísā and Tēmá greet the loud newcomer, they understood everything was in order, so all of them went back to their work again.

Young was more than concerned when he saw the condition Rush was in. Aside from the injuries, Young was worried about the panic that overcame Rush the moment his people came closer to take him from the mattress he lay on, put him on a stretcher and lift him up. When this happened, Young saw a local woman move closer to calm Rush down, but he could see that Rush was only somewhat reassured and not really calm. But right now, he didn't have time to take care of that, Rush needed to go back to Destiny as soon as possible for further treatment. So, he hurried to get back and start the shuttle again.

A short time later the soldiers boarded the shuttle with the injured man on the pallet. Carefully he was laid down on the floor, while the alien woman sat down beside him. One of his people put a bundle with clothes down close to her that contained – to Young's surprise – among other things, Rush's own clothes. Now everybody fastened their seatbelts, and Young finally could close the shuttle ramp. After he was sure all the people outside were far enough away he started the shuttle to fly back to the Stargate.

To save time Young had decided not to fly the whole way back to Destiny, but to go back to the Stargate and from there directly to Destiny. When they were back, he ordered Eli to dial the gate.

In that moment, TJ, who was together with Lísā and the rest of the soldiers, who carried the stretcher with Rush on top up the ramp, heard the colonel saying to Eli: "About a hundred miles away from here I saw a giant black obelisk in the middle of a valley. I want a team to have a closer look on that thing. We've seen something like that before."

~/~/~