Jul 27, 1997 Created by Jonathan Glassner, Brad Wright. With Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge. A secret military team, SG-1, is formed to explore other planets through the recently discovered Stargates. Stargate SG-1 - S 2 E 2 - In the Line of Duty. EBOOK ONLINE Stargate SG-1 The Illustrated Companion.
Author's Note: Stargate Universe has died a horrific premature death like so many of SyFy's successful series – seriously why is it that whenever one of their shows starts getting viewers in excess of a million they kill it off? Still I digress, I very much doubt you want to read a brief rant on the perceived stupidity of killing the series but instead to read this continuation of it. I imagine over the next month or two there will be a number of continuations, at the time of writing this is the second. I will not be writing it in the style of a TV episode – I simply haven't a clue how – but I will do my best to keep it true to the spirit of the show.
Destiny had left the drone's galaxy behind. Doubtless in time the drones would fail, time would cause circuitry to degrade, coding to corrupt and other species would take arms against them. Destiny would not be there to witness it however. Nor did Destiny care, the ship had proven itself to have a limited sense of AI and this AI merely regretted – if regret was something an AI could feel – or perhaps more accurately was plotting a new section of the long term course to return to this galaxy to collect the background radiation readings it had been created to collect.
Destiny was adaptable enough to know that it could be a thousand years before it entered a new galaxy. Destiny also knew the humans would eventually die, leaving it to carry on it's mission. Long after even the humans stored in it's memory had been reduced by time to mere fragmented code Destiny would return. But that time was distant even by the standards of an aeons old spaceship. For now Destiny had a choice to make.
If it wouldn't have drained power – minuscule though it may have been - a small red light would have been blinking on the control deck. Destiny had recorded huge swathes of data about the current crew, now it had a choice to make. To make the jump one stasis pod would have to be sacrificed. Despite the damage done by the drones Destiny had come to rationalise the crew as necessary, the drones and the other, as yet undesignated alien race had done a lot of damage to the old ship. Yet the crew had repaired it. Like white blood cells and platelets they had destroyed threats to the ship's continued existance and repaired damaged systems. Without the crew the vessel would be floating through space a whole galaxy away thousands of years between it and the next star. And now it had to choose one of them to die, for the sake of the rest. Destiny's computational power was great but the problem was equally complex. If it chose one of the crew members whose role in day-to-day functions was not necessary for the crew's continued survival then the damage to the optimal capacity of the inhabitants would be minimised. Yet the drain on power would still mean hundreds of years till the pods reopened.
The fully functional pods were out of the question then. Which left seven people to choose from.
The scientist Dr. Nicholas Rush, who was one of the few who truly understood the importance of Destiny's mission and despite the human's great self-centredness would according to probability be willing give his life for the ship and had demonstrated this on multiple occasions. But Rush would be useful in repairing the Destiny.
Or the leader Colonel Everett Young, another of those who understood the mission and human who had shown capacity for self-sacrifice. But leaving the crew leaderless would greatly reduce the crew's optimal capacity.
Or the soldier Sergeant Ronald Greer, who had made it perfectly clear he had no objections to dying for the sake of the crew. But had been one of the greatest living asset's to the ship's defence.
Or the civilian Camille Wray, who logically was expendable as she provided very little in the way of contribution. But she had become the moral voice of the crew and the effect on moral and thereby performance would be severe.
Or the officer Lieutenant Matthew Scott, who had proven of equal value to Greer in defence of ship and crew and had not shown the same level of self-sacrifice. But the impact of his death would have a minimal impact, Scott was likeable but only one person had shown any great emotional attachment to him.
Or the medic Lieutenant Tamara Johanson, who had proven invalueable to the continued health of the crew.
Or the civilian Chloe Armstrong who despite lack of training was exceptionally useful in the day to day running of the ship and who's death would reduce Lt. Scott to minimal use. But unlike the others in the damaged pods filled no essential role.
Then there was the pod it couldn't access which according to the readings had been accessed but was drawing absolutely no power from the ship.
The choice's deadline approached. Destiny shut one of the pod's down leaving it's occupant unconscious with barely a few hours of air left until their final destiny turned out to be a dark, cylindrical coffin.
Two years of FTL left Destiny carried on through the void between galaxies as a human being, not even aware this was the case, breathed their last few hours away.
Author's Note: The show has actually gone to great lengths to indicate Destiny as a character, also this is the first time I have ever named a chapter.