Ugh, intergalactic space is boring, Destiny thought to itself as it zipped through the void between galaxies. I wish something interesting would happen! Ooooh, stars. Wait, stars. Stars means galaxy. Galaxy means I'm safe again. And since I'm safe, I think I'd better go recharge…

Destiny dropped out of FTL in the nearest yellow dwarf solar system to recharge its capacitors. The instant more power started to flow through the ship, life support and lighting came back on, in response to a program left behind by the crew, before they went into stasis. A few seconds later, air rushed into the stasis pod bays, before the doors slid open, and the first few crew members staggered out of the pods, dazed and confused by awakening from their long sojourn into the realm of unconsciousness.

The pod shared by Eli and Chloe strained open. The two stumbled out, before falling down onto the ground. Colonel Young was, himself, just leaving his stasis pod when he saw the pair, perhaps even more confused than himself. He went over to them.

"Eli. Glad to see you made it." Colonel Young said, breathing a sigh of relief. He honestly thought that Eli wouldn't make it, as smart as he was. Obviously, that was not the case.

"Huh! I honestly didn't expect that to work." Eli stated disbelievingly, before performing a check to dissuade any further thoughts of 'it didn't work you're dead it didn't work'. And, surely enough, it 'came back positive'. "Chloe, are you alright?" He asked, after a few seconds of processing the environment around him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little dizzy…" Chloe said, trailing off slightly at the last sentence, before almost falling over. In just over a second, Eli's arms were under Chloe's torso, catching her.

"Whoa there, Chloe. You seem like you need a sit-down." Eli suggested, while leading Chloe over to the nearby wall. Chloe then flopped against it, hitting her head on the wall in the process. "I said 'sit'. Not 'lean on the wall'."

Meanwhile, in another stasis pod bay, Doctor Rush was allowed out of his pod. His first thoughts were 'the plan worked', followed by 'we need to report back to Earth'. He then started the relatively short trek over to the communications lab, completely ignoring Eli, Chloe, and Colonel Young as he passed them. At that point, he was entirely focussed on making it to the comm lab.

A few minutes later, Doctor Rush was sitting in one of the numerous chairs around the table with the reverse-engineered Long Range Communications Device, tapping one of the stones lightly onto the glass plate, causing it to light up, and…

Major Henry Aldrin was the hapless man assigned to the communication stones at the time. He was just managing to get to sleep, not that sitting in that same chair for a few hours was tiring, when all of a sudden, he found himself… elsewhere. At first, he was confused. What the hell? He thought. Had he managed to fall asleep? It took him a few seconds to process the fact that he was on Destiny. After about a minute, Mr Brody entered the communications lab, having had the same thought as Doctor Rush, only to discover someone already using them.

"Is that you, Rush?" Brody asked. When someone was near the communication stones, you could never be too careful with identity confirmation.

"Uhh, no. I'm Major Aldrin. Am I on Destiny?" Major Aldrin asked, completely and utterly confused at the current situation.

"First time using the stones, I guess?" Brody asked. He remembered the first time he'd used the communication stones, although he'd actually been told what happens when you use them, unlike this poor soul now standing in front of him.

"Uh-huh. They never briefed me on them. All they said was 'touch the stone and sit in the chair'. I'd heard some people talking about when they'd used the stones, but… wow." Major Aldrin exclaimed, before flopping back into the closest chair.

Meanwhile on Earth, Doctor Rush was already talking to General O'Neill, debriefing him on the situation, what little there was to debrief about. From their conversation, he'd learned that the plan had gone exactly as expected. The Destiny crew had been in stasis for the 3 years that had been predicted. He'd also learned about the state of the war against the Lucian Alliance. So far, Earth was winning. That was good. Doctor Rush was just about leaving O'Neill's office, when he was stopped.

"Doctor Rush! When you get back, tell the crew to expect a surprise within the next few hours." General O'Neill yelled out at Rush. Rush simply nodded, before heading back to the stones to disconnect himself from Aldrin's body.

Major Aldrin was in the company of Mr Brody and Staff Sergeant Greer when Doctor Rush disconnected the stones. One second, Aldrin had been with the two, leaning on the rail of the observation deck, and the next, he was back in his body, in the communications lab on Earth. More than a bit disorienting, he thought to himself. Oh well. Time to report back to the General. Whenever Rush was involved in giving a status report, the General had ordered that the person he connected with to find out Destiny's status from the other crew members. It's not that Doctor Rush is untrustworthy, it's just that… actually, it was Doctor Rush's untrustworthiness that led General O'Neill to give that order. Better safe than sorry, after all.

Meanwhile, Doctor Rush had switched back just in time to observe the FTL drives activating, sending Destiny back into… whatever it was that allowed it to move faster than light itself. A few seconds of empty staring later, and Doctor Rush realised that Brody and Greer were with him.

"Mr Brody, Sergeant Greer. Hello." He said, in his usual 'I'm better than you, but I'm here anyway, so grovel' manner. "General O'Neill told us to expect a surprise within the next few hours. Greer, could I borrow your radio?" He continued, right at the moment when Brody drew a breath to speak.

"Here you go." Greer complied, and begrudgingly handed his radio to Rush.

"Thanks." Rush replied, before switching the radio to Colonel Young's channel. "Colonel Young, it's Doctor Rush. General O'Neill has told us to expect a surprise within the next few hours. I think he may be trying to dial in."

Colonel Young jumped slightly, before taking a slight breath to recompose himself, and fishing his radio out of his vest pocket. "Doctor Rush, it's good to have you back." He said, actually meaning it. "What makes you think that?"

"I'm not quite sure, but I think that it's the only logical thing that he could possibly be talking about." Doctor Rush said, simultaneously exhausting his lungs of air. He took a deep breath, before continuing. "Have some men on standby." He instructed, before switching the radio to another channel and handing the radio back to Greer.

"He's a lotta work." Colonel Young said to nobody in particular. Colonel Young liked that phrase. Why had he stopped using it? Oh well. That's a mystery he can solve later.

A/N: New chapter, everybody! Apologies for the wait, but I've been a lazy ass again. Yes, I realise that I've drastically oversimplified Destiny's thought processes. But it's all for Science! I mean, it's all for the sake of the fic. Otherwise, this chapter would never have existed. Onto review responses!

Janet: I'm glad that you like it so far! Look forward to more future.

AlexanderD: I would be inclined to agree with you, but there's no reason to say that a stasis pod couldn't reasonably support two people in it. For all we know, the only reason people didn't share pods is because there was no need. But I appreciate the suggestion.

Back to writing!