Harold Black and the Ship of Destiny

+ + PROLOGUE + +

Harold Black had become increasingly annoyed earlier in the day as he had watched Dr. Rush and a young man by the name of Eli continue to argue over a white board with the equations he assumed were for the stargate. He had been working at the Icarus Base since the beginning of the project six months ago, and had been extremely grateful to see that someone had finally been able to finish the equations for dialing out the ninth chevron. Of course, then it hadn't worked and Dr. Rush was back to his agitated self.

He walked past the officer's mess and glanced in, unsurprised to see that Eli had been invited to dine with them. He had been dragged from his home for this, after all. He grabbed a tray and looked over at Becker, one of the mess attendants. "Long day, huh?" he offered as he loaded up his tray.

Becker gave a soft snort, "Yeah, and if those guys don't find a solution to this soon, I think we are going to have more than one long day."

"Too true," Harold agreed as finished grabbing the last of his dinner. "Best of luck with them," he said as he nodded towards the officers mess and made his way towards the common mess hall right before the lights began to flicker and there was a dull thundering sound from up above. Harold spun back around to look at Becker. "What…" he began, but was cut short as the intercoms came to life.

"The base is under attack. All non-combative personnel, report to your designated areas; everyone else to your battle stations. This is not a drill."

"You have got to be kidding me," Harold muttered to himself as he looked over at Becker. "So much for my dinner, thanks anyways," he said before he plopped the tray down and hurried out of the mess.

***

How he ended up in the bumbling crowd, he was not sure, but he kept pace with the rest of them as they hurried down the hall towards the gate room as the lights flickered overhead. He had heard the tunnel collapse behind him and turned to see the senator's daughter, (Chloe…? ), start screaming for him. Harold felt his stomach sinking. This was not the best time for rescuing people. They needed to get out of here or risk needing more rescuing themselves. Apparently Scott realized this too and started ordering everyone down the hall towards the gateroom before calling on his radio for assistance.

_Let the ones trained for rescuing do the rescuing, _he thought to himself as he followed the others down the hallway, ushering a few that were suffering from shock to follow. When they arrived at the gateroom the gate was already dialed out. What Harold didn't understand was why they were not going through, that was until he looked up towards the dialing terminal. Rush was arguing with Young. _They got the nineth chevron then?_ He wondered to himself as his head whipped back around to the gate. He just hoped that they were not foolish enough to lead everyone into the unknown.

"Nobody move. Await further instructions," Young called out into the room. Something was wrong, and everyone else seemed to realize this too as they began to fidget and look at one another nervously. They only had a few minutes to wait though as Scott came running into the room and up the ramp to the gate. Apparently they were going to go into the unknown.

"Once I'm through, follow one at a time on a three count," Scott called out. Harold watched as the young man took a deep breath and walked through the event horizon. Trying to quell the sinking feeling in his stomach he readjusted his grip on the supply crates he had grabbed and began to follow the others up onto the ramp.

The rumbling from above them continued and the lights began to flicker more frequently. Scott's idea of a three count began to fall apart as people rushed the gate in order to escape the unstable planet. As Harold approached the gate he took a deep breath and steeled himself for the trip through the gate. Increasing his pace he walked quickly through the event horizon.

What he had not expected was that when he came out on the other side of the even horizon he would be stumbling across some of his fellow colleagues. Mentally cursing to himself he dropped his cases and stumbled across a woman that was sprawled in front of the gate. He felt someone ram into his back and he stumbled further into the darkness, trying not to trip over anyone as he struggled to get away from the gate.

People were yelling, screaming, crying, and it was all Harold could do not to cover his ears with his hands to try and make it all stop. Harold turned around just in time to see Scott approach Greer. "Where's Colonel Young?" Lieutenant Scott demanded.

"He was right behind me," Harold heard Greer reply as he glanced back at the gate. Indeed Young was right behind him, except he was flying through the gate and landed with a sickening crunch towards the back of the room. The gate deactivated and the room was thrown into darkness as gas exhaust hissed from the gate.

When Harold had told Becker earlier that day that he wanted them to solve the ninth chevron so that things would not be so stressed, this was not what he had, had in mind. Bringing his hand to his forehead and pushing his hair back he looked around the room. It was going to be a collection of long days from here on out.

+ + CHAPTER 1 + +

"OK, listen up. Everybody who is able, we are gonna search this ship, top to bottom. Teams of three," Scott declared loudly over the soft murmuring that was taking place in the gate room.

Harold looked around him and noticed people beginning to pair up. Next to him were two middle aged men that Harold knew to be from the science department. "You guys mind if I join up with you?" he asked the weary looking scientist.

"I don't think it really much matters, but sure. Why not," one of them said grumpily as he stood up. "John Volker, astrophysicist."

"Harold Black," he replied as he lent a hand to the other man that was sitting upon the floor.

"Adam Brody, ancient technology specialist. What do you do?"

"Me, not much. I am, was an assistant to the linguistic department at Icarus, but I don't see any of them here." He trailed off. There were a number of people from Icarus that were not here. Full departments, completely missing. "But, that is neither here or there, I suppose." He glanced up as Greer approached.

"You three," the Sergeant addressed them, slight disdain entering his voice as he approached. "Any of you ever handle a gun."

Brody and Volker looked between each other nervously before glancing over at Harold. He sighed and raised his hand. "I've had some experience."

Greer leered at him as he looked him up and down. "Whatever. You three are to report to Rush every ten minutes, using this radio," he said as he held out the radio and the hand-gun.

"Of course, Sergeant," Harold replied as he tucked the gun into the waistband of his pants and clipped the radio to his belt buckle. "Any suggestions on which way we should go?" He asked. The Sergeant just glowered at him and turned away. "Or not," he said to himself before turning back to his companions. "Well, might as well head out," he said and with a wave of his hand he directed the two confused looking scientist to a hallway that was leading right of the gate room.

As they wondered the corridors of the ancient ship they came across nothing useful. "This is pointless," Volker muttered as they came to stop in front of another locked door. "We should be trying to get back to earth."

"We don't even know where we are," Harold responded as he tapped the door before continuing to go further down the hall. "I don't think anyone else does either. Maybe, Rush, but I am not sure even he does."

"I think it should at least be a top priority, getting home that is," Brody put in as he tried another door. It slid open and revealed another empty room.

"I am sure it is high on everyone's list. I think surviving is more important at the moment though." Harold replied before he looked down at his beeping radio.

"This is Doctor Rush. Meet me at the Gateroom immediately."

"Well I guess exploring time is over for the moment," Harold said as he turned on his heals. "Back to the gate room."

"Maybe he found a way home," Volker said, hope creeping back into his voice as they hurried down the hallway.

They had of course not found a way back home, but rather Rush had only gone to impart that they were to stay out of the way until further notice and that he was in command. Making inventory list were fun and all but Harold was more than ready to follow Brody out into the gate room when they had pulled the CO2 scrubbing machine out of the wall. There were a number of people standing around when Brody announced that it was alkaline that was poisoning the air, and then everyone had looked at Rush for an answer.

"Our first priority must be to seal off any of the leaks," Rush said as he looked around at everyone, the seriousness of the matter penetrating his voice. "If we can manage that, then we can maybe buy ourselves a day or so before the build-up of CO2 kills us."

"Brilliant," Harold muttered as he stared at the black ooze.

"How much time do we have?" Scott asked as he stood back up straight from where he had been kneeling down.

"I don't know." Rush replied in frustration.

It was Harold's new acquaintance, Brody, that answered. "A couple of hours at most," he supplied morosely.

"Brilliant!" Eli put in as he turned and walked away before swinging back in frustration.

"We will continue to shut out any of the leaks, can you find something to do with that?" Scott asked Rush as he pointed down at the oozing scrubber.

"Large portions of the ships databases have been locked down. My handle on Ancient is the best that we have. No one else can read through the databases as quickly and efficiently as I can, and I have found nothing."

"What about dialing back home." Scott asked pointedly.

"Out of the question. We don't have enough power."

Harold watched the conversation unfolding before he finally decided to put in his own thoughts. "I have a good understanding of Ancient."

Rush whirled around where he stood. "And who are you. Your not part of my science team."

"Harold Black, I was with the small group of linguistics and cultural advisors that were assigned to the Icarus project in the case that you managed to dial the ninth chevron."

"And you can read ancient?" Scott asked.

"As if it were more native language," Harold replied quickly.

"Fine, you are with me then," Rush replied as he walked back towards the control room.

"Perfect, I had been feeling a bit at a loss just making inventory," Harold supplied as he followed Rush. "So you said you have been locked out of a lot of the database? Have you been able to find an inventory of what the ship has been carrying?"

"No, otherwise I would have said something back there," Rush ground out irritably.

"Oh, well, maybe we can find some in here," Harold replied as he approached the console opposite of the one the Rush had been working with. "Do you know where we are?"

"Billions of light years from Earth. Black, you volunteered for this. Just sit there and look for either calcium carbonate or lithium hydroxide while I work on trying to unlock some of the main systems so that we all do not _die_ of asphyxiation."

"Of course." Harold replied a little more put out than when he had walked in.

***

Rush walked back to the control room, his head pounding and hands shaking lightly. The air was being cleaned and all of the most important leaks had been ­sealed off. The little bit of sleep he had managed since he had gotten back from the desert planet had not done him much good. But now they had bigger things to worry about. Energy was one of them and he fully intended on getting back to work on that.

He walked into the control room expecting it to be empty, but was surprised to see the younger man, Black, leaning over what was now becoming 'his' console as he scrolled through endless amounts of data, trying to figure out what was going on in the ship. The man was lean and fit, probably in his early thirties and had a most peculiar lightning shaped scar running across his forehead. Where a linguist got that sort of scar, he had no idea, and to be honest he didn't really care.

"Black," he greeted quietly as he approached his own console.

"Oh, Dr. Rush. Didn't hear you come in."

"I don't remember giving you another assignment once we got the CO2 scrubbers back in working condition. What are you doing?" Rush asked slightly annoyed. Everyone was running around acting like they knew what was going on. Turning things on here. Fiddling with things there. It needed to stop.

"Well, you said yourself yesterday that you were locked out of a lot of systems, I have been trying to figure out why that is and whether or not we can get back into any of them." At least Black was heading in the right direction.

He waved his hand and motioned for him to continue. "Any progress?" The younger man looked up at him a bit guiltily. "No then."

"'Fraid not."

"Fine. Keep searching. Have you come across anything else interesting?"

"Not anything that will help us right now. Some information regarding the ships that are ahead of us dropping the stargates, some more information regarding this ship. Apparently the ancients were here at one point. Exploring and all of that. But when they all decided to ascend, they gated off the ship and let it keep running it's course. That was when it will still only a few galaxies away from the Milky Way." Black paused and looked up, "The way I look at it, we are luck that the ships that are in front of us still even have stargates to drop. Look at what disrepair this ship is in. If we didn't have those ships in front of us, we would probably not be having this conversation."

"True, but as you said none of that information helps us now. What we need is more power and more access." Rush replied as he looked down at his own console as the other man fell into silence. A few moments passed and Black was speaking again.

"Do you think we will be able to repair the ship?"

Rush looked up at the man. There was clearly some worry in the linguist. Rush had thought him a clear optimist, but maybe he was not as positive as he had thought him to be. Sighing he looked back down at his consol, "I don't know." He paused wondering whether it would be beneficial to be reassuring. "I hope so. Now keep working Black, we are on the clock and if you want to repair it, we have to have the energy to do so."

The man was giving him a small smile back. Rush groaned inwardly to himself. This is what he got for being…nicer. "Call me Harry, short for Harold."

"Nicholas. Now work!" Rush replied, beginning to become aggravated with Black's, Harry's incessant need for talking.

+ + AUTHOR NOTE + +

|| Disclaimer || I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Stargate Franchise. This is merely a fan-fiction written for fans and my own amusement

|| Notes || I figured that since SGU is so new I would try and make a fiction that goes along with it as the episodes come out. I don't plan on sticking to the shows, but maybe use them more of as a guidline as my own plot developes.

For those of you that were unable to guess, Harold Black is of course Harry Potter incognito! How he will affect the plot line I am not sure. I am not sure I even want him doing much magic. We will see. I do want him to be friends with Rush though.  We will see.

Regardless, I know this chapter went along for a while with _Air_ but I hope that this next chapter that will deal more with the issues being faced by _Darkness_ will be a little less like a repeat of the episode and more of a look at the ways in which Harry's presence effects the plot line and makes it diverge.

Hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully I will update this!

Good reading, and please feel free to leave comments.


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