1. Destiny

Disclaimer: I neither own Harry Potter or Stargate: Universe. I wish I did, but I also wish that I could play Guitar Heroes on the expert level – never going to happen.

Warnings: Very minor swearing. A little angsty to begin with but only for the first few chapters.

Timeline: I'm messing with the HP timeline a little bit. Harry was born in 1990, not 1980.

*This story follows Harry Potter canon from books 1-5 and is AU from then on, and will most likely to follow along the SGU first season, depending on how Harry fits in with the other characters.

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Destiny

**I - Destiny**

Throughout the wizarding world, there were many fires burning. The muggle population generally assumed it was in preparation for Guy Fawkes Night, but for the wizards and witches of Britain, it symbolised the defeat of Voldemort. Everywhere, they rejoiced, burning effigies of the Dark Lord, just as The Boy-Who-Lived had done in real life just yesterday.

Harry Potter, however, was not out celebrating. He was sitting at an open window high in the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts, staring at the burning flames beyond the village of Hogsmeade. The night air was cold as it flowed through the room but Harry barely noticed it.

He exhaled heavily.

For Harry, the fires represented the end. The end of his time in this world.

He was just so tired.

Ever since he had stepped into the Leaky Cauldron into the Diagon Alley and the wizarding world, seven years ago, everything has been building up to this. From the Chamber of Secrets, to the Triwizard Tournament, to the Incident in the Ministry of Magic, to yesterday's Final Battle. And now, it was all over. Voldemort was a pile of ashes and Harry was staring out a window, alone.

He had done his duty.

And now, he just wanted to sleep.

But they would not let him. All through today he had been stalked by owls, reporters, fans, students, even the ghosts, when all he wanted was some solitude to think about what it was that he had done, and what he meant for his future.

"Future." Harry whispered to himself, smiling bitterly.

There was nothing left to be done. Hogwarts was no longer his home. It could no longer keep the masses away from him. It was time for a new beginning.

But where could he go? That was the only reason Harry was still at Hogwarts. He wanted somewhere quiet, somewhere where no-one knew his name; somewhere he could life without fear he might do or say the wrong thing, somewhere where he didn't have to fear his magic.

And this magical place was where exactly? That was the question he was constantly asking himself.

Harry sighed, and shot a quick shrinking spell at his trunk, before draping his invisibility cloak over his body. He had made his decision to leave, and now he needed to follow through with it. Making his way to the Room of Requirement, he thought about how to phrase his need.

'_A deserted island? A back water town in America? A cave in the mountains in Africa?'_

The Room of Requirement was a great room indeed but Harry had his doubts whether it could truly point him in the right direction to a new life.

Pacing in front of the room, his thoughts jumped from one place to another.

'_Freedom. I need to be free. Peace. Quiet. Solitude. Escape. Somewhere where Voldemort and his tyranny never existed. And where am I going to be able to find that place? An alternative reality? Why not just wish for a time portal so I can kill Voldemort as a child and save the dead? Now that's a great idea. Not. How about-_ _No, I could- But wait- The idea- I need space. Space to be free, space to control myself- Destiny! My destiny is completed. Alone. Time is mine- Wait the door…'_

Harry trailed off mid-thought.

There was a door to the Room. Somehow the Room had made sense of his ramblings and could show him was he could be free. At least he hoped that was the case.

Taking a deep breath, Harry entered the Room. It was empty … except for a strange ring in the middle of the room. As he walked towards it, part of the ring started to spin … and then it stopped on a strange symbol, only to light up before spinning on to another symbol, only to stop and light up before spinning again.

'_This is definitely different_.' Harry thought as the ring stopped spinning and a puddle seemed to form in the middle of the ring with a wave of water heading towards him. Battle instincts kicked in and Harry dived to the side, avoiding the strange wave.

The water in the ring was strange.

Harry slowly walked towards it, confusion spreading across his face. '_I think I've broken the Room of Requirement. This is not _quite_ what I was looking for- Is this even water?'_ He reached out to touch the water. '_No, not like any water I've ever seen.'_

His left hand was immersed in the water. "Very, very strange," He muttered to himself.

As he removed his hand from the substance, Harry was torn. This is what the Room had decided was his requirement. That it was something he _needed_. But it led to the question, '_What in Merlin's beard is it_?'

Shaking his head, Harry started to move away from the ring, deciding to see if the Room would show him this again.

Before he could exit the room to try again, however, he heard familiar voices on the other side. Not wanting to deal with them, he turn and ran back the way he had come, and without a second thought, he hurled himself through the strange ring and it's very weird water.

The door opened. "Harry?" The man walked into the empty room. "What-?" He glanced at the parchment in his hand. "But he was just here…" Looking at the woman behind him, he said "He's gone."


	2. 271 Days

**II - 271 Days**

Harry found himself flying through the air before landing on a hard surface. He pressed a hand against his ribs as he breathed harshly.

"Now that was different."

His voice cut through the deafening silence. Sitting up slowly, Harry tried to look around his surroundings, but there was no light to speak of.

"_Lumos._"

The room was now lit up … but it was not what he had expected. The ring was there, in the middle of the room with some stairs and two podium like objects. Harry walked to them and tried to make sense of what they were, some sort of computer terminals were the only thing he could really think of. Interestingly, they had similar symbols as the ring did.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Turning back to the ring, he ran his hands over the symbols.

"This wasn't exactly what I was thinking." He turned around in a circle. "I was thinking more about a nice meadow with a lake and animals … not a … ship?" He said the last part uncertainly.

"Well, I guess I have my peace and quiet." He muttered and moved through the open archway and into the darkened corridors beyond.

After a while of following his feet, guided only by the light of his wand, Harry entered a room which he assumed was an Observation Room.

"Merlin's Balls!" He exclaimed, his wand arm dropping to his side.

Harry walked past a few seats to stand at a railing and stared into a bright blue swirling light with a mix of a black background and what where those random flecks of white light?

"_Nox_." He muttered to his wand.

He stayed resting there for nearly an hour before his eyes started to flicker. Yawning widely, Harry decided here was as good as any to fall asleep. He flicked his wand at the bench behind him and smiled at the transfigured bed. He frowned as the bed returned to its original form. He flicked his wand sharply, his frown deepening as the bench stayed a bench. He tried for a third time before deciding to try one of the other seats.

His magic it seemed was just as out of whack here (wherever here was) as it was back at Hogwarts.

Settling into the seat, Harry curled up and let himself fall asleep.

* * *

Hours later, Harry woke with a jolt.

"Merlin's beard, I'm stuck in space."

There was no reason for it, but everything in him knew it was the truth.

"I think the Room misunderstood me when I said I wanted space. I meant space, not _Space_ space …"

A rumbling from his stomach made Harry glance at his watch before he laughed. "Is it even worth keeping time now?"

Without thinking he pulled out his shrunken trunk from his pocket and swished his wand at it. He blinked as he remembered the non-existent transfigurations spell from a few hours ago, but the trunk was re-sized without problem. Shaking his head, Harry spied a chocolate frog.

While not the most nutritious meal he'd ever had, Harry was satisfied.

"Time for what, Mr Wolf? Time to … explore some more."

Whistling an offbeat tune Harry exited the observation room. As the door closed, this whistling abruptly stopped, as the bright light from outside disappeared and he was back in pitch black.

"_Lumos_."

He started to whistle again before he caught himself.

"Why the heck am I whistling?"

He shrugged, "Well how cares not like I'm bothering anyone."

As Harry explored the ship he came across many different rooms with various bits of… accessories. Accessories and bits of machinery that he had no idea how to work … that is if anything even could work or what they were used for.

On the plus side, he found two shuttles which looked like they might have been used for short distance flying. However, one of the shuttles was badly damaged with a gaping hole on the left front and a doorway that would not close. The other one did not appear to have sustained as much damage. Other than that, Harry couldn't quite figure out how he was supposed to fly it, or even which of the many buttons and twisty didgerydoo were the main controls.

It was strange; nothing around here worked … or gave of any clue as to how it should work. The only thing that did work were the engines … as far as he could tell… and the auto-pilot.

Day after day Harry explored the ship and became more convinced that he really was in space, and that the ship was completely deserted. There were no signs that anyone had been here in years. When his magic worked, his theory was confirmed, but it was rather hit-or-miss whether the spell would stick. He still didn't technically have a bed, but a pillow and blanket were easily transfigured from his clothes. When he wasn't exploring he always returned to the observation room.

On his twenty-sixth day on the ship, Harry found himself at the very front of the ship at another observation room. Only this was just more in everyway. More space, more light, more open views, more steps, more benches, more seats. Just more. Harry found himself smiling widely as he skipped down the stairs towards the railings.

"Like this, yessir I do indeedy-idly."

On a whim, Harry made an overly-dramatic wave with his wand and cackled in delight as the bench closest to the railings transfigured into a double bed, decked out in red and black. Harry sat on a chair nearby and waited for the spell to fade. Nearly half an hour of waiting with a cheerful whistling tune Harry found himself convinced that the transfiguration would hold. He laughed as he skipped to the centre of the room.

Harry raised his wand with the intent of summoning his trunk to this room. However, he remembered how the majority of his summoning spells had failed. Generally by denting holes in the ship … once he'd even managed to send a chair into the atmosphere instead of moving it a few feet to prop up his legs.

By the end of the twenty-eight day, Harry was fully settled into his new room. His possessions were lined around the room. Along the back wall he'd spelled some chair into bookcases and had lined up his Hogwarts books by year. Madam Pince was going to be spitting like a dragon when she realised he had twelve different library in his possession. Three general spellbooks, four wizarding fiction books recommended by Hermione, two muggle fiction books, two dark arts books 'borrowed' from the Restricted Section and one book which was written in Parseltongue that he could barely read. His spare clothes were draped over different chairs and benches. His Firebolt was resting against his trunk with his invisibility cloak.

The bed transfiguration was holding, and he was becoming rather attached to lying on the comfortable mattress. Some days he would stare out and get lost in the myriad of blue and black colours. Other days he would wander through the corridors. On those days he would make add to his map of the ship, taking note of what was where, but he very rarely found anything that he could actually use.

He was fairly certain he'd found a control room that could be used to access the ship's controls, but it was all in strange symbols. Harry's linguistic skills were limited to English and Parseltongue. He spent a few days in that room before he gave up pressing random buttons that didn't do anything. With no power to speak of, Harry was confined to using magic to light his way.

Other than the control room, he'd found all sorts of other rooms that he'd expected but could not really use. The crew quarters were all decent sized but Harry preferred his room with a view thank-you-very-much-indeed. Also onboard the ship there was a section of jail cells and a hospital wing. The three different cafeterias were all identical with the tables and chairs. Not that there seemed to be any food to speak of. Harry was still stuck breaking tiny pieces of food and transfiguring it into food. However, while he could turn it into different meals, it still retained its basic taste. Chicken curry with a chocolate frog flavouring was surprisingly tasty. Harry was rather happy that his trunk was full of sugary sweets.

For Halloween he'd stocked up on a variety of different Honeydukes sweets, many of them in high quantities. The mega-boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans were particularly wonderful when he wanted different foods with different basics tastes. Although anything with earwax as its main flavouring was a major no-no, and he wouldn't even think about the vomit flavoured ones. Harry couldn't quite remember why he had so many Blood-Pops but at least they gave the food an … interesting taste… unlike the Cockroach Clusters.

Ultimately, Harry's favourite room, aside from his personal quarters was the armoury. On the seventy-seventh day abroad the ship he found _that_ room and he fell in lust. There were many different daggers and swords on the racks along the walls and rows of what looked like guns, but Harry had no idea how they worked or even what kind of ammo they used.

Regardless of the gun situation Harry was enthralled by the swords. Each one had its own special uniqueness about it. The rest of that day was spent with Harry handling each different weapon, getting a feel for it and trying out some moves that he vaguely remembered from seeing on movies that his cousin used to watch. Some of these moves required Harry to balance on one foot and wave the daggers around in the air, or when playing with the staff he would rest all his weight on said staff and try to high-kick an invisible enemy. Of course, when trying to re-create these moves that he really didn't remember he almost always ended up on the floor, giggling at his mistakes.

After four days of playing with the different weapons, Harry started to explore the remaining parts of the ship. He generally carried either a twin set of curved daggers, a wooden staff, or a twin set of katanas. All were holstered on his back.

By his ninetieth day aboard the darkened ship, Harry had fully explored the ship. He was almost certain that while he could spend the next ninety days pushing buttons on the control panels that he'd found, and eventually something would do something, he really didn't feel like it. Instead he spent most of his time in his quarters redecorating. Well by redecorating, Harry began to move the majority of the weapons into his room and placing the assortment in varying positions as art. And while he was very happy with the artwork, he was constantly being driven insane by the collapsing bookcase. Why the chair was not happy being useful as a bookcase, Harry couldn't figure out, but he dutifully re-transfigured it for the twenty-eighth time.

In the rare times he allowed himself to think about Earth he imagined how much people might spend on his artwork. Indeed, he vaguely remembered Hermione obsessing over a sculpture of what she called modern art and what he thought looked like some kid's handprints in a sphere of cement balanced on a pogo stick. He hadn't actually told her that, but if someone was willing to spend good money on that, then why not on his sword sculptures. Not that Harry would allow anyone to touch them. Or that there was even anyone around other than him to admire his artistry.

* * *

It was on the one-hundredth and seventeenth day that it finally hit home. He was alone. He was alone in space on a ship headed for Merlin knows where with no idea how to work the ship. He couldn't even turn on the damnable lights, hell, he didn't even know if there was even power to do that. For all he knew, the ship could only travel through space, nothing else.

He became determined to get the ship to do something, even if it was just to turn on the lights. He was sick on using the _Lumos_ spell. It was way too unpredictable, whether it was the tiny tickle on wandlight to lead him, or the bright explosion of light that filled the room or the annoying little fireflies that flew around him.

For weeks he camped out in the control room pressing every single button there was. When that did nothing, he tried different combinations. Hermione would have been proud; he noted every single useless combination, until the room was filled with parchment.

On the hundredth and forty-sixth day, Harry stumbled towards the shuttles that he had found in the beginning, way back when he enjoyed his solitude. He walked past the damaged one and entered the one that he hoped would work. Only, in the next few days, nothing reacted to his presence. Anything that looked like a control was tried but nothing activated, nothing glowed, nothing had a great big flashing sign that said 'ON/OFF'.

After sixty-three days of constant attempts to work something, anything on the ship Harry was exhausted as he staggered back to his observation room. He stopped in the entrance and stared out at the blue and black atmosphere that had once had held him spellbound. Now all he felt was the oppressive, lonely silence.

Harry walked slowly to his bed, before sinking on to it. He pulled a pillow to his chest and hugged it as he let the tears fall.

The following day, Harry cast a Bubble-Head charm on himself and mounted his Firebolt. He flew over the railing and out into the vast blue and black hues.

When Harry opened his eyes next, he was in a crumpled heap next to the railing, his broom lying a few feet away from him.

He tried the next day, this time with a Bubble-Head charm enhanced with an oxygen layer encased in water. He regained consciousness with a cut to his arm and a dagger in his leg.

The next attempt involved the Bubble-Head charm, the oxygen layer, a pewter cauldron with eyeholes carved out and an old robe sewn on to the cauldron. Harry woke with troubled breathing, a severe headache, a dagger to the leg and a busted broomstick.

Harry tried flying around the room, but with the amount of times that he had fainted and fallen on to his broom, the twigs were all disjointed. The Firebolt could not fly in a straight line, let alone accelerate to the speed it had done to capture a snitch.

He spent the next few days in bed, curled up around a large grim-like cuddly toy.

When Harry began to wander around the ship again, it was with none of his former enthusiasm. He went longer without transfiguring food, and he became almost skeletal like with his pale skin and gaunt figure.

* * *

Two hundred and seventy-one days. That was all it took.

Harry's was back in the ring room.

"Why won't you work?" He whispered.

'_Why?'_ He pressed random buttons on the terminals, but as always nothing happened.

"I want to go home!" He shouted, running to the ring, trying to turn manually, but it would not move.

'_I wanted'_ "my freedom, but" '_where is-'_ "WHERE AM I? I don't even" '_know, no-one knows'_ "How could they know? How could I" '_be so stupid as to run'_ "into the strange ring filled with fake water?" '_How?_'

Harry collapsed against the ring.

"I want to go home. ROOM OF REQUIREMENT TAKE ME HOME! I am the great Harry Potter! I'm the Boy-Who-Lived! I am He Who Burned The Bad Man. I WANT TO GO HOME! I need to go HOME!

"You can't keep me here forever. I didn't ask to come here, no I did not, no sir, no sir-ee, no-sir-no-sir-no-sir, no sir. This was never want I wanted.

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DRAW ME A MAP! Just a stupid map. Just something to point me to where I wanted to go! I didn't WANT to go to a _bloody_ space ship! I NEVER asked for this!

"TAKE ME BACK! Home!

"Beam me down Scotty to the Hogwarts grounds!

"This isn't _peaceful_ solitude, this is EXILE! Why? What did I do to deserve this? They'll never find me, I just be some mangled bones.

"Why did Voldemort get the quick and easy death? I burned him. He died in _minutes_! But me. Me. I get to die of starvation. I get to die of loneliness.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE! I want my friends. Hell, I'd even accept Malfoy as company. At least I could annoy him until he kills me. That wouldn't be so bad. I mean, it would be Malfoy. Death by Malfoy. Urgh! How could anything be worse … oh wait this could. So yes, Bring me Draco Malfoy. I'll gladly accept the indignity of dying by his hand, so bring him here. Please?

"Why won't you just kill me?"

Harry felt his magic building. Every part of him was shaking with raw magical power. He should have been afraid, but he couldn't think straight. He just wanted to see someone. Anyone. If he was stuck on this ship why shouldn't he have some sort of company?

As Harry staggered back to his rooms, he was lost in his misery; too lost to notice that his magic was still building up.

He collapsed in the middle of his room, tears running down his face.

"I don't," he sniffed, "want," *sniffle* "to be," *hiccup* "alone. Not anymore."

And a building light crashed into Harry.


	3. Conversations with myself

**Author's Notes**

So, the original chapter two was universally hated, so here's a revised version.

This is the original idea I had for this story, however before I even started writing I read 'King of Destiny' by Voads and I thought that we had similar concepts for our stories, i.e. a slightly insane Harry stuck on the Destiny before SGU starts. So I adapted my story a little, and Harry with Multiple Personality Disorder became Harry splits himself into 3 different personalities.

It was a gamble, which I wasn't completely convinced by and it seems none of you were either. So it's back to the original idea, and I'm really hoping you won't all review telling me I'm copying Voads's premise as I'm already aware of how similar it could be. However, I think we're both going to take Harry in a different direction so hopefully it won't be too similar in plot terms.

Anyway, on with the revised version of chapter two.

* * *

**III - Conversations with myself**

Harry's eyes flickered open as he groaned.

He was lying face down in the middle of his observation room.

"Ow," he muttered as he raised his hand to his head.

'_Why am I on the floor?_ _How did I miss the bed- never mind that why did I collapse… I couldn't have been _that_ tired- yeah, sure, I haven't been sleeping very well, but- ow, my arm is dead; feels very boneless… crap… Lockhart isn't here is he? I couldn't take that, not now. No. Lockhart and me… alone… no where to run to… no where to escape to._'

"Help!" He yelped.

'_Shut up! You insane wreck! Don't attract anymore attention to yourself! He might still be around… and who knows what else he'll try to do to 'help'. You don't even have any Skele-Gro with you to repair the- why am I talking to myself in the third person! I do not need a pep talk, this isn't Quidditch!_

'_Ok, Harry, just breathe, breathing is good, breathing is your friend. In and out. Inhale and exhale. Nice and deed… what the Hell are you thinking?! This isn't the time for- huh, _that_ was talking to myself in the third person, so what was I doing before… second person, maybe- _

'_Merlin's balls! Why does it even matter?- Well it would definitely matter to Hermione. She'd even- Stop thinking! Just stop. Good, now to deal with the real problem. Which problem was it again? I have more than enough problems to be getting on with- the breathing problem, that was it. Yes. Good. _

'_Why are my breaths so uneven? Well duh, it's 'cos I'm _thinking_ about breathing, I am controlling it. Think of something. Anything. Stop thinking about breathing. Voldemort. No, don't want to think about that psychopathic lunatic, he's gone… burnt to a crisp. He can't run towards me in pink fluffy robes declaring he all he needs is some attention and he wants me to hug him- Well that's a very disturbing thought, need to think of something else- at least it wasn't Voldy-pants in a Barbie pink tutu dancing around Snape asking for a dance- _

'_Argh! My eyes! I need to wash them! Think! Quick! Why can't I think! Why is my mind blank? Snape and McGongagall in the Astronomy Tower! Eep! No! McGongagall and Dumbledore. Crap. McGongagall, Snape, Dumbledore _and_ Hagrid. Wait how would _that_ work? STOP IT!! Please! Wait! I'm not thinking about breathing anymore! Good! Yes! That was the point! Dammit! _

'_Ok, listen to your thoughts, we are _not_ going to think about breathing anymore. Not about how quickly we are breathing or how slowly we are. And we are definitely NOT going to think about Voldemort, or the teachers, … or any part of Hogwarts… right?_

'_It wasn't that breathing was a problem! It was Lockhart! And his banishing of my bones! That stupid peacock! Why couldn't he leave me alone? Why did he escape- How did he escape St. Mungo's, more to the point? Never mind that, how did he find me? And what were the nurses thinking- _

'_Oh great Gryffindor! I'm going to be the subject of his next book. He's going to write about this ship, and how he saved the day and, and- but I haven't done anything, what's there to write about- He's going to try to _Obliviate _me, and I'm going to forget- I don't want to forget, but- this is _my_ life! He can't have it! _

'_Doesn't he know that magic doesn't work here? Doesn't he realise that spells backfire, or work for five minutes before spectacularly undoing themselves… of course he doesn't; the peacock never thinks things through. And it'll be my mind that gets screwed. I don't want to be screwed, not by Lockhart- EWWW! Bad image! Bad Harry! Ewww! Gross! Lockhart. No! Need to scrub my brain. That image needs to be burned, hung, drawn, quartered, stretched, beheaded, disembowelled, covered in hot fat, melted, turned into ice, everything, just GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD!_

'_Bleh. Need to get to the bathroom. Quickly, stop dawdling, man, use your arms, that's it, now you're sitting up, good. Now get to your feet, yes you can use both hands, we just need to get to the bathroom soon so we can vomit our guts up- wait- both hands… you used both hands! The peacock didn't banish your bones! Hallelujah! Ummm… so what did he do then_?'

Harry turned in a slow circle. Nothing about his room appeared out of the ordinary, nothing looked like it had been touched and there were no signs that anyone other than himself had been here.

'_What was the spell again? The one to show how many people were in the area… revealio something or other …umm.. oh yeah._'

"_Reavlio Populatis_," Harry incanted with a wave of his wand. "One, good, myself."

'_Thank Merlin for that. Dealing with Lockhart, just no. But- just little old me, all alone on this big old ship with nothing to do. And no-one for company. Just me and my spaceship, travelling through space with the weird blue light. Lockhart isn't here. I must have just collapsed awkwardly on my arm. It's perfectly natural that it would go dead after a few hours of lying on it._'

"Dammit."

Harry moved over to his bed before he collapsed in the centre of it.

"So why did I collapse? What was I doing before?"

'_I don't remember._'

"There must be something…"

'_The Firebolt?_'

"No, something more recent-"

'_How long ago was that- how many days since I-_'

"When was the last time I-"

'_Why was I- screaming?_'

"Shouting, at what?"

'_Home._'

"I want to go home. Home. But the ring wouldn't move."

'_Why not? I never asked it to bring me here, why won't it let me go?_'

"Think, Harry, logically. The Room sent you here. Subconsciously, you wanted to be here."

'_Doubtful. Why would anyone want to be on a ship bound for some unknown place that doesn't have any lights, any people, anything to do, anything that works apart from the autopilot and the engines?_'

"What was I thinking? I must have been thinking something to make the Room send me here…"

'_How am I supposed to remember something that I thought nearly a year ago?_'

"Crap. Nearly a year."

'_Maybe Lockhart wouldn't have been so bad… someone to talk to… wouldn't be alone, would have company… but would _kill_ Lockhart._'

"He's not here. It's fine. The crazy peacock didn't do anything to me. "

'_But what if-_'

"What if someone comes aboard like me? What if they know how to get back?"

Harry jumped off the bed and raced towards the ring room.

'_I can't stay there permanently, but some sort of alert. I could- a spell, maybe a combination of- oh Merlin's beard-_'

"_Lumos!_"

'_Why does that spell always fail? It barely lasts for a few hours, maybe I could throw a spell at the control panels- maybe that would hold or something… stop thinking about that. Focus on the alerting spell. That's the most important- The ring! I was shouting at it! I- Breakdown-_'

Harry stopped running as he was a few corridors away from the ring room.

"I lost it! I lost it at an object. Crap. I'm losing my mind. But why am I so calm now?" He asked himself as he slowly began walking again. "I know I haven't been sleeping well, but that's no excuse. Lack of sleep shouldn't have affected me _that_ much that I would collapse.

"But still, why am I so calm? I was at a breaking point … and now I'm thinking, clearly again. Something-"

'_Something must have happened. But what?_'

As he entered the room, Harry shot another _Lumos_ spell high into the ceiling.

"So, spell time. Now, I get the impression you don't like me," he said as he stared at the ring, but was talking to the ship as well. "And that's fine, you didn't invite me on to your ship, and I've taken the observation room at the front as my own. But unless you turn yourself on and send me back to Hogwarts, you're stuck with me." He paused, waiting to see if anything would happen.

"Well ok then. You had your chance to send me back. So here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to wave this wand around, say a few magic words and with a bit of luck, I'll have something to alert me if anyone comes through you, and maybe they'll be able to take me with them. Ok, so, please don't mess up my spell… do we have a deal?

"I really don't know why I'm expecting an answer, but-" he took a deep breath, "Hey goes nothing.

"_Erectus Motus Senus._"

Harry watched as blue lights shot out of his wand and hovered around the ring.

"Thank you," he bowed his head slightly. "Well now that that's worked, if anyone comes through you, then the spell will be triggered and a proximity alarm will go off near me to let me know that, well that someone's here."

'_Great, that wasn't a roundabout way of saying it's a motion sensor detention charm_.'

"I'm going to go see about the lighting situation because this is getting ridiculous." Harry pointed towards the ceiling where the previous _Lumos_ spell had faded. He clapped his hand, and said, "So onwards and upwards," and he made his way to the nearest room with a control panel.

"So, if you could be nice and let this spell work as well, that'd be great, 'cos I'm sick of saying _lumos_ every few hours or so and you must be sick of me saying it. Oh, you're probably worried about what I'm going to, but you don't have to be. I mean, if you wanted to you could turn on the lights and I would be very grateful otherwise I'm going to shoot a _lumos_ spell into your control port and see if that works, ok?"

Harry was actually disappointed at the lack response. Logically, he knew that the ship couldn't talk to him, but a part of him had really hoped that the ship was sentient like Hogwarts was.

"Well, here goes nothing- please don't hurt me if this goes wrong," He said as he pointed his wand at the panel.

"_Lumos Maxima Solem!_"

He waited with bated breath as nothing seemed to happen, until the lights flickered on in the room.

"Yes! Hundred points to Gryffindor was sheer audacity to mix technology and magic."

'_Wow, I really wasn't expecting that to work. Technology usually explodes when magic is mixed with it. Mr Weasley is a prime example of how you can spectacularly destroy a TV set._' Harry giggled to himself as he remembered how he, Ron, Fred and George had dived behind the sofa to hide from the televisionafter Mr Weasley had tried to change the channel with his wand. He stopped giggling as he thought about the Weasley. '_No! Stop it! They're not here, and you're not at the Burrow, so think of other things you can do._'

"Thank you," he said, focussing on the control panel.

Harry wandered out into the corridor and sighed at the darkness. "Too much to hope that it would work. I mean, sure, it worked in one room-" Harry stopped talked as the lights flickered on around him. "Huh, maybe it's voice activated… or motion sensors… doesn't really matter as long as it works."

* * *

With the lighting system now working, Harry had taken to talking to the ship as if it could understand him, especially when he was going to use magic. If he didn't, the chances were that the spell would fail after a few minutes, or just not work at all. However, even if he did announce his intentions, there were times when the spells failed to work.

He could not come up with an explanation as to why his magic was being so temperamental. Many times he looked at his pathetic bookcase that still was constantly re-transfiguring itself into a chair, and wishing it was the library at Hogwarts. The books there might have some theories as to why it was happening, maybe even something to do with Space itself or if it was Harry who had the magical problem. But it wasn't the Hogwarts library, and he had not memorised or read every single book from there, nor was he Hermione.

Some good had come from his breakdown in the ring room, and subsequent collapse. Harry was now eating again, but there was part of him that wondered how he was going to survive when the sweets ran out. While that wouldn't happen for several months, it was a concern that Harry tried to put to the back of his mind. Despite this, Harry's skeletal appearance slowly returned to his usual build.

He also began wearing and exercising with the daggers again. It didn't matter to him that he didn't technically know how to handle the daggers and it would probably horrify anyone who had had professional training with daggers to watch him, he really didn't care. It felt right to him and it took his mind off Hogwarts and what had happened there, so he continued to do it his own way.

Sometimes, he magicked an opponent to fight against. However, he felt that it was more like fighting his shadow. They both had the same moves, and while he could anticipate his opponent's move, it was very frustrating as his own moves were countered back at him. Most of those sparring sessions ended in a stalemate, but it was still something to do.

Harry also filled his days with drawing. While previously he had tried his hand a making sculptures out of the weapons he had borrowed from the armoury, he found it was relaxing to draw. It was almost therapeutic.

It had started when he was talking to the ship about Hogwarts, and he was trying to describe it. As he had confused himself, he had sketched a rough outline of the castle, and the next day he had looked at it and sketched in the lake and the Forbidden Forest, and then the next day he had added in the Quidditch Pitch and the path that lead to Hogsmeade. Each day, he had added more details until he was actually rather pleased with himself, and had hung it up on the back wall.

A few weeks later, Harry had taken up parchment and pencil and had drawn a portrait of Dumbledore and Fawkes, in the headmaster's office.

After that, Harry spent a lot of his time transfiguring the parchment into larger sheets and drawing different images. He drew anything that came to mind, his friends, Gryffindor tower, The Burrow, the dragon he had faced during the TriWizard Tournament, the Great Hall, even Malfoy and his cronies had a place on the wall.

There were others that he had drawn but he had rolled up those bits of parchment and had hidden them in the bottom of his trunk. He tried not to think of the various drawings of Voldemort or his Death Eaters, nor of the fiery blaze that had been Hogwarts after that Battle, but he knew they were there, just hidden to his eyes.

It didn't change anything, though. Deep down, Harry was still homesick, and the solitude was draining him. For reasons that he tried not to think about, he started on his most ambitious piece of artwork to date. The canvas? The floor of his room. The subject? Hogwarts in all her glory. And this time, he tried his hand at using transfigured paint.

He worked hard at it for many weeks, and found that while sleep was still hard to achieved, it gave him more time to focus on the painting. When he finally crashed, he slept for hours and hours, and felt more refreshed than he had in a while.

* * *

It was around the four-hundred and fifty-sixth day, while he was working on his Hogwarts floor painting, that he first noticed the feeling. It was just a tiny feeling, but one that he could not shake.

After four days of the same feeling, Harry began searching the ship for a sign of something. But he found nothing. The motion detects around the ring were undisturbed and were still functioning so he didn't really think that anyone was onboard with him.

Still, the feeling persisted. While he wanted to trust his instincts, he could not pinpoint what was making him feel this way. Eventually, Harry grew accustomed to this feeling and barely gave it any thought.

* * *

On the five-hundred and thirty-fourth day since Harry ran through the ring, it activated once more, and a man in black with a gun tumbled through.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Well, hopefully this is more along the lines of what you wanted to read.

Harry is slightly insane, but he is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD – will be covered in greater detail in later chapters), lack of clean air as the air filters aren't working properly and he's also been on his own with no company for over a year and a half, so talking to himself has become a sort of coping mechanism.

The next chapter starts bringing in the SGU characters and the events of 'Air'.

**Spells  
**_Reavlio Populatis – _To show how many people are in the nearby area.  
_Erectus Motus Senus – _To detect any motion through the Stargate.  
_Lumos Maxima Solem_ – To channel magic light through the ships lighting system.


	4. Air I

**Authors notes  
**Thank you for all your reviews!****

* * *

**IV – Air (part one)**

Harry was standing in front of his bookcase looking for something to read. However, since he had read all the books several times from cover to cover, he wasn't really inspired by any of them. He was almost tempted to try the Parseltongue book again, but he always ended up increasingly frustrated as he only understood about three words per page, if at all. The decision was taken out of his hands when the ship jolted forwards.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" He muttered as he half-ran to the railing on the other side of the room. He skidded to a stop before he got there. The view was not what he had expected. "Where's the pretty blue light gone? Hey, ship, wanna give me any hints?"

A few seconds later, Harry's motion sensor detection alarms went off.

"Well, alrighty then, I have company. Crap, I'm not dressed for company," he said as he ran his hands over the dirty grey t-shirt and torn jeans. Harry took off towards the ring room, snagging his invisibility cloak on and draping it over his body as he ran at full pelt.

He was now beginning to see the gaps in his logic. His room was at the very front of the ship, the ring room was towards the back, and it was a very big ship. The chances that someone could enter the ship and leave before he had a chance to get there had never actually crossed his mind.

'_Dammit, Harry, faster!_'

By the time Harry was a few corridors away from the room, he noticed a man walking down the corridor, away from him. He skidded to a halt, his shoes making a noise on the floor. The man turned around sharply and stared past Harry, who clutched his cloak tighter to his body as he sank into a crouch. A few moments passed before the man continued on his way.

'_Well he looked human. Could this be his ship? But he doesn't seem like the captain of anything. Is he stuck like me? But no, he didn't appear to be lost, or worried, so he must know where he is, and he must have _meant _to come here… right? _

'_Follow him? Or not follow him? What's that noise? Sounds like … crying … screaming?_'

His curiosity piqued, he gave one last look in the direction that the man had disappeared to and he began walking at a brisk pace towards the ring room. Just before he reached the noise that had descended into chaos, he turned a corner to the corridor leading to the room, he stumbled on two men, a bit older than himself.

Harry flattened himself against a wall and held his breath as they walked past him. Both held torches, and one carried a gun. Again faced with a choice of whether to continue the last few yards to the ring room or to follow the two men, Harry chose to continue. However, as he got closer he realised that it was the noise blind panic from scared people.

'_They won't be able to help me, but the other three might. That first guy seemed to know something, and those two also seemed to be searching for something… well what are you waiting for, go chase after them!_'

Harry tracked them down as they were talking about some sort of game, outside the door to an observation room. He snuck in behind them as stealthily as he could. Harry blinked in surprise as the blue light show outside was back in full swing.

The first man was also there, standing in the centre of the railings.

"We're on a ship?" One of the younger ones said.

'_Wait, you didn't know that!? I was counting on you lot to know _something!'

"Its design is clearly Ancient, in the truest sense of the word," the older man said.

'_Correct in one, Mr-I'm-Going-To-State-The-Obvious. Haven't you even seen how some areas of this ship are literally falling to pieces and there are all those holes in some of those rooms. And was that a Scottish accent I heard there?_'

"Launched hundreds of thousands of years ago."

'_And you know this how?_'

"Dr Rush," the younger guy with the gun who looked like he was military said.

"Faster than the speed of light, yet not through hyperspace," the older man known as Dr. Rush continued on.

'_And again, what are you babbling about? Can't you at least try to give me a straight answer…_'

"What are you doing?" the military guy asked the other guy who was twisting his body to look up and out of the ship.

"Who knows how far it's travel," Dr. Rush said as he ignored them.

"Dr. Rush," the military guy said, "We've got a lot of wounded, we need to get home."

Rush paused and stayed silent.

Harry noticed a sound in the distance, almost like some part of the ship had stopped working.

"_Lt. Scott, come in,_" crackled over the military guy's radio.

"Go ahead," he said.

"_We've got a problem. One of the air vents just shut down in here,_" the female voice said.

'_Lieutenant Scott? Definitely military- American? Two names down, one to go … plus all the others back in the ring room. Why would they come here? It's not like they _knew_ where they were going? Did the Room send them here? But what were they doing at Hogwarts… why were they at Hogwarts? Is there another crisis back home? I mean, yeah, Voldemort's gone back maybe some new evil has- how did _they_ get _here?'

Lt. Scott looked annoyed as he said, "Copy that." He turned to stare at the back of Rush's head.

"Yeah, the air's getting pretty thin in here too," the unnamed one said.

"What does that mean?" Lt. Scott asked.

"That the life support system is failing," Dr. Rush stated. "We should probably do something about that."

Rush turned and walked out. The two men shared a look before they followed in the scientist's footsteps.

Harry followed too, still invisible. However, at some point he became too lost in his own thoughts and he ended up losing track of the three men.

'_So many question- what would I ask them first? What? Why? How? Where? When? Any of those would be a good question to ask- I want answers, finally a chance, but no, it's just a bunch of weird people crowded into a room rolled in panic and injury with a scoop of chaos and a cherry on top. _

'_They all want to go home, or at least that's what they're all talking about, but that Rush guy seems to be more interested in the ship- Oh, get a grip Harry, you've been in his presence for less than ten minutes, how can you really tell what he's thinking. It could just be the way he is normally._

'_It's not like you can just go up to him, or any of them and ask all your questions. I can't imagine that- but what if- Damn it, that gun scares me! What do I have to defend myself with? A wand that is being temperamental and the ship hates magic, and two daggers. Merlin's beard, Harry, you've never used daggers in a real combat situation, just 'cos you saw that auror use a short sword like it was an extension of his arm doesn't mean that _you_ can do the same thing! _

'_To even use the damn daggers you'd have to get close to the lieutenant, and then be really lucky and hope that he's a crap shot with the gun and that he doesn't know how to fight in close combat, and you haven't even factored in the _other_ military personnel in- technically you haven't seen any, but there was that girl on the radio and there must have been some in the ring room-_

'_Crap where did they go?_

'_I don't believe it, they left me! Why does everyone leave me? I- Get a GRIP! You're invisible dammit! You haven't even said anything to them-they don't even know you're here! _

'_Crap, I'm becoming worse than a first-year Hufflepuff! Just think! They didn't leave you behind, but _they_ will have continued on to wherever they were going… no, they didn't say where they were going, but try to think logically… where would they go? The armoury? They'd want to taken control of the weaponry? No, those things don't work, and you've got all the swords and knives in your room as decorations._

'_So where else might they go? Back to the ring room? Maybe, but they're already been there, so somewhere different maybe? The hospital wing- they had injured people, but that's in that direction and they were headed this way. _

'_Wait, didn't they say something about the air? That there was something wrong with it?- Stupid, really, there's nothing wrong with the air, I've been here for so long now, I would've realised before now, and what are they really going to do? It's not like they're going to be able to actually work the damn controls, they just don't work-_

'_But, they seem to know things… maybe they can- Control panels, must hurry._'

Harry spun on his heels and started running back towards the front of the ship. He'd managed to get nine corridors away before his feet and his brain connected.

'_Dammit! Why I am running back to the control panel near _my_ room? It's not like they know it's there. There's that one nearer the ring room that they've probably found- but there's no guarantee- why does it matter, if they're not there, the chances are they will be there, or I can just go to the ring room and see what they're doing there._'

He turned around again, and headed back the way he came.

Harry was just about at a crossway in the corridor when he almost barrelled into a man and a woman, both who had dark hair.

'_Crap! Could I run with making a bit more noise? I don't think that you've announced your presence enough yet?_'

"Did you hear-"

"I thought I heard-"

They both said at the same time.

Harry was given an out as they heard shouting coming from the corridor that Harry had been heading down.

'_The control room, I knew someone would be there!_'

The two turned and headed towards the noise, Harry followed as quietly as possible.

The three of them made it to the room shortly after Lt. Scott and another man with a gun arrived..

"-damn us all," the unnamed guy from the observation deck said as he argued with Rush at the terminal ports.

"You don't know," Dr. Rush said.

"What's going on in here?" Lt. Scott demanded.

The two men stopped arguing, as Rush sighed before saying, "The life support system is on but for some reason it's not working properly," Rush stated, "I'm attempting to reset it."

The younger man turned to Lt. Scott and said, "He has no idea what he's doing."

The other military guy raised his gun and pointed it at Rush. "Step away from that thing." The man who Harry had entered with held his arm out in front of the woman and they moved away from the line of fire. Harry side-stepped with them.

'_Why would anyone give the crazy man a gun? It'd be like giving Bellatrix a nuclear bomb and telling her to go have fun-_'

"That screen says, that what you're doing-"

"Eli," Rush interrupted. They both continued to talk at once.

"-is going to overload the system. Is that what it says or not?"

"-please, you only think you know what it says on this screen because I embedded a rudimentary version of the language into the game."

'_Finally! Someone names the first unnamed guy. Eli. So now, you all just need to name drop for the man and the woman who almost ran into me and the gun-wielding maniac._'

Eli scoffs.

"This is not a game," Rush said.

"Don't touch it Rush," Lt. Scott ordered.

"If oxygen, aboard this ship, falls before critical level, it will become increasingly difficult to concentrate."

"What you're doing could blow up the whole ship," Eli countered.

"Are you sure Eli?" Scott asked even as Rush reached for the controls once more.

"BACK OFF NOW OR I WILL SHOOT-!" The crazy man shouted at seeing Rush's movement.

"Lower your weapon Sergeant!" Scott commanded.

'_Not exactly a name, but something to call him by… and really what is the problem? There is absolutely nothing run with the air- I don't have a problem with concentrating- well I do have problems with sleeping- but my concentration is fine-_'

"No, he screwed us once, I'm not going to let him do it again," the Sergeant shouted back.

"I am going to press that button. It's going to fix the life support, and then you and I," Rush said as he gestured between himself and the sergeant, "and everybody else are going to be able to breathe and think much better."

Eli was shaking his head in the background.

"Don't do it," the sergeant said lowly, his gun still trained on Rush.

Scott moved to Greer's side, "Look, Sergeant, I know you're in a tough situation here, but I am giving you an order. Lower. Your. Weapon."

The man nodded his head slightly, but his eyes were still fixed on Rush who was still resting his fingers over the control panel. He finally dropped his weapon to his side with a crazy half-smile on his face.

Rush took a moment before he pressed the button with lit up.

Eli moved forward to see the screen better as Scott asked, "So?"

Rush said, "Well I suppose that would have been too simple," before he turned and stalked off.

Eli took a better look at the console, before shaking his head, saying, "Apparently that did nothing."

They all exchanged looks of disappointment.

'_Well, duh, there's nothing wrong with the air, or the life support, I'm a prime example- hey! Watch where you're going! You almost walk into me, you idiot! Go lean against another wall, that was mine! All warm and cosy. And you haven't even apologised- Oh, yeah, you can't see me… that was still my wall…thief._'

"This may take a little more time, T.J., hang in there," Scott said over his radio as he walked out.

"_Copy_." She crackled back over.

'_So, there's another one called T.J.- she has a nice voice… hey look, Dr. Rush is coming back, maybe he's found something- no, he looks annoyed… again._

' _Don't they have better things to do than to work in silence? Hello? People, I need information here! Somebody say something!_'

Eli opened his mouth.

'_Yes, go on. Something. Anything._'

But it was just a yawn.

'_Way to get my hopes up there, _mate_._'

"Hey, what's this?" The guy who Harry had almost run into asked, as he pointed at a port.

Eli, Dr. Rush, and the unnamed woman crowded into his space. Harry crowded in too, and looked over Eli's shoulder.

"Er- Brody," Eli started. "That's a map of the ship." Harry leaned in closer.

'_Wow, I thought it might look something like that but it's…interesting. Strange, though, I mean, you all appear to be scientists or something and he's all excited by a map… Hey- thanks Eli! Another name, you are helpful after all. But- why are you looking at my ear like that? And why are you moving closer to me, haven't you heard of personal space? … I'm jut gonna back away now… slowly..._'

"Well, at least we know what the ship looks like," the female said.

"Yes, but that wasn't exactly hard to find," Rush said as he moved away.

"I know," Brody said, "I was hoping that it was actually a life signs detector."

"How would _that_ help?" Rush asked, annoyed at something.

"I just-" Brody said. "I thought I- might have- maybe-"

"Heard someone running," the woman finished.

Rush stiffened while Eli laughed, and then asked incredulously, "Seriously?"

"Yeah, when Park and I heard the two of you," Brody gestured to Eli and Rush, "arguing, well, I heard running and then it stopped abruptly."

"It sounded like it was right on top of us," she added.

'_Well, that's not a very good thing. I didn't know you were there. You Ms. Park could have seriously hurt me if we'd collided, and I really don't like pain. Not to mention, there are crazy men with guns on board._'

"You heard running, you say?" Rush queried.

'_Crap, he might have heard me running too. Merlin's balls I need to stop running- but it's the fastest way around the ship since I busted my Firebolt!_'

Brody and Park both nodded, and Eli looked creeped out, "Are you seriously suggesting that there's someone on the ship with us?" They both shrugged. "Like an Ancient, maybe?"

Lt. Scott chose that moment to walk back in, "Like an Ancient what?"

"Oh, you know, just a random Ancient running about the ship," Eli deadpanned.

Scott blinked. "Ok, then, found anything?" He asked Rush who shook his head.

'_Well, it looks like the lieutenant doesn't care… or maybe he doesn't believe Eli… I mean he did say it in _that_ way- but no-one's saying anything, they're all back to work in silence…_

'_I really wish they would elaborate on the whole ancient thing. It really would kill you to give some clarification to the invisible kid. It's really not nice of you to ignore me, you know?_'

"What's that?" Eli asked. "Well it doesn't look like life support."

"Yes I realise that," Rush said as he pressed a few more buttons.

A blue hologram appears to the side of the console, with an image of a star constellation on it.

'_I know that constellation… I think, Professor Sinistra … maybe it's- oh, who am I kidding I don't really know much about Astronomy, I failed that OWL- there was that thing going on, with McGonagall and that kinda distracted-._'

"Woah," Eli exclaimed as he moved closer to examine it.

"What are we looking at here?" Scott asked, as he too moved closer.

"It's a star map." Rush said.

"That's the Milky Way," Park said, standing by Eli.

'_I knew I recognised it!_'

"I believe it is a visual log of the ship's journey," Rush stated.

"So this is where we are now?" Eli asked as he pointed to a flashing blue light next to the constellation.

"No," Rush replied, "That is where the ship originally embarked from."

"Earth," Eli said, as the hologram showed a blue light racing across the screen.

"It's leaving the galaxy," Park said.

"It did, long ago," Rush stated as the blue light zig-zagged across the screen from one blue dot to another.

"That was Pegasus."

'_Didn't look like a flying horse, to me…_'

"So those points are more stars?" Scott questioned.

"No," Eli said, "they're galaxies."

"Rush, where the hell are we?" Scott asked.

"Several billion lightyears from home," came the reply.

'_Oh crap._'

* * *

**Authors Notes  
**I'm not planning on retelling every episode with just the addition of Harry and his thoughts. In the next few chapters he'll start to interact with the other characters properly, and you'll get more of his back-story, and theirs.

Next chapter, Air (part two) should be up by tomorrow.


	5. Air II

**Authors Notes**

Ok, I need to point out something. Harry has been on destiny for over 500 days, and the black sludge on the CO2 scrubbers has been there for significantly longer. Harry has been affected by it, he just doesn't realise it. So, just because he says or thinks something, doesn't mean you have to believe him.

Thank you for your reviews and apologies for this being posted 24 hours later than I had originally planned.

* * *

**V - Air (part two)**

Harry had followed as the mismatched group returned to the ring room, or the gate room as they called it. Everyone was crowded around one around making it hard for Harry to find somewhere to stay out of the way.

"Ok, listen up!" Lt. Scott called. "Everybody who is able, we are going to search this ship, top to bottom, teams of three."

'_Will you _stop_ moving?! I'm standing here! Have you no manners? Merlin's beard, fine, I'll move, don't worry about me! Here, no, they have weapons, there, no she looks like she might kill me, erm, psycho, smelly, shifty, annoying voice- hey look, Rush! He has space by him-_'

"Excuse me, coming through," Harry muttered as he squeezed between two people, who both moved automatically. They both looked confused and gave little smiles but said nothing.

'_Crap! Ok, I'm just gonna hurry to the side, nice and quick- Rush is still alone, good. Dammit, I need to control my mouth better. At least they didn't say anything, but- ok, I'm staying against this wall, so help me if anyone tries to muscle in on my territory I'll … let them, invisible people have no rights, it's not fair._'

"Weapons?" Scott asked of the gun-wielding maniac Sergeant from before in a low voice.

"43, including hand guns," came the hushed reply.

'_Oh great more guns, just what this ship needs_'

"One per group?"

"Yeah."

Scott addressed the group again, "Flashlights, radios, only when necessary, once those batteries are dead," he gestured his hand across his neck in a universal gesture, while Dr. Rush was busy looking through a bag at the side of the control terminal; "they are dead. Regular check-ins with Dr. Rush in the control room, every ten minutes. And keep in mind, as far as we know, this bucket is really freakin' old so there might be areas of damage or where life support is unstable. Look but be smart. Don't touch anything that looks like he might be dangerous."

"How are we supposed to know what's dangerous?" A tall, black man dressed in military fatigues asked. Harry checked the name tag of the fatigues. Becker.

'_Well at least it'll be easy to remember the army guys. Now, who are the rest of you and why aren't you walking around with nametags?_'

"Becker, right?" Scott asked.

"Yes sir, I work in the mess. I mean I did."

"Don't touch, just look." Scott replied, before moving over to a woman, also dressed in military fatigues. "You're James, right?"

"Yes, lieutenant." She replied as they shared a look.

"You and Riley are with me." Scott ordered.

Harry watched as the lieutenant moved over to an older gentlemen and a young woman.

"If it's ok with you sir," Lt. Scott said to the man, "I think it would be best, considering your obvious skills, if you remain back here. Help keep the rest of these people calm-"

"Don't patronise me, son."

"No sir," Scott replied as he walked off, James and Riley following him.

Harry watched as Rush examined his broken glasses.

'_Now, do I be nice and fix his glasses for him, 'cos it's just so annoying when they're broken- but that would mean talking to him- I could fix them like the Tooth Fairy … ok, bad image there, really not what I was going for- but, he can see fine, maybe they're just reading glasses- I think- hey, was that your bag? I haven't seen you with it before now…_'

Harry was not the only one to notice Rush taking the bag. He took note of the blonde hair and name tag (Johansen).

'_Why didn't you say anything? Now I have to chose between following Rush to find out or following Scott- but seriously what was in the bag? Hey Rush! Wait up!_'

Harry ran after Rush, just managing to keep him in his sights. However Rush went into a room that Harry knew was a dead-end and close the door.

'_Well, that's not very nice of you! How am I supposed to follow without waving a flag in your face shouting "look at me, look at the invisible me!", I mean you'd notice the door opening and closing on it's own, wouldn't you?_

'_How long are you going to be in there, anyway? I need more information and you seem to know things … please? … Ok. Fine. I get the point, you don't want me around … maybe the other kid, Eli, can help, he seemed to understand something._'

He tracked Eli to the control room and walked in as Eli said over the radio "Red is usually bad isn't it?" Brody and Park looked up from the other side of the room.

"_Maybe it means the door is stuck, just try._" Lt. Scott's voice sounded over the radio.

Eli and Brody shared a look, "Ok. You should probably step back." He pressed a few buttons and said, "Whoa, not good, not good," as the screen started showing a lot of different flashing red lights. "More red."

"_Close it! Close it NOW!_" Scott screeched over the radio.

'_I could have told you it was a bad idea,_' Harry thought to himself as he looked at the map. '_There's no way anyone could do anything in that room with the giant hole in the side of the wall… I thought you said "look, don't touch"- so why are you opening doors- where's the logic-_'

"I'm trying," Eli snapped back as he pressed various different buttons, before the red lights disappeared.

"_Yeah, ok, we've established why that hatch was closed._"

"Yeah, a lot of others are closed for the same reason. We're only occupying a faction of the ship at the moment. It goes on forever. But if there are damaged areas of the ship that aren't sealed that could be our problem."

'_Hey, that's my room! You, don't send anyone there… maybe I need to charm the door not to open- spells to stop intruders, dammit, why didn't Flitwick teach us that? Erm, maybe I could set up some sort of trap- what about just locking the door, _Colloportus_, yeah, that might work- if the ship lets me… I'll just go now, while they're still busy at the back of the ship-_

Rush walked in with the silver case.

'_Oooh, shiny, was that in the bag? Can I take a looky look? Please?_'

"Oh, right, good timing, we've just found-" Eli said to him before Rush took the radio off of him.

"This is Dr. Rush. Meet me in the gate room immediately. Everyone."

Eli, Park and Brody stared at him as he walked away as quickly as he had come.

'_Isn't it share time yet? Hey, you three, stop slacking and hurry up, he might share information if you move it. Yes, that's right, but maybe a little bit faster… but, crap, Scott and the others were over by the- it'll take them longer to get to the ring room, gate room, whatever they want to call it._' Harry slowed his pace down, remembering to flatten himself against the wall to let the other three pass him.

Lt. Scott and his team were the last to gather in the room. He immediately marched over to Rush and asked. "What's going on?"

Rush ignored him and held up the silver case and spoke loudly enough to be heard across the room, "In this case, are five Ancient communication stones. They work over vast distances in real time."

'_In English, you mean what now?_'

"We can talk to people on Earth?" An older man queried, one Harry vaguely recognised from other trips to the gate room.

"Yes, you physically take control of another person at the other end. I brought these with us in the event we ended up somewhere outside the normal range of communications."

'_How is that even possible? Why do you have them? Are they magic?- But they can't be, even those two-way mirrors Sirius gave me worked over a limited distance. Seriously, where did you get theses … stones from? How old do you mean by ancient anyway, maybe someone like Merlin had a hand in creating- but even he wouldn't be able to- you said we were _billions_ of lightyears away! I'm not really sure on how far that is exactly, but it seems a huge amount of distance-_'

"So let's use them." The man said to the agreement of the others in the room.

"I already have."

Confused mutterings were heard at Rush's statement.

"Are they sending help?" Brody asked.

"No." More confused murmurings at Rush's statement. "The only way of dialling this gate from our galaxy was destroyed in the attack. We are cut off."

"I want to use one of those stones now," the man replied, heatedly.

"I've spoken with General O'Neill," Rush continued.

'_And he is who now?_'

"I am a United States Senator," the man stated.

'_Really? Wait, you're not like Fudge was, are you? I mean he was the worst politician I have ever meant- you're from America then, like a lot of people by the accents… so what are you doing here? And what's with the Scot over there? I mean I like Rush 'cos he knows things, but you don't seem like you really like him-_

'_Hey, what's wrong with you, why are you clutching your side?_'

The girl next to the senator was crying "Dad, dad."

Lt. Scott called for T.J., a blonde woman Harry recognised, who was making her way to the downed senator.

'_Now _that's_ a bruise! Look at it. Huh, so she's the doctor then._'

"Everyone please. There is no need for us to congregate in the one place. Miss Johansen, please find adequate accommodation for the injured. And everyone else-"

"I don't recognise your authority, Dr. Rush," a Chinese woman said angrily.

Rush talked over her, "We have found-"

"-As an IOA representative-"

"-quarters nearby-"

"-I think-"

"-and are much more comfortable-"

"-you need to-"

"-Please go there until you're asked to do something useful."

"Something useful," a blonde scientist, asked incredulously.

"We do not want to settle in," the Chinese woman said heatedly, with the backing of the room. "We want to get back."

"She's right!" a man with his arm in a sling said, "We should be working on getting home."

"Exactly," the Chinese woman said.

"I'm not sure that's even possible," Rush said flatly.

"You haven't even tried."

"Maybe you should actually _do_ something instead of standing around talking about being in charge." One soldier said.

'_They think they can get home- don't they realise they're stuck here yet? Can't they just accept it and shut up? My head hurts from all the noise, can't you make them stop?_'

"Everyone! Calm Down!" Scott shouted from the other side of the room.

'_Ok, Scott, you're my new favourite person. How come they listen to you? … Do you have to point your gun like that?_'

"Now, the fact is, Colonel Young put me in charge. And I expect all SG personnel to follow my orders. As for the rest of you, you get out of line and we will lock you down." All the military personnel shifted. Scott moved through the room, towards Rush, his gun aimed at the ceiling. "Now, Dr. Rush is right about a couple of things. First off, we all have to work together. And second of all, we don't all have to stay here. So, let's move out. Go on, move, it's ok."

People started to disperse, so Scott lowered his weapon to his side and said in a low aside to Rush, "I think we need you, so I've got your back for now, but if I were you, I'd find some way to dial that gate back to Earth."

As everyone left, Harry made his way back to his rooms.

'_So, they're all happy at the back of the ship … for now, but they will find me eventually. I won't be able to stay hidden forever, crap… but there's enough for them to explore at the back of the ship, maybe they won't come for weeks-_'

"I just need some sort of plan, yes, plan is it … the locking spell's a good start, they won't be able to open my door-" Harry stopped suddenly and a small squeak sounded from his mouth.

'_Idiot! Oh, yeah, it's a fantastic idea to suddenly start talking to yourself when there are strangers running around the ship … strangers with _guns_! Merlin's balls, I think I'm losing it-_'

"Great, Voldemort manages to capture me and- after everything that _snake_ put me through and I lose it when the American army invade my-"

'_Dammit, I'm doing it again. It's a good thing I'm near my rooms, otherwise _they_ might have heard me- imagine if they had?_'

"Ok, Harry, just try to concentrate on keeping them out, you'll help won't you ship? And then you can think about the next problem, which could be- no, so the door is closed, and hey, pretty ship, let me lock this door, ok now? Alrighty, then, here goes, _Colloportus_," he waved his wand at the door. Nothing happened.

'_Umm, I am supposed to swish and flick, or is it flick and swish?_'

Harry raised his wand again, and practiced swishing and flicking and then flicking and swishing. "Maybe I should try both? _Colloportus_! … No, ok so I'll try … _Colloportus_!"

Still nothing happened.

"Oh, come one ship! Please! It's my room, I don't want them in it! It's personal! _Colloportus_, _Colloportus_, _COLLOPORTUS_! _Collopo-_ what in Merlin's name is _that_?!"

He paused; his wand still raised and stared at the metal ball floating in the air.

'_S'ok, it can't see me, I'm invisible- why is my cloak on the floor?_'

Harry squeaked as he threw himself to the floor and dived under the invisibility cloak. The floating ball had apparently moved on past him.

'_What was _that_? And where is it going?_'

"Hey, come back here!" He chased after it, still wrapped in the cloak, not really noticing that he was heading back towards the back of the ship, back to where all the people were. By the time he realised where he was, Harry had walked into the back of one of army people. They both fell to the floor, the stranger on top of Harry, knocking the breath out of him, and the cloak slipping underneath his body.

The man was muttering under his breath he stood up and dusted himself off, before he looked at Harry properly.

'_Stupid cloak, stupid, inability to- crap, why is he looking at me like that?_'

"Watch where you're going!" He barked.

'_Merlin's beard, why was I chasing the stupid ball when I need to- did he say something? Why are you standing like that?! And why aren't you wearing a nametag?_'

"Stupid kid."

Harry stayed as still as he could, hoping the bald-headed man would just go away.

"Why are you still on the floor? Get up." He reached down and made a grab from Harry's arm. Harry saw the hand and snapped into reality and stumbled to his feet, standing on his cloak.

"Why aren't you with the others?" The man demanded.

"Oh, oh yes, well, um, you see, we, er, were separated, I was heading back to the ring room, I mean, the gate room," Harry stammered.

"Yes, yes, well hurry it up," he ordered.

"Yes, sir," Harry mumbled and forced himself to stay still and not give in to his instincts that were screaming at him to run. "I'll just be-" He pointed in the direction he's just come from and started to turn around before his arm was grabbed.

"Wait," the man pulled Harry back as he picked-up what looked like some kind of chocolate bar and slipped it into one of his numerous pockets. "Well, don't stand there all day." And the man stalked off, leaving Harry in the empty corridor.

'_Great Gryffindor! Just take a deep breath, nice and easy. Thank Merlin he wasn't paying that much attention to me- he was mean, he had a gun! And- don't just stand there! Put the damn cloak on already before someone else sees you!_'

Harry stumbled under the cloak, and cautiously began walking again.

'_I need to be _way_ more careful, that could have gone so much worse- what was with the candy bar anyway? Why did he look so, so- that look, like- he was shifty. I wonder what kind of chocolate it was, I'm sick of Honeydukes- dammit, he could still realise that I'm not one of them- I mean, look at me, I hardly fit in. Crap- Scott or Rush, maybe he'd go to them, Rush is in charge, but then Scott's got the command of the army people, but then- just stop it, I'm going to the control room. There's always someone there … and maybe I'll get lucky-_'

With a bit of luck, Harry managed to make it to the control room just behind Eli and Scott, and one of those floating balls.

"What's that?" Rush asked, pointing.

"Flying camera ball." Eli said, offhandedly. "I'm calling it a Kino."

'_A flying camera ball … Merlin's balls, what if they _saw_ me- I mean, the ball saw, but who's watching the camera? Crap! They're going to march down to my room, all of them, with their guns and I'm going to be riddled with bullets- riddled- riddle- Riddle, this is his payback. From beyond the grave, he's coming back to haunt me, and he's going to laugh as each bullet slices through me, and then he's going to drag me to the fiery pits of Hell, and I'll burn like he did, and- no, I'm not thinking about it!_'

"Comes with a remote, I thought we could use it to look around," Eli shrugged.

Scott moved to the other side of the control panel and asked, "What do you have?"

"Ah, well, it's not so good really. Ah, these processing nodes are scrubbers, responsible for cleaning CO2 from the air. Here, here and here. It's indicating malfunction, others are failing."

Scott nodded before walking out of the room, reaching for his radio.

"_Greer this is Scott, I'm heading for the gate room, meet me there."_

'_Ok, Harry, just think, if they'd seen you, wouldn't you have heard it by now. These two wouldn't just be standing here, playing with the terminals if they knew that someone _had_ seen me, so obviously they haven't- so I'm safe- for now- but what happens when they see- I should go, and move my things- but I like my room, it's mine. And I should stay here, if they knew about me, they'd call over the radios, so I'll just stay here- quiet as a mouse- _'

Harry was still trying to stay calm and not give away his presence when the blonde doctor, T.J. walked in and said, "Dr. Rush. Colonel Young wants to see you right away,"

He raised his hand up to stop her and said over the radio, "There should be a kind of grate covering the node." There was no answer on the other end so he said, "What do you see?"

Scott's voice came over the radio, "_A problem. We see a very big problem_"

'_Please don't let me be that big problem, but that map; it looks like they're in the gate room, so, maybe not me- hey, wait up!_'

Harry followed to the gate room where people where gathering around Brody who was taking some kind of reading of the black sludge that was all over some sort of metal container. He declared it to be alkaline when the senator's daughter walked in.

"Everyone's heart rates elevated, people are reporting headaches- it has to be-" T.J. trailed off.

"What?" Scott barked.

'_Like he said, what?_'

Brody replied, "The used up residue of whatever magic compound the Ancients used to scrub CO2 from the air."

"So we have two big problems relating to the life support." Scott said. Eli was sitting on the stairs looking down at them.

"Our first priority must be to seal off any of the leaks." Rush said. "If we can manage that then we can maybe buy ourselves a day or so before the build up of CO2 kills us."

'_Have you any ideas how many leaks there are?_'

"As it stands, how much time do we have?" Scott asked.

Rush didn't says anything.

Brody said, "A couple of hours a most."

Eli gave a short, sharp laugh, before saying "Awesome."

Rush said, "Brody, there was some medical-grade soda-lime on the supply manifest?"

Someone replied, "It never made it."

"Pity," Rush said. He took out his pad and pencil from his inner pocket in his vest and squatted next to the black gunk, poking at it with his pencil, saying, "Well on a ship this old, there's bound to be systems past their designed life."

'_Yeah, but it was _fine_ until you all turned up and started messing with it! And that stuff is just gross! It reminds me of Neville's potions-_'

"Ok, so what say we find the leaks, can you fix this?" Scott queried.

Rush shook his head, "I doubt this stuff can be cooked off." He paused. "Perhaps, if there were stores of this substance in a clean form, something else capable of sequestration of CO2, calcium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, then yes, _if_."

"Ok, Well that's not going to matter because you're going to get the gate dialled back to earth before this becomes an issue," Scott said.

Rush stood up to say something, but Scott continued but saying, "Right?"

"That's the sort of thinking that you're taught to say in officer training presumably for the benefit of those who don't know any better." Rush said.

Scott got in Rush's face at that statement and there was a short silent stand-off, before Scott said, "Please?"

"What makes you think I won't try?" Rush asked, before he left.

'_Maybe because it's pointless. Sure, you're got the consoles to work, but there's no way to get that gate to move, much less spin in the way it needs to, to be able to get the strange puddle appear again._

'_Could this be some kind of potion? 'Cos that black sludge really does kinda remind me of Neville's failed potions… maybe there's something in one of my textbooks- yeah 'cos the answers going to be there in one of the books Snape set as a textbook. Merlin, I don't even really know what I'm looking for, or even what Lithium Carbonate is, or whatever they're looking for-_

'_Oh, man, up Harry. You stared down Voldemort's wand and dodged the Killing Curse from numerous Death Eaters, you can easily look through a few books to see if there's anything useful. Any that's better than standing around spying-_' He set off back to his rooms, walking at first, trying to avoid the others, and then running when he was far enough away.

Once he reached his room, he grabbed several different potion books and flicked through them.

"No, that wouldn't be useful. Definitely don't need to make a sleeping draught, or a Pepper-up. No, no, _no_, no, hell no, there was a potion for toe-nail growing? What the heck was that supposed to be used for? Erm, nope, no, next, nada, ditto, what the- no, pointless, Dragon's breath-" Harry's breath caught and he dropped the book.

'_No, no, NO! Don't think! Focus, air, problems with the CO2-_'

"Dammit, Hermione would know. I mean, all I know is that CO2 is good for plants and we need oxygen- this isn't helpful! Why did I even think that this might be useful- _they_ at least have some clue! I'm just useless-

"It's not me! It's them! I've been here for nearly eighteen damn months and nothing goes wrongs, they're here less than twenty-four hours and they've condemned us to death! Not my fault, they brought the chaos, not me.

"They need to fix it! Before I die!"

Harry headed back to the control room, and entered to hear Eli as he spoke into the Kino, "My head is pounding, my heartbeat is accelerating, it's getting harder and harder to breathe as our very lives are being vented out into space," he said dramatically.

"Ok, that's going to get old very, very fast," Scott said.

"This needs to be documented," Eli tried to argue.

"No-one's going to see that."

"How do you know? We made it here, someone else could to. If we die maybe we can help them figure out what happened to us."

'_I remember optimism … like thinking I'd get the chance to beat Malfoy to the snitch again and winning the Quidditch cup- _'

"Yeah, well, we've not dead yet," Rush said.

Everyone was silent.

Eli turned back to the Kino, whispering, "I'm starting to have slightly blurred vision-"

"Eli!" Scott called sharply

"What?" He yelped back.

"So how are we going to decide who?" Scott asked after a moments pause.

"Well I assume we're not going to get any volunteers," Rush said.

'_Volunteers for what?_'

"What's another day going to buy us?" the senator's daughter asked, moving closer to Rush.

'_No, seriously, volunteers for what? What did I miss?_'

"Time," Rush replied, "To find a way to survive." He paused, before reaching out to T.J., "May I see the list?"

She handed it to him saying, "I've marked the names of anyone injured.

"Right, we'll have to find out people's skills, backgrounds, experience-"

Scott interrupted Rush, "It take any special skills to die from asphyxiation."

'_Asphyxiation? What in Merlin's name are you all babbling about? Can't somebody give me the cliff notes version? Hey, Eli! Summarise recent events for the Kino, you know, for prosperity or whatever-_'

"Look, what I'm saying is, it shouldn't be someone with potentially valuable knowledge, or abilities to help us survive beyond this."

"Wait, are you saying, are you really suggesting-" the senator's daughter started.

'_I really want to know what is being suggested, could you let the man finish?_'

"You can't ask someone to sacrifice themselves, _period_!" Chloe stated firmly.

'_None of you better even think of looking at me! I've sacrificed enough!_' He walked out. '_I still don't know what you're all babbling about but I'm not going to listen. I can't do anymore sacrifice, it's too much. I can't not anymore- It's someone else's turn-_'

Harry wandered around the ship, not really going anywhere, but flattening himself against a wall whenever someone passed him. His thoughts were taking him in circles, all on that battle at Hogwarts, all the sacrifices, the deaths, the fire.

"Greer!" Someone called sharply, and Harry watched as the gun-wielding maniac Sergeant stopped in the middle of the corridor. Harry looked behind him to see an older man in the black uniform limping towards him.

'_Well at least I have a name for the sergeant and this one is called… Young._'

For no other reason than that he really didn't know where else to go, Harry followed the two who made their way to the cargo hold. The Chinese woman spotted them as soon as they enter.

"Colonel," she called.

"We've lost Senator Armstrong, he's, er, bought us some time." Young said.

"To do what?" she asked.

"We're working on it. First up is trying to dial the gate, back home."

"Should you be even on your feet?" she asked.

"No," Greer replied flatly.

Young interjected, "Well, I am on my feet and right now we're trying to get home. Camille, I need your help. You know these people, you need to spread the word, try to keep things as positive as you can."

"I can do that,"

"Good."

'_So the senator was the sacrifice? Hmm, maybe he was a good politician after all… didn't someone say he was going to die anyway? Guess he wanted his death to actually mean something- at least the major air leak was plugged. So we have more than an hour to live- why did he do it? He didn't have to throw himself in front of me- stupid boy, just 'cos he hand been hit with a slashing curse- Madam Pomfrey's healed worse on me- I've survived the killing curse before, I could have dodged- I wonder what happened to his camera?_

'_No, I can't- need to focus on something else- something-_'

Harry's feet had carried him to the control room, as Eli said, "Found anything?"

"Destiny." Rush said. Park and Brody looked up from huddling over a control port.

"As in ours?" Eli replied almost sarcastically.

"The name of the ship, translated from Ancient. I've also discovered that they were never here."

'_Is this someone's idea of a joke? I've already fulfilled my destiny, I destroyed Voldemort, I don't need to have anything more to do with destiny- And again, you seem to be using the word 'ancient' in some other context than old- but it's not like you ever expand- but it sounds like some sort of race?-_'

"I thought this was an Ancient ship?" Eli asked, confused.

"It is. But they sent it out unmanned, planning to use the gat to get here when it was far enough out in the universe. But they probably learnt to ascend before that time."

"Learn to _what_?"

"Ascension."

'_Yeah, 'cos that explains _everything!'

Eli shook his head.

"It's a process whereby consciousness converts to energy and no longer requires physical form."

'_My head hurts, I can't even begin to process this- I don't ever recall hearing about any of this before in History classes. Yeah, Binns was kind of obsessed with the goblin wars, but surely if these, er, people, turned into energy then wouldn't magic have been involved somehow? Urgh, this is Hermione's territory, not mine-_'

"That wasn't in the video."

'_There are videos? Where?_'

Rush smiled and half-laughed, "There's more than one video."

"We should get back to work."

"Right, sorry."

After a few minutes of quiet work, an alarm from the console.

"Someone's dialling the gate," Rush said as he ran out the room. Eli grabbed a Kino and chased after him, with Brody and Park right behind him, and Harry behind them, having a sense of déjà vu.

"Colonel Young," Rush said as he entered the gate room.

Harry stood back and observed as Young and Rush argued about dialling the gate.

'_When are you going to realise we'll never get home? The ring, gate does _not_ work! Just 'cos you all sound like you know what you're talking about, whatever this point of origin is, doesn't mean, the ring will ever spin- hey! How come it's spinning, and the V's are lighting up again- are we- _'

Young and Rush stopped arguing when the ship jolted, and the gate stopped spinning and the lights faded.

"What was that?" Scott asked, as a beeping sound sounded, and funny looking symbols appeared on a display above the door.

"Anyone near the observation deck?" Young asked over the radio.

T.J. responded. "_Colonel. It looks as if we've dropped out of FTL."_

'_FT what now?_'

"Because we were draining power?" Riley asked.

"No, no," Rush said quickly, "if I'm right, the gate should begin to dial any moment." And he was correct.

"How did you know that?" Scott asked.

"The ship, detected a stargate, on a planet, within range, that may have what we need."

'_Stargate?_'

"What?!" Young demanded. "How the hell are there even stargates out here?"

"The Ancients sent out a number of unmanned ships ahead of this one. They're programmed to gather data, resources, to manufacture stargates and deposit them on habitable worlds. Any relevant information is relayed back here to help plot the course."

"Are you telling me that this ship _knows_ we're in trouble?" Young

"Yes, because I told it, we were." Rush said quickly. "Essentially, we're flying in auto-pilot. This ship may have stopped when it was in range of a stargate, regardless of our need. But I have reason to believe," everyone flinched at the wave of water rushed towards them, before going back to the gate, the puddle formed in the circle.

"So, what we need is on the other side of that wormhole?" Young asked.

"An educated guess?" Rush said. "Yes."

"Only one way to find out." Young said.

Riley interjected, "Sir, you can't do that. We have no way of knowing what's on the other side."

'_I'm _so_ not going through _that_ again. No way._'

"We can use the Kino to find out," Eli said quickly.

"I expect that's the purpose of this device." Rush said.

Eli sent the Kino through the gate.

"I'm getting readings over here," Park said.

"What have we got?" Young asked.

"Temperature, gravity, atmosphere composition, barometric pressure," Park said.

Riley continued, "... oxygen, nitrogen, very little CO2, extremely low humidity. Habitable, but just barely."

Brody looked up from the other terminal, "It looks like four other addresses came up here too." Rush frowns and looks over his shoulder, "They could be other planets within range. Maybe we should think about dialling them up and-"

Rush interrupted him, "No, no, no. They're locked out. The ship chose this one, the Stargate is open. All we have to do is step through."

"What we _have_ to do is put a team together," Young stated.

"Doctor Rush." Brody called as he pointed to the illuminated panel above the door.

"Looks like our time might be limited." Rush said.

"What is it?"

"It's a countdown. Just over twelve hours left."

"What happens then?" Young asked.

"I suspect we jump back into FTL," rush replied.

Harry stayed back in the corner of the room, just watching as they argued over who was going and as they packed their supplies up. By the time the group was ready to go, Harry was leaning against the railing on the upper deck of the control room. He tried not to flinch as the gate was activated again.

When they were ready to go Scott said over his shoulder to the colonel, "We'll be back sir."

"Good luck," Young said.

Scott was the first through the gate, followed by Eli, Greer, the scientists Palmer and Franklin, and a soldier called Curtis. Rush was the last through.

'_I wonder where they've put those instructional videos that Eli was talking about…_'

**

* * *

****Authors Notes**

I know that most of the military on board are the Air Force, but Harry's not to know that, so he's thinking army to himself. And yes, T.J.'s a medic, not a doctor, but once again, Harry doesn't know that.

Air (part three) will be up in the next few days.

Reviews are always appreciated.


End file.
