Darkness

"Darkness" is the fourth episode of the first season of Stargate Universe.

Synopsis
Dr. Rush tries to figure out why the ship's power reserves are critically low. In response, Colonel Everett Young orders everyone to limit the power consumption. Eventually everything apart from the life support goes down. Fortunately, Destiny reaches a solar system with three planets, giving the crew hope to live another day.

Prologue
A team of ill prepared soldiers, scientists and civilians evacuate Icarus Base to the Destiny and is trapped there. They quickly find that the life support system is failing. The ship does, however, dial a planet with the lime needed to refresh the ship's CO2 scrubbers. A team goes through the Stargate, and is able to find what they need.

Plot
One day after the expedition repairs the life support, a tired and shaken Nicholas Rush works on an Ancient console. He grows frustrated when he discovers something on the console. He walks to a nearby area, passing Sergeant Hunter Riley. Riley asks for his attention, only to be rebuffed. Rush arrives at a room to find Lisa Park and others working on the room's systems. Rush tells her to shut the room's systems off and keep them off, which she does.

Meanwhile, Colonel Everett Young talks with some members of the expedition in the mess hall while Darren Becker distributes food rations (powder mixed into water). Camile Wray supervises the group, which includes Eli Wallace, Matthew Scott and Chloe Armstrong. Crew morale heightens when Adam Brody informs the team that they have discovered over 90,000 liters of water in the ship's hold. Young reminds those present that this is not a large quantity, but Wray argues that it should loosen rations. A few of those present begin to joke about taking showers, though Eli points out the Destiny showers don't appear to use water. Rush's arrival interrupts the conversation, and Young breaks off the meeting. Most of the others leave while Young and Wray sit with Rush. He informs them that through the night, he noticed power reserves dropping. After the lights flicker, he tells Young to stop everyone from activating anything and thus draining even more power, and Young agrees.

Rush takes his rations and walks back to the console he worked on previously. Riley interrupts him again, but Rush snaps partway through Riley's explanation and throws him against the wall, warning Riley not to interrupt Rush. Another flicker of the lights changes his focus, and he continues back to the console. Elsewhere, Eli activates a Kino and decides to record some of the crew members messages for posterity's sake, should someone (or something) find their recordings if they die or are no longer aboard the ship.

Another team enters the mess hall. Young, Wray and Becker are still present, but this time with Tamara Johansen, Ronald Greer, Dale Volker and others. Young and Wray tell them that they need to help Rush, but they don't want anything to do with him. Young also informs them that Scott is working on the second shuttle, which may be operational. After they leave, Wray asks Young what they are to do to Alan Armstrong's body, but Young hasn't any plans on him yet. Becker asks Young his assignment, and Young asks fervently for recipes to make the rations more palatable. Meanwhile, 2nd Lt. Vanessa James is the first to record a message on the Kino. After introducing herself, she simply says that she does not want to die out there.

Wray catches Young in the corridors, and wants to know of TJ's role, since she resigned, but under the circumstances, she is reactivated as the ship's medic. He then enters a room with Riley, Park and a few others, who show him a new interesting discover; recharging plates. Riley was able to tweak it to be compatible with Tau'ri technology. He demonstrates by putting a flashlight with a dead battery. A few seconds later, it is recharged. Though he finds it impressive, Young orders it be shut off, since it's draining power. When a solution is found, they can reactivate it.

Scott is in the working shuttle, and is joined by TJ and Greer, who wish to help, and noting Scott has no flight experience, apart from flight simulations on an F-302. Since he can't figure out the controls, because they're in Ancient, he asks for them to fetch Adam Brody to help translate the buttons and switches. In another section, Chloe notices Eli is closely following her. When he stops, Chloe asks him to keep her company anyway. After they return to walking, Chloe asks Eli if she could check out the showers, which he reluctantly directs her to.

Back in the control room, Young tells Rush everyone has stopped exploring until they are clear. Knowing he is working by himself, Young wants someone to assist him, but Rush says he can do it himself, since it would be a waste of time to bring anyone else up to speed. As he leaves, Young remarks "Volker it is." Later, Spencer records a message into the Kino, and tells it that all he wants is to get off the ship. Chloe relaxes in one of the showers. Eli, who is standing outside the room is approached by Lt. James, who wishes to talk with him alone.

Volker arrives in the control room. Rush says he doesn't want help. However, Volker is able to convince him, since he would be sent back after Young finds out he leaves. Rush tells him that the ship is on the verge of losing power, and that if it weren't for their arrival, power would last a little longer on the ship, but people happened to just explore, turn on several systems, and even attempted to dial to Earth. When Volker argues with him, Rush angrily demands that he "Get Out!". Meanwhile, Eli and James arrive at the Observation deck, where several people are waiting. They insist that they wish to talk to him. They wonder if he knows anything about what is going on and if there is any way to dial Earth. Eli denies he or anyone else knows anything about it. Since the group appoint him their "inside man", Eli promises to tell the crew anything that Rush and Young tell him.

Volker, who only left five minutes ago, reports back to Col. Young about Rush's attitude. Young decides to speak to Rush himself. Suddenly, lights all over the ship go out, and Destiny exits FTL travel. By the time Young and Volker visit Rush, they learn that for the past few minutes, Rush saw several systems fail very quickly, and that FTL was the last to go out. They can't dial the Stargate, because there is no jump countdown. They also can't get reserve power, since that is gone also; all the power on the ship is gone.

Volker is the next to record a message on the Kino, in the dark. In the message, he compares Rush to Mozart, Schubert or Elgar. Eli walks up to Chloe in the shower, who is struggling to get dressed in the dark. He uses his iPhone as a flashlight as an aid. She insists she is fine and tells Eli to find out what happened, but as he leaves, she changes her mind, and asks him to wait for her first.

Rush, Young and Volker travel through ship. Rush tells them that none of the ship's computer terminals work, and that he could not have access to the core systems. As they arrive in the Gate room, Rush continues ranting about everybody wasting power, including the pointless attempt to dial Earth. He becomes more angry, yet disorientated at the same time. Eventually, Young radios TJ, but by then, Rush collapses from exhaustion. Meanwhile, Destiny slowly approaches a star system. Eli records Riley's message on the Kino, and says his relatives never left his home state, and has "no regrets" about being stranded billions of light years away.

In a dark room, Young, Eli, Volker and Brody surmises what has happened; everything but life support is dead, and Rush isn't expected to wake up anytime soon. They wonder how they can find a way to power up the ship again. Eli says he sent a Kino around the ship, and then suggests they find a way to integrate the shuttle's power to Destiny's power. The others think it is a good idea, so Young tells them to work on it. They leave as Young prepares another contact with Earth on the situation. Later, Scott is recording a message on the Kino, who starts to pray.

As Young places a long range communication stone into the device, David Telford is reporting back to his shift on Earth, relieving Peter. Moments later, the two swap bodies again. Telford awakens on the Destiny, and abides by TJ's not over the rifle, saying "use the crutch." Outside the room, he encounters Riley, identifies himself, and wants to talk to Rush. However, he learns he has a nervous breakdown, so he has to settle with Scott. Meanwhile, on Earth, Young finishes his debrief with General O'Neill. He then asks Major Peterson to send him to his wife. However, by the time he arrives, he learns that Emily doesn't want Young to touch her because he is in somebody else's body.

On the Destiny, TJ records a message into the Kino, and tells it that she actually resigned a few weeks ago, before sarcastically remarking "to think I could have missed all of this." Back in the present, Telford enters the operating shuttle to find Scott and TJ inside. Telford seems a little uneasy to see that only the shuttle has power, and wonders why Young would let this happen. Meanwhile, Emily hears what happened to Young, and finds it ridiculous. The conversation does not go well, and fairly quickly, he leaves, but tells her that he loves her. As he is about to leave, Emily exits her house as well, and wonders if he is coming back. After he says he doesn't know, Emily leaves him, and tells him to leave her alone, but hopes he is going to be OK.

Back on Destiny, Telford orders Scott to do something, but chooses not to obey, saying it is a waste of time, and the ship was there for a reason. After he says that, Young returns to his body, and wonders what Telford ordered Scott to do. He replies that Telford wants Scott to use the communication stones and contact Earth to have Young replaced, something Young himself somewhat agrees to. He then wonders what reason the ship came here for.

Lisa Park is recording her message on the Kino, and explains the odds of the ship dropping out of FTL right outside a star system is astronomical, even more so to find one with three potentially habitable planets. Also, because the star is a red dwarf, two of the planets may have a short orbital radius, and may be tidally locked; one side would face the star indefinitely, increasing the geological instability. This make her reminisce her bad experience with an earthquake when she was 13 years old.

Rush awakens with TJ tending to him. She informs him that nothing happened while he was out cold, which lasted 10 hours; the first decent sleep he had since he got to the ship. Rush admits that he feels embarrassed about his outburst earlier. Learning he drinks over five cups of coffee a day, TJ tells him he had a breakdown from caffeine withdrawal; several crew members are going through similar withdrawals, as are the smokers on board, which Rush himself is as well. He gets up after hearing Young wants to talk to him. Sometime later, Eli tries to get him say something on the Kino recording, but he has nothing to say, though he does look into the camera for a moment, showing his exhaustion.

A now calmer Rush enters into the shuttle with Young, TJ, Greer and Scott. Rush remarks that some of the stickers with the translations Brody added were backwards. With the ship going to pass through a gas giant (which Scott names Big Bertha), they will use its gravity to slingshot the ship deeper into the star system, hopefully finding out if any of the planets are habitable. They have six minutes until this happens. By then, they have to spread the word for everyone to brace themselves for the upcoming turbulence.

Brody is the next to record the message on the Kino. However, unlike the others, he keeps wanting to do the message again. On the fourth take. There, he says that ever since he stepped through the Stargate, he knew he would die in deep space, and just knew that what they went through would happen. Meanwhile, Young and Greer walk across a corridor, where Greer takes out his sidearm, only to find the Kino following them. The commotion is heard by Lt. James, who notices the Kino, and accuses Eli and Riley of spying on her while she sleeps, though they claimed they took a wrong turn. Young orders her to spread the word to everyone to sit tight for the next few minutes.

By the time Destiny is close enough, Eli and Chloe walk to the observation room, to find several crew members awe at the view of Big Bertha. Young orders them to stay away from the walls to avoid serious injury from the turbulence. By then, the ships starts to shake, indicating the slingshot is taking place. After a moment of strong vibrations on the ship, it starts to subside. Rush tells those in the shuttle that they should determine if any of the planets are habitable. However, he quickly notices that their trajectory has changed more than they anticipated, and they are in a lot of danger. From outside Destiny, it is shown that the ship is drifting directly into the star's direction.

Notable quotes
(the crew in the mess hall discuss the current water supply)

Wray: It's enough to loosen the rationing restrictions, isn't it?

Young: Camile, I think I know where you're going with this and believe me when I say that I too could use a shower.

Eli: (after everyone laughs) I don't think the showers use water. They just spray a sort of mist that you kind of stand in and it sort of beads up. There's one in the compartment off the crew quarters.

Scott:: How do you know all that if you haven't tried it?

Eli: How do you know I haven't tried it?

Scott: Oh, we know.

Rush: I had been standing here for the past few minutes watching systems fail all over the ship, and there's nothing that I could do to stop that. The FTL drive was amongst the last to go!

Volker: We could be in range of a Stargate.

Rush: You see what I mean? No, there's no countdown. (points to the countdown clock, which is inactive)

Young: Well, there's gotta be emergency reserves.

Rush: I don't think you seem to understand what's going on here, Colonel! Our "reserves" are gone! All of our power is gone!

Franklin: The lights went off in my compartment.

Eli: Yeah. It's the same all over.

Franklin: Well, why?

Eli: Why does everybody think I know everything?!

(Young looks at Brody and Volker, who are stumped about what to do, but Eli has an idea)

Young: Does the computer hacking drop out have to save our asses?

Eli: Uh, the drop out is still here.

(After Young debriefs O'Neill)

Peterson: That was quick.

Young: Doesn't take long to say "we're screwed."

(Adam Brody records a message on the Kino)

Brody: Adam Brody, engineer. I like football and I... (hears Eli laughing) What?

Eli: Dude, this isn't for a dating service!

Background notes

 * According to this episode, only a day has passed since the events of "Air, Part 3".
 * People who left Kino messages in this episode were Vanessa James, Sergeant Spencer, Dale Volker, Hunter Riley, Adam Brody, Matthew Scott, Eli Wallace, Tamara Johansen and Nicholas Rush (however uncooperative).

International airdates

 * Canada: October 16, 2009
 * United Kingdom: October 20, 2009
 * Australia: October 23, 2009

Production

 * This episode was originally titled "Fire", however, since the script ran for 20 minutes longer than any episode, it was extended to cover two episodes, and was renamed "Darkness", and "Light".
 * "Darkness" marks the return of veteran Stargate director Peter DeLuise, who left the franchise at the conclusion of SG-1's tenth and final season (two years previous). DeLuise had been a regular director, writer, and consulting producer since that show's third season.

Ratings

 * United States: 2.099 million viewers, equals a 1.3/2 Household rating/share (0.9/3 18-49 rating/share). Also the second most viewed programme for Syfy the week it aired.
 * United Kingdom: 959,000 viewers, the second most viewed programme for Sky1 the week it aired.