Human (episode)

"Human" is the fourteenth episode in the first season of Stargate Universe.

Synopsis
Nicholas Rush risks his life in a dangerous experiment involving the ship's chair, while he relives his wife's final days and recruitment into the Stargate program. Meanwhile, Destiny drops out of FTL and dials a planet which indicate signs of civilization.

Prologue
A group of people are stuck on Destiny after an attack on Icarus Base, and are now trapped there. During the time on Destiny, tensions rise between Nicholas Rush and Everett Young. Recently, Rush frames Young for murdering Spencer, who actually committed suicide. After Young learns Rush is trying subvert his command, he abandons Rush on a Gravel pit planet, and returns claiming that he died in a rock slide. Rush returns during a battle with an unknown alien race, and attempted a mutiny with Camile Wray. During this time, Eli Wallace believes that Chloe Armstrong provided a distraction to let Rush take control. Also, the Expedition discovers an early version of the repository of knowledge, in the form of a chair. However, using such a thing is dangerous, despite what information may hold, including how to unlock the master code. Jeremy Franklin used the chair, but is now fighting for his life. Young dares Rush to use the chair himself, but Rush decides not to.

Plot
In a house somewhere on Earth, Nicholas Rush is lying in bed, facing his wife, Gloria, who is asleep. Rush then gets up, and writes some notes on a pocket notepad. He continues at the dining room table, where Gloria awakens and makes some tea. She notices that he is up early; Rush merely states he has things to do. Gloria reminds him about her appointment with Doctor Brown at four o'clock. Hesitantly, Rush says he won't make it in, before retreating to his office. In there, the walls are completely plastered with papers full of notes and calculations, as well as a whiteboard filled with more calculations.

Sometime later, Rush is lecturing a class full of students at a University, asking if anybody is familiar with the significance of Shor's algorithm. One of the students stands up and describes what the algorithm is. While the student is in the process of explaining, from Rush's perspective, a tunnel of Ancient symbols is streaming towards him. Seeing it apparently overwhelms Rush. After congratulating the student and finishing the lecture, he is met in the hall by Constance, a friend of the couple. She questions why he left his wife to travel to the appointment alone. Rush brushes her off, claiming Gloria wanted to go it alone. After claiming he is very concerned about what may happen to her, he leaves.

In his office, which is in the same state as his home office, Rush continues to see the stream of data, as well as a door that did not appear to have been there before. He then receives a call from his wife, who tells him that "it's back", and that she cannot go through the treatments again. Rush moves through the conversation as if it happened before. Gloria asks him to return home, which he says he will. He eventually does so, but doesn't greet Gloria when entering. He sees her with her back turned playing a piece of classical music with her violin. He returns to his home office to continue working.

The next day at the university campus, Rush writes down some more notes. Daniel Jackson approaches him from behind, needing to speak with him; he checked earlier but was told Rush wasn't in yet. Rush already knows what Daniel wants to talk to him about; the Stargate program. He apparently knows what he is about to be told about the ninth chevron and the Icarus project. He admits that this already happened; he is experiencing a vision of what already happened two years ago, a side-affect of what he is trying to accomplish in the present.

It is revealed Rush is in fact sitting in the Destiny interface chair, unconscious. Unlike Jeremy Franklin, Rush isn't convulsing. Adam Brody is with him. Colonel Everett Young and Eli Wallace enter the room, wondering what is going on, and see Rush sitting in the chair. Young calls in Lieutenant Tamara Johansen, who checks up on him; so far, his heart rate and blood pressure has increased, but not to dangerous levels. Young is upset that Brody and Rush have used the chair without informing him. Brody insists that they did not want to involve anybody else, and with or without Brody, Rush would have done it alone if necessary. The two found a way to modify the chair in such a way that no harm comes to those using it, and Brody states that this is the only way to unlock control of Destiny. Young wants Rush removed, but Brody says that only Rush can disengage the interface safely; if he is forced out, it could kill him. Brody also reveals that they created a buffer to slow down the transfer of information and limit it to a small portion of his memory center; Rush is having a semi-lucid dream whilst gathering the information. Once he finds enough clues, he will simply have to walk through a certain door, and he will return, hopefully unharmed. Since T.J. believes he is stable for now, Young allows the experiment to continue, but orders Brody to pull the plug should that change.

Back in the dream world, Constance and Gloria are talking about Gloria going home again for the last time. Gloria does not want to go alone, so Constance offers to come too. However, Gloria doesn't feel she has the strength to. Rush returns to his office, working. Constance confronts Rush and tries to encourage him to take her, but he insists that he can't go anywhere yet.

In the Destiny Mess Hall, Eli has been avoiding Chloe Armstrong. Instead of sitting next to her, he decides to sit at a table by himself. When Chloe moves to Eli and wonders why he is avoiding her, Eli claims that she looked busy. Chloe apologises for what happened concerning the mutiny, and never meant to hurt Eli's feelings; she does not want this to happen again, since she values their friendship. Eli seems to accept this. Then, the FTL engines shutdown. Curious, the two decide to see what is happening. The two walk to the Gate room, where the Stargate has dialed to a planet. Kino footage shows ruins near the planet's Stargate; this is the first planet to indicate that there was intelligent life around. The jump countdown says Destiny has six hours. When Lieutenant Matthew Scott and Sergeant Ronald Greer prepare to leave, Eli and Chloe wish to go also. Chloe awkwardly attempts to justify her participation with Eli's help, claiming to have read all of Dr. Jackson's work, and studied Ancient history in Harvard, making her quite familiar with archaeology. Young grants their request, and tells them to be careful. He has a laugh at their expense once they leave to get ready.

Rush presents an Ancient cipher to his class, looking for a pattern. However, they can see nothing, having never seen the symbols before. Rush angrily claims that they should recognize them, being a facet of his subconscious, but they remain dumbfounded. Rush angrily orders them to get out of class. When they leave, Jackson comes in, telling him not to blame them. Rush expresses envy of Eli's genius, noting that despite having no ambitious education, and always playing computer games, Eli solved a problem he never could, and would be better suited to solving this problem, too. Daniel suggests that Rush take some time to spend with his wife, referencing his own inability to save Sha're. Since the data seems to come faster near her, Rush decides to do so. Just then, Jackson tells Rush his nose is bleeding.

The nose bleed is translating to reality. Young comes into the room and hears of this. T.J. announces that his vitals have started to fluctuate. Brody also admits there is no way to tell if he has found the answer yet, but is monitoring the flow of data entering Rush's head. He still thinks removing him is a bad idea. In the dream world, Rush is spending time with his wife, who notes that she spent years watching what she ate, but now she is going to die, she could eat anything, but doesn't find it as appealing. Rush is still writing notes on the notebook, but eventually does take a moment to stop and console Gloria.

On the planet, Eli is guiding the Kino through what he believes is an underground network of tunnels, and decides they should check them out. Scott questions the purpose of doing so, since the ruins don't appear to be all that advanced. Chloe notes that other advanced civilizations have had primitive-looking structures, then Eli admits that he's lost the Kino within the tunnels. Since they need to Kino to keep the recorded data, Scott reluctantly decides they should check the tunnels after all, while Greer opts to stay outside. When Eli jokingly suggests he's scared, Greer responds with silent anger. Eli quickly tries to apologize. Scott calms him down and has Greer bring up the rear. When they go down, Scott explains that Greer is a little claustrophobic. Greer has flashbacks of being locked in a closet as a child.

Back in his dream world, Rush and Gloria spend more time together. In the following days, they both take a walk in a park, sit in church, and Rush witnesses Gloria teaching a little girl. All this time, he still works on his notebook.

On the planet, the team has had no luck finding either the Kino or any evidence of the planet's former residents. Chloe freaks out after getting caught in a cobweb, and decides to leave. Scott agrees. At that moment, Greer notices a giant spider crawling on the ceiling behind Chloe. He tells her to stand still, and proceeds to open fire. While this does kill the spider, the tunnels start to collapse, and the team is trapped. After some time, Young opens the Stargate and radios Scott's team. When Scott hears from him, he requests some help, explaining their situation. Young decides to launch a team to help them dig their way out. Hunter Riley, who has returned from active duty since his injury while repairing the weapons, informs Young they have just under two hours before Destiny jumps again.

Underground, the team discuss how the rescue team are to get to them. Greer suggests they use some C-4 he has with him. However, Scott quickly points out that it could make matters worse. Meanwhile, a rescue team headed by Lieutenant Vanessa James and Dale Volker arrive on the planet and make contact with Scott's team. Already, the situation looks bleak, but James orders everyone to start digging regardless.

In his dream world, Rush is lying down in his office, flashing back to the more fond memories between he and Gloria. He is interrupted by Jackson, who apparently let himself into the house when Rush failed to answer the door. Jackson notes that his nose is bleeding again. He has come to explain that Stargate Command has found a suitable planet thanks to a source from within the Lucian Alliance. Rush diverts Jackson's attention to the whiteboard, asking if he understands anything on it; he doesn't, and neither does Rush. Since all this information he gathered yields no answers, he decides to leave through the door to exit the experiment. Before he can, Jackson tells him he should be with his wife again, since she is in her final hours. This gives Rush a thought; he asks for today's date. It's April 6th; however, Gloria did not die on that date. After writing the date on the whiteboard, then replaces "April" with "4", showing the number 46. Jackson notes that it is four numbers off the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. However, 46 is twice the number of 23, referencing the 23 enigma, where everything is apparently connected to the number 23. Rush realises that the number 46 keeps popping up everywhere; the time on the clock, his house number, a license plate, and the Bible. As Rush is about to move on, he experiences a sudden surge of pain in his chest.

On the planet, James' team tries to dig out Scott's team, but it is going slower than expected. Eli notes they should start panicking, as there is under 30 minutes left. Young visits T.J. in the chair room, where she informs him Rush suffered from a cardiac event; keeping him in the chair will kill him. Brody decides now that it might be worth the risk to disconnect him. Young, however, now sees Rush as their only chance of stopping the ship, so the rescue team will have the needed time to free Scott's team.

Volker reports to James and tells her that he has found no other entry points in the immediate area. James thinks that it is time that they make one. She radios Scott and tells him she is going to use some C-4 as a last resort. She advises Scott and the team to take cover from a safe distance; they oblige. James plants the C-4, and her team takes some cover, as she detonates it. After the dust settles, Scott and the team see that no change has been made to the collapse at all. In fact, from the outside, the C-4 made matters worse. With little time left, Scott thanks James for her assistance anyway, and reluctantly orders her to get back to Destiny.

In his dream world, Rush decides to visit Gloria at her death bed in the hospital. It is revealed that Gloria is aware that she is part of his imagination. She notes that since her death, Rush has become more callous. Rush tries to justify these acts as being for the greater good, and says that the good in him died along with her, though Gloria believes otherwise. After she laments that she had to inherit a defective gene from her mother which cannot do the simple job of repairing damaged DNA, Rush realizes the meaning of the number 46 from her statement. Gloria is then aware of why Rush is in this particular dream; this is the memory he'd rather forget. In tears, Rush says he has never forgotten her, and he never will. After saying goodbye to her, Rush leaves the dream and walks through the door to reality.

Rush is disconnected from the chair. Young confronts him, and tells him that Eli, Chloe, Scott and Greer are stuck on the planet, and they have five minutes to stop the ship. Rush says he can't find a way to stop it. Young radios Scott's team, and breaks the news; the team are sunk with despair over the fact that Destiny is going to leave without them. Young insists that he will not give up hope for them. After the Stargate shuts down, the jump countdown reaches zero, and Destiny enters FTL. The team is now stranded.

Sometime later, Young sees Rush in the control interface room, and wonders what he is doing out of the infirmary; Rush says he has work to do. While he cannot control the ship yet, he, Brody and Volker now have a base by which to decode the system. 46 refers to the number of chromosomes in human, and for that matter, Ancient DNA. They merely need to run through all the possible permutations to find a match. Rush has set up a program to do this automatically, telling Young that they may get a match in a few days. Volker adds that it could also be a few years, though Rush, for once, prefers to take the more optimistic approach. Young questions Rush if it was worth risking his life to be in the chair. Rush simply replies, "We'll see."

Notable Quotes
Eli: I'd like to go.

Chloe: Me too.

Eli: Chloe has been studying all of Doctor Jackson's work.

Young: Really?

Scott: You Have?

Chloe: I have.

Eli: (quietly to Chloe) Say something archeological.

Chloe: Stratification.

Eli: That was good.

Chloe: Thank you.

Eli: Plus didn't you say you took ancient history?

Chloe: I did.

Eli: At Harvard.

Young: Well I don't see how that helps us billions of light years from Earth but I get it.

Eli: I'm pretty sure we've established this ship, isn't any safer then a planet.

Chloe: Kidnapped by aliens, right here.

Jackson: Have you given any thought to what we talked about?

Rush: Oh yeah. I'm gonna fail at that, too.

Jackson: I'm sorry?

Rush: Solving the issues of dialling the ninth chevron. I'll devote two and a half years of my life to that. Meanwhile, my wife is gonna spend her dying days alone while I'm off, out, trying to solve that little problem. And then some kid, some big child, with no meaningful education is gonna jump in at the last moment, and solve it just like that. No sense of ambition; spends most of his time playing ridiculous games, yet he's the genius I'll never be. He's the one that should be here now, seeing what I'm seeing.

Scott: These people don't look like they were that advanced.

Chloe: Actually, many advanced alien civilisations found in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies lived in what appeared to be primitive stone architecture that concealed extremely powerful technology. I admit, that was a big nerd moment but it's true, isn't it?

The offworld team prepare to search the tunnels

Greer: All right, I'm gonna stay up here and cover your backs.

Eli: Are you scared? (Greer, having been offended by what he just said, stares at Eli through his sunglasses, clearly angered) That was a joke. I'm sorry, I must have mistakenly thought we were on that level now. You know, friends who can kid each other like that. (Greer now takes off his sunglasses) Please don't kill me.

Background notes

 * Several instances of the number 46 occurs in the episode;
 * The alarm clock in the beginning reads the time 6:46.
 * A car's license plate reads 46YYR9P.
 * Gloria was held in bay 46 in the hospital.
 * The date was April 6th (4/6), even though that was not the date of Gloria's death.
 * Rush's house number is 46, though it is actually 4.
 * Rush read Psalm 46 in the Bible.
 * One of the notes Rush took was 4n, with 6n below
 * This episode sees the return of Hunter Riley; he was last seen fighting for his life after a serious injury in "Earth", seven episodes ago. However, the nature of when he fully recovered back into service has not been revealed.
 * This is the first time since "Earth" that shows the effects of entering or exiting FTL inside Destiny.
 * Judging by the license plate on one of the cars in the episode, it would mean that Rush and his wife took residence in California.
 * Suleka Mathew (Constance) previously played Kali in the Stargate SG-1 episodes "Summit" and "Last Stand"
 * Ron Halder (Priest) previously played Cronus in a few Stargate SG-1 episodes, as well as Stargate: Continuum.
 * Chad Krowchuk (Student) previously played Gordie Lowe in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Citizen Joe".
 * The classical piece Gloria played on her violin was the melody from the aria "Vissi d'arte" from the middle of act II of the opera Tosca  by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. The regular version of the piece was previously heard during a scene in "Air, Part 2" in which Rush looks at a picture of Gloria.
 * The subsequent song that played during the course of the episode was "English Rose" from.
 * The other violin pieces in Rush's dream sequences are by J.S. Bach. The music in the opening breakfast scene is from Bach's Partita No. 3 (BWV 1006), while the subsequent scenes (other than the Tosca aria) use passages from the last movement (the Chaconne) of the Partita No. 2 (BWV 1004).  Both partitas are for unaccompanied solo violin.
 * Based on Rush's statement that he worked on solving the ninth chevron for two and a half years before Eli came and solved it (in "Air, Part 1"), this places the events he re-lives in this episode in late 2006 to early 2007, or concurrently with SG-1 Season 10 and Atlantis Season 3, indicating that the ninth chevron research in the Atlantis database was found years before its supposed discovery as mentioned in a deleted scene from The Shrine.

International airdates

 * Canada: April 23, 2010 (Space)
 * Australia: April 30, 2010 (Sci Fi Australia)
 * United Kingdom: May 4, 2010 (Sky1)

Production

 * The original name of the episode was to be called "Lucid". However, director Robert C. Cooper changed it to "Human".
 * The episode was written by a freelancer.
 * The scenes within the University was filmed on location at the, Vancouver.

Ratings

 * United States: 1.313 million viewers, equals a 0.8/2 Household rating/share (0.4/1 18-49 rating/share). The episode has scored the lowest ratings in the series at this point.
 * United Kingdom: 635,000, the eighth most viewed programme for Sky1 the week it aired.