Young presses forward in a slow, ominous advance, the combination of civilians and personnel parting easily to accommodate a swelling temper. Rush faces him squarely, the defiant tilt of his chin betraying nothing.

"The attack started a chain reaction in the planet's core," he explains, both hands coming up in patient placation. "There's no way of stopping that, and any blast could easily translate through an open wormhole. It's too dangerous to dial Earth."

"You could have dialed somewhere else," growls Young flatly. "Anywhere else."

"This could be our only chance," he replies, the words an even hiss.

"Shut it down."

"You can't," says Rush, his tone level. "It's too late."

Young leans forward, shoulders squaring with the unmistakeable air of one attempting to assert authority in a situation where none exists. "I need to get these people out of here."

Rush smiles, subtly triumphant. "We have a way out."

"We don't know what's on the other side." The colonel's tone reaches an outraged pitch and volume. "Damn it, Rush!"

The whole of the Base rumbles again, and there is no method of re-dialing on short notice, not with power at its peak, lethal capacity, not with a planet's core boiling over, not with a grand sum of eighty individuals requiring a location to which they can evacuate safely.

The decision was justified. This is their only chance.