How much control of the ship does Rush have?

[erotavlas]

I don't get it. He has controlled the FTL jump in the previous episode, making the ship stop prematurely. Why could Rush not have stopped the FTL from activating this time, or is that another function completely?

I wish they would explain a bit better how much control Rush actually has because from my perspective considering what he did last time, it seems that preventing the FTL from activating would not be beyond his capabilities at this point... meaning they could have stuck around to re-dock, and try again the power transfer.

[Chrisb319]

Rush wasn't exactly cool with Telford trying to restore the power transfer between ship. He probably could have stopped the ship from jumping but chose not to. Who is to say that Rush did not set the FTL timer this time around.

[morbosfist]

Rush could have stopped the ship, but that would look even more suspicious. He's already vanishing at random. Plus, he'd have to redock the two ships to get Telford back, and that would just give the aliens an opportunity to do even more damage.

To answer to thread question. Rush has full control over the ship. He can stop it whenever he wants and make it go whenever he wants. He can't control the length of the FTL countdown just yet, but he can shut it off.

[blueray]

To answer to thread question. Rush has full control over the ship. He can stop it whenever he wants and make it go whenever he wants. He can't control the length of the FTL countdown just yet, but he can shut it off.

^this. though i didn't realize that he could steer the ship.

[morbosfist]

^this. though i didn't realize that he could steer the ship.

He made it stop within shuttle range of the planet where Riley died. This implies an ability to tell Destiny both where and when he wants it to stop. He simply leaves the autopilot on most of the time, and the point is brought up that the first thing he did was to turn the autopilot back on after gaining access to the bridge.

[Kaiphantom]

No, he doesn't have full control of the ship. He can't, for instance, control how long the ship stops after exiting FTL. So far, it seems he can drop it out of FTL, and take it off auto-pilot so as to plot a different course, but he wasn't too sure of his ability to adequately control the ship, so he turned the auto-pilot back on.

Rush wasn't aware of what Telford was doing, and there was no guarantee it would have worked. Young himself was pushing Eli to separate the ships, and didn't want Telford to stay behind, but the man did fully realizing he was risking himself by doing so.

Telford failed his own gamble, and even Gloria realizes that Rush saved the crew by doing what he did; she only questioned his exact motivation.

So no, Rush couldn't have stopped the ship from entering FTL and leaving Telford behind. He separated the ship, and from then, Destiny took over and jumped on its own.

[morbosfist]

So no, Rush couldn't have stopped the ship from entering FTL and leaving Telford behind. He separated the ship, and from then, Destiny took over and jumped on its own.

This is debatable. Rush could shut off the autopilot and the ship wouldn't go anywhere. He knows how. He'd get caught if he did it, though. It also wouldn't help Telford since they have no way to get back to the other ship without redocking, and that would just threaten Destiny again.

[Kaiphantom]

This is debatable. Rush could shut off the autopilot and the ship wouldn't go anywhere. He knows how. He'd get caught if he did it, though.

I'll acknowledge that as a debatable point. We don't know for sure. But Rush did feel uncomfortable about taking the auto-pilot off until he could fully understand more about how Destiny works, jumping in and out of FTL. We already know one small factoid: that not staying in FTL for a minimum of 4 hours can cause permanent damage to the drives. It's possible there is a reason Destiny has to initiate a jump when it does, for similar reasons.

[morbosfist]

I'll acknowledge that as a debatable point. We don't know for sure. But Rush did feel uncomfortable about taking the auto-pilot off until he could fully understand more about how Destiny works, jumping in and out of FTL. We already know one small factoid: that not staying in FTL for a minimum of 4 hours can cause permanent damage to the drives. It's possible there is a reason Destiny has to initiate a jump when it does, for similar reasons.

We know it can remain inactive for for nearly a month ("Sabotage"), so it's unlikely that it needs to keep moving constantly.

Rush was uncomfortable with taking the autopilot off because he didn't trust himself to plot a proper course. Can't blame him really. One wrong move and he could crash the ship into a star or something equally horrible.

[Kaiphantom]

We know it can remain inactive for for nearly a month ("Sabotage"), so it's unlikely that it needs to keep moving constantly.

Yes, with no countdown clock. And there has to be a reason Destiny shows a countdown clock. Perhaps it's a way of telling you how long the engines need to cooldown and then warm up again, and if you don't jump when the clock hits 0, then damage could incur. At any rate, Destiny had no clock when it docked with the ship, but it's implied one started up after it separated (Young told Telford they were going to jump soon). So, would you feel comfortable stopping Dstiny from jumping when the clock hits 0 without understanding the exact reasons why it does, and knowing that engine damage is among the possible outcomes (which could leave you stranded in space)?

Rush was uncomfortable with taking the autopilot off because he didn't trust himself to plot a proper course. Can't blame him really. One wrong move and he could crash the ship into a star or something equally horrible.

And yes, this is another possible outcome. Perhaps, that is part of how Destiny plots the course, and another reason for the countdown clock. Perhaps Destiny charts a straight line course that will take it through planets and stars and other matter (remember, all this stuff has been mapped out by seeder ships). Let's say the countdown clock reads 7 hours. So that means that, in 7 hours, all possible obstacles (planets, stars, dangerous gas clouds, etc.) will be out of the way. If you jump too late or too early, the star or the planet will be in the way. There does appear to be material flying around past the ship as it goes FTL, such that it looks like small dust and stuff is kinda pushed out of the way by the FTL mechanism.

Essentially, if Rush had stopped or delayed the ship, it could have ended up flying straight into something dangerous.

These are all debatable points, like the one you brought up. Just pointing out that the possible answer isn't so cut-and-dried. I assume we'll find out eventually why Destiny has a clock.

[morbosfist]

Agreed, the rather arbitrary limits Destiny sets must have some underlying logic to them.

[Trinary]

Gloria mentioned Rush has the absolute control of the Destiny. But the selfish act by Rush has caused losing the team members one after another. Rush is not a navigator. So his greed to have complete control over the Destiny serve no purposes.

Nothing admirable about his actions. He is an enemy to everyone safety aboard of the Destiny.

[morbosfist]

Gloria mentioned Rush has the absolute control of the Destiny. But the selfish act by Rush has caused losing the team members one after another. Rush is not a navigator. So his greed to have complete control over the Destiny serve no purposes.

Nothing admirable about his actions. He is an enemy to everyone safety aboard of the Destiny.

As opposed to starvation? If it weren't for him, they wouldn't have food to last the journey. Besides, Destiny is doing the navigating, not Rush. Rush is just stopping at various points along the way. So far two people have died successfully, not a good record I'll admit, but they died in situations not entirely within Rush's control.

[Rise Of The Phoenix]

Putting my reply in spoilers just in case:

Spoiler:

Rush does have full control of the ship, he's got access to the bridge!

GLORIA: You found the keys to controlling all of Destiny's systems -- everything. And you're not gonna tell anyone, are you?

This proves that much.

I believe he is limited by certain things he doesn't understand and the fact that Destiny was designed to be operated by a crew as Rush pointed out here:

RUSH: This ship -- its systems were designed to be run by an entire crew.

Destiny has to have it's FTL drives active for a minimum of 4 hours once they've been turned on, otherwise that would damage them:

RUSH: Exactly. We can't just keep dropping in and out of F.T.L. I'm gonna damage the drives permanently. They have to run for a minimum of four hours each time they're activated which means, next time I drop out, I've got one last shot at this.

I think the reason he hasn't just started flying the ship wherever he wants in any manner he wants to and leave the clock off when the ship comes out of FTL is because people would become suspicious as Young appears (at least to me) to be.
He also mentioned this in Aftermath:

RUSH: Until I can be sure I know how to use each function. Wouldn't want to stop accidentally in range of another binary pulsar, would I?

That may also apply to things like black holes or any number of unknown phenomana.

[Kaiphantom]

Gloria mentioned Rush has the absolute control of the Destiny. But the selfish act by Rush has caused losing the team members one after another. Rush is not a navigator. So his greed to have complete control over the Destiny serve no purposes.

Nothing admirable about his actions. He is an enemy to everyone safety aboard of the Destiny.

He has the keys to controlling the systems, but that is different from actually being able to control them. There is still a lot he doesn't understand. Even if he can do something, he's not sure whether it would be a good idea, or whether it would damage something. For instance, he can't control how long the ship stays in normal space before a jump to FTL.

And yeah, given the choice between starvation and taking a chance at a planet with possible food, you would take the risk. Which would make you as bad as you think he is, apparently.

Last note: Only one person has died, due to bad luck. Telford is stranded due to his own fault.