During an attack on the base, Rush and Eli Wallace figure out how to dial the ninth chevron, and are responsible for sending the remaining Icarus personnel to an Ancient ship known as the Destiny, a spaceship situated in a far-away galaxy, with no way of returning to Earth.

[1] Halfway through the first season, the crew discovers an early version of the Ancient repository of knowledge, which may provide crucial details for full manual control of Destiny and a way to return to Earth.

[2] In response, Rush capitalizes on the suspicious death of a crew member to frame Young for murder, thereby forcing a temporary leadership change which allows a science team to activate the device.

When Young is vindicated and learns of this duplicity, he confronts Rush, eventually battering him unconscious, and strands him on a planet alone with what seems to be a wrecked alien starship.

In "Subversion", Rush suspects Colonel Telford of being a spy for the Lucian Alliance, after experiencing a blended memory caused by the side effect of using the communication stones.

Under General Jack O'Neill and Colonel Young's plan, Rush is sent into Telford's body and tries to uncover evidence of his relation with the Alliance while Daniel Jackson shadows him.

Learning who he is, Kiva, the leader of the Alliance group, uses him to unlock the ninth chevron on a Stargate under their command on another planet and use it to transport on board Destiny and take it over.

He eventually gains control of Destiny's shield systems and threatens to expose the Alliance to deadly radiation from a nearby pulsar until they finally surrender.

At the beginning of the second season, Rush is revealed to have discovered the control bridge of Destiny for some time while exploring the ship and kept it secret from the rest of the crew.

While at first reluctant because it was different from his earlier work, he had no negative views of science fiction and was a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series when he was a child.

I can adapt and I can change and stuff like that, but I don’t think I would necessarily want to specifically for this," further saying he was not in the same mold as Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O'Neill) and Joe Flanigan (John Sheppard).

Hale praised his acting for being of an "entirely different caliber" than previous stars such as "Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping".