Author: Pajus
Disclaimer: The caracters and Stargate universe are not mine. I just love to write about them
The sun was shining through the window and into her eyes. It was another beautiful sunday morning in the city of the Ancients. She felt the the two hands embracing her body and she felt the body next to her embraced by her two hands. Her memories of the events leading to this moment came flashing back to her and she had to smile. The man she held in her arms loved her for more then one year now and she loved him too. She knew about his feelings, but he did't know about hers. Until last night.
It was another cold day in Antarctica. To be honest there aren't any warm days in Antarctica. Peter Grodin stood in front of the elevator leading through one mile of ice to the surface expecting the arrival of a new bunch of scientists. The elevator finally arrived and the three men and two women were looking around the ice cave. "I'm dr Peter Grodin. Welcome to Antarctica" He greeted the newbies and sent them over to a man with an arrogant look in his face and a Canadian flag on his left shoulder.
Rodney McKay was having one of his days again. dr Carson Beckett just doublechecked his test results and told him he didn't have the ATA gene. How could one of the most brilliant minds on planet Earth not have a stupid gene that a common Scottish doctor has???
"OK, people. The things you'll see here are top secret, so you're not supposed to tell anybody. And one more thing - The technology in this cave is far beyond anything you know. You'll probably spend most of your time here looking for me and/or asking me for help. Please do so only if really necessary." One of the new scientists was quickly losing his patience "If we are really as incompetent as you think, why have you asked us here to help you with your research?" The explosion of laughter could be heard in the entire cave. The question hit a very sensitive spot in Rodney's mind. He never admitted to be in need of help and there was nothnig he could say without humiliating himself. For a moment he was gasping for air and then simply walked away with all the decorum he could muster.
Drs Weir and Jackson were working on a translation when they heard the laughter and turned their heads to follow it. Only two men in the group weren't laughing One of them was Rodney. The other one was unknown. Elizabeth took a closer look at him. He looked geeky with his Lennon glasses and haircut, but to her he was special. He had to be. Only a few people on the whole planet could take care of Rodney's oversized ego. The flag on his left shoulder was the one of the Czech Republic.
"Hello! I'm dr Daniel Jackson. Linguist" Daniel wanted to know the man who could win a round against dr McKay. "Dr Radek Zelenka. Astrophysics and engineering. It's a pleasure to meet you, dr Jackson." said the accented voice when Daniel sat down at the table and began to eat his lunch. "I saw how you handled Mckay the other day. How did you do that?" Daniel really wanted to know. To his knowlege only Samantha Carter could do that. "I simply reminded him that he was the one who invited us here in the first place." Zelenka's answer seemed logical to Daniel.
"Is this seat taken?" Radek and Daniel didn't notice her. But when Radek heard her voice for the first time, his brain went completely haywire for a moment. Radek looked up and saw her face. To him she was like an angel. "Není. Klidnì si sednìte." Elizabeth didn't understand Radek's native language. "It's not taken. Sit down if you wish." Radek translated almost immediately. "Elizabeth, this is dr Radek Zelenka. Dr Zelenka, this is dr Elzabeth Weir." Daniel quickly introduced them and then they discussed their newest discoveries.
Daniel discovered the eight-symbol adress af Atlantis in the outpost's log two days ago. General O'Neill was on his way and Rodney tried to convince Carson to sit in the drone control chair. The last few weeks were the most amazing part of Radek Zelenka's life. The only bad thing about being here was the attitude of his boss, but he learned to live with that. After the near-death of the general, Elizabeth came to visit the Czech. She found him working on the outpost's power distribution system that was damaged by the flying drone.
"Dr Zelenka? Am I disturbing you?" Elizabeth had a question for him.
"No, you're not. Please come in." Radek's personality was well known in the entire outpost. Peple were usually looking for him when they needed help. Noone wanted to ask McKay anymore. Radek was always willing to answer their questions and help them if necessary.
"I'm here to offer you a position in the Atlantis expedition." Elizabeth went straight to the point.
Radek didn't believe his ears. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. His eyes were clearly asking "Why me?"
Elizabeth saw the look in his eyes and answered his question: "Because you are a brilliant scientist and you can hold Rodney's ego at bay. If you accept, you'll be working as dr McKay's deputy. That means you'll be in charge of the science department should dr McKay be unavaiable. I don't want your answer right now. Take as much time as you need to think about it, but the final expedition roster has to be written in two weeks. I'll need to have your answer by then." Elizabeth's speech answered all of Radek's questions. "I'll think about it" said Radek when his brain compiled all the informations he received. Elizabeth nodded and left the room. Two days later Radek called her and accepted the offer.
It took seven days to doublecheck, triplecheck and pack all trings for the expedition. Elizabeth was clearly nervous. So many things could go wrong. Is Atlantis still there? Will we be able to dial home once we're there? Haven't the Ancients moved it somewhere else? Seven millions of years is a long time. She looked down from the control room into the gate room and saw the geeky head she felt attracted to. Now she also knew why: His friendly nature and willingness to help anyone who wanted his help amazed her. It was almost as if he had no problems of his own to worry about. Such people are rare indeed. He saw her smiling at him and put a smile on his face as well.
"Chevron eight is locked" said the gate technitian and the familiar blue puddle of the gate's event horizon appeared a moment later.
It was the oddest thing Radek ever experienced. He walked through the event horizon and suddenly appeared three millions of light years away in another galaxy. And that was the credible part. The incredible part was that the entire city was under water. Radek already gave up hope of surviving. The shield holding the water back was about to fail and Radek couldn't swim. And now the ground was shaking. The earthquake send Radek to the ground since he had nothing to hold on to. After a minute he could see the sunlight flowing through the windows. It was the most amazing sight of his lifetime.
Anyone felt this day just couldn't be any worse. They've been here for one month and SGA-1 was stuck in a jumper halfway through the gate. Radek arrived in the jumper bay and began his research of the controls in the rear compartment. SGA-1 and two jumper pilots will die if he fails to find a solution in 32 minutes. Fortunately some of his lab assistants spoke czech. Their work went a lot faster without the language barrier.
Then he saw her once again and felt his heart jumping. The angel-like face came to him and asked what progress they made in their work. The question returned Radek into the bitter reality. He knew he had to get rid of her. The people in the jumper depended on his ability to concentrate. Yet still he tried to be as polite as possible. McKay's behaviour really taught him what patience is. They knew each other for three months now and McKay still called him Zalanka.
"Dr Zelenka? I just wanted to thank you for helping to save our lead team" Not only did she look like an angel, she also smiled like an angel. Radek was staring at her for a moment when his brain started working again. "I'm glad to be of help. And please call me Radek." He realized what he said, but it was too late now. "OK, Radek." The moment she called him with his first name, he knew he was lost. He felt all emotions in the universe exploding from the depth of his brain into his entire being. Radek just fell in love with his boss.
Elizabeth saw the expression in his face. Her diplomatic training yielded fruit. She knew how and what he felt, but the question was 'What am I going to do about it?'. She knew Radek pretty well now and she wouldn't mind being involved with such a man, but she was still his boss and she had a fiancee back home. "Sorry, Radek. It can't be" she thought during their conversation.
Some people need to learn how to work with Ancient technology. Radek was in the control room for three hours now trying to find out what went wrong with the consoles. If they would only respect his warning to not eat or drink near the consoles. It would save him a lot of trouble and work. He already checked his results, but still couldn't believe them. It almost looked like the city reconfigured its own systems. Something wasn't right about this. He spent another hour trying to find out what exactly happened. It looked like a bunch of systems came up, all of them keyed into some kind of sensor that was now running in the foreground of anything else. As much as he hated to do this he had to go and tell Elizabeth.
"Keep me in the loop" Elizabeth was glad to have something like deep-space sensors. "You are the loop." A moment later Radek realized what he said. His brail yelled at him like hell "Vole jeden blbej!!! Víš vůbec, cos právě řekl???" "Isn't that a nice thing to say." Her voice sounded a little flattered. Radek expected pretty much anything, but not this. His brain worked on auto pilot and his boby walked down the hall next to her when he tried to think of anything to say. "You're more than welcome to continue walking with me". Radek remembered where he was and what was going on and tried to save as much as possible. "Yes" he said, walked away and thought: "Ty seš takovej vůl!"
The Wraith were gone now. They were fooled by their plan to cloak the city and left. Radek was standing in the jumper looking at instruments tied to the cloaking device to make sure it operates propperly. When he finally went out of the jumper to stretch his legs he saw a fist moving fast towards his face. It all happened so quickly he never had a chance to see the attacker.
"Disconnect the cloak from the jumper, Radek. We need to plug it to the shield generator pemanently." Said Rodney into his radio. He and Elizabeth then realized where Ford got the jumper from. They both ran up the stais as quickly as they could and found Radek lying on the floor in a pool of blood. At first they faered the worst, but when they actually turned his body around and checked his lifesigns, they both sighed with relief. They called a medical team and when the situation calme down, Elizabeth realized she was afraid of losing Radek. And not just because he was one of her top scientists. Even losin Rodney wouldn't be as hard for her as losing Radek, because she felt... what exactly? It wasn't love, but it also wasn't just a crush. It was something in between.
"How are they doing?" Elizabeth couldn't ask Carson about Radek only. "Most of them were hit by stunners, some of them banged their heads when they went down, two survived a partial feeding and dr Zelenka has a broken nose and concussion". Carson was tired like never before. "Will he wake up any time soon? We need him to repair the city." Elizabeth had to disguise her real question into something acceptable. "He'll be up and around soon enough. Sometime in the next 24 hours. He didn't sleep for the last few days and his body has to catch up." "Thank you, Carson"
The Daedalus returned to Atlantis two months after the siege and brought all things neccessary for a really big celebration. Anyone needed it. Radek and Carson built a small still three weeks ago assuring anyone that alcohol won't be a problem.
The party was in full motion now. Those who came from Earth were surprized by the way the Athosians could enjoy themselves. Some people were already drunk and others would soon be. Elizabeth had a glass of the famous 'spiked punch' and began gathering her courage to talk to Radek.
She found him in a circle of his fellow scientists. He was teaching them a game named 'trojboj'. "Can we talk in private, Radek?" She felt stupid when the question left he mouth, but she couldn't take it back anymore. "Of course." Radek took her hand and led her into an empty corridor nearby.
"I know about your feelngs for me, Radek". Elizabeth was pretty straight forward now. "How do you..." The question was cut short by the answer. "I can see it in your eyes." Radek already had a few discussions like this in his life. He could already imagine Elizabeth saying "But it can't be. You have to understand." But she wasnt't about to say that. "It's OK. I feel the same way about you."
Radek hoped for this moment for the better part of the last year, but now it was here and he didn't know what to say. But he didn't have t say anything. Elizabeth touched his cheek with her hand and carressed it as gently as she could. Then she placed the hand on the back of his neck and kissed him.
"Tohle je jenom sen." Radek couldn't believe this was real. But what if it was real? He had to kiss her to be sure. Radek felt her body in his arms when he hugged her. He felt the beating of her heart and the movement of her chest. It had to be real.
Elizabeth felt the year of unused passion melt her heart when Radek kissed her. It was so wonderful to be with him right now.
AN:
Vole jeden blbej!!! - You stupid moron!!!
Víš vůbec, cos právě řekl??? - Do you know what you just said???
Ty seš takovej vůl! - You are such a moron!
Tohle je jenom sen. - This is just a dream.
trojboj - Triathlon (Drinking of a mixture of beer, wine and rum)