Radek took a step forward, "Carson, Major Lorne here has just asked a most pertinent question –"
John felt a momentary pang of sympathy for Lorne as the Major looked like a rabbit transfixed by car headlamps, but then dismissed it. The other man's habit of asking himself questions sotto voce that were unintentionally but occasionally audible enough to be heard by someone nearby was a dangerous foible for a military man to have; being the cynosure of all eyes like this might encourage him to break the habit.
" – which I agree with," Radek nodded towards Rodney with a decisive jerk of his head that nearly sent his spectacles sailing off his face, "namely why is Rodney not also disappearing in chunks?"
And it was back to John feeling like the butterfly pinned on a board as everyone looked at him and then Rodney; he could see Carson's compassion as a doctor warring with his scientific curiosity. But it's a valid question, he acknowledged, because –
"Yes, yes!" Shutting Rodney McKay up for any length of time was a task beyond the merely Herculean – Wraith had tried and retired vanquished from the field. "We both got stabbed at the same time!"
"Exactly the same time?" Demanded an irrepressibly interested Jenny Keller.
"Definitely," Ronon interjected with Teyla nodding agreement.
"At the moh'mnt mah only intrest as a doctorrr is tryin' tah find a whey to stop losin' sight o' any morrah kernal Shep'ad!" Carson snapped with reprimanding emphasis, anger making his accent almost as indecipherable as Radek's, and Keller had the grace to blush. " Or neda remin' e'evrywun o' wha hap'n'dta the original I-Man?"
That sobered everyone up, with the exception of the alien contingent. Ronon and Teyla exchanged worried glances and Teyla stated, "But you said that the Tau'ri never had this technology and that the original…I-Man…was just a story?"
"It was," Radek chimed in, his own accent coming to the fore due to worry, "but in the original story, Griffin – the Invisible Man – was unable to reverse the process and make himself visible again – that drove him insane and he became a psychotic, homicidal maniac."
"Thanks, Zelenka, that'll bring my blood pressure right down," John complained, not mollified as Radek did nothing but give his trademark deep shoulder-rolling shrug and pushed his spectacles back onto his annoying Czech nose with one forefinger.
Teyla tried again, "Did you not encounter anything similar before you came to this galaxy, whilst at…"Star-Gate-Command"?"
© 2008
C. D. Stewart a.k.a. The Cat's Whiskers
To be continued…