Radek hurried to Rodney's lab. Suddenly he heard a low buzz when he was about a corridor away. Then it stopped and a sound of electrical zaps and a series of juicy insults followed. He rounded the corner quickly only to see Sarah shaking her right hand and Dr. Simpson spraying burnt papers with a small extinguisher.
"What has happened?" he demanded worriedly with a tiny edge of anger that the women may have broken the device because it must have held answers to the mission gone-wrong.
"The device you gave to us. It sparked," Dr. Simpson replied simply and put the extinguisher where it belonged.
"But it did something strange before it died away," Sarah added, wincing in pain, with her body shaking slightly from the surprise of what she had just witnessed.
Radek frowned in worry. Despite what he had heard in the corridor, he would not call it strange. Therefore he asked: "What do you mean? What did it do?"
Sarah looked at her hand and noticed a small burnt area on her right palm. "Damn," she muttered before refocusing on Radek. "Oh, ehm, I have the recording."
She typed on her laptop with her other hand and raised the volume. "Mainly listen," she told Radek and pressed the play button.
Radek watched the video, saw Sarah connect wires and then heard the same buzz he heard in the corridor. This time it was different, not only louder but also it seemed as if something was whizzing above them. His brow furrowed when he tried to recognise it. Then a few sparks had gone off from the device before it stopped working and Sarah started to jump around, shaking her hand.
Radek blinked a few times and ordered: "Play it again."
Sarah shrugged and replayed the last part. There was something about the sound that Radek couldn't grasp even though he was sure he should know. He tapped on the table, then looked at Sarah's hand when she held it away. So he asked: "Are you hurt?"
She showed him her palm and calmed him: "It's nothing."
Radek looked at Dr. Simpson, then said: "You should have it checked. I'll work on the device from now on. It will be safer."
Sarah lowered her head and sighed. Radek took her laptop and the device and left the room quickly, heading to his own lab.
Dr. Simpson turned her head. "And now he'll boss us around," she muttered. "He has to be enjoying this."
Sarah gave her a surprised look. "Don't be so hard on him. I think the device is somehow important to him and we do not get to see the whole image."
Isabella shook her head but didn't reply. Sarah heaved a silent sigh and left for the Infirmary, just in case she had been zapped more than she thought because she could still feel the pins and needles running through her arm.
Radek got to his personal lab and locked the door. Then he played the recording again and again to find out what the sound was. John had said that Rodney had told him it was a Wraith Dart. But it was quite improbable, right?
Radek played the few seconds so many times that, in the end, he couldn't even distinguish the desired sound from other noises. He took off his glasses and massaged the back of his nose. Then he placed them back on and decided to ask Major Sheppard for help. If the sound was related to Darts, then maybe this device could have been a part of one.
"Major Sheppard?" he called over the comm to find out if he was in the right mood for it.
John was about to leave his quarters in a clean set of clothes to find his team when he heard him. "Yes?" he asked tiredly because he didn't recognise the voice. It was getting an annoying habit of scientists calling him because Rodney wasn't there to run the tests requiring the ATA gene.
Radek inhaled deeply and informed him: "Major, I need you to come to my lab."
John sighed. He so didn't want to go through another test now. He had other things to do. "Why? What test is it this time?" he queried.
Radek didn't know how to tell him over the communication system because anyone from the control room could hear them and they agreed not to give away that Rodney was back. He tried to make it simple and clear. "Not a test. I need your help with the device you have brought to me from Dr. Beckett."
John blinked. "Zelenka?" He realised who the scientist was and that he may have found something useful.
"Yes, Major," Radek replied impatiently. "Now, will you come to my lab or not?"
He was losing what little self-control he had. First, John had wanted him to find out the most about the device and now he was reluctant to even come when he had news to tell him.
"Of course," he heard John reply, "I'm coming." Radek was happy that John finally agreed and tried to go on with Sarah's work on the casing, just in case he could find something more in the next five minutes.
– – – – – – – – – –
John closed the door to his quarters and looked at his watch. It was quarter past thirteen am. He was starving because his last meal had been a dinner with his team before they went to the balcony the previous day but he knew he should first see what Zelenka wanted to show to him.
All of a sudden, a female voice began to speak behind him: "Major. I'm so glad I've caught you here, sir."
John tensed a bit and turned to greet the newcomer. The black T-shirt she was wearing placed her under his command and he started to dread her reason to be searching for him. She was eyeing him hopefully with her green eyes and he couldn't help but find her attractive with her brown hair tied into a pony-tail.
"What can I do for you?" he asked her politely, persuading his muscles to relax, although he didn't want to commit himself to anything. "If it can wait a moment and you don't mind, I need to see Dr. Zelenka…" he added, trying to hint her that he didn't have time for a long conversation.
The woman nodded. "I understand, sir. We can discuss it while we walk. It won't detain you, sir."
John hid a groan of despair and smiled. "Alright. So what is your issue…"
He left the sentence unfinished but the woman took the cue and supplied her rank and name: "Captain Daniels."
"What is your issue, Captain Daniels?" John repeated his question and started walking in the direction of Radek's lab.
Hillary took a deep breath and followed him. "We," she began but then realised that it was too vague so she specified it, "I mean, some of the soldiers including myself, want to help your team, sir, with searching for Dr. McKay. We've found out that you have planned a mission to M1- something, the planet where he got lost, and we're willing to help."
John smiled at her genuinely. He didn't expect anyone to be willing to help look for his team's scientist because he was one of the most annoying men on the base but then again he knew the most about Atlantis and did everything in his power to keep it running smoothly on the highly advanced technological level. As for the personal aspect, well, there were other people but him.
John knew he was supposed to react somehow to Hillary's proposition but not to disclose Rodney's presence in the Infirmary. He didn't realise who Hillary was and so he treated her as another stranger. "Well, that's kind of you," he stated vaguely. "I'm sure your help will be very useful…"
"But?" Hillary wondered. She could sense there was something odd about John's behaviour but she couldn't pinpoint it to give it the right name.
John cursed mentally and gave her a fake smile. "I need to talk to Dr. Zelenka first before Dr. Weir allows more search and rescue missions to that planet. Then we'll look around the entire galaxy so your eyes and ears on every mission will be indispensable. So far, Captain, I don't have any more intel."
John crossed fingers on his left hand behind his back and hoped she would buy it. It was the best he could come up with to decrease her suspicion.
Hillary looked him over sceptically but couldn't argue his reason. This was what a leader would do not to waste their scarce resources. She walked by John's side for a moment, passing two soldiers who saluted to them immediately, with John only faintly acknowledging their presence.
She was thinking about it when he asked: "Is there something more I can help you with?"
She shook her head no. "No, sir," she replied. "Just keep me updated, please. We want to help, sir."
John nodded, Hillary saluted to him and left the way they had come. John took a decisive breath, entered the transporter and moved to the area with labs. He hoped he remembered where Radek's was when suddenly he heard a loud buzz overhead. He was shocked because he could recognise the sound very well. But he couldn't believe Atlantis wouldn't have warned them in advance.
He quickly activated his radio and called: "Control room, this is Sheppard. Do we have any foreign crafts in the air?"
A male technician replied: "No, Major, we don't. Are you seeing something that shouldn't be there?"
John's brows furrowed deeper but he quickly calmed the man: "No, I just heard… It's nothing. Sheppard out."
John pulled his 9mm from his thigh holster, cocked it and clicked the safety off before walking down the hallway cautiously, scanning it with his pistol at ready. From time to time, he checked labs until he reached the one he believed was assigned to Radek. Then he heard the screeching again, coming from the lab, and a projection of a Dart filled the space in front of him. John almost shot at it out of reflex but held himself back and called out: "Zelenka?"
Radek was surprised because he didn't hear him arrive, although over the noise he should have expected that, and so he dropped the connection and the image along with the sound disappeared in an instant. "Major," he greeted him. Then he noticed John's wide eyes and the gun aimed at him and he partly hid behind his computer. "Are you…are you alright, Major?" he asked then with a trembling voice, hoping John would lower the gun soon.
John coughed and returned his sidearm into his thigh holster. "Sorry," he apologised, "but I heard a Dart and then saw…" He shrugged. "Did you see it, too?" When Radek blinked at him blankly as if he didn't have a clue what he was talking about, he asked: "So this is what you've got from the device?"
"Um," Radek hesitated. He had rewired it to their hologram program because he had found out that it was designed to project images but he didn't expect it to show anything now. At least he didn't notice it because he was busy holding it all together. "Yes," he added afterwards.
"How?" John asked curiously.
"The device is a projector," Radek explained to him. "As you probably saw, it has the audio-visual interface. Maybe that's why Rodney could hear the Dart even down in the corridor."
John looked at Radek, then moved his eyes over to the device, trying to come up with a plausible option what the device was for on the planet. "Rodney said it was a Dart," he stated after a while of deep thinking.
"Yes," Radek agreed uncertainly and pushed the glasses up his nose. "And?"
"I hope I'm wrong," John informed him flatly, with pupils dilated in realisation. He had to be wrong. Jorgenson's team couldn't have shot at this hologram and not at all realised it had been only an illusion! And if so, something could have happened while they were searching or even before.
"Dr. Zee, I want you to forget what you have learnt. Don't tell anybody, especially Jorgenson's team. Dr. Ginger must not find out," he warned Radek who blinked several times in astonishment.
"Why? What's wrong, Major?" Radek couldn't help but ask. "Why don't you want to be right?"
John shook his head and turned his pleading eyes to him. "Please, Zelenka, until Rodney wakes up, don't tell anyone that you know what the device does. I need to hear Rodney's version first."
Radek nodded and pulled out all the wires that connected the device to his laptop. "As you wish," he said worriedly. "I'll lock it in my drawer."
John nodded and told him genuinely: "Thank you, Radek." Then he left and rushed to the Infirmary to inform another important man in this circus.