Rodney watched in fascination as Dr Zelenka worked. He had connected two pieces of equipment together and was alternately peering into one screen, pressing a few buttons and then peering into another screen.
"What's that?" Rodney asked, indicating the smaller of the two machines.
"It's a laptop," Zelenka answered in a thick accent. Seeing Rodney's puzzled face, he continued, "A laptop computer? We use them for a lot of our work."
Rodney's face brightened. "Ah, I've got a computer. Mine's an Apple II, with Visicalc. It's really useful."
Zelenka smiled. "I think you'll find computers have changed a lot since the Apple II," he commented dryly.
"Show me," Rodney demanded.
Zelenka looked up at John, who nodded. "Won't do any harm," he said.
So Zelenka spent half an hour showing Rodney how the laptop worked; how to run up the various programs, how the operating system worked and how the software they used to interface with the Atlantean systems ran. Rodney was absolutely fascinated. He could have spent the rest of his life working on this stuff! But eventually he was forced to give in and allow Zelenka to get back to his work. He looked up at John instead. "Is this really my future?" he demanded.
John nodded. "It would appear so," he agreed.
Rodney thought for a second, then a broad grin spread across his face. "Now that I could live with," he declared.
He wandered over to the big window that dominated one wall of the lab. He stared out at the rest of the city. "Where are we, exactly?"
"Uh – we're on a city in the middle of the ocean."
He turned to stare at John. "What ocean?"
"Now, that would be telling." John looked uneasy. "Look, Rodney, I really don't know how much of this you should know. We don't want to change the past, we just want events to play out as they must. If we tell you too much it might change what you do."
Rodney looked as if he was about to argue, but then swallowed hard and stared out of the window again. "It's never gonna happen."
"What?"
"Me, being here. My Dad will never let me."
"With all due respect, I do not believe your father has that much influence on your future," interjected Zelenka.
"Are you kidding?" Rodney turned on him furiously. "He says I've got to be a medical doctor, and he'll do anything to make that happen. Whatever I do, he twists it to that goal. If I do anything against him he makes my life a misery!"
"And you let him?" asked John quietly.
Rodney stared down at his feet for a moment. "I don't have a choice." His voice was more sullen than the others had ever heard. "What do you expect me to do? I'm twelve years old. I can't put myself through college, and I'm not even going to get there unless I'm studying medicine. If I do badly at school my father yells at me, and if I do well at school the other kids beat me up."
"Rodney, come with me," said Teyla, who had been following the conversation with interest.
"Wait a minute, where are you taking him?" asked John in alarm.
Teyla had Rodney by the arm and was leading him towards the door. "I think it is about time Rodney had some lessons in self-defence," she said over her shoulder as they went out.