- Chapter 9 -
Radek arrived just in time to see Rodney disappear into the infirmary. Finally. A satisfied grin spread over his face. Good, Rodney had come, now everything would sort itself out. He still didn't know the reason why the major and Rodney had been summoned to the infirmary, but hesitated to go in after the physicist.
Just when he had almost decided to leave again, the door opened and Dr Robinson stepped out. He was the doctor who had taken care of his face the previous evening. Subconsciously, Radek rubbed the bridge of his nose and silently thanked whoever had invented painkillers.
"Dr Zelenka. Are you alright?"
"What? Oh, yes, yes, I'm fine. What about Dr Beckett? I heard the call, he is okay?"
"Well, the fever still hasn't broken, unfortunately, but we managed to bring it down a little. He was awake for a bit. That's why we called Major Sheppard and Dr McKay."
"Is Major Sheppard in there, too?"
"Yes, he is with Carson…" Dr Robinson began, but stopped when they heard an angry voice from inside the closed doors.
…With their LIVES, McKay… got yourself killed with your own stupidity… after all the training, you still make…"
" a mistake."
"… to spell 'science' with a 'z'. Being stupid enough not to secure a magazine equals active suicide; and leaving a weapon lying around with the safety off for anyone to stumble over it, is MURDER."
"…mean that…"
"Like hell I do! Tell me, would Carson be in here, if it wasn't for you? Would he be lying in the infirmary in intensive care, fighting for his life and quite possibly being paralysed for the rest of that life if not for you? Tell me, Rodney, would he?"
Radek had difficulties making out Rodney's responses, whereas Sheppard's had become increasingly easier to understand the louder the soldier yelled.
"O-oh." Radek had a feeling things hadn't gone quite according to his wishes. Casting a look to his counterpart he could see the almost ever present smile on the other man's face was gone and had been replaced with anger.
"What do they think they're doing?" Clearly fuming, the doctor went back through the glass-covered doors. Zelenka followed closely behind. He hoped, with all his might, that Carson hadn't been woken up by this little scene.
oOo
His prayers hadn't been heard.
Radek couldn't quite see behind the screen that had been placed partially around Carson's bed, but just looking at the hectically moving shadows and hearing the urgent voices told him all he needed to know. Not having any sympathy to spare for either McKay or Sheppard at that moment, Zelenka quickly passed them by to find out what was happening.
Dr Robinson was clearly prepared to give these two the dressing down of the century, but everyone's attention was suddenly on the bed behind them. Radek felt Rodney follow him, Sheppard stayed where he was, rooted to the spot.
They didn't get very far, however, before they were stopped by two of the USAF medics.
"I'm sorry, Sirs, you have to give the doctors some room."
Behind them, Radek could see Carson fighting the people holding him down, clearly in a state of panic but only half conscious. Dr Biro was talking to him, was trying to calm him down, but to no avail.
For a second, the hiss of an opening door distracted Radek and he looked behind him just in time to see the major leave in a rush.
"Let them through." Biro ordered sharply. "Dr McKay, try to calm him down; let him know you are here. He's only doing himself more harm if he keeps that up.
There was hesitation and Radek felt Rodney start shaking next to him, but the physicist immediately shied away when Radek tried to close the distance between them with an outstretched hand.
"I…I…can't." Rodney stumbled a couple of steps backwards. He looked horrible, worse than he had yesterday after days without sleep. And when he suddenly turned and ran out of the room, Radek was too surprised to stop him.
"Rodney!" Zelenka wanted to follow him, but had to make sure that Carson was alright first. Someone had obviously managed to hold the doctor still long enough to administer a sedative. Slowly the flailing of the arms stopped until, to everyone's relief, Carson finally passed out.
"That went well." You had to admire Biro's dryness, sometimes. "Let's get some x-rays and see how much damage he managed to do."
"Doctor?"
"I'll let you know. Try to get Dr McKay in here. Dr Beckett ordered a check-up after last night and he didn't really look good." Understatement of the year.
- Chapter 10 -
"Dr Zelenka. Wait up, please!"
Radek had stayed in the infirmary until they rolled Carson out of sight, before hurrying after Dr McKay. Again, he had no idea where the physicist might have run off to, so, sighing audibly and fiercely rubbing his face, Radek started his search all over again. A call from behind stopped him halfway down a hall and he turned around.
"Sergeant…?" He knew he knew the woman's name. After all, it was she who had been assigned to watch his back during the Siege whenever he'd had to run around the city trying to keep up with Rodney's orders. She had only recently arrived on the Daedalus, but Radek usually had a good reputation when it came to remembering people's names. This time, though, no matter how hard he tried, his tired brain came up empty.
"Drewitz, Sir." She seemed disappointed.
"Right, right. I'm sorry. Can I help you with something?"
"Dr Weir requested your or Dr McKay's presence in the control room."
"What's wrong now?" Radek realised it was a stupid question as soon as the words had left his mouth, but, if the Sergeant thought so too, she didn't let it show and answered with a small, but rather charming, smile.
"I don't know exactly, but judging from what I've seen, Sir: what's right there?"
"True." He smiled back, but straightened up when he caught himself staring at her. Embarrassed, Radek cleared his throat and quickly excused himself with a curt nod, before addressing her a last time. "Oh, uh, why didn't Dr Weir call me on the radio?"
"She said she'd tried to get through to Dr McKay but he isn't answering, so I volunteered to come look for you."
"I see." No surprise on the McKay front there. He could only hope Rodney wouldn't do anything stupid while he was held up in the control room. Then a thought occurred to him. "So you are still looking for Dr McKay, yes?"
"No. I was told to get either one of you, so I'm on my way back. Something wrong?"
"No, no, nothing's wrong." Nothing at all. "But in case you see Dr McKay, could you call me, please?"
"Of course." She readily agreed, obviously not finding anything out of the ordinary in Radek's question. So why was he feeling like he just cheated on his friend?
oOo
What's right there?
Indeed.
The control room was a mess. Probably now more than ever. With too few specialists who were able to help with the equipment, too many half-hearted attempts at repair had been made by everyone else, seemingly from the chef to the last janitor. Radek groaned inwardly. To fix the fixing would most likely take longer than if they had waited for the actual engineers to do the work. At least Rodney was nowhere in sight. Zelenka had an idea of the way the physicist would react if he saw what had been done to the controls.
Crouching down in front of the power control console, Radek tugged at the first irregularly flickering, vitreous crystal without much success. From his position on the floor he had a good view over most of the main workstations overlooking the gate-room. For a second the tugging and pulling stopped as he heard the squeaking of a chair. Peter's chair.
That chair shouldn't squeak. Not now. Not anymore.
The Canadian sitting on it was busy chatting with one of the marines from the Daedalus and didn't notice Radek's glances. The normality of the situation felt wrong somehow; that someone was already occupying this very chair felt like a violation, a dishonouring of a good man.
He missed Grodin. Until now there hadn't been a chance to deal with the emotional side of last days' events; for any of them. Unfortunately Radek had the feeling it would still be a while until they could afford to do that. Peter had known the computers better than anyone, besides maybe Rodney or himself. And he had been one of his closest friends.
He was gone now. As were many others. The tugging started again, growing into a forceful yanking, which still had no visible effect on the tenacious crystal.
Radek knew of Peter's girlfriend he'd left behind on Earth; knew he had been on holiday in Prague with his parents when he was 9 years old and knew that Peter preferred Darjeeling to Earl Grey. "The one think I don't have in common with Captain Picard - besides the hair" he'd said. A brief smile flashed over Radek's face at the fond memory and the sudden truth that Peter would never again sit in this squeaking chair punched him like a fist in the stomach.
If this was almost too much for him to bear, how would Rodney cope and what about Carson, who always had a front row seat for each and every death in the city? Biting his upper lip hard to stop his emotions bubbling up further, Radek concentrated on the problems at hand. Some things had to wait now.
With a frustrated cry he smashed a screwdriver into the crystal which dropped to the ground with a satisfying clatter.
oOo
"How are things coming along?" Zelenka had been working for a couple of hours now and wasn't surprised that Elizabeth was looking for an update. Still, he hoped she wouldn't notice the faint red spots that always blossomed on his cheeks whenever he saw her.
"Not too bad. The power fluctuations have stopped and we successfully integrated the ZPM into the system with our own generators. So far everything seems to be working fine. As for the repairs, due to the damage inflicted by the dart-attacks as well as by the Wraith soldiers in the city… it's going to take a while, I'm afraid."
"How long are we talking about until we can start normal operations again?"
"Probably a week? Five days maybe?" If they were lucky.
"And Dr McKay would say what? 24 hours?" She gave him a small smile and he knew she was simply joking a little with reference to the cloaking-discussion Rodney and Radek had had, but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to see it that way. Weariness, worry and the lingering headache had worn on his patience.
"I don't know what Dr McKay would say. To be perfectly honest I'd be interested to hear it, because we could use him right about now. Let me assure you, I'm not playing Mr Scott. If I saw a way to get it done quicker I would do it. But as things stand, I don't."
Elizabeth looked at him, but she anticipated the apology before he could start one. "Sorry, Radek. I know how hard you are all working. And Rodney is down at the flooded areas of the grounding stations. I thought he'd told you."
Actually he had. Well, maybe not personally, but the complaints that had started to hit his head-set about two hours ago, the three requests to be reassigned and one plea for a sharp, pointy object had left no doubts just where his boss was at the moment and in what mood.
"Why don't you take a break, Radek? Get something to eat, a little fresh air."
Just how pathetic did he look right now? Probably as much as he was feeling. He could live with it though, if it meant Elizabeth's hand stayed on his shoulder.
Blushing furiously, Radek gave the expedition's leader a lopsided smile. "Yes, good idea. Yes, yes."
Mumbling unintelligibly and slapping his forehead repeatedly, the engineer left, leaving a puzzled looking Elizabeth Weir behind.
- Chapter 11 -
Opting for caffeine first, before going for food, Radek's destination was the sedimentology lab. For some reason, the scientists there tended to brew the strongest coffee in the city. Rumours, coming from the chemistry-department, claimed the reason for this was the geologists' inability to count to ten.
One night though, Dr Myers had casually observed the similarity in colour between hydrochloric acid and moonshine and just how effective the little red and white sign with the dripping test-tube and hand-with-a-hole in-it was in keeping people from looking too closely.
Right about now, he could use a shot of the mysterious liquid, but, for the moment, coffee would have to do.
The closer Radek got to the scientific wing of the city, the harder it was to swim against the tide of scientists suddenly fleeing from the physics, engineering and – he recognised with some surprise – even the biology labs.
He had a sneaking suspicion he knew why people were running from the crime-scene and was quickly proven right; Kavanaugh and McKay yelling at each other was a dead giveaway.
"I specifically said no-one was to touch the labs before I gave the go-ahead. What gives you the right to overrule me, you yellow-faced son of a cockroach?"
"You. Weren't. There. Were you expecting us to just stand around and wait for your highness to finally honour us with your presence? Believe it or not, McKay, we are able to do things without you supervising our every step."
"Oh, I can see that. The experiment you just ruined makes your competence blatantly obvious, and the power surge that knocked out half of the city – TWICE – renews my trust in your pre-school education. Yes, you are absolutely able to screw things up on your own. You don't need me to do that."
"No-one could have foreseen that this would happen. Not even you. We calculated everything. Even Dr Zelenka checked the numbers, seeing as he seems to be the only one worthy of your trust. These things happen and no matter how much you would like to make me your scapegoat – again – it would have happened to you, too."
"See, that's where you're obviously wrong. It wouldn't have. This was YOUR fault." Rodney was quickly working himself up to an early demise via a heart attack from the sound of things, but he would take Kavanaugh down with him.
"And you are free of errors of judgment, Mr Perfection." Radek could virtually hear the glare McKay shot towards his favourite subject for untested chemical substances. "So you knew beforehand that the by-pass on the satellite would end up locking Dr Grodin in. You knew that Dr Beckett would come in here and…"
Watching McKay and Kavanaugh fight was usually the highlight of his day and he liked to just sit back and enjoy the show. But now, things were going down a very steep hill, very fast, with no bottom in sight.
Crossing the remaining distance to the physics lab at a run, Radek arrived just in time to catch McKay around the waist in mid-jump, and probably saved a surprised Kavanaugh from several broken bones.
"See? Just as I said," Kavanaugh sneered at Zelenka. "He knows I'm right, and when he's lacking arguments he has to resort to violence."
"Go." Radek was still struggling to keep Rodney from hitting the chemist, even if the desire to do so himself grew with each passing second.
Kavanaugh obviously didn't catch on his tone of voice. "But not this time, McKay. Not this time! Dr Zelenka witnessed how you tried to attack me. I'm filing a complai…"
"GO!" Radek felt the pressure on his forearm increase as the fight vanished from McKay's sagging frame. Wanting nothing more than to physically kick Kavanaugh out of the lab, he glared at the taller man. "GO, NOW, before I forget myself!"
Kavanaugh's eyes widened to saucers in shock, but Radek shot him a look that dared the scientist to defy him. Without another word the man stormed from the room, cursing loudly only when he was out of sight. Radek had no problems ignoring him and focussed on Rodney, only releasing his hold on his friend once he was sure he would be able to stand without falling.
"Don't listen to him. He is just brainless červ. Doesn't know what he's talking about at best of times. Rodney?" Radek knew his tone was almost pleading by now, but Rodney kept looking on the floor; flinched away from further touch. He seemed so lost, so broken. And Radek felt overwhelmed with the situation; this was way out of his league. "Why don't we have a look how Carson is doing, yes?" He was clutching at straws.
"No." A simple word, uttered softly, but left no room for arguments.
The engineer attempted to stop McKay. Blocked his way when Rodney walked towards the door, talked to him when he was shoved aside. But all words were ignored, so in the end he had no choice but to let McKay go.