AN: Ok, here we go. Radek-centric chapter (gawd, why do I always like the geeks...) I've only proofread this chapter three or four times (and yea, I often need many more than that), so forgive any boo-boo's there may be within. NO MARY-SUENESS LIES HEREIN! (Still lookin for a perma-Beta! nudge-nudge-wink-wink)

Chapter 6

Zelenka wasn't sure how much time had passed before he slowly became aware again. He wasn't all that sure he wanted to be aware either, as the fist thing that assaulted his brain was a variety of hurts. His shoulder was throbbing again, he felt a spike of pain from his ribs every time he breathed, and his left thigh was screaming at him. Through the pain, he was aware that he was laying on something relatively soft, yet decidedly uncomfortable, not unlike the beds in the infirmary.

'Maybe I'm back on Atlantis, and Dr. Beckett is about to give me lots and lots of morphine,' his mind whispered. Slowly, he cracked one eye open and took in his surroundings.

Wherever he was, it certainly wasn't the infirmary, unless Carson had done some serious redecorating. The walls and ceiling were stone, with light sources built in to them, emitting a glow that was easy to see by, yet not harsh. He turned his head, and though his shoulder protested the movement, he was otherwise unhindered. He saw a room filled with clutter, though he couldn't make out any of the details.

He struggled to a sitting position, gingerly swinging his legs over the edge of the cot he was on. There was a dark stain covering most of the thigh of his left trouser leg, and through the tear in the material, he began to investigate the cut itself. He hardly stopped to wonder how he had gotten from the base of that incline to wherever he was now. That was, until a voice broke into his thoughts and nearly made him fall off the bed.

"Who are you?" it asked. Radek looked up and saw a woman approaching him from across the room. She had long, silvery gray hair, and eyes that might have once been bright blue, but had now faded to almost gray. She wore simple, loose fitting clothes in grays and browns. If Radek had not lost his glasses in the tumble, he would have also seen the lines on her face, which told of a long life. Yet she was not enfeebled; she stood straight and tall, and her voice was strong and demanded a response. It took Radek a moment to find his voice.

"I am Dr. Radek Zelenka," he said, keeping his voice as steady as possible. The ache in his head was growing, and he was starting to feel woozy. "Who are you?" he asked without thinking. The woman raised an eyebrow, but otherwise ignored his question.

"Why have you come here?" she asked. Zelenka gazed at her in confusion.

"I don't even know where 'here' is. I was in the cave and I fell--" he began, but she cut him off with a very McKay-like wave of her hand.

"To this planet, to the cave," she clarified, stepping closer to the scientist. "Why have you come?" Radek was certain the world was spinning around him, now, and his stomach was threatening to violently remind him of his last meal. Still, he tried to remain calm.

"My people are explorers," he said, slowly and carefully, looking the woman in the eye. "I am a scientist. I came to study the machines in the clearing. We came to the cave because we detected energy coming from it." He took two slow breaths, commanding his stomach to cease it's writhing. "We were just exploring. We meant no harm." He squinted at the woman, wishing his glasses had managed to stay on through the fall again. "Who are you?" he asked again.

"You do not know?" she asked, seeming genuinely confused. Radek shook his head, but immediately regretted it, as the edged of his vision grew dark for a moment. She stepped up next to him and looked down into his face. Now that she was standing so close, he could tell she was a very tall woman, probably better than six foot. "You are Human?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, unsure what else he could be. He looked away from the woman and back down at his bleeding leg. To his dismay, the stain grown larger. With his left hand, he pressed down on the wound to try and stem the blood flow, biting his lip as the action sent fresh waves of pain through him. The woman sighed and shook her head.

"Indeed, it would seem you certainly are human," she murmured. Radek wasn't sure, but it sounded as though he had just been insulted. However, when he looked back at the woman, she had a soft smile on her face. "Lay back, I will tend to you, and then we shall talk." Habit and exhaustion moved him to do as she asked; but he paused halfway through the motion, remembering he should probably be wary of this woman. "I will not harm you unless you give me cause to," she said, understanding his hesitation. Her smile was kind, and Radek was too exhausted to fight anyway, so he laid down and his eyes slid shut. After a few moments, they opened again so that he could see what the woman was doing. His blurred vision reminded him that his glasses were missing

"I don't suppose that you found my eyeglasses," he sighed. Another thought occurred to him, and he reached for where his headset should be, to find that gone as well. He swore quietly. The woman looked at him.

"Eyeglasses," she said, though it sounded almost like a question. "These?" she asked, proffering a bent but unbroken pair of wire-rimed spectacles. Radek smiled.

"Thank you!" he said, straightening the frames as best he could. "By any chance, do you have my radio as well?" he asked, more hopeful this time. The woman shook her head.

"No, I found nothing else," she told him, returning to her ministrations. After using what must have been some strange medical scanner to determine the extent of his injuries, the woman turned towards his wounded thigh. She drew out a small, but sharp, knife, and for a moment Radek's heart fluttered in panic. To his relief, the woman simply cut the bloodied fabric of his pant leg away so that she could clean and bandage the wound.

"You never did tell me your name," Zelenka said, glancing at the woman's face. He was puzzled by the mix of technology she used; the scanner versus the knife and cloth bandages that she now pulled from a drawer. She paused for a moment, considering how to respond.

"You may call me Breeda," she finally said. Her tone was light, but the smile had faded from her face.

"What is this place? Are you here alone?" Zelenka asked, hoping he wasn't pushing his luck too much, especially since she was still tending to his very unhappy thigh. He was curious, as they had not detected any life signs on the planet. The interference from the rock wall probably explained that.

"This place is home," she said simply. "I have been alone for some time now, and I'm not sure that hasn't affected my better judgment," she added with a smirk, glancing at his bandaged wound.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I mean," she continued, sitting Radek up so that she could change the dressing on his shoulder, which had bled through, "That I would not have been so forgiving of trespass in the past."

"Well whatever the reason, I thank you for your help," he said. She finished tending to his wounds, and he took a deep breath. 'Not the greatest idea,' he thought with a wince, since she had not done anything for his ribs.

"My sister was a far better healer than I," she said, as if in apology.

"This is much better than I could have done for myself, thank you," he said with a smile. The smile faded slightly as his mind drifted back to Colonel Sheppard in the infirmary on Atlantis, and he changed the subject. "Who did you think I was? I mean, you asked if I was human..." he trailed off as Breeda cast him a look he wasn't sure what to make of.

"One of your companions activated the defense mechanism, which is set to respond only to the Ancients or the Wraith; and you are certainly no Wraith," she said.

"Nor are we Ancients," he said, realization dawning, "Though some of us have a gene that will activate Ancient tech-- Wait a moment! Will that device trigger and affect anyone it reads as an Ancient?" Breeda nodded. "I must get back, warn them!" Radek said, growing frantic. If Klein had gotten it out of the wall, they would bring it back to the gate, Major Lorne, Atlantis, McKay... He tried to scramble from the bed, but his wounded leg reminded him sharply that it wasn't such a great idea. Breeda furrowed her brow.

"Get back where? Warn who?" she asked.

"The rest of my team, my friends. Many of them have the gene, and if what happened to Colonel Sheppard happens to them as well..." Zelenka left the thought unfinished, not wanting to think about the possibilities. Now was not the time to be delicate. "Do you know how to fix what has happened to him?" he asked.

"Of course," she said, still not seeming to follow the scientist's thought.

"Then please, you must tell me!" he pleaded.

"I think perhaps we need to discuss things a bit more," she said.

"There is no time! Klein nearly had the device out before I fell! They will be bringing it back to the Stargate, and--" he stopped as anger and fear flashed across the face of the woman before him.

"You removed the device?" she asked, her tone low and dangerous. Radek tried to swallow around a lump that had sprouted in his throat.

"Yes, well, we were trying to understand what had happened to Colonel Sheppard--" his explanation was cut off by a wave of Breeda's pale hand.

"It must be returned, at once!" she said.

"Well if you help Colonel Sheppard, then we will have no need of it! I am sure that it would not be a problem to return it to you."

"Where is this Colonel Sheppard now?"

"On Atlantis," he said.

"The city of the Ancients?" she said, stepping back from Zelenka as though he had recently bathed in excrement. "Oh, I will have no part of this! Take my defense screen back there, let them get what they have earned."

"I do not understand why you hate the Ancients so much, but they are long gone!" Radek was half surprised at the anger in his voice. "We may live in their city, but we are human, as human as you!" She was quiet. His tone softened. "You have shown me compassion here, and I hope that my loss of blood has not impaired my own judgment of character," he said, echoing her words from earlier. "I do not know much about you, but I have seen that you would not let an innocent man suffer needlessly. This was simply a mistake."

"Mistake or not, your friend is no innocent. If he were, the device would have had no effect on him," she said, anger flashing in her eyes. Radek was rapidly growing frustrated.

"We are wasting time arguing. The Ancients may be long dead or ascended or wherever they are, but your device can still cause major problems for my friends on Atlantis, who have never done anything to you! Now are you going to help me, or not?" She weighed the decision for a long moment, and Radek became nervous. Aside from not helping, the woman probably had it in her power to seriously hinder his ability to help anyone back on Atlantis.

"Very well," she said, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Your people came by the Stargate?" He nodded. "Then we shall leave shortly. The sun is almost fully up."

"How long was I asleep!" he asked in astonishment. It had been at least two hours till dusk last he knew.

"Several hours." He groaned. Things may have already spiraled out of control. This was not good. "We will need to walk to the gate; do you think that you will be able?" He tested his leg gingerly, but found it unwilling to support him. Breeda rummaged around in the clutter for a moment, then came back with what looked for all the world like a regular old crutch. She tapped the top of it before she handed it to Radek. As he tested his weight on it, it adjusted automatically to his height, and his eyes lit up with joy at the gadget. The geeky distraction only lasted a moment, as he focused again on the task at hand. He had to get back to Atlantis.

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End Notes: Ok, forgive the OC, but at least I'm no Mary-Sue writer! If anyone figures out the strange references that I'm making with this story, then you'll get a lifetime supply of cookies.

FYI, chapter 7 is being extra stubborn. I do hope to have it up by Friday, but no promises.