Radek Zelenka was in a bad mood. As if it wasn't enough that he'd been stuck running diagnostics on the Puddle Jumpers on his own now that McKay was tied up in the control room, two of the Jumpers he was supposed to be working on had been sent to the mainland. Yes, he had told McKay that he could cope on his own; he didn't want to give Rodney the satisfaction of thinking he wasn't quite up to the job, but he could have done with a helping hand, even though the absent Jumpers meant he had less to get through.
He'd analysed four ships already and was just about to start on a fifth when his datapad bleeped. He frowned, and flicked through the data that had just popped up on the screen. Looking concerned, he went back into the Jumper he had just emerged from, pulled open the hatch above the seats, connected his pad to some of the cables protruding from it and pulled out a control crystal. He flicked a couple of buttons on the pad and it bleeped again. His eyes widened in shock and he disconnected his pad and ran to another Jumper, hooking it up to the ship's controls. It bleeped a third time and he cursed in Czech. Pulling the tablet pad from its connections, he hurtled down the gangplank of the craft and ran off in the direction of the control room, and Rodney McKay.
oOo
"WHAT!" McKay hollered, startling everyone in the control room. "HOW?"
"I don't know", Zelenka said looking anxious. "It just started spitting those figures out."
"Lemme see." Rodney said impatiently, snapping his fingers and holding out his hand for Radek's datapad. Zelenka handed it over, and lost for something to hold, started wringing his hands.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. What the hell is that?" Rodney yelled to no one in particular, gesturing wildly at the screen of the tablet pc in front of him. "Radek, what the hell did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, McKay." The Czech replied, fighting the urge to shout back. Rodney always blamed him if things went wrong, and he was on the verge of telling the Canadian exactly what he thought of him, when the radio of the control room crackled.
"Atlantis, this is Sheppard."
"Go ahead, John." said Elizabeth, rubbing her temples as she listened to the two scientists squabbling next to her.
"Uh, we've got a little problem here on the mainland. The Athosian women's in labour, Beckett says he needs the incubator thing in the infirmary up and running stat, and a medical team on standby."
"I thought she wasn't due to give birth for a few days?" Rodney said looking up, distracted from his shouting session.
"Hence the problem, McKay." John replied sarcastically. Rodney glared at the control panel, despite it only being an audio link.
"And don't look at me like that, Rodney." John added, making the scientist look around cautiously as though he was being watched. Zelenka smirked.
"Alright, I'll contact the med labs, make sure they're ready for them." Elizabeth said, smiling at Rodney's confused expression.
"Thanks. I'll radio you when we're ready for take off. Sheppard out."
Rodney took this as his cue to start abusing his vocal chords again, Zelenka sighed and started muttering in Czech. Sympathising with Radek, Elizabeth went into her office to contact the medical team.
"Radek! Are you even listening to me?"
"Yes, Rodney." said Zelenka through gritted teeth.
"Good. Well, I'm still trying to figure out what the hell's going on in the north-west section of the city, we've had power fluctuations occurring on all morning for no obvious reason, and now you've screwed up with the Jumpers – you know, I knew I shouldn't have left you alone with them – you'd struggle to change a light bulb, and on top of all that, where the hell is my damn coffee?" Rodney shrieked, causing everyone in the control room to stare at him. It was amusing to watch McKay getting neurotic, as long as it wasn't you he was yelling at.
"Right next to you, Dr. McKay. In exactly the same place I left it ten minutes ago." said the technician Rodney had used as a tea-boy earlier. "As is the powerbar you requested. May I suggest that you eat it as soon as possible? Your hypoglycaemia seems to be making you a bit…edgy." He said with a sarcastic smile. Rodney glowered at him, snatched up the bar, checked the label to make sure that no one was trying to poison him with citrus products, and proceeded to devour it as though he hadn't seen food in weeks, washing it down with a long swig of coffee. Zelenka hid a smirk. When Rodney McKay comes face to face with any danger he becomes a gibbering wreck, but try to keep him from food and coffee for more than a few hours and he'll rip you to pieces. Not that you could call powerbars 'food'.
"Dr. McKay?" spoke up another technician cautiously.
"What?" snapped Rodney.
"I think you might wanna take a look at this." The young woman looked concerned. Rodney heaved himself to his feet as though it was the most tedious thing in the world, muttered something about having important things to do, and dragged himself over to the technician's terminal. He exhaled noisily, peered at the monitor and frowned.
"What the…?" He said to no one in particular.
"What is it?" Zelenka said, moving next to him.
"Decrease in water pressure." He replied. He turned to the technician. "See if you can isolate the source of the problem." The woman tapped some keys on her laptop and looked at Rodney. He screwed up his face.
"You gotta be kidding me. What the hell is up with you today?" He said, looking up at the ceiling.
"Um…who are you talking to, Rodney?" Zelenka asked.
"Atlantis! She's been temperamental all morning. If only Sheppard were here, he can usually sort her out. She always seems to respond to him. No idea why. Maybe it's just cause he's like that with women…" Zelenka coughed. "Ahem…I digress. Where was I? Ah yes. There's been a sudden drop in water pressure in the same section we've been having power anomalies. Something tells me it's not a coincidence."
"Unless the space monkeys got in again," the tea-boy technician said with a grin. McKay gave him a look of disgust and made a noise to match.
"I am surrounded by idiots." He said. Zelenka glared at him, but then thought better of it as he saw Elizabeth walking towards them. She nodded a greeting.
"Gentlemen. If Colonel Sheppard makes contact again, can you please inform him that the med team is on standby?"
"Um, yes Dr. Weir." Radek replied with a smile, as he pushed his glasses further up his nose. Rodney smirked quietly. Trust Radek to suck up to Elizabeth.
"Don't you have Puddle Jumpers to fix? We're on a time scale here, remember? New baby? Screaming mother?" McKay remarked. "Or maybe it's not such a good idea for you to do it seeing as what you did to the last one…"
Zelenka opened his mouth to respond, and then remembered that Elizabeth was standing next to him. He grabbed his datapad, nodded politely at Weir and marched out. Rodney chuckled to himself.