Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.

Last time: Atlantis next, right? Riiiight?

Yes. Now Atlantis. I am so sorry. But this is pretty much how this story is going to work. So get used to it. I'm in it for the long haul. Maybe break out your Atlantis DVDs. You'll be watching, like, an episode a month at this rate. I've got a bunch of little story arcs planned, which is why I started the whole "Last Time in Drz Se, Miláčku" thing. They will eventually become more useful. Anyway. You didn't come here to watch me talk to myself.


Chapter 18. City of Lights.

The Stargate was a sort of dark silver, almost black, and blue. She hadn't seen the 'gate in the Milky Way galaxy. She wasn't allowed in the 'gate room then, but she and several others had been beamed straight to the room above the 'gate.

It was an amazing-looking machine. She wondered when she'd get to see it working. If she'd get to see it working. Would she ever get to use it? She didn't have any reason to, so she guessed not. On the other hand, could she really go to another galaxy and not go through the Stargate at least once? It would be like going to a Disney amusement park and not seeing the mouse.

"Are you ready?"

Anna looked at Radek from her corner of the control room. He asked her to wait, oh, forty-five minutes ago while he "skimmed" a report about the discoveries made while he was away. Either there were a lot of discoveries or he wasn't skimming. Or maybe he was just really slow. That was possible, too, since Anna doubted it was in Czech.

"Yeah," she said, and stood up from her legs hanging off the balcony's ledge. It wasn't incredibly comfortable, since the lowest bar was too low for her to put her legs under, but it seemed like it was frowned upon. So she sort of had to do it.

Radek was suddenly next to her, looking at the 'gate. "I see you noticed the Stargate."

"How could I miss it?" She smiled. He had to be joking. "Will I ever get to go through it?"

"Probably someday," he said. "We should get you settled in our quarters first."

"How far is it?"

"Not far, using the transporter." He walked ahead of her down the stairs and around a long corner that led to four different hallways.

Unlike on the Daedalus, all the uniforms here were the same. There were no green Daedalus jumpsuits, just the blue or khaki Atlantis jackets. Here and there were the traditional American military camouflage covered by flak jackets. This seemed still to be primarily a civilian scientist operation, or else all the military personnel were somewhere else.

"I asked for new quarters, more like an apartment," he said, standing aside for her to enter a small room that seemed to go nowhere. Maybe it was an elevator.

"Alright," she said. Not much else to say about that.

He followed her into the elevator and tapped the screen on the wall. It was a picture of Atlantis from the top down, silhouette only. Small yellow dots freckled the space. Radek pointed at one, first with his mummified right hand. He realized that wasn't going to work well for him and switched to his left.

"We're here," he said. "This is the control tower. You will come here to see Elizabeth, probably." He cut himself off with a shake of his head. "Quarters. On the south-east pier." He pointed at another dot, this time touching it.

The next time the door opened, they were in another place entirely. It was sort of like an Asgard beam. But not. They stepped out into a wide hallway filled with strange angles and potted plants. He walked slowly down the hall. Anna guessed it was so he could talk.

"You'll take a few days to get settled in," he said. "Teyla has kindly offered to take you to meet her people day after tomorrow if you want to go. There are people your age. I think it's a festival of some kind."

"Will you be going?" Anna asked.

"I'll be working."

Anna sighed and nodded. Of course, he would. She didn't even know what this Teyla looked like.

"But maybe I won't be," he backpedaled. Probably at her reaction.

"It's okay," Anna said. After all, if there was one thing she'd learned on the trip over, it was that when there was an emergency, there was really an emergency. She knew she could entertain herself in a city like this to no end. She didn't need festivals and kids her age.

"No. No, it's not," he said. "We'll go to the festival together." He stopped walking without warning in front of a door. "This is it."

It was a red door, like all the other doors. He stepped forward and waved his hand in front of a blue bar. The door slid open on a huge, mostly empty room. There was a sofa, a desk, a table, and a window seat in immediate vision. Along one wall was a long counter and what looked like a sink. Two small doors on either side might have led to bedrooms. Long floor-to-ceiling windows looked out on the rest of the city.

"It's nice," she said.

"You can pick whichever room you like." He pointed to the two doors on either side. "They're identical suites, but mirrored."

"You didn't get something bigger?" she asked. She wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. It was by no means small. Probably a little large for just the two of them. "Aren't you a senior member of the science team?"

"Less space to mess up," he said with a smile.

She laughed. She guessed that was going to be more a problem for her than for him. He probably lived in his lab.

One wall was almost entirely made of windows, looking out on the city. Lightly colored spires sprawled over the ocean. She could only barely see the blue peeking out between one tower and another. "Nice view," she said.

"That's what I get for being a senior member." He walked over to the window. He looked out fondly, like he was looking at… well, something other than a bunch of buildings. "You will see it at night."

She supposed she would in a few hours. It was hard to tell what time it was, though.

Anna went to the nearest door on the left. It swept open when she stood before it, allowing entrance to a small room with a bed, a desk, and a window seat. The architects of Atlantis seemed to love their view. A wall cut off what she assumed was a bathroom.

"This one will be fine."

She walked back out, spinning around in a circle, trying to take it all in. Yes, she could get used to this. Colorado Springs was nothing in comparison to this. Two large gray trunks sat near the door on the floor—all their things.

Last year, if someone told her she could consolidate her life into a single trunk that she couldn't even fit in, she'd call them crazy.

"I always eat in the mess hall." He looked at the sink he was standing next to. Anna wondered if there was a stove or oven around here somewhere.

"I figured. I don't remember you cooking much." She smiled at him. Also during their month in Colorado Springs, she'd gotten very used to the food on base, at various restaurants along the way, and take-out Chinese and pizza.

"I'll show you where that is, next. Then my lab." His eyes lit up.

They went back to the Ancient elevator, tapped a dot, and ended up in what Radek announced was the mess hall. It was a huge, multi-tiered room with a balcony looking out on the ocean. Coffee and tea sat along one wall, apparently always available alongside snacks. Anna guessed that meals were served at specific times.

Now was obviously not one of those times. There were several individuals sitting at tables, drinking coffee and reading tablets. Other than that, the place seemed simply cavernous. Just another place to get lost in the crowd outside of a school cafeteria.

Speaking of school…

She never got to ask.

He took her all the places she might need to go. He showed her the infirmary. Jennifer was there, busily familiarizing herself with her new workplace. They didn't bother her, though Anna learned Jennifer had volunteered to tutor Anna on the finer points of molecular biology.

Radek apparently saved the best for last. His lab was next to Doctor McKay's, a bit smaller, but functional. He was like a small child showing a parent his art project from school or something.

Anna stood in the doorway while he talked about some Ancient gadget, unable to help her smile. He didn't know what it did, but he found a lot to say about it anyway. She wanted to go inside the lab and explore the place more closely—after all, this place was more exciting than anywhere else she'd seen so far—but she didn't want to be interested. She couldn't be interested.

She was interested. She stepped into the room and was careful not to touch anything. She couldn't wait to know what some of these things did. She couldn't wait to prove she belonged here. She leaned over the desk and looked at the tablet.

Would she get to learn from the things in this room? Would she get to help him work?

They explored a bit more before heading back to the quarters. Anna didn't realize that it was dark outside until the door opened.

He was right. It was beautiful. The spires sparkled with a thousand lights and reflected off the water in the distance. It was a mysterious and alien city in the daytime, but at night it was different. At night it looked like a beacon, warm with yellow lights. Just when she thought she'd seen everything Atlantis had to offer, she turned around and it gave her something new…

She walked to the window and gazed out. She could look at this forever.

"Beautiful, yes?" he asked.

She nodded and went to stand at the window. This was definitely the best room in Atlantis.

He went to the trunk. "Do you want help unpacking?"

She smiled a little. She had thought he was going to say something about it being time for bed and she was all ready to say she wasn't eight anymore. "Sure."

#

Radek was surprised at how quickly Anna's trunk emptied out into her room. She didn't have many clothes, really only those he'd bought for her that day at the mall, and a handful of books. Her bedding took up most of the space in the trunk, carefully wrapping two delicate figurines that Radek recognized from the dusty piano of their home.

He amused himself by arranging the two figurines on the bookshelf until he noticed Anna pull a book from the bottom of the trunk. A few pages stuck out of it, but it was clear what the book was for.

"Photo album?" he asked.

She nodded, not saying anything. She sat on the floor and pulled the picture of Eliška from under the top cover. She held it for a few seconds, running her fingers down the edge of the photo, before putting it on the low table beside the bed.

"Do you want a frame for that? I have one." He'd actually gotten it specifically for her. It was hard to miss the picture taped above her nightstand in Colorado Springs. Eliška smiling outside a cafe, spring blooms lining the beige streets behind her. The picture couldn't have been very old, but the corners of the picture were curled and frayed like it was. Tape folded over the sides from being stuck to the wall and who knew what else.

Anna shrugged. "I don't mind."

He'd give her the frame anyway. If she chose to use it, then fine. If not… well, it was five dollars. It wasn't as if he was hurting for cash. There wasn't anywhere around here to spend it. Even the food was free.

The picture reminded him, though. He smiled and pulled out his ID wallet. It was thin, and black, with plastic windows on the front and back. It was meant to hold an access card and identification in case of accidental frying by some ten-thousand-year-old Ancient experiment. Sandwiched between the two cards, Radek kept a little-seen photo that he hadn't actually looked at in… well, now it had been a few weeks since he looked at it. He used to go months and years.

He handed her the stiff cardstock as he sat on the edge of her newly-made bed. This picture was in excellent condition… Maybe because he didn't look at it often. But he always had it. That was something, wasn't it?

"It's the only photo I have of us," he said. He didn't know if that was sad or not, but it was a wonderful picture. An autumn day, a smiling five-year-old Anna tried to escape the bear hug of her laughing father. Eliška looked on from the sidelines, obviously amused. It was a work picnic or some sort. He didn't remember whose work, who took the picture, or how they'd ended up with a stack of these pictures sitting on the dining room table for months.

For a moment, just a moment, he wondered how Eliška was doing today—like he always wondered when he looked at this picture. But she was gone. He wondered if that truth would ever seem real. They'd been apart for so long that it was easy to forget. This wasn't a consequence he'd anticipated. Every time he remembered, it was like remembering for the first time.

"I have this one, only bigger. It was on my desk at home," she said. She turned the photo in her hands before giving it back. "It's one of my favorites of mom. She didn't like it, though."

Radek took a closer look at Eliška. She probably thought she looked exhausted. Radek guessed most mothers of five-year-olds were. If only she'd known she didn't look any less beautiful for it. "It's a good picture of her."

"It's the only one you have?" Anna asked.

"Of you and me, yes." He hadn't been there for many photo-ops.

Anna carefully opened her photo album, tilting it toward her. Radek wondered what could possibly be inside she wouldn't want him to see, but didn't ask. A moment later, she withdrew a wallet-sized picture and handed it to him. "This was mom's favorite."

Radek laughed. "I thought these were lost." Most people made a point not to lose baby pictures, but these were different. His brother had taken this particular picture, and the last time Radek had seen it was the last time Radek saw him. "Look at you."

Anna smiled politely. She'd probably seen this picture a hundred times… but, of course, it wouldn't mean anything to her. She couldn't remember this moment.

This precise moment, even if it hadn't been captured in a photograph, was nearly indelible in his memory. It didn't matter how seldom his recollection of it was. He suspected he would always remember the bewilderment and, for lack of a better word, joy. Anna was only a handful of hours old. Eliška was sleeping, and someone handed him the baby. He didn't realize until later that his brother had snapped a picture of his first words to his daughter.

Oh, hello. My, you're little.

Not eloquent by any means. But Anna didn't know any difference. Fortunate, too, because shortly thereafter he'd stumbled through what he could remember of a lullaby. He'd never been much of a singer.

"You can keep that one," she said quietly. "I have two."

"Thank you." He slid this picture between his ID cards next to the other picture. He looked at the cover of the photo album for a few seconds, wondering what other pictures she had. Pictures of an Anna he completely missed, growing up and going to school, living like he didn't exist except in pictures on the desk.

"I have some more," Anna offered finally.

She flipped a few pages, careful to keep the pages out of his view. She handed him picture after picture, sliding a bit closer on her knees to look at the pictures with him. Pictures of the wedding day. His and Eliška's graduations. Anna playing in the park, under the dining room table, coloring, writing her first numbers under Eliška's tutelage.

Anna took the pictures back, sliding them into their pouches in the album. "It's getting late…" she said quietly.

"It is." Radek scolded himself as he stood. Probably should have let Anna get to sleep hours ago. Forget Anna—he should have been asleep hours ago. He smiled at her, but she didn't seem happy. She seemed… well, if he didn't know any better, he thought she looked like she was about to cry.

He didn't know any better, and he wasn't sure what to do even if she was. "Good night."


Next time: I just need a Band-Aid, I swear.