To Linda: haha yeah Friday! I look forward to it for more than the impending weekend myself. Thanks for keeping up with it. ^^
Last time: Settling into Atlantis isn't quite so bad. There's Elizabeth. And Athosians. And Rodney. Though, I may want to rethink if that's a plus or minus to the situation.
Chapter 21. Interesting Methods.
Doctor Collins walked into Rodney's lab with a frustrated sigh. "Why would you give her this scenario?" he groaned.
"Give who what?" Rodney asked.
Radek looked up from the computer in the corner and went to see the tablet in Doctor Collins' hand. Rodney had taken to giving Anna scenarios from their days on Atlantis as sort of math/science homework. This was the third one to Radek's knowledge and each one had taken her no less than three days to puzzle out. Radek didn't remember when Rodney'd given her this one, but it was long enough ago that Radek didn't quite remember it.
Collins handed the tablet to Rodney.
Rodney smiled a bit mockingly as he took the computer. "It was a natural progression from the last one. What, is it too hard for you, Collins?"
Collins scoffed and slid into his chair. "I lost her about three pages in. I don't think she knows what she's doing."
Radek frowned and took the tablet from Rodney's hands. Still, he owed Collins.
"I will buy you a drink," Radek mumbled.
He and Collins had a tradition. Whenever Rodney would publicly condescend either one of them, the other would get them a drink—the Athosians brewed some strong stuff that was easily accessible and didn't taste terrible. Radek wasn't sure where it started, but no one else would buy them drinks. It wasn't particularly fair to Collins. Rodney made a blood sport of condescending Radek.
Rodney took the tablet before he got much past the first line. It wasn't even enough to see what the scenario might have been.
"What did you give her?" Radek asked.
"The grounding station scenario," Rodney answered.
Radek spent his spare time helping her with concepts, but there were few hours. Probably too few to go through the entire process behind saving their lives during the hurricane. Rodney wrote the scenarios and checked them when Collins didn't have time. Rodney didn't want Radek touching anything having to do with Anna's science education. According to Rodney, he would do more harm than good.
That was fine. Anna had been doing fine, better than fine, so far.
Apparently not today.
"No wonder this took her a week. This is ridiculous," Rodney mumbled.
Radek waited for the accusations that Anna was, indeed, his daughter. Too bad for her.
"What's wrong?" Radek asked as Rodney drew his finger up the tablet to scroll.
"This is twenty pages' worth of complete disaster." Rodney looked more and more disturbed the further he got.
It's okay, Radek tried to tell himself. So she's not a prodigy. She's fifteen and working on a problem it took Rodney several hours to fix.
Rodney shook his head. "She had no idea what the hell she was doing so she basically reinvented the wheel."
"To be fair…" Radek spoke up.
"And the really horrible thing is, this would have eventually worked."
Radek couldn't help his grin. "Really?" He went to Rodney's side to examine her processes.
"Yes, except she came up with the lightning in the margins of page one." Rodney paused and looked at Radek as if to ask why he hadn't come up with the lightning that early.
"She does seem to see the big picture more readily," Radek allowed.
He took the tablet and skimmed. From what he saw, Rodney was right. She didn't know many of the concepts and ideas she was trying to use had already been invented—her mind seemed to lean toward a combination of electrical engineering and... something unidentifiable in such a crude form. She wrote herself in circles around a simple equation or two that she didn't know, and some of her suppositions of the quality of Atlantis's ordinary power transfer systems were way off. But Rodney was right... it would have worked.
At the end, for her summary, she explained in painstakingly spaced elementary English what she was trying to do. She checked her numbers with simulations from Atlantis itself. It would have taken her days to complete it, but without time constraints she would have saved the city.
"Don't look so smug," Rodney said.
"Our solving this problem took you almost getting struck by lightning once," Radek pointed out. "She thought of it almost immediately."
Rodney mumbled something incoherent. "I guess I'll track her down sometime later and show her how it's really done then. I don't have time to write in corrections to twenty pages of rambling."
"You enjoy this, though."
It was obvious, at least from the last times Doctor Collins had brought back Anna's "homework." Rodney was no teacher, but he could follow anyone's train of thought usually before they said anything substantial. Usually followed with a, Yes, I already thought of that, but it won't work because…
Rodney was quick on his feet with solutions. He just took a while to think of simple things.
"Let's just say I appreciate the opportunity to shepherd a young mind that would otherwise have been lost," he said.
"Of course," Radek said. Who knew Rodney's ego would work to his benefit? "Thank you again for agreeing to do this, Rodney." He gathered up his tablet and headed for the door.
"It's nothing," Rodney said. "Actually, you know, it is something. It takes a considerable amount of time…"
Radek walked out of the lab. "Thank you; I have to go talk to Elizabeth about these investigations."
Rodney scoffed. "Sure, you do."
#
"Am I interrupting?" Radek asked.
It was a little late for Elizabeth to be working… Of course, it was a little late for him, too. He hadn't seen Anna since lunchtime and he promised himself he wouldn't do this… But everyone else was working, weren't they?
He saw from the control room that Elizabeth was alone and working on something on her tablet. Perhaps reading, since she would only touch the screen occasionally and then stare for long periods of time. Not that he watched for a long time…
No, he had to talk to one of the 'gate technicians first. He might have glanced up occasionally. To be sure he wouldn't be interrupting. He shouldn't be rude.
"Oh, no," she said. She looked somewhat embarrassed. "Come in, Radek."
"Thank you." He went into the office and looked around. "You have my list of systems discovered while we were on Earth?" She nodded. "Do you have any questions or alterations for my priority list?"
She turned in her chair just enough so that Radek could see what was on the screen. Solitaire.
He smiled.
"To be honest, I think you're a much better judge of priorities than I am. Though, I think your location-based approach was interesting."
"The thought was perhaps the more important systems were closer to the central tower or a transporter."
"Have you talked to Rodney about this?" she asked.
He hesitated. "Yes."
"Did he agree with you?"
"He said if I couldn't handle my own department, I was welcome to join his staff."
She tried to hide a smile of amusement. "I see. Well, I didn't see anything of pressing need. I have to admit I'm more than a little interested to know what the—I don't think you even had a technical name for it. It was found in the room three floors down, along with the texts on ascension."
"Ah." He smiled and nodded. It was third on his list and he couldn't imagine a project he was less interested to get into. He imagined he'd catalogue it and then push it off on someone else to figure out. "Yeah, that should be interesting…"
"You're more than welcome to go in any order you choose," Elizabeth said. "But you should let me know if you turn up anything interesting."
"Of course," he said. Maybe he should be a little more interested in that strange-looking blue contraption three floors down.
He was done. With the business side of things, anyway. He stepped further into the room. "How has Anna been doing? I mean, if you have a moment…"
"Of course. I should probably get out of here anyway. I haven't eaten dinner yet."
"Neither have I." He felt even more guilty. Anna had dinner alone tonight, unless she decided to have dinner with Jennifer.
"Anna is a bright girl, Radek," Elizabeth said as they walked out to the control room. "She has a memory like a steel trap. Although, I get the impression she isn't very much interested in sociology." She smiled a little fondly, as though she somehow appreciated it.
Radek smiled, too. He had to admit, he wouldn't know what to do with her if she decided to be some sort of diplomat like Elizabeth. It would be okay, of course. He just wouldn't know what to do. "Thank you for your time all the same."
"It's a welcome distraction," Elizabeth said. "I think Jennifer and the others feel the same. Maybe even Rodney."
"Rodney enjoys superiority." Radek couldn't help but smile with the thought he wasn't being very fair. "But he can be good at explaining things when he wants to." Rodney almost seemed to enjoy "shepherding young minds" that were interested in learning, even though most of the "young minds" that worked on Atlantis weren't that young anymore. As long as someone wasn't being irredeemably stupid or self-assured, he was willing to take a moment to explain things. No doubt it did well for Rodney's ego. But Radek also didn't doubt that Anna could learn the most from Rodney.
But that didn't mean it was a good idea. It didn't mean Rodney was a good teacher. "I would never be able to give her the sort of education she'd get on those subjects by myself," he allowed.
"I understand Rodney's been… protective of her science education."
Radek knew a carefully-selected word when he heard one, especially from Elizabeth. "He has interesting methods," Radek said as they walked into the transporter together.
Elizabeth touched the dot for the mess hall. "But it's probably a good idea that you have him do it instead of you," Elizabeth offered. "It will give her more than one model for performance, and you a chance to get to know her outside the context of science." They stepped out into the mess hall and to the table with the after-hours selection.
Outside of science? Of course, there was an outside. But he wasn't sure what was out there. He'd failed out there all the other times he'd tried. He picked up a sandwich wrapped in cellophane—just about the only thing available outside the usual meal times. Elizabeth picked one up, also.
She motioned to the balcony. "Care to have dinner with me?" She laughed and looked at her wrapped sandwich.
"Ah." He sighed. He should be with Anna right now, shouldn't he? On the other hand, it didn't take long to eat a sandwich. Maybe he could practice getting to know someone outside the context of science.
Elizabeth was already sitting at a small table only big enough for two.
"I'd like that."
She grinned and unwrapped her sandwich. "Good."
Next time: At least I can talk to strangers.
