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

Previously: Adventures be happening (since chapter 103). There are skeletons and planets and treasures and stuff. And also Radek senses a broken heart in Anna's future (last chapter)...


Chapter 107. Our Secret.

Since Colonel Sheppard and his team found a very important Ancient ruin offworld—a duplicate of Atlantis itself, actually—everyone seemed to have forgotten about Janus and his lab in the lowest level of Atlantis. Anna sat on the bench in the observation room, watching the quiet ocean go by, a tablet in her arms. Janus's lab behind her was empty, and had been for days. Negotiations and investigations were very important and took a long time.

The translators had been very busy with the other Atlantis. Drones. Jumpers. New data stuffed away into a mostly inert shell buried under centuries of dirt and trees.

Anna leaned back against the smooth wall and looked up at the ceiling. She imagined she felt a little how Radek must have on a regular basis. No matter what amazing thing she did, somebody else always managed to do something else even better.

Drones and jumpers were nothing to turn one's nose at, though.

She heard footsteps in the hallway outside, but only moved her head enough to watch Radek walk in. He looked at her for one moment, and then out at the ocean.

"Wow." He walked to the glass wall and looked out. "This is something like it was when we first arrived here—the ocean just outside. Only this glass between us and…" He looked down at the darker water below them, the ocean floor so far away it couldn't be seen at all. "That." He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Anna pushed herself off the bench and went to stand beside him. "Not that long ago, you were all down there, weren't you?"

Radek nodded.

Maybe it seemed like a lifetime ago. Anna had been with her mother in the Czech Republic then. Radek probably thought he wouldn't see Anna until she was very much an adult. Maybe he thought he wouldn't ever see her again. But a few months, a few days, a few hours could change everything.

Radek spun away from the water and looked at the wall, the opaque glass hiding what Anna considered the most important discovery of the week. Jumpers and drones included.

Of course, the lab might not help too much with the immediate concerns of Wraith incursion and underhanded Genii tactics. But the less immediate concern of increasing their knowledge and existing power supply? Anna considered that very important. She had a feeling Radek did, too. He wouldn't be here otherwise.

"Want to show me what you found?"

Anna shrugged, walking toward the door hidden in the wall. "It's not very exciting. All of the relevant data was moved to the central database."

"But there are interesting machines in here, yes?" he asked, standing back and watching as Anna opened the door for them to go inside.

The image of the wall seemed to congeal and become translucent, revealing a wall of Ancient machines and an antique chair sitting in the center looking out at the ocean. Radek followed her inside, taking it all in with a very educated interest. Anna wondered what his catalogue system would look like in comparison to hers. Did he think the far computer was of more interest than the panels lining the wall next to the door? Why was the chair looking out instead of looking in?

Probably not very much like hers. This was the best place in Atlantis. Thousands of years ago, Janus agreed with her. If she had to choose a place to die, this would be it.

Whatever he was thinking, he was smiling. "You did really well here, Anna."

Anna couldn't help her smile at the praise. "Thanks. It was nothing really, though."

"If you call this nothing…" He swept a hand toward the empty lab.

And that was just it. It was empty. Nobody else seemed to think it was important. Oh, she had no doubt that the scientists would be back eventually. One day. The urgent was incredibly tyrannical on Atlantis, though. This week it was Atlantis's sister city. Next week it could be a Genii bunker piled high with weapons or scout reports on Wraith activities.

Barring a miraculous quiet night on Atlantis, everyone would forget Janus's lab.

"It is something," Anna allowed. "But everybody else is too busy to figure out what it is, and I…" She looked down at the little bit of help she'd squeezed out of the overworked and underappreciated translators, Joseph and Paul. She doubted Radek knew their names. Most people didn't. "I don't know nearly enough to make any sense of this."

Anna held out the tablet filled with scraps of Janus's translated notes.

Radek took the tablet and scrolled through it. He probably understood more about it in his two-second perusal than Anna would understand after a week of intense studying. "Maybe you should give yourself a little more credit than that," he said, handing it back. "Besides, if you're the only one who has time to figure it out, then whatever you find will be more than what anyone else finds here."

With a smirk, Anna snatched the tablet back into her arms. "It's not a waste of time?"

"I don't think the pursuit of knowledge ever is."

Well, when he put it that way… Maybe Radek and Janus would have been friends, too.

#

He wasn't backing out now. Iskaan was alone, and Anna was talking with Doctor Weir, so the timing couldn't be better.

Unless no time was an option…

It wasn't, so Radek didn't hurry through picking his sandwich and accompanying sides. Usually fruit. The American version of potato salad was nigh unpalatable to him. Maybe it would be an appropriate dish choice, then. A non-verbal objection to the universe that was never listening. Radek went for canned peaches instead. Sugar would be good.

Radek approached Iskaan's table, noting the empty chairs all around. Should he take the one across from Iskaan? Diagonal? Was he questioning this just so he could avoid thinking of what he was going to say? He was running out of time to choose…

He didn't get to.

Major Lorne slid his own plate across from Iskaan and sat down. Radek took a quick turn to the side and the nearest open chair.

"Iskaan, right?" Radek heard Major Lorne ask.

Radek looked at his sandwich in confusion. This was really not to plan. Especially since he'd now forgotten what he was going to say. Never speak to my daughter again was the only thing coming to mind.

"Yeah, I think Anna told me about you," Major Lorne continued.

"She did?" Iskaan sounded hopeful.

And Radek thought he couldn't get any more disgusted. He was just stringing Anna along? And enjoying it? It took the majority of his concentration to not jump up and… Well, Radek knew confidence in his strength in a fistfight against a strong young kid like Iskaan was questionable at best.

He regained control in time to hear Major Lorne say, "So you know she likes you."

Iskaan paused. "I did. I hoped."

Major Lorne gave a murmur of passive interest, maybe took a bite of his food. Radek couldn't see with his back turned. "I know," Major Lorne said finally, "you guys do things differently than we do, so maybe I should explain something to you."

Ah, right. Radek was glad—again, and for more than one reason—that Major Lorne had generously taken it upon himself to talk to Iskaan about this. The Athosians may not have been monogamous. Maybe they didn't like or understand the concept, so—

"Anna told me a bit about how your… families work," Iskaan said, then sighed. "And I know why you're here."

"Oh, good. That makes this easy, then." Major Lorne paused, and Radek heard a terrifying shift in his tone. "I don't care how you all live of whether or not you agree with the way we do. I like you and you seem like a nice kid. But if you hurt Anna in any way, we're going to have a problem."

The silence took on a form not unlike a brick wall. Radek imagined Iskaan was still trying to decide whether to keep going or turn back… and Radek sincerely hoped he turned back.

"Understand?" Major Lorne prodded.

"Yes," Iskaan mumbled.

Radek heard fabric rustle, as he imagined Major Lorne was done with the conversation and about to leave.

"Major Lorne?" Iskaan called him back.

"Yeah?"

"I don't—the last thing I'd want to do is hurt her. Anna's the—" There was a short pause. "She's the smartest person I know, but… she believes in some things that even I don't believe in."

Radek heard Major Lorne sigh in concert with his own. Then Major Lorne sat back down. "I don't think it's going to work out to ask you to choose between one girl and quite literally all the other ones, will it?"

"It can't," Iskaan said. "I don't know what Teyla's told you, but… well, if any of our women want to have children without finding someone offworld, men who will more than likely take their children with them, they don't have many choices. Never mind if they want a relationship and a family."

Radek scoffed internally, wondering if he was somehow supposed to feel badly for Iskaan. Too many women—poor thing. Why did Anna have to be one of them?

"Then you'll be fine without her," Major Lorne said.

There was a long silence, such that Radek wondered if Iskaan was going to argue. Even Radek had to wonder at this point why Iskaan even bothered. There was little benefit here he couldn't get almost anywhere else. He had the pick of virtually all Athosians… why was Anna important to him?

Of course, Anna was important. And Radek hoped that some decent man might discover at least a little bit of that importance someday. But, perhaps, not Iskaan.

"Have you talked to Anna about this?" Major Lorne asked.

"No. It was inappropriate."

"It's inappropriate to have more than one steady girl to us," Major Lorne said. "If you really do care about her—"

"I love her."

Another long pause allowed Radek the time to feel his stomach drop. He hoped this was something Anna never heard. They were in another galaxy. And he thought the Czech Republic was far from Denver, Colorado… His worst fear used to be his daughter and an American, but that hadn't entered his mind for months now. This was worse, far worse.

"Then you have to tell her what's going on," Major Lorne said.

"Her father hates me."

Radek was momentarily gratified, then he heard the smirk in Major Lorne's voice. "Maybe, maybe not. He's worried about Anna. He's not as intimidating as he looks at first. Won't cut your ear off for… eavesdropping or something. Treat Anna right and give him a chance."

This time, Radek heard Iskaan's chair move. "I guess I'll have to. Thank you, Major."

Major Lorne didn't respond and almost a full minute went by. Radek didn't know if he wanted to thank him for his concern or slug him for encouraging Iskaan. But Major Lorne apparently cared about Anna. A lot. That was nice to know there were competent people concerned with her welfare.

Radek was concerned. Just probably incompetent.

"You could have been more certain about my opinion of him," Radek sighed loudly enough for Major Lorne to hear, since Major Lorne obviously knew he was there listening after that crack about eavesdropping.

Major Lorne moved to Radek's table as he said, "You know, I think he really likes her."

"He just—" Radek hesitated. He wasn't sure exactly how to say it in English. Not politely, anyway. He didn't think he'd quite breeched the wall of professional etiquette with Major Lorne yet. Close, but not quite.

"Well, whatever happens, you can set him straight yourself." Major Lorne looked at Radek critically, like he wasn't sure Radek wouldn't cut someone's ear off. "Look, I don't know what should be done in situations like this. But keeping someone from good things may be just as bad as letting them get into bad things."

Radek hummed briefly in indecision. Nice philosophy, but… "I guess we'll have to agree to disagree."'

Major Lorne chuckled.

Which reminded him… "What do you mean I'm not as intimidating as I look?" If Radek was confident in one thing, it was his inability to intimidate. He looked anything but intimidating—he was small and unassuming. He'd been told he had a friendly look about him. Might have been the bright eyes, maybe…

"I think McKay would be intimidating if he were my girlfriend's dad."

But… Rodney was intimidating. Intellectually, anyway. Radek nodded in vague agreement.

"Think about it, Doc. What you do for a living compared to Iskaan, where you live, where you're from. We fear what we don't understand and, for Iskaan… that's you."

It was Radek's turn to smirk. "Well, I guess that's good then."

"Okay. Well, just don't cut Iskaan's ear off."

With that sage piece of advise, Major Lorne walked away. Radek had no idea where that came from, since he obviously couldn't cut Iskaan's ear off even if he wanted to—besides, that sounded like it would just make a mess. Radek didn't know a lot about it, but judging from the scratches and scrapes of childhood, heads bled a lot more than any other extremity.

He rose, putting his empty tray away to be cleaned. He still wasn't sure what to tell Anna, if he was going to tell her anything. He'd already failed miserably at telling her anything of substance on multiple counts, so… probably just better keep with what he knew.


Next: Stuff like this only happens on TV, really...