Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.
Last time: Anna's working on a huge project (started in chapter 68 kind of and most recently continued in chapter 119). I think that's it.
Chapter 131. Something Much Bigger.
Anna slapped the tablet back down to her legs. "Fifty hours?"
Chuck smiled and nodded, not even looking up from his work. "How many hours of driving practice does the Czech Republic require for driving a car?"
Anna didn't know—it was so far in the future she never bothered to look. It only took twenty minutes to get to the mainland from Atlantis. That meant she wouldn't have the required fifty hours to fly solo until after about seventy-five trips to the mainland. She knew she must have gotten a few of those hours before now, just going to and from or around Atlantis for no reason with some of the scientists for fun. Maybe just one hour.
Either way, a repeat of her whirl around Atlantis with just Radek wasn't bound to happen again soon.
And she wouldn't be going to the mainland alone. Probably ever. That seemed more like a Radek type of restriction than one that anyone on Atlantis would make up, though. With a sigh, she nodded. "Okay. Thanks. Looks like I'll be going to the mainland twice a month with Doctor Yahaya…" And at that rate… it would take her just over three years to get certification.
She'd have to come up with something else.
"Hey, that's a good idea." Chuck, though he sounded genuinely impressed with Anna's plan to get certified for solo flight, didn't make eye contact. He didn't even look at her. "Are you going today?"
"Yeah. He's leaving in thirty minutes, so I just wanted to check." With a sigh, Anna flicked away the manual that Chuck suggested she look at. Then she looked back at the screen where the manual had been just a moment ago. "Who writes this stuff?"
Chuck looked up, his eyes bright. "Us. 'Gate Techs. We keep busy even when there's nothing going on."
"No wonder you know protocol and guidelines so well…" Anna muttered. Probably helped a lot, having literally written the book.
"We don't get to decide what they are," Chuck said. "We just write them down. And, you know, bring our brainstorming for different things that could happen to people like Elizabeth, who either approve what we've written or tell us to write something different."
Anna pulled up the folder that Chuck had showed her with files upon files of manuals and procedures. She didn't know how many of them were followed to the letter prescribed, but the fact that there was one prescribed was a comfort. Sometimes it seemed like people did things without so much as a nod of approval from anyone else. Of course, rules were usually written after the fact. There was only so much Chuck and the other 'gate techs could imagine.
"You've written a lot," Anna offered. "I'll have to browse the library sometime."
"There are some jokes in there." Chuck laughed and looked back at his control board. Anna wasn't sure what he was doing, except it was some kind of power cycling maintenance. "Well-hidden, of course, because this is professional. So be on the lookout."
Anna laughed, too. "I will."
If she was going to continue, she got cut off by a newly familiar voice in her ear. "This is Yahaya. Anna Zelenková?"
Anna reached to the radio clipped in her ear. "This is Anna," she responded. "Hello, Doctor."
"If you are prepared to leave, I'm a bit early."
"On my way up!" She clicked off her radio, bid Chuck goodbye, and ran up the stairs. She knew she wasn't in a hurry—Doctor Yahaya was very nice and patient as far as she could tell—but she hated to keep him waiting all the same.
Her first talk with Doctor Yahaya was only last week, though it seemed longer. She'd tracked him down in his office down one of the forgotten hallways in the central tower. He was a natural ATA gene carrier, and he was often the choice to ferry botanists and other natural scientists to the mainland because, as he put it, he could always find something to do there. The other scientists described him as a brilliant linguist and a natural teacher.
Anna slowed her pace enough to catch her breath before getting to the jumper bay. Doctor Yahaya stood next to an open jumper, leaning on the doorframe as he talked to Coughlin. Of all people. They were speaking in German, which Anna had already known was one of the seven or eight languages that Doctor Yahaya was fluent in. He was constantly chasing down the native speakers of the languages he knew to keep his practice up.
The conversation halted as she approached, both the doctor and military officer turning to look at her as she did. Anna offered a smile, nodded and said hello to Yahaya, and then looked at Coughlin. "I didn't know you were coming."
"Apparently, there's more planning than I bargained for involved in Athosian weddings," he said.
Right—Coughlin had an Athosian sweetheart. Fiancé. Weird to think about. Anna wondered what agreement they'd come to when it came to things like… should Coughlin be sent back to Earth, would she go, too? Was she going to move to Atlantis? It wasn't her business, so she didn't ask. Still, the curiosity was strong.
"Alright, Miss Zelenková," Doctor Yahaya said, and suddenly he was a teacher—not whatever he had been talking to Coughlin. He reached into the jumper for his tablet, and showed her the screen.
The screen showed her picture, the flat-looking picture she'd taken a year ago at the SGC. The small section of her hair that was bleached had grown out and been cut since then, and she wore the white jacket that she still wore most days. Even though she was pretty sure it was the worst photo she'd ever taken, headed her file and adorned her ID card. And, alongside some of the more biographical information about her, was a little heading called "certifications." Her puddle jumper hours had been logged, apparently.
"You've flown a puddle jumper for a total of two hours and thirteen minutes. You've gone through the basics, so now it's just practice?"
"I think so."
"Good, good." He nodded and tapped into the tablet before gesturing for her to go into the jumper. "After you, then, Miss Zelenková."
"How's your dad?" Coughlin asked when she sat down.
She might have answered, but Doctor Yahaya interrupted her thought. "Please hold all conversation until the jumper is aloft. Miss Zelenková, a pre-flight check?"
Anna looked at Coughlin for half a moment with wide eyes, but all he had to offer was a shrug. She looked at Doctor Yahaya as she told the back door to shut. "Uh, you mean like checking the engines, weapons systems, stuff like that?"
Doctor Yahaya flashed a grin of extremely white teeth. "A pre-flight check."
"A pre-flight check…" Anna sighed, and then looked at the screen she'd just pulled up without quite realizing she'd asked the jumper to help her out a little. A display of the puddle jumper systems popped up over the jumper's front window. It showed all systems were green. "Oh. You mean that?"
"It is part of the flight procedure," Doctor Yahaya said, and then settled back in the copilot chair. "You are free to take-off at your leisure."
"Well, maybe not too much at your leisure…" Coughlin said from behind, checking his wristwatch. "I'm supposed to be helping Mikana cook something for her parents tonight. Who knows how long that will take."
Anna nodded and lifted the jumper out of the bay toward the opening ceiling. It was, as usual, a beautiful and cloudless day over Atlantis. The jumper listened to her directions and she fiddled with the controls as necessary, but it wasn't too much trouble to get the jumper flying in a mostly-straight line aimed at the mainland.
"So, your dad?" Doctor Yahaya wondered once they were underway.
"He's doing better," Anna answered, and was at least convinced that was true. The episode in the stairwell a few days ago had scared her pretty badly, but he didn't seem upset. So, even though she was still scared, she made up her mind to not be upset. "Do you know if he'll end up back on Lorne's team?"
"If Lorne has anything to do with it, he probably will," Coughlin said with a slight snicker. "We've had to escort a few scientists around, you know, but I think at this point we're just used to him. Plus it's less than ideal to have to replace half the team again, in my opinion. Can't be good for morale."
"Yeah…" Anna sighed, and then glanced at Doctor Yahaya. She didn't remember seeing him at Reed's memorial, but she hadn't really been looking either. "How are you doing?"
Coughlin nodded and kicked back in his chair. "Great. Probably better than I could be. I've had a lot on my mind with Mikana and everything."
Anna looked back at him, smiling broadly. "I'm very happy for you. Do you know who from Atlantis will be allowed to come to the ceremony?"
"Nope." Coughlin shook his head and sighed, like this was something he'd thought about a lot and hadn't come to a satisfactory answer. "Well, except Lorne, your dad, you. Not a lot I can do about the guests I'd want to have at my wedding under these circumstances, you know?"
"I didn't think of that. What about your parents? Do you have any siblings?"
"My parents live in Frankfurt, and I have an older sister. I guess one of these days I'll bring home a wife from another planet… and they'll wonder why I didn't tell them. I won't have a good explanation." His words trailed away as he spoke, apparently continuing those long thoughts without a good answer.
Doctor Yahaya filled the rest of the trip by asking Anna questions about the Czech language. He didn't know any words, but he was apparently fascinated by grammar and the way different languages worked. She should have expected that of a linguist.
As she was landing in the field just a hundred or so meters from the settlement, Doctor Yahaya changed the subject as he tapped into his tablet. "You have two hours and thirty-eight minutes of practice. We'll take a different route back to Atlantis this evening."
"What different route?" Anna sniffed in amusement. "Isn't it a straight line?"
"Not if you want to actually practice flying. Anyone can make a straight line between two points."
"I know some scientists that beg to differ," Coughlin said with a grin.
"Yeah, well…" Doctor Yahaya looked at Anna. "You could get the bare minimum of practice and not learn anything new. But not on my watch, Miss Zelenková."
For a moment, Anna was indignant. She didn't want anything fancy, she just wanted to be able to fly a puddle jumper by herself without breaking protocol. But… after thinking for half a second, that wasn't all she wanted, was it? She wanted to be really good at this. She wanted to be a real member of the expedition someday. Why not take the opportunity to practice? Why not make it more difficult than it had to be? She might be trying to outrun Wraith darts one day, if she was lucky.
"Okay." She nodded her agreement, and the corners of Doctor Yahaya's black eyes crinkled with a smile. "Thank you, Doctor. I'll be ready."
Iskaan was easy to find in the settlement, sitting around a fire with his father and Panin and a few other Athosians Anna recognized but couldn't remember. Iskaan waved her to come closer, and accepted her greeting bowing their foreheads together.
"It has been many days, Anna," Panin said across Iskaan when she sat on his other side.
Anna returned the greeting, before putting her tablet in Iskaan's lap. "I don't mean to interrupt whatever it is you're doing, but I was hoping you could help me sort out some of this." The entire menu of the chip factory was there, almost half of it translated to the best of Anna's ability, on her own with Iskaan's newfound knowledge and interest.
Iskaan looked, scrolling, and then looked at her with a smile. "You just spent twenty minutes in a puddle jumper with Doctor Yahaya and you're asking me for help translating?"
"I don't want to bother him." She cast a glance over her shoulder, where the doctor was talking with Coughlin and the Athosian woman standing beside him.
Mikana, if she had to guess. She was pretty, short, and stocky. Black hair like Teyla's, but dark eyes unlike hers. She guessed Doctor Yahaya was very interested in whatever proceedings were happening in preparation for the wedding happening just over a month from now.
"He's a captive audience for twenty minutes," Iskaan was saying over her thoughts.
"I wanted to do it without anyone else on Atlantis knowing." Anna sighed and whirled back to look at him more squarely. "I want it to be a surprise, now are you going to help me or aren't you? I've put a note on the sections that are particularly complicated."
Iskaan nodded as he scrolled. "Yes, I see, there are hundreds of notes here."
"It's a technical manual; of course, it's complicated…" Anna muttered. She leaned close and then, hoping Iskaan wouldn't think too much of it, rested her chin on his shoulder.
"Okay, well…" Iskann glanced at her with a smile, and then looked back at the tablet. He tapped on one of her notes and then looked for a long moment at the highlighted words. "It's… stages. Space. Space stages. Does that mean anything to you?"
"No…" Anna now knew what all the main menu selections did by sight, even if she couldn't really remember the exact words they said. Her lack of success in crystal creation was deflating, but she doubted that the machines were equipped with the raw materials to create them.
But there was still the ZPM!
It was ridiculous to think that she could unravel how to make a ZPM with a single material that she'd discovered on accident here on the mainland. However, it made sense to her that the Ancients would, if given the chance to choose the planet upon which they would make their final stand, pick one with access to at least one material. Perhaps the most important material. All she knew was that she'd find out if she was close if only they could work out the translation. Then she could test something.
Though, at this point, she wasn't sure what she was testing.
Could that really be all there was? Put in the raw orange rock material and let the machine do the rest? The molecules in the rock were already arranged and systematic, as Radek had told her about the ZPMs. But in her comparison, she'd found that the ZPM device was more so, on orders of magnitude. Also, somehow, there were threads or wires inside the ZPM that weren't in the rocks in their raw form. But if she had been reading the screen correctly, the machine might compensate for that, too.
It had to be difficult to thread a rock with a wire…
"Did you say 'space stages'?" Anna said, suddenly catching up with the conversation.
"Space stages. Or steps? Levels. Space levels station." Iskaan went on, as if reading, haltingly, "Put complete—I don't know what that word is—on the pedestal. Begin process for artificial stages."
Anna pondered his words for just two seconds. "That doesn't make any sense."
"I don't know; that's what it says." Iskaan gestured at the screen helplessly. "Sun… uh, plates? Sun plates may be ordered… no, reorder. Sun plates can be reordered… at the control center. Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"That's definitely a repetition." Iskaan pointed at the word he was having trouble with. "'Order' and 'alter.' Reorder. That's the word that if there are instructions, then you do it in that order. If you put it with that word, then I think that means that you can make the order different."
Anna shoved his arm, softly, in surprise and, surprisingly, pride. "I'm impressed." It meant she wouldn't have to go combing through the Ancient-to-English dictionary like a maniac as much as she had been. She had a budding linguist of her own to help her. "Okay, so… so you can change the order of something called sun plates."
"Apparently so." He squinted at the sentence again, at the tablet on his lap scrolling around in the dictionary, mumbling. "Sun plates…"
She left him to figure that out, leaning forward to look at Panin. It was still odd, thinking of her as something other than a rival for Iskaan's affections. "What are you doing today, Panin? I'm hoping Iskaan will be busy with that for a while…"
"You aren't going somewhere?" Iskaan looked up suddenly, apparently upset.
"You can come," Panin said, patting his shoulder twice and looking at Anna. "I'm helping with harvesting tuttleroots today. I'll take two of the dogs and a cart, and you are welcome to come. I can show you how to find the roots as well as identify edible mushrooms if we come across any."
A day in the sun would do her well, or at least she hoped so. It would be better than whatever was happening on Atlantis, she was pretty sure. There wasn't really anything alive there except for the people and the few rooftop gardens that were small and uninteresting. "I'd love that."
"I guess I'll read while we walk…" Iskaan cast a glance at Doctor Yahaya. "Let me make sure he won't be including any additional reading and writing today. Otherwise, I'll come."
"Hurry back." Panin called after him, and watched him walk away. After she was apparently satisfied he'd made it to the doctor just a few meters away, she turned to Anna. "I suspect you haven't met Jinny."
"I assume Jinny is a dog?"
Anna stood when Panin did, and followed her through the crowd of milling Athosians. It was still early in the morning, due to the time-difference between here and Atlantis, meaning most of them were still drinking their morning tea. Anna wasn't particularly interested in animals, but she understood the utility they had for the Athosians beyond a source of food. For the first time in a long time, Anna actually enjoyed being outside, learning about things that would never apply to what she wanted for her life, and considering what that meant for her future.
#
"An Ancient warship."
Radek paused, took a deep breath, and tried not to laugh. This was the most amazing news he'd ever heard. Besides, of course, the day he'd gotten word that he'd been selected to go to Atlantis—and, perhaps—judging by his total inability to stop grinning, though, it was definitely one of the better things.
Especially with the discovery he'd made earlier today. As usual, Rodney came through with exactly what they needed just when they needed it. A hive ship approaching Atlantis, and only just enough time to wonder what he'd been doing, bringing his daughter here before he remembered they'd always been fine before.
Of course, that was before some maniac brought a Wraith here, performed experiments on him, and then somehow let him get away. Radek still wasn't sure exactly how that happened, but he was a physicist, not a commando.
Which was why he'd almost forgotten the Wraith ship at the first sign of an Ancient spaceship they could explore. "Rodney," he said, slowly, trying to keep his voice even.
"Did you not hear me?"
"I asked for a ZPM."
There was a long pause, almost too long for Radek to keep up the joke that he'd be at all disappointed by this news. Fortunately, Rodney sputtered in disbelief after a solid four or five seconds. "It's an Ancient warship—there really is no pleasing you, is there? A 'glad you made it out alive' would be nice, too, you know."
There wasn't any real response Radek could think of, anyway. He laughed. An Ancient warship. A warship they could borrow. Of course, it was also good that Rodney was still alive. "I'm much more interested in the Ancient warship part, no offence."
"Yeah, well, congratulations, you're gonna be on my team trying to put the thing back together."
Of course, Radek was. He didn't say that, as if his position of importance directly next to Rodney was taken for granted, even though it was. "Yes, yes, of course; when will I have the schematic?" He couldn't remember being this excited in his life, certainly not his recent life—perhaps he was a child with a small bill in a big candy store.
"Uploading it now." Rodney paused, and Radek had to imagine he was looking at those schematics he couldn't wait to get his hands on. "Whoa," he mumbled a few seconds later.
"What?" When he didn't answer immediately, Radek tried again. "Rodney, what is it?"
"Just a second. I think this thing has a full complement of drones."
Radek wanted to object that it wasn't fair that Rodney got to look through all the systems and the only thing Radek could do right now was wait and listen to whatever response Rodney might have to the treasures he found. Radek would get two sentences into the schematic before puddle jumper was prepped to go up. He was almost to the jumper bay already, but it was just too far away. So was the upper atmosphere.
"Oh, my god."
"Rodney, instead of just making vague exclamations of awe, could you please just read the words?" Radek was going to kill him. That was all there was to it. Of course, by the time he'd have any opportunity to do so, he'd be too interested reading the thing Rodney was so shocked by.
When it became obvious that apparently reading something aloud was too much for Rodney, Radek said, "Okay, I'll be up there in about half an hour." He was about to ask Rodney to please not do something without him, but he couldn't figure out what that thing was. He left it.
Before he could click of the radio, Rodney interrupted. "Wait a second, you're the only one that really understands the magnitude of what we have here."
Radek was about to object that he didn't understand it at all—Rodney wouldn't tell him what it was—but apparently someone else beat Rodney to it. Not the objection Radek would have made, but a commentary on how what Rodney had said was ludicrous from any angle.
"Yes, yes, of course, you understand that a 'big gun' is important, but look at this. Do you understand anything about mechanical engineering?"
"I know a lot about mechanical engineering, McKay," Radek said as he stepped into the jumper bay. He knew he wasn't the one Rodney was talking to, but he was answering anyway.
He was the first one here. Figured. Maybe no one else really did understand how big this was.
"Yes, of course, you know something about it, Radek—I'm talking to Sheppard."
"You should be talking to me!"
Radek went to the nearest jumper, opened it, and looked inside. It was empty. He couldn't fly it. Anna was on the mainland or else he would have broken even more of the rules by having her break atmosphere to get him up there faster. He'd never wished he had the ATA gene more. Damn the consequences of stealing a puddle jumper. This was for science.
"Right, right…" Rodney sighed and then, predictably, didn't say anything else.
"Rodney, you're killing me."
"I can't—you just have to see this for yourself. I don't know if I'm reading this right."
"Then please have Sheppard tell whoever it is about to come up there to hurry up."
Rodney didn't. He was apparently too engrossed in his reading. He didn't even object when Radek said he was going. Radek didn't take it personally, but he wanted to. It would be better than the anxious thrill he hadn't felt since the first time the Prometheus rose up out of the ground in Nevada. That had been a sight to see.
There was nothing to do about it.
Radek went to the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot chair. Might as well… He pulled up the menu for connecting communications via the puddle jumpers and called Anna. The delay was going to be about a second due to technical limitations more than distance, but it would be worth it.
"Anna, this is Radek."
A second later, Anna responded. "Is everything okay?"
"Oh, yes. Better than okay. Rodney's brought home an Ancient warship and I thought you might like to see it. We can drop by to pick you up."
There was a long pause, longer than the delay would have explained. Finally, she answered, her voice low in disbelief. "Are you serious?"
"This would be a very mean joke." Also, Rodney would be dead. Probably. He had such a way of getting out of life-and-death situations that had become hard to believe.
"Yes," Anna agreed, very softly. "Yes, it would." Then she groaned and said, "I'm in the middle of something, but I want to see the warship so much. Can I still see it later? Maybe tomorrow? I really want to see it!"
"What could you possibly be doing that's more interesting?"
"Not more interesting…" Anna sighed. "Just maybe more important."
More important? What did that mean? What could possibly be more important? For a moment, an unspeakable horror overtook him as he remembered she was on the mainland, and so was Iskaan, and she wouldn't… He didn't know how to ask. If he should.
"Anna, what's happening?"
"Nothing, it's just a big surprise and if it does work it'll be big. Really big. I promise."
Bigger than an Ancient warship. Alright. Radek couldn't wait to find out what she could possibly think was that big. But… he trusted her. He'd trusted her this long, and she'd earned it. He hoped neither of them were about to stop that track record.
"Alright…" he said finally. "Alright, tomorrow, then. I'm pretty sure I'll go up there every day for the foreseeable future, so you're welcome to join me."
"Okay. Have fun. Talk to you tonight. Maybe tomorrow." She chuckled, probably realizing at the same time he did that it would take a lot to bring him back down to the planet. Need for food and sleep was not among those things.
"Yes. Yes, you have fun, too, darling." But not, he hoped, too much.
What in the world could this alleged surprise be? Bigger than an Ancient warship? She must be crazy. That was the only thing to explain it…
Next time: Let's just focus on what's important, okay?
