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

Last time: We discovered a Wraith hiveship is heading right for us (SG:A Inferno and, to a lesser extent, chapter 131), and it probably has to do with Michael (more implied than anything at this point, to be honest... Anna isn't involved in that situation, though we talk about it in chapter 129). And, last chapter, we decided it might be better if Anna weren't on Atlantis right now.


Chapter 135. Psychological Space.

"I shouldn't have to tell you that I'm not pleased with this, Doctor." Colonel Caldwell stood at the entrance to Daedalus engineering. His eyes were sharp and clear on Rodney, and Anna imagined that was because he didn't want to look at her.

It was better to think that than to admit that she was nothing to him. He hadn't liked her on his ship the first time, and that time had only been advertised as a short ferry ride from one galaxy to another. Of course, it hadn't turned out as safe as it should have, but this time was decidedly different. There were Wraith in orbit, and this was the only fully-functioning warship close enough to do anything about it. Since this was his ship, he also had the final decision.

"Yeah? That makes two of us." Anna cast a glance at Rodney when he said it, and Rodney at least gave her an apologetic look for it. It lasted less than a second, but it was there. "But, look, what else are we supposed to do? If I had a daughter, I sure as hell wouldn't want her on Atlantis right now."

Caldwell nodded, but it wasn't in agreement. "That's why most of us keep our daughters on Earth."

"Oh, this again…" Rodney muttered.

"Am I getting in the way or something?" Anna asked from her corner.

Caldwell looked at her, his brow darkening ever so slightly as he seemed to realize she was there. Anna hadn't been in this corner for her whole time here—she'd been next to Rodney, watching him run through test after test to get past the Wraith vessel's defenses. He didn't seem to mind it, and neither did Hermiod, and as far as Anna was concerned that was just about all that mattered. It wasn't as if she were on the bridge, sitting in his chair.

Caldwell nodded, and shrugged his shoulders. "The physical space you're taking up isn't the problem."

Anna wanted to ask what kind of space she was taking up, then; but she didn't get to.

"She's taking up mental space whether she's up here or on Atlantis. Now, look, if you're not here to do something actually useful, you may as well be sitting on the transporter controls." Rodney tapped at the controls, almost hesitantly, and then gave Caldwell a long look. A wondering look, if he was going to speak again. If he was going to put Anna back on Atlantis where she would be someone else's problem.

"How long do you think this will take you, Doctor McKay?" Caldwell asked after a moment.

"I don't know, maybe a few more hours?" Rodney sighed. "It's the production rate of the retrovirus you need to worry about. That's going to take days."

"Understood. Miss Zelenka?" Caldwell turned to her.

"It's Zelenková, actually." Seriously? She chose this moment to quibble over her name with a colonel in the US military, captain of the spaceship she was on, and the man who would likely save all their lives if this went badly?

Caldwell frowned, but he didn't look angry. "Excuse me?"

"My last name, it's Zelenková." She shook her head, and added, "I'm sorry, never mind."

"Alright. Miss Zelenková, come with me."

Anna looked at Rodney, and he looked at her, and then Caldwell. "Where?" he asked.

Caldwell narrowed his eyes at Rodney. "Crew quarters. You said the retrovirus would take days. Or do you want me to sit on the transporter controls?"

Rodney waved Caldwell away.

Even though Anna wanted to stay with Rodney, she followed Caldwell out into the hallway. He took slow steps, and Anna found herself almost unable to walk anywhere but directly next to him. She'd never actually been this close to him, though she'd been on his ship for weeks on the trip to Atlantis from Earth. She didn't know much about him except that he thought he should be the military commander of Atlantis instead of Sheppard, and he definitely didn't approve of her being on Atlantis.

Obviously.

"You're sixteen, right?" Caldwell asked.

Anna nodded and looked up at him. He was tall, bald, and at least ten years older than Radek.

When he realized she wasn't answering with words, he glanced at her. "I hope you know I don't mean anything against you personally. Pegasus is a warzone, not the place for kids."

"Kids live here, too."

"Sure, kids live all over the world, but we don't ship them to Afghanistan."

"Radek's not a soldier."

"The point is… Miss Zelenková, you know this is a dangerous situation." Caldwell didn't look at her even as he kept walking, though he'd picked up his pace a little to more closely match Anna's normal walking speed. "This ship is not a luxury cruise liner, it's intended to fight wars against technologically-advanced alien races who want to use humanity for their own ends, and destroy them if that doesn't work out."

"Yes, I know. That's why I'm here." She said it before she realized that didn't really make sense with what Caldwell had said before without some kind of intermediary statement. "I mean, Radek is here to fight, too. He's not a soldier, but that's why I'm here. Because he can help, and saving Earth is more important than just me."

Caldwell pinched his lips, quite suddenly, like he didn't quite agree with what she'd said. All the same, he said, "You're here because Doctor McKay gets what Doctor McKay wants, almost without exception."

Caldwell continued walking like he'd made all the point he intended to. That point might have been that it was better for everyone if they didn't have to think about her too much if they had to jump into action to risk their lives and save Atlantis. Anna hoped they didn't think about her safety if it came to that, and she thought that Caldwell probably wouldn't anyway. Because part of Caldwell's point was the same as Anna's: Earth was, obviously and demonstrably more important than just her.

"I think everyone is probably good enough at their work to do what they need to do anyway," Anna said.

"I have no doubt they are."

Caldwell turned down a hallway and then stopped walking in front of a door. He opened it with a key card and looked inside.

Anna looked, too. Unlike the room she'd stayed in on the way here, this one only had two beds. Other than that, it appeared totally empty. Anna looked back at Caldwell. "Do I have a roommate?"

"No. Unless you want one, in which case I guess that can be arranged."

Anna shook her head and looked back at the two beds. Took note of the deck and room number, and figured she wouldn't have time to get lost as many times trying to get here as she did to the bunk she had the first time. "No, this is fine. I don't want to be more in the way than I already am."

"I have three kids."

The glance back up at Caldwell, looking down at her, was almost involuntary. Not that she thought he didn't have kids—he was kind of old, so he could probably have kids who didn't live with him anymore. She just couldn't figure out why he'd tell her this.

"Four grandkids and another one on the way," Caldwell continued and started walking away. The way he continued talking made Anna think she was probably supposed to follow. "There are a lot of places in the world I'd like them to see. Hell, there are a few planets I wish I could take them to. But I'm definitely not sending them to Afghanistan."

Anna sighed and followed, figuring Caldwell was taking her somewhere she wouldn't be in the way. If that was what he was doing, she probably wouldn't talk to him. Wouldn't need to worry about the way he saw her. At the end of the day, he couldn't even see Radek's position from his view in the command structure… there were a few lateral hops and levels down to go through. If he decided to scold Radek about being his version of a crummy parent, then it would probably be out of line.

"It's normally very safe here, you know," Anna said.

Caldwell gave her a look like she was absolutely out of her mind to even think something like that. As if she hadn't been here for a year already with very little excitement.

"You know, in Prague, an alarm test goes off on Wednesday morning. It's not every week, but it's minutes long. A very long two minutes. But we live there."

It was Caldwell's turn to sigh. Probably, he was aware that many big cities in Europe had similar alarm systems in case the worst were to happen. And what were they supposed to do except continue to live where they were as if they always would? It was probably different because Radek's being here was not a matter of his being born here—Anna was here for different reasons, too. The Wraith were different from their threatening neighbors back home, and the galaxy was a different place than she'd thought.

To her surprise, Caldwell stopped walking at an intersection between two hallways. She stood near him, a bit uncomfortably, and waited for him to speak.

"That's different, Anna, and I think you know that."

"Of course." Anna shrugged, and looked idly down all the hallways she could. She had no idea what was down any of them, except the one that was behind them. "Everything is different. But Radek is very smart, and he can help here." Oddly enough, Anna thought he probably knew more about certain kinds of weapons than Caldwell did. She had the presence of mind to not say that, though. "And, like Rodney said, I'm in the way everywhere I am."

Caldwell started walking again. "Fair enough. Major Lorne mentioned you are relatively familiar with the Ancient crystalline system?"

Anna glanced at him, a shock of pleasant surprise filling her chest. "I guess?" Familiar compared to what? Other sixteen-year-olds? Yeah, she was a genius relative to that. But to anyone else on this spaceship? She was a regular sixteen-year-old. Which, probably, on average seemed even more stupid to people like this.

"We're hosting a small taskforce from Atlantis—mostly—to help the… Ancient warship make repairs." He gave her a long look. "I think you'll be less in the way there than anywhere else. If Doctor McKay has other ideas, then, well…" For a moment, Caldwell looked extremely irritated, pained almost.

Anna smiled a little. "Doctor McKay gets what Doctor McKay wants?" she asked.

When Caldwell looked at her, saw her smiling, he almost smiled back. Almost. "Almost without exception. But, anyway, I think you'd rather be useful than just standing in a corner."

Put that way, it seemed like more a generous offer for her, rather than a bid to get her out from under anyone's feet. Of course, the situation begged several questions. "Why are they here?" Anna asked.

"More secure communications from here to the… is it the Hippaforalkus?" He shook his head at that, but continued anyway. "We know the Wraith can't intercept any transmission from the Daedalus. Not easily, anyway. Atlantis is significantly less secure, for obvious reasons."

That made sense. "Who's here?"

At that, he did smile. "I don't let anyone on my ship without knowing who they are, but I've had other things on my mind than committing their names to memory. Doctor Kavanagh is assisting from my staff."

"How's that working out?" Anna didn't mean to ask that, except that she knew all the other scientists on Atlantis seemed to have found him insufferable.

Caldwell's smile didn't fall away, even though Anna thought the question was impertinent. "Within reason. He has a lot of opinions, but he's essentially civilian with a very strong sense of self-preservation. As long as his name doesn't show up on my desk, I don't care. I think even Doctor Weir would agree I've mellowed a bit."

Suddenly, he carded open another door and Anna found herself looking in on what seemed to be a high-tech conference room… with additional implements that called back more to Radek's lab than anything else. Maybe this was one of those all-purpose science sections on the Daedalus in case of some emergency like this. It was still a warship, after all.

"Doctor Kusanagi?" Colonel Caldwell said.

Doctor Kusanagi glanced up, smiled briefly at Anna, and then addressed Colonel Caldwell. "Yes, sir?" And, of course, she would call him sir.

"Miss Zelenková is on board my ship until further notice, and so assigned to your team for the same duration." He didn't ask her if that was alright, even though she was, like Radek, probably outside his chain of command by at least a few levels both horizontally and vertically. Because, really, if she was on his ship, that put him in his chain. "I'm led to believe her proficiency in Ancient could be more useful to you than the… observation she was doing in engineering."

Doctor Kusanagi nodded, slowly, as if absorbing information that wasn't quite welcome. "Yes, sir."

"Thank you, Doctor." With what might have been a sigh, he looked at the other people in the room, and nodded politely. "Doctors." Finally, he looked at Anna. Even nodded at her. She liked to think it was maybe a little bit of respect. His children, when they were sixteen, probably couldn't have done this. Maybe that was the relatively he'd been talking about before. "Miss Zelenková."

"Thank you, Colonel," Anna said quietly, and he smiled.

Colonel Caldwell left, and Doctor Kavanagh sighed obviously.

Doctor Kusanagi ignored him, and waved Anna over. "Hello, Anna. We are working to improve the Hippaforalkus' input response time, with the crystal degradation. There are new control crystals on the bridge, so we must only reroute from there through the best pathways."

Anna nodded, standing a bit taller to know she might have made their job a little bit easier. At least, she hoped so. She was the reason the bridge was in the state it was, anyway. Anna spread her hands and looked at the rest of the scientists, gone back to their work. "How can I help?"

#

Radek had stopped stammering so badly every third word, though he doubted the Wraith was fooled. He didn't want to be in the same room with him, and he doubted the Wraith wanted to be here as much. Radek wondered if this was like being trapped in a room stuffed with, say, koláče, but unable to eat any of it. Or, if he tried, he would be shot.

Eating these pies would be an act of war.

He tried to keep his mind on track, but there wasn't too much to do right now. Carson had gone to observe the test of the aerosol virus, leaving Radek and a truly absurd number of marines in his lab with nothing to do. Nothing except, of course, watch what looked like an extra-large hamster cage pump out more of the virus in the hopes this version was good enough to work.

The Wraith had taken to placidly scrolling through the chemical formulae that Carson had provided him, perhaps translating it into Wraith notation in his head. Radek recalled once hearing that Doctor Daniel Jackson had once called the chemical formulae for their periodic table of elements a universal language of sorts, but Radek liked to think that even that might be uncommon between them and the Wraith.

It wasn't, of course. They would see hydrogen very similarly. There were only so many ways to count protons and electrons and…

Radek sighed and looked at the screen attached to the far desk. It gave a good view of the isolation room wherein the test would take place. The camera was even inside the room, providing a view that even Carson wouldn't have, being there in person on the observation deck. Another Wraith lay just as placidly, strapped to a gurney and awaiting his fate.

The test began and the Wraith writhed in what Radek had to assume was pain. His mouth opened, but there was no sound feed. Radek wondered what a Wraith's scream sounded like…

Radek looked away from the Wraith on the screen to see the Wraith in the room was smiling at him. Radek didn't doubt there wasn't a Wraith in the whole galaxy with a friendly smile. This one was no exception.

"We saw you in the hall," he said, his voice a tenor hiss. "You had a child with you."

His words came out of nowhere like a physical punch to the face. Radek didn't have time to consider whether to deny it, which would be stupid, or how else to respond if not. His breath caught in his throat, and it felt like everyone in the room was looking at him—while he was looking at something else entirely. Something that wasn't there; had never been there; and, please, God, would never be there.

"None of the Humans living today remember, but we do. Humans were once much more populous in this galaxy. Today we must be more careful about culling, but not all hives conform to such guidelines because they remember the days of plenty." The Wraith added some kind of notation to the schematic before him in his pause. "How much… richer a child's life energy is."

There was a sharp crack, and Radek winced like he'd been hit. Even though not a second had passed, the next time he opened his eyes, he felt he'd stepped in on a new scene, into the middle of a conversation. The Wraith was still standing, though he'd turned to face Coughlin. Coughlin had hit the table in front of the Wraith so hard, there was a dent in it.

"Give me a reason, Sunshine." The growl coming from Coughlin was so low, he could hardly hear.

Or, perhaps, he could just hardly hear anything. Radek collected his faculties and managed, "It's alright. He can't hurt her." It wasn't alright, and the Wraith could hurt Anna. There would be, of course, several intermediary steps, but he could. But Coughlin taking action on the threat as if it were more than that would be counterproductive... even if he was sure Coughlin would never. So Radek took a breath and looked back at his screen for a moment. In the corner of his eye, he could see the security camera footage.

The Wraith on the screen no longer quite looked like one.

Radek glanced back at the Wraith for a moment and wondered through a few thoughts that materialized as quickly as he'd discarded them. Did Wraith have friends? Did this one—Sunshine, as Coughlin called him—know that one on the screen? Was this Wraith concerned for himself, that he might one day prove useless enough to be turned into a Human? Though it didn't seem likely, did the Wraith have their own version of Nuremberg, of The Hague or United Nations? Even if they didn't now, in the middle of a civil war, did they once?

Radek glanced back at the screen to see the Wraith queen go into the room and—he couldn't look away. Did a Wraith-turned-Human taste different?

The Wraith wasn't watching the screen anymore. He was looking at Radek, and grinning. "My apologies," he said, apparently, to Coughlin. "I was only making conversation."

Coughlin scoffed and might have replied, but Radek interrupted, pointing at the screen. "Did you, um… did you know him?" Past tense… because he was dead now.

Sunshine glanced at the screen briefly before snarling at Radek. He didn't answer.

"Oh—no, I see. Your species is telepathic. Do you—? Did—?" Because if this Wraith did know that Wraith… it would have been intimately. Better than Radek could ever hope to know anyone, even if he was the most socially suave and observant Human in history.

At his question, the Wraith flinched, like he might have raised an arm but thought better of that with Coughlin's gun leveled at his midsection. He probably didn't notice that Coughlin wasn't actually looking at him, though the other three marines in the room were. Probably, none of them had thought about it. Coughlin never had, judging by the curious look on his face. And, frankly, Radek wouldn't be losing any sleep over it, not with the Wraith's threat landing far too close to wherever his heart lived.

But it was almost understandable.

Radek went back to his computer, and didn't know for a moment what to say. If he was right and Sunshine was in pain right now for the loss of that thread in the living tapestry of a Wraith hive ship, then… then his initial response was to attack the nearest, most vulnerable thing he could. Because they were still a species of sadists, and Radek was sure that was the part of a Wraith that would never go away.

Almost understandable.

"I was just making conversation," Radek said, and almost regretted it. Almost. "It seems like the test worked."


Thank yous

Ghost - Good to see you! I'm really happy you liked that resolution of them ending up not leaving Atlantis after all. I quite enjoyed it, myself. As others have said, "Rodney may be an arrogant SOB but he is an honourable one." And it's just that much better when he decides to not be 100% self-centered. Plus, I think this will open some fun doors in the future. Not the too distant future, though. Anyway, I hope the chapters were enjoyable, and that this one is, too.


Next time: No turning back.