Chapter 7

We've found them, Carson's thick Scottish accent interrupted Radek where he was busy with his calculations. Only a few minutes ago he had asked Carson to take a security detail and help find Elizabeth and Sitnalta: after they had left in a hurry he had not been able to get them on the comm again.

"Where are they?" he asked after he had tapped his earpiece. If Carson was the one talking to him, chances were the two women were somehow incapacitated. That would just be his luck, he reflected.

They are in that holographic room we hardly use, Carson replied. They are just standing here, unresponsive, the doctor confirmed Radek's worst fears. Hang on, I'll try and wake them.

The scene of Sitnalta sitting lost in thought at a consol flashed through Radek's mind. "No!" he nearly screamed at the doctor on the other end of the line. "Don't touch them," he added with more control.

What's the matter? Carson asked with obvious bewilderment. Radek shook his head. He knew there was no way to explain to Carson why he knew he should not touch the two women. He had seen Sitnalta talk to Atlantis this way before, and suspected this was what the women were doing – although how Sitnalta had dragged Elizabeth in was a mystery. And if this is what they were doing, then Carson would be interferring with something very delicate. Sitnalta had once asked Radek not to interrupt her when she was doing it' and he suspected that to remove them now would do them some harm. K

ertu!

"Just...trust me, okay?" Radek finally answered Carson. He broke the contact by touching his earpiece once again. Then he sighed and got up. He was going to need some help.

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Two minutes later Radek stood eyeing Jeannie with trepidation. As her pregnancy was the most advanced of the lot, she had been the first to show. And by now it was quite obvious that the woman was pregnant. It was this fact that was making Radek feel so unsettled. Though his own Anne was pregnant and he was about to become a father, his lover had not started showing yet and he had not had to deal with the situation yet. Children confused and frightened him: little bundles of tiny hands and big needs. He was not equipped to deal with them and when he had started dating Anne he had supposed she felt the same way as he did. She was, after all, a career marine and had willingly chosen to come to the Pegasus galaxy on that first mission that could easily have meant she would not see earth ever again. Only recently had he discovered she loved kids and had come here with the knowledge that perhaps all of them would have to repopulate the city. When he had volunteered the thought had not evened crossed his mind. Instead he had seen it as the perfect opportunity to get away from his dear but demanding family that had been nagging at him to produce children. And now he was to be a father. Worse: as the doctors had been keeping a close watch on the progress of all the women, they had recently told him and Anne that they were expecting twins. Furthermore: Anne had been hinting strongly that she expected to be married before the birth of the kids. Seeing as all the children were expected within the next five to seven months – and Anne's within five and a half – Radek knew he had to start giving some thought to marrying Anne.

Now he stood in front of another pregnant woman and he had no idea how to ask her for help. Though she was obviously as smart as Rodney, she had been happily helping Anna – the babysitter-girl – and one of the older girls from M7G-677 setting up a nursery for when the babies would eventually arrive. But now he desperately needed her help.

"Um..." he began and knew it was not a very good start. In return the blonde gave him a look that could just as easily have come from Rodney. Immediately Radek felt a wave of relief washing over him. Though Jeannie was younger than Rodney and much, much prettier, they looked much alike and there was something very McKay about her that he found comforting. He might not know how to talk to a pregnant Jeannie, but he knew how to handle an exasperated McKay.

"Atlantis is losing power. Now, I know you are not part of the science team on Atlantis, but I need your help," he calmly told her now that he was no longer focussing on her rounded belly.

"You're right, I'm not," she told him. "Wouldn't my brother or Sitnalta know more about the energy of Atlantis than I would?" she asked him as she arranged a few stuffed animals in a crib.

"That's the thing," he replied. "Rodney is stuck on some planet and Sitnalta is...um...stuck inside Atlantis," he quickly finished the last part of his sentence while touching his earlobe. He felt foolish giving that explanation even though he knew it was correct.

After a few moments' silence he looked up at Jeannie – who had not spoken since. He dropped his hand to his side when he saw her frown. "Look, she has some way of communicating with the city that takes her mind somewhere inside it. Now she – and Doctor Weir," he quickly added, "are stuck like that."

Jeannie frowned even more. "So when you say 'stuck inside Atlantis you mean..." she started with a vague gesture of her hands. Radek made a motion much like stuffing a cat into a bag.

"They're actually stuck inside the mind of Atlantis," he completed her sentence. She was proving to be as difficult as Rodney, with the exception that she had the nasty habit of trying to mother him. Even now, as he played with his ear again, she reached out – seemingly instinctively – and removed his hand.

She tilted her head at him. "Wouldn't your team know better how to solve the problem than me? I don't know the systems as well as you do," she asked as she fiddled with the stuffed animals a final time.

Radek shook his head slightly. Ideally he would have liked to play with his earlobe again, but he knew she would just remove his hand. So instead he wrung his hands together. "They are all good at doing the daily maintenance, but I need someone with the same kind of brilliance that Rodney has. I need someone who can solve this problem within..." he looked at his watch and did a quick calculation. "Forty-three minutes," he told her. She looked askance at him.

"Why forty-three minutes?" she asked and he knew it would not take much more convincing to get her help.

"Well, closer to forty-two minutes, now," he added for good measure. "Because after that the last ZPM will start failing and we will lose the shields," he explained.

Suddenly Jeannie looked angry. "What did my idiot brother do now?" she demanded, but she was already heading out the door. Radek ran after her.

"SGA-1 went through the gate, but now it won't shut down," he explained as they ran towards the nearest transporter. "I don't think Rodney is to blame, though," he quickly added. Rodney had the habit of getting into trouble more than he should, but he knew the one thing the scientist would never do is intentionally endanger the city. Not only would he not risk the lives of all of those in the city that way, it was also his home. Also, Sitnalta would quite probably die if the city was destroyed, and Rodney would never ever risk her life that way. He was far too much in love with her.

"How long before the first ZPM gives out," Jeannie asked the moment they rematerialised just outside the control-room. She now seemed more worried than angry and he realised her earlier anger had been her way of dealing with her fear. Not only was her daughter here in the city, but she would also be thinking of her unborn child. Or was that children? Many of the women were expecting twins.

"Radek!" Jeannie's voice cut through his wandering thoughts.

"Oh," he returned to the matter at hand. "Um..." he muttered as he looked at his watch. "Eighteen minutes," he replied almost helplessly. He looked over at the activated gate and knew that with both Rodney and Sitnalta gone, he was now in charge of getting that stargate shut down. In fact, Lorne was off-world at the moment as well, leaving him as the ranking anything. And somehow Radek knew that no matter what, he was not about to let everyone on Atlantis down.