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

Last time: Zelenka and friends are on the Daedalus now. Next stop, Atlantis! For real this time! Kinda. We all know what kind of terrible things happen between one galaxy and another...

Chapter 13. New Start.

"Good night." Her voice failed her for some reason. It proved she was more scared than she thought she was.

He probably heard the tremor in her voice, but didn't know what to do about it. He put his hand on her shoulder, however awkwardly he went about it. "Good night, malá. I will see you at breakfast." He gave her shoulder a squeeze and walked off down the corridor to his own berthing.

Anna took a deep breath and backed up into the empty room. All but one of the four bunks in the small room had been claimed by jackets or knapsacks. The only one left was on the right side of the room, top bunk. She climbed up and stretched out on the small mattress. It wasn't incredibly comfortable, but not uncomfortable, either. She could handle this for three weeks. Eighteen days, actually.

Basically three weeks.

She rolled over on her back and stared at the gray ceiling. She couldn't handle this.

This was what she wanted. She could have stayed on Earth in Colorado Springs. But, no. She jumped on board at the first sign of another galaxy. For lack of a better term: starry-eyed. What was she doing this for?

For him?

What had he ever done for her, really? He sent her a music book once. He held her small, shaking hand on a Ferris wheel. He sent cards and letters, infrequently. And then he left for another galaxy without so much as a goodbye.

He could have died. He would have died had only a few things been not so different.

Anna was glad that he'd survived, of course. He was all she had left. And trying to imagine this situation reversed was pointless. She knew her mother so much better than Radek. She knew she wouldn't have cared nearly as much had he died in his siege, and she survived her cancer.

She just wanted máma back. She would trade any of this for her in a moment. Anything at all.

She felt guilty thinking that. But she also felt empty, and the former was far better than the latter.

The door cranked open again, this time admitting entrance to two women. Anna recognized Elizabeth immediately. She turned onto her stomach to get a good look at the other woman, a small blond wearing the same yellow jacket as Doctor Beckett.

"Eighteen days to go," Elizabeth sighed. She glanced up at Anna. "Sorry; did we wake you?"

"No," Anna answered. "I was awake. I couldn't sleep."

"First night on a spaceship does that to people," she said with a smile. Then she turned to the one who followed her in the room. "Doctor Jennifer Keller, this is Anna Zelenková, Radek Zelenka's daughter." Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Anna as if to ask if she got it right.

"Nice to meet you, Doctor Keller," Anna said.

"Nice to meet you, too, Anna," she said. "And you can call me Jennifer."

"Jennifer," Anna repeated.

Jennifer looked around at the ceiling and the walls, almost like she was afraid of them. "This is my first night on a space ship, too. I can think of a few other places I'd rather spend the night. Knowing there's a hard vacuum only a few hundred feet away isn't exactly comforting."

Anna smiled weakly. That had very little to do with why she couldn't sleep, but thank you very much for bringing it up… She hung off the side of the bunk and watched Elizabeth and Jennifer put away their things.

"Radek said there's nothing to worry about," Anna offered. "The Daedalus is pretty new. It works well even in battle."

"I think he would be one to know," Jennifer said. She smiled up at her. "It's pretty brave to leave Earth for another galaxy."

"Maybe," Anna said. She hadn't decided if it was brave or stupid.

"There won't be any battle situations before we get to Atlantis," Elizabeth said. "So I think we should be good."

Though pitched space battles certainly made for good film, Anna couldn't imagine being in the middle of one without losing her mind. There were so many awful ways to die in a battle in the first place, never mind the hard vacuum a couple hundred feet away, like Jennifer mentioned…

"So you're new to Atlantis, too," Anna said to Jennifer.

She nodded, pausing only long enough to give Anna the impression that she wasn't entirely sure she was cut out for this. "Yep. Everything will be new," she said. "You're lucky. I wish I could have some family with me. Someone familiar."

Familiar… Radek was familiar, but that meant almost nothing.

It had already started, everything that her mother hated about Radek. He worked all the time, taking breaks for coffee and meals. She guessed he had to sleep sometimes, too, but she didn't know when. He was awake long after she was asleep, and up before her every day. He also shared what he was doing with Anna, everything she would understand and some things she wouldn't. She devoured the science texts he'd bought her before they left.

It didn't help. She had no idea what he was talking about.

"Me, too," Anna mumbled.

Jennifer paused what she was doing and looked up at her. She looked apologetic. "Doctor Weir told me about your mom. Well, what she knew anyway. I'm sorry."

Anna crossed her arms under her chin. "It was very fast," she said. "She was very sick, but only for a short time." It could have been worse. She wasn't sure how, but she liked to tell herself that.

"My mom died when I was young, too," Jennifer said quietly. "So it was just me and my dad."

"How was that?" Anna asked.

"Well, I wasn't very good at making friends when I was young." Jennifer smiled. "So my dad is pretty much my best friend."

Sounded about right. Except that last part. Anna nodded and pulled herself back up all the way into her bunk. She would never be friends with him. She was sure of it. He was too absorbed in his work. "I don't know Radek well," she said finally. "He and... my mom split up when I was eight."

"Was that hard?" Jennifer asked. She hesitated. "I guess that's a stupid question. Sorry."

Anna shook her head. "It's not stupid. It was… I mostly only remember the good things. But they fought a lot. He was never home and that made her angry." She didn't know why she was explaining this to this woman she just met… But Jennifer seemed trustworthy… and like her in a way. She wasn't sure how.

"Did he visit?" Jennifer asked hopefully.

"She didn't want him to…" And she apologized for that in the hospital. At the time, it was beginning to look like Radek might never come. Anna just hoped she didn't regret it too sorely, keeping Radek away. She looked down at her hands and wished her tears away.

Fortunately, Jennifer and Elizabeth were too busy with their things to notice.

"I'm still a little shocked that Radek was married at all," Elizabeth spoke up into the silence.

Jennifer laughed. "Why?"

"Well, for one thing he never mentioned it," Elizabeth said. "The majority of the Atlantis expedition don't have any immediate family besides parents and siblings. He never gave anyone reason to suspect differently."

That sounded like Radek—from what she knew about him, anyway. "Work is very important to him," Anna said. "That's going to be the hardest thing."

She watched Elizabeth and Jennifer exchange concerned glances.

They didn't understand. She didn't understand, either. "I may have lived with Radek a long time ago, but things are different now," Anna explained at their less-than-enthused looks. They shouldn't get the wrong idea… she wasn't sure what the right idea was. But she knew the wrong idea: Radek wasn't neglectful. Just forgetful. There was a big difference. "We're a new family."

"That's a good way to look at it," Elizabeth allowed.

"Get a clean start," Jennifer said with a nod. "I like that."

No better place to do that than a new galaxy, too.

#

Radek put his bag under the top bunk's mattress, huffing in irritation. In reality, the top and bottom bunks, right and left side, were completely equal in every way, from the lack of head room to the teeny storage space under the mattress boards. There was more room on a submarine.

Though, there was some disparity in the desirability of bunk real estate. The bottom bunks were the first to go. Was there really any difference in whether he was on the right side of the room or left?

"Ah. Of course."

Radek shut his eyes just so no one could see them turn toward the ceiling. If Rodney was on the left side of the room, maybe it did matter. Of course, Rodney had the left bunk.

"Do you snore?"

Radek turned on Rodney, sure to share his lack of amusement in the most terrible glare he could muster. "I've never gotten a complaint."

Rodney nodded, a finger rattling just next to his arm. "Right. Stupid question."

Radek reached up to hoist himself up onto the flat mattress.

"When was the last time you possibly could have gotten a complaint?" Rodney continued, kneeling to stow his small bag under the mattress board.

His feet slammed back onto the floor, and he bit his tongue. "Do not start this again, not this soon…" He didn't doubt that Rodney made out every whispered word of that as he clambered up and rolled onto his back. The ceiling seemed mere inches from his nose.

He counted the number of times he'd had to share a room with his fellow scientists, and any time he might have fallen asleep in the lab. That was probably where he'd done most of his sleeping recently, anyway.

The apartment in southern Colorado Springs was the best nights' sleep he'd had in ages. Quiet. Comfortable. The only source of work anxiety had been his cell phone, and once he lost that in the couch pillows. It was easily the most relaxing forty-five minutes of his recent life… until he realized he couldn't find it. Those were among the most stressful ten minutes of his recent life. Fortunately, no messages.

Before that, well… no need to get into that. The point was, he was sure any number of people could have complained about snoring. No one confronted him about it.

Why in heaven's name was he so concerned about this?

He cast a quick glance to the other side of the room. Both new scientists, though it was impossible to tell what kind. One of them had his Finnish flag patch prominently displayed in his laundry. The other guy was probably British. Or maybe Australian…? Radek was terrible with accented English. Could have been from the US or Canada—Radek wouldn't know.

"Ah. There." Radek heard Rodney pat the mattress several times. He sighed loudly as he stretched out on it.

"Will you be doing that all night?" Radek asked.

The new kid, Finnish and a scientist of some kind, interrupted anything Rodney might have said in response. "Erik Halla, Doctor Erik Halla."

"Radek Zelenka."

"You are Czech?"

Radek wondered what his first clue was—the fact they could probably barely understand each other or the Czech flag located brazenly on his shoulder. "Yes."

"The one with the daughter."

Radek took a breath and held it. "Yes. I am." Was that how he was going to be known now? The scientist that somehow made it onto Atlantis with a child in tow? It seemed unfair to call Anna a child. But it also seemed unfair to reduce Radek's accomplishments of the past years, the nearly ground-breaking advancements, to one thing.

"She didn't have anywhere else to go. My ex-wife died earlier this year," Radek explained. Why he was explaining was anyone's guess.

"My ex wouldn't give me the pleasure," the other scientist joked.

Erik Halla had the decency to at least looked confused as he ducked into the bottom bunk on the other side of the room. Rodney sort of looked disgusted.

Radek didn't know how to repond to that properly when he turned to face him. Whoever he was. Hopefully, it would never be important. He could be an anthropologist, and Rodney would mock him until the end of the expedition, because, in Rodney's words, "Oh, is that what passes for 'science' these days?"

"And you are?"

"Craig Jones."

Noted. Radek clamored up onto the top bunk over Rodney, listening to his near-constant shifting and sighing. He had a special mattress pad brought on board. A prescription mattress, which Radek had no idea existed until early this afternoon.

Radek didn't pray, but tonight he did: everyone stop talking and go to sleep. Especially Craig Jones. It was one thing to be angry at his ex-wife—and Radek might have been angry. Maybe. Five years ago. He didn't remember whether he was or not. But he never hated her. Never really hated anyone, and certainly not her. Even Rodney, for all the times Radek feigned wishing his death, he never meant it. Not really, anyway.

And now, if for Anna's sake alone, he wouldn't be angry. Anna missed her.

After all, he missed her once, too.

Czech Things

Malá = little or small

Next time: It's time to decide what's really important. There will be a test later.