Out of Sight by julietink (Skeevy Ancients challenge)
Title: Out of Sight
Author: julietink
Rating: PG13 (hinted slash, mild sexual references)
Word count: 3,370
A/N: Written in a steaming hurry today to get in under the wire so hopefully it still hangs together OK; set vaguely S2.
Summary: "Rodney, relax. It's not a gun, and it doesn't work anyway."
Rodney and Colonel Sheppard were bickering in the corner of the lab, a noise familiar enough that Radek didn't really even have to try to tune it out. He found it faintly comforting -- it reminded him of being a teenager, doing his homework in one corner of the living room and ignoring his younger siblings. Although his younger siblings hadn't been flirting with each other, of course.
"I am surprised that you have so much time free to spend with the -- what is it you called it last week, Rodney? The 'useless crap' box?" he called over his shoulder.
"So you'd prefer it if I left Sheppard and his grabby fingers -- "
"Hey!" Colonel Sheppard protested.
" -- to wreak havoc unsupervised?" Rodney continued. "And someone competent needs to take notes."
"Is there yet anything useful?"
"No," Rodney admitted with a sigh.
"I've got to go meet Teyla in the gym in five," Sheppard said.
"OK, try that one then and we'll call it a day," Rodney directed.
There was a pause.
"I don't think this works either, Rodney," Sheppard said, sounding disappointed.
"Dammit," Rodney said. Then: "Which is no reason to wave it around like that, you moron! Don't they give you firearms safety training in the Air Force?"
"Rodney, relax. It's not a gun, and it doesn't work anyway."
Radek stopped typing and turned round to comment, just in time to hear Rodney's squawk and duck as the artefact in Colonel Sheppard's hand discharged; but not quite in time to duck himself before the flash of light hit him.
He had a moment of resigned horror -- of course he was going to die this way, not even in a heroic city-saving fashion -- and then realised that the fact that he was thinking this probably meant that he wasn't dead after all. In fact -- he looked down at himself, moved hands and feet experimentally -- nothing seemed to have happened at all.
He looked up to see Rodney and Colonel Sheppard staring in horror at his chair.
"Zelenka?" Rodney said, his voice cracking slightly.
Oh god. Maybe something had happened, something that he could not see. He patted at his face -- still nothing obvious to the touch, but maybe...
"What? What is it?" he asked, still peering at himself.
"Zelenka?!" Rodney said again, taking a step forwards and looking wildly round the lab.
"I am right here, Rodney, where you would expect me to be," Radek said slightly irritably. "Right where I can be hit by accidental Ancient devices."
Both Rodney and Colonel Sheppard looked straight at him -- through him -- then carried on looking round the lab. An unnerving suspicion began to dawn on him. He got up and walked slowly towards Rodney, waving his hands in front of Rodney's face. Rodney failed to react.
"You cannot see me?" Radek asked unnecessarily.
"No, I..." Rodney blinked, and frowned at the general area where Radek was standing. "Wait. You're there, but we can't see... You're invisible? Oh, for -- this is just ridiculous."
Then he jumped, and squawked, because Radek had reached over and pinched his ear.
Colonel Sheppard, who had been looking around the lab with his hand on his sidearm, visibly relaxed. "Invisible?" he said, grinning. "Cool."
"You really cannot see me?" Radek asked.
"No!" Rodney said, still looking wildly round the lab.
"Curious," Radek said.
He circled round and eyed Rodney speculatively, then reached out and slapped his ass. Rodney jumped a good foot in the air and swung out wildly in the direction of Radek's laughter, managing to connect more by good luck than anything else. Radek carried on laughing.
"Yes, yes, very funny, it's always good to know that I am surrounded by such mature people," Rodney said bitterly.
"So you can still touch things?" Sheppard asked. "And McKay was able to touch you just then."
"Yes," Radek agreed. He suspected he should probably be more concerned about suddenly developing invisiblity, but Colonel Sheppard was right -- it was, well, cool.
"Also I can still see myself," he added.
Rodney frowned. "Hmm. I wonder if..."
"Something bending the light? Yes, it is possible. But then how is it that I can see?"
"I'm going to radio Elizabeth," Sheppard said.
"Yes, yes," Rodney said, flapping a hand at him, any concern evaporated in the interest of the problem. "Zelenka, come stand in front of me."
Radek moved until he was just in front of Rodney, then couldn't resist reaching out and tweaking his nose. Rodney squawked again.
"Cut that out!"
Sheppard sniggered. Rodney stuck his chin in the air, pointedly ignoring Sheppard, then leant forwards slightly, peering at the air right in front of him. Radek waved a hand just where Rodney was looking, and Rodney blinked.
"Did you -- do that again, whatever you did. Not the thing with my nose," he glared at a spot a couple of inches to Radek's left.
Radek waved his hand again.
"Ha! Yes. I can just about see something there. You waved your hand or something, right? Whatever it is, it can't quite keep up this close."
"To be able to work at all this close..."
Rodney nodded. "Yes, yes, it's... Something like the personal shield, maybe? Some kind of -- filter?"
"But I am not carrying anything," Radek pointed out. "I was hit instead by whatever that is that the Colonel had."
They both looked over at Sheppard, who winced. "I'm sorry, Radek," he offered.
Radek shrugged, forgetting they couldn't see him. "Do not worry. It appears that there is no harm done, and in fact this is quite interesting."
"Do you think using it again would reverse it?" Sheppard asked.
"Don't try it!" Rodney and Radek said in unison. Sheppard pouted -- really, Radek thought, that was a slightly ridiculous expression on a grown man.
"I wasn't going to!"
"What, you limit yourself to making that mistake once a day?" Rodney asked. Sheppard pulled a face at him.
"You could try it on something else," Radek suggested. "Something inanimate, for preference."
But when Sheppard gingerly picked the device back up, it stayed dark.
"Of course," Radek said with resignation. "This is Pegasus Galaxy, of course nothing is simple."
"Maybe it needs to recharge?" Rodney suggested. "It didn't do anything when you first picked it up just now. Try holding it for a while."
It was at that point that Elizabeth arrived.
"Rodney, John," she said. "What's the problem?" She looked around the lab. "Where's Dr Zelenka? I thought you said he was here?"
"Well, that's kind of the problem," John drawled.
"Hello," Radek said helpfully. Yes, making people jump like that was going to be entertaining for some while longer.
*
Elizabeth insisted that he should go down to the infirmary to be checked out by Carson, while Rodney experimented with the device, which hadn't shown any immediate signs of recharging.
"I assure you, Dr Weir, I am fine. We think it bends the light in some way, but we need to experiment further..."
"Which you can do after you've been down to see Carson," Elizabeth said firmly. "I'll walk down there with you, before I go and look through the database for anything on this. I'm not sure it would be fair on him for you to walk in there on your own."
Radek privately thought that it might have been amusing, but Elizabeth was probably right.
Carson in fact dealt very calmly with the whole matter. The purely physical tests all worked -- stethoscope, blood pressure monitor. The field seemed to be operating maybe a couple of centimetres from Radek himself; although he could see both sides of it, something odd happened to his focus at the point where anything intersected with it. Carson confirmed that something similar was happening from his side. A couple of the Ancient scanners worked, but nothing showed up on an X-ray, and Radek suddenly realised that he hadn't heard anything from his radio since the incident. Something manipulating the EM spectrum, he concluded.
As soon as Carson had confirmed his clean bill of health, he went back to the lab. Rodney was bent over the device, Colonel Sheppard sitting on the desk. Radek paused in the doorway, and blinked as he saw Sheppard's face, briefly unguarded as he looked down at Rodney. Ah. Not that this was particularly a surprise, but... He was torn between his scientist's pleasure at information obtained, and the sense that this was an unwarranted intrusion into someone else's life. Especially such a person as Colonel Sheppard, who took such pains to keep himself private. He reversed very quietly back around the corner, then came back in again, starting to talk as he did so. Sheppard's customary lazy grin was back in place sufficiently firmly that Radek might almost have doubted what he saw.
*
Over the next hour, Radek and Rodney confirmed that what was happening was a bending of EM spectrum waves around Radek, but only from the outside. So Radek could see but not be seen; radio out but not in. Which, as Rodney disgustedly commented, made no sense.
"As if this is new with Ancients," Radek pointed out.
They failed to get the device back on again, after which Colonel Sheppard excused himself, presumably to take care of his other duties, and they failed to work out exactly how the field was adhering. They also discovered that if he got too close to any of the equipment -- including the computers -- it began to cut out, which pushed the matter from "interesting, non-urgent situation" to "needs to be fixed right now".
"I mean, of course I can handle anything that comes up," Rodney said, waving a hand.
"I am better engineer than you," Radek said flatly, pushing his glasses up his nose and glaring at Rodney despite knowing he couldn't see it.
Rodney made the expected scathing comment, and they ran through a couple of rounds mostly by rote. But both of them knew that Radek was at least as good with many of the city systems than Rodney, and in a couple of cases better; and that in any case they were spread thin enough as it was.
"Also if I cannot check email I will go mad," Radek added.
Rodney's look of sympathetic horror was unfeigned.
*
They worked out a possible solution that might disrupt the field, and Radek spent a while going over some of the details with pen and paper. After that, there was nothing to do but watch Rodney take the device apart and cannibalise the bits of other Ancient tech that were lying around the lab. After one too many snide comments, Rodney declared that he couldn't work with someone invisibly breathing down his neck, and banished him.
"Not that you will know if I go or do not go," Radek pointed out irritably. The interest factor of this was most definitely wearing off.
"Thank you so much for freaking me out even further," Rodney said sourly, and then did his best to pointedly ignore Radek, which worked a lot less well when he didn't know which direction to aim the pointed ignoring at.
"Fine, fine, I am going," Radek said, and stomped out of the lab.
*
He had a vague idea of going to the mess to get some food, but a couple of encounters in the corridor with people who just looked straight through him rapidly got rid of any such idea. It was just creepy. He found himself aimlessly wandering the corridors instead -- except it turned out that that was barely any less creepy. It wasn't that he hadn't already known that there were plenty of secrets in Atlantis. Not in a bad way, just in the inevitable way of a couple of hundred people living in a very stressful goldfish bowl and trying to maintain some semblance of a private life. What he had not realised was how much, in a place with big windows and long corridors with good sightlines, people relied on visual cues to judge their privacy.
Walking down the corridor a hundred metres behind two Marines, he suddenly saw one of them glance over his shoulder, then shove the other up against the wall, forearm against his neck, hissing something Radek couldn't hear into the other man's face. Radek didn't know what to do -- should he radio Sheppard? Was this bullying; a personal fight of the sort he'd heard Sheppard talk to Rodney about 'busting their asses' over; or just part and parcel of the interactions of people who were fundamentally trained to violence? Then, even if he did radio Sheppard, he wouldn't be able to hear anything said to him. Thankfully after a moment the Marine took his arm away from the other man's throat, and they continued down the corridor, backs stiff. Radek turned back and headed for one of the piers. It was perhaps best for him to stay away from people.
Except that didn't work either. He had been looking out at the ocean for barely five minutes when Kate Heightmeyer came out onto the other end of the pier, looked around her, and then slumped against the railing, head down. Her shoulders were shaking gently, and Radek let out the breath he'd taken with the intention of calling out to let her know he was there. He looked away, instead, pretended he hadn't seen, staring out at the ocean again but barely seeing it, until a quick glance showed him that she'd gone again, and he could go back inside.
On his way back to the lab -- Rodney would just have to cope with it, at least he knew that Radek was there, and could warn anyone else -- he came across a couple wrapped round each other, and shut his eyes and turned blindly away, swearing under his breath, desperately trying not to register who it was. He'd been trying to make noise, even, this time.
*
He deliberately clattered against the door when he got back to the lab, said "Hello" loudly. Elizabeth was there, talking to Rodney.
"Ah, Radek," she said, looking past him and smiling. "I was just telling Rodney that I think I've found something in the database." The smile fell away and she looked slightly uncomfortable. "It seems that, ah..." She was obviously looking for the right words.
"It seems that the Ancients were creepy little voyeurs," Rodney said briskly, "and that's what this toy was used for."
Radek couldn't repress a shudder, the awareness of his unknown invasions of privacy, however accidental, crawling under his skin.
"Well," Elizabeth temporized, "it was used partly for military espionage, and it looks like that's why it was developed. But most of the reports in the database are more about -- recreational usage." She was clearly trying not to look too disturbed.
"I swear to god, the more I find out about the Ancients the less I like them," Rodney said. "Not just incompetent, but sleazy too, although really that doesn't surprise me in the slightest after meeting Chaya."
He had pieces of equipment spread all over the bench and was still putting things together as he spoke. Radek stared at Rodney's hands and said
"So, what, you wish me to wear a little bell, to warn people of my approach? Have a Marine escort? Not that this would work well as after all they could not see me to confirm they really were escorting me." The guilt twisting in his stomach made his voice bitter. He hadn't meant to see anything -- Colonel Sheppard, Dr Heightmeyer, the Marines... But he had, and now he couldn't lose the knowledge, unwittingly shared. He would have cheerfully admitted to taking part in the Atlantis informal information network, to keeping tabs on the life of the city. But that was not not like this.
Elizabeth looked surprised. "Radek, of course I'm not accusing you of doing anything of that sort. It's not like you're in this position voluntarily."
"No," Radek agreed gloomily, and went to sit at his desk. He picked up a pencil to fiddle with until Elizabeth's expression made him realise that she was doubtless seeing bits of pencil shiver in and out of existence, and was obviously finding this a little disturbing. He put it down again.
"Anyway!" she said brightly. "I'm sure Rodney will have a solution for us soon, now we have some idea of what it's actually doing."
"The database isn't very specific about how the field operates," Rodney said. "Or how to turn it off again -- I think it might be gene related. Or we just broke it turning it on. But there was nothing in there to suggest that what we were going to try wouldn't work, and I did some small-scale experiments which worked fine, so... There's nothing in this that can do serious damage, anyway." He slotted a crystal into place, and nodded in satisfaction. "Right -- we just need to let it charge for a while now."
"I'll leave you two to it, then," Elizabeth said. "Let me know when you're back to normal visibility again, Radek."
Radek watched her leave. "So, this charging will take how long?"
"An hour or so," Rodney said. "So I suppose you'd better just sit there and try not to do anything perverted in the next hour. Unlike the Ancients."
"Oh, shut up, Rodney," Radek snapped.
"What? Why, have you already been going round seeing things? What?"
Radek ignored him, and settled in to think miserable thoughts about life, and secrets, and perverted Ancients, until he could go back to being a normal, visible, person, who did not accidentally spy on people.
*
The transformation back was remarkably anti-climatic. Once the reconstructed device was charged up, Rodney pointed it at him where he was sat at his desk, there was another flash, and from the way Rodney's eyes refocused and he beamed smugly, Radek knew he was visible again. He relaxed in relief.
Rodney tapped his radio. "Elizabeth? Scientist visibility back up to 100%."
"That's good," Radek heard Elizabeth's voice over his own radio, which was also surprisingly relieving.
"Okay," he said, getting off his chair. "Now I am again visible, I will go to the mess for some food." His stomach was definitely making its wishes known.
"I assume you're coming back afterwards?" Rodney asked. "Since you've been lazing around doing nothing all afternoon."
Radek rolled his eyes. "Yes Rodney, do not worry about any possible distress on my part, I will be back to work immediately."
"Yes, well, it's not like it even lasted long, still less that it was actually damaging," Rodney said dismissively.
Radek looked away. Not damaging, no, not exactly, but... He thought again of Dr Heightmeyer, out on the pier, and winced.
"So," Rodney said. "Did you see anything interesting, then?"
Radek couldn't really blame him for the curiosity. He suspected he would have been the same, if he hadn't been through it, hadn't thought about it.
"No, Rodney," he said firmly. "Nothing."
He got up from his desk, then smiled to himself, unable to resist -- after all, this was Rodney -- and turned back as he reached the door. "Oh, although -- will Colonel Sheppard be by later on?"
Rodney would never make a good poker player. He went red, opened his mouth, shut it again, then glared at Radek. "What -- did you -- I mean, I don't know," with a belated stab at nonchalance. "Why?"
"Oh, nothing," Radek said. "I just wish to speak to him again about the proper treatment of Ancient devices, that is all."
He grinned at Rodney, who had narrowed his eyes, and went out into the corridor. A passing Marine gave him a cheery wave, and he let out another breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
Still. Having a little information on Rodney, that was worthwhile; and it was not such an invasion, that, it was something he had already halfway known. He would reassure Rodney in due course that he need not worry -- of course he was not going to betray either of them, would not dream of it -- but in the interim, it might be worth the odd chocolate or coffee bribe, and it never hurt to have Rodney a little off-balance. Radek smiled as he turned towards the mess, and flicked his radio to the open channel, surrounding himself with the public intimacies of Atlantis, papering over the private.
Author: julietink
Rating: PG13 (hinted slash, mild sexual references)
Word count: 3,370
A/N: Written in a steaming hurry today to get in under the wire so hopefully it still hangs together OK; set vaguely S2.
Summary: "Rodney, relax. It's not a gun, and it doesn't work anyway."
Rodney and Colonel Sheppard were bickering in the corner of the lab, a noise familiar enough that Radek didn't really even have to try to tune it out. He found it faintly comforting -- it reminded him of being a teenager, doing his homework in one corner of the living room and ignoring his younger siblings. Although his younger siblings hadn't been flirting with each other, of course.
"I am surprised that you have so much time free to spend with the -- what is it you called it last week, Rodney? The 'useless crap' box?" he called over his shoulder.
"So you'd prefer it if I left Sheppard and his grabby fingers -- "
"Hey!" Colonel Sheppard protested.
" -- to wreak havoc unsupervised?" Rodney continued. "And someone competent needs to take notes."
"Is there yet anything useful?"
"No," Rodney admitted with a sigh.
"I've got to go meet Teyla in the gym in five," Sheppard said.
"OK, try that one then and we'll call it a day," Rodney directed.
There was a pause.
"I don't think this works either, Rodney," Sheppard said, sounding disappointed.
"Dammit," Rodney said. Then: "Which is no reason to wave it around like that, you moron! Don't they give you firearms safety training in the Air Force?"
"Rodney, relax. It's not a gun, and it doesn't work anyway."
Radek stopped typing and turned round to comment, just in time to hear Rodney's squawk and duck as the artefact in Colonel Sheppard's hand discharged; but not quite in time to duck himself before the flash of light hit him.
He had a moment of resigned horror -- of course he was going to die this way, not even in a heroic city-saving fashion -- and then realised that the fact that he was thinking this probably meant that he wasn't dead after all. In fact -- he looked down at himself, moved hands and feet experimentally -- nothing seemed to have happened at all.
He looked up to see Rodney and Colonel Sheppard staring in horror at his chair.
"Zelenka?" Rodney said, his voice cracking slightly.
Oh god. Maybe something had happened, something that he could not see. He patted at his face -- still nothing obvious to the touch, but maybe...
"What? What is it?" he asked, still peering at himself.
"Zelenka?!" Rodney said again, taking a step forwards and looking wildly round the lab.
"I am right here, Rodney, where you would expect me to be," Radek said slightly irritably. "Right where I can be hit by accidental Ancient devices."
Both Rodney and Colonel Sheppard looked straight at him -- through him -- then carried on looking round the lab. An unnerving suspicion began to dawn on him. He got up and walked slowly towards Rodney, waving his hands in front of Rodney's face. Rodney failed to react.
"You cannot see me?" Radek asked unnecessarily.
"No, I..." Rodney blinked, and frowned at the general area where Radek was standing. "Wait. You're there, but we can't see... You're invisible? Oh, for -- this is just ridiculous."
Then he jumped, and squawked, because Radek had reached over and pinched his ear.
Colonel Sheppard, who had been looking around the lab with his hand on his sidearm, visibly relaxed. "Invisible?" he said, grinning. "Cool."
"You really cannot see me?" Radek asked.
"No!" Rodney said, still looking wildly round the lab.
"Curious," Radek said.
He circled round and eyed Rodney speculatively, then reached out and slapped his ass. Rodney jumped a good foot in the air and swung out wildly in the direction of Radek's laughter, managing to connect more by good luck than anything else. Radek carried on laughing.
"Yes, yes, very funny, it's always good to know that I am surrounded by such mature people," Rodney said bitterly.
"So you can still touch things?" Sheppard asked. "And McKay was able to touch you just then."
"Yes," Radek agreed. He suspected he should probably be more concerned about suddenly developing invisiblity, but Colonel Sheppard was right -- it was, well, cool.
"Also I can still see myself," he added.
Rodney frowned. "Hmm. I wonder if..."
"Something bending the light? Yes, it is possible. But then how is it that I can see?"
"I'm going to radio Elizabeth," Sheppard said.
"Yes, yes," Rodney said, flapping a hand at him, any concern evaporated in the interest of the problem. "Zelenka, come stand in front of me."
Radek moved until he was just in front of Rodney, then couldn't resist reaching out and tweaking his nose. Rodney squawked again.
"Cut that out!"
Sheppard sniggered. Rodney stuck his chin in the air, pointedly ignoring Sheppard, then leant forwards slightly, peering at the air right in front of him. Radek waved a hand just where Rodney was looking, and Rodney blinked.
"Did you -- do that again, whatever you did. Not the thing with my nose," he glared at a spot a couple of inches to Radek's left.
Radek waved his hand again.
"Ha! Yes. I can just about see something there. You waved your hand or something, right? Whatever it is, it can't quite keep up this close."
"To be able to work at all this close..."
Rodney nodded. "Yes, yes, it's... Something like the personal shield, maybe? Some kind of -- filter?"
"But I am not carrying anything," Radek pointed out. "I was hit instead by whatever that is that the Colonel had."
They both looked over at Sheppard, who winced. "I'm sorry, Radek," he offered.
Radek shrugged, forgetting they couldn't see him. "Do not worry. It appears that there is no harm done, and in fact this is quite interesting."
"Do you think using it again would reverse it?" Sheppard asked.
"Don't try it!" Rodney and Radek said in unison. Sheppard pouted -- really, Radek thought, that was a slightly ridiculous expression on a grown man.
"I wasn't going to!"
"What, you limit yourself to making that mistake once a day?" Rodney asked. Sheppard pulled a face at him.
"You could try it on something else," Radek suggested. "Something inanimate, for preference."
But when Sheppard gingerly picked the device back up, it stayed dark.
"Of course," Radek said with resignation. "This is Pegasus Galaxy, of course nothing is simple."
"Maybe it needs to recharge?" Rodney suggested. "It didn't do anything when you first picked it up just now. Try holding it for a while."
It was at that point that Elizabeth arrived.
"Rodney, John," she said. "What's the problem?" She looked around the lab. "Where's Dr Zelenka? I thought you said he was here?"
"Well, that's kind of the problem," John drawled.
"Hello," Radek said helpfully. Yes, making people jump like that was going to be entertaining for some while longer.
*
Elizabeth insisted that he should go down to the infirmary to be checked out by Carson, while Rodney experimented with the device, which hadn't shown any immediate signs of recharging.
"I assure you, Dr Weir, I am fine. We think it bends the light in some way, but we need to experiment further..."
"Which you can do after you've been down to see Carson," Elizabeth said firmly. "I'll walk down there with you, before I go and look through the database for anything on this. I'm not sure it would be fair on him for you to walk in there on your own."
Radek privately thought that it might have been amusing, but Elizabeth was probably right.
Carson in fact dealt very calmly with the whole matter. The purely physical tests all worked -- stethoscope, blood pressure monitor. The field seemed to be operating maybe a couple of centimetres from Radek himself; although he could see both sides of it, something odd happened to his focus at the point where anything intersected with it. Carson confirmed that something similar was happening from his side. A couple of the Ancient scanners worked, but nothing showed up on an X-ray, and Radek suddenly realised that he hadn't heard anything from his radio since the incident. Something manipulating the EM spectrum, he concluded.
As soon as Carson had confirmed his clean bill of health, he went back to the lab. Rodney was bent over the device, Colonel Sheppard sitting on the desk. Radek paused in the doorway, and blinked as he saw Sheppard's face, briefly unguarded as he looked down at Rodney. Ah. Not that this was particularly a surprise, but... He was torn between his scientist's pleasure at information obtained, and the sense that this was an unwarranted intrusion into someone else's life. Especially such a person as Colonel Sheppard, who took such pains to keep himself private. He reversed very quietly back around the corner, then came back in again, starting to talk as he did so. Sheppard's customary lazy grin was back in place sufficiently firmly that Radek might almost have doubted what he saw.
*
Over the next hour, Radek and Rodney confirmed that what was happening was a bending of EM spectrum waves around Radek, but only from the outside. So Radek could see but not be seen; radio out but not in. Which, as Rodney disgustedly commented, made no sense.
"As if this is new with Ancients," Radek pointed out.
They failed to get the device back on again, after which Colonel Sheppard excused himself, presumably to take care of his other duties, and they failed to work out exactly how the field was adhering. They also discovered that if he got too close to any of the equipment -- including the computers -- it began to cut out, which pushed the matter from "interesting, non-urgent situation" to "needs to be fixed right now".
"I mean, of course I can handle anything that comes up," Rodney said, waving a hand.
"I am better engineer than you," Radek said flatly, pushing his glasses up his nose and glaring at Rodney despite knowing he couldn't see it.
Rodney made the expected scathing comment, and they ran through a couple of rounds mostly by rote. But both of them knew that Radek was at least as good with many of the city systems than Rodney, and in a couple of cases better; and that in any case they were spread thin enough as it was.
"Also if I cannot check email I will go mad," Radek added.
Rodney's look of sympathetic horror was unfeigned.
*
They worked out a possible solution that might disrupt the field, and Radek spent a while going over some of the details with pen and paper. After that, there was nothing to do but watch Rodney take the device apart and cannibalise the bits of other Ancient tech that were lying around the lab. After one too many snide comments, Rodney declared that he couldn't work with someone invisibly breathing down his neck, and banished him.
"Not that you will know if I go or do not go," Radek pointed out irritably. The interest factor of this was most definitely wearing off.
"Thank you so much for freaking me out even further," Rodney said sourly, and then did his best to pointedly ignore Radek, which worked a lot less well when he didn't know which direction to aim the pointed ignoring at.
"Fine, fine, I am going," Radek said, and stomped out of the lab.
*
He had a vague idea of going to the mess to get some food, but a couple of encounters in the corridor with people who just looked straight through him rapidly got rid of any such idea. It was just creepy. He found himself aimlessly wandering the corridors instead -- except it turned out that that was barely any less creepy. It wasn't that he hadn't already known that there were plenty of secrets in Atlantis. Not in a bad way, just in the inevitable way of a couple of hundred people living in a very stressful goldfish bowl and trying to maintain some semblance of a private life. What he had not realised was how much, in a place with big windows and long corridors with good sightlines, people relied on visual cues to judge their privacy.
Walking down the corridor a hundred metres behind two Marines, he suddenly saw one of them glance over his shoulder, then shove the other up against the wall, forearm against his neck, hissing something Radek couldn't hear into the other man's face. Radek didn't know what to do -- should he radio Sheppard? Was this bullying; a personal fight of the sort he'd heard Sheppard talk to Rodney about 'busting their asses' over; or just part and parcel of the interactions of people who were fundamentally trained to violence? Then, even if he did radio Sheppard, he wouldn't be able to hear anything said to him. Thankfully after a moment the Marine took his arm away from the other man's throat, and they continued down the corridor, backs stiff. Radek turned back and headed for one of the piers. It was perhaps best for him to stay away from people.
Except that didn't work either. He had been looking out at the ocean for barely five minutes when Kate Heightmeyer came out onto the other end of the pier, looked around her, and then slumped against the railing, head down. Her shoulders were shaking gently, and Radek let out the breath he'd taken with the intention of calling out to let her know he was there. He looked away, instead, pretended he hadn't seen, staring out at the ocean again but barely seeing it, until a quick glance showed him that she'd gone again, and he could go back inside.
On his way back to the lab -- Rodney would just have to cope with it, at least he knew that Radek was there, and could warn anyone else -- he came across a couple wrapped round each other, and shut his eyes and turned blindly away, swearing under his breath, desperately trying not to register who it was. He'd been trying to make noise, even, this time.
*
He deliberately clattered against the door when he got back to the lab, said "Hello" loudly. Elizabeth was there, talking to Rodney.
"Ah, Radek," she said, looking past him and smiling. "I was just telling Rodney that I think I've found something in the database." The smile fell away and she looked slightly uncomfortable. "It seems that, ah..." She was obviously looking for the right words.
"It seems that the Ancients were creepy little voyeurs," Rodney said briskly, "and that's what this toy was used for."
Radek couldn't repress a shudder, the awareness of his unknown invasions of privacy, however accidental, crawling under his skin.
"Well," Elizabeth temporized, "it was used partly for military espionage, and it looks like that's why it was developed. But most of the reports in the database are more about -- recreational usage." She was clearly trying not to look too disturbed.
"I swear to god, the more I find out about the Ancients the less I like them," Rodney said. "Not just incompetent, but sleazy too, although really that doesn't surprise me in the slightest after meeting Chaya."
He had pieces of equipment spread all over the bench and was still putting things together as he spoke. Radek stared at Rodney's hands and said
"So, what, you wish me to wear a little bell, to warn people of my approach? Have a Marine escort? Not that this would work well as after all they could not see me to confirm they really were escorting me." The guilt twisting in his stomach made his voice bitter. He hadn't meant to see anything -- Colonel Sheppard, Dr Heightmeyer, the Marines... But he had, and now he couldn't lose the knowledge, unwittingly shared. He would have cheerfully admitted to taking part in the Atlantis informal information network, to keeping tabs on the life of the city. But that was not not like this.
Elizabeth looked surprised. "Radek, of course I'm not accusing you of doing anything of that sort. It's not like you're in this position voluntarily."
"No," Radek agreed gloomily, and went to sit at his desk. He picked up a pencil to fiddle with until Elizabeth's expression made him realise that she was doubtless seeing bits of pencil shiver in and out of existence, and was obviously finding this a little disturbing. He put it down again.
"Anyway!" she said brightly. "I'm sure Rodney will have a solution for us soon, now we have some idea of what it's actually doing."
"The database isn't very specific about how the field operates," Rodney said. "Or how to turn it off again -- I think it might be gene related. Or we just broke it turning it on. But there was nothing in there to suggest that what we were going to try wouldn't work, and I did some small-scale experiments which worked fine, so... There's nothing in this that can do serious damage, anyway." He slotted a crystal into place, and nodded in satisfaction. "Right -- we just need to let it charge for a while now."
"I'll leave you two to it, then," Elizabeth said. "Let me know when you're back to normal visibility again, Radek."
Radek watched her leave. "So, this charging will take how long?"
"An hour or so," Rodney said. "So I suppose you'd better just sit there and try not to do anything perverted in the next hour. Unlike the Ancients."
"Oh, shut up, Rodney," Radek snapped.
"What? Why, have you already been going round seeing things? What?"
Radek ignored him, and settled in to think miserable thoughts about life, and secrets, and perverted Ancients, until he could go back to being a normal, visible, person, who did not accidentally spy on people.
*
The transformation back was remarkably anti-climatic. Once the reconstructed device was charged up, Rodney pointed it at him where he was sat at his desk, there was another flash, and from the way Rodney's eyes refocused and he beamed smugly, Radek knew he was visible again. He relaxed in relief.
Rodney tapped his radio. "Elizabeth? Scientist visibility back up to 100%."
"That's good," Radek heard Elizabeth's voice over his own radio, which was also surprisingly relieving.
"Okay," he said, getting off his chair. "Now I am again visible, I will go to the mess for some food." His stomach was definitely making its wishes known.
"I assume you're coming back afterwards?" Rodney asked. "Since you've been lazing around doing nothing all afternoon."
Radek rolled his eyes. "Yes Rodney, do not worry about any possible distress on my part, I will be back to work immediately."
"Yes, well, it's not like it even lasted long, still less that it was actually damaging," Rodney said dismissively.
Radek looked away. Not damaging, no, not exactly, but... He thought again of Dr Heightmeyer, out on the pier, and winced.
"So," Rodney said. "Did you see anything interesting, then?"
Radek couldn't really blame him for the curiosity. He suspected he would have been the same, if he hadn't been through it, hadn't thought about it.
"No, Rodney," he said firmly. "Nothing."
He got up from his desk, then smiled to himself, unable to resist -- after all, this was Rodney -- and turned back as he reached the door. "Oh, although -- will Colonel Sheppard be by later on?"
Rodney would never make a good poker player. He went red, opened his mouth, shut it again, then glared at Radek. "What -- did you -- I mean, I don't know," with a belated stab at nonchalance. "Why?"
"Oh, nothing," Radek said. "I just wish to speak to him again about the proper treatment of Ancient devices, that is all."
He grinned at Rodney, who had narrowed his eyes, and went out into the corridor. A passing Marine gave him a cheery wave, and he let out another breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
Still. Having a little information on Rodney, that was worthwhile; and it was not such an invasion, that, it was something he had already halfway known. He would reassure Rodney in due course that he need not worry -- of course he was not going to betray either of them, would not dream of it -- but in the interim, it might be worth the odd chocolate or coffee bribe, and it never hurt to have Rodney a little off-balance. Radek smiled as he turned towards the mess, and flicked his radio to the open channel, surrounding himself with the public intimacies of Atlantis, papering over the private.