#rodek

Two weeks later he added, “turns research in early.”

Three months in and it was clear the man was not just an Engineer but a gifted engineer, and Rodney added “Eighty percent likely to get the machine to work." (Well, eighty-five if he was being completely honest.)

A few days before General O'Neill was scheduled to arrive Rodney found his blueprints while searching for a pen. He held one page up with a reverence he didn’t typically show to most things. Eyes running over the color-coded inner workings, the easy-to-follow pathways, and, oh god, perfectly legible labels. It was just so beautiful, so logical. It wouldn’t do to compliment the man on something he had found on accident, (not that he would anyway.) So he added, “logical,” to his list, put them back where he found them, and moved on.

But when they were lodged halfway inside an active stargate his list sprang to mind and he ran through it at lightspeed, combining them together and for once he wished he knew a scientist's name because a logical engineer who does things quickly and gets the machines to work eighty-nine percent of the time sounded like the perfect fit.

“Alright. Let me put Kavanagh, Grodin, and Simpson in a room; see what they come up with.”

“That's good. And the Czech, the Czech, um,” he snapped, “the Czech whose name I can never remember.”

“Doctor Zelenka?” She said and what kind of stupid name was that anyways? Of course, he never remembered something that ridiculous.

“That's him. We'll work it at our end.”

It turned out that Zlemka WAS the right person for the job (of course he was, it was Rodney’s idea after all) and he wasn’t surprised in the least to find the Czech on his back, elbow-deep in a puddle jumper once the ordeal was over and it looked like Major Sheppard would be fine.

“How long have you been at this?” Rodney held back a laugh as the man startled.

He glanced at Rodney warily before looking back at his work. “How long has it been since you were trapped in the Jumper?” His glasses slipped down his nose, “that is how long.”

Rodney tried not to smile because dammit that was the best answer he could have given. It made the most sense and is exactly what he would do. He watched the man tap another conduit then pick up a small journal and jot down a few notes. Rodney moved closer to him, peeking over to try and get a look.

“Is there anything you need from me, Dr. McKay?”

It was Rodney’s turn to startle as ice-blue eyes watched his reaction to his notebook, confusion marring his features.

“I need you to move over.”

The man's look of confusion increased. However, he complied, his face flashing in surprise as Rodney kneeled down, rolled up his sleeves, moved to his back, and slid in next to him.

He clapped his hands together, “Alright Zlinka, show me everything.”

His tone of voice as he said, “Zelenka,” bordered on insubordination but he sighed and held the journal out to him before pointing at the current pathway he was mapping. “I have discovered much.” He pushed his glasses up his nose as his voice bled into excitement, “everything in here can be controlled from back of the jumper.” A smile spread and Rodney added “dimple,” to his list. “I am creating a manual to prevent these things from happening.” He raised his brows, “It is a good idea, yes.”

Rodney flipped through his journal running his fingers over the diagrams, and god if he were a lesser man it would have stolen his breath away because the drawings, albeit currently crude, made such beautiful, logical sense, and although he knew Zelemka wasn’t actually asking a question, because duh, of course, it was a good idea, it’s exactly why he came up here, he still found himself smiling and saying.