Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

0.4.0

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It was late and Elizabeth was working in her office. Even in a different galaxy there was still paper work. They had been on Atlantis for nearly a month now and it finally felt like things were settling into a rhythm. With the exception of the arrival of Kai Zian two days ago things had been relatively quiet the past week. It was a welcome break from the week prior when an alien entity had attacked the cities power.

A brisk knock at her door startled her. She looked up to see Doctor Zelenka standing outside. His disheveled hair seemed to be standing up more than usual and there was the crease of a frown between his eyes.

"Doctor Zelenka," Elizabeth greeted standing. "Please come in."

The Czech doctor nodded respectfully.

"Please have a seat," Elizabeth said motioning to one of the chairs.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late," Zelenka mumbled as the two of them sat.

Elizabeth closed her laptop, folding her hands over the top of it so Zelenka would know he had her full attention. "It's fine, I was just working, is everything all right?"

"Um, yes yes, I wanted to speak with you," Zelenka muttered in his thick accent.

"Is it about Miss Zian?" Elizabeth asked carefully.

Kai had been working almost exclusively with Radek and so far things seemed to have been going well. Almost everyone who had met Kai had nothing but positive things to say about her. The only exception had been Major Sheppard. That alone made Elizabeth wary. She trusted the Major's instincts and it was odd that the man who seemed capable of getting along with everyone would struggle with the seemingly sweet woman.

"Yes," Zelenka replied.

"How has it been going with her?" Elizabeth prompted when Zelenka didn't immediately begin to explain the reason for his visit.

Zelenka looked surprised by her question but quickly shook it off. "Wonderful. She is quite clever and is very useful with both technological systems and engines. Thus we moved down to the jumper bay today."

Elizabeth smiled indulgently. "Yes, McKay informed me you had not been able to convert the power from the dart fuel cells for our primary systems, but believed you might be able to give us an independent power source for the jumpers."

Informed was such a nice word, and certainly did not accurately describe the stomping fit the head scientist had that afternoon in her office. She couldn't decide if Doctor McKay actually believed it was a poor use of resources or if it simply insulted his ego to not have been brought in on the project.

"Yes," Zelenka confirmed, completely unrepentant for changing the nature of the project without asking permission.

This, Elizabeth found, was without doubt her greatest challenge as leader of Atlantis. She had some of the most brilliant scientists earth had to offer all packed together on one base. None of them played well with others, they seemed to think they didn't need permission for anything, and they were all used to being the smartest person in the room. When she had first taken the position she had believed it was the military side that would give her trouble. At least they understood chain of command and Major Sheppard was an effective Commanding Office who was both well respected and liked by his men.