sga_santa | Fic: Clarke's Third Law (Gen, G)

Title: Clarke's Third Law
Author:

pipisafoat
Recipient:

icarusancalion
Characters: Radek Zelenka, Rodney McKay
Rating: G
Disclaimer: SGA doesn't belong to me.
Summary: "If the database says anything about Merlin - or Myrddin, whatever his name was back then - really being a wizard, then by all means, believe it."

Rodney glared at the output from his sensors and tapped rapidly on his keyboard. Nothing seemed to change, and he turned to glare at the sensors themselves. "Give me that," he demanded, snapping his fingers at Radek.

"Give you the depleted personal shield I am busy studying?" Radek rolled his eyes and handed it over anyway, watching carefully as Rodney transferred the sensors to the small device. He clicked an image of a switch in the bottom corner of his screen and grinned at Rodney's expression.

"At least something still obeys the laws of physics around here," he muttered to himself, disconnecting the shield and tossing it back to Radek.

"Somehow I think it is not physics at fault," he replied, clicking on the switch again even as he pretended to return his attention to the shield. As Rodney turned back to the new Ancient device, Radek grinned at the low growl emanating from his throat.

Rodney kept rearranging sensors, poking various bits of the surface, and muttering angrily under his breath; Radek continued to grin and manipulate the program on his screen while, to all outward appearances, focusing completely on the shield generator in his hand.

"I don't even know what this does!" Rodney finally exploded, nearly three hours after starting his project. "It's clearly Ancient, it's clearly on and doing something, and it's giving me very clear readings, but none of it makes any sense! If the database says anything about Merlin - or Myrddin, whatever his name was back then - really being a wizard, then by all means, believe it." He slammed his laptop shut with more force than really necessary and stomped out of the room with it tucked under his arm, swearing loudly from the corridor as the sensors' cords trailed him through the door.

Radek grinned to himself, closed the scrambling program on his computer, and turned back to analyzing the real data from the new device. Possibly indicating a way to recharge the ZPMs, it was hard to decipher, but nowhere near as impossible as the utter gibberish he'd had the sensors sending to Rodney's computer.