Chapter Text
Prologue
Once again, a perfectly pleasant mission had gone terribly wrong, terribly suddenly, with the unexpected appearance in the sky of a single Wraith dart. Rodney had taken Radek along on the trip because as soon as he’d described the ingenious, steam powered, mechanical computer network that the Beldosians had developed, it had become obvious that the little Czech was dying to see it for himself. Rodney, of course, had been foolish enough to indulge him and say yes.
So now they were both running, as fast as their unaccustomed-to-much-physical-activity legs could carry them (though, Rodney admitted to himself, he had become, perforce, a bit more fit over the last year or so), headed towards the Stargate, without a hope in hell of reaching it before the Wraith culling beam caught them both up. Rodney had, of course, been here before, but he found the fact the Radek Zelenka was now at risk as well added a new, deeper terror to the fear already injecting massive amounts of adrenaline into his system. It wouldn’t be nearly enough though, Rodney knew, to make a difference.
Still, they both tried, with all their hearts, until the awful, awful moment came when Rodney saw the beam coming at them, and coming too fast for them to avoid it. Then, just as it was about to take him, something really horrible happened. At the very moment he was certain he was about to stumble into the field, he felt a hard shove, propelling him out of the beam’s sweep. He had only the briefest glimpse of the hand that pushed him -Radek’s hand- and then he and the beam were gone. Radek had saved him, but had not saved himself.
“No!!” Rodney screamed as he realized what had happened, and then collected himself enough to radio Sheppard.
“It’s got Radek!” he cried when he heard the man answer, knowing he would understand the import of his words, but when he heard Sheppard shout, “Dammit!” in reply Rodney understood the import as well. With a forlorn cry of disbelief, Rodney watched the missile one of Sheppard’s men had fired moments before clear the tree line, home in unerringly on the fleeing dart, and blow it out of the sky.
Rodney began running again, still without hope, but now he ran towards where he had seen the stricken dart crash. He had no hope of finding the ship intact enough to still retain Radek Zelenka’s pattern but at least he could witness with certainty the demise of the best friend he’d probably ever had… or probably ever would have.