CHAPTER TWO: THE DEEPEST CHAMBER

Sheppard was bored. He sighed, watching as McKay blew out the match the scientist had just used to light the nearest sconce to the door, no longer as impressed as he had been when five more lit up in quick succession around the walls. Not all of the sconces lit up, though, leaving more than half of the long room in darkness. He sighed again at that, and looked back again at the scientist. McKay had already put his matches away and was peering at his scanner in the light shed by the first fire he had lit, frowning as he tried to make sense of the readings.

Bored, but wanting to be useful, the major pulled out his own book of matches and started walking towards the first sconce that hadn't lit up, intending to set it alight.

His foot slipped as a stone depressed beneath his toes, and he stumbled forward a couple of feet to the center of the room.

"Ouch," he muttered, looking down at his boot, as if to find the answer there, then back to the rock he had slipped on.

KA-THUNK!

McKay's eyes flew up as the loud noise echoed throughout the room, turning towards the major in confusion as a strange, repetitive cht-cht-cht-cht sound became audible. Sheppard returned the gaze, his brow furrowing when the sound didn't stop. He started to walk back towards the doctor.

"What is...."

Suddenly, the temple floor opened up without warning, splitting in half with a rumble and a massive quake, sending Sheppard sideways onto his rear with a "whumpf." McKay fell jarringly to the ground on one knee, one hand outstretched towards the wall to keep his balance, staring around at the suddenly shifting floor slabs in open-mouthed wonder. Three sconces went out, plunging more of the room into shadow. The major, meanwhile, tried to regain his feet...and found himself standing on thin air. Sheppard gave a shout of surprise, then a yell of terror as he fell down into the yawning chasm, arms reaching to catch the edge of the floor moving away from him and slipping....only to have his right arm caught in the firm grip of the doctor.

With surprising speed, McKay had jumped forward, snagging the major's right arm just as he disappeared past the edge.

The floor continued to split and shake, and Sheppard found himself looking downwards into nothingness. His feet flailed about, seeking purchase where there was none, and his left arm sought something to grab onto on the smooth, slime covered stone wall in front of him. He swung his left arm up, grabbing onto McKay's left jacket sleeve, then higher, trying to grab the lip of the wet floor. The fingertips slipped, just shy of the edge, and he found himself returning his grip to the khaki sleeve. The doctor had both hands latched firmly on Sheppard's other arm--and they were the only thing keeping him from falling as everything continued to shudder and move around them.

Then he felt McKay slip forward.

"McKay!"

"Hang on!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

McKay grunted, then answered, "Pulling my arms out of my sockets?! Stop moving!"

He slipped forward again, and Sheppard tightened his grip, staring up at him wide eyed.

"Damn it! Jesus H. Christ! Did you just slip forward again?"

"No, no, we're okay!"

"Can you pull me up?"

"Not really!"

"Why not?"

"Because if I move in any direction," the scientist took a deep breath, "it'll be to follow you down into that hole!"

"What?"

"You heard me! I was slipping forward until I managed to get my leg wedged."

"Wedged?"

"In between two of the moving floor slabs." He grimaced, his eyes scrunching up, "Hurts like hell too!"

"Shit McKay! I don't care about your leg! I'm dangling over a bottomless pit, here!"

"Oh please! This pit's," McKay drew in another deep breath, "not bottomless!"

"You think I care?"

"You will...when you hit the bottom!"

"Funny! What the hell did you do?"

"What?"

"Close this floor back up! Now!"

"I didn't do it!"

"The hell you didn't!"

"You're the one with the all powerful gene, Sheppard! What did you do!"

"I...."

The world trembled again, and McKay hissed as his wedged leg got squeezed by the shifting rocks. The slabs had obviously been designed to rise and separate, to accommodate the shift of the floor when it opened up, and now they were settling closer together. Sheppard's fingers grasped at the khaki colored coat, trying to hold on tighter.

"Just one more room!" the Major suddenly ground out, "Just one more room, you said! What harm could it do? One more room because this temple may still contain information we could use; one more room that happens to be so deeply underground that the radios won't work!"

McKay's expression was dumbfounded, "This is not my fault!"

'Like hell it isn't! Ford and Teyla will be miles away by now! Why in God's name did I let you talk me into looking at one more room!"

"We couldn't reach our radios right now anyway!"

"Ha!"

"Ha yourself!"

"Damn it! Just get me out of here!"

"Fine! Can you," McKay gasped again, "Can you pull yourself up?"

"Are you going to slip?"

"No, I...don't think so."

Sheppard nodded, grabbing more of the khaki sleeve...and started to pull.

McKay started to slip forwards again.

They yelled at the same time, ending in another hiss of pain as McKay wedged his now obviously scraped leg deeper into the wedge of space he'd found. He'd felt the trouser fabric tear, and was pretty sure the tackiness he felt on his leg wasn't water.

"Don't," the doctor hissed, his eyes screwed shut, "do that again."

Sheppard breathed deeply, watching McKay's pained expression, then tried to calm himself down.

"Okay, okay," he whispered, "is the floor no longer moving?"

The doctor opened his tearing eyes and looked across the way to the other side of the floor. The chasm they had somehow created was about ten feet across, from what he could see. And, yes, it had stopped shifting.

"I think so."

"What the hell is this for?"

"I don't know? A trap of some kind?"

"Damned effective!"

"Well, one of us must have triggered it...." The doctor twisted to the right to see over his right shoulder. All he could see was parts of the moss encrusted floor, made up of the large granite slabs and some smaller brick like stones that plant roots, fungus and sickly looking plants had grown up in between. The air down here was very wet--like a sewer or, he realized, a still living cave.

The dank air was also tickling his nose something fierce. In fact...oh...crap....

"Ah choo!"

"Oh...God! Thank you oh so much, McKay," Sheppard shook his head, shaking the drips from his hair.

"Sorry, I would have covered my mouth," Rodney was having a hard time expanding his lungs, but he had no trouble with an evil grin, "but, well, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. Just turn your head next time."

McKay continued to smile, and looked over his other shoulder, seeing his backpack a few feet away, and some sticks that had once been thick living roots of some massive tree. He tried to see anything else interesting about the floor, but nothing looked too interesting. "Where," he sniffed, trying to hold back another sneeze, "where did you step?"

"Huh?"

"Did you step on anything that moved?"

"Besides the whole frikkin' floor?"

"Before the whole frikkin' floor!"

"Oh, um," Sheppard's eyes swung from left to right as he considered the question, and finally he nodded. "Yeah...I remember looking down because I thought my foot had slipped. One of the smaller stones I think...it was brick colored."

"Is it to my left or right?"

The major arched an eyebrow from his position about a foot and a half from the top, "Are you serious?"

McKay grunted, twisting his torso as much as he could to look over his shoulders again at the floor he was lying on. Peering behind him, he took stock of the number of brick colored stones laid in a loose pattern around the larger granite slabs.

He gritted his teeth, wedged his left leg as deep as he could, then, slowly, gingerly, lifted up his right foot.

When he didn't slip forward immediately, he gained a little hope. Sheppard was watching him, trying to gauge from McKay's face what he was doing. He could feel the doctor's arm muscles bunching as they lifted him a little higher to twist himself more. The major thought he might get more purchase from his fingers on the edge now, but, with the slickness of the wet rock, he knew it still wouldn't mean much.

McKay tapped the first reddish rock with his right foot. Nothing. Moving it, he touched the next one. Still nothing. Three more yielded no results. His body started to complain from the contortions he was forcing on it. Flexible he was not.

"This is worse," McKay gasped as it felt like he'd pulled something, "than Twister!" He stopped when he hit the last red stone to his right with no effect. "Crap!"

"What?"

"It must be on my left side, or under me," McKay explained, as his arms bunched again and Sheppard was lowered again. The doctor then lifted again, twisting the other way, and hissed again as his left leg spasmed in pain. He also slipped forward again.

"McKay!"

"I know, "the doctor gasped through clenched teeth, "I know."

"Sorry. Just keep thinking about hitting the ground down there...somewhere."

"Mmmm hmmm," McKay looked over his left shoulder more carefully this time....

And his breath caught.

Something was there. Like a mist cloud, except colored a jade-like green. He'd actually thought he'd seen it before a couple of times earlier, but both times had dismissed it as some sort of bioluminescence based on the color and the dampness of the walls. This time, though, he felt a strange sort of intensity about it--as if it were watching him. He blinked a little bit, tendrils of fear niggling at his chest, then looked down at Sheppard.

"What?" the major asked of the wide eyed stare.

"I...there's...." McKay looked back, and frowned. It was gone.

Sheppard gripped tighter, "What!"

"Apparently nothing," the doctor wheezed, berating himself for thinking anything else. What was he, five? "Trick of the light." His eyes focused more on the ground, and he looked at the dead roots not far from him. With a grimace, he considered if he could reach one.

"Major," he looked back down into the hole, "I need an arm."

"Like hell!"

"Do you want to get out of here?"

Sheppard's jaw tensed. "Which one?"

"Left."

The major nodded, and switched his grip on McKay's left arm to his right. His right hand wasn't actually holding on to anything, but Rodney was ahead of him. Very carefully, he turned Sheppard's arm until the major's right hand could firmly grab his right sleeve.

"Okay," the doctor said softly, "Ready?"

"No."

"Good. Here we go."

"Slowly!"

"I'm not an idiot, Major."

Sheppard just grinned without humor. No comment, his teeth said. McKay just glared at him, then returned to what he was doing.

Carefully, truthfully more concerned for what this would do to his own right arm right now than to Sheppard, his left hand let go. His whole body shifted to compensate holding Sheppard's entire weight with one arm, and he was pretty sure that, tomorrow, there would be almost no feeling in his right arm at all. Swearing a little under his breath, he didn't say a thing as pins and needles started dancing along his right shoulder joint.

He was able to twist a little more to his left now, and he snaked that arm out to reach for the nearest stick. Cold fingers touched the end of one and, with what nails he had, he managed to coax it close enough to grab it. It was surprisingly dry for the environment, and he was able to grasp it firmly and draw it to him. Twisting a little more, ignoring the sharp pains in his right shoulder and wedged left knee, he started poking and pressing down on red stones.

Sheppard, amazingly, didn't make a noise. He just watched McKay's face again, letting it be his guide to what was happening. He saw frustration and determination in the set of the man's jaw, though the former was beginning to get the better of the latter.

Then, suddenly, the tense features loosened. McKay smiled slightly and turned to look back at Sheppard.

"I think I found it. One of the stones is loose."

"Then hit it!" It was snapped. Sheppard hadn't meant to snap. Rodney favored him with an arched brow, then looked back behind him, presumably at the rock.

"Just wanted to warn you. If I hit it, with any luck, the floor will start to close. You're going to have to move quickly when it comes back together to get yourself out. It opened pretty quickly, it could close just as quickly...and it could sandwich you."

Sheppard shook his head, "I'll take my chances."

"And everything's going to shake again, don't forget...and my leg....I might have to pull it out, if I can, of the wedge, or it might get crushed as well." He grimaced at the thought.

"Just try not to slip," the major replied cheekily.

"You need to work on your gratitude, major."

"One more room!" Sheppard mocked again.

"Oh, I so want to drop you right now!"

He just got another cheeky grin in response.

"Right," McKay licked his lips, "Here goes nothing."

---------------------------------------------------------------

TBC