Chapter Five: Leverage

1-

In minutes, McKay's discomfort lessened; he felt less faint. He glanced down at the injury. The bleeding had slowed, the hole patched with a thin ivory tissue layer that stood out over red. The nanobots had partially healed him to their own purposes, not because they cared.

The 'bots poured out, returning to Gage through his ear. "Get up," he said, yanking him by the arm and into a natural tunnel.

Hustled to the front, McKay stumbled when an aftershock permeated the area, debris skittering over them. He rebalanced, compensating as if on the deck of a ship. The nanolight also reacted, passing round them in shimmering waves. He swerved to avoid a cascade of gravel, bowing low. "This place is highly unstable," he said. "I suggest you get out while you can."

The 'bots spoke through Gage. "They have destroyed the habitat."

"What do you mean?" He worked the bindings, intent on getting away.

"They build without restraint and have overmined for energy. The structural integrity of the rock has been compromised. It is collapsing, along with the fabricated network."

McKay ducked to avoid a low passage. "I was right."

"The architect demands it," they said.

"He's dead."

"He exists. While we lived underground, the architect experienced an accident."

"Accident, sure," McKay said. No doubt the 'bots had gotten their way that day.

"While exploring a newly-mined cave, he was crushed by a slide of boulders. We repaired him. Without intensive assistance, he could not live. They have sustained him for generations."

"Why do you need him?"

"We do not," they replied.

They turned into an artificial hall. McKay realized that the 'bots did not actually need the Architect but saw him as the driving force behind the Lumi-fog's work and were determined to destroy him in order to get him out of their way, to claim the resources for themselves.

In his own voice, Gage said, "The radiation is depleting the surface nanobots. They want this territory, shut down construction before the whole complex implodes"

McKay staggered. He was worn out. They were keeping a fast pace, hiking to lower depths. "I need a drink, food."

Gage laughed, punched McKay at the kidney. "There's ways around that. Behold me! Tougher than ever."

Rodney reeled. He'd clobber him if his hands weren't tied. "Oh joy," he said, bending gingerly. The blow left his back stinging. "Your life is complete now. The 'bots have upgraded you, correct? So I can blame this on them. Innocence becomes you, really."

"It's a fringe benefit," Gage said, ignoring Rodney. "I can't expire."

They had reached a triangular doorway. McKay stopped, supported against the doorjamb. "Why are we here?"

"Leverage," Gage said. He waved a golden hand over the sensor in the door. When it opened, he prodded McKay into a chamber similar to the one in which he and Sheppard had been trapped. This one was in disrepair, showing signs of quake damage. It was dim, smelled damp. Part of the floor slanted, cracked by shifting rock from below, uplifting tiles like roots under sidewalk. Thin fissures had formed in the sloped ceiling and on its six-foot walls.

"Your subterranean fog pals aren't supposed to harm their allies, the organics. It's in their programming. We don't have that problem anymore." Gage crossed the chamber to the opposite door and arched an arm over it. It would not open. "Shit," he said, kicking it. "They've sealed it off." He crossed back, yelling into the air: "You can't keep us away for long."

"I won't go on with you," McKay said. "You're a brainless bore, Gage. I'm amazed the nanobots didn't pass you over for a jackass." Gage backhanded him and he crumpled against the wall. Rodney straightened up, defiant. "Why don't they take the information?" he said. "You'll know I don't know anything."

With another sweep of his hand, Gage closed the entrance, the golden 'bots completing the task.

"We are not sufficient of us," they said, again speaking from within Gage.

Gage regained command. "They only need you as bait is what they're trying to say." Wresting McKay over, he sat him next to a support beam and seized his ankle to loosen the remaining bootlace. McKay tugged in his leg, tried to prevent him. Holding tight, Gage glared as if on the verge of breaking off the entire limb. No matter how hard he tugged, Rodney could predict he wouldn't win this round against his captor.

"Stop it," said Gage. Golden 'bots swirled out of his nose. "You'll regret it." He restarted on the lace.

McKay resisted. For him, submission would never come easily. With one firm jerk, Gage usurped his authority and Rodney was tossed backward, nipping his head on the edge of the beam.

While he recovered, Gage completed his chore and scraped his prisoner from the floor. "Wait until they hear you scream," he said, securing him to the beam. "Our specialty."

2-

Sheppard trailed the red spots, squinting to make them out, and came to a large stain on the floor. He dabbed it; it was wet. McKay had been here, yet had walked off. After that, the bleeding had decreased. He inspected the pathway, found partial red footprints in loosened soil leading into an artificial hallway. Tracking the prints, he saw they faded as they went along. Gage was keeping McKay alive. It was a fleeting relief.

Before him, the Lumi-fog appeared in their human image. Sheppard jumped back. "Crap," he said. "Where have you been? I need you."

"We can not allow you to proceed."

"Your reason is?"

"Our enemy has attacked and claimed various sections of the complex. If we allow it, you will be captured and executed."

"Do you know where McKay is?"

" 'Call me Rodney'? " it asked, mimicking McKay.

"You know who," Sheppard said. He had no patience for jokes, even if Lumi didn't mean it as one.

"Gage has contained him in Chamber 1-3-6. We have locked both exits."

"Take me there." Sheppard fastened his jacket. "He's been shot. He needs you."

"We will all be destroyed."

"Cowards." Sheppard couldn't believe what he was calling names: a collection of flighty machines who had somehow convinced him they were people. He stepped forward and the Lumi-fog dissolved from its human form and spread itself wide like a screen across the passage from top to bottom. He tried pushing past them, was repelled with a shock that left his face smarting. "Damn you, get out of the way!" He went back to the tunnel and picked up several stones, returned and hurled them at the screen. They sparked and hissed, unyielding, intact.

"I don't have time for this." From ahead, a shout echoed into the hallway. "I'll strangle you, Gage," he said, tapping the screen. It popped, sent a warning sizzle up his arm. "Stand fast, Rodney, I'll get to you."

The Lumi-fog reformed into human copy, blocking Sheppard each time he attempted to pass.

"Cut it out!" Sheppard demanded. "We don't have time for this."

"Come," it said, "the Architect will see you."

3-

McKay wilted sideways, bindings taut against the beam. He looked up, focused on the ceiling. In the vertex, a thin crack had formed and water leaked into the chamber, down to a craggy section where the floor lifted up, creating a driphole. What he wouldn't give for a drink. As he eased into unconsciousness, something pricked his wound.

He yelled out. "Get away from me," he said, his nerves raw. A small troop of the nanobot horde had exited Gage and invaded him, this time raising havoc, not healing. His side throbbed, trousers soaked with blood. Spasms gripped him every few minutes, prolonging the effect. The louder he protested, the more they ravaged. "They won't appear," he mumbled.

"What'd you say?" Gage said. "You want to apologize?"

McKay fixed on his ugly face, despised him. "Why'd you kill Jaden?"

"You really should think about what you say before you say it, Rodney. Your big mouth always gets you in trouble, doesn't it?" He jabbed him with his foot. "And you wonder why people get mad at you."

He stayed still; it hurt to move. "Why?"

"Feel this?" Gage pressed his abdomen. "You're null and void. Like Hot Shot."

McKay groaned, eyes tearing. "Go to hell." He kicked to push him aside, was unable to do the job. Gage did not allow him to get away with it.

A blade seemed to pierce his lower torso and he tried to change position, away from the pain, but it came from his insides, not without. His legs tingled and numbed, sinking into heavy weights, then they were gone. Gage had deployed the 'bots into his spinal column where they'd severed sensation downward from his hips. He took a staggered breath and they engaged a new cycle of harassment, their golden mist penetrating the bullet hole and exploding out his back, reentering to repeat the process.

Gage would attain pleasure in this, in McKay's vulnerability, reveling in the chance to use the nanobots' power to exert his will over those he most resented. Rodney could neither hide nor help it-there was no shame here, meters under, like hell was said to be, no self-consciousness, no image to assert. No one would hear him, not even Sheppard. Unrestrained, his cries went out, equally unavailing.