Chapter 9

'Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…' His own personal mantra. 'Just ignore the segmented legs walking on you. Just ignore the movable mouth parts tickling your neck.' He was ready to scream like a teenage girl; not very manly, not out of the question, either. If he could read the thing's mind, he was pretty sure it was thinking, 'Nice fleshy part over here or nice fleshy part over there.'

This was taking way too long.

Then it crawled back down.

Sheppard opened his eyes and watched the tail-end move down his legs. It left the chair and slowly walked to a dark corner of the room.

He laughed.

Carson had watched the entire thing. Explanations buzzed around in his head and finally settled on one.

First Mender Gezble spoke first. "I don't understand. That creature has been denied food."

"Markers," said Carson. "His first encounter left markers in his system. It must have sensed them." He was not entirely sure if that was the case. It was pure conjecture; it sounded good though.

The Health Pavilion on Parcini had identified anomalies in his blood that were similar to the bug. They were inert and so nothing needed to be done about them. They actually might have just saved his neck- so to speak.

Gezble motioned for two men to enter the room. They carried a pole with a loop on the end and a sack.

As the door opened, laughter echoed out. The sound attacked Beckett's ears and rattled his bones. The relief, the fright and the good old-fashioned creeps were in that laugh.

"Rodney and I are toast. He'll probably get Radek to help." Carson was pushed towards the door as he ruminated on the grisly fate that awaited him when they got back to Atlantis. If they got back, listening to that laugh, rescue was sounding less and less desirable.

He looked into the room at the men trying to wrangle the beast. It was faster than he gave it credit. It had sauntered to the corner, but now it was aggressively fighting back.

Sheppard stopped laughing as the creature scurried out of the corner and back towards him.

First Mender Gezble motioned to a guard to help.

"Just shoot it. Believe me it can take it," Sheppard said loudly. "I'm telling you, just use my gun you confiscated."

It scurried up the wall and across the ceiling.

"Take my 9 mil and shoot the goddamn thing!" he shouted as it scampered towards him and over him. "Looks like your stun gun there. It is in my holster wherever you're keeping it!"

Gezble closed the door to the room trapping all those inside.

"He's right, First Mender; it can take it. It will subdue it and not kill it," stated Beckett.

She ignored him. "We may have a patient for you soon." She walked them back to the window. "Let's just wait and see."

A low voice from behind interrupted them. "First Mender, treatment room 2 is ready."

"Thank you, Deriam. We will need it soon."

Beckett spun around to meet the ashamed face of Deriam. "You work here?"

"Yes, Deriam is one of my assistants. He handles supplies, keeps patients rooms clean or any other menial tasks I give him. He is the one that told us about Col. Sheppard." She turned around and faced the window again.

Beckett glowered at Deriam as he slunk away.

Meanwhile, chaos reigned supreme in the small room.

"Damn it! Don't chase it back this way! Use your jacket King Kong! Cover it with your jacket!" If Sheppard could have bounced the chair out of the way, he would have.

It had left the ceiling and was now back skittering across the floor.

"You guys need a really big broom! My grandmother kept the house critter free with a broom and a can of Hot Shot!" These people were ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous. The sight might have been comical if the bug weren't a killer.

It scurried back up the wall and onto the ceiling yet again. This time it leapt and landed on one of the wranglers. He screamed as the mouthparts shot into his neck.

"Eew, know how that goes buddy," Sheppard whispered under his breath.

"There you go, Dr. Beckett. Now we can begin the next experiment," beamed First Mender Gezble.

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