DOWN CAME A SPIDER

By TIPPER

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CHAPTER THREE: INFLICTING PAIN

The female scientist slammed her hand down on a console, locking the doorways leading out of the auxiliary power room—and locking her and Atchison inside with the now multicolored object.

"What are you doing?" Atchison demanded, staring at her.

"We have to slow it down!" Torrens replied sharply. "Give them time to...oh God."

The object had turned silvery again and, with a whining buzz, aimed for the door...and passed through it as if it were water. The two scientists' eyes widened.

"Doors don't stop it!" Torrens called into her radio.

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Sheppard actually found himself hard pressed to keep up with his fleeing best friend. In front of him, McKay was really moving, charging down the hall back to the stairs, his long legs eating up the ground. Fear was an incredibly powerful motivator.

"Elizabeth!" he heard McKay yell over the radio, "I need the transporters!"

Almost immediately, showing their complete trust in McKay, the City came alive around them, the lock-down releasing even though the alarms continued sounding.

McKay jumped into a transporter and hit the pad. Sheppard slid in after him, almost not making it.

Breathing hard, the colonel looked at McKay, "Where are we going?"

But the doors were already sliding open, and McKay was already running. "Someplace we can get more time!" he called over his shoulder to Sheppard.

"McKay," Zelenka's voice echoed tinnily over the radio, "I don't know how, but it's still following you. It's coming up the stairs from the lower levels. How is it doing it? Has it changed its—?"

"Yes," McKay responded, panting now. "It's...it's following me directly now. How far behind us is it?"

"Not far. It's incredibly fast, McKay. I've never seen anything move that fast." The Czech's tone was a mixture of concern...and awe.

"Except objects through a wormhole," McKay threw back, smiling a little even despite the direness of the situation.

"Rodney, how did you figure out it was after you?" Elizabeth asked over the radio. "And why is it after you?"

"The 'how' is because my name is all over that thing's central processor," Rodney replied, skidding around a corner and shooting down a different corridor. "Subject Doctor McKay—DNA, RNA, everything a death machine needs to know to kill me and only me. Lovely, eh? As for the 'why'…isn't that obvious?"

"Because McKay knows more about both Lantean and Wraith technology than any other human in this galaxy—probably any galaxy," Sheppard said, getting it all of a sudden. "You're their greatest threat. You probably know almost as much about their tech as they do themselves."

McKay didn't reply, just kept running, darting down a new corridor.

"Oh my God," Elizabeth breathed over the radio.

"Where are we going?" Sheppard demanded again, still dogging McKay's footsteps.

"Stasis Room," McKay replied, pulling in a harsh breath. "You have to stop it," he added, skidding around a corner and nearly slipping.

"What do you mean, 'I' have to stop it?" Sheppard replied, eyes widening as he too nearly fell when his boots slipped on the slick floor. "Why can't you do it? Or we do it together?"

"Because it's going to get to me and kill me before I can, unless I can find a way to slow it down…."

And suddenly they were there—in the same room they had found old Weir. Breathing heavily, McKay went straight to the console, keying in commands. The stasis chamber was already up and humming. McKay must have turned it on down in the auxiliary room.

He keyed in some things one handed into the console, then swore, turning to Sheppard and shoving the datapad he was holding in his other hand into the colonel's hands.

"Take this."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure why I was even carrying it. Habit?" And for a second, when he smiled weakly up at his friend, all the terror he was feeling came through.

"The Gate room," Sheppard said suddenly. "Let's get you through the Gate and then it can't follow you."

"Unless it follows me through. Besides, there's no time to get up there. The Gate Room was even closer to the Auxiliary Power room than this place—I'd probably already be dead. Do you not get how fast it is?"

"There's time! I'll find a way to get you time."

"Even if there was, the moment I go through, it'll just disappear. Go into hiding until I return. That's what it's programmed to do. And the moment I do…."

"Not necessarily, we could find a way to stop it before it does."

"You'll have to find it first. This way you'll know exactly where…." He trailed off as he turned to the door. A buzzing sound raced down the hallway—the object. "Damn it!" Turning, McKay went back to the control panel. "Okay, look, once I'm in stasis, the stasis field won't stop that thing, but it will slow it down. A lot. It'll hopefully give Zelenka enough time to figure out a way to shut it down before it does any permanent—"

And suddenly it was there. McKay barely had time to gasp as the object came up behind him and literally slammed into the back of his head.

"No!" Sheppard yelled, catching McKay as he collapsed, the scientist screaming as the metal wires shooting out of the sides of the ball seemed to wrap themselves around his head, the discs planting themselves squarely above each ear and over the temples. More tiny, thin tentacles exploded out of the tiny ball, injecting themselves into McKay's brain and spine.

Sheppard didn't think, he just hauled McKay up and threw him into the stasis chamber, then ran back to the console. He was about to hit the control, when McKay stopped screaming and shouted something.

He didn't catch it at first, but looking up, he saw McKay watching him from pain-filled eyes, his hands pressed against the sides of his head, fingers obviously trying to pry away the wires.

"What?"

"Carter," McKay said, nearly choking on his own voice, a trickle of blood running down out of his nose. "Carter'll know…." And then he screamed again, as the object flared an angry blood red color.

Sheppard slammed a hand down on the console, freezing his friend in torment.

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TBC...

Yeah, this was the dark chapter...

And thanks for the offer, Krys! This one's all written but I might take you up on that if I ever write a crossover again!