Thanks everyone! You do a heart so good! And, without further ado...

DOWN CAME A SPIDER

By TIPPER

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CHAPTER FIVE: PAGING SAMANTHA CARTER

"Unscheduled off-world activation." Harriman's voice came in clearly over the comm., and Carter was up and jogging to the gate room immediately, happily leaving behind the headache-inducing data from Merlin's workshop. She'd been staring at the same page for the last hour, and, until the alarms sounded, hadn't even really noticed her total lack of progress through the dense material.

The alarms cut out at the same time she reached the control room, just in time to hear Harriman inform General Landry and Colonel Mitchell that it was a call from Atlantis.

Carter's brow furrowed, glancing at the date on her watch, knowing that Atlantis was not scheduled to call in for another two days.

"They're early," Daniel said, coming up behind her.

"Never a good sign," Mitchell concurred, grimacing as they all stared in the direction of the open wormhole, as if they could see through the shimmering blue to the faces on the other side.

The monitors in the room lit up then as the transmission came through, showing Doctor Weir's strained expression as she stood in the Control Room. To her left stood Colonel Sheppard, his arms crossed, a furious sort of tension emanating from him in waves. On the other, the Czech scientist Carter recognized as Doctor Zelenka was also present. He was wringing his hands as he stood on Weir's other side, as nervous as Sheppard was tense.

"Doctor Weir," Landry greeted solemnly, taking his cue from their body language, "What can we do for you?"

"We need your help," Elizabeth answered, getting straight to the point. "Actually, we need Colonel Carter's help."

Carter's eyebrows raised, and she stepped forward to be more visible to the people on the screen.

"I'm here," she said, then smiled slightly. "Is Doctor McKay not with you?"

Elizabeth's lips pressed together a little tighter before she answered, "Doctor McKay is the one who needs your help. He specifically asked for you."

"Me? Really?" Carter's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and she couldn't hold back the teasing smile. "Well, that's a first. I didn't think there was anything the great and illustrious Doctor McKay couldn't do on his own."

The dig was out of her mouth before she thought about it, and she knew immediately it was the wrong thing to say. The eyes of the three people on the monitor hardened, even those of Doctor Zelenka, and Carter's smile fell. A knot formed in her chest, and she stepped forward, closer to the camera, the worry on her face clear.

"Oh God," she said softly, "Is he okay?"

"No," Elizabeth answered, looking down for a moment, as if to collect her thoughts, "he's not." She looked up again, "Colonel Carter, Rodney's going to die unless you can help him. And we can't afford to lose him."

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An hour later, the tension in the conference room at the SGC was almost as thick as the atmosphere of the call itself, and it was mostly being generated by two people—Carter and Landry. Daniel and Mitchell were really just along for the ride.

"No," Landry said, sitting up straight in the conference room chair and shaking his head at where Colonel Carter was standing in front of the star map. "The journey is far too long. We can't afford to have you out of pocket for three weeks, not with the Ori on our doorstep. Besides, the Daedalus already left a week ago. I'm not about to call them back, not for this."

"The Daedalus is not quite clear of our galaxy yet," Carter argued, pointing behind her at the star map to Caldwell's last known location. "The make a quick detour to P4M-399, pick me up as I come through the gate, and I can be in Atlantis in a week and half. It'll only delay them a couple of days. Then give me three or four days there...At most, I'll be out of pocket, as you put it, for two weeks."

Landry shook his head, "It's still two weeks, Colonel. As much as I agree with Doctor Weir's sentiments about the value of Doctor McKay, we have our own problems, as you well know, and they're not going to wait."

"I'll stay in regular radio contact," Carter stated firmly, "And I can take most of my work with me."

"To work on when?" Landry's eyebrows lifted. "In between trying to figure out how to save Doctor McKay's life? Which, I might point out, some of the smartest people in two galaxies haven't been able to do." He stood up from his chair, already taking on a dismissive tone as he gathered the papers in front of him, "Look, I'm sorry, Colonel, but we can't lose your services, not for that long. Right now, knowing how close all of us are to ruination at the hands of the Ori, one life is just not worth—"

"His is," Carter insisted fiercely, then, quickly added a contrite, "sir." She took a quick breath, "Please…."

Landry arched an eyebrow at her, but, respectfully, he sat back down. She gave him a grateful nod and walked up to the conference table, pressing a hand down on its surface.

"General, as you know, Doctor McKay and I…," her fingers tapped the wooden surface lightly, "have not had the best of relationships."

"I've heard you refer to him as a pompous, overbearing ass with more attitude than brains on more than one occasion, yes," Landry said, eyebrows lifting. Colonel Mitchell and Daniel, also sitting at the table, nodded in agreement, and Daniel cleared his throat.

"To be fair, he did call her a dumb blonde," Daniel noted, his smile growing. "And I think, often likes to call her Blondie, and not in a good way. Oh, and then there's the way he leers at her when—"

"Daniel," Carter warned, "not the best time." In reply, Daniel just smirked at her.

"Just a minute," Mitchell said, far more sober than his teammate, "if I remember correctly from the report, isn't he the one who came up with that 48 hour deadline that nearly lost us Teal'c?" His brow furrowed in anger, "Gotta say, Carter, he doesn't sound like the greatest guy to me. Anyone willing to help put an arbitrary deadline on a man's life…" He trailed off, the contempt in his tone obvious. He didn't need to finish.

"Yes," Carter admitted, "He was part of that, and, while I love the idea of making him pay for that, I—"

"Not downplaying the Teal'c thing," Daniel said, sobering as well, "but he did help out with the Anubis thing," he arched an eyebrow at Sam then Landry, "didn't he?"

Landry grunted in acknowledgement. "I suppose he might have—"

"He did more than help," Carter confirmed. "He came up with the subroutine that preprogrammed the X-302's hyperspace generator to fire for only a fraction of a second, while I worked on disabling the safety protocols. Together, it allowed General O'Neill to eject in time and essentially saved earth. I honestly don't know what would have happened if he hadn't been there to..."

"Yes, yes," Landry said. "Look, character aside, and even despite knowing that Doctor Weir believes he has been valuable to the people in Atlantis, what it comes down to is he is only one among many and—"

"Sir?" Carter asked, lifting her eyebrows. "You see, that's just it. He's not just one among many. Please, may I finish what I was going to say before?"

Landry snorted softly, but nodded again.

Carter thanked him with a small smile. "As I said, Rodney and I have not had the best of relationships, but personal feelings aside, he has not just been valuable to the Atlantis expedition—from what I've read in their logs, he has been invaluable. I think, simply from the expressions of the three people who called us an hour ago, you can see that Doctor Weir's claim that they can not afford to lose him is one they feel deeply. They looked desperate, General. And I can understand why. No one else can match the sheer breadth of knowledge Rodney has in both Lantean and now Wraith technology, especially now that he has first hand working knowledge of both beyond anything we have in this galaxy. Not even me." The tiny hint of jealousy in her statement was quickly quelled as she moved on, "And that knowledge is not only useful to them, but to us. I agree with Doctor Weir—they can't afford to lose him, and neither can we."

"But—"

"If I can save him, General, I have to try." Carter met Landry's gaze squarely, "Sir, please."

Landry looked at her a moment longer, then his eyes narrowed. "I still don't see why you can't work on it from here."

"I need to see the device, General. I need to know what it's doing to him in real time."

Landry studied her a moment longer, then sighed. Finally, he gave a nod. "All right, but I need a time limit, Colonel. If you can't free him within…"

"Don't say 48 hours," Daniel warned suddenly, tapping a finger on the table. Landry gave him a tired look, then returned his eyes to Carter.

"…72 hours, Colonel," he said, "you return. We need you here. Too much can happen in two weeks these days."

Carter grimaced, but nodded. "Yes, sir."

Landry stood, "Okay then. You have a go."

"General," Daniel jumped up, "Permission to go with—"

"Denied."

Jackson frowned, "But—"

"I'm not losing you for two weeks as well, Doctor. Besides, someone needs to be here when Teal'c returns from Dakara to explain where Carter has gone, and I'd rather it not be me. Probably it's best it's you."

Daniel frowned, but didn't disagree.

"Can I go?" Mitchell asked.

"No."

The young colonel shrugged, expecting that. "Worth a shot."

Landry gave him the tiniest hint of a smile then nodded to the whole room. "Right. Dismissed."

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TBC...