Thank you guys so, so much! You're making a nervous writer very happy! And Happy Cinco de Mayo!

DOWN CAME A SPIDER

By TIPPER

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CHAPTER NINE: WHAT CARTER KNOWS

"Four years ago," Carter said, pacing before the table in the stasis chamber with Zelenka, Beckett, Weir, and Sheppard all watching her, "Doctor McKay and I worked together when Anubis attacked our Stargate with a weapon designed to cause our Gate to explode while at full power..."

"Effectively destroying Earth," Zelenka said. Beckett paled next to him, but didn't interrupt.

"Yes. After spending many, many hours trying to find a way to shut the Gate down, or shut down the device on the other side," Carter glanced towards the chamber, then back again, "we realized that we couldn't...and also that we didn't have to. We couldn't save the Stargate, but we could save Earth if we propelled the Gate into outer space."

"Right," Sheppard nodded, "I read about that. You put it on the back of the prototype F-302..."

"The X-302, yes," Carter nodded. "We mounted it, and, with Doctor McKay's help, used the X-302's hyperdrive to send it deep into space, where the Gate exploded."

Zelenka nodded. "Yes, yes, McKay speaks of this often—one of his favorite stories, actually. How is this relevant?"

Carter lifted her eyebrows as she looked at him, "Because that's what McKay meant by I'd know what to do—because his solution is based on the same concept as what we did then. See, we've all been focusing on how to shut the metal spider down, to destroy it before it can destroy him. But we don't have to shut it down to get it to leave McKay alone."

"What?" Beckett frowned. "Lass, I don't know if you've noticed, but that thing's half embedded into his skull and spine. It's not just gonna let go because we ask it to."

"It will," Carter said, eyeing him with excitement, "if it thinks it's got the wrong man."

"Wrong man?" Beckett frowned, "How? It's got his DNA."

"It had his DNA," Carter said. "Once it got it, it stopped looking for it, and started looking for something else."

"Okay, I'm clearly not following," Beckett said, his face pinching. "Seriously, do you and McKay practice this sort of thing?"

"Look," Carter said, raising a hand to him and smiling more, "When the spider first entered this City, it was seeking based on sound, correct? Complex noise. That's why it went to the Control Room first, then, when system control was transferred to the auxiliary power room, it went there, correct?"

"Correct," Zelenka said, still frowning.

"But once it found McKay, it was no longer seeking based on sound, was it? It changed tactics."

"Again, correct, it was following him directly..." Zelenka's brow was lightening. He was catching up. "You mean the tracking device?"

"Yes," Carter grinned, pointing at him, "Exactly."

"Oh, wow," Sheppard said, glancing at Elizabeth, "that was eerily similar, wasn't it?" Elizabeth just nodded.

"What does 'exactly' mean?" Beckett asked.

"When the device found McKay," Zelenka answered, turning to the physician, "it injected a tracking device into him. That's how it was able to chase him after he and Sheppard started running."

"The blue light," Sheppard remembered, looking at Zelenka. "That's what that blue light did?"

"Yes—that was the spider injecting the tracker." The Czech scientist limped around the table to one of the laptops, and started typing, "I think we located it at one point, while studying the device..."

"It hit him in the right shoulder," Sheppard said helpfully.

"Right, right," Zelenka typed some more, then nodded. "And it's still there."

Beckett moved around, squinting down at the screen. He nodded after a moment at whatever the Czech had called up, and Zelenka glanced at him.

"Can you pinpoint it better?" Zelenka asked the physician. "Get it's exact measurements?"

"Aye," Beckett nodded, then looked up at Carter, "But I still don't understand why."

"Because," Carter was almost grinning now, "although Hermiod may not be able to beam out the spider, because of its location and the complexity of the device, he can probably beam out the tracking device."

"So?"

"So...the metal spider is really a very simple device. Once the tracking device was embedded in the target, it lost all interest in DNA and sound and everything else that had driven it before. It was only interested in destroying the person with the tracking device in it."

"A one track mind," Sheppard said, smiling now.

Carter smiled back, "Right." She pointed to McKay, "We beam out the tracking device, send it somewhere else—maybe embed it in some substance similar to skin—and the device will think it's got the wrong person. It should let go of McKay and go after whatever the tracker has been put in. The moment is shows up there...we destroy it."

"How?" Beckett asked.

"Oh," Sheppard said, eyes narrowing, "I think Ronon, Teyla and I might have the answer to that one."

"The only questions being..." and here Carter looked at Carson, "can Hermiod beam out the tracking device without hurting McKay, and," she frowned slightly, "whether the spider will actually take the bait before it finishes killing McKay."

Beckett met her gaze darkly, her jaw tensing and releasing. Finally, he looked down at the laptop again, and the information Zelenka had called up, his eyes scanning the data.

"Let me study on it a bit," he said slowly.

"Of course," Carter said, and she backed away a little from the table.

Sheppard walked around to Carter's side of the table, standing shoulder to shoulder with the scientist. He smiled at her, then looked at the others. Elizabeth still looked concerned, meeting his gaze with her usual level of restrained worry, while Zelenka was once more wringing his hands, hovering over Beckett's shoulder. The only one completely calm now was Beckett, the physician now back in his element.

Frankly, that was all Sheppard really needed to see. Beckett calm. The physician was probably already sewing up the wound in his head.

With that thought, Sheppard turned and left the room, intending to find Teyla and Ronon.

That thing was going down.

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"It's not going to be pretty," Beckett said, working with his team to set up the medical equipment in the room. The table had been removed, replaced by a gurney and a whole myriad of machines from the infirmary. "The tracking device is impossibly small. Hermiod can not beam out something that small, so..." he blew the air out of his cheeks, "unfortunately, he's going to take some of McKay's skin, blood and muscle with it."

Elizabeth grimaced as she followed his movements with her eyes, "How much?"

"Not a lot," Beckett replied. "About the same damage as, say, a bullet wound in the shoulder. Hermiod and I have fine tuned it enough to ensure the risk to him will be small. At worst, he'll have a nice scar to show off." Nurses and other doctors darted about, and Beckett directed them as he spoke. "Yes, over there," he told someone. He looked again at Elizabeth and, to her right, Sheppard and Carter.

"I'm more worried about the damage the metal spider has done. Depending on how fast Hermiod can work the extraction of the tracking device, and how quickly the spider will react to its disappearance..."

"I know," Carter said, her eyes narrowed slightly, "it'll be close."

"Very," Carson agreed. He looked to McKay, "the moment he's free of stasis, I'll give him something for the pain, but I can't slow the device down." He grimaced, then turned to them again. "You may not want to be here when it happens."

"We're going to be here," Sheppard said, his voice brooking no argument.

Carson gave him a wry look, "Aye. I figured as much. In fact, Colonel, I've sort of assigned you to support..."

The colonel didn't need to be asked, moving to where Carson told him. Carter and Elizabeth were asked to stay against the wall next to the door—out of the way. Carter pulled her 9MM, holding it firmly in her hands, safety off—just in case—and met the eyes of the two marines in the room with them against the other wall. They nodded back. Just in case. Beckett then made sure everything and everyone else was ready in the room, radioed both Hermiod and Ronon to see if they were ready where they were, then checked in with Zelenka up in the control room. When he got their affirmatives, he nodded and dropped his hand, leaving the comm. open.

"Okay," he said, moving over to the console. "Here we go." He took in a deep breath, then exhaled. "On my count," he said calmly, his hand hovering over the control to release the stasis, "Three...two...one...now!"

The hand came down.

And McKay's screaming pierced the room.

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TBC...