Disclaimer: "Stargate" and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment.
Summary: Rodney and Radek activate an Ancient and possibly dangerous robot on Atlantis, which then kidnaps and holds them hostage. But to what end?
Setting: Season Three (after Progeny)
Rating: T, possibly rising to M
Characters: Mainly McKay and Zelenka, with a little bit of Sheppard and lot of scary robot.

A/N: Written for Runts Gal (hope you're still reading!) who requested a Rodney/Radek kidnap story back in August (Genii are so cliché!)

Chapter 1 - Reactivation

"Is it safe?" John asked while he poked at the Ancient robot they had found in a newly discovered lab on Atlantis.

Radek gently pushed him aside to get access and said, "Please do not touch, Colonel."

Rodney scowled at Sheppard from the other side of the room, "It was fine until Colonel 'Curious Hands' decided to have a go. You, your gene and Ancient artefacts don't mix, Sheppard. You should know that by now."

Rodney waved his free hand around the brig where they were working and walked over to the solid metal robot lying on a gurney in the middle of the cell. "Anyway, if you really thought it was safe, then why have you got us working on it in here instead of a lab where we would probably have it activated and up talking and walking by now?"

Sheppard stepped back and allowed Rodney to plug the cable of his tablet into the opened head of the inactive robot. The metal it was made out of was smooth and shiny silver, but there were clear mechanical joints where its limbs had been designed to mimic the movements of a human. The joints were enclosed so that the oil used to keep them mobile hadn't dried out or been lost. The eye sockets of the metal skull were dark and the jaw was attached to hinges where it would be able to move in speech had it been active. But there was nothing covering most of it and it had the appearance of a metal skeleton, complete with a leering dark grey toothy grin.

John stepped back, but kept his hands on the P90. It had just been a precaution to wheel the metal humanoid into the brig and strap it down in restraints to a very sturdy gurney. That way, if it posed any danger, they could quickly evacuate the scientists and raise the shield to easily trap it.

The robot was incredibly heavy and it had taken a pulley system to retrieve it from the alcove and place it safely on the gurney where the scientists could get proper access. Rodney vehemently protested against the necessity of moving it; using his arrogance as a shield to stand against Sheppard, so sure he was that he could control it. But Weir had sided with Sheppard in the end; safety was the most important thing to consider.

Sheppard glanced at the robot. Rodney assured him that it wasn't a Replicator, but rather a forerunner to them, constructed entirely of solid and breakable components instead of nanites. Therefore it couldn't self-repair, reshape itself or slither under or through doors like the Replicators could.

How easy it would be to stop the robot if they lost control was another matter though. The silver outer casing looked sleek and new. If time itself couldn't affect it or rust the thick metal, then what would bullets do, if anything?

Rodney clacked on his tablet, while Radek read through some incomprehensible code scrolling across the one he was holding.

"Think, Terminator," Rodney said without even breaking his keystrokes, as though he was carrying on a conversation. It took Sheppard's mind a moment to catch up and he realised that Rodney was now answering his earlier question about safety. "That is, before the computer savvy geeks got their hands on it and turned it into a CG playground."

Sheppard tightened his grip on the P90 and wished he had packed some more grenades and an EMP generator. He said, "That sounds pretty dangerous"

Rodney paused for a moment, but didn't look up. "Oh please, it's inert and inactive."

Radek said, "At the moment, yes. But as far as we can tell it is just out of power."

"I don't want it hurting anyone, McKay," John insisted.

Rodney hummed and carried on typing. "I think we're ready to reinitialise it."

"Do I need to round up some reinforcements?" Sheppard asked.

"What, no!" Rodney said angrily. He shook his head and mumbled, "I thought I was paranoid."

Sheppard tilted his head down slightly and Rodney spared him a sidelong glance. Rodney huffed and conceded, "Alright, alright. I don't know if it's dangerous… yet."

Sheppard nodded and tapped his radio, requesting Lorne to round up a squad of marines, grab some heavy ordinance and get down there on the double.

"Planning on starting a war?" Rodney asked.

Sheppard smiled, "Hopefully not."

While they waited for the marines to arrive, Rodney sighed and frowned at the robot impatiently.

Sheppard looked down at it where it lay and shivered. Rodney was right; it looked so much like a Terminator that he was reluctant to allow it to be activated at all. He turned to Rodney and asked, "Does it have a name?"

Rodney narrowed his eyes at his tablet while he typed. He soon announced, "Its designation is Unit 318."

John looked down at it, deep in thought for a moment and then opened his mouth, but Rodney cut him off, "No."

"What? How do you know what I was going to say?"

"If you want to call it 'Arnie' or 'Arnold' then I'll disown you, Sheppard."

John smiled and shrugged, "Oh well. It was worth a try."

Radek said, "318? Does that mean…?"

Rodney smiled, "Maybe."

"Where are all the others, I wonder?"

John glanced at the robot, "Three hundred and eighteen of these things, but only one on Atlantis. Could be useful if we can control them. Can it speak? Maybe it knows where the others are."

"How are we supposed to know?" Rodney snapped. "It hasn't got any power yet."

"What've you been doing then?"

Radek answered, "Analysing the motor functions and working out how to activate it. Its neural pathways, its 'brain' if you like, is offline and we cannot access it until it has power."

Lorne entered with a group of heavily armed marines. Rodney's eyes widened at the large rocket launcher tube one of them held. He turned to Sheppard in fear, "He's not going to fire that thing in here, is he?"

Sheppard nodded to Lorne as the squad took up strategic positions around the room. He then looked at the man with the launcher and said, "Lieutenant?"

The man stood up straighter, "Heavy ordinance as requested, Sir."

John smiled, "Last resort only, Lieutenant."

"Understood, Colonel."

Sheppard turned back to Rodney, who was still staring in barefaced terror at the weapon. Radek was looking unsettled too. John reassured, "Can't be too careful. We're all set, so… carry on."

Rodney hesitated and began clacking on his tablet. Sheppard couldn't help noticing the slight tremor in Rodney's hands. Radek went over to a case of gear beyond the edge of the inactive forcefield of the cell and retrieved and handful of power crystals. Rodney stuck his fingers directly into the head of the robot and pressed something with a resounding click.

There was a rustle of military issue clothing and the occasional tap of booted feet on the floor as the encircling squad stood ready and tense.

"Ah ha!" Rodney cried triumphantly. A moment later a seam appeared on the smooth metal of the robot's chest. A section lifted up and away and revealed the well protected core.

"Trust the Ancients to make it as human as possible," John said as Radek placed the crystals inside the robot's chest. Instead of being slightly to the left as a human heart was, the heart of the machine was in the centre – in perfect symmetry.

Radek cursed in Czech when he finished and the metal immediately closed and nearly took some of his fingers with it.

He retrieved his tablet and together with Rodney he activated it. There was an audible winding up sound and the eyes lit up to an ominous red glow. Rodney's eyes darted from side to side across the screen and he said happily, "There's so much data!"

The robot's hands twitched and the motor sounds faded as it finished loading up. It moved its right arm up and easily pulled the restraint free with a loud snap. Radek backed off, but Rodney stayed there with his eyes wide in excitement at the data he was skimming on the screen of his tablet.

Sheppard and all the other marines raised their weapons at the robot, ready for what it might do. He shouted, "Turn it off, McKay!"

Rodney held up a placating hand and gabbled, "Hang on, hang on."

The robot moved swiftly for its weight and the ten thousand year slumber it had just endured. It reached up and yanked the cord attached to Rodney's computer out of the top of its head, which quickly sealed over into smooth metal to look like the rest of it.

Sheppard jogged over to the control to activate the forcefield and stood ready.

The robot snapped the remaining three restraints like they were made of tissue paper and swung its metal legs over the side of the bed. Rodney backed off a short distance and looked at it in awe. "That's amazing!"

"Get out of there, McKay," John shouted. With Rodney in the way, no-one could fire at it or they might hit him or the ricochet could bounce the bullets into him.

Rodney turned to Sheppard and rolled his eyes, "Does it look dangerous?"

"It does not look very friendly. Red eyes," Radek said. "Why has it not spoken yet?"

Rodney turned back to it and waved his hands about and then held them away from himself openly. He cooed patronisingly, "Hellooo? Can… you… hear… me?"

The robot slowly turned its red eyes on him, but kept its leering metal skull-like visage completely immobile and unreadable. Its teeth remained clenched shut in a twisted parody of humanity where the Ancients had created it in their own image. It swiftly stood up and kept its eyes fixed on Rodney where it towered over everyone in the room at at least seven feet tall. It raised its right arm and gazed at it as it turned its hand over and flexed the fingers. The index finger suddenly glowed bright orange and it turned on Rodney. It stepped forwards and raised its hand up. It used the glowing finger to jab him very hard in the middle, right in the soft hollow beneath his ribs.

The impact knocked the air out of Rodney, along with his legs out from under him. He was thrown backwards and slid along the floor beyond the pillars marking the edges of the cell. John quickly hit the control and turned the forcefield on.

The robot looked around at them all and then became as still as a statue where it stood staring blankly at the field now trapping it.

Rodney couldn't breathe for a few seconds and kept his eyes screwed tightly closed as he struggled in panic. He suddenly coughed and sucked in a laboured breath. He held a hand over his middle where the robot had hit his solar plexus and furrowed his brow in pain. Radek crouched down and helped him to sit up. Rodney was breathless and pale in fright. He looked up at the robot and gasped, "It… it worked."

"Yes, it did," Radek replied. "But it is more dangerous than we thought."

"You alright, McKay?" John asked.

"I… I…" Rodney coughed again and grimaced.

Radek took the opportunity to grab McKay's wrist and pulled his hand away from the impact area. He frowned down at the watery, almost clear blood soaking into Rodney's clothes. There was a small hole in his shirt where the robot had struck him which was also in the centre of where the fluid was leaking from him.

John came over while the rest of the marines covered the robot, even though it seemed to be safe where it was now behind the field, but they couldn't take any chances. He made Rodney lie back and shoved his shirt up, wincing when the material pulled away from where it stuck in the wound as he knew it might.

Rodney said angrily, "Ouch!"

"It looks like a burn," John said as he studied the small, but perfectly circular area of charred skin. "I think it's a trip to the infirmary for you, McKay."

Rodney's eyes watered in pain and his face tightened with how much it was hurting him.

John helped him up and he whimpered, "Ow ow ow ow," and bunched his hands into fists.

Sheppard turned to Radek and said, "Work on a way to either turn that thing off or control it, while I get McKay checked out."

Radek nodded grimly as he looked away from Rodney and studied his computer.

John indicated for Lorne to stay there with the marines and organise shift rotations if necessary and then pulled Rodney's arm across his shoulders to support the flagging scientist. He radioed ahead to the infirmary that Rodney was coming in with a small, but serious burn.

Before they left the room, John briefly glanced back and shuddered at the sight of the robot where it stood watching all of them with its evil red eyes. He knew he was probably imagining it, but to him it seemed to be calculating and planning something as it watched them all blankly. What was it thinking? Was it even thinking at all or just observing? He had no idea, and the as yet unknown strength and true intentions of the thing shook him to the core.

TBC