AN: Just a quick shout-out for thanks over the reviews. I will try to update frequently and quickly, because I know how miserable it is to be left hanging (and some of you have been responsible for that misery hehehehe). Thanks again to gaffer for the beta!

edited replacement - on the live preview I realized some of my italics dissappeared, argh! Just goes to show I should've taken the time to go through the entire doc before posting the chapter. Sorry!

edited again (yeah this is getting old) - I keep losing italics, hopefully this will be the final attempt.

Chapter Two

When Sheppard was eight he'd convinced his mom to hold his birthday party at the lake. Jewel Lake, a little blip on a map that had nothing of importance other than some real sand that'd been carted in by the recreational management, and a diving dock tethered about fifteen feet from shore.

They'd stayed late into the evening hours, when the sky had darkened just enough to make you struggle to see, and when the light from the fire lit up faces with a twilight orange glow. Jimmy had dared him to swim to the dock and back, not all that impressive of a dare, but they were winding down and looking for excuses to go back in the water while they could.

He'd taken the dare, which was a forgone conclusion. Kids just don't walk away from dares that their buddies toss their way. John wasn't an exception to that rule; in fact, he went out of his way for the biggest and baddest dares that one could be subjected to. This one was pity stuff, but he figured it'd be fun. And it was…till he was swimming back, only ten feet from shore, when his calves seized in cramps.

He'd buckled, wrapping in on himself before he realized what a bad idea that was, and then found he was choking out water while he tried to get his head up. His parents had always said never swim alone, but Jimmy had stayed on the shore to time him, and Jimmy couldn't see his struggles for what they were, because of the gloaming light. In the time it'd take a person to kiss Aunt Betty goodbye, and you had to understand that Aunt Betty insisted on double kisses and a few hugs, Sheppard was sinking and losing consciousness.

He'd felt the water slide down his throat, and he'd gasped for a clean breath, but all he got was more water. He'd panicked, and never realized that the strong arms of his dad had grabbed him firmly by the waist and were hauling him to the shore.

And that's exactly how it felt to breathe in the gelatinous material, and why he was sure the thing telling him to breathe was out to kill him. He didn't have a choice. His body did it anyway, but he'd held out a hope that the thing giving the instructions knew better than he did.

It felt like a less viscous type of silly putty sliding in his throat and despite the lack of room, he gagged, and sucked in more. Sheppard suddenly wished for the end to arrive, just so the horrible sensation would stop. He was drowning, but he was still awake to feel every awful moment.

Stop fighting.

If John had been able to scream, he would've. If he'd been able to tell the thing that fighting was all he could manage, he would've. But he couldn't do any of the above, and the thick material seemed to be settling in his throat like a foam sealant.

Why wasn't he losing consciousness? Why wasn't he dying?

We mean no damage.

Sheppard startled at the thought directed through the material. Was it reading his mind? Some kind of telepathic jellyfish people? And why the hell wasn't he dead yet?

Our environment – not applicable to you.

The thoughts he heard inside his mind seemed to search for the proper words, but John got the gist of it. It was hard to describe, but the words weren't spoken, more like they were vibrating through the material. Sound waves penetrated through everything. If it were matter, sound would be transmitted. But, like in water, the properties of the matter can affect ability to hear, talk, and understand. His ears weren't receiving so much as it was an instant link to his nerves and the information was being transmitted, bypassing the entire route through the ear.

John thought one thing, now that he knew communication was taking place. Rodney.

He is as you are.

And that was supposed to be comforting? Sheppard felt he was only being stopped from dying of a heart attack because he couldn't do anything at all. If he was suddenly free from the viscous matter, he knew he'd keel over and die from the shock to his system. Not to mention, how would this stuff every come out of his lungs? Were they destined to live like this until what?

We are altering area for carbon beings. We will preserve life. We mean no damage.

No harm, thought John.

No harm. We will study carbon beings. We will preserve life.

If Sheppard could've sighed – well, the point being, he couldn't. He couldn't sit, scratch or breathe. He was immobilized, in a constant state of feeling like he was drowning, but nothing changed. He wasn't passing out, or getting better. It felt like stasis without the benefits of not feeling the passage of minutes and hours and days. Held between one breath and the next.

Do you wish to sleep?

Sleep? The beings were clearly telepathic, could they mean his desire to stop experiencing the terror of his predicament. Sheppard focused on the thoughts he wished to convey. This is scary for us. He imagined McKay was out of his mind by now. How long till we're released? Can you clear our lungs of this material? If it remains, we will die.

Soon. Sleep. You will not cease. We will preserve life.

The command issued, Sheppard felt an odd vertigo slip across his upper body, and a burst of starburst inside his eyelids, and he was drifting…

OoO

"Sheppard!"

John scrunched his eyes against the noise. He was tired. "Leave me alone," he mumbled without looking to see who it was. He rolled over, and felt the bed drop out from under him as he fell to the ground.

With a snap, his eyes popped open, and he found himself on his side, on a floor, looking at white walls. What the hell?

"Where am I?"

Rodney's two legs appeared in his line of sight, and stopped. Then, McKay's upper body dropped into the picture, and he peered at Sheppard irately. "Hello, why do you think I'm trying to wake you up? Where are we?"

Memories jolted through his mind. The energy pulse that killed the Jumper's systems. The ship and tractor beam, and the gel floor – Holy crap! Sheppard sat up, and started beating at his chest. "Is it gone?" he said frantically. He opened his mouth, and poked fingers in. "Waa was tha stuff?" he asked around the obtrusions in his mouth as he still sought to make certain it was all gone.

"Do you think you could breathe if it wasn't?" McKay pulled Sheppard to his feet, and turned around, studying the walls that looked like the one before. Exact replicas, each one perfectly alike, and none had anything appearing like an exit. "I woke up a few minutes ago, thanks for helping me through my hysteria, by the way. Finding you still unconscious did nothing for my heart. Flashbacks to The Blob."

"The Blob?"

"I suppose it could've been worse," mused McKay. "Aliens. I think having a face sucking thing implant it's young in my insides is worse than being eaten by the Blob."

"We're not being implanted, and we weren't eaten by the blob!" Sheppard put a hand against Rodney's forehead. Felt a little warm. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Okay?" Rodney's voice cracked.

So, maybe not the right thing to ask, winced Sheppard.

"What part of that did I say 'but at least we're okay'?" Rodney started pacing in a two foot sweep, which is to mean he'd take two steps, pivot, take two the other way, pivot and repeat. "Colonel, in case you haven't noticed, we've been swallowed by some kind of telepathic anemone, and are being kept for study. This isn't okay. Never is this okay – in fact, if I were to list a range from Okay to Not Okay, this would be predominantly Not Okay."

Sheppard almost smiled. Despite what McKay was carrying on about, the fact that he was still carrying on meant he was somewhat 'okay'. He started towards the wall in front of him, and ran his hand over the smooth surface. The room wasn't big, no more than twenty feet. "What did they say to you?"

"Do you want the Reader's Digest condensed version or the Rodney McKay's cliff notes version?"

"Which one is more succinct?" John asked sagely, frowning at the wall because his hands couldn't detect any imperfections in the surface…at all.

Rodney's lips quirked. "Same. I believe in always having options."

John looked sideways at McKay.

"Okay, okay. Carbon based life needs new area, breathe, sleep, we will preserve life, we will study life, the other is alive."

"Sounds about right," said Sheppard. He moved on to the floor, hands and knees. If the obvious fails, look for the not so obvious. "Say we do find an exit, do you think the entire ship is like -" he stumbled. Like what?

"Like The Blob?" McKay smiled smugly at Sheppard.

"Fine," agreed John, cocking his head slightly to the side and mentally counting to ten. "The Blob."

The smug smile grew slightly larger. "As a matter of fact, yes."

That's what Sheppard figured, which truly sucked. Even if they did find an exit, they couldn't go anywhere. These things would have to release them. They'd said preserve life – but they'd also said study. That one word, and the disturbing connotations, made John shiver.

He stopped crawling on the floor. What was the point? He was near one of the two beds. Not really beds, platforms, and no blankets or pillows or anything one would want to have for comfort. He didn't stand, or get up on it, but pushed his back against the solid support of the platform, and sat with his back somewhat straight and his legs crossed Indian style.

Rodney gave up his inspection of the floor as well, and joined him, sitting despondently next to his side.

"I'm sorry." What else could Sheppard say? The sudden quiet that had settled over them both let him know he wasn't the only one thinking they were screwed. "I shouldn't have had both of us leave the ship."

Rodney snorted. "Do you think it would've mattered?"

"Do you see any beings with arms, weapons, anything that could've physically gone in and removed you from the ship? Because I don't…so yes, it would've mattered."

"That's assuming that eventually I didn't leave in search of you, trusting that you'd gone and gotten yourself in trouble again, and needed rescuing." McKay sighed as he said it, not even having enough energy to make it as abrasive as usual.

As annoying as it was, John knew Rodney was right. And he would've done the same. Regardless of the present circumstances, if he was being honest, there wasn't a lot they could do or could've done. If they'd stayed in the Jumper, but not knowing then what they did now, why would they stay? The ship had no power, and who knows what would've happened.

But where were the aliens? They didn't create this little safe zone just to abandon them? It seemed pretty unlikely, but for as unlikely as it was, there wasn't anything reassuring him that it wasn't the case.

"I'm hungry," McKay stated abruptly. "Do you think they intend to feed us, or watch us starve to death, our bodies slowly digesting themselves for energy?"

Sheppard raised an eyebrow, and offered helpfully, "Don't worry, you'd die from dehydration long before it got to that point." He said it partially to dig at McKay, but also a little bit to state it for his own welfare. At least dying from dehydration was quicker.

"Do you think Teyla and Ronon are back?" asked McKay suddenly, changing the subject, that perhaps had gotten even too morbid for him.

The whole reason they'd gone on this mission. To waste time while half of the team was off running a trading expedition with some touchy people. Teyla insisted that the less obvious the military might, the better, and argued with Elizabeth to go alone if they wanted to make any progress at all. Because of the Daedelus, the urgency was reduced, but Atlantis still needed to be able to stand on her own feet in case the unimaginable were to happen, and they were cut off from Earth again.

Sheppard and Weir had sat down with Caldwell and explained the need to maintain trade relationships and seek out more as the wraith disrupted trade with other worlds established in their first year. That was the only reason, in the end, that Teyla wore Elizabeth down to agreeing, but she had insisted Teyla take Ronon. The Satedan could blend in and offer more might in the package of one additional person than anyone else.

Which left McKay and Sheppard spinning their wheels, and wanting to do something. Luckily, an unexplained phenomena was recorded by the Daedelus on her trip back to Earth. She relayed the information to Atlantis, and there McKay chimed in that it would be a good idea to take a Jumper out to see what could be causing the energy spikes in space that appeared empty. Now, unfortunately, they knew the source, and it wasn't empty space.

Sheppard did a mental shake, realizing he'd lost himself in his thoughts, and McKay was watching him, waiting impatiently for an answer. "No, Teyla said they'd be as long as a week. Maybe we'll be back before them."

Rodney looked at him in disbelief. "Why are you always optimistic? How is that even possible?"

"Studies show that my type of personality lives longer than your type." Sheppard pointed out that statistic with some satisfaction.

"That's for the typical person on Earth, not for those of us who walk through Stargates to other galaxies and fight life-sucking aliens, and get gobbled up by telepathic jelly fish."

"Anemones." Sheppard raised his finger half-heartedly with the correction.

"What?"

"You said anemones, I said jelly fish…or thought it. I didn't say it to you, did I? I can't remember -"

McKay's face slackened in that way he had of looking at you like you'd just answered zero on a Reiman sum that was increasing towards infinity. "Does it matter?" he demanded irritably.

A noise began to thrum through the floor. Like when they were encased in the gel substance, it wasn't so much of a hearing the sound, as a feeling the sound. It grew louder and both men shot worried looks to the other.

It would appear that the wait was over.

A shimmering of multi-hued lights coalesced in the middle of the room. Sheppard watched as a shape began to solidify. When it finished doing whatever it was doing, transporting or whatever, the object that now shared the room with them had him scratching his head in confusion.

"A vacuum cleaner?"

"Maybe it's a container with dinner?" McKay guessed, narrowing his eyes at the canister like thing.

"Go look," ordered Sheppard. "I'll even let you try it first if it's food."

"Your chivalry touches me," mocked Rodney, rolling his head a little to add to the effect.

"Look, it's a vacuum, what can it possibly do?"

"Would you stop doing that!" Rodney's face was flushed. "I've always considered superstition to be wasted effort, but can we try just a little bit to not tempt fate? Knowing our luck, it could do a lot. Probably kill us, or maim in some horrific way that we could only dream of."

"You can dream." Sheppard folded his arms. They were standing next to one another, having gotten to their feet when the thing began to form in the room, and both were still staring at in distrustfully. "I don't dream up things like man eating vacuums."

"It's not my fault you've got a poor imagination. I can't help being a prodigy."

"But you can help us; go touch the vacuum." Sheppard wasn't really going to let him do it. If anyone was going to get eaten by a vacuum today, it was going to be him.

This form is a container for our essence.

The communication came so suddenly Sheppard dropped his arms, and his mouth. He looked at McKay, and mouthed towards the canister vacuum object, did that thing just talk to us?

McKay mouthed back silently, I think so.

Carbon life forms, are you well?

"Uh," John searched for something to say. "Well, that would, uh, depend I guess."

Depend?

Sheppard gained a little confidence and tugged on McKay's jacket to move towards it with him, pantomiming picking it up. Rodney's eyes bugged out and he shook his head and mouthed no way.

"Yes, depend – we want to leave." Sheppard crept closer, pulling McKay along anyway.

We will preserve life. We will study carbon based life forms.

Even as it finished sending the thoughts to them, John felt his insides clench. Study. Preserve and study, lab rats, but didn't most lab subjects end up being dissected?

"Now, see, that's understandable," Sheppard said reasonably, crouching towards the object, and waving at McKay to get on the other side. It was about twice as large as a regular vacuum and if they both grabbed at the same time, it wouldn't be able to get away. "But we've got some people who would really like us to go home now."

And when he said now, John emphasized it and reached towards the thing, cuing Rodney in to do so as well. Sheppard's hands made contact first, and that's when he realized he'd made another critical error. Just because something looks innocuous and safe, doesn't mean it is. And this vacuum felt like he'd touched a porcupine. An electrified porcupine.

McKay had been a second behind him, and had heard Sheppard starting to scream as his hands made contact, and he was able to pull back and avoid the bulk of the pain that John felt.

Sheppard fell to his butt, and tried to get control of the sudden somersaulting in his stomach, and the ringing in his head, along with the horrible stinging pain in his hands and arms.

Touch without permission is not allowed.

The telepathic thought wasn't any different than the others. Not angry, or disappointed or surprised – clinical and caring, in a slightly contradictory way.

Rodney groaned and shot a very pissed look at Sheppard. "I told you so."

If Sheppard didn't feel so wretched, he would've tried to find something suitably sarcastic to send McKay's way, but as it was, he still felt like someone rang the Liberty Bell inside his head, and poked needles in every pore along his arms and hands.

It will pass. Do you wish sustenance now?

Food. Now it asked. "Will it…sustain…us?" John wondered what these aliens could produce that would be safe for them to eat.

Yes.

"Alien of few words," he grumbled to himself, before taking a deep breath, and getting to his wobbly feet. He helped Rodney up, and noticed that McKay was trembling. Lack of food, probably. "What do you say, McKay, up for some dinner?"

"No, I prefer to starve to death," Rodney snapped. "Of course I am."

Sheppard rolled his eyes, because only McKay would get rude with aliens that had just shocked them into submission.

"Along with that, could we get our gear from our ship?" Sheppard felt naked, even in their clothes. Isolated here, without any equipment, or comforts. At least if they had their things it would give them something to do and maybe with McKay's equipment they could find some answers. Rodney carried some relevant Ancient tech and information wherever they went.

We will provide for carbon based life forms. You will not need.

"It's not so much need, as want," explained Sheppard.

McKay chimed in, "We enjoy doing. In our ship we have things to do. To keep us busy."

We will provide. You will not need.

Rodney threw his hands in the air. "Fine, fine. We get it. You will provide. How about some pillows, and blankets. Games, food, television."

Sheppard frowned, but it wasn't at McKay's outburst. That niggling part of his intuition was telling him what these aliens were reminding him of. He had the very distinct feeling like they were these alien's new pets.

Items needed will appear shortly. Carbon based life forms have names. Sheppard and McKay. We have given new names. Sheppard is CB1, and McKay is CB2. CB1, we will begin study after sustenance.

Sheppard's anger at this information was reflected by McKay's disbelief. The alien thoughts in their minds had not been callous, but distant. Now, it was like a doctor giving out the schedule for surgery to the medical staff.

"Leave Sheppard alone," protested McKay. "You don't want to mess with us. We have powerful friends who will be looking when we don't return."

John widened his eyes at Rodney, trying to communicate silently for him to shut-up and not say anymore. Sheppard coughed loudly. "What my friend is trying to say is that we'd like to stay together." Normally, that'd be the last thing he'd want. If they were going to do something bad to him, he'd rather McKay not be there, but in this situation he kind of figured the better option was to remain as a team. He didn't want Rodney out of his sight. This whole situation was creepy.

CB1 has made a valid request. So it shall be. After sustenance, both CB1 and CB2 will be made available for study.

Before Sheppard could ask more about just what that meant, the oversized vacuum shimmered and disappeared. He clapped his hands together once and rocked on the balls of his feet. "Well," he said, with forced exuberance. "That went well."

And this time Sheppard was pretty sure the pallor replacing the flushed look on McKay's face was anything but normal…