Lochness

Chapter 2

"We have to get back to the Jumper now. Don't go near the lake," McKay ordered, though the words rang hollow in his ears. Oh God, what was that? This isn't happening, his mind panicked. You have to stay calm. You have here two, practically three kids. Just get everyone back to the Jumper.

Fortunately they were only about a hundred meters from the jumper, so he hurriedly motioned the others toward it. One hand grasped Jena's small fingers, which were shaking uncontrollably, while the other had a white-knuckled grip on his weapon. He wasn't certain if that creature lived only in this lake or in the others too, and he sure as hell wasn't willing to risk their lives on it. Could it possibly live on the mainland too? Why didn't their life signs detector notice them? So many questions and so few answers.

For a moment he wished he could let all of his emotions out just like the children before him; sink down and cry, scream, curse at whatever had caused another innocent life to be lost in this new galaxy. But he had to be strong. Corporal Hanks looked terrified, surprising for a soldier, but not unexpected considering his age. Jano was shaking, face drawn and pale. He walked silently behind Hanks.

These kids just watched as their nanny was, what exactly, eaten? He couldn't even describe what had just happened. It was like that creature from the Fellowship of the Ring. That was the only connection he could draw as they hurried back to the Jumper. He hadn't even seen a head of any sort. There was only a frenzied blur of tentacles and the struggling and shooting that quickly ensued. Nothing more.

Hanks settled the children into the rear seats of the jumper, where they remained silent and still, obviously still stunned by the horrific turn of events. After several long moments, the corporal finally broke the silence. "What the hell was that? It looked like a giant octopus but I couldn't see anything besides those damned tentacles. Do you think there are more of them here?" he asked apprehensively.

He looked with wide eyes at McKay, but the older man had no answers to offer. For one of the few times in his life he simply had no answer. Whenever something on the mission went wrong, he was never alone. Sheppard or Teyla was always there and they knew what to do. Now he was here with two children and one panicked corporal. He knew what he should do. They had to get to the gate. It wasn't far. The only problem was that stargate stood between two lakes and the only way to approach it required them to fly low directly over one of them. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Alright, kiddies, that's it. We're going home." He took the jumper up and immediately oriented it toward the gate. Although the lake was long, it didn't look like anything was following them.

"Corporal, dial the gate," he ordered and Hanks pressed the first symbol. Suddenly the whole Jumper shook. McKay frantically looked out of the window and barely managed to suppress a whimper when he saw what had caused it. Several long and slimy tentacles had reached out of the lake and were now attempting to ensnare the craft. He immediately piloted the jumper higher, out of reach of those monstrous tentacles, although it bucked uneasily under his control.

"Hold on!" He settled on a place far from the majority of the lakes. Unfortunately, it was far from the gate as well. Several kilometers from the edge of a dense forest was a small glade, on which he landed the shuddering Jumper with surprising softness. He had no clue how intelligent this animal was, but he hoped it couldn't go out from the lake. They couldn't fly back there. And what was worse, the Jumper's engine seemed to be damaged from their brief encounter with the monster. Their only way out from this hell was through stargate.

He stood up from his seat and looked back at children. They looked like they didn't even notice the landing. "Everybody ok?" He saw Hanks nod, but still received no reaction from his little companions.

Rodney took Jena by her shoulders and shook her. It wasn't very gently but they didn't have time for this. "Jena, do you hear me?" He shook her again. She slowly raised her eyes to meet his, and he smiled at her. "That's good. We're getting out of here, and I need your cooperation. Do you understand?" She didn't react again. Shit. Damned children. After running a frustrated hand through his hair, he did the only thing he could think of – he slapped her.

"Doctor McKay!" Hanks had jumped out from his seat, weapon at the ready. But he sat back in astonishment to see that it had actually worked. The sound of slap seemed to have awoken Jano too. Neither child spoke, but they finally appeared aware of the world around them.

"Are you both alright?" Stupid question, McKay. The two nodded but remained silent. For now, their response was good enough for him.

"What are we going to do?" asked Hanks. Three pairs of eyes turned to look at Rodney.

"Um, the plan is currently under construction… Well, technically it hasn't really started yet," he admitted. "We can't go to gate, but when we don't check in, Elizabeth will call us. Let's hope she doesn't send anyone through. We'll have to wait it out for now. I think we're safe here. The Jumper's flyable, but I'm afraid to take her too high. The stabilizers and the engine both appear to be damaged, and personally, plummeting to my death is right up there with getting eaten by a giant octopus on the list of things I really don't want to do today. There may be even more of those things in the other lakes, and I'd rather not find out. So we wait."

Hanks appeared satisfied with it, but a moment later his brow wrinkled in confusion and he spoke up. "There's one thing I don't understand."

"One thing?" McKay quipped with a raised eyebrow.

The corporal pretended not to hear him. "Why didn't that… creature attack us earlier? We flew over the lake before. Why so sudden an attack?"

McKay frowned. "That's true. Maybe it was testing us. Maybe it only wanted to know if we taste good. Which we obviously do."

Hanks was unconvinced. There was something more than that. "I don't know. It didn't react whole day."

McKay fixed Hanks with a penetrating gaze. "You are the soldier here, corporal. You're trained to notice such things." It was first time that Hanks had actually thought about himself as soldier, and it showed. McKay smiled at the pride reflected on the young man's face. Rodney surely had more field experience, but Hanks was specially trained for this type of thing. No, Rodney had to mentally correct himself, nobody trains to fight a giant octopus…thing. All the same, he decided to give the kid a chance. "So, what do you think?"

Hanks pursed his lips for a moment before replying, "Maybe we did something bad. I mean, unfriendly from its point of view. Maybe we didn't even realize it."

"And what do you suppose that could be? We didn't go near to water. And I told them not to – Oh no…" He grimaced as he realized how absurd the idea was. Jano and Jena were children after all. Of course they wouldn't do what he told them. Chalk up another fantastic victory for Rodney McKay, babysitter extraordinaire. He exchanged frustrated glances with Hanks before looking back to the children, who had passed up the seats in favor of laying sprawled across the floor of the Jumper.

"Oh, I am so looking forward to this," Rodney whispered dryly as he walked over to them. "Listen, Jena, I need you focused. Do you understand?" He almost jumped up when she sat up with a loud "Yes."

"Good, good. That's good. Now, I need to know something, and it's very important. What exactly did you two do at the lake?" At the mention of the lake Jena visibly twitched, but said nothing. "Jena, please, it's very important. Do you remember what you did?" But Jena remained silent, gazing intently at the back of the seat in front of her. Great. We managed to offend the great Calamari King and I don't even know how because the kids did it. Why the hell did I agree to this? I knew it was a bad idea from the beginning! Stop it! Panic won't help. He took in a ragged breath and tried again, this time with the boy.

"Jano? Did you hear my question?" Jano nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Good. And can you answer me?" The little prince looked at him, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"We played our game," he whispered weakly.

"What game? Come on, Jano."

"Who has bigger strength. We threw stones into the water and watched whose would fly farthest. Jena won like always. And then it caught her."

"And which one of you threw the last stone?"

"It was Jena. We didn't know. If we did we would never have done it. Please, believe me. I know it's our fault." He began sob.

"Oh no, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know. None of us did." But Jano´s cry did not subsist, so McKay did the only thing he could. He hugged him, albeit clumsily, but Jano clung to the doctor's sleeves as if his life depended on it. They remained in this position for hours; Jano asleep against McKay's chest, Jena staring fixedly off into space, and Hanks watching over all of them. They had to wait until Atlantis realized that something was wrong and made contact. So lying on floor of the Jumper, they waited.