Title: Brotherhood (
Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen
Chapter1
Chapter2a--
2b
Chapter3
Chapter4
Chapter5
Chapter6
Chapter7
Chapter8
Chapter9
Chapter10a--
10b
XXXXX
The Orbanians
XXXXX
14 October 1999; SGC; 1500 hrs
Merrin was eleven years old by her planet's calendar, which meant, according to Sam, not quite twelve Earth years. Daniel was frankly in awe of how quickly Merrin had picked up their language, which he'd found out when SG-1 returned from Orban with the girl and the Orbanian leader, Kalan, in tow. It wasn't the same as when Daniel tried fumblingly to communicate in new languages--this was full, native-like fluency with gaps only for concepts or lexical items that had no Orbanian counterpart. It was impossible. No--it was incredible. Amazing.
Also, this eleven-year-old was going to teach Sam how to build a naquadah reactor. Daniel wasn't entirely sure what that was, but it sounded impressive.
"All Urrone gain knowledge quickly," Merrin had explained to him when she'd initially met him waiting for SG-1's return. "Please explain your other forms of oral communication."
"Actually," Sam had cut in, eying the reactor in the girl's hands, "maybe Merrin can come with me to explain, and Daniel can work with another...uh, what was the word?"
"Urrone," Merrin had said patiently. So Kalan had invited him to visit their homeworld of Orban at a later time to exchange information. Sam had given Daniel a look that said 'get your own Urrone' and shown Merrin eagerly to her lab.
"How was your trip?" Daniel asked once he'd found Jack free to talk afterward.
"Good," Jack said. "The kids are Orbanian students. Smart as anything. They're way ahead of us in technology--not Goa'uld level, but stuff like naquadah reactors is small fries to them. Energy source that runs on naquadah," he added before Daniel had to ask. "Like a giant battery."
"Urrone," Daniel said again to himself, wondering if the word was similar to any language or simply something for which they had no cognate word.
"Apparently the adults learn even faster. We spent most of the first day looking around and teaching the kids English, and then one of them went to teach the adults, and when Kalan came back, he was totally fluent. Even you couldn't've done it."
Daniel shook his head in admiration. Now, that just wasn't fair. "And Teal'c's still there?"
"He's working with Tomin--another one of the Urrone kids on Orban," Jack said. "Teaching him about Goa'uld tactics."
"Huh. Even war tactics are taught first to the children?"
"Apparently. But they're way ahead of us, so they must be doing something right." Daniel supposed that was true. "How about you? Been keeping busy while we were gone?"
"Robert only lets me in the office when he's in there, too," Daniel said, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall. "I mean, it's not like I'm going to destroy something if I'm not supervised."
"You realize," Jack said slowly while giving him a 'you're an idiot' look, "Rothman's just making sure you don't spend twenty-four hours a day in the office? He's glad for help. You should've seen him going nuts trying to get himself more fluent in Goa'uld while you were--" He stopped.
"Going nuts?" Daniel suggested. Another sideways look. "If you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to go nuts again."
"You weren't nuts the first time," Jack said a little too emphatically.
Daniel suppressed a sigh. "I just meant that, with all of you gone and the office off limits after hours, there's not much to do. I ended up reading through the few available issues of Diachronica in the library and the last seven years of the American Journal of Philology."
"We've got to teach you to drive," Jack said. "You have even less of a life than I do."
"So I'm not allowed to step through a wormhole without a psych evaluation and Dr. Fraiser's approval, but I'm allowed to drive a car?"
Jack made a face and started, "It's not like that--"
"I'm...I'm joking, Jack," Daniel sighed, a little apologetic and more frustrated. "Never mind."
He could almost hear Jack scrambling for something to say into the following pause. "How about otherwise? Have you been sleeping better?"
There was a knee-jerk impulse to point out that his sleeping habits were his own business, but he successfully swallowed that and said, "Yes."
Jack's face made the very slight contortion that meant he was cringing internally and forcing himself not to react too much as he said things like--"So...the nightmares...?"
"Jack."
"Yeah, no," Jack said, backing off that topic immediately.
Daniel looked around to make sure no one else was nearby, then admitted, "No one seems to know exactly what to do with me right now. And...I don't know what to do with myself."
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, looking torn, then suddenly brightened. "You wanna get out of here?"
"No," Daniel scoffed. Jack's artificially enthusiastic expression wilted a little. "Jack, you're in the middle of a mission, and SG-1 has two more right after this before you're done with this rotation. I'll catch up with you after that. You've had enough delays already because of me and PY3-948."
"Carter's going to be building that reactor for a while," Jack pointed out. "I'm basically useless right now."
Then Daniel thought of General Hammond's words about whether they were clouding each other's judgment and said, "Thank you, but no. If Orban is what you think it is, this is a...an incredible opportunity. I'm okay, all right?" Jack still looked a little worried, so he added, "Actually, I was going to ask if I can assist Teal'c on Orban until SG-1 is done there."
"You're not really supposed to yet," Jack pointed out carefully. "Has Dr. Fraiser cleared you?"
Daniel hadn't seen Dr. Fraiser since the end of the Linvris debacle, though not for trying on her part. "Well, Dr. Warner said this morning that there was nothing physically wrong with me anymore. General Hammond says I need the psych evaluation for first contact, but I can continue the normal work I did before, which includes second-line work."
"Somehow I don't think Hammond was thinking of fieldwork when he said that."
"You've already established friendly relations, and we have one of their Urrone here. Please, Jack--I'll go mad again if I have to stay here doing nothing for much longer. It's an exchange of knowledge. I just want to do something useful and not have someone get hurt for once."
As Daniel had known he would, Jack gave in, looking guilty. "All right. We'll tell the general, and then you report to Teal'c on Orban."
XXXXX
14 October 1999; Stargate Room, Orban; 1630 hrs
Teal'c was waiting when Daniel stepped out of the wormhole. "Hi," he said, looking around the empty room. "Um, where is everyone?"
"Kalan will bring an Urrone to work with you," Teal'c told him. "They and the Urrone Tomin will return shortly."
"Urrone," Daniel said again, rolling the sound over his tongue. "I still can't figure out what language th--oh, wow, what is that?" He walked toward the DHD and lowered himself to his knees to examine a partially-visible mosaic on the floor. "Teal'c, have you looked at this?"
The sound of Teal'c's boots thumped softly toward him. "I have not examined it in detail. Do you believe it to be significant?"
He ran his fingers over the dusty mosaic and the slab that extended over the artwork. "Not to the Orbanians, clearly," he said, "or they wouldn't have built the DHD's platform over it. Well, I guess we don't know whether the DHD was placed over it by them, and, if so, accidentally or on purpose."
Teal'c dropped to a crouch as well. "What meaning do you find here?"
"I think it tells a story," Daniel said after a minute of study, crawling on hands and knees around to the other side, where it looked like the narrative began. "See the serpent?"
"Indeed," Teal'c said, following him. "Do you believe that to be a Goa'uld?"
It was only when his smile faltered that Daniel realized he'd been smiling at all, that he'd been so excited to see this, a piece of a story puzzle, without being chased by a Goa'uld army or picking up dangerous Goa'uld technology. He should have known better. This was an Abydos cartouche planet, after all.
"I guess that could be it," Daniel said, more subdued. "The feathered serpent was a central figure in Mesoamerican mythologies. Why wouldn't that be a Goa'uld." He looked down at the mosaic surrounding him, then grabbed the side of the DHD to pull himself up, brushing off his hands and the knees of his trousers. "Well."
Daniel stood looking down at Teal'c for a disorienting moment before the Jaffa rose smoothly. "Are you well, Daniel Jackson?"
"Yeah," Daniel said, looking around the walls of the 'gate room. "Look at those murals. They're incredible, aren't they? Are all the buildings around here like this?"
Teal'c lifted an eyebrow, but before he could answer, the Orbanian leader, Kalan, strode back in, two young children following. "Daniel Jackson," the man greeted him.
"Kalan," Daniel said, nodding politely. "May I ask about the history of Orban?" He gestured toward the partially-hidden mosaic on the floor. "I assume the Tau'ri told you that many peoples have ancestors from the planet Earth."
"Yes, they told us this," Kalan said.
"Daniel Jackson believes your people are from Earth's Mesoamerica," Teal'c said.
When Kalan turned to Daniel, he explained, "This"--he tapped a toe at the edge of the mosaic--"is reminiscent of...Aztec culture, I think, or something related. If there is more time, perhaps I, or someone with more knowledge in this part of Tau'ri history, can learn more about your past."
"It is possible that the Goa'uld caused the collapse of that civilization," Teal'c added. Daniel tried not to resent that, because he knew it was true and, indeed, very possible. Not everything had to do with the Goa'uld. Sometimes it was just knowledge--just not often enough.
Kalan bent a little to grip one of the Urrone around the shoulders and nudge her gently toward them. "Please explain this," the man said, then bowed to them before he left.
Daniel looked down awkwardly at the girl while Teal'c nodded to the young boy--Tomin, presumably--and led him to sit on the steps. "Hello. I'm Daniel."
"I am Zaren," the Urrone answered.
"Zaren, let's go to the other end of this room so we don't disturb them." As they settled near part of the mural near the back of the 'gate room, he pulled out a tape recorder. "Will it bother you if I use this?" he asked.
Zaren leaned forward. "What is this?"
"It's a...a recording device," he explained, pulling it open for her to see the tape inside. "It records sounds so they can be played back later."
"Recording," she repeated. "What is 'recording?'"
"It's from Latin," he told her, warming to the subject. "Recordari, to remember, or to call back to mind. In this language, it's taken on the meaning of creating a sort of...artificial memory." Then he frowned. "You don't have recording devices? Or written records? Your devices may be much more advanced than this, but..."
"Why do you need such a device?" she asked, peering into the open tape deck.
"I, uh," Daniel said. "I use it...so that I don't forget something if I want to review it later. Then again," he joked, "from what I've heard about your people, maybe you just don't ever forget things, huh?"
"That is correct," Zaren said, nodding.
"Oh," Daniel said.
"But you may use this memory aid if you wish," she said, poking at the front until it closed.
Daniel cleared his throat. "Right. Thanks." He pushed the 'REC' button and set it aside. "Could you teach me your language?"
"Why?" Zaren asked. "I speak yours. The passage of knowledge is more efficient in this way."
"W...yes, well, maybe that's true," Daniel conceded. "But afterward, maybe you could let me record some of your language so I can try to learn about it on my own time?"
She looked at him dubiously. "But you will have no need of it if we have already given our knowledge to each other."
"Actually, I think language is important as more than just a means of communication," he sighed, "but a lot of my, uh, my people would probably agree with you."
"I can speak into your artificial memory device later," she offered.
Daniel allowed a small smile. "Thank you. Actually, speaking of records, I would call this mural here is a kind of record." There were designs and symbols covering almost all of the walls, interspersed with occasional painted figures. "That's what we call this type of art, by the way--a mural."
"It is without purpose," Zaren said. Before he could protest, she said, "What is 'art?'"
"What is...?" How did one define that properly? "The word 'art' can cover a wide range of meanings. It comes from Latin, too, 'ars, artis,' which refers to technical skill. It still has that meaning today in English, but its primary meaning is for something that's created in...um, in a creative way." He could tell how helpful that wasn't. "Um...something you make up that appeals to the senses or the emotions."
"What purpose does it serve?"
"Well...it serves...it's...appealing. Creativity can be an end in and of itself, and it can also be used to give other people enjoyment." Zaren frowned at him. "It's fun and enjoyable," Daniel tried. "Subjectively, of course, but that's part of the fun, too."
"Fun?" she repeated.
Daniel bit his lip. "You didn't learn that word from SG-1? No? Well...'fun' is something you enjoy doing." She still looked confused, so he said, "Something that gives you pleasure."
"Gaining knowledge to help my people gives me great pleasure," Zaren said.
"Me, too," he said, a grin taking him by surprise. "Well, art can also be fun."
"But it does not further one's knowledge."
"But it does. Here, step back," he said. He searched the mural for a figure he recognized and pointed up. "There. What does that look like?"
Zaren looked up at his face, then at his finger, and stepped closer so she could follow the line of his arm. "It is a woman, depicted with poor accuracy. A branch protrudes strangely from her hand, and fluids leak from beneath her robe in an unrealistic manner."
Daniel blinked and looked down at her earnest expression. "O--okay. I guess that's...a valid way of looking at it. Or you could see a representation of Chalchiuitlicue, a goddess of water. The, uh...fluid is a river that flows from her skirt, see? The shape of that branch is what we call a cross in our language, and it represents the four winds that bring rain."
"There are not four winds," Zaren informed him.
"Well, maybe not literally," he admitted. "That just helps to map out our geography--one for each of four directions, see?"
"Linear directions are an inaccurate depiction of a spheroid planet."
With a sigh, Daniel said, "It's an approximation. My point is... What I was saying is that this can tell you about your past. And understanding where you come from helps you learn about...about yourself in the present, and about what makes you who you are."
Zaren pondered this. "Then the purpose of art truly is to further knowledge."
"That's not...well, yes, it can be," he said, not completely satisfied with that definition but unsure how to explain it better.
"What is that?" she asked, pointing into another corner with one hand and tugging his arm along with the other.
He scooped up his tape recorder and followed her. "I'm not totally sure. What do you think?"
Zaren tilted her head and thought for a moment as they stopped in front of an admittedly abstract figure. "It is a man," she said. "His face is oddly proportioned, but given that he holds a representation of electricity and water in his hands, perhaps he is a deity as well."
"Yeah, I think you're right," Daniel agreed. "That could well be Tlaloc, the lord of water."
She touched part of the painting with the other. "What is the word for this color?"
"Red. Or maybe orange."
"I like this one better," she said, moving her finger.
"Blue," Daniel filled in. "Why?"
"I do not know. It is illogical. The difference between the light from either one of them that reaches our eyes is a quantitative distinction--"
"I like blue," he told her. "It doesn't have to be logical. That's why my culture enjoys art--you can like it or not, and someone else can disagree, and you can both be right."
Zaren considered. "Then I like blue because it is appealing to me."
"All right," he said, unaccountably warmed as he gestured her onward.
...x...
Daniel waved good-bye to Zaren for the night as Teal'c reported to base through the MALP.
"They're still working on the reactor," Jack's voice was telling Teal'c. "How's...how are you guys doing over there?"
"We are making rapid progress, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "Daniel Jackson believes that further study on Orban by an archaeological team may reveal much. The Urrone learn quickly."
"Yeah, apparently. You sure there aren't child labor laws or something? Because I think Merrin's been up for about twenty-four hours straight, and she's still going."
"That's just how their society works, Jack," Daniel said, walking toward Teal'c to join in. "But being Urrone is a great honor to them. They're very eager to contribute their skills."
"Well, of course you'd say that, Daniel," Jack muttered, sounding suddenly irritated, and then, "Check in tomorrow, kids. Have a good night. SGC out."
Daniel stared at the wormhole, frowning, as it shimmered out of existence.
"O'Neill is not angry," Teal'c told him, shutting off the MALP and straightening. "No doubt he grows restless watching the child work."
"I don't care," Daniel sighed. "I'm tired of trying to guess what people mean all the time these days." Teal'c looked at him. "What?"
"You have said in the past that communication relies on more than the words that are spoken."
"Well, sometimes it would help if people would just let the words get spoken."
"Then I will speak my mind," Teal'c said.
"Oops," Daniel muttered, sitting down on the steps to the Stargate and bracing himself.
"I am not convinced that you are well, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel took a deep breath and blew it out. "No long-term effects from Machello's device or the Tau'ri medicines so far. The doctors can't find anything wrong with me." Not that Janet had found anything wrong before when he was going mad. Not that he was really worried about that, most of the time.
"That is good," Teal'c said. Daniel couldn't tell whether he was convinced yet.
"Jaffa never have to worry about the mind becoming sick, do they?"
"They do not," Teal'c said, which was, somehow, rather disheartening. Then he clarified, "It is seen as a weakness in the armies of the Goa'uld. Those Jaffa do not live long enough to worry."
Daniel shivered. "That...that's nice."
"It is not," Teal'c said seriously. "Jaffa warriors spend their lives fighting. I have seen my strongest brothers trapped in their own minds after battle. I have abandoned others because it was not permitted to help them."
"Jaffa survival of the fittest?"
"Jaffa ignorance of this matter, enforced by Goa'uld oppression," Teal'c corrected. "Do the people of Abydos believe the same?"
He leaned his elbows onto his knees. "On Abydos, when people's minds become weak and are taken by disease, a physician can read their dreams. There are medicines to direct them toward healing." He shrugged. "Well, I don't know if it works. They're never the same, after."
Teal'c stared at him for a long time. "Your mind was not weak, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Well, I know that. It was Machello's bugs, so it only seemed like my mind was--"
"I requested information about schizophrenia from Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c interrupted, frowning deeply. "She spoke with me on that subject at great length. It is an illness like any other and is not caused by a weakness of the mind."
"Oh." He squinted down at his boots, not sure if he believed that, because if his mind really had been as strong as he had always thought, he wouldn't have thought dead Goa'uld might try to take him as a host. The one thing he had always been proud of was his brain, and everything about the last few weeks felt so stupid now. "Well, I didn't know that," he said.
Not that he was thinking about that, anyway; it hadn't been real schizophrenia or anything.
"Perhaps you should ask Dr. Fraiser if you wish to know more," Teal'c said.
Daniel wasn't sure how much he did want to know at the moment about how and why the mind fell apart under any circumstance, and even if he'd been curious, there were levels to Janet's involvement in all of this that he wasn't willing to explore just yet. "Maybe. Later," he said, then stood and made his way toward the mosaic on the floor to examine it again. "I wonder why Zaren and Tomin decided to take a break now. From what Zaren told me, Urrone need even less sleep than you."
"They have been working continuously for the last two days," Teal'c pointed out. "However, you are not Urrone. We should rest until they return."
"It's not that late," Daniel said, returning to his pack to pull out a brush. "They said they'd be back in the morning, so we have time. Hey, what are you--!" The brush was lifted from his hand.
"You are here," Teal'c said, carefully laying the brush back down in the pack, "despite the fact that you have not been declared ready for fieldwork. You will obey my word, or you will return to base."
Daniel scowled at the floor, wondering if he could reach his pack and pull out paper to sketch the mosaic before Teal'c stole that, too. It was a stupid thought, of course. He'd thought a lot of stupid thoughts lately. Who said his mind wasn't weak? "You told the general you should have tried sooner to make Machello's device transfer from me into you," Daniel said.
"It would have spared you much suffering," Teal'c said, which meant yes.
Daniel turned his scowl onto his friend. "How can you say that?" he spat. "You think that would have spared me anything? What would I do if you died, too?"
Teal'c didn't look away, but his eyes flickered downward for a brief moment. "You are tired."
"It's not that late," Daniel said, brushing some loose dirt from the mosaic with his fingers.
"That was not my meaning."
He pulled his hand inside the sleeve of his jacket and used the cloth to sweep clean a corner of the mosaic that had been hidden under the dirt before. "I've read about artwork like this, but I've never actually seen it before, not so well preserved," he said, hoping the subject would be dropped. "I wonder if this is Quetzalcoatl, or the feathered serpent under another name?"
Teal'c hovered nearby but was slow in answering. When he finally did, he said, "Who was Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Jackson?"
"A creator deity. He... Let me think... I think he brought craft and farming to the people, something like that. Sometimes, he's also associated with sacrifice and resurr..." He stopped.
"Resurrection," Teal'c filled in.
They saw that attribute a lot, too. It wasn't as if the Goa'uld didn't have access to devices capable of bringing people and themselves back to life. It was always a Goa'uld.
Daniel touched the concrete slab that covered the mosaic, then drew away, suddenly uninterested in seeing what might be hiding under it. "I'm going to sleep, okay?" Teal'c's eyes remained on him as he lay his bedroll against the platform leading to the Stargate. "I'm tired," he said, and Teal'c let it be.
Continued in Part b...