The Gray - Part 2/3
"That's the funny thing, sir," Sam replied. "They're obviously keeping their knowledge and technology a secret, but they aren't using it like a goa'uld would, to enforce slavery and worship. Teal'c, can you think of a goa'uld who would put the effort into developing technology to perform manual labor instead of using slaves?"
"I cannot."
"But from what we heard yesterday, the Accepted have done just that: they've built machines to do the mining the slaves once did. They obviously use their knowledge for the benefit of the general populace," she said, waving a hand at the doorway, where Bodhus had so recently stood.
"Which would be great if they were a little more likely to share their toys with our general populace." The Colonel shrugged. "But since they're keeping their own people in the dark and don't seem to need anything we have to offer, I'm betting the odds of us securing any kind of trade agreement with them are not good."
"Maybe if we talked to them, explained why we're here, how we're only trying to defend ourselves from the goa'uld," said Daniel.
"I don't know, Daniel, I didn't get the impression they were very open to dialogue, did you?" Sam raised her eyebrows in question.
Daniel sighed. "No, not really," he admitted, "but I still think it's worth a try. It never hurts to ask." When the Colonel cocked an eyebrow, he added "Okay, in some cases, that's not true. But I think in this case it couldn’t hurt. I'm going to go find one of Bodhus's assistants and see if I can't speak to Hariteia, maybe get an audience with the Accepted."
"Sounds like a good time." The Colonel sounded less than enthused but waved for Daniel to precede him through the door. He called back over his shoulder "You two see what else you can dig up."
"Will do, sir," Sam replied and Teal'c nodded. Sam glanced upward as they departed and found her gaze drawn to the large dome light above them. She must have stood there, her head tilted back in silent calculation, for several minutes because it was Teal'c who finally broke the silence.
"Captain Carter." It was almost a question, but not quite.
"Teal'c, could you stand in the doorway and warn me if anyone besides Daniel or Colonel O'Neill is coming?"
The Jaffa eyed her impassively. Sam decided to interpret this as a request for elaboration.
"I'm going to try to detach our lamp from the ceiling and see how it works. If nothing else, it should give me an idea of what their level of technology is like and maybe what they're using as a power source."
"Does it not seem likely that such activities, if discovered, may lead to an undesirable encounter?"
Sam pulled a stool under the light and grinned at him. "Well you'll just have to make sure I'm not discovered."
Teal'c seemed to consider this chain of reasoning for a moment, then silently strode to the doorway, where he stationed himself with his back to her. Sam decided it was just her imagination that his back looked unconvinced that this was a good idea. She stepped onto the stool and began prying at the light where it met the ceiling with her fingers, looking for whatever was holding it in place.
After five minutes, she had established that there were no visible bolts or screws that could be removed. After fifteen more minutes of scraping and pulling at the lamp, digging at the ceiling and trying to wedge a flat-headed screwdriver between the two, Sam's shoulders and neck were vehemently protesting this treatment and she was no closer to having any idea how the lamp was affixed, much less how it worked. She climbed off the stool in defeat and sat down on it, rubbing her aching neck and glaring at the light through her bangs.
"Someone approaches, Captain Carter." Teal'c was still facing the tunnel outside the room, but he must have known from the absence of scraping and muttering that she had given up her efforts on the lamp. Sam wondered if continuing his sentry duty was his obscure way of mocking her. She stood and dusted herself off as a short man in a green chiton appeared in the doorway.
"You are Captain Carter and Teal'c?" Their visitor looked apprehensively from Sam to the Jaffa towering over him in the doorway. Sam guessed him to be a little younger than Menandi. "I am called Kunind; I am a friend of Menandi. I would speak with you a moment."
"It's all right, Teal'c, let him in." Sam tried not to take it personally that Teal'c stood blocking Kunind's entry for another full second, apparently evaluating the much smaller man for himself before standing aside.
"Thank you." Kunind gave Teal'c a mistrustful glance as he entered and turned to address Sam, drawing himself up to his full five-and-a-half feet of height. "Menandi has told me of you. She says you are very learned in the magic of your own world. Is this true?"
"Well, I'm a scientist," said Sam. "I understand a lot about physics and technology, but that's not the same thing as magic. Or at least, I wouldn't call it that," she added, wishing Daniel were present.
Kunind waved this aside. "Menandi says that you have many methods and devices for the divination of knowledge, like the Accepted," he insisted. "She says that you have great understanding of things as they truly are.”
Sam balked at this rather mystical-sounding description of her own scientific instruments and practices, but Kunind did not allow her to protest.
"The people of this city have no access to such devices or such knowledge unless it is at the express permission of the Accepted. The knowledge of how to use and control magic is kept secret in their hall, and only those who pass their tests may aspire to learn."
He paused, as if expecting some reply, but Sam didn't know what to say. When she remained silent, Kunind continued, suddenly looking vaguely furtive.
"Menandi says that you are generous with your knowledge. I and several others are eager for an understanding of the use of magic. I have come to ask if you would share this knowledge with us, and perhaps," he paused, as if unsure of himself, then plunged ahead, "And even perhaps afford us the use of some of your magical devices. In exchange we would be willing to help you discover more about the magic of the Accepted."
Sam blinked at him. "You mean that you have access to information about the Accepted and their magic?"
"I and others have known of ways to gain such access for many years. We have made a labor of collecting whatever information we can about the magic of our world." Kunind definitely looked furtive now, even to the point of casting a glance over his shoulder at the door. Sam leveled her gaze at him and he admitted: "Our methods are not strictly within the laws of our city, but we believe that such laws are only a device of the Accepted, a way to keep the people of the city ignorant."
"Okay, so you have information that the Accepted are concealing." Sam paused and then asked, "But why would you need our help, in that case? And why would you be willing to share it with us? You don't even know much about us."
"I know that you are free with your knowledge, where the Accepted are greedy and secretive with theirs," Kunind replied, spreading his hands as if this was all that needed to be said on the matter. "And while my colleagues and I have been collecting information for years, we are forbidden the learning afforded to those who pass the tests and put on the gray, and so we cannot understand what we collect. We can possess information but we cannot use it. It is one thing to have knowledge of magic, but it is another thing to control it, to command it."
Sam didn't like the gleam that came into Kunind's eyes at the thought of commanding magic the way he was convinced the Accepted could. She looked over his head at Teal'c, who was watching the exchange with a frown. (Not that that was a very helpful indicator of his thoughts on the matter, since Teal'c's default facial expression was a frown, and Sam couldn't tell if this frown was disapproving or simply disinterested.)
"Kunind, say I gave you our technology and the knowledge to use it. What would you do?"
"I would use it to force the Accepted to release their knowledge of our world's magic," he replied. "Then the entire city would have the use of it, as the Accepted do now."
"Have not most of the citizens been tested by the Accepted and found to be lacking an aptitude for magic?" Teal'c spoke softly but Kunind turned to him with a start, as if he had forgotten the Jaffa was in the room.
"The test is nothing but a lie!" said Kunind, and he suddenly sounded fiercely bitter. "I myself have taken the test thrice and I have never passed it."
"You've taken the test three times?" asked Sam, baffled.
"It is the right of every citizen to be retested as many times as he desires." Kunind made a small derisive noise in his throat. "Of course, it makes no difference how many times it is taken. The test never changes, and yet I failed it each time, despite years of study. So it is with many of our wisest and most learned citizens, whereas many of the Accepted possessed no special intelligence or knowledge before they put on the gray."
“What exactly does the test entail?” asked Sam.
Kunind’s bitter expression deepened. He replied with a sneer, “Questions with no answers, problems without solutions. After I underwent testing for the second time, I realized that the second test had been the same as the first and I devoted myself to study of every subject pertaining to the test, but to no avail: I still did not pass on the third testing.” He held up his hands as if his own inability to pass the test were all the evidence needed to pronounce the thing impossible.
"You believe that you and others are excluded from the Accepted order for some other reason than a failure to successfully complete the test." Teal'c didn't bother to make it a question.
"The test is an excuse!" Kunind didn't seem to have taken Teal'c's choice of the word 'failure' very well; he spoke angrily now. "The Accepted only allow those they can control to put on the gray. They do not wish to share their power with others whose talents and intellects might equal or surpass their own."
"And you believe that our world's magic is the solution to this problem?" said Teal'c.
"I do." Kunind nodded fervently. "Your magic is unlike that of the Accepted. It is outside their understanding. With it, we could force them to release their strictures on the study and use of our world's magic. All of my people could be equal in knowledge to the Accepted. As would you, yourselves," he added.
"If you possessed the use of our magic and this goal were achieved," Teal'c's left eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch, "would you release the secrets of our world's magic to your people as well as those of your own?"
"Yes," said Kunind, but there was the merest pause before his reply that gave Sam time to wonder. Teal'c, who seemed to have no further questions, remained silent, still frowning. Sam felt a frown forming on her own features and she was considering her next question when footsteps sounded in the tunnel outside. A moment later, Menandi appeared in the doorway.
"Kunind," she seemed surprised to see him, but pleasantly so.
"Menandi," Kunind smiled ingratiatingly from her to Sam. "I decided to come and meet Captain Carter myself after you spoke of her. Your reports of her wisdom and graciousness were not exaggerated."
Menandi laughed and said, "I was just coming to invite Captain Carter and her friends to join me for the afternoon meal. Would you like to join us?"
Kunind glanced at Sam out of the corner of his eye and replied "You honor me with your invitation, but I am afraid I cannot." He turned to Sam. "I'm sure I will be seeing you again soon, Captain Carter?" He wasn't terribly subtle about the emphasis he placed on the question, but Menandi seemed oblivious.
Sam regarded him for a long moment, thinking furiously. He was offering them pieces, possibly crucial pieces, of the puzzle she had been trying to solve for two days. And he wasn't asking for anything in return that SG-1 weren't constantly trying to obtain for their own world: enough power to right wrongs and defend themselves from oppression. But in the moment that she had to come to a decision, she couldn't bring herself to trust this angry little man.
"I'm afraid we won't have a chance to meet again, Kunind. Colonel O'Neill will probably want to return to our own planet in a few hours."
Kunind's face darkened for a split second and then he was smiling again. "Very well. Goodbye, then, Captain Carter." He nodded to Menandi and made his exit, casting an unreadable look at Teal'c as he passed.
Sam was already having second thoughts when Menandi turned back to her and said "My home is not far from here; will you come and eat?" and gestured for them to follow her out into the tunnel. Sam stood and followed her, deep in thought. Menandi glanced asked "Are Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Jackson not with you?"
"What? Oh, no," Sam shook her head and tried to smile. "They went to speak to Hariteia."
"Then I will bring them something to eat when they have returned," said Menandi, leading them down the tunnel. She stopped them at a doorway and motioned for them to precede her into a room that looked very like their own, having the same dome lamp and frescoed walls. Menandi's low table was already set with pitchers and cups, and she ushered them over to it, saying, "Sit and drink. I will go and fetch the meal." She disappeared into the next room, and there was silence for a few moments.
"Captain Carter."
Sam looked up to find Teal'c gazing at her steadily from across the table. "Teal'c?"
"I believe that your decision with regard to Kunind was the correct one."
She blinked, surprised by his directness, and there was a pause before she replied, "Thank you, Teal'c." He gave her that incredibly graceful half-nod that was his alone and she found herself smiling and wondering how so few words from someone who wasn't even human could reassure her so thoroughly.
Menandi came in bearing a platter of vegetables and a savory-looking loaf of bread. "I will be sorry to see you go," she said, serving their portions into bowls. "I have enjoyed our conversations, Captain Carter, and I know Bodhus has been very pleased to share our history with Doctor Jackson."
Sam was confused for the split second it took her to remember that her refusal of Kunind's offer had taken the form of an announcement that the team had plans to leave soon. "Well maybe Daniel and I can convince Colonel O'Neill to let us stay here a little longer," she replied. "I'd certainly like a chance to see a few more of the mining sites." And see if Daniel and I can't piece together a few more clues about the Accepted's technology, she added silently.
"I would be very happy to see you stay. I have not had such interesting company since my sister took the wandering sorrow." Menandi's voice grew a bit wistful. "My sister was very intelligent, very strong. And very wise, as well; she could not only understand very difficult things, but also explain them simply, as you do."
"Well, I have a lot of practice explaining things to Colonel O'Neill," Sam chuckled. "He likes to keep things simple."
Menandi laughed. "So did my father, when he and my sister were still in the city. My sister would become excited about some new thing she had learned in her studies and she would talk for days about it. He would say: 'If you must speak of such things to an old man, you might at least have the courtesy to make them less burdensome to his old mind.’" She laughed again, but a little sadly. "I was so sure my sister would be allowed to put on the gray when she went to be tested. Instead, when she returned from the hall, she was sorrowful and hardly spoke. Not long after, she made her way to the surface, where she is now."
Sam frowned. "You mean she got the wandering sorrow right after she was tested by the Accepted?"
Menandi nodded. "It is so with many of those afflicted, though not with all. My father had not been tested in many years when he left for the surface."
"But most of the people who exile themselves to the surface do so shortly after being tested? Doesn't anyone think there might be a connection?" Sam stared incredulously at the other woman.
"It may be that the tests have something to do with it," said Menandi, slicing more bread. "Some of the things experienced during the test are unsettling, and perhaps some are not prepared in their mind for what they encounter." She shrugged, seeming to find the suggestion of only academic interest. "But the majority of those tested never take the wandering sorrow, so perhaps there is no connection, after all."
"But what do you mean, 'unsettling'?" Sam's doubts about Kunind and his offer were gnawing at her again, and she remembered him saying ‘They do not wish to share their power with others whose talents and intellects might equal or surpass their own.’ She looked at Menandi, whose sister had been intelligent and strong and yet failed this mysterious test with the result that she had become a strangely willing exile from her city and her family.
"I wish I could tell you more," Menandi seemed dismayed but confused by Sam's alarm. "The test is not spoken of to the untested."
"Why not?" Sam knew she sounded upset, but she couldn't help it. "Kunind says it's always the same test, every time he's taken it."
Menandi looked at her empty bowl, frowning. "I would not know, as I have only taken the test once. Kunind was indiscreet to tell you so much. He is frustrated; he wishes for nothing more than to become an Accepted. But I hope that I have not upset you." She gave Sam a pleading smile. "I am a poor hostess to speak of such unhappy things at table."
Sam managed to say something vaguely apologetic and reassuring in response, though she wasn't paying very close attention. Her mind was racing, trying to find the pattern in too few pieces of information. The naquadah mining, the secrecy, Bodhus's miraculous recovery, the energy emanating from the cavern where a test took place that couldn't be spoken of to those who hadn't taken it. She looked across the table at Teal'c, and she thought she could detect a tiny echo of her own unease in his eyes.
Menandi smiled brightly again, attempting to salvage the cheerful atmosphere that the meal had started with. Her conversation was light-hearted, her questions superficial. Sam tried to respond in kind, but found herself too preoccupied with her own thoughts to make a very good job of it. She could tell she was distressing Menandi with her sudden detachment, but found she couldn't work up a more convincing show of enjoyment for the rest of the meal.
Menandi still looked concerned when they left, bearing wrapped parcels of bread and vegetables for Daniel and Colonel O'Neill. Sam walked swiftly down the tunnel to their room, deposited the parcels on the table and returned to her stool, where she sat and proceeded to contemplate her own boots for a several minutes. She looked up to find Teal'c standing at the Jaffa equivalent of parade rest in the doorway, regarding her seriously.
"Something is not right, here, Teal'c." Saying it didn't help anything, but Sam couldn't take the silent confusion of her own thoughts any more. "Why would taking this test cause people to suddenly get up and leave behind family, friends, all the comforts of living in this city?"
"You are concerned that the exiles do so not of their own accord but at the wishes of the Accepted."
Sam smiled wryly: You had to hand it to Teal'c. He might not talk much, but apparently not much got by him, either. She nodded and looked up at the lamp, as if for inspiration. "Do they leave because they're somehow banished by the Accepted? But Menandi said they choose to leave the city. Maybe they learn something during the testing process that the Accepted want kept quiet, and they have to leave and keep quiet about the reason under some threat of retribution if they tell anyone why they're really leaving. But that doesn't make sense: why banish them if they'll keep quiet under threat just as well in the city?"
She looked back at Teal'c, who raised one eyebrow fractionally. After a few beats of silence, Sam decided that was the only response she was going to get, and turned back to her scrutiny of the lamp.
"I just need more information, something that will help me makes sense of all this." She sighed and after a moment stood up and climbed back onto the stool and pulled her screwdriver from her vest. Teal'c, as if on cue, turned silently in the doorway and took up surveillance of the tunnel outside.
Sam glared at the lamp and stabbed at its base as though it were responsible for the whole, frustrating problem of this planet, the Accepted, the exiles on the surface, and the 'magic' that seemed to link them all. She knew the lamp was immovably affixed, knew that she had already done everything she could think of to detach it, take it apart, find out how it functioned. She knew that even if she somehow managed to get a look inside it, it wouldn't hold the answers she was looking for. But it was there and it was something to do, and it might give her some kind of clue about something, and that was better than nothing.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Sam was ready to jump down when she heard the Colonel's voice coming closer.
"...just that saying 'IDC code' is like saying 'PIN number.' The 'N' has the 'number' thing already covered. You're basically saying 'identification code code.' We don't say 'DHD device,' we don't say 'ATM machine.'"
"People say 'ATM machine' all the time." Daniel sounded annoyed.
"Well, people are idiots."
Sam would have smiled if her arms and shoulders hadn't been groaning with the effort of working the screwdriver around the base of the light, fighting for any purchase between the rock and the metal.
"Jack, just because you take a prescriptivist's view of language doesn't mean it has to conform to some kind of codified standard. Linguistic prescription doesn't take into account the fact that language is not a static--" The building monologue was cut short when Daniel and Colonel O'Neill entered the room to find Sam standing on a stool and prying at the dome light with a screwdriver.
"Captain?" The Colonel sounded halfway between chiding and amused.
Sam answered through gritted teeth. "I'm trying to detach the light from the ceiling so I can see how it works and maybe figure out how it's being powered."
"And how's that coming for you?" the Colonel inquired pleasantly.
"It's not," Sam admitted, letting her hands fall to her sides and rolling her neck. She stepped down from the stool and tossed the screwdriver at the corner where their packs were piled, feeling defeated. "Did you get to speak to Hariteia?"
"Yes." Daniel pursed his lips and sighed. "She wasn't impressed. She said that revealing anything about their technology to anyone who hadn't been tested was completely out of the question. Only she didn't say 'technology' she insisted on calling it 'magic' even after I explained that we were from a technologically advanced planet and that we knew the mining and the lights and the whole thing were not the product of magic."
"She wasn't too thrilled to hear that," said the Colonel, who had found the parcel of bread from Menandi and was making quick work of the contents. He took another bite and said with his mouth full, "I think she'd like to find a reason to boot us back through the Gate ASAP. Apparently, she thinks the way we just run around using our radios and acid tests and whatnot is an indication of what an irresponsible society we hail from."
"You have to remember, Jack, that their society has rigid restrictions on access to technology, and for all we know they're right to have those restrictions." Daniel sank onto the couch, looking frustrated. "I still don't think we can just assume that their motivation for hiding things from the rest of the city is malicious."
"Look, all I know is that everyone on this planet smiles too damn much except for the Accepted, who always look like they've just eaten a bad pickle. That, by itself, is enough to make me suspicious."
Daniel looked like he was trying not to roll his eyes. "We haven't seen anything to indicate that the Accepted are using their knowledge to do anything but heal people, light tunnels, and mine naquadah."
"But they won't tell anyone why they're mining naquadah unless they've taken this stupid test," replied the Colonel. "Which they won't let us take, so we're hosed."
"You asked to take the test?" Sam asked, incredulous.
Daniel replied, "Well, it seemed like it would be worth asking." Sam got the impression that he had already had to defend himself on this point to the Colonel. "It's supposed to be all answering questions and completing tasks, right? I figured it's probably to determine if the test-taker is intelligent enough to be trusted with potentially dangerous technology," he waved at Sam. "Which, if true, means it would be the kind of test that you, at least, could pass easily."
"I don't know if it's that kind of test, after all, Daniel. Apparently just being talented and well-educated doesn't guarantee a pass." Sam explained what they had learned in the past few hours: Kunind and his offer, Menandi's sister, the wandering sorrow.
"You think the test is what prompts the exiles to leave for the surface." Daniel's forehead creased, and Sam could see him evaluating the idea.
"From what Menandi said, there's certainly enough of a correlation to suggest some kind of connection. She didn't seem to think so, but that's what it sounded like. She said that elements of the test might be 'unsettling' to people who weren't 'prepared in their minds,' but she wouldn't clarify what she meant because--"
"We haven't been tested, yeah." The Colonel was looking from her to Daniel, expectantly. "So what do we do, kids?"
"Well, we could always talk to the exiles," said Daniel.
Sam stared at him for a minute and then laughed. Daniel and the Colonel both looked at her in confusion, so she explained "I've been fighting with the light fixture for the past half hour like it held the answers to all our questions. It never occurred to me to just go ask the exiles why they were exiles. Menandi mentioned that people from the city go to surface occasionally; I'll ask her how we can get there."
Colonel O'Neill clapped his hands together and said "Alright, then. Since we seem to be headed in a butt-freezing direction, I'm going to go dial the SGC and request arctic gear. Daniel, you're coming with me. Carter, you and Teal'c go ask for directions."
"Yes, sir." Sam turned and headed out the door with Teal'c following. Behind them, the Colonel and Daniel took the tunnel in the opposite direction, heading toward the Stargate, Daniel already chattering about whether or not the inhospitableness of the planet's surface might be a result of retaliation on the part of the planet's former goa'uld ruler.
Part 1 | Part 3