Galileo's Burden, Phase Alpha: Bungle in the Jungle

[meatbabies]

(( PLOT POST! READ IT!))

Stacy's voice rang out through the corridors of the ship, announcing that a message had been received and would be played on the Obs Deck momentarily.

The message was patched through a few minutes later, shown on a holographic screen. It was shot in very poor video, from a very old communicator frequency.

Comments

(hope it is okay to reply to Tamil, if not I can delete. Or another patient?)

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel found his way to the makeshift quarantine after awhile. Just like the rest of the village, there was a complete lack in anything high-tech or even science related. He found it a little surprising that they even let them bring their own stuff into the village. It could be considered a form of contamination, and that was at best, and a form of desecration or lack of respect for their values, at worst.

Out of respect for the sick, Daniel left the majority of his stuff at the landing. It wasn't going to be too hard to get to if he needed it. The archaeologist doubted they were going to take any of it, if the way he caught some of the people eyeing it was any indication. The Oryans had already shown an open-mind and patience just by tolerating it in the first place. Daniel didn't want to step on their toes more than necessary.

It didn't take too long to find the one he was looking for. Daniel knelt.

"Hello. Are you Tamil?"

Just fine!

[meatbabies]

Tamil opened his eyes. He was suffering from a fever, and had a cold compress made of rags pressed against his forehead.

"Hello," he said. "I'm Tamil. And you are the skyman too, right?"

Woot!

[hi_there_aliens]

"Yes, I suppose I am," he hoped he wasn't going to regret answering it like that. It was the truth, they did come from the sky, but if they started insisting they were gods, he was going to have to set them straight immediately. He didn't care what any of the other scientists thought about that, much less if they were tempted to take advantage of it. Too bad for them, but not on his watch. "My name's Daniel."

Daniel looked at the compress, and after a moment, slowly lifted his hand so Tamil could see what he was doing. The archaeologist gently touched the back of his first to fingers to it, checking the temperature, if it needed to be changed for a new one. He thought it seemed fine but fine was relative and he was coming from a Tau'ri perspective. Maybe it wasn't fine for them.

"How're you feeling? Do you need me to get you anything? Blankets? Another compress?"

[meatbabies]

"No, I am fine," Tamil assured him. "I am tired of drinking the water in this tent, but my grandmother says I am lucky my eyes didn't burn out in Her wrath. I'll drink all I must."

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel sat down, crossing his legs. Maybe a fever was (slightly) more universal than he thought. So was the wisdom and doomsaying of grandmothers. Not that Daniel had much experience with having a living one, much less one that took care of him or had anything to do with him growing up, but you could take a wild guess.

"She's probably right, you want to take in as much water as you can when you're sick. You're not allowed to drink outside water brought in?" Maybe they had sterilized the water somehow? Maybe a form of medicine? Daniel didn't quite offer to get any outside water for him yet, careful of stepping outside their bounds for now. "Sorry, 'Her' wrath?"

[meatbabies]

"I've had enough water," Tamil sniffed, sounding almost put-off at the thought. "The water tastes bad. I just want to sleep now. If my eyes are closed, She won't see it."

[hi_there_aliens]

Okay so water was a no go. Daniel decided not to push it. Although the fact that he thought the water tasted bad seemed important. Either Tamil was much sicker than he looked and it was affecting his sense of taste or there really was something in the water. He discreetly glanced backwards, looking for any sign of guards. He'd like to get a sample of the sick tent's water if possible. Daniel wasn't going to fool himself into thinking he had the talent for rooting out chemical properties or traces in soil and food that Sam did, but there had to be someone on Stacy who could analyze a water sample

[meatbabies]

Tamil shifted to roll over on his cot.

"I can answer questions," he said. "I've answered many already but people say I'm good at it."

[hi_there_aliens]

I'll say. You've probably been drowned in questions by now.

"Thanks. If you're getting tired-" ...more tired, Daniel corrected himself silently, and winced. "-just let me know and we can stop any time

[meatbabies]

"Avani," Tamil replied matter-of-factly, as though the answer was obvious. "Avani is punishing us for turning our eyes away from Her. She is punishing us for straying."

Tamil sat up slightly, taking the cold compress off his head briefly. "Avani protects us, but She will not protect those who do not honor Her."

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel wrote in the pad. So that hunch was right, Avani wasn't necessarily an unconditionally loving Goddess. The fact that Tamil had answered the question without quite making it a personal answer about what he 'did' hadn't escaped him, and well, Daniel did have a stubborn streak in him a mile long, something that caused Jack no end of grief. He could just keep asking the same question again and again, multiple languages if he ever had to, and just word it differently each time until Tamil answered him.

"You should rest," he said, reaching over to gently ease him back down. "You shouldn't strain yourself. You're safe here."

Daniel glanced around at the other sick, to see if they had some privacy. This was obviously a sensitive subject. "So you strayed from her. Or She thought you strayed. Why did she think this? Something must've happened recently to cause people to turn their eyes away...."

[meatbabies]

"Oh, no, no, no," Tamil said quickly. "No, we haven't turned our eyes from Her! We love Her! We are all Avani's children and we will always serve Her!"

He looked around them as though to make sure that other people could hear him, even raising his voice. "There is no other than Avani! We who have made the mistakes, we who haven't listened, She is punishing us!"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel wasn't expecting his prompting to get that severe a reaction. In the middle of writing his notes, the outburst took him by surprise, and eyes wide, he looked up. He almost expected Tamil to lurch up and start railing at the tent.

So religion was a touchy subject. It was in a lot of places, and if he wanted to continue this line of thought, Daniel was going to have to go with Tamil on it. The archaeologist didn't like having to go down this route: for a moment there, Tamil's desperation to please reminded him of the same desperation in the Abydonians to please Ra. It reeked too much of the Goa'uld inflicting their whims on their worshipers. The worst part is that many of those worshipers really, honestly believed that they deserved being tortured or killed

[meatbabies]

Tamil simply stared at Daniel like his words weren't all making a perfect amount of sense. He checked the people around them in the tent again, and once he was convinced they were in relative privacy, he whispered.

"I looked at the sky," he said. "I looked at it for hours, though they told me not to. Avani saw the skylight in my eyes and then I was punished."

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel leaned forward as Tamil whispered. It was a start. A good sign that Tamil trusted him enough to actually say it, but not that great if he thought he had to hide it from those who might be in the same boat as he was.

"That's it? You looked at the sky," Daniel repeated incredulously, although he kept his voice down. That was it? That was his sin. Daniel wasn't sure how that was a crime, there wasn't any avoiding looking at the sky here, not unless they were underground. He got the feeling he was seriously missing something more to the picture. The issue of how exactly Tamil was punished, what Avani's Wrath entailed, could wait. He needed to understand this angle more.

"What do you mean by the 'skylight in your eyes'?

Actually another question was coming up, but Daniel kept it to himself. If anything to do with the Sky was taboo, what did that make the landing party, since they were supposedly all Sky People?

[meatbabies]

"Avani could see the skylights in my eyes," Tamil explained. "You know... the skylights. At night?" He gestured up in the air, indicating something up in the sky.

"We are not to look at the sky. Or... we are not to look for..." Tamil drifted off.

"I only wanted to see if She was still there. But Avani forbids us from looking."