Translations (11/19)
Title: Translations ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.
Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4a-- 4b Chapter5 Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9 Chapter10 Chapter11
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Chapter 11: Area 51
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12 December 1997; SGC, Earth, 1600 hrs
The elevator no longer felt strange the way it had in his first days at the SGC, but somehow, riding to the surface with people he didn't know--without Jack making jokes behind him--felt as alien as the idea of flying to a place called Area 51, and ay naturu he was going to be flying through the air...
It was cold on the surface, and he couldn't help sucking in a surprised breath, which only made him shiver and cough when the cold air hit his lungs. If only he had gotten sicker from the flu, so that Janet would tell them he couldn't go...but as it was, he couldn't really use that excuse.
"Sorry about the cold," Smithley said. He slipped off his coat and offered it. "Here. It's almost snow season, but the car's right out around there." He didn't seem bothered by the weather in only his suit, so Daniel took the coat, though it was too big, and wrapped it around himself.
The car was black and looked as official as the two men themselves did, with enough room for all three of them to fit in the back seats. Daniel had been hoping one of them--preferably Colonel Maybourne--would be driving so he would only have one person watching him, but there was another man in the driver's seat.
When he couldn't stand their scrutiny any longer, Daniel pulled the agent's coat off. He'd learned that not everyone paid much attention to gestures, but the two NID agents felt dangerous enough that he didn't want to risk sending a wrong message by taking something they offered when he didn't need it. "I thought we were going to fly," Daniel said.
"Not from here," Smithley told him. "We're driving to Peterson Air Force Base, and we'll fly from there to Nevada. It's about a two hour flight."
"Ne-va-da?" he said, the way the agent had said it, then sounded out, under his breath, "Ne-vah-da."
"You know what 'Nevada' means, Daniel?" Maybourne asked suddenly.
"That depends on what language it is," he said warily, noting the gleam of interest in the colonel's eye.
"So what language do you think it is?"
Daniel hesitated, but then he remembered the general's advice to cooperate and finally said, "It could be Spanish or something else Latin-based. 'Snowfall.' From nevar." Remembering that Nevada was a place, he amended, "Or 'covered in snow.'"
Maybourne's lips lifted in a smile. "Not bad. So you're familiar with snow."
"I know what it is...but I haven't seen it before," he admitted. He didn't mention that he might not have even heard of snow if his mother hadn't described it one night before sending him to bed while telling the story of Skadi, the goddess who walked over the snow.
"Fair enough. Out of curiosity... hal tatakallam al-arabiya?"
Daniel gave him a suspicious look, then said, "Na'am."
"Arabic," Maybourne said for a frowning Smithley's benefit, looking satisfied. "I've heard a lot about you, Daniel. How did you learn Earth languages on a different planet?"
"Since you have my mother's records," he said stiffly, still very unhappy about that, "you must know she studied linguistics--"
"...for her doctorate, and one of her masters was in classical languages," the colonel said, nodding. "Of course. She worked as a linguist on various archaeological digs, perhaps following in her father's footsteps, though she never went on his expeditions. In Giza, she met your father, who was specializing in Egyptology, and began collaborating with him."
Daniel folded his arms, horribly off-balance. Did he know anything about his mother's father? Should he? "I don't... What's your poi--"
"Melburn Jackson, on the other hand, considered himself an archaeologist or anthropologist first, but I suppose he would know many languages as well, especially after spending part of his childhood in Egypt and a few other countries," Maybourne said. "Did I get anything wrong?"
"Is that meant to impress me?" Daniel said instead of answering, trying not to let his curiosity show at the parts that were unfamiliar to him. His mother's father had been a linguist or archaeologist, too. Was he still alive? It hurt a little to realize that Colonel Maybourne somehow knew something about his own family that Daniel's hadn't, or that he didn't know exactly which 'other countries' his father had lived in as a child.
It didn't mean anything. What would it have meant to someone like Daniel that his parents' official degrees were in different official departments on another planet? Some things wouldn't have been relevant to life on Abydos. Daniel had only had a vague impression of what Earth's geography was like; it would have been meaningless to know the names of places his parents had lived.
Still, he wished Maybourne didn't know things about him that he didn't know already.
"You could do a lot of good for our side, with the skills you have," Maybourne said. "We know the SGC's Goa'uld translations are mostly your work, even if it's Rothman's name on them."
"My work and Teal'c's," Daniel said. "If you know I do their translations, then you know I am doing good for our side."
"And getting no credit for it."
"If Robert Rothman's name is on them," he maintained loyally, "it's because he either did the work himself or taught me to do it and...and made sure I did it right. I'm good at certain tasks, yes; he's an expert in the field, and he's not getting any credit from his colleagues, either. Neither of us is looking for recognition, or he wouldn't be working for a top secret organization."
"You know, the NID does a lot more research than the SGC," Maybourne said.
Daniel narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to... What are you saying?"
"Colonel Maybourne," Agent Smithley said. "We're going to look at the artifacts. That's all."
Maybourne shrugged and didn't go on, but he also didn't drop his assessing gaze.
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12 December 1997; Area 51, Earth, 1700 hrs
Dan'yel of Nagada had not been a coward. He wasn't as strong as some of his brothers, true, or as fast with a knife as the 'gate guards, though perhaps that would change with the inches he was gaining and the training Teal'c gave him. He'd certainly been smaller when he'd played with Skaara and Skaara's friends, and had usually had to follow behind them.
But a coward? Never.
Daniel Jackson, then, must be a different person completely, because he had somehow never felt quite so scared as he was now, sitting strapped to a seat the way he would in a car, except that they were moving very fast and he couldn't feel the ground under him. The airplane didn't really look like an udajeet--the inside, in fact, looked like a very long, narrow room. But he peeked out the window and saw that everything in sight was tiny and so far below them that it made him dizzy. He thought he wouldn't mind their stares so much if he weren't so high up in the air...
It was also that he hadn't left Cheyenne Mountain since coming to Earth, except for those times when he'd been with Jack or Sam or both. He hadn't realized just how big this world was. The SGC had seemed closed in, at first, but now, Daniel would have preferred that to this vast, unfamiliar openness, surrounded by so many people he didn't know.
And he felt like he hadn't completely stopped shivering since he'd walked into the briefing room at the SGC, partially because of strain from constantly tensing his muscles in nervousness and partially because it was colder outside than he'd expected. He tried to relax and roll out the crick in his back, but his head was starting to throb as well.
If he'd wanted to learn what an airplane was, he would have asked Jack or Sam, who both know how to fly airplanes, instead of sitting tied to a seat with two men staring at him.
"It's probably the altitude," Agent Smithley told him when he massaged his temple with one hand. "It should get better once you're used to the pressure."
He didn't answer but dropped his hand and turned away. Except that meant he was facing out a window, where he couldn't even see the ground anymore, much less feel it, so he quickly dropped his eyes to a safe point on the floor and rubbed at them instead.
Somehow, Daniel managed to fall asleep even with their gazes still fixed on him. When he woke up, it was because his stomach was flipping around, and his ears felt stuffed full of something, and his eyes were dry and burning and gritty from sleep. He panicked, trying to bolt to his feet, only to remember he was strapped down, and then he remembered that they were flying, except that now they were falling...
And then there was a bump, they were slowing down, and Maybourne's voice was too cheerful as it filled the cabin. "Welcome to Nevada, Daniel. This is Homey Airport."
Daniel wrinkled his nose and sneezed.
"Allergic to travel?" Maybourne said, sounding like he was trying to make a joke. Daniel didn't answer.
He had the brief, idiotic thought that maybe he was allergic to the NID, not dust or travel, because he'd been fine for months at the SGC, and as soon as the NID showed up he'd started feeling sick again, and now his head hurt, and his breaths were starting to tickle in his throat again, and it was freezing. Or maybe they had dust mites on them. Which made no sense at all, but he was staring at the darkness of night and an unfamiliar outside, and he wasn't overly interested in being logical.
This was not how he'd wanted to explore Earth.
Still, he had no choice but to follow behind Agent Smithley with Colonel Maybourne a few steps behind him. "It's past 1900 now, so we'll show you to guest quarters to stay the night," Smithley said. "Someone will retrieve you tomorrow morning and show you to where the research is done."
Before long, they were inside and walking through a corridor. They passed a few people on their way, but no one paid them much mind. The hallway was...whiter than the ones at the SGC. The whitewashed walls and floors almost reminded him of the SGC infirmary, but there was no Janet here to fill the hallways with her formidable presence.
It was quiet, too, but it was late--perhaps it would be fuller and noisier in the morning. Daniel often wandered the SGC late in the evenings or sometimes in the middle of the night, when few people were around, but it felt different there. The SGC at night was like a lull in the usual background of noise and movement. This, here, at Area 51, was like the tingling you could almost feel in the deadened air before a sandstorm hit.
Naturu! He was being paranoid. They had had legal papers and everything; there was nothing to worry about.
"You can stay in here," Agent Smithley said, startling Daniel out of his thoughts just in time for him to avoid walking into the door. "There's a bag under the bed with scrubs to change into and other supplies for the night. The door will be locked until morning, but for your safety only. There are men posted throughout the halls--knock on the door and ask one of them if you need something. Any questions?"
Daniel peered into the room. Ironically, what he found most comforting about it was that it looked familiar. It was almost like Teal'c's old holding cell, but with a window--covered with a grating and with curtains drawn shut--and without the table. The lock looked the same, though, installed on the outside, just like on the SGC's cells.
Smithley was still waiting for an answer, so he shook his head silently. No questions. Everything was very clear.
"Thank you, Agent," Maybourne said, clearly a dismissal. Daniel hadn't been aware that 'colonel' ranked higher than 'agent,' but he'd never had to compare ranks from different services before, either, aside from the marines and the airmen. Maybe it was a case-by-case thing, like it was between civilian doctors and servicemembers.
When Smithley left, Daniel stepped into the dark room, jumping when the lights turned on. "Light switch," Maybourne explained, flipping it off and on again (as if he didn't know what a light switch was after weeks on Earth), and didn't move to leave.
"What?" Daniel finally demanded, tired and annoyed. His feet tried to shuffle nervously, so he backed into the bed and planted his legs against the side.
"I just want you to remember what I said about the research that goes on here. You'll get a tiny idea tomorrow, but you're wasting potential at the SGC."
"Why would you care? I'm not even an adult by your standards. There are many people with degrees and official qualifications, and with them you won't have to worry that they're...whispering about the enemy behind your back," he added bitingly. The irony of using the 'adult' argument when he usually stood on the other side of it was not lost on him.
"Well, there are a few things you could do for us, Daniel," Maybourne said. "One, you speak Goa'uld, and I know you hate the Goa'uld more than I do."
His head pounded miserably. "Then why did you say all that about...secret meetings with Teal'c?" A thought dawned on him, and as his temper began to rise, he demanded, "All of that at the SGC--it was only an excuse, so you could make me come here? So you could say there were 'suspicious circumstances' surrounding me and my parents?"
"We did have to make sure of a few things," Maybourne answered without answering anything.
Daniel scowled.
"Our government won't stop you from doing work just because you're underage, you know," Maybourne said. "Despite what your general said about rights, if you're considered an adult on your own world, the NID will respect those rights. And we don't need PhDs for everything--we need people who are open-minded and able to learn and adapt as circumstances dictate."
Warnings sped through his mind, but he wasn't quite sure which part felt wrong.
"Also"--Maybourne let his weight lean more into the doorframe--"we can help Abydos. We can protect your world and its people. They could stay safe without having to cut off Stargate travel."
Daniel tried to look indifferent but knew that curiosity and apprehension were winning out.
"And not just that. You watch people going in and out of the Stargate all the time, using information that you help to find or analyze. Don't tell me you've never wanted to explore other places, other civilizations--you must be getting restless, and we recognize your potential here, even if the SGC doesn't."
"I barely even know who you are," Daniel pointed out, "except that you had a requisition form to have me brought here."
"It wasn't a requisition," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "It was a temporary transfer order, for personnel. General Hammond was exaggerating."
"And what would General Hammond say about your opinion of the SGC?" he said.
"Daniel," Maybourne said, "let's be honest. You know a few people at the SGC, but you don't know them as an entire organization much better than you know us."
"I trust the people I know there," Daniel retorted. "That's more than I can say for the NID, since you won't tell me much of anything."
"That frustrates you, doesn't it?" Maybourne said. "Not knowing things, or having facts hidden from you. You'd rather be in thick of it the way the SGC won't let you. For example, I see what a valuable ally Abydos would be. The SGC...well, they're the ones who closed that connection, not us. We want to open it."
"Why would you do that?" Daniel asked letting his eyes slide away, because he couldn't hide the eagerness he knew must be in them. "Why do you care about Abydos at all?"
"Because Abydos can help us, too. Your people don't use their naquadah; they don't even mine it anymore. All we'd ask is to be allowed to mine it ourselves. We can use it, Daniel--we can use it to beat the Goa'uld, and we've got knowledge and technology that could benefit your people in exchange. Think about it. Am I right?"
In spite of everything, Daniel had to admit he'd been thinking things like that ever since arriving on Earth. The computers here did amazing things, the doctors healed wounds and illnesses that would have been fatal at home, and whether or not Daniel liked flying, the point was that the Tau'ri had machines that could fly. "Maybe," he allowed, cautious. "But--"
Maybourne smiled. "Besides, this is exactly the sort of thing the SGC tries to establish--diplomatic ties with mutual benefits--and what have they done about it? And you...you have a connection to Earth and to a leader of Abydos--who better to facilitate an arrangement? It'd let you go back and forth--the best of both worlds, literally. The NID can help you there."
Daniel stared at him uncertainly, knowing there was something wrong but unable to deny the solid logic. "I..." he started.
"No pressure to say anything now, of course," Maybourne said, backing out the door. "Just think about it. I'll see you in the morning, Daniel."
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13 December 1997; Area 51, Earth, 0830 hrs
Daniel woke slowly the next morning, clutching the blanket to himself and blinking fuzzily in the light filtering weakly into the room through the window. Immediately, he sat up in alarm.
The sudden movement provoked a short bout of coughing that left his chest aching. Then he remembered that he was in a room at Area 51, not in his own familiar room twenty-eight floors below ground at the SGC.
And he wished now that he'd had time to see Janet before leaving, because if he'd been getting better from his flu before, it didn't seem to be true anymore--a fever felt the same on any planet. As if in confirmation, he coughed again, rubbing his burning eyes.
He'd listen to the agents, finish their stupid tests as fast as possible, then go back. If he was going to be sick, he'd rather it be somewhere he didn't feel like a criminal or a test subject.
He stayed sitting in the bed for another few minutes, shivering hard enough to start making him tired and wishing he didn't have to relinquish his cocoon of blankets. Finally, he gathered enough courage to crawl out into the cold air to swap the hospital scrub bottoms he'd worn to bed last night for his heavier trousers. He left the scrub top on and pulled his T-shirt over it before wrapping himself in his jacket and slipping icy feet into his boots.
With a bleary glance at the wall clock, he decided it might be some time before anyone came for him, so he cautiously considered the untouched dinner tray someone had brought for him the night before. The sight of the innocent-looking sandwich still made his stomach turn, but his throat felt scratchy enough that he reached for the plastic bottle of water they'd left along with the meal. Eventually someone came with another tray; he didn't move to touch it, and no one bothered him.
It was just past 1030 when there was a knock on his door. Seated again on the bed, huddled against the walls in the corner, Daniel didn't bother getting up, since it wasn't as if he could open the door from his side, anyway. Sure enough, there was a soft click, and the door was pushed open.
It wasn't Colonel Maybourne at the door, or even Agent Smithley. The woman there had reddish hair like Janet, but her voice was much sterner than Janet's and she was frowning as she said, "Daniel Jackson?"
Reluctantly, Daniel stood but stayed near the bed, unsure if he was supposed to leave the room or wait for instructions. On base, though, when one was in a room locked from the outside and was suddenly called by a person who had just unlocked the door, one usually stood at attention, so Daniel tried that, though he felt silly.
"I'm Christina Vedenshop," the woman said. "I'll show you where to go."
Since she was still holding the door open, he pulled his jacket more tightly around himself and stepped out of the room to follow her.
"You don't have to sit in the dark, you know," she said, more kindly, when she let the door swing shut behind him. Up close, Daniel could see that she was older than Janet, maybe closer to Jack's age, but at least seemed nicer than he'd expected, considering the impression of this place that he'd gotten from the two agents yesterday. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," he said, then cleared his throat, surprised at how strange his voice sounded.
Vedenshop looked more closely at him. "Are you sure?" She placed a hand on his forehead before he could shy away, then commented worriedly, "If you're sick and would rather rest today, I can ask Colonel Maybourne to postpone the--"
"No," he interrupted quickly. "I'm okay. I had the flu, but I'm better. I just want to finish and go ho--" He paused, then decided the word was appropriate enough, at least relative to here. Hadn't he just said that they had to adjust their views and their language because everything was relative? "Home."
She gave him a sympathetic glance. "I'll bet. But make sure you tell someone if you feel worse."
Daniel watched her as they moved down the hallway, trying to see if she was wearing some kind of identification. When he couldn't find anything, he asked, "Are you an NID agent?"
"Oh, not me; I'm a nurse." When she saw him still staring, she added, "The NID is involved with some research projects that are carried out here, but so are other organizations. I just work in the infirmary and run the tests that I'm asked to run, usually as part of a larger project."
Unsure exactly what a nurse had to do with activating ancient artifacts, he could only say, "Oh," then coughed, wincing as his throat protested.
She gave him another concerned glance, then explained, "I'm going to draw some blood, so we'll do that first. It won't take long. After that, I'll leave you with another group of scientists to do the next part of this. All right?"
No, he thought, not all right. "Wha--what do you need my blood for?"
"There are a few tests that need to be run," she said.
"What tests?"
"We're just looking for some substances in your blood. Nothing to worry about."
"Wait, wait," Daniel said nervously, "I know what you're testing for, but if I had enough naquadah in my blood to use those devices, don't you think the Abydons would have taken advantage of it before Ra fell?" He should have thought of that yesterday--that was why it was so unlikely he could do anything with the Goa'uld objects: others would have done it already.
Vedenshop turned into a room and regarded him oddly. "I don't know what you're talking about, hon, but I'm assuming it's something I'm not supposed to know about, so..."
"Oh. Uh," he stammered. "You mean...you...really don't know what this is for?"
"Everyone works on a part of a larger project," she told him again, beckoning him inside and opening a drawer. "It's like a puzzle. Everything's very need-to-know, and I'm not one of the people who always need to know exactly what the bigger picture is. I know you were brought here from Cheyenne Mountain, but that's it."
Suddenly, Daniel realized how lucky he was that he, at least, was given context when someone at the SGC wanted a translation, even when they thought of him as just a kid to be kept busy. "But if you do something and don't know what it's going to be used for...don't you want to know? What if it's for something...bad?"
The nurse didn't lift her gaze from her preparations. "I trust my superiors to be doing the right thing."
Daniel took a step backward. "Why wouldn't you want to know? Is it because you suspect--"
"It's not my job to know," she said simply. "And it's not yours, either. Now. Please sit down and take off your jacket."
The feeling of cold air across his bared arms raised gooseflesh, and Daniel hunched down to make himself smaller in the chair while he waited for her to finish preparing her equipment. His head was starting to throb again, and he only looked up to see what she was doing when she pulled an arm away from his midsection. His skin felt tight and achy, and even the tiny prick of the needle felt sharper than usual; he had to force himself not to flinch as she slid it into his arm.
"Done." Daniel looked up at last to see Vedenshop pull the needle out and tape a piece of gauze over the area. He reclaimed his jacket again immediately, using the sleeve to cover a cough, then looked to the nurse to find out where to go next.
She reached out to touch cool fingers to his forehead again and frowned. She hesitated, looking torn, then shook her head. "The rest of the testing will be done this way," she told him, leading the way out of the examination room.
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13 December 1997; Area 51, Earth, 1100 hrs
Daniel had been expecting a lab like the ones on the twenty-first level at the SGC, where Sam worked, but this room looked nothing like that. Actually...when he looked more closely, he thought it could have looked like that at one point, but all the benches had been removed, leaving only a counter that ran the length of the wall. Four objects had been placed on its surface, and Daniel didn't have to guess to know what they were.
He jumped when the door clicked shut behind him and wished for a moment that Ms. Vedenshop hadn't left, because whatever he thought of her, it would have been better than standing in here with just Colonel Maybourne and two other unfamiliar men in lab coats.
"Good morning," the colonel said. "How was your night, Danny?"
"It's Daniel," he said sharply. Not even Jack, who called him names like 'kid,' ever called him 'Danny.'
"Well, you know why you're here," the colonel told him. "You seem to be familiar with the hand device"--Daniel shuddered a little--"so why don't we start with that?"
The men beside him didn't say anything, so Daniel moved uneasily toward the counter.
He steeled himself, then touched the djera'kesh, snatching his finger back immediately. Feeling foolish when nothing happened, he berated himself for his jumpiness, then grimaced in distaste and picked it up. "What should I... Do you want me to put it on?"
"You were the one who saw it being used," Maybourne pointed out. "Maybe the only one who saw it used so many times and so close up."
Daniel chewed his lower lip, then reluctantly slipped his fingers into the holders, flinching when the device snapped into place with the red stone in his palm. "Now what?" he asked.
"What things have you seen done with it?"
He'd seen it throw his brother across a room with no effort at all. He'd seen Apophis use it, a few centimeters from his face, but... While he was certain there was no way he could use this thing, he was also not going to try to inflict that on anyone.
No buttons. No switches. It had to be thought-controlled, he decided.
Pointing the crystal carefully away from anyone in the room, he extended his hand, feeling very silly. Maybe if he thought about it hard enough...
After a while, he lowered his hand, relieved. "I can't do anything with it," he told them.
"There are a few things we'd like to measure," one of the scientists said, holding out a small box-like object with a meter on it. He held it closer to the device and said, "Try it again now."
There were other measurements that they made after that--measurements of what, he had no idea--and eventually, one of the men held out his clipboard to the other.
"Are you sure?" the first scientist asked, frowning and ignoring both Daniel and Maybourne.
"Yes. There is a slight...but it's barely there."
"I told you," Daniel said irritably. "I can't do it. I'm sure they'll tell you there's no naquadah in my blood. It probably doesn't have to do with the naquadah at all. This is a waste of time."
Maybourne didn't look surprised or even the slightest bit disappointed. "All right, then. Put that back and try the next one."
Rubbing his eyes, Daniel ground out, "It's not going to be any different for the other ones."
"Just cooperate with us, Daniel. It won't take long."
Daniel gladly stripped the djera'kesh off, then reached more reluctantly for the ring. "I don't even know what these are supposed to do," he pointed out. "Do I just...will it to do something?" When Maybourne only shrugged at him, eyebrows raised expectantly, Daniel sighed in resignation and slipped the ring on, hoping he wouldn't accidentally will it to cut his fingers off.
"The activation seems to be related to proximity," the first scientist explained, "or possibly just correct orientation of the device. Just putting it on is enough to tell us some things." Daniel didn't really care and held still while they measured whatever they were measuring.
Once he'd gone through the djera'kesh, the ring, and the sphere, they made him go through them all again, as if there might be something he'd missed the first time around. He didn't bother with the page-turning device, and no one asked him to. By the time they finished, his head wasn't pounding anymore so much as just horribly foggy, and his legs were beginning to ache just from standing for that short time.
"Are we done?" he asked, hearing his words come out as a plea and not particularly caring. "Can I go home now?"
"Almost, Daniel," Maybourne assured him. He turned to the two scientists and ordered, "Take those back to the storage area and check with the lab when they have their results."
Daniel leaned back against the door, watching as the Goa'uld devices were placed into a box.
"Wait," Maybourne interrupted them. "Leave that one." He pointed at the page-turning device.
"I told you," Daniel repeated tiredly, "that won't do anything without the tablet."
"I know," the colonel said but didn't elaborate. Daniel shuffled away from the door to let the two men pass and heard it fall shut again when they were gone, leaving him alone with Maybourne.
"It was just an excuse, wasn't it," he accused. "You didn't really think it would work."
"We had no way of knowing," Maybourne countered. "We had to cover all our bases."
"Then--" He broke off.
"Then what?"
'Then why not test Teal'c, who actually has a Goa'uld in him and has a better chance of using these?' he'd almost said, but even if this whole thing had been some kind of ruse, Daniel wouldn't be responsible for bringing more unwanted attention on his friend. "Nothing," he said. Besides, on second thought, if Jaffa could use Goa'uld technology, it stood to reason that someone over the millennia would have noticed and used it against their masters.
Still. Daniel wasn't feeling generous enough to concede that Maybourne was logical.
Maybourne was too sharp not to have noticed his hesitation, but he didn't seem to care. "There's a barely detectable EM field around these devices; it's what made us interested in them to begin with. We picked up a very slight increase in the field strength when you're trying to use them."
"I have no idea what that means," Daniel told him, too tired for bravado.
"It means the devices react to you more than they do to us, but barely, so it's unlikely you'd be able to use them like the Goa'uld would."
"I told you so," Daniel answered sullenly, feeling childish and not fighting it for once. And for all Maybourne said about cooperation, he still spoke in terms of you and us. Sam and Jack and Robert never acted like there was anything different about him compared to everyone else. And the general had called Daniel one of his people.
"So you did. Wait here," the colonel instructed and walked out of the room.
Once Daniel was alone, he thought for a brief moment of lunacy about pulling the door open and getting out. It wouldn't do any good, though--there were sure to be cameras and guards everywhere, and it wasn't like he knew how to get out of the building, much less had any way to find his way back to the SGC.
He was overreacting again. They hadn't done anything more than what they'd said they would. If he cooperated, he would go home sooner.
So he sighed instead and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, curling his legs toward himself to ward off the chill and laying his head on his knees.
He woke up to the sound of the door opening again and was mildly surprised to find that he had managed to doze off in the short time Colonel Maybourne had been gone. He rose sluggishly to his feet and coughed once into his jacket once he was upright. He blinked dazedly, and then his eyes widened when he saw what was in Maybourne's hand.
"I thought you said you didn't have the tablet that goes with the page-turning device," he said.
Maybourne raised his eyebrows, amused. "You should pay more attention to my words, little linguist. No one actually said that." He put the tablet down and picked up the page-turning device, passing it over once, twice. Daniel was still standing too far away to read anything, but he saw the display on the tablet shift. Maybourne turned to him with a grin. "Well, it works."
"You didn't tell General Hammond about that tablet," Daniel said, not moving closer.
"We weren't sure what it was before, much less that it was a Goa'uld device," Maybourne said casually. "It was at Giza, with the rest of the devices we found, but we'll let him know we have it, now that we know what it is. In fact, we'll even give them a copy of the translation."
Daniel raised his eyes warily. "Translation?"
Maybourne dragged a stool close to the counter and gestured.
"You want me to translate it for you right now," Daniel said. When Maybourne shrugged and held up a pen, he reminded, "I don't work for you." There had to be better reasons, too, but he was too busy trying to figure out what was going on to think of them.
"You don't work for the SGC, either," Maybourne pointed out. Daniel felt his jaw tighten defensively. "But you feel loyalty to them, I understand that."
"I never said I..." But it was true, more than a little, so he folded his arms and said, "Maybe I do."
"This isn't about NID or SGC," Maybourne told him. "It's about Earth and humans anywhere. What if there's something important in here, to all of us? Don't you want to know? Aren't you at least curious?"
Well, of course he was curious, but...Daniel inched closer. "Why can't I just take it back with me to the SGC? Don't you get all our reports?"
"There are regulations about shipping artifacts around," the colonel explained. "Red tape--we could do it, but only if we wasted a lot of time uselessly." He waggled the pen at Daniel again.
Daniel moved forward cautiously and sat. "This sometimes takes a long time," he warned. "It took two of us days to finish with the other ones. I might not even understand the language."
"Why don't you take a look, anyway," Maybourne said.
Daniel turned away, wishing his brain were clearer so he could think. Stalling for time, he reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out the case that held his glasses. If the NID had found the tablet in Egypt, after the first Stargate mission, chances were that they said something about Ra, and if that was the case, there wouldn't be anything urgent written on them, so it wouldn't really matter what he did. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.
In any case, he hadn't been lying--the language variant could be different enough that he couldn't understand it, but he suspected it would be close enough to Abydonian, perhaps mixed with Goa'uld, that that wouldn't be the case.
When he slid the glasses on, however, Maybourne cocked his head suddenly and peered closely at him, making Daniel start. He choked on a breath and had to turn away to cough.
Maybourne's eyes were narrowed at him. "You're sick," he observed, almost exasperatedly.
"Yes, well...sorry," Daniel muttered insincerely.
"We can have you stay in the infirmary for a day or so until--"
"I'm fine," he interrupted quickly, not wanting to stay any longer than he had to, and turned determinedly toward the tablet.
The display wasn't on the first page, but the writing was surprisingly easy to decipher--occasional words were in a human Egyptian language but most in Goa'uld, and still others a mix of the two. Even with his mind half-asleep, he felt a thrill of pride at being able to pick out each almost effortlessly but tried not to let it show on his face. He skimmed through it, certain phrases jumping out to him.
'Natay,' doubtless referring to Ra. '...ne way nakhe...ris'vi chaapa'ai...bakiw ne maaw...'
...cannot win...closing the Stargate...slaves disloyal...
It was an account of the Rebellion--not the one on Abydos but the first one, on Earth. Nothing they didn't know about already, then; nothing urgent.
But if he could just have the chance to read through it...they could learn so much about Ra, and the Ancient Egyptians, and the origins of Abydos...
"Can you read it?" Maybourne asked.
Daniel kept looking over the text, but he was aware of Maybourne's gaze on him, watching carefully. He bent lower, as if to concentrate, pressing his fingers into his forehead as he tried to think. General Hammond had said to cooperate, and the NID--they were on the same side, weren't they?
But something was wrong about this. Why hadn't Maybourne told the SGC about this tablet, unimportant though it might be? Even Agent Smithley hadn't seemed to know about it. Why make the two scientists leave before bringing this out? What if Daniel translated now it and then found out he shouldn't have? But what if he lied (to an official government organization, moreover) and said he couldn't do it and then got in trouble for it?
"Daniel?" Maybourne said.
"I..."
The door opened. Daniel looked up hopefully and saw Agent David Smithley in the doorway. Colonel Maybourne straightened, looking irritated. "What is it, Agent?"
Smithley stepped into the room, and he frowned as his eyes found the tablet on the counter but didn't comment. "They've got the results on the blood work. You'll want to see it, Colonel; but if everything's been tested and doesn't work, we should send the boy back to Cheyenne."
Daniel slid immediately from his stool, catching the wall with a hand when he tripped against the leg of the stool and wobbled.
Maybourne didn't look happy, but Smithley had come closer and was looking between the tablet and Daniel. "This is the...data-display tablet you mentioned?" He didn't wait for an answer before telling Maybourne, his tone warning, "If you knew where this was and neglected to mention it--"
"No one knew what it was, Agent," Maybourne told him. "It's a good thing we brought Daniel here, though, so he could show us how it worked."
Smithley narrowed his eyes suspiciously but nodded. "I assume no one at this facility understood the language."
"Until now," the colonel said.
Daniel took a step away and was ambushed by a sudden bout of coughing that left him swaying dizzily. Smithley was firmly, but not cruelly, gripping his arm to steady him when he finished. "Can I...go home?" he asked again, to Smithley this time, his skin aching. "Please?"
"It wouldn't be a good idea to do this now, Colonel," Agent Smithley agreed looking closely at him. When Maybourne opened his mouth to argue, he pointed out, "General Hammond wasn't keen on this to begin with, and he'll be less so when he finds out about that"--he pointed to the tablet--"whether it was purposely kept from him or not. If he finds out we kept the boy here while he was sick..."
"We don't answer to Hammond," Maybourne said.
"No, but we do have rules here, Colonel, which I'm beginning to think you've forgotten. We found what we wanted to find."
Maybourne's eyes narrowed a fraction, but he nodded agreeably. "You're right, of course. Perhaps we should take him to the infirmary and let him rest a day or two before--"
"No!" Daniel exclaimed desperately, making them both turn to him. "It's only...a few hours to home. Please." He tried to swallow a cough and ended up choking on it instead.
Smithley was frowning again. "We'll have the doctor look at you," he said finally. "If he says it's all right, we'll have someone fly you back to Peterson, and I'm sure the SGC can send someone to meet you there." He raised his eyebrows at Maybourne. "Colonel?"
"That sounds fine," Maybourne said neutrally. "If you don't mind, I'll just put these away while you bring Daniel to the infirmary. Daniel, remember what I was telling you about. I'll be working closely with the SGC from now on; I look forward to seeing you again."
Daniel couldn't agree less.
From the next chapter ("Home"):
Carter shook her head. "The idea that naquadah's the only difference in Goa'uld physiology that allows Goa'uld devices to be used... Frankly, there could be hundreds of different substances that a human has to have in his or her body in order to use them. It almost makes me wonder if there's something they've found in their research to point them in that direction."
"Bastards," he said again, emphatically. "For crying out loud, I'm surprised they didn't just take Teal'c with them while they were at it. 'Doing testing,' my a--"