Diplomacy (3/27)
Title: Diplomacy ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.
Chapter1a-- 1b Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5a-- 5b Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9 Chapter10 Chapter11a-- 11b Chapter12 Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14a-- 14b Chapter15a-- 15b Chapter16 Chapter17a-- 17b Chapter18 Chapter19 Chapter20 Chapter21 Chapter22 Chapter23 Chapter24 Chapter25 Chapter26 Epilogue
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Civilians
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29 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1200 hrs
"Hey, boy wonder," Major Ferretti called when Daniel walked past him with a tray in the commissary.
Daniel looked around, but there was no one else the major could be beckoning. "Me?"
"Yeah, you, Jackson."
He backed up a couple of steps to face Ferretti. "Uh. Hello."
"Pull up a chair," Ferretti said.
Daniel glanced at the rest of SG-2 sitting at the table. "Are you sure--"
"We need to go over a couple of things before the mission tomorrow," Ferretti interrupted, gesturing with his fork. "Siddown." At a look from the major, Captain Casey moved his seat a little to make room between himself and Captain Griff. A little apprehensive, Daniel set his tray down in the space and dragged an unused chair to the table.
SG-2 had a reputation in the research departments for being one of the friendlier ones to civilians. As the other main first-contact team, they didn't have any scientists on the permanent roster but worked with scientists and translators more often than the purely military teams did; Robert had joined them a few times over the last year. Moreover, Ferretti was one of the few officers who greeted Daniel or dropped a few amiable words when they passed each other in the halls, which he thought was a good sign.
Daniel hadn't yet lost his wariness of hardened military people he didn't know, however, and he wasn't sure what Griff, Casey, or Warren thought of his joining them off-world. Griff, in particular, was new to the program as well as to SG-2 and had sent him a few curious, not quite hostile looks during the pre-mission briefing. "What do you want to go over, Major?"
"Mainly, I need to know that you understand how the chain of command works," Ferretti said. "How many times have you gone off-world? On a mission the general approved, I mean."
"Just twice to dig sites and once to Argos to help them turn off the nanocytes."
That last one had been a suggestion from the alternate reality, a purely altruistic mission to help the local people. Actually, Daniel had just been observing, but it had been considered a safe enough planet for him and Robert to gain experience and to help with cultural data gathering while the engineering team disabled the transmitter responsible for the nanites' function. Besides, while Robert had been more interested in the records of past humans, Daniel had had the chance to practice Ancient Greek dialects by talking to the people living there.
"Those missions were with Dr. Rothman," Ferretti clarified.
"Yes." He tried not to fidget as the other men watched him answer. "It's just a better use of manpower, splitting us up this time," he said, repeating the words Robert had used to explain to the general. "We know they speak an Egyptian dialect, which I'm at least as likely to decipher as he is."
Robert had left this morning with SG-1, in fact, to some planet where people seemed friendly and very likely spoke a Mayan language, judging by MALP video data, so he had suggested that Daniel take SG-2's mission without him.
"Nah, I'm not complaining," Ferretti told him. "Frankly, it'll make it easier for us if we don't have to watch both of you at once. That's what I need to talk to you about. While we're off-world this time, you're not gonna have Rothman to be responsible for you--you answer to me, or my team, and no one else."
"Of course," Daniel answered quickly.
Major Warren spoke up then. "And that means you don't waste time questioning orders if we enter into a hostile situation. Any weapons come out, you look for cover and stay there until Major Ferretti or one of us tells you to move, understand?"
Daniel felt his eyebrows rise in surprise. "Weapons? I thought this was just a follow-up mission to collect samples from P3X-595. That's what the general said at the briefing."
"It is," Ferretti agreed, "but you never know; that's the whole point. So when we step through that 'gate, your job is to translate. If anything happens, we protect you, which means you don't do anything that'll make our job harder. Is that clear?"
"Uh..." Alarm started to creep up as he mentally reviewed the reports of the first mission to P3X-595, wondering if he had somehow missed some mention of possible hostilities. Casey, Warren, and Ferretti were all watching him as if to see how he would react, the united front more intimidating than he had expected, having observed SG-2 from a distance before. Griff gave him a sideways glance but stayed silent as well. Daniel sat up straight and said, "Yes. Uh, sir. It's clear."
He was rarely in a situation where he called anyone but General Hammond 'sir,' but Daniel stood out here already, more than any other civilian. Being not-quite a full employee yet meant he had to step more carefully than people with PhDs or ranks did, and at the moment, it meant showing SG-2 that he would follow their lead in the field. He could do that.
Ferretti suddenly grinned. "Good. Hey, lighten up, all right? I'm not saying I expect trouble. It's just in case." Around him, Griff seemed to relax as well while Casey and Warren casually went back to their lunches.
Daniel looked at them uncertainly. "Okay."
"And don't drink anything they give you," Ferretti added. Warren snorted into his meal, while Casey shot the man a dirty look.
"Why?" Daniel asked.
"Well, the stuff they handed out the last time we were there... Let's just say you're definitely underage, Jackson."
Completely lost--what was that supposed to mean? Underage for what?--Daniel looked from Casey's flaming red ears to Warren's barely suppressed snickers and Ferretti's smirk.
"Ow, Christ," Warren yelped suddenly. "Did you just kick me, Captain?"
Griff looked up, bewildered. "No, sir, I don't--"
"Not you. Casey."
"Sorry, sir," Casey said innocently. "My foot slipped."
Daniel might still be learning, but he was fairly sure that wasn't the way the chain of command was supposed to work.
But then, some SG teams seemed to follow their own version of a chain of command. SG-11, who had gone to Argos, acted as a group of researchers, with Captain Conner usually the only one anywhere near a weapon to guard them. Though all of them were military-trained and they called Conner 'Captain,' the rest of them tended to forgo formalities with each other, ignoring rank and alternating between first and last names and even nicknames that would have been considered disrespectful in other units.
And Daniel had seen SG-1 work, of course, in their own odd way. With fewer members than any other team, one a Jaffa warrior who often acted as translator and one a physicist who often had to act as an emergency engineer instead of a combat-ready officer, Jack had to allow them independence in their area of specialty. While Sam was the second-in-command, that duty seemed to pass easily between her and Teal'c when necessary, if the other was otherwise occupied. The line between them and Jack was clear, though, only blurring when they were off-duty. Daniel was certain Sam wouldn't kick Jack under the table, for instance, not on base. Probably not even off-base.
Then again, he had seen Jack and Major Kawalsky bantering easily for the short time they'd been on Abydos. Maybe Warren and Casey had been friends for a long time. Friends or not, however, SG-2 deferred instantly to Ferretti--in the field and off--perhaps even more than Sam or Teal'c did to Jack, even though Ferretti could often be seen joking among them like an equal.
SG team dynamics were very confusing.
Captain Griff looked just as wary of his new teammates as Daniel felt, which was only slightly comforting. Daniel cleared his throat, then asked Ferretti, "But isn't that why I'm going with you? Trying to get some of that drink they use for curing illness?"
"Yeah," Ferretti said, looking amused at his team's antics. "We saw them treating one of their people with some stuff they had, but we couldn't get any of it to bring back."
"Right." They'd been over that in the briefing--apparently, SG-2 had either tasted or brought back other substances that had very interesting properties, and the scientists wanted a sample of this, too. "You said it was supposed to be medicinal."
"Yeah, some of it's medicinal, and some of it's...'medicinal,'" Warren said, shifting his seat away from Casey at the same time.
"Um," Daniel said warily, starting to wonder why no one had ever warned him that SG-2 was a little non compos mentis. And people said SG-1 was crazy. "I'm not sure I understand, sir."
"We'll handle the negotiation," Griff said, apparently taking pity on him. "You just make sure you tell us what they're saying and tell them what we're saying."
"So, Jackson," Ferretti said turning more serious, "come with me to our ready room after lunch. I want to make sure you're set with the equipment."
Daniel nodded and took a nervous sip of water, trying to pretend the others weren't watching him out of the corner of their eyes and trying to make sure he didn't give anyone reason to think he couldn't do his job.
"You get recruited right out of high school?" Griff asked him finally. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Uh...almost eighteen years old?" he tried. The rest of SG-2 had been in the program since either the second Abydos mission or Chulak, and one of them scoffed at his answer. "It depends on how you count the years," he amended, because he was around that age by Abydos's calendar.
"Good one," Ferretti said. Griff shook his head and didn't ask.
...x...
29 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1300 hrs
"You were looking a little nervous, so I want to make sure you're okay with this," Ferretti said as they entered the SG-2 ready room. "Don't worry; they're not always like that. Well, actually, they are, but they're harmless."
Harmless? Daniel thought of the last time he had seen Major Warren and Captain Casey in action--he didn't remember many faces or details from their escape from Chulak, but he knew both of them had been among the men shooting at the pursuing udajeet and Jaffa. "Uh...sure. Sir."
"Harmless to you," Ferretti clarified with a smirk. "We take a little getting used to. Figured you'd be ready for anything after hanging around SG-1. All right, now, which teams have you gone out with before?"
Assuming an accidental trip or two with SG-1 didn't count, Daniel said, "SG-7 and SG-11."
"None of them gave you any shit?"
"No," he said, thinking that probably didn't mean what he thought it did.
Ferretti nodded. "Well, they're science teams. Not that anyone should be harassing you, but attitudes might've been different if you'd been with, say, SG-3 or -5."
"The Marine combat units don't usually take research trips, sir," Daniel pointed out. He could imagine, however, what Colonel Makepeace would say if someone suggested that they take Daniel along on one of their reconnaissance missions.
"Tomorrow's thing isn't for research, either, Jackson," the major said. "Don't forget that. There shouldn't be any problems, but keep it simple. Talk to them, pick up some of their stuff, and come home. Oh, and another thing: you're under my command for this mission, but on base, don't 'sir' me every two sentences. Sounds weird coming from you."
"It's just...you always call me by my last name," Daniel said. "Except the night you came to Abydos." Lou had told jokes to Daniel that night, but the next time they exchanged words, it had been Ferretti and Jackson, the way it was with most of the other personnel.
Ferretti paused in opening a locker. "That was kind of a bad night for both of us, wouldn't you say?"
Daniel winced, remembering just then, "You were wounded. I heard about that." Some missions became legend, and by now, the stories of Apophis's strike at Nagada and the subsequent escape from Chulak were nearly as well known around the SGC as the stories of the Rebellion were on Abydos. Daniel didn't remember seeing Ferretti in that battle, specifically, but he remembered the cheers and good-natured ribbing when the major and Captain Casey both recovered enough for SG-2 to finally undertake their first exploration mission.
Ferretti shrugged and began pulling out the equipment they would bring with them. "Yeah, well. Got back enough of the vision in my eye to pass Air Force regs eventually. And at least I wasn't around to see my friend get snaked."
Major Kawalsky--Daniel wouldn't ever forget that, either. "I didn't know you were friends," he said thoughtlessly, then backtracked hastily and added, "I mean--um. I'm sorry"--Lou? Ferretti? Safer to stay with--"Major." Perhaps a mutual friendship with Kawalsky was why Jack had so quickly become friendly with Ferretti while merely professional with many other officers like Major Harper.
"Yeah, me too," Ferretti said evenly. He stopped with a locker open and said, "I guess I've never said, Daniel, but your parents seemed like good people. I'm sorry about what happened to them."
Daniel nodded, his gaze skittering away. "Me too."
Ferretti broke the brief silence by slapping the locker shut. "Okay. Here we go. Now, we made Rothman practice with a handgun before he came with us the first time, but if anything had gone wrong, we would've still tried to protect him because he doesn't have combat training. Protocol will be similar for you, except that you won't be packing."
Daniel paused in looking through the vest to make sure it was the same he'd had to wear on previous off-world trips. "Packing what?"
Ferretti grinned now in amusement. "Heat, Daniel. You're not carrying a firearm."
"Wouldn't it make more sense just to teach me what you taught Robert?"
"He already had a general idea of how to hold and fire a handgun before we ever got to him, so I didn't actually do much except take him to the shooting range and make sure he knew which end was which. I don't think you'll get permission to carry a gun through the 'gate without proper training on safety and everything."
"I'm not going to carry anything, then?" Daniel asked as he examined the vest contents Ferretti had spread on a bench. On previous official trips, he had had no more than the archaeological tools he and Robert had brought, but all of SG-2's talk of 'just in case' was making him nervous to be walking in empty-handed. Maybe first-contact teams simply had to be more concerned with 'just in case' than primary research teams were.
"No firearms," the major said. "For what it's worth in your situation, it's kind of against the law in this state, anyway, your age and all, without special permission. The people on '595 don't have long-range weapons; you'll have a bayonet and other standard gear, and if someone gets close enough to hit you, you'll be close enough to hit back."
Oh. Well. "You...don't really think..." Daniel said.
"Nothing'll happen," Ferretti assured him. "The people are very nice, and we'll be there to guard you. Besides," he added, "Colonel O'Neill would be pissed if you got hurt under my watch, and I don't want Colonel O'Neill pissed at me."
It wasn't the first time someone had said something to suggest Jack had authority over him, but he didn't argue. Now that he lived in Jack's home some of the time, and after he had spent so much of the last months with him and SG-1, it was close to the truth, in practice if not officially.
"Now," the major went on, gesturing, "you see anything unfamiliar here?"
Daniel passed an eye over the tactical vest again. "I know what these are," he said, pointing to what he recognized as field dressings, "but I don't have first aid training."
"You don't need to worry about that too much. Captain Casey's our primary medic, but we all bring extra supplies. Just--"
"--just in case," Daniel finished.
"You're catching on," Ferretti said approvingly. "So..."
"Yes, I've seen everything else before."
"All right. Seriously, don't look so nervous," Ferretti added. "I've seen your work, and I was there when you dug up the information about Hathor and all. If I thought you were gonna screw up or get hurt, you wouldn't be coming, whatever the objective."
"Okay," Daniel said, not sure how he was supposed to make himself look less nervous.
"Oh, and one more rule: no running through crowds of enemy Jaffa with a bomb in your hands."
Daniel looked up sharply. "Wha--"
Ferretti laughed at his expression. "My team and I just barely missed out on the action on that one. The way rumors fly around here, you didn't think blowing up a couple of Goa'uld motherships in Earth's orbit would get around? Everyone knows everything about your little adventure with SG-1. Colonel O'Neill says you're not bad with a zat gun."
"From a hand's width away, perhaps," he said, not really comfortable thinking about those tense hours hiding on Klorel's hatak. Then he processed the rest of the sentence and asked incredulously, "Wait, Jack said that?"
"Yeah. He wanted to switch civilians with me, but I said I was keeping you."
"No, the general said you were keeping me, because SG-1 needs Robert Rothman to read Maya," Daniel corrected. "And I doubt it had anything to do with skill with a zat'nik'tel." It probably had more to do with Jack wanting him under SG-1's eye, though he didn't say that aloud.
"True. But," Ferretti said with a competitive smirk, replacing everything and closing the locker, "we'll see tomorrow who got the better deal."
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30 June 1998; P3A-577; 0800 hrs
"You have no idea what they're saying, do you, Rothman?" Jack said.
The archaeologist glared at him, clearly frustrated after more than a day of struggling to communicate. "It's not like I've ever heard the language before, Colonel."
"I thought you could speak it!"
"I recognized some of the hieroglyphs that the MALP showed, and everyone else apparently assumed the rest. And if this is some form of Proto-Mayan, it's undergone changes in the, the writing system, as well as sound and possibly syntactic changes, and that's assuming that Campbell and Kaufman's reconstruction of Proto-Mayan was correct to begin with, which means I can't even communicate properly in writing using the syllabic--"
"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Jack growled. "It's like Abydos '82 all over again."
"Except on Abydos, you had an Egyptologist in an Egyptian culture and a trained linguist who was used to working with the Egyptian culture," Rothman returned. "I'm an Egyptologist trying to figure out an extinct Mayan language that's evolved over a few thousand years! This was not covered in my masters curriculum."
"So what the hell have you been doing the last...twenty hours?"
"They still use logograms I recognize. So between that and some...non-verbal...uh, gestural communication--"
"Charades," Jack summarized helpfully.
Rothman scowled. "There are other ways of gathering information besides talking directly to the inhabitants--I've done it for years at various excavation sites without having a single living person to talk to. For example, just by looking at the--"
"Well, don't tell me," Jack snapped. "Just...go and do...archaeological stuff, then. And try to get some info out of them. Teal'c, make sure no one kills him," he added, nodding toward the archaeologist as he started off. "Wait, where are you--Rothman, the people are in the village that way!"
Rothman didn't stop and called back, "I'm not too good with people. Too recent." Teal'c stoically lifted his staff weapon and followed. Rothman made for a bigger, uninhabited building--a temple, the man had said--ignoring the locals and leaning in to look at the...walls?
"'Not too good with people,'" Jack repeated in a mutter. "Never would've guessed."
He took off his cap and sighed. Scientists. And speaking of...
Carter looked up briefly from where she was still fiddling with one of her doohickeys. "Well, this is fun," he commented.
"Yes, sir, I'm having a great time," she said with a straight face, gesturing at her collection of what looked to Jack like rocks, dirt, and rocks covered with dirt.
"What is it with you scientists and rocks?" he asked, pretending he hadn't spent the last twenty hours watching her out of the corner of his eye, like they'd all been watching her since the Goa'uld-Tok'ra-Joli-whatever took over her brain. "You're always bringing stuff back, and I never see what happens to it."
"Well, a lot of the time, we find certain minerals or even elements that we haven't seen on Earth," she explained, brushing off her hands and sitting back on her heels, looking professional as ever, because she'd never admit it to a superior officer if Jolinar was still on her mind. "But I can't recognize everything by sight, sir, and since I can't bring every piece of equipment with me, I take back samples for the geologists and chemists back home to analyze."
"Ah," he said. "But I still never see what happens to them once they get home."
"It's not always something we can use practically," she admitted. "But sometimes it is: naquadah, the P3L-110 soil that Janet Fraiser has been analyzing, the mineral on--" She caught sight of his face and refocused. "Most of this soil here seems unremarkable, but there are tiny flecks that generate a detectable electromagnetic field and seem to react in the presence of different metals I'm carrying with me. It could be nothing special, but I suspect--"
"Carter--" He interrupted. "Magnets?"
Carter winced like the description physically pained her, but repeated resignedly, "Yes, sir. Magnets," and went right back to playing with her rocks.
"Look," Jack said after watching her work for a while, "I'm thinking of just telling Rothman to pack it up. You've got your stuff to bring back, and this is looking like a pretty primitive planet. I don't really think we're gaining anything by staying here."
The captain paused in what she was doing. "It's your call, sir," she said neutrally.
Except that they were scheduled to stay and poke around for another nearly ten hours. There had been more pushing recently from the research departments (okay, so it was partly Carter and mostly Rothman's department, with him and Daniel the loudest of the lot) for meet-and-greets that lasted longer than the few hours it took to look for Goa'ulds and test the soil, because apparently, cultural enrichment was important and could lead to more of the knowledge about engineering and weapons capabilities that they actually cared about.
The general had agreed and told them to stick around to learn what they could learn. Carter had been pleased. Teal'c had raised an eyebrow. Jack imagined that meant that the Jaffa was as bored with this as he was, but it was hard to tell.
He sighed again. "Never mind. Carry on."
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30 June 1998; P3X-595; 1200 hrs
"He wants us to follow him to the origin of the water," Daniel said, glancing back to include both Warren and Ferretti. "It's not far--just a few minutes' walk from here."
"The 'origin?'" Ferretti repeated. "This better not be some hocus-pocus magic pitcher or something."
Daniel restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "It's the closest word I know. I think it's a...a...pond. It wasn't that they didn't want to share it; they just didn't know what you were asking for. They'll let us collect some for ourselves."
He didn't mention that Khentei, the man who seemed to be the leader here, thought Warren's heavily accented and ungrammatical Abydonian was amusing, in the way small children's speech was amusing. Daniel made a note to use things like this back home as evidence for why more people needed to take learning Egyptian dialects more seriously.
Now Khentei frowned slightly for the first time since their arrival. "Does this displease your men?" he asked.
"No, it does not displease them," Daniel replied quickly. "I misspoke, so they were simply confused." To the others, he translated, "He's asking what the delay is."
"All right," Ferretti decided. "Let's go see this pond."
"Please show us," Daniel said, and Khentei's usually jovial expression returned. "We will follow you there."
"You will see--it is miraculous!"
The man chattered to them while they made their way away from the center of the village, alternately directing questions to Daniel, Warren, and Ferretti, apparently sensing that the latter two were in charge, even if he couldn't speak to them directly. It was starting to make Daniel's head whirl, constantly changing languages, especially when one of them was spoken in a completely unfamiliar accent with some odd influence that reminded him of modern Arabic but wasn't quite that, but that was part of the fun.
Being able to speak modern Earth languages was one thing; learning to piece together the grammatical principles of ancient languages and following the twists that made it unique to a world over millennia--Daniel was already faster than Robert at it, and he was sure he could get even faster with enough study and practice. Now he just had to work on getting more chances to practice.
When the water came into view, Ferretti leaned toward him and said in a mock whisper, "Hey, boy wonder--that's what we call a 'big-ass lake,' not a 'pond.'"
"What's the difference?" he whispered back, not sure whether the man was joking.
Ferretti snorted. "That would be the 'big-ass' part."
"Come closer," Khentei urged, already kneeling at the edge of the lake and gesturing to the water. "This is the source. You would like to take some with you? Come."
"He says to go closer so we can bring some of it back," Daniel said, walking forward himself. A hand pulled him back before he could take more than a step.
"Casey," Ferretti said, still holding onto the back of Daniel's vest, "you're up."
"Yes, sir," the captain answered, pulling several small glass bottles from his pack.
"It's just water," Daniel complained to Ferretti.
"Yeah. Where'd you learn to swim, again--in the desert or twenty-eight floors underground?"
"You know, there is water on Abydos." He had never learned to swim or waded in anything more than knee-deep, though, so he added indignantly, "And it's not as if I'm going to fall in." He pulled himself out of the man's grasp but held his place. Robert would be the first to tell him there were ways of gaining information without being directly in the action, anyway. Then again, Robert probably would have seen something by now in the surrounding land or architecture or clothing, even, but since Khentei was here, just talking to the man was simpler.
"Where does this water come from?" Daniel asked their guide. "I do not see a river that feeds it."
"From the rains, of course."
He frowned. "Then...is there something you put in it, to give it its healing abilities?" Surely this lake wasn't simply full of rainwater.
"No, no," Khentei said. "We never alter the water here. This place was once thought to be blessed by the gods who brought us into this world, but it has retained its power even after they abandoned us."
Huh. "I don't understand how that works," Daniel told Ferretti.
Ferretti looked at him. "And I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sorry. I mean, he says this"--he gestured toward the lake--"is just rainwater."
"Well, there's gotta be something special about their rain, then," Griff suggested. "Maybe all their water's like that."
"No way," Warren said. "We've drunk their water, and it was regular water."
"Speak for yourself," Casey muttered.
"Yeah, well, this stuff looks different," Warren insisted.
Daniel took a closer look at the lake and saw that it wasn't completely clear--not muddy or dirty, like the pond (lake?) Jack had shown him before while fishing, but slightly clouded nonetheless. "Are you sure it really worked as medicine?"
"Well, whatever this is, it's not the same as normal water, that's all I know," Ferretti said. "And don't let them fool you--they're not industrialized, but they've got a lot of nifty chemicals."
"Khentei said it has something to do with this place," Daniel said.
"So something about the land here? Like...something that leaches into the water, you think?"
Daniel asked dutifully, then told them, "He doesn't know what causes it. But... Can we take some of the land with us?" he asked Khentei. When the man looked a little worried, he assured, "We only want a little bit of the soil." He held up a thumb and forefinger to show the tiny amount they would take back for analysis.
"Why would you want that?" Khentei asked curiously.
"We are peaceful explorers," Daniel explained, "and we like to learn as much as we can. We would like to study your land, if you let us."
Khentei considered, then bowed slightly, gesturing in welcome. "Then I see no problem. And when you have finished, perhaps you will all join us for a meal and a drink before you depart?"
"He said we can take some soil samples back with us," Daniel told Ferretti, making sure Casey could hear him, too. "And he invited us to stay and share a drink with them before we leave."
Warren coughed. Casey paused in the middle of capping a vial. "Yeah. Not happening," he said flatly.
"What if I made it an order?" Warren said.
"I'll risk the court-martial," Casey shot back. Ferretti grinned again and clapped Daniel on the shoulder.
XXXXX
30 June 1998; P3A-577; 1700 hrs
"Primitive?" Rothman said, looking surprised. "Why would you think that?"
"Why? Well..." Jack said, gesturing around them. "What do you call it?"
"Not primitive, exactly," Carter clarified, "but there's no electricity and no other developed power source. We haven't seen any signs of water transport, or the kind of machinery that would be needed to develop really advanced technology...nothing."
"But look at the architecture around here," Rothman countered. "Just the way the stones fit together indicates quarrying techniques much more advanced than the pre-Columbian Mayans on Earth, even at later stages. And Egyptians and Mayans were both building pyramids millennia before we invented machines of the industrial era. These structures are much more complex than even the pyramids and ziggurats we've seen on Earth, and that's the least of what I've seen."
"I thought we decided Egyptian pyramids were built with Goa'uld technology," Jack said, though he glanced up at the building behind them and conceded that it did look pretty impressive. "How do with know old Zippy didn't build these buildings, too?"
Rothman huffed. "Ancient humans knew enough that they could have built pyramids themselves. If anything, the Goa'uld probably borrowed their ideas or even slowed them down. Besides, judging by what I can piece together, the Goa'uld Zipacna ruled here and then left centuries ago. Obviously, you can tell these buildings were built much more recently than that."
"Ah. Obviously."
"Zipacna is only a minor Goa'uld," Teal'c added. "He allies himself with whichever System Lord he believes to be most powerful but rarely wields significant influence on his own. The type of technology we have witnessed on this world is not of Goa'uld origin; I believe it was developed by its human inhabitants."
"Yeah," Rothman said, nodding emphatically. "What he said. Zipacna's a demon in mythology, violent and, uh...well, loud, but not a major deity. And have you even looked at the jewelry around here?"
Jack exchanged a bewildered glance with Carter. "Not...really in the market."
"They incorporate metals into their decorations, which, granted, isn't unusual, but given the scarcity of pure metals in their environment, or even the more easily usable ores, and the precision of their work...that means they understand metalworking techniques and how to refine and process rare metals that are available in very small quantities. And, here's the best part...I have never seen this metal before, Colonel--"
"We're not calling them ignorant," Carter told him patiently. "Maybe they're a more advanced civilization than we'd given them credit for, but the point is, we're due back home in two hours, Dr. Rothman. Metalworking, quarrying...we have ways of doing that. We won't be learning anything new."
"But have you seen the metal they've been wearing around?"
"Thought we already established that was a 'no,'" Jack said.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen," Rothman insisted. "I'm not an expert on metals, but this thing...it's hard, I mean, like, really hard. As in, you can use it to...cut things, like..."
"Sweet," Jack drawled. "Wait--I think I saw something like that on Earth. We call it a knife."
"Do you have a lot of knives that can cut through rocks and glass without getting dull, Colonel?" Rothman retorted. "And it's not crystal or anything--it's some really light metal I've never seen. I mean, you're the ones who always want things for weapons. I think this is worth looking into."
Teal'c spoke up, then. "I, too, observed the unique properties of this material, O'Neill. It is indeed remarkable."
Jack felt his eyebrows rise, because what was remarkable to an alien with a snake in his gut who was used to riding on spaceships? "Guess we should bring some back, then."
"Well, like I said," Rothman hedged, suddenly more hesitant, "it's rare around here. I don't think they're going to give us more than a tiny bit of it. And then there's still that communication issue..."
"Can you get us a 'tiny bit of it,' then?" Jack asked impatiently.
Rothman hesitated. "Um. Yeah. Just give me some time."
"Rothman--"
"I'm trying!"
Jack sighed and checked his watch. "Two hours," he warned. "Then we're out of here."
XXXXX
1 July 1998; SGC, Earth; 1100 hrs
"So how'd the mission go, Colonel?" Major Ferretti asked when SG-1 stepped out from their debriefing the next day, Robert on their heels. Daniel hung back slightly, watching as his friends filed out.
Jack stopped, looking at the two of them. "Why?"
"No reason, sir," Ferretti said. "Just curious."
"We got magnetic knives," Jack said in the faux-ignorant tone he liked to adopt.
"We brought back a sample of a metal," Sam explained. "It has an incredible modulus and yield strength when refined--much higher than steel, in fact, while being much less dense. There's not a whole lot of it on P3A-577--not enough to give us a usable supply--but it's enough of the refined material and some ore to do some preliminary studies." Robert was looking unusually smug. "They're thinking of calling it 'trinium.'"
Daniel tilted his head. "Trinium? Why?"
Sam shrugged. "Don't ask me; they settled on it upstairs. What about SG-2--Major Ferretti, you went to...P3X-595, was it?"
"What is this, a contest?" Robert asked, looking between all of them.
"You said it, Dr. R., not me," Ferretti said.
Jack shrugged. Teal'c tilted his head curiously, looking between the two of them. Then Robert raised his eyebrows competitively at Daniel, who happily answered the challenge.
"We figured out what's in the medicine that Janet wanted to see," Daniel said.
"We all assumed it was some substance they put in the drink," Ferretti explained. "Turns out, it comes straight from their lakes, no doctoring, so we brought back some soil and rock samples. They've already found some bugs in it that make some protein that gets into the water. They're still analyzing it, but Dr. Fraiser says there're all sorts of possible uses for it."
"Bugs?" Jack repeated.
"Micro-bugs," Ferretti clarified. "Bacteria. Not dangerous to humans."
"Janet says it's probably a new species," Daniel added.
"Not unlikely," Sam pointed out, "given that it's an organism from an alien planet with a generation time of probably a few minutes."
"Yeah, well," Ferretti said. "They live on something in the dirt that's rare on their planet but not rare on ours...don't ask me any more about it," he said when Sam opened her mouth. "I don't know. It sounded pretty cool, though."
Jack considered them for a minute. "We win," he said finally.
"What?" Daniel burst out. "What do you mean? You even said there wasn't enough of your trinium to use for anything."
"We would've had to study it first, anyway, to know what it can do," Sam said, the beginnings of a smile pulling at her lips. "The possibilities for weapons or defensive technology are enormous, not to mention other applications. At least this way, we'll know what we can do with it once we find it, and we know now to look for it on other planets, too."
"And how much of your stuff did you bring back?" Jack added. "It's not like there's a giant vat of mud in one of the labs."
"How would you know?" Daniel said, even though SG-2 had only brought back tiny vials of samples. "When's the last time you were in those labs?"
A pause. Then, "Daniel, is there's a giant vat of alien mud in one of the labs?"
"Well, they want to clone the gene that does it," Ferretti said, "so we can synthesize it without a vat of mud. Besides," he added, surprising Daniel by clapping him on the shoulder again, "they've agreed to let us come back and visit if we need to, in exchange for teaching them to use the Stargate and their DHD. They're willing to teach us about their other chemical techniques."
"P3A-577 said we could go back, too," Jack countered, eyeing Ferretti's hand on Daniel's arm. "And Rothman got them to agree without even speaking the language, so there."
Daniel ducked away and glanced at Robert, who said, "We're still here, you know," though he had a distinctly satisfied air about him.
Ferretti looked at Daniel, a mischievous grin spreading over his face as he turned to Jack. "Can we keep 'em, Colonel?"
Daniel looked hopefully at Jack, knowing Ferretti was teasing but hoping a but nonetheless.
He fully expected Jack to joke back or protest, but surprisingly, it was Sam who spoke up. "Don't expect all missions to be like this. They were friendly people without advanced weaponry, no Goa'uld remaining on the planet, no locals thinking we were Goa'uld or invaders and trying to kill us... Not all of them end as well as these two did."
"It's possible that some of them would be more likely to end well if you had teammates who could communicate better with the locals, Captain," Robert pointed out.
"We could communicate with the locals on Nasya," Sam said, a shadow passing over her face but disappearing just as quickly. "Or at least Teal'c could, and they were plenty friendly. It doesn't mean unexpected things don't happen."
"Some of us are willing to take that chance," Daniel said.
Jack nodded. "Yeah."
"But Jack," Daniel sighed, "we really...wait, wha--what? Yes?"
"No," Jack told him. "Not exactly. But...we do know it can be useful. The general's been rethinking the policy about civilian scientists going off-world for missions that involve unknown situations. Wants to start with the two of you for now, since you've been the most annoying about it."
"Really? Me and Robert?" he said, deciding to ignore the 'annoying' part.
"It's partly the alternate Jackson's fault," Jack said with an exasperated look at Daniel.
"Why are you looking at me?" Daniel asked indignantly.
"The point is, he was part of what got the general thinking about taking civilians off-world more. But it also means we'll be putting you through a lot more training if you're up for it. We can't bring along a possible advantage that turns into a handicap."
"Okay, um," Robert said, "I thought the idea was that you protect us when we go off-world."
Jack looked at him seriously. "We do. But it might not be good enough. 'First-contact' sounds nice, but what it means is that we can be called on to be a diplomatic, research, or combat team, and we never know which one it's going to be until we get there. If it comes to a fight, and you're caught in it, you're gonna want to know what to do. How's it sound now, Doctor?"
Robert looked a little more wary at the word 'combat' but said, "I'd rather stick to research, but I'd be willing to do it, and I think it's a good idea for front-line teams. As for training--I was a decathlon champion in college. I think I can handle it." Jack looked surprised at that but didn't comment.
"Good enough. Lou, you willing to take a civilian with you on your team?" he asked.
"Civilian or military, we always take a bunch of training missions first, until everyone's used to the new teammate," Ferretti said, more serious now that they weren't joking around anymore. "I'm not walking onto a possibly hostile planet unless I know everyone can handle it. But safe planets, sure--in fact, we're still breaking in Griff, and we could take another with us."
"By 'safe,'" Sam added in warning, "we mean a planet that looks safe. It doesn't necessarily mean it actually is; unexpected things happen all the time. That's the risk you'll be taking."
"It's the risk you take, too, Sam, all of you," Daniel retorted, more irritated than exasperated, because how was it fair that he and other civilians had to sit back and watch their friends risking their lives all the time, when they were all working toward the same goal in the end? Why did 'civilian' have to mean 'less brave' to them? "We can learn just like anyone."
"You'll learn, or you'll stay back here on base," Jack said sternly. "Dr. Rothman, I'll set you up with Staff Sergeant Alipto for regular training in the gym. If Ferretti agrees, you'll both start joining SG-1 or -2 for occasional training missions, if a planet appears to be safe after preliminary analysis. You can still take small assignments with other teams, too, if they need you for research or translation. When you're ready, you'll be approved for regular first-contact and can be assigned to an off-world team's permanent roster."
"Okay with me," Ferretti said.
"Who decides when we're ready?" Daniel asked suspiciously, because if it were up to Jack, he'd be grounded on base forever.
"Mostly, what you two need is a little practical experience, so that's up to me and Major Ferretti," Jack told him. "For physical assessment, that decision's up to the trainer for Dr. Rothman. Daniel, I want to wait until we're sure what the situation is with you and Abydos first. It's just a month and a half before their 'gate opens, and like the general said, we're not bringing you into danger without permission from Kasuf."
"I'm already working with Teal'c in the gym when he's not off-world," Daniel said, glancing at Teal'c and determinedly putting aside the thought of how close it was now, the return to his homeworld.
"And you can keep doing that," Jack said. "For now, the general's leaving your physical assessment up to Teal'c and me, since you've been working with us already. If Kasuf doesn't have a problem with any of this, then we'll think about stepping it up." Daniel's eyebrows rose in surprise, but Jack was wearing what Daniel thought of as his commander's expression, and he wasn't sure about how he was supposed to respond to that one.
"I understand," Daniel said, because it was a huge concession compared to what Jack had been willing to allow before. Teal'c was stricter than Jack and nearly as protective, but Daniel knew the Jaffa didn't have a problem letting him participate, unlike how Jack hesitated about it.
After all, it was Teal'c who had planted the suggestion for Daniel to keep fighting the Goa'uld in the first place and who continued to teach him even now. Sometimes he suspected Teal'c was just wishing he were teaching Rya'c the ways of a warrior and was teaching Daniel instead, but that was understandable, and at the end of the day, the two of them never pretended to be anything they weren't. If Teal'c was willing to teach him, Daniel was willing to learn, be it lok'nel fighting or Jaffa history and legends.
"I'm assuming I'll take Daniel with me more often," Ferretti said, "since you've got your own Goa'uld language expert, Jack."
Jack hesitated, then said, "We'll see. Rothman, I'll leave you to work out scheduling between off-world business and your work here at home. Everyone okay with this?"
"Yeah, I guess," Robert said. "That's fine with me." Daniel nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Remember," Jack added, "cadets go through years of training before they get anywhere near ready for what we do. Obviously, your focus will be different, so your training won't be as intense on that end, but don't complain if it takes a while. I'll talk to a trainer for you, Dr. Rothman. Daniel, I'll talk to you later this week about scheduling "
"Sounds good," Ferretti said as he headed off in one direction. "Nice work, people."
Robert started for the elevator, telling Daniel, "Meet me upstairs, and we'll figure out how we want to manage our time."
When it was just him and SG-1 left in the hallway outside the briefing room, Daniel tilted his head and looked more closely at Jack's expression, trying to decide what was hiding behind the blankness, until Jack rolled his eyes and said, "What?"
He hesitated, then shrugged. "Thank you."
"I'm not kidding about training," Jack told him seriously. "You know better than Rothman how dangerous it can get. Your priority's still whatever you and Rothman do here at home, so unless you want to go join the doolies at the Academy for a couple of months of basic training, you're only gonna have a few hours a week devoted to training with me or Teal'c."
"I won't get impatient," Daniel promised, even though he kind of already was, a little, but he knew he'd been louder in pushing for this than Robert, and if they were loosening restrictions on civilian off-world work now, he wasn't going to complain.
From the next chapter (" Rules")
"First rule," Jack said, laying the pistol back down. "The gun is loaded."