The Archaeologists stepped out of the event horizon on PX 359 and were shepherded away from the gate by their escort. A hot sun blazed down on a featureless desert stretching to the horizon. The attending soldiers ushered their charges towards a site found the month before. Nursemaid was not Major Jamieson's favourite mission, but this dig site was his find and his responsibility. 'It is going to be a long hot walk,' he thought as he wiped the sweat already beginning to bead on his brow. 'A nursemaid job will make a change to fighting Goa'uld or Jaffa or anything else out here intent on killing us.' The Stargate shut down as they walked away following the latest version of the SGC's all-terrain vehicle, its caterpillar treads making easy work of the sandy surface.
Back on Earth the Stargate iris snapped shut. As the general hubbub died away everyone began to relax and disperse. The Gate Room slowly emptied of all but a couple of technicians checking over equipment. Silence descended on the room as the two chatting technicians left. The huge ring of exotic metals kept its silent vigil for several minutes, just long enough for everyone to begin their next assigned tasks. A hum began in the room and the first chevron lit as the Stargate whirled back into action. Control room staff scurried back to their positions and began investigating the unscheduled activation. Pulse rates began to climb as the alarm sounded through the corridors. Soldiers re-entered the Gate Room to take their positions. Tension continued to rise with each spin of the devise. Only Colonel Jamieson's group was off world and they had only just left.
Hammond entered the Control Room as the fountain of energy exploded behind the iris. One soldier glanced nervously up to the Control Room window, hoping to see some sign to tell him what was happening. Everyone else had eyes glued to the Stargate and guns carefully trained to shoot anything that managed to emerged, not that anyone believed the iris would not hold.
Hammond looked down at the co-ordinates and recognised the symbols immediately. "Get SG1 down here!" he threw over his shoulder into the room sending a woman to the nearest Comm.
"SG1 to the Gate Room! SG1 to the Gate Room!"
"Open the iris!" General Hammond's voice echoed around the tension filled Gate Room. Surprise rippled around the two rooms in response. "On your toes people, this location is known but we were not expecting visitors." One or two more soldiers glanced up at the control room then. It was not normal protocol to open the iris to uninvited guests or possible dangerous objects and they wondered why the old man would do it. The event horizon broke up as their visitor jumped through landing in a crouch and looking anything but friendly.
"Hold your Fire!" Hammond shouted immediately. One or two of the soldiers still looked ready to down their visitor. They were having difficulty understanding why they were not allowed to fire.
At the top of the ramp the visitor straightened up. It was tall, mean and hairy with very large canine looking teeth which at that moment were bared at them in a highly aggressive manner. "It's a damned Wookie," a nervous soldier quipped from behind the dubious safety of his raised weapon.
"It's injured," the soldier next to him noted. An early life on a ranch had given him experience of what injured and enraged animals could do. That knowledge made him extremely nervous about an order not to fire.
Hammond stood in the Control room waiting for his premier team to arrive as the iris slid closed behind their unusual visitor. It let out an angry roar but seemed to have more sense than to move from the top of the ramp. The creature glared around as if searching for something or someone. One of the Gate room doors slid open to admit Sam and Teal'c. They stopped behind the guards but the creature immediately pinned them with his eyes and began to growl. Sam moved a soldier out of her way with a tap on his shoulder.
"He would appear to know us," Teal'c stated in his measured way as they moved closer.
"He's hurt," Sam replied, "and that looks like a Staff weapon injury from here."
"Their own weapons also form similar wounds," Teal'c reminded her.
The second door slid open to admit Colonel O'Neill and a large spider that skidded into him on the smooth floor.
"Zzig watch your feet," Jack snapped at his friend as he was propelled forward a few steps.
"Sssorry Jack."
The apology went unnoticed. The Colonel had already lost interest in his unsteady friend as he stared intently at the large hairy creature. "Get some medics in here!" he yelled and pushed through the soldiers to the bottom of the ramp. "Lower your weapons!" The soldiers showed an unusual reluctance to obey an order. "Do it!"
Daniel arrived through the opposite door and halted. "Oh my," he breathed as he took in the injured shoulder and pushed forward. "Jack?"
"Let Sam go first, he knows us… I think… and should let us help," O'Neill responded to his friend.
"How did he get through the Stargate sir?" asked one of the guards.
"Well I expect he used the DHD," O'Neill drawled with just an edge of sarcasm to his voice.
Sam approached their visitor cautiously, "easy now big fella, we only want to help," she told him quietly and the growl died away. The creature watched her without moving so Sam motioned downwards with her hands for him to lower his body. When he did not move she tried bending her knees as well. Suddenly he seemed to understand what she wanted and he crouched down.
Now he looked smaller and a little less threatening, 'only a little less,' O'Neill thought as he slowly approached him. "Sam treated the little monster that attacked us while we were on their planet. They saw us, so hopefully he knows she only wants to help."
"The little one tried to kill her, he would also remember that," Teal'c stated in his measured way.
"They're bright, he can work it out… I hope," O'Neill ended on a less certain note.
"They know how to use the Stargate," Sam added as they came closer. "I would say they have a fairly high level of intelligence." Now the creature had crouched down Sam could see the injury properly and grimaced. "Its deep, a lot of charred tissue and hair embedded in it."
"Can you get it to the infirmary?" Hammond called over the intercom.
Sam looked up to the Control Room in response to the call and the creature followed her eyes to the hairless one above. It equated lack of hair with extreme age and guessed that the hairless one was the elder. He waited patiently now for these small ones to help him. They owed a debt that must be repaid and as irritating as they were their intention had not been to cause harm. 'I must be careful,' he thought as his gaze rested on Teal'c, 'that one carries the mark of the enemy.'
The female was flapping her paws again and he realised she wanted him to follow her. He stood slowly making no sudden moves, it seemed wise as the small warriors appeared nervous. He growled in amusement, 'do they think I could harm all of them before they brought me down,' the Salvaje thought as he followed the female. He looked up to see what the Elder was doing but he was no longer visible.
Several of the warriors moved in behind him watching, as any of his clan would have done in the same circumstances. He rumbled his approval but it seemed to cause increased nervousness among them. Realising that his sounds were being misinterpreted he fell silent. This world seemed strange to him, 'no open skies, no trees. How do they live like this?'
Later SG1 sat around the briefing room table waiting for Hammond and the doctor. Jack had finally dissuaded Zzzig from her habit of making herself comfortable by building a web into every convenient corner of the base. He still kept one wary eye on her until she settled curling her legs up and used them as a cushion. Then he leaned on the conference table and settled his chin on his upturned hand. The sound of movement on the stairs brought them all to their feet as the last two people arrived for the briefing. Hammond looked concerned as he took his place and motioned for everyone to sit. "Well people do you have any suggestions as to what we should do with our guest? Does anyone know how we can even begin to communicate with him?"
"Well Daniel could take a shot at it," Sam responded a thought obviously shared by the other members of the team.
"I could," Daniel responded, "but I never majored in growls, I'm not sure I would know were to start or even reproduce the sounds."
"The injury our visitor has sustained makes me wonder how much of a hurry he may be in to explain what he wants." Hammond stared down the table a frown forming as he thought the problem through.
Jack tapped the pen he had been playing with on the table and then placed it carefully down. "We could just take a peek at the planet."
"We have no idea what you people might be walking into," Hammond replied negatively. "I can't authorise a mission where Goa'uld could be waiting for you. The circumstances just do not warrant that kind of risk, Colonel."
"The MALP…" Jack started and was interrupted by Daniel.
"We probably owe these creatures our lives. At the very least they prevented serious injury to Sam."
"We do know that Daniel," Jack responded, "but they shut us out, not the other way round."
"You have a way to ssspeak," a small voice hissed into the conversation. "You ssstill have a piece of Mother. Perhaps the She and I can see what it wants."
"A piece of Mother?" Jack looked blank for a moment. "Oh the uncut rock from your planet. The scientists have that at Area 51. Trying to find out how it is used in the Goa'uld hand devise. Could you use it like that to talk to the Wookie?"
Jack stared at his unusual friend in thought. There were a lot of puzzles attached to him. Zzzig was treated like a lucky mascot some of the time, a pet on other occasions and then as a SG1 team member. They just could not make up their minds how to treat her.
"Wookie?" Hammond's voice rose slightly in question.
"Star Wars," Teal'c interrupted and when Hammond looked puzzled, "a Tauri film entertainment." Sam and Jack both turned to stare at Teal'c in amusement. Teal'c's enjoyment of Tauri Science fiction was always a source of surprise to them.
"It's what the men have dubbed him sir," Jack explained.
"We are not all together sure how the crystal works," Sam commented bringing the discussion back to its source. "The easiest way to explain is that the highly compressed structure of the crystal produces a small electrical charge. This charge appears to mimic the electrical current all living things on Zzzig's planet… and humans… possess. It appears to act as a link between the charges, like a condenser. Well that is what we think is happening. Exactly how it enables you to use each other's senses is something we have not worked out. We also do not yet understand how the Goa'uld have managed to harness it to the ribbon device. We do know that the use of the device on the planet caused pain to every creature close to it. So it seems clear that the connection for that planet's life at least, does not have to be physical. All we have to do is persuade our visitor to hold the crystal and submit to the strange sensation it will produce."
"That means he has to trust us," Jack commented just a touch of sarcasm noticeable again in his voice.
Meanwhile their latest visitor sat on a bed in the infirmary watching the activity around him. His shoulder was swathed in bandages and his weapons were gone. The silence had stretched through the cleaning of his wounds and he realised communication was going to be difficult. Two warriors stood just inside the door watching him, a move of which he approved. Amusement lit his eyes as he realised that others in the room were pretending to ignore him. These creatures were not so dissimilar in actions to the Salvaje. Three warriors lay injured and one looked close to death the Salvaje's guessed as his eyes traced the path of the drips hanging around him.
He sat listening to the sound of an instrument flickering in comfortable rhythm with his heart and watched fascinated for a while wondering why they required to see his heart beating. He poked a finger at the electrodes attached to his chest but made no attempt to remove them. The small female who had bound his injuries came towards him. She stopped and stared at the monitor and then carefully removed the electrodes. Picking up a board hanging on the bed end she proceeded to scribble notes.
"**** *** *****?" She asked him and he growled softly in frustration at not understanding her.
A nervous smile touched her lips as she moved back to check his bandages. He tried to imitate her smile and made a low rumbling sound deep in his chest. When she did not back away he reached for the board that hung from the end of his bed. The guards immediately moved to stop him but were shooed away and they reluctantly moved back to the door. She allowed him to take the board and he studied the markings on it. Then he studied the thin instrument sticking out of her clothing. 'You made these marks with that, I could make pictures… If I try to take it they will be upset. This female is smart,' he noted as she slipped the implement out of her pocket and gave it to him, 'perhaps I can make her understand.' After studying it for a moment he turned the pointed end down and began to make patterns on the board. His felt clumsy with the unfamiliar implement but grabbed a fresh unmarked board when it was offered to him. Then the female left him alone with his new acquisitions. After an hour or so he had created a series of pictures which he hoped would be understood by creatures.
Jack O'Neill entered the infirmary with a little less than enthusiasm. Ahead of him was a large woolly creature with his chest wrapped in bandages. He noticed a small pile of papers beside his bed and a very excited nurse thumbing through the pages.
"Colonel! It has drawn all these pictures and has been passing me them in the same sequence, again and again. I think he is trying to tell me something, but I'm not sure what it is."
The Colonel frowned on the excited nurse and accepted the small pile of pictures that had been passed to him. Having glanced through them once he motioned for the nurse to leave. "I will take it from here," he told her. "Well done."
The nurse blushed as she hurried away. She had only been assigned to the SGC two months before and it was her first experience of anything out of the normal as the command had managed a couple of routine months. The latest addition to the staff was about to find out they were unusually quiet months for her latest assignment. Jack perched on the edge of the next bed and lowered the papers as he gazed at their latest guest. Sliding out the most relevant picture to him he held it up. On it the representation of a Goa'uld ship was sat on the ground and death gliders circled overhead.
"The Goa'uld had no reason to come to your planet. No naquada, or anything else of value to them." O'Neill told him conversationally.
The Salvaje growled softly as he realised at least one of these creatures understood the pictures.
O'Neill saw him stiffen as Teal'c walked into the room with Sam. "He's a friend," O'Neill told him without much hope of being understood. "Either he recognises the symbol on your head Teal'c or he can sense something about you."
"I no longer carry a Goa'uld," Teal'c commented, "it is more likely the symbol."
"Perhaps it is time we had it removed," O'Neill commented and Teal'c raised a mobile eyebrow. "Where is Daniel?" O'Neill enquired.
"Collecting the parcel from area 51," Sam told him as Zzzig entered the room in front of Daniel.
"It hasss arrived," Zzzig commented as she settled beside the bed. "He doesss not like me," she commented as the creature in the bed shifted uneasily.
"He does not know you like we do," O'Neill responded with a grin.
Daniel opened the box and handed the rough uncut red mineral to Sam who took it and stared at it for a moment. "I can sense Zzzig of course but nothing else really strikes me as any different. Zzzig?" she questioned as she handed the rock to the large spider. A small rumble erupted from Sam's stomach and she glanced anxiously at her friends, no one seemed to have noticed.
The spider carefully placed the rock at her feet and stared with unblinking eyes at their guest. After a moment she stared slightly.
"He thinks of himself as Sssalvalja," Zzzig almost growled in the effort to produce the sound.
The large creature straightened suddenly and stared at the spider in sudden attention.
"The Goa'uld came to his planet in ships," she continued and O'Neill held up the picture that corresponded to Zzzig's comment.
"This he has drawn for us," O'Neill replied and the creature nodded as if suddenly realising that the spider understood him.
"They sealed the gate to prevent our return and the Goa'uld found the gate sealed. Because of this they returned and hunted for the ones who had sealed the gate," Zzzig continued. Sam nodded and stretched out a hand in unconscious sympathy towards the Salvaje. He growled softly and touched the outstretched hand.
"They found the small ones," Zzzig stopped. "This I do not understand, he thinks this with contempt. He does not like his children?"
"They are not his children Zzzig, another race I think. Both live on this planet but the small ones are much more aggressive," Daniel explained.
"They stopped one from killing me," Sam explained and a picture formed in her mind of the incident.
Zzzig took the picture and tried to transfer it to their guest who flinch at first and bared his teeth. He swung his legs from the bed and everyone backed away. Suddenly he stopped and bent his head as if he was listening.
"He finally understandsss I can hear hisss mind," Zzzig explained his sibilant hiss becoming apparent as his concentration increased. "The imagesss are very fassst now, I must consssentrate. Please leave ussss to talk."
SG1 assembled in the corridor beyond the infirmary to discuss their progress. "I think Zzzig will be able to tell us what he wants. Then we will know if we can help." O'Neill commented. "I had better report to Hammond. I will see you at the commissary later." With that he walked rapidly away.
"Have we just been dismissed?" Daniel asked as he watched his friend's retreating back.
"I believe that to be a correct interpretation of the situation," Teal'c responded.
"In that case I am going to get something to eat," Sam responded, "I have missed at least two meals already."
Daniel looked at his friend and smiled. "So that was the noise?"
"Was it that loud?" Sam asked anxiously.
"I believed the rumble could be heard above ground," Teal'c responded innocently and his friend laughed in response.
"The commissary by all means then. No wonder the Colonel chose to send us there," Sam answered and they all walked away.