Galactic Nursery
By Eilidh17
Prologue:
Jack rubbed his hand across his tired eyes and leaned against the nearest tree. For over a day now SG-1 had been searching the village and surrounding area for their missing friend and archeologist. Aside from his backpack and glasses, they had come up with nothing. No sign of struggle, no half-hearted attempt at radio communication, no nothing. The whole situation had left Jack and his team totally baffled. After years of serving on the SGC's elite team, Daniel knew better than to walk off on his own so Jack chose to believe he had been taken from them; Carter and Teal'c both agreed with him.
Watching the body language of the rest of his team, he knew without doubt that time was not on their side and the longer Daniel stayed missing the less likely they were to find him. "No," Jack murmured, shaking his head as though the action would automatically dismiss the thought. Leaving the planet without Daniel was not going to happen. No one got left behind.
This whole mission had been a worry from the start. A 'cultural enigma' Daniel had called it when he launched into the spiel that had ultimately dragged them to this backwater planet on the outmost edge of the gate network. Jack had argued against the mission from the start. Cultural considerations aside, there was no strategic or mineralogical reason to step through the gate, though Jack had to concede that a nice quiet mission away from their ongoing battles with the Goa'uld could be just what his team needed.
"Be careful what you wish for next time, O'Neill." Jack pushed away from the tree and slumped down on a nearby log. Resting his P90 across his lap, he let his shoulders sag forward, the strain of the last few days leaving him tired and pissy. "Where the heck are you, Daniel?"
~oOo~
Earlier:
"What am I looking at, Daniel?" Before Daniel could answer, Jack raised his eyebrows and pointed a finger in the air, "and I want the answer to be in words I can understand. None of that mumbo-jumbo stuff you and Carter delight in punishing the rest of us with."
Daniel turned away from the briefing room screen and frowned at Jack. "Mumbo-jumbo?"
Tapping his pen on the top of the stack of classified files in front of him, Jack sighed and smiled at his friend. "Daniel?"
"Right." Picking up the screen remote, Daniel brought up the first picture and referred to his notes. "As Sam has already pointed out, samples taken of the soil on PJ2-119 showed nothing of any importance to the SGC, but the inhabitants of this world bear some further cultural study. Initial contact with members of the population was made via MALP, which raised some interesting issues." Turning back to the screen, Daniel brought up the second image. A picture of children flashed on the screen, their faces wide with a mixture of fear and excitement as several of them reached out to gingerly touch the camera.
"Holy Hannah," Sam whispered, leaning further in her chair, "it's like a United Nations of the species."
Jack had to agree. Having seen the MALP footage when it was first downloaded hadn't diminished the shock any less. The children were from a variety of races, some they'd encountered before and quite a few they hadn't. Mentally ticking off planets in his mind, Jack had counted about seven races before he started to stumble.
Clearing his throat, Daniel continued. "Technical difficulties with the first MALP we sent through meant that we had no sound. My first assessment leads me to conclude the planet may act as a trading place for this region of space," Daniel paused, and pushing his glasses higher up his nose, he flicked a hand towards the screen, "hence the diversity of cultures we're seeing here."
"A reasonable conclusion, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c offered.
"Reasonable yes, but perhaps not right, Teal'c." Picking up the remote, Daniel fiddled with the device and the screen filled with motion as the image was replaced with a digital video recording. "Sending through a second MALP, we were finally able to get a sample of the languages being used. We naturally assumed the mixture of races would produce a diversity of languages, and I was more than a little surprised at the sampling we received." Turning up the sound on the recording, Daniel turned his attention back towards his team, and Jack was sure he was waiting for their reaction.
A cacophony of voices filled the room and Jack winced slightly as his brain struggled to make sense of what he was hearing. "You understand this stuff, Daniel?" Jack covered his ears lightly and motioned for Daniel to turn the volume down.
"No, and that's the problem." Pausing the recording, Daniel picked up a folder from the table and flipped it open. "I had my linguistics department pick apart the audio track from the recording to try and separate the different languages and we couldn't find any. These… people… are all speaking the one common tongue."
Sam looked perplexed, her brow furrowing in confusion, "How can that be? I can see Nox, Human, Enkarans, and Nasyans at least."
"We've managed to isolate nearly a dozen different species from this one piece of footage and several more that we can't identify." Shutting down the recording, Daniel brought up another image on the screen, and taking a moment to zoom in, he tapped the screen lightly with his pen. "This is a species that we've never seen before. I'm pointing this one out specifically because these two, um, people are the only adults that we can see, which makes this whole picture all the more interesting."
Jack stared at the image on the screen. Humanoid in general appearance, the two aliens had almost white skin. Their close-cropped hair looked more like tiny bird feathers that grew in clumps on their head, and large black oval eyes rounded off their ensemble. A vague picture of a zombie popped into his mind and Jack shrugged off the image. "How do you figure that, Daniel?" he asked, slouching back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head.
"Because, with a crowd of children this big and a species mix as diverse as this, I would expect more adults than just the two we can see here."
"Could there not be more adults close by?" Teal'c asked.
"There could be, Teal'c, but I would think an alien device coming through the Stargate might give cause for the adults to keep the children away and investigate it themselves."
Sam nodded her agreement. "You're right. They don't seem to be alarmed by the presence of the MALP at all. Having never gated here before, I can't imagine they'd be familiar with our technology."
Jack watched as Daniel put the remote back down on the table and slid into the nearest chair. "It's the language that has me intrigued. So many species, all chattering away in the same language, is not something we see a lot of in our travels."
Thrumming his fingers on the table, Jack asked, "So not a meeting place then?"
"I doubt it." Daniel rubbed at his forehead and Jack wondered if his friend was fighting off a headache. "Teal'c, in your time as First Prime of Apophis, did you ever come across a situation where the Goa'uld transplanted this many different species to the one world?"
Jack flicked his gaze from Daniel to Teal'c and watched as the big Jaffa frowned slightly and shifted his bulk around in the chair. "I have not, DanielJackson. It has long been known amongst the Jaffa that the Tau'ri home world was the preferred place from which all slaves and hosts were taken."
"But Teal'c, most of the species we are seeing here aren't necessarily humans from earth, but are at least humanoid. We already know from our encounters with many of these worlds that our physiology is quite similar, if not exact in some cases," Sam remarked.
"You are correct, Major Carter, but the Goa'uld would not go to any great lengths to gather species from various different worlds and co-locate them when they can obtain what they require from one source."
Jack could see were this conversation was headed. "Earth," he added, wondering if Daniel's headache was contagious.
Teal'c tilted his head to the side and nodded. "That is correct, O'Neill."
A stifled cough from the head of the table drew Jack's attention to General Hammond, the man having largely been forgotten as the topic was being tossed around the table.
"What is your recommendation, Doctor Jackson?"
"Well, sir, I think it goes without saying that the SGC's cultural mandate makes this planet a perfect next mission for SG1. An opportunity to see a variety of species and cultures interacting on such a scale is something we haven't seen before. I would like the opportunity to hear the language up close and get some more audio samples for the linguistics department to work on. It seems quite unique and we haven't been able to find any of the root words unique to the traditional spoken languages of the worlds we're seeing represented here."
Yep, there goes our boy straight into professor mode, Jack thought as he watched the slightly bewildered look on Hammond's face grow.
"If Teal'c's theory on host and slave selection is correct, and I think we can assume that it is, then I don't think the Goa'uld have visited this world, at least not recently. Their lack of fear at seeing the MALP also gives way to the conclusion they are used to seeing different technologies pass through the gate. If the inhabitants do have a trading post established here, we may be able to benefit from any advanced technologies they possess."
Damn, Jack thought, letting a smile pass his lips, the kid made his point well. Even he couldn't argue with that last line. Looking back at the General, it didn't surprise Jack that the man agreed. Rising from his chair and gathering up his stack of briefing files, Hammond looked down the table and declared SG1's next mission to be a go.
TBC…