"I think I may have made a mistake."

Jack, sitting with his back not quite against the thorny enclosure wall, his knees drawn up to rest his arms on, scoffed, "Ya think? You prostrated yourself in front of a pack of baboons."

Daniel was lying on his back, staring vaguely in the direction of the forest canopy. The apes had taken his glasses and, with typical monkey-curiosity, had taken turns wearing them until a fight over custody of the eye-wear broke out between two members of the tribe, who had screeched and bared teeth at one another, charging and mock-charging and grabbing at each other until the fur flew and the glasses clattered to the ground to be buried in the leaf litter the two combatants kicked up. By the time they'd ended their squabble, the apes appeared to have forgotten what it was about and left them there, outside the enclosure unfortunately for Daniel.

"That wasn't a mistake," Daniel retorted, "It was a calculated risk."

"Really? And what sort of broken-ass calculator were you using?" Jack snapped sarcastically.

The risks Daniel was willing to take with his own life -particularly in the holy name of communication with total strangers- drove Jack crazy. He knew though, that in the end it wasn't Daniel's skills as a linguist that made the final difference in most situations, but what he was willing to do in order to accomplish building some kind of bridge over the speech or culture barrier that often interfered with friendly relations.

"They only attacked us because we didn't respond properly to their calls," Daniel said.

"Really?" Jack inquired, venting his pain and frustration on Daniel because he was the most available target, "And how were we supposed to respond? With pheromones like your polite exculpations?"

"Polistes exclamans," Daniel corrected automatically.

Having assessed that neither of them was in the mood for polite conversation, but that they were both more than capable of carrying on an argument, they lapsed into silence.

When they first encountered the way Jack and Daniel interacted, neither Carter nor Teal'c felt they were in a position to intervene. Teal'c was on shaky enough ground without getting in the middle of one of Jack and Daniel's spats. Carter was likewise new to the group, and outranked by Jack. By the time they'd been on the team long enough to feel confident, both of them knew intervention was unnecessary.

It was inevitable. When you got two people together with such strong and opposing views, they would either wind up killing each other or becoming the closest of friends. Jack and Daniel had teetered extremely close to the former, but at the last possible second, Daniel had made a choice that changed everything. At the time, Jack hadn't been in any condition to even think of doing such a thing, and it wouldn't have meant anything at the time because he'd been a broken shell of a man, looking for any excuse, any excuse at all, to die. Therefore it had fallen to Daniel to make the choice. In retrospect, it had taken Jack far too long to recognize what had happened, and what it meant.

But when he finally had, Jack had known that he would never be the same. He wasn't really angry with Daniel now. No, truth be known what Daniel had done scared the crap out of him. Not just because it seemed reckless. Daniel was often reckless. But because it had seemed suicidal, something Daniel in his right mind had never been, despite the fact that at times he'd had every reason to be. That's what Jack was upset about, and Daniel knew it too. Daniel always knew things like that, it was just how he was wired. The fact that he slugged back in the argument said he was also upset, and not badly hurt, if he was hurt at all...

Carter, perhaps motivated by the disappointment of discovering the vines which had initially grabbed her interest were really just vines, had insisted on recovering the device they'd found. She and Daniel had hurriedly unburied it and placed it carefully in her pack, while Jack and Teal'c kept a nervous eye on the monkeys, which by that point had come out to the ends of the tree branches and thus become visible. They were enormous, black, hairy apes, with voices to match. The monkeys had shaken the tree branches hard, jumping up and down and hollering for all they were worth.

Rather than bolt, the team had exited the clearing very slowly and calmly, so as not to provoke the monkeys into chasing them. Unfortunately, their caution was insufficient. The moment they entered the trees opposite where the monkeys were stationed, the howlers gave chase.

Jack had given the order to get to the Stargate fast. Once the monkeys were actively pursuing them, there wasn't much point in going slow. Jack had fired off a few rounds into the trees even though he couldn't see the monkeys once they were in the forest, in the hopes that the sound would frighten them. If it did, they gave no sign of it, continuing to leap from tree branch to tree branch overhead, howling at top volume. They were so loud Jack couldn't hear himself shouting above the racket they were making.

When they neared the Stargate, the monkeys either caught up with them or became bold. From above, they dropped down. The one that landed on Jack hit him like a ton of bricks. Though probably only a hundred pounds in weight, it was terrifyingly strong, strong enough to knock him down and keep him there.

Jack didn't have a distinct memory of what had happened while he was on the ground, but he'd somehow wound up on his back. He'd raised his left hand to protect his throat when the monkey went for it, and it had sunk fangs the likes of which Jack would expect to see on a baboon into his hand.

Teal'c had heard him cry out and had come back for him. He'd whacked the thing over the head with the club end of his staff and helped Jack to his feet. The two of them arrived at the 'Gate in time to see Carter dialing in with Daniel trying to cover her. The monkeys were invisible in the trees and underbrush, and Daniel's attempts to shoot them were hopeless.

"Do you suppose it was something we said?!" Jack had shouted.

Daniel hadn't responded. He was never more likely to lash out than when he was scared, but the silence came when he got past the fear, and reached the decision to face it.

Jack knew Daniel was afraid of a great many things: being abandoned, making a critical mistake, forgetting something important, bodily harm, death... taxes. But one thing he was never afraid of was making a complete fool out of himself in an attempt to achieve communication. Of all the things Daniel found vitally important, his own dignity did not appear to be one of them.

And so when he got one of his brilliant ideas, he did not hesitate to drop down to a kneeling position, making himself look smaller. When he spoke, it was in English, but the sound of his voice was strangely high-pitched. The monkeys were rushing out of the brush at him, but he did nothing to stop their advance. When they reached him, he let them push him over onto his side. He continued to say words in that high, almost keening voice.

Jack wasn't sure what he'd said, something along the lines of how he was no threat to them. To Jack's astonishment, the monkeys were satisfied. They swarmed over Daniel for a few moments, but did not harm him. In fact, the front runners swept over and around Daniel like he wasn't even there, instead coming for Jack, Teal'c and Carter. It was the last thing Jack remembered before waking up in the thorn enclosure to the sight of several howlers fighting over Daniel's glasses.

Like Jack, Daniel had realized they wouldn't have time to complete the dial in and send their IDC before the apes were upon them. Unlike Jack, he had opted not to take a final stand, but to instead simply lay down. At the time, Jack had assumed he'd intended to let the howlers kill him. But looking back over it, he realized Daniel must have had an ulterior motive.

"How did you know curling up on the ground would stop them from trying to make a cape out of your skin that they could wear to your funeral?" Jack asked finally, after they'd both taken a few minutes to cool down and get comfortable with the reality they were currently faced with.

"I didn't," Daniel admitted, "I just... took the chance that if I made a submissive gesture they recognized in response to their aggression, they would have no reason to attack me, and hoped that would buy us enough time to escape."

"So, wait..." Carter said, "You knew that the howlers might tear you apart... but you took the chance anyway."

"Yes," Daniel replied after a moment's thought.

"Are you completely insane?" Jack demanded, angry all over again because he understood the tremendous risk Daniel had knowingly taken with his own life.

"...Not yet, but I have high hopes," Daniel retorted evenly, then continued, "The way howlers work is that they make territorial calls in the morning, establishing their location and range. It's how they avoid fights. If they don't hear a response, they know a territory is ripe for the taking. Instead of seeing us as predators or some other species, they acted as if they thought we were their kind. They expected a response from us and, when they didn't get it, they attacked and tried to drive us away."

"I thought you said they were too big to be howlers," Jack said, remembering something Daniel had said before they'd made their unsuccessful attempt to leave the planet.

"They are, and I don't think howlers build thorn enclosures," Carter stepped in, "But thousands of years on an alien planet, with different weather, food and indigenous species to contend with, the howlers must have evolved differently on Earth than they did here."

"We also know the Goa'uld sometimes conduct genetic experiments," Daniel said, "Perhaps they used howler monkeys at one point, changed them from their natural form to something larger and more dangerous. Whether that was ultimately their intention or not, I don't know."

"Sir," Carter said, catching the fever of excitement from Daniel, "If this was a research planet for the Goa'uld, there could be technologies we haven't even dreamed of, and research computers somewhere containing information that could help us advance years in understanding how Goa'uld technology works. Maybe even decades."

"Actually," Daniel said, "I was thinking that any culture that had mingled three so inherently disparate languages so seamlessly is worth studying," he paused, blinked, and added, "But Sam's point is good too."

"Kids, kids," Jack interrupted, deciding that now was time to make his case, "Don't you think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves and forgetting something very important?" he paused for dramatic effect, and neither Daniel nor Carter tried to spoil it before he concluded, "This planet is full of angry monkeys that want to snack on our delicious flesh. Also, we are in a cage, so it really doesn't matter what technology or culture they have, does it?"

"If they wanted us for food, they'd have eaten us already," Daniel pointed out.

"Do you suppose that's what cattle think in the years before they're turned into hamburger?" Jack wondered aloud.

Daniel sighed unhappily, and admitted, "The man has a point."

"Yes," Jack said slowly, "I usually do."

He looked around, but there wasn't a lot to see. The gathered and interwoven thorny brush that made the enclosure was higher than a man was tall, and so thick there wasn't much that could be seen through it. There was a gate on the far side, near where Daniel was lying. Above, there was a thick forest canopy, with blue -if slightly clouded- sky barely visible between the branches of the jungle trees. In the trees themselves, almost invisible in the shadows made by their thick leaves, there were the howlers, peering down with a mixture of curiosity and hostility. The gate had been open while the apes warred over Daniel's glasses, but there were many howlers gathered who were not participating in the fight, and Jack hadn't felt they had any hope of escape.

Jack looked at his bitten hand. He'd done his best to wrap it with bandages from his first aid kit when he'd woken up, but it still bled and felt like maybe it was broken. The apes had since taken interest in the kit and made off with the kit. They were haphazard in their approach to body searches, taking the backpacks and readily visible weapons that had been used against them, but being little more thorough than that. Since then, they'd taken only what caught their eye, such as Daniel's glasses.

Surreptitiously, Jack slid his right hand down to his boot, and was reassured to find his hidden knife still sheathed there. The apes might be smart enough to build primitive fences, but evidently they didn't yet have an understanding of concealed carry. Jack slid his knife out just enough for Carter to see it, and cocked an eyebrow at her. She revealed that she too still had a hidden knife, carefully keeping it concealed from the howlers overhead in a non-obvious way, so they wouldn't be attracted by her apparently secretive behavior. Teal'c also caught on, but Jack feared Daniel couldn't see well enough to do so, and he didn't want to say anything aloud, just in case the language skills of the howlers were better than they'd been letting on so far.

"So, Daniel," Jack said brightly, as if he and Carter had not just been exchanging deadly secrets, "If not bowing before the Bandar-Log, what mistake do you think is your most recent?"

"Bandar-Log, sir?" Carter inquired with eyebrows raised in amusement, clearly getting the reference.

"I am unfamiliar with that term," Teal'c said, clearly not getting it.

"Bandar means monkey," Daniel explained without getting up, "Log means people."

Teal'c inclined his head silently, though it was unclear whether it was because he now understood what Jack had said, or in appreciative response to Daniel's simple explanation.

"Actually," Daniel said, "It's probably more something like Pessoas de Macaco."

"What?" Jack asked, feeling some joke had just ruffled his hair as it flew over his head.

Daniel sighed, rolling onto his side and propping himself up on an elbow to look vaguely in Jack's direction, "The mistake I made. I thought one of the three languages might be Latin, but it wasn't; it was Portuguese. I should've seen it at the time."

"Easy mistake to make," Jack remarked dryly.

"Not for me," Daniel snapped irritably, "I spent most of my time in Brazil speaking and reading Portuguese."

"Daniel," Carter suggested gently, detecting that Daniel was for once thoroughly embarrassed, "I don't think there's a language on Earth you're not familiar with. Besides, you didn't have a lot of time and you said yourself it was a compilation of three seemingly incompatible alphabets. Under the circumstances, anyone would have a hard time identifying the languages."

"You mean for anyone besides me," Daniel grumbled, "I know better."

"But doesn't Portuguese use the Latin alphabet?" Carter asked.

"Yes, but that's not the point," Daniel protested.

"Danny," Jack broke in gently but firmly, "I remind you that we are currently locked up like cattle in a pen. Now is not the time for bruised egos. We need less pouting and more figuring out how to get out of this mess."

"I'm not... pouting-" Daniel began.

"You are," Jack interrupted fiercely, "Now stop it."

What was really bothering Jack was that Daniel was right; a mistake like that was beneath him. To Jack, different languages were almost all gibberish. But to Daniel, each language came so naturally that he could slide from one to the other without even noticing or pausing to switch tracks. In fact, he did it with such fluid ease that it had gotten them in trouble on at least one occasion when he smoothly and effortlessly slipped into Russian during a time-travel mishap with the 'Gate. For Daniel, the mistake was anything but minor. It would be as if Jack drew his M9 and held it backward so the muzzle was aimed at himself instead of the target. It was huge, and bespoke a deeper issue. Something was wrong with Daniel. Very wrong. Jack wasn't sure what, but he needed to find out before he found his life hanging by a thread, with Daniel holding the other end of it.

"How are the allergies?" Jack asked.

"I have a bit of a headache," Daniel confessed, "And I can't breathe through my nose. But I'm alright."

"Uh-huh, sure," Jack nodded doubtfully.

"Jack, I'm fine," Daniel insisted, sitting up the rest of the way, possibly in a vain effort to prove it.

Jack didn't respond, knowing that if he did, Daniel would simply argue more vehemently. Jack didn't know a great deal about allergies, but he did know a thing or two about insufficient oxygen to the brain, and the side effects thereof. Daniel might be right that he wasn't in mortal danger from a little sneezing and coughing, but Jack had also known Daniel before Dr. Fraser hooked him up with that witch's brew of antihistamines he took before every mission. At that time, Daniel had been in possession of all the physical prowess of a beached lungfish, and that hadn't just been due to a lack of training, though that had been a not insignificant part of it.

Even so, Jack had a suspicion that something more than allergies was bothering Daniel, even if he refused to admit it. Jack couldn't forget the way Daniel had turned ghostly white on hearing that voice on the telephone. Despite all the life and death struggles they'd had over the years, Jack couldn't think of a time when Daniel had ever been paralyzed by fear as he'd been in that moment. For him, that voice on the line had to be the single most terrifying thing that existed in the universe. Considering how much of that universe Daniel had seen up close and personal in all its gruesome detail, that was saying something. Even the mighty Ra -the first and arguably most powerful Goa'uld they had come face to face with, before they even know what a Goa'uld was- had not frightened Daniel half so much.

Fear, Jack knew, could be a powerful distraction.

But there was a guarded look in Daniel's eyes just now. If Jack so much as passively mentioned the phone call, Daniel would shut him out, that much was guaranteed. Jack knew the only way he'd get past that defense was to bring it up when Daniel wasn't expecting it anymore, or to have a knock-down-drag-out argument and bludgeon his way through. The latter was not a viable option considering the current circumstances. This wasn't the time or the place.

"So," Jack said, deciding to change the subject abruptly, "I think it's safe to say these aren't your everyday escapees from the local zoo."

"No," Daniel replied, looking relieved at the subject change but still wary, "I don't think they are."

"So what?" Jack asked, "Trained monkeys or is this a planet where apes evolved from men?"

Before anyone could think of anything to suggest, there was suddenly a great deal of chatter outside the enclosure, and shaking of the trees overhead. The chattering monkey sounds rapidly rose into piercing shrieks and whistles and what sounded like wordless jeers.

"Oh good, the apes are going ape," Jack remarked dryly.

"Sounds like what they were doing right before they attacked us," Carter remarked.

"No it doesn't," Daniel had stood up and was staring fixedly up at the howlers in the trees that were shouting and shaking their branches, "It's too high-pitched, too soft edged."

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked, having to raise his voice to be heard above the noise.

"Threat calls are low-pitched," Daniel said, not looking away from the monkeys, "That up there? That's fear. Something's coming."

"Oh please let it be Charlton Heston," Jack muttered.

"No, Jack," Daniel said quietly, taking a step back from the gate as he tore his gaze from the howlers above to look at it, "I think you were right when you said Bandar-Log."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Whatever's coming," Daniel said, "I think they're asking it not to attack them."

Glancing upward, Jack realized he'd misread what the howlers were doing up there. All the limb shaking was actually them scrambling to get down from the trees, abandoning grace and caution in favor of haste. Jack didn't need Daniel to explain to him how subjects greeted their rulers. Kneeling and bowing were not new concepts to him, and he recognized those gestures as less respect and more fearful submission. That was part of why he always resisted doing them whenever possible. He couldn't help it, Jack was a born Alpha male, it was just how he'd been built.

Hearing what sounded like the gate being unlocked, Jack stood stiffly, minding the spots where he'd been more heavily bruised. Carter and Teal'c followed his example, staying slightly spread out, eying the gate warily. Though he'd backed away from the gate somewhat, Daniel was still closer to it than the rest of them. Jack preferred to be in front, both to protect his team and to make sure there was never any mistake as to who the commander of SG-1 was, but he knew that this was one of those times he'd have to defer to Daniel's expertise in communication.

Still, when the gate swung open and an especially large, scarred black howler sauntered in on all fours, he couldn't quite resist saying, "King Louie, I presume."

In a blink, the scarred howler had lunged across the enclosure and leaped, going right past Daniel and smacking Jack in the chest hard enough to send them both crashing back and down. Jack hit the side of the enclosure on the way down, and felt thorns ripping into his back and shoulders.

"Colonel!" he heard Carter cry, but several more howlers had poured in after the one that had tackled Jack, and they blocked her path, hooting and shouting in a threatening way.

Jack tried to get hold of the monkey to hurl it away from him, but somehow it slipped out of his reach without ever getting off him. Somehow it managed to evade his hands while keeping its massively fanged maw snarling right in his face. Finally, Jack kicked off the ground and rolled over, trying to land on the monkey. It scrambled out from under him and landed atop him. He felt its paws (hands? Paw-hands?) touching where the thorns had cut him, and it stung like hell. Then he felt its teeth slash across the skin at the back of his neck. He knew when he was beat.

"Alright, alright!" Jack shouted, hoping it might understand his stillness and tone of surrender, since he doubted it could comprehend his words.

The howler mouthed his neck some more, and he felt the tips of its killing fangs. But it didn't bite him again. He didn't need Daniel to say it had been a display of dominance. Jack had mocked the scarred howler, and in front of its followers. It was all but obligated to act. It was an animal, or seemed to be, so talk was out of the question. Instead, it had communicated in the only way that each party knew the other understood.

It probably hadn't been wise to push the howler's buttons, but Jack had to test the waters. He had to know just how far he could push his captors before they brought the hammer down. The answer was not far at all, and it had only taken one of them to bring him to the ground. He did have to give the head honcho a bit of respect, however. The howler hadn't sent his lackeys to do it, and had taken Jack on mano-a-mano. The other howlers had only stopped the rest of SG-1 from intervening.

Another thing Jack had learned was just how fast these howlers could move. The scarred howler hadn't brought him down due to superior tactics so much as superior speed and strength. It had simply come at him too fast and too strong for him to react to fend it off.

Victorious, the scarred howler bounded around the enclosure in easy leaps, hooting and mock charging its own followers, who scattered respectfully before him. Carter, Teal'c and Daniel simply stood still, watching the howler, but at no point locking eyes with it as it paraded about, asserting its superiority to anything and everything that it came across. Finally, it ground to a halt right in front of Daniel.

Daniel didn't so much as flinch when the howler hooted at him, saliva dripping from its bared fangs. But he also did not lock eyes with the howler, instead looking at the ground in front of it. Apparently as a concession to the fact that his height far exceeded that of the howler, Daniel knelt down, bringing his face within inches of the creature's long canines.

The howler lunged forward, grabbed Daniel by the upper arms and shook him, shouting right in his face; its spittle flying at him, and he partially closed his eyes to prevent saliva from getting in them. Otherwise, he didn't cringe from the scarred howler.

"I don't know what you want," Daniel said in a soft tone when the howler shut up for a second.

The howler shrieked at him again, let go of his arms, and then clouted him over the head with the flat of one of its hands. It must not have been a very hard tap, because Daniel wasn't knocked on his ass. He stayed in the position the force of impact had put him in, and looked sidelong at the howler.

"I don't know what you want," Daniel repeated, more softly than before.

The scarred howler snarled, and apparently sent some signal for its followers to start pushing-dragging forcing Daniel towards the open gate by any means necessary.

"Oh hell no!" Jack snapped, getting up.

But the scarred howler turned and snarled loudly, and the monkeys who weren't herding Daniel away closed ranks, blocking Jack, Carter and Teal'c from following.

"It's alright," Daniel said, getting to his feet and letting the howlers urge him away.

"Daniel!"

In response to his name, Daniel only repeated, "Jack, it's alright."

"The hell it is!" Jack shouted, but he didn't try to assault the monkeys.

Carter and Teal'c, taking their cue from him, also didn't put up violent resistance. There was no point anyway, they already knew the howlers could overwhelm them, because they'd already done it once.

After the monkeys had backed out and closed the gate to the enclosure, Carter turned to Jack and said, "I sure hope you're wrong about those cows."

Jack sighed, staring at the gate through which Daniel had disappeared.

"Me too, Carter. Me too."