Title: Wherever You Go, There You Are
Spoilers: Farscape: A Human Reaction
Rating: Um, PG just to be safe. Minor language, a wee bit of something resembling alcohol.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and Farscape are owned by lovely, wonderful people. I am not among them.
A/N: see chapter one. Sorry this chapter has taken so long – rough week. I'll try to get the next one posted soon, but there's a rather large paper looming over my head, so we'll see how it goes.
Wherever You Go, There You Are: You're Looking At Me
Daniel was copying the script from the inner wall into a journal when Crichton walked into the temple. John waited until he had reached the end of a line before he said, "Hey."
Daniel responded with a wave of his hand and an absent, "Hi."
"Find anything interesting?"
"Um, yeah, probably, although it would help if I could read it."
John laughed. "Maybe we can do something about that."
"Your microbe thing," Daniel waggled a finger at the back of his neck, "does it work for reading?"
"Nope, sorry. Only for the spoken word."
"Oh, well."
"However," John said, squatting down beside the archeologist, "Zhaan may know something about this place."
"Zhaan?"
"She's a…crewmate. Friend. Delvian priest."
"You think she may have encountered something like this before?"
"Maybe. You can ask her; Aeryn said she's on her way down."
"That's great, I could use the help. Um," Daniel set his notebook down. "So, she and…D'Argo?" he checked with John to see if he'd gotten the name correct and continued when Crichton nodded. "They're back?"
"Yeah. Well, Aeryn is. She got here about the same time we did. D'Argo is waiting for Zhaan."
"How's she taking all of this?"
John sighed. "Aeryn is…unflappable. At least on the surface."
"And how about you?"
"You the ship's counselor, too?"
"Well, I'm assuming that General Hammond didn't say come on back, otherwise Jack would be in here yelling for us to pack up and go. It has to be frustrating to be so close to home and not be able to actually go there."
"Yeah, well. Been there, done that." He tapped Daniel's notebook with a finger. "He wants you to find out more about this place."
"Hmmmm, yes, I'd rather like that myself."
John laughed. "We'll see what Zhaan has to say."
"Aren't we still going to have that little communication problem?"
John smiled. "Communicating with Zhaan is always an interesting experience, even when you know what she's saying. She'll find a way to make herself understood. And I'll be around to translate."
"Good, because I'm not making much headway here."
"What are you looking for?"
"Well, there's nothing remotely similar to ancient Earth languages or mythology. So, the next thing…"
"Whoa, back up. You're used to seeing ancient Earth languages on other planets?"
Daniel almost laughed at his disbelief. "Sam didn't tell you?"
"She left that little detail out. So, you're saying that, what? Aliens built Stonehenge?"
"Well, I'm not sure about Stonehenge, but they had a lot to do with the Pyramids."
John rocked back on his heels. "Okay then. Changes my worldview a bit. Have to admit, I was curious why an archeologist would be on a military team."
"The Stargate was found in Egypt. I'm an Egyptologist by trade, so I was, um, recruited to translate the hieroglyphs on its cover stone."
"And you've found stuff from Egypt on other planets."
"In addition to other ancient cultures."
"So, for what – four years? – you've been traveling around the galaxy, finding pieces of Earth."
Daniel looked away before answering, "Yeah."
John hesitated, realizing he'd struck a nerve. "Bad four years?'
Daniel picked up a rock from the ground, staring at it as he absently tapped the flat side against his boot. "Longer, actually. My first, um, mission was about five years ago." He sighed. "We had no idea what we were doing, no idea what the Stargate was or the size of the Gate network. We found a people that had been removed from Egypt and enslaved thousands of years before the pyramids were supposed to have been built." He tossed the rock away. "We helped free them and thought by doing so we'd gotten rid of the bad guys. The Gate wasn't supposed to be used again after that, but we discovered the Goa'uld threat was much bigger than we imagined."
"And the Air Force called you back in."
Daniel smiled, sadly. "Something like that. When the rest of the team went back to Earth, I stayed."
Suddenly, Sam's earlier words made sense to John. "Oh."
Catching the understanding in the other man's eyes, Daniel simply said, "Yeah."
"What happened?"
"She was taken as a Goa'uld host. I went back to Earth, and what had become the SGC, hoping to find her."
John couldn't ask the question – he knew this story didn't have a happy ending. Daniel answered anyway. "She died about a year ago."
"Do you regret staying?"
There was no doubt in Daniel's look. "Not for a moment." He dropped his eyes. "I take it you're faced with a similar decision here?"
"Sam thinks she could go to Earth. General Hammond said he would consider it."
Daniel shrugged. "We've offered asylum to a few people. You don't sound happy with that option, though."
"We ran into these aliens. They…made me believe I had found a way home. Aeryn ended up there with me. It was pretty much straight out of the Twilight Zone. Didn't end well, except that it didn't actually happen. Left a lasting impression, though."
"Hmmm, one of those." He nodded. "At least she would have fewer problems than Teal'c. You should see his collection of hats."
John laughed shortly. "Yeah, she'd be fine, until she had to go to a doctor."
"Well, then, you could stay close to the SGC. You both would be in good company."
"You really think it would work."
"If it's what you want."
Just then, the two men heard footsteps on the rough floor of the temple. Turning, Daniel saw a tall, blue woman enter the room. John was impressed with the archeologist's lack of reaction as he stood to greet her.
"Hey, gorgeous." John called out.
"John." Her voice was low and calm, and Daniel immediately wanted to hear her speak again.
"You meet everyone outside?"
"They introduced themselves. Aeryn said you wished my help in here."
"Yeah." He waved a hand at Daniel. "Zhaan, Daniel. Daniel, Zhaan."
Zhaan bowed her head in response to Daniel's "Nice to meet you."
"Daniel's an archeologist; he studies ancient Earth cultures."
Surprised, Zhaan said, "You expect to find evidence of your planet here?"
"That's exactly what I said," John punctuated his point with a finger jab.
Daniel looked at John with raised eyebrows. "What?"
John shook his head. "Sorry. The whole Earth on other planets deal."
"Right. Um, thousands of years ago, a parasitic alien race took humans off of Earth to serve as hosts. They scattered them around the galaxy, thus we've found human settlements or evidence of human culture in different parts of the galaxy."
"But not here," Zhaan said.
When Daniel looked expectantly at John, he repeated, "But not here."
"Right." Daniel answered. "We've never been to this part of the galaxy before." He looked at Zhaan. "I was hoping you could help me decipher some of this writing."
Zhaan studied the young man for a moment. "You are a linguist."
John translated.
"Yes."
She nodded once. "John, I believe we can stumble through on our own."
"You sure?"
"Aeryn needs you outside. I will call if I need any help."
"You got it, Blue." John turned to Daniel. "I'm gonna leave you two alone. Zhaan thinks you won't have any problems."
"Okay. Um, get Jack to give you a radio so I can call you if I need any translation."
"Will do. You kids have fun now." With a wink at Zhaan, John left the temple.
Daniel turned to face Zhaan. "Right. I can do this. I've done this before. Lots of times." She smiled at him. "And you can understand everything I say, right?" She nodded. "Yeah, and I'm babbling like an idiot. This is a good way to start." She smiled again and turned to study the writings. "Yeah, why don't you just take a look around, let me know what you think." He picked up his notebook. "I'm just going to…" he pointed at the wall, a gesture which turned into a shrug, "keep, um, working over here."
