Jack stared at the mess in front of him. Hands in his pockets, he shuffled up to the nearest stack of books and papers, pulling a sheaf from the top and looking at it, turning it round and round in a half-hearted attempt to understand what he was looking at.

"Please don't touch that, Sir." Came a voice from what sounded like a few feet away.

Jack looked around the lab, spinning in a complete circle, trying to find the disembodied voice. While he was searching, a head popped up.

"Captain MacArthur?" Jack questioned, taking half a step closer.

"Yes, Sir." MacArthur answered. "Please don't touch anything, Sir. We've got a very delicate balance of half-completed and partially researched translations. We know exactly where everything is, and if you..." he trailed off, his face scrunched up with anxiety.

Jack nodded. "We?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, Sir." The Captain replied.

Jack looked around again, hands back in his pockets, turning to the left and then to the right. "We?" he repeated.

MacArthur nodded vigorously as he spoke. "The translation team, Sir." He supplied. "Andrews," another head popped up, "Tatlock," a hand waved from behind a lab table, "and Laird are here," the last officer was heard, rather than seen, as something fell with a crash. MacArthur sighed wearily, rolling his eyes. "There are others working in their offices; some are camped out in Major Carter's lab... we're making some progress, Colonel, but the truth is, while we're doing the best we can to find something to help Dr. Jackson, this is gonna take some time. Some of it... even Dr. Jackson himself didn't seem to think he'd be able to complete the work in less than..." the Captain pulled a leather-bound book off of Daniel's desk. Opening it up and flipping around, he held out the open journal.

Taking it, Jack stared at the familiar scrawl in unfamiliar languages that covered the pages, only vaguely listening to the status report.

"Dr. Jackson... it's actually kind of fun, Sir." At Jack's skeptical look, MacArthur expounded. "You see, Dr. Jackson, I imagine to keep all the languages fresh in his head, will occasionally write his commentary in the very language that he's translating... it makes it kind of a game to read his thoughts."

"A game?" Jack asked incredulously. "You people need to get out of this mountain more often."

"Right." MacArthur's enthusiastic grin quickly faded. "The point is, Sir, Dr. Jackson indicated in his last entry, the one he was writing just before he... well, you know, of course..."

"Spit it out, Captain." Jack ordered.

"As I said, Dr. Jackson didn't think he'd be able to complete the work in less than a few months, and probably not without help." MacArthur pointed to a list of several names. "These are some scholars, linguists, etcetera that I believe he was planning on contacting for assistance."

"Super." Jack replied, closing the journal and handing it back. "Well..." he paused awkwardly, "Keep up the good work." He forced out, before turning and leaving.