Author's Note: I don't own Stargate SG-1. I've been working on this fanfic for over a year but even then I haven't been able to include all the episodes so I've come up with an idea. If there's a particular episode that I haven't done and you want to know what happened in that episode just leave it in your reviews and I've leave a message with a short summary of it at the end of my chapters. Read and enjoy :) .

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Erin I need you to stay here." Jack pointed at a seat. We were in mine and Daniel's office.

I just stared at the swivel chair and then back up at Jack. He sighed in frustration and took hold of my shoulders and walked me over to the chair, forcing me to sit down. Why I was acting like this I couldn't tell you. It felt like I had something very important that I had to do and whatever I was being told to do was just getting in the way.

"Good, now I'm going to see General Hammond. You two watch her." He ordered Skaara and Teal'c as he walked towards the door. Then, just before he exited he turned back around. "Erin, you stay… good girl."

I frowned. "I'm not a dog Jack."

"Sure you aren't." He smirked and tossed me a piece of candy he pulled from a pocket. Why did he have candy in his pocket? "Here, fetch."

He ignored my glare as I caught the candy and left. As soon as he was out of sight I dropped it to the floor and leapt to my feet.

Teal'c was suddenly standing in my path. "I cannot permit you to leave Erin Clark."

"Teal'c I have to do something. I feels like my fron is going to implode if I don't go." A low grade migraine had been pummeling my head for the last hour.

"What of this?" Skaara waved his hand at the semi-assembled machine-like-thing that was spread out on an empty table. I'd been working on it off and on and I still had no clue as to what it was and what it did.

I frowned. "That's not what I need to do right now." They didn't move from their identical crossed arms pose. I sighed and slumped in the swivel chair. "Fine, I'll stay. Teal'c, I actually could use some help. Can you reach those files on top of that book case?" I asked gesturing at a bookcase near the back of the room.

Teal'c seemed relieved that I was no longer pressuring him to let me leave. "Gladly." He bowed his head and headed for the bookcase.

Sorry about this Teal'c. Once he was out of arms reach I took off at a sprint out the door. Skaara lunged to grab me but I ducked away too fast and left him sprawled on the ground behind me as I jumped out the door and ran. The pounding of Teal'c and Skaara's feet echoed down the corridor. Employees dove out of the way as I barreled past. It was a good thing I had been captain of the cross country team in high school.

"Airen, stop!" Skaara shouted at my back.

I'm sorry, I thought, I can't.

My feet again led me through the base and when I looked up I was striding into the control room. In the back of the room away from most of the workers was a computer console that was unoccupied and that was what I headed for. Since I was a common sight in the control room no one thought to stop me as I sat down.

1.7724, 3.141592654 carry the seven. Input the coordinates and insert the code to track planetary shift. My fingers flew across the keyboard and the migraine that had been gnawing away at my brain began to ease off.

"Miss Clark!" Hammond's voice broke my concentration.

I became aware of my team standing around me as well as Skaara's hands on my shoulders.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hammond demanded.

I shrugged helplessly. "I don't know sir. You know I suck at computers."

"Captain Carter?" Hammond addressed Sam.

She sat down at the dialing computer at the front of the room and tried to input commands. Somehow I knew her attempts would fail. Then, just like I predicted…. "Main system's down, Sir." She informed the General. "I'm locked out."

Hammond came around the side of my computer console and tried to make eye contact with me, but my eyes were fixed on the screen where I was still working. "Miss Clark, I'm ordering you to stop."

What I was doing didn't feel like a bad thing, then again I'd had my brain fiddled with by an alien machine. For all I knew that machine was making me think that what I was typing into the computer was helping while in truth I could be compromising the entire base. That's what scared me the most. "Sir… I can't." My hands wouldn't budge from the keyboard, I even tried to clench my fingers into a fist.

"Teal'c." Hammond nodded at me and Teal'c pushed Skaara aside wrapped his big arms around mine, pinning them to my sides and then bodily picking me up and pulling me away from the computer.

"No! No, not yet!" I screamed and hit my head back against Teal'c chest. He didn't loosen his grip one bit. "I'm not fargus!" I pleaded. My fingers were still making the typing motions even though the keyboard had been removed.

"Sir, I think she wants to finish what he's doing." Daniel said.

Skaara stepped in front of me when I lunged for the computer again and took my face in his hands. "Calm Airen."

The migraine was back and worse than before. It was like my brain needed me to finish. "I can't."

"I can't reboot, Sir." The computer screen Sam was working at went black. "Uh-oh."

"Captain?" Hammond came to stand behind Sam.

The computer flickered to life and my commands and numbers codes ran vertically across and scrolled up as the system interpreted my data.

"Sir, this is machine code." The shock was audible in Sam's voice. She knew as well as anybody else how inept I was at modern technology. "The numbers Erin was entering must've been some been some sort of program."

Jack and Daniel joined Hammond in watching what my codes were doing, Teal'c had loosened his arms in order to get a better look as well. I saw an opening and wiggled my right arm free and typed in a few more numbers. Teal'c immediately yanked me away and I sighed in frustration.

Sam whirled around in her chair and pinned me with a glare that was equal parts wonder and anger. "What did you do?"

I held my hands up in defeat. They could ask all they wanted but I had no answers. "It was important." Was the only explanation I could give them.

A map of our cosmos popped up and little blue Stargate symbols began appearing all over it. "It's the destination map." Sam explained. "These are all the Stargates we've been through." She tapped on the symbol for Abydos, the first gate that had been entered into the system.

Then little yellow Stargates symbols appeared on the map.

"Sam, are those new Gates popping up?" Daniel questioned what we were seeing.

Sam shook her head. "That's not possible. It takes days to calculate the planetary shift of each new location." A new tab came up containing the gate addresses matching those new Stargates. "Whoa, wait a second."

The list ran all the way to the bottom and a message popped up. No Match with Abydos Cartouche.

"Sir, the new Stargates did not come from the Abydos cartouche data that we put in." Sam excitedly began reviewing the new gate addresses.

"But that's the only reference we have, isn't it?" Jack asked. "I mean, did I miss a memo or something?"

Sam ignored the Colonel's attempt at humor. "Erin must've input new Stargate locations into the computer."

"Well, I guess that thing must've downloaded more than a language into your brain." Daniel studied me carefully. "That circular inscription read 'the place of our legacy'. What if that thing you looked into was some sort of alien database, like the one we found on Ernest's planet, all the knowledge that these particular aliens possessed?"

If Daniel was right then I was trouble. All the knowledge of a race was surely too much for one person to handle. My team and Hammond had equally worried expression and I guessed that they were thinking the same thing.

When Hammond addressed me, it was with sympathy. "Miss Clark, you are not under arrest, but you are also not to touch anything else on this base without permission. Understood?"

I sighed and scrunched my eyes shut as the pain worsened. Hammond was right, who knew if the next thing the alien download made me do would hurt people. "Eetium, Sir."

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"Dani that's not right, if you'd just listen…"

"Erin," Daniel cut me off, "I told you, I can't understand you. If you'd write it on the pad I gave you it would make this a lot easier.

The frustration was getting to me. For the past hour all I'd been able to speak was the alien language. Daniel thought he'd come up with a temporary solution to have me write everything down. However he wouldn't always understand what I wrote and I'd slip up and try to speak which only worsened the situation. He'd been trying to translate the inscription we'd found on the planet. I'd found that I knew exactly what it said but when I tried to tell him or write it down all that came out was the alien language.

Skaara sat next to me at the table. He'd tried to see if I could speak Abydonian. No such luck. My brain would process what I was saying as Abydonian but his confused expression confirmed my suspicions. All that was going to come out of my mouth regardless of the language I attempted to speak would be the alien language.

A commotion at the door broke the silence the room had fallen into. Jack skidded in from outside and turned to smirk triumphantly at Sam who only had a glare for Jack's childish antics. "I won." He bragged.

"It was not a race, sir." Sam explained slowly as one would to a child and then turned her attention to the rest of us and took the seat right across from Skaara and I. "I needed a break and I suggested to the Colonel that we should check up on you. Apparently he thought it was a race." She groaned and rubbed her temples. "You can only stare at a computer screen for so long. Erin, that program you entered re-wrote massive amounts of the machine code."

When I didn't respond she looked up at me questioningly. I just shrugged and opened my mouth to apologize. Then closed it since she wouldn't understand a word I said.

Daniel stepped in and saved me. "Erin seems to have completely lost the ability to speak anything but the alien language."

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "Oh!"

At the same time Jack exclaimed. "Really? Wow!" The seeing my death glare he gulped. "No. not wow. Really… really bad… ah cool what's that?" He suddenly took an interest in a fourteenth century Inca fertility statue across the room and moved to examine it.

Skaara laughed softly at Jack and Sam was trying to keep from smiling. Given how serious the situation was, having Jack around to lighten the mood made it easier to deal with. Even I, who had been glaring daggers at him the moment before had trouble stifling giggles.

Jack picked up the small gold figure and Daniel watched him carefully as he continued. "Well the good news is…" Jack nearly dropped the statue. "Jack put it down. Thank you. Ok, the good news is we seem to have more of the alien inscription translated. 'Noo ani anqueetus'—'We are the Ancients'."

"Who are the Ancients?" Sam asked.

"Romas! Alterans!" I shouted excitedly and pounded my hand on the table top.

"Yes." Daniel smiled, happy he'd understood that. "Romas, Romans. The Romans were the first builders of roads that we know of on Earth. They spoke Latin and they learned to build roads from gods known as the Ancient ones. This leads me," I cleared my throat pointedly, "us, to believe that these Ancients could be the teachers of roads."

Sam still bore a confused look on her face. "I'm still not following you."

Jack tapped a desk bound magnifying glass which toppled over with a small bang onto the desk it'd been sitting on. He swiftly stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yes, the point please." He said as if nothing had happened.

This little commotion went over Daniel's head, he was too excited about what he thought we'd discovered. "Roads! Stargates! The Gate builders. What if these Ancients were the alien race who invented the Stargate? Think about it. It would certainly explain why Erin knew about Stargates that the Goa'uld haven't even discovered yet."

This theory made sense to me, however there were a few holes in the idea that had yet to be filled.

It appeared Sam was thinking along the lines as me. "I don't know, Daniel. Why would they invent a device that would do this?" She shook her head.

I tapped my hand on the table to get their attention and started too scribbled on my pad of paper. Skaara, Sam, Jack and Dani all leaned in to see what I was writing. When I was done I held it up. Good Point.

Daniel held up his hand to stop any comments and went to the board and pointed to the translations we'd been working on. "I know it doesn't explain everything. But the translation 'The place of our legacy', to pass on their knowledge. You may have the knowledge of the original Gate builders downloaded into your brain."

The words, "Gate builder's" triggered a thought in my head. "Ego indeo navo locas." I blurted.

"Airen." Skaara said taking my hand and squeezing it. "You know that we can't understand you."

"Actually," Daniel grabbed the same Latin book he used to translate me earlier. "I think I can make that out." He flipped through the pages and stopped at "E". "Okay, ego means 'I'. Can you repeat what you said?"

I nodded. "Indeo."

"Need."

"Navo."

"New." These words were so close to their Latin counterparts that Daniel didn't need to look them up.

"Locas."

Daniel frowned and flipped to "L". "Locas, locas, locas. Locatia. Location. You need a new location. You need a new location?"

I nodded vigorously.

"Where?" Skaara asked.

I shrugged helplessly.

Sam sighed and reached across the table to squeeze my shoulder affectionately. "Okay, good luck you guys, I've got to get back to the computer." She stopped on her way out at the board where I'd written the equation from before. "I really wish you could explain all this."

I flipped through my pad of paper before I came to what I needed and handed it to her.

She looked down at what I'd written and then back up at me. "Ten equals eight?" She went to board and picked up a piece of chalk to write under one of the equations, softly muttering to herself all the while. "Ten equals eight, ten equals eight…" Suddenly she gasped and whirled to face me. "Ten equals eight! Erin, this is base eight math!" Sam glanced at all of us excitedly then seeing our blank expressions continued. "This is math that is light-years beyond anything we've even conceived working on."

Then everyone's gazes were on me, each of them bearing a similarly troubled look. And the migraine that had been pounding away at the back of my head came to the forefront.

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Throughout the day my migraine had been getting worse. Daniel suggested I take a walk to get away from the work of translating the inscriptions. Daniel stayed behind to continue. Sam and Jack were away meeting with Hammond and Skaara was down in the infirmary having his regularly scheduled checkup post-Goa'uld extraction. So I was walking through SG-C's corridors alone, save for the small security detail that Hammond had ordered to follow me to ensure I didn't get into anything I shouldn't.

I wondered around aimlessly for a good half hour before I realized I was on the gate room's level. It felt like I was being drawn to the Stargate. The blast doors were open at the end of the hall I was in and the shimmery blue light filling up the gate room meant the gate it was active.

"Welcome back Colonel Ferretti." Walter, the gate tech, said over the loudspeaker. "Have your team report for debrief at 0-800 hours."

Ferretti and Kalen were back! I ran towards the gate room to greet them. Suddenly two hulking marines were in my path with their hands on each of my arms. It must have looked like I was making another break like I'd done with Teal'c.

"Ego indeo…" I tried to explain while struggling in their tight grip.

"You aren't allowed near the gate or control room Miss Clark." The largest one said as they began dragging me away back the way we'd come.

"Eetium!" I wasn't trying to get away from them but they couldn't understand.

By this time Ferretti his team had made their way into the corridor and seen me and the small little confrontation I was having with the marines.

"Ego indeo Ferretti! Ego indeo Kalen" I shouted and pointed down the hall. The marines looked back the way I was pointing and paled at the Air Force Colonel with his hands on his hips glaring at them and the Jaffa standing next to him with his imposing staff weapon not activated yet but the threat was in his eyes.

"Sir." They said and instantly let go of me.

Ferretti sauntered up to them. "Can I ask what is going on here?"

"We though she was making another break for the control room, sir." The large one answered.

"Well I can take her from here boys, dismissed."

"Yes sir." They answered, looking relived to have the duty of watching me off their chest.

As they left Ferretti turned to me and his gaze softened. "Hey Kid." He smile and pulled me into a hug. "We heard what happened. I would've come see you sooner but we had a mission."

He let go of me and turned to his men. "Rogers, Barnes why don't you go get cleaned up? I'll see you at the debrief." His team members nodded and headed to the men's locker room.

Kalen came forward and grasped my shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

I smiled humorlessly and looked up at the two of them. "Not so good actually."

A frown flashed across Ferretti and Kalen's faces. Mental face palm, of course they wouldn't be able to understand me.

"So it's gotten that bad, huh?" Ferretti asked. "Can you speak anything but that funky language?"

I shrugged and shook my head.

"Where are you headed to now?" Kalen asked unhooking his combat helmet from his head and handing it to a technician that had come over to collect their weapons and gear since it was apparent they weren't heading towards the locker room anytime soon and it was technically against regulations to carry all that around the base without reason.

As he and Ferretti shrugged off their heavy gear and weapons I answered. "Daniel."

"You want to go to Daniel?" Ferretti questioned.

I nodded.

"We'll take up to him then." Kalen said and we started down the hall towards the elevator.

"So let me get this straight." Ferretti spoke up along the way. "You can say anything and no one will understand a word of it."

I nodded thought a little unsure where he was going with this.

He smirked. "Just imaging the possibilities, you could say anything you wanted to anybody and they wouldn't understand." That was Ferretti, attempting to find the bright side of any situation.

"Keep it up and I tell everyone about that one time on Abydos. I'm sure Kalen would like to hear about it." I giggled.

The Colonel whirled on me and frowned. "Somehow I think this is at my expense."

I nodded.

We went back to walking side by side. Occasionally we had to step aside to let SG-C personnel moving heavy equipment by.

Then a pain like a lance through my eyes made me see white. It cleared after a few seconds as if it'd never had happened except for a dull pain behind my eyes. My step faltered and I leaned up against the cement wall.

Ferretti and Kalen noticed that I'd stopped walking next to them and came back to me.

"Are you well Erin?" Kalen asked.

I smiled weakly up at them and nodded and when they reached to help me up by my arms I gently waved them away.

"Hey campers." Jack's annoyingly chipper voice echoed down the steps from the control room that we were coming up to and he jumped down the steps into the hall way. "Ferretti." He addressed the other Colonel.

"O'Neill." Ferretti nodded back.

"Kalen, buddy, always nice to see you." Jack said to the jaffa and Kalen bowed his head much like Teal'c did. Then Jack turned on me. "I thought you were supposed to keep your butt with Dany-boy."

I sighed in frustration and knocked my head against the wall I was leaning against. Attempting to explain to Jack that I'd just been going for a walk was not worth the aggravation.

"Daniel." I pointed upwards.

"She wants to head back up to her and Daniel's office." Ferretti explained.

"Okay let's go." Jack said falling into step with our little trek to the elevator.

We'd not gotten ten feet before the lance again stabbed through my eyes. My eyes scrunched shut. I stopped and pressed my palm to my forehead suddenly dizzy.

"Erin, are you sure you're okay?" Kalen's voice asked and I felt a hand under my elbow to steady me as I swayed slightly.

I nodded my head slowly and took a step forwards.

And it was as if the ground had been pulled out from underneath me. I pitched forwards before anyone could catch me and let out a scream. My knees cracked painfully against the rock hard floor. However that pain was nothing like what was going on inside my head.

My hands were grabbing at my head as if the constant pressure would keep if from exploding. Blood was rushing in my ears at a loud roar. My forehead was pressed against the cold floor offering the smallest of relief. Hands were prying at my fingers and shouting at me. I felt someone pick me up and a muffled alarm was sounding dully in the background.

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My vison began to clear.

"What happened?!" Janet shouted moving away from Skaara who was sitting on a bed.

"She just collapsed." Jack answered.

"Get her onto a bed." Janet ordered. "I want a PET scan and a MRI stat!"

Huh, I was in the infirmary? I was sat down on a bed by Kalen who had been carrying me. An oxygen mask was put over my face and I was wheeled out and down the hall.

Skaara and Kalen moved to follow but were stopped by a nurse. "I'm sorry but you'll need to wait here."

The bed I was on turned a corner and they left my line of sight.

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I was lying on a bed surrounded by all my boys, and Sam. Cassie was up with Hammond which put my mind at ease that she didn't have to see this.

No one said anything or offered the proverbial assurances that everything was going to be fine which both soothed and slightly scared me. At least the oxygen mask had been removed. The way I was lying was uncomfortable so I rose up and instantly Skaara and Kalen moved to help, then glared at each other from either side of me. Everyone noticed the way the way the tenseness of the room skyrocketed and backed away from the two men all at a loss for what to do.

It kept escalating until Janet walked in and flipped on a computer thankfully deflating the room. "I have the results." Janet was oblivious to what had just happened. "The problem may only be affecting the verbal language center of your brain. It's a different function than writing, but it looks like the problem is advancing. Since she lost the ability to speak gradually, I think whatever is affected her may be taking over incrementally." The scans showed a large portion of my brain covered in bright red denoting the active regions. Even I knew this was bad.

I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face in them.

"Well, what's the worst-case scenario?" Daniel gripped the railing around my bed.

I raised my head.

Janet gulped and looked at me with a pained expression. "Well, the computer analogy you came up with earlier is pretty good. Erin, your hard drive has been filled with information that is written in a language your computer doesn't understand. If it continues to progress the way it has thus far, you may eventually lose the ability to write or even comprehend us. Or, worse, the computer could shut down all together."

Skaara wrapped his arm around my shoulders protectively and looked up at Janet worriedly. "What does that mean?"

"I means her brain could stop functioning." Janet answered solemnly.

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Hammond had called a briefing. He was stone faced as my team along with Ferretti and Kalen filed in but gave a start when I walked in supported by Skaara.

"Miss Clark! Do you think you should be out of the infirmary?" Hammond asked as Skaara helped me into my seat between his and Jack's.

I opened my mouth and then mumbled to myself since I couldn't answer Hammond.

Sam answered for me. "Dr. Fraiser said that her brain is deteriorating no matter where she is, but she will lose most functioning periodically. At this point, beyond monitoring her in case of another episode Dr. Fraiser wants her up and moving as much as possible."

"Very well then." Hammond said. "Captain, what have you got?"

"Sir, we've been sending probes to the addresses Erin entered into the computer, hoping that one would lead us to the race that affected her mind. We think we may have found something." Sam pressed a few buttons on a remote which activated an overhead projector to display a grainy picture of a desert world.

"P9Q-281 has a pedestal near the Gate with symbols on it that match the alien language that Erin is speaking." Daniel explained, taking the remote that Sam offered him and pressing in the command to make the next picture, a close up of the pedestal, appear.

"Then I suggest we check it out. You're authorized to go, Colonel. Kalen will be joining SG-1 on this mission." Hammond ordered.

Skaara grumbled to himself in hushed Abydonian when Kalen's name was mentioned.

The General began to stand and dismiss us.

"Well, if Erin's not going, then I have to stay." Daniel blurted.

Hammond sat back down and pinned Daniel with his eyes. If it been anyone else besides Daniel questioning Hammond I knew they would have been feeling the General's wrath. "Why is that, Doctor?"

"Well, if Jack and the team make contact with the Ancients, and they can report back and then Erin and I will go but until then, I mean, translating this language may be the most important thing we've done since we opened the Stargate." Daniel rushed to explain, then he leaned over the table, excitement barley keeping him in his seat. "You see, I'm pretty sure that Erin is speaking the language of the original Gate builders. At the very least, I'm positive that it's one of the races that created the repository of information on Ernest's planet…the, uh…meaning of life stuff."

Hammond didn't look too impressed and clearly didn't subscribe to Daniel's theory about the alien's completely.

The General opened his mouth to deny Daniel's request when Sam jumped to his aid. "And, Sir, I believe that the equation Erin wrote on the blackboard is a revolutionary formula for calculating the distance between planetary bodies."

Daniel didn't even give the General time to respond as he continued. "And bottom-line, Sir, what about Erin? I mean, right now I'm possibly her only hope for communicating on any kind of serious level. I can't leave her like this, and I won't."

Hammond's expression softened. "All right." He acquiesced. "The rest of you will leave at 1600 hours."

Author's note:

In response to Machala's review. You asked I'd ever consider writing a story about Erin becoming a host. Sadly it's not in my long term plans, but you never know. However in the initial planning of this story I had planned out a story line in which Erin had become a host to a Tok'ra. In this story line she would have agreed to become a host in the episodes The Tok'ra part 1 and 2. In this story line the team hadn't recovered Skaara yet. Once she'd become a host she was to be sent on a range of undercover missions such as the one in the episode where the Goa'uld are having that summit and we meet Anubis for the first time. There she would come across Skaara and Klorel. Klorel, believing his host's lover had become a host to a Goa'uld as well he would try to court her. This would have allowed Erin to lure him into a trap and take him to the Tok'ra to have Klorel removed. In this storyline the dynamics would then be reversed. Erin would be the host and they would have to deal with Skaara's experience as a host and his distrust of symbiotes and Erin's unwillingness to part with her's.

This storyline never happened sadly. I just couldn't reconcile it with how Erin's character developed. While she has become more trusting of the Tok'ra over time I couldn't ever see her willingly become a host because of what happened to Skaara.

As I said at the beginning of this chapter. If there is any particular episode or plot line that I haven't done that you wish to know what would have happened just leave it in the reviews and I'll answer them at the end of my chapters.