Chapter Five

Janet didn't like the sudden change in Sam's expression. Before Daniel had demonstrated that he couldn't, or wouldn't, write she seemed to be taking her inability to speak calmly. Now she had a look of nervous anxiety, as though she'd just noticed that something was wrong.

Since Colonel O'Neill was clearly in no mood to be helpful Janet stepped up to Sam and offered her the clip board. Before taking it Sam looked to Jack and Daniel, seemingly seeking their guidance. Janet wasn't sure what she got from her teammates but she accepted the gifts. As Daniel had done she put the pen to the page, but stopped there.

"How about something simple, like your name?" Janet suggested softly.

Sam looked up at her with a sad smile and just shrugged.

"Can you even understand me?"

Once again Sam looked to Jack and Daniel. Daniel offered her a similar shrug to the one that she had just given Janet. Jack rolled his eyes in obvious disgust. Janet watched helplessly as Sam turned her attention back to her and forced a silent smile.

"I'll take that as a 'no'." Janet sighed as she took the pen and wrote a simple sentence.

"'Can you read?'" Janet asked.

Once again Janet gave Sam the pen. Sam stared at the page, a look of intense concentration etched into her delicate features. She drew a few random lines under the question and then scribbled them out. Trying again she managed a few letters, but they didn't have any particular order.

Sam held up the clip board so that Daniel could see what she'd written. Reaching out he took the board away and studied for a moment. He chuckled and held out his hand in a silent request for the pen. She handed it over to him.

Daniel jotted down a few letters in English and then added a few symbols from some of the alien languages he'd learned over the years. Daniel showed the clip board to Sam and Janet. Janet looked them over, however, there was no pattern that she could see.

Sam chuckled and Daniel smiled as well as though at some inside joke. He offered the board and pen over to Jack to let him try. Jack snatched the paper off the board and started tearing it into little pieces.

"Well your personalities seem to be intact." Janet noted.

"They all passed their return check up after their last off world visit?" Hammond asked.

"With flying colours."

"And they didn't mention anything odd that had occurred."

"It seemed very routine."

"Any thoughts on what's happening?" The General asked.

"Well if I didn't know any better I'd say they were all suffering from a combination of Broca's and Wernicke's Aphasia."

"Meaning?"

"Well speech and language are basically processed in two areas of the brain. Broca's Area controls our ability to produce speech. To 'find the right words' so to speak. In extremely severe cases of Broca's Aphasia the patient losses all ability to speak, but they still comprehend and can communicate through writing."

"But Major Carter and Dr. Jackson seem unable to write."

"Or read." Janet sighed. "Which is where the Wernicke's Aphasia comes into play. Wernicke's Area is the portion of the brain responsible for language comprehension, both spoken and written. This is a very distressing disorder where the patient can still speak, but their word use is so inappropriate that it doesn't make any sense. People who have recovered from this say that during their condition they could not understand anything being said to them. However..."

"However?" Hammond pressed when she did not continue.

"Sir, both of these conditions are very rare and the chances of all three, possibly four, members of SG-1 suddenly showing signs of both with no signs of trauma are so small that they might as well be discounted."

"Dr. Frasier you should know better by now than to discount anything when it comes to SG-1, improbably or not. What I want to know is how do we reverse it?"

"Reverse it? I don't even know what's causing it."

"I want my team back, Doctor, figure it out."

"Yes, Sir."

"I am going to see if I can talk with Teal'c maybe he has some answers."

"Just be careful, Sir, he does not take well to having his meditation interrupted."

General Hammond nodded and Dr. Frasier watched him leave. Jack got up to follow him, but Daniel held his hand up to stop him. Jack glared at Daniel defiantly for a moment before sighing and sitting back down. Janet briefly entertained the idea that they were somehow communicated with one another. However her medical oriented mind quickly dismissed the thought. It was too bizarre, even for SG-1.

"Okay, guys, I know how much you hate to play 'Lab Rat'," Janet said even though she knew she wasn't being understood "but it's the only way I can even begin to help you."

Janet found herself uneasy by the way that the team looked at one another for a moment and then all turned their unspoken attention back to her. Janet was about to go over to the phone to call down to the MRI technicians when there was suddenly a subtle, yet palpable, change in the mood in the room. She watched as Daniel slowly turned to face Jack and to her surprise he actually curled his lip at the Colonel, like a dog starting a fight.

"Da..." Janet started and then yelped in surprise.

Sam suddenly leapt to her feet and wrapped her arms around Daniel's waist just before he lashed out at Jack. For a moment she managed to hold Daniel back. However, Jack rushed them both with a look of murderous rage painted on his face. They crashed into the infirmary bed in a tangled heap. Getting to their feet they momentarily separated, but then quickly went for one another's throats again.

The three way battle was pure chaos. Each of them seemed determined to kill the other, and yet when one of them would attack the third member did their best to protect the other. To Janet it looked they were each instigating the fight and trying to stop it all at the same time.

It wasn't until Daniel backhanded Jack hard enough to draw blood that Janet snapped out of her shock. She rushed to the emergency alarm and pressed the large red button for additional help.

Two guards had already heard the noise and were in the infirmary almost instantly. However they were not enough to stop the brawl as SG-1 turned their mindless aggression on anyone who touched them. It took three more Airmen to restore peace.

As quickly as it had started it was over. All three of them suddenly stopped struggling against the men holding them apart. Whatever had trigged the violence seemed to have passed. Sam looked to Janet with a heartbreaking expression of terror. Once again Jack and Daniel looked for all the world like they were holding a wordless conversation.

"Dr. Frasier?" The Airman holding Sam asked.

"We're going to have to separate them." Janet sighed.

"Under lock?"

"And guard."