It came to Daniel that he had made a mistake.

Just a few short hours ago, the team had arrived off-world. The location's ecology was unusual to find at the other end of a wormhole. The majority of worlds saw the Stargate placed in a temperate region. Sometimes barren deserts awaited, now and then something even more exotic. But Daniel couldn't recall a time when he'd been to a world where the area around the Stargate qualified as a tropical rainforest.

Looking out at the thickly tangled branches, vines, trees and other plant life, Jack muttered, "My kingdom for a pair of hedge trimmers."

When the MALP had sent its first images back, Sam had remarked that insects were probably quite prolific and that some precautions might need to be taken.

At first glance, the world hadn't actually seemed all that interesting. The severe overgrowth of vegetation on and around the Stargate suggested that no civilization had survived. Though the view was unusual to see through the camera of the MALP, there was nothing particularly special looking about this rainforest versus one on Earth... other than the fact that they hadn't been to a rainforest on another planet. That in itself was enough to get the planet some attention.

But what drew SG-1 in particular to the site was what was picked up after there had been a little more looking around by the MALP and a UAV. A couple of miles south of the Stargate, there was a cleared area, surrounding a set of standing stones which were marked with what Daniel recognized as symbols from at least three distinct languages.

The picture resolution was inadequate for him to translate, and the other linguistic experts employed by the SGC all shook their heads at the prospect and told General Hammond that Dr. Jackson was the one best qualified to read the markings on the stones. When necessary, Daniel often briefly attached to teams other than SG-1, particularly when there was nothing on a planet to interest the rest of them.

But Sam had taken a look at the images and pointed out what looked like the vine-plant Linea had used on the prison world to power the Stargate a little over a year ago. Understandably excited about the potential power source, having been unable to find any plant that looked anything like the one from Hadante, Sam was eager for a closer look at what Jack had called Alien Stonehenge.

"It's a lot more than that," Sam had told him, "In jungle like this, there shouldn't be a clear area like what's around those stones. Not naturally. Someone or something must keep the forest from swallowing up those stones, otherwise the jungle would bury them for sure."

"Jack, if there's a civilization there-" Daniel had begun, but Jack had cut him off with a sarcastic remark the nature of which doesn't bear repeating.

General Hammond, however, was sufficiently intrigued to give SG-1 a go.

Daniel's years of archeological experience prior to joining the Stargate Program prepared him for unpleasant conditions. His year on Abydos had taught him more about the effects of heat on the human body than he'd ever wanted to know. But he had discovered that -while not born to it- he was meant for the desert. He thrived in arid conditions, in heat, under sun. Humidity, on the other hand, destroyed him. The moment he set foot on the other side of the Stargate he began having second thoughts.

The humidity was so high that the rainforest was shrouded in mist. It was hot, and as predicted the blood sucking insects found the team almost instantly. In spite of wearing repellent and loose fitting clothing, they were immediately subject to hundreds of bites. Something very like a mosquito seemed especially fond of flying in Daniel's face and getting stuck behind the lenses of his glasses, where it would fly back and forth frantically, pinging off the glass and poking him in the eye repeatedly.

It was at this point that Jack made the remark about hedge trimmers.

Daniel began to formulate a response, but then he sneezed. It came as much a surprise to him as the rest of the team. Dr. Janet Fraser was a brilliant medical doctor. She had managed to find a combination of antihistamines that actually all but eliminated the sneezing fits Daniel had formerly suffered whenever he traveled anywhere. When Daniel sneezed this time, Sam actually flinched and stared at him in surprise.

"You okay?" Jack inquired.

"Lots of pollen in the air," Daniel replied dismissively.

He sniffed, trying to clear his sinuses, noticing as he did so that Sam was looking worried.

"My allergies make me miserable," he assured her, "But they haven't killed me."

"Yet," Jack added unhelpfully.

The worst part about the remark was the truth of it. Allergies could layer on top of each other. In other words, a person allergic to both peanuts and sunflower seeds would have a more severe and possibly varied reaction if they ate both at the same time. If they were also allergic to cats, they would feel much worse if they ate the food they were allergic to while in the presence of a cat than they would with either just the food or only the cat to contend with. Allergic reactions were traditionally viewed as either a runny nose or death, but the reality was that any possible symptom of illness was also a possible allergic reaction. Everything from headaches and fatigue to fever, seizures and fainting (and of course death).

But Daniel's allergic reactions had always mercifully only been a misery in his life, nothing worse. Of course, when pressure built up in his sinuses and he felt a raw soreness at the back of his throat and his vision became worse than usual, it was hard to remember that he was one of the lucky ones.

Still, he had been determined not to let a little personal discomfort slow him down. Long before coming to Cheyenne Mountain that first time, Daniel had chosen a life that saw him traveling all over the world, often into areas rife with wildlife and plants that his system seemed unable to cope with. A little suffering for the work he loved was worth it.

In fact, as Teal'c picked their path through the jungle and the others followed, it seemed to Daniel that Jack was more distressed by his sneezing than he himself was. Jack kept sort of looking at him whenever he sneezed, whereupon Daniel would sniff and excuse himself.

With Jack, it was hard to tell if he was worried about Daniel himself or merely the amount of noise being generated. If there were indeed people here, every sneeze gave them the team's exact location. Jack was probably only concerned with any inherently unfriendly people, but Daniel knew that there were cultures on Earth who counted sneezing as being inexcusably rude, and so he might well be making an unfavorable first impression on an otherwise perfectly friendly people.

Daniel tried to sneeze more quietly.

However, despite Sam and Daniel's assertions that people must be here to maintain the area around the stones, there was no sign of civilization at any point on the arduous journey to the stones. To be sure, there were plenty of signs of life, but all of it that wasn't plant was animal.

Aside from the bugs, there were things in the canopy of trees that shouted alarm calls as SG-1 passed underneath them. Some planets had their own indigenous species, but many of them either had species brought from Earth, or that had made their way to Earth. The things in the trees could be alien, or they could be the sorts of birds, squirrels and monkeys one would expect to find in a rainforest on Earth.

In any case, the only thing about the racket that concerned SG-1 was that it was more likely to pinpoint their location to a potential enemy than Daniel's sneezing. On the upside, Daniel's sneezing was almost utterly drowned out by the screeching and roaring and cackling that was going on overhead.

It wasn't a long way to the stones, but Daniel knew that he would have been wandering in hopeless circles had Teal'c not been acting as guide. The tall Jaffa had an unerring sense of direction. Initially, Jack had tried to institute the common military practice of having a rotating point man, but he'd given it up years ago.

There was an unusual dynamic between Jack and Teal'c. The Jaffa was older than Jack, and had been the leader of Apophis' army. He had commanded many men, and probably for longer than Jack had even been alive, based on what Daniel had managed to get Teal'c to tell him. In short, Teal'c did not take orders from Jack particularly seriously, even though he clearly respected Jack's position of authority on the team. There was a curious duality to him, in that he understood the chain of command and respected Jack, but also did whatever he pleased. And what he pleased was usually to take point, particularly at the beginning of missions when they were scouting unknown terrain.

Jack's frustration at Teal'c's independence was overshadowed by his own respect for the former First Prime as an individual and his unspoken awe of Teal'c's skills. Teal'c was a superior scout and fighter, both in close combat and ranged attacks. He'd proven he was better suited to the point position than any of the rest of them to such a degree that even considering anyone besides Teal'c for the position was laughable.

Daniel would probably never say it to Jack's face for fear of the Colonel making a joke out of it or mocking him, but Daniel recognized and admired the ability Jack had to accept things out of his control. Jack was a military man, and Daniel's opinion of the military was that it was very restrictive and highly controlled. Jack had chosen the field and excelled at it. Yet he had within him the capacity to embrace the mysteries of space with a team he could not fully control.

Daniel knew he himself was a nuisance to anyone trying to work with him because he was independent and single-minded in his pursuit of answers to questions he had. The search for knowledge was all-consuming, and Daniel knew he was at times reckless and foolish. Faced with a fascinating piece of history, Daniel would lose all sight of himself and his own safety and even (to his shame) that of his team mates. That had to be infuriating for a man like Jack.

Yet Jack had not one but two people on his team over which he had very little control. Though he hadn't picked the team initially, he had since made it clear that Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were the people he most wanted to explore the galaxy with, and he would accept nothing less than all three of them. He actively chose to surround himself with people who challenged him and (for sure in the case of Sam) were smarter than he was. It took quite a man to do that. Of course, Jack wasn't as stupid as he pretended to be. It had taken Daniel a little while to realize it, but Jack could no longer fool him with that confused village idiot act he liked to put on.

Three years ago, or even two, Daniel would have thought he had Jack fooled when he said that the phone call that morning had been a wrong number. Now he knew that Jack was just pretending to be fooled either out of politeness or because he really wasn't interested in Daniel's private affairs. Being as Jack had done so much to help Daniel try to get his wife back, the latter seemed unlikely. On the other hand, Jack was not known for his politeness. It was likely he was going to bring it up later, at some time when Daniel was distracted or stressed or otherwise not expecting it. Jack was good at prying information out of people who didn't want to share.

When they reached the stones however, Daniel pretty much forgot about the phone call, and the possibility of Jack bringing it up. He fell into the trance of reading and trying to translate ancient texts. He forgot about his allergies and lost any sense of time almost instantly. He didn't know what Sam was doing with the vines, or what Jack and Teal'c were finding when they scouted the area, and he didn't really care.

All he knew was that the markings down the sides of the stones were a beautiful combination of three languages that were of three entirely separate origins. Here they mingled with mystifying fluidity. Aramaic, something he thought was Latin, and what it took Daniel a few minutes to recognize as a very mangled variation of Goa'uld symbols mixed together to make something almost incomprehensible to the uninitiated. The alphabet for each language was different, so the fact that they had somehow blended together was in itself quite remarkable. Some of the symbols were slightly altered versions of their Earth counterpart, just different enough to make recognizing them difficult.

Daniel wasn't sure whether minutes or hours had passed when Jack came up behind him.

"Well?" Jack asked.

"This is amazing," Daniel mumbled.

"Uh-huh," Jack replied skeptically, looking up and down the stone Daniel was standing in front of.

Most of the stones were six to eight feet high. They were arranged in a circle, a common shape for such things. But what their purpose was, Daniel had yet to determine. He knew Jack was hoping for more than he had at this time. Jack always wanted an instant translation, and he had little interest in historical records. Unless these stones told them the location of a weapon or some other object which could be used to defeat the Goa'uld, Jack really wasn't very interested.

Jack could be annoyingly one-dimensional in his thinking. Simple, Jack liked to call it. He didn't understand that translating ancient documents could take years, and often there were hidden meanings and a person could spend a lifetime following clues left in texts without finding anything. There was always more to it than just a pointing arrow and a sign saying "this way to super weapon". The man was like a cat, patient as hell under some conditions and unable to wait even a second in other situations. By interrupting Daniel in the way that he did, Jack did the verbal equivalent of jumping on a counter-top and using a paw to knock glasses onto the floor to get attention.

"Jack, the people that were brought here... they were probably brought hundreds of years apart, maybe more. From completely different regions. Why would the Goa'uld do that?" Daniel looked at Jack when he started speaking, but by the time he finished he was looking at the text again, "Why would they do that? And the culture that later developed... instead of splitting up or favoring one language over the other, they actually... combined them, and then used whatever Goa'uld they knew to fill in what they didn't have the words for. To do that, they must have overthrown whoever their gods were before the Goa'uld decided to outlaw reading and writing to prevent uprisings. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to use the Goa'uld symbols correctly because they would never have learned to read them."

"That's nice, Daniel," Jack remarked sarcastically, "But what do these amazing rocks say?"

"I have no idea," Daniel replied with no small amount of delight.

He absolutely loved unraveling ancient mysteries and reasoning out puzzles. His ability to learn other languages had surpassed all expectations. He'd even gone so far as to read works that had supposedly been translated because he found the translations inaccurate and/or nonsensical. Most people found reading dead languages extremely difficult, but Daniel eventually just found it a little boring because it was so easy for him. Opening the Stargate had given him new challenges, new histories to learn, new languages, living languages that were dead on Earth, and new mysteries. A whole new world of the unknown had been presented to him, and he adored it.

Daniel was always at his happiest when he had no idea what he was doing, but a good idea of where to start. He had no idea what any of the texts on the stones meant, but he could read all three languages involved. In time, he knew he could decipher all of this. Daniel was a historian, but unlike most of his type he wasn't as obsessed with the past as he was with the exact moment he was in. At this particular moment, he'd practically forgotten about Earth, the wasps that had so fascinated him all weekend, the Goa'uld, the fact he was on an alien planet, his allergies, even the bugs which were still gnawing on him. He had lost almost all awareness of anything beyond the symbols etched in stone.

Jack, on the other hand, was less than enthralled.

"So how long will it take for you to get some idea?" Jack asked.

There were a lot of annoying things about Jack. But the most annoying was probably his tendency to ask questions for which there could be no possible answer. Having no idea meant Daniel had no idea, not that he was starting to get an idea. He could just make up a number to answer the question, but that had never been his habit.

Daniel might have consciously forgotten about the phone call, but subconsciously he was still rattled. That manifested itself in the irritation in his voice when he responded.

"I don't know. Awhile. Longer if you keep interrupting," Daniel said.

Jack was never one to back off, even when it was advisable. It was one of the reasons he and Daniel couldn't go a day without having a fight about something. Neither of them ever knew to back off when it was good for them. It was this same trait that had found Daniel talking to a room full of empty chairs when he finally voiced his (well researched) opinion that the pyramids were actually much older than everyone thought. The space aliens hadn't originally been part of it, but everyone assumed they were. Daniel had watched helplessly as the room emptied, but he'd kept talking like an idiot because it was not in his nature to back off, especially when challenged.

"Yeah well," Jack observed, "I think the natives are gettin' restless."

Daniel's brow furrowed, "How so?"

"You can't hear that?" Jack inquired.

Daniel cocked his head and listened, gradually regaining his awareness of the world around him. What he heard was the shaking of branches in the trees several yards behind him, and also a strange croaking sound that was oddly familiar to him. It took him a moment to place it.

"Sounds like howler monkeys," Daniel said.

"I'm not going to ask you how you know that," Jack remarked.

Daniel had primarily always been interested in Egypt, but during his years as a student he took any opportunity to travel. At one point, he had found his way onto a research team headed to Brazil. He'd spent several months there, certainly long enough to get used to the black howler monkeys that did their territorial "howling" every morning at the first sign of light. They had big roaring voices, and most of the team had joked that they sounded like King Kong, but -though they were the largest monkeys in South America- they were only about twenty pounds apiece. Though impressively strong, as all apes were, howlers mostly stuck to the trees and never to Daniel's knowledge came into direct conflict with humans.

"Jack, they're harmless," Daniel said, "They're probably yelling at each other."

"It's the yelling that bothers me," Jack told him, "Yelling usually isn't a good thing."

"Howler monkeys do it all the time. It's the monkey equivalent of... stay off my lawn."

"Daniel, have you noticed where we're standing? This is their lawn."

"They're tree dwellers. They're not very interested in what's happening on the ground."

Jack hesitated, frowning. He didn't like that Daniel had a point. He never did. The question was whether he was going to insist on his own way.

"You're sure they're howler monkeys?" Jack asked after a moment.

Daniel obligingly listened again, very intently, "Pretty sure."

"Daniel..." Jack said warningly.

"I'm sure, I'm sure. Okay? Now... back off. Please."

Daniel started to turn back to the stones, but kept a wary eye on Jack, just in case the Colonel wasn't done arguing. Jack continued to look uneasy, and Daniel noticed Teal'c in his peripheral vision also looked uncomfortable. He didn't blame them. Howlers sounded like something from a B-movie horror film come to life. But several months in Brazil had pretty much immunized Daniel to any sense of danger at hearing their calls.

It didn't really occur to him to wonder what howlers would be doing here. The Goa'uld had, like many ancient rulers on Earth, kept exotic pets. When Daniel had met him, Ra had been surrounded not just by slaves, but also cats. Monkeys were pretty commonly given as exotic gifts to rulers, and it wouldn't be surprising at all if some slaves of the Goa'uld had presented them with howler monkeys, which later escaped and survived here. It wouldn't be the first time exotic Earth animals had wound up on an alien world. Daniel was a long way from an animal expert, but this forest seemed like exactly the sort of place for howler monkeys to thrive. He thought so mainly because it reminded him of his time in Brazil, trekking through the forests to find ancient ruins of former civilizations and primitive people that had since been wiped out, and the howlers sure did like those forests.

It seemed like he'd only just returned his focus to the stones when he heard Sam call him by name. If Sam was interrupting Daniel's work, that meant she'd found something she thought would interest him or possibly aid him in his translation work. That made his reflexive tone of voice in responding to her a much more pleasant one than what he'd addressed Jack with.

"Yeah?" he looked up, at sound of his name.

Sam and Daniel had a passing understanding of each other. They both were often involved in complex and difficult work for which no one around them had any understanding. They both knew how disruptive interruption could be, derailing entire trains of thought and forcing them to start over. Sometimes in the heat of a crisis, one of them could be found urging the other to hurry up, but their normal mode of operation was to let each other work in peace.

"Over here," Sam called, "Come look at this."

Curious, Daniel left his open pack where he'd dropped it when he started work and followed the sound of Sam's voice. He found her crouching on the ground behind one of the larger stones. As he neared her, he saw something in front of her that wasn't just part of the landscape.

Sam had pushed off the plants and dirt that had mostly obscured the object. It was gray, about a foot and a half long by the looks of it, and appeared roughly cylindrical in shape. It was metallic, but had the slightly soft appearance that was often a characteristic of Goa'uld devices built using naquadah. The appearance of softness was a complete illusion, naquadah was a very dense, heavy material, and if an object was even one percent naquadah it was virtually indestructible by conventional means.

"That looks like naquadah," Daniel observed.

"And covered in markings I can't read," Sam replied.

By the excitement in her voice, Daniel realized this wasn't just any object, but a piece of technology. Looking more closely, he saw it was covered with symbols. It had panels which -if detached- would probably reveal control crystals inside. Most of the advanced races of the galaxy used crystals of various descriptions to power their technology.

But looking at the outside didn't tell Sam a lot about what this particular object was. She was obviously hoping Daniel might be able to identify it by reading the symbols, or that the two of them working together could do so. At the very least, she wanted to determine how dangerous it might be before they began poking it. She was smarter than most people Daniel knew, because though she was an expert in her field she was not so arrogant as to go messing around with things she didn't understand when someone else might be able to add some insight to it. She also seemed to innately know what Daniel had been forced to learn the hard way: If you don't know what it is, don't touch it.

Sam said nothing while Daniel studied the symbols, but he could feel her impatience. It didn't bother him, because he understood the excitement of discovery, and the frustration at having to wait for someone to do something you didn't understand before being able to get your hands on that discovery and begin to explore it for yourself. After a few minutes, he sat back.

"Well?" Sam prompted.

"I think it's some kind of power source."

"Looks like a bottle rocket to me," Jack observed, peering over Daniel's shoulder.

"I don't think the Goa'uld are particularly into fireworks," Daniel muttered.

"Maybe not, but I'm still thinkin'... explosive," Jack said.

"It's not an explosive," Daniel asserted, "If you don't believe me, ask Teal'c."

"Hey, Teal'c," Jack called, "You know what this thing is?"

Teal'c came over slowly. He took an agonizingly long few seconds to gaze at the device.

"I do not," Teal'c declared impassively.

"See? If it were an explosive, don't you think Teal'c would know?" Daniel challenged.

"Not necessarily," Jack retorted, "There's plenty of stuff Teal'c doesn't know," he paused uncertainly, then looked at Teal'c, "No offense."

Teal'c inclined his head slightly, indicating no offense had been taken.

"I agree with Daniel," Sam volunteered, "So long as we're careful, I'd say this is safe to uncover the rest of the way."

"Yes... but is it safe to take home with us?" Jack inquired.

"I won't know without seeing the rest of it," Sam replied, "Why?"

"Because I don't like the sounds I'm hearing," Jack told her, "And I think we should get back to the 'Gate before they get any louder."

"Jack," Daniel huffed irritably, "They're making contact calls, not-"

He broke off suddenly, listening to the low-note sounds, struggling to comprehend their meaning. One lesson he'd learned on Abydos and taken with him on every mission since: finding the root language was only a fraction of what was necessary to achieve communication. Before that link to the chain of understanding was established, it was important to be able to recognize intent. A commonality between almost every language, Earth-based and alien, that he had learned was that the lower the note, the greater the danger. Growls, barks and whines do not qualify as a language by human linguistic standards, but they are highly effective means of communicating.

Jack was right, the tone of the roaring howls had changed. They were no longer contact calls or territorial displays. They had dropped to a much lower note, one that was unmistakably a threat or challenge. Looking around, Daniel also came to another realization. He had made a mistake. The things in the trees were not howlers.

They were much, much bigger.

"Jack..." Daniel said slowly, quietly, and in as calm a tone as he could manage.

"Yes, Daniel?" Jack picked up on the new wariness in Daniel's tone, and did his level best to match it.

"I think we should go."

"Oh?"

"Now."

"Oh."