Chapter 3
After Dannul's resistance to resting, the entire team met in the observation room. That way, they could keep an eye on their charges while they slept and discuss what they were going to do. It was worrisome to all of them that Dannul was suspicious, and they had to regain his trust. At the present time, he was the one who had learned the most, and if he stopped learning, then communication—true communication—would be delayed.
"Well, you've said it yourself, Ahntas, he's very intelligent. I think we underestimated him. He was able to figure out that we've been keeping him from his friends on purpose," Tehere said glumly. "Now what?"
"I don't know," Ahntas admitted. "He actually fought to stay awake. I think that he won't cooperate any further until we reunite him with the others."
"What will that do to their learning rate, though?" Liora pointed out. "I mean, will they keep learning, or will they stop? You know what's riding on this. They're the first intelligent species we've ever come across, and they showed up shortly after the Wheel was uncovered. They had to have come through it. We've already figured out that it's some sort of travel device, and it's clear that they came through it. They hold the secret of making it work."
"Yes, but will they want to share that secret with us?" Soro pointed out. "From the equipment they were carrying, we can safely say they are explorers and from a civilization comparable to our own, but who sent them? What exactly were they supposed to do here? How long were they supposed to stay? Will some government interpret our keeping them here as a hostile act?"
"Well, nothing's happened so far," Tehere shrugged. "I say we wait. The security team guarding the temple and the Wheel can tell us if anyone else comes, and they can make sure they hurt no one and they don't get hurt and then bring them here."
"That still doesn't solve our problem with Dannul," Ahntas said bleakly. "I hated to force him asleep like that—you know, he actually looked frightened before he fell asleep! If he's become frightened of us…." He trailed off, not quite sure what would happen.
"Well, there's one solution that will solve our problems nicely," Liora said, sounding thoughtful. Everyone turned to look at her. "We could reunite them. Dannul would begin to trust us again, and what if he began to teach the others all he knows already? Sam and Jack are learning, but Dannul's the one who seems to do the best. Won't their learning be that much faster if it were Dannul teaching them? With us teaching, it's a lot of miming and guesswork."
"What if they start to count on Dannul to translate for them all the time?" Ahntas countered. "It would be better if we could communicate with all four, instead of just Dannul."
"Why don't we try telling Dannul that?" Soro suggested. "He understands enough of what we say to understand that!"
Ahntas, as well as the rest of the team, had to admit that was very true.
"All right, we'll try reuniting them in the morning," Tehere said, rising from his seat. "No sense in waking them up now since it's night already. We've been talking here for longer than we realize, yet again. Get some rest, everyone."
Wearily, the team made its way to their quarters, each one thinking his or her own thoughts. If this plan worked; if it didn't…no one wanted to think of that. So much was riding on their work here. It was their first contact with an entirely different species of intelligent beings, and you only had one chance alone to do it right.
Space
Daniel woke, lashing out at two beings who were no longer there, fighting against them in a reflex that he'd gained over the years with SG-1: go down swinging, and then come back up swinging, as Jack would say. It was probably due to his lingering nightmare: he'd dreamed that he was in the tentacles of a giant squid that was trying to teach him Octopusese.
Easy, Daniel, he thought to himself. They're not here. You're alone. He got slowly out of bed and looked around the room, wondering whether it was the following morning or still that night, and whether Ahntas was nearby or not. It wasn't as if he could look outside since there was no window to be seen anywhere. He walked a few steps, and the lights slowly grew brighter from their usual let-Daniel-sleep dimness. He still wondered how they worked, and he found himself thinking of pressure sensors under the carpeting and other little gadgets that Carter would love to play with and take apart.
He wandered over to the table and looked at all of the things that still lay scattered there. Ahntas had not taken the blocks, balls, toys, or books. Books? Why hadn't he thought of those before? He could look at the books to pass the time, and maybe he would find something in them that could be helpful. A society's culture and values were always reflected in its written and recorded material. He could learn something that would help him deal with Ahntas, and perhaps he could make the jump from concrete to more abstract expression. That was all to the good, really. The sooner he learned to communicate, the sooner he found out why they were there.
He picked up the skinniest book there, looked at a few pages, and he realized that it was a primer, a book designed to teach reading! Wonderful! He sat down by the table and studied the first page. It was even designed like an English primer as well, which was all to the good as far as Daniel was concerned. A large symbol was printed at the top of the page, a picture below it, and then what was obviously a word beginning with that symbol. All words were written in a column, with the first symbol at the top. He saw a picture of a bed, and he stopped. He knew that word! Now, to learn how to read it. Was it an alphabet he was looking at, or was it a syllabary? Perhaps it was logograms or ideograms used as letters? If that was the case, then there would be perhaps several layers of meaning that he would be missing if he just learned to use the symbols as letters!
Calm down, he told himself sternly. You're thinking too much. Break this down into its simplest parts. Write each symbol down, and then try matching the sounds. See if the symbols function as letters or syllables first, then go from there.
That was just what he did. By the time he'd finished matching symbols with sounds, he'd learned that it was a syllabary, an "alphabet" where each symbol represented a sound of the language. "Litha," or "bed" was matched with two symbols, ones which Daniel had designated "lih" and "thah." It didn't seem possible that one could just give the "l" sound and the other give an "itha" sound because of the way the word was pronounced. "Li" was one sound, and "tha" was another. Having a syllabary that represented consonant and vowel combinations was a lot more sensible than having consonants and other combinations as well.
He found other pictures he recognized, and he was so glad that Ahntas had taught him simple words to begin with! He recognized a lot more than he thought he would. He even found the symbols for the syllables "gah" and "hag." It was just the same symbol turned around, which played out his "root" theory about the words for "hand" and "foot."
He'd matched three-quarters of the symbols (there were forty-five) with their sounds when his stomach growled. He was getting hungry, so that meant it was almost time to eat, and Ahntas always showed up to open the cupboard for him. By this time he'd learned exactly where it was located, but it never opened for him. He would have liked to open it on his own, though. He could have used something cool to drink while he'd been working.
Having learned all he could from the primer, he set it aside and opened one of the other books. After a few pages, he was sure he'd struck reading gold! It was a picture book, and each picture had a caption of one word that was telling him what the picture represented. Using that, he matched up the rest of the symbols with their sounds and he was certain he felt as the first man to translate hieroglyphics must have felt: astonished. Now that he knew the symbols and their sounds, the alien script was incredibly easy to read. Matching up the sounds and symbols again, he wrote his name, Ahntas' name, and his friends' names. Now he knew why his name and Teal'c's were pronounced so differently by Ahntas. The long "e" sound did not exist in this language. Interesting.
He was busy with writing all the words he knew using the syllabary when he sensed someone behind him. Turning, he saw it was Ahntas, and he said good morning.
"I'm really mad at you," Daniel told him, turning back to his writing. "You just can't force me to go to sleep whenever I want to do something you don't want me to do."
Ahntas sat down beside him and looked at what he was doing.
"Daniel tiera vie Sam, Jack, Teal'c mainta." "Mainta" was "now," and they'd covered it at some point, but Daniel really couldn't remember when. He continued. "Daniel heihn vie san, Daniel heihn por." That was easy enough to understand. I want to see my friends. If I don't see them all, I'll stop working with you.
For an answer, Ahntas stood and went over to the far wall and placed his fingers against it. Just like the cupboard, an opening appeared, but this one looked like a door. Ahntas beckoned to him and said, "Vena, Dannul. Sam, Jack, Tilk."
Daniel didn't need to be told twice. He left the table and followed Ahntas, and he found himself in another room. In that room were Sam, Jack, and Teal'c.
"Guys!" Daniel shouted, hurrying over to them. "Finally! It's great to see you!"
"Good to see you, too, Daniel," Jack said, giving him a buddy-hug. "You okay? Talking the local lingo yet?"
"Some," Daniel admitted after greeting Sam and Teal'c. "Are all of you all right?"
"Going slightly crazy, but alive," Jack told him.
"I'm...fascinated by the technology," Sam said happily. "You won't believe the things they give me to look at! There's this cube with little circles and they slide all over the place--"
"I am fine as well, Daniel Jackson, and I am most glad to see you," Teal'c said, easily inserting his comment when Sam became too excited to talk.
"It's great to see all of you, too," Daniel said, feeling relaxed for the first time since their arrival. "It was kind of like pulling teeth to get them to let me see you!"
"I know the feeling," Jack muttered. "So, any ideas what they want with us, why they're keeping us here, that sort of thing?"
Daniel shrugged as they all sat down. "As far as I can tell, they're interested in communicating with us. All of my interactions with Ahntas has been centered around his teaching me the language."
"Ahntas? Is that what yours is called?" Sam asked, surprised.
Daniel nodded. "Who's yours?"
"Liora."
"Okay, before we go any further, let's pool our information and do a re-hash so we're all on the same page," Jack suggested.
"Gotcha," Daniel said, moving over to the table. "Let's jot everything down as we go, too. We'll be able to study it at our leisure."
"I love how these things write," Sam said, sitting down beside him as Jack and Teal'c followed. "What I want to know now is how they work."
"We'll ask once we have the time," Jack promised her. "Re-hash now, Major."
They shared their information with one another, and by the time they'd finished, all of them shared Daniel's knowledge and understanding of their teachers.
"So, rather than confrontation, they just put us to sleep," Jack grumbled. "Sounds like they're avoiding the issue to me."
"Well, I have a feeling that they're realizing they can't always do that to us and expect us to accept it without a complaint," Daniel pointed out. "Last night I asked to see you, and this morning I'm here."
"That took place with Soro also," Teal'c said. "The only difference is that I was not cooperating with his teaching."
Daniel fought down a smile: he was sure that Teal'c would not have been cooperative at any time.
"So, do you think that we could convince them to let us go? You know, go back through the Stargate to home?" Jack wanted to know.
"Honestly, I couldn't tell you," Daniel confessed. "Ahntas hasn't mentioned the Stargate or anything about where I've come from. Perhaps he's not interested, or he's more interested in teaching us. There's no way I can know unless I find some way to ask him."
"Yeah, but would they know what you're asking?" Sam wondered. "Do you think drawing it would work?"
"Maybe, but once I learn the word and the associated terms, it will be a lot easier," Daniel said as he studied everything they'd scrawled down on the table.
Jack looked thoughtful as only Jack could. "What gets me is why they're so focused on language with us. I mean, wouldn't they also want to know where we came from? They can't think the stork brought us."
The image of Jack O'Neill being carried by a stork while he was toting an MP5 was so hilarious that Daniel couldn't hide a smile. "Well, like I said a minute ago, there's been no mention of it to me. Anything about it to any of you?"
Everyone answered no. "Then it's settled," Daniel concluded. "They've asked none of us about the Stargate. That's...significant."
Teal'c looked at him. "In what way?"
"I have no idea." Everyone turned to look at Daniel. "I guess we'll have to work on finding that out."
Their teachers entered then, and it was then that Daniel noticed how silently they moved. Ahntas immediately went to Daniel's side and looked at the notes he'd written down on the tabletop. "Shia, Dannul. Dannul? Scrava, shpasa." Write, please.
"Scrava?" Daniel repeated, writing Ahntas' name. "Daniel scrava. Daniel scrava eh por, Jack, Sam, Teal'c scrava eh por." That was the closest he could come to saying that he would like to teach his friends. Teaching them meant that they would have to see one another on a regular basis, and that was exactly what he wanted. He didn't want to be separated from them like that again. Every member of SG-1 saw the aliens shift colors so quickly and differently that they were amazed. What had just happened?
In the next moment they knew that the color shifts had been a form of communication, for Ahntas nodded his head. "Dannul scrava eh por. Sam, Jack, Teal'c scrava eh por. San aplan."
"Aplan? What's aplan?" Jack asked Daniel.
Daniel shrugged a reply. "It's a word I haven't heard before."
Ahntas, sensing the need for an explanation, began to speak. "Dannul aplan. Dannul aplan scrava. Dannal aplan por. Sam aplan. Sam aplan por." He stopped and placed his hand to the side of Daniel's head. "Aplan. Dannul aplan. Dannul aplan Ahntas," he stopped and placed his other hand on his own head before saying, "eh Ahntas aplan Dannul. Aplan."
Daniel thought about all Ahntas had said and what he'd done and the meaning became clear. "He's saying 'learn.' We'll all learn, and we've been learning about each other. He's just given us another verb."
"Call out the brass band; we've got a verb," Jack said snarkily.
Daniel ignored him and jotted it down. "Dannul aplan scrava," he said, pointing to himself. "Dannul--" he made a gesture towards his friends, indicating that he wanted the word for "teach" and said, "Scrava. Dannul," he repeated the gesture, "scrava Sam, Jack, Teal'c."
"Istrech!" Ahntas said, shifting pink. "Dannul istrech scrava. Dannul istrech por. Dannul istrech scrava eh por Sam, Jack, Teal'c. Ahntas istrech por Dannul."
"Merga," Daniel said, jotting it all down. "Daniel teaches or will teach writing, ditto speaking. Daniel will teach writing and speaking to his friends. Ahntas teaches, will teach, or perhaps in this case, taught Daniel to speak."
"Keihn! San aplan por avet Ghenta."
"Okay, I understood that first part," Sam said, looking confused. "We'll all learn to speak, but what does 'avet Ghenta' mean?"
Daniel went after the most obvious word first. "Ghenta?"
Ahntas pointed to himself, and then the rest of his team. "Ghenta. San Ghenta."
"A family name?" Teal'c wondered.
"More like a people or species name," Daniel said, thinking hard. "So, he's saying that we'll all learn to speak with the Ghenta. 'Avet' can't be anything else but 'with.'"
"Can you tell him who we are?" Jack asked. "You know, explain the Stargate?"
Daniel nodded, but Ahntas shook his head. "Jack por."
"Ah, heihn," Jack said. "Daniel, how do you say 'faster?'" At Daniel's shrug he continued. "Jack heihn por. Jack pors bad. You know how bad I talk, so let's let Daniel por for us, huh?"
"Heihn," Tehere said, sounding determined. "San aplan por, san por."
"Sam, Jack, Teal'c, Daniel san aplan por," Daniel said calmly, trying to project all of that calm and pseudo-confidence into his voice. "Sam, Jack, Teal'c, eh Daniel istrech Ghenta Sam, Jack, Teal'c, eh Daniel."
"I'd love to learn pronouns," Sam muttered. "Not to mention prepositions."
"I'd love to have the language downloaded into my brain," Daniel answered her.
"I don't recommend that," Jack said, sounding impatient. "Do you think they understood you?"
"Well, we're going to find out now," Daniel said, sounding thoughtful and turning to Ahntas. "Sam, Jack, Teal'c, eh Daniel san human. San Tau'ri."
"Tau'reh?" Ahntas repeated, shifting colors in such a way that Daniel was sure he was either surprised, confused, or...something.
Daniel nodded and quickly wrote the word in the syllabary characters. "Tau'ri."
Ahntas stood up very quickly, staring at the word, and then he looked at the rest of his team. All of them were wearing the same shocked expressions.
"Hey, wait!" Daniel cried, getting up. "What's the matter?"
"What did you say to them that's got them all upset, Daniel?" Jack demanded.
"I don't know!" Daniel snapped, very worrried as he took Ahntas' hand in an attempt to keep him from leaving. "Ahntas, qeh? Qeh?"
Ahntas re-took his seat and looked at Daniel. "Tau'reh?"
"Keihn. Tau'ri," Daniel assured him.
Ahntas drew something on the table, something that looked just like a Stargate. Then, he drew another. Pointing to the first, he said, "Tau'reh." Then, he pointed to the other. "Ghenta."
"He's asking if we came through the Stargate!" Daniel said, elated. "Keihn! Keihn!"
"Keihn!" Liora celebrated. She said a few syllables that no one in SG-1 caught, but she seemed happy. She sounded just like Carter did when one of her theories proved true.
"Shabbah," Ahntas said, pointing to the drawings. "Tau'reh shabbah Ghenta."
"We gated to Ghenta," Daniel translated. "Keihn, Tau'reh shabbah Ghenta. Tau'reh shabbah Ghenta aplan Ghenta. The Tau'ri gated to Ghenta to learn about you and the planet."
"Keihn," Ahntas said, sounding very glad. "Ban! Oldas ban! Oldas ban Tau'reh shabba Ghenta. Ghenta istrech Tau'reh por, scrava, lir. Ghenta istrech Tau'reh Ghenta!"
"Lir?" Jack echoed, looking to Daniel for an explanation.
"Well, he mentions speaking and writing, so 'lir' may be 'read.' Is 'lir' 'read?'" Daniel asked, pretending to hold a book up to his face. "Lir?"
"Ban!" Ahntas congratulated him. "Oldas ban!"
"So, we're going to learn all about the Ghenta," Daniel concluded.
"What about returning to Tau'ri?" Teal'c asked.
"I can try asking to see how they'd take us going back and if they'd let us do it," Daniel said. "Tau'reh shabbah Tau'reh?"
Ahntas shook his head. "Heihn. Tau'reh aplan Ghenta."
"Ah. That answers that. They want us to learn," Daniel said, sounding more than a bit worried. "I guess they intend to keep us here until we do."
Jack glanced at Tehere. "That's not what I want to hear," Jack told Daniel. "Can you tell them that we can't stay?"
"I don't have the word for 'stay,'" Daniel protested.
"Then tell them we want to go!"
"I don't have that word either!" Daniel snapped. "Let's try communicating what we want before we start screaming at one another." Daniel took a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking. Then, he smiled. "Sam, vena," he said, motioning for Sam to approach him. She did, and he motioned her away and said her name. Then, he did it again. Five tries later, Ahntas understood what they wanted and supplied the word "veh."
"Merga," Daniel said, nodding to Ahntas. "Tau'ri veh Tau'ri."
"Heihn," Liora said, sounding a bit regretful. "Tau'reh mana Ghenta."
"Remain?" Carter guessed, hearing the word 'mana.' "Is that it?"
Ahntas, sensing their confusion, stood and walked. "Veh." Then, he stopped and sat down. "Mana."
"Okay, so we now have the word for stay," Daniel said, quickly jotting the new words down. "Tau'ri heihn mana Ghenta. Tau'ri veh Tau'ri."
"Heihn," Soro said, stepping forward. "San Tau'ri mana Ghenta."
"Heihn," Daniel insisted. "Tau'ri veh Tau'ri. Heihn mana." He saw Ahntas rub the top of his head in exasperation, and a color-shift that meant his patience was wearing very thin.
"Heihn," Tehere said, moving to the room's cupboard. "Ahteh mainta." Eat, now. Tehere was saying that it was time for breakfast.
"No, no, no, no, no," Jack said, shaking his head in disgust. "The last thing I want to do right now is eat. I want to settle the question of when we're leaving."
"I have a feeling they will not discuss it, O'Neill," Teal'c told him.
"Well, I wanna discuss it," Jack pointed out. "Daniel, could you translate? We have to return home. We want to go back to Earth now."
Daniel sighed. "Shpasa. Tau'ri veh Tau'ri mainta. Tau'ri tiera veh Tau'ri mainta."
Tehere actually looked regretful. "Heihn. Tau'ri mana Ghenta." He motioned to the rest of the Ghenta, and they left as one after placing breakfast on the table for SG-1. Daniel and his friends looked at one another, wondering what they could do to get themselves home.
