nightspear | Translations (9/19)

Title: Translations (Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.

Chapter1	Chapter2	Chapter3	Chapter4	Chapter5
Chapter6	Chapter7	Chapter8	Chapter9

XXXXX

Chapter 9: Hammer and Anvil

XXXXX

13 November 1997; SGC, Earth, 0900 hrs

"So, what's this new theory I've been hearing about?" Jack asked as he entered the briefing room. He came to a halt when he realized who was there. "Ah...Rothman. Hello." The archaeologist didn't even look up from where he was fiddling with his laptop. "I'm fine, thanks," Jack added. "How are you?"

"Jack!" another voice said happily.

Jack frowned and took a minute to look around the room and make sure he wasn't the only one who thought it was out of the ordinary to see Daniel grinning excitedly at him from just behind Rothman. Carter shrugged. "Daniel," he answered. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Oh, good morning, Colonel," Rothman said, raising his head at last and sounding like he'd honestly just noticed Jack's arrival. "We've worked out some new information that General Hammond wants you to hear." Jack looked pointedly at the minor in the room. "Oh, the general said Daniel could stay during the briefing; he's the one who hammered out the initial translations that set this all off."

"You have to hear this," Daniel added. "If we're right, this is...this is enormous!"

Daniel was being unusually...perky. And he was smiling a lot. Which was not to say that he never smiled at all, but this was...well, a little excessive. Jack stared at him suspiciously, then asked the room at large, "Did someone feed him coffee? Some other form of caffeine, perhaps? Because this is...odd."

A thoughtful look came over Daniel's face, and Jack cursed himself silently for having mentioned it at all. He tried to remember if he'd seen a coffeemaker in Rothman's office to decide whether or not he had a coffee addict brewing on his hands. "On the other hand," he amended, "pretend I never said that."

"Ja-ack," Daniel complained, rolling his eyes and actually bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. Even Carter raised her eyebrows at the uncharacteristically playful tone. "I'm serious. This could--"

"Good morning," General Hammond said, strolling in.

"--be exactly...oh. Sorry. Sir." Daniel flushed, then hurried to take a seat near the opposite end of the table, folding his hands on top of the table and becoming impressively still and quiet. Jack decided it must be from all the kel-no-reem-ing practice.

Once they were all seated, aside from Rothman, Hammond said, "Dr. Rothman, I understand you have a new theory about the Stargate."

"That's right," Rothman said, switching on the projector. "It's not the Stargates themselves we're concerned about here--it's more a theory about the Goa'uld and other possible...self-styled gods."

Oy. Just what they needed: more gods.

"By studying various mythologies from all over the world, it looks like there were two types: the Goa'uld, who were tyrants, and another group, who were benevolent deities and used technology to benefit humans," Rothman explained.

"Why would the Goa'uld let another race use their Stargates?" Hammond asked.

"Well, we don't think the Stargates belonged to the Goa'uld to begin with," Rothman said, and the thought was so new to Jack that he sat up a little to listen. "That is, they weren't the ones who built the 'gates. They're parasites--like everything else, they just took advantage of something that was already there. And that means that any benevolent gods of equal or greater power could have used them, too, and we have reason to believe that this is the case."

Daniel was on the verge of starting to bounce again in excitement, though Hammond didn't betray anything when he asked, "Any indication of who they are?"

Rothman took a quick look around the room. "The Vikings."

Jack was comforted by the fact that Hammond and Carter looked skeptical, too.

"You see," Rothman continued, clicking forward in his presentation, "in Norse mythology, the gods were powerful warriors. Giants called the Jötnar, or Ettins, or...well there are different names, but either way, they were enemies of mankind with great knowledge and power--which sounds like the Goa'uld--and the god Thor protected humans from them, using a weapon called Thor's Hammer."

"I've heard that name before. Something about thunder?" Jack said, glancing at Daniel, who looked pleasantly surprised that he'd remembered.

"The Norse god of thunder," Rothman confirmed. "The Hammer was his weapon. Supposedly, it produced thunder and lightning when thrown." He showed a picture of what seemed to be a Viking frying someone with something like a staff weapon on steroids. "That could indicate a high level of technology and advanced energy weapons."

"So you're saying these Viking gods were aliens who were hostile to the Goa'uld," Jack summarized, "and we should look them up."

Hammond was looking interested. "Do we know where to start?"

"Yes, sir, we think so," Rothman said, putting down the pointer and moving to a folder. "One of the tablets that SG-2 found on P4C-168, the abandoned planet I visited with them, seemed to be a record of how the people were enslaved by the Goa'uld to mine naquadah, and then the Goa'uld were in turn destroyed by another unnamed race of aliens, probably a long time ago. Once we found the device to turn the page on the tablets and were able to read on, we found a warning left to other Goa'uld to stay away from a particular planet and not to go there seeking more naquadah or anything else. They left coordinates; I have them here somewhere...if you'll just hold on..."

Rothman pushed up his glasses and continued to flip through his papers, looking flustered. Jack couldn't help rolling his eyes a little.

"Here," Daniel spoke up, looking relieved not to be staying quiet anymore. He was scribbling something in that notebook he always seemed to carry around, and then he pushed it toward Carter, who was sitting the closest. "I memorized the symbols. That's the address we found. This could be where Thor and the other benevolent gods are."

Jack took a cursory glance at the symbols--he'd memorize them if it turned out to be necessary--and passed the book to Teal'c. "What if it wasn't the...Vikings who got rid of the Goa'uld on P4C-168?"

"Then it was some other race of aliens the Goa'uld are scared of," Daniel pointed out. "It still sounds like a good choice."

Then Teal'c said, "I know of this place."

That caught their attention. "You do?" Jack said.

"Indeed. These coordinates lead to a world known as Cimmeria. All Jaffa are taught this sequence of Stargate symbols."

Hammond frowned. "Why's that, Teal'c?"

"To ensure that no Goa'uld goes there," Teal'c said. "It is forbidden. Something transpired on Cimmeria that no Goa'uld will speak of."

"Well, I like the sound of that," Jack said, a little impressed.

"So do I, Colonel," Hammond said. "All right, you have a go. SG-1 will leave for Cimmeria as soon as the coordinates are recalculated. Dr. Rothman, Mr. Jackson, good work."

Surprise showed on Daniel's face but was overtaken by a delighted smile as he watched the general return to his office.

"A little excited, kid?" Jack said.

"Jack, this could be what we've been waiting for! Beings who can destroy the Goa'uld..." Daniel was standing now, and practically quivering with excitement. "What if this is it? What if we--well, you--find Thor and the rest of his race, and we can finish this all right now?"

A warning began to chime in Jack's ears. "Now, hold on, there. This is a good lead, but we can't make any assumptions just yet. Even if we find them, Daniel, we don't know exactly what we're looking at. Or who. Don't get your hopes up too high."

"I suppose," Daniel conceded, visibly calming himself, but his eyes were still too brightly enthusiastic.

"I'm not joking," Jack stressed. "We don't know..."

"I understand, Jack," he said.

Carter spoke up from where she stood at Teal'c's side. "Daniel, do you mind if I take this sheet with me? I need to enter the coordinates into the dialing system and make sure the position is adjusted correctly in the computer before we try to leave. I don't think it's one of the addresses that was on the Abydos cartouche."

"Another indication," Rothman added, "that the Goa'uld don't like to go there."

Once she'd carefully torn out the page, she left with a quick wave. Rothman followed her out, awkwardly juggling his laptop and a mess of cords. "Daniel, there's a folder on the table--could you bring it up with you when you're done here?"

"Sure," Daniel said, looking dubiously at the way the laptop was tilting precariously in his mentor's arms.

"Oh, and return Dr. Barr's Norse mythology book to his office, will you?" Rothman said. A file slipped out from the middle of his pile, and he caught it with the look of deep relief of someone who had probably juggled large piles of useless books for much of his life and had experience with paper spills.

When he'd disappeared from sight without any mishaps, Teal'c handed the notebook back. "You would be wise to heed Colonel O'Neill's words, Daniel Jackson."

"I know," Daniel sighed. "But...it could be the right planet, yes?"

"It could be," Jack allowed, not wanting to extinguish the optimism in Daniel's eyes. Daniel didn't laugh a lot, though it was impossible to know whether that was how he'd always been or if it was something that came with recent events; Jack would have given a lot to be able to solve all their problems right then and there, too. "I hope so, too."

"And...uh, Jack?"

"Daniel?"

"Do you think I could go through the Stargate sometime?" Daniel said wistfully.

Jack sighed in exasperation. "We talked about this--"

"No, no," he interrupted hastily. "I mean...if there's a safe planet someone's visiting. Like when Robert went to P4C-168--you know, if there's something to study."

"You don't do enough studying here? If you're not in Rothman's office, you're practicing Goa'uld or reading one of Carter's books. You really want to go off-world to study?"

"I do other things," Daniel protested.

Jack snorted. "Right--you train to be a Jaffa in you and Teal'c's spare time." Teal'c raised an eyebrow. It was a joke, of course, but it occurred to him now that that was all Daniel ever really did: study, read, and work.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I'm not trying to go off-world just to study. But the Stargate is just...it's so..." He gestured helplessly.

Jack didn't need words to understand that. "Big?" he guessed.

"I suppose. But I don't just mean big. When it's active, it just looks so...incredible, and the SG teams walk through like it's nothing. To different worlds, with different peoples and...and everything. I'd like to try it sometime when I'm not...well, in peril."

"Hey, I get it, kid. It's a rush, sure, but--"

"You know," Daniel prodded, "Goa'uld is the basis of the language spoken on a lot of planets."

"Because the addresses we got from Abydos were ones the Goa'uld knew. Yeah, we've noticed that," Jack answered cautiously. "That's why Teal'c handles talks for us when we need it."

"Not every team travels with a Jaffa. Civilians go through the 'gate to help communicate, and you know no one else here speaks enough Goa'uld to be useful."

"If the people on a planet speak Goa'uld, we can probably assume it's not 'a safe planet' and we wouldn't be sending civilians through anyway."

"Some of them used to be Goa'uld planets but aren't anymore," Daniel said. "And Cimmeria's supposed to be free of Goa'uld."

"Okay, look," Jack said firmly. "First of all, 'no' to Cimmeria. Second, for the rest, you'd need to get permission from the general, but I'd still go with...no." Daniel looked disappointed but, fortunately, not particularly surprised. "If there's a completely safe planet, maybe he'd let you go with a team, but more than that? No way that's going to happen."

"I wasn't really expecting it to," he admitted, "but I thought I'd ask again." He shrugged. "So you're leaving at 1400 for Cimmeria?"

Jack searched his expression for a moment longer, then nodded. "Yeah."

"Good luck finding Thor, Jack! Rel'tor'key, Teal'c," Daniel said, his enthusiasm returning. "I'll be back here to watch you guys leave," he added, then gathered up Rothman's notes and left.

These days, they tended to let Daniel into the control room to watch as the SG teams left to go off-world. Jack had been surprised that he wasn't going around touching everything, but apparently he simply liked watching the 'gate activate and ripple. Jack couldn't deny that he understood the draw.

"We've still got hours before we leave, Teal'c," Jack said. "Go ahead and finish whatever you need, and then get ready."

"I will be here on time, O'Neill."

Hammond's voice hailed him before he made it out of the briefing room, and he stepped into the office. "General?" he asked.

"If this alien race turns out to be as powerful as we're hoping, I don't need to tell you that coming to a working agreement with them will be a major priority," Hammond said without preface.

"No, sir, I'm aware of that. As long as we don't have too much language difficulty, we can handle it."

"I'm sure you can," the general assured him. "I also want you to make sure you know everything you need to about this race before you start any dealings with them."

Well, that sounded like a warning. "Sir?"

"I'd rather err on the side of caution about any race that masquerades as gods, Colonel."

"These are supposed to be the good guys," Jack pointed out, though he understood the importance of the caveat.

Hammond sighed. "I hope that's true. If they are what Dr. Rothman described, then an alliance with them would be an incredible advantage. If, however, they have less than honorable motives...well, I don't want to see the Goa'uld fall just so someone worse can take their place, dragging us along with them."

"Yeah, I can see how that might be bad. General, if this whole...benevolent gods thing does pan out, though, how far are we authorized to take things? Should we dive right in and try to meet with them or leave the negotiations for Kovachek's team?"

"I'll leave this one to SG-1. If you feel the need for SG-9's support, contact me through the MALP and I'll send them through."

"Yes, sir." He paused, then asked, "If you don't mind, sir, what's Daniel doing setting up briefings?"

"He was only sitting in with Dr. Rothman," Hammond reminded him. "I understand he has a very personal interest in matters concerning the Goa'uld, but as long as everything is handled objectively, I don't see the problem. I won't ignore good information on account of his age."

"Right, sir. It's just...he's getting deeper into everything that goes on here. He started out doing a couple of translations; now people give him Egyptian and Goa'uld stuff to look at without even going through Rothman sometimes. He's also started to bring up going through the 'gate again, and honestly, at this rate, soon there won't be much logical reason to stop him."

"He's a civilian; there's a reason for you."

"He reminded me just now that Rothman went through the 'gate once, and two other civilians have, too."

Hammond folded his hands on his desk. "Dr. Rothman is not a minor."

"Yes, sir, and according to Abydonian culture, in something like half a year, Daniel won't be, either." The general scowled, and Jack added, "I'm not trying to convince you it's a good idea. I'm just saying that sooner or later, Daniel probably will come in here asking you to let him help one of the teams at an archaeological site or some meet-and-greet, and he'll have good reasons to support it."

Hammond pursed his lips. "I appreciate the warning, Colonel, and the fact that you're taking an interest in his wellbeing. Keep in mind that I still have final say, whether or not he thinks his arguments are good. If Mr. Jackson's going through the Stargate endangers anyone, including himself, I will not allow it to happen. Now, is there anything else, Colonel?"

Good enough for now. "No, sir," Jack said. "SG-1 will be prepared to leave for Cimmeria this afternoon."

XXXXX

13 November 1997; Hall of Mjolnir, Cimmeria; 2000 hrs

Several hours later, Jack was standing in a cave with Teal'c, staring at a...well, it was a mess. It had been a pretty ugly talking monster even before they'd shot it full of holes.

"So...is it dead?" he asked, staring at the thing.

"I believe it is, O'Neill," Teal'c told him.

"Now, see, Teal'c, you said that before, and it kinda came back to life."

"Without the healing power of the Goa'uld, this body will no longer regenerate. There is too much damage."

Jack considered the unmoving body of the Unas lying in the Hammer, waited another few moments to make sure it would stay unmoving, and conceded, "Yeah, you're probably right."

"O'Neill."

"What?"

"The message from the being called Thor said only the host could leave this place alive."

Oh, no, don't you dare... "Right," Jack said.

"Perhaps this could be of some benefit to Daniel Jackson's kin who were taken by the Goa'uld," Teal'c said neutrally, making no move to leave the chamber.

Jack tried not to think too hard about Daniel's bright, hopeful eyes, confident that they would succeed and bring home a silver bullet (or hammer) that would defeat the Goa'uld once and for all. But this wasn't a hard choice; there was no decision to make. He did not leave his men behind.

"Yeah, I thought of that too, but this is the only way out," Jack said firmly. "I'll shoot the damn thing and shut it down, and then we'll get out of here."

"No," Teal'c said.

"No?" Jack repeated, his voice taking on a dangerous edge.

"I will remain here. I was with those who took the boy and his sister from Abydos. I wronged them, and this technology can save them."

"Not an option," Jack said harshly. "I told Carter that we'd never fail a member of our team, and now I'm telling you the same thing. I'm not leaving unless you leave with me. Now give me your staff weapon." When the Jaffa hesitated, he barked, "That's an order, Teal'c!"

For a moment, he thought of simply walking into the chamber and shooting at the Hammer with his MP5 until it cracked or shorted or whatever the hell it was supposed to do, but he'd run out of ammo already. In any case, Jack needed Teal'c to let him do this. Self-sacrifice was noble and all, but he had to know that his team understood what it meant to be on SG-1--and that meant understanding that no member was expendable.

He needed every member of the team to be willing to die for the others. He also needed them to understand that he wouldn't let them.

When Teal'c finally held the staff out to him, he took it quickly, relieved and a little worried it would be pulled away at the last moment, then walked through the barrier separating the Hall of Meol-whatever from Thor's Hammer. He took a moment to nudge the Unas with his foot and then bent to make sure there was no pulse. Dead--good. It occurred to him that maybe an Unas didn't have the same pulse points as humans, but hell, no way that thing was still alive with that many holes in its hide.

Satisfied, he primed and aimed the staff weapon. "Stand back," he called to Teal'c, then braced himself as he let fly a blast over the doorway. He flinched back instinctively as the entire area flashed and sparked, as if there were charge running along it, but there was no effect that he could feel. When the Hammer was quiet again, he called, "Teal'c, try coming through now."

Silently, Teal'c walked gingerly through the doorway and visibly relaxed when nothing happened to him or Junior. "My symbiote and I are unharmed, O'Neill."

"Good." Realizing the staff weapon was still in his hand, he held it out to his teammate. "Glad to see it."

"Thank you, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said with a stiff bow.

"De nada," Jack said casually. "C'mon, let's get back to the 'gate. Nothing better have happened to Carter while we were stuck in here with the damn Unas." Stepping out of the stone labyrinth and blinking when they met sunlight, he reached up to the radio still clipped to his shoulder. "Carter," he called, "this is O'Neill. Do you copy?"

The response came right away. "Colonel, this is Carter. Are you all right?"

Jack sighed in relief, setting off with Teal'c behind him. "Carter, we're both fine. What's your position?"

"I'm at the Stargate, sir."

Still? Jack frowned, wondering why she'd stuck around there. Obviously she hadn't left them for dead, or she wouldn't be on the planet anymore, but why hadn't she tried looking for them? Then again, there'd been people waiting for them when they'd stepped out... "Any problems we should know about, Captain?"

"Negative, sir. They just didn't trust me enough to let me begin a search." The frustration in her voice was clearly audible.

"Copy. Maintain your position. We're en route to the Stargate, ETA unknown. Radio check in thirty minutes."

"Yes, sir. Carter out."

Jack dropped his hand from the radio and turned to Teal'c. "You okay, buddy?"

"My symbiote and I are unharmed," he repeated, his face stony.

"Yeah, I know that. I meant about the--" Jack started, then decided to leave any unresolved questions for when they were safely back on base. "Good. Keep it that way."

"I believe that Daniel Jackson will be most distressed about the destruction of the Hammer," Teal'c said.

"Yeah. None of us wanted it destroyed. But none of us wanted you dead, either, so I'd say it's a good deal." Teal'c didn't answer.

It took almost three hours to reach the Stargate. Carter was sitting on the steps leading to the ring, while the natives of this planet stood nearby. They didn't seem to be threatening her or guarding the area, but, staying out of sight, Jack reached up to his radio and sent two short clicks.

He saw her stand and respond by voice, "Colonel, it's really okay. They'll let us through."

Shrugging, he broke cover and walked purposefully toward the 'gate, Teal'c right behind him.

A dark-haired woman stepped forward. "You have been cleansed," she told them in tones of congratulation. "You are now free. Thor is pleased."

Thor's a hologram, and the only thing that got cleansed was a dead Unas, he thought, but Carter spoke up hastily, first, saying, "Yes, Thor must be pleased. Thank you, Gairwyn. I'm so...pleased to see you've been freed, Teal'c, Colonel. Sir."

"What's going on, Carter?" he asked quietly.

"Little misunderstanding," she told him, just as softly. "They were suspicious, not hostile. We should probably get out of here before we make some other cultural blunder."

Jack looked between her and the locals for a moment, then said loudly, "Right. Go Thor." As Carter began to dial home, however, he grimaced and turned to the spokeswoman. "Ah...there's something we should probably tell you. About Thor's Hammer..."

XXXXX

14 November 1997; SGC, Earth; 0900 hrs

Rothman was in the briefing room again when Jack entered. Daniel was already sitting at the table beside him, paging half-heartedly through sheets of what could have been reports or reference material. Two books--on the Vikings, judging by the few pictures he could see--were spread in front of both of them.

Without stopping, Jack turned to head toward General Hammond's office, only to find his superior had already come out. "General, I'd like to request that this debriefing be open to SG-1 and yourself only," he said.

Hammond's eyes went to the archaeologist and his assistant as well, and he seemed to be wavering when Daniel said stiffly, "Jack, we all heard your preliminary report last night. We know Cimmeria wasn't what we told you it would be, but Robert and I still have a right to be here if we can help answer some questions."

Jack turned again, saying carefully, "I can go over this with you later, Daniel. We'll be okay with questions."

"You figured out what Asgard is, then?" Daniel snapped.

"Mr. Jackson, Colonel O'Neill," Hammond said sternly. "Take a seat, Colonel."

Jack sat.

"P3X-974?" Hammond prompted.

"Right," he muttered. "A crowd of people met us in front of the Stargate when we arrived on P3X-974, Cimmeria, chanting Thor's name but not welcoming or attacking us. There was a...tall pillar with markings on it that shone a light over us, probably scanning us."

"Markings? Scanning for what?" the general asked.

"Couldn't read the markings--they looked like runes or something--and it was scanning for Goa'ulds, apparently. It passed over me and Carter but stopped on Teal'c and transported him away somehow. I grabbed onto him just beforehand, so I was brought along for the ride." He looked expectantly at Carter, who picked up the thread.

"Their spokesperson was a woman named Gairwyn who seemed to think that I'd tricked Teal'c and the colonel into stepping onto Cimmeria. She assumed they were both Ettins--Goa'ulds--and told me that Thor protected the world by killing the Goa'uld."

Hammond narrowed his eyes. "The people on this world readily participate in the murder of Goa'uld and their hosts?"

"Apparently, sir," she said, looking rather obviously away from the anthropology contingent, "the host is left alone, and only the symbiote is destroyed."

Daniel's eyes narrowed. "Is that possible?" he asked sharply, the question directed at Teal'c. "Without hurting the host?"

"I have never heard of such a possibility before," Teal'c admitted, "but neither have I ever seen advanced technology of the kind that protected that world."

"Basically," Jack clarified, "we know this Thor guy has a way to kill snakes. We don't have any way of verifying that it would leave the host healthy, or even alive."

"I can attest to 'alive,'" Carter told them. "A woman named Kendra living in the main village on Cimmeria has apparently undergone the...procedure. I didn't notice any physical damage to her, besides the entry scar at the back of her neck, but I can't say for sure whether separating and killing the Goa'uld left her mind and personality intact or not."

"You weren't able to speak with her, Captain?" Hammond said, looking confused.

Carter winced. "There was a misunderstanding--my fault. I'm afraid I had trouble making them understand where we were from, so they were suspicious already, especially when I told them that Teal'c and the colonel were my friends. Gairwyn did take me to see Kendra, but I saw her using what appeared to be a Goa'uld ribbon device on a child as we approached. I later found out it was some sort of healing technology, but at the time, I reacted by reaching for my weapon. Gairwyn was understanding of my mistake but insisted that I either return home or wait by the Stargate. I'm sorry--I mishandled it."

"But they still let you stay there without threatening harm?" the general clarified.

"That's correct, sir, and they let me do rubbings of the language on the pillar--maybe someone on base can read it. They didn't accept the gift you sent with us, that box with Ir-192 from the Sagan Institute, but there didn't appear to be any hard feelings, at least from Gairwyn. I tried to explain that we were from the same original planet, but they didn't know what I meant by Earth."

"Midgard," Rothman spoke up.

"What was that, Doctor?"

Rothman was looking at one of his books. "If they knew this planet at all, it was probably as 'Midgard' or something similar; I don't think we coined the term 'Earth' until relatively recently. It's something to consider if we ever go back there."

"Would 'Midgard' have something to do with 'Asgard?'" Jack asked.

"Yes," Daniel said, while Rothman said, "Not really."

Jack looked between them as they traded glances. "And the consensus is...?"

Rothman shrugged and waved a hand at Daniel, who told them flatly, "The words are related in etymology. The '-gard' means 'enclosure,' referring to a place. Midgard was their whole material world--Earth. Asgard was the capital of the Æsir. We don't know if it's somewhere on Earth or a completely separate place."

"The Æsir," Rothman added, "are the ones we were hoping to find: the powerful, warlike gods of Norse mythology. Like Thor."

"So this transportation device took you and Teal'c to Asgard?" the general asked.

"Actually, no, sir. It was a...cave or labyrinth called the Hall of Meol-something-or-other--"

"Probably Mjolnir," Daniel said, "the name of Thor's Hammer."

Jack's lips twisted. "Should've just brought one of you with us," he said under his breath, then kicked himself because he'd been on the opposite side of that argument only yesterday. "Anyway, there was a hologram of a Viking warrior there. It was a recorded message, apparently from Thor, the supreme commander of the Asgard fleet."

Carter frowned. "Is 'Asgard' a place? I've been assuming it was the name of the race we were looking for."

"Either way, the point is, if you're carrying a Goa'uld, you get sucked into the Hall of...into the Hall. There's a nasty beast called Unas, who apparently was the first Goa'uld host and just kept on living there and killing people in the Hall. Goa'uld technology doesn't work, so you have to rely on good, old-fashioned projectile weapons to survive and fight it off. If you survive Unas, the only exit is through Thor's Hammer, the actual device that kills the Goa'uld."

"I see," Hammond said. "So, the Hammer wasn't a technology that could be brought back here after all."

"No, sir. Even in the best scenario, we could only have used it by somehow tricking or manhandling all the Goa'uld onto that planet."

"And since the Goa'uld all know to avoid Cimmeria..."

"Would've been pretty hard. Anyway, we held off Unas until we ran out of bullets, and Teal'c finished him off by shoving him through the Hammer. And then...there was no other way for us to get out, so--"

"Thor's Hammer was destroyed using my staff weapon in order to free me from the Hall of Mjolnir," Teal'c interrupted.

A soft crash and slithering sounds made him turn. "Sorry," Daniel mumbled, sliding out of his chair to pick up a pile of papers he'd accidentally nudged off the table.

"I made the call and destroyed Thor's Hammer, sir," Jack said, "and we got out and rendezvoused with Captain Carter. The inhabitants seemed to think we'd been...cleansed of the Goa'uld, and they let us through the Stargate."

During the following pause, Daniel reclaimed his chair, quietly replacing his papers. Jack cleared his throat.

"So, in summary, we learned that Cimmeria has been protected by Thor's race, who have developed technology that can kill Goa'uld symbiotes and at least partially saves the host in the process. The device was destroyed."

"Thank you, Colonel," Hammond sighed. "We'll have to hope the ramifications of that are something we and the people of Cimmeria can handle."

"We don't believe the Cimmerians are in immediate danger," Carter said. "The Goa'uld don't know that Thor's Hammer is gone, and we've warned them to seal off the cave where the Hammer was. Also, sir, the people were remarkably tolerant of us in light of our missteps, even potentially friendly. Cimmeria is a place we could visit again if necessary, though I would suggest including someone better versed in Norse culture and mythology."

"And their language," Rothman added.

"No, they spoke English," she told him.

"That's impossible," Daniel said, almost dismissively.

A little impatiently, Jack said, "We know what we heard, Daniel."

Rothman blinked at them all, then said, "Hey, no, Daniel's got a point. Vikings didn't show up on Earth until long after our Stargate closed. There's no way they should have the same spoken English or written Norse that we have on Earth."

"Could they have developed separately?" Carter asked, frowning.

"In exactly the same way? Was their English similar to ours?"

She looked thoughtful. "It was...odd-sounding. Old-fashioned, maybe, I don't know, but close enough to understand. But then...you're saying Earth must have had contact with Cimmeria, or with someone from another planet, even after our Stargate was buried."

"The Goa'uld have ships," Rothman pointed out.

"And you think Thor has one, too?" Jack asked. "People on Earth have been 'visited' by big, hulking, Viking aliens? Give me a break."

"Do you have a better explanation?" Daniel countered, his voice starting to take on a desperate tone. "If Thor's race has been communicating with Earth somehow, it's another reason to go looking for him. And...and General, even without the Hammer, according to mythology there are still other...things to look for. Thor supposedly had a belt that gave him strength and a chariot that he rode--either of those could be some sort of...of device as well, not to mention that there are probably other beings of his race."

"And do we know where these devices might be found, Mr. Jackson?" Hammond said neutrally.

Daniel looked down to flip through his book. "Uh...There are...w-well, a few other place names that could be associated with him...Asgard, Bilskinir...um...Thrudvangar or Thrudheim..."

"Do you have any idea if these places actually exist, or how to find them?"

"I was...hoping someone might have heard of them before," he said in a small voice. He looked pleadingly toward Teal'c.

Teal'c, however, said only, "I have not."

"Then maybe...maybe somewhere on Cimmeria..."

"Daniel," the general said, cutting him off. "We don't have a solid lead to go on."

Daniel dropped his gaze and slowly closed his book. "Yes, sir. I know. I'm sorry."

"So'm I, son, believe me. Keep an eye out for those places or names, and let the other translators know to look for them, too. Cimmeria will be noted as a potentially friendly planet. That's all we can do." Hammond looked around, then nodded and stood. "We're done here, people. SG-1 is on stand-down until your next mission. You're dismissed."

XXXXX

14 November 1997; SGC, Earth; 1000 hrs

"Rothman--" Jack started as he knocked on the open office door.

"Looking for Daniel?" the man guessed. "I told him to take the day off. I think he went to find Captain Carter."

"Okay, then." He turned to go and was stopped again.

"Colonel O'Neill..."

Jack gritted his teeth. "What?"

"Uh, just so you know...Daniel was putting a lot into this. I mean, once we got a whiff of the possibility, he sprinted through the translations to be able to put together what we needed about Norse gods."

"That was all him?"

"The two of us don't usually deal with the Germanic stuff. It probably would have been kicked over to Barr's office, except Daniel had already found everything, and even then we still had to spend a couple of days cramming everything we could. The thing is, he really thought this was--"

"--the one, yeah, I know."

"Just wanted to warn you he's a little upset," Rothman said, scratching his head. "I think he was even trying to learn Old Norse so we could communicate with Thor."

Jack couldn't help a snort. "In, what, like, a week?"

Rothman shrugged as if to say 'what can you do?', then said, "Look, uh, I'm sorry the planet wasn't all we said it was going to be. I should've tried harder to verify the--"

"Not a lot of what we do here can be verified with books, Doc," he said impatiently, already edging out of the room. "We were all hoping the same thing. We went, we saw, we were wrong. Better get used to the feeling," he called as he started to walk away.

Carter was coming out of her office when he stepped into the lab. "Did you need something from me, sir?" she asked.

"Not exactly. Did Daniel come down here?"

"He's in my office," she said.

"Doing...?"

"He asked to look over our reports from Cimmeria, and I let him sit in my office to do it."

Belated though the thought was, he wondered aloud, "So he's allowed to read that stuff?"

"Yes, sir, the general said it was fine for this mission--he knows everything we do about it, anyway. Other teams' reports, maybe not, if he's not involved with the mission--but frankly, information like this isn't going to be a secret from anyone who works here."

Daniel doesn't 'work' here, he thought, but that hadn't been true for a few weeks now, so he only asked, "What's he looking for, then?"

She shrugged unhappily. "Dr. Barr's going over the rubbings from the pillar. Daniel's...frustrated about not being able to read the language, so he's looking for some other clue in the reports, I guess. I think he's hoping he'll catch something we missed."

"If we missed it, it wouldn't be in the reports, because we wrote them," Jack said.

"Yes, sir."

He glanced toward her office. "I'll talk to him. Are you sticking around, Captain? We don't have a mission coming up anytime soon."

"I've got some paperwork to catch up on, but I'll give you two the office. I was going to meet Teal'c and a few others at the gym, anyway. The general asked him to help with hand-to-hand training for the newer guys."

"Good idea," he said absently. "All right, Carter, I'll see you around."

"Yes, sir." She nodded and left the lab.

Jack froze when he looked into the office and found Daniel scrubbing at his eyes. "Hey," he said softly, leaning against the doorframe. "You okay?"

When Daniel brought his hand down, however, his eyes were dry. "Yes," he answered, digging in his pocket and fishing out his glasses. "I've gotten too used to these--my eyes are starting to hurt when I read without them for long."

Slightly relieved, Jack quipped, "Well, that's usually a sign you've been reading too much."

"No, the font's just too small," Daniel said, then wrinkled his nose before admitting, "I was looking at the runes from Cimmeria, and... I would have needed to transcribe them all to a more familiar alphabet and then look up half the words, just to get an impression of the meaning."

"Finally found a language you can't read?"

"There are lots of languages I can't read, Jack," he replied tightly, tapping the end of his pen restlessly on the tabletop. "That's why I mostly work on Semitic, Latinate, or Goa'uld languages, and not with Lieutenant Hagman or Dr. Barr on Asian or Germanic texts."

"Ah," Jack said, not having been aware that Daniel had such well-defined duties. "Okay."

"Jack, are you here to tell me..." He stopped. "Never mind."

"No, no. What? What did think I came here to say?"

"That you were right about Cimmeria and I was wrong, but, but," he said quickly when Jack pushed himself away from the doorframe and indignantly opened his mouth to speak, "I know you aren't like that. That's why I didn't finish the sentence the first time," he pointed out.

"I wanted to meet the Viking gods as much as you did, Daniel," Jack said. "And you and Rothman were right about Thor and all that stuff."

"Not right enough." Daniel pulled the glasses off again and glared at them.

Jack eyed the frames dangling from his hand. "You gonna leave those on or off?"

In answer, Daniel dropped them onto the desk, letting his arm fall next to them. "There's nothing here, Jack! I've been looking, and I thought...maybe there was something that could tell us...I don't even know what." He sighed dejectedly, then carefully closed the folder and stood. "I'm wasting time. I should be looking at some of the other--"

"Whoa, hey, a day here or there isn't going to make a difference, kid," Jack said, stepping further in and digging his hands into his pockets. "Rothman said you put a lot of time into this. Sit down and...relax for a while, will you? I'll get you out of the Mountain myself if you need to get away."

The pen in Daniel's hand stopped tapping and he tightened his grip around it in a fist. "What if we could find something? Another world with another Mjolnir, or something else that could... Jack, if we could have just gotten Skaara and Sha'uri to Thor's Hammer, they could have been..."

"We don't have a clue about where they are or how to get them there," Jack said bluntly. "And we don't even know for sure whether it would have saved them."

"It might have. We'll never find out now."

"We had to destroy it, you know that." There was no answer. "Daniel?"

"So Teal'c could get out."

"Yes," Jack said, firmly. "Because I wasn't leaving a good man in there to die because we hope that we might possibly be able to find and round up two people, who could be literally anywhere, guarded by who knows what, especially when we don't even know if it would have done any good."

Daniel listlessly picked up his glasses. "I didn't mean I thought you should have left Teal'c to die," he said quietly.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," Jack said, watching him warily. "What did you mean?"

"I wish it didn't have to be a choice between the people I grew up with and...and people I know here," he replied, frustrated. "If I wish you hadn't destroyed it, it means I wish Teal'c died. If I'm glad Teal'c lived, I'm...turning my back on my brother and sister. There's no good choice."

Jack sighed and took the other chair. "You're making it too black and white, kid. It's not about making a choice between them. Teal'c's alive. Skaara and Sha'uri are still alive."

"But--"

"But now we know it's possible to save them. We know there are people out there--beings like Thor--who can kill a Goa'uld and leave the host behind. There's a heckuva lot in this universe we still haven't seen yet, Daniel. There's still a chance."

Daniel exhaled, saying hopelessly, "We don't even know if the host stays the same. Teal'c says he was always told they didn't, and maybe the Goa'uld are just lying when they say that, but maybe it's true--maybe there's just...nothing left of who they were before the Goa'uld took them."

"There is something left," Jack said. Daniel looked up in question. Jack went on, "Right after Chulak, when Major Kawalsky got snaked, even though we couldn't get the thing out of him, he still knew things that only Kawalsky could've known. Something of the host still survives."

A bit of hope returned into Daniel's voice. "Then you think...then we just have to get..."

"There's still a chance," he emphasized, "but we have to wait until we know how to do it. Right now, we're probably in more danger than either Skaara or Sha'uri. We'll keep looking for them and for a way to help them. But Daniel...there's no 'just' anything about this. We can't run in, guns blazing, and solve things by brute force, which is all we've got right now. It could take a long time before we're in a position to do anything against the Goa'uld."

Daniel turned back to Carter's desk, fiddling with the arms of his glasses. "How long is a long time?"

Jack reached out and put a quelling hand over Daniel's nervous fingers before they could twist the frames out of shape. "This isn't a simple search and rescue with a clear objective and endpoint," he said. "We're fighting a war, and compared with our enemy, we're...ignorant and practically powerless. Our best hope, and your brother and sister's best hope, is to stay under the radar until we have enough knowledge and allies to do some good."

Daniel extracted his hand from under Jack's and wrapped his arms around himself. "What if we don't find them before Tobay opens the Stargate on Abydos?"

The SGC couldn't afford to make the two Abydons a higher priority; they both knew that, and Jack wasn't going to try to pretend otherwise. "The SGC isn't shutting down when you leave," Jack said instead of answering directly. "As long as this program keeps running, we might still find something or someone who can help them. I won't stop looking."

"I talked with Teal'c about this," Daniel told him. "If I stayed here, I could help, but if I go back to Abydos..."

"Daniel, what--you have..." ...family, Jack wanted to say, except a lot of that family was dead or still missing. He tried again: "I know how much you've wanted to go back home."

"Would I be allowed to stay if I wanted to?" he asked, somehow sounding both defiant and lost at once.

Jack hesitated. "Probably," he allowed, because Daniel would be an easy sell after Teal'c, "if you wanted it. No one'll make you do that. Wait...did Teal'c tell you that you should stay on Earth?" he asked, a little alarmed. He didn't think Teal'c would do that, but the Jaffa could be pretty damn ruthless when it came to matters of revenge and the Goa'uld. Daniel, young and raw and already a genius, was useful to the SGC's efforts--even Jack wouldn't deny that.

"No," Daniel said. "It's not like that; we've just been talking. He left his home, too, you know, and I want the Goa'uld dead as much as he does. If I stay, it'll be because of that."

Then again, Daniel had shown with this whole Thor thing that he could get pretty fanatical about the Goa'uld, too. Jack wondered if he'd gotten it from Teal'c, or if it was what had drawn the two of them close to begin with.

"And is that...what you want?" he asked, keeping his tone carefully neutral.

Several moments of silence passed before Daniel admitted, "I don't know. I've been thinking about it for weeks, but I don't know. Jack?"

"Yeah."

"What does 'under the radar' mean?"

"Wha--" Jack had to replay the last few minutes of conversation before he realized why Daniel was asking. "Geez, kid. You been saving that question?" Daniel shrugged, so he replied, "It means we have to work carefully without being noticed by the enemy."

"You think you--we--can beat the Goa'uld, when we're so far behind?"

Good question, he thought. "Sure," he said confidently. "We took one of 'em out before we even had a clue what they were, and I hear Ra's supposed to be a big shot."

"They didn't know about the Tau'ri then," Daniel pointed out, not fooled by the bravado. "They won't be surprised next time."

"We'll know more next time, too. Besides, we didn't need any of their fancy technology to get rid of Ra. We can kick their a--behinds the old-fashioned way, and maybe that's something they'll forget to protect against. Now," he said, not wanting to drag on that line of thought any longer, because there was little optimism he could offer, "are you done with those reports?"

"I suppose so," Daniel said with a sigh, gathering the papers into the proper folders. His hand brushed the glasses off the desk as he handed them over. "Yi shay," he cursed before he bent down to retrieve them.

"Well, Rothman told me he gave you the day today, so..." Jack trailed off, noticing the glasses in Daniel's hand trembling ever so slightly. A thought struck him, and he asked, casually, "Are you still going to Teal'c for language lessons and whatnot?"

"I was planning to, yes. He usually lets me practice with him early in the mornings or in the evenings unless he's busy with something else. Why, did he say something to you about...?"

"No, just wondering. And you understand that it's not his fault Thor's Hammer was destroyed."

Daniel stopped halfway through rising from his seat and sat back down. "It wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for him. But it's not as if he could help it. So I don't blame him. Or you. That's what you're saying? It was because of him, but not his fault?"

Trying to decide how to interpret that, Jack said slowly, "Yeah, that's what I'm saying."

Daniel looked away. "I don't want anyone else to die, Jack. Not Teal'c and not you. He saved your life too, didn't he?" He gestured toward the reports. "From Unas. Although..."

"Although what?" Jack asked apprehensively.

"I was thinking," he said slowly, speeding up as his thoughts caught up to him, "that Unas was probably named that after the pharaoh in Egypt, but actually, since he was the first host it might be a different etymology, yes? Like 'unus,' meaning 'one.' So why would the word be so close to Latin--maybe an ancestor language--and not something more...I don't know. German? Or Norse. Do you think maybe Unas came from somewhere else originally, where Latinate languages were more dominant? Or Egyptian, if he is the inspiration for myths about the pharaoh Unas?"

Jack stared at him in disbelief. "Ah..."

"Because if he did, and there's a planet of...of Unas that were the first Goa'uld hosts...we could learn a lot from that, Jack, I mean, think about it--there'd probably be at least something there to tell us...something about how everything started, or where the Goa'uld came from or...I don't know, but something, and we could use that to--"

Trying to cut off the overflow of speculation, Jack said, "Daniel." Daniel stopped and took a breath. "We've been over this," Jack reminded him gently. "Don't pin your hopes on something so far out of our reach. Something we don't even know exists. Maybe there's a planet of Unas"--personally, Jack would be happy never to find one--"and maybe we'll stumble on it and learn something, but until then, we've got to focus on what we know and what we can do. Okay?"

Reluctantly, Daniel nodded. "I understand," he said soberly, without any lightness lurking behind his voice, like there had been yesterday morning, before Cimmeria.

"I'm sorry, kid, but... Just put Cimmeria aside for now. Keep Thor in the back of your mind if you want but stop thinking about it, just for a while."

Daniel nodded again, then tucked his glasses away into a pocket and stood. "Then I suppose I'll just...well, if SG-1 doesn't have any missions for a few days, do you think Teal'c will be in his room now?"

Jack studied him and, satisfied that there wouldn't be a problem, said, "Nah, he's in the gym, helping to train some of the newbies. New recruits," he clarified when he saw Daniel about to ask. "That's where Carter went, too."

"Can I watch?"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You wanna watch airmen getting their asses handed to them? That's your idea of fun?"

"I could go read the physics book Sam gave me."

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Jack couldn't decide whether or not he was serious, but in the end, he decided, "I'll do you one better. I'll go up to the gym with you, and I'll show you a few things the Air Force way. If you get tired, you can watch what other people are doing. Maybe you'll learn something from them."

"Really?" Daniel asked. "You'd do that?"

"I've seen you working with Teal'c on that loco stuff--"

"Lok'nel, Jack."

"--so you might as well see how we Tau'ri do it. Like I said before, if I knock you down, it'll hurt less than if Teal'c does. Not exactly a day playing in the park, but it's a change from reading all day."

"I don't mind reading."

"Yeah, I've noticed. In fact...what are you doing this weekend?"

Daniel wrinkled his brow. "Just...what I normally do, I suppose."

"What exactly do you do when you're here on your own?"

"There are always people around," he said vaguely. "I don't mind."

"I never see you talk to 'people,'" Jack pointed out, "aside from us and some of the scientists, who aren't always here on the weekends."

"Teal'c is always here unless you're off-world. I usually talk to him or work or read in his room," Daniel said with a quick, wry smile. "How do you think I've been learning Goa'uld so quickly?"

"Sounds fun," Jack lied. "You wanna spend the weekend at my place again?"

"I don't...mind it here," Daniel repeated, reddening slightly. "You don't have to--"

"You need to see something besides cement walls once in a while," Jack told him firmly. "We'll go over a few basic drills, and then we'll get off this base and take the weekend to relax. No missions, no research, no stress. Oh, hey--you ever been fishing?"

"For...you mean, to catch fish?"

"No, to..." Jack started, before deciding the sarcasm might be lost on someone who had to ask to be sure that fishing meant catching fish. "Yeah. Not the best time of year for it yet, but who cares. Have you ever tried it?"

"I've seen people, uh, do fishing at the river on Abydos. There's a river somewhere?"

"There's a lake not too far from my house. Not my favorite place, but that one's a little too far."

"And there are fish there?"

"I'm not really sure," Jack said. Daniel's brow wrinkled, looking very confused, so he added, "It's not really about catching fish." This did not seem to clarify anything. "C'mon, go get changed and meet me at the gym. I'll explain the zen of fishing later."

The enthusiasm didn't quite return to Daniel's expression, but there was a familiar, curious gleam trying to sneak into his eyes, and the slump in his shoulders was disappearing. "Yes--I mean, yeah, okay. Fishing."

With a two-fingered salute, Jack backed out of the office and headed past the scientists and out of the lab.

From the next chapter ("Alien"):

"Daniel," the other man said, enunciating his words slowly and clearly, "my name is Colonel Harry Maybourne, and this is Agent David Smithley. We want to ask you a few questions."

Translations (9/19)

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