Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Daniel, Jack, Sam, Teal’c, Kalan.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Learning Curve.
Summary: The gate room or Orban is a treasure just waiting to be excavated, and Daniel wants to be the one to do it.
Word Count: 846
Content Notes: None necessary.
Written For: Challenge 171 – Mosaic at beattheblackdog.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Stargate: SG-1, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
Almost from the moment Daniel had stepped through the gate he’d been captivated by the visible fragments of the gate room’s mosaic floor. He couldn’t see much of it, had no way of knowing how far it extended, but he was itching to find out. Whether or not he’d ever get the chance to, however, remained to be seen; this was earth’s first face-to-face contact with the Orbanians, a hopefully friendly people, and at least from Jack’s point of view, archaeological explorations weren’t high on the agenda. Knowing Jack, they probably didn’t feature at all.
As per their instructions from General Hammond, top priority was to establish peaceful relations, then explore the possibility of trade between earth and Orban, with the aim of acquiring technology and weapons that could help the people of earth in their fight against the Goa’uld, a fight most of earth’s population still had no knowledge of.
So Daniel kept quiet, with difficulty, restricting himself to playing the role of diplomat to keep Jack from putting both his big feet in his mouth and mortally offending potential allies. Diplomacy was not Jack O’Neill’s strong point, although to be fair he had improved somewhat since their first trip through the gate, and he did on occasion actually follow Daniel’s advice on such matters. More or less.
The Orbanians turned out to be a very serious people, apparently completely lacking a sense of humor, but despite that, talks went so well with them that eventually Daniel managed to bring the conversation around to the gate room mosaics. There was some back and forth, a certain amount of exasperation on Jack’s part, but perhaps he was still feeling a little bad about the days Daniel had spent drugged in a padded room just a few short weeks ago, suspected of being schizophrenic, because he gave in pretty quick and with the Orbanian Kalan’s agreement, Daniel was given permission to stay behind while the rest of SG-1 returned to the SGC.
Excavating the mosaic was… Daniel couldn’t even begin to put what he felt into words. A once in a lifetime opportunity, to be sure; at the very least a chance to learn which Goa’uld had once held sway over Orban, but it was so much more than that. Who knew what else he might discover during his excavations, what artefacts might be unearthed, what secrets the mosaic itself might reveal?
His fingers itched to get started, and he had trouble restraining himself from diving right in, fidgeting and fiddling with his tools as the team stood in the gate room preparing to dial out, much to the amusement of his teammates. Sam understood to a certain extent; her own scientific curiosity was often aroused when they came across unfamiliar technology, so she got that sense of excitement over discovering something new. Teal’c seemed mildly curious and would probably allow Daniel to bend his ear later, telling him everything he’d learned. With luck he might be able to tell Daniel something about the Goa’uld who must have commissioned the mosaic, fill in a few of the gaps in what Daniel managed to figure out. Jack was baffled, as always, at Daniel’s excitement over a bunch of coloured bits of stone. Disappointing, but not unexpected; the colonel’s interest in anything from before the sixties was nonexistent. Didn’t matter though, not as long as Daniel got to actually spend some time doing what he was most qualified to do. He was an archaeologist and anthropologist, dammit; he had a doctorate to prove it! Digging into the past was what he did!
Once the team had at last said their farewells to him and his hosts and left, Daniel was finally free to indulge his insatiable curiosity, but it seemed he wouldn’t be working alone; he had ample help available in the form of several children, described by Kalan as Urrone, which apparently meant they were to be his apprentices. The people of Orban seemed to put great store in knowledge, and the Urrone were all eager to learn all they could about the processes involved in archaeological excavations, as well as whatever Daniel could tell them about anything they uncovered.
This was Daniel’s idea of heaven; embarking on an exciting excavation of a site that had remained untouched possibly for millennia, surrounded by ‘students’ eager to learn from him. Back on earth his reputation might have taken a serious battering in academic circles, but here he was respected, his knowledge sought out and welcomed.
‘Please, God,’ he though to himself as he knelt to begin work. ‘Let General Hammond say yes.’ It would be too disappointing to get dragged away from Orban before he’d done much more than scratch the surface of what could be buried here, or worse, have another team sent from the SGC to take over and make whatever discoveries were waiting to be made. He so seldom got to run a dig these days. Who knew when, or if, he’d get another opportunity? Best to make the most of this one while he could.
The End