Galileo's Burden, Phase Alpha: Bungle in the Jungle

[cityship]

((PLOT POST! READ IT!))

Stacy's voice rang out through the corridors of the ship, announcing that a message had been received and would be played on the Obs Deck momentarily.

The message was patched through a few minutes later, shown on a holographic screen. It was shot in very poor video, from a very old communicator frequency.



A woman wearing a blue veil over her face appears on the screen. She speaks in a soft and cultured voice, bowing deeply before she begins.

“Greetings to the crew and command of the Transmigration 9. My name is Reda, revered mother of the village of Avania III on the planet Orya."

Reda pauses, bowing once more before removing her veil and revealing the face of a beautiful humanoid woman.



"It… pains me to ask for the help of outsiders, when we have so little to offer in return, but I beg of you. Please aid us. My people are becoming sickened by an ailment we have never seen before. It seems to come differently for all who suffer from it... some have fevers, some strange dreams, some begin to speak madness while awake. But no matter how it develops, they grow weary. Their faith weakens and they die, disgraced and turned from the eyes of the great goddess Avani."

Reda folds her hands together, frowning worriedly. "I have heard of your ship's great deeds even in such a small and isolated planet as Orya. Though I am hardly worthy of asking, I know there is no one better to ask for a favor such as this. What I ask is for… those who have knowledge."

"My people know little of the universe outside their village. They do not know what you know in the ways of medicine. Our shamans are not equipped to deal with a threat of this magnitude. We seek those who can help us ease our suffering. We have little to give in return for your help, but what we have is faith… enlightenment and enrichment of the soul, which we will gladly share with those who come to visit us."

Reda smiled softly, shaking her head. "I will understand if you deny my request. I ask much of you and cannot give much myself, but should you assist us, I will do what I can to help you. I will see to it personally that those who come to our help are taken care of and shown the greatest hospitality. My own Chosen soldiers will protect them, and if they should help us in our time of need, I will do everything in my power to aid your efforts against the Ohm. You have my word as a devout child of Avani."

The revered mother bows once more, kneeling down before the camera. "I will be happy to speak with you if you require more information. Please... I beg of you, help my people."

Comments

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel was definitely counting his lucky stars that he'd learned from Sam. Now he came in, just a few steps. The archaeologist remained standing. He didn't intend to stay long, so there wasn't any point in getting comfortable. But he didn't want to have this conversation outside either.

He had to smile at Luis' explanation. Even Sam called it the same thing. A moment, her moment. "One of those 'Ah-ha, I've solved the mysteries of the universe, cured the common cold, and by the way, I've figured this out too' ephiphanies?" Daniel asked wryly. "What did you find?"

[notlewis]

"Ahaha... well, I wouldn't quite go that far," Luis laughed nervously, reaching behind him for one of his notepads. It was covered in impossibly messy Spanish shorthand, and Luis propped up his glasses before reading it.

"The water you brought me from the medical tent is... totally clean," he said. "Purified and desalinated from the sea, just like the other water in the village."

[hi_there_aliens]

Huh. That was a surprise. He'd been wondering if something in the water had been either keeping the effects ongoing. Now he felt stupid for bringing it in and wasting Luis's time. Daniel's face flushed slightly but in this lighting, it didn't show that much.

Guess this was the universe's way of telling him to stick to archaeology.

"One of the patients said it was warm and that it tasted bad," He shrugged a little helplessly. "I just thought..."

[notlewis]

"Hang on, though," Luis cut him off. "Don't get too discouraged just yet. I thought you might like to know that I haven't been able to find any kind of pathogen in the sick people so far."

He raised an eyebrow at Daniel, folding his arms. "Kind of strange that we'd have an epidemic on our hands, but with nothing causing it, sí?"

[hi_there_aliens]

"Yeah, strange. Understatement of the year," he agreed. "Really though? No pathogens?"

How were they getting sick at all? They had all the symptoms of an actual illness.

What would Sam do? Bad question, Sam would have figured something out in a snap. This wasn't anywhere near his department. Daniel tried his best to channel her anyway and took a guess. "Do you think something could be uh, transmitting something along a a certain wavelength? Like affecting them physically, adversely, without leaving a trace of a virus."

So it sounded more impressive when Sam said it. Daniel felt like he was a kid again, like he'd tried on his dad's archaeology stuff once when they were out. Nothing had fit. The hat had been too big, don't even get him started on the jacket. Then his parents had come back, laughed, and took pictures.

Still, how did it only affect a select few?

[notlewis]

"No pathogens," Luis confirmed, frowning slightly. "It took a while to be able to say for sure, since these are Oryan cells and not human cells like I'm familiar with, but... nothing. No viruses, no bacteria, no parasites. I don't know about wavelengths or anything like that, but the sick cells compare perfectly to the healthy cells."

He rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. "You may have been onto something about the water, though," he said. "Maybe some kind of contaminant?"

[hi_there_aliens]

You know, Daniel thought they'd be closer to figuring out what was going on, but every time they uncovered something, it actually just got more complicated, and ten more questions sprang out of the one answered, like the Lernaean Hydra.

"Tamil told me that they were really pushing the sick to drink a lot of that stuff," which would.... normally be sound advice. Normally. Why had it tasted bad?

Daniel blinked behind his glasses, looking puzzled. "I thought you said the sample was clean. You think the entire village supply is contaminated, so no control group?"

At least not in the village. Maybe the jungle.

[notlewis]

"The sample was clean. Perhaps it's not in the village supply," Luis said. "After all, they've all been drinking it, and they're not all sick. There isn't any kind of physical pattern between the sick ones either... young and old, male and female... we've been drinking it too, for that matter."

He tapped his fingers on the table. "No, it would have to be a smaller source than the whole village's well. Something that only the sick ones have had access to."

[hi_there_aliens]

"None of us are Oryan though," he pointed out. Maybe not all human, Goliath certainly wasn't, but not a single Oryan among them. If there was something in the water they weren't picking up, they could be immune.

The only thing he could think of that fit the smaller source criteria, at least, right at the moment, was either the temple or looking o the sky for Daena. But he thought most of the population had access to the temple. He wasn't sure how you could get sick from looking at the sky, only that doing so marked you as a target. Apparently.

Daniel drew out his notes and glanced down at them. "I don't know if this will help, but Tamil told me that all the sick had been questioning Avani's ways, that this was the result of her wrath. He said the first patient was someone who was more vocal about the old ways and that the temple had warned him to stop."

[notlewis]

That last bit made an uncomfortable feeling rise up in Luis' stomach. He recalled, vaguely, for a moment, the deep sounds of Saddler's voice ringing out across the church, and the old iron bell clanging in the rafters as the villagers chanted.

He shook it off within a few seconds, abruptly looking back at Daniel.

"Really?" he muttered. "That's... interesting."

[hi_there_aliens]

That could be anything. 'Interesting' could mean so many things, and it could also mean the opposite. 'Interesting' as in actually interesting or 'interesting' in that distant 'oh that's nice' look Jack got when you started explaining what that particular carving of a particular pillar meant to a certain subset of people. The glazed over look while Jack waited for him to talk himself out.

Daniel was unsure how to read that look on the other Doctor's face just then. He thought Luis almost looked uncomfortable at the mention of religious censoring. Maybe he'd had a bad experience with it back where he came from.

"I thought so. I was going to check out the temple after this. It's more my area," he said, apologetically. "It might take me a few days to fully investigate."

[notlewis]

"That... sounds like a good idea, actually," Luis murmured, still trying to push all the alarm bells going off out of his head.

"What did you mean before, about their faith being shaken? And a dissenter dying?"

oh god sorry about daniel going slightly tl;dr

[hi_there_aliens]

"Yeah, an Oryan named Samso. I wasn't able to get what happened, only that he'd been the most outspoken and that he'd been warned to stop."

Now they were back on ground he could talk about more comfortably. He could feel himself warming to the topic, even if it was grim.

"For one, the Avani faith wasn't first belief system here. There was a polytheism before, consisting of Daena the Sky Mother and Fuoros the Earth Father. There could be more but these sound like the most important figures," Daniel clarified. It wasn't all that unusual for a polytheism to have a host of main gods and then smaller gods in a pantheon, like the Sumerians and Egyptians.

Daniel could feel himself warming to the subject as he went on. Yeah, he was definitely in his element now. "Daena probably fills the sky deity and Mother Goddess roles. Fuoros may be either her direct counterpart or her opposite. I don't know what happened yet or the time line, but at some point, the Avani belief system grew in popularity and eclipsed the previous polytheistic one. At this time, it's come to the point where it's taboo to mention it or search for the old gods. And everyone in that tent had been connected with looking for Daena in some form."

[notlewis]

Luis was still frowning, as though trying to process all this information at once. Old gods and a new god, and now the people were being "punished" in the new god's name... He had always been at least a little bit religious, but aside from the greater force of karma, Luis had never had to consider being personally punished by a god for belief or disbelief.

He didn't quite know what to think of it.

"I think checking the temple might be... a very good option, then," he said. "I don't know how well the Oryans will like you poking around in there, but Reda said we could go wherever we needed to."

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel nodded, pleased that he didn't have to argue about going to check the temple out. Maybe the away team didn't have the military discipline that he'd gotten used to over the past several months: actually he wasn't sure how the sample had gotten from Peter to Luis when Peter had said he'd check it himself, but that was scientists and child prodigies for you. Everyone kind of went and did their own thing. Admittedly it had him worried still. Maybe he'd taken the military organization and discipline for granted. Daniel didn't feel military at all himself, didn't want to be, but he had to admit, it was jarring to go back to academia after working next to people who lived and breathed regulations, neatly pressed uniforms and regulation hair.

He was never cutting his hair if he had any say about it. And Luis's quick agreement was a nice change of pace. No debating, no fighting to convince Jack or General Hammond about the importance of a historical site. Luis got it.

"I was just thinking that," Daniel agreed eagerly. "I'm hoping it'll be fine as long as I just look around."

[notlewis]

Luis was not a military man in the least sense. He didn't like red tape either, though anyone who'd been in the department for more than five minutes knew he liked to tangle up at least a little bit of it... though that was mostly a failsafe for himself. He still didn't trust his judgment.

"I think it should be fine, yes," Luis said, still sounding a bit absent-minded. He quickly focused, though, clearing his throat. "I think we should leave it to you, our resident cultural expert. I'll probably just trip and knock over an altar or something..."

He glanced over at Daniel, looking around them to make sure that the conversation was discreet.

"If anybody gives you trouble, have them talk to me. I'll make something up so it doesn't just look like we're ruining the diplomacy by being nosy. Maybe some kind of... temple lichen or something like that."

[hi_there_aliens]

Having a team leader easily give a go-ahead to do his thing, without a firm reminder of what they were really there for or what his time limit was, was so unfamiliar that Daniel was almost waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Luis didn't strike him as the clumsy type, joking or not, but the temple probably wasn't anywhere near as interesting as the samples he was working on. Daniel could spend years on just this temple alone and be happy as a clam, and Luis could probably feel the same surrounded by cultures and a microscope. He got the feeling they might both get bored of the other's job in under twenty minutes. He didn't see how Luis could sit here all day with just a microscope and slides for company.

Daniel nodded. He understood well enough, although he thought he'd made a good impression on the Revered Mother.

"Hopefully it won't come down to it, but I mean, I do have a good excuse for being there even without... 'temple lichen'," Daniel said. Probably more than someone like a soldier. An archaeologist in a temple or ruins? That was about as out of place as sand in a desert.

[notlewis]

Luis liked culture and talking to people well enough, but he was well aware that he had the tendency to rub people the wrong way. A basic lack of shame combined with outspokenness that fit in excellently back in Spain, but he found did a good job of weirding people out most of the rest of the time. Sometimes, it was handy! Other times, it got him punched, and he didn't want to see it spark an intergalactic war... or something.

"What do you think you might find in the temple, out of curiosity?" he asked. "I'll admit I have a few wild guesses myself, but I may not be the most reliable or realistic point of view when it comes to... religious institutions, let's say."

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel looked at him carefully for a moment. There it was again, that awkward look, and again, connected with religion. It was on the tip of his tongue to just ask him outright. Something must have happened to Luis, something that colored his view on religion as a whole.

"It could be anything. Icons, paintings, literature, reliquaries, statues. It depends on the religion. I don't even know if this is a new temple or if they appropriated the previous religion's temple and converted it, yet." he answered. "I'd rather not assume anything until I get there."

[notlewis]

Luis sighed. "Yeah. You're probably right. Let me know whatever you find, though."

He paused for a moment before finally elaborating. "Try to be careful, okay? I know how things are in these small towns. People take their religions... very, very seriously."

[hi_there_aliens]

"I will. I need a radio though. Unless you want me to report back in person. I could do that too."

If he remembered to come back on time. Not that having the radio would help if that was the case, but it would save him time walking there and back. Less time spent commuting was more time spent researching.

Daniel was always careful, but that was usually trying to be careful about the remnants of the past. When it came to his own well-being, well, that was a matter of trying. He tried, yeah, just whether he succeeded all the time was up for debate. He got so involved in his work that even something like eating was easy to forget about. Daniel tried to keep an ear and eye out on his surroundings, something you picked up on digs back on Earth, but sometimes that wasn't enough to stop things getting crazy.

Which was why he could always count Jack to watch his six.

So that was it. Luis must have had a very personal experience, and a bad one from the sound of it. It probably wasn't his business, but it obviously still bothered the man.

And they were on a planet that had a very vested interest religion.

"Did you want to talk about it?" he asked after a moment.

[notlewis]

"It'd probably be better to report back in person," he said. "You know, just so we can make sure it's on the down low." The idea that someone could eavesdrop on their radio feed here was laughable... the Oryans didn't even know what radios were. But still.

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly at Daniel's question, smirking and shaking his head.

"It's not important," he said. "I'll just have to tell you about my hometown sometime. I see a lot of similarities between here and there."

[notlewis]

"It might be safer to come back and speak in person," Luis advised. "Not that I expect the Oryans will be able to listen in on our radio lines, but... you know." Plus that way he could ensure that Daniel did return from the depths of the temple.

He really needed to get better about his poker face... it seemed to be slipping, if Daniel had spotted his discomfort so easily.

"Nah, don't worry about it," he said. "I'll just have to tell you about my hometown sometime. I am seeing more than a few similarities with this village."