Dr. Daniel Jackson (
danieljackson) wrote2009-05-03 09:14 pm
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New verse with
malcolmeffect
Daniel tossed his pencil at the mess on his desk with a frustrated sound. He leaned back in the chair with a sigh, running his hands through his hair. "I give up. I'm just not seeing it."
The it being a translation he'd been working on for about 36 hours straight. Which equaled out to about 15 cups of coffee and 5 pencils worth. Now the text was starting to look like a bunch of squiggles, no matter how often he adjusted his glasses.
The text had been found on a mostly deserted planet, PT-586. The building structures there seemed to say there had once been an advanced culture...but it seemed to have disappeared into thin air. All that was left was their writings. There was a pattern, but it just didn't follow any languages Jackson was familiar with. The letters were a collection of dashes, dots, and circles. More of a methodical code than anything...
Code...methodical...
"That has to be it," Daniel said aloud. "It's a math based language...which means I'm a bit out of my league." He picked up the phone, calling General Hammond. He was going to need help on this one.
The it being a translation he'd been working on for about 36 hours straight. Which equaled out to about 15 cups of coffee and 5 pencils worth. Now the text was starting to look like a bunch of squiggles, no matter how often he adjusted his glasses.
The text had been found on a mostly deserted planet, PT-586. The building structures there seemed to say there had once been an advanced culture...but it seemed to have disappeared into thin air. All that was left was their writings. There was a pattern, but it just didn't follow any languages Jackson was familiar with. The letters were a collection of dashes, dots, and circles. More of a methodical code than anything...
Code...methodical...
"That has to be it," Daniel said aloud. "It's a math based language...which means I'm a bit out of my league." He picked up the phone, calling General Hammond. He was going to need help on this one.
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After arriving he was ushered into a conference room. A woman brought him a cup of coffee and a sandwich. He ate and she came back, gave him more coffee and disappeared. A short time later he heard someone outside the door. He wondered why he was here. He was worried about Ja'nee and would have called her but they had taken his cellphone hours ago. That left him to sit and wonder why he was here, underground.
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Yes. I'm Dr. Malcolm. Ian watched all the stuff fluttering around but didn't help. He was more than a little annoyed about being pulled all the way out to wherever this was.
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He pointed at a couple of the pages. "We found these inscriptions...well, ok, I can't really say where exactly they were found, but they were all in the same room and they seem to follow some sort of pattern. It's a brand new language, I wouldn't even begin to imagine how to pronounce it. The fact is, I can't seem to translate it but there are signs that it might be based in mathematics. So I was hoping you might have some ideas that I wouldn't..."
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Chaotician. Ian corrected. Ian looked over the pages at a glance first then more closely. Ian took his time comparing the lines of "text" for a moment before speaking.
The repetition pattern is interesting. Is this all of the text?
Ian had relaxed now that he knew why he was here and honestly it looked interesting.
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"Well, there were a couple more rooms and that was just one building, we really didn't get a chance to cover much ground. I'd assume there's more but this was all we could take back for this...uh...trip." He dug through his stuff and found the photographs of the room in question. The text was written in black along the sides of the pale blue walls. The room was empty except for a cube on the floor in the very middle. The room seemed square too from what the pictures could show.
"There seem to be 63 individual symbols in groups of 9. Now I don't know if the group would be a word or if each individual symbol is a sound or an idea..." Daniel sat down across from him. "I've compared it to everything I can, for all I know it's not even a language. It might be some sort of code...or decoration."
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What's the cube?
Ian took up two of the pages, comparing them and then setting them back down.
Seven groups. He was talking to himself more than Daniel. Finally he looked at the other man pointing out a group of symbols.
These three seem to be repeated in similar locations. These three too.
Ian looked puzzled. If this was a decoration the pattern would be regular.
Malcolm pointed back at the photograph. The pattern isn't uniformly distributed..uh.. like someone decorating a wall.
Ian went back to looking at the symbols and talking to himself again. Why would everything be in threes except the number of groups?
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It was comforting to hear that it wasn't decoration. That would have meant all of his work would have been a colossal waste of time, although Jack would certainly have never let him hear the end of it. "Ok...so we've got seven groups of symbols on each wall...63 symbols total in groups of 9...and these three symbols tend to be next to each other often." Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Sorry, I've been staring at these for about 2 days now. More numbers just aren't helping."
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Ian was curious. Even if archeology wasn't his field he did like challenges. Ian laughed at the comment. Uh.. you're asking a chaotician to decipher a language.
Ian smiled still but took another serious look at the pages. I don't study history but math usually follows a pattern. If something is in groups of threes or nines; which are really the same pattern, then it follows through the whole series.
With this.. Uh... Ian pointed at the photo while collecting his thoughts. It should be 6 or nine groups if it follows a regular pattern. This has seven.
Ian went back to the pages trying to figure out why there'd be a deviation from a usual pattern in an ancient system.
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"And seven is an odd number, it's like six with an odd man out...although there are seven symbols in a stargate...address..." Daniel realized the minute he said it, he really couldn't take it back.
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The address? Ian didn't get it but he did see something in the patterns that demanded more attention. Malcolm looked over Daniel's shoulder at the photograph and then the papers in front of him.
I don't think this is a language.
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The repetition isn't linear. But if you correlate non-adjacent sets... Malcolm started listing out the first and fourth set of symbols as 'A'= a string of variables that he'd already assigned to the symbols.
The variables repeat in the equation allowing you to drop some of them. He wrote out more to the equation that eventually came down to two assigned letters from each of the blocks of symbols were equal to 'A'.
That's the equation for the vector describing a shifting object in three dimensional space.
Malcolm stopped writing and questioned how crazy what he just did seemed. We do a demonstration similar to this where the students have to determine the probable location of a rat roaming free on a grid. It's two dimensional but the process would be very similar.
Ian rubbed his eyes. Not because he was tired but because hew as waiting for his reputation to burn again for sounding crazy.
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"Ok, so...assuming that's right..." he had a flicker of an idea going. "This room could be representative of that idea. A sort of...display room?"
The door opened and the lieutenant came in and handed Dr. Jackson two papers. "Thank you! Finally." He slid over a non-disclosure agreement and pen. The paper states that the undersigned is sworn to never reveal the classified information he will be allowed access to, etc. etc. with a blank space for a signature.
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Ian shrugged. The equation could be describing any object inside or outside of the room.
Ian looked up when the papers came. He'd seen these before. Like the last time he wasn't in a position where he could refuse to sign them. He signed the papers reluctantly before going back to the equation.
These need to be graphed in 3 dimensional space. The vectors might explain more once they are mapped.
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It was a relief when he signed the papers, now he didn't have to feel like a heel for being so secretive.
"Sure, what do you need? A computer probably?"
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A computer with Origin.
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"Com'n, follow me," he headed out the door into the corridor.
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Daniel of course had forgotten that he had yet to explain all of this, he was setting the papers along a small area next to a computer station and asking one of the techs to punch up Origin for Dr. Malcolm.
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"Oh! Right, that. That is, um..." Daniel tried to think of the best way to put this. But he was saved by the bell.
Red lights started to flash and alarms going off. The tech behind the main desk spoke through the PA system while everyone started moving around faster. "Offworld activation! Incoming traveler!"
The Stargate was turning, lights turning on in the chevrons around the edges. It activated as the last one locked into place and the blue whoosh of the wormhole swooshed it's way through the gateroom and back into the circle, making a glowing blue pool.
A few seconds later, SG4 team came through on schedule from their mission.
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What is that?
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