Title: A Resonant Transliteration
Author's LJ/DWJ/AO3: jenlev
Categories: character study, character: Daniel Jackson
Warnings: None
Author's Webpage/Fic list: Stories
Link to story: A Resonant Transliteration
Why this should be read: A beautiful study of Daniel as the team goes through the gate to explore a planet they haven't been to before. This fic is a sense-of-wonder refresher: a celebration of how fundamentally marvelous gate travel is. It's also a gift to Daniel, who is musing, as the story opens in the embarkation room, that it's been a long time since they met a truly alien race. The fertile Daniel headspace, rich with associations, is portrayed in loving detail. Through Daniel's perceptions and deductions, so is what they find in the new ancient world they step into.

About 1200 words.

Snippet of fic:

At some point, the languages that grew out of the human need to communicate began to feel more alien to Daniel than the ones that evolved on other planets. Linear A is still incomprehensible; without enough of a container to show what the humans were imagining or feeling, the series of lines and curves are an echo of something lost.

He remembers the moment when cuneiform flowed through him; the edged outlines of the writing came into focus, moving from visually perceived objects to thoughts, becoming another layer of how he defines himself. He wonders what the Nox’s written history looks like, and if it’s even on a page. He knows there’s a drive to document a history, as if that makes the people known to each other.