Speaking the Language

"Well colonel...a few dozen more mouths to feed, a planet stuck in the middle of volcanic winter, a country named after you...sounds like you had quite the field day."

"You could say that. But I don't think Novus will be showing fields anytime soon."

"Novus...why not Novus Mundus? I mean, surely..."

Everett Young wasn't in the mood to listen to Daniel Jackson repeat the same discussion he'd heard every scientist on Destiny repeat over the last few days. Bad enough that Novus was destroyed, bad enough that every one of the Novans was treating Rush like a demon (which, all things considered, he couldn't blame them admittedly), bad enough that they were all giving him credit for being the founder of the "Land of Young." He didn't need Doctor Jackson to top it up.

Shouldn't he be with SG-1 on some God forsaken planet right now?

"So..." General O'Neil began, interrupting Jackson's musing and indicating that he wasn't in the mood for it either. "You alright with taking them on colonel? Both the Lucian Alliance members and now these Novans?"

"Novus Mundans..."

"Yes sir, I am," Young answered, ignoring the good doctor's resumed musing. "The Lucian Alliance we can handle and after their efforts on the forest planet, I think it's safe to say they're willing to fight in our corner. As for the Novans...well, I agree with Eli. They're our descendents. Family."

"Family..." O'Neill sniggered. "From what I've heard, you know all about that."

The colonel winced. He had no idea how the recording of Tamara's birth got out. Apparently 2000 year old videos weren't sacrosanct.

"Still, there is something that confuses me," the first commander of SG-1 continued. "You mentioned how odd it was at first that the Novans were speaking English."

"I didn't make first contact sir," the colonel answered cordially, not sure where this was going. "But yes-Scott and Greer did recall that it was a surprise for them at first that the Novans spoke our language."

"Why would that be odd?"

Young blinked. O'Neill stared at him. And while he didn't glance at Jackson, the archaeologist had stopped his musings suddenly as well.

"Um, sir?" the CO asked curiously. "Speaking English? As in, one of many languages on Earth and-..."

"And every other planet in the Milky Way and Pegasus," O'Neill pointed out. "It's pretty much universal."

"The blueberry aliens and the ursini might say otherwise."

O'Neill and Jackson glanced at each other, expressions of confusion on both their visages. Young couldn't fault that entirely-they were involved with stargates even before the creation of SG-1, let alone the Stargate Program itself. They were obviously able to communicate on a level that he couldn't. Yet he couldn't help but feel he was the source of their amusement. Amusement that stemmed from more than his host body via the communication stones.

"Colonel, I'm not criticizing you of course," O'Neill began, facing Young but still keeping his look of perplexion. "But, I mean, you do know that English is spoken by every human group we've encountered thus far."

"Um...no?"

"Oh yeah, sure," Jackson piped in. "Chulak in the Milky Way, Athos in Pegasus...first contact was always in English. Always was with members of our own species."

"And neither of you found this...odd? That humans transported throughout the universe thousands of years ago by the Ancients just happened to speak the same language we did after all this time?"

"Um...no?"

Young remained silent, not sure how to respond. Say that the first time the two had visited Abydos, communication had been a bitch between the recon team and its inhabitants? Be labelled as one of those loonies who insisted that Project Giza had been based in Creek Mountain and simply moved to Cheyanne Mountain? Point out that while species such as the asgard and nox speaking English was understandable, given their level of technology, but that the idea that every human group in two galaxies spoke it should be statistically impossible? Granted, O'Neill and Jackson had far more experience than he did, not to mention that he'd been on more planets outside this galaxy bar those in this one, but still...

"Anyway, it doesn't matter," O'Neill said suddenly. "Thanks for your time colonel. Rest of the day is yours I think."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir."

Here on Earth at least, speaking the same language made sense.

Even if O'Neill and Jackson could be heard questioning his sanity.

A/N

Likely apparent, but this idea stemmed from the episode Common Descent. Specifially a single moment where Scott (or Greer) express surprise that the Novans can speak English. As someone familiar with SG-1 to a fair extent, I couldn't help but smirk at this. Here we have a character expressing surprise at humans speaking English where it actually makes sense that they speak English. In contrast, few, if any of the human ethnic groups spread throughout the Milky Way and Pegasus should be able to speak English, yet to my knowledge, no explanation or even exclamations of surprise as to how they're able to do so. 'Course it would drag the pacing down if the same routine had to be gone through every time first contact was made, and a universal translator might not be that fitting of context, but...well, you know...

Anyway, this wasn't meant to be overly critical, rather being on the similar level of Winds of Change. And quite frankly, there's infinite possibilities for parodying aspects in sci-fi. English being the common language of the universe is but one of them.