"In the five weeks since our return from PX7-941..." "Known to its population as Madrona." "...we've processed most of the data we collected." "We think we've corroborated some startling first-hand observations." " Which are?" " Well, sir, the inhabitants can proactively affect their own climate." "That's a bit of an understatement!" "They can call it up..." "just like... that." "You got a crop that needs water?" "Order some rain." "It needs sun, it's literally a matter of dialling it up." "Are you sure you weren't under the local voodoo?" "Believe me, General, no one was more sceptical than I." "But we may have stumbled on the most important piece of technology the SGC mission has discovered to date." "Even the Goa'uld have no such technology." "You think you know how they do it?" "Our best theory is that the planet was terraformed about 900 years ago." "The Madronans are primitive, so it's likely it was terraformed by another alien race." "The weather seems to be regulated by this device." "The Madronans call it the Touchstone." "It's an ancient artefact, probably made by the other alien race." "It's right there." "It's in the statue's hand." "The high priest turns a series of calibrated rings, which seem to determine meteorological conditions." "Do we have any idea what makes it tick?" "That's why we'd like to go back, sir." "Carter wants to get a closer look with some of her specialised... doohickeys." "Doohickeys?" "!" "I believe that's the technical term, sir!" "My instruments will measure the Touchstone's emissions and give us an idea of how it works." "Any chance we could borrow it for a few days, do a little backward engineering?" "The Touchstone maintains the weather on this planet." "Right." "OK, then." "Go see what you can figure out." "OK." "Greetings, Roham." "Princess La Moor." " It's the visitors, Uncle." " We demand you return the Touchstone!" "What?" "I-It's missing?" "Do not play games." "You must return it at once!" "No games." "We didn't take it." "It is gone!" "Come!" "See for yourselves!" "This explains the storm clouds out there." "Without the Touchstone to shield us, we shall soon be overtaken by the elements." "It's only a matter of time before we begin to die because of your theft." "All right." "Here's a question for you." "If it was so important, why wasn't it guarded?" "It was guarded." "We let down our guard because of your people." " We trusted you." " We did not take it!" "Had we taken the artefact, there would have been no need to return." "There were witnesses." "What did these witnesses see?" "People taking the Touchstone in the dead of night." "They were dressed as you are and carried weapons like yours." " Did they see where these people went?" " They left by your Stargate." "As you know, none of our people know how to use the portal." "Guards!" "Disarm the wrongdoers!" "Hold it!" "All right!" "We came here in peace, we expect to go in one... piece." "Explain yourself." "But be warned." "If your answers are not satisfactory, then we have no choice but to seek retribution." "Taking revenge will not return the Touchstone, for we did not take it." "Then it will lead us to those that did." "Only if they care what happens to us!" "Look, let me give you a little life lesson about thieves." "They're not really in touch with their feminine side." "Caring would be on a low priority..." "My uncle grows impatient." "If the thieves used the gate to escape, the only hope to get it back is to let us go back through the gate." "And if they did come from Earth, our technology can help us find out who the thieves were." "How do we know that you will not use the gate to escape responsibility?" "Trust us?" "We are a simple people, Colonel." "We have no means to protect ourselves from this disaster." "If my uncle decides to trust you, our entire future will depend on that decision." "OK, that's a little pressure!" "But we can handle that." "Let them go." "Please... help us." "Why are you back so early?" "You were supposed to study that weather device." "We would do, if it were still there." "What do you mean?" "We should talk in your office, sir." "What's this about, Colonel?" "The Touchstone was stolen, sir." "By people wearing SGC uniforms, who came and went through the Stargate." "What?" "!" "Well, who was it?" "Everyone involved here would like to know that, sir." "I don't appreciate your implication, Colonel." "Why would I send your team to study the thing if I knew it wasn't there?" "No implication intended, sir." "But circumstances do beg the next logical question, which is could another SG team have gone through without your order?" "Not without my knowing about it." "Yes, sir." "General, do you mind if I have Carter recheck the dialling computer?" "Just to see if there are any signs of anyone sneaking through the gate covertly." "Behind your back, as it were, sir." "Nothing happens regarding that Stargate without my knowing about it." "If a person sneezes near it, I get a report." "I understand, sir." "Colonel." "Have Carter check it anyway." "Thank you... very much, sir." " Anything yet?" " Not on the Touchstone, sir." "Have you seen the Weather Channel?" "I'm more of a C-SPAN guy." "Observe, O'Neill." "Chalk it up to a delayed El Niño effect or just a run of bad luck,... .. but more storms have stretched all over America,... .. even in Phoenix, Arizona, causing widespread damage." "Reports of injuries are still trickling in." "We have flooding in Palm Springs..." "And that's not all." "There's record rainfall in Albuquerque, hail in the Panhandle and three major rivers cresting." "Something is definitely altering this planet's weather." "And you think it's this Touchstone?" " Kind of a reach, isn't it?" " Not really, if you think about it." "Whoever left that device on Madrona probably keyed it to its atmospheric conditions." "Somebody brings it back to Earth, starts fiddling around with it and... who knows?" "!" " We don't know it's on Earth." " I'm thinking it is." "There was a huge transitory glitch three days ago, when SG-2 returned from a mission." "The same hour as the Touchstone was taken." "SG-2's point of origin was galaxies away from Madrona." "Yeah, but this energy spike is off the charts." "Remember what happened the last time the gate's power supply was overloaded?" "It jumped to the second gate in the Antarctic." "Thanks for the memory!" "Are you suggesting that SG-2 used the second gate to steal the Touchstone?" "No." "Not SG-2." "Their mission went as planned, through our gate." "But someone might have used the second gate a split second after SG-2 used ours to try to hide the energy spike in ours." "Kind of like shooting off a gun when a train's going by?" "To hide the sound." "Yes, sir." "If I'm right, SG-2's log should have the same electronic signature as the last time the wormhole jumped its tracks." "Bear with me." "Bearing." "Damn!" "It should show up on the primary meta-log." " Try the backup log." " Yeah." "Possibly." "If someone did try to erase all the relevant data, they could've easily missed a backup." "Yes!" "There it is." "The second gate had to have been used." "The energy signature's identical." "Who was authorised to use it?" "I thought it had been officially decommissioned." "It was." "Officially." "Come." "No." "I need to talk to him now." "Son, do you know what colour this phone is?" "Yes." "I'll hold." "Carter find anything?" "Yes, sir." "Apparently, the second gate is being used." "What?" "!" "I was given top-level assurances that gate was to be sealed." "A case of the left hand not knowing what the right foot is doing, sir?" "That's what I'm trying to find out." "No!" "It can't wait, son." "Well, make sure he gets the message the second he comes out." "And, suddenly, the President wasn't available!" "Every time I call, he's tied up." "It's like someone is orchestrating his schedule to keep us from speaking." "Got a someone in mind, sir?" "This is gonna sound paranoid, Colonel." "Back when the SG programme began, there was a philosophical skirmish about its mandate." "Some people wanted to make sure that all discoveries were brought back, regardless of considerations like interplanetary diplomacy." "Do you mind if I ask who these "some people" were?" "The truth is, I'm not sure I ever fully knew who they were." "I had a feeling that someone chose not to surface during the debate." "Not military - politicians pulling strings behind the scenes." "No one said so exactly." "30 years in the service, you develop an instinct about things." "General, is your gut telling you that this "person" is responsible for stealing the Touchstone?" "I'm a long way from drawing that conclusion." "But I'll be damned if I'll be blocked by some sycophant in the White House." "I have other channels I can pursue, markers I can call in." "General, I know I don't have to tell you this." "But whoever these dark-side guys are, they can do some pretty nasty damage if they figure out how to work this thing." "I know, Colonel." "I know." "Let me do some digging." "In an effort to determine whether the Touchstone was being used, I measured the Doppler shift for gravitational and radiation emissions." "I used one of my monitoring instruments, and tied it in to two NOAA satellites." " What did you find?" " It's somewhere in the Nevada Desert." " From the crude triangulation..." " Nevada?" "Yes, sir." "Something wrong?" "The second gate ended up in Nevada, didn't it, sir?" "Nellis?" "Yes." "If the gate is there, it makes sense that the Touchstone has at least been there." "You're going to love this, Colonel." "Guess who just got reassigned to Nellis." "Do tell." "Colonel Maybourne." "Oh, well, here's good news!" "Nellis is where we send the technology we bring back through the gate?" "Yes." "The Groom Lake facility." "Area 51." " What are we looking at?" " We sent the MALP back to Madrona." "It's basically a blizzard, sir - winds gusting up to 80 miles an hour." "Any more intense, the whole planet's a write-off." "How much time do they have remaining?" "If my extrapolations are correct, we're looking at 48 to 72 hours before all the terraforming is kaput." " Permission to take a trip to Nevada, sir." " OK." "I'll call Nellis and get you cleared." "Uh, General, it's become pretty obvious that our own people are involved here." "The government types, you know." "How do you know who to trust?" "We have the necessary clearance level, sir." "Colonel, I need some documents delivered to the Groom Lake facility." "Are those documents sensitive enough to warrant a three-man team with a Jaffa escort?" "Absolutely." "Colonel O'Neill." "Major Reynolds, NID." "Welcome to Area 51." "Nice to meet you." "This is Captain Carter, Dr. Jackson and Teal'c." "Gentlemen." "Ma'am." "I can't tell you what an honour it is to meet you." "You guys are a legend." "Yeah, well..." "Thanks." "We're hoping to meet with Colonel Maybourne." "He's been paged, sir." "Come inside - he'll find you there." "You obviously know who we are." "If it wasn't for you and the other SG teams, we'd be out of business here." "Follow me, please." "To your left is Medical Research." "They're focusing on the potential cure for Alzheimer's that SG-5 brought back." "The other side is Geology, Space Metallurgy, and Artefacts Study, where they're poring over your notes on that Heliopolis place, Dr. Jackson." ""Meaning of life stuff"" " I love that!" "Dr Dobson to room 483." "Dr. Dobson." "Those are the two Goa'uld death gliders you were in after you did your hero thing." "Nice work, by the way." "Yeah." "Thanks." "This way." "This is the Bio-research Lab." "Is this where you keep the little green men?" "There are no alien life forms at Area 51." "Present company excluded, of course." "Colonel O'Neill." "Hello, Maybourne." "Major, if you'll excuse us." "Teal'c!" "It's good to see you're well." "In my culture, I would be well within my rights to dismember you." "Well... that's interesting." "Is there something I can do for you?" "Yeah." "We assume the Touchstone was brought here." "Excuse me?" "Maybe you have a different name for it?" "The weather controller from Madrona" " PX7-941?" "It seems that someone has sent you on a fool's errand, Colonel." "There is nothing even remotely like that here." "You are, however, aware of our mission?" "I remember a reference to it." "But - correct me if I'm wrong - nothing came back from that survey." " Not by our team." " Another SGC team?" "You tell me." "If you're looking for specific answers, be less cryptic with your questions." "Fine." "Where's the damn Touchstone?" "Has the second Stargate been activated?" "It's been under complete lockdown since its arrival here." "It hasn't even been powered up." "Mind if we have a look?" "I guarantee it's been dormant since you came through it." "Then there's no harm in taking a look." "Is there?" "There it is." "Happy now, Colonel?" "Carter." " Satisfied?" " Not really." "Just proves it got packed up real nice after it was used." "That gate has been in there since it was brought here from the Antarctic." "Come on, Harry!" "You and I have been through this dance before." "Uh, Colonel." "This gate is plastic." "What?" "!" "Captain Carter is correct." "That's ridiculous!" "That's the gate that was brought back from the Antarctic." "It's been under lock and key since it got here." "This gate's plastic." "Where's the real one?" "So... what the hell happened to the Stargate?" "It's obviously been moved." "So it can be fired up without raising eyebrows?" "That's highly speculative." "I don't know who's giving you orders, Maybourne,... .. but they had better come from where the air is real thin." "Is that a threat, Colonel?" "You tell me the punishment for losing a Stargate." "That presumes there was no authorisation to move the Stargate." " So who authorised it?" " That's classified." " We have the highest clearance." " Within the military, you do." "Are you telling me this is a civilian operation?" "!" "Colonel O'Neill and his people need an escort back to their vehicle." " Who's pulling the strings, Maybourne?" " Take a piece of advice, Jack." "Let it drop." "Drop it?" "!" "Please... don't make these gentlemen have to get disrespectfuI." "We're operating under a virtual blackout." "No one will confirm or deny a thing." "The only other Stargate on the planet gets spirited away, and it's business as usual?" "!" "Not really." "Somebody's clamped down on the communications channels." " What of the Touchstone?" " Sometime while we were gone, my instrument readings dropped to zero." "They've stopped using it, or are shielding it from detection." "The weather anomalies have abated on Earth." "They probably realised experimenting with it was causing too many problems." "Exactly." "If we can't track the Touchstone, we may be able to track the second gate on Earth." "Oh, sure!" "Let's just put out an APB for a huge, honkin', two-storey metal ring with 39 little pictures all nicely engraved on it!" "Actually, I had another thought." "Go ahead, Captain." "We use our gate to go to Madrona, then do a 180 and return through the second gate here on Earth." "If one input the Earth's coordinates on the Madrona dialling device, he would be sent back to the gate on this facility." "You would." "Unless you intentionally overpower the gate." "The way the wormhole arced to send the two of you to the other gate." "As you may recall, it was a minor miracle that either of you survived that incident." "What if we used the MALP robot?" "Perfect." "The GPS could give us an exact position once the MALP made it through." "Someone would have to accompany you to Madrona, to dial the correct address." " Uh..." "I would be that person." " I'll go, too." "Bring the necessary equipment to modulate the power to the gate." "Let's do it!" "They've arrived through the Madrona gate, sir." "We're transporting our people across the galaxy to find something we lost in our own back yard!" "Incredible!" "They're back, Uncle Roham!" " Did you bring the Touchstone?" " Not yet." "We're working on it." "Don't you understand?" "!" "Look around you!" "The rivers have turned to ice!" "Before long, all our croplands will be decimated!" "Why did you return?" "We have to set this machine from here to track the Touchstone." " You're lying!" " We're not lying!" "We really are trying to help." "Come now!" "They should be inputting the last address." "Status, Captain?" " It's through, sir." "It's on Earth." " Where the hell is it?" "I'm switching over to terrestrial video signal." " We have visual, but it's dark." " Can you make out anything?" "No, not much." " There's somebody moving." " What is its location?" "I'm resetting the MALP global positioning system to Telsat 13, attempting to triangulate." " What the hell happened?" "!" " They blew it away, sir." "Carter?" "The link is gone." "They destroyed the MALP." " Did you get the coordinates?" " No time." "But I've got it narrowed down." "How far down?" "Well, as far as I can tell, it's in Southern Utah." "Oh!" "Well..." "Southern Utah!" "Well, at least that's a start." "I have one last marker to call." "Let me see what I can find out." " Hello, General." " Whitlow." "Shall we walk?" "As I told you on the phone, I don't have time for all this cloak-and-dagger stuff." " I need to know..." " Please... walk." "It makes it harder for the parabolics." "Glad to see the paranoia quotient is as high as ever!" "You never know who's listening." "What do you need to know?" "Two things." "Who's got the Stargate?" "Who's got the weather device?" " I wish I had that info." " I don't have time for games, Whitlow." "As much as I'd love to clear our little IOU, I don't know anything." "I don't even know what you're talking about with regards to a weather device." "But are you saying the Stargate is missing?" "!" " The second one is, yes." " That doesn't sound like a good thing!" "Come on!" "You've got your fingers in every agency." "You haven't heard anything?" "Military intelligence?" "NSA?" "CIA?" "If it were military, I'd know about it." "It's got to be civilian." "Anything strange going on at Nellis?" "There's always something going on at Nellis, and most of the time it's strange." "But nothing about a Stargate or a... weather... thingy." "Does this have something to do with all the weird weather lately?" "How about Southern Utah?" "Anything going on there?" "Southern Utah?" "!" "Yeah, as a matter of fact." "A requisition just crossed my desk requesting a C-5 for a classified pick-up at an NID landing site." "It's in Utah." "Hm." "No idea what it's for?" "Not officially." "But I don't have to tell you, a C-5's a big airplane." "Big enough to hold a Stargate and transport it anywhere in the world." "Where's the strip?" "Just south of the Black Mountains." "About 40 clicks west of Parowan." "Thank you, Whitlow." "George?" "Does this mean we're even?" "If it pans out, it does." "OK, here's the deal." "This NID landing strip doesn't officially exist, so I don't think there's a jurisdictional issue." "But even if there is, that C-5 is Air Force property, and it is our jurisdiction." " Can we go now, sir?" " There's a chopper waiting." "It will take you to Hill Air Force Base." "Then you're on your own." "Thank you." "One other thing, Colonel." "We don't know if the people who took the gate and Touchstone are friend or foe." "Therefore, under no conditions are you to fire on them." "Understood?" "Under no conditions... fire." "That's right." "What if they fire on us, sir?" "Then you're to take cover." "Do not return fire unless it's the only option remaining..." " ...to defend yourselves." " I don't think..." "Those are my orders, Colonel." "We're already going way out on a limb on this." "I don't want you killing another American who may just be following orders." " Understood?" " Yes, sir." "Stand to, gentlemen!" "Keep those hands visible." "Who the hell are you?" "!" "No one's damn business!" "Step away from the crate." "Stop!" "Don't do it!" "Agh!" "What?" "I missed the address." "At least we have this." "They've come back, Uncle Roham!" "Just as I told you!" " Do they have the Touchstone?" " They do!" " Thank you." " You're very welcome." "We hope your faith and trust in us has been restored." "You have lived up to your promises." "Let there be peace between our worlds." "We must remain vigilant, lest those that trespassed before come back to violate the sanctity of the Holy Touchstone." "Just make sure your guards are paying attention this time!" "Blessings be upon you." "Everything should be back to normal soon, here and on Madrona." "We think they'll let us return to do the studies we'd hoped to do." " Any idea what happened, sir?" " It's still something of a shell game." " The investigation was taken from me." " By whom?" "I'm still trying to find that out." "So we may never know who those men were who went through the gate." "Not unless you can tell me where they went." "Until then, all SG units are to be on watch for four NID guys wandering around another planet." "Great!" "So all this could happen again, huh?" "No, Colonel!" "This time, I was able to ensure that our Stargate will be the only one in use." "Sir..." "The second Stargate is being retired?" "Yes." "Only this time, there will be a permanent iris welded over it, and it will be placed under round-the-clock guard under the command of the SGC - my command." "No lying and deceit, smoke and mirrors?" "You'll be there yourselves - all of you will" " When we put it away for good." "This put you out of a job, Maybourne?" "Oh, you'd be surprised." "Strange things happen in high places, Colonel." "Don't I know it!" "People get reassigned." "So does property." "Artefacts get misplaced." "Orders change." "Every day's a new day."