0500 ZULU
Stargate Command
Cheyenne Mountains, CO

"Incoming wormhole!" the familiar voice blared over the intercom. General Landry rose from his desk.

"I really need to figure out how to turn the blasted volume down on that thing," he thought as he strode toward the gate room. He marched in and stood erect before the gate. A familiar blue puddle of energy shot out at him like a bullet and then retracted into a thin circle. Every day the fact that people could walk in and out of this thing still astonished him. The gateway to the universe, it had a poetic ring to it. Maybe after he retired he'd become a poet and write about his everyday experiences at the SGC.

"Nah!" he said to himself. "It wouldn't see the light of day. Suddenly, SG-3 staggered into the room through the Stargate.

"Close the gate!" ordered Captain Kinsey. The gate shut down and the iris closed.

"Welcome back, SG-3," said Gen. Landry, walking forward to greet them. As he got closer, his eyes met theirs. He immediately knew something was wrong.

"Wasn't SG-1 supposed to be with you?" Landry asked.

"We were on a reconnaissance mission," replied Capt. Kinsey. "Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell told us to defend the gate and come back through if they didn't come back in two hours.

"So you're telling me that you left SG-1 behind," replied Landry.

"Yes, sir, but with all do respect, sir, I believe that SG-1 will make it back safely," replied Capt. Kinsey.

"They always do," said Landry

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0800 ZULU
Home of a murder witness
Glassboro, NJ

"Now I'm not going to ask you again. What did you see?" inquired Capt. Harmon Rabbs, frustrated.

"That information is classified. It doesn't matter what classification you have," replied the witness.

"You've said that seven times already," answered Harm.

"That's because you haven't gotten it through your head that I'm not authorized to tell anyone about any matters related to the Stargate Program!" replied the witness.

"You keep referring to this 'Stargate Program', but you're yet to tell me what in the world it is," countered Harm. "There's no one here. It's just you, me, and the nice little fireplace to our right."

"I'm not telling anyone. I'm not exposing the world's most secret military program," answered the witness.

"Hm, are you sure you won't tell me more. I can be very persuasive," replied Harm dangerously. He looked hard at the witness. He could tell that he was hiding something. The witness suddenly looked very uncomfortable. His eyes flashed as if they had been flickered on and off. All of a sudden, the witness punched Harm in the stomach with the force of a thousand men. Harm doubled over groaning.

"Excuse me, Captain Rabbs, but I have some business to attend to," said the witness, standing up. Rather, the witness's mouth moved, but the voice Harm heard was different, deeper, almost unnaturally so. Something was definitely going on, and he hadn't a clue of what it was. The witness ran off.

"You don't get off that easy," Harm muttered, and with that, he got into his car and followed him…