"Nothing on the radio?"

Sam shook her head and smiled tightly. She looked up at the clouds gathering overhead and then back to the island off in the distance. "I'm going with their radios being damaged in some way."

"Both of them?"

"Possible. I don't know, but if they got caught by the tsunami..."

"Jackson would have headed for high ground."

"If there was time. Anyway, Teal'c is talking to the captain, trying to coax some speed out of this tub."

"Yeah," Cam said, "about that. I'm all for hyping up my own resume for the sake of first impressions, but this fishing fleet of theirs doesn't exactly match the profile we were given."

"Finely crafted vessels, maximized for the expanding Mekrit fishing trade?"

"There's another thing. I'd like to know exactly who the Mekrit are trading with, considering Taphir was pretty up front about not knowing how to use the gate."

"Local trade? Growing population?"

"Colonel Mitchell!"

Cam turned to face the stern as Teal'c made his way past the crab pots and nets, a dark scowl on his face. "You about done with making friends an influencing people?"

If Teal'c understood the reference he chose not to show it. "Captain Agela is a most stubborn individual."

"Deaf ears?"

"He appeared to hear my every word."

"No, Teal'c," Sam said with a smile. "Deaf ears is a term used when someone refuses to listen to you."

"Would it not be much easier to simply say what you mean?"

Cam started to reply but shut his mouth and indicated for Teal'c to continue.

"I impressed upon him the importance of haste in recovering Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran, but he has refused to drop the excess ballast he is currently carrying."

"Did he give a reason?" Sam asked.

"He did not. But he did suggest he might be willing to meet our request with an amount of monetary compensation for the loss of the ballast."

"Isn't it just water?"

"SG-1niner this is Stargate Command. Come in."

"Perfect timing." Sam reached for her radio and pressed the mic. "This is Carter, go ahead."

"Colonel Carter!" The speaker had changed to General Landry. "Good to hear your voice. We were worried when you missed your regular check-in."

"Sorry about that, sir. We've run in to some problems here and are unable to reach the Stargate. Requesting a search and rescue team. Daniel and Vala have gone missing after a tsunami hit the island they were exploring. We are en route now."

"No radio contact?"

"Nothing, sir. It may be that their radios were damaged. Trying not to consider the other option."

"Colonel, if you can't reach the Stargate how is a S&R unit going to get to your location?"

"By sea. There is a beach just west of the gate, about 300 meters. You should be able to launch an inflatable without any problem. The earthquake that triggered the tsunami also created a ground rupture that has cut the Stargate off from the Mekrit city. The island is approximately 50 kilometers off the coast of the peninsula, visible on a clear day and through field glasses."

"Are Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c with you?"

"Yes, sir. Colonel Mitchell was injured in the quake, along with a number of Mekrit. He is mobile and assisting with the search."

"Fatalities?"

"We're not sure of the numbers yet and the Mekrit seem reluctant to share that information with us. "

"Have they asked for assistance?"

"No, sir. In fact, it took some negotiating to get them to agree to loan us a fishing boat to search for Daniel and Vala. I'm not sure I'd call them xenophobic, but there is definitely some reluctance to accept our advice and help, which considering they don't use their Stargate at all, other than to accept the occasional visitor, doesn't surprise me."

"Okay, Colonel. We'll focus on recovering our own for now and worry about the Mekrit later. I'll have SG-3 and the S&R team gear up."

"One more thing, sir. Daniel found evidence that this planet has a Touchstone like the one on Madrona. Apparently the device was kept in a temple on the island, but was lost when a quake hit the region approximately four hundred years ago. Would explain the extreme weather conditions these people have been living with. Daniel suspects the device is probably still on the island but may have been damaged or removed from its pedestal."

"He believes the device is still functioning?"

"To a degree. If the device was destroyed, this planet would have reverted to its pre-terraformed state. Uninhabitable. It's more likely it is still functioning but has lost calibration."

"I need to find the mission file and brush up on the details."

"Yes, sir."

" SG-3 will contact you once they're planet-side. SGC out."

~oOo~

"You're going to ask me to pick it up, aren't you?"

Daniel looked down at the desiccated remains of what he suspected was once the high priest who watched over the temple. The man had probably died a lonely death, trapped, sealed tight inside the room when the quake had struck. In his hands, fingers threaded through the rings in a macabre grasp, was the Touchstone.

"Would you mind?"

Vala stood over the remains, frozen on the spot. "It's not like he'd care. I mean he's dead, right?"

"Very," Daniel said slowly. "Not getting squeamish on me, are you?"

"Hardly, darling. Need I remind you that liberating the armor from a Kull warrior actually requires him to be dead?"

"Which was the bigger motivator? Greed or self-preservation?"

"Really, Daniel, I'm hurt." Vala tapped the boney knuckle of one finger and then delicately tried to pry it away, only to have the bone crack, shatter and fall away. She smiled sympathetically at the remains and then up at Daniel, who could do nothing but shrug at the impracticability of the situation. Ideally, and with the right resources at their disposal, he could have documented the site and made an attempt to preserve the body in order to tell its story.

Vala stood up with the Touchstone in her hands. "I'm guessing putting this back on the pedestal won't set things right?"

"That'd be too easy. Resetting the rings requires bringing them into alignment, but setting them to the specific calibration for this world needs someone with the ability to use the device."

"And that somebody is long gone."

"Not necessarily."

TBC