Cam eased himself gently over the side of the little rowboat Captain Agela had launched from the side of his considerably larger fishing vessel. Teal'c had done the rowing, which was something Cam found a little amusing, considering the wind had picked up in the last hour and tossed the boat around to the point where Teal'c was starting to look a little green.

"You okay, Teal'c?" he asked as he slid knee-deep into the cool water of the lagoon and turned to hold the boat steady for Sam. "Don't go puking on us."

"I do not like this method of transportation."

"See! Now that I don't get. You can fly a space ship, but a row boat in choppy seas has you ready to toss your cookies."

"Toss my-"

"Cookies, Teal'c" Sam said as she pushed off the side of the boat and joined Cam in the water. "It means to throw up, vomit."

"Jaffa do not expel the contents of their stomachs."

"Really?" Cam asked as a large gust of wind hit the side of the boat and nearly pushed him under. "Crap, that's cold."

"Looks like we're in for another storm." Sam shuffled to the front of the boat and pulled it forwards towards the shore, while Teal'c pushed from behind. The stretch of beach they landed on was heavily strewn with debris from the tsunami. Cam took his field glasses out of his pack and did a general sweep of the area, focusing on a point just back from the shoreline which Captain Agela had suggested was the route Daniel and Vala would have taken to get to the old temple ruins.

"What a mess. Looks like the wave took out pretty much everything for a couple of miles."

"Not quite everything." Sam pointed to an object further down the beach. "Does that look like a boat to you?"

~oOo~

"So, we get to the beach and do what?"

"Build a signal fire, anything that might alert others to us being here. They're counting on us to survive."

"They probably think we're dead."

"Yes. Nothing like positive thinking. You know we don't leave our people behind."

"I'm more worried about our lack of supplies and shelter. We might be better off waiting in the ruins." Actually, she was more worried about Daniel and whether he could actually make the distance to the beach. Without openly stating the obvious, which she was sure Daniel was already acutely aware of, he wasn't looking so hot.

Daniel handed Vala the Touchstone as they exited the temple. "I need you to carry this, but whatever you do, try not to move the rings."

"I thought you said they were already out of calibration?"

"They are, but probably not completely or this planet would have reverted back to its pre-terraformed state. The last thing we want to do is make matters worse."

"Right! So no touching the rings." Vala could do that. Maybe.

The suns were shining when they left the ruins and made their way south towards the beach, but by the time they had navigated their way through a debris field of fallen trees, leaf litter and dead wildlife, there were storm clouds gathering overhead.

"Vala." Beside her, Daniel had stopped and turned very pale.

"Oh no you don't!" Vala cried as his knees buckled.

She grabbed him, easing him down and preventing him from hitting the ground face first.

"Go."

"What?"

"To the beach. Light a fire."

"And leave you here? There could be all manner of wild animals just waiting for a chance to take a bite out of you."

Daniel managed to glare through eyes scrunched in pain. "Nice thought."

"Why don't I just build the fire here?"

"No." He closed his eyes. "Beach. Can be seen better."

Vala bit her lip. She didn't like the idea of leaving Daniel alone, but she agreed the beach would be a better place for a signal fire.

"All right. Don't go off exploring. I'll be back as quick as I can."

He lifted one hand and waved his fingers in a shooing motion.

Vala gently set the Touchstone and her pack down beside him and set off at a sprint towards the beach.

~oOo~

"Standard USAF boot treads."

"They went this way," Teal'c said, pointing in the direction of where the forest had once been. "Their tracks are quite a few hours old."

Cam stood up slowly from where he had been studying the tracks. "Doesn't explain what they were doing in a boat."

"Not much, and not with only one oar." Sam flipped the small boat over on to its hull. "This thing has definitely seen better days. They might have been trying to escape the island but couldn't. Maybe the current was too strong."

"Whatever the reason, they headed back inland. That's where we go."

"Colonel Mitchell!"

Cam turned to Teal'c, who had shouldered his P90 and was aiming it towards one of the few remaining outcroppings of trees.

"Where?"

"Movement at your ten-o-clock."

The silence was broken by a blur of green that darted out from behind a tree, only to stumble and nearly fall before coming to a dead stop at the edge of the beach. The click of safeties being thrown on weapons must have been enough for the intruder to look up and take notice.

"Hey there," Vala said breathlessly. "You do have me surrounded!"

"Vala!" Sam slung her weapon and ran forward. "You're alive."

"Yes, well, like Daniel, I can be surprisingly hard to kill."

"Speaking of which," asked Cam. "Where is Sunshine?"

"I had to leave him and try and make the beach alone."

"Injured?"

"Chest, head, probably a few other places he wouldn't admit to." She tossed a thumb over her shoulder back in the direction she had come from. "He's about two hundred feet or so that way, in a little rocky outcropping. And he's got the Touchstone."

"You found it?"

Vala turned to Sam and shrugged. "Quaint little object, lots of rings and shiny things."

"Treasure?"

"Apparently not, as it's another one of the life's luxuries I'm not allowed to keep."

Sam grabbed her by the arm and followed Teal'c and Cam off the beach and up towards the temple. "I'm glad you made it. Didn't look good for a while there."

"Yes, about that. Cameron is moving rather slowly."

"Took a tumble when the quake hit."

"No giant wave thing-y?"

"Tsunami? No. The city was protected by the peninsula."

"No such luck here."

They moved inland quickly, skirting through a growth of de-foliaged trees and out to where the land was mostly barren. Far from being flat, the ground undulated in places where natural rock formations that had once been covered where now exposed.

"Over here!" yelled Teal'c, who had stopped and dropped to one knee. "Daniel Jackson?"

Cam knelt down next to him and picked up the Touchstone to make way for Sam.

"Daniel?"

"I'm okay, Sam."

"Really? Because you look like crap."

"It's good to see you too. All of you."

"Sorry we took so long to get here, Jackson. Had a bit of trouble with the locals."

"Not interested in our petty needs?"

"They are a most unaccommodating species," Teal'c grumbled.

Vala watched on as Sam emptied the contents of her medkit onto a survival blanket. She sorted a fresh field dressing for his head and then a dose of Tylenol and some antibiotics. "SG-3 and the search and rescue team are on their way. We should have you home in a few hours."

"Need to get the Touchstone to Taphir first."

"Teal'c and I can deal with that while you and Cam get some treatment."

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"The Mekrit can't-"

"There's no one here who knows how to use the Touchstone? I get it, Daniel, but there is someone who does."

Daniel smiled and closed his eyes. "Roham."

~oOo~

Dark clouds were swirling angrily overhead like a plea for help when Roham exited the Mekrit Stargate. He pulled his long cloak tightly around his shoulders and reached out to take Colonel Carter's arm as she led him from the dais, and down the stairs to the waiting delegation.

"Greetings, Taphir," Sam said warmly as the leader stepped forward and nodded politely at them. "I'd like you to meet High Priest Roham of Madrona."

"You are well greeted, Roham." Taphir turned to Carter. "Colonel Mitchell and Doctor Jackson?"

"Both recovering from their injuries, Taphir. They will be here for the signing of the treaty, with your permission."

"We look forward to them joining us." Taphir waved a hand over his shoulder and ushered Patha forward, who was holding the Touchstone. Roham smiled. Despite his poor eyesight, his gaze was immediately drawn to the object.

"So like ours and yet so different."

"You noticed?" asked Sam. Daniel had mentioned the inscriptions on the Mekrit stone being subtly different to those of the Madronan one, but hadn't expected Roham to pick up on the differences so quickly and from such a distance.

"This one sings a different song," Roham said, "although even I can tell the tune is not quite right."

"The calibration?"

"Yes. If you would call it that." He looked to Taphir and then to the crowd standing behind him. "There is someone here, someone among you who will be able to hear the music of the Touchstone. They will be the one to guide your seasons, pick your planting times and water your crops."

"What if there isn't?" asked Taphir. "What if that knowledge has been truly lost?"

"There is one born in every generation, sometimes more. Your Touchstone may have been lost but those who have the ability to use it have always been with you, waiting for when the stone returned, unknowing of their role in your history. But for now..." Roham stepped forward and reached out for the Touchstone, smiling as it was placed in his hands. Without thought or hesitation, his withered fingers caressed the rings and brought them effortlessly into alignment, before deftly, and with the smallest of touches, moving them apart to precise settings. There was a moment of silence, where the heavens stopped rumbling and the winds dropped, and a spread of tiny golden orbs rose from the Touchstone and disappeared into the sky.

Sam turned with the crowd to look out across the peninsula as the clouds parted and drifted away to let the light from the two suns through to bounce off the now calm ocean. Relief was the only word she could find to describe the moment. Like Madrona all those years ago, Mekrit had once again found peace from the song of its Touchstone.

The end

Notes: So the discussion has gone on and on as to whether Roham was totally blind or not when we were introduced to him in Touchstone. I'm of the opinion that he had some vision.