All morning they worked on the hill in damp uniforms. The gate opened and sparked and shut. Then it would open with a surface reminiscent of yesterday's storm. They tried communicating with SGC and only received static interlaced with an occasional word. Carter surmised that the erupting star was causing interference and they both deemed it too dangerous to go thru the gate themselves. They opened the gate again and when the static seemed at a minimum they tried to send one of the boxes of spare parts through. It appeared at first as though they were successful then metal shards flew in all directions. O'Neill dove onto Carter and knocked her from the path of most of the flying debris. When they got up to access the damages, after Carter could breathe again, Carter found that a metal fragment had slice the top of her boot and 4 or 5 inches of her calf. It was rather superficial thanks to O'Neill's quick action. But also due to O'Neill's quick action his neck was peppered with burns and he had a metal fragment in his left scapular. O'Neill applied butterfly bandages to Carter's leg but because of the location and bleeding they didn't seem adequate. So he decided to put in some stitches, after all he could tie flies, he could do this. Needless to say Dr. Frasier's job was not in jeopardy and Sam would have a great scar. He tried to get the piece on metal out of his back himself and would have said nothing to Sam. As Sam was putting her boot back on she saw him struggling to reach up behind his back and thought that he just a an itch he couldn't scratch (well wasn't that the truth but not his main focus at this moment.). She couldn't get a good purchase on it with her fingers and had to resort to pliers to pull it out of his back. This was turning out to be NOT a good day. The one thing they tried blew up in their face, the gate did not work, they were still unsure about the fate of their team mates, they were still dressed in damp clothes, the weather was cool, their supply of food, yummy MRE's, was dismally low and this planet just sucked. Oh yeah there was a star in the neighborhood that was getting ready to explode. All this and heaven, too.

Night number two was much like night one and day three like day two. Ah but day four the sun finally came out and their clothes dried and hardened on their bodies. All of course except for armpit and crotches and anywhere there was multiple layers of cloth. They were warmer but just as miserable and getting quite aromatic. Carter continued to work on the problem of interference of the soon to nova star and O'Neill got out of her hair by preparing a decent camp. His theory was as soon as he had a clean well organized and adequately supplied camp Carter would get the Stargate working and they would no longer need it. So he set to work, planned the site, located a supply of fresh clean water, dug a latrine, inventoried their supplied, gathered firewood. There was a small lake, maybe a big pond, near the rock ledge and here O'Neill swam and washed out his BDU's. He put on the sweat pants he had worn at night and hung his uniform on some branches in the sun to dry. Tomorrow if they were still there he would encourage Carter to do the same. He would have let ladies go first usually but in this instance Carter tended to smell better than he did after a few days without a shower and clean clothes.

When they got together for dinner Carter was feeling frustrated by the lack of progress and feeling uncomfortable in her BDU's that had been drying on her all day long. O'Neill, although a little rumpled was looking good, clean, freshly shaved and smelling like a four year old fresh from the tub. If Carter felt grungy before she felt absolutely filthy now. She was sure if there were flies on this planet they would be swarming about her. When O'Neill told her about the bathing facilities – the pond – she was off like a shot. She laid claim to the extra t-shirt (O'Neill had washed it) and the sweat pants (she didn't care what he slept in, if anything). She bathed, washed her hair and washed her clothes. Then donned the extra clothes and returned for a sumptuous repast of "it tastes like chicken".

They discussed their plight well into the night. They conclude that they would have to build a shelter, rig perimeter monitors and secure a source of energy. During the day Sam had made some contact with the SGC. She was relieved to learn that Teal'c and Daniel had arrived safely. The SGC was apprised of their difficulties would try to send supplies to the stark planet to tide them over until they could affect a safe return. Sam had concluded that the increased activity of the star they were sent to observe had a definite periodicity and with this information they could plan the time of the least activity for a chance to return to Earth. The allies of Earth would be informed of their predicament and the SGC would ascertain the location of ships that might be sent to their rescue.

The next day Carter spent in observation of the pulsing star and also gathering information regarding the season and length of year of the planet they were on. She had most of this information in a cursory form at the premission briefing but needed more extensive information to help plan their extended stay. At least they had deduced that it was spring and would be getting warmer, but just how warm was the question, and when would the weather again turn cold and just how cold. Their first taste of freak spring storm was colder than comfortable. An extended period of that or colder could prove disastrous. It seemed to Carter that the length of each season was much shorter than Earth, a duration of 50 days rather than 90 days. This gave them not much time to prepare. Perhaps help would arrive first but they learned not to depend on their allies but rather on themselves.

The next day provided supplies. Carter informed O'Neill of the timing of the intended shipment and they took cover behind the FRED as soon as the gate opened. One crate arrived effortlessly and O'Neill moved it off to the side the next three crates arrived as if shot from a gun and the last, weird malformed particles that even the ever inquisitive Carter was loath to touch. They spent the next few hours picking up and sorting macaronis from underwear hoping there would be enough of both to get them through the next period of increased solar activity.