General Hammond had given orders to open communications with Earth's allies to determine if there was a ship in the vicinity of PX5-876. He wanted his officers back. The only one of this illustrious group he knew that he could rely on was Jacob Carter, for obvious reasons. But needless to say the Tok'ra were stonewalling him, perhaps both of them, who knew. Hammond knew Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill were resourceful; perhaps they could live off the land as it were, or find a settlement to bunk in with for the long haul. But this was all bullshit, he wanted his officers here, he needed his officers here for the task at hand, to protect the Earth not play at some extended camping trip. Both Dr. Jackson and Teal'c had volunteered to return with supplies but he determined that this was not worth the risk.

Every day there was an attempt to make contact with PX5-876 but static was the usual result. One day in 6 there was an almost normal wormhole established with an opportunity to communicate and resupply, at least for an hour or two. But almost was the operant word. The snap and crackle of static was ever present and the unexpected termination of the wormhole was a common occurrence. The cycle of this portal was ever changing so that timing seemed to be sliding to less frequent contact of a shorter duration. On the positive side the astrophysicists were ecstatic about the information they had received regarding the impending supernova. They complained bitterly about the degraded signal but an irate Hammond told them they had better be grateful they weren't the ones on that planet observing first hand. Observing a stellar phenomenon and marooned.

Reynolds, Dixon, Feretti, Giff and his other fine officers certainly held the line and were there for him to rely upon but leaving O'Neill and Carter on that rock was bad for morale. But beside that it was just plain wrong. He would not abandon his people.