- - -

The Sergeant looked back at the men behind him.
Teal'c, as usual, showed no obvious reaction.
The General simply looked somber and concerned.
Doctor Jackson looked discouraged.

Because the DHD was heavily damaged.

"I'll bet that doesn't work anymore," Daniel finally managed.

- - -

- - -

Ch 25: MALP

- - -

"No, it is highly unlikely that this DHD is still functional," Teal'c confirmed.

"Sorta makes it difficult to gate-out, doesn't it?" Daniel asked rhetorically.

"A non-functional DHD would explain why we haven't heard from them, sir," Sgt. Davis offered.

Nodding, the General continued to study the images of the damaged DHD. Standing back up to his full height, "Hold the Gate open for another 20 minutes while monitoring the video and audio feed for any signs of our missing people – or native intelligent life. If you don't find anything, we'll leave the MALP in record mode and then, in two hours, we'll re-establish a wormhole to retrieve the MALP data and conduct another 20 minutes of real-time observation."

"Yes sir." "Understood General Hammond." The two men of SG-1 responded without taking their eyes off of the incoming video feed.

- - - -

Twenty minutes later, Sgt. Davis shut the wormhole down as per his orders.

Daniel stared at the now-quiet Stargate.

They'd seen nothing of any consequence on the video feed and heard nothing on the audio feed. Just a few small animals... rodents and bugs. Nothing to indicate intelligent life. No signs of Jack or Sam.

"Physical exercise would be an apt use of the next two hours," Teal'c suggested.

Daniel pulled his gaze from the vertical metal ring and looked up at the Jaffa, "Yeah... I think that's probably a good idea, Teal'c," he begrudged as he stood up stiffly and slowly followed his friend from the control room.

- - -

Two hours later, they re-established the wormhole and retrieved the recorded MALP data. Watching and listening for another 20 minutes, they were disappointed to neither see nor hear anything that would indicate the presence of the missing officers.

In spite of their disappointment, they doggedly scanned through the recorded visual and audio records from the previous two hours.

And found nothing.

- - - - - -

General Hammond scanned the quiet personnel seated around the briefing room table. Doctor Jackson, Teal'c, Sgts Davis and Siler and two computer data analysts. They'd already covered the findings... or rather lack thereof.

"Recommendations?" Hammond asked.

"We could try a UAV," Dr. Jackson suggested.

The General sighed sympathetically, "Sorry Doctor, but I can't send a team in to retrieve the equipment when I can't be sure that they'll be able to get the gate working to return home... we just don't know the condition of the Gate controls or power source. It opens for an incoming wormhole, but we have no guarantees of whether or not anyone would ever be able to establish an outgoing wormhole. From the MALP images, portions of the DHD are broken while other portions have entire panels missing. The internal damage can't be assessed at all from the images. I can't take the risk of stranding more people there – or more equipment. If we find any evidence of General O'Neill or Colonel Carter, then we can discuss sending equipment through to set up and power a manual dial-out."

"Yes sir," the archeologist replied softly.

"Perhaps we could ask Thor to visit this planet," Teal'c suggested. "He could retrieve the MALP and scan the area for GeneralO'Neill and ColonelCarter."

Hammond smiled a little at the Jaffa's recommendation, "Teal'c that is a superb idea. Why don't you and Doctor Jackson send a communication to Thor asking him to do just that," initially phrased as a question, his statement was actually more of an instruction.

- - - - - - -

Daniel knocked politely on the General's open door.

"Yes?" the senior officer looked up from his endless paperwork.

"Sir, Thor replied. If we can get any indication of Jack or Sam's presence, he will make sure that an Asgard ship stops by the planet in the next 3-4 days. If we can't find any indications that they are there, he promised to retrieve any SGC equipment sometime in the next 6-8 weeks." Daniel replied.

"Understood," Hammond replied thoughtfully.

"Sir, we could try the UAV now... and Thor can retrieve it when he picks up the MALP," Daniel suggested.

Hammond leaned back in his chair and then nodded, "Tell Siler to get the UAV prepped and ready for launch in two hours time."

"Yes sir," and Jackson flashed him a small grateful smile.

- - -

- - -

TBC

- - -