One
/ EARTH /
"We have to go back!" Daniel protested. "We can't just leave him there!"
Samantha Carter agreed with Daniel in principle. The problem was that the Gate did not seem to care what they wanted. It stoutly remained closed. She sighed and sat back in her chair.
"I agree with you, Daniel." She told the agitated archaeologist. "But the seventh chevron won't lock. We've run every diagnostic in the book and a few new ones we came up with just today. The problem, whatever it is, is not on our end."
Daniel Jackson glared at the dialing computer as if the intensity of his stare and his sheer will could coax it into making the Gate cooperate. He was silent a moment. "Can we dial out at all?"
Carter nodded. "Yes. The problem is definitely only that Gate." She answered, narrowing her eyes at the Gate itself standing like a silent sentinel in the room just beyond the plexiglass window before her.
"Then we can't just dial out to somewhere else and try dialing from there, can we?" He pressed.
Carter sighed again. Like Jack, she hated the feeling of futility. "Not if the problem is with that Gate. If that's the case, it likely won't open for any of the Network." She admitted. "We need to find another way."
"Has anyone contacted the Tok'ra or the Tolan yet? Maybe they can help." Daniel tried a different tack since both races possessed ships that could reach O'Neill without use of a Stargate.
Carter nodded. "The Tok'ra don't have a ship in that area, and it would take them too long to get one there . . . though they did promise to dispatch one as soon as possible. And the Tolan have not answered yet." She told her friend and colleague, not liking the answer any more than he did.
Daniel glared harder at the Gate and the dialing computer. But both seemed determined to ignore them. "Then what can we do?" He asked, his tone indicating the same sense of futility as Carter felt building in herself.
"I don't know, Daniel." She admitted. "But I'm not willing to just abandon him either."