"Ma'am, it's been two and a half hours since Colonel Sheppard's last transmission," Chuck told Elizabeth when she exited her office.
She sighed heavily. "I know. Time to send someone after them again."
Zelenka, seated at a computer a few feet away, smiled slightly. "Still playing the same old song, Dr. Weir?" he said.
"Sometimes I think they just don't want to come home," she said wearily. "Send Major Lorne and his team. He hasn't had anything to do today."
. . .
Major Evan Lorne was the head of another off-world team on Atlantis. He was qualified, tough, and got the job done. Using Stargate Command's system, his team would, by all accounts, be considered SG2, second only to Colonel Sheppard's team. He felt no envy for this, mostly due to the fact that Sheppard's penchant for trouble allowed Lorne's team to see almost equally as much action.
"Alright, fan out," Lorne called, his heart sinking as he looked at the deserted area. Nothing lived on this planet except vegetation, and they were receiving only minimal energy signatures. He checked the Ancient device in his hand and grimaced. There were five other points of life besides his team, but they looked faint. He was afraid of what condition he might find them in, and at what his men might encounter looking for them. "Keep your guard up," he reminded them. As though they needed reminding.
They weren't searching long when he received a call on his radio. Lieutenant Masters had found some stone tables, probably the ones Sheppard had been so worked up about. Lorne followed the man's directions and frowned at what he saw.
There were the tablets, but they were in nowhere near the same condition they had been in the pictures. They'd been partially dismantled, pieces of stone pulled away, and the dirt around them had been upturned somehow. He'd been told Sheppard's team found a new way to translate the device, but he hadn't known it meant this. He sighed. "We're gonna need to contact Dr. Weir. Tell the others to stop searching."
Fifteen minutes and the Stargate was up while the major stood in front of it. "Dr. Weir, you're gonna have to send someone to translate these slabs."
He could almost hear her sigh. "That's what I sent Lieutenant Cooper for."
"And I'm assuming she did her job, ma'am, because they're nowhere to be found. The stones look a little busted up, though, which tells me wherever they went, it has something to do with the translation."
"Have they left the planet?" she asked.
"No, ma'am, and that's the other thing. I'm pretty sure they're underground."
"How far underground?"
"Pretty far. The Ancient device is having some trouble picking up their life signs."
"Alright, I'm sending Zelenka and Dr. Abram. She knows a thing or two about linguistics, but I'll warn you now, she's a little skittish."
Lorne resisted rolling his eyes, but it was difficult. "They all are," he muttered, tapping his earpiece as the Stargate closed.