Their third day on the planet was spent almost entirely in a strenuous trek uphill. They seemed to have reached the foothills of a heavily forested mountain range the night before, and true to her word, Sam pushed them forward for the full of that third day, determined to find something useful to bring back to the SGC. Sam's readings, however, never wavered, and Teal'c and Daniel had been unable to spot any further indications of civilization that could explain the high energy levels encasing the planet. Making camp for the night in a sheltered outcropping of rock, Sam was forced to admit defeat.
"We'll head back down the mountain at first light," she said to her teammates, stirring her soup despondently. "With any luck, the trip back to the gate will be easier than the trip here, and we'll get a UAV in the air before the end of the week."
"We should probably request a geological survey as well," added Daniel thoughtfully. Sam and Teal'c eyed him curiously, and he shrugged. "Think about it," he said, gesturing to Sam. "You yourself said the only way energy levels could stay this steady was if they were manufactured rather than natural. Maybe a geological survey would turn something up."
Sam grew thoughtful for a moment. "If whatever is producing these energy levels is manufactured rather than natural, we're talking about a huge scale device with an incredibly stable power source. And I'm still not sure what good a geological survey would be."
"Well," said Daniel, "Teal'c may have had the right idea yesterday when he mentioned the planet's core. Maybe the planet itself is manufactured." Sam eyed him sceptically. "Seriously Sam," he said intently, "with everything we've seen, isn't it at least possible?".
"Possible, maybe," she replied. "But it doesn't seem very likely. Why go to all the trouble of creating a planet, and then not settle it?"
"Well, we don't really know that it isn't settled, for starters," said Daniel impatiently. "All we know for certain is that the area immediately surrounding the Stargate isn't settled."
"Yes, and that in and of itself doesn't make sense," Sam interrupted. "If this planet was created by an advanced race, who then placed a Stargate on the planet's surface, why wouldn't colonization have occurred around the gate?"
"There are ruins around the gate," defended Daniel.
"Ruins of a single structure," amended Sam.
"Even still," said Daniel, "it's evidence of civilization. Besides," he added hastily, before Sam could interrupt again, "my point is that there could be a reason other than colonization for creating an artificial planet. It could have been made to provide an overcrowded civilization with natural resources lacking on their own home-world. I mean look around us! In lumber alone this planet could be indispensable to a civilization not unlike our own, and there could be ore veins in those mountains, or farmland further on." Sam gazed appraisingly at her friend before taking a small hammer and chisel from her pack. "Sam, what are you doing?," asked the archaeologist, startled from his monologue.
"I'm going to take a sample from this outcropping. If your theory is correct, an analysis at the SGC should be able to confirm whether this stone is old enough to be part of a natural formation, or if it has been exposed to an artificial rapid-growth process. It never hurts to be thorough," she added with a shrug, scraping debris from the outcropping into a sample jar.
Just then, Teal'c, who had been quietly listening to the scientific exchange between his two friend from his place beside their campfire, shot to his feet in a burst of alertness. "Teal'c, what is it?," asked Sam, visibly concerned by his sudden change in posture. "I am unsure, Colonel Carter. But something is not as it should be," he replied evenly, carefully taking in their surroundings, his staff weapon at the ready. Sam and Daniel looked around as well, tensed to act should the need arise. The air around them seemed to shimmer and ripple, as it would on a hot summer's day, and then three things happened at once. Colonel Carter's scientific instruments suddenly bleeped to life, registering a massive energy spike coming from the planet's surface; the shimmering air abruptly solidified into an opaque haze, engulfing SG-1 in an almost gelatine-like barrier, freezing them in their tracks; and Sam, Teal'c, and Daniel all collapsed to the mossy forest floor, unconscious.
Around them, the odd haze cleared as suddenly as it had appeared, and Sam's instruments displayed a return to normalcy in the planet's energy readings. SG-1, however, remained completely inert, their limp forms sinking deeply into the layers of moss and dead leaves beneath them. Their campfire, extinguished by the same force that had rendered them unconscious, lay smoking between them. All was quiet, save for the chirping of alien birds high in the branches above them. Beneath them, tiny, razor-sharp tendrils pierced the rich earth, slicing through the flattened moss and moist leaves, lancing easily into the fleshy prey laying prone on the planet's surface. Behind them, the outcropping Colonel Carter had taken her sample from now oozed a sticky yellow substance, an amber sap which quickly coalesced into a protective layer of thick resin covering the wound.
Colonel Samantha Carter's last semi-conscious thought before the planet began extracting from her what she had taken from it was, 'sentience.' And there was no way she'd be able to warn the SGC not to send a rescue team when they didn't report back.