Touchstone
Summary by Cyber Predator
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A vital alien artefact is stolen by people carrying Earth equipment.
|Commentary|
|Episode Guide| |Stargate Collection| |Home Page|
A vital alien artefact is stolen by people carrying Earth equipment.
SG-1 return to Mendrona as a thunderstorm begins to move in. The group are met by High Priest Roham, who is apparently blind, and his niece Princess La Moor. Instead of exchanging greetings, the Mendrones demand the return of a stolen Touchstone. SG-1 deny knowledge of the theft, Mendrone warriors showing them the empty-handed statue in which the Touchstone once rested. La Moor explains the thieves wore SGC uniforms and carried Earth weapons, and escaped through the Stargate which no Mendrone knows how to use. The Touchstone is guarded, but the Mendrones put them at ease knowing Earth was their ally.
Teal'c argues that if they did steal the artefact they would not need to return, and taking revenge on SG-1 would be futile as the real thieves don't care about them. Daniel Jackson asks to return through the Stargate to investigate, to which the untrusting Mendrones finally agree.
Colonel O'Neil explains the situation to General Hammond, who denies involvement on the grounds he wouldn't send the team to study the Touchstone if he knew it wasn't there. At O'Neil's urging, Hammond allows SG-1 to check the dialling log in case a rogue SG team went after the Touchstone.
As Captain Carter checks the logs, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c find weather reports of severe rain in unlikely areas such as Phoenix and Palm Springs. The media is attributing it to El Niņo but it could be caused by someone using the Touchstone without knowing how the device works. Searching the logs, Carter discovers a transit error occurred as SG-2 returned from a routine mission; the last time that happened, SG-1 were sent to the Antarctica Stargate (Solitudes).
O'Neil proposes that whoever used the second Stargate did so as SG-2 returned to help cover their tracks. For proof, Carter runs the energy spike of a forked wormhole through the log to see if the same event occurred. A search of the primary and secondary logs shows no match but the tertiary log confirms it, leading Carter to believe someone deleted the spike from the main log and its backup but overlooked the remaining log. Jackson is sceptical, stating the Antarctica Stargate was decommissioned; "It was....officially," O'Neil warns.
General Hammond tries to contact the President without luck and realises someone is ensuring the President isn't reached. When O'Neil informs Hammond that the Antarctica Stargate is in use, Hammond explains that during SGC's infancy there was a debate on its mandate; certain parties wished to ensure advanced technology was recovered regardless of diplomatic issues. Although these parties weren't known, Hammond suspects they were string-pulling politicians.
Captain Carter uses NOAA satellites to track the radiation emitted by the Touchstone, but her best estimate is that it lies in Nevada. Colonel O'Neil and General Hammond realise the Touchstone's most likely resting place is the Groom Lake facility, where the SGC's off-world findings are examined in more detail. Colonel Maybourne (Bane) has just been re-assigned there.
A probe sent to Mendrona shows that SG-1 have, at best, 72 hours to find the Touchstone and restore the planet's weather. General Hammond is convinced someone at Area 51 is involved and is about to make travel arrangements, but Colonel O'Neil wants to arrive unannounced as they don't know who to trust. As SG-1 already have the necessary clearance, Hammond instead decides he needs some classified documents delivered to Area 51 which, O'Neil determines, requires "a three-man team with a Jaffa escort".
SG-1 reach Nellis Air Force Base, where a Major Reynolds provides a tour before they meet Colonel Maybourne. The Area 51 projects include an Alzheimer's cure, courtesy of SG-5, decoding the alien shrine (The Torment of Tantalus), and backward-engineering the captured Death Gliders (The Serpent's Lair). When SG-1 meet Colonel Maybourne, they press him on the Touchstone's location but he denies everything. SG-1 instead demand to see the Antarctica Stargate, and though Maybourne insists it has been left untouched the group are taken to it.
Captain Carter realises the 'Stargate' within the secured hanger is in fact a plastic replica. When demanded the location of the original, Maybourne's denial of information hints the Antarctica Stargate is being used in a civilian operation. Maybourne orders SG-1 escorted off the base.
Returning to SGC and reporting to General Hammond, SG-1 adds that since the abnormal weather has halted and there are no more traceable radiation emissions from the Touchstone, it has most likely been deactivated. Captain Carter proposes they trace the Antarctica Stargate by travelling to Mendrona, dial Earth and then flood the Stargate with power to fork the wormhole. A MALP probe can then be sent to the Antarctica Stargate to determine its location.
Colonel O'Neil and Daniel Jackson return to a snowbound Mendrona, dialling Earth and forking the wormhole. The probe reaches the Antarctica Stargate, but an unseen foe destroys the probe with a pistol. The best location the MALP yielded was in southern Utah.
With all other avenues exhausted, General Hammond contacts a man named Whitlow, who owes George a favour. Whitlow doesn't know anything of the Touchstone or Antarctica Stargate, but determines that if the latter is in use it must be a civilian operation. When Hammond asks for any news on operations in southern Utah, Whitlow reveals that a C-5 aircraft was ordered for a classified pickup at an unofficial NID landing strip. A C-5 is large enough to transport a Stargate.
Learning the location of the NID airport, Hammond arranges for SG-1 to storm the facility to find the missing artefacts. Jurisdictional issues will emerge in the Air Force's favour, but SG-1 are not authorised to open fire unless absolutely necessary.
SG-1 reach the airport, where three men are seen around a crate big enough to contain the missing Stargate. SG-1 capture them, but a fourth hidden within a truck activates the DHD. The tremors from the unsecured Stargate take SG-1 off-guard and the four escape, Jackson missing their destination, but the group recapture the Touchstone.
The Touchstone is returned to Mendrona and the planet is saved, with the trust between Earth and the Mendrones restored. Upon SG-1's return, General Hammond explains that the investigation into the incident is out of his hands, but he has succeeded in gaining custody of the Antarctica Stargate. It is to have a permanent Iris welded on and will be placed under round-the-clock guard within the SGC. All SG teams are now ordered to look for the missing NID officers who fled through the Antarctica Stargate.
As the Iris is welded to the Antarctica Stargate at Area 51, Colonel O'Neil taunts Colonel Maybourne that he may find himself out of a job. Maybourne responds by stating "People get re-assigned. So does property. Artefacts get misplaced, orders changed. Every day is a new day."
Just for your general interest; Captain Carter uses NOAA satellites in this episode, NOAA standing for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The satellites are usually used to monitor the oceans and the atmosphere.