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stargÅtefan.com : episodes > season 5 > next episode: the fifth man

Scene opens on P4X-636. It is daytime on a planet that was once an active civilization but has obviously been decimated by some sort of massive destructive force long ago. At the center of the alien ruins is a large walled-in dome that is out of place with the rest of the civilization's architecture. The Stargate can be seen off in the distance. Daniel is examining some writings inscribed on an obelisk in the courtyard surrounding the dome. Arrayed around him are his books and equipment. It's obvious he's been at it for some time. Behind him in the dome's main chamber Sam is taking pictures of another artifact.

Jack and Teal'c arrive behind Daniel, having scouted out the immediate area and finding nothing except more ruins. Jack tells Daniel that SG-16 is coming through to set up the new UAV.

Teal'c comments that the people of the planet must have lost a great battle and all been destroyed.

Daniel says that this is too bad because he was really hoping someone could help him decipher the language contained on the obelisk and in the dome. It's a completely different design from the rest of the place and he has no idea where to start on it. Jack suggests that maybe it was already here when the others came to this place. Daniel takes this idea and starts to run with it, hinting that he'd like to do some comparisons and carbon dating. Jack asks suspiciously how long this would take. "For what?" Daniel asks.

Jack gestures at the ruins around them. "All of it. How long?"

Daniel starts to answer him seriously, but then decides to play on Jack's obvious boredom with this assignment. "Uh, well, days, weeks, months of meticulous, tedious, boring, tediousness."

Jack and Teal'c exchange a look. Jack shakes his head. While Daniel is still talking, Jack moves away towards the dome’s entrance. Teal'c wanders off to look around.

"I can just keep working now...by lunch at least?" Daniel suggest to their backs.

Jack enters a doorway that leads to what the main room of the building, which is covered by the dome. At the center of the stone room is a device similar to a large observatory telescope or canon, which is pointing towards an opening in the dome's ceiling leading to the sky. Nearby, Carter is examining a large tablet on a pedestal; it looks like it could be a control console for this gun/observatory/thing.

Jack conducts a similar questioning session with Carter about whether she has any idea of what it is and how long it's going to take her to figure it out? Carter tells him she has no idea but that the technology is very advanced.

Okay, Jack responds, "So, what? Two hours?"

"Very advanced," Carter emphasizes.

Seeing that he's not going to be getting either one of his people to budge anytime soon, Jack concedes and tells Carter that he and Teal'c have secured the immediate area and that they're now going to go check out the town. He starts to leave and Carter goes back to work, obviously intrigued by this new device and the mystery it poses. She's about to touch the controls when Jack calls over his shoulder for her not to turn it on. Still she reaches out to touch it. "Ah!" Jack has turned back and gestures hand outstretched. "What'd I just say?" She jumps like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

But as soon as he's out of sight again, Carter moves to the base of the piece instead. She finds a loose panel and manages to open it revealing its inner workings. As she studies it the main device makes a brief humming sound. Curious she moves over to investigate the base of it. She studies it for a moment and then rubs her hand tiredly across her face. Just then from out of nowhere a gentle breeze blows past her.

Suddenly we see Carter as if we were floating above her, watching her.

Sensing something, she looks over at the doorway and then up toward the skylight. She doesn't see anything. After a moment, she shakes off the spooky feeling and refocuses on the device.

We return to the above Sam floating perspective. Suddenly the view from above her zooms in very fast.

Outside, Daniel is working on the obelisk, he's brushing at the glyphs and studying them. From over his shoulder the doorway of the dome room suddenly glows with a bright flash of light, but he doesn't see it. "Hey, Sam are you done with that camera yet?" he calls over his shoulder. He waits a moment. "Sam?"

Getting no answer Daniel wanders towards the entrance. Only to find Carter lying unconscious in the empty room. He rushes to her side feeling for a pulse, then grabs up his radio. "Jack, get back here! Now!"

CREDITS

Dr. Fraiser crosses the SGC infirmary. She is completing her exam of Carter who is awake and explaining what happened to her. "Next thing I know I'm waking up with Colonel O'Neill looking down at me. I suppose it's possible I touched something inside the device."

"No contact burns," Fraiser notes.

"So, what do you think it was?" Carter asks.

Fraiser explains that people have been known to black out from fatigue and that her pre-mission blood test did show slight signs of anemia. Carter points out that she was feeling fine before she left and that Janet had cleared her for the mission. Fraiser acknowledges this, but says that Sam has been through a lot these past couple of years, rattling off the fact that Sam's had a Tok'ra symbiote die in her brain (In The Line of Duty), her memory stamped (Beneath The Surface), and her entire consciousness transferred out of her body, into a computer, and then back again (Entity). Eventually it's going to take a toll.

Carter insists she's fine and asks if they're done. Fraiser says they are, but that Sam should make sure to come back if she starts speaking any alien languages. Carter responds with an ironic and somewhat sarcastic tone, "Yeah, I'm sure I'll have no choice."

***

In the briefing room, General Hammond, Jack, Daniel, and Colonel Kyle Reynolds (the leader for SG-16 and newly transferred in from Area 51) are reviewing the information from P4X-636.

Daniel tells them he believes the dome structure was built about 400 years ago whereas the civilization may date back as far as 3,000. Reynolds asks why this is significant. Daniel explains that it may indicate that the society developed in relative isolation and was only later influenced by something that led them to suddenly leap to a more advanced technology.

"A Stargate," General Hammond deduces.

Daniel agrees and elaborates, "Which means that discovering the Stargate and/or figuring out how to use it may have led to them building the device which in turn led to the events which brought on the cataclysm that ended their society."

"Somehow?" Jack asks, hinting for something a little more concrete to explain what happened to everyone.

Daniel then adds, "From what we know of the Goa'uld, they'll often attack a planet that's threatening technological advancement."

General Hammond interjects at this point, "I'm sorry but I still haven't heard anyone say exactly what the device is?"

"Uh, well, we're still just speculating." Daniel admits shuffling through his papers. "It could be a deep space observatory for all we know."

"Or a big honkin' space gun." Jack puts in.

Daniel looks up. "Most likely the Goa'uld would have taken that."

"Whatever, its power core is gone." Carter says as she joins the group at the table. "I was able to determine that much before I..."

"Dozed off?" suggests Jack.

Carter is introduced to Colonel Reynolds whose team is going to take over the long-term analysis of the planet. She greets Colonel Reynolds and goes on to tell him that the engineering on the device is extremely advanced, and that it will take some time to decipher it. Also, unfortunately the power core of the device is missing, but she believes that a naquadah generator could be modified to interface with it.

It's at this point, seeing that she's diving right into working on it again and blatantly ignoring the fact she collapsed only a couple of hours ago, that Jack reminds her the General has already put SG-16 on the case. Carter volunteers to join SG-16 temporarily. The General promptly denies this request saying Dr. Jackson will be assisting in the translations of the alien language until SG-1's next mission, but except for that SG-1 is free to take some time off. Daniel hides behind his papers at this and becomes suddenly and rather apologetically busy while she's being told he's allowed to work on things and she's not.

The debriefing meeting is ended and Hammond dismisses the group. Sam jumps up at this point and follows Hammond to the door, protesting that she feels fine and would like to be able to work on the project. General Hammond, explains that he has full confidence in her expertise and assures her that they will probably be required at some point, however until Dr. Fraiser advises him otherwise, he's ordering her to take it easy.

"Take it easy?" Sam echoes, sounding bewildered as if she's never heard the word before, and turns to Jack puzzled. Jack agrees and says she's been a little tense lately.

"Tense? Me? I'm not tense...(pause)...am I?" She glances around the room to make certain of its emptiness and then back up at him and asks, "Uh, when did you first notice?"

Jack leans forward and drawls out. "As-we-met!"

Carter mutters that she always saw herself as just very focused. But Jack tells her that she's been working too hard and she's setting herself up to crash and burn. Carter confesses that she really doesn't have that much else to do. To which Jack responds that she needs to find something: take up golfing, fly a kite, knit something. He leaves her there, protesting, "But I'm fine. Really."

***

That evening Carter drives home to a small grey house facing a park in a nice suburban neighborhood of Colorado Springs. She walks into her kitchen carrying a bag of take out food and checks for voice mail messages; there aren't any. She goes about her evening routine. As she does we are suddenly watching her from the floating alien perspective again. Following her about the house. As she turns on the TV, gets plates and food out, brushes her teeth in the bathroom we follow her. As she's getting ready for bed, for a moment as she reaches for a towel, there is the shadow of a dark stranger behind her in the hallway, but it's gone when she looks over. But the alien perspective is back again, watching her as she crawls into bed and settles down to sleep.

The next morning, Sam is heading down her front walk to fetch the morning paper when she notices a man standing out in the center of the street staring at her. It's odd because he wasn't there when she first came out. He's sandy blonde and about thirty to thirty-five, with a slightly sad, lost puppy dog kind of look. He's dressed in casual, modern clothes, like something you'd buy at the Gap. Despite his appearance, there's something about his staring and his manner that is out of place.

"Hi, " he says softly.

"Hi," Carter responds.

"How are you?"

"Fine", she answers warily. He then says how it is nice to meet her. A little unsettled and obviously wondering what's going on, Sam then asks whether he's from around here?

"No, but this is where you live." The stranger responds.

"Uh, yes it is. And I'm going to go back inside now." Carter says not sure if this guy is just odd, or slow, or a stalker, or what. After going back inside she peeks back through the front door's window, but the stranger is gone. Firmly she locks her door anyway. Then she shakes off the encounter, goes to the phone and calls Daniel.

Daniel is just coming down the stairs outside of his office at the SGC, he is juggling far too many books for his arms to carry and a cup of coffee. He's trying to hurry because he can hear the phone in his office ringing. He catches it just in time but manages to slosh burning hot coffee over his hand and nearly lose the books in the process. It's Sam. She wants to know how far he's gotten on the translations so far. Glibly Daniel lies, "Oh, yes. I'm almost done. Miraculously, it seems to hold the key to all the mysteries of the universe."

In her kitchen Carter smiles, "You just got there, you haven't even started, and I should leave you alone."

"I thought you were supposed to be taking it easy?"

She sighs, "Yeah, it's not so easy."

Daniel's voice is sympathetic, "Yeah...I know." It's a commiserating moment, one obsessed workaholic type personality to another. He then promises to call her when he has anything.

Sam then hangs up the phone, turns to put it back on the kitchen counter, and nearly jumps out of her skin to find the strange man from the street standing there. "I won't hurt you." His voice is low and sincere.

"No, I'll hurt you if you come any closer," she warns as she starts to dial for help. He says he just wants to talk to her. "About what?" she asks suspiciously. He tells her that it's complicated. He then describes how he followed her home last night. How he's been in her house all night, but that she couldn't see him. His words are unnerving. He explains how he read some of her books and watched the television so he could learn how to communicate with her. That he took this form, the one he had before "the ascension" so she would be able to see him. Sam stares at him, taking in everything he's said, and dials for help anyway. He asks her not to, saying he's not crazy. "Who are you?" She demands.

He tells her his name is Orlin. That he's from the planet they just visited, and he followed her home through the Stargate. Then, miraculously, he comes towards her passing through the kitchen counter like a ghost. He apologizes for scaring her, and confides that he just wanted to talk to her. He confesses shyly he's formed "feelings" for her. She stares at him in alarm, tries the phone-it's dead, backs up and then runs out the front door going for help. As Orlin trails off saying, "Actually, the truth is...I love you."

***

A number of men in full hazardous materials gear are going over Sam's house, scanning it. While a team of specialists is going over everything with a fine-tooth comb and setting up video cameras and surveillance equipment inside, Jack is walking through the house with Carter asking her about her encounter since the stranger, Orlin, is not there anymore.

They go and sit in the front room that seems to act as her office. Jack tells her that the video surveillance tapes of the gateroom were checked and didn't show anyone coming back with them. She tells him that the alien told her he could become completely invisible. Acknowledging his skepticism, she goes on to try to explain that she thought he was some crazy guy at first, but that after she watched him walk right through stuff she knew there'd be no way to contain him. Her phone was dead so she'd decided that the best thing to do was to get a code three team in as fast as possible. Jack reassures her that he believes she did the right thing.

O'Brien, the code three team leader, approaches them and tells Jack that the team is done. They haven't found any signs, therefore, his men are being ordered to evacuate the premises. But he promises they'll continue monitoring from a van down the street and will maintain it as long as the colonel wishes. Jack nods and orders him to notify the local authorities that the "gas leak" is fixed and the neighbors can come back now. O'Brien leaves to take care of his men.

Jack offers to stay, but Sam thinks that Orlin may only show himself to her. He nods suggesting maybe the guy is shy. He starts to say his goodbyes, but Sam interrupts him by saying, "Please don't say 'take it easy'." He quickly reverses the salutation and offers instead, "Take care."

She nods and he walks away. Sam then looks up at one of the cameras now mounted above the corner of her bookcase and waits to see if Orlin will come back. The cameras follow her throughout all the rooms of her house (office, dining room, living room--off of the kitchen area, kitchen, front hallway, and bedroom) for the next several days.

***

Jack drops by Daniel's lab to find Daniel and Teal'c working on the translations. Daniel asks how Sam is doing. Jack tells them not a single shred of evidence of her secret friend has been found. But, "how is Sam?" Daniel repeats to Jack. Jack leans against a counter and confesses that Hammond has recommended her for a "psych evaluation". Teal'c then asks whether Jack believes Major Carter has become mentally unstable?

"No more than the rest of us," Jack dismisses. He then asks about what progress their translations have made?

Daniel confesses that the thing on 636 is in fact a weapon, Jack was right. Teal'c confirms this, that it is indeed a weapon of great power. Daniel then reveals that he believes the people of 636 were developing along a similar technological timeline as Earth. They had just discovered their Stargate when "the threat from the skies" came. The Goa'uld. Yet, somehow they suddenly managed to build an incredibly advanced weapon to defend themselves.

Jack points out it couldn't have been so advanced because the place was a disaster and so it obviously didn't work.

Actually it did, Daniel tells him. The monument outside the device tells the story of how they destroyed the threat from the skies and that the men who built the weapon were heroes. Which, Teal'c points out, would explain why the Goa'uld didn't get the weapon.

The unanswered question then becomes if the Goa'uld didn't get them, then what did?

***

That evening, after the battery of psychological evaluations is completed, Sam comes home to find Orlin sitting in her living room area. She's a bit exasperated, now he decides to show up!

He tells her he understands why she reported his presence, how she would have jeopardized her military career if she hadn't. She tells him she's just come from a psych. evaluation and that they think she's crazy. He confesses to her how there were times on Velona (P4X-636) when he thought he was losing his mind too. He'd been there for hundreds of years by himself. And so when he'd first seen her he'd attempted a form a telepathic link with her. A "level of communication that shares our innermost essence" but different from actual telepathy in that it's not about reading someone's mind or specific thoughts, which would be an invasion of privacy, but rather an exchange and sharing of spirit.

"So you did this sharing thing on me?" Sam asks. Yes, Orlin confirms, but unfortunately her mind wasn't ready and she passed out. But from that experience he did learn about her, about her pure heart and her beautiful spirit.

Carter's heard enough. She gets up and threatens to get the code 3 team back in there. He warns her he'll only hide again. Frustrated she asks what he wants. He says he only wants to try again. He thinks a human can handle the sharing if they're expecting it, receptive to it. "Then will you go to the SGC?" she asks. No, but he promises he'll leave if she wants him to after that.

Begrudgingly, she agrees.

She closes her eyes, and a bright glow surrounds Orlin (it is like the glow that surrounds Oma Desala from Maternal Instinct). A soft glowing energy flows out of his chest and begins to wrap around Carter. She opens her eyes amazed. "Oh, my God," she whispers.

***

Jack is hurrying down the hall of the SGC when Carter catches up with him. She shows him a recording device she found still in her house after she'd been told they'd all been removed. Jack looks uncomfortable and explains how they probably just forgot one. He tries to duck away at that point into the men's restroom, but she' stops him with more questions. She's worried because she thinks everyone thinks she's crazy even though she did the right thing in reporting it. He tells her how, to be honest, since no one has seen what she's seen until someone does they're all going to think she's nuts.

She then poses a question, "Purely hypothetically...as my superior officer, if this alien did show himself to me again..."

He stops her. "Did it?"

"I'm just saying, if this alien had the ability and desire to show himself to me, it would probably be better if I gathered as much information as I could, possibly even find a way of isolating it, before I officially mentioned it again, right?"

Studying her for a moment, Jack agrees with this, and then retreats into the men's room.

***

That evening, Carter is working on her computer in her lab. Daniel comes in and puts down some file folders telling her it's the last of the information she requested. Then he asks her what she's working on.

She tells him that based on his translation and SG-16's latest report, the Pentagon has started putting pressure on General Hammond to find a way to activate the weapon. She then goes on to explain that the naquadah reactor can be interfaced with the device easily enough, but that the burst of energy required is pretty dangerous because basically it requires an overload in the reactor to fire the weapon. The problem is, once the overload is started, they have no choice but to release the energy or the reactor will explode. Therefore, she's working on a way to buffer the energy into a safer environment prior to release. Unfortunately, General Hammond hasn't given her very much time. Daniel voices concern about how all accounts make the device a pretty powerful weapon and how he wishes there was someone still around to explain how to use it.

Carter nods and then gets a thoughtful expression on her face.

***

Carter arrives home. Orlin greets her commenting that she is late and that he was becoming worried. Sam points out, "Hey, this is not a relationship we have going here." Although she then adds to in all honesty how she doesn't know what it is.

"You still could have called," he says.

She reminds him since he isn't solid that he couldn't have answered the phone anyway.

Maybe he could have, he tells her mysteriously. Then she notices that her dining room table is set for two with dinner and lit candles. How had he...? Slowly she reaches out her hand and touches him. He's solid. It's his surprise for her. He tells her now there can be an "us" since they are both on the same plane of existence.

Just then the doorbell rings. Sam turns and looks out the window. Jack and Teal'c are standing there. Jack is holding a pizza and Teal'c is wearing a large black cowboy hat and orange bandana. With a look of panic, Sam frantically tries to hide Orlin, finally shoving him into her office and sliding shut the pocket door. She opens her front door, but doesn't let the guys in. Jack tells her they brought pizza and a movie.

"Star Wars," Teal'c proudly announces.

"He's seen it, what? Eight times?" Jack glances back.

"Nine."

"Nine times." Then he adds reassuringly, "If Teal'c likes it, it's gotta be okay, right?"

Attention distracted by this Sam asks amazed, "You've never seen Star Wars?"

Jack shrugs, "You know me and sci-fi." He holds up the pizza invitingly, "C'mon we never get to just hang out so I thought..."

"Uh, sir, as much as I...uh..uh.." She grinds awkwardly to a halt.

Struck by a thought, he peers past her. "Carter?" He angles his head trying to get a look inside. "Do you already have company?"

Carter winces and tries to block his view. "Kind of."

"A date?" Jack asks, eyebrows raised.

"I can understand why you might assume I didn't have plans," she says awkwardly not exactly answering him.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll find something else to do," Jack assures her.

She apologizes and explains how this came up very suddenly and unexpectedly. Jack says good for her and hopes she has fun. He gives her the pizza and she closes the door even as he's still trying to catch a glimpse into her house. She breathes a huge sigh of relief, then she opens the closet door. Orlin comes out finishes telling her that once his people choose to take human form they cannot re-ascend without the help of others of their kind.

Outside Jack and Teal'c are heading towards Jack's truck. "So, now what?" Jack asks.

After a moment of consideration Teal'c replies, "I have read of a place where humans do battle in a ring full of Jell-o."

Sounds good to Jack. He tosses his cell phone to Teal'c. "Call Daniel."

***

Over dinner, Orlin confesses to Sam that he doesn't know where the rest of his kind are. Sam says she thinks she's met another one of his kind Oma Desala. Orlin says he's never heard of her. Sam tells him they met her on a planet called Kheb. Orlin indicates this may be why he's never heard of her, because she was probably banished like him. Off of Sam's questioning look he explains he was banished for breaking one of the most sacred rules, speeding the natural ascension process of those beneath (aka he broke the Prime Directive). The humans of Velona were under attack by the Goa'uld. He was prohibited from interfering but couldn't simply watch them die, so he told them how to build the weapon. But shortly after they used the weapon to defend themselves, the Velonans started planning the conquest of other planets using the technology he'd given them. As a collective the others decided it was necessary to prevent this disaster and so destroyed the planet and all who lived there, then forced Orlin to live alone on Velona as his punishment.

But now he's human again, mortal, and can never go back without the others help. But, he tells her, "I did it as much for myself as for you. If nothing develops between us, I'll accept it. I just couldn't go on any other way. I had to know."

Outside, a black van, not belonging to the code three team is recording everything they say.

***

A meeting between General Hammond, Sam, Daniel, Colonel Frank Simmons and Colonel Reynolds is held in the briefing room of the SGC.

Colonel Reynolds is reassuring Colonel Simmons (a man dressed in civilian clothes who is from the Pentagon) that one week should be enough time to run the proper pretest simulations on the naquadah reactor adaptations. Sam speaks up at this point saying she believes they should wait on the testing surprising both Simmons and Reynolds. Simmons points out that it was Sam who figured how the reactor could link up to the device in the first place. She tells him that it is still far too dangerous. Daniel adds his support by agreeing with her.

"Need I remind you, Dr. Jackson, about the dangers we are trying to defend Earth against?" Simmons voice is full of condescension.

"Oh, could you? I mean, go slow." Daniel asks with wide-eyed irony.

Sam jumps in to avoid a confrontation by saying she believes using the device may cause an atmospheric weather anomaly big enough to destroy the civilization on 636. Everyone is stunned by this revelation, including Daniel. Simmons points out there is nothing in her report about this. While Hammond asks for what evidence she may have to support her claims.

Carter, (one suspects she's only just now thought this excuse up), admits she only has some theoretical simulations and no hard evidence. But asks for time to do a proper forensic environmental analysis. Hammond gives her two weeks to find her evidence, if she can produce evidence then he will stop the test, otherwise it's a go.

As they leave Simmons reminds Hammond the final decision to run this test rests with the Pentagon and not him. Hammond counters this subtle threat with a reminder of his own, that he's the one with the red phone in his office and that his boss is way higher up.

***

Sam arrives home, and comes inside calling Orlin's name. He tells her he's glad she's home and has made something for her. It's an emerald. And it's HUGE. He'd read about how humans associate certain types of materials with their birth month. Hers is emerald. (Note-This would make Sam's birthday sometime in May). But, he admits, it was hard to tell the common size from the picture in the book. When asked where he got it from, he tells her he made it. "You made it?" she exclaims.

"You wouldn't believe what you can make from the common, simple things lying around your planet. Which reminds me, you're going to need a new microwave."

After taking this in for a moment, Sam then diverts the conversation to something new and more urgent. She tells him she needs to talk to him about something. They go for a walk in the park for their talk. They discuss about the weapon and how his people will know if it's activated. He tells her it's possible that they may try to stop it. And he admits how he thought he'd disabled the weapon, destroyed it, he never expected her or anyone else to be able to replace the power core. "You really are brilliant," he says admiringly.

"I think you're point is, we have to find a way to stop the test," she says instead of responding to his claim.

"How? You have no proof without exposing me."

"I know," she says quietly. Orlin smiles. "What?" she asks.

"I'm sorry. If you haven't turned me in by now there must be a reason." But he's still smiling.

"I'd feel bad betraying you. That's all. Nothing more." Carter protests.

"You like me," he says with some quiet satisfaction.

"Orlin..."

"You like me." he grins and walks ahead of her. "I can tell. You like me a lot."

***

Later, Sam is called into Hammond's office. There she finds General Hammond, Jack, and Colonel Simmons all waiting for her there. She enters and it looks like she's about to be ambushed. She looks to Jack for an explanation. He is obviously not happy being a party to this. He tells her they're going ahead with the weapon test anyway. She looks at General Hammond alarmed and protests that she was to be given two weeks and it's only been nine days. He explains that he received a direct order from the President. In fact, SG-16 is setting up the reactor even as they speak. Simmons accuses her of not actually working on the weather testing anyway, saying that she's been receiving secret deliveries at her house that make her motives highly suspect. Sam is genuinely puzzled by this. What deliveries? A hundred pounds of pure raw titanium, 200 feet of fiber optic cable, electronic capacitors, etc. All ordered online from her home computer. And, Simmons adds triumphantly, would she care to explain who had been accepting those deliveries? He shows her photos of Orlin, and some of her and Orlin together. It turns out the Pentagon, separate from the SGC, has been watching her. Hammond is obviously not happy about this. Simmons tells her he has tapes of her conversations with the alien. At which point Jack puts in at least they know for sure there is one now.

Simmons leans in towards Carter and says, "Would you like to tell us what's really going on, Major?" Jack defends her by telling him that Carter doesn't have to tell him squat. That she was acting with the approval of her superior officer. She told him the alien was still there and he'd authorized her to gather as much information as she could.

Simmons gives him an oily look and says that he's only there as a courtesy to them, to let them know that one of his armed special forces teams is surrounding her house and at his command will go in to take the alien into custody.

***

Simmons, Jack and Carter arrive outside of Carter's house. It's nighttime and government vehicles and commandos surround the place. Jack and Sam follow Simmons into the restricted area. Jack tells Simmons to let Sam go in and get Orlin out. He convinces Simmons by pointing out that Orlin is worth more to him alive than dead. Simmons reluctantly agrees.

Sam is sent into her dark house with a flashlight. She calls out for Orlin. He's in the basement. She follows him down there. Watches as he hooks up cables to her fuse box. She tells him what's happening. He says he knows, but that it's okay. She tells him she wasn't the one who turned him in. He stops and looks at her. Then calmly reassures her, "I didn't think you did." Then he takes her hand and leads her forward to another part of her basement. He's built a mini-stargate there. She's amazed. "This one won't dial multiple addresses. Only create a wormhole once. And then probably burn out." He says solemnly.

She's still trying to grasp the idea that he actually built a Stargate in her basement. "And you ordered the materials to make this on-line?"

"Mostly. Sorry, but you're going to have a pretty big credit card bill this month." Then he adds almost as an afterthought. "Oh, and you're going to need a new toaster."

He tells her he intends to go to Velona and stop SG-16 from starting the test. It's not the way he would have chosen to do things but it seems the only solution now. They can hear the special forces squad outside readying to come into the house. They call for Major Carter on the radio. Sam stares at it, torn about whether to respond or not.

When she doesn't respond, Simmons signals his team to go in. Jack takes up the radio and warns her they're coming in. At which point, Orlin activates the wormhole and tells her that she knows how he feels about her and how he really is hoping this isn't goodbye. Then he turns and leaps into the mini-event horizon. Carter stares at the wormhole and then at the door back out of her basement. She makes a decision and leaps into the wormhole as well, just as the special forces team and then Jack burst through the door. Then the gate snaps off.

***

Orlin races across the ruins of P4X-636 heading for the domed room. Carter comes out of the wormhole puddle but she's far behind him. The clouds in the sky are rolling and growling like a storm is approaching. Orlin catches SG-16 by surprise. Colonel Reynolds and Sergeant Witherspoon are busy hooking up the reactor. Sergeant Dixon is closest to the door and turns just as Orlin rushes in and tackles him. Reynolds draws his handgun and Witherspoon rushes to pick up her MP-5. Orlin manages to get Dixon's zat gun off him. It goes off and Dixon falls down unconscious.

Sam, hearing gunfire, races up the path and into the doorway. She rushes in to find Orlin standing across the room from Reynolds and Witherspoon. Orlin's been shot in the arm and no longer holds the zat gun. It's on the floor along with Dixon. She orders Reynolds to hold his fire, that she knows this man. Reynolds tells her that Orlin attacked them. She explains this may be so but he has a good reason for wanting to stop the test. Reynolds stubbornly insists that he has orders from General Hammond. Sam tells him she knows that and that they should all go outside to dial Earth and talk to Hammond about it. Reynolds says they can't do that since the reactor has already been activated. He reminds her of what she herself originally told him, once the reactor has been activated it has to be used otherwise it will explode. Sam tells Orlin this is true. "Good. It will destroy the weapon for good," he replies.

Reynolds says he will not let that happen, they will fire the gun. Orlin shakes his head and makes a desperate grab for the reactor wires leading into the pedestal. Reynolds shoots him. But Orlin manages to pull out the cables even as he falls bleeding to the ground.

Sam rushes to Orlin's side. He's bleeding from several wounds and is obviously dying. "I can't believe how much this hurts," he says.

Reynolds and Witherspoon hurry to the device to try to reconnect the reactor. They're not going to be able to do it. Reynolds tells Sam they have to get out of there. She says they can't dial home and risk the blast wave translating back to Earth. They're stuck there.

Thunder rumbles loudly in the sky over them and the clouds are black now. Orlin gets Sam's attention and whispers to her that he has to go now. They're giving him another chance. It's the only way he can save her. He reaches up and touches her face. She takes his hand in hers pressing it to her cheek.

As he dies, the hand holding Carter’s slowly transforms into a bright energy. Orlin's clothes fall to the floor as his body transforms into a glowing energy being and swirls up into the air. It picks up the naquadah reactor and whooshes out of the skylight with it. A moment later the room is filled with a brilliant white light as the reactor explodes high in the sky. Everyone is forced to duck back as lightening bolts come out of the sky and fry the weapon device and controlling pedestal completely. Then the thunder dissipates and suddenly the sky is very quiet again. Reynolds and Witherspoon look completely stunned.

Sam sits weakly on the floor, tears in her eyes. She slowly looks up out of the hole in the roof in a silent goodbye.

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