Van was the first out of the Gate and he immediately hurried off in the direction of the Furling structure where they'd met Tater Tot the last time.

"Dammit, Van, wait for the rest of us!" Mal shouted.

"Don't you hate when the puppy gets off his leash?" Lee grinned at him.

"Let's catch him before he loses us."

Lee turned. "Oliver, come on." He was staring at the M.A.L.P. with a frown. She marched over, grabbed his arm, and dragged him away.

They found Van standing inside the structure and shouting.

"Hey, we're here again! Can we talk to someone! Tater Tot?"

"Van, they don't have security cameras, they aren't going to magically answer you," Mal told him.

"It was worth a shot. Now, what do we do?"

"Captain, stay with your brother while Van and I go scout the area and see if we can find anything that might help us get in touch with the Furlings. Head back to the Gate and we'll meet you there"

"Yes, sir."

Mal left with Van trailing several steps behind him while he tapped at the tablet he held and muttered to himself. "Move it, Van, or I'll leave you behind!"

"Right, coming!"

It took them a little over an hour to determine there wasn't much else in the immediate area that was worth staring at for very long.

"Let's head back. Maybe we can figure out some way to contact the Furlings."

"Perhaps if we hang out here for a day or two they'll send someone to warn us off again."

Mal nodded. "Maybe." As they neared the Gate, Mal saw Lee sitting on a rock, her chin propped on her fist while she watched her brother where he sat cross-legged on the ground. "What in the hell happened to the M.A.L.P.?" He asked when he noticed it was in pieces.

Lee gestured toward her brother. "Ask him."

Mal looked at Van and gestured toward Oliver.

"Uh, Oliver, what are you doing?" He received no response even after several more attempts to gain Oliver's attention in both English and Ancient. "I think he's lost the ability to understand us."

"That was my assessment as well," Lee told him. "The first time he shrugged and continued taking the thing apart, each time after that he ignored me. I parked my rump and just watched after that."

Oliver continued to work on his little project. When he yanked a panel off the DHD and removed several crystals, Van protested.

"You can't take those, we need them to dial home! If they get destroyed we'll be stuck here!"

Oliver shoved him from his path and went back to where he had been sitting on the ground. Mal and Van both took seats alongside Lee. There was little else they could do as long as Oliver had the control crystals from the DHD.

An hour passed, then another before Oliver flicked a switch on the device he had built and it whirred to life. Seconds later a beam shot from it into the sky.

Mal jumped to his feet. "What the hell was that?"

Oliver's head was tipped back so he was staring at the sky.

"Do you think he's lost it?" Lee asked, her eyes fixed on her brother.

Van shook his head. "No, I don't think so. He built that device with intent, even if he wasn't certain what its end purpose was. His actions aren't that of a crazy person. There's nothing random about what he's done. It's exactly like when General O'Neill built the generator so he could dial the Asgard home world."

The Gate connected with a fawhoosh. Mal raised his gun, Van jumped to his feet, and Lee released a weary sigh. Oliver remained still and stared at the Gate.

Tater Tot stepped from the event horizon. "You do remember me telling you to stop looking for us? How did you manage to send us that signal?"

Van indicated Oliver. "It was Dr. Kain who built the device that sent the signal. We would never have contacted you if it wasn't an emergency."

"An emergency?"

Van nodded vigorously. "Yes! We discovered a device on a planet that turned out to be a repository of Ancient knowledge. It was downloaded into Oliver's brain. A similar thing happened to one of the original members of SG-1 and the Asgard assisted him with removing it but they are no longer a viable option."

Tater Tot nodded slowly. "I see your dilemma."

"Can you help us?" Lee asked anxiously.

"I will have to return to the Furling  home world and speak to the Malarjlis. I cannot make the decision."

"Please, anything you can do to help," Lee told him.

"I'll return with an answer as soon as possible." The Gate connected again and he stepped through.

Lee looked from the Gate to the DHD. "How did he do that without the control crystals?"

"I have no idea but I assume if the Nox can open a wormhole without a DHD then so can the Furlings," Van told her.

"Right, forgot about the Nox. So now we sit here and wait?"

"We should contact the SGC and let the General know what's happening. Van, do you think you can convey to Oliver that we need to put the DHD back together?"

"I'll try."

Van spent twenty minutes talking to Oliver and explaining in every dialect of the Ancient language he knew that he needed his help to put the DHD back together and another three and a half hours to fix the DHD so they could dial home and give a report.

Mal turned away from the Gate as it shut down. "Well, now all we can do is sit and wait to hear back from the Furlings."

"At least General Carter is on board with us sitting around and waiting," Lee said. Her eyes on her brother where he sat, his head bent as he scribbled equations on a pad of paper.

"We don't leave our people behind, Captain, you know that. Oliver is part of this team and we will do everything we can to make certain he comes home with us. Safe and sound."

"Thank you, sir."

The Gate connected and Tater Tot stepped out of the event horizon.

Lee jumped to her feet. "Will your people help?"

"They have agreed to assist in this situation as long as you promise not to contact us again."

Lee started toward the Gate. "Let's go then! Why are we wasting time?"

"They have agreed to help him." Tater Tot raised a paw to indicate Oliver. "If you want us to remove the Ancient knowledge from his brain then we go alone."

"I'm not sending my brother through the Gate to some alien planet by himself! Especially not in his current condition! He has no idea what's going on!"

"If that is how you want it to be then I'll be on my way," Tater Tot told her.

"Captain, if you want this to get done then we have to let Oliver go on his own. All right?" Mal said.

She looked from her brother to Mal and back. "I ..."

Mal moved over to stand near her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He'll be fine. Let him go."

"I assure you, Captain, I will not leave his side," Tater Tot told her.

She nodded slowly before she stepped past Mal and went to squat down beside Oliver. "It's going to be okay, Ollie. I promise. You go with Tater Tot and everything will be all right. You and I will be bickering again before you know it." Oliver stared at her curiously but he didn't seem to comprehend what she'd said to him. She sucked in a breath and looked at Mal. "Let's get this over with."

Mal helped Oliver to his feet and walked him to the Gate.

"Don't worry, this won't take long and I will return him to you whole again and unharmed," Tater Tot told her before he stepped through the Gate with Oliver at his side. The Gate shut down and they were left staring through the empty ring of the Stargate. Lee sat down slowly, her eyes never left the Gate.

Van sat beside her. "Don't worry, I'm sure Tater Tot will take good care of him."

"The Furlings don't care for us, they want us to stop looking for them. What if they decide not to let him return?"

Van slipped an arm around her shoulders. "Stop worrying."

"I can't, he's my brother."

He hugged her. "I know but Tater Tot is a good guy, he won't let us down."

"You can't know that for certain, Van."

"No, I suppose I can't but I feel it. Trust me, okay."

She nodded and continued to stare at the Gate.

Lee turned when the Gate connected and stared at it intently. Tater Tot appeared from the Gate, less than a minute later Oliver followed him out. "Ollie?"

He grinned. "It's me. I'm back."

Lee released a squeal, ran at him, and threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're all right!" She let him go and stepped back. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

He chuckled. "Right and I'm supposed to listen to you when you scare me on a daily basis?"

She slapped him across the chest. "That isn't funny," she told him before she hugged him again.

Van dropped down to sit beside Tater Tot. "Thank you for your help. I promise we won't contact you again."

Tater Tot made a small sound that could have been a laugh. "Don't promise something you cannot guarantee. We want to remain hidden away in our little corner of the galaxy." He paused. "Our leaders do not want to get involved. They live in the past and they remember how the fight with the Goa'uld went. They don't want to ever be in that type of situation again."

"They're afraid of putting their people in danger. I can understand that."

"They are stuck in the past. Not all of us feel the same," Tater Tot told him. "There is a growing faction among our people who don't want to hide any longer. We want to be a part of things again, to know what is out there. We were once as you are, our people were explorers. They wanted to meet others, to share knowledge." He looked up at Van. "They wanted to make friends. Then they encountered the Goa'uld."

"And they discovered that not everyone wishes to be friends and share what they know," Van replied.

"Indeed. They weren't prepared when the first attack was launched. We are a peaceful people. Our technology is far greater but without a defense system in place, we lost many of the Furling people. It was then that we decided to flee rather than make an attempt to fight them. Now we are stagnant."

"And those who disagree with the leaders are too small a faction to make a difference," Van replied.

"Indeed, we are." Tater Tot rose and arched his back in a stretch. "Know that you have friends among the Furlings. Be well, my friend." The Gate connected. Tater Tot turned and butted Van in the shoulder with his head with a deep rumbling purr before he stepped through the Gate.

Van sucked in a breath then let it out. "Let's go home."

"Yes, let's. Dial us home, Van," Mal told him.

"Right away!" Van jumped up and dialed Earth.

Mal turned to Oliver. "I think you deserve to step through first."

"I say we step through together." He linked his arm through Lee's and held out a hand to Mal.

Mal chuckled. "A damn good idea. All right, SG-1 let's go home."

When they stepped out on the other end Sam was waiting for them in the Gate room. "It's good to have you home, SG-1," she told them. She focused on Oliver. "It's good to see you, Dr. Kain. Back to yourself, I assume?"

"Yes, ma'am, and reporting for whatever SG-1's next mission might be."

"Good to have you back. SG-1 you are dismissed, go home, get some rest and I'll see you in the morning at 0900. We'll debrief then."

"Yes, ma'am," Mal told her.

With a quick nod, Sam left the Gate room.

Oliver sighed. "It's good to be home."

Lee nudged him with an elbow. "Tacos and margaritas, bro?"

He laughed. "Yes, I need one hell of a drink right now."

"All right! Let's go people, it's party time!" Lee waved a hand in the air and led the way out of the Gate room.