The UAV's engine started and it took flight through the Gate. "UAV is in transit." There was a moment of silence. "UAV is through. We're getting telemetry. The UAV is taking fire. The Alliance has men guarding the Gate but the UAV made it past them. We're doing a fly over of the area now."

Sam nodded. "Look for anything that could indicate where Colonel Hughes might be."

"Yes, ma'am."

Behind where the technician sat with Sam leaning over to stare at the screen, Lee paced. If the Colonel was alive he'd see the UAV and hopefully give them a signal so they could find him. He hadn't answered any of their attempts to contact him by radio which could mean anything.

"We've lost the UAV. It looks like they shot it down."

Sam stood straight. "We can't get through the Gate, not with those guards there."

"Let me go. I'll go alone. A single person might be able to get past them."

"No, Captain, I'm not sending you on suicide mission. Unless you can give me a valid plan to get past those guards no one is going back to that planet."

"That is the first intelligent thing I've heard all day."

"Mr. Albrecht, is there a reason you're still here?" Sam asked in a clipped voice.

"I'm here to monitor the situation. If it puts Earth at risk then I want to know about it," he replied smoothly.

"Then monitor from a distance, I don't need you underfoot. Let my people do their jobs," Sam told him before she strode toward the stairs that would take her up to the briefing room and her office.

Elias hurried after her. "I will monitor from whatever distance I feel is necessary!"

Lee stopped her pacing and moved over to where the technician sat. "Did you record the UAV's flight?"

"Yes, of course."

"Great, can you play it back for me?"

He shoved his chair back and offered it to her. Once she was seated he pointed out which keys would give the commands for playback, to pause, rewind or fast forward. "If you find anything I missed, let the General know."

"Thank you." Lee hit play and watched as the UAV shot through the Gate, turned and barely avoided being shot down by the Alliance guards.

Mal kicked the concealing branches he'd set up out of the way when he heard the approach of what he figured was a UAV. He scrambled out of his hiding place and moved to a spot where the trees were spaced out enough he could clearly see the sky. The UAV moved in a pattern as it searched. He yanked his watch off and held it up so it caught the sun. He signaled an SOS in Morse code and he hoped to God someone at the SGC understood. There was a blast, the engine on the UAV spluttered and it spiraled down out of sight, the only indication of its path downward was a trail of smoke.

With a curse, Mal darted back to his hiding spot and scrambled back beneath the shelter of the tree's roots. He had just pulled the branches back into place when two men ran past shouting. They must be looking for the downed UAV. Any idiot could see it was an unmanned vehicle but if they thought finding it would help them then who was he to argue? As long as they were focused on the drone they weren't looking for him. At least he hoped they weren't.

Lee hit rewind, then play, and stared hard at the screen. She did it again, then several more times.

"Come on, you've been watching this video for like an hour, Lee, let it go. He isn't there," Oliver told her.

"He is. Ah! There! Did you see that?"

"See what?" Oliver leaned closer to the screen.

"It's only a couple of seconds before the UAV moves away from the spot." She tapped the screen. "Right here, watch right here. This spot between the trees." She hit play.

"So what? The light caught something on the ground."

"For someone so smart you really are an idiot sometimes. That was Morse code, it was an SOS. It was the Colonel!"

"Leonore, I know you want to find him but that was like three frames there is no way to know if it was an SOS or a glint off the surface of a pond."

She shook her head. "It's an SOS." She backed up the video and paused it. "Watch." She advanced the picture one frame at a time. "One. Two. Three short flashes followed by three longer ones, then three short ones again. It's an SOS signal, Ollie. It's the Colonel, he knew he only had a few seconds before the UAV moved on. It has to be him."

"Okay, you win, it's a distress call."

Lee shoved her chair back and hurried to the stairs. "Bring the laptop!" she called out to her brother. "General!" she yelled as she came up the stairs into the briefing room.

Sam sat at the table with a couple of scientists and military personnel. "Yes, Captain?"

"Sorry to interrupt but I found something on the video!" She turned and held a hand out to Oliver. He handed her the laptop and she set it before the General. She cued up the video again then showed it to Sam. "See! It's an SOS, it's the Colonel!"

Sam smiled. "I doubt it's the Alliance."

"We need to go and get him!"

"We need a plan to get past the guards at the Gate, until we can do that I won't authorize anyone to go back to the planet. Come up with a solid plan, Captain, and you can go."

"Thank you, ma'am, we'll come up with something!" She turned, grabbed Oliver's hand and dragged him back down the stairs. "Let's find Van and figure out a plan!"

"Lee, this is insane! How are we going to come up with a plan? The General has been in conference with those guys around the table since we got back! If they can't figure it out how can we?"

"That's easy, they don't have you or Van. Put the two of you together and it's like Einstein level intelligence, maybe more! And then we have me, pure military strategy."

He snorted. "Yeah, sure."

"Fine then, stupidity in the face of extreme danger." She grinned at him.

"That's more like it." He sighed. "Fine, let's go and find Van."

"Van, where are you?" Lee shouted as she hauled her brother down the hallway.

"Lee, can't we go find him like normal people?"

"This is normal," she replied.

"For a five year old."

"No, for me! Van, where are you!" she shouted.

Van stepped into the hallway from his little office. "What are you shouting about?"

"The Colonel is alive, he signaled the UAV. General Carter said if we can come up with a solid plan to get through the Gate she'll let us go after him."

Van held out a hand to Oliver. "Pay up." Oliver slapped a twenty dollar bill into his hand.

"You bet on whether or not the Colonel was still alive?" She slapped Van across the chest.

"No, we took bets on whether or not you'd find anything on the video. Oliver didn't think you would."

"And you thought I would." She grinned and hugged him. "Thanks for believing, Van."

He shrugged and looked at his toes. "Yeah, well, I didn't want to believe he was gone either."

She looked at Oliver. "And you?"

Oliver huffed. "I didn't want him to be dead either! I was trying to be logical about the situation."

She rolled her eyes. "For once stow the logic, Ollie. All right, boys, let's make us a plan to bring our boy home!"

Mal pressed his back against the bank beneath the tree roots as a group of Alliance soldiers came trooping through the forest. Once they found the UAV and made certain it was dead they resumed their search for him. So far they'd taken the direct route, stomping through the forest and searching what they could readily see. It was only a matter of time before they began beating the bushes to find him. He couldn't remain here forever; they'd find him eventually.

"He couldn't have gotten far, he has to be injured after the fall he took into the valley. If you idiots can't find him then I'll burn the entire forest to the ground!"

Well that wasn't going to go well for him. The Alliance men were stomping through the trees and making enough noise to scare away anything in a twelve meter radius.

"Come on guys, where are you?" he muttered.

The way things were going there was no way he was getting out of here on his own. His ankle hurt like a bitch. His wrist definitely wasn't happy and he was quite certain his headache was caused by one hell of a lump on the back of his head. If the Alliance was still guarding the Gate he would never get past them on his own.

"Hey, over here I found some blood!"

Mal cursed and pulled his sidearm. He heard the sound of leaves rustling and prepared for someone to come poking their head into his hiding spot.

"Never mind, it's a dead lizard!"

He blew out a breath and relaxed slightly. The sound of gunfire rang out through the forest and he tensed. If he wasn't mistaken that was a P90.

The guards turned when the Gate connected, prepared for whatever might come through it.

"What is that thing?" one asked.

"I think it's one of the devices the Earth soldiers use," another one replied.

They watched the metal beast roll out of the Gate and stop. Its neck swiveled and it spoke. "Well, hello there, boys. Doing your job I see. I am going to have to ask you to step aside and let me through."

"Listen you, whatever you are, leave now," one of them ordered.

"Aww, it's sweet you think you can order me around."

The two men took a step back when smoke began to pour from the metal contraption. Neither saw the four people who stepped through the Gate under the cover of the smoke. Nor did they have a chance to fight back when they began firing.

"We need to move, it won't take the rest of them long to figure out where that gunfire came from. Let's find the Colonel and get him home," Lee said as she crouched to make certain both the men were dead.

Oliver looked at the screen of the device he held. "I have the coordinates where the SOS came from, we need to go that way, to the other side of the valley." He pointed to the east. "Once we're closer I can pinpoint his location with the multi-sensor."

"Great, Ollie you're on our six, Van, Dr. Grayson, try not to get shot."

"Wow, thanks for the confidence," Van muttered.

"I'll second that," Delaney said.

She grinned. "You're welcome. Let's go, boys." She ran to the east with Oliver, Van, and Dr. Grayson trailing her.

"According to what I saw on the video from the UAV, there should be a spot where we can get down into the valley right near where the SOS came from," Oliver shouted.

"Aren't we close enough for you locate him with your fancy sensor thing?"

"I tried but something is interfering. It's possible the Alliance knows about our transmitters and are somehow blocking the signal."

"I doubt that. It's possible something on the planet is interfering with the signal we've seen it before." Lee held a hand up and dropped to the ground.

Van, Oliver, and Delaney did the same. No sooner did they hit the ground than half a dozen Alliance soldiers came over the slope leading down into the valley. Lee didn't hesitate, she began firing on them.

Van twisted when a shout sounded from behind them. "Shit, we got company!" He lifted his P90 and began firing.

"It would have been nice if someone thought to give me a gun," Delaney grumbled.

"I'd be more than happy to give you mine, Doc," Van told him.

"Nope, by all means, go right ahead, I'll just hunker down behind you two."

Oliver moved beside Van and fired, using a single shot at a time to pick the men off one by one. He glanced over his shoulder and cursed. "Van, help Lee, there are more of them coming her way!"

"Gotcha." Van twisted back around to help Lee.

The second the Alliance soldiers had been dealt with, Lee was back on her feet and heading for the valley. She skidded over the edge and barely caught herself to keep from plummeting down the incline.

"Damn." She wanted to run, not pick her way carefully down into the valley below. She planted her left foot sideways and followed with her right, making her way slowly down into the valley.

"I'll stay up here and keep an eye out for the Alliance!" Oliver called.

"Yeah, I'll stay here too!" Delaney called.

She waved back at them and picked up her pace the moment she hit the valley floor.

"Wait for me!" Van shouted, screamed, and tumbled the last meter down the hill. "Ow."

"Move it, Van or I'm leaving you here!" Lee yelled.

"Right, coming!" He rolled and got to his feet.

"I swear to everything, you two are the best thing I've seen all day," Mal told them as he limped out of the tree line.

"Colonel!" Lee threw herself at him and hugged him.

"As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm, that hurts, Captain."

She pulled back with a grin. "Let's get you home."

"I like that plan."

Van pulled Mal's arm over his shoulders and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I got you, Mal."

They made their way back up the slope to the top in a slow procession.

"How's it looking, Ollie?" Lee yelled to her brother as they neared the top.

"We're clear so far! There's no telling if they've regrouped at the Gate though. We won't know until we get there."

"How did you manage to get through and past the guards?" Mal asked.

Van chuckled. "That was Lee's department."

"Meaning?"

"We sent a M.A.L.P. through the Gate loaded with a couple of smoke bombs and attached them to a timer. They went off two minutes after the M.A.L.P. exited the Gate on this end and we slipped through under the cover of the smoke screen and took out the guards. Easy peasy no one sees us!" Lee replied.

"You're so funny, Captain," Mal replied dryly.

"Anything to keep a smile on your face!"

They hauled Mal up to the top where they stopped briefly so Dr. Grayson could look him over quickly. "You took a lot of damage, Colonel."

Mal nodded. "Pretty sure my wrist is broken and I sprained my ankle. My head isn't feeling too great either."

"All right, let's get him back through the Gate so I can give him a proper exam," Delaney told them.

"Doc, you and Van help the Colonel, Oliver and I will cover you."

"Right, no problem. Not like anyone gave me a gun anyway," he replied with an eyeroll.

"You aren't here to fight, Doc, you're here to make certain the Colonel is okay so we can get him home." Lee started the trek back toward the Gate.

"Never said I wanted to fight. I'm looking to not die."

"Same difference," Lee replied.

"Self-defense and going into battle are not the same thing, Captain," Delaney replied.

"Can we shelve this debate until we get home?" Mal asked.

"Yes, sir, sorry."

They encountered a smaller group of Alliance men on the way to the Gate but handled them easily enough. When they neared the Gate Lee slowed. "I'm going to go on ahead and make certain we can get back through the Gate."

"Be careful, Captain."

She grinned at Mal. "Always am, sir."

"That's a lie," he grumbled.

She winked and left them. When she returned, she smiled. "The idiots left two men. I'm disappointed they don't think we're threatening enough to require more guards."

"That seems a little too easy, doesn't it?" Van asked.

"You're going to complain?" Lee asked.

"I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that it seems a little too easy."

"Van is right, they've never underestimated us like that before. Every time we've come up against them they have outnumbered us, especially when it came to guarding the Gate," Mal told her.

"All right, so I think it's time for a backup plan. Let's move."

"Backup plan? What is she talking about?" Delaney look between them.

Van helped Mal up. "Trust me, you don't want to know. It's probably not going to be pretty."

They hurried back to the Gate. Lee pulled out a small remote and armed it. "Everyone ready?"

"I'd like to know what it is I'm supposed to be ready for?" Mal asked.

She grinned. "Smoke bombs weren't all we strapped to the M.A.L.P."

"Never mind, I don't want to know. Get on with it, Captain."

"Gladly, sir." She pressed the trigger and the M.A.L.P. was vaporized by a massive explosion. "Move, now!" she screamed when the guards were both down.

They ran for the Gate. Van dialed as quickly as he could while the guards were down and he prayed they remained down.

"Let's go, Van, the rest of their little party is going to come running after that explosion!" Lee told him. She cursed. "Too late, we have company incoming!" she yelled as several Alliance men broke through the cover of the trees and ran toward the Gate.

The Gate connected. The second he got the okay signal he turned to Delaney. "Go, now!" Delaney hauled Mal through the Gate. Van turned to where Lee and Oliver stood several feet away keeping watch. "Let's go!"

Lee waved at him. "Go, Van!" She waited until he was through. "Okay, Ollie, move it."

"Not without you."

"Go, dammit!" She fired on the approaching Alliance men and the took cover.

He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the event horizon. "Not without you!" he told her before he shoved through the Gate.

Lee stumbled out at the other end. "He's so bossy," she muttered. Oliver exited a second later and the Gate disconnected.

"Close the iris!" Lee shouted.

"Welcome home, SG-1," Sam said over the PA.

"Thank you, General!" Mal shouted and threw her a salute. "It's damn good to be back!"

She grinned and nodded.

"Okay, you can yuck it up later, let's get you to the infirmary," Delaney told him.

"Yuck it up? I was doing no 'yucking'," Mal told him.

Delaney shook his head. "On the gurney, Colonel."

Mal turned to Lee. "Thank you, Captain."

"We don't leave our people behind, Colonel, and you are one of our people." She winked.

He chuckled and allowed the medical personnel to assist him.

Van threw an arm over Lee's shoulders. "Good job, Captain Kain."

She smiled and nudged him with an elbow. "It was a group effort."

"You were the one who picked up on his SOS, no one else looked close enough," he reminded her. "But the rescue was a group effort.

"He's home, it doesn't matter how he got here all that matters is that he's here."

He nodded. "I suppose so."

"Tacos?"

"Tacos," he agreed. "Oliver, you want to come and get some tacos with us?"

"Sounds good. Let's sneak some back onto the base for Mal, I'm sure he's hungry," Oliver told him.

"Excellent idea. Let's bring back some margaritas while we're at it," Lee said.

"That might be a step too far," Oliver replied.

Lee gasped. "Margaritas are never, ever a step too far!" She led the way out of the Gate room. "Besides you can't have tacos without margaritas!"