US Air Date: 08/02/2008

Writer: Martin Gero

Director: Martin Wood

A group of villagers once employed as mining labour by the Genii are now endangered by steadily worsening earthquakes. But wary of being exploited again, they’re reluctant to let the team from Atlantis move them to a safer location. Carter, McKay and Keller hike to the village to persuade them in person, but a cave-in suddenly drops them below ground into an abandoned Genii workroom.

Unable to escape, they soon discover that the structure they’re in is perched on the edge of a vast underground chasm, disrupted by the earthquakes. Small tremors periodically shake the chamber as the team try to find a way out. Carter nearly manages to climb out, but she falls and breaks her leg. McKay designs a cannon to launch a metal pole out of the chasm, hoping it will serve as an anchor for a climbing rope. As he and Keller pull the rope taut, more dirt cascades into the room. Between the earthquakes and this added weight, the supports beneath the chamber reach their limit and eventually buckle.

The chamber lists to one side and the door leading to the abyss swings open. Keller loses her footing and slides through, but luckily she is still holding onto one end of the rope and McKay has a grip on the other. Dangling in the abyss, she catches sight of an old mine shaft leading to the surface. She swings to the shaft, followed by Carter and then McKay. They escape just in time and the chasm collapses behind them. The trio make their way back to Atlantis where Keller and McKay go out for a drink together.