Touchstone
Summary
The Touchstone is a weather-control device developed over 900 years ago by an advanced civilization on the planet Madrona. (2.14 "Touchstone")
Stargate References
The people of Madrona (PX7-941) live in a simple society juxtaposed with the advanced technology developed by another civilization approximately 900 years ago. This advanced society transformed the weather on the planet with a piece of technology later known as the Touchstone. The Madronans didn't understand how the device itself worked, but the high priest was given the honor of protecting his people by knowing how to calibrate the device's rings to adjust the meteorological conditions over the entire planet's surface.
Learning about the device's function, Stargate Command sent SG-1 to study it with the blessings of High Priest Roham and his niece, Princess La Moor. A trusting relationship had been established, so when SG-1 returned to the planet to take readings from the Touchstone, they were shocked to learn that the Madronans had become victims of theft and that the gentle people were accusing one of their SG teams of the crime. O'Neill knew that no other teams were authorized a trip through the Stargate, so he led an investigation to determine who was using the second Stargate, the one discovered in Antarctica, to steal advanced alien technology. This Stargate was supposedly stored securely at Area 51, but was somehow taken from there without notice and replaced with a plastic fake.
Working quickly to save the Madronans, SG-1 found the rogue members of the NID using the stolen Stargate in a warehouse south of the Black Mountains, about 40 kilometers west of Parowan, Utah. The thieves managed to escape through the Stargate, but in their haste, they left the Touchstone behind.
For the short while that the device was on Earth, the weather changed significantly enough for the public to take notice as a set of extraordinary storms stretched all over America. Phoenix, Arizona; Palm Springs, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and the panhandle of Florida were all affected with unseasonable storms that included record rainfall, golf ball sized hail, and major flooding. It became apparent that the thieves couldn't keep the device on Earth without getting unwanted attention. Fortunately, SG-1 caught them before they could take the Touchstone to an unknown destination through the Stargate.
SG-1 took the Touchstone back to the Madronans and when Roham activated it, the device emitted glowing energy particles and soon the weather began to clear. The trusting relationship between Stargate Command and the Madronans was restored. Carter predicted that the weather patterns would settle down on both Earth and Madrona after only a few weeks.
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--DeeKayP 21:02, 5 September 2009 (UTC)