Shortly thereafter, General Hammond brings SG-1 up to date regarding what the Pentagon knows about the situation.

SG-1 is the outside help they've asked for.

En route to the Siberian facility, our heroes meet Dr. Markov, who has already read files on everyone on the team. She shares a bit about the Russian Stargate program, particularly the dial-home device that they have built to allow her people to bypass the gates in American hands.

Unfortunately, inhospitable weather conditions and a strange communications blackout force the team to parachute to their final destination. Teal'c is obviously unfamiliar with the practice and seems quite nervous.

On the ground, Jack and Markov enter the complex and find that they can contact the rest of the team by radio once they're inside.

Daniel and Teal’C find discover the bodies of base personnel, one dead of a bullet wound but the rest bearing no apparent marks of violence. The gate chamber contains more corpses.

Markov seems close to tears as she tries to deal with her comrades' deaths. She tells SG1 that General Sakalov must have activated an emergency protocol that seals the base and floods the facility with nerve gas. Since the gas only lasts a limited time, the team is safe -- but there are no logs to help them figure out what happened.

Tests on the gate indicate that it is no longer connected to power on this side.

Carter says they have had experience with a gate drawing energy from the source. Markov comments that she is familiar with the "black hole incident," giving Jack some pause.

Markov then discovers that a sample of water from the planet the Russian gate is dialed into is missing. The water, she says, had some amazing energy properties.

Daniel and Teal’C finish their body count and find some people missing. Carter postulates that a drone may have been left on the other side of the gate. This drone could be holding the connection open, drawing power from this strange high-energy water.

Markov, Carter and Daniel get in a minisub and hoist it through the gate. They do in fact find a lost drone. When they bring it in the sub and shut it down, the gate turns off.

They decide to tool around a bit looking for clues, but then the engines mysteriously overheat even though they're not moving.

Markov goes to work on the engines, only to find that they've become useless. The water pressure rises. Daniel panics.

Left to their own devices, Teal’C and Jack decide to have a look around Siberia.

During their explorations they find Stargate Command renegade General Maybourne frozen solid in a meat locker.

Luckily, he seems to have picked up a strange habit of breathing when he should be dead. He regains consciousness after awhile, acting like a robot until he throws up a mouthful of water -- and then he's sneaky little Maybourne again.

The water turns into vapor and wafts into Teal'c's mouth, turning him into an automaton. At gunpoint, Maybourne forces Jack into the freezer.

Back on the sub, Daniel calms down long enough to postulate that the water is a life form. Markov says the technicians were supposed to wait until she returned to run tests on the sample, but they obviously went ahead anyway.

Meanwhile, the water continues to crush the tiny submarine. The glass cracks.

Daniel, in his normal curious fashion, feels the need to touch the strange water. Although the women try to grab him and hold him in, the deep sucks him out of the sub, then takes Carter and Markov for good measure.

On Earth, Maybourne tells O’Neill that the water is alive. He explains that when they exposed it to the air to start the tests it evaporated and invaded him and the scientists, forcing them to take it back to its homeworld.

The soldiers shot the infected scientists, only to become new hosts for the water. All hell broke loose, the base was sealed and they were all gassed.

Jack goes after Teal’c to stop him from going through the gate to his watery death.

Teal’C shrugs off Jack and dials to open the Stargate. He then throws up the water, which turns into mist and passes through the iris.

A wave of water throws Markov, Carter, and Jackson through.

Jack asks them what happened but they seem understandably onfused. The episode ends with an O’Neillism "Here’s a thought, we just exchanged hostages."