Narrator: Previously on Stargate Atlantis.
Currently, Stargate command has no vessels
capable of engaging the hive ships before they reach earth.
Even if we could catch up with them,
I don't know how long we'd last.
The lingering stench of what they transformed you into will never fade.
Wouldn't it have been more prudent
to send the zpm back to earth on the daedalus?
Colonel Sheppard, is that you? Who's this?
Target the ventral hyperdrive generators.
You'll be most effective.
This ship has been seriously damaged.
It's hard for me to find something to overload.
Sheppard: Let Mikey try it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's helping us.
Hive just opened fire on the transport, sir.
Beam them directly to the bridge.
That last blast took out our life support
and the backups aren't responding.
The only breathable air within light years is on the wraith ship.
There's also wraith.
Unless we send over the gas.
We finish the plan we started!
You can start sending people over, sir.
They're all human and the air is good.
I think we're out of the woods.
Harriman: Incoming wormhole.
Opening the Iris.
Receiving video transmission.
Stargate command, this is Atlantis.
I'm here, Teyla.
Any word about our people?
Unfortunately, no.
But the hive ship we've been tracking
is still on course for Atlantis.
We expect its arrival shortly.
Activate the cloak.
Proceed.
Cloak is engaged.
Weir: What about our defenses?
All railgun positions are manned and operational,
and Dr. Beckett is in the drone control chair.
Patch me through to him.
Weir: Carson?
Elizabeth.
How are you doing?
Oh, just peachy, thanks. You?
I'm sorry to put you in this position,
but you are the only person
besides colonel Sheppard and general O'Neill
who've actually fired a drone from that chair.
Ironically, they're the two people
I nearly killed when I did that.
You'll do fine.
Is this even necessary? I mean, we've got the cloak up.
Chances are they won't find us
and they'll just be on their way.
Weir: Normally, I would agree with you,
but this ship is moving much faster
than we've ever seen a hive ship move before,
which means either it's one of the ships the daedalus is chasing,
or they shared the information they stole from us with other wraith.
Either way, the cloak might not do us much good.
Great.
Hive ship just dropped out of hyperspace.
Doctor Beckett, stand by.
Man: Receiving a signal.
Sheppard: Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in.
John?
Weir: They made it?
Sheppard: We're out of food and water, and we haven't slept in days,
but, yeah, we made it.
So now would not be a good time to fire on us.
After all, wouldn't wanna damage your new hive ship.
Caldwell: This is daedalus. We're clear. Understood.
Sorry to sneak up on you like that, doc.
Subspace communications were down.
I came this close to blasting you out of the sky.
You showed remarkable restraint,
which makes me all the more confident in you next time.
Next time. Oh, no, no, no.
Oh, yeah, the retrovirus worked great.
Really? How many are there?
Well, the ship didn't have a full complement to begin with,
but, uh, still there are a few.
This is a few?
Sheppard: Official count is just under 200.
A lot of them were killed in the battle.
A lot more of them killed each other
when the gas started changing them.
We should consider ourselves lucky.
A hive ship like this could carry thousands.
Don't misunderstand me, Dr. Weir.
I'm not here to lecture you on the moral complexities of your situation.
Ultimately, the ioa has no official position
on the matter one way or the other.
'Cause when there's actually a tough decision to be made,
they suddenly have no opinion.
The lives of 200 former wraith
are not high up on their list of priorities,
but the way you dealt with the recent crisis,
and quite frankly, the manner in which you responded to their authority,
and there's still the issue of whether
the intelligence that allowed these hives
to get as far as they did was passed to any other wraith colonies.
According to Michael, it was not.
I don't have to tell you that your willingness
to trust this particular wraith
is not going to make for a strong defense.
I didn't know I was on trial.
Look, Pegasus is so far away,
they never thought the wraith would be a threat
to anyone outside the members of the expedition itself.
It was their objection to having Atlantis under military control
that put me in this position in the first place.
Nothing renews your appreciation for the military
like the threat of invasion from life-sucking aliens.
Michael?
Even though I saved colonel Sheppard's life
and helped him stop the hives from reaching earth,
you still place me under guard.
You have betrayed our trust in the past.
Trust?
I was your prisoner then!
And despite what I've done for you,
here I am once again.
I can't say I'm surprised.
I wasn't welcome among my own kind.
Why should I be welcomed here?
What are you talking about?
She looked at me as if I was some kind of unclean thing.
I may appear as a wraith again on the outside,
but as far as they're concerned, I'm...
That is why I need your help.
What do you want?
I can't stay here, and I can't return to the wraith,
which means I need to make my own way,
and to do that
I need supplies and a ship.
We are grateful for your help,
but we can never release you.
Not with the information you possess.
Then kill me now!
There is another way.
Take the treatment again.
Yes.
What I am is not a disease you can cure.
Your life as a human could belong and full.
And if I remember nothing of what or who I am,
if this consciousness is erased,
what is the difference between that and death?
And if I do remember and revert back to my true nature,
what will happen then?
Doctor Beckett has made significant advances.
The treatments are more effective now
and eventually he may find a permanent solution.
If you really believe that,
those wraith you transformed wouldn't be in stasis on the ship.
They'd be here reveling in your hospitality.
Come in.
Dr. Weir?
Mr. Woolsey.
The ioa has decided that for the time being,
you should continue to head the Atlantis expedition.
You're surprised?
Yes, I am.
I guess this means that international mistrust of the us military
is far more powerful than their fear of "life-sucking aliens."
The truth is, the delegates are split.
In order to avoid a deadlock, they decided on a temporary reinstatement
pending a detailed report on the situation in Pegasus.
Written by...
I'll be going back to Atlantis with you.
Have you ever been offworld before, Mr. Woolsey?
Sure. Once.
And how did that go for you?
I was nearly killed.
Well, we will do our best to make sure
that doesn't happen this time.
I understand that Stargate command
has put in a request to the asgard for transportation.
I know they don't have a lot of ships to spare right now,
but that will shave almost two weeks off our travel time.
I've never met an asgard.
You, I think, will love them.
They've got a great sense of humor!
Really?
You figured out how to fly this thing yet?
Oh, yeah. Fly, shimmy, spin like a top.
You didn't think it'd be hard, did you?
Just proves my confidence in you wasn't misplaced.
So far we can't get the ship to respond
to anything but the most basic commands.
Thatdoesnt dousrnuchgood really?
Look, all the more sophisticated systems, like navigation,
respond to wraith neural interface,
in much the same way that the puddle jumpers can only be controlled
by people with the ata genes.
So we still need a wraith to fly it.
I'm working on a manual override.
Just haven't had much luck yet.
What about Teyla?
Teyla's got the wraith gene thing. Maybe she can fly it.
It's worth a try, but that's not the only problem.
At least half of the ship's power-generating capacity is gone,
so even if I had access to spare parts,
which I don't, I doubt I could fix it.
Now, ifwe're gonna fly this thing and hope for weapons,
we need to cut back on our current power consumption.
Meaning what?
Meaning the 200 prisoners we've got in stasis,
we can't keep them in there forever.
Are you my executioner?
I wish.
I'm just glad he's not gonna remember this.
All right. This is weird.
What? They're just a bunch of guys.
I know what they really are.
Keep that to yourself and try to ignore them.
Colonel Sheppard, I need to speak with you.
I'm sorry, uh...
Oh, my name is Lathan.
At least, that's what I have been told.
Okay.
Many of us have questions, colonel,
like how long we're going to be kept here.
Well, that's up to Dr. Beckett.
He said he doesn't know.
Which means he doesn't know the exact date.
Sorry, this is a medical situation and he has medical reasons.
You people are under quarantine.
Why only the men?
Your women are immune to the strain, so are most of my people.
We've been over this a few times.
I know, I just...
Well, until Dr. Beckett can clear you,
there's nothing I can do.
How's it coming?
I'm gonna need more time.
You're better off conducting this research back on Atlantis.
And what? Just leave them here?
That was the plan, you remember that, Carson?
But they're not ready yet.
You were supposed to teach them to administer the drug themselves.
I have trained several of them to act as my assistants.
Vveh, good, then there should be no problem.
Colonel, there's more here to what I'm doing
than just sticking needles in their arms.
For one, I have to make sure there's no signs of reversion.
This planet has no gate.
They've got no way off. Whatever happens, we're covered.
That's not what I meant.
Have any of them started to remember?
I don't think so.
The drug seems to keep them stable
as long as they get a daily dose.
We don't have the manpower or the resources
to baby-sit them forever.
Are you telling me if I can't come up with a permanent solution,
that eventually we'll have to abandon them?
Eventually. Then what?
They'll turn back into the wraith.
And without any other food supply,
they'll start feeding on each other.
Well, I'm not ready to give up just yet.
And like it or not, for the moment, they are human,
and they're my responsibility.
Take the ship back. I'll stay until the first re-supply mission.
That won't be for another week at least.
We've got to bring back enough food to last them
until they can harvest their own.
I'll be perfectly safe.
I'm leaving a security team with you.
What did he say?
Nothing. He won't tell us anything.
He's hiding something.
Like what?
I only know that something's not right.
Everything they've told us about our homeworld, the plague,
how they rescued us, I don't remember a single part.
Because memory loss is one of the symptoms.
How do you know that's true?
We don't know them.
We don't even know ourselves.
They're helping us.
By keeping us trapped here with barely enough food
and no idea when or if we'll ever be allowed to leave?
I say that's not good enough.
What are you suggesting?
They only have a handful of soldiers.
We outnumber them 10-to-1.
And then what? They have some sort of ship.
It's how we got here.
If we have hostages...
What if they're telling the truth
and we are really carrying some kind of deadly plague?
Even if we somehow survive and get away,
all we'll be doing is spreading this disease wherever we go.
Do you really wanna risk that?
If we don't act before that ship leaves,
we'll be stranded on this rock forever.
Michael's right, Lathan. It's too risky.
Colonel Caldwell.
Mr. Woolsey. Mind if I join you?
Of course.
How are you settling in?
I'm not sure about this uniform.
You'd stand out more in a suit and tie.
Believe me, I've done enough of these investigations
to realize that no amount of camouflage is going to disguise who I am
or what I'm doing here.
You're expecting something less than full cooperation?
We're just having a conversation.
As commander of the daedalus, I have standing orders to help out
around here whenever possible,
but I'm not a member of this expedition.
I don't answer to the ioa,
and unless otherwise directed by my superiors,
I don't have to answer your questions.
The only reason that you're not the military commander of Atlantis
is that Dr. Weir insisted that post go to colonel Sheppard.
If she were to leave,
you would be the most likely candidate to take over.
That's not why you're here.
The ioa doesn't really want militarization.
They're just afraid they may have no other choice.
I think you've already spoken to Dr. Weir.
I've just been around long enough to know what's going on.
Sounds like you're saying you won't come out against Dr. Weir
only because you're not confident of the outcome.
What I'm saying, Mr. Woolsey, is have a pleasant evening.
You guys head back to the ship.
Okay, doc, last chance. We're packed up and ready to roll.
Colonel, we've got a problem.
Lathan's missing.
He didn't turn up for his last treatment
and nobody's seen him, have they?
No, but”
but what?
It's all right, Michael. Tell him what you told me.
Lathan's convinced this whole thing
is some kind of elaborate lie.
I tried to tell him you were doing your best to help us,
that maybe the sickness was playing with his mind,
but he wouldn't listen.
You're saying he's not lost, he's hiding.
It's possible.
Colonel, I think it's best if we find him as soon as possible
before any of the symptoms of the plague reoccur.
Okay, let's get a search party going.
We'd like to help.
He is one of us.
Anything? Nothing.
Morrison, report.
Morrison: We're just coming up on the river.
Still no sign of him, sir.
All right, keep me posted.
Michael!
Lathan!
What are you doing out here?
I'm proving a point.
You missed a treatment.
I know, but I'm starting to remember.
It's just flashes, images in my head,
but something's definitely coming back to me.
Don't you see what this means?
They're not curing us. They're keeping us this way.
We must make our move, and quickly.
I'm sorry, but you should have stayed at the camp.
Morrison: Colonel Sheppard.
Go ahead.
We've found him, sir.
What's your location?
We're halfway up the Ridge that runs south of the camp.
He must have been trying to climb down and lost his footing.
What are you saying, he's injured?
No, sir. He's dead.
I've prepared the injections for this morning's first group.
On you go.
You'll be fine, merrick. I've seen you do it a dozen times.
Besides, I've got work to do here.
You're going to examine the body?
Well, the cause of death is quite obvious.
His neck was broken.
But there are some tests I could perform
that could help with my research.
At least that way, something good might come of this.
We've all logged more than a few miles these past few weeks.
I'd just like to say that seeing you now, sitting across from me,
looking at your faces,
it makes me feel very...
You don't have to say it.
We feel the same way you do.
Oh, she feels hungry, too?
Teyla, I understand navigating the hive ship
wasn't a particularly pleasant experience.
The neural interface was quite exhausting.
And that was just flying in a straight line.
I mean, she'll never be able to pull off anything complex,
like combat maneuverability, weapons control...
How many maneuvers can you pull off with your manual interface?
Well, does, um, standing still count as a maneuver?
Sorry I'm late.
My interviews are running a little longer than expected.
And you are?
Richard woolsey.
He is chief liaison to the international committee
that oversees the Atlantis expedition.
He will be conducting individual interviews with each of you.
As well as observing all senior staff meetings.
Right.
So, what did I miss?
Rodney was about to run down all the progress he's made
adapting the hive controls.
Excellent. Please continue.
Hmm.
Thanks.
Dr. Beckett, this is lieutenant Morrison.
What's your location?
I'm on the Ridge where Lathan's body was found.
If you don't mind my asking, doc, what are you doing out there?
I wanted to check on something.
I think we may have a problem.
What kind of a problem?
Beckett: I was so caught up running tests
on Lathan's tissues for my research,
I almost didn't notice.
Notice what?
There isn't enough blood on the ground,
which indicates that his heart wasn't pumping when he fell.
Now, he definitely died when his neck was snapped,
but I'm beginning to think the rest of his injuries
occurred postmortem,
presumably to make it look like an accident.
Look, it's gonna be dark soon.
You'd better start back now and we'll talk about it when you get here.
All right.
It would appear from this incident
that the lies you are telling these people
are beginning to wear a bit thin.
One adverse reaction out of 200.
Do you seriously hold out much hope for the long-term success
of this little science project?
That's not what this is.
You may have never set out to create this community,
but you did create it.
We did what we had to do in order to survive.
I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.
But even if Dr. Beckett comes up
with what appears to be a long-term solution,
would we ever trust them enough
to integrate them into any society of humans?
Probably not. Which brings me back to my original question.
What do you want me to say?
Isuppofled Elizabeth's decision
to form an alliance with Michael,
and I supported her decision to put all those people on the planet.
That support hardly shines through
when you hesitate to call them people.
Just out of, uh, political curiosity,
how much trouble is it gonna cause you
if I knock this woolsey guy in the head?
May I ask why you'd like to do that?
It's just an impulse I had, really,
one I suspect I'm gonna have again next time I see him.
He may not even have to say anything.
I've never seen you like this.
What did woolsey say to you?
Besides judging every damned decision you've ever made?
John Sheppard, are you defending my honor?
And judging me for agreeing with you.
We”, don't be too hard on him.
I think of all the circling wolves,
he's the least likely to actually bite.
In fact, he might even convince the others to leave us alone.
All right, so, uh, no head knocking.
It's the thought that counts.
Lieutenant Morrison.
This is Dr. Beckett. Come in.
Morrison?
I'm afraid the lieutenant and his men are indisposed.
Michael, listen to me. You're sick.
You need to take your medication now.
It's too late for that, doctor.
I've regained enough memory to know
that you've done this to me not once,
but twice.
You witnessed how hurt, how betrayed, I felt the first time.
Well, try to imagine how I feel now.
Why'd you have to kill Lathan?
He was stirring up trouble, but I knew our only chance was to wait
until colonel Sheppard left with the soldiers.
Most of them, anyway.
But with the ship gone, what's the point? You've got no hope of escape.
That's where you're wrong.
What've we got, Rodney?
Long-range sensors just picked up a hive ship.
It's coming this way?
Wait a minute. This doesn't make any sense.
What?
On its current course, it's headed straight for the planet
where we left Beckett and the prisoners.
There is no reason for the wraith
to be interested in that planet.
It doesn't have a Stargate, and there's no indication
that it ever supported a human population.
It is completely off the grid.
I think we have to consider the possibility that we have a leak.
You mean a spy.
Woolsey: Not necessarily in the city itself.
Without ruling anything out, I would begin by focusing on our contacts
within the various indigenous populations, including...
If you believe any athosians...
Let's not jump to any conclusions here.
Isn't it true that there are humans in this galaxy
who serve the wraith, even worship them?
How hard would it be for them to infiltrate one of our allied groups?
Mr. Woolsey, do you think we post this kind of information
on the city bulletin board?
If the wraith had that level of inside information,
they'd be on their way to Atlantis,
not some nameless planet with a couple of hundred people on it.
For the time being, we need to focus on getting those people out of there,
becauseif the wraith find them
and figure out what they are...
We've got a problem. Again.
How much time do we have? Two days.
Well, we could... you could beat them there in the daedalus.
The hyperdrive is still offline.
Hermiod needs at least another 24 hours.
We should light a fire under his bony little...
That still might not be quite good enough.
If we leave right now in the hive ship...
Oh, we'd be cutting it close.
What are our chances of surviving a ship-to-ship encounter?
If I can get the manual interface working, I'd say less than slim.
Do what you can on the way.
How many have reverted?
Michael: Those you saw in the forest, plus a few more.
And the others?
They'll serve as an offering to the hive that's coming for us.
That's hardly bloody fair.
The strong survive, doctor.
The few of us who began to realize something was wrong
got together and formed a plan even while on the medication.
The weaker minds among us will stay that way,
thanks to your drugs and the training you gave us.
If your memory's coming back,
you should remember what happened
last time you tried to rejoin the wraith.
It will be enough to escape this rock.
So what do you need me for?
I mean, there must be a reason you're keeping me alive.
I need to know what secondary security measures
colonel Sheppard put in place before he left.
What are you talking about?
The more my memory returns,
the more I begin to doubt that he would have left us here
without setting up some kind of fail-safe.
There's no way off this planet!
That was the fail-safe!
How many years of your life will I have to take away
before you tell me what I want to know?
That's hardly a threat since you're obviously gonna kill me anyway.
You underestimate your own value, doctor.
Look, they don't tell me this sort of thing.
I'm just a doctor.
Maybe you shouldn't have been so quick to kill lieutenant Morrison.
Idonthke to question military men.
They're like our own wraith warriors,
unimaginative, rigid thought patterns.
But you, on the other hand, are trained to have an open mind,
and you have a strong sense of empathy toward others.
It's not as strong as it used to be, believe me.
You're exactly what I need.
Now, let's begin.
Do we have weapons yet? Sort of.
What does that mean?
Well, we can fire, but not in any particular direction.
Well, you're gonna have to do better than that.
Oh, believe me, no one wants to survive this mission more than I do.
Look, we're using up a lot of our power reserves to maintain this speed.
We're not gonna have a lot leftover to fight with.
We're going this fast to avoid fighting.
Theoretically.
Just keep working.
Caldwell: Atlantis, this is daedalus. We're ready to go here.
Are you sure you wanna do this, colonel?
I understand hermiod isn't too happy
about having the hyperdrive pressed into service so soon.
He's cleared us to fly, albeit reluctantly.
Whether or not he's happy about it is beside the point.
Anyway, I'm sure colonel Sheppard would appreciate the help.
Weir: Thank you.
Daedalus out. Set a course.
Yes, sir.
That's it. We're out of hyperspace.
You all right?
I believe I have been able to establish a stable orbit.
All right. Nice work.
Any sign of the other hive ship?
No. We're clear.
All right. Patch me through to the camp.
All right, just give me a second.
That's weird.
A bunch of secondary systems just came online.
You're a genius, Rodney.
True, but I didn't do it.
It's like they just woke up by themselves.
It looks like they're all keyed into the sensors.
The ship must have detected something and turned them on.
Detected what?
Wraith life signs.
From the planet? How many?
There's 20 or 30.
What about human?
Still well over 100.
So some of them reverted.
They'll be feeding on each other.
What about Dr. Beckett and lieutenant Morrison's team?
I have no way to distinguish them
from the other human life signs.
I can't say for sure either way.
How'd they contact the ship so far out?
Mcka y: I have no idea.
Teyla, what do you think?
Te yla: It is possible that a group of them acting together
could communicate over much larger distances.
Well, live and learn.
And live some more, hopefully.
What about the fail-safe device?
What kind of kill zone are we looking at?
Mcka y: Everything in a three-mile radius is toast.
You sure about that? We've got no margin for error.
The blast radius doesn't just stop at three miles.
What about the ones that are still human?
There's nothing we can do for them.
I suppose we could not incinerate them.
If Michael got his memory back,
they could all know about Atlantis by now,
and how to find earth.
We can't take that chance.
Once we get our people out, we 'ii give you the signal,
you set off the nuke.
Carson.
He's barely conscious.
Did you find the others?
They were fed on. There's not much of them left.
Help me get him up.
Oh, come on!
Sheppard: Rodney, come in.
What's happening?
We've got Carson. Morrison and his team are dead.
We're heading back.
We 're clear. Light it up.
Understood.
Fail-safe detonation in three, two, one...
Now you see what they really think of us.
I don't understand.
The bomb is receiving a detonation signal.
If I hadn't deactivated it,
we'd all be dead.
Rodney?
I don't understand it.
Sheppard: What happened?
You mean what didn't happen?
Are you telling me the bomb didn't go off?
He got to it.
We cannot leave the wraith here to be found by the hive.
Get back to work on those weapons, Rodney. We're not going anywhere.
Should we search for the prisoner?
There's no point.
He's been taken up to their ship by now.
In any case, he served his purpose.
There's nothing left for us to do but wait
for our brothers to rescue us soon.
How you doing with the weapons?
We couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Hive ships are a hundred times bigger...
A giant, flying barn! We couldn't hit that.
What about hitting a stationary target?
All motion in space is relative.
I'm talking about on the planet.
Well, that I might be able to do.
Target the camp.
Waitjust a minute!
We've had this discussion before, doc. There's no choice.
We could go down in the jumper and take as many as possible.
We have no time.
The other hive ship's gonna be here any minute
and we won't survive a battle.
It's my call.
There's still over 100 men down there
that believe that we are their saviors.
They're about to become casualties of war.
It has to be done.
Fire.
It's the other hive! We're taking multiple hits!
What about the target?
It's hard to say for sure how accurate our fire has been.
Blanket the entire area.
We can't afford a mistake.
Engines are offline! We're venting atmosphere!
Power's about to fail!
Repofl.
We've just about reached the planet, sir.
Drop us out of hyperspace.
Kleinmann: It's debris from a hive ship, sir.
Life signs?
No, sir.
What about the planet?
I'm not getting anything.
I see.
Sheppard: Daedalus, this is Sheppard, come in.
Sheppard, where the hell are you?
Oh! Right. Sorry.
We're picking up a jumper, sir.
Five life signs.
You got here in good time, colonel.
We were looking at a long ride home.
You're still not certain if any of the wraith on the planet survived.
Not certain, no.
My people were concerned about their own survival at that time.
Understandably.
But of course, it's my fault they were in that position
in the first place.
If I had just disposed of those prisoners,
none of this would have happened.
Isn't that what you're gonna write in your report?
Quite the contrary, in fact.
It was your decision to fire on the camp from orbit.
That eliminated the threat.
At least, we hope it was eliminated.
And allowed your team to escape.
I didn't make that decision.
But you would have
if, hypothetically, Dr. McKay had managed
to get the hive subspace communicator working
and you'd been apprised of the situation.
Well, I... I might have.
Close enough. But that's not what happened.
The ioa doesn't need to know that.
In fact, they don't want to know that.
You see, in my business sometimes it's more important
not to let inconvenient facts get in the way of the greater truth.
And the truth is, you should remain here in charge of this expedition.
For the moment.
Dial earth, please.
English - us - psdh