Summary
Sheppard takes his team, Dr. Beckett and an additional
team of marines offworld to investigate why Major Leonard's
team
is six
hours overdue checking in. They'd gone to investigate the
uninhabited world because of some strange energy readings
picked up by the M.A.L.P. The energy fluctuations make
the teams' radios useless. On arrival, there's no sign
of the Major or his team, but a group of months-dead Genii
are discovered. They'd apparently killed each other quite
violently.
They find an abandoned Wraith facility in a series of
caves. They also find more dead Genii. In the caves, they
discover the source of the energy readings. Hybrid organic
energy conduits lead out from a central unit, acting like
antennae. McKay theorizes that the Genii stumbled upon
the contraption, activated it, couldn't figure out how
to deactivate it, so they shot it up. The conduits are
healing themselves. Before more investigation of the gizmo
can take place, Teyla announces that Major Leonard's team
has been found.
I said the team had been found. I didn't mention
the Major himself, and I never said anything about them
being alive. All three team members were shot with an MP5,
standard Atlantis team issue. McKay finds a video camera
nearby. The tape shows the team arriving and following
much the same path as our current teams. They pass the
dead Genii, find the abandoned lab and the Wraith device,
then someone starts shooting. We see the camera holder
running for the stargate. He wonders aloud where the Prometheus is
before being shot and the tape ends. Major Leonard apparently
shot his team, and why the dead cameraman was asking about
a ship that had been destroyed a year ago is just one of
mysteries we're left with. McKay wants to go back and study
the Wraith device more, but Sheppard overrules him, wanting
to take their dead back to Atlantis and return with more
people to investigate.
As they make their way back to the stargate, Ronon, for
the second time, thinks he sees something moving in the
forest. Nothing is found. They reach the gate and one of
the marines starts to dial out, but the DHD has been booby
trapped and explodes, killing the Sergeant that was trying
to dial out. Major Leonard starts shooting at the team
from the forest, wounding the other two marines before
retreating. With a destroyed DHD, it's going to be mighty
difficult
to get home.
McKay convinces Sheppard that their best bet is to go
back to the caves and disable the generator, otherwise
when Dr. Weir dials in and tries to contact them via radio,
they won't be able to answer. They carry the wounded marines
to the bunker. Sgt. Barroso has a shoulder injury but should
survive, Lt. Kagan won't make it without major surgery,
and soon. McKay studies the Wraith device, deciding it
was some sort of experiment and it's definitely a generator.
Teyla suggests that turning it off is more important than
understanding how it works.
Outside the cave, Ronon sees (or at least thinks he sees)
two Wraith in the distance and takes off after them. Inside,
McKay explains that the device isn't meant to have the
effect it's having, but that the Genii turned the thing
on too high and couldn't turn it off. Their attempts
to destroy it have damaged the control console, meaning
that he'll have to trace the conduits back to the device's
core, where ever that may be. The sound of Ronon's blaster
draws Sheppard, Teyla and McKay back outside. Ronon is
nowhere to be seen. Sheppard orders McKay to find a way
to shut the device down while he and Teyla find Ronon.
In the cave, Beckett brings McKay a scalpel before returning
to tend to Kagan. Barroso
is on his feet, insisting that he needs to guard the entrance.
Beckett doesn't like the idea, but doesn't stop him. In
the forest, Sheppard and Teyla find Ronon, staring off
into the distance. They call to him, and are rewarded with
gunfire from Major Leonard. Teyla gets hit in the leg.
Ronon and Sheppard return fire, but we see that from Ronon's
point of view, he's firing at a Wraith. Leonard takes off
and Ronon pursues, ignoring Sheppard's order to stay. When
Sheppard turns around, he sees an injured man whom he calls
"Holland," rather than seeing Teyla. Then, he's
back to seeing Teyla, and he tends to her injury.
Sheppard and Teyla find a makeshift shelter. Teyla asks
Sheppard about what happened, but he brushes it off. Leonard
comes back to his camp and runs out of ammunition. Sheppard
tries to talk to him, but instead of Sheppard, Leonard
sees a Kull warrior, several, in fact. Rather than let
himself be captured, Leonard grabs a grenade, pulls the
pin, and blows himself up. Sheppard goes back to Teyla,
but thinks he hears a jeep engine. Teyla hears nothing.
In the cave, Kagan goes into cardiac arrest. Beckett
tries to revive him but is unsuccessful. Later, Barroso
comes back into the cave to check on Kagan. Beckett gives
him
the bad news, but Barroso notices that Kagan is moving.
Not only is Kagan moving, but he's speaking, too. Beckett
tells McKay about what happened with Kagan, and McKay
suspects it has something to do with the generator. He's
determined that the Wraith were trying to increase their
ability to control others' minds. Despite having thought
that the generator was maxed out, the energy level jumps.
Beckett asks if McKay has experienced anything, but he
hasn't. He explains that different brain chemistries can
yield different results, plus he thinks the generator room
is probably somewhat shielded. Then the energy level jumps
up again, and we cut to Sheppard.
Sheppard hears more people outside the shelter. Teyla
tries to convince him there's nothing there, but he doesn't
buy it. He leaves the tent and sees a desert in Afghanistan.
He's with Holland, a downed pilot who's taken shelter near
an old downed Soviet helicopter. Sheppard has flown in
alone, against orders, to rescue him. Teyla tries to talk
to him, but Sheppard only hears Holland.
Dr. Weir orders a UAV launched to check for Sheppard and
his missing team. Sheppard see the UAV fly overhead as
a US aircraft. We cut to Ronon, who sees the UAV as a Wraith
dart. He fires his blaster at it, shooting it down. On
Atlantis, they lose contact with the UAV without knowing
exactly why. Dr. Weir isn't willing to send another team
without knowing what's going on, and the Daedalus is a
couple days away.
Kagan again stops breathing. Beckett calls Barroso to
help with CPR and they manage to revive him. While they're
doing CPR, McKay continues to work on the generator, but
instead of power level dropping, they're still rising.
McKay goes to get Beckett to help him, but he says he can't
leave Kagan. He tells McKay that he and Barroso were barely
able to revive Kagan this time. McKay finds Barroso lying
on the floor. Beckett checks him out, and he's been dead
for some time. McKay takes Beckett with him to help with
the generator.
In the forrest, Ronon finds Sheppard and Teyla's shelter,
but sees Sheppard as a Wraith. Sheppard, in turn, sees
Ronon as one a Taliban fighter. The two shoot at each other,
with Sheppard hitting Ronon in the arm, grazing him. Ronon
retreats to bind his wound. Sheppard decides it's time
to get moving, and promises to take care of "his friends,
too."
In the cave, Beckett sees Barroso again. Barroso convinces
Beckett that McKay is trying to keep him from helping Kagan.
Beckett picks up Kagan and takes him out of the cave.
McKay ends up fleeing the cave when the his instruments
indicate that the generator is going to overload. He leaps
from the cave's mouth as the countdown reaches zero, but
nothing happens. His mind is being affected, too. Before
he can go back inside the cave, Sheppard shows up with
Teyla. He sees McKay as Taliban and shoots him in the side.
McKay stays conscious and tells Teyla that she has to get
into the cave and cut the power to the generator. She tries
to convince Sheppard that the enemy is jamming his radio,
and they need to shut down the jamming device. Sheppard
doesn't see any cave entrance, but a few nearby blasts
from Ronon's blaster convince him to follow Holland/Teyla
inside.
Teyla checks McKay's laptop and sees the McKay was almost
finished. She gets Sheppard to pull the last connection
just as Ronon enters the chamber and aims his blaster at
Sheppard. Once the power is cut, everyone is back to normal.
Sheppard finds Beckett and Kagan out in the forest. Kagan
is still alive. With the generator down, Weir is able to
establish radio contact and send enough supplies through
to last until the Daedalus can arrive later that night.
Teyla asks Sheppard if he got Holland out alive, and Sheppard
says he didn't. Teyla notes that at least they survived.
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