Summary
A M.A.L.P. is sent through the gate to an address from
the Ancient's database. The database has little information
on the address, other than that there was a research station
there. The research was completed and the facility was
abandoned. When the M.A.L.P. begins sending video, we see
several people peering into the camera. One is holding
a scanner. Weir wonders whether the people are Ancients.
The man holding the scanner, Niam, says that if the people
who sent the probe wish to cause the harm, they should
come no further. If they come in friendship, they are most
welcome.
Dr. Weir joins team Sheppard on through the gate. They
emerge in what looks like a duplicate of Atlantis' gateroom.
Once the wormhole shuts down, however, they can see many
people and a long corridor extending behind the gate. Niam
is there with a few others, and he welcomes the group to
Asuris.
Niam leads the team to meet with the High
Council. He
informs them that his people built the city thousands of
years ago. We also find out that they don't have a problem
with the Wraith. When McKay questions why, Niam only responds
that the Wraith do not concern them. Along the way, they
pass a balcony that looks out on the city. It's massive,
well beyond the size of Atlantis. Niam tells them that
millions of people live in the city. This prompts McKay
to ask about the power source for the city. They use ZPMs,
and although Niam doesn't know the exact number they have,
it's more than enough to suit their needs. They build them
themselves.
When the team meets with the High Council, the leader
of the council, Oberoth, tells them that they are the last
of the race they call the Ancients. Once, they were a race
united in their pursuit of knowledge, but a rift occurred.
The other Ancients disregarded their counsel regarding
the Wraith and were destroyed. Sheppard points out that
there are still a lot of Wraith in the galaxy, and they
could use the Asurans' help. Oberoth responds that the
eradication of the Wraith is one of their goals. Oberoth
refuses to divulge their plan for fighting the Wraith,
but assures Sheppard that one day soon, the Wraith will
be no more. When pressed, Oberoth ends the conversation
and has the team ushered out of the room, though he does
tell them that they are welcome to spend a "short
time"
among them.
Dr. Weir mentions to Niam that they thought that all the
remaining Ancients had ascended. This perks up his attention.
He's surprised to hear that Weir knows about Asension.
Weir suggests that Niam's people must not be interested
in pursuing Ascension, but he disagrees, saying that it
is a goal for many of his people, but Oberoth feels that
there is still much to do. "We must become all that
we can." When Weir guesses that Niam doesn't agree
with Oberoth, Niam clams up and shows them to their quarters.
In their quarters, the team discusses whether Niam and
his people really are Ancients, or whether they found the
city like they did with Atlantis. Neither Ronon nor Weir
believes that there really is a plan for defeating the
Wraith. Sheppard suggests that they've found a way to hide
from the Wraith, and are content to sit tight and stick
to their own business.
Weir arranges a one-on-one meeting with Oberoth, hoping
to accomplish more "leader to leader." She wishes
to establish diplomatic and trade relations. Oberoth is
dismissive.
What could Weir's people possibly have to offer? Weir tells
him there's only one way to find out. Something that the
Asurans could definitely offer them is ZPMs. Oberoth takes
this the mean that Weir and her team's settlement is of
Lantean design, something she'd probably have preferred
he not know. Caught, she admits that it is, and that they
need more power sources for shield generation and weapons.
Oberoth asks where the settlement is located. Weir hedges,
saying only that it is at the edge of the galaxy in an
area teeming with Wraith. Oberoth tells her that they need
all their ZPMs and can spare none. Weir asks if he would
at least offer his city as a refuge if necessary. Oberoth
tells Weir that some of his people are "amused" by visitors
for a short time, but he is not. The idea of more outsiders
staying in the city for any length of time is unacceptable.
Weir changes tacts and suggests that her people could be
helpful in the fight against the Wraith. Oberoth tells
her again that they will deal with the Wraith with their
own plan in their own time. Weir suggests that the arrogance
that Oberoth accused the other Ancients of having runs
in the family.
The team has decided it's time to leave. Niam leads them
to the stargate, where they are surrounded by Asurans with
weapons drawn. Oberoth order the team to drop their weapons,
which they reluctantly do. Weir tells him she didn't think
he wanted them there. He says he didn't, but they have
information that he simply must have.
Our heroes are taken to a cell identical to the one on
Atlantis. Niam and two guards bring them food. He tells
them that they'll be released once Oberoth has questioned
them. Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla overpower the guards (and
Niam) and take their weapons. They leave the brig after
locking the guards in the cell, taking Niam with them to
a jumper bay. Once in the bay, they knock Niam unconscious
and steal one of the Asuran jumpers. The security guards
near the gate fire at the jumper as it makes its way to
and through the gate, but with little effect.
Later, on Atlantis, there's no sign that the Asurans are
coming after them. There's been no unexpected gate activity,
and there's nothing on long-range scanners. Sheppard meets
with McKay to see if he's found anything else about the
Asurans in the Ancient database. There's no mention of
the Asurans in the database at all. Weir calls both Sheppard
and McKay to the control room. They've picked up seven
Wraith hive ships directly above the city. Despite the
cloak, the hive ships target the city and start firing.
The initial volley takes out the shield generators, leaving
the city completely vulnerable. Weir orders an evacuation
to Earth. The self destruct system is armed, but automated
systems are offline. Sheppard volunteers to activate the
system manually.
When the last of the crew are through
the gate, Sheppard starts the self destruct. He waits
for the city to explode around him. Instead, the scene
dissolves and we see Sheppard screaming with Oberoth's
hand being thrust into his forehead. Looks like the Asurans
are replicators, and they've probed the minds of everyone
in the team. Soon, the floor begins to shake, and we
see an exterior shot of the Atlantis-like portion of the
city lifting off from the planet's surface.
Niam and his two sidekicks talk Oberoth into letting them
study the humans longer, rather than just killing them
immediately, as Oberoth prefers. In their cell, the team
discovers that each of them "lived" a different
scenario. Sheppard's was the escape. Ronon's was hours
and hours
of hand-to-hand combat in a darkened room. McKay experienced
torture "in ways too hideous and intimate to recount."
Niam takes them from their cell to a balcony. They watch
as a hyperspace window is opened and the city enters. They're
headed to Atlantis. The Asurans read from the team's mind
that the city was not destroyed by the Wraith. It's not
going to be a polite visit, either. They're out for retribution
and plan to destroy the city, even though the Ancients
no longer live there.
In order to show Dr. Weir what the Asurans really are,
he has her take his hand. In her mind, she's transported
to a lab. Niam tells her that the Ancients were desperate
to find an effective weapon against the Wraith. The designed
microscopic machines, nanites that could "infiltrate and
destroy from within." They programmed the nanites to
be even
more aggressive than the Wraith, and gave them the ability
to assimilate organic matter and replicate. The nanites
replicated at a rate far greater than the Ancients expected,
and began to interlock to create more complex forms, eventually
taking on the appearance of their creators.
The replicators wanted the Ancients to remove the aggression
from their programming, but that might keep them from becoming
an effective weapon. The scientists had also included a
directive in the programming that prohibited the replicators
from harming the Ancients, so it was safe for them to continue
their research. When the experiment was judged a failure,
the Ancients laid waste to the Asuran world, hoping to
wipe out any trace of the replicators.
Back in their quarters, Weir finishes telling the team
what she learned. A few of the nanites survived and started
replicating again. McKay fills Teyla and Ronon in on the
Asuran's similarity to the replicators that were at war
with the Asgard. Weir theorizes that the Asurans think
of the Ancients as the parents that betrayed them, and
the humans as the favored children that got all the parents'
love.
Niam and his two cohorts meet with Weir and team Sheppard
to propose a deal. Despite all that the Asurans have achieved
since they were almost destroyed, they still haven't achieved
their potential. Some of the Asurans want to ascend. Niam
believes that their violent nature has been the main roadblock
on the path to ascension. They want McKay to rewrite part
of their base code to remove the aggressiveness the Ancients
programmed in. They are prevented from altering the code
themselves. Niam believes that once the code is changed,
Oberoth will be willing to spare Atlantis.
McKay manages to remove the aggression directive from
the base code and upload it to Niam. While working on that,
he discovered that even though the Asurans operate as individuals,
they're linked by a subspace network that periodically
shares information. That's how Niam intends to distribute
the base code change. McKay also put a glitch in the system
that will allow him to momentarily pause all of the replicators,
until they find a way to override his hack. They hope it
will provide them enough time to escape.
Ronon correctly points out that there's little point in
escaping if they don't destroy the city before doing so.
McKay gets the idea to rig a ZPM to overload. Teyla asks
if they're not breaking Niam's trust by doing this. Of
course, they are. Weir says they'll give Niam the opportunity
to accompany them, but they cannot leave the city intact.
McKay sets off his glitch and all the Asurans freeze in
place. Well, all except Niam. Until the next network update,
his code will differ from everyone else's. The city drops
out of hyperspace. McKay starts working on overloading
the ZPMs. Weir offers Niam the chance to accompany them
to Atlantis. He tells her that he promised he'd do everything
in his power to help them, but admits he cannot promise
that he'd be successful in changing Oberoth's mind. Niam
agrees to go with them, and even provides the access code
to remove the failsafes on the ZPMs.
On their way to the jumper bay, they come across the frozen
Oberoth. McKay thinks it'd be fun to mock the Asuran leader,
but is surprised when Oberoth jerks his arm up to grab
McKay by the throat. Obviously, the Asurans are starting
to undo McKay's damage. Oberoth and his guards are in pursuit.
Ronon's blaster doesn't kill the Asurans, but it does seem
to slow them down. We see the city drop into orbit above
Atlantis.
McKay starts the overload as Weir, Niam and the team make
it into a jumper. We see the city explode as the jumper
races away. On board the jumper, Weir congratulates everyone
on a job well done. Niam begins to act oddly. The Asurans
on the homeworld know what Niam has done and are resetting
him, wiping out McKay's code change. Niam grabs Weir by
the throat. Sheppard manages to knock Niam into the rear
of the jumper, seal him off, and open the rear hatch. Niam
is sucked into space.
On Atlantis, McKay scours the database for any information
on the Asurans, but there doesn't appear to be anything
to find. Sheppard points out that they Asurans know all
about them, and are probably already at work constructing
another Atlantis. Weir suggests that maybe they scared
the Asurans off, but neither of them really buys that.
Meanwhile, Niam is still alive, floating in space. And
he doesn't look amused.
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