Summary
Practically the entire Atlantis crew (OK, Sheppard, Teyla,
McKay, Ronon, Weir, Zelenka and six other researchers)
are onboard a submerged jumper. They're searching for a
mobile geothermal drilling platform. They're also getting
on each others' nerves, as it's taking quite some time
to locate the platform. Weir has hopes that the drilling
station can become another power source for Atlantis.
Finally, the drilling station is located. As the jumper
nears, the station comes to life. Sheppard docks the jumper
and we see a Wraith awaken.
Soon after entering the station, McKay reports that all
systems are online. Weir mentions that the Ancients abandoned
the project, and she wants to know why before they start
drilling. Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla explore the station.
Teyla senses the presence of a Wraith and believes it is
on the station. Sheppard orders everyone back to the control
room.
Internal sensors show no signs of any Wraith or any life
form not already accounted for by the team. Teyla still
feels the Wraith's presence and suggests trying to use
her mind to locate it. In the crew quarters, Teyla attempts
to link with the Wraith she is sensing. After a few moments,
she announces that she was mistaken. There is no Wraith.
The exploration of the station can continue. Sheppard and
Weir form one search team. Teyla and Ronon are paired for
another.
Away from the others, Teyla attacks Ronon, rendering him
unconscious. She makes her way to a control station and
shuts off power to parts of the station. She also take
the internal sensors offline. McKay blames the outage on
Zelenka, who's in another part of the station, but Zelenka
still has power. While McKay works to restore power, Sheppard
tries to radio Ronon and Teyla but gets no response.
McKay locates the source of the power outage, and it's
a control station in the same area of the station that
Ronon and Teyla were searching. Sheppard and Weir head
in that
direction.
McKay
sends Drs. Dickenson and Graydon to the jumper to use its
sensors to locate the missing team members. McKay then
leaves to join Sheppard and Weir.
We see a Wraith swimming outside the station.
Sheppard, Weir and McKay meet up near the control station.
The sound of Teyla shooting out the station's control crystals
brings them running. The Wraith we saw earlier surfaces
inside the station in a moon pool, and it isn't just any
Wraith. It's a Wraith queen.
Sheppard, Weir and McKay find and revive Ronon. He tells
them that Teyla was his attacker. Teyla uses the control
station to erect force fields in some of the corridors,
trapping Drs. Dickenson and Graydon. Zelenka detects the
force fields' activation. Sheppard orders everyone back
to the control room. He and Ronon keep looking for Teyla.
The Wraith gives up control of Teyla just before Sheppard
and Ronon find her.
McKay determines that, among other things, Teyla wiped
out the station's command codes and disabled communications
with Atlantis. Fixing things is going to take some time.
Weir orders McKay to focus on fixing the internal sensors
and disabling the force fields that are keeping them from
reaching the jumper.
Back in the crew quarters, Weir, Sheppard and Ronon question
Teyla. She can't remember anything past her initial contact
with the queen, but she tells them it was the most powerful
mind she has ever encountered. Sheppard still wants to
know why internal sensors didn't pick the Wraith up. Teyla
wants to help with the search for the queen, but Weir isn't
ready to accept that Teyla is 100% free of the Wraith's
control.
Graydon and Dickenson open a control panel in an attempt
to disable the force field blocking their path. McKay tells
them that he's detecting force fields going up and down
around the station. They hear one of the force fields drop.
Dickenson isn't sure he caused it, and Graydon goes to
investigate. Graydon makes it to the jumper and is attacked
by the queen.
Internal sensors aren't working yet, but external sensors
are. McKay tasks Dr. Coleman with searching the area around
the station for anything unusual.
Ronon and Sheppard split up while searching for the queen.
The queen finds Dr. Dickenson. He tries to run, but is
hemmed in by the force field. He attempts to radio Sheppard
for help and the queen grabs him by the throat before he
can relay his location.
Sheppard and Ronon both head for the jumper to use its
sensors. Both are help up by force fields. Zelenka
has figured out
how
to
take down the force fields, but can only shut down one
at a time. He chooses to take down the one blocking Sheppard
first. Sheppard finds Graydon dead on the jumper, fed upon.
Sheppard senses the queen approaching and tries to fire
upon her, but she's using her mind to disable him. She
knows that he can fly the jumper and tells him that he
will return her to the surface and take her to the stargate.
Ronon gets the drop on the queen and shoots at her with
his blaster. Unfortunately, he misses. Instead, he hits
the jumper's windshield, shattering it. Water rushes in
from outside the station, swamping Sheppard, Ronon and
the queen. Emergency force fields prevent the station from
flooding. Fortunately, Ronon and Sheppard were both thrown
clear before the force field was erected. They find the
queen lying unconscious on the floor. Ronon wants to kill
her on the spot. Sheppard decides to keep her alive in
case she can be useful in getting off the station now that
they're unable to use the jumper.
They strap the queen to an examining table and hook her
up to an I.V. full of sedatives. Weir tries to question
her about how she got on the station, but all she's willing
to tell them is that they're all about to die.
External sensors find a Wraith cruiser on the ocean floor,
buried under silt. They figure that, despite the tremendous
depth, the queen must have swam from the cruiser to the
station after they arrived.
In order to determine what the queen meant when she said
they were all about to die, Teyla volunteers to try and
link with her again. She insists that with the queen sedated,
and with her being prepared for what she'll encounter,
she can keep the queen from asserting control over her
again. Teyla sees that the queen led the first wave of
ships that attacked Atlantis. Her ship was hit and crashed
into the ocean. She fed upon her crew to survive. She was
too deep to swim to the surface. She awoke when she sensed
Teyla. She saw the jumper as her one chance to return to
the Wraith, but she didn't posses the gene to allow her
to fly it. Before she swam from the cruiser to the station,
she activated the cruiser's self-destruct system. It will
detonate in two hours.
McKay determines that the station is located in a spot
where the planet's crust is particularly thin. If the Wraith
cruiser were to detonate, all the geothermal energy underneath
would be released at once, magnifying the power of the
blast 1,000 times. Atlantis would be caught in the blast,
and there's no way to warn them that it would be coming.
They have to disarm the self-destruct, but how to get to
the cruiser?
Sheppard and McKay find and use two underwater suits,
originally for effecting repairs to the station's exterior,
and walk the ocean floor to the cruiser. As they enter
the cruiser, Teyla attempts to extract information on disarming
the self-destruct from the queen's mind. On board the cruiser,
McKay notes that the ship is in remarkably good condition
and might be salvageable.
Teyla gasps and cuts off her attempt at linking with the
queen. She explains that her concentration slipped. The
queen claims that in that moment, she could have crushed
Teyla. "Perhaps next time, I will." Weir orders Teyla to
stop trying.
Sheppard and McKay locate the self destruct interface.
They've got around 30-minutes before detonation. McKay
tries to disarm it, but it won't accept any commands. The
queen must have locked out the system with a code, one
they don't have time to bypass.
Weir and Teyla argue over whether Teyla should try to
extract the command code from the queen. Weir mentions
that McKay has another idea. Teyla knows that it might
not work. Weir still refuses, telling her to give McKay
more time, then Weir heads off for the control room. Ronon
is still watching the queen. Teyla lies and tells him that
Weir needs him in the control room immediately.
Once Ronon is out of the room, Teyla again tries to link
with the queen. The queen appears to have won this time,
as Teyla releases her from her restraints. The
queen makes a move to feed on Teyla, but stops. She senses
that Teyla is hiding something. From Teyla's mind, the
queen pulls a scene of Sheppard telling Weir that McKay
thinks he can get the cruiser to fly. He plans on flying
it to the surface and attempting to get far enough away
from it before the self destruct detonates. Then, Teyla
collapses.
The queen swims back to the cruiser to find Sheppard standing
near the self-destruct interface. She asks him if he's
restored power to the ship. He tells her that the ship
will fly, and she disarms the self-destruct. The queen
tells Sheppard that he'll be rewarded with a quick death,
then McKay opens fire on the queen. She turns and advances
on McKay, and Sheppard finishes her off.
Back on the drilling station, Weir congratulates Teyla
for managing to deceive a Wraith queen. Zelenka has reestablished
communications with Atlantis. They had already sent a jumper
looking for them, and it will arrive within the hour. McKay
is excited at the prospect of continuing their research
on the station. Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla settle in for
a nap.
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