"Atlantis, this is Sheppard." "I'm on approach to the gate." "McKAY:" "Acknowledged." "You know, since I've been in Pegasus, I have set up, like, what?" "Half a dozen research stations on various planets?" "And I don't remember you ever volunteering to run a resupply mission to any of them." "I'm a busy man, Rodney." "I just happen to have a little free time." "And Dr. Mackenzie just happens to be studying a primitive tribe that lives in a tropical paradise, and has..." "How did he put it?" ""Little or no social inhibitions. "" "Well, they were very friendly." "What the hell?" "What is it?" "I think somebody just took a shot at me." "I've got contact." "They're closing fast." "Was it Wraith?" "I don't think so, but..." "Whatever they're shooting me with just shorted my systems." "I can't get weapons on line." "Can you make it back to the gate?" "Sheppard!" "Sheppard!" "Rodney?" "McKay!" "Nice ship." "A little bit of a..." "Little bit of a fixer-upper, but I can see the potential." "I'm not talking about anything drastic, you know." "Maybe just a paint job, some throw pillows." "Ow!" "Look, I don't suppose you want to tell me what's going on here." "Here's how we're going to do this." "I'm going to ask you questions, and you're going to give me answers." " Is that simple enough for you?" " Sure." "Who are you, where are you from, and where did you get your ship?" "See, that's a funny coincidence, 'cause I was going to ask you the same exact questions." "The difference is I'm not the one whose hands are tied behind his back." "So, again, who are you, where are you from, and where did you get your ship?" "What happened?" "McKAY:" "I'm not entirely sure." "Looks like Sheppard's Jumper was attacked before he could reach the space gate." " By who?" " Well, the people on the planet aren't much past mud huts and blow darts, so I think we can assume they had nothing to do with it." "What we do know is that just after we lost contact, there was a short burst of radiation in the vicinity of the gate, consistent with the opening of a hyperspace window." " Wraith?" " Sheppard didn't seem to think so, and what little sensor data we've been able to pick up from the Jumper seems to confirm it." "The energy signature's all wrong." "It's inconsistent with Ancient technology as well, which pretty much rules out the Replicators." "We know of no other peoples in this galaxy that possess hyperspace technology." "Of course not." "No one reaches anywhere near that level of advancement without being culled." "So then who was it?" "I could do this all day." "Oh, your knuckles'll get sore eventually." "Has he said anything?" "Only his name." "Reed Richards." "His name is Sheppard." "We intercepted part of his last radio transmission." "I didn't catch your name." "You can call me Larrin." "You really should cooperate." "It would be a shame to have to do too much damage." "I agree." "Maybe if you guys tell me who you are and what you want, we could work out some kind of a deal." "Well, don't get my hopes up, and then disappoint me." "Tell him what happened to the last man that disappointed me." "We don't know." "We never found his body." "We assumed you blew him out into space." "I get it." "Good." "Bring him." "Get up." "Another form of torture?" "When you spend as much time in space as we do, you don't get a lot of fresh food." "How much time are we talking about?" "This is a conversation, right?" "A two-way street?" "This is our home." " This ship?" " And others like it." "We're Travelers." "You live in space all the time." "We land on planets when we need to, for supplies, trade." "The rest of the time, we keep moving." "From the Wraith?" "That may have been how it started, but now it's just who we are." "Well, no offense, Larrin." "It doesn't sound like much of a life." "Being a herd animal isn't much of a life." "Besides, the food has all the nutrients required." "Well, as tempting as that sounds, my jaw's a little sore right now." "Things like that are necessary from time to time." "Although it's not the most efficient way of getting information, it does help people to understand" "their situation." "My situation being completely at your mercy." "Exactly." "Anyway, I know more about you than you think." "Really?" "Mmm-hmm." "For instance," "I know that you carry the gene required to operate Lantian technology." "I've got the what?" "Look, Sheppard, I know you have your secrets, and if you stay on my good side, I may even let you keep a few of 'em." "However, if you continue to play ignorant with me," "I really will jettison you out into space." "For some time now, we've been hearing rumors about a new group of humans in the galaxy using the technology of the ancestors to do battle with the Wraith." "So we set up a network of spy satellites around dozens of worlds with space gates, hoping for an encounter." "Eventually we got lucky." "And in the first meeting between our people, you attack me and disarm my ship." "You were going through the gate, and I couldn't let that happen." "You see, anyone capable of operating Lantian technology is of particular interest to us." "That's why you took a sample of my blood." "We're working on a control interface adapter that requires a small amount of necessary genetic material." "We needed your blood to test it." "I'm going to guess it didn't go so well." "Why would you say that?" "Then you wouldn't have any use for me anymore." "Don't underestimate yourself." "There's all kinds of useful things you could do for me." "Commander, we're approaching the coordinates." "Understood." "Take us out of hyperspace." "Of course, you're right." "The interface isn't fully operational yet." "Come with me." "Nevik, my chief science officer, insists that we have a much better chance of perfecting the interface if we reverse-engineer it using Lantian technology that's already been initialized." "I don't even know what reverse engineering is." "Oh, you want to use my ship." "Not exactly." "Hey!" "Activate the force shield." "Sheppard, can you hear me?" "Sheppard, can you hear me?" "You mind telling me what you're doing?" "Offering you a deal." "Open the hangar bay doors." "This is just not right!" "Don't worry." "You're safe as long as the force shield doesn't malfunction, and that almost never happens." "Why are you doing this?" "You wanted to know what this is all about." "Look beneath you." "I'm assuming you recognize the technology." "It's a Lantian battleship." "It's been dormant for thousands of years, and you're going to help me get it operational again." "Has it occurred to you people they might have abandoned the ship for a good reason in the first place?" "We know the reason." "We were able to access the ship's logs." "They were attacked by the Wraith." "They lost communication, and the shields were failing." "The engines were damaged as well, but they managed to escape into hyperspace." "Then they realized that their main drive was giving off deadly radiation." "They were forced to abandon ship." "They intended to return and effect repairs, but never got the chance." "The ship's been drifting in a 200-year elliptical orbit around a nearby dwarf star ever since." "So it's never been fixed." " No." " I hate to point out the obvious, but one of the reasons I agreed to help you was so that you wouldn't kill me." "If I'm going to die of radiation anyway..." "Don't worry." "We've set up shield emitters to protect key areas of the ship, and we've all got radiation detectors." "Take him to the bridge." "Start with sublight propulsion." "I'll go check the emitters." "Don't think I could get one of those, too, do you?" "Here." "You know, this ship is 10,000 years old." "I'm just saying, for the record, if it doesn't work, it's not my fault." "Just get on with it." "Amazing." "I've been trying for two months to activate these systems." "I need to calibrate the interface for neural input." "Why don't you start by moving the ship forward?" " You sure about that?" " That's why we're here." "You fly the ship, and I record the inputs, so I can replicate them." " Okay, but..." " Enough." "Fly the damn ship." "Right." "I was just going to say, you said, "Start by moving the ship forward,"" "when you should have said, "Start by initializing the inertial dampers. "" "Wait!" "I have a friend who's got a gun just like this." " I always wondered where he got it." " I'm going to kill you." "Silas, what happened?" "Nevik, what's going on up there?" "Sorry, your people aren't available right now." "Sheppard, what are you doing?" "You said fly the ship, and I'm flying the ship." "We had a deal." "I was prepared to let you go in exchange for your help." "I'm sorry, I've never been able to trust anyone who kidnaps me, and tortures me, and threatens to blow me into space." "We've got nothing." "There's no wreckage, no transponder signal." "If he was down there, we would have found him by now." "Then where is he?" "He's not in orbit, and he's not on the planet, so the only logical assumption is that whoever attacked him must have brought him onboard before they jumped into hyperspace." " So, what's the next step?" " There is no next step." "Look, we have no way of tracing him." "He could be anywhere in the galaxy by now." "I'm sorry, but sometimes there is just nothing we can do." "Sheppard, I want you to drop this ship out of hyperspace." " I don't think so." " Listen to me." "I've shut off the shield emitters protecting your areas of the ship." "Right now, the bridge is being flooded with radiation." "You're bluffing." "You'd never sacrifice your own people." "Look, I don't want to kill you, but if you don't turn over the controls of this ship," "I'll have no choice." "You surprise me, Sheppard." "Well, as long as I didn't disappoint you." "Oh, no, I knew you'd make some sort of a move." "I just wasn't expecting anything quite so..." "Clever?" "Creative?" "Reckless." "You could have killed all of us, including yourself." "I once pulled 11 g's in an F-16 without passing out." "I figured I had a shot." " Well, I underestimated you." " Yeah, I feel the same way." "I mean, you got the whole tough-as-nails routine down pat, but exposing your own people to killer radiation..." "It takes a special kind of lady to do that, doesn't it?" "Larrin." "It's not good." "He shut down the propulsion and navigation system before he turned over the bridge." "Of course he did." "Did you collect enough data to finish the control interface?" "I don't know." "Maybe." "Nevik, if you can't do this, we're stranded." "What about him?" "He's not going anywhere near that bridge again." "He can't be trusted." "Listen, if we can't bring the system back on line, he'll die out here like the rest of us." "That's the problem." "Does he look like a man who thinks he's going to die?" "Check the subspace communications array." "The Ancients lost the communications in the battle with the Wraith." "The system was never repaired." "Check it." "What have you got?" "Remember how I said sometimes there's nothing we can do?" "Well, I was right about that." "Only it turns out this is not one of those times." " You found him?" " Mmm." "More like he found us." "Listen to this." "That is the sound of subspace." "Now, it's mostly just random noise generated by various forms of radiation, but the Ancients, in their infinite wisdom, created a program that could sniff out artificial patterns." "Now, it's no doubt a long-range means of detecting advanced life-forms, kind of like our SETI program, only much more powerful 'cause it operates through subspace." "Anyway, it picked up this." " What is it?" " That's Sheppard." "Now, I don't know why he didn't just send a regular message." "But maybe he was dealing with a damaged transmitter, or maybe he was trying to communicate without being detected," " but it's definitely him." " How do you know it's him?" "It's Morse code." "SOS." "What's happening?" "What was that for?" "You realize what you've done?" "I didn't do anything." " Stop that!" " I'll stop when you stop lying." "You adapted the damaged communications array to send out a signal, didn't you?" "Yes." "You said you'd stop that!" "You're right." "Maybe I'll just shoot you." "All right." "Don't you think you're overreacting a little?" "You were trying to broadcast our location?" "Guess what?" "It worked." "There's a ship approaching, only I don't think it's the one you were hoping for." "What do you mean?" "It's the Wraith!" "The Wraith ship is firing on us." "Do we have shields?" "Affirmative, but they're only at 20%." "We can't take this for very long." "If you want to get out of this alive, you're going to need my help." "Now, I realize that you and I don't exactly trust each other, but that's not going to make much difference if the Wraith blow the ship up, is it?" "What do you got in mind?" "Well, you can start by shooting back." "Right." "The weapons control platform is down that corridor." "I'm heading back to the bridge." "Keep the shields up as long as you can." "Great." "Piece of cake." "Shields are down." "Can't you reroute anymore power?" "There's nothing I can do." "Silas, Nevik, what happened?" "Do you read me?" "Larrin." "It's Sheppard." "I didn't give you a communicator." "I activated the ship's intercom." "What happened?" "I don't know." "The forward section's been sealed off." "What about your people?" "They're not responding." "Good news is the Wraith ship's been destroyed." "Stay where you are." "I'm coming to you." "Sheppard, where are you?" "Auxiliary control room." "Sheppard." "Sorry about this." "What are you doing?" "For the moment, not much." "Hyperdrive seems to be offline." "What?" "How bad is it?" "Well, it's not exactly my area of expertise, but if I'm reading this thing right, the drive itself is undamaged." "Probably just a short in the control system." "Then we can take care of it through a simple bypass." "Just let me out, and I should be able to fix it." "No." "I don't think so." "We're a floating target out here, Sheppard!" "All right, take it easy." "I cut the transmitter off." "My people should've gotten the message by now." "There is no reason to assume that Wraith ship didn't broadcast our position." "Well, there's no reason to assume they did." "Listen to me, Sheppard!" "I've spent my entire life around hyperdrive systems." "I know what I'm doing!" "I never said I didn't believe you." "Don't worry." "My people will be here." "Sheppard was broadcasting from somewhere in the vicinity of this system." "Sensors aren't picking up anything." "McKAY:" "Let me see if I can expand the range a little." "There." "What is it?" "McKAY:" "Well, it could be a ship." "They're still too far out to get any detailed readings, but that's got to be them." "How long to get there at maximum sublight?" "It's five hours." "This is Lorne to all Jumpers." "I'm sending you some coordinates." "Proceed to target at maximum sublight." "Okay." "Larrin, what are you doing?" "Look, once my people get here and get the hyperdrive back on line, we'll drop you off at the nearest gate." "You have my word." "Not good enough." "What, my word or my deal?" "How about both?" "You're the one who kidnapped me, remember?" "'Cause I need this ship." "There." "I did you a favor." "Sheppard." "Listen to me." "Our fleet is old." "There was a time when we had the resources to build new ships, but now we don't." "When we lose one, it's gone for good, and despite strict population controls, there just isn't enough room for all of us anymore." "We've been forced to abandon some of our own people on the ground." "Well, they're no worse off than the rest of the people in this galaxy." "Fine." "We'll do this the hard way." "Larrin, what are you doing?" "Sheppard, you are really starting to annoy me!" "Just sit tight." "It'll be over soon enough." "Silas, Nevik, come in." "Silas, do you read me?" "Give it up." "They're gone." "You don't know that." "No, but I can find out." "Looks like there's no one alive in the forward section." "I'm sorry." "Larrin, where are you going?" "I can track you anywhere on this ship." "You can't hide from me." "Larrin, stop." "I'm picking up another life sign directly in front of you." "Silas." "It's impossible." "There's no way he got out of that section alive." "You all right?" "I'm fine." "He just caught me off guard." "He must've escaped in the Darts before their ship was destroyed." "We left the hangar bay pressurized, they flew right in." " They?" " Yeah, there's three more." "We can track them with this." "Where did you get that?" "Auxiliary control room." "You got to know where to look." "Come on." "Get his weapon." "Tenacious little bastards, aren't they?" "I don't suppose you have any more of these." "I'm afraid not." "And I don't think this is going to be much good either." "Hold up." "We got one coming this way." "What now?" "Wait, no, Sheppard..." "What..." "What are you doing?" "What?" "Oh, brilliant plan." "Get us..." "Ow!" "There's the other two." "What, are they having a board meeting?" "It's no use." "I've done everything I can think of to boost the sensors." "They're still too far out." "So we have no idea what we're dealing with." "Why would they be so far out on the edge of the solar system?" "I don't think it's a coincidence that this system has a space gate." "They were probably headed for it when they dropped out of hyperspace too early." " Well, why would they do that?" " How should I know?" "We don't even know who they are, remember?" "Does it make a difference?" "Even if there was a fleet of hive ships, would it stop us from trying to get him back?" "No." "You know, none of this would have ever happened if you would have just cooperated." "You'd be home by now, and I'd be headed back to my people with a ship that could house a thousand men, women and children." "Well, if you had asked for my help in the first place" " instead of attacking me..." " We couldn't risk it." "Risk what?" "You might have said no." "They're leaving." "Hold up." "We got a problem." "They're between us and the control room." "We should be able to find a way around." "There isn't enough time." "We can't risk them finding it first." "Well, it doesn't matter." "It's not like they can fly the ship." "Sheppard?" "You did shut down the controls, right?" " Sheppard?" " There wasn't enough time." "If they find that control room before we do, they'll not only be able to fly this ship, but they're going to be able to track us using the internal sensors." "Believe me, I know." "And by the way, I was busy saving your life at the time." "The only reason my life was in danger in the first place is because you decided to broadcast our position to half the galaxy." "Do you want to argue about this, or do you want to do something about it?" "Fine." "What are the options?" "Well, we're cut off from the control room, and we have no weapons." "That's not true." "We have the chair." "I don't think drones are going to do any good with a bunch of Wraith in the middle of the ship." "What if they weren't in the middle?" "Get serious." "You got a better idea?" "All right." "I'm in position." "Wait for my signal." "You sure you want to go through with this?" "I mean, if you don't make it, I'm going to feel responsible, and, well, I really don't need the guilt." "I'll be fine as long as you don't shoot too early." "I'm sure that's not the first time you've heard that from a woman." "On the other hand, I might be able to live with it." "I got 'em." "Here we go." "Sheppard, now!" "Larrin, come in." "Larrin?" "And now, before I take the rest of your life, you will answer my questions." "How many more of your people are on this ship?" "I do not have to kill you, nor do I have to leave you like this." "It would be better if you cooperated." "This is your last chance." "Tell me." "How many more of you are onboard?" "It only takes one." "I see that you've just fed, which means that your regeneration powers are at their highest." "But I seriously doubt you can grow a new head." "What do you want?" "First, you're going to hand me the stunner." "Slowly." "Next, you're going to give back what you took, then you're going to leave." " Leave?" " You came in a Dart, right?" "The bay was unguarded." "We landed our Darts and entered unchallenged." "Well, then, you're going to leave the same way you came." "There's a space gate orbiting the second planet in this system." "It may take you a while, but you'll get there." "If I restore her, there's nothing to stop you from going back on your word and killing me anyway." "That's true." "I'd say there's a fifty-fifty chance I'll do it out of pure spite." "But if you don't," "I will kill you." "Get up." "Turn around." " You all right?" " I don't know." "That was so strange." "To have your whole life fading away, and then to suddenly have it back again." "It actually felt kind of good." "I know." "Happened to me once, too." "Long story." " Think you can get up?" " Yeah." "Oh!" "Easy." "I'm okay." "I'm all right." "You saved my life." "Again." "If you hadn't come up with the plan, we'd both be dead." "So are you saying we make a good team?" "Well, don't go crazy." "Right." "But in the interest of interstellar relations," "I think we should at least just try to get along, right?" " You've got to be kidding me." " Sorry." "Larrin." "Sorry about this, Sheppard, and I really am grateful that you saved my life." "Well, you've got a funny way of showing it." "Don't play hurt with me." "It's easy to be generous when you think you have the upper hand." "What are you talking about?" "We both know the only reason you didn't stun me and lock me up the first opportunity you got was because you thought your ships were going to get here first." "You were wrong about that, by the way." "Larrin, it's good to see you again." "Believe me, I feel the same way." "How did you find us?" "Well, we were monitoring communications before you jumped into hyperspace." "You knew he took the ship?" "It seemed fairly obvious." "We guessed his priority would be to contact his people, so we sent probes to all the space gates in the vicinity of our previous position." "Eventually, we detected your energy signature." "Well done." "Now, I want you to send over a couple of technicians to help me get the hyperdrive back on line." "Oh, and a security team as well." "Right away." "Oh, come on." "All right, close enough to do a full sensor sweep." "Looks like we got four ships, one of them Lantian design." "Aurora-class." " What about the other three?" " I don't recognize the configurations." " What about Sheppard?" " Well, the logical assumption is that he's onboard the ship that transmitted the signal." "And which one is that?" " Well, I have no idea." " We're about to enter weapons range, Doc." "Which ships do I target?" "Perhaps we should attempt to communicate before we attack." "We know nothing about these people." "That's true, but right now, about the only thing we got working for us is the fact that we're cloaked." "We send a signal, we give up our position." "He's right." "They could target us, or for that matter, they could just jump back into hyperspace." "We'd be right back at square one." "We didn't come all this way for nothing, right?" "All right, well, I'll see if I can figure out a way to disable them." "I thought you'd be glad to know the hyperdrive repairs are almost complete." "Well, congratulations." "You got what you want." "Yes, it's true." "I can fly the ship and navigate, but there are still dozens of systems I don't have access to." "And if any of the controls went down, it would be a problem." "So finish the adapter." "You said you can reverse-engineer the systems that were already initialized." "Well, yes, we can, eventually, but it would go a lot faster if I keep you onboard." "You are a piece of work, you know that?" "Look, I know you don't agree with my tactics, but I wasn't lying about why I need this ship." "I'm doing this for my people." "Look." "I know you think you're helping your people, but you're wrong." "Excuse me?" "You've been running and hiding for thousands of years." "You've survived, good for you, but now you're starting to see diminishing returns." "One more ship, that'll buy you a little more time, but ultimately, it's not going to change anything." "Your people are headed for a slow death." "What other choice do we have?" "In case you haven't heard, you will soon enough, but the Wraiths are under attack." "From who?" "It's a long story, but the point is, they're taking heavy damage, and if they don't get wiped out, they're going to be vulnerable." "Now, you people have hyperdrives and advanced weapons, and God knows what else." "When the time is right, that kind of technology can tip the balance." "Are you suggesting an alliance?" "Well, I'm not asking you to dinner, but yeah, something like that." "After all I put you through?" "Well, like you said, you did it for your people." "I may have misjudged you after all." "All right, Doc, we're in weapons range." "What do you got for me?" "We can target the Lantian ship's engines." "What about the others?" "I've been going over the sensor data, but there's still too many unknowns." "If we hit them in the wrong spot, we could blow them out of the sky, or the drones could just bounce harmlessly off the shields." "There's no way to know." "All right, well, it's still our best option." "We can't risk them getting away." "They're gone." "I'm getting a contact." "It's a Jumper." "One life sign." "Colonel Sheppard, this is Major Lorne." "Is that you?" "That's affirmative, Major." "It's good to hear from you." "Likewise, sir." "Seemed like we came pretty close to losing you there." "You don't know the half of it." "Mmm." "That's good." "McKAY:" "Really?" "You spend enough time with a bunch of space nomads, you really begin to appreciate what you have." "It's difficult to imagine spending one's entire life onboard a ship." "Mmm." "If it was me, I'd go crazy." "They weren't exactly the most even-keeled people." "I'm still not exactly sure why they let me go." "Well, you did offer them an alliance." "That has to be worth something." "Or they figured out you'd be more trouble than you're worth." "That is a possibility." "McKAY:" "No, there's something you're not telling us." " She was hot, wasn't she?" " I don't know what you're talking about." "Oh, I knew it." "That is so typical." "She had me beat, Rodney." "She threatened to kill me several times." "It wasn't like we were hanging out in the spa together." "Whatever." "All I know is that every time I get taken captive, it's the Wraith." "Just once I would like to be taken prisoner by the sexy alien." "Well, you may still get a chance." "Yeah?" "What do you mean?" "She's still out there."