"Previously on Stargate Atlantis." "So, someone was monitoring my sister's computer." "I think I've cracked their Trojan, and I've got an address." "Barrett and I are on our way there now." "You're coming with us." " You okay?" " Two men." "They must have followed us." " McKay!" " He's not here." "They took him." " Dr. McKay." " Who are you?" "My name is Henry Wallace." "She's suffering from acute lymphocytic leukemia." "Sharon was injected with the first batch of nanites one week ago." "Get the nanites fully operational, and I'll let you go." "Daedalus, this is Sheppard." "We need a lift." "I watched it last night." "There was hardly any fighting." "That's because it's not about fighting." " Then why is it called Blades of Glory?" " 'Cause it's about skate blades." "And this is a real sport?" "Men and women dancing around on ice?" "Unfortunately." " Your planet's weird." " You can say that again." "Colonel." "I was just coming to see you." "Do you have a minute?" "Yeah, sure." "I received a message from Stargate Command." "I'm afraid I have some bad news." "Okay." "Your father suffered a heart attack last night." "I'm sorry, John, but he passed away." "Hey." "I heard what happened." "I'm very sorry." "Thanks." "You okay?" "Yeah." "I'm fine." "You know, I requested to go back with you, but the Ancient device on M7G-677 is malfunctioning." " Isn't that the planet with all the kids?" " Yeah." "That should be fun for you." "Oh, believe me, I'd get out of it if I could, but, you know, without the EM field, they're an easy target for the Wraith." " I guess it's just bad timing." " Don't worry about it." " If you want to, you know, talk or..." " Rodney," "I'm fine." "Right." " Where are you going?" " With you." "A lot of people." "Yeah, well, my old man was pretty well-connected." " John." " Dave." "I wasn't sure you were going to make it." "It's good to see you." "I contacted your unit commander at Peterson, but sometimes those messages don't seem to reach you." "Well, I came as soon as I heard." "This is Ronon." "Ronon, this is Dave, my brother." " Yeah, nice to meet you." " Pleasure." "You two work together in the Air Force?" "He's a civilian contractor." "Right." "Anyway, John, I think we should probably talk." "Yeah." "I'll catch up with you later." " This is free, right?" " Yes, it's free." "Thanks." " Lots of food over there." " I'm good." " This the house you were raised in?" " One of them." " It's nice." " Yeah, I couldn't wait to get out of here." "Yeah, why?" "My dad's idea of teenage rebellion was going to Stanford instead of Harvard." "Never mind." "He just..." "He had everything planned out for me since I was about 14." "So, what do we do now?" "Mostly, people sit around, drink, eat, some more than others." "Mostly, they talk." "They don't know what to say, but they talk." "Yeah, well, your brother seems to be handling it well." "That's what he does, he handles things." "How come you never mentioned him before?" "It's complicated." "I told you I had an ex-wife, right?" " Yeah, why?" " Here she comes." "Hi, John." "Nancy." "I didn't expect to see you here." "I'm very sorry." "Nancy, Ronon." "Ronon, Nancy." "Pleased to meet you." " How long are you here?" " Just for today." "I have to be in Washington tomorrow, so..." "Still with Homeland Security?" "Yeah." "I just got promoted." "I'm a director now." "Congratulations." "How's..." "How's Greg?" " Grant." " Grant." "He would've come, but he's trying a case in Phoenix." " Well, sounds like he's doing well." " Yeah, he is." "He's..." "Yeah, he's doing well." "You know, your dad was always very good to me." "Well, in his mind, marrying you was probably the best thing I ever did." "Okay." "Well, it's good to see you again, John." "Take care of yourself." " It's nice to meet you." " Oh." "Nice to meet you." " Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard?" " Yes." "My name is Ava Dixon." "You must be Ronon." " Do I know you?" " No, we've never met, but you knew the man I used to work for, Henry Wallace?" "Doesn't ring a bell." "Look, I realize you have to keep up appearances in public, but I don't have time to play games." "Henry Wallace was the man who kidnapped your colleague," "Dr. Rodney McKay, and forced him to work on a highly illegal research project" " involving alien technology..." " Who the hell are you?" "We need to talk." "But not here." "Take her to the car." "Excuse me." " John, I was thinking that we should..." " Something came up." "I've got to go." " It's Dad's wake." " I know, but this is work-related." "What is it, top secret?" "National security, that sort of thing?" "Well, something like that." "You know, this is so typical." "You got something to say, just say it." "Look, there's just one thing I want to know." "What's your level of expectation here?" "What are you talking about?" "I mean, are you going to challenge the will?" "I have no idea what it says, of course, but I think I can guess." "That's what you want to talk about?" "You want to talk about money?" "That's why you're here, isn't it?" "You've been gone a long time, John." "It's not such a stretch." "You got nothing to worry about." "Hey." "If I got the wrong impression of you, it's not my fault." "You're the one who left, remember?" "I stayed." "I looked after Dad, I ran the business, while you were off doing God-knows-what." "I'm assuming that's what Dad wanted." "No." "No, it's not, John." "Dad regretted what happened between you two, right up to the end." "I would've come to you sooner, but you are a hard man to find." "All right, you got our attention." "What's this all about?" "For the past three years, I've been working for a company called Stanton Research, a division of Devlin Medical Technologies." "I was recruited out of college by a brilliant scientist named Dr. Richard Poole, and together we worked on a secret project codenamed "Archetype."" "What kind of project?" "We were experimenting with nanite programing, trying to increase the complexity of their interactions." "Listen, I wasn't aware of what happened to Dr. McKay and his sister until much later." "At the time, all I knew was that we'd been given a key piece of programing, something that allowed us to make a major breakthrough." "What are you talking about?" "Well, it's one thing to inject nanites into a mechanical or a biological system for the purpose of affecting changes at a molecular level, but it's quite another to use them as building blocks to create an entirely self-sustaining entity." "To be honest, I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime." "But then, all of a sudden, we began making incredible advancements, and the next thing I knew, there it was." "You built a Replicator?" "Technically, that term isn't accurate, because self-replicating isn't one of its primary directives, but..." "Yes." "There's no way you had authorization to do this." "Richard told me the project was being funded at the highest levels." "And you believed him." "Maybe it sounds a little naive, but, well, Richard was like a father to me." "My own parents died when I was very young." "I trusted him." "But then one day, he came back to the lab in a panic." " What's happening?" " There's been a security breach." "We have to shut everything down." "I don't understand." "Look, I don't have time to explain it to you right now, just do it!" "I later found out what was really going on." "The IOA's investigation of Devlin Medical was closing in, and Richard wanted to get rid of the evidence." "I'm sorry about this." "Richard!" "He killed to escape." "If he's threatened, he could kill again." "I had to do something." "You're telling me there's a Replicator loose on Earth?" "That's right." " How long?" " Well, he escaped three weeks ago." "We've been working on a way to track him, but so far, had no success." "He could be anywhere by now." "Show your hands!" "Get them up!" "Sir, the facility is secure." "Looks like he was the only one here." "Colonel Sheppard and Ronon, of course." " How did you find me?" " Well, we had a little help." " Ava." " I'm sorry, Richard." "Ava." "My God." "Do you realize what you've done?" "I didn't have a choice." "I couldn't let this continue any longer." "I had the situation under control!" "Your little science project got two of your own men killed, and he's still on the loose." " I don't think you have control of anything." " He killed in self-defense!" "If he's not threatened again, he won't harm anyone!" "Well, that's because we're going to find him, and we're going to neutralize him, and you are going to help." "Apollo, we're ready." "All right." "Let's start with giving me the access code to the data files we recovered." "I don't think so." "You do know we will crack it eventually." "The entire directory is encrypted with a 448-bit key symmetric algorithm." "Good luck." " What about you?" " I never gave her the code." "It was for her own protection." "Look," "I'll cooperate, as long as you guarantee that I get to bring him in." " Forget it." " We are talking about an incredibly advanced and valuable piece of technology here." "You've had your chance, now it's my turn." "You gonna help us track this thing or not?" " I'll help you, Colonel." " Ava..." "Be realistic, Richard." "He's out there alone." "You know he's not programed for ordinary social interaction." "What happens if someone accidentally frightens him or corners him?" "We can't afford to wait any longer." "Colonel Sheppard." "Bates." "You two know each other?" "Yeah, Bates served on Atlantis when we first got there." "Then he got into it with a Wraith and took a pretty good beating." "He got the drop on me, but I still managed to get in a few shots." " How you doing?" " Ronon." " You with NID?" " IOA." "After the Air Force gave me an honorable discharge due to my injuries, the IOA contacted me." "They were starting up a new field division dealing specifically with operational threats on Earth and it seemed like a good fit." " Well, it's good to see you back in action." " You too, sir." " You don't have to call me that anymore." " I guess not." "Old habits die hard." " So, how are our prisoners?" " The girl's cooperating." " What about Dr. Poole?" " Not so much." "Can we track the Replicator without him?" "Got a guy working on it." "Stupid emergency contact number." "Never should have answered that damn phone." "Come on, Doc, it's not so bad." "That was my first vacation in three years!" "Two weeks, all-inclusive." "Nothing but surf, sun and skimpy bikinis as far as the eye could see." "And then, they beamed me right out of the damned hotel room." "Looks like they did you a favor." "Next time, use a little sunblock, all right?" "Give it another shot." "It's working." "This sensor technology is incredible." "Is it alien?" "Sorry, I forgot." "I'm not supposed to know any of this." "Oh, hey, I'm picking up a signal." "Let me see if I can narrow in on this a bit." "There, he should be in there." " How big of an area is that?" " That's about five city blocks." "Seal it off, get everyone out." "We'll call it a chemical spill." "I'll get my people on it." "I need to know what I'm up against." "What kind of capabilities does this thing have?" "Speed, strength, agility, all well beyond normal human levels." "What about tactics?" "Escape, evasion." "Does it have any military training?" "I wasn't responsible for that aspect of his programing." "See, I've had this really crappy few days, so I'm beginning to lose my patience." "So, whatever you can do to make this easier may work in your favor." "Where, at my trial?" "In front of a judge and jury of my peers?" "We both know that's not going to happen." "They're going to put me in some deep, dark hole at Area 51, never to be heard from again, and nothing I say or do now is going to make any difference." "Well, maybe not for you." "What about the girl?" "She didn't know that this technology was obtained illegally." "She's completely innocent." "Well, like you said, there isn't going to be a trial." " But she's helping you!" " Not good enough." "What's it going to be, Doc?" "All right." "So, where do we start?" "Well, Doc?" "He's in defensive mode." "Basically, he's hiding." "He'll be where he's least likely to encounter people." "Well, that would be this warehouse here." "It's been abandoned for months." "The company went bankrupt." "And you won't need these." "He's been specifically designed to be resistant to current anti-Replicator technology." "So, what do we hit him with?" "Well, without access to base materials, he has a limited ability to self-repair." "But if you insist on damaging him, conventional weapons ought to do the trick, although you'll need a fair amount of firepower." "Firepower we can do." "What's he going to do when he sees us?" "He'll continue to evade as long as possible." "He'll counterattack only as a last resort." "All right, listen up." "Let's try to get this right the first time." "We're going to operate in teams of two." "Your objective is to find the target." "Once you do that, you will not engage him." "You will radio in his position." "We'll coordinate, see if we can't corral him into a corner, at which point, we will bring as much force to bear as we can and take him out, all right?" "Let's do this." "Dr. Poole, you're with me." "No." "I'm good." "How you doing?" " It's one hell of a week." " Yeah." " What is it?" " It's him." "Colonel Sheppard, come in." "Go ahead." "We got a visual on the target." "He's hiding out in a building about 100 yards due east of my start position." "Looks like he's alone." "Stay put!" "We'll be there in a minute." "Understood." "Bates out." "Hello?" "It's okay." "You can come out now." "I'm here to help you." "Good." "Okay, listen to me." "There are men out there who are looking for you." "It's all right." "They won't hurt you, as long as I can convince them that you're not a threat." "How did you find me?" "Your nanites give off an energy signature." "We were able to track it." "That's why you can't run anymore." "You have to do as I say." "You have to self-deactivate." "You've done it before, in the lab, many times." "I was always right there to help you get back online." "This isn't any different." "Now, you have to trust me." "Everything is going to be all right." "I'm sorry." "Apollo, this is Sheppard." "I need you to beam up agent Bates immediately." "Where's Dr. Poole?" "Hey!" "Over here." "He's dead." "Lee, come in." "Yeah, go ahead." "We got a problem." "Poole's dead." "You still tracking the Replicator?" "Yeah, just hang on." "Okay, I've got him." "He's on the move." "He's heading south." "He's right by..." "Whoa!" " What?" " I just lost the signal." " Crap." " It wasn't me." "I mean, he just disappeared." "Well, get him back online." "Ronon and I are going after him." "Sorry, sir." "I know we weren't supposed to engage, but he came from out of nowhere." "He hit us before we knew what was happening." "All right, it'll be okay, Sarge, sit tight." "Take care of him." "All right, so much for evasion." "He's desperate." "He knows we got him trapped." "This is Sheppard." "Change of plans." "Fall back, create a defensive perimeter." "Ronon and I are going to flush him out." "Let's go." "Heading southeast, toward the water." "Copy that." "Hold your fire!" "We've checked the whole area twice." "No sign of him." "Which means he can be anywhere by now." "What about the tracking system?" "Dr. Lee's working on it, but the sensors haven't picked up anything yet." "He must have found a way to mask the signal." "Great, back to square one, then." "Sorry, guys." "I've managed to boost the sensitivity 200%, but I still can't pick anything up." "How's it going with those files from the lab?" "Well, I'm running a decryption program, but it's slow going." "I may have to make a few tweaks." "Focus on that for now." "We don't know there's anything in there that's gonna help us track him." "Well, I know, but something's not right." "What do you mean?" "Well, why'd Poole go in there?" "Why'd he risk his life?" "He thought he could talk the Replicator in." "Even if that worked, even if we decided not to destroy that thing, that doesn't change the fact that Poole was going away forever." "Maybe he didn't want to see his life's work destroyed." "No, that's what he wanted us to think, but I'm not buying it." "He's been spoon-fed half this technology, he stole the rest." "No, he wanted to save the Replicator because he thought it would do him some good." "I'm thinking he's got a buyer, somebody who can get him out of this if he delivers the goods." "I know the type." "Military, or ex-military, probably a colonel." "Not a general, too high-profile." "Regular IOA channels won't help." "These guys operate in the shadows with no official authorization." "That way, everyone's ass is covered." "So, where does this leave us?" "Well, this is a surprise." "Why's that?" "Two John Sheppard encounters in two days?" "I hardly saw you that much when we were married." "What can I do for you?" "I need a favor." "I need as much information as possible about a project possibly codenamed "Archetype."" "You want me to use my security clearance to get you classified information?" "Well, I didn't say it was a small favor." "Do you know how hard I've worked to get to where I am?" "If I get caught doing something like this, I could lose everything." "Well, I know." "I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important." "All right, what's it about?" "I can't tell you." " That's typical." " What the hell's that supposed to mean?" "I haven't seen you in over four years, and now you want me to put my job on the line, you won't even tell me why?" "All right." "When you put it that way, it sounds a little crappy." "Well, I'm glad you noticed." "It's too bad you didn't a little bit earlier, say, like, when we were still together." "When I think back to all those times that you would just take that call and leave, no apologies, no explanations..." "For all I knew, you were halfway around the world flying secret missions into Somalia." "That's ridiculous." "I've never been to Somalia." " North Korea, then." " There's a big difference." "I put up with your secrets then, John." "I don't have to do it now." "Right." "Hey." "Colonel." "They said I could come take some of his personal things." "I'm sorry about what happened." "Me, too." "He died thinking I betrayed him." "Well, you don't know that." "That's nice of you to say, but this project meant everything to him." "Well, maybe you meant something to him, too." "You never know what people are thinking." " Even those you're closest to?" " Especially those." "Colonel?" "Look, I know this is not a good time, but I got to ask you something." " What is it?" " Did anyone else know about this project?" " No." " No one came to check on your progress?" "Richard and I were the only ones who had access to the lab." "Was he in contact with anyone?" "Maybe from the military, phone, emails?" "Not that I know of." "All right." "Colonel, how's it coming with the sensors?" "It's not, but Dr. Lee says he's pretty close to breaking the encryption code." " I thought that was impossible." " Guess not." " Well, how's it going?" " I was just about to call you." "I managed to open those files from the lab." " Nice work." "Anything interesting?" " You could say that." "Stanton Research personnel records." "That is Ava Dixon's file." "She was in a car accident last December, head-on collision." "She's been dead for almost a year." "Is he dead?" "No, but he's going to have a hell of a headache." "Sheppard." ""Colonel Sheppard, I never meant for any of this to happen." ""I'm very sorry." "Ava."" " So, she's a Replicator?" " Yeah, it looks that way." "We got two sets of blueprints, one male, one female." " What about the sensors?" " Ah, we got nothing." "She's masking her energy signature, same way the other one did." "It doesn't make any sense, she came to us." "Why didn't she just keep her mouth shut?" "Why didn't she kill the guard?" "Come on, a Replicator with a conscience?" "Well, her programing is distinct from the other one." "He's a military model, she's designed for social interaction, simulation of emotions, maybe even empathy." "He built her to replace a dead woman from his past." " Does that mean she can't kill?" " I'd say it's less likely, but not impossible." "Now we need them both." "Anything useful left in those files?" "Well, not much so far." "Colonel Sheppard, come in." "Yeah, it's Sheppard." "Go ahead." "You've got an urgent message, sir, relayed through Peterson." "Well, you really got the cloak-and-dagger thing down." "I learned from the best." "It's everything I could find on Archetype." "It's not much, but whatever it is, no one will touch it with a 10-foot pole." "Yeah, I owe you one." "Damn right you do." "You know, it's funny when you and I were together," "I couldn't stand it when you wouldn't be able to tell me where you were going or what you were doing." "And now, every once in a while," "I catch Grant looking at me the same way." "When I was doing my snooping around," "I took the liberty of asking a few questions about you, John." "That's probably not such a good idea." "Yeah, I got that impression." "I've seen walls go up quickly before, but never like this, and whatever you're into, it's obviously big, and, my guess is, very dangerous." "I just want you to be careful." "Well, you know me." "Yeah." "That's the problem." "Goodbye, John." "Well, she wasn't kidding." "So far, it's a whole lot of nothing." "Lab requisitions, non-disclosure agreements..." "Oh, here's an exciting one." "An internal memo reminding employees not to use the south parking lot due to ongoing repaving." " Hold on." " What is it?" "It's a shipping waybill with instructions to deliver a load of preassembled masonry panels to a warehouse in Reading." "So?" "So? "Preassembled masonry panels,"" "that was a code word we used a few months back to identify shipments of neutronium." "Neutronium, it's the base element from which nanites are made." "You guys damaged him, right?" "So, if he wants to fully repair, he's going to need this." " So, he's going to go for the warehouse?" " Yeah, exactly." "Assuming he knows where it is." "Well, to be perfectly honest, we don't have anything else." " That's a good point." " All right, I'll set up a stake-out, and if he shows up, we'll know about it." "This could be our last shot at this guy." "We got to make sure he goes down for good this time." "It's not going to be easy." "I mean, if this was the movies, we'd dip him into a vat of molten steel, or a volcano." "You know, the fires from whence he came." "What the hell is he talking about?" "That's a really good idea." " Really?" " Really?" "Sheppard, this is Apollo." "We're all set." "Understood." "Are you sure he's going to show up?" "The IOA said they spotted him nearby." "And what if he spotted them?" "Bates, see anything?" "Negative." "All quiet over here." "Be patient." "He'll show up." "You should not have interfered." "Now!" "What happened?" "Where did you send him?" "Low Earth orbit." "I know by experience, re-entry's a bitch." "The IOA isn't just going to let her go." "Well, if she'd stayed away, we never would've found her." "The only reason she's here is because she chose to help us." "Yeah, I know." "She's a machine." "Well, we're all machines, just different kinds." "What about if we took her to a different planet?" "Somewhere with no people, where she can't do any harm." "I don't think that's much of a reward." "The IOA would never agree to let her leave Earth, anyway." "She could work at Stargate Command." "She would be a valuable asset." "She'd be a constant security threat." " We don't know that." " No, he's right." "There's no escaping the fact she's still a Replicator." "So, what, then?" "How are you settling in to your new life?" "It's a bit of an adjustment." "One of the stipulations of my release is that I don't look for a job in any scientific field." "To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do." "I'm sure you'll figure something out." "I wanted to thank you, Colonel." "I know they never would've agreed to let me go if you hadn't put in a word for me." "Well, you saved my life." "Putting a word in is the least I could do." "I have to admit, I'm a little scared." "I mean, I know these emotions are supposed to be artificial, but they seem pretty real to me." "Well, what do you got to be scared about?" "Well, I've never really been alone before." "Richard was the closest thing I ever had to family." "Anyway, it was nice for you to check up on me." "I guess we'll never see each other again." "Well, one thing I've learned about my business, is never say never." "Goodbye, Colonel." "So?" "How was it in there?" "Well, it was very nice work." "Very convincing." "I'm just glad we were able to download her consciousness intact." "Anyway, now she has a whole virtual world to explore." "Should keep her pretty busy for a while." "So, what happened to the rest of her?" "Oh, they deactivated the bond between her nanites, effectively breaking her into base elements." "They scrapped her." "Well, so, we heading back?" "Yeah." "You go ahead." "I got a few things to take care of." "Come in." "Subripped by CLT-Team"