First Contact (1) - Recap

Rodney and Sheppard are heading for the Gate Room while Rodney complains about their new visitor and the time he has to take from his work to deal with him. They meet Woolsey and grant Daniel Jackson as he beams down from the Daedalus. Daniel is there to do further research into his theory that the Ancient scientist Janus had a secret laboratory somewhere on Atlantis. Meanwhile, Woolsey is preparing to leave on the Daedalus for a diplomatic meeting with Todd the Wraith to negotiate the genetic treatments that will remove their need to feed. Keller is going along and Ronon volunteers to go with her. Rodney, finding out, is less than thrilled.

Daniel pinpoints a corridor where Janus’ laboratory might be hidden. He and Rodney go there and find three missing lights. They get them out of storage and insert them, then discover they form the key to opening a hidden doorway into Janus’ laboratory. As the systems power themselves up, one of the devices starts sending a subspace signal. On a distant planet, an alien race receives the signal.

While Woolsey works on his commemorative speech for the Wraith, Rodney and Daniel bring in a team to go over the laboratory but much if it is encoded. Sheppard, forced to stay on the base as Woolsey’s second in command, checks in but there’s not much he can do.

The Daedalus</I> meets with Todd’s ship and Woolsey tries to give his speech but Todd would rather get to work. Meanwhile, Daniel discusses Rodney’s competitive nature and complains about how many of his theories aren’t recognized. A few miles away, a hyperspace gate opens above the ocean and an alien ship flies out. The Atlantis team detects it approaching and raises the shields, but the ship easily passes through them. Three armored figures enter the city and drill down through the tower to the floor with Janus’ laboratory. They stun Daniel and Rodney and then take the piece of equipment giving off the signal. Sheppard and his team arrive and open fire, and manage to mass enough fire to bring down one of the invaders. The other two escape on the ship, which departs into hyperspace. Zelenka is unable to determine if the downed invader is dead or not and they take him to the infirmary for further examination.

While Daniel and Rodney wake up inside of a laser-beam cell, Teyla determines the invaders took the specific device. They conclude that the invaders discovered another of Janus’ labs and monitored the equipment signal when it activated. Zelenka works on a way to track the signal while Daniel and Rodney realize there’s no way they can escape the ship while it’s in hyperspace. Zelenka tries to open the seemingly dead alien’s suit without initial success. Finally he tries to cut through the neckpiece but a self-destruct device activates and they barely get out of the infirmary before the suit explodes.

On board the Daedalus, Keller and Todd go over the genetic research. She insists that her work to date proves the gene treatment can work. However, Todd wonders what will become of his people once their hunger is taken from them.

The alien ship lands at Janus’ laboratory base on an ice planet, put Daniel and Rodney in a lab, and order them to make the stolen device function.

Zelenka determines a way to track the hyperspace signal. Meanwhile, Rodney realizes what the device’s function is: it can create a device that will disrupt Wraith hyperdrive technology. Once it’s activated, any Wraith ship anywhere in the galaxy that goes into hyperspace will blow up. The Wraith would effectively be trapped, unable to maintain their empire at sublight speeds. However, Rodney realizes that Janus abandoned his experiments 10,000 years ago when he detected undefined “side effects.” Daniel tries to tell their captors of the danger, but they ignore him and give Rodney one hour to get the device working or they’ll kill Daniel. With no other options, Rodney goes to work while Daniel wonders why the aliens are wearing their protective suits even inside their own base.

Zelenka pinpoints the subspace signal but the planet doesn’t have a Stargate. Sheppard plans to take a Jumper to a Stargate planet close to the Daedalus and then have Caldwell take them to the planet.

Rodney activates the device and it seems to function with no detectable side effects.

Todd is aboard the Daedalus when his second-in-command informs him that another Hive is attacking one of their outposts. He authorizes the two support ships to provide existence. They start to enter hyperspace… and blow up. Todd believes that Woolsey and the others are responsible and uses a hidden stun device to render the bridge crew unconscious. He then orders his troops aboard to take and hold the Daedalus. Ronon spots the intruders and goes to get Keller so they can arm themselves. However, Todd closes the bulkheads, blocking their path to the armory.

Rodney finds a log entry indicating what the side effects are, and how they will affect everyone in the galaxy. He starts to shut down the device but the aliens stun him and Daniel before he can succeed.

Sheppard prepares to depart for the Daedalus and orders the Stargate opened. However, it begins to overload due to an energy source from the event horizon itself. They’re unable to shutdown the Stargate and it is heading for an explosion ion just 90 seconds. To buy time, Sheppard has Zelenka collapse the city shield around the Stargate. It contains the explosion but the detonation continues to build and the shield emitters will burn out before the reaction runs its course. Sheppard orders everyone else out while Zelenka tries to bolster the shield energy. Sheppard and Zelenka can only stare in horror as the tower explodes…

(to be continued)

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