Mission Report

 

An unconscious John Sheppard dreams of having dinner with Teyla after rescuing her from Michael. They’re dressed in evening-wear and it is quite clearly a romantic affair. Only he realises that he doesn’t remember rescuing Teyla. He looks around and sees Aiden Ford who berates Sheppard for not rescuing him. He wakes up trapped in Michael’s collapsed compound, trapped with Ronon. Ronon sets about examining John’s wounds and trying to free him from the rubble. They are separated from the others and their radios aren’t working.

Rodney and Major Lorne are trapped together, Rodney is for the most part unharmed, however Lorne’s leg is broken. McKay begins to panic because of being in an enclosed space and Lorne attempts to keep him calm. Even with their head-start, Lorne estimates that the Daedalus is still about three hours away.

A wraith cruise circles above a baron planet, it is Michael’s cruiser, populated with his hybrids. The cruiser receives a signal and Michael sets a course for the compound where the members of the Atlantis expedition are trapped.

On Atlantis there is an unscheduled offworld activation, Lt. Eddison comes through the gate and relays the events to Colonel Carter before being sent to the infirmary. The Daedalus is still 2 hours away from the team. Sam orders the preparation of a group of combat engineers and Dr. Keller’s away team.

Rodney has found computer parts, and thinks that the hard drives are intact, it appears that he’s found Michael’s database - the jackpot. There are base schematics, medical research information and a list of planets amongst other things. They’re still stuck, but should they escape, they have enough information to deal a serious blow to Michael. McKay starts rambling and Lorne tells him to shut up, he hears people above and they start to call for help.

Colonel Carter and the team of combat engineers and medical personnel find Dr. McKay and Major Lorne. Rodney has discovered that a subspace burst was transmitted when the compound’s self-destruct system was actived. Michael is on his way. Jumpers are dispatched to keep watch for the ship.

Ronon continues to work towards freeing Sheppard, he is trapped by a large metal beam which they cannot move. Sheppard attempts to order Ronon to leave him behind under the guise of being selfish and wanting Ronon to dig his way out to get help. Ronon, however, does not believe him and will not listen and he continues to work to free the Colonel.

On Michael’s ship, Teyla is heavily pregnant and the baby should be due in the next few days. Michael prattles on about how Teyla’s son will be an instrument of change, he refuses to talk about what will happen to Teyla after the baby is born. Teyla attempts to convince Kanaan that he needs to help her escape and that as far as Michael is concerned he is disposable. She is distraught that Kanaan is unwilling or unable to aid in her escape.

McKay and Lorne are freed and McKay refuses medical help, telling a surprised Dr. Keller to take care of Lorne and that his injuries are only minor. Shortly after, Michael’s cruiser arrives in orbit of the planet. He figures out that the Atlanteans are searching for survivors and dispatches a wave of darts. One dart is shot down, however there are still 20 more on the planet. Carter orders a retreat to the jumpers, but Rodney is reluctant to comply as there are still people trapped.

The hybrids have dialled the gate to ensure people do not escape and already have people combing the debris for any survivors that could be of use. The cloaked jumper with McKay, Keller and Carter on board goes into orbit. They realise that Teyla is probably on the cruiser, but because the cruiser has an electromagnetic jamming frequency, beaming Teyla out would be impossible.

Despite the futility of his efforts, Ronon continues working on freeing Colonel Sheppard.. John once again tries to convince Ronon to leave. The two hear noises coming from above them - the sound of people digging. They assume that it’s combat engineers that have come to dig them out.

The Daedalus arrives in orbit and prepares to do battle with Michael’s cruiser, however they cannot fire upon the cruiser because Teyla is on board. Michael orders the abandonment of the darts on the planet surface and the cruiser prepares a hyperspace jump. The Daedalus damages the cruiser’s hyperdrive systems with the Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons. A one-sided battle ensues, with the cruiser dealing out most of the damage.

The hybrids are almost to Ronon and Sheppard. Sheppard realises that the people digging them out are Michael’s hybrids by asking questions that they wouldn’t know the answers to, yet would answer anyway so as not to give themselves away.. Sheppard fears that he is going to die and effectively says his goodbyes to Ronon as the two of them prepare to fight the hybrids that are digging down to them..

The USS Daedalus drops their shields to beam up Sheppard and Ronon, they take damage - life support is down to 50%, hyperdrive, sub-light engines and Asgard weapons are down. The Daedalus is essentially dead in the water. Sheppard needs serious medical treatment however he is going to be fine. Sheppard is relieved to hear that McKay is alive. He wants Keller to patch him up so that he can go after Teyla. His perceived failure with Lt. Ford strengthen’s Sheppard’s resolve to rescue his teammate.

McKay partially fixes the life support systems, however, with the damage the shields are taking, the fix for the life-support systems won’t do much good.. Carter recommends a 302 assault to take out the cruiser’s primary weapons, a heavily injured Sheppard agrees. The team have a plan and it’s only a matter of time before the shields fail completely. Carter refuses to take no for an answer from Colonel Caldwell and gets her rescue mission.

Despite his severe injuries, Sheppard is still determined to rescue Teyla and despite him being a liability on this mission, Carter allows Sheppard to participate. Ronon, McKay and Sheppard board a jumper and prepare to board the hive-ship once the dart bay doors are opened to combat the 302 assault. A dogfight insues between the 302s and the Darts. The cruiser’s weapons are disabled and the team enters through the dart bay doors. The three of them begin to search for Teyla. Rodney discovers that the cruiser’s repairs are much further ahead than he’d anticipated - the hyperdrive is almost back online and they have about 15 minutes to complete their task.

The team find Teyla, who has gone into labour - she has been having contractions for over an hour. The baby is coming. The hybrids get the hyperdrive back online and begin powering up - they team has another problem to deal with. Rodney attempts to make small-talk with Teyla and complains about having a kidney stone and compares it to being in labour. Teyla - while frustrated - needs Rodney to deliver the baby. Rodney is terrified because he has never delivered a baby before. Ronon and Sheppard use C4 to take out the cruiser’s hyperdrive again, buying them more escape time.

Rodney is still terrified - he has no idea what to do - but he has no choice but to deliver the baby. Teyla successfully has the baby and there were no complications. Rodney is amazed that he actually survived. He hands the baby to Teyla just as Sheppard and Ronon re-join them.

The team return to where they left the jumper only to find the jumper missing - presumably stolen my Michael. While attempting to get to a data terminal to deactivate the jamming frequency the team run into Kanaan who helps them escape in a dart. McKay, Ronon, Teyla and Kanaan are beamed into wraith storage in a dart and John carries the baby in the cockpit with him. The team escape the cruiser with very little trouble. With the Asgard plasma beam weapons back online, the cruiser is quickly destroyed and Sheppard lands the dart on the planet surface, returning to Atlantis through the planet’s stargate.

Back on Atlantis, Carter teases McKay about Teyla naming the baby Rodney. Carter reveals that she has been summoned back to earth to make an appearence at the extraction ceremony for the last Ba’al clone and that the IOA want to do an “exhaustive review of her first year in command.”

Teyla and Sheppard are in the infirmary, Teyla bonding with her baby who she has named Torren John Emmagan and John - in the next bed over - playing on a Nintendo DS while waiting to go into surgery. Carter returns to earth and is greeted at the SGC by Mr. Woolsey. He is there to inform her that she has been removed from command and that he is her replacement. Samantha is quite clearly upset by this revelation.