Stargate: Atlantis (2004–2009): Season 5, Episode 10 - First Contact - full transcript

so I understand you have a proposal.

We've come up with a gene therapy

that alters wraith dna.

We think we can make it so that you will never need to feed on humans again.

Here.

Try this.

His name was janus.

Causality is not to be treated so lightly.

No one's treating it lightly.

You are.

You are insistent on continuing the experiment.



We order you to cease these activities.

I don't know what all the fuss is about.

If we do this every time someone comes for a visit, we'd never get any work done.

We're just meeting him at the gate.

We're not just meeting him at the gate.

I've been pulled from my regular duties to help him with his database "research".

I've got stuff on the go, you know--

important, vital projects for the betterment of the human race.

Apparently there are other people doing equally important work, rodney,

as hard as that is to believe.

An exciting day.

Absolutely.

He's ready to beam.

Very well.



Dr.Jackson, welcome to atlantis.

Thank you, mr.Woolsey. It's great to be back.

Colonel sheppard, rodney...

Stargate Atlantis
Season5 Episode10

First Contact

I'll have rodney here show you to your quarters--

actually, I'd like to get started right away, if that's okay with you, rodney?

Oh, sure, sure.

What have you got planned?

An exciting exploration of insignificant ancient historical events?

No, not quite. I'm sure you're both familiar with the ancient named janus?

- The inventor?
- Yes,

he was the lead scientist and apparently a bit of a renegade.

Yeah, and I've been over all his logs.

Look, this is work we've done already.

I'm pretty sure I have information that could lead us to his secret lab.

Secret lab?

Yes,

a place where he conducted and subsequently hid a significant portion of his unauthorized research.

And if I'm correct, it's right here... on atlantis.

I've been over janus' database entries with a fine-tooth comb.

I never saw any mention of a secret lab.

Janus was doing a lot of work that wasn't exactly approved by the ancient council,

so it's not hard to imagine he wouldn't include a full accounting in this very public database.

Do you include all of your research in your official reports?

Just get to the point.

He never talked about it in his entries, but several of janus' peers suspected he had a

"bastion of unfettered thought and experimentation,"

- or as one of his lovers put it--
- he had lovers?

"An isle of solitude within the city walls."

Could just mean he was hard to talk to.
People say things like that about me all the time.

None of these writers had any idea where the lab could be,

but one of his young assistants recalls a day where janus turned a corner down a hallway.

"Today I saw janus in the hallway..."
there's a real page-turner.

He chased after him with a question, but when he rounded the corner, janus was gone.

The hallway was a dead end. He had seemingly disappeared, I think, into his secret lab.

Well, did this assistant happen to mention...

...which hallway? Yes. He does.

Yeah.

As soon as the daedalus unloads its supplies,

we'll be heading off to meet up with todd and one of his hives.

You really think he's going to show up, huh?

And let you guys try out dr.Keller's gene therapy on a few of his guys?

Well, we held up our end of the deal.

We let him use teyla to take control of an alliance of wraith hives.

That's what I'm saying, he's got what he wants.

I should go with you, because I have a relationship with todd--

that is precisely why I don't want you there.

This mission is basically going to be a negotiation,

and todd has, well...

less baggage with me than he does with you.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take the lead--

you're second in command here, colonel.

I know my predecessors played fast and loose with many of the rules set forth by the I.O.A.,

But protocol plainly states that in the rare instance where I am required to leave atlantis, you stay put.

You're in command here until I get back.

Understood?

Okay.

Try not to blow her up while I'm gone.

No promises.

Yeah, I think this should be the last of it.

Hey.

Hi.

I was just leaving.

Yeah, I know.

Here, let me get that.

Thanks.

So you're going on this daedalus thing?

Yeah, uh...

thank you.

I kind of have to. I'm the one that'll be administering the treatment...

if, you know, we ever get to that point.

Right.

I think I should come with you on this.

Really? Why?

I don't really trust these guys.

You don't trust todd and his wraith or the entire crew

of the daedalus to protect me if something goes wrong?

I don't know.

Both, I guess.

What?

Nothing.

- What?
- Nothing, nothing.

It'd be great to have the company.

Okay.

Bye, rodney. Wish us luck.

Good luck.

What do you mean, "us"?

Rodney...

Is that a water line up there?

Yeah, this section of the city flooded the first year we were here.

Anything salvageable got moved to the main tower.

It's remote. That's promising.

He wouldn't want anyone around when he came in and out of his lab.

like the bat cave.

Yes... just like the bat cave.

I'm not picking up anything unusual...

something used to be attached here.

Hmm. And here...

and another one.

Any idea what they are?

Looks like a run-of-the-mill sconce interface.

Right. Well,

where are the sconces?

I don't know. Maybe the decorator changed his mind.

You said after the flood, anything worth salvaging was moved to the main tower.

Now, please tell me you kept detailed records of what was found and where.

Did we keep detailed records? Who are you talking to here?

There.

That's the hallway. Can you zoom in there?

There.

There are your light fixtures.

- Must have been knocked loose during the flood.
- Possibly.

- But you salvaged them, right?
- They're lights that fell during a flood--

just humor me, okay?

I think we're onto something.

All right.

Here they are.

I've got 'em.

That's odd.

Each of these three lights made a different tone when I plugged them in.

Does that usually happen around here?

Not usually, no.

They've been banged around a lot, underwater a few days.

Maybe they're just broken.

No, it's a puzzle.

I think we need to activate these in a specific order.

A 3-digit code? You know how easy that would be to break?

There's only 6 variations.

Maybe activate them a number of times in a specific order.

I don't suppose you recognize any of these three notes?

Like, does it remind me of janus' favorite brian eno track?

No. No such luck.

Janus' assistant said he disappeared pretty quickly down the hallway,

so it can't be a long code.

Maybe it's as simple as 3 tones in a row.

Go for it.

Hold on for a second.

What is it?

Come here and push against this wall.

Why?

Please. Just humor me. I think I'm on to something.

Okay, on the count of three,

push against the wall as hard as you can, okay?

Okay.

Okay. One... two... three...

Son of a bitch.

Controlled magnetic harmonic resonance.

What?

Apparently tesla was close to something like this before edison trashed his lab.

What are you talking about?

That wall was specially designed to de-stabliize when bombarded with a very specific harmonic resonance.

That's what the tones were.

And the strong magnetic property of the particles is what keeps the door from just crumbling into dust.

It's a great way to hide a door,

because if you're looking for a door to open, it's never going to be found.

It's like a hologram, only better,

because it's solid mass until the tones are playing.

So you could have just told me to walk through the door.

- I could have, yes.
- Yes, yes.

Where the hell are we?

Janus' secret lab.

Alert the others.

The device has been activated.

Hey, mr. Woolsey.

Dr. Keller.

Where is your burly protector?

It's odd to see you without him nowadays.

He's in the lab.

What are you working on?

A speech.

What for?

Well, this is a fairly momentous occasion.

The wraith will take a step forward, not only for their own benefit, but for that of the entire galaxy.

It's a historic day.

I just think it deserves some recognition.

What have you got so far?

"Today is an historic day."

It's a good place to start.

Well, it's a work in progress.

Whoa.

That's pretty cool.

Harmonic resonance.

Yeah, I was told. But what happens if the sound goes off and you're in the middle of the wall?

The wall would break apart your body.

- Maybe we should--
- I've set up a sub-sonic tone generator outside.

The wall is now permanently open. Don't worry.

Good.

So, what have we got?

The good news is it's definitely janus' secret lab.

The bad news is getting in was the easy part.

There are levels of encryption on all data here that even the most paranoid nsa agent wouldn't use.

I mean, it is deep.

Some of them are straight-up math ciphers, while others are ancient knowledge puzzles.

And until we start deciphering, there's no way to tell what any of this stuff does.

Sounds like you guys make a good team, though.

Yeah.

Well, I guess I'll go back to being the boss.

How's that going?

Pretty boring, actually.

You're more than welcome to help us crack this first stream cipher.

You know, he could have been in mensa.

Why don't you contact me when you two geniuses have a breakthrough.

Will do.

Sir, we're being hailed.

Open a channel.

This is colonel caldwell of the earth ship daedalus.

We're ready to receive your delegation.

The delegation is on their way.

Marks, you have the bridge.

I'm going to meet our guests.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you for having us.

Today is an historic day.

Robert grosseteste once said--

I would like to get started as soon as possible.

Yes, of course.

But I wanted to recognize--

I have my doubts that your plan will be effective.

So shall we drop these unfounded pleasantries and get to work?

Very well.

Dr. Keller, lead the way.

Please, come with me.

Robert who?

Never mind.

You know, it's almost dawn.

If you want to call it a night...

what? No, no, no, I'm fine, fine.

But if you need to rest, I'll completely understand.

Seriously, is everything a competition with you?

I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I just found youa secret labfull of
really coolancient stuff.

I kind of think thatshould score me some points.

Okay, I will admitthat I may have been
a little brusque with you.

Just a little.

The truth is,I really didn't think
you would find anything.

Well, that muchI actually understand.

You do?

Yeah.

I've spent the majority of my professional life
being ridiculed for my theories,

most of whichturned out to be correct,by the way.

I'm kind of used to it, rodney.

Doesn't that bother you?

I mean, no vindication,no recognition,
no credit...

I could say thesame thing about you.

The discoveries you've made,you probably
could've won the nobel prizefive times overby now.

Too true.

So, I guess none of us signed upto get famous, huh?

No, we did it for the money.

Good one.

Wait a minute-you don't get paidmore than I do,
do you?

Do you?

Hyperspace window just opened.

Daedalusisn't due back yet.

Hyperspace window detected
unknown iff

Get sheppard.

- Colonel sheppard, sir?
- Yeah, uh, just resting my eyes.

Who said that?

I patched into the pa in your room, sir.

You're going to wantto get up here.

What's going on?

We're tracking a small ship,in atmosphere.
It's comingright for us.

Get the jumpers in the air.

It's closing fast, sir.
It'll be here inless than 10 seconds.

Shields up. I still want the jumpersready.

Here it comes...

- that's impossible.
- What did it just do?

- It passed throughthe shield.
- Yeah, but how did it do that?

I'm not sure, sir.

Ancient ships can do it.

All right, tell teyla and a team of marines
to meet me at that pier.

They should beright in front of you.

Don't move!

What's at the bottomof this tower?

Rodney.

Rodney, this is sheppard. Come in.

- Rodney!
- What's up?

Get out of thereright now.

Why?

Control room, what's the statusof that ship?

I'm sorry, colonel. They're gone.

- Is it alive?
- You tell me.

I'm not gettingany coherent readings.

Perhaps we should put itunder a medical scanner.

- Okay, do it.
- Go get a gurney.

So is it truethey took rodneyand dr. Jackson?

Yeah.

what the hell happened?

We were attacked.

That much I got,thanks. By who?

I was kind of hopingyou could tell me.

Okay, there is no waythis is a coincidence.

We discover janus'super-secret lab,

and less than24 hours later,
a bunch of aliens show up,all guns blazing?

Don't thinkthat's a little odd?

Now thatyou mention it...

they knew exactlywhat they werelooking for.

Didn't wasteany time,went straightfor the lab.

When they came out,
one of them was carrying a device.

Unfortunately,we haven't had nearly enough time
to go through everythingwe found in here,

so there's no wayof knowingexactlywhat they took.

All this stuff came on
when rodney and dr. Jacksoncame in here.

Pretty much.It activated probably
in response to rodney's A.T.A.Gene. Why?

What if something in herehas been broadcasting?

A subspace signal-it's the only possible answer.

- What are you talking about?
- We've come acrossthem before.

They're a real-time,practically instantaneous link
between two ancient devices.

They can be separatedby, like, half a galaxy.

There's a bunch of aliensout there.

They stumble uponan ancient lab,
probably builtby janus himself.

It's dormant. It's not working.

Then one day, out of the blue,it activates.

So they're standing around,scratching they're
heads. They have no ideawhat's going on.

Then they discoverthe subspace link.

They decide to follow it,they trace it back to us.

And then attack us
and take two of our peoplehostage?

Rodney and dr. Jacksonwere not the targets.

They were at the wrong placeat the wrong time.

Whatever that device was,
that's what they were after.

All right,good theory. So what do we do?

Well, we... we've gotto get out of here.

We're probably on a ship traveling through
hyperspace. Where are wegoing to go?

- I'll thinkof something.
- Really?

Yep. Always do.

Oh yeah, I tried that.
They zap youwhen you touch them.

- You could told me thatbefore I touched it.
- I could have, yes.

Look, they stripped usof everything but the clothing
on our backsand surrounded uswith laser walls...

I'm not sure how much playwe have here.

- We've got one thinggoing for us, at least.
- What's that?

We're not dead yet.

Good point.

It's no good.

I'm still not gettingany useful readings.

The suit is emittingsome sort of E.M.Field
that's disruptingthe scanner.

I have no ideahow to shut it off.

There's no way topenetrate the shield
and see what'sunder there?

I'm afraid not.

Do you thinkthere's a human
underneath allthat armor?

Impossible to say. Could be a robot.

One thing's for sure-
it's not like anythingwe've ever seen before.

Dr. Weir did saythat there were other technologically
advanced societiesthat we have yetto encounter.

We've just madefirst contact.

What do youwant me to do?

Cut it open.

Ah, it's no good. I just dulled the blade.

- The neck.
- What?

Looks likethe softest part. Try the neck.

- It's alreadydead, radek.
- We think.

Just do it.

It's working!

Get out. Everyone, get out!

- Everyone okay?
- Yes.

Somebody really wantsto keep secret
whatever's insidethat suit.

We've run closeto a hundred simulations

based on full medical scans
of the wraithwe've had in captivity.

They've all been successful.

We both knowvery well that computer simulations
and live trialsare very different.

I don't think we'redoing this cavalierly.
I stand by the data. It will work.

Perhaps it will.

The question is,do you want it to?

I do see the benefits.

Even if we only used the therapy
on some of my troops...

say, those whose lives,thanks to this war,
are expected to be short.

Why wasteperfectly good resourceson them, yes?

But it will bevery difficult for me
to ask those around me

to give themselves over
for the good of the human race.

But it's foryour benefit too.

If you don't have to relyon human feeding,
the war would be over.

Perhaps...

but then what would we do?

Who would we be?

Can we talk tosomebody in charge?
I think there's been a bitof a misunderstanding.

There's no needto treat us this way...

Get the device operational.

I don't even knowwhat it is!

Oh, great. It's sealed shut, and they've
removedthe door controlsfrom this side.

Where they hell are we?

I'd say judging bythe lantian architecture,
I'd guess, you know,secret janus facility.

Which is, you know,probably bad for us,
because it probably meansit's hard to find.

So I guess that meansno rescue any time soon.

Does that lookfamiliar to you?

Yeah, it's the devicefrom the atlantis lab.

At least we know whythey brought us with them.

They need usto get the device operational.
I caught that.

Right, and I don't think we'll get any more info
from talky mcsays-a-lotout there,

so fire up these consoles,
see what we're dealing with.

Not like that.

let's see. Yeah, like that.

And then I need to beright there, yep.
Thanks. There.

We've got five jumpersin the air
flying a defensive formation around the city

and have the chair fired up
and ready for youat a moment's notice.

I want marine detailsevery five levels,locked
and loaded, ready for my go-ahead,just in case.

Absolutely.

Colonel, I thinkI may have something.

I've been workingunder the assumptionthat,
as you suggested,

the device they tookmust have been broadcasting
some sort ofsubspace communication.

You can trace it?

Well, yeah,if it was broadcastingfrom atlantis, yes.

But obviouslyit's not doing that anymore.

- So...
- so...

well, I'm using the work
of laszlo babaias a stepping stone.

You know,combinatorics and, um...

no offense,but the math I'm usingis so complicated

that I don't knowif I can dumb it down enough
for itto make sense.

Try.

All right, well, okay,I've been going over
our recorded subspace logs

and I'm trying to extrapolatethe single thread

that will lead usto the area
of spaceassociated with the device.

Well, I understand that.

It doesn't accurately representwhat I'm doing, but-

I get it. What you're doingis difficult.
Just tell mewhen you get a hit.

This facilityis tapped into some
pretty serious power generation.

I've never seenanything like it before.

You'd needa lot of power...

what?

- I think I knowwhat this thing does.
- What?

- It's an endgame machine.
- How so?

If it worksthe way I think it does, it would
meanthe end of the wraithonce and for all.

So how do youdestroy the wraithonce and for all?

Well, I never said"destroy."
I mean, it would leadto that, I suppose,

but this devicewould stop
them deadin their tracks.

How?

It creates a very specificsubspace static...
turbulence is a better wayof looking at it.

- Which...
- okay, look.

Although they're all basedon a
fairly similartechnological premise,

each racehas a slightly
different typeof hyperdrive.

Ours are basedon the asgard
driveswith our own little twist.

The ancientshad their own system,

and the wraith, again,
have their own separatehyperdrive technology.

All right.

So at its base level,a hyperdrive allows you to
travel great distancesby entering and exitingsubspace.

Okay, this muchI already know, yes.

Okay, so,if this machineis capable
of actuallyfunctioning safely,

it disruptsthe very specificsubspace
frequenciesthe wraith use.

So they wouldn't be ableto
engage their hyperdrives.

That's the genius-they would be able to.

It's just that theirparticular channel
of subspacewould be destabilized

and the shipwould be rippedintoa million pieces.

When this deviceis turned on,every time
a wraith shipenters hyperspace,it self-destructs?

- Yeah.
- That's a pretty effectiveidea.

Yeah. Because even if word
got backto the other wraith

that the ships should stop usingtheir hyperdrives,
they'd be stuckwhere they were.

They could only travelusing sublight engines.

Because ancient ships'hyperdrives operated
on a different frequency of subspace,

the ancients could fly aroundand
pick them off one by one.

Yeah, or just leave them to die
in the vastness of space.

So, what's the catch?

Ah, well, the catch isthat janus ran
a three-day testabout 10,000 years ago

and then shutthe whole project down
because of"unforeseen side effects".

Right, which were?

Well, it's not clear.

But that's the keyto the whole shebang.

Janus brought thatback to atlantis
but kept it connectedto the main system here.

One won't workwithout the other.

They seem pretty convincedwe
can make it operational.

Becausewe probably can.
We have everythingwe need here.

The question iswhether we should.

The last timeI went down this road,I...
I kind of destroyeda solar system.

Yeah, and I'm nottoo keen about experiencing
those "unforeseen side effects".

- So what do we do?
- It's simple. We, uh...

we reason with them?

Now, obviouslyyou're as
excitedabout the possibility

of ending the wraith's reign
over this galaxyonce and for all.

But the reality isthis device and this facility were
aband onedby their creatorfor a very good reason.

See, uh, it doesn't work... at least not safely.

That's from what my friendcan tell.

Look, we share the same goal.

Perhaps we have many things in common.

Look, given the right amount of time, it's possible we could get the device to function safely,

but we'd have to contact our people and bring in a much larger science team.

See, I'm not that kind of scientist, and my friend here--

get the device operational within one hour

or I will kill him.

Do you understand?

I understand. Yes.

Great plan, danny. Great plan.

Why the suits?

Huh?

Well, they're not in battle anymore.

Originally I thought it was just their version of swat gear, but they still have it on.

Maybe they're more than just armor. Maybe they're some sort of protective suit.

Maybe they can't function in our livable atmosphere.

Maybe we should just add it to the list of things that have nothing to do with the task at hand.

Those suits might be the key to figuring out who these guys really are.

Well, you work on understanding them. I'll work on trying not to get us killed.

Well, you got something for me?

Yes. There. M6h-987. That's my best guess.

- Are you sure?
- Well, about 80% sure.

It's our only lead. I'll have to do.

Doesn't happen to have a gate on it, does it?

No.

Of course not.

Daedalus still out of communications range?

Yeah, I'm afraid so.

Their rendezvous point with todd isn't even near a stargate.

Get to the jumper bay, boost its subspace communications range as much as you can.

What are you planning?

We've got to get to that planet as soon as possible.

We'll gate as near as we can to the daedalus with a jumper,

have them pick us up en route to the planet.

Okay. Give me half an hour.

I'm going to get the team ready.

That main chamber houses the subspace antenna.

It harnesses the static into subspace.

It will once I light it up.

What? You're already ready?

Well, it wasn't broken.

He just shut it down.

All you need is that, a basic understanding of janus' coding style,

and here's where I come in again, the ancient gene.

We're ready to roll.

Rodney, you don't have to do this.

What?

If turning this thing on means a solar system is going to explode, then let's not.

- They're going to kill you. We don't have a choice.
- Yes, we do.

Okay, so I do nothing, they come in here, they kill you.
Who gets killed next, huh? Me.

To tell you the truth here, I'm quite fond of me,

so might as well do it now while you're still alive as opposed to, you know, then.

All right.

All right.

You still alive?

I think so.

I'd hate to think heaven looks like this.

Who says we went to heaven?

It's operational.

Anything out of the ordinary?

No.

Everything is in the green. I mean, it's working great.

What about those "unforeseen side effects"?

They're still unforeseen. For now, it's working, and we're still alive.

Okay, so, what now?

Uh, maybe, uh, a nice pat on the back and an all-expense-paid trip back to atlantis?

You have an urgent message from your hive.

I assumed you'd want to take it privately.

Go ahead.

Very well.

Permission granted.

I shall remain here.

Is everything okay?

One of our facilities is under attack by a rival hive.

Our two support ships must depart for battle.

My hive will remain here,

continue the work with dr. Keller.

I'm glad to hear that.

Oh, not the under attack part, that's unfortunate, of course.

I just meant--

never mind.

Marks, what the hell just happened?

How did you do that?

How did we--

surely you don't think we had anything to do with that.

You've tricked me.

What?

This was your plan all along.

Somehow, you've found the attero device.

The what? We have no idea what you--

Commander,

we've been trying to contact you.

The other cruisers were destroyed.

I know. We've been betrayed.

What should we do?

I have control of the humans' transport system.

I'll begin beaming in our troops immediately.

We're taking this ship.

Come on.

What's going on?

We're under attack. We got to get to the armory and get you a gun. Come on.

Locked.

Ronon!

We're locked in.

That should limit their movements.

Continue beaming in our troops.

10 minutes and counting. Still no problem.

- Oh, boy...
- what? What is it?

I think I just found a log entry that tells what the side effect is.

It's not harmful radiation, is it?

No. No, no, no. You and I are safe.

It's just the rest of the galaxy that's going to have problems, including atlantis.

I've got to shut this thing down.

Step away from the device.

Okay, wait. There's a very dangerous, serious problem with the device, and we need to talk to your boss--

okay, all set.

I'll have chuck dial m5r-179.

You should be able to contact the daedalus via subspace once you get there.

Nice work.

- Thanks. Good luck.
- Thanks, we're going to need it.

All right, dial up.

What's that?

We've got a power spike at the event horizon.

What? Power is building within the gate?

No, no, no. That can't happen.

Colonel, do not lower the jumper into the gate room.

Why not?

For some reason, there's an unprecedented power build-up within the gate.

Power build-up from where?

It's coming from within the event horizon. Oh, no.

This is very, very bad for us.

Just shut it down. It's probably a faulty gate at the other end.

I'm-- I'm trying. It won't let me.

All right, I'm coming down.

What do we do, wait 38 minutes and ride the puddle out?

I wish.

If the power continues to build like this, the gate will reach critical overload and most certainly explode.

Explode?

Yes, I told you it was very, very bad for us.

How does something like this happen?

I don't know. It's never happened before.

- How long do we have?
- Not long at all. About 90 seconds.

90 seconds?

I would say closer to 60.

We've got to evacuate everyone in the tower.

The gate exploding is equivalent to a dozen nuclear explosions.

There's nowhere we could evacuate quickly enough to a safe distance.

- The-- the shield.
- What?

Collapse the city's shield around the gate, contain the explosion.

Yes, yes, that might just work.

The gate will reach a critical limit in five...

four... three... two... one.

Don't look at the blast!

Might have mentioned that before!

I'll see if I can divert more power to the shield,

see if I can block more of the radiation...

and now what?

The shield continues to diffuse the energy of the blast.

Every second it's contained within the shield, the explosion gets weaker.

How long does it take?

Oh, no.

What?

The shield needs at least another minute to contain the full brunt of the blast,

but we're frying out the emitters.

I don't know how much longer I can hold this.

Shut down the city, transfer all the power.

Yes, I'm trying.

Everyone that doesn't need to be here, get to the edge of the city.

Move! Everybody!

You're going to want to get out of here.

- John, I--
- teyla, please.

Come on, you can do it, radek.

It's going down. We're going to make it.

No... it's not enough.

To be continued