Exactly three hours later, they all came to the briefing room, looking chipper and refreshed – some a bit more chipper or refreshed than others. Jack was the last to arrive, and he took the spot next to Carter without comment, giving her a slight smile and nodding a greeting to the others. Sam smiled, and almost reached out and put her hand on his thigh in welcome – before she realized just how incredibly inappropriate that would have been and stopped herself. Blushing furiously, she turned her attention on the papers in front of her – hastily scribbled notes about the technology they'd managed to sort out so far.

"All right, people," Jack said, bringing them to order, even though they were already all watching him. Carson Beckett had joined the meeting and was seated beside Melony on her right, while Kale was on her left. Daniel was beside Elizabeth, who was between him and Rodney McKay, and Sheppard had the other side of Jack, with Teyla beside him and Teal'c next to her. "What do we got?"

"We've got a serious problem, Jack," Daniel said, somberly. "As far as Elizabeth and I have been able to figure out, the Wraith know about Atlantis – and are headed this way."

"What? How many?"

"All of them," Weir said, folding her hands on the table in front of her. "Apparently the patrol that Colonel Mitchell killed – the ones she stole the first darts from – were an advanced party, looking for feeding grounds along the way… the way here."

"Why are they coming here?" Teyla asked, feeling a slight tremor go through her at the thought of all the Wraith heading this direction. "Atlantis has a small population compared to other planets, and-"

"They know about Earth," Daniel interrupted. "Actually, what they know is that Atlantis is the key to finding an abundant feeding ground. We couldn't tell if they know Earth is that place, or if they're just hoping to catch someone here and force them to tell them…"

Mitchell scowled.

"How would they know about Earth? None of your people have been captured by them, have they?"

"Only Colonel Sumner," Weir said, softly.

"He wouldn't have said anything," Jack said.

"He might not have had to…" Weir replied, her eyes clearly showing that she understood Jack's pain at the loss of his friend and his denial that Sumner would have said anything to give away the people that he'd sworn to protect so long ago. "The Wraith can't exactly read minds, but they can get distorted images, or ideas… if they're in contact with a person long enough."

"That makes sense," Melony said, feeling just as sick as Jack looked. "Talon says that when a Wraith feeds, he or she actually blends with that person for a moment. I suppose that during that time they'd be able to pick something up from them."

Daniel nodded.

"Sam and Doctor McKay have been able to track their progress with one o the devices they found on the dart they've torn apart – I'll let her tell you more about that – but it's looking like we only have a matter of weeks or maybe a month before they get here…"

"They'll destroy Atlantis to try and get to Earth," Weir said.

"We'll destroy it if that's what it takes to keep them away," Jack told her, firmly. Mitchell nodded her agreement. "The Stargate here is the only one that goes to Earth in the entire system, right?"

"Yes," McKay said. "Because of the crystal that-"

Jack held up his hand to stop him.

"We can't allow them to take Atlantis, General," Carter said.

"No, we can't." Jack said. "Gather up your people, Doctor Weir, we're heading back to Earth."

"What?"

"Jack, wait."

"Daniel…" O'Neill looked across the table at the archeologist, and understood why he looked so stricken, but there wasn't anything he could do about that. "We can't defend Atlantis. It'd take an army, and we're… oh… one army short of having an army here."

"But we can't just give them Atlantis. There's so much here that we haven't had a chance to see, to explore. We-"

"We're not going to give them anything, Daniel. We're going to destroy it. And we'll take that crystal thing of McKay's with us to make sure it doesn't survive."

"But-"

"I'm not going to sacrifice Earth to save one city, Daniel."

"But-"

"There must be something we can do besides blow up Atlantis," McKay said, looking just as stricken at the thought of losing the city as Daniel had – and he'd had a lot more time to explore it.

"I'm willing to listen to ideas," Jack said, leaning back in his chair. "But the Wraith can't have Atlantis – or that crystal thing."

"Well, obviously a head on battle is out of the question," Mitchell said, leaning back as well. "I don't know exactly how many of them there are, but there's a lot more of them than there are us."

She didn't really want to give up Atlantis, either, but she was in agreement with Jack. Better to lose one city than a whole planet. Especially when that planet was Earth.

"Maybe we could trick them into going somewhere besides here…" Daniel said. "Make them think a different planet is the feeding grounds that they've heard of."

"I'm not going to send them to some other planet filled with people that have no idea what's coming," Weir objected.

"A deserted planet," Daniel said.

"Why would they want to go there?"

Daniel shrugged helplessly.

"Maybe if Melony and Teal'c somehow told them that there were more like them… on this deserted planet. The Wraith don't need to know it's deserted…" He was grasping at straws, now, and they all knew it.

"First of all," Jack said, scowling. "I'm not sure how we'd let the Wraith know that. And-"

"We could figure that out," McKay said, interrupting.

Jack's scowl deepened.

"Second of all, we don't have any more Teal'c's and Colonel Mitchell's. Just them. One Teal'c, one Mitchell."

"You're wrong," Daniel said, suddenly looking excited and sitting up straighter in his chair when a moment before he'd been slumped over in defeat. "There's a whole bunch of them. A huge army of them! The Wraith are drawn to Melony and Teal'c because of their symbiotes. What about using the Jaffa?"

Now it was Melony's turn to scowl as the rest of the people in the room all turned to her, various expressions of surprise on their faces. None of them had even considered the Jaffa, but now that Daniel brought it up, it seemed that there must be some way to use Mitchell's army of warriors. Except Melony didn't look at all pleased that it had even been brought up.

"Absolutely not," she said, flatly.