"This is interesting," Todd said, nodding appreciatively as he peered inside the fractured blue egg embellishing the Prior's staff. "I was not aware that the Ori were making use of our technology. This is a very good sign."

"Why?" asked Dr. Lee, prodding at the wraith substance surrounding the control crystal.

"Why?" Todd chuckled. "Why indeed. It may have slipped your notice that you are now working in conjunction with the leader of a fairly prominent wraith hive ship."

At Lee's still confused expression, Rodney sighed. "You know, for being a scientist, you can really be stupid sometimes."

"Being a wraith myself," Todd said with a sinister leer, "I am quite familiar with the technology. You have that to your advantage at least."

"All right, Dr. McKay, you have enough oxygen for several hours," said Colonel Caldwell as he settled into his seat on the Daedalus bridge, Sheppard and Dr. Lee at his side. "We're beaming you down."

Rodney gave a thumbs-up as best he could in the bulky gloves of the space suit. As he was beamed out of the ship and materialized in the Atlantis control room, he turned on his headlamp and shrugged. "Well, at least we picked a planet with gravity."

"Right," said Dr. Lee through the radio. "What you're going to do is head down to the ZPM control center –"

"I know what to do," McKay snapped. "Just give me a couple of hours. If I can't figure out what's wrong, then – maybe – I'll ask for your help. But don't get your hopes up. I'd have to be really desperate."

Dr. Lee was silent.

Rodney padded down the dark, echoing corridors until he reached the ZPM control center. "Planting charges," he announced as he fumbled with a block of C4, finally managing to stick it onto the door panel. He scurried around a corner and flicked the detonator shield off of the remote. "Detonating now." He squeezed his eyes closed, holding his hands to the sides of his space suit's helmet as if to cover his ears. "Why isn't anything happening?"

"Rodney," Sheppard said slowly, "I think you forgot to stick the detonator on."

"Oh. Right. That would be important with the, you know, detonating." He ran back, dug a small black box out of his pocket, and attached it to the plastic explosive molded on the door. Back around his corner, he repeated, "Detonating now," and activated the remote trigger.

The C4 ignited: when the dust cleared, the room was visible. "Wow," Rodney breathed as he scanned the charred remains of the chamber. "This is way worse than I thought. There's debris everywhere; the entire room's been burned.

"Turn on the camera," Sheppard ordered. When Rodney pressed a button on his helmet, the image of the room appeared on the Daedalus screens above. "It looks like someone set off a nuclear warhead in there! That's all from the overload?" he cried incredulously.

"This is way bigger than I expected. I'm pretty sure this is beyond repair."

"Pretty sure?"

"Are you seeing the same thing I am? I mean, it's bad," McKay said as he began brushing rubble aside. "I have to find the halon leak and flush out the life support on top of this." Suddenly he spotted a shock of orange amid the blackened shards of metal. "Look at this!" he cried. "The ZPMs are unharmed. If I can just reroute the power conduits – patch them through a new system and bypass the damaged bits – we should be up and running in no time."

"Good," said Colonel Caldwell. "Our long-range detectors just detected a ship headed straight for Atlantis. Looks like a hive ship."

"The wraith?" Rodney sputtered. "I thought they had problems of their own! Why are they attacking now?"

"I don't know, Doctor," Caldwell retorted, leaning over Major Marks' shoulder and examining the Daedalus sensors.

"But… it's only one hive ship, right? You guys can take that down in no time with you, you know, fancy Asgard weapons and stuff." He heard the subtle click of someone turning their radio to silent. "Right?" No one responded. "Right?" he yelped again, eyes darting anxiously about Atlantis' deserted corridors.

Caldwell finally responded. "Dr. McKay, I suggest you hurry. Major Marks just expanded the sensor grid and picked up three more blips two hours away."

"Oh, no," Rodney said. "No, no, no. Two hours, that's not nearly enough time!"

"You said we'd be up and running in no time," Sheppard butted in.

"Well, yes, but I was exaggerating!" McKay said, staring defiantly at the ceiling. "You of all people should know that at least 75 percent of what I say is exaggerated."

"85."

"You don't understand. I need new equipment, stuff you don't have with you on the Daedalus and I sure as hell don't have down here. I'm not a miracle worker; I can't just rebuild this city from the ashes!"

"What you think you can and can't do isn't my concern," Caldwell barked with an unsettling finality. "You have two hours. Fix it."

"Great," Rodney snapped, throwing his hands in the air. "This is great! Not only do I have to undo whatever Lee screwed up, I have absolutely no time to do it."

To settle McKay, Sheppard added, "We'll send a 302 back to Earth to get what you need. Just get to work, McKay."

The Daedalus passengers could just see one hive ship drawing closer and closer to the planet below. Colonel Caldwell watched, half curious and half suspicious, as Todd argued with Mr. Woolsey and Colonel Sheppard.

"They are not responding to my communication," Todd growled at the control station. "Why?"

"All the better," Mr. Woolsey interjected curtly, addressing Colonel Sheppard but seeming to ignore Todd's presence. "He could just as easily send the hives some secret code to incapacitate us and take Atlantis."

Todd threw a testy glance at Woolsey, his feeding hand flexing restlessly. "I assure you –"

"Your assurances mean nothing. Forgive me for being so adamant about my own personal safety."

"Come on, Woolsey," Sheppard interrupted. "Give it a rest." Ignoring his offended scoff, Sheppard turned to Todd. "Why isn't the hive responding?"

"I do not know," Todd said, turning his piercing gaze to the Daedalus window. "This… this is impossible." He paced quickly to the window, slapping Woolsey with the tail of his leather coat. "This ship is mine."

Sheppard narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "How can you tell?"

"There is an extra compartment along the hyperdrive core. It is unique to my ship. I…" He shrugged. "I may have borrowed some schematics during our last rendezvous."

Sheppard rolled his eyes. "I'll be angry about that later. So why is it coming to Atlantis?"

"I do not know," Todd said, shaking his head. "This was not by my orders."

Mr. Woolsey marched toward the window, his face contorted in alarm. "You mean to say that –"

"I mean to say nothing," Todd growled, bending his neck to stare imposingly down at Woolsey. "My ship was in geosynchronous orbit around the moon of a planet known to have been visited by the Ori. I was merely observing the planet's activity. It was very near M75-771; you must have seen it yourself when you flew my dart down to capture the Prior."

"How did it get here so quickly?" Sheppard demanded, stepping down to push his way between Todd and Woolsey.

Major Marks spoke up quickly. "Sir, the hive is powering weapons."

"We can't let them hit the city unprotected. Fire when ready," Caldwell called from his seat facing the window.

Todd stood completely still, his yellow-green eyes still focused on the window, neither sanctioning nor resisting the action.

The sound of weapons fire rang out. The lone hive ship continued on its course, seemingly unfazed by the Daedalus' attacks until an explosion filled the bridge with orange light. "Target is destroyed."

"Yes!" Rodney whispered and turned on his radio as the Atlantis lights faded in. "Colonel."

"Go ahead," answered Sheppard and Caldwell at the same time. They exchanged a glance; Caldwell shrugged apologetically and motioned for Sheppard to take charge.

"I've got it," McKay said. "The ZPMs aren't working yet, but at least I got the main power going. Doors, transport chambers, automatic lighting, etc. The air's breathable again, I got the all the halon filtered out."

"See," said Sheppard. "I told you you could do it."

"Can you activate the shield?" Caldwell asked quickly. "We still have three hives approaching."

Rodney sighed. "No, not without the ZPMs, and that system's almost completely fried. Sheppard, I…" He groaned, tossing down his tablet computer. "I need help."

Sheppard grinned mischievously. "What was that, McKay?"

"Just get Lee down here!" Rodney snapped.

Caldwell nodded to a Marine standing guard, who left to retrieve Dr. Lee. "We'll beam him down. But I should warn you, Dr. McKay –"

"I know, I know. An hour."

"We're still facing three hive ships, Doctor. Do your best."

McKay nodded resolutely. "I will."

"I just don't understand why the wraith would all of the sudden come running for Atlantis," Daniel said, raking a hand through his hair. "It doesn't make any sense – they have the Ori to deal with themselves, and even if they were trying to take over Atlantis, there wouldn't be any point. They don't have the Ancient gene, and they couldn't even get the gate to work." He glanced over at Vala, who was concentrating intently on her cup of blue Jell-O. "Seriously, Vala, don't you ever get tired of that stuff?"

Tilting her head in thought for a moment, she shrugged. "Nope!" she said, shoveling another spoonful into her mouth with a grin.

"Were you even listening?"

"Of course," she berated him with a smack on the shoulder. "You were talking about the wraith and why they want Atlantis something-or-other." She waved her spoon around as she spoke, "You know, Daniel, I believe I've finally perfected the art of listening when you're talking to yourself without actually having to participate in the conversation."

"Good for you," he said quickly. "But you have to admit that it really doesn't make any sense."

Vala shrugged. "Well, they must have some reason. It's not like they're running for Atlantis against their will."

Daniel was silent.

"What?" she asked. "Daniel? Hello? Wakey wakey!"

He caught the hand she waved in front of his eyes by the wrist. "Vala," he said slowly. "You might be right." Eyes unfocused but shifting quickly, calculating, he let go of her arm and stood up, running out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Unanswered, Vala sighed with a shrug, gulped down the last of her Jell-O, and followed him out.

"Colonel," Daniel cried as the doors to the bridge slid open. "Colonel Sheppard!" He stopped, resting his hands on his knees. "I figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Caldwell butted in, spinning his seat to face their new company.

"How much time do we have until the hives get here?"

"Just under forty-five minutes. Dr. Jackson, what's this about?"

"Get Todd in here. I think I know why the wraith are targeting Atlantis," Daniel said.

Sheppard nodded to a Marine standing to the side, who quickly left the bridge to retrieve Todd. "I'll contact McKay and Lee."

Major Marks interrupted their conversation, "Colonel Caldwell, there's another ship in range. I'm picking up an incoming transmission."

"Put it through," Caldwell ordered, turning to face the display screen as it flickered to life.

The face on the screen smiled in greeting. "What can I do to help?"

Sheppard's eyebrows shot upward. "Colonel Carter, this is a surprise."

"Same to you," she replied. "I thought you'd be down in Atlantis."

"Well… we had some minor technical difficulties. So, what's up?"

"We'd been trying to contact Atlantis for some time now, but our signal never went through, so we dropped in to see what the problem was. I finally managed to get Bill and Rodney on the radio. They said you guys could use some help."

"You can say that again," Caldwell scoffed. "We've got three hive ships on the way, and we have reason to believe they're running a collision course for Atlantis, prepared to attack anything in their way."

"And that's not it, Sam," Daniel interrupted, still standing by Sheppard. "We're recently discovered that the Ori have been taking wraith technology and splicing it with their own. I think –"

"My idea," Vala interrupted indignantly.

"We think," Daniel corrected with a sidelong glance, "that the wraith on the hive ships may not be in control. It's the Ori."

"That doesn't make any sense," Carter said, sitting at the chair in a Daedalus lab, the Prior staff on the table before her. Daniel sat by her side and Colonel Sheppard across the table, leaning back in his chair and silently watching them bicker. "Why would the Priors want to attack Atlantis?"

"That's exactly what I said. Look," Daniel said, his eyes slipping closed in thought. "Rodney said that the Ori have been utilizing certain frequencies which the wraith also use in radio signals, transmitters, et cetera. It makes sense that they could use their new knowledge of the wraith's technology to take over their ships."

"Well, yes, but –"

"Maybe it's a long shot," Daniel said, removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose, "but it makes more sense that the Ori would want to destroy Atlantis than the wraith."

A low, rumbling voice interrupted them. "I don't think they want to destroy it," Ronon said, leaning against the doorframe.

"So…" Carter invited him to continue. "Why are they doing it?"

"Maybe they don't know how the ships work," Ronon shrugged. "This isn't their endgame. If they wanted the city destroyed, they wouldn't have bothered using the wraith to do it."

"Then why are they?" Daniel said, throwing up his hands and leaning back in his chair.

"Then I doubt the Prior is in control any more."

Carter shook her head. "The only way for a Prior to relinquish control involuntarily would be if he no longer had his staff."

"Which is exactly what just happened," Sheppard said slowly, snapping to attention and sitting up straight. He tapped his radio. "Stackhouse, this is Sheppard."

"Go ahead, Colonel," Stackhouse responded through the radio.

"Is the Prior from M75-771 in Holding?"

"Yes, sir. I've got a full security team guarding the cell."

"Thank you." Sheppard turned back to the group. "P3X-447 is in the same solar system as M75-771. It's a wraith homeworld. The sensors picked up three ships orbiting it when we arrived."

Carter's eyes widened. "You think the Prior hijacked the ships orbiting P3X-447."

"When the Prior saw us, he must have recognized where we were from and sent off whatever ships he could reach," Sheppard said. "And since we smashed his staff, he can't tell them to stop in orbit when they get there. That would explain Todd's ship, too. He was in the area keeping an eye on the other hives when Teyla contacted him."

"That does make sense," Carter admitted.

The group exchanged glances. "Time?" Sheppard asked.

Daniel checked his watch. "Thirty-five minutes."

"Well," he said, standing up and brushing his pants off, "It looks like I've got some interrogating to do."