Judith was waiting in the chair room when Sheppard arrived, "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard! You must hurry, they will attack at any moment!"

"Who?" Sheppard demanded, resisting her attempt to usher him into the chair device.

She blinked, "Our greatest enemy comes. They are outside, right now, waiting to destroy us! We must defend Atlantis!"

"What are they waiting for?" Sheppard asked.

Judith blinked, then smiled as if someone had pressed a "reset" button on her mood, "Please help us, we're running out of time! Do not let them slaughter us!" Her eyes were big and blue and shining. They were also now filling with water.

A dull roar of an explosion could be heard over the oddly pleasant alarm and the sleepy intercom voice.

Damn it! Sheppard glared at no one in particular. He sighed and sat in the chair. If these people were so bent on battle, he might as well be the one at the controls of the powerful Ancient weapon.

A HUD appeared in front of him, showing the attacking vessel. The ship was lumpy and vaguely organic. Sheppard immediately recognized it as a Wraith design, albeit an unusual one.

Judith gazed at the HUD wide-eyed, "it's so big!"

Sheppard mostly ignored her, concentrating instead on guiding the tracking system that would control the drones. Or, that should have.

"One?" Sheppard demanded, "there's only one active drone left!"

"We did not know there should be more!" Judith exclaimed, looking terrified.

"Well," Sheppard closed his eyes, "if that's all we've got, let's make it count."

Judith's mouth dropped open as she pointed to the ship on the HUD, "They're headed right for us!"

Several large explosions shook the room as Sheppard fired.


"Hmm," McKay said.

"What is it?" Teyla asked tiredly.

"What?" Rodney looked up, "oh, uh, probably nothing. Just a glitch, I'm sure."

"All right," Lorne decided, "it's been half an hour and all we've got is a glitch. We're going back down to the planet."

"But…this is a major discovery!" Rodney protested, "not only for astronomy, but think of the practical applications! If we could design a star drive that does what this cloud can do naturally…"

"We'd probably blow ourselves up," Ronon interrupted grimly, "and we'd be no closer to finding Sheppard."

Teyla nodded, "perhaps we can come back later. Every moment that we spend here, Colonel Sheppard might be in greater danger."

"He's probably just found himself an alien princess and lost track of time," McKay muttered, but started to put away his scientific equipment.

"On the off-chance that's not the case," Lorne remarked dryly, "how quickly can we scan the planet?"

"With these sensors, it could take days," Rodney sighed, "and of course, there's no guarantee that he's even still on the planet. It could just be a massive waste of time."

Ronon bristled, "you'd leave him out there so you could study some cloud?"

"That's not fair," Rodney protested, "I'm just as worried as anyone. And the cloud's dissipating anyway. All I'm saying is that we need a better plan."

"Uh," Lorne frowned, "are you sure it's dissipating?"

"Yes," Rodney snapped, "why?"

BAM! The jumper rocked sharply back and forth, throwing everyone against the walls.

"What the hell was that?" Rodney yelped at Lorne, rubbing his head.

"You tell me!" Lorne wrestled, "It came out of the cloud!"

Ronon glared out at the cloud, "it felt like something hit us."

"What?" Rodney cried, "We're all that's out here! Unless…ohh." He looked thoughtfully concerned, "wait…uh oh." He grabbed the back of Lorne's seat and cried, "Get us out of here! That's not a cloud!"

"What do you mean?" Lorne asked, tilting the jumper away from the glowing gases.

"I mean," Rodney exclaimed, "that it's not a cloud, it's a cloak, and whatever is in the cloak wants us vaporized!"

Lorne twisted the jumper around and out of harm's way just as a finger of gases shot out of the cloud. Instead of dissipating as it stretched, however, it followed the jumper.

"It's gaining on us!" Lorne reported loudly.

"Well, go faster!" Rodney yelled.

The jumper started to rattle.

"What's going on?" called one of the men in the back on the comm.

That's when the walls seemed to turn inside-out.