Plot
The newest Earth warship, Apollo, arrives at Atlantis. Its commander, Abe Ellis (Michael Beach), informs the Expedition that recon missions have discovered the Asurans building ships on their homeworld, which the IOA believe will be used to attack Earth. As the ships are built from only conventional materials, Apollo has been assigned to destroy them in a preemptive strike, using the new "Horizon" weapons delivery system. Apollo successfully carries out the mission over the objections of Weir (Torri Higginson), who feels her authority being increasingly sidelined.
Soon after Apollo returns to Atlantis, the Asurans retaliate by launching a Stargate satellite that fires an energy beam, disabling the Apollo before zeroing in on Atlantis. The beam will deplete the city's shield in just under 30 hours, and with the satellite and its active Stargate over the city, the Expedition cannot evacuate using their own Stargate. McKay (David Hewlett) and Zelenka (David Nykl) submerge the city to mitigate the effect of the beam, but this only buys them nine more hours before the city is destroyed.
Realizing that the only way to save Atlantis is to move the city out of the satellite's range, McKay and Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) decide to use their one Zero Point Module and the geothermal power station found in "Submersion" to power the stardrive. Lorne (Kavan Smith) and a squadron of F-302s are sent to temporarily block the beam using a large moon fragment, so that shield power can be redirected into the stardrive. However, the beam resumes as the city lifts off, briefly grazing the central tower before the shield can be restored. Weir is severely injured and is taken to the infirmary by Beckett's replacement, Jennifer Keller (Jewel Staite). Atlantis jumps into hyperspace, but the stardrive unexpectedly shuts down well before they reach their destination. McKay realizes that they are marooned in deep space, with only 24 hours before the shield runs out of power and the city's occupants are exposed to space.
Read more about this topic: First Strike (Stargate Atlantis)
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“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
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“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)