Aurora (episode)

"Aurora" is the ninth episode of the second season of Stargate Atlantis.

Plot
The episode begins in the mess hall of Atlantis, where two people play chess, while Ronon watches them. Dr. Weir comes to him and they have an embarassing misunderstanding, then Dr. McKay calls her, saving her from further embarassment. In the command center, McKay shows her and Sheppard a galactic map, which shows the sign of the Ancient ship Aurora, activated by subspace beacon transmitted when they installed the ZPM. Because there is no other way to reach it, the team decides to use the Daedalus to fly to the ship's position, although Col. Caldwell at first wants to take this mission alone, but Weir refuses and insists Sheppard and his team pursue the mission.

When they reach the Ancient vessel, the Aurora, they detect a Wraith scout ship--which they, however, quickly destroy when it comes near them. Afterward, they reach the Aurora, which is badly damaged, so Sheppard's team has to wear space suits when they beam on it. After looking around, they hundreds of stasis pods, which contain members of the crew. After Rodney activates the Aurora's life support, he determines that although the pod systems have kept the crew alive for a very long time, they will eventually die if they are awakened, because although their aging has been drastically slowed, it has not been stopped--and over the course of ten thousand years, their bodies have become very aged. McKay also detects cortical activity, and concludes that their minds must also be connected to each other, and that they are collectively experiencing and interacting in a virtual environment. To communicate with the Ancients, Rodney decides to use an empty stasis pod to connect himself to the link between the Ancients, but Teyla appeals to McKay's ego, Sheppard decides go in instead.

In stasis, Sheppard finds himself in a virtual environment on a simulated Aurora. He is soon confronted by an Ancient and brought before the captain, but it turns out that none of them seem to know that they are in stasis. Sheppard is then brought into a cell, where he tells them about Atlantis today, and that the Ancients lost the war against the Wraith. The Aurora captain doesn't believe Sheppard, and declares he has information about a weakness in Wraith technology. Afterwards, he leaves. Sheppard then disconnects from the virtual environment and informs Rodney and Caldwell about what he has learned, and reenters the virtual environment. In the meantime, the Daedalus detects two Wraith cruisers--which will reach them within the hour.

In the virtual environment, Sheppard talks with the first officer, whom he again tries to persuade that what he says is true--she says that she will inform the captain. However, it turns out that she says she has been ordered to ignore him, so Sheppard escapes the cell by momentarily disconnecting, then reentering the environment and taking a weapon from the guard who has entered the cell to investigate his vanishing. Outside, Teyla and Ronon search through the ship and find a woman outside the stasis pods who had been killed by a Wraith, who had subsequently linked with the virtual enivronment and Rodney and Sheppard later surmise--due to her uncooperative conduct--that the Wraith is masquerading as the first officer. It turns out that the Wraith also found the ship once it became active, and reconfigured the system. Because they can't risk killing Sheppard, Rodney searches for a way to disconnect the Wraith "manually".

Sheppard, meanwhile, finds the captain's room and tries to convince him that what he says is true, but he is stunned by the first officer, who again convinces the captain that they have other things to do. Outside, Rodney decides to link himself to the virtual environment in order to warn Sheppard, but he is also arrested once he has entered it. Meanwhile, Teyla and Ronon prevent Caldwell "stall" fim from learning about McKay's entrance into the virtual environment; Caldwell wants to destroy Aurora and leave before the Wraith get there. In the virtual cell, Rodney informs Sheppard what they have learned, and Sheppard concludes that the first officer is Wraith. Rodney then is able to free them and even stun two of the guards. Outside the virtual environment, Teyla is forced to tell Caldwell the truth, but they decide to wait as long as possible.

On the virtual Aurora, Rodney finds out that the Wraith has deleted the important information about the weakness in the Wraith technology from the Aurora's computer files and they conclude that the Wraith is deceiving the Aurora crew into divulging the secrets of the intergalactic type of hyperspace drive--so that the Wriath can reach Earth, their new, sought-after "feeding ground".

When Rodney covertly catches a glimpse of the first officer, he comments that she is really "hot" (played by Canadian actress Pascale Hutton) and Sheppard chides him for 'drooling' over someone who is, in fact, Wraith. While Sheppard proceeds once more to speak with the captain, Rodney disconnects himself and then moves to physically disconnect the Wraith interloper. As Sheppard is trying to convince the captain and bridge crew that the first officer is really Wraith, Rodney unplugs the Wraith, thereby causing the female first officer to be revealed for what 'she' really is, in front of the captain and crew--and then causing 'her' to disappear from the virtual environment. This convinces the crew of the Aurora that Sheppard is obviously telling the truth. The (male) Wraith awakens in the real world, none too pleased, and as Rodney is standing next to the stasis pod containing the Wraith, he runs for his life while emptying the magazine of his sidearm at the Wraith.

Meanwhile, Sheppard talks with the captain, who now believes him, but it turns out that he doesn't know the contents of the communiqué about the Wraith weakness--it is lost forever. He decides to help Sheppard destroy the two Wraith cruisers. Sheppard disconnects just in time to finish off the furious, already-wounded Wraith who had been hunting Rodney. The two Wraith cruisers arrive, and Sheppard and Rodney are beamed aboard the Daedalus. Sheppard then reveals that the captain of the Aurora gave him his self-destruct codes. The Daedalus flees--and, as the Aurora explodes, the explosion also destroys both Wraith cruisers.

Back in Atlantis, the team informs Weir about what has happened--and at the request of the Aurora captain, they drink a champagne toast to the crew of the Aurora.