- "Experimental Jumper. Remember when I was zapped by that machine a few months ago, and I got, well, even smarter than I normally am?"
"The one that almost killed you? Yeah."
"Well, before I was reset, I was very close to giving one of our puddle jumpers a hyperdrive." - ―Dr. Rodney McKay and Lt. Colonel John Sheppard[src]
The Experimental Jumper is a Puddle Jumper modified in 2007 by Dr. Rodney McKay to use a hyperdrive. It was instrumental in the Battle to save Atlantis, allowing the Atlantis expedition to steal a Zero Point Module from Asuras and re-power Atlantis.
Crew[]
Commanding officer
Known crew
History[]
In 2007, when Dr. Rodney McKay was in the process of ascension, he created a virtual prototype for a Hyperspace generator for Puddle Jumpers and, before he was reset, was close to giving a jumper one. (SGA: "Tao of Rodney", "Adrift")
A few months later, when Atlantis was flying adrift in deep space without nearly any power (and moving too fast to use its Stargate), Dr. McKay and Dr. Radek Zelenka completed the hyperdrive and installed it on this Jumper in a desperate attempt to find and retrieve a Zero Point Module. However, they were not sure of its performance, hoping that it would last at least two jumps; Dr. Zelenka estimated its range to be at least 2,000 light years. One of the planets in range happened to be Asuras, homeworld of the local human-form Replicators, which is known to have a number of ZPMs. (SGA: "Adrift")
Piloted by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and manned by Dr. McKay, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, and Ronon Dex, the Experimental Jumper was able to reach Asuras, but the hyperspace jump used up much more power than expected, preventing the spaceship from returning to Atlantis unless they found a replacement power source, such as a ZPM. With help from Dr. Weir, who was able to link into the Asuran subspace network through nanites that were in her organism, they found and successfully stole a lightly guarded ZPM.
After that, Dr. McKay convinced the team to access the central data core in order to unlock the Asurans’ directives to fight the Wraith. Despite his objections, Lt. Colonel Sheppard landed the Jumper on the building that housed the core. The space was then secured using an Anti-Replicator field that was converted from the Jumper’s cloak and extended deep enough to cover the data core, allowing the team to successfully hack into the Asuran code. However, after repeated attempts, the Asurans managed to adapt and breach the field, and as the team tried to escape, Dr. Weir had to sacrifice herself in order to stall the Asurans and was captured.
Back on the Experimental Jumper, Dr. McKay tried to connect the ZPM so they could power the hyperdrive, but had been unable to do it in time as the Jumper was intercepted by an Asuran cruiser. Fortunately, the Apollo arrived and drew fire from the Asuran ship. The Jumper landed in one of the Apollo’s hangar bays, and the Tau’ri ship brought it back to Atlantis where the ZPM was finally installed. The Jumper’s subsequent fate is unknown; it was never shown to be used again. (SGA: "Lifeline")
Major campaigns[]
- Battle to save Atlantis
- Raid on Asuras
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