Fleeing from a surprise encounter with the Wraith Major Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) falls victim to an alien symbiote which is feeding off his life force and slowly paralyzing him. While speeding back to Atlantis for medical aid the team gets trapped halfway through the Stargate when the puddle jumper damaged in the altercation with the Wraith suffers a mechanical failure. With only thirty-eight minutes before the Stargate shuts down Lieutenant Ford (Rainbow Sun Francks) and Dr. McKay (David Hewlett) struggle to manually fix the problem. As the clock ticks away the Atlantis team must come together or perish in the harsh vacuum of space.