The three hijackers turned out to be androids who had taken the form of three dead crewmen. Demanding that the crew of the Atlantis heal the so-called Creators, they kept control of the ship firmly in their metallic hands. This stalemate was broken when the leader of the androids, who had taken the form of crewman Zhora, discussed their situation with Commander Torn. Contact with the away team was lost, and Zhora had to answer for it. The android recognised the place where sensors had last seen the away team; it was where the Creators were supposed to be. When Torn informed Zhora that there were no Creators there, the death of the Creators became a fact to Zhora as well. This fact clashed with his programming, which said that the Creators couldn't be dead. Unable to cope with this contradiction in his programming, Zhora crashed to the ground, dead.
Zhora's death sent a signal to the other two androids, who upon receiving the signal, deactivated as well... But not before typing in the access code that would restore control of the Atlantis to the crew. Meanwhile, the ship's EMH and Medical Orderly Zimmerman discovered that the virus that had killed the Creators was synthetic; it had been created by the Creators themselves. Their own biological weapon, it appeared, had killed them. While the crew on the Atlantis is tidying up after the androids, there is still the matter of the lost away team on the surface. Believed to be dead, they are actually still very much alive...