"So, no one has suffered any hallucinations for approximately 10 hours." " Is that correct?" " That is correct." "Well, again, we apologize for... the bad batch of halos, folks." "But Flight Surgeon has assured us that by this time... your bloodstreams should be free of psychotropics." "We understand." "Claire can't assure them of anything, Mike." "You know that." "The caveat, of course, being... that everyone's biochemistry is different." "So if any of you do experience further hallucinations... in all likelihood they will be slight and of no cause for alarm." "Roger that." "Then what's the final word on our science funding?" "I second that question." "Yeah." "The lawyers and comptrollers are into it." "We'll figure out something to keep you guys working." "Oh, that's great, 'cause the nearest unemployment office... is 30 million kilometers away." "And I hear the lines are killer." "So, dudes, I'm glad you're all back down from your trip..." " but we got a lot of work to do." " Roger that." "Venus is only a week away, people." "I need to see you busy." "We're on it." "You guys heard the man." "We're all buying that the halos were the problem?" " Till proven otherwise." " Do you have a better explanation?" "I don't know." "Do you?" "No." "But I've got a backup in the head." "Urine bypass valve on toilet 2 won't open." "Come on." "I'm an aerospace engineer, not a plumber." "Funny, you look like a plumber." "Aplumber who needs a shave." "If I was a plumber, I'd be making more money." "Fine." "Goss wants us busy, I'll get busy." "All right, Paula." "You ready?" "Two hours in the hyperbaric chamber, then an hour of physiotherapy." "Let's go." "Well, it's only three hours out of your day." "We're all gonna be working our asses off." "So you could just... sneak away and practice the lander and nobody would even notice." "How are they doing?" "I'm seeing an occasional spike, but they're all pretty stable." "Think we sold them on the halos?" "Pretty sure Ev believes it." "Ted's handling Donner." "Just give me a few days where nothing happens." "When do you tell them?" "November 5, day after the election." "Why are you turning off the comm?" "This is between you and me." "The halos didn't cause those hallucinations, and you know it." "Nadia, Mission Control already explained what happened." "I've never worn my HALO, and I was hallucinating as bad as anyone." "Ted, I'm second-in-command." "I need to know what's going on." "I need to know what I'm doing!" "What you're doing, Nadia, is programming the Venus insertion burn." " Not if I'm being lied to." " No one is lying to you." "Now program the burn." "And that's a command." "I suppose there's a kind of comfort in following orders." "All you have to do is exactly what you're told to do." "It's effortless." "It's mindless." "And it completely absolves you of any responsibility" "unless you get a conscience." "Well, frankly, I'm a little freaked out." "I mean, six years without a HALO?" "It's like jumping without a parachute." "Prayers and pure thoughts are not gonna stop you from hittin' the ground." "It's not the halos." "If they were causing the hallucinations, you and Wass would've seen something." "That's not true." "I mean, listen, Zoe." "I was one of those people that never got off on weed." "So put yours back on." "I'm not allowed to." "Rollie thinks they're dangerous." "But seriously, you guys have no idea how weird you all were." "I'm still weird, Jen." "You know how I was telling you I'm having strange dreams?" "Well, we're in a strange environment." "We're gonna have bad dreams." "Dream - one dream." "Over and over." "So?" "Donner's been having it too." "Eve said we had no choice but to leave them." " How the hell would she know?" " I'm trying to tell you." "She has freaky high clearance, complete access to the archives." " And she looked at everything?" " Yeah- telemetry, cockpit tapes, readings from the E.V.A. Packs." "Donner, Sharon and Walker weren't gonna make it." " I hate to admit it, but Goss was right." " Yeah, I don't buy it." "She just took a huge monkey off of our backs." "Your back maybe." "Nobody talked to me." "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" "She show you any proof?" " No, I believe her." " So why don't they go public with it, huh?" "Share it with the world?" "That'd make my life a lot easier." "You and I both know they have their reasons." "She flirt with you, Ted?" " She's working you, Ted." "I don't trust her." "Neither should you." "Ah, the morning after." " Please don't shout." " I'd ask you how you are, but that's kind of self-evident." " Hey, listen, about last night- the, uh, rule thing" "Didn't we already say too much last night?" "Yeah, we did." "I just wasn't sure if you'd remember any of it." "Well, clearly you are a rule breaker and I am a rule follower." "So" "I have rules about all kinds of things- you know, taking out the garbage... buying clothes" "I have a rule about, you know, not wearing eyeliner under my eye... because it makes me look like an albino goth whore." "Yuh-huh." "Do you see any eyeliner under my eye?" " No." " No." "That is because it is a rule." "You are free to, uh, break as many rules as you like." " And I am free to follow mine." "Yeah." " Yeah?" " Okay." " Okay." "Good morning." "Oh, well, there he is." "Dr. No-show." "Well, you know, I'm glad I didn't show up." "You guys look a mess." "I tried calling you." "You could've" " I don't know- picked up." "Jen, I know." "I got pulled into a meeting, and I turned my "G" off." " I'm sorry." " Well, you know, I do still have the costume." "So I could always put it on." " Mmm." " Drop by your place." "We could do a little trick-or-treating." "Mmm." "Except I don't think you're gonna feel like... doing anything tonight after today." "How so?" "Okay, listen up!" "You got 10 minutes to finish getting dressed, get down to the track." "Run a 5K, assemble in the stands." "Let's go." "Space is an unforgiving mistress." "One mistake at the wrong time, you die." "That's the reason we have a chain of command." "That's the reason you follow orders." "Now, Donner and Shaw are standing behind me today... because they have learned this lesson." "In a critical time, they did what they were ordered to do." "And that is what we are gonna teach you to do now." " All gotta be about Mars." " For the next 12 hours" " Just let it go, brother." " All we want you to do is follow orders." "We say run, you run." "Push the red button, you push the red button." "An order is an order." "We say it, you do it." "No questions, no comments." "You will be evaluated solely on your capacity to obey." "Is that clear?" "Stand up." "Excellent." "Run another 5K, then report to the manual training facility." "I think they're trying to kill us, man." "Oh!" "Ajay, go to comm 6." "I need some private plumbing advice." " Never work with your mouth open." " That's very funny." "You didn't have anything to do with the design of this thing, did you?" "Subcontractor." "They made a fortune." "Uh, listen." "Do you have any clue what's going on?" "I'm not in the loop." " There's a loop, though, right?" " Affirmative." "Goss, Eve, Claire... and I believe Rollie." " Yeah, this HALO thing's ball cock." " Agreed." "Any suggestions?" "What would be our course of action, Maddux?" "There's nothing to do now but follow orders." "That's not very helpful." "Everyone stand." "Take a deep breath and hold it." "You're all stressed." "You're all tired." "And now I want you to think." "The task at hand is to simply duplicate a sequence of lit pads that's presented to you." "Follow the computer's lead." "Is that clear?" "What happens if we screw up?" "You just exhaled, Mr. Wassenfelder." "Go out and run a 2K." "A-Are you serious?" "I'm as serious as I can possibly be." "Let's go, Wass." "Move it." "Group, exhale." " Would anyone like to go first?" "Candidate Barnes." "Excellent." "Monkey could do that, right?" "We're also testing your determination." "You may find in your careers as astronauts... that there are orders that you must obey that cause you distress." "Regardless of pain, regardless of outcome, you must proceed." "This test requires that you proceed." " That's enough." " 2K, then report back." "Candidate Schilling." " What was for lunch?" " Oh, roast turkey... mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce... and pecan pie right out of the oven- in my head." "Ah." " How's plumbing?" " It's uncooperative." "Although it's just busy work to keep our minds off other things." "I talked toJen about our dream." "Not the details, just that we were having it." "And?" " She still believes it's the halos." " Ajay doesn't." "He thinks, uh, they're keeping something from us." "So what do we do?" "I don't know." "I don't know what we can do." "Just fix the toilet and follow orders." "Should be easy for you." "You're a rule follower, right?" "What's that?" "Is that your hallucination?" "What is it?" "Okay, you don't have to tell me what it is." "Can you tell me where it's coming from?" "Here." "In this bay." "Up there." "Pod 4." "Uh, Flight, I'm showing the storage pods being rotated." " You have it on the watch list." "I'm reporting." " Copy that." "Thank you." "Put the storage bay up." "Donner and Barnes." "Donner, whatever you're doing in the storage bay, they're watching." "Copy that, Ajay." "Can you stay on this comm with us?" "We're getting warm." "It's in there." "Huh." "Here, you try." "That's weird." "Ajay, can you pull up... the manifest for pod 4?" "I'd like to know what the hell is in there." "Yeah." "Let me see what I can do." "I don't know what led them there, but they're trying to get in." "You have to do whatever it takes to stop them, Commander." "Get their minds off it." " Put them to work." " Copy that." "Heading down to the bay." "He needs to handle Donner." "He'll try." "Let's clear the press gallery." "I'm going downstairs." " Did we just lap you?" " A couple times." "Oh!" "12K in one day." "Oh, it's a miracle I'm still breathing." "There are no miracles." "There's only karma." "Well, until a few weeks ago, my karma was living on rice and jelly... just so I wouldn't have to walk the three blocks to the store." "So if I'm not dead right now, it's either a miracle or reincarnation." "Taking orders is ass." "For a chance at this mission, I'm an order whore." "Oh, space is the trade-off for free will, huh?" "Well, if you believe in destiny, taking orders is free will." "Oh, he's too deep for me." "Damn, girl." "You know, you might want to pace yourself." "We do have 2K to go." " Last night teach you nothin'?" " Yeah." "If you don't mind the barfing and the hangover... mixing painkillers and tequila is a quick way to lose five pounds." "Look, I'm serious." "You've been through a lot." "You might want to go easy on yourself for half a minute." " More to life than this mission, you know?" " Not for me." "Not anymore." "Hey." "I'm sorry Goss put you through that this morning- the Mars business." "Guess everybody seems to think that we did the right thing but me... which seems kind of strange since I was actually there." "For what it's worth, I tried to find you last night, but you'd already left the building." "I had no motive in telling Ted first." "Except my reputation for being difficult?" " He says you don't believe me." " No." "It's nothing personal." "If you have data, I'd love to review it." "But, uh, I was told we saw everything." "There are certain classified materials that were withheld." "I'm not permitted to give you the reason why." "And I'm just supposed to take you at your word?" "Yes." "Eve, what exactly is it that you do here?" "I understand you're involved in astronaut selection for some reason." " But I'm a little fuzzy on why." " I'm employed by the Bertran Corporation." "We have three trillion dollars invested in this mission." "Trillion?" "With a "T"?" "Well, I guess you could make some money in oil back in the day, huh?" "We'll be deeply involved in mining rights throughout the solar system." "My job is to protect our investment... which means making sure we have the best astronauts on board." "And although Goss may not agree..." "I feel strongly that that includes both you and Ted." "So, yes, I went in." "I had to make sure you guys were clean." "And you are." "End of story." "I followed Mike Goss's order." "So if that makes me clean in your eyes, that's terrific." "But my gut tells me that Walker and Lewis could've made it and should've made it." "So until I see something that shows me different... that's what I'm gonna believe." "Pick it up!" " Stand up." "Extend your arms in front of you." "This is round two." "For our final exercise, we'll be testing your capacity to follow orders... that bring distress to someone else." "Candidates Sharma and Barnes, please drop your arms." "Sharma at the console, Barnes in the chair opposite." "Drop your arms and sit." "It's like the Milgram experiment." " I don't know it. - 20th-century obedience-to-authority study." "It was inspired by the Nazi atrocities in World War II. "I was only following orders."" "Yeah, but in Milgram, the subjects faked the pain." "This is more sadistic." "Proceed, Mr. Sharma." " Zoe, I" " Do it." "Get it over." " But I" " Do it." "The test requires that you proceed, Mr. Sharma." "I can handle it, Ajay." "This is what you have to do." " Hello, Princess." " Where's Paula?" " With Mintz." " Finished." " Her bay?" " Empty." " The galley." " Nada." " Bathroom?" " Still not working." " Oh, the can is really important, dude." "Paula." "Check the lander." "Is this how you unravel the mysteries of the universe?" "Well, Einstein played the violin when he was stuck." "I just like to annihilate mutants." "Hey, careful with her thumb!" "And my glasses!" "So aggressive." " Pod 4" "Pod 4 is surplus, medical and dried rations... uh, circuit boards." " Little of everything." " I should be able to get into that." "Yes, everyone should." "It's probably a glitch in the scanners." "Did you guys try one of the other pods?" "No." "Now I'm feeling a little stupid." " Donner?" " Yeah, Ajay?" "All I'm showing in pod 4 is surplus." "In fact, it remained empty until the very last cargo delivery." "Does it say who made the delivery?" "Uh, according to the payload records, the Bertran Corporation." "You want to tell me where you're going, Donner?" "We knew five years ago that Bertran was a major player in this mission." " Now you're grasping at straws, Donner." " Okay." "Let's open up the pod, take a look." " There's nothing but surplus in there." " Is that according to Eve?" " It's on the manifest." "Ask Paula." " I don't have to ask Paula." "We can open up the pod, and I can see for myself." "Why are you being so bullheaded?" "It's classified, Donner." "Classified." "You know what that means?" "I'm not gonna open it until they tell me to." "Now that's all you're gonna get from me." "Whatever you got in there is endangering your crew." "And you know that and I know that, whether you're willing to say it out loud or not." "A couple of us could've died yesterday, and we deserve to know why." "I like Eve." "I was best man at the wedding, remember?" "But she's got you carrying a pretty heavy load right now... and I think it's about time you started sharing it." "Screw the orders." "Do what you know is right for the mission." "Flight, that's a NOAA warning." "Solar Terrestrial Dispatch." "Ship's proton sensor panels are activating." "Active region 106-niner-6." "Approaching central solar meridian." "We are looking at a major X-class event." " Solar flare!" " Give me an E.T.A. To the ship." " Intercept, seven minutes." " This isn't Beta." " No." "We have substantial coronal mass ejection with intense proton activity, X-class, 2.3." "Antares, you have six minutes, 35 seconds to shut down and get to a radiation shelter." " This is a big one." " Copy that." " I've got the lab. - Lander bay." " Flight deck." "Already on it, Donner." "But I could use some help." " Mintz?" " On it." "Med bay is shutting down." " Wass, let's go!" " Just putting dishes away in crew quarters." "Closing the lab." "Shutting down all nonessential circuits." " Okay, that's the fire alarm." "Everybody out." "Remain calm." "Follow me." "Oh, God." "I am so sorry." "It's all right." "Come on." "We gotta go." " Okay, this way!" "Come on!" "Single file!" "Keep it moving." " People, let's go!" " I don't know which way to go." " Let's go!" " Single file." "This way." " The exit's this way!" " No!" " The exit's this way!" "You're taking us the wrong way!" "Wass!" "Straight!" "Straight!" " This way!" "Up the stairs!" " We should be going down!" "Why are we going up?" " Keep moving." "Single file." " Let's go!" " Look out for one another." " Straight up." "Straight up." " Faster!" "Let's go!" " All right." "Head for the fire escape, then down to the street." "One, two, three" "Four minutes, Jen." "You gotta go." "Rufus." " Where's Paula?" " Inside." "Where's Jen?" "We left the lab together." "She was right behind me." "Jen, where are you?" " Jen, you copy?" " I'm in the lab." "I'll be there." "Just give me a minute." " We're losing the comm." "Let's go." " Let me check on her." " No, no, no, no." "There's no time." " How much?" " Three minutes." " Piece of cake." " No, Zoe!" " I'll make it, Donner!" "Let's go!" "Radio blackout's started." "How long will it last?" "A 2.3 X-class event could last a couple hours." "There won't be any communication with the ship until the flare radiation passes." " Are you picking up anything on their med bands?" " Negative." "But you're showing an elevated heart rate." "I think we all are." "Jen, what the hell are you doing?" "It's my gene samples." "If I leave them in here, they will fry." "We've got 90 seconds to get to the bunker!" "Let's go!" " Come on, Jen!" " Zoe, I will get there." "You go." " Damn it, Zoe." " Donner, the radiation has already killed the comm." "It is building." "We need to get inside and close this door now." " 50 seconds!" " Okay." "Come on!" "Come on!" " Forty." " If the comm's out, we're getting major rads now!" " Donner!" " It's Zoe and Jen." "Okay?" "You want to give 'em a couple seconds?" " Whoa!" "Jen, we have to find cover." "Sure." "Okay." " Get inside now!" " Twenty seconds." "Come on, dude!" "Get in here and close the door!" " Donner, please." " Donner!" "Ten seconds!" " I cannot afford to lose you!" "Get inside now." " Just" "Donner, stop acting like an ASCAN." "Get inside now!" "What are their chances?" "Depends on the event... and if they were able to get under radiation blankets." "They won't die immediately." "Oh, God." "Sorry." "How much you think we're gettin' now?" "Well, the shield doesn't provide us with much protection from a solar event." "But the... water and the polyurethane around us" "We should be fine." "Until 20 or 30 years from now when we all come down with cancer." "Well, that's the price we pay for doing what we do." " Hey." " Hey." " Thought you could use this." " Oh, thank you." "You're welcome." "It's been an hour and a half." "Yeah." "Shouldn't be much longer." "You know, we can't give in to the fear." "We got six more years of this." "You don't have to remind me." "We just have to believe that they're gonna come home to us." "You know what I do every night?" "What?" "I clean my kitchen table." "Jen hates it when I leave my stuff out on it." "My wallet, my mail, "G," whatever." " Drives her nuts." ""A kitchen table is neutral territory, Rollie." "You have an office." "Use it."" "So every night I collect my wallet and my "G"and my mail... and I put it in my desk in my office." "And then I wipe down the table... just in caseJen comes walking through the door." "Hmm." "It's goofy, I know, but it keeps me sane." "No." "Doesn't sound goofy at all." "Thanks." "It's big... and long." "NOAAprofile puts it close to theJanuary event in '36." "They're gonna take some rads even in the shelter." " Shouldn't be a problem. - If it was a one-time event." "These guys are gonna be taking all kinds of radiation on a six-year mission." "Every one of these is bad." "Arnel, can you pull up the profile of thatJanuary '36 event?" "Yeah." "Let me... dig around." "Might take a few minutes." "Schrodinger's cat." "Schrodinger's cat?" "What we are to Mission Control- alive and dead at the same time." "Paula, it's just basic quantum mechanics." "You put a cat in a steel box... along with a vial of hydrocyanic acid... and a very small amount of radioactive material." "I don't think I want to hear this." "If even a single atom... of that radioactive material decays while the cat is inside the box... a relay mechanism trips the hammer which breaks the vial... and it's curtains for kitty." "The cat is dead." "Yeah, but we don't know that, because the box is closed." "It's only when we open the box and see the condition of the cat... that the cat becomes one or the other, dead or alive." "Clearly, we are alive." "But Mission Control doesn't know that because the comm is down." "So to the world, we're Schrodinger's cat- dead and alive at the same time." "What does that make Zoe and Jen?" "That's the all-clear." "We're starting to get data." "Okay, let me know when the comm's back up." "I need to speak to the commander." " Still wanna look at that profile from '36?" " You found it?" "Put it up." "It's identical." "Okay, you want to tell me what the hell's going on?" " ... 18, 19, 20." "Fire escape." " ... 18, 19, 20." "Fire escape." "21, 22, 23." "Let's go." "Fire escape. 24, 25, 26, 27." " We got 28." " 29, 30." "What?" "Zoe's not here." "What?" "No, no, no, no!" "Let's go." "Outside and down." "Zoe's not here and neither is Dr. Greer." "The fire department's on the way, all right?" "Let's go." "Weston!" " Outside, right now!" " Give 'em a minute!" "It's Zoe, for God's sake!" " Ted?" " I got it." " Zoe!" "Dr. Greer!" " Jen, let's go." "Come on." " No." " Jen!" "Jen." "Jen, get back up here now." "Zoe's dead, Dr. Greer is dead, and you're dead." "Under different circumstances, we'd all be dead." "Sorry, Jen." "Well" "How bad was it?" "This can't be." " Donner." " Are you okay?" " Yeah!" " What the hell do you think you were doing?" "No, Donner, we're fine." "The neutron detectors are reading zero." " What?" " You think that's strange?" "Wait till you see this." "Yeah." "Come on." "Mission Control, this is Antares." "Do you read?" "Copy that, Commander." "We read you loud and clear." "Well, the neutron detectors are indicating no radiation at all." "Zero." "That's right, Commander." "Because what you and we in Mission Control just executed was an exercise." "A drill." "It's based on the solar event of 2036." "I knew it." "My astrophysics class in college did a case study on this." "Goss used the same profile." " An exercise?" " Did you know?" "No." " Commander, switch to comm 10." "You had no right to stage a drill without briefing me first." "Well, you were losing control of your crew, Ted." "I had no choice." "I was not going to let them in." "Well, that's not the way it looked to me." "Their attention had to be refocused, the chain of command reinforced." "Do you copy?" "Roger that." "Now round up your crew and get back to work." " Venus is six days and counting." "They need us in the science lab." "We were under the blankets." "We couldn't see them, but we could hear them." " Dios mio." " Unbelievable." "Dude." "They've gone fractal." "Fractal is a geometric, right?" "Like a shell." "It's a geometric shape that can be split into parts, each one a reduced copy of the whole." "It's" "It's infinitely complex and all around us... everywhere in the universe." "Uh, a galaxy is a fractal shape... a hurricane, a wave, a shell... ice, stock market." "I guess tomatoes are." " No such thing as miracles, huh?" " What is going on?" " ... try to figure outjust how space and fractal" " Kill the media feed." "Rollie, enough of this." "What's happening up there?" "Is this Beta?" " It wants them to know." " Not now." " My God." " Wow." "It's incredible." "A solar flare didn't do this." "No, there was no solar flare." "It was a drill staged to get Donner off my back- a distraction." "Goss just told me." "Distraction from what?" "What's he got hidden in the storage bay?" "Mission Control, are you seeing this?" "Uh, Roger that, Ted." "We're just... a little speechless down here." "We're gonna be looking for some explanations down here." "We'll have people interface with Jen." "They'll come up with something." "Yeah, well, some of us already have a pretty good idea of what caused this." "I think it's time the rest of the crew knew as well." "He's right, Mike." "You know he's right." "That's a negative, Commander." "You will all return to your duties and execute this mission." "That is an order." "Well, my duty as commander of this ship is to protect the lives of my crew." "A big part of that is them knowing exactly what this mission is." "What exactly is the mission, Ted?" "The answer's in the storage bay." "It's in pod 4." "Talk to him." "Now is not the time." "Talk to him." "Uh, Ted, honey, it's me." "Just... um, breathe for a moment and think about what you're doing." "I've been thinking about this every minute of every day for the last month, Eve." "It's a mistake." "Trust me." " Yeah?" "Well, you know what?" "That ship has already sailed." " Ted, please." "Commander, you will not enter that storage bay." "I am ordering you to stand down!" " You will not " "Oh, my God." "What the hell is that?" "Beta." "It's singing." " Sounds like a whale song." "It's beautiful." "It's been said that the capacity to blindly follow orders... is what turns ordinary people into monsters" "We have to stop them." "There's nothing we can do." "Or ordinary people into heroes." "All depends on exactly what the order is." "Shut down all power to the storage bay." "And that's the catch, because we're all responsible for who we pick to lead... and who we choose to follow." "Sir, the storage bay's not responding." "Try the main bus." "Whether we give orders or take them" "Negative, sir." "It won't shut down." "I'll see what I can do." "We all contribute to the outcome." "Commander, you have got to take control of your crew." "Have them report to the observation deck at once." "The responsibility falls on all of our shoulders." "No matter who's giving the orders and who's taking them... sooner or later we all have to answer to a higher power." "Mmm." "Ahh."