"Good sleep?" "Not bad." "So where are we?" "Where you from?" "San Diego." "Left yesterday." "So you came Honolulu-Guam-Pago-here?" "Long trip." "What do you do?" "I'm a psychologist." "Hey, a shrink." "They've called in everything else." "How do you mean?" "We've ferried people out of Guam for the last 2 days." "Physicists, biologists, mathematicians, you name it." "Everybody being flown to the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean." "What's going on?" "They're not telling us anything, sir." "What did they tell you?" "There was a plane crash." "Do you get called in on crashes?" "I'm on a list of psychologists the FAA brings in when a plane goes down." "So where exactly are we now?" "That's where we're headed." "Over there." "Here." "Take a look." "What is that?" "All that for a plane crash?" "I never mentioned a plane crash." "Any other gear?" "Watch your step." "I'd like to call my family." "We'll get you settled in quarters first." "Remain there till we send for you." "l'd like to get started." "We'll send for you." "lt's critical I see them" "Who?" "The survivors. lf l don't get to them in the first 24 hours" "What survivors?" "The survivors of the plane crash." "Plane crash?" "I deal in post-traumatic stress and survival guilt." "Maybe I should talk to someone who knows what's going on here." "Talk to the ship's psychiatrist." "l'm a psychologist." "That's why I was sent here." "I told you people I need a phone." "Discuss that with Mr. Barnes." "That's fine." "Give me a phone, I'll call him." "Why are you here?" "Take your hands off me, please." "Do you have any idea who I am?" "Tell him the name of the book you wrote." "Astrophysics You Can Use ." "It was a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection." "Never heard of it." "You really thought he read your book." "You haven't changed." "It was written for the layman." "He's not impressed." "is there a phone in here?" "l've been trying to call my wife." "Would you stop touching me?" "Wait a minute." "Beth?" "Flight quarters." "All units make your flight quarters condition one stations for landing." "Stay clear of the fantail" "Goodman, you been here long?" "l've been here 3 hours." "Welcome aboard." "This thing scares the hell out of me." "It's already too late." "You might as well helicopter me back because the damage is done to the survivors already." "Hold on." "We'll get to that." "l don't even know who you are." "I know who you are." "Who are you?" "Navy?" "Military?" "What are you?" "You ever hear of the OSSA?" "They don't know who I am." "That should reassure you." "You haven't talked to anyone about this?" "l talked to the helicopter pilot." "What'd you tell him?" "I told him I was here to see the plane crash." "That's my job." "Plane crash." "Good." "There was no plane crash." "Spacecraft." "A spacecraft." "I guess that explains a lot." "NASA?" "That doesn't surprise you?" "At least it explains the secrecy." "The secrecy's critical, Norman." "You made that explicit in your report." "What report?" "ULF." "I wrote that for the Bush administration." "And that's our bible here." "But that was a report about a possible encounter with an alien being." "You want to come with me?" "Oh, boy." "About 3 weeks ago a ship laying fiber-optic cable between Honolulu and Sydney hit an obstruction 1 ,000 feet underwater." "Cut this cable here clean as a shears." "The Navy got interested, sent out a search ship." "It turned out that what did it was this." "We took this with side-looking sonar." "This is an aerodynamic fin longer than a football field bigger than any known wingspan." "This is the fuselage." "This is ultrahigh-res SLS bottom scan." "Came in a week ago." "There it is, buried under about 8 yards of coral." "Something's wrong with that measurement." "Pacific coral grows an inch a year." "You can set your watch by it." "That's right." "So you're saying this spacecraft crashed in the year.... 1 709." "So you're saying this spacecraft crashed 300 years ago?" "288." "That's impossible." "It's not impossible if this spacecraft came from an alien civilization." "Wait a minute." "You think this is an alien spacecraft?" "It's not impossible." "It's ridiculous." "We think there's an Unknown Life Form on the spacecraft." "That's why you're here." "You are the contact team that was recommended in the Goodman Report." "We have a biochemist to assess the physiology of the Unknown Life Form." "A mathematician, because that'll probably be our common language." "And we have an astrophysicist to locate its place in the cosmos." "Led by a psychologist." "Right." "Nowadays, the little green men say, "Take me to your therapist"?" "Listen up." ""Contact teams meeting an Unknown Life Form or ULF must be prepared for severe psychological impact." "Stress reaction of confronting such life has not been sufficiently studied and cannot be entirely predicted in advance." "But the most likely consequence of contact is absolute terror."" "That's from Norman's report." "I'm sorry, are these parameters correct?" "You're saying that you have a spacecraft over a half a mile long that crashed into the ocean 300 years ago and it's completely intact?" "That's right." "And the kicker is, our sonar is picking up a low-level hum." "Something's still running inside." "There's no way this coral could've grown faster than an inch a year?" "That's what we're going there to see." "What?" "Who says?" "Harry, that's a joke, right?" "This is the greatest scientific discovery since Copernicus." "Bigger!" "The idea that we're not alone, it'll change everything." "Evidence of extraterrestrial life." "You don't want to see that?" "I got to say that I resent this briefing very much." "And how's that?" "If Norman's report calls for a biologist, a mathematician an astrophysicist and a psychologist why are you here?" "Physical protocols start in a half an hour." "You always wear glasses?" "I just started wearing these." "Are the glasses a problem?" "I don't actually need them." "They're just for reading." "And they're more of a crutch." "I see fine without them." "But they didn't anticipate I'd be going 1 ,000 feet under the water." "Do you take prescription medication?" "No." "None at all?" "Once in a while sometimes I might take like a a piece of Xanax or something if I'm nervous." "Something like that." "But not much." "lKnee surgery." "Complete reconstruction of ACL, right knee." "Still have steel pin here, steel pin here, little medial collateral damage." "I see that you have a scar on your neck." "Car accident." "Were you drinking?" "Yeah." "But I wasn't driving." "Wait, I just want to apologize for putting your name on the list." "Why?" "When I made the report a few years ago, I picked names of people I knew." "And?" "I know Ted because of his father." "Yeah, so what?" "Beth was a patient." "It's a bogus report." "What?" "Did you tell Barnes?" "You can't do that." "That's fraud." "They came to me, new administration, right?" "Political agenda." "They said, in case of an alien invasion, do's and don'ts." "Why didn't you just say no?" "$35,000." "It paid the down payment on my house." "New administration wanted to prove they're doing something new." "How'd you come up with this team of a biologist, an astrophysicist and a mathematician?" "Right." "How?" "l don't know." "It sounded good, right?" "Made them come to me." "I forgive you, Norman." "I forgive you!" "But I don't forgive you for Ted." "He's a pain in the ass." "I'll talk to him." "We'll be there 2 hours." "You don't have to be around him." "He idolizes you anyways, but I'll talk to him. I'll buy you dinner." "l'm sorry." "Your secret's safe with me." "Come on." "I can't believe this thing could...." "Like a dream." "Have you called your wife?" "Why not?" "This'll be a saturation dive." "You'll be going to a habitat in 1 ,000 feet of water." "A sub will take you to the Habitat and you'll transfer aboard." "At 1 ,000 feet, your body will be pressurized for that depth." "You could actually take a quick dip." "The pressure wouldn't bother you." "Although I wouldn't recommend it because the water's so cold you'd freeze to death in less than 2 minutes." "That's the reason for the diving suits." "Your helmet has a rebreather for your air supply." "Following this briefing, I'll take you to an onboard dive tank." "For the next 8 hours you'll train in deep-saturation dive techniques and emergency procedures." "Once you've gone down 1 ,000 feet if you surface, you'll have to commit to several days of decompression." "There is no real quick return." "However, there is a mini-sub that may be used as an emergency escape vehicle." "But there must be a ship at the surface to mate to for decompression." "Without decompression, your body would literally burst." "Under these circumstances, you're very well-controlled." "The dive has been planned well and professionally monitored." "The descent will take about 1 3 minutes, descending at 80 feet a minute." "It's going to get chilly." "Try to relax." "Next time, just tell us when you're going to push the button." "Mozart  Horn Concerto in E-flat   K-447 ." "How you holding up, Captain Nautical?" "l'm loose." "You're loose?" "I'm loose. I'm loose." "I'm uptight." "We okay?" "We're in the river now." "What river?" "It's a temperature/salinity differential." "It flows like a river inside the ocean." "Under the ocean and there's a river." "That's right." "You okay?" "Right now, I'm not okay." "Would you please not touch me?" "We're both nervous." "Yes?" "Would you cut that out, please?" "You're having a stress reaction." "That's Harry's stress reaction." "Those noises we're hearing, that's normal?" "Those noises are the water pressure attacking the sub's integrity." "You know a little something about that, don't you, Norman?" "How the pressure can attack your integrity." "Come on, you be nice this trip." "Were you nice last time?" "You two want to sit together?" "My God!" "Norman, look at this, look at this." "Jesus!" "That's just the fin." "That's the Habitat." "The Navy moved it in sections and set it up as a base as soon as the spaceship was discovered." "It's manned by 2 naval personnel." "It will be your home-away-from-home while we investigate the spacecraft." "It ain't the Motel 6." "Approaching docking bay from R-4." "All personnel, descent sub one engaging lock area." "You are now depressurized." "We're going to pressurize you now." "It's hot in there, but you're going to feel coolness." "That's the helium." "Helium?" "Was I the only one paying attention?" "Oxygen is a corrosive gas, in the same family as fluorine and chlorine hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid." "That's why we're breathing helium." "Because oxygen at any level higher than 2.3 becomes toxic." "Can you run that by me again, Ted?" "I don't speak balloon." "What?" "That's my voice." "The helium resonates differently with my vocal chords." ""Follow the yellow brick road."" "lKiddies, cut it out." "The voice regulators are behind you." "Put them on." "The Navy dive team is setting up a hydraulic robot in the air lock outside the spacecraft." "We'll use that to open its door." "is that the door?" "Yeah, we used sonar imaging to pinpoint it before the divers went down." "How tall is that robot?" "Five feet." "And it's roughly the same size as an airplane door, isn't it?" "Excuse me, Ted." "l think that's worth taking note of." "Excuse me." "Tell them our team is in place and ready, okay?" "This is Habitat to Navy dive." "Has it occurred to anyone maybe we shouldn't open that door?" "Why do you say that?" "We assume they'll be green or insect-like, but basically human." "But what if they inhale air and exhale cyanide gas?" "It's plausible." "Or live forever, like a virus or a yeast." "But why would you assume that an ULF would want to kill us?" "An immortal creature wouldn't think killing was right or wrong." "It'd have no concept of it." "Instant eradication. lt's what all the serious scientific stuff talks about." "What little there is on the subject." "You did put that in your report?" "It's in there." "Get us the ETD for team's departure to surface." "Tell them we're in ready and thank them." "Habitat to Navy Dive." "Our team's ready to take over." "Descent sub ready for your return to surface." "Thanks for all your help." "We'll let you know what we find." "I'm not too thrilled at the prospect of this." "What if you have to go to the bathroom?" "Just go down your leg, Ted." "Really?" "You can urinate in these?" "You can." "The question is, do you want to?" "Where's the switch?" "Okay, let's go." "All right, Fletcher we're at 1 ,022 feet." "The ambient temperature, 34 degrees." "Heading out north-northwest 330." "It's a firm bottom." "Intermittent coral." "This is great, you guys." "Look at the size of that thing!" "My God!" "You see that tunnel?" "That's where we're going." "into the heart of darkness." "We're in the coral pipe now, Fletcher, approaching the air lock." "I'm feeling pressure in my ears." "is that normal?" "Just use your equalizer." "A little better." "The most toxic creatures on Earth live down here." "The venom of the land animal is nothing by comparison." "Even the weakest sea snake is invariably lethal." "is that supposed to make me feel good, Beth?" "This is our air lock." "It'll take us from a wet to a dry environment." "We're assuming the inside of the ship is sealed." "This thing is enormous." "That's not budging, is it?" "Turn it at 45 degrees." "What's happening here?" "Is that piston broken?" "Can you get the suction cup flat to the plane of the door?" "Maybe it's the hydraulics." "The pressure messes everything up at this depth." "Time for a demonstration in basic physics, gentlemen." "What is it, Harry?" "Take a look." "It's chipped." "All right, it's chipped." "So what?" "I thought you said this thing wasn't damaged when it crashed that this titanium alloy was so super-strong, you can't hurt it." "I did." "So why does it chip when this scientist just bangs it with a hammer?" "is there heat coming off this thing?" "You're right." "Get out of there." "Back up." "Just a minute." "I mean, get back now!" "Get back." "Jesus." "Anybody else wonder who the hell opened that door?" "How did that happen?" "I'm not sure about the atmosphere." "Helmets stay on." "All right." "We come in peace." "Always wanted to say that." "Fletcher, inform the Navy we've gained access to the spacecraft." "There's a hell of a lot of radiation shielding in here." "Huge grids of catwalks and plumbing and a lot of steam." "It's endless." "We'll stay in touch here." "Somebody's been here." "There's footsteps and they ain't ours." "So what do you say, Norman?" "Time to turn back?" "I'm a little curious." "Break up into 2 squads." "We'll never cover the territory otherwise." "Split up?" "He's got a point." "We've only got about a half-hour of breathing time left." "Ted and Harry, you come with me." "Beth, Norman, stick together." "Come on." "I think the people who built this place would call that "divide and conquer."" "Whoever built this thing wanted us dead, we'd be dead already." "These guys offer a federal grant to study the effects of an alien invasion." "I told all this to Harry." "You made up the report?" "No, not all of it. I mean, I did research on half of it." "Who did the other half?" "I borrowed from, you know, good writers." "Isaac Asimov, Rod Serling...." "Rod Serling?" "Who would've thought anyone even reads those government reports." "You know?" "I show up here, half the Pacific fleet is here." "I just didn't know what to do." "I wanted to tell you, that's all." "is this in the same category as, "Beth, I thought you knew I was married"?" "I don't think we have enough oxygen" "Oh, my God." "Did you push something?" "No. lt did it on its own." "That must be the cockpit." "Hold on." "Look at this." "Cross-stress bracing on the outer hulls." "All axes supported." "Look at this stuff." "This is interesting." "Soft and strong at the same time." "It's, like, better than rubber, better than steel." "You know a lot about this stuff." "I studied aeronautical engineering at M.l.T." "Isn't that where you got your Ph.D.?" "It's where l got mine." "All 3 of them." "I hated M.l.T." "Envy?" "Puberty." "How old?" "First Ph.D., 1 8." "Damn." "One year, Harry." "You beat me by one year." "Let's push on." "Let's go." "Man, they didn't tell you how heavy these things were out of the water." "Look at this." "Come here." ""Trash."" "" Basura ."" "Trash?" "Oh, God." "Jesus!" "It's human." "You mean humanoid." "No, Norman, I mean human." "Blunt force trauma." "You can see by the direction that the fracture runs that he was hit in the back of the head." "What's in his hand?" "I don't know." "What is it?" ""Smokehouse Almonds"?" "My God, it's an American spaceship." "It can't be an American spaceship." "It's 300 years old." "There weren't even Americans, let alone spaceships." "It can't be, but it is." "Let's see if there's some kind of flight recorder or data computer where we can ring up some kind of a flight history." "I mean...." "Look at this. lt's in English." "Come here." "Okay, good." "Right there." "And there." "Look at the dates!" "Can't be." "Could be." "It could be 2043 or 1 643." "I don't know which one is weirder." ""Unknown Entry Event." Press it." "You sure?" "This is Barnes, Norman." "Yeah, I can hear you." "I can't explain it, but I think we're inside an American spaceship." "It gets better." "What the hell is it?" "Whatever it is, it seems to be what this bird was designed to do." "Go out into space and gather things like this up and bring it back." "Yeah, but back from where?" "Don't get too excited, Ted." "Turn this thing over, it'll probably say "Made in lKorea."" "Somehow I doubt that." "No doors." "No hinges of any kind." "I'll bet if you put a laser micrometer on this, it'd be a perfect sphere." "Perfect to a thousandth of an inch." "That's a message in and of itself." "Really?" "What do you mean?" "When Pope Benedict asked Giotto to prove his worth as an artist Giotto drew a perfect circle freehand." "Perfection." "It's a powerful message." "l know what the Zen masters would say." "What's that?" ""This ball wants to be caught."" "Nobody built this thing looking into their third eye." "They went to a lot of trouble and they didn't do it for nothing." "Something put this thing out there to get picked up and brought back here." "Have you forgotten the Trojan horse?" "It could be a trap." "Don't you think that's a little paranoid?" "No, I'm going to put a video camera on this thing and keep an eye on it." "Can I ask you something about this reflective surface?" "Yeah, it appears to be mercury, doesn't it?" "Except mercury's liquid at this temperature." "No, that's not what I'm talking about." "What worries me is that it's reflecting everything but us." "I hate to be the one non-scientist that picks this up, guys." "You know what I mean?" "What do you think it is?" "I don't know." "Whatever it is it's alien." "Okay, an American spacecraft, materials, technology more advanced than what we know, crashes into the ocean." "Why wasn't it damaged?" "The materials are obviously super-strong." "If that's true, why did it chip when you hit it?" "Better:" "It didn't crash." "It arrived 300 years ago." "From where?" "Not "where." When." "So you're saying this thing took a wrong turn?" "That's right. I mean, what if the craft inadvertently flew into a black hole?" "It arrived in our past from its present." "The dates in the flight record-- 43, 47." "That has to be 2043, 2047." "The image you saw, what you described sounds like a black hole, a tear in the space" "We know what a black hole is." "I don't know." "It's a collapsed star with so much gravity it's like a vacuum cleaner sucking everything into it, light, interstellar dust, time" "Time?" "lt's possible, but not plausible." "It's more than probable." "It's rudimentary astrophysics." "We just haven't been able to fly into one and prove it." "I just got off the horn topside." "They're expecting a bad blow up there." "And they're pulling us out." "Pulling us out?" "Wait a minute!" "What do you mean?" "What part of "pull out" don't you understand?" "Extraction." "We're leaving." "That's ridiculous." "We haven't even begun to scratch the surface here." "If you've ever seen a Pacific cyclone, what we call a tornado is a little fart." "So I suggest you go back to the dormitory and take a nap." "You need to lower your metabolism before we start the decompression." "You're leaving a time-traveling spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean?" "I'm just following my orders." "We're the aliens' Welcome Wagons." "But, no aliens." "lt was made in America." "What's your point?" "My point is, I'm a biochemist and there's no life down here." "What is wrong with you?" "!" "That doesn't mean there's nothing to learn, to explore!" "She's right." "You guys are the human contact team for an Unknown Life Form." "There is no Unknown Life Form so we pull out at 0900." "Please say something to him." "What?" "I don't know." "Do you not have an opinion about this?" "I'm delighted we're going back up top." "You know what I mean?" "This may look like a roadside diner, but in the meantime my ears won't pop and if I pull this thing away from my neck I sound like someone's squeezing my testicles." "Let's go home." "Barnes is wrong, you know." "You mean, wrong about the storm?" "No, about the Sphere." "What about the Sphere?" "It's alive." "Why do you say that?" "There's something inside it." "How can there be anything inside it?" "There's no door, no seams." "The Sphere chooses what it will and won't reflect." "Doesn't that seem like the actions of a conscious being to you?" "Pop psychology. I think, for whatever it's worth, you're angry towards our friend Ted in there because he figured this out before you did." "You really think so?" "I don't know." "This is my first underwater session." "You're right." "Ted did figure it out first, didn't he?" "Good shrinkage." "We're all going to die down here, you know." "What?" "What?" "You see, it's curious." "Ted did figure it out." "Time travel." "And when we get back, we're going to tell everyone how it's possible, how it's done, what the dangers are." "But why 50 years in the future, when the spacecraft encounters a black hole does the computer call it an "Unknown Entry Event"?" "Why don't they know?" "If they don't know it means we never told anyone." "And if we never told anyone it means we never made it back." "Hence we die down here." "Just as a matter of deductive logic, Norman." "Damn, I wish I could get inside that Sphere." "What's wrong?" "Talk to Mr. Barnes." "Where is he?" "Video feed room." "Where is that?" "I don't know where the hell anything is." "Where am I?" "Where?" "What's going on?" "I don't know." "You tell me." "What the hell is he doing?" "l don't know." "Do you know what he's doing?" "l need to know what you know." "Nothing." "He wanted to go inside." "We are inside." "You mean outside?" "He said, "inside."" "What?" "Inside the spacecraft?" "I think inside the Sphere." "Holy shit!" "My God." "Did he go inside?" "l don't think so." "What the hell's going on?" "He didn't just disappear." "I think it's a glitch in the video." "Give me playback on that." "You'll have it in a minute." "You knew he was doing this and you said nothing." "You didn't think!" "l didn't think it possible." "Where are Beth and Ted?" "I don't know. I woke up, I heard bells ringing and I started running" "I'm not getting an image on the sub." "Impossible!" "I got a cable in my quarters!" "They'll be here in 25 minutes or less!" "The only logical explanation is that the sub is still at the surface." "is it also logically possible your sonar is messed up?" "!" "Let's just calm down, all right?" "He didn't just disappear." "We are not going to leave him." "You got that right. I am not going to lose a civilian on my watch." "You have just screwed up our trip to the surface." "We are not going up to the surface." "Harry!" "We are not going up!" "Harry!" "Can you hear me?" "Harry, can you hear me?" "Norman, this is not a triage situation." "Go find me Ted and Beth." "Norman, stop." "Still no reading on the sub." "Forget the goddamn sonar, Teeny." "When Beth and Ted get here, make sure they don't go anywhere." "All right?" "What the hell?" "Can you hear me?" "is he alive?" "We have a problem." "Harry's out cold." "His pulse is normal." "All his vitals are normal but I don't get it." "Hello." "Hello!" "Norman, can you hear me?" "We lost video here." "Can you hear me?" "That tears it." "What, sir?" "We're on internal power." "I don't follow you." "They cut us loose, Teeny." "For some reason the sub turned back." "Break out your 5-day deodorant pads." "We're here for the duration." "Everything's normal." "What's going on?" "is he all right?" "is it true?" "Did he go inside?" "What did he say?" "He didn't say." "He's aphasic." "He's asleep, Ted." "I can't believe he went inside." "He didn't say anything?" "There's no door, no entry." "How did he get in?" "Can I have your attention, please?" "We've lost contact with the surface." "The Habitat is now operating solely under internal power." "We have plenty of food, oxygen and fresh water to sustain us until the storm is over and we reestablish contact with the surface." "But until that time, this mission is subject to emergency authority under my command." "I'm taking this out to the mini-sub." "Are you up on the duty roster?" "Yes, sir." "Where's she going?" "It's procedures." "Everything in the Habitat is videoed." "Every 1 2 hours we take the videos to the mini-sub and press the reset button." "The idea is, if something happens to us and we don't reset it the sub goes to the surface automatically." "If we're all dead, they at least have a partial record of what went wrong." "Cheerful thought, huh?" "Mind the store a minute." "I'm going to the head." "What the hell's that?" "It's so beautiful down here." "It's so tranquil." "This is beautiful." "It's hard to believe we have a typhoon 1 ,000 feet above our heads." "Hey, it's snowing down here." "You see them?" "There's got to be a million jellyfish down here." "Man, this is really beautiful." "These jellyfish are getting a little friendly." "Having a hard time seeing." "Hey, guys, you getting this?" "It's getting thick down here." "Hello, hello." "I can't see what I'm doing." "They're sticking to my faceplate." "Fletcher, this is Dr. Fielding." "Just swim through them." "They're harmless." "Guys, these jellyfish are everywhere." "Fletcher, get out of there." "What are jellyfish doing at 1 ,000 feet?" "I think they feel the heat from my body." "I can't get them off me!" "They're stinging through my suit!" "Get back to the Habitat on the double." "I can't move my legs!" "Come back to the Habitat." "They're inside my suit!" "Ikeep moving!" "Just keep moving!" "Help me!" "Jesus, Barnes, she's dead!" "There's no bubbles." "Edmunds." "Yes, sir?" "Come on down here." "Something happened to Fletcher." "God!" "When I was 5 years old I went out on a boat with my father." "He told me not to jump in the water, so of course I did and...." "Oh, my!" "I jumped right into a school of these guys." "Not this big, though." "I think every one had a shot at me." "I don't know what this lady felt but, man, it went beyond pain." "I've been afraid of them since." "Would you feel any better if I told you this wasn't exactly a jellyfish?" "You mean...?" "I mean, jellyfish like this are unheard of." "I don't know what this is, but it isn't God's creation." "Here I am Your special island" "Come to me" "Bali Ha'i" "You can come in." "Have a seat." "You want some coffee?" "No, thanks." "How well do you know Dr. Halperin?" "I used to teach at UC San Diego years ago." "She came for her master's." "Don't take it personally, but I assume she wasn't a romantic interest." "Don't take what personally?" "She's a tall, vibrant, younger woman." "What's your point?" "You knew her as a patient." "I'm not at liberty to discuss that." "You understand." "I understand an exotic-gas environment 1 ,000 feet under water with no lifeline to the surface is about the most dangerous environment on the planet." "If there's a problem, I got to know about it." "Beth is fine." ""Beth is fine."" "Beth's fine." "She's very fine." "Would you like to read this and tell me what it says?" "Are these my actual notes?" "What does it say?" "How in the world did you get" "Does it say "suicide attempt"?" ""Electroshock therapy"?" "Isn't that what it says?" "What's your point?" "Didn't it seem important enough to tell somebody?" "You were willing to jeopardize these people's lives to have someone here who could be mentally unstable?" "Are you aware of the term, "overreact"?" "We're 1 60 fathoms down." "And we've got a nutbag down here who can flip out and crack up." "You selected the team." "Why didn't you tell me?" "When I wrote this, I didn't know the team would be 1 ,000-- 1 ,000 or 1 0, it makes no difference!" "Why didn't you tell me about Beth?" "It wasn't pertinent." "That was not your call to make!" "Yes, it was and it still is." "It was a passive attempt." "A passive attempt?" "!" "Those who really want to kill themselves shoot themselves or go over a bridge." "They don't call their boyfriend and say, "l just took 20 Nebutol." "Help me."" "She took 20 yellows and you're telling me she's perfect." "What is it?" "Come in." "It's Harry." "What?" "He's awake?" "He's really awake." "Man, oh, man!" "You're going to have a problem with me." "If my good buddy Norman keeps cooking like this, I ain't going nowhere." "This toast is good." "Bacon?" "Better." "But these eggs!" "These eggs are fantastic!" "Norman, what did you put in these eggs?" "No, no, wait." "Don't tell me." "Parsley." "Chives." "Tarragon and...." "What is that?" "Chervil?" "is that chervil?" "Yes, it is." "I'm glad you like it, Harry." "I love eggs!" "They sure seem to cheer you up." "Do you remember what happened?" "Yeah. I went inside." "How did you get inside?" "There are no doors." "There are doors all over this place and we can't get out." "We're still here." "Yes, we are." "You didn't answer my question." "Why are you looking at me like that?" "Harry, are you saying we shouldn't still be here?" "Where's Teeny?" "I thought she did all the cooking." "She had an unfortunate accident, Harry." "She was killed." "lKilled?" "How?" "Jellyfish." "Jellyfish?" "That's strange." "Yes, it is strange, isn't it?" "Here you go, Harry." "Little onion rings." "Look at that." "lt's not onion rings." "Good, though." "Guess what it is." "Calamari!" "You all right?" "Cough, cough, cough." "No, you're doing it wrong." "l know what I'm doing." "Bring it up." "Come on, bring it up." "He's trying to say something." "He's trying to talk." "You don't listen." "He wants to say something!" "l'm not choking, you asshole!" "See?" "I hate squid." "I hate squid." "I'm sorry." "I was trying to help." "You okay?" "Harry, let me ask you something." "Before you went in the Sphere, you were convinced we would die here." "Yeah, I remember that." "You still believe it?" "You afraid of dying, Norman?" "Bullshit!" "He's hiding something and you know it." "He went inside the Sphere and whatever it is he saw, he won't tell us." "He said he doesn't remember anything." "You bought that?" "The whole food thing was all a diversion." "The guy's willing to put all of our lives on the line because he doesn't want to share information." "I can see it." "He's making notes for a book." "He wants to win the Nobel Prize." "And you don't?" "Norman, you've known me since I was 1 7 years old." "I would love to be the guy who gets" "Do you know how respected-- l'm not!" "I've written one "Fun With Dick and Jane" book on physics." "I mean, Niels Bohr he published "The Quantum Theory of Atomic Structure" at 28." "Einstein, relativity, 26." "Newton, gravity, 23." "In physics, if you haven't done it by 35, chances are you never will." "This doesn't have anything to do with your competitiveness with Harry?" "1 9." "Wunderkind!" "I rest my case." "Mr. Barnes would like to see you." "Why?" "Something's wrong with the computer system." "Try purging it." "l tried. lt just keeps coming back." "Discharge from the buffer memory?" "I ruled that out." "The helium is getting to the chips." "It's probably a saturation effect." "lf that's true, what are our options?" "You have to change all the chips." "Forget it." "Run this place on manual?" "It's going to be a long 4 days." "Hey, boss." "Figured that out yet?" "lt's a saturation effect." "I don't think so. lf it's a saturation effect, it would be random." "What do you mean?" "This has a pattern." "See?" "It's like a code." "A code from where?" "How'd you do that?" "How'd you see that?" "Try binary." "See?" "Letter breaks." "You think this is coming from the Sphere?" "Don't know." "This mission is ultra top-secret." "What you translate is for my eyes only." "If you were it, how would you know our alphabet?" "Same way it's configured on a keyboard." "But reflected in an orb, spherically." "A keyboard, but spherical." "Take a keyboard wrap it around a sphere then starting at the center key, G, number the letters spiraling out." "You the man!" "l still got it." "I still got the juice." "Ikeyboard." "They let you keep those?" "Here, you want them?" "All we got to do now is plug in the numbers." "Friends in the 8,000 years of recorded history, this is a first." "You're now on-line with an alien intelligence." "You got to be kidding." "You must've messed up the translation." "I don't think so." "If this is right, this alien sounds like an idiot." "That's something to consider." "A stupid alien." "They must have them." "I will admit the message is childlike, but actually it's quite perfect." "It's short, to the point, non-threatening kind of the way you talk to a small child or a dog." "Look at this." "He's making a speech." "Ask him for his last name." "What?" "I want a full name for my report." "I'm not putting in my report I lost a crew member on a deepsat expedition to find an alien named Jerry." "Please! "Jerry"?" "We ought to tell him that we're enjoying it too." "Ask him where he's from." "Where are you from?" ""l make a journey." "You make a journey." "We make a journey together."" "I think Jerry's channeling Deepak Chopra." "A journey from where?" "He's happy." "He's crafty." "What happened?" "Damn, I think we lost him." "We're not alone." "We are definitely not alone." "It's trying to make contact with us." "Whatever it is, it was inside that Sphere." "Now it's out, free to act." "What do you mean by that?" "Free to take over our computers call us on the phone, come knock on the door if it wants to." "A physical presence." "What are you thinking about?" "That last part where he said, "l am happy."" "Don't you want Jerry to be happy?" "Honestly?" "What's on your mind?" "I would be happy if Jerry had no emotions whatsoever." "Because the thing of it is, here's Jerry an emotional being, cooped up for 300 years with no one to talk to none of the socialization, the emotional growth that comes from contact with other emotional beings...." "So?" "What happens if Jerry gets mad?" "What is that sound?" "Did you hear it?" "You hear that thump?" "What is that sound?" "Can you hear me?" "Did you hear that thump?" "You are a hell of a woman." "I wish I knew you in the old days." "Norman told me you were" "Norman told you what?" "Let's put it this way, that if Jerry could read your mind he'd be bored with ours." "What is that sound?" "Can you hear me?" "This is Norman." "I get no answer from Edmunds and there's strange noises." "Something's going on." "It looks like Edmunds is up on the side of the Habitat." "I'm not getting anything on sonar, but watch yourselves out there." "Would you hit your callback buttons, please?" "What'd you tell Barnes?" "About what?" "About me." "You told him I took 20 Nebutol and tried to kill myself." "Didn't you?" "He had my notes." "What do you want me to do?" "Did you tell him who I called?" "Oh, God." "Come in." "Did you guys find that thumping yet?" "I don't get it." "What could've done this to her?" "My God!" "She's like a rag doll." "Her body's been completely pulverized." "My God." ""--tentacles 27 feet long." "That would make a formidable monster."" "Let's go." "Come on." "What?" "What is that?" "What does this mean?" "Talk to me." "What does this mean, Beth?" "There's something up there!" "Guys, I'm getting a reading on the sonar." "You're not alone out there." "What the hell makes eggs this size?" "!" "Come on!" "Jesus, let's go!" "All right!" "Norman, let's go." "Come on." "Let's go!" "What the hell is going on?" "It's 80 yards and closing." "Get out of there." "What the hell?" "What the hell is it?" "!" "Come on, Norman!" "Come on, let's go!" "60 yards." "How close are you?" "What is it?" "What the hell is it?" "!" "40 yards." "Move, move!" "Come on. lt's something big!" "Let's go!" "Where is it?" "What is it?" "20 yards!" "Move!" "I need a report." "I don't know what's going on out there." "There are eggs everywhere." "You should've brought one back." "I wasn't up for an Easter egg hunt." "Maybe that's what Edmunds was doing." "I want to talk to Jerry." "If we're going to talk to this thing, we got to have a game plan." "Specific." "We have to have an objective." "We have to know what we're addressing." "Jesus." "Can you hear me?" "You've heard everything we've talked about." "That's great." "This is Ted here." "I'm the guy who decoded the keyboard thing that you" "Shut up!" "Tell him we need to discuss this alone." "Jerry, use your words." "He's mad." "Use your words." "Let's just pull the plug." "It may not be that simple." "It's that easy." "We leave him alone, he leaves us alone." "Maybe he doesn't want to be left alone." "He's been down here in isolation for 300 years." "Maybe Jerry's lonely." "What's that?" "It's our sonar picking up something outside." "Jerry, we all think that you're a fascinating and wonderful entity and wish to talk to you for hours." "You know that, don't you?" "In your great understanding and wisdom you must know that entities such as ourselves need to be private." "We have to talk alone sometime." "You know what it is?" "Where'd he go?" "Shit!" "Something's clogging everything up out there." "It's back." "Positive thermals on the in-line perimeter." "What's that?" "Something is hitting the sensor grid." "Do we have any defenses?" "We can run a high-voltage current on the skin of the Habitat." "But every time we try it, we start an electrical fire." "Peripheral sensor's activated. I'll try to image it on the fast-acting sonar." "Building an image." "80 yards, closing fast." "Jesus Christ, it's 40 feet long." "50 yards." "Re-imaging." "That's the same image I saw when you were looking for Edmunds." "It looks like a giant squid." "A squid the size of the entire Habitat?" "There's no such animal." "That may be, but that doesn't mean it isn't here." "Re-imaging." "30 yards." "What the hell is going on?" "Jerry, if you can hear me, it's Norman." "If we've made you angry...." "We got a pressure drop." "Go to the control room and wait for me!" "Just go, please!" "Go!" "I'll tell you!" "What's that sound?" "What is that?" "It sounds like it's right above us." "I know where it is, but what is it?" "I'm in the control shaft!" "We got a leak in here!" "Hello?" "!" "Holy shit!" "Do you hear me?" "You got to increase the positive air pressure and drive the water out." "lncrease the pressure?" "Won't that use up our air supply?" "If the Habitat is full of water, you'll be dead." "Open the red gate valve." "The pressure is dropping!" "We'll be crushed like a tin can!" "Find the red knob!" "It's the only one in the room!" "Got it!" "Good." "We're getting positive pressure." "Not too much." "Start to ease it back." "Turn it back!" "The pressure is too high!" "We'll explode!" "Can you hear me?" "Turn it back!" "We're here!" "Jesus!" "Can you hear me?" "I got him!" "Turn the red gate valve." "Which way?" "Clockwise." "Close it." "Done!" "We're still leaking!" "It's not the shell." "It's the internal pipes." "We're okay." "What the hell is out there?" "!" "Listen to me." "Whatever it is, it's not letting go." "Pull the green lever marked "high-voltage defense system."" "He said it would start a fire!" "Don't do it!" "You said it would start a fire!" "We're going to die down here." "Pull it." "Barnes, do you hear her?" "Don't listen to her." "She's crazy." "Pull the green lever." "Pull the lever!" "He's trying to pull something!" "Don't do it!" "Do you hear her?" "!" "Don't listen to her." "Pull the goddamn lever!" "Don't do it." "If we start a fire it'll eat up all of our oxygen!" "Don't do it!" "We've got failures all over the place!" "We're taking on water!" "It'll set a fire!" "There's no way out!" "Shut up!" "What am I going to do?" "!" "You're going to be squid food!" "Pull it!" "What am I going to do?" "We're falling apart!" "We're okay." "You don't have to be right all the time." "Anybody got some Advil?" "We got a fire in the comm room." "Get up there. I'll meet you with gas masks, in case we need them." "Extinguishers?" "!" "There's one there." "I got it!" "How do you work it?" "Pull the pin." "Are there any more?" "In the dorm." "Alert, alert." "Emergency doors now activated." "Alert, alert." "Emergency doors secured." "Alert, alert." "Emergency doors now activated." "Wake up!" "What are you doing?" "Harry, wake up!" "Shit!" "Alert, alert." "Emergency doors now activated." "Alert, alert." "Emergency doors now activated." "Doors secured." "It's coming through the ceiling panels." "Try to get it through the cafeteria!" "Okay, I'm going up." "Get back!" "Don't, Jerry!" "Don't." "You okay?" "Hang on!" "Get out!" "Get out!" "This is Norman, Jerry." "Can you hear me?" "It's Norman." "is that you, Jerry?" "Who put out the fire?" "Who put the fire out?" "He's dead." "Barnes is dead." "He got cut in half by the door." "Beth and I put him in a body bag." "I know." "Something happened to Ted, Jerry." "I can't." "It's not in my power." "There was a fire and...." "And I froze." "I didn't help him." "I wanted to, but I didn't help him." "I knew him since he was 1 7 years old and I let him go." "But I'd like to just deal with this at a later time." "You made that, Jerry?" "No, that's all right." "Very important." "Nothing more right now." "Please." "You have to stop." "Listen to me." "This is critical." "Your manifestations injure our entities." "And pretty soon there'll be no more entities left to play with and you'll be all alone again because you can't control yourself." "Because with all your power, you don't have the power to stop, do you?" "What name do you want?" "What name do you want?" "Hi, Harry." "How you doing?" "Can you believe what happened?" "What?" "You know, the attack on the Habitat." "You know there was an attack on this place?" "I must've slept through it." "You slept through it." "l was dead tired." "Smoke didn't bother you?" "All the leaking?" "You ever read this book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ?" "I found it in the john." "Someone's misguided attempt at levity." "I always loved this book." "Could never get past page 87 though." "Too scary." "You seem strangely detached, given our predicament." "I don't know, Norman." "With all your running around, what have you accomplished?" "You knew I was running around?" "Have you seen Beth?" "No." "Thought she's with the others." "What others?" "Barnes and Ted are dead, Harry." "There's nobody left down here that knows how to run the place." "Right?" "The fire screwed up the electronics." "We've used up most of our reserve gas." "You're reading your book." "Somebody has to go reset the mini-sub." "If you don't reset it every 1 2 hours, it'll float to the surface." "I'll go." "l'll go." "You sure?" "If the storm clears it might be our only way out." "Can I talk to you for a second?" "I don't want Harry anywhere near that mini-sub." "Think he'll leave without us?" "I think he already left without us." "Harry's in a whole other place." "He slept through the attack." "You don't find that a little strange?" "I guess it's just you and me, babe." "You and me?" "I'll keep my eye on you from the control room." "Reset." "Reset, where are you?" "There you are." "Are there supposed to be bubbles out of here too?" "I think I have bubbles coming out of my hose or something." "Can you tell me what to do?" "It's fogging me all up here." "There's something wrong here!" "I got to get out of here!" "Tell me what to do!" "What do I push?" "Where the hell are you?" "Help me." "I don't think I'll ever get back!" "Tell me what to do!" "I can't breathe!" "Watch out for that rock." "It's me, Harry." "Come around the rock." "Go to the right of the stanchion." "Tell me what to do." "I'm hurting." "Come around which way?" "I can't breathe!" "Yes, you can breathe." "It's just a faulty valve. it won't kill you." "You got plenty of gas." "I can't tell which way I'm going!" "See the air lock?" "Right in front of you." "I can't bear the feeling in my ears!" "And I can't breathe." "Where is she?" "Slow your breathing." "You'll hyperventilate." "She said she'd keep an eye out for me." "I looked all over the Habitat for her." "I thought she was with you." "Where is she?" "Did she tell you she was going out?" "I can't hear you." "If she can't hear, why'd she answer?" "What are you doing?" "I went looking for food." "We're out of food." "I was just up there." "Stuff all over, but there's plenty of food." "You went to look for food in the spacecraft." "That seems a little odd." "No." "What seems odd about it?" "Even if there was food, wouldn't it be at least 300 years old?" "I was hoping for a cryogenic freezer, you know?" "Maybe a bottle of Bordeaux." "She's lying." "She's lying about everything." "is Harry up there with you?" "Why don't we talk when you get back." "Meet me in the galley." "I'll buy you a cup of coffee." "There's still coffee, isn't there?" "Very funny." "I'll take mine black, like my mood." "All right." "See you soon." "We got 2 ingredients here:" "Beth and this underwater environment." "Put them together, you got one big-ass bomb." "How did it go in the mini-sub?" "It was a little disconcerting out there, actually." "Weren't you supposed to be watching out for me from the control room?" "Yeah, but Harry said he'd take over for me." "You sat down at the monitors." "What happened?" "I was in trouble." "Where were you?" "What's going on?" ""What's going on?"" "Going out to look for 300-year-old food in that spaceship when there's plenty of food here isn't exactly normal." ""Plenty of food"?" "There isn't any...." "A veritable horn of plenty." "He must have hidden it." "You think I hid all that food?" "I don't know what's going on." "I was standing right here." "And there was no food in the cupboards." "And there was no food in the fridge." "Why would Harry do that?" "Why would he set you up?" "I don't know." "You don't know?" "I'm telling you I was standing here and this food was not here!" "Calling Dr. Halperin." "Dr. Beth Halperin." "Please return to reality." "Shut up." "You can see what he's doing to me." "You said you'd watch me." "You didn't." "You think Harry said something he didn't that cupboards are empty when they're full." "Clinically, we would call that evidence of a psychotic break." "I am not crazy, Norman!" "You going to write me a prescription?" "And just get rid of me again?" "It's not that convenient down here!" "I am not psychotic!" "How about a mini-psychotic break?" "!" "That's not fair." "What?" "!" "I'm down there. I can't breathe." "I'm hyperventilating." "The man saved me." "Wait a minute!" "You want me to believe that he set you up!" "Why?" "This isn't Alice In Wonderland !" "Remember, "just you and me, babe"?" "is it unrealistic to think that at this point you are a danger to yourself, to all of us because of your anger toward me, which happened 1 0 or 1 5 years ago which is so distorted in your head!" "I was out there." "You almost got me killed!" "The man tried to save my life!" "You now want me to disbelieve Harry?" "!" "Yes, I want you to disbelieve Harry!" "I want you to look at me and believe for one time." "Look at me." "Am I telling you the truth?" "You weren't there." "You want to believe Harry, then that's fine." "Because he's done everything but part the sea for you since we've been here." "But I'm telling you that he is not telling you the truth." "This is not about Harry." "is it?" "Who's this about?" "He didn't tell you what's inside the Sphere, did he?" "You didn't tell him what's inside the Sphere." "And how would you know that?" "Did you go inside?" "Answer me." "Did you go inside the Sphere?" "Why won't you answer me?" "It's a question." "You don't want to talk to me." "Remember?" "Answer a question." "What do you think?" "You think she went in the Sphere?" "Here." "You dropped your book." "What isn't Harry telling me?" "I know you're there." "You're always there." "What's inside the Sphere?" "Harry is reading this book  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ." "What makes me nervous is that after page 87 it's all blank pages." "Why?" "Why did he go into the Sphere and come out like this?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why, Jerry?" "Why is this book half a book, Jerry?" "Why?" "Why?" "What's going on?" "He's got G equals one." "That's right." "He's got B equals two." "He's got H equals three." "That's not right." "Harry's got the code wrong." "H doesn't equal three." "Harry not only makes it real for himself, Beth." "He makes it real for you." "He makes it real for me." "He has made it real for everybody." "It's really frightening because you don't know whether it's really real or whether he's made it real for us to believe it's real." "And it's because of the Sphere." "Our Harry is Jerry?" "Come on, I'm just as tired as you are." "I know you can get this." "Okay?" "Harry said he couldn't get past page 87 because he said it was too scary." "There's nothing on the pages." "Where's the rest?" "Read what's on page 87." ""According to calculations of some naturalists one of these animals, only 6 feet long, would have tentacles 27 feet long." "That would make a formidable monster."" "What does Harry hate?" "Squid." "And when he read that, it scared him." "Getting the picture?" "Remember all those jellyfish that attacked?" "What was Harry doing then?" "Sleeping." "He was dreaming." "And this is the really wild part:" "What he dreamed...." "Happened?" "It happened." "You're telling me that because Harry went inside the Sphere, he now has the power to manifest his dreams, his fantasies...." "Manifest." "He manifested it." "He made it happen." "We better not piss him off." "It's not that different from a child, right?" "A child imagines that what it's imagining happens." "But it doesn't." "But with Harry, it does." "In fact, it's so real, it's not only real to Harry, it's real to all of us." "And what I can't understand is that ever since he went in the Sphere the Sphere has a power that projects every subconscious thought Harry has onto the computer." "It prints it out and we interact with it." "We thought it was Jerry." "It's not Jerry. lt's Harry." "Harry's Jerry." "Does Harry know this?" "But you went in the Sphere and nothing happened." "Obviously, I didn't go in the Sphere." "You never went inside the Sphere?" "You didn't go in there?" "I was so angry at you." "I wanted you to be scared." "Maybe you had a right to be." "Thanks." "You sure you didn't go in there?" "I don't know about you, but I don't feel like dying down here." "What we're going to do is find something to put Harry under." "We can put him in some kind of deep unconscious sleep." "Dreamless sleep, I hope." "A dreamless sleep, yes." "How do we do that?" "I got a bunch of drugs up there." "Fancy that." ""Diphenylpyraline."" "Burns." ""Ephedrine hydrochloride."" "Motion sickness." ""Valdomet"?" "Ulcers." "You might want to keep that." ""Sintag."" "Sintag is a synthetic opiate." "It's a painkiller." "I might want to keep that." "What about "parasolutrine"?" "Really?" "I got paracin trichloride." "That's an anesthetic." "Do you combine it?" "You give about 20 cc's of this one, 6 of this one." "You're in business." "Here's some more paracin trichloride." "Good." "We'll knock him out for about 3 to 6 hours." "I'm going to hold him." "What's going on?" "Go back to sleep." "I didn't know it would be that fast-acting." "We didn't kill him, did we?" "I don't think so." "Okay." "Come on, come on." "Here we go." "It's a code." "How the hell are we supposed-- lt's decoding itself." ""Weather normal." "Surface support vessels return."" "6 hours and counting, we're out of here." "It's over." "If you trust it." "You know me, I believe everything." "Get out!" "Get off!" "They're Belcher sea snakes, Norman." "They're the most poisonous snakes in the world." "But they're nocturnal." "They're only dangerous at night." "Norman, can you meet me at the lab, please?" "I have something I need to show you." "What are you doing?" "I'm here." "What are you doing?" "Why are you locking me in?" "You manifested the snakes." "Norman, up here." "You're the only one who could be manifesting these snakes." "Turn around." "Turn around and look on the table." "See the hypodermic needle?" "I want you to inject yourself." "It's the same thing that we used to inject Harry." "We gave Harry this stuff because he was manifesting and we wanted to" "You're manifesting your fears the jellyfish now the snakes." "The squid thing was Harry, but he's asleep." "He's in a dreamless sleep. lt couldn't be him." "You are the only one left." "What would the snakes have to do with me?" "I didn't go in the Sphere." "See thejars?" "I put the snakes in there and they disappeared in front of my eyes." "Who's manifesting them, Norman?" "You are." "I don't have anything to do with snakes." "If you don't use the hypodermic needle, I'm going to have to defend myself." "I'd remember if I went in the Sphere!" "Don't make me do this." "I don't want to do this." "I didn't manifest anything." "I didn't manifest the squid." "I didn't manifest the...." "I shouldn't be talking to you like this." "Why are you taking the gas out of the room?" "That's my air." "What's with this water?" "!" "Think it through." "Whose childhood fears were the jellyfish?" "Jellyfish?" "Remember, Norman?" "I'm not the only one who's afraid of jellyfish." "This wasn't exactly a jellyfish." "Jellyfish like this are unheard of." "Anybody can be afraid of jellyfish." "A lot of people are afraid of them." "Isn't it possible that you went inside the Sphere and you just don't remember?" "I didn't go inside the Sphere!" "You would've seen it on the video!" "I didn't go inside the Sphere." "Yes, you did." "Is he alive?" "You went inside the Sphere and youjust don't remember." "That's the problem." "It's not me!" "I'm not going to use it!" "Inject yourself with the hypodermic needle." "It's your snakes." "See?" "It's all a fear." "It's just a fear." "You can make it go away." "Just use the hypodermic needle." "And the ships will come and we'll get out of here." "What are you doing?" "!" "You're going to kill me!" "You can stop it." "Try to pull yourself together." "Your fears are going to kill all of us." "Please, don't open the hatch." "You'll freeze to death in the water." "You'll kill yourself!" "Don't open the hatch!" "I know enough not to get killed down here." "Are you the most qualified in your field?" "What exactly are your qualifications?" "Why are you here?" "Why are you here?" "Why are you here?" "Are you the most qualified?" "You almost got me killed." "You're a danger to all of us." "Come back to reality." "What are you doing?" "Are you real?" "As real as the water that almost drowned me." "You tried to kill me." "What are you doing there?" "Beth, you went into the Sphere." "Didn't you?" "Answer me." "I don't know what to think." "I feel like I can't breathe." "I'm losing it, you know?" "I'm trying to keep it together, but...." "What's going on?" "Why'd you put me out?" "What are you guys up to?" "You went in the Sphere, Harry." "So did Beth." "So did I." "I think." "And if so, what?" "Everything that we feel or think just happens." "That's what happened to the astronauts." "The astronaut in the chair, what did you say about his head?" "He had blunt force trauma." "He got hit in the head." "They went into the Sphere one by one became afraid of each other till they killed each other off." "And we're doing the same thing." "I don't want to kill you." "Your attention, please." "All construction personnel must exit the blast area immediately." "Panther explosives are now activated." "Mark 13 minutes and counting." "Want to tell me who that voice is?" "They had explosives down here to blow up the coral." "So when I went out before, I set up a defense perimeter around the spaceship." "Something must have triggered it." "Something from inside the Sphere." "Nothing in the Sphere." "You know that." "Then what?" "I don't know." "Then who?" "It's me." "Oh, God." "I was just thinking about the explosives." "It just flashed inside my mind." "It must've triggered them." "I was thinking about wanting to die." "You put explosives near the spacecraft?" "Yeah, I did." "But they're about 1 00 yards away." "There's a lot of liquid hydrogen left on that spacecraft." "If it explodes, it'll disintegrate everything." "Mini-sub, now!" "Let's go!" "I hope there's a ship up there." "Your attention, please." "All construction personnel must exit the blast area immediately." "Panther explosives are now activated." "Mark 10 minutes and counting." "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Come on, come on!" "Come on, move!" "Ikeep moving." "We're not going to make it!" "There's not enough time." "Just keep moving." "We're not out of time." "We're not going to die here. lKeep moving." "Let's go, Norman." "It's not like I drive subs, okay?" "You're driving one now." "Oh, my God!" "What's going on?" "I don't know." "Why are we inside the spaceship?" "I don't know." "Let's go!" "Now alert, alert." "5 minutes and counting." "We're not moving." "Anybody hit the button?" "What the hell?" "Wait a minute, this was an elevator before, right?" "Which one of us is doing this?" "Oh, God." "Alert, alert." "Panther explosives armed." "Wait, wait." "We were here already!" "How much time we got?" "!" "Come on!" "It's a dead-end." "Where are we?" "An illusion." "Doesn't look like it." "Beth, which way?" "Harry, where do we go?" "Where?" "Where's where, Norman?" "Around that corner?" "And what's there?" "Just another blind alley in the maze of our minds. illusion." "Maybe he's right." "We believe that, we're dead." "Just go on." "Leave me." "You're not going to die down here." "I'm not going to let you die." "Come on." "I'm not going to die." "You have to push the button." "I can't see a button." "I can't see the button." "I can't see the button." "It's no use." "We die down here." "We're running out of time." "They all look the same." "I don't know where we are or what we're stuck in." "Where we are is stuck in the illusion that we can change the future." "It's a dead-end." "Just like I said all along:" "We die down here." "Maybe he's right." "Maybe he's right." "I'm not going to die." "Beth's not going to die." "And you're not going to die." "Look, just leave me." "We're not in the spacecraft!" "We're in the mini-sub!" "This isn't real!" "This is your manifestation!" "Let it go!" "It's a dead-end." "We're not going to die here." "It's not our time." "Thank God, we're out of here." "Don't start celebrating yet." "Why not?" "I don't think we're going fast enough." "For what?" "An underwater blast creates a suction." "It'll suck us into it." "That is, if the shock wave doesn't kill us first." "Alert, alert." "Mark 20 seconds and counting." "Panther explosives are now activated." "640 feet." "630." "620." "61 0." "You a religious man, Norman?" "Atheist." "But I'm flexible." "Pull up, Norman!" "Pull up!" "Come on, pull up!" "This is Escort 7." "We have sighted OSSA mini-sub, bearing 105." "Repeat." "Bearing 105." "Preparing to make contact for decompression procedure." "What's going on?" "More of nothing." "I want to thank you for saving my life." "Interesting life to save." "You get some sleep." "I have no idea what to tell them when they debrief us." "My back is killing me." "Next time I have to remember to stretch before I jettison from a mini-sub." "We've been trapped in here for about 3 days." "They want an explanation." "We ought to figure out what we want to tell them." "lKiller jellyfish, squid, sea snakes and an alien being in the form of a giant totemic golden ball?" "Please." "We destroyed $ 1 00 million worth of equipment down there and people died." "They want answers." "What do you guys want to tell them?" "Why aren't we dead?" "What?" "You said:" ""The future can't be changed."" "It can't." "But in the spaceship they called it an Unknown Entry Event." "Like we never got here alive to tell them about it." "You said we wouldn't survive. lf you can't change the future, we'd be dead." "We're alive." "We're not dead." "And in 2 minutes we'll be in a room full of military guys." "They know about the Sphere." "We know Barnes got ahold of them before we lost contact to the surface." "What do you want to tell them?" "Why bother?" "The Sphere's destroyed." "But we still have the power, am I right?" "I don't know if I trust them with it." "I don't know if I trust you." "I don't want to not be able to sleep, afraid I'll wake up having manifested some nightmare and there's all kinds of weird things in my apartment." "That's a frightening thought." "No kidding." "So if we still have the power what do you want to do with it?" "God knows what they'll do with it." "Are you worried what will happen if it falls into the wrong hands?" "Yeah." "Frankly, I don't know what the wrong hands are." "Or what's worse:" "the wrong hands or our hands." "We are the wrong hands." "We proved it." "You know, the 3 of us are enlightened people, we're intelligent we even recycle our cans and bottles." "But when we got our shot, we manifested every mean distorting, vengeful, paranoid thought you could think of." "We did." "Right?" "You believe we still have the power." "Of course we still have it." "And that's the answer to the equation." "We can't change the future." "We're not dead." "But they don't know." "Why?" "I'm not following you." "Because we have the power to forget." "To forget." "You want us to agree to forget?" "Wait a minute, are we sure that we want to do this?" "Yes." "This is the greatest discovery in the history of mankind." "We're just going to white it out like it's a typing error?" "I'm sure." "What about you, Beth?" "What's the matter, Norman?" "It's a little hard to let go of." "Something that could've been this gift?" "The power to make your dreams come true." "We're given the greatest gift in the history of mankind." "We're given this magic ball." "And it says:" ""Imagine what you will and you can have it. "" "That's an extraordinary gift, but we're so primitive we...." "We manifested the worst in us, because what we have inside us is what we have inside of us, instead of the best of us." "What does that say?" "We weren't ready, Norman." "We have what's called an imagination." "I mean, look what we're capable of." "We can...." "We're not ready." "A long time ago I did something very very inappropriate with you, and I'm sorry." "Okay?" "Okay." "I don't have any answers, Norman, but these guys are coming so let's...." "Okay, we're going to agree to forget the Sphere the power all that ever was." "I don't know how to get this going." "You're the mathematician." "How about we just count to 3?" "I couldn't have come up with that." "I'll start." "One." "Two." "Three." "Can somebody tell me what the hell that's supposed to be?" "Why are you holding my hand?" "No, you were holding my hand." "[ Skipped item nr. 1735 ]"