"NEW MEXICO, DESERT 1947" "You have to consider that they had a break during the war." "And last year Saint Louis gave them a real good run for their money." "So this year the Yankees are gonna get whupped." "You're crazy, Osier." "Brooklyn ain't ever gonna beat the Yankees." " Never beat them yet, never gonna." " You watch and see." "This is the Dodgers' year now that they have Jackie Robinson." "Them bums couldn't beat a dead horse with or without that Negro." "And you know what?" "I'm willing to bet some hard-earned cash on it." "I might just take you up on that." "How much are you proposing?" "Quiet down, Rex." "I said quiet." " Hey, Wally, it's Osler." " What's going on?" "I got this weird pulse coming in on my frequencies." " It's all over mine right now." " You, too?" " It's weird." " What do you think it is?" "I think it's the pinkos doing something with our radios." "It's not a communist conspiracy." "What the heck's the matter with you, boy?" "I thought it was coming from White Sands but now I think it's coming from Roswell." "Maybe I'll drive up there and take a look." " Call me if you find something." " Yeah." "Talk to you later." "That is it." "I don't see anything out there, Rex." "Hello!" "Come back." "Come here, boy!" "What the heck is that?" "Oh, my God!" "ANTARCTICA 2003" "AXXON RESOURCES STUDY CORPS" "What the hell is it?" "Could be a rock or some sort of fossil." "We picked it up in the Landsat satellite." "First we thought it was a cap deposit, but the resolution is definitely solid." "How deep in the ice is it?" " Four, maybe five meters." " What do we do about it?" "I talked to the NASA research station at Rundell Peak." "They'll take it until it melts, and then decide what to do with it." "All right." "Dig it up." "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY" "Language is a signalling system that uses sounds to convey thoughts and emotions." "What makes humans unique is our ability to introduce into language... thoughts about the past, present, or future... at any point in time and space." "He'll call you back." "Not all language is based on sound." "We communicate in other ways... that are much less overt than the spoken word." "So do animals." "The only difference between them and us can be summarized in one word: novelty." "When an animal gives a warning that danger is imminent... it uses a series of fairly predictable calls or signals... that animals of its kind have used before." "This is decidedly not the case with humans." "Oxford English Dictionary lists 615,000 words... in the English language." "That's 3,000 more than five years ago... and thousands less than a few years from now." "On the other hand... there's little or no novelty in animal language." "Tragically, English cows make the same sounds as French cows." " Julian." " Sam." "Listen." "Bachman called." "He wants to see you right away." " Why?" " I don't know." "Did he sound like there was a problem?" "Come in." "Good afternoon, John." "Come in, sit down." "A certain matter has come to my attention." "John, about the student, right?" "I've been meaning to talk to you about her." "I don't think I want to know about that." "No, look, do you know who Alexie Gierach is?" "Stanford Genetics." "Yes, I met him once at a faculty thing when I was there." "Two years ago, he went to the Antarctic to head up a new research project for NASA." "Yesterday, I received this from him." "A satellite imaged an unidentified mass... in the ice shelf down there." "It appears to measure approximately 6 meters long by 3 meters wide." "At first, they thought it might be a rock slag... or a fossilized whale." "But now they're not so sure." "Why?" "Well, station telemetry identified some sort of radio signal..." " Being emitted from it." " Really?" "They burned a spectrogram of it on this CD." "I thought you might like to look at it." " Plain or with cheese?" " I don't care." " Look at this." " What have you got?" "Look at that." " Nonrandom?" " Definitely." "Fixed-length pulse groups, discriminate text... consisting of prime numbers repeated over and over." "What about a meteorite?" "A meteorite as big as this would've left a mile-wide crater in the ice shelf." "It would explain an electromagnetic pulse." "Not a Nonrandom signal." "Check this out." "That's a kickass frequency." "The dish transmitter at Arecibo is 1,000 feet in diameter." "The most powerful on earth." "This signal's stronger and it's coming from something the size of a pickup truck." " You said it was Nonrandom?" " Yes, with a fixed pulse device." "You mean some sort of new search signal?" "It's possible." "But search text is always diverse samples with mathematical data." "This has no parallel plain text." "Like a tracking signal." "We're talking about a target signal of 30,000 light years." " We don't have that technology." " Not that you know of." "I know what's on this disk." "I gotta see this up close." "Too many people know about your past with SETI." "They'd read something into it." "You say that it may be a Russian satellite, and I wanna run cryptanalysis on it." "All right." "But you do anything to embarrass this institution... you're gonna spend the rest of your days... teaching communication skills to the penguins down there." "Thank you, John." "RESEARCH LAB, FALKLAND ISLAND" " What is that bloody thing?" " I don't know." "I'll record it and we'll pass it on to the Yanks at Kitt Peak." "Maybe they'll know." "There's a transport leaving Edwards Air Force Base tonight." "Stops in Panama and South Georgia Islands." "Then they'll decide whether to go Rundell Peak..." " Why not?" " Antarctic weather at this time is bad..." " And sometimes you can't get in or out." " Great." "Kitt PEAK OBSERVATORY TUCSON, ARIZONA" " Where'd you get this?" " From a radio tech at the Falklands." "One of their satellites intercepted it two days ago." " Where is it originating from?" " Antarctic." "It was somewhere in the Ross Ice Shelf, then it moved farther inland." " Moved?" " That's what they said." " What can be boosting it?" " Haven't a fucking clue." "Let's pass it on to NASA." "Okay." "Here." "You're going to need this." "1,200 feet approaching." "The wheels are down and locked." "We're going in." "Gear's down and locked in place." "Let's lock it up." "We're coming in too hard." "I can't see a damn thing." "The lights, I see them." "We're right on top of it." "Welcome to the South Pole." "RUNDELL PEAK, ANTARCTICA" "Mr. Rome." "I'm Nyla Wurtsen." "Getting here this time of year is difficult." "Surprised they let you fly in." "McMurdo weather grounded everything an hour ago." " They did?" " Yes, indefinitely." " Here." " No, I got it." "Sure?" "Hold on, let me take this." " What's your name again?" " Nyla." "How far underground are we, Nyla?" "About 20 meters." "We're on the third level." "There are two more below us:" "the genetic labs and the fields." " What the hell is that?" " It's a glacier shift." "Happens all the time, Mr. Rome." " It's safe, right?" " Yes, it's fine." "I'm going to take you to the living quarters." "Dr. Gierach is waiting for us there." "He thought you might want some rest after the flight." " Actually, I was hoping to see the object." " Whatever you want." " So, Nyla, right?" " Right." " What do you do here?" " I came with Michael..." "Dr. Straub." "I was his graduate assistant at MIT and he offered me a position here." "What position is that?" "Dr. Brecher warned us about you." "You're not talking about Kate Brecher, are you?" "Dr. Brecher." "Welcome to Rundell Peak." " Good to see you again, Dr. Gierach." " Yes." "When John said you were coming, I was delighted." "I've followed your career off and on." "That's exactly what it's been." "Your time with SETI must have been memorable." "Yes, my lost-in-space days." "And so, there it is." "In compliance with COMNAP provisions... we've kept the room at a temperature... that won't abnormally accelerate the melting process." "And as you see, it seems to be melting at an unusual rate." "What do you think is inside it?" "My first guess would have been... a shale slag caught in a glacier." "The radio signal rules that out." "Could it be the work of SETI?" "There is no more SETI." "The government has no interest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence." "They pulled the funding." "If this is really what it appears to be... this technology is way beyond what any of us were working on." "For the sake of argument, let's say it was placed here... by something else." "You said it, not me." "Alexie, they need you in the corn lab." "We'll talk later." "What did NASA say when you told them about this?" " I haven't." " Why not?" "Our work here is in a very sensitive stage... and we both know how paranoid NASA can get." "Hello, Julian." " You okay?" " Yeah." "I feel better now." "Save the endearing charm for Nyla." " I'm not sure she's my type." " Too old?" " Maybe a little." " You don't have a type." "I got lots of types." "What happened to what's-his-name, speaking of types?" "It ended." "Don't screw this up for me, Julian." "What we're doing here is important." "What makes you think I'm going to screw it up?" "Experience." "I'll show you to your room." "It's not The Plaza, but it's the best we have." "All I need is a bed." "Counting Nyla, there's four women working here." "Try not to set any records." "Hello?" "I'm just checking to see if you want breakfast." " What time is it?" " A little after 10:00." "Are you going to do some calisthenics?" "It just makes it easier... because of the antibacterial showers when I'm working in the fields." "When I first came here..." "I worked in the seeding labs by myself." "Sometimes the pollens are so thick they're hard to wash out of your clothes." " So I worked naked." " Sounds perfectly logical to me." " Dr. Brecher made me stop." " Shame on her." "This is the future." "Genetically engineered, hydroponically grown food." " How big is it?" " 3.2 acres." "The wheat lab is slightly larger." "I've got to get to work." "You're finally up and about?" " This is some place." " Yeah." "Who's your friend?" "Dr. Michael Straub." "He's a brilliant geneticist." "I think he's got a sock in his Speedo." " Very funny." " I'm not trying to be funny." "I'm just making an observation." "I watched the two of you laughing..." " And happened to notice." " Actually, we were talking about you." "I'll take that as a compliment." "So, what's up with you and what's his name?" "Stubb?" " That guy, Strobe?" "Strubb?" " Straub." "It's none of your business." " What are we gonna talk about?" " I don't want to talk about anything." "I want you to do whatever it is you have to do and get out as soon as you can." "Do you have any idea what we're doing?" "You're wearing bathing suits and growing corn." "Everything's always a joke with you, isn't it?" "We've made a breakthrough in genetics that'll put us in the running for a Nobel." "For the first time in my life I'm part of something truly significant." "I'm sorry." "You're always sorry." "Then it always turns into jokes and innuendos." "That's not gonna happen." "How did you squeeze this kind of money out of NASA?" "They're obsessed with selling Congress on planetary colonization." "Agrigenetics is one of the first steps." "A lot of this came from your SETI labs after NASA pulled the plug on the funding." "It's impressive." "Almost as impressive as your cornfield." "What do you really think is in that block of ice?" "I'm sorry for what I said." "I know how much your work meant to you." "You look good." "What do we know about this Julian Rome?" "37 years old." "Both parents deceased." "Killed in an automobile accident." "He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Applied Linguistics." "Top of his class." "On a fast track for a doctorate when he got in trouble... with a female student in one of his classes." "He never finished his doctorate." "He ended up working for SETI as a decoding cryptologist." " He's an alien hunter." " Was an alien hunter." "When NASA pulled the plug, he left SETI and returned to teaching." "This time at Berkeley." "He's been there for two years." "What's the connection between Gierach and Rome?" "Gierach actually contacted Dr. Bachman that I told you about." "Bachman turned it over to Rome." "There's something else." "What's that?" "The student he had the affair with, her name is Katherine Brecher." "She's one of the researchers down at Rundell Peak." " "Osler"?" " Wait till you read this." " That's my brother and me." " Sorry." "I'm Grisham, Communications Officer." "I know." "I read about you when you were with SETI." "You must've been really desperate for entertainment." "The kind of stuff you guys are doing really interests me." "Were doing." "It's all history now." "I found the signal when they brought the block in here." "How'd you read it?" "When the weather's good we use a Landsat satellite." " It was in the background noise." " Between 2 and 6 gigahertz?" "Yeah, how'd you know?" "That's where we always kind of expected it would be." "So you really think it's artificial?" "I know it's artificial." "Could be an elaborate hoax." "Could be." " Hello, Julian." " Hello." " Sit down." " Thank you." " Join us." " I'd like to get some coffee." " There." " There?" "Great." "Thank you." "Who haven't you met yet?" "I haven't met anybody." "This is Abell, our maintenance officer." "And these lovely ladies are Shelly Cline..." " Hello." " Hi." "...and Dacia Petrov." "I don't think you've met Dr. Straub, Julian." "You look much smaller with your clothes on." " You're still here?" " Yeah, for a while." "The weather seems to be getting worse." "You were employed by SETI as a cryptologist." "What exactly do you do?" " It's like an interpreter." " Interpreting what?" "Messages from outer space, my dear." ""E.T. phone home."" "Cryptologists determine if a valid communication's been received... and then they try and decipher and interpret it." "Just exactly how many signals have you interpreted?" "None, exactly." "Since you've never heard from them, do you still believe they're out there?" " Do you believe in God?" " Yes." " Have you ever heard from him?" " No." " How about a drink?" " Think I'm gonna turn in." "Been kind of tired." "How long do these communication blackouts last?" "Seen it go a couple of weeks before." "Once in a while there's intermittent signals... that last long enough to make contact with the Brits at McMurdo." "Till then we're totally cut off?" "When it gets like this, nothing can get in or out." "Sno-Cats are useless, and they wouldn't chance an icebreaker." "I can't believe how much it's melted." "You can almost see inside it now." "Am I crazy, or does this thing seem to be giving off a low-grade impulse?" "I can feel it in my joints." "It's really strong if you touch it." "Careful." "Was the signal harmonic when you first intercepted it?" " No." " What does that mean?" "Two or more separate frequencies combined in one signal." "I think one's a locator pulse and the other's plain text." " An actual message." " It's a lot of work just to create a hoax." "This is no hoax." "How long do you think it would take us to rig up some kind of a horn antenna?" "Hard line here?" "If I can't communicate with the satellite, I'll have to intercept the signal here." "There's an old dismantled one in maintenance." "Abell and me can rig it up in a few hours, I guess." "What are you gonna do?" "Try and find out what's buried in the harmonic." "How?" "Mathematics." " Any luck?" " No." "The primary signal's... almost too obvious." "It's like some sort of beacon." " What's your brother do?" " He's dead." "I'm sorry." "He died in a flight training accident." "You guys train together?" "Yeah." "I lost interest after the accident." "I'm gonna find a real bed." "Think I ought to wake her?" "No, let her sleep." "Beacon." "This is the signal we received from NASA yesterday." "Now watch this." " What happened to the sound?" " Nothing." "That was recorded by Osler in '47." "The signals appear identical." "Same transmission, same frequency, same polytonal harmonics." "There's no denying the similarities of these two events." "The moment a window of opportunity opens in that storm... we have to make contact with this man Rome." "Because of his background, he's the most likely to comprehend what we tell him." " Bring Bachman here immediately." " Why?" "What Mr. Rome is going to hear is best heard from somebody he trusts." " What's the matter?" " Abell woke us up." "Said it was something with the ice block." " What happened?" " I've never seen anything like this before." "Looks like it was created in a volcanic environment." "Looks like a big old clam." "A giant mollusk that ate Antarctica." " It's not a mollusk." " What is it?" "Don't touch it." "You all right?" "You okay?" "It's got some sort of electrical charge to it." "I'd say it's igneous rock formed by some sort of eruption." "My guess is rhyolite, or basalt." "It didn't come from Earth, it came from space." "It's a meteorite." "Meteorites don't broadcast radio signals." "The signal's harmonics are exactly like aircraft retrieval data." "It's a black box." "First I thought it was a location bounce... for celestial navigation, but it's a little simplistic." "Then Grisham mentioned it seemed like a beacon, and that's when it hit me." "This came here by mistake, and the signal's meant for whoever lost it." " Aliens." " This is nuts." "Maybe not, Michael." "It all makes sense." "There's something else." "The primary signal is a cryptographic key... that unlocks the message buried in the harmonic." "So I compared the cipher text against itself... and the coincidences between the character strings." "A deviation arises... from strings of intervals divisible by five, bit repeats at shifts of 70 and 125." " What the hell are you talking about?" " I'm talking about this." "What?" "That?" "That's a message?" "It's part of a message." "This is the great pearl of galactic wisdom... that we've all been waiting for." "I've been waiting for." "Could there be more to the message that's not being deciphered?" "There could be several cryptographic keys." "Shift intervals can change, strings vary." "Endless possibilities." "But it could still be uniquely random." " I just don't think so." " Yes, but it's a possibility." " Anything's possible." " I think Julian's right." " It looks extraterrestrial." " You're all talking nonsense." "No offense, Nyla." "You wouldn't know an ETI if it walked up to you and bit you." "Neither would you." "So why are you so goddamn sure that it's not?" "Alexie, what do you think?" "I agree with Julian." "Anything is possible." "Everybody, I think you better come back down to the maintenance bay." "There appears to be a crease in this thing's surface." "Can we open it?" "If you can discharge it, I can pry it open." "I can rig up something to ground the charge." "Maybe that's not a good idea." "It's a way to find out if you're right." "I'm not so sure it's a good idea, either." "There may be pathogenic organisms inside." " An infection could wipe out all our work." " The labs are sealed environments." "I say first thing tomorrow morning we pop this thing open." "If Julian's right, we go down in history." "If I'm right, we eat linguini for a week." "Okay, bring him in." "Welcome, Dr. Bachman." "Please, have a seat." "I know this must be very unnerving for you." "Yes, it is a bit, sir." "I can't imagine why I should be brought here." "What we're about to tell you, Dr. Bachman, is truly beyond your imagination." " You believe it's ETI in origin, don't you?" " Everything certainly points to it." "I hope you're wrong, Jules." "Nobody's called me that for a long time." "Why do you hope I'm wrong?" "Because if you're right, we could be Neanderthals in comparison." "That may not be so bad." "Think of what we might learn from them." "Maybe they won't have the patience to teach us." "So it'll just be survival of the fittest." "Same rationale we've used to kill everything below us on the food chain." "Maybe they're an even more effective predator than we are." " Kate." " Don't." " You don't know what I was gonna say." " You were gonna apologize again." "Just let it go." " Am I interrupting something?" " No." "We're done." "Was I interrupting something?" "It's a long story." "Will you do me a favor?" "I wanna..." "Will you watch this program?" "I wanna grab a shower, get something to eat." "Would you like some company?" "That would be nice." "But I better not." "See you in a bit." "Be careful with that thing." "Now hold it still." "Here." " Is this gonna work?" " It should." "All right, let it drop." "Turn it off!" "Something's generating current inside of it, but it should be safe to work on." "Would you like something to drink?" "Some water, coffee?" " Brandy." " Brandy, please." "The weather systems have prevented us from making contact." "Our satellite systems will alert us at the first opportunity." "What if this is really true?" "What if we're already too late?" "We've considered that." "Measures are being initiated as we speak." "NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN RUSSIAN SSGN SUBMARINE" "The message from the Americans is properly formulated, sir." "All ahead two thirds." "Set depth for six hundred feet." "All ahead two thirds." "Depth set for six hundred feet." "Commence heading two five zero." "Sir." "Commencing heading two five zero." " What do you think is inside it?" " Nothing, I hope." "The blade's cutting through a layer much softer than the outside surface." " What if he's right?" " Snap out of it, Kate." "You don't believe it any more than I do." "The only reason you're going along with this insanity is because of him." "That's not true." "It's not rock." "It looks like a carbon alloy." "What caused the surface corrosion?" "Water exposure?" "It appears more like a molten degeneration... from exposure to extreme heat." "For God's sake, Alexie, you don't know what the hell that thing is." "I'll tell you what." "I'm going down to the corn lab to work." "They don't give Nobel prizes for space junk." "Anything?" "No, it just keeps returning to that." " What exactly is it doing?" " Trying to speak." "It's a language." "You know, language isn't just used... as a means to converse... but also to define an environment so one can survive in it." "Since time and space is a constant... any intelligence within that environment will define it the same." " But with a different language?" " Yeah." "I mean, mathematics is the basic expression of any language." "So you just have to find a way to solve the equations." "That's what it's doing, with the help of the cryptographic key from the signal." " It's kind of like MindMaze." " Like what?" "It's a computer game... where you have to figure out the math puzzles." "Each time you do, you get a key that unlocks the door to another world." "What?" "Maybe each piece of the message is its own key." "What do you mean?" "MindMaze." "Maybe that's how the intervals are interpreted." "It's a progression... using the last piece as the new key." "See." "Now we use... the new interval... as the next key." "It's working." " Wait a minute." " What?" "Oh, my God!" "What do you think, Abell?" "I think I'm getting there." "We've got to stop them." " What could be in it?" " I don't know." "I'm cutting through a layer that's much softer than the outside surface." "Take over for me." "I need to get another blade." "Here." "Jack!" " What's wrong?" " We got to stop them." "Don't open it!" "What the hell?" "Are you okay?" "I've got the fire under control." "Somebody help the doc." " Is anybody hurt?" " I'm okay." " How about yourself?" " I'm all right." "Careful, Alexie." " Anybody down there?" " I'm okay." "What about Jack?" "I don't know." "I can't see him." "The whole place is a wreck." " Where are some flashlights?" " I'll show you." "Is anybody else hurt?" "I've got a few scratches." "I'm okay, but I lost Carl." "I'm over here." "I'm all right." "I'm fine." "I'm okay." "Where's the kid?" "Last time I saw him, he was on the stairs." "Pinter, you okay?" "Let's get down there and see what happened." " Is everybody accounted for?" " I don't know." " You all right?" " Yeah." " Let me see your arm." " No, it's okay." "It's Jack." "He's dead." " You okay?" " Yeah, I'm fine." "What is it?" "I've never seen technology like this." "It seems organic." "I think there's something inside it." "What're you gonna do?" " I want to see what it is." " No, wait." "Look at that." "What's it doing?" "Oh, my God." "What the hell is that?" "What's happening?" "What the hell is going on down here?" "We're going down in history." "Just like you said." " You think it's dead?" " Looks dead to me." "I don't feel so well." "What the hell is going on?" "Must be airborne." "The Russians are in a deployment firing position." "Then we agree that the General will begin execution of a fail-safe plan..." " Without prejudice?" " But we hold until we make contact." "Our submarine is equipped with underwater launch missiles with nuclear warheads." "They will be fired row by row." " It's gotta be some sort of parasite." " Viral?" "I think the infection is protozoan." "You saw what happened." "It ate tissue from the inside out." " There's no protozoa can do that." " Not here, not on Earth." "I've been transmitting a mayday, but I can't make contact through the storm." "We're all gonna die, aren't we?" " Chances are we've all been infected, right?" " Maybe not." "Maybe Nyla and the others somehow had some physical contact with the parasite." "I didn't see anybody touching each other or anything else." " The only thing was that broom handle." " Then he should've been infected." " Maybe we're resistant." " That's possible, isn't it?" " So is genetic flexibility." " What the hell's she talking about?" "Sometimes a disease will slow down its infection rate... so it doesn't kill the thing it needs to live on." "You mean if we're all dead, it'll die, too?" "Exactly." "That's just great!" "How long will these emergency batteries last?" "Around 24 hours." "They'd last longer if we shut down parts of the station." " What area uses the most energy?" " The field labs." "We're not shutting down the experiment." "I'd rather not myself, Julian." "Let's start with the living quarters and the maintenance bay." "It's gone." " What?" " The thing, it's gone." "So it is alive." " Where is it?" " It must still be somewhere in the bay." " What do we do?" " We find it." "No way." "I'm not going looking for that thing." "The infectious chain might be contact." "Then go with Kate and start shutting down the generators." "Shouldn't we take some sort of weapon?" "Are there any firearms here?" "The pilots have two 9 millimeters in their gear." "I checked them in." "It's part of our survival kit." "Let's get them." "The fallout radius of this campaign can exceed our extraction numbers... because of the other stations." "While we argue about the fine print, we'll be on our way to a global annihilation." "Gentlemen, the weather satellite shows... a small hole developing in the storm front within the hour." "This may be our last opportunity." " I'm getting the creeps." " Don't worry, we'll be fine." "Tell that to Nyla and the others." "Why don't we split up?" "This is just great." "Kate, shine that flashlight." "Kate, where did you go?" " What?" " Jeez." " You scared the hell out of me!" " I shut down the power grid." "Just don't sneak up on me like that, okay?" "Let's go to the machine room and check the generators." "Stay close." "What will we do with it when we find it?" "The question is... what will it do with us?" "I think it's these three." "It's all right." "You see?" "I'm not gonna hurt you." "My God!" "Julian!" "Kill it!" "Don't do this." "Stop!" "I thought it was gonna kill you." "I don't think so." "It felt... safe." "And then... it felt like fear." "There it goes again." "Maybe finally we can get the hell out of here." "With this weather, nobody will be able to fly in." "We can't fly out either." "We shouldn't go till we know about the pathogen." " You don't decide anything for me." " Calm down." "He's right, Michael." "No one leaves." "Rundell Peak, this is USS Crowley." "Come in." "Rundell Peak, do you read?" "Over." "USS Crowley, this is Rundell Peak." "We read you." "Go ahead for Rundell Peak." "This is Dr. Bachman." "Yes, it's me." "I'm here in Washington... with the Secretary of Defense... and some other men." "This is about the alien, isn't it?" "My God, it's true." "Then I assume you've opened it." "How many fatalities?" "Two by accident, four by infection." "The seven of us left seem to have a resistance to it." "At least for the time being." "Have they contaminated the environment outside the station?" "Has the environment outside the station been compromised?" "No one's been outside." "What's going on, John?" "What's happening?" "John, are you still there?" "What you found in the ice was an escape pod... similar to our own aircraft ejection system." "On the night of July 2, 1947... a similar vehicle entered the Earth's atmosphere." "It landed near Roswell, New Mexico... and started transmitting a rescue signal." "When they were retrieving the unopened pod... a ham radio operator named Gordon Osier... stumbled on the frequency signal, the same as you did." "He drove out to the source of the transmission." "The aliens are carriers of the pathogen, but they themselves are immune to it." "They were unaware of this until they entered our planetary system." "Their first stop was Mars." "Total extinction took less than six months." "How do they communicate?" "Is it some form of telepathy?" "Yes." "They never left their craft." "The recovery was robotic." "But they made it clear that night... that they desperately wanted to assimilate with us." "Did you contact it?" "Is it still alive?" "It's dead." "None of that matters anymore." "The solution now is sterilization." "What do you mean, sterilization?" "It's been decided." "A limited nuclear device is our only option." " Tell them that help is on the way." " No." " I will not lie to them." " We've got no choice." "God knows what they'll go through in the next few hours." "They have a right to know what'll happen to them." "Tell the truth, and I guarantee the integrity of that station will be compromised." "A Russian... submarine is on its way to you." "How the hell can they help us?" "They're not coming here to help us." "How long do we have?" "Three hours." "I'm so sorry, Julian." "Thank you, Dr. Bachman." "I know how hard that was for you." "No way!" "They can't do this." "They just can't kill us all." "I say we load the plane and we take our chances." "Unless the weather improves our chances are slim." "No one's going anywhere." "We walk out of here, we can infect the entire planet." "We're not infected, for Christ's sake!" " Can you prove that?" " Lf we were, we would be dead." "Somehow we've managed to develop a resistance." "What about running blood panels on us to verify it?" "Protozoa is known to disguise itself in cellular protein." " Could we be resistant?" " Possibly." "But Shelly is right." "We could be part of some hidden cycle of replication." "Infectious without any symptoms." "It's nothing but theoretical bullshit!" "We see it in plant resistance all the time." "Introduce a pathogen, some die immediately... while others quickly develop antigens against the infection." "Every minute we waste is a minute we could spend further away from here." "Everyone stays put until Shelly runs the blood panels." "Then we decide what to do." "Why don't you go help her get set up in the med lab?" "I don't fucking believe it." "It must be some sort of drill, sir." "Weapons conn." "EAM is properly formatted for strategic missile launch." "Plot a firing solution and initiate standby firing point procedures." "I hope you're right, Mr. Volkv." " There's no sign of any pathogen." " Are you sure?" "Look for yourself." "There's nothing but healthy cells." " It could be hidden in the protein." " You know how unlikely that is." "How unlikely?" "What are the odds?" "99.999 to the infinite." "But not 100?" "For Christ's sake, what are we waiting for?" "I say we get out of here now." "What do you think, Alexie?" "Without absolute proof it would be incredibly irresponsible." "I don't know." " What do you think?" " Lf there's no sign of it, I agree with you." "There's two." "Come on, Kate." " Do you want to die for nothing?" " No, I don't." "But if there's a chance we can spread this, we have no choice." "Are you out of your mind?" "There's no sign of it in our blood." "What more fucking proof do you need?" " I'm not going anywhere with you." " You stupid, fucking bitch!" " Give your gun to Grisham." " Why?" " Because only you can fly the plane." " That's all the more reason for me to keep it." "Give your gun to Grisham." "When I arrived, I noticed the main entry port has a keypad to open and close." " Is the maintenance bay port the same?" " Yeah, why?" "I think we should reprogram the codes in case someone decides to try and leave." "I'll show you how." "First, you need to punch in the existing code, which is 7942." "It's waiting for the open command." "Four-number combination, then depress the first and the third pads till they light up." " Now the maintenance bay." " Okay." "How long till we reach launch coordinates?" "Eighteen minutes, captain." "Lock firing solution into computer and set condition 1 KTX for strategic missile launch." "Firing solution locked into computer and condition 1 KTX set for strategic missile launch, sir." "Gentlemen, the release of a nuclear weapon has been authorized." "This is not a drill." " Are you okay, Michael?" " No." "I'm not okay." "How long since we spoke to Bachman?" "Over an hour." "We don't have much time then." "This is insane." "If they were able to reach us on the radio, there must be a hole in the storm front." "I'm increasingly convinced we could make it out of here on the plane." " Lf we could get to it." " Fuck the entry ports." "There's another way out of here." "So now we wait?" "Now we wait." " Wish I had a cigarette." " Those things will kill you." "You always made me laugh." "I'm not ready to die." "You can't do this." " Stop it!" " Get the gun!" "Get the fucking gun!" "Please, stop!" "Let's go!" "Let's get on out!" "Run to the plane!" "They're heading for the plane." "They can't get out." "The ports are locked." "No, Julian, they're going through the irrigation drains." " What's he talking about?" " The cornfields." "You've got to stop them, Julian." "Go." "I'm okay." " I'm all right." " Shelly, take care of Kate." "Ship is at launch depth, sir." "Flood tubes and spin-up ballistic missiles one through five." "Mark depth, two hundred feet." "I hope to hell they know what they're doing." "Weapons conn." "Fire one." "It's away." "God help us." "Come on." "Let's go." "We've got to get out of here." "We don't have much time." "Come on!" " Wait a minute." " We don't have time to waste!" "My God." "They were right." "We are infected." "So, we're infected." " It doesn't mean we'll die." " It might mean that others will." " I can't do this." "I'm not going." " Yes, you are." "Who's gonna fly the plane?" "You want to stay here and wait and be blown into oblivion... when we have a chance to get out of here?" "Now let's go!" "No." "And you're not going either." "Michael, don't do this!" "Michael, you can't go outside." "Stop!" "Look at the corn!" "Come on." "Don't do this!" "Help me, Julian." "What's happening?" "Help me." "Don't move." "We're suffocating." "I can't breathe." "Breathe slowly." " I can't breathe." " Be still." "I can't breathe." "Nine minutes to target impact!" " Come on, let's go." " Go where?" "We're out of time, we got to go." "You all right?" "We'll use the maintenance bay door." "Are you okay, Alexie?" "Julian, what's going on?" "Where are we going?" "Where's Michael?" "He's dead." "Nearly there." "It's hard to breathe." "Breathe slowly." "Your lungs will get used to it until we're inside." "Inside what?" "My God!" "What do we do now?" "They want us to go with them." "Time's running out." "I'm scared, Jules." "I'm scared, too." "Just hold on." "And don't let go." "There are unconfirmed reports now... that the disaster at the NASA facility in the Antarctic... was the result of a massive meltdown of a nuclear reactor." "A spokesman at the Pentagon says more information will be forthcoming soon." "And we hear now that there is a presidential press conference... scheduled for 7:30 Eastern time tonight." "We can confirm that 13 people in all died." "Among them was the renowned geneticist..." "Dr. Alexie Glerach, Drs. Katherine Brecher... and Michael Straub... highly respected researchers in the field of plant genetics." "Professor Rome had only recently arrived at the NASA facility... and it's still unclear exactly what his function was."