"Ladies and gentlemen, tech pioneer Darius Tanz!" "Sir, my name is Liam Cole." "In 186 days, an asteroid's gonna collide with Earth, and we're all gonna die." "Previously on "Salvation"..." "What's Atlas?" "Don't say that word to anybody, ever." "Looks like I got a real story now." "All we need is a working EM drive and I can build it." "I just need help to expedite it over the finish line." " What kind of help?" " Malcolm Croft." " My professor?" " I've been trying to crack the EM drive for years." "And I'm not the only one." "Then let's compare notes, see if together, we can't do the impossible." " Get me what I need." " Fine." "What else do you need?" "A hundred kilos of enriched uranium." "You want to help me save the human race or don't you?" "You're stealing the code." "I'm stealing uranium from the United States government." "And betraying a man you love." "Keep recording." "This is an act of war." "Get back." "Back up!" "If you don't think we're at war, think again." "This building behind me produces nuclear weapons, like the ones reportedly headed to Florida to be decommissioned." "Funny, I was always told we decommissioned our nukes in Utah." "Last I checked, Florida's where we launch things." " Who do you think..." " Hey!" "Get down on the ground!" "And stay on the ground, now!" "Don't." "Zoe... has poison ivy." "Two days camping with her dad." "Mouthwash." "For the poison ivy, stops the itching." "You have an answer for everything." "Yeah, well, that's my military training." "Ready for anything, anytime." " Really?" " Yeah." "What gets red wine out?" "Was it salt or peroxide?" "Harris." "I need to tell you..." "Turn it..." " The White House." "Wants an update from the task force, right now." "Human beings." "We have limits." "Or we think we do." "Just when it seems we've gone as far as we can go... we go further." "Innovation is not about "why," it's about "why not?"" "Tanz Industries." "Changing your world." "And, behind those doors, the world's greatest minds are busy breaking all the rules." "I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the Goliath Two rocket." "Colonizing Mars is a priority for Mr. Tanz, and this state of the art rocket will be what takes us to the red planet within the next decade." "Fantastic." " "Fantastic"?" " Yeah." "Those microwaves are flying all over the place." "It looks like a blender in there." " This is what it's supposed to look like." " And it will, it will." "We just need to find the right frequency and the waves will fall into line..." "And create thrust, I know." "I guess I just thought once we got those emitters online, we'd start seeing something." "I've been trying to build a working EM drive for seven years." "This is how science gets done, Mr. Cole." "It's sweat and patience, and more sweat." "Good morning, gentlemen." " You two look like hell." " Hi." "When was the last time you slept?" "Monday, maybe." "Well, it depends what day it is." "Tess?" "Today is Friday, Liam." "That's bad." "So how's our EM drive coming along?" "Simulations still not producing any thrust." "But, the team here has made incredible progress with the emitters." " Emitters?" " Yeah." "WWe don't need one small step for man, we need the giant leap for mankind right now." "The process is methodical." "Malcolm, this isn't MIT." "There's no time." "Big moves equal big results." "The world doesn't care how you get there, just get there." "Fast and loose." "Some things never change with you, Darius." "Yeah, fast, never loose." "I think I'm gonna make myself an espresso." "Or three." "So..." "I take it that no one else here knows why there's a rush on this EM drive project?" " You, me, and Lazlo." " Lazlo?" "I've known Laz since I was a boy." "You, you're safe here, I can vouch for that personally." "I hope so, because whoever was after me in Boston, there's no telling what they'll do if they find me." "Then we'll make sure they don't." "Liam." "Fancy meeting you here." "It's Liam, right?" "Yeah, good memory." "How could I forget our four minutes together?" "You here for the, the tour, Amanda?" "Yes." "And I came to see you." "Really?" "I was hoping you could help out a fellow millennial." "I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype." "Annie Hall." "Yeah." "Nobody ever gets that." "I like surprising people." "You're a reporter." "I should've told you at the embassy, but I didn't want to ruin the moment." "We were having a moment?" "I thought so." "Anyway, I want to do a piece on Darius Tanz." "Something splashy to earn my keep at Capitol Eyes." "You think you could grease the wheels for me?" "Excuse me." "You don't have clearance to be in this area." "Sorry." "I got lost on the way to the loo." "I'll help you find your way back." "Liam, you have a visitor in the lobby." "I do?" "Good to see you, Liam." "You know where to reach me." "Breaking all the rules." "And, over here, I'd like to direct everyone's attention." "Jillian?" "Liam." " Hey." " Hi!" "Hey." "What are you, what are you doing here?" "So, some guy named Lazlo just showed up at the bookstore the other day." "He said that Darius Tanz wanted to meet me." "I'm getting a tour, and he's taking me to lunch." "Wow." "I assumed it was because of you." "Well, yeah." "Yeah, II told him all about you." "I just, I didn't realize that was today." " Yeah." " That's..." "I'm really glad to see you." "Me, too." "You look..." " Like crap, I know." " No, I was gonna say" ""tired," but, like, cute tired, not crappy tired." "Thank you." "Hey, II got to get back to it, but... we, we should, we should have dinner later." "Dinner." "Yeah?" "Okay." "All right." "Have fun." "And that concludes this morning's tour." "Any questions?" "A ton." "So do we know what this is about?" "New information coming out of Planetary Defense." "White House wants to be briefed." "Who are they sending?" "Hold that, please." "Harris." "Claire." "Been a long time." "This is Grace Barrows." "Press Secretary DoD." "Nice to meet you in person." "Claire Rayburn, senior advisor to the president." "Of course." "Nice to meet you." "So, the president has asked for an update on where we are, and advice on the best course of action moving forward." "Dr. Strauss, I understand you have a revised plan." "Walk us through the latest." "Our plan is still to repurpose the IO Probe orbiting Jupiter as a kinetic impactor." "Put the probe on a collision course with the asteroid." "Correct." "The asteroid is poised to hit in 174 days." "But now we know there are two windows of opportunity in which the probe can actually intercept the asteroid." "The first window is in exactly seven days, the second, in 63." "What results can we expect?" "We've run thousands of computer simulations, and confidence is high that upon impact, the asteroid will break up into smaller fragments downgrading it from an extinctionlevel event." "But?" "But... the impact will also create a storm of smaller meteors headed directly for Earth." "Where, exactly?" "Our calculations show the impactor will slow the asteroid down by .002 percent, causing those fragments to miss the Western Hemisphere completely." "But they will land somewhere." "Yes." "Russia, China, Mongolia." "They could all be leveled." "That's a billion people." "Maybe more." "Which is why Darius has been working day and night on the EM drive." "It can launch a gravity tractor with enough speed to reach the asteroid, and enough mass to pull it off course, missing the Earth by thousands of miles." "But he's yet to prove his plan can work." "So we're gonna sacrifice a billion lives before even giving him the chance to save us all?" "I mean, at the very least, shouldn't we wait for the second window?" "Waiting gives us only one bite at the apple." "The deputy secretary's correct." "We've never tried anything like this." "There's no guarantee that we get it right the first time." "If we commit to this, there's no going back." "Dr. Strauss, we have seven days before we need to put the plan in motion?" "That's correct." "Ms. Barrows, tell Darius Tanz he has six days." "I need to see an EM drive proof of concept before then." "Short of that, I will recommend to the president that we move forward with the impactor plan, seven days from now." "And God help us all." "Your press liaison seems awfully empowered to speak her mind to the Deputy Secretary of Defense." "Grace's point was valid, and she's there to counterbalance the wonks and military types." "Like you and me." "Frankly, I'm surprised she even has clearance to be there." "What are you getting at, Claire?" "Come on, I've been in." "God knows how many meetings with you, Harris." "You don't give anyone that much sway once you've made your stance known." "Okay, Grace and I are professionals, that's all there is to discuss." "Glad to hear that." "I'm seeking a friend... for the end of the world." "I hoped we could help each other with that." "Like the old days." "Yeah, the old days ruined my marriage." "It's a new day, any you're not married anymore." "Look, Claire, I'm..." "I'm sorry, but I can't." "Now, I don't mean to be abrupt, but I have some..." "I have some family business to attend to." "Of course." "But if you change your mind, you know where to find me." "Why is Jillian here?" "I thought you'd be happy." " Well, I am." " Then what's the problem?" "It's a distraction." "Really?" "See, I thought it was more of a distraction when you were taking detours to her bookstore to catch a loving glimpse of her through a window." "I need your head in the game;" "That means" "I want everything you care about under one roof:" "Mine." " Now, what did she want?" " Who?" "Your reporter friend from the Embassy Ball." "An interview with you." "I hate how you know everything and reveal nothing." "Work it out in therapy." "Now, get back to work." "Grace Barrows is here." "Says it's urgent." "They call me insane?" "Those triggerhappy bastards." "How long did it take them to condemn a billion people?" "A minute, a minute and a half?" "Look, if you can deliver proof of concept in six days..." "Six days?" "Six." "Do you know what this is?" "The first working drone prototype I built for the United States government, or what's left of it." "Looks like it crashed and burned." "Yes, the first time, but it worked eventually." "All I needed was time." "In six days, I can give you smashed metal." "Inin 60 days, I can save the planet!" "I'm trying to keep their fingers off the trigger, Darius, but you don't have 60 days, you have six." "You have to find a way to buy us more time." " How?" " Well, that's for you to figure out." "Excuse me, I've done what you asked." "I got you uranium, which could still come back to haunt me." "That's behind us, this is in front of us." "Grace, if the IO Probe hits that asteroid, life as we know it is over." " Wait, where are you going?" " Lunch." "No." "Assault?" "Resisting arrest?" " Destruction of government property?" " It was a peaceful protest." "Until it wasn't." "This is not just some rebellion, Dad," "I'm actually trying to save the world." "Okay." "Well, you aren't going to do it from a jail cell." " Now let's get out of here." " What about my friends?" "What about them?" "They're locked up back there." "You always said leave no man behind." "Dylan, I called in a favor to get you out of here." " I'm your father, not theirs." " Father?" "You're a stranger who occasionally showed up" " for birthdays." " I'm a military man" " who got reassigned." " That's right." "The military always comes first." "You know what?" "You have no regard for the people who serve this country." "Hey, putting their lives on the line every day." "You have no regard for my friends who are also serving this country by putting their lives on the line." " Dylan, I don't have time to listen..." " Right!" "You don't have time." "Look," " I don't want to fight." " Well, I do!" "I am fighting for what I believe in." "I just wish once you could respect that!" "Okay, fine." "You want to stay?" "More power to you." "Best food truck in the city." "How's your, um, beet cashew taco?" "Yeah, about as good as you said it was in that Forbes exclusive you did last year," ""The Elites' Best Eats."" "That's what you're reading?" "Tragic." "Well, at the risk of sounding like a pathetic fan," "I've pretty much read everything published about you." "That's funny, because I've read pretty much everything" " published by you." " No." ""She always managed to outrun fate," ""to cheat death, but now she was" ""over two lightyears from home," ""trapped alone on the shadow side of a planet that as yet had no name"." "You read my book." "ShadowSide." "And now you're quoting from it." "Quite a strong sense of individualism, selfdetermination, but above all else, humanity." "Who are your influences?" "Well, I'm a big Asimov fan." " Heinlein, of course." " What about Bartok?" "Andre Bartok?" "Um..." "Too dystopian for my taste." "Surprising, considering your connection to him." "He's your... grandfather, if I'm not mistaken?" "Mr. Tanz, what am I doing here having lunch with you?" "If you want to meet my grandfather..." "No, on the contrary." "I have a proposition." "For you." "Don't you think I tried?" "This is on Dylan, Monica." "You know what?" "I'm sorry." "There's nothing left to discuss." "What happened with Dylan?" "I'm handling it." "What did you find out?" "From Darius?" "He needs more time." "Well, that's something we don't have." "Unless... we wait for the second window." "Grace, that gives us only one chance to get things right." "Do you think for one minute if Russia or China had this information, they wouldn't protect their own interests?" "Who are we to play God?" "To kill a billion people just so we can..." "Save the rest of the planet?" "Save ourselves, is what you mean." "Is that what you think of me?" " That I'm some sort of monster?" " What?" " No." " No." "You just... you just stand there in judgment." "Never having had to make life and death decisions." "Harris, this is the biggest one yet." "How can you be so sure of yourself?" "And how can you be so damn sure of Darius Tanz?" "Because the alternative is unacceptable!" "And maybe you're done fighting, but I'm not." "Hi, it's Grace Barrows." "Can we meet?" "No." "Alone." "Damn it." "Darius is right." "Respectfully, sir, we need bigger and bolder moves." "When people say" ""respectfully," I find that they're actually being disrespectful." "Do you even understand what we're trying to do here, Liam?" "Yeah." "We're trying to save the world one painfully slow frequency at a time." "There are 300,000 possible frequencies, and only one will give us thrust." "I'm doing the math in my head here, sir, and even with this supercomputer, we do not have enough time to check them all." "Then what are you suggesting?" "We have to cut down the number of frequencies." "That would cut corners." "We might miss the frequency that would save us all." "In the '50s, the JPL guys nearly blew themselves up testing rockets, now they lead the field." "What is so wrong with taking big swings like Darius says?" "Because Darius Tanz is not a scientist, he's a celebrity." "And he's convinced you and the rest of the world, with his charm and bravado, that he knows the way." "Delusional optimism is not gonna get this thing built." "We are." "In the meantime, he's... at lunch with your girlfriend." " Where are you going?" " To blow something up." "So that's your secret?" "Asteroids?" "What?" "You're a retro videogame junkie?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I was just taking a break from the grind." "How was your lunch?" " Interesting." " Yeah?" "How interesting?" " Are you happy to see me?" " What?" "Beyond." "Would you be happy to see more of me?" "You have no idea." "Darius offered me a job." " What?" " Yeah." "He has this think tank where he brings together authors, artists, philosophers, and he said that I would make a great addition." "I thought you'd be happy." "Don't you find it strange that he would pluck you from obscurity, fly you here, offer you a job..." "What?" "Because I didn't go to MIT, I don't belong here?" "No." "Then what?" "You know what, I think I'm just gonna go back to the hotel." "No." "Jillian, wait." " Jillian." " Don't." "You offered her a job without consulting me?" "I wasn't aware I had to run business decisions by you." "This isn't business, this is my life." "If she's here, I'm gonna have to lie to her every single day." "Do you know how awful that is?" " Fine, fine, then tell her." " Forgetting for a minute that is a violation of national security," "I don't, I don't want to tell her." "I don't want to tell a girl that I care about that the world is ending." "Ending, maybe." "Maybe?" "Probably." "Unless I can figure out a way to stop it somehow..." "She's still happy." "Why should she have to carry around this burden?" " This burden sucks." " Liam..." "Liam," "I'm carrying on as if, and so should you." "As if what?" "You're actually doing something to help?" "'Cause last time I checked, it is... it is me and Croft and a bunch of your minions sweating it out in the trenches while you're out eating tacos with my girlfriend." "There are reasons for everything I do." "Great." "You want to fill the rest of us in?" "No." "I need you to prioritize, Liam." "Focus on what's important." "Use your brilliance to save the world, not secondguess me." "If you'll excuse me, I have an appointment." "Thank you for coming." "A meeting this far outside the Beltway." "Should I check to see if there's a gun taped to the toilet?" "Can I trust that anything we say will stay between us?" "Undermining your boss could get a person fired." "You're talking about protocol." "I'm talking about the fate of the planet." "Thank you, Karissa." "She makes the best smoothies... allnatural, organic, of course." "Kale, coconut, lime..." " Picante." " I love this one." "It's got a real kick." "The good kind." "So, Ms. Neel." "Wow." "You're a pretty tenacious reporter." "Not many people pierce the corporate veil here." "Well, I guess Liam must have given you the hard sell." "On the contrary, he dismissed you completely." "But I'm interested in people, why they do what they do." "And people like us, when we hit a wall, we see three options:" "Go around it, climb over it or tunnel under." "And if that doesn't work, we blow the damn thing up." "Now, you're obviously after what you think could be a careermaking story, so let's cut to it." "What headline are you chasing?" "This one." "Grace Barrows delivering uranium in the middle of the night to Tanz Industries." "Care to comment?" "Mars." "That's what this is about?" "A joint venture between Tanz Industries and the U.S. government, the first of its kind." "And uranium is what's gonna get us there." "Exciting, isn't it?" "Sending astronauts to Mars?" "Very exciting." "Who said anything about astronauts?" "My team has written a complex algorithm thatthat takes into account a person's entire genome, factoring in personality and viability traits to ensure that we get the best of the best." "So, you're selecting civilians for the first mission to Mars?" ""Tanz Seeks Candidates for Journey to Red Planet."" "And what do I have to do in exchange for this exclusive story?" "Proprietary information, such as where I get my materials... uranium, for example... belongs to Tanz Industries." "So, if you were to publish photographs like the ones you just showed me, my lawyers wouldn't take kindly to that," "nor would the United States government." "So... if you would like a careermaking exclusive," "I would suggest you sign this and hand over those photographs." "And this has nothing to do with Project Atlas?" "Project Atlas?" "Never heard of it." "Sorry." "My mistake." "Where do I sign?" "I appreciate your faith in Darius Tanz, but you don't know with certainty that he and his team can pull off the EM drive in 60 days." "I know that we have to give great minds the time to come up with a solution that doesn't compromise our moral fabric." "Are you familiar with Greek mythology?" "I dabbled in college." "Then you may remember the story of Scylla and Charybdis." "Two mythical monsters." "Is this a test?" "Odysseus had to steer his ship through a narrow strait and confront Scylla or Charybdis." "Scylla would snatch six people from his ship." "Charybdis was a whirlpool that could destroy them all or they might all make it through." "Odysseus made the choice to sacrifice six sailors rather than risk the whole ship." "Sometimes there are no good choices, Grace." "But the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." "So, we should just destroy others to preserve our way of life?" "Decide who lives or dies." "I can't understand how you can be so cavalier." "You think I'm cavalier?" "You think I want to be facing this reality?" "Telling the President of the United States that our best option is to destroy a few countries in order to save our own?" "Do you have kids?" "No." "I have a daughter." "She's 18." "She just... graduated from high school." "She's..." "She's beautiful." "Every day when I look into her eyes," "I feel a responsibility to do right by her." "Give Darius the time he needs." "Recommend the second window and maybe then we can save the entire planet." "Prioritize?" "That's what he said?" "Yeah." "I need to prioritize;" "He's in there giving an interview." "Why is he such a prick?" "That's rhetorical, I gather." "No, it's not." "I want to know." " Tess, you there?" " Yes, Liam." "Why is Darius such a prick?" "Not sure I understand the question." "Yes, you do." "You just don't want to answer it." "Tess, how many frequencies are left?" "There are 287,109" " frequencies remaining." " My..." "Well, it's a marathon;" "It's not a sprint." "Yeah, whatever it is, it's a race without a winner." "Well, we have to vet the losers to find the winner." "Yeah, but not all losers are created equal." "Maybe we do have to prioritize." "In a marathon, you may have 30,000 runners." "Some have a better chance of winning than others." "If we could prioritize the frequencies... narrow it down to those most likely to win the race, eliminate those who never stood a chance off the top." "Well, how are we gonna do that?" "Tess." "Tess, you have predictive algorithms, right?" "Of course, it helps me anticipate Darius's needs." "And you have access to our EM drive research?" "I have access to all of Darius and Malcolm Croft's" " nonworking prototypes." " Can you use those predictive algorithms to analyze those failures and then prioritize which frequencies have the best chance of producing thrust?" "Please?" "I can try, Liam." "You want her to guess?" "To make an educated guess." "We do not have time to eliminate 300,000 frequencies." "Tess will narrow our field of competitors fast." "Ed, I got an exclusive with Darius Tanz on his Mars project." "How much do you love me?" "I didn't get anywhere on Atlas, but don't worry." "I'm not dropping that white whale." "Yeah, you know me." "I like to keep pulling threads." "Eventually, something or someone will unravel." "Hi." "Um, I'm sorry." "I tried calling, texting." "Yeah." "II was out." "Can we talk?" "So, you left him there?" "Dylan's right." "I'm a terrible father." "I don't believe that." "'Cause you see the best in me." "No, I just see you." "Go back to Dylan." "Make amends." "You can't change the past, but you can change the future." "What's left of it." "Grace." "I know we don't agree." "But I have to do what I think is right." "That's all any of us can do." "Liam, you have a match." "What?" "You have a match." "Tess." "Tess, you beautiful, beautiful, red machine." "Croft, wake up." "Please don't be dead." "She found a match." "Tess found a match." " What?" " Come on!" "Okay." "Those stairs are tricky." " Professor." " Yeah?" "We have thrust." " Yeah, we have thrust." " We have thrust." "We have thrust." "We have thrust!" "Mwah." "We have thrust!" "We've got thrust." "My God." "I knew you bastards would figure it out." "So, Tess prioritized the frequencies" " and we did it." " Yeah, we did." "Now we just have to build the damn thing." "The Pentagon wants to see a fully functional" " scale model in 48 hours." " No." "That's impossible." "Malcolm, you just defied Newton's third law." "Anything's possible." "We'll need all hands on deck." "Seriously?" "I said all hands, didn't I?" "So, you achieved thrust." "Now show me how." "Yeah, okay." "It's Darius." ""Good news." "Ready for showandtell."" "They did it, Harris." "They have proof of concept." "I had long given up on this." "Too bad it only took the end of the world for us to crack it." "I'd say that's perfect timing." "Here, Professor." "Need to get you out of sight if you're concerned about your safety." "Don't forget, don't overload the system." "Got it." "We did good, Mr. Cole." "Professor." "All right, all right." "A hiker in the desert is limited by the amount of water he can carry." "But what if he could make water as he went?" "Our EM drive will allow us to make our own metaphorical water." "We'll be able to travel at speeds ten times what we're capable of now." "The thrust it will generate isis tiny... less than one thousandth of a Newton, but it's constant." "In the vacuum of space, that is better than a fleet of rockets." "If this little guy moves even one millimeter, it'll be one of the greatest triumphs in scientific history." "And maybe, just maybe... the savior of mankind." "With the deadline three hours from now, there's only been time to test computer models." "We haven't had a chance to field test it in the real world, so..." "without further ado." "What are we looking at, exactly?" "At the moment, nothing." "What's happening?" "Well, we have frequency lock." "It should be working now." " Send more power." " But Croft warned..." "I don't care what Croft said." "This is doordie time." "Do it." "I think we've seen enough here." "I told you not to push it, damn it." "Darius told me to send more power." "Nothing was happening." "We needed to improvise." "Improvise?" "We just figured out how to make it work, and you want to improvise?" " That's how things get done." " Croft's right." "You're not a scientist, you're a celebrity." "Is that right?" "And now, because I listened to you, our last chance to save our collective asses has literally gone up in flames." "You say you have a reason for everything." "I sure as hell hope you have one for this." " Where are you going?" " To make things right." "While I still can." "We need to make the call to the president." "Maybe we should consider the second window." "What?" "Did you not just see what happened with Darius and his fantasy technology?" "It worked in the computer simulation." "It was a simulation, Claire." "Maybe all they really need is time." "Time is a luxury we don't have." "Who got to you?" "Was it Darius?" "No." "Someone else." "You broke chain of command." "Went behind my back." "I did what I thought was right." "I guess you thought this was right, too." "I believe this is yours." "My God." "I thought it was an accident at first." "Maybe it got caught on my clothes, fell into the briefcase." "That's before I knew how far you were willing to go." "Just how far did you go, Grace?" " Right now, that doesn't matter." " It does to me." "What did you do?" "I don't want to compromise you." "Damn it, Grace, you already have." "You know that under normal circumstances," "I would never do some of the things I've done." "You've made your choices, Grace." "Now I need to make mine." "Hey." "Hey, thanks for coming." " Yeah, you still look..." " Terrible, I know." "Work's been, it's been rough." "I'm sorry." "No, I'm sorry." "I really am." "A job offer from Darius is an opportunity." "If the job excites you, you should take it." "I already did." "That's, that's fantastic." "Is it?" "I want you to be happy." "I'ml'm sorry." "So, what's the project, exactly?" "You know how Darius wants to colonize Mars?" " Yeah." " Basically, we're figuring out the first step, so the minimum viable population." "Jinx." "You're, you're selecting 160 people for an ark." "Well, a hypothetical ark." "Who would you choose to repopulate if you knew the world was coming to an end?" "And it's weird because he said that this project is a priority." "Well..." "Darius has a reason for everything." "Housing unit, please see guard tower." "What are you doing here?" "I'm here to bail you out." " And your friends." " Yeah." "They all left." "As soon as they had the chance, they took it." "It's a fundamental human instinct... to act in favor of selfpreservation." "People can be so disappointing, you know?" "I do." "I don't want to disappoint you anymore." "I can't change the past, Dylan." "But I want to change, be a better father." "Before it's too late." "Yes, I understand." "Thank you." "The president has given the order." "We are a go." "Commencing burn on the IO Probe." "And we just condemned a billion people." "Switching to IO Probe view now." "Status?" "NASA's standing by, ready to initiate final burn." "Proceed." "Roger that." "NASA, Samson." "Initiate thrust." "Thrust initiated." "The probe is exiting orbit." "Trajectory has been adjusted for impact." "Trajectory confirmed, Samson." "Switching to forward camera." "On course for impact." "Samson, we are looking good." "Sir, we have a problem." "The probe's engines are firing." "Samson, trajectory has been changed." "We are no longer on course." "What's going on?" "I don't know." "The thrusters have been activated at full strength." "NASA, Samson." "A 100% burn on IO has been initiated." "Is that you?" "Negative, Samson." "That is not us." " Who the hell is sending this command?" " I don't know." "Could this be instrumentation failure?" "Negative." "Command is coming from another signal." "Harris, what the hell is going on?" "Probe is no longer responding to us." "The probe is receiving commands from somewhere else." "I need one explanation now." "I have only one possible explanation." "We've been hacked, sir." "NASA has been hacked." "Samson, are you getting a read on the signal location?" "Samson?" " I need reports on China, Russia, Iran." " I'm on it." "Also, get me intel on any hacker group activity." "The president." "If there's a leak... someone who might have given aid to hackers or an outside foreign entity, we need to find the mole." "Figure out who had the means and motive to do this, now." "The list is coming up right now." "People like us, when we hit a wall, we see three options:" "Go around it, climb over it or tunnel under." "And if that doesn't work, we blow the damn thing up." "If you would like a careermaking exclusive," "I would suggest you sign this." "And this has nothing to do with Project Atlas?" "Project Atlas..." "Our reporter friend?" "She got the message." "You've reached the personal voicemail of Darius Tanz." "If you have this number, it's because you're very important to me." "So please leave a detailed message." "Darius, where are you?" "I need to know what you did."