"Tonight, all eyes are on the moon as scientists around the world are piecing together the causes of this unprecedented lunar phenomenon." "We're here on the campus of Plymouth Institute of T echnology to speak with staff astrophysicist, Dr. Lana Gale." "Doctor, what can you tell us?" "Well, basically, we've been blindsided." "The orbit of an undetected asteroid has intersected with the Moon's orbit and the two have collided." "While we would like to think that we would see something like this coming, the sky is a vast place, and unfortunately, we don't have all the resources that we need to fully cover it." "And what can you tell us of what we're seeing up there?" "What we're seeing is an impact cloud of debris and regolith that will eventually subside." "Regolith?" "The powdery rock covering the lunar surface." "So I guess the more urgent question would be is there any cause for alarm?" "These things are always more alarming when they happen so close to home but the best approach is to wait and see what happens." "React to what develops." "As my father used to say, Dr. Lawrence Gale," ""The universe is a case of unfinished business. "" "Thank you very much for your time, Dr. Gale." "My pleasure." "How was it, Tony?" "You were awesome!" "You exuded confidence and clarity and strength, and knowledge, and expertise, and--but, regolith?" "That's what it's called." "I know that, but the average viewer isn't that knowledgeable." "Did you eat anything?" "'Cause I kinda skipped dinner." "I'm sorry T ony, please go home." "I'll see you in the morning." "No." "I'll pick us up something;" "we'll eat it here." "We'll celebrate." "My treat." "Tuna salad, no mayo, heavy Dijon." "Thank you." "Dr. Bender." "Can you tell us whether the collision on the moon poses any danger here on earth?" "Well, for obvious reasons it's premature to launch into any kind of conjecture at this time." "What I can say is that we at ASI are assuming the leadership role in interpreting incoming data gathered by the international scientific community." "ASI is the definitive space agency in the world today, and we have our absolute best people analyzing this phenomenon." "Very shortly we'll, uh, we'll be presenting our analysis to the White House, where a press conference will follow." "One more question, what would happen if a similar asteroid were to hit the earth?" "Depending on speed and trajectory, there would be global repercussions." "Garth?" "Dr. Lana Gale is on line two for you." "Yeah, I got it." "Thanks." "Lana?" "Thanks for calling." "Have you seen the latest?" "I'm probably not as up to date as you are." "What's going on?" "Our information on the halo is a--concern." "What kind of a concern?" "Preliminary data shows some of the asteroid fragments on a course that will bring them into earth's orbit." "Hey, John." "You weren't on the Moon last night, were you?" "Hey, John?" "All that dust and debris floating around, it kinda looks like your handiwork." "If I was up on the moon last night doing my work?" "It wouldn't be there anymore." "Copy that." "Checklist." "Good to go?" "Yep." "Let's blow the building." "All right, Ollie, how we looking?" "Locked and stocked, buddy." "Check it out." "Good." "Right on schedule." "Looks like you're gonna owe me 20 bucks, homie." "I shake on that?" "Oh, yeah." "Well, the building ain't down yet." "Oh my God." "Abort right now." "Let's go." "We gotta stop the sequence." "Bryna, shut it down now." "No, the system's not responding." "Ollie?" "I'm trying to override it." "Okay, let's have some fun." "What are you doing?" "Bryna." "Continue to rebalance the sequence." "I'm gonna go find that misfire." "Talk to me on the radio." "You can't go up there!" "We don't know how that building's gonna come down unless we rebalance the system." "Ollie?" "Figure out why that clock is still ticking and shut it down." "I'm on it." "I'll be back." "Okay, Bryna, give me the location of that misfire." "Ninth floor." "8A." "OK, copy that!" "Ollie?" "Have you stopped the countdown?" "John, the explosion messed up the whole system." "It's lit up like the Vegas strip." "I'm tryin' to stop the detonator but it ain't happening'." "I know you've got my back, Ollie." "So make it happen!" "Everything I'm seeing here says that the charges did not go off on their own." "I think someone's in there." "Great." "That's all we need." "Let's get the cops, tell 'em what we got." "If someone's still in there who might keep settin' things off, you won't have enough time to fix it all." "No!" "I'll have plenty of time." "Cause you're gonna fix that damn clock!" "Hey!" "It stopped!" "How we doin' for time?" "!" "There's no rush anymore." "The countdown stopped." "What?" "No!" "That was the 5-minute warning." "That means that clock is not off!" "I'm gonna have to reboot the whole system." "John, where are you?" "I'm on the 9th floor now." "Do I go left or right?" "Left." "No, right!" "My left, your right!" "Come on, Bryna." "Focus, okay?" "I'm coming up on a large central room." "In the middle of that room, you'll find column 8A." "Hold on, I think I got it." "That's the one that's missing its charge." "C'mon, c'mon!" "Aaaah!" "Help!" "Hey, Joe?" "Double-check lines 21A thru F." "Okay." "Are they still hot?" "Yep, they're hot." "Dammit." "Help!" "Help me!" "I'm coming!" "Okay!" "Looks good!" "You're online and set to go, now get out of there!" "Hello?" "Help!" "We're gonna get you out of here." "I got a guy up here." "He's pinned down by some debris." "I gotta get him out." "On three, I'm gonna lift this up, pull your leg out." "One, two, three." "Get out of my house!" "Hold on!" "Stop!" "This is my house!" "I'm trying to help you." "Now listen to me." "Your house is about to get blown to bits, understand?" "John, just get out of there, please." "I'll be down in 90 seconds." "Come on!" "Less than a minute left!" "I've jacked the override into your system." "See if you can get access." "Watch out!" "Come on!" "You almost got it." "Go, go, go!" "Come on!" "John, you gotta get outta there!" "Move it!" "John, move now!" "Go, go, go!" "Oh my God!" "We now have three reported strikes of asteroid debris, and they're not ordinary meteors, Lana." "We're missing something." "Why are so many of them surviving atmospheric entry?" "These objects aren't that big." "They should be burning up." "Then it's gotta be the density." "The mass of the asteroid must have been much bigger than we anticipated." "But it makes sense." "Because you were right about the ecliptic plane." "The lunar orbit's shifted?" "The numbers indicate a very gradual shift." "And it could still self-correct but there's already a rise in the sea levels and the jet stream is taking a complete nose dive south." "Which means a big weather change." "Yeah, the kind that triggers an ice age." "Okay, have we located the point of impact?" "No, nothing we can see." "But we've got satellites in motion." "We should get images soon." "Hey, Will, how long before we get a look?" "The probes are on their way." "I'm in my office now." "Did you copy Garth on this?" "You should have a spectral image coming through." "Yeah, yeah, I've got it." "Get your folks to work on that dark section." "We're having a hard time seeing through the halo." "No problem." "Hey, Will, take a look at this area." "Get on that." "I hope you're not sugar-coating this to the suits in DC." "No, but that's why I'd like you here." "They're gonna want solid answers." "Which they'd rather hear from someone else." "Nobody's gunning for you here, Lana." "I was actually thinking more of--knives." "Can we set aside the past?" "I need you." "You'll run interference for me?" "All I can." "Okay." "I owe you one." "I'll arrange a flight." "See you soon, Lana." "Remember when I said I'd never go back to ASl?" "I lied." "Wanna beer?" "Cheers!" "Hey, next time, try not to scare the crap out of us." "That's all I'm sayin'." "Copy that." "So the deal with the homeless guy was this was his home and he was just trying to defend it." "So I guess I can't blame him." "You're lucky you got outta there." "You know that?" "You almost died." "Yeah, but I didn't." "And the building came down perfectly." "So, on to the next one." "On to the next?" "John." "You're not really gonna bust my chops right now, are ya?" "Seeing as you almost got crushed, now is a perfect time." "You can't let your work own your life." "And yours does." "Come on, take that vacation." "We don't have anything coming up." "Well, actually, we do have a demo possibly in Florida." "OK, that's it." "I'm outta here." "Where you going?" "Come on, don't go, we're celebrating!" "Hey." "I almost died today." "It's not funny anymore, John." "She died three years ago." "You need to take some time off." "Your wife's gone, John." "She'd want you to have a life where things grow and thrive and not just crumble." "Don't do that to yourself." "G'nite." "Hey." "Twenty bucks." "Man, you gonna hold me to that?" "Oh, yeah." "Cough it up." "Let's go." "Buddy, buddy, buddy." "Don't give me any lip." "You want my firstborn, too?" "Nope." "That wasn't the bet." "See ya later." "I'll see ya later." "Look alive, everyone." "Lunar SAT 1 is on course for the outer edge of the debris field." "We've got some delicate maneuvering ahead." "Telemetry?" "What's your status?" "Telemetry is go for live camera feed." "Multiple objects on forward radar." "Calculating flight path." "Maneuvering thrusters engaged." "Will?" "We 've got too many targets on the flight path." "Guidance?" "Abort this trajectory." "Flight?" "We've got a proximity alert!" "There it goes." "Flight?" "Lunar SA T 1 has signal loss on all channels." "Repeat, signal loss on all channels." "Rerouting lunar SA T 2 for orbital insertion." "Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Hey." "You taking this?" "T ony, I know it was radical at the time, but my father might have been on to something." "Yeah, but what if all those people saying he was trying to preach the apocalypse decide to jump on you?" "One person led that charge." "victor Stevens." "He had a lot of followers, most of them still work at ASl." "They're not gonna be too pleased to see this manuscript." "Well, I have to take that risk." "If my father's work is relevant, I have to bring it to the table." "Baltimore PD just escorted me to the crash zone." "And it's a mess." "OK, Ollie." "Start setting' up our site right away and get me all the structural data you can find." "I'll call you from the plane." "Thanks." "OK." "Before you say anything, I'm sorry I'm late." "I ran over as soon as I heard." "With a stop for coffee." "And gas, without either I wouldn't have made it." "I did get us flights to Baltimore." "We land in 3 hours." "Seems to be lots of things dropping in on Baltimore lately." "They said that there was some sort of asteroid hitting the moon and that some pieces could be headed this way." "Yeah." "I heard that too." "Let's go." "As the reigning father figure in my life, tell me that everything is gonna be okay." "Everything is gonna be okay." "Okay?" "Okay." "Thank you." "Lana, it's been a long time." "It has." "Thanks for getting here so quickly." "Baltimore may not be a unique event." "I'm working on a theoretical model but I'll need to get on your system and crunch the numbers from the latest data." "Oh my God!" "What is it?" "It's lost mass." "What?" "It's lighter." "According to these figures, it's lost 762 billion metric tons of mass." "Which means the meteors aren't the asteroid debris." "They're the moon." "Took you long enough." "Flight was delayed." "This weather's not exactly predictable." "It's not exactly easy for search and rescue either." "Everyone accounted for?" "50 dead." "Almost 200 injured." "That's what they're reporting so far." "All right, what are we looking at?" "The buildings toppled inward, onto each other, but enough of the bases stayed intact to hold 'em up for a while." "OK." "So we've got an hourglass." "Hourglass?" "It's the most difficult to bring down." "Tricky to manipulate but you just gotta be precise." "On top of which, the local hospital serving the wounded?" "Is right across the street." "This thing just keeps getting better and better." "OK, we've got a bit of a challenge here." "Let's put our heads together." "What's next, Garth?" "While the team is working over your findings, you can install yourself here in my office." "Have you released a statement?" "We explained the Baltimore event was a meteor." "We haven't let on about the possibility of more." "And for the moment, our analysis of the lunar impact site is on its way to Washington." "The next statement comes from the White House." "What about weather changes?" "Tides are rising all over the world." "Right now, incoming meteors are priority one." "This is the new data on the crater coming in from Lunar SAT 2." "We're gonna have a departmental meeting to discuss the situation." "I'd like you to join us." "Give us your views." "I can tell you right now, we're gonna need outside specialists." "What'd you have in mind?" "According to this city grid, it looks like we've got an acceptable fallout zone to the northeast." "We can tunnel under the foundations from that corner." "Then we should be able to place charges to direct the hourglass collapse." "Excuse me." "John Redding?" "Yeah, that's me." "Your services have been requested by the American Space Institute right away." "What do they want with me?" "I'm not at liberty to discuss details." "In all due respect, Sir, take a look around." "I'm kinda needed around here." "Can't this wait?" "This order is authorized by the President requesting the best in your field." "That's you." "Refusal is not an option." "Well." "God bless America." "Ollie, you're back in the saddle." "Can you handle this?" "Yeah, but you just get back quick." "I will." "John, listen" "Here's your shot to prove yourself." "Now." "First chance you get you email me the structure CAD and all the blast points." "Where are they taking you?" "Listen, you're my eyes and ears on this one." "OK?" "Fine." "Be careful." "I'll be back." "The data now coming in from Lunar SA T 2 has completely changed our understanding of the lunar impact." "The meteorites were originally thought to be the remains of the asteroid that struck the Moon." "It has now been confirmed that they're actually massive pieces of the Moon itself." "Instead of leaving an impact crater, this asteroid has literally cracked the lunar surface open." "The orbital shift it caused is gradual, however it's already having an adverse effect on ocean levels and the jet stream." "And this is just the beginning." "The Moon is now entirely unstable." "This computer graphic shows the growth of the fissure, which we're calling the Rima Fault because of its location at the Rima Sirsalis." "As gravitational forces continue to exert their pull on the fractured moon, the size of the Rima Fault will increase until it moves past the critical." "If this happens, the result will be a civilization-ending event." "For the moment, there's little we can do about deteriorating weather or incoming lunar debris, but we must stop the breakup of the Moon." "Our only chance is to find a way to stabilize the structure of the Moon, specifically the Rima Fault." "This is our clock." "And it's unpredictable." "So we need to find out how big the Rima Fault actually is, how fast it's growing, moving, shifting, down to the last millimeter." "If everything comes together, we will have one shot, one window, to beat the deadline and save the moon." "And we can't be wrong." "We're depending on your calculations." "Thank you, Lana." "All right everyone." "You heard it." "Let's get back to work." "Well, apparently forecasting the apocalypse runs in the family." "Although your daddy never had such dazzling visual aids." "Victor, if you think things are exciting, stick around, they're about to get very interesting." "Oh, I intend to stick around." "See, my good friend, The President, yeah, he heard we had some trouble on the moon." "He thought it might be a good idea for me to come down here and help...fix it." "Make sure we don't go off half-cocked, as they say." "I think now would be a good time to run that interference, Garth." "No, no, no." "Garth, don't bother." "Look, I don't wanna get in anybody's way here." "But like you said, we do only get the one shot." "I just wanna make sure it's right." "Well, that makes two of us." "I will be with you shortly." "Okay." "Thanks for the heads up, Garth." "victor Stevens?" "He's here to help." "Yeah, help himself." "Mr. Redding, sorry for all the mystery." "I'm Garth Pender, this is Dr. Lana Gale." "Thank you so much for coming." "You guys didn't give me much choice." "Yeah." "We're sorry about that." "We're experiencing a crisis." "I noticed." "I'm not sure you know what caused the mess you were cleaning up in Baltimore." "A meteorite." "Right." "The first of many." "Our moon has suffered a great impact and we believe the damage runs deep to the lunar core." "Please, I'd like you to follow us?" "We've prepared a mock up here as a visual aid." "That's fine, thank you." "Wow, that's some crack." "Immense pressure continues to pull this section open wider." "Eventually this entire quarter will break away and find its way into Earth's gravitational pull." "And then what?" "When that hits us, we go the way of the dinosaurs." "You guys are serious." "You should know what you're up against, if you're gonna help us stop it." "I'm just a demolitions expert." "On Earth." "I don't know anything about the Moon." "Nobody knows more about how things collapse in on themselves than you." "Now we need your expertise to see if we can make the walls of the crevasse cave in." "Just lock this entire section in place." "Stop the breakup." "Wait a second." "You guys wanna put charges on the moon." "Seriously, with all due respect," "I really just think I'm way out of my league." "Nothing like this has happened in the history of Man." "This is way out of everybody's league." "We're not asking you to go to the moon." "We're just asking you to be part of our team." "At this point, the Atlantic is one huge staging area for a massive hurricane activity." "In fact, there are several Category Five storms in different places, all at the same time." "This is something that's never happened in all the time that man has kept track of weather." "Call it an act of God, call it an eco-nightmare." "One thing is for sure." "This is a weather disaster the likes of which no one has seen in the modern era." "T ell me what you got." "Fresh Intel from ASl on an incoming asteroid." "Big?" "Latest estimate gives it an 8 on the T scale." "We got birds in the air?" "Patrolling a 30 mile grid." "Ten minutes awaiting orders." "What kind of payload are we talking about?" "Sidewinders, Sir." "Well, let's get 'em climbing." "Delta 1, Delta 2, Scramble factor six." "At 2 niner 2." "Trajectory uplink in five." "Roger control, we're on our way." "We're at 15, 000 tracking inbound." "We have initiated afterburner climb for intercept." "Got visual." "Arming." "All right, gentlemen, let's make this happen." "Cloud cover." "Lost visual." "I've got visual." "Missiles away." "He took the shot!" "Target is destroyed." "He got it." "That was too close." "We got lucky." "What else is on its way?" "We're tracking inbounds, but nothing rating on the T-scale." "Atmospheric burn-ins." "Keep on this, Lieutenant." "I want jets in the air and I want constant updates from ASl." "The tricky part is to calculate what we call reaction mass." "It's how we decide how big a blast it's gonna be, and where we're gonna place it." "Can we determine that from this information?" "Well, I'm sure that we can ballpark it." "But I can tell you right now." "This blast is gonna have to be massive." "Definitely nuclear." "And the variables will keep changing with the fault growing all the time." "Nuclear blasts." "Well, looks like I got here right on time." "John Redding, this is victor Stevens." "Chief adviser to the White House." "Welcome aboard, Mr. Redding." "Thank you." "Pleasure to meet a man with such an illustrious family tradition of blowing' things up." "Although, before you go putting the moon on your resume," "I think you should both know that I have informed the President of what happened on Miranda." "We don't know happened on Miranda." "That's sheer speculation." "What's Miranda?" "Miranda is one of Uranus' 1 5 moons." "A research flyby in '86 revealed that she'd been struck by a massive impact." "Cracked her surface wide open." "But-- over time see, she put herself back together." "There's absolutely no conclusive evidence to support that." "Besides, our moon has a solid iron core, which was shattered just as my father predicted." "Nothing will stabilize the moon unless we do that ourselves." "The moon's structure is much less rigid." "It's perfectly capable of displacing the energy from a massive impact." "Until I see something that makes me feel otherwise, that is all we're going to do." "There is a fracture running clear through the moon." "And you just want to do nothing." "We do nothing, the moon... will do something miraculous." "The moon does not have an iron core." "Its gravity will stabilize it." "Your father was wrong." "Look, this isn't personal." "We are going to rely on the prevailing wisdom which is the best we've got." "Five hundred years ago, prevailing wisdom said that the earth was flat." "Just because it's popular does not make it right." "Look at that." "The President." "Probably wants to hear how we're reappropriating his nuclear arsenal." "I think I'll tell him we need three bombs:" "the Nina, the Pinta and the-- and that other one, whatever its name was." "Santa Maria." "Bingo!" "Is this a bad time?" "No, it isn't." "Guys, please, I'd like to introduce you to our Mission Crew for the shuttle Perseus." "Major Rachel Fine." "Captain Ben Halberstom." "Pleasure." "You're a demolition expert?" "That's me." "Why don't we go down to the conference room and I can brief you?" "Good idea." "Hey, Garth?" "Mission Crew?" "What happened to leaving things alone?" "I mean, what if the moon could fix itself and victor's right?" "Well, what if Lana is right and we're unprepared?" "Now he may have the President's ear, but this is still my agency." "And it is still within my authority to call for full contingency readiness." "And I am." "Thanks." "Ma'am." "They just upgraded the storm." "Oh, good." "Can't wait." "They just shut down the 95." "The equipment is not getting' here anytime soon." "How are we gonna take this thing down without our pneumatic drills?" "Forget I said anything." "You wanna shut this down?" "We are not shutting down." "We are gonna do exactly what John told us to do." "I hope they had a good reason for pulling' him outta here." "What would ASl want with John?" "And why now?" "Radar has detected a cluster of meteors coming in." "We should alert the Mexican government of possible strikes." "Hope you don't mind." "I was flipping through that book you have on your desk." "Your Dad wrote that." "Yes." "And I don't mind." "He would've wanted somebody to read it." "And he predicted all of this?" "Pretty much." "Don't you think he should be here too, helping us?" "My dad passed away a few years ago." "Before he died, he wrote a thesis based on lunar anomalies." "Anomalies?" "You know?" "I don't think I got to that page." "But, he was right." "Right?" "In the scientific community, the debate between fact and truth can get brutal." "Victor came out against my Dad's theories." "Managed to destroy his credibility." "I had just finished school at the time." "I was trying to get my foot in the door at ASl." "And I made the mistake of distancing myself from the controversy." "I left my dad hanging." "So as to not tarnish my reputation." "He passed away shortly after that." "I'm sure he'd be quite proud of the work you're doing now." "Listen." "If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know." "You could fly up to the Rima Fault and bring me back some mineral samples." "That would help me out." "Yeah?" "Well, no problem." "Lana!" "victor's called an emergency meeting to discuss the Mexico impact." "The three meteors that struck Mexico City were massive in size." "Hey." "Hey." "We're tracking additional lunar debris." "This probably won't be the last time we get hit." "...Ieveling hundreds of blocks of the city." "May I have everybody's attention please?" "Mexico City and the surrounding areas are gone." "Repercussions from the latest impact are being felt all the way to Oklahoma." "The moon's condition is getting progressively worse." "Apparently, it is not fixing itself." "So the White House has given us a full go for a shuttle mission." "Garth?" "With the Rima Fault continuing to grow, and the weather systems getting progressively worse, we have to launch within 48 hours." "So let's talk specifics." "John?" "How are we coming with those reaction points?" "Well, my initial calculations show we've got four potential blast points." "The problem is those keep changing all the time because the fault is growing." "And I've got another question about our blast targets." "What about them?" "I'm just trying to figure out exactly what kind of magnetic force are we dealing with when it comes to the moon?" "Minimal." "The magnetic forces disappeared billions of years ago." "Right." "So what if we were able to bring it back?" "Instead of thinking about blasting, what if we looked at this as more of a welding job?" "I hate to disappoint you, but the moon is not made of steel girders." "That still seems to be a point of contention around here, vic." "You say the moon doesn't have an iron core." "But Lana thinks there's enough to give us some pull." "We really just don't know exactly what the moon is made of." "So what I'm wondering is if we could create a magnetic charge and put it in the right spot to one side of the Rima Fault, well then maybe, we can get this thing to fall in on itself." "Do you realize the conductor you'd need on that scale?" "It's impossible." "A MEG." "Theoretically, it would have enough conduction." "We have our solution." "There's no evidence the moon has an iron core." "We are not going back to the drawing boards." "You need to pin down the coordinates for the nuclear blast points." "What's a M EG?" "Mass Electromagnetic Generator." "It's a device that carries a very large electromagnetic pulse wave as part of the blast wave." "Sounds like my kinda metal." "What if we could get one big enough?" "How do we make this work?" "Who's your best engineer?" "A MEG charge?" "Are you on drugs?" "It can't be done." "The materials are way too fragile, way too unstable when combined which makes them way way too dangerous to be handled on Earth, let alone in space." "Then I guess it's a good thing that the President's boy's not here." "Albert, I can think of a million reasons why it won't work." "I need your help with one that will." "If I was to come up with a concept, the only way to keep this whole thing from detonating on launch is to keep the activators separate until you're in place." "So it is possible." "Did I mention that the two main ingredients in a MEG charge are liquid helium and uranium?" "Do you have any idea what happens when you mishandle those two guys?" "Can it be done?" "And another thing." "You are not gonna pass this off on some ASl pilot." "This is heavy ordnance." "Get this to someone who knows what they're doing." "Who's that gonna be?" "You?" "'Cause it ain't gonna be me." "Albert?" "We need a straight answer." "Can it be done?" "I'll come up with something." "But what I'm most concerned about is you launching my shuttle in this storm." "She just wasn't made for that." "Damn." "Yeah." "Hey." "It's me." "You guys OK?" "John." "Can you hear me?" "Yes." "What's your status?" "They've elevated the winds to gale force." "We can't get any of our gear in here, besides these buildings are not looking too stable." "Where the heck are you?" "Wishin' I was still there with you guys, believe me." "The weather service says this lightning's gonna get a lot worse." "Conditions are not gonna get any better for blasting." "Should we shut it down?" "Yeah." "I want you guys to get outta there." "Evacuate everybody out of the area and shut it down." "I need you to do one more thing before you go." "What's that?" "I need you to find a piece of that meteor and bring it to ASI." "Okay." "Bryna!" "Did you get it?" "Yeah." "Good, let's get the hell out of here." "It's comin' down!" "Let's go go go go!" "Aaaaaaahh!" "Come on, guys." "Pick it up." "John?" "John, listen we have two of our best shuttle pilots, but...on this one, we need a mission specialist." "That specialist is you, John." "You want me to go on the shuttle." "I don't have any training to go to the moon." "OK?" "We need you up there." "We only get" "One chance, I understand that." "We can't force you to go." "You'll have first hand visual." "We'd feel more comfortable if it was you up there, pulling the trigger." "All nuclear reactions have a magnetic charge." "It's that entirely destructive element of the nuke we're trying to avoid here." "So, by using the electromagnetic pulse of the nukes to boost the magnetic charge of our MEG, we can create a force powerful enough to recharge the magnetic field of the Rima fault." "In theory." "For how long?" "Long enough for the moon's own gravity to take over." "I'm just giving it a jump start-- in theory." "I heard that you were going to accompany the M EG on board the shuttle." "Well, with the situation being what it is, yeah, I'm in." "Now listen Albert, this MEG charge, it's gotta" "MEG what?" "What's going on here?" "We're just exploring options." "Ah." "Exploring options." "Well, we don't need any options." "The nukes are on their way." "And when they get here," "I don't want so much as a spit polish to go on them without my authorization." "Is that clear?" "Yes." "Good." "Some big seismic numbers coming in." "How big?" "That's a 40% jump from the last one." "Will?" "What's our status?" "Launch site weather is getting much worse." "Garth." "This is insane." "We can't go up in this storm." "Nothing can." "That's not an option and you know it." "Anyone you put up in that shuttle is on a one way trip to oblivion." "We're all facing oblivion!" "Get used to the idea." "If we lose power, they'll be flying blind, that's if we get off the pad." "They will make it off the pad." "There's no alternative." "Now the time for caution and second guesses, that's long gone." "This mission is a go." "Do you understand?" "Then push it up." "Get them the hell out of here before it gets any worse." "victor, you can't still be convinced the nuclear warheads are going to do the job." "The moon is doing exactly what my father said it would indicating he was right about the iron core." "You just go on like the facts don't exist!" "There are billions of lives at stake!" "We need to be rational." "And we need to be right." "We're pushing the launch up." "Lift off is five hours from now." "The weather leaves us no choice." "John." "I need a moment." "I just got some news from Baltimore." "Those buildings have collapsed." "What about my team and Bryna?" "We don't know." "I mean, we could try but" "John!" "Tell me we have a solid plan." "Yes." "We do." "We go with the nukes." "Mr. Stevens, we'll need your authorization, Sir." "It's getting pretty bad out there." "If you want to be alone, I can wait." "No, come in." "I heard about what happened." "The buildings." "I'm sorry." "Garth has some folks trying to contact city officials to locate your colleagues." "Is that her?" "No." "That's my wife." "She passed away three years ago." "So when you said earlier that you'd lost somebody special," "I understood what you were talkin' about." "I'm just standing here wondering if she was still around would I still want to do this." "Would you?" "I think you would." "The storm just hit tropical status." "They're reporting gusts of up to 75 miles per hour." "I've gotta get you up in the air, John." "Let's go." "Launch pad wind velocity 63 miles per hour from the southeast." "Doppler is showing gusts to 71 mph at 30, 000 feet." "Control?" "Payload is secured." "OK, Shuttle Perseus, we are at T minus three to launch." "Hope everyone's comfortable." "Comfortable?" "I'm strapped onto the world 's biggest vibrating whale about to blast through a hurricane and this guy's talking comfortable." "Sorry, John?" "You can hear me?" "Oh, yeah." "We're all wired in." "visual, too." "OK." "Sorry." "That's good to know." "Control, we've got full green on O2 and Nitro, tanks 1, 2, 3 and 4." "Please confirm." "Confirmed, Captain." "I'm handing over full system access to you now." "T emperature is holding steady on nuclear pulse engines 1 and 2, confirm?" "Roger, Perseus." "Nuclear pulse engines 1 and 2 are solid." "Nuclear pulse?" "I thought they were in the test phase." "They are." "You're joking, right?" "You know a faster way to get to the moon, victor, I'm all ears." "OK Perseus." "Looking for your readiness to proceed with launch." "Over?" "Roger control." "We are locked in, temperature's a go, pressure's a go," "Roger that." "T minus 2 minutes to launch." "Control, we've got some flashing red up here." "Standing by." "She's got a wind sheer warning." "Bypass it." "OK flight directors," "I want a go no go for launch." "CapComm Perseus." "Go launch." "Go for launch." "Retro?" "Go launch." "Trajectory?" "No go for flight." "I've got a no go signal for flight." "Booster." "No go, Flight Director." "Negative." "I've got a no go for launch." "Oh, perfect." "Four nuclear bombs, two nuclear pulse engines aboard a no go flight." "T minus 1 minute to launch." "Navigation?" "Give me your pre-flight status." "Flight, navigation is no go for launch." "We have red lights across the board." "We cannot launch this thing." "We must abort now." "30 seconds to launch." "Don't." "It's not gonna get any better out there." "They're gonna be thrown around like deck chairs." "I can't do this!" "Will, you listen to me." "I'd like to give you 70 degrees and sunshine so you could launch properly." "But I'm afraid that's not gonna happen." "Now don't you turn that key." "T minus 20 seconds to launch." "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one" "We have main engine ignition." "Shuttle Perseus has cleared the tower." "We've got three reds, Perseus." "Roger control." "We sustained a lightning strike." "Control, we are losing trajectory." "Raise secondary thrust 20 percent." "Copy that." "Standing by." "Control, we are losing horizon." "Storm wind velocity has hit 87 miles per hour." "Flight?" "They're being blown off course." "Raise secondary thrust 30 percent." "Come on, come on!" "Will, that's not doin' it." "Perseus, we're going to change course heading to straighten you out." "Adjust trajectory." "30 degrees north west with the wind." "Locking onto course." "Come on!" "Stabilizing." "Control, roll maneuver is successful." "We are back on trajectory." "Shuttle Perseus has booster separation." "Control, we are hypersonic and away." "Ladies and gentlemen, we have safe lift-off of Shuttle Perseus lunar mission." "Godspeed." "You still with us, John?" "Yeah, most of me." "With the risky launch of the Shuttle Perseus from storm-battered Houston, there is now hope that the ASI shuttle crew can avert the threat of disaster approaching our planet." "Today we are one planet without borders or differences." "And every thought and prayer is with the crew of the Shuttle Perseus as they set out to achieve what some say is impossible." "Well," "I never thought I'd hear myself say it but-- that was better than blowing' up a building." "Control, we are ready to leave orbit." "Roger Perseus." "Proceed with trans-lunar injection." "On your mark." "Nuclear pulse engines engaged." "Nuclear pulse?" "For when 20,000 miles per hour just ain't fast enough." "Hold on to your hats." "Control?" "We have a problem." "Advance radar is tracking incoming lunar debris and it's right on our flight path." "Roger Perseus." "You are cleared for evasive action." "Repeat, you are cleared for evasive action." "Roger control, we' re on the move." "Control?" "Evasive maneuvers successful." "You'd better start tracking those bogeys." "By my calculations, they're in the Earth's gravity and heading your way." "And a couple of those rocks looked bigger than the Mexico meteor." "Just in the last hour, this storm has really started to bear down on the city." "Power is reported being lost in two-thirds of the homes and officials are calling for a complete and immediate evacuation evacuation of the entire tri-county area." "But with similar storms storms ravaging the entire coast and the imminent mood can be striking anywhere at any time, the question remains:" "Evacuate to where?" "For now, it appears there's no escape from this earthstorm." "What in the hell?" "Everybody, stay calm." "Stay calm!" "Go to generator power." "That's gonna put us on a bit of a clock." "We got limited time on the generators." "If we can't get the power back up, we'll lose them completely." "They need us to fly home." "Will?" "I need a precise time estimate on our remaining power." "I'm workin' on it." "Someone to see you." "What do you got?" "OK, call downstairs, tell 'em to crank it up." "I really need to see my boss, John Redding." "It's very, very important." "Bryna?" "I'm Dr. Lana Gale." "We are so glad that you're OK." "Thanks." "I really need to see John Redding." "It's urgent." "Will you settle for a video feed?" "John's on the shuttle Perseus, a few thousand miles from the moon." "The moon?" "You can speak to John right over here." "Oh my God." "Will, pull up a video feed on John." "Uh, John, you there?" "Bryna, is that you?" "Yeah." "Oh, hey, can you see me?" "Yeah, I can." "Look, I know I said you needed to get away, but this is a little ridiculous." "Listen, thank God you're alive." "How's Oliver?" "Oh, he's fine, he's fine, he's banged up and in the hospital but, uh, but he's gonna be okay." "John, you're coming back, right?" "Oh, yeah." "That is most definitely on this itinerary." "Good, because I went to hell and back to get that thing you asked for." "You got it?" "Great." "Be sure you get it to a woman named Lana Gale." "You be sure you give it to her." "Yeah." "She's right here next to me." "You did great." "If you can believe it, they've got me overseeing a blast job that's gonna save the moon." "Now you get that sample to Lana, and I'll see you around." "Stay safe down there." "Yeah." "Bye, John." "Where did you get this?" "A meteor crater in Baltimore." "I'm in the lab!" "Perseus is on target." "Entering the outer phase of the debris field." "Control, we're taking evasive action." "Buckle up guys, this could get a bit rough." "What's that?" "Restraint." "Something's wrong." "Something's wrong with the nukes?" "Yeah, I've got to go and secure the cargo hold." "Continuing multiple targets on forward radar." "Ahhhh!" "Ohhh!" "What the hell is that?" "Flight, we've lost communications feed and secondary hydraulics." "We've been hit." "How bad?" "All directors report your status." "Communications, get us back online." "Ben, you all right?" "Ben!" "Rachel, Ben's down." "What happened?" "I think he's unconscious." "Shuttle Perseus, what's your status?" "Control, we're clear of the debris field for now." "The shuttle sustained a hit and Ben's been hurt." "How about the payload?" "Got knocked around a little bit." "John's with Ben now." "Just secure that payload." "Forget about Ben." "John, do you hear me?" "Yes, I hear you." "Now could you shut up, victor?" "If that payload gets damaged, nothing else is gonna matter." "I just hope Ben doesn't have a serious neck injury." "I'm inspecting the nukes now." "They seem to be OK." "Just a detached cargo clip." "Payload secured." "Thank you." "Okay, how much longer?" "Hold on, hold on." "That's interesting." "What?" "That's interesting." "What?" "I'm printing." "That's interesting, right?" "Control, we're approaching the Rima Sursalis." "Our first clear view of the fault should be any minute now." "John!" "Are you seeing this?" "Whoa." "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us." "My father was right, victor." "The lunar core is composed mainly of dense metals." "It's not a fantasy anymore." "It's a fact." "It's full of uranium, iron--the list goes on." "And it's far from the structure of M iranda." "My father's theory was just proven." "Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't that mean we should've sent a MEG instead of the nukes?" "John?" "John, are you there?" "It's Albert." "That sample that you sent proves that the moon has more iron in its structure than we were planning for in our blast." "Please tell me that you guys are kidding me right now." "I wish I was." "But we're working on a solution." "Right." "O K, you know where to find us." "Rachel, we can't use the nukes." "What?" "Why?" "The moon surface is too rigid." "It wouldn't sustain the shockwave." "Make the whole situation worse." "John, come in." "This is Albert again." "Yeah." "We are gonna try to convert the nukes up there into a M EG charge." "We almost have it figured out." "John, you still there?" "John, I know it sounds crazy but we've been able to assemble a puzzle down here using elements of the shuttle and the nukes to come up with a plan that actually works." "I hear you Lana." "My only question is obviously we can't put a M EG charge where we were gonna blast." "OK, where do you suggest we go?" "Will, are you on?" "We're here, John." "See if you can figure out for me where the epicenter of all this seismic activity is within the fault." "Can you do that?" "Kinda find out where the fulcrum is." "Copy that, John." "I'll put the geology team on it right away." "Did you get all that?" "Yep." "Good." "'Cause you're gonna have to get us there." "Right." "I'm on it." "Just be careful in here." "This is Shuttle Perseus to Control." "Standing by for instructions." "Shuttle Perseus, you are clear to maneuver." "Roger, control." "We're on the move." "All right, Albert, what's the first step?" "T alk to me." "OK, John, we need a timing trigger." "There's a heating circuit in your equipment that you're not using right now." "Where?" "Look for a bin labeled MF431." "Look for the orange label." "Orange MF431." "Got it." "Go ahead." "You are gonna pull out the igniter module." "And we can marry it to the payload circuit path." "Ahh!" "If you see anything green, don't touch it." "Can you confirm that message for me?" "Nothing green." "Are you digging?" "Did you find it?" "It's clearly marked." "Right, got it." "Next?" "John?" "Go to the circuit boards towards the flight deck." "You'll see a row of black circuit panels." "Which one?" "The one labeled channel interface." "Behind that panel you'll find the tubing that you need." "They're cut." "Next." "Follow that cable to the junction box." "Can I help you find something?" "Hey." "Good to have you back, buddy." "How can you maximize the liquid hydrogen?" "Will?" "Geology's come up with a new drop point coordinates." "We're gonna have to go straight to the core." "We've calculated a flight path down through the fissure." "Got new coordinates coming in for you, Perseus." "We're taking you down into the fissure." "Roger, Control." "Coordinates received." "It's gonna be dark down there." "Definitely the weirdest bomb I ever built." "We've got a problem." "What is it?" "I've done a recalculation based on our solenoids." "Solenoids?" "What about them?" "The maximum power you can expect to get out of that contraption about one hundredth of what you need." "What?" "No!" "It's the velocity." "It won't give you the pull you need." "He's right." "It's not gonna work." "We underestimated the conduction we got." "John!" "Yes?" "You better hold on to something." "Control?" "We're approaching the new drop point." "Oh, this isn't lookin' good." "John!" "We've got increasing seismic activity." "We've gotta get out of here now or we'll get trapped." "Albert?" "Lana?" "T alk to me guys." "John, listen." "I'm afraid I have some bad news." "The M EG won't work either." "The lines of force are too small." "What do you mean, too small?" "I thought you guys had this all figured out." "We've got to blow this thing." "John, this is Victor." "It won't work." "It's over." "It's not over." "What is the problem?" "John, it's the magnitude of force we can't change." "The maximum field we can create up there with what we've got is just not gonna make a difference." "Lana?" "Come on." "We are up here." "Let's drop this sucker." "Maybe it will work." "He's right." "This is all we have, we need to go." "No!" "There's gotta be something we're missing, Garth." "We have got to make sure the shot works." "Come on guys." "Help us out up here, OK?" "Think." "What do we have on board this ship that'll make this thing work?" "They just don't have the power." "We're draining crucial generator time." "We can't push this any longer." "Wait a minute!" "The engines." "They're sitting on two nuclear pulse engines!" "The pulse engines!" "Ben, we can get access to those, right?" "Is that an option, guys?" "Can that be made to work?" "Albert?" "Lana?" "Talk to me." "I think so." "Yeah, it's definitely possible." "OK gang." "Here we go." "John, we have got to get out of here now!" "The seismic activity is increasing." "Copy that, Rachel." "We're almost there." "What do I do next, Ben?" "The control panel is above the engine." "The access code is 8491 1 38." "1, 3, 8." "Got it." "Now what?" "Now use the winch to slide the MEG inside the engine." "But please be careful." "Those engines are extremely fragile." "But the two charges need to be balanced, and we don't know that they are." "The line of force could still be too weak." "But that's when the moon's gravity kicks in." "Please for once, just trust me." "Fault index is approaching the critical." "Oh dammit." "Everyone just listen up." "I want you to shut everything down!" "Let's restart those generators." "Where's Will?" "C'mon get me voice-comm back as soon as possible." "You got it." "Right, let's load this sucker." "Hold on!" "John!" "Hang on!" "Rachel?" "What the hell is that?" "You okay back there, John?" "Yeah, I'm fine." "Control." "This is Shuttle Perseus." "Do you read?" "Get those back up generators online now!" "Tell the President they're about to deploy the MEG." "All right, here we go." "Okay." "We're locked and loaded." "Come on." "Don't do this to me." "Control, this is Shuttle Perseus, do you read?" "Albert?" "Albert!" "John?" "We lost all communication." "Well, get 'em back for me now." "I can't!" "The problem's in Houston." "What happens now?" "Jettison the engines." "We detonate en route according to your calculations." "Copy that." "All right." "The MEG is set to go." "I can calculate detonation timing on the fly." "Copy that." "Release those suckers." "We gotta get the hell outta here." "Got it." "Shuttle Perseus?" "Can you read me?" "Over." "Shuttle Perseus?" "Do you read?" "Over." "Here we go." "Shuttle Perseus, can you read me?" "Over." "Rima fault has hit the critical." "Repeat." "Rima fault has hit the critical." "Oh my God." "We are recording massive seismic disturbances and rapid growth in Rima Fault." "John." "If you can hear me." "You've got to detonate." "Get out of there John." "He's coming apart." "Hold on." "What are you waiting for?" "I gotta wait for a surge in magnetic density within the fault." "We are recording ongoing and accelerating seismic activity." "Blow the damn thing!" "It's too late." "There it is!" "Hold on." "We have a MEG detonation." "We are picking up a magnetic spike and MEG detonation!" "Magnetic amplification of Rima Fault has peaked." "We have continuing seismic activity in the fault zone." "The fault index is dropping." "It's stabilizing." "Radar imaging shows Rima Fault is closing." "It's working." "It's working!" "The lunar orbit is stabilizing." "Repeat, the lunar orbit is self-correcting." "Shuttle Perseus, do you read me?" "Shuttle Perseus, can you read me, over?" "Shuttle Perseus, this is mission control do you read, over?" "Shuttle Perseus, can you read me, over?" "Shuttle Perseus, this is mission control." "Do you read, over?" "Shuttle Perseus." "Can you read me?" "This is Shuttle Perseus." "We're coming home." "Thank you all." "Good work." "Great job." "The Perseus Shuttle mission has succeeded!" "ASI just announced that the lunar orbit is returning to normal and that Earth, its tidal and weather systems have averted disaster." "You finish it?" "Just now." "Well, then this will be right on time." "It's the foreword that victor wrote." "A foreword?" "Should I be concerned?" "No, it's actually not too bad." "He apologized for everything he said about your dad and he even gives you a compliment." "In his own kinda sorta arrogant victor way." "That must have been humbling." "So it's basically seven days a week, 365." "So when do you have time to go out?" "Like off campus kinda stuff?" "Off campus?" "How are we looking?" "Beautiful." "The movers are bringing in everything as we speak." "Lana, the offices are huge." "It's gonna be awesome!" "Offices?" "Garth wants me back." "And I want to be back." "This is where I belong." "Speaking of where people belong, are you ever planning to come back to work?" "I've been thinking about that whole thing." "Excuse me." "And you've been right." "All along about this whole taking more time off thing." "I'm just gonna start switching over the addresses and of course lnternet, because you can't live without the lnternet." "He's just like you this one." "Work, work, work." "Damn overachievers." "Where are you taking me?" "T o engage in some off campus debauchery." "You know what?" "What?" "He's in trouble." "So if you're not gonna go back to work right away, what are you gonna do?" "Think I'll heed some advice about a vacation I'm in desperate need of." "They say space is the next vacation hot spot." "Already been there." "Do you like sailing?" "Is that an invitation?" "Yes." "You accepting?" "Uhhh, yes." "Caribbean?" "Gotta be careful." "It is hurricane season."