"extracted by LeapinLar, edited by rogard" "Thats Orion right there, the triangle." "And that is Cassiopia." " Cassiopia?" " Yeah." "Who was she?" "No idea." "Thats the big dipper, and here we have another celestial body." "What do you think you're doing?" "I'm about to go where no man has gone before." "It's a satellite." "This is so sick, look at that thing." "I don't know Jeff, maybe... maybe we should leave it alone." "It could be radioactive and stuff." " Should we tell Marti?" " Are you kidding me?" "No." "The old fart would just grab it and take all the glory." "It's gone." "Great," "Mandrake's going to sit a brick." "Bright light, big city, excitement." "Peadmont, Utah, the armpit of nowhere." "Awful quiet down there." "What are those?" "Buzzards." "This is Caper One." "Project Scoop appears to have been moved." "I'm following the signal." "Roger that, Caper One." "No signs yet of any life, except for this joker staring at us in his pick-up." "Rounding the corner." "Hold on." "Looks like a war zone." "Tell me I'm not seeing this." "This town is full of bodies." "over here, over here, help me!" "Help me man, you've got to help me!" "Oh God, no." "No, no, no no!" "No!" "No, no, no, no, nooo!" " Where was this again?" " Piedmont, Utah." "It's an old mining town." "There's a state park nearby." "It's remote, very isolated." "We seem to have caught a break there." "You'll forgive me if I don't share your sense of gratitude." "Was it the Korean's?" "I think thats unlikely." "Who then?" "We don't know." "We're quarantining the area." "This road is closed, ma'am." "You need to detour back around using state road 46." "I'll also have a predator on an over-flight in the next couple of hours;" "I'll know more then." "I'll notify the department of homeland security." "Let me handle that." "And the White House?" "Chuck." "I'll take care of both." "I'm also required to initiate the Wildfire protocol." "Does Dr. Stone still have the team?" "Untill they pry his cold dead fingers off the door." "I don't suppose there's any way round him?" "I can't watch him 24 hours a day." "Do you even know where Lance is?" "Are you questioning my parenting?" "How long have you been off your meds?" "Oh!" "The great Dr. Stone lays down the law." "Nations tremble and nubile graduate students spread their legs." "Look, you're not safe, all right?" "You're not safe to yourself or to our son." "Are you threatening me?" "Don't you try to bully me or I will drag you back into court." "Yes." "Dr. Jeremy Stone." "I'm Dr. Stone." "There's been a Wildfire alert." "My orders are to gather you and the rest of your team right away." "Lisa." "Please get yourself checked in." "Dad?" "Late night?" "It's mom's house." "Mom's rules." "Not anymore." "Look, I came by to tell you that I made arrangements." "You're gonna spend the rest of the month in L.A." "with my sister." "She's gonna look after you." "I can look after myself." "Oh, clearly." "Look, Lance." "We're not gonna argue about this, all right?" "It's a done deal." "You should..." "You should go pack." "Mom's the one who needs help." "You mother has all the help she needs if she'll just take it." "Yeah, that just lets you off the hook, doesn't it?" "Sir?" "You can't wait to get out of here?" " I have to leave." " Yeah." "I'm sure you have to go wherever it is that you're going." " If it were anything else, you know that." "Yeah, I know." "It-It's work." "It's important." "Nasa had a satellite fail last night over the Utah desert, and, uh, the army sent in a retrieval team." "I just wanted to give you a heads up before all the phone calls start about the black helicopters and little green men." "I guess they're just playing it safe, Ed." "All right." "Approaching Piedmont." "Preparing to make my initial surveillance pass." "Go ahead." "Commencing thermal imaging and night vision recording." "What the hell is that?" "Are those bodies?" "Holy Christ in heaven." "I'm moving to northcom." "Confine everyone to base and lock it down." "I want you to stay here in D.C." "In case Beeter needs managing." "Yes, general." " How's the campaign going?" " Fundraising has slowed, and we're down 15 in the polls as of last night." "Ha, looking for their piece of the action, you mean?" "Exactly, and of course, the environmentalists are howling, and the opposition is scoring points." "Ready?" "Flattery will get you everywhere, won't it?" "Thank you, Pat." "Mr. President, we have a situation, I'm afraid." "An infectious disease outbreak of unknown origin in southern Utah." " How serious?" " Well, the area is remote, and we think we have it under control, but I thought you might like to know about... it right away." "And I'll wanna be there." "Respectfully, sir, I think it would be better" " if you stayed here in Washington." " Daddy!" "Whoa!" "Hello!" "What are you doing here?" "What are you doing here?" "Did you escape?" "Hello." "Hello, Chuck." "Joanne." "I'm sorry to interrupt, honey." "I was packing and this little monster got... away from me." "You got away from your mama." "Campaign tour?" "Apparently the American people would rather see my wife than myself, although, I can't say as I blame them too much." "And as for you, young lady, you've got to go back where you came from 'cause daddy is working right now, okay?" "Bye-Bye." "Bye, daddy." "Bye." "So this infection is of unknown origin, you say?" "We're still gathering all the facts, sir." "This isn't going to be another Houston, is it?" "I think it's very unlikely." "Anything you need, Chuck, you let me know." " Yes?" " Dr. Tsi Chou?" " What is it?" " There's been a Wildfire alert." "You okay, sir?" "Yeah." "Light sensitivity." "Uh, migraines." "Adrian has a dentist appointment on monday." "Don't let him tell you he's too sick to go." "How long you think?" "If I call you and ask you about your mother," "Grab the kids, get on a plane and go west." "Get as much distance between you and the continental United States as you can." "I love you." "I love you, too." "Sir?" "Beeter has informed homeland security and the president." "The Wildfire team should be assembled at Peterson Air Force Base shortly after your arrival." "Who's the designated "odd man" on the Wildfire team?" "Army Major William Keene." "Ah, the hero of the Houston event." "Excellent researcher and a fine officer." "He had a big dust-up with Stone last year" "Over who first isolated the CD-1 virus." "Have they made up?" "They agreed to share credit, but there's no love lost between them." "Maybe that's something we can build on." "Sir." "Major Keene?" "What's going on?" "Please, make yourself comfortable, doctor." "We'll be taking off shortly." "Hello, Angela." "Jeremy." "I, uh, asked for something bigger, but this is the best they could do on such short notice." "I was in surgery." "If it wasn't important, we wouldn't have come calling." "How bad is it?" "Preliminary reports suggest a fatality rate of nearly 100%." "You always bring me such good tidings." "Please take your seats and fasten your seatbelts." "Flight attendants, please cross-check the doors." "I heard about you and Lisa." "How's Lance feeling?" "He's a teenager, so it's always hard to tell." "Beneath the raging hormones," "I'd--I'd have to say he's pretty angry." "He's tolerating the separation." "He's going to stay with my sister in Los Angeles" " for the rest of july." " I almost called you when I heard, but I figured that your life was probably complicated enough." "Yeah." "Yes." "Mr. Nash, you have a phone call." "Well, I guess I'd better take that then." " No names!" " God, you're paranoid." "Like the N.S.A. isn't really tracing all our calls." "Wheezer, knock off the double espressos and go back to bed." "At the king." "One hour." "Yeah, may have a little trouble with that." "Mancheck." "Mancheck?" "Mr. Nash?" "Mr. Nash, I think this is a terrible mistake." "I'll check in again when I'm done." " It doesn't work like that." " What doesn't" "My addiction or my insurance?" "Well, both, really." "Simply put, these thermal vents on the ocean floor precipitate a fortune in almost pure mineral deposits, such as manganese, critical in the production of steel, and gold in higher concentrations" " than most onshore mines." " Wheezer, this had better be good." "Until now, no one could extract these deposits because of the crushing depths at which they are found, but this new technology makes it possible." "Do you mind?" "Come on." "Don't be a tease." "What's up?" "Not up." "Down." ""Project Scoop."" "What's that?" "A Baskin-Robbins' special?" "Funny." "Check this out." "It's like a war zone." "This town is full of bodies." "Over here!" "Over here!" "Help me, man!" "Help me!" "You gotta help me." "Oh!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "What the hell was that?" "Early this morning, there was an exchange between Nasa and the pentagon about a satellite code-named Project Scoop that crashed in southern Utah." "About an hour later, I picked that up- the last transmission of a retrieval team that went into a nearby town, Piedmont," " after the satellite" " An army retrieval team." "Hacking the feds is a felony, Wheezer." "Homeland security will be all over your ass." "My bike needs new tires." "Mancheck?" "No!" "Caper One, do you copy?" "Do you copy, Caper One?" "Once again, Caper One, do you copy?" "Come in." "Get general Mancheck." "Get Mancheck now." "Jack Nash, my favorite muckraker." "Whose career are you ruining today?" "Oh, you know me." "My hit list of the venal and the morally corrupt just keeps on growing." "I can't keep pace." "Hey, is Jeremy there?" "Well, for such a superb investigative journalist," "You are sadly ignorant." "The good doctor and I split." "He has a love nest somewhere, probably on campus, close to the sororities he prefers." "I'm-I'm sorry to hear that, Lisa, truly." "But do you have a number for him?" "This is very important." "It wouldn't do you any good." "Saint Jeremy's off on assignment for the army." "Very hush-hush." "They picked him up early this morning." "Was this in regards to a Project Scoop?" "Don't know." "Don't care." "Good afternoon, everyone." "I'm general George Mancheck, head of the U.S. Army bio-defense department." "Uh, you are now being distributed e-papers." "They contain continuously updated information about Wildfire, and what we currently know about the event, which is very little." "Since the failed biological attack in Houston last year in which major Keene here played an important part, our vulnerability to terrorist action, especially bioterrorism, has been a subject of intense discussion." "You, the Wildfire response team and laboratory, are the result of that discussion." "You volunteered in the spirit of patriotism for an assignment that was vague at the time." "Undoubtedly, you're wondering what the hell you've got yourselves into." "Dr. Stone." "Right." "Well, obviously some of you have worked together." "Certainly everyone here has read each others' work- at least heard of one another." "I'm Dr. Jeremy Stone, head of the Bloomsburg facility at Johns Hopkins and the chief consultant for, and... designer of, the Wildfire lab and project." "Where is the laboratory?" "For security reasons, we cannot disclose its location." "We're not allowed to know where we'll be working?" "No, but I can assure you that, uh, we'll be in full and constant contact with the outside." "Dr. Noyce?" "Uh, Dr. Angela Noyce, surgeon, ex-biologist and I specialize in tropical and exotic diseases." "Dr. Charlene Barton, pathologist," "Formerly with the C.D.C. , now with the San Francisco health department." "Major Bill Keene, M.D. ," "Virologist from the Army medial research institute of infectious diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland." "Uh, Dr. Tsi Chou, microbiologist." "So modest." "About ten years ago, Dr. Chou was one of the premier designers of biological weapons for the Chinese government." "But then I saw the light of Jesus, and now I serve as a consultant on bioterrorism for a wide range of U.S. corporations." "Out of the ashes, into the fire." "Last night- uh, please." "Last night, a Nasa satellite lost orbit and came down in a remote part of southern Utah." "When a retrieval team arrived, the satellite had been moved, we believe by civilians, into the nearby town of Piedmont." "No signs yet of any life." "Except for this joker staring at us from his pickup." "We're rounding the corner" "Whoa, hold on." "This town is full of bodies." " It's like a war zone." " Over here!" "Over here!" "Help me!" "Help me, man." "You gotta help me!" "Aah!" "Aah!" "Help!" "No!" "No!" "The team's chemical sensors detected nothing unusual, so we suspect a biological agent now code-named "Andromeda."" "Whatever Andromeda is, it killed those two soldiers so quickly, they didn't even have time to jump out of their humvee." "Two hours later, this infrared recording was made by a pilotless drone flying east to west at an altitude of 500 feet." "The, um, bright spots indicating thermal activity are corpses." "And, uh, this is another pass immediately afterwards- same parameters." "What brought that satellite out of orbit in the first place?" "Uh, possibly contact with a meteor or unknown space debris." "Uh, there was also one of two new North Korean satellites in the area." "What they were doing there, of course, we have no idea." "Well, being sinister and inscrutable, no doubt." "If their purpose is benign, why keep it a secret?" "One could say the same thing about this operation, general." "What exactly was Nasa doing with that satellite?" "And--and why was an Army retrieval vehicle sent in after it had failed?" "Nasa doesn't have a pot to piss in these days." "All flights are multipurpose." "We're going to need to trust each other, doctor." "As long as we all act in good faith," "I don't have a problem there." "General?" "Can we play both recordings simultaneously?" "That body by the recovery vehicle has moved between passes." " Again." "Overlay." " Yes, sir." "Freeze it." "Overlay." "Switch back." "Son of a bitch." "Someone's alive down there." "Listen, Bill." "Whatever differences we've had in the past," "I hope we can put 'em aside for the duration." "I wouldn't miss this for the world, Jeremy." "Somebody has to keep an eye on you." "What's up with you and Mancheck?" "Mancheck?" "Well, during operation Desert Storm," "I wanted to examine certain Iraqi munitions bunkers for possible biological agents, but he blew them up first." "Why the big hurry?" "Maybe there was something he didn't want me to find." "Oh, yeah, like the Loch Ness monster, or maybe there was proof of Bigfoot." "Look, a lot of people wondered how Saddam acquired his bioweapons capability in the first place." "Now some people have suggested that certain governments, who were friendly at the time and eager for data on the battlefield use of weaponized biological agents, might have sold Saddam what he wanted" " when he was fighting Iran." "That's just a bunch of paranoid left-wing B.S." " It was never proven, Jeremy." " Just because you're paranoid, Bill, doesn't mean they ain't out to get you." "Mancheck." "A heads-up from our friend at the N.S.A." "who's been running security checks on the Wildfire team." "An hour ago they picked up a conversation between Lisa Stone and Jack Nash." "How the hell did Jack Nash stumble on this?" "He asked about Project Scoop." "Jeez." "Who's his source?" "We're working on it." "Nash and Stone were an unbelievable pain in the ass over Kuwait." "How much does he know about Project Scoop?" "Well, as far as we can tell, nothing yet." "Don't do anything about Nash right now, except monitor him closely and identify his source." "What's the escort for?" "Paparazzi?" "A fail-safe plan to prevent a break in quarantine." "The chopper will drop us off and hover at 500 feet until we recall it." "It will not land unless they get our signal." "Now if we don't come back, they're to immediately report back to base for decontamination." "And if the pilot fails to respond?" "Well, there is a fail-safe for the fail-safe." "It's not too late to reconsider." "Oh, this is just starting to get good." "Approaching target, sir." "We have smoke rising from the town, sir." "Whatever Andromeda is, it still hasn't killed the birds." "Best not to take any chances." "Captain, drop the chlorazine." "Roger that." "Hmm, the Audubon society's not gonna like that." "Lieutenant, when ready, lower the team into the center of town and take up your preassigned position." "Roger that." "What are the ultimate environmental consequences of mining these deep-sea thermal vents?" "We don't know, but one thing we know for sure is that Enburtel, one of president Scott's largest corporate campaign contributors, will make a fortune from it." "And once again, the president and his corporate masters..." "Hey, gorgeous." "...are ignoring science, defying international treaties" " and acting unilaterally." " Charlie H. , long time, no see." " Sorry, Charlie, he just barged in." " That's all right." "Just call security." "Whoa, Charles, I'm not feeling the love here." "You're in rehab." "That was our deal." "30 days, then you might get your job back." "I'm clean." "I'm sober." "Look at me, I'm even tan, and I am" " I've got a lead on something- - 30 days rehab." " That was the deal." " Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Come on, Charlie." "You're too good a producer to let your personal feelings" " get in the way of a great story." " How great?" "Last night, Nasa satellite crashes in southern Utah." "This is news?" "We call that gravity." "Nasa claims it was a weather satellite." "I know that's a lie." "And why was an Army retrieval team sent to pick up said Nasa bird, and why was that team from the department of bio-defense?" "If this is another one of your paranoid fantasies," " I swear to" " The whole unit died horribly." "Wait a minute." "Wait." "Wait." "Did... you know this for a fact?" " I saw the visuals myself." " You got tape?" "I can get tape." "Right." "Meanwhile, a couple of hours later, one of our leading epidemiologists is picked up by the Army and whisked away." "And?" "And the Army general in charge is Mancheck." " Mancheck." "See?" " I knew it." "I knew it." "You-You just won't let that go, will you?" "I mean, you're like frickin' Ahab" " and the white whale with that guy." "I swear to god, this just fell in my lap." "All I need is a week to run this down and a crew." "A week and a crew - that's all I'm asking for." "Three days, then you get your ass back in Betty Ford, or wherever you were." " This man loves me." " Don't kid yourself." "Loves me!" "External symptoms - pronounced swelling of all surface veins and capillaries, jaundice-like yellowing of his eyes." "A few of them are clutching their chests." "This could be coronary." "Not coronary." "Look at his face." "Asphyxiation, maybe." "No, if a person can't breathe, they try to loosen the clothing around their neck and chest." "Look at that guy over there." "He has his shirt buttoned all the way to the top." "This isn't asphyxiation or heart attack." "Well, the survivor we saw was over near the retrieval vehicle." "Dr. Noyce." "Take a look." "Look at the way he fell and broke his nose on the steering wheel." "There's no blood." "A wound like that should bleed profusely." "Not one of the corpses we've seen, including the bird food back there, were bleeders." " What is it?" " I thought I heard something." "Don't get sketchy on us, doc." "We have a survivor on tape, remember?" "Major, there's a G.P.S. tracking device in the shotgun seat." "It should still be locked in on the satellite." "Sorry, boy, I gotta get in there." "Bill, have a little respect." "How about we do our job and get out of here?" "Yeah, it's working." "Looks like we're close." "Pull over here." "There it is." "Unbelievable." "They opened it." "Angela, can you check his lividity?" "Okay." "Give me a hand, Bill." "One, two, three." "Easy, easy." "Dead for hours" "Distended arteries, no bruising." "Look at an artery, would you?" "Check his radial." "Clotted solid." "What does that?" "Is there a problem, officer?" "License and registration, please." "Nice bike." "It's a 1951 FL Panhead." "I did the restoration myself." " Beautiful." " Tank shift, foot clutch" "You don't see those anymore." "You are Jonathan Scott?" "Yes, sir." "I-I just gave it new tires." " Are you ready?" " Yes." " Is your husband watching?" " Yes." " And the family?" " I hope so." "Would you like to say hello to them out there?" "Um..." "I've seen enough." "We should nuke this place and be done with it." "You're not serious." "Under the Wildfire protocols, directive 7-12, a limited nuclear strike is a contingency." " I agree with Bill." " Ditto." "Why mess around?" "Because it's premature until we know what we're dealing with." "You're all forgetting that we have a survivor on tape." "Yeah, nine hours ago." "Maybe they're dead now having drowned themselves or burned themselves or cut their own freakin' heads off." "Hi." "You're okay." "Shh." "Shh." "It's okay." "Hi." "She must be hungry." "There's some baby formula here." "No, no." "Don't-don't- Don't feed her." "Don't-don't do anything until we get her out of here." "Maybe feeding's part of the disease process, or there was something protective in her diet." "We can't take the chance." "We have to get her into a lab right away." "It's too bad she can't tell us what happened." "Maybe she can." "You leave that baby here!" "You got-got no right to" "Ow!" "You all right?" "Don't-don't touch me." "Just worried about your suit." "Let's l-stat him and get out of here." "We're coming into the lab with two survivors- an adult male and an infant female." "I will recommend to the president that he order a limited nuclear strike." "Negative." "Negative." "We need to figure out what the hell we're dealing with first." "I disagree." "What we're dealing with induces death, suicide or homicidal behavior within minutes." "You have as much time as the president gives you, and that's it." "What about our survivors?" "They'll be taken along with the satellite into the lab through a separate entrance." "Dr. Chou and Dr. Barton will be waiting for us." "We have no choice now, Chuck." "This thing is scary." "Our safest option is the nuke the site, and only the president can authorize a nuclear." "You promised us there would be no problems with Project Scoop." "You know as well I as I do there are no guarantees on something like this, so calm down and let me handle it." "Pretty impressive security measures here." "Better than they look." "Killer pine trees?" "We've been under continuous observation by satellite and ground sensors since the moment the helicopter dropped us off." "There's at least one armed predator overhead at all times." "If we were a menace, we'd be dead by now." "Dr. Stone, long time, no see." "Same to you, George." "How's your daughter?" "13 going on 35." "Hello, Dr. Stone." "Access approved." "Grouped around a central utility core, at the bottom of which is our power source." "A small water-cooled nuclear reactor." "And the pool hours are... hey, at 5,000 to 8,000 rem, even a small exposure would result in disorientation or coma within minutes, but, hey, knock yourself out." "Now the top two levels are for service and maintenance crew." "They live on-site in 3-month rotational cycles under the highest levels of security clearance." "The bottom three levels are the actual heart of the facility- the laboratory itself and culture equipment." "Decontamination and containment are second to none." "It's safe to remove your helmets." "Oral antibiotics to kill off any flora that we might be carrying internally." "Now decontaminating the body externally is a bit more dramatic." "You're gonna have follow directions closely." "Taking a shortcut could prove to be fatal." "Once you're ready, you'll establish your identity using a retinal scan." "That was some spa." "We do have our amenities." "Now we each have our own private sleeping quarters, though we might not see much of them." "The dining area and gymnasium, which never close." "Now the badges you're wearing provide voice-controlled access to the computer system and the lab equipment." "They also monitor any radiation or possible contamination you might face and provide inter-lab communication and recording." "You need to wear them at all times." "As painstaking as the entrance is," "I promise you, it's much harder to get out." "Each level is self-sealing, and egress is only through authorization from the level above." "Communication with the outside is via secure fiber-optic phone lines and high-speed LAN." "We can contact our families?" "Yes, but communication is only one-way." "Any personal urgent calls coming into the faculty are rerouted directly through the comm center." "Of course, your privacy will be respected, but the priority here must remain the security." "There should be no discussion whatsoever" " about what we're working on." " What happens in the event of an accidental contamination?" "Hatch and seal, like a submarine." "In the event of an overwhelming breach, the lab is built atop a nuclear device." "I've just armed that system." "Once it's activated, there's a 15-minute countdown to detonation." "You gotta be shittin' me." "I'm sure the chances of an accident in such a beautifully designed facility are too small to be significant, but if there should be a mistake... there is a fail-safe plan." "Dr. Keene is our odd man." " Please insert your card." " Odd man?" "Place your thumb upon the panel." "To abort the self-destruct sequence," "Bill I.D.s himself via thumbprint and his card." "There's a panel like this on every level." " Why Bill?" "The army ran an extensive battery of tests, and determined that unmarried males were more likely to make the right choice during a crisis." "In our particular case, the right decision is to not prematurely abort the self-destruction sequence." "So you were looking for the man most likely to kill himself and us." "Cool." "I feel so reassured." "The omission was not deliberate, sir." "This is one of those programs that was initiated years ago by a previous administration." "It's just one of a number of platforms we have exploring the singularity." "Oh, and now, as a consequence, you want me to drop a nuclear bomb on Utah?" "That would be general Mancheck's recommendation, sir." "It's a limited low-yield tactical device, Mr. President   less than a kiloton." " Oh, is that all?" "We have ongoing test ban treaty negotiations with the Russians and the Chinese." "We're still trying to get North Korea and Iran to abort their nuclear programs." "How am I gonna explain this to them?" "Additionally, Mr. President, not to be crass... that's your job, Pat." "Weigh right in." "Nuke Utah for whatever reason, and you can kiss your reelection good-bye." "What does Dr. Stone recommend?" "The Wildfire team is divided over the issue." "That wasn't my question." "Dr. Stone would prefer more time to examine Andromeda." "I should add, Mr. President, that while no one is sure of the origin of this infection, we do know that a North Korean satellite was in in the area just prior to our bird going down." "What, you're saying this was an aggression," "Chuck?" "Why would the Koreans do that?" "The Pyongyang regime has always been a loose cannon, sir." "I'm not prepared to go to war on a hunch and some half-baked intelligence." "If I authorize it, how quickly can you call that strike on Piedmont, general?" "Let's give Dr. Stone some time to do his work." "You lied to me about that satellite." ""Need to know," Ed." "If you ever lie to me again, Chuck, and homeland security might just stumble over on of your little "off the book" ops." "Why did you push the Korean scenario?" "You said yourself it was a possibility." "But unlikely." "You know something I don't, Chuck?" "Just do your job, general." "Let me do mine." "Yes, sir." "I" " I just gave it new tires..." " Henderson." " Charlie?" "Nash here." "I got a tip from my army source." "Units of the Salt Lake city national guard are suddenly being deployed for a "training exercise related to immigration and border security."" "Odd thing is, according to my source, the order originated directly from the office of Chuck Beeter." "The director of the N.S.A. doesn't have the authority to call out the national guard." "Fancy that." "Oh, also, something's happened to my original source on Scoop." "He left me some weird message that cut out abruptly." "If I-if I text you his particulars, can you pull the phone records," " tell me where the call came from?" " Sure." "I'll see what I can do." "And you check in with me regular, Nash, and watch yourself." "We're obviously dealing with some kind of infectious agent, whether it's viral, fungal, bacteriological, parasitic or prion, we just don't know." "To complicate things, the latest weather report indicates a possible Santa Anna weather condition developing within the next 48 hours." "Those winds could conceivably sweep the contagion towards Southern California." "Charlie Henderson from NNT called about the Utah guard rollout and the rumors that it originated out of Beeter's office." "Unbelievable." "This place leaks like a sieve." "It's sooner than we might like, but not entirely unexpected." "In any case, I think we can stall Henderson." "Maybe this would be a good opportunity to offer NNT an exclusive about your reelection campaign." "You know, kill two birds with one stone." "Henderson is not the real problem." "He can be leveraged, but Nash" "Nash is different." "Nash is a bulldog." "Have you located his sources yet?" "He's gone to ground, but we're closing in." "The problem is, if Nash gets in contact with Stone, there's gonna be no way to keep Project Scoop out of the press." "Can't we just impose a gag order on the Wildfire team?" "That ain't gonna be pretty." "Of course, sometimes these communication systems suffer from mechanical failure." "I say we go nuclear and sterilize the whole area." "Fortunately, you're not in charge." "The final call, please correct me if I'm wrong, is the president's." "Dr. Stone, please contact the communications officer." "Dr. Noyce is right." "Our job is to employ the best science we can so the president has the information he needs to make a decision." "Now why don't you all get started on the satellite?" "I'll be in in a minute." "Call for Dr. Stone." "We're having a problem with the communication system." "Now we're okay within the lab, but I can't raise the outside at all." "Computer, phones - nada." "Okay." "So we'll be entering the capsule through the compartment door, which was originally removed by Piedmont's late fire chief." "I think it's safe to conclude that Andromeda was originally inside the capsule, otherwise the citizens who recovered it would never have made it back to town alive." "What did Mancheck say the satellite was doing?" "He didn't say." "Apparently, we're experiencing some kind of technical glitch within our communication system." "Glitch?" "I don't like glitch." "All external computer and communication lines are down, but I've been assured that they're gonna have them up and running as soon as possible." " Please, Dr. Chou, continue." " Uh, well, this is not a new satellite." "I would say it's at least two to three generations old." "And from what I can tell from the exterior, it wasn't designed for communications, navigations or surveillance." "In fact, what it appears to be is a biocontainment vessel." "Son of a bitch." "Well, it's very damn odd." "It means that it was designed to capture and retain biological materials." "Which means two things" "And the second thing?" "Mancheck is lying." "So it was what?" "Randomly collecting bio samples in space?" " What are the chances of that?" " Slim to none." "Let's pop it open." "Wait." "Go back." "Stop it." "Zoom in." "Could that material be Andromeda?" "That's still to be determined." "If that's what knocked the satellite down, it must have been moving at a tremendous rate of speed or be incredibly heavy." "How could that be?" "It didn't do that much damage to the satellite." "Maybe it has elastic qualities we don't know about." "For now, let's assume this is Andromeda." "Bill and Charlene, you check the pathology of this thing." "See if you can figure out how it kills." "Dr. Noyce, you examine our survivors." "Find out what kept them alive." "Dr. Chou, you and I will test the black substance in Andromeda for what conditions each likes and dislikes." "See if we can't I.D. their nature and their structure." "So, sergeant George, you and the men of Bravo company have no idea then what this sudden call-up is about." "No, sir." "They pretty much tell us to show up and we find out what the deal is when we get there." "Meanwhile, the pentagon insists this sudden alert of the Utah national guard is nothing more than a routine training exercise." "No further details are forthcoming, including when this deployment will be over." "When have we heard that before?" "Computer, patient number one, according to documents found on him, is Kyle Tobler- male, 60 years old," "Undernourished, possibly anemic." "Computer, has he responded since arrival?" "Basolyte test results?" "Kyle Tobler is a G.I. Bleeder." "I want two units of whole blood, plus plasma," "And vitamin K for him and a complete blood workup on both patients." "You're gonna be okay, sweetie." "I promise." "Hey, Charlie." "What's up?" "I've got some bad news about your friend." "He's dead." "I'll text you the details in a moment." "I'm sorry." "Time - ten seconds." "Damn, this thing is lethal." "And airborne, if there was any doubt." "Let's check it." "Most John Does we get don't drive a Harley Panhead." "Lucky for him you remember that." "Yeah." "Lucky for him." "This your friend?" "I don't know if you know anybody in the family or anything," "But, uh, if his bike's available now, you know," "I'd love to buy it." "No harm in asking', right?" "Removing contaminated air." "Dead animals are not infectious." "That's an extremely unusual adaptation if that's what that is." "Well, we know Andromeda coagulates the blood, but how does it enter the body - through the lungs or the skin?" "We can radioactively tag some blood proteins and scan the animals on their initial exposures." "Let's start with a rhesus." "So you think Mancheck deliberately isolated us?" "Let's just say" "I wouldn't put it past him." "Have you told the others?" "I don't want them distracted." "There's so little time as it is." "Why tell me?" "I guess because I needed somebody to talk to, somebody I trust." "Mmm." "Are you making any progress?" "Yes, the infant's blood work is normal, and Tobler's anemic, and his PH is very acidic." "I don't know why." "Why don't you go ask him?" " George, this is Dr. Stone." " Yes, sir, what can I do for you?" "We're having some kind of communications problem down here and I need your help." "Do you got a cell phone that works?" "Yeah, my wife got me this new Blackberry." "Jack, it's Jeremy Stone." "I need to talk to you." "It's urgent." "I'll try to call back in one hour." "Damn it!" "Aah!" "Who the hell are you?" "Where am I?" "I'm Dr. Noyce." "You were bleeding very badly internally, and we had to give you a transfusion." "What happened in Piedmont?" "There was an outbreak of disease." "That's why we brought you here." "Am I contagious?" "We don't think so, but we don't want to take any chances." "Initiating the scintillometer and exposing the subject." "Definitely inspired by the lungs," "Andromeda then crosses into the bloodstream and begins coagulation." "But is that how it actually kills?" "Could it be a single cerebral clot?" "Maybe an anticoagulant could stop this thing?" "Let's repeat with something like Heparin." "Okay." "I want to get these tissues samples out to the lab first." "Computer, sample and stain with HE and P.A.s." "I also would like sections of the nerve tissue stained with both nissl and cajal gold preparations." "The black material is artificial." "What do you mean?" "A construct?" "Yeah, at first it appears to have a complex lattice-like microstructure of carbon fibers." "Further analysis reveals a structure of buckyballs." "Well, that would explain how the contact drove the satellite out of orbit without damaging it, but isn't this kind of application still theoretical?" "Yeah." "This is nanotechnology light-years ahead of anything anyone is doing right now." "What about the other material?" "Did you see that?" "That must be our infectious agent." "Computer, replay." "That's Andromeda." "Did anybody else make it?" "Just you and the baby." "That's Sylvie." "It's the Ritter kid." "Not used to her being so quiet." "She's one little yeller." "Cries to beat the band." "Nobody else made it?" "No, I'm afraid not." "This-this place is giving me the creeps." "I want-I want to get out of here." "You're not well enough to go anywhere." "I know my rights!" "I" " I-I'm no damn terrorist." "You're in quarantine." "Well-well, give me a cigarette then." "Sorry, no smoking." "Oh, yeah, I've heard that bullshit before" "No smokin', no drinkin', no Mexican food." "What's the point of livin' like that?" "It's damn boring." "You've been hospitalized before for the bleeding?" "Hell, yeah." "Spittin' up blood like old faithful." "Tell me I got an ulcer the size of a grapefruit." "Did they give you any medication, Kyle?" "They did, but I didn't much like the taste of it." "So you went untreated." "What about the pain?" "Uh, Aspirin works just fine," "About a bottle a day towards the end there, plus a little squeeze." ""Squeeze"?" "The pink lady," "Red eye." "You know, sterno." "Sterno, that's got methanol in it." " Is that bad?" " It can blind you or kill you." "Well, it didn't kill me." "They all died, but I didn't." "Kyle." "Kyle, what happened in Piedmont?" "What happened to you and the others that night?" "I don't want to talk about it." "It's very important." "Lots of lives depend on what you might know." "Look, I don't know!" "I don't want to talk about it." "Kyle, what did you see that night?" "It was Jeff Megan and Suzie Travers." "They found the damn thing." "They're just kids, really." "They-they brought it to the fire station, to the chief Hank Benedict, 'cause I hear he's an engineer and knows lots of stuff." "The only reason I know is 'cause I was playin' poker at the fire station - Me, Hank aand Al Ritter who runs the gas station," "Herbie Block and Annie Dillon." "You think it's from outer space?" "It fell from the sky, Annie." "You know what I mean." "Is it alien?" "Yeah, that's why it says U.S.A. on the side." "You think aliens can't spell?" "Probably just a weather satellite." "Yeah, that's what they want you to think." "Have you ever heard of area 51?" "You don't think that there aren't all these secret government things that goes on that none of us know about?" " What do you think, Hank?" " It's a satellite - weather or communications or something." "I'll make a few calls, and let you know what I find out." "About a half-hour later, I'm gettin' a soda from Al's gas station because the squeeze makes you kind of thirsty." "So you'd been drinking that day?" "How did you feel?" "A" " A-A little dizzy, my-my breath was kind of short on me." "My head!" "Aah!" "My head!" "Al?" "Hang on!" "Hang on, buddy!" "Hey, Annie." "What's going on?" "What's wrong with these people?" "You got to burn 'em out." "Don't you see?" "It's the only way." "Annie, well, what...?" "Annie!" "What--?" "Hey, Annie!" "Annie!" "And then everything's quiet." "Then it's like the whole world is dead." "And that's when I saw the general," "Scott Arnold, a vet, steady as a rock." "You know what's happening, Kyle." "They've gotten under the wire." "They're inside the compound." " I don't think that's it, general." " Got to face facts, soldier." "You tell 'em back home I did my best, okay?" "I thought I'd gone crazy," "Hallucinatin', too much pink lady maybe." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey, over here!" "It's me!" "I'm here." "Help me, man!" "Help me, man!" "You got to help me!" "No, no, no!" "Help, help," "No, no, no, no!" "Poor bastard." "So Tobler was acidotic because of the methanol he was drinking." "It breaks down and becomes formaldehyde and formic acid." "Plus he was taking a bottle of aspirin a day." "That affected his breathing?" "He had to breath rapidly to blow off the carbon dioxide and decrease the carbonic acid in his body." "Well, maybe there's a way to attack Andromeda in there." "No, the baby's PH is normal." "There's nothing unusual about her except her colic." "Charlene?" "Here's what we know so far." "Andromeda is approximately 1 micron, the size of a single cell." "It's transmitted by air." "Dead organisms are not infectious." "Andromeda is inspired by its victim." "It crosses into the bloodstream where it initiates coagulation." "Death occurs within seconds." "Now we tested anticoagulants, but they don't affect its process." "So it cannot transmit from a corpse?" "Yeah, strange, isn't it?" "Andromeda kills men, kills all mammals as far as we know and then dies within the organism." "It shows no signs of having adapted to mankind." "You know, maybe this is just what it seems - an alien life-form, the first mankind has ever encountered." "So it's not cuddly like E.T. , but there it is." "Deal with it." "Who says it's natural?" "It could be engineered." "Especially given what Tsi discovered when he was looking at the black material alongside Andromeda." "Yeah, it's an extremely advanced form of nanotechnology called Buckyballs, named after the inventor Buckminster Fuller." "The molecule is form of carbon 60, octahedral in shape, with 60 atoms forming the shape of a ball." "So if this black material was a manufactured shell containing Andromeda, then what you're describing is some kind of a biological bomb." " Whoa!" " Why not?" "It would be arrogant to think that human beings are the only creatures sophisticated enough to use bacterial warfare." "Why would you assume alien origin at all?" "Mancheck said there was a North Korean satellite in the area." "If anyone was gonna attack the United States, why go through all the trouble of sending a contagion into space and hoping that Nasa will pick it up?" "Why not simply bring it in on a shipping container like one of the thousands that come in every day un-inspected because homeland security just doesn't have enough resources to do the job?" "And for that matter, why use such an exotic bug when plague, typhus or smallpox would be just fine?" "Well, you'd be the expert on that." "Whoa!" "Easy, Keene." "Mancheck is a liar, and you are a racist fool!" "Yeah?" "How many died in that outbreak in Shanghal?" "That's enough, both of you." "It's growing?" "That's right." "Now the first time it displayed that behavior it was unprovoked." "So is what we just saw some kind of nonspecific growth response" "Or a sentient reaction to injury?" "Maybe it just doesn't like being poked?" "I think we need to focus more on structure, what is Andromeda made of." "Bill, you and Charlene, do an amino acid workup while Tsi does a spectro-analysis." "I'd like to continue my exploration of the black material." "That is, unless you think I'm a security risk, Bill?" "I trust you, Tsi." "Why wouldn't I?" "I know there's a link between Kyle Tobler and Sylvie Ritter." "I want to continue to pursue that." "Let's get started." "I appreciate the lift, man." "Car just up and died on me." "No problem, man." "It's important to see your family when they ship out." "You never know, know what I mean?" "What happened in Shanghal?" "It was a different time back then." "The international treaties on biowarfare were toothless." "Every country, including yours, was experimenting." "We were field testing a weaponized version of hemorrhagic smallpox at an outdoor laboratory." "It proved much, uh, hardier than we expected." "A young girl in a fishing boat 9 miles offshore caught the disease, brought it back to the city." "It killed 107 people, 30 of them children, before we could contain it." "There were people in both our governments who were prepared to unleash unimaginable horrors." "I like to think that in the end reason prevailed, but maybe we were just very, very lucky." "Jeremy!" "Jeremy!" "You're not gonna believe this." "Andromeda doesn't have D.N.A." " What is it, some kind of prion?" " No proteins, not even any amino acids." "Charlene was right." "There has never been anything like Andromeda anywhere on the earth." "This is terra incognita." "This is alien." "Hey, that's good eatin'." " Appreciate the food, Mr. Nash." " My pleasure, sergeant." "Didn't know they were embedding journalists on this operation." "Pretty much standard operating procedure these days." "Just bringing' the war on terror home." " Nash." " Jeremy Stone." "Jeremy Stone-I've been trying to reach you, man." "Where the hell are you?" "You sound like you're at the bottom of a well." "You can say that." "Listen, why is the guard deploying in southern Utah?" "They're calling it an exercise, but the orders originated with the N.S.A." "possibly because some kind of secret satellite code-named Project Scoop came down in the desert." " What is Project Scoop?" " No idea, but it's army." "This is being run by our old friend general Mancheck." "Let me tell you, when that sucker came down, it killed a lot of people." "I mean, no one's saying infectious outbreak, but" "And- and how do you know that?" "I can't give details, but it cost my source his life." "And it wasn't any virus killed him either, unless microbes routinely pack.9 millimeter slugs." "These guys are not messing around, Jeremy." "Now I'm being followed." "At least, I was." "Are those guard units carrying any biohazard here with them?" "I don't know, but I can check." "All right." "Well, pay close attention to their equipment." " I got to go, Jack." " Wait, wait, wait." "I showed you mine." "You show me yours." "It's a biological infection called Andromeda." "That's all I can say for now." "When I know more, I'll call you first." "I promise." "Look, in the meantime, see what else you can find out about Project Scoop, and I'll call you back in three hours." "Listen, Jack, be careful, and I'm not just talking about the army and whoever else is following you." "Andromeda." "It's lethal, beyond comprehension." "Tuesday, Marti, pot roast." "It's just coffee, Sally." "You all right, Marti?" "You look kind of green around the gills." "Flu or somethin', my head's killin' me." " You have any aspirin?" " Yeah, sure." "They're all out to get me." "Marti, you're hurting me." "Please, Marti, please." "General, there has been an incident 40 miles south of Piedmont." "A Utah sheriff named Willis has shot three people and killed himself." "Here's the raw network feed." "And here's the security camera." "Please, Marti, please," "Please." " If it's Andromeda..." " It is." "I don't know how Willis escaped quarantine." "Willis could have passed through Piedmont the night of the infection before the quarantine went up." "Have you isolated these bodies and whoever worked the crime scene?" "Already done, general." "Mancheck." "I have a message from Dr. Stone regarding Project Scoop." "Unless communication is restored fully to the lab," "Jack Nash will go public with all the details" "Live on NNT." "You have ten minutes to comply." "What happened?" "Stone knows about Project Scoop." "Put Wildfire back online." "Get me Stone." "Yes, general." "Come on." "You deliberately isolated us." "And you lied about the purpose for the satellite, general." "We had a technical problem, and the problem got solved." "Now we want the full facts on Project Scoop and everything associated with it, or I swear to God every press agency from "the New York times"" "to some podunk podcaster in Nebraska will get this story." "Nasa astronomers discovered a singularity" " in our solar system." " A singularity?" "A theoretical distortion in the space/time... continuum." "No longer theoretical - there was a sudden and inexplicable appearance of a tiny source emitting extremely powerful bursts of light and energy - In short, a wormhole." "Now we're still in the process of analyzing that data, but physicists have theorized since 1935 that traversable wormholes could function as portals between distant parts of the galaxy." "Project Scoop was one of several attempts to explore this phenomenon, and in this case, to collect samples of living organisms." "Now we're not sure exactly what happened, but on approach, the satellite became erratic and came down." "Shortly thereafter, the wormhole, or... whatever the hell it was, closed." "Well, why in God's name did you withhold this?" "We have wasted valuable time, time we don't have, flailing about in the dark." "Can you imagine the panic news of an event like this would have caused?" "It was strictly need-to-know." "Need to cover your ass." "Now why would the army's bio-defense be covertly collecting samples?" "Maybe shopping for lethal material that wouldn't be covered by any existing or future biowarfare agreements?" "What we did, whatever you think of our motives, the problem facing us right now is Andromeda, and it's getting worse by the minute." "What do you mean?" "Well, the president, largely on your recommendation, opted for quarantining the area instead of calling in a limited nuclear strike, and now we've already had a breach." "I just got word of an event outside the quarantine zone that sounds like Andromeda." "Now I've got that area locked up tight, but I need to know, what have you got to fight this?" "Nothing at this point, not a single thing." "Andromeda is completely unlike anything we have ever seen." "It would appear to be alien in its source except... except for the material found along with it, which we think might be a casing or a delivery system." "It's built from materials common to earth but utilizes a nanotechnology that so far is only theoretical." "So what are you saying then?" "Is Andromeda of this world, or is it alien?" "We can't say, either way, but it's extremely unlikely that Andromeda is the creation of any kind of terrestrial power." "Whatever the source, general, we need to nuke Piedmont right now." "I have to say, I agree with Bill." "I think it's still too risky." "Well, what the hell else can we do?" "Wildfire has effectively ruled out Andromeda as originating with any known enemy - foreign or domestic." "Are we under attack or not?" "Absolutely, but from whom or what, we can't say with certainty." "What, you're saying this is an alien attack, Chuck?" "Yes, sir." "Wherever Andromeda comes from, it dies in Piedmont, understand?" "We're ready when you are, Mr. President." "Are the guardsmen on the ground going to be safe?" "We'll pull back all forward observation posts 5 miles." "None of our men will be in harm's way, Mr. President." "Very well." "Do it." "5 miles from the target," "I want you to let loose and climb like hell." "Theoretically you should be able to avoid the aftershock," "But no one's actually dropped one of these things since Nagasaki." "Blair." "You may authorize the launch when ready." "Yes, sir." " It's a go." " Sir." "What exactly are we lookin' for?" "Trespassers, little green men, who knows." "Tear it down, fellas." "They're pullin' us back." " You got to be kidding me." " You heard me." "Let's go." "What is that?" "Some kind of eagle, sir." "It's got somethin' in its claws." "What is that thing?" "Whoa, whoa, you can't shoot an eagle, sergeant." "It's a rat." "He's bombing us with a rat." "No, way." " Oh, my head!" " You all right?" " What's up, man?" " Oh, it hurts." "He's dead." "This isn't happening." "Oh, man, this isn't happening." "It's the end of days, the mark of the beast." "Cut that out right now." "The seals are broken!" "Hell in a handbasket, it's where we're goin'!" "Put your gun down!" "If Mancheck hadn't kept us in the dark" "We just ran out of time." "There are just some things that don't add up." "Chou's casing theory doesn't--doesn't feel right." "Something's missing, but I-- I just can't put my finger on it." "# Come home, baby #" "Afternoon, private Carson." "Jack Nash, NNT." "Great job you fellas are doin'." "Can I help you?" "Those, uh, Stryker carriers of yours are really something." "Are those chemical/biological units?" "Yes, sir, pretty much top-of-the-line." "Now what's that bio trace m3 sampler?" "Uh, it's used to collect biological samples." "We don't normally travel with this kind of, uh, equipment." "Why do you suppose they need something like that for?" "Uh, why are you here?" "You're approaching a restricted area!" "Stop your vehicle immediately!" "It's a suicide bomber!" "Open fire!" "Charlie, I'm at" " I'm at desert H.Q. For the guard." "Some kind of suicide bomber just attacked." "I just sent photos." "Also I just found" "General Michaelson, you ever heard of freedom of the" "Take Mr. Nash to the stockade." " I'm a civilian, general." " He was illegally on my base," "Which has just come under terrorist attack." "Care to go on the record about that, general?" "Northcom, this is Alpha One." "I will enter the release zone in 30 seconds." "Roger, Alpha One." "Arm missile." "Roger that." "Arming missile." "Missile is armed and ready to go." "These are the results of our growth matrix program on Andromeda." "The particular growth medium doesn't seem to be a factor." "But atmosphere and light are crucial." "Darkness and infrared inhibit growth, likewise for oxygen." "Nitrogen is a wash." "Ultraviolet light stimulates, so does carbon dioxide." "So Andromeda thrives best in an atmosphere of 100% carbon dioxide lit by ultraviolet light." "Looks to me almost like a pure conversion system." "Computer, post all results for all closed growth systems." "You're right." "No excretions, no waste, amazing." "What effect does radiation have?" "Computer, check all irradiated samples." "My god, it eats it up." "Nuking Andromeda is not gonna kill it." "It'll make it grow exponentially." "Give me general Mancheck." "This is a code red emergency." "Entering release zone." "Dewitt." "Urgent message from Stone." "Get the president to shut down that launch." "Mr. President, message from Wildfire." "We have to abort." "Hold fire." "30 seconds to target." "Mr. President." "Dr. Stone, what do you mean, abort?" "Andromeda eats radiation." "If you nuke it, you won't kill it." "You will grow it." "Northcom." "General Blair, this is president Scott." "I am ordering you to abort the mission immediately." "Stand down, Alpha One." "Do not launch." "I say again, cancel sequence and return to base." "Roger that, northcom." "This is Alpha One." "I am shutting down the launch sequence." "Confirming." "Missile is disarmed." "Oh, thank goodness." "Wow, that was close." "Northcom, I am having some kind of mechanical problem here." "Northcom, this aircraft is not responding." "Northcom, please come in." "I cannot control this craft." "Oh, my-- there went the visor." "Northcom, my visor is disintegrating." "The" "I can't-I can't breathe." "I can't breathe." "I can't get air." "I" " I'm losing control here, sir." "I cannot get any air." "I need" "Northcom, please come" "The missile is rearmed!" "It's disintegrating!" "Its almost falling apart!" "I have to bail out!" "What the hell?" "What the hell?" "What in the hell was that?" "Mancheck, why did you drop the bomb?" "Well, there must have been some kind of malfunction!" "General Michaelson, are your troops all right?" "A little shook up, sir, but I think we'll be okay." "I'm sending patrols out to the outlying posts within minutes." "Mr. President, seismic stations are picking this up all over the world." "We need to decide how we're going to respond." "Tell 'em the truth." "Tell 'em we lost a plane for some... yet unknown mechanical reasons." "Agnogenic systems failure, sir." "Somehow the tactical payload went off." "Schedule a news conference." "There'll be no way to claim that the questions this raises are motivated by political partisanship." "And I want to know what happened out there." "You know as well as I do that nuclear arms have numerous fail-safe systems." " That bomb did not go off accidentally!" " We canceled the drop." "You heard it." " You're lying!" " Knock it off, Stone." " Can I see the pilot's last transmission?" " Okay." "It's - it's almost disintegrating!" "It's just falling apart!" "The missile is rearmed!" "Aah!" "Now what would destroy plastic resin compounds like that?" "Certain chemical agents under certain conditions can destabilize the chemical structure of polymers." "So could certain microorganisms." " It's mutating." " Yeah, but the plane had to by flying at least several thousand feet." "It's always been an airborne pathogen, albeit of a very short life span." "Maybe this is a new, hardier version." "But it was miles away." "But there was a fire, remember?" "And maybe this variant, either as a separate mutation or residing in a living host" " Insect, bird - rose on that column of smoke and made contact with the jet." "No, no." "That is- that is too difficult to believe." "Does anyone have a better theory?" "Does anyone even have a different theory?" "Recon reports eight casualties at a forward observation post, but these were not caused by the blast." "These attacks may very well be connected to the attacks on our headquarters." "Speaking off the record, it would be a lot easier for me to do my job if I knew what we were up against." "It's some kind of virulent biological infection." "As far as we know, it may be a prelude to a much larger attack." "Get me wildfire." "The event in the diner we can explain as a lapse in quarantine." "Your smoke theory might explain how it reached that jet, but this dead army unit was 50 miles away from Piedmont." "It must have adapted and found transportation in a host." "Like influenza, jumping back and forth between animal and human populations." "How do I quarantine that?" "You have to scorch the perimeter, and drive everything living inside the area." "The rate of mutation is likely to increase post-blast." "We have to be prepared for anything." "The entire area is under satellite surveillance." "If something new happens out there -anything- we'll see it." "What do you need, Stone?" "Tell me what you need to kill this thing, and I'll get it." "I'm not Stonewalling anyone, I assure you." "I simply think it is better that you wait for the president himself to answer all of your questions... from Mancheck" "Andromeda's mutation rate is increasing." "There's a very real chance that we won't be able to contain it." " Get "Air Force One" ready." " I don't think" "You heard me." "And now, ladies and gentlemen," "The president of the United States." "Sorry to keep you waiting." "Two hours ago, one of our Air Force jets suffered a fatal systems failure, and crashed in a remote part of Utah." "In the process, a tactical nuclear device was accidentally detonated." " Mr. President." " Yes." "Was this blast near those Utah national guardsmen, and are the surrounding cities in any immediate danger?" "Yes, the guardsmen were there in the area on a training exercise related to border security." "The area was already under strict quarantine, so they were no way endangered by the blast." " Yes, Katherine." " What about radioactive fallout, and why were those guardsmen deployed there to begin with?" "Yes, we're taking steps to contain it." "I would like to assure the American public that they're safety in no way has been compromised by this." "Bad time, Charlie." "Chuck, listen." "I got a reporter" "Jack Nash- disappeared while covering the deployment of the Utah national guard." "So what am I, missing persons?" "Come on, Charlie, contact the local authorities." "I did." "They've given me the runaround, and I happen to know that that deployment order" " came out of your office." " Says who?" "Nash was present for that terrorist attack on guard headquarters." "What attack?" "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Really?" "Take a look." " Okay." " Come on, Chuck." "I haven't heard from Nash since he sent me those photos." "Now you want me to just run with this and ask my questions on camera about a satellite going down, and that a bio-defense team sent in by General Mancheck to collect it are all dead?" "Okay, look." "I, uh..." "I'm gonna check into this, Charlie, and I will get back to you." " Are you all right?" " No." "And this bomb blast has got everyone freaking." "Aunt Alice is a mess." "You know, people are saying it's- it's just an attack by terrorists and the government's lying about it." "It's-it's not." " How would you know that?" " I just" " I just know, is all." "Yeah, right." "The great Know-It-All, that's you." " I gotta go." " Lance." "Lance.." "the president is taking a serious pounding over this." "He's announced that he is traveling to Utah to personally oversee the situation." "So I understand." "And Henderson at NNT is all up in arms over Nash, who apparently showed up at that national guard headquarters in the desert." "I prefer not to be embarrassed by information like that." "Nash is in confinement now." "I'm on my way there." "Good." "I need to know how much information Nash has and who he's shared it with." "I also need to feel confident that he is going to shut up." "Do you think you can handle that?" "How's Mancheck holding up?" "I would say he's under a lot of stress right now." "We're going to take casualties on this, and Mancheck may have to be one, but that doesn't necessarily apply to his staff, especially those who show boldness and initiative as we tie up these loose ends." "You can rely on me." "What do you know about wormholes?" " What do I look like, a physicist?" " Try your best." "All I know is that speculation centers around two basic types:" "Lorentzian and Euclidean." "Both are, in theory, potentially traversable." "That's all you know?" "So a method of travel from one part of the universe to the other." "Yeah, and through time." "It's like a worm eating its way through an apple instead of around it." "Don't tell me you actually believe Mancheck's story." "It's too fantastic to be a lie." "Attagirl." "The North Koreans have announced they're abandoning the Seoul agreement and reopening their nuclear program because of our recent unauthorized" " and illegal nuclear testing." " Well, contact Pyongyang." "Send him satellite photos of the crash sequence along with our assurance as a compliance, okay, Pat?" " What?" " We've also had word from the U.N." "that the general assembly is going to pass a measure that will ban all vent mining unless and until member countries are satisfied with a revenue sharing system." "There's also a rumor at the U.N." " that the blast in Utah was staged..." " Oh." "as a deliberate distraction" " from the vent mining controversy." " Oh..." "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" "Computer, Dr. Stone examining the tenth series of exposures of potential inhibiting agents to Andromeda." "None of the major classes of antifungals or antimicrobials have the least effect." "Run all known bacteriophages." "Commencing exposure of Andromeda to multiple strains of bacteria." "All tests are negative." "Damn it." "Everything dies." "What kills you?" "What?" "Shit." " Stupid, stupid." " What?" "We were in such a hurry, we forgot to pull the autopsy of the test rats." "We just assumed that the coagulation in the body was the killer." "Whereas a blood clot in the brain... would be both lethal and would explain some of the weird and violent behavior in some of the victims." "We started picking this up ten minutes ago." "The color indicates large amounts of dead and/or decaying animal matter, but a closer look reveals a massive bird die-off just outside the blast zone, which is not explicable by either the detonation or the fallout." "Is this another mutation?" "I've" "I've never seen anything adapt this quickly before." "Andromeda's movement into the aviary population gives it an incredibly efficient mode of transport." "Chlorazine?" "Knocks down anything that flies." "You have to keep it contained." "What the hell did you guys set off out there?" "Was that part of Project Scoop?" "What is Project Scoop?" "Well, I suspect you know more about that than I do." " I know you asked Lisa Stone about it." " Oh, really?" " And how do you know that, Colonel Ferrus?" " Well, she told us." "Lisa told- Yeah, I find that highly unlikely." "What'd you do, wiretap her phone, Colonel?" "Was it a legal wiretap?" "I'll be asking the questions here, understood?" "That's a military district of D.C. patch you're wearing." "Who you working for exactly?" "You are aware that you have knowingly violated a quarantined area and trespassed on a military base?" "Release me immediately, or I'll have my lawyer all over this." "Oh, I don't have to let you speak to a lawyer." "I don't even have to acknowledge that you are in our custody." "Under the homeland security act, you can be held here indefinitely as a terrorist threat." "Listen to me, you tin-pot fascist," "I'm not some hapless middle eastern exchange student with an out-of-date visa." "I'm an American citizen with a very public profile." "You screw with me, and you're gonna have to answer" " some really unpleasant questions." " What you are is an addict" " Some really unpleasant questions." " What you are is an addict with an inflated sense of self-importance who has screwed up in a major way." "Now I want you to tell me everything you know about Project Scoop and who you've shared the information with." "If you guys are out to stop this plague, what are you doing packing biological collection equipment?" "Actually, you know, I prefer it this way." "You can't hide this, Ferrus!" "Whatever the hell it is, you can't hide it!" "The prisoner's personal belongings." "They'll need 'em as evidence in Salt Lake City." "That's not mine." "That's not mine!" "That's not my bag!" "You are the chief medical officer for the Utah highway patrol?" "I am." "What can I do for you this fine day?" "I need some medical information on Sheriff Willis, who shot three people and then himself at a diner in Brush Ridge." " I really need it right away." " Uh, well, I'm sorry." "I'd love to help you out, but our medical information is confidential." "This is a matter of public safety." " Uh, well, sweetie, that may be, but" " Dr. Smithson," "I'm gonna give you a direct line to General George Mancheck at the pentagon, and I suggest you call him and jerk him around, in which case you might find yourself blindfolded and taped to a stretcher in a military stockade." "Where did you say you were calling from?" "Sherriff Willis must have been exposed driving through Piedmont Sunday night." "Later, he shows up at the diner." "He was diabetic, inconsistent with his insulin use." "He'd had two incidences of ketoacidosis in the last year." "Well, did the acidosis somehow delay the onset of the Andromeda infection?" "Most die immediately with exposure." "Those that don't, exhibit violent behavior within minutes." "Willis lasted a longer time, while Tobler and the Ritter baby" "Continued to remain symptom-free." "Why?" "Well, these are the temple lobe samples from our lab rats." "Note the enormous amounts of Andromeda." "Coagulation starts immediately, and death usually follows with congestion in the lungs." "If coagulation is inhibited, then Andromeda moves to the brain, creating a hemorrhage, provoking violent behavior." "But that doesn't explain why diabetic Willis lasted for hours with Andromeda and an alcoholic man and a colicky baby continue to remain uninjured." "What do they have in common?" "Hey!" "Oh!" "Hey, what's going on back there?" "Mayday." "This is warrior two." "We're blowin' smoke here." "Mayday." "This is warrior two." "I'm settin' her down." "We have zero visibility." "Stop!" "Stop, or I'll shoot!" "Let's move two more companies into sectors nine." "Sir." "We've got a helo down just outside the quarantine area." " Survivors?" " Negative." "We're unable to raise anybody on-site." " Get a team in there right away." " Yes, sir." " Get me General Mancheck." " Sir." "I've never seen a cellular structure like that." "Take a look at the Fourier electron density scans." "It's uneven." "That doesn't make any sense, unless this group of organisms was" "Part of a larger group." "Right." "So is Andromeda self-sustaining like a bacterium, or is part of a larger unit, like a- Like an organ?" "Messenger theory." "What is messenger theory?" "It's a theory in astrobiology that's been kicking around for years space travel is long and arduous." "Instead of tacking a gold plate with pictures onto a satellite like we did with voyager, maybe a more efficient way of sending a message is in a seedlike culture of bacterium or viruses." "You're saying Andromeda is a signal created by an intelligent species and then sent across the universe?" "Or perhaps through the wormhole." "Well, I don't know about that." "Well, what if Andromeda is like a human stem cell- it has the capability to change itself into many different components depending on what it's encountering or what it's ultimately designed for?" "Okay, as long as we're playing "what if,"" "maybe it's not the message, maybe it's the messenger." "I mean, we all assume that alien life is large, singular and complex, but what if it was a colony?" "You're missing the point." "Whether Andromeda is the newspaper or it's the delivery boy who is dropping it off," "The message is loud and clear" ""Drop dead."" "We've got a problem." "Nash has disappeared again." "We don't have a problem, Colonel." "You have a problem." "If Nash gets to his editor, he'll put two and two together." "Yeah." "Well, he's got no water" "I want you to find him." "I want you to make him disappear." "Yes, sir." "I miss you bad, babe." "The bed's cold, and the house is two sizes too big." "Oh, you sweet thing." "How are the kids?" "Tired of daddy's cooking." "You cook now?" "Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures." "You know that." "Mm, desperate, huh?" "So... tell me how desperate you are in great detail." "Do you believe in time travel?" "Sure, as much as I believe in Santa Claus and the easter bunny," "Which is to say, I love the idea, but I'm dubious about the reality." "But I'm all for it." "For someone like me who's always running late, it would be a godsend." "According to Chou, a Lorentzian wormhole is theoretically traversable, not only in terms of distance, but in time." "Andromeda comes from the past?" "The future?" "Well, the sophistication of the technology involved in the black material would argue for the future." "Why would you threaten your own past like that?" "I don't know." "It would be nice, though, wouldn't it, to be able to go back, change things?" "I" " I think a linear time frame is a key part of what it means to be human." "If our really important choices could be sampled like a box of chocolates, then our decisions would lose their meaning." "What would be at stake?" "Everything good at home?" "Oh, yeah." "How about you?" "You got a girlfriend back home tying ribbons around oak trees?" "No ball and chain for me." "Can't get a date, huh?" "If you don't ask, I won't tell." "I always thought that was a stupid ass policy." "You know, it's ironic that the army's extensive battery of psychological tests has conclusively determined that the person they're most afraid of is the best suited to make the right choice in this crisis." "So what are we looking at?" "Andromeda's chemical composition." "It's weird." "It's not carbon based." "It's sulfur based." "Sulfur?" "Damn." "You're a long way from home, little bug." "I owe you an apology." "Stanford." "I was a big girl, Jeremy." "I'm sure it wasn't the first time" "That a researcher and his associate became involved." "Well, it was for me." "Look." "I realize that's not popular opinion, but it's the truth, and if I really had the courage of my convictions, instead of breaking it off with you, I..." "I would have left Lisa instead." "The truth is," "I haven't ever really stopped thinking about you." "Dr. Stone, Tsi here." "I found something." "You're, like, I don't-I don't know," ""Clan of the Bear Cave" or something." "Cave bear." "Daryl Hannah is so hot, but no." ""Quest for Fire."" " Rae Dawn Chong" " Very hot." " "Iceman."" " Cold." "Ohh!" "I know, I know!" ""One million Years B.C."" "Raquel Welch is smoking, though." "Oh, screw you." "Another clue?" "Sparta!" "Spartan women are so hot." "We should go." "I gotta go." "Ow!" "Holy..." ""Night of the Living Dead"?" ""28 Days Later"?" ""Planet Terror"?" ""Pet Sematary"?" "I mean" "They're-they're not classic zombies." "I mean, they come- they're dead, they come back, but not classic in, like, the traditional sense." "Gordo, that's not funny!" "Gordo, what's wrong with you?" "Ohh!" "Here at the molecular level, the black material is composed of octahedral beads." "Buckyballs." "Exactly, but notice a slight variation in color." "Each molecule has 60 carbon atoms, but some are bonded with potassium, while others are bonded with rubidium," " giving us this slight color variation." " And why is that?" "Why, indeed?" "The differences between potassium and rubidium are negligible - neither offers any advantage in strength or conductivity, so the question is, why would the designer of this material use two different elements?" "It seems like an extraordinary amount of work to go to for no apparent good reason." "That's what I think." "Dr. Stone, system reports completion of assigned series." "We have a single positive encounter." "I was taking a shot in the dark for potential Andromeda inhibitors, but nothing seemed to work - apparently until now." "Let's see what we got." "This is x234." "Computer, show test." "My god, it's working." "What is that?" "It's an experimental bacteriophage." "Computer, retest another sample of Andromeda and display result." " Was the first time an anomaly?" " You saw the recording." "Then Andromeda adapted to the threat?" "Tsi, this is a completely different sample of Andromeda." "How is that possible?" "Well, you have yourself a great time in California, okay?" "And you be careful." "If the pollsters are right, you're gonna be in more danger than me." "And you, young lady, you be a big girl" " and take care of your mommy for me." " Okay." "Okay?" "Give me a kiss." "Welcome, Mr. President." "I apologize." "Our accommodations are somewhat spartan." "General, I'm not here on vacation." "Bring me up to speed." "Andromeda has mutated again and is now in the bird population." "We're killing everything in the quarantined area." "The national guard reports, uh, nine killed in action, probably related to Andromeda infection, and the loss of one helicopter and its crew due to mechanical failure." "We've also had an event outside the quarantine zone" " That looks like Andromeda." " How'd it get out there?" " We're not sure." " I thought we had this thing boxed in." "So now Andromeda communicates?" " How else do you explain it?" " Contamination." "It wouldn't be the first time the great Stone has made a mistake." "I was there when he reran the tests - the same results." "Time-out." "How about everybody take a breath, okay?" "What have we got here, potentially?" "An alien creature that can be broken into multiple parts separated by space, but somehow connected." "One part's still able to learn from the others." "How might that work?" "Maybe... some property of light, harmonics or, uh, radiation serves as a neural network." "It has a crystal-like structure." "Crystals vibrate. they also receive and bend light." " Maybe" " Maybe Andromeda created a subtle energy field- a harmonic field which links up its disparate parts." "So we haven't just got the killer bug of all time." "We have a bug that communicates with itself over distance." "And learns from experience and adapts quickly." "Remember, Andromeda was initially lethal only to humans." "Then we isolated it- thought we isolated it." "But by that time, it had already mutated and was jumping in and out of animal populations and spreading." "Then we made the mistake of trying to bomb it." "Then the third mutation- a resin-eating variant destroyed the airplane." "Now there's a fourth mutation affecting birds, which allows Andromeda to spread further and faster than before." "The president has joined us here at northcom." "Mr. President." "Hello, Dr. Stone." "Please continue." "Uh, we are just discussing the possibility that Andromeda somehow may be capable of communicating with its disparate parts." "There is by no means a consensus on this idea, Mr. President." "General Mancheck, does- does Andromeda appear to be spreading out unilaterally or moving in one particular direction?" "It's most concentrated in an area just to the north of the blast zone and appears to be moving in a northwesterly direction." "That's the direction of the storm front, yes?" "Yes, the same." "Andromeda is being driven by natural forces." "That is completely logical." "General, what prominent features - geographic or man-made would Andromeda encounter next?" "The Henry river." "The Henry river flows into the Colorado river." "Millions of miles of watershed, connecting waterways, rivers, irrigation ditches." "Including Lake Mead, which puts it within striking distance" " of Las Vegas." " How many flights a day out of vegas?" "Hundreds." "One international flight, and Andromeda's worldwide." "I'll expand the quarantine zone, order an evacuation." "And shut down all airports in the Vegas region." "This could be our only chance to contain it." "All right, go up." "Come back, good." "Keep going." "Keep going." "All right, hold it." "Guards, move out!" " You okay, baby?" " I'm fine." "I just felt bad 'cause I forgot to ask you about your mother." " How's she doing?" " Mama?" "What" "Uh, yeah." "She's, uh, she's all right I guess, you know." "Same ol', same ol'." "Mm-Hmm." "Well, maybe you're right." "Maybe you should go see her." "Take the kids." "She'd love that." "Now be sure to give her my love." "What's goin' on, Charlene?" "Nothin'." "Just bein' silly is all." "I gotta go now." "I got work to do." "I love you, baby." "I love you." "Get out of there, Adrian." "We gotta go." "No... no!" "Accidents are the number one cause of death of people under 40." "Worse than heart attacks or cancer." "It's the little things, you know, the small stuff that people overlook." " It's gonna kill you every time." " Oh, stop scaring her, Annie." " Is that sterno?" " A little hair of the dog." "It's poisonous." "And illegal." "So is homicide." "My head hurt." "Take an aspirin next time." "Drinking sterno will kill you." "If you're so smart, how come I'm still alive and everyone else is dead?" "Now who's trying to scare her?" "Look." "Don't get me wrong." "I'd just as soon have a big bowl of chili with a cold beer and a cigarette, but choosers can't be beggars." "Beggars can't be choosers." "See?" "There's nothing wrong with your hearing." "You just don't listen so good." "Have an ulcer." "Ruby red." "I can't eat grapefruit." "It messes with my blood sugar." "You just don't listen so good." "So what does a drunk who self-medicates with sterno and aspirin have in common with a baby?" "I could not make sense of it until I learned that sheriff Willis was diabetic and often suffered from acidosis." "And Tobler suffered acidosis" " from all the aspirin he was taking." " Mm-hmm." "But it's not like the baby was knocking back handfuls of acetylsalicylic acid." "No, but Tobler said she was always crying." "She was colicky." "If Sylvie breathed rapidly long enough, carbon dioxide would build up in her system and she would become acidotic." "So you're saying they survived Andromeda because they have the same level of stomach acid." "That's brilliant." "Mr. Henderson, I am very sorry to inform you that while Jack Nash was being evacuated from guard headquarters, the helicopter he was in suffered mechanical failure and went down." " Jack's dead?" " I'm afraid so, sir." "I'm having a hard time locating the next of kin." "Did Mr. Nash have family or friends?" "Where are you calling from?" "I'm gonna have to ask you again, sir." "Did jack Nash have family or friends?" "What's your name?" "Where are you calling from?" "No, my friends, not today." "Dinner is most definitely not served!" "Okay, um..." "I don't know how this works exactly, but, uh..." "I'm sorry." "I'll do better." "Uh, I'll-I'll be nice to people." "Please save my ass." "Amen." "Okay, how about this?" "I'll never do drugs again " "Ever." "I swear." "No drugs, no booze, no cigarette" "No drugs, no booze- How about that?" "Yeah, same to you, pal." "I take it back." "Okay, I take it back." "Okay." "We've got a vulnerability." "Andromeda can only exist within a very narrow range of acidity and alkalinity." "It pretty much falls within the parameters of human tolerance - 7.5-7.0." "So anything we hit Andromeda with which is acidic or basic enough to kill it might also be lethal to humans." "And to make matters worse, if our test results are correct, whatever we attack with," "Andromeda will eventually adjust." "We'd have to hit every bit of the infection virtually simultaneously to prevent its adaptation." "Yeah." "And disrupt its communicative abilities at the same time." "You know, if you set out to deliberately exterminate mankind, you couldn't do better than Andromeda." "Hello?" " Get back!" "I mean it." " Okay." " What do you want?" " Well, first of all," "I want a glass of water the size of a chevy, but, uh, then I really need to make a phone call." "Do-do you have a cell phone?" "What happened to you?" "Name's Jack Nash." "I'm a reporter with NNT." "You probably know my face." " I just watch Colbert." " Right." ""South park," sometimes." "Look." "There was a helicopter crash." "I'm the only survivor." "I have some important information I need to deliver, and I really, really need to make a phone call, and" " Need some help with the tire?" "Honestly, isn't that getting a little heavy?" "How long before this Santa Anna condition reaches the infected area, and then how long after that until it gets to Los Angeles?" "At the rate that it's moving, it'll be at the edge of the quarantine zone in 24 hours, which puts it about 200 miles from Los Angeles." "Should we evacuate L.A. ?" "Evacuate to where, Ed?" "Can you imagine what it would be like if we actually asked the entire Los Angeles basin to leave?" "Why should the United States distract them?" "Like the California gold rush, we are looking at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here..." "Mr. president, we have a developing situation in the mid-Atlantic." "The extremely radical environmental group" "Ocean Saviors- has mounted an armed assault against our vent mining platform." "This came on their web site just moments ago." "At 5:47 this afternoon, an Ocean Savior assault team seized control of vent mining platform number one." "During the course of this action, one of our brothers has died." "We were driven to this course by the self-serving greedy policies of president Scott and his cabal of industrial apologists." "Ocean Savior says no to vent mining." "Ocean Savior says no to the rape of the ocean." "We have taken hostages, and we've now wired the platform with explosives." "Any attempt to interfere with us will result in the most serious consequences." "We will provide a list of our demands in our next communique." "the Navy has two frigates and a submarine in the vicinity, plus a team of Navy seals." "Let's see what they want first." "Enough people have died today." "Besides, if we don't stop Andromeda, it's not gonna much matter anyway, will it?" "That thing that Bill was saying about disrupting Andromeda's communicative abilities" "It got me thinking about messenger theory again." "The idea that Andromeda might be a coded message from the future." "You think its lethal qualities are accidental, not intentional?" "No, no." "I agree that Andromeda was designed to kill humans." "Now I realize this is highly speculative, but maybe the message, if there is one, is in the casing." "Maybe it is the casing." "Hmm." "Now each molecule of the black material is cemented by one of two bonding agents- uh, potassium or rubidium." "They serve no structural purpose, and alternate in a seemingly random manner." "Why go to such trouble?" "Is it random- two agents?" "Why not three or four?" "Because it's binary." "It's a binary code." "Each sequence is approximately 200 molecules long, but if you look, there's a pattern within the larger pattern." "Eight." "Patterns of eight." "In a typical binary computer code, each 8-bit sequence would stand for a letter." "Computer, treat molecular sequence as binary code, and search for key." "Why would our enemies send us a message?" "Well, maybe they didn't." "Maybe somebody else did." "Okay, I know this is going to sound fantastic, but let's say that Mancheck wasn't lying about the wormhole, and that, in fact, it was the source of Andromeda- wormholes as we understand them are a theoretical connections" "between distance and time, right?" "What if Andromeda was sent to us by our future?" "Okay, I think somebody's been working too hard and drinking way too much coffee." "Why send something back that could destroy your own past?" "It would be a move of absolute desperation." "A wake-up call, a cry for help." " They couldn't beat Andromeda." " And we can?" "Come on, future technology must be superior to ours." "All right, maybe it's not about technology." "Maybe they lack something that we have" "That-that we still have." "Something to do with ph." "Resources- natural resources." "Something we used up or destroyed" "Some fossil fuels or some species of plant or animal life in the rain forest." "And the answer is... okay, if I'm sending a message back to some lab-coated geek in the past, I'd keep it simple." "I'd use the basic American computer code for documents, and the Roman alphabet." "ASCII." "Computer, approach pattern as ASCII code and translate." "What the hell is bacillus infernus?" "Bacterium from hell." "What's that number?" "I did some work on this once." "It-it's an extremely rare member of the archaea genus, found only one place on the planet" "At the bottom of the sea, nearly 3 kilometers deep, next to thermal vents." "The bacterium thrive under the most extreme conditions imaginable, including very acidic ph." "It practices chemosynthesis to survive." "In fact, its main food source is the sulfur-based effluent from the vents themselves." "The chemical composition of Andromeda is based on sulfur." "I bet infernus looks at Andromeda the same way a pit bull would look at a big, juicy steak." "The plan to mine those vents of their mineral deposits is gonna be very destructive." "It-it's a kind of underwater strip-mining." "Maybe that's why they needed to send a message from the future." "The bacteria no longer exist there, because we destroyed it." "We've set plenty of precedent for this kind of weapon." "We spray both mosquitoes and gypsy moths with lethal bacterium." "What about Andromeda's ability to mutate?" "That's the beauty of this line of attack." "Andromeda can't change its basic atomic composition, which is sulfur based." " You can run, but you can't hide." " All right." "Does this bacterium have any adverse effect on humans?" "Nothing we could find." "So we spray infernus in the air, in the water" "Wherever Andromeda is, and the bacteria consume it." "Hold on now." "We're getting ahead of ourselves." "It makes really good theoretical sense, but we have to test it out." "Oh, this is horseshit!" "I gotta go with Chuck on this, sir." "I mean, it's just too fantastic." "All right." "Dr. Stone, look." "I'm finding all this a little difficult to accept." "Andromeda is a biological assault- possibly a precursor to an invasion, but of the future?" "And it was sent to us by them for our help because of this bacteria?" "Mr. President, I-I recognize how crazy it sounds, but it explains everything we know about Andromeda." "They sent it back, safely contained" "Within the black material we found." "They could not have anticipated its interception by the Scoop satellite or its subsequent release in Piedmont." "This is purely speculative." "There's nothing real here, sir." "How do you explain the binary code then-coincidence?" "It's a redundancy system- standard operating procedure in aeronautics." "Everything Nasa builds is done that way." "They coded the solution to Andromeda within the molecular structure of the container." "If you analyze all the data and the only explanation that works is the improbable, then the improbable must be true." " Oh, what is that" " Confucius?" " Okay, gentlemen, gentlemen..." " Sherlock holmes." " Now, Dr. Stone," "This string of numbers that came with the message and the nonsense that followed it - what do you make of that?" "The computer hasn't been able to make any sense of the number 739528, but it's continuing to work at it." "I" " I know that's not very helpful, sir." "Well, you don't do well in my line of work unless you're willing to roll the dice once or twice." "Well, if they want my head, they can have it later." " What do you need, Dr. Stone?" " Samples of the bacterium, sir." "We need to test it's lethality on Andromeda." "The lab I worked with at U.C.L.A. still has samples." "I'll have it sent out to wildfire right away." "I'll also have our biological dispersal equipment standing by the minute you give the word." "And, Dr. Stone, if this doesn't work, what's your plan "B"?" "There is no other plan, Mr. President." "That is it." "All we can do now is work like hell to get operational and hope that Andromeda doesn't pull yet another adaptation out of the bag." "Hey, look at that!" "What the?" "Hey, they're comin' right at us!" "What the- Aah, get off me!" "Aah!" "Oh, my god!" "Aah, aah!" "You think Stone's bacterium is the solution?" " Well, he seems to think so." " That's not what I asked you." " That's my answer." " I need something done." " What?" " Find out where Dr. Barton's family is." "Flight 82 to Honolulu is now boarding at Gate Five." "Mr. Barton, will you come with me, please?" "Mr. Barton, you and I need to have a conversation about your wife." "We lost contact with one of our units near the Henry river a half-hour ago." "Predator overflight reveals no survivors." "I think we have to assume that quarantine has been breached." "Extend the ground patrols in that area and increase overflights." "Keep me posted as you make progress." "I can cut short your wife's trip the minute you give word." "We can have her on a plane and out of danger in under an hour." "What about all the other wives and daughters in Los Angeles, Pat?" " What are you gonna do for them?" " Well, I just thought" "Go on, leave me alone." "Go on, get outta here!" "Okay, we're introducing a very modest amount of infernus to Andromeda." "Look at it go." "Yes!" "2.3 seconds." "So we have a weapon." "How much of this bug do we need to grow to make a difference?" "Welcome to the nursery." "Biological breeder vessels." "State of the art." "Well, let's crank 'em up." "Andromeda is now definitely in the watershed of the Henry river, and it's moving downstream." "The color blooms there- massive aquatic die-offs." " Evacuate the entire Lake Powell area." " Yes, sir." "It works." "The bacterium works." "Excellent work, Dr. Stone." "We've started production and should have usable quantities within ten hours." "Ten hours is cutting it damn close." "How so?" "Andromeda had developed another mutation that attacks aquatic life, and it's gotten into the watershed of the Colorado river." "At the rate it's moving, it should be in Lake Powell within 10, 11 hours." " And the storm?" " It continues to pick up speed." "Let me know the minute you're ready." "Priority call for Dr. Barton." "Charlene, honey." " Sam?" " The kids all right?" "Did you- did you get to your mom's?" "Something came up." "There's somebody who wants to talk to you, Charlene, and I want you to listen to him, baby, okay?" "Okay." "Dr. Barton, in the interest of your family's safety," "I suggest you listen to me very carefully." "Computer, assemble the team in the conference room." "Hey, you okay?" "I'm fine." "We have all come to accept the possibility that it was a mutation of Andromeda that brought down that jet, but there is something that's always bothered me" "The jet had been recalled, its mission aborted, and then Andromeda attacked it." "I think we might be underestimating Andromeda." "Yes, we've discussed its phenomenal rate of mutation," "We've-we've considered the possibility that it can communicate among its physically separated parts, but what if it knowingly crashed the jet in order to set off the onboard nuclear device and accelerate its own growth?" "You're saying it thinks?" "I'm saying we have to consider the possibility and act accordingly." "We could dose it now." "We probably have enough bacteria to hit the hot spots." "No, I don't want to risk missing some portion of Andromeda, enabling it to regroup." "When we strike, it has to be devastating, and to be safe," "I think we need to destroy every last sample of Andromeda in the lab right now." "You think Andromeda knows or could know what we're trying to do here?" "I don't think we can take that chance." "I'm gonna go check the breeder vessels." "Do you think the bacterium will work?" "What?" "Do you think the bacterium will work?" "Uh, what else have we got?" "I mean, they were damn clever," "Andromeda's creators." "It's a-it's a brilliantly lethal construct, but we're-we're a resilient species." "Think of the imagination those scientists had to figure out what they needed and send for it in the past." "You know what's truly ironic is that what may end up saving mankind at the pinnacle of creation is this very simple primitive bacterium from the slime on the bottom of the ocean, the creature that we were prepared to obliterate" "with- without a moment's thought." "There's a profound lesson in humility there, I think." "Not usually your strong suit." "I'm workin' on it." "Yeah." "Jeremy, come to the conference room." "It's urgent." "What is it?" "It's not numbers or letters." "It's an image, a design of some kind." "That's why it took so long to process." "What is that?" "I've never seen anything like it." "It's not scientific." "Religious, maybe?" "I don't know." "Let's go!" "Clear the line." "Clear the line." "Let's get up!" "Saddle up, boys." "We're good to go, lieutenant!" "That weather system is picking up speed, sir." "If this doesn't work," "Andromeda will hit Los Angeles in less than five hours." "Also, our, uh, strike teams are in position near the mining platform waiting for your word to go in, sir." "Is there anything you'd like me to do?" "Are you a religious man, Chuck?" "Sir?" "I don't mean every four years." "I mean" "I mean, do you have faith?" "Yes, sir." "Well, then you can pray." "Hey." "Howdy." "Oh." "Nice." "Yeah, it's real pretty, but, uh, mind if I try your cell phone again?" "Don't you ever just relax?" "No." "I don't really." "I should." "Go ahead, but the reception's not gonna be any better than it was last night." "Well, my luck's changing." "I can feel it." "I see two people- one male, one female." "Breakfast." "I really would like to," "But, um, I can't." "I made a promise." "I know that sounds lame, but there it is." "Jack, what's going on out there?" "Time to go." "Why was he shooting at us?" "Not us, me." "They're shooting at me." "Jeremy, we have got a lot of product down here, and it's all screamin', "feed me."" "Urgent message for Dr. Stone." "Go for Dr. Stone." "Dr. Stone, we should have out helos to your facility within minutes." "You gonna be ready?" "Good to go." "That storm front's closing in fast." "We've got less than an hour." "Oh, terrific." "What?" "Must have hit a rock." "Do you carry any oil?" "No." "Maybe." "I don't know." "Why were they shooting at us?" "Because I know things, or they think I do." "That's why I need to make that call." "General, just wanted to say good luck." "You did a great job, doctor, you and your whole team." "You know, when this is over, I'm going to raise hell." "Not that you have any reason to believe me, but for what it's worth, you're preachin' to the converted." "Although, if this doesn't work, what you and I think isn't gonna make a damn bit of difference." "Can we go faster?" "We're losing too much oil." "We have to dump this thing." "Do you have any kind of a weapon in here  a gun, a knife, a slingshot?" " No." "Check the glove box." "A can opener?" "Great." "We'll buy 'em a beer." "Ten minutes to the area of infection." "All right, spread out and disperse." "Cover the entire surrounding area." "Cover it all." "Stand by." "This is it." "Let's kill this bastard." "Wildfire is infected." "Wildfire lab is now initiating lockdown procedures and beginning countdown to auto self-destruct." "What's happening?" "15 minutes and counting." "What the hell is that?" "There has been a breach in containment in the sample vault." "Computer, give me the sample vault." "What's going on, Charlene?" "What's happening?" "Charlene, we're on our way." "Tsi, what is it?" "Turn him on his side." " Is it Andromeda?" " No, it's a gran mal seizure." "Did you know he was epileptic?" "The fail-safe panel is ruined." "I can't shut down the self- destruct sequence from here." "Where's the next closest control panel?" "One level up." "But you can't use the elevators." "Every level is sealed off." " How do I get up there?" " You can't." "That's the point." "Hold him steady." "Hold him steady." "Computer, show all the mechanical conduits into the central maintenance shaft." "Break in and climb up." "That's a brilliant idea." "I'll check on Barton." "Charlene, what happened?" "I" "I need you to talk to me." "Talk to me or I can't help you." "I" " I-I don't- I don't" "I don't know." "There's a sample in one of the containment boxes." "Why didn't you destroy all of them?" "They've got Sam and my kids." "They wanted to save a sample, and then the seal started to disintegrate, and the alarm went off." "I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "All right, take-take it easy." "Slow down." "How are you feeling?" "How the hell do you think I feel?" "Wildfire lab will self-destruct in 11 minutes." "General, how do we shut down the auto-destruct sequence?" "Is there anything we can do?" "No, there's nothin' we can do, sir." "In the event of a security breach, the lab was set up to follow an automatic sequence of self-destruction." "Only the designated odd man can stop it." "Well, General, if that nuclear device explodes, then none of what you and your team are doin' right now will matter." "Andromeda will be spread over a huge area." "We will never be able to contain it." "Listen to me." "If you had been exposed to a lethal strain, you'd be dead by now." "Are you-are you symptomatic at all?" "I'm breathing rapidly." "Maybe that's what's keeping it at bay." "Get me the hell outta here!" "Charlene, you have to calm down, okay?" "I promise we'll get you out of there," "But you need to listen to Jeremy." "Forget about me." "I'll be fine." "Go shut it off." "Go." "You had a seizure." "Have you had them before?" "The lights." "That's bad." "The light set it off." "We have a breach of containment." "Charlene is trapped in the sample vault." "We have to fix the contamination." "You have to rest." "We fix it or we'll die." "Get out, Leila." "Run!" "What about you?" "Run!" "Just get the hell outta here." "Go!" "Shut the door!" "Shut the door!" "You're wasting your time." "I've already called this in." "The police will be on their way any minute." "Aah!" "Angela, follow up progress on the monitor." "Help us get to the next level." "Ten minutes and counting." "Jeremy, you okay?" "Not wild about heights." "Don't look down." "Stare straight ahead." "These joints are compromised." "And the pipes are deteriorating." "Ohh!" "Give me your hand." "Come on, Bill, you can make it." "Give me your hand." "Just reach out." "Give me your hand." "Then we're both gonna fall." "Just do it." "Give me your hand." "We need you." "Ahh!" "You need this!" "Oh." "Angela" " Angela, I have the key." "It won't do you any good." "The system will only recognize Keene's thumbprint." "Tsi, what are you doing?" "We're out of options." "Four minutes and counting." "Jeremy." "Ohh!" "Three minutes and counting." "I need your help, Angela." "I don't know where I'm going." "Angela, you copy me?" "Move 6 feet up" "And 3 feet to your right." "There's a - what looks to be a large heating/cooling conduit that might work." "I see it!" "Oh!" "Aah!" "I can't see." "Everything's falling apart." "Aah!" "Two minutes and counting." "Any word from the wildfire facility?" "Nothing, sir." "The self-destruct sequence is still activated." "Jeremy, are you okay?" "Which way?" "The panel is behind you, 15 feet." "It's right above you now." "A little higher." "Reach up with your right hand." "There." "One minute and counting." "A little bit to your left." "Find the slot." "Welcome, Dr. Keene." "To cancel auto destruct, please place your right thumb on the flashing button." "30 seconds and counting." "Jeremy." "All right." "20 seconds." "A little bit to your left." "Ten, nine, eight..." "Auto destruct canceled." "You have gotta be kidding me." "A signal." "Machine." "Charlie, it's Nash." "Listen." "Somebody brought bio-collecting equipment to the national guard headquarters." "I think they're trying to sample the contagion." "Look for a D.C. Colonel named Ferrus." "He's the link." "He also tried to kill me... twice." "And, uh, that's it." "Hey." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "Over here!" "Over here!" "Over here!" "Hey!" "No!" "Well, it's been that kind of day." "Let's go." "You okay?" "Yeah." "Didn't think sobriety was gonna be this painful." "Sorry about your car." "Are you kidding?" "That was amazing what you did." "Yeah, well..." "I have my moments." "That's it." "We got it!" "Whoo!" "We got it!" "Son of a bitch!" "today, America mourns the loss of two citizens who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country" "Dr. William Keene, U.S. Army, and Dr. Tsi Chou, a brilliant scientist who immigrated to this country in a much-celebrated case some ten years ago." "Standing to president Scott's right is Dr. Jeremy Stone who headed wildfire and his surviving teammates..." "Hey, there's dad." "Dr. Angela Noyce and Dr. Charlene Barton." "God, he looks terrible." "Only a few details are presently available from what remains a highly classified operation..." "Hero of the day." "Apparently, a leak developed in a small..." "He did good, okay?" "I mean, yeah, he's not perfect, but he deserves credit for what he did." "...in a remote area of southern Utah." "Fortunately, the leak was contained, although not without the loss of two key researchers." "The senate subcommittee chairman on homeland security is pledging a thorough investigation and already demanding details from the administration." "Seems a little dramatic, don't you think?" "Every bit of data confirms the same observation." "The Andromeda infection is dead." "Nothing survived your assault." "It's an extraordinary achievement, sir," "A real heroic victory." "You think that's how our part in all this is gonna be remembered, as heroes?" "Well, I think we might have made some mistakes, but we came through in the end." "Some mistakes." "I think the desire to assign blame in Project Scoop will be, uh, mitigated, as it always is, by the fear of public embarrassment at the highest levels of government." "We didn't just screw up, Colonel." "We very nearly lost everything," "And not just once- several times." "Why did you blackmail Dr. Barton to try and salvage a sample of Andromeda?" "I don't-I have no idea what you're talking about." "Well, maybe I should get on the phone to Chuck Beeter over at the N.S.A." "and ask him where that sample is." "I know what you sons of bitches did." "There needn't be any losers in this scenario, general." "Aside from the American people?" "Your kind of honor is a bit outdated, sir." "I'm not gonna fall on my sword for you or anybody else." "No." "I didn't think so." "What?" "Jesus!" "What the hell you doin'?" "Not with me here!" "Thank you, lord, for the honor and the privilege we have had to know these two extraordinary men..." "I had no idea about Project Scoop or any black-bag operations connected with it that may or may not have been running." "Well, you may not have known, but there were those in your administration that did." "It might be a good idea to tell the American people really what happened and permanently shut down the vent mining project." "I don't know what you think you have, but I don't see it that way." "Well, if you'll excuse me, mr." "President," "I have an interview to do." "I'm very sorry for your loss." "He was a brave man." "Yes." "Our technology and our science saved us in the end, yes, but it was our arrogant misuse of both that got us into this trouble in the first place." "Science is and always has been about the search for the truth, and that search can really only take place in the full light of day." "I think, um, I think one of the lessons learned here is that just because we have acquired a technological or scientific capability doesn't mean we should rush out to use it." "Would vent mining prove to be incredibly lucrative?" "Maybe, but considering what's just happened," "I think the question needs to be asked." "Would it be worth it?" "Would you care to speculate about the original source of the virus, and if Andromeda was a biological weapon, how do you think its creators would respond to what you've done?" "I have no idea." "We would seem to have been successful in the short run, but it's probably fair to say, whoever it is, we've gotten their attention." "What happens next is anybody's guess."