"So where are we?" "Where you from?" "San Diego." "Left yesterday." "So you came HonoIuIu-Guam-Pago-here?" "Long trip." "What do you do?" "I'm a psychologist." "Hey, a shrink." "They've called in everything else." "How do you mean?" "We've ferried people out of Guam for the Iast 2 days." "Physicists, biologists, mathematicians, you name it." "Everybody being flown to the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean." "What's going on?" "They're not telling us anything, sir." "What did they tell you?" "There was a plane crash." "Do you get called in on crashes?" "I'm on a list of psychologists the FAA brings in when a plane goes down." "So where exactly are we now?" "That's where we're headed." "Over there." "Here." "Take a look." "What is that?" "AII that for a plane crash?" "I never mentioned a plane crash." "Any other gear?" "Watch your step." "I'd Iike to call my family." "We'II get you settled in quarters first." "Remain there till we send for you." "I'd Iike to get started." "We'II send for you." "It's critical I see them" "Who?" "The survivors." "If I don't get to them in the first 24 hours" "What survivors?" "The survivors of the plane crash." "plane crash?" "I deal in post-traumatic stress and survival guilt." "Maybe I should talk to someone who knows what's going on here." "talk to the ship's psychiatrist." "I'm a psychologist." "That's why I was sent here." "I told you people I need a phone." "Discuss that with Mr. Barnes." "That's fine." "Give me a phone, I'II call him." "Why are you here?" "Take your hands off me, please." "Do you have any idea who I am?" "tell him the name of the book you wrote." "Astrophysics You Can Use." "It was a Book-of-the-Month club Main selection." "Never heard of it." "You really thought he read your book." "You haven't changed." "It was written for the layman." "He's not impressed." "Is there a phone in here?" "I've been trying to call my wife." "would you stop touching me?" "Wait a minute." "Beth?" "Flight quarters." "All units make your flight quarters condition one stations for landing." "Stay clear of the fantail" "Goodman, you been here long?" "I've been here 3 hours." "welcome aboard." "This thing scares the hell out of me." "It's already too late." "You might as well helicopter me back..." "... becausethedamageisdone  to the survivors already." "hold on." "We'II get to that." "I don't even know who you are." "I know who you are." "Who are you?" "Navy?" "military?" "What are you?" "You ever hear of the OSSA?" "They don't know who I am." "That should reassure you." "You haven't talked to anyone about this?" "I talked to the helicopter pilot." "What'd you tell him?" "I told him I was here to see the plane crash." "That's my job." "plane crash." "Good." "There was no plane crash." "Spacecraft." "A spacecraft." "I guess that explains a Iot." "NASA?" "That doesn't surprise you?" "At least it explains the secrecy." "The secrecy's critical, Norman." "You made that explicit in your report." "What report?" "ULF." "I wrote that for the Bush administration." "And that's our bible here." "But that was a report about a possible encounter with an alien being." "You want to come with me?" "Oh, boy." "About 3 weeks ago..." "... ashiplayingfiber-opticcable between honolulu and Sydney..." "... hitanobstruction 1 ,000 feet underwater." "Cut this cable here clean as a shears." "The Navy got interested, sent out a search ship." "It turned out that what did it..." "... wasthis." "We took this with side-Iooking sonar." "This is an aerodynamic fin longer than a football field..." "... biggerthananyknownwingspan." "This is the fuselage." "This is uItrahigh-res SLS bottom scan." "Came in a week ago." "There it is, buried under about 8 yards of coral." "Something's wrong with that measurement." "Pacific coral grows an inch a year." "You can set your watch by it." "That's right." "So you're saying this spacecraft crashed in the year... ." "1 709." "So you're saying this spacecraft crashed 300 years ago?" "288." "That's impossible." "It's not impossible if this spacecraft came from an alien civilization." "Wait a minute." "You think this is an alien spacecraft?" "It's not impossible." "It's ridiculous." "We think there's an Unknown Life Form on the spacecraft." "That's why you're here." "You are the contact team that was recommended in the Goodman Report." "We have a biochemist..." "... toassessthephysiology of the Unknown Life Form." "A mathematician, because that'II probably be our common language." "And we have an astrophysicist to locate its place in the cosmos." "Led by a psychologist." "Right." "Nowadays, the little green men say, "Take me to your therapist"?" "Listen up." ""Contact teams meeting an Unknown Life Form or ULF..." "... mustbeprepared for severe psychological impact." "Stress reaction of confronting such life has not been sufficiently studied..." "... andcannotbe  entirely predicted in advance." "But the most likely consequence of contact is..." "... absoluteterror."" "That's from Norman's report." "I'm sorry, are these parameters correct?" "You're saying that you have a spacecraft over a half a mile long..." "... thatcrashedintothe ocean300years  ago and it's completely intact?" "That's right." "And the kicker is, our sonar is picking up a Iow-IeveI hum." "Something's still running inside." "There's no way this coral could've grown faster than an inch a year?" "That's what we're going there to see." "What?" "Who says?" "Harry, that's a joke, right?" "This is the greatest scientific discovery since Copernicus." "Bigger!" "The idea that we're not alone, it'II change everything." "Evidence of extraterrestrial life." "You don't want to see that?" "I got to say that I resent this briefing very much." "And how's that?" "If Norman's report calls for a biologist, a mathematician..." "... anastrophysicist and a psychologist..." "... whyareyouhere?" "physical protocols start in a half an hour." "You always wear glasses?" "I just started wearing these." "Are the glasses a problem?" "I don't actually need them." "They're just for reading." "And they're more of a crutch." "I see fine without them." "But they didn't anticipate I'd be going 1 ,000 feet under the water." "Do you take prescription medication?" "No." "None at all?" "Once in a while sometimes I might take like a..." "... apieceof Xanax or something if I'm nervous." "Something like that." "But not..." "... much." "Knee surgery." "complete reconstruction of ACL, right knee." "still have steel pin here, steel pin here, little medial collateral damage." "I see that you have a scar on your neck." "Car accident." "Were you drinking?" "Yeah." "But I wasn't driving." "Wait, I just want to apologize for putting your name on the list." "Why?" "When I made the report a few years ago, I picked names of people I knew." "And?" "I know Ted because of his father." "Yeah, so what?" "Beth was a patient." "It's a bogus report." "What?" "Did you tell Barnes?" "You can't do that." "That's fraud." "They came to me, new administration, right?" "political agenda." "They said, in case of an alien invasion, do's and don'ts." "Why didn't you just say no?" "$35,000." "It paid the down payment on my house." "New administration wanted to prove they're doing something new." "How'd you come up with this team..." "... ofa biologist,an astrophysicist and a mathematician?" "Right." "How?" "I don't know." "It sounded good, right?" "Made them come to me." "I forgive you, Norman." "I forgive you!" "But I don't forgive you for Ted." "He's a pain in the ass." "I'II talk to him." "We'II be there 2 hours." "You don't have to be around him." "He idolizes you anyways, but I'II talk to him." "I'II buy you dinner." "I'm sorry." "Your secret's safe with me." "Come on." "I can't believe this thing could... ." "Like a dream." "Have you called your wife?" "Why not?" "This'II be a saturation dive." "You'II be going to a habitat in 1 ,000 feet of water." "A sub will take you to the Habitat and you'II transfer aboard." "At 1 ,000 feet, your body will be pressurized for that depth." "You could actually take a quick dip." "The pressure wouldn't bother you." "although I wouldn't recommend it because the water's so cold..." "... you'dfreezeto death in less than 2 minutes." "That's the reason for the diving suits." "Your helmet has a rebreather for your air supply." "following this briefing, I'II take you to an onboard dive tank." "For the next 8 hours..." "... you'IItrainin deep-saturationdive techniques and emergency procedures." "Once you've gone down 1 ,000 feet..." "... ifyousurface,you 'IIhavetocommit to several days of decompression." "There is no real quick return." "However, there is a mini-sub..." "... thatmaybe usedasanemergency escape vehicle." "But there must be a ship at the surface to mate to for decompression." "Without decompression, your body would literally burst." "Under these circumstances, you're very weII-controIIed." "The dive has been planned well and professionally monitored." "The descent will take about 1 3 minutes, descending at 80 feet a minute." "It's going to get chilly." "Try to relax." "Next time, just tell us when you're going to push the button." "Mozart..." "...Horn Concerto in E-flat K-447." "How you holding up, Captain nautical?" "I'm loose." "You're loose?" "I'm loose." "I'm loose." "I'm uptight." "We okay?" "We're in the river now." "What river?" "It's a temperature/salinity differential." "It flows like a river inside the ocean." "Under the ocean and there's a river." "That's right." "You okay?" "Right now, I'm not okay." "would you please not touch me?" "We're both nervous." "Yes?" "would you cut that out, please?" "You're having a stress reaction." "That's Harry's stress reaction." "Those noises we're hearing, that's normal?" "Those noises are the water pressure attacking the sub's integrity." "You know a little something about that, don't you, Norman?" "How the pressure can attack your integrity." "Come on, you be nice this trip." "Were you nice last time?" "You two want to sit together?" "My God!" "Norman, look at this, look at this." "Jesus!" "That's just the fin." "That's the Habitat." "The Navy moved it in sections and set it up as a base as soon as the spaceship was discovered." "It's manned by 2 naval personnel." "It will be your home-away-from-home while we investigate the spacecraft." "It ain't the motel 6." "Approaching docking bay from R-4." "AII personnel, descent sub one engaging lock area." "You are now depressurized." "We're going to pressurize you now." "It's hot in there, but you're going to feel coolness." "That's the helium." "helium?" "Was I the only one paying attention?" "Oxygen is a corrosive gas, in the same family as fluorine and chlorine..." "... hydrochloricacid, hydrofluoric acid." "That's why we're breathing helium." "Because oxygen at any level higher than 2.3 becomes toxic." "Can you run that by me again, Ted?" "I don't speak balloon." "What?" "That's my voice." "The helium resonates differently with my vocal chords." ""follow the yellow brick road. "" "Kiddies, cut it out." "The voice regulators are behind you." "Put them on." "The Navy dive team is setting up a hydraulic robot..." "... intheairlock outside the spacecraft." "We'II use that to open its door." "Is that the door?" "Yeah, we used sonar imaging to pinpoint it before the divers went down." "How tall is that robot?" "Five feet." "And it's roughly the same size as an airplane door, isn't it?" "Excuse me, Ted." "I think that's worth taking note of." "Excuse me." "tell them our team is in place and ready, okay?" "This is Habitat to Navy dive." "Has it occurred to anyone maybe we shouldn't open that door?" "Why do you say that?" "We assume they'II be green..." "... orinsect-Iike, but basically human." "But what if they inhale air and exhale cyanide gas?" "It's plausible." "Or live forever, Iike a virus or a yeast." "But why would you assume that a ULF would want to kill us?" "An immortal creature wouldn't think killing was right or wrong." "It'd have no concept of it." "Instant eradication." "It's what all the serious scientific stuff talks about." "What little there is on the subject." "You did put that in your report?" "It's in there." "Get us the ETD for team's departure to surface." "tell them we're in ready and thank them." "Habitat to Navy Dive." "Our team's ready to take over." "Descent sub ready for your return to surface." "Thanks for all your help." "We'II let you know what we find." "I'm not too thrilled at the prospect of this." "What if you have to go to the bathroom?" "Just go down your leg, Ted." "really?" "You can urinate in these?" "You can." "The question is, do you want to?" "Where's the switch?" "Okay, Iet's go." "AII right, FIetcher..." "... we'reat1, 022feet." "The ambient temperature, 34 degrees." "Heading out north-northwest  330." "It's a firm bottom." "Intermittent coral." "This is great, you guys." "Look at the size of that thing!" "My God!" "You see that tunnel?" "That's where we're going." "Into the heart of darkness." "We're in the coral pipe now, FIetcher, approaching the air lock." "I'm feeling pressure in my ears." "Is that normal?" "Just use your equalizer." "A little better." "The most toxic creatures on Earth live down here." "The venom of the land animal is nothing by comparison." "Even the weakest sea snake is invariably lethal." "Is that supposed to make me feel good, Beth?" "This is our air lock." "It'II take us from a wet to a dry environment." "We're assuming the inside of the ship is sealed." "This thing is enormous." "That's not budging, is it?" "Turn it at 45 degrees." "What's happening here?" "is that piston broken?" "Can you get the suction cup flat to the plane of the door?" "Maybe it's the hydraulics." "The pressure messes everything up at this depth." "Time for a demonstration in basic physics, gentlemen." "What is it, Harry?" "Take a look." "It's chipped." "AII right, it's chipped." "So what?" "I thought you said this thing wasn't damaged when it crashed..." "... thatthistitaniumalloywas so super-strong, you can't hurt it." "I did." "So why does it chip when this scientist just bangs it with a hammer?" "Is there heat coming off this thing?" "You're right." "Get out of there." "Back up." "Just a minute." "I mean, get back now!" "Get back." "Jesus." "Anybody else wonder who the hell opened that door?" "How did that happen?" "I'm not sure about the atmosphere." "helmets stay on." "AII right." "We come in peace." "always wanted to say that." "FIetcher, inform the Navy we've gained access..." "... to the spacecraft." "There's a hell of a lot of radiation shielding in here." "Huge grids of catwalks and plumbing..." "... anda Iotof steam." "It's endless." "We'II stay in touch here." "Somebody's been here." "There's footsteps and they ain't ours." "So what do you say, Norman?" "Time to turn back?" "I'm a little curious." "Break up into 2 squads." "We'II never cover the territory otherwise." "split up?" "He's got a point." "We've only got about a haIf-hour of breathing time left." "Ted and Harry, you come with me." "Beth, Norman, stick together." "Come on." "I think the people who built this place would call that "divide and conquer. "" "Whoever built this thing wanted us dead, we'd be dead already." "These guys offer a federal grant to study the effects of an alien invasion." "I told all this to Harry." "You made up the report?" "No, not all of it." "I mean, I did research on half of it." "Who did the other half?" "I borrowed from, you know, good writers." "Isaac Asimov, Rod SerIing... ." "Rod SerIing?" "Who would've thought anyone even reads those government reports." "You know?" "I show up here, half the Pacific fleet is here." "I just didn't know what to do." "I wanted to tell you, that's all." "Is this in the same category as, "Beth, I thought you knew I was married"?" "I don't think we have enough oxygen" "Oh, my God." "Did you push something?" "No." "It did it on its own." "That must be the cockpit." "hold on." "Look at this." "Cross-stress bracing on the outer hulls." "AII axes supported." "Look at this stuff." "This is interesting." "Soft and strong at the same time." "It's, Iike, better than rubber, better than steel." "You know a Iot about this stuff." "I studied aeronautical engineering at M.I.T." "Isn't that where you got your Ph.D.?" "It's where I got mine." "AII 3 of them." "I hated M.I.T." "Envy?" "Puberty." "How old?" "First Ph.D., 1 8." "Damn." "One year, Harry." "You beat me by one year." "Let's push on." "Let's go." "Man, they didn't tell you how heavy these things were out of the water." "Look at this." "Come here." ""Trash. "" ""Basura. "" "Trash?" "Oh, God." "Jesus!" "It's human." "You mean humanoid." "No, Norman, I mean human." "blunt force trauma." "You can see by the direction that the fracture runs..." "... thathewashit  in the back of the head." "What's in his hand?" "I don't know." "What is it?" ""Smokehouse almonds"?" "My God, it's an American spaceship." "It can't be an American spaceship." "It's 300 years old." "There weren't even Americans, Iet alone spaceships." "It can't be, but it is." "Let's see if there's some kind of flight recorder or data computer..." "... wherewecanringup some kind..." "... ofa flighthistory." "I mean... ." "Look at this." "It's in english." "Come here." "Okay, good." "Right there." "And there." "Look at the dates!" "Can't be." "could be." "It could be 2043 or 1 643." "I don't know which one is weirder." ""Unknown Entry Event. " Press it." "You sure?" "This is Barnes, Norman." "Yeah, I can hear you." "I can't explain it, but I think we're inside an American spaceship." "It gets better." "What the hell is it?" "Whatever it is, it seems to be what this bird was designed to do." "Go out into space and gather things like this up and bring it back." "Yeah, but back from where?" "Don't get too excited, Ted." "Turn this thing over, it'II probably say "Made in Korea. "" "Somehow I doubt that." "No doors." "No hinges of any kind." "I'II bet if you put a laser micrometer on this, it'd be a perfect sphere." "Perfect to a thousandth of an inch." "That's a message in and of itself." "really?" "What do you mean?" "When Pope Benedict asked Giotto to prove his worth as an artist..." "... Giottodrewaperfectcircle..." "... freehand." "Perfection." "It's a powerful message." "I know what the Zen masters would say." "What's that?" ""This ball wants to be caught. "" "Nobody built this thing looking into their third eye." "They went to a Iot of trouble and they didn't do it for nothing." "Something put this thing out there to get picked up and brought back here." "Have you forgotten the Trojan horse?" "It could be a trap." "Don't you think that's a little paranoid?" "No, I'm going to put a video camera on this thing and keep an eye on it." "Can I ask you something about this reflective surface?" "Yeah, it appears to be mercury, doesn't it?" "Except mercury's liquid at this temperature." "That's not what I'm talking about." "What worries me is that it's reflecting everything but us." "I hate to be the one non-scientist that picks this up, guys." "You know what I mean?" "What do you think it is?" "I don't know." "Whatever it is..." "... it'salien." "Okay, an American spacecraft, materials, technology..." "... moreadvancedthanwhatweknow,  crashes into the ocean." "Why wasn't it damaged?" "The materials are obviously super-strong." "If that's true, why did it chip when you hit it?" "Better:" "It didn't crash." "It arrived..." "... 300yearsago." "From where?" "Not "where. " When." "So you're saying this thing took a wrong turn?" "That's right." "I mean, what if the craft..." "... inadvertentlyflew into a black hole?" "It arrived in our past from its present." "The dates in the flight record-- 43, 47." "That has to be 2043, 2047." "The image you saw, what you described..." "... soundslikeablackhole , a tear in the space" "We know what a black hole is." "I don't know." "It's a collapsed star with so much gravity it's like a vacuum cleaner..." "... suckingeverythingintoit,  light, interstellar dust, time" "Time?" "It's possible, but not plausible." "It's more than probable." "It's rudimentary astrophysics." "We just haven't been able to fly into one and prove it." "I just got off the horn topside." "They're expecting a bad blow up there." "And they're pulling us out." "pulling us out?" "Wait a minute!" "What do you mean?" "What part of "pull out" don't you understand?" "Extraction." "We're leaving." "That's ridiculous." "We haven't even begun to scratch the surface here." "If you've ever seen a Pacific cyclone, what we call a tornado is a little fart." "So I suggest you go back to the dormitory and take a nap." "You need to lower your metabolism before we start the decompression." "You're leaving a time-traveIing spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean?" "I'm just following my orders." "We're the aliens' welcome Wagons." "But, no aliens." "It was made in America." "What's your point?" "My point is, I'm a biochemist and there's no life down here." "What is wrong with you?" "!" "That doesn't mean there's nothing to Iearn, to explore!" "She's right." "You guys are the human contact team for an Unknown Life Form." "There is no Unknown Life Form, so we pull out at 0900." "please say something to him." "What?" "I don't know." "Do you not have an opinion about this?" "I'm delighted we're going back up top." "You know what I mean?" "This may look like a roadside diner, but in the meantime..." "... myearswon'tpop and ifI pull  this thing away from my neck..." "... Isoundlikesomeone'ssqueezing my testicles." "Let's go home." "Barnes is wrong, you know." "You mean, wrong about the storm?" "No, about the Sphere." "What about the Sphere?" "It's alive." "Why do you say that?" "There's something inside it." "How can there be anything inside it?" "There's no door, no seams." "The Sphere chooses what it will and won't reflect." "Doesn't that seem like the actions of a conscious being to you?" "Pop psychology." "I think, for whatever it's worth, you're angry..." "... towardsourfriendTed inthere..." "... becausehefiguredthisout before you did." "You really think so?" "I don't know." "This is my first underwater session." "You're right." "Ted did figure it out first, didn't he?" "Good shrinkage." "We're all going to die down here, you know." "What?" "What?" "You see, it's curious." "Ted did figure it out." "Time travel." "And when we get back, we're going to tell everyone..." "... howit'spossible,how it'sdone , what the dangers are." "But why 50 years in the future, when the spacecraft encounters a black hole..." "... doesthecomputercallit an "Unknown Entry Event"?" "Why don't they know?" "If they don't know..." "... itmeanswe nevertoldanyone." "And if we never told anyone..." "... itmeanswe nevermadeitback." "Hence..." "... wediedownhere." "Just as a matter of deductive logic, Norman." "Damn, I wish I couId get inside that Sphere." "What's wrong?" "talk to Mr. Barnes." "Where is he?" "Video feed room." "Where is that?" "I don't know where the hell anything is." "Where am I?" "Where?" "What's going on?" "I don't know." "You tell me." "What the hell is he doing?" "I don't know." "Do you know what he's doing?" "I need to know what you know." "Nothing." "He wanted to go inside." "We are inside." "You mean outside?" "He said, "inside. "" "What?" "Inside the spacecraft?" "I think inside the Sphere." "holy shit!" "My God." "Did he go inside?" "I don't think so." "What the hell's going on?" "He didn't just disappear." "I think it's a glitch in the video." "Give me playback on that." "You'II have it in a minute." "You knew he was doing this and you said nothing." "You didn't think!" "I didn't think it possible." "Where are Beth and Ted?" "I don't know." "I woke up, I heard bells ringing and I started running-- l'm not getting an image on the sub." "lmpossible!" "I got a cable in my quarters!" "They'II be here in 25 minutes or less!" "The only logical explanation is that the sub is still at the surface." "Is it also logically possible your sonar is messed up?" "!" "Let's just calm down, all right?" "He didn't just disappear." "We are not going to leave him." "You got that right." "I am not going to lose a civilian on my watch." "You have just screwed up our trip to the surface." "We are not going up to the surface." "Harry!" "We are not going up!" "Harry!" "Can you hear me?" "Harry, can you hear me?" "Norman, this is not a triage situation." "Go find me Ted and Beth." "Norman, stop." "Still no reading on the sub." "Forget the goddamn sonar, Teeny." "When Beth and Ted get here, make sure they don 't go anywhere." "All right?" "What the hell?" "Can you hear me?" "Is he alive?" "We have a problem." "Harry's out cold." "His pulse is normal." "All his vitals are normal  butI don'tgetit." "hello." "hello!" "Norman, can you hear me?" "We lost video here." "Can you hear me?" "That tears it." "What, sir?" "We're on internal power." "I don 't follow you." "They cut us loose, Teeny." "For some reason the sub turned back." "Break out your 5-day deodorant pads." "We're here for the duration." "Everything's normal." "What's going on?" "Is he all right?" "Is it true?" "Did he go inside?" "What did he say?" "He didn't say." "He's aphasic." "He's asleep, Ted." "I can't believe he went inside." "He didn't say anything?" "There's no door, no entry." "How did he get in?" "Can I have your attention, please?" "We've lost contact with the surface." "The Habitat is now operating solely under internal power." "We have plenty of food, oxygen and fresh water  to sustain us until the storm is over and we reestablish contact with the surface." "But until that time, this mission is subject  toemergencyauthority under my command." "I'm taking this out to the mini-sub." "Are you up on the duty roster?" "Yes, sir." "Where's she going?" "It's procedures." "Everything in the Habitat is videoed." "Every 1 2 hours we take the videos to the mini-sub and press the reset button." "The idea is, if something happens to us and we don't reset it..." "... thesubgoestothesurface automatically." "If we're all dead, they at Ieast have a partial record of what went wrong." "cheerful thought, huh?" "Mind the store a minute." "I'm going to the head." "What the hell's that?" "It's so beautiful down here." "It's so tranquil." "This is beautiful." "It's hard to believe we have a typhoon 1 ,000 feet above our heads." "Hey, it's snowing down here." "You see them?" "There's got to be a million  jellyfishdownhere." "Man, this is really beautiful." "These jellyfish are getting a little friendly." "Having a hard time seeing." "Hey, guys, you getting this?" "It's getting thick down here." "hello, hello." "I can 't see what I'm doing." "They're sticking to my faceplate." "FIetcher, this is Dr. fielding." "Just swim through them." "They're harmless." "Guys, these jellyfish are everywhere." "FIetcher, get out of there." "What are jellyfish doing at 1 ,000 feet?" "I think they feel the heat from my body." "I can't get them off me!" "They're stinging through my suit!" "Get back to the Habitat on the double." "I can't move my legs!" "Come back to the Habitat." "They're inside my suit!" "Keep moving!" "Just keep moving!" "Help me!" "Jesus, Barnes, she's dead!" "There's no bubbles." "Edmunds." "Yes, sir?" "Come on down here." "Something happened to Fletcher." "God!" "When I was 5 years old I went out on a boat with my father." "He told me not to jump in the water, so of course I did and... ." "Oh, my!" "I jumped right into a school of these guys." "Not this big, though." "I think every one had a shot at me." "I don't know what this lady felt..." "... but,man,it wentbeyondpain ." "I've been..." "... afraidofthemsince." "would you feel any better if I told you this wasn't exactly a jellyfish?" "You mean... ?" "I mean, jellyfish like this are unheard of." "I don't know what this is, but it isn't God's creation." "Here I am Your special island" "Come to me" "Bali Ha 'i" "You can come in." "Have a seat." "You want some coffee?" "No, thanks." "How well do you know Dr. HaIperin?" "I used to teach at UC San Diego years ago." "She came for her master's." "Don't take it personally, but I assume she wasn't a romantic interest." "Don't take what personally?" "She's a tall, vibrant, younger woman." "What's your point?" "You knew her as a patient." "I'm not at liberty to discuss that." "You understand." "I understand an exotic-gas environment 1 ,000 feet under water..." "... withnolifelinetothesurface..." "... isaboutthemostdangerous environment on the planet." "If there's a problem, I got to know about it." "Beth is fine." ""Beth is fine. "" "Beth's fine." "She's very fine." "would you Iike to read this and tell me what it says?" "Are these my actual notes?" "What does it say?" "How in the world did you get" "Does it say "suicide attempt"?" ""EIectroshock therapy"?" "Isn't that what it says?" "What's your point?" "Didn't it seem important enough to tell somebody?" "You were willing to jeopardize these people's lives..." "... tohavesomeonehere who could be mentally unstable?" "Are you aware of the term, "overreact"?" "We're 1 60 fathoms down." "And we've got a nutbag down here who can flip out and crack up." "You selected the team." "Why didn't you tell me?" "When I wrote this, I didn't know the team would be 1 ,000-- 1 ,000 or 1 0, it makes no difference!" "Why didn't you tell me about Beth?" "It wasn't pertinent." "That was not your call to make!" "Yes, it was and it still is." "It was a passive attempt." "A passive attempt?" "!" "Those who really want to kill themselves shoot themselves or go over a bridge." "They don't call their boyfriend and say, "I just took 20 NebutoI." "help me. "" "She took 20 yellows, and you're telling me she's perfect." "What is it?" "Come in." "It's Harry." "What?" "He's awake?" "He's really awake." "Man, oh, man!" "You're going to have a problem with me." "If my good buddy Norman keeps cooking like this, I ain't going nowhere." "This toast is good." "Bacon?" "Better." "But these eggs!" "These eggs are fantastic!" "Norman, what did you put in these eggs?" "No, no, wait." "Don't tell me." "parsley." "Chives." "Tarragon and... ." "What is that?" "CherviI?" "Is that cherviI?" "Yes, it is." "I'm glad you Iike it, Harry." "I Iove eggs!" "They sure seem to cheer you up." "Do you remember what happened?" "Yeah." "I went inside." "How did you get inside?" "There are no doors." "There are doors all over this place and we can't get out." "We're still here." "Yes, we are." "You didn't answer my question." "Why are you looking at me like that?" "Harry, are you saying we shouldn't still be here?" "Where's Teeny?" "I thought she did all the cooking." "She had an unfortunate accident, Harry." "She was killed." "killed?" "How?" "jellyfish." "jellyfish?" "That's strange." "Yes, it is strange, isn't it?" "Here you go, Harry." "little onion rings." "Look at that." "It's not onion rings." "Good, though." "Guess what it is." "CaIamari!" "You all right?" "Cough, cough, cough." "No, you're doing it wrong." "I know what I'm doing." "Bring it up." "Come on, bring it up." "He's trying to say something." "He's trying to talk." "You don't listen." "He wants to say something!" "I'm not choking, you asshole!" "See?" "I hate squid." "I hate squid." "I'm sorry." "I was trying to help." "You okay?" "Harry, Iet me ask you something." "Before you went in the Sphere, you were convinced we would die here." "Yeah, I remember that." "You still believe it?" "You afraid of dying, Norman?" "bullshit!" "He's hiding something and you know it." "He went inside the Sphere and whatever it is he saw, he won't tell us." "He said he doesn't remember anything." "You bought that?" "The whole food thing was all a diversion." "The guy's willing to put all of our lives on the line..." "... becausehedoesn'twant to share information." "I can see it." "He's making notes for a book." "He wants to win the nobel Prize." "And you don't?" "Norman, you've known me since I was 1 7 years old." "I would love to be the guy who gets" "Do you know how respected" "I'm not!" "I've written one "Fun With Dick and Jane" book on physics." "I mean, NieIs Bohr..." "... hepublished"TheQuantumTheory of Atomic Structure" at 28." "Einstein, relativity, 26." "Newton, gravity, 23." "In physics, if you haven't done it by 35, chances are you never will." "This doesn't have anything to do with your competitiveness with Harry?" "1 9." "Wunderkind!" "I rest my case." "Mr. Barnes would Iike to see you." "Why?" "Something's wrong with the computer system." "Try purging it." "I tried." "It just keeps coming back." "Discharge from the buffer memory?" "I ruled that out." "The helium is getting to the chips." "It's probably a saturation effect." "If that's true, what are our options?" "You have to change all the chips." "Forget it." "Run this place on manual?" "It's going to be a Iong 4 days." "Hey, boss." "Figured that out yet?" "It's a saturation effect." "I don't think so." "If it's a saturation effect, it wouId be random." "What do you mean?" "This has a pattern." "See?" "It's like a code." "A code from where?" "How'd you do that?" "How'd you see that?" "Try binary." "See?" "Letter breaks." "You think this is coming from the Sphere?" "Don't know." "This mission is ultra top-secret." "What you translate is for my eyes only." "If you were it, how would you know our alphabet?" "Same way it's configured on a keyboard." "But reflected in an orb, spherically." "A keyboard, but spherical." "Take a keyboard..." "... wrapitaroundasphere..." "... thenstartingat thecenterkey, G, number the letters..." "... spiralingout." "You the man!" "I still got it." "I still got the juice." "Keyboard." "They let you keep those?" "Here, you want them?" "AII we got to do now is plug in the numbers." "Friends..." "... inthe8,000years of recorded history, this is a first." "You're now on-Iine with an alien intelligence." "You got to be kidding." "You must've messed up the translation." "I don't think so." "If this is right, this alien sounds like an idiot." "That's something to consider." "A stupid alien." "They must have them." "I will admit the message is childlike, but actually it's quite perfect." "It's short, to the point, non-threatening..." "... kindoftheway you talk to a small child or a dog." "Look at this." "He's making a speech."