"Ithadbeenfivemonthsofthe most horrific warfare in Earth's history." "A war in which rivers ofblood flowed in trenches...  for a few yards of advancement." "A cold, modern war born from ancient nationalist hatred." "A war which saw the introduction of awesome technological weapons- the machine gun...  the armored tank...  nerve gas." "And yet, on December 24, 1914..." "German, British and French soldiers climbed out of their trenches...  to meet in no- man's- land to peacefully celebrate Christmas." "They sang Christmas carols,  exchanged cigarettes and autographs...  posed for pictures...  buried their dead." "The silence remained throughout Christmas day." "In the following three years,  nearly eight million would die." "And less than two decades later...  the same armies would be engaged in the greatest loss ofhuman life in history." "The world had never seen anything like it before." "And 149 years later to the day...  it's impossible to imagine ever seeing it again." "Bandits!" "2:00, 6:00!" "  " "I got it." "6:00!" "6:00!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Get some!" "Red Devil, this is Wild Card." "The enemy is superior." "We're tight on your 5:00." "Tight on your 5:00." "Bend over, chiggie man." "" " We're hit!" " " "Engines one, two, four and five are out!" "Mayday!" "Mayday!" "The main port engine's grinding us in an introverted spin." "It's venting fuel." "Shut it down and it might not fire up again." "That freeze- dried burrito is talkin'to me. !" "Shut down main port engine!" "Burn primary and vernier R. C. S. Thrusters to stabilize!" "Negative!" "It'll take all the thrusters fuel!" "We can't land!" "We'll roll forever!" "Lose consciousness!" "Well, fire those thrusters!" "Burn 'em now to stabilize in four... three, two, one... now!" "" " Shut 'em down!" "Vansen, shut 'em down!" " I don't have to." "We're out of fuel." "" " So much for the thrusters." "" "Hey, good flying." "You did the right thing." "Home Base, this is Wild Cards." "Come in." "Repeat." "Home Base, this is Wild Cards." "Come in." "  " "Radio's dead." "Yes,sir, I definitely saw it." "The ship in front of the 58th took a hit, then they got it." "Left engine." " No, man, right engine." " Right." "Left." "They're toast." "No, man, we got a Mayday after they got hit." " Where's the communications officer?" " Over there." " Left." " Right." "You got a Mayday from the 58th?" "Yes, sir." "I confirmed they received our signal,  but they never responded." "Transmitter could have been damaged." "Or there could have been no one left to respond." "I want your radio receiver's log." "Get me the 58th's last known position." "Do it!" "Inform Commodore Ross I want 10 S. A. R. teams formed immediately..." " to be deployed in 30 mikes." " Aye aye, sir." "Fouroutof 10  momentum wheels are down." "Main propulsion system's inoperable." "Partial pressure O2 sensor's at 24 kilopascals." "Main on board computer..." "Is singing with Elvis." " We're dead." " Without a computer, we're on our own." "I guess it won't be the first time." "Damphousse, radio?" " Left high gain antenna damage is nominal." "I think I can" " Get on it." " Right." " Fuel cell damage?" "Extensive." "Solar arrays are inoperable." "Fuel cells, secondary batteries were low when the dogfight started." "We're gonna have to shut down some electrical systems in order to save power... for cabin air, thermal control,  the radio, if it's working." "Without propulsion,  we won't need telemetry, navigation." "But if we're getting home, it looks like someone's gonna have to find us." "Make it happen." "Twelve minutes after midnight." "Christmas." "Wild Cards, this is Queen 6." "Wild Cards, this is Queen 6." "Queen 6, this is Wild Cards." "Queen 6, this is Wild Cards." "Wild Cards, this is Queen 6." " Respond." " Queen 6, this is Wild Cards." "Queen 6, this is Wild Cards." "No response, sir." "And the T. D. R. S. system confirms our signal has been received." "Have it pinpoint the location of the signal reception." "The linking tracking satellite was taken out in the firefight." "So what you're saying is they can hear us, but we can't hear them." "Sir, just because a signal is being received... doesn't mean there's anyone around to receive it." "They're out there." "I can feel 'em." "We believe your radio to be in receive-only mode." "We're presently conducting search and rescue operations in the Procyon System." "I know you're out there." "Hold on." "Don't lose faith." "We're not in the Procyon System." "We're far from it." "  We got knocked out in the firefight." " We're dumping' in the river." "That must be Hawkes's way of trying to say that we're up a creek without a paddle." "Well, he's almost right." "If we were on Earth... our ship would seem to be going through the Eridanus Constellation." "A river of stars." "When I was a kid...  in the winter,  it'd get dark real early." "On my way home from basketball practice, I'd see Eridanus in the sky." "It gave me comfort to see it return every year... to know some things never went away." "We're gonna go away we can't do somethin'." "If Wang knows our position, we can send out a bistatic LI DAR flare." "If they find it, they'll know our actual position." "B. L. F. canisters are fired out of pulse cannons." "We haven't the power." "Look, we could drop it out of the air lock." "It's better than nothing." "It isn't better than nothing." "Our position is beyond the Von Braun line." "We're in no-man's-land... falling towards enemy territory." "A flare will just announce our presence to the Chigs." "Colonel, you've requested 10 S. A. R. s to search for the 5- 8 in the Procyon region?" " Yes, sir." " That area was just subjected to an intensive aerial engagement... one from which our heavily armed ships were forced to retreat." " I cannot dispatch 10 lightly armed" " Then send five, sir." "The battleship Charles Lacy Veach is under attack." "We have been ordered to provide all possible" "Then send one, sir." "I'll fly it." "Colonel, searching for them with a hundred ships in that vast a region of space... is the equivalent of trying to find a specific drop of water in the Mississippi River." "As long as I know that drop is there, sir, I'm gonna try to find it." "You can have three ships." "No fighter support." "And the first sign of any Chigs, they are to get the hell out of there." "Aye aye." "Thank you, sir." "Cabin temperature is dropping." "Secondary power is running low, that's why." "If I were at home in New York tonight... we'd all be around the fireplace right now." "At this rate, in a couple of hours, we'll be below freezing." "" " McQueen." "~~~~" "What the  ~~Batman ~~" " It's that old TV show... where one guy's like a bat and the other one's like a bird." "~~Batman ~~" " I liked that show." " ~~Batman ~~" "Wow!" "I guess we caught a lucky break." "A good TV show before drifting off into eternity." "If we ever get home, we should chip in and get McQueen a good therapist." " That's not McQueen." " ~~Batman, Batman ~~" "Television signals have been inadvertently beamed into space since the 1940s." " We're probably just intercepting it- " "Chig fighters!" "This is it." "What the hell was that?" "Those were fighters, not scouts." "Maybe they wanted to be home for Christmas." "Must have taken us for dead." "No." "They're like a cat that's got a mouse by the tail." "Coop's right." "I don't know why they took off, but they'll be back." "Chigs always finish the job." "Look, I know this is weird, but under these circumstances, I don't want to not do it." "And I don't want you guys to feel weird about it, all right?" "I had been hiding them in here, so I just happened to have 'em." "Shane." "I don't know what to say." " You shouldn't do this." " I just happened to have them." "It's no big deal." "Just pretend that there's a big Christmas tree with lights... and dinner cooking in the kitchen and a big bag for the wrapping paper... and we are far from this dark, cold box, and it's safe and warm... and the Whos in Whoville are singing "Dah-Who-Dor-Eh, Dah-Who-Dor-Eh"" "Just open 'em." "I" " I wish it could have been a necklace or something, but...  we are light-years away from home and that's all they had in the Saratoga P. X." "Shane, it's beautiful." "Thank you." "They're engraved." ""To 'Phousse." "Hoo-yah!" "Christmas, 2063. "" "It'll be an honor to stab a Chig with this." "Mm." "Uh, Nathan, you're hard to buy for." "You don't have too many interests outside of Kylen." "I guess I shouldn't have put it that way." "Well,let'sfaceit." "Nathan is a little different from the rest of us." "You, Wang, Winslow... we all joined the Corps because we wanted to be life- takers and heartbreakers." "Coop, he was sentenced to the Corps,  but he's got it in him." " West doesn't have it in him." " Oh, yes, he does." "Andhe'sgot a lot more than that." "Nathan is notjust some guy pining away for his girlfriend." "She's become his faith." "Something that he would die for because he believes it's right." " Are you going to open yours, Coop?" " What's it for?" "It's a Christmas present." "Listen, I, um, I never told you guys this... but I kinda took off from the invitro educational facility... before they taught us stuff like this." "So, all I know about Christmas is that there was one day out of the year in Philadelphia... that everything was closed and it was a headache...  and it was lonelier than usual." "Coop, Christmas is the celebration of the birth ofJesus Christ." "Actually, it's the continuation of the Roman festival of Saturnalia." "Jesus of Nazareth was born on September 15, 7 B. C." " Nazareth and Christ, now who are those guys?" " It's one guy." "And He was born in Bethlehem." "A star directed three wise men from the East... who believed the son of God had been born." "And this "star'"was actually a rare alignment between Jupiter and Saturn...  or possibly a supernova or maybe even a comet." "He was conceived through the miracle of Immaculate Conception." "His mom and dad didn't... do it." "The myth of Immaculate Conception." "Be like an InVitro?" " You gonna open your present, Paul?" " Shane, it's, uh... it's really nice of you to do this, but I, uh, I can't take this." "It's just I" " I really don't believe in it anymore." " That never stopped my family from opening gifts." " Well, it stops me." "Paul, you cross yourself before every mission." "It's superstition." "It's habit." "It's-It's like my Chicago Bears T-shirt." "Something happen to make you feel this way?" "With all the death we've seen in the last six months." "The things I've... done!" "How can you believe in all this garbage?" "Shut it off!" "  Don't touch it. !" "" " Oh!" "It" " It's frozen!" " The bolts are brittle." "They're breaking." "West, decrease O2/N2 control valve to 400 KPS!" "Lockhart, get those pipes secured, now!" "Maybe some warm water." "Look,evenif we hadhot water,it would only cause these pipes to crack more." "It's comin' off the hard way, Kelcher." "Coop." "Come on." " " "It's all right." "It's all right." " We probably lost about two hours of O2 supply just now." " More." "Everyone's to limit their movement." "I know it's probably impossible, but some sleep would help." "Yeah, that way we don't have to see the Chigs coming." "I'll pull watch on the radio." "Oh, no, it's okay." "It's just-just that you got me something makes me feel good." "Oh, Coop." "You may have run away from that InVitro facility... but you do know what it's all about." "Queen 6, this is S. A. R. 1." "We got a negative on any sighting of the 58th, visual or LIDAR." "Permission to sweep area 300K M. S. K. s from sight of dogfight." "Roger that, S. A. R. 1." "Colonel, here's the optical disc you requested." "Queen 6 to Wild Cards... this is your interstellar disc jockey, Colonel McQueen." "Here's a little something I'd like you to hear." "It occurred 95 years ago last evening." "It's a message to the Earth from the first men to orbit the moon." "It's not my Christmas present." "That'll be to get you home." ""Inthebeginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth." ""And the Earth was without form and void." ""And darkness was upon the face of the deep." ""And God said, "Let there be light. ' And there was light." ""And God saw the light,  that it was good." "And God divided the light from the darkness. '"" ""And God called the light Day..." ""and the darkness He called Night." ""And the evening and the morning were the first day." ""And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters..." ""let it divide the waters from the waters. '" ""And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament..." ""from the waters which were above the firmament:" "And it was so." ""And God called the firmament Heaven." "And the evening and the morning were the second day. '"" ""AndGodsaid, "Let the waters under the Heaven..." ""be gathered together into one place." ""And let the dry land appear'." "And it was so." ""And God called the dry land Earth," ""and the gathering together of the waters called He seas:" "And God saw that it was good. '"" "And from the crew of Apollo 8,  we close with good night...  good luck,  a merry Christmas...  and God bless all of you,  all of you on the good Earth." "Chigs?" "A comet." "And it's approaching at an angle and a direction that's on a direct path with this ship." "How did you know it was there?" "I don't know." "Those numbers mean anything to the star charts?" "Sorry, Colonel." "We had a little off-duty Christmas Eve party in the astronomer's quarters." "Some corporal tried to make scotch out of his aftershave... and these charts are all looking like nothing but a bunch of white dots." "There are men and women out there who will never have the chance to have a hangover again... if you don't get those white dots focused." "Did you locate the source of the transmissions?" "They're not from any frequency used by the Armed Forces, even classified frequencies." "And the Morse code, it's weird." "It's like broken English." "Like someone who doesn't quite know it." "All our pilots and crew know it inside and out." "It could be a distress signal." "Any reports of civilian activity in the Procyon region?" "You'd be looking in the wrong area." "These coordinates indicate the position of the comet Yanelli-Wimberly." "That's closer to Epsilon Eridanus." "A short burn from the main engine could take us out of its path." "We'd run the risk of tumbling again with no thrusters to stabilize." " This code is weird." " I'm telling you guys, it was really weird." "It's like I could feel, even through the radio... that the sender wasn't human." "Areyousureyou  recorded it correctly?" "Look, everybody's exhausted, okay?" "We're freezing" "What do you mean, did I get it right?" "There's a comet barreling down on us we wouldn't know about if I didn't get it right!" "Wanger, why don't you let me take a shift on that radio." " I'm fine." "  Hey, take a break, Paul." " I'm fine. !" " Take a break, Paul." "" " Wild Cards, this is Queen 6." "As your position remains undetermined to us at present time...  we're reporting the presence of a comet...  bearing 89 degrees by 15 degrees... 0- niner in the Eridanus region." "See, they intercepted the same signal." " Think it could be an enemy trap?" " A trap?" "They would've blown us out of the sky when they flew by us." "Maybe they just wanted to save their missiles and let this comet do the work." "5-8, we're still out there searching." "Don't let down." "I've, uh, got a message here from the commodore." "Iwon'tinsultyou bywishingyou a merry Christmas, 5- 8." "I'll say it to your faces when you return." "Now, this may not be proper conduct for a commander... but given the circumstances, I, uh" "And, no, I am not drunk." "~~~~" "~~~~" "~~~~" "That's "I'll Be Home for Christmas. "" "" " M-Move it!" "Coop, move it!" "Move it." "You've even got a problem with a Christmas song?" "Shut up!" "Shut up!" "  - ~~" "  What was it?" " Some scientific language." "Rudimentary." "As if Einstein were trying to explain relativity to a child." "Give me a minute." "I know what it is." "Telemetry data... orbital mass, ISSCV mass... speed, pitch, yaw...  azimuth." "These are directions on how to get trapped into an orbit of the approaching comet." "It's trying to tell us how to hitch a ride." " What good would that do?" " Well, it's heading away from enemy territory." "In fact, back towards the Saratoga." "We could drop a B. L. F. canister once we got into friendly territory." "Can it be done?" "Asteroids and comets have been known to have orbiting satellites." "But if we follow these signals, we'll be going on complete- faith." "What needs to be done?" "It would require an approximate 56 second burn from the main left engine." "Less than 56 seconds, we'll miss the comet's gravitational range." "Fly deeper into Chig territory." "More than 56 seconds will take us right into the comet." "Hey, we're gonna get nailed by it anyway." "And the one thing is... well, the primary one thing is... the engine can't be fired in its current position." " So much for that." " Well, we could try to manually adjust its position." "That would require an E. V. A." "We've only got one suit with 15 minutes O2 supply." " I'll do it." " I've E. V. A. 'd before." " It's my idea." " We don't know whose idea it was." " Wang goes." " Why Wang?" "I have faith in him." " I want you to have this, Paul." " Nathan, I" " I can't." "You all said it yourselves." "It means more than just a photo tag now." "And you could use it." "Let's do it." "Twelve minutes." " The mechanism's jammed." "" "Eight minutes." " Oh, yes!" "" "Hoo-rah!" "I'd like to dispatch a Navy LC with a squadron of SA-43s to the comet's region." " You and I both know where that signal originated." " It's an enemy transmission, sir." "Probably disinformation." "They're aware we're conducting a search and rescue." "That's why the fighter escort for the rescue vehicles, sir." "Why doesn't one of us come out and say what we're afraid these signals could be." "Setting up an ambush?" "Presenting us with a gift." "I wouldn't bet on that." "But I do believe it is something to go on toward finding the 58th." "Dispatch the LC and the 32nd Squadron to comet Yanelli-Wimberly." "Comet- 72,000 kilometers and closing." "Bearing 7- 5- niner." "Roger that." "Main port engine pressure is at 80%." "We are go for burn." "Reset the flight clock." " It's crucial we have a burn time of 56 seconds." " Roger that." "Less than that we miss it." "More than that, we're all gonna have a hell of a headache." "We're reissuing partial power here." "Telemetry and guidance are history." "This whole thing's off-line." "We're gonna have to fly manual." "Don't worry, I'll guide you." "Or anyway, the stars will." "Ninety seconds to burn." "Thirty-five mikes depletion of N2/O2 supply." "Let's worry about that at two mikes." "Eighty seconds." "Seventy seconds." "Sixty seconds." ""And when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars." ""And he will make the face ofheaven so fine..." ""that all the world will be in love with night...  and pay no worship to the garish sun. '"" "Thank you, Shane." "Forty seconds." "Okay, let's get lit." "Thirty seconds to ignition." "Yaw axis, 10 degrees... pitch axis, 20- 24." "Twenty seconds." "Ten seconds to burn." "Nine, eight... seven, six, five...  four, three, two, one, ignition. !" "Steady." "Sixteen degrees." "Ten degrees." "Fifteen, 16, 17... 18, 19" "Come on." "All right, adjust two degrees by one degree!" "45, 46... 47, 48" "Main engine off." "It won't shut down!" "We're over!" "Queen6 , this is Lightning Bolts." "Approaching Yanelli" " Wimberly." "No sign of enemy activity." "Any sign of the 58th?" "Nothing on the LI DAR." "Holy" " I got a visual." "I got an incredible visual." " Found 'em. !" "" "  Safe, huh?" "  Yeah." "Look, 'Phousse!" "Out there!" "An LC convoy." "They got us!" "I though we were dead when we burned too long." "Me too." "Until, of course, I saw the actual elapsed burn time... and then I knew we'd be all right." "Uh, I've never done this before, all right?" "So I hope I got it right." "Free tickets to the Saratoga bowling alley." "There's a shoe rental too." "Did I do it right?" "Why is she" "Uh- Hawkes." "Remember last week, we all went to the lanes, everyone except Shane?" " Yeah." " She thinks bowling's for dweebs." "Damn." "See, I got to remember that stuff." "She all ticked at me?" "No, man." "You did good." " You think so?" " Yeah." "Hey. !" "You ought to try some hooch." "It's pretty good." "For some reason,  it reminds me of shaving." "Oh, I... almost forgot." " Merry Christmas, Paul." " I don't deserve this." "When you talked about being a kid... and knowing that the River of Stars would always be there in the sky..." "I knew you never lost your faith." "That's what it is." "Knowing something's always gonna be there for you." "From all of us, sir." "Merry Christmas." "Looks like I got two gifts." "~~~~" "~~~~" "~~~~" "Watch your hands." "Watch your hands."