"Captain Frauke Manheim, Captain Philip Hart, and the leader of our crew Air Force Captain Paul Chandler." "Are we here to brief Da'an on our mission, Sir?" "No, Captain." "President Thompson has made a difficult decision." "Your mission to Mars... has been canceled." "Could you repeat that?" "I don't think I heard you, Sir." "You heard me, Captain." "I'm sorry." "There's no justification for this." "None whatsoever!" "I demand an explanation!" "You have no right to demand anything!" "You will obey these orders whether you respect them or not!" "What about the respect of taxpayers, General?" "The billions of their tax dollars that went into this project?" "I understand your disappointment." "What about my crew?" "Their years of training?" "That's enough!" "What about the world, Sir?" "Are you questioning orders from your Commander in Chief?" "Where are his orders coming from, Sir?" "You are way out of line here, Captain!" "Is that right, General?" "Than why are we here in this office?" "Please, know... that your rage is misdirected." "The Companions do not dictate public policy." "We could not cancel your mission." "Than where should I direct my anger?" "You must look to your own leaders." "But I would like to speak to an earlier question:" "about why you have been brought here." "We're listening." "The Taelon Synod has created a program to train the finest pilots of Earth for interdimensional space travel to galaxies beyond your dreams." "We would honor your participation in this program." "Not on your life, Sir." "Three years ago they came forever altering the future of humanity." "Subtitled by Axarion" "23." "24." "Go for 30!" "25 done." "Next!" " Hit your limits?" " You're lighter." "You mean stronger." " You mean pound to pound?" " I mean period." " Oh, please." " Hey!" "Were you this cocky in the boot camp?" "Couldn't afford to be." "I was competing against marines than." "Ah, so this appears it's just a reserve for old army rangers?" "Absolutely!" "You're panting." "It's called breathing." "It's called gasping." "Oh, please." "Ten more!" "Lili?" "Paul?" "Paul Chandler!" "Look at you!" "Ah, Will Boone, Paul Chandler." " Hey." " Pleasure." "Will's my colleague." "Paul and I did F-22 training at Valdosta." " See, some things never change." " What do you mean?" "Still have the men everywhere keep their egos in perspective." "Ah, it's a dirty job." "Thankless too." "And yet you're looking lovely as always." "And you still have a line for every occasion?" "Why do I get the feeling you two had this conversation before?" "I thought you're in Florida." "I thought you're in DC." "What you've been up to?" "Way too much to explain out here." "All right then once we're on the course you just finished..." "Looser buys lunch." "Unless you're all run out, marine?" "Shake on it." "Nice to see she still cheats." "Yeah, tell me about it." " Oh, stop!" " I let him win!" "Sure you did." "Well Air Force egos are even more fragile than Ranger egos." "And besides" "I was tired and he was fresh." "Ok, which was it: you let him win or you were tired?" "You can't have both." "I let him win." "Boone." "We are old friends." "That's all." "Volume up." "The President has signed an executive order terminating the IASA manned mission to Mars." "I know this will be a disappointment for many who'd grown up with the space program." "But much has changed since the mission was first conceived." "The knowledge we hoped to gain from Mars is being handed to us freely by our Taelon friends." "I don't believe this." "And their offer of future travel is not merely to the next planet, but to the next galaxy!" "There's gotta be more to this." "This decision allows President Thompson to rechannel much needed funds to projects right here at home." "In conclusion I would like to thank men and women who've devoted their time and talents to this mission." "Your efforts have not been in vain." "Right." "Taelons must be pressuring Thompson." "He's always been a huge supporter of this space program." "Why would the Taelons wanna keep us out of the space." "It means something." "It means one thing for sure." "My friend Paul Chandler is out of a job." "Hey, two of those." "You've been here before?" "Um, you can say that." "It's kinda my... my home-away-from-home." "So, I know you gotta be crushed." " "Roll with it" always been my motto." " That's never been your motto!" "It's hard to argue with the logic." "The Companions, they give us all this information about Mars that we could ever want." "And we don't even have to leave home." "Yeah, but it was never about what we could bring back from Mars." "It was about reaching beyond we all thought was possible." " What?" " You sure know how to make a guy feel better." "Sorry." "You're the one that I can't perceive now." "That shuttle you fly!" "Wow." "Yeah." "It wasn't exactly the post I'd expected, but, ah..." ""Take it!"" "Companions offered me a position in intergalactic program." "Well..." "They, ah..." "They do provide some amazing opportunities." "My shuttle." "Man, it's everything it's cracked up to be inside." "You know how a craft you've flown has its limits and tolerances?" "Well imagine flying a bird that, ah... lands like a Harrier, hovers like a Bell JetRanger, and accelerates like a Prometheus Booster." "Sounds incredible." "I wanna hear all about it." "Since you're buying lunch," "I'd like to return the favor." "How about dinner?" " Got a date in mind?" " Tonight." "Unless you're busy." "Sure." "Am I going to fast for you?" "No." "Not at all." "And maybe sometime you could show me that shuttle of yours." "Pilot to pilot." "Well, that would be a kick in the pants." "Whoa, what's up?" "Got a date?" "I was thinking of taking the shuttle out for a couple of hours." "Fine." "Just wanted to make some technical modifications and test them out." "Good." "I'd like to take Paul up with me." "He was offered an assignment for the Taelons." "He's thinking of becoming a shuttle pilot." "Also it a good chance to ask him what he knows about the cancelation of the Mars mission." "Have fun!" "All set?" "Very comfortable." "You designed the ergonomics?" "Well..." "Actually I made quite a few adjustments since they gave me my own ship." "What's that projected on?" "This is virtual windshield." "Got your motivators, navigational clusters, and over there's your life support and antigrav." "I am impressed, Captain." "Well, once it's airborne it's like flying old Barnstormer." "I've flown Barnstormers and let me tell you, they're nothing like this." "How do you activate the drives?" "Like this." "Human physics recognizes only 12 dimensions, but Taelon physics uses 16 dimensions." "So, we're flying in one of the other four?" "Well, not yet." "But we're now!" "Oh, man!" "This is incredible!" "Any rigs against me in behind the wheel for a spin?" "Yeah, of course there are." "The images that you're looking at right now, they called touch points." "See, one of the Taelon dimensions crumples our 3D space, so that you can travel from point to point where crumples meet." "How do you navigate?" "Oh, I, ah..." "Right here." "I already set the destination coordinates." "The system do the rest." "Where're we going?" "Well, I like the Grand Canyon." "It might be nice." "But if there's any place else you'd rather go to, that's fine." "Polar ice cap?" "Great Barrier Reef?" "Well, we're still on for dinner, right?" "I hope so." "I do have a favorite restaurant." "A little romantic place." "Excellent cuisine, river view..." "Sounds fun." "Where is it?" "Paris." "Yeah." "Let's see how well you've been paying attention." "And today alone President Thompson received over 700,000 letter and e-mails from all over the world expressing sadness over the cancelation of the Mars mission." "Politicians will think twice next time they go to cancel a space flight." "Thompson's lucky this isn't election year." "Don't be so sure." "The Taelons are very popular with the voters." "It's hard for candidates to say no to them." "So, how was your night?" "Great." "Too great." "What did you find out?" "Nothing about the Mars mission." "Only that he liked the shuttle." "Wants to fly one." "Though giving some serious thoughts as to who he'll be working for doesn't seem to bother him." "You're in a tough spot." "Paul and I could probably have something together..." "But I could never tell him anything about the most important part of who I am." "Just be careful." "Let's go." "We're due in Washington 10 minutes ago." "Where's the shuttle?" "Do you know where Captain Chandler is?" "No human may be allowed to navigate the shuttle into space." "The Synod is adamant." "The shuttle's destination coordinates have been programmed by our engineers within limited parameters." "This safeguard is designed to prevent the shuttle from being flown out of the Earth atmosphere." "Our history on this planet has seen us make several inaccurate assumptions about the limits of human capabilities." "There is truth in your words." "But before we can accurately assess the danger, we must identify which human has stolen the shuttle." "This is amazing!" "What was your flight time?" "Put it this way: setting the destination coordinates was the slow part." "Any security problems?" "Obviously the print match worked ok." "Captain Marquette's fingerprints." "Your program was perfect." "By the way, it was a great Bordeaux." "Ironic, isn't it?" "Taelons take our dream away and now we have to rely on their technology to get it back." "You can argue with the politics, but not this craft." "Wait to take controls, you'll know what I mean." "400 miles in 20 seconds." "It isn't even warm." "Learn everything you can about it." "Drives, navigational systems, communications, the whole nine yards." "It's a long way to Mars." "Review your actions." "During routine diagnostics of the shuttle performance" "I invited an Air Force Captain to accompany me on my test drive." "Why would you allow this unauthorized person to travel in the shuttle, Captain?" "I've done it before." "When it serves Companion interests." "What Companion interests were you serving?" "The officer in question had been approached by the Companions to participate in Taelon sponsored space program." "I invited him up in the shuttle as a way to induce him to accept." "What is the officer's name?" "Captain Paul Chandler." "Use all of your resources to recover the craft." "Immediately!" "We have seen progress." "It appears that the shuttle is in the possession of the astronaut Paul Chandler." "I'm acquainted with this man." "If he learns the shuttle's true range of capabilities he poses a grave danger." "What are your intentions?" "My implants are already in motion." "The Synod awaits your result with high expectations." "All I'm saying is I want this man to work for us." "I mean he stole a shuttle out from under their noses!" "No, Jonathan, he lied to me." "He used and manipulated me!" "He lied to someone he thought was working for the Companions." " Good for him!" " He lied to me!" "I could never trust someone like that again." "Captain, my priority is the movement not your personal problems." "If you can't deal with that, you're no use to me." "Hold on!" "Hold on." "This whole conversation is academic until we find Chandler and talk to him." "The bigger question is why Da'an reacted so strongly when he heard Chandler's name." "Da'an and Sandoval clearly know who Chandler is." "Da'an does not overreact." "They're afraid of something." "They're worried that Chandler now has the skills to take the shuttle up into space." "Exactly!" "They don't want us up there and we need to find out why." "And Chandler might be our best shot." "So." "Find him." "How about 3rd world countries with no extradition treaties?" "I mean given the shuttle range he could be anywhere in the world." "Lili, if you wanna help him, you gotta start working with me here." "Because, if Sandoval finds him first," "Chandler can kiss his life goodbye." "What makes you think for one second that I wanna help him?" "Because finding him might help us get rid of the Taelons faster." "And because I don't believe you really want anything bad to happen to him." "Come on, you got a history with him." "Use it!" "Valdosta, flight school." "We trained together there." "It was closed in post-Companion military downsizing." "There's plenty of places on the abandoned air base to hide my shuttle." "Chandler's service record will be the first thing that Sandoval checks." "If he's dumb enough to go there, he's already in his hands." "Somewhere else." "When we were training together he used to..." "He used to talk about stars in Virginia." "He said they were so close that you could almost touch them." "He wanted to touch them." "That's where he fell in love with space." "Virginia." "Where in Virginia?" "Somewhere, I don't know, in the country..." "No, wait, wait!" "Not Virginia, it was West Virginia." "He used to stay with..." "I think it was his aunt's." "West Virginia." "Franchise Tax Board." "Real Property Records." "Surname:" "Chandler." "Address search." "Rural routes only." "List all." "No, no!" "It wasn't his aunt, it was his godmother." "She, ah..." "She used to own air parts business in, ah..." "Huntington, West Virginia." "Try that." "Do you remember her name?" "No." "No." "But he was named in her honor." "And his middle name..." "Emory." "His middle name is Emory." "All right." "Cross check:" "Emory." "Specify:" "Huntington." "Anna Mae Emory, Route 40, Green Briar, Huntington, West Virginia." "That's it." "Her name was Anna." "Hard copy." "Any luck?" "There's government limiting of the navigational coordinates." "Can't get through it." "Did you try any alternate routes into the atmosphere?" "Maybe we bypass it?" "No, it's impossible." "We have to break through programming." "They are here." "Recommendations?" "Yeah, I'm gonna go in there with my gun drawn and take back my shuttle." "Subtle." "By your lead." "Good morning." "I wouldn't suggest that!" "Hold it!" "Out front!" "Out front!" "Lili." "It's okay." "Does this mean you don't want to hear my side of it?" "Why did you steal the shuttle?" "My shuttle!" "My hero," "Jim Lovell, he flew the Apollo 13 and almost didn't make it back." "When he had to abort the mission, he was so close to the Moon he could almost touch it." "He told me when he looked out in the window and he saw the Moon he knew he would never get back there again." "Companions are doing the same thing to us." "And we simply can't allow it." "We're taking our mission back!" "We're going to Mars!" "Companions have a lot of influence, but it was President Thompson and Congress who pulled the plug." "We all know what's happening." "There isn't a politician in his right mind that will stand up against the Companions." "They're doing everything they can to keep us out of space." " Why?" " Who knows?" "But it's true." "Remember the Vespucci Probe?" "Yeah, went haywire before they landed it on Pluto." "It didn't go haywire, Lili." "IASA turned it off right after they got the video and core samples directly from Pluto." "The country is outraged about your mission being canceled." "The whole world is outraged." "Thompson has to respond." "I don't buy it." "Even if you're right the window of opportunity to get to Mars is closing fast." "It'll never happen in time." "You can join the Companions space program." "Mars will look like a trip to the mart." "No offence intended, but there isn't a chance in hell that any of us will never cooperate with the Companions." "Paul." "We don't agree with everything the Companions are doing either." "What are you saying?" "I assume if you could've gotten the shuttle to Mars you'd be there by now." "We can help you get there." "What's the catch?" "No catch." "We just want you to do a little sightseeing on your trip." "We're checking on the most likely landing sites for Chandler and eliminating them as fast as we can." "Did the Taelon Synod pressure the American government to cancel the mission to Mars?" "We studied the underlying purpose of the space program and determined that we could assist human kind by providing you with the answers you seek in space." "What answers do you believe we are seeking?" "A scientific understanding of your planet and the Solar system in which it resides." "We have given you all this data and more." "If that was the one reason why we went to space, how do you explain the huge public outcry over cancelation of the mission?" "Perhaps you can enlighten me." "Human beings are..." "We are at our best when we are reaching, grasping, stretching for new frontiers." "That is our history." "And space is our final frontier." "But the greatest challenge of the human race is to allocate those scarce resources on your planet to meet basic needs." "Why would you divert such resources to space exploration when those needs go unfulfilled?" "At our core, human beings have a basic need to dream." "And space exploration is at the heart of those dreams." "Without it we cease to be human." "That is compelling testimony." "I fear that the world would turn against the Taelons if they believe that you are responsible for eliminating our space program." "Taelon Synod did not fully comprehend human needs in this undertaking." "Is there a Taelon imperative that is being served by keeping human beings out of space?" "The interconnection of human and Taelon needs is complex." "It is necessary that in some endeavors short-term sacrifice may be required to achieve the long-term goal of an enhanced life for both of our races." "Is our space program one of those endeavors that require sacrifice?" "It is possible." "I will bring your reflections to the Synod." "Thank you." "However, the immediate problem remains." "Please, join with agent Sandoval and recover the shuttle." "Any progress on your leads?" "Not yet, but wherever he is he's not going anywhere." "Those locking codes can't be broken even by me." "I understand." "Keep me informed." "We need to talk." ""Star light, star bright..."" "Stars aren't even out yet." "Really?" "I could swear I saw one." "I need to tell you something, Lili." "You know what?" "Don't even bother." "When this started" "I needed you because of your position." "But that all your old feelings came floating back." "That's right." "I felt it too." "You ever wonder why this never happened before?" "Well I could've never lived it down if anyone found out that I was dating Air Force pilots." "What about now?" "You are an astronaut now." "So, I guess it's a whole different story." "So how come you never settled down?" "'Cos I keep falling for guys like you." "How about you?" "I married to my work." " No time for women." " Ha, right!" "In my mind" "I've landed on Mars million times, putting up those flags on Martian soil." "I wanna be able to share that with someone, Lili." "I know how that feels." "You know, this could be the last night we ever see each other." "That thought has occurred to me." "I'm so sorry." "I really hate to break this up." "Where did you do your training?" "I trained myself." "Okay, let's try it again." "My implant, William Boone, has argued persuasively about the inevitability of humans making their way into space regardless of the impediments." "Boone's reflections have proven to be accurate on many occasions." "It is imperative that this inevitability to be prevented." "I believe humans can't understand our reasons for seeking to prevent such exploration." "Perhaps, it is time to share with them that part of the truth which they can comprehend." "The Synod does not believe that their race is yet ready for this understanding." "We could present our activities in a way that would be accepted." "Otherwise we risk exposure by forces that we cannot control." "The Synod does not accept that alternative." "Do not allow this pilot to escape the Earth atmosphere." "Based on our interviews with Chandler's family, we've located a farm registered to his godmother." "We believe he may have fled there." "It is imperative that Captain Chandler be stopped." "Exercise... appropriate force." "Do you know your coordinates?" "Okay, guys, where are you at?" "Just figuring out our flight plan." "Make the adjustment for interdimensional leap." "Hold on a second." "That's it." "Okay." "Let's see what we've got." "All support proceed immediately to road Route 40, Green Briar, Huntington, West Virginia." "Map coordinates: 35.08 by 72.50." "Estimate arrival in 85 seconds." "Manheim, Hart, let's go!" " I should check your flight program..." " Lili, you heard him!" "You heard what Boone said." "We don't have time." "Thank you." "I'm in debt to you." "Believe me, I'll collect." "Lili, loose the glass." "If I don't make it back, it belongs in Paris." "You're gonna make it back." "And if I do?" "Look me up." "Lili." "Full power to quantum drive." "Pursue!" "I hope he was paying more attention to watching you fly than to watching you." "Let's get out of here." "Voice com." "We will force you to the ground!" "Destroy your craft if necessary." "More than welcome to try." "We've locked onto the shuttle." "Stay with him." "Prepare for interdimensional." "They're making a leap to interdimensional." "Follow!" "They've set their coordinates for a destination outside of the Earth atmosphere." "Good." "Navigational block will force the shuttle to bounce back into the Earth atmosphere." "When it reaches the critical point, we'll use that to get ahead of them." "It's done." "Go underneath, catch them on rebound." "They're flying to head us off after we bounce back into the atmosphere." "Such a smart move." "Yeah, if we weren't to break through the navigational block." "We'll take them here." "That's impossible!" "No human can overcome Taelon programming!" "These humans did." "Champagne?" "Dom Perignon!" "What's the occasion?" "You tell me." "They made it!" "Yeah, keep going." "Look at this." "The three partners:" "United States, Great Britain and Germany." "Where's Paul?" "Oh, I think he's laying low for a while." "I think it's safe to say that he's at the top of the Taelon hit parade." "Doubt that, Jonathan." "You stole more that their hearts." "He's left a little message there for you." "You were right." ""Roll with it" never was my motto." "Thanks to you I didn't have to." "And I will be looking you up." "Soon." "Love, Paul." "You wouldn't be breaking up champagne just for photos of Mars." "You're quite right." "Courtesy of Captains Chandler," "Hart and Manheim." "The Taelon mothership!" "You knew." "I suspected." "But this..." "I did not expect."