"(PLANE WHOOSHING)" "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." "(MEN CHATTERING)" "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 them the truth." "Tell them 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 wanna know what happened out there." "You know as well as I do that nuclear arms have numerous failsafe systems." "That bomb did not go off accidentally!" "We cancelled the drop." "You heard it." "You're lying!" "Knock it off, Stone." "Can I see the pilot's last transmission?" "Okay." "It's all just disintegrating!" "It's just falling apart!" "The missile is rearmed!" "(SCREAMING)" "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 be 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?" "(SOFT WHIRRING)" "MICHAELSON:" "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've 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." "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, and he should be here..." "From Mancheck." "(WHISPERING) 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." "REPORTER 1:" "Mr. President!" "REPORTER 2:" "Mr. President!" "Yes, Bruno, 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 in no way endangered by the blast." "REPORTER 3:" "Mr. President, sir, over here." "REPORTER 4:" "Mr. President!" "Yes, Kathleen." "KATHLEEN:" "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 their safety in no way has been compromised by this." "(CELL PHONE RINGING) I'll be flying out there immediately." "Next question." "REPORTER 5:" "Mr. President." "Mr. President..." "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're giving 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 Biodefense team sent in by General Mancheck to collect it are all dead?" "Okay, look, I..." "I gotta check into this, Charlie, and I will get back to you." "STONE:" "Are you all right?" "LANCE:" "No." "This bomb blast has got everyone freaking!" "Aunt Alice is a mess." "You know, people are saying it's just an attack by terrorists and the government's lying about it." "It's..." "It's not." "How do you know that?" "I just..." "I just know, is all." "Yeah, right." "The Great Know-It-AII." "That's you." "I gotta go." "(PHONE CLICKS) 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." "FERRUS:" "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'd 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." "GUARD:" "Welcome, ma'am." "Atta girl." "GUARD:" "Dupree is on the carpet..." "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 them satellite photos of the crash sequence along with our assurances of compliance, okay, Pat?" "What?" "We've also had word from the UN 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 UN that the blast in Utah was staged as a deliberate distraction from the vent-mining controversy." "Oh." "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" "Dr. Stone examining the tenth series of exposures of potential inhibiting agents to Andromeda." "None of the major classes of anti-fungals or anti-microbials have the least effect." "Run all known bacteriophages." "COMPUTER:" "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 fully autopsy 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 the weird and violent behavior in some of the victims." "We started picking this up 10 minutes ago." "The color indicates large amounts of dead andlor 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?" "(SIGHING) 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." "(DOOR CLOSING)" "What the hell did you guys set off out there?" "Is 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?" "'Cause she told us." "(CHUCKLES) Lisa told you?" "Yeah, I find that highly unlikely." "What did 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 DC patch you're wearing." "Who are you working for, exactly?" "You are aware that you have knowingly violated a quarantine area and trespassed on a military base." "Release me immediately or I'll have my lawyer all over this..." "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 little tinpot 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 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 them 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." "Well, I'm sorry." "I'd love to help you out," "(LAUGHS AWKWARDLY) but our medical information's confidential." "This is a matter of public safety." "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?" "Sheriff 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 continue to remain symptom-free." "Why?" "Well, these are the temporal lobe samples from our lab rats." "Note the enormous amounts of Andromeda." "Coagulation starts immediately, and death usually follows from 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?" "(COUGHING) Hey!" "PILOT:" "Hey, what's going on back there?" "Mayday, this is Warrior Two!" "We're filled with smoke here." "Mayday, this is Warrior Two." "I'm setting her down." "We have zero visibility." "(GUN COCKING)" "Stop!" "Stop or I'll shoot!" "(SCREAMING)" "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!" "(COUGHING)" "I've never seen a cellular structure like that." "Take a look at the Fourier electron-density scans." "It's uneven." "Well, 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 it part of a larger unit, like a..." "Like an organ?" "Messenger Theory." "Messenger Theory." "ANGELA:" "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 seed-like 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." "But 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 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." "He's not gonna last." "(WHISTLES)" "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?" "(CHUCKLES) Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures." "You know that." "Hmm." "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?" "Be able to go back, change things." "I think a linear timeframe 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." "(INTERCOM BEEPS)" "Dr. Stone?" "Tsi here." "I've found something." "(SCREAMING)" "(LAUGHING)" "(LAUGHING) 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." "That Rae Dawn Chong, very hot." "Iceman." "Cold." "(GROANS)" "I know!" "I know!" "One Million Years B.C." "(LAUGHS) Raquel Welch is smoking though." "Oh, screw you." "Another clue?" "Sparta!" "(BOTH LAUGHING)" "Spartan women are so hot." "(SIGHS)" "We should go." "I gotta go." "(GIGGLES)" "(SIGHS)" "(SQUEAKING)" "Ow!" "(CHUCKLES)" "(GROANING)" "Night of the Living Dead?" "28 Days Later?" "Planet Terror?" "Pet Sematary?" "I mean, they're not classic zombies." "I mean, they come back." "They're dead, they come back, but not classic in, like, the traditional sense." "Gordo, that's not funny!" "(SCREAMING)" "(CAR STARTING)" "Gordo, what's wrong with you?" "(TIRES SQUEALING)" "(SCREAMING)" "Here, at the molecular level, the black material is made up 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." "(COMPUTER BEEPS)" "COMPUTER:" "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 X-234." "Computer, show test." "(COMPUTER BEEPS)" "My God, it's working." "What is that?" "It's an experimental bacteriophage." "Computer, retest another sample of Andromeda and display result." "TSl:" "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 apologies, 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 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 re-ran the test." "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 still able to learn from the others." "How might that work?" "(SIGHING)" "Maybe some property of light, harmonics," "or 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." "TSl:" "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." "(COMPUTER BEEPING) The President has joined us here at NORTHCOM." "Mr. President." "Hello, Dr. Stone." "Please continue." "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." "KEENE:" "That's the direction of the storm front, yes?" "MANCHECK:" "Yes, the same." "Andromeda is being driven by natural forces." "It 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, come on." "Go back." "Back." "Keep going!" "Keep going!" "All right, hold it." "SAM:" "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..." "Yeah, she's..." "She's all right, I guess." "You know, same old, same old." "Mmm-hmm." "Well, maybe you're right." "Maybe you should go see her." "Take the kids." "She'd love that." "And be sure to give her my love." "What's going on, Charlene?" "Nothing." "Just being 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." "(MUFFLED SCREAMING)" "(GASPING)" "No." "No!" "Accidents are the number one cause of death to 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?" "TOBLER:" "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, messes with my blood sugar." "TOBLER:" "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." "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." "STONE:" "So, you're saying they survived Andromeda because they had 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?" "(SQUAWKING)" "No, my friends, not today." "Dinner is most definitely not served!" "(EXHALES)" "Okay, I don't know how this works exactly, but..." "I'm sorry." "I'll do better." "I'll be nice to people." "Please save my ass." "Amen." "Okay." "How about this?" "I will 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." "(CAR APPROACHING)" "(SCREAMING)" "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 to 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." "(VULTURES SQUAWKING)" "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 then I really need to make a phone call." "Do you have a cell phone?" "What happened to you?" "My 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?" "PRESIDENT:" "How long before this Santa Ana 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 LA?" "Evacuate to where, Ed?" "Can you imagine what it would be like if we actually asked the entire Los Angeles basin to leave?" "Why shouldn't the United States extract them?" "Like the California Gold Rush, we are looking at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here." "And we are talking about billions..." "CHUCK:" "Mr. President?" "We have a developing situation in the mid-Atlantic." "An extremely radical environmental group, Ocean Saviors, has mounted an armed assault against our vent-mining platform." "This came on their website 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 oceans."" "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." "CHUCK:" "The Navy has two frigates and a submarine in the vicinity, plus a team of Navy SEALs." "PRESIDENT:" "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." "Mmm-hmm." "Now each molecule of the black material are cemented by one of two bonding agents, 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?" "KEENE:" "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." "KEENE:" "In a typical binary computer code, each eight-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 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 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 rainforest." "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." "Yeah." "I'd use the basic American computer code for documents in the Roman alphabet." "ASCII." "Computer, approach pattern as ASCII code and translate." "What the hell is "Bacillus Infernus"?" "Bacterium from hell." "CHARLENE:" "What's that number?" "I did some work on this once." "It's an extremely rare member of the Archaea genus, found only one place on the planet, at the bottom of the sea, nearly three 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 going to be very destructive." "It's a kind of underwater strip mining." "Maybe that's why they needed to send a message from the future." "The bacterium no longer exists 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 affect 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." "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 bacterium?" "Mr. President, 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." "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 7-3-9-5-2-8, but it's continuing to work at it." "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 its lethality on Andromeda." "The lab I worked with at UCLA 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." "This 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." "(SQUAWKING)" "Look at that!" "What the..." "Hey, they're coming right at us!" "What the..." "Get off me!" "(SQUAWKING)" "(SCREAMING)" "(SCREAMING)" "(SQUAWKING)" "(GRUNTING)" "(SCREAMING)" "(SQUAWKING)" "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." "WOMAN ON PA:" "Flight 82 to Honolulu is now boarding at Gate 5." "Mr. Barton, would you come with me, please?" "(DOOR OPENING)" "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." "MAN:" "Here's the latest reconnaissance." "I can cut short your wife's trip the minute you give the 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 that we..." "Go on, leave me alone." "Go on, get out of here!" "STONE:" "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 them 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." "Bravo team... (CARS HONKING)" "It works." "The bacterium works." "Excellent work, Dr. Stone." "We've started production and should have usable quantities within 10 hours." "Ten hours is cutting it close." "How so?" "Andromeda has developed another mutation that attacks aquatic life, and it's gotten into the watershed of the Colorado River." "And 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." "(INTERCOM BEEPS) INTERCOM:" "Priority call for Dr. Barton." "SAM:" "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." "MAN:" "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." "(EXHALES)" "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?" "(EXHALES)" "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 really ironic is that what may end up saving mankind, the pinnacle of creation, is this very simple, primitive bacterium from the slime on the bottom of the ocean, a creature that we were prepared to obliterate without a moment's thought." "There's a profound lesson in humility there, I think." "Not usually your strong suit." "I'm working on it." "Yeah." "KEENE ON INTERCOM:" "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." "(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)" "Let's go!" "SOLDIER 1:" "Klein, clear the line." "(SOLDIERS CHATTERING)" "SOLDIER 2:" "Lift it up!" "SOLDIER 3:" "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 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?" "You a religious man, Chuck?" "Sir?" "I don't mean every four years." "I mean, do you have faith?" "(HELICOPTER WHOOSHING)" "Yes, sir." "Well, then, you can pray." "(CROW CAWING)" "Hey." "Howdy." "Nice." "Yeah, it's real pretty, but 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 then 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..." "I can't." "I made a promise." "I know that sounds lame, but there it is." "Jack?" "What's going on out there?" "(SCREAMING)" "(GROANING)" "Time to go!" "(CAR STARTING)" "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 screaming, "Feed me."" "(COMPUTER BEEPS)" "COMPUTER:" "Urgent message for Dr. Stone." "Go for Dr. Stone." "Dr. Stone, we should have our helos near 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." "(BEEPING)" "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?" "I 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 preaching 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 weapon in here?" "A gun, a knife, a sling-shot?" "No." "Check the glove box." "Can opener?" "Great." "We'll buy them 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." "COMPUTER:" "Wildfire is infected." "(ALARM BLARING)" "Wildfire Lab is now initiating lockdown procedures and beginning countdown to auto self-destruct." "What's happening?" "15 minutes and counting." "(BEEPING)" "What the hell is that?" "COMPUTER:" "There has been a breach in containment in the sample vault." "Computer, give me the sample vault." "STONE:" "What's going on, Charlene?" "What's happening?" "(GLASS SHATTERING)" "Charlene, we're on our way." "(GRUNTING)" "(ALARM CONTINUES BLARING)" "(GROANING)" "Tsi, what is it?" "Turn him on his side." "KEENE:" "Is it Andromeda?" "No." "It's a grand mal seizure." "Did you know he was epileptic?" "The failsafe panel is ruined." "I can't shut down the self-destruct sequence from here." "Where's the next closest control panel?" "STONE:" "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." "Hold him steady." "Computer, show all mechanical conduits into the central maintenance shaft." "Break in and climb up." "That's a brilliant idea." "I'll check on Barton." "(CHARLENE PANTING)" "Charlene?" "What happened?" "I need you to talk to me." "Talk to me, or I can't help you!" "(CRYING) 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." "(CRYING) I'm sorry!" "I'm so sorry!" "I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry!" "All right, take..." "Take it easy." "Slow down." "How are you feeling?" "How the hell do you think I feel?" "(SCREAMING)" "COMPUTER:" "Wildfire Lab will self-destruct in 11 minutes." "PRESIDENT ON RADIO:" "General, how do we shut down the auto-destruct sequence?" "Is there anything we can do?" "No, there's nothing 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 doing right now will matter." "Andromeda will be spread over a huge area." "We will never be able to contain it!" "(SCREAMING)" "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 out of 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." "(ALARM CONTINUES BLARING)" "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." "(GRUNTING)" "Get out, Leila!" "Run!" "What about you?" "Run!" "Just get the hell out of 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!" "(EXCLAIMS)" "(BULLETS RICOCHETING)" "(GRUNTS)" "(GRUNTING)" "Angela, follow our progress on the monitor." "Help us get to the next level." "COMPUTER:" "Ten minutes and counting." "(BOTH GRUNTING)" "Jeremy, you okay?" "I'm not wild about heights." "Don't look down." "Stare straight ahead." "The joints are compromised!" "And the pipes are deteriorating!" "(GRUNTING)" "(SCREAMS)" "Give me your hand!" "(GRUNTING)" "Come, on, Bill." "You can make it." "Give me your hand." "Just reach out and give me your hand." "Then we're both going to fall!" "Just do it." "Give me your hand." "We need you." "(SCREAMS)" "You need this!" "(SCREAMING)" "Angela." "Angela, I have the key." "But 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." "COMPUTER:" "Four minutes and counting." "Jeremy!" "(STONE EXCLAIMS)" "Three minutes and counting." "I need your help, Angela." "I don't know where I'm going." "Angela, do you copy me?" "Move six feet up and three feet to your right." "There's a..." "What looks to be a large heatinglcooling conduit that might work." "I see it!" "(GRUNTS)" "(STEAM HISSING)" "(SCREAMS)" "I can't see." "I can't see." "(CREAKING)" "Everything's falling apart." "(GRUNTS)" "COMPUTER:" "Two minutes and counting." "Any word from the Wildfire facility?" "Nothing, sir." "The self-destruct sequence is still activated." "(CRYING) Jeremy, are you okay?" "Which way?" "The panel is behind you, 15 feet." "(GRUNTING)" "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 cancelled." "You have got to be kidding me." "A signal." "(NUMBER DIALING)" "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 DC colonel named Ferrus, he's the link." "He also tried to kill me, twice." "And... that's it." "(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)" "Hey." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "Over here!" "Over here!" "Over here!" "Hey!" "Well, it's been that kind of day." "You okay?" "Yeah." "I didn't think sobriety was going to be this painful." "(CHUCKLES)" "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!" "We got it!" "(MANCHECK CHEERING)" "We got it!" "Son of a bitch!" "REPORTER:" "Today, America mourns the loss of two citizens who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country." "Dr. William Keene, US Army, and Dr. Tsi Chou, a brilliant scientist who immigrated to this country in a much-celebrated case some 10 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." "(LAUGHS) God, he looks terrible." "Only a few details are presently available from what remains a highly-classified operation." "Hero of the day." "(REPORTER CONTINUES)" "He did good, okay?" "I mean, yeah, he's not perfect, but he deserves credit for what he did." "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 your same observation, that the Andromeda infection is dead and nothing survived your assault." "Extraordinary achievement, sir, a real heroic victory." "You think that's how our part in all this is gonna be remembered?" "As heroes?" "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 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 NSA 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?" "(SCOFFS)" "(CLEARS THROAT)" "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 are you doing?" "Not with me here!" "(GUNSHOTS)" "PRIEST:" "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..." "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."