Émission TV: The Andromeda Strain - 1x2

What the hell?
What in the hell was that?
Mancheck, why did you drop the bomb?
Well, there must have been some kind of malfunction!
General michaelson, are your troops all right?
A little shook up, sir, but I think we'll be okay.
I'm sending patrols out To the outlying posts within minutes.
Mr.
President, seismic stations Are picking this up all over the world.
We need to decide how we're going to respond.
Tell 'em the truth.
Tell 'em we lost a plane for some...
yet unknown mechanical reasons.
Agnogenic systems failure, sir.
Somehow the tactical payload went off.
Schedule a news conference.
There'll be no way to claim that the questions this raises Are motivated by political partisanship.
And I want to know what happened out there.
You know as well as I do That nuclear arms have numerous fail-Safe systems.
That bomb did not go off accidentally!
We canceled the drop.
You heard it.
You're lying!
Knock it off, stone.
Can I see the pilot's last transmission?
Okay.
It's - It's almost disintegrating!
It's just falling apart!
The missile is rearmed!
Aah!
Now what would destroy plastic resin compounds like that?
Certain chemical agents under certain conditions Can destabilize the chemical structure of polymers.
So could certain microorganisms.
It's mutating.
Yeah, but the plane Had to by flying at least several thousand feet.
It's always been an airborne pathogen, Albeit of a very short life span.
Maybe this is a new, hardier version.
But it was miles away.
But there was a fire, remember?
And maybe this variant, Either as a separate mutation or residing in a living host- Insect, bird- Rose on that column of smoke and made contact with the jet.
No, no.
That is-That is too difficult to believe.
Does anyone have a better theory?
Does anyone even have a different theory?
Recon reports eight casualties At a forward observation post, But these were not caused by the blast.
These attacks may very well be connected To the attacks on our headquarters.
Speaking off the record, it would be a lot easier For me to do my job if I knew what we were up against.
It's some kind of virulent biological infection.
As far as we know, It may be a prelude to a much larger attack.
Get me wildfire.
The event in the diner we can explain As a lapse in quarantine.
Your smoke theory might explain how it reached that jet, But this dead army unit Was 50 miles away from piedmont.
It must have adapted and found transportation In a host.
Like influenza, jumping back and forth Between animal and human populations.
How do I quarantine that?
You have to scorch the perimeter, And drive everything living inside the area.
The rate of mutation is likely to increase post-Blast.
We have to be prepared for anything.
The entire area is under satellite surveillance.
If something new happens out there-Anything-We'll see it.
What do you need, stone?
Tell me what you need to kill this thing, And I'll get it.
I'm not stonewalling anyone, I assure you.
I simply think it is better that you wait For the president himself to answer all of your questions...
from Mancheck- Andromeda's mutation rate is increasing.
There's a very real chance that we won't be able to contain it.
Get "Air force one" ready.
I don't think- You heard me.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, The president of the united states.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
Two hours ago, one of our air force jets Suffered a fatal systems failure, And crashed in a remote part of utah.
In the process, a tactical nuclear device Was accidentally detonated.
Mr.
President.
Yes.
Was this blast near those utah national guardsmen, And are the surrounding cities in any immediate danger?
Yes, the guardsmen were there in the area On a training exercise related to border security.
The area was already under strict quarantine, So they were no way endangered by the blast.
Yes, Katherine.
What about radioactive fallout, And why were those guardsmen deployed there to begin with?
Yes, we're taking steps to contain it.
I would like to assure the american public That they're safety in no way has been compromised by this.
Bad time, charlie.
Chuck, listen.
I got a reporter-Jack Nash- Disappeared while covering The deployment of the utah national guard.
So what am I, missing persons?
Come on, charlie, contact the local authorities.
I did.
They've given me the runaround, And I happen to know that that deployment order Came out of your office.
Says who?
Nash was present for that terrorist attack On guard headquarters.
What attack?
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Really?
Take a look.
Okay.
Come on, Chuck.
I haven't heard from Nash since he sent me those photos.
Now you want me to just run with this And ask my questions on camera About a satellite going down, and that a bio-Defense team Sent in by general Mancheck to collect it are all dead?
Okay, look.
I, uh...
I'm gonna check into this, Charlie, And I will get back to you.
Are you all right?
No.
And this bomb blast has got everyone freaking.
Aunt alice is a mess.
You know, people are saying it's- It's just an attack by terrorists And the government's lying about it.
It's-It's not.
How would you know that?
I just-I just know, is all.
Yeah, right.
The great know-It-All, that's you.
I gotta go.
Lance.
Lance..
the president is taking a serious pounding over this.
He's announced that he is traveling to utah To personally oversee the situation.
so I understand.
And henderson at nnt Is all up in arms over Nash, who apparently showed up At that national guard headquarters in the desert.
I prefer not to be embarrassed by information like that.
Nash is in confinement now.
I'm on my way there.
Good.
I need to know how much information Nash has And who he's shared it with.
I also need to feel confident that he is going to shut up.
Do you think you can handle that?
How's Mancheck holding up?
I would say he's under a lot of stress right now.
We're going to take casualties on this, And Mancheck may have to be one, But that doesn't necessarily apply to his staff, Especially those who show boldness and initiative As we tie up these loose ends.
You can rely on me.
What do you know about wormholes?
What do I look like, a physicist?
Try your best.
All I know is that speculation centers around two basic types- Lorentzian and euclidean.
Both are, in theory, potentially traversable.
That's all you know?
So a method of travel From one part of the universe to the other.
Yeah, and through time.
It's like a worm eating its way through an apple Instead of around it.
Don't tell me you actually believe Mancheck's story.
It's too fantastic to be a lie.
Attagirl.
The north koreans have announced They're abandoning the seoul agreement And reopening their nuclear program Because of our recent unauthorized And illegal nuclear testing.
Well, contact pyongyang.
Send him satellite photos of the crash sequence Along with our assurance as a compliance, okay, pat?
What?
We've also had word from the U.
N.
That the general assembly is going to pass a measure That will ban all vent mining Unless and until member countries are satisfied With a revenue sharing system.
There's also a rumor at the U.
N.
That the blast in utah was staged...
oh.
As a deliberate distraction From the vent mining controversy.
Oh...
Other than that, mrs.
Lincoln, How did you like the play?
Computer, dr.
Stone examining the tenth series of exposures Of potential inhibiting agents to Andromeda.
None of the major classes of antifungals or antimicrobials Have the least effect.
Run all known bacteriophages.
commencing exposure Of Andromeda to multiple strains of bacteria.
All tests are negative.
Damn it.
Everything dies.
What kills you?
What?
Shit.
Stupid, stupid.
What?
We were in such a hurry, We forgot to pull the autopsy of the test rats.
We just assumed that the coagulation in the body Was the killer.
Where as a blood clot in the brain...
would be both lethal and would explain some of the weird And violent behavior in some of the victims.
We started picking this up ten minutes ago.
The color indicates large amounts of dead And/or decaying animal matter, But a closer look reveals a massive bird die-Off Just outside the blast zone, which is not explicable By either the detonation or the fallout.
Is this another mutation?
I've- I've never seen anything adapt this quickly before.
Andromeda's movement into the aviary population Gives it an incredibly efficient mode of transport.
Chlorazine?
Knocks down anything that flies.
You have to keep it contained.
What the hell did you guys set off out there?
Was that part of project scoop?
What is project scoop?
Well, I suspect you know more about that than I do.
I know you asked lisa stone about it.
Oh, really?
And how do you know that, colonel ferrus?
Well, she told us.
Lisa told-Yeah, I find that highly unlikely.
What'd you do, wiretap her phone, colonel?
Was it a legal wiretap?
I'll be asking the questions here, understood?
That's a military district of D.
C.
patch you're wearing.
Who you working for exactly?
You are aware that you have knowingly violated a quarantined area and trespassed on a military base?
Release me immediately, or I'll have my lawyer all over this.
Oh, I don't have to let you speak to a lawyer.
I don't even have to acknowledge that you are in our custody.
Under the homeland security act, you can be held here Indefinitely as a terrorist threat.
Listen to me, you tin-Pot fascist, I'm not some hapless middle eastern exchange student With an out-Of-Date visa.
I'm an american citizen with a very public profile.
You screw with me, and you're gonna have to answer Some really unpleasant questions.
What you are is an addict Some really unpleasant questions.
What you are is an addict With an inflated sense of self-Importance Who has screwed up in a major way.
Now I want you to tell me Everything you know about project scoop And who you've shared the information with.
If you guys are out to stop this plague, What are you doing packing biological collection equipment?
Actually, you know, I prefer it this way.
You can't hide this, ferrus!
Whatever the hell it is, you can't hide it!
The prisoner's personal belongings.
They'll need 'em as evidence in salt lake city.
That's not mine.
They'll need 'em as evidence in salt lake city.
That's not mine.
That's not mine!
That's not my bag!
You are the chief medical officer For the utah highway patrol?
I am.
What can I do for you this fine day?
I need some medical information on sheriff willis, Who shot three people and then himself At a diner in brush ridge.
I really need it right away.
Uh, well, I'm sorry.
I'd love to help you out, But our medical information is confidential.
This is a matter of public safety.
Uh, well, sweetie, that may be, but Dr.
Smithson, I'm gonna give you a direct line To general george Mancheck at the pentagon, And I suggest you call him and jerk him around, In which case you might find yourself blindfolded And taped to a stretcher in a military stockade.
Where did you say you were calling from?
Sherriff willis must have been exposed Driving through piedmont sunday night.
Later, he shows up at the diner.
He was diabetic, inconsistent with his insulin use.
He'd had two incidences of ketoacidosis in the last year.
Well, did the acidosis somehow delay The onset of the Andromeda infection?
Most die immediately with exposure.
Those that don't, exhibit violent behavior within minutes.
Willis lasted a longer time, while tobler and the ritter baby Continued to remain symptom-Free.
Why?
Well, these are the temple lobe samples From our lab rats.
Note the enormous amounts of Andromeda.
Coagulation starts immediately, And death usually follows with congestion in the lungs.
If coagulation is inhibited, then Andromeda moves To the brain, creating a hemorrhage, Provoking violent behavior.
But that doesn't explain Why diabetic willis lasted for hours with Andromeda And an alcoholic man and a colicky baby Continue to remain uninjured.
What do they have in common?
Hey!
Oh!
Hey, what's going on back there?
Mayday.
This is warrior two.
We're blowin' smoke here.
Mayday.
This is warrior two.
I'm settin' her down.
We have zero visibility.
Stop!
Stop, or I'll shoot!
Let's move two more companies into sectors nine.
- Sir.
We've got a helo down just outside the quarantine area.
Survivors?
Negative.
We're unable to raise anybody on-site.
Get a team in there right away.
Yes, sir.
Get me general Mancheck.
Sir.
I've never seen a cellular structure like that.
Take a look at the fourier electron density scans.
It's uneven.
That doesn't make any sense, Unless this group of organisms was- Part of a larger group.
Right.
So is Andromeda Self-Sustaining like a bacterium, Or is part of a larger unit, Like a- Like an organ?
messenger theory.
what is messenger theory?
It's a theory in astrobiology That's been kicking around for years Space travel is long and arduous.
Instead of tacking a gold plate With pictures onto a satellite Like we did with voyager, maybe a more efficient way Of sending a message is in a seedlike culture Of bacterium or viruses.
You're saying Andromeda is a signal Created by an intelligent species And then sent across the universe?
Or perhaps through the wormhole.
Well, I don't know about that.
Well, what if Andromeda is like a human stem cell- It has the capability to change itself Into many different components depending on What it's encountering or what it's ultimately designed for?
Okay, as long as we're playing "what if," Maybe it's not the message, Maybe it's the messenger.
I mean, we all assume that alien life is large, Singular and complex, but what if it was a colony?
You're missing the point.
Whether Andromeda is the newspaper Or it's the delivery boy who is dropping it off, The message is loud and clear- Drop dead.
We've got a problem.
Nash has disappeared again.
We don't have a problem, colonel.
You have a problem.
If Nash gets to his editor, he'll put two and two together.
Yeah.
Well, he's got no water- I want you to find him.
I want you to make him disappear.
Yes, sir.
I miss you bad, babe.
The bed's cold, and the house is two sizes too big.
Oh, you sweet thing.
How are the kids?
Tired of daddy's cooking.
You cook now?
Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.
You know that.
Mm, desperate, huh?
So...
tell me how desperate you are In great detail.
Do you believe in time travel?
Sure, as much as I believe In santa claus and the easter bunny, Which is to say, I love the idea, But I'm dubious about the reality.
But I'm all for it.
For someone like me who's always running late, It would be a godsend.
According to chou, a lorentzian wormhole Is theoretically traversable, not only in terms of distance, but in time.
Andromeda comes from the past?
The future?
Well, the sophistication of the technology Involved in the black material would argue for the future.
Why would you threaten your own past like that?
I don't know.
It would be nice, though, wouldn't it To be able to go back, change things?
I- I think a linear time frame Is a key part of what it means to be human.
If our really important choices Could be sampled Like a box of chocolates, Then our decisions would lose their meaning.
What would be at stake?
Everything good at home?
Oh, yeah.
How about you?
You got a girlfriend back home tying ribbons around oak trees?
No ball and chain for me.
Can't get a date, huh?
If you don't ask, I won't tell.
I always thought that was a stupid ass policy.
You know, it's ironic that the army's extensive battery Of psychological tests has conclusively determined That the person they're most afraid of Is the best suited to make the right choice In this crisis.
So what are we looking at?
Andromeda's chemical composition.
It's weird.
It's not carbon based.
It's sulfur based.
Sulfur?
Damn.
You're a long way from home, little bug.
I owe you an apology.
Stanford.
I was a big girl, Jeremy.
I'm sure it wasn't the first time That a researcher and his associate became involved.
Well, it was for me.
Look.
I realize that's not popular opinion, but it's the truth, And if I really had the courage of my convictions, Instead of breaking it off with you, I...
I would have left lisa instead.
The truth is, I haven't ever really stopped thinking about you.
dr.
Stone, tsi here.
I found something.
You're, like, I don't-I don't know, "Clan of the bear cave" or something.
Cave bear.
Daryl hannah is so hot, But no. "
Quest for fire. "
Rae dawn chong -Very hot. "
Iceman. "
Cold.
Ohh!
I know, I know! "
One million years b.
C."
Raquel welch is smoking, though.
Oh, screw you.
Another clue?
Sparta!
Spartan women are so hot.
We should go.
I gotta go.
Ow!
Holy... "
Night of the living dead"? "
28 days later"? "
Planet terror"? "
pet sematary"?
I mean- They're-They're not classic zombies.
I mean, they come- They're dead, they come back, but not classic In, like, the traditional sense.
gordo, that's not funny!
Gordo, what's wrong with you?
Ohh!
Here at the molecular level, The black material is composed of octahedral beads.
Buckyballs.
Exactly, but notice a slight variation in color.
Each molecule has 60 carbon atoms, But some are bonded with potassium, While others are bonded with rubidium, Giving us this slight color variation.
And why is that?
Why, indeed?
The differences between potassium and rubidium Are negligible- Neither offers any advantage In strength or conductivity, so the question is, Why would the designer of this material Use two different elements?
It seems like an extraordinary amount of work to go to For no apparent good reason.
That's what I think.
Dr.
Stone, System reports completion of assigned series.
We have a single positive encounter.
I was taking a shot in the dark For potential Andromeda inhibitors, But nothing seemed to work- Apparently until now.
Let's see what we got.
This is x234.
Computer, show test.
My god, it's working.
What is that?
It's an experimental bacteriophage.
Computer, Retest another sample of Andromeda And display result.
Was the first time an anomaly?
You saw the recording.
Then Andromeda adapted to the threat?
Tsi, this is a completely different sample of Andromeda.
How is that possible?
Well, you have yourself a great time in california, okay?
And you be careful.
If the pollsters are right, You're gonna be in more danger than me.
And you, young lady, you be a big girl And take care of your mommy for me.
Okay.
Okay?
Give me a kiss.
Welcome, mr.
President.
I apologize.
Our accommodations are somewhat spartan.
General, I'm not here on vacation.
Bring me up to speed.
Andromeda has mutated again And is now in the bird population.
We're killing everything in the quarantined area.
The national guard reports, uh, nine killed in action, Probably related to Andromeda infection, And the loss of one helicopter and its crew Due to mechanical failure.
We've also had an event outside the quarantine zone That looks like Andromeda.
How'd it get out there?
We're not sure.
I thought we had this thing boxed in.
So now Andromeda communicates?
How else do you explain it?
- Contamination.
It wouldn't be the first time The great stone has made a mistake.
I was there when he reran the tests- The same results.
Time-Out.
How about everybody take a breath, okay?
What have we got here, Potentially?
An alien creature That can be broken into multiple parts Separated by space, but somehow connected.
One part's still able to learn from the others.
How might that work?
Maybe...
some property of light, harmonics Or, uh, radiation serves As a neural network.
It has a crystal-Like structure.
Crystals vibrate.
They also receive and bend light.
Maybe- -Maybe Andromeda Created a subtle energy field- A harmonic field which links up its disparate parts.
So we haven't just got the killer bug of all time.
We have a bug that communicates with itself over distance.
And learns from experience And adapts quickly.
Remember, Andromeda was initially lethal only to humans.
Then we isolated it- Thought we isolated it.
But by that time, it had already mutated and was jumping In and out of animal populations and spreading.
Then we made the mistake of trying to bomb it.
Then the third mutation- A resin-Eating variant Destroyed the airplane.
Now there's a fourth mutation Affecting birds, which allows Andromeda To spread further and faster than before.
The president has joined us here at northcom.
Mr.
President.
Hello, dr.
Stone.
Please continue.
Uh, we are just discussing the possibility that Andromeda Somehow may be capable Of communicating with its disparate parts.
There is by no means a consensus On this idea, mr.
President.
General Mancheck, does- Does Andromeda appear to be spreading out unilaterally Or moving in one particular direction?
It's most concentrated in an area Just to the north of the blast zone And appears to be moving in a northwesterly direction.
that's the direction of the storm front, yes?
Yes, the same.
Andromeda is being driven by natural forces.
That is completely logical.
General, what prominent features - Geographic or man-made Would Andromeda encounter next?
The henry river.
The henry river flows into the colorado river.
Millions of miles of watershed, Connecting waterways, rivers, irrigation ditches.
Including lake mead, which puts it within striking distance Of las vegas.
How many flights a day out of vegas?
Hundreds.
One international flight, and Andromeda's worldwide.
I'll expand the quarantine zone, order an evacuation.
And shut down all airports In the vegas region.
This could be our only chance to contain it.
all right, go up.
Come back, good.
Keep going.
Keep going.
All right, hold it.
Guards, move out!
You okay, baby?
I'm fine.
I just felt bad 'cause I forgot to ask you about your mother.
How's she doing?
Mama?
What- Uh, yeah.
She's, uh, she's all right I guess, you know.
Same ol', same ol'.
Mm-Hmm.
Well, maybe you're right.
Maybe you should go see her.
Take the kids.
She'd love that.
Now be sure to give her my love.
What's goin' on, charlene?
Nothin'.
Just bein' silly is all.
I gotta go now.
I got work to do.
I love you, baby.
I love you.
Get out of there, adrian.
We gotta go.
No...
no!
Accidents are the number one cause of death Of people under 40.
Worse than heart attacks or cancer.
It's the little things, you know, The small stuff that people overlook- It's gonna kill you every time.
Oh, stop scaring her, Annie.
Is that sterno?
A little hair of the dog.
It's poisonous.
And illegal.
So is homicide.
My head hurt.
Take an aspirin next time.
Drinking sterno will kill you.
If you're so smart, How come I'm still alive and everyone else is dead?
Now who's trying to scare her?
Look.
Don't get me wrong.
I'd just as soon have a big bowl of chili With a cold beer and a cigarette, But choosers can't be beggars.
Beggars can't be choosers.
See?
There's nothing wrong with your hearing.
You just don't listen so good.
Have an ulcer.
Ruby red.
I can't eat grapefruit.
It messes with my blood sugar.
You just don't listen so good.
So what does a drunk Who self-medicates with sterno and aspirin Have in common with a baby?
I could not make sense of it until I learned That sheriff willis was diabetic And often suffered from acidosis.
And Tobler suffered acidosis From all the aspirin he was taking.
Mm-Hmm.
But it's not like the baby was knocking back handfuls Of acetylsalicylic acid.
No, but Tobler said she was always crying.
She was colicky.
If sylvie breathed rapidly long enough, Carbon dioxide would build up in her system And she would become acidotic.
so you're saying they survived Andromeda Because they have the same level of stomach acid.
That's brilliant.
Mr.
Henderson, I am very sorry to inform you That while jack Nash was being evacuated From guard headquarters, the helicopter he was in Suffered mechanical failure and went down.
Jack's dead?
I'm afraid so, sir.
I'm having a hard time locating the next of kin.
Did mr.
Nash have family or friends?
Where are you calling from?
I'm gonna have to ask you again, sir.
Did jack Nash have family or friends?
What's your name?
Where are you calling from?
No, my friends, Not today.
Dinner is most definitely Not served!
Okay, um...
I don't know how this works exactly, But, uh...
I'm sorry.
I'll do better.
Uh, I'll-I'll be nice to people.
Please save my ass.
Amen.
Okay, how about this?
I'll never do drugs again- Ever.
I swear.
No drugs, no booze, no cigarette- No drugs, no booze- How about that?
Yeah, same to you, pal.
I take it back.
Okay, I take it back.
Okay.
We've got a vulnerability.
Andromeda can only exist within a very narrow range Of acidity and alkalinity.
It pretty much falls within the parameters Of human tolerance- 7.5-7.0.
So anything we hit Andromeda with Which is acidic or basic enough to kill it Might also be lethal to humans.
And to make matters worse, If our test results are correct, whatever we attack with, Andromeda will eventually adjust.
We'd have to hit every bit of the infection Virtually simultaneously to prevent its adaptation.
Yeah.
And disrupt its communicative abilities at the same time.
You know, if you set out To deliberately exterminate mankind, You couldn't do better than Andromeda.
Hello?
Get back!
I mean it.
Okay.
What do you want?
Well, first of all, I want a glass of water the size of a chevy, But, uh, then I really need to make a phone call.
Do-Do you have a cell phone?
What happened to you?
Name's jack Nash.
I'm a reporter with nnt.
You probably know my face.
I just watch colbert.
Right. "
South park," sometimes.
Look.
There was a helicopter crash.
I'm the only survivor.
I have some important information I need to deliver, And I really, really need to make a phone call, And-Need some help with the tire?
Honestly, isn't that getting a little heavy?
how long before this Santa Anna condition reaches the infected area, and then how long after that until it gets to Los Angeles?
At the rate that it's moving, it'll be at the edge Of the quarantine zone in 24 hours, Which puts it about 200 miles from los angeles.
Should we evacuate I.A.?
Evacuate to where, ed?
Can you imagine what it would be like If we actually asked the entire los angeles basin to leave?
Why should the united states distract them?
Like the california gold rush, we are looking At a once-In-A-Lifetime opportunity here...
mr.
president, We have a developing situation in the mid-Atlantic.
The extremely radical environmental group- Ocean saviors-Has mounted an armed assault Against our vent mining platform.
This came on their web site just moments ago.
At 5:47 this afternoon, An ocean savior assault team Seized control of vent mining platform number one.
During the course of this action, One of our brothers has died.
We were driven to this course by the self-Serving Greedy policies of president scott And his cabal of industrial apologists.
Ocean savior says no to vent mining.
Ocean savior says no To the rape of the ocean.
We have taken hostages, And we've now wired the platform with explosives.
Any attempt to interfere with us Will result in the most serious consequences.
We will provide a list of our demands In our next communique.
the navy has two frigates and a submarine In the vicinity, plus a team of navy seals.
Let's see what they want first.
Enough people have died today.
Besides, if we don't stop Andromeda, It's not gonna much matter anyway, will it?
That thing that bill was saying About disrupting Andromeda's communicative abilities- It got me thinking about messenger theory again.
The idea that Andromeda might be a coded message from the future.
You think its lethal qualities are accidental, not intentional?
No, no.
I agree that Andromeda was designed to kill humans.
Now I realize this is highly speculative, But maybe the message, if there is one, Is in the casing.
Maybe it is the casing.
Hmm.
Now each molecule of the black material Is cemented by one of two bonding agents- Uh, potassium or rubidium.
They serve no structural purpose, And alternate in a seemingly random manner.
Why go to such trouble?
Is it random- Two agents?
Why not three or four?
Because it's binary.
It's a binary code.
Each sequence is approximately 200 molecules long, But if you look, There's a pattern within the larger pattern.
Eight.
Patterns of eight.
In a typical binary computer code, Each 8-Bit sequence would stand for a letter.
Computer, treat molecular sequence as binary code, And search for key.
Why would our enemies send us a message?
Well, maybe they didn't.
Maybe somebody else did.
Okay, I know this is going to sound fantastic, But let's say that Mancheck wasn't lying about the wormhole, And that, in fact, it was the source of Andromeda- Wormholes as we understand them are a theoretical connections Between distance and time, right?
What if Andromeda was sent to us by our future?
Okay, I think somebody's been working too hard And drinking way too much coffee.
Why send something back that could destroy your own past?
It would be a move of absolute desperation.
A wake-Up call, a cry for help.
They couldn't beat Andromeda.
And we can?
Come on, future technology must be superior to ours.
All right, maybe it's not about technology.
Maybe they lack something that we have- That-That we still have.
Something to do with ph.
Resources- Natural resources.
Something we used up or destroyed- Some fossil fuels or some species Of plant or animal life in the rain forest.
And the answer is...
okay, if I'm sending a message back To some lab-Coated geek in the past, I'd keep it simple.
I'd use the basic american computer code for documents, And the roman alphabet.
Ascii.
Computer, approach pattern As ascii code and translate.
What the hell is bacillus infernus?
Bacterium from hell.
What's that number?
I did some work on this once.
It-It's an extremely rare member of the archaea genus, Found only one place on the planet- At the bottom of the sea, nearly 3 kilometers deep, Next to thermal vents.
The bacterium thrive Under the most extreme conditions imaginable, Including very acidic ph.
It practices chemosynthesis to survive.
In fact, its main food source Is the sulfur-Based effluent from the vents themselves.
The chemical composition of Andromeda is based on sulfur.
I bet infernus looks at Andromeda the same way A pit bull would look at a big, juicy steak.
The plan to mine those vents of their mineral deposits Is gonna be very destructive.
It-It's a kind of underwater strip-mining.
Maybe that's why they needed to send a message from the future.
The bacteria no longer exist there, Because we destroyed it.
We've set plenty of precedent for this kind of weapon.
We spray both mosquitoes and gypsy moths With lethal bacterium.
What about Andromeda's ability to mutate?
That's the beauty of this line of attack.
Andromeda can't change its basic atomic composition, Which is sulfur based.
You can run, but you can't hide.
All right.
Does this bacterium have any adverse effect on humans?
Nothing we could find.
So we spray infernus in the air, in the water- Wherever Andromeda is, and the bacteria consume it.
Hold on now.
We're getting ahead of ourselves.
It makes really good theoretical sense, But we have to test it out.
Oh, this is horseshit!
I gotta go with Chuck on this, sir.
I mean, it's just too fantastic.
All right.
Dr.
Stone, look.
I'm finding all this a little difficult to accept.
Andromeda is a biological assault- Possibly a precursor to an invasion, But of the future?
And it was sent to us by them for our help Because of this bacteria?
Mr.
President, I-I recognize how crazy it sounds, But it explains everything we know about Andromeda.
They sent it back, safely contained Within the black material we found.
They could not have anticipated Its interception by the scoop satellite Or its subsequent release in piedmont.
This is purely speculative.
There's nothing real here, sir.
How do you explain the binary code then-coincidence?