End of the World

Water's boiling I'll have fresh coffee in a minute.

Please need to call the police

before it's too late.

Before it's too late for what, Father?

Must use your telephone.

Help yourself.

I don't seem to have a...

It's all right, Father.

- It's on me. - Thank you.

The sheriff's a good friend of mine.

He'll take care of all your troubles.

We need help.

Help.

All of us.

Make your call, Father.

I'll go fix the coffee.

Welcome back to St. Catherine's, Father.

Communications Control, please.

This is Andrew Boran.

Code word equator.

I wanna speak to Commander Beckerman.

Hello, Commander.

Andrew Boran.

I've just been deciphering

some signals from outer space,

and the patterns are,

are, well, consistent,

as though they're trying to form words or sentences.

Have you picked up anything similar?

No, I wish I could tell you more.

It's just a feeling I have.

Okay, thanks anyway.

It's 5:30, Professor,

and you are a guest of honor

at that banquet this evening.

Yeah, thanks, Larry.

I knew it.

You're not ready.

If you wanna stop by the plant

on the way to the banquet,

you'd better hurry.

Hmm, what's this?

I just thought of something better to do.

Oh, you had the same thought this morning.

What's happening to you?

Are you complaining?

Only that these little attacks

didn't start 10 years ago.

You're right.

We're wasting time.

Andrew, come on, we'll be late.

Well, so we'll miss the food part.

Who cares?

We could at least go back to the bedroom

I'll never make it.

What's so important this time of night?

This is the first time I've been able to detect

the same kind of coded message going into space

as I've received from space.

You understand?

No, not at all.

Andrew, what does that mean?

I don't know.

Except it's the first time I've ever been able

to decipher three words in our own language.

Don't you receive messages

from all over the world all the time?

This message didn't come from our world.

Andrew, what are you talking about?

Hmm, what on Earth are you talking about?

I'm not talking about anything on this Earth.

Well, come on.

We'd better go, huh?

We're gonna be late.

Andrew?

The banquet.

Come on.

Yeah.

I'm so proud of you, Andrew.

You know, it really would have been a perfect evening,

if Collins just hadn't told that dumb joke.

What was that joke?

Something about a...

We're interrupting this program

to bring you a late breaking news story.

Beijing reports a major

earthquake in Southeast China.

- Wait a minute. - Near the site

of last year's devastation.

Despite Chinese government claims

in the area of earthquake prediction,

this latest tragedy has apparently

caught them completely off guard.

The death toll so far has reached 20,000,

but may well climb to 10 times this number

when communication is finally re-established

with the major population center of Fuzhou.

President Carter has offered official American assistance.

That's terrible.

I wonder when it happened.

Probably while we were at the banquet,

between the time we left the plant and now.

We heard the news before we left home.

There was nothing about an earthquake.

Those three words on the monitor,

"Large Earth disruption."

Really, Andrew, to think that there's any connection

between your three words and and earthquake in China,

that's really reaching.

Besides, you said that those words

didn't come from any place on this Earth.

That's right.

Well, then where'd they come from?

I'm gonna find out.

Andrew!

Oh.

Andrew, I want to talk to you.

Well, you haven't checked the negative

velocity sector in sometime now.

We got to keep working on this thing,

and that crystal you had installed it's burning up.

Look, I'm on my way there right now, Ray, okay?

I heard that you've been burying yourself

in the computer section.

Well, I'm still picking up

those signals I told you about,

and more frequently.

Have you heard anything from the Pentagon?

Yes, I have,

but not about your request for a separate.

Well, what then?

Well, you must have made yourself some friends

at that banquet last night.

What do you mean?

The head of public relations

just called me from Washington,

and they're setting up a lecture tour for you.

You're going out in the street.

Now, if you'll make yourself popular on that tour,

you can get practically everything, anything you want,

and much easier and faster than anything I can do for you.

What's the purpose of this tour?

Well, there's been a considerable drop off in

the enrollment of the various universities theses days.

You know, under the kind of scientific research

that we do here.

Everybody wants to study ecology

or one of the other earthly subjects.

Now you go out on that tour, Andrew,

you talk to those kids like you

talked to us at the banquet last night.

You're gonna make yourself

a lot of contacts.

Yes, sir.

Tell them how glamorous the position really is.

Talk to them about outer space and all

those wonderful flying saucers we see every day.

Sorry, Ray, get somebody else.

You don't seem to understand, Andrew.

You really have nothing to do with it.

Washington is arranging a series of lectures for you,

and they feel that's important that you go.

And, frankly, I do too.

So why don't you just finish what

you have to do around here today,

go home, have yourself a drink, relax,

spend a pleasant evening.

Meanwhile, I'll get in touch

with Washington about your itinerary.

We'll get together in the morning, okay?

I'll talk it over with Sylvia.

Oh, Sylvia would love to go off

on a trip like this with you!

Hi, John.

Hi, Andrew.

How's the family?

Oh, fine, thanks.

Missed you here last Tuesday.

Well, I'm involved in another project.

I hear.

You know, sometimes I get the feeling we've gone about

as far as we can with this experiment.

But that other project,

that's something else.

I got a feeling I'm really on to something important,

and nobody else in the plant's willing to help.

I know.

The Senate approved,

and sent to President Carter a bill

authorizing 36 billion for military procurement.

The bill could be compromised

between the House and the Senate

in a disagreement over funds

for a nuclear aircraft carrier.

The House had voted to delete the funds,

but agreed to a compromise

that authorized 81.6 million

for preliminary work on the carrier.

In California,

a four million federal drought relief loan,