Species II

Houston, this is Excursion.

We see a good orbit-insertion burn. Over.

Excursion, this is Houston.

We copy and concur. Good 0-1 burn.

Houston, can you confirm

good KU antenna coverage for lander deploy?

INCO, this is the flight director.

How does our KU look for lander docking system release?

Flight, this is INCO. We should have good KU coverage

all the way through LDS release.

In fact, we're covered all the way through the landing air lock egress.

Houston,

stack going to minus Z-I-V.

Flight, Prop. Uh, RCS margins good.

Copy. Control systems propellant quantities good.

Flight, EECOM. Lander umbilicals dead-faced.

Copy. Lander on internal power.

De-orbit burn tig in five, four,

three, two, one.

T-orbit burn in progress.

Flight, Rendezvous. Excursion sep maneuver is nominal.

Lander, this is Houston. We show nominal de-orbit.

Looks pretty good from this end.

The eagle has landed...

again.

Way to go! Yes!

Houston, we have touchdown at MET 182 days, 11 hours,

53 minutes, 37 seconds.

Excursion, Houston.

You are go to reconfigure nominal DAP, B-1.

- Copy, Houston. Selecting item 30. - I'm there.

Set PET countdown.

It's one hour till party time, baby.

Commanding camera boom deployment.

Flight, EVA. Air lock depressurization complete.

Hatch coming open.

Comm check on IFM uplink. Do you read?

We're with you, Patrick.

Houston, Excursion. Deploying Rover Two.

We confirm Rover Two's telemetry is go for deploy.

Excursion, this is Houston.

Are you receiving Rover One's carrier signal through the lander's uplink?

That's affirm, Houston.

We expect excellent video from Rover One.

Not for one nation,

not for one people,

not for one creed,

but for all humankind.

Patrick Ross, son of a senator, football star at Yale,

and now the first man on Mars.

A perfect hero for these imperfect times.

Patrick, this is Excursion.

I need you to check Rover Two's next drilling site for me.

And, Patrick, could you take a look at your primary O2

and power levels on your DCM?

Suit parameters all look good.

Structure around is loamy.

Loose topsoil is rock.

Drill bit shows signs of wear and tear.

It'll last. One more area.

Sector 112. Okay?

It might have been a canal bed.

Eight years of training, and I'm a Martian ditchdigger.

You have one hour, 30 minutes surface time left.

And counting.

Final sample loaded.

Prepping for air lock ingress.

In a world beset by violence, hunger, and strife,

there are occasions when mankind surpasses the petty struggles of daily existence.

The Excursion voyage to Mars is one of those occasions.

Today, America is proud.

I told them not to go!

I told them... not to go!

Three, two, one--

Let's get you outta here.

Oh, my God.

It was incredible.

A tremendous achievement that once again proves

that if we can rise above partisan politics,

America can climb to the heavens.

Thank you, Mr. President. The credit goes to my crew.

Fly home safe, son.

Our prayers are with you, and God bless you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Flight Nav, we'd like the crew to take a star tracker pass

and perform an IMU alignment

before we update the state vector.

Capcom, let the crew know

navigation wants a fix on a star position

and alignment of the interior moment unit

before putting a new state vector on board.

Houston, this is Excursion.

We have your new state vector on board.

Excursion, Houston. We copy you.

Have received the updated vector.

- Coming up on tig for transfer orbit burn. - Copy, Houston.

Excursion, you are good to go.

Thanks, Houston. 30 seconds to transfer orbit tig.

We're homeward bound, baby.

Whoo!

Yes, sirs!

Excursion, Houston.

Transfer orbit burn in 20, 19,

18, 17,

16, 15,

14, 13, 12,

11, 10,

nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one.

Excursion, this is Houston calling.

Do you read us? Over.

Excursion, this is Houston. Do you copy?

For the past three minutes, every attempt to communicate

- with the Excursion has failed. - I told 'em not to go!

I told 'em not to go to Mars!

I told 'em not to go!

GC, Flight. Check all relay stations on the network.

Have the backup TDRS on standby.

Flight to all operators. Pull up your data passes from the burn.

Get with your back rooms. Verify we saw no anomalies.

For God's sake, somebody tell me she didn't blow.

Houston, this is Excursion.

We had a malfunction in the KU band antenna, lost telemetry and comm.

I've performed a bit of IFM, seems to be okay now.

Excursion crew is okay.

Headed for rendezvous with big blue.

It's gonna be good to get home.

Over and out.

The extraterrestrial vulnerability experiment

has one central goal:

To discover a means to defend ourselves against the alien species,

should they ever return to Earth.

Now, as you know, gentlemen, Eve was recreated

from a frozen lab embryo.

She's a genetic duplicate of the original Sil.

Now, we have deliberately shielded Eve

from any direct contact with the male gender,

which is why, gentlemen,

you're inside there.

So.

Proceed.

Ah!

Hah!

Help!

Help!

Laura! Please!

Okay, that's enough. Bring her up.

Bingo, Dr. Baker!

It worked!

Take a look at those beautiful welts.

Just beautiful. Beautiful.

What happened, Dr. Baker?

Our problem, in a nutshell:

A toxic agent works once,

but then it becomes useless once the alien's biology adapts.

You've gone out of your way to give this... this lab animal

a living situation that's fit for a queen.

I suggest you spend more time finding a way to--to 86 the damn thing.

Colonel,

you're welcome to replace me anytime you like.

I'm sorry, gentlemen.

Tell Dr. Baker we must continue testing.

Aye, aye, sir.

Why do you do this to me?

I'm sorry, Eve.

I've explained to you why we've gotta do this,

what happened with the first Sil.

And why you have to be prepared.

Survival of the fittest. I know.

I watch this TV, and I see all the places I'm never gonna go

and see all the people I'm never gonna meet.

Is that all I am to you? A laboratory animal?

I want you to understand that the reason I took this job

was to make sure that these experiments were done with regard for you.

Just don't forget that I'm human too.

Main gear touchdown.

Shuttle ground support vehicles

with flight surgeon and medical team in the crew recovery vehicle are en route.

Thanks, Houston. It's good to be home.

- Thanks. - You're welcome.

On preliminary examination,

all three of you are in remarkable health,

though, of course, I'll continue more specific blood testing.

We do have a few people here who would like a further examination.

Whoo!

Boy, there's enough fine booty out there to cure what ails me.

- Hi! - You are under quarantine, Mr. Gamble.

No sexual activity for at least 10 days.

- That means all of you. - Oh, you've gotta be kidding.

No, I'm not kidding.

Back when President Kennedy began the space program,

I was just a very young assistant up on the hill.

It didn't take me long to realize that he was a visionary...

and that I shared that vision.

Later on, when I became a senator,

I was determined to push our program even further into space.

And so today, Jack Kennedy's vision

is maintained by the commitment of American business.

But I like to think that his spirit is embodied