Lifeforce

August 9th, 2:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time.

The HMS Churchill, outward bound.

On board, a joint British-American space team.

Their mission, to intercept and study the comet bearing Dr. Edmond Halley's name.

The Churchill is the first spacecraft

equipped with the NERVA engine.

It propels the Churchill with constant acceleration,

enough to create Earth-type gravity for the first time on an extended flight.

The Churchill is on course for its rendezvous.

Sir, this is odd.

What?

I'm getting a very small radar cross-section

just ahead of the nucleus in the coma of the comet.

I've got it, too.

Check the length, Brendan. It's at the limit of my angle of scan.

What's going on? You chaps run an equipment check?

I've been checking every five minutes, sir.

Radar states 150 miles.

150 miles what? Length.

150 miles long?

What's 150 miles long?

It's a radar trace. Something right ahead in the coma of the comet.

Show me.

EGR is confirmed.

Looks good.

EGR is optimal, track 3 on 3.

Roger.

What's the height of the thing?

I've got a vertical reading of two miles at least.

Ambient temperature, six degrees.

Iron less than 2%, traces of manganese, titanium...

Try and raise base.

Tell them we have an artificial object out here hidden in the...

Are you sure you want to say "hidden"?

Tell them it's located in the head of the comet.

Keep sending that until they acknowledge.

Use a secure downlink.

Sorry, Commander.

Everything's being swamped by the coma winds.

We can't get anything back to base.

How long's the blackout period?

All the way.

What are you going to do?

We're going in.

We're only going to get one chance, Derebridge.

That thing won't be back for another 76 years

and we'll both be dead.

We have to take a look now.

Shut down NERVA.

Shutting down.

Delta is plus 1 in two seconds.

Solar panels retracted.

Check. Give me a readout, Bob.

Executing EVA maneuver.

Where do you suppose this thing came from?

Was it exploring the comet, do you think?

Come on, guys, let's do it.

The surface looks badly pitted.

In that case, it's been here a long time.

It's derelict, whatever it is.

Stand by, Churchill.

We're going in.

Roger, Carlsen. We copy.

We have you going in.

Churchill, looks like some sort of giant artery, organic.

I almost have the feeling I've been here before.

Oh, boy.

This is incredible.

I hope you can appreciate the scale of this on the video.

Roger. We're getting it. It's all on tape.

Oh, shit.

Well,

here they are.

Churchill, it looks like we found the occupants of the ship.

They look like bats.

Giant bats.

Churchill, there must be hundreds of them.

Thousands.

Dead, I hope.

Looks prehistoric.

It's completely desiccated.

It crumbles.

Yes.

It would.

All the fluid's been lost to space over the years.

We'll bag this one.

Take it with us.

We're deploying the specimen bag.

Jesus.

What the hell is that?

Commander?

The ship has just deployed a...

It looks like some sort of big structure that's just unfolding.

It's enormous.

God!

What is it?

We better get out of here, sir.

Nobody's going anywhere. Stay where you are.

Churchill, this is Carlsen. What's happening out there?

The thing stopped opening.

The only way to describe it is, it's like a giant umbrella.

Good God, it's absolutely enormous.

Churchill, what's it doing now?

Nothing, sir.

It stopped opening. It's just sitting there.

Do you know what it's made of?

Not metal.

It's radar transparent.

Okay.

If it starts up again, let me know.

Any activity out there, you understand?

Yes, sir.

That's where we're going.

Something there.

Commander, this is Churchill.

We're losing our signal. We've lost VTR.

Come in, Commander.

Bodies.

Three bodies.

Perfectly preserved.

They look to me to be like in...

Something's happening to me.

What's wrong with me?

What's wrong?

Commander, come in. This is Churchill. Do you copy?

They seem to be in some sort of suspended animation or sleep.

Hold on. We're coming down.

Churchill.

Churchill, if you read, there are two nude males and one female.

This is Churchill. We have no picture. Come in, Tom.

Churchill.

I said we've found a young girl.

Girl?

You mean human?

Definitely humanoid.

I'd say she's perfect.

I've been in space for six months and she looks perfect to me.

Derebridge, what's wrong?

Oh, what's wrong?

How many do you want to take back?

I say we take back all three.

And one of the dead things in the other chamber.

Well...

Let's see if we can break them free.

Churchill, come in. This is mission control, Great Britain.

Do you copy? Come in, Churchill.

If they're going to pick us up, they should get us this close.

They simply aren't receiving, Dr. Bukovsky.

Automatic circuits don't even respond.

They're radio-dead.

Christ.

I hope it's just their communications.

Come in, Churchill.

How's their orbit look?

You can see it's stable,

but they're slightly off.

They should have adjusted coming in, but they haven't.

What do you make of that?

It would appear that they set their course

just after they left the comet.

I'd say it hasn't been updated since.

The Columbia?

The Columbia.

We have a liftoff.

Control, this is Columbia.

Are we clear to initiate docking procedure?

Go ahead, Columbia. You are looking good.

Stand by for soft dock.

Soft dock.

Soft dock confirmed.

Columbia, the ship's completely gutted.

Oh, my God.

Houston, we have a problem.

There's been a fire.

I'll take a look in the tug bay.

You two try the top deck.

Columbia, they're all dead.

Nothing down here, Columbia.

I'm going on into the tug bay.

I'll get the tapes.

Somner,

I think there's something you ought to see in the tug bay.

I see.

How did you open the girl's case?

We didn't, Minister.

We were just talking about how to get it open

when it popped open of its own accord.

Did you x-ray the crystal cases?

We're not certain they're crystal.

The casings are not metallic.

I'm not even sure they're organic.

The casing's right there in front of us without being there,

if that makes any sense.

And the bodies from the cases?

We're going to do our first dissection now.

Provided, of course, that Dr. Fallada agrees they're dead.

Fallada?

I don't know that I'm qualified to pass judgment on alien death.

You would agree they're less alive than we are?

Yesterday in Hong Kong, gold closed lower.