TITLE:

DISENGAGE END PROGRAM 00000000000000000000000 -STOP-

TITLE: A UNIVERSAL / ROBERT WISE PICTURE

CAST

Dr. Jeremy Stone - ARTHUR HILL

Dr. Charles Dutton - DAVID WAYNE

Dr. Mark Hall - JAMES OLSON

Dr. Ruth Leavitt - KATE REID

Karen Anson - PAULA KELLY

Jackson - GEORGE MITCHELL

Major Manchek - RAMON BIERI

Dr. Robertson - KERMIT MURDOCK

Grimes - RICHARD O'BRIEN

General Sparks - PETER HOBBS

Senator from Vermont - ERIC CHRISTMAS

MPAA NOTICE:

THE MOTION PICTURE CODE AND RATING ADMINISTRATION HAS RATED THIS MOTION PICTURE G ALL AGES ADMITTED GENERAL AUDIENCES (MPAA BUG) MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

At the Senate hearing, the questions continue over scenes from places in the film.

"-so-called biological crisis is over," says the Senator from Vermont.

The White House situation room is dark and empty.

"As far as Andromeda is concerned, yes," replies Stone. "We have the organism at Wildfire and we continue to study it." Downtown Piedmont is on screen, as wind blows over the corpses in the street.

"We now know that other forms of life exist in the Universe," continues Stone, as the agricultural station above Wildfire is seen on a sunny day.

"Thanks to Scoop," says the Vermont Senator.

"Yes," agrees Dr. Stone. "However, with this new knowledge, there's no guarantee that a new so-called biological crisis won't occur again."

"Hmm," says the Senator. "What do we do about that?"

"Precisely, Senator," replies Stone. "What do we do?"

The Andromeda virus simulation appears on screen with "310,138 X" underneath the image. The electronic music gets louder.

The simulation starts to glitch as the virus gets larger and the music gets louder. The magnification zooms to "989,000 X" on screen, then the screen had a blast of green light.

The digital numbers "601" appear on screen as the music blares.

Hall lets go of the key, and sinks to the floor of Level Three.

He awakens to the view of a weather satellite photo on a CRT monitor. The caption on the monitor says: "VIA NIMBUS 3 WEATHER SATELLITE>TIROX GRID< WORLD METEORLOG ORG >1400 HRS GMT< ANDROMEDA DESIG: <--"

"Congratulations," says Stone. Karen Anson, smiling, stands next to Hall's bedside. His laser scar on his cheek has been bandaged.

"I take it, the bomb didn't?" asks Hall.

"No," says Stone, "It didn't."

"Eight seconds to spare," says Leavitt. "Hardly even exciting."

"What's happening?" asks Hall, looking at the monitor.

"The supercolony is off the coast, now moving southwest across the Pacific," says Dutton.

"Apparently, Andromeda hasn't turned lethal again," says Stone. "At least there haven't been any reports of bizarre death. We're applying an adaptation of your 'antidote' to it, Mark. Cloud seeding - - we're seeding the clouds above Andromeda with silver iodine. The raindrops will carry the organism into the ocean, and the alkaline reaction from seawater should kill it. "

"Just as acids or alkaline in the blood stopped it," continues Dutton.

The scene changes: ocean waters under heavy cloud cover.

"This cloud seeding business, Stone," says the Vermont Senator, "you're absolutely sure it worked? You'd better be."

"All reports continue to indicate that the experiment was successful, Senator," replies Stone, at the hearing in April.

"Then we can feel confident-" begins the Vermont Senator.

Hall, now outside the airlock, turns and sees a female technician in the Level Three corridor.

"THERE ARE NOW FIFTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT" says the announcer.

The technician looks at Hall, frightened.

Hall waves the key at her. "Where is it?" he shouts. "Come on! Where is it?"

The woman backs away. Hall looks at her, and the walls become more distorted as he reaches out to her. "Help me!" he begs.

"THERE ARE NOW FORTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT" says the announcer. The technician runs away.

Hall spots an active substation. The walls continue to wobble in his vision.

"THERE ARE NOW THIRTY-FIVE SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT" says the announcer. Hall careens into the curved wall and falls on the ground, out of reach of the substation. He fumbles with the key as he pulls himself up to the level of the keyhole.

"THERE ARE NOW THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT" says the announcer.

Hall fits the key into the keyhole.

"THERE ARE NOW TWENTY-FIVE SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT" says the announcer.

Hall slides down to the floor again. He hasn't turned the key. Hall looks up at the key, which looks like it's miles away in his distorted view.

"TWENTY SECONDS," says the announcer. "NINETEEN, EIGHTTEEN, SEVENTEEN, SIXTEEN..."

Hall squints at the key and makes a last lunge at it.

"FIFTEEN," says the announcer. "FOURTEEN, THIRTEEN, TWELVE,..."

Hall grabs the key and tries to turn it.

"ELEVEN," says the announcer. "TEN, NINE..."

The key clicks. The indicator changes from red to green.

"SELF-DESTRUCT... HAS BEEN CANCELED," says the announcer.

Hall lowers his hand from the key, and sags against the wall.

The laser hits Hall in the wrist. For a moment, it looks like he dropped the nuclear key, but the strap is wrapped around his arm. The key dangles above the mist from two floors below.

Another shot hits the rung of the ladder. Hall struggles to climb.

"THERE IS NOW ONE MINUTE AND FORTY-FIVE SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

Hall climbs onto the Level Three landing and rushes for the airlock, stumbling from the laser wounds.

"THERE IS NOW ONE MINUTE AND THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

Hall turns the airlock wheel. This time the door opens.

"THERE IS NOW ONE MINUTE AND FIFTEEN SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

"The wheel - turn it!" shouts Stone, watching on a monitor. Hall reaches for the wrong wheel. "No, no! Not that one!" says Stone. "The one near the door!" Stone looks at the countdown clock, which is approaching the final minute.

Hall struggles with the wheel.

"THERE ARE NOW SIXTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

The door opens. Hall is in a corridor of Level Three. His vision is becoming blurry and distorted.

"THERE ARE NOW FIFTY-FIVE SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

Hall shuffles down the corridor. He winces and looks around.

Hall can't open the airlock door.

"No, it's no good," says Stone. "The level's contaminated. You'll have to go to Three. Go to Three!"

"THERE ARE NOW TWO MINUTES AND FORTY-FIVE SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

The targeting computer has picked up on Hall again as he climbs the ladder to Three.

"Sway!" says Stone. Hall leans left as he climbs. "Weave!"

"You're zeroed-in! Duck!" shouts Stone. Hall scrunches down on the ladder. A laser bolt hits the side of the ladder to his left. Hall turns to look.

The laser fires again, hitting Hall in the left cheek. Hall opens his mouth in shock.

"THERE ARE NOW TWO MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

"Keep going!" says Stone. "You'll make it!"

Hall looks up the ladder. Everything around him is distorted and swimming.

"THERE ARE NOW TWO MINUTES AND FIFTEEN SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

Hall struggles to put his hand on the rung of the ladder.

"Fight the effect - it's mostly shock!" says Stone.

Hall can barely hold onto the ladder. He tries to shake the cobwebs out of his head.

The laser fires again and misses.

"You've lost some time, but you can still do it!" says Stone, watching on a monitor. "See the door?"

"THERE ARE NOW TWO MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says the announcer.

Hall sees a very distorted Level Three door floating in front of him.

The laser fires again.

Alarms are blaring. Stone looks at a monitor:

ESCAPED ANIMAL IN CENTRAL CORE

Inside the Central Core, Hall looks up. It's a five-story shaft with a ladder connecting different landings.

"That's the ladder across from you," says Stone over the intercom. "Go, man, before the gas starts!"

Hall runs to the other side of the shaft and looks down. Two lasers begin to aim toward him.

"THERE ARE NOW THREE MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says an announcement.

White plumes apart below Hall's level.

"That's the gas," says Stone. "Keep going!"

A blocky image of a climbing man appears on Stone's monitor, with crosshairs swinging closer to the man.

"The sensors have picked you up," says Stone. "Keep moving!"

Hall picks up speed on the ladder.

"Duck!" yells Stone. Hall ducks.

A laser fires, missing Hall by inches.

"Keep going!" says Stone. Hall climbs some more.

"Duck!" yells Stone. Again, Hall twists and ducks.

"Keep going!" repeats Stone. Hall climbs some more.

"Duck!" says Stone. A green blast of laser light hits the side of the ladder.

"THERE ARE NOW THREE MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says an announcement.

Hall climbs onto the Level Four landing, and runs for the entryway. He tries to turn the airlock wheel but there's a red flashing bar above the doorway.

"How do I get into the core?" asks Hall.

"Through that service port," says Stone, pointing into the far side of the patient quarters. There's a stainless-steel door between the two patients.

"Go ahead," says Stone. "I'll ride shotgun for you from Main Control. I can't monitor the lasers here." Stone leaves the observation room.

Hall pushes an intercom button. "Karen, get me a scalpel!" he says, and climbs into his isolation suit.

"THERE ARE NOW FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says an announcement.

Karen meets him in the exam room.

"Cut it off!" shouts Hall. "Cut the panel off!"

Karen turns and drops the baby in Jackson's lap. Jackson looks at the baby, puzzled.

"Karen, cut it!" Hall holds out the plastic "train" of his suit, and Anson begins knifing through the material. "Come on, hurry up!" says Hall, as the cut gets wider.

Hall peels off the helmet and the rest of the suit, then steps into the exam chamber. He heads for the portal.

"Hey, Doc!" shouts Jackson, "Ya ain't leaving us here, are ya?"

Meanwhile, Stone gets back to Main Control. He presses an intercom button on the control panel.

"The lasers are tuned for small animals, Mark," says Stone. "You can make it if you're not hit along the spinal cord."

Hall pulls the hatch of the portal inward. A decayed polycron gasket falls to the floor.

"THERE ARE NOW FOUR MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCT," says an announcement.

Hall climbs into the tunnel.

"There's no substation in this sector!" yells Stone.

Hall and Stone scramble into the Level V corridor. They run toward a closing door. The door closes before they can reach the exit. Turning around, they head in the opposite direction, only to see that section of the corridor also being sealed off.

An announcement: "LEVEL FIVE IS SEALED. LEVEL FIVE IS SEALED. EMERGENCY PROCEDURES ARE IN EFFECT."

"When the bomb goes off, there'll be a thousand mutations. Andromeda will spread everywhere. They'll never be rid of it!" says Stone.

The wall clock shows a red arc, indicates five minutes for the countdown.

Announcement by Gladys Stevens: "THERE ARE NOW FIVE MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCT."

"What about the other levels?" asks Hall.

"Can't tell," says Stone. "Each sector seals off when it's contaminated. Even the elevator."

Stone looks at an unfinished disarming key box, marked "Substation 5-004."

"The defense system is perfect, Mark," says Stone. "It'll even bury our mistakes."

"What about the central core?" asks Hall, running up the corridor. The two men duck into the Miscellaneous room, containing the baby and Peter Jackson.

"The core is equipped with safeguards," replies Stone.

"Like what?" asks Hall.

"Gas, lasers, to prevent the escape of lab animals," says Stone.

"What would my chances be in there?" asks Hall.

"Well, they don't exists for anyone, anywhere if you stay here," replies Stone.

"How -" begins Hall.

Hall and Stone continue to watch Dutton on the monitor.

"He can't keep breathing like that forever," says Hall. "He'll hyperventilate, pass out. We've got to get him something to alkalize his blood."

"Well, we can't in there," says Stone. He looks at the monitor, startled.

"Charlie?" says Stone, "Behind you! That cage - - "

On the monitor, Dutton makes an about-face and looks into the hot room. A rat is sniffing the air. Six petri dishes are scattered around the rat's cage.

"It's alive!" says Hall.

"That rat's been exposed as long as I have - - longer!" says Dutton. " I exposed it to the cultures before the seal broke."

"Precisely," says Stone. "Andromeda's mutated to a non-infectious form."

A red glow fills the console display. "Holy!" says Stone.

In red letters on the display: EARLY DEGENERATIVE CHANGE IN GASKET > L5Y-001 <

"Where does that gasket lead?" asks Hall.

"Central Core," says Stone. "Connects to all the labs."

A series of Level 5 gaskets failures fill the screen.

"The gaskets are - - decomposing!" says Stone. "It's Andromeda!"

Display shows: GASKET INTEGRITY ZERO LEVEL V CONTAMINATED

A siren sounds The red emergency indicator on the wall flashes, and the countdown clock resets to five minutes.

Hall struggles with his disarming key.

"Next sector!" yells Stone. "There's - "

Stone finishes typing in the program parameters. A bell-shaped graph appears on the monitor, showing the acid-alkali tolerance range is only between 7.39 and 7.43 of pH.

"Excellent," says Hall. "The graph's practically straight up and down. That means that Andromeda can only exist within a narrow range of pH."

"A very narrow range," adds Stone. "On either side of the tolerance range, no growth, nothing, right? It's exterminated."

Hall punches the intercom button. "Dutton, our troubles are over," says Hall.

"Look at your console!" says Stone.

"It grows within a narrow range of pH," says Hall.

"A very narrow range!" says Stone.

"If your blood's abnormal, if it's too acid, or alkaline, Andromeda can't survive in the body," says Hall. "So breathe as fast as you can. Go into respiratory alkalosis."

Dutton starts taking deep, rapid breaths.

"That's fine!" says Stone. "That'll shoot your blood chemistry to hell."

"It's what happens to the baby when he cries too much, or the old man on Sterno," explains Hall. "How do you feel?"

"Okay," says Dutton. "A little dizzy, but okay."

"Breathing the same air," says Hall. "One's blood's too alkaline, the other, too - - acid."

Both the baby and Jackson are drinking on the monitor.

"Yes," says Hall. "Yes!" He reaches over to the console and presses a few buttons. "Dutton - I'm turning off the oxygen. Breathe fast and hard."

Dutton springs up on the monitor. "No!" says Dutton. "Jeremy, don't let - - "

Hall cuts the intercom, stretches for a button. Stone reaches out. Hall grabs Stone's arm.

"No!" says Stone. "The air in that room - - "

"Air doesn't matter!" says Hall. "Blood does. That's the answer."

Stone hesitates, then releases Hall's hand.

Dutton is muted, but shouting on the TV monitor.

"I need thirty seconds to run a growth program," says Hall.

"He could die in thirty seconds," says Stone. "Besides, Leavitt checked all the growth programs."

Hall is typing on the computer.

"She might've missed something," says Hall. "Epileptics blank out. I want to see how the growth of Andromeda is affected by blood chemistry. The pH -- Damn!" Hall makes a typo.

On the computer display: ERROR MADE ON INPUT ERASE ERASE ERASE REPROGRAM ADP

"You do it," says Hall to Stone. Stone slides in front of the computer terminal. He starts typing in the computer instructions.

"I was running a test in here!" says Dutton. "The air's thick with Andromeda. Experiment with your own life, damn it!"

"We won't do it, Charlie. Take it easy," says Stone.

"I know I'm close," says Hall. "I'm sure it has something to do with blood chemistry and breathing."

On the monitor, Karen Anson and the crying baby appear. "Dr. Hall..." says Anson. "May I feed the baby now, Dr. Hall? He's been crying steadily for..."

"That's what I want," says Hall. "Keep him crying and run another blood value on him. Get his pH measurements."

Anson slams the bottle down on the gurney, "Yes, Doctor!" shouts Anson.

"With all the yelling, blowing off carbon dioxide, the kid should have too little acid," says Hall. "Alkaotic. A blood condition just the opposite from the old man. Too much alkali."

"Well, what good does that do Dutton?" asks Stone.

"Karen, where is the blood test!" shouts Hall.

"It's coming through now, on your console," says Anson.

Jackson pokes his head up in front of the TV camera. "Hell of a way to run a hospital!" says Jackson.

On the monitor:

SUBJECT CODED > INFANT < RECODED > MANUEL < TEST NORMAL VALUE -------- -------------- ----------- BLOOD PH 7.40 7.43 DIAGNOSIS: ALKAEMIA

"Just what you expected," says Stone. "Opposite blood chemistries, the baby and the old man."

"One of them should be a dead opposite," says Hall.

"But he's not," says Stone.

"There must be a connection!" says Hall, pounding his fist on the console.

"They both stayed alive at Piedmont - -" says Hall.

Stone tells Dutton they're "working on some ideas."

"Ask your germ warfare friends," replies Charlie. "They have lots."

"Try to stay calm," says Stone. He turns off the intercom.

"What happened?" asks Hall.

"The seal must have broken in there," says Stone. "The same thing happened at the Lunar Lab. That's why we used polychron gaskets here. At least the rest of Wildfire is secure."

"Poor devil," says Hall. "Look at the way he's breathing."

"He's scared to death," says Stone. "The oxygen should relax him, slow down his breathing."

"No - - we want him to breathe fast!" says Hall, realizing something. "In Piedmont, Jackson was crocked on Sterno. Sterno, acidosis. Acidosis, rapid breathing!"

"What the hell are you doing?" says Stone, as Hall starts pressing buttons on the console.

"Turning off the oxygen. Put him on room air," says Hall.

"The baby!" says Stone. "He's normal!"

"Cries all the time, can't catch his breath," replies Hall.

"Rapid breathing?" says Stone. "Oh, it just can't be that simple!"

"It isn't," says Hall, turning the intercom back on. "Dutton, I think rapid breathing helps. Don't let the bug in your lungs long enough to penetrate blood vessels. I want to turn off the pure oxygen. Then you start breathing room air as fast as you can."

"No!" shouts Dutton. "No, I-"

Karen Anson appears with a syringe in her hand. As she looks at Leavitt on the floor, she slows her approach.

"Come on, come on - she can't hurt you," says Hall.

"Wasn't she with Dr. Dutton?" asks Karen.

"No," says Hall. "It's epilepsy. Give her the injection. She'll be alright." He stands. "Good girl. Thanks," says Hall, running down the corridor.

On a monitor, Dutton talks to Stone. "I'm scared," says Dutton. "Oh Lord, I'm scared!"

"You'll be okay, Charlie," says Stone. "We're pumping pure oxygen through your lab now. We know Andromeda doesn't do well in oxygen."

Hall enters Stone's lab. "He's alive!" says Hall, looking at the monitor.

"Where have you been?" asks Stone.

"Leavitt had a seizure," explains Hall.

"What?" says Stone. He cuts off the audio to Dutton.

"Epilepsy," says Hall. "The red light, flashing at three per second brought on a fit. Why the hell didn't she tell us about it?"

"Probably no top lab would have her if they knew," says Stone. "Insurance, prejudice, and all that crap."

"We're in the middle ages," says Hall. He continues to look at Dutton on the monitor. "It's amazing he's still alive."

"It's been three minutes," says Stone, nodding at the clock on the wall. "He's on pure oxygen. I don't know how long that can hold him."

Stone turns Dutton's audio back on. "We're...uh, working on some ideas," says Stone.

Hall looks over his shoulder, stops, comes back, puzzled.

Leavitt stands riveted, staring straight ahead at the flashing red light above the door, arms loosely at her sides.

"She's in trouble," says the MIC-T, inching away.

"Ruth, are you...?" begins Hall. He stops in front of her, passing his hand in front of her face. He glances back at the flashing red light.

"She's got the germ!" says a female lab tech.

The technicians scatter. Leavitt's knees buckle. Hall catches her, and stretches her out on her back. Her whole body begins to shake. He darts to the substation in the wall. Beside the substation is an intercom. He pushes his hand flat against the cluster of buttons.

"Someone bring me a hundred milligrams of phenobarb in a syringe, fast!" says Hall.

Leavitt's head starts to hammer against the floor. Hall springs back to her, and puts his foot under her head.

"There's no danger! She isn't contagious!" shouts Hall, down the empty corridor. "There's no danger!"

Karen Anson watches Hall tormenting the baby. She can't stand it any longer, and scrambles into the plastic tunnel.

Hall continues to provoke the baby into a tantrum. Karen comes up in her suit, and tries to grab the bottle. Keeping the bottle from Anson, Hall points at the gasping infant.

"This may be the key to beating Andromeda," says Hall.

"How? By starving him to death?" says Anson.

"No," replies Hall, "but don't you feed that baby until I tell you --"

The emergency bell goes off, loudly. Hall and Anson spin around and look at the alarm. A bright yellow light flashes on the wall.

"Contamination!" says Anson.

In the Level V Corridor, the MIC-T and another technician run past.

"A seal has broken in Autopsy," says an announcement. "A seal has broken in Autopsy. Emergency procedures are in effect."

Hall, on the run, hesitates at a self-destruct sub-station. He pulls out the key around his neck, but keeps going. Leavitt emerges from Crystallography, and runs after Hall.

"What's the matter?" asks Leavitt.

"Infection spread!" replies Hall. "Autopsy!"

They both run to Autopsy. Leavitt suddenly slows, and stares at a flashing red light on the ceiling.

"Is he alive?" Hall asks Toby.

"I should have been with him!" says Toby. "Doctor Dutton!" Toby pounds on the sealed door.

"It's no use," says the MIC-T. "It's sealed off."

One of the female techs notices Leavitt. "Doctor Hall!" she shouts.

"We've no proof!" says Stone.

"The map!" says Dutton.

"Don't be an ass," says Stone, angrily. "This map only shows what Andromeda could do in the hands of an enemy."

"Enemy?" replies Dutton. "We did it to ourselves."

"Perhaps," says Stone. "But this is hardly the time to organize a protest!"

"Another giant leap for mankind," says Leavitt, turning toward Stone. "I wish I could believe you."

"Whether you do or not, the only important thing now is to find the antidote," says Stone. He turns to Dutton. "Let's get on with it, Charlie. You test the cultured organisms for biologic potency. "

"Alright," says Dutton. "I'll run 'em against a rat in Autopsy."

"I'm going to seal up the capsule," says Stone.

"Watch it," says Leavitt. "Andromeda has altered. Its effect might be radically different. I'll try to get us a photo of the mutated form."

(* in the original filming script, Stone says "Good - later you can carry it on the picket line." *)

TITLE: "4:30 A.M."

Dr. Hall attempts to feed the crying baby while Jackson tries to block out the crying with a pillow wrapped around his head.

Normal Earth checks and balances against Andromeda "don't exist for it," says Leavitt.

Stone walks away from the giant monitor that displays "601."

"We'd better get a new biomath mapping of its new growth potential and spread," says Stone. He presses buttons on a console. A diagrammatic map of the Southwestern United States appears on a monitor. Next to it, a distored map, showing where higher concentrations of Andromeda would appear. The maps both carry the descriptors SCENARIO > WILDFIRE BIOWAR MAP< and SIMULATED TOXIC EXCHANGE WEAPONRY > ANDROMEDA<

"According to this," says Stone, "there will be an Andromeda supercolony over the entire Southwest in-"

"Jeremy," interrupts Dutton, "These are biological warfare maps."

Stone walks up closer to the monitors. "Why, yes, so they are," says Stone. "But - simulations, Charlie. Defensive. It's just a scenario."

"That's not the point, for God's sake!" says Leavitt. "Wildfire was built for germ warfare! Wildfire, and Scoop! And you knew, Stone. You knew it!"

"That's not true, Ruth!" replies Stone. "I learned about Scoop the same time you did."

"They already have Andromeda programmed!" says Dutton. "The purpose of Scoop was to find new biological weapons in outer space, and then use Wildfire to develop them!"

"It stinks, Stone!" adds Leavitt.

"You're blowing your tops," replies Stone. "We have no -"

"All the sub-units are the same!" says Leavitt.

"Damnedest thing I've ever s--" begins Stone, and shakes his head. "A single substance!"

"Then how the hell does it operate?" asks Dutton. "How does anything so simple utilize energy for growth?"

"No way of telling from that structure," says Stone.

"Yes, there is," replies Leavitt, punching four buttons on the console. "With this new data, we can now get a computerized version of how Andromeda functions."

Titles appear on the monitor: COMP SIMULATION ANDROMEDA FUNCTIONS CON EX

A digital simulation of the Andromeda crystal appears, but static and blinking variations show up on the screen.

"They're not uniform," says Stone. "Could be mutations." Dutton looks at Stone.

The computer simulation continues. The crystal gets larger and more complex. The soundtrack gets louder and distorted. The video screen blurs, followed by a large digital display "601." "What the devil?" says Dutton.

"Six oh one?" says Stone. "The computer's overloaded! Too much data, coming in too fast."

"Dividing and mutating at the same time?" says Dutton.

"And nothing to stop it," says Leavitt. "Normal Earth checks and balances don't exist."

"No, but I'll pass along the recommendation," says Grimes. He laughs. "The boss'll be pleased to know he made the right decision on Seven Twelve in the first place!"

"Congratulate him on his scientific insight," says Leavitt, sarcastically. Grimes loses his smile.

"Oh, and Robbie," says Stone, "You'd better get the atomic self-destruct disarmed in here, as soon as possible."

"Right," says Robertson. "I'll start on the clearances now. It'll be done by morning."

Hall removes his key from inside his jumpsuit.

"No, no, no," explains Dutton. "That won't work until the damn thing's going."

Andromeda continues to grow on the monitor.

Later, in X-Ray Crystallography, the team looks at Andromeda's molecular structure.

A monitor shows a representation of the Andromeda molecule. The caption on screen says: X-RAY CRYSTALLOG DATA OUTPUT ANDROMEDA MOLECULES A caption at the bottom of the screen says "113,050 X"

TITLE: "3:50 A.M."

Dutton, Leavitt, and Stone look at the screen.

"All the molecules appear to be the same," says Dutton, puzzled.

"Yes," says Leavitt. "Andromeda isn't composed of different substances, like a normal cell."

"No waste of any kind," says Dutton.

"You'd expect that," says Stone. "Andromeda's perfect for existence in outer space: consumes everything, wastes nothing."

Leavitt looks up in alarm.

Stone suddenly realizes the implications and looks at Dutton. Dutton turns and looks at Stone in horror.

"Good Lord!" says Stone, pushing a button on the console.

"What?" asks Hall, uncomprehending.

"Stone to Delta Five," says Stone, "Put me through to Robertson immediately!"

"What?" repeats Hall.

"God, I hope we're not too late," says Leavitt.

"Tell me!" says Hall.

"It functions like an atomic reactor!" says Leavitt.

"An atomic blast could provide it with enough energy to grow into a gigantic supercolony," says Stone.

"In one day," adds Dutton.

Robertson appears on the video monitor. "You can relax now," says Robertson. "We've just left the President. He agreed to drop the bomb."

"No!" says Stone. "You've got to stop Seven Twelve from being carried out."

"Now, wait a minute!" says Grimes on another monitor. "We're not playing ping-pong! We just got through telling the President that you-"

"For God's sake, go back!" says Leavitt. "it grows when exposed to x-rays, or any source of energy!"

"Tell him no nuclear device must be detonated anywhere near it!" says Dutton.

"We just found out Andromeda works like a little reactor: converts matter to energy, energy to matter, directly," says Stone.

Robertson whistles. "Then the bomb would only provide a fantastically rich growth medium." He turns to Grimes. "Understand?"

Grimes glares at the monitor.

"Like a crystal," says Leavitt. "Well, gentlemen: there's our answer."

"To what?" asks Hall.

"How Andromeda functions without amino acids," replies Leavitt.

"Crystalline structure," says Stone.

"Yes," says Leavitt. "I've often thought that living matter might be based on crystals of some kind. All these wedge-shaped compartments? They'd serve to separate biochemical functions very well."

As they watch the screen, the Andromeda cell folds itself into a more complex shape.

"It's dividing!" says Dutton.

"In a vacuum?" says Stone. "Bombarded by electrons?" It shouldn't even be alive!"

"That's what I wanted to tell you," says Leavitt. "The growth program shows that Andromeda could live on anything. Only gas and light affect it."

"You didn't get any no-growth results on the cultures?" asks Hall.

"None," says Leavitt, walking to the console. She pushes two buttons and brings up two maps of the Petri dishes. "Look - the poorest growth occurs in pure oxygen, incubated under infrared light. Andromeda grows best in carbon dioxide and hydrogen, incubated under x-rays."

"No excretions," says Dutton.

Stone takes the container holding the Andromeda slice, opens a hatch on a metal tube, and inserts the container into the tube. He closes the hatch and turns a knob on the side of the tube. The container travels to Dutton's workstation at the electron microscope.

"Sample in the button and sealed, Charlie," says Stone to Dutton. "Start the vacuum pump."

Dutton throws a switch, starting the chugging sound of the vacuum pump.

The manufacturing plate of the electron microscope is shown: ELECTRON MICROSCOPE EMU-4B FORGFLA

Leavitt appears on a video screen. "Stone, can I see you?" asks Leavitt. "I have the results of the growth cultures."

"No, we can't leave now," says Stone. "We have an Andromeda cell in the E-M."

Stone turns to Dutton. "Okay, Charlie, let's put it on the screen."

Dutton turns a knob and presses a button. On the large monitor with a caption that says "79,000 X", a geometric pattern appears.

"Let's run it through the computer for contrast expansion," says Stone. Dutton throws a few more switches. The scene changes to full-color, with the same geometric pattern in green and the caption now saying "CON EX: 79,000 X"

"Stone?" says Leavitt, walking into the lab.

"What do you think?" asks Stone, pointing at the screen.

"Looks like - " begins Leavitt.

Stone is cutting thin sections of Andromeda to prepare slides for the electron microscope. They watch the operation on a magnified screen.

"That's a good slice," says Stone as a small green square appears on the micro blade. "Too thick," he adds.

More slices appear on the blade.

"I'm setting it at eight hundred angstroms, Hall," says Stone, adjusting a few knobs on the device. "I'm going to a higher magnification."

A rainbow of slices appears on the screen. "Now, we're getting somewhere," says Stone.

"Yeah," says Hall. "A piece can't be more than a few molecules in depth."

"That's the one! That silver one," says Stone, as another slice appears on the screen.

"THIS IS A VELOVAC ALERT, ALL LEVELS," says an announcement. "THIS IS A VELOVAC ALERT."

Stone uses tweezers to put the slice into a small metal container.

"ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES ARE NOT REGISTERING ON THE D-I-R," says another announcement.

Stone puts a tiny cap on the container.

"Let's all just keep our heads screwed on," says Grimes. "Any thoughts about the Phantom crash?"

The Wildfire team looks at each other.

"We sent you a couple of messages on it!" says Grimes.

"A Phantom jet strayed over the cordoned area around Piedmont," says Robertson.

"Any other information?" asks Stone.

"The pilot said that all the rubber on the plane was dissolving," replies Robertson. "His last communication was pretty weird."

"Like he was crazy?" asks Hall.

"He was might confused, that's for sure," says Grimes.

"Robbie, it's your job to get the President to activate his Seven-Twelve immediately!" says Stone. "If he doesn't, there's no guarantee there'll be anyone alive west of Piedmont in the morning!"

"Simmer down, Professor," says Grimes. "I'll wake the boss - but General Sparks says the crash was just a fluke."

"Forget the crash, Robbie," says Stone. "Stay on that Seven-Twelve and get back to me. We'll be working around the clock."

Later, in the Electron Microscopy lab, Stone works on getting a thin section of the Andromeda organism.

TITLE: "2:45 A.M."

Stone's hands are in a glovebox. He starts a micro saw and looks through a microscope at a wedge of material.

Hall tears off a large piece of teletype paper and hands it to Stone.

"Directive Seven-Twelve has not been acted upon - - alternative Directive Seven-Eleven now in effect?" says Stone. He turns to Dutton. "They didn't drop the bomb!"

"It's an MCM transmission, sent yesterday," says Hall, looking at the paper.

"Idiots!" shouts Stone, grabbing the paper. He walks to a console and stabs a button. A sergeant appears on a video monitor.

"Put me through to Doctor Robertson," says Stone.

"In work, sir," replies the sergeant.

"Burke," says Stone, "You didn't special alert an MCM message to us."

"There haven't been any, sir," says Burke. "The bell didn't ring - "

"Don't argue, dammit!" shouts Stone. "I've got one in my hand!"

On another monitor, Dr. Robertson appears.

"Well, well," says Robertson, "About time we heard from you!"

"There's been a communications foul-up here," replies Stone. "Never mind that now - - why the hell hasn't that bomb been dropped on Piedmont?"

"The decision on Seven- Twelve wasn't final, it was just postponed forty-eight hours," says Robertson.

"By then the disease could spread into a worldwide epidemic!" says Dutton.

"It's because of rash statements like that the President doesn't trust scientists," says Grimes, appearing on another monitor.

"Warn the President it may already be too late," says Stone. "Stay on his back, Robbie. You've got to make him call a Seven-Twelve."

"Can you get me another appointment tonight, Grimes?" asks Robertson.

"Now-" begins Grimes.

"Suits me," says Dutton. He stands. "Before turning in, shouldn't we file for a code name?"

"Yeah, good idea," says Stone, sipping his nutrition supplement.

"NINE OVER FOUR OVER EIGHT, OVER ONE SIX SEVEN POINT TWO NINE," says an announcement. "AUTO CHECK IN GRADE. AUTO CHECK IN GRADE."

Stone starts typing on an TeleType machine.

WILDFIRE TO CENTRAL CODES

The computer returns:

SEND

Hall starts looking at the sheaf of old teletype messages next to the terminal.

Stone types:

HAVE ISOLATED ORGANISM WISH CODING

The Teletype responds:

MESSAGE FROM CENTRAL CODES FOLLOWS

OPENING NEW CATEGORY

CODE FOR YOUR ORGANISM WILL BE ANDROMEDA

CODE WILL READ OUT ANDROMEDA STRAIN

END MESSAGE

"Why Andromeda?" asks Dutton.

"Andromeda's our constant - -" begins Leavitt.

"Stone?" interrupts Hall, tearing off a part of the long sheaf of paper.

"If the old soldier missed his insulin treatment, he'd go into acidosis, the same as Jackson on Sterno," says Hall. "I'll bet Leavitt finds no growth on some of the blood cultures."

"What's wrong with the baby's blood?" asks Dutton.

"Nothing," replies Hall. "So far."

"Then you're back where you started," says Stone.

"No," says Hall. "Somehow, they're all interrelated. I'll have the answer when I know why sixty-nine year old Sterno drinker with an ulcer is like a normal, six-month old baby."

Leavitt enters the conference room.

"Did you get any no-growth readouts on the blood samples?" asks Hall.

"No, but I'm not finished yet," says Leavitt.

"You told me you'd be finished by conference time," says Stone.

"Well, I've decided to play part of it back," replies Leavitt.

"What for?" asks Hall. "The first time around should be enough to-"

"Knock it off, Hall!" shouts Leavitt.

"Wait, wait," says Stone. "We're all tired. Tired people make mistakes. We draw wrong conclusions, we drop things. That mustn't happen. Starting now, I want the team to get six hours sleep out of every twenty-four."

Leavitt spins around in her chair and looks at the clock. It's after midnight.

"Oh my God," says Leavitt, terrified. She sinks her chin to her chest, then puts her head in her hands and leans against the console.

She restarts the lab display, showing a partial playback "COMMENCING WITH 500 < CULTURE DESIG > CHOCOLATE

"Doctor Leavitt, you have a midnight conference," says an announcement. "The signal has struck twice."

"I heard!" shouts Leavitt, then in a calmer voice, "I heard. I've been busy." She grimaces, taps several buttons, and stands up from the console.

TITLE: FOURTH DAY

"The important thing is something can slow it down," says Hall. "I think it's some kind of blood-"

"all that night, was sugar," says Jackson about his friend Pete Arnold.

"Diabetes?" says Hall. "Did he take insulin?"

"Couple a times a day!" says Jackson. "He hated the needle. I tried to talk him into using Squeeze."

Hall thinks to himself for a moment. "Insulin - if he missed his treatment, he'd go..."

The midnight tone sounds over the PA system. Hall looks at Anson, who looks back at him.

"Thanks, Mister Jackson," says Hall, and exits the glovebox suit.

Meanwhile, in MaxCult, Leavitt stares slack-jawed at the petri dishes. The midnight tone continues to sound but she doesn't react to it.

Finally, she begins to come out of her trances, rubbing her eyes.

She looks at the screen. The lab report ended. She's realized she's missed most of the review.

"Mex," says Jackson. "Real little heller. Squalls morning, noon, and night! Neighbors wouldn't even let 'em keep their windows open."

Almost on cue, Manuel Rios begins wailing loudly.

"Do you sleep with your window closed?" asks Hall.

"No, siree Bob - fresh air fiend," says Jackson.

Hall glances at Karen Anson, then turns back to Jackson. "Tell us what happened, Mister Jackson," says Hall.

Jackson turns away. "I don't want to think about it," he says.

"You know what people will say?" says Hall. "Piedmont was bad: that's why it was punished. First, the town went crazy, and then was destroyed."

Anson looks on, shocked.

"You're crazy!" says Jackson. "Folks at Piedmont was good! Decent, normal folks!"

"The man we found all dressed up in his doughboy's uniform," says Hall, "call that normal?"

"Pete Arnold," says Jackson. "who worked at the store." Jackson's voice drops to a whisper. "It was the disease."

"How do you know?" asks Hall.

"Cause the only thing wrong with him --" begins Jackson.

The petri dish display on the monitor contines to blink "NO GROWTH." Leavitt is slack-jawed, in a daze. The mechanical, repeated movement of the petri dishes seems to be hypnotic.

Back in the patient care room, Hall and Anson raise the back of Jackson's gurney. It's 11:55pm.

Jackson pats Anson's bottom through the isolation suit.

"Feeling... better, aren't you, Mister Jackson?" says Anson.

"E-yup," says Jackson. "Do you always have to wear that iron suit?"

"Y-yup," says Anson, imitating Jackson.

"Maybe you'll tell us the baby's name now, Mister Jackson?" asks Hall.

"Manuel Rios," says Jackson.

General Sparks looks at the table with the dissolved pilot mask and femur.

Back at Wildfire, Leavitt stares at the circle of petri dishes undergoing examination by the computer. It's 11:45pm.

Stone appears on a monitor. "How's Maxcult coming, Ruth? Will you be finished by the midnight conference?"

"Easy!" says Leavitt, a bit too enthusiastically.

"Good," replies Stone. "You can give us the results then." Stone signs off.

Leavitt yawns, then looks at the monitor screen. A blank digital representation of the petri dish is shown, with the blinking red letters "NO GROWTH" at the top of the screen.

Leavitt is transfixed, the blinking red letters reflected in her eyeglasses.

"Keep a sharp eye open for pieces of rubber!" says an Air Force officer, as military personnel scour the wreckage at the crash site. "I'll repeat that for you: keep a sharp eye open for pieces of rubber!"

An officer stands over the cockpit wreckage. "Major! Major Manchek!" he calls. Manchek walks over to the cockpit. "Take a look at that, sir," the officer says to Manchek. Manchek reaches into the cockpit and pulls out a bone.

"It's a human bone," says Manchek, back at the command site. "Arm, I think."

"Well, it's picked clean - - almost like it was polished," says General Sparks.

"That's right," says Manchek.

"Well, I don't get it," says Sparks.

"There is no actual rubber on the Phantom F-4, General," says a civilian investigator. "It's all a synthetic plastic compound called polycron. It has some of the characteristics of human skin."

"What the hell is that?" asks Manchek, pointing at a plastic bag.

"What's left of his oxygen mask," says the investigator. "It's made of polycron. I'd say it was done by a chemical reaction of some sort, or maybe a microorganism."

"Meaning?" asks Sparks.

"Meaning there was something in that plane that consumes plastic," says Manchek.

Sparks looks at Manchek.

"All we have to do is attack this problem, like any other in science, " says Stone.

"You could spend years working on a thing like that without solving its structure," replies Dutton.

"But when you do, there'll be some red faces around," says Leavitt. "It could change everything!"

At 1500x magnification, the green blob grows.

"Great," says Hall, rubbing at his nuclear key.

"Ruth, since Kirke isn't here, you take over the growth program in microbiology," says Stone. "We're halfway home if we can find out what will keep that from growing."

"Charlie, you work with me on the E-M," says Stone, referring to the electronic microscope. "Hall, I want you t-"

"Let me get back to my patients," replies Hall. "I'm sure they were protected by the same thing: some simple mechanism I just don't recognize yet. There's gotta be something the old man and the baby have in common." He heads toward the exit door. "Oh, Hall," says Stone, "FIVE minutes." Stone is reminding Hall that he'll only have five minutes if the containment is breached.

"You told me before," replies Hall.

"Yes, we wouldn't want you to get too far from a substation, now," says Dutton. Hall turns and leaves.

Back at Big Head Pass, Utah, Air Force investigators continue to comb through the plane wreckage.

Doctor Dutton says he would have been happier if "it turned out not to be alive."

"Oh, green stuff," says Leavitt, "you really had us going for a while."

"AA analysis results are ready, Doctor Dutton," says the MIC-T. They all look at a paper pen graph. The twin lines are straight up the center of the graph paper.

"Something's wrong," says Dutton. "It's not registering."

"Yes, it is, sir," says the MIC-T. "It's just registering double zero, double zero."

"We'll switch to computerized analysis," says Stone, punching a button on his workstation. The monitor fills up with green text, says all amino acids are listed as "00 00."

"No amino acids!" says Leavitt.

"No proteins? No enzymes?" says Dutton. "No nucleic acids? Impossible! No organism can maintain life without them!"

"You mean, no Earth organism," says Hall. "It must have evolved in a totally different way."

"You got it," says Leavitt. "It doesn't come from here."

"Without chemical reactions, there can't be life," says Dutton. "Yet, it grows, reproduces... "

"Wait," says Stone. "Infection at Piedmont has been stopped by the bomb. We're secure at Wildfire. We have everything we need to achieve a breakthrough."

The four scientists and the MIC-T are working with a vacuum pump, to prepare a sample of the alien microbe for viewing.

"Number Four Charlie Hatch shows Condition Blue," says an announcement. "Alter responsivity characteristics until you get Condition Green.

Leavitt squints as she peers at a blinding light in the vacuum chamber.

Stone notices her squinting.

"Ready," says Leavitt, looking at a vacuum gauge.

There's a readout on the video monitor.

MASS SPECTROMETER DATA OUTPUT

ELEMENTAL PERCENTAGE SAMPLE 5DOS

>BLACK OBJECT<

H= 21. 07 HE - 0 LI - 0 BE - 0

B- 0 C - 54.90 N - 0 O - 16.00

F- 0 NA - 0 MG - 0 AL - 0

SI - 00.20 P - S 01.01 CL 2.00

"Nothing so unusual about our rock after all," says Leavitt. "Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, sulfur, silicon, et cetera."

"Except the black rock isn't rock at all," says Stone. "It's some kind of material similar to plastic."

"How about that?" says Leavitt. "the green's even simpler: Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen."

"The four basic elements of life on Earth," says Stone. "Nothing else. Well, that's a relief."

"I'd have been happier if - " begins Dutton.

The helicopter lands. Before the rotors stop, General Sparks, Manchek, an Army Captain, and another Lieutenant walk toward a table in front of the operations tent.

On the table is a radio and tape recorder.

"Alright, Lieutenant," says the Lieutenant, pointing at the tape recorder. The other lieutenant plays the recording.

PILOT VOICE (V/O): Albuquerque Center, Albuquerque Center, this is Air Force Five Six One.

CENTER (V/O): Go ahead, Five Six One.

PILOT VOICE (V/O): My air hose is coming apart! Like, it's dissolving!

CENTER (V/O): Five Six One, have you - - ?

PILOT VOICE (V/O): Everything made of rubber -- is coming apart! --- I feel funny...

The Lieutenant shuts off the tape player.

"It's a fluke," says General Sparks. "A vibration effect, maybe." He turns to the Captain. "Let's get up there."

"Has Wildfire been informed?" asks Manchek.

"You mean the germ people?" asks the Lieutenant.

"Yeah," replies Manchek.

"It went out to them on the scrambler about an hour ago," replies the lieutenant.

"Well this, they can't ignore," says Manchek. He follows General Sparks to a waiting Jeep.

Back in Wildfire's Microchemistry department, the four scientists and the MIC-T are working with microtomes, mass spectrometers, and amino acid analyzers.

The four Wildfire scientists drink their liquid "meals."

Meanwhile, and Air Force Bell 206B Jet Ranger flies over southeastern Utah, coming to a landing in front of two Army Jeeps.

SUBTITLE: "BIG HEAD PASS, UTAH ... 1:20 P.M."

Major Manchek and General Sparks exit the helicopter. Two men salute as they approach a table set up under a tarp.

The RCA Teletype terminal stands in Delta Five with the equipment door open.

"You tell that to the taxpayers!" says the Senator from Vermont in voiceover.

"These were highly trained electronics men, Senator, looking for an electronic fault," says Robertson. "The trouble was purely mechanical, of the simplest kind. But for them, it was like trying to see an elephant through a microscope. The sliver had peeled from the roll and wedged between the bell and striker, preventing the bell from ringing."

In the ward room outside the cafeteria, Dutton is drinking a nutrient "meal." Hall enters through sliding glass doors.

"I'm convinced we are being held incommunicado," says Dutton.

"Very flattering," replies Hall. "We don't know much more than when we got here."

"We know about Scoop now," says Dutton. "It's possible what Scoop found was no accident. I suspect they were looking for the ultimate biological weapon."

"Sounds like you're getting a little paranoid in this funhouse, " says Hall. "What does Stone think -- about the ultimate weapon, I mean?"

Stone and Leavitt enter the wardroom. "We've isolated the organism!" announces Stone. "It's in microchemistry - - we'll show you."

"-crash, Mancheck. It was a fluke!" says General Sparks, standing up. He walks to the wall map, pointing. "That plane was only over the WF area for two minutes, at twenty-three thousand feet! It's a routine training accident, I betcha. Pilot error!" Sparks turns to his assistant. "Let's go," he says, and the two leave the control room.

Manchek walks over to Lt. Comroe, who is leafing through some files.

"Check with Wildfire message center Delta Five. Make sure everything there is nominal," says Manchek. "Send me word on scrambler at Big Head crash base." Comroe picks up the phone.

At Delta Five, Captain Morris types commands into a terminal. "Checklim program completed," he says to the other technician. "All circuit banks nominal."

A teletype machine prints:

CHECKLIM RESULTS

MACHINE FUNCTION ON ALL CIRCUITS WITHIN NOMINAL LIMITS

"Same thing on the MCM console, Captain," says the sergeant.

"Just a minute, Doctor Robertson," says the Vermont Senator in a voice-over, while the TeleType machine remains on-screen. "You're saying Stone's ninety-million dollar facility which you recommended was knocked out by a sliver of paper?"

"No," laughs Robertson, also in voice-over.

"We might have to, before this is over," says Hall. Anson looks at him. The baby starts crying again.

Meanwhile, on board an Air Force jet, a pilot is dozing while his oxygen mask disintegrates. The indicators on his instrument panel spin rapidly.

The scene shifts to a US map. The words "CRASH SITE" appear next to a red X mark over southeastern Utah, not far from Piedmont in northwest New Mexico. There is a sound of an aircraft impact.

"They should have dropped the bomb," says Major Manchek, in front of a large wall map with the same markings as the previous scene.

TITLE: "10:15 A.M."

"They should have dropped it two days ago, General," says Manchek to General Sparks. They're holding a conference in the Wildfire control room.

"This Phantom crashed a good sixty miles beyond the cordoned area," says Sparks, looking at a map.

"Men on the ground can't cordon off airspace, Sir," replies Manchek. "I just don't understand why the Wildfire team hasn't beefed about the delay in seven-twelve. It's been almost twenty-four hours and not a word from them."

"I don't think that Piedmont had anything to do with this," says Sparks.

Karen Anson retrieves a bottle of milk from a wall panel, then turns to talk to Jackson.

"What's the baby's name, Mister Jackson?" asks Anson.

"You the nurse?" asks Jackson.

"Uh-huh," says Anson.

Jackson looks at her isolation suit. "Shoot," says Jackson, "Can't see your legs." Karen smiles at him and walks back to tend to the baby.

"Do you know the baby's name?" asks Hall.

"Give us a butt first," says Jackson.

"Smoking isn't allowed here," says Hall.

"Then, go fish," says Jackson, turning his head away from Hall.

Hall walks over to Anson, who is feeding the baby.

"When you're finished," says Hall, "we'll transfuse Jackson and start ice water lavage. He has a two-year history of bleeding ulcers."

"You seem delighted," says Anson.

"It may be the reason he survived," says Hall. He looks at the baby. "If only our young gourmet weren't so normal."

"Well, let's hope nothing changes that," says Anson.

"It's this damned stomach of mine," says Jackson.

"Bleeding?" asks Hall.

"Hell, yes bleeding!" says Jackson.

"Bleeding in your stomach?" says Hall. "You have an ulcer?"

"Damn tootin'," says Jackson. "Two years."

"But you must have pain," says Hall. "What do you do for it?"

"Aspirin," says Jackson, "and Squeeze."

"Squeeze? What's that?" asks Hall.

"I ain't gonna tell ya," says Jackson.

Karen Anson waves through the window at Hall, pointing toward a monitor.

On the monitor:

MEDOX INDEX OUTPUT AS SQUEEZE AS ALSO CALLED RED-EYE AND PINKLADY TRADE NAME [][] STERNO COMPOSED TO ETHANOL AND METHANOL

"So, you're a Sterno drinker, eh?" asks Hall.

Jackson grins, and replies, "Works good." The baby continues crying. "Give him Squeeze!" says Jackson

"But why?" says Hall. "Stupid machine - what makes his blood too acid?"

"Ask the patient," says Karen Anson, pointing out that the patients are awake.

Hall climbs into his glovebox suit lifts the top of the bed frame, and turns Jackson's head. Jackson opens his eyes. "Mister Jackson?" says Hall, "Now, don't be scared. I'm a doctor."

"Bull," replies Jackson, closing his eyes. "Where am I?"

"A special laboratory in Nevada," says Hall. "We brought you here from Piedmont. You're sick."

"I'm the MIC-T," says a technician. "You were real sharp on the hands."

"Thanks," says Stone. "Nice to know one hasn't lost one's touch. Now, the next step is to find out what makes it grow. We'll need samples from the Scoop to send through MAXCULT for culture and isolation."

"Roger, sir," says the MIC-T, "in work."

Stone sits down at the computer terminal. The MIC-T begins to manipulate the hands.

"Good God!" says Leavitt, looking at the monitor. The green blob turns purple, and swells.

"It's growing," whispers Leavitt. The blob swells yet again.

Back in the patient infirmary, a computer readout says "SUBJECT CODED INFANT << ALL LABORATORY VALUES NORMAL"

A second readout appears: "SUBJECT CODED >GRAMPS< RECODED >JACKSON< DIAGNOSTIC PROBABILITIES 1. ACUTE AND CHRONIC BLOOD LOSS EITOLOGY GASTROINTESTINAL 88<< 2. ACIDOSIS BLOOD PH 7.31

"Not so good, "says Hall. "Naturally he has acidosis - - his blood is 9 points off normal."

"... at ten to the twelfth bit," says an announcement. Stone moves the pincers to the second mechanical arm. "For any change in memory configuration, CLT's must check their Unicom op," continues the announcement.

With the second robot arm, Stone navigates the pincers into Scoop VII's interior. On a small monitor, a perspiring Stone lowers the pincers near the tiny rock. Grabbing the rock, Stone quickly moves the pincers out of the spacecraft, while the lifting crane lowers a glass box containing a Petri dish.

Stone, now perspiring heavily, opens the door to the glass box, and removes the lid of the Petri dish with a robot arm. He moves the pincers above he Petri dish and opens the pincers, allowing the rock to fall into the dish.

As he finishes the procedure, he powers down the robot arms.

"Beautiful, sir!" says a man standing next to him.

At a magnification of one thousand, the green blob fills the monitor. Suddenly, it flashes white, and expands again.

"Did you see that?" asks Leavitt.

"I saw it," says Stone. "You didn't change the lighting?"

"I didn't touch it," replies Leavitt. The blob flashes and expands again. "It's alive!"

"Yes," says Stone.

"It's bigger than two microns," says Leavitt.

"Which means the infection is spread by a mere fraction of the green," says Stone. He stands up. "I'm bringing down cameras. Let's have the other microscanner." Two movie cameras descend from the ceiling.

Stone presses an intercom button on the console. "Stone to Level Control," he says,"I need a MIC-T."

"Roger," says Level Control, "will send."

As they watch the monitor, the blob flashes and expands.

"Jump it up to fifteen hundred," says Stone.

"Micro scan doesn't go any higher," says Leavitt.

"We can get fifteen hundred light magnification in Microchemistry. I'll send the rock through," says Stone. He reaches for a control arm.

"Attention CLTs on Levels Four and Five:" says an announcement over the intercom. "Main computer shows capacity versus access time..."

Stone uses the robot arm to pick up a smaller pincer tool.

"Let's go back to the rock and see it at four-forty," says Stone.

Leavitt punches a few buttons. The rock is lit at the edges, with a glowing green gel in a large crevasse.

"If that's a meteor, it's a damned peculiar one," says Stone. He walks toward the monitor. "This... left border, over here -- it's smooth! Almost like an artificial surface."

"Painted, maybe," says Leavitt, weakly. "Luminous paint?"

"If I keep watching it, I might think so," replies Stone. "Wet paint sign and all." Stone turns away from the monitor. As he does so, the green blob flashes white and expands.

"Jeremy," says Leavitt, blinking. She's not sure what she just saw.

"What?" asks Stone. The green blob is now motionless again.

Leavitt leans her head forward and rubs her eyes. "Nothing," she says.

"You okay?" asks Stone.

"It's just my eyes are getting tired," replies Leavitt. "We've been at it for five hours straight."

"We'll take a caffeine break in a minute," says Stone. "First, though, I'd like to see one of the separate green patches at a thousand."

Leavitt punches two more buttons. A single green luminous blob fills the monitor screen, with the caption "1000 X" below it.

Stone and Leavitt continue to examine the tiny green patches inside the Scoop VII collection basket.

"Hold," says Stone, standing up to look on the monitor.

"More pistachio?" asks Leavitt.

"I count four patches," says Stone. "Keep going - - I'll computerize the coordinates. Let's take a look at the rock at a hundred."

Leavitt moves the camera back to the rock at 100x magnification.

The rock is now a boulder, splattered with green.

"I doubt that's what knocked the capsule off trajectory," says Stone.

"Unless the rock was going at tremendous speed, or unless the rock was terribly heavy," replies Leavitt.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Ruth, it can't be that heavy. Hall and I could lift the capsule!" says Stone. "However, it's possible that the rock is different in space. Out there, it might do anything."

"Maybe it has elastic properties we don't even know yet," says Leavitt.

"Let's have a look at the green patches," says Stone. "They must have come off the rock. If it is rock."

The camera scans across several instances of the green patches.

"You know something?" says Leavitt, "They do look like splatters of paint."

Leavitt and Stone are examining a tiny pebble they've spotted in the Scoop probe.

"Go to sixty," says Stone. Leavitt punches a button, and the display screen switches to a higher magnification.

"Jeremy, do you think maybe --" begins Leavitt.

"Maybe it's just a grain of sand," says Stone. "Go to eighty."

The micro camera blurs and magnifies more. now, the copper screen mesh is a large wicker lattice on the screen. The pebble is now a craggy rock, with fluorescent green patches.

"What about the bits of green?" asks Leavitt.

"Paint," says Stone.

"For God's sake!" says Leavitt, dismissively.

"Pistachio ice cream - there's no basis to assume it's anything yet!" says Stone.

"You're too good a scientist not to be thinking the same thing I am," says Leavitt. "If this is really something new, some brand new form of life..."

"Our best hope of cracking it is to be grindingly thorough - - with the help of computer number one," says Stone, tapping Leavitt lightly on the head. "Okay? Now let's get on with it." Leavitt glares at him for a moment, then looks back at the monitor.

More green patches are seen on the screen mesh.

Karen Anson rocks the baby in her arms, as Jackson sleeps.

In the Scoop control room, Leavitt aims the camera inside the satellite. She raises her eyeglasses for a moment, rubs her eyes, and looks up at the large wall monitor.

The monitor shows the slowly moving field of view inside the capsule as shown by the microscanner, labeled "20 x".

Stone watches the same display on the other wall monitor.

"Hold it," says Stone. The camera pauses. "At the edge of that shadow - - I think--"

"Me too," says Leavitt.

"It's an indentation," says Stone.

"Yes," agrees Leavitt. "About the size of a pencil point."

"Go to forty," says Stone. Leavitt punches buttons. The scene magnifies. There's a small bean-shaped rock in the indentation.

The monkey and the dead mouse are on the examination table.

In a split screen, the robot arm lifts the door of the mouse cage open, as the monkey remains strapped to the table.

Dutton presses a button marked "AUTO SCAN."

On his monitor, the five block outlines fill with an expanding yellow blob, followed by the text "NO CHANGE - - PROGRAM ENDS END PRINT ON 03 50."

The monkey, dead, lies still on the table.

"We'll look at a replay of that, at speed six," says Dutton. On the big monitor above Dutton, the same event occurs in slow motion, the schematic of the monkey filling with a yellow blob that expands outward from the lungs.

"That tells us what we want to know, Hall," says Dutton. "The organism is inhaled. The clotting begins in the lungs and spreads outward."

"I didn't think it possible," says Hall, now out of his sterile glovebox suit. "I didn't think the total volume of blood could solidify that fast. I'd hoped that maybe one crucial clot would form in the brain, which is what made them go insane, and then the rest of the blood clot more slowly. We'd have a chance to cure that."

"Cure what?" asks Dutton. "We don't know what it is! Stone and Leavitt haven't been able to isolate the hellish thing." Dutton pauses, shakes off his mood, and says, "Of course the will, in time."

Hall looks at Anon, cradling the baby, while Jackson continues to sleep.

"Of course," says Hall.

Karen Anson laughs. "I didn't say anything," she says, pointing at the monitor behind Hall.

"We're doing an isotope scan, Hall," says Dutton. "How the bugs get into the body. Thought you should watch it."

"I assume it was inhaled," says Hall. "Not likely it's absorbed through the skin."

"That's what we'll find out now," says Dutton. "The mechanism of death."

A textbook page on screen discusses "UROKINASE I-131 LOCALIZATION OF ACUTE INTRAVASCULAR THROMBOSIS," by J. Brunnell, G. Hobby, and R. Green, in the Journal of Human Investigation 3; 485, 1970. The study is about the clinical diagnosis of intravascular thrombus formation. Urokinase idodine-131 is introduced to three fibrin polymers, forming a connection at the center of the molecule when in solution. Urokinase is a thrombolytic drug, sometimes called a "clot-busting" drug. It helps the body produce a substance that dissolves unwanted blood clots. Urokinase is used to treat blood clots in the lungs.

A label saying "NUCLEAR MAGNASCANNER" appears onscreen. A bowl-shaped mechanism appears above an immobilized rhesus monkey.

A split-screen shows a milky fluid being injected into the monkey's femoral artery.

Dutton brings up a monitor with several blocky, monkey-shaped diagrams on screen.

The dead mouse in its cage is dropped next to the monkey on the examination table.

Jackson fades into a stupor. Hall rubs the sides of Jackson's head.

"Stay awake, Mister Jackson. Stay awakes," says Hall. The baby continues to cry. Jackson is unresponsive.

The beds rotate, and Hall is presented with the crying baby.

"Tongue blade," says Hall. Anson hands Hall a tongue depressor. Hall feels the baby's lymph nodes under the chin while the baby continues to wail. He tries to examine the baby's throat with a tongue depressor, and the baby yells louder. Anson smiles, watching Hall struggling to examine the baby.

"You can tell you're a bachelor," says Dutton, on the video intercom.

"What was that?" asks Hall, confused.

The baby is crying as the patient turntable spins.

Hall examines the old man's eyes with an otoscope, then checks to see the pliability of the man's neck.

"Here's his blood value now," says Karen, pointing at a nearby video monitor. His hemocrit value is 21, with a normal range of 38-54.

"Half normal. Severely anemic," says Hall. He turns and gently shakes the man.

"Wake up, sir," says Hall. "Can you hear me? What's your name?"

"J-Jackson," whispers the man.

"What?" asks Hall.

"Jackson," says the man, in a slightly louder voice.

"We didn't know that before, did we?" asks Stone. "We'll start with five power on the inside. Stick to established procedure."

"Establishment gonna fall down and go boom," replies Leavitt.

"Switch to manual, Ruth," says Stone. "The interior's too irregular to probe on automatic." Leavitt punches several buttons, and the camera begins to circle the interior of Scoop VII.

"More light, huh?" asks Stone. Leavitt moves a spotlight over the satellite.

In the patient examination room, the two subjects are rotated into position for Hall to begin their physicals.

The mouse seems to be doing okay with a one micron filter.

"Hey, must be pretty big!" says Toby. "I'm gonna get me a fly swatter."

"Do that," says Dutton. "Here goes with two microns." Dutton presses a button. The filter wheel spins and airflow continues. The mouse rolls over and dies.

"Uh-huh," says Dutton. "Nasty. At least we'll be able to get a good look at it." He turns to a teleconference monitor on the wall, and presses a button on his console. "Dutton to Stone!"

Stone answers the video conference call.

"We just found out its size," says Dutton, "about two microns in diameter."

"Big enough to be a complete cell," says Stone. "Interesting."

"There's a good chance it's alive," says Leavitt. "Airborne transmission?"

"Yes," says Dutton. "What have you found?"

"So far, nothing," answers Leavitt. "Our Nobel Laureate here won't scan on the inside because he says if he doesn't-"

"Alright," says Stone. "Thanks, Charlie. Keep at it." Stone turns off the conference monitor.

"It's pointless to go on scanning outside," says Leavitt. "If it's two microns in diameter, it would have shown up at four-forty."

"True," says Stone, "but we didn't know that."

"-- size," continues Dutton. "Could be a gas, or some kind of a virus. We'll use a hundred angstrom filter to begin."

"About the size of a small virus," says Toby, reaching for the waldo controller. He plugs the air tube from the dead rat cage into a Ferris wheel-styled Plexiglas apparatus, with a live mouse in a cage on the other side of the wheel.

"All systems go, sir," says Toby. Dutton presses a button marked "100A." The wheel spins to a filter with the same label. Dutton presses the "AIRFLOW 2" button. Air flows through the system. The mouse is unaffected.

"Whatever it is," says Dutton, "it's larger than a virus. We'll try a one micron filter."

"Hang in there, baby," says Toby, smiling.

The wheel moves to a label marked "1M." Air continues to flow, but there's no reaction from the mouse.

Toby backs out of the glovebox suit.

"BZ-Doris to IZ-Alice," says an announcement, "SDG energy output is one point eight, three point oh joules, with rates of two point three milliradians. And we still need those blankets!"

Toby climbs out of the glovebox hatch. "No sweat, sir. Those cages are airtight," says Toby.

"I wish you would sweat a little more, Toby," says Dutton. "Sweat is a safeguard against some kinds of bacteria - - and carelessness. Use the hands." Dutton waves at the robot waldo controllers.

Toby smiles and salutes. Using the waldo, he plugs the air tube into the cage holding the dead mouse. Dutton presses a button marked "Airflow 1" and the sound of air circulating fills the room. The live mouse starts breathing heavily, and dies.

"Wow," says Toby.

"Transmitted by air," says Dutton, "as we thought. Now, we've got to determine if -"

Stone glances at the right-hand monitor, and notices they're using two video cameras.

"No, Ruth," says Stone, "use only one microscanner."

"Are you being paid by the hour?" asks Leavitt. "We can cover the capsule in one half the time."

"There's less chance of missing something when we both concentrate on one screen," replies Stone.

"Let's go directly to the inside," says Leavitt. "We can assume they put a scoop on the thing to scoop something into it. Brother, they sure got what they were looking for."

"We're not here to make accusations," says Stone. "We have a job to do, purely as scientists."

"Maybe not so pure," replies Leavitt.

Stone glares at her. "Continue the scan, Ruth. On the outside," says Stone. Leavitt removes one of the video cameras from the satellite.

Meanwhile, in Autopsy, Dutton oversees the work of his assistant, Toby. Toby is placing cage housing the body of the dead Norway Rat on a steel table. He reaches for a gas connnector.

"No, don't do that!" says Dutton over the intercom. "We'll use the hands!"

"Nothing can happen, sir," replies Toby. "I'm faster than the hands."

"I want you out of the hot room," says Dutton.

Toby puts the gas connector back down on the table.

"-- zero nine five, reconfirm RTP status before transfer," says an announcement. Karen Anson walks toward a medical receptacle in the examining room.

Meanwhile, Stone and Leavitt examine the exterior of Scoop VII with a small video camera that orbits the open top of the satellite.

Electrical wires are shown on a large video monitor, with the caption "20X" at the bottom of the screen. Literally, it's a bolt-by-bolt inspection.

Leavitt stretches and yawns in her chair.

"Second scan completed," says Leavitt. "Score: nothing to nothing."

"Go to a hundred power," says Stone. Leavitt punches a button, and the monitor now says "100X."

Hall starts checking off blood tests on the screen. When finished, the computer screen goes blank for a moment, then the following appears:

TESTS ORDERED WILL REQUIRE FOR EACH SUBJECT

4 CC CLOTTED BLOOD 2 CC OXALATED BLOOD 3 CC CITRATED BLOOD 15 CC URINE

Hall looks at the screen. "You draw the bloods, I'll do the physicals."

Hall walks to the tunnel entrance of the right-hand suit and pauses. Anson, approaching the other tunnel entrance, smiles at him. "Use the bar," says Anson. "The tunnel seals off automatically behind you. The only way you might possibly break your suit is with a scalpel - - and a surgeon isn't likely to do that. " Anson waves, grabs the overhead bar, and swings feet-first into the tunnel.

Hall presses the door opener button, then follows Anson's motions in swinging into the tunnel. Anson's head pops up in the glass helmet. Hall appears inside his own helmet, and flexes his rubber gloves as the suit door seals behind him.

"Bio Safety to SL," says an announcement, "An animal in airlock--"

Hall looks at Anson, then at the isolation suits in the exam room.

"Have you worked in them?" asks Hall.

"Not for real," says Anson, "But I've been drilling in them for three months."

"Thank God for an expert," replies Hall. "This sorta thing's new to me."

"New to all of us" says Anson. "Until now, Wildfire's been like a game. We've even had simulation biowar games here, with live subjects - - volunteers."

Anson pauses. "I mean I'm scared," she says. "Never believed this could really happen."

"Well, it has happened," says Hall. He turns back to the computer console. "I'll need some lab tests."

Anson sits Hall down in front of the console, and types commands into MEDCOM.

On the screen:

MEDCOM PROGRAM LAB / ANALYS

BLOOD

COUNTS RBC RETIC PLATES WBC DIFF HEMATOCRIT HEMOGLOBIN

PROTEIN

ALB GLOB FIBRIN ESR PROTIME PTT

"Use this to check off what you want," says Karen Anson, holding a light pen. "Just touch the pen to the screen."

Hall starts checking off blood tests on the screen.

Inside the "Miscellaneous" exam room, two isolation suits hang from wires, next to the two patients from Piedmont. The baby is crying.

Hall enters the observation room. A woman is seated at the console. Hall turns to her. She rises, about to introduce herself. Hall cuts her off.

"What's been done for them?" asks Hall, abruptly. The woman loses her smile.

"Just plasma for the old man," replies the woman. "Dextrose for the baby."

"Your therapy?" asks Hall.

"No," says the woman, gesturing to a computer terminal. "MEDCOM's."

"Do I call you Miss MEDCOM?" asks Hall.

"If you'd like, Doctor Hall, my name's Karen Anson," replies Anson.

"Good," says Hall. "I couldn't cope with two machines." He walks toward the computer terminal. "How does this work?"

"We're lucky," says Anson. "MEDCOM's got one of the best minds here. It's a medical data analyzer that can diagnose as well as prescribe. It's hooked up to the main computer on Level One. Every console and instrument is plugged into the main computer on a time-sharing basis. All our key lab studies are done on automated machines."

"I prefer the personal touch," says Hall.

"It's hard to come by in those suits," replies Anson.

Stone places the Buffalo rat on the shelf next to the dead monkey. The shelf retracts into an elevator shaft, and the elevator doors close. A green mist fills the elevator chamber as the shelf descends with the dead animals.

Dr. Stone removes his eyeglasses.

"Run an initial vector study, Charlie," says Stone, "Find out how the disease enters the body."

Dutton continues to stare into the empty specimen room.

"Charlie?" says Stone.

"Yes," says Dutton. "Yes, the vector study first, then autopsy." He looks again into the specimen room, and then back at Stone. "Incredible," says Dutton, shaking his head.

As he leaves, Leavitt stops him. "Dutton," says Leavitt, "Be careful. Let our distinguished surgeon handle the knife."

"Fine, but not for a while," says Hall. "First, I'm a pediatrician and a geriastrist." Hall leaves with Dutton.

Stone puts his hand on Leavitt's shoulder. "Take it easy," says Stone. "Charlie will have a technician."

The scene shifts to the "Miscellaneous" room, where Hall's two patients are. The baby is crying.

"Isolate and identify," says Leavitt.

"Right," says Stone. "You and I'll scan the capsule, Ruth. Charlie, you work on these in autopsy. Open the SL, Ruth," says Stone, heading to the large robot crane controls.

Stone lifts the cage holding the dead monkey and places it on a metal shelf. He repeats the process with the Buffalo rat.

"Adjust S-Y system for eccentricity as follows," says an announcement. "Points two-A at five, points nine through twelve at plus one, plus three, plus six, and minus."

"Please consult Schedule A" says an announcement.

Stone lowers the caged rhesus monkey to the metal floor of the glove box. He uses another waldo to lift the door of the cage.

Upon breathing the lab room air, the monkey starts to shake his head rapidly, then flails against the bars of his cage. He shakes, spasms, and bites at the cage bars before losing consciousness.

"So, okay," says Leavitt. "Isolate and-"

"...in MP4. Repeat: Negative N-Scan, Negative N-Scope in LY-One. Affirmative M indicator in MP4," says an announcement.

Stone lowers a large rat in a cage to the metal floor of the glove box. He uses a waldo to lift the door of the cage, exposing the rat to the lab room air. The rat takes a few sniffs of the air, then falls over. Dutton says something unheard through the lab window.

"Whatever killed them in Piedmont is still there, and still as potent as ever," says Stone.

"If potent's the word," adds Leavitt. "Let's try a rhesus."

"Yeah, we'll want a post-mortem on it anyway," says Stone. He works the control panel for the animal cages, and a large cage containing a rhesus monkey moves forward on the shelf. Stone grabs the container with the rhesus using a waldo, and lowers the cage to the lab floor.

"Housekeeping to Level Five," says an announcement, "Clean sweep schedule B now in effect."

Stone is opening the Scoop VII cover plate with a pair of waldos.

"We have a magnetic K-indices here," says an announcement. "Give us a code three when you get it."

"I wanted you here when we find out if there's still anything biologically active in the capsule," explains Stone to the team. "Suggestions?"

"Use a Buffalo," says Dutton.

Stone turns to Leavitt. "Audio?" he asks. Leavitt walks to the control console and throws a switch. Stone reaches for a pivoting control panel.

There are shelves of animal specimens on the far wall: rats and rhesus monkeys in individual cages. A robot arm removes a rat in a cage from the second shelf.

"Directors E through G, Correction," says an announcement. "Negative N-scan, negative N-scope in L-Y One."

Dutton is explaining the layout of Level Five to Hall.

"The living quarters, conference room, cafeteria, biosafety maintenance, etc. Inside are the labs," says Dutton.

"Where's the library?" asks Hall.

"No need for books," says Dutton. "Everything's in the computer." Dutton points at the screen. "Notice the capsule's already been delivered by the sterile conveyor system to the main control lab here. Your patients are here in the hot room of Miscellaneous. We can't have any direct contact with them, poor souls. "

"Doctor Dutton and Doctor Hall are wanted in Main Control immediately, please," says an announcement. They both head for Main Control.

"Hey," says Hall, "If the patients are sealed off, how do I get to them?"

"Ever used a glovebox?" asks Dutton.

"No," replies Hall.

"Wildfire's gone a step further," says Dutton. "Whole rooms that operating like gloveboxes. You'll be working in one, shortly."

Hall and Dutton walk through a door marked "MAIN CONTROL."

Main Control is a large room with a two-person workstation, many video screens, and four waldo controllers for operating remote manipulator arms in an adjoining, glass-enclosed room.

"Exterminating," explains Stone.

"Jeremy," replies Dutton, "on this matter of extermination, we should go slowly. Without ever realizing it, we might be destroying a highly intelligent form of life."

"Why don't we get going?" asks Hall. "I've got two patients down there."

"The team has two subjects," corrects Stone.

"They're not guinea pigs, Stone!" rebukes Hall.

"You may now proceed to Level Five, gentlemen," says a recorded announcement. Leavitt laughs at the recorded message. They all stand and head for the door of the cafeteria.

Stone reaches into a jar filled with suppositories. "Um," he says,"stop by your rooms and insert these before taking the elevator."

Leavitt examines the capsule. "I've risked drowning in that foul bath," she says, "I've been par-boiled, irradiated, and xenon flashed. And now you suggest I -"

"I have to," replies Stone. "We haven't done a thing about the GI tract yet. On Level Five we must be as nearly germ-free as possible."

Levitt holds the suppository like a cigarette between her fingers. "Anyone care to join me for a smoke?" she asks.

TITLE: LEVEL FIVE... 4:33 A.M.

"Watchdog to Level Two, Sector D," says an announcement. "You are Red Kappa Phoenix status."

The Wildfire graphic display appears on a monitor.

"Off the main corridor, on the outer rim," explains Dutton.

"All for you, Hippocrates," says Leavitt, handing Hall a glass of brown liquid.

"Not your own venom?" replies Hall, taking the glass. He drinks it. "Tastes like orange juice," he says.

"Nutrient Forty-Two Five," says Stone. "Developed for the astronauts. Eight ounces satisfy all daily nutritional requirements."

"Except coffee," says Hall, walking over to the closed kitchen panels.

"And lipid-soluable vitamins," adds Leavitt.

"For that, we have these," replies Stone, opening the lid of a small dish. "Help yourself," he says to Leavitt.

"So, what's the point of a cafeteria?" asks Hall.

"Well," says Stone, "Wildfire isn't always on crash status."

"Then, maybe there's some sugar still around," says Hall, looking at the kitchen panels.

"Nope," says Dutton, "Nothing that might provide a bacterial growth medium."

"Precisely," says Stone. "No sugar in the gut."

"Oh, I'd like a cigarette right now," says Leavitt, "It's after meals you really miss 'em."

"Then you should have no trouble on Level Five," says Stone. "You won't even get this close to a meal. We'll be entirely on high-protein nutrients."

"I've planned our work in three stages," continues Stone. "One: detection. First step is to confirm that an organism is present. Two: characterization. How is it structured? How does it work? And three: control. How to contain and-"

Hall turns off his computer monitor and checks to find his nuclear key. He can't find it.

Frantically, he unzips his jumpsuit, finding that the key had slid down the back of his suit overnight. He moves the key to the front of his jumpsuit.

"This is the answering service supervisor," says a voice. "We wish you would adopt a more serious attitude, Doctor Hall."

"Sorry," replies Hall, "her voice is quite lucious."

"Well," says the voice, "the voice belongs to Miss Gladys Stevens, who is sixty-three years old. She lives in Omaha, and makes her living taping messages for voice reminder systems."

"Much obliged," says Hall, stepping into the corridor.

In the cafeteria, Dutton, Stone, and Leavitt are already in a meeting.

"Let's not get sidetracked by Rudolf Karp and his meteorite theories," says Stone to Leavitt. "His technique was worthless."

"I still think we should contact him," says Dutton.

"Fair enough," says Stone. He turns to Ruth. "Where is he?"

"Behind the Iron Curtain," says Leavitt. "He couldn't get a research grant here."

Hall enters the cafeteria. He grabs a tray and utensils, but then notices the cafeteria kitchen windows are closed. He looks over at his team, seated nearby. Leavitt raises a glass.

"Hemlock!" she announces to Hall.

Dutton is dreaming about a symposium at Berkeley, on the possibility of microscopic life having intelligence on other worlds.

"We'll discuss the possibility that intelligent life on another planet may be no larger than a flea," says Dutton. His students laugh. "Perhaps no larger than a bacterium."

TITLE: THIRD DAY

Hall is asleep at his desk. A tone sounds twice.

"Time to wake up, sir," says a voice. "Time to wake up, sir."

Hall wakes up and looks around his quarters. "Hello?" he says.

"Time to wake up, sir," repeats the voice.

"Why are you?' asks Hall.

"Time to wake up, sir," repeats the voice.

Hall squats by a speaker on the wall and presses a button.

"Do you wish something, sir?" asks the voice.

"Your name," replies Hall.

"Will that be all, sir?" asks the voice.

"For the moment," replies Hall, stroking the speaker. He stands up and looks at the clock. It's slightly after 4 a.m.

Dr. Stone imagines his own wife, dead in their bedroom. He remembers the desiccated blood pouring out of the Piedmont doctor's wrist.

Meanwhile, Dr. Leavitt meditates in a yoga position. "A new form of life," she thinks to herself. "like Rudolf Karp's bacteria."

"Fools!" says Karp, in a memory of Leavitt's. "They refuse to believe life exists in meteorites! I showed them at the astrophysics conference what I just showed you. But, no - - even with a microscope, they're blind. What do I have to do, hit them over the head?"

Leavitt nods her head.

Meanwhile, Charles Dutton sleeps on a bed. He dreams of a graduate seminar at Berkeley, where he drew an image of a man looking through a giant microscope at a plate of microbes, with a word balloon over the microbes saying "TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER." His graduate students laugh as he signs the artwork at the bottom of a blackboard.

"I'm glad you're amused, gentlemen," says Dutton, "but it might just turn out to be true. During this sym-"

Hall continues to ponder the missing substation, as Stone looks on.

There's an announcement: "Watchdog to all levels - Scoop Seven capsule secure. Biogen sixty-six, plus nine, minus O-L five." Stone heads into his quarters and sits at a desk.

The Scoop VII capsule appears on a monitor, cameras circling the outer rim of the capsule.

"Leo Control to Keepsake Five - the pressure integrity check runs two point five four gee, dash CM to the second. Please confirm," says an announcement.

As Stone looks at the initial examination of the capsule, he thinks back to the earlier memories of the day: Piedmont, and the dead bodies in the parking lot of the church.

As he daydreams about these memories, he thinks about some of the horrific scenes: The Caper One driver with the gash in his head; the dead at the gas station; the old woman who hanged herself; the young nude girl, the child with the Raggedy Ann doll... And then imagines his own wife, dead in their bedroom.

A white light and noise fills the room.

"You may now remove helmet," says an announcer. "You will notice a fine white ash on your body. This is the outer epithelial layers of your skin that have been burned away."

Hall and Leavitt look at their skin. It's covered in ash.

"Please replace the helmet in compartment, and proceed through shower in next room. Then you may dress, and descend to Level Four," says the voice.

Leavitt sneers, and tosses the helmet on the floor.

Later, in the Level Four corridor, Stone address the group outside the Interim Room.

"We're required to rest for six hours on Level Four after the exposure to the xenon lamp, " says Stone. "so go to your rooms, and sleep. At the end of the corridor is a cafeteria. We'll meet there at oh-four-hundred hours, tomorrow."

"Pharmacology to Maintenance L-V," says an announcement. "One of our RF's shows six point-"

Hall looks at one of the unfinished nuclear substations on the wall, and fingers the key on the chain around his neck. Stone watches Hall.

The Wildfire team walks down the Level 2 corridor.

"That body analyzer," says Hall. "I want to be there when the AMA gets wind of it."

"So far, it's only been used by NASA to diagnose astronauts in space," replies Stone.

"You doctors better start making house calls again!" says Leavitt. Hall laughs.

The Level Two uniforms are fed into another incinerator.

Dr. Hall stands naked in a metal-walled room. A fencing mask-like face shield rests in a receptacle on the wall.

"This is a xenon lamp apparatus," says a voice. "To ensure complete effectiveness, spread your feet apart." Hall does so.

"To protect scalp and facial hair," continues the voice, "place the metal helmet securely on the head. Make sure the helmet is firmly seated, and the visor lowered. Then, raise your arms and wait."

Hall follows the instructions and raises his arms. The room becomes brighter and brighter as an electronic noise fills the room.

"Physical parameters are being measured," says a non-computer voice. "There's no need to be nervous, Doctor Leavitt." Leavitt does not look calm.

"THERMOGRAPH SCAN SUBJECT CODED: HALLMARK THERMOGRAM HM-I," says a computer display.

"Please raise your left arm," says a computer voice. Hall, face-up and nude on an exam table, raises his left arm. On the computer display, a solarized image of his arm is shown.

"Please sit up, facing the scan screen, and watch carefully," says the voice. Hall does as instructed. Synthesized tones fill the air, and flashing lights appear on the screen. Unnoticed by Hall, a robot arm swings down to his left shoulder and fires a gas injection at his arm.

"You have received pneumatic injections of booster immunizations," says the voice, as the music fades away. "You may get dressed. Thank you. This recording is now ended."

Dressed in their yellow jumpsuits, the team reassembles in the Level 2 hallway. An aide hands Leavitt her glasses.

"Have you any allergies?" asks the diagnostic computer.

"Yes, to ragweed pollen," replies Leavitt.

"UNPROGRAMMED DATA" says the computer monitor.

"Well, okay, I'll repeat it for your memory cells. I-" begins Leavitt.

"Please repeat your response for our memory cells," says the diagnostic computer.

Leavitt takes a deep breath. "Ragweed pollen!" she yells.

"RAGWEED POLLEN CODED," says the computer display.

"This ends the formal questioning," says the diagnostic computer in Dutton's exam room. "Please undress." Dutton raises an eyebrow.

Doctor Stone is laying face-up, naked on the exam table. An ultraviolet probe moves across his body.

"This is a scan for fungal lesions," says the diagnostic computer voice. On the computer screen, a digital representation of Stone's left foot appears.

"Doctor Stone, this is Level Two Control," says a voice. "The answer is affirmative: Major Manchek contacted the White House at eleven twenty-three our time this morning." Stone nods.

A robot arm is attaching electrodes to Leavitt, who is laying face-down on the exam table. "Contact on all leads is R for Ready," says a computer voice. "Do not be nervous."

"I'm not nervous!" says Leavitt, through gritted teeth.

"Body Analysis - our next port of call," says Stone. Leavitt pauses in the hallway.

"Not for my alabaster body!" says Leavitt.

Later, Leavitt turns as she's left in an examination room. "I mean it, Stone!" she says, "You can take your body analyzer and you can-" Her words are cut off by the closing door.

Hall enters his own exam room. There's a circular video screen on the wall, and an examination couch.

"Sit down, please," says a recorded voice. Hall climbs onto the chair.

"Please look at the screen in front of you," says the voice. A graphic in the rough shape of a seated person is on the screen. "Please place your body so that all points are obliterated." The dots disappear as Hall moves his body around the chair.

"That is fine. We may proceed," says the voice. "State your name for the records, surname first."

"Mark Hall," says Hall.

"SUBJECT HAS GIVEN UNCODABLE RESPONSE" says the screen.

"Hall, Mark" corrects Hall.

"ANALYZER CONFIRMS IDENTITY: HALL, MARK" says the screen.

"Thank you for your cooperation," says the voice.

"Yes dear!" says Hall.

"UNCODABLE RESPONSE" says the screen.

"Please answer the following questions yes, or no," says the voice in Leavitt's exam room.

Dutton thinks the microorganism could be benign in its own environment.

"Pretty far-fetched," replies Hall.

"We can't ignore any possibility," says Dutton.

A tone sounds. "You are about to undergo long-wave radiation," says an announcement. "A buzzer will sound. Close your eyes and stand still, or blindness may result." The three men are irradiated.

Leavitt walks through a shallow foot bath. A stencil on the wall says "IMMERSE FEET ONLY. AVOID EXPOSURE TO EYES & MUCOUS MEMBRANES"

A door is labeled "EXIT TO LEVEL 2." The four scientists, now dressed in yellow jumpsuits, enter a narrow hallway.

"We face quite a problem," says Stone. "How to disinfect the human body, one of the dirtiest things in the known Universe!"

"That is, without killing the human being at the same time," adds Leavitt.

"It gets tougher as we go, I'm afraid," says Stone, as the four enter an elevator.

"Hard on the taxpapers, isn't it, the way we burn up uniforms?" asks Hall.

"They're paper," replies Stone.

Dutton examines his jumpsuit. "I could swear it was cloth."

"New process," explains Stone. Stone looks at Hall. "Where's the next substation, Hall?"

"Left of elevator on Level Two," replies Hall.

"Right," says Stone, "across the corridor from Body Analysis."

"It'll then go off within five minutes, unless you get to a substation and lock in your key," explains Stone.

"Oh,"says Hall. He looks at the key.

TITLE: 5:10 P.M.

Announcement: "Delta Five to all levels - we are checking out wave band emergency communications. This is a test..."

Leavitt follows a woman on one side of a hallway, while the three men head for the other side of the hallway. The door behind them closes. It has a stencil on it that says "NO RETURN TO LEVEL 1 THRU THIS ACCESS."

A jumpsuit gets dropped into an incinerator.

Another door, and a stencil that says "EXIT TO DECONTAMINATION & IMMUNIZATION"

"Proceed to infrared radiation / decontamination room One - D" says an announcement. The three men walk through the door, naked.

The men are in a blue room, seen through solarized distortion.

"Also, could be an organism from another planet," says Dutton. "Released deliberately."

"To wipe us out?" says Stone. "Really, Charles..."

"Just the opposite," says Dutton, "To make friendly contact - - a kind of messenger to show us life exists elsewhere in the Universe. It could be benign-"

"Where's the capsule?" asks Leavitt.

"The patients are the yellow Xs," explains Stone, referring to the video graphic. Two yellow Xs appear at Level One.

"The red circle is the capsule," continues Stone. A red circle descends from Level Two via the central core.

"On Level Five, the patients and capsule will be isolated in biologically secure setups," says Stone.

"Are you sure the old man and the baby are still alive?" asks Dutton. Stone presses two buttons on the conference table. Separate video feeds of the baby and the old man are shown on other monitors, as the two patients descend to the base of Wildfire.

"What are their chances, Hall?" asks Dutton.

"Uncertain," replies Hall. "I'm hoping the intravenous dextrose and saline will hold them until we get to them."

A tone chimes twice.

"We start decontamination and immunization procedures now," says Stone.

Leavitt and Dutton exit the room. Hall pauses in front of the arming mechanism. Stone watches him.

"You really expect me to fire the thing?" says Hall.

"I'm afraid you don't understand," replies Stone. "All you can do is stop it. In a biological emergency, the bomb is activated automatically. "

Dr. Stone posts a new picture on the video display of the Wildfire complex.

"Each level is a different color," says Stone, "based on a Navy study of the effects of color on the environment. Also every level is biomedically cleaner than the one above it. We don't want anything to contaminate a possible organism. That would make it twice as hard to isolate and characterize."

Stone brings up another video image on the display.

"It'll take us sixteen hours to descend through the programmed decontamination procedures on the first four levels, to level five, where the main labs are," explains Stone.

"Where exactly are we now?" asks Hall.

"There's one way you can locate yourself, or any of us, instantly," replies Stone, "Simply by calling up projections from the electronic diagram, on any video monitor, anywhere in Wildfire. Views, such as this..." Stone calls up a schematic. "Now, this shows we're in conference room seven, Level One. Each of us is indicated by our initial. Our movements are continually monitored on the electronic diagram."

"Where are the patients?" asks Hall.

"Where's the capsule?" asks Leavitt.

Stone tells Hall he has to always be aware of the location of the nearest substation.

"To do that, you have to become familiar with the entire facility," says Stone. He punches a button on the table. A video display of the Wildfire labs appears on a wall screen. "It can be studied on this electronic diagram," explains Stone. "Which rotates to afford an overall view, or can be stopped at any section. Detailed plans of the various levels and labs are also stored in the system."

Stone presses another button and a 2-D map of their current level is displayed.

"We're on Level One," says Stone, "of a five-story, cylindrical underground structure, surrounded by solid rock. Each level has three substations, indicated by the yellow lights. In the event the nuclear device is triggered, you can still cancel self-destruct by inserting your red key in a substation."

Hall looks at the key.

"After our last simulation run," says Stone, "we decided to add two more substations per level, but they're not finished yet, so don't confuse them with the functioning ones."

"At the bottom of the central core is the apparatus for self-destruct," says Stone.

Hall again studies the key.

Dutton explains the nuclear device only goes off "if there's danger of infection breaking out from here."

"That silver key can't be removed," explains Stone. "You're the only one who can disarm the mechanism by inserting your red key in one of the substations located throughout the facility. Now, there's a five minute delay between the time detonation locks in, and the bomb explodes."

"That gives you a chance to think," adds Dutton, "and - - please God, call it off."

"Look, I'm the new boy here," says Hall. "Why me?"

"Because you're single," says Stone.

"You should have done your homework, sport," says Leavitt, opening a binder. " Page two-fifty-five, Robbie's Odd Man Hypothesis." Leavitt walks over to Hall and reads from the manual. "'Results of testing confirm the Robertson Odd Man Hypothesis: that an unmarried male should carry out command decisions involving thermonuclear destruct contexts.' "

"Let me take a look at that," says Hall, grabbing the binder. The camera moves to the page that Hall is studying:

GROUP --- INDEX OF EFFECTIVENESS

Married Males --- .343 Married Females --- .399 Single Females --- .402 Single Males --- .824 INDIVIDUALS

Stone -- .687 Dutton -- .543 Kirke -- .614 Leavitt -- .601 Hall -- .899

"It's of vital importance, Hall," says Stone, "that you're always aware of where you are in relation to the nearest-"

"CAUTION: REMOVE ALL ARTICLES FROM YOUR PERSON" says a sign on a doorway. The door opens, and the three men step into a red-painted corridor.

In a conference room, Stone opens a small metal box, containing a red key and a silver key. The red key has a chain attached to it.

"Keep this with you at all times," says Stone to Hall, as he places the chain around Hall's neck.

"What's it for?" asks Hall, looking at the key.

"You're the odd man," says Stone, "The key man, quite literally." Stone holds up the silver key. "This other key," says Stone, "and Wildfire itself depend on your key."

Stone walks over to a metal pillar and dials a combination on the knob jutting from the side of the pillar. a rectangular section of the pillar slides out. Stone inserts the silver key in the rectangle and turns the key. A green rectangle at the top of the pillar lights up.

"Wildfire's equipped with a nuclear device for self-destruct," says Stone. "In an emergency, it's activated automatically. I've just inserted the key in the main station that arms the mechanism. The device is ready for detonation."

"When?" asks Hall.

"Never, we hope," replies Dutton, "It only goes off if there's-"

"Automatic, computerized, and self-regulating," says the Sergeant. He walks to a TeleType machine. "I, uh, I listen for a little bell, right here. Ding-a-ling! That means a message is coming in for the Wildfire team."

"Precisely!" says Stone, "an MCM communication. I'm expecting one."

"Yes sir," replies the sergeant, "top priority. Ding-a-Ling - - I push a button, and all five level control centers are notified the same time you are." He pauses. "The bell hasn't rung, sir."

"Thanks for the tour, Sergeant," says Stone, scowling. The others follow him out of the control room.

In the corridor, a woman dressed in red holds out her hand. "Doctor Dutton?" she says. Dutton hands over his eyeglasses.

"Will you follow me, Doctor Leavitt?" says the woman in red. "And may I have your glasses, please?"

What for?" asks Ruth.

"They'll be treated and returned to you, Doctor," says the woman in red.

"Well, they better be, or I'll need a white cane," replies Leavitt.

In the men's locker room, the men are changing into red work clothes.

"Who picked Leavitt?" asks Hall. "Talk about the Odd Man Hypothesis, which we haven't yet, she's really an oddball."

"Were lucky to have her," replies Stone. "She's the best equipped of us to double up for Kirke in Microbiology."

"When dressed, the team will proceed directly to Conference Room Seven," says an announcer. A sign on the exit door says "CAUTION: REMOVE ALL ARTICLES FROM YOUR PERSON."

"This machine has a long memory," says Dutton, placing his hands on the scanner. "It gives you final clearance to enter Wildfire."

A green light illuminates over the doorway, and the door opens. There's a red painted corridor beyond the door, labeled "ENTRANCE LEVEL ONE."

An announcement on the PA system: "Isothermal reading for MC levels four and five is Zee Bee NRA over two point nine."

Hall and Stone meet Leavitt and Dutton in the corridor.

"How's Piedmont?" asks Dutton.

"Had to order up a Seven- Twelve," replies Stone. "How are you, Ruth?"

"Hello," says Leavitt.

"No other way to halt the infection spread," continues Stone. Hall and Dutton shake hands.

"Oh," say Leavitt and Dutton.

Stone looks at Hall and Leavitt. "You two know each other, don't you?"asks Stone.

"By reputation, only," says Hall.

"Ah yes," adds Leavitt,"Up to now, we've had to worship from afar."

"Be good, Ruth," chides Stone.

They enter the Delta Five communications room. There's an Air Sergeant staring at the consoles.

"Any messages for me from the White House?" asks Stone.

"Not a thing, Doctor Stone, or you'd have it," says the Sergeant.

"No personal message?" asks Leavitt.

"No, Ma'am," replies the Sergeant.

"Nothing from Doctor Robertson?" asks Stone. "are you sure, Sergeant?"

The Sergeant glares at Dr. Stone. "Doctor Stone, sir, I have one thing to do. Just one. Everything else is fully-"

Dutton says "They brought it on themselves," to Leavitt while descending to Wildfire in an elevator.

"Who?" says Leavit, "the people in Piedmont?"

Meanwhile, Stone and Hall have returned from Piedmont. Stone leads Hall down a metal corridor to a metal cylinder. He motions Hall to plug into the cylinder with the cable on his bio suit. They both plug into the cylinder, and Stone presses a button on top of the cylinder. Electric charges surge over the outside of their bio suits.

The scene returns to Dutton and Leavitt, who walk out the door of their elevator.

"What you said before," says Leavitt, "you don't believe the infection in that capsule was brought back deliberately, do you?"

"Skip it, skip it," says Dutton. "I hope I'm talking through my hat." Dutton motions to the metal box in the middle of the room. "Put your hands on that glass, palms down," he says to Leavitt. "It's a finger and palm print analyzer, that-"

"-reads a composite of ten thousand dermographic lines." says Leavitt.

"How did you know that?" asks Dutton.

"Oh, Dutton," says Levitt, "I have a long criminal record. "

"You're in trouble," says Dutton. "This machine has-"

"Must be the heat," says Dutton. They both nod, and the man in the Stetson buzzes them through the entrance.

Dutton and Leavitt walk down a hallway of the agricultural center. Leavitt pops her head into a room marked "Soil Testing."

"It's no fake, believe me," says Dutton. "When I retire, I'd like an agricultural station like this - - in Alaska."

"You, a Sourdough?" asks Leavitt.

"The sourest!" laughs Dutton, and motions Leavitt into a supply closet. "This way...step in."

Dutton reaches under a shelf and pushes a button. The walls start to rise around them.

"Cute," says Leavitt, as the ceiling recedes above them.

A graphic, showing the relation of the elevator to the Agricultural Station appears in the center of the screen. Dutton and Leavitt's faces are shown to the left and right of the graphic appear in a split screen.

"The whole thing," says Dutton. "What a world we're making. I can see why the kids are dropping out. We should have."

"It's an emergency, Dutton," says Leavitt. "We got tagged, period. Until I saw those photos from Vandenberg, I thought that-- " she shakes her head.

"They brought it on them-" begins Dutton.

Dutton and Leavitt pull up to the gate. A man eating a sandwich opens the gate and waves them in.

"It's a great place to grow pot!" says Leavitt.

"Just a plain old crop of barley" replies Dutton. "Still, it is rather clever, I think."

They pull up to the ranch house. A sign reads "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER"

Dutton and Leavitt exit the car and walk toward the office entrance. As they go up the porch stairs, a flashing construction light disturbs Leavitt. She quickly covers her face with her hand.

"Something wrong?" asks Dutton.

"I never liked red lights," replies Leavitt. "Reminds me of my years in a bordello." Both doctors laugh and step inside the office.

A man in a Stetson is seated at the front desk. "Howdy," says the man.

"Howdy Doody," replies Dutton.

"You got the time?" asks the man in the Stetson.

"My watch stopped at eleven forty-six," replies Dutton.

"Durn shame," says the man in the Stetson.

"Nobody's been down this goat path for years!" says Leavitt.

"That's how it's supposed to look," explains Dutton. "They spent fifty thousand dollars on it."

"Putting in the potholes?" asks Leavitt.

"Getting rid of the tread marks," says Dutton. "Those big tractors leave a lasting impression. A lot of heavy equipment's has passed this way. "

Dutton turns right, onto a smaller dirt road.

Leavitt lights a cigarette. "Where's our leader?" she asks.

"We'll catch up to him, and Hall, very soon now," says Dutton.

"Why'd they pick Hall? He's no scientist. Who needs an overpriced M.D.?" says Leavitt.

"Relax and enjoy your cigarette," says Dutton. "It's your last." Leavitt looks at him, sharply.

"It starts here," says Dutton, pointing at a dilapidated sign that says "GOVERNMENT PROPERTY - KEEP OFF - FED. ORD. 6817"

The car drives over a steep rise. A fenced enclosure is in the near distance. Tractors run cultivating discs behind them . A ranch house with a large wraparound porch is behind the fence, next to an American flag waving on a white pole.

A man wearing a cowboy hat and eating a sandwich walks to the gate.

Grimes reaches into his shirt pocket, pulls out a cigar, and pats it into Robertson's jacket pocket.

"No," says Grimes, "but I'll get you an appointment."

The scene moves to the April Senate hearing. A map of Nevada is displayed on a paste board.

"By whose decision, General, was the site for Wildfire chosen?" asks Senator MacKenzie.

"Largely, Doctor Stone's," says General Sparks. "It seemed ideal to him because of its remoteness. There is no inhabited area near Wildfire for a radius of one hundred and twelve miles."

"Las Vegas is to the north, Phoenix to the south, Los Angeles, west. Weren't you worried the infection might spread to them?" asks Senator MacKenzie.

"Yes, sir, I was," replies General Sparks, "but Doctor Stone and Doctor Robertson assured the President Wildfire was foolproof because of its device for atomic self-destruct. The military had to take a back seat."

The scene shifts to a dirt road on an endless stretch of empty desert. A Plymouth Valiant approaches from the distance.

TITLE: "FLATROCK COUNTY, NEVADA... 11:55 A.M."

Dutton and Leavitt are in the car. Dutton is driving.

"At least they could have sent a licensed driver to meet me at that crummy airstrip," says Leavitt.

"They keep personnel to a minimum, for obvious reasons," replies Dutton.

Leavitt looks around, then finally says, "You're lost!"

"It's against the Moscow Treaty of 1963 to fire thermonuclear weapons above ground," says the Cabinet Secretary. "The Russians will have to be privately informed we're going to cauterize the area - - then they'll ask a flock of questions."

"Some, we don't want answered, " adds Ed, the Secretary's assistant.

"That'll take hours!" says Robertson. "God knows how far the infection will spread in that time."

The white phone on the desk rings. All the men look at it. Grimes picks up the phone.

"Yes, Chief?" says Grimes. "Yes, sir. Yes, Mister President." He hangs up the phone.

Turning to the men, Grimes says, "The President's decided to postpone Directive Seven Twelve, for twenty-four to forty-eight hours."

"But did he--" stammers Robertson. Grimes rips a blank sheet out of the typewriter.

"Instead," says Grimes, "he'll send out the National Guard to cordon off the area around Piedmont. That's your department, Ed."

"Safe and sound!" replies Ed, leaving the conference room.

"It should have been left up to the scientists," says Robertson. "It's a colossal mistake! Tell the President I said so!"

Grimes reaches into his pocket.

"No," says Grimes.

"What is it?" asks Hall.

The man in the sheet crumples to the ground.

"What happened?" asks Hall.

The man looks up at Hall with unseeing eyes, grimacing in agony.

The scene changes to a view from the helicopter, leaving Piedmont, New Mexico behind in the distance.

"The town is finished," says Stone, on a radio telephone. "Contaminated beyond all-"

"Careful sir!" says Major Manchek from Scoop Mission Control. "This is an open transmission."

"I'm aware of that, Manchek," replies Stone. "Order up a Seven-Twelve."

"Only the President-" begins Manchek.

"Precisely," says Stone. "Get on it. The town must be neutralized immediately."

The scene switches to a conference room with maps and TV sets embedded in the walls.

TITLE CRAWL: "WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM... 2:40 P.M...E.S.T."

Dr. Robertson follows after Grimes, the chief of Staff.

"Has the President made his decision on Directive Seven Twelve yet?" asks Robertson.

"He doesn't jump into things, Doctor Robertson," replies the Chief of Staff. "First, I've got to put together a briefing for him. The President's main concern is the international consequences. What do you think, Mister Secretary?"

The scene shifts to a gurney being lowered by crane from the helicopter. Stone's operating the winch.

Hall puts the baby in the baby basket, then puts the basket on the gurney. Stone hauls up the baby.

Suddenly, Hall hears a shout. "You!" calls the voice. It's a man in a tattered sheet, bleeding from the mouth and holding a meat cleaver.

Hall trips, and falls to the ground.

"You!" the man yells again. "You did it!"

Hall gets back on his feet. "Give me that knife," he says to the man.

"You're not -- human! Everybody's dead!" says the man, waving over his shoulder.

"What happened?" asks Hall.

The man winces, and crumples to the ground.

Dempsey flies away in the helicopter. Hall and Stone head toward the sound of crying.

A dead man lays in front of the house. Stone looks through the screen door. There's a long hallway, with a crib at the far end.

Hall and Stone enter the house and walk down the hallway toward the crib.

The crying baby is abut four months old. Hall picks the baby up from the crib.

"This must be the mother," says Stone, looking in another room.

"Scared," says Hall, looking at the baby. "and hungry as hell. Can't be more than six months old. There's probably some formula in the kitchen-"

"Don't feed it," replies Stone.

"He hasn't eaten in at least twelve hours!" says Hall.

"We don't do anything until we get that kid out of here and into a controlled situation!" says Stone. "Maybe feeding is part of the disease process. Maybe those who hadn't eaten yet lasted longest. Whatever it is, with our oxygen running out, we can't take a chance. "

Stone pauses. "Oh, wait a minute," he says, grabbing a baby basket. "This is a major break -- a survivor. Too bad he can't tell us what happened."

"Maybe he can," replies Hall. "If he lives." The baby continues to cry.

Hall and Stone prepare to load the satellite into the van.

Hall hears a faint cry of a baby. He and Stone turn their heads to try and locate the source of the cry. They run toward where they think the source of the cry is located, but the crying stops.

"I don't - " says Hall, holding the sides of his helmet.

"We heard it, alright!" replies Stone.

Dempsey returns overhead, the helicopter rotors drowning out the noise of the crying.

"Go away!" says Stone. "Go back!"

"Go back!" repeats Hall, waving his arms at Dempsey.

In the helicopter, Dempsey points at his watch and mouths the word "OXYGEN" at them.

"Get back!" repeats Hall. "Get out of here!"

"Go back!" adds Stone, waving his arms at the helicopter. Dempsey moves off.

Hall and Stone listen again. The crying sound continues.

"Blood in a dead person goes to the lowest points," says Hall. "There should be marks of lividity, right? Do you see any purplish marks on his butt?"

"No," says Stone.

Hall grabs a large scalpel and holds up the corpse's arm.

"Careful you don't puncture your suit," says Stone.

Hall slices across the corpse's wrist. Dark red powder spills out of the opening.

"Clotted blood," says Hall, "Powdered!"

"I'll be damned," says Stone.

"No wonder they didn't bleed," says Hall, "It's clotted throughout the entire system. Five quarts of blood, turned to powder!"

"In theory, I suppose a single organism could do it," says Stone.

"But in fact, there isn't an organism on Earth - " Hall looks at Stone.

"You mean there didn't used to be," replies Stone. The table clock chimes.

Stone and Hall put the satellite in a plastic bag and walk it out to the van.

Hall and Stone are outside the home of Dr. Alan Benedict.

"I'll bet they took it to the doctor," says Hall.

They enter the doctors home, and walk into his home office. The doctor is dead, and is sprawled in his office chair.

In the opposite corner of the room is an overturned metal cone.

"There it is," says Stone. He walks up to the cone and looks at the unhinged cap of the satellite.

"The damned fool opened it!" says Stone.

"Yeah," says Hall, "Every country doctor should run his office like the Lunar Lab." Hall turns and walks toward the doctor's body.

"Capsule first, Hall," says Stone, "We've got about forty minutes of oxygen left."

Hall removes Dr. Benedict's glasses and closes the corpse's eyes. He loosens's the doctor's belt and places the body face down on the floor. Hall then pulls down the doctor's pants.

"Have a look at his buttocks," says Hall.

"That's not funny," replies Stone.

"Not meant to be," says Hall. "Normally - "

Hall is driving the Caper One van. Stone watches the tracking radar as the van steers around corpses on the road.

"Hold it - - hold it!" shouts Stone. Hall stops the vehicle. "You'd better back up. We've gotta go to the -- left."

Hall backs up the van, dodging a tumbleweed.

They turn into a row of shops.

"We're damn close, " says Stone. "Bear right. " They turn past a '57 Chevy Bel Air, and pull up in front of a house. "Dr. Alan Benedict" says the sign on the fence.

"- could commit suicide that way," says Stone.

"Most of them died instantly," says Hall. "But a few had time to go quietly nuts."

"Let's find the damn satellite!' says Stone, leaving the bathroom.

They open the door of the Caper One tracking van. The lieutenant's body falls onto the roadway.

Hall opens the door on the driver's side. The sergeant's body lays across the steering wheel. Hall examines the corpse's forehead.

"This injury," says Hall, "There isn't any bleeding! A cut like this - torn veins, broken capillaries -- it should bleed like hell!"

"Yes," agrees Stone. He looks around. "Well, there's no blood on any of them!" He steps over to a corpse and moves a dead vulture out of the way to look at the wounds. No blood. "Even where it's chewed, no bleeding, " he says.

An auto mechanic's body is knelt in front of a Buick with its hood open. There's several dead passengers in the car. A boy lays dead next to the fuel pumps of "Roy's Friendly Service."

Hall and Stone are in the Caper One van, trying to locate the satellite. They drive down a gravel road.

A young dead woman, laying topless on a chenille bedspread, looks upward. She wears a metal peace symbol on a necklace.

Outside, a dead middle-aged woman lays on a sidewalk, next to a man in a denim jacket.

Hall and Stone look at a young dead girl, sprawled next to an adobe wall.

"Up there!" says Hall, pointing at the sky. "Look!"

There's a flash of light in the sky.

"An Air Force jet," replies Stone. "If we don't make it to Wildfire, he'll see that the helicopter does -- or shoot it down."

"Well, for Dempsey's sake, we'd better not slip up," says Hall.

They enter a home. A woman hangs from a rope in the stairwell, her dead cat under her elevated feet. Tied to the cat's feet is a handwritten note.

Hall reads the note: "The day of judgement is at hand. Have mercy on my soul - - and to hell with all the others! Amen."

"Senile," remarks Stone.

"This took time!" says Hall. "Regardless of what made her do it, it took time! There's a chance someone's still alive. " They leave the house.

A bloated face, seen underwater, fills the screen.

Hall and Stone discover a man kneeling next to a bathtub, his face underwater. The man is dressed in a WWI doughboy's uniform, his puttees loosely wrapped around his legs.

"I wouldn't believe you could - " begins Stone.

Stone and Hall are discussing whether the victims had coronary problems.

“If it was fast, they wouldn’t have time,” says Stone.

"Fast?" says Hall. "These people were cut down in mid-stride."

Stone and Hall being looking in the doorways and windows of Piedmont. The screen splits, and what they view is projected in boxes on the screen.

A man lays dead, next to a dog food bowl.

A dead man with a hearing aid still in his ear.

A woman lay dead next to her refrigerator, the door still open.

A young girl, clutching a Raggedy Ann doll, lays dead on the floor.

A teen aged girl, her hands over her head, is dead on the floor next to juice cans and newspapers.

A young topless woman, wearing a peace sign necklace, lays dead on a wood floor.

Stone and Hall are looking at the body of a dead man in the town square. The corpse has been gnawed on by vultures.

"Coronary?" asks Stone.

Dr. Dutton puts on his jacket.

"I doubt it," replies Hall.

A dead beagle and a small boy lay under billowing laundry hung on a clothesline.

Two boys lay dead on a basketball court.

Two women lay dead next to a sidewalk, the bodies of two vultures next to them.

A dead priest is sprawled across the entrance to the church.

Hall and Stone continue to survey the scene.

A dead postman lay in an entryway, mail strewn around him.

The body of a woman in front of the town grocery store lays near the store entrance, her packages scattered into the parking lot.

Hall looks into the window of the grocery store. Stone continues to walk past the small group of shops.

A man in a barber is dead in a chair.

Stone pauses in the doorway of the barber shop, looking at the man.

Hall looks up in the sky, and notices a bright glint of light.

"Hall?" says Stone.

"Take a look at this," says Stone. "Are you sure this isn't coronary?" They both look at the body of a bespectacled man in the parking lot of the grocery store.

"No," says Hall. "Coronary's painful. They should grimace."

"If it was fast, they wouldn't have -" begins Stone.

"Proceed directly to Wildfire," says Dempsey, "and then - - cckckckc!" Dempsey draws his hand across his throat.

Hall looks at Stone, puzzled.

"If we're eliminated," says Stone. "the aircraft and pilot will have to be sterilized."

"Uh, wait a minute," says Dempsey. "That's not what they told me. Just - - incinerated."

Stone drops a rope ladder off the side of the helicopter, as Dempsey hovers in front of the Piedmont church. Clouds of dust billow.

Stone and Hall stand in front of the church as the dust settles. The helicopter gains altitude and the two men are left alone in the silence of Piedmont.

A dead man, with his eye plucked out by vultures, lays face-up in front of the church. Hall and Stone look at him, while Dempsey's helicopter remains at a distance.

The helicopter passes over the middle of Piedmont. There are many bodies on the ground, some being chewed on by vultures.

"I was afraid of that," says Stone. "The birds'll eat the infected flesh, and then fly off and spread the disease."

"If it is a disease," corrects Hall.

"Drop the gas canisters," orders Stone.

"Someone's supposed to be alive down there!" says Hall.

"Somebody did something," says Dempsey, as they fly over a dead family, sprawled in a chuch parking lot. "That's for sure. Let's give it a double dose."

The helicopter drops several cannisters on the town. Yellow clouds spring up from below.

"That gas will only kill the birds," says Stone, surveying the results of the cannister drop.

"Okay, Dempsey," says Stone, "hover over the main street and drop the ladder. Do not attempt to land. Is that clear?"

"Roger," says Dempsey. "Clearer all the time."

"When we climb down," says Stone, "lift off to a thousand feet and hover at a safe distance. And come back when we signal. If anything happens to us, -- you have your orders."

"Yes," says Dempsey.

In a flashback from March of 1969, Dr. Stone continues to read from his Wildfire proposal letter to the President.

"…that it utilize all known isolation techniques, and that it be equipped with a nuclear device for self-destruction in the event of an emergency," says Stone.

"Yours very truly, Jeremy Stone," he concludes.

Don't encourage the president to think scientists are wizards," says Dutton. "If things get out of control, and they might, even you can't work miracles."

"I'd expect to have your help, Charlie," says Stone, smiling.

Back in the present day, the US Air Force UH-1N helicopter flies low over the desert.

"Piedmont approaching, gentlemen," says pilot Dempsey.

"Go over and give us a look first, Dempsey," says Stone, as he dons his biohazard suit helmet.

The helicopter passes over the middle of Piedmont. There are many bodies on the ground, some being chewed on by vultures.

Senator Phillips of Vermont picks up a letter, and looks at General Sparks.

"Now, let's talk about this famous letter Dr. Stone sent to the president some two years ago," says Senator Phillips. "From what you're saying, it was just a shot in the dark?"

"Perhaps that's a little unfair, Senator," replies General Sparks. "Dr. Stone and I were consultants with NASA on the Lunar Receiving Lab. He wasn't completely satisfied. He felt a more advanced lab was required."

"You mean more expensive, don't you?," says Senator Phillips. "I call that Dr. Stone's ninety million dollar mash note to Uncle Sam."

-FLASHBACK-

Dr. Stone reads from a draft letter, with the letterhead "LABORATORY of JEREMY STONE, Berkeley, California"

TITLE: "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA FACULTY CLUB… MARCH 20, 1969"

Five men are seated around a table. Besides Stone, the only other familiar face in the group is Dr. Charles Dutton.

"In a true biological crisis which our exploration of space could bring about," reads Stone, "the present Lunar Receiving Laboratory might prove inadequate. I therefore urge the establishment of a facility to deal specifically with an extraterrestrial form of life."

He continues: "The purpose of this facility would be to limit the dissemination of such an unknown organism from outer space and to provide laboratories for its analysis. I recommend that this facility be located in an uninhabited region of the United States -"

Stone, Hall and Dempsey are flying to Piedmont by helicopter.

"Didn't you read the Wildfire material I've been sending you?" asks Stone.

Very little," replies Hall. "I never went in much for science fiction!"

"Nor do I!" says Stone.

The Rayburn Office building is shown, with a title crawl across the bottom of the screen.

TITLE CRAWL: THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON SPACE SCIENCES… CLOSED HEARING… APRIL 14, 1971.

General Sparks is seated at a table in front of a panel of five Senators: Senators Dow, Wyatt, McKenzie, Phillips, and Sollenger.

"It seems to me, General," says the Senator Phillips, from Vermont, "Dr. Stone put one over on you. In fact, he made us all think his Wildfire Lab could handle contamination from outer space."

"I disagree with the senator from Vermont," says Senator McKenzie. "Dr. Stone, a Nobel Prize winner, twice president of the National Academy of Sciences, is well known here in Washington. Is the implication that Dr. Stone deliberately misled us?"

"Perhaps not deliberately, Senator," says General Sparks. "I'm reasonably certain that before the night the Wildfire Team was mobilized, Dr. Stone didn't know Scoop existed."

"I'm astounded," replies Senator McKenzie.

"Reasons of national security," explains General Sparks

Very smart," says the Senator Phillips. "We've had experiences with scientists before."

Dr. Hall, frustrated, removes his mask and leaves the operating room.

TITLE: SECOND DAY

An Air Force UH-1N Iroquois lifts off from an airfield, carrying Drs. Stone and Hall.

Dempsey, the pilot, sits in the right seat. Stone and Hall sit in the back. All three are wearing what appears to be spacesuits.

"Are you sure the satellite isn't radioactive?" asks Hall.

"No," says Stone. "Manchek showed me the telemetry reports. Presumably, it could be some form of space germ."

"Presumably this stuff is nonporous," replies Hall, pinching Stone's space suit. "Why did you pick me?"

"You're an M.D.," says Stone, "a talented surgeon who knows blood chemistries - - and you're single. The 'Odd Man Hypothesis.'"

"What the hell is -" begins Hall.

Dr. Leavitt lights up a cigarette, then grabs the top of a desk chair to steady herself.

"Are you sick, ma'am?" asks the Air Force officer. "We have a physician on call."

"All Doctor Leavitt needs is rest," says her assistant. She hands Leavitt a pill and a beaker of water.

"Oh, knock it off, Bess," says Leavitt, swallowing the pill.

"Now, if the physician certifies that you are unable to continue -" explains the officer.

"No!" counters Leavitt. "I'm fine." She puts on her glasses and stands up. A soldier blocks her way.

"Relax," says Leavitt. "I'm going with you!"

Meanwhile, in a operating room, a patient's abdomen is exposed for an incision.

"Skin knife," says Dr. Hall.

"Uh, hold it, Mark," comes a voice on the intercom. "Sorry to disturb you. There's just been a call from a Doctor Robertson at the White House. Your orders are to break scrub."

"Orders?" asks Hall. "I've got a patient, all ready!"

"Kelly will take over for you," says the hospital administrator. "Now it's all arranged. You're expected in the surgeons' room in thirty seconds."

"A hippie," says Clara Dutton. "He's going to a Love-In! I give up."

Dr. Dutton puts on his jacket.

"One minute, you're fed up," says Clara. "You're talking about retiring -- to Alaska, yet! Now, you've turned into a cloak-and-dagger man."

Dutton looks around. "My glasses?"

"Here they are, Dad," says Dutton's daughter, handing him his glasses.

"Can't you at least tell me who phoned you at this ungodly hour?" asks Clara.

"Grandpa!" shouts Dutton's grandson, running into the bedroom. "Grandpa! There's a car, and they got guns!"

"Do they, now?" says Dutton, in mock serious tones. "Well, that's serious. I'll watch out. " He picks up his grandson and kisses him.

Dutton's daughter talks to the grandson. "Honey, you've been dreaming," she says.

"I wish I were," says Mrs. Dutton, looking out the window. A soldier marches as sentry while two other men in fatigues and battle helmets head for the front door of the Dutton house.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ruth Leavitt looks in a lab sterilizer.

"Nope," she says, "uh-uh. Get someone else."

"Doctor Leavitt, I told you: there's a FIRE," says an Air Force major.

"My experiment's at the critical stage. I've been working around the clock. I can't just leave now," says Leavitt. walking to the other side of the lab.

"I want that new plate read as soon as it's developed," says Leavitt to an assistant.

"Yes, ma'am," replies the lab assistant.

"My orders come from Doctor Robertson, the President's science advisor, in Washington!" says the Air Force Officer. Dr. Leavitt lights up a cigarette and points.

"There's a phone," she says. "Pick it up. Call Robbie. Tell him I burned my draft card."

Dr. Stone continues to read through the Project Scoop file, while his plane sits at San Francisco International Airport. Shortly thereafter, the TWA 707 takes off, the tail lit brilliantly to show the TWA logo.

In the first class compartment, Dr. Stone looks over his shoulder to see nothing but rows of empty seats. The Air Force officer hands him a phone.

"I feel like Onassis," says Stone.

"It was the fastest thing we could arrange, sir," replies the officer.

"Thanks," says Stone, taking the phone. "Yes?" he says into the phone.

"General Sparks here," says the voice on the other side of the line. "I just wanted to inform you that all members of your team have been cleared and are now being called in - except for Professor Kirke. He's in the hospital - - appendectomy. You'll get complete details on everything when your team is assembled."

In a bedroom, Mrs. Dutton drops a suitcase on an unmade bed.

"You don't make sense!" she says. "You talk like you've been brainwashed."

"You don't understand," says Charles Dutton, buttoning his shirt.

"The germ warfare people, Dad?" asks his daughter, bringing in a cup of tea. "A lab accident?"

"Thank you," says Dutton, taking the tea. "It's different this time."

Dutton points to his wife. "Don't pack, Clara. I won't need anything."

Clara Dutton looks at her husband in disbelief.

As Jeremy leaves with the Air Force officer, Allison calls after him. "Jeremy!" she shouts, but Dr. Stone has already closed the door. Stone gets into the car parked at curbside, and they drive off.

Inside the car, the Air Force officer opens a zippered case, and hands Stone a file folder. The officer turns on an overhead light.

Stone looks at the file folder cover. It says "PROJECT: SCOOP MISSION." There's also a warning: "THIS FILE IS CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET. Examination by unauthorized persons is a criminal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment up to 20 yrs. and $20,000."

Back at the Stone household, Allison is on the phone in her bedroom, calling her father, who is a Senator.

"You tell the Senator that it's his daughter!" says Allison. She sits on the bed and takes off her shoes.

"Allison?" says her father on the phone.

"Dad?" replies Allison. "Dad, something very peculiar has just happened, even for Jeremy. A few minutes ago - "

There's a loud beeping noise on the phone.

"Dad?" says Allison. "Dad, are you there? What's going on?"

A woman's voice is on the phone. "This communication is being monitored," says the voice. "The connection has been broken for reasons of national security. You will be briefed at the appropriate time. Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Stone." The voice is replaced by an older-style dial tone. Allison stares at the phone receiver, puzzled.

Meanwhile, Dr. Stone reads the Scoop classified file:

======

... and funded through the PARPA.

The SCOOP PROJECT is under the command of Major General Thomas C. Sparks, U.S. Army Medical Service, Director of Biological Research Division.

The purpose of the project, contracted to the Advanced Jet Laboratory of the Wisconsin Polytechnic Institute in Madison, is to collect any organisms that might exist in outer space. The program inclused the study and evaluation of actual or potential injuries, illnesses, or damage caused by new extraterrestrial forms of life, should any be discovered.

======

Mrs. Stone moves to close the door, but the Air Force officer and MP step inside the foyer.

"I'll just wait here, ma'am," explains the officer.

Stone is talking to another professor.

"I'll come to Berkeley any time, Stone," says the professor, smoking a cigarette. "That four million must be the largest federal grant!"

"May I see you, Jeremy?" asks Mrs. Stone. Dr. Stone looks at her, puzzled.

"The SDS has arrived, no doubt!" he jokes.

"Jeremy, there are some Army types in the hall," says Mrs. Stone. "And there are two more outside, with guns! They want to see you-"

"I'll take care of it," says Jeremy, calmly.

"Jeremy?" says Mrs. Stone, incredulous. "If you know about this, you might have to-"

"I didn't," says Dr. Stone. "I'll explain later." They both walk to the foyer.

"I'm Doctor Stone, " says Jeremy to the officer. The officer looks at a photo in his hand.

"Yes," says the officer. "I'm Captain Morton. There's a fire, sir."

Stone pauses a moment, then turns to his wife.

"I've got to leave," says Dr. Stone.

"For God's sakes, Jeremy!" says Mrs. Stone. "When will you be back?"

"I'm... not sure," replies Stone.

"The guns," says Mrs. Stone, "Is it--?"

"Mrs. Stone," says Captain Morton, "It's our job to protect your husband. From now on, nothing must be allowed to happen to him."

"I'll be as safe as in your arms," says Dr. Stone, kissing his wife. He touches her shoulder and then leaves.

"Jeremy?" says Mrs. Stone, as the front door closes.

A teletype machine begins printing on screen:

TOP SECRET MESSAGE FOLLOWS AS WILDFIRE ALERT HAS BEEN CALLED PRESS BLACKOUT POTENTIAL DIRECTIVE 7-12 FURTHER NOTATION AS THE FOLLOWING AMERICAN CITIZENS PLACED ON ZED KAPPA STATUS. NAMES: STONE, JEREMY 81 LEAVITT, RUTH 04 DUTTON, CHARLES 51 KIRKE, ALEXANDER 39 HALL, MARK 142 TOP SECRET CLEARANCE RECONFIRMED FOR: STONE 81 END MESSAGE END MESSAGE =============================== DISENGAGE At the Stone household, the Stones are hosting a party for academics. The door buzzes, and Mrs. Stone goes to answer the front door.

She's confronted by an Air Force officer and an Air Force MP. "We'd like to see Doctor Jeremy Stone, please," says the officer.

"Well, I'm Mrs. Stone, and we are having a party," explains Mrs. Stone. "May I -" She looks to the street, where an armed Air Force sentry is walking next to a waiting car.

"Does that man have a gun?" asks Mrs. Stone.

"Ma'am," replies the officer, "we must see Doctor Stone."

"What is this?" asks Mrs. Stone.

"Please call Doctor Stone to the door," says the officer, sternly.

"Otherwise," says the MP, "we'll go get him, ma'am."

"Just a minute," says Mrs. Stone.

Manchek pulls a key out of his pocket, and walks toward a door marked "EMERGENCY ONLY."

He enters a small room and turns on the overhead light.

Looking at the key's fob, a tag says "In case of FIRE, Notify Division 21 Emergency Only."

Manchek inserts the key in a wall phone and picks up the receiver. He dials eight numbers on the rotary phone.

Electronic noises are heard, and then a voice comes on the speaker.

"This is a recording," says the voice. "State your name and your message, and hang up."

"Major Arthur Manchek, Scoop Mission Control A-12," says Manchek. "I recommend calling a Wildfire Alert. We have evidence here on film of unnatural death caused by Scoop Seven returning to Earth. Time check: zero one four seven, inclusive."

He looks at the receiver. More machine noises are heard from the phone. He hangs up the phone.

A teletype machine begins printing on screen:

TOP SECRET MESSAGE FOLLOWS AS WILDFIRE ALERT HAS BEEN CALLED PRESS BLACKOUT POTENTIAL DIRECTIVE 7-12

Pilot Gunnar Wilson is flying a photo reconnaissance flight over Piedmont, New Mexico in his RF-4C jet.

He presses a trigger mechanism on his control yoke, and a camera starts to record the scene below him.

As he leans forward in his seat, he notices all the dead bodies scattered across the town.

"Jeez!" he says as he passes over the church. Wilson loops his plane back over the town and heads away. He presses the Record button as he makes another run over the town.

The scene shifts to an inverse image of the flyover. Bodies on the ground stand out in white outlines.

On the door of the screening room at Scoop headquarters, a painted sign reads "FILM DATA PROSSEX - ADMISSION BY CLEARANCE CARD ONLY"

Manchek and Comroe step out of the room, past an armed guard.

"I'm declaring a state of emergency," says Manchek. "All personnel, restricted to base. Everything seen and heard in that room is top secret."

"Yes, sir," says Comroe.

Manchek pulls a key out of his pocket, and walks toward a door marked "EMERGENCY ONLY."

Shawn and Crane are still driving through Piedmont, searching for the satellite. Bodies are everywhere.

Meanwhile, Lt. Comroe is trying to reach Major Manchek.

"There must be dozens of them," says Shawn.

"Dammit, get this call through!" says Comroe.

"It's sort of like they just dropped in their tracks, sir," says Crane. There's a sound of screeching brakes. "Sir!" yells Crane.

"Good Cri--" exclaims Shawn.

"You see that thing in white?" asks Crane.

"Yeah, it's coming toward us," says Shawn.

"Hello, Major," says Comroe into the phone, "this may sound crazy but there's something going on with Caper One!"

"Lieutenant, sir, I think we should get out of h-" says Crane. There's an anguished cry, and then just the sound of the Caper One radar.

Later...

"Hello, Ops," says Manchek. "This is Major Manchek, Scoop Control A-12. We need a fly-by over Piedmont, New Mexico: infrared, a FLIR scan, all sectors, film to come direct to Scoop. Assign Gunnar Wilson - - if he's not crocked someplace."

The scene shifts to an RF-4C aircraft, making a photo run over Piedmont. Gunnar Wilson is at the controls.

Shawn and Crane are driving through downtown Piedmont.

"The signals from the satellite are getting very strong," says Shawn.

"Sir!" shouts Sgt. Crane. "Did you see that, Lieutenant?"

"See what, Crane?" asks Lt. Shawn.

"Over there, by the fence," says Crane. "It looks like a body."

"Easy, Crane," replies Shawn. "You're imagining things."

Suddenly, there's the sound of brakes on the radio as the van comes to a halt.

"Ho-ly," says Shawn.

"Sir, it's another one," says Crane.

"You're right," says Shawn. "It looks dead."

"Yes, sir," says Crane, "Shall I?"

"No!," says Shawn, "Stay in the van!"

Back at Scoop Mission Control, Lt. Comroe picks up his microphone.

"Vandal Deca to Caper One," says Comroe, "What's happening?"

"We see bodies," replies Shawn. "Lots of them."

"Are you certain, Caper One?" asks Comroe.

"Dammit, Comroe," says Shawn, "Of course we're certain!"

Comroe picks up an Army manual. "Your orders are..." He looks down the contingency list - "proceed to satellite and retrieve."

There's a pause. "Roger, Vandal Deca," says Shawn. There are sounds of the van starting up again.

Several of the airman stand up from their consoles.

"Stay at your stations!" shouts Comroe. "Hit that Security button!"

One of the console operators presses a button, and the word "SECURITY" appears over the door.

"Get me Major Manchek," says Comroe, into a phone.

"Somehow, they don't hardly look dead, Lieutenant," says Crane. "They're all over the place, sir."

Shawn and Crane are still looking down on the town of Piedmont. Shawn stubs out his cigarette.

"I guess we'd better go in and have a look," says Shawn.

The scene changes to a windswept beach, with a small building surrounded by radio towers and a satellite dish, high on a steep cliff above the ocean.

A ticker crawl appears at the bottom of the screen: "VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA... FEBRUARY 5, 1971... SCOOP MISSION CONTROL"

On the radio, Shawn reports in. "This is Caper One to Vandal Deca. Caper One to Vandal Deca. Are you reading, over?"

"Yes, I'm reading, over," replies Lt. Comroe. Comroe is reading a newpaper while talking into a microphone. In the background, several Air Force personnel are casually working the night shift at a mission control console.

"Uh, we're about to enter the town of Piedmont and recover the satellite," says Shawn, his voice charted on an oscilloscope. The sound of Shawn's radar beacon can be heard beeping in the background.

"Very good, Caper One," says Comroe, "Leave your radio open."

"Roger," replies Shawn. Sounds of the van starting up are heard over the speaker.

"We're now inside the town," says Shawn. "Guess it's kinda spooky."

A few of the Air Force men glance up at the speaker.

"I see a church steeple ahead, on the left," reports Shawn. "I mean, it's quiet here. It's the damndest thing - - there's no sign of life."

The radar dish atop the van continues to rotate.

Inside the van, the radar oscilloscope shows a blinking target. A pen plotter draws an arrow on a United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey map labeled "Vandenberg AFB, Project: Scoop Satellite Recovery Chart (Classified)"

"Piedmont, New Mexico," says Sgt. Crane, smiling. "Population, sixty-eight."

Lt. Shawn turns up the volume on the oscilloscope, then grabs the night vision telescope. "Come on," he says, headed out the door of the van.

Outside, buzzards circle in the night sky.

"I didn't notice them before," says Lt. Shawn, walking over to his rocky perch.

"That's crazy," says Sgt. Crane. "I didn't know buzzards fly at night."

"That's what they look like," says Shawn, scanning the night sky with his scope. "Here," he says, handing the night scope to Crane.

Crane looks through the scope at the village below. "Boy, that's some dead burg," remarks Crane. Shawn lights up a cigarette with a Zippo lighter.

"Buzzards only come when something's dead," says Shawn.

Titles continue

TITLE: "directed by Robert Wise"

Background: Robertson's Odd Man Hypothesis, Index of Effectiveness

Titles fade to black.

TITLE: "FIRST DAY"

Scene: a man with a night vision scope, looking down on the quiet town of Piedmont, New Mexico.

He walks back to a Ford Econoline van and opens the back door. The inside is illuminated with a red light. He closes the door as he steps inside the van. Atop the roof of the van, a small radar dish extends, and begins rotating.

Titles continue

TITLE: "costumes Helen Colvig"

TITLE: "set decorations Ruby Levitt"

TITLE: "sound Waldon O. Watson, James Alexander, Ronald Pierce"

TITLE: "T.V. by Hollywood Video"

Background: a growth chart based on pH numbers. the word CLASSIFIED appears over the graph.

TITLE: "production manager Ernest B. Wehmeyer"

TITLE: "assistant director Ridgeway Callow"

TITLE: "matte supervisor Albert Whitlock"

TITLE: "script supervisor Marie Kenney"

TITLE: "music engineering Allan Shol / Gordon Clark"

Background: security form for Nurse Karen Anson

TITLE: "art director William Tuntke"

TITLE: "production illustrator Thomas Wright"

TITLE: "make-up Bud Westmore"

TITLE: "hair stylist Larry Germain"

TITLE: "titles & optical effects Universal Title / Attila de Lado"

Title " © MCMLXX BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"

The AFL-CIO Bug appears at base of screen, next to the Westrex Recording System logo.

TITLE: "Filmed in Panavision"

TITLE: "Color by Technicolor"

TITLE: "animal sequences filmed under supervision of The American Humane Assn. W. M. Blackmore, D.V.M."

The MPAA logo appears with the number 22737.

Background: "PROJECT WILDFIRE OPERATING COSTS FISCAL YEAR 1970

TITLE: "scientific equipment from Korad Lasers, Perkin-Elmer Corp, Central Research Labs, Inc., R.C.A., Concord Electronics Corp., Du Pont Instrument Products Division, Van Waters & Rogers, Technicon Corp., Honeywell Corp."

Background: "SUMMARY COURT MARTIAL" form.

TITLE: "music by Gil Mellé"

Background: invoice, "Sold to: United States Department of Agriculture Flatrock, Nevada." from "T.W. Hicks & Sons, Feed, Grain, & Implements, Established 1879." 500 pounds, Prime Barley Seed @ 2.78 Lb. Dated July 27, 1970, PAID August 10, 1970. Invoice total $1,390.00. TITLE: "from the novel by Michael Crichton"

Background: Probability report of contact between man and an exobiologic life form. Unicellular is listed at .7840 probability.

TITLE: "screenplay by Nelson Gidding"

Titles continue

TITLE: "starring Arthur Hill"

Background: "THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN. THIS FILE IS CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET. Examination by unauthroized persons is a criminal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment up to 20 years and $20,000."

TITLE: "David Wayne"

Background: "SECRET"

TITLE: "James Olson"

TITLE: "co-starring PAULA KELLY, GEORGE MITCHELL, RAMON BIERI"

Background: orbital plot of a satellite, followed by the words "MISSION PROFILE" TITLE: "with PETER ROSS, KERMIT MURDOCK, RICHARD O'BRIEN, ERIC CHRISTMAS, MARK JENKINS, PETER HELM"

Background: Topographic map, with the legend "VANDENBERG AFB: PROJECT SCOOP" and the words "SCOOP VII" moving across the screen.

TITLE: "JOE DiREDA, CARL REINDEL, KEN SWOFFORD, FRANCES REID, RICHARD BULL, JOHN CARTER"

Background: Army field manual FM 2-6, with the legend "Biological and Radiological Operations."

TITLE: "production designed by Boris Leven"

Background: map of southwestern United States, with data written over the individual states. The phrase "BIOWAR MAP" appears from the right of screen.

TITLE: "director of photography Richard H. Kline, A.S.C."

Background: the outlines of the states become distorted to reflect population density of the states.

TITLE: "film editors Stuart Gilmore, John W. Homes, A.C.E."

TITLE: "special photographic effects Douglas Trumbull, James Shourt"

Background: Dr. Stone's drafted and corrected letter to the White House.

TITLE: "technical advisors Dr. Richard Green, George Hobby, William Koselka. scientific background support by Cal Tech and The Jet Propulsion Laboratory"

Background: request form for visit by foreign national, requested by Jeremy Stone. The form is stamped "DISAPPROVED."

Out of the starry blackness, the studio logo appears. "A UNIVERSAL PICTURE"

Title screen: "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS" "This film concerns the four-day history of a major American scientific crisis."

"We received the generous help of many people attached to Project Scoop at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Wildfire Laboratory in Flatrock, Nevada. They encouraged us to tell the story accurately and in detail." "The documents presented here are soon to be made public. They do not in any way jeopardize the national security."

The screen fades to black. A series of overlapping "found documents" appears throughout the title sequence.

TITLE: "Universal Presents:"

Background: "This document contains information affecting the national defense of the United States, within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title 18, U.S.C., Sections 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law."

TITLE: "a ROBERT WISE production"

Background: "SECRET THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN SECRET"

TITLE: "THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN"

Background "THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN", repeating vertically on screen.