The Swarm (2023) s01e08 Episode Script

1
I can't guarantee,
that we will make it back alive.
The Yrr could have been living
at these ocean depths
for hundreds of millions of years.
Before we meet this thing,
we better be ready for it.
If we get anything back,
we'll know that they heard us.
We've picked up something on the sonar.
A mass of some kind.
- Luther, do you copy?
- Captain, we've lost contact.
Whatever it was,
I think it followed us back inside.
The substance tried to fuse
with some of her cells.
The Yrr or the substance it produces
to take over the nervous system
of the species it enters.
The Yrr is inside of her.
- Thank you for your hard work.
- We've been expecting you.
- Hello, Sara.
- Mr. Mifune, sir.
Dr. Johanson's team are assembled below.
Let's go see them.
What you are looking at, Mr. Mifune,
is a single-cell organism
that can coalesce
into a larger multicellular mass.
A single-cell organism
that can act on its own,
but also a larger
multi-cellular collective mass
able to shift in shape and density.
Mr. Mifune, this is unlike
anything we have seen on Earth.
And this organism
Is the Yrr.
Whether one or a million cells.
And it's what infected Ms. Delaware?
Yes, and tried to fuse with her cells
when she came into contact with it.
Sam, if you would show Mr. Mifune
what we've received?
Yeah.
I created an image
showing our evolution
from the sea to the land,
which we broadcast
from the ship, to which
we got a response.
And what is that supposed to be?
It's an image of the super-oceans
that surrounded the super-continent,
250 million years ago,
when the Earth's continents were joined.
- Panthalassa?
- Yes.
Panthalassa, from the bottom
of the Antarctic Ocean,
as the Yrr would have seen it.
And remembered it.
I don't understand.
The Yrr must be capable of
some form of collective memory,
passed down in their DNA
from generation to generation.
Remembered it 250 million years.
- Yes.
- And that's why they sent the message.
To say what?
To tell us that they have been
and will be
here a lot longer than we have.
And even though we evolved from the sea,
that we share a common ancestry,
they aren't going to let us destroy it.
But we believe that
the fact that they responded
could be a signal from the Yrr
saying they're willing to talk.
To call off their attack, to make peace.
And now that you know what it is?
We find out
everything we can about them,
and release them back into the sea
where they belong.
Hope you don't mind?
I needed to clear my head.
Best view in the house, up here.
Feels a bit different now,
knowing what's out there.
1991, when I first came up here,
I was still in the Navy.
All this was packed with ice,
even at this time of the year.
We had to break our way through.
And now
Well
I don't have to tell you that.
No.
It's nothing I didn't know. But it's
different, when you see it.
Is there any chance you can reverse
what the Yrr did to her?
We're testing several drugs now,
but if we find one, it's probably best
to wait to get Alicia to the hospital
before we try it.
I shouldn't have left her.
You didn't know she was in danger.
None of us did.
Charlie said she saw something.
- If I'd listened to her
- Luther.
You have no reason to blame yourself.
Okay?
I have to get back to the lab.
If you could sit with her for a while,
maybe talk to her a little?
Can she hear anything?
She might be able to pick up some
sounds, and sense someone's here.
- If you think it will help.
- I do.
Okay.
Is it safe to handle?
If there were a risk of airborne
infection, we would have known by now.
So as long as we avoid direct contact
with it, we should be fine.
I don't think they were trying
to kill Alicia when they entered her.
What do you mean?
I think they were trying to find out
about us.
They could have
found out about us anytime.
Why now?
It's the first time
we tried to communicate with them.
Before we did, they probably had no idea
we were even intelligent.
If the Yrr have discovered that we're
more intelligent than they thought,
then they will also know
that we're more dangerous.
- Is that a humpback?
- It's an infant.
We put a ban
on hunting humpback whales in the 1960s,
when the population
was heading for extinction,
down to fewer than five hundred whales.
Last count,
there were over twenty-five thousand.
It's one of the few things
we've done right.
Which the Yrr might know.
And if they do?
We encode the humpback-whale sound
into the Yrr signal, send it out.
To tell them we care?
That we can change.
Let's get started.
- You wanted to see me.
- Come in.
Please.
Your Chief Officer, Mr. Kofi
What about him?
- He's from Nigeria.
- Yes, he is.
- He has family there?
- In Lekki, yes.
Would you tell me what this is about?
Please.
- When did it hit?
- We just got word now.
Musa.
Let's step outside.
- It's dead.
- Yes.
- What killed it?
- Ketamine.
It's standard issue in emergency rooms.
It blocks pain signals in the brain and
produces visual and auditory distortion,
and a detachment from reality.
Which is why
it is also used to get high.
- Is it toxic?
- To humans, no.
Unless it's taken in very high doses.
To the Yrr, yes.
- Dr. Roche
- Yes?
Do you think
it could be deployed against the Yrr?
Beyond the lab?
The test you are looking at
was performed on
a handful of Yrr cells in a Petri dish.
To take it to the entire collective,
that is another matter.
We could test it in the moon pool.
It's not the open ocean,
but it could give us an idea
of its efficacy against the Yrr.
Okay, wait, hold on.
Hold on, we
Guys, we found the Yrr,
we communicated with them.
- Why are we talking about killing them?
- Because we're under attack.
They've spoken to us
because they're open to peace.
Peace? They just destroyed
a large part of West Africa.
- What peace are you talking about?
- Wait, no.
The tsunami that hit Nigeria
would have been set in motion
long before
we communicated with the Yrr.
- There was no way to stop that.
- We have a weapon that works.
- And we should use it.
- We don't know.
We just don't know enough to determine
how closely linked
the Yrr are to the environment.
If we kill them, we could be causing
irreparable damage to life in the ocean.
And Jasper If the ocean dies, we die.
- Dr. Johanson.
- Yes?
If Dr. Roche is correct,
if the Yrr know
we have something which can kill them,
we will be able to negotiate
from a position of strength.
When have we ever developed a weapon
we haven't used?
If the rest of the world finds out
we know who the enemy are,
and what the Yrr are capable of,
they will throw
every weapon they have against them.
If we want to minimize the damage to
the oceans, we should test the ketamine.
See if it works,
if it can be used strategically.
I agree.
So do I.
I think we need to know.
Okay, let's do it.
How did you know?
What?
That the Yrr didn't want to hurt Alicia?
That they were just trying
to find out about us?
I didn't. I just
felt it.
Luther. Luther!
- Kofi, report.
- Lost all power.
DP is out.
- And propulsion is gone.
- Morton?
We're drifting.
Luther! Luther!
Captain!
One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight
Cécile. Hey, hey, hey.
He's gone.
He's gone.
Kofi, send out a mayday. Hit the GMDSS.
Flight crew, prep the helo
for passenger evac.
And get Johanson up to the bridge.
Move.
- Reboot system.
- We're losing control.
We're not drifting.
We're being pulled.
Get down to the engine room.
- Get us up and running.
- Right away, Captain.
When the Yrr died,
the scream they made
must have traveled out into the ocean.
Status?
There's a ship
at Longyearbyen in Svalbard.
ETA: One-seven hours.
No word on air-sea rescue.
We know how to kill them.
Yeah.
So why aren't we pouring every drop
that we have into that ocean?
We killed a handful of the Yrr
in a moon pool on a ship
in the middle of the ocean,
and look how the Yrr responded.
Now? We would have to kill them all.
There's 1.35 billion trillion liters
of water in the ocean.
Now you tell me how anybody,
anywhere in the world,
could ever create
that amount of ketamine.
We wanted to show them
that we had a weapon
that we could use against them.
Now they know.
Our only chance right now, Jasper
is to make peace.
I'll try to keep us afloat
as long as I can.
We have to let them know.
We have to let the Yrr know
that we understand their message.
That we're a part of them.
Just like our children,
our grandchildren, are a part of us.
How?
Sam, do you think
you can get through to them?
We have a message ready to send out,
if we can get the equipment
back up and running.
Okay.
Charlie, can you pilot the HOV
by yourself?
- I think so.
- Okay.
If we inject Roscovitz with the Yrr,
there's a chance
they'll bind with his cells
like they tried to do with Alicia's.
That they'll merge and become one.
We inject Roscovitz,
Charlie will take him out in the HOV,
and release him into the Yrr.
Why not just
lower his body into the ocean?
No.
It should be as deep as possible,
where the concentration of the Yrr
is greater.
We need to get everyone we can
off the ship.
Cécile.
You should go. Take Alicia and go.
You've been away from your children
long enough.
Sara.
Go with them. See that they have
everything they need.
Yes.
Sara
Help me get Alicia ready for the flight.
Okay.
- Sam?
- I'm on it.
Leon, go with Charlie.
Help her get ready.
Riku.
You'll go with them.
The work we've started
isn't finished yet.
She's ready,
you can take her up to the deck.
- I'll be up as soon as I can.
- Okay.
Captain.
Two minutes. Any longer, go.
- What do you think?
- Dr. Roche.
You have to head up.
There's a chance
his white blood cells are still alive.
If they are,
they might fuse with the Yrr.
In the chest, right above the heart.
Just before you release him. Okay?
Okay.
Alright. Hold it up.
Alright.
Someone will be with you
the whole time. Alright?
Yeah.
- What is it?
- The ice. We're not getting through.
Charlie, do you copy?
Charlie, do you copy?
- Do you copy, Charlie?
- I hear you, Sigur.
Would you put this on the speaker?
- Charlie?
- Yes?
The Captain's going to talk you through.
Check your rate of descent.
As you start to speed up,
just keep bleeding some air into the
variable buoyancy system to compensate.
It's just like
using your BC on a scuba dive.
Remember.
Got it.
We don't know how fast
these things can move,
so set the sector-scanning sonar
for a narrow fast-scan ahead.
Then you can just turn the sub
for a wider search arc, okay?
Yes.
Watch your heading on the gyrocompass,
and nose her into any current
if you need to.
Heading is holding steady.
If your trim starts to drift,
nudge the ballast-tank balance
if you need to.
Anything?
Lower the frequency.
I think we're through.
I'm picking something up.
What do you see?
What do you see, Charlie?
They're here.
The Yrr.
Leading down into the deep.
Charlie, we're losing you.
Charlie, do you copy? Charlie?
You're break
You're breaking up Captain, you
Charlie.
He's too far gone.
Can you hear me?
Sigur? Can you hear
I didn't get that.
I can't hear you.
Luther is too far gone.
We can't risk it.
She's
Charlie, stick to the plan.
We only have one chance.
And I'm going to take it.
I'm not afraid. They won't hurt
Charlie.
Charlie.
Charlie,
the pressure alone will kill you.
Charlie.
Charlie.
Charlie!
Charlie!
Charlie!
Captain! The ice.