Defying Gravity s01e09 Episode Script

Previously on Defying Gravity A contaminated batch of HALOs? Seriously? I've never worn my HALO and I was hallucinating as bad as anyone.
We're in a strange environment.
We're gonna have bad dreams.
Donner's been having it, too.
Is that your hallucination? Can you tell me where it's coming from? Here.
In this bay.
All I'm showing in Pod 4 is surplus.
Does it say who made the delivery? According to the payload records The Burtran Corporation A couple of us could've died yesterday, and we deserve to know why.
What exactly is it that you do here? I'm employed by the burtran corporation.
She's working you, Ted.
I don't trust her.
Neither should you.
Dude, they've gone fractal.
My duty as commander of this ship is to protect the lives of my crew.
A big part of that is them knowing exactly what this mission is.
What exactly is the mission, Ted? The answer's in the storage bay.
It's in pod 4.
You will not enter that storage bay.
I am ordering you to stand down.
My parents played this song at their wedding.
That's really stupid.
Just before they gave the rings away.
Unnecessary information.
My little cousin was the ringgirl, and she she puked on their shoes.
Really? Yes, true story.
Her Name's Curtis, and she Shhh.
I don't have anything.
Shut that off.
Put it up.
It's probably just garbage.
Or not.
Frequency? 4,639 Terahertz.
Check the interfere matching position.
right ascension 23 hours, 39 minutes, declination minus 50 degrees, 41 minutes.
Oh, man.
Check this.
Signal origin? Mars? It's linearly polarised.
It's focused? Where? What the hell.
There's another one.
5,327 Terahertz.
This one's coming from the ground.
East 20°, 52 minutes, 30 seconds.
South 24°, 40 minutes, 38 seconds.
What is that? South America? It's Peru.
Looks like nazca.
This one's polarised too.
The signals are linked? 22 Hours, 38 Minutes, 50 degrees, 48,373 Holy communicado! Okay, we're gonna need a DOS autocorrelation on both signals.
Mars is alpha, Peru is beta.
Scanning.
There interchangeable.
Converse dissemination? Dude, whatever that Mars signal is pointing to in Peru, it's answering back.
When I was a kid, i used to lie on my back and look up to the stars and try to imagine, just what was out there.
Aliens or other worlds, maybe some kid with pointy years looking up to the sky like me.
and every once in a while I would feel a chill run through me.
a realization, that I was just a tiny part of the whole and that it was all so much bigger than me.
and that there were so many questions for which I didn't have answers.
not even a clue.
Oh, my God.
What is it? It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.
And I've seen some crazy.
This is what's been causing our hallucinations.
Yeah.
Have you seen that before? No, this is the farthest I've ever made to enter this room.
I've had no idea It's so beautiful.
It's singing.
How is it singing? It's organic.
It looks like molten lava.
Definitely.
Maybe alive.
Did you know about this? I am as surprised as you are.
Ladies and gentlemen, for those who were not cleared before.
Welcome to Beta.
You are now all security level 12.
Is it radioactive? It admits low-level gamma.
Donner, you might wanna check the door monitor.
Look at the way it's moving.
You see how shape is evolving but it stays contained.
its maintain that continues moving by falling in on itself, you know what that is my friends? That's self similar fractal structured.
It's fractal.
It's a fractal.
It's fractal.
Like my tomatoes? Exactly.
There's more of them.
There are seven of these containers, only one of them is full.
Ted? Where is that coming from? I don't know.
It's not in here.
Then where? Is it coming from Venus? Sound can't travel in space, how can we be hearing it? Tomatoes don't grow in fractal patterns, this is new science.
Listen, it's like they're talking to each other.
So, there's another object down there? One on every single of our landing sites we're gonna be collecting these things, aren't we? When did she tell you? The night you and I came up.
4 years together.
I never had a clue.
Why didn't they tell us? You know the party line.
Securit Is there more? Well, if there is I'm just as much in the dark about it as you are.
Antares, they're ready to start the briefing.
Roger that.
Today you are presenting our new mission to the world.
It's your coming out party, your introduction to the press, and a opportunity for you to shine.
Let me assure you, these guys are ruthless and judgemental It's first impression time people, and it's up to you, to make a good one.
Think if we shine hard enough, they'll forget about Mars.
Sure worth a shot, baby.
6 years, 7 planets.
This is a grand tour through the solar system.
8 Billion miles to explore, sample and analyze data.
Make sure you cite your own individual areas of expertise and explain, how that will be utilised on the mission.
Good luck explaining that, Wass.
If the press likes you, so will the public.
Hypothetical nothingness, like your chances for getting on the mission.
This is also when corporate sponsors start lining up to pick their pony, so smile extra pretty.
And good luck.
You need it.
Nothing like a little pressure.
Donner.
Neither one of you guys are to speak of any of the press today.
If your wanna watch from above, that's fine, but I don't want you on the floor.
What, we are banned from the floor? That's right.
We know more about this mission, than any of these ASCANS.
Decision is final.
Make yourself scarce.
Okay, let them in.
Well this man is publicly handicapping us for being candidates on this mission Yeah, but he's doing that ever since we started, and it does not even suprise me anymore.
Unbelievable.
As hard as it is to believe, it's not about the two of you.
Look, you know these guys aren't gonna let up on Mars.
Given the chance, that is all they're gonna ask you about.
Alright so give us the chance, to set the record straight.
Let the new mission settle in, get them excited about it, than, we bring you guys back in.
We want this mission to be successful more than anyone.
I know, and I also noticed as far as candidates go, you two are among the strongest we've got.
At least in my mind.
Which is all you really need to worry about.
This has been a dificult and eventful day for all of you we understand that.
We know you have many questions and you deserve answers.
That's why we intend to tell you everything known about the beta object so far.
I've got a question.
Please, hold your questions.
15 years ago, the hawk creed observatory, a study facility founded by the burtran corportaion, picked up a radio signal coming from Mars.
It was directed toward the planes of Nazca in Peru.
Almost immediately a second signal was than detected, this time coming from Nazca.
It became clear that something on those planes was answering back.
I think it's only appropriate that the rest of the story comes from eve, as it is her experience.
I haven't a clue.
Until this point, you've all been misled about what my role is at ISO.
I am here solely because of the object.
When I turned 18 I joined the US crisis corp.
Two years earlier I had lost my entire family to hurrican Ophelia and I've decided to devote my life to relief work and aiding other victims.
And as you can imagine, there's plenty of opportunity.
Four years later at 22, I've found myself in Nazca supervising a relief effort.
The region had been hit by a series of devastating mudslides and earthquakes.
Some of you might have heard about it at the time.
The damage was catastrophic.
Villages disappeared.
The Nazca lines were almost completely destroyed.
There was tremendous loss at every level.
This is a week's ration.
It's not a lot but they'll back on Sunday to give you more.
I have something for you too.
But you have to share, okay? The relief efforts were exhausting, as they always were.
But the high altitude took an extra toll an all of us.
I had a particularly difficult time acclimating I couldn't eat, but worse, I couldn't sleep.
Oh, it's hard to breathe up here.
I swear, I could sleep for an entire week.
I settle for a night.
At first I assumed it was the altitude, Then i started hering this music.
Only at night.
Usually around 1 or 2 in the morning.
Seemed to just floating on the land.
Eve? You're alright? Do you hear that? What? The music, the violin.
I don't hear anything.
It sounds like it's coming from the plateau.
The plateau? there's nothing on the plateau but rocks and mud.
I know.
Paybe the villagers are doing some kind of anti-rain dance or something.
Right.
The music wasn't random.
In fact I knew it well, it was a song from my childhood.
This simple song i used to play on my violin, when I was a kid.
One I thought I composed myself.
I truly thought I was going crazy.
Night after night I'd lie awake, just listening to the sound.
Unable to fall asleep.
I felt so alone.
Completely and utterly alone.
There was noone who truly understand.
And I knew that the only thing for me to do, was to find it.
It didn't make any sense, but it didn't matter.
I was compelled, compelled to follow it into the night.
It took me up this mountainside onto the high desert plane.
It's a huge area, over 70km².
And still, very still at night.
and than the music, leading me like the pipe piper.
About 6km in I stopped.
There was nothing unusal about the location, no markers, no lines.
The intensitiy of the music was overwhelming it seemed as if the ground underneath my feet was vibrating.
So I started to dig.
And that's when they came.
That was my introduction to the burtran corporation.
Your name.
Eve Weller.
American.
I'm here with the I'm in the nazca crisis corp for the relief effort.
the camp is several miles from here.
I know.
I walked it.
In the middle of the night? Yes.
I'm sure you had a good reason.
None at all.
You understand, this is a highly restricted area.
No, I had no idea.
And that the government approvals given us the authority to detain anyone violates that space, for as long as we deem necessary.
If you're trying to frighten me, it's working.
Just telll us what you were do.
I was hearing music.
And I was trying to find it.
Out there in the middle of the night? yes.
Like concert in the desert.
No.
No, it wasn't like that at all, okay? There was music coming from in the ground.
Under the dirt.
So if I'm going crazy, I'm going crazy lock me up.
Show us where it's coming from.
Can you still hear? Yes, it's getting louder.
Part of me was terrified, part of me was drilled beyond belief, because I knew something was about to happen, something incredible was about to be revealed.
Than the music from the ground stopped.
What is that? I don't know.
My God.
The object was glowing, floating it was the most sublime thing i had ever seen.
And when I laid eyes on it, I felt linked to it.
And I knew instantly that we, the object and I, were in some way connected.
You will never say a word about this to anyone your lover your family, noone can never know.
tell me you understand that.
I understand.
Completely.
Completely.
Start walking back to camp, Eve Weller, and don't look back.
I didn't walk.
I ran.
And at dawn i arrived back at camp.
if any of you are like me, you're probably have trouble sleeping for the next few weeks, trouble eating, and it's normal after experience something like this, something so profound.
I didn't have anyone to talk to, but you do, so take advantage of that.
but you must understand, that like me this must, absolutely must be kept from your friends and family.
This cannot at this point in time, be led out into the world.
Questions? Can you tell us what happend to the object after it was uncovered? Yes, it was taken to Nevada for examination and analysis were it was determined to be organic.
Although composed of elements not found in our chart.
Can you reach me the breakdown spectroscopy? Yes, we can upload the spectro chart and reports.
Anything on its movement? Its shape and movement is mathematically fractal.
However, we have no idea how it levitates or why.
What about the empty containers in pod 4? The beta object, the second object of discovery was on Earth in Peru.
We believe the alpha object is on Mars.
the source of the original radio signal.
That's two out of seven.
Five other focused signals have communicated with the beta object over the years.
the gamma object is on Venus.
Delta on Mercury.
Epsilon on Europa.
Zeta on the rings of saturn and Eta on the surface of Pluto.
And I'm gonna hazard to guess that it's gonna be our job to pick these things up.
Yes.
That is the primary goal of the Antares mission.
Mind if I asked another obvious question? What's that Barnes? What are we do with these objects after we collect them? That's the leap of faith here, either the objects are going to tell us, or we have to figure it out.
Why didn't you tell me? Believe me I wanted to, I hated lying to you.
It was killing me.
And I hated leaving you alone up there.
That's what you were trying to tell me when you left.
Yeah.
I wanted to go back with you.
You couldn't Jen.
It choose you.
And what about you and Ajay and your heart plaque? For some reason it they wanted Donner and Ted.
I don't feel choosen.
You are.
Trust me.
You're the biologist on this mission, this could be you legacy, Jen.
I mean you have alway talked about finding live somewhere else, but this is it.
Did you ever see it? Yeah.
Yeah, a couple times.
What did it look like to you? It looked like what it looks like.
And did it ever communicate with you? No, it didn't.
I'm, I guess it wasn't enough time.
I guess.
Hey, I'm here for you.
No, you're not, Rollie.
You're 38 million kilometres away.
And what are you think of your chances to make the crew? I think there strong.
Of course, I leave that up to my lord and savior.
Sounds like an oxymoron, a praying scientist? The more I learn about intricacies of our universe, the greater my faith becomes.
As a geologist I'm excited by the opportunity to find an intangible link between us and our neighbouring planets.
Well, I am a theoretical physicist, so, uhm, I'll just be one for the ride, I guess.
To explore how far men can push himself physically, mentally Discovering alien life forms has always been a personal dream of mine.
Probably not a good idea to spend too much time in here.
Ted says it throughs off radiation.
What do you think it wants from us? No idea.
You know, Eve was talking about being connected to it.
I kept thinking about the dream, our dream.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You think that's what this is gonna lead? That would be messed up.
There has to be some sort of plan here.
Doesn't there, Donner, some reason for all of this? There has to be.
Enough, it's driving me crazy.
It's a fractal.
Fractal object.
Fractal tomato, fractal music.
That's gonna be the language of the universe.
It's not what I came up here to do, they should have told us.
Yeah, but think about it, what if this happening before we left? Do you think the world is ready for alien objects, that screw with your head and sing? For spending 10 Trillion tax Dollars for an intergalactic scavenger hunt? This isn't intergalactic.
And it isn't alien.
Well whatever it is, if it leaked out, we talking stock market crashes, people jumping off from bridges, this could lead to disaster.
Only for those who don't believe.
"The lord shall roar from on high and utter His voice from His holy habitation.
" What's that Paula? Jeremiah 25:30.
The trumpet blast of the lord.
It's the coming of the rapture.
Don't you see? It's what this is.
It's what it has to be.
Is that what your little blackbook tolds you? Those that here the lords trumpet will be saved, and those they don't will be damned.
If it's your lord, will you please tell him to shut up? There is much written about Vimana, flying machines from ancient times that were set to fly from Bornio to what is now Peru, to Nazca.
You're serious? There's actually a translation of the Vedas that speaks of jumping into space speedily with a craft, using fire and water.
So you think this is a good thing? You don't? They don't even know what they're going to do with them.
Sometimes it's about the journey.
I've always believed that, despite what we might have wanted we are on our destined paths, Arnel.
And this this is what we're supposed to do.
And you're both engineers, yes? And thrilled to be here.
Space is in our blood.
That's all well and good and it sounds like a terrific adventure but can't robots be designed to do the same job with less risk and for less money? It's men's destiny to reach out into the universe.
Regardless of cost? It is an obligation.
Despite the recent failure on Mars? It is an obligation.
Mars proprietary landingside.
Ajay, are you there? This has been quite a day, Maddux.
Yeah, well, it's still going.
We're gonna need each other more than ever, Ajay.
Yes, i believe that as well.
So listen, I'm up here on the flightdeck, I'm trying to make sense of this new mission do we have new landingsites? Because I'm looking at Mars and They probably haven't uploaded the new sites yet.
Can you check on that? Roger that.
How's everybody taking it down there? Sometimes new paths require a change in step But we'll adjust.
Is there more? What do you mean? Is there more that you're hiding from us, Eve? And do you know what these things want from us? Or maybe, maybe I have another husband, family in Italy or something? No.
I feel like I barely know you.
No, listen.
You have to believe me.
There's nothing.
Okay? I'm done hiding things.
All I wanna do now, is help.
You know, we are all really confused about this idea of being choosen.
Now, maybe you can tell the crew how you dealt with it.
When they took the object away, I thought that was the end of it you know, that my connection from it would fade.
Nothing was further from the truth.
Eve, everything okay? Yeah.
In a way it was worse, you know, I was weak, sick, I felt like a piece of me was missing.
You know, something i've been thrown away.
I've brought you some soup.
Eve? You have to eat something you're hurting yourself.
Yeah, well, i didn't care an.
All I felt was just pain and this consuming loneliness.
And the violin music that the object made you hear, would you call it a hallucination? Yes.
Yes, like you all were experiencing.
It seems to communicate that way.
We know it was personal to you, since it was from your childhood, but do you have a deeper association of guilt involved with it? The reason I asked is that my hallucinations were deeply routed in personal guilt.
I started playing the song, just this simple melody when I was about 4 years old on my father's violin.
I was told I made it up, uh I don't actually remember composing it.
My father was a pick-up musician in New Orleans.
So, we had beat up instruments all over the house.
I was particularly drawn to the violin.
When I picked it up an started playing it, my father declared me a child prodigy.
He started giving me lessons.
By six, I was playing baroque.
And nine, I auditioned for Julia.
They gave me a full scholarship and that fall, I left for New York.
You know about any of this? Just bits and pieces.
It was a lonely way to grow up.
You know, I'd see my family on holidays and a week or two in the summer, but the violin was my life.
And every time I picked it up, I felt compelled to play my little song.
When I was 16, I was invited to Lincoln Center to play with the Philharmonic.
And my family was trying to make it up to see me, when hurricane orphelia hit.
The, uhm, the ordeals levee broken, they all drowned.
So, was there guilt involved, Dr.
Mintz? I would say a great deal.
Which is why I put the violin down for good, and why I tried to get that stupid song out of my head.
And why I was so deeply disturbed when the object try to serenade me with it.
It knows of my guilt, Dr.
Mintz.
It knows.
And it probably knows all of yours.
I didn't even have a hallucination yet.
Oh, that's freaking me out.
Look, nobody has to tell me what their hallucinations were, but I would like to know if there were guilt related.
Donner? Yeah.
Yeah, mine too.
I guess mine.
I haven't had one.
All my sins are forgiven, I have no guilt.
You led that slide? For now.
But if that's a common link, it could be key in helping us understand what it wants us to do.
Well, I've been waiting 13 years, to have that question answered.
Ever since they came to get me.
The Object seems to be dieing, to be shutting down.
Some of our people think, it may have something to do with its seperation from you.
We need you to come back with us.
You guys wether we like it or not, we are all connected to each other and to the object.
There's no getting away from it.
There's no escape.
So i guess we're all drafted.
But there's no easy way home, is there? Drafted into what? Noone knows anything this isn't a mission, it's a fairytale.
And what's it going to do to the science? This is science.
Deep science.
So who we just suppose to give up all of the work we have planing to doing? Nobody said that, Jen.
Goss said that the objects were the primary.
Of course they are.
Yeah, and that's great.
You know, that's exciting.
We've all been choosen, what the hell that means.
But I came up here with some goals.
And noone saying you have to give them up.
Alright then fine, you know what, so someone tolds me otherwise, i have work to do.
Give her some space.
What, it's too nice a date to be wearing the weight of the world, isn't it? Must be having some serious problems in there to lock the press out.
We had a solar flare drill.
And a few glitches we're working them out.
And that's about where the press release ended.
That's all you gonna get from me.
You know, this flight of Antares it's a big ticket item, has a great deal of public funding in this project, tax dollars that could have gone elsewhere.
Social programs have suffered, infrastructure, relief and aid to many countries has been shut down.
and all for some gran tour of the solar system.
Now, I don't know about you, but i think because of the investments and sacrifice the public has a right to be kept informed, don't you? We're not the enemy, Arnel.
It's the process thing, I mean you get hit with big news and like it takes time to settle in.
Just what if it expected her to handle it differently? I mean, I remember the first time I heard about sex, Third grade, Jimmy Novak told me over lunch, and I was like, No way! He puts his what in her how-now? You know, but after mid I accepted it.
Can't eat bologna sandwiches anymore, though.
No way.
You're so disgusting.
do we have an update on the landingsites yet? I've been informed that the LS coordinates will be uplinked on the planet by planet bases.
So permission not granted.
That's a shocker.
There's no reason given.
Believe me damn sure there is a reason.
Perhaps it's to keep your attention on Venus, Donner.
I think that might be exactly it.
Why after all of this revelation, would they be withholding the landingsite coordinates for the other objects? Eve said their not holding anything else back now.
Well, then I think the two of you need to have another talk.
Why bother? You can probably retrieve them on your own.
When you had your GNC glitch on the Venuslander, it kept switching to the tertiary landing site So? That's the LS, they've given us to pick up the Venus object.
Programmers are lazy.
I bet the tertiary site on all of the landers is for the objects.
She's not only beautiful, she's a genius.
But why do you need that now? Because I got a real ugly feeling in the pit of my stomach.
And it just get worse.
14.
6° South, 135.
7° East.
Gusev Crater.
We're going back, Ted.
We're going back to the old place of Mars.
All these years we've been telling ourselves, that these two missions have nothing to do with each other, This is history repeating itself.
We were there to pick up the alpha object.
Donner, this doesn't track.
Burtran had nothing to do with the last mission.
How do we know that? Eve didn't join ISO until years later.
How do we know that? She lied to everybody about beta including you.
Okay, so why didn't they tell us this, when we're on Mars.
They didn't have to tell us.
We're the driver and the repairman.
Goss knew, Walker knew, Sharon knew.
That's what they were doing.
That's what they were doing when the rover broke down.
So you've both been lied to by your women, it doesn't change anything.
We don't know that.
We don't know what we could have done.
That's why I've been seeing the Marsian storm.
What? What your hallucination? I've been seeing Sharon and Walker.
If the objects are keen on our guilt or shame, then you have to pursue it.
It won't be easy, get them talking about it, open them up.
Become a father confessor? I guess, in Paula's terms.
Maybe we're supposed to embrace our weakness in order to overcome it.
Mintz, science lab.
Apparently Jen has lost it.
That'll keep us in ketchup for a while.
Oh, she cut them down.
The fractals, man, she cut them down.
Why Jen? There tomato plants do you have any idea how much of our watersupply they were sucking up? Poets would tell you that science diminishes the beauty of the stars by reducing them to superheated balls of gas.
What are these? Our new credentials.
We're level 12 now.
But i don't think there is a scientist alive who didn't awed by the heavens.
We're all just kids lying on our backs on the lawn looking up to the sky wondering where we fit in.
We don't seek answers to diminished nature.
We seek answers to discover who we are.
And if our search takes us to unfamiliar, frightening places we trust that nature will help us find a way out.
You're okay? I'm fine.
Just processing.
Do you feel connected to it, Zoe? Yeah.
Yeah, I do.
It is beatiful, isn't it? Amazing.