The Outer Limits (1995) s02e09 Episode Script

1 MAN: And so, my fellow Americans, I ask that we break down the walls that divide us, not just for your own sake, but for friendship's sake, And for those Americans in need who seek but cannot find friendship, I ask, "Let me be your friend," This is the night, Elizabeth, It's a dream, You want me to pinch you, Mr, President? No, I'm wide-awake, Maybe later? TV REPORTER: On the theme of friendship, let's go to our friend John, ,, I've got a lot of promises to keep, And you will, Mr, President, ,, or you'll have to answer to the First Lady, and 300 million new friends, (Sirens) (Man on radio) What the hell is going on? What Driver, where are you taking us? MAN: We have an emergency situation, Mr, President, (Sirens) MAN ON RADIO: Traveler arriving at foxhole, Mr, President, my name is Tarkman, I served as President Burns' national security adviser, I know who you are! I want to know what this is all about, right now! Sir, we have an emergency situation, not much time, What emergency? If you and the First Lady would come with me, please? Right now, sir, Mr, President, approximately an hour ago, NORAD spotted a bright object headed toward the Earth from the outer solar system, We've estimated its speed at roughly half the speed of light, What is it? A comet? Meteor? And what is this place? We don't know what the object is yet, sir, Please, We're taking you to the emergency command bunker, It's the only one deep enough in D, C, to provide you with some protection, -Protection? -Yes, ma'am, Anything that big moving that fast should wipe out most of the life on the planet in one shot, How long? It's about 100 million miles away, That gives us roughly 30 minutes, PRESIDENT: 30 minutes? My God, man, to do what? I wouldn't know, sir, That's up to you, NARRATOR: There is nothing wrong with your television, Do not attempt to adjust the picture, We are now controlling the transmission, We control the horizontal and the vertical, We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity, ,, and beyond, We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive, For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear, You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to, ,, (Narrator reading) Is man the center of the universe, made in the image of his god? Or is mankind merely the temporary occupant of an insignificant world, ,, about to be extinguished? How far down are we going? Hopefully far enough, sir, Several hundred feet, We were caught between administrations, None of your Cabinet have been sworn in yet, so the only people we have available are myself and members of the transition team, sir, I understand, -We've only had about an hour -An hour? It took almost that long to establish the object as a threat, sir, because of the speed, What could be more of a threat? We are doing the best we can with the time we've got, sir, We've managed to get President Burns' junior science adviser Janet Brevson, The commander of the military space program, General Covington, -he's on his way, -Those are 2 people we want, Unfortunately, the former sec def and sec state are vacationing in Hawaii, sir, -That would be the secretaries of defense -And state, -Don't patronize me, Mr, Tarkman, -Yes, sir, Sorry, sir, MAN: Ten-hut! As you were, This place was made to fight a nuclear war, This bunker goes back to Eisenhower, It's been updated over the years, That's it there, up on the screen, -The object, -Yes, sir, How much time? -17 minutes, -What about Kyle? He's on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, What's going to happen to him? Sweetheart, please, With all due respect, it's very important the President be fully briefed, If you'll take a seat, please, Can anybody tell me what it is yet? We know it's not a comet, We've also ruled out asteroid and meteor, Janet Brevson, sir, Professor James couldn't be reached, so I'm afraid you're stuck with me, You're sure it's not a comet? Too fast, I can't think of any natural object capable of reaching that speed, Miss Brevson, I'd rather know what it is than what it isn't, We are still gathering data from all around the world, sir, Do you at least know where it's going to hit? -You don't know that either, -No, Somewhere in the eastern hemisphere, There's just too many variables, sir, 1/10 of 1% error could move ground zero from Japan to Europe, But not the United States? No, sir, But that won't matter, I'd say it does, What he means, sir, is that there's no place on Earth that will escape the shock of the impact, -We're talking about 9,5 earthquakes, -The dust cloud The shroud of dust and debris will block out sunlight for years, Most of those who survive the impact will freeze in the dark, Those who manage to find shelter from the cold will starve, Mr, President, we do have several months' worth of stores in the bunker, That's some comfort, Mr, Tarkman, (Alarm buzzes) MAN: Ten-hut! Mr, President, sir, -General Covington, -C-in-C Space Com, sir, Since your defense secretary's not yet in place, I will have to report directly to you, (Doors locking) We have to secure the facility, Mr, President, I have just spoken with NORAD and SAC, and they concur that you should order our conventional forces to Defcon 3, We're not at war, I understand that, sir, but we need to get our communications General, do we have anything that can knock the object out before it hits, like the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War? Mr, President, the object's kinetic energy's beyond Stop! From now on, when I ask a question, I want to hear plain English back, Is that clear to everybody? I don't have time to wait for the translation, Now, can you or can you not shoot it down? No, It's too big, too fast, sir, All right, What can we do? I need you to authorize a Defcon change, Mr, President, How is increasing our military readiness appropriate? With respect, sir, maximizing survival after impact will depend on communication, We're sitting on a trillion-dollar system that was designed to work during a nuclear war, but it's got to be up and running before impact, That means going from defense condition 5 to 3 now, Then do it, How much time? 3 minutes to impact, sir, Have the American people been warned? No, sir, But given the amount of time we have left Make time, The people at least deserve to know what hit them, Sir, but it will only cause panic in the streets, Just do it, Yes, sir, COVINGTON: Patch me in, This is General Covington, We have a go for Defcon 3, (Alarm buzzes) General, sir, we've got a hot line message from the Russian president, Go ahead and read it, I believe it's addressed to me, "Authenticator Charlie Tango Alpha, "President Halsey, I'd hoped our first correspondence "would be in congratulations of your great political victory, "Instead, I fear these words may be our last, "We can only pray that God placed the moon among the stars in the firmament "for this very day, President Yuri Karpov," What's he talking about, the moon? -I wouldn't know, sir, -I would, The Russians got their data sooner because they can confirm it optically, Our mass estimates were way, way off, It changed course when it swung by Saturn, This thing is incredibly In English, Miss Brevson, We're now estimating a 90% probability that it's going to hit the moon, Tarkman, put our announcement about the end of the world on hold, MAN: 20 seconds to lunar impact, I'm scared, Charles, MAN: 10 seconds to impact, ,,9! 8, 7,, , 6, 5,, , 4, 3, 2, 1,, , impact! Well, uh, ,, do all new presidents get to go through this? Or is this just a special occasion? If anybody has a cigar Hold it! Hold on a second! 2 of our satellites have detected a heat signature coming from space, It, ,, Confidence is high that the object that hit the moon, ,, originated from an approaching spacecraft, This isn't over, This is not over, MAN: This is a National News Network update with Rosalind Ashcroft, From the President failing to show up at his own inaugural ball to the spectacular and mysterious explosion on the far side of the moon, it's been a most unusual inauguration day, wouldn't you say so? MAN: That's quite an understatement, It appears that the Earth has just survived what might be termed a near miss by a comet or asteroid, ROSALIND ASHCROFT: And yet there's been no official comment by the new administration, Well, they'll be, ,, I want to make a statement before the media gets ahead of us, Mr, President, all this speculation could cause a panic if they beat us to the punch, ASHCROFT:, ,,from an unnamed Russian source, Looks like they already have, So is this second point of light, ,, The Russians have sold the pictures to the highest bidder, How much time? They're slamming on the brakes pretty hard, Less than 24 hours before they're on top of us? Yeah, Decelerating at 75 Gs, It's incredible, And they still haven't made any attempt to communicate? None, sir, I want to go back to the White House and make a speech from the Oval Office, No, sir, You should stay right here, The American people cannot think I'm hiding out on the eve of first encounter, Anything you broadcast to the American people will be picked up by the aliens just a few minutes later, compromising your exact location, After that demonstration, I think we can assume BREVSON: Wait a minute, What demonstration? If dropping that object on the moon wasn't a demonstration of power and superiority, I don't know what is, ELIZABETH: But surely that's the point, You don't know, You can't assume they're hostile, can you? I mean, it didn't strike the Earth, Mr, President, the far side of the moon is probably still molten rock, We estimate it's been knocked at least 2-4 degrees out of orbit, That means the tides will be severely affected, Who knows what will happen to the global climate, The moon could still smash into the Earth for all we know, Hell, maybe they even missed the first time, No, I've spoken to NASA and JPL, We're feeding them real-time telemetry now, The object's velocity was a factor of the alien ship's velocity Miss Brevson, ,, In English, sir, they are slowing down, Maybe they just let the object go like the spent solid rocket motors on the shuttle, We're still talking guesses here, Educated guesses, sir, As the First Lady pointed out, if the aliens wanted to kill us, they could have, They did not miss, What about the timing of the attack, the transition between administrations? Oh, come on, You're assuming aliens, who could obviously crush us like ants, have carefully planned their foot-stomping for a time the ants aren't ready, Mr, President, that is absurd, No, I agree with the general, Well, this is a damn testosterone festival, No, Wait a minute, Janet, These aliens have come a long way, light-years, They could have communicated with us at any point en route, They chose to announce their arrival by showing us how easily they could destroy us, Now you're guessing, I don't think so, The coincidence is too much, Inexperienced incoming president known to be a dove, short on foreign policy Mr, Tarkman, this is no time to play politics, Sit down, It's time I spoke to the American people, And the aliens, True, but for the moment, the message is one and the same, General, is this facility equipped to broadcast an announcement? Technically, yes, I assume you don't object to my making a statement from a hardened bunker, No, Now, General, is there anything else we need to discuss? Intelligence, sir, We need to gather everything we can on these aliens, How? All we have between us and them is a ring of spy satellites in geosynchronous orbit, I want to use our deep radar to get an idea of what's inside those ships, The Hubble's being aligned now, Let's see if we can get that on the feed, (Telephone beeps) Yes? General Covington here, Thank you, (Beeping) My people can now identify 6 distinct plumes from as many spacecraft, -A an armada? -Yes, sir, What's the status on the shuttle? We got lucky, The newest in the fleet, Midway, is already on the pad, -10 hours, -Good, Space command has a top secret anti-satellite weapon designed to fit inside the shuttle's payload bay, I've already ordered it flown there, General, this is a conventional weapon? No, sir, I wasn't aware that we had such a nuclear weapon in our arsenal, No, sir, As I said, it's top secret, We've not yet had the opportunity to brief you Such a weapon is in flagrant violation of international treaty, Yes, sir, it is, It's also the only chance in hell we'll get to shoot back if it comes to that, ELIZABETH: But won't sending a weapon into space send the aliens the wrong signal? Please, Ma'am, they blow up the moon, and you are worried about us sending the wrong signal? Mr, Tarkman, Let the President do his job, PRESIDENT: Mr, Tarkman! Sir, with respect, President Burns would never President Burns is no longer president, I am, And if you can't accept that -I can, -If you cannot, you're welcome to step back out through that door right now! My wife and child are somewhere on the other side of that door, sir, I'd consider it a favor, People, I realize I am not the man you would have chosen for this job, Need I confess, you're not exactly who I had in mind either, But until there is a resolution to this, I am asking for your Friendship? Your help, General, Sir, Actually, sir, I liked the whole friendship thing, I almost voted for you, Well, ha ha! That's almost flattering, Miss Brevson, General, we will not install the nuclear missile aboard the shuttle until we've properly determined the aliens' intentions, That will jeopardize the launch, sir That is my decision, Very well, sir, I, uh, ,, I hope you'll accept my apology, Mrs, Halsey, My reputation for speaking my mind precedes me, Mr, Tarkman, Well, still, I Our son is somewhere on the other side of that door, too, I know how you feel, GENERAL: NORAD has an urgent message we'd like to conference in, Standing by, MAN: Mr, President, General Moorhouse, deputy C-in-C, Must be a hell of a first day on the job, sir, You're a master of understatement, General, Sir, we have detected what appears to be a laser beam directed at one of our primary comsats, The source seems to be the alien armada, Now, the satellite's still working, but it's heating up pretty fast, Are you saying one of our satellites is under attack? Yes, sir, And if it keeps heating up at this rate, our conversation's going to be cut pretty short, I estimate we have approx Re-establish contact, Sir, I think the aliens' intentions are becoming pretty damn clear, All right, load the damn nuclear missile aboard the shuttle, Very good, sir, Because we have the option doesn't mean we have to use it, Not without your order, Mr, President, PRESIDENT: And so, my fellow Americans, I have faith in both God and in you, the American people, that we will shine and rise to this wondrous, momentous occasion first contact with another world, I will speak to you again when we've established communications, Until then, have faith, have hope, and God bless, MAN: And we're clear, Thanks, Will the aliens be able to pick that up? We're boosting the signal with radio telescopes, but I just don't see how they could penetrate the arc of interference generated by their engines, If they wanted to talk, they wouldn't be taking out our communications satellites, But that's what I don't understand, GENERAL: Sound military doctrine, first make the enemy deaf and blind, Yeah, but it only makes communication inconvenient, What's the point? Hang on, We just got NORAD back, MAN: Roger that, Coming in, MOORHOUSE: We've established a land link, Mr, President, There shouldn't be any more interruptions, How many satellites have been knocked out? Just the one communications sat, You should also know, sir, that the Russians have placed their strategic rocket forces on their highest alert, One of our listening posts picked up the chatter, Is this in response to our going to Defcon 3, General? No, sir, Our alert was strictly conventional, The Russian's strategic missile force Is a nuclear deterrent, So why? Can their land-based ICBMs reach space? No, sir, No more than ours can, Keep me informed, General, Yes, sir, (Beep) I thought they were destroying all of their weapons, -I thought the treaty -It's a show of force, For whose benefit? The aliens, The Russians are sending the signal they're not willing to give up their particular piece of real estate without a fight, They still have the teeth for it, Trust me, Or they're trying to guarantee themselves a seat at the bargaining table, (Sighs) -Airman? -Sir? Take this down for me, please, President Karpov, you have brought your strategic nuclear forces to a state of readiness, Since these weapons are incapable of reaching space, what are your intentions? Moorhouse here, -Send that, -Sir, Another satellite's under attack, sir, Is there anything we can do? Well, I suppose we could shut it down and play dead, but this one's not heating up nearly as fast, though, Sir, I have a Dr, Norris at NASA who insists on speaking with you about what the alien laser means, Put him on, then, We all want to know, Mr, President, the laser is not a weapon, The frequency's all wrong, It's a message laser, They're trying to communicate, The first laser was too powerful, so they've reduced the intensity, and that's when I realized that the beam was digitally modulated on our own video encryption coder, Could you say that again, sir, in plain English? Uh, ,,they're trying to talk to us with light, So what does the message say? I have no idea, but I can show it to you, You're going to die when you see this, I sincerely hope not, (Beeping) Oh, my God, (Unintelligible speech) Well, ,,I never thought I'd see the day, They want to talk with us, She's right, Us, The Russians and the Chinese aren't going to like being left out, It doesn't matter, They're trying to communicate, They may have said "Surrender or die" for all we know, We need to find out what the message means, In English, Yes, sir, We're working on it, I want a reply as soon as possible, We're working on that, too, sir, I think we should share the alien's message with the rest of the international community, May I ask why? Because I don't think it was intended for just me, Mr, Tarkman, They chose an American satellite by which to communicate, I say that means they want to deal with our president, They're assuming he speaks for the whole planet, BREVSON: That's one of the most egocentric, jingoistic comments I've ever heard, Why? They're the ones who made it impossible for the rest of the world to pick up the messages except for us, Mr, President, we just received another hot line message from the Russian president, Shall I read it, sir? "President Halsey, the Russian parliament "has concluded that these aliens are as belligerent as they are powerful, "It has therefore been determined that any incursion into our airspace "will be met with maximum force, "I ask that the great American people join in our stand with the same resolve, "May God protect us all, President Yuri Karpov," You know what that gives us? Carte blanche to put our nuclear forces on alert, Defcon 2, -No, -To keep our options open, sir That would remove options, The Russians will see it as a sign of solidarity, sir, We will not I repeat, not be putting our nuclear forces on high alert, The aliens would never know Last night, you suggested that the aliens knew what I'd had for breakfast, No, sir, I did not Now you're convinced we can ready 5,000 warheads around the world without them noticing, Which is it, general? Now, here's what we're going to do, We're going to release the aliens' message for the entire world to see, You are going to arrange for me to broadcast a reply, and I'm going to speak to them, Do you have a problem with any of that, General? No, sir, Good, MAN: Man got elected with the words "Let me be your friend" and then promptly disappears the moment there's a crisis, What is President Halsey doing about this alien threat? That is what we in the Congress want to know and that is what the American people want to know, WOMAN: But what are you doing about the situation, Congressman? CONGRESSMAN: Well, let me tell you something, ,, I'm about to reply to the aliens' message without the faintest idea what I'm replying to, Isn't there almost as much meaning in the gesture of communicating as in the words themselves? That's a good thought, ,, in the midst of this bad dream, You want me to pinch you? Oh, yes, Sir, I thought you might like a cup of coffee, Excuse me, That's all right, Mr, Tarkman, I can get it myself, (TV playing) -Sir, we think we may have -Hang on, I want to watch this, WOMAN ON TV:, ,,of what appears to be a message recently sent by the aliens to U, S, authorities, I think Yes, I think we have that for you now, (Unintelligible speech) I'd better get ready, Sir, we should have telemetry from the deep-radar satellite now, It's in position to scan the alien ships, Well, the main thing is, will they hear me? We think so, We're going to bounce the signal off a satellite as it passes by, As long as it works, Mr, President, NASA has a theory as to what the object was that struck the moon, They don't think it's a weapon at all, sir, -They think it's something wonderful, -And what's that? -A quantum singularity, -Uh-huh, It's a mini black hole, What does that do for us? Well, it does nothing for us, sir, but it would have provided an inexhaustible power supply for the aliens' trip here, How is that wonderful? Because it means it wasn't a show of force, It might even be a gift so that we can travel to the stars someday, Miss Brevson No, we don't know, We're guessing, But we shouldn't jump to conclusions, I agree we shouldn't jump to conclusions, one way or the other, Ready when you are, sir, Friends, welcome, I am President Charles Halsey, and I speak on behalf of the American people, We are a world of many nations, Many of our leaders, including myself, are wary of your arrival, But we do not yet understand the message you have sent us, Though we welcome you to our world, we ask that you remain in orbit until we have established diplomatic relations, I want to make this clear: any incursion into our atmosphere may be met with force, We can only hope and pray that this day will be celebrated as the day our 2 worlds, divided by a sea of stars, became friends, Very nice, sir, Should have been a speech writer, There just may be a job for you here after all, Tarkman, It's going out to the media services simultaneously, The aliens should pick up the signal in a few seconds, Oh, You always sweat when you're on camera, You don't approve, Of drawing a line in the sand? I think you know me better than that, -I had to do it, Elizabeth, -What happens if they cross it? They won't, What if they do? Then they would have anyway, GENERAL: Mr, President, They should, uh, be entering orbit about now, We'll know in a few minutes or so if that's where they intend to stay, General, if this were an invasion force, what would you expect the next move to be? Send a scout to test our defenses, locate command and control, cut it off, Then? Kill it, TARKMAN: Sir, assuming the glass is half-full for just a second, we should consider plans for a summit meeting between yourself and the alien representative, We'll see, Mr, Tarkman, We'll have to allow the Russians a voice of some kind now obviously, The Chinese, too, probably, Another message coming in from the aliens, PRESIDENT: Didn't think they'd be responding to my message this quick, (Beep) (Unintelligible) What was that? MOORHOUSE: One of the alien ships has broken formation, and it's coming in hot, To test our defenses, We estimate it will enter the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean in 3 minutes, General Covington, COVINGTON: Sir? (Sighs) Order our nuclear forces to Defcon 2, Yes, sir, (Beep beep) The alien ship should hit the ocean about 200 miles north-east of Hawaii, Sir, when the time comes, I'll require you to authenticate the launch codes, I've been briefed on the procedure, General, Hopefully, it won't get that far, They've defied your warning, They may not have understood, We're getting a picture from one of the spy satellites, Let's see it, WOMAN: Panning Comsat R 22 degrees, COVINGTON: If those aren't warships, I don't know what the hell is, You don't know, MOORHOUSE: We've got a navy helicopter off a destroyer within a few miles of the landing site, The alien ship should hit the ocean in 10 seconds, 9, 8, 7, 6,, , 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,, , BREVSON: We're getting telemetry from the deep-radar satellites, It hit the water at almost mach 5, BREVSON: Sir, the alien ships have a liquid interior, probably water, My gosh, Of course, They want the oceans, -What are you saying? -They're not air-breathers, What about that message? They were clearly not underwater, Then that can't be what they look like, What are you saying? The image they sent was fake? The background was digitally altered, What don't they want us to know? You spoke in front of a curtain, What's the difference? Wait, It's possible they need a liquid interior to decelerate, like oxygenated No, no, Listen, They live in water, They want our oceans, They just took out the deep-radar satellite, Mr, President, you need to authenticate the launch codes now, Why do they want to destroy our satellites? Because they had to be trying to communicate again with us, sir, No, You have to assume they're hostile now, We've got another hot line message coming in, sir, "President Halsey, Russia is a sovereign nation and will remain so, "I warn you we will brook no capitulation with conquerors "and will consider capitulation of our freedom as an act of war, "President Yuri Karpov," If we try to make friends with the aliens, we're at war with the Russians, They left no room for doubt, The Chinese and French are now on full nuclear alert, They declare they will do everything necessary to ensure their sovereignty, Send a hot line message to the Russian president, We value our freedom as much as they do but will resort to fighting only when absolutely necessary, COVINGTON: Mr, President, the launch codes, It may not come to that, These are the actions of invaders, The leaders of the world seem to agree with that, I don't care what the leaders of the world agree to, The aliens sent us false images of their appearance, Now, why? PRESIDENT: I want that translation They destroyed our satellites and now they've landed a ship at the bottom of the ocean, ignoring your clear warning not to do so! We don't even know if they understood! If we don't fight now, this thing will be over before it even starts, That doesn't make sense! They could've wiped us out when this started! Not without destroying what they came for! I want to wait for the translation, Mr, President Sir, in a few minutes, the armada will be within just a few hundred miles of the shuttle, They will be vulnerable then and only then, You're asking me to launch a pre-emptive No, sir! They crossed the line! The President's first words were "welcome," They may have thought they were invited, What if the pre-emptive strike fails? Then at least the Russians will know we're with them, and we can fight them off together wherever they land, If you try to cut a deal with these aliens, the Russians will see that as capitulation and will launch at us, Don't think they can't or won't do it, I need time, What if all they want is a place to live? Ma'am, with all due respect, that's just wishful thinking, Mr, President, we're running out of time, Unless you act right now, I will be forced to resign, He's made his decision, General, Yes, I have, What attack option do you recommend? No, I recommend a submarine launch from Pearl, ,, a simultaneous attack from the shuttle, Do it, Yes, sir, This way, sir, Sir, the numbers on the card you carry with you must match those I have in my hand, Only you know the appropriate line, Will you read it aloud, Mr, President? Mmm, Yes, 3-5-9,, , 1-3-7-2, I confirm your identification code, The code word for the attack option you have chosen is dagger, Yes, All right, Mr, President, you will have to give the order to the shuttle commander personally, He's standing by, Commander, ,, this is the President of the United States, It's an honor to speak with you, sir, I wish I didn't have to ask you to do this, I understand, sir, We all do, I'm authorizing you to launch the missile, Code word dagger, We'll do a good job for you, ,,sir, I know you will, We have the alien ships in sight, sir, They're huge, even from this distance, Arming the missile, ,,now, I have a confirmed launch from a Trident submarine out of Pearl, Estimated time of contact, 9-0 seconds, Wait a minute, I got a second launch in the Bering Sea, Must be a Russian sub picking up our lead, (Electrical crackling) Aah! Aah! I can't see! (Electrical crackling and screaming continues) Shuttle just went off our screens, The shuttle's been knocked out, SLBN is off the screen, Our bird has been destroyed, Both submarines have been destroyed, Their laser picked the missiles right out of the sky, I've got incoming, 2 objects leaving the armada, Estimated time to impact, 1 minute, 45 seconds, Where? Moscow, ,, Here in Washington, The leaders of the 2 countries that attacked them, We could try to launch another, No, No, We've done enough, MAN: 1:15 to impact, 1 minute to impact, Elizabeth, I know, You ran out of choices, The rest of the world will survive, 45 seconds to impact, This just came in, It was in English all along, What was? The alien message, sir, MAN: 30 seconds, BREVSON: The computers finally filtered out the distortion of a liquid environment, What does it say? It says, ,, "Let us be your friends," MAN: 15 seconds, 10 seconds, NARRATOR: To those who would fail to heed their own words, be warned, You never know who's listening, (Explosion)