Species II

Houston, this is Excursion.

We see a good orbit-insertion burn. Over.

Excursion, this is Houston.

We copy and concur. Good 0-1 burn.

Houston, can you confirm good K. U. antenna coverage

for lander deploy?

INCO, this is the flight director.

How is our K. U. for lander docking system release?

Flight, this is INCO.

We should have good K. U. coverage all the way through L.D.S. release.

In fact, we're covered all the way through the landing and air lock egress.

Houston, stack going to minus Z-L-V.

Flight, Prop. R.C.S. margins good.

Copy. Control systems propellant quantities good.

Flight, EECOM. Lander umbilicals dead-faced.

Copy. Lander on internalpower.

De-orbit burn TIG in five, four...

three, two, one.

De-orbit burn in progress.

Flight, Rendezvous. Excursion sep maneuver is nominal.

Lander, this is Houston. We shownominal de-orbit.

Looks pretty good from this end.

The eagle has landed...

again.

Way to go! Yes!

Houston, we have touchdown at M.E.T...

1 82 days, 1 1 hours,

53 minutes, 37 seconds.

Excursion, Houston.

You are go to reconfigure

nominal DAP, B-1.

Copy, Houston. Selecting item 30.

I'm there.

Set P.E.T. countdown.

It's one hour till party time, baby.

Commanding camera boom deployment.

Flight, E. V.A. Air lock depressurization complete.

Hatch coming open.

Comm check on l.F.M. uplink. Do you read?

We're with you, Patrick.

Houston, Excursion. Deploying rover two.

We confirm rover two's telemetry is go for deploy.

Excursion, this is Houston.

Are you receiving rover one's carrier signal through the landers uplink?

That's affirm, Houston. We expect excellent video from rover one.

Not for one nation...

not for one people...

not for one creed...

but for all humankind.

Patrick Ross,

son ofa senator, football star at Yale, and now the first man on Mars.

A perfect hero for these imperfect times.

Patrick, this is Excursion.

I need you to check rover two's next drilling site for me.

Patrick, would you take a look at yourprimary O-2...

andpower levels on your D.C.M.

Suit parameters all look good.

Structure around is loamy.

Loose topsoil is rock. Drill bit shows signs ofwear and tear.

It'll last. One more area.

Sector 1 1 2, okay?

It might have been a canal bed.

Eight years oftraining, and I'm a Martian ditchdigger.

You have 1 hour, 30 minutes surface time left.

And counting.

Final sample loaded. Prepping for air lock ingress.

In a world beset by violence, hunger and strife...

there are occasions when mankind surpasses...

the pettystruggles ofdaily existence.

The Excursion voyage to Mars is one ofthose occasions.

TodayAmerica is proud.

I told them not to go!

Three, two, one...

Let's get you out of here.

Oh, my God. It was incredible.

A tremendous achievement that once again proves...

that if we can rise above partisan politics...

America can climb to the heavens.

Thank you, Mr. President. The credit goes to my crew.

Flyhome safe, son. Ourprayers are with you and...

God bless you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Flight, Nav. We'd like the crew to take a star trackerpass...

andperform an l.M.U. alignment before we update the state vector.

CAPCOM, let the crewknow Navigation wants a fix on a starposition...

and alignment of the interior moment unit...

before putting a new state vector on board.

Houston, this is Excursion. We have your new state vector on board.

Excursion, Houston. We copy you. Have received the updated vector.

Coming up on TIG for transfer orbit burn.

Copy.

Excursion, you are good to go.

Thanks, Huston. Thirty seconds to transfer orbit TIG.

We're homeward bound, baby.

Yes, sirs!

Excursion, Houston.

Transfer orbit burn in 20, 19...

18, 17...

16, 15...

14, 13, 12...

1 1, 10...

nine, eight...

seven...

six...

five...

four...

three...

two...

one.

Excursion, this is Houston calling. Do you read us? Over.

Excursion, this is Houston. Do you copy?

For the past three minutes...

every attempt to communicate with the Excursion has failed.

I told 'em not to go to Mars!

I told 'em not to go!

G.C., Flight. Check all relay stations on the network.

Have the backup TDRS on standby.

Flight to all operators. Pull up your data passes from the burn.

Get with your back rooms. Verify that we sawno anomalies.

For God's sake, somebody tell me she didn't blow.

Houston, this is Excursion.

We had a malfunction in the K.U. band antenna.

Lost telemetry and comm.

I performed a bit of l.F.M. Seems to be okay now.

Excursion crew is okay.

Headed for rendezvous with Big Blue.

It's gonna be good to get home. Over and out.

The Extraterrestrial Vulnerability Experiment...

has one central goal:

to discover a means to defend ourselves...

against the alien species should they ever return to Earth.

Now, as you know, gentlemen, Eve was re-created

from a frozen lab embryo.

She's a genetic duplicate of the original Sil.

Now, we have deliberately shielded Eve...

from any direct contact with the male gender...

which is why, gentlemen, you're inside there.

So...

proceed.

Help!

Laura! Please!

Okay, that's enough. Bring her up.

Bingo, Dr. Baker!

It worked!

Take a look at those beautiful welts.

Just beautiful.

What happened, Dr. Baker?

Our problem in a nutshell: A toxic agent works once...

but then it becomes useless once the alien's biology adapts.

You've gone out of your way to give this...this lab animal...

a living situation that's fit for a queen!

I suggest you spend more time finding a way to 86 the damn thing.

Colonel, you're welcome to replace me anytime you like.

I'm sorry, gentlemen.

Tell Dr. Baker we must continue testing.

Aye, aye, sir.

Why do you do this to me?

I'm sorry, Eve.

I've explained to you why we've got to do this...

what happened with the first Sil.

And why you have to be prepared.

Survival of the fittest. I know.

I watch this TV...

and I see all the places I'm never gonna go...

and see all the people I'm never gonna meet.

Is that all I am to you?

A laboratory animal?

I want you to understand that the reason I took this job...

was to make sure that these experiments were done with regard for you.

Just don't forget that I'm human too.

Main gear touchdown.

Shuttle ground support vehicles with flight surgeon and medical team...

in the crewrecovery vehicle are en route.

Thanks, Houston. It's good to be home.

- Thanks. - You're welcome.

On preliminary examination, all three of you are in remarkable health...

though, of course, I'll continue more specific blood testing.

We do have a few people here who would like a further examination.

Boy, there's enough fine booty out there to cure what ails me.

You're under quarantine, Mr. Gamble.

No sexual activity for at least ten days.

- And that means all of you. - Oh, you've gotta be kidding.

No, I'm not kidding.

Back when President Kennedy began the space program...

I was just a very young assistant up on the Hill.

It didn't take me long to realize that he was a visionary...

and that I shared that vision.

Later on, when I became a senator...

I was determined to push our program even further into space.

And so today, Jack Kennedy's vision...

is maintained by the commitment of American business.

But I like to think that his spirit is embodied...

in young men like Patrick Ross.

- When Patrick was five years old... - What happened to Patrick?

I don't know, but he's missing some major butt-kissing from his own father.

He hasn't been feeling very well tonight.

Tell you the truth, I haven't been feeling so great either.

Yeah, I think what we all need is a little tender loving care.

So it's with pleasure that I introduce one of our finest young leaders,

the captain of the Mars mission,