Alien Hunter

You have to consider that they had a break during the war.

And last year Saint Louis gave them a real good run for their money.

So this year the Yankees are gonna get whupped.

You're crazy, Osler. Brooklyn ain't ever gonna beat the Yankees.

- Never beat them yet, never gonna. - You watch and see.

This is the Dodgers' year now that they have Jackie Robinson.

Them bums couldn't beat a dead horse with or without that Negro.

And you know what? I'm willing to bet some hard-earned cash on it.

I might just take you up on that. How much are you proposing?

Quiet down, Rex.

I said quiet.

- Hey, Wally, it's Osler. - What's going on?

I got this weird pulse coming in on my frequencies.

- It's all over mine right now. - You, too?

- It's weird. - What do you think it is?

I think it's the pinkos doing something with our radios.

It's not a communist conspiracy.

What the heck's the matter with you, boy?

I thought it was coming from White Sands but now I think it's coming from Roswell.

Maybe I'll drive up there and take a look.

- Call me if you find something. - Yeah.

Talk to you later.

That is it.

I don't see anything out there, Rex.

Hello!

Come back. Come here, boy!

What the heck is that?

Oh, my God!

What the hell is it?

Could be a rock or some sort of fossil.

We picked it up in the Landsat satellite.

First we thought it was a cap deposit, but the resolution is definitely solid.

How deep in the ice is it?

- Four, maybe five meters. - What do we do about it?

I talked to the NASA research station at Rundell Peak.

They'll take it until it melts, and then decide what to do with it.

All right. Dig it up.

Language is a signaling system that uses sounds to convey thoughts and emotions.

What makes humans unique is our ability to introduce into language...

thoughts about the past, present, or future...

at any point in time and space.

He'll call you back.

Not all language is based on sound.

We communicate in other ways...

that are much less overt than the spoken word.

So do animals.

The only difference between them and us can be summarized in one word: Novelty.

When an animal gives a warning that danger is imminent...

it uses a series of fairly predictable calls or signals...

that animals of its kind have used before.

This is decidedly not the case with humans.

Oxford English Dictionary lists 615,000 words...

in the English language. That's 3,000 more than five years ago...

and thousands less than a few years from now.

On the other hand...

there's little or no novelty in animal language.

Tragically, English cows make the same sounds as French cows.

- Julian. - Sam.

Listen. Bachman called. He wants to see you right away.

- Why? - I don't know.

Did he sound like there was a problem?

Come in.

Good afternoon, John.

Come in, sit down.

A certain matter has come to my attention.

John, about the student, right?

I've been meaning to talk to you about her.

I don't think I want to know about that.

No, look, do you know who Alexie Gierach is?

Stanford Genetics.

Yes, I met him once at a faculty thing when I was there.

Two years ago, he went to the Antarctic to head up a new research project for NASA.

Yesterday, I received this from him.

A satellite imaged an unidentified mass...

in the ice shelf down there.

It appears to measure approximately 6 meters long by 3 meters wide.

At first, they thought it might be a rock slag...

or a fossilized whale.

But now they're not so sure.

Why?

Well, station telemetry identified some sort of radio signal...

- being emitted from it. - Really?

They burned a spectrogram of it on this CD.

I thought you might like to look at it.

- Plain or with cheese? - I don't care.

- Look at this. - What have you got?

Look at that.

- Nonrandom? - Definitely.

Fixed-length pulse groups, discriminate text...

consisting of prime numbers repeated over and over.

What about a meteorite?

A meteorite as big as this would've left a mile-wide crater in the ice shelf.

It would explain an electromagnetic pulse.

Not a nonrandom signal. Check this out.

That's a kickass frequency.

The dish transmitter at Arecibo is 1,000 feet in diameter.

The most powerful on earth.

This signal's stronger and it's coming from something the size of a pickup truck.

- You said it was nonrandom? - Yes, with a fixed pulse device.

You mean some sort of new search signal?

It's possible.

But search text is always diverse samples with mathematical data.

This has no parallel plain text.

Like a tracking signal.

We're talking about a target signal of 30,000 light years.

- We don't have that technology. - Not that you know of.

I know what's on this disk. I gotta see this up close.

Too many people know about your past with SETI.

They'd read something into it.

You say that it may be a Russian satellite, and I wanna run cryptanalysis on it.

All right.

But you do anything to embarrass this institution...

you're gonna spend the rest of your days...

teaching communication skills to the penguins down there.

Thank you, John.

- What is that bloody thing? - I don't know.

I'll record it and we'll pass it on to the Yanks at Kitt Peak.

Maybe they'll know.

There's a transport leaving Edwards Air Force Base tonight.

Stops in Panama and South Georgia Islands.

Then they'll decide whether to go Rundell Peak...

- Why not? - Antarctic weather at this time is bad...

- and sometimes you can't get in or out. - Great.

- Where'd you get this? - From a radio tech at the Falklands.

One of their satellites intercepted it two days ago.

- Where is it originating from? - Antarctic.

It was somewhere in the Ross Ice Shelf, then it moved farther inland.

- Moved? - That's what they said.

- What can be boosting it? - Haven't a fucking clue.

Let's pass it on to NASA.

Okay.

Here. You're going to need this.

1,200 feet approaching.

The wheels are down and locked. We're going in.

Gear's down and locked in place.

Let's lock it up.

We're coming in too hard. I can't see a damn thing.

The lights, I see them. We're right on top of it.

Welcome to the South Pole.

Mr. Rome.

I'm Nyla Wurtsen.

Getting here this time of year is difficult. Surprised they let you fly in.

McMurdo weather grounded everything an hour ago.

- They did? - Yes, indefinitely.

- Here. - No, I got it.

Sure? Hold on, let me take this.

- What's your name again? - Nyla.

How far underground are we, Nyla?

About 20 meters. We're on the third level.

There are two more below us: The genetic labs and the fields.

- What the hell is that? - It's a glacier shift.

Happens all the time, Mr. Rome.

- It's safe, right? - Yes, it's fine.

I'm going to take you to the living quarters. Dr. Gierach is waiting for us there.

He thought you might want some rest after the flight.

- Actually, I was hoping to see the object. - Whatever you want.

- So, Nyla, right? - Right.

- What do you do here? - I came with Michael... Dr. Straub.

I was his graduate assistant at MIT and he offered me a position here.

What position is that?

Dr. Brecher warned us about you.

You're not talking about Kate Brecher, are you?

Dr. Brecher.

Welcome to Rundell Peak.

- Good to see you again, Dr. Gierach. - Yes.

When John said you were coming, I was delighted.

I've followed your career off and on.

That's exactly what it's been.

Your time with SETI must have been memorable.

Yes, my lost-in-space days.

And so, there it is.

In compliance with COMNAP provisions...

we've kept the room at a temperature...

that won't abnormally accelerate the melting process.

And as you see, it seems to be melting at an unusual rate.

What do you think is inside it?

My first guess would have been...

a shale slag caught in a glacier.

The radio signal rules that out.

Could it be the work of SETI?

There is no more SETI.

The government has no interest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

They pulled the funding.

If this is really what it appears to be...

this technology is way beyond what any of us were working on.

For the sake of argument, let's say it was placed here...

by something else.

You said it, not me.

Alexie, they need you in the corn lab.

We'll talk later.

What did NASA say when you told them about this?

- I haven't. - Why not?

Our work here is in a very sensitive stage...

and we both know how paranoid NASA can get.

Hello, Julian.

- You okay? - Yeah.

I feel better now.

Save the endearing charm for Nyla.

- I'm not sure she's my type. - Too old?

- Maybe a little. - You don't have a type.