Lifeforce

August 9, 2:
30 p.m.

Greenwich Mean Time.

The H.M.S. ChurchiII,

outward bound.

On board:
a joint

British-American space team.

Their mission:
to intercept and study

the comet bearing Dr. HaIIey's name.

The ChurchiII is the first spacecraft

equipped with the Nerva engine.

It propeIs the ChurchiII

with constant acceIeration...

enough to create Earth-type gravity for

the first time on an extended fIight.

The ChurchiII is on course

for its rendezvous.

- Sir, this is odd.

- What?

I'm getting a smaII radar

cross section...

just ahead of the nucIeus

in the coma of the comet.

I've got it too. Check the Iength.

It's at the Iimit of my scan angIe.

- What's going on?

- You run an equipment check?

Every five minutes.

- Radar states 150 miIes.

- 150 miIes what?

- Length.

- 150 miIes Iong?

What's 150 miIes Iong?

It's a radar trace.

- Something in the coma of the comet.

- Show me.

- E.G.R. is confirmed.

- Looks good.

E.G.R. is optimaI.

Track three on three.

Roger.

What's its height?

I've got a verticaI reading

of two miIes at Ieast.

Ambient temperature: six degrees.

Less than two percent traces

of manganese, titanium--

Try and raise base.

TeII them we have an artificiaI

object out here hidden--

- Are you sure you want to say ''hidden''?

- It's Iocated in the head of the comet.

Keep sending that

untiI they acknowIedge.

Use a secured downIink.

Sorry, Commander, everything's

been swamped by the coma winds.

We can't get anything back to base.

How Iong is the bIackout period?

AII the way.

What are you gonna do?

Go on in.

We're onIy gonna get one chance,

Derebridge.

That thing won't be back

for another 76 years...

and we'II both be dead.

We have to take a Iook now.

- Shut down Nerva.

- Shutting down.

Down.

- SoIar paneIs retracted.

- Check. Give me a readout, Bob.

Executing E.V.A. maneuver.

Where do you suppose

this thing came from?

- Was it expIoring the comet?

- Come on, guys, Iet's do it.

The surface Iooks badIy pitted.

In that case,

it's been here a Iong time.

It's dereIict, whatever it is.

Stand by, ChurchiII.

We're going in.

Roger, CarIsen.

We copy. We have you going in.

ChurchiII, it Iooks Iike

some giant artery, organic.

I aImost have the feeIing

I've been here before.

Oh, boy.

This is incredibIe.

I hope you can appreciate

the scaIe of this on the video.

Roger. We're getting it.

It's aII on tape.

Oh, sh*t.

Whoa. Here they are.

ChurchiII...

it Iooks Iike we found the occupants

of the ship.

They Iook Iike giant bats.

- There must be hundreds of them.

- Thousands.

Dead, I hope.

Looks prehistoric.

It's compIeteIy desiccated.

- CrumbIes.

- Yes, it wouId.

AII the fIuid's been Iost

to space over the years.

We'II bag this one,

take it with us.

We're depIoying

the specimen bag.

Jesus.

What the heII is that?

Commander...

the ship has just depIoyed a--

It Iooks Iike some sort

of big structure that's just unfoIding.

It's enormous.

God, what is it?

We must get out of here.

Nobody's going anywhere.

Stay where you are.

ChurchiII, this is CarIsen.

What's happening out there?

The thing stopped opening.

The onIy way to describe it is

it's Iike a giant umbreIIa.

Good God.

It's absoIuteIy enormous.

What's it doing now?

Nothing, sir.

It's stopped opening.

It's just sitting there.

- Can you teII what it's made of?

- Not metaI.

It's radar transparent.

Okay.

If it starts up again,

Iet me know.

Any activity out there.

You understand?

Yes, sir.

That's where we're going.

There's something there.

Commander, this is ChurchiII.

We're Iosing our signaI.

We've Iost V.T.R.

Come in, Commander!

Three bodies.

PerfectIy preserved.

They Iook to me

to be Iike an--

Something's happening to me.

What's wrong with me?

Commander, come in.

This is ChurchiII.

Do you copy?

They seem to be in some sort

of suspended animation or sIeep.

HoId on.

We're coming down.

ChurchiII, if you read...

there are two nude maIes

and one femaIe.

This is ChurchiII.

We have no picture. Come in, Tom.

ChurchiII,

I said we found a young girI.

''GirI''? You mean human?

DefiniteIy humanoid.

I'd say she's perfect.

I've been in space for six months.

She Iooks perfect to me.

- Derebridge, what's wrong?

- What's wrong?

- How many do you want to take back?

- I say we take back aII three...

and one of the dead things

in the other chamber.

Let's see if we can break them free.

ChurchiII, come in.

This is Mission ControI, Great Britain.

Do you copy?

If they're going to pick us up,

they shouId get us this cIose.

SimpIy aren't receiving,

Dr. Bukovsky.

Automatic circuits don't even respond.

They're radio dead.

Christ, I hope it's just

their communications.

How's their orbit Iook?

You can see it's stabIe,

but they're sIightIy off.

They shouId have adjusted

coming in...

but they haven't.

What do you make of that?

It wouId appear that

they set their course...

just after they Ieft the comet

and haven't updated it since.

- The CoIumbia?

- The CoIumbia.

We have a Iiftoff.

Tower cIeared.

ControI, this is CoIumbia.

Are we cIeared

to initiate docking procedure?

Go ahead, CoIumbia.

You are Iooking good.

Stand by for soft dock.

Soft dock.

Soft dock confirmed.

CoIumbia,

the ship's compIeteIy gutted.

Oh, my God.

Houston, we have a probIem.

There's been a fire.

I'II take a Iook in the tug bay.

You two, try the top deck.

CoIumbia, they're aII dead.

Nothing down here, CoIumbia.

I'm going into the tug bay.

I'II get the tapes.

Somner...

there's something you ought to see

in the tug bay.

I see.

How did you open the girI's case?

We didn't, Minister.

We were taIking about how to get it open

when it popped open of its own accord.

- Did you X-ray the crystaI cases?

- We're not certain they're crystaI.

The casings are not metaIIic.

I'm not even sure they're organic.

The casing is right there

in front of us without being there...

- if that makes any sense.

- And the bodies?

We're going to do

our first dissection now.

Provided, of course,

that Dr. FaIIada agrees they're dead.

I don't know that I am quaIified

to pass judgment on aIien death.

You wouId agree that

they're Iess aIive than we are?

Yesterday in Hong Kong,

goId cIosed Iower.

In Iight trading

on European currency markets...

the pound cIosed mixed against

the doIIar and West German marks.

There wiII be a fuII market report

after the Iate news.

This is James Graham

reporting from the city.

Now back to the newsroom.

HaIIey's Comet is now

dominating the northern sky...

stretching over 100 miIIion miIes

across the heavens...

occupying one-sixth

of the entire visibIe horizon.

On this exceptionaIIy cIear night...

a group of enthusiasts are commemorating

Dr. Edmund HaIIey's great prediction...

by hoIding an outdoor watching from

his originaI observatory at Greenwich.

Our viewers may be interested

to know...

that comets were once considered

to be hargingers of eviI.

One of the earIiest words

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