Phase IV Page #2

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can't you something?

Oh, my god.

Clete, get over here.

Can't you do something?

Give me the gun.

No, no, no.

Let me go.

Clete, get her in the house,

get her in the house.

Don't kill him.

Don't kill him.

All set?

Keep down now.

That's right. Hang on.

Now this is really interesting.

You see what I do is I get to

the parameters of the problem

by breaking down the movement of

a vector of a single anthill.

Now, I don't know what

they're doing, I don't care,

I'm just breaking down

their simple basic move.

Stop, go.

Turn,

duration.

That's it period, okay?

Now I take my ant signals,

I run them through

the digitizer,

I record them on tape,

I write them down and

I search for a correlation

between what they say

and what they do.

Now assumption.

What we're seeing and hearing

are commands

being directed

at the central mass.

They warned us.

Relax.

I forgot to turn out the light.

Stop! Cut it out!

What's the matter?

Cut it out!

Come back here.

Goddamn it, will you sit...

They're all over the place.

Clete, take care of the women.

Get some help.

Now I make various adjustments,

make up for time lag

and a couple of other things

don't worry about it.

Then I come up with...

Ha, are you ready for this?

I come up with a positive

correlation on the order of 80%

between this little squiggle

and the command we commonly

know as stop.

And a positive correlation

between that little squiggle

and go.

And that means

these little mothers

talk to each other.

Now I think if I--

hey, the lights.

They've got into

the generator. Don't move,

the back up unit

cuts in automatically.

I'm going to counter

with 100% yellow.

You're letting some get away.

Maybe they've learnt something.

Come over here, James,

this is really fascinating.

People are dead

back there.

Yes, a tragedy.

I don't understand it,

they accepted the order,

why should they come here?

Irrational behavior,

very sad.

Now just look at this, James.

Consider the execution

of this maneuver,

in order to explode

the generator,

they had to create

a living chain--

listen, Hubbs, those people

are dead, don't you understand?

People get killed sometimes.

I think this yellow

should hold it's potency

for three or four days.

We can

start collecting now.

Little sons of b*tches.

No, no, no.

They're not individuals,

they are individual cells.

Tiny functioning parts

of the whole.

Think of a society, james,

with perfect harmony,

perfect altruism

and self sacrifice,

perfect division of labor,

organized for preordained roles.

Think of the building,

elaborate and complex structures

according to plans

that they know nothing of,

but can execute perfectly.

Think of their ability to evolve

and adapt

in ways that are so beautiful,

and still so unknown

and all contained

in one simple form.

So defenseless

in the individual,

and so powerful in the mass.

Well...

Let's begin with

the first behavioral series,

heat, cold, isolations,

starvation,

slow pressure,

and threat.

Mantises prey on ants,

as you know.

Now if--

if you're still with us, James.

When are we gonna

get her out of here?

That's going to be

a little difficult, I'm afraid.

Um... turn on the microphone,

please?

Call in and have them send out

a helicopter.

I'm afraid the bureaucrats

will be rather unhappy

with all of our casualties.

Now...

Mantises,

at this end of the maze,

the ants are at the other.

What are we gonna do

with the girl?

What is your concern with her?

She's in shock,

we can't just... she's a kid.

Don't shout.

This is a problem that

will have to be dealt with

over the next few days

until we're finished.

If you won't call the base,

I will.

I'm very much afraid that that

will end our mission.

Screw our mission.

I've finished eating.

You know,

I don't know your name.

Oh, Kendra.

I'm Jim.

That's Dr. Hubbs.

Come in, come on.

You sort of had a close call

out there, didn't you?

How do you feel?

Well, I'm ready to go home now.

Um... I'll send

a message today.

Somebody will come along

and pick you up tomorrow,

if that's convenient.

They killed my horse.

Kendra, I'm sorry.

Kendra!

Stop it, stop it.

Back away.

Don't touch anything.

It's alright.

That should do it.

You've been bitten.

So we thought if you

knocked down one of the towers,

taking proper precautions

of course,

you might get

an interesting reaction.

We'll consider it.

Just an idea doctor.

Appreciated.

Oh, one other thing.

Yes?

We got a report about a family

in your vicinity;

you haven't contacted

any civilians, have you?

No.

Monday, 2:
00 a.m.

Lesko continues

to make progress,

deciphering the ant language

from the tapes recorded

during the first skirmish.

If he maintains this pace,

we should be ready

for their next move.

It's a rather crude language,

I think if I keep building up

my library of sound words

I might even...

Strike up a conversation

with them.

Of course then the ants

would have to come back.

We'd have to be here

for a while.

When's the helicopter coming?

Oh, it'll be here.

I'm sorry about that.

Oh, not your fault.

Listen, you really wanna see

something?

Another way of visualizing

their signals.

Watch this.

I don't have the faintest idea

what it means.

Hey?

Remember me?

Oh, y--y--yeah!

How do you feel?

Oh...Better.

That's good.

H--h--how is um...

dr. hubbs?

Yeah.

Oh, he'll survive.

I'm really sorry about that I...

Listen, if I were you

I'd have popped those ants

pretty good myself.

You know

you've got a mean swing.

Well, the main thing is

you're alright.

We'll get you out of here today.

What's the matter?

Don't tell me

you like this place?

My grandparents are dead,

aren't they?

Yeah, they are.

What?

Don't you have parents?

Well, you must be hungry.

Come on,

I'll get you some breakfast.

Okay.

Follow me through

the hardware department.

Can I ask you a question?

Yeah, sure, go ahead.

What do you do here?

Just a little research into

statistical probabilities.

Really?

It must be interesting.

Well, we've got powdered eggs,

powdered milk,

powdered juice,

dehydrated bacon,

just like home.

James?

Are you alright?

Oh, yeah.

See you in a little while.

Okay.

Good morningJames.

As you can see

we're under siege.

What the hell's that?

It's more than

reflected sunlight.

Our temperature is already up

five degrees.

There's another

interesting detail.

How do you suppose those ants

managed to build

on a poisonous strip where they

absolutely cannot live?

Did you say five degrees?

Hmm.

In an hour and a half.

And of course the sun's

not yet at full strength.

Now watch this.

An hour and a half?

Oh, you must watch this,

this is fascinating, there.

Beautiful adaptation,

isn't it?

We challenge with

yellow chemistry,

they respond with

yellow creatures.

We're gonna fry in here.

Question,

what do they want?

What are their goals?

They have no goals.

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