Sunshine Page #2

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That's why no one picked up

the signal until now.

It was lost in the background light

and noise.

We're gonna pass right by them.

Within 1 o or 15 thousand miles.

Can anyone survive?

If the shield is intact.

We'll be able to see them?

Yes.

I'd need to look at all of this

pretty carefully. Very carefully.

But if I had to make a guess right now,

I'd say we could adjust our trajectory.

We could fly straight to them.

But we're not gonna do that.

Just to make it absolutely clear,

there's no way we're gonna do that.

Do I have to spell it out for you?

We have a payload to deliver

to the heart of our nearest star.

We're doing it

because that star is dying.

And if it dies, we die.

Everything dies.

So that is our mission.

There is nothing...

...literally nothing, more important than

completing our mission. End of story.

- He's right.

- He's right. Of course I'm right.

Is anyone here seriously

considering otherwise?

- May I put a counter argument?

- No.

Captain?

Go ahead.

It would, of course...

...be absurd to alter our trajectory

to assist the crew of the lcarus I.

Even if we knew that some or

even all of that crew are still alive...

...their lives are expendable

when seen in the context of our mission.

As are our own lives.

- Exactly.

- However...

...there is something onboard the

lcarus I that may be worth the detour.

As you pointed out, Mace,

we have a payload to deliver.

A payload. Singular.

Now, everything about the delivery

and effectiveness of that payload...

...is entirely theoretical.

Simply put...

...we don't know if it's gonna work.

But what we do know is this...

...if we had two bombs,

we'd have two chances.

You're assuming

we'd be able to pilot lcarus I.

- Yes.

- Which is assuming...

...that whatever stopped them wasn't

a fault or a damage to the spacecraft.

- Yes.

- It's a lot of assumptions.

It is.

It's a risk assessment.

The question is:

Does the risk of a detour outweigh

the benefits of an extra payload?

- We'll have a vote.

- No, no.

No, we won't.

We are not a democracy.

We're a collection of astronauts

and scientists.

So we're gonna make the most

informed decision available to us.

Made by you, by any chance?

Made by the person best qualified

to understand the complexities...

...of a payload delivery.

Our physicist.

Sh*t.

Okay, lcarus, run the math on the

successful delivery of the payload.

Okay, payload delivery point reached.

Detach the payload.

Stellar bomb initiated and detached.

Crew and living section

have four minutes...

... to clear and commence

homeward journey.

And four minutes after separation,

boosters automatically fire.

Payload boosters will automatically

fire after four-minute delay.

Entering coronal hole

in South Polar Cap.

Magnetic field structure open.

Temperature, 37,000.

Reliability of projection has dropped

below 45 percent.

Remaining projection is not open

to useful speculation.

Variables infinite.

Accuracy unknown.

That's the problem right there.

Between the boosters

and the gravity of the sun...

...the velocity will be so great...

...space and time

will become smeared together.

Everything will distort,

everything will be unquantifiable.

You have to come down on one side

or the other.

- I need a decision.

- It's not a decision, it's a guess.

It's like flipping a coin and asking me

to decide whether it'll be heads or tails.

And?

Heads.

We've mined all Earth's fissile

materials for this bomb.

There's not gonna be

another payload.

The one we carry is our last chance.

Our last best hope.

Searle's argument is sound.

Two last hopes are better than one.

That's it.

Slingshot complete.

Icarus leaving Mercury orbit.

Hey.

Hey.

Good dream?

Let me guess.

The surface of the sun?

Only dream I ever have.

Every time I shut my eyes

it's always the same.

Maybe you should talk

to Dr. Searle about that.

See if he can help you out.

Maybe.

I just wanted to let you know...

...l think you made the right decision.

Well.

Mace doesn't and I'm guessing Harvey

and Trey don't either.

Yeah...

...but I do.

- Get the alarm. What's going on?

- I screwed up.

It's not you. It's my responsibility.

- We shouldn't be straying.

- Trey, cut to it.

In order to change the route,

l had to manually override lcarus.

So I made all the calculations myself.

And I double- and triple-checked them.

They all worked out.

So I set the new coordinates

and put us on our way.

What's the problem?

The trajectory is wrong?

The trajectory is good.

But it changes our angle of approach

to the sun by 1.1 degrees.

You didn't reset the shields

to the new angle.

Jesus Christ, Trey.

I forgot.

My head was full of velocities and fuel

calculations and a million different...

I f***ed up, all right?

People do sh*t.

They get stressed...

...and f*** up.

I f***ed up.

Trey.

The fact is, we're still alive.

A hole hasn't burnt

in the side of the ship.

We don't have

a 1 o, ooo-degree climate.

- So, what's the actual damage?

- We don't know.

lcarus tried to reset the shields

independently when the alarm triggered.

But all the sensors up there are

burned out.

So we have no idea of the state

of the affected area.

Only way we're gonna know

is if we go out there.

Okay.

I'll get suited up.

It's a two-man job.

As second in command,

you're not going anywhere.

- I volunteer.

- No, I volunteer.

Fine.

I volunteer Capa.

Sure.

I'll do it.

Okay.

Okay.

You've done this a thousand times

in Earth-orbit training.

Yeah.

You're gonna be fine.

Okay?

Okay, lcarus.

I'm gonna be taking

control for a while.

- Okay, Cassie.

- I'm gonna be cutting speed.

I'm gonna rotate us so the damage

is facing away from the sun.

- Do we understand each other?

- Yes, Cassie.

Rotate by that much, we're gonna

lose comm towers three and four.

Well, it's a good thing

we don't need them, then.

We don't need them now,

we're gonna need them to go home.

We'll cross that bridge when

we come to it.

In the meantime, I'm gonna try and

give them as much shadow as I can.

All right, guys.

I'm opening up.

Okay.

Helmet-cam operational.

Affirmative. Good image.

Capa, check,

helmet-cam fully operational.

Affirmative.

Exiting airlock with maintenance

modules.

Moving down

to investigate damaged area.

Okay, guys.

Nice and easy.

Nice and easy.

Copy.

lcarus, please adjust shield

to allow for rotation.

Yes, Cassie.

Establishing new alignment to sun.

Jesus.

That's the temperature change

on the shields.

The metal's just contracting

and expanding.

I know what it is, flyboy.

It sounds like she's tearing apart.

Fatal damage to Comms Towers

3 and 4.

Copy, lcarus. Loss of towers

Shut down sensor

to Comms Tower 3 and 4.

You should see it up here, guys.

lt's pretty impressive.

Okay.

There are four damaged panels.

They're about 300 meters out.

Capa, take it easy. You're going

through your O2 pretty fast.

Copy that, Cory.

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