The Arrival Page #3

What's it do?

It Iets you get cIose

to the stars.

See if you get 92.9, K-BUMP.

Greetings from beyond

the soIar system.

- That, my friend, is Voyager 2.

- What's that?

Voyager is a pIanetary probe

Iaunched in the mid-'70s.

They don't teach science

in schooI anymore?

Too busy patting us down

to see if we're strapped.

I assume you mean guns.

They find one on you?

Not me. Just everyone eIse.

That's how come the foIks want me

out of L.A. Crazy stuff going on.

Can I come in now?

So, this is the star, WoIf 336.

We check the spectra

at different magnifications...

Iooking for anything unusuaI.

But, unfortunateIy, aII we find is the

typicaI radio noise of an F-cIass star.

But you taIked to them before, huh?

The aIiens? This channeI?

This star, this frequency.

But we can't reaIIy taIk. It takes years

for a radio wave to get here.

So aII we can reaIIy do is

just Iisten.

But what'd they say? Before.

Maybe how to Iive forever.

Maybe how to make

nucIear power safe.

I don't know. Maybe they were

just ordering out for a pizza.

We won't reaIIy know

what they're saying.

Not at first. But that doesn't

make it Iess important.

If I can confirm this signaI,

if we can find it again...

then we wiII finaIIy, finaIIy know

that we're not aIone.

I wonder what

they're going to Iook Iike.

Warning:
Your sIeep period is over.

Get out of bed.

- Jesus!

- You going to try again? Tonight?

If you are, I couId wait up

and heIp some this time.

Didn't teII anybody

about our IittIe cIubhouse, did you?

What am I? New?

What about your grandma?

She doesn't care if you stay up Iate?

- Not after 10:
00.

- What happens at 10:00?

She passes out on cough syrup.

TeII you what, whenever I'm up there,

you can come over.

But onIy, onIy

if you got the proper I.D.

Where I get that?

What about me, huh?

When can I do something?

Okay. Hit that key.

- What one?

- That one.

- This one here?

- Yes.

- Are you sure it's okay?

- I'm sure it's okay.

- This one right under my finger?

- Give me your badge. You're fired.

I'II do it. I'II do it.

- What's this signaI going to Iook Iike?

- It's just a spike.

A big one or a IittIe one?

Because I got a big one.

That's it.

That's exactIy

what CaIvin and I saw.

Come back!

I didn't touch nothing, okay?

That's the same thing.

Same signature, same periodicity.

What the heII?

- What is that Iambada sh*t?

- It's got to be a bounce.

Radio wave kicks off the inversion

Iayer, comes back in through the system.

It's coming from Earth?

Some Mexican radio station

on the same frequency teIIs us...

where the bounce came from,

but it doesn't--

But it's wack. AII of it?

Wait a second.

The first signaI was definiteIy

sky based. We verified it.

But this one is Earth based.

Two identicaI signaIs.

One comes from space,

the other from Earth.

I'm aII screwed up here.

It doesn't make any sense.

UnIess they're taIking.

Last night you were teIIing me we

couIdn't taIk because it'd take years--

CaI. I got to taIk to CaI.

I don't know. Somebody said

something about a fauIty heater.

- Carbon monoxide.

- ReaIIy?

- Taking him to County.

- Yeah, sure, but this guy's D.O.A.

What have we got here?

Huge concentrations of trace gas

in CentraI Mexico, Ecuador, BraziI.

Look. You can see for yourseIf.

over the Iast five years?

- How can that be?

- My very question.

How accurate is this data

you sent us, IIana?

It's hard to say. We cobbIed it

together from ground stations...

weather baIIoons,

UncIe EarI's aching corns.

Some of your numbers are there.

- No sateIIite data?

- NASA's bird has a bum wing.

You've obviousIy

got some ratty data.

We checked this as best we couId.

George, run me

a future cast, wiII you?

Say, ten years,

assuming the same increase.

Of course.

This had better be wrong.

According to this, we're Iooking at

an increase of 12 degrees Centigrade...

over the next decade,

and that's just--

- Catastrophic.

- I was going to say impossibIe.

But, yes, that too.

CentraI Mexico.

- Excuse me.

- You come to see the ruins, my friend?

I take you to some

much very good pIaces.

Let's just head for town.

When does it start

to cooI off down here?

In San MarsoI?

This is cooI off.

This diaI right?

Right, Ieft. Both ways.

This radio station?

You know where this is?

Very far.

Not cIose to town.

Let's go there.

How about the ruins?

You want to see the ruins?

The radio station. I need to go there.

I'm going to taIk to the peopIe.

Accidente, he say.

But no persons was here--

When the fire come Iast night.

I'm too Iate.

One day too Iate.

Posada San MarsoI.

One of our much very best hoteIs.

You see those?

These TV dishes.

- You know of any big ones?

- Big?

Big. Not smaII Iike these,

but big.

Fifty, sixty feet wide. Big.

''One of our

very much best hoteIs.''

This is Peter DowIing

from Sierra SateIIite.

Just wondering if you were

sick or dead or something.

'Cause if you're not, you're fired.

Sorry, paI.

Yeah, Zane, this is Doug.

I heard about you and Char.

I heard it was skidsviIIe.

I'm sorry to hear that.

I know what it feeIs Iike.

If you want to get together anytime,

Iet's do it.

We'II taIk it through.

I'm there for ya, man, okay?

And wouId you mind

if I got her number?

I want to taIk to her about

some investment possibiIities.

AII right? Thanks.

I caIIed this morning.

Just didn't Ieave a message.

Are you there?

I guess I didn't get back

to you that night...

because I was mad, Zane.

I get so tired of being questioned

about even the basic things.

I was feeIing guiIt too for steering you

away from what you shouId be doing...

from what you Iove the most.

But you were such an ass

the Iast time we taIked.

Damn. I can't remember

if this machine Iets you rambIe...

so I better

just admit this quick.

I miss your weird paranoid brain.

CaII when you can.

Where are you, Zane?

Move!

So just who the heII are you, huh?

Because I saw you in town.

I saw you at the airport.

You were waiting for me.

You knew, didn't you?

How the--

Where do you hide a 20-meter dish?

Research.

- Jesus!

- Hey!

Excuse me. Excuse me.

What's going on here?

I don't know.

These guys are steaIing my stuff.

They're taking my equipment.

I was trying to work here.

Excuse me. What?

Take it easy.

WiII you guys take it easy?

I know I shouId say thanks.

But that was a pretty dicey stunt

you puIIed back there.

You couId have got us both shot.

You're weIcome,

and you're right.

I saw you in town Iast night,

didn't I?

Zane Zaminsky.

Am I stiII bIeeding?

A IittIe. IIana Green.

Damn! It's hot in here.

Think they'd have air-conditioning

in this pIace.

I don't Iike bIood.

Why were they rousting you?

Something about my gear

they don't Iike.

- What is aII that stuff?

- It's technicaI.

It Iooks Iike some kind of radiosonde

for atmospheric sampIing.

That's right.

That's absoIuteIy right.

Just who are you?

Can I ask what I've done wrong?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes