To the Core and Back Page #7

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Just a second.

- There.

- Mm-hm.

All right, now let's

put them to bed.

Zimsky, could you please come up

here for a second?

- Yes?

- We're not supposed

- to go through anything black.

- Yes, so please don't.

What is this?

[Zimsky] They're scattered everywhere.

Oh, my God! They're diamonds!

[Beck] Great.

You might want to sit down and buckle

up. We're on a collision course here.

Alrighty. Careful.

Guys, we're dodging diamonds

the size of Cape Cod, so bear with me.

Not exactly nimble here.

- Diamonds? I want some.

- Can I help?

Oh!

- [thudding]

- OK. It's OK.

[Beck] OK, it looks like

we're in the clear.

- [scraping]

- [alarm beeping]

Breach!

Guys! Weapons control, get out!

Get out now!

[Josh] Serge!

Serge! What the hell are you doing?

Come on!

[$6rge] My notebook!

Serge!

Take the time reg, Joshua!

- Come on Serge! Come on!

- My notes! You'll need them!

No! God, no, Serge!

- It's OK.

- Serge, come on! No!

Serge!

We need the box!

[Braz shouting]

We can get him!

We can get him!

Hold on, Serge!

Beck! Beck!

Override the ejection system!

Beck, no! One damaged compartment

threatens the whole ship!

Beck! Beck!

Override the ejection system!

Serge, we're right here. We're not

going to forget about you, man.

- Josh, can you hear me?

- Serge! Serge...

Hey, buddy, look in your monitor

right now. Serge, look in your monitor.

- I'm right here. Serge...

- Josh, I can't see you.

Braz is going to override

the doors manually, OK?

We're working on it right now.

Braz, how long?

Going as fast as I can,

fast as I can.

- OK, I'm scared.

- We're going right now.

- Shouldn't be two seconds, all right?

- Josh!

Beck, override

the ejection systems, OK?

Damn it. I don't think

Beck can hear me.

Serge, look at me now. Serge!

Serge, we're right here, OK? We're not

going to forget about you, man.

I'm going to get you out of here.

We're working on it, all right?

- Stay with me here. OK?

- [sobs] I don't know what to do.

You can hear me now?

All right, here I am.

I'm not going to let you go, man. I'm

not going to let you go, all right?

Stay with me here, OK?

I'm going to come to Paris

and we'll go out, all right? After this.

After this is all

said and done, all right?

- Josh!

- Serge!

- Serge! Serge! Serge!

- [Serge screaming]

Serge /

[sighs]

- [inhales sharply]

- [kicking console]

Did you reset the overrides?

I never pushed them.

You let him die.

Actually, you really want to know?

I killed him twice.

First when I hit the diamond, and then

when I didn't hit the override.

Do you want me to feel any worse

about that than I already do?

It's not possible.

Why are you being so smug about that?

- Could you have made the decision?

- [Josh] Yes.

- Could you?

- Yes, I could've.

If you would've hit that switch,

I could've got him outta there!

I was yelling for you!

Take it and look at it!

I was two inches from him!

I was two inches, and I told you

to put the door up and you didn't!

I was screaming for you!

Why didn't you do it?!

Because I had to make that decision.

Fate or God...

No! Damn it!

You leave God out of this!

Serge died so that we could

complete ourjob.

Oh, that's right,

the job of saving the world.

Not the whole world, Josh!

Just three of them.

- [monitor beeping]

- [quiet chattering]

Virgil, you are approaching

core interface. Are you good to go?

[Braz] Josh?

Josh, can you hear me?

Josh, can you hear me?

Ready as we'll ever be, Stick.

Dr. Keyes.

Right here.

Deep Earth, we are green

and good to go.

We just got a huge speed jump.

We're at 95 knots...

...110...

...13O... 140.

Our speed's jumped

because the density of the core

is different than our estimates.

It's lighter than we thought.

- So much for best guesses.

- [Beck] I'm fine with this.

At this rate, we'll,

what, hit the inner core

in a little over five hours.

I think we finally bought some luck.

- Braz.

- Yeah.

Would you please punch

the new core density into the equations

for the nuclear detonation?

Please tell me this is enough.

- Failure.

- [Beck] You're telling me

the 1,000 megatons

of nuclear warheads

we hauled down here

isn't going to cut it?

No. This core material is too thin.

- What?

- [Zimsky] The energy waves from

the explosion

won't spread far enough.

They'll just bleed

away into nothing.

[exhales, stammers]

That's it.

- We go home. We go home.

- [Josh] Home?

Our commander is dead.

Our weapons specialist is dead.

Our weapons control systems are gone.

We don't know whether

we can arm the nuclear devices,

and our plan to fix the core

no longer works. So... we have failed.

We have not failed.

We have failed, and we go home,

and we go to the alternative.

What alternative?

What are you talking about?

General, this is Dr. Conrad Zimsky.

Destiny is a go.

Repeat. Destiny is a go.

[sighs] Damn.

I need to know

everything to do my job.

You don't have to know this.

General, it is my job

to ensure the safety of this mission.

Anything that affects it is my business.

Now what the hell is Destiny?

It's a device.

Deep Earth Seismic Trigger

Initiative, DEST-INI. Destiny.

We had reason to believe that our

enemies were building a weapon

that could generate

targeted seismic events.

They would be able to create massive

earthquakes under our territory.

- No way of telling who did it.

- So?

So... we built one, too.

M.A.D. Mutually Assured Destruction.

A perfect acronym

if ever there was one.

- Beautiful.

- They built it first.

I built it better.

I beamed high-powered

electromagnetic energy waves

down Deep Earth fault lines,

- and, you know.

- Zimsky, what makes you think

- that Destiny would touch the core?

- [Josh] 'Cause it already did.

This isn't a fluke.

We killed the planet.

[Beck] You keep saying

that the core is too big

to be affected by anything

short of nukes.

- So...

- The core is an engine.

Throw a small wrench into a big engine,

you can still stall it.

Deep Earth, this is Virgil.

We require clarification on

the status of Project Destiny.

- Why weren't we notified of this, sir?

- Because you didn't need to know.

Now you may not like this.

I may not like it either.

But it's my job,

and I do it for my country,

and if we don't develop these

devices, someone worse will

and they will use them against us.

But you have my word.

No one in this

administration, no one,

had any idea

that this could happen.

So the device that killed the

planet is your backup plan?

An electric shock can stop a heart.

It can certainly restart one.

- Destiny will work. It has to.

- No, it won't work.

If you fire that thing again

with the core already stalled,

- it'll terminally destabilise it.

- Yes, granted,

there is a marginal risk involved,

but given the circumstances,

- I hardly see that as an alternative.

- No, Zimsky, listen to me.

Every volcano on the planet will blow.

There'll be earthquakes big

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