To the Core and Back Page #8

---

enough to rip us to pieces.

- [Tom] Dr. Keyes.

- What?

I'm afraid it's all we've got.

Now, I have orders from the president.

Come home, Virgil. We go to plan B.

- Well, what about plan C?

- What? What?

Well, plan C. We continue on.

We restart the core... somehow.

We don't do it, you fire Destiny.

I can't wait for you

to get out of there.

- Then don't. We fail, fire Destiny.

- Oh, come on! That's ridiculous!

- What choice do we have, Zimsky?

- Are you kidding me?

If they set that thing off,

the shock waves will wipe us out!

We'll be lucky to get back

if we turn back right now!

Virgil, I'm telling you right now,

we will fire Destiny,

and we need to do so

as quickly as possible,

and if you're still there,

you will be destroyed.

Rebecca ?

Please don't make me

have to do this.

Plan C.

It's your call, Commander.

Majority decision.

We're going in.

I'm sorry, sir.

Oh, come on, you're a bunch of suicidal

morons! What are you, crazy?

Plan C?

Restart the core "somehow"?

Oh, that's a great idea!

That's a brilliant idea!

I can't believe I'm stuck in this

floating septic tank with you lunatics!

You may have nothing to lose.

You may have nothing to lose!

You may have nothing to lose,

but I have my life to lose,

thank you very much,

while you're up! Now turn it around!

He told us to go back

and we're going back!

Why? You want to be a hero?

You want to be a martyr?

What do you want to be?

You're out of your mind!

- Thank you! Turn it around!

- No!

- Zimsky.

- I'm not gonna die like this!

- I don't wanna die!

- Zimsky, it's not about you!

- If you wanna die like this...

- ...three people...

Shut up!

[panting]

It's not a stupid ship.

I had to.

- It had to happen sometime.

- Yeah.

- [computer beeping]

- Um...

- Status! What is that?

- [Rat] It's the EM monitoring station.

It's the one that tracks EM pulses.

God, no.

[sighs]

- Just talk, Mr. Rat.

- [Rat] No.

- That's a good boy.

- Um...

Remember those invisible microwaves

that Josh was talking about?

Well, they just found a hole.

[water boiling]

No, it's a parking lot out here...

- [sizzling sound]

- [screams]

[sizzling sounds continue]

Oh, my God.

[rumbling]

- [sizzling sounds continue]

- [gasps]

[screams]

[people screaming]

[woman on TV] And now with this

horrific breaking news,

we go live to San Francisco,

where Leo Jacks has the story.

[Leo] Yes, Claire, it's hard to believe

that half of San Francisco

is in ruins today

following the most devastating

and the most baffling

event in our nation's history.

Uh, it's a horrific situation here.

Thousands are dead.

Many are missing.

- It's hotels, hospitals.

- Bring up the power grid.

- [typing]

- [computer beeping]

The whole West Coast is out.

That means we're going to have

to suck up just about every drop

of juice east of the Rockies

to fire Destiny.

Another EM spike, we're not

going to have enough power.

General, you have got

to give them more time.

[Tom] There is no more time.

Colonel, call Destiny.

I am launching

a formal complaint against you

- with the Department of Defense.

- Rat to Josh.

Go, Rat.

Hey, here's the EM field data

that you're primed for.

Digging that, Rat.

Primed for. Primed for.

Prime numbers...

One, two, three, five,

seven, 11, 13, 17...

[typing]

[typing]

Here we go.

[electrical zapping]

[telephone ringing]

[man] James.

[exhales]

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Here we go, folks.

[Josh] OK, this time it's going to work.

Here you go... beautiful. Yeah. Mm-hm.

Come on, baby. Come on,

Daddy wants to see the sky again.

OK, OK, OK. Let's try again.

- Your torque is R, cross F...

- No, your R is too small, Josh.

- Right.

- Wait, hold on.

[Zimsky laughing]

- What are you laughing at?

- No, I mean,

it took me and 400

of the world's smartest people

- to come up with the first plan.

- You want to help?

No. I want to turn around and go home.

- It's not going to happen.

- Well, then we're going to die.

- True.

- All right, look

- let's start from square one.

- OK.

Let's start from square one. The bulk

modules... depends on density.

Your torque is R cross F,

but you have to integrate volume...

But here, here...

just consider this.

Now, we got this...

OK, now, R cross F,

we're putting put in pi. What's V?

- Oh, for God's sake!

- All right. I'm hitting him again.

No, no, no!

Braz, no, look, I have a theory.

- Are you interested?

- Yes. We're interested.

Then let me smoke a cigarette,

and I'll tell you.

- Oh, thank God.

- [Braz whistles]

Hm? All right, fine, look. Look,

we have to use wave interference, OK?

Because one explosion won't do it.

Think about stones in a pond.

You drop a large stone into a pond,

you get a big splash,

and then that's it, it's over.

But drop a smaller stone,

wait until the ripples weaken

and drop another and another,

and another,

and fluid dynamics 101.

The ripples reinforce each other

in geometric progression.

[Braz] The whole bigger than

the sum of the parts.

Then we'll have five

Instead of one big bang.

- [Josh] So, we hotwire the nukes.

- Yes.

As one does.

We seed them through the core

at locations that have

to be accurate to the inch.

We detonate them in a sequence

that has to be accurate

to the millisecond,

then we outrun the biggest

nuclear shock wave in history.

- Right.

- Yeah.

I mean, that should be fairly simple.

[alarm blaring]

[man 1] ...should now be

diverting to the central...

[man 2] Final calibration

on both transmission systems...

[indistinct chatter]

[computer beeps]

Cut the... cut the rouge.

The red wire above the circuit.

- OK. OK.

- No, no, wait, hold it!

I'm sorry, cut it below.

- [computer beeps]

- I don't know what that means.

[man 1] Extensions A, B.

- [man 2] Here we go.

- [man 1] F, check. Increase power

- to reactors ten through 15.

- We're almost there, folks.

[typing]

[computer beeping]

- [typing]

- [beeping continues]

[Beck] OK, guys we're closing

on the inner core.

The nukes are ready.

Timers are on.

- Great. Let's start dropping them.

- No. The bombs are not built

for these pressures.

That's why they were in that pod.

If you send them out now,

out of that casing,

they'll be crushed instantly.

- I'm assuming we have a Plan D.

- Plan D is Virgil's compartments.

We put a nuke in

each section of Virgil,

and then eject the individual sections

one at a time. They should stay intact

- long enough for the nuke to go off.

- [groans]

- What?

- Virgil's not designed

to eject undamaged compartments.

OK, these are the ejection mechanisms

holding each compartment in place, um...

They're all connected

by one master hydraulic gear, um,

kind of like keys on a key ring.

What we have to do,

we have to unlock the piston.

That will release the compartments

so the bombs can be jettisoned.

Where's the master gear?

In the crawl space

we used to get out earlier.

Well, what the hell is it doing there?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes