cq cq wr2 gfo. wr2 gfo, come back. cq wr2 gfo, do you copy? i'm not getting anything. i can't move any smaller. what do i do? but what do i say? where are you calling from, w2p kld, come back. pensacola -- ! where's pensacola? could we hear to china? could we hear to the moon? could we hear god? okay, okay. there. pensacola. do you think there're people on other planets? okay. those lily pads must look like clouds to that carp, don't you think? he isn't in heaven; he's in the ground. we just put him there, remember? cq wr2, this is gfo, do you copy? dad, this is ellie, come back. this is eleanor arroway broadcasting on 9.2 megahertz. dad, are you there? come back. come back. come back. i -- uh -- i was looking for koestler hall? um. i'm not sure. maybe you could deduce it from lensing a post-spectral starburst? drumlin said you're been down at arecibo for the last year. he's an incredible prick but i never learned so much in my life. ellie. arroway. sounds like a russian general. i read your paper on eti's. it's brilliant. what a coincidence. it happens to be my fetish too. i'm just so sick of feeling defensive about the things i care about! or being lumped in with the lunatic fringe by people like drumlin, when if they'd just put aside their preconceptions for two seconds and look at the facts. it's like the pre-copernicans who swore the sun revolved around the earth, or the victorians at the end of the last century who concluded that all major discoveries had now been made. i mean. try to imagine civilization a thousand years ahead of us -- then imagine trying to explain. i dunno, a microwave oven -- to someone even a hundred years ago -- i mean the basic concepts didn't exist. '. is indistinguishable from magic.' sorry. -- but i've already submitted my proposal! i'm willing to take that risk. dr. drumlin, we are talking about what could potentially be the most important discovery in the history of humanity. there are over four hundred billion stars out there -- you're -- what if you're wrong? no -- i'll grant you probabilities but as a scientist without all the evidence -- you can't deny the possibility -- and i believe even the remotest possibility of something this profoundly. profound is worth investigation -- and worth taking a few risks. then disagree but don't stand in my way! lies asleep in bed. peter sits quietly next to her, gently touches her face. her eyes slowly open. she smiles. i keep telling myself okay, that's just the price, you have to do your time doing shitwork before you're allowed to get to the good stuff. but if i have to catalog one more quasar. god, i've missed you. please. any chance of that died the day david drumlin was appointed head of the n.s.f. i have been in contact with a few other seti people; we've been trying to find backing from private investors. i've even managed to scrounge a couple of hours of telescope time here and there. i've examined over forty stars of roughly solar spectral type but so far nothing. still, we've barely started. we've been going after some of the big multi-nationals but without much luck; got a donation from a new york dowager. we've even been thinking about selling t-shirts. if we lived at any previous time in human history we wouldn't even have the option of failing -- we'd have to wonder our whole lives, unable to do anything about it. this time, right now, is unique in our history, in any civilization's history -- the moment of the acquisition of technology. the moment when contact becomes possible. we've already beaten incredible odds by being lucky enough to be alive now. it's almost there. the hardest part is getting someone to sell us the telescope time. the v.l.a.? peter -- if you can get him to do that for me he'd obviously do the same for you -- we could -- ! we could be together again -- greenbank? but what about your research -- ? but the work -- please, you're just as ambitious as i am, more -- and you think i don't want those things? you think i don't stay up half the night wondering if i've made the right choice living half a world away from you, wondering if any of this is worth what i'm giving up for it everyday? let's get married. right now -- we'll drive down to ramey and get the base chaplain to marry us. i'm serious about this, peter -- you sonofabitch. dr. cullers? ellie. pulsar? nice. where? this is how you see the sky? it's beautiful. um. should i. hey, fish, has that pointing error in twenty-nine been fixed yet? j39 z186? vb10's an m dwarf; signa draconis. too old. thank you, mr. sensitive. i'm coming at this wrong. missing something. something. pepsi? tequila? oh? how's he doing? really? congratulations, by the way. 'president's science advisor' -- so what, you just spend all your time jetting around on air force one now? no doubt. did i tell you we've expanded the search spectrum? we're including several other possible magic frequencies -- not just the hydrogen line anymore. i was trying to get inside their heads, y'know? and i started thinking, what other constants are there in the universe besides hydrogen, and then suddenly it was so obvious -- transcendantals, right? so we've been trying variations of pi. it's not enough having my search time systematically cut down -- you know i'm down to three hours a week now. you can't just pull the plug, david. meaning. i'm searching for patterns in the noise, that's all. order in the chaos. i'm practicing listening -- the difference being what -- that i refuse to adopt the standard line, that i don't care about the results of my work? well, i do care. of course any discovery has to be verifiable, of course it must be subject to all rigors of scientific method, but i refuse to go around pretending i'm some kind of dispassionate automaton when it's obvious to anyone with a brain i'm just not. goddamnit, they are out there, david -- david -- i'm not sure. you mind checking right ascension 18 hours, 34 minutes; declination plus 38 degrees 41 minutes? 4458.8 gigahertz. it's probably nothing. put it on speakers. vega? i scanned it at arecibo; negative results, always. that's what they always say; punch up the darks. how's the spying tonight, guys? display absolute intensity. numbers. those are numbers, each pulse is a set -- break it down -- 79 -- 83 -- 91 -- they're all primes, no way that's a natural phenomenon -- ! okay, let's just slow down. pull up the starfield signal origin. or if they're in polar orbit -- but no, you're right. if we go public and we're wrong, that's it -- it is over for us. vega will set in a couple of hours; it's probably already risen in australia. let's call ian and see if we can get some verification on this. okay. we have an intense, not very monochromatic signal, linearly polarized as if coming from an antenna, source moving with the stars so it can't be an airplane or spacecraft; on and only on a frequency whose only significance would be to an intelligence that wanted to be directed. if anyone can come up with any plausible or even implausible explanation besides eti i want to hear it, now. thanks, ian. can you just keep tracking it as long as you can and we'll get back to you. get this out to every observatory and radio array on the planet. um. and get me the president's science advisor. hello, pensacola. maybe because seventy percent of the planet speaks other languages. mathematics is the only truly universal language, senator. we think this may be a beacon -- an announcement to get our attention. it's hardly yesterday; the signal's been traveling for over twenty-six years. as for why. i'm hoping your own expertise in decryption algorithms will help us find out -- to see if there's another message buried deeper in the signal. before you do could you please ask the gentlemen with the firearms to wait outside? this is a civilian facility. oh, and if you could ask them not to use their radios -- interference. thanks so much. this isn't a person to person call, mr. kitz. i don't really think the civilization sending the message intended it just for americans. you want to classify prime numbers? -- which we'll also need the network's help to receive and decode! interference -- we're losing the signal. it's a civilian facility. and a hundred mile airspace. could it be a nested code of some sort? dr. lunacharsky? enlarge. try plotting values in a three dimensional coordinate system. rotate 90 degrees counterclock wise. it has to be an image. stack it up, string-breaks every 60th character. anybody know german? what. a third layer. i think we just hit the cosmic jackpot. it could be anything. the first volume of some encyclopedia galactica. pardon me, but you can't do -- ! that's terrific, but there's one problem: we don't have the means to receive all the data on our own. because you cut it from the budget three years running. maybe it'll be at the end of the data when the message recycles. what? why? with me. i'm going to convert mr. science-is- the-root-of-all-evil? this is absurd, david. we have work to do here, i don't have time to play babysitter to the god squad. are you threatening me? excuse me. what? and? how can that be? someone's broken into the system, someone's compromised the fucking -- ! s.r. hadden. you compromised our security codes. you live here. why am i here, mr. hadden? what kind of deal? i didn't realize i was out. you've. found it. what could i possibly have that you would want, mr. hadden? if i knew you any better i'd say that doesn't sound like you. a page-break signal. a period. you're saying. there is no separate primer in the message -- because it's on every page so the recipient can decipher it wherever he is -- holy shit. some kind of circuitry? a machine. but a machine that does what? and in return? mr. hadden, i'm a scientist; i don't make deals. but. if you wish to give me, in good faith, access to your information, i can assure you that i will exert all reasonable efforts to promote your cause wherever it doesn't conflict with the best interests of science. or my better judgment. and while its function remains, for the moment, a mystery, my best guess is that it represents a transport of some kind. ms. president, this is communist paranoia right out of war of the worlds. there is no reason whatsoever to believe the etis intentions are hostile. we pose no threat to them -- it would be like us going out of our way to destroy microbes on a beach in africa. this is absurd. ms. president, forgive me but i thought this was to be a serious discussion of policy and technical issues, not a war council against satan's minions -- yes -- of course -- all i'm saying is, this message was written in the language of science -- mathematics -- and was clearly intended to be received by scientists. if it had been religious in nature it should have taken the form of a burning bush, or a booming voice from the sky. and where exactly does that put your position? well -- but -- peter. you dress up pretty good yourself. how's. the baby? really. well. that's wonderful. well. if you'll excuse me -- i'm paid to mingle. i don't believe i just said that. you too. champagne please. yes. i'd say logic more than faith. the odds were on my side. i guess i would've felt sorry for the universe. what about you? doesn't all of this shake your faith at all? well it's been a while, but i don't recall the bible saying too much about alien civilizations. very smooth. it's palmer, right? where i came from a palmer was a person who cheated at cards. really though. the bible describes a god who watches over one tiny world a few thousand years old. i look out there and see a universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. i mean burn me for a heretic, but your god seems awfully small. that's not faith, it's physics. the second law of thermodynamics. and mind, yes. what are you -- no. i flinched. that's not doubt. that's four hundred years of science fighting a billion years of instinct. i always wondered what you religious types did with your free time. can you try? and there's no chance you had this experience simply because some part of you needed to have it? you may not believe this. but there's a part of me that wants more than anything to believe in your god. to believe that we're all here for a purpose, that all this. means something. but it's because that part of me wants it so badly that i'm so stubborn about making sure it isn't just self-delusion. of course i want to know god if there is one. but it has to be real. unless i have proof how can i be sure? i never knew my mother. my father died when i was nine. yes. very much. what is it? what's happened? you mean -- looks up in surprise. the applause grows, becoming deafening. people motion for her to stand. dazed, she does so. the ovation continues. ellie leans over to speak into her mike. um. thanks. thanks very much. i'm not sure what i did to earn that response; i just happened to pick up the phone when they called. david -- do you have a minute -- ? it'll just take a moment. david. i know we've had our differences. but i've always thought of you as a fair man, even when we've disagreed -- and it's in that light i'm hoping you'll consider my request. i'm asking for your help, david. i want to go. they'll need someone relatively young, unattached -- and probably a scientist. as the president's science advisor you have enormous weight. i'm asking if you'll support my candidacy. what? you. that's from the point of view of someone on earth -- from the traveler's point of view it'll only seem like two years. i can't believe they wouldn't take something as basic as our biological needs into account. we're not looking at this from their point of view. it's the first time this has happened to us but it's highly unlikely that's true for them as well. chances are they've been doing this for thousands if not millions of years. maybe they are. maybe this is all part of the package. the building of the machine has demanded international cooperation on an unprecedented scale. maybe requiring us to come together in this way was, in effect, part of the plan. we've just lived through a century of incredible violence and self- destruction. do you call it 'interventionist' when you stop a toddler from walking in front of a truck? how does it work? magic. maybe. maybe it was an anomalous reaction. maybe when it's correctly integrated with other components of the machine. does it dice and make julienne fries? i question the thinking behind sending the first ambassador to another civilization in armed -- basically announcing our intentions are hostile. call it xenophobic paranoia. don't you see the absolute absurdity of this? this isn't about them, it's about us -- our violence, our fear and mistrust -- y'know what? fine. i guess if we want them to know the truth about who we are there's no quicker way to show them. good morning. you want me to travel all the way to vega to commit suicide? so. is this kosher fraternizing with the enemy like this? i was referring to the selectees mingling with the selectors. not exactly. it has organic qualities, but we don't really understand how they're integrated with the mechanical systems. i don't think so. it's too. elegant. the degree of economy is extraordinary; it's really the next logical step. even on earth technology has always aspired to a condition of nature. d.n.a. outclasses any computer we can come up with; the human body is the most exquisitely designed machine imaginable. in other words. if you came back. something like that. if you came back. if you survived at all. which it's pretty certain you wouldn't. it's what my whole life's been. aimed at; the only thing that's given it a sense of purpose. i read your book. losing faith: the search for meaning in the age of reason. catchy. i'm more interested in the story behind the story. how a young man goes from living on the streets of south boston to being the best- selling media figure rubbing elbows with the president. i thought it was well-written. heart-felt. and a little bit naive. but that's just the enemy's perspective. did you ever stop to think that maybe that isn't science's fault, but meaning's? maybe the reason people are having trouble finding meaning isn't because science has obscured it. maybe it's just revealed it isn't there. i don't know. but as a scientist i have to consider that possibility. it's getting late. it's late. we should go back. another question i would ask would be a very simple one. how did you do it? how did you evolve as far as you have and not destroy yourselves? how do you mean? you kill me, you really do. the first truly global, a-political event in history and you can't wait to spin it. i guess i'd say i trust us enough to believe our response would be something to the effect of, thanks for the advice, but no thanks. but to dilute or censor the truth, for whatever reason -- for managing the truth. but the truth won't be managed, sir. it stops being the truth the moment you try. i don't claim to be a perfect example of the human species. far from it. but i think, paradoxically, that's my strength as a candidate. because i think we need to share the truth of who we are with them -- our strengths -- -- and our weaknesses. to go to them openly, nakedly, and say these are our dreams, these are our fears. what i'm saying, ladies and gentlemen, is that i believe we should make this journey with honesty and integrity or not at all. i'd say this is slightly different. i thought you were here because you want to go. you're implying that the whole selection process is a sham? this. seemed best. good luck, david. what would you have me say, david? thank you? beer, please. how far away are we from -- it's so. small. what's that? it looks like pixie dust. kent would've given anything to see this. david, too. what are you talking about? it's over. you sound like joseph. you think the world ends with the millennium? the gods sent us the machine because they took pity on us. the systems integration site. -- of hadden industries. why don't you come back with me? i remember. you were indelicate, indiscreet and entirely less than tactful. sound like anyone you know? the final countdown. thank you. i do seem to be. maybe because i'm just a little bit terrified about tomorrow. i'm sorry. i'm sorry -- i can't -- i can't do this -- please, palmer -- if you care for me at all, don't push this now -- please -- don't you understand? i just have to hold it together -- just until tomorrow -- -- i don't know -- i can't hear this now -- and yet that's always how i seem to end up, isn't it? if you really do love me, palmer, you'll leave. now. please. someone tell me this is really happening. that you, valerian? like it. almost there. approaches the alien fractal-embossed surface of the machine. that's one small step for a woman. arroway to control; reading you five by five. not so far -- but -- did you get that? arroway to control, come in. arroway to control, do you copy? control, i'm going to continue broadcasting on the assumption. hope. that you can hear me. the atmosphere within the chamber seems to be undergoing some sort of spontaneous state conversion. my breathing seems normal. what was that -- ? whirls around in terror as the light grows dazzlingly bright. i'm falling. sense of enormous acceleration. it's a wormhole, it's got to be, but how do they keep it stable? the energy required -- it's a star, i'm in orbit around a star, spectral type a, maybe early f. getting weird multiple images here; relativity effects? accretion disk. gotta be vega, only. oh my god. they're talking to the whole universe. okay, okay, clearly artificial, some sort of relay station but the scale is just. tens of thousands of receivers, hundreds. some sort of biotechnology, like the machine but. don't see anything like a docking port. another wormhole? bigger this time -- oh god -- okay. okay. a series of wormholes, linked together, artificially created, but why would? jesus, it's a subway system. quadruple system. incredible. don't recognize any background constellations. hundreds, possibly thousands of light years from earth now. so beautiful. so. the physics must be a thousand, ten thousand years beyond us but. oh god. oh god something's. happening. it's beautiful. it's beautiful. i keep saying that but i can't. my mind can't. words. should've sent a poet. i'm a poet and don't know it. ground control to major tom. relativitistic side-effect? or -- induced by the transport medium? the gas. oh, palmer, i wish i'd had a baby. the center of the galaxy. docking ports. those are docking ports for other machines. hi, everybody. now arriving grand central station. floating down. floating. twinkle twinkle. little star. how i wonder. ellemenopee. . have to stay awake. stay awake. please. please. lies in a fetal position. after a long moment she opens her eyes. the familiar rhythmic sound is louder. her eyes widen. i. remember this. recording. check, check. recording, is this on? i think this is on. okay. i've traveled thirty thousand light years, give or take a few parsecs, to go to the beach. so. either they've created this environment. or the illusion of this environment, to make me feel at home. or else somehow i am at home -- or else this is my cage at the intergalactic zoo and the tour bus will be along any minute. or else, of course, i'm completely insane. this should not be discounted as a possibility -- although the fact that i'm questioning my sanity should be a pretty good indication that i am in fact sane. unless of course. unless. tears come to her eyes. she approaches, staring. he takes her hand -- dad. i used. i used to dream you were alive. and then i'd wake up and lose you all over again. dad. but tell me, how did. i mean how can? you're not real. none of this is. so. are you an hallucination? or are little gear trains and circuit boards under your skin? but you're so. i mean how could you possibly? when i was unconscious. you. downloaded. my thoughts, my memories, even. this beach. i've never been here but i remember. it's how i always imagined. pensacola. so who -- what -- are you? can you show me? why did you contact us? and those other docking ports i saw. i mean. there are others? and they all travel here through this wormhole subway system you built. so who? the scale. it's just. so all the civilizations you detect; they all end up coming here? so we passed some kind of test? can you help us? who are you? the librarian. or the library? all those voices. you gather them all together. millions of intelligences in one consciousness. and now we're a part of it. so. what happens now? no! i mean. why so soon? none taken. but . do we get to come back? others of my kind, i mean. but -- other people from our planet should see what i've seen -- they should witness this for themselves. but you said you wanted to help -- don't you see what it would mean? please -- if you. downloaded. everything about us you know the problems we face, the impact it could have -- it could make the difference -- no. please. no. i'm -- i'm fine. wait -- hold on a minute -- peter, what are you talking about? what malfunction? what day is this? how long was i gone? i'm fine -- no -- could somebody please just -- peter. what is going on? has everyone gone completely insane? but the machine worked -- that's what i've been trying to tell everyone! the tape -- it's all there, if they'd just look at. . the tape. i don't understand it. all i can think is that maybe because the video gear wasn't accounted for in the original plans it somehow violated the integrity of the design. i don't have an official response, michael. all i have are the same questions you have. hi. i'm assuming you read my deposition. pretty ironic, huh? i had to go all the way to the center of the galaxy. just to find you. so. i'm assuming they sent you here to administer last rites? they don't believe me. you're sure you want to? in the universe i saw we're not exactly the stars of the show. what happened to me makes us all seem pretty damn small. i don't have any proof, palmer. it's not enough, don't you understand? i know it happened -- but by every standard of science, by every standard i've lived my life by that fact is utterly beside the point. it may be true but it doesn't matter because i can't prove it's real. but -- i want to, palmer -- more than anything. but it has to be real. it has to be true. earth time, yes. senator. i believe i traveled through a series of wormholes. wormholes are a phenomenon deduced by einstein; they're essentially tears in the fabric of space. time. because of the effects of relativity what i experienced as a period of approximately eighteen hours passed almost instantaneously on earth. to you i seemed to depart and arrive back at the same moment. there is no direct evidence, no. i don't have the figures in front of me, but yes, that sounds about right. by our standards. yes. yes, sir. yes, sir. is it possible? is it possible. yes. but -- -- but i don't believe it to be the truth. i don't know. ultimately their motives may be as incomprehensible as their technology. closes her eyes. finally, almost inaudibly: no. because i can't. i had. an experience. i can't prove it. i can't even explain it. all i can tell you is that everything i know as a human being, everything i am -- tells me that it was real. i was given something wonderful. something that changed me. a vision of the universe that made it overwhelmingly clear just how tiny and insignificant -- and at the same time how rare and precious we all are. a vision. that tells us we belong to something greater than ourselves. that we're not -- that none of us -- is alone. looks lovingly at palmer. then shifts her gaze to michael kitz. softly: i wish i could share it. i wish everyone, if only for a moment -- could feel that sense of awe, and humility. and hope. that continues to be my wish. i'm sorry. i'm sorry. but it is a good question, and i suppose i'll always wonder about the answer: why would they send me back without proof? in other words, god works in mysterious ways. i don't know. if it was a god, it was searching for a greater one. it was still searching for meaning. i'm not sure. maybe it simply exists in the search for it. maybe its something we have to make for ourselves. something my dad -- they -- said. 'after all the suffering, after all the desolation of the void -- the one thing that makes the vastness tolerable is each other.' the one thing that makes it bearable is love. her eyes filled with tears of wonder and joy, smiles. she's found what she's been searching for.