how much damage?
right. so you're saying it survived a high speed impact with water without a scratch?
how are you feeling, norman?
you holding up alright?
don't be defensive.
you sound defensive.
to who? arthur? nothing. nothing that norman doesn't already know.
norman thinks we shouldn't be going down. thinks it's a mistake.
she told me what you said, norman.
just one of norman's many secrets.
pry the thing open? what are we -- neanderthals?
for who? the fish?
you're not afraid of the water, are you, norman?
go ahead. ladies first.
c'mon.
c'mon, norman.
the switch is on your waist.
easy ted, we're not mining gold.
shutup, ted. you didn't notice shit. keep hammering.
chipped? the door? how can it be chipped?
i thought you said there wasn't any damage done in the crash?
then how can it be chipped?
you'd have to ask them.
that's right.
you don't think it does? i think it's rather obvious.
a spacecraft half a mile long -- with 500 tonnes of coral on top of it? someone went to a lot of trouble. try again.
is it?
think about it.
all the facts you need are right in front of you.
do you?
save your breath. it's not an alien spacecraft.
it's an american spacecraft.
it's been obvious from the start, hasn't it, captain? that's why all the secrecy, why no one was told about it?
the chip in the door.
we take a weeny little wedge, bang on it a couple of times, and bust off a chunk of the metal. yet any spacecraft -- even at a low velocity, say 200 miles an hour -- crashes into the water -- it's gonna be like hitting concrete, it would crumple like paper. but there isn't a dent to be seen anywhere. not even a scratch.
meaning it didn't land in the water.
it didn't fly here. it arrived here.
not where. when. 400 years ago. from our future.
a light switch. a button opened that door -- the craft runs on some sort of power.
nice work, norman.
a flight recorder. our future is about to be seen in our present.
unknown entry event.
our answer.
time travel. a black hole.
ted? captain?
we know how this craft got here. where it's been.
this answers one of our questions.
this spacecraft was designed to pick things up. they see things they want -- these claws go out and bring it in. they come across this. this.  sphere. find it interesting, curious. they draw it inside to take back home.
our present.
look closely. that isn't writing. those are grooves.
no. they don't represent a message. they aren't decorative at all. they have another purpose entirely.
to conceal a small break in the surface of the sphere.
ted seems to have some ideas.
man is man, all he knows is man, and all he can think of is what he knows. the anthropomorphic problem. good, norman.
everything ever written about extra- terrestial life imagines that life is essentially human. if it doesn't look human, it's a reptile or a big insect or something, having human values, human understanding.
it's nonsense. there's enough difference between our own species to prove that.
cannibalism, to be extreme. and now we're talking about a new life form. their values and ethics may be incomprehensible.
and we're just talking about three- dimensional creatures. what if it's five or six or seven-dimensional? so dimensional that we couldn't even see it to kill it.
it could. but the odds of it being any use to us are against it.
let's say whoever made this thing is a thousand years ahead of us, just like we are to, say, medieval europe. suppose you went back to medieval europe with a tv set. there wouldn't be any place to plug it in.
produce radioactive waste and disintegrate us into nothing.
you realize, norman, that we are all going to die.
i'm completely serious. there is something very important missing from that spacecraft. you know what that is?
a sign that the builders knew time travel through a black hole was possible.
on that flight recorder, they called the black hole an "unknown entry event." they didn't know what a black hole was. fifty years from now, men are going to build that ship in a very tentative, experimental way, with no knowledge that time travel through a black hole is possible.
so, we know. we know it went through a black hole. we saw it. norman -- when we'd get to the surface, we'd tell someone about the black hole, wouldn't we? it'd go in some report like some big discovery. so in fifty years when they build that ship, they'd make precautions for a black hole. but they didn't. the called it an unknown entry event.
meaning we're never gonna get to the surface alive.  to tell anyone.
gimme another explanation.
am i?
you mean, you think i'm cracking?
then what, norman?
curious, isn't it? what's inside? before i die, i'd sure like to open it and see.
when did it happen?
i'd sure like to open it and see.
ladies and gentlemen.
please watch your closest monitor.
pay close attention. i think you will find this of interest.
what is that? that noise?
it's like.
what are you still doing here?
you were all supposed to leave. you weren't supposed to stay down here.
you don't understand about the sphere.
norman?
what happens on page 87? have you ever read page 87?
i could never read that far. i never wanted to.
you shouldn't be here, norman. it's too dangerous for you and the others to be down here.
salt's good for you, ted. helps you from getting impotent.
what are they?
there's some sort of pattern here. it'll take a minute.
don't do this. don't psychoanalyze me. i hate squid. period. just like you hate jellyfish.
did i?
i don't remember much. it's like my memory is on the tip of my tongue -- but i can't taste any of it. funny, my senses are much keener though. purer. hearing, seeing, smelling. like, i can smell your sheets, norman. you tried to wash it out earlier, but i can still smell the urine. don't worry, i'm not going to tell the others. it's normal, really, isn't it? in a crisis. the stress. the panic.
why? does someone else want to go inside?
it's the same as before, but the spacing's different now. it's definitely nonrandom. see.
it's a single sequence repeated over and over.
well, if it's a discharge --
if it is a message, it's probably a substitution code. i'll work on it.
 i asked myself, why would the sphere be using a code? if you're trying to communicate, why use a code?
codes are for hiding information. so it's making a mistake. it's making a code without intending to. i figured it's probably substituting numbers for letters.  then i began to wonder what an alien intelligence would make of our keyboard. and since we're getting spirals, i imagined the keyboard as a spiral. so i translated it.
 spiralling out of the center, you see: "g" is one, "b" is two, "h" is three, and so on.  when i got the message.
i have to tell you. it's strange.
"hello. how are you? i am fine. what is your name? my name is jerry."
first, we have to see if he'll talk at all.
okay, jerry's talking.
"we are friends".
"yes". good. now let's see if it'll switch over to english letters.
good idea, ted.
it's not ignorant.
he understands me fine.
she's not gonna know, sir.
he's saying, "take me to your leader." he wants to know who's in charge.
what -- you want me to retype it?
she's not gonna know.
if the technology of that sphere is advanced enough -- the way it functions is gonna appear to us like magic.
it's like showing leonardo da vinci a laptop computer. he'd run screaming "witchcraft". and you couldn't explain it to him, either. modems, microchips, particle physics.
 you there? norman?
norman, where are you?
you're clear. you see the airlock?
norman!
what happened to her?
when i woke up, nobody was here.
her suit's gone.
i thought she was with you.
i never said that.
we never even had a conversation, norman.
she's cracking, norman.
i was just in the cafeteria, there's plenty of food in there. take a look for yourself.
she's lying, norman. just like she lied about fixing your suit.
you mean jerry, don't you?
that's a hell of a mistake to make, beth.
yeah, i don't know how you could make that confusion.
wisconsin's your answer.
navy transmission. they're sent from wisconsin.
don't have to. watch. it'll do it for you.
in time for what?
just in time for what?
another attack?
why are you looking at me like that?
you're staring at me.
yes you are.
did i miss something? you two seemed to patch things up awfully fast.
the three of us.
is that why the two of you went through my dufflebag?
what is it?
stop what? what are you -- ?
doing what? i'm not doing anything -- !
did i kill her?
i could hit her a little harder. more toward the cranium.
if she's still conscious, you can't fight her. you can't stop the numbers.
killing her's the only way --
fine.
we're never gonna make it.
how much time you figure to get to the surface?
how far away's the sub?
alright. hurry.
i can't reach her.
push her, c'mon.
missed.
hurry, norman. four minutes.
three fifty-six, three fifty-five, three --
i got her. i got her.
norman, what are you --
c'mon, norman!
gimme a second --
her legs are in the way.
i'm trying. there.
you know how to work this thing?
well, press something!
how long did you say --
less than a minute, we're never gonna make it.
it's not fast enough, norman. there's a helluva lot of explosive down there.
the shock wave's gonna crush us, norman.
how's that working out, by the way?
no. i don't. but i always said to myself, when i die, i want to die laughing.
they're going to want answers and they're going to keep asking until they get them.
won't make any difference. the tapes document everything.
we all kill ourselves? bad joke. sorry, beth.
you mean forget?
what about?
a what?