07/04/2019 Episode Two
Sebastian mentions that he saw a side road ahead, which is probably the entrance to the Observatory.
The crazed security guard suddenly starts struggling and realises he is stuck. He starts shouting profanities and using racist slurs. Damien uses a sleep lock on him and puts him in the recovery position in Gerald’s car’s boot.
Gerald notices the man has a security badge and a pass. He tries the radio, but nothing is transmitting. There is some static interference.
Damien tells Jo to stay and write on the car “Phone Police.” Gerald says use lipstick. They leave her with the keys to Gerald’s car but tell her to come to them if there are problems.
The Observatory
They set off towards the entrance to the Observatory, but John does not want to go with them. He is reluctant to cross the road and wants his hand held, which Sebastian does.
They get to the security gates. The box for the security guard is empty. Gerald uses the radio and someone answers telling him to stop messing about.
Damien presses the alarm button in the cabin and the voice on the radio asks Stan what he is playing at. Gerald tells him again that Stan attacked them. Interference then garbles the radio.
A man from the Observatory turns up, Gary Wilson. He seems a little distracted and has a head ache. They have to tell him several times that Stan has crashed into their car and needs a telephone.
Damien notices a strange resonance with the security fencing, like it’s vibrating in sympathy with something.
The Control Room
Gary takes them back to the main building. It takes him a few tries to get the door open. He takes them into the main office area, which has lots of computer banks and other technical equipment.
There is a young woman, an older big woman and a black man operating equipment. Damien tells them about the car accident and wants access to a phone. The large woman, Dr Diane Mancini, is a bombastic American woman and she tells Damien “Honey” to calm down, be polite and knock on the Director’s door, as he has a land line.
Director Neal
Damien barges in and tells the Director Gerald Neal there has been an accident and demands use of the phone. When Director Gerald Neal seems a little confused and wants it all explained again, Damien grabs the phone and starts to dial 999. The Director suddenly reacts angrily, smashing the phone and attacking Damien.
Damien initially backs away and the fight spills out into the main room. Dr Carl Guest, the Deputy Director, turns up wanting to know what is going on.
Screaming Chaos
A number of people then start shouting, demanding to know what the hell is going on. There is a bit of chaos, made worse when the computer technician Dr Harlan Bennett pulls out the headphones he has on from the socket and a loud jarring buzzing electronic noise fills the room.
Damien clutches his head with pain, while Gerald feels like life suddenly becomes futile. Other people are affected in slightly different ways, but most of the staff appear to have gone stir crazy.
Gerald has enough sense to turn on the fire alarm, which slightly disrupts the noise from the speakers.
Sebastian and Amy are able to keep their heads. Sebastian takes the headphones off the computer technician and plugs them back in, while Amy turns the speakers sound off.
Recovery
Things slowly begin to calm down. Damien again demands a phone. Dr Guest tells him most of them were removed to save money when they moved to Broadband, but there is one in maintenance, where Gary Wilson must be as he has left the room. Damien heads there.
Meanwhile, Dr Harlan Bennett, who has been staring into space, suddenly sexually assaults Amy, who is near to him. Amy, trained to deal with personal attack, responds by using her pepper spray in his face and he retreats, crying.
Diane Mancini then starts arguing with Sebastian and Amy, while John quietly begins to play with one of the computer consoles. They learn that the scientists are listening to some sort of signals from space.
Maintenance
When Damien and Dr Guest reach maintenance, Gary is there nursing a headache. He could use some water and Damien goes to the staff room to get him some.
John works out that the computer is controlling the radio telescopes, which are being focused on a specific point in the sky. He tries to change their focus, but needs a password and sets about hacking the system.
Damien returns with the water for Gary and Dr Guest uses the phone to call the Police and Ambulance. Damien has him use some code words that hint at a terrorist incident.
Chaos Returns
Suddenly in the control room, Harlan Bennett, who stopped crying a few minutes ago, returns to the sound console and takes out the headphones and turns the volume up to maximum. The staff suddenly turn crazy and start to attack the intruders.
Dr Guest’s phone call is disrupted by sudden strong interference, but he has said enough to get the authorities to come to the Observatory.
Damian realises something is amiss in the control room and moves to disable the UPS and then cut the power to the building. Dr Guest tries to stop him to save their research, but Damien is army trained and Dr Guest is not.
Then Gary Wilson suddenly leaps violently and attacks Damien, who deflects his attack to one side, but Gary’s arm catches the now exposed power socket and there is a scream and a loud bang. All the lights go out in the building.
Black Out
In the control room, Gerald has been pinned to the wall by Director Neal when the lights and computers go off. The Director starts to pound Gerald’s head against the wall.
Amy manages to subdue Harlan Bennett, while Diane Mancini charges at Sebastian but can’t see him, hits the wall with her head and is knocked unconscious.
John has a slightly chaotic fight with the younger girl Jenny Hooper, but when the light goes out she starts attacking a chair.
Damien and Dr Guest return to the control room using their phones for light and Damien is able to rescue Gerald from more serious damage, but his head is bleeding.
Things slowly calm down and the crazed staff pass out. Director Neal vomits first.
Signals from Space
Dr Guest explains that they had found an object in the solar system in orbit just beyond Mars that seems to be giving off strange signals, radio, ultraviolet and radiation. They had been keeping its existence secret until they had finished their investigations. They were planning a dramatic reveal to the world in about a week’s time. It is the discovery of the decade.
Damien suggests the object is a trap, put there to cause people to go crazy. Dr Guest is incredulous – the object is over 10 miles wide and spectroscopic analysis has shown it consists mostly of iron, with some carbon and silicone.
Their incomplete analysis suggested the object is in some sort of elliptical orbit of the sun like a comet. It is currently on an approach towards the sun (perihelion) and will cross the orbit of Earth over the next 12 months. It won’t hit Earth though.
They discuss its dangerous resonance and Dr Guest points out that one of the team wondered if they had found the fabled Nemesis Star – the Harbinger of Doom.
They all agree that the research will have to stop for the time being as the emissions from the object are dangerous. They wonder how safe Earth will be as the thing moves closer to the inner solar system.
Damien is worried about others finding this signal. He suggests that Dr Guest tell someone in authority in the Home Office about their discovery, as they are part of SETI.
Dr Guest points out he has his scientific reputation to protect and is sceptical about the efficiency of the government bureaucracy. Also Director Neal knows who to contact, and he is currently unconscious.
They resolve to wait until the emergency services arrive.
Epilogue
Damien calls 999 now that he has a mobile signal. He is told Police and Ambulance are already on the way.
Amy looks after Gerald, who has a wounded head. She gets him water and relaxes him.
Damien has a running argument with Dr Diane Mancini when she awakens, both of them shouting at each other.
At a quieter moment Jenny Hooper tells them she had started to detect hydro-carbon chains in the composition of the object and it appears to be oscillating in a way that reminds her of a heartbeat.
The Police and Ambulance turn up. They are initially aggressive and cautious until they realise it is all safe and the paramedics come in. Armed Police were holding back but sent away when it is clear there is no terrorist threat.
Gerald is taken to Cambridge Hospital for observation of his head wounds.
The Police take everyone else away to a Police Station in Cambridge to take statements. They are primarily concerned about the security guard they tied up in a boot and the maintenance man who was killed by the UPS.
They spend the night being interviewed and questioned about the incident.
In the morning, Gerald is released from hospital. He heads for the Police Station and gives his statement.
He then arranges a hire car, calls the Winthorpe Institute and tells them they are going have been delayed by a car crash and will be there later today.
Gerald tells his wife what happened and then picks up a hire car to drive them to the Institute.