This is pointless, Sam. Let me go and tell her.
Look again, huh? There has to be an explanation.
I gave her the new implant.
I helped invent the damn thing. I wish it worked too, but it doesn't.
Look at where the implant is supposed to interface. Right there.
If anything, it's more separated from the auditory nerve than it was before.
Then how is it she's starting to hear things?
She can't. It's just not possible.
No, no, Dr. Madison, my wife says she hears sounds.
Maybe the hope of hearing is making her have some kind of auditory hallucination.
I don't know.
I'm way out of my league in that department.
If you want, I'll make an appointment with Dr. Leiberman.
No. LfJen wants to talk to a psychiatrist, I'll call a psychiatrist.
White Ford Bronco, license number HN 405.
She was so sure.
And it's gonna break her heart.
Help.
- What do you want? - Get down here right away, please.
What?
I heard you. You asked me for help.
I didn't say anything.
Jen, what is it?
Why do you need help?
I was just cleaning the floor, and she spoke to me.
That's okay. Don't worry about it.
- Jennifer, please, sit down. - Sit down.
Jennifer, we've gone over the results of the tests we ran...
but the implant still isn't working.
There's been no change from-
Help.
Yes, I can hear you.
Jen, who are you talking to?
I don't know.
There is nothing wrong with your television.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are now controlling the transmission.
We control the horizontal...
and the vertical.
We can deluge you with a thousand channels...
or expand one single image to crystal clarity...
and beyond.
We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive.
For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery...
which reaches from the deepest inner mind to...
The Outer Limits.
There is the silence of the oceans and the unending silence of space.
There is the welcome silence of serenity...
and the everlasting silence of death.
A cry for help is lost in the shrill noise of the world.
But the faintest of whispers when spoken in silence...
can resonate across a universe.
I'm sorry. I was hoping for good news too.
I hear. I know I hear, and nobody believes me.
I wanna believe you, Jen.
I just don't understand what it is you're hearing.
Can you hear me now?
Honey-
I know how much...
you wanted to hear Ally's first words.
And I know how much you wanna be able to hear her cry.
Maybe your imagination has turned this desire into some-
But I don't understand how it can be real sound.
Dr. Madison says that's impossible.
It's the difference...
between... seeing you, your face, in the light of day...
and imagining it in the dark.
We'll see what happens. Doctors have been wrong before.
And if you're hearing, who cares what they say?
- What is it? - Baby's crying.
She is?
Help.
Let her sleep. She wasn't crying. Let her sleep.
Come on. Back to bed. Let's go. Come on.
You okay?
You want me to sit up with you?
Good night.
Dr. Sanderson-
Nice to see you again.
Did I say something wrong?
I'm just learning to sign...
because of Dr. Madison.
Because I work here. I hope I didn't offend you.
I'm sorry. It's just that that looks like binary to me.
I thought you might be a computer programmer.
Binary.
It's a machine language.
- This? - Yes.
I don't know what the X's are.
But the rest looks like binary to me.
Because-
Well, I used to work with computers.
Binary's not a language you can read.
I'd have to input it into my computer at home and see what comes out.
Please pick up the courtesy phone.
Patient Bruce Gannon, pick up the courtesy phone.
This could take a long time.
Sure. I guess I could. Okay.
What happened? The principal phoned me.
Dr. Goldman to Radiology.
- Do you mind? - No. No, of course not.
Thanks.
Okay?
Come on.
These voices, Jennifer, are they asking you to do anything you don't want to do?
Good. What do they want from you then?
You know, she said it's a sound that she can actually hear in her head.
When I'm awake, I hear voices I don't understand.
I can write them down, what they're saying, but I don't know the meaning.
I sense that they want help. My help.
Do you hear these voices now?
Here.
You've not seen this before, Sam?
No, this is new.
What does this mean, Jennifer? I don't understand it.
How is this telling you that the voices need help?
What is she saying?
She says she's met a man who understands this stuff, is gonna translate it for her.
Good, good. Then we'll know.
Does it hurt you to hear them?
It hurts if I don't hear them, if I block it out and I don't write it down.
They want to be heard, these voices.
Oh, my-
I think it's fairly likely thatJennifer's had a first-break psychotic episode.
She thought the cochlea implant she had put in last year...
started to work for some reason.
Dr. Madison ruled that out, but this?
It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'd like to start her on a mild antipsychotic.
- A drug I've had a lot of success with. - Oh, God.
I know you think this couldn't possibly just happen to your wife...
but believe me, voices, writing gibberish...
even the man who will apparently give her the answers...
they're all characteristic of a first-break schizophrenic episode.
I got a six-month-old daughter at home...
and it's not like she doesn't already have a disability.
Don't worry. As soon as you get home and Jennifer's on the medication...
everything will get back to normal.
- Sleepwalking? - No.
The voices have stopped? Just like that?
That's fantastic.
- That's a relief. - Yeah.
What?
Ally's crying.
- My turn. - I want to.
Oh, my.
Dr. Colt to Radiology.
- Hi. - Hi.
I was hoping I'd find you here.
I didn't know how to get in touch with you.
You asked me to run this through my computer?
I don't know yet. It's nowhere near complete.
But I do know this- It's a message.
- Follow me. - Sure.
Where are we going?
Why are we in here?
We have to keep it a secret from them.
Why can't they know? Why do we have to hide?
Because they think I'm crazy.
No, no, no, you are not crazy.
Believe me, believe me, this is-
this is the best thing that could happen to anyone.
All my life, I've dreamed of something like this happening to me.
You could be receiving a message from another world.
Tell me.
The message so far is trying to...
teach us how to read the rest of the message.
And who would that be, except some alien from another planet.
I want more. Do you have more?
It stopped.
If it starts again, just use this.
This, you can type the binary right onto here.
And then I can transfer it into my computer with this.
It holds pages and pages.
I used to work at NASA.
Government cutbacks, you know.
Hello?
- Just a minute. - What are you doing in there?
I'm cleaning. Try one floor down, please.
I'm gonna get fired.
- Jennifer. - Robert.
Shake it. There you go. Yeah.
It's nice, huh?
Huh? Look it, here's Mommy.
Hello, Mommy. Hi.
It's time for you to go to sleep now. Yes, it is.
Time for a little nap.
Daddy's gonna talk to Mommy. There you go. It's okay.
What'd they say?
Leiberman gave you a prescription, huh?
He said he might.
- He must think it's the right thing. - Yeah.
You feel better? You look better.
Yeah.
Okay, maybe I can get a couple of hours of work in, and then come back for supper?
- Okay. - Yeah.
- You sure? I don't wanna push. - Yeah.
Okay. Ally's been fed. She's been changed.
- Good. - We watched two soaps and a game show.
I want you to know that I want you to be okay.
- Good. - Whatever that means, whatever it takes.
All right?
What are you doing?
I thought you were with Ally.
What's that?
Where'd you get it?
- I borrowed it. - Let me see it.
Why not?
Are the voices coming back?
Because if they are, then we need to tell Dr. Leiberman to increase the dosage.
You know I have to go to Chicago for a couple of days. I will cancel.
What's this for?
Believe in me.
Let's go to bed.
You have to see this.
I think I found something.
It's-Well, I need a lot of room to spread it out. A lot.
Sure. As long as it's not the bathroom.
That's everything so far.
Can you find Waldo?
Exactly.
They want us to know what they look like.
It's more than a drawing.
It's a set of instructions.
So, this is the compressor for the gas laser. Okay.
The last time I tried to follow instructions this complicated...
I was a kid and it was Christmas morning.
Hi.
- Where's Ally? - With Mrs. Henderson.
Sorry about all the mess, but we had to work here so she could be near the baby.
You're the one. You're the damn janitor!
He's the janitor!
I don't know what you hope to get out of this.
I don't know what you want, butJennifer is very ill right now, so if you'll just-
No, she's not. And I can prove it.
I'm listening.
You knew about the binary, right?
The zeros and the ones, that's binary code.
All you have to do is look it up yourself and you'll see.
Jennifer wrote all this down, not me.
All I did was run it through my computer, and then it printed itself out.
She was writing X's too, and at first I didn't know what to make of them.
But then I realized when I put it all together, they were a palimpsest.
A what?
A message inside a message. Look.
The man and the woman are a perfect image...
of what we sent out on Pioneer 10.
We sent out this image of us, and they sent it back with an image of them.
Pioneer is not supposed to be anywhere near another advanced civilization yet.
It was launched in the '70s, but it has left the solar system.
And if it passed through a wormhole or a quantum singularity, then who knows?
Whoa! Stop!
Wormhole.
Why doesn't NASA see this?
Huh? Why doesn't the government do something?
- J PL and NASA deny knowing anything. - Of course.
I know some people from when I worked there. We called, but I could get nowhere.
It's a cover-up, orJennifer's implant makes her the only one who can hear it.
Jennifer's implant. Of course.
It's an electronic receiver, isn't it?
Isn't it possible that she could be picking up the alien signal?
Absolutely. Alien signals.
$900 on my credit card?
That's a capacitor. Some of the parts we can find.
Other times, we have to try to make them from the instructions they give us.
Look, Mr. Winter, the aliens want us to build a laser.
- Get out. - Maybe I'm just not explaining it right.
Get out of my house!
Get out! Go on! You're putting this stuff in her head. You're making it up.
Look, I know it sounds preposterous, but I'm an astrophysicist.
- You just have to believe me. - I don't have to do a damn thing.
The reason I'm angry is because you lied to me.
You, you lied, Wouldn't believe me! You!
Jennifer, don't. Don't.
I'll give you a hand, okay?
- Now, are you sure about this? - Yes. Yes.
All right.
It's getting more painful, isn't it?
I know why. They're getting closer.
The earth revolves on its own axis...
every 24 hours, right?
So, every 12 hours...
the horizon comes around...
and their signal crosses the terminator again.
They're 12 hours closer, exactly.
Sure. I've got a large economy size bottle of aspirin...
above the sink in the kitchen.
I'll get it.
Okay.
If I don't take those every day...
I'll start to hear voices too.
I did work for NASA... for a while.
Until I had my first... psychotic episode.
I'm not making this up, Jennifer.
I swear.
Before I got on medication to help control it...
it got pretty bad.
I spent a year on the street after I got fired.
I spent some time in jail.
I'm only telling this because...
I want you to know I'm better now.
But that's why I could only ever get a job...
working as a janitor in the hospital.
Nobody wants to hire... somebody who's been schizophrenic.
But my voices were never real.
Yours are.
But if you wanna leave-
Get back to work?
Okay, I'm working. I'm working.
Where the hell has she been for the last two days if not at her mother's?
- Where do you think she is? - I have no idea.
Without her medication, I'm afraid she might hurt herself. Yeah.
- You're that worried? - I am that worried about her.
- Help me find her. - We'll do what we can.
Come here. Come here.
Come here. Look.
It's a light sail.
It must be a thousand miles in diameter.
It's so big, we'll be able to see it.
What is a light sail?
It's never been done.
They've been theorizing about it for years.
You make a sail with a large enough reflective surface...
that a light source, a star...
a ground-based laser...
can send it to another star.
The only trouble is they're headed off course.
Maybe the sail is malfunctioning or something.
But they are headed right into the sun with no brakes.
That's what lasers are for. They want us to save them.
Our laser might be able to deflect them around the sun.
But it's obviously...
not intended to stop them.
They'll just head back out into the universe.
We will never get to meet them.
You're right, at least they'll be saved.
Will it work right?
That's what it says in the instructions. I hope it works.
It will. It will. It will.
- How's your head? - It still hurts.
Oh, my God. I almost forgot. I need a camera.
- I got a few minutes. I'll be right back. - Hurry.
Okay, buddy, I know about you. I don't want any trouble.
- I just wanna find Jennifer. - Please, I don't have time for this.
- I have to get back. - Where is she?
- Just leave me alone. - Don't give me any bull.
I know she's been here. I know she's been seeing you. I wanna know where she is.
- What have you done with her? - There's nothing going on.
I know she's here. Just tell me where she is. You lunatic!
- What have you done with her? Tell me! - I don't have time.
Where's my wife? What have you done with her?
- She's on the roof, I swear! - Oh, no.
Jennifer, please!
Jennifer, he's insane.
I'm not here to hurt you, sweetheart. I just wanna take you home.
- They're coming! - I talked to the hospital administrator.
He's crazy. He's schizophrenic. He's got a record.
- He's been feeding you nothing but lies. - Jennifer, it's now or never.
I said stay away from us.
Jennifer, go!
Jennifer, if you love me-
- Don't, please! - There's no more time. Go!
Wow. Neat.
Beautiful.
They're here.
Oh, my God.
- We saved them! - We did? The laser worked?
We saved them.
And now they're gone.
There is no sound, no voice, no cry in all the world...
that can be heard until someone listens.