Where are we?
Beta zone, X-quarter.
There's a pack of food raiders on our tail, sir.
My hands are numb.
Concentrate, sir, they're closing in.
Okay, give me scan six zero Charlie.
They're coming head on, fire the tracers.
Okay, switch this baby around.
Let's shake 'em up a little.
Pleasure at five o'clock.
What's your tail, Sam?
Here we go.
Steady.
Now!
What's with the lights?
It could be a central power leak.
Don't start on me, Sam, give me a hand.
It would leave us defenseless,
without the force field.
We haven't lost it.
I'll tie in the auxiliary power.
Got any wire?
I made of it.
Give me some.
How long was I under?
That car-set is older than you are.
Hope he turned out better than me.
You've done it, sir.
Higher, higher.
Good job, power is now surged.
Give me full throttle on the front vector
and check the force field.
Full throttle, sir.
Oh, Lord! Sam that's the mothership!
Force field, sir.
Lost it.
Way Alpha 65.
Way Alpha 60.
Way Alpha 52, 51.
Ignite the fusion bolts.
Five seconds to fusion reaction.
Fire!
Well done, sir.
Sir, we've received new orders while you were under.
It's bad news, sir, we're being diverted.
To where?
Xarbia.
Xarbia?
Where's that?
A planet.
They've had an accident
in a high-security lab there.
The federation requested you especially.
Very funny.
It's an order, sir.
All our leave time has been canceled.
They said you'd understand.
They said I was going home.
Maybe next year, sir.
Prepare for hyperspace.
Hyperspace?
Yes, sir.
Xarbia, sir.
Prepare for docking.
Searcher seven to xarbia five, come in, please.
Roger, searcher seven, we see you, hold your course.
Roger, xarbia, holding steady.
Where do you want us?
Enter code 65 cipher two pop up.
We'll strobe you in.
Gordon hauser, head of research.
Mike Colby.
Of course.
This is my assistant, Dr. glaser.
Barbara knows more about genetic synthesis
than anyone else alive.
Genetic synthesis.
Sounds like fun.
I've heard good things about you, commander Colby.
Mike.
It's good to be here in your pleasant custody.
Commander and I...
Let's get started.
Good, follow me,
I'll show you around.
This is an a-priority, high-security research facility.
Actually it's a scientist's dream,
we have the best of everything here.
Except real estate.
Well, they put us here for two reasons.
One, because we're working on a bacteria
that's unique this planet.
And two, because we can take experimental risks
here in isolation that would be unthinkable back home.
What kind of research do you do here?
Genetic engineering, bacteriological, mostly.
Our objective is to create an extremely productive,
entirely new food source,
and I would say that we've done that, too.
Uh huh, tell me about the accident.
Sorry.
Tracy, would you go find Jimmy, please,
and have him come to the lab?
Sure.
Sorry.
It's okay.
You're a new face around here.
We don't often get new faces.
That's the truth.
In here.
Okay, close your eyes.
You can get a nice tan in here on your day off.
Takes about 20 seconds.
What is this?
Microwave?
It kills every living thing on your body.
Keep it clean, that's the rule.
Nothing messy goes in, nothing messy comes out.
Isn't there a cancer risk?
Life here is full of risks.
Watch your step.
Welcome to the garden of Eden, we play god here.
We create life, the only trouble is,
some of the life we create just won't behave.
Mike Colby, Cal timbergen, chief of bacteriology.
He's a true genius.
One of the few.
Nice to meet you.
Thought we leave the mess until you got here.
Heard you liked messes.
Any sign of isolatory psychosis among the staff?
Not on our staff.
Wasn't staff, Colby, something got loose.
What got loose?
- Subject 20. - An experiment?
We created a little monster, I'm afraid.
Nothing to get excited about.
See for yourself.
It's in here.
Meet subject 20.
Who put it in the Incubator?
It put itself in the Incubator.
What is it?
It's a metamorph.
- A what? - It's a metamorphic mutation.
It's like an ordinary mutant,
in that it's genetically different from its parent.
A metamorph goes it one better.
It keeps right on changing its genetic structure,
mutating again and again,
even as it grows and matures.
It's a genetic wildcat, it's totally unpredictable.
Best to keep that closed.
What is the gooey stuff?
It's a cocoon, interesting, huh?
Is it changing form in there, like a caterpillar?
It's changing into something, all right, god knows what.
Don't expect a butterfly.
This little thing did all that damage?
That little thing has a lot of energy.
Its metabolic rate is 50 times
that of any other known organism.
And we should get rid of it?
If we drop a few cc's of hydrocyanic acid in there,
we have a belly-up metamorph and I can go home.
I don't think you understand, Colby.
I understand perfectly, doctor.
You're workin' outside of your charter.
Scientific research often takes us
into uncharted territory.
I'm not talkin' about territory, doctor.
I'm talkin' about strange little creatures that kill.
I've got a motto, it moves and it's not one of us,
shoot it. - Brilliant.
Just what we need. I'm not joking, doctor.
I know when to play the game and I know when to bail out.
That thing is trouble, I can smell it.
Termination is not a solution.
He's right, commander, give us a chance to fill you in.
Wait one night.
How come you're so much more convincing than he is?
T have such beautiful ideas.
Shall we discuss it over dinner?
Hungry?
I'm gettin' that way.
Jimmy. You can clean it up now.
Okay, no problem.
Tracy. Why don't you join us? Sure.
If the little terror does anything funny, give me a call.
Okay.
Security.
Earl, this is Jim in the lab, hauser there yet?
Not yet.
When he gets there,
would you tell him to me give me a call?
Tell him his baby's wakin' up.
Okay.
Genetics.
James, this is hauser.
Doc, this thing's moving around, it's acting strange.
Kind of pulsating, like it's breathing hard?
Yeah.
Well that's perfectly normal.
Don't let it worry you.
One of us'll come right down.
Okay.
Thanks, doc.
Right.
Tracy, run down to genetics, make sure everything's okay.
Sure.
If it's anything interesting, let me know.
Hate to miss it.
Where's the whipped cream?
What?
Strawberry shortcake always comes with whipped cream.
This is strawberry shortcake?
I thought it was one of Cal's genetic disasters.
Mm mm.
Come on, Barb, I can't eat this crap without whipped cream.
Do you want to whip up some
of the pol-ee-goo guys' dairy base?
It looks like whipped cream, sort of.
Actually it looks like pureed puke,
if you wanna know the truth.
The galactic food crisis strikes again.
Suffer.
What does subject 20 have to do
with their work on the food crisis?
It's a genetic mutant.
A Proto B binding like all the other experiments,
except this one got a little out of hand.
A little.
Well, what's Proto B?
You know anything about genetics?
Doctor, I wouldn't know it gene from a jelly bean.
No, I'm just a soldier of fortune.
Proto B is a local bacteria.
Protos barila bacterium.
We call it Proto B for short.
Earl, punch up the file seven zero six three.
Proto B gets its energy from light, available chemicals
and most efficiently by consuming its own dead.
It lives in a perfectly balanced, closed system.
No predators and no prey.
Until we got here.
Proto B reproduces at an unbelievable rate.
It's simple, the way it multiplies.
You splice it to another organism,
there's just no stopping it.
We spliced it to an algae and got a foodstuff
that grows so fast,
I swear you couldn't kill it if you tried.
All of our work here involves splicing Proto B genes
with the genes of other organisms.
So actually subject 20 started out just like all the others.
Then subject 20 is the result of a genetic splicing
between a Proto B bacteria and another organism?
Exactly.
What is the other organism?
Well, is it animal or vegetable?
Well, come on, was it an animal?
- Yes. - No!
Yes.
Do I hear a maybe?
Ask Gordon what happened to Annie.
Barbara, for god's sake.
- Who's Annie? - Ask him.
Barbara, I'm warning you!
Tell me about Annie.
This is not the time or place
to be discussing this.
= what difference does it make?
= Annie used to work with me.
She was my... - Shut up, shut up,
damn you, shut up, shut up.
She did what?
I'll explain all this to you when the time is right.
She what?
She died.
You can call it that.
What would you call it?
She died.
That's all.
What in the hell is going on around here?
Now I suppose you'll
think we're up to something evil.
Is that it, commander?
Evil?
Hell no.
I think you're crazy.
T think this is a nut house.
What is it?
Transit.
Oh, lord.
Come on, let's get out of here.
The metamorph, where is it?
I don't know.
Well find the damn thing!
Hang on, he's still alive.
Impossible.
Give me a hand.
I wanna get him up where we can see him.
He can't be alive, Cal,
look at him, for god's sakes.
All right, here's what's gonna happen.
Should have killed it when we had the chance.
Fine, there's too much at stake here.
Tell that to Jimmy.
You go find it!
And keep looking.
Don't worry, sir, I'll find it.
I'll find that half-breed bastard.
No cerebrum, traumatized collateral sulcus.
Brain death, there's no doubt about it.
But there's life in the cerebellum.
The heart's still pumping, the body tissue is viable.
He is alive, technically anyhow.
What if it's not in here?
It's gotta be in here.
This is a sterile chamber, if a germ can't get out,
there's no way that thing can get out.
I can't do anything with him here.
I'm gonna take him down in the bedroom.
Won't get away from me, will you, my genetic cesspool?
This is it, you goddamn ding-wopper.
Be careful.
Let me know if you find the rest of him, will you?
I'm beginning to think it's not in here.
Don't be a fool, Brian, how could it get out?
Maybe it did get away.
Keep looking.
Maybe it's invisible.
Have you seen my kit, I can't find it anywhere.
We gotta tell Colby about Annie.
I can't deal with it anymore.
No, let Gordon do it.
He knows what he's doing.
T think he's in over his head.
And I think you should get some sleep.
Need any help?
I'll let you know, not yet.
Why don't you turn in?
You heed to blank it all out for a while.
Yeah.
Okay.
Tracy?
I'm sorry about Jimmy.
It's okay.
Goodnight.
If it doesn't show up by tomorrow,
we're gonna have to dismantle the lab
piece by piece, you know that's gonna be a nightmare,
a damn nightmare!
Good night, Gordon.
What's good about it?
Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.
I put you in number two.
Hey, thanks.
Stay alert tonight, Earl.
Don't worry, I know my job.
Sam, you all right?
All right, sir.
I hear you're the best troubleshooter in the federation.
Yeah, I heard that too.
Want to see some trouble?
No, sir I put you in number two.
Shit.
Jah j
Hey, who is that, Baxter?
Goddammit, this is my goddamn steam bath.
I'm sorry.
Get out!
Baxter, you're beautiful.
Oh, boy.
I just came down to see who's here.
Well now you know, so get out.
The mornings belong to me in this loony bin
and I plan on keeping it that way.
You shouldn't be wandering around
with that thing on the loose.
I thought it was locked up in the lab.
We don't know where it is.
And you came to warn me?
Whoever.
Thanks.
You know something?
You look like you could use a steam bath.
Well, as a matter of fact, I had a hard night,
So fair's fair.
Get naked.
We don't get many new faces around here.
That's one thing I like about my job,
I'm always the new face.
Oh, Mike.
And there's some things I don't like about my job.
Like what?
Well like this, for example.
This happened in pytor.
Sam and I ran across a caravan of nomadic den-dars,
you know, from titan.
Anyway it all started when Sam and 1
rather tactlessly accused a den-dar commander
of being a maggoty, fat-ass
grease-lickin', dung bunny.
That was close.
I oughta retire. Oh, no you don't.
You're staying right here with me.
What is that thing?
What-oh-bee-in-what.
You all right? What happened?
- Your metamorph attacked us. - Where is it?
- Inside. - You didn't kill it, did you?
Hell no, listen.
It's growing, it's getting bigger by the minute.
What is that thing, hauser, Proto B and what?
You stick with your charter Colby.
Just figure out a way to trap it.
You figure it out, I'm not goin' back in there.
Hey, easy, easy, you wanna know what I wanna know?
I'd like to know what you and Tracy were doing
in there dressed like that.
Explaining your scars, no doubt.
- It's venting steam. - That's impossible.
- The skylight. - It's busting out.
You still think we're running around,
trying to cover up some embarrassing mistake?
Just do your job.
You wanna help?
Of course.
You and Brian and I
would go outside and we'll track it.
Brian, get to Sam-104 and bring it
to the decompression chamber, we can use it.
Tracy, go to the control room and track us
on the outside scanner.
Barbara, go find Cal and go to work on Jimmy.
Learn everything you can about a metamorph
and what makes it tick.
Okay, now where's Earl?
Probably Manning his monitors,
looking for the ding-wopper.
The what?
Ding-wopper.
That's what he calls it.
Well, okay, let's get going.
I sure hope you know what you're doing.
I don't have the slightest idea, I go on hunches.
Let's go bag ourselves a ding-wopper.
It changes itself, it changes us.
What do you think, Barbara?
Hey, good luck, you guys.
Don't worry we'll give all the dirty work
to the Sam-104 here.
They switch you off when life is good,
and switch you back on when they're up to their noses
in life's bitter droppings.
Right you are, tin man.
We found that as long as we make a gradual decompression,
we can stay outside for up to an hour or so
without too much difficulty.
After that, it gets kind of risky.
- Nitrogen narcosis. - Similar to it, yes.
Nitrogen in the blood gets all foamy,
forms a lot of little tiny bubbles.
The effect is quite dramatic, an instant high
leading to euphoria.
The trouble is, you like it so much,
you forget to come back in.
We almost lost Earl once about a mile from here.
Found him naked, eating the sand.
He thought it was sugar.
Here it comes.
This is the analysis of the gelatinous tissue.
This should tell me what it's made of.
Look at this, this is extraordinary.
Barbara, look at this.
= Cal.
Cal, what's it doing?
Dividing,
Reproducing.
Don't you see?
This is all beginning to make sense.
Barbara, this stuff is almost pure protein.
What we're seeing is a breakdown of a complex,
sophisticated creature, a human being,
into a simple elementary organism
whose sole function is to grow and reproduce.
That's why he kept him alive.
Yes.
Jimmy's tissue has been going
through a radical metamorphosis.
Like every human being, he's made up
of millions of specialized cells,
cells with a unique function.
A cell from an eye is very different
from a cell from a toe, right?
Of course.
But ever since his attack,
all his specialized cells have been changing.
Until all the differences have been erased,
until every cell is identical, until there is no difference
between his eye and his toe.
Until we have that.
But why?
Ask the metamorph.
Ask that pathetic, unformed malignant issue
of our own stupidity.
Ask it why.
Oh, goddamn!
You better come over here, I think I...
Oh my god, it's Earl!
There it is.
We got company, let's go.
They found Earl, he's dead.
And we sighted the mutant, he's made another cocoon.
Listen, Colby?
We've got to find a way to take him alive.
Not this time, doctor, this time we kill him.
No!
Brian, ready your lasers!
Sam, we need you in position.
For god's sake, this thing is full of secrets!
We can't let it die!
I'm not gonna let it die, doctor.
I'm gonna kill it.
No!
Listen, listen, please, please, try my way first.
Stand back, doctor. Is everybody ready?
Ready.
Go to it, Sam.
Wait!
Stop!
That's my life.
It's everything I've ever worked for.
If you kill that, we learn nothing.
Can't you see that?
Stop, stop!
This is madness.
It's empty, there's nothin' in the damn thing.
Where's hauser?
Gone.
He's heading to the research center.
Hurry, Mike, hurry!
It's changing again.
Don't move!
Back off slowly.
This is for keeps, Gordon, do what I say, you hear me?
Dammit, get outta there!
Lucky for us you're so good at killin' these things.
Whatever you think of Gordon,
he took a stand.
Yeah, but in the wrong place.
Baxter, did you see that?
T saw it.
I want you locate that vent in the files
and tell us where it comes out.
Punch up v-1-6-2-0-7,
that'll get you the schematics.
Brian, this is for the whole complex.
Drag it, this is vent number 1-5-4-4-8.
T don't see it.
There isn't a vent 1-5-4-4-8, wait a minute,
there's about a million vents on this thing.
Can you give us the route?
Wait, will you,
it's all in numbers.
There it is, your destination is h-q-r-5-1-w.
Oh, baby, that's the control room!
Tracy.
It's in there!
Let's get outta here.
Are you all right?
We lost you on the telecom.
We thought all hell had broken loose.
Mike, look at this.
They're computers, damn.
Looks like the trance scammed the calm cam,
the 790, and the may day box.
Man, this is bad news.
This creature's intelligent.
How do you figure that?
Simple, it destroyed all our contact
with the outside world, our launchpad control,
and yet he left us
air to breathe, food to eat
and a temperature we can live in.
Why?
He wants to keep us alive.
He wants to use us for some reason.
If it is intelligent, have you thought about
trying to communicate with it?
That's about the stupidest damn idea I've heard all day.
No offense, Barb.
Sorry I asked.
It's in the med room.
What's it doing?
Hang on.
Food.
It's reducing us to a simple protein.
It wants to use us as food.
Why doesn't it just eat us and get it over with?
It's working on a permanent food supply.
It's planting a garden and we're the seeds.
It's using human tissue, our tissue?
Yes, it injects human tissue
with Proto B in its saliva.
Proto B goes to work, invading every cell,
altering the genetic structure,
reconstructing the body to suit its needs.
You mean it's genetically altering us?
Yes, in order to establish a simple, stable,
inexhaustible food supply.
How horrible.
How ironic,
if you consider why we came here in the first place.
Help me!
Get him off quick!
Get him off!
It's just as I described.
It happened again, the same damn thing.
You see, you see, what this stuff does?
It's metamorphosis.
It's turned him into a piece of protein and nothing,
food for germs.
Do you know why that creature does this?
Instinct.
Proto B is the result millions of years of evolution.
We have no way of knowing
what's hidden in its genetic coding.
The metamorph is only half Proto B.
What's the other half?
Tell him, Cal, please.
A metamorph
is a genetic fusion
of a Proto B cell
and a human being.
You've heard us talk about it in the past.
Well, we knew we could create the cell,
but not the womb to grow it in.
Annie volunteered.
She knew all dangers.
It was an implant.
Exactly, we spliced the genetic structure of Proto B
to the genes of a human cell.
Whose?
It was Gordon's, this whole experiment was his idea.
In the lab,
we used Gordon's altered cell to fertilize the egg.
From Annie.
Mitosis began,
we surgically re-implanted the egg into Annie's uterus.
She was to carry it to term.
Except the term turned out to be two weeks.
And it killed her.
It was his most daring experiment.
Rather too daring I should think.
Tracy it's as if they're not listening to Cal.
He's telling them the thing's intelligent,
and they go right on insisting the only way to deal with it
is to blow it up or something.
What else can we do?
I think we should try to communicate with it.
I know it's far-fetched, but it might work
and we don't have that many options.
Come on, that's crazy, Barbara.
Listen, the point is if we go on attacking it,
it's gonna go on attacking us.
It's called cognitive retribution,
and the only way to stop it is to break the cycle.
Maybe it's already got what it wants.
Maybe all we have to do is to walk out of here.
Look what happened to Dr. hauser.
No, it's too risky.
But I'm sure we could break the cycle
if we tried to communicate with it.
Intelligent beings can communicate, you don't need language.
Look at any foreigner away from home,
or a mother and her baby.
It's not the same.
But if it is as intelligent as Cal says,
there's at least a chance it might work.
If there is a chance then we have to try.
= I'll have to tell the others.
No, you saw how they reacted.
We'll have to do this ourselves.
Blast it! Crush it!
What else?
Poison it, electrocute it.
Microwave it.
Gun it.
Acid.
Acid, what else?
Fellas, we have got to be more creative than this.
I'm telling you, this thing is smart.
Are you okay?
You sure you wanna go through with this?
Okay.
= wish me luck.
We have no weapons
and we mean no harm.
Can you understand me?
Either my words or my thoughts?
Is it possible you understand but can't answer me?
If you do understand me,
please give me some sign or some gesture.
That's it, Barbara.
It could have been accidental,
or it could mean it's keyed into the computers.
My god, if it's keyed into the computers, we've got it made.
Affirmative!
It said affirmative.
Barb?
What?
It's got Barbara.
Where?
In the control room.
Let's go.
Sam, I need some information.
If I'm right about the metabolic rate,
it should all be over very quickly.
How long have you had cancer?
How did you know?
I've seen it before, sir, many times.
Then you've seen too much.
Let's see how my wildly mutating little cells
get along with yours.
Got ya.
Son of a bitch.
Wait!
We can't, it's all over the life support system.
We blast it, we blast ourselves.
Okay, we're gonna have to wire for outside help.
Can you get to the may day box?
I'll do whatever I can, cover me.
Tracy, you stay outta here.
Watch the cocoon.
I don't like this,
the cocoon's all over the transmitter.
If that thing starts to hatch, you get me out of here.
Don't worry about that.
Cal, what are you doing?
I'm getting rid of its food supply.
I'm gonna take care of this thing once and for all.
I can kill him, Mike, I know how.
Mutable metastasis, delicate. A quick, ugly finish.
You think the craziest damn things are elegant.
You know that?
Brian, Cal has a solution, get outta there.
Damn, wait a sec, something just shorted.
Hold on, lemme fix it.
Brian, get outta there.
Don't worry.
Brian!
Let's go.
I'm gonna kill it, Mike.
But he's got to kill me first.
Cal, what are you doing, get outta there!
Call
call
- Gotta go back. - No way.
Hold on, Cal, we're gonna get you outta here.
The genetics lab, that's the safest place.
No, no please!
Tracy, get me my morphine.
It's in my room. - Do it, Tracy.
Hang on, Cal.
What the hell were you trying to do?
I have cancer Mike, and my cancer could kill the mutant.
I thought if I could trick it,
if I could get it to swallow any of my malignancy,
my cancerous tissue, that would be it.
There's one chance left.
I have a large metastatic growth, a tumor,
here on my zipper.
I want you to cut the tumor out and...
Cal, I'm not a surgeon...
And feed it to the mutant.
I can't do that.
I'm dying, Mike, the cancer will get me in any event.
Cal, I don't know how to do that.
I'll teach you.
Where is she, where's the morphine?
She'll be here.
We can't wait.
Start now,
cut here.
Cut shallow at first, then work your way deeper.
Work as fast as you can.
Cal, we can't do it without the morphine.
What if you pass out, how will I know what to do?
If I pass out, just go right for the tumor.
= Cal.
Cut, damn it.
God help me.
Help, somebody, help me!
Here?
Higher.
Don't touch the celiac axis.
Do you feel it?
Oh man, I can feel it.
Mikel
it's right behind us!
Give him the morphine.
We did it, Cal, we got it.
Cal?
Sam!