Alien vs. Hunter Page #6

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in a volcanic environment.

Looks like a big old clam.

A giant mollusk that ate Antarctica.

- It's not a mollusk.

- What is it?

Don't touch it.

You all right?

You okay?

It's got some sort of electrical charge to it.

I'd say it's igneous rock

formed by some sort of eruption.

My guess is rhyolite, or basalt.

It didn't come from Earth,

it came from space.

It's a meteorite.

Meteorites don't broadcast radio signals.

The signal's harmonics

are exactly like aircraft retrieval data.

It's a black box.

First I thought it was a location bounce...

for celestial navigation,

but it's a little simplistic.

Then Grisham mentioned it seemed

like a beacon, and that's when it hit me.

This came here by mistake,

and the signal's meant for whoever lost it.

- Aliens.

- This is nuts.

Maybe not, Michael. It all makes sense.

There's something else.

The primary signal is a cryptographic key...

that unlocks the message

buried in the harmonic.

So I compared the cipher text

against itself...

and the coincidences between

the character strings. A deviation arises...

from strings of intervals divisible by five,

bit repeats at shifts of 70 and 125.

- What the hell are you talking about?

- I'm talking about this.

What?

That? That's a message?

It's part of a message.

This is the great pearl of galactic wisdom...

that we've all been waiting for.

I've been waiting for.

Could there be more to the message

that's not being deciphered?

There could be several cryptographic keys.

Shift intervals can change, strings vary.

Endless possibilities.

But it could still be uniquely random.

- I just don't think so.

- Yes, but it's a possibility.

- Anything's possible.

- I think Julian's right.

- It looks extraterrestrial.

- You're all talking nonsense.

No offense, Nyla.

You wouldn't know an ETI

if it walked up to you and bit you.

Neither would you. So why are you

so goddamn sure that it's not?

Alexie, what do you think?

I agree with Julian.

Anything is possible.

Everybody, I think you better come back

down to the maintenance bay.

There appears to be a crease

in this thing's surface.

Can we open it?

If you can discharge it, I can pry it open.

I can rig up something

to ground the charge.

Maybe that's not a good idea.

It's a way to find out if you're right.

I'm not so sure it's a good idea, either.

There may be pathogenic organisms inside.

- An infection could wipe out all our work.

- The labs are sealed environments.

I say first thing tomorrow morning

we pop this thing open.

If Julian's right, we go down in history.

If I'm right, we eat linguini for a week.

Okay, bring him in.

Welcome, Dr. Bachman. Please, have a seat.

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