(deep engine humming)
(small engine whirring)
(distant coughing)
(coughing continues)
(gasps)
Mom? Are you too sick to come to the party?
I'm fine.
You know, it's just my body readjusting, that's all.
I'll be right there, okay?
(exhales)
WOMAN: Still no answers as to what caused yesterday's blackout,
leaving nearly 60,000 homes in the district without power.
- (brushing teeth) - (newscast continues indistinctly)
- (pop music playing) - I can't imagine.
I'm away from Bill and the kids for two days, and it's like...
It's tough.
Oh, yeah. So what's your secret?
A lot of V-Chrons.
And no alcohol?
Nope. I have not had a drink in 13 months.
- What? - Can't risk getting a DUI in space.
I can't wait to hear all about it.
You know what, that's the saddest story I've
ever heard. We have to remedy that right now.
- Uh, we can't. - No can'ts, we're doing shots.
Mm-hmm, well, ask the doctor here.
- Not until her tests come back. - One shot.
Listen, when her tests come back,
I will personally write her
a prescription for margaritas.
- Thank you. - (kids shouting)
CHILD: Ethan, get off him!
Stop.
You're gonna hurt him.
Ethan.
Hey. What are you doing?
He wouldn't give me the ball.
And your solution was to push him down?
Ethan, what do you say?
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
If you do this again, no more party for you. Understand?
So sorry, guys.
Yeah. All right, it's fine.
- You okay? - That's okay.
Let's go play.
You've got to be exhausted, go on up.
- (machine clanking) - I can take out the trash.
Moll.
Got to get back to the routine, right?
(wind chime jingling)
(dog barking in distance)
(gate creaks closed)
(clang, hissing)
(metallic creaking)
I was angry.
Is that what you're supposed to do when you get angry?
Hurt someone?
No.
How do you think you would have felt if you'd really hurt Jake?
Bad.
Well, I sure hope so.
Mom's mad at me.
No, no. She's not mad.
But it's different now. With her.
Your mom has to get used to being back home again.
She was up there a long time.
All by herself.
It's gonna take a while for everything to feel normal again,
but it will. I promise.
Okay.
Get a good night's sleep.
We have a big day tomorrow.
I think I need a flip.
Let me see.
Well, yeah.
You're right.
All set.
I love you.
Will you leave my night-light on?
Sure.
(fire crackling)
What brought this on?
I had a dream.
Do you dream about Marcus much?
Less and less as I get older.
I still think about him. Every now and then.
What do you think about?
How if he were still alive, there would be no us.
No Ethan.
Without Marcus dying,
we may have never even met.
Maybe you'd still be with him.
Well, you know what?
I think we always end up
where we're supposed to.
- (soft chime) - FEMALE VOICE: Approaching Yasumoto Corp.
Hey.
Listen to me.
When I talk about you today...
Hey.
When I talk about you today,
I'm gonna talk a bit about how you were originally created
for the program, but it doesn't mean
I don't see you as real.
- Okay? - I'm not.
Well... Yes, you are.
You exist, just like me.
- Just like your mom. Okay? - (whistles)
Jubes!
Rabbit!
Oh.
(both imitate an explosion)
Look at you.
He's been practicing.
(sighs) You nervous?
Uh... (scoffs) Walk in the park.
Exactly.
I don't even know
where to begin.
You were on the Seraphim Station
for 13 months.
A solo mission.
Yes.
You were alone the whole time?
Well, that's why they call it a solo mission.
(soft laugh)
Well... (sighs)
Then I... I honestly d... I don't understand this.
Understand what?
I know there weren't any other
ISEA missions in that quadrant.
Molly,
was there an emergency
that I didn't hear about,
an international crew that docked?
No.
Why?
You're pregnant.
What?
You're pregnant.
But... But...
that's not possible.
(exhales)
(hissing)
Damn it.
MALE VOICE: Five dollars for the swear jar.
Put it on my tab.
Of course.
Let's run the probe's data deck
and check for problems with the samples.
Maybe I contaminated 'em somehow before they left.
I find that unlikely.
Aren't you sweet.
I have my moments.
Molly.
Go ahead.
You have an incoming V-Chron.
Bay 1, please.
Sending Bay 1.
The camera's on.
Say hello.
Hello.
MAN: You want to tell her?
Go ahead.
I got accepted into school.
I had my last meeting with the principal this morning.
We're gonna wait for you to get back for the orie...
Ben?
I'm detecting interference from a solar flare.
Shall I attempt to restart after it passes?
Sure.
Attempt to re...
(alarm beeping)
Ben?
(alarm beeping in distance)
(trilling)
(whirring)
- Synced and corrected by oykubuyuk - - www.addic7ed.com
There has to be some kind of explanation.
How about you made a mistake.
Molly, I ran every single sample from your tether twice.
Are you sure there was no one else?
How many times are you gonna ask me this?
And even if there was, you know I can't get pregnant.
We tried for years.
Were you taking the fertility drugs?
No. No.
I... I stopped taking those way before Ethan.
I'm just asking every rational question I can think of for the report.
You can't put this in the report.
Molly, this report goes straight to Director Sparks.
I can't lie.
I'm not asking you to lie.
I'm asking for some time.
As my friend.
As your friend, I should be admitting you
for observation right now.
That's exactly what I'm afraid of.
I just got back to my family, Sam.
I don't want to end up in quarantine.
Just give me some time to figure it out before I tell John.
(sighs)
JOHN: At the Humanichs Project
we recognize that we live in a world of machines.
Most of us interact
with one form or another from the time we wake up
until the time we go to sleep.
We've outsourced many of our day-to-day activities to robots
that have made our lives way more efficient,
but in the process we've removed the all-important element
of human connection.
Deep down, we all know
that robots are not really human.
A Medi-Assist bot has
100% accuracy rating when administering a vaccine,
but it cannot comfort a child
who's afraid of the needle.
A task-android can process your bank deposit,
but it can't share your joy
when it helps you buy your first home.
It turns out the true uncanny valley
isn't visual at all. It's the valley of genuine connection.
The goal of the Humanichs Project is to bridge that divide
by bringing humanity to the machine.
How are we going to do that?
By creating an artificial intelligence designed
from the very beginning to seek connection.
Programmed not by ones and zeroes that we type
into interfaces but by day-to-day human experience.
Ladies and gentlemen,
let me introduce you to my son.
Ethan.
Go get 'em, Rabbit.
MAN: Harmon Kryger.
He passed away before I came on board.
Were you close?
Yeah.
- He was a good guy. - So I heard.
Dr. Woods, I'm Gordon Kern.
The new Deputy Director.
That would be me.
It's a tragic situation.
Shall we?
I have to be honest. I spent all weekend preparing
- to grill you on your logs. - Mm.
but your work is incredibly thorough.
Leaves very little left to the imagination.
There was one thing.
- The gap. - Yes, the gap.
Well, that's easily explained, actually...
If you don't mind, we'll wait for Director Sparks.
I know he has questions.
(closes door)
Well, there's something I'm sure everyone in this room is...
curious about, but we're all either too...
polite or too embarrassed to ask.
The robot uprising, am I right?
What's to stop the Humanichs from overthrowing us one day
and enslaving their human overlords?
Is that the question?
Absolutely nothing.
How then would an owner control and manage their behavior?
It's not a master-slave relationship.
My partners and I
believe if we want machines to be more human,
we have to give them the human experience.
They have to learn like children learn.
The Humanichs brain learns right from wrong,
good from bad, the same way we all did.
For the most part.
What do you mean, for the most part?
Well, there is no guarantee with any child,
because, in the end, they're free to choose their own path.
Dr. Woods, my name is Femi Dodd.
I chair a number of programs for Mr. Yasumoto.
What is the protocol in the event your experiment fails?
Do you have an emergency plan for their shutdown?
To preserve their power? Absolutely.
It's called Interlude Mode.
- Do you mind? - Excuse me,
Dr. Woods. I'm sorry.
I didn't mean for the resting mode.
I meant for their termination.
To kill them?
That wording is a bit inelegant but yes.
Do you have a child?
I have a daughter.
Do you have a plan to kill her?
(scoffs) My daughter's a human being.
I don't understand the difference.
Well, for starters, she has a soul.
With all due respect, Ms. Dodd,
there is no such thing as a soul.
What you call a soul,
I call a cumulative effect of a lifetime of experience.
Simple information traveling in the neuropathways in your daughter's brain.
Believe it or not, Dr. Woods, there are
plenty of people in this world who still believe that there is
more to us than can be explained by science.
Well...
those people are idiots.
- MAN: Dr. Woods. - DODD: I am one of those idiots.
- I'm sorry. - I accept your apology.
No, I mean I'm sorry you're one
- of those idiots. - That's enough.
- How dare you? - How dare you ask me
do I have a contingency plan to murder my son.
And you're asking us for funding that can unleash thousands,
maybe millions of these Humanichs on the world.
It's a perfectly valid question.
What sort of controls and restrictions
would you put in place to ensure they behave properly?
And I gave you my answer, Mr. Segers.
Absolutely none.
The security and life support systems
were back online almost immediately,
but the communication system
stayed down for approximately 13 hours.
As it says in my log book there, I spent most of that time
trying to get the system up and running again, but,
unfortunately, I was unsuccessful.
I then went to sleep for three hours,
and when I woke up, everything seemed
back to normal.
It took you all that time to reboot Ben?
Have you ever tried to work on that thing?
- (chuckling) No. - (laughs)
During that 13 hours, did anything else happen?
- Anything anomalous? - Uh...
Related to the solar flare?
Everything is right here in the log.
There's one thing I'd like to clear up.
The security system records each quadrant
of the Seraphim with banks of surveillance cameras.
Presumably, they were up and running
as soon as that emergency power kicked back on,
but that footage was deleted from the system's memory.
There had been several
instances of interference in the months prior,
but none quite to this level.
In the past, what I had done is
make a copy of the footage, just in case.
I went to do the same thing this time,
but instead of copying the footage,
I accidentally deleted it.
The only record of that time
is what I manually entered into my log.
I take complete responsibility for that error, sir.
Well, sounds like we didn't miss much.
Just me swearing at a bunch of inanimate objects.
(laughter)
I'm still waiting for your medical examinations,
but as soon as I've had a chance to review them,
and you complete a series of psychiatric evaluations,
we'll put this one in the books.
Psychiatric evaluations?
Just a few meetings in addition to your post-morts.
To help with your reentry.
It's a change in agency policy after what happened
with Harmon Kryger last year.
I probably should have warned you before I brought you over.
There's just as much bureaucracy
now that we're in the private sector.
Sir, if you want to make it, you'd better leave now.
(groans) Off-campus meeting.
It's a pleasure to have you back, Molly.
You were missed.
Thank you, sir.
(indistinct voice over P.A.)
(indistinct, distant chatter)
(whooshing, heavy thudding)
How's he doing?
He's ready.
(whooshing)
SPARKS (over intercom): Welcome back, Mr. Yasumoto.
We found something of an anomaly on the Seraphim.
An anomaly?
Another solar flare knocked out the communications system.
Like Kryger.
Yes.
But, unlike Kryger,
we're missing the security camera footage
for the 13 hours that followed.
That seems like an unlikely coincidence.
Even more so if you know the astronaut involved.
Molly Woods.
She claims she accidentally deleted it.
You don't believe her?
No.
Why not?
Because she doesn't make those kinds of mistakes.
This could be everything.
Stay close.
About that.
Her husband John gave a presentation
to your board today, but was denied funding.
I can only do so much from the ISEA.
A gesture from you could put us closer to the family.
It might make it easier to keep an eye on her.
This is the last one.
(whooshing and whirring)
(laughing): Oh, wow.
(chime sounds)
AUTOMATED FEMALE VOICE: John, you have an incoming call from Yasumoto Corp.
(birds singing)
Dr. Woods.
Hideki Yasumoto.
Thanks for coming.
Oh, please. Uh, it's an hon... it's an honor.
The honor is all mine.
I have a very important mission today,
and I think you're just the guy to help me.
What kind of mission?
Um... it's a search.
A search for what?
I realized that in order to further the goal of Humanichs,
to give him a true human experience,
he needed to be part of a family unit.
To be raised in a home.
So, I brought him into ours.
My wife and I struggled for years with infertility,
and, eventually, we were told we would never be able
to have a child.
That can have a profound effect on a marriage.
As happy as we were, there was something missing.
And... and that was Ethan.
So, you see Humanichs as a cure for childless couples.
Adoption, surrogacy... those are all viable options...
Thank you.
but not everyone is a viable candidate.
There will always be people with a need
for companionship and... and connection.
If your board had let me finish, I would have told them
that filling that void is way more important
than building a more empathetic service bar.
I'm sure you understand
that the future you're proposing raises great moral questions.
Yes, but it also raises great possibilities.
I agree.
Unfortunately, the long-term prospects are too murky
for Yasumoto Corporation to invest in at this time.
The board's decision will have to stand.
We have responsibilities to our shareholders.
Of course.
Yeah, I fully understand.
I... I really just appreciate your time.
However, as a private citizen,
I would not be bound by those same responsibilities.
How is it?
Good.
- Do you want to try? - Okay.
Mmm. That is good.
Want to try mine?
Sure.
(people speaking indistinctly nearby)
I like yours better.
Want to switch?
Okay.
MAN: Excuse me, ma'am.
Here you go. No, thanks.
This one is for you.
It's already paid for.
By whom?
Uh...
He's gone. Sorry.
_
Come on, let's go.
Mom! You made me drop my ice cream!
Okay. Look, have this one.
I don't want that one.
I want another one... like this.
Okay, this is the one you chose.
I don't want it anymore.
Let's go.
- I want another ice cream. - Ethan!
We have to go right now.
- No! - Ethan!
Ethan!
Ethan?
Ethan?!
Ethan?
(crows cawing)
Ethan.
It was like this when I found it.
Your hair looks really pretty.
(crow cawing)
I don't know what's going on with him,
but he is not the same as when I left here.
No, he's not.
He's a year older.
That is not what I'm talking about.
He's changed.
And so have you. That's called life.
That's the consequence of our family
being apart for so long.
It takes time to reconnect.
And I'm trying.
- Uh, are you? - Yes.
Because it feels like you're pulling away from us.
I don't know what's happened, but
I've felt it. And he's felt it, too.
Ever since you got back.
Well, it wasn't that easy before
I left here. Not easy like it was for you.
We've always seen him differently.
I see him as our son.
And so do I.
But the way
he looked at me today... you should have seen it.
It was almost as if he hated me.
He doesn't hate you, Molly. He loves you.
He doesn't love me.
He executes a series of commands that you've
programmed into him.
He approximates a behavior
that resembles love.
But that's not love.
I don't know what's going on with you,
but you have to figure it out, because that kid
is the closest we're ever gonna get to being parents.
I got the funding from Yasumoto.
We start immediately.
(breathing heavily)
(gasps)
- (beep) - FEMALE VOICE: Camera recording.
Marcus.
Hello?
Hello.
You need help?
Help.
What can I do?
Do.
It's okay.
It's...
Okay.
It's okay.
JOHN: Molly.
I'm sorry about yesterday.
(sighs)
Well, you didn't say anything that wasn't true.
This opportunity with Yasumoto,
it may not be the ideal time, but,
Molly, if we can make it work...
We'll make it work.
Have I said congratulations?
No.
(soft laugh) Congratulations.
WOMAN: Reentry can be a challenge
after this kind of extended mission, especially
if there are spouses and children involved. So,
the agency would like us to meet for a few sessions.
I want this office to be a sanctuary for you.
A place where you can
talk about anything and everything.
We didn't have this resource in place
for your colleague, Dr. Kryger. We should have.
The agency believes a lack of attention to his mental state
was a factor in his suicide. I agree.
Why don't we begin with your own assessment
about where you are in your transition.
How are you feeling?
MOLLY: Physically?
WOMAN: Whatever you'd like to share.
Physically.
Emotionally, mentally.
(alarm beeping)
- (rumbling thud) - (alarm stops)
Okay.
FEMALE VOICE: Beginning playback.
(stammering)
(rapid electrical beeping)
(wind chimes jingling outside)
Harmon?
It's me.
I'm real.
It's not like on the Seraphim.
You're not hallucinating.
Everybody thinks you're dead.
I... I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have come here.
Harmon. Talk to me.
- What happened? - JOHN: Molly?
Dinner's ready.
I'll find you.
Until then, be careful.
Don't trust them.
Who?
Anybody.
- Synced and corrected by oykubuyuk - - www.addic7ed.com -