❝ the last man. alone with god. ❞
ICARUS: Capa.
CAPA: Yes?
ICARUS: You are dying. All crew are dying.
CAPA: We know we're dying. As long as we can live long enough to deliver the payload, we're okay with that.
CAPA: Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction. Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star. Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our payload a stellar bomb with a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island. Our purpose to create a star within a star.
Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. My bomb. Welcome to Icarus II.
CASSIE: Good dream? Let me guess. The surface of the sun? The only dream I ever have, is the surface of the sun. Every time I shut my eyes, it's always the same.
MACE: We'll have a vote.
SEARLE: No. No, we won't. We're not a democracy. We're a collection of astronauts and scientists. So we're going to make the most informed decision available to us.
MACE: Made my you, by any chance?
MACE: Made by the person qualified to understand the complexities of payload delivery: our physicist.
CAPA: ...shit.
CAPA: By the time you get this message, I'll be in the dead zone. It came a little sooner than we thought, but this means that you won't be able to send a message back. So, I just wanted to let you know that I don't need the message. Because I know everything you wanna say.
SEARLE: Hey, Capa. We're only stardust.
CAPA: That's the problem right there. Between the boosters and the gravity of the sun, the velocity of the payload will become so great, that space and time will become smeared together. Everything will distort, everything will be unquantifiable.
KANADA: You have to come down on one side or the other. I need a decision.
CAPA: It's not a decision, it's a guess. It's like flipping a coin and asking me to decide whether it'll be heads or tails.
KANADA: And?
CAPA: ...heads. We've mined all earth's materials for this bomb. There's not gonna be another payload. The one we carry is our last chance. Our last, best hope. Searle's argument is sound. Two last hopes are better than one.
SEARLE: It's invigorating. It's like taking a shower in light. You lose yourself in it.
CORAZON:Like a floatation tank?
SEARLE:Actually, no. More like...in psych tests on deep space, I ran a number of sensory deprivation trials, tested in total darkness, on floatation tanks - and: the point about darkness is, you float in it. You and the darkness are distinct from each other because darkness is an absence of something, it's a vacuum. But total light envelops you. It becomes you. It's very strange... Um. I recommend it.
CASSIE: Are you scared?
CAPA: When a stellar bomb is triggered, very little will happen at first. Then a spark will pop into existence and it will hang for an instant, hovering in space. And then, it will split into two and those will split again. And again and again. Denotation beyond all imagining. The big bang on a small scale. A new star born out of a dying one. I think it'll be beautiful. No, I'm not scared.
CASSIE: ...I am.
CASSIE: Searle? We're leaving now. We're gonna complete the mission. We're all thinking of you, Searle. Searle? We're gonna go now.
...we love you.
MACE: We'll vote this time: unanimous decision required. So, you know where I stand.
CORAZON: And me.
CAPA: What are you asking? That we weigh the life of one against the future of all mankind? ...Kill him.
CAPA: Just remember: it takes eight minutes for light to travel from sun to Earth, which means you'll know we succeeded about eight minutes after we deliver the payload. All you have to is look out for a extra brightness in the sky. So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it. Okay. I'm signing out and I'll see you in a couple years.
CAPA: Yes?
ICARUS: You are dying. All crew are dying.
CAPA: We know we're dying. As long as we can live long enough to deliver the payload, we're okay with that.
CAPA: Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction. Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star. Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our payload a stellar bomb with a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island. Our purpose to create a star within a star.
Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. My bomb. Welcome to Icarus II.
CASSIE: Good dream? Let me guess. The surface of the sun? The only dream I ever have, is the surface of the sun. Every time I shut my eyes, it's always the same.
MACE: We'll have a vote.
SEARLE: No. No, we won't. We're not a democracy. We're a collection of astronauts and scientists. So we're going to make the most informed decision available to us.
MACE: Made my you, by any chance?
MACE: Made by the person qualified to understand the complexities of payload delivery: our physicist.
CAPA: ...shit.
CAPA: By the time you get this message, I'll be in the dead zone. It came a little sooner than we thought, but this means that you won't be able to send a message back. So, I just wanted to let you know that I don't need the message. Because I know everything you wanna say.
SEARLE: Hey, Capa. We're only stardust.
CAPA: That's the problem right there. Between the boosters and the gravity of the sun, the velocity of the payload will become so great, that space and time will become smeared together. Everything will distort, everything will be unquantifiable.
KANADA: You have to come down on one side or the other. I need a decision.
CAPA: It's not a decision, it's a guess. It's like flipping a coin and asking me to decide whether it'll be heads or tails.
KANADA: And?
CAPA: ...heads. We've mined all earth's materials for this bomb. There's not gonna be another payload. The one we carry is our last chance. Our last, best hope. Searle's argument is sound. Two last hopes are better than one.
SEARLE: It's invigorating. It's like taking a shower in light. You lose yourself in it.
CORAZON:Like a floatation tank?
SEARLE:Actually, no. More like...in psych tests on deep space, I ran a number of sensory deprivation trials, tested in total darkness, on floatation tanks - and: the point about darkness is, you float in it. You and the darkness are distinct from each other because darkness is an absence of something, it's a vacuum. But total light envelops you. It becomes you. It's very strange... Um. I recommend it.
CASSIE: Are you scared?
CAPA: When a stellar bomb is triggered, very little will happen at first. Then a spark will pop into existence and it will hang for an instant, hovering in space. And then, it will split into two and those will split again. And again and again. Denotation beyond all imagining. The big bang on a small scale. A new star born out of a dying one. I think it'll be beautiful. No, I'm not scared.
CASSIE: ...I am.
CASSIE: Searle? We're leaving now. We're gonna complete the mission. We're all thinking of you, Searle. Searle? We're gonna go now.
...we love you.
MACE: We'll vote this time: unanimous decision required. So, you know where I stand.
CORAZON: And me.
CAPA: What are you asking? That we weigh the life of one against the future of all mankind? ...Kill him.
CAPA: Just remember: it takes eight minutes for light to travel from sun to Earth, which means you'll know we succeeded about eight minutes after we deliver the payload. All you have to is look out for a extra brightness in the sky. So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it. Okay. I'm signing out and I'll see you in a couple years.