A Far Sun: Synopsis/Treatment, part 3

OK, now we're beginning to realize that something very wrong has happened. What is it?

Click here for part 2

Jane comes up to the control room to see what Adam is talking about. She sees the power interruption message on the screen, but she is certain it must be wrong. Adam likewise doesn't want to believe it could possibly be correct, since neither he nor Jane seem to be feeling any negative or ill effects. As far as either of them know, they just blacked out for a short while, then came to. There's no way they could have been unconscious for over 317 years!

Adam asks about the animals, but Jane hasn't yet taken them out of the chamber. He asks if they're all right, and Jane replies that as far as she can tell, they are fine. Adam suggests that they should shut down the equipment and secure the chamber so they can check further into their apparent situation. Jane agrees, and she leaves the control room to go back down to the chamber. It's only a few moments, then, before Adam hears a surprised, anguished yell. He rushes down to where Jane is frantically trying to climb up into the SA chamber.

Click for more"What's going on?" he asks.

"They're dead!" Jane is crouching in the circular chamber doorway, undoing the dog's collar where it was held in place in the chamber. "They're both dead!"

Adam strains to see up into the chamber, where he sees that it does appear that both animals are laying, limply, on the platform where they were previously sitting. "How is this possible?" he asks.

"I have no idea," Jane replies. "Here, help me with the dog." She finishes undoing the collar and picks the dead animal up, turns and hands it down to Adam.

Adam takes the dog's body and lays it on the catwalk grate behind him. It doesn't look quite right. Hair is falling out in clumps.

"Bonnie is a lot heavier," Jane says, grunting as she tries to manoeuver the body of the bonobo through the tight circular door opening.

Adam takes the body of the small chimpanzee and lays it next to the dog. It is also losing hair and bleeding around the mouth, nose, and eyes.

Jane climbs down from the chamber doorway to kneel next to the dead bonobo, Bonnie. "What could have killed them?"

"Can't say for sure, but they both look like they have radiation burns."

"There isn't supposed to be any radiation in the chamber." She looks up at Adam, worry creasing her face.

Adam shrugs, "I know."

"They were fine just a few minutes ago--noisy and hungry, maybe--but fine." She shakes her head. "I swear, Adam. They were perfectly OK just five minutes ago." She stands. They are now both standing and looking down at the dead bodies of the two animals.

"I believe you. I heard them making noise, too." Adam puts his arm around Jane's shoulders.

Jane just looks at Adam, a combination of confusion, worry, and a not a small bit of fear plainly evident on her face. "What's going on, here?"

Adam asks, "Do you feel OK?"

"I feel fine. You?"

"I'm hungry," he replies.

She pushes away. "That's not what I mean."

"I know what you mean." Adam rubs his chin, absently. "If we really were 'asleep' three hundred and seventeen years, like it says, then these two," he points to the animals, "could have just as likely died from natural causes."

"They would have died years ago, if that was the case."

"So should we." Adam looks Jane over, carefully. "That's odd. You don't look a day older."

Jane is perturbed, "This is not funny, Adam."

"I'm not being funny, Jane," says Adam.

"So, what do we do?" she asks.

"Put them back in their cages, I guess. Lock down the chamber, and shut down all this equipment."

She nods absently, considering. "Then what?"

"Then," he says, "We go figure out what's really happened to the computer."

Continued in part 4