Original subtitles

Where are we?

Beta zone.

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.

'Kay switch this baby around.

Let's shake him up a little.

Cruiser at five o'clock!

Watch our tail, Sam!

Here we go, keep it steady.

Now!

What's with the lights?

It could be a central power leak,

it would leave us defenseless, without the force field.

Don't start on my Sam, give me a hand!

We haven't lost it, I'll tie in the auxiliary power.

- Got any wire? - I'm made of it.

Give me some.

- How long was I under? - Back home your son

is older than you are.

Hope he turned out better than me.

Higher, higher.

You've done it sir.

Give me full throttle on the front vector,

and check the force field.

Full throttle sir.

Oh Lord Sam, that's the mother ship.

Check the force field.

Boost it!

One alpha 65.

One alpha 60.

One alpha 52, 51.

Ignite the fusion bolts!

Five seconds to fusion reaction!

Fire!

Fire!

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.

Very funny.

They've had an accident in

a high security lab there.

The Federation requested you especially.

All our relief time has been canceled.

They said I was going home!

It was an order sir.

They said you'd understand.

Maybe next year sir.

Prepare for hyperspace sir.

- Hyperspace? - Yes sir.

Xarbia sir.

Prepare for docking.

Searcher Seven to Zarbo 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-poppa.

We'll strobe you in.

Gordon Hauser, Head of Research.

- Mike Colby. - Of course.

This is my assistant Dr. Glaser.

Barbara know more about genetic synthesis

than anyone else alive.

Sounds like fun.

I've heard good things about you Commander Colby.

- Mike. - It's good to be here

in your pleasant custody.

- Let's get started. - Good.

Follow me and 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 to 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, bacterial.

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! - 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.

- What is this? - 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?

Watch your step.

Welcome to the Garden of Eden.

We play God here.

We create life.

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'd leave the mess until you got here.

Heard you like 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.

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?

A metamorph.

- A what? - It's a metamorphic

mutation.

And just 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 uh, 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.

It's metabolic rate is 50 times that

of any other known organism.

Then 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 working outside of your charter.

Scientific research often takes us

into uncharted territory.

I'm not talking about territory doctor,

I'm talking about strange little creatures that kill.

I've got a motto.

If 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 bale out.

That thing is trouble, I can smell it.

Termination, is not the 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?

I have such beautiful ideas.

Shall we discuss it over dinner?

Hungry?

I'm getting that way.

Jimmy, clean it up now.

- Okay, no problem. - Tracy,

- why don't you join us? - Sure.

The little terror, does anything funny,

give me a call.

Okay.

- Security. - Earl, it's Jim

in the lab.

- Hauser there yet? - Not yet.

When he gets there uh,

would you tell him to give me a call?

Tell him his baby's waking up.

Okay.

Genetics.

James this is Hauser.

Doc this thing's moving around.

It's acting strange.

Is it kind of pulsating like it's breathing hard?

- Yeah. - Well that's perfectly

normal, don't let it worry you.

One of us will

come right down.

Okay.

- Thanks doc. - Right.

Tracy, run down to Genetics

and make sure everything's okay?

- Sure. - And 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.

Come on Barb, we can't eat this crap without whipped cream.

Look you want to whip up some of the

guy's dairy base,

it looks like whip cream, sort of.

Actually it looks like puree of puke

if you want to know the truth.

The galactic food crises strikes again.

Suffer.

What does Subject 20 have to do with the,

work on the food crises?

It's a genetic mutant.

A proto-B like all the other experiments except,

this one got a little out of hand.

A little.

Yeah what's proto-B?

You know anything about genetics?

Doctor I wouldn't know a gene from a jelly bean.

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, no prey.

Proto-B reproduces at an unbelievable rate.

It's sinful 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 uh, 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 a animal, or, vegetable?

Well come on, was it an animal?

- Yes. - No!

Yes!

Do I hear a maybe?

Ask Gordon what happened to Annie.

- 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!

Difference does it make?

- She died. - You can call it that.

What would you call it?

She died.

That's all.

What is it?

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!

- Its impossible! - Give me a hand,

I want to get him up where we can see him!

He can't be alive Cal,

look at him for god's sakes!

- That's. - That's gonna happen!

We should"a killed it when we

- had the chance! - , 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,

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 got to be in here,

this is a sterile chamber,

if a germ can't get out there's no way

that thing can get out!

Can't do anything with him here,

I'm gonna take him down to the, med room.

You won't get away from me will you,

my genetic cesspool?

This is it you god damn dingwomper!

- 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 got to tell Colby about Annie.

I can't deal with it anymore.

No let Gordon do it.

He knows what he's doing.

I 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 need to blank it all out for a while.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tracy?

I'm sorry about Jimmy.

It's okay.

If it doesn't show up

by tomorrow we're gonna have to dismantle the lab,

piece by piece, you know that?

It's gonna be a nightmare, a damn nightmare!

- Goodnight Gordon. - What's good about it?

Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

I put you in number two.

Hey thanks.

Taylor, goodnight 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 uh, see some trouble?

No sir, I put you in number, number two!

Shit.

No!

No!

Hey!

Who is that?

Baxter?

God dammit, this is my god damned 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 morning's 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 uh, I had a hard night.

So fair is 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 are some things I don't like about my job.

Like what?

Uh like this for example.

This happened in Pitor.

Sam and I ran cross a caravan of nomadic Dindars.

You know, from Titan.

Anyway, it all started when Sam and I,

rather tactlessly accused a Dindar commando, of being a

maggoty, fat ass,

Grease licking, dung bunny.

That was close, I oughta retire!

Oh no you don't,

you're staying right here with me!

What is that thing, proto-B and 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?

Just stick your charter Colby,

just figure out a way to trap it!

You figure it out, I'm not going back in there!

Hey, easy, easy!

You want to know what I want to 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 want to help?

- Of course! - Then you and Brian

and I will go outside and we'll track it.

Brian get the 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 dingwopper.

- The what? - Dingwopper,

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 dingwopper!

Changes itself, 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.

I've 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 uh, 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, and 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.

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.

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.

Ever since his attack,

all his specialized cells have been changing.

Till 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, god damn!

You better come over here, I think I found...

Oh my god it's Earl!

There it is.

We got company.

Let's go.

They found Earl, he's dead,

and they sighted the mutant,

he's made another cocoon.

Mr. Colby now,

we've got to find a way to take it alive!

Not this time doctor, this time we Kill it!

- No! - Brian, ready your laser!

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 gotta 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. - Don't do it Sam, don't!

It's empty, there's nothing 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!

Do you hear me?

Dammit, get out of there!

Lucky for us you're so good

at killing these things!

Baxter, did you see that?

- I saw it. - I want you to locate

that vent in the files and tell us where it comes out!

Punch up P I six two oh seven,

that'll get you the schematics!

Brian this is for the whole complex!

Track it, this is vent number

one five four four Al

I don't see it,

there isn't a vent number one five four four Al.

Wait a minute,

there's about a million vents on this thing!

Here we go, I got it!

- Give us the route! - Wait will you,

it's all in numbers!

There it is!

The destination is, H Q R five one W!

Oh baby, that's the control room!

Tracy!

It's in there!

Let's get out of here!

Are you all right?

We lost you on the telecom,

we thought all hell had broken loose!

Mike, look at this!

The computers, damn!

Looks like the transcam, the comcam,

the 790 and the mayday box, man this is bad news.

This creature's intelligent!

- How do you figure that? - It's simple,

it destroyed all our contact

with the outside world, our launchpad control,

and yet, it left us,

air to breath, food to eat,

and a temperature we can live in.

Why?

It wants to keep us alive.

It 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 it's saliva.

The proto-B goes to work,

invading every cell, altering the genetic structure,

reconstructing the body to suit its needs.

Horrible.

How ironic, if you consider why we

came here in the first place.

Help me!

Get this stuff off quick,

get it off,

it's pure proto-B, full strength!

You see, you see what this stuff does!

Metamorphosis!

Do you know why that creature does this?

Instinct!

Proto-B is the result of millions of years of evolution!

We have no way of knowing what's

hidden in its genetic coding!

Metamorph is only half proto-B.

What's the other half?

Tell him Cal, please.

Our metamorph,

is a genetic fusion, of a proto-B cell,

and a human being.

You heard us talk about Annie Best?

Well, we knew we could create the cell,

but not the womb to grow it in.

Annie volunteered.

She knew all the dangers.

It was an implant.

Exactly, we spliced, the genetic structure,

of proto-B, to the genes of a human cell.

Whose?

It's Gordon's.

This whole experiment was his idea.

And in the lab,

we used Gordon's altered cell,

to fertilize an egg.

From Annie.

And when 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.

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 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 try to communicate with it.

Intelligent beings can communicate,

you don't need language.

Look at any foreigner away from home or a,

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.

We'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. - Got that!

- 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 want to 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.

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?

What, 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.

You've seen too much.

Let's see how my, wildly mutating little cells,

get along with yours.

Gotcha.

- Son of a bik! - Wait!

We can't, it's all over the

life support system, blast it, we blast ourselves.

Okay we're gonna have to wire for outside help.

Can you get to the mayday box?

I'll do whatever I can, cover me!

Tracy, you stay out of 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!

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 it Mike!

I know how!

Mutable metastasis!

Delicate, a quick, ugly finish!

Brian, Cal has a solution,

get out of there!

Damn, wait a sec, something just shorted.

Hold on, let me fix it.

Brian, get out of there!

Brian!

Let's go.

I'm gonna kill it Mike,

only it's got to kill me first!

Cal, what are you doing, get out of there!

Cal!

Cal!

Cal!

Gotta go back, it's the only way!

Just hold on Cal, we're gonna get you out of 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 liver.

I want you to cut the tumor out of me.

- 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, dammit!

God help me.

Help me somebody, help me!

Here?

Don't touch the celiac axis!

Mike!

It's right behind us!

Give him the morphine.

We did it Cal.

We got it.

Sam!

Come on, ah!