Plot
After months of hyper-sleep aboard the cargo transport ship Solar System Shipping Vessel No.17 (SSS-17), two crew members awaken: Chris McNiel and Theta Kaplan. They discover that they've been awakened from hyper-sleep, by the ship's computer, almost ten months past their scheduled time, as something has gone terribly wrong on board. The ship's internal systems are badly damaged, they have almost no fuel and their position is some way off the ecliptic. They slowly realize that the vessel's first shift probably killed each other and caused the ship's desolation but, as of yet, they don't know why. They calculate that they have only nine hours of life-support power left and then it will fail. With the help of the ship's log they discover a space probe that one of the crew of the first shift brought on board. They then find a strange substance and begin to analyze it.
Soon after the discovery of the probe and the substance they start to argue, which quickly escalates into violence. They then try to kill each other in a running struggle throughout the damaged ship. Meanwhile, the crew of a nearby deep-space research ship following a comet and which has been alerted to their predicament evaluate if they can attempt a rescue.
Trapped in the freezing cargo hold, a near hypothermic Kaplan regains her senses and realises that the strange substance must be a biological agent which induces psychosis but becomes inert at low body temperatures. Based upon this information the ship's computer suggests a drug which should cure the infection. After injecting herself with the cure, Kaplan manages to trap a still psychotic McNiel and treat him. The two then have to convince the reluctant research ship to try a rescue plan to slingshot the crew over. As they make departure preparations, they discover that the drug had only a temporary effect and that they are still infected and cannot risk contaminating the rest of the crew or their rescuers.
They decide to transfer the uninfected sleepers over with minutes to spare before their sleep chambers fail. McNiel and Kaplan decide to remain with No.17 as it hurtles towards the sun, to prevent future contamination. To while away the time left, they dismantle the probe and discover that it contains a canister of the blue contaminant. It is discovered that the probe was originally from Earth and they speculate that it picked up the virus in space and went on to accidentally contaminate an unknown alien race, who then sent the probe back where it came from as some kind of retaliation.
A sleeper ship is a hypothetical type of crewed spacecraft, or starship in which most or all of the crew spend the journey in some form of hibernation or suspended animation. The only known technology that allows long-term suspended animation of humans is the freezing of early-stage human embryos through embryo cryopreservation, which is behind the concept of embryo space colonization.
Sphere is a 1998 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed and produced by Barry Levinson, adapted by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson. It is based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. The film was released in the United States on February 14, 1998.
Galaxina is a 1980 American science fantasy-comedy film written and directed by William Sachs. Shot on a low budget, the film stars 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten, who was murdered by her husband shortly after the film's release.
Sleepers of Mars is a collection of five early stories by British writer John Wyndham, as by John Beynon Harris, published after his death, in 1973 by Coronet Books.
"Schisms" is the 131st episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the fifth of the sixth season. It was originally aired on October 19, 1992.
Alien from the Darkness is a space hentai OVA influenced by the Alien franchise, directed by Norio Takanami, that was released in 1996.
"Waking Moments" is the 81st episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 13th episode of the fourth season. This episode focuses on the dreams the crew of a spacecraft are having, as they make their way back to Earth after being stranded on the other side of the galaxy, in the Star Trek universe.
Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation is a graphic adventure game, created by Dynamix, and released by Sierra On-Line for MS-DOS on February 5, 1993. The game is the fifth entry in the Space Quest series, and the first game to be only designed by Mark Crowe. The story, set within a spoof of the Star Trek franchise, focuses on players taking control of Roger Wilco, who achieves his dreams of becoming a star captain but winds up involved in saving the galaxy from a deadly threat posed by a man-made virus.
The Orion Conspiracy is a graphic adventure video game that was released in 1995. The game was published by Domark and developed by Divide By Zero for the MS-DOS.
"Think Tank" is the 114th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 19th episode of the fifth season. Jason Alexander, made famous in the 1990s from the hit sitcom Seinfeld, which had recently ended its run, guest stars as Kurros. In this episode, Voyager encounters a unique group of aliens, that offer to help solve problems, but for a price.
Cargo is a 2009 science fiction film, the first from Swiss production and the first major feature film by Ivan Engler and Ralph Etter.
Ash is a fictional character in the film Alien (1979) portrayed by actor Ian Holm who, while known in the UK as a stage actor, was at the time unknown to American audiences. Ash serves as the secondary antagonist of the first film. The character is the science officer of the Nostromo, who breaks quarantine by allowing Kane, a member of the crew, back on board after he has been infected by an alien life form. It is later discovered that Ash is not human, as he appears, but is a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 android, a sleeper agent who is acting upon secret orders to bring back the alien lifeform and to consider the crew and cargo as "expendable".
"Dragon's Domain" is the eighth episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Christopher Penfold; the director was Charles Crichton. The final shooting script was dated 21 January 1975, with blue-page amendments dated 29 January 1975 and yellow-page amendments dated 30 January 1975. Live-action filming took place Monday 27 January 1975 through Monday 10 February 1975.
"The Infernal Machine" is the 18th episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Anthony Terpiloff and Elizabeth Barrows; the director was David Tomblin. The final shooting script is dated 11 December 1974. Live-action filming took place between 20 December 1974 and 9 January 1975.
Fire and Stone is a comic book series crossover set in the fictional universe of the Alien vs. Predator franchise. It was first published by Dark Horse Comics in the fall of 2014 and continued until 2015 and was followed by the crossover comic book series Life and Death (2016–2017). The comic book series is considered part of the extended universe of the Alien and Predator franchises, being set after the events of Prometheus.
Tiamat's Wrath is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the eighth book in their series The Expanse. Following the series' tradition of referring to ancient mythology in its titles, the book's title references the Babylonian goddess Tiamat, who took part in the creation of the universe.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a 2020 science fiction novel written by American author Christopher Paolini and published under the Tor imprint of Macmillan Publishers. The book is unrelated to his Inheritance Cycle series. In an interview, Paolini described the book as adult-oriented as opposed to the young adult genre of his previous books.
Caliban is a creator-owned comic book series, blending the science fiction and horror genres. The series was created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Facundo Percio, and published by Avatar Press as a seven-issue limited series in 2014.
