Synopsis/Details
Scientific researcher Steven Anderson discovers a radio signal of extra terrestrial origin and struggles to decipher it with the help of his associates Matthew Gray and Peter Crowley. Working frantically, they learn that the signal is being sent deliberately from a massive earth-bound alien spacecraft and are forced to go public before understanding the full nature of the contact.
As the team works to decipher the signal Matthew and Peter are summoned to the White House to act as scientific advisers to the President. Engaging in discussions on how to address the situation, the minds of apprehensive politicians prevail. Fearing everything from a global pandemic to a catastrophic impact, a contingency emerges to prevent the arrival of the spacecraft should it attempt a landing.
Knowing that the nature of the signal could make the difference, Steven and Matthew continue their work frantically while the Shuttle Atlantis is launched to intercept the spacecraft with a nuclear arsenal on board. Coming in just under the wire, Steven and his team decipher the signal and relay to the President that the spacecraft is carrying the last remnants of a dying civilization. Despite this news and international opinion on the matter, the President proceeds with his contingency in the event of a landing.
As feared, the spacecraft makes a trajectory adjustment to enter the atmosphere and Atlantis, after overcoming some adversity, makes a strike against the ship to prevent it from coming down. Atlantis is lost in the aftermath and the spacecraft comes down unassisted causing catastrophic damage in the Pacific basin.
An international civilian-military recovery effort is established at the crash site in the Pacific and again, Steven and Matthew are called upon, only this time to be a part of the dive team to investigate the spacecraft. The team descends and enters an un-breached area of the ship to discover that its power source, a failing nuclear reactor, is about reach critical mass and detonate.
Without time to spare, the team is forced to evacuate the ship and flee to the surface, both to save themselves and the fleet above from the pending nuclear blast. The reactor detonates and the ensuing explosion obliterates any sign that the spacecraft ever existed but both the fleet and the dive-team survive the ordeal.
As events wind down, Peter Cowley unravels an image encoded in the signal initially broadcast by the spacecraft revealing that there were two ships sent from the dying civilization and in a vacant computer lab a fresh new signal comes in.
