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DARK MATTERS
Paul Stein (John Heard) is second in command of a small commercial space transport vessel on a routine mission. When Paul hands the ship's controls to Rob Anderson (Michael Dolan), the ship suddenly drops out of hyperspace and into a black, starless void. The crew frantically tries to figure out what's happened, while the ship's captain, Lydia Manning (Annette O' Toole) orders a system check. Stein thinks they have hit a "cosmic speed bump," causing them to drop out of hyperspace. Lydia criticizes Paul's handling of the situation, ordering exploratory probes sent out from the ship. What they discover is something none of them were prepared for. It's the Slayton, a ship lost with all hands aboard - including Stein's older brother Kevin - ten years ago. Paul is devastated to finally learn his brother's fate. The ship's monitors also indicate an alien ship close by. But due to the unidentified space distortion is an enormous chunk of "dark matter," - a mass so dense that it warps time and space. When the aliens show up on the transport vessel so does the "ghost" of Kevin Stein. He tells the crew, including his brother, that there is no way out of the void. As the ship gets closer to the Slayton, the "ghost" of the ship's captain appears on the bridge - only he isn't really a ghost because death is not complete in this warped space where nothing, not even souls, can escape. Lives are trapped in a dimension that is neither heaven nor hell, just inexpressible nothingness. Kevin appears again, and recommends a course of action that seems futile to Paul, but it gives him an idea. The Slayton's data log indicates that the alien ship was trying to convey information that its computers couldn't decipher. Paul figures out a way to simulate the information, lures the alien on board, and sure enough, they identify the correct atomic structure needed to create a force that can only be produced by both the Slayton and their ship. Once docked in tandem, the two ships fire parallel streams of heat and energy at the dark matter, bursting through the void and back into normal space. Meanwhile, Paul and his brother Kevin finally resolve the painful and secret conflict that had existed between them before Kevin's disappearance.
Directed by: Paul Lynch Written by: Alan Brennert
Starring: John Heard, Annette O'Toole, Michael Dolan and Allison Hossack