Life

The ISS crew intercepts a Mars soil probe carrying a dormant single-celled organism. Biologist Hugh Derry coaxes it back to life in a sealed containment unit and watches it grow — first through cellular division, then into something increasingly complex and responsive. Schoolchildren on Earth name it Calvin. Calvin is beautiful: it reacts to stimuli with apparent curiosity and seems to have no aggression. Then the containment glove malfunctions and Calvin grips Hugh's hand. Its response to the cold blast meant to stun it is to squeeze tighter. Hugh's hand is crushed.

Calvin grows larger and escapes the containment unit. Flight engineer Rory Adams enters the sealed lab to kill it with a flamethrower. Calvin evades him, enters his mouth, and kills him from within. Commander Ekaterina is killed next — Calvin traps her in a water tank and drowns her.

The remaining crew — David Jordan, Miranda North, Sho Murakami, and Hugh — cycle through containment strategies as Calvin continues to grow and adapt. Miranda North carries a classified protocol: as a CDC quarantine officer, her primary directive is to ensure Calvin never reaches Earth, even at the cost of the crew. She can lock the station and prevent any pod from heading toward the planet.

Hugh dies. Sho dies. Only David and Miranda remain. They form a plan: David will take one escape pod with Calvin lured inside, drawing it into deep space while Miranda takes the other pod safely to Earth.

Calvin has learned enough to anticipate them. The pods are switched. David's pod, carrying Calvin, plunges toward Earth. Miranda's pod drifts silently into deep space with no return trajectory.

David's pod splashes down in a remote stretch of ocean. Two fishermen in a small boat approach it. Inside, David screams at them not to open the hatch. They open it. Calvin comes out.