Alien Cargo

Plot

After months of hyper-sleep aboard the cargo transport ship Solar System Shipping Vessel No.17 (SSS-17), two crew members awaken - Christopher 'Chris' McNiel (Jason London) and Theta Kaplan (Missy Crider). They discover that they've been woken 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, and they have almost no fuel. 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 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 evaluate if they can attempt a rescue. Eventually Theta finds a cure for the substance on the space probe. It's a biological contamination which induces violent psychosis, but the substance is countered by cold. Theta needs help to inoculate the crew, so she has to lure Chris in order to administer a potent cure for the substance. She succeeds, and Chris is brought back to his senses. They then have to convince the research ship to try a rescue plan to slingshot the crew over. As they make departure preparations, they discover that the drug did not work and that they are still infected, and thus 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. Chris and Theta 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 it contains a canister of the blue contaminant. It is discovered that the probe was originally from Earth and they think that it accidentally 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, either as retaliation for a perceived attack or as mere vengeance.

Cast