R.J. MacReady picked up some ice cubes out of a bucket and placed them into a glass. He reached for a bottle of whiskey and poured some into the glass as well. He took a sip before he turned his attention back towards the chess computer. He typed in his move before taking another sip.

"Your move," said the computer. "Bishop to knight 4. My move, knight to rook 3."

"Poor baby, you're starting to lose aren't you," Mac said.

Frank Poole cleared his throat as he thought about his next move. "Anyway, queen take pawn," he finally said.

" Bishop takes knight's pawn," replied HAL.

Mac typed in his next move. "Your move," said the computer. "King to rook one. My move, knight to rook six. Checkmate. Checkmate."

Poole thought about his next move for a moment. "Uh, rook to king one," he said.

"I'm sorry Frank," said HAL. "I think you missed it. queen to Bishop 3, bishop takes queen, knight takes bishop. Mate"

"Yeah," replied Poole. "It looks like you're right. I resign."

"Cheatin' ****" Mac said, as he opened up the small hatch, exposing the computer's wires, and poured his drink inside.

Poole stood up and walked away for a moment before noticing something was odd about his location. It seemed... different, and unfamiliar. "HAL?" He called out. No answer came.

He noticed a window, and saw something very odd- sunlight. Upon looking closer, Poole could not help but notice that there was snow everywhere. "This definitely is not Discovery," he muttered to himself. Furthermore, he realized he was in a small wooden building that was several feet above the ground.

MacReady stood and looked around. This was definitely not his shack. He seemed to be in a large round, grey room with control panels everywhere. The floor literally curved upwards, forming a complete circle before leading back down to where he stood. Suddenly a hatch opened, and an enraged young man climbed down a ladder, apparently sideways. The man was clean-shaven, with short, dark hair and a thin, grey suit.

"Frank," he said as he landed on the ground, and started walking downwards. "We've got a very serious problem. Something's wrong with HAL. One moment I was talking to him and the next he just randomly shut down. I can't find any trace of his consciousness anywhere on this ship and if we don't-"

The man cut himself off as he passed Mac. "Oh I'm sorry," he said. "I thought you were Frank."

The man started to walk past before stopping himself and turning around. "Wait a minute," he said. "Who are you?"

Mac was not quite sure how to respond. "Well, who the **** are you?" he asked. "Where the **** am I?"

The man sighed. "You're on Discovery 1," he said. "I'm Dave Bowman, mission commander."

"MacReady," replied Mac. "Most people just call me Mac."

At that point, Bowman noticed the glass next to the screen. He also saw the open hatch. He took a closer look, and it confirmed his suspicions.

"You idiot!" He said angrily. "You've just killed HAL!"

"What?" Mac asked.

"He was our computer," Bowman explained. "He was overseeing every one of this ship's systems, and now you've just killed him."

"He was cheating," Mac said. Bowman said nothing in response but turned quickly and ran up the wall. Mac followed him, and saw he was running towards what appeared to be three men, encased in thick, white cases. They almost looked mummified. Bowman was checking each and every one of them desperately before turning towards Mac.

"They're dead," Bowman told him. "You've just killed three men."

Poole looked around the building. He found a few of someone's belongings and a stash of liquor, but no answers. The sound of a helicopter was heard from outside. Hoping there might be some form of answer, Poole quickly found a coat, put it on and stepped outside.

As Poole stepped out of the shack, he saw a group of men gathered outside, apparently puzzled about something as well. He quickly worked his way downstairs and started to see what was happening. A helicopter was approaching the camp, pursuing a dog. Gunshots could be heard once in a while, and an explosion was seen in the distance.

The dog ran into the camp and jumped onto one of the men. The helicopter landed and the two pilots got out. One of them had a small round object, possibly a grenade. He accidently threw it backwards, shouted something and ran away. The other man got down on his knees and tried to find the grenade. However, it went off, destroying the helicopter.

The man who was not blown up quickly fell to the ground as the helicopter exploded. He had a rifle and slowly emerged from the snow. He shouted something which Poole could not understand before raising his weapon and trying to shoot at the dog. It ran out of the way, and hit one of the men in the leg.

"TAKE COVER!" someone shouted. Following the instincts of the other men, Poole quickly dove into a nearby snow bank, landing next to a man in a light brown jacket. After a moment, he seemed to look at Poole strangely.

"Who the heck are you?" He asked.

Poole looked at him confusedly. "I was just going to ask you the same question," he said. At that moment, the strange man with the rifle began to walk around one of the vehicles in the camp, attempting to fire at the dog. He took a few steps, and raised his gun. Then there was a shot, and he fell to the ground.

Soon after some of the men quickly went in and came out with fire extinguishers to put out the fire from the helicopter. Meanwhile, a middle-aged man with short blonde hair who had quickly thrown on a brown coat stepped out. They gathered around the helicopter for a moment, except the wounded man, who still lay in the snow. At the same time, a large man with a plaid shirt, a green baseball hat, and a thick red beard stepped outside and got down next to the dog. "Easy," he said, stroking its back. "Easy, easy, easy. Yes."

Poole, shocked and confused, slowly got up and looked around nervously. At that point, the wounded man and the large man both looked at him.

"Who the **** are you?" The large man shouted after a moment. Poole was not quite sure how to respond.

This suddenly got the attention of one of the men, a tall, bald, black man. The others were initially confused. Two of the men came over at that point, one of them an older man who started to help the wounded man, while the other looked like an authority figure.

"Where did you come from?" the authority figure asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," replied Poole.

"He's definitely not Norwegian," said the black man.

Poole looked around nervously. "Could someone please explain what's going on?" he asked.

"How did you get here?" asked the authority figure.

"I don't know," replied Poole. "One moment I was aboard Discovery playing chess with HAL, the next I'm sitting with an ancient computer in some wooden shack."

"Ancient?" asked the authority figure.

"Look," Poole said. "Could someone just tell me where I am?"

The authority figure sighed. "You're in Outpost 31," he said before turning back toward the door. Poole reluctantly followed him.

"X-ray delta one," said the mission controller as he appeared on screen. "This is Mission Control."

"We have a very serious emergency," Bowman calmly said into the radio. "HAL's broken, the three in hibernation are dead, some guy randomly appeared, and I can't find Frank anywhere. Over."

The mission controller was not sure what to make of this information. "You say that someone just randomly appeared?" he asked.

Mac stepped next to Bowman at that moment. "Who's that," asked the Mission controller.

"I don't know," replied Bowman.

"Could you by any chance tell me where the **** I am?" Mac asked.

"You're aboard the spaceship Discovery 1, replied the Mission Controller. "On your way to Jupiter."

Mac looked confused. "That can't be possible," he said. "I'm supposed to be in Antarctica. I'm a helicopter pilot."