The moon. A vast and empty place, unpopulated by every life form of existence, aside from those who visit. On the giant rock is a structure that was once used by a currently-existing extraterrestrial life form for plans to remake the Earth in their image and vision, in order to conduct their desired plans. Just ten-thirty feet of it is a flag of a nation called the United States of America. The flag is on the moon with a plaque commemorating the events of July 20, 1969.
Suddenly, regolith dust begins blowing over as a giant shadow roams over the area. The shadow is caused by what appears to be a mothership. It had half-spears attached to the bottom side. On the ship is a symbol, shaped like a circle, with a triangle inside the circle. Inside the triangle are 3 smaller triangles evenly overlapping each other. The top one was white, the bottom-right was blue, and the bottom-left was yellow. The ship appeared to be heading for Earth.
The (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute)S.E.T.I., New Mexico
Computers and machines within the room are active as the search for extraterrestrial life continues. In the same room, a man is playing golf as the song "It's the End of the World as We Know it(And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. plays on the radio. The man clearly so invested in his game fails to realize an incoming image on the radar of Earth's atmosphere until he hears a beeping sound. Then looking at the beeping light he gets to the controls to turn the music off, only to hear something odd on the speakers. After looking what it is he soon calls someone on the phone.
In another room, an old man in like his 50's is sleeping on the bed He is the supervisor for S.E.T.I. New Mexico. Still very tired, he lazily answers the phone . "If this isn't an insanely beautiful woman, I'm hanging up," he says.
"Sir," the other man begins, "I think you should listen to this."
With that said, he uses his chair to slide over to the speaker and hover his phone close enough so the other man can hear the readings. It sounds like nothing at first, until the weird sounds began playing. This got the other man's attention. He gets up and hits his head in pain. He exclaimed "Agh! Ouh!"
The man calling gets his phone off the speaker and asked, "Sir? Sir?" while the other man is saying, "God dammit!"
The supervisor leaves the room to get to the scene, putting his robe on in the process, saying, "This better not be another damn Russian spy job." In one room, he could hear a woman saying, "Come on, baby." four times.
An African-American researcher for S.E.T.I. says, "Boys from air traffic RER say the skies are clear."
The Asian-American says while smiling, "It's the real thing, a radio signal from another world."
The supervisor says, "Le-le-let's not jump the gun here." Then he orders, "Get online with Space Command, they're gonna wanna know about-"
Before he could finish his sentence, he slips on some golf balls and exclaimed, "What's with the golf balls? You're gonna kill me here!"
"Wait, wait! This can't be right," the woman began, getting the old man's attention, "The calculated distance from source… is only 375,000km. It's coming from the moon."
The old man turns the signal on, and the strange readings come back. Suddenly, female voices are heard, saying something, something that they think they need to write down.
"What are they saying?" the Asian-American asks, "We need to write this down."
They do so, and on their paper displays a name, Steven Universe.
The supervisor says, "We need to inform Space Command and the government about this."
Space Command in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. where a statue of the flag-planting in Iwo Jima stands. Inside the hallway, two men are walking down it. They are General William Grey of the U.S. Marines and Commanding Officer Ray Castillo.
"Who else knows about this?" Grey asks.
Castillo responds, "S.E.T.I. in New Mexico identified a signal bit, uh, they're even more confused than we are sir. Excuse me."
With that said, he opens the door with security cards and walks through with Grey. They enter a room with technicians and assistants operating their systems. Also inside is Danowitz, a second commanding officer, who's with a major.
"Major?" Castillo asks.
"Yes, sir?" the major asks.
"Radar reception has been impaired but we were able to get these," Castillo tells him.
With that said, he unrolls a sheet that shows satellite-taken images of the mothership.
Castillo then tells the major, "We estimate it has a diameter of over 550 kilometers and a mass roughly one-fourth the size of our moon."
"What the hell is it? A meteor?" Grey asks.
"No sir," Castillo responds.
Danowitz comes in saying, "No. Definitely not."
"How do you know?" Grey asks him.
Danowitz answers, "Well Sir, er... it's slowing down."
Grey asks, "It's what?"
Danowitz reassures him, "It's… slowing down, Sir."
Suddenly, they notice a symbol on the diagram, a circle with triangles inside.
"This is odd," Castillo says, "Also, S.E.T.I. New Mexico were saying something about someone named "Steven Universe", and that the "thing" is coming to Earth to kill him or something. That's S.E.T.I. New Mexico's hypothesis, with the "death" part, but they were telling the truth about this Steven person. We don't know who he is but need to contact him. The rest of the government needs to know about this."
Taking to the idea, Grey walks over to the phone and picks it up, contacting the President and his cabinet.
"Get me the Secretary of Defense," Grey began. After hearing that the Secretary of Defense is sleeping, he says, "Then wake him!"
In the bedroom of the U.S. President, Thomas J. Whitmore, the phone rings, and Whitmore answers it. There are also papers where he is. A lump is in his bed next to him. He picks up the phone.
"Hello?" he asks.
"Hi. It's me," the caller answers. The caller is Marilyn Whitmore, the president's current wife, and the current first lady of the United States.
"Hi," Whitmore says all the way from Washington, D.C.,then asks Marilyn, "what time is it there?"
"It's 2.45 in the morning." she answers, "I know I didn't wake you."
"As a matter of fact you did," Whitmore lies.
Marilyn smiles and says, "Liar."
Whitmore comes clean by saying,"I have a confession to make. I'm sleeping next to a beautiful, young brunette."
The lump is actually Whitmore's 6-year-old daughter, Patrica.
Marilyn asks worriedly, "You didn't let her stay up all night watching TV, did you?"
Whitmore responds, "Of course not. You're coming home right after the luncheon, right?"
Marilyn answers, "Yes, yes, yes, yes."
Patricia wakes up saying, "Mommy?"
"Here's your mother," Whitmore tells her, giving her the phone.
"Hi, honey!" Marilyn says.
Patricia says, "Hi, I miss you."
Whitmore, getting out of bed after handing Patricia the remote a second after giving her the phone earlier, turns the TV on, which displays the David Letterman show, which is saying honestly bad things about him.
John McLaughlin says on the TV, " ...President Whitmore's approval ratings have slipped below 40%. Even his Crime Bill failed to pass. Are the salad days over for President Whitmore? Morton."
Morton Kondracke says, "Leadership as a pilot in the Gulf War is completely different to leadership in politics…"
Patricia told Marilyn on the phone, "Daddy let me watch Letterman."
Whitmore says while smiling, "Traitor," before exiting the room while the TV keeps playing.
Eleanor says on the TV, "That's the problem. They elected a warrior and they got a wimp!"
Whitmore is walking through the hallway with an African-American Secret Serviceman named George.
"Good morning, George," Whitmore greets him.
"Good morning, Mr. President," George greets back.
"That game couldn't have been pretty," Whitmore tells him.
"Thank you, sir," George replies.
The president continues down the corridor, passing a woman reading a newspaper. Her name is Constance "Connie" Spano, Whitmore's communication director.
"Connie, you're up awfully early this morning," Whitmore tells her.
Spano tells him, "They're not attacking your policies, they're attacking your age."
She continues reading from her newspaper as Whitmore's butler makes breakfast.
Spano tells him, "...addressing Congress, Whitmore seems less like the President and more like the orphan child Oliver asking, 'please sir, I'd like some more.'"
Whitmore says, "That's clever."
Spano says in a bad way, "Yeah, well I'm not laughing. Age was never an issue when you stuck to your gun. You were thought of as young, idealistic. Now the message has gotten lost. There's too much politics, too much compromise."
Whitmore tells her, "Isn't it amazing how quickly everyone can turn against you. There's a fine line between standing behind principle and hiding behind one. You can tolerate a little compromise if you're actually managing to get something accomplished."
Spano tells him, "Well, the Orange County Dispatch has voted you one of the 10 sexiest men of the year.
Whitmore reads the newspaper and smiles in embarrassment before saying, "That's accomplishing something."
Then a congressional aide named Alex appears in the doorway saying, "Excuse me, Mr. President. It's the Secretary of Defense."
Whitmore picks up the phone and asks, "Yes?"
The Secretary of Defense tells him about the Steven Universe person and the alien ships.
"Could you say that again?" he asks the secretary.
In space, a satellite is in orbit, until it crashes into a giant vessel with a circle-and-triangles symbol, revealing it to be the mothership.
Beach City, Delmarva, the same day. In its city hall, Mayor William Dewey is in his office until he receives a phone call. He answers it.
"This is Mayor Dewey of Beach City," he tells the caller, "What brings you here?"
"Dewey," the caller says, "this is President Thomas J. Whitmore of the United States. We have a problem revolving someone named Steven Universe."
"What is it?!" he asks in shock about the president calling and that he wants something to do with Steven.
Whitmore all the way from Washington continues, "S.E.T.I. New Mexico has detected a radio signal from what is identified by Space Command as a mothership from an extraterrestrial world. Apparently, these beings want something to do with him, but we don't know what it is. We located him in Beach City, which you're the mayor of. What do you know about Steven?"
At this point, Mayor Dewey, realizing that this is a matter of life and death, chooses to tell the U.S. Federal Government everything about Steven Universe and his friends.
"Well," Whitmore begins, "we know who and where he is. We'll need to contact him and Connie to tell them everything about the situation and get them into safety in Washington. If the Crystal Gems ask where he is, tell them to bring Lapis and Peridot with them, since the government has them under protection. Tell them what I told you if they ask. Never forget."
"Don't worry," Dewey says, "I won't forget."
Whitmore hangs up, but makes a phone call to Steven.
In a beach, Steven Universe and Connie Maheswaran are sitting on a bench, staring at the ocean. Connie is wearing a white T-shirt and a jean skirt, along with red sandals. Steven's cell phone rings and they answer it.
"Hello?" Steven asks.
"Steven," the caller says, "it's me, Mayor Dewey."
"Dewey?" Connie asks, "Is there a problem?"
"Yes," Dewey says, "there are extraterrestrial problems revolving around Steven. The government wants him and Connie in Washington with him right now."
"Whatever problems have to do with me," Steven says, "I hope it's resolved. Tell the government we're waiting for them at the top of the temple."
"Will do," Dewey says. Both parties hang up. Steven, activating his powers of floating, takes Connie with him to the top of the temple, where the Gems couldn't find him. There, they wait for government flight vehicles to pick them up.
A few hours later, they notice a helicopter descending from the sky, lowering to their location.
"Get on," the pilot says, "the president awaits you."
They do so, and the helicopter takes off for Washington.
New York City, New York State, which Steven and his friends know as Empire City, is currently minding its own business. In Central Park, a man named David Levinson is playing chess against his father, Julian Levinson, while listening to the radio.
"...to WXBY, out here in Brooklyn," the radio announcer for the station says, "the temperature is 95 degrees in Central Park, what it is here in the boroughs God only knows. Let's go to Nick Jones. He'll give us a traffic report at the beaches, in case anybody's not out there already. Nick, how is it?"
"So why are you waiting, hmm?" Julian asks, waiting impatiently for David to move his piece, "My social security will expire, you'll still be sitting there."
"I'm thinking," David answers.
"Yeah, well think already," Julian says in an inpatient matter.
After a short time of thinking, David finally moves his piece. At the same time that David takes hands off the piece, Julian moves his, then drinks coffee from a polyester cup, getting David's attention.
"Hey," David begins asking, "you have any idea how long it takes for those cups to decompose?"
Julius says, "If you don't move soon, I'm gonna start to decompose."
David then moves a new chest piece.
"Ah-ha," Julian says before moving his. After getting a smoke from his cigar, he talks to David.
"Listen, David," Julian begins "I've been meaning to talk with you. It's nice that you see me so much now, but…"
David, knowing what Julian's about to say, tries to stop him by saying, "Don't don't start Dad."
Julius says, "I'm only saying, it's been what? Four years, you're still wearing your wedding band?"
David holds up three fingers to correct him and says, "Three years."
Julius says, "Three, four. You're divorced, come on, move on. this is not healthy."
David says, "No, this is not healthy. Smoking is not healthy."
David then moved his queen.
"Checkmate," he says.
Julius says as David gets out of the table and walks away, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, this is not, this is not checkmate."
"See you tomorrow, Pop," David says as he gets on his bike and rides off.
Julius, still confused about the move, says, "Now just hold on, this is not checkmate!"
Just as David leaves on his bike, Julius comes to a realization and says, "Ugh, checkmate!"
David arrives in his bicycle to an office he works at. It's very busy at the moment.
An operator is busy talking to someone on the phone, saying, "Yes, we have everyone we have working on the problem. Yeah, I love X-Files too, I don't get to see it that often."
Several TV screens are operating on different channels. Marty Gilbert, the boss, gets to David and talks to him.
"David! David!" he begins, "What the hell is the point of having a beeper if you don't turn it on?"
"It was turned on," David responds, "I was ignoring you. Hallo, what's the, er, what's the big emergency?"
Marty says, "It started this morning. Every station's making like it's the 1950's."
David gets off his bicycle behind a Fruitopia vending machine.
"We got static," Marty continues, "we got snow, all kinds of distortions. Nobody knows what the hell is going on…"
As Marty is saying those words, he throws a used can of Coca-Cola in the trash bin, but not the recycling. This results in David getting the coke out of there and interrupting Marty by saying, "Marty, what the hell are you doing? There's a reason we have bins labeled 'recycle.'"
At that, he opens the recycling bin to find it full of Coke cans.
He asks Marty, "What the hell is going on? My God in heaven!"
Marty answers, "So sue me, David! We got a problem!"
David asks, "Did you try to switch transponder channels?"
Marty answers, "Oh please, do you think I would be this panicked if it was something simple?"
They walk into the main office.
"OK," David suggests, "let's point the dish at another satellite."
Marty informs him, "We've tried that, it didn't work. It's almost as though they weren't even there."
This puzzles David, who says, "That's impossible."