In the future, genetic modification of embryos becomes quite popular. These babies are born with
higher IQ, ideal physical characteristics, and controlled emotions. They are perfect
specimens referred to as "GC people" and are named after the company "Gren Crest Labs" that
invented the method. When space exploration becomes indispensable to find a solution to
climate change, these GC people are sent into deep space as astronauts. Aboard the starship Teleios,
a crew of GC astronauts led by Commander Linden wake up from their cryosleep when
they make it to Saturn. Their objective is to find out what happened to Atromitos,
a mining vessel that has been drifting off Saturn’s moon Titan. When they find it, they
discover Atromitos' hull is going to rupture, and since it's so much bigger than Teleios, they have
to use all their kill thrusters simultaneously to align both ships. The docking is a success,
but when Zimmer and Anderson try to celebrate with a fistbump, Doctor Orson scolds them for touching,
which confuses the GC bio-signs. Afterward, they communicate with GC Labs' CEO Nordham to inform
him that they've accessed Atromitos' system and their last transmission was three months ago,
and now nobody is answering either, thus they assume the entire crew is dead. They don't see
the point of a rescue mission, so Nordham explains they need to recover the cargo. It took two years
to mine this carbon-fixing catalyst, which will repair Earth's atmosphere. Then Duncan
gets access to Atromitos' logs, where the captain explains they're finally ready to go after a bunch
of delays, they just need to wait for the crew quarantine to end. On a different log, the captain
comments the situation is getting worse by the hour and that a violent mutiny is highly probable.
This makes Orson complain that perfect GCs like them always have to clean after the messes left by
regular humans. Suddenly, they hear a weird noise coming from Atromitos: it's death metal music
from the 90s. The Teleios crew arms themselves and gets ready to board Atromitos after Zimmer
overrides the access code because for some reason the inter-system configuration changed. When they
make it inside, they find all kinds of weird graffiti on the walls, and the music's so loud
they can barely hear each other. At that moment, the crew is attacked by an improvised security
device. They manage to destroy it before it can hurt them, and then the crew splits to cover more
ground. Zimmer discovers the black box has been forcibly removed, but at least he gets access
to the system and manages to turn off the music. Anderson finds that all the greenhouse plants are
overgrown, and among these plants there's Lulu, Atromitos' robot servant who informs them there's
one survivor left on the ship. After destroying another security device, Duncan finds Travis,
but he's unresponsive, almost in a catatonic state. Orson goes looking for the cargo,
but unfortunately it's not there. Moments later, the crew meets to discuss the situation. The
Atromitos' tracking system is disabled, and the scanners didn't find any signs of the cargo or the
crew, the only DNA present is still Travis' and the plants'. Travis is the ship's junior engineer
and his file shows nothing special about him, he doesn't even have military training. Physically
he's fine, but mentally Travis is a mess: it could be PTSD, depression, depersonalization disorder,
or even all three. Linden tries to talk to Travis, but still gets no response, so he decides Duncan
will be in charge of the guy because she has a PhD in psychology. Lulu can't help because her
memory has been wiped clean just like Atromitos' system. Meanwhile Anderson finds a message from
Nordham coldly asking about the cargo and she comments on how they'll be stuck here for a while,
thus they'll have to find a way to make the most of it. This shocks Zimmer because that
almost sounded like flirting, which the GC should be above. Duncan goes to see Travis and tries to
bond with him through kindness and discussing matters like friendships in the crew and the
effect space travel can have on the mind. Later, Duncan brings her results to Linden and Orson:
not a single thing she said got Travis to respond, but his face did twitch when Duncan mentioned
Lulu. Duncan points out that isn't uncommon for not-GC people to develop feelings for robots,
especially if they look human. Since Travis is an engineer, he could've added some modifications,
and Zimmer conducts a medical examination to confirm that Travis modified Lulu to give her
private parts. Linden decides they'll allow Lulu to visit Travis from time to time to see if she
can be the carrot they can use to control him. Moments later, the system goes out in the whole
ship, and they discover Travis has escaped and he's probably armed because there's a
pulse rifle missing. Duncan goes looking for him and ends up at the end of Travis' weapon,
so she tries to make him talk to her by using kindness again. When she's about to get him to
react, Linden interrupts them and makes Travis lower the rifle through threats. After they lock
Travis again, Duncan argues with Linden for not trusting her methods, but Linden just reminds her
of the mission. In the meantime, Anderson weirdly tells Zimmer that she finds the emergency lights
soothing. Zimmer decides to access the Atromitos' entertainment files, discovering that they liked
to watch violent robot fights. He thinks this is natural because unperfect humans crave violence,
but Anderson finds it disgusting and asks him to stop it. Then she comments on how hot the
room is without the cooling system and removes her jacket, which makes Zimmer feel more awkward
than it should. Seconds later, Zimmer gets the system working again, and they get another cold
message from Nordham reminding them to get the cargo and that everything else is secondary.
Duncan studies the graffiti on the walls before approaching Travis again, this time she talks
kindly about his art before leaving him alone with Lulu. Then Duncan goes into the next room
to spy on them through a hidden camera, and she hears Travis whispers things to Lulu in Mandarin
before kissing her. Afterward, Duncan goes looking for Orson and finds him wandering in a corridor
because he forgot what he came here for, which is strange because he never forgets anything.
Zimmer knows Mandarin, so Duncan plays the recording of Travis' words, which are gargled
because of the whispering. Zimmer can make out the words unable, belief, and near, and wonders why
Travis' profile didn't say he knew languages, but he promises he'll work on translating the
full conversation. Duncan goes back to watching Travis and Lulu and discovers her hand is shaking,
so she makes it stop before anyone can notice. Since Travis isn't talking anymore,
Duncan makes Lulu leave the room and asks her what Travis said, to which Lulu responds Travis
told her in his mind they are together every moment. This doesn't match Zimmer's translation,
meaning she's lying, which she shouldn't be able to do. Meanwhile the guys are discussing alternate
methods of interrogation and Orson shares some military tactics he's studied in the past, but
Zimmer and Linden are against anything that could cause harm. They're interrupted by Anderson who is
having trouble with the bathroom system, so Zimmer goes to fix it. Anderson shocks Zimmer by thanking
him with a hug and asks him to stay, convincing him to get frisky with her in the shower. Duncan
continues to watch Travis and suddenly hears him speak in Russian. Before the computer can start
translating, the ship suddenly begins shaking and the crew discovers an outside door opened,
so they're losing atmosphere. Linden notices Zimmer coming out of Anderson's room without
his uniform, but now they need to concentrate on the emergency, which is made worse when
Zimmer realizes they've been locked out of the system. The door that opened is on the cargo bay,
which doesn't make sense because that area should be isolated, meaning there must be a break in the
air seal. Zimmer enters the cargo hold while Linden holds him with a rope, and while he's
successful in closing the door again, this still makes Anderson cry because she thought her friends
were in danger. Linden comes back fine but Zimmer has passed from the air pressure, so Orson takes
him to the infirmary for a medical examination. He decides Zimmer only needs "some rest, probably
until he wakes up", which leaves him confused because he's usually more exact with his words
than that. Afterward, Linden scolds Anderson for what he did with Zimmer in the bathroom,
reminding her that primal indulges aren't for GCs. Meanwhile Duncan asks Orson if robots can lie,
so he explains they can be reprogrammed to give incorrect answers to specific questions, but they
can't make up their own answers. However he didn't find such programming when he examined Lulu. Then
Duncan goes back to the computer to translate the Russian sentences she heard earlier, and
this is heard by Anderson, who points out that's a complex quote from "War and Peace" by Tolstoy.
Anderson also wonders if Travis is contemplating the meaning of their existence, which makes
Duncan rush to see him and finally confront him. After electrocuting him, she explains she thinks
Travis is only pretending to be psychologically traumatized, which makes Travis answer in French,
which Duncan can understand. Travis asks her not to repeat this to anyone but just adds another
literature quote. Back to Anderson, she manages to get the communication system in the Atromitos
working, but she sees the same message she saw before. Nordham hasn't been live, it's a recording
that keeps arriving as a new message every two hours. Linden asks her to send new encrypted
messages out to Earth until they get an answer, and this makes Anderson cry, so Linden yells at
her for being emotional. At that moment, a newly woken Zimmer comes to see them, and Anderson runs
to hug him, causing Linden to yell at them again. He thinks that if Zimmer hadn't been
with Anderson, he could've seen the error in the cargo bay before it almost got them killed. Linden
orders Anderson to go see Orson to check why she's being emotional, then he shares with Zimmer what
he's found in the logs. The first year of logging was thorough with its information, but the second
year became more sparse until it nearly ceased about three months ago, as if the information
has been purposely censored. Instead of commenting on that, Zimmer wonders when Linden became such a
twat. Orson examines Anderson, but he doesn't find any signs that there's something wrong with her.
Anderson wonders if Orson feels different too, but he doesn't want to admit it. Duncan researches
Travis' latest quote, which turns out to be Moliere. This makes her check the graffiti under
ultraviolet light, allowing her to discover a hidden message that then makes her check the logs.
When Linden comes to check on her progress, Duncan explains Atromitos was never in real danger, and
it was purposely put close to Titan's atmosphere shortly before they arrived by Travis. A recording
reveals there was a dispute about the cargo that led to war in factions, making Duncan believe the
cargo isn't what Nordham told them. Next Duncan shows Linden the hidden message she found in
the graffiti, it's a chemical formula depicting a water base liquid compound reacting with a foreign
substance. The other drawing depicts water, and Duncan remembers that when Travis tried to escape,
he wasn't aiming at her, he had been aiming at the panel of the main water filtration system.
The cargo bay door was where the cargo got jettisoned from, making Duncan think that
the cargo was this compound that reacts badly to water and can be harmful to humans. Linden thinks
all this is circumstantial evidence and orders Duncan to get a confession. Duncan goes to demand
an explanation from Travis, who quotes Tolstoy again and implies the compound would destroy not
GC-people before he starts laughing, making Duncan leave in frustration while her hand shakes. Zimmer
finds her in the corridor and asks about the hand, but he quickly forgets what he came here
for. In the meantime, Zimmer informs Linden that if the cargo had been released, then it would've
pulled into Titan's atmosphere and it would've survived the landing thanks to the special box
it was in. However without more information, looking for it would be like hunting for a
single grain of sand. Later, Linden authorizes a more extreme method of interrogation to get
Travis to talk. Duncan asks Travis to confess where the cargo is or Orson will hurt Lulu,
and at first Travis doesn't react, he only watches how Orson gets the robot's arm. But when Orson's
about to go for the head, Travis finally snaps and gives them the codes to track the cargo box.
He also accepts to explain everything related to the compound, but only if they allow him to repair
Lulu. In the communication room, Zimmer tries to get affectionate with Anderson, who pushes him
away for the sake of the mission. Zimmer doesn't care about the mission anymore because he's tired
of not having the power of choice and confesses he can't concentrate on his job because he keeps
thinking about her. When she's called beautiful, Anderson cries and kisses Zimmer. When Linden
discovers the couple is getting frisky again, he pulls them apart and tries to start a fight,
but Orson stops them when he brings the info they got from Travis. Using the code, they manage to
find the cargo, although they can't get a visual. Linden decides he and Zimmer will go down on a
pod to recover the cargo. In the meantime, Duncan brings Travis repair tools to get him to talk. He
explains he was the one to jettison the bodies and the cargo, and who erased Lulu's and the ship's
memories, but he wasn't able to end things for himself. Since he couldn't forget all the terrible
things, he decided to embrace the craziness so he could the story on his own terms because nuance
couldn't be explained on a captain's log. After the crew had successfully mined the compound
from Titan, one microscopic bit on someone's glove got through quarantine and into the water supply,
making all their water lethal. They sent a message to Earth to warn them the compound wasn't safe,
but Nordham only told them the ship came with a special water filtering system made by his
company that could deal with the compound, meaning they always knew what it could do. The crew got
divided into two teams, but those who didn't want to bring the compound back to Earth were killed
by those who wanted to obey Nordham. Travis survived by staying away from the conflict,
and the winning team got killed one by one from the shadows. GC Labs wants the compound
to kill regular humans and use their blood to fix GC-people. After Duncan leaves to tell the others,
Travis begins repairing Lulu. Meanwhile Anderson finds a message from Nordham, saying this will be
his last. Nordham knows that the crew is probably feeling the symptoms of unwanted emotions by now
and explains that the DNA of every GC-person has a tracking code that was supposed to be inert,
but it's mutating and causing irreversible neurological problems. The Earth is burning
and regular humans are being hunted just like Travis said, and the crew only has a few hours
before they'll go completely mad. Orson, Anderson, and Duncan get together to discuss the issue,
and Orson points out Travis' blood could fix them all. This would also kill him, thus Duncan
decides they'll wait for Zimmer and Linden to return before doing anything. Moments later,
Duncan finds Orson trying to sneak from his office with the tools for blood extraction,
so she has no choice but to stay next to him with her rifle out until their friends come back.
Sixteen hours later, Linden and Zimmer return, but they get into a fight as soon as they re-enter
the ship. The crew pulls them apart and after confirming the cargo is fine, they discuss things
again and decide to vote. Zimmer and Anderson are against taking the blood, but in the end,
Duncan agrees with Linden and Zimmer that better for one person to die than five. While Orson
goes to start the procedure on Travis, Anderson confesses to the others she doesn't trust Orson
because she saw him working on a suspicious quote from "The Art of War". Duncan explains he has just
been translating the text they heard Travis said to Lulu, and she finally realizes her mistake:
the quote indicates it wasn't Travis that killed everyone, it was Lulu. At that moment, Lulu wakes
up and immediately knocks Orson out. The crew rushes to get their rifles, but when they make it
to the rec room, Orson is unconscious and Lula has left with Travis. Scared about what awaits them,
Anderson tells Zimmer that she loves him, but before he can reply, the system goes out all over
the ship. Zimmer turns around to check on what's going but a thump noise makes him look again only
to discover Anderson has been killed from behind while they were distracted by the alarm. Zimmer's
so furious that he ignores Duncan's warnings and goes looking for their enemy alone. Eventually he
finds Lulu in the cargo bay, and since she's in combat mode now, she's better than even a
GC-person. Zimmer manages to land a hit or two on her, but Lulu still overpowers him and kills
him. Duncan is found by Travis, who immediately knocks her out with his rifle, but this gives
out his position and allows Linden to shoot him too. When Lulu comes down that corridor, she walks
by Duncan's body thinking she's unconscious, but it's all a trap. Linden's holding Travis hostage
to stop her from moving, then he and Duncan shoot at the ship's lighting system to make it explode
above Lulu and electrocute her until she breaks. Afterward, Linden gets Travis ready to be killed
while calling him depraved for the modifications he made to Lulu, which Travis denies. This
makes Duncan change her mind about the vote and instead of attacking Travis, she kills Linden.
Then she explains that the GC problem had a 97% success rate but she was part of the other 3%,
which is why the mutation hasn't affected her as much as the others. She let Travis live because he
said he didn't modify Lulu, so she wants to know why Lulu modified herself and why she was able to
lie. Travis says Lulu added the modifications in order for them to be closer, but he doesn't
understand why her programming changed. The only way to get answers is to fix Lulu, and to achieve
that they need to take her to Earth. Duncan tells Travis to take her away in Teleios and
tell everyone on Earth his story. Duncan will stay in Atromitos and wait for the end, thinking she
deserves it because she killed someone when she was young just because she couldn't control her
temper. Once Travis and Lulu are safely far enough in Teleios, Duncan overrides Atromitos' protocol
and makes the ship crash into the surface of Titan to finally get rid of the problem for good.