Mining Ship Echo One

Title: Mining Ship Echo One
Genre: Science Fiction / Horror
Logline: The asteroid mining ship Echo One, is overcome by an alien virus, which turns its hosts into vicious zombies hell-bent on contaminating the whole crew
and taking the ship back to Earth.

Synopsis:
Asteroid mining ship captain, GABRIEL FLINN, is on his last mining mission to the BELT, before he takes on his dream job as a geologist on the manned Mars missions. His ship, the Echo One and its 50 strong crew, arrive at the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, on schedule. They send their drones down to
start digging for the rare metal Tellurium. Gabriel and his close friend, the ship’s doctor, CLAIR DANIELS, watch from bridge and reminisce about old times. As
they watch, they are blinded by a bright light that bursts from the centre of the belt. The ship starts to vibrate and tip as micro meteors slam into the superstructure and crack the windows. Some parts of the ship are breached and the penetrating meteors kill one crew member, MARK SHAW. The crew begin repairs and try to figure out what just happened. After treating a multitude of injuries, Mark’s body is brought to Clair in the medical bay. Clair notices that the body is still warm and starts to run some tests. In Mark’s blood, she notices a weird organism that shocks her. As she continues the tests, Mark rises behind her, eyes blood red and teeth gritted. As she turns, Mark lunges at her but he is grabbed from behind, by the first officer, who then wrestles Mark to the ground. Mark starts to viciously beat and bite the first officer as Clair runs out.

Clair finds Gabriel and informs him about Mark. Another salvo of meteors hit. Gabriel, Clair and four other crew members get trapped in an airlock. Meanwhile, Mark goes on a bloody rampage through the ship. Everyone that he bites, turns into a vicious zombie. Finally, after hours of trying, Gabriel, Clair and the others manage to escape from the airlock, back into the main body of the ship but what they find is disturbing. The ship is dark, covered in blood and carnage. The air is filled with a garlic smell. They decide that they must get to the bridge and figure out what is going on. They start to come under attack from infected crew members as they battle their way to the bridge. They fight back with anything they can lay their hands on. They discover Mark is on the bridge, somehow controlling the Zombies and is turning the ship back towards Earth. Sustaining injuries and losses they decide to go to the medical bay, patch up and try to figure their enemy out.

On their way there, Clair tells everyone that the asteroid belt is the remnants of an exploded planet and that microbes could have survived in deep stasis, for millions of years, only to be re-awoken when entering Mark’s body. In the medical bay, Clair discovers that the microbes are a parasite that control the hosts brain, a bit like Toxoplasmosis in rats. The garlic smell are the pheromones coming from the bridge, possibly from Mark, used to control the infected crew. Clair explains that ants employ this method and it’s how the queen ant communicates with the hive. Clair believes she can engineer ‘propaganda pheromones’, also used by ants to confuse their enemy and make them attack each other. Now coming under attack in the medical bay, Clair rushes to synthesize the pheromones. When done, they release it into the air conditioning units. It has its required effect and the infected start attacking each other. Running through the carnage, Gabriel, Clair and one remaining crew member make it to the bridge. Mark attacks them as soon as they enter, killing the crew member. Gabriel and Clair fight Mark as more meteors slam into the ship. The damage causes the ship to get pulled down towards Mars and it starts burning up in the Martian atmosphere. Gabriel battles with Mark, as Clair
readies a life pod and spacesuits. Gabriel blasts MARK apart with a drilling laser. Gabriel scrambles into his spacesuit and the life pod takes off. Hurtling towards
the planet, Gabriel and Clair witness the Cerberus burn up in the atmosphere. The impact of the landing kills Clair. Gabriel clambers out onto the surface and
we see living quarters from a landing party in the distance.