- As the mystery of Lorelei's murder deepens, an investigation into Project Ascension threatens to expose the entire project.
- In 2014, the generation ship Ascension is halfway through its 100 year mission to establish a human colony at Proxima Centauri. The ship is approaching the "point of no return" after which they must continue on to their destination rather than possibly returning to Earth.
On the night of the Launch Day celebrations, Lorelai Ward goes swimming at the artificial beach constructed in the water reclamation center. Some time later she is found dead on the sand. A flashback to eighteen hours earlier shows the preparations for the celebration, including the Captain's wife, Viondra Denninger inspecting the beautiful young women who work as her "stewardesses". James Toback, Lorelai's secret boyfriend from the lower decks is looking for her. Her friend, Nora Bryce tells him that Lorelai isn't around.
Lorelai visits a bar in the lower decks where she meets stockyard worker Stokes who gives her a package. Later, at the celebration, Lorelai's sister Emily Vanderhaus, talks with Oren Gault, the ship's Executive Officer. Lorelais comments that it's a shame that Emily's husband, the chief of security, was on duty. During the celebration, Emily and Gault sneak off an make love. A young girl, Christa Vallis, goes looking for Lorelai and finds her body on the beach.
On Earth, Harris Enzmann visits his father in a nursing home where the older man is incapacitated due to advanced alzheimers. Harris learns that another person had visited his father earlier. He confronts the man and learns that he is Mark Hayes, a PhD student doing research on Harris' father and the early space program. Hayes talks about Project Ascension and the quest to build a generation ship to go to another star. He tells Harris that he believes that the ship was actually launched. Harris scoffs at the idea but Hayes asks that Harris, who works in procurement for the government, at least check out the possibility.
On Ascension, the command staff begins to look into Lorelai's death. The ship's chief doctor, Juliet Bryce, says that Lorelai died of a head wound, most likely from a fall. Duke Vanderhaus, the Chief of Safety for the ship believes that Lorelai, his sister-in-law, had a drunken accident, but Gault wonders if it was murder. Captain Denninger asks Gault to discretely investigate the matter. Denninger then makes a shipwide announcement of Lorelai's death.
Dr Bryce and Nora are also treating Christa, who has been in a state of shock since finding Lorelai's body. Suddenly, the girl begins to panic and starts saying that "They're watching". Bryce gives her a sedative to knock her out. She then informs Gault that Lorelai's psychological evaluation revealed unusual levels of rage which went beyond "the Crisis" which all the residents of Ascension experience as they come of age and realize that their fate on Ascension was chosen by others long before they were born. Gault reviews security footage which shows that no one else appeared to enter the beach after Lorelai. Emily then informs him that Lorelai had been seeing James Toback.
Dr Bryce gives a full autopsy report to Captain Denninger, saying that Lorelai was not drunk, but had had sex within a few hours before her death. There were also several contusions to her body and a broken bone which may suggest that she had been assaulted and gagged. She also found a small wound in Lorelai's mouth from a bullet. Denninger and Gault are surprised since there were not supposed to be any firearms on the ship. Gault consults with Ophelia, the ships librarian, who recommends that he consult detective fiction to gain some idea of how to conduct an investigation. She also shows him the last thing which Lorelai checked out, the video for the 31st Launch Day celebration, when a fire occurred which killed Lorelai's father and wounded both Gault and Ophelia. Gault opens the video's case and finds that the video card is missing.
Viondra has sex with Councilman Rose, after which they discuss a possible attempt to unseat her husband and replace him with Rose.Dr Bryce visits Christa in the ship's observatory deck. Christa tells Bryce and her mother that there's no life at Proxima and points to another star cluster which they must go to, saying that "anything else is death".
Gault interrogates James Toback, who says that he and Lorelai had an argument the night she died and that he was not the one who had sex with her. In their cabin, the Denningers discuss the Captain's future, with Viondra arguing for him not to jeopardize what she has built by using her stewardesses to build alliances with powerful men by granting them sexual favors. Gault talks to Christa about Lorelai's death. Christa tells him that Lorelai was afraid of someone, not James, and that this person "knew the truth." Gault asks her about a mysterious reference she had made earlier to something called "Globus". Christa tells him that she is a weirdo and feels like she sometimes thinks she knows things and "can feel it, behind everything." Later, while exercising, Denninger tells Gault that if he can't prove James Toback's innocence that they might charge him just to get a scapegoat.
Gault tracks James to the beach, where the two of them discover a hatchway hidden beneath the sand. Meanwhile, Christa returns to the observatory, where she shouts at the heavens to "stop it" and informs them that "I'm not afraid of you."
On Earth, Harris meets with a subordinate who he tells about Hayes being onto the reality of Ascension. The subordinate worries about the report of a gun on board Ascension and also about "the Anomaly" and tells Harris that the crew is in danger.
On Ascension, Gault and Duke investigate the tunnel found under beach. They discover the place where Lorelai was murdered and nearby find a book by Rilke which has had its pages bleached blank. Denninger reviews the book and fins plans for the navigation and water filtration systems penciled inside. Both of those systems had experienced recent failures and Gault suspects sabotage. Denninger informs him that they are aware of a possible mutiny by lower deck elements intent on retunr the ship to Earth.
Duke and his men go to search the farm levelm where they come into conflict with Stokes. But before they can search the area, a radiation alarm goes off, indicating that they are approaching a large and powerful radiation storm. As the crew readies to enter their radiation proof shelters, James Toback and Nora Bryce take the opportunity to go to the beach unobserved and search for clues. In the bottom of the pool they discover the missing memory card which Lorelai took. Meanwhile, Gault and Nixon, an associate of Stokes' rush to repair part of the ship's shielding. Afterwards, Nixon informs Gault that he saw Stokes give Lorelai a gun sometime before her death. Dr Bryce puts Christa in a radiation proof bed in her quarters, and leaves a seahorse necklace which Christa had admired before to guard the girl. The crew settles in to ride out the storm, but Christa remains awake and sees a person in a hazmat suit enter and search Bryce's quarters.
After the storm passes, Stokes inspects his animals and discovers a bootprint in some grain which had not been there prior to the storm. Duke's men arrive and search the farm, discovering the gun. Stokes insists that he has been set up. Christa tells Bryce that the man she saw took her necklace, but Bryce believes that Christa imagines it.
Denninger and Gault question Stokes who still insists that he was set up. They threaten to eject Stokes from an airlock if he is convicted and Stokes tells them that they shouldn't be looking for who Lorelai was afraid of, but rather who was afraid of her. Before Lorelai's funeral, the Denninger's discuss things and Viondra tells the Captain that she needs to do more digging in order to discover Councilman Rose's mole. Christa approaches Gault and gives him a charm which she says Lorelai had been given by "her boyriend". During the funeral, the door to Stokes' cell mysteriously opens. Wandering outside, Stokes breaks into an evidence locker and takes the gun.
On Earth, Harris meets with his boss Director Warren, who has become aware of the problems on Ascension, including the possible murder. She informs him that his position is in jeopardy if things get out of control. On Ascension, Stokes takes Nora hostage. Meanwhile. Gault confronts Captain Denninger about the charm from Lorelai's boyfriend, which had belonged to the first Captain and now belongs to Denninger. The Captain admits to the affair but denies killing Lorelai. Stokes appears with Nora in tow and demands a meeting with the council, saying that someone came in during the radiation storm and planted the gun and also informing them about the boot print.
Gault attacks Stokes, allowing Nora and Denninger to escape. The two fight as the exterior airlock door opens. Stokes gets sucked outside. He falls through space tumbling over and over and then lands on a set of giant airbags. A group of men rush up and inject Stokes with a sedative before leading him away. Nearby, Harris watches on a tablet computer and informs Warren that he still has complete control over everything to do with Ascension, from the movement of the stars to the the functions of the ship. He describes Ascension as a lifeboat for humanity. The camera then pans up to reveal Ascension, still on Earth, encased in an artificial globe to simulate the stars.
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Chapter One (2014) in Australia?
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