By the year 2267, Earth has become uninhabitable because of ecological collapse, and humans now live in overcrowded space stations in Earth's orbit. Those with enough money escape to the planet Rhea, where they can start a new life. Laura wants to join her sister on Rhea, thus she has taken a job on the cargo ship Kassandra as the crew doctor for the money. The trip to Station #42 will take four years to arrive and four more to get back, so the crew will go into cryosleep and take turns staying awake one person at a time for eight months to keep an eye on things. Before leaving, Laura sends her sister one last video message, which will take a few years to get to Rhea. When she boards the Kassandra, Laura meets the crew: Captain Lacroix, first officer Lindbergh, system administrator Yoshida, Prokoff, and Vespucci. There's also Decker, a sky marshal sent by the government because lately ships have been under attack by the radical Neo-Luddite group "Machine Strikers", who are against living inside machines.
Their leader Bruckner is still on the loose after he bombed a few stations so they have to keep an eye out for him. The crew enters cryosleep and things go peacefully for three years. When it is Laura's turn to wake up, she finds a message from her sister Arianne waiting for her, where she expresses her worries over the terrorist attacks. Laura sends her a message back and then concentrates on establishing a routine to keep herself sane, which includes reading, exercising, and keeping an eye on the ship's performance. One day, Laura begins hearing noises inside the ship. She follows them to the cargo bay, where she suddenly finds something banging at the door.
Terrified, Laura runs away and is shocked to bump into Decker, who explains he was automatically woken up when the system detected someone entering the cargo bay, which is forbidden. Laura tells him what happened and rushes to wake up Lacroix, since the rules say the captain must be around during unexpected incidents. Once Lacroix wakes up, the three of them investigate the cargo bay and find the astronaut suits thrown on the floor. Lacroix wants to believe the air pressure tossed them, but then he checks the system logs and discovers multiple illegal accesses during Laura's shift. Afterward, the trio suits up and enters the containment area, leaving a metal plate at the gate to keep it open. They split to look for clues and Laura climbs to the upper area, which consists of dangerous narrow bridges to walk on. Suddenly Laura notices something falling: it is Lacroix.
Decker and Laura rush to check on him and find him unconscious. At that moment, the gate starts closing because it's bending the plate, so Decker picks up Lacroix and runs with Laura to get out before they get locked inside. By the time they make it out, Lacroix is dead and no CPR will bring him back. Since this is an emergency now, the whole crew must be woken up. Following protocol, Lindbergh becomes captain and she immediately assigns tasks: Yoshida must inspect the logs for suspicious activity, Laura must do an autopsy on Lacroix, and Prokoff and Vespucci must fix the gate. During the autopsy, Laura confirms Lacroix died when he fell, she also discovers one of his eyes is an implant.
She and Decker connect the eye to the computer and check the recording of Lacroix's last moments. To their shock, Lacroix finds an open containment unit with a biohazard warning on it, which doesn't make sense because they are supposed to be transporting construction materials. While Prokoff and Vespucci discover the gate's gears somehow broke, Laura and Decker return to the cargo bay and use Lacroix's badge to investigate the containers from the video. They go deeper inside and find all units connected by thick pipes. A closer look reveals a huge surprise: there are sleeping humans inside all of them. They call Prokoff and Vespucci to help them move a unit with a kid out of the bay, which raises an alert in the system and all the units start moving. The men move quickly enough but Laura almost falls and has to grab onto the stairs until Decker comes to help her. Moments later, they bring the unit to the medical bay. Lindbergh isn't happy about this because they aren't supposed to mess with the cargo, but now the rest of the crew wonders if Lacroix was murdered for seeing something he shouldn't have. Someone clearly set the containers in motion to kill them too, but Lindbergh insists it was just the system putting the units in order and that they should take the kid back.
Decker reminds her this is a murder investigation and Laura gets to do a full inspection of the kid. The scan confirms the child is under cryosleep, but she can't learn anything else because the tank is blocking her machines. Laura asks Decker for help and he uses a special program that will open the unit's digital lock in a few minutes. While they wait, Laura tells him about her sister in Rhea, and Decker kisses her. Meanwhile Lindbergh asks Yoshida to investigate Decker, thinking there's something wrong with him. At the cargo bay, Prokoff and Vespucci begin hearing weird noises coming from the inside. Once the container is finally unlocked, Laura takes a closer look at the kid and discovers there is a perfected virtual reality connector embedded in the girl's spine, something Laura never saw before. Decker wants to disconnect her, but Laura refuses because it could cause irreparable neural damage.
Reluctantly Decker understands and asks Laura to keep this secret for now. Afterward Laura sends another message to Arianne, telling her about her findings and complaining about how long messages take to arrive. In the meantime, Yoshida tries to access Decker's file only to get blocked out. Twenty minutes later, Laura is surprised to get a message from Arianne back so soon. Confused about what's going on, she confronts Decker and asks him why he wants to keep secrets and why he knows how to open the units. Instead of replying, Decker kisses her, and the two of them end up getting frisky. A few hours later, Lindbergh calls everyone to the deck and informs them that Yoshida discovered someone manipulated the cryo-chambers logs. It turns out Decker had been woken on regular basis, but Decker just says it is part of his duty to check on the ship periodically.
Lindbergh suspects him to be Lacroix's killer and tries to arrest him, causing Decker to try to defend himself. Yoshida and Vespucci manage to overpower him, but in the struggle Decker gets hurt, and Laura asks them to bring him into the medical bay to avoid blood contamination. Laura takes care of Decker's wound while ignoring Decker's attempts at chitchat, and before she leaves, Decker confesses they aren't going to Station #42, they're actually going to Rhea. Afterward, Decker is put back into cryosleep. In private, Laura asks Yoshida to check the ship's destination. Yoshida confirms they aren't going to Station #42, and since it's impossible to change coordinates after the flight already began, it means this was planned from the beginning. When Laura brings up her messages arriving quickly to Rhea, Yoshida points out Lindbergh is lying to them since she should know the coordinates.
Afterward Yoshida goes back to her computer to see if she can find out more. While Laura has a drink with the guys, she notices the power fluctuating and worries about Yoshida, so she goes to check on her. Unfortunately Yoshida is already dead. Upon hearing this, the crew immediately goes to check on Decker and discovers he's escaped the cryopod. The logs indicate someone left him out. The crew gets armed and goes looking for Decker. Laura and Vespucci go to the lower deck and find an open duct, which makes them think Decker escaped through there. Vespucci goes to the other side of the vent while Laura climbs this end, and she ends up finding a secret chamber full of trash. Suddenly she's attacked by a man and in the struggle, Laura shoots him. A closer look reveals this guy is the terrorist Bruckner, and there's a box with his belongings nearby. Laura finds pictures of the Machine Strikers working to develop natural resources and discovers Decker is part of the organization. There's also a tablet with a video showing that the Machine Strikers are growing food on Earth thanks to greenhouses and are purifying their own water, so there's no need to leave the planet, they just need to make an effort to clean it. Then Laura is startled by Vespucci, who informs her they've found Decker.
Everyone returns to the deck and Lindbergh orders the guys to hit Decker to make him talk. Decker explains Rhea is just a simulation and the people in the containers are being used as neural units. The government is lying because if people knew parts of Earth are habitable again, the system would crumble. Decker admits Bruckner cracked up and killed Lacroix, but not Yoshida. Vespucci and Prokoff take Decker away while Lindbergh asks Laura to finish with the kid in order to send her back to the cargo hold. Lindbergh also wants Laura to go back to cryosleep, promising to take over her shift. Getting suspicious, Laura takes out her gun but Lindbergh beats her to it and ties her up. Lindbergh explains that settlement on Rhea actually failed, and the simulation is only temporary until they manage to find a new planet to terraform. This simulation allows people to stay alive with hope, and Lindbergh won't allow anyone to get in the way, so she'll kill Laura and Decker with the excuse they killed the captain.
Meanwhile Vespucci and Prokoff take Decker to a random corridor and demand to know everything. When they hear Lindbergh knew all along, they go back to capture her and put her into cryosleep. Vespucci tells Prokoff they should connect themselves to Rhea because a simulation is still better than this crappy life they have. In the medical bay, Laura manages to start safely waking the kid from the unit. Decker apologizes for lying and asks for her help, Laura accepts as long as he rescues her sister from the simulation. Afterward, the crew makes a plan. They'll finish their trip to Station #42 because that's where the simulation is kept, so Decker will connect Laura to the system in order to send a message with the truth to Earth.
Then they'll blow up the antenna. For the next few days, Decker and Laura spend their private time together, and Decker tells Laura how nature has reclaimed every spot on Earth. When they finally arrive at Station #42, they delay the delivery of the cargo, which gets them thirty minutes to pull off the plan. Laura discovers the child is awake and wandering, so she has to quickly take her back to her room to keep her safe. Prokoff and Vespucci secretly work against the plan because they want to connect themselves to Rhea, and to do that they'll need Lindbergh's badge. Vespucci burns his hand with cryoliquid to retrieve it from the tank while Prokoff reprograms the unloading of the cargo to ten minutes instead of thirty. Next they use the badge to access the units and disconnect two people to take their places in the simulation. As the system gets ready for delivery protocol, it wakes Lindbergh up. Meanwhile Decker goes on a spacewalk to put the explosives on the station's antenna before he goes looking for Arianne's container, luckily finding it quickly.
Laura decides to join him, but her suit begins malfunctioning and Decker has to catch her before she drifts away. Decker explains to Laura that the units can't be just unplugged without killing the people inside, so Laura asks to be connected to the simulation in order to meet her sister and send the message. At that moment, the ship begins delivering the cargo automatically, meaning they only have a few minutes left before the ship begins the trip back.
Decker connects Laura to Rhea and Laura is shocked to appear in the most beautiful forest she's ever seen. In a house nearby, Laura reunites with Arianne and her kids and cries over having to destroy their happiness. She runs away into the woods and records a message for Earth explaining the truth behind Rhea, finishing right before Decker wakes her up with bad news.
Since the cell unit of Laura's jetpack is broken, Decker gave her his, meaning only she can back into the ship. Laura doesn't want to leave without him, but Decker reminds her she must protect the kid since she's the only proof they have. Suddenly the ship's thrusters are turned on, pushing the duo away from the station. Decker uses this push to let go of Laura and drift away into space. Grieving but determined, Laura uses the jetpack to enter the ship safely right before the station antenna explodes. As the ship goes into autopilot mode to start the flight back, Laura goes looking for the girl and bumps into Lindbergh. A fight ensues between both women, and when Lindbergh grabs an axe, she accidentally breaks a gas tank.
Laura uses it to push Lindbergh into an airlock, trapping her there. Then the airlock exit opens and Lindbergh is ejected into space. Afterward, Laura looks for the kid and finds her calmly having a meal. The two of them begin a new routine for the trip back while Laura's message arrives at the stations around Earth, letting people know the truth.
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