 Unsuccessful diplomatic negotiations escalate the tension in the area between Chinese and US armed forces, while inside the Torus the scientific team goes to the core of the huge machine.They discover how ancient the artifact is and speculate it could have been the spark of life on Earth, as well as the cause of multiple extinctions in the course of the eras.Fomented by NSA agent Allen Lysander (Ryan O'Neal), conflict explodes between the troops of the two factions and the Torus reacts, blanketing the planet with a thick cloud cover, evidently starting the process for a new mass extinction.