In the distant future, a federation marshal arrives at a research lab on a remote planet where a genetic experiment has gotten loose and begins feeding on the dwindling scientific group.
On planet Xarbia, an experimental life form, Subject 20, has been created by an elite group of researchers in hopes of preventing a galactic food crisis. However, when Subject 20 becomes deadly, the best troubleshooter in the Galaxy is called in to investigate.—Concorde - New Horizons (with permission).
The Federation agent Mike Colby is sent to the remote planet Xarbia to attend the call of scientists. Mike learns that the lethal genetic experiment Subject 20 that was created by the scientists has become dangerous. Mike wants to terminate Subject 20, but the responsible for the facility, Dr. Gordon Hauser, is reluctant to destroy the experiment. However, when Subject 20 gets loose from his cage, he begins to kill the personal of the facility.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
An experimental life-form mutates rapidly and uncontrollably and kills all of the laboratory subject animals before cocooning itself within an examination booth located on the remote desert planet. A military officer and his AI robot soldier is called in to terminate the alien but he is obstructed by the scientists n staff of the laboratory.—[email protected]
Inside a traveling spacecraft, a robot pilot at the controls called SAM-104 (Don Olivera) approaches Mike Colby (Jesse Vint), who is encased, unconscious, in a glass chamber in a form of hibernation stasis. As the man awakens, the robot informs him that the ship is under attack. Mike and SAM-104 escape by firing missiles at the encroaching raiders. The robot tells him that the Federation has extended Mike's mission, diverting them to the planet Xarbia to repair a security lab. They jump into hyperspace and arrive at the station on the surface of Xarbia, a desert-like planet with two orbiting suns.
Inside, Mike meets Dr. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles) and Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick), then turns off SAM-104's controls. The doctors explain that they conduct bacteriological genetic engineering experiments and have successfully created a new food source. When Mike bumps into crew member Tracy Baxter (Dawn Dunlap), Gordon asks her to find their colleague, Jimmy Swift (Michael Bowen), and bring him to the laboratory. In the lab, Mike meets Dr. Cal Tinburgen (Fox Harris), head of bacteriology, and observes the piles of bloody rabbit carcasses strewn across the floor. They tell him that an octopus-like "metamorphic mutant" called Subject 20, which continuously alters its genetic makeup to change forms, caused the damage. The so-called Subject 20 is seen in one of the glass cages covered in a type of cocoon. Mike proposes they kill the creature, but Barbara convinces him to wait.
As Tracy joins Mike, the doctors, and crew members Earl Richards (Scott Paulin) and Brian Beale (Raymond Oliver) for dinner, Jimmy cleans the lab and notices that the creature's breathing in the cocoon increases. Gordon calls Jimmy on the intercom to inform him that the behavior is normal, but sends Tracy back to investigate. A slimy, black blob emerges from Subject 20 and attacks Jimmy. Meanwhile, the doctors explain that their experiments involve a substance called Proto-B, the genes of which they spliced with a fast-growing alga. When Mike asks what was spliced with Proto-B to create Subject 20, Barbara mentions a deceased crew member named Annie, but no one elaborates further. They receive a distress signal from Tracy, who discovered Jimmy's body in the lab with his brain missing, but his heart still beating. While Cal brings the corpse into the medical bay, Barbara gives her condolences to Tracy.
That night, Earl watches security camera footage of Barbara and Mike making love before noticing an alarm warning. He descends to a darkened corridor, where the monster attacks him. Meanwhile, Cal injects medicine into his torso as he sits and watches Jimmy's skin and muscle rapidly turn to gelatin.
The next morning, Mike walks in on Tracy sitting naked, taking a steam bath. As he undresses, the monster attacks, but they escape. The creature breaks through the sauna skylight, and Mike announces that he, Gordon, Brian, and SAM-104 will follow it outside. The men put on protective spacesuits, and Gordon explains that they only have an hour before the atmosphere will cause the nitrogen in their blood to froth. In the lab, Barbara and Cal watch as the gelatinous pile divides in two.
On the desert surface of Xarbia, Brian finds Earl's decomposing body near the mutant's latest cocoon. The men shoot at the sac with a laser gun, but discover it is empty. Near the station, they see the monster, which has morphed into a large, black, tentacled creature with a gaping mouth. The mutant swallows Gordon whole and dives down one of the station's vents into the control room, destroying all the computers. Cal realizes that the creature is creating permanent food supply by injecting the humans' bodies with Proto-B, causing them to infinitely split and reproduce. Gordon, deformed and nearly dead, stumbles into the room and falls to the ground. Cal explains that Gordon spliced his own cells with Proto-B, which were then used to fertilize an egg that was implanted into Annie's uterus. Subject 20 grew so quickly, however, that it killed her two weeks later.
Meanwhile in the showers, Barbara tells Tracy that they need to communicate with the creature instead of attacking it. As the men brainstorm ways to kill the mutant, the two women enter the control room. Realizing that the creature can understand her and has wired itself into the computer system, Barbara uses the keyboard to ask it if it can co-exist with humans. In response, Subject 20 stabs her with its tentacle. Tracy runs to tell the men that Barbara was killed, and Mike and Brian follow her back to the control room. SAM-104 reveals that it knows Cal has cancer; Cal injects his cancerous cells into a sample of Gordon's mutating tissue. He then uses lasers to blast the remainder of the monster's food supply before joining Brian and Mike in the control room. The creature's cocoon emits a liquid onto the control boards, which electrocutes Brian. Cal attempts to kill the creature, but a tentacle smashes into his head.
Accompanied by SAM-104, Mike carries the injured doctor into another lab room, where Cal instructs him to cut out his liver tumor and feed it to the mutant. Tracy runs to Cal's room to get his morphine supply. On her way back, the monster chases her through the halls. Unable to wait for the morphine, Mike performed the crude surgery to remove the cancer. Just then, Tracy returns to the lab after being chased by the monster and gives the morphine to Cal. Just as Mike removes the large tumor on Cal's liver, Cal dies. Just then, the monster, Subject 20, breaks into the lab and attacks. Mike attempts to feed the monster the tumor without getting eaten himself, while SAM-104 shoots at the monster with its ray gun without success. SAM-104 then takes a scalpel blade off a table and stabs the monster in its right eye, but the monster uses one of its tentacles to hit SAM-104 with such force that the robot is flung against a wall and breaks into several pieces. Just then, Mike manages to get the creature to eat the malignant tumor. The monster quickly reacts by vomiting violently and collapses to the floor. As the monster finally dies in a slow and clearly agonizing death, Mike and Tracy stand among the carnage, remembering their fellow crew members that died in the struggle.
