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''Sphere'' is a science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton and published in 1987. It was made into the film ''Sphere'' in 1998. The novel follows Norman Johnson, a psychologist engaged by the United States Navy, to join a team of scientists assembled to examine an alien spacecraft discovered on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The novel begins as a science fiction story but quickly transforms into a psychological thriller, ultimately exploring the nature of the human imagination. ==Plot summary== A group of scientists (psychologist Norman Johnson, mathematician Harry Adams, zoologist Beth Halpern, astrophysicist Ted Fielding, and marine biologist Arthur Levine) are dispatched, along with U.S. Navy personnel, to a deep sea habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to explore a crashed spacecraft. Levine becomes claustrophobic during the descent and is returned topside; all other scientists arrive safely at the habitat DH-8. After their arrival and subsequent pressurization to the habitat's exotic-gas environment, the Navy sends a robot to enter the spacecraft first, which locates and opens a panel near the spacecraft door. The team is astonished as they watch the robot focus on the opened panel to reveal labels written in English; the spacecraft is not alien, but an American spacecraft constructed in the future and sent through time, "arriving" at least 350 years before its creation. The robot is unable to press the button to open the door, so the team suits up to explore the spacecraft. During their visit they discover a mysterious spherical artifact, clearly of extraterrestrial origin, which quickly becomes the focus of their attention. Harry becomes convinced that, because the ship's future builders were apparently unaware that it had already been found in their past, the members of the team are unlikely to survive to report their discovery. He remains behind while the rest of the team returns to the habitat and succeeds in opening and entering the sphere. At this point, a Pacific cyclone on the surface forces the supporting Naval ships to evacuate, trapping the scientists on the ocean floor without contact or support for five days. Harry is returned to DH-8, where he has a terrible headache and remembers little about how he opened the sphere or what events occurred inside. The team is later contacted by an intelligent, seemingly friendly life form which calls itself Jerry. It first contacts them via a numeric code transmitted to the habitat's computer, which Harry eventually translates. But while they struggle to communicate with Jerry, increasingly bizarre and deadly events occur, including the appearance of impossible sea creatures that Beth claims can not exist. Jerry tells them he is "manifesting" the creatures. Members of the team start to die in various attacks by sea life, and the dwindling survivors struggle to placate the unthinkably powerful, childlike, and temperamental Jerry. Norman suddenly has an important role when he realizes he must use psychology to keep the surviving team (now only Beth, Harry, and himself) alive by placating Jerry. Translating the original code himself, though, Norman discovers that Jerry is actually Harry: by entering the sphere, Harry acquired the power to manifest his subconscious thoughts into reality. His childhood fear of squid, and especially the giant squid in the novel ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', has been manifested into a horde of small squid and a giant squid that attacks the habitat. Beth and Norman tranquilize Harry with a powerful mixture of sedatives and wait for contact to be re-established with the surface. However, although Harry is sedated, the manifestations continue. Beth accuses Norman of having entered the sphere and gaining access to the power. Though unable to recall this incident, Norman is close to yielding until he watches a security video of Beth entering the sphere herself. Beth cannot admit that she has the power and instead concludes that Norman is a threat to her. She decides to defend herself by planting potent explosives around the spacecraft and habitat and then attempts to suffocate Norman with the habitat's climate systems. Norman escapes to the spacecraft and, figuring out at last how to open it, enters the sphere. Norman begins to ascend by himself in the submarine docked at DH-7 (a cramped, nearby habitat for Naval personnel), but realizes that he could never leave the others to die. Now with the same power of thought as Harry and Beth, Norman returns to DH-8 and brings both to the submarine before the explosives destroy the site. Afterwards, while in a surface decompression chamber, the three survivors ponder what to tell the Navy about what happened. Realizing they could not control the power, they decide to use the power to remove it from themselves and their memories simultaneously, replacing it with memories of a technical failure. Afterwards, as they mourn the colleagues lost to this scenario, Norman notes that Beth looks lovely despite their hardship in the deep, hinting that Beth actually kept the sphere's power. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sphere (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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