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August 22, 2025 23 mins
(BONUS AUDIO) In a future where population is strictly controlled and children require government permission, Frank and Lucy Sturt must say goodbye forever to their only son Hal, who's been selected for the prestigious but mysterious Leidner Project. When Hal's girlfriend arrives with unexpected news after his departure, the three devise a desperate plan to preserve something precious in a world where even love is regulated. | “One Way” by Miriam Allen deFord, originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine in March, 1955. 
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= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: August 22, 2025
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ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One Way by Miriam Allen de Ford, published in Galaxy
Science Fiction March nineteen fifty five. We had the driver
let us off in the central district and took a
copter taxi back to home field. There's no disgrace about it,
of course. We just didn't feel like having all the
neighbors see the big skycar with Leidna project painted on

(00:24):
its side, and then having them drop in casually to
express what they would call interest, and we would know
to be curiosity. And are people who boast that their
sons and daughters have been picked for Leidna? What is
there to boast about. It's pure chance within limits. And

(00:45):
Hal as our only child. We love him. Lucy didn't
say a word all the way back from saying goodbye
to him. Lucy and I have been married now for
twenty seven years, and I guess I know I know
her about as well as anybody on earth does. People
who don't know her so well think she's cold, but

(01:07):
I knew what feelings she was crushing down inside her. Besides,
I wasn't feeling much like talking myself. I was remembering
too many things. Hal at about two, looking up at
me when I would come home dead, tired from a
hard day of being chewed at by half a dozen

(01:29):
bosses right up to the editor in chief, whenever anything
went the least bit out of kilter, with a smile
that made all my tiredness disappear. Hell when I'd pick
him up at school, proudly displaying a cybernetic's approval slip
and ignoring the fact that half the other kids had
one too. Hel the day I took him to the

(01:53):
beard removal center, certain that he was a man now
that he was old enough for a depilation. Hell, that
morning two weeks ago, setting out to get his vocational
assignment certificate, That's when I stopped, remembering it had been

(02:13):
five years after our marriage before they let us start
a child. Some question about Lucy's uncle and my grandmother.
Most parents aren't as old as we are when they
get the news, and usually have other children left, so
it isn't so bad. When we got home, Lucy still

(02:33):
was silent. She took off her scarf and cloak and
put them away, and that she pushed the button for
dinner without even asking me what I wanted. I noticed, though,
that she was ordering all the things I like. We
both had the day off, of course, to go and
say goodbye to how Lucy is a technician at hydroponics center.

(02:58):
I felt awkward and clumsy. Her ways are so different
from mine. I explode and then it's over, just a
sore place where it hurts if I touch it. Lucy
never explodes, but I knew the sore place would be
there forever and getting worse instead of better. We ate

(03:23):
dinner in silence, though neither of us felt hungry, and
had the table cleared. Then it was nearly nineteen o'clock
and I had to speak. The take off will be
at nineteen ten, I said, want me to tune in now.
Last year, when Moultro was Solar president, he gave a
good speech before the kids left. Don't turn it on

(03:45):
at all, she said, sharply. Then, in a softer voice,
she added, of course, Frank, turn it on whenever you like.
I'll just go to my room and open the sound proofing.
There were still no tears in her eyes. I thought
of a thousand things to say. Don't you want to
catch a glimpse of howl in the crowd going up

(04:07):
the ramp. Mightn't they let the kids wave a last
farewell to their folks listening and watching in mightn't something
in the president's speech make us feel a little better?
But I heard myself saying, never mind, Lucy, don't go,
I'll leave the thing off. I didn't want to be alone.

(04:29):
I wanted Lucy there with me, So we sat out
the whole time of the visit, cast side by side
on the window couch, holding hands. I'll say this for
the neighbors. They must all have known for how was
the first to be selected from home Field in nearly
forty years, and the newscast must have announced it over

(04:50):
and over. But not a single person on the whole
sixty two floors of the house put it in on us,
not even that snoopy student from Venus in forty seven
Toash fourteen, who always was dropping in on other tenets
and taking notes on the mores of Earth Aboriginals. People
can be very decent. Sometimes we needn't have worried about

(05:15):
coming home and the Leidna Project bus. It was no
good trying to keep my mind on anything else, whether
I wanted to or not. I had to relive the
last two hours we'd ever have with Hell. It couldn't
mean to him what it meant to us. We were losing.

(05:35):
He was both losing and gaining. We were losing our
whole lives for twenty one years past he was too,
but he was entering a new life. We would never
know anything about. No word ever comes from Leidna. That's
part of the project. Nobody even knows where it is

(05:58):
for sure, though it is supposed to be one of
the outer asteroids. Both boys and girls are sent, and
there must be marriages and children, though probably the death
rate is pretty high. For every year they have to
select two hundred more from Earth to keep the population balanced.
We would never know if our son married there, or whom,

(06:20):
or when he died. We would never see our grandchildren,
or even know if we had any. Hal was a
good son, and I think we were fairly good parents
and had made his childhood happy. But at twenty one,
faced with a great mysterious adventure and an unknown and
exciting future, a boy can't be expected to be drowned

(06:44):
in grief at saying goodbye to his hamdrum old father
and mother. It might have been tougher for him two
hundred years ago, when they hadn't learned to decondition children
early from parental fixations. But no youngsters today would posses, yes,
that kind of unwholesome dependency. If he did, he would

(07:04):
never have been selected for LYDNA in the first place.
That's one comfort we have. It's a sort of proof
we had reared a child far above the average. It
was just weakness in me to half wish that Hal
hadn't been so healthy, so handsome, so intelligent, so fine

(07:25):
in character. They were a wonderful lot. We said our
goodbyes in an enormous room of the spaceport, with this
year's two hundred selectees there from all over Earth, each
with the relatives and whoever else said permission to make
the last visit. I suppose it's a matter of accommodations
and transportation, for nobody's allowed more than three. So it

(07:50):
was mostly parents, with a few brothers, sisters, and sweethearts
or friends. The selectees themselves choose the names, after all,
they've had two weeks after they were notified to say
goodbye to everyone else who matters to them. Most of
the time, all I could keep my mind on was hell,

(08:10):
trying to fix forever in my memory every last detail
of him. We have dozens of sound stereos, of course,
but this was the last time. Still it's my business
at the news office, and has been for thirty years,
to observe people and form conclusions about them, so I
couldn't help noticing with a professional eye some of the

(08:34):
rest of the selectees. This Farewell visit is a private affair,
and the press is barred, which is why I'd never
been there before. There were two kinds of selectees that
stood out in my mind. One was those who had
nobody at all to see them off completely alone, poor kids, orphans,

(08:55):
doubtless with no families and apparently not even friends near
enough to matter. But in a way they would be
the happiest life on earth. Couldn't have been very rewarding
for them, and on Leidna they might find companionship, if
only companionship in misery, I thought, But I shied away

(09:16):
from that. In our business there are always leaks. We
know or guess a few things about Leidna. Nobody else
does outside the authorities themselves, but we keep our mouths shut.
The ones that tore my heart were the boys and
girls in love. They never take married people for Leidna.

(09:36):
But a machine can't tell what a boy or girl
is feeling about another girl or boy, and it's a
machine that does the selecting. There's no use putting up
an argument, for once made, the choice is inexorable and unchangeable.
In my work as a news gatherer, I have heard
some terrible stories. There have been suicide pacts, and you

(10:02):
could tell the couples in love, not that there were
any scenes. If there had been any in the two
weeks past, they were over. But anybody who has learned
to read human reactions as I have to recognize the
agony those youngsters were going through. I felt a deep
gratitude that Hal wasn't one of them. He'd had his

(10:24):
share of adolescent affairs, of course, but I was sure
he was still just playing around. He'd seen a lot
of Bette Millan, a girl a class ahead of him
in school and college, but I didn't think she meant
more to him than any of the others. If she had,
she'd have been along to say goodbye, but he'd asked
for only the two of us. She was now a

(10:47):
laboratory assistant in our hospital and could easily have gotten
the time off. It was growing late, almost midnight, and
Lucy and I had to be at work tomorrow, no
matter how we felt. I wish myself to talk. With
Lucy's silent pain smothering me like a force blanket, I
made an effort and cleared my throat. Lucy, go to

(11:10):
bed and turn on the hip now and try to
get some sleep. Lucy stood up obediently, but she shook
her head. You go, dear, she said, her voice firm.
I can't I. The roof buzzer sounded. Somebody had landed
in a copter and wanted us. Don't answer, I said quickly,
there's nobody we want to see, but she had already

(11:33):
pushed the button to open the door. It was Bett Millen,
the girl Hal used to go around with. I braced myself.
This might be bad. She might have cared more for
Hal than we'd guessed. But she didn't look grief stricken.
She looked excited and determined and a little bit frightened.

(11:58):
She scarcely glanced at me. She went right up to
Lucy and took both Lucy's hands in hers. Well. She said,
in eclipped, tense voice, we made it. Then Lucy broke
for the first time. The tears ran down her face,
and she didn't even wipe them away. Are you certain? Positive?
And I got word to him. We'd agreed on a code.

(12:19):
That's why he didn't want me there today. We couldn't
trust ourselves not to betray it either way. I stood
there staring at them, bewildered, what's this all about? I demanded,
Have you two cooked up some crazy scheme to rescue Hal?
I hope to heaven not. It would ruin all of us,
including him. The wild daydreams I'd had myself flashed through

(12:44):
my mind. The drug that would seem to kill him
and wouldn't be anonymous, false accusation of subversion, the previous
secret marriage, all impossible, all fatal. Lucy disengaged her hands
from the girl and slipped her arm through mine. You
tell him, Bet, she said, gently, you're the one who should.

(13:07):
I'd never noticed how pretty the girl was till then,
when she stood there, with her face flushed and her
eyes straight on mine. A pang went through me. If
only she and Hal could have no mister Sturt, She said,
we haven't rescued how he's gone, but we've rescued part
of him. I'm going to have his baby. BET's going

(13:30):
to live with us and be our daughter Frank, Lucy explained,
Hal and she and I worked it out in these
two weeks after they came to me and told me
how they felt about each other. We couldn't tell you
till we were sure. I couldn't bear to have you
hope and then be disappointed. It would be enough for
me to have to suffer that. That is. I'll come

(13:50):
if you want me here, mister Sturt said. Bet. I
had to sit down before I could speak. Uh, of
course I want you, But what about your family. I
haven't any my mother's dad and my father's an engineer
on Ganymede and gets home on leave about once in
three years. I've been living in a youth hostel. But

(14:12):
look here, I turned to Lucy. How on earth can
you know two weeks or less is no time? Lucy
gave me a look. I recognized the patient, one of
the scientist for the layman, the child as alias test Dear.
One day after the fertilized ovum starts dividing, and I

(14:32):
ran it myself every day for over a week. That's
one of my jobs in the lab. And it was
easy to slip in another specimen and it didn't and
it didn't, and I went nearly out of my mind.
Every time How entered the apartment, I'd look at him
and he'd shake his head. Lucy interrupted. It meant everything
to him, and it would have just broken my heart

(14:53):
mine too, Bet said softly, and his. And today was
the last chance. I was scared to try it. This afternoon,
at fourteen thirty, just before the farewell visits, was the
deadline for VIZ messages to any of them. If I
had had to send mine without the word we'd agreed
on that would tell him it was all right. But
it was at last, And now he knows. Even if

(15:15):
I never, even if we never, excuse me, please, it's
been a strain. I'm afraid I'm going to ball. We
let her alone. Kids nowadays hate to be fussed over us.
We'd lost our son and that was going to stay
with us forever. But now we would have his child

(15:39):
to love. And an appalling thought struck me suddenly. I
can't imagine why I hadn't realized it sooner, all this emotion,
I suppose, Good God, I cried, an illegal child. We
can't keep it. Nobody's going to know. Nobody's going to know.
Lucy replied, calmly. BET's going to live with us, and

(16:01):
when it starts to show, she's going to take her
aloud leave. We'll take hours too, and we'll all go
on a trip to Mars maybe or Venus, one of
the settled colonies where we can rent a house. Babies
don't have to be born in hospitals, you know. Our
ancestors had them right at home. She's strong and healthy
and I know what to do. Then we'll come back

(16:23):
here and we'll have a baby with us that we adopted.
Wherever we were. Nobody will ever know, Look, I said,
in a voice I tried to keep from rising. There
are four billion people on Earth and about twenty eight
billion in the colonized solar planets. Every one of those
people is on record at Central Cybernetics. How do you

(16:46):
suppose you're going to get away with the forty adoption
of a non existent child. The first time you have
to take it to a baby clinic, they'll find it
has no card. I thought of that, Lucy said, And
it can be done, because it must, Frank, for Heaven's sake,
use your wits. You're a newsgatherer. You know all sorts

(17:07):
of people everywhere. I don't know any machines, and it's
machines that handle the records, machines under the supervision of humans. Sure,
I said, sarcastically. I just go to my ex newsgatherer
pal who feeds the records too low or serious, and say, look, go, fellow,

(17:29):
do me a favor, will you. My wife wants to
adopt a baby from your colony, So just make up
the names the two people and give them a life check,
invent their ancestors back to the time Central Cybernetics was established,
and then slip in cards for their marriage and the
birth of their child. I'll let you know later whether
to make it a boy or a girl, and then

(17:50):
their deaths, and then my wife and I can adopt
that made up baby. What kind of blackmailing hold do
you think I have on any record official, I asked angrily.
To make him do a thing like that and keep
his mouth shut about it. I could be eliminated for
treason for even making such a suggestion, Frank, think, surely

(18:13):
there must be some way. And then it struck me, Wait,
I just got an idea when I said treason just now,
it might barely be possible. Oh, what it would have
to be Mars, the North Polar cap Colony. The k

(18:34):
Alph conspiracy messed things up there badly. I remember mister
Sturt Bet said excitedly. They wrecked everything in the three
months before the rebellion was crushed, didn't they? Everything, including
their cybernetics equipment. Central doesn't want it known, but I
have inside information that it is still not in going condition.

(18:55):
That colony is full of children who have never been registered,
and I doubt if it'll be in one hundred percent
shape for the best part of another year. Those hellions
really did a job. Let's see, this is the end
of month two. We'd have to get away around month
eight at the latest, and the baby would be born

(19:16):
when exactly bet early in month twelve. We could all
be back here again by the first of next year,
or even by the end of month thirteen. Well, I
have enough accumulated leave for that, and I guess you
have too, Lucy. Neither of us has taken more than
two or three weeks for years. But what about you, Bet,

(19:37):
you've been working less than a year. I can borrow it.
Our director is crazy about travel, and she'll be all
for it when I tell her I have a chance
to go to Mars for a long visit. Besides, she
knows about Howl and me, I mean, the way we
are about each other, and she'll understand that I'd want
to get away for a while. Now, Asher, my editor

(19:59):
in chief, would feel the same way, I thought, and
so would Lucy's boss. I knew you'd find a way,
remarked my wife complacently. I looked at the telechron We've
all got to be at work in seven hours. I said,
if we expect to get through before the end of
the afternoon, let's say we turn in. You stay here

(20:22):
with us, Bet said, Lucy, you parked your copter in
our port, didn't you. Frank, I think we need a drink.
I pushed the buttons. Nobody said anything, but somehow it
was a toast to hell. I know. The liquor had
to get past a lump in my throat, and the
women were both crying. It wasn't like myself contained Lucy.

(20:47):
I guess she thought so herself, for she braced herself,
but her voice was still trembling. When she turned to Bet.
A year from now, she said, we'll all be back
here in this room, and this time part of Hal
will be here with us, his son, our little hol
It might be our little Hallie. Bet smiled through her tears.

(21:10):
It will be ten weeks before I can run the
Shuster test to find out it won't make any difference.
Hal will never know that. But he'll know way out
there on Leidna that his baby has been born. He'll
know even though he can never see it or us.
Lucy blinked, then went on bravely. Every time he looks

(21:33):
in a mirror there, he'll say to himself, Well, back
on Earth, there's a little tyke with my blue eyes
and my curly hair, and my mouth and nose and chin.
He's going to grow up to be tall and straight
like me, or maybe like Bet, but also a lot
like me. And as he grows older, he can think
back to the way he was as a child and

(21:55):
a boy and a man, and know that his son
or his daughter will feeling and thinking and looking someday
just about the way he himself is then, and it
would be a link with Earth and with us. That
was when I had to go to the window and
look out for a long time, to pull myself together

(22:16):
before I could face them again. Linda is top top secret.
But as I've said before, we news gatherers get inside information.
I have a pretty shrewd idea of what the mysterious
light in a project is. It's to alter human beings

(22:37):
so they can adapt to the colonization of outer space.
The medics do things to them to enable them and
their descendants to resist every possible condition of temperature and
radiation and gravity. They have to alter the genes. Acquired
characters would be of use only in a short term project,
and this is long term. But you can't alter genes

(23:00):
without affecting the individual. We'd have Hal's normal child, But
when Hal got to Leidna, he and the rest of
them would be shocked and sick for a while at
sight of the some of the inhabitants, and if he
had any children on Leidna, we back here would scarcely

(23:21):
recognize them as human. Some of them might have extra limbs,
some might have eyes and ears in odd places, some
might have lungs outside their bodies, or brains without a skull.
By that time, Hal himself would have gotten over being sick,
unless sometime he got hold of a mirror and remembered

(23:46):
the boy he used to be
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