September 2, 2024 • 29 mins
Hope you enjoy this episode of Dimension X! Find all our podcasts and OTR radio stations at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Dimension X was an anthology science-fiction series, originally aired from 1950-1951. This program dealt with more "adult" oriented themes like death, religion and science, war, politics and the moral issues of human being in regards to their place in the universe. Many the episodes were adapted from stories by the prominent science fiction writers of the era, for example, Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury. - Thank you for listening, consider a donation to help keep the OTR radio stations commercial-free: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jared.day.oldtimeradio - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 - Find all the podcasts here @ Spreaker.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Adventures in time and space told in Future Tense. The
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
(00:28):
of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X. Twenty years
had passed since the last of the giant Migration ships
had crashed to the surface of Mars, bearing its pitiful
handful of survivors of the Earth Wars. Twenty years of
(00:49):
scratching of the stubborn Martian soil, twenty years of trying
to devise new solar engines that would use the strange
fuel they found on Mars. Twenty years of longing, of
turning eyes toward the green Earth as it hung on
the horizon like a beckoning light.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And now it was.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Done, and the first new ship built of shining Martian
chromaton had lifted bravely toward home with three men locked
in its metal belly. Would they return to an Earth
made barren by cosmic dust, to a blackened, radioactive hell?
Or would they find intelligence still alive on the scourged planet.
(01:28):
What had twenty years of death and radioactivity done to
our beloved Earth?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's it, Captain, We've intersected the conspector Williams.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, Sir, prepare for deceleration. Awe fish and ready, captain,
three dozen weapons.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
We lended the gravitational field of the Earth in exactly
ten seconds nine eight seven, six, five, four, three.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Five, two and four.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
One go and form what are momentum?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Negative three?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Buy one.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
One negative four?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Now study as she goes.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
How are we unparabla?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
If we can hold, we should breach the heavy side
layer somewhere north of what used to be momentsk.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Let's have a look at her buyser.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Please, yes, sir, mother.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Twenty years are going home, Evans.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
We're going home home to what, captain, home to a
burned out, radioactive planet that is incapable of supporting human life.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Evans and I don't agree with that, Williams. We think
the Earth is ready for us again, that you'll give
us another chance.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
I'm sorry, Captain, but I was born and brought up
on Mars under the new Central government. We younger men
disagree with you about migrating back to Earth.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
For us, Mars is home. Well, we'll see if there is.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Some form of life on Earth. We'll find out soon enough.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
William's head from New York.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
There it is, Captain. You can barely see the top
of the atomic trades. Building in the twilight. They never
finished building.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
It dark as a tomb, slow to cruising speed, cruising speed.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It begins to look as if Williams is right, Captain,
not a sign of life on four continents.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
We'll make a radiation check and then head back from Mars.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
You agree with me, gentlemen, that for all practical purposes,
the planet is dead.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's still my captain. What is it?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Am I going out of my mind? Look out that
way to the west.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Could that be by heaven? It is? Those are lights
kind of ship.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Heading west southwest, full speed, both speed.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
They are nights.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Captain.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It's a city, a whole blasted city.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Lit up like a Christmas tree.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, what do you think of You're a dead planet now, Williams.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We shall see evans.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Remember the Commission wants evidence of life as we know it.
The accelerator negative five we're gonna take up down. There's
an open area just on the edge of the city. Yes,
hold on, gentlemen, we're about to land.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
Landing Jackson Dancer.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Open the airlock clothes all right, gentlemen before we go out.
Security at all times, Williams. You have the blast gun
I have it. If anyone becomes separated, fire a shot
(04:57):
on mate for the ship. How's the radiation safer?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Note?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So far this seems to be a light area.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Very well open the mark.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
Oh, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
We've been walking for hours now, not a soul to
be seen, and must be someone.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
How do you explain the lights?
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I don't know the municipal building. Shall we have a
look here, sir? Possibly the records might contain some clue.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Good idea.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Keep your weapons ready. The store is in good working order,
arms as if it had been oiled recently. A long corridor,
lights blazing in every office. William stands watching in the corridor.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Fire or blast of you?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yes, yes, sir Evans, you'll come with me. We'll start
right here with the city Clerk's office at a check.
Radiation again, not.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Enough to do any damage.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
It gives me the creeps, doesn't it. Look at this desk, papers,
crumpled inkstand, just as if somebody came in and worked
here every day. Calendar June eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Play that's the day of the evacuation. The dust cloud
had already blanketed in New York and was heading West.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Dog licenses, hunting permits.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So now I have a peculiar feeling that.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Good Lord, pick it up everything.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Hello, no answer? Hello, I hear something, a scratching sort
of noise.
Speaker 6 (06:57):
How are you? I called ask some advice about a
trepending problem. Can you tell me if the lateral cut
should be made first?
Speaker 7 (07:07):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
This is absolutely He'll say. Hello, I'll do that.
Speaker 6 (07:12):
By the way. How is your wife Alice?
Speaker 7 (07:16):
And the gloves?
Speaker 6 (07:18):
And your son?
Speaker 7 (07:19):
John?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Boy John.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
I'll call again tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Goodbye, doctor.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Hello, Hello, it's gone dead?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Who was it?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I don't know. Strange voice carried on a conversation about
some surgical operation without paying the slightest attention to anything
I say.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Happened? The lights are out? Good Lord?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Does I have a torch?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Come on, William what is it?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You're pile of shop, Yes, sir.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Just as the lights went on, I I'm sure I
saw a figure. It looked like an old man in
a white robe. It moved across the end of the
corridor down that way.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Flash your torch, Don Evans. Nothing there are you certain, Williams?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm not certain. The lights they're on again. We're going
to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Wait, wait, what Listen quietly, someone is coming, walking slowly
toward the corridor.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Were coming closer a couple of When he turns the corner,
it will be a pleasure. Don't fire unless I get
the word sh.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
What jumping Jupiter?
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Are you? Is it really someone? Or am I having hallucinations?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We are no vision?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
No?
Speaker 8 (08:37):
Oh, you seem to be real. I saw the ship
come down. I thought perhaps I was losing my mind.
It's been so many years.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I'm Captain John Parsons. These are my assistants, doctor Evans
and mister Williams. We've returned to Earth from Mars, and
it's happened.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
We're not alone any more. I forgive me, gentlemen, I
see him moved. I waited and hoped for so long.
You survived the radiation we did. There are others.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
My family were the only ones.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I answered the phone a moment ago.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Who was it?
Speaker 6 (09:17):
You heard my voice? Doctor?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Your voice?
Speaker 6 (09:20):
To break the loneliness.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
I've recorded my voice and rigged up an automatic telephone.
It's pleasing to hear the phone ring. I come here
to do my work.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I take it you're a medical man.
Speaker 8 (09:31):
My name is Cornelie's hat Away hack Away Hathaway, the
brains virgeon.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know my name, who doesn't.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I watched you on television at college. I saw you
twenty three years ago. You performed a difficult surgery for
a cerebral tumor.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Marvelous.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (09:50):
I'd almost forgotten my mind, you see, I'm I'm almost eighty.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Now you look fine, sir.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Well, we've had the best of everything, an entire city
to choose from cool storage, the best equipment.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Come.
Speaker 8 (10:07):
When I saw your ship, I told Alice, my wife,
you know, to prepare a feast. This is a great
day for me, gentlemen, a great, great day. This is
(10:31):
my wife, gentlemen, Alice is, Captain Parsons, doctor Evans, and
mister Willis. Now, if you'll follow me, gentlemen, we'll meet
my children.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Love for a beautiful woman.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
She looks no more than thirty five.
Speaker 8 (10:46):
These are my daughters, Susan and Marguerite.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
This is my son John.
Speaker 8 (10:53):
She sit down, gentlemen, sit down. We'll have a feast
and honor on this occasion. Susan, Marguerite get the best
aware and the damas napkins.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
John fetched the glasses. Oh yes, father, he lonely.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Excuse me, John, sir? How old are you?
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Twenty three?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Sir?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Thank you now, if you'll excuse me.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
What is it, Captain? Something wrong?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Nothing except that it's impossible. You see, Doctor Hathaway's son
was already in college when I started. That will make
him at least forty five. That was a wonderful me
(11:41):
or Missus Hathaway. Doctor, your wife is an exceptional woman.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 9 (11:46):
How would you, gentlemen, like some fresh ginger bread with
your coffee? I bake it this morning.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Wonderful smell that happens.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Oh, it's like coming home, Missus Hathaway.
Speaker 10 (11:55):
We enjoy having you here.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Missus Hathaway. May I compliment you and your having preserved
your youth and beauty so well? Thank you.
Speaker 9 (12:05):
We have had no worries here, no competition, only the
things we need for material comfort.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Parsons and I were wondering, Doctor Hathaway, if the radioactivity
had any effect in preserving tissue. Your children all look
so young too.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
It is possible, gentlemen.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Of course, radiation does strange things to living tissue. Alice,
could we have some champagne?
Speaker 10 (12:29):
Of course, I'll only be a.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Moment an amazing woman. Did you see such grace, such
complete relaxation, doesn't seem quite natural.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
I beg your pardon, gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Captain Parsons was just about to ask how you and
your family managed to escape, Doctor Hathaway, you.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Were very fortunate. I was working in the Sierra Mountains
at the time.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
I had a lead lined laboratory where I did X
ray research on my pet project.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
What is that, sir?
Speaker 8 (12:54):
The study of machine? Does they relate to human function?
And the corollary of well to continue? When the dust
cloud covered America, we remained in the laboratory, well supplied
with food and water. Later, when the radiation permitted, we
made our way east back to our old home in
the hopes of finding other survivors. But by that time
(13:18):
every living creature had been evacuated to Mars. We were stranded.
The migration ships didn't wait for stragglers.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
That's true. My father and I were on the last
rocket out of New York.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
I've always loved this old house, but the loneliness of
those first years.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
At least you had your wife and children.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Yes, yes, I had my family.
Speaker 8 (13:44):
If it were not for them, gentlemen, I assure you
I would long ago put a bullet in my head.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
Here we are, Champagne, Captain, Oh, thank you missus Hathway.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
May may I.
Speaker 11 (13:56):
Propose a toast to let me gentlemen, to Earth, To Earth, Earth,
May she never be a stranger to man again, happily?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
What is it?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Nothing? Really is just rather sharp pain in the chest.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I think you should lie down, doctor, Perhaps are right?
Speaker 8 (14:16):
Let me hap you No, No, John and Susan will
help of course, Faly, why why don't you gentlemen go
out in the porch, enjoy the air.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
I'll see you all.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
In the morning.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Good night, doctor, good night, come John?
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yes, father.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well what do you think of old Mother Earth?
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Now?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Williams? Smell that summer breeze. Look at that view of
the city lighted up against the sky.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
It has a certain quality.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well score one point for the back to Earth proposer.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
I didn't say that.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You're beginning to feel it, though, Williams.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
I can tell if you don't mind, gentlemen, I'm quite tired.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
I think I'll turn in.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Excuse me, well, Captain, Well, what what do you make
of all this?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I don't know what you mean?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
This Hathaway and his family. There's something strange and unnatural
going on here. I can sense it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think you're reading things into it. Evans.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Oh, perhaps, well, I'll turn into you coming.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
In a moment.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I want to smoke a cigarette.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Beautiful views.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
What is it not? I didn't hear you come out?
Speaker 9 (15:42):
How is he resty? I've never seen him this bad.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yes, he's an old man. I'm sorry, but the difference
in your ages are so apparent. You must have been
married very young.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
My husband is a very great man, Captain. It's too
bad there was no one to appreciate him. Once he
wired the whole city with sound speakers, and when he
pressed a button, the whole town lit up and made
noises as if ten thousand people were living in it.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
He must have been very lonesome for people. Although we're
a woman such as you, I don't understand.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
Perhaps one day you will understand.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Good Night, Captain, good night missus Hathaway.
Speaker 12 (16:40):
Captain, Captain Parsons. Who's there? It's doctor Evanence?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
What time is it?
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Two way in?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I couldn't sleep. A few minutes ago I heard someone
slip out the front door.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
The little light.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I saw it was the old man. He was headed
toward our ship.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
What do you suggesting happens?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Nothing except that it's fairly unnatural for an old man
with a bad heart to go wandering off at two
in the morning.
Speaker 13 (17:07):
Very well, we'll follow him.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
See him yet? No, Look I head there on the hillside.
Isn't that Hathaway kneeling in the moonlight?
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yes? I think so?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Can we get closer outside? For that clump of bushes here?
This is far enough. Do you suppose he's doing there?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
What are those things on the ground?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Good lord? Those a grave markers, four of them.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
You're right, seems to be praying over them.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
Listen, do you forgive me for what I've done? I
had to do it. I was so terribly lonely. You
you do forgive me?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Do it?
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Yes, sir, I feel you too. I'm glad. I think
perhaps I can rest now.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I think he's having another attack.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Come on, Hathaway, t the heath Away raise his head, hapens,
his lips are moving.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What is the doctor leaking closer?
Speaker 8 (18:25):
I I'm sorry I had to spoil all of this.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
I've expected it for some time.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
We'll fix you up.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
Oh, this is the end for me. It really doesn't
matter except for them.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
What about them? Have away? You you suspected, didn't you?
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I suspected, but I couldn't believe it until now. Do
they know?
Speaker 8 (18:51):
No, No, they wouldn't understand. I wouldn't want them to know.
Speaker 14 (18:56):
Ever, Yes, er, don't try to talk. The earth is
so fair, doctor.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
He's dead, Captain.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
He knew it was the end this time.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yes, he knew.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
What was it?
Speaker 12 (19:16):
He meant about your suspect?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Light a match, Heavens, Look on those four grave markers
and tell me what you see, good lord Well.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Alice Hathaway Marguery's Hathaway Susan Hathaway. John Hathaway died July
nineteen eighty seven. But that's twenty years ago. If these
markers are correct, then who are those others?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Can't you guess?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Heavens? Can't you guess? Missus Hathaway? Are you awake?
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Yes?
Speaker 10 (20:11):
Captain?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
May I come in?
Speaker 8 (20:13):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (20:15):
It's about my husband, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You knew?
Speaker 9 (20:19):
I saw him go out to night. He felt it
was near the end.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
He died less than an hour ago. I'm sorry, thank you?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
How do you feel?
Speaker 9 (20:31):
He told us it would happen one day and that
he didn't want us to cry. He didn't teach us how,
you know, he said it was the worst thing that
could happen, to know how to be lonely and unhappy.
What will happen to us now that he's gone?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (20:48):
Will you stay with us?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I would like to, but I cannot. You know about us, Yes,
I know. I didn't think that you knew yourself.
Speaker 9 (20:58):
The children don't.
Speaker 10 (21:00):
I have been aware for a long while.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
No one would have guessed you are so perfect.
Speaker 9 (21:06):
Oh, he would have liked to hear you say that.
He was so very proud of us. After a while
he came to love us, and at the end he
took us as his real wife and children. He even
forgot sometimes that he had made us.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
You gave him a great deal of comfort.
Speaker 9 (21:26):
Yes, Over the years we sat and talked. He loved
so much to talk.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I was first, you know.
Speaker 9 (21:34):
Then he became lonesome for the children, and so he
made them. He told me about the things he did
about his laboratory.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Surely the children must suspect.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
Oh no, you see, there were no other beings with
which to compare themselves.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
He must have been a great, great genius.
Speaker 9 (21:53):
Each morning he took a recording of his voice into
town and put it on the automatic telephone.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
It would call us.
Speaker 9 (22:01):
I think what with the phone ringing and the sound
of voices and the lights on. He was happy there
was only one thing, one floor, and that he couldn't
make us grow old, And so he had to watch
himself become an old old man.
Speaker 10 (22:22):
While we stayed young.
Speaker 15 (22:25):
It was a great blow to him.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
And so we commend the body of this man, Cornelius Hathaway.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
To his maker.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, returneth Amen, come.
Speaker 9 (23:02):
John, Yes, mother Susan, Martine.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Evans, Williams stay here a moment, please, what is it?
Let them go back to the house. I want to
speak to you.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I know what you're going to tell us.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Captain.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
I saw the names on the grave markers.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well, it's a mockery, a.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Blasphemy of everything we believe in. For a man to
do something so.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Evil, can't you imagine what he faced? Can't you imagine
what it must have been like to have watched his
wife and children die slowly of radiation burns, to know
that he was the last man on the face of
the earth, alone, eternally and unalterably alone. Good lord man,
(23:43):
what would you have done if you had had his
medical and technical genius.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Incredible, yes it is.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
But with an entire American city on which to draw
for supplies and equipment, a brilliant man might accomplish anything.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Even that.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
What are you suggesting, captain, that we take them back?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
We haven't enough space in the ship for that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Every ounce counts still to leave them here like that alone.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I think I have an answer, cold blooded as it
may seem, go on, I suggest that we turn them off.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Do you think that I could do that? No?
Speaker 5 (24:19):
But I could. After all, they aren't human. They're worse
than robots. They're ghoulish.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Have you talked to her? Has she smiled at you
with that quiet, beautiful smile? Captain?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
We can't take them with us, and it would be
less than human to leave them here without Hathaway.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Could you do it? Adams?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Give me the blast gun, Williams.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
We'll wait on the ship take off in half an hour, oh, no.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Six twenty five. He should be back soon. Yes, he's
doing the only humane thing, Captain. They are less than human,
are they. Well it's done now and no one will ever.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's the air lock. He's back. Well, here's your gun.
Did you do it.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
When I entered the house, she looked at me with
those fine intelligent eyes. I couldn't do it. It would be murder,
cold blooded murder.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I prayed you wouldn't be able to do it. They
will never be anything as fine as they are. Do
the last two hundred, three hundred, perhaps a thousand years. Well,
get the course of the integrator. Williams will take off
in twenty minutes. I shall be back by then.
Speaker 8 (26:03):
You're going out, sir.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I'm going to say good bye. You've come back ow
(26:24):
it to say good bye. It was nice of you.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I wanted you to know that I am coming back
some day.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
When will you come?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
It will take many years to prepare fuel for another trip,
six seven, perhaps ten years.
Speaker 9 (26:45):
I will watch the sky at night, just as he
watched it.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I'm afraid I must go now. I understand.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
Strange. I have a new feeling, one which he did
not teach us, feeling of long, of sadness, and.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
That one is not taught. It comes of being alive.
Speaker 9 (27:15):
Yes, I am alive. Even though he created me, I
am a person.
Speaker 10 (27:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Good Bye Alice Hathaway, good bye.
Speaker 10 (27:31):
John Parsons.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You have just heard another adventure into the unknown world
of the future, the world of When the time comes
for men to explore the universe to deal with the
(28:27):
strange inhabitants of other worlds, there will be much to remember.
Perhaps the most important lesson of all will seem too
fundamental to be included in the training manuals. Listen to
this time next week as Dementia X brings you a
story from the pages of the August Astounding Science Fiction.
A story called courtesy.
Speaker 16 (28:54):
Dementia X is presented each week by the National Broadcasting
Company in cooperation with screet Smith, publishers of the magazine
Astounding Science Fiction. Today, demention X has presented Dwellers in Silence,
written for radio by George Lefferts from the story by
Ray Bradbury. Featured in the cast were Peter Capel as
(29:15):
Captain Parsons, Bill Griffiths as Doctor Hathaway, and Gertrude Warner
as Ellis.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Your host was Norman Rose.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
Music by Albert Berman.
Speaker 16 (29:23):
Dimension AX is produced by William Welsh and directed by
fred Way Dragnett. The Story of Your Police Forces next
on NBC
Adventures in time and space told in Future Tense. The
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
(00:28):
of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X. Twenty years
had passed since the last of the giant Migration ships
had crashed to the surface of Mars, bearing its pitiful
handful of survivors of the Earth Wars. Twenty years of
(00:49):
scratching of the stubborn Martian soil, twenty years of trying
to devise new solar engines that would use the strange
fuel they found on Mars. Twenty years of longing, of
turning eyes toward the green Earth as it hung on
the horizon like a beckoning light.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And now it was.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Done, and the first new ship built of shining Martian
chromaton had lifted bravely toward home with three men locked
in its metal belly. Would they return to an Earth
made barren by cosmic dust, to a blackened, radioactive hell?
Or would they find intelligence still alive on the scourged planet.
(01:28):
What had twenty years of death and radioactivity done to
our beloved Earth?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's it, Captain, We've intersected the conspector Williams.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, Sir, prepare for deceleration. Awe fish and ready, captain,
three dozen weapons.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
We lended the gravitational field of the Earth in exactly
ten seconds nine eight seven, six, five, four, three.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Five, two and four.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
One go and form what are momentum?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Negative three?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Buy one.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
One negative four?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Now study as she goes.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
How are we unparabla?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
If we can hold, we should breach the heavy side
layer somewhere north of what used to be momentsk.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Let's have a look at her buyser.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Please, yes, sir, mother.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Twenty years are going home, Evans.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
We're going home home to what, captain, home to a
burned out, radioactive planet that is incapable of supporting human life.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Evans and I don't agree with that, Williams. We think
the Earth is ready for us again, that you'll give
us another chance.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
I'm sorry, Captain, but I was born and brought up
on Mars under the new Central government. We younger men
disagree with you about migrating back to Earth.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
For us, Mars is home. Well, we'll see if there is.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Some form of life on Earth. We'll find out soon enough.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
William's head from New York.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
There it is, Captain. You can barely see the top
of the atomic trades. Building in the twilight. They never
finished building.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
It dark as a tomb, slow to cruising speed, cruising speed.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It begins to look as if Williams is right, Captain,
not a sign of life on four continents.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
We'll make a radiation check and then head back from Mars.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
You agree with me, gentlemen, that for all practical purposes,
the planet is dead.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's still my captain. What is it?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Am I going out of my mind? Look out that
way to the west.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Could that be by heaven? It is? Those are lights
kind of ship.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Heading west southwest, full speed, both speed.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
They are nights.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Captain.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It's a city, a whole blasted city.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Lit up like a Christmas tree.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, what do you think of You're a dead planet now, Williams.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We shall see evans.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Remember the Commission wants evidence of life as we know it.
The accelerator negative five we're gonna take up down. There's
an open area just on the edge of the city. Yes,
hold on, gentlemen, we're about to land.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
Landing Jackson Dancer.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Open the airlock clothes all right, gentlemen before we go out.
Security at all times, Williams. You have the blast gun
I have it. If anyone becomes separated, fire a shot
(04:57):
on mate for the ship. How's the radiation safer?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Note?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So far this seems to be a light area.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Very well open the mark.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
Oh, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
We've been walking for hours now, not a soul to
be seen, and must be someone.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
How do you explain the lights?
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I don't know the municipal building. Shall we have a
look here, sir? Possibly the records might contain some clue.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Good idea.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Keep your weapons ready. The store is in good working order,
arms as if it had been oiled recently. A long corridor,
lights blazing in every office. William stands watching in the corridor.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Fire or blast of you?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yes, yes, sir Evans, you'll come with me. We'll start
right here with the city Clerk's office at a check.
Radiation again, not.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Enough to do any damage.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
It gives me the creeps, doesn't it. Look at this desk, papers,
crumpled inkstand, just as if somebody came in and worked
here every day. Calendar June eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Play that's the day of the evacuation. The dust cloud
had already blanketed in New York and was heading West.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Dog licenses, hunting permits.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So now I have a peculiar feeling that.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Good Lord, pick it up everything.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Hello, no answer? Hello, I hear something, a scratching sort
of noise.
Speaker 6 (06:57):
How are you? I called ask some advice about a
trepending problem. Can you tell me if the lateral cut
should be made first?
Speaker 7 (07:07):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
This is absolutely He'll say. Hello, I'll do that.
Speaker 6 (07:12):
By the way. How is your wife Alice?
Speaker 7 (07:16):
And the gloves?
Speaker 6 (07:18):
And your son?
Speaker 7 (07:19):
John?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Boy John.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
I'll call again tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Goodbye, doctor.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Hello, Hello, it's gone dead?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Who was it?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I don't know. Strange voice carried on a conversation about
some surgical operation without paying the slightest attention to anything
I say.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Happened? The lights are out? Good Lord?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Does I have a torch?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Come on, William what is it?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You're pile of shop, Yes, sir.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Just as the lights went on, I I'm sure I
saw a figure. It looked like an old man in
a white robe. It moved across the end of the
corridor down that way.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Flash your torch, Don Evans. Nothing there are you certain, Williams?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm not certain. The lights they're on again. We're going
to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Wait, wait, what Listen quietly, someone is coming, walking slowly
toward the corridor.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Were coming closer a couple of When he turns the corner,
it will be a pleasure. Don't fire unless I get
the word sh.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
What jumping Jupiter?
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Are you? Is it really someone? Or am I having hallucinations?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We are no vision?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
No?
Speaker 8 (08:37):
Oh, you seem to be real. I saw the ship
come down. I thought perhaps I was losing my mind.
It's been so many years.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I'm Captain John Parsons. These are my assistants, doctor Evans
and mister Williams. We've returned to Earth from Mars, and
it's happened.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
We're not alone any more. I forgive me, gentlemen, I
see him moved. I waited and hoped for so long.
You survived the radiation we did. There are others.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
My family were the only ones.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I answered the phone a moment ago.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Who was it?
Speaker 6 (09:17):
You heard my voice? Doctor?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Your voice?
Speaker 6 (09:20):
To break the loneliness.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
I've recorded my voice and rigged up an automatic telephone.
It's pleasing to hear the phone ring. I come here
to do my work.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I take it you're a medical man.
Speaker 8 (09:31):
My name is Cornelie's hat Away hack Away Hathaway, the
brains virgeon.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know my name, who doesn't.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I watched you on television at college. I saw you
twenty three years ago. You performed a difficult surgery for
a cerebral tumor.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Marvelous.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (09:50):
I'd almost forgotten my mind, you see, I'm I'm almost eighty.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Now you look fine, sir.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Well, we've had the best of everything, an entire city
to choose from cool storage, the best equipment.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Come.
Speaker 8 (10:07):
When I saw your ship, I told Alice, my wife,
you know, to prepare a feast. This is a great
day for me, gentlemen, a great, great day. This is
(10:31):
my wife, gentlemen, Alice is, Captain Parsons, doctor Evans, and
mister Willis. Now, if you'll follow me, gentlemen, we'll meet
my children.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Love for a beautiful woman.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
She looks no more than thirty five.
Speaker 8 (10:46):
These are my daughters, Susan and Marguerite.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
This is my son John.
Speaker 8 (10:53):
She sit down, gentlemen, sit down. We'll have a feast
and honor on this occasion. Susan, Marguerite get the best
aware and the damas napkins.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
John fetched the glasses. Oh yes, father, he lonely.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Excuse me, John, sir? How old are you?
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Twenty three?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Sir?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Thank you now, if you'll excuse me.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
What is it, Captain? Something wrong?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Nothing except that it's impossible. You see, Doctor Hathaway's son
was already in college when I started. That will make
him at least forty five. That was a wonderful me
(11:41):
or Missus Hathaway. Doctor, your wife is an exceptional woman.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 9 (11:46):
How would you, gentlemen, like some fresh ginger bread with
your coffee? I bake it this morning.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Wonderful smell that happens.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Oh, it's like coming home, Missus Hathaway.
Speaker 10 (11:55):
We enjoy having you here.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Missus Hathaway. May I compliment you and your having preserved
your youth and beauty so well? Thank you.
Speaker 9 (12:05):
We have had no worries here, no competition, only the
things we need for material comfort.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Parsons and I were wondering, Doctor Hathaway, if the radioactivity
had any effect in preserving tissue. Your children all look
so young too.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
It is possible, gentlemen.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Of course, radiation does strange things to living tissue. Alice,
could we have some champagne?
Speaker 10 (12:29):
Of course, I'll only be a.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Moment an amazing woman. Did you see such grace, such
complete relaxation, doesn't seem quite natural.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
I beg your pardon, gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Captain Parsons was just about to ask how you and
your family managed to escape, Doctor Hathaway, you.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Were very fortunate. I was working in the Sierra Mountains
at the time.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
I had a lead lined laboratory where I did X
ray research on my pet project.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
What is that, sir?
Speaker 8 (12:54):
The study of machine? Does they relate to human function?
And the corollary of well to continue? When the dust
cloud covered America, we remained in the laboratory, well supplied
with food and water. Later, when the radiation permitted, we
made our way east back to our old home in
the hopes of finding other survivors. But by that time
(13:18):
every living creature had been evacuated to Mars. We were stranded.
The migration ships didn't wait for stragglers.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
That's true. My father and I were on the last
rocket out of New York.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
I've always loved this old house, but the loneliness of
those first years.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
At least you had your wife and children.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Yes, yes, I had my family.
Speaker 8 (13:44):
If it were not for them, gentlemen, I assure you
I would long ago put a bullet in my head.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
Here we are, Champagne, Captain, Oh, thank you missus Hathway.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
May may I.
Speaker 11 (13:56):
Propose a toast to let me gentlemen, to Earth, To Earth, Earth,
May she never be a stranger to man again, happily?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
What is it?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Nothing? Really is just rather sharp pain in the chest.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I think you should lie down, doctor, Perhaps are right?
Speaker 8 (14:16):
Let me hap you No, No, John and Susan will
help of course, Faly, why why don't you gentlemen go
out in the porch, enjoy the air.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
I'll see you all.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
In the morning.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Good night, doctor, good night, come John?
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yes, father.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well what do you think of old Mother Earth?
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Now?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Williams? Smell that summer breeze. Look at that view of
the city lighted up against the sky.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
It has a certain quality.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well score one point for the back to Earth proposer.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
I didn't say that.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You're beginning to feel it, though, Williams.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
I can tell if you don't mind, gentlemen, I'm quite tired.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
I think I'll turn in.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Excuse me, well, Captain, Well, what what do you make
of all this?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I don't know what you mean?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
This Hathaway and his family. There's something strange and unnatural
going on here. I can sense it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think you're reading things into it. Evans.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Oh, perhaps, well, I'll turn into you coming.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
In a moment.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I want to smoke a cigarette.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Beautiful views.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
What is it not? I didn't hear you come out?
Speaker 9 (15:42):
How is he resty? I've never seen him this bad.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yes, he's an old man. I'm sorry, but the difference
in your ages are so apparent. You must have been
married very young.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
My husband is a very great man, Captain. It's too
bad there was no one to appreciate him. Once he
wired the whole city with sound speakers, and when he
pressed a button, the whole town lit up and made
noises as if ten thousand people were living in it.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
He must have been very lonesome for people. Although we're
a woman such as you, I don't understand.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
Perhaps one day you will understand.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Good Night, Captain, good night missus Hathaway.
Speaker 12 (16:40):
Captain, Captain Parsons. Who's there? It's doctor Evanence?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
What time is it?
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Two way in?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I couldn't sleep. A few minutes ago I heard someone
slip out the front door.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
The little light.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I saw it was the old man. He was headed
toward our ship.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
What do you suggesting happens?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Nothing except that it's fairly unnatural for an old man
with a bad heart to go wandering off at two
in the morning.
Speaker 13 (17:07):
Very well, we'll follow him.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
See him yet? No, Look I head there on the hillside.
Isn't that Hathaway kneeling in the moonlight?
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yes? I think so?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Can we get closer outside? For that clump of bushes here?
This is far enough. Do you suppose he's doing there?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
What are those things on the ground?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Good lord? Those a grave markers, four of them.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
You're right, seems to be praying over them.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
Listen, do you forgive me for what I've done? I
had to do it. I was so terribly lonely. You
you do forgive me?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Do it?
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Yes, sir, I feel you too. I'm glad. I think
perhaps I can rest now.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I think he's having another attack.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Come on, Hathaway, t the heath Away raise his head, hapens,
his lips are moving.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What is the doctor leaking closer?
Speaker 8 (18:25):
I I'm sorry I had to spoil all of this.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
I've expected it for some time.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
We'll fix you up.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
Oh, this is the end for me. It really doesn't
matter except for them.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
What about them? Have away? You you suspected, didn't you?
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I suspected, but I couldn't believe it until now. Do
they know?
Speaker 8 (18:51):
No, No, they wouldn't understand. I wouldn't want them to know.
Speaker 14 (18:56):
Ever, Yes, er, don't try to talk. The earth is
so fair, doctor.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
He's dead, Captain.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
He knew it was the end this time.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yes, he knew.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
What was it?
Speaker 12 (19:16):
He meant about your suspect?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Light a match, Heavens, Look on those four grave markers
and tell me what you see, good lord Well.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Alice Hathaway Marguery's Hathaway Susan Hathaway. John Hathaway died July
nineteen eighty seven. But that's twenty years ago. If these
markers are correct, then who are those others?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Can't you guess?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Heavens? Can't you guess? Missus Hathaway? Are you awake?
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Yes?
Speaker 10 (20:11):
Captain?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
May I come in?
Speaker 8 (20:13):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (20:15):
It's about my husband, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You knew?
Speaker 9 (20:19):
I saw him go out to night. He felt it
was near the end.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
He died less than an hour ago. I'm sorry, thank you?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
How do you feel?
Speaker 9 (20:31):
He told us it would happen one day and that
he didn't want us to cry. He didn't teach us how,
you know, he said it was the worst thing that
could happen, to know how to be lonely and unhappy.
What will happen to us now that he's gone?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (20:48):
Will you stay with us?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I would like to, but I cannot. You know about us, Yes,
I know. I didn't think that you knew yourself.
Speaker 9 (20:58):
The children don't.
Speaker 10 (21:00):
I have been aware for a long while.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
No one would have guessed you are so perfect.
Speaker 9 (21:06):
Oh, he would have liked to hear you say that.
He was so very proud of us. After a while
he came to love us, and at the end he
took us as his real wife and children. He even
forgot sometimes that he had made us.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
You gave him a great deal of comfort.
Speaker 9 (21:26):
Yes, Over the years we sat and talked. He loved
so much to talk.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I was first, you know.
Speaker 9 (21:34):
Then he became lonesome for the children, and so he
made them. He told me about the things he did
about his laboratory.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Surely the children must suspect.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
Oh no, you see, there were no other beings with
which to compare themselves.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
He must have been a great, great genius.
Speaker 9 (21:53):
Each morning he took a recording of his voice into
town and put it on the automatic telephone.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
It would call us.
Speaker 9 (22:01):
I think what with the phone ringing and the sound
of voices and the lights on. He was happy there
was only one thing, one floor, and that he couldn't
make us grow old, And so he had to watch
himself become an old old man.
Speaker 10 (22:22):
While we stayed young.
Speaker 15 (22:25):
It was a great blow to him.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
And so we commend the body of this man, Cornelius Hathaway.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
To his maker.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, returneth Amen, come.
Speaker 9 (23:02):
John, Yes, mother Susan, Martine.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Evans, Williams stay here a moment, please, what is it?
Let them go back to the house. I want to
speak to you.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I know what you're going to tell us.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Captain.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
I saw the names on the grave markers.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well, it's a mockery, a.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Blasphemy of everything we believe in. For a man to
do something so.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Evil, can't you imagine what he faced? Can't you imagine
what it must have been like to have watched his
wife and children die slowly of radiation burns, to know
that he was the last man on the face of
the earth, alone, eternally and unalterably alone. Good lord man,
(23:43):
what would you have done if you had had his
medical and technical genius.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Incredible, yes it is.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
But with an entire American city on which to draw
for supplies and equipment, a brilliant man might accomplish anything.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Even that.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
What are you suggesting, captain, that we take them back?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
We haven't enough space in the ship for that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Every ounce counts still to leave them here like that alone.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I think I have an answer, cold blooded as it
may seem, go on, I suggest that we turn them off.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Do you think that I could do that? No?
Speaker 5 (24:19):
But I could. After all, they aren't human. They're worse
than robots. They're ghoulish.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Have you talked to her? Has she smiled at you
with that quiet, beautiful smile? Captain?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
We can't take them with us, and it would be
less than human to leave them here without Hathaway.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Could you do it? Adams?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Give me the blast gun, Williams.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
We'll wait on the ship take off in half an hour, oh, no.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Six twenty five. He should be back soon. Yes, he's
doing the only humane thing, Captain. They are less than human,
are they. Well it's done now and no one will ever.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's the air lock. He's back. Well, here's your gun.
Did you do it.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
When I entered the house, she looked at me with
those fine intelligent eyes. I couldn't do it. It would be murder,
cold blooded murder.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I prayed you wouldn't be able to do it. They
will never be anything as fine as they are. Do
the last two hundred, three hundred, perhaps a thousand years. Well,
get the course of the integrator. Williams will take off
in twenty minutes. I shall be back by then.
Speaker 8 (26:03):
You're going out, sir.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I'm going to say good bye. You've come back ow
(26:24):
it to say good bye. It was nice of you.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I wanted you to know that I am coming back
some day.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
When will you come?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
It will take many years to prepare fuel for another trip,
six seven, perhaps ten years.
Speaker 9 (26:45):
I will watch the sky at night, just as he
watched it.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I'm afraid I must go now. I understand.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
Strange. I have a new feeling, one which he did
not teach us, feeling of long, of sadness, and.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
That one is not taught. It comes of being alive.
Speaker 9 (27:15):
Yes, I am alive. Even though he created me, I
am a person.
Speaker 10 (27:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Good Bye Alice Hathaway, good bye.
Speaker 10 (27:31):
John Parsons.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You have just heard another adventure into the unknown world
of the future, the world of When the time comes
for men to explore the universe to deal with the
(28:27):
strange inhabitants of other worlds, there will be much to remember.
Perhaps the most important lesson of all will seem too
fundamental to be included in the training manuals. Listen to
this time next week as Dementia X brings you a
story from the pages of the August Astounding Science Fiction.
A story called courtesy.
Speaker 16 (28:54):
Dementia X is presented each week by the National Broadcasting
Company in cooperation with screet Smith, publishers of the magazine
Astounding Science Fiction. Today, demention X has presented Dwellers in Silence,
written for radio by George Lefferts from the story by
Ray Bradbury. Featured in the cast were Peter Capel as
(29:15):
Captain Parsons, Bill Griffiths as Doctor Hathaway, and Gertrude Warner
as Ellis.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Your host was Norman Rose.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
Music by Albert Berman.
Speaker 16 (29:23):
Dimension AX is produced by William Welsh and directed by
fred Way Dragnett. The Story of Your Police Forces next
on NBC
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