September 5, 2024 • 22 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 (00:06):
Adventures in Time and Space transcribed in Future Tents. The
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
(00:28):
of Astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
X Tonight's story. First contact by Murray Leinster. They had
(00:55):
been in space six months now, moving with the incredibly
faster than light space either of the overdrive. In six months,
they had gone from Earth outward and outward to the
crab like Nebula with the Twin Stars. A routine flight
of exploration and scientific research.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Solid object about ninety thousand miles away, so located, Dort
exactly identify it a small.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Object, Sir, Captain.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I've never seen anything like this before. Whatever it is
out there is coming tortous at an incredible speed and
retreating to zero.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Just as rapidly.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
What's the mass of the object, Dort, Oh.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
It varies with the distance from us.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Sir, Step up the scanners.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
Nothing, sir, Absolutely nothing shows out there, and yet there
must be something.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Those alarms are.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Full proof action stations and all weapons condition of extreme alert,
and all departments immediately captain what is it? Dirt? I
ran into the same thing once before on the Earth
Mars run. We were being located by another ship, and
their locator being was the same frequency as ours. Every
time it hit it registered to something solid and monstrous.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
But Captain, we're the only earth ship in eighteen like
years around.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
How I didn't say it was another Earth's ship.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Out there door another race.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
That's right, there's a space ship out there, all right.
There's not manned by human beings.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It had been contemplated and speculated upon. Mathematically, it was
almost a certainty that such a race existed. But in
eighteen thousand earth years, no human spaceship.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Had ever encountered them.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Now the situation was precipitated, and somewhere outside the Earth
vessel there was an alien race of what shape, of
what quality, of what psychology.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
It's moving, sir, heading right for us.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That speed will be in touching ten minutes, heading right
for us, sir. Just what we'd do if a strange
ship appeared in our hunting grounds? Friendly or maybe we'll
try to contact them. We have to do that friendly.
Thank the Lord for the blasters.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
They may not be hostile, sir.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
They Maybe that's what I'm paid for put on this
job for to worry about the troubles. It may never
happen to all hands. Now hear this. A ship is
approaching man by an alien race. I'll give the signal
for attack or defense if it'd be necessary. There'll be
no move made unless I give the order. I do
not wish to provoke trouble. Stand by.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Their ship is slowing down, Sir. It stopped.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Weapons Department report. Weapons Department report.
Speaker 6 (03:29):
Alien ship remarked target fixed weapons alert.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Communications Department report. Communications Department report.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
We're receiving a modulated short wave, Sir.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Frequency modulated pardly a signal, not enough power to do
with any harm. We'll try to make some sense out
of it. Report any progress to me immediately.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
One thing in their favor, Sir. They didn't attack immediately,
without question. They're trying to establish contact. That seems to
indicate they're reasonable.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
And we'll see. We'll see what are they doing. Now
you make out the locator screen. Bring that power up.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
They're doing something awesome. There's a section of the hull opening,
probably an analyser.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
If they breathe there, they're.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Letting something out. It's round a bomb.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Ser I know an object greelease from alien ship observed
by Weapons Department and target.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
It spend by it see what they're doing, sir.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
They've left the object out there right where they were,
and now they're withdrawing the ship.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
There's no reason why that object couldn't be a bombers
to door intended to let us think precisely as your
thinking right now.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
I just have a hunch, sir. I think they're friendly.
I think whatever it is out there is a means
of communication.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Probably right, But I won't gamble the ship on a probability, Sir.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look
that thing over.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You understand, whoever does examine it, who is expendable, Yes, sir,
requisition of life boat if it's.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
All right with you, Sir.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
I'd prefer just a suit with the drive in it.
It's smaller and the arms and legs won't make me
look like a bomb, and I'll carry a scanner.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Say you may leave when you're ready, thank you, sir.
Speaker 7 (05:05):
I'm already clear the lock and let me out.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
Weapons Department reporting to the captain. Mister Dort located, Mister
Dort is targeted.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Stand by that object out there's a device to capture
one of our people for observation and questioning. It'll be
blown out of existence, including mister Dart. Stand by, mister Dart.
(05:40):
Mister Dart, report object.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
As you can see on the scanner, Sarah is covered
with many small horns, like the detonating horns of the
obsolete minds formerly used in naval warfare?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Is that their purpose? Do you assume, mister Dort.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going to grab one,
mister Dart.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I'm here, sir.
Speaker 7 (06:01):
I don't think this is a mine.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown yet.
Oh wait a minute, sir. A section of the autohole
seems to be opening.
Speaker 7 (06:14):
Do you see it?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Very good? God, hold that.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I'm sure it's a communications device, sir.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It looks like it. Fix your scanner, so it'll focus
on that communications device. Return to the ship, Communications department.
Communications department progress report, louse.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We've established communication, sir.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Is there a psychologist on the team downer with you?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Yes, sir, mister Burns is working with us a month
of you.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
Please report with bridget watch.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh you look tired.
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Door.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
We've established fairly satisfactory communications. They seem to have highly
developed thought patents. We've got a satisfactory translation from the machine.
On the fourth attempt, we can say almost anything we
want to say to each other. Now, of course, how
much of what they tell us is the truth? We
have no way of knowing, mister Burns, you're the psychologist.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
What do you think? Well, I don't know, sir.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
They seem to be completely direct. They haven't, let's slip
even the hint of the tenseness we know exists.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
They act as if they were setting up a means
of communication for friendly conversation. But well, there's an overtone
that yeah, Well, mister Burns, I have a decision to make.
On the one hand, opening contact with the friendly people
of a vastly different culture could only be beneficial to
us of every On the other hand, if they're hostile,
I had to bless them out of existence without any
(07:42):
other preliminary But sir, you cannot talking to you do it?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
It's not warranted yet, sir.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yes, now hear this, All departments, hear this, all departments.
This ship is on an extended alert. Provisions will be
made so the personnel OH can have maximum rest and nourishment.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Communication continued by means of the artificial language set up
arbitrarily between the earthman and the aliens, decoded by the
mechanical decoders.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Dark disobeyed orders.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He lived on powerful stimulants so that he could stay
with the communications machine, talking, talking, talking to the aliens.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Other people, other people. Are we being received?
Speaker 7 (08:41):
We are receiving your message.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the
chief of your ship.
Speaker 7 (08:48):
The message is heard by the chief of this ship.
Speaker 8 (08:51):
The chief of this ship communicates that he will hear
the message.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Of the chief of that ship.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Go ahead, sair, people of the other ship, ye, I'd
like to say the appropriate things about this first contact
of two dissimilar civilized races, and of my hopes that
a friendly intercourse between the two people's will result.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
People of that ship, what you say is all very well,
But is there any way for us to let each
other go home alive?
Speaker 5 (09:26):
That's all say. They stopped sending very direct people very direct.
But sir, I don't follow. I didn't know what that meant.
You know, is there any way for us to let each.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Other go home alive?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It means what it says, Dort.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
So what's to stop us from just cutting communication and leaving,
and they can do likewise.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
What's to stop us? Simply that whichever ship leaves first
will be followed by the other. If they find Earth
and get back to their own planet, and we don't
know where that planet is, Earth will be completely their mercy.
If they leave first, we'll follow them. We'll attempt to
find their home planet. Dirk, could you swear do want
a decision that the policymakers on Earth will come to sir?
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Even if they do follow us. The closer we get
to home, the more of our ships and weapons they'll face.
They never get away.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well, how do you know that they can't communicate with
their home planet without returning we cancer? How do you
know they can't?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
They don't say.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So that's the situation. We'll sit out here, facing each other,
trying to out guess each other until time wears us out,
and we'll have to face the fact either they destroy
us or we destroy them. Navigation officer attention. Navigation officer attention.
Every star map on this ship is to be prepared
for instant destruction.
Speaker 8 (10:36):
The chief of this ship wishes to know whether the
chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the
problem concerning us all.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Do you want me to answer that, sir.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I'll answer it myself.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Tell me when to.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Talk now, Sir, I am giving that matter personal attention.
Every effort will be bent to the solution of this problem.
Will you consider a temporary truce in the meantime?
Speaker 7 (11:03):
What would a truth gain? Would we trust you? Would
you trust us?
Speaker 8 (11:10):
I suggest that we continue as we have up to
this particle of time?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I agree, sign off.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Good weeks went by, and during the weeks the exchange
of information continued without let up.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
What particle of time? Are the people on that ship at.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
The resting time? All rest except myself and others on
alert duty.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Same on this ship.
Speaker 8 (11:44):
You people of that ship are very similar in many ways.
Do you have a family?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I have a mate.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
I have a mate and three offspring.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
It is too bad for them, as well as us,
to have to kill each other.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
This ship can't see any way out of it, can
that ship?
Speaker 8 (12:06):
If we could believe each ship, yes, our chief would
like it. But we can't believe you, and you are
afraid that we do not tell truth.
Speaker 7 (12:16):
Although we do. This ship would trail you home.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
If this ship were able to, that ship would do
the same. But this ship feels sorry about it.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I believe you're a friend.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
I share your belief and like you, but there is
a possibility that you are put to make a trap
for me.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
I will stop now and think it over.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
List so down, Doret, control yourself. We're all under doesn't
do any good to pace like some caged animal. Yes,
all right, now, I've read the complete transcription of your
conversations with this one alien. What does it prove, Dort.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Sarah, these people are so much like us in their thinking.
Well say, they're likable. They're likable, and they breathe oxygen.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Their area is twenty eight percent oxygen instead of twenty.
They could do very well on Earth. Be a highly
desirable conquest for them, Dort. I must set against violence
as you are. I don't see any way out of this,
and I think we've got to break the status quo.
So if in seventy hours we don't see any other way,
(13:38):
then I have no further choice. I'll blow them to bits.
Speaker 8 (13:57):
Will that chip receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
This ship is listening.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
It seems to.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
Me better to communicate than to sit by the machine silently.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
I would have called you, but you signed off before
the problem.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
Goes around and around. I find no answer.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Perhaps we could turn our thoughts to other things.
Speaker 8 (14:22):
The psychologist of this ship tells us that you people
and that ship have a threshold of tolerance to tension.
He tells us that you will be forced to take
one action or another in a period of less than
a hundred time particles.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I have no communication on this matter.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Oh, the ship is not trying to extract unwilling information
from that ship. A truth is mentioned in passing.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
A report of this conversation will be carried to the chief.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Of this shipping.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
It would be so we are prepared.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
If only the people of this ship could meet in
direct contact with the people of that ship, it might
be better.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
We could not communicate.
Speaker 8 (14:59):
Then the communications machine is too large to carry from
place to place, and I like contact. The people say
the two ships would be further apart than now.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
That's true.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
I am said. Much that is pleasant has passed between us.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I am sad too.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
We are not yet ready for each other.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
We are not yet ready for each other.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It's hard, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Dot Well, Captain, I am sorry. I I didn't know
you were here.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So I've been here for quite a while he's dropping.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I'm afraid it's all right, sir. Nothing can be personal
in a situation like this, and that's right.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
How long is a hundred time particles? Dirt pud and
say that reference he made to us not being able
to stand Tenser? Its interesting. Their psychologist seem to make
more out of us and we do out of them,
don't they.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yes, they hit the nail right on the head.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yes they do, I think, Dort, we'll just have to
push our timetable up a bit. No further communication with
the aliens under any circumstances. That's clear, isn't.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
It, Yes, sir, sir, If they know so much about
our psychology, isn't it possible that remark was intended to
make us act more quickly?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Probable?
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Dort?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Probable?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Why would they do that, sir? Why you tell me why?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Dort?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
All of a sudden, I have an idea, Sir.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's crazy, and it doesn't matter how crazy. I'll listen
to him, Sir. I think these people are playing some
kind of a joke on us.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Joke a joke, Dort, Yes, sir, Over and over again,
I've noticed what I think is a sense of humor
a highly developed sense of humor.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Do you recall when we went to all the trouble
to set up.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
A fictitious star map, and then they just sent us
back a mirror image of the same one.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I think somehow they're playing a joke on us.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You're right, in which case, you've seen practical jokers do it.
Their jokes aren't always funny. Sometimes they hurt people. All departments,
(17:24):
Man instant Alert, All departments, Man instant alert, Report instantly,
Report instantly.
Speaker 7 (17:29):
Women's Department alerted.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Target the enemy ship on target, Sir, stand by.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Fire.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
They're gone, sir. Not a trace of them left, not
a tiny trace. Now we can go home.
Speaker 7 (18:03):
Communications to Captain.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Communications to Captain, Sir, I'm picking up new signals.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
The same frequency as the original alien signals.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
It's impossible that ship was destroyed.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
I'm receiving signals, sir.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Set on machine up. We'll be down there in a minute.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Come with me, please, it's good to be on the
way home. Yes, it is good. Do you suppose we'll
ever figure out what happened to the other ship?
Speaker 8 (18:33):
Never a blinding fresh and they were burned. I suppose
they couldn't figure a way out of the situation an
unstable people. They had no sense of humor to cope
with the situation. They exploded themselves out of existence.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
It seems reasonable.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
They must have been powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Yes, what a shame. In a way, I grew to
like them.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
This isn't meant for us, Sir. I don't know what's happening,
but I think we're overhearing a private conversation.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Understand or be quiet, will you?
Speaker 8 (19:08):
Many things might have come out of a relationship with
that people. They were describing a disease they call cancer.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
I think it is similar to the Fulgren syndrome.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
We might have.
Speaker 7 (19:20):
Helped them, They might have helped us, too well. Too bad,
we'll never find them again.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
I think the odds of such a chance meeting in
the vast space.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Of the whole universe. There are no figures for such
odds are there?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Turn it up door it, turn it up bluder.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
That's all there is. The signals stopped there, Sir.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
I don't know how, but somehow when we fired at them,
we didn't destroy them, but we did set up a
condition whereby they've become invisible to us, and we've become
invisible to them, Captain.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
To Engineering Department forward motions.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Captain, why are we stopped.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Listen to it? Did you say they're invisible? All right?
They are, but they're not destroyed because we just heard them.
They're out there somewhere invisible.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
You heard them, So they're heading for home. We're invisible
to them too, sir.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
How do you know, Dort? How do you know this
whole thing isn't set up?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
We suppose that's true, Captain. You heard their conversation.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
They weren't talking like any monstrous people. They seem decent
and warm, just as decent and warm as we.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
How do you know this conversation wasn't planned deliberately set up?
For resto here? How do you know that?
Speaker 7 (20:23):
Dort?
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yes, sir, you're right.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
They may be out there and they may not. They
may be telling the truth, or they may be trying.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
To trick us.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
They may be friends, or they may be the most
deadly enemies.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
You said they had a sense of humor, Dort. What
a joke to play to deliberately set up a situation
where we wouldn't know fact from fantasy truth from life.
Wouldn't that be a joke, Dort?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
But we don't know that they did that, sir, and we.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Don't know that they didn't.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
We don't know anything, sir. Does that mean we never
go home again? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I have to think about it. I have to think
about it.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
You have just heard another adventure into the unknown world
of the future. The World of.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
The Demention X is presented each week by the National
Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of
the magazine Astounding Science Fiction.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Your host was Norman Rose.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Music by Albert Berman. Dimension AX is produced by William
Welch and directed by Fred Way. First Contact written by
Marilly Leinster and adapted for radio by Howard Rodman. Injured
in the cast were Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Rot Gordon, William.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Malley and Stannerley. You're announcer Fred Collins.
Adventures in Time and Space transcribed in Future Tents. The
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
(00:28):
of Astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
X Tonight's story. First contact by Murray Leinster. They had
(00:55):
been in space six months now, moving with the incredibly
faster than light space either of the overdrive. In six months,
they had gone from Earth outward and outward to the
crab like Nebula with the Twin Stars. A routine flight
of exploration and scientific research.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Solid object about ninety thousand miles away, so located, Dort
exactly identify it a small.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Object, Sir, Captain.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I've never seen anything like this before. Whatever it is
out there is coming tortous at an incredible speed and
retreating to zero.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Just as rapidly.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
What's the mass of the object, Dort, Oh.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
It varies with the distance from us.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Sir, Step up the scanners.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
Nothing, sir, Absolutely nothing shows out there, and yet there
must be something.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Those alarms are.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Full proof action stations and all weapons condition of extreme alert,
and all departments immediately captain what is it? Dirt? I
ran into the same thing once before on the Earth
Mars run. We were being located by another ship, and
their locator being was the same frequency as ours. Every
time it hit it registered to something solid and monstrous.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
But Captain, we're the only earth ship in eighteen like
years around.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
How I didn't say it was another Earth's ship.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Out there door another race.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
That's right, there's a space ship out there, all right.
There's not manned by human beings.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It had been contemplated and speculated upon. Mathematically, it was
almost a certainty that such a race existed. But in
eighteen thousand earth years, no human spaceship.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Had ever encountered them.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Now the situation was precipitated, and somewhere outside the Earth
vessel there was an alien race of what shape, of
what quality, of what psychology.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
It's moving, sir, heading right for us.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That speed will be in touching ten minutes, heading right
for us, sir. Just what we'd do if a strange
ship appeared in our hunting grounds? Friendly or maybe we'll
try to contact them. We have to do that friendly.
Thank the Lord for the blasters.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
They may not be hostile, sir.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
They Maybe that's what I'm paid for put on this
job for to worry about the troubles. It may never
happen to all hands. Now hear this. A ship is
approaching man by an alien race. I'll give the signal
for attack or defense if it'd be necessary. There'll be
no move made unless I give the order. I do
not wish to provoke trouble. Stand by.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Their ship is slowing down, Sir. It stopped.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Weapons Department report. Weapons Department report.
Speaker 6 (03:29):
Alien ship remarked target fixed weapons alert.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Communications Department report. Communications Department report.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
We're receiving a modulated short wave, Sir.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Frequency modulated pardly a signal, not enough power to do
with any harm. We'll try to make some sense out
of it. Report any progress to me immediately.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
One thing in their favor, Sir. They didn't attack immediately,
without question. They're trying to establish contact. That seems to
indicate they're reasonable.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
And we'll see. We'll see what are they doing. Now
you make out the locator screen. Bring that power up.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
They're doing something awesome. There's a section of the hull opening,
probably an analyser.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
If they breathe there, they're.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Letting something out. It's round a bomb.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Ser I know an object greelease from alien ship observed
by Weapons Department and target.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
It spend by it see what they're doing, sir.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
They've left the object out there right where they were,
and now they're withdrawing the ship.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
There's no reason why that object couldn't be a bombers
to door intended to let us think precisely as your
thinking right now.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
I just have a hunch, sir. I think they're friendly.
I think whatever it is out there is a means
of communication.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Probably right, But I won't gamble the ship on a probability, Sir.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look
that thing over.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You understand, whoever does examine it, who is expendable, Yes, sir,
requisition of life boat if it's.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
All right with you, Sir.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
I'd prefer just a suit with the drive in it.
It's smaller and the arms and legs won't make me
look like a bomb, and I'll carry a scanner.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Say you may leave when you're ready, thank you, sir.
Speaker 7 (05:05):
I'm already clear the lock and let me out.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
Weapons Department reporting to the captain. Mister Dort located, Mister
Dort is targeted.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Stand by that object out there's a device to capture
one of our people for observation and questioning. It'll be
blown out of existence, including mister Dart. Stand by, mister Dart.
(05:40):
Mister Dart, report object.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
As you can see on the scanner, Sarah is covered
with many small horns, like the detonating horns of the
obsolete minds formerly used in naval warfare?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Is that their purpose? Do you assume, mister Dort.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going to grab one,
mister Dart.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I'm here, sir.
Speaker 7 (06:01):
I don't think this is a mine.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown yet.
Oh wait a minute, sir. A section of the autohole
seems to be opening.
Speaker 7 (06:14):
Do you see it?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Very good? God, hold that.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I'm sure it's a communications device, sir.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It looks like it. Fix your scanner, so it'll focus
on that communications device. Return to the ship, Communications department.
Communications department progress report, louse.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We've established communication, sir.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Is there a psychologist on the team downer with you?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Yes, sir, mister Burns is working with us a month
of you.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
Please report with bridget watch.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh you look tired.
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Door.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
We've established fairly satisfactory communications. They seem to have highly
developed thought patents. We've got a satisfactory translation from the machine.
On the fourth attempt, we can say almost anything we
want to say to each other. Now, of course, how
much of what they tell us is the truth? We
have no way of knowing, mister Burns, you're the psychologist.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
What do you think? Well, I don't know, sir.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
They seem to be completely direct. They haven't, let's slip
even the hint of the tenseness we know exists.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
They act as if they were setting up a means
of communication for friendly conversation. But well, there's an overtone
that yeah, Well, mister Burns, I have a decision to make.
On the one hand, opening contact with the friendly people
of a vastly different culture could only be beneficial to
us of every On the other hand, if they're hostile,
I had to bless them out of existence without any
(07:42):
other preliminary But sir, you cannot talking to you do it?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
It's not warranted yet, sir.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yes, now hear this, All departments, hear this, all departments.
This ship is on an extended alert. Provisions will be
made so the personnel OH can have maximum rest and nourishment.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Communication continued by means of the artificial language set up
arbitrarily between the earthman and the aliens, decoded by the
mechanical decoders.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Dark disobeyed orders.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He lived on powerful stimulants so that he could stay
with the communications machine, talking, talking, talking to the aliens.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Other people, other people. Are we being received?
Speaker 7 (08:41):
We are receiving your message.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the
chief of your ship.
Speaker 7 (08:48):
The message is heard by the chief of this ship.
Speaker 8 (08:51):
The chief of this ship communicates that he will hear
the message.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Of the chief of that ship.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Go ahead, sair, people of the other ship, ye, I'd
like to say the appropriate things about this first contact
of two dissimilar civilized races, and of my hopes that
a friendly intercourse between the two people's will result.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
People of that ship, what you say is all very well,
But is there any way for us to let each
other go home alive?
Speaker 5 (09:26):
That's all say. They stopped sending very direct people very direct.
But sir, I don't follow. I didn't know what that meant.
You know, is there any way for us to let each.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Other go home alive?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It means what it says, Dort.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
So what's to stop us from just cutting communication and leaving,
and they can do likewise.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
What's to stop us? Simply that whichever ship leaves first
will be followed by the other. If they find Earth
and get back to their own planet, and we don't
know where that planet is, Earth will be completely their mercy.
If they leave first, we'll follow them. We'll attempt to
find their home planet. Dirk, could you swear do want
a decision that the policymakers on Earth will come to sir?
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Even if they do follow us. The closer we get
to home, the more of our ships and weapons they'll face.
They never get away.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well, how do you know that they can't communicate with
their home planet without returning we cancer? How do you
know they can't?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
They don't say.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So that's the situation. We'll sit out here, facing each other,
trying to out guess each other until time wears us out,
and we'll have to face the fact either they destroy
us or we destroy them. Navigation officer attention. Navigation officer attention.
Every star map on this ship is to be prepared
for instant destruction.
Speaker 8 (10:36):
The chief of this ship wishes to know whether the
chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the
problem concerning us all.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Do you want me to answer that, sir.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I'll answer it myself.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Tell me when to.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Talk now, Sir, I am giving that matter personal attention.
Every effort will be bent to the solution of this problem.
Will you consider a temporary truce in the meantime?
Speaker 7 (11:03):
What would a truth gain? Would we trust you? Would
you trust us?
Speaker 8 (11:10):
I suggest that we continue as we have up to
this particle of time?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I agree, sign off.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Good weeks went by, and during the weeks the exchange
of information continued without let up.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
What particle of time? Are the people on that ship at.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
The resting time? All rest except myself and others on
alert duty.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Same on this ship.
Speaker 8 (11:44):
You people of that ship are very similar in many ways.
Do you have a family?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I have a mate.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
I have a mate and three offspring.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
It is too bad for them, as well as us,
to have to kill each other.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
This ship can't see any way out of it, can
that ship?
Speaker 8 (12:06):
If we could believe each ship, yes, our chief would
like it. But we can't believe you, and you are
afraid that we do not tell truth.
Speaker 7 (12:16):
Although we do. This ship would trail you home.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
If this ship were able to, that ship would do
the same. But this ship feels sorry about it.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I believe you're a friend.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
I share your belief and like you, but there is
a possibility that you are put to make a trap
for me.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
I will stop now and think it over.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
List so down, Doret, control yourself. We're all under doesn't
do any good to pace like some caged animal. Yes,
all right, now, I've read the complete transcription of your
conversations with this one alien. What does it prove, Dort.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Sarah, these people are so much like us in their thinking.
Well say, they're likable. They're likable, and they breathe oxygen.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Their area is twenty eight percent oxygen instead of twenty.
They could do very well on Earth. Be a highly
desirable conquest for them, Dort. I must set against violence
as you are. I don't see any way out of this,
and I think we've got to break the status quo.
So if in seventy hours we don't see any other way,
(13:38):
then I have no further choice. I'll blow them to bits.
Speaker 8 (13:57):
Will that chip receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
This ship is listening.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
It seems to.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
Me better to communicate than to sit by the machine silently.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
I would have called you, but you signed off before
the problem.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
Goes around and around. I find no answer.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Perhaps we could turn our thoughts to other things.
Speaker 8 (14:22):
The psychologist of this ship tells us that you people
and that ship have a threshold of tolerance to tension.
He tells us that you will be forced to take
one action or another in a period of less than
a hundred time particles.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I have no communication on this matter.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Oh, the ship is not trying to extract unwilling information
from that ship. A truth is mentioned in passing.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
A report of this conversation will be carried to the chief.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Of this shipping.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
It would be so we are prepared.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
If only the people of this ship could meet in
direct contact with the people of that ship, it might
be better.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
We could not communicate.
Speaker 8 (14:59):
Then the communications machine is too large to carry from
place to place, and I like contact. The people say
the two ships would be further apart than now.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
That's true.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
I am said. Much that is pleasant has passed between us.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I am sad too.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
We are not yet ready for each other.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
We are not yet ready for each other.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It's hard, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Dot Well, Captain, I am sorry. I I didn't know
you were here.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So I've been here for quite a while he's dropping.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I'm afraid it's all right, sir. Nothing can be personal
in a situation like this, and that's right.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
How long is a hundred time particles? Dirt pud and
say that reference he made to us not being able
to stand Tenser? Its interesting. Their psychologist seem to make
more out of us and we do out of them,
don't they.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yes, they hit the nail right on the head.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yes they do, I think, Dort, we'll just have to
push our timetable up a bit. No further communication with
the aliens under any circumstances. That's clear, isn't.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
It, Yes, sir, sir, If they know so much about
our psychology, isn't it possible that remark was intended to
make us act more quickly?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Probable?
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Dort?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Probable?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Why would they do that, sir? Why you tell me why?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Dort?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
All of a sudden, I have an idea, Sir.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's crazy, and it doesn't matter how crazy. I'll listen
to him, Sir. I think these people are playing some
kind of a joke on us.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Joke a joke, Dort, Yes, sir, Over and over again,
I've noticed what I think is a sense of humor
a highly developed sense of humor.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Do you recall when we went to all the trouble
to set up.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
A fictitious star map, and then they just sent us
back a mirror image of the same one.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I think somehow they're playing a joke on us.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You're right, in which case, you've seen practical jokers do it.
Their jokes aren't always funny. Sometimes they hurt people. All departments,
(17:24):
Man instant Alert, All departments, Man instant alert, Report instantly,
Report instantly.
Speaker 7 (17:29):
Women's Department alerted.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Target the enemy ship on target, Sir, stand by.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Fire.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
They're gone, sir. Not a trace of them left, not
a tiny trace. Now we can go home.
Speaker 7 (18:03):
Communications to Captain.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Communications to Captain, Sir, I'm picking up new signals.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
The same frequency as the original alien signals.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
It's impossible that ship was destroyed.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
I'm receiving signals, sir.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Set on machine up. We'll be down there in a minute.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Come with me, please, it's good to be on the
way home. Yes, it is good. Do you suppose we'll
ever figure out what happened to the other ship?
Speaker 8 (18:33):
Never a blinding fresh and they were burned. I suppose
they couldn't figure a way out of the situation an
unstable people. They had no sense of humor to cope
with the situation. They exploded themselves out of existence.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
It seems reasonable.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
They must have been powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Yes, what a shame. In a way, I grew to
like them.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
This isn't meant for us, Sir. I don't know what's happening,
but I think we're overhearing a private conversation.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Understand or be quiet, will you?
Speaker 8 (19:08):
Many things might have come out of a relationship with
that people. They were describing a disease they call cancer.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
I think it is similar to the Fulgren syndrome.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
We might have.
Speaker 7 (19:20):
Helped them, They might have helped us, too well. Too bad,
we'll never find them again.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
I think the odds of such a chance meeting in
the vast space.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Of the whole universe. There are no figures for such
odds are there?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Turn it up door it, turn it up bluder.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
That's all there is. The signals stopped there, Sir.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
I don't know how, but somehow when we fired at them,
we didn't destroy them, but we did set up a
condition whereby they've become invisible to us, and we've become
invisible to them, Captain.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
To Engineering Department forward motions.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Captain, why are we stopped.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Listen to it? Did you say they're invisible? All right?
They are, but they're not destroyed because we just heard them.
They're out there somewhere invisible.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
You heard them, So they're heading for home. We're invisible
to them too, sir.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
How do you know, Dort? How do you know this
whole thing isn't set up?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
We suppose that's true, Captain. You heard their conversation.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
They weren't talking like any monstrous people. They seem decent
and warm, just as decent and warm as we.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
How do you know this conversation wasn't planned deliberately set up?
For resto here? How do you know that?
Speaker 7 (20:23):
Dort?
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yes, sir, you're right.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
They may be out there and they may not. They
may be telling the truth, or they may be trying.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
To trick us.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
They may be friends, or they may be the most
deadly enemies.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
You said they had a sense of humor, Dort. What
a joke to play to deliberately set up a situation
where we wouldn't know fact from fantasy truth from life.
Wouldn't that be a joke, Dort?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
But we don't know that they did that, sir, and we.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Don't know that they didn't.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
We don't know anything, sir. Does that mean we never
go home again? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I have to think about it. I have to think
about it.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
You have just heard another adventure into the unknown world
of the future. The World of.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
The Demention X is presented each week by the National
Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of
the magazine Astounding Science Fiction.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Your host was Norman Rose.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Music by Albert Berman. Dimension AX is produced by William
Welch and directed by Fred Way. First Contact written by
Marilly Leinster and adapted for radio by Howard Rodman. Injured
in the cast were Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Rot Gordon, William.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Malley and Stannerley. You're announcer Fred Collins.
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