Two Timer - Fredric Brown

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Two Timer by Frederick Brown. One experiment the first time machine.
Gentleman Professor Johnson proudly informed his two colleagues. True, it
is a small scale experimental model. It will operate only
on objects weighing less than three pounds five ounces and

(00:22):
for distances into the past and future of twelve minutes
or less. But it works. The small scale model looked
like a small scale, a postage scale, except for two dials.
In the part under the platform. Professor Johnson held up
a small metal cube. Our experimental object, he said, is

(00:42):
a brass cube weighing one pound two point three ounces. First,
I shall send it five minutes into the future. He
leaned forward and set one of the dials on the
time machine. Look at your watches, he said. They looked
at their watches. Professor Johnson placed the cue ube gently
on the machine's platform. It vanished five minutes later to

(01:05):
the second it reappeared. Professor Johnson picked it up. Now
five minutes into the past. He set the other dial.
Holding the cube in his hand, he looked at his watch.
It is six minutes before three o'clock. I shall now
activate the mechanism by placing the cube on the platform.
At exactly three o'clock. Therefore, the cube should, at five

(01:27):
minutes before three vanish from my hand and appear on
the platform five minutes before I place it there. How
can you place it there, then asked one of his colleagues.
It will, as my hand approaches, vanish from the platform
and appear in my hand to be placed there three o'clock. Notice, please,
The cube vanished from his hand. It appeared on the

(01:49):
platform of the time machine. See five minutes before I
shall place it there? It is there. His other colleague
frowned at the cube, but he said, what if, now
that it has already appeared five minutes before you place
it there, you should change your mind about doing so
and not place it there at three o'clock. Wouldn't there

(02:11):
be a paradox of some sort involved an interesting idea?
Professor Johnson said, I had not thought of it, and
it will be interesting to try. Very well. I shall not.
There was no paradox at all. The cube remained, but
the entire rest of the universe, professors and all vanished.

(02:34):
Two sentry. He was wet and muddy, and hungry and cold,
and he was fifty thousand light years from home. A
strange blue sun gave light, and the gravity twice what
he was used to, made every movement difficult. But in
tens of thousands of years, this part of war hadn't changed.
The Flyboys were fine with their sleek spaceships and their

(02:57):
fancied weapons. When the chips are down, though, it was
still the foot soldier, the infantry that had to take
the ground and hold it foot by bloody foot, like
this damned planet of a star. He'd never heard of
until they'd landed him here, and now it was sacred
ground because the Aliens were there too. The Aliens the
only other intelligent race in the galaxy, cruel, hideous and

(03:21):
repulsive monsters. Contact had been made with them near the
center of the galaxy after the slow but difficult colonization
of a dozen thousand planets, and it had been war
at sight. They'd shot without even trying to negotiate or
to make peace. Now, planet by bitter planet, it was
being fought out. He was wet and muddy and hungry

(03:43):
and cold, and the day was raw, with a high
wind that hurt his eyes. But the Aliens were trying
to infiltrate, and every sentry post was vital He stayed alert,
gun ready, fifty thousand light years from home, fighting on
a strange world, and wondering if he'd ever lived to
see home again. And then he saw one of them
crawling toward him. He drew a bead and fired. The

(04:06):
alien made that strange, horrible sound they all make, then
it lay still. He shuddered at the sound in sight
of the alien lying there. One ought to be able
to get used to them after a while, but he'd
never been able to such repulsive creatures. They were with
only two arms and two legs, ghastly white skins and

(04:26):
no scales, and of two timer by Frederick Brown