May 2, 2025 • 22 mins
A science fiction series that explores futuristic concepts and speculative scenarios, each episode delving into the possibilities of technology and space exploration.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M h.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Contdown for blast off x minus five four three two
x minus one Fire from the far horizons of the
(00:39):
unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.
These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll
live in a million, could be years, on a thousand,
maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street
and Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction, presents he minus
minus on Tonight's story. First contact by Murray Lemester. They
(01:26):
had been in space six months now, moving with the
incredibly faster than light speed 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 (01:45):
Solid object about ninety thousand miles away.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Sir, located door exactly identify it a.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Small object, Sir Captain. I've never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Whatever it is out there is coming tortous at an
incredible speed and retreating to zero just as rapidly.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
What's the mass of the object, dord.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It varies with the distance from us.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Sir, Step up the scanners.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Nothing, sir, absolutely nothing shows out there, and yet there
must be something.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Those alarms are fool.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Proof action stations, and all weapons condition of extreme alert,
and all departments immediately Captain, what is it? Dort? I
ran into the same thing once before on the Earth
Mars run. We were being located by another ship, and
their locator beam was the same frequency as ours. Every
time it hit it registered to something solid and monstrous.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Captain, We're the only earth ship in eighteen light years around.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
How I didn't say it was another Earth's ship out there, Dord.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Another race.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
That's right, there's a space ship out there, all right.
It's not manned by human beings.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It had been contemplated and speculated upon.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Mathematically it was almost a certainty that such a race existed,
But an eighteen thuds thousand earth years, no human spaceship
had ever encountered them. Now the situation was precipitated, and
somewhere outside the Earth vessel there was an alien race
of what sheep, of what quality? Of what psychology?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's moving, sir, heading right for us?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
That speed will be in touching ten minutes, heading right
for us. Eh. 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 3 (03:36):
They may not be hostile, sir.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
They may be. 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 be necessary. There'll
be no move made unless I give the order. I
do not wish to provoke trouble. Stand by.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Their ship is slowing down, Sir, it's stopped.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Weapons Department report. Weapons Department report.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Alien ship remarked target fixed weapons alert.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Communications Department report. Communications Department report.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
We're receiving a modulated short wave, sir.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Frequency modulated apparently 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 (04:22):
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, and we'll see.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
We'll see what are they doing now? Can you make
out the locator screen? Bring that power up?
Speaker 5 (04:36):
They're doing something, na sir, there's a section of the
hull opening, probably.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
An analys if they breathe there, they're.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Letting something out. It's round a bombser.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
A known object released from alienship, observed by weapons department,
then targeted stand by.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
See what they're doing, sir.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
They've left the object out there, right where they were,
and now they're withdrawing the ship.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
There's no reason why that object couldn't be a bombers
to do it intended to let us think precisely as
your thinking right now.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
I just have a hunch, sir. I think they're friendly.
I think whatever it is out there is a means
of communication.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Probably right, but I won't gamble the ship on the probability, Sir.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look
that thing over.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
You understand, whoever does examine it is expendable, yes, sir.
Requisition of lifeboat if it's all right.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
With you, Sir.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
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 7 (05:29):
Sir.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You may leave when you're ready, Thank.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
You, sir.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I'm already clear the lock and let me out.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Weapons Department reporting to the captain. Mister Dort located, mister
Dort is targeted.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Stand by that object out there is 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. Mister Dart, report.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Object is you can see on the scanner, Sarah, is
covered with many small horns, like the detonating horns of
the obsolete mines formerly used in naval warfare.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Is that their purpose? Do you assume, mister Dart.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going to grab one,
mister Dart. I'm here, sir. I don't think this is
a mind.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown yet.
Oh wait a minute, sir. A section of the autohol
seems to be opening. Do you see it?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Very good, Dart, hold that.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I'm sure it's a communications device, sir.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
It looks like it. Fix your scanner, so it'll focus
on that communications device. Returned to the ship.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Communications Department. Communications Department Progress Report.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
We've established communication, sir.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Is there a psychologist on the team down there with you?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yes, sir, mister Burns is working with us.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Both of you please report to the bridge at once.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You look tired, dork.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
We've established fairly satisfactory communication, sir. They seem to have
highly developed thought patterns. We've got a satisfactory translation.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
From the machine on the fourth attempt.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
We can say almost anything we want to say to
each other now, because how much of what they tell
us is the truth?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
We have no way of knowing, mister Burns.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You're the psychologist. What do you think? Well, I don't know, sir.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
They seem to be completely direct.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
They haven't let slip even the hint of the tenseness
we know exists. They act, as they were saying, up
a means of communication for friendly conversation.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
But well, there's an overtone that.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
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 Earth. On the other hand, if they're hostile, I
had to bless amount of existence without any other preliminary But.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Sir, you cannot talking to you Dor. It's not warranted yet, sir.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yes, now hear this. All departments, hear this, all departments.
This ship is on an extended alert. Provisions will be
made so that personnel can have maximum rest and nourishment.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Communication continued by means of the artificial language set up
arbitrarily between the Earthman and the aliens, decoded by the
mechanical decoders.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Disobeyed orders.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
He lived on powerful stimulants so that he could stay
with the communications machine, talking, talking, talking to the aliens.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Other people, other people. Are we being received?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
We are receiving your message.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the
chief of your ship.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
The message is heard by the chief of this ship.
The chief of this ship communicates that he will hear
the message of the chief.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Of that ship.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Go ahead, Sair, people of the other ship, 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 peoples will result.
Speaker 7 (09:50):
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 3 (10:04):
That's all, Sair.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
They've 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 other
go home alive?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
It means what it says, Dort.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
So what's to stop us from just cutting communication and
leaving and they can do likewise?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
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 at
their mercy. If they leave first, we'll follow them. We'll
attempt to find their home planet, Dort. Could you swear
to any decision that the policymakers on Earth will come
to sir?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Even if they do follow us.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
The closer we get to home, the more of our
ships and weapons they'll face.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
They never get away.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Well, how do you know that they can't communicate with
their home planet without returning?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We can't, sir.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
How do you know they can't?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
They don't, sir.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
So that's the situation. We'll sit out here, facing each other,
trying to out guess each other do. 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 7 (11:14):
The chief of this ship wishes to know whether the
chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the
problem concerning us both.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Do you want me to answer that, sir?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I'll answer it myself. Tell me when to 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 1 (11:42):
What would a truce gain? Would we trust you? Would
you trust us?
Speaker 7 (11:49):
I suggest that we continue as we have up to
this particle of time?
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I agree, sign off doing.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Weeks went by, and during the weeks the exchange of
information continued without let up.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
What particle of time? Are the people on that ship
at the resting time?
Speaker 7 (12:18):
All rest except myself and others on alert duty.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Same on this ship.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
Your people of that ship are very similar in many ways.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Do you have a family, I have a mate.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I have a mate and three offspring.
Speaker 7 (12:36):
It is too bad for them, as well as us,
to have to kill each other.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
This ship can't see any way out of it.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Can that ship 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,
although we do. This ship would trail you home. If
this ship able to, that ship would do the same.
(13:04):
But this ship feels sorry about it.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I believe you're a friend.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
I share your belief and like you, but there is
a possibility that you were put to make a trap
for me. I will stop now and think it over.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Sit down, Do art control yourself.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
We're all under tention. Doesn't do any good to pace
like some caged animal.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yes, sir, all right now, I've read.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
The complete transcription of your conversations with this one alien.
What does it prove, Dard, sir?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
These people are so much like us, and they're thinking, well,
so they're likable.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
They're likable, and they breathe oxygen. Their air is twenty
eight percent oxygen instead of twenty. You do very well
on Earth be a highly desirable conquest for them, geord.
I must set against violence as you are. I don't
see any way out of us, and I think we've
got to break this status quo. So if in seventy
(14:13):
hours we don't see any other way, then I have
no further choice.
Speaker 8 (14:19):
I'll blow them to bits.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
Will that ship receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
This ship is listening.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
It seems to me better to communicate than to sit by.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The machine silently.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I would have called you, but you signed off. Before
the problem.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Goes around and around, I find no answer.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Perhaps we could turn our thoughts to other things.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
The psychologist of this ship tells us that you people
on 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
one hundred time particles.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I have no communication on this matter.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
So the ship is not trying to extract unwilling information
from that ship. A truth is mentioned in passing.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
A report of this conversation will be carried to the
chief of this ship.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
It would be so we are prepared.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
If only the people of this ship could meet in
direct contact with the people of that ship, it might
be better.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
We could not communicate them.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
The communications machine is too large to carry from place
to place in direct contact. The peoples of the two
ships would be further apart than now. That's true I
am said, much that is pleasant has passed between us.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I am sad too.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
We are not yet ready for each other.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Get ready for each other.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
It's hard, isn't it, Dort?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
So I've been here for quite a while. He's dropping.
I'm afraid.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
It's all right, sir. Nothing can be personal in a
situation like this.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
That's right. How long is one hundred time particles dirt?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Pardon sir?
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That reference he made to us not being able to
stand tenderness? Interesting? Their psychologist seem to make more out
of us and we do out of them.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Don't they, Yes, sir, they hit the nail right on
the head.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Yes they do, I think, Dort. We will just have
to push our timetable up a bit. No further communication
with the aliens under any circumstances. That's clear, isn't.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It, yes, sir, sir?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
If they know so much about our psychology, isn't it
possible that remark was intended to make us act more quickly?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Probable? Dort? Probable?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Why would they do that?
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Why you tell me?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Why do it? All of a sudden I have an idea, sir,
and that's crazy, and.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
It doesn't matter how crazy. I'll listen to it, Sir.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
I think these people are playing some kind of a
joke on us. 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. Do
you recall when we went to all the Trouble to
set up a fictitious star map, and then they just
sent us back a mirror image of the same one.
I think somehow they're playing a joke on us.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Maybe you're right, in which case you've seen practical jokers dirt.
Their jokes aren't always funny. Sometimes they hurt people. All departments,
(17:58):
Man instant Alert, All department. It's a man instant alert,
Report instantly, report instantly.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Women's Department alerted.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Target the enemy ship on target, Sir, stand by fire.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
They're gone, sir. Not a trace of them left, not
a tiny trace. Now we can go home.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Communications to captain, Communications to captain.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Report, Sir. I'm picking up new signals, same frequency as
the original Indian signals. That's impossible that ship was destroyed.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I'm receiving signals, sir.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Set the machine up. We'll be down there in a minute,
mister dork, come with me, please.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
It's good to be on the way home. Yes, it
is good.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
Do you suppose we'll ever figure out what happened to
the other ship?
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Never a blinding fashion and they were gone.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
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 3 (19:22):
It seems reasonable.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
They must have had powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yes, what a shame.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
In a way, I grew to like them.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
This isn't meant for us, sir. I don't know what's happening,
but I think we're overhearing a private conversation.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Understand or be quiet, will you?
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Many things might have come out of a relationship with
that people.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
They were describing a disease they called cancer. I think
it is similar to the Frogrin syndrome. We might have
helped them. They might have helped us, too well. Too bad, we'll.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
Never find them again. I think the odds of such
a chance meeting in the vast space of the whole universe.
There are no figures for such odds.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Turn it up door, turn it up louded.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
That's all there is. The signals stopped there, Sir.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
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.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Captain to Engineering Department, Halt forward motion.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Captain, why are we stopped?
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Listen? Do you say they're in r but they're not
destroyed because we just heard them. They're out there somewhere invisible.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
You heard them, so they're heading for home. We're invisible
to them too, Sir.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
How do you know, Dord? How do you know this
whole thing isn't set up?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Suppose that's true, Captain, you heard their conversation. They weren't
talking like any monstrous people. They seem decent and warm,
just as decent and warm as we.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
How do you know this conversation wasn't planned deliberately set up?
For rest or here? How do you know that? Dort?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yes, sir, you're right. They may be out there and
they may not. They may be telling the truth, or
they may be trying to trick us. They may be friends,
or they may be the most deadly enemies.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
You said they had a sense of humored Dort. What
a joke to play, to deliberately set up a situation
where we wouldn't know fact from fantasy, truth from lie.
Wouldn't that be a joke, Dort.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
But we don't know that they did that, sir, And.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
We don't know that they didn't We don't know anything, sir.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Does that mean we never go home again?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
I don't know. I have to think about it. I
have to think about it.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
of Astounding science fiction. Tonight by transcription, X minus one
has brought you First Contact, written by Murray Leinster and
adapted for radio by Howard Rodman. Featured in the cast
(22:10):
were Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Clark Gordon.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
William Lalley and Stannerley.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Your announcer, Fred Collins. X minus one was directed by
Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio Network production. Next week,
(22:41):
at this time, over most of these stations, NBC will
present This Is Carnegie Hall, a special concert featuring the
Symphony of the Air orchestra,
M h.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Contdown for blast off x minus five four three two
x minus one Fire from the far horizons of the
(00:39):
unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.
These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll
live in a million, could be years, on a thousand,
maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street
and Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction, presents he minus
minus on Tonight's story. First contact by Murray Lemester. They
(01:26):
had been in space six months now, moving with the
incredibly faster than light speed 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 (01:45):
Solid object about ninety thousand miles away.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Sir, located door exactly identify it a.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Small object, Sir Captain. I've never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Whatever it is out there is coming tortous at an
incredible speed and retreating to zero just as rapidly.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
What's the mass of the object, dord.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It varies with the distance from us.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Sir, Step up the scanners.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Nothing, sir, absolutely nothing shows out there, and yet there
must be something.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Those alarms are fool.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Proof action stations, and all weapons condition of extreme alert,
and all departments immediately Captain, what is it? Dort? I
ran into the same thing once before on the Earth
Mars run. We were being located by another ship, and
their locator beam was the same frequency as ours. Every
time it hit it registered to something solid and monstrous.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Captain, We're the only earth ship in eighteen light years around.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
How I didn't say it was another Earth's ship out there, Dord.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Another race.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
That's right, there's a space ship out there, all right.
It's not manned by human beings.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It had been contemplated and speculated upon.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Mathematically it was almost a certainty that such a race existed,
But an eighteen thuds thousand earth years, no human spaceship
had ever encountered them. Now the situation was precipitated, and
somewhere outside the Earth vessel there was an alien race
of what sheep, of what quality? Of what psychology?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's moving, sir, heading right for us?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
That speed will be in touching ten minutes, heading right
for us. Eh. 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 3 (03:36):
They may not be hostile, sir.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
They may be. 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 be necessary. There'll
be no move made unless I give the order. I
do not wish to provoke trouble. Stand by.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Their ship is slowing down, Sir, it's stopped.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Weapons Department report. Weapons Department report.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Alien ship remarked target fixed weapons alert.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Communications Department report. Communications Department report.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
We're receiving a modulated short wave, sir.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Frequency modulated apparently 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 (04:22):
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, and we'll see.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
We'll see what are they doing now? Can you make
out the locator screen? Bring that power up?
Speaker 5 (04:36):
They're doing something, na sir, there's a section of the
hull opening, probably.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
An analys if they breathe there, they're.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Letting something out. It's round a bombser.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
A known object released from alienship, observed by weapons department,
then targeted stand by.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
See what they're doing, sir.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
They've left the object out there, right where they were,
and now they're withdrawing the ship.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
There's no reason why that object couldn't be a bombers
to do it intended to let us think precisely as
your thinking right now.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
I just have a hunch, sir. I think they're friendly.
I think whatever it is out there is a means
of communication.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Probably right, but I won't gamble the ship on the probability, Sir.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look
that thing over.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
You understand, whoever does examine it is expendable, yes, sir.
Requisition of lifeboat if it's all right.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
With you, Sir.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
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 7 (05:29):
Sir.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You may leave when you're ready, Thank.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
You, sir.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I'm already clear the lock and let me out.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Weapons Department reporting to the captain. Mister Dort located, mister
Dort is targeted.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Stand by that object out there is 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. Mister Dart, report.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Object is you can see on the scanner, Sarah, is
covered with many small horns, like the detonating horns of
the obsolete mines formerly used in naval warfare.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Is that their purpose? Do you assume, mister Dart.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going to grab one,
mister Dart. I'm here, sir. I don't think this is
a mind.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown yet.
Oh wait a minute, sir. A section of the autohol
seems to be opening. Do you see it?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Very good, Dart, hold that.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I'm sure it's a communications device, sir.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
It looks like it. Fix your scanner, so it'll focus
on that communications device. Returned to the ship.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Communications Department. Communications Department Progress Report.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
We've established communication, sir.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Is there a psychologist on the team down there with you?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yes, sir, mister Burns is working with us.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Both of you please report to the bridge at once.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You look tired, dork.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
We've established fairly satisfactory communication, sir. They seem to have
highly developed thought patterns. We've got a satisfactory translation.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
From the machine on the fourth attempt.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
We can say almost anything we want to say to
each other now, because how much of what they tell
us is the truth?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
We have no way of knowing, mister Burns.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You're the psychologist. What do you think? Well, I don't know, sir.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
They seem to be completely direct.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
They haven't let slip even the hint of the tenseness
we know exists. They act, as they were saying, up
a means of communication for friendly conversation.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
But well, there's an overtone that.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
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 Earth. On the other hand, if they're hostile, I
had to bless amount of existence without any other preliminary But.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Sir, you cannot talking to you Dor. It's not warranted yet, sir.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yes, now hear this. All departments, hear this, all departments.
This ship is on an extended alert. Provisions will be
made so that personnel can have maximum rest and nourishment.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Communication continued by means of the artificial language set up
arbitrarily between the Earthman and the aliens, decoded by the
mechanical decoders.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Disobeyed orders.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
He lived on powerful stimulants so that he could stay
with the communications machine, talking, talking, talking to the aliens.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Other people, other people. Are we being received?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
We are receiving your message.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the
chief of your ship.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
The message is heard by the chief of this ship.
The chief of this ship communicates that he will hear
the message of the chief.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Of that ship.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Go ahead, Sair, people of the other ship, 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 peoples will result.
Speaker 7 (09:50):
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 3 (10:04):
That's all, Sair.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
They've 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 other
go home alive?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
It means what it says, Dort.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
So what's to stop us from just cutting communication and
leaving and they can do likewise?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
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 at
their mercy. If they leave first, we'll follow them. We'll
attempt to find their home planet, Dort. Could you swear
to any decision that the policymakers on Earth will come
to sir?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Even if they do follow us.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
The closer we get to home, the more of our
ships and weapons they'll face.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
They never get away.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Well, how do you know that they can't communicate with
their home planet without returning?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We can't, sir.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
How do you know they can't?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
They don't, sir.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
So that's the situation. We'll sit out here, facing each other,
trying to out guess each other do. 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 7 (11:14):
The chief of this ship wishes to know whether the
chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the
problem concerning us both.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Do you want me to answer that, sir?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I'll answer it myself. Tell me when to 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 1 (11:42):
What would a truce gain? Would we trust you? Would
you trust us?
Speaker 7 (11:49):
I suggest that we continue as we have up to
this particle of time?
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I agree, sign off doing.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Weeks went by, and during the weeks the exchange of
information continued without let up.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
What particle of time? Are the people on that ship
at the resting time?
Speaker 7 (12:18):
All rest except myself and others on alert duty.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Same on this ship.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
Your people of that ship are very similar in many ways.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Do you have a family, I have a mate.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I have a mate and three offspring.
Speaker 7 (12:36):
It is too bad for them, as well as us,
to have to kill each other.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
This ship can't see any way out of it.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Can that ship 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,
although we do. This ship would trail you home. If
this ship able to, that ship would do the same.
(13:04):
But this ship feels sorry about it.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I believe you're a friend.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
I share your belief and like you, but there is
a possibility that you were put to make a trap
for me. I will stop now and think it over.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Sit down, Do art control yourself.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
We're all under tention. Doesn't do any good to pace
like some caged animal.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yes, sir, all right now, I've read.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
The complete transcription of your conversations with this one alien.
What does it prove, Dard, sir?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
These people are so much like us, and they're thinking, well,
so they're likable.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
They're likable, and they breathe oxygen. Their air is twenty
eight percent oxygen instead of twenty. You do very well
on Earth be a highly desirable conquest for them, geord.
I must set against violence as you are. I don't
see any way out of us, and I think we've
got to break this status quo. So if in seventy
(14:13):
hours we don't see any other way, then I have
no further choice.
Speaker 8 (14:19):
I'll blow them to bits.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
Will that ship receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
This ship is listening.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
It seems to me better to communicate than to sit by.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The machine silently.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I would have called you, but you signed off. Before
the problem.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Goes around and around, I find no answer.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Perhaps we could turn our thoughts to other things.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
The psychologist of this ship tells us that you people
on 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
one hundred time particles.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I have no communication on this matter.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
So the ship is not trying to extract unwilling information
from that ship. A truth is mentioned in passing.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
A report of this conversation will be carried to the
chief of this ship.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
It would be so we are prepared.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
If only the people of this ship could meet in
direct contact with the people of that ship, it might
be better.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
We could not communicate them.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
The communications machine is too large to carry from place
to place in direct contact. The peoples of the two
ships would be further apart than now. That's true I
am said, much that is pleasant has passed between us.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I am sad too.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
We are not yet ready for each other.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Get ready for each other.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
It's hard, isn't it, Dort?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
So I've been here for quite a while. He's dropping.
I'm afraid.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
It's all right, sir. Nothing can be personal in a
situation like this.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
That's right. How long is one hundred time particles dirt?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Pardon sir?
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That reference he made to us not being able to
stand tenderness? Interesting? Their psychologist seem to make more out
of us and we do out of them.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Don't they, Yes, sir, they hit the nail right on
the head.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Yes they do, I think, Dort. We will just have
to push our timetable up a bit. No further communication
with the aliens under any circumstances. That's clear, isn't.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It, yes, sir, sir?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
If they know so much about our psychology, isn't it
possible that remark was intended to make us act more quickly?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Probable? Dort? Probable?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Why would they do that?
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Why you tell me?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Why do it? All of a sudden I have an idea, sir,
and that's crazy, and.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
It doesn't matter how crazy. I'll listen to it, Sir.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
I think these people are playing some kind of a
joke on us. 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. Do
you recall when we went to all the Trouble to
set up a fictitious star map, and then they just
sent us back a mirror image of the same one.
I think somehow they're playing a joke on us.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Maybe you're right, in which case you've seen practical jokers dirt.
Their jokes aren't always funny. Sometimes they hurt people. All departments,
(17:58):
Man instant Alert, All department. It's a man instant alert,
Report instantly, report instantly.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Women's Department alerted.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Target the enemy ship on target, Sir, stand by fire.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
They're gone, sir. Not a trace of them left, not
a tiny trace. Now we can go home.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Communications to captain, Communications to captain.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Report, Sir. I'm picking up new signals, same frequency as
the original Indian signals. That's impossible that ship was destroyed.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I'm receiving signals, sir.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Set the machine up. We'll be down there in a minute,
mister dork, come with me, please.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
It's good to be on the way home. Yes, it
is good.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
Do you suppose we'll ever figure out what happened to
the other ship?
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Never a blinding fashion and they were gone.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
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 3 (19:22):
It seems reasonable.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
They must have had powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yes, what a shame.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
In a way, I grew to like them.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
This isn't meant for us, sir. I don't know what's happening,
but I think we're overhearing a private conversation.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Understand or be quiet, will you?
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Many things might have come out of a relationship with
that people.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
They were describing a disease they called cancer. I think
it is similar to the Frogrin syndrome. We might have
helped them. They might have helped us, too well. Too bad, we'll.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
Never find them again. I think the odds of such
a chance meeting in the vast space of the whole universe.
There are no figures for such odds.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Turn it up door, turn it up louded.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
That's all there is. The signals stopped there, Sir.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
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.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Captain to Engineering Department, Halt forward motion.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Captain, why are we stopped?
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Listen? Do you say they're in r but they're not
destroyed because we just heard them. They're out there somewhere invisible.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
You heard them, so they're heading for home. We're invisible
to them too, Sir.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
How do you know, Dord? How do you know this
whole thing isn't set up?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Suppose that's true, Captain, you heard their conversation. They weren't
talking like any monstrous people. They seem decent and warm,
just as decent and warm as we.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
How do you know this conversation wasn't planned deliberately set up?
For rest or here? How do you know that? Dort?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yes, sir, you're right. They may be out there and
they may not. They may be telling the truth, or
they may be trying to trick us. They may be friends,
or they may be the most deadly enemies.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
You said they had a sense of humored Dort. What
a joke to play, to deliberately set up a situation
where we wouldn't know fact from fantasy, truth from lie.
Wouldn't that be a joke, Dort.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
But we don't know that they did that, sir, And.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
We don't know that they didn't We don't know anything, sir.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Does that mean we never go home again?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
I don't know. I have to think about it. I
have to think about it.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
of Astounding science fiction. Tonight by transcription, X minus one
has brought you First Contact, written by Murray Leinster and
adapted for radio by Howard Rodman. Featured in the cast
(22:10):
were Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Clark Gordon.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
William Lalley and Stannerley.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Your announcer, Fred Collins. X minus one was directed by
Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio Network production. Next week,
(22:41):
at this time, over most of these stations, NBC will
present This Is Carnegie Hall, a special concert featuring the
Symphony of the Air orchestra,
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