June 25, 2025 • 28 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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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In just a moment X minus one. But first, how
does one man get himself into so many impossible situations?
This is a question you'll probably ask yourself tomorrow night
when you follow another hilarious adventure of Throckmorton p Guildersleeve. Yes,
Gildy's eye for the ladies and his impulsive temperament manage
to entangle him in a web of riotous circumstances. Join
(00:22):
the romantic water Commissioner, his neighbors, Judge Hooker, mister Peevie,
and all the loyal Guildersleeve household as they run through
another episode of the Great gilder Sleeve Tomorrow night. Now,
stay tuned for X minus one on NBC.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Come down for Blast Off X minus five four three
two X minus one. Fire from the far horizons of
(01:19):
the 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 Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
HE minus minus one.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
To Night's story The Cave of Night by James E.
Gunn Little Joy. Okay uh oh yet? Of Hamlet, our
dear brother's death, the memory being made anyway, how's it? Okay? Okay,
(02:13):
check recording. I may go over a half hour. Make
sure they've got another reel of tape ready. Okay, all right,
Look Bill, I have just put the segments of tape
together for the next week's show. I'm going to record
my narrations and we'll listen to it together tomorrow. I
know this is unusual, but you're the producer and I
don't want you out on a limb that may be
sort off behind us. This week shows lively. Either win
(02:36):
us every award from the Peabody to the Pulletzer Prize,
or maybe put the network out of business. Okay, we
start with the standard opening behind the World, et cetera.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Forty seconds.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
This is Harry Anders, your editor, at eight o'clock, after
the sun is set and the sky is darkening. Look up,
there's a man up there where no man has ever.
He is lost in the cave of night.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
And the fuel tank's empty. Sever broken transmitting and clear.
Anyone picking this up? Anyone? This is Rev. Mcmilancholy. Notify
God a rock New Mexico. No way to get back.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
There's a man up there where no man has ever been.
He has lost in the cave of night. We all
know that phrase now, the cave of night. It was
written by a poet disguised in the cynical height of
a newspaper. Rewrite man, but it stuck. It caught the
world and held it like a butterfly pinned to a board.
It started with a Ham, an amateur radio operator in Davenport, Iowa.
(03:44):
All right, Eddie, roll the first tape in here. It's
marked stop my too close. I was up in the attic.
I usually have a talk with WG. Seven threes in
Buenos Aires play chess. Well, there was some kind of interference,
and then all of a sudden I heard this voice.
(04:07):
I record most of my listening anyway, so I had
the tape machine running.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
After I heard it, I called civil defense. That's what
we're supposed.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
To, look Bill, I haven't done the final editing on
these tapes, so don't worry.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
They're a little rough down.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Out of the night. Flung from the darkness came these words,
the first of so many that electrified the world.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Notify God in Rock.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
No way to get back, No way to get back.
I'm stuck up here, no way to get down.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
What does it take to catch the pity of the world.
A man wedged underground in Kentucky, a little girl in
the bottom of a well, somebody alive waiting for rescue,
with the days of his life numbered, somebody somewhere waiting
for us to get him out. The story broke in
this morning's papers. Orbiting one thousand miles above our heads
(05:06):
was a man, an officer of the United States Air Force,
in a fuel less spaceship. We're recording at the desk
of Mike Bayless, Senior night editor of the Continental Press
National Wire.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
They always get a reaction like this.
Speaker 7 (05:25):
I remember the Floyd Collins story in the twenties, fellow
trapped in that cave in Kentucky, Remember, Oh, sure, and
the whole country hanging on to see if we could
get out. Then there was that little girl stuck in
the well. Kathy Fiskus. Yeah, we pulled all those stories
out and put them on the wire for background, but
this hit bigger. We got the first lead from an
(05:48):
Air Force handout in New Mexico. They just said an
experimental rocket failed to return to base. But by that
time the cat was out of the bag. Ham operators
picked up those messages from Boston to Fairbanks, Alaska.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Mister Bayliss, you first used the phrase the cave of night,
didn't you.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
I mean, you know, you got to get a little
purple and a thing like this.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
People eat it up. You can't spread it on too thick. Anyway.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
I was lost than a cave once when I was
a kid in upstate New York. I waited around for
a couple of hours in the dark until.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
They came for me. But kind of reminded me of that.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
It reminded the world of terrors at night, of struggling
awake through nightmares, the fears of loneliness, darkness, falling, suffocation, thirst.
It reminded me of Rev. McMillan. And perhaps I have
an advantage over all the other reporters for newspapers and
radio and television because I knew Rev McMillan. I knew
(06:50):
him in college and in the Air Force. I knew
that he was testing rocket powered craft at Goddard, but
I didn't know they were so close to space. No
one knew till those messages of desperation crackled down through
the atmosphere. I remembered rev when I saw those headlines
that morning. Straight black hair, Clark gable, ears, reckless, grin,
(07:12):
he ate well, reveled in expert jazz and Mozart opera,
and he talked incessantly. His Southern speech was no drawer.
There was too much to say. And now he was alone,
and soon all that might be extinguished. The men from
the radio newsrooms rushed to guarded rocket base arms with
Minger tape recorders.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
I was, gentlemen, I'm I'm Colonel Arthur J. Hannigan, information
officer for Coddard Rocket Base, and I am authorized to
issue the following statement. First Lieutenant Reverty L. Mc millan,
United States Air Force Pilot Experimental Rocket Division, took off
(07:54):
from Goddard Base at twenty two thirty four Rocky Mountain
time as crap the x R thirty seven Mark two
hydrozene NITREK three stage rocket. I'm sorry I can't describe it.
Boys classified well. In order to maintain orbit, the motors
were pulsed for one second every fifteen seconds elect lapsed time.
(08:18):
After three minutes, the exhaust was seen by Grand spectroscope
observation to flare for half a minute as fewer supplies exhausted,
the craft has reached the staining orbital speed.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
What does that mean, Colonel, He's out of gas. He
can't get done.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
The first mobilization was of the scientific brains mast that godded.
Few of them knew Rev. Brains at a research project
are usually carefully sorted out and sorted away from the
distractions of the outside world. They designed, they invented, they calibrated,
and theorized. But they didn't know the short, stocky man
(08:57):
with a lopsided grin who rode the fruit of their
labor up and now and now circled the world of
his birth with time ticking out. I covered the hearings
in Washington for the Network newsroom. I flew down from
New York, and the stewardess came out every few minutes
to tell the passengers the latest news. She called him Rev,
(09:17):
although she never knew him, and once I thought I
saw a tear. The hearing was before the Subcommittee of
the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, presiding Senator Alan J.
Haggister of Kentucky.
Speaker 9 (09:31):
All right, General Fitch, you made the technical situation fairly comprehensive,
even to an old cane break redneck hill billy.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Like myself, I have tried to make the gravity of
the situation of parents.
Speaker 10 (09:48):
It appears to me, General, that the sacred life of
a human being, created in the image of his maker
is in danger. He's no light thing to be thrown
away like some guinea pig. If if that ship wasn't seen,
if that poor man up there in the cave of
night is to die, somebody is responsible. Isn't that right?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
General, Sir?
Speaker 6 (10:10):
A manned rocket was sent up because of one simple fact.
It takes a computer of tremendous versatility and capacity to
operate a Harrison mont reactor engine, a computer of infinite complexity.
Speaker 10 (10:23):
And I asked you, General, I put the question to you,
why was such a computer not desired?
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It has been designed, sir, It was designed a half
a million years ago. There is only one mechanism competent
to handle those controls her that is the human brain.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
All right?
Speaker 10 (10:42):
I turned out of my second question, General, and I
ask it not only for myself and my colleagues on
this committee, but for one hundred and seventy million Americans
listing on the radio, watching on television with that man
up there living out his last days. Why was it
not possible to send a ship after it? Why was
there no second ship built?
Speaker 6 (11:03):
The one reason, Senator money. The appropriation for rocket research
fell short by twelve percent of the amount needed even
to build one vessel. Oh, frankly, gentlemen, the deficiency was
made up by cutting corners and diverting funds from other projects.
Speaker 10 (11:22):
And he's not the point. General, There's a man up
there who's going to die.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
With the limited funds you gave us. We've done what
we set out to do. We've demonstrated that spaceflight is possible,
that a space platform is feasible. If there is any inefficiency,
if there is any blame for what has happened, it
lies at the door of those who lacked the confidence
(11:48):
and the courage and ability of their countrymen to fight
free of Earth to their greatest glory.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Senator, how did jew vote on that?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
This is Harry Anders in the gallery of the Washington
National Cathedral. This is a special prayer service called by
the Dean of the Cathedral for the safety of Lieutenant
mac millan and for the success of the recently announced
rescue plan. The church is filled as a sprinkling of
high Navy, Army and Air Force uniforms. I see General
Finch in the second row, next to the Secretary of
(12:32):
the Air Force and the newly appointed Under Secretary of Defense,
mister Winnaker. Prominently displayed in the center aisle, below the
ornate railing separating the pews from the altar is the
small model of macmillan's ship. One by one, now the
congregation is filing past dropping checks bills. I saw one
(12:53):
childrop in twelve pennies. One by one, all contributions are
to be used to defray the cost of the rescue effort.
The congregation is now kneeling to pray. A moment of
silent prayer will follow for the safety and rescue.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Of Lieutenant McMillan.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
One billion dollars was raised in one week from voluntary contributions.
Another billion and a half was appropriated unanimously by Congress.
The race began. Would the rescue party reached the ship
in time? Of course, we didn't know then, and daily
we listened to the voice of the man we hoped
to buy back from death. Now, look bill on these
(13:35):
McMillan broadcast tapes said, don't let some some ignorant Engineering
Vice president Holler because it's not broadcast quality. Believe me,
I knew McMillan's more of that wild textan in these
tapes than in any any high five super frequency response
studio recordings. Just listen, You'll see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I've been staring out the portals in never tire them
through the window with the right see a black velvet
curtain with a strong light behind it. There are pinpoint
holes in the curtain, and the light shines through, not
winking the way stars do, but steady.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
There's no air up here.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That's the reason my oxygen is holding out better than
I expected. By my figures, it should last twenty seven
days more. I should know so much of it, talking
all the time, but it's hard to stop talking. I
(14:36):
feel as if I was still in touch with the earth.
There's still one of you, even though I am way
up here. Too bad the receiver is broken. But if
it had to be one or the other, I'm glad
it was the transmitter that came through. All right, there's
only one of me. There are billions of you to
talk to. You can't see me now, You'll have to
(14:58):
wait hours for the dark I'll have mine in a
few minutes.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
That's the way he talked.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
And as we listened to the lonely voice from the night,
the engineers, the scientists, the construction men worked round the clock.
General Finch presented the problem in the pool interview. I
asked the questions for the combined networks. That afternoon, most
of you heard the complete broadcast live as he briefed
the world with the clipped, laconic delivery of a soldier.
(15:28):
There are two basic problems. We've recovered the first and
second stages of the rocket. We've only to construct the
third stage. The second problem is more difficult. The pilot,
Lieutenant McMillan, was the only man physically and psychologically qualified.
We discovered that in our first program. His training and
(15:49):
orientation took eighteen months. We have now to duplicate this
in twenty seven days.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
You think it's possible, General, I don't know, that's all.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
Missr Anders Stevenson gave me some coffee with your black
and some kind of sandwich, no butter, no mayonnaise, And.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Then the voice from the cave asked a question and
expected no answer.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Do you hear me down there? Sometimes I wonder I
wish there was some way I could be sure you
were hearing me. Just that one thing might keep me
from going crazy.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
I was there the night we answered that question. I
was there in a helicopter over Kansas City. This is
Harry Anders speaking to you from a helicopter over Kansas City.
There are fifteen seconds till midnight. The plan was developed
by General Finch, and precisely midnight, every light in the
(16:47):
city will be out and then flashed on in two
second intervals. This will be the exact moment that McMillan's
ship is calculated to pass overhead. It's almost time now
four three two one.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
There they go off.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
On, off, on, off on.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I see it. I see it, Kansas City winking at me. Yes,
I can see it. Thanks. Thanks, you're listening. I know
that I'm not alone. I'll never forget. I'm waiting for you.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
We're recording in the press gallery of the goddered rocket
based main construction hangar. The vast third stage component stands
before US men swarming up and down the gantry cranes.
The Mark III is being built to carry five men
instead of one. The pilot selection has been kept a
secret to avoid unnecessary strain on the men selected. The
(18:03):
latest progress report gives a possible margin of six hours
between the launching of the rescue ship and the estimated
exhaustion supply of oxygen.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
To Lieutenant McMillan, now the shift is changing.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Now the expert construction workers recruited from across the country.
By the combined efforts of the Air Force Personnel Service,
the Atomic Energy Commission, and the International United Electrical Workers
and United Auto Workers of the AFLCIO, the margin is
six hours, six hours between life and death for Lieutenant
(18:37):
Raverty L.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
McMillan.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
An hour ago, I saw the sun rise over Russia.
Looks like any other landship. Here the grain where it
should be green, Father and Author is a sort of
mud color, and then white where the snow is still deep.
You wonder why we're so different? Land is the same?
(19:02):
You think we're all the same shildren of the same
mother planet? Who says we're different? Oh?
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Can you hear me in the back?
Speaker 5 (19:18):
How about this?
Speaker 6 (19:22):
All right, gentlemen, I have exactly five minutes for the
press conference. Therefore, I'm not going to answer any questions.
Progress report is as follows. As a safety factor, we're
constructing two complete three stage rockets and six additional third
stage components. The telemeeded reports from McMillan's ship have added
important additional information, and the first of the rescue vessel
(19:44):
should be ready to be launched at the estimated time,
weather permitting.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
Now, don't ask a question.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Within certain limitations of air turbulence, the rocket will be
ready to lift in time to save Lieutenant McMillan.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
The year's bad tonight. It seemed to get a full breath.
It seems to stick in the lungs. It doesn't matter now,
but I wish you could see what I've seen, the
vast spreading universe around Earth like a bride in a
soft veil. You'd know then that we belong out of here.
(20:23):
Come out, mankind, Come out and see what.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I have seen, Missus Harry Anders at Goddard Rocket Base.
The Harrison Munch reactor engine for the first third stage
rescue is being tested here at Goddard. You can hear
the roaring of the gases and the test chamber behind me.
The work has been stepped up as a new calculation
(20:48):
based on the increased temperature reading from McMillan's ship indicates
that the exhaustion time will be some six hours earlier
than originally estimated. The margin of rescue will be in minutes.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Air very bad, better hurry, can't last much longer. Salive'll hurry,
But I don't want anyone feeling sorry for him. I've
seen the stars clearly. But more than this, I've seen
the earth there where I have lived and loved. I
(21:27):
have known it better than any man, and loved it better,
and known its children better. Goodbye. I have a better
tomb than the greatest conqueror Earth ever bore.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Do not disturb, No come down for blast off? Why
or pray? Two one.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Anders tape three two three. We're in the press operation
room of godded Field. The rescue rocket has been aloft
fifty three minutes plus. Its calculated time of arrival is
fifty four minutes. You will hear the voice of General
Beauregard Finch on a direct pickup from the rescue vessel,
which has been named unofficially the LFE SAB. Silent crowds
(22:36):
have collected at the outer perimeter of the rocket base,
as if by their presence they might help it. The
next voice you hear will be General Finch aloft in
the rescue ship. The voice quality may not be good.
He's speaking over a throat mic in his PreCure suit.
Speaker 11 (22:54):
Mark three the base.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
This is finch and secure than.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
You're just secured to the airlock of McMillan's ship. I'm
now entering the lock. The inner doors closed. I have
closed the outer door. The inner door is cycling now it.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Is open, bringing those bottles. The bulkhead of the control.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Room is open.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
It's all right, come on, what's happening?
Speaker 11 (23:37):
Tenant McMillan is dead. He died heroically, waiting till all
hope was gone, until every oxygen gage to the zero,
and then well, the airlock was open when we arrived.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
In accordance with his own wish.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
His body will be left here in its eternal orbit.
I'm going to leave long. My feet will be the
last to touch this stick. Lieutenant macmillan is in his
control chair, staring out towards the stars. I'll leave the
airlocked doors open behind me.
Speaker 11 (24:16):
Let the airless, frigid arms of space protect and preserve
for all eternity.
Speaker 5 (24:23):
This man, they would not let go.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Well, that's the show bill bill you remember at the conference,
we hadn't made up my mind whether to pick anything
up from the celebration last night after the news of
the Mars landing. I said it was the right end
for Rev McMillan's story. You said it was old stuff.
Every kid knew the sequence. The ship's built to rescue revues,
to set up the satellite base, from the base to
(24:49):
the Moon and now to Mars. Well, I went out
with a mini tape last night and I've got the
end of the story here it is. This is Harry
Anders in Times Square. The Neon rocket ship at the
top of the Times billing has just flashed into brilliant
light the signal that the landing signal has been received
(25:10):
from the rocket. Rev McMillan, the third Man has landed
on Mars, and a holiday crowd here in Times Square
is celebrating like a thousand New Years rolled into one.
I'm I'm being tossed and pushed and clapped on the
back all at once. Let's see what the man in
the street thinks about Man on Mars. You are you, sir,
I'm broadcasting home now.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
How do you feel about it? So?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
How do you feel tonight about man's conquest of space
of the planet?
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Just a few words of the look you get your
hands off me.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Ton't me, I'm not in Wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Wait, wait, wait, Rev Red, come back here.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Rev.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
You think I could listen to that voice over and
over in a tape editing room and not know every vowel,
every consonant. I'm telling you, Bill, I saw him Rev McMillan.
The black hair was gray and those Clark ave leers
were pinned back. But that's a simple operation. I played
that piece of tape over and over. It was, Rev.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
I know it. He isn't up there. He's alive.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
We've got it billed, We've got it on our show,
Will break It. Rev McMillan is alive. I haven't written
it yet, but we finish it off with this with
a question, why did they announce he was dead. I'm
in the tape editing room now, I've got the real
ready to record the answer. Hey, Hey, just a minute,
I'm recording. You better see the page outside of the dess.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I'd like to talk to you for a moment. If
I have a letter of.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Just a minute, I'll be through in a minute. Look, Bill,
I've got the answer now. Last night they landed on Mars,
but that first ship, the one that circles up there. Now,
there isn't anybody on it. There never was except a
thirty days recording and a transmitter, that's all. He was
never up there. They didn't have the money for a
manned rocket. They wanted a crash program all out, so
(26:51):
they sent a decoy up and we all broke our
hearts to rescue the man who wasn't there. Oh he
must be laughing, General Finch in them the ones that you. Yeah,
I guess they had a problem what to do with Rev.
I wonder if he slipped away from whatever gods they
have around him to see the celebration.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
He looked a little sad.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
I think sometimes he must wish he was really up
there in the cave of night, seated in the icy
control room, one thousand and seventy five miles above the earth,
staring out at the stars. Mister and I must insist, Oh, Bill,
look as if I won't have to worry about editing
this tape.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
My friends are from Washington.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I'd like to call your attention to the last paragraph.
Oh no, no, no, no, it's very simple. You won't
have to burn it. It's easy to destroy recording tape.
I throw this switch. When the tape goes through the
erasing heads, it's gone forever.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Too bad. Would have made one fine show. Okay, So along, Rev.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
National Broadcasting Company in co operation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine,
which this month features an exciting serial slave Ship by
Frederick Paul
In just a moment X minus one. But first, how
does one man get himself into so many impossible situations?
This is a question you'll probably ask yourself tomorrow night
when you follow another hilarious adventure of Throckmorton p Guildersleeve. Yes,
Gildy's eye for the ladies and his impulsive temperament manage
to entangle him in a web of riotous circumstances. Join
(00:22):
the romantic water Commissioner, his neighbors, Judge Hooker, mister Peevie,
and all the loyal Guildersleeve household as they run through
another episode of the Great gilder Sleeve Tomorrow night. Now,
stay tuned for X minus one on NBC.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Come down for Blast Off X minus five four three
two X minus one. Fire from the far horizons of
(01:19):
the 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 Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
HE minus minus one.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
To Night's story The Cave of Night by James E.
Gunn Little Joy. Okay uh oh yet? Of Hamlet, our
dear brother's death, the memory being made anyway, how's it? Okay? Okay,
(02:13):
check recording. I may go over a half hour. Make
sure they've got another reel of tape ready. Okay, all right,
Look Bill, I have just put the segments of tape
together for the next week's show. I'm going to record
my narrations and we'll listen to it together tomorrow. I
know this is unusual, but you're the producer and I
don't want you out on a limb that may be
sort off behind us. This week shows lively. Either win
(02:36):
us every award from the Peabody to the Pulletzer Prize,
or maybe put the network out of business. Okay, we
start with the standard opening behind the World, et cetera.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Forty seconds.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
This is Harry Anders, your editor, at eight o'clock, after
the sun is set and the sky is darkening. Look up,
there's a man up there where no man has ever.
He is lost in the cave of night.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
And the fuel tank's empty. Sever broken transmitting and clear.
Anyone picking this up? Anyone? This is Rev. Mcmilancholy. Notify
God a rock New Mexico. No way to get back.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
There's a man up there where no man has ever been.
He has lost in the cave of night. We all
know that phrase now, the cave of night. It was
written by a poet disguised in the cynical height of
a newspaper. Rewrite man, but it stuck. It caught the
world and held it like a butterfly pinned to a board.
It started with a Ham, an amateur radio operator in Davenport, Iowa.
(03:44):
All right, Eddie, roll the first tape in here. It's
marked stop my too close. I was up in the attic.
I usually have a talk with WG. Seven threes in
Buenos Aires play chess. Well, there was some kind of interference,
and then all of a sudden I heard this voice.
(04:07):
I record most of my listening anyway, so I had
the tape machine running.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
After I heard it, I called civil defense. That's what
we're supposed.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
To, look Bill, I haven't done the final editing on
these tapes, so don't worry.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
They're a little rough down.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Out of the night. Flung from the darkness came these words,
the first of so many that electrified the world.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Notify God in Rock.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
No way to get back, No way to get back.
I'm stuck up here, no way to get down.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
What does it take to catch the pity of the world.
A man wedged underground in Kentucky, a little girl in
the bottom of a well, somebody alive waiting for rescue,
with the days of his life numbered, somebody somewhere waiting
for us to get him out. The story broke in
this morning's papers. Orbiting one thousand miles above our heads
(05:06):
was a man, an officer of the United States Air Force,
in a fuel less spaceship. We're recording at the desk
of Mike Bayless, Senior night editor of the Continental Press
National Wire.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
They always get a reaction like this.
Speaker 7 (05:25):
I remember the Floyd Collins story in the twenties, fellow
trapped in that cave in Kentucky, Remember, Oh, sure, and
the whole country hanging on to see if we could
get out. Then there was that little girl stuck in
the well. Kathy Fiskus. Yeah, we pulled all those stories
out and put them on the wire for background, but
this hit bigger. We got the first lead from an
(05:48):
Air Force handout in New Mexico. They just said an
experimental rocket failed to return to base. But by that
time the cat was out of the bag. Ham operators
picked up those messages from Boston to Fairbanks, Alaska.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Mister Bayliss, you first used the phrase the cave of night,
didn't you.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
I mean, you know, you got to get a little
purple and a thing like this.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
People eat it up. You can't spread it on too thick. Anyway.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
I was lost than a cave once when I was
a kid in upstate New York. I waited around for
a couple of hours in the dark until.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
They came for me. But kind of reminded me of that.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
It reminded the world of terrors at night, of struggling
awake through nightmares, the fears of loneliness, darkness, falling, suffocation, thirst.
It reminded me of Rev. McMillan. And perhaps I have
an advantage over all the other reporters for newspapers and
radio and television because I knew Rev McMillan. I knew
(06:50):
him in college and in the Air Force. I knew
that he was testing rocket powered craft at Goddard, but
I didn't know they were so close to space. No
one knew till those messages of desperation crackled down through
the atmosphere. I remembered rev when I saw those headlines
that morning. Straight black hair, Clark gable, ears, reckless, grin,
(07:12):
he ate well, reveled in expert jazz and Mozart opera,
and he talked incessantly. His Southern speech was no drawer.
There was too much to say. And now he was alone,
and soon all that might be extinguished. The men from
the radio newsrooms rushed to guarded rocket base arms with
Minger tape recorders.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
I was, gentlemen, I'm I'm Colonel Arthur J. Hannigan, information
officer for Coddard Rocket Base, and I am authorized to
issue the following statement. First Lieutenant Reverty L. Mc millan,
United States Air Force Pilot Experimental Rocket Division, took off
(07:54):
from Goddard Base at twenty two thirty four Rocky Mountain
time as crap the x R thirty seven Mark two
hydrozene NITREK three stage rocket. I'm sorry I can't describe it.
Boys classified well. In order to maintain orbit, the motors
were pulsed for one second every fifteen seconds elect lapsed time.
(08:18):
After three minutes, the exhaust was seen by Grand spectroscope
observation to flare for half a minute as fewer supplies exhausted,
the craft has reached the staining orbital speed.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
What does that mean, Colonel, He's out of gas. He
can't get done.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
The first mobilization was of the scientific brains mast that godded.
Few of them knew Rev. Brains at a research project
are usually carefully sorted out and sorted away from the
distractions of the outside world. They designed, they invented, they calibrated,
and theorized. But they didn't know the short, stocky man
(08:57):
with a lopsided grin who rode the fruit of their
labor up and now and now circled the world of
his birth with time ticking out. I covered the hearings
in Washington for the Network newsroom. I flew down from
New York, and the stewardess came out every few minutes
to tell the passengers the latest news. She called him Rev,
(09:17):
although she never knew him, and once I thought I
saw a tear. The hearing was before the Subcommittee of
the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, presiding Senator Alan J.
Haggister of Kentucky.
Speaker 9 (09:31):
All right, General Fitch, you made the technical situation fairly comprehensive,
even to an old cane break redneck hill billy.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Like myself, I have tried to make the gravity of
the situation of parents.
Speaker 10 (09:48):
It appears to me, General, that the sacred life of
a human being, created in the image of his maker
is in danger. He's no light thing to be thrown
away like some guinea pig. If if that ship wasn't seen,
if that poor man up there in the cave of
night is to die, somebody is responsible. Isn't that right?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
General, Sir?
Speaker 6 (10:10):
A manned rocket was sent up because of one simple fact.
It takes a computer of tremendous versatility and capacity to
operate a Harrison mont reactor engine, a computer of infinite complexity.
Speaker 10 (10:23):
And I asked you, General, I put the question to you,
why was such a computer not desired?
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It has been designed, sir, It was designed a half
a million years ago. There is only one mechanism competent
to handle those controls her that is the human brain.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
All right?
Speaker 10 (10:42):
I turned out of my second question, General, and I
ask it not only for myself and my colleagues on
this committee, but for one hundred and seventy million Americans
listing on the radio, watching on television with that man
up there living out his last days. Why was it
not possible to send a ship after it? Why was
there no second ship built?
Speaker 6 (11:03):
The one reason, Senator money. The appropriation for rocket research
fell short by twelve percent of the amount needed even
to build one vessel. Oh, frankly, gentlemen, the deficiency was
made up by cutting corners and diverting funds from other projects.
Speaker 10 (11:22):
And he's not the point. General, There's a man up
there who's going to die.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
With the limited funds you gave us. We've done what
we set out to do. We've demonstrated that spaceflight is possible,
that a space platform is feasible. If there is any inefficiency,
if there is any blame for what has happened, it
lies at the door of those who lacked the confidence
(11:48):
and the courage and ability of their countrymen to fight
free of Earth to their greatest glory.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Senator, how did jew vote on that?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
This is Harry Anders in the gallery of the Washington
National Cathedral. This is a special prayer service called by
the Dean of the Cathedral for the safety of Lieutenant
mac millan and for the success of the recently announced
rescue plan. The church is filled as a sprinkling of
high Navy, Army and Air Force uniforms. I see General
Finch in the second row, next to the Secretary of
(12:32):
the Air Force and the newly appointed Under Secretary of Defense,
mister Winnaker. Prominently displayed in the center aisle, below the
ornate railing separating the pews from the altar is the
small model of macmillan's ship. One by one, now the
congregation is filing past dropping checks bills. I saw one
(12:53):
childrop in twelve pennies. One by one, all contributions are
to be used to defray the cost of the rescue effort.
The congregation is now kneeling to pray. A moment of
silent prayer will follow for the safety and rescue.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Of Lieutenant McMillan.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
One billion dollars was raised in one week from voluntary contributions.
Another billion and a half was appropriated unanimously by Congress.
The race began. Would the rescue party reached the ship
in time? Of course, we didn't know then, and daily
we listened to the voice of the man we hoped
to buy back from death. Now, look bill on these
(13:35):
McMillan broadcast tapes said, don't let some some ignorant Engineering
Vice president Holler because it's not broadcast quality. Believe me,
I knew McMillan's more of that wild textan in these
tapes than in any any high five super frequency response
studio recordings. Just listen, You'll see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I've been staring out the portals in never tire them
through the window with the right see a black velvet
curtain with a strong light behind it. There are pinpoint
holes in the curtain, and the light shines through, not
winking the way stars do, but steady.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
There's no air up here.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That's the reason my oxygen is holding out better than
I expected. By my figures, it should last twenty seven
days more. I should know so much of it, talking
all the time, but it's hard to stop talking. I
(14:36):
feel as if I was still in touch with the earth.
There's still one of you, even though I am way
up here. Too bad the receiver is broken. But if
it had to be one or the other, I'm glad
it was the transmitter that came through. All right, there's
only one of me. There are billions of you to
talk to. You can't see me now, You'll have to
(14:58):
wait hours for the dark I'll have mine in a
few minutes.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
That's the way he talked.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
And as we listened to the lonely voice from the night,
the engineers, the scientists, the construction men worked round the clock.
General Finch presented the problem in the pool interview. I
asked the questions for the combined networks. That afternoon, most
of you heard the complete broadcast live as he briefed
the world with the clipped, laconic delivery of a soldier.
(15:28):
There are two basic problems. We've recovered the first and
second stages of the rocket. We've only to construct the
third stage. The second problem is more difficult. The pilot,
Lieutenant McMillan, was the only man physically and psychologically qualified.
We discovered that in our first program. His training and
(15:49):
orientation took eighteen months. We have now to duplicate this
in twenty seven days.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
You think it's possible, General, I don't know, that's all.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
Missr Anders Stevenson gave me some coffee with your black
and some kind of sandwich, no butter, no mayonnaise, And.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Then the voice from the cave asked a question and
expected no answer.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Do you hear me down there? Sometimes I wonder I
wish there was some way I could be sure you
were hearing me. Just that one thing might keep me
from going crazy.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
I was there the night we answered that question. I
was there in a helicopter over Kansas City. This is
Harry Anders speaking to you from a helicopter over Kansas City.
There are fifteen seconds till midnight. The plan was developed
by General Finch, and precisely midnight, every light in the
(16:47):
city will be out and then flashed on in two
second intervals. This will be the exact moment that McMillan's
ship is calculated to pass overhead. It's almost time now
four three two one.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
There they go off.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
On, off, on, off on.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I see it. I see it, Kansas City winking at me. Yes,
I can see it. Thanks. Thanks, you're listening. I know
that I'm not alone. I'll never forget. I'm waiting for you.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
We're recording in the press gallery of the goddered rocket
based main construction hangar. The vast third stage component stands
before US men swarming up and down the gantry cranes.
The Mark III is being built to carry five men
instead of one. The pilot selection has been kept a
secret to avoid unnecessary strain on the men selected. The
(18:03):
latest progress report gives a possible margin of six hours
between the launching of the rescue ship and the estimated
exhaustion supply of oxygen.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
To Lieutenant McMillan, now the shift is changing.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Now the expert construction workers recruited from across the country.
By the combined efforts of the Air Force Personnel Service,
the Atomic Energy Commission, and the International United Electrical Workers
and United Auto Workers of the AFLCIO, the margin is
six hours, six hours between life and death for Lieutenant
(18:37):
Raverty L.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
McMillan.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
An hour ago, I saw the sun rise over Russia.
Looks like any other landship. Here the grain where it
should be green, Father and Author is a sort of
mud color, and then white where the snow is still deep.
You wonder why we're so different? Land is the same?
(19:02):
You think we're all the same shildren of the same
mother planet? Who says we're different? Oh?
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Can you hear me in the back?
Speaker 5 (19:18):
How about this?
Speaker 6 (19:22):
All right, gentlemen, I have exactly five minutes for the
press conference. Therefore, I'm not going to answer any questions.
Progress report is as follows. As a safety factor, we're
constructing two complete three stage rockets and six additional third
stage components. The telemeeded reports from McMillan's ship have added
important additional information, and the first of the rescue vessel
(19:44):
should be ready to be launched at the estimated time,
weather permitting.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
Now, don't ask a question.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Within certain limitations of air turbulence, the rocket will be
ready to lift in time to save Lieutenant McMillan.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
The year's bad tonight. It seemed to get a full breath.
It seems to stick in the lungs. It doesn't matter now,
but I wish you could see what I've seen, the
vast spreading universe around Earth like a bride in a
soft veil. You'd know then that we belong out of here.
(20:23):
Come out, mankind, Come out and see what.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I have seen, Missus Harry Anders at Goddard Rocket Base.
The Harrison Munch reactor engine for the first third stage
rescue is being tested here at Goddard. You can hear
the roaring of the gases and the test chamber behind me.
The work has been stepped up as a new calculation
(20:48):
based on the increased temperature reading from McMillan's ship indicates
that the exhaustion time will be some six hours earlier
than originally estimated. The margin of rescue will be in minutes.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Air very bad, better hurry, can't last much longer. Salive'll hurry,
But I don't want anyone feeling sorry for him. I've
seen the stars clearly. But more than this, I've seen
the earth there where I have lived and loved. I
(21:27):
have known it better than any man, and loved it better,
and known its children better. Goodbye. I have a better
tomb than the greatest conqueror Earth ever bore.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Do not disturb, No come down for blast off? Why
or pray? Two one.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Anders tape three two three. We're in the press operation
room of godded Field. The rescue rocket has been aloft
fifty three minutes plus. Its calculated time of arrival is
fifty four minutes. You will hear the voice of General
Beauregard Finch on a direct pickup from the rescue vessel,
which has been named unofficially the LFE SAB. Silent crowds
(22:36):
have collected at the outer perimeter of the rocket base,
as if by their presence they might help it. The
next voice you hear will be General Finch aloft in
the rescue ship. The voice quality may not be good.
He's speaking over a throat mic in his PreCure suit.
Speaker 11 (22:54):
Mark three the base.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
This is finch and secure than.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
You're just secured to the airlock of McMillan's ship. I'm
now entering the lock. The inner doors closed. I have
closed the outer door. The inner door is cycling now it.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Is open, bringing those bottles. The bulkhead of the control.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Room is open.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
It's all right, come on, what's happening?
Speaker 11 (23:37):
Tenant McMillan is dead. He died heroically, waiting till all
hope was gone, until every oxygen gage to the zero,
and then well, the airlock was open when we arrived.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
In accordance with his own wish.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
His body will be left here in its eternal orbit.
I'm going to leave long. My feet will be the
last to touch this stick. Lieutenant macmillan is in his
control chair, staring out towards the stars. I'll leave the
airlocked doors open behind me.
Speaker 11 (24:16):
Let the airless, frigid arms of space protect and preserve
for all eternity.
Speaker 5 (24:23):
This man, they would not let go.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Well, that's the show bill bill you remember at the conference,
we hadn't made up my mind whether to pick anything
up from the celebration last night after the news of
the Mars landing. I said it was the right end
for Rev McMillan's story. You said it was old stuff.
Every kid knew the sequence. The ship's built to rescue revues,
to set up the satellite base, from the base to
(24:49):
the Moon and now to Mars. Well, I went out
with a mini tape last night and I've got the
end of the story here it is. This is Harry
Anders in Times Square. The Neon rocket ship at the
top of the Times billing has just flashed into brilliant
light the signal that the landing signal has been received
(25:10):
from the rocket. Rev McMillan, the third Man has landed
on Mars, and a holiday crowd here in Times Square
is celebrating like a thousand New Years rolled into one.
I'm I'm being tossed and pushed and clapped on the
back all at once. Let's see what the man in
the street thinks about Man on Mars. You are you, sir,
I'm broadcasting home now.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
How do you feel about it? So?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
How do you feel tonight about man's conquest of space
of the planet?
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Just a few words of the look you get your
hands off me.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Ton't me, I'm not in Wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Wait, wait, wait, Rev Red, come back here.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Rev.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
You think I could listen to that voice over and
over in a tape editing room and not know every vowel,
every consonant. I'm telling you, Bill, I saw him Rev McMillan.
The black hair was gray and those Clark ave leers
were pinned back. But that's a simple operation. I played
that piece of tape over and over. It was, Rev.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
I know it. He isn't up there. He's alive.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
We've got it billed, We've got it on our show,
Will break It. Rev McMillan is alive. I haven't written
it yet, but we finish it off with this with
a question, why did they announce he was dead. I'm
in the tape editing room now, I've got the real
ready to record the answer. Hey, Hey, just a minute,
I'm recording. You better see the page outside of the dess.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I'd like to talk to you for a moment. If
I have a letter of.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Just a minute, I'll be through in a minute. Look, Bill,
I've got the answer now. Last night they landed on Mars,
but that first ship, the one that circles up there. Now,
there isn't anybody on it. There never was except a
thirty days recording and a transmitter, that's all. He was
never up there. They didn't have the money for a
manned rocket. They wanted a crash program all out, so
(26:51):
they sent a decoy up and we all broke our
hearts to rescue the man who wasn't there. Oh he
must be laughing, General Finch in them the ones that you. Yeah,
I guess they had a problem what to do with Rev.
I wonder if he slipped away from whatever gods they
have around him to see the celebration.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
He looked a little sad.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
I think sometimes he must wish he was really up
there in the cave of night, seated in the icy
control room, one thousand and seventy five miles above the earth,
staring out at the stars. Mister and I must insist, Oh, Bill,
look as if I won't have to worry about editing
this tape.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
My friends are from Washington.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I'd like to call your attention to the last paragraph.
Oh no, no, no, no, it's very simple. You won't
have to burn it. It's easy to destroy recording tape.
I throw this switch. When the tape goes through the
erasing heads, it's gone forever.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Too bad. Would have made one fine show. Okay, So along, Rev.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
National Broadcasting Company in co operation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine,
which this month features an exciting serial slave Ship by
Frederick Paul
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