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Dimension X - "Courtesy" (1951) · Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A second Earth expedition reaches the alien planet Landrow, only
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to find that its protection against a deadly local plague
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: cannot be used. Captain Ira Warren, Doctor Morgan, anthropologist Benny Faulkner,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and bat Ears Brady must seek help from the reclusive Landrians,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: whose way of life stands far apart from their own.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: From NBC's Dimension X. This is Courtesy episode forty one,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: first broadcast July twenty sixth, nineteen fifty one. It is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: adapted by George Lefferts from a story by Clifford D. Simak,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: with Billy Gray and William Zuckert in the cast, and
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: now the original broadcast.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Adventures in Time and Space told in Future in DENSA,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: the National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: publishers of Astounding Science Fiction, Bring You Demention X.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: This is the story of the second expedition to the
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: planet of Landlord. I am recording it for any future
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: expeditions which might land on this god forsaken sphere, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: to hope that they may learn from our tragic example.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: As I right, there are two of us left, two
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: out of an original complement of one hundred and eighty men.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: One of us, myself will be dead in less than
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: twenty seven minutes. As for the other, Heaven have mercy
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: on him. This is how it happened. On June third,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: nineteen ninety seven, less than two months ago. The last
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: of our supply ship's blasted off flambda Heed for her, Well,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: there she goes like a big bottom bird. I'd like
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: to be a border that is me o.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Listen, Captain, I've been kicking her around with you from
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: one planet to another for so long.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Now they're all getting to be the same. Not this
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: one that is not Lambdra. No, No, maybe you're right there.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I'll never been known one like this.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: It's a cemetery, that's what it is, a big cold cemetery.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: They're empty cities, that's what does it sitting there like
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: there was tombs.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Bad airs. You're getting to be a poet in your
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: old age. I ain't so poetic. I didn't remember the
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: swipe of Butler Irish or if that supply ship right here,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: you know, Brady, if you weren't the best all around
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: cooked and troubleshooter river shipped, i'd court Martin. Well, since
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I ain't being court marshal all about we should open
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: this Irish headtime. I gave this uper tonight right right.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: We walked back to the cluster of plastic huts we
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: called the base. It was beginning to freeze up in
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: that purple glow had settled across the planet. Yes, it
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: was like a seminary of right, the cemetery of dead cities.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: We walked past one of them, a huge plastic dome
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: with twelve graceful buildings, atomic power systems, vacuum conveyors, all perfect,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: all deserted, all on us. How had it happened? Nobody
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: knew for sure, But the best guess was that the
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: plague it frightened the original it happens the planet, so
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: that they had piled into rocket chips and headed for
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: some distant planet. I often wondered why a civilization so
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: advanced as Landro could not find a serum to beat
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: the plague. Well, maybe the Aborigines back in the hills
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: knew the answer. Those strange, ugly little people who had
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: taken to the cave the day we landed. All we
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: knew of them was what we found in the anthropological
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: report of the expedition which preceded ours, and an occasional
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: glimpse by someone on a hunting patrol. When I reached
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: my shack, Morgan, the expedition surgeon was waiting for me.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: He was sweating like a pig. And it wasn't the heat,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: because my shack was as cold as gray good evening.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: We kept the moor. What brings you here? Exactly? A
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: matter of the serums? What about the serum? It's just that, well,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: it's no good, no good, it's too cold, ten years
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: too cold. But enjoy examining, Yes, yes I did, But well,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: my eyesight has been failing greatly. We are you are aware,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: doctor that the last supply ship has returned to Earth.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Do you know we'll have no more contact for two years?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I must have misread the label, sir, Dr Morgan, Guess
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: how long do you give us? Well, the present immunity
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: will last a week or so, and then it's just
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: a question of time until someone picks up the plague.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: After that a month two months at most. Do you
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: have any thoughts as to how we might save ourselves? No, sir,
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: I'm afraid not. What about the natives? They don't die
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: in the flag. They must have a treatment for it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: If they didn't, there would be no natives. Would you
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: be willing to go on an expedition to the hills
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: to find out? Right now, Captain, I'd be willing to
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: do anything, absolutely anything. I'm truly sorry, sir, very sorry,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Doctor Morgan. Would you mind telling me how it feels
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: to murder one hundred and eighty men? One hundred and
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: eighty one, including yourself? A lot of thinking After doctor
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Morgan left, My hut was still unreal for me. After all,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: the planning of an expedition was no simple thing. You
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: put into it the results of years of training and experience.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Every man on my crew was handpicked for his skill
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: and get. A simple thing like a myopic surgeon. Misreading
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: and label could bust the whole thing. Yes, it was
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: a shame. I did the only thing I could think of.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: I yelled for about a year's Brady Wady got to
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: talk a pin here and hurry out? Okay, okay, what's up?
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Sit down about yours? You got trouble, We got trouble.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: What the serum's no good? What Morgan forgot to check it?
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: It's ten years too old? Holy jump and snails, you're
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: gonna court much. I wouldn't do much good. Law be
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: dead pretty soon unless somebody figures something out. Why did
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: they send these civilians with us? Now? It was a mistake.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Anybody can make a mistake, only this was a big one.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I wrote, What are you going to do now? There's
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: only one chance? One chance in ten million? What the natives,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: them cave rats? What good can they do is they
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: don't get the plague, so so maybe they know a
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: cure or listen, those gamp posts don't know nothing. Take
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: it from me, it's the only chance. Okay, let's get
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: a few of them and beat it out of it.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: That's why you're here. Shoot, how'd you like to come
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: along on a little expedition up to the cave country.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: That's a good way to die young. We die young anyway. Okay,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: what's pitch now? We don't dare let the rest of
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: the camp, no, we would knock on morale the pieces.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Who's going? You? Me, the doctor and fucker fulk Listen.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I right, he's worse than the dout. I know he
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: isn't exactly the man for a hunting driven but he
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: knows more about the native coaches than anybody here. He's
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: the only one who's completely familiar with the records of
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: the first expedition. Okay, so it's me, you, the dark
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: and Fork. When do we start tonight? In half an
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: hour now, we should reach the cave country by tomorrow.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: For luck, we'll be able to find Naties before night.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: And then the fun starts. You know, I read them gimpos.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: Don't exactly love us. Nobody loves us, bat Ears, that's
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: one of the great paradoxes about this job. We come
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: here to help them, to civilize them so they can
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: live like human beings instead of pack rats, and they
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: run off to the hills and hide from us like
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: we had the almost said plague. Okay, bat Ears, get
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: the doctor and Fuckner. Benny Faulkner's body was small and consumptive,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: but he had a good brain, and he was the
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: best anthropologist the Inner Planet Institute could recommend. He and
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: doctor Morgan were the only two civilians on the expedition.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: The rest of us were all army or space patrol.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: We hadn't been watching very long before Benny's frail constitution
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: began to show signs of where and tears. Benny, it's
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: not just the dust. I'm allergic to dust. Hear that
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: he's allergic to dust. We better call out the expedition. Hey,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: bad is yes, sir, I want to rest a while,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: a part man. It's okay. I can make it now.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: We should be in the cave country in an hour,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: so it'll be daybreak then, and they're going. It'll be easier.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: How about you, doctor right, I'll make it. Okay, let's
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: go right it. Don't look now, but very slowly turn
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: your eyes to the right and look behind that big
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: yellow rock. Okay, you see anything? Now, keep looking, don't
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: stop walking the lead on. I'm true. There look like
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: the shadow us. It's one of them gimpos. He's been
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: following us now for almost an hour at dodge and
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: in and up behind rucks. I think there's more of
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: them too, but I couldn't swear. Oh, anyway, they know
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: we're coming, that's for sure. What do you think should
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: we bring one in? Not yet. We don't know how
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: many of them there are. Just pretend you don't see them,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: and above all, tell the others to show no signs
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: of fears. Nothing will start the simple minded caveman like fear.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: That was it, the manual said, under no circumstances, shall
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: a member of the patrol displayed fear before the dignity
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: of the earth man must be preserved at all costs.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Walk erect, be firm, but just, and do not allow
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: the native to feel he is your superior. It was
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: a good rule. It always worked. Just before dawn we
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: reached the cave country, we were tired and hungry, and
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: we stopped to cook some food and rest. Everything was quiet.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Who sign of the gimpo is? Bat of yours? Called him? Until,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: come on, break? What's the trouble?
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: The help be one of these gimpos speaking around outside
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: of the tent.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Almost slit my throat with one of those stone knives,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: he did. Yeah, bring him in the light of the fire,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: or we can get our luck. Yeah, right, partner, Yes here,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: try to establish some communication. All right, Look, God, now,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: I don't need to knock him down.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: Bout her.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: It's the only language they understand, farkner, See if you
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: can reach him. Okay, Captain, I'll need a drum of
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: some sort. Oh what well, I find they communicate with
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: one another through a very primitive kind of vibration of
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: the tongue. Now the closest I can come is a
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: series of drum beats, a sort of a Morse code.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: A psychologist on the first expedition had it worked out
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: before he was killed by the play. I've studied his notes,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and I think it'll work. You mean, these animals canted
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: to one another, believe they can at any rate. We'll
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: have a chance to find out. Do we have something
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I can use for a drum? Over here? Kick my helmet?
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: Thank you that now, I'll tap it four times. That's
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: a greeting of some sort. Well, just a moment, Yes, sir,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: I don't want you treating this fellow like an equal.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Don't give him the idea that we're desperate. Once they
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: sense that we're lost. All right, here we go. Now,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: I'll give him the helmet. Good. He seems to understand.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: What shall I ask him, sir? Now, first tell him
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: we come in peace. Reassure him that we don't wish
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: to hurt him or his people. I'll try, he seems
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: to understand. He wants to answer it. Well, he says,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: others like you came to Landro. You just mean the
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: first expedition. Go on. I want you to lead around
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: the subject of the plague gradually. Don't let on that
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: we're desperate. I'll do my best. This strange sight on
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: one side of the helmet crouched little Benny Faulkner. Across
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: from him crouched the Landea, a humpback, gray little creature
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: with an enormous head and those soft lavender eyes. I'm
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: setting forth in this narrative the transcript of their conversations.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Benny Faulkner later transcribed it from the best of his memory. Faulkner,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: we come as friends Native. Why Faulkner, we will help
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: you to rebuild your cities and make your machines work again.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Why we want to help you to enjoy the benefits
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: of the great culture which once thrived on Landville. Why
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: because we want to help you. If we ask you
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: not to help us, will you go away? We stay
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: for your own good. We have helped many others on
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: other planets. Oh, we teach them a better way to live.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Their way of life was better than your way. Have
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: you tried all way? Why were your city's abandoned? Was
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: it the plague? Yes? Do you still fear the plague?
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: Yes?
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Do any of your people become afflicted soon? How do
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: you treat them? How do you keep the plague from spreading?
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Do you have a cure? How can we find a
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: cure for the plague? Go among my people? Will we
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: find the answer among your people? The people have the answer.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Will you tell me the answer? Go among my people?
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: The drum beats ended. As far as the landing was concerned,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: the conversation was ended. He rose to girl, and Faulkner
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: stepped from his path, but Brady was there to insure
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: the beat. Hold on their buckle. You ain't going no
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: place now, treat him, Brady. What do you say, Benny?
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: He says, his people have the answer. What do you think? No,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: there may be some truth in it, he says. Some
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: of his people still get the play. That must mean
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: that isn't a question of immunity. They must have a cure. Well,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: he wasn't clear on that doctor, And they must have
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: a vaccine to keep it from spreading. Does he know?
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Evidently not? I could beat it out of him. I
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: don't think he's lying. Well, I'll leave it up to us. Now.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: The first level of caves are on top of that
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: cliff about a mile ahead. It's a trap. I'll be
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: my last dollar. Maybe not. We'll have to risk it. No, wait, yes,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: do let me go. I got you all into this.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: How are you talking? Well? Benny here can give me
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: enough of the cold so I can ask a big question.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: All right, doctor, we'll wait at the foot of the cliff.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Now you go on ahead. If you aren't back down
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: in three hours, we'll come up back here. What about
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: the gimpo we've got and we'll hold him as a
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: hostage to ensure the doctor's safety. Nof the doc comes back,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: all right, we'll let him go. Your job, that is
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: no pleasure. Don't take him natch. But if he gives
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: me any trouble, I'll take your shovel to his bottom.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: You can count on that. I'll take Dr Morgan about
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: an hour to pick his way up the side of
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: the cliff to the first of the openings of the
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: landry in flat. He waved to us before he entered
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: the mount of the cave, and we waved back. Then
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: we settled down to wait. It was a long, long wait.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Eight o'clock. He's been up there more than three hours.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I'll give him a little more time. It's getting colder.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I'll keep the fire going. You think we hurt something,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: But now that was going to knock him off. I mean,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: I'm not necessarily I wait, but up on the cliff,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: that's the doctor. What's he running for? I don't know.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: He looks scared, crazy fool. If you don't look back,
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I come over and look what. We found him at
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: the foot of the cliff, crumpled and broken. We never
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: knew why he had thrown himself off. Scrawled across the
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: pad he had taken with him on which to make
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: notes concerning the answer was a single word. The word
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: was critesy. The expedition was a fad. Okay, that's it.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: I have to head back for camp and just wait
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: and pray. Not just yet. I okay, what's on your mind, Baddy?
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: If it's all the same to you, I'd like to
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: take the gimbo here out behind the rocks and have
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: a talk with him. Okay, what do you think you're accomplished?
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Just a quiet little chalk, no violence,
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: no violence, just the real, earnest type conversation. Okay. It
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: was one of those decisions a commanding officer Drens one
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: hundred and eighty lives against the chance that Batiers could
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: persuade the little gray man to give an answer he
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: might not even know. I nodded, and Batiers took the
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: little native off behind and outcropping a rock. He was
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: back in fifteen minutes, dripping with sweat. Well let's go nothing, huh,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: but they see, yeah, they made very good, those little
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: great people. They come apart too easier. So let's go
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: all right, Hy Benny for Benny? What is I feel
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: kind of sick all of a sudden. He's got a
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: weak stomach, dust stalergy. Wait a minute, what is it? Benny?
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Back in my head? Dull kind of pains to got
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: your tongue. Give him a hand back of her. So
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: we've got to get him back to camp. What is it?
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure. Put that blackness on the tongue and
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: the headache. It could be the plague. At the time
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: I got plenty talking about the camp, he had the
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: red spots on his body. And then the favor began
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: to rage. It was a plague, no mistake about it.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Before morning, collins A supplies as you know it. Then
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: there was peabody. After that the men went down like
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: ten minutes. They screamed and moaned and then they died.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: I'm oh about I drink so last of the complements
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: the tired. Oh man, I've never been so tired. What's
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: the time? We lost six? More today? Six? That makes
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: twenty nine dead? Twenty nine unlessen a week. Some stinking
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: natives they put the whare men high. Take it easy.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I'd like to take a machine gun up to them
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: hills and not go off the whole bunch of.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: How's Benny, Now, that's a funny thing. I went into
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: his tenth this morning, figuring sure he'd be dead by now. Instead,
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: I see his fevers down a couple of points.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: He usually gets him in a matter of days. Funkon
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: has been hanging on for weeks now, well keep an
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: eye on him. Was a nightmare of eternity under that,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: him ceaseless round and caring for the stricken, them, helping
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: with the graves, and writing in the book the names
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: of those who died. Sleep came in snatches over when
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: he was so exhaustedly couldn't stand. Then one morning Battier's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Brady dragged himself into my shack. Sit down, Batty, what's
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: the count six left? We buried the chaplain today? You
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: got a cigarette? Makes sure I was walking? I don't
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: get it. Still alive. He's getting better, sitting up leaving macro.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: It's a good You're a hand like any other. No,
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: this one's different. It's my last. What do you mean?
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: Take a look at my tongue and I see little
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: black spots. Somehow I managed to get him into bed.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: It was already raving when I gave him the last
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: of the morphine. It was incredible, big, drawling Battier's Brady,
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: a tower of strike, flying sick and whimpering on a cot.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I went out on the moors to think. The sun
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: was a dull red door, cold breeze with the planet
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: of Landau was an impish I'd thought about Battiers and
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: doctor Morgan and Benny Faulkner. Why should Fulckner of all
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: of us recover from the plague from which more mad
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: in the covered. I turned and went back to see Benny.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: Father hell captain, Hello, Benny? How are you? It's good?
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Got up and walked a couple of steps today. How
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: goes it? Brady's down? Oh listen, Benny. There must be
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: some reason why you survived the virus. Well, how about you?
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Why didn't you ever even get it? I give it time?
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: What can I do I want you to tell me
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: everything you know about yourself, everything you can remember. But
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: why Because somewhere in your makeup is some little thing
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: that makes the difference. At least I can leave a
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: record for any future expedition that comes to landro Okay, okay, captain,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Where do you want me to start at the beginning? Now?
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I'm going to take notes. Well, I was born on
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: the second of July in nineteen seventy one. My parents
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: were ordinary people. My father. I told you everything I
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: can remember for three days. Now you've questioned me. All right,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: I'll take it from where the natives started to walk away.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: You stepped out of his path and Brady grabbed him. Okay,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: so I stepped out of his path. Why what do
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: you mean? Why why did you step out of his path? Well?
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Why not? Courtesy? That's why? What's the matter? Good? You
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: see funny? That's the word that doctor Morgan had written
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: in his note book. I don't see you, don't They
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: told me why should you want to be courteous to
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: a native? Why not? What about maintaining your own dignity?
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Are you talking about dignity or arrogance? Look? I don't
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: get this at all, Captain, you're familiar with the records
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: left for the first expedition, Benny, what happened with the natives?
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: All the natives were friendly enough at first, but after
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: a while they went back to the caves. When we
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: got here, they wouldn't come near us, right right, Yet
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: we came to help him. So why maybe this many?
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Maybe we were all with non deductions. Maybe those cities
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: weren't deserted centuries ago after all. Maybe these little people
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: up in the caves are the same people who used
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: to live in those cities. Why should they leave? Well,
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: maybe they found out the big cities weren't the answer.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Maybe they found out that civilization doesn't necessarily bring happiness,
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: so they just packed up and left, return to the
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: simple life. That doesn't make sense. You're forgetting the plague, Benny,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: What is the plague? Well? I don't know. I think
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: the plague was nothing more than what we know is
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: greed and erdens. Captain, you're going off your rock. I
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: think maybe we were in line to die of it,
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: even if the serum had been good. Well, it violates
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: all the laws of Earth. We ought on Earth. We're
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: on land roll, a planet a million light years from home. Now,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: why are we trying to take these primitive happy people
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: and make them like ourselves? Why are we trying to
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: mold them, to convince them that they belong in cities,
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: that they should be building better can openers instead of
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: just enjoying human reallyftionships. Why, Benny, if that isn't sheerest stupid,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: crazy arrogance, My name isn't Ira Warren seven four went
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: that night three days later about here is Brady dying
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: in his delirium, he was howling about how if he
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: could just get his hands on one of those stinking natives,
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: he'd wring the answer out of him. After I buried him,
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: I went back to Benny Fulkner's ten. Faulkner's getting out
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: of bed as I entered. How was he captain? I
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: just buried him, holding mother and an. It means two
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: of us, two out of one hundred and eighty, not two,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: just one. Oh, but you're all right. I have a headache.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: I'm beginning to sweat a little too. Can I help you? Anny? No? No,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: I think I'll go back to my shock and finish
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: writing the report. Well maybe it isn't the plague, No, Benny,
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: I've seen it too many times, kidding myself about it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: Lord Captain, you don't believe that junk about courtesy, do you?
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: I mean that stuff you were talking about the other night.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: That's a lot of nonsense. You must know that. Holymica
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: of Captain. You can't believe us, you can't. Good night, Benny.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: I think I'd like to be alone for a lot. Okay,
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: good night, Captain laren A. I'm turning it over to
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: Anny Folk and the hopes that he will be able
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: to transmit it to any other expedition commander who contemplates
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: exploring the planet for the landing favors beginning to mount.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Now my hands tremble as I write. The end should
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: not be far off. You see, I didn't have a chance.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: I stepped down of no baths.
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: You have just heard another adventure into the unknown world
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: of the future, A world of.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Then I've done.
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: We are just beginning to discover how boundless our universe
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: really is. And yet, what would it be like to
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: live in a world no larger, say than a single
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: gigantic rocket ship. You'll find out more about it on
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: Dimension X next week, where we present Robert Heinlein's universe.
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: Dimension X is presented each week by the National Broadcasting
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of the
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: magazine of Standing Science Fiction. Today, Dimention X has presented
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: critesy from the current issue of a Standing Science Fiction
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: was written for radio by George Lefferts from the story
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: by Clifford Simak. Featured in the cast where Larson Zerby
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: is Captain Warren, Bill Zuckert has Beatier's Brady, and Bill
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: Gray as Benny Faulkner.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: Your host was Norman Rose. Music by Albert Burman.
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: Dimension X is produced by William Welch and directed by
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: Fred Way.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: That was Dimension X with courtesy until next time. Keep
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the dial set for the voices and visions of classic
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: science fiction. Follow Old Time sci Fi Radio for more
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: classic science fiction broadcasts.