Latest / Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio / X Minus One - "First Contact" (1955)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Murray Leinster's story of humanity's first meeting with an alien
- 0:03Speaker 1: race comes to radio in this NBC presentation of X
- 0:07Speaker 1: minus one, originally broadcast October sixth, nineteen fifty five. Episode
- 0:14Speaker 1: twenty is adapted for radio by Howard Rodman with Wendell Holmes,
- 0:19Speaker 1: Bob Hastings, Clark Gordon, William Lally, Stan Early, and Fred Collins.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Far beyond Earth, an exploration vessel encounters an alien spacecraft
- 0:30Speaker 1: near a twin star nebula. As the two crews attempt communication,
- 0:35Speaker 1: each must weigh the danger of revealing the route home.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Here is First Contact and now the original broadcast.
- 0:47Speaker 2: Con dom for blast off X minus five four three
- 0:52Speaker 2: two X minus one Fire from the far horizons of
- 1:23Speaker 2: the Unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time
- 1:26Speaker 2: and space. These are stories of the future adventures in
- 1:30Speaker 2: which you'll live in a million, could be years, on
- 1:33Speaker 2: a thousand, maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation
- 1:37Speaker 2: with Street and Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction, presents.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Heck he minus minus minus minu.
- 1:44Speaker 4: One on.
- 1:55Speaker 2: Tonight's story First Contact by Murray Lemester. They had been
- 2:10Speaker 2: in space six months, now moving with the incredibly faster
- 2:14Speaker 2: than light speed.
- 2:15Speaker 4: Of the overdrive.
- 2:17Speaker 2: In six months, they had gone from Earth outward and
- 2:20Speaker 2: outward to the crab like Nebula with the twin Stars,
- 2:23Speaker 2: a routine flight of exploration and scientific research.
- 2:29Speaker 4: Solid object about ninety thousand miles away.
- 2:31Speaker 5: Sir, located door it exactly identify it.
- 2:35Speaker 6: A small object, Sir, Captain, I've never seen anything like
- 2:39Speaker 6: this before. Whatever it is out there is coming tort
- 2:41Speaker 6: Us at an incredible speed and retreating to zero.
- 2:44Speaker 4: Just as rapidly.
- 2:44Speaker 5: What's the mass of the object.
- 2:46Speaker 4: It varies with the distance from us, Sir, step up
- 2:49Speaker 4: the scanners.
- 2:51Speaker 6: Nothing, sir, Absolutely nothing shows out there, and yet there
- 2:55Speaker 6: must be something.
- 2:56Speaker 4: Those alarms are fool.
- 2:57Speaker 7: Proof action stations, all weapons condition of extreme alert, and
- 3:02Speaker 7: all departments immediately captain, what is it? Dort I ran
- 3:04Speaker 7: into the same thing once before on the Earth Mars run.
- 3:07Speaker 7: We were being located by another ship and their locator
- 3:09Speaker 7: being was the same frequency as ours. Every time it
- 3:12Speaker 7: hit it registered to something solid and monstrous.
- 3:15Speaker 4: Captain, We're the only earth ship in eighteen like years around.
- 3:18Speaker 5: How I didn't say it was another Earth's ship out there?
- 3:20Speaker 4: Do it another race?
- 3:23Speaker 5: That's right, there's a spaceship out there, all right, it's
- 3:27Speaker 5: not manned by human beings.
- 3:35Speaker 2: It had been contemplated and speculated upon mathematically, it was
- 3:39Speaker 2: almost a certainty that such a race existed, But in
- 3:43Speaker 2: eighteen thousand earth years, no human spaceship.
- 3:46Speaker 4: Had ever encountered them.
- 3:48Speaker 2: Now the situation was precipitated, and somewhere outside the Earth
- 3:52Speaker 2: vessel there was an alien race of what shape, of
- 3:56Speaker 2: what quality, of what psychology.
- 4:02Speaker 4: It's moving, sir, heading right for us.
- 4:04Speaker 7: That speed will be in touching ten minutes, heading right
- 4:07Speaker 7: for us. Eh, Just what we'd do if a strange
- 4:09Speaker 7: ship appeared in our hunting grounds. Friendly or maybe we'll
- 4:13Speaker 7: try to contact them. We have to do that friendly.
- 4:18Speaker 7: Thank the Lord for the blasters.
- 4:20Speaker 4: They may not be hostile, sir.
- 4:21Speaker 5: They may be.
- 4:21Speaker 7: That's what I'm paid for, put on this job for
- 4:23Speaker 7: to worry about the troubles. It may never happen to
- 4:26Speaker 7: all hands.
- 4:27Speaker 5: Now hear this.
- 4:28Speaker 7: A ship is approaching man by an alien race. I'll
- 4:31Speaker 7: give the signal for attack or defense if it'd be necessary.
- 4:33Speaker 7: There'll be no move made unless I give the order.
- 4:36Speaker 7: I do not wish to provoke trouble.
- 4:38Speaker 4: Stand by, Their ship is slowing down sir, it's stopped.
- 4:42Speaker 7: Weapons Department report, Weapons Department report, alien.
- 4:46Speaker 3: Ship remark pocket fixed weapons alert.
- 4:49Speaker 7: Communications Department report. Communications Department report.
- 4:53Speaker 8: We're receiving a modulated short wave, sir.
- 4:56Speaker 9: Frequency modulated, hardly a signal power to do with any harm.
- 5:01Speaker 7: We'll try to make some sense out of it. Report
- 5:03Speaker 7: any progress to me immediately.
- 5:06Speaker 6: One thing in their favor, sir. They didn't attack immediately,
- 5:08Speaker 6: without question. They're trying to establish contact. That seems to
- 5:12Speaker 6: indicate they're reasonable, and we'll see.
- 5:13Speaker 7: We'll see what are they doing now? Can you make
- 5:16Speaker 7: out the locator screen? Bring that power up?
- 5:19Speaker 4: They're doing something.
- 5:20Speaker 8: Naw, sir.
- 5:21Speaker 4: There's a section of the hull opening, probably an.
- 5:24Speaker 5: Analys if they breathe there, they're.
- 5:27Speaker 4: Letting something out. It's round a bombser.
- 5:30Speaker 3: A known object release from alionship, observed by Weapons Department,
- 5:33Speaker 3: then targeted spend by it.
- 5:36Speaker 4: See what they're doing, sir.
- 5:37Speaker 6: They've left the object out there right where they were,
- 5:39Speaker 6: and now they're withdrawing the ship.
- 5:41Speaker 5: There's no reason why that object couldn't be a bombers
- 5:43Speaker 5: to do it intended to let us think precisely as
- 5:45Speaker 5: you're thinking right now.
- 5:47Speaker 4: I just have a hunch, Sir. I think they're friendly.
- 5:51Speaker 4: I think whatever it is out there is a means
- 5:52Speaker 4: of communication.
- 5:53Speaker 5: Probably right, but I won't gamble the ship on the probability, Sir.
- 5:56Speaker 6: I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look
- 5:58Speaker 6: that thing over.
- 6:00Speaker 5: You understand, whoever does examine it is expendable.
- 6:03Speaker 6: Yes, sir, requisition of life boat if it's all right
- 6:07Speaker 6: with you, Sir, I'd prefer just a suit with the
- 6:08Speaker 6: drive in it. It's smaller and the arms and legs
- 6:11Speaker 6: won't make me look like a bomb, and I'll carry
- 6:13Speaker 6: a scanner.
- 6:13Speaker 5: Say you may leave when you're ready.
- 6:16Speaker 4: Thank you, sir.
- 6:23Speaker 8: I'm already clear the lock and let me out.
- 6:32Speaker 3: Weapons Department reporting to the captain. Mister Dort located, Mister
- 6:37Speaker 3: Dort is targeted.
- 6:38Speaker 7: Stand By that object out there is a device to
- 6:41Speaker 7: capture one of our people for observation and questioning. It'll
- 6:44Speaker 7: be blown out of existence, including mister Dart. Stand by,
- 6:57Speaker 7: mister Dart. Mister Dart. Report.
- 7:02Speaker 10: Object that you can see on the scanner, Sarah, is
- 7:04Speaker 10: covered with many small horns, like the detonating horns of
- 7:07Speaker 10: the obsolete mines formerly used in naval warfare.
- 7:10Speaker 5: Is that their purpose do you assume, mister Dart.
- 7:12Speaker 10: I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going to grab one,
- 7:16Speaker 10: mister Dart.
- 7:18Speaker 8: I'm here, sir. I don't think this is a mine.
- 7:21Speaker 5: Circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
- 7:26Speaker 10: Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown yet.
- 7:30Speaker 10: Oh wait a minute, sir, A section of the autohol
- 7:32Speaker 10: seems to be opening.
- 7:33Speaker 8: Do you see it?
- 7:34Speaker 5: Very good, Dard, hold on.
- 7:36Speaker 8: I'm sure it's a communications device, sir.
- 7:39Speaker 5: It looks like it.
- 7:40Speaker 7: Picture scanners that will focus on that communications device. Return
- 7:44Speaker 7: to the ship, Communications department. Communications department progress report.
- 8:00Speaker 4: We've established communication, sir.
- 8:02Speaker 5: Is there a psychologist on the team down there with you?
- 8:04Speaker 4: Yes, sir, mister Burns is working with us a.
- 8:06Speaker 11: Lot of you.
- 8:06Speaker 8: Please report to the bridget once.
- 8:15Speaker 5: You look tired, Dort.
- 8:17Speaker 6: We've established fairly satisfactory communication, sir. They seem to have
- 8:21Speaker 6: highly developed thought patterns. We've got a satisfactory translation from
- 8:25Speaker 6: the machine on the fourth attempt.
- 8:27Speaker 4: We can say almost anything we want to say to
- 8:28Speaker 4: each other. Now, of course, how much of what they
- 8:31Speaker 4: tell us is the truth? We have no way of knowing.
- 8:33Speaker 5: Mister Burns. You're the psychologist, what do you think?
- 8:36Speaker 9: Well, I don't know, sir. They seem to be completely direct.
- 8:39Speaker 9: They haven't let slip even the hint of the tenseness
- 8:41Speaker 9: we know exists. They act as they were setting up
- 8:44Speaker 9: a means of communication for friendly conversation.
- 8:46Speaker 4: But well, there's an overtone that Well.
- 8:49Speaker 5: Mister Burns, I have a decision to make.
- 8:52Speaker 7: On the one hand, opening contact with the friendly people
- 8:55Speaker 7: of a vastly different culture could only be beneficial.
- 8:58Speaker 5: To us of Earth. The other hand, if they're hostile,
- 9:01Speaker 5: I had a blessed amount of existence without any other
- 9:03Speaker 5: preliminary But sir, you cannot talking to you.
- 9:08Speaker 4: It's not warranted yet, sir.
- 9:10Speaker 7: Yes, now hear this, All departments, hear this, all departments.
- 9:16Speaker 7: This ship is on an extended alert. Provisions will be
- 9:20Speaker 7: made so that personnel can have maximum rest and nourishment.
- 9:33Speaker 2: Communication continued by means of the artificial language set up
- 9:37Speaker 2: arbitrarily between the Earthman and the aliens, decoded by the
- 9:41Speaker 2: mechanical decoders. Dork disobeyed orders. He lived on powerful stimulants
- 9:46Speaker 2: so that he could stay with the communications machine, talking, talking, talking.
- 9:53Speaker 4: To the aliens, other people, other people. Are we being received?
- 10:02Speaker 11: We are receiving your message.
- 10:05Speaker 6: The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the
- 10:08Speaker 6: chief of your ship.
- 10:09Speaker 11: The message is heard by the chief of this ship.
- 10:13Speaker 11: The chief of this ship communicates that he will hear
- 10:16Speaker 11: the message of the chief of that ship.
- 10:18Speaker 7: Go ahead, sir, people of the other ship, I'd like
- 10:23Speaker 7: to say the appropriate things about this first contact of
- 10:26Speaker 7: two dissimilar civilized races, and of my hope that a
- 10:30Speaker 7: friendly intercourse between the two peoples will result.
- 10:33Speaker 11: People of that ship, what you say is all very well,
- 10:39Speaker 11: But is there any way for us to let each
- 10:43Speaker 11: other go home alive?
- 10:48Speaker 6: Let's all say they stopped sending very direct people very direct,
- 10:52Speaker 6: But sir.
- 10:53Speaker 4: I don't follow. I didn't know what that meant. You know,
- 10:56Speaker 4: is there any way for us to let each other
- 10:58Speaker 4: go home alive?
- 10:59Speaker 5: It means what it says?
- 11:00Speaker 6: Or so, what's to stop us from just cutting communication
- 11:03Speaker 6: and leaving and they can do likewise?
- 11:04Speaker 5: What's to stop us?
- 11:06Speaker 7: Simply that whichever ship leaves first will be followed by
- 11:08Speaker 7: the other. If they find Earth and get back to
- 11:10Speaker 7: their own planet, and we don't know where that planet is,
- 11:12Speaker 7: Earth will be completely at their mercy. If they leave first,
- 11:16Speaker 7: we'll follow them. We'll attempt to find their home planet, dort.
- 11:21Speaker 7: Could you swear to any decision that the policymakers on
- 11:23Speaker 7: Earth will come to sir?
- 11:25Speaker 4: Even if they do follow us.
- 11:26Speaker 6: The closer we get to home, the more of our
- 11:27Speaker 6: ships and weapons they'll face.
- 11:29Speaker 4: They never get away.
- 11:30Speaker 7: Well, how do you know that they can't communicate with
- 11:31Speaker 7: their home planet without returning We can, sir, How do
- 11:35Speaker 7: you know they can't?
- 11:37Speaker 5: They don't say, so, that's the situation.
- 11:39Speaker 7: We'll sit out here, facing each other, trying to out
- 11:42Speaker 7: guess each other do. Time wears us out, and we'll
- 11:45Speaker 7: have to face the fact either they destroy us or
- 11:47Speaker 7: we destroy them. Navigation officer attention. Navigation officer attention. Every
- 11:53Speaker 7: star map on this ship is to be prepared for
- 11:56Speaker 7: instant destruction.
- 11:58Speaker 11: A chief up this ship wishes to know whether the
- 12:01Speaker 11: chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the
- 12:04Speaker 11: problem concerning us all.
- 12:07Speaker 4: Do you want me to answer that?
- 12:08Speaker 5: Say, I'll answer it myself. Tell me when to talk.
- 12:12Speaker 7: Now, sir, I am giving that matter personal attention. Every
- 12:18Speaker 7: effort will be bent to the solution of this problem.
- 12:22Speaker 7: Will you consider a temporary truce in the meantime?
- 12:26Speaker 11: What would a truce gain? Would we trust you, would
- 12:31Speaker 11: you trust us? I suggest that we continue as we
- 12:35Speaker 11: have up to this particle of time.
- 12:38Speaker 5: I agree, sign off them.
- 12:50Speaker 2: Weeks went by, and during the weeks the exchange of
- 12:53Speaker 2: information continued without let up.
- 12:57Speaker 4: What particle of time?
- 12:58Speaker 6: Are the people on that ship at the resting time?
- 13:02Speaker 11: All rest except myself and others on alert duty?
- 13:05Speaker 4: Same on this ship.
- 13:07Speaker 11: Your people of that ship are very similar in many ways.
- 13:12Speaker 11: Do you have a family.
- 13:14Speaker 4: I have a mate.
- 13:16Speaker 11: I have a mate and three offspring. It is too
- 13:20Speaker 11: bad for them, as well as us, to have to
- 13:24Speaker 11: kill each other.
- 13:25Speaker 4: This ship can't see any way out of it, can
- 13:27Speaker 4: that ship?
- 13:28Speaker 11: If we could believe each ship, yes, our chief would
- 13:33Speaker 11: like it, But we can't believe you, and you are
- 13:36Speaker 11: afraid that we do not tell truth. Although we do.
- 13:40Speaker 11: This ship would trail you home. If this ship were
- 13:44Speaker 11: able to, that ship would do the same. But this
- 13:48Speaker 11: ship feels sorry about you.
- 13:52Speaker 4: I believe you're a friend.
- 13:54Speaker 11: I share your belief and like you. But there is
- 13:59Speaker 11: a possible that you were to make a trap for me.
- 14:03Speaker 11: I will stop now and think it over.
- 14:20Speaker 5: Sit down, doort control yourself. We're all under tention. Doesn't
- 14:23Speaker 5: do any good to pace Like some caged animal.
- 14:25Speaker 4: Yes, sir, all right, now I've read.
- 14:27Speaker 5: The complete transcription of your conversations with this one alien.
- 14:30Speaker 5: What does it prove, Dort? Sir?
- 14:32Speaker 6: These people are so much like us, and they're thinking, well,
- 14:36Speaker 6: so they're likable.
- 14:37Speaker 5: They're likable, and they breathe oxygen.
- 14:40Speaker 7: Their air is twenty eight percent oxygen instead of twenty.
- 14:43Speaker 5: They could do very well on Earth.
- 14:45Speaker 7: Be a highly desirable conquest for them, Dort. I must
- 14:48Speaker 7: set against violence as you are. I don't see any
- 14:51Speaker 7: way out of us, and I think we've got to
- 14:53Speaker 7: break this status quo. So if in seventy hours we
- 14:57Speaker 7: don't see any other.
- 14:58Speaker 5: Way and I have no further choice, I'll blow them
- 15:04Speaker 5: to bits.
- 15:19Speaker 11: Will that ship receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
- 15:24Speaker 4: This ship is listening.
- 15:26Speaker 11: It seems to me better to communicate than to sit
- 15:31Speaker 11: by the machine silently.
- 15:33Speaker 4: I would have called you, but you've signed off.
- 15:35Speaker 11: Before the problem goes around and around. I find no answer.
- 15:41Speaker 4: Perhaps we could turn our thoughts to other things.
- 15:43Speaker 11: The psychologist of this ship tells us that you people
- 15:46Speaker 11: and that ship have a threshold of tolerance to tension.
- 15:51Speaker 11: He tells us that you will be forced to take
- 15:53Speaker 11: one action or another in a period of less than
- 15:56Speaker 11: one hundred time, particles.
- 15:58Speaker 4: I have no communication on this matter.
- 16:01Speaker 11: So the ship is not trying to extract unwilling information
- 16:04Speaker 11: from that ship.
- 16:05Speaker 6: A truth is mentioned in a report of this conversation,
- 16:08Speaker 6: will be carried to the chief of this ship.
- 16:10Speaker 11: It would be so.
- 16:12Speaker 8: We are prepared.
- 16:14Speaker 6: If only the people of this ship could meet in
- 16:16Speaker 6: direct contact with the people of that ship, it might
- 16:18Speaker 6: be better.
- 16:18Speaker 8: We could not communicate them.
- 16:20Speaker 11: The communications machine is too large to carry from place
- 16:23Speaker 11: to place in direct contact. The people say, the two
- 16:26Speaker 11: ships would be further apart than now.
- 16:29Speaker 4: That's true.
- 16:31Speaker 11: I am saying much that it's pleasant has passed between us.
- 16:37Speaker 4: I am sad too.
- 16:39Speaker 11: We are not yet ready for each other.
- 16:43Speaker 4: We are not yet ready for each other.
- 16:48Speaker 5: It's hard, isn't it.
- 16:51Speaker 4: Well, Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here.
- 16:54Speaker 5: So I've been here for quite a while. He's dropping
- 16:57Speaker 5: on Fred.
- 16:58Speaker 4: It's all right, too. Nothing can be personal in the
- 17:01Speaker 4: situation like this.
- 17:02Speaker 5: That's right. How long is one hundred time particles, dirt?
- 17:06Speaker 4: Pardon sir?
- 17:08Speaker 5: That reference he made to us not being able to
- 17:10Speaker 5: stand tenderness interesting. Their psychologists seem to make more out
- 17:15Speaker 5: of us and we do out of them.
- 17:17Speaker 4: Don't they, Yes, sir, they hit the nail.
- 17:20Speaker 7: Right on the head, Yes they do, I think, Dort,
- 17:24Speaker 7: we will just have to push our timetable up a bit.
- 17:27Speaker 7: No further communication with the aliens under any circumstances.
- 17:30Speaker 5: That's clear, isn't it, Yes, sir, sir.
- 17:34Speaker 6: If they know so much about our psychology, isn't it
- 17:37Speaker 6: possible that remark was intended to make us act more quickly?
- 17:39Speaker 5: Probable? Dort?
- 17:41Speaker 4: Probable? Why would they do that, sir?
- 17:44Speaker 5: Why you tell me why? Dort?
- 17:48Speaker 4: All of a sudden, I have an idea, sir, and
- 17:50Speaker 4: it's crazy.
- 17:51Speaker 5: It doesn't matter how crazy. I'll listen to it, Sir.
- 17:55Speaker 4: I think these people are playing some kind of a
- 17:57Speaker 4: joke on us. Joke, a joke, Dort, Yes, sir, Over
- 18:01Speaker 4: and over again.
- 18:02Speaker 6: I've noticed what I think is a sense of humor,
- 18:05Speaker 6: A highly developed sense of humor. Do you recall when
- 18:08Speaker 6: we went to all the trouble to set up a
- 18:09Speaker 6: fictitious star map, and then they just sent us back
- 18:12Speaker 6: a mirror image of the same one.
- 18:14Speaker 4: I think somehow they're playing.
- 18:16Speaker 5: A joke on us.
- 18:18Speaker 7: Maybe you are right, in which case you've seen practical
- 18:22Speaker 7: jokers do it. The jokes aren't always funny. Sometimes they
- 18:27Speaker 7: hurt people. All departments, man instant alert, All departments, man
- 18:44Speaker 7: instant alert, Report, instantly, report instantly.
- 18:47Speaker 8: Weapon's department alerted.
- 18:48Speaker 5: Target the enemy ship, Sir, stand by, fire.
- 19:02Speaker 4: The go answer. Not a trace of them left, not
- 19:06Speaker 4: a tiny trace. Now we can go home.
- 19:21Speaker 8: Communications to captain.
- 19:22Speaker 9: Communications to Captain, Sir, I'm picking up new signals, same
- 19:26Speaker 9: frequency as the original Indian signals.
- 19:28Speaker 5: That's impossible that ship was destroyed.
- 19:30Speaker 8: I'm receiving signals, Sir.
- 19:32Speaker 5: Set the machine up. We'll be down there and I'm
- 19:33Speaker 5: gonna come with me.
- 19:35Speaker 11: Please, it's good to be on the way home. Yes,
- 19:44Speaker 11: it is good. Do you suppose we'll ever figure out
- 19:48Speaker 11: what happened to the other ship?
- 19:50Speaker 12: Never a blinding fashion and they were gone.
- 19:54Speaker 11: I suppose they couldn't figure a way out of the situation.
- 19:58Speaker 11: An unstable people, they had no sense of humor to
- 20:01Speaker 11: cope with the situation. They exploded themselves out of ex system.
- 20:06Speaker 4: It seems reasonable.
- 20:07Speaker 11: They must have had powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely.
- 20:12Speaker 4: Is what a shame?
- 20:14Speaker 8: In a way, I grew to like them.
- 20:18Speaker 6: This isn't meant for us, sir, I don't know what's happening,
- 20:21Speaker 6: but I think we're overhearing a private conversation.
- 20:22Speaker 5: Understand or be quiet, will you?
- 20:24Speaker 11: Many things might have come out of a relationship with
- 20:27Speaker 11: that people.
- 20:28Speaker 12: They were describing the disease they called cancer. I think
- 20:32Speaker 12: it is similar to the frogren syndrome. We might have
- 20:36Speaker 12: helped them. They might have helped us, too well. Too bad, we'll.
- 20:42Speaker 11: Never find them again. I think the odds of such
- 20:45Speaker 11: a chance meeting in the vast space of the whole universe,
- 20:49Speaker 11: there are no figures for such odds.
- 20:52Speaker 5: Are they turn it up? Turn it up louder, that's all.
- 20:56Speaker 8: There is a.
- 20:58Speaker 4: Signals stopped there, Sir.
- 21:01Speaker 6: I don't know how, but somehow, when we fired at them,
- 21:03Speaker 6: we didn't destroy them, but we did set up a
- 21:05Speaker 6: condition whereby they've become invisible to us, and we've become
- 21:08Speaker 6: invisible to them.
- 21:09Speaker 5: Captain to Engineering Department, Halt forward motion.
- 21:13Speaker 4: Captain, why are we stopping?
- 21:14Speaker 5: Listen?
- 21:14Speaker 7: Do you say they're in there but they're not destroyed
- 21:16Speaker 7: because we just heard them. They're out there somewhere invisible.
- 21:20Speaker 6: You heard them, so they're heading for home. We're invisible
- 21:23Speaker 6: to them too, Sir.
- 21:23Speaker 5: How do you know Dord, How do you know this
- 21:25Speaker 5: whole thing isn't set up?
- 21:26Speaker 6: I suppose that's true, Captain. You heard their conversation. They
- 21:28Speaker 6: weren't talking like any monstrous people. They seem decent and warm,
- 21:31Speaker 6: just as decent and warm as we.
- 21:33Speaker 5: How do you know this conversation wasn't planned deliberately set up?
- 21:35Speaker 5: For rest Or here? How do you know that, Dort?
- 21:39Speaker 4: Yes, sir, you're right. They may be out there and
- 21:42Speaker 4: they may not. They may be telling the truth, or
- 21:45Speaker 4: they may be trying to trick us.
- 21:47Speaker 6: They may be friends, or they maybe the most deadly enemies.
- 21:51Speaker 7: You said they had a sense of humor, Dort. What
- 21:54Speaker 7: a joke to play, to deliberately set up a situation
- 21:58Speaker 7: where we wouldn't know fact from fantasy, proof from lie.
- 22:01Speaker 7: Wouldn't that be a joke?
- 22:03Speaker 11: Do it?
- 22:04Speaker 4: But we don't know that they did that, sir.
- 22:06Speaker 5: And we don't know that they didn't. We don't know.
- 22:09Speaker 4: Anything, sir. Does that mean we never go home again?
- 22:15Speaker 5: I don't know. I have to think about it. I
- 22:20Speaker 5: have to think about it.
- 22:34Speaker 2: You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
- 22:36Speaker 2: National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
- 22:41Speaker 2: of Astounding science fiction Tonight by transcription X minus one
- 22:47Speaker 2: has brought you First Contact, written by Murray Leinster and adapted.
- 22:51Speaker 4: For radio by Howard Rodman.
- 22:53Speaker 2: Featured in the cast were Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Clark Gordon,
- 22:57Speaker 2: William Lalley and Stannerley announcer Fred Collins. X minus one
- 23:02Speaker 2: was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio
- 23:06Speaker 2: Network production.
- 23:24Speaker 1: Next week, at this time, over most of these stations,
- 23:27Speaker 1: NBC will present This is Carnegie Hall, a special concert
- 23:32Speaker 1: featuring the Symphony of the Air Orchestra. You've been listening
- 23:39Speaker 1: to X minus one and First Contact. Good night, and
- 23:42Speaker 1: thank you for keeping Classic Radio company