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X Minus One - "Lulungomeena" (Old Time Radio, 1956) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: May twenty ninth, nineteen fifty six, marked episode fifty three
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of NBC's X minus one in lulun Gomina, adapted for
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: radio by George Lefferts from a Gordon R. Dixon novelette.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Long Term spaces at Remote Station five six three in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the Sirius sector gather in the recreation room a young gambler,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: William Peterborough. The kid finds veteran Clay Harbank unwilling to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: play cards, and the conversation turns to Clay's proud claim
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: about his homeworld. Their disagreement is placed before a hicksbrod
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a race with a reputation for literal truthfulness. Mason Adams,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Bob Hastings and Kermit Murdoch are featured, with Daniel Sutter directing.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen. X minus one presents lu Lungmena. Now
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: back to the golden age of radio.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Gon down for blastof X minus five four three two
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: X minus one Fire from the far horizons of the
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: live in a million, could be years on a thousand,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Science Fiction magazine resents.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Heck he minus minus minus minus minus one.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: The Night the Lunge Gamina by Gordon R. Dixon.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: Blame play horror Bank if you like, or what happened
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: at Station five sixty three, or blame Bill Peterborough, the
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: one we called the kid.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: I blame no one. I'm a door si man.
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: That means I was brought up in one of those
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: tiny planets a million light years from nowhere. Being a
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: door sign man is quite a responsibility. We are a
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: very polite people. We have to be because when we
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: get angry, we fight to the death. It all began
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: that evening the Clay harror Bank began reminiscing about his
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: home planet, the lung Gomina. We were sitting around the
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: recreation room of five sixty three. There was a card
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: game going on in one corner.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Lulung go Mina. The very name sounds like music, doesn't it. More.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: You know me, Clay, I'm a doorside man. I've been
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: in the doorside planets. I've seen them all knocking around
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: this universe for thirty five years. But when it comes
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: to sheer Beauty, Lou lung go Mina. How long since
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: you've been home? Clay home? Twenty years? More? Twenty stinking
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: miserable years. Well that'll be over soon, another ten days.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: You're gonna miss all five sixty three, miss this scott
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: forsaken little asteroid, not for a minute. I will miss
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: your ugly face around here, at least I will. I'm
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: gonna miss your gloomy, doorsy puss too. Lord, why don't
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: you get out of it? You've had more years in
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: space service than any of us. You've probably got enough
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: credits to get out too. Me. I wouldn't know what
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: to do with myself. Couldn't you go home? You should
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: know better than that, the Dnebrian trouble, the Dnbrian trouble.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: You could go to Earth? What four ever been there?
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Never once? And I've never wanted to. I've seen too
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: many earthmen with the kid over there. He's green in service,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: he's full of greed and stupid hate like the rest
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: of them. That's not for me, Luxter for games breaking
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: up here he comes.
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: Well, if this is the big gambler from the windy planet,
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: what's its name?
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: Lu lung Gomina? Yeah, how's the piggy Bank coming, Dad.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: The piggy is a gentleman kid. He never overeats, so
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: he won't ever get into gestion sour grapes.
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: You see this water credits five hundred? How long you
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: have to work for five hundred credits?
• 4:48
  Speaker 7: Dad?
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: How many trips you have to make around this asteroid?
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: How much closer to fall in your grave you have
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: to come?
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: You look as if you've made a killing.
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: I always make a killing. I'm a natural born gambler,
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: and I don't just talk about it like some.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: I think I'll go out and take a turn around
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: the station. More fine, I'll go with you. It's stuffy
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: in here. I don't bother. I'd rather be alone.
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: A big chef knocked around the planets for thirty five years.
• 5:21
  Speaker 6: You used to have a reputation as the hottest gambler
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: in the systems. Comes from the most beautiful planet in
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: the universe.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Why don't you lay off him? Kid?
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Let me give you a piece of sound advice. Go ahead,
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: lay off clay Hardbank. He's been around the systems a
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: lot longer than you have. He may not be any chicken,
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: but he's a tough baby when the situation calls for it.
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: He's trying to scare me more. I thought you doorside
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: guys were smarter than that. I'm being no, look, no,
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: no offense more than you. I mean, I wasn't trying
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: to miss out the doorside people or anything. I gotta
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: go to a flight check.
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: I'll see you.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: We were in bad shape.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: The twenty of us at Frontier Station five sixty three,
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: on the very edge of the human area, had gone sour.
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: Half the man had applications for transfer in already. But
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: I told the kid about Clay being tough. Well, that
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: was a bluff to keep him off. Nobody knew better
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: than I did that Clay was burned out inside.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: Like I used up rocket. I put on a spacesuit
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: and went out to join him. Oh hi, mat I,
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: beautiful night. Huh nice Back on lu Lungomina. On a
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: night like this, the rack eash flowers open up and
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: you can hear them singing. There are six moons, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: every one of them is like a yellow lant. My
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: mom and dad and I used to live on the
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: edge of a lotus pool. Here I go talking about
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: home again.
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: Figures the guy who's been saying up for ten years
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: to get home is bound to start thinking about it
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: when the time comes.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: I wish you could come with me more play tell
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: me something? Yes? Do you ever get the urge to gamble? Again?
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: Do I get the urge to gamble? What you ever
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: watch a man who's been on pon for a while
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: when he's broken the habit. You can't get him near
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: the stuff he despises it, And yet the same man
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: is liable to go back on with no provocation. Well
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: that's the way it is when you've gambled all your life.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: I figured maybe that's why I keep talking about home.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Every time I hear the kid flipping those cards in
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: the recreation room, I start talking about home. Have you noticed?
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: I've noticed? But this time I'm going to make it more.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: I tried three times before. This time I've got the dough,
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: and I know I'm going to make it. I think
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: you will claim you know what did it? Oh lu
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: longo mina. That's what saved me this time. The thought
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: of that beautiful planet.
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: Well, when you get there, you can send me a phototape.
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: At the rate we get visitors, it should reach me
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: in five or six years.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: You will be out. By then, you'll be home. I'll
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: never go home, Clay never. Well, that's red four screens
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: must have picked up a ship in the galaxy. Maybe
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: we'll get a visit. Keep us from going logo anyway?
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: Coming in? No, I think I'll stay out.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: Awhile, Well, I'm going to check the screen, see you later.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: Red four meant simply that a ship was entering the galaxy.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: The chances of it touching down on five point sixty
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: three were pretty remote, unless it happened to need a
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: clearance for Earth or Mars. The screen was black by
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: the time I got there, but the kid was filing
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: a report.
• 8:55
  Speaker 7: Oh, hi, have morre?
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: Hey, what's a hicks of Rod? Like? Why we're having
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: one for a visitor? You don't say, I just came
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: in over the receiver.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: What may be like hicks Obrod?
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Stiff as a poker, proud as lucifer, honest as sunlight,
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: and tied as a camel on his way through.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: The eye of a needle.
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: What do they look like?
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: Oh, they're kind of humanoid, but they have a dead
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: pan face that never changes like a mask.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Oh they're a little scary. I hear that's a green
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: skin and the scales. Also, they run about eight feet tall.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't tangle one if I were you. Back on Danebria.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Once I saw a hicks Obrod rip Amanda Ribbons with
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: its claws. Why the man made the mistake of insulting
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: HICKSA that's one of the twin planets they come from.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: Pretty touchy, aren't they not?
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: They are a very level headed race. You know the
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: hicks Abroad reputation.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: Don't you.
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: No, you don't hear much about him on Earth.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: Well, are the first and only mercenary political arbitrators in
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: the known universe. Hickserbrod can be hired, but he's absolutely
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: incapable of being influenced or bribed. He tells a cold
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: truth and nothing but the cold truth. And brother, when
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: a hicks Abrod tells you the truth, it's plenty cold.
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: It really lets you have it. Huh.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: They are a small race and very much in demand.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: If some kind of political dispute comes up from planetary
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: to inter alien, both sides hire a Hicksybrad to represent him.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: That way they know the other side is being completely honest.
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: Oh that's very interesting, you know, very interesting.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: I could tell there was something on the kid's mind,
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: but of course I didn't know what it was. Most
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: of the talk in the recreation room that night centered
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: around the arrival of the Hicks Abrod. Landing beacons were
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: turned on and we waited for another radio communication.
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: Hey, anybody want to sit in on this next ten?
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: What?
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: No?
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Thanks?
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: Well, I know better than to ask the galaxy's foremost
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: gambler here.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: That's right, kidd, Maybe when.
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: The Hicks of Brod gets here, we'll be able to
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: work up a decent game. Two Hicks of Rod's gamble.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: No, kid, they don't gamble.
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: That's too bad. Wow, we can always sit and listen
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: to you lying about what a beautiful place the lungamina is.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: Did you just went too far?
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you're gonna do something about it, that's right.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna punch a little note, break it up by you,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: all right.
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: I'm okay. You better get to the infirmary. Have your
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: mouth taken care of it. Kid, You got to your quarters.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: Since one of you given artis I'm telling you to
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: get to your quarters, you better do what he says. Kid.
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: He's a door sign.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 11:43
  Speaker 6: That's all I've been here and since I got here,
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: when big gamblers come from the Loungamina and how dorsign
• 11:47
  Speaker 6: men are killing so far, I've seen nothing, but I
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: heard a lot of time.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: You're gonna get to your quarters.
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: I'll give you a five seconds to start moving.
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: You better go ahead, kid, Okay, okay, I'm letting your
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: bluff me out of the game this time. Just remember
• 12:01
  Speaker 6: there's gonna be other games next time. I won't be bluffed.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: He left the recreation room. I felt a slight and
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: not unpleasant shiver run down between my shoulder blades and
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: my eyes were still hot. I'd almost lost my control
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: that time, and my senses told me i'd better.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: Be careful for the next three days. The tension of
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: five sixty three was almost unbearable.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Play Hardbanks seemed to age twenty years after the kid
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: knocked him down.
• 12:37
  Speaker 8: Now hear this, all personnel, Now hear this, all personnel.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: A ship is approaching for flight check. A ship is
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: approaching for flight check.
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: Report to central, report to central.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Well this is it, Clay, We're getting the Hicks abroad
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: seems almost like home, having a Hicks abroad with us.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: They're all over the Tazian system. You know you speak
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Higgs abroad. I have to I lu lungomina. I don't
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: know that. I picked it up during the Third Exploration
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: long time ago. Huh, we're not getting younger Clay. Yeah,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: I found that out. I don't take it so big.
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: He's just a punk kid, sure, and I'm just a
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: dumb old man offered. Ah, that's touchdown. You ought to
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: be here in a minute. That does it. He's down.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: Look at that ship. Huh, let's go. You'll need some
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: help with his baggage.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: The ship was a silvery, one man job, the kind
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: that have taken the Hicks of broads all over the universe.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: The cabin door slid back, and the Hicks has stepped out.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: He was as green and scaly as a lizard, but
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: there was a certain unmistakable.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Dignity in his bury.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Since I spoke the language, I was the first greet him.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Belt the Hutch and Hicks abrod. Welcome to this place.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: I greet you, Dorsi man.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: My name is mort Byansky. I am called door Lasses. Come,
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: I'll show you to your quarters.
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: How long will you remain here? Only for one night?
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: I wish clearance for marg.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: And I'm sure it can be handled this way. I
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: wondered how he knew I was a Dorsey man, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: then it seemed obvious. My broken nose, the scars, the
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: lined face, nobody could mistake a human from the Doorside planets.
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: Still it scared me a little.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: I kept wondering if he had anything to do with
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: interplanetary police. I tried to put it out of my mind.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: It was no use. Mind. If I come in, Clay,
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: sit down, have a smoke. Thanks. Where's the Hicks abroad
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: in his room getting cleaned up for dinner? Strange guys,
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: aren't they? There's something even stranger going on. What's that
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: the kids in there with him? With the Hicks? And
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: what are you supposed they're talking about? I don't know.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: I wish I did. Kids probably trying to get the
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Hicks into a dice game. What's on your mind, marre.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: Way, you've been around? Are there any Hicks abroads in
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: interplanetary police?
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: A few? Why? I don't know. I just had a feeling.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: You know, you're dreaming up bogey Man maybe. Besides, you're
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: not in any trouble outside the Doorside system. I killed
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: a human play, not deliberately, in a rage. Happens all
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: the time on Doorside, doesn't it? Not to an officer
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: of intergalactic Besides, that was twenty five years ago. There's
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: no statue of limitations in the systems. Nobody knows but me. Right,
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: you don't have to be clairvoyant to wonder why a
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: man hasn't been back to his own planet for twenty
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: five years. You think the kid, I don't know, he's
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: got no love for me. Still, he doesn't know anything.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: How would he know this hicks Abroad is an agent.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: If he is, couldn't say where are you going? I
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: think I'll take a look at that message the kid
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: filed the one we got when we first picked up
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: the hicks Abrod on the screens. Let me know what
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: you find, if anything.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: I walked through the empty corridors to the communications center.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: I went directly to the files where incoming messages are kept,
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: and flicked the tab until I got to notices of arrivals.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: There two days before was a report of the arrival
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: of Door Losses.
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: I ran my finger down the statistics until I came
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: to the line that said point of origin of flight.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: It read Tarzian Galaxy. That was where Clay Harbank's l
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: Longamina was. I read further where it said nature of business.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: My blood ran cold as I spelled out the words criminal.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: Come in felt the hutch and hickxebrod. I greet you,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: dorsay man. Is there anything you require?
• 17:24
  Speaker 7: Nothing? Thank you.
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: I er came to tell you that we'll have dinner
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: to night at eight hundred hours.
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: The young Earthman has already informed.
• 17:32
  Speaker 8: Me there's a shortage of raw meat here. I've brought
• 17:35
  Speaker 8: my own food, Thank you.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: I er see you came in from the Tarzian planets. Yes,
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: you didn't happen to be in the Dorside planets before then? No,
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: I thought perhaps you might have some news.
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: I came from intergalactic headquarters.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Yes I am. I saw your flight check.
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: Then you know my mission?
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: Yes? Good? How long do I have to pack?
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: I will be leaving at seven hundred hours tomorrow morning.
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: Can you be ready by then?
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Yes? I guess so good. I don't suppose there's any
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: point in appealing to you, Hicks. Abroads are supposed to
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: be totally without emotion.
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: There's no point in appealing.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: Funny thing. I've been running away from this moment for
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: twenty five years, and now that it's come, I'm glad
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: we'll be going back to the dorsiuse yes to Intergalactic
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: headquarters for all these years home. I don't suppose a
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: hicksbrod knows what that feeling is like. I will expect
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: you at seven hundred hours now, if you don't mind,
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: I wish to prepare my for one thing. Yes, did
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: the young Earthman tip you off about me? No?
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: Funny, I could have sworn it was him. That was
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: that when a Hicks abroad tells you no, you can
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: bet your life.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: He isn't lying. I began to wonder how they located me.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: I began to wonder what he and the kid had
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: talked about.
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: I began to wonder a lot of things.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: Well, he's an agent for Intergalactic. Oh, that doesn't prove
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: he's after you. He is. How do you know? I
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: just talked to him? Lord Heaven, Ah, it isn't so bad. Really,
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: Just think I'll be going home. I'm going to kill
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: that kid. I'm going to kill him. Play listen to me.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: The kid didn't turn me in. You say I said
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: he was talking to the Hicks. I just asked him,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: and the Hicks told me it wasn't the kid. They
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: don't lie, So don't go blowing off. It's going to
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: be hard. Ten days doesn't have to be ten days.
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: What do you mean? How many credits do you need
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: to buy your way out? Another five hundred next payday?
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Don't wait, don't wait. I have over nine hundred credits.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: I'll turn them over to you. Mort. Listen, I don't
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: need them.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: You can pay off tomorrow and fly as far as
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: the Tarzan chain with me in the Hicks.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: It's a very nice thing, Mort, Will you do it?
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: I'll think about it. Let you know after dinner.
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: I thought of running away, but there was really no
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: place to run once they tracked you down. And the
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: hicks Abrods were utterly relentless once they had agreed to
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: bring a man in. Since they had no feelings, they
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: made no judgments. They were absolutely certain that a man
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: would get a fair trial. I packed my stuff and
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: went in to dinner. The Hicks Abroad was at the
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: head of the table eating his raw chinsu meat.
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: That's the gravy.
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: Please, no losses. Yes, they tell me that the Hicks
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: Abroad home planet is a very beautiful place.
• 21:01
  Speaker 7: It is true.
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: I'm from Earth myself. Yes, I'm curious to know what
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: this beautiful planet of yours.
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: Looks like the kid's pretty talkative tonight. What's cooking? I
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: don't know, but I don't trust it to.
• 21:12
  Speaker 8: Flora and fauna maintained in excellent natural balance. No local
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: say plus has exceeded one percent of the normal population
• 21:21
  Speaker 8: for the last sixty thousand years. Life on Hicks is predictable.
• 21:26
  Speaker 8: The weather is controlled within the greatest limits of feasibility.
• 21:30
  Speaker 8: The symmetry of the landscape is without parallel in the universe.
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: Very pretty picture, very attractive home world. But I regret
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: to inform you to our lassies that I've been given
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: to understand that it pales into insignificance when compared with
• 21:46
  Speaker 6: another beauty spot in our universe, your Earth. I wish
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: I could say yes, no, no, This place is so wonderful.
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: I doubt if an earth man like me could get in.
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: In fact, I've never seen it, but I've been hearing
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: about it for some months now, and either it's the
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: most wonderful place in the universe, or the man who's
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: been telling me about it is a rotten liar.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Get your gun, kid, get your gun? Why guns? You
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: call me a liar?
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: Why use guns when it's possible to prove the thing
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: one way or another with complete certainty. For months now,
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: you've been telling me two things, One that you used
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: to be a gambler. Two, your precious little Ungamina is
• 22:23
  Speaker 6: the most wonderful place in the universe. The question is
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: is he the statement true?
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: They're both true. You'll back them up with my life.
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: I'm not asking it to back them with your life.
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: Just back then with that nice little hoarde you've been
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: accumulating all these years. Well, you said you were a gambler.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: Bet with me at prove it?
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: Suppose I do? How do we prove my statement about
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: the Lungo mina.
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: That's easy. We have with us at this table at
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: hicks Abroad. In a conversation with him, I found out
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: that he's just visited every planet in the Tazi and shine.
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: Now is everyone know it's a hicks Abrod never lies.
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: Do you think you could judge this point? Door losses?
• 23:00
  Speaker 8: The point can be jud well, gambler, Hey, it's a trick.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: Don't bet. How much will you bet? Kid? All?
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: I got the equivalent of ten years. Pay Well, you're
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: on to olyasis. Okay?
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: If I question him, proceed.
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: You've been to the planet Anitazian shine, which this man
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: calls his home.
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: I must ascertain the position of the planet, the fourth planet, Yes,
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: one with six moons.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: That's it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: I've been there.
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: Recently, as you well know, since we spoke of it
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: only this afternoon we did speak.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: If it that's true? Now, would you tell me you
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: know the planet? Yes, you know it's geography. I do
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: not repeat myself. Is it a large planet?
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: No?
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: Is it a rich planet?
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: No?
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: Was there not a reign of radioactive fallout from an
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: explosion of a nearby star only five months ago?
• 24:00
  Speaker 7: There was?
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: It did not destroy every piece of vegetation and leave
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: this planet a gutted, smoking ruins, chod and ugly.
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: It did.
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: Well, gambling.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: You haven't asked him the main question yet, kidd, Would
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: you like to ask him? All right, hicks abroad? The
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: question to be judged is this is lu Lungo Miina
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: the most beautiful and the most wonderful place in the universe?
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: Yes? It is?
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: What well, kid, that's a trick. It's a rotten trick.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: I don't believe it. The heckses the eyes of the
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: Hicksaprod are narrow and baleful. As he pushed back his chair.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: You could almost feel them burning as he dragged his
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: scaly feet over toward the kid. He stopped about six
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: inches from the kid and held both his hands up
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: palms near the kid's eyes. There was a clicking sound,
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: and we watched eleven sets of gleaming razorlike claws shoot
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: up from the tips of the hicks Abrod's fingers. Their
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: points were almost against the kid's eyes. Look at my hands,
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: earth man, are they not clean?
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: Yes?
• 25:05
  Speaker 7: Do you doubt that I have told the truth?
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: Do not know? Then?
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: There is nothing further to discuss. I bow to you, gentlemen.
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: I thank you for your hospitality. You will excuse me.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: We stood around and watched that proud, frightening figure drag
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: itself out of the room. The kid was trembling like
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: a leaf as he drew a bank draft for ten
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: years pay and handed it to Clay Harbing. The next morning,
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Clay and I boarded the hicks Abroad ship, and four
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: days later we touched down at the outer planet of
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: the Tajan Chain. Well, this is where I get off more.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: I I don't know what to say. Really, I guess
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: you know how I feel, think I do play. Just
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: say so long, there will be no need for goodbyers.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Both of you are leaving the ship here.
• 26:07
  Speaker 8: But I thought I intend to return to intergalactic headquarters
• 26:10
  Speaker 8: empty hand.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Empty handed. But they'll question you. What will you tell them?
• 26:15
  Speaker 7: The truth?
• 26:15
  Speaker 8: Of course, But you have told me nothing. But I
• 26:20
  Speaker 8: assume I am not interested in your assumption. You asked
• 26:23
  Speaker 8: me my mission. I told you it was a criminal investigation.
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: You said you assumed you would go back with me,
• 26:30
  Speaker 8: And I told you when my ship was departing.
• 26:34
  Speaker 7: There is nothing more to be said.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: But surely you know what. Don't say anything. A exerbroad
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: deals only with facts, what is absolutely known. They're the
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: most literal beings in the universe. Let it go with that.
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: Goodbye, gentlemen.
• 26:49
  Speaker 8: I am grateful for the pleasure of your company.
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: Five minutes later, Clay, our back and eyes shook hands
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: at the exit of the spaceport on Tarsa's ten. But
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: before we parted, there was one thing I had to know, Clay,
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: one thing before you go. Yes, how did you know
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: the hicks Abrod would lie about lu Lungamina.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: He didn't lie, moor A Hickserbrod never lies, but Lungo
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: Mina mort let me tell you something. Lulungo mina is
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: a word in use throughout the Tarsian planets. Actually it's
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: a hicks Abroad word. It means home. All I did
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: was ask the hickserbrod if home was beautiful. He simply
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: said yes, And a hicks Abroad, as everybody knows, doesn't lie.
• 27:52
  Speaker 9: You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
• 27:55
  Speaker 9: National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine,
• 27:59
  Speaker 9: which this month features the finn O'Donovan novelette Bad Medicine,
• 28:03
  Speaker 9: the story of a robot therapist that never failed to
• 28:05
  Speaker 9: affect a cure, even if it had to convert itself
• 28:08
  Speaker 9: into a typhoid Mary to do so. Galaxy Magazine on
• 28:11
  Speaker 9: your new stand today tonight by transcription. X minus one
• 28:15
  Speaker 9: has brought you Lungemina, a story from the pages of Galaxy,
• 28:18
  Speaker 9: written by Gordon R. Dixon and adapted for radio by
• 28:21
  Speaker 9: George Lefferts. Featured in the cast were Ralph Camargo, Ned Weaver,
• 28:26
  Speaker 9: Jack Grimes, Bob Hastings, and Kermit Murdoch.
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: You're announcer Fred Collins.
• 28:31
  Speaker 9: X minus one was directed by Daniel Sutter, and it's
• 28:35
  Speaker 9: an NBC Radio Network production.
• 28:51
  Speaker 10: X minus one came to you from our Radio City
• 28:54
  Speaker 10: studios in New York. Next week, listen to Project mustadon
• 28:58
  Speaker 10: Clifford Seemach Story on X minus one. Follow the News
• 29:04
  Speaker 10: with Chet Huntley tonight on the NBC Radio Network.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: That was X minus one, and lu Lungo Mina. Follow
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: X minus one for more classic broadcasts.