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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A galactic survey ship sets down on a planet that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: seems scarcely worth a second look until its crew finds
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a vast field of discarded alien machinery. When the explorers
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: prepare to depart, contact with that debris has left them
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: unable to remember how their own ship operates. From NBC's
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: X-1 comes Junkyard, episode 39, first heard February 22, 1956.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: George Lefferts adapted Clifford D. Simak's short story for radio
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: with John Larkin, Bob Hastings, Mercer McLeod, Stan Early, and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Jack Orison. And now, our story begins.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: In just a moment, X-1.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: But first, when you hear the hearty laugh and familiar
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: voice of the great Gildersleeve tomorrow night, you know you're
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: in for some hilarious adventures. Because wherever Gildy is around, why,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: somehow things never seem to go as planned. It might
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: be his impulsive nature, or maybe it's his incurable weakness
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: for the fairer sex.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But whatever it is, the.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Great Gildersleeve is bound to keep you laughing for a
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: full 30 minutes. Tune in tomorrow night and meet Judge Hooker,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Nephew Leroy, Housekeeper Bertie, and all the rest of the
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: friendly people from Somerville as they join the Great Gildersleeve.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: And I'll stay tuned for X-1 on NBC.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Countdown for blastoff. X minus 5, 4, 3, 2, X
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: minus 1, fire.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: of the future. Adventures in which you'll live in a
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: million could be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: X minus 1.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Tonight's story, Junkyard, by Clifford D. Simak. The funny thing
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: about the whole thing was the fact that we had
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: never intended to land on Planet Nine. We circled it
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and decided it was strictly a low-grade affair. It wouldn't
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: amount to anything for a billion years or so. As
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: commander of a galactic survey team, I couldn't waste my
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: time on it. Then my exec saw this junkyard through
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the telescope. We landed. Took a look at a load
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: of alien machine parts discarded by some other spaceship, and
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: then prepared to take off for Earth. It had all
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: been a waste of time. Engine room, MacGyver. This is
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Commander Warren. All secure? Yes, sir. Very well. Countdown for blastoff.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Engine room ready, sir. X minus five. Minus four. Minus three.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Minus two. Minus one.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Fire.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Mac, what's wrong down there? I don't know, sir. Brady,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: get the data analyzer ready. We'll have to correct for
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: a new takeoff time. That's the first time I ever
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: heard of engine failure before takeoff. Well, better before than after.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Engine room?
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: What's happening? You boys ready yet? No, sir. Well, burn it, man.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Get going on what those engines started. Sir. What is it?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I don't quite know what to say. Well, say something
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: or I'll have you busted. We can't start the engines, Commander.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: At least I can.
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: Well, why not?
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Klein, put Klein on. Lieutenant Klein, sir. Lieutenant,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: what is going on down there? Is there something wrong
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: with the engines? No, sir. I've double-checked them. Well, then
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: let's get them heated up or we'll be on this
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: godforsaken planet the rest of our lives. We can't do it, sir. Klein,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: suppose you tell me exactly why you can't start the engines.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Can you do that? Yes, sir. All right, why? Because, sir,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: we can't remember how. What? Yes, sir, we've forgotten how
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: to start the engine. Lieutenant, report up here in one minute.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Bring Dr. Spencer with you. Yes, sir. All right, Bertie,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: what have you got? Got what, Iron? Don't play innocent.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: You and I have been doing planet surveys together for
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: 15 years. You carry enough dead weight in grain alcohol
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: on every trip to keep you happy for a million
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: light years. Now, obviously, the boys in the engine room
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: have gotten into it. Impossible. Where is it? I got
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: a few fists in my locker, but nobody's touched it.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I checked a few minutes ago. Then somebody has got
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: some in the engine room.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Come in.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Lieutenant Klein, sir. I brought Dr. Spencer's audit. Hello, Doc.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Did Klein here tell you what's going on? He did.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: How long will it take you to get these guys
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: sobered up? I can't. Why not? Because they're not drunk?
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I tested Klein in my office. Now, wait a minute, Doc.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Are you trying to get me to actually believe that
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: these men, intergalactic engineers with years of hyperficient experience, have
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: forgotten how to start the engines of this ship? That's right. You...
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You're serious? Dead serious, Ira.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: Something, somehow, has caused these men to forget how to
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: start the engines.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: There it was. It fit in perfectly with a lot
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: of other annoying little things that have been happening to
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: us ever since we put down on Planet Nine. It
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: was to have been a routine exploration of a low-grade,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: uninhabited planet. Some routine exploration. All right, Klein, now listen
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to me. Do you have manuals aboard? Engineering manuals? Yes, sir.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Take the engine room boys and study those manuals. They'll
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: tell you how to start the ship, won't they? Yes, sir. Okay,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: get going. Doc, I'd like you to stay here with
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: me and Brady for a minute. Okay. Report back to me, Klein. Yes, sir. Okay, Doc,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: you're supposed to be an expert on space medicine. What
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: is it? I've never seen anything like it, Ira. Brady,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: search me, Captain. I've seen them with space blues, alien psychoses,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the works. But I've never seen a disease that could
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: make a crew forget how to start the engines. Maybe
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: it isn't a disease. Okay, what then? Maybe it's a
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: deliberate thing. You mean they're faking?
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: No, I know Klein and the others too well for that.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Maybe there's some outside influence. Doc, we've surveyed this planet
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: from top to bottom. We know there isn't a living
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: cell on it. What about the junkyard? What junkyard? Oh,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: he means that pile of rusty space engine parts we found.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: The boys nicknamed it the junkyard. He's right. Somebody put
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: it there. Well, we know that another spaceship landed here.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: We know that from the blast marks on the rock.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: We know that for some unexplained reason, they took their
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: engine apart and tried to put it together again. We
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: know they succeeded in building a much simpler engine... Leaving
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of spare parts, and we know that they
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: took off. The blast-off marks tell us that, too. What
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: we don't know is whether or not they left somebody behind.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Or something. What about that stone tower, Ira? The boys
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: looked it over. It's just a pile of stones. They
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: probably threw them together as a shelter while they were
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: rebuilding their engine. Oh, that sounds too simple. I don't
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: like that tower, Ira. Why not? I don't know. It
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: was scary. It had that black look about it. The
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: smell of death. I felt it when I walked past
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: with Klein or McIver. Oh, that's the selt in you,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: banshees and spooks. I still don't like it. I need
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: a drink.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: Skip it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: We should be ready to blast off in a few minutes.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Engine room. Engine room. What's going on down there? Engine room.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Lieutenant Klein.
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: Daddy.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Is that you, Daddy? Did you bring me a present? Daddy,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I'm scared. Holy mackerel, that's Klein. He's gone off his rocker. Klein! Klein! Doc,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I think we'd better get down to that engine room.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: When Doc examined Klein, he found him to have the
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: mind and memory of a six-year-old. That's it, Ira.
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: Something drained Klein of his memory. And that's as much
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: as I can tell you. That's a big help. Here's
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: the manual he was reading.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Well, at least we can follow this manual and get
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: off this stinking planet. Hand it to me. Right here.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Anything wrong, Ira? Is it all there? It's all here, Doc.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: This is the engine manual that tells all about the engines.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: How they operate, how to locate trouble, how to fix them,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: how to start them. What is it, then? You're sweating
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: like a pig. All of a sudden, I can't remember
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: the symbols. Doc, I've forgotten how to read. I left
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the engine room and went out through the lock to
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: stand on the outside platform of the ship. I looked
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: over the junkyard where the metal of the rusted engine
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: parts gleamed. There was a riddle there, a riddle we
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: hadn't been able to figure out. Why had an alien
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: spaceship landed here, ripped out its engines, and then put
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: together a simple, less efficient engine and taken off again?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: And they had worked in an awful hurry, judging by
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: the mess they'd left.
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: Why?
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Why?
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Mind if I join you, Ira? No, help yourself, Doc.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: How's Klein?
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: We've made him some toys. He's playing with them. I've
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: assigned Mac to see that he doesn't hurt himself.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Doc. Yes? Have you got any ideas on what's happening
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: to us?
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: Well, man experiences incidents, gathers knowledge, knows emotions. Then, as
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: he grows older... older, he begins to forget those experiences,
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: forget that knowledge. That's what life is, a long series
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: of forgettings. Here, online, in some impossible way, the forgetting.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Is speeded up. It happens overnight. No, there's more to
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: it than that. Well, I'm going back to my cabin
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: and try to get some rest. That you, Ira? That's me,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: that is. What gives? We're in a jam. There's been
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: planets I wouldn't mind being marooned on, you know. But
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: this ain't one of them. There's something here, Ira. I
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: can feel it. Yes, I can feel it myself. Maybe
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: we should have looked around more. Klein looked around. Klein
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: was the one who found that tower. Bertie, that's right.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: He did. He said he didn't like it. He said
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: it scared him. In the morning, bad ears, we'll go
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: and see that tower. In the morning, I took Doc
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: and McIver and Brady with me and we walked across
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: the valley to the stone tower. It wasn't much of
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: a tower. Maybe eight or nine feet high, made of
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: rocks piled one on top of the other. Mm, pretty solid.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Well built and odd. Type F culture, I'd say. Did
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: anybody bother to look inside this thing? MacGyver, you were
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: here with Klein yesterday. Yes, sir. We couldn't find a
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: way in, Captain. Klein poked around but gave up. We'll
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: make a way in. Stand back. I think I can
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: shoot the top off it. Oh, now that should be
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: big enough for a man to lower himself into. Okay,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: pass a rope around my shoulders.
• 11:44
  Speaker 7: Captain.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Yes? Captain. In case there's anything, well, dangerous, maybe I
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: ought to go. After all, I'm survey engineer. MacGyver's right, Ira. Okay, Mac,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: your responsibility. Yes, sir. Just fasten the rope under my arm.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Now, I'll climb up and lower myself in. If I
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: pull twice, haul me out. One pull means okay. Give
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: me a hand, Brady. How about a quick shot of
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: whiskey first? Never touch it. Ready? Can you see inside?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Black as a tomb. I'm going to lower myself. Pay
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: out a little rope. Well, it's been lovely. Here we go.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: One tug. He's on the ground inside. I wonder what
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: he's found. I still don't like it. Oh, Brady, there's
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: probably not a thing in there except a few... There's
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: two tugs. Three. Come on, haul him out. Brady, carry
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: him through the top. Right.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: Easy now, Mac.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: What the heck is in there anyway? Mac? Mac? Dada? Dada?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Holy jumping asteroids. Doc, he's flipped. No, he hasn't lost
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: his mind. He's just reverted to babyhood. We stood there
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: at the foot of the tower, stunned. MacIver sat on
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: the ground, happy as a clam, playing with his fingers
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: and talking happy little nonsense syllables. Doc, take a look
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: at him. Make sure that he's okay physically. Jack, if
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: it's right, his pulse will be way up. Mac, let
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: me have your hand. That's a good fellow. Now, good heavens.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: What is it? I... I've forgotten what the normal pulse
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: rate is. Pulse. Pulse? Doc... Let's get out of here. Brady,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: pick up MacGyver and bring him back to the ship.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Come on! Let's get away from this tower. A few
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: minutes later, Brady and I sat in the captain's quarters.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: He didn't do much talking, just sat and tipped his
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: bottle to his lips ever so often.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: Well.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: At least we know in a general way what we're
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: up against. Do we? We know there's been knowledge lost,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: important information forgotten. Check. Now, that memory, that lost skill,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that knowledge went somewhere. Maybe there's something in that tower
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: that takes it away. And I have a silly feeling
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: we might even get it back. Have a drink. That is,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: get a couple of men, volunteers.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Now?
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: What for? We're going to find out what's inside that tower.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: We lowered a rotating infrared movie camera into the tower,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: took some pictures, and went back to the ship for
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: a look. There was something in there, all right.
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: Now, as far as we can determine, this thing we
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: photographed is shaped like a watermelon standing on end. The
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: movement of the hairs all over it suggests vibrations, such
• 15:05
  Speaker 6: as an antenna of an insect. Underneath are wires leading
• 15:09
  Speaker 6: to terminals that seemed plugged right into the thing.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: You think it's a form of life?
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: My guess is a combination of living organism and machine.
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: After all, man and machines work together. The difference is
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: that man retains his individual identity.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Well, since it doesn't locomote, somebody or something must have
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: put it there. Exactly. It looks like some kind of
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: communication organism. If it is, it's a communication machine that
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: is built to take in information... rather than pass it along. Doc,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: do you really think that egg in there has been
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: stealing our memory? Why not? Because it's too... too wild,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: that's why not.
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: It's no wilder than a lot of other things we found.
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: Say that that egg is a device for gathering knowledge.
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: But there's no knowledge here to gather.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, how often does a ship land on an
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: out-of-the-way melon like this? Wait a minute, Brady. Who says
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: that knowledge has to be collected here? What? I said,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: why do we assume that knowledge has to be collected
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: right here on Planet Nine? We forget things back on Earth,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: don't we? Good Lord. Suppose you were some race setting
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: out fish traps for knowledge, and you had plenty of
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: time to gather it. Where would you put your traps?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: On a planet swarming with intelligent beings where the traps
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: would be found and destroyed or their secrets snatched away?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Or would you put them out on some second-rate world
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: where nobody would ever bother them? Good heavens, I'd pick
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: a spot just like this. Let me fill in this picture, Doc.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I think that some unknown race is bent on trapping
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: knowledge throughout the galaxy. Ira, if what you say is true,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: if it is, then every time someone on Earth forgets something,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: it's because one of these eggs has drained it out
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: of him.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: Well?
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: It's too fantastic. Have you got a better guess?
• 16:52
  Speaker 8: No.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: The question is, what do we do next? If anybody
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: gets near that egg, he winds up like some puling
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: little baby.
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: You were pretty near it that first day. Did you
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: forget anything?
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: How should I know? I was too pleasantly lit up
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: on grain spirits to know the difference. Well, the question
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: is still, what now? I'm going outside to think. Ira, yes?
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: There is one thing to keep in mind. What is that, Doc?
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: If those are memory traps, then there must be a
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: way for somebody to empty them. And if we're ever
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: going to get away from here... What's gone in has
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: got to come out.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: I stood out on the platform of the ship and
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: tried to make some sort of pattern of it. Forgetfulness.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: That was the key word. All through the galaxy, in
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: every culture, there was forgetfulness... There were lots of learned theories,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: of course, kinks in the brain, neuroses, data processing. But
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: suppose they were wrong. Might it not be that forgetfulness
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: was caused by thousands upon thousands of these memory traps
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: planted throughout the galaxy, nibbling away at the conscious memory
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: of all the sentient beings that lived among the stars?
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: On Earth, a man forgets slowly because the traps are
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: far away. But here, in their very shadow... A man
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: forgets suddenly. And then another thought entered my mind. What
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: kind of race had set these traps? How did they
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: empty them? How? How? Brady. Huh? Where do you keep
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: your liquor? Not cheap. Come on, where? It's in my locker.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Get it out of there, all of it. Ira. That's
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: a direct order. Okay.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: All of it.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: That it? Yeah. I never thought I'd see the day
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: when you pulled rank on me, Ira. If you confiscate
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: this stuff so help me, I'll never forget. Who said
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: anything about confiscating? That is, have you ever really hung
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: one on, I mean, just a pie-eyed drunk? Let's see.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: There was once on Mars. Was that the worst? It
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: was beautiful. Took me three days to sober up. They
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: say I fought off the whole galactic patrol for hours. Well,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: do you think you got enough here to get that
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: polluted again? I got a pretty good supply, Ira. Well,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: that's good, because in one minute, I'm going to give
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: you a direct order to hang on the biggest, most
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: monstrous drunk in the entire history of the universe. But first,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: you have to volunteer.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: I volunteer.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, not until I explain why I'm doing this. Ira,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: this sort of project don't need reasons. It's a pleasure.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Let me finish. You know that egg of... in the tower? Yeah.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: The minute you get near it, it grabs your mind,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: wipes it clean, right? Yeah. And a lead space helmet
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: doesn't shield you as we saw with McIver. Right. Now,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Doc thinks this egg is a kind of communications thing.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: It must be. Okay, you're a communications man. What do
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: you do when you can't shield a communications? Well, that's easy.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: You scramble it. Any fool knows... Holy mackerel. Exactly. Are
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: you still game? You think it'll work? I don't know.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I think it might. I suppose it doesn't. You're babbling infant,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: like Klein and McIver. If we don't stop that thing,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: it'll happen anyway. Unless we can remember how to start
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: the engines. Okay, Ira. I'll do it. When do I start?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Right now. Well, Ira... Here's mud and your ever-loving intergalactic eyeballs.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: You know something? I'm beginning to like this mission already. Well,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: that kills the last bottle. How am I doing, our
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: old buddy? You're not drunk enough. I should have picked
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: somebody like Doc, except he'd probably pass out. I'm not
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: drunk enough, huh, old buddy pal? Not yet. Well, then,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: in which case, old buddy, I'm going to have to
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: do something I never like to have to do. What's that?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: I'm going to have to go into my extra special
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: emergency reserve supply. It's a little supply I keep in
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: case of getting marooned on a planet, you know? I
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: don't like to go into it, but in this case,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: it's my duty. I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: and a heck of an engineer. A ramblin' wreck.
• 21:50
  Speaker 8: From Georgia Tech and a heck of an engineer.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Woo!
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: Blast off!
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, I guess you're ready. What do you think, Doc?
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Most amazing thing I've ever seen. Is he drunk enough?
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: What I want to know is what's keeping him conscious. Okay,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Bad Ears on your feet. Help him up, Doc.
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: Ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Let's go, Bad Ears. Right.
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: Ramblin' erect from Georgia State!
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Somehow, we pushed, hauled, and stumbled Bad Ears Brady out
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: of the ship and up the rocks to the egg tower.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: We erected a tripod over the hole with a block
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: and tackle, passed a rope around Brady's chest, and hauled
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: him over the entrance to the tower. There he swung
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: like some overstuffed pig singing raucously under the eerie moonlight.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Ramblin' right from Georgia, Tick. Well, what do you say, Ira?
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: We got the earphones on him so they can't slip off.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: They're on. I guess we're ready to lower him. Ira.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: You sure it's a man's life? I'm not sure, Doc.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: But as commander of this expedition, I sometimes have to
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: risk the lives of my men. Okay, Ira.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: Lower away before I start to get sober.
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: Roar away!
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: Blast off! Fire one! Fire two! Bombs away, Ira!
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Good luck, Brady. Good luck. He's at the bottom, Ira.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: That is. Can you hear me?
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: Get your hands out of my hair. Something's got his
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: hands in my hair, Ira.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: The thing must be picking at his brain. Brady, Brady,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: listen to me. Do you see the egg?
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah, this is my buddy, Ira. My little old egghead buddy.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: You don't mean Buddy's egghead, right? Have a drink.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, good Lord, he's got a bottle with him. He's
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: pouring it on the egg. Brady, Brady, listen to me.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: The wires. Wires? The lead wires you took in with you.
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Pull out the studs on the egg and hook your
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: wires to it. You got that? Ah, yes, sir, ma'am.
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: We in the egg is gonna have a drink.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, good heavens. It's no use, Ira. He's too drunk
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: to know what he's doing. I'll try again. Brady, listen.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Your friend, the egg, can't hear you, see? He can't
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: have a drink until you hook your wires into him.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: You got that? Sure.
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: That's an awful thing. That's dreadful. Okay, okay.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: What's he doing? Doc, you getting any impulses? Not a thing.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'd better haul him out. If he starts to
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: sober up... Maybe we'd better... Okay, one, two... No, wait
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: a minute. Wait. I'm getting something, Ira. What? This is fantastic. Oh,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I'm getting something. All right, haul him out. Quick. Come on.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: Ramblin' Rex from Georgia Tech. Ramblin' Rex.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Brady. Brady, are you all right? Doc, help me. Take
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: a look at him. Is he okay? Yes, he's okay.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: He just passed out. Let's get him back to the ship. Right.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: You know what, Ira? What?
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: Tomorrow about 9 a.m., we're going to be in on
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: the most colossal hangover in the history of mornings after.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: We were in on more than Doc Spencer had bargained for.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: More than any human being had any business being in on.
• 25:17
  Speaker 8: Oh.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Well, Brady, how do you feel? Shoot me. You turned
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: the trick. Trick? The tower. You hooked into the egg.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: The stuff is rolling out now. Doc and the boys
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: have got a recording hooked up. The stuff they're listening
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: in on is enough to set your teeth on edge.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: What stuff? The information that mind trap has been collecting
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: for hundreds of years. It'll take us years to sort
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: it out, but we're getting some of it straight already.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Any of our own stuff? Plenty. Anything on engines? Well,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: not on our engines. So? We got the dope on
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: the junkyard engine. Mac and the boys are helping to
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: get it assembled. We're ripping out our own engines and
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: just keeping some of the parts. Another junkyard, huh? Another junkyard.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: The engine we're building now is superior to anything ever built.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Pretty handy little gadget, that egg. Only one thing. What's that?
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Tell Doc if he comes across a good hangover remedy
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: to let me know, huh? Oh. Oh. It took us
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: about six days to assemble new engines using some of
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: our parts and some of the advanced designs from the junkyard.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: During most of that time, Doc Spencer sat down at
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: the tower with a set of headphones monitoring the information
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: from the egg. He was like a man possessed. I
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: didn't think anything unnatural was happening until the night of
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: the sixth day. Well, that does it. The boys have
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: got the engines ready for blast-off. There's a full moon, too.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: We should be able to lift her by tomorrow morning, huh?
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: We're blasting off in exactly one minute, that is. What?
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: In exactly one minute. But Ira, Doc, and some of
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the techno boys are down monitoring that egg. I know it. Well,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: it'll take them 20 minutes to get back into the
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: ship with all that equipment. They're not getting back. Huh?
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I said they're not getting back. Ira, are you nuts?
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Come here, that is. I want you to take a
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: look through this field scope. You can get a good
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: close-up of Doc and the boys who have been monitoring
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: that egg. Wait till I get it focused. You got them? Yeah.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Take a close-up. Mother in heaven. You see why we
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: have to leave them here? Those faces, they're like... like
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: some kind of beast. What is it, Ira? What's happened
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: to them? The same thing that must have happened to
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: the crew of the last ship that touched here. The
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: same thing that made them blast out of here in
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: such a tearing hurry. What? That is, there isn't only
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: knowledge in that thing. Those boys are monitoring something else.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Something else. Personality, that is. They're not human anymore. They're
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: turning alien. They were still there when the ship roared
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: up away from Planet Nine and pointed her silver nose
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: toward Earth. We could see them in the scopes. A
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: group of tiny figures crouched over the recording equipment. Their
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: earphones plugged into the egg. They didn't even look up
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: when we blasted off. They were no longer human now.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: They were something else. Something a million light years old
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: and of another world.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: You have just heard X-1 presented by the National Broadcasting
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which this
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: month features the R. DeWitt Miller story, Swenson Dispatcher. The
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: story of a shrewd but unscrupulous spaceship dispatcher who tries
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: to best the rival airlines by unethical means and with
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: most surprising results. Galaxy Magazine on your newsstand today. Tonight,
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: by transcription, X-Minus-One has brought you Junkyard, a story from
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: the pages of Galaxy written by Clifford D. Simak and
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: adapted for radio by George Lefferts. Featured in the cast
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: were John Larkin, Bob Hastings, Mercer McCormick, Stan Early, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: Jack Orison.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Your announcer, Fred Collins.
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: X-1 was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC
• 29:50
  Speaker 7: Radio Network production. Let's visit Fibber McGee and Molly tonight
• 30:02
  Speaker 7: on the NBC Radio Network.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Our visit to X-1's junkyard is complete. Follow X-1 for
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: more classic broadcasts.