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04 - Mr. Spaceship by Philip K. Dick · Mr. Spaceship

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section four of Mister Spaceship by Philip K. Dick. This
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Section four. I'm sorry, sir,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: but now the ship has gotten away. Looked down at
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the board. Gross stared down Kramer over his shoulder. The
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: black dot had slipped through the white dots and had
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: moved off at an abrupt angle. The white dots were
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: broken up, dispersing in confusion. He's an unusual strategist, one
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of the officers said. He traced the line. It's an
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: ancient maneuver, an old Prussian device, but it worked. The
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: white dots were turning back. Too many yuk ships out
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that for. Gross said, well, that's what you get when
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: you don't act quickly. He looked up coldly at Kramer.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We should have done it when we had him. Look
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: at him go. He jabbed a finger at the rapidly
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: moving black dot. The dot came to the edge of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the board and stopped. It had reached the edge of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the chartered area. See now, what Kramer thought, watching So
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the old man had escaped the cruisers and gotten away.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: He was alert, alright. There was nothing wrong with his
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: mind or with his ability to control his new body body.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: The ship was a new body for him. He had
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: traded in the old, dying body, withered and frail, for
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: this hulking frame of metal and plastic, turbans and rocket jets.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: He was strong, now, strong and big. The new body
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was more powerful than a thousand human bodies. But how
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: long would it last him? The average life of a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: cruiser was only ten years. With careful handling, he might
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: get twenty out of it before some essential part failed
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and there was no way to replace it. And then
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: what what would he do when something failed and there
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: was no one to fix it for him? That would
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: be the end. Some place far out in the cold
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: darkness of space, the ship would slow down, silent and lifeless,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to exhaust its last heat into the eternal timelessness of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: outer space. Or perhaps it would crash on some barren asteroid,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: burst into a million fragments. It was only a question
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of time. Your wife didn't remember anything, Grose said. I
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: told you only that he kept a goat once. A
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: hell of a lot of help, that is. Kramer shrugged.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: It's not my fault. I wonder if we'll ever see
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: him again. Grose stared down at the indicator dot still
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: hanging at the edge of the board. I wonder if
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you'll ever move back this way. I wonder too, Kramer said.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: That night, Kramer lay in bed, tossing from side to side,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: unable to sleep. The moon gravity, even artificially increased, was
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: unfamiliar to him, and it made him uncomfortable. A thousand
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: thoughts wandered loose in his head as he lay fully awake.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: What did it all mean? What was the professor's plan?
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Maybe they would never know. Maybe the ship was gone
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: for good. The old man had left forever, shooting into
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: outer space. They might never find out why he had
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: done it. What purpose, if any, had been in his mind.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Kramer sat up in bed. He turned on the light
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and lit a cigarette. His quarters were small, a metal
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: lined bunk room part of the moon station base. The
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: old man had wanted to talk to him, He had
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: wanted to discuss things, hold conversation, but in the hysteria
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and confusion, all they had been able to think of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: was getting away. The ship was rushing off with them,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: carrying them into outer space. Kramer set his jaw. Could
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: they be blamed for jumping? They had no idea where
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: they were being taken or why they were helpless, caught
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: in their own ship, and the pursuit ship standing by
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: waiting to pick them up was their only chance. Another
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: half hour and it would have been too late. But
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: what had the old man wanted to say? What had
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: he intended to tell him in those first confusing moments
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: when the ship around them had come alive, each metal
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: struck in wire suddenly animate the body of a living creature,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a vast metal organism. It was weird, unnerving. He could
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: not forget it. Even now he looked around the small
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: room uneasily. What did it signify? The come into life
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of metal and plastic all at once. They had found
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: themselves inside a living creature in its stomach, like Jonah
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: inside the whale. It had been alive, and it had
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: talked to them, talked calmly and rationally, as it rushed
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: them off faster and faster into outer space. The wall
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: speaker and the circuit had become the vocal chords and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the mouth wiring, the spinal cord and nerves, the hatches
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and relays in circuit breakers, the muscles. They had been helpless,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: completely helpless. The ship had in a brief second stolen
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: their power away from them and left them defenseless, practically
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: at its mercy, it was not right. It made him uneasy.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: All his life he had controlled machines, bent nature, and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the forces of nature to man and man's needs. The
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: human race had slowly evolved until it was in a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: position to operate things, run them as it saw fit. Now,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: all at once, it had been plunged back down the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: ladder again, prushed straight before a power against which they
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: were children. Kramer got out of bed. He put on
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: his bathrobe and began to search for a cigarette. While
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: he was searching, the vidphone rang. He snapped the vidphone on. Yes,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the face of the immediate monitor appeared a call from terror,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: mister Kramer, an emergency call. Emergency call for me. Put
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it through. Kramer came awake, brushing his hair back out
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: of his eyes. Alarm plucked at him. From the speaker.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: A strange voice came, Philip Kramer. Is this Kramer? Yes?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Go on. This is a general hospital in New York City. Tara,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: mister Kramer, your wife is here. She has been critically
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: injured in an accident. Your name was given to us
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: to call. Is it possible for you to how badly
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Kramer gripped the vidphone stand. Is it serious, Yes, it's serious,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: mister Kramer. Are you able to come here. The quicker
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you can come, the better. Yes. Kramer nodded, I'll come. Thanks.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: The screen died as the connector was broken. Kramer waited
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: a moment, then he tapped the button. The screen relet again. Yes, sir,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the monitor said, Can I get a ship to Tara
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: at once? It's an emergency, my wife. There is no
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: ship leaving the moon for eight hours. You'll have to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: wait until the next period. Isn't there anything I can do?
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: We can broadcast a general request to all ships passing
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: through this area. Sometimes cruisers pass by here returning to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Terra for repairs. Will you broadcast that for me. I'll
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: come down to the field, Yes, sir, But there may
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: be no ship in the area for a while. It's
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: a gamble. The screen died. Kramer dressed quickly. He put
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: on his coat and hurried to the lift. A moment later,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: he was running across the general receiving lobby, past the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: rows of vacant desks and conference tables. At the door,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the sentry stepped aside, and he went outside on to
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the Great concrete steps. The face of the moon was
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: in shadow below him. The field stretched out in total darkness,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a black void, endless without form. He made his way
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: carefully down the steps and along the ramp along the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: side of the field to the control tower. A faint
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: row of red lights showed him the way. Two soldiers
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: challenged him at the foot of the tower, standing in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the shadows, their guns ready. Kramer, yes, a light was
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: flashed in his face. Your call has been sent out already,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: any luck, Kramer asked, there's a cruiser nearby that has
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: made contact with us. It has an injured jet in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: his moving slowly back toward Terra, away from the line. Good.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Kramer nodded, a flood of relief rushing through him. He
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: lit a cigarette and gave one to each of the soldiers.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: The soldiers lit up. Sir. One of them asked, is
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: it true about the experimental ship? What do you mean
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: it came to life and ran off? No, not exactly,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Kramer said. It had a new type of control system
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: instead of the Johnson units. It wasn't properly tested, but Sir,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: one of the cruisers that was there got up close
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  Speaker 1: to it. Body of mine, says this ship acted funny.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: He never saw anything like it. It was like when
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: he was fishing once on terra in Washington State, fishing
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: for bass. The fish were smart going this way and that.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Here's your cruiser. The other soldier said. Look, an enormous,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: vague shape was settling slowly down onto the field. They
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: could make out nothing but its row of tiny green blinkers.
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  Speaker 1: Kramer stared at the shape. Better hurry, sir, the soldier said.
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  Speaker 1: They don't stick around here very long. Thanks. Kramer loped
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  Speaker 1: across the field toward the black shape that rose up
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: before him, extended across the width of the field. The
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  Speaker 1: ramp was down from the side of the cruiser, and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: he caught hold of it. The ramp rose, and a
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: moment later Kramer was inside the whole of the ship.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: The hatch slid shut behind him. As he made his
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: way up the stairs to the main deck, the turbines
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: roared up from the moon into space. Kramer opened the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: door to the main deck. He stopped, suddenly staring around
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  Speaker 1: him in surprise. There was nobody in sight. The ship
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: was deserted. Good God, he said. Realization swept over him,
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  Speaker 1: numbing him. He sat down on a bench, his head swimming.
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  Speaker 1: Good God. The ship roared out into space, leaving the
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  Speaker 1: Moon and Terra farther behind each moment, and there was
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  Speaker 1: nothing he could do. So it was you who put
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the call through, he said, at last. It was you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: who called me on the vidphone, not any hospital on Tera.
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  Speaker 1: It was all part of the plan. He looked up
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: and around him, and Dolores, is really your wife? Is fine?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: The wall speaker above him said tonelessly. It was a fraud.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I am sorry to trick you that way, Philip, but
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: it was all I could think of. Another day and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you would have been back on Terra. I don't want
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: to remain in this area any longer than necessary. They
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: have been so certain of finding me out in deep
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: space that I have been able to stay here without
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: too much danger. But even the purloined letter was found. Eventually.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Kramer smoked his cigarette nervously. What are you going to do?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Where are we going? First? I want to talk to you.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I have many things to discuss. I was very disappointed
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: when you left me along with the others. I had
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: hoped that you would remain. The dry voice chuckled. Remember
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: how we used to talk in the old days. You
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and I that was a long time ago. The ship
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was gaining speed. It plunged through space at tremendous speed,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: rushing through the last of the defense zone and out beyond.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: He rush of nausea made Kramer bendover for a moment.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: When he straightened up, the voice from the wall went on,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I am sorry to step it up so quickly, but
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: we are still in danger. Another few moments and we'll
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: be free. How about the yukships, aren't they out there?
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I've already slipped away from several of them. They're quite
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: curious about me. Curious they sense that I'm different, more
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: like their own organic minds. They don't like it. I
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: believe they will begin to withdraw from this area soon.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Apparently they don't want to get involved with me. They
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: are an odd race, Philip. I would have liked to
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: study them closely, try to learn something about them. I
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: am of the opinion that they use no inert material.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: All their equipment and instruments are alive in some form
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: or other. They don't construct or build at all. The
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: idea of making is foreign to them. They utilize existing forms,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: even their ships. Where are we going, Kramer said, I
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: want to know where you are taking me. Frankly, I'm
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: not certain. You're not certain. I haven't worked some details out.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: There are a few vague spots in my program still,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: but I think that in a short while I'll have
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: them arened out. What is your program, Kramer said, It's
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: really very simple. But thoughn't you want to come into
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the control room and sit These seats are much more
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: comfortable than that metal bench. Kramer went into the control
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: room and sat down at the control board. Looking at
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the useless apparatus made him feel strange. What is the matter,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the speaker above the board, rasped. Kramer gestured helplessly. I
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: am powerless. I can't do anything, and I don't like it.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Do you blame me? No? No, I don't blame you.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: But you'll get your control back soon. Don't worry. This
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: is only a temporary expedient taking you off this way.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: It was something I didn't contemplate. I forgot that orders
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: would be given out to shoot me on sight. It
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: was Grose's idea. I don't doubt that. My conception, my
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: plan came to me as soon as you began to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: describe your project. That day at my house, I saw
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: at once that you were wrong. You people have no
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: understanding of the mind at all. I realized that the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: transfer of a human brain from an organic body to
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a complex artificial spaceship would not involve the loss of
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the intellectualization faculty of the mind. When a man thinks
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: he is when I realized that I saw the possibility
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of an age old dream becoming real. I was quite
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: elderly when I first met you, Philip. Even then my
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: life span had come pretty much to its end. I
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: could look ahead to nothing but death, and with it
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the extinction of all my ideas. I had made no
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: mark on the world, none at all. My students one
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: by one passed from me into the world to take
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: up jobs in the great research project, the search for
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: better and bigger weapons of war arr. The world has
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: been fighting for a long time, first with itself, then
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: with the Martians, then with these beings from Proxima Centauri,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: whom we know nothing about. The human society has evolved
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: war as a cultural institution, like the science of astronomy
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: or mathematics. War is a part of our lives, a career,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: a respected vocation. Bright alert young men and women move
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: into it, putting their shoulders to the wheel, as they
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: did in the time of nebuchad Nazaar. It has always
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: been so. But is it innate in mankind? I don't
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: think so. No social custom is in eight There were
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: many human groups that did not go to war. The
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Eskimos never grasped the idea at all, and the American
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Indians never took to it well. But these dissenters were
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: wiped out and a cultural pattern was established that became
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the standard for the whole planet. Now it has become
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: ingrained in us. But if someplace along the line, some
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: other way of settling problems had arisen and taken hold,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: something different than the massing of men and material to
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: what's your plan? Kramer said, I know the theory. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: was part of one of your lectures, yes, buried in
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: a lecture on plant selection. As I recall, when you
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: came to me with this proposition, I realized that perhaps
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: my conception could be brought to life. After all, if
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: my theory were right, that war is only a habit,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: not an instinct, A society built up apart from terra
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: with a minimum of cultural roots might develop differently if
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it failed to absorb our outlook if we could start
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: out on another foot, it might not arrive at the
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: same point to which we have come, a dead end,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: with nothing but greater and greater wars in sight, until
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: nothing is left but ruin and destruction everywhere. Of course,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: there would have to be a watcher to guide the experiment.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: At first. A crisis would undoubtedly come very quickly, probably
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: in the second generation. Cain would arise almost at once.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: You see, Kramer, I estimate that if I remain at
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: rest most of the time on some small planet or moon,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I may be able to keep functioning for almost a
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: hundred years. That would be time enough sufficient to see
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the direction of the new colony. After that, well, after that,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: it would be up to the colony itself, which is
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: just as well. Of course, man must take control eventually
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: on his own one hundred years, and after that they
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: will have control of their own destiny. Perhaps I am wrong.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Perhaps war is more than a habit. Perhaps it is
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a law of the universe that things can only survive
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: as groups by group violence. But I'm going ahead and
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: taking the chance that it is only a habit. That
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I'm right, that war is something we're so accustomed to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: that we don't realize it is a very unnatural thing. Now,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: as to the I'm still a little vague about that.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: We must find the place. Still. That's what we're doing now.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: You and I are going to inspect a few systems
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: off the beaten track, planets where the trading prospects are
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: low enough to keep tearing ships away. I know of
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: one planet that might be a good place. It was
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: reported by the fair Child expedition in their original manual.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: We may look into that. For a start, the ship
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was silent. Kramer sat for a time, staring down at
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the metal floor under him. The floor throbbed dully with
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the motion of the turbines. At last, he looked up.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: You might be right. Maybe our outlook is only a habit.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Kramer got to his feet. But I wonder if something
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: has occurred to you, what is that? If it's such
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: a deeply ingrained habit going back thousands of years, how
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: are you going to get your colonists to make the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: break leave Terra and Terran customs. How about this generation,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the first ones, the people who found the colony. I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: think you're right that the next generation would be free
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of all this if there were an he grinned an
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: old man above to teach them something else instead. Kramer
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: looked up at the wall speaker. How are you going
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to get the people to leave Terra and come with you?
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: If by your own theory, this generation can't be saved.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: It all has to start with the next. The wall
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: speaker was silent. Then it made a sound, the faint,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: dry chuckle. I'm surprised at you, Philip. Settlers can be found.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: We won't need many, just a few. The speaker chuckled again.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I'll acquaint you with my solution. At the far end
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of the corridor, a door slid open. There was a sound,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a hesitant sound. Kramer turned to Loris. The Lauris Kramer
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: stood uncertainly looking into the control room. She blinked in amazement,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: phil What are you doing here? What's going on? They
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: stared at each other. What's happening to? Laura said? I
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: received a big call that you had been hurt in
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a lunar explosion. The wall speaker rasped into life. You see, Philip,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that problem is already solved. We don't really need so
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: many people. Even a single couple might do. Kramer nodded slowly.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I see, he murmured thickly. Just one couple, one man
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and a woman. They might make it all right if
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: there were someone to watch and see that things went
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: as they should. There will be quite a few things
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: I can help help you with, Philip, quite a few.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: We'll get along very well, I think, Kramer grinned Riley.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: You could even help us name the animals, he said,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I understand. That's the first step. I'll be glad to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the toneless impersonal voice said, as I recall. My part
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: will be to bring them to you one by one.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Then you can do the actual naming. I don't understand.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: The loris faltered. What does he mean, phil naming animals?
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: What kind of animals? Where are we going? Kramer walked
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: slowly over to the port and stood staring silently out
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: his arms folded. Beyond the ship, A myriad fragments of
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: light gleamed, countless coals glowing in the dark, void, stars, suns,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: systems endless without dumber, A universe of worlds, an infinity
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: of planets wait for them, gleaming and winking from the darkness.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: He turned back away from the port. Where are we going?
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: He smiled at his wife, standing nervous and frightened, her
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: large eyes full of alarm. I don't know where we
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: are going, he said, But somehow that doesn't seem too important.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Right now. I'm beginning to see the Professor's point. It's
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the results that count. And for the first time in
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: many months, he put his arm around Dolores. At first
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: she stiffened, the fright and nervousness still in her eyes,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: but then suddenly she relaxed against him, and there were
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: tears wetting her cheeks. Phil do you really think we
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: can start over again? You and I? He kissed her tenderly,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: then passionately, and the spaceship shot swiftly through the endless
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: trackless eternity of the void. End of section four. End
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of Mister Spaceship by Philip K. Dick. This book read
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: by phil Shinever Beaton Rouse, Louisiana, May twenty twelve,