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06 - Rex Ex Machina · Classic Sci-Fi Tales Audio Library

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. To learn more or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. This reading by John George Rex
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  Speaker 1: ex Machina by Frederic Max One final lesson a dying
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  Speaker 1: man's last letter to his only son that completes the
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  Speaker 1: young man's education. My dear son, the doctors have left,
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  Speaker 1: and I am told that in a few hours I
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  Speaker 1: shall die. In my lifetime, the world has progressed from
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  Speaker 1: the chaotic turmoil of the early atomic era to the
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  Speaker 1: peacefulness and tranquility of our present age, and I die content.
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  Speaker 1: For ten years I have instructed you in all that
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  Speaker 1: you will need for the future. One final lesson remains
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  Speaker 1: to be taught. On the wall of my bed chamber
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  Speaker 1: hangs a citation from a grateful government for services too
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  Speaker 1: secret to herein set forth. In past years, you've asked
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  Speaker 1: me repeatedly about this citation, but each time I've taken
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  Speaker 1: pains to avoid a direct answer. Now it is proper
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  Speaker 1: that you should know. Forty years ago, I was an
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  Speaker 1: obscure Army captain stationed at the Armed Forces Language School
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  Speaker 1: in Monterey, California. I had at that time just completed
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  Speaker 1: a tour of duty in Korea, a minor skirmish of
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  Speaker 1: that era, and despite an excellent reputation for resourcefulness, I
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  Speaker 1: had drawn Monterey as my next assignment. An aptitude for
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  Speaker 1: foreign languages had led to an instructorship in the Russian Department,
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  Speaker 1: with additional duties instructing in the Slavic tongues. My life
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  Speaker 1: was pleasant and uneventful, and it was with mixed emotions
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  Speaker 1: that I received orders to report to Washington for a
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  Speaker 1: new duty assignment. The chain of events which precipitated those
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  Speaker 1: orders were to change the world. For while you and
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  Speaker 1: I were playing on the lawn of our Monterey home,
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  Speaker 1: an unknown Hungarian physicist working under Russian supervision had made
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  Speaker 1: a startling discovery. Within a matter of days, alarming rumors
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  Speaker 1: of his work reached Washington. Our embassies in Moscow and
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  Speaker 1: Belgrade reported furious activity in the field of psychic research
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  Speaker 1: and large scale experiments in mass hypnosis. Four of us
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  Speaker 1: were selected to investigate the rumors. Before we could commence
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  Speaker 1: our undertaking, word reached Washington that the rumors were now actualities.
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  Speaker 1: A device capable of mass hypnosis of great segments of
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  Speaker 1: the world's population was rapidly reaching perfection. After three months
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  Speaker 1: of intensive grooming in the fields of physics and psychology,
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  Speaker 1: we four agents set out individually with orders to track
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  Speaker 1: down and destroy both the scientist and his machine. I
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  Speaker 1: never saw the other three again. During the three months
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  Speaker 1: of schooling. Other members of our vast intelligence organization had
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  Speaker 1: been engaged in laying the groundwork for our efforts. In
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  Speaker 1: December nineteen fifty five, I slipped into Russia and took
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  Speaker 1: the place of a government official who felt that Western
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  Speaker 1: civilization offered greater reimbursement than Soviet communism. I entered into
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  Speaker 1: my new role with trepidation, but my fears were unfounded.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks to a remarkable resemblance which was the original reason
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  Speaker 1: for my selection, and also due to a most thorough briefing,
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  Speaker 1: I found myself making the substitution with ease. I pride
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  Speaker 1: myself on the fact that by diligent application I was
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  Speaker 1: able to increase my worth to the Russian government to
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  Speaker 1: the extent that I was shortly able to secure my
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  Speaker 1: transfer to the psychological warfare section of the Secret Police.
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  Speaker 1: From there, it was a simple procedure to have myself
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  Speaker 1: assigned to what was known as Project Partchek, the device
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  Speaker 1: was in its final stage of development. Only the problem
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  Speaker 1: of increasing its effective range remained to be solved. Three
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  Speaker 1: weeks after my assignment to the project, its successful conclusion
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  Speaker 1: was accomplished. In June nineteen fifty six, the Russian government
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  Speaker 1: ordered me to a small house on the outskirts of Braileia, Hungary,
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  Speaker 1: where I was to attend a private showing of the
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  Speaker 1: device by design. I arrived one day early and made
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  Speaker 1: my way to the laboratory. Immediately, Doctor Michael Parchek, the inventor,
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  Speaker 1: stood facing me as I entered. On a table. Between
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  Speaker 1: us lay a small, complicated mechanism resembling a radio transmitter.
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  Speaker 1: But it was infinitely more than that. The device was
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  Speaker 1: a thought generator, capable of hypnotizing every thinking creature on
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  Speaker 1: the face of the earth. The power of infinite goodness
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  Speaker 1: or evil which the machine embodied was terrifying to consider.
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  Speaker 1: I listened to Partchek's boasting with revulsion. Although he had
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  Speaker 1: the ability to work for the ultimate good of mankind,
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  Speaker 1: this creature intended instead to use his newly found power
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  Speaker 1: for selfish aggrandizement. I drew him out, let him explain
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  Speaker 1: the inner workings of his device and killed him. My
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  Speaker 1: orders were to destroy the machine. I disobeyed them, utilizing
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  Speaker 1: the machine to make good my escape. I left Hungary
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  Speaker 1: and returned to the United States. The citation which you
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  Speaker 1: have seen was only one of many honors which were
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  Speaker 1: bestowed upon me. A few weeks later, I resigned my
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  Speaker 1: commission and retired to a country hideaway to experiment further
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  Speaker 1: with the device. I was supposed to have destroyed the
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  Speaker 1: peace and tranquility in which we of the earth now live.
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  Speaker 1: Marked the successful culmination of my experiments, you will find
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  Speaker 1: the machine walled up in the north alcove of my
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  Speaker 1: bed chamber. Your education is now complete, my son, use
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  Speaker 1: it well. Be kind to our slave peoples. The world
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  Speaker 1: is yours, your affectionate father, Francis, the First Emperor of
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  Speaker 1: the Earth. Rex Ex Machina by Frederick Max