M h contdown for blast off x minus five four three two x minus one
Fire from the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in
time and space. These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll live
in a million, could be years, on a thousand, maybe worlds.
The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of Astounding
Science Fiction, presents he minus minus on Tonight's story. First contact by Murray
Lemester. They had been in space six months now, moving with the incredibly
faster than light speed of the overdrive. In six months they had gone from
Earth outward and outward to the crab like Nebula with the twin Stars, a
routine flight of exploration and scientific research. Solid object about ninety thousand miles away,
sir, located door exactly identify it a small object, Sir Captain.
I've never seen anything like this before. Whatever it is out there is coming
tortous at an incredible speed and retreating to zero just as rapidly. What's the
mass of the object, dord It varies with the distance from us, Sir,
Step up the scanners. Nothing, sir, absolutely nothing shows out there,
and yet there must be something. Those alarms are fool proof action stations,
and all weapons condition of extreme alert, and all departments immediately Captain,
what is it? Dort? I ran into the same thing once before on
the Earth Mars run. We were being located by another ship, and their
locator beam was the same frequency as ours. Every time it hit it registered
to something solid and monstrous. Captain, We're the only earth ship in eighteen
light years around. How I didn't say it was another Earth's ship out there,
Dord. Another race. That's right, there's a space ship out there,
all right. It's not manned by human beings. It had been contemplated
and speculated upon. Mathematically it was almost a certainty that such a race existed,
But an eighteen thuds thousand earth years, no human spaceship had ever encountered
them. Now the situation was precipitated, and somewhere outside the Earth vessel there
was an alien race of what sheep, of what quality? Of what psychology?
It's moving, sir, heading right for us? That speed will be
in touching ten minutes, heading right for us. Eh. Just what we'd
do if a strange ship appeared in our hunting grounds? Friendly or maybe we'll
try to contact them. We have to do that. Friendly. Thank the
Lord for the blasters. They may not be hostile, sir. They may
be. That's what I'm paid for, put on this job for to worry
about the troubles. It may never happen to all hands. Now hear this.
A ship is approaching man by an alien race. I'll give the signal
for attack or defense if it be necessary. There'll be no move made unless
I give the order. I do not wish to provoke trouble. Stand by.
Their ship is slowing down, Sir, it's stopped. Weapons Department report.
Weapons Department report, alien ship remarked target fixed weapons alert. Communications Department
report. Communications Department report. We're receiving a modulated short wave, sir.
Frequency modulated apparently a signal, not enough power to do with any harm.
We'll try to make some sense out of it. Report any progress to me
immediately. One thing in their favor, sir. They didn't attack immediately,
without question. They're trying to establish contact. That seems to indicate they're reasonable,
and we'll see. We'll see what are they doing now? Can you
make out the locator screen? Bring that power up? They're doing something,
na sir, there's a section of the hull opening, probably an analys if
they breathe there, they're letting something out. It's round a bombser, a
known object released from alienship, observed by weapons department, then targeted stand by.
See what they're doing, sir. They've left the object out there,
right where they were, and now they're withdrawing the ship. There's no reason
why that object couldn't be a bombers to do it intended to let us think
precisely as your thinking right now. I just have a hunch, sir.
I think they're friendly. I think whatever it is out there is a means
of communication, probably right, but I won't gamble the ship on the probability,
Sir. I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look that thing
over. You understand, whoever does examine it is expendable, yes, sir.
Requisition of lifeboat if it's all right with you, Sir. I'd prefer
just a suit with the drive in it. It's smaller and the arms and
legs won't make me look like a bomb, and I'll carry a scanner.
Sir. You may leave when you're ready, Thank you, sir. I'm
already clear the lock and let me out. Weapons Department reporting to the captain.
Mister Dort located, mister Dort is targeted. Stand by that object out
there is a device to capture one of our people for observation and questioning.
It'll be blown out of existence, including mister Dart. Stand by, mister
Dart. Mister Dart, report, object is you can see on the scanner,
Sarah, is covered with many small horns, like the detonating horns of
the obsolete mines formerly used in naval warfare. Is that their purpose? Do
you assume, mister Dart. I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going
to grab one, mister Dart. I'm here, sir. I don't think
this is a mind circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown yet.
Oh wait a minute, sir. A section of the autohol seems to be
opening. Do you see it? Very good, Dart, hold that.
I'm sure it's a communications device, sir. It looks like it. Fix
your scanner, so it'll focus on that communications device. Returned to the ship
Communications Department. Communications Department Progress Report we've established communication, sir. Is there
a psychologist on the team down there with you? Yes, sir, mister
Burns is working with us. Both of you please report to the bridge at
once you look tired, dork. We've established fairly satisfactory communication, sir.
They seem to have highly developed thought patterns. We've got a satisfactory translation from
the machine on the fourth attempt. We can say almost anything we want to
say to each other now, because how much of what they tell us is
the truth? We have no way of knowing, mister Burns. You're the
psychologist. What do you think? Well, I don't know, sir.
They seem to be completely direct. They haven't let slip even the hint of
the tenseness we know exists. They act, as they were saying, up
a means of communication for friendly conversation. But well, there's an overtone that
well, mister Burns, I have a decision to make. On the one
hand, opening contact with the friendly people of a vastly different culture could only
be beneficial to us of Earth. On the other hand, if they're hostile,
I had to bless amount of existence without any other preliminary But, sir,
you cannot talking to you Dor. It's not warranted yet, sir.
Yes, now hear this. All departments, hear this, all departments.
This ship is on an extended alert. Provisions will be made so that personnel
can have maximum rest and nourishment. Communication continued by means of the artificial language
set up arbitrarily between the Earthman and the aliens, decoded by the mechanical decoders.
Disobeyed orders. He lived on powerful stimulants so that he could stay with
the communications machine, talking, talking, talking to the aliens. Other people,
other people. Are we being received? We are receiving your message.
The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the chief of your ship.
The message is heard by the chief of this ship. The chief of this
ship communicates that he will hear the message of the chief of that ship.
Go ahead, Sair, people of the other ship, I'd like to say
the appropriate things about this first contact of two dissimilar civilized races, and of
my hopes that a friendly intercourse between the two peoples will result. People of
that ship, what you say is all very well, But is there any
way for us to let each other go home alive? That's all, Sair.
They've stopped sending very direct people, very direct, But Sir, I
don't follow. I didn't know what that meant. You know, is there
any way for us to let each other go home alive? It means what
it says, Dort. So what's to stop us from just cutting communication and
leaving and they can do likewise? What's to stop us? Simply that whichever
ship leaves first will be followed by the other. If they find Earth and
get back to their own planet, and we don't know where that planet is,
Earth will be completely at their mercy. If they leave first, we'll
follow them. We'll attempt to find their home planet, Dort. Could you
swear to any decision that the policymakers on Earth will come to sir? Even
if they do follow us. The closer we get to home, the more
of our ships and weapons they'll face. They never get away. Well,
how do you know that they can't communicate with their home planet without returning?
We can't, sir. How do you know they can't? They don't,
sir. So that's the situation. We'll sit out here, facing each other,
trying to out guess each other do. Time wears us out, and
we'll have to face the fact either they destroy us or we destroy them.
Navigation officer attention. Navigation officer attention. Every star map on this ship is
to be prepared for instant destruction. The chief of this ship wishes to know
whether the chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the problem concerning us
both. Do you want me to answer that, sir? I'll answer it
myself. Tell me when to talk now, sir, I am giving that
matter personal attention. Every effort will be bent to the solution of this problem.
Will you consider a temporary truce in the meantime? What would a truce
gain? Would we trust you? Would you trust us? I suggest that
we continue as we have up to this particle of time? I agree,
sign off doing weeks went by, and during the weeks the exchange of information
continued without let up. What particle of time? Are the people on that
ship at the resting time? All rest except myself and others on alert duty.
Same on this ship. Your people of that ship are very similar in
many ways. Do you have a family, I have a mate. I
have a mate and three offspring. It is too bad for them, as
well as us, to have to kill each other. This ship can't see
any way out of it. Can that ship if we could believe each ship,
yes, our chief would like it. But we can't believe you,
and you are afraid that we do not tell truth, although we do.
This ship would trail you home. If this ship able to, that ship
would do the same. But this ship feels sorry about it. I believe
you're a friend. I share your belief and like you, but there is
a possibility that you were put to make a trap for me. I will
stop now and think it over. Sit down, Do art control yourself.
We're all under tention. Doesn't do any good to pace like some caged animal.
Yes, sir, all right now, I've read the complete transcription of
your conversations with this one alien. What does it prove, Dard, sir?
These people are so much like us, and they're thinking, well,
so they're likable. They're likable, and they breathe oxygen. Their air is
twenty eight percent oxygen instead of twenty. You do very well on Earth be
a highly desirable conquest for them, geord. I must set against violence as
you are. I don't see any way out of us, and I think
we've got to break this status quo. So if in seventy hours we don't
see any other way, then I have no further choice. I'll blow them
to bits. Will that ship receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
This ship is listening. It seems to me better to communicate than to sit
by the machine silently. I would have called you, but you signed off.
Before the problem goes around and around, I find no answer. Perhaps
we could turn our thoughts to other things. The psychologist of this ship tells
us that you people on that ship have a threshold of tolerance to tension.
He tells us that you will be forced to take one action or another in
a period of less than one hundred time particles. I have no communication on
this matter. So the ship is not trying to extract unwilling information from that
ship. A truth is mentioned in passing. A report of this conversation will
be carried to the chief of this ship. It would be so we are
prepared. If only the people of this ship could meet in direct contact with
the people of that ship, it might be better. We could not communicate
them. The communications machine is too large to carry from place to place in
direct contact. The peoples of the two ships would be further apart than now.
That's true I am said, much that is pleasant has passed between us.
I am sad too. We are not yet ready for each other.
Get ready for each other. It's hard, isn't it, Dort? Well,
Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here, so I've
been here for quite a while. He's dropping. I'm afraid. It's all
right, sir. Nothing can be personal in a situation like this. That's
right. How long is one hundred time particles dirt? Pardon sir? That
reference he made to us not being able to stand tenderness? Interesting? Their
psychologist seem to make more out of us and we do out of them,
don't they, Yes, sir, they hit the nail right on the head,
Yes they do, I think, Dort. We will just have to
push our timetable up a bit. No further communication with the aliens under any
circumstances. That's clear, isn't it, yes, sir, sir? If
they know so much about our psychology, isn't it possible that remark was intended
to make us act more quickly? Probable? Dort? Probable? Why would
they do that? Why you tell me? Why do it? All of
a sudden I have an idea, sir, and that's crazy, and it
doesn't matter how crazy. I'll listen to it, Sir. I think these
people are playing some kind of a joke on us. Joke, a joke,
Dort, Yes, sir, Over and over again. I've noticed what
I think is a sense of humor, a highly developed sense of humor.
Do you recall when we went to all the Trouble to set up a fictitious
star map, and then they just sent us back a mirror image of the
same one. I think somehow they're playing a joke on us. Maybe you're
right, in which case you've seen practical jokers dirt. Their jokes aren't always
funny. Sometimes they hurt people. All departments, Man instant Alert, All
department. It's a man instant alert, Report instantly, report instantly. Women's
Department alerted. Target the enemy ship on target, Sir, stand by fire.
They're gone, sir. Not a trace of them left, not a
tiny trace. Now we can go home. Communications to captain, Communications to
captain. Report, Sir. I'm picking up new signals, same frequency as
the original Indian signals. That's impossible that ship was destroyed. I'm receiving signals,
sir. Set the machine up. We'll be down there in a minute,
mister dork, come with me, please. It's good to be on
the way home. Yes, it is good. Do you suppose we'll ever
figure out what happened to the other ship? Never a blinding fashion and they
were gone. I suppose they couldn't figure a way out of the situation.
An unstable people, they had no sense of humor to cope with the situation.
They exploded themselves out of existence. It seems reasonable. They must have
had powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely. Yes, what a shame.
In a way, I grew to like them. This isn't meant for us,
sir. I don't know what's happening, but I think we're overhearing a
private conversation. Understand or be quiet, will you? Many things might have
come out of a relationship with that people. They were describing a disease they
called cancer. I think it is similar to the Frogrin syndrome. We might
have helped them. They might have helped us, too well. Too bad,
we'll never find them again. I think the odds of such a chance
meeting in the vast space of the whole universe. There are no figures for
such odds turn it up door, turn it up louded. That's all there
is. The signals stopped there, Sir. I don't know how, but
somehow when we fired at them, we didn't destroy them, but we did
set up a condition whereby they've become invisible to us and we've become invisible to
them. Captain to Engineering Department, Halt forward motion. Captain, why are
we stopped? Listen? Do you say they're in r but they're not destroyed
because we just heard them. They're out there somewhere invisible. You heard them,
so they're heading for home. We're invisible to them too, Sir.
How do you know, Dord? How do you know this whole thing isn't
set up? Suppose that's true, Captain, you heard their conversation. They
weren't talking like any monstrous people. They seem decent and warm, just as
decent and warm as we. How do you know this conversation wasn't planned deliberately
set up? For rest or here? How do you know that? Dort?
Yes, sir, you're right. They may be out there and they
may not. They may be telling the truth, or they may be trying
to trick us. They may be friends, or they may be the most
deadly enemies. You said they had a sense of humored Dort. What a
joke to play, to deliberately set up a situation where we wouldn't know fact
from fantasy, truth from lie. Wouldn't that be a joke, Dort.
But we don't know that they did that, sir, And we don't know
that they didn't We don't know anything, sir. Does that mean we never
go home again? I don't know. I have to think about it.
I have to think about it. You have just heard X minus one,
presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of
Astounding science fiction. Tonight by transcription, X minus one has brought you First
Contact, written by Murray Leinster and adapted for radio by Howard Rodman. Featured
in the cast were Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Clark Gordon, William Lalley
and Stannerley. Your announcer, Fred Collins. X minus one was directed by
Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio Network production. Next week, at this
time, over most of these stations, NBC will present This Is Carnegie Hall,
a special concert featuring the Symphony of the Air orchestra,