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Speaker 1: In just a moment X minus one.

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Speaker 2: But first, if you're planning to join the family for

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this holiday weekend, remember you have a friend who will

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keep you company through the long hours on the road.

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That friend is your car radio, and it brings you

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a full weekend of the most stimulating variety entertainment when

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you tune in to NBC's Monitor. Yes, you set your

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dial just once for hours and hours of refreshing variety

9
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news as it happens, sports coverage everything from baseball to

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skin diving, interviews with the stars, plus lots of the

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relaxing music you like to hear. It's all on Monitor

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this weekend, and I'll stay tuned for X minus one

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on NBC.

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Speaker 3: Come down for blast off X minus five, four three

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two X minus one. Fire from the far horizons of

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the Unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time

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and space. These are stories of the future adventures in

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which you'll live in a million, could be years, on

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a thousand, maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, and cooperation

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with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine presents HE minus one.

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Speaker 4: To Night Story A Pale of Air by Fritz liber.

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Speaker 1: It was pretty quiet in the nest. Paul was just

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sitting by the fire, staring into it like he does

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these days. And Ma was asleep. That's why it was

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so quiet. Well, I has some pretty bad times when

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she just screams and screams and huddles back against the

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blankets that line the nest chis was looking at herself

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in the mirror that hangs next to the bookshelf. I

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don't know what she finds to look at so long,

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but then she's a girl.

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Speaker 5: She just looks at herself.

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Speaker 1: Saturdays, when Pap puts a couple of extra lumps of

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coal on the fire and we take a bath, she

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looks at herself in the mirror, and sometimes she cries.

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I dropped the book I was reading, and I guess

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that woke mau hah.

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Speaker 4: What pick up the book?

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Speaker 1: But I'm sorry, Paus, come back, hasn't it, Afreed, It's

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come back?

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Speaker 4: It was just Bud, he dropped his book.

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Speaker 6: Come back.

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Speaker 7: Wait.

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Speaker 6: It's out there now, isn't it. I feel a.

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Speaker 4: Lot warmer now, Ethel.

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Speaker 6: It's up there in the sky, just the way it

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always was. I know I had a dream, Alfred.

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Speaker 4: I know, dear Sis, melt your mother a cup of water.

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Speaker 8: I'm combing my hair.

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Speaker 5: Sis.

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Speaker 6: Oh, all right, got to get up.

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Speaker 1: I know it's there.

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Speaker 9: There'll be crocusses and the spring bulbs and daffodils.

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Speaker 1: What are daffodils?

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Speaker 6: Ma, Well, buddy there.

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Speaker 10: Oh they're a flower and they're very pretty yellow on

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a tall green stalk.

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Speaker 6: Oh. I want to go out. I want to take

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the children.

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Speaker 4: Out, all right now, ethelt here's some water.

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Speaker 9: Come on, children, we'll all go out and you can

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play in the sun.

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Speaker 1: Sure, Ma, here drink the water.

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Speaker 6: Ma, it's cold. You wrap on the pipes and make

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that super send up some more.

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Speaker 1: What's a superpa?

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Speaker 4: It doesn't matter, bud. There aren't any anymore.

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Speaker 6: Oh, Pa. The pails running low.

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Speaker 11: But you better get into your things and go out

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and get an extra pail of air.

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Speaker 1: There are a couple of pails behind the first blankets.

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Speaker 4: Go on, get into your things.

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Speaker 5: It isn't back, is it.

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Speaker 4: No? It isn't.

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Speaker 6: There's no sun in the sky, No sun is there?

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Speaker 9: No?

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Speaker 6: Mo?

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Speaker 1: What was it like?

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Speaker 7: The sun says, don't get your mobset.

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Speaker 9: The sun was yellow and so bright you couldn't look

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at it, burning hot, so hot, But when you stretched

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out in it made you feel warm all over tingly warm.

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Speaker 6: It's been so long since I've been that warm.

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Speaker 8: I was warm last year on my birthday when Pap

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put all that extra col on.

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Speaker 10: And then every morning it would come out of the east,

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make the clouds all pink and yellow, and the mist

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would rise in.

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Speaker 6: The ground, and then.

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Speaker 9: Everything would blow warmer, warmer, and then it would be

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up there in the sky.

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Speaker 6: Shining warm.

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Speaker 1: Hurry up, Bud, I'm almost ready for.

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Speaker 6: I want the sun.

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Speaker 12: I want the Sumwhere.

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Speaker 6: Alfred get me the.

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Speaker 4: Sun, scar Ethel.

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Speaker 7: There's nothing I can do but Christmas on my birthday.

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Speaker 11: Go ahead, Bud, take the big pail and get it

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full this time. There's no sense in taking the trip

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for only half a bucket of air.

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Speaker 1: I spilled it the last time. Dog, God, Dog, go ahead,

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Bud strapped down the helmet. Well you, says, stand.

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Speaker 6: Up straight, Okay, all right, I'll be right back.

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Speaker 11: Don't hold the blankets open too long, all right, Ethel,

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They're all safe.

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Speaker 4: But he'll be right back with another pail of air.

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It's all right.

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Speaker 1: I went through the thirty or so blankets Paw hung

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up to slow down the air escaping from the nest.

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Of course, I knew the way. I've been going out

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for air since I was a kid. Still I get

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a funny crawley feeling every time I go out of

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the nest. You got to go up to the fifth floor,

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which is just above the blanket of frozen air. You see,

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when the earth got cold, all the water in the

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air froze. First. I made a blanket about ten feet

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thick or so, and then down on top of that

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dropped all the crystals of frozen air, making another blanket

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sixty or seventy feet thick. I came out of the

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window we use on the fifth floor and started to

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scoop up the air into my pail. I had it

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about full, but when my fingers are getting pretty cold.

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But I saw something. Hey, that's a light, and I

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kicked over the bucket. There can't be a light moving

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around in a window like that. There can't be Come on, Pad,

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says her back in the nest. I'm up here, and

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there can't be anyone else. Everybody on Earth is dead

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except us. I had an idea how Ma must feel sometimes,

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the way she sees things. But there it was moving

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around in the building across the way. I stood there, shaking,

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and I almost froze my feet. I did froust my

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helmet so solid on the inside I couldn't see anything.

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So I hurried up and scooped up another bucket of

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air and headed back for the nest as fast as

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I could.

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Speaker 11: Pa Pa, I saw something, and hang those outside close

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up by the fire, Pa.

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Speaker 1: I saw something, I did.

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Speaker 7: Mother's quiet, Now, don't upset, Paw.

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Speaker 1: It was a light.

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Speaker 7: Wait till I get this air next to the fire.

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Speaker 6: Give me the closes, Shall I put another call on pot?

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Speaker 13: No?

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Speaker 11: No, no, The oxygen from this bucket will get the

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fire up when it begins to melt there, Pauh.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell you I saw something up there.

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Speaker 7: Light.

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Speaker 8: There's lots of lights stars.

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Speaker 1: I know what stars look like.

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Speaker 5: Dope.

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Speaker 1: There are big, steady white lights in the sky. This

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was down here in a building.

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Speaker 6: What is it, Alfred?

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Speaker 5: What is nothing?

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Speaker 4: Nothing? Ef No? What is this?

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Speaker 1: But well, first I thought it was a lady, a

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young lady. I mean it like in one of those

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old magazines. I thought I saw it in a window.

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But then all I saw was a light. You watched

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it for some time, long enough work to pass five

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windows and go to the next floor.

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Speaker 7: And it didn't look like stray electricity.

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Speaker 1: No, Pa, I know what that looks like, or a.

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Speaker 11: Star refracted through an icicle sometimes if you catch it

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at the right angle, at Paw.

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Speaker 1: Honestly, I never saw anything like it before.

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Speaker 7: All right, I'll go out with you and you show me.

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Speaker 13: No, no, Alfred, you can't go and leave it alone,

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not both of you.

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Speaker 4: It's all right, we'll be right back.

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Speaker 6: Here's she helmet.

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Speaker 5: Pad.

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Speaker 13: If there's something out there, well, we've known there was

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something out there waiting to get it.

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Speaker 1: Hand me my glove.

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Speaker 13: Something that's part of the cold, hates all warm, wants

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to destroy the nest and watching us all this time.

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Now it's coming after us and it'll get you, and

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then it'll come to me.

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Speaker 6: Oh don't go, Alfred, Please don't go.

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Speaker 11: Everything will be all right, Yes, Pa, you come watch

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the fire. Keep an eye on that air too. If

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it gets too low. It doesn't seem to be boiling

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fast enough. Get another bucket behind the blanket.

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Speaker 8: Oh, don't go, I'll take care of it, Pad. Could

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there really be anybody out there?

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Speaker 11: I don't see how we heard the last radio voices

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a year before Bud was born, there hasn't been anything

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since then.

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Speaker 8: Then What could it be?

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 11: Probably just a reflection a nice crystal cracking. Come on, buddy,

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got your helmet on.

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Speaker 1: It's funny. When I go out alone, I'm not scared

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or anything, But when I go out with Pie, I

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always hang on to his belt like I used to

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when I was a little kid. Habit. I guess it's

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the same no matter what trip we take. On the

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fifth floor, we stopped to rest just before we went out.

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We were in the room with the frozen people, the

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lady sitting looking at the door, the man holding his

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hands over that funny metal thing Paul calls a radiator.

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It was like a fire, I guess, But I don't

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see any place for the cold. We put our helmets

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together so we could talk.

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Speaker 7: Your breath, son, pauh.

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Speaker 1: Would it be possible, I mean, for any of the

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frozen people to come to life like the ones down

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in the basement around the furnace when we go for water.

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Speaker 7: No, they're dead. They were caught too quickly when it happened.

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Speaker 1: Oh pah, how do we know we're the only ones?

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Speaker 7: We don't.

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Speaker 11: Well, there's a feeling you get because it's always night.

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There used to be some of that feeling every night

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in the old days, but the sun chased it away

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every morning.

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Speaker 7: You wouldn't know about that. You weren't born.

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Speaker 11: When the dark star pulled us away from the sun,

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you wouldn't know, and less you'd see the sun.

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Speaker 1: I've seen the sun. It's that big start, the end

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of the big Dipper. I've seen it.

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Speaker 7: It isn't the same. Come on, they're wasting time.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the city looked like in the

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old days, but now it's beautiful starlight. Let's you see

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it pretty well. We're up on a hill and the

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plane slopes down away from us. Some taller buildings push

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up out of the feathery plane, topped by rounded caps

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of air crystals. Some of them are on a slant

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because a lot of the buildings are badly twisted by

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the quakes and everything when a dark star pulled the

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earth away from the Sun. That's why Paul can't seal

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up the nest air tight. The building's twisted too bad. Besides,

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we have to keep the chimney open. We touched our

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helmets together so we could talk.

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Speaker 7: Is that where you saw it?

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Speaker 5: Sun?

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Speaker 1: It isn't there anymore? Uh huh, but it feels different.

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I mean as if there's something out here waiting.

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Speaker 11: Bud, If you see something like that again, don't tell

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the others.

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Speaker 6: Huh?

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Speaker 5: Why not?

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Speaker 11: Well, you're I sort of nervous these days, and we

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owe her all the feeling of safety we can give.

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A Once, it was when your sister was born. I

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was ready to give up and die, but your mother

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kept me trying. Another time, she kept the fire going

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a whole week all by herself when I was sick.

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Speaker 1: She couldn't do that now, not the way she is.

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Speaker 11: But you know that game we sometimes play tossing a

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ball around, Well, courage is like a ball. A person

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can hold it only so long, and when he's got

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to toss it to someone else. When it's tossed your way,

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you've got to catch it and hold it tight and

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hope there'll be someone else to toss it to when

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you get tired of being brave.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess.

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Speaker 7: Come on, we'll fill up the pails and get back.

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Speaker 1: But what about whatever it is out here?

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Speaker 7: We'll just have to wait and see. Come on, before

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the helmet's frost.

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Speaker 1: Over, it's pretty hard to hide your feelings in the nest.

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I mean there's just room for the four of us.

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The blanket overhead just touches when Paul stands up straight.

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The floor is all covered with thick wooly rugs. PA says,

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it's inside a much bigger room, but I've never seen

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the real walls or ceiling. Well anyway, Paul laughed and

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kidded about what I'd seen. He said I had an imagination,

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but we could tell he took it serious. It was

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Sunday morning, by the clocks that Pau kept all wound

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up on a shelf, so it was time for the story.

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We all sat around in a circle, the way we

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always do, except I noticed that Pau casually took a

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hammer from the shelf and put it beside him. I

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always liked the story, of course, listen, I know it

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by heart, but now I mean every Sunday since we

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were kids. But every once in a while Pa surprises

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us by telling it a little different or throwing in

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some extras. It starts out with the song My used

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to sing it, but she forgets the words sometimes and

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now pass sings it mostly.

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Speaker 14: Oh beauty for for spacious guies for and the waves

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of grain, th perple Mountain, magious jeez above the fruited planet.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the words don't mean anything. I mean, the

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skies are spacious enough, but there aren't any ways of grain,

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and a plane is all covered with a blanket of

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frozen air. But it's part of the story ceremony, and

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Karl likes it, says it reminds me of the old days.

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After the song pass starts the story.

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Speaker 11: In the days of my youth, the sun hung above,

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golden and warm, and the earth was fruitful and multiplied,

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and the fields were green, and the day was glorious,

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and the wind blew across the hilltops, and the air

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was free and good to breathe.

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Speaker 1: That's the part of the story I liked best about

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how it was with the sun nice and warm. It's

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hard to believe Rollo's people living without having to worry

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about cold and air. They were waking up, sweating and

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screaming because he dreamed of fire went out. It's impossible

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to believe. But Pa was a good storyteller, and he

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made it seem real.

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Speaker 11: And then the dark star came rushing out of space.

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In the beginning, they tried to keep the news from

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the people. But when the floods and the earthquake started,

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the truth came out. At first they thought the dark

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Star would hit the Sun, and then they were afraid

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it would strike the Earth itself.

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Speaker 5: But it didn't. It only came close.

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Speaker 1: Paw tells it like the Sun and the dark Star

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fought for the Earth like two dogs over a bone.

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I know what he means, because I've seen a picture

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of a dog in a magazine. And then the dark

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Star won and carried us off, but the Sun kept

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the moon. There were earthquakes and floods. Pat says that

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mountains fell and oceans slopped over oceans. That's a lot

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of melted water lying around loose. It's hard to imagine,

317
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Paus says it was. So then came the open question

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00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,000
time in the story. Sis asked a question about what

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girls wore for clothes, and I asked Pa how people

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acted in those days when the earth was twisted and

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jerked almost apart.

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Speaker 11: Well, but I was too busy to notice much. A

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00:17:56,440 --> 00:18:01,160
friend of mine, doctor Wisebroke, and Kelly, the geophysistant, Walter's

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the astronomer. We knew what was going to happen, and

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we were working to fix up a place with air

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tight walls and insulation and big supplies of food and

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bottled air. But the place got smashed up in the

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earthquakes and they were all killed. So I put the

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nest together at the last minute in the living room

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of our apartment.

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Speaker 4: It's a four room apartment.

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Speaker 1: You must have seen some of the people like the

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frozen ones downstairs.

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Speaker 5: At that time.

335
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Speaker 11: But I only thought of one thing, your mother, and survival.

336
00:18:32,759 --> 00:18:34,759
If I had stopped to think, I wouldn't have even

337
00:18:34,839 --> 00:18:39,079
tried to make the nest would have seemed ridiculous. Blankets

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and a coal fire against the cold and vacuum of

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space that I didn't think I survived.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't listening carefully as Paul went on about the

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building of the nest. I kept thinking about something else,

342
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but that light ain't seen outsir. I kept asking myself,

343
00:19:03,039 --> 00:19:06,279
what if the frozen people were coming to life? What

344
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:08,640
if they were like the liquid helium that curls toward

345
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heat when it should be frozen solid. What if something

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were coming from the dark star to get us, Something

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making the frozen people move, not by themselves. That would

348
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fit with what I'd seen A young lady's face and

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the moving light. They sat there and shivered, thinking of

350
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the frozen people with minds from the dark star creeping, crawling,

351
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snuffing their way, following the heat to the nest, and

352
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then over from beyond the blankets, I thought I heard

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a tiny noise.

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Speaker 11: So I asked myself, Then, what's the use of going on?

355
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Why prolong a doomed existence of hard work and cold

356
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and loneliness. The human race is done, the earth is done.

357
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Why not give up, I asked myself.

358
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Speaker 1: And then I did hear the noise flouder, this time,

359
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a kind of shuffling tread, coming closer.

360
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Speaker 4: And then I got the answer.

361
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Speaker 11: The Earth's always been a lonely place, millions of miles

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from the next planet. No matter how long the human

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race might have lived, the end would have come some night.

364
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Those things don't matter. What matters is that life is good.

365
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There's a lovely texture, like some rich cloth of fur,

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or the petals of flowers, crocuses, daffodils, or the fire's glow.

367
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And that's as true for the last man as the first.

368
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Speaker 1: Still, those steps kept shuffling closer. Pa was talking, and

369
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Ma was dreaming with her eyes closed, and Sis was

370
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looking at herself sideways in the mirror, and I was

371
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the only one who heard the noise, a noise outside.

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Speaker 11: So right then and there, I told myself that I

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was going on as if we had all eternity ahead

374
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of us. I'd have children, and I'd teach them all

375
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I could. I'd get them to read books, try to

376
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enlarge and seal the nest. I'd try to keep everything

377
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beautiful and alive. I'd keep alive my feeling of wonder,

378
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even at the cold and.

379
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Speaker 4: The dark and the distant stars.

380
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Speaker 1: Pah, pah, I hear.

381
00:21:30,799 --> 00:21:32,880
Speaker 6: I know what is it, Alfred?

382
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:34,240
Speaker 5: What is it?

383
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:35,680
Speaker 6: What's going on?

384
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:37,519
Speaker 1: I've got to tell me.

385
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Speaker 6: Pa, I'm scared.

386
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Speaker 5: Quiet, but.

387
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:44,599
Speaker 4: You heard it.

388
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,759
Speaker 1: Kind of shuffling coming towards the nest.

389
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Speaker 11: Sis, take care of your mother. I'll take the hammer,

390
00:21:56,279 --> 00:21:57,079
you take the hatchet.

391
00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:01,319
Speaker 4: What is it, Pa, what is it? I don't know. Listen,

392
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:04,680
it's closer.

393
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:12,000
Speaker 9: Mush, pah, the blanket is moving.

394
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:13,440
Speaker 4: Ready with your.

395
00:22:13,279 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 5: Ex Hello, who's there is? There's somebody in there?

396
00:22:21,039 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 6: Come in.

397
00:22:23,079 --> 00:22:26,279
Speaker 5: It's all right. They're alive, alive.

398
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:27,319
Speaker 1: Who are you?

399
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:39,519
Speaker 11: Alfred, Alfred Hutchinson, Doctor Alfred Hutchinson. You can take off

400
00:22:39,519 --> 00:22:42,279
your helmets in here, but we have air.

401
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:43,519
Speaker 1: And we bring it in in pails.

402
00:22:43,759 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 12: Come on, Ralph, let's take off the helmets.

403
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:50,599
Speaker 7: It's impossible.

404
00:22:51,799 --> 00:22:52,599
Speaker 5: Where are you from.

405
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:57,599
Speaker 11: We thought we were the only ones Los Alamos, the

406
00:22:57,680 --> 00:22:58,759
nuclear laboratory.

407
00:22:59,200 --> 00:22:59,920
Speaker 1: Yes, that's right.

408
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,160
Speaker 12: We get our power from the reactor, using the stockpile

409
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:04,200
of bombs for fuel.

410
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:12,079
Speaker 5: Then there are others. There are there are other men,

411
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:20,200
There are other bird pack Is it all right?

412
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:21,519
Speaker 1: Should I put the acc down?

413
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:23,519
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, it's all right. You can put it down.

414
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 8: You mean you come from another nest.

415
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,480
Speaker 15: It's a little bigger than this. We've got a small

416
00:23:28,519 --> 00:23:30,039
air tight city with air locks.

417
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,079
Speaker 12: We generate our electricity food from hydroponics.

418
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:34,119
Speaker 5: I can't believe it.

419
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:35,680
Speaker 4: I can't.

420
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 15: I can't believe this. It's impossible. You can't maintain an

421
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:41,519
air supply without hermetic ceiling.

422
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:42,599
Speaker 5: It's impossible.

423
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,160
Speaker 1: No, No, it's simple, as long as you keep the

424
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,599
fire going to melthy air and enough air boiling to

425
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:48,559
keep the fire burning.

426
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 5: How did you come here? Why?

427
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,039
Speaker 15: Well, we keep scouting around for survivors. There are a

428
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:59,160
number of colonies Brookhaven, oak Ridge and Harwell in England,

429
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,640
and the Argon Lapratory in France. We didn't expect to

430
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:06,079
find anything in this city, though, but our detectors picked

431
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:07,799
up a heat tray, so we tracked it down.

432
00:24:08,039 --> 00:24:10,640
Speaker 6: Alfred, you're forgetting your manners.

433
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 11: We have company, of course, of course, Sis. Throw a

434
00:24:15,559 --> 00:24:16,680
handful of coal.

435
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 4: On the fire.

436
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:19,160
Speaker 8: Pah, a whole handful.

437
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 11: It doesn't matter now, and but bring out another pail

438
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,759
of air. It's incredible, and you have laboratories and transport.

439
00:24:26,039 --> 00:24:28,279
Speaker 12: We only have a two seated scout. But if we

440
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:30,559
rip out the bulkhead to the storage compartment, we can

441
00:24:30,599 --> 00:24:31,279
make it all right.

442
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 15: We can have you back at Los Alamos in four hours.

443
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 1: What's the matter?

444
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 11: I guess we really hadn't thought about it that way, but.

445
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:46,599
Speaker 9: Uh, I wouldn't know how to act there and decides

446
00:24:46,599 --> 00:24:48,880
I haven't any clothes.

447
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,599
Speaker 11: Just doesn't seem right to let this fire go out.

448
00:24:52,559 --> 00:24:56,079
It's been eighteen years burning every minute.

449
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 15: But you can't stay here, ral But after all, Ralph, oh.

450
00:25:02,519 --> 00:25:03,759
Speaker 4: Look, doctor Hutchinson.

451
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 15: We'll go out of the ship and bring back a

452
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:11,799
small power heater. I know this is very sudden and

453
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:13,960
upsetting to you.

454
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 4: You need a chance to.

455
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:25,319
Speaker 15: Just we'll be back in a few minutes. It's incredible.

456
00:25:26,319 --> 00:25:27,160
Speaker 4: Fucker's here.

457
00:25:30,279 --> 00:25:33,799
Speaker 1: Well, they didn't think the nest smelt so good. I

458
00:25:33,799 --> 00:25:34,519
could tell she.

459
00:25:35,599 --> 00:25:40,920
Speaker 6: Had a wave in earlier. Did you see that? And lipstick?

460
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:44,519
Speaker 4: I suppose we have to decide what to do.

461
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 8: Pah, at Lost, Los Alamos and those other places. There

462
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,319
will be lots of people, won't there. Yes, I mean

463
00:25:52,559 --> 00:25:54,200
not just your father or a brother.

464
00:25:54,839 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 11: That's right, boys, I suppose so. But somehow I feel

465
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,240
a little empty of.

466
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:11,319
Speaker 6: Offred. It's different now that we no others are alive.

467
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,319
You don't have to feel the responsibility for keeping the

468
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:17,519
human race going.

469
00:26:18,799 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: Poh, I'd like to see those rockets and laboratories, wouldn't you.

470
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,279
Speaker 4: Poor, I suppose so.

471
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,839
Speaker 1: It won't be easy leaving the nest. I mean, it's

472
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,279
just riding. There's only four of us. It's kind of

473
00:26:36,279 --> 00:26:39,720
a scary idea big place with a lot of strangers.

474
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 11: You'll get over that feeling, son. The trouble with the

475
00:26:43,759 --> 00:26:46,480
world was that it kept getting smaller and smaller till

476
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:50,119
it ended with just the nest. Now it'll be good

477
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:56,720
to have a real huge world again, the way it

478
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was in the beginning.

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Speaker 1: And so we're gonna leave the nest in the morning.

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By pause clocks. We've got the power heater going. Now

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it seems funny to be this warm when it isn't

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Christmas or somebody's birthday. But still it's hard for me

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to realize that this is the last time I'll go

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out of the nest, through all the blankets to get

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a pail of air.

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Speaker 3: You have just heard X minus one, presented by the

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National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

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Speaker 7: Your announcer, Fred Collins.

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Speaker 3: X minus one was an NBC Radio Network production