Speaker 1: In just a moment X minus one. But first your
home will be filled with the voices of top entertainers
and fascinating experts in the homemaking field. Tomorrow when Virginia
Graham and Mike Wallace bring you another broadcast of NBC's Weekday.
Among the special guests is Rita gam Hollywood Starr and
one of Grace Kelly's prospective bridesmaids. And Rita will be
joined by a singer whose unique style is well known
to his many fans, Johnny Ray. Then from Britain, It's
actor Trevor Howard. Meet them all tomorrow when NBC's Weekday
brings you another day of fact and fun on the station. Now,
stay tuned for X minus one on NBC.
Speaker 2: Come down 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 Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents HE minus one Tonight,
a story by Frederick Paul Tunnel under the world.
Speaker 3: On the morning of June fifteenth, Guy Berkhart woke up screaming.
It was more real than any dream he had ever
had in his life. He could still hear and feel
that sharp, metal ripping explosion, that searing wave of heat.
Speaker 4: He sat up, ry, Mary, Mary, very Where are you, guy?
Speaker 5: What's wrong? You're trembling? Where were you in the kitchen
cooking breakfast? What is it?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 7: A dream? I guess an explosion?
Speaker 8: Did you say an explosion? Yes, but that's the dream
I had. What I dreamed there was a big explosion,
and then something sort of hit me on the head,
he smokes me.
Speaker 7: Maybe there really was some sort of explosion. It started
the streaming.
Speaker 8: Well, there'll be an explosion down at your office if
you don't hurry and get to work.
Speaker 3: Coming in on the bus, Burkhart watched to see if
there was any evidence of an explosion.
Speaker 9: There wasn't.
Speaker 3: If anything, the town looked better than ever. The only
thing that seemed strange to him was the fact that
none of the usual crowd.
Speaker 9: Was on the bus.
Speaker 7: He was a little relieved when his old.
Speaker 9: Pal Henry Swanson finally got on.
Speaker 4: Excuse me, Henry, on me, Henry, what's the matter with you.
It's me Guy Burkart. Burkhart, Sorry, I don't believe we've
met what Henry? For Pete's sake, it's me. If you'll
excuse me, this is my stop. I'll like that.
Speaker 3: Guy Burkhart got off in front of the Gigantic contro
Chemical building, took the elevator to the ninety eighth floor,
where he had worked in the accounting department for twelve years.
It wasn't until he was almost at his floor that
he realized the speaker was not playing the usual commercials.
Speaker 10: Friends, Are you happy with your present home freezer of Carskna? Well,
the answer to your problems is a Feckle freezer. Feckel
freezers are better freezers. Most wives would do anything for
a Feckel freezer. Friends, are you happy with your present
home freezer?
Speaker 4: Morning is Horn?
Speaker 5: Good morning Spirit?
Speaker 7: Well you Hea? Do I see why?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 5: Do you like it?
Speaker 9: That makes a lot of difference in your appearance.
Speaker 12: And mister Barton, no, sir, he had an appointment with
mister Dorton of the Human Research Institute today.
Speaker 4: Today's the fifteenth of June. He has to sign the
quarterly statement.
Speaker 5: He said he wouldn't be in Hu.
Speaker 7: That's mighty peculiar, yes, sir, Oh, by the way horn,
what the devil is a freckle freezer?
Speaker 5: A freezer?
Speaker 4: There's a new.
Speaker 7: Copy on the elevator commercial the daughter you must have
landed another account freezes.
Speaker 12: I really don't know, mister Barricarr.
Speaker 7: It's a funny day. Can't quite put my finger on it.
But there's something strange going on.
Speaker 3: He couldn't shake the thought out of his mind. It
persisted all through the day and through dinner. He was
still brooding as he and Mary got ready for bed.
Speaker 5: God, Oh, well, no, anything wrong?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Well, I guess I'll get a good night's sleeping.
Speaker 9: I think I'll set up and read for a while.
Speaker 3: At exactly midnight, Guyberghart lapsed into a sudden, deep sleep,
and the following morning he woke up screaming.
Speaker 5: Dolly, what is it? What's wrong?
Speaker 9: Oh? I think bad dream?
Speaker 5: I guess you gave me such a shock.
Speaker 7: I seem to be having a lot of nightmares lately. Really, Yes,
the one I had yesterday this was the same, A
big explosion and then nothing.
Speaker 5: You had a dream yesterday, Well, of.
Speaker 9: Course I did.
Speaker 7: You had the same sort of dream. I, guy, you're mistaken.
Speaker 5: I don't remember dreaming.
Speaker 4: Mary.
Speaker 5: You told me, Guy, you're mistaken.
Speaker 4: Mary.
Speaker 5: Maybe you dreamed I had a dream.
Speaker 7: Maybe, yes, I might have done that. I suppose everything
did seem sort of strange yesterday.
Speaker 8: That's probably it. You better get dressed here, today's fifteenth.
That's when the quarterly is fifteenth.
Speaker 7: Yes, it must have been a dream, because yesterday was
the fifteenth.
Speaker 3: Di Berkhart got up, dressed, ate breakfast, and took the
usual bus to work. Once again, everything seemed even brighter
and newer than usual, and once again he was puzzled
when he noticed none of the old crowd on the
bus hardon me. Please, oh look, don't shove so oh morning, Henry, morning,
for God's sake.
Speaker 4: Don't talk to me.
Speaker 7: What is it You've been followed or something?
Speaker 13: Don't you know? I was sure you remembered, remember what?
I can't talk.
Speaker 4: This is my stopper.
Speaker 7: You excuse me, please, Hanry, Henry, for Pete's sake.
Speaker 3: As in yesterday's dream, Guy Berkhart got off at his
stop and took the elevator to the ninety eighth floor.
The speaker in the elevator purred a new commercial, this time.
Speaker 11: Marlon searetts they're sanitized. Does your present cigarette make your
throat feel raspy and unpleasant? Marlin cigarettes contain a miraculous
new drug which actually gives you the sensation of smooth,
creamy smoke. Marlin cigarette. Marlin cigarette.
Speaker 3: He walked down the Marble corridor to his office.
Speaker 4: Good morning, is very Curt, Good morning, was Horn.
Speaker 12: Do you like my new haird.
Speaker 7: Yes? Is mister barth in?
Speaker 5: Nohing?
Speaker 7: He had no appointment with mister Dawton at the Research Institute.
I know you know well, I guessed it anyway, And
today is the fifteenth of June, and he won't be
here to sign a quarterly statement. And I'm going nuts.
Let me have a cigarette, will you?
Speaker 12: Yes, sir, try one of grief.
Speaker 11: They're Marlins.
Speaker 7: Never heard of Marlins before today?
Speaker 4: What are we a bunch of guinea pigs? Something wrong wrong?
Speaker 3: Perish the thought, miss Horn, perish the thought. He went
to his desk and stared at the mail before he
opened it. He knew that the factory distributor's envelope contained
an order for twelve new electronic computers. He knew that
the Development journal contained an article about a new method
of transprinting selective brain circuits of human engineers onto the
electric brain circuits of robot engineers to facilitate the operation
of automatic factories. He knew that there was a complaint
from fine beck AND's about the contro chemical's newest household
robot circuit.
Speaker 9: After a long while, he forced himself.
Speaker 7: To open them.
Speaker 9: They were exactly as he suspected.
Speaker 7: Hello, this is Swanson, Henry Swanson. What is it?
Speaker 11: Do you remember?
Speaker 7: Remember what?
Speaker 9: Just remember? All right?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 7: Listen, Harry, Let's stop playing games. Yesterday, either I was
dreaming or you stubbed me on the bus. Today, the
same thing happens.
Speaker 13: You do remember, Thank Heaven?
Speaker 14: I thought so when I saw you, when I couldn't
be sure.
Speaker 9: Well, what is it you want?
Speaker 7: Listen?
Speaker 14: Tomorrow morning when I get off the bus, you get
off with me.
Speaker 7: Be casual.
Speaker 15: They may be.
Speaker 7: Watching, who may be watching?
Speaker 4: Swanson? Hello, you buzzed, mister Baker.
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm still out of cigarettes, sir? Would you buy
me a pack of Kelvins?
Speaker 12: Wouldn't you rather have Marlins? I smoke Kelvin's, but mister Berhard,
Marlins have that soft, creamy smoke. That's so soothing to
your throat.
Speaker 7: You really believe that stuff?
Speaker 5: It's true.
Speaker 12: I wouldn't say this, mister Birhard, except that, well, I've
gotten to know you pretty well, and i've wronged to
admire you so much. You see, would you mind, mister Burkhard,
if I told you that? For months now, I've wanted
to well just comfort you. I know how troubled you've been.
Speaker 7: Well, you've never mentioned your feelings before, miss Horn.
Speaker 12: April, my first name's April.
Speaker 7: Well that's pretty name.
Speaker 12: You see.
Speaker 5: I do have your welfare at heart.
Speaker 12: That's why when I see you smoking Kelvin's and I
know Marlin's is so much better, won't you let me buy.
Speaker 5: Some of them for you?
Speaker 9: Well?
Speaker 7: I suppose so?
Speaker 9: Why not?
Speaker 4: Here?
Speaker 7: Bring me a carton?
Speaker 12: Thank you, mister.
Speaker 5: Guy.
Speaker 7: I think you ought to go.
Speaker 5: I'll be bad.
Speaker 3: There was something wrong, something definitely peculiar about what was happening,
the call from Henry Sponson, the strange behavior of his
secretary in his horn, these new products. The dream guy
Burkhardt went home that night feeling like a man in
a nightmare.
Speaker 4: That you dear, it's me.
Speaker 5: Do you have a good day?
Speaker 9: Fair?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 8: Before you sit down. Will you go down the cellar
and put in a new fuse. The switch in the
hall closet blew out.
Speaker 5: I shut it off.
Speaker 8: Okay, supper will be ready in a minute, so don't
start fooling around.
Speaker 5: I've got a boat hull you've been building.
Speaker 16: I want, Harry, Marry, what is it? Come down here,
hurry up?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 7: I don't know, I'm not sure. I was looking for
a fuse and I thought maybe i'd dropped one under
the boat house. So I scratched around. Look, let me
put the flap flight on it. Where Look at the floor.
Speaker 5: What about the floor?
Speaker 4: It's supposed to be cement?
Speaker 7: Well, well, let's copper. There's a thin layer of cement.
But underneath its metal.
Speaker 4: Look here.
Speaker 7: Underneath the concrete, more metal. And here on the wall
you see metal under the floor, behind the walls, every place.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't really understand, Mary.
Speaker 7: I know this sounds crazy, but somebody, for reasons I
can't even begin to guess, has taken this house and
replaced it with a clever imitation. Guy, Harry, I'm gonna
look around little more.
Speaker 5: Well, your dinner will be ready.
Speaker 7: All right, say it for me. There are a couple
of things I've got to figure out.
Speaker 3: The following morning, Guy Burkhardt woke up scream. He dragged
himself into the kitchen where his wife Mary was preparing breakfast,
and discovered it was still June fifteenth.
Speaker 7: Mary, where's the morning paper?
Speaker 4: Where is it outside the door?
Speaker 7: I guess, huh, June fifteenth.
Speaker 8: You'd better hurry dear, today's day. Mister Barr feels out
the quarterly tax return.
Speaker 4: Oh no, it isn't.
Speaker 7: He won't be there. He'll get a meeting with that
crackpot drsu and at the Human Research has to he'll
be there, and miss Horn will have a new hairdoo,
and the elevator will be selling some new product in Swanson.
Speaker 5: What about Swanson?
Speaker 7: Swanson? He said, I wonder if it's going to be
the same today.
Speaker 5: Guy, what in the world are you talking about?
Speaker 7: Nothing of min where's my coat?
Speaker 5: You haven't had any breakfast?
Speaker 7: I don't want to miss my bus. I'll see you tonight.
Speaker 9: Guy Burkhardt got on his bus.
Speaker 3: They were the same unfamiliar faces, the same unusually new
looking buildings, the same unusually bright sunshine, and on the
customary corner Henry Swanson pale and furtive climbed a board.
Speaker 14: Huh, excuse me, sir, it's quite all right. Do you
remember the phone call?
Speaker 16: Yes?
Speaker 14: Thank heaven. Get off at the next corner and follow me.
Speaker 9: Where are you going?
Speaker 6: There's an excavation for a building about a blockdown. Make
sure you aren't followed. I'll go first, Burcott, here behind
the fence.
Speaker 7: All right, now, Henry, what's this all about?
Speaker 6: I'm not sure. At first I thought perhaps they were Russians.
Now I'm beginning to think they're Martians. No humans could
have accomplished what they've accomplished.
Speaker 7: Now, wait a minute, start from the beginning, Henry, what's
going on?
Speaker 14: Look, Burkhott, peculiar things have been happening to you?
Speaker 9: Right?
Speaker 6: Yes, a lot of your friends are missing. Your house
seems changed.
Speaker 7: Something stranger than that. The date today is June fifteenth,
Yet I could swear yesterday was June fifteenth, and the
day before that.
Speaker 6: You got it, friend, It's always June fifteenth, and you
and I are the only ones who know it.
Speaker 7: Why, Henry, how I'm not sure.
Speaker 14: I think it's some sort of mass hypnosis or something.
Speaker 7: Well, why doesn't it work for us? My wife Mary
doesn't remember a thing.
Speaker 6: Somehow when it happened, they missed us. We were protected
from the full force of the rays or whatever they used.
Speaker 4: Or cut.
Speaker 14: Where were you on the night of the fourteenth, about midnight?
Speaker 7: Let me see, that was Sunday night. Yes, yeah, I
was down in the cellar under the boat I'm building.
Speaker 14: I was in my dark room developing some pictures.
Speaker 7: This just doesn't make any sense to me. Russians, Martians,
What makes you think that.
Speaker 14: I've seen them? Where at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 7: What tunnel the one they built under Tyler Town Tunnel
under Tyler Town.
Speaker 13: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 14: It's made out of copper or some alloy.
Speaker 4: God, wait a minute.
Speaker 7: I found a copper layer under my cellar floor last night,
So did I.
Speaker 6: That's how I discovered it. I found a way to
get into It's at the bottom of this excavation. Holy mackerel, Henry,
Why don't we tell the police because we can't trust them,
even the police.
Speaker 14: May be marshas in the sky.
Speaker 7: Oh come on, are you being meloderma? Oh?
Speaker 6: Am?
Speaker 14: I but you just come with me where into the tunnel?
Speaker 4: I'll show you.
Speaker 3: Henry Swanson led Guy berghride to a small hole on
the side of the excavation. There he removed the cut
out piece of metallic substance, and they crawled into a
dimly lighted tunnel. They walked for what seemed like two
miles until Swanson held his finger to his lips.
Speaker 13: We've got to be quiet now, Henry.
Speaker 7: This is fantastic. They've got a tunnel right under the hotwn.
Speaker 14: You haven't seen anything yet.
Speaker 6: There's a room a little farther down, so we'll be
able to look through a glass in the door.
Speaker 7: Is it safe.
Speaker 14: That's perfectly safe unless one of them comes along.
Speaker 13: Oh, come on, okay, here.
Speaker 6: Burkhott looked through this glass now, just so I know
I'm not completely insane.
Speaker 13: Tell me what you see, good lord.
Speaker 7: Well, a tremendous panel with dozens of telescreens, and in
front of each of the several robots. They seem to
be computing something. Yes, I've watched.
Speaker 13: They're evaluating data from the screens.
Speaker 7: Have you got a chance to look at the data
on those screens?
Speaker 6: No, I've been afraid to go in. There might be
a warning circuit somewhere.
Speaker 7: Well, if we knew what those robots were working on,
we could go to the authorities.
Speaker 13: I whisk it a few will all.
Speaker 7: Right, it's worth a chance. We're lost anyway.
Speaker 13: Okay, open the door. So far, so good.
Speaker 7: Come on, let's take a look at that data.
Speaker 13: But don't interfere with the robots.
Speaker 7: Don't worry. Yeah, let's look at the screen. Listen to this.
Tests in the forty seven K twelve group with Marlin
cigarettes pulled eighty percent using the soft feminine approach. Indications
are that an extension of this approach would influence at
least seventy percent nationwide. The direct elevator pitch pulled only
ten percent. They should be abandoned and a new series
of high persuasion personal elements introduced. Henry, do you know
what this means?
Speaker 13: I haven't the faintest idea.
Speaker 7: I don't blame you. This is crazy, but it fits
the facts when I think about it. Do you know
who's behind this? Martian? No, not martians, Henry. Humans What
humans were interested in developing the perfect propaganda machine?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 7: I don't know who they are or how they've done it,
but somehow they've taken Tyler Town over hypnosis, hypnosis, drugs,
maybe some kind of array or something. However they do
it What happens is that they let us live through
a single day. During that day, they pour all kinds
of suggestions and propaganda to into us. At the end
of the day, they evaluate the results, see how we've reacted,
And at midnight they washed the day out of our minds,
and the next morning we start the same day over again,
with different stimuli. Do you know what that means, Henry?
Suppose one man learned how to influence people one day
in a year, he could sell us anything from freezes
to political candidates. Wait a minute, where guinea pigs?
Speaker 13: Henry?
Speaker 7: This whole community is one big test tube for Dawton's
propaganda research. B What do we do? I don't know,
But somehow we've got to get out of this town
and get to the FBI.
Speaker 14: How do you think we can?
Speaker 7: It's worth a try.
Speaker 4: Come on, wait, what is it?
Speaker 6: Look through the door. There's somebody coming down the tunnel.
You've got to hide behind the circuit boxwa.
Speaker 7: Good lord, it's Dawton, the head of the research institute.
Speaker 15: All right, Burcott, come out, we know you're in this room.
Ms Horn has informed us that you remember, I must
warn you that it's useless to buck us come out peacefully.
Let our maintenance crew adjust you properly so you don't
remember from one experiment to the next.
Speaker 7: It will be quite painless.
Speaker 15: If you don't come out peacefully, we'll have to get you.
Speaker 7: Henry, take this wrench when I give the word jumping.
Speaker 13: But he may be armed, and we've got nothing to lose.
Speaker 15: Very well, I'm coming after you.
Speaker 4: Now, very god, I've killed him.
Speaker 7: Get his coat un buttoned. Maybe his heart still leading? Henry?
Speaker 13: What is it?
Speaker 4: What's wrong?
Speaker 7: Look underneath his coat? Heaven help us. It's a robot,
a humanoid robot design look like Dawton.
Speaker 14: Come on, let's get out of here.
Speaker 7: What's speaker?
Speaker 15: I told you it was useless? Gentleman, Who are you?
Mister Drton? Naturally the real mister Drton?
Speaker 4: What are you trying to do to us?
Speaker 15: Merely trying to prevent you from damaging my experiment? Gentlemen,
you can't.
Speaker 7: Get away with this Dawton. Sooner or later somebody, the
FBI or somebody is going to get wind of this madness.
Speaker 15: Really, Burhart, you're quite naive now. Why not be reasonable
and let the maintenance cruis adjust you?
Speaker 7: And if I refuse, I suppose you'll kill me.
Speaker 15: That would be quite impossible. Oh you see, Burhart, you're
already dead. Dead, you're shocked. It's quite true. You and
everyone else in this town were killed by a premature
atomic blast at the contro chemical plant. The blast occurred
at seven am on June fifteenth. That is the last
thing imprinted on your minds. That's why you wake up
screaming each morning.
Speaker 4: No, it isn't true, but it is.
Speaker 15: What I and my associates did was take the brain
circuits from your dead bodies. We stored them in electrochemical
batteries until we had a chance to rebuild the cities
and begin our tests.
Speaker 7: Do you think I believe a fantastic tale like that?
Speaker 15: I imagine you find it incredible. Of course, we didn't
rebuild everything exactly. After all, it only has to last
for a single day, June fifteenth. At midnight, we turn
off the power and wash out the memory of the day.
You're your friends once and unfortunately have defective circuits. You remember,
It's no use.
Speaker 7: We're trapped to give up, not me.
Speaker 4: What can we do?
Speaker 7: We can make a run for it down the tunnel.
Speaker 15: Come on, it's useless, Burker, keep going it's useless.
Speaker 9: Use first, you fir.
Speaker 4: Now this door is open. It opens.
Speaker 16: Oh no, no, I don't believe it.
Speaker 7: Swats and look.
Speaker 3: They were standing on a ledge of smooth, finished metal.
At their feet, the ledge dropped away into a chasm
so deep they could not see the bottom. Beyond was
only a glare so bright that their eyes could not
stand to look into it. And yet, just at the
limit of their vision, something towered, something so huge it
was almost inconceivable.
Speaker 15: Something work hurt. Yes, this is tortune. How do you
understand why it's useless?
Speaker 9: The great looming figure moved closer.
Speaker 3: It seemed to take shape now, and yet it was
so gigantic as to be unbelievable. It came closer, the
glare was partially blocked, and then Guy Burkhart knew that
the towering shape was none other than Dautchen himself.
Speaker 15: You see how I did it, Burkhert. I took your
brain circuits and had them reduced so they could be
transferred to tiny humanoid mannikins. That's what you are, Burkhart,
a tiny miniature of yourself. And this city, this whole
experiment I'm conducting, is built on a table.
Speaker 3: Top It was the morning of June fifteenth, and Guy
Burkhardt woke up out of a dream.
Speaker 4: Screaming, who have just heard?
Speaker 2: X minus one presented by the National Broadcasting Company in
cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, which this month features
another story by Tonight's author Frederick Paul. It's the second
installment of his novel slave Ship Your Announcer, Fred Collins.
X minus one was directed by Daniel Sutter and is
an NBC Radio Network production.