SOUND:
HIGH-PITCHED ELECTRONIC HUM ... JOINED BY ELECTRONIC BEEPING IN AGREEMENT WITH COUNTDOWN
ANNOUNCER:
Countdown for blast-off. X minus five, four, three, two. X minus one. Fire.
SOUND:
A MOMENT'S SILENCE ... THEN ROCKET SHIP BLASTS OFF
MUSIC:
BUILDS VERTIGINOUSLY TO A CLIMAX ... THEN IN BG
ANNOUNCER:
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 -- (HEAVY ECHO) X Minus One!
MUSIC:
TO A CLIMAX ... THEN OUT
ANNOUNCER:
Tonight's story, "First Contact" by Murray Leinster.
MUSIC:
FOR A MAJESTIC INTRODUCTION ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
NARRATOR:
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. [X]
SOUND:
ALARM ... THEN IN BG, FADES OUT AT [Y]
DORT:
Solid object, about ninety thousand miles away, sir.
CAPTAIN:
Locate it, Dort -- exactly. Identify it.
DORT:
(BEAT) A small object, sir. [Y] Captain, I've never seen anything like this before! Whatever it is out there is coming toward us at an incredible speed and retreating to zero just as rapidly!
CAPTAIN:
What's the mass of the object, Dort?
DORT:
Well, it varies with the distance from us, sir.
CAPTAIN:
Step up the scanners.
SOUND:
BLOOP! BLEEP! SCANNERS STEPPED UP, CONTINUES IN BG
DORT:
Nothing, sir. Absolutely nothing shows out there. And yet there must be something. Those alarms are foolproof.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH ... ALERT BELL SOUNDS, CONTINUES IN BG, OUT AT [Y]
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Action stations. Man all weapons. Condition of extreme alert in all departments immediately.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
DORT:
Captain, what is it?
CAPTAIN:
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 as something solid -- and monstrous.
DORT:
Captain, we're the only Earth ship in eighteen light-years around. How--?
CAPTAIN:
I didn't say it was another Earth ship out there, Dort. [Y]
DORT:
(BEAT, LOW) Another race?
CAPTAIN:
That's right. There's a spaceship out there all right. But it's not manned by human beings.
MUSIC:
BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
NARRATOR:
It had been contemplated and speculated upon. Mathematically, it was almost a certainty that such a race existed. But, in eighteen 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 shape, of what quality, of what psychology? [X]
SOUND:
BLOOP! BLEEP! OF SCANNERS, THEN IN BG, IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING ... ALERT BELL, THEN IN BG BRIEFLY, THEN FADES OUT
DORT:
It's moving, sir. Heading right for us.
CAPTAIN:
At that speed, we'll be in touch in ten minutes. Heading right for us, huh? Just what we'd do if a strange ship appeared in our hunting grounds. Friendly? Well, maybe. We'll try to contact them. We have to do that. But friendly? Thank the Lord for the blasters.
DORT:
They may not be hostile, sir.
CAPTAIN:
Well, they may be. That's what I'm paid for, put on this job for -- to worry about the troubles that may never happen.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) To all hands, now hear this. A ship is approaching, manned 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.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
DORT:
Their ship is slowing down, sir. It's stopped.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Weapons Department, report. Weapons Department, report.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
WEAPONS:
(FILTER) Alien ship remarked. Target fixed. Weapons alert.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Communications Department, report. Communications Department, report.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
COMMUNICATIONS:
(FILTER) We're receiving a modulated short wave, sir. Frequency modulated. Apparently a signal. Not enough power to do us any harm.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Well, try to make some sense out of it. Report any progress to me immediately.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
DORT:
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.
CAPTAIN:
We'll see, we'll see. What are they doing now? Can you make out the Locator Screen? Bring that power up.
DORT:
They're doing something now, sir. There's a section of the hull opening. Probably an air lock, sir.
CAPTAIN:
If they breathe air.
DORT:
They're letting something out. It's round. A bomb, sir?
WEAPONS:
(FILTER) Unknown object released from alien ship. Observed by Weapons Department and targeted.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Stand by.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
DORT:
See what they're doing, sir? They've left the object out there -- right where they were. And now they're withdrawing the ship.
CAPTAIN:
There's no reason that object couldn't be a bomb, Mr. Dort -- intended to let us think precisely as you're thinking right now.
DORT:
I just have a hunch, sir. I think they're friendly. I think whatever it is out there is a means of communication.
CAPTAIN:
You're probably right. But I won't gamble the ship on a probability.
DORT:
Sir, I'd like to volunteer to go out there and look that thing over.
CAPTAIN:
You understand whoever does examine it - is expendable.
DORT:
Yes, sir.
CAPTAIN:
Requisition a life boat.
DORT:
If it's all right with you, sir, I'd prefer just a suit with a 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.
CAPTAIN:
You may leave when you're ready.
DORT:
Thank you, sir.
MUSIC:
BRIEF BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG
DORT:
(FILTER) I'm all ready. Clear the lock and let me out.
SOUND:
AIR LOCK DOOR OPENS
WEAPONS:
(FILTER) Weapons Department, reporting to the captain. Mr. Dort located. Mr. Dort is targeted.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Stand by. If 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 Mr. Dort. Stand by.
MUSIC:
UP ... TO FILL A TENSE PAUSE ... THEN FADES OUT
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Mr. Dort? Mr. Dort? Report.
DORT:
(FILTER) Object, as you can see on the scanner, sir, is covered with many small horns -- like the detonating horns of the obsolete mines formerly used in naval warfare.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Is that their purpose, do you assume, Mr. Dort?
DORT:
(FILTER) I'm gonna find out, sir. I'm going to grab one.
CAPTAIN:
(TENSE PAUSE, INTO COM) Mr. Dort?
DORT:
(RELIEVED, FILTER) I'm here, sir. I don't think this is a mine.
CAPTAIN: (INTO COM) Circle it so we can see it completely through your scanner.
DORT:
(PAUSE, FILTER) Deadlock, sir. Nothing to report that the scanner hasn't shown you. Oh, wait a minute, sir! A section of the outer hull seems to be opening. Do you see it?
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Very good, Dort. Hold that.
DORT:
(FILTER) I'm sure it's a communications device, sir.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Looks like it. Fix your scanner so it'll focus on that communications device. Return to the ship.
MUSIC:
BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG
CAPTAIN:
(FILTER) Communications Department, Communications Department. Progress report, please.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
DORT:
We've established communications, sir.
CAPTAIN:
(FILTER) Is there a psychologist on the team down there with you?
DORT:
Yes, sir. Mr. Burns is working with us.
CAPTAIN:
(FILTER) Will both of you please report to the bridge at once?
MUSIC:
UP FOR A BRIEF BRIDGE ... THEN FADE OUT
CAPTAIN:
You look tired, Dort.
DORT:
We've established fairly satisfactory communications, sir. They seem to have high-developed thought patterns. We got a satisfactory translation from the machine on the fourth attempt. We can say almost anything we want to say to each other now. Of course, how much of what they tell us is the truth, we have no way of knowing.
CAPTAIN:
Mr. Burns, you're the psychologist. What do you think?
BURNS:
Well, I don't know, sir. They seem to be completely direct. They haven't let slip even a hint of the tenseness we know exists. They act as if they were setting up a means of communications for friendly conversation but-- Well, there's an overtone that-- (TRAILS OFF)
CAPTAIN:
Yeah? Well, Mr. Burns, I have a decision to make. On the one hand, opening contact with a friendly people of a vastly different culture could only be beneficial to us of Earth. On the other hand, if they're hostile, I ought to blast them out of existence -- without any other preliminaries.
DORT:
Oh, but, sir, you can't--!
CAPTAIN:
I'm not talking to you, Dort.
BURNS:
(BEAT) It's not warranted yet, sir.
CAPTAIN:
Yes. (CLEARS THROAT)
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) 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.
MUSIC:
BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
NARRATOR:
Communication continued by means of the artificial language set up arbitrarily between the Earthmen and the aliens, decoded by the mechanical decoders. Dort disobeyed orders. He lived on powerful stimulants so that he could stay with the communications machine -- talking, talking, talking to the aliens. [X]
SOUND:
MECHANICAL DECODER BACKGROUND
DORT:
(INTO COM) Other People, Other People -- are we being received?
ALIEN:
(FILTER) We are receiving your message.
DORT:
(INTO COM) The chief of this ship wishes to speak with the chief of your ship.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) 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.
DORT:
(TO CAPTAIN) Go ahead, sir.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) 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.
CHIEF:
(FILTER, MEASURED) 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?
DORT:
(BEAT, TO CAPTAIN) That's all, sir. They've stopped sending.
CAPTAIN:
Very direct people. Very direct.
DORT:
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?"
CAPTAIN:
It means what it says, Dort.
DORT:
Sir, what's to stop us from just cutting communication and leaving? And they can do likewise.
CAPTAIN:
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 policy makers on Earth will come to?
DORT:
Sir, even if they do follow us, the closer we get to home, the more of our ships and weapons they'll face. They'd never get away.
CAPTAIN:
Well, how do you know that they can't communicate with their home planet without returning?
DORT:
We can't, sir.
CAPTAIN:
How do you know they can't?
DORT:
(SLOWLY) I don't, sir.
CAPTAIN:
Mm hm. So that's the situation. We'll sit out here -- facing each other, trying to outguess each other -- until time wears us out, and we'll have to face the fact. Either they destroy us or we destroy them.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Navigation Officer, attention. Navigation Officer, attention. Every star map on this ship is to be prepared for instant destruction.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
ALIEN:
(FILTER) The chief of this ship wishes to know whether the chief of that ship can suggest an answer to the problem concerning us both.
DORT:
Do you want me to answer that, sir?
CAPTAIN:
I'll answer it myself. Tell me when to talk.
DORT:
(BEAT) Now, sir.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) 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?
CHIEF:
(FILTER) What would a truce gain? Could we trust you? Would you trust us? I suggest that we continue as we have, up to this particle of time.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) I agree. (QUIETLY) Sign off, Dort.
SOUND:
MECHANICAL DECODER BACKGROUND OUT ... THEN--
MUSIC:
BRIDGE ... FOR THE PASSAGE OF TIME ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
NARRATOR:
Weeks went by. And, during the weeks, the exchange of information continued without let-up. [X]
SOUND:
MECHANICAL DECODER BACKGROUND
DORT:
(INTO COM) What particle of time are the people on that ship at?
ALIEN:
(FILTER) The Resting Time. All rest except myself and others on Alert Duty.
DORT:
(INTO COM) Same on this ship.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) You people of that ship are very similar in many ways. Do you have - a family?
DORT:
(INTO COM) I have a mate.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) I have a mate and three offspring. It is too bad for them as well as us to have to kill each other.
DORT:
(INTO COM) This ship can't see any way out of it. Can that ship?
ALIEN:
(FILTER) 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 were able to. That ship would do the same. But this ship feels sorry about it.
DORT:
(INTO COM) I believe you're a friend.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) 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.
MUSIC:
MELANCHOLY BRIDGE
SOUND:
DORT'S PACING FOOTSTEPS ... THEN OUT BEHIND--
CAPTAIN:
Just sit down, Dort. Control yourself. We're all under tension. Doesn't do any good to pace like some caged animal.
DORT:
Yes, sir.
CAPTAIN:
All right now, I've read the complete transcription of your conversations with this one alien. What does it prove, Dort?
DORT:
Sir, these people are so much like us in their thinking-- Well, sir, they're likable.
CAPTAIN:
They're likable and they breathe oxygen. Their air is twenty-eight percent oxygen instead of twenty. They could do very well on Earth. It'd be a highly desirable conquest for them. Dort, I'm as set against violence as you are. But I don't see any way out of this. 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.
MUSIC:
BRIDGE
SOUND:
MECHANICAL DECODER BACKGROUND
ALIEN:
(FILTER) Will that ship receive communications? Will that ship receive communications?
DORT:
(INTO COM) This ship is listening.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) It seems to me better to communicate than to sit by the machine silently.
DORT:
(INTO COM) I would have called you but you signed off before.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) The problem goes around and around. I find no answer.
DORT:
(INTO COM) Perhaps we could turn our thoughts to other things.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) 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 a hundred time particles.
DORT:
(INTO COM, COOL) I have no communication on this matter.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) Well, this ship is not trying to extract unwilling information from that ship. A truth is mentioned in passing.
DORT: (INTO COM, WARNING) A report of this conversation will be carried to the chief of this ship.
ALIEN:
(FILTER, RESIGNED) It would be so. We are prepared.
DORT:
(INTO COM) If only the people of this ship could meet in direct contact with the people of that ship. It might be better.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) We could not communicate then. 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.
DORT:
(INTO COM) That's true.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) I - am sad. Much that is pleasant has passed between us.
DORT:
(INTO COM) I am sad, too.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) We are not yet ready for each other.
DORT:
(INTO COM, RELUCTANTLY AGREES) We are not yet ready for each other.
CAPTAIN:
(BEAT) It's hard, isn't it, Dort?
DORT:
(MILDLY STARTLED) Oh, captain. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here, sir.
CAPTAIN:
I've been here for quite a while. Eavesdropping, I'm afraid.
DORT:
It's all right, sir. Nothing can be personal in a situation like this.
CAPTAIN:
Yeah, that's right. How long is a hundred time particles, Dort?
DORT:
Pardon, sir?
CAPTAIN:
That reference he made to us not being able to stand tension is - interesting. Their psychologists seem to make more out of us than we do out of them, don't they?
DORT:
Yes, sir. They hit the nail right on the head.
CAPTAIN:
Yes, they did. I think, Dort, we'll just have to push our timetable up a bit. No further communication with the aliens under any circumstances. That's clear, isn't it?
DORT:
Yes, sir. (BEAT) Sir, if they know so much about our psychology, isn't it possible that remark was intended to make us act more quickly?
CAPTAIN:
Probable, Dort. Probable.
DORT:
But why would they do that, sir? Why?
CAPTAIN:
You tell me why, Dort.
DORT:
All of a sudden I have an idea, sir. And it's crazy.
CAPTAIN:
It doesn't matter how crazy -- I'll listen to it.
DORT:
Sir, I think these people are playing some kind of a joke on us.
CAPTAIN:
Joke? A joke, Dort?
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.
CAPTAIN:
Well, maybe you're right. In which case-- You've seen practical jokers, Dort? Their jokes aren't always funny. Sometimes they hurt people.
MUSIC:
BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
SOUND:
ALERT BELL ... CONTINUES IN BG BRIEFLY, THEN FADES OUT
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) All departments, man Instant Alert. All departments, man Instant Alert. Report instantly! Report instantly!
WEAPONS:
(FILTER) Weapons Department alerted.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Target -- the enemy ship!
WEAPONS:
(FILTER) On target, sir.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Stand by! (TENSE PAUSE) Fire! [X]
SOUND:
BLASTERS FIRE! ... THEN FADE OUT
DORT:
(PAUSE, SADLY) They're gone, sir. Not a trace of them left. Not a tiny trace. Now we can go home.
MUSIC:
BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG
COMMUNICATIONS:
(FILTER) Communications to captain, Communications to captain.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Report.
COMMUNICATIONS:
(FILTER) Sir, I'm picking up new signals. Same frequency as the original alien signals.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) That's impossible. That ship was destroyed.
COMMUNICATIONS:
(FILTER) I'm receiving signals, sir.
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Set the machine up. We'll be down there in a minute. (CALLS) Mr. Dort, come with me, please!
MUSIC:
UP FOR AN ACCENT ... THEN FADES OUT
SOUND:
MECHANICAL DECODER BACKGROUND
CHIEF:
(FILTER) It's good to be on the way home.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) Yes, it is good.
CHIEF:
(FILTER) Do you suppose we'll ever figure out what happened to the other ship?
ALIEN:
(FILTER) Never. A blinding flash and -- and they were gone.
CHIEF:
(FILTER) 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.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) It seems reasonable.
CHIEF:
(FILTER) They must have had powerful weapons to destroy themselves so completely.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) Yes, what a shame.
CHIEF:
(FILTER) In a way, I grew to like them.
DORT:
(TO CAPTAIN) This isn't meant for us, sir. I don't know what's happening but I think we're overhearing a private conversation.
CAPTAIN:
(QUICKLY) I understand, Dort. Be quiet, will you?
CHIEF:
(FILTER) Many things might have come out of a relationship with that people.
ALIEN:
(FILTER) They were describing a disease they call "cancer." I think it is similar to the Frogurn Syndrome. We might have helped them.
CHIEF:
(FILTER) 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-- (STARTS TO FADE OUT) There are no figures for such odds, are there? (FADES OUT)
CAPTAIN:
Turn it up, Dort! Turn it up louder!
DORT:
(PAUSE) That's all there is, sir. The signal stopped there.
SOUND:
DECODER POWERS DOWN TO SILENCE
DORT:
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.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
CAPTAIN:
(INTO COM) Captain to Engineering Department. Halt forward motion.
SOUND:
CLICK! OF SWITCH
DORT:
Captain, why are we stopping?
CAPTAIN:
Listen, Dort, you say they're invisible. All right, they are. But they're not destroyed because we just heard them! They're out there somewhere -- invisible.
DORT:
Well, you heard them, sir. They're heading for home. We're invisible to them, too, sir.
CAPTAIN:
How do you know, Dort? How do you know this whole thing isn't a set-up?
DORT:
Well, suppose that's true, captain. You heard their conversation. They weren't talking like any monstrous people. They seemed decent and warm -- just as decent and warm as we are!
CAPTAIN:
How do you know this conversation wasn't planted -- deliberately set up for us to hear? How do you know that, Dort?
DORT:
(PAUSE, SIGHS) 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.
CAPTAIN:
You said they had a sense of humor, 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?
DORT:
Yeah, but we don't know that they did that, sir.
CAPTAIN:
And we don't know that they didn't. We don't know anything.
DORT:
Sir? Does that mean we never go home again?
CAPTAIN:
I don't know. I have to think about it. (BEAT) I have to think about it.
MUSIC:
FOR AN UNCERTAIN FINISH
ANNOUNCER:
You have just heard "X Minus One," presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction.
MUSIC:
CLOSING THEME ... IN BG, FADES OUT AT [X]
ANNOUNCER:
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, Clarke Gordon, William Lally and Stan Early. Your announcer, Fred Collins. "X Minus One" was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio Network production.
MUSIC:
TO A FINISH
NBC ANNCR:
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.
MUSIC:
NBC CHIMES