In just a moment, X minus one, but first, a quiz program does not always improve your IQ. But when it's an NBC radio quiz program, you can be sure it will improve your disposition. Yes, NBC offers listeners a laugh session every Wednesday night with two fun-filled question and answer shows. One is Truth or Consequences, and though you may never learn why a chicken crosses the road, you'll howl as contestants perform the stunts dreamed up by MC Jack Bailey. The other is You Bet Your Life, and with a quiz master like Groucho Marx, your good time is always guaranteed. Here, Truth or Consequences and You Bet Your Life tomorrow. Now stay tuned for X minus one on NBC. X minus one in one minute. This week is Military Reserve Week. If you're a young man between the ages of 17 and 18 and a half, you can fulfill your military obligation with only six months of active duty. You need no longer ask yourself, when will I be drafted? By joining the six-month Reserve Training Program, you become draft exempt and can plan your future with confidence. You are paid for your service while in training. You may be able to pick the exact job you want depending upon your aptitudes and Army vacancies. You may enlist in the program and then receive a deferment until you have finished high school. Your training will teach you to protect yourself and your family in any emergency. The training builds you physically and the technical skills you learn can help you later in your civilian career. There are many other big advantages for you in the six-month Training Program. Visit your Army Reserve Center for all the facts about your big opportunity in the six-month Training Program. Learn how you can plan your future with confidence. The book says, when the ship shall enter into the orbital pull of its destination, the motors will change in sound due to the increased anti-gravity components. A study is being made to interpret the meaning of the word destination, which was lost some 4,000 years ago and has always been a subject for much controversy. But this need not concern you. Suffice to be reassured that the change in the sound of the motors is a part of the scheme of things. Return to V schedule. The ship is all. Praise the ship. The ship is all. Praise the ship. Countdown 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 X minus one. Tonight, The Sense of Wonder by Milton Lesser. The huge ship sped endlessly through space on the voyage that had lasted 10,000 years, the journey which had no end. And for those aboard her, there was no other universe. To them, the ship was all. The ship is all. Ryckwood read the slogan embossed in raised letters of steel outside the door to the priest's compartment. The ship is all. His eyes wandered at the face of the young man standing next to him, his superior, Kreifer. The face had the empty unquestioning expression that was typical of the people of the ship. Are you ready, Kreifer? I am. Enter. Coming. Well? I am Kreifer, superior class, third level, compartment Y-51. Welcome. This is my attendant, Ryckwood. Be welcome. Praise the ship. Praise the ship. What is your mission? My superior schedule shows that today he is 25 units of age. He is ordered to appear before the priest of the third level to be given a woman. You have the schedule with you? Here. Good. You have your certificate of health and fertility? Show him the certificate, Ryckwood. Don't just stand there dreaming. Oh, yes. Here. Good. Return to your compartment. I will have the matron bring you a woman from the fourth level. Praise the ship. Praise the ship. Kreifer returned to his compartment followed by Ryckwood. There was no questioning in the mind of either of them. At birth, each of the people was classified as a superior or an attendant, and the coded marking of his schedule was tattooed on his right arm. Both of these young men were 25, strongly built, and tanned from constant exposure to the health rays in the ship's conditioning room. Kreifer wore the loose fitting robe of a superior. Ryckwood wore the tight trousers and shirt of an attendant. They entered the comfortably furnished compartment. Kreifer. Yes. What do you suppose she'll be like? What difference does it make? Don't you even wonder about it? I wonder about nothing. The ship is all. Praise the ship. Well, naturally, but still. Ryckwood, we've been together as superior and attendant ever since the nursery. As an attendant, your entire purpose in life is to keep me alive and productive, to perpetuate the people. I would hate to have to part with you now. Part with me? Not of my own choosing, of course, but sometimes I detect what appears to be a strain of unorthodox thinking. Really? I was not aware of it. I am not entirely aware of it myself. Not enough for me to report you. However, I must warn you that if it should increase, I will have to send you for therapy. Well, I assure you there'll be no need for that. I've never deviated from the schedule. I have never dissipated the buzzer. I am merely observing, asking questions like, don't you even wonder, this is the first step to unorthodoxy. I shall watch myself for signs of it. Good. Ah, the eating buzzer. Your schedule calls for a massive dose of multivitamins. Fine. Prepare it in the green vegetables today. Today is a starch day. Oh, I'd forgotten. We could just skip it today. Ryckwood. Well. Of course. Skipping the vitamins for one day is a permissible deviation, but I shall have to report for punishment tomorrow. Well. Skip the vitamins. I know we would. You've never missed a permissible deviation yet. It's your influence that makes me do it. And you always blame it on me. That's what attendance are for. Yes, I know. That must be the matron with the woman. Open the door. Maintain the utmost dignity, please. Yes. Is this the compartment of Krifer, third level Y-51? Yes. I am matron of the woman's level. At her. I am Ryckwood. Krifer's attendant. This is Krifer. I have brought a mate for you. This is she. Be welcome. Praise the ship. Praise the ship. Her name is Alyn. Welcome, Alyn. I am most happy to be here. Praise the ship. Thumb. I will show you which compartment is to be ours. This way. There are five compartments in this suite. And ours will be... Will you take food, matron? Why do you look at me that way? That mark on your forehead. You have always had such a mark? Yes. And you have another diamond shaped on your right shoulder? How could you know such a thing? I... Your name is Ryckwood. Ryckwood. How like him you look. How like whom? Your father. By what? Of course, you could not know the meaning. What do you say? When you were born, like any of the people of the ship, you were taken immediately and placed in the nursery of the ship. You never knew who sired you, nor did they know you. Naturally. It's according to the schedule. Yes. It's according to the schedule. I have a strange feeling toward you. I can't explain it. What sort of feeling, Ryckwood? As if we've met before. But that's impossible, of course. Yes. Still, there have been cases. It is almost heresy to mention it, where a mother has been able to keep her child for a while. Such a female would be turned over to the control chief and fed into the converter. If she were discovered. It is a criminal thing to do. It is said to walk the child so that he becomes a heretic at an early age. Yes, it is very, very criminal. Still, you say there have been cases. Once there was a woman, it is said, an attendant, who managed to conceal such a child behind one of the forbidden doors for almost three years. Behind the doors? It's unspeakable. Very likely, only a rumor. It's shocking to hear of such things. Behind the forbidden doors. You're shocked, and yet something seems to stir deep in your memory, perhaps. Nothing. You're certain? Why do you speak to me, Thesswoman? Come closer. What is it? Closer. Where there's no chance that we'll be overheard. Well? Ryckwood, you are that child. I will not listen. I will not listen. You are that child. How could you know such a thing? I am 70 units of age. 25 units ago, I was a matron of the nursery. This person came to me and told me of her child, which she had concealed in the space lock behind the forbidden door. She begged me to take it and place it in the nursery with the other children. I had been her attendant for many years, and we were close to each other. I did, as she asked. But are you certain this child is a child? I remember the marks upon it. And I am doomed. Why doomed? I have known my own parent. This accounts for the strange feelings that come over me sometimes. What feelings are those? Feeling... a sense of wonder. You seem pleased. Ryckwood. What? Your superior returns. I cannot speak. But if you would satisfy this sense of wonder... I would. I would. I would. I would. I would satisfy this sense of wonder. I have a book which I will give you. I cannot accept a book without the supervision of the ship's librarian. Take this one. Keep it concealed. Here. I... no, I... Take it quickly. They're coming. Well, what are you two whispering about? I was merely explaining to your attendant how he must behave in the presence of your mate. There is no need to explain. All is scheduled. Nothing is questioned. Praise the ship. Praise the ship. I hope that your union will produce the optimum number of children. I leave now. Alyn. Yes, Cruyfford. Your duties will be very simple. Ryckwood will teach you how to prepare my meals and you will memorize my schedule. In three months, he will be freed from service as my attendant and he will report to the second level to find a mate in the attendant class. Yes, Cruyfford. It's time for my health treatment. Teacher Ryckwood. Yes, Cruyfford. Come here. Closer where I may examine you. This is Cruyfford's schedule. You will memorize it. Yes. Here is a list of permissible deviations. Oh, I am familiar with it naturally. I see. I was not aware of what training you received on the women's level. The matron trained us well. Good. You have been with the matron a long time. Ever since I left the nursery. I see. What is she called? Mara. Mara. Tell me, did she ever speak to you of a sense of wonder? Are you of the control police? Certainly not. Then you should know better than to discuss feelings. I'm sorry. I thought perhaps. What's that? The change bell. There has been some change. It frightens me. What does it mean? I don't know. I heard it only once before. When the ship passed very close to a red planet, there was a shower of stars and the ship seemed to shake and the change bell rang. We were all summoned to the priest and told that we must undergo a test for radioactivity. What are we to do now? Ryckwood, Alyn, quickly. It is the change bell. We are all summoned to the priest of our level. Quickly. Within a few moments, the people of the third level of the ship were assembled in the area outside the compartment of Chul, the priest. They stood there trembling, listening and panicked to the clanger of the change bell, not daring to wonder what it meant, but aware that something different had happened. Something different. I'm frightened. Hush. The priest is coming. The ship is old. Praise the ship. Praise the ship. Listen to Chul, your priest. I have just been in contact with the chief priest of the ship. This is what I have been given to say. For 10,000 years now, ever since the ship began the voyage, which has no end, we have lived as one people following the schedule. In those years, the change bell has rung only twice. On one occasion, it was to announce a change in the schedule for the preservation of the people of the ship following the epidemic. On another occasion, the ship passed close to a radioactive explosion, and it was feared that we had become dangerously activated. Now the change bell has rung again. You wish to know the reason, naturally. I am given to tell you there has been a change in the sound of the motor. There is no cause for alarm. The priests have consulted the book, which no man may see save the high priest, and we have learned that there is in the book a provision for a change in the sound of the motors. The book says, when the ship shall enter into the orbital pool of its destination, the motors will change in sound due to the increased anti-gravity components. A study is being made to interpret the meaning of the word destination, which was lost some four thousand years ago and has always been a subject for much controversy. But this need not concern you. Suffice to be reassured that the change in the sound of the motors is a part of the scheme of things. Return to the schedule. The ship is all. Praise the ship. The ship is all. Praise the ship. On his way back to his compartment, Ryckwood stopped for a moment in front of the forbidden door, which led to no one knew what, and listened to the sound of the motors. Yes, it was true. There was a new sound. It was frightening, and yet at the same time it made Ryckwood's heart leap with expectation. He looked at the forbidden door again and read the warning. No unauthorized persons permitted through this door. Attendant? Yes. What's your name in compartment? Ryckwood, attendant to Krifer, third level Y-51. Who are you? Graf, control police. Why do you loiter outside the forbidden door? I was merely reading the warning, trying to impress it upon my brain. Is there a need to impress it? You have doubts? Well, no. No, of course not. Then why bother to impress it? If you have no doubts, there is no need to impress it. No, I don't. I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed. If you have doubts, there is no need to impress it. Well, I was merely... You see, I am engaged in the training of a mate for my superior. I wish to make certain that she knows every jot and line of the warning. Has she doubts? I'm sure she does not. Then why impress the warning upon her? It should be sufficiently impressed upon her since birth. I was merely... You were merely loitering, eh? Tell me, Ryckwood, do you ever wonder what is behind the forbidden door? Never. Are you perfectly content? Perfectly. Good. I'm going to enter your name in my report as a warning. See that it is not repeated. I will see. Return to your compartment. I will return. Praise the ship. Praise the ship. Ryckwood went back to his own compartment. He tried to push the events of the day out of his mind. It was almost too much to cope with. First the mate for Criper, then the news of his birth, now the change in the sound of the motors and the book. Ryckwood lay inside his bunk, drew the curtain, and took the tiny ancient plastic book from his trouser belt. He opened it and began to read. It was thought advisable to keep from the passengers on the ship the fact that their voyage might end in catastrophe. Forced to leave the earth because of its radioactivity following the three wars, the inhabitants of the ship, to all intents and purposes, became the inhabitants of a new world. The ship was their world. The organizers of the expedition felt it would be cruel to inform them that the ship's navigation machinery had been set in a series of ever-increasing circles and then ever-decreasing circles, so that in 10,000 years the ship would return to earth. That was the possibility that earth would no longer exist, or that the radioactivity would have made it uninhabitable, even if the remaining humans hadn't managed to explode it. Therefore the ship became all. Even the word destination was eliminated. If it were known that I had chronicled this account, I would most certainly be executed on the book described. Most likely it will pass into legend and be disbelieved anyway, just as fairy tales and even biblical accounts have become tolerated but disbelieved by many who were... The sleep buzzer sounded and Rycod's eyes closed automatically. Ordinarily the people of the ship did not dream. It was considered a sign that therapy was needed. Tonight Rycod dreamed. Rise, rise. Dress, dress. Eat, eat. Raise the ship. Rise, eat, dress. The ship is all. Rycod. No. Rycod. What? What is it? You've been dreaming. I heard you and came in to see what was troubling you. Where's Cryford? He sleeps like the dead. I was dreaming. Aelyn, look at me and tell me the truth. Do you ever dream? Duyant? Yes. I knew it. I could tell it by looking at your eyes. But you mustn't tell anyone. I won't. You were very close to the maitre, were you not? Yes. Did she ever read to you? Read? Did she ever read from this? Where did you get that? She gave it to me. Then you must be one of the trusted ones. Who are the trusted ones? Some of us. The women who were with the matron since we were very small. We've been trusted by her to hear the reading of this book. I see. If anyone found out... I know. Rycod. Yes. I... I feel very strange. I too. What is it? I don't know. Sometimes after the matron had read to us from the book, I would have this feeling, strange and frightened. And she would comfort us. Comfort? What does that mean? She would put her arms around us. And did that comfort you? Yes. How terribly strange. Rycod. Yes. Comfort me. Put your arms around me. Alyn. Please. Will you? Yes. Yes. Yes. On the following morning when Kreifer went to the conditioning room, as prescribed by the buzzer, Rycod drew Alyn over to the spaceport and slid aside the protective shield. Look. I am looking. Tell me what you see. I see the stars and space. Look closely. Do you see nothing unusual? I so seldom look through the spaceport. I'll tell you then. Look there. See that one star, so big and so bright that it hurts your eyes? Well? I've been watching it. It is growing larger each hour. Stars do that. Never has one been this large. What difference does it make? The stars exist only as pictures in the glass of the viewport. They're not real. The ship is old. That is what we are told, but perhaps it isn't true. What? Perhaps these stars do not exist only in the glass of the viewport. Perhaps they exist beyond the viewport. I don't understand. Let me say it this way once and forever. Perhaps, Alyn, the ship is not old. Rycod, your heresy frightens me. Rycod, hold me close. It frightens me even to look at you. Oh, Rycod, you mustn't even think it. I do think it. I believe it. I believe the ship is not old. And I believe you are a candidate for the converter. Cryford. Don't move, Rycod, or I'll blast you into dust. It is bad enough for an attendant even to touch his superior's mate, but to couple it with the ultimate heresy. There is nothing but death in this. Cryford, I beg of you. Stand aside, Alyn. I'm going to finish this heretic. Now, Rycod. Have I killed him? No, he's just stunned. Oh, Rycod, what can we do? I don't know. Rycod, the change bell again. Something's happening. I know what has happened. Come, we'll go to the priest. But about Cryford, he'll have us killed. No, it's too late to think of that. Come. Come, Alyn. Stand close to me. The priest is entering. Silence. Once again, the change bell has sounded. There has been another change. Doubtless you all felt the shock and the vibration a moment ago. I am informed that the motors have stopped. Silence. However, once again, there is no need for any panic or alarm. We will continue to live our lives just as before. The only thing that has changed is that the motors have stopped and that the view in the viewports has changed. Behold. Behold. The view in the viewports has been changed from the stars to a garden. That is all there is to it. The book makes mention of the fact that the view in the viewports is changeable. Go back to your compartments and resume the schedule. The buzzer will be your guide as always. The ship is all. The ship is all. Wait. No, I have something to say. Listen. This is what I have to say. The ship is no longer all. Keep back. I have my superior's ray gun. I will destroy any who move to seize me. Listen to what I have to say. The view in the viewports is not just a garden. It is the destination. It is the earth. Don't you understand me? We have arrived. We have reached the destination. The journey is over. We can leave the ship and go out into the garden. Fools, can't you understand? Watch the viewport. Watch it. The viewport is broken. I've shattered it. You can go out. Feel the air rush in. Smell its fragrance. Why could they not move? They don't understand. Seize him. Kill the heretic. Kill him. Why could they move in tortoise? Run. Follow me. Quick. After him. Death to the heretic. Rykart and Alyn ran down the long steel corridor with a crowd on their heels. After a few moments, they came to the forbidden door of the control room. Alyn, come here. I can't. I'll have to break the lock. Come on. Now close the door. Now the bar. We are safe here for a while. Not even the priests can come in here after us. They will find out what to do. I could look. Look at the machinery. It's frightening. We're in the control room. It tells about it in the book. You see this big machine here? There was a drawing in the book. This is the machine that controls the buzzer. Just a simple machine like that? Yes, a simple machine. Stand back. What are you going to do? Do? I'm going to smash it. Now. Now they're going to have to find a way to live without the buzzer. Rykart, they're breaking down the door. Come with me. Where can we go? There's nothing except the ship. No, there's more than the ship now, Alyn. There's the earth. The cool green earth. I'm going to smash the viewport. Come on. We're going to leave the ship. Rykart, I'm frightened. Put your arms around me. There's nothing to be afraid of. Come, Alyn. Take my hand. Here is the earth. And it is ours. You have just heard X minus one presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which this month features a story by F. L. Wallace titled Meserole Loves Company. The story is about a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man a man who is a from the pages of Galaxy written by Milton Lesser and adapted for radio by George Lefferts featured in the cast were James Monks, Bill Quinn, Edwin Jerome, Vera Allen, Rita Lloyd, Joe DeSantis and Dick Hamilton. Raymond Edward Johnson was the narrator. Your announcer Fred Collins. X-1 was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC radio network production.
