This is Nightline, your open door to people and places, and this is Walter O'Keefe. Nightline invites you to listen in on NBC's award-winning science fiction series, X-1. Now escape to a world of the future. Countdown for blast-off. X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one, fire. From the far horizons of the unknown come 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, Volplaw by Wyman Gwym. But first, hear this. Hello, I'm Dorothy Olson, singing schoolteacher on NBC's big weekday musical show Bandstand. But right now, I'd like to talk to you parents. I'd like to ask you a few questions as you're getting ready to send your youngsters back to school. Are you helping your child get the most out of his school? Do you make his home conditions favorable enough for him to do his homework? Do you show an interest in his schoolwork? Remember, your child's success in school and later on in life depends to a large degree on your attitude towards his schooling today. And there's another important thing, everyone needs a good sendoff in the morning, and that goes for children too. Be sure your children have a substantial breakfast and a cheery goodbye before they head for school each day. Remember, you can't expect your child to do it all himself. Encourage him in his schooling, both in your attitude and in your actions as he goes back to school this fall. Now, X minus one and bolt block. Lunch, dear. I'll be right there. Come on, you old hermit. I have a buffet on the terrace. I'm coming. So I'm an old hermit, am I? And our daughter says I'm eccentric now. I wonder how the devil she ever found out. From me, of course. But you love me just the same. Oh, that's what got into you. Stop it. Oh, I reached the dangerous age. And lady, I'm going to have fun. Well, come on out to the terrace. The hamburgers will get cold. My dear, I'm going to have a new kind of fun. Oh? It's a joke. I'm going to play a tremendous joke on the whole world. I had been working for this moment for 10 years and now, voulplas, three of them, a male and two females. I had called them voulplas since that day 10 years ago when I got the idea of creating a flying mutant which I would teach to feed, play, and talk. Now I was almost ready to play my joke on the world. After lunch, when I returned to the lab, the voulplas were moving about on the mattress where I'd placed them and the male was trying to stand. They were about 28 inches high. Except for the face, chest, and belly, the voulplas were covered with a soft, almost golden down. The skin was pink. On his head and across his shoulders, the male had a shock of fur as soft as a chinchilla. The cranium was in the same proportion to the body as it is in the human and they were shockingly human-eyed. When the male spread his arms, the span was 48 inches. I held his arms out and tried to tease the spars open. These spars turned backward and ran alongside the wrist almost to the elbow. Powerful wrist muscles could snap them outward and forward. Suddenly, as I teased the male voulpla, this happened. The spars shot outward, adding nine inches to each side of his span. The lateral skin that had until now been resting in folds was tightened into a golden plane that stretched from the tip of the spar to his waist, a true gliding plane, perhaps even a soaring plane. By four o'clock that afternoon, they were ready for their first solid food. Come on now, here, hold the cup. That's the way, hold the cup. Oh, you're a beauty, you're all beauties. No, no, no, come on. Hey, don't climb in my back. No, no, no, no, stop. Oh, that's better. Oh, hello pretty one. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. So that's the way it's gonna be, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Wonderful, wonderful. Oh, you have no idea what I have in store for you, my dear. I will teach you a language, perhaps English, a simple basic English. You will have your own crafts and you'll live in small tree houses and I'll teach you legends that you came from the stars, that you watched the red men and the white men and you listened to their speech. And when you're able to take care of yourselves, I'll turn you loose. There'll be Volpla colonies up and down the coast before anyone suspects. And then my dear, one day somebody will see a Volpla and the scientists will observe them. Then the legends will come. Isn't that funny? Don't you think that's terribly funny? Funny, funny, funny, funny, funny, funny. You're listening to Volpla. Now back to X minus one and act two of Volpla. I used the metabolic accelerator to cut the Volpla's gestation down to one week and I used it to bring the infants to maturity in one month. By the next spring I had a colony of over a hundred Volplas and I shut down the accelerator. From now on they could have their babies in their own way. I had devised a language for them and I carefully adulterated it with English as if they had observed us and learned. My Volplas were amazing. They were bilingual. Christine and Susie went down to Santa Barbara for a week and I took the opportunity to ship the male and the oldest two females out of the lab. I put them in a jeep beside me and drove to a secluded valley about a mile back in the ranch. Tree, tree, tree, rock, sky, sky, sky. That's right chief, that's the sky. All right, come on now, everybody out. Run, jump. Jump, jump, run, run, run, sky, sky, sky. That's right, that's right, take off. He spent about two hours chasing the two girl Volplas around and then he made a leap for one. And when he spread his arms his spars snapped out and those golden planes sheared into the air. He sailed over her and he rose up and he hung in the breeze for a long moment three feet above the ground. Fly, fly, fly. That's right, you can fly. Oh fly, fly, fly. They learned quickly and brilliantly. They were not really flyers, they were gliders and sorers. Before long they took agilely to the trees and launched themselves in beautiful glides for hundreds of feet, banking and turning and spiraling to a gentle halt. Oh, I laughed out loud with anticipation. Wait until the first pair of these is brought before a sheriff. Wait till the newspaper reporters are routed out into the hills to witness this. When they were tired the Volplas lay on their backs with their planes stretched out. The oldest one came over to me. He squatted, his elbows resting in the ground, his wrists crossed at his chest. Before the Red Men we live here. That's right. In places like these you lived all along these mountains. Now there are very few of you left. Since you've been staying in my place you've naturally forgotten the ways of living outdoors. We learn again. We stay here. That's right. Now look, look, you see up in that tree? That's a bird. That's your food if you can kill it. How? Well I don't think you can get at them in the tree. You'll have to soar up above and catch one of them on the wing when they fly away. Go ahead, try. He climbed the tree and launched himself and caught a warm updraft from the hillside. In no time he was about 200 feet away. He began working his way crisscrossing back to us and then suddenly he died. He caught the bird. He caught the bird. Bird, bird, bird. We eat. We eat. We eat. Yes, yes, you eat this. I'll show you how to build a fire. Again I told them the story I had made up. How they came long before the red men in a ship from the stars. I taught them to point to the planet Venus and say that was the star they came from. I grinned to think of a mini story that would be written in the Sunday supplements. Oh what a great joke I was playing in the world. He came from the star before the red man from the star. Yes, yes. The next week I brought all the volklists out to the oak wood. There were 107 men, women and children. By the end of the week they were scattered over four square miles of the ranch. They hunted sparrows and cooked them over tiny fires. The little creatures delighted me more and more. For hours I could watch them play. I could sit all afternoon and watch them at work in a tree house, quite forgetting to go home. Well, how does the mighty hunter who now returns from the forest? Fine. Oh I've been enjoying the local animal life. So has our daughter. What do you mean? She has two of them up in her room. Two what? I don't know. What do you call them? I went up the stairs three at a time and burst into my daughter's room. There she sat in her bed reading a book to two volklists. Hello there, King Arthur. What's going on here? Oh nothing daddy. We're just reading like we always do. Like always? How long has this been going on? Oh weeks and weeks. How long has it been since that first time you came here to visit me? Oh weeks and weeks. But you're teaching them to read. Oh of course. This is good pupils and so grateful. Daddy you won't make them go away will you? Jane why did you tell me such a thing like this was going on? Now you listen to me mister. Your whole life is a secret from us. Just what makes you think your daughter can't have a little secret of her own? Oh fine secret. Didn't it occur to you that this might be dangerous? Those creatures are... Oh Max for heaven's sake they're sweet lovable little creatures without a harm in their furry little bodies. Now don't get excited. Chief! Chief! Look where are you? Here Bush. Listen. Listen. Do you realize there are two vopulas in my daughter's bedroom? Yes they go there every day. Is there anything wrong with that? But she's teaching them the words men put on paper. Yes you told us men may be enemies. We wish to learn so we can protect. I have thing here. That's the San Francisco Chronicle. We've been taking it for some time from box at your house. I have learned from the others. I can read most of this. It was terrible. The whole wonderful joke of the vopulas would be lost. But I knew what I would have to do. I'd have to well I'd have to explain that my family and I had found a colony of them in our ranch and taught them English and taught them to read. I was stuck with that. Men are dangerous. They will shoot us with guns if we leave here. No no now listen. When they know who you are they'll leave you alone. Now you must disperse all your families at once. Send them far away and spread out. No we cannot leave these woods. Men would shoot us. But I'm telling you. Perhaps you are not a good friend. Perhaps you have lied to us. Why are you saying we should leave these woods? But it's important. The whole I mean you'll be safer. We will decide. The whole thing was critical. It could be disastrous. I went back to the house and up to Susie's room. I found her talking to two vopulas. Oh no no I'm sure you didn't come from the stars. That doesn't sound right. The more I think about it the more I'm sure that my father made you. Susie what business have you telling them that? I don't want you talking to them that way. Do you hear me? Susie you want to play a joke don't you? Like the time you said I could have a horse for my birthday. You gave me that dried seahorse in the bottle instead of a real one. Were you going to make that kind of a joke? No now now Susie honey that isn't exactly it. No. I don't think it's very funny. The vopulas are my friends. I wouldn't want to play a practical joke on them. Chief! Chief where are you? Chief! You know I'm confounded the pirates are out and none of them around. Chief are you up there in that tree house? Where are you? Where are all of you? You've got to listen to me. I made you. The joke the whole joke is spoiled. Where are you? Chief! Vopulas! I was away from the house for hours. When I came back I found Jane sitting on the terrace. Are you looking for something dear? Oh never mind. I suppose they're all gone. What do you mean? The little flying thing. I saw them fly by about four in the afternoon. You did? Where did they go? Over that way. You could see them soaring over the trees. Oh it was so pretty. Where's Susie? She's been watching television. She's all excited about the rocket flight you know. What rocket? Oh you have been living in the woods. The Venus rocket. My goodness it's been in all the newspapers. Where are you going? I've got to talk to Susie. Susie! Susie! Daddy the rocket's almost ready to go. Listen! It approaches zero hour now. The rocket stands tall and silvery. The gantry crane is pulled away now. We're actually at least five miles away watching from the remote monitors. Some disturbance now. It seems to be some birds. Big birds like a flock of owls circling the ship. Oh daddy look! Hey wait a minute. They're flying through the hatch. It seems to be jammed open. This is certainly an unforeseen development. The men on the ground are driving a motor driven ladder up to the ship and the owls seem to be fighting them off. There goes the hatch. It's closed. Those birds are inside and they're big birds, big as eagles. As we told you previously ladies and gentlemen the rocket is on automatic fire. It'll go off in precisely ten seconds. We stared at the television screen. We saw the red blast of fire and the silvery rocket streak up into the sky. The camera is following. Our reporter at scientific headquarters reports that none of the rocket telemeters are recording. The owls who blundered into the open hatch in this heartbreaking accident seem to have disrupted the automatic recorders. The control circuit cannot be altered. The rocket will land on Venus as scheduled. Daddy those weren't owls were they? No, no they weren't. Owls? He thought they were owls. That's kind of a joke isn't it? Isn't it a joke daddy? I'd say Max dear the joke's on you. Wait till men land on Venus and find Venusians with a legend about their great father in California. Of course they left me a note. The handwriting wasn't very good but then you wouldn't write very well either if your index finger was nine inches long. I sat on the patio and read the Volpla's farewell. I said the man who made us we forgive you. We know we did not come from the stars but we go there. I the chief give you welcome to visit. We will try not to laugh at you. Goodbye. Fred Collins speaking and I'll have a word for you about tonight's X minus one in a moment. Say Bird Park my true story's coming our way. Monday is the moving day. That's good news for me. My true story on NBC. Well that's good news for everybody Dorothy Olsen for all the millions of women who've been faithful listeners to my true story during its 15 fabulous years in radio and for all the millions more who now have an opportunity to hear these complete stories every weekday morning in the half hour time period just before our NBC bandstand. And I think we ought to remind everyone Bert that this is the same my true story that has been one of radio's most popular morning programs with a complete drama every morning about people and their problems still acted by wonderful casts and adapted by Margaret Sangster for material supplied by two story magazine. Same time but new station. So take note and don't miss a single broadcast starting Monday September 2nd. You'll hear my true story at this spot on your dial just before NBC bandstand over most of these NBC stations. You have just heard X minus one presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. Your announcer Fred Collins. X minus one was an NBC radio network production. There's excitement in the air at night and Nightline brings it to you. Here Nightline with Walter O'Keefe next on most of these NBC stations.
