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 a wind is rising by Finn O'Donovan. But first, hear this. Now X minus one, and tonight's story, a wind is rising. I'd only been on Karela for eight months. Not long for a seasoned advanced exploration man like myself, but long enough to know one thing. Before long I was going to kill me a native Karelin. Maybe I was a little edgy. When you have to live inside a steel and concrete capsule just listening to that fantastic wind howl 24 hours a day, it begins to get you. Anyway it started with Smanick. He was our Karelin radio man, came up to my quarters to get me. Smanick's arms are a dirty brown and look something like big spiders with five hairy tentacles. Smanick, Earthman. Well? Other Earthman, tell Smanick, tell this Earthman, come pretty quick. Okay. You got lumped sugar. What for? Smanick do something favor, get lumped sugar. No, I don't have sugar, now beat it. Maybe you got dead meat. Smanick like dead meat. No, no meat. Now get your slimy shape out of here. Pletons. Yeah, what's wrong? Come on down with me. Pletons, I don't think it's good to insult these Karelins. They have no feelings, you know that. They have no emotional nervous set up. Just the same, I don't think it's good. For who? For you. When you insult somebody by your own standards you hurt yourself. Even if the object of your insult is a dead thing. Now look, Neri Shev, I'm an advanced exploration expert. You're an anthropologist. You stick to your stuff and I'll stick to mine. Sorry. Now what's the fuss about? The water fusses. What about it? It isn't running. What? I pounded it and put a probe in it. It must be blocked out at the storage tank. How could it be blocked out there? I don't know, maybe the wind rolled a boulder at it. More likely one of those spiders like Smanick was fiddling with it. The natives have been told not to tamper with the water line. They don't like us, they might. I thought you said they were incapable of feeling like or dislike or any emotion. I did. I know they can't feel, but still somehow I get the sensation that they resent us. I'm glad we've only got one of them inside the station. Regardless of that, we can't live without water supply cut off. Listen to that wind, it'll be murder out there. I'll go, it's my turn. You wouldn't know what to do if you got there. It seems quite simple. Come to think of it, it could be a two man job if there's a boulder. The wind gauge reads 82 miles an hour. Just a light breeze on Karela. Maybe we ought to wait till it drops a little. Let's ask the gink. Why do we take him along? The gink? He knows the terrain and like all his kind, he's a fantastic sailor. They take those woven land boats out in 100 mile winds with no qualms at all. The brood has 14 tons and it has a diesel engine. We don't need any sailors. If we have to use a steadying sail, I can handle it as well as any spider man. Just a suggestion. You stick to anthropology. Open the locks and we'll get the brood out. I'll need Smanick to close the locks after us. Smanick. Smanick. Smanick. It's man call. Clayton and I are going out in a heavy land car. What's the weather going to be like? Wind come up along little more. Not anything to be afraid. You got sugar. Oh, here you are, Smanick. Very good sailing today. You got sail on truck. We have a steadying sail made of steel. Woven reeds. More better. A more easy time. We know all about that. Open the lock, Nereshev. The brood, as we called it, was armored like a tank and streamlined. It had vision slits of shatterproof glass and most of its 14 tons were centered near the ground. It was sealed from dust and had six giant tires made of woven steel mesh. It was built to take the rocky terrain of the planet Karela and navigate in the gale force winds that battered the planet. I strapped myself into the cockpit and we were ready. The wind indicator told me that the winds had risen to 94 miles an hour and rising. You're listening to A Wind is Rising. It's attraction on X minus one. Time, night time. The lights dimmed down for the curtain and theaters on Broadway. A Hollywood star greets the first guests at her party in Beverly Hills. In Chicago, the police plan to close the ring in a band of desperate criminals. At a world famous circus in Paris, France, the star trapeze artist climbs to a precarious perch high over the center ring. In a Las Vegas nightclub, a hush falls over the tables as one of the great singing stars of our time steps out onto the stage and in New York's radio city, the studio warning light flashes standby. Nightline is about to go on the air, taking you to wherever in the country, wherever in the world, exciting things are happening at night to make you more than a spectator, to make you a participant in these events. This is Walter O'Keefe inviting you to join us on Nightline, your line to exciting entertainment at night every Monday through Thursday night over most of these NBC stations. Now back to X minus one and A Wind is Rising. I looked out over the instrument panel. The Corolla station had been set down like an overturned bowl on a rocky plane. In order to get to the water storage tank, we had to travel six miles. Immediately around the station were our boulder baffles, huge spikes of concrete designed to stop the boulders at the wind rolled off the mountains. I shoved the brute into gear and we were on our way. Hang on, Narashev, here we go. The wind is up to 97, do you suppose we're in for a storm? The gink said it was fine sailing weather. For a Corrella maybe. Well, this baby can take it. You see the pipeline yet? The sand is pretty thick in the vision glass. There it is, about two points on the starboard bow. I see it now. What's our speed? Three miles an hour. Give us a little more oxygen in here. Right. Hey, there's something coming toward us. Looks like a boulder hard right. That was no boulder. That was one of those ginks out for a sail in his landship. Playful, aren't they? Next one scares us like that. I'll shoot him, so help me. I don't understand how they can sail those flimsy ships on those wooden rollers. What's our wind speed now? 102 miles an hour. I think it's going to be a storm play. There's no point in turning back now. We can't live without water. I'm game if you are. What's the strongest storm we've ever recorded? Let's see. In the eight months we've been here, about 168 miles an hour. This baby was built to navigate up to 200. We'll be all right. We had had two storms on Corella since Earthman had been there. The first one had almost wiped out the station. That's why the boulder traps were built. The second one had leveled an entire mountain range on the other end of the plane. By the time we reached the water storage tanks, the wind was up to 113 miles an hour. Well, this is it. One of us has got to put on an air suit and repair the damage. Means blowing out the line. It's my turn. What do you know about mechanical things? I'll go out. Fasten that nylon rope to me and winch it as I go along. I'll anchor the brood in the lee of the concrete breaker. Maybe ought to wait till the wind dies down. It isn't dying down, it's rising. We can radio Smanick at the station and get a report. You think he'll give us a straight answer? I trust him. Hello, Smanick. This is Nereshev calling Smanick. This Smanick, Earthman. How long is this wind going to keep up? Long time. Maybe even longer. More than two hours? Yes. Okay. Clayton is going out to fix the pipe. We'll be back in an hour if everything holds. Okay. Well, I'm ready. Lock my helmet. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Open the chamber. Here I go. Outside, the wind thundered and roared like breaking surf. Once I was almost blown free, but the line held. By the time I crawled back into the ship, I'd cleared the water lines, but my suit was shredded and my air extractor was clogged with dust. The wind was up to 145 miles an hour and still rising. You all right? Yeah. All right. Let's get this thing going. It's starting to shiver in the wind. Right. What's wrong? I can't start the engine. Here, let me try. Sand, sand in the bearings and the injectors, every place. She'll never start. Good grief. We'll have to sail her back. What? I said we'll have to sail her back. At wind speeds like this? It'll be like sailing a little dinghy across the Atlantic in a gale. What else can we do? We'll put out the auxiliary anchor and ride it out. No, no, no. One good boulder and we'd be goners. Come on, raise the sail. Okay. We'll release anchors. Hang on. Here we go. We raised the steel sail and tacked into the wind. Shove by a wind that had now reached 175 miles an hour, the 14 ton brooch soon picked up to a speed of 40 miles an hour. Even reefed down and heeled over, I couldn't hold her. And I had to winch out the steel main sheet to straighten her up. Then it began to happen. The thing we feared the most. What's that? The wind is tossing rocks at us. Well, as long as we're not capsized, we'll be okay. She's healing at 45 now. It's no problem. So rocks, smash the visor, put on your oxygen mask. Wait. Man, she's boiling along now, 75 miles an hour. Clay, there's a boulder coming down the mountain. I can't head her up. Get off. No use, I'll have to drive. You can't. Hang on. Clay missed us. That boulder's as big as a city block. You're headed for the cliffs. Whench in the sheet again. We'll head up toward the station. It's no use. I can't head her up. We'll have to run with the wind. You can't run far. The cliffs are dead ahead. Let's drag the emergency anchor. Maybe it'll slow us down. Suppose it follows. Worry about that later. Drag it. That's better. I may even be able to help you. I'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here. I'll get you out of here. That's better. I may even be able to head her up now. Those cliffs. Holy smoke, look at that. A dozen current land ships sailing toward the station like it was a fine afternoon. They usually keep away from the station. There's no time to worry now. Whench in the sheet. I'm going to head up higher. What was that? Boulder snapped the mast off. Holy mother. We're being blown toward the cliffs. Is that land anchor out? Yes. Oh pray it'll foul and hold us pray. Our father who hurt me. We're fouled. Yeah and it's holding. Now if it'll just bite in. I think we're anchored. But listen to those boulders. We won't last ten minutes anchored here. Move over. Why? I'm going to try the diesel again. I don't know. Maybe it's a long shot but maybe. It's caught. It's caught. Come on baby start. Start. That's it. She's running. She's running. All right let's go that anchor. Warm up that coffee. We're coming in. Somehow the engine coughed and spit us back to the station. The boulder defense was completely flattened. And one side of the capsule was dented by a huge rock. But otherwise it was still holding. The winds were up to two hundred and twelve miles an hour at the time. A dozen Karelin land ships were moored by their long vines on the lee side of the station. And more ships were coming in every minute. We slid into the tube and entered the capsule. Welcome Earthmen. You have nice sail. Shut up you crummy gink. Earthmen not pleased. You told us the weather would hold. Old Karelin saying one can predict weather but not do something about it. Very true. We almost died out there. You wouldn't have been planning anything like that would you? Smanuck no understand. No? Well do you understand this? Get out of here. Get out before I blow your ugly head off with this gun. Very difficult for Smanuck to be without head. Impossible to eat sugar or dead meat for almost three weeks before new head grow. Smanuck join his people now for summer festival. Now you do that. Pronto. Wait a minute Smanuck. Did you say summer festival? Oh yes. Ancient Karelin festival. When summer ends we go sail away to caverns in far west. Caverns? Yes. We live in caverns for three months. In that way we have safety. Safety? From what? From winds. After summer is over come winter storms. First storm of year about to start in a moment now. About to start? What do you call what we've been having? The wind is 238 miles an hour right now. The broods ruined, the boulder defenses leveled, the foundations are cracked. Very regrettable. Perhaps you like to come stay with us in caverns. Bring sugar. Impossible. We need oxygen, food, our own water. Very regrettable indeed. Well maybe you don't stay and colonize our planet after all. Yes, really big wind starting to rise now. Smanak do. Goodbye Smanak. Thanks for your help. Smanak do favor. Glad to help. You got sugar. Fred Collins again and I'll have another word for you about X minus one in a moment. If that's the game you're missing because of a mean cold, here's something you should know. Every second someone takes it for the miseries of a cold. Millions more take bromoquinine. Every second someone takes it for the miseries of a cold. Bromoquinine. More people have taken more bromoquinine cold tablets for more complete relief than any other cold tablet ever sold. You could take aspirin or other single action cold remedies all day and not get bromoquinine's more complete relief even for virus colds. Bromoquinine works to relieve stuffy nose, body aches, fever, irregularity, the blues and headache. More complete relief because bromoquinine is the only cold tablet sold with wonder working quinine and five other medicines. Health fortified with vitamin C. Remember. Every second someone takes it for the miseries of a cold. Millions more take bromoquinine. Get bromoquinine brand cold tablets. You have just heard X minus one presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine which this month features Finn O'Donovan's story Grave Flannel Armor which makes you wonder if knights would have been still more bold in days of old if they'd had transistor amulets. Galaxy Magazine on your newsstand today. X minus one has brought you A Wind Is Rising, a story from the pages of Galaxy written by Finn O'Donovan and adapted for radio by George Lefferts. Featured in our cast were Les Damon as Clayton, Bert Cowlin as Neryshev and William Griffiths as Smannick. This is Fred Collins. X minus one was directed by George Butsas and is 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.
