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. Countdown for blast off. X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one, fire. From the far horizon 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, The Light by Paul Anderson. But first, hear this. The glamour backstage at Broadway's newest hit musical show, the spectacular West Side Story, the novel experience of accompanying a congressman, Joseph Martin, as he searches out the complaints, compliments, and problems of his constituents on a grassroots tour of his district, the thrill of attending one of the top football games in the nation as Army versus Virginia, the excitement of spending late evening hours with the music of top artists performing in famous nightclubs in New York and Chicago. These are just a few of the highlights of the weekend entertainment Monitor has planned for you. Beginning tomorrow night, Gene Kelly, Milton Berle, Tab Hunter, and Tony Martin are among the celebrities who will be visiting you over the Monitor weekend. There'll be comedy by Fibber McGee and Molly and Bob and Ray, music, news, and sports, all on Monitor. So, why don't you start your weekend right with Monitor on Friday night and stay with Monitor all weekend long over most of these same NBC radio stations. Now, X minus one and tonight's story, The Light. You really should feel highly honored, Professor. You're the only person I've been allowed to tell this to, and of course, there's a good reason why you're being permitted to hear it. Why? I think you'll see why before I've finished. We're not a gang of power nutty militarists, you know that. Personally, I'd like to tell it to the whole world, but it could very well touch off a war, and a war would mean the absolute end of civilization. There's one thing you should understand right from the start. Just because I know enough math and physics, just because I could pass the most rigid physical exam ever devised, doesn't mean I don't know anything about culture and art. When they picked me for the three-man crew for the first landing on the moon, they were a little condescending about that side of my background. Baird, the skipper, and Hernandez, the engineer, the other two members of my team, were a little leery of me just because I could talk about art every now and then. They needn't have worried. Once we left the space station and got into orbit, we didn't have much to do for several days but to talk. Look at it. From this distance, you'd swear the earth was uninhabited. It's hanging like a big sapphire in the inky black. Poetry. Don't you ever quit spouting it. Why are you writing me all the time, Baird? Maybe I don't trust a scientist who keeps talking about art all the time. You think there's no connection between the two? I know blamed well there isn't. I always thought that when you got up this high, you could make out the continents. I can't tell where the sea ends and the land begins. It's the clouds lying all over the surface that make it so tough. I think that's Russia coming into view, isn't it, skipper? According to the orbital schedule, that should be Siberia emerging from the Terminator right about now. Are they watching us, I wonder? Why not? They've got a space station of their own with good telescopes on it. Yeah, and I'll bet they're hoping that we smack into a meteor. Maybe they don't have to hope. Maybe they've already arranged an accident. I doubt it, Baird. They wouldn't risk sabotaging us. Not on a trip like this with the whole world watching. Because of my start of war? Don't make me laugh. Nobody's going to start shooting when they know the whole world will go up in smoke just to avenge three spacemen and a ten million dollar hunk of ship. Ever hear of chain reaction? One sharp diplomatic note might set off the whole thing. You think our own government would be sending us to the moon if there were any military advantage to be gained from it? Then what's the idea? Why are we doing this? Prestige. They put up the first satellite, built the first space station. Now we've got to be the first man to step on the moon or the rest of the world will start looking on us as a second-rate power. You make it sound like some kind of game. Oh, it is, Hernandez. The deadliest game mankind ever played. One false move and bang, the whole world goes up in a mushroom cloud. How long will it go on? That's what gets me. As long as there's a balance of power. But let one side, Russia or us, find a really new concept. Something the other side doesn't even dream about and it'll be all over. Suppose they find it before we do. That'll be too bad for us. The Cold War will be over and so will we. Why don't you shut up, the two of you. You both talk too much. It was the wrong thing to say, I knew, out there in a great quiet night. We shouldn't carry our little hates and fears and greeds out beyond the sky and into space. Or perhaps the fact that we can be burdened with them and still reach the moon shows that man is bigger than he knows. I couldn't say. Anyhow, as the whole world knows, we made it. Our landing site hadn't been chosen exactly, but as you know, Professor, we came down at the foot of the lunar Alps, not far from the crater Plato. We felt no sense of pioneering when we touched down. We were tired and tense. It was merely a hard breakneck job. Hot rockets. Rockets off. Well, gentlemen, we're on the moon. Can we open the viewports? I want to see this. Go ahead, I'm bushed. Look at that. That light. I didn't realize it would be so bright. It's a cold, eerie light. It's not like our deserts on earth. They aren't as bright or as dead. All right, that's enough gawking. Our orders are to draw lots to see who's first on the moon. All right, Hernandez, you draw first. Well, Professor, we drew lots, and of course, everyone knows who won. I did. I was to be the first man ever to set foot on the moon. At least for a little while, that's what I believed. You're listening to The Light, tonight's attraction on X minus one. Now back to X minus one and The Light. We were in heavy space suits, of course, and it wasn't any too easy to move about even with the light gravity of the moon. I stepped out of the airlock first, followed by Baird. I just stood there in the shadow of the ship looking at the weird light, lost in wonder. I don't know how long I stood there before Baird spoke to me. Well, go ahead. Go ahead what? Make the speech. You're the first man on the moon. You mean that prepared speech they gave us? No, thanks. We've got to make it. What's the matter with you? Your job to make the speeches. This is mutiny, you know. I ordered you to make it. I could make a suggestion. Why don't you write in the log that the speech was made and let it go there? Judas priest man. All right, but if this ever gets out, it's our secret, Captain. Consider the speech made. What do we do now? You start gathering rock samples. I'm going to take pictures. Come on, on the double. So we went to work. I gathered some samples, and each time I did, I left a little mark in the dust on the surface. The traces I left would probably last until the sun burned out. It seemed like an act of desecration, though the landscape was ugly enough. No, that's not true. It wasn't ugly. Only alien. You know, it was several hours before I could really begin to see anything. I mean, it took that long for my brain to start registering in this strange, eerie place. I remember pausing to rest a minute while I watched Baird making adjustments on his camera lens and snapping various bits of landscape. Yeah, that ought to be a good one. You know, Baird, the thing that gets me is the light. It's no trouble. I'm using an f8 exposure this time. I mean, the quality of it. It isn't like anything I ever saw on Earth. I wonder if it can be photographed. Of course it'll photograph. You know, in a way, it reminds me of that weird brass colored light you get just before a storm on Earth. It isn't the same either. No, I think I'll try an f11 setting. What I mean, though, Baird, is I don't think you can get the feel of this light in a picture. What you'd need for that is such a painter who hasn't lived for centuries. Rembrandt? It's too harsh a light for him. Cold light that's somehow hell hot. Will you shut up? You and your blasted renaissance. Well, I suppose Baird had a point. This was hardly the place for a chat about art. We went back to the ship after that, had a meal and a nap before setting out for more explorations. We decided to take a look at the Plato crater and conditions were right for it, so we set off. All three of us this time. I won't describe the walk in detail. I can't. It wasn't simply the landline. It was the on the moon, your weight is only one sixth as much as it is on Earth, while the inertia remains the same. It feels almost like walking under water, but you can move very fast once you get the hang of it. After a while, we reached the crater wall, climbed it and stood looking down. Then Hernandez saw something and let out a yelp that almost split my ear when I heard it on the speaker in my helmet. Hey, look! What's the matter? What happened? There, in the floor of the crater, that that mist! Yes, I see. Then they were right. Who? What are you talking about? The astronomers. They thought they saw something that looked like a mist in some of the big craters. They're right. It's right in front of our eyes. I thought there was no atmosphere here. How could there be mist? Maybe there's some kind of water table down on the floor of the crater. Hey! Get back here! I want to go down for a closer look, Baird. And break your rule. I don't have the time. That's right. Yes, you do. You've got a good plan, Baird. We're going to do it. Hey, look, we're going to do it. Will you shut up? We're going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to legs so we have to carry a home no dice you stay here we've got to find out he couldn't break anything wearing that space suit they're like on stay here I'll have your court muscle skipper have a heart come on skipper we've got to find out what that stuff is in the end we convinced Captain Baird but he insisted we rope ourselves together before we made the descent it was agonizing work getting down the lip of that crater but we made it we stood there silently on the floor of the crater bathed in a cold golden white radius there's never been such a light on earth it seemed to pervade everything drenching us cold and white like like silence made luminous it was the light of Nirvana and somewhere somehow I had seen it before I stood there unable to speak until another yell from Hernandez brought me to my senses with a wrench look and tell me I'm crazy footprints footprints of a man there's only one other country on earth that could send a spaceship to the moon yet yes Hernandez Russians are they still here I wonder we can't tell by staring at the tracks they could be five hours old or five million years but why haven't they told the world why haven't they been bragging about why do you think they found something of vital military importance look up at the earth maybe right now they're planning their next move the last move I don't believe it they couldn't have done it they couldn't have kept it secret why not they could have taken off on a black ship when our space station was on the opposite side of the planet how would we know come on where back to the ship of course and have to know about this and Washington immediately if they find out we know their secret that could be enough there that could trigger the war I've got a cold are you sure it can't be broken that it already hasn't been brought up you trouble-making well let me alone just the same skipper we better follow those tracks see where they lead to we didn't bring any weapons I'd be surprised if they were as careless listen to me all right court-martial me later if you want but listen we can't just go back to the ship never knowing for sure what these footprints are and who left them how much looking can you do in less than one hour the Sun will sink behind the lip of the crater when that happens it's gonna get cold colder than anything you've ever imagined I've got a heating unit in my suit good for 20 minutes at the most against a cold like that really time to get back to the ship all right I'll take the chance and get back in time but let me follow those footprints bear it's your duty to let him bear all right permission granted God help you Baird and Hernandez still roped together climbed the crater side and disappeared leaving me alone staring at the hobnagel boot footprints of a man I had to work fast knowing that the Sun would soon disappear and the awful cold begin I went on following the steps in the still lifeless dust of the moon at last I came to the place I was looking for it wasn't much to see there was a long track of ploughed dust and a chipped stone where something had landed and taken off again but and this was the astonishing thing there was no sign of a rocket blast a few scars where a pick had removed samples footprints and that's all someone sometime had landed here without rockets and had never told anyone about it I looked up at the sky saw the ruddy speck of Mars and felt cold had the Martians beaten us to our own moon but I had to get back now every second long with I remained whittled to my chances of ever reaching the ship again I was about to start back when something caught my eye a big chunk of rock with something carved on it something unmistakable a cross million Suns wheeled and glittered above me then I knew I remembered where I had seen that weird light which remained on the wall of sundown and then I knew the truth I turned and started to run for the ship I almost didn't make it Baird met me halfway ripped off my pack and connected another heating unit jackass put brain fool I'm gonna have you up before a court martial so help me if it's the last thing I tell you who made those footprints in Plato what I can you know I've got it all figured out and in a way it's a good joke on you all right back into the ship with you and let's hear the whole story and it better be good of course intelligence has been working night and day ever since we returned and made our report they know we were telling the truth and that's why you've been drafted professor we're going overseas together you and I officially were tourists you search the archives and I'll tell you when you've turned up something we can use oh we'll find it we'll find something it couldn't have been done by rockets you see even if the physics had been known which it wasn't the chemistry and metallurgy wasn't there but there was something else anti-gravity maybe whatever it is when we find it the Cold War will be over and we'll have won you don't get it professor I'm shocked and grieved you're a historian a cultured man all right then our first stop is the National Gallery in London where there's a painting called the Virgin of the Rocks in that painting you'll see a light cold and pale and utterly gentle a light which never shone on earth a light playing over the mother and child and the artist professor but of course you know the answer now the artist was Leonardo da Vinci you have just heard X minus one presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy science fiction magazine which this month features the conclusion of an exciting two-part serial Wolfbane by Frederick Paul and CM Cornblatt read it in Galaxy magazine on your newsstand today X minus one has brought you the light a story written by Paul Anderson and adapted for radio by William Welch featured in our cast were Carl Weber as the narrator David Kerman as Captain Baird and Bob Hastings as Hernandez your announcer Fred Collins X minus one was an NBC radio network production
