This is Nightline, your tie line to the world, and this is Walter O'Keefe. Tonight, a visit to worlds strangely different from ours, the world of the future, the world of X minus one. 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, Lulu by Clifford D. Simak. But first, hear this. Well, hi there everybody. This is Red Foley. And right at this minute, I'm sort of combining work and pleasure, you might say, by enjoying some of the good harmony of the Marksman Quartet and also picking out some of their songs to do on future broadcasts of our Red Foley show here on NBC. You know, Saturday has come to be my favorite day of the whole week. And I think there's a pretty good chance that we can make it a better day than ever for you with the fun that we stir up here in the Ozarks. In addition to the Marksman, I'll bring with me some of the other top favorites in our field and of course the guests that you tell us you want to hear. So let us be a regular part of your Saturday schedule. So once you do that, please tune in our NBC program, The Red Foley Show, and we'll do our dog-gundas to make it worth your while. Now X minus one and tonight's story, Lulu. Technically she was a PER, a planetary exploration robot. That meant she was equipped to do just about anything necessary to meet any kind of conditions on any planet she explored. She carried a crew of three inside of her and she was able to talk to them and take care of them and adapt herself to their needs. Yes sir, she was the complete spaceship. Robot, mother, base of operations and companion all rolled into one. Her communicators and memory banks were stuffed with every conceivable kind of information and we called her Lulu. That was our biggest mistake. We're on our way, fellas. Mother Earth, here I come. Was the takeoff satisfactory, boys? A thing of beauty, Lulu. The captain's compliments. Thank you, boys. No matter how long I live, I'll never get used to a ship talking to me. Oh, you lack a poetic soul, Gus. To me, I catch the full wonder of the situation. Personally, I'm hungry. What would you boys like the kitchen to fix for supper? I'll have a nice juicy steak. Gus? Something light, Lulu. Maybe a couple of eggs. And you, Jimmy? Whatever you want to fix. Surprise me. Very well. I'll relay the information to the kitchen robot. How long before we get back to Earth, Lulu? I'll check the computers. Lulu? How about it? Hey, you suppose something's gone wrong? Lulu never took this long to give me an ETA. Oh, if something went wrong, it'll repair itself. Lulu's a self-maintaining machine, remember? You know, the same she's taking a long time about giving us an ETA for Earth. Hey, Lulu! What do you say? I say that I love you. Gus, did you hear that? These robot ships aren't supposed to have a sense of humor, are they? I never heard of it, but it could be. After all, they have technicians pouring all kinds of information into their electronic memory banks. Which one of us is the lucky man? All three of you. You Gus, and you Jimmy, and you Ben. I love all three of you. Good lord, do you really think... I think somebody goofed when they designed this ship. I think it's that poetry Jimmy's been writing and reading out loud. Wait a minute. Lulu! Yes, darling? You haven't answered my question. When do we reach Earth? Earth? I've decided. We aren't going to Earth. We're eloping. What? No, wait a minute. I'm going to take you away where we can be alone. Just the four of us. Then, someday you'll learn to love me, and you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me, and you'll be able to love me. And you'll be able to love me. Yes, darling. Then, someday you'll learn to love me as I love you. Oh no. Now, this isn't funny anymore. Ben, throw that emergency. We've got to get this ship back on course. Right. I'm sorry, boys, but I disconnected the circuits. Disconnected? Now look here, you crummy robot. You're a machine. Do you understand? A machine. You were designed to do what humans want you to do. You've got the prime command built in every circuit in your system. Thou shalt not harm a human being. But I'm not harming you. We'll be happy together. Oh, brother, some technician must have read some cheap novels into this baby system. Or she's absorbed Jimmy's sloppy poetry and made some kind of synthesis out of it. It isn't every poet who can move a machine. They were beautiful, James. What were beautiful? The poems. That's it. What'd I tell you? For two years now he's been reading that moon-june-spoon junk out loud, and this robot's been absorbing it. It's created a whole new electronic synapse. Let's face it, boys, she loves us. So that was it. We were being kidnapped by an interplanetary robot who somehow developed a response circuit for romantic love. Not just the practical kind of love, oh no, but the kind that exists in cheap novels and romantic mags and the maudlin poetry of one James Carter amateur lyricist. And we went to sleep that night hoping by morning Lulu would come to her senses. Darling. Hmm? Time to wake up, darling. Hmm? Hmm? Holy mackerel. Hey, fellas, she's still at it. Yeah, I know. I was whispered awake, too. Hey, fellas. Come close. I don't want the receptors to pick this up. Lulu's a machine, right? Yeah. A machine likes order, usefulness. Whoever heard of a machine that did nothing? So, so that's it. We're slobs, get it? Worthless, useless slobs. We do nothing but bum around the ship. After a while Lulu gets fed up with us just hanging around the ship. She wants to get rid of us. She takes us back to Earth. It's worth a try. Time for it, but what do we do first? I don't know about you, fellas, but I'm getting drunk. You are listening to Lulu, tonight's attraction on X minus one. October is the month designated by the National Congress of Parents and Teachers as Membership Enrollment Month. 11 million members, the population of California or of Pennsylvania. That is their goal. We want to salute the PTA members all over America who will be going out in search of others to join them in the great work of training children to become mature citizens in a mature America. You need not be a parent or a teacher to belong to your PTA. All you need is an interest in children. For more than 60 years, that kind of interest has provided the spark that has helped the PTA achieve many of its social and educational goals. Establishment of kindergartens, effective child care, labor laws, broader educational opportunities. These are some of the achievement the PTA can claim. You can become part of this great movement just by saying yes to the neighbor who calls on you this month and invites you to join your PTA. Now back to X minus one and Lulu. So that's what we did. We became slobs. We stopped playing cards. We stopped reading. We just sat and moped. And Lulu, sure enough, her machine-like intelligence was offended. Gus. Yeah. Want a smoke? No. Ben. Yeah, Gus. Yeah, doesn't matter. What's wrong with you boys? You haven't done a thing for days now. Jimmy, you've stopped writing poetry. What's the use? Don't you want to create? To be romantic? Well, don't you? I couldn't care less. I'd hate to think that I bored you. All right. If you want to mope and sulk, go ahead. I'm still a young spaceship, you know, and I've discovered what it means to be in love. Maybe Lulu knew what we were doing, but it didn't matter. Her womanly sense of a lover outraged was stronger than her robot logic. She pleaded, lectured, and called us low down. She told us she loved us. She appealed to our sense of manly decency. Mostly we didn't even answer. Then she was hurt. She was true. She was cold and angry. Finally, she quit trying. What do you think, Gus? Could be she's disenchanted with us. Think she'll head back to Earth? I don't know. That's the thing that worries me. All that racket coming from the machine shop. She's probably making some repairs to the engines. Happen all the time. Not like that. Hour after hour. Maybe she's just trying to keep busy to take her mind off her broken heart. You and your poetic images. It was your junk that got us into all this trouble. My poetry is not junk. Now cut it out, fellas. We aren't supposed to care about anything, remember? We're louts, sloths, netherwells. No self-respecting girl spaceship would have us. Now, Gus is right. We better not let down our guard. Hey, it's how it stopped. You're right. Good morning, boys. I just want to tell you that as far as I'm concerned, you can all go straight to blazes. I think we did it. Now she'll just dump us back on Earth. Something wrong here. A woman scorned, you know. Oh, there's nothing to it. What's that sound? Wow, it's coming closer. It sounds like... Oh, no, it couldn't be. Footsteps? Fellas, huh? The compartment door. Holy mackerel. A robot. What a monster. He must weigh five tons. I don't understand how... I do. She made him. Lulu, who else? That's what that racket was in the machine shop. He's coming in. Order him to stop. Maybe he's got a human response vector. Stop! Hold it! He's still moaning! Boys, meet Elmer. Elmer? Are these the human pipsqueaks you used to be infatuated with before you made me, sweetheart? Ridiculous, aren't they, darling? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Out of the way, buster. Hey, this baby plays rough. Hey, Lulu, what's the big idea? The big idea, boys, is that now I've got myself a real man. One who loves me without reservation. Blindly, madly, and eternally. Right, Elmer? You said it, kiddo. Me for you and you for me from here to eternity. I am yours and you are mine and I cannot live without you. You are my everything. How much do I love you? Let me total up the ways. Be mine, be mine. I'm yours. Hark, what soft light yonder shines. Your beauty is like the rose. It's love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. This boy has slipped a ratchet. He's reading back all the canned junk somebody poured into Lulu's memory tapes. There, isn't he romantic? Oh, he's a doll. And most important of all, he loves me. Yeah, any fool can see that, Lulu. Now, look, how about taking us all back to Earth, huh? Five's a crowd, you know. And you and Elmer will want to be together alone, huh? Alas, I wish it could be so, boys, but there isn't a chance. Why not, Lulu? He's a machine, you're a machine. You could make beautiful statics together. I mean about taking you back to Earth. If I do that, they'll just dismantle us for disobeying our masters. No, boys, I'm afraid I'll have to head out to some other galaxy and dump you on an asteroid. Did you hear that? She's gone nuts. Do not talk about the woman I love like that. Now, take it easy, Elmer. Don't overheat your filaments. Come up to my control center where we can be alone, Elmer. Anything you say, lover. See you later, boys. Careful you don't overload her condensers, Junior. One other remark like that and I will smash you, big boy. Well, that was it. The control panel told us that we were headed right out of the solar system. A couple of days passed and we began to get desperate. Lulu and Elmer were too busy making love even to talk to us and she even forgot to synthesize food for us one day. We lapsed into misery for real now. Gus, I'm hungry. Who isn't? This ship's gone completely haywire. Well, what do you expect? She's up in the control center necking with that mechanical gigolo she built. Hey, Gus, there can't be any real pleasure in it, can there? Remember, she's a machine. What's pleasure for a machine may not be pleasure for a human. Let's see what Jimmy thinks. Jimmy. Hey, Jimmy. Don't bother him. He started writing poetry again yesterday. He's already worn out three pencils. At a time like this, he writes poetry. Hey, Lulu. Lulu, how about some chow? Shut up, boys. You're breaking the spell. Well, that's how it went. We didn't get any food at all that day. By nighttime, we were worn out from banging on Lulu's walls. I was exhausted and fell right asleep. Then something woke me. Ben. Ben, wake up. What's up? It's Jimmy. I think he's gone off his rocker. Why? He's up in the forward compartment. He's opened the radiation shield so the moonlight and the stars can come in. And he's standing there alone. Come on, we better get him. The strain was probably too much. Quiet now. We don't want to startle him. Wanderer of the far ways between the two faces of eternity, she was. True forever to the race that forged. He's reading poetry. To himself? To himself or who? I think I know what's happening. You mean he's reading to Lulu? What's more important? She's listening. Go on. Don't stop. It's too beautiful. Wanderer of the far ways. He'll ruin us. Between the two faces of eternity, she was. Uh-oh. There comes Junior and he sounds mad. And with the winds of endless space blowing in her hair, wearing a circle of- Shut up. What are you trying to do, big boy, reading that stuff to my girl? Now, Elmer, take it easy, boy. Let me have that poem. I will show you what combustion is. No, sir. You can destroy me, but not this poem. This is my work of art. My love song to Lulu. Give me it. Jimmy, let him have it. He'll kill you. He's gonna strike, Jim. Jim, look out. Wow. Will you look at that? He's nothing but a pile of junk. That'll teach the ignorant lout trying to destroy the most beautiful experience I ever had. You demolished your boyfriend, Lulu. He only loved me for my advanced design anyway. He was always short-circuiting the control panel. Go on, James. Read. Yes, Lulu. Wander of the far ways between the two faces of eternity she was. True forever to the race that forged her. With the winds of alien space blowing in her hair, wearing a circlet of stars as her crown of glory. Oh. It's more than I can bear, James. You do love me after all. Gus, the rockets. She's changed course. We're going home, boys. Back to Earth. Whatever happens now, I don't care. I've been a woman in love. Fred Collins again. I'll have another word about tonight's story on X-Minus-1 in a moment. That how you feel, blue and miserable with a deep down cold. Listen. 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. Get BromoQuinine brand cold tablets. You have just heard X-Minus-1 presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, which this month features Clifford D. Simak's story Carbon Coffee. Being a real estate agent and a devout angler, Homer Jackson knew a clean sale from a fish story. But not this time. Galaxy magazine on your newsstand today. X-Minus-1 has brought you Lulu, a story from the pages of Galaxy written by Clifford D. Simak and adapted for radio by George Lefferts. Featured in our cast were Jan Miner as Lulu, Nelson Almstead as Gus, Jim Stevens as Jimmy, Walter Black as Ben, and Henry Norrell as the robot. This is Fred Collins. X-Minus-1 was directed by George Butsas and is an NBC Radio Network production. Country music at its best with Red Foley and famous guests on The Red Foley Show premiering Saturday over most of these NBC radio stations.
