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 a 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, double dare, but first hear this. How's the weather in your part of the country? How'd you like to spend an evening basking under warm, tropic breezes in the sound of a gently rolling surf? Well, that's the setting in which you'll find yourself Friday night as Monitor broadcasting from spectacular Miami Beach introduces you to the beauty and glamour of Florida and to the celebrities who make this resort area their winter headquarters. On Saturday and Sunday, Monitor will capture the spirit of Christmas season in music and song as great choirs from all over the country and from foreign lands join in the singing of Yuletide Carols. There'll be reports on Christmas preparations in Bethlehem, West Germany, and Antarctica. Alfred Hitchcock, Arthur Kitt, Henry Fonda, and Roberta Sherwood are among the celebrities who will be visiting Monitor this pre-Christmas holiday. So start your weekend right with Monitor on Friday night and stay with Monitor all weekend long for celebrities, music features, news, and sports over most of these same NBC radio stations. Now X minus one, and tonight's story, Double Dare. Our ship sat down on the planet Domerang right on schedule. Cameron Janai stood at the viewport and watched the big Domerangi official cross the field to our landing ramp. He was dressed in a bright yellow tunic, green-gray buskins, and was wearing a glittering jewel diadem. He was walking in that ponderous way those people always walk, and it seemed like a long time before he actually reached the ramp and climbed into the ship. Welcome aboard. Greetings gentlemen. I see you have come through the trip in fine shape. My name is Plovash. I'm your liaison while you are with us. My name is Marner. Pleased to meet you. And I'm Cambridge. Well, what happens now Plovash? You have landed at a space port just outside our capital. I have come to take you to your quarters. We are providing you the finest accommodations our planet can offer. We want your working conditions to be of the best. Glad to hear it. The actual test will begin as soon as you wish. May I offer you good luck? Oh, we won't need it. It's not a matter of luck at all. It's brains. Brains and sweat. Very well. This is what you are here to prove. It ought to be amusing in any case, whatever the outcome may be. The whole weird deal had begun back on Earth, and it started where most arguments like this start, in a bar. Cambridge and I are top engineers back home, and when this visiting domerangi made a few cracks about our civilization being second rate in technology, we made a few choice remarks about his own technology. Well, the thing got to the news agencies and created quite a stir. It finally led to a regular interplanetary controversy over who had the best technical brains, Earthman or domerangi. So here we were, Cambridge and I, sitting in an alien hotel room, millions of miles from home, staring grumly at the walls. Well, we're here, miner. We're here, and we're going to show them up and go home rich and famous. You got that? I hope we can show them. We've got to. Between the two of us, we can match anything they throw at us. Well, can't we? Sure, sure we can. Hmm. Now, just look at this door mechanism, for instance. A simple cybernetic mechanism. Yeah. Ordinary gadget. Not nearly as efficient as our kind either. That's just the point. Apparently these domerangi aren't half the sharks they think they are. We said we could duplicate anything they showed us, right? Yeah, and they've got two of their engineers on Earth trying the same stunt. Okay, so if our boys stick them and we dope out everything they throw at us here, we've won. The State Department's counting on our versatility, miner. That's all we need. Versatility, cleverness, and hard work. Yeah, we'll beat those silly-looking pants right off them. Cambridge always did remind me of a football coach talking to his players at halftime, but at the moment I was glad of it. I needed reassurance, and his own confidence was infectious. I cheered up, and by the next morning we were ready to begin our part of the test. Plorvash came to see us again. Well, good morning, Plorvash. Good morning, gentlemen. According to agreement, we have equipped our most modern laboratory for you. We will give you two preliminary problems. When you have dealt with them, if you can deal with them, we will give you a third problem. And if we fail on any of them? Why, then we shall have proved our point. Fair enough, but suppose we deal with all three, Plorvash. How do we win this thing? Do we just go on with your projects until we miss? Oh, no, no. According to the agreement between our governments, the test is limited to three problems only. The same is true for our team on your planet. We consider that if you do indeed complete all three projects, you will have demonstrated your ability. I don't like the way you say that. What's up your sleeve? Sleeve? I do not understand the idiom. Never mind, never mind. Doesn't make any difference anyway. Just let's get started and prove our point. Yes, I myself am most anxious to observe your attempts. We return to X minus one and double dare in just a moment. Now back to X minus one and double dare. The lab that was to be our workshop until we won or lost this contest was a sumptuous place. The sort of research set up a sane engineer never even bothers to dream about. We stood there admiring it, Cambridge and I, while Plorvash waited for one of us to say something. Well, we're impressed. Man, it won't be hard to pull off miracles in a lab like this. You're making it easy for us, Plorvash. We are honest people. If you fail, it cannot be blamed on poor working conditions. Okay, when do we start? At once. Observe your first test. What, that little plastic bottle? The contents. It is a depilator, a bit rubbed on each cheek and you do not need shave your beard for a week's time. Here is the bottle. Duplicate the product. We're engineers, not chemists. Never mind, miner, never mind. Okay, Plorvash, that's the first project. Give us a second at the same time. That way we'll each have one to work on. Two projects at once? Very well, gentlemen, as you wish. The second is a trap for small house pests. Oh, like our mousetrap, huh? I do not know your mousetrap, but this is a most ingenious device. Our house pests are color sensitive and this trap flashes colors as a lure. To cash vorks, we use this. For flames, we activate this device and so on. As you can see, it is most versatile. We have supplied you with an ample number of vermin of different sorts. They are in cages there at the rear of the laboratory. I believe you have everything else you need. You mean this is all? Duplicate these two products if you can. Okay, and we'll let you know the moment we finish. Yes, do that. I didn't like the way he looked when he said that. There was a catch to all this somewhere, but I didn't have time to think about where it might be. Cambridge and I went to work on our project at once. It wasn't nearly as hard as it should have been. Within four days, we summoned Porvash back to the lab. Do you mean to say you have finished already? Naturally. Stay where you are, Porvash. I want to show you something. All right, Cambridge, activate the trap. Check. All right, stand back. I'm going to open the cages. No, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't. It's vermin. They'll be everywhere. Too late. Here they come. But you're mad. But they'll be everywhere. Close that door. Stand where you are and watch. You see? See that? But this, this is impossible. All running to the same place. Our trap. Look at that. They're in. Every last one of them. Remarkable. Yeah. We've improved on your model. We've built a better trap. Your model only deals with one species at a time. Ours handles every variety. It really is rather surprising. I suppose now you want to know about the defilator. That was easy, you know. With the equipment you gave us, chemical analysis is a snap. But I'm afraid we've improved on the original model here, too. You have? In what way? Used at the proper strength, this depilatory of ours can last indefinitely. The effect seems to be permanent. Indeed. This is a fairly impressive performance, gentlemen. You may be interested to know that your counterparts on Earth have also passed their first two tests successfully. Oh, well, good for them. So it all depends on the third test then, huh? It does, indeed. Shall we have that one now? Why waste time? Is that it? That thing on rollers that you've got covered up back there? Yes. Permit me to remove that cover. A machine of some kind. I recognize a type of piston valve, relays, tubes, rods. Let me plug it in for you. Here's the outlet. Now, I press the starting button. So, what does it do? Suppose you remove the plug from the outlet? All right. There. Hey, it's still going. Gentlemen, this is our power source. We use it for transportation and similar things. Duplicate it. This is your third problem. Well, we'll give it a try. I shall be most interested in the results. Most interested. Good day. Cheers. Well, Cambridge, the machine's still going. Yeah, I see. I wonder, can we build a perpetual motion machine? Well, it was a challenge, all right. A greater challenge than either of us had anticipated in our wildest dreams. Our heads reeled with the enormity of the ideas, but we worked and worked. I don't even know how long it was, but I think it was about three weeks. Finally, we summoned Plorvash and he came into the laboratory to see our model and his side by side, both humming away with no plugs in the wall. There it is. You, you have actually done it? Yes. It's been running a week now and it shows no signs of slowing down. It actually works, but how? A complex hyperspace function. We're making a full report, of course. I hope you realize this is quite a stunt in gravology. We didn't think we could do it until we had to, so we did. I didn't think you could do it either. This little box on our model, have you examined it yet? No, that nearly threw us. Apparently it's tightly sealed. We didn't waste time getting it open. We bypassed that. What is the darn thing anyway? That, gentlemen, is our power source. Your what? A photoelectric amplifier that should keep the model running for another two weeks. Then? Then what? Don't you see? We do not have a perpetual motion machine. We have hoaxed you into inventing one for us. We didn't really think you could. It took our best minds to rig up a model convincing enough to fool you. Well, I'll be... That does it. That invalidates a whole agreement. Well, now that we're through, we'll take our machine and go back to Earth. I am afraid that is not possible. What? By a statute in effect here for more than 700 years, any research done in a government lab is automatically the property of the Domurangi government. I am sorry, but I shall have to confiscate your project, gentlemen. We'll see about that. Furthermore, we are forced to confiscate you yourselves. We need you to instruct us on how to build these machines. Horvash, Earth won't let you pull a trick like that. This is cause for war. I doubt it. Why should a terrible war come about for the custody of two men? I demand to see our consul. Of course. That is your right, I suppose. I will arrange it. Well, there it was. Now that it was too late, I knew what the cause of my uneasy feeling was. The consul from Earth was a white-haired, sturdy gentleman with a ruddy face and a suave manner. He came to see us in our hotel room that same evening. Now, please, rest assured, we shall make every effort to extricate you. Do you realize what immense scientific prestige you've given to Earth? Yeah, a fat lot of good that does us now. Well, authorities on Earth have kept me informed on the progress of the two Domurangi. They got through the first two projects as easily as you two did. We already know that. What of it? Well, now, this is the delicate part of the whole affair. I hate to put it into words, but in fact, the people on the Earth end of this deal had much the same idea as the Domurangi. You mean another double cross? They put them to work on perpetual motion too? No, not quite. They rigged up a phony anti-gravity machine and told them to duplicate it. Good night. What happened? Nothing yet. I'm told they're working on it very hard. Sooner or later, if they're at all as clever as you two, perhaps they'll hit on it. You'll just have to be patient and sweat it out until they do and we can make an even exchange. Well, of all the cock-eyed situations, you mean we have to wait until they invent anti-gravity? Now, that's the general idea. In the meanwhile, as I say, I will insist that you be shown every courtesy here on Domurangi. Well, they may never discover a workable anti-gravity. Then what happens to us? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah? Marner. Yeah? You know anything about tensor applications and gravitational fields? What are you driving at? I'm thinking of the ideal lab setup they gave us. Do you think those two Domurangi on Earth would mind taking credit for someone else's anti-gravity theory if they were approached properly? Hey, that's right. They must be as anxious to get home as we are. What in the world are you talking about? Consul, would you be above a bit of smuggling, diplomatic immunity and all that? Well, now, I don't know. We build the anti-gravity machine. You smuggle it to Earth and slip it to the Domurangi, then use it as a talking point for a trade. What do you say? Well, I admit, it does seem the only way out. Very well, gentlemen, I'll do my very best, but there seems to be just one hitch. What's that? You still have to invent that anti-gravity machine. Oh, we'll invent it all right, because you see, we have to. Come on, Cambridge, let's get to work. Fred Collins again. I'll have another word about X minus one in just a moment. Is your head buzzing with a feverish stuffed-up feeling of a cold? Here's how to get relief. 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, because Bromoquinine is the only cold tablet sold with wonder-working quinine, nature's own miracle drug, and five other medicines, health-fortified with vitamin C. Science has never found a real substitute for quinine. It helps Bromoquinine do more. Bromoquinine works to relieve stuffed-up nose, body aches, fever, irregularity, blues, and headache, even of virus colds. 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. Galaxy Magazine science editor Willie Lay discusses medical problems of space travel in the current issue of Galaxy. Read Willie Lay's article as well as the many thought-provoking stories similar to tonight's tale of fiction based on facts of the future. Galaxy Magazine on your newsstand today. Tonight, X minus one has brought you Double Dare, a story from the pages of Galaxy written by Robert Silverberg and adapted for radio by William Welch. Featured in our cast were Ralph Camargo as Marner, Ivor Francis as Cambridge, Michael Ingram as Plorvash, and Harvey Hayes as the Consul. This is Fred Collins speaking.
