transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[01:04] 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. Now, here is the future, X minus one.

Speaker 3:
[02:08] 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 Podcast. Tonight, Shocktroop. But first, hear this. Saturday, November 30th. An overflow crowd is expected to jam Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia for the 58th contest in a series that each year brings to a climax the greatest rivalry in college football. Saturday, November 30th. Army versus Navy. And you have a seat on the 50-yard line as Monitor brings you this link, Griddock. Mel Allen and Al Helfer will describe all the action, the excitement, the color of the game, as Army pits its bruising running attack against Navy's rugged defense and expert passing. You and your family won't want to miss the big Army-Navy football game Saturday, November 30th, on Monitor. And you'll want to stay with Monitor for a weekend of sparkling and diversified entertainment. Celebrities, music, features, news and sports, they're all on Monitor all weekend long. So start your weekend right with Monitor on Friday night and stay with Monitor all weekend long over most of these same NBC radio stations. And now, X Minus One, and tonight's story, Shocktroop.

Speaker 4:
[04:12] In all his seven major campaigns, Commander Zeram Lassen had never faced anything like this. First, there was the heat, agonizing, insufferable heat. Then there were the jolts, the convulsions. But most unbearable of all was the cross pulse, the interminable, monotonous thrump-thrump of the cross pulse.

Speaker 5:
[04:37] Come in. Hello, Perak. Close the bulkhead, this heat's driving me mad.

Speaker 6:
[04:44] Zarium, I think we ought to abandon this project.

Speaker 5:
[04:46] Abandon?

Speaker 6:
[04:47] As chief psychotechnician, I recommend it.

Speaker 5:
[04:50] Oh? And what do you base this?

Speaker 6:
[04:52] This macroorganism is unlike anything we've ever tried to colonize before. It's much too complicated.

Speaker 5:
[04:58] Complicated? Perak, I have colonized life forms on seven other worlds, and each time I've been advised to turn back.

Speaker 6:
[05:04] I know your record, Zarium, but this creature is different. How? Well, for one thing, it has a highly organized psychoelectric system. The shock waves are fantastic. I've already lost three technicians.

Speaker 5:
[05:15] These are Shocktroops. They know the risks.

Speaker 6:
[05:17] And for another thing...

Speaker 5:
[05:18] Perak, you're a fine scientist, but you're no leader of troops. This creature we've invaded will be subdued and brought under positive permanent control. We will achieve thermobiological conditioning to reduce the heat. We will achieve damping to muffle the crossbeam. And we will establish neuromuscular controls. And we will do all these things because I say we will. Come along with Inspector Tunnels. Ready? Yes.

Speaker 6:
[05:47] I open the bulkhead.

Speaker 5:
[05:54] I feel that heat.

Speaker 6:
[05:55] The thermo crews are doing everything they can to pull oxygen from the separators.

Speaker 5:
[05:59] I'm telling them to work faster. What's the status of the control panel?

Speaker 6:
[06:04] I'll see. Amandor, sir, what's the status of the control panel?

Speaker 7:
[06:08] We've tapped on a motor fibers one through 46, chief. We'll be ready for the central selector hookup very soon.

Speaker 5:
[06:12] What about optical auditory intercept?

Speaker 7:
[06:14] We're still trying to tap into the subject's visual system, commander. The screens are set up, but we haven't been able to run a line from the main circuit.

Speaker 5:
[06:20] Why not?

Speaker 7:
[06:21] The charge in the main trunks is too potent, sir. Our instruments won't take the surges of current.

Speaker 5:
[06:25] Then install transformers or resistances. Now get it down.

Speaker 7:
[06:28] But sir, two crews working in this heat without noise.

Speaker 5:
[06:30] I don't care about the heat or the noise. It is absolutely essential that we hook up visual intercept. I want you to-

Speaker 6:
[06:37] Convulsions!

Speaker 5:
[06:38] Hit the stations!

Speaker 6:
[06:39] Hang on! It's passed.

Speaker 5:
[06:52] I've never seen them quite this bad. How do you suppose causes them?

Speaker 6:
[06:55] I don't know. I suspect they're reflex actions.

Speaker 7:
[06:59] Sir?

Speaker 6:
[06:59] What?

Speaker 7:
[07:00] Do you suppose this creature knows we're inside it?

Speaker 4:
[07:09] Ceaselessly, the Shocktroops worked inside the host creature, burrowing through capillaries, tapping into nerves, trying desperately to intercept the intelligence and sensations, so they might bring it under control. Oxygen was pulled from the separators to cool the tunnels where Commander Lassen's troops worked.

Speaker 5:
[07:27] Yes?

Speaker 7:
[07:28] Sir, we phased the interator feedback. We're ready to try for an image on the visual screen.

Speaker 5:
[07:32] Excellent.

Speaker 6:
[07:33] What about vocal auditory?

Speaker 7:
[07:35] Completely phased. We haven't broken the speech code yet, but all sounds are clearly audible.

Speaker 5:
[07:40] Blast that crossbeat. Can't the crews do something to muffle it?

Speaker 6:
[07:43] We're trying. We don't dare go into the main arteries. Not yet, at least.

Speaker 5:
[07:46] Can't they calcify?

Speaker 6:
[07:47] They're trying, Zarin. We've got calcification crews working like demons trying to harden the central blood vessels. Very well.

Speaker 5:
[07:55] Lieutenant, is the screen ready?

Speaker 7:
[07:56] Yes, sir. Does the commander wish to monitor himself?

Speaker 5:
[07:58] Yes. These are standard controls, I assume.

Speaker 7:
[08:01] Yes, sir. Focus is this knob. Brightness control is at the right.

Speaker 5:
[08:05] Very good. Now, switch on and we'll see if we can see what this creature sees. A little more focus.

Speaker 6:
[08:15] Something's coming through.

Speaker 5:
[08:17] It isn't a clear enough image. Bring up the contrast. There.

Speaker 6:
[08:21] Well?

Speaker 5:
[08:24] It appears that our host is in an enclosed space of some sort. From the orderly flow of articles across the screen, I would say it was moving aimlessly. As an item for resting on it appears in the background, a blurred pattern of light and dark stripes. Now, let's hear the auditory reception. May as well get the decoding section working on it.

Speaker 7:
[08:47] I'll switch it on, sir. The creature doesn't seem to be vocalizing.

Speaker 5:
[08:58] What's the noise?

Speaker 7:
[08:59] I believe that's a respiratory sound, sir, made by the creature's oxygen plant.

Speaker 5:
[09:03] I'll try to eliminate it. Filter it out.

Speaker 7:
[09:04] Yes, sir.

Speaker 8:
[09:06] Doc, Doc, I tell you I'm sick.

Speaker 7:
[09:10] It's vocalizing.

Speaker 8:
[09:18] I'm trying to pull anything back. Honest. God, please.

Speaker 5:
[09:28] Try to break down the pattern. I want to know what the creature is communicating. Yes, sir. Well, Perak, do you still think we should turn back?

Speaker 6:
[09:37] We've tapped into the creature's communication systems, Ernie. I think controlling it is going to be another matter.

Speaker 3:
[09:56] We'll return to X Minus One and Shocktroop in just a moment. But first... Now back to X Minus One and Shocktroop.

Speaker 4:
[10:28] Inside the subject, the work continued hour after hour, day after day. Inside the control room, Commander Lassen was haggard and weary. Outside, the crews labored in the tunnels, calcifying blood vessels, tapping into sensory nerves, tying circuits across sympathetic nerve fibers, and still no positive control.

Speaker 6:
[10:51] Zerim?

Speaker 5:
[10:52] Oh, Herak, what's happening?

Speaker 6:
[10:54] Well, we're making slow progress, Zerim. Between the heat and the cross pulse, some men are beginning to crack up. They need a rest.

Speaker 5:
[11:01] Anyone caught loafing on the job will be fed into the disposal units. Those are my orders.

Speaker 6:
[11:05] Isn't that a bit harsh?

Speaker 5:
[11:06] Are you questioning my authority?

Speaker 6:
[11:08] Yes, I think you've been working too hard.

Speaker 5:
[11:10] I'll have you... Listen.

Speaker 6:
[11:14] What?

Speaker 5:
[11:15] The silence.

Speaker 6:
[11:17] They've done it.

Speaker 5:
[11:18] Modification section is muffled across the... You're right. What a relief. Come on, let's try the audiovisual again. Maybe we'll be able to hear something now.

Speaker 6:
[11:30] There's a picture coming in.

Speaker 5:
[11:33] It's the same picture. Blurry, barred pattern. Objects for sitting and reclining. Switch on the auditory.

Speaker 3:
[11:41] Right.

Speaker 8:
[11:43] I take care of my...

Speaker 6:
[11:44] It's vocalizing.

Speaker 5:
[11:45] Listen.

Speaker 8:
[11:46] I guess I didn't. It happened. All of a sudden. This pain in my heart. Like it's slowing down. I'm sick. There's something wrong with me.

Speaker 5:
[12:02] If only decoding would crack the speech patterns so we knew what it was saying.

Speaker 6:
[12:06] There seems to be another macro-organism in the room with it. Dressed in white, it seems. Yes, I see.

Speaker 8:
[12:12] I'm not thinking, Doctor. You better do something.

Speaker 5:
[12:18] I want the speech pattern given number one priority. No time for... That's condition red.

Speaker 7:
[12:24] Commander, the vein is ruptured in tunnel C. There's a leukocyte breakthrough.

Speaker 5:
[12:27] Get the guns. I want a coagulant crew in there once.

Speaker 7:
[12:29] There are hundreds of the monsters, Commander. Shall we seal off the tunnel?

Speaker 5:
[12:32] And lose reach of calcifying? Come on, we'll try to coagulate.

Speaker 4:
[12:48] The commander joined the rush of frenzied emergency troops rushing into the corridor. Ahead, crews were lugging hand sterilizers and broad spectrum coagulators. Inside the tunnel, the scene was bedlam. There was a break in the wall hemorrhaging profusely. Crewmen waited knee deep in the nauseous sea of thrombin. Red corpuscles knocked them off balance. Every so often, a sickening gray leukocyte would rear up and embrace a crewman in a grip of acid death.

Speaker 5:
[13:20] We'll have to retreat the thrombin's rising.

Speaker 6:
[13:23] Lieutenant, give the order to fall back and seal off the tunnel.

Speaker 8:
[13:27] Yes, sir.

Speaker 9:
[13:28] Fall back.

Speaker 5:
[13:29] Seal the tube.

Speaker 8:
[13:31] Fall back.

Speaker 4:
[13:39] The struggle continued. New tunnels were formed. More nerves tied into central control. Veins and arteries calcified. The heat reduced to a livable temperature. Slowly, the morale of the Shocktroops inched higher, and Commander Lassen relaxed and grew more amiable.

Speaker 5:
[13:57] Well, Perak, ready for the big event?

Speaker 8:
[14:00] Yes.

Speaker 6:
[14:01] My crew is standing by.

Speaker 8:
[14:02] Good.

Speaker 5:
[14:04] We'll try an auditory visual intercept first, and then we'll attempt to control a few responses.

Speaker 6:
[14:10] We've tapped into the creature's hearing circuit now so that we can hear what it hears as well as what it says.

Speaker 5:
[14:16] Excellent. Switch on the screen.

Speaker 4:
[14:22] It's coming in now.

Speaker 5:
[14:25] The creature is still in the same room, alone, evidently. It seems to be writing a message of some sort.

Speaker 4:
[14:32] Oh, wait.

Speaker 5:
[14:33] It's talking.

Speaker 8:
[14:35] My appeal was turned down, and this is it.

Speaker 5:
[14:42] Let's try a motor response. Lieutenant Mander.

Speaker 7:
[14:45] Sir.

Speaker 5:
[14:46] Which circuit controls the organism's right extremity?

Speaker 7:
[14:49] This one, sir.

Speaker 5:
[14:50] Are all circuits properly insulated against electrical surge?

Speaker 7:
[14:53] Up to one million dynarcs, Commander.

Speaker 5:
[14:55] We've never encountered anything higher. That should be safe enough. And here goes. I'll try a simple contraction.

Speaker 9:
[15:05] It worked!

Speaker 5:
[15:06] The right limb contracted. Perrick, it worked. We've established control.

Speaker 6:
[15:10] You're to be congratulated, Commander.

Speaker 5:
[15:13] Let's switch on auditory visual again. Yeah. The creature is still writing.

Speaker 8:
[15:19] Actually, I don't mind any much. The doctors have discovered that I have a serious condition of the blood vessels and heart. They call it sclerosis. And I've been feeling awful lately. So I'm not too afraid of what's coming. Now, thank you, thank you me, love, Sam.

Speaker 5:
[16:02] Now, the message is concluded. Let's try another motor response. I'm going to manipulate the creature's legs now to make it locomote toward the barred pattern. Ready?

Speaker 7:
[16:14] Ready, sir.

Speaker 2:
[16:19] It's moving. Excellent, excellent.

Speaker 5:
[16:21] But, Perrick, have the crews clean up the remaining circuits. Make absolutely certain that the electrical hazard is reduced to a minimum. I can't afford to lose any more troops. Now, what about the speech code?

Speaker 6:
[16:33] Decoding thinks they may break at any moment now.

Speaker 5:
[16:36] Now keep them working. Give the troops extra rations and pay and commend them for a good job. If all goes well, we'll send for colonists within a week.

Speaker 4:
[16:56] Exactly one week later, Commander Lassen seated in a compartment that was now fully air conditioned, silent and filled with soft Belverian music, radioed to the Commissioner of Colonization.

Speaker 5:
[17:11] So everything is ready. With the exception of the speech code, we have complete primary control of all circuits. We'll expect first 10,000 colonists as soon as transport can be arranged. Blast them. I'll send that at once. Come in. What is it, Perrick?

Speaker 6:
[17:31] I don't know. There are changes in the intercept screens.

Speaker 5:
[17:35] What kind of changes?

Speaker 6:
[17:36] Well, for one thing, there's a temperature drop in the upper quadrant of the creature. Then it seems to be changing its surroundings.

Speaker 5:
[17:44] I'll come out and have a look.

Speaker 6:
[17:48] There, you see? There are other macro-creatures in the room now. There. One of them has a black robe.

Speaker 5:
[17:54] Well, what's so alarming?

Speaker 6:
[17:55] The speech pattern of the black robe creature is unlike anything we've ever heard before.

Speaker 5:
[18:00] Turn on auditory intercept.

Speaker 6:
[18:17] Look at the temperature drop up there.

Speaker 5:
[18:19] Let me try touching the creature's cranial region. That explains the temperature drop. The mass of thread-like growth has been entirely removed.

Speaker 6:
[18:36] Look, the black-robed one has moved away. Now another creature approaches.

Speaker 5:
[18:41] Our host entity is being seeded. Now bands are being placed on its wrists and legs. That's interesting.

Speaker 6:
[18:51] I don't like it.

Speaker 5:
[18:52] What are you worried about?

Speaker 6:
[18:53] I don't know. It frightens me.

Speaker 5:
[18:56] Look, now a dome-like object is being lowered over the creature's head. A great cupola.

Speaker 6:
[19:03] It's cutting out the light.

Speaker 5:
[19:04] Turn off the auditory.

Speaker 8:
[19:08] I don't want to die, Reuter. Not in the electric chair.

Speaker 5:
[19:15] I wish we knew this speech code. Well, another few days and we'll have it broken. Then total victory will be ours.

Speaker 2:
[19:23] Total victor.

Speaker 6:
[19:25] What's happening now, Zerrin?

Speaker 5:
[19:28] I don't know. Everything is quiet. The creature is waiting in the dark for something to happen, apparently. I wonder what.

Speaker 3:
[20:04] Fred Collins again. I'll have a word about our cast on X Minus One in a moment. 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 Shocktroop, a story from the pages of Galaxy written by Daniel Gallon and adapted for radio by George Lefferts. Featured in our cast were Bernard Lenro as Commander Lassen, Edwin Cooper as Perock, John Thomas as Mandor, Ralph Camargo as Sam and Roger DeKoven was the narrator. This is Fred Collins speaking. X Minus One was directed by George Butsas and is an NBC Radio Network production.

Speaker 9:
[21:19] Walter O'Keefe is your guide to new worlds of night-time entertainment on Nightline, tonight over most of these NBC radio stations.