Earth vs. the Flying Saucers Page #2

other observers...

...but there is a qualitative difference

when you're a scientist.

We do have one piece

of supporting evidence:

An accidental recording

of the sounds it made.

The tape is in the lab at the project.

I'd like you to hear it tomorrow.

-You both saw this?

-Yes.

Excuse me.

From Captain Holoway, sir.

Will you sign here, please?

-Who's Holoway?

-He's on monitor duty this evening.

They've just lost contact

with Number 11.

Russ, I'm sorry.

Is it still in range of our receivers?

If it hasn't been knocked down.

Look.

-What are those lights?

-They're what the pilots call foo lights.

St. Elmo's Fire, in ancient times.

The superstitious regard them

as omens of things to come.

The best science has made of them

is that they're electric particles...

...agitated by moving air.

Same principle as the aurora borealis.

There have been so many around

the project, we take them for granted.

Bird 11 ought to be visible in the sky

on its second lap around the world.

Look, there it is.

-Was that it?

-Yes.

Surely you're not going to send up

Number 12 tomorrow after this?

-I have to.

-Why?

With a television pickup,

cameras and microphone.

This time I'm gonna know

what's happening up there and why.

Come on, let's finish our dinner.

Checking TV pickup.

Getting a good image?

Fine.

TV's okay. I'll be down

in a couple of minutes.

Tell them to hurry it up.

Do you notice anything different

since you were here last?

-Soundproofing?

-That's right.

You could fire a cannon off outside

and not hear it down here.

Number 12 okay for takeoff.

As an old rocket man from way back,

I'd rather watch from ground level.

Dr. Marvin. Dr. Marvin.

Marvin here.

You getting ready for a siege?

Russ and I are gonna take turns

monitoring this one.

For days, if necessary.

Soundproof privacy and the last word

in scientific solitude.

-Happy honeymoon, darling.

-Thanks, Dad.

Prepare rocket for launching.

Prepare rocket for launching.

Rocket Number 12 will be launched

in five minutes.

Four minutes to zero.

-Take it up at zero, Major Kimberly.

-Okay.

Stand by.

Observation Tower A, come in.

Evans, Radar to Tower A.

-Observation Tower A, Sergeant Nash.

-UFO due west, approaching fast.

-What does it look like?

-Can't tell yet.

I'll call when I get a better reading.

-Do that.

-As you were, sergeant.

Unidentified flying object reported

due west, sir. Probably a buzzard.

Sergeant Nash,

Observation Tower A. What?

Forget it, Walters,

this is no time for gags.

It's two minutes to zero.

Sentry at West Gate has spotted

a flying saucer, sir.

Evans, Radar to Tower A.

Tower A, Nash.

I got a better reading on my scope.

That UFO is over the west sentry post.

-It look like a flying saucer, Evans?

-Yes, it does.

Sky Hook Control

to approaching object.

What is it?

I wouldn't know.

Connect me with Dr. Marvin's lab.

The line is dead.

Look at that, general.

It's landing.

Battery, prepare to fire.

Fire!

They set up an electronic screen.

The artillery doesn't penetrate.

Lines are out.

Abandon all firing positions.

Mike's gone dead.

Try the phone.

The operator doesn't answer.

Look.

-What's happening?

-I don't know. I--

I'm scared, Russ.

They'll-- They'll dig us out.

Where am I? What--?

We are speaking to you through the

translating device above your head.

Can you understand us?

Yes, and I hope

you can understand me.

Whoever you are,

whatever you are...

...you'll regret what you did

at the project.

Perhaps you can explain why,

after contacting Dr. Marvin...

...we were met with violence.

-You've contacted Dr. Marvin?

-We spoke to him.

All he heard was meaningless sounds.

The same kind of sounds I just heard.

We had hoped a sufficient adjustment

for the time differential between us...

...would have been made.

I don't understand.

Evidently, you do not realize you are

in an interstellar conveyance.

You are already outside

the atmosphere of your own planet.

As a prisoner,

all I am required to tell you...

...is that I am General John Hanley

of the U.S. Army.

These are all the facts leading up to

the explosion at Operation Sky Hook.

To the best of our knowledge, my wife

and I are the only ones left alive...

...since we have not seen

or heard anyone for hours.

The air is becoming toxic.

In the event of our death...

...this report, with the recording

of the saucer sounds on this tape...

...constitute all the data we have.

The batteries are failing.

The recorder is not running

up to speed.

This is Dr. Russell A. Marvin.

Russ? Where are you?

It's all right, honey.

The gas generator stopped, that's all.

Please come close.

I'm afraid of the darkness.

-Dr. Russell Marvin.

-The tape.

It is very urgent that we meet.

We will appear tomorrow...

...at Operation Sky Hook...

...when your sun is exactly...

...over your local....

That's the sound of the saucer

we heard on the tape.

The message was sent

at an accelerated speed...

...so it just sounded

like gibberish to us.

When the batteries died,

the tape slowed down...

...and the voice became clear.

If I'd only figured it out before...

...maybe we wouldn't have been

trapped down here.

What had taken hundreds of lives and

leveled an installation worth millions?

An aroused public

demanded an answer...

...and the government dedicated

all of its branches to finding one.

However, when Dr. Marvin

and his wife were rescued...

...the answer was to be found in the

experience of the only two survivors...

...and in a reel of tape recording...

...they carried to Washington, D.C.

and the Pentagon.

--Operation Sky Hook.

There can't be any doubt

about what it means:

A landing at the project was proposed

on the day of the disaster.

There was to have been a meeting.

If I couldn't keep the appointment,

a message was to be sent...

...on a designated wavelength

by ordinary shortwave transmission.

-Does anyone want it played again?

-You've heard it a dozen times.

My wife and I, for three days,

have been telling what we knew.

We've been before every committee

and commission in Washington.

It's time we did something.

The tape is by no means conclusive.

Certainly doesn't prove your so-called

flying saucer destroyed Sky Hook.

I grant you that.

A strange voice, a set of instructions

that might have come from anywhere.

Has anyone a better idea

of what happened?

I'm inclined to accept

Dr. Marvin's conclusion...

...about the connection between

the message and the disaster.

All right, so am I.

Then let me contact them, meet them,

find out what this is all about.

If confronted with a hostile power, only

the cabinet can decide to meet them.

I hope that while we're waiting,

another disaster doesn't occur.

We're pressing for

the earliest possible action.

The secretary of state and secretary

of defense are returning to the U.S.

If a meeting could be arranged

in the meantime...

...the only risk would be to me.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes