The Invisible Ray

[Thunder clapping]

[Thunder rumbling]

[Thundering continues]

(Mother Rukh)

Diana?

Yes, Mother Rukh.

Janos is still

in the laboratory, of course?

Yes. He's checking

his equipment

before the people

from England arrive.

I'm to let him know

when I see

the lights of the car.

[Thunder clapping]

It was on such a night

that Janos

first caught his ray

from Andromeda.

Your father worked the guides,

I held the detecting lens

and never saw again.

Dear Mother Rukh.

My son will not learn

until too late, I fear,

that the universe

is very large,

and there are some secrets

we are not meant to probe.

Janos says the electricity

will help the demonstration.

He is wrong to demonstrate

to these people.

Who are they?

Pigmies that scoff at a giant,

who have said

that he is only a visionary,

unscientific, a charlatan.

Huh.

He's greater

than all of them.

He sent for them.

If he had waited,

one day

they would have begged,

begged to come to him.

[Thunder clapping]

[Thunder rumbling]

I see the car now.

I'll tell Janos.

Janos?

Janos?

[Rain pattering]

Diana.

They are coming

up the grade.

Sir Francis Stevens

and the great Dr. Benet

from the University of Paris.

What do they know?

What will they ever know?

I'll take them somewhere

they have never been.

Back into time.

It will work well tonight.

I'm sure and I'm ready.

They'll never

laugh at me again.

Janos.

They'll be here any minute.

You must prepare

to meet them.

Come.

Yes. Yes.

[Wind howling]

I'm Diana Rukh.

My husband will be here

presently.

I'm Lady Stevens.

This is my husband,

Sir Francis.

How do you do?

And this is Dr. Benet.

Madame.

How do you do?

And this is my nephew,

Ronald Drake.

How do you do?

May I present you

to my husband's mother,

Frau Rukh?

How do you do?

Oh, what a lovely fire.

I hope you didn't have

too bad a time coming up.

It really is

rather a terrible trip.

Oh, I don't mind anything,

but my poor

sit-downish husband minded it.

Brandy?

Oh, thanks.

That will help.

Thank you.

Would anyone ever expect

to find anything like this

on top of

the Carpathian Mountain?

No.

Sir Francis.

To see you again

after so many years

is interesting.

Dr. Benet, we meet at last.

But we already

know each other.

True.

You've come to see me fail,

but you'll be disappointed.

I have come to see that

Sir Francis isn't deceived.

Your doubts

are very flattering.

They are mutual.

We have never seen

eye to eye.

That is because

I've always looked

200 years ahead

of your theories.

(Arabella)

Dr. Rukh?

You haven't met me.

Lady Stevens.

Nor my nephew, Ronald Drake.

And you too

are a scientist, sir?

No, I'm afraid not.

He doesn't know a thing

about science.

But he's one of

the three living men

who crossed the mountains

of the moon,

made maps of the country.

And since

that's where we're going,

he'll come in useful.

Very commendable work, sir.

Good man. I've seen him

tested in Africa.

I read that you were

going to Africa.

That's why

I asked you here.

Because what I have

to show you after dinner

concerns Africa,

and the claim I made

many years ago.

[Switch clicks]

All of this

makes a man like me

feel quite small

and useless.

But you've gone

into uncharted places, too.

Oh, my explorations

have all been on this planet.

They reach into space.

This is the nebula

in Andromeda.

A ray from this nebula

will be caught here

and electrically transferred

to the projector

in my laboratory.

There I will recreate

what is recorded

on that beam of light.

From Andromeda?

From Andromeda.

Three-quarters of a million

light-years distant.

Can he do that?

Yes.

He will not fail.

He must not.

It would kill him.

Have you seen it?

No one has seen it,

but Janos.

You'll wait here

a few minutes.

I'll prepare the projector.

He seems very confident.

Yes.

Of course,

the theory of reproducing

vibrations from the past

is not new.

But if proved, would be.

Yes.

This may be

very interesting.

Yes. Very.

Doesn't all this

sort of thing

ever affect you?

Oh, no. I'm used to it.

My father was assistant here.

When he died

three years ago,

I married Dr. Rukh.

Oh, I see.

[Buzzing]

[Electricity humming]

I am ready.

[Machine whirring]

A new development

of barium crown glass

which will protect you

from all dangerous rays.

[Machine continues humming]

[Clicks]

[Electricity buzzing]

[Humming]

To reproduce what is written

upon the beam from Andromeda,

we must travel out into space

upon that ray of light

until we reach a point

at which we turn and look back

upon our own planet.

We approach the moon.

Dead ashes,

where there is no air

or water.

In the shadows,

colder than our Arctic.

In the sunlight,

hotter than any desert

of the Earth.

Saturn we pass,

with its twirling rings.

A vast cloud

of tiny movements,

each moving

in its own orbit.

Another constellation

speeds towards us.

The great nebula of Orion.

Five hundred light-years

distant.

But we travel at a speed

far greater than light,

the pace of

electric magnification.

Otherwise it will take

a million lifetimes

to reach our goal.

We move by this chaotic mass

and see Andromeda.

Our nearest neighbor

among the island universes

of space.

The light which we see

left there before man existed,

before our Earth had cooled.

We speed towards this nebula

and stop at a point

where we will see

our own planet, the Earth,

as it existed long ago.

[Machines droning]

Years ago, Sir Francis,

I voiced a belief

that a great meteor

bearing an element

even more powerful

than radium,

struck an uncharted spot

somewhere in

the continent of Africa.

If you will bear with me

for a moment,

I'll show you how I know

this to be a fact.

[Explosion]

That is all.

A trick?

No.

Reality.

But where

has it gone?

Back into space.

What did we see?

What you saw tonight

actually occurred

a few thousand

million years ago.

I see.

A tour in time.

Exactly.

Everything that ever happened

has left its record

on nature's film.

Every sound

since eternity began

still vibrates,

recorded somewhere

in outer space.

The cataclysm you witnessed

tonight traveled back to us

on the ray from Andromeda.

Well, I'm dazed.

Dazed, that's all I can say.

You have

demonstrated something

that I have always regarded

as an unsupported theory.

I'm at a loss for words.

I congratulate you.

Perhaps you'd all

like some brandy.

Oh, thank you.

That would be most acceptable.

I'll join you

in a few moments.

Well, I, for one,

am just beginning

to recover

from what we've seen.

I don't think

I ever shall.

It was unbelievable.

Well, sir,

your discovery

is breathtaking.

When do you plan

to release it

to the world of science?

Oh, not for some time.

It's not nearly ready yet.

And if there should be

this meteoric deposit

of an unknown element

in Africa...

There is.

It'd be interesting

to discover what it is.

Very.

Will you consider

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes