The Monolith Monsters Page #3

look to it as the wreckage.

It should.

Both of them were caused by

multiplication of siliceous rock.

Granted, but something just out of the

earth looking so much like wrecked furniture?

What could they

have in common?

They lack something

in common. Silica.

They lack silica?

Yeah.

The dirt sample is ordinary

earth, but nothing more.

The wreckage is exactly what it

should be, wood, plaster, metal,

but the silica content

in both is missing.

There's not a sign of it.

That could be the answer.

We know the siliceous

rock does multiply.

Perhaps a part of the process

is the absorption of silica,

taking it right out of whatever

it comes into contact with,

be it desert, or wood, or...

Human beings?

I didn't know there was such a

thing as silica in the human body.

It's called silicon.

It's a trace element, like iron, copper,

aluminum, only there's much less of it.

Doctor,

if the silicon content in a

person were suddenly to disappear?

By contact with a rock?

No matter how, what if it did?

Wait a moment.

Science never has known for sure

just what the function of silicon was,

but there is one theory

that silicon is what helps

make the skin flexible.

Flexible.

And take it away?

Ginny! Doctor, get word

to Hendricks. Come on!

Hey, where you going?

We've got a meteor to find.

Is this the old San Angelo

Road that Cathy spoke of?

Yeah. She said it was about

Hadn't we better slow down a little? Yeah.

There. That must be it.

Look.

They're the same fragments,

all right.

Then the meteor

can't be far off.

Think of the knowledge

buried down there.

There's only one thing

I want to know from that,

what makes it multiply?

What starts it?

You've got to remember, David,

when this hit our atmosphere,

it burned at such

a fantastic temperature

that its metal-bearing compounds

could have been altered,

left ready

to activate, to grow.

No telling what went on

inside of it.

It's been gathering the

secrets of time and space

for billions of years.

Billions of years.

And how long have we got to

unlock its most important secret?

Three hours? Or three minutes?

Are you going to

make some tests first, Doctor?

If we took the time to

determine Ginny's silicon level,

the whole question

would be academic.

I'm sorry, Miss Barrett.

I didn't mean to be so blunt.

Please try to understand that

anything medical science could do

under the circumstances for Ginny

would have to be experimental.

On the other hand, Dr.

Reynolds' report from San Angelo

did coincide exactly with what we've

learned from our autopsy on Ben Gilbert,

that somehow that rock had

robbed his entire body of silicon.

That means only one thing.

We've got to try synthetically

to replenish that element in Ginny's

body and arrest the solidifying action.

I know you're doing

the best you can, Doctor.

It does everything but grow.

Not heat, not electricity,

not the simplest catalysts.

And yet, it has to be

something simple.

Something present both here

and at the Simpson ranch.

Maybe it was something

somebody did.

Well, as long as this stuff is left

alone in the desert, nothing happens.

It's dormant.

It's only after somebody's picked

up a chunk of it that it activates.

But we've handled it.

Apparently not

in the right way.

No, it has to be something

Ben and Ginny did to it.

Well, no telling how Ben

experimented on it.

What could he have done in the laboratory

that Ginny could also have done at home?

What would a little girl do

with a rock souvenir

she picked up in the desert?

Professor.

Thank you, Dave.

I'm sorry, Dave, I guess this is

beginning to get on my nerves a little.

It's probably just my

strong coffee, Professor.

I'll make some fresh.

You know, this coffee I brew is responsible

for my prolonged bachelor status.

Oh?

Uh-huh.

Cathy tried a cup of it once.

She said anybody who drank

mud like this all day long

has just got to be

too grouchy to live with.

Give me your cup. I'll rinse

out the mud. Thanks, Dave.

Professor...

It was only a little chip.

But what made it grow?

What happened to it?

It slipped into the sink.

That's all.

No, something started it.

Something we did.

You poured coffee in the sink.

Coffee?

Coffee.

Coffee is nothing

but flavored water.

And when there's

no more water, it stops.

But as long as there is water,

it'll multiply again and again.

Water. A simple thing like...

Professor,

the meteor!

Stop the car.

The engine.

Incredible.

Professor, they're gonna follow this

natural slope right down the canyon.

They'll go straight through San Angelo.

Evacuate? The entire town?

Chief, those rocks are gonna

come crashing through here

like an avalanche

over an anthill.

There won't be

a living thing left.

You won't even be able to

tell where San Angelo was.

When they're no longer confined

within the walls of the canyon,

when they break out

onto the open valley floor,

their rate of multiplication

is going to be frightening.

You mean they'll grow

even faster?

Each one that shatters

will make 100 more.

When that 100 shatters,

there'll be 10,000 of them.

The third cycle

will create a million.

Unless we can stop them, they'll

spread over the whole countryside.

With enough rain, there's

no boundary they can't cross.

Then it all depends on

how long it keeps raining?

That's it. We'd better find

out about that right now.

The Weather Bureau

in Riverside's your best bet.

Right.

There's no exact forecast,

but...

Well, can't you just give us a general

idea of when the rainstorm might be over?

Well, the prevailing

nimbostratus in your area

seems to have begun to dissipate under

the influence of divergence aloft,

associated with veering winds.

Ordinarily, this would lessen

the duration of precipitation.

However,

the unstable tropical air mass

moving up from the south

combined with the polar outbreak

moving down from Canada,

could conceivably give rise to

an area of extreme cyclogenesis,

which, in turn, could

develop into... Friend?

Yes? When is the rain

going to stop?

Why,

today.

This morning.

Can you tell us how long we've

got before it starts again?

Well, there's no additional

precipitation forecast

for another 48 hours.

Thank you, very much.

Well, Professor,

do you think we can figure out

how to stop them in two days?

I'd say we have no more choice in the matter

than a student has in

avoiding one of my assignments.

I can vouch for that.

What about the evacuation?

I'd alert the people anyway.

If our time runs out, you can get

instructions to them by radio and TV.

Right. Oh, get Cochrane

to use his wire service.

They can contact all the

broadcasting stations by Teletype.

Is that you, Ethel?

This is Dan Corey.

Now get this, Ethel,

and get it straight.

Call everybody in town?

Do you realize I'm here alone?

Then get some more help.

I don't care how you do it, just do it.

Tell them to warn their

neighbors. Spread the word.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes