The Thing from Another World Page #2

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Now, Pat, just be careful.

Now take it easy.

Now wait a minute.

We had a lot of fun

when you were up here.

Then when you asked me down

to Anchorage, you deliberately fed me...

Tell me, did you really drink

all those drinks?

- You didn't throw any away? Not one?

- No.

Holy cat. I thought I was good.

And another thing, why did you leave?

When I woke up in the morning

you were gone.

I told you I had to take

that cargo plane back here.

- You told me?

- Don't you remember?

No.

Right after dinner. You were telling

me all about a night in San Francisco...

Did I tell you that?

What else did I do?

Well, you had moments

of kind of making like an octopus.

- I never saw so many hands in all my life.

- All right. All right.

Look, my only excuse

is that I liked you...

...right away.

- So I started wrong. Can't we begin again?

- How would you begin?

- Well, I can think of several...

- Never mind.

We don't have time for that now anyway.

I know Dr. Carrington's waiting

to see you.

- What about this business of starting over?

- We'll talk about that later.

- Hello, captain.

- Hi, professor.

- Dr. Carrington, Capt. Hendry is here.

- Yes, I know.

- How do you do, captain?

- Doctor.

Miss Nicholson, would you add

a note to the others?

Surely.

November 2, 11:
30 a.m.

Deviation in sector 19 continues

No lessening or wavering

of disturbing element.

That's all.

- Captain, can we start now?

- Mind telling me where we're going?

Your message said an airplane crashed.

Is that what we're looking for?

I don't know, captain.

- I think you better explain.

- I'm sorry.

Miss Nicholson, would you read

Capt. Hendry my first notes?

I was thinking only of the vagueness

of my information. I dislike being vague.

- "November 1 st...

- Yesterday.

...6:
15 p.m. Sound detectors and

seismographs registered explosion due east.

At 6:
18, magnetometer revealed deviation

- That deviation has been constant.

- We ran into it before we got here.

"Such deviation possible only

if a disturbing force equivalent...

...to 20,000 tons of steel or iron ore...

- 20,000 tons?

...had become part of the earth

at about a 50-mile radius."

You're getting a bit beyond me,

but it sounds like a meteor.

Yes, very much. Except for one thing.

- Will, show it to Capt. Hendry.

- Yes, sir.

We have some special telescopic cameras.

On the appearance of radioactivity,

a Geiger counter trips the release...

...and the cameras function.

They were working last evening.

This is the result.

This first picture was taken

three minutes before the explosion...

...or 6:
12.

You can see the small dot

below there in the corner.

On the next picture, one minute later,

that dot is moving from west to east...

...fast enough to form a streak.

- What shutter speed is it?

- 1000th of a second.

- Moving pretty fast. Wasn't it?

Here, at 6:
14, it's moving upward.

and vanishes.

A meteor might move almost horizontal

to the earth but never upward.

- Then it isn't a meteor.

- That's obvious.

How'd you find the distance of impact?

- By computation...

- Dr. Carrington?

- Ready?

- It's quite simple, captain.

We have the time of arrival

of the sound waves and detectors.

And also the arrival time

of the impact waves on the seismograph.

By computing the difference, it becomes

obvious they were caused by the object.

- The distance from here is 48 miles.

- I'll take your word for it.

One thing, doctor. 20,000 tons of steel

is a lot of metal for an airplane.

It is for the sort of airplane

we know, captain.

- Yeah, we'd better be going.

- Redding will check every quarter-hour.

- Will you want me, doctor?

- It won't be necessary.

- You come with us, Bill.

- Yes, doctor.

We'll be there pretty soon now, Pat.

Bob, get Carrington up here.

Doctor!

We're almost 50 miles out, doctor.

With your compass deviation,

how are you navigating, captain?

That peak ahead is practically due east.

We got the wind before we left camp.

- Very good, captain.

- We should be there about now, Pat.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.

Picking up something

on the Geiger counter, sir.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Look there.

- Pat, the compass is in a spin.

- Geiger's up to the top.

Yeah, that's it, all right.

- You see someplace to set down?

- Looked smooth about a half a mile back.

We'll take a look. Bob!

Get them ready. It might be rough.

Right, sir.

Fasten your seat belts, gentlemen.

We're gonna land.

Sit down and hold on back there.

All set for landing, sir.

Half flaps.

- Full rich.

- Full rich.

Half flaps.

There we are.

Holy cat! What a weird-Iooking thing.

Let me get a picture

before you track up the whole place.

This Geiger counter is going crazy.

Something's melted that surface crust.

It's frozen over again into clear ice.

The bottle shape apparently was caused

by the craft first making contact...

...with the earth out

at the neck of the bottle...

...sliding toward us and forming

that larger area as it came to rest.

With the engines generating enough heat

to melt that path through the crust...

...then sink beneath the surface.

- What could melt that much ice?

Let's go down and see. Barnes.

Take the dogs over on that side.

Dr. Chapman, could an airplane

melt that much ice?

One of our own jets generates enough heat

to warm a 50-story office building.

- It's part of an airfoil. Probably a stabilizer.

- It's an airplane, all right.

- Can you tell what metal that is?

- I'll need some tools.

Barnes, bring some tools!

Hey, it's down pretty deep over here.

I can't see anything but a dark mass.

It's deeper over here.

Captain, may I suggest that we spread out

and try to determine the size and shape.

Right. Spread out, everybody! We're gonna

try to figure out the shape of this thing.

Here's the tools, sir.

Holy cat!

Hey...

It's almost...

Yeah. Almost a perfect...

It is. It's round.

- We finally got one.

- We found a flying saucer!

Can anybody see anything

through the ice?

- Only an outline.

- Nothing but a dark shape.

Seems perfectly smooth.

No doors or windows.

- I can't see any engine.

- I doubt we find anything we call an engine.

Dr. Carrington, this isn't

any metal I know.

Probably some new alloy.

- Get some filings for analysis.

- Right.

Captain, I don't think we have a chance

of chopping through the ice with axes.

I know. We think so too.

We'll try to melt it out with thermite bombs.

- Oh, excellent.

- Where do you figure it's from?

I don't know, Mr. Scott.

- Well, from this planet?

- I doubt it.

- Well, do you...?

- The answers will be much easier...

...after we've examined the interior

of the aircraft...

...and its occupants, if there are any.

- Occupants? Why, I never...

What a story!

Where's the radio? Hey, Barnes!

- Hold it. No private messages.

- What do you mean private?

- I'm sending it to the whole world.

- This is Air Force information.

We'll have to wait for authority

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