This Island Earth

One more. Just one more,

please, Dr. Meacham.

Hold it, please. A little

closer to the wing, sir.

A little more profile,

Dr. Meacham.

He wants to get that

faraway, visionary look.

Cal, we know how

tired you must be.

We'll make it as short as

possible. Fire away, gentlemen.

I warn you, I am beginning

to feel faraway and visionary.

How about your conference with the

committee on atomic

power? Not my conference.

Twenty engineers

and scientists were there.

Hardly a routine meeting,

Would you say? And look, Cal,

we won't buy the committee getting you

V. I. P. S together for a cocktail party.

All right, I'll tell

you this much. Under

discussion was the biggest

job we've ever tackled:

the industrial application

of atomic energy.

That's not news. There've been several

industrial reactors in work already.

Let us say that in light

of recent developments,

those plants may

already be obsolescent.

Electronics is your specialty. How

does that fit in with atomic energy?

You boys like to call this "the

push-button age." it isn't. Not yet.

Not until we can team up

atomic energy with electronics.

Then we'll have the horses

as well as the cart.

How long has the army

been handing out jets?

One of the boys at lockheed handed me

this one. I hope you taxpayers don't mind.

Cal, when do we get

to this "push-button age"?

When fellows like me

stop talking about it and

get back to our labs.

See you gentlemen later.

Cal, are you working on anything

along the lines you mentioned?

Roughly. Well, remember me, will you?

I'm concentrating on the reconversion

of certain common elements...

into nuclear

energy sources.

Huh?

how's that again?

What counts is how I

make it work. I see.

Well, good flight,

Cal. So long. Thank you.

Control tower. Come in.

Control tower. Go ahead.

All clear, Cal. Drift south

about 20 miles per hour.

Hi, Webb.

what's cal's E. T. A.?

an hour late. That's my boss.

The only guy in the world who can

travel by jet and still be late.

When I'm gone. Out me

the window.

Where are you?

Cal, what's wrong?

I have no control.

Cut loose, Cal!

Bail out!

I can't.

I'm too low.

Jerking around must have

caused a flameout. No power.

Cal, you okay?

Okay.

What happened? How'd you bring

it in? I didn't. Couldn't.

What do you mean you

didn't? Controls went out.

Huh? That's right.

No controls, no power.

Plane died up there.

I should be dead. Cal...

I know everybody's seeing flying

saucers and screwy lights up in the sky.

Well, you can put me

in the booby hatch too...

because I saw this ship turn a bright

green up there. Are you sure, Joe?

Positive.

Did you hear anything?

Yes. A high-frequency howl, very

high, all the time your ship was...

Green? Did Webb see

it? Unless he's blind.

Check him.

Right.

Oh, and, Joe, until we find out what

happened, all three of us were blind.

How's the little giant?

Growing up.

Getting ready to astound

the world. Let's take a look.

I figured that.

She's all ready and waiting.

Lowering the cylinder.

Increase the rate

of reaction.

Check rate of

radioactive decay.

Positive. Same it was

the whole week you were away.

What did the committee say?

Oh, they were a little excited.

A little!

Zero reading.

The x-c condenser

must have shorted out again.

Get the spare.

Burned out yesterday.

And don't ask me why I didn't

order some new ones. I did.

X-C condensers

in an envelope?

Must be a gag Dreamed up

by the receiving department.

I ordered two x-c condensers, and

supreme equipment sent me these beads.

You say they're a gag,

but they're condensers.

I checked one for capacity

and voltage on the meter.

And blew it to bits. Yeah, after it

held to 33,000 volts and no leakage.

If that were true, we

could build a generator,

One that would supply electric

power to run an entire factory.

It would fit

in a matchbox.

It still read

I'll try one

on voltage test.

I've got one

set up for you.

Into thin air.

Call Pete Knowles at supreme. Okay.

Pete Knowles, please.

Pete? Cal Meacham.

I ordered two X-C condensers

and you sent me some beads.

Yes, beads.

I am serious.

I just tested one bead

for voltage, and...

Oh? well, thanks.

Supreme didn't send them.

They're crazy.

Pete said they've had no condenser

order from us in six weeks.

Here's a duplicate of the order

I sent by teletype three days ago.

What's the address on the

letterhead that came with the beads?

No address. Look.

"dear Dr. Meacham: in place

of the condensers you ordered,

"we are sending you

our AB-619 model.

"We are certain

it will interest you.

Director electronics

service, unit 16."

I thought it was

a subsection of supreme.

Electronics service,

unit 16.

Well, at least we can find

out what they're made of.

Diamond Drill, the

hardest element we've got.

The bead

isn't even scratched.

Experimental lab,

wilson speaking.

Yeah, sure. Sam wants to talk to you.

He's at the hangar. He's been

checking over the plane. -Good.

Hello, Sam?

Sam can't find anything wrong.

Did you double-check the controls?

Of course not.

Now look here, sam...

All right, sam, you win. Maybe

I did have just a couple, but...

All right.

Good night.

Maybe I should have

had a couple.

Morning.

Morning.

Sign here.

Thank you.

What have you got? I don't

know. There's no return adDress.

"Electronics service.

Unit no. 16."

"A catherimine tube with

an endiom complex of +4."

What are they talking about? I

don't know, but this outfit has them.

This isn't paper.

It's some kind of metal.

"Interocitor incorporating

planetary generator."

"Interocitor with

volterator... with astroscope."

Here's something my wife

could use in the house:

"an interocitor incorporating

an electron sorter."

Although she'd probably gain 20 pounds

while it did all the work for her.

According to this, there's

no limit to what it can do.

Laying a four-lane highway at a

mile a minute would be a cinch.

Cal, maybe we've

been working too hard.

"Complete line of

interocitor parts...

incorporating greater advances than

hitherto known in the

field of electronics."

What exactly is an

interocitor? I don't know...

and I don't want to know. Well, I do.

I want to know what it is

and what it does.

Order the list of parts on these

pages. How we gonna build it?

These symbols... they're

like a foreign language.

Anyway, we don't know

the address.

You ordered the condensers

from supreme by teletype. Yeah.

Which means that somebody intercepted

that order and sent us those beads.

Here, try it again.

You're too darn smart.

I may be the dumbest man who

ever walked this Earth, Joe.

Here's the invoice.

No charge and no address.

Listen to this:
"No interocitor

part can be replaced.

Bear this in mind

while assembling."

Well, let's

start unpacking.

There's 2,486 parts.

Each part is cross-indexed

into a symbol pattern.

Shouldn't be too hard at

all. Sure. A snap, maestro.

Only, uh,

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