Mind Webs - Promises To Keep

0:30and Welcome to a half hour of mind waves. Short stories from the worlds of speculative fiction. The story this time is from the book Alien or Rhymes by William F. Norwood.

1:40The tale entitled, Promises to Keep, a science fiction drama. It begins as a position and nurse, prepared to awaken Robert Murdoch, who was making a very special journey. Shall I wake the patient, Doctor? Yes, I'll speak to him now. What? Oh, Doctor Wester, are the tests over? Everything's completed.

2:40You don't look too encouraging just how bad am I? You're dying, Mr. Murdoch. There is no cure, no treatment. Now, if you're a Venusian, a Martian, even we'd have a chance of saving you. But as an Earthman, you have no immunity to the disease you've contracted. It is Alien, and it is deadly. Well, how long do I have, Doctor? In Earth's time, how long? Exactly two months. You'll die at midnight on January 30th, 2022. The machines are never wrong about these things. I see. Now, I've made arrangements for you to remain with us until it's... No, no, look, I'm going back home. To Earth. But that's impossible. From this planetary system, it's a year's journey, 12 Earth months. You'll never reach their lives. Hmm, you're wrong, Doctor. One year from today, Robert Spencer Murdoch, rocket man, star class, will return to the town he grew up in.

3:48To Thayerville, Haley County, state of Ohio, planet Earth, to keep a promise. I'm afraid that would require a scientific miracle. Exactly, Doctor. Wester exactly right. A genuine scientific miracle. A world of science. A world of science. Across a wilderness of stars, a silver needle threads the dark fabric of space. A one-man rocket aimed at the planet called Earth. Inside its metal skin, alone within the ship's honeycomb chambers, a man is dying. Dying. Dying. Robert S. Murdoch, recording logbook entry January 29th, 2022 on board starship 12.

4:52Single passenger craft, 29th day out. Proceeding on schedule, star course 89J4. Anticipated Earth touchdown December 31st, 2022, all as well. You are tired, Mr. Murdoch. You should rest. Rest, on my last day of life. Look, I want to savor every minute left to me. The concept does not register, Mr. Murdoch. Why should it be? Your dead computer metal. I'm living flesh. Do you understand the concept of dreams? A machine cannot dream, sir. That's right, only a man can dream. I've had a dream for most of my life, a dream of space.

5:53From the moment I watched the first Mars rocket land, I knew beyond any possible doubt that I wanted to become a space man. My boy would pal, Jack Morgan. You shared the dream with me. You know, we'd hike out to the rocket port and stand for hours behind the fence watching those big passenger ships come down from the moon. And I'd yell with excitement, look, look, Jack, here it comes the rocket. Here she comes, Jack. Isn't that a marvel? Yeah, yeah, she's beautiful. I'm going to ride one of those Liker to the star someday, Jack. I'm going to be a space man. That you won't, not really. But I will. Well, well. My parents say it's all right, Jack, that they'll even be proud of me. Dad wanted to be an astronaut once, but he got sidetracked. Me? I'm really going.

6:58But won't it really take a long time? A lot of special schooling? Yeah, sure, but I don't mind that. It's what I really want to do. Well, me too. But I just wish my folks were like yours. They think I'm crazy when I talk about going into space. Well, look, maybe they know you don't want it as much as I do, Jack. It's all I dream about reaching the stars. Seeing alien horizons, other worlds, I've got to make it happen, Jack. I've got to. So I made it happen. I made the dream real. Finished my schooling, got my degree, became a space engineer. I left home for the stars at 22 with a promise. Oh, promise, Mr. Murdock. That's right. A promise to come back to Fairville to see my parents again, to let them be with their son once more. They're waiting for me now. And because they didn't let me down, I won't let them down.

8:04How does that poem by Robert Frost go? But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep. But aren't your parents aware of your condition? I kept it from them. Their old, sick, and their friends are gone. And why bring more sorrow into their lives? Do you think I'm fine that I'm coming back to them? At last, tape mother sent from Earth telling me that she and dad are waiting. Where my he anchors for you to come home to us, Robert. Your father, nice, so eager to see you again. We're happy for his son, proud of what you've accomplished. We haven't been too well, of late. Your father's heart doesn't allow it to get out much anymore. I'm sure the breath lately hit the doctor Thomas says that you're not to worry that we're both quite well enough considering our ages.

9:14A resting is not just possible, saving our strength for your homecoming. Oh, please, Bobby, come back to us, Aisley. We thought of you, Phil, each day like sunshine. And our lives are suddenly bright again. Hurry, please. Hurry. Hurry. It's time. The hour's a minute's a running out. It's time. No. Just inside here, they said he'd be waiting for me. Good evening, Mr. Murdock. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. All may I serve you, sir.

10:17Tell me who you are. I want to hear you say the words. My name is Robert Spencer Murdock. I'm a professional rocket man trained in an astroengineering. I'm 44 years of age and have been in space for half my lifetime. I'm presently unleaved from my star-class duties and I'm bound for my home planet Earth to visit my parents as I promised them I would. After two decades among the stars, I'm going back to Fairville, Ohio. Perfect, as you say, sir. Why, your eyes? My eyes. Your voice? My voice. Your nose? My skin? Hair? All mine? Exactly and precisely mine. I have been built to your specifications, sir. You'll find that we are identical in every outward detail. You eat, drink, sleep? Of course, sir. Your habits are my habits. Your body functions are duplicated within my body. I assure you there are no flaws.

11:27Let me see your hands. Your fingers? Yes, each pore the same. Nothing short of an extensive lab exam by a medical expert could reveal my true origin. And my memories are mine. Your human brains entire neural pattern has been electronically imprinted in my android brain. So I remember what you remember. The warm summers of Ohio, the techniques in the fields with that special potato salad your mother was so proud of the nights on the back porch when you'd sit with Jack watching the stars. And Julie, do you remember her? She loved you, but she fought your dream. She wanted me to give up the stars, the rockets. Julie didn't want me to become a spaceman. Oh, how she fought to keep me on earth.

12:40We'll be happy, Bob. I swear it. You'll see. I'll make you a fine wife. We'll have two children, a boy and a girl, and we'll raise them here in Theraville. I love you, Bob. So much. And I love you, Julie, but I can't stay with you. I can't be tied to earth. I need the stars, Julie. I need deep space. The rockets. I'm going up to them. I must. But this is your home. The people who love you are here. I'm here. I won't wait for you, Bob. I can't do that. I never ask you to wait, Julie. I could be gone for decades. Maybe I'll never come back. I have no way knowing. Then go. Forget me. Forget that I ever loved you. I'll never do that, Julie. I'll always remember you and what we had together, Julie. Always. And you've never forgotten her. We've never forgotten her. Julie left Theraville after I did. Left the States went to Europe, married a school teacher in Switzerland, became a mother. She has a grown son and daughter by now. I doubt she ever thinks much about Robert Murdoch.

14:03But you wouldn't know about that. No, sir, I wouldn't. Well, how much longer do you have until midnight, earth's time? Doctors can tell exactly when my breath will cease. Charter precise moment. My heart will stop beating. They can do everything but keep me alive. I'm sorry, sir. No, dammit. You're not. A machine can't feel sorrow. If you've never had life, you can't know how it feels to lose it. As you say, sir. I want to go over everything with you now. There must be no error. However small we must be certain of success. When this rocket touches down next December, I'll be here to meet your parents. They know an advance from your tapes. And I cannot spend longer than two weeks with them. And I must return to my duties. But for those two weeks, I'll be their son.

15:14Home from the stars. For those two weeks, I'll live with them, eat with them, sleep in the back of the house in my old room. I'll talk to them with the far places I've been. I'll tell them of other planets, of other races beyond earth. Yes, they'll want to hear all of it about my work in space. The strange adventures I've had, the friends I've made, all of it. But when you leave them, when the two weeks are up, they must believe you are going back into space. They'll see me pour to rocket. They'll see it fire away from earth. They'll know that I cannot return for two more decades. They won't try to stop me. They'll say they're goodbyes and let me go back to the stars. And the tapes, my voice, all arranged. Your pre-recorded tapes will be sent to them in Thayerville at selected intervals until their deaths. They'll never know the truth.

16:15Yes, my promise will be kept. I'll never have to deal with this alien thing that's killing me. Now everything is set perfect. Are you ready now Mr. Murdock? It's almost in the night. Yes, yes. All right, I'm ready. But follow me, please. Here we are, sir. You have only a few moments left. I'm tired. So very, very tired. By nausea, psoronic me dying at midnight. Space is one. The eternal midnight always black, dark, deep, and eternal. Lie down, sir. Easy. Easy now. Thank you, Robert Murdock, for what you're now about to do. And for all you will do, I was built to serve, sir.

17:28I have always wanted to die in space to be buried here, to flow forever between the stars. I am so tired now. I feel so heavy. Close them and sleep, Mr. Murdock. Sleep. Oh, goodbye, mom. That's truly I. I love all of you. I I love you. Sleep well, Mr. Murdock.

18:29They were all there. The mayor, old Mr. and Mrs. Murdock, the town's banker, Mr. Hartley, the Thayerville High School Band, citizens young and old, waiting on a cold, bright, Ohio morning, for a man to come down from the stars. And here he comes, Murdock, for a lordy, for the stars. Beautiful. And he fears the fall. Robert, Spencer, Murdock, tall and heroic. In a splendid dress uniform that threw back the light of the sun in a thousand glittering diamond patterns. Across the field, moving toward the rocket, a white haired woman and a man with a cane.

19:43Bobby, son, you come back to us. I'm so glad to be home. Everybody's here, son, even the mayor. All the city officials. This is a great day for Thayerville. Well, Mr. Mayor, there they go. The three of them still doesn't seem altogether rightfully hardly. Unnatural. That's the feeling I get. This is what they wanted, isn't it? What they asked for. It's what they wrote in their wills. They didn't want their son to come home and find them gone. They promised to meet him and they've kept that promise. Doesn't seem right somehow. In just two weeks, he'll be back into deep space for another 20 years. Why ruin his homecoming? Why bring sorrow into his life? And they are perfect, aren't they?

20:55I've done about that. They're perfect duplicates. It's amazing these days what science can do. Look at him, embracing them, chattering to them, smiling. He's happy and he'll never know. He'll write, certainly. He'll never know. And the old woman and the old man and their tall son from the stars walked off together into the white winter streets of Thayerville, Haley County, state of Ohio, planet Earth, 2022.

22:25The story of this time was by William H. Nolan from his book Alien Horizons. We did promises to keep a science fiction drama. This is Michael Hanson speaking, reading with me where J. Fitz, Cliff Roberts, Carrie Frumkin, Ward Paxton and the We Strasse Ball, engineering by Steve Gordon. Mind Web is a production of WHA Radio and Madison, a service of University of Wisconsin Extension.