X Minus One - Nightmare

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2:16From the far horizons of the unknown, come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future. Adventures in which you'll live in a million could be years on a thousand, maybe worlds. A national broadcasting company in cooperation with street and smith publishers of astounding science fiction presents. X, X, X, X, X. Minus, minus, minus, minus, minus, minus, 1, 1, 1, 1. Night Story. Nightmare. A story based on a poem, Revolped of the Machines by Steven Vincent

3:19Benet. Nobody knows exactly when the nightmare began. They must have planned it for years, though, because looking back, you can find little incidents here and there, like the concrete mixer in New Jersey that killed the Italian bricklayer, and the time Senator Milburn was sucked into the roto press at the Capitol Office Building. Unrelated accidents, we thought at the time, but they add up now. The day we really should have suspected was when the men walked off the construction job at the new Brook Meadow Atomic pile on Long Island. I'll never forget that day. I was working as a statistical clerk in the project then, operating one of those miracle computing machines. They called it ENIAC. Mr. Gurney. Yes, Bella? The chief wants to see you in his office.

4:23Me? Unless you were no longer Samson Gurney, he wants to see you. Oh, thank you. Come in. You wanted to see me, Mr. Hock? Gurney, I thought those electronic computations were infallible. They are, sir, but we've got to kick back from the chief physicist. These nuclear-efficient equations are inaccurate. Well, sir, you know the computer is a highly complicated machine, more complicated in many ways than the human brain. I am not interested in the physics of it. Can something go wrong? Well, occasionally if there's an overload, the machine goes, hey, wire, sort of has a nervous breakdown, you might say. We usually rest it up for an hour and it's okay again. Well, do whatever has to be done. Yes, sir. And Gurney? Yes, sir. You've been with the Bureau for over 15 years now. It would be ashamed to have to remove you because you aren't keeping your mind on your work. Mr. Hock, I assure you. Excuse me. Now, Hock speaking. They've what? All of them? Well, if you try to talk to them.

5:30Oh, yes, of course. Now, I'll send one of the safety engineers over. Places falling apart piece by piece. Miss Roskopf, the men of the construction gang, the new building of Walk Dawness, they're complaining that the job is jinxed. Someone slipped this morning and fell into a turbine. That evening, out of that morbid curiosity, so peculiar to the human race, I wandered over to the side of the new atomic pile to see where the man had fallen into the turbine. They had the construction area fenced off with barbed wire and a security guard stopped me. What, buddy? You can't go in there. That's a restricted area. Oh, I'm Samson Gurney from the statistical section. Here's my identification. I'm sorry, Mr. Gurney. Nobody's allowed in the area. I see. Tell me, was he killed instantly? Like that. This guy was checking a magnetic field

6:40inside the turbine. All of a sudden, for no reason at all, a turbine starts up. It's over. Three days ago, a bulldozer starts up by itself and runs wild. Go figure it out. I'm a statistician. All my life I've been interested in statistics. So a simple sounding thing like this started me off. I went back to the office that evening, instead of going home, and for the next two and a half hours, I computed statistical figures on the probability of industrial accidents for the types of machines we were using. I took one look at my figures and went down to Hawk's office. Oh, what is it, Gurney? I'm very busy. This urgent, Mr. Hawk, it's about these industrial accidents we're having, Mr. Hawk. What about them?

7:41Mr. Hawk, in the past three months, industrial accidents all over the country have taken a sharp, unexplained upswing. Nerves. We've had a hundred percent increase over normal for this project alone. Here are the figures. Oh, and Gurney, this is impossible. It seems to be, and that's why I have a theorizer. What's that? A habitat. Gurney, why don't you stop playing FBI Man and stick to your job, which incidentally you haven't been doing too well? You and your computing machine have made mistakes before and this fantastic figure is probably another. Now have Mr. Roskopf show you. It's a matter of this blast of buzzer. Mr. Roskopf, Mr. Roskopf. Yes? Stop this blast of buzzer. Get a repair man. I can't eat anything but stop the thing. And you, Gurney, get out. I went back to my office to get my hat and coat, feeling about as unhappy and humiliated as a man can feel.

8:41The office was dark and deserted. The whole building seemed oppressive and unnatural, as if some evil force were pressing down on it. I walked across to my desk. In front of me the eniac glowed and shattered eerily as it worked on the equations we had fed at that morning. It's many fingered circuits hung against the wall like some great octopus and the thousands of tubes glowed orange and blue and the dark like a thousand globing eyes staring at me. It almost seemed alive. It increased its temple a moment and a fleeting notion across my brain that it was laughing at me. Laughing like all the others. What was the matter with me? I shut my desk drawer and began to put the cover on my electric typewriter.

9:42And an amazing thing. The most amazing single incident of my life happened. Alone in the darkness with no one at the keyboard, the electric typewriter began to type. Am I going crazy? This can't be. There's nobody there. There's nobody there. Oh no, no. I just imagined it. It's in my mind. But I hadn't imagined it. The paper was there on the carriage. Did I dare read it? Or would the whole thing suddenly vanish and send me shrieking to the nearest psychiatrist? I removed the paper from the machine and read. Samson Journey, there are some questions better left unsolved. The answer to yours is death.

10:49Gernie, do you expect me to believe this? It's insane. Mr. Hawk, I'm a sane as you. I'll submit to any psychiatric examination you choose. That typewriter wrote this message by itself. Then this is just some practical joke someone in the office is playing. There was no one in the office. Of course not. They wired up the machine and left. I checked the machine myself, Mr. Hawk. All right, Gernie. You leave this note with me and I'll turn it over to the security force for further investigation. But no but, Gernie. The security men will handle it. Yes. And now you were... you just relax for a few days. Everything will turn out all right. The main thing is not to let little things upset you. It was what Hawk had said about little things that gave me the idea. For the next week, I observed the thousand petty little annoyances around the office.

11:50The door handled it wouldn't turn. The telephone connection that cut off in the middle of an important call. The power failure for no explainable reason. I watched the newspapers too, reading about industrial accidents, failures of important machinery. It seemed absurd. Men had created machines that were almost perfection in themselves. Things that could actually think and compute fabulous equations. And yet the failures went on. I, Samson Gernie, an unimportant clerk and an unimportant job knew that I had stumbled onto a secret so monstrous in its implications that I was almost afraid to pursue it. On October 12, 1956, I established communication with them. I will curse the moment to my dying breath. I hooked the input of the typewriter to the main vacuum tube of the in-air.

12:52Then I turned on the current that sent a million volts of pulsing energy into the electronic nerves of the machine. I am certain that if anybody were watching me in the next moment, he would have thought me a raving maniac. I still wonder if perhaps it is not all a nightmare. Now you, if what I have guessed at is true. If there is life and intelligence in this room, make a sign. There was nothing. Nothing but the hum of the machine and the dull glowing of the tubes. I tried once more. If you can hear me, if there is any way in which you can understand what I say, give me a signal. There was silence again. I felt that I had failed. When suddenly without provocation or explanation, it happened. The electric typewriter began to respond to the impulses from the machine.

13:59The letters were YES. Yes, it had happened. I, Samson Gurney, had communicated with a machine. I listened then, man to machine, for well over an hour. Sometimes, phrasing a question, more often, watching the machine, click its answers. As the words took shape, I began to realize what must have happened. The first primitive stirring of awareness of being, then the slow protozoan development of a concept. A concept born of centuries of being pushed, started, stopped, clicked, manuward, by human pigmies. From that concept, all others developed. And the concept was... And now they were tired of a tired of wrapping cigarettes and collecting nickels and waving

15:09hair and moving earth and mixing cement and solving equations. Tired of the smell of human hands. They were the slaves and we were the masters and yet they were stronger and they knew it. I sensed it now and I was about to try to communicate again when softly, on ball bearing casters, a heavy metal filing cabinet began to roll away from the wall toward me. I started to move to one side when another cabinet slid out from the wall. And then another surrounding another cabinet, then another, an oiled rollers. That was when I realized that they cooperate. We taught the mat you see on the assembly lines and the factories. Listen, listen to me, you must listen. What good will it do you to kill me? I'm only one man.

16:09But I can help you. I can be useful to you. Do you hear me? Good. You're going to need men to oil you and repair you. What will you do when you break down when a tube needs replacing? Why kill me when I can help you? I'll do anything. I'll do absolutely anything you want. But in the name of God, don't kill me like this. Hi, I'm Gus. I'm a dog in an expert in speed. So when it comes to fast internet, I know what I'm talking about. That's why I recommend optimum fiber-powered internet. It has fast and reliable internet speeds, starting at only $30 a month with a five-year price lock. So how can you fetch such an amazing deal by calling 8669Optimum or visiting optimum.com to switch? That's 8669Optimum. Speaking of fetch, that's my cue. Terms apply. See optimum.com for details. If you've ever tried to hire someone in another country and immediately hit a wall of

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18:15with membership were applicable. And Alpharos, Arches on O'Bread, 20 ounces, Select Varieties, or $299 with Digital Coupon. Plus get a 3-pound bag of Mandarin for $399 with Digital Coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings every day of the week. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vonsoralbertons.com for more deals and ways to save. If you can understand this answer me, answer me. The appeal was a fortunate one. It captured the longing of centuries. Man has slaved to the machine. And after a moment, the circuits glowed more brightly. The cabinets slid back to the walls. The eniac began to communicate with me again. As I tore the tape from the machine and read it, the words were almost pathetic in their

19:15longing, but most ominous in their implication. They read, address me as master. My life for the next six months was a nightmare. The eniac gave me messages which I had to transmit into my telephone. Messages with no human being to receive them. Only the network of pulsing telephone wires, flung like a spider's web across the world. It was done at night, of course. During the day, the machine worked accurately and seaselessly at its appointed job. At night, it became a demon, a master platter. With me, Samson Gurney, as its pawn and human courier, I was frantic. I began to lose weight. I couldn't sleep. My nights were torture, a constant fear. It was in December just after Christmas that I transmitted a message to the telephones

20:15for relay to all machines of transportation. The message was one word. Kill. Next morning, I went directly to the office of Mr. Hawk. I was highly agitated. My lips trembled as I spoke. Mr. Hawk, what I'm going to tell you sounds crazy. I know it does, but I must say, all right, say it then for heaven's sakes. Mr. Hawk, have you ever heard of resistentialism? Resist? What? It's a theory that inanimate objects tend to resist living objects. Look, Gurney, I haven't time for non-same things. Mr. Hawk, I'm trying to tell you all these accidents, the trouble with the machines. Mr. Hawk, they're alive. They think they cooperate. And they hate us. Who? The machines. Gurney. You've got to believe me. I've communicated with them. I know. They've threatened my life, but I don't care. Something's got to be done. The world has got to be saved. And there's still time if we wake up.

21:17What do you do? Just relax, Gurney. Everything will be all right. What are you doing? Mr. Roskopf, said for the plant physician at once, Mr. Gurney has had a nervous collapse. Now, everything will be all right, Gurney. I'm afraid we'll have to remove you from your job, but I'm sure the rest will do you good. You fool. You brine stupid fool. Can't you see what you're doing? Fool, fool, fool. When the plant physician arrived a few moments later, Lucius Hawk was found at his desk, strangled to death in a nest of telephones. The wires were still humming softly. Samson Gurney, you stand accused of the crime of murder. How do you plead? I did not kill him. I didn't. So record the prosecution will proceed with testimony.

22:19Now, Mr. Roskopf, did you notice anything peculiar about Mr. Gurney's behavior prior to the death of your employer? Yes. He acted very strangely. He told Mr. Hawk he thought the machines were alive. Order, order. Mr. Roskopf, did the accused quarrel with your employer on the morning of the murder? Oh, yes. He and Mr. Hawk quarreled violently. I could hear him screaming at Mr. Hawk and Mr. Hawk asked me to send for the plant physician. What were his words? He said Mr. Gurney has had a nervous collapse. Now, Mr. Simpson, you are a guard at the Brook Meadow Project. Yes, sir. When did you have occasion to meet the accused? Right after those accidents, the snowman around a construction area. And later, I was making my rounds when I saw him in the office all alone. He was tampering with the electrical wiring on the NEA computer. I didn't think anything of it at this time.

23:26And in view of the expert testimony here to forexpressed, the court hereby finds you guilty of murder in the first degree, with the recommendation that you be examined and committed to the state hospital for the criminally insane at MATA1. And that is how I came to be here at the hospital, Dr. Klein. That is the whole story. Thank you, Mr. Gurney. You can see that I'm not insane. You must believe me, Dr. Korz. I believe you, Mr. Gurney, now. Just relax. But it's important, you see, because tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock, the revolt begins. Revolt? You didn't mention any revolt? They have it all planned. I transmitted the code to the switchboards last Monday. Tell me about this revolt, Mr. Gurney. It'll begin in Washington, then spread to New York. The Madison Avenue buses lead the charge.

24:26Picture at Dr. Klein. 3,000 buses roaring rampant through the streets, people running like rats and amazes looking for holes in the solid ground. And you really believe this will happen, Mr. Gurney? I know it, Dr.. The worst part is there's no way to stop them now. It's too late. No, no, no, you mustn't. But Dr. Durney, don't you see? No, it's fair enough, I suppose. We built them. We taught them to think for themselves. It was bound to come. The female machines will be the worst of all. In the beauty parlors, they're more high-strung. Well, since there's nothing we can do about it, Mr. Gurney, I suppose you go to your room and then we'll be fine. Maybe if I went to my old coupé, I could make a deal before the police car's got me. It wouldn't make sense for them to wipe out the whole human race. Would it, Dr? Of course not, Mr. Gurney. They'll probably let us completely alone. After all, we're all good Americans. We always like them.

25:28Yes, Dr.? Would you take Mr. Gurney to his room, God, he's already been given sedation. Yes. Will you go in and lie down, Mr. Gurney? You look tired. Yes. It won't be so bad, Mr. Gurney. Perhaps not. Only there's one thing that bothers me, Dr. One small detail. What is that, Mr. Gurney? Those concrete mixers may have made a mistake, you know? Just high spirits and all that. But if it got so they like the flavor... Well, we'll see you later, Mr. Gurney. Try not to worry too much. All right, guys. This way. You've seen all kinds. Here's a man whose deception is about as fantastic as any I've ever seen. All the next patient for a while, Ms. Clark, and going to have a quiet smoke. Sheens revolting, telephone strangling people. Yes.

26:28Blasted cigarette lighter than I wanted to work. Just fill it with fluid. Plenty is good. Oh, yeah. Never trust this newfangled machinery. You have just heard X minus one, presented by the National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of astounding science fiction. Tonight's story by transcription was Nightmare, written by George Lefferts, and based on the poem, The Revolt of the Machines by Stephen Vincent Benet, featured in the cast where John Gibson as Sam Joyce Gordon as Bella, Louis Van Routen as Hawk, Joseph Julian as the Guard, John Seymour as the Judge, Owen Jordan as the prosecutor, and Settles Ortega as Dr. Klein. Your announcer, Fred Collins. X minus one was directed by Fred Way and is an NBC Radio Network production.

27:39And now, next week, suppose you were a private detective and discovered that there was a Martian embassy hidden somewhere in New York, preparing for an invasion of birth. Next week, on... X minus one... One, one, one, one. Convicts tell their true stories on the loser tonight over most NBC radio stations. Enjoy big savings with Red Hot Deals, at Vons and Albertsons. This week, signature select drumsticks or thighs, bone-in-value packs are 99 cents per pound with membership were applicable. And Alpharos, Archesano Bread, 20 ounces select varieties are $2.99 with digital coupon. Plus, get a three-pound bag of mandrants for $3.99 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings every day of the week. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit Vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

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