X Minus One - Sea Legs

0:00Booking a Verbo Vacation rental means you get Verbo care in 24-7 life support, verified reviews from real guests and top rated homes with the love by guest filter. I just booked my Verbo because there was a sweet line for it. We all have our reasons. If you know, give Verbo. Terms apply. See Verbo.com slash trust for details. Now stay tuned for X-1 on NBC. Countdown for Blastoff. X-5, 4, 3, 2, X-1, fire. From the far horizons of the unknown, come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.

1:04These are stories of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a million could be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine presents X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X. Minus minus minus minus minus minus minus. 1-1-1-1. The Night. The Frank Watroke Story. Sea Legs. I stood in line at the Grav-1 desk with the old notch service record and tapes in my hand and waited for the board processing clerk to speak. The clerk seemed utterly indifferent to the excitement of the men in the line. I wondered how long he'd been out here on this God forsaken zone five planet. Next. Name? Robert Craig.

2:04Occupation. Flight officer. Destination? Earth. Earth? Anything wrong with that? I guess not. How long since you've been on Earth, Mr. Craig? Well, I, uh, I've never been there. My parents left during the second colonization of Cassiopeia. I was born there. Have you ever been in a gravity system? Just briefly. Under drugs, of course. You'll have to go through the gravity conditioning course, yeah, so I was told. Proceed to the airlock chamber on your right and follow the robot's orders. Good luck. You may need it. Next. I went into the chamber and stripped off my clothing while the robot drone disorders. Remove all metal objects from your person. Place them in the plastic tube at your left. Now stand underneath the decontamination tube. Depress the button with your right foot. This is all. Proceed through the green door to the psychometric section.

3:07Please respond quickly to orders, and so to not impede the progress of others. Next, please. The door to the psychometric section led into a pleasant but cold-looking room with a single metal desk, a man with a balding high forehead sat behind the desk. Mr. Craig? Have a seat. I'm Captain Wyandotte, the psychological officer. I'll see you next time. I'll see you next time. Hmm. You list your destination as terror. You are certain you wish to go to earth? Of course I'm certain. You're somewhat aggressive, Mr. Craig. Look, I've been standing in line taking orders from clerks and robots for six hours. Every time somebody sees that I'm headed for earth, I get the fish eye. Are they jealous or what? I hardly think so. You've been a space band for sixteen years, Mr. Craig. You've been zooming around in the counter-graph systems and the outer galaxies without any restraints or self-discipline. Have you ever spent six weeks strapped into a grab seat on a space rocket, Captain?

4:11There's a good deal of self-discipline involved in that. I think you will find things on terror require a different kind of self-discipline, Mr. Craig. I'm pretty much aware of what it's like. Are you? I suppose you've heard all the popularizations in the tape zines. Well, Mr. Craig, let me give you a word of caution. It's going to be vastly different. I'm prepared for that, Captain. Can we get going? Naturally. You will undergo a twenty-day conditioning course. Twenty days. Mr. Craig, you've been in space sixteen years. Your body is conditioned to a normal state of free fall or at best to acceleration. The return to gravity would kill you if you weren't prepared for it. All right, what do I do? To send a centrifugal department, here are your papers. Owen, Mr. Craig. Yes? Centrifugal is a rather trying or deal. If during the course of treatment you should change your mind about returning to Earth,

5:11you're free to do so. Thanks. I won't. I'd heard about centrifugal, but you can never really know about these things until you experienced them. Four times a day we were whirled around until it seemed as if our insides were too big for our bodies. On the twelfth day, it got to be too much for me. I was in the base hospital for five days. My roommate was an old space bomb they'd brought in to die with a case of ruptured veins. His name was Charlie Brockman. How you feel, son? I'm pretty good, Charlie. You get discharged tomorrow, I hear. You're going to try it again? I guess so. Why? Only way I'll ever get to Earth. You really want to go? That's right. You talked anybody been there last 10 years or so? No, you don't get to talk to many people from Earth and the galaxies. Were you over there? Me. Now what would an old space bomb like me be doing on Terra?

6:14Well, I just thought maybe. I done most of my time in zone five. Out there you get to think in anybody who stays less than 80 light years from Earth to the landlubber. Yeah, I used to think the same. Then I took the exam for a job back on Earth and I passed it. I used to think I'd like to go back. But space was exciting, you know. New and raw, a tug at your guts and it sent the blood rushing through your veins. But it was free. No bureaucrat ever lasted six months and grabbed five. I had enough hitting atmospheres all over the universal man. Maybe you're right. I'll lean over here, will you? Sure. Unbutton my pajamas up, will you? OK. There's a chain around my neck, got a little message capsule on it. Oh, yeah, I got it. Do me a favor, huh? Take it with you when you go back to Terra. Don't open it till you're on the ship. OK, Charlie. And son. Yes? I lied to you. I have been back to Terra. I've fake some papers and made a landing there six months ago. What are you doing back here? I had to leave in a hurry.

7:15Why? You will find out, son. Good luck. Charlie died the next day. A few hours later, I was visited by Captain Wyandotte, a psych officer. How are you feeling, Craig? OK. You still want to go back to Earth? Yes. You're completely sure you want to live out your life there to give up space service for it? Look, we've gone through this, Captain. Are you tell me that space men don't settle down on Terra, yet you won't know you can't tell me why? All right, what's the pitch? Does the space service need men so badly that they have to make it impossible for us to go back? That, Mr. Craig, you will have to discover for yourself. You have my authorization to complete your conditioning and return to Earth as a private citizen. I wish you luck. You'll need all you can get. Somehow I managed to survive the torment for 18 days.

8:27I was ready to return to Earth. A month later, I descended from a huge intergalactic jet at Los Angeles spaceport. I was dead tired from the trip. I checked in at the nearest inexpensive hotel. This is your room, sir. I just put the bags down. Would you all unpack myself? Oh, yes, sir. Just back from out of space, sir. Yeah, that's right. How could you tell? Sea legs. Sea legs? Oh, a way to walk. You can tell when somebody's been in the log grab systems. Oh, well, here. Oh, thanks, Mr. Craig. For another five units, I'll tell you where it is. Well, what is? You know the mic. Mic? OK, make it three units. I won't hold you up. You mean a microphone? Yeah, that's right. They wanted to put screens in, but the boys convinced them. They ran any freedomites of as they hid. Freedomite? That's loud. You want to get controlled? No. No. Here's the money. Where is it? It's in the better lumenator.

9:27You can show it with a razor blade. Thanks. You want any sensation tapes? What are they? No metal image. Oh, boy, you've been away from terror a long time. Wait a minute before you go, son. Where's the minerals building? I have to report there for a job interview. Well, that's in the government cluster. Fifth level of X in second. Thanks. I won't breakfast about eight o'clock. I'll only dry SS units. My what? Your ration units. I don't have any ration units. You have your right, thank God. Look, I just got here an hour ago. Well, you better go see the civil control board tomorrow. If you want to eat that is. All right, where do I find the control board? Government cluster. But don't worry. If you don't find them, they'll find you. I went to sleep that night with the uneasy feeling

10:29that somebody was watching me. It had been a weird day. I hadn't exactly liked it. Well, I told myself it figured that there'd be more formalities and rigmarole on Earth than there were out in the systems, especially at first. Still, I couldn't get the idea of the concealed microphone out of my mind. You remember it likes Mr. Kreg? Your arm is to Kreg? Yes. Robert Kreg. You weren't nervous, are you? No, no, no. This is my first time before the control board. Well, it's my first time. Flight officer. Somewhat unusual for a vigorous young man like yourself abandoning space services, isn't it? I don't know. Is it? Leaving something behind, Mr. Kreg? No. You don't like this sort of a failure, you Mr. Kreg? Well, I'm afraid I don't quite see its necessity. I served the intergalactic service well. My records prove it. It's enough impertinence, Mr. Kreg. Answer the questions.

11:30You are a Terran. Yes. Where are your loyalties? I don't understand. Your first loyalties are to intergalactic, is that right? Is there a distinction? Do you wish to be held in contempt of this board? Of course not. And you will confine your responses to simple yes answers. Now, Mr. Kreg, we shall begin again. Please try to show restraint of emotion. You are here to petition for an identity card provisional code two type. You maintain that you've never been on Terra before. Indeed, you state that you've never had a political affiliation. Yes. What are your reactions to the latest acts of the liberal party? I have none. You do not condemn the liberal party? Well, I've been. Then you must favor it. I don't know anything about it. Now then, Mr. Kreg, the import service report shows that you passed your test aboard your ship.

12:32You were enabled to accomplish this through night study. Yes. Had you maintained in your application that you had considered the space service a career? I changed my mind. Oh, you changed your mind. I see. I say, too, that you have petitioned aboard for a private means of convince. Why do you wish to own your own transportation vehicle? To make it easier to get around, I report to my job. And what job? I passed the exam for the import service. I report today. Where are you living, Mr. Kreg? At the star hotel. Very well. You'll wait outside in the waiting room until you're called again. I waited about two hours in the poor, salinized waiting room of the civil control board. And I was called over to the clerk's desk at a small window. He stabbed some cards for me. Kreg! Here. Here's your stuff.

13:32Class one, professional, I-dent card. Sign it and fingerprint it. Don't lose it. You do. You'll be picked up by the control agent. I, uh, I petition for a class two card. You get a class one. This entitles you to maintain an apartment in the lower level of the Beverly Project. Here's your clothing, Russian. You'll have to turn in that leather flight jacket. No, wait a minute. I had this made on Chouan. Listen, I can remove the insignia. That is not the point. Your clothing ration is defined by law. There are no exceptions. This is your food ration of what's all this medical stuff on the card. Your ration fairly in accordance with your particular metabolism. Oh, you're kidding. I do not kid Mr. Kreg. What about a car? I asked to be allowed to buy a car. I see. Your petition to be permitted to purchase a private means of transportation is here by denied. I walked out of the control board feeling like a man who has just come out of free fall

14:35into a hypergravity system. Instead of reporting to the import service for my initial job interview, I walked around the city. I don't know how long I walked maybe an hour, maybe two. After a while, I came to the outskirts of Old Los Angeles. It was a big fence around it in the usual signs. Radio activity. The wear. With just a pile of rubble and twisted girders. I looked at it for a while and then turned around and headed for the intergalactic freight office. So you figure you made a mistake? Yeah, that's right. You don't hear much about terror out there. And you want me to sign your back into intergalactic? Yes. You got any character references? No, no, not here on Earth, but I can post a good-sized bond if they'll release my ISS unit. What's your rating? I can handle anything up to 15G's acceleration on my old license. You got a terrain contract with import services, Ed? And started work, yeah. Look, kid.

15:35Mr. Craig, is it? How long you been on Earth? Two days. So you're a spaceman. Flight officer, ex-flight officer. You know, I'd navigate through four star zones and the asteroid belt thrown in. You got a license for 15G's could get five more with a check flight. You got enough brains to pass the import senior route is exam. But you ain't got enough sense to come in out of the rain. We get guys like you every day. You're hot, you're big, you're rare and ago. But you ain't gone nowhere. I'm listening. I don't know how you got here, Craig. Maybe you did quit honorable, or maybe you went and burned up a colony someplace. That would be in my records. The point is it don't make any difference. Nobody leaves terror without a permit. Nobody gets a permit to go back to space once he hits this old apple. Why not? They afraid somebody will tell what it's like? Oh, son, you got things to learn. One is you don't go shooting off your mouth. Another is, terror has changed a lot since the radioactive was.

16:39We're going places, doing things. Big places, big things. You've got to fit into that, kid. Move with it. Stick around. You still got your sea legs. You're going to like it here. You can make a quick dollar and spend it quick, too. But you'd better smarten up. Or you'll finish grubbing radioactive dust off girders. That's a story, huh? The whole story? That's it. Everything runs by a system. And son, you can't buck the system. Yeah. I don't suppose there's any place around here a guy could get a quick drink. We are out at the end of Y Street. They got a little place you can buy nicotine taas, poodles, they call it. Thanks. Yeah, get it out of your system and then settle down. That's my advice. Thanks. So long. Get me the control agent. He just left here.

17:40He's on his way to the poodle cafe. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Another drink for a young lady. Wow. Now then. Where were we? I don't know. But I still don't know why you're buying me free drinks. I told you, I want somebody to talk to. You a purist. Or maybe you don't like the brand of sensation tapes that peddle in these days. You don't have a bad face really underneath the makeup. I mean, it's a little crooked, but it ain't bad, really. Thanks. It does make pretty good. What's your name? Gloria. Oh, sure. Sure. Sure, I remember. Gloria.

18:41Maybe you had enough to drink. No, no. No, not yet. You know, I look around. I see all these people with their faces all froze up like plastic. And I feel like I got to know somebody. I go out of my mind. So what happens? Everybody is afraid. I mean, what happened? What ever happened to freedom? What's not? Did I say something? Was everybody so quiet about all of a sudden? OK. Come with me. Well, who are you? Control board agent. Hey, I wasn't with him. Honest, he just picked me up and bought me a drink and started chuking off his mouth. I wasn't with him. Let's go, man. Wait, I'm a wolf for you. You'll find that out of command. On your feet. Oh, OK. OK, car. Keep your hands off. I'll go with you. Everybody else just minds your own business.

19:43You, Gurley. Yeah? Let's see your right-dent car. Here. You'll live with this address? Yeah? Along? With my sister. Maybe some nights you could go to a movie or something we could spend some time getting acquainted. Yeah. Yeah, sometime. Right, I'll call you. Hey, I need my dent card back. I can't get rations without it. I'll keep it. Bring it back, my son. Why does the give the girl her card? No! Or maybe your mind's your own business. Let's go. You walk just a little in front of me. He was a big man, maybe 250 pounds and he shuffled when he walked. He hit me right across the right shoulder with a sort of rubber truncheon, not began to

20:43ache. The walking along a sort of back street. Everywhere in the universe there were such streets. Streets where you could find freedom and anonymity. A compromise between lawlessness and law. They are permitted by the authorities because it is necessary to have a place for those who are not permitted elsewhere. OK, step into the doorway. Hurry up, you're four being followed. Don't ask questions, who's your told? So they haven't a ride. It's the right to get hit over the head unless you do it, you're told my quick. Come in here. In here. Hurry. Who are they shooting at? You or me? Both of us, down these steps. Stop! Follow up fire! Through the storm. Now, duck behind that pillow, don't make a sound. You see them? Nice trace! Come on, they probably slipped out. Walk through the tunnel behind you. One fall's moving, you're finished. Go on!

21:43Pfft! From the direction of the tunnel, I guess it was part of an old sewage system that led toward the ruined city. I don't know how long we walked, maybe an hour. Finally, we came to a small wooden door. Stop here. OK, let's have it. What? What? Have what? The tube. I don't know what you mean. I'd detect us, picked it up, I knew the minute you got off the plane. You're carrying a radioactive message to with the periodic emission signal. I need to have it before we can go any further. You mean the tube that Old Charlie gave me? Old Charlie? Yes, Charlie Brockman. The old spaceman who was in the hospital with me. Where is it? I think it's in my pocket. I never even bothered to open it. Do it now. Let me see. Oh, here it is. Open it.

22:45It's empty. That's right. The message is in the tube itself. We identify our people by the radioactive pattern. Our people? You'll see. Come in, make it fast. It's the one. It's the one. She's been drugged. He's had pure and massive dose at the Pluto. Good. Mr. Crane, my name is Cocktoe. This is Mr. Brannigan. You probably quite bewildered about all this, but me clarified the situation. You're now in the headquarters of the Freedomites, underneath the radioactive part of Old Los Angeles. Mr. Brannigan is not a controlled agent. He's one of our men. We've been watching you ever since we detected the message too, but your ship was approaching us. Oh, wait a minute. You guys are Freedomites. That's right. You're pretty illegal, aren't you?

23:46Let's say our lives aren't worth a snap of your fingers if we're caught. I'd who are you? Where are you from? Most of us are from the same place you're from. How to space? Many of us had the same history you have. We shipped into Earth and became disillusioned when to the intergalactic freight office to apply for a job. Man at the office, the man who made the speech about coming in out of the rain is one of our agents. Aren't you taking a chance telling me all this? Not at all. At the Pluto, you were given a massive dose of PON. You won't remember anything that happened to you after the drug hits you in an hour or so. It works like a shock. Everything will be repressed into the unconscious. Oh, I see. Very neat. It will exist in your unconscious, however. Somewhere, because you're the kind of man you are, because living in space has taught you the blessing of feeling free. You'll be able to draw upon your unconscious knowledge when you need to. And when will that be, Mr. Cacto?

24:49It depends on whether you decide to join us or not. Join you in what? I haven't the faintest idea of what you're trying to do for all I know you're a bunch of traders. You know, I've heard this comes the revolution stuff before. My friend, you're woefully ignorant of our aims. Has it to be expected? We anticipate no revolution. We print no leaflets, publish no newspaper, and we have no world plan for conquest. The kind of totalitarian mind would subscribe to tight economic systems like the ancient Marxism of the communists is of horror to us. We're interested in only one thing, the preservation of the idea of freedom. Our fear is that men will forget what it's like to feel free. Well, how do you expect to accomplish this? Our concepts are being kept alive in only one place in the universe today. Out of space? Exactly. On the frontiers of the universe, where freedom is a condition of life and growth. Suppose I join you.

25:51How can I help? You're an experienced pilot. We have enough connections to do some plastic surgery on your face, and get your position piloting a spaceship again. You'll remember nothing of your mission, but you will remember that you have been back to Earth what it was like. You'll be able, carefully, of course, to tell people to help keep the idea of freedom alive. Think it over carefully. You have 20 minutes before the drug takes effect. I don't need 20 minutes. I'll do it. Good. In exactly 48 hours, you'll wake up in your hotel bed with a new face, the identity card of a man named Harold Janus. You'll not remember how you got them or why, but you'll know what to do with his identity. He is or was, master navigator on the Earth Mars run. Good luck, Mr. Craig. I woke up in the hotel bed,

26:52feeling like a man who has hung one on, but good. I looked into the mirror and I saw the face of another man. I looked in my wallet and discovered that I was Harold Janus, navigator for intergalactic, holder of a license for 15 Gs. I wondered where it came from, how I got it, but I asked no questions. This license, this identity card, meant freedom. I walked out of the hotel feeling steady for the first time. I'd gotten my sea legs at last. You have just heard X-1, presented by the National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which this month features the Venus trap by Evelyn E. Smith. One thing man never planned to take along into space with him was the eternal triangle, especially a true blue triangle like this one. Galaxy Magazine, on your new stand today, tonight by transcription, X-1 has brought you sea legs.

27:56A story from the pages of Galaxy, written by Frank Patrokey and adapted for radio by George Lefferts, featured in the cast where William Redfield, James Stevens, Stan Early, Charles Penman, James Juchess, Richard Hamilton, Jack Orison, Jack Grimes, Craig McDonald, Ralph Bell, Cermott Murdock, and Fred Ricca Chandler, your announcer Fred Collins. X-1 was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio Network production. Here politics and primary is date line Ohio and Indiana, tonight on NBC Radio.