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.

Yeah, 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.

But I warn you, I am beginning to feel faraway and visionary.

How about your conference with the Committee on Atomic Power?

Oh, not my conference.

Twenty engineers and scientists were there.

Twenty? Hardly a routine meeting, would you say?

Yeah. And look, Cal,

we won't buy the Committee's getting you VIPs together for a cocktail party.

All right, boys, I'll tell you this much.

Under discussion was the biggest job we've ever tackled,

the industrial application of atomic energy.

But that's not news, Cal.

We all know there've been several industrial reactors in work already.

Well, let us say then that, in the 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 a 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, Doctor?

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.

I'll see you gentlemen later. Goodbye.

So long. Cal.

Cal, are you working on anything along the lines you mentioned?

Roughly.

Well, remember me, will you?

I'm concentrating on the re-conversion of certain common elements

into nuclear energy sources.

Huh? How's that again?

What counts is how I make it work.

I see.

Good flight, Cal. Thank you.

So long.

2xD341 calling Ryberg Control Tower, come in.

2XD341,

this is Ryberg Control Tower. Go ahead.

Okay to come in, Webb?

All clear, Cal.

The drift's south, about 20 miles per hour.

Hi, Webb. What's Cal's ETA?

1410,

but he's late. Half an hour late.

That's my boss. The only guy in the world

who can travel by jet and still be late.

So you talk about me when I'm gone.

Where are you?

Look out the window.

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 flame out.

No power. No nothing.

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.

The 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, so help me, 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. The 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 XC 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.

XC condensers in an envelope?

Must be a gag dreamed up by the receiving department.

I ordered two XC 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 33,000 volts.

I'll try one on voltage test.

I've got one set up for you.

Into thin air.

35,000 volts.

Call Pete Knowles at Supreme.

Okay.

Pete Knowles, please.

Pete? Cal Meacham.

I ordered two XC condensers and you sent me some beads.

Yes, beads.

Well, I am serious.

I just tested one bead for voltage and...

Oh?

Well, thanks.

Supreme didn't send them.

They're crazy.

Pete says they've had no condenser order from us in six weeks.

Here's the 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, Electronic Service, Unit 16."

I thought it was a subsection of Supreme.

Electronic Service, Unit 16.

Well, at least we can find out what they're made of.

A 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, l... 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.

Maybe I will.

Morning. Morning.

Sign here.

Thank you.

What have you got?

I don't know.

There's no return address.

Electronics Service, Unit Number 16.

A catherimine tube with an endiom complex of plus four.

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 Astrascope."

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.

You know, Joe, according to this,

there's no limit to what it can do.

Laying a four-lane highway at the rate of 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 are we gonna build it?

These symbols, they're like a foreign language.

And anyway, we don't know the address.

Well, 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.