The Power

Close that door.

All right, cut it.

Great, don't try to move yet.

Think you can walk?

Yes sir.

Matter of fact, I might just walk and keep right on going.

- Don't forget to wash your forehead on the way out.

Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you.

That's all right,

I shouldn't have come barging in like that.

I think you just lost a customer.

He'll be back.

- Tell me, is the pain really that intense?

- We almost hit the limit just now.

- You mean just from a small spot over the forehead?

- It's not the size of the exposure, Mr. Nordlund.

Size has nothing to do with it.

In fact, two areas of pain are no more intense than one.

Now would you care to try it?

No, thank you.

How do you ever get them to do it?

- It's easy, you see, they make more money

here in an hour then they can serving tables

at a student commissary for three weeks.

Have you ever served tables

at a student commissary, Mr. Nordlund?

I see what you mean.

- I don't know how well you've been briefed.

- I know the function of your committee, of course.

I know you specialize in pain.

Well, you might call us

the sadomasochists of the space program.

- That kind of masochism is rather expensive.

But worth every penny of it.

Look at him, how can we protect him in space

if we don't know exactly how much pain he can take,

how much torture he can endure?

No matter what the answers, Mr. Nordlund,

they will not come cheaply.

- What was that? I heard it before coming in.

Over here.

What's the blackout point?

For most men, five G's.

Let's take a look.

He's at three G's right now.

I can arrange it if you'd care to have a ride.

You seem determined to make me

one of your guinea pigs, Professor Tanner.

We just want the government

to know exactly what we're doing.

Excuse me a minute.

What is it, Scott? - You tell me, Jim.

I'd like to know if he's flipped.

I mean if he's gone right off the deep end,

we might as well face it now. - Who?

Who else? Hallson.

- I know he's been under strain...

Strain, look, all right,

now I'm not a psychiatrist and I don't pretend to be but

I'll tell you one thing, this guy's mind is right on the

ragged edge and something better be done about it right now.

Has he said anything about...

Quotations out of Nietzsche.

Yeah, sure the man is Superman.

You wanna hear the topic?

Today he thinks we're all being watched.

- By whom? - By the unknown.

I swear to you Jim,

as a matter a fact, by the super right now.

Who's that?

That's our new Liaison Officer

from Washington, Arthur Nordlund.

He's gonna attend the committee meeting today.

- Get rid of him, he can't go to the meeting.

- And how do you suggest I do that?

- I'm telling you, Hallson's gonna

blow the lid on those questionnaires.

Now if he goes wild, this guy's gonna

think we're all a bunch of crackpots.

- It's too late now to keep him out.

Well make up something.

I can't.

- All right, then you better clamp the lid

on Hallson, Jimbo, that's all I gotta say.

Mr. Nordlund.

Professor Carl Melnicker, physics.

My pleasure.

Professor Scott, biology.

How do you do?

Please sit down, sir.

And Professor Lansing, genetic and cellular theory.

How do you do?

- Professor. - And Professor Hallson,

anthropology. - Yes?

Oh, how do you do?

- And of course you know the Chairman

of this Committee on Human Endurance, Professor Tanner.

- Thank you, Professor Van Zandt.

- For the past year, my department

has been largely engaged in research in outer space.

Why one man lives and another man dies

under exactly the same stresses, the same environments.

We've been trying to figure out

how the ones who are successful,

the ones who do survive, how they get that way.

What factors come into play.

Well I'll now call on the Chairman of our Human

Endurance Committee to take over the floor, Jim?

- To get right to the business at hand,

I'd like to call upon Professor Melnicker

to give us his detailed study on those

conditions in which man will have to exist.

No.

We'll check my questionnaires first.

- Professor Hallson, I have decided to postpone

your work with the questionnaires until the next meeting.

You can't postpone it,

you don't have the right to postpone it.

Professor Hallson, please.

- But you must see this, all of you.

- Just what are these questionnaires, if I may ask?

- Well it's a program that Professor Hallson

initiated himself to find those people

with a great capacity for survival.

We took the test ourselves as sort

of a dry run before they give them to the students.

What sort of test?

Medical history, heredity

and a most advanced IQ examination.

- You have the results? - Yes.

- Well I would very much like to hear them, if I may.

- There's only one questionnaire that counts

and I have the results right here in my report.

Results that show an intelligent quotient

beyond the known limits of measurability.

This person here on this committee who made

these responses to this questionnaire

has a force of intellect far superior

to anyone else known on this earth today.

Well, I suppose one of us here

should feel very flattered, huh?

I don't believe a word of it.

May I see that report, please?

- Maybe somebody filled it out as sort of a gag.

- Well this is most extraordinary.

May I ask then if anybody here

cares to admit to this documented superiority?

Well then I suggest we get on to something else.

- Why, are you afraid to believe it?

Believe what?

Just what you are you talking about, Professor Hallson?

- I think Henry's a little overtired.

You see Mr. Nordlund, we've all been

working very hard on the committee lately.

You're all afraid, all of you.

This person, whoever he is, he can do what

he wants with this committee, with the whole project.

He could take control of all the minds in this room.

- That's wild speculation, Henry.

We've got to go by proven and documented facts.

Yes, that's enough Henry.

Gentleman please, I don't want

to interfere with the procedure here but

I do find the supposition quite intriguing.

Tell me, Professor Hallson,

are you talking about a power that is actually

capable of preter-normal and transcendental phenomena?

Yes.

Then prove it, give us proof.

- Frankly I think we've wasted enough time as it is.

- Now, now, surely we can think of some simple test.

Professor, what do you suggest?

Wait a minute.

All right.

It won't take very much to move it, we'll begin.

- Go right ahead, Professor Lansing.

I'm sorry, I'm afraid all I'm

succeeding in doing is getting a headache.

Professor Scott.

I'll do my best.

I'm sorry.

I tried.

Professor Melnicker.

It's no use.

If no one will admit to the questionnaire,

he won't expose himself in a test like this.

- Well then I think we've been about

as indulgent with your theories as anybody could expect.

- Together, we'll do it all together.

- No. - You've got to.

Why not, then?

- Might as well have an end to it.

All right, go ahead.

- I've forgotten though, do we put our hands on the table?

You left.

I always come back.

I never should have told you.

What?

What wine does to me.

See what it does.