Out of the Unknown (1965) s01e07 Episode Script
Sucker Bait
1 [theme music plays.]
[beeping.]
[Captain over intercom.]
Annuncio? Annuncio? Yes, Captain Follenbee.
I want to see you in my cabin immediately.
Did you hear me? Get here! Idiot.
Non-compos.
Stupid.
Non-compos.
Dr.
Sheffield? [harmonic electric tones.]
[muted speech.]
[Novee.]
I can't make it out.
[Cimon.]
If I told you it was one of these dots, would you know the difference? No.
Which dot is it? Itâs a legitimate question.
After all, we'll soon be living on Troas.
For all we know, we may be dying on it.
Nobody's going to die, unless it's from over-eating.
A thousand people did die on it once.
Mysteriously.
Aren't you interested in finding out why? We wouldn't be here otherwise.
As far as Iâm concerned, Troas is just an ordinary planet.
Why I volunteered for this mission is its only mystery.
A humanitarian impulse, perhaps? But we all know how vital it is for new and habitable planets to be found and settled, now that the population explosion is out of hand.
Hence, my friend, it's humanitarian to explore Troas.
Buzz off.
Not very shrewd for those of us who wish to be âinâ with the current establishment.
If I volunteered for any reason, it was to have the opportunity of observing a planet with a double sun.
Scientists who specialise in observing suns and stars can afford self-deception.
But such is not the luxury of a medical doctor who observes only man.
How long have you been there? Just a few minutes, sir.
What do you think you're doing? Observing.
That doesn't include listening at doorways, does it? Don't use that tone with me, Cimon.
[chuckles.]
I can use any tone I like.
Iâm the leader of the expedition.
And without me there wouldn't be an expedition.
Remember it was my research that first came upon the lost colony of Troas.
My investigating thousands and thousands of old books, old documents and rolls of microfilm that got the government to initiate this expedition.
Besides which, as Dr.
Novee is aware, Iâve been suffering from acute space sickness, and loud noises unnerve me.
[prolonged high-pitched tone.]
[all laughing.]
Gentlemen.
One of these days, Novee.
You've got to remember the boy's a mnemonic.
They're a weird and special lot.
[whirring.]
Captain Follenbee? Come in, Annuncio.
It took enough time for you to get here.
Did it? I Something wrong? The stars.
They're so thick.
I never imagined clusters like this before.
Average distance is over a light-year.
They look thick though.
If the lights were out, they'd shine like a trillion.
Sit down, Annuncio.
Come on, come on.
There's no use in standing.
Iâve missed you the whole trip.
- You feeling better? - Iâm recovering.
Oh, good.
Now we can get acquainted.
Now the Triple G has been on a good many government chartered cruises, Annuncio.
Iâve never had any trouble.
Now I don't want any trouble.
You understand? Is this going to be a social visit, Captain? From your voice on the phone I What's the big idea? I was counting them.
Counting? You non-compos.
No, this isn't going to be a social visit, Annuncio.
There's a little matter of business we have to talk over.
Now one of my assistants tells me that you want to see the ship's log.
I insist on seeing it.
Why? Iâve never had a request like that before.
Not on any of my voyages.
So? - So where's your authority? - Iâm in Mnemonic Service.
That's authority enough.
Never heard of it.
It is my prerogative to look at anything I like and ask any question I want to.
Well, you can't look at the ship's log.
You've no right to stop me.
Who What are you anyway? Some sort of security agent? Or just a walking, talking send-up of one? Why is this ship called the Triple G? Because that's its name.
Really? There's no such ship under Earth Registry.
I checked it out before we took off.
The official name is George G.
Grundy.
But the Triple G is what everyone calls it.
Let me look at the log.
And after that I wish to speak with the crew.
Oh, the crew, too, huh? You heard me.
Look, first, I think Iâd better speak to your guardian and then I think Iâd better keep you in quarters until we land.
[beeping.]
Sheffield here.
[Captain over intercom.]
Itâs the Captain here, Doctor.
I wonder if you could get over here as quickly as possible.
Iâve got your protégé with me.
I am not his protégé! Your ward, Doctor.
Without my permission? I told you nobody is to see him without my okay.
What are you doing to him? What am I doing to him? Now, look, Iâm Captain here, Sheffield.
No, you look! And listen, you keep your hands off that boy.
Is that understood? Is that very clear? Hey, I thought psychologists were supposed to control their emotions, eh? Now you see that he stays put until I get there.
Of all the insufferable, damnable Did you hear? Oh, could I help it? You just disturbed an erotic fantasy I was having.
Iâm very sorry.
How dare he tamper with an instrument of mine? How dare he? That's what you get for making an instrument of a human being.
- Sheffield, now look-- - One minute, Captain.
How are you, Mark? All I asked was if I could see the log.
He made me come here.
Iâm sure he won't mind you're going back to your room now.
Oh, won't I? Iâm responsible for him, sir.
You may go, Mark.
Now what is this? Isn't that my question? Iâm Captain here.
You keep reminding me.
Well, do you know what that means? It means Iâm absolute ruler on this ship.
And no spy-- Captain, let me explain.
Mark Annuncio is not a spy.
He happens to be in the Mnemonic Service.
Sure, sure, so he said.
To me, it's just secret police in fancy dress.
ln the Mnemonic Service.
Mnemonic coming from the Greek word meaning memory.
Iâm sorry, I should have filled you in a little more fully on this.
Well, fill me in, man, fill me in.
But your time is limited.
All right, Captain.
I won't take long.
Tell me how many inhabited worlds you think there are in the Confederation? Eighty three thousand.
Eighty three thousand two hundred.
- Okay, two hundred.
- What do you think it takes to run an organisation that size? Computers.
Now let's not play nursery school.
Computers, precisely, but somehow data gets lost.
Every world knows something no other world does.
And so does every other man.
But none of us knows which of our data is useful to the other.
Still, two isolated facts can go together beautifully sometimes.
- That's what computers are for.
- But computers are limited.
They have to be asked questions.
Sometimes it never occurs to people to ask them the right questions.
Therefore, mankind needs a computer that is non-mechanical, that has some imagination.
There is such a computer, Captain, in each and every one of us.
Iâll stick to the kind you punch with a button, thank you.
[chuckles lightly.]
Captain, don't you ever have a hunch? Look, is this to the point? Somewhere inside the human brain is a record of every fact that's ever been impinged upon it.
Very little is consciously remembered, but it's all there.
And a slight association can bring it back to us without us knowing where it came from or why.
Now that is called a hunch or feeling.
Now some people are better at it than others, others are almost perfect, like Mark Annuncio.
So we train them to read, and look and listen and do it better, and more efficiently.
It doesn't really matter what data they collect.
Any datum may be useful.
And every once in a while, an mnemonic makes a correlation no machine could possibly manage.
Wait a minute.
He said there was no ship called the Triple G under Earth Registry.
You mean that he knows every registered ship by heart? Probably.
And he was counting stars.
Itâs data.
Well, Iâll be a monkey's uncle.
You see, Captain, actually, Mark is different from us.
He's had an odd, distorted upbringing, so he has a distorted view of life.
Itâs cause and effect.
You see, mnemonics are taken into the service about the age of five.
ln a sense they're force-grown.
We allow them no contact with normal people, in case they develop normal mental habits.
They're highly-strung, easily upset and easily ruined.
Iâm here to see that does not happen.
You see, Captain, Mark is an instrument.
The most valuable instrument there is on this ship.
There are only a hundred like him in the entire galaxy.
All right with the ship's log.
But it's strictly confidential.
Strictly.
And no talking to the crew.
You know what I mean? The crew aren't to be told about the first expedition.
I shall make sure they don't hear about it from Mark.
- Sheffield? - Hmm? What's a non-compos? [laughing.]
Did he call you that? Itâs short for non-compos mentis.
Everyone in the Mnemonic Service uses it to refer to everyone else.
But what does it mean? Itâs Latin for ânot of sound mindâ.
Oh.
[Cimon.]
We've just bit into the planet's air covering, which accounts for the sudden increase in deceleration which you're feeling.
The continent which we're now approaching and will land on is mountainous on either seacoast with a long, flat plain in between.
What is not in darkness lies within the red-orange light of Lagrange II or the second sun.
At the moment, only the eastern seacoast lies within the blue-green light of the first sun, or Lagrange I.
Apart from these two suns, our knowledge of the planet is limited.
You will notice, that as the ice-caps vanish on either side of our picture, there's an equal alternation between land and water.
Nothing to whet anyone's interest in the log.
You better be getting back to your cabins.
We'll be landing shortly.
Why is the captain making sure that I won't tell the crew that we're visiting a world on which the first expedition died? Well, some spacemen, Mark, consider it bad luck to land on such a world, even more so if it appears to look harmless.
âSucker Baitâ, they call it.
I can think of 17 habitable planets from which the first expedition never returned.
Yet each one was later colonised.
So why should the crew be afraid? That's why I wanted to look at the log.
But it never mentions the purpose of this expedition.
Now that wouldn't be unless the purpose was secret, isn't that so? No, not necessarily.
The name of the ship is the George G.
Grundy.
You seem disappointed.
No.
Relieved, actually.
I thought everybody might be lying to me, and not just the captain.
I thought even you lied to me, Dr.
Sheffield.
Mark, you mustn't be so suspicious.
I know it is the occupational hazard of the mnemonic, but you really must watch it.
I might be accused of being paranoid.
Could be.
I sometimes believe paranoia is just another word for perception.
You know, Mark, suspicions aren't always logical.
Usually a planet that's become notorious has evil expected of it.
Now you better sit down 'cause we're going to land soon.
What makes it so much worse is that Troas is so different.
No, it isn't.
But the other expeditions that failed on the other planets were different.
- How do you mean? - In 16 of the cases, the cause of death was shipwreck and in the remaining case, failure resulted from a surprise attack of indigenous life forms.
Not intelligent, of course.
What's the use? They're not in the same class as the first Troas expedition.
That consisted of an actual settlement, of 789 men, 207 women, and 15 children under the age of 13.
And they managed to survive for three years with cause of death unknown, except from their own fragmentary report it might have been from disease.
That part is different.
But Troas itself has nothing unusual about it, except of course Yes, Mark.
It has two suns, as we all know.
You seem disappointed, Doctor.
Do you expect me to say something else? No.
[faint electronic whirring.]
I judge we're at sea level, with an atmospheric pressure of 800 millimetres of mercury.
That's roughly five percent higher than it is on Earth.
And 200 millimetres of it is oxygen.
Itâs not bad.
Then there's nitrogen, of course.
The way nature repeats itself like a three-year-old who only knows a few lessons.
It takes half the fun away when you realise that a water world always has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.
Is there anything else in the atmosphere? Anything else? So far all we have is oxygen, nitrogen and homely philosophy from dear Uncle Boris.
Under one percent and over one hundredth of percent of hydrogen, helium and carbon dioxide in that order.
Infinitesimal amounts of methane, argon, radon, neon, krypton and xenon, again in that order.
The figures aren't very informative.
Dear Uncle Boris is dreadfully sorry.
What is the carbon dioxide content exactly? Exactly? 0.
016 mm.
That's about half of what it is on Earth.
Anything else? Water vapour and dust.
And a few million air-borne spores of virulent diseases per centimetre as well.
But that's hardly my province, so I suggest, Dr.
Rodriguez, you start growing your lovely cultures right away.
- [whispering.]
Hear anything? - No, nothing.
What the devil are they keeping from us? Itâs something, Iâll bet on it.
For what good it does.
Ah.
What growths I get look harmless.
Look harmless? That's what I said.
You need bacteria to look harmful to be harmful? Surely there are toxins and metabolic processes that can't be analysed by the eye.
Mark.
You get a feeling for these things.
When you've seen as much of the microcosm as I have, you'll learn to sense danger or the lack of it.
Perhaps our dear Fawkes will find danger when he sets out on his surveying journey.
[Fawkes over intercom.]
No intelligent life, whatever.
No highways, cities, no sign of anything manmade.
No machine civilization, that's all.
Even Neanderthal man built shelters and used fires.
The two main rivers join about 100 kilometres south of the equator, and make it to the ocean in just short of 80 kilometres.
Where it joins the ocean is the natural spot for a metropolis.
So, even if we didn't have a record of the latitude and longitude, we'd know that's where the lost colony must have set up shop.
There isn't much left, is there? [Fawkes.]
What do you expect? Itâs been over 100 years.
I did land but I didn't stay long.
I think those are burial mounds.
Any actual remains? - Bones? - No.
The last survivors didn't bury themselves, did they? Animals got to them, I suppose.
It was raining when I landed and it was dark, very dark, and very gloomy.
The picture doesn't do it justice.
I felt almost as though there were a thousand ghosts there.
Lurking waiting.
Ghosts? [shallow chuckling.]
Itâs just a way of talking, Mark.
Don't let your imagination run away with you.
[panting.]
Itâs the air outside.
Yeah, I think so, too.
That's why they're keeping us trapped in here.
Shut up, will you? You're breaking my concentration.
Who are you telling to shut up? Iâm telling you, sport.
Now, move on.
Okay? [commotion from crowd.]
That's my boy.
Come on.
[grunting, struggling.]
[crowd goading.]
Cimon, my men are unsettled to say the least.
Now we've been here for two weeks and still no one's allowed off the ship.
Anything wrong with the air? Not as far as we know.
Why not breathe it then? Look, a frightened and mutinous crew is the last thing I want.
Itâs the last thing any of us want.
Didn't you tell them that this was a new planet? Yes, but-- Well, then can't they understand we're just being cautious? They're convinced you're hiding something.
Well, you can't blame them for thinking that, can you? No, I suppose not.
Give me until tomorrow.
Okay, till tomorrow.
The settlement died of disease.
- Iâll swear to it.
- Itâs impossible.
You laymen are all the same, Earth or any other planet.
You think that any bacterium or virus, developing independently on a planet, is bound to find man as succulent as a lollipop.
No, it's sheer childishness.
Man brings his own germs wherever he goes.
Who's to say that maybe the virus of the common cold didn't mutate under some planetary influence into something that was suddenly deadly? Things like that have even happened on Earth.
The 27 55 para-measles epidemic-- Yes, yes, yes, and the 1918 influenza epidemic and way back to the black plague.
But when has it happened recently? Granted it was over a century ago, but, still, they had doctors, antibiotics.
The symptoms were those of a respiratory infection, dyspnoea.
- We know that.
- But I tell you, it couldn't have been infection.
Itâs just Mathematically it couldn't have been.
Mathematically? Itâs you again.
- Yes, sir, it's me.
- How can mathematics-- I have given my professional opinion.
A professional opinion isn't necessarily synonymous - with an accurate explanation.
- Please, Mark! Iâm not accustomed to having the accuracy of my statements questioned by Sheffield, will you take him away and tuck him up in bed and hereafter, keep him out of my sight? Come along, Mark, let's go.
You stupid non-compos.
You're not an expert on anything.
You've forgotten everything you ever learned, and you never learned very much in the first place.
You better get him out of here, Sheffield, or in two moments, there'll be a murder committed.
- Come on, Mark, let's go.
- That's right, side with them! - Block out the truth! - I said, let's go! Hey, look, Iâve got to know.
I want to stay.
Cimon, you've got to keep that kid out of my hair.
All right, all right, simmer down, everybody! I don't suppose there's anyone else who questions Dr.
Rodriguez's viewpoint.
There better not be.
Well, then, since there's nothing to fear as far as infection is concerned, Iâm telling Captain Follenbee that the crew may take surface leave.
Also, I see no reason why we shouldn't pass on to the second stage of our investigation.
- Thank goodness for that.
- Well Now what I suggest is this, five of us trek out to the settlement site.
Fawkes, because he can handle the coaster, Novee and Rodriguez to handle the biological data, Vernadsky and myself to handle the chemistry and physics.
I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to ascertain what killed off the first settlers in a very short time.
The settlement lived there for several years before dying out.
It could be a long time before we're sure we're safe.
But we're not a settlement.
We're a group of specialists looking for trouble.
We'll find it if it's there to find and when we do, we beat it.
And it isn't going to take two years either.
It had better not.
I don't think Iâll ever trust you again.
They may take you later on, Mark.
No.
You hate me.
All of you do.
Don't think I don't know it.
And none of you has any right to hold me back.
It could be dangerous.
I don't care.
Iâve got to find out about this planet.
Iâve got to.
Dr.
Sheffield, you go to Cimon and tell him Iâm coming along whether he likes it or not.
I can't do that, Mark.
All right.
If you won't, I will.
And he'll have to commit murder to stop me from going.
You're getting excited.
That's right, I am.
And stop coddling me.
And don't try patronising me as if I were a two-year-old child who didn't know any better.
If you have any sense of ethics left, remember I found this planet.
I did.
Itâs my planet.
Mine.
Mine.
You're magnifying this out of all proportion, you know.
Oh.
Am I now? Mark, it is true you did discover there was an early colony on Troas, but you didn't discover the planet itself.
My findings encouraged the government to initiate this mission.
My findings disclosed that perhaps Troas is habitable.
Therefore, Dr.
Sheffield, it's as good as if Iâd found the planet.
If we're going to be precise, let us be precise.
All right, Mark.
Iâll get you out to the settlement site.
Iâll get us both out there.
Stay there and wait.
Of course, I'll wait.
Iâm patient, aren't I? One would think I wasn't.
[knock on door.]
Come in.
Oh, Sheffield.
I have a quarrel with you about the men going to the expedition site.
Have you? You have no one to take care of the mental sciences.
The what? [chuckles lightly.]
Iâll be honest with you, Sheffield.
If the authorities had consulted me first, I never would have agreed you're coming on this expedition at all.
I just don't see the function of a mental science in a mission like this.
And Iâm certainly not going to have our findings jeopardised by any more scenes like the ones we had with Rodriguez.
Iâm sorry, but the answer is no.
And suppose I told you that the end of the first settlement could possibly be explained, on a simple, psychological basis.
It wouldn't impress me.
Psychologists can usually explain everything and can never prove anything.
Well, let me go into a little more detail.
As you know, Troas differs from every other inhabited world in one major aspect.
It has two suns, two coloured suns.
Now you take a human being, say you or I, now if we were to stand in the full glare of both the suns, we'd cast two shadows.
One blue-green, the other orange-red.
The length of the shadows would vary according to the time of day.
Oh, by the way, have you taken the trouble to verify the colour distribution of those shadows? The what do you call them, reflection spectra? Well, of course, we have.
Itâs about the same as the radiation spectra.
Aha.
Now the planet's moons, Iâve been watching that the last few nights.
Have you noticed its colours change position? Of course they do.
It passes through phases like any other moon.
And have you checked its spectrum? We may have.
Not that the results would be of any importance.
Well, I may be able to surprise you.
Itâs a well established psychological fact that the colours red and green have a deleterious effect on mental stability.
Now here on Troas, we have a situation where the chromopsychic picture, and it's purely to use the technical term, is inescapable.
And it is possible that chromopsychosis could reach a fatal level by inducing hypertrophy of the Trinitarian follicles and consequent cerebric catatonia.
Iâve never heard of that.
Oh, you're questioning my professional opinion? No, no, of course not.
Only it's clear from the last reports we had from the expedition that the settlers died from something that sounded like a respiratory disease.
Ah, but Rodriguez denied that and you accepted his opinion.
I didn't say it was a respiratory disease.
I said it sounded like one.
All right, well, if you will accept the fact that the recorded effects were physical, it could have had a mental cause.
Yes, I suppose so.
Oh, there you are.
Makes my theory even more convincing, because chromopsychosis has been known to exhibit itself before, as a psychogenic respiratory infection.
You are aware of psychogenics? No, it's out of my field, Iâm afraid.
Yes, of course.
Well, by my calculations, on the heightened oxygen tension, psychogenic respiratory infections, are both inevitable and severe.
Have you been observing the moon the last few nights? Yes.
Oh, dear.
Itâs possible you might be infected already.
The moon's colours have been very virulent the last few nights.
Itâs nothing painful, believe me.
Itâs just a slight inflammation of the mucus membrane, a little scratchiness in the throat.
You finding it hard to swallow? Why, no, not the least bit.
Rodriguez complained of his hearing the other night.
Are you sure your hearing hasn't altered slightly? What? You've no right to keep quiet about this, Sheffield.
Itâs not incurable, is it? Why didn't you tell us about this before? Because there's not a word of truth in anything Iâve said.
There's no harm in colours.
Relax, Cimon.
You're beginning to look foolish.
You used your professional status to make a fool of me.
I was merely trying to make a point.
Oh, you did that all right.
You want me to take the boy with us.
No.
Definitely no.
Why not? Out of spite? Because he's out of his head.
Because he can't be trusted with normal people.
By your standards.
After that scene with Rodriguez, by anyone's.
Mark had every right to ask that question.
It was his job.
It was his duty.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, had no right to be so boorish.
I admit I should have stood up for Mark then and there.
Iâll consider Rodriguez first, if you don't mind.
Why? Mark knows more than he does.
He knows more than you and l if it comes to that.
The bureau issued specific instructions-- I know exactly what the bureau ordered.
They didn't consult me first, but never mind.
I shall co-operate with him just that far.
He will receive all official data here, on the ship.
No! There on the spot.
Mark may see things our precious specialists may not.
The answer, Sheffield, is no.
Now, please leave.
Well Iâm afraid if you won't change your mind, the rest of the boys may have to hear about this.
[Sheffield on voice recorder.]
Are you sure your hearing hasn't altered slightly? [Cimon on voice recorder.]
What? You've no right to keep quiet about this, Sheffield.
Itâs not incurable, is it? Why didn't you tell me about this before? [Sheffield.]
Because there's not a word of truth in anything Iâve said.
There's no harm in colours.
Iâm prepared to make a deal with you if you're interested.
Will you give me that tape? Yes, when Mark and l are on the settlement site.
All right You and the boy can come with us.
Thank you.
But when we get back to Earth, Sheffield, Iâll see to it that you're de-professionalised.
Another memento.
Pretty? Turns my stomach.
See that abnormality in the structure? What do you think it means? Oh, it could be any number of things.
Silence, yeah.
Silent.
But here underground.
Underground, that's it.
Dead quiet.
But I can see you, all around, trying to creep up on us.
I can see you.
I can see you there.
And there.
You can't hide now.
Fawkes, what is it? What's wrong? Itâs me, man, Novee.
Novee.
They're all around us.
Intelligent beings out there now.
Oh, come on now.
Iâm telling you.
I saw one, in the tent, I saw one and out here.
Oh, come on.
You've had a nightmare.
A nightmare? Iâm not so sure.
I thought it might be my imagination.
Maybe it's real.
If you're looking for ghosts again, forget it.
No, this has nothing to do with ghosts.
At least, not ghosts in the usual sense.
Novee, can we be sure those first settlers buried themselves? Certainly the very last ones didn't.
You yourself said animals probably got at them.
But I didn't specify what kind of animal, did I? What are you driving at? Novee, I know it sounds crazy, but Iâm sure now there is intelligent life on this planet after all.
The way Sheffield inferred.
Look, we've been here for two weeks.
Surely we would all have seen evidence of An elusive race? Oh, come on.
Your nerves are getting-- You don't believe there could be a race of beings living underground? Haunting that first settlement with a deadly perseverance? Fawkes, I think you should go inside and lie down.
Until tonight, I thought it might be my imagination.
I pictured a sort of silent bacteriological warfare.
- Now, Fawkes-- - No, listen.
But, now, Iâm sure there are people working away beneath the tree roots, culturing moulds and spores, developing a special spore that could feed on human beings and then And then? Your imagination give out? [whispering.]
Novee, look! Behind that rock.
Itâs something alive! You see, it's not my imagination.
Itâs not.
Hey, don't shoot.
Don't shoot.
It's Itâs only me.
What are you doing here? Watching.
Watching? Watching what? I woke up and came out.
Why were you watching? I was just watching you.
Why didn't you open your mouth and let us know you were there? If I had, you wouldn't have let me stay.
You say anything about this to the others and Iâll-- About what? You were seeing things, that's all.
Just keep quiet about it or you'll find-- A murder will be committed.
I know.
Iâve even remembered to watch the calories.
Hope we don't have that lean and wan look when we get back.
Everyone will think we've used official funds for a bit of skylarking.
Clown.
Bad temper at meal times? Mother doesn't approve.
Here we are.
Oh, come on.
Eat your dinner, gentlemen.
Iâve tasted it.
Itâs good.
Itâs tough, whatever it is.
- But beautifully cooked.
- Bet it kills us.
The hamsters have been living on it for two weeks now.
Mm-hmm.
And the rats have never had such vim and vigour.
What about those rats that died last week? They were vigorous ones, too.
But they died from herbs which contained lead, copper and mercury.
No, I assure you, gentlemen, Uncle Boris' stew lacks any ingredient high in heavy metal content, you'd know by the taste if it did.
Anyway, it wasn't heavy metal poisoning that killed the settlers.
The symptoms aren't right for it.
Look, suppose this stuff contains some kind of alkaloid that could paralyze the nerves controlling the lung muscles.
Hamsters have lung muscles.
Maybe it's a cumulative thing.
All right.
Anytime your breathing gets difficult, you go back to ship rations and see if you'll improve.
I will not have my culinary arts criticised anymore.
Anything the matter? No.
No, I was just recalling something.
An old monograph I once read, very old one.
I don't know why it should come to mind just now but it does.
[clicking.]
[whirring, feedback.]
[whirring, feedback.]
You want something? Just watching.
Well, if you must, you must, I suppose.
But, look, stand back there, eh? Not over my shoulder.
- Sorry.
- Itâs all right.
Is that a nuclear metre you're working with? That's right.
Has a force field generator at the top, so it can penetrate any rock.
Here.
[loud whirring.]
You see? Along the sides of the uniped are microscopic atomic furnaces, each of which vaporises about a million molecules in the surrounding rocks, and decomposes them into atoms.
The atoms are then differentiated and you read the results of the dials above.
Do you follow? No, but it's good to store away facts for future reference.
We end up with figures on the different elements in the crust.
Now, it's interesting.
You see, Troas has a more even distribution of elements than we usually meet.
They're heavy metals.
They are ten to 100 times as concentrated as they are on Earth.
And the lighter elements, they are also better distributed as well.
Take for instance what we call the rare lights, that's lithium, beryllium and boron.
Now they're lighter than carbon.
They are very rare on Earth.
But Troas, however, is enormously rich in them.
The three together total, well, four tenths of one percent of the crust, as compared to Earth's four-thousandths of one percent.
I see.
You know something, young man? Itâs good to find somebody who actually listens to me.
Is it? Well, I suppose a man gets lonely and frustrated when there's no one in his own line to talk to-- Do you have you the exact figures on those elements? Yes.
May I see it? I suppose so.
Here.
- Have you finished? - Yes, Iâve got it all.
Don't publish the results before I do, eh? Publish? I was joking.
Joking? You're all the same.
You're trying to make fun of me.
I thought you were different.
You're just like the others.
There's only one thing to do.
Where are you rushing to? To the air coaster.
I haven't had a chance to see it yet.
Of course you have, on several occasions.
Everyone was always around.
I want to see it once for myself.
Come to think of it, Iâd like to see it too.
You don't mind if I come along, do you? If you insist.
What's that? A piece of rock.
What does it look like? Just in case if anyone should try and stop me.
Throw it away, Mark.
You can hurt someone with that.
No.
No, Iâm not throwing it away.
[chuckles.]
I can see a botanist like Fawkes being able to run one of these contraptions.
I can run one.
You? Why not? Iâve watched Fawkes run it, and Iâve read enough manuals about how to operate one.
[high-pitched whirring.]
Well, that's nice.
We have a spare navigator in case of emergency.
[thud.]
Iâm sorry, Dr.
Sheffield, but this is an emergency.
[Mark.]
People died out there.
Only we haven't.
We spent weeks at that settlement.
We found nothing.
Those precious scientists who've been misleading you ever since we left Earth, haven't found anything to explain what happened.
So the deaths must have been caused by something they don't know anything about.
We're in danger? Something that could be killing all of us, right now.
Come on, let's go for the captain.
[hissing.]
[hissing fades to monotonous high-pitched tone.]
All right, we're on our way.
Well, where is the boy? He's being held in his cabin as you instructed.
We'd better get him in here.
How about Sheffield? Novee is with him.
He hasn't come around yet.
[groans, struggles.]
Easy now.
You've had a bad concussion, nearly a fracture.
- Where are we? - In space.
Where's Mark? - Take it easy.
- Where is he? Iâm placing you under arrest, Annuncio.
When that nursemaid of yours comes around, Iâm going to try you both for mutiny.
Dr.
Sheffield had nothing to do with it.
But he was responsible for you.
If he'd done his job properly, we wouldn't be in this mess now.
You've ruined weeks of research and nearly killed five men.
If the Captain hadn't brow-beaten the crew into picking us up, we'd still be at the settlement site marooned.
I didn't intend that.
But then why? What got into you? Well, speak up, boy.
Mark, you've got to tell us.
- Come on, why? - If you don't, we'll make you.
Well? Because you wouldn't have listened to me.
None of you.
You're all too smug and jealous.
Jealous of me, because I know more than you'll ever begin to know.
[Rodriguez.]
Now, look here you-- You're like everybody with only a bit of knowledge.
Proud and afraid.
Afraid of not knowing.
Like all non-compos, the lot of you.
Non-compos.
Non-compos.
All right, all right, let the boy-- Iâve had about as much as I can-- - Stop it! - Let him go! You keep out of this, Sheffield.
If hadn't been for you, this never would have happened.
Not now, Dr.
Cimon.
You and the boy are both under arrest and you'll be confined to your quarters until we can set your trial up.
- What for? - For mutiny, Doctor.
Dr.
Sheffield had nothing to do with it.
I told you.
You will try us? Yes, strictly according to Galactic law.
What's the sentence if we are found guilty? There's not much doubt about that.
If you're found guilty, you'll both be sentenced to death.
May I talk to him? Okay, go ahead.
How did you force the captain to leave Troas, Mark? By telling the crew about the first expedition.
You knew what would happen if you did.
Yes.
At least, I saw it as a possibility.
Why did you do it? Well, it seemed to be the lesser of the two evils.
It was important that we get away from Troas without losing a minute.
Telling the crew about the first expedition seemed the fastest way of getting us off the planet.
Why was it so important to get us off? Because it was only a matter of time before we died.
I wanted to tell you, Dr.
Sheffield, but Well, you vacillate.
One minute you seem to be on my side, the next, you're on the safer side.
I couldn't risk trusting you.
And I certainly couldn't trust the others any more than they've ever trusted me.
So you thought you had to take some action of your own? Yes, sir.
All right, Mark, tell me.
What do you think did kill the first settlers? The dust.
The dust in the air! Itâs got beryllium in it.
Ask Dr.
Vernadsky.
What's that? Sure.
It was part of the information you gave me.
Beryllium was very high in the crust, so it must be in the dust in the air as well.
So what if beryllium is there? Supraberylliosis, that's what.
An extreme case of beryllium poisoning.
If you breathe beryllium dust, non-healing granulomata form in the lungs.
And what's in the blood can cause skin and bone deformation.
Anyway, it gets difficult to breathe and eventually you die.
You don't know what you're talking about.
You're not a physician.
I read about it, in an old book about poisons.
The one I told you about.
It was so old it was printed on actual sheets of paper.
The library had some and I went through them because it was such a novelty.
All right.
What did you read? Can you tell me? Yes.
Word for word.
âBeryllium serves to derange a number of enzyme-catalysed reactions.
Since the lungs have no way of excreting beryllium, diverse metabolic derangements, causing serious illness and death, can result from inhaling beryllium dust, containing certain beryllium salts.
The onset of symptoms is insidious, sometimes being immediate, but sometimes being delayed for as long as three years after exposure.
Prognosis is not good.
â Novee, what is all this? Is what he's saying making any sense? It seems as if it might be.
I don't know though.
Iâve never read up on it.
No case ever required me to do so.
Isn't beryllium used for anything? Not that I can think of.
Wait a minute I think it was used in the early days of atomic power, and primitive uranium piles as a neutron decelerator.
Iâm almost sure of that.
It isn't used now, though? As far as I know.
I also think beryllium-zinc coatings were used in the first fluorescent lights.
Not anymore.
No, not anymore.
All right, now listen, all of you.
I can vouch for Mark's ability to recall.
Itâs my opinion beryllium is poisonous.
Only in concentrated forms.
Well, on Earth, there's no danger because the content of the soil is low.
When man concentrates beryllium to use in nuclear piles of fluorescent lights, he comes across its toxicity and looks for substitutes.
So he finds them and forgets about beryllium.
So when we come across a beryllium-rich planet like Troas, we just can't work out what hit us.
Until someone like Mark Annuncio comes along and does the one thing that we can't do.
He remembers.
Novee what does he mean when he says, âPrognosis is not goodâ? It means that if you've got supraberylliosis, you won't recover.
I suppose the symptoms are dyspnoea and-- Yes, sometimes neural disorders leading to hallucinatory visions.
Skin disfiguration? Appearing first on the hand, or at the lower part of the neck.
I think that when we get back to Earth, we should get under medical investigation as soon as possible, all of us.
Do we have a chance? Well, if we're not going to recover? What use is it? Medical science has advanced since the days of the early settlers.
Anyway, we may not have received the toxic dose.
The settlement survived for over a year of continuous exposure.
Fortunately, we've only had a month.
I guess that's that.
[rumbling.]
What are you thinking about? That I might die.
Iâve never been conscious of my own death before.
Now I am.
And Iâm thinking, if I do die, there are so many things So many things in the universe that Iâll never learn never know.
[beeping.]
[Captain over intercom.]
Annuncio? Annuncio? Yes, Captain Follenbee.
I want to see you in my cabin immediately.
Did you hear me? Get here! Idiot.
Non-compos.
Stupid.
Non-compos.
Dr.
Sheffield? [harmonic electric tones.]
[muted speech.]
[Novee.]
I can't make it out.
[Cimon.]
If I told you it was one of these dots, would you know the difference? No.
Which dot is it? Itâs a legitimate question.
After all, we'll soon be living on Troas.
For all we know, we may be dying on it.
Nobody's going to die, unless it's from over-eating.
A thousand people did die on it once.
Mysteriously.
Aren't you interested in finding out why? We wouldn't be here otherwise.
As far as Iâm concerned, Troas is just an ordinary planet.
Why I volunteered for this mission is its only mystery.
A humanitarian impulse, perhaps? But we all know how vital it is for new and habitable planets to be found and settled, now that the population explosion is out of hand.
Hence, my friend, it's humanitarian to explore Troas.
Buzz off.
Not very shrewd for those of us who wish to be âinâ with the current establishment.
If I volunteered for any reason, it was to have the opportunity of observing a planet with a double sun.
Scientists who specialise in observing suns and stars can afford self-deception.
But such is not the luxury of a medical doctor who observes only man.
How long have you been there? Just a few minutes, sir.
What do you think you're doing? Observing.
That doesn't include listening at doorways, does it? Don't use that tone with me, Cimon.
[chuckles.]
I can use any tone I like.
Iâm the leader of the expedition.
And without me there wouldn't be an expedition.
Remember it was my research that first came upon the lost colony of Troas.
My investigating thousands and thousands of old books, old documents and rolls of microfilm that got the government to initiate this expedition.
Besides which, as Dr.
Novee is aware, Iâve been suffering from acute space sickness, and loud noises unnerve me.
[prolonged high-pitched tone.]
[all laughing.]
Gentlemen.
One of these days, Novee.
You've got to remember the boy's a mnemonic.
They're a weird and special lot.
[whirring.]
Captain Follenbee? Come in, Annuncio.
It took enough time for you to get here.
Did it? I Something wrong? The stars.
They're so thick.
I never imagined clusters like this before.
Average distance is over a light-year.
They look thick though.
If the lights were out, they'd shine like a trillion.
Sit down, Annuncio.
Come on, come on.
There's no use in standing.
Iâve missed you the whole trip.
- You feeling better? - Iâm recovering.
Oh, good.
Now we can get acquainted.
Now the Triple G has been on a good many government chartered cruises, Annuncio.
Iâve never had any trouble.
Now I don't want any trouble.
You understand? Is this going to be a social visit, Captain? From your voice on the phone I What's the big idea? I was counting them.
Counting? You non-compos.
No, this isn't going to be a social visit, Annuncio.
There's a little matter of business we have to talk over.
Now one of my assistants tells me that you want to see the ship's log.
I insist on seeing it.
Why? Iâve never had a request like that before.
Not on any of my voyages.
So? - So where's your authority? - Iâm in Mnemonic Service.
That's authority enough.
Never heard of it.
It is my prerogative to look at anything I like and ask any question I want to.
Well, you can't look at the ship's log.
You've no right to stop me.
Who What are you anyway? Some sort of security agent? Or just a walking, talking send-up of one? Why is this ship called the Triple G? Because that's its name.
Really? There's no such ship under Earth Registry.
I checked it out before we took off.
The official name is George G.
Grundy.
But the Triple G is what everyone calls it.
Let me look at the log.
And after that I wish to speak with the crew.
Oh, the crew, too, huh? You heard me.
Look, first, I think Iâd better speak to your guardian and then I think Iâd better keep you in quarters until we land.
[beeping.]
Sheffield here.
[Captain over intercom.]
Itâs the Captain here, Doctor.
I wonder if you could get over here as quickly as possible.
Iâve got your protégé with me.
I am not his protégé! Your ward, Doctor.
Without my permission? I told you nobody is to see him without my okay.
What are you doing to him? What am I doing to him? Now, look, Iâm Captain here, Sheffield.
No, you look! And listen, you keep your hands off that boy.
Is that understood? Is that very clear? Hey, I thought psychologists were supposed to control their emotions, eh? Now you see that he stays put until I get there.
Of all the insufferable, damnable Did you hear? Oh, could I help it? You just disturbed an erotic fantasy I was having.
Iâm very sorry.
How dare he tamper with an instrument of mine? How dare he? That's what you get for making an instrument of a human being.
- Sheffield, now look-- - One minute, Captain.
How are you, Mark? All I asked was if I could see the log.
He made me come here.
Iâm sure he won't mind you're going back to your room now.
Oh, won't I? Iâm responsible for him, sir.
You may go, Mark.
Now what is this? Isn't that my question? Iâm Captain here.
You keep reminding me.
Well, do you know what that means? It means Iâm absolute ruler on this ship.
And no spy-- Captain, let me explain.
Mark Annuncio is not a spy.
He happens to be in the Mnemonic Service.
Sure, sure, so he said.
To me, it's just secret police in fancy dress.
ln the Mnemonic Service.
Mnemonic coming from the Greek word meaning memory.
Iâm sorry, I should have filled you in a little more fully on this.
Well, fill me in, man, fill me in.
But your time is limited.
All right, Captain.
I won't take long.
Tell me how many inhabited worlds you think there are in the Confederation? Eighty three thousand.
Eighty three thousand two hundred.
- Okay, two hundred.
- What do you think it takes to run an organisation that size? Computers.
Now let's not play nursery school.
Computers, precisely, but somehow data gets lost.
Every world knows something no other world does.
And so does every other man.
But none of us knows which of our data is useful to the other.
Still, two isolated facts can go together beautifully sometimes.
- That's what computers are for.
- But computers are limited.
They have to be asked questions.
Sometimes it never occurs to people to ask them the right questions.
Therefore, mankind needs a computer that is non-mechanical, that has some imagination.
There is such a computer, Captain, in each and every one of us.
Iâll stick to the kind you punch with a button, thank you.
[chuckles lightly.]
Captain, don't you ever have a hunch? Look, is this to the point? Somewhere inside the human brain is a record of every fact that's ever been impinged upon it.
Very little is consciously remembered, but it's all there.
And a slight association can bring it back to us without us knowing where it came from or why.
Now that is called a hunch or feeling.
Now some people are better at it than others, others are almost perfect, like Mark Annuncio.
So we train them to read, and look and listen and do it better, and more efficiently.
It doesn't really matter what data they collect.
Any datum may be useful.
And every once in a while, an mnemonic makes a correlation no machine could possibly manage.
Wait a minute.
He said there was no ship called the Triple G under Earth Registry.
You mean that he knows every registered ship by heart? Probably.
And he was counting stars.
Itâs data.
Well, Iâll be a monkey's uncle.
You see, Captain, actually, Mark is different from us.
He's had an odd, distorted upbringing, so he has a distorted view of life.
Itâs cause and effect.
You see, mnemonics are taken into the service about the age of five.
ln a sense they're force-grown.
We allow them no contact with normal people, in case they develop normal mental habits.
They're highly-strung, easily upset and easily ruined.
Iâm here to see that does not happen.
You see, Captain, Mark is an instrument.
The most valuable instrument there is on this ship.
There are only a hundred like him in the entire galaxy.
All right with the ship's log.
But it's strictly confidential.
Strictly.
And no talking to the crew.
You know what I mean? The crew aren't to be told about the first expedition.
I shall make sure they don't hear about it from Mark.
- Sheffield? - Hmm? What's a non-compos? [laughing.]
Did he call you that? Itâs short for non-compos mentis.
Everyone in the Mnemonic Service uses it to refer to everyone else.
But what does it mean? Itâs Latin for ânot of sound mindâ.
Oh.
[Cimon.]
We've just bit into the planet's air covering, which accounts for the sudden increase in deceleration which you're feeling.
The continent which we're now approaching and will land on is mountainous on either seacoast with a long, flat plain in between.
What is not in darkness lies within the red-orange light of Lagrange II or the second sun.
At the moment, only the eastern seacoast lies within the blue-green light of the first sun, or Lagrange I.
Apart from these two suns, our knowledge of the planet is limited.
You will notice, that as the ice-caps vanish on either side of our picture, there's an equal alternation between land and water.
Nothing to whet anyone's interest in the log.
You better be getting back to your cabins.
We'll be landing shortly.
Why is the captain making sure that I won't tell the crew that we're visiting a world on which the first expedition died? Well, some spacemen, Mark, consider it bad luck to land on such a world, even more so if it appears to look harmless.
âSucker Baitâ, they call it.
I can think of 17 habitable planets from which the first expedition never returned.
Yet each one was later colonised.
So why should the crew be afraid? That's why I wanted to look at the log.
But it never mentions the purpose of this expedition.
Now that wouldn't be unless the purpose was secret, isn't that so? No, not necessarily.
The name of the ship is the George G.
Grundy.
You seem disappointed.
No.
Relieved, actually.
I thought everybody might be lying to me, and not just the captain.
I thought even you lied to me, Dr.
Sheffield.
Mark, you mustn't be so suspicious.
I know it is the occupational hazard of the mnemonic, but you really must watch it.
I might be accused of being paranoid.
Could be.
I sometimes believe paranoia is just another word for perception.
You know, Mark, suspicions aren't always logical.
Usually a planet that's become notorious has evil expected of it.
Now you better sit down 'cause we're going to land soon.
What makes it so much worse is that Troas is so different.
No, it isn't.
But the other expeditions that failed on the other planets were different.
- How do you mean? - In 16 of the cases, the cause of death was shipwreck and in the remaining case, failure resulted from a surprise attack of indigenous life forms.
Not intelligent, of course.
What's the use? They're not in the same class as the first Troas expedition.
That consisted of an actual settlement, of 789 men, 207 women, and 15 children under the age of 13.
And they managed to survive for three years with cause of death unknown, except from their own fragmentary report it might have been from disease.
That part is different.
But Troas itself has nothing unusual about it, except of course Yes, Mark.
It has two suns, as we all know.
You seem disappointed, Doctor.
Do you expect me to say something else? No.
[faint electronic whirring.]
I judge we're at sea level, with an atmospheric pressure of 800 millimetres of mercury.
That's roughly five percent higher than it is on Earth.
And 200 millimetres of it is oxygen.
Itâs not bad.
Then there's nitrogen, of course.
The way nature repeats itself like a three-year-old who only knows a few lessons.
It takes half the fun away when you realise that a water world always has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.
Is there anything else in the atmosphere? Anything else? So far all we have is oxygen, nitrogen and homely philosophy from dear Uncle Boris.
Under one percent and over one hundredth of percent of hydrogen, helium and carbon dioxide in that order.
Infinitesimal amounts of methane, argon, radon, neon, krypton and xenon, again in that order.
The figures aren't very informative.
Dear Uncle Boris is dreadfully sorry.
What is the carbon dioxide content exactly? Exactly? 0.
016 mm.
That's about half of what it is on Earth.
Anything else? Water vapour and dust.
And a few million air-borne spores of virulent diseases per centimetre as well.
But that's hardly my province, so I suggest, Dr.
Rodriguez, you start growing your lovely cultures right away.
- [whispering.]
Hear anything? - No, nothing.
What the devil are they keeping from us? Itâs something, Iâll bet on it.
For what good it does.
Ah.
What growths I get look harmless.
Look harmless? That's what I said.
You need bacteria to look harmful to be harmful? Surely there are toxins and metabolic processes that can't be analysed by the eye.
Mark.
You get a feeling for these things.
When you've seen as much of the microcosm as I have, you'll learn to sense danger or the lack of it.
Perhaps our dear Fawkes will find danger when he sets out on his surveying journey.
[Fawkes over intercom.]
No intelligent life, whatever.
No highways, cities, no sign of anything manmade.
No machine civilization, that's all.
Even Neanderthal man built shelters and used fires.
The two main rivers join about 100 kilometres south of the equator, and make it to the ocean in just short of 80 kilometres.
Where it joins the ocean is the natural spot for a metropolis.
So, even if we didn't have a record of the latitude and longitude, we'd know that's where the lost colony must have set up shop.
There isn't much left, is there? [Fawkes.]
What do you expect? Itâs been over 100 years.
I did land but I didn't stay long.
I think those are burial mounds.
Any actual remains? - Bones? - No.
The last survivors didn't bury themselves, did they? Animals got to them, I suppose.
It was raining when I landed and it was dark, very dark, and very gloomy.
The picture doesn't do it justice.
I felt almost as though there were a thousand ghosts there.
Lurking waiting.
Ghosts? [shallow chuckling.]
Itâs just a way of talking, Mark.
Don't let your imagination run away with you.
[panting.]
Itâs the air outside.
Yeah, I think so, too.
That's why they're keeping us trapped in here.
Shut up, will you? You're breaking my concentration.
Who are you telling to shut up? Iâm telling you, sport.
Now, move on.
Okay? [commotion from crowd.]
That's my boy.
Come on.
[grunting, struggling.]
[crowd goading.]
Cimon, my men are unsettled to say the least.
Now we've been here for two weeks and still no one's allowed off the ship.
Anything wrong with the air? Not as far as we know.
Why not breathe it then? Look, a frightened and mutinous crew is the last thing I want.
Itâs the last thing any of us want.
Didn't you tell them that this was a new planet? Yes, but-- Well, then can't they understand we're just being cautious? They're convinced you're hiding something.
Well, you can't blame them for thinking that, can you? No, I suppose not.
Give me until tomorrow.
Okay, till tomorrow.
The settlement died of disease.
- Iâll swear to it.
- Itâs impossible.
You laymen are all the same, Earth or any other planet.
You think that any bacterium or virus, developing independently on a planet, is bound to find man as succulent as a lollipop.
No, it's sheer childishness.
Man brings his own germs wherever he goes.
Who's to say that maybe the virus of the common cold didn't mutate under some planetary influence into something that was suddenly deadly? Things like that have even happened on Earth.
The 27 55 para-measles epidemic-- Yes, yes, yes, and the 1918 influenza epidemic and way back to the black plague.
But when has it happened recently? Granted it was over a century ago, but, still, they had doctors, antibiotics.
The symptoms were those of a respiratory infection, dyspnoea.
- We know that.
- But I tell you, it couldn't have been infection.
Itâs just Mathematically it couldn't have been.
Mathematically? Itâs you again.
- Yes, sir, it's me.
- How can mathematics-- I have given my professional opinion.
A professional opinion isn't necessarily synonymous - with an accurate explanation.
- Please, Mark! Iâm not accustomed to having the accuracy of my statements questioned by Sheffield, will you take him away and tuck him up in bed and hereafter, keep him out of my sight? Come along, Mark, let's go.
You stupid non-compos.
You're not an expert on anything.
You've forgotten everything you ever learned, and you never learned very much in the first place.
You better get him out of here, Sheffield, or in two moments, there'll be a murder committed.
- Come on, Mark, let's go.
- That's right, side with them! - Block out the truth! - I said, let's go! Hey, look, Iâve got to know.
I want to stay.
Cimon, you've got to keep that kid out of my hair.
All right, all right, simmer down, everybody! I don't suppose there's anyone else who questions Dr.
Rodriguez's viewpoint.
There better not be.
Well, then, since there's nothing to fear as far as infection is concerned, Iâm telling Captain Follenbee that the crew may take surface leave.
Also, I see no reason why we shouldn't pass on to the second stage of our investigation.
- Thank goodness for that.
- Well Now what I suggest is this, five of us trek out to the settlement site.
Fawkes, because he can handle the coaster, Novee and Rodriguez to handle the biological data, Vernadsky and myself to handle the chemistry and physics.
I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to ascertain what killed off the first settlers in a very short time.
The settlement lived there for several years before dying out.
It could be a long time before we're sure we're safe.
But we're not a settlement.
We're a group of specialists looking for trouble.
We'll find it if it's there to find and when we do, we beat it.
And it isn't going to take two years either.
It had better not.
I don't think Iâll ever trust you again.
They may take you later on, Mark.
No.
You hate me.
All of you do.
Don't think I don't know it.
And none of you has any right to hold me back.
It could be dangerous.
I don't care.
Iâve got to find out about this planet.
Iâve got to.
Dr.
Sheffield, you go to Cimon and tell him Iâm coming along whether he likes it or not.
I can't do that, Mark.
All right.
If you won't, I will.
And he'll have to commit murder to stop me from going.
You're getting excited.
That's right, I am.
And stop coddling me.
And don't try patronising me as if I were a two-year-old child who didn't know any better.
If you have any sense of ethics left, remember I found this planet.
I did.
Itâs my planet.
Mine.
Mine.
You're magnifying this out of all proportion, you know.
Oh.
Am I now? Mark, it is true you did discover there was an early colony on Troas, but you didn't discover the planet itself.
My findings encouraged the government to initiate this mission.
My findings disclosed that perhaps Troas is habitable.
Therefore, Dr.
Sheffield, it's as good as if Iâd found the planet.
If we're going to be precise, let us be precise.
All right, Mark.
Iâll get you out to the settlement site.
Iâll get us both out there.
Stay there and wait.
Of course, I'll wait.
Iâm patient, aren't I? One would think I wasn't.
[knock on door.]
Come in.
Oh, Sheffield.
I have a quarrel with you about the men going to the expedition site.
Have you? You have no one to take care of the mental sciences.
The what? [chuckles lightly.]
Iâll be honest with you, Sheffield.
If the authorities had consulted me first, I never would have agreed you're coming on this expedition at all.
I just don't see the function of a mental science in a mission like this.
And Iâm certainly not going to have our findings jeopardised by any more scenes like the ones we had with Rodriguez.
Iâm sorry, but the answer is no.
And suppose I told you that the end of the first settlement could possibly be explained, on a simple, psychological basis.
It wouldn't impress me.
Psychologists can usually explain everything and can never prove anything.
Well, let me go into a little more detail.
As you know, Troas differs from every other inhabited world in one major aspect.
It has two suns, two coloured suns.
Now you take a human being, say you or I, now if we were to stand in the full glare of both the suns, we'd cast two shadows.
One blue-green, the other orange-red.
The length of the shadows would vary according to the time of day.
Oh, by the way, have you taken the trouble to verify the colour distribution of those shadows? The what do you call them, reflection spectra? Well, of course, we have.
Itâs about the same as the radiation spectra.
Aha.
Now the planet's moons, Iâve been watching that the last few nights.
Have you noticed its colours change position? Of course they do.
It passes through phases like any other moon.
And have you checked its spectrum? We may have.
Not that the results would be of any importance.
Well, I may be able to surprise you.
Itâs a well established psychological fact that the colours red and green have a deleterious effect on mental stability.
Now here on Troas, we have a situation where the chromopsychic picture, and it's purely to use the technical term, is inescapable.
And it is possible that chromopsychosis could reach a fatal level by inducing hypertrophy of the Trinitarian follicles and consequent cerebric catatonia.
Iâve never heard of that.
Oh, you're questioning my professional opinion? No, no, of course not.
Only it's clear from the last reports we had from the expedition that the settlers died from something that sounded like a respiratory disease.
Ah, but Rodriguez denied that and you accepted his opinion.
I didn't say it was a respiratory disease.
I said it sounded like one.
All right, well, if you will accept the fact that the recorded effects were physical, it could have had a mental cause.
Yes, I suppose so.
Oh, there you are.
Makes my theory even more convincing, because chromopsychosis has been known to exhibit itself before, as a psychogenic respiratory infection.
You are aware of psychogenics? No, it's out of my field, Iâm afraid.
Yes, of course.
Well, by my calculations, on the heightened oxygen tension, psychogenic respiratory infections, are both inevitable and severe.
Have you been observing the moon the last few nights? Yes.
Oh, dear.
Itâs possible you might be infected already.
The moon's colours have been very virulent the last few nights.
Itâs nothing painful, believe me.
Itâs just a slight inflammation of the mucus membrane, a little scratchiness in the throat.
You finding it hard to swallow? Why, no, not the least bit.
Rodriguez complained of his hearing the other night.
Are you sure your hearing hasn't altered slightly? What? You've no right to keep quiet about this, Sheffield.
Itâs not incurable, is it? Why didn't you tell us about this before? Because there's not a word of truth in anything Iâve said.
There's no harm in colours.
Relax, Cimon.
You're beginning to look foolish.
You used your professional status to make a fool of me.
I was merely trying to make a point.
Oh, you did that all right.
You want me to take the boy with us.
No.
Definitely no.
Why not? Out of spite? Because he's out of his head.
Because he can't be trusted with normal people.
By your standards.
After that scene with Rodriguez, by anyone's.
Mark had every right to ask that question.
It was his job.
It was his duty.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, had no right to be so boorish.
I admit I should have stood up for Mark then and there.
Iâll consider Rodriguez first, if you don't mind.
Why? Mark knows more than he does.
He knows more than you and l if it comes to that.
The bureau issued specific instructions-- I know exactly what the bureau ordered.
They didn't consult me first, but never mind.
I shall co-operate with him just that far.
He will receive all official data here, on the ship.
No! There on the spot.
Mark may see things our precious specialists may not.
The answer, Sheffield, is no.
Now, please leave.
Well Iâm afraid if you won't change your mind, the rest of the boys may have to hear about this.
[Sheffield on voice recorder.]
Are you sure your hearing hasn't altered slightly? [Cimon on voice recorder.]
What? You've no right to keep quiet about this, Sheffield.
Itâs not incurable, is it? Why didn't you tell me about this before? [Sheffield.]
Because there's not a word of truth in anything Iâve said.
There's no harm in colours.
Iâm prepared to make a deal with you if you're interested.
Will you give me that tape? Yes, when Mark and l are on the settlement site.
All right You and the boy can come with us.
Thank you.
But when we get back to Earth, Sheffield, Iâll see to it that you're de-professionalised.
Another memento.
Pretty? Turns my stomach.
See that abnormality in the structure? What do you think it means? Oh, it could be any number of things.
Silence, yeah.
Silent.
But here underground.
Underground, that's it.
Dead quiet.
But I can see you, all around, trying to creep up on us.
I can see you.
I can see you there.
And there.
You can't hide now.
Fawkes, what is it? What's wrong? Itâs me, man, Novee.
Novee.
They're all around us.
Intelligent beings out there now.
Oh, come on now.
Iâm telling you.
I saw one, in the tent, I saw one and out here.
Oh, come on.
You've had a nightmare.
A nightmare? Iâm not so sure.
I thought it might be my imagination.
Maybe it's real.
If you're looking for ghosts again, forget it.
No, this has nothing to do with ghosts.
At least, not ghosts in the usual sense.
Novee, can we be sure those first settlers buried themselves? Certainly the very last ones didn't.
You yourself said animals probably got at them.
But I didn't specify what kind of animal, did I? What are you driving at? Novee, I know it sounds crazy, but Iâm sure now there is intelligent life on this planet after all.
The way Sheffield inferred.
Look, we've been here for two weeks.
Surely we would all have seen evidence of An elusive race? Oh, come on.
Your nerves are getting-- You don't believe there could be a race of beings living underground? Haunting that first settlement with a deadly perseverance? Fawkes, I think you should go inside and lie down.
Until tonight, I thought it might be my imagination.
I pictured a sort of silent bacteriological warfare.
- Now, Fawkes-- - No, listen.
But, now, Iâm sure there are people working away beneath the tree roots, culturing moulds and spores, developing a special spore that could feed on human beings and then And then? Your imagination give out? [whispering.]
Novee, look! Behind that rock.
Itâs something alive! You see, it's not my imagination.
Itâs not.
Hey, don't shoot.
Don't shoot.
It's Itâs only me.
What are you doing here? Watching.
Watching? Watching what? I woke up and came out.
Why were you watching? I was just watching you.
Why didn't you open your mouth and let us know you were there? If I had, you wouldn't have let me stay.
You say anything about this to the others and Iâll-- About what? You were seeing things, that's all.
Just keep quiet about it or you'll find-- A murder will be committed.
I know.
Iâve even remembered to watch the calories.
Hope we don't have that lean and wan look when we get back.
Everyone will think we've used official funds for a bit of skylarking.
Clown.
Bad temper at meal times? Mother doesn't approve.
Here we are.
Oh, come on.
Eat your dinner, gentlemen.
Iâve tasted it.
Itâs good.
Itâs tough, whatever it is.
- But beautifully cooked.
- Bet it kills us.
The hamsters have been living on it for two weeks now.
Mm-hmm.
And the rats have never had such vim and vigour.
What about those rats that died last week? They were vigorous ones, too.
But they died from herbs which contained lead, copper and mercury.
No, I assure you, gentlemen, Uncle Boris' stew lacks any ingredient high in heavy metal content, you'd know by the taste if it did.
Anyway, it wasn't heavy metal poisoning that killed the settlers.
The symptoms aren't right for it.
Look, suppose this stuff contains some kind of alkaloid that could paralyze the nerves controlling the lung muscles.
Hamsters have lung muscles.
Maybe it's a cumulative thing.
All right.
Anytime your breathing gets difficult, you go back to ship rations and see if you'll improve.
I will not have my culinary arts criticised anymore.
Anything the matter? No.
No, I was just recalling something.
An old monograph I once read, very old one.
I don't know why it should come to mind just now but it does.
[clicking.]
[whirring, feedback.]
[whirring, feedback.]
You want something? Just watching.
Well, if you must, you must, I suppose.
But, look, stand back there, eh? Not over my shoulder.
- Sorry.
- Itâs all right.
Is that a nuclear metre you're working with? That's right.
Has a force field generator at the top, so it can penetrate any rock.
Here.
[loud whirring.]
You see? Along the sides of the uniped are microscopic atomic furnaces, each of which vaporises about a million molecules in the surrounding rocks, and decomposes them into atoms.
The atoms are then differentiated and you read the results of the dials above.
Do you follow? No, but it's good to store away facts for future reference.
We end up with figures on the different elements in the crust.
Now, it's interesting.
You see, Troas has a more even distribution of elements than we usually meet.
They're heavy metals.
They are ten to 100 times as concentrated as they are on Earth.
And the lighter elements, they are also better distributed as well.
Take for instance what we call the rare lights, that's lithium, beryllium and boron.
Now they're lighter than carbon.
They are very rare on Earth.
But Troas, however, is enormously rich in them.
The three together total, well, four tenths of one percent of the crust, as compared to Earth's four-thousandths of one percent.
I see.
You know something, young man? Itâs good to find somebody who actually listens to me.
Is it? Well, I suppose a man gets lonely and frustrated when there's no one in his own line to talk to-- Do you have you the exact figures on those elements? Yes.
May I see it? I suppose so.
Here.
- Have you finished? - Yes, Iâve got it all.
Don't publish the results before I do, eh? Publish? I was joking.
Joking? You're all the same.
You're trying to make fun of me.
I thought you were different.
You're just like the others.
There's only one thing to do.
Where are you rushing to? To the air coaster.
I haven't had a chance to see it yet.
Of course you have, on several occasions.
Everyone was always around.
I want to see it once for myself.
Come to think of it, Iâd like to see it too.
You don't mind if I come along, do you? If you insist.
What's that? A piece of rock.
What does it look like? Just in case if anyone should try and stop me.
Throw it away, Mark.
You can hurt someone with that.
No.
No, Iâm not throwing it away.
[chuckles.]
I can see a botanist like Fawkes being able to run one of these contraptions.
I can run one.
You? Why not? Iâve watched Fawkes run it, and Iâve read enough manuals about how to operate one.
[high-pitched whirring.]
Well, that's nice.
We have a spare navigator in case of emergency.
[thud.]
Iâm sorry, Dr.
Sheffield, but this is an emergency.
[Mark.]
People died out there.
Only we haven't.
We spent weeks at that settlement.
We found nothing.
Those precious scientists who've been misleading you ever since we left Earth, haven't found anything to explain what happened.
So the deaths must have been caused by something they don't know anything about.
We're in danger? Something that could be killing all of us, right now.
Come on, let's go for the captain.
[hissing.]
[hissing fades to monotonous high-pitched tone.]
All right, we're on our way.
Well, where is the boy? He's being held in his cabin as you instructed.
We'd better get him in here.
How about Sheffield? Novee is with him.
He hasn't come around yet.
[groans, struggles.]
Easy now.
You've had a bad concussion, nearly a fracture.
- Where are we? - In space.
Where's Mark? - Take it easy.
- Where is he? Iâm placing you under arrest, Annuncio.
When that nursemaid of yours comes around, Iâm going to try you both for mutiny.
Dr.
Sheffield had nothing to do with it.
But he was responsible for you.
If he'd done his job properly, we wouldn't be in this mess now.
You've ruined weeks of research and nearly killed five men.
If the Captain hadn't brow-beaten the crew into picking us up, we'd still be at the settlement site marooned.
I didn't intend that.
But then why? What got into you? Well, speak up, boy.
Mark, you've got to tell us.
- Come on, why? - If you don't, we'll make you.
Well? Because you wouldn't have listened to me.
None of you.
You're all too smug and jealous.
Jealous of me, because I know more than you'll ever begin to know.
[Rodriguez.]
Now, look here you-- You're like everybody with only a bit of knowledge.
Proud and afraid.
Afraid of not knowing.
Like all non-compos, the lot of you.
Non-compos.
Non-compos.
All right, all right, let the boy-- Iâve had about as much as I can-- - Stop it! - Let him go! You keep out of this, Sheffield.
If hadn't been for you, this never would have happened.
Not now, Dr.
Cimon.
You and the boy are both under arrest and you'll be confined to your quarters until we can set your trial up.
- What for? - For mutiny, Doctor.
Dr.
Sheffield had nothing to do with it.
I told you.
You will try us? Yes, strictly according to Galactic law.
What's the sentence if we are found guilty? There's not much doubt about that.
If you're found guilty, you'll both be sentenced to death.
May I talk to him? Okay, go ahead.
How did you force the captain to leave Troas, Mark? By telling the crew about the first expedition.
You knew what would happen if you did.
Yes.
At least, I saw it as a possibility.
Why did you do it? Well, it seemed to be the lesser of the two evils.
It was important that we get away from Troas without losing a minute.
Telling the crew about the first expedition seemed the fastest way of getting us off the planet.
Why was it so important to get us off? Because it was only a matter of time before we died.
I wanted to tell you, Dr.
Sheffield, but Well, you vacillate.
One minute you seem to be on my side, the next, you're on the safer side.
I couldn't risk trusting you.
And I certainly couldn't trust the others any more than they've ever trusted me.
So you thought you had to take some action of your own? Yes, sir.
All right, Mark, tell me.
What do you think did kill the first settlers? The dust.
The dust in the air! Itâs got beryllium in it.
Ask Dr.
Vernadsky.
What's that? Sure.
It was part of the information you gave me.
Beryllium was very high in the crust, so it must be in the dust in the air as well.
So what if beryllium is there? Supraberylliosis, that's what.
An extreme case of beryllium poisoning.
If you breathe beryllium dust, non-healing granulomata form in the lungs.
And what's in the blood can cause skin and bone deformation.
Anyway, it gets difficult to breathe and eventually you die.
You don't know what you're talking about.
You're not a physician.
I read about it, in an old book about poisons.
The one I told you about.
It was so old it was printed on actual sheets of paper.
The library had some and I went through them because it was such a novelty.
All right.
What did you read? Can you tell me? Yes.
Word for word.
âBeryllium serves to derange a number of enzyme-catalysed reactions.
Since the lungs have no way of excreting beryllium, diverse metabolic derangements, causing serious illness and death, can result from inhaling beryllium dust, containing certain beryllium salts.
The onset of symptoms is insidious, sometimes being immediate, but sometimes being delayed for as long as three years after exposure.
Prognosis is not good.
â Novee, what is all this? Is what he's saying making any sense? It seems as if it might be.
I don't know though.
Iâve never read up on it.
No case ever required me to do so.
Isn't beryllium used for anything? Not that I can think of.
Wait a minute I think it was used in the early days of atomic power, and primitive uranium piles as a neutron decelerator.
Iâm almost sure of that.
It isn't used now, though? As far as I know.
I also think beryllium-zinc coatings were used in the first fluorescent lights.
Not anymore.
No, not anymore.
All right, now listen, all of you.
I can vouch for Mark's ability to recall.
Itâs my opinion beryllium is poisonous.
Only in concentrated forms.
Well, on Earth, there's no danger because the content of the soil is low.
When man concentrates beryllium to use in nuclear piles of fluorescent lights, he comes across its toxicity and looks for substitutes.
So he finds them and forgets about beryllium.
So when we come across a beryllium-rich planet like Troas, we just can't work out what hit us.
Until someone like Mark Annuncio comes along and does the one thing that we can't do.
He remembers.
Novee what does he mean when he says, âPrognosis is not goodâ? It means that if you've got supraberylliosis, you won't recover.
I suppose the symptoms are dyspnoea and-- Yes, sometimes neural disorders leading to hallucinatory visions.
Skin disfiguration? Appearing first on the hand, or at the lower part of the neck.
I think that when we get back to Earth, we should get under medical investigation as soon as possible, all of us.
Do we have a chance? Well, if we're not going to recover? What use is it? Medical science has advanced since the days of the early settlers.
Anyway, we may not have received the toxic dose.
The settlement survived for over a year of continuous exposure.
Fortunately, we've only had a month.
I guess that's that.
[rumbling.]
What are you thinking about? That I might die.
Iâve never been conscious of my own death before.
Now I am.
And Iâm thinking, if I do die, there are so many things So many things in the universe that Iâll never learn never know.