Out of the Unknown (1965) s02e03 Episode Script
Lambda I
1 [theme music plays.]
[man over PA.]
New York Tau Terminal.
You are now in the New York terminal of Tau Inter-Atomic Transport.
Passengers for London on the scheduled phase, should proceed at once to the reception desk, for final inspection of documents.
Your ship is the Elektron, your captain, Nathan Dantor, your hostess, Miss Bridie Palmer.
Passengers for other phases, or those in search of bookings or information, are invited to use the Tau Terminal Lounge, situated on the top floor of this building, and reached by the Gamma-mode elevator at the rear of this hall.
Once disembarked in London, will you be doing any further travel by conventional means? Presumably, Miss Palmer.
Well, that all seems to be in order, madam.
Thank you.
If you'd care to go through to the ship.
Iâll be through in a few moments to see if you're comfortable.
- Number? - 2251403.
- Name? - Alfred Wilmington Ferris.
- Born? - London.
- Year? - Ten.
Vaccinated, no convictions.
Cleared by Tau release.
Well, you seem to have it all by heart If Iâm subjected to one more inspection this evening, I won't have a secret left.
Is quite so much checking necessary simply in order to get me back to England? The insistence is a bore, I know, Mr.
Ferris.
But Tau Transport has found in the past Yes Was there something else? No, not really.
Iâm anxious to get back to England too [man over PA.]
Clearance, please.
Definitive grid clearance.
Tau Transport passenger liner, Elektron, destination London, will be entering phase, in exactly sixty seconds from now.
Commencing countdown.
Sixty, 59, 58, 57 That means the countdown's started, sir.
Eh? Countdown, Captain Dantor.
Down with the drink, boy.
Never mind the count.
It is simply that in order to enter atomic space, which is the Tau method of travel, your body needs an energy shield.
Afterwards, you have the run of the ship, and the screen will only materialise again when it's time to out phase to return to normality.
Will you please all take your seats? Oh! Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth.
I say, wasn't that the Captain? Dantor, whatever he's called.
Captain Dantor, yes.
Now will you please take your seat, the screen materialises in five seconds.
[man over PA.]
Four three two one Zero.
Generators on.
ln phase.
[power starting.]
Hello, New York.
Tau Terminal London, Central Control.
Just to let you know we are now tracking the scheduled phase.
Elektron is registering on our screens.
The mode is Gamma.
Over.
Thank you, London.
Over and out.
Yes, Mary? What was it? What was what, Paul? You left a message for me with Vera.
Oh, sorry.
Yes, it was something personal.
Personal? A man called asking could he see you.
At two o'clock in the morning? Well, he said he was a friend so I asked him to wait in reception until you were available.
Name of Oh, yes, Benedict.
- Eric Benedict.
- Benedict! Paul Porter? Why have you come, Eric? Iâve got 12 hours to kill in London before I go on to Rome for the International MediCon.
I thought I could spend the time worse than in your company.
What, here? When Iâm on duty? Senior Controller, Tau Transport, UK.
Well, you've certainly got on in the world, Paul even since last we met.
But I always said that of you to Julie, you know, that you'd be a success.
You can't have come here to talk about Julie, surely.
Why not? You blame me that she left you, isn't that true? She went to you in trouble, an old friend and a psychologist.
You as good as advised her to break up her marriage.
Yes, but Paul, she was afraid.
Afraid? Of course there are other things we could talk about if you'd prefer, the principles of Tau physics, say-- Oh, for God's sake, Eric! No, seriously, I've never properly understood them.
Yet they tell me in just a few years now, Tau will have made all other forms of transport obsolete.
They also tell me there are still unresolved problems to interest the psychologist.
- In Tau? - Aren't there? After all, it's something pretty new.
Men have travelled over the surface of the Earth, above and under it for thousands of years now, but this is the first time in human history that man has actually gone through his world.
Let us suppose a Tau ship and its passengers, is disintegrated in New York.
That ship then could pass through water, sand and rock, and come out in London.
At first it will be invisible.
It will co-exist with the other atoms about it.
ln order to materialise, a mode of re-assembly must be adapted.
For identification purposes, it has been named: Gamma, Delta Epsilon.
I don't understand.
Brett, when did this start? A few moments ago, Miss Bone.
Itâs very odd.
Iâve never known the Elektron to travel through Tau-space in anything but a straight forward Gamma Mode.
- What's her ETA? - 02:45.
Fifteen minutes time.
Shall I try calling her? Yes, you'd better.
This is most unusual.
It must be, of course appreciated, that none of these modes is absolutely stable.
'Mode slip' must be accepted as a permanent hazard of our form of travel.
[Miss Bone.]
Delta She's slipped back a mode.
We can withdraw her normality in any mode she stabilises in.
Itâs only a matter of phase-matching on the computers.
But with a ship like the Elektron, there shouldn't be this uncertainty.
Is everything keyed-in, Brett? Yes, Miss Bone.
We shall just have to try and catch her the moment she touches the grid.
- If she slips again- - Hold on destabilizing.
Each mode has its own character and its own terrors.
A ship as a whole can suffer exposure effects, during a period of mode slip.
And although Rorsch generators offer a high standard of stability and safety-- But the ship must ultimately be in Gamma, Delta, Epsilon or Zeta? There's no other mode possible? Why did you want to ask something like that? Because it's what Iâve heard.
The psychological difficulties they told me of in Tau didn't relate to any of these standard modes.
There must be something else.
The question you ask is a complex one.
Perhaps those who come after me will find substance for the strange notion only lately voiced that She's going into Epsilon.
- Haven't you raised them yet? - Iâm doing my best! [clicking.]
Elektron.
Calling Elektron.
[Dantor.]
Well, come along, Birch, what's the mode? I don't know, Captain Dantor.
Won't seem to stabilize.
As if I needed any telling, the length of time Iâve been in Tau.
The great grey-green of the Gamma, eh The rose-pink incorruptible of Delta and Epsilon We took it all smack in the face when I started out, you know, no normalcy correction in ships then! We embraced the unknown! I tell you-- [siren blares.]
Vector coordinating fault, sir, correcting.
You mean generators are playing up? They were checked in New York, man-- I know that, sir.
But Iâm inclined to think-- Think! Harvey, in the old days we knew! We had to! - Where's he gone- - Three guesses Is it the generators? Iâm doing my best to find out.
Thank you.
I just suddenly felt peculiar I can't imagine why.
Will we still be arriving in London on time? Of course, it's got nothing to do with that.
Iâm glad.
You see, I'm very anxious to get back-- [clattering.]
My apologies, madam.
That man is drunk.
Mr.
Ferris, you'll really have to stop worrying.
[siren blaring.]
What's that? [ominous mechanical groaning.]
There.
We have now stabilized on a mode.
ln less than ten minutes' time, we'll be approaching the London grip.
No more cause for alarm.
Would you all take your seats in the inner cabin now, please? [Miss Bone.]
Yes, Mrs.
Woodgate, not the nicest experience, I know.
Captain Dantor, I think it's only fair to tell you.
I mean to report you to your superiors when we arrive in London.
Who's that, then? - A mouse out of the woodwork? - Iâm serious! If you-- No mice in Tau.
No damn woodwork, either.
Why do you think I drink, eh, mouse ? - Captain Dantor.
- To dull the pain? - To drown my insecurities? - Get your hands off me! I drink because out there there's an undiscovered mystery, and Iâve learned just enough of it to be able to flinch at the horrors! Not like you, cringing and safe behind normalcy screens.
Do you want to know what it's really like outside? The world beyond reason? No, sir-- [screams.]
[Dantor laughing.]
Epsilon.
And it deteriorates to things worse.
Oh, God [struggling to breathe.]
There's danger here too, then.
Terrible danger.
[whimpering.]
The only reason I travelled by Tau was because when I went to America by rocket there was an undershoot we were forced down on the surface, in that blazing heat Ten hours before the rescue craft came! I couldn't take the chance again! But if there's the same risk here-- Look, it's all right now, Mr.
Ferris.
No sir-- [woman screaming.]
[explosion.]
Alex, what is it? What's happening? I don't know, Bridie.
Captain Dantor? Captain Dantor, sir! [high-pitched whirring.]
Well, try the auxiliary then, anything! - Harvey Harvey, look! - What is it? The screen, man.
Will you look? But it isn't possible! - How the devil-- - Shut up, Brett! Itâs happening.
The Omega mode.
Omega, called the ultimate because while its existence, has never been strictly demonstrated, workers of Tau, who claim to have encountered it, all say that-- - Why did you do that? - Because it's all nonsense! No matter what Rorsch held, there are no grounds for believing in this fanciful, horrific Omega mode.
Yet it's what you fear? Fear? Paul, Iâve given your case more thought and study over the last few months than you know.
- Now listen to me! - Oh, Eric.
I saw Julie in New York not more than a week ago.
She's sorry about everything that happened, and wants desperately to come back to you.
What? As a matter of fact, she asked me to look in on you at this time, particularly, to prepare you.
She's travelling back to England on one of your ships.
The Elektron.
Mr.
Porter, could you come at once, please? [Miss Bone.]
Paul, quickly, Paul! The Tau Elektron? She's arrived? [siren calling.]
Yes, that's her siren requesting out-phase.
But what do we do about this? [siren wails.]
Omega And you mean to tell me the Elektron is actually out there on the grid at this very moment, even though we can't see or touch her? - That's right, Mr.
Benedict.
- Astonishing.
Tau physics are certainly unlike the conventional kind.
Tau psychology must have a character of its own, too.
[man over PA.]
Tau Terminal London, calling Elektron.
Tau Terminal London, calling Elektron.
Do you read me, please? All right, Iâll try them through Delta-Echo, then.
There must be same way of locking with their frequency.
- Stability lock, Brett! - Yes, Miss Bone.
Lock off.
Scanning once more.
What was that? Something hopeful for a moment.
It looked as if the Omega might be slipping up the scale into something we could handle, a Zeta mode, say.
There's no way of withdrawing direct from an Omega mode then? Itâs not supposed to exist, remember? If we can't coax the Elektron out of it, we shall have to tell the Captain to remove his ship to a remote point on the globe - and wait.
- Wait for what? For his generators to stop functioning.
The vessel falls back into normal atomic condition.
So you get two large aggregates of matter occupying the same space, at the same time.
The resulting explosion shouldn't really remove more than half a continent.
Please! Professor Caradus, you are the greatest living authority on Tau.
But a ship in Omega? Isn't there any precedent? Look, we've even tried to introduce the mode and failed.
We decided it was pure legend.
You're keeping the whole thing under a security blanket? I haven't informed my superiors here yet.
What am I to do? To withdraw your ship from Omega to normality? - Yes.
- I don't know.
Rorsch himself never dismissed the idea of some kind of terrible nightmare deep in Tau.
Perhaps we have to think in terms of dream, rather than fact.
Give me a half-hour.
Don't speak to anyone else 'til you've heard from me.
Paul Paul, what's wrong? Itâs this Omega business, just as you thought.
You talked about fear! Itâs been with me for years.
Yes, Paul, I know.
Julie told me about it.
Iâd just finished my training when they sent me to France to one of their experimental stations.
The Camargue, at that time.
I was to bring in this three-man crew, with some student navigators aboard.
Yes? They were nearly home when suddenly, something went wrong.
The mode slipped, and I lost contact.
Whilst I struggled to get it back, I thought for one wild moment I saw Omega on the screen.
Then it was gone, a straight Delta.
I phase-matched, withdrew the ship to normality but when I did Well? Eric, they were all dead.
It seemed one man had gone out of his mind, killed the other two before doing away with himself.
It was all hushed up, of course.
But I keep wondering what drove him to do it.
Whether it wasn't something Something of the mind, rather than of matter.
[buzzer.]
- Yes? - [Miss Bone.]
We've made contact - with the Elektron.
- Right, there at once.
[Dantor.]
Are you out of your heads? Crazy, every last one of you? Or perhaps you take me for an idiot? Captain Dantor! Listen! Itâs your responsibility, not mine! You do something! What's wrong? The captain, we've told him he may have to move his ship and he isn't taking kindly to it.
Dantor, this is Porter, Senior Controller.
Everything possible is being done to help your ship.
Now I wish to make an urgent enquiry about a passenger-- - Who Who's that then? - Porter, Senior Controller! My wife's aboard your craft! Tell her-- Well, now, that's just the exact exulted personage, I should be talking to, isn't it? Do you know what it's like in this phase, Senior Controller? Omega, do you know? Please, Dantor! Iâve a Number One with half his head cut away, because of the gravity imbalance, or whatever you care to call the phenomenon.
Look out! Dantor, try and understand what I'm saying to you.
My wife is aboard your ship! Now please get a message to her from me.
Tell her-- [Dantor screams.]
Dantor Captain Dantor? - What's happened? - I don't know, sir, - we seem to have lost them-- - Then get then back! - Yes, sir.
- Quickly! Elektron, calling Elektron.
[groaning.]
Come on, my goodness, you are in a bad way.
- I didn't realise-- - My husband! We'll find your husband the minute we normalise.
- But you don't understand! - Yes, I do.
Paul! We're doing our best, all of us! - Take it easy! - Paul More hysterics? Iâll give her a shot the minute Iâm finished here.
No, that won't be necessary.
Let me help.
Paul What are we going to do, Bridie? - Have you thought about that? - Do? If this goes on for any length of time.
You know what it is really, don't you? What they call it? No, but I wondered if it was that.
Omega the mode that doesn't exist that drives men mad.
Dantor won't do much to help.
So what do we do, you and I? - [Mrs Porter.]
Paul! Paul! - You're simply to lie still.
- Alex.
- What's the matter? Mrs.
Porter and the generators, Brett.
The generators? Yes sir, checked out in New York as okay.
Though tech records do say on her last two trips, the Elektron actually came in on a Delta.
What? You mean we should have been notified and weren't? Then that's it! How often haven't I pleaded with the powers that be not to persevere with a generator once it shows a tendency to mode-slip! - Anything else, Brett? - Her cargo.
- Which is? - The usual concession of passengers, plus five hundred tons of psilomelane gas.
What's psilomelane gas? Low combustion industrial fuel.
Poisonous if inhaled in large quantities.
Priority call coming in on Channel 4.
Yes, Professor? [professor over intercom.]
Anything new your end? We contacted the Elektron for a while, then we lost touch, It was like a line into the underworld, we haven't broken the mode.
Iâve been thinking Mode-slip, isn't a very usual phenomenon, with vessels of the Elektron class, is it? - Itâs the generators.
- But it isn't usual? Of course it isn't! The whole history of Tau, has been a progression towards stability.
They say Rorsch's original craft, the old Lambda I, has a mode-slip on an average of every two minutes or so.
How the devil he ever completed his experiments-- I was hoping you'd mention something of that sort.
A less stable craft would stand a greater chance of slipping, into the Omega mode.
Agreed? Statistically, yes - Well, where is it, then? - Where is what? The Lambda I! Don't you have it somewhere there in London? Yes, it's in our Terminal Museum, but Professor you're not suggesting? Far be it from me to suggest anything, Porter! I don't even know if a transfer between two vessels is possible in Tau, but when an old surface ship was sinking, the practice was to send out lifeboats.
Well, he's crazy out of his mind! I couldn't do a thing like that, no man could.
Not even to save Julie? [Bridie.]
Hello, hello, Tau Terminal, London! Tau Terminal, London! Are you receiving me? This is the Elektron.
Hello, London Terminal! Can you hear me? Please Harvey! Leave him, try and get them on the Delta-Echo.
[Harvey coughs.]
Hello? Tau Terminal, London.
Tau Terminal, London.
This is the Elektron.
London Terminal? London Terminal? - Well? - Didn't you hear anything? Interference, nothing more.
[Bridie over radio.]
We must have your help! This is the Elektron, calling Tau Stabilise on beam.
Hello, Elektron? Hello, receiving you.
Over.
What is your message? We can't maintain the situation very much longer! This is Bridie Palmer, hostess aboard Elektron.
Many of our passengers are injured due to anti-gravity effect.
All are terrified! Calling Tau Terminal, London.
Can you hear me? Please answer.
We're getting them, they don't seem to be getting us.
[Bridie over radio.]
Tau Terminal, London.
Tau Terminal, London.
Captain Dantor is [Dantor screams, groans.]
no longer capable of being in command! One passenger, Alfred Ferris, attempted suicide, and in need of medical attention! Also a woman passenger is expecting a child! A Mrs.
Julie Porter.
We didn't know she was pregnant when the phase began.
Porter here.
- Did you say my wife-- - Itâs no good, sir! They can't hear us.
Please advise! This is Bridie Palmer, hostess aboard-- - Damn! Get after them! - Right.
Elektron, calling Elektron.
Benedict, why didn't-- Yes, Paul, I knew, But she, naturally, wanted to tell you about it herself.
[Brett over PA.]
Clearance, please.
Definitive grid clearance.
Standing by for phase entry.
Rescue craft Lambda I now in position.
Grid clearance, please.
Right you are, Miss Bone, countdown whenever you say.
Give me the ship, Brett.
Hello, hello, Paul? This is Mary.
Everything is all ready here, what about you? [Paul over radio.]
As ready as we'll ever be, Mary.
I never realised just how primitive Lambda I really is.
No tele-screens, only elementary couplers, and closed-circuit radio.
When we enter phase, you'll have lost contact with us.
[Miss Bone over radio.]
Paul, wouldn't it be better to wait until we can adapt Lambda I more adequately? Even if we could mock up some sort of normalcy screens? No, Mary.
Rorsch took his chance on Tau exposure, and so must I.
At least I'm not alone.
Good luck then, Paul good luck.
Grid clearance, final call.
Rescue ship, Lambda I, about to enter phase.
Stand by.
Phase entry in ten seconds from now Ten, nine, eight seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Zero.
Generators on.
ln phase.
[generators starting up.]
[whirring.]
[Eric.]
Paul Paul? You all right? [Paul.]
Yes, Eric yes, I think so.
We're in phase.
Is this how it should be? Black like this? I don't know.
Wait, Iâll try and adjust.
Gamma! So this is what they mean by it, the great grey-green.
The twilight desert.
Don't you always experience this? No.
ln today's ships all effects are blanked out.
Perhaps we shouldn't take anything at face value.
That, for instance.
Is it worthy of our attention, or simply a trick of the light? - Eric, he needs our help-- - No, Paul! - He does! I've got to-- - Stop that! Listen to me! One move outside that hatch, and you're lost! What? Why do you think I wanted to come along on this trip? Because I needed to know what Tau really was! And Iâm beginning to understand that the interaction of our atoms and atomic space is complex and deceiving.
[harmonic female voices singing.]
What's that? What's happening now? Julie! Julie! [muted screaming, silence.]
[harmonic singing continues.]
Julie! Julie! - No, Paul, don't go out there-- - But it's Julie-- Itâs an hallucination-- - But you see it too? - Yes! Then how can it be an hallucination? Two men cannot share the same vision! [rumbling.]
[Paul.]
What What's happening now? Epsilon, Epsilon, Eric! We've slipped two modes! But why? I just don't understand about Julie! It is not enough to say it's an hallucination, Eric.
[screams.]
Eric! What is it now? Out there, you wouldn't believe it.
Eric And in that day the wicked shall fly vengeance but it shall be visited on them in rivers of fire and sulphurous fumes! [all.]
Amen! And darkness shall cover the land, and no man shall see hill or vale.
[all.]
Amen.
And in that hour, the righteous man shall seek justice The justice of heaven! [all.]
Amen.
Get out of my way! [Dantor.]
And the servants of righteousness Itâs nothing.
I tried to stop Dantor, and he shoved me aside.
I hit my head.
They're still listening to him, then? More and more! I tell you he's gone mad, he'll drive the others mad too if we don't think of something.
But what? Bridie, we're not going to get out of this.
They should have withdrawn us long before this.
- Alex, don't talk-- - And the next thing is, they'll all lose control out there, they'll start slaughtering each other.
- Unless we-- - [Dantor.]
Justice! [others.]
Amen.
Amen.
For the last time, who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want? Still nothing to say? Where's Benedict, eh? Is he dead? Have you come to try and drive me mad Is that it? Well, you won't succeed, you know.
Not so simply.
Oh, no! I can stop you from driving me mad.
[Dantor.]
How long shall the wicked triumph? Has not their day come, their hour sounded? And are not we the servants of righteousness? Evil servants, to shrink when duty commands! Base slaves, to fall away in the hour of trial! [Dantor continues.]
Go forth Go forth in the name of justice.
[hissing.]
[Dantor, muffled.]
Rise up, rise up and be strong! Strike the wicked! Cut, burn slay the unrighteous! [coughs.]
Iâll give you one final chance, to answer my questions.
Do you hear? Who are you? Where's my friend? [man speaks in foreign language.]
Whoever you are, you won't interfere with this craft! [thunderous explosion.]
Eric but what l-- Yes I think I understand! Paul! Paul, what did you see me as just now? - See you? - We've slipped into Delta.
It seems one of the characteristics of the Epsilon mode, is a kind of identity distortion.
You appeared to me just then, as some kind of gross insect.
Insect? Something happens inside the head The interactions is between Tau matter, and the fabric of the brain itself.
What we see in Tau must often only be a half truth.
That portion of the stimuli which the brain can resolve in imagery based on personal experience.
Trust nothing in atomic space, Paul.
We're taking the chance on our own psyches here for better or for worse.
[siren blares.]
What's that? Itâs the Elektron! Her signals! Short blasts.
Eric, it's her distress signal ! We must be close enough to her in the mode pattern to receive her SOS! Strike them! Strike the wicked! Unsheathe the sword of justice.
âIt is timeâ, says the voice out of Heaven.
Iniquity be strong Strike! Take up the sword! [siren wails in background.]
[sobbing.]
The distress system works automatically.
When a generator falls below par, say, or the air or power supply fail.
A thousand reasons! Under normal conditions, it's a priority request for withdrawal from Tau.
Yet we still have to get our own craft into Omega - to be of any help - Exactly! Iâll try and jump the vector setting.
[coughing.]
Miss Palmer! Miss Palmer! What is it? The gas gas! Where's it coming from? Gas Psilomelane Come on! You must tell me! You must tell me! ln the cargo - But you mustn't - No.
Iâll do everything I can [coughs.]
No, it's no use! Why won't it slip? Tau is the interaction of spatial matter on the very fabric of the brain.
Iâll try once more.
If I can alter the generator balance, that might do it.
[screams.]
For God's sake! What are you doing? I don't understand.
The screen, man, the screen! What does it say? Omega.
And yes Eric There, look.
The Elektron! We've done it.
We've reached her.
There isn't a moment to lose.
We've got to board her.
We can't go out-- How else can we rescue Julie and the others? We'd be dashed to pieces if we tried to get through that! There are rocks, didn't you see them? No, you idiot.
Omega, that drives men crazy.
First you try to kill yourself, then you want to kill others! Leave me! [siren in background.]
[coughs.]
[struggles, grunts.]
Paul, Paul, listen to me, can't you? [grunting, yelping.]
- Help, help! Iâll drown! - Stop that! - I can't fight against-- - Stop it, I say! When will you understand it's happening inside your head? Just like the other things.
But the difference is if you believe in the Tau vision, then it's actual.
That sea out there can drown you or leave you unharmed.
Just as you choose.
That's why your man went mad in the Camargue, because his violence had brought him to just such a Tau-phase, and he believed in it too.
- Violence? - Yes Omega's not a mode you slip into, not by any means.
Itâs one you thrust yourself at! Come on, Paul! Julie needs you! Julie? Julie.
Julie.
- Oh, Paul! - Itâs all right.
Itâs all right.
[faint feedback.]
- Is she all right? - I think so.
It must have been she who turned off the gas.
She was the only one left conscious.
Pollution's at a tolerable level.
Air-clearance should do the rest.
I wonder if I can work this well enough to contact Mary Bone? They should be able to withdraw us to normalcy now.
Eric, tell me.
How did you do it? I backed a hunch and it paid off, that's all.
But the key is somewhere in the Tau interaction with the psyche.
It came to me that just before the Elektron slipped into Omega, there was an act of desperation.
A man tried to commit suicide, so I attempted the same thing.
And we slipped too.
Meantime, Julie had independently set out to save the ship, from a further act of desperation.
Remember she's carrying a child.
That makes her a creature of life.
As certainly as the others are creatures of death.
The will to live, the will to die is that the key to Tau-Omega? We'll have to work on it.
[man over radio.]
Hello, Elektron? Hello, Elektron? This is Tau Terminal, London.
Are you receiving us? Hello, Tau Terminal.
This is Elektron.
Stabilising on Delta, and requesting out-phase.
Whenever you're ready, please.
Out-phase [whirring.]
[man over PA.]
New York Tau Terminal.
You are now in the New York terminal of Tau Inter-Atomic Transport.
Passengers for London on the scheduled phase, should proceed at once to the reception desk, for final inspection of documents.
Your ship is the Elektron, your captain, Nathan Dantor, your hostess, Miss Bridie Palmer.
Passengers for other phases, or those in search of bookings or information, are invited to use the Tau Terminal Lounge, situated on the top floor of this building, and reached by the Gamma-mode elevator at the rear of this hall.
Once disembarked in London, will you be doing any further travel by conventional means? Presumably, Miss Palmer.
Well, that all seems to be in order, madam.
Thank you.
If you'd care to go through to the ship.
Iâll be through in a few moments to see if you're comfortable.
- Number? - 2251403.
- Name? - Alfred Wilmington Ferris.
- Born? - London.
- Year? - Ten.
Vaccinated, no convictions.
Cleared by Tau release.
Well, you seem to have it all by heart If Iâm subjected to one more inspection this evening, I won't have a secret left.
Is quite so much checking necessary simply in order to get me back to England? The insistence is a bore, I know, Mr.
Ferris.
But Tau Transport has found in the past Yes Was there something else? No, not really.
Iâm anxious to get back to England too [man over PA.]
Clearance, please.
Definitive grid clearance.
Tau Transport passenger liner, Elektron, destination London, will be entering phase, in exactly sixty seconds from now.
Commencing countdown.
Sixty, 59, 58, 57 That means the countdown's started, sir.
Eh? Countdown, Captain Dantor.
Down with the drink, boy.
Never mind the count.
It is simply that in order to enter atomic space, which is the Tau method of travel, your body needs an energy shield.
Afterwards, you have the run of the ship, and the screen will only materialise again when it's time to out phase to return to normality.
Will you please all take your seats? Oh! Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth.
I say, wasn't that the Captain? Dantor, whatever he's called.
Captain Dantor, yes.
Now will you please take your seat, the screen materialises in five seconds.
[man over PA.]
Four three two one Zero.
Generators on.
ln phase.
[power starting.]
Hello, New York.
Tau Terminal London, Central Control.
Just to let you know we are now tracking the scheduled phase.
Elektron is registering on our screens.
The mode is Gamma.
Over.
Thank you, London.
Over and out.
Yes, Mary? What was it? What was what, Paul? You left a message for me with Vera.
Oh, sorry.
Yes, it was something personal.
Personal? A man called asking could he see you.
At two o'clock in the morning? Well, he said he was a friend so I asked him to wait in reception until you were available.
Name of Oh, yes, Benedict.
- Eric Benedict.
- Benedict! Paul Porter? Why have you come, Eric? Iâve got 12 hours to kill in London before I go on to Rome for the International MediCon.
I thought I could spend the time worse than in your company.
What, here? When Iâm on duty? Senior Controller, Tau Transport, UK.
Well, you've certainly got on in the world, Paul even since last we met.
But I always said that of you to Julie, you know, that you'd be a success.
You can't have come here to talk about Julie, surely.
Why not? You blame me that she left you, isn't that true? She went to you in trouble, an old friend and a psychologist.
You as good as advised her to break up her marriage.
Yes, but Paul, she was afraid.
Afraid? Of course there are other things we could talk about if you'd prefer, the principles of Tau physics, say-- Oh, for God's sake, Eric! No, seriously, I've never properly understood them.
Yet they tell me in just a few years now, Tau will have made all other forms of transport obsolete.
They also tell me there are still unresolved problems to interest the psychologist.
- In Tau? - Aren't there? After all, it's something pretty new.
Men have travelled over the surface of the Earth, above and under it for thousands of years now, but this is the first time in human history that man has actually gone through his world.
Let us suppose a Tau ship and its passengers, is disintegrated in New York.
That ship then could pass through water, sand and rock, and come out in London.
At first it will be invisible.
It will co-exist with the other atoms about it.
ln order to materialise, a mode of re-assembly must be adapted.
For identification purposes, it has been named: Gamma, Delta Epsilon.
I don't understand.
Brett, when did this start? A few moments ago, Miss Bone.
Itâs very odd.
Iâve never known the Elektron to travel through Tau-space in anything but a straight forward Gamma Mode.
- What's her ETA? - 02:45.
Fifteen minutes time.
Shall I try calling her? Yes, you'd better.
This is most unusual.
It must be, of course appreciated, that none of these modes is absolutely stable.
'Mode slip' must be accepted as a permanent hazard of our form of travel.
[Miss Bone.]
Delta She's slipped back a mode.
We can withdraw her normality in any mode she stabilises in.
Itâs only a matter of phase-matching on the computers.
But with a ship like the Elektron, there shouldn't be this uncertainty.
Is everything keyed-in, Brett? Yes, Miss Bone.
We shall just have to try and catch her the moment she touches the grid.
- If she slips again- - Hold on destabilizing.
Each mode has its own character and its own terrors.
A ship as a whole can suffer exposure effects, during a period of mode slip.
And although Rorsch generators offer a high standard of stability and safety-- But the ship must ultimately be in Gamma, Delta, Epsilon or Zeta? There's no other mode possible? Why did you want to ask something like that? Because it's what Iâve heard.
The psychological difficulties they told me of in Tau didn't relate to any of these standard modes.
There must be something else.
The question you ask is a complex one.
Perhaps those who come after me will find substance for the strange notion only lately voiced that She's going into Epsilon.
- Haven't you raised them yet? - Iâm doing my best! [clicking.]
Elektron.
Calling Elektron.
[Dantor.]
Well, come along, Birch, what's the mode? I don't know, Captain Dantor.
Won't seem to stabilize.
As if I needed any telling, the length of time Iâve been in Tau.
The great grey-green of the Gamma, eh The rose-pink incorruptible of Delta and Epsilon We took it all smack in the face when I started out, you know, no normalcy correction in ships then! We embraced the unknown! I tell you-- [siren blares.]
Vector coordinating fault, sir, correcting.
You mean generators are playing up? They were checked in New York, man-- I know that, sir.
But Iâm inclined to think-- Think! Harvey, in the old days we knew! We had to! - Where's he gone- - Three guesses Is it the generators? Iâm doing my best to find out.
Thank you.
I just suddenly felt peculiar I can't imagine why.
Will we still be arriving in London on time? Of course, it's got nothing to do with that.
Iâm glad.
You see, I'm very anxious to get back-- [clattering.]
My apologies, madam.
That man is drunk.
Mr.
Ferris, you'll really have to stop worrying.
[siren blaring.]
What's that? [ominous mechanical groaning.]
There.
We have now stabilized on a mode.
ln less than ten minutes' time, we'll be approaching the London grip.
No more cause for alarm.
Would you all take your seats in the inner cabin now, please? [Miss Bone.]
Yes, Mrs.
Woodgate, not the nicest experience, I know.
Captain Dantor, I think it's only fair to tell you.
I mean to report you to your superiors when we arrive in London.
Who's that, then? - A mouse out of the woodwork? - Iâm serious! If you-- No mice in Tau.
No damn woodwork, either.
Why do you think I drink, eh, mouse ? - Captain Dantor.
- To dull the pain? - To drown my insecurities? - Get your hands off me! I drink because out there there's an undiscovered mystery, and Iâve learned just enough of it to be able to flinch at the horrors! Not like you, cringing and safe behind normalcy screens.
Do you want to know what it's really like outside? The world beyond reason? No, sir-- [screams.]
[Dantor laughing.]
Epsilon.
And it deteriorates to things worse.
Oh, God [struggling to breathe.]
There's danger here too, then.
Terrible danger.
[whimpering.]
The only reason I travelled by Tau was because when I went to America by rocket there was an undershoot we were forced down on the surface, in that blazing heat Ten hours before the rescue craft came! I couldn't take the chance again! But if there's the same risk here-- Look, it's all right now, Mr.
Ferris.
No sir-- [woman screaming.]
[explosion.]
Alex, what is it? What's happening? I don't know, Bridie.
Captain Dantor? Captain Dantor, sir! [high-pitched whirring.]
Well, try the auxiliary then, anything! - Harvey Harvey, look! - What is it? The screen, man.
Will you look? But it isn't possible! - How the devil-- - Shut up, Brett! Itâs happening.
The Omega mode.
Omega, called the ultimate because while its existence, has never been strictly demonstrated, workers of Tau, who claim to have encountered it, all say that-- - Why did you do that? - Because it's all nonsense! No matter what Rorsch held, there are no grounds for believing in this fanciful, horrific Omega mode.
Yet it's what you fear? Fear? Paul, Iâve given your case more thought and study over the last few months than you know.
- Now listen to me! - Oh, Eric.
I saw Julie in New York not more than a week ago.
She's sorry about everything that happened, and wants desperately to come back to you.
What? As a matter of fact, she asked me to look in on you at this time, particularly, to prepare you.
She's travelling back to England on one of your ships.
The Elektron.
Mr.
Porter, could you come at once, please? [Miss Bone.]
Paul, quickly, Paul! The Tau Elektron? She's arrived? [siren calling.]
Yes, that's her siren requesting out-phase.
But what do we do about this? [siren wails.]
Omega And you mean to tell me the Elektron is actually out there on the grid at this very moment, even though we can't see or touch her? - That's right, Mr.
Benedict.
- Astonishing.
Tau physics are certainly unlike the conventional kind.
Tau psychology must have a character of its own, too.
[man over PA.]
Tau Terminal London, calling Elektron.
Tau Terminal London, calling Elektron.
Do you read me, please? All right, Iâll try them through Delta-Echo, then.
There must be same way of locking with their frequency.
- Stability lock, Brett! - Yes, Miss Bone.
Lock off.
Scanning once more.
What was that? Something hopeful for a moment.
It looked as if the Omega might be slipping up the scale into something we could handle, a Zeta mode, say.
There's no way of withdrawing direct from an Omega mode then? Itâs not supposed to exist, remember? If we can't coax the Elektron out of it, we shall have to tell the Captain to remove his ship to a remote point on the globe - and wait.
- Wait for what? For his generators to stop functioning.
The vessel falls back into normal atomic condition.
So you get two large aggregates of matter occupying the same space, at the same time.
The resulting explosion shouldn't really remove more than half a continent.
Please! Professor Caradus, you are the greatest living authority on Tau.
But a ship in Omega? Isn't there any precedent? Look, we've even tried to introduce the mode and failed.
We decided it was pure legend.
You're keeping the whole thing under a security blanket? I haven't informed my superiors here yet.
What am I to do? To withdraw your ship from Omega to normality? - Yes.
- I don't know.
Rorsch himself never dismissed the idea of some kind of terrible nightmare deep in Tau.
Perhaps we have to think in terms of dream, rather than fact.
Give me a half-hour.
Don't speak to anyone else 'til you've heard from me.
Paul Paul, what's wrong? Itâs this Omega business, just as you thought.
You talked about fear! Itâs been with me for years.
Yes, Paul, I know.
Julie told me about it.
Iâd just finished my training when they sent me to France to one of their experimental stations.
The Camargue, at that time.
I was to bring in this three-man crew, with some student navigators aboard.
Yes? They were nearly home when suddenly, something went wrong.
The mode slipped, and I lost contact.
Whilst I struggled to get it back, I thought for one wild moment I saw Omega on the screen.
Then it was gone, a straight Delta.
I phase-matched, withdrew the ship to normality but when I did Well? Eric, they were all dead.
It seemed one man had gone out of his mind, killed the other two before doing away with himself.
It was all hushed up, of course.
But I keep wondering what drove him to do it.
Whether it wasn't something Something of the mind, rather than of matter.
[buzzer.]
- Yes? - [Miss Bone.]
We've made contact - with the Elektron.
- Right, there at once.
[Dantor.]
Are you out of your heads? Crazy, every last one of you? Or perhaps you take me for an idiot? Captain Dantor! Listen! Itâs your responsibility, not mine! You do something! What's wrong? The captain, we've told him he may have to move his ship and he isn't taking kindly to it.
Dantor, this is Porter, Senior Controller.
Everything possible is being done to help your ship.
Now I wish to make an urgent enquiry about a passenger-- - Who Who's that then? - Porter, Senior Controller! My wife's aboard your craft! Tell her-- Well, now, that's just the exact exulted personage, I should be talking to, isn't it? Do you know what it's like in this phase, Senior Controller? Omega, do you know? Please, Dantor! Iâve a Number One with half his head cut away, because of the gravity imbalance, or whatever you care to call the phenomenon.
Look out! Dantor, try and understand what I'm saying to you.
My wife is aboard your ship! Now please get a message to her from me.
Tell her-- [Dantor screams.]
Dantor Captain Dantor? - What's happened? - I don't know, sir, - we seem to have lost them-- - Then get then back! - Yes, sir.
- Quickly! Elektron, calling Elektron.
[groaning.]
Come on, my goodness, you are in a bad way.
- I didn't realise-- - My husband! We'll find your husband the minute we normalise.
- But you don't understand! - Yes, I do.
Paul! We're doing our best, all of us! - Take it easy! - Paul More hysterics? Iâll give her a shot the minute Iâm finished here.
No, that won't be necessary.
Let me help.
Paul What are we going to do, Bridie? - Have you thought about that? - Do? If this goes on for any length of time.
You know what it is really, don't you? What they call it? No, but I wondered if it was that.
Omega the mode that doesn't exist that drives men mad.
Dantor won't do much to help.
So what do we do, you and I? - [Mrs Porter.]
Paul! Paul! - You're simply to lie still.
- Alex.
- What's the matter? Mrs.
Porter and the generators, Brett.
The generators? Yes sir, checked out in New York as okay.
Though tech records do say on her last two trips, the Elektron actually came in on a Delta.
What? You mean we should have been notified and weren't? Then that's it! How often haven't I pleaded with the powers that be not to persevere with a generator once it shows a tendency to mode-slip! - Anything else, Brett? - Her cargo.
- Which is? - The usual concession of passengers, plus five hundred tons of psilomelane gas.
What's psilomelane gas? Low combustion industrial fuel.
Poisonous if inhaled in large quantities.
Priority call coming in on Channel 4.
Yes, Professor? [professor over intercom.]
Anything new your end? We contacted the Elektron for a while, then we lost touch, It was like a line into the underworld, we haven't broken the mode.
Iâve been thinking Mode-slip, isn't a very usual phenomenon, with vessels of the Elektron class, is it? - Itâs the generators.
- But it isn't usual? Of course it isn't! The whole history of Tau, has been a progression towards stability.
They say Rorsch's original craft, the old Lambda I, has a mode-slip on an average of every two minutes or so.
How the devil he ever completed his experiments-- I was hoping you'd mention something of that sort.
A less stable craft would stand a greater chance of slipping, into the Omega mode.
Agreed? Statistically, yes - Well, where is it, then? - Where is what? The Lambda I! Don't you have it somewhere there in London? Yes, it's in our Terminal Museum, but Professor you're not suggesting? Far be it from me to suggest anything, Porter! I don't even know if a transfer between two vessels is possible in Tau, but when an old surface ship was sinking, the practice was to send out lifeboats.
Well, he's crazy out of his mind! I couldn't do a thing like that, no man could.
Not even to save Julie? [Bridie.]
Hello, hello, Tau Terminal, London! Tau Terminal, London! Are you receiving me? This is the Elektron.
Hello, London Terminal! Can you hear me? Please Harvey! Leave him, try and get them on the Delta-Echo.
[Harvey coughs.]
Hello? Tau Terminal, London.
Tau Terminal, London.
This is the Elektron.
London Terminal? London Terminal? - Well? - Didn't you hear anything? Interference, nothing more.
[Bridie over radio.]
We must have your help! This is the Elektron, calling Tau Stabilise on beam.
Hello, Elektron? Hello, receiving you.
Over.
What is your message? We can't maintain the situation very much longer! This is Bridie Palmer, hostess aboard Elektron.
Many of our passengers are injured due to anti-gravity effect.
All are terrified! Calling Tau Terminal, London.
Can you hear me? Please answer.
We're getting them, they don't seem to be getting us.
[Bridie over radio.]
Tau Terminal, London.
Tau Terminal, London.
Captain Dantor is [Dantor screams, groans.]
no longer capable of being in command! One passenger, Alfred Ferris, attempted suicide, and in need of medical attention! Also a woman passenger is expecting a child! A Mrs.
Julie Porter.
We didn't know she was pregnant when the phase began.
Porter here.
- Did you say my wife-- - Itâs no good, sir! They can't hear us.
Please advise! This is Bridie Palmer, hostess aboard-- - Damn! Get after them! - Right.
Elektron, calling Elektron.
Benedict, why didn't-- Yes, Paul, I knew, But she, naturally, wanted to tell you about it herself.
[Brett over PA.]
Clearance, please.
Definitive grid clearance.
Standing by for phase entry.
Rescue craft Lambda I now in position.
Grid clearance, please.
Right you are, Miss Bone, countdown whenever you say.
Give me the ship, Brett.
Hello, hello, Paul? This is Mary.
Everything is all ready here, what about you? [Paul over radio.]
As ready as we'll ever be, Mary.
I never realised just how primitive Lambda I really is.
No tele-screens, only elementary couplers, and closed-circuit radio.
When we enter phase, you'll have lost contact with us.
[Miss Bone over radio.]
Paul, wouldn't it be better to wait until we can adapt Lambda I more adequately? Even if we could mock up some sort of normalcy screens? No, Mary.
Rorsch took his chance on Tau exposure, and so must I.
At least I'm not alone.
Good luck then, Paul good luck.
Grid clearance, final call.
Rescue ship, Lambda I, about to enter phase.
Stand by.
Phase entry in ten seconds from now Ten, nine, eight seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Zero.
Generators on.
ln phase.
[generators starting up.]
[whirring.]
[Eric.]
Paul Paul? You all right? [Paul.]
Yes, Eric yes, I think so.
We're in phase.
Is this how it should be? Black like this? I don't know.
Wait, Iâll try and adjust.
Gamma! So this is what they mean by it, the great grey-green.
The twilight desert.
Don't you always experience this? No.
ln today's ships all effects are blanked out.
Perhaps we shouldn't take anything at face value.
That, for instance.
Is it worthy of our attention, or simply a trick of the light? - Eric, he needs our help-- - No, Paul! - He does! I've got to-- - Stop that! Listen to me! One move outside that hatch, and you're lost! What? Why do you think I wanted to come along on this trip? Because I needed to know what Tau really was! And Iâm beginning to understand that the interaction of our atoms and atomic space is complex and deceiving.
[harmonic female voices singing.]
What's that? What's happening now? Julie! Julie! [muted screaming, silence.]
[harmonic singing continues.]
Julie! Julie! - No, Paul, don't go out there-- - But it's Julie-- Itâs an hallucination-- - But you see it too? - Yes! Then how can it be an hallucination? Two men cannot share the same vision! [rumbling.]
[Paul.]
What What's happening now? Epsilon, Epsilon, Eric! We've slipped two modes! But why? I just don't understand about Julie! It is not enough to say it's an hallucination, Eric.
[screams.]
Eric! What is it now? Out there, you wouldn't believe it.
Eric And in that day the wicked shall fly vengeance but it shall be visited on them in rivers of fire and sulphurous fumes! [all.]
Amen! And darkness shall cover the land, and no man shall see hill or vale.
[all.]
Amen.
And in that hour, the righteous man shall seek justice The justice of heaven! [all.]
Amen.
Get out of my way! [Dantor.]
And the servants of righteousness Itâs nothing.
I tried to stop Dantor, and he shoved me aside.
I hit my head.
They're still listening to him, then? More and more! I tell you he's gone mad, he'll drive the others mad too if we don't think of something.
But what? Bridie, we're not going to get out of this.
They should have withdrawn us long before this.
- Alex, don't talk-- - And the next thing is, they'll all lose control out there, they'll start slaughtering each other.
- Unless we-- - [Dantor.]
Justice! [others.]
Amen.
Amen.
For the last time, who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want? Still nothing to say? Where's Benedict, eh? Is he dead? Have you come to try and drive me mad Is that it? Well, you won't succeed, you know.
Not so simply.
Oh, no! I can stop you from driving me mad.
[Dantor.]
How long shall the wicked triumph? Has not their day come, their hour sounded? And are not we the servants of righteousness? Evil servants, to shrink when duty commands! Base slaves, to fall away in the hour of trial! [Dantor continues.]
Go forth Go forth in the name of justice.
[hissing.]
[Dantor, muffled.]
Rise up, rise up and be strong! Strike the wicked! Cut, burn slay the unrighteous! [coughs.]
Iâll give you one final chance, to answer my questions.
Do you hear? Who are you? Where's my friend? [man speaks in foreign language.]
Whoever you are, you won't interfere with this craft! [thunderous explosion.]
Eric but what l-- Yes I think I understand! Paul! Paul, what did you see me as just now? - See you? - We've slipped into Delta.
It seems one of the characteristics of the Epsilon mode, is a kind of identity distortion.
You appeared to me just then, as some kind of gross insect.
Insect? Something happens inside the head The interactions is between Tau matter, and the fabric of the brain itself.
What we see in Tau must often only be a half truth.
That portion of the stimuli which the brain can resolve in imagery based on personal experience.
Trust nothing in atomic space, Paul.
We're taking the chance on our own psyches here for better or for worse.
[siren blares.]
What's that? Itâs the Elektron! Her signals! Short blasts.
Eric, it's her distress signal ! We must be close enough to her in the mode pattern to receive her SOS! Strike them! Strike the wicked! Unsheathe the sword of justice.
âIt is timeâ, says the voice out of Heaven.
Iniquity be strong Strike! Take up the sword! [siren wails in background.]
[sobbing.]
The distress system works automatically.
When a generator falls below par, say, or the air or power supply fail.
A thousand reasons! Under normal conditions, it's a priority request for withdrawal from Tau.
Yet we still have to get our own craft into Omega - to be of any help - Exactly! Iâll try and jump the vector setting.
[coughing.]
Miss Palmer! Miss Palmer! What is it? The gas gas! Where's it coming from? Gas Psilomelane Come on! You must tell me! You must tell me! ln the cargo - But you mustn't - No.
Iâll do everything I can [coughs.]
No, it's no use! Why won't it slip? Tau is the interaction of spatial matter on the very fabric of the brain.
Iâll try once more.
If I can alter the generator balance, that might do it.
[screams.]
For God's sake! What are you doing? I don't understand.
The screen, man, the screen! What does it say? Omega.
And yes Eric There, look.
The Elektron! We've done it.
We've reached her.
There isn't a moment to lose.
We've got to board her.
We can't go out-- How else can we rescue Julie and the others? We'd be dashed to pieces if we tried to get through that! There are rocks, didn't you see them? No, you idiot.
Omega, that drives men crazy.
First you try to kill yourself, then you want to kill others! Leave me! [siren in background.]
[coughs.]
[struggles, grunts.]
Paul, Paul, listen to me, can't you? [grunting, yelping.]
- Help, help! Iâll drown! - Stop that! - I can't fight against-- - Stop it, I say! When will you understand it's happening inside your head? Just like the other things.
But the difference is if you believe in the Tau vision, then it's actual.
That sea out there can drown you or leave you unharmed.
Just as you choose.
That's why your man went mad in the Camargue, because his violence had brought him to just such a Tau-phase, and he believed in it too.
- Violence? - Yes Omega's not a mode you slip into, not by any means.
Itâs one you thrust yourself at! Come on, Paul! Julie needs you! Julie? Julie.
Julie.
- Oh, Paul! - Itâs all right.
Itâs all right.
[faint feedback.]
- Is she all right? - I think so.
It must have been she who turned off the gas.
She was the only one left conscious.
Pollution's at a tolerable level.
Air-clearance should do the rest.
I wonder if I can work this well enough to contact Mary Bone? They should be able to withdraw us to normalcy now.
Eric, tell me.
How did you do it? I backed a hunch and it paid off, that's all.
But the key is somewhere in the Tau interaction with the psyche.
It came to me that just before the Elektron slipped into Omega, there was an act of desperation.
A man tried to commit suicide, so I attempted the same thing.
And we slipped too.
Meantime, Julie had independently set out to save the ship, from a further act of desperation.
Remember she's carrying a child.
That makes her a creature of life.
As certainly as the others are creatures of death.
The will to live, the will to die is that the key to Tau-Omega? We'll have to work on it.
[man over radio.]
Hello, Elektron? Hello, Elektron? This is Tau Terminal, London.
Are you receiving us? Hello, Tau Terminal.
This is Elektron.
Stabilising on Delta, and requesting out-phase.
Whenever you're ready, please.
Out-phase [whirring.]