No! Dix! Dix! Dix! Stay away from me! Halt! Don 't touch me! Don 't touch me! (warped bubbling ) ( man ) There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission .
We will control the horizontal.
We will control the vertical.
We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all you see and hear.
You are about to participate in a great adventure.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to The Outer Limits.
( man ) A w*r between worlds has long been dreaded.
Throughout recent history, man , convinced that life on other planets would be as anxious and belligerent as on his own , has bravely predicted that some dreadful form of combat would inevitably take place between our world and that of someone else.
And man was right.
To the eternal credit of the peoples of this planet, Earth, history shall be able to proclaim loudly and justly that in this w*r between Unified Earth and the planet Ebon , Ebon struck first.
Ebon , its form of life unknown , its way of life unpredictable, to the fighting troops of Earth a black question mark at the end of a dark, foreboding journey.
(captain ) We have no way of knowing what to expect of the enemy.
We've never seen him before.
All the troops that have gone before us have either been destroyed or captured, or simply been unable to remain in communication with Earth.
But we are going to land on Ebon .
We're going to fight on Ebon .
Now, whatever the Ebonites are, however t hey ve or die , w n or lose , we are going to remember at all times that we are human beings.
-Now, if we - (rising whistling ) (crash ) - lf we are captured - (crash ) (screaming ) (electronic voice ) Face right Step forward and identify yourselves.
Your name alone will do for the moment.
Luke Stone, Colonel.
United States Astroforce.
( Ebonite ) Your name alone.
Esra Krug, Lieutenant, German Europa Stern Force.
Terrence Brookman , Captain .
Stella lntelligence Corps, Great Britain .
( Ebonite ) Your name alone.
Jong.
James P Willowmore, Lieutenant.
Free Africa Astro Service.
Arthur Dix, Private, United States Astroforce.
ln your own Earthly phrase, you are prisoners of w*r.
You will cooperate in all ways, resist in none.
)o not hope t o escape.
Your ship is destroyed, as are those that came before yours.
At my command, proceed at once to Compound Zero-Three.
- Face left.
- ( Luke ) Face left.
- ( Ebonite ) March.
- ( Luke ) Forward march.
No! - Stay away from me! Stay away from me! - Dix! Dix! Stay away from me! Halt! Don 't touch me! Don 't touch me! (warped bubbling ) ) x, do yo u have a ny pa n? l'll stay with him.
( mouthing ) (fluctuating whistling ) (electronic voice ) Welcome to Compound Zero-Three.
l am your interrogator.
We met upon your arrival and we shall soon meet again more intimately.
Have you appointed a spokesman for your unfortunate group? Luke Stone, Colonel, United States Astroforces.
We will need beds, water and food and proper sanitation facilities.
(interrogator) Your needs are known .
The troops that came before you , whose cooperation enabled us to control your arrival, have taught us the needs and desires of Earth creatures.
They too made demands and once they met ours, theirs were met.
They are a contented lot now.
Perhaps you will be permitted to join them.
Also immediate medical attention for Private Dix.
Each of you will be invited to participate in an exploratory interview.
l shall conduct it.
Private Dix will be the first to accept my invitation .
l demand that privilege.
Your demands shall be honoured when ours are satisfied.
- Private Dix - ( mouths) Guards, escort Private Dix to my quarters.
Dix, go with him.
He's not going to hurt you .
Listen , they're not gonna hurt you .
Don 't hurt him.
He's going to go with you .
Ah, my eyes! My eyes! l can 't see.
( yells and sobs) (Jimmy sobbing ) My eyes! l can 't Jimmy! Jim (throbbing buzzing ) (interrogator) Sit down , Private Dix.
Perhaps it is nothing more than thirst that prohibits the use of your voice.
Guard, bring him water.
Drink, Private Dix.
Now, Private Dix.
Tell us true things.
( mouths) That won 't do, Dix.
Your name, your rank, your serial number are useful only to those Earthly relatives who will apply for your insurance.
l want my son , not his insurance.
( mouths) (throbbing buzzing ) ( knocking ) - ( man ) l demand to see the prisoner.
- ( knocking ) - You promised l could see the new prisoners! - You may come in , Doctor.
l'm Dr Whorf, Compound Zero-One.
A friend.
Not feeling any pain , are you? ( mouths) The Ebonites can control the senses.
All five of them.
They can give you back your voice any time they choose.
You don 't remember me, but l tested you when you were inducted.
Camp Clifford, remember? You were very resentful of being examined by a headshrinker, l think you called me.
l remember you .
l can still recall the results of your psychological tests.
Shocking.
Shocking in someone so young and seemingly normal.
But there it was.
The most classic self-destruction complex l've ever come across.
You're bound to destroy yourself, you know.
Bound and determined.
For example.
You probably refused to cooperate with the Ebonites.
As you'd been trained to do.
And, of course, they'll t*rture you .
And l have no doubt that you'll die rather than talk.
But don 't you see? There's nothing heroic about that.
You want to die.
Unconsciously, of course.
Don 't let those unconscious drives win out, Dix.
Fight them.
Fight them and live.
And you will live.
lf you cooperate.
And it's so easy to cooperate, really.
That will be all, Doctor.
Watch that complex.
Are you ready to talk, Dix? ( mouths) Perhaps you could speak if there were someone here you really wanted to speak to.
Arthur? Arthur, you can talk to your mom, can 't you , baby? Mom? (both sigh and laugh ) (sobs) You can talk.
Tell me what they wanna know.
Then whisper it to me, baby.
Whisper all about it.
Private Dix.
You may go.
Hey! l can talk again .
- They made you talk again .
- What happened? l'm not sure, sir, but my mother said why didn 't l whisper? Probably a hallucinatory inducing drug.
Maybe, but l didn 't tell her anything.
- l didn 't say a word.
- (interrogator) Lieutenant Krug.
Proceed at once to my quarters.
No! Me! Willowmore.
Please! (interrogator) Lieutenant Krug.
- l wanna see! - Lieutenant Krug.
Esra Krug.
l can 't stand it, Colonel.
l feel like l'm suffocating.
When l was a very little child .
.
and l did something very bad, my nurse would thr*aten to tell them.
- The Nazis? - Yes.
- Tell them what? - That l was That l was not a pure Aryan .
My grandfather, my mother's father was.
(Jimmy sobbing ) (woman ) Esra! You have been crying.
Your displays of congenital weakness convince me more and more that you are not ( howling ) No! Tell them and get it over with, soldier.
Your buddies will understand.
- You turned in your grandfather, didn 't you? - (groans) He forgave you .
lf any of us talks, it won 't be me.
Have you heard tales of the methods of extracting information during the Korean w*r? But then the Chinese Communists couldn 't control the five senses.
l wonder about the Ebonites.
lt seems to me that a different form of life would have developed a different form of death.
Oh, shut up! Death here will truly be a mysterious adventure.
(interrogator) You may go, Colonel Stone.
Colonel? Colonel! You won 't forget to inform your men of the fate of poor Lieutenant Krug? Krug is dead.
They said he went mad.
They do not permit madness on Ebon .
They destroy the mad.
How was your interview? lt was routine.
When 's the next troopship arriving? What entrance pattern ? - l fell asleep.
- (Jimmy) Colonel? - l'm here, Jimmy.
- l'm thirsty.
Then you may as well drink it.
They make you drink it out there.
Over here.
Down .
Do we have to put our hands in it, Colonel? (electronic whistling ) (interrogator) Lieutenant Willowmore.
The guard will lead you .
Thank you .
l'll see you when l get back.
l mean , really see you .
- Jim, listen .
- Yes, Colonel? Don 't let them seduce you with a promise.
No, sir.
Promises just roll off my back.
Going to sleep while being interrogated by the enemy, an especially exotic enemy, is a bit much, isn 't it? l mean , even for a professional soldier? Brookman , l almost married the most beautiful woman in the world.
l didn 't because she said ''professional soldier'' in the same tone of voice.
l just couldn 't marry anyone that unfriendly.
As the hours go by, we're all apt to become increasingly unfriendly.
And suspicious.
( laughter) We'll muddle through with Major Jong's sense of humour to guide us.
Don 't misjudge laughter.
lt's not always a sign of humour.
At the moment, l was laughing because l felt sudden confidence.
- Confidence tickles.
- What do you base your confidence on ? (Jong ) On friendliness, suspicion .
Normal, Earth-bound, basic human emotions.
We're behaving like human beings.
As long as we do so, we'll survive.
ls that all you're thinking about? Survival? That .
.
and the smell of fog in the San Francisco night.
They said .
.
my blindness spoiled their fun .
They said would l like to have my eyes back? And l said (sobs) .
.
''Yes.
Yes.
'' (calmer) ''Yes.
'' And they said, would l be willing to look at Lieutenant Krug's body? His corpse.
And l wanted to see so bad, l said l'd look at anything.
And l said yes.
And l looked.
(sobs) Think of it this way, Willowmore.
Krug would have wanted some member of his race to look upon him in death.
He He had no heart.
He had a big hole in his chest.
They took his heart out! Terry, lad.
Terry Brookman .
They told me you were here.
l couldn 't believe it.
Won 't the hallucination break down if we touch? - Good heavens, don 't you believe l'm real? - Are you? l was captured on the ship before yours.
We lost many men .
A great many good, young men .
- So did we, sir.
- l tell you , Terry, l tasted tears.
Lilian was right.
She told me l was too old for this w*r.
-Nonsense.
You're doing beautifully.
- Terry, w*r is outmoded.
lt was decent when it was man fighting man but now it's just computers and technical magic.
lt's pointless to fight against brainwork, Terry.
You can 't win .
Did you try to, sir? l tell you , l taste guilt.
l can taste it.
lf l hadn 't been trained to save the lives of my men , trained like Pavlov's dogs, l would never have told those bastard Ebonites a thing.
Training always tells, General.
l'm an old friend of the family.
l owe it to them to see you don 't break their hearts.
My father's heart is already broken and my mother's is unbreakable.
Terry.
Please.
(interrogator) General! Oh.
Here's the interrogator.
He's not unlike we Earth types.
He demands a great deal of cooperation and raises the dickens if he doesn 't get it.
Leave him to me, General.
He'll be very helpful, sir.
His father and l went to the same school.
My name is Terrence Brookman , Captain , Stella lntelligence Corps.
My serial number is 048007.
My patience grows short, Captain .
And time grows shorter.
Another Earth troop is advancing upon us.
We read its signals but we do not read them usefully.
The scrambled code devised by your race is highly successful and entirely frustrating.
We must know when and by which astral path the ship will att*ck.
Tell us, Brookman .
- My name is Terrence Brookman - Brookman ! Guards! Prepare the chamber.
Ready? Ready.
Stone.
Next.
May he rest in peace.
Next.
No, l don 't think so.
Perhaps.
Recites poetry.
He's my choice.
l've seen these apple-pie boys hold up under almost unendurable stress.
There's too much ''Mom'' in those eyes.
He's my choice.
Yours? Mine.
l thought it was for me.
The interrogator ran out of patience.
He said, ''Prepare the chamber.
'' The way he said it, he might as well have said, ''Open hell.
'' He must have meant it for Jong.
(warped bubbling ) ( yells) Friend grasshopper Will you play the caretaker To my little grave? (electronic whistling ) (interrogator) Do not fear or suspect the nourishment.
lts properties are similar to those edibles you consume on Earth.
There is no longer any reason why we should deny you the basic necessities you requested.
Henceforth you will be treated with the honour and respect due a conquered enemy.
You shall even be unguarded.
- Jong must have talked.
- Maybe Krug.
They continued to interrogate us after Krug.
You don 't think Jong would talk? l don 't know.
- Why not any one of us? - They tortured Jong.
They must have.
lmmediately afterwards, we were entitled to ''honour and respect''.
- A nice, neat, quick solution .
- l would have thought Jong would die first.
- You would? For heaven 's sake, why? - l don 't know.
l just did.
- Jong didn 't want to die any more than you .
- l would have gladly rather than talk.
And rather than see? Yes! Yes! Ha! Jim! Jim! You waited dinner for me? ls it tasty? Well, it's better than nothing, Major.
We wouldn 't even have this if it weren 't for you , would we? - Traitor! (spits) - Dix! lnever got the chance to be.
l was not brought before the interrogator.
l was taken to a room with ropes and strung there.
l was outraged, of course.
l wanted the opportunity to not answer their questions.
Someone answered them.
- Krug, probably.
- Why Krug? Why not Krug? The dead make such lovely scapegoats.
( Terry) They strung you up and? One of them ran a rod up and down my arm gently.
ln the opinion of a layman , the bones were pulverised.
Reminds me of a rag doll my sister once had.
(electronic whistling ) l wish to congratulate you , gentlemen .
Your decision to cooperate was intelligent and brave.
Did you draw straws? That is how the men of Zero-Two selected their traitor.
There are no traitors here.
The troopship advancing on Ebon , ship number X1 6, carries two complete battalions, is commanded by Astromarshall Heinrich Heller.
German Europa Astrofight Command.
lt's automated in an entrance pattern known as Astral Path Zero-Zero-Four But why go on ? You know we are not pretending.
lt is due momentarily.
We are ready for it.
l say it could only have been Major Jong.
- What did l have to gain ? - Your left arm! Surprisingly enough, when the bones in my right arm began to pulverise, l slipped off into unconsciousness.
They could have had my left arm.
l regained consciousness only moments before they returned me here to my friends.
So l had nothing to gain .
Now Let us consider Private Dix.
They had demonstrated that they could return his power of speech if he talked.
An uneducated man rarely refuses the opportunity to speak.
And Lieutenant Willowmore.
He had his sight to gain , a very precious thing, especially to a man who's had to endure the blindness of other people's minds.
And Colonel Stone, who thought he slept, but might have been in a hypnotic trance.
A man who chooses men -in -arms over the arms of a beautiful woman is not a natural man .
Perhaps he loves his men so fervently because he cannot face his hatred of them.
That's Sunday supplement psychology, Colonel.
But what spiteful damaging things might such a man say under hypnosis? l have not noticed that you are an impulsive man , but no one has a greater need for swift, settling solutions.
- lf l had talked, why t*rture you? - To see if our information checked.
lf l had said Troopship X1 6, Astral Path Zero-Zero-Fourteen , - and that information checked with yours - They never questioned you ! They never brought you before the interrogator.
Do you think he talked? Yes.
We all had certain information .
l don 't understand why, but we did.
But the one thing not even l knew, was the precise entrance pattern our next troopship would be using.
And yet you just named it.
Astral Path Zero-Zero-Fourteen .
The interrogator named it a moment ago while he was in here.
- Did he? - l heard him, sir.
He said the X1 6 is automated into the entrance pattern known as Astral Path Zero-Zero-Four.
And then he broke off.
- l thought l heard fourteen .
- You thought! l'm also aware that there is no such Astral Path coded Zero-Zero-Four.
- lt would have to be fourteen .
- Why not forty? lf l said four and then broke off, l could have gone on to say four-zero.
- We'll draw.
- For what, sir? ( material ripping ) One of us has to k*ll Major Jong.
Colonel, what would it accomplish? l can understand k*lling him before he talked, when we thought he might be a traitor, but why now? There's no leniency for a traitor.
None at all.
He earned the death penalty all by himself.
There's no reason to handle Major Jong differently here than if he were on Earth.
l told you before we were captured, the only laws we would have are those we brought.
We need those laws.
Even the questionable, painful ones.
They remind us we were civilised enough to make them.
Perhaps to remind us we are not as civilised as we should be? Go on , pull.
The short one's the k*ller.
(sound of engines) (distant boom ) God help them.
Go on , pull.
With my bare hands? We have no other weapons.
Go on ! What are you waiting for? Thank you for waiting, Captain .
l've finished eating.
No! No! We must not let them do this to us.
We must be human beings.
We must hold on to that.
Human beings k*ll.
Or aren 't you convinced of my guilt? The guy that pulls the switch in the death house isn 't convinced of anything! - l am not an executioner! - You pulled short straw! Short straw is not a court order! Where are the 1 2 men who decided he should be ex*cuted? Are you suggesting we let a m*llitary court handle it? Why not? That's the civilised way.
What are we supposed to do until then , just stare at him? Dix, what did you whisper to your mother? - What did you say? - What did you whisper to your mother? l told you before, l didn 't say anything to her.
- Didn 't you? -No! No , didn't (stttutttter ng ) know didn't l mean , l couldn 't have.
They told me l could give it to you for telling them what you told me.
Oh, no, no, no, Mommy, please.
No, Mommy, please! No, tell me that l didn 't tell you anything.
Oh, please help me! ( Dix sobbing ) Tell me l didn 't say anything to you , please, Mommy! Please help me.
Please! - Help me.
- Dix.
Dix.
Make her admit it, Colonel.
Make her.
k*ll her, Colonel, please.
Talk to her.
Colonel, please! Get up.
Get up! You believe her, don 't you? Yes, you always have.
You never believed me.
Come back, Dix! ( Dix screams) ( hums softly) (electronic whistling ) Yes? Come forward.
Private Dix has suffered a complete mental breakdown .
Major Jong will not recover the use of his right arm for a year or more in your measure of time.
Lieutenant Krug is dead.
Natural causes! We couldn 't have foreseen that one of the members would suffer a There must be no more incidents, unforeseen or otherwise.
The charade must end.
Those men shall be told the truth.
They must be.
How dare you interfere? You spoiled the whole game.
Game? Game.
l'm sorry, Colonel, but l do not apologise.
l couldn 't allow a single one of you to be in on it, not even you .
But all this? All this agony? - Lieutenant Krug is dead! - From a heart att*ck.
And the Ebonites used their most advanced methods to try and save him.
This This is a nightmare! ls this part of it? An hallucination ? lt is all too real.
lt was scheduled to last only a few more days.
Then we would have explained it all to you and let you join the other troops of Unified Earth.
We have three squadrons here.
We'll have to ask you to cooperate if we're to continue.
- Continue? - We must, Colonel.
We must.
- Do you realise, before this w*r - We are not at w*r here.
The grief and loss we caused your planet was an accident.
We promised we would do anything to rectify this unforgivable mistake but we cannot sanction the continuation of such immoral and inhuman experimentation .
lnhuman ? What do you know of humans, sir? Have you ever seen the humans in prisoner-of-w*r camps on Earth? - l have.
- Then you'll know.
Tell him about the POWs in the Korean w*r.
Then l shall tell him.
lt's a matter of shameful record that in the Korean w*r, no prisoner successfully escaped.
There was no organised resistance.
One out of every group of ten prisoners was an informer.
A total of 38 per cent of our prisoners d*ed, many of what the psychiatrists call ''psychological surrender''.
Maybe your att*ck was a mistake, but what if the next att*ck's deliberate? We need to know what to expect from our fighting men .
We must know how they will behave under conditions like the artificial ones here.
And you haven 't learned enough yet? We're interested in how your men will resolve the problem of Major Jong.
- We were going to k*ll Major Jong.
- We will try to prevent that.
And if you can 't, an innocent man dies? At the proper time, we'll tell your men what we've been doing.
We'll free them to join the other troops or let them go back to Earth for a rest.
And a citation .
l won 't let them suffer another minute.
- Colonel! -No! No! No! He saw his mother.
He actually saw her.
- How do they do it? - dr*gs.
ln the water.
- Perhaps in the very air.
- Private Dix is dead by now.
They're gonna k*ll us all, one by one.
We're gonna sit here and let them do it.
lt might pass the time by planning an escape.
But then there's the other time-k*ller.
The vengeance game.
We talk about how many of the enemy we're going to k*ll, pick out our victims, and spend weeks waiting for the chance.
l'd like to k*ll an Ebonite.
With your bare hands? Yes.
An Ebonite isn 't a human being.
l really think l could.
Willowmore? l have but one arm to give for my planet, but l shall give it.
Now, we shall k*ll the next Ebonite that Gentlemen .
You mustn 't tell them! You mustn 't spoil it! ( Luke ) Stop it! Stop it! No! No! Let him go.
That's an order.
Major, if you don 't obey, l'll k*ll you .
No, don 't! - l thought he was - He wasn 't.
He was real.
( man ) The exploration of human behaviour under simulated conditions of stress is a commonplace component of the machinery called w*r.
So long as man anticipates and prepares for combat, be it with neighbouring nations or with our neighbours in space, these unreal games must be played.
And there are only real men to play them.
According to established m*llitary procedure, the results of the Ebon manoeuvres will be recorded in books and fed into computers for the edification and enlightenment of all the strategists of the future.
Perhaps they will learn something.
We now return control of your television set to you until next week at this same time when the control voice will take you to .