"You're traveling through another dimension- a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind, a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination." "Your next stop, the twilight zone." "Well, how did you do?" "It's repairable." "But i won't be able to touch any of those gimbal bearings until they cool off." "It's like a furnace in there now." "And that grand moment will come when?" "Maybe tomorrow night... the following morning." "That's a swig from the old bottle, isn't it?" "Oh, you sure picked a nice place to set down, fletcher- the floor of a canyon." "I took you to the first mass of land that loomed up." "And just for the record, mr." "Craig, i didn't pepper the nose of that vehicle with meteor holes." "I also didn't foul up those rocket boosters." "That's something you can chalk up to nature." "All right, all right." "It just strikes me as kind of a deadhead place to set down- on the floor of a canyon." ""Food concentrate, comma, able-1-6-3, comma- modified dinner plan."" "Whoever invented this stuff must have had stomach trouble." "A very bitter character with no compassion for his fellow men or their stomachs." "Oh, there may come a moment in time when i'll enjoy this." "There may come a moment when you'll lick a rock as if it were a thanksgiving turkey, but for the time being, buddy, you'll eat what is prescribed to eat!" "If you've got any set of complaints, you put them down in a ledger;" "don't spray them all over me!" "It's a waste of effort." "It's also dull, and it's tough to live with." "You read me, craig?" "Loud and clear." "Then dwell on it!" "And while you're dwelling on it you might count a few blessings." "We don't have much food or water, but we landed in a place where there's oxygen and we can survive." "We walked away from it without a single bone out of place." "The standing order is as follows:" "You got tears to shed, save them for night and weep them into your pillow." "Don't bother me with them!" "Now how do you read me?" "Still loud and clear, commander." "But there are times when a man gets sick to death of being led around by the nose." "That's a big thing with you, isn't it, craig?" "What is?" "Taking orders, being on the receiving end of a command." "It's hard for you to live with, isn't it?" "If i had my druthers i might stick in a few changes." "Hmm, like what?" "Say again?" "I mean, beyond us getting out of here." "Let's say this is the end of the line." "Now, how would you sweeten the pot?" "A sirloin steak, a blonde, what?" "How about mumblety-peg, fletcher?" "Or maybe 20 questions?" "Look, try me after dinner... i may feel up to charades." "Point of interest is all." "I'm just interested in what makes you tick." "Or maybe it's what makes you tick so loudly." "What do you hunger for most, craig?" "Try this one, fletch... i'd like a whole lot of people at my elbow:" "The more the merrier, the louder the better, and i'd like yankee stadium right alongside." "But i'd like them on my terms." "That's what i'm getting at." "What are your terms?" "I'd like to be the number one straw boss." "I'dlike to give the orders." "Uh-huh... i'll bet you would." "What's the matter?" "What's the matter with you?" "Did you hear that?" "Hear what?" "That sound." "What sound?" "Fletch, i heard something... i... i heard a sound... a sound like..." "like... a sound like what?" "Voices." "People." "The time is the space age." "The place is a barren landscape of a rock-walled canyon that lies millions of miles from the planet earth." "The cast of characters?" "You've met them- william fletcher, commander of the spaceship;" "his copilot, peter craig." "The other characters who inhabit this place you may never see, but they're there, as these two gentlemen will soon find out." "Because they're about to partake in a little exploration into that gray, shaded area in space and time that's known as the twilight zone." "Well, where has my wandering boy been most of the day?" "You take a lot of walks, buddy." "Something better to do?" "Yeah, there is." "Like, uh, checking over a radio, like looking over a hydraulic system, a propulsion system, an ejection system, a thrust chamber." "Yeah, there are a few things." "Where are you spending most of your time these days?" "Still hearing your voices?" "Maybe." "You know, i think it would be an exceptionally good idea if you'd get to work on those charts again." "It's hot, isn't it?" "Passable." "You some kind of a camel, craig?" "What do you mean?" "I haven't seen you take any water." "Well, uh... i'm a whiskey man myself, or hadn't you noticed?" "You're going to have to do better than that." "Why, what gives, craig?" "Say again?" "Your ears don't lap." "Your water hasn't been touched in 24 hours." "Now, you couldn't have discovered any mountain stream up there and kept it all for your lonesome?" "Why don't you talk sense... why don't you?" "!" "For the last two days you've been taking off on safari every morning when that double sun comes up." "Where do you go, craig, and what do you find wherever it is you do go?" "I'll tell you what... let's you and me make that trek together, huh?" "Thanks, but no thanks." "I'm tired." "Look, craig... where'd you find this?" "Uh, i... i... i told you- i've been looking around." "It's wet." "You found water, didn't you?" "Where?" "About a mile ahead... it's just a crummy little stream... but enough for you to drink out of!" "Aw, come on, fletch, i was going to show it to you." "As a matter of fact, i've been testing it." "I just found out it was pure a little bit ago." "You know, i underrated you, mister." "I knew you were a grousing malcontent, but i didn't know you were a cheat!" "It's just a variety of lichen... you don't mind if i look at it through the magnifier, do you?" "Or have you done that already?" "Trees." "Yes, that's what they are..." "trees." "I might as well go the whole route now." "They were alongside of a stream... it runs about 100 feet." "It's about 2½ inches wide." "If you think that's something... look at this." "Look at it!" "Then... the voices?" "You want to see more, fletch?" "Yeah... yeah, i sure do." "Come on." "It's fantastic." "To us, that stream is just a stream." "That clump of little green weeds is so much moss." "But they are trees, and that stream is a river, and if you look closely- i mean, really close- you'll see a couple of items that aren't par for the course." "It's incredible." "It's a whole race of people no bigger than ants." "Yeah, a whole race of people." "And while you were preoccupying yourself with gluing together an engine i was making contact." "In their language?" "I don't know it yet, and they don't know ours, but they know mathematics." "That's the language i've used- symbols, equations, number progressions." "And they're bright, they learn fast." "And cooperative, fletch!" "You wouldn't believe how cooperative they are!" "I've told them all my wants." "They've shown me where the edible plants are." "Last night, i ate up one of their forests." "What else did you tell them?" "Oh, basic stuff:" "Where we're from, how we got here, what's it's like on earth, how advanced we are." "But i've only scratched the surface, fletcher." "I've only just begun." "Begun what?" "What do you think?" "All my life i've wanted to sit in front of the wagon and hold the reins." "Well, what do you think i've got here now?" "A whole race of little people who look up to me like a giant out of the sky." "They're scared, fletch, petrified." "And so they do what they're told." "Because this giant... is like some avenging angel to them." "I've graduated, fletcher, from a slob with a slide rule to... to... to a god." "Craig, they're people." "They're flesh and blood." "They're no different than us!" "Sure they are." "Because they've been created inmyimage." "Stop it!" "You're no god, craig." "That's not what you are at all!" "The only trouble is that... by now you've probably gotten them to believe in the devil." "I'm sorry." "I'm truly sorry." "Please forgive us." "Forgive us, please." "Craig!" "Craig!" "Craig!" "Top of the morning, commander." "Hear what i said?" "Top of the morning, commander." "Even gods have to observe some of the amenities." "Good likeness, huh?" "The little people did that." "They did it overnight." "Ah, you should have seen them." "A very impressive sight, commander." "A thousand of them working from the ground up like the egyptian slaves on the pyramids, like the lilliputians with gulliver." "A very impressive sight, commander." "What do you give them in return, craig?" "My smiling beneficence." "I won't tramp my feet down on their town." "They picked themselves a corker of a deity." "It's too bad they don't know who they're breaking their backs for." "Meaning what?" "They're worshipping a heartless slob whose insides are the same as that statue's!" "Yeah, it's a good likeness, craig." "And an hour from now they can sell it for junk!" "Now, let's get back to the ship, we're taking off." "What do you mean?" "The ship's repaired." "We'll start the countdown in 15 minutes." "The orbital position here is perfect." "You fixed the ship?" "Yeah, i did, ineed." "And a hundred years from now, when your little friends realize how they got taken, and that i'm the guy that removed you from their lives, who knows maybe they'll build a statue to me." "Now it's a pity they can't capture that look, craig, that clinical look." "Sick, scared little man, full of delusions of grandeur." "Let's go, buddy, we haven't a... this one you'll have to navigate on your own." "Put the gun away, craig." "After i see you climb aboard that ship and take off." "Throw your gun over here." "Sick, sure, but just how sick i didn't realize." "You've only got about 12 minutes, commander." "You can waste them psychoanalyzing me or you can play it smart, get aboard that ship and head for home." "I'm staying behind." "Why, craig?" "Reason this one out, will you?" "Will you reason this one out?" "You'll play make-believe for another 48 hours, then you're going to crack wide open." "Yeah, you'll have a million little microbes honoring you with torchlight parades, but you're going to die of loneliness, buddy." "Come on... put the gun away and come with me, huh?" "Did you hear what i said?" "You're down to eight minutes, commander." "If you're still here eight minutes from now, i'm going to have to kill you." "This is a monotheistic society here- just room for one god." "Take off!" "Craig, i feel sorry for you, buddy." "I really do." "All right, my little friends, comes now the new age." "The age of... the age of peter craig." "Oh, my little friends, we've got a lot of plans to make." "A lot of projects to work out." "Much work." "A whole lot of work." "That's a reminder, little friends, there must be discipline here." "Discipline above all." "There'll be periodic moments where i must remind you that you must not anger me." "That's important now." "You must not anger me." "Let us begin to build the statue again." "Let us to commence to begin." "It's just a ship, that's all it is." "Now, if you keep quiet, they'll go away, understand?" "If you just keep quiet, it'll go away." "See, i told you it would go away." "Go away!" "You can't stay here!" "Go away!" "Don't you understand?" "!" "I'm the god!" "I'm the god, don't you understand?" "!" "I'm the god!" "What have you got?" "A man." "A tiny little man." "Why, you've crushed him to death." "I didn't mean to." "Say, do you suppose there are more of them down there?" "I don't know." "What's the difference?" "We're not here exploring." "We're here making repairs." "Come on, come on, let's get out of here." "The case of navigator peter craig- a victim of a delusion." "In this case, the dream dies a little harder than the man." "A small exercise in space psychology that you can try on for size in the twilight zone." "Rod serling, creator ofthe twilight zone, will tell you about next week's story after this message." "And now, mr." "Serling." "Next week, an exceptionally fine actor named theodore bikel portrays a misguided kook who fancies himself some kind of guardian of law and order." "He decides that it's his mission in life to eradicate evil the world over." "Now this one is told very far out, but considering the nature of the times, it happens to be very close in." "Next week, an exercise in insanity." "It's called "four o'clock."" "Set your watches and come on in." "This cigarette- chesterfield king- gives all the advantages of extra length and much more." "The great taste of 21 vintage tobaccos grown mild, aged mild and blended mild." "No wonder they satisfy so completely." "This is james arness." "You know, it's only a short hop fromthe twilight zone to dodge city ingunsmoke." "Saturday nights over most of these stations."