"[theme music plays]" "So now in the name of our omnipotent creator, we the chosen, commit to the vast, eternal and immutable eon the body of our late Captain Zachariah Peters." "May the Lord, God of our Fathers, whose wrath striketh down the deviate, have mercy upon His astral spirit." "Amen." "[crowd] Amen." "#Onward Christian soldiers #" "#Marching as to war #" "#With the cross of Jesus #" "#Going on before #" "#Christ, the royal master #" "#Leads against the foe #" "#Forward into battle #" "#See his banners go #" "#Onward Christian soldiers #" "#Marching as to war #" "#With the cross of Jesus #" "#Going on before #" "ln accordance to standing orders, since the death of my father," "I automatically took over control of this station." "That is all." "Return to duty." "[lift whirs]" "Zenna..." "I think your thought conditioning is weakening." "After all, Dr. Francis, he was my grandfather." "Yes." "But displays of emotion endanger the project." "It's not your fault, Zenna." "I had noticed the conditioning tapes are wearing thin." "Come and see me tomorrow at 10:00." "I will smooth it all out, eh?" "Yes, Dr. Francis." " Yes, Abel?" " I...." "I wanted to ask" "Go on." "Will I die, too?" "Yes, Abel, you will die, and Zenna, and the new captain, and your father." " And you?" " I shan't be here always, either." "I thought so." "Hmm, you've been thinking a great deal lately, haven't you, Abel?" " Oh, another thing." " Yes?" "Where did old Captain Peters go to just now?" "Where do you think?" "Through that door and into..." "I'm not sure after that." "But you must have some idea." "Through the door and into the hold or" "Or what?" "Outside?" "If there really is any such thing as outside." "I think you'd better come and see me, too, Abel, eleven o'clock tomorrow." "Yes, Doctor." "[door whirs]" "I'm programming chicken for next week, dear." "I know you like it." "Yes, dear, that will be nice." "[male voice whispering] This is the world, and the whole world." "There is no other world but this." "There is no other world but this." "There are no other creatures, but the chosen, and their children shall inherit the universe." "This is the world and the whole world." "There is no other world but this." " There is no" " Zenna, where are you going?" "It's still playroom, you know." "There are no other creatures but the chosen." "S, E..." "Damnation!" "[buttons clicking]" "The disc." "The burning disc, golden, amber, burning behind my thoughts, the disc." "What is the burning disc?" "Abel, you're having that horrible nightmare again." "Tell Dr. Francis, Abel." "It's not a nightmare, Zenna, it's real." "It's something I... something I..." "Oh, it's no good." "When I think too hard, the blocks come down." "All right, Zenna, ten o'clock, it's programmed." "The burning disc again, eh?" "What is it?" "Oh, it's a memory, a subconscious memory." "Memory?" "Hmm, the burning disc is something you can never have seen." "It's an inherited memory and so far conditioning hasn't been able to eliminate it, but we will." "Why?" "Because it disturbs you, that's all." "So the burning disc is a sub-conscious memory of something outside?" "Congratulations, Abel." "You've pieced that together remarkably quickly." "But as we're going to eliminate it, there's no point in discussing it, is there?" "Now something I did want to discuss with you was your essay." "Most remarkable choice of subject." "None of the others showed so much imagination." ""The Closed Community."" "Now what made you choose that?" "Well, you left the subject to us this time, Dr. Francis, and you did ask for something unusual." "But why did you pick on that subject?" "It's a study of life in the station." "I don't see that that's so strange." "Oh, no." "There's no reason why you shouldn't write about the station, everybody else did, too." "But you called yours "The Closed Community."" "The station isn't closed, Abel." "Or is it?" "It's closed in the sense that none of us can go outside." " That's all I meant." " Outside?" "You must have given that a great deal of thought." "I suppose I have." "But it's something that never troubles the others." "What made you think about it in the first place?" "After the dream about the burning disc," "I always feel I know something." "That there may be something on the outside of "the closed community"?" "But, Dr. Francis, why is the station revolving?" "Is it, Abel?" "How do you know?" "Because the interval between the plumb-bob and this wall is about an eighth of an inch greater at the bottom than at the top." "So centrifugal forces must be driving it outwards." "I've calculated that the station is revolving at about two feet per second." "That's just about right." "I think you'd better come up to my office, Abel." "It's high time we had a really serious talk." "[whirring] [electronic ringing]" "Not now." "Well, you've seen it all before, Abel." "It's just like anywhere else on the station." "I wouldn't like to live up here all alone." "Well, I've got plenty of work to keep me busy." "And anyway, I'm used to it." "Why don't you keep your chair secured?" "We have to." "Oh, just my slackness, Abel." "But you're quite right [chair buzzes]" "According to SSO's, it should be kept firmly bolted down." "Now, Abel, tell me." "All this thinking you've been doing, did it ever occur to you to ask why the station exists?" "It's designed to keep us alive, I suppose." "It's our home." "That's quite correct, up to a point." "But surely it must have some other purpose other than just our survival." "Now who do you think built it in the first place?" "Our grandfathers, I suppose, or their fathers." "That's near enough." "But where were they before they built it?" "I've tried to think along those lines but I can't." "Obviously, I wasn't there, ever." "They must have been somewhere." "Perhaps they were floating in mid-air?" "[both chuckle faintly]" "Think about it a bit more." "Perhaps they came from another station?" "An even bigger one than this." "Brilliant, Abel!" "A first class bit of deduction." "All right." "Let us assume that somewhere, another station exists, perhaps a hundred times bigger than this one, maybe a thousand times bigger." "It must be possible." "Now, you remember your course in advanced mechanics?" "The imaginary planetary system with the orbiting bodies held together by gravitational attraction." "Yes." "Well, let us assume that such a system exists." "Now try and imagine a planetary system revolving around a central body of absolutely enormous size, and with each of the planets a million times bigger than this station." "Can you?" "Only in a general way." "I can't imagine a million, just something vaguely much, much bigger." "And that will do to be going on." "Now try and imagine, this enormous station, attached to one of the planets, and the people in it decide to go to another planet." "So they build a station, a small one, and send it off through space." "Does that make sense?" "Yes." "Yes, it does." "The whole idea seems to be" "Familiar." "It fits in with your subconscious thoughts and with the things you've been trying to work out for yourself." " Yes?" " Yes." "And you are telling me that our station is doing that?" "And that the imaginary planetary system actually exists?" "You'd half guessed it even before I told you." "Subconsciously, you've known about it for several years." "Now then relax." "And gradually as the treatment progresses, you will begin to remember everything for yourself." "Everything?" "More than anybody else here." "Except, perhaps, for Captain Peters." "As much as you know yourself, Dr. Francis?" "[low electronic whirring]" "Abel." "When you wake up, you will know the truth." "That this station is in fact a spaceship." "We are travelling from our home, planet Earth to another planet millions of miles away." "Our grandfathers always lived on Earth and we are the first people ever to attempt such a journey." "We were chosen from all people." "You can be proud of that, Abel." "I am proud." "You, Abel, you were chosen before you were born." "Your grandfather was a great man." "He volunteered to come and so you are here, too." "Never forget." "The station must be kept running properly." "I will not forget." "And this planet we're going to, when do we get there?" "Never, Abel." "We will never get there." "The journey is too long." "This is a multi-generation space vehicle." "Only your children will land and they will be old when they do." "Now you mustn't let that disturb you, Abel." "It won't matter to you." "You will always accept the station as your only home." "You don't have to worry about anything outside." "That's why we have conditioning, so that you and your children will be happy." "You can open your eyes now, Abel." "This is the celestial sphere." "The star field through which the station is now travelling." "Alpha Centauri, the star around which revolves the planet upon which one day the station will land." "Abel, you can remember the terms I'm using, can't you?" "None of them seem strange?" "Yes." "Yes, I seem to understand." "Yes." "I've unblocked part of your subconscious." "I'm allowing you to remember things you're too young to understand, things that would only have troubled you." "The station, as seen from the camera mounted on the nose boom." "Abel, can you see this?" "Yes." "Yes, I can see it quite clearly." "It's glowing, burning." "It's the burning disc of your dream." "We call it the Sun and near it is the Earth, from which we set out nearly 50 years ago." "It's almost invisible now." "And the Sun is dim." "Even your inherited memory seems stronger and brighter." "It's like a miracle to build a station like this, a world all on its own and to make it work." "The social engineering that went into the building of this ship, was more intricate than the mechanical side." " Social engineering?" " Mm-hmm." "It means you and your father and your grandfather, three generations since this vehicle set out, and birth, and marriage, and birth again, have followed each other exactly as designed." "And will it be the same for me?" "And for your children, Abel." "A great deal will be asked of your patience and your understanding." "One day the project will be your responsibility." "Your responsibility." "Well, that will be enough for today." "You'd better go to your quarters and rest." "We'll have another session soon." " Dr. Francis..." " Hmm?" "You said that you won't always be here." "None of the older people will." "Then who is going to take over your work, the social engineering?" "Well, it was always thought that, by that time, routine booster sessions run by computer would be sufficient." "But they won't be, will they?" "The tapes wear thin and people don't always react as expected, do they?" "You're absolutely right." "It was a miscalculation from the beginning, but we'll just have to make the best of it." "Well, that's hardly fair, is it?" "I mean, if one day the project is going to be my responsibility." "Dr. Francis, why don't you train me?" "It's a very interesting idea, Abel." "Hmm." "[whirring]" "I'll certainly think about it." "Fools!" "Damn fools!" "[electronic whirring sound]" "[wind rustling]" "Sergeant!" "Sergeant Burke!" "Hello, Doctor." "Taking a look at the great wide world?" "Now look, Sergeant, you're supposed to be in charge of maintenance." "Some great ape has just walked in front of that projector and cast a shadow on the screen." "I saw it very clearly on my monitor." "Okay, Doctor, I'll get the railing put back." "It won't happen again." "That would have been a laugh, though, eh?" "Really given them something to worry about if they'd have seen it." "They've got enough to worry about as it is, Sergeant." "Some think they got it always warm and quiet up there, not like this God forsaken dump." "And they've got damn-all to do except sit back and lie under those hypnodrills." "Perhaps you wouldn't feel that way if you were inside." "Well, I'd risk it." "We're the boys who do the real work here." "If you need any more space cadets," " Doctor, remember me, eh?" " Yes." "And you remember to fix that rail, before Colonel Chalmers sees it." "Uh, Abel's is well behind now." "It's all here in my report." "Colonel Chalmers is waiting for you." "Oh, is he?" "There's a new Project Commander posted, a General Short." "General, eh?" "What does that mean?" "Oh, Bob, you're out, you're here." "I tried flashing you again, but there was no reply." "Come on in, get warm." "Good." "Well, how are things in space, eh?" "Well, the funeral went off without incident, except for one minor lapse." " Zenna Peters?" " Hmm." "Yes, we saw." "How's her father settling in?" "Well, as if he'd been in command for years, which he has, virtually, of course." "Last few years, this old man did nothing but potter around talking to himself." "I used to see him on the monitor." "Senile at 50." "He knew that when he volunteered." "Paul, I wish you could come in there and move around amongst them." "It's not like spying through your cameras, you know." "You can talk to them, measure yourself against them." "Yes, I know." "They're all fine people, like the ones who went before." "Criminal shame they're being wasted." "Oh, that's a superficial view." "And the data we're collecting will be invaluable when the first spaceships do set out." "If they ever do." "[light chuckling]" "Well, what about Zenna Peters and Abel Granger?" " What, in that order?" " Yes." "Well, Zenna is maturing very quickly and her subconscious is beginning to kick back, so I've put her on extra conditioning drill for a while." "She's an uncomplicated subject." "I don't anticipate any difficulties." " Unlike Abel Granger?" " Ah." "He's more complicated, I admit." "And he's vastly more intelligent." "Do you know, Paul, it's quite extraordinary how that boy has pieced things together he can never have heard of, as soon as I relaxed a few of his conditioning drills." "Hmm." "I..." "Hmm?" "No, go on." "Well, of course, we could bring his marriage to Zenna forward." "She's a very steadying influence." "A girl of 15 and a boy not much older?" "A few raised eyebrows but Zenna is as mature now as she will be in four years' time." "Anyway, marriage might stop Abel thinking so much." "You'd raise a riot, Bob." "Nobody need know." "Anyway, when I finish my experiments with Abel, he may need a personal anchor." "Well, that boy's almost too brilliant." "He'd almost worked out for himself, that the station was a spaceship." "All he needed was the vocabulary to describe it." "If Abel can do that, he could find out other things." "Supposing he began to wonder why you're not an old man like his grandfather was." "He'd soon want to know where you came from." "No, no, they've been conditioned never to question me." "And I think I can be trusted, Paul, not to lift any of the conditioning blocks." "No, no, no." "I think it's outside the dome that you need to worry." "Now did you just see the shadow that was cast across the firmament?" "If Peters had spotted that he'd have a heart attack." "I know." "I'm tightening up that section." "The odd mistake is bound to happen." "It's damn cold working around the dome." "But they're just as important to the project as the crew inside, remember." "Nonsense." "It's the crew that matter." "Anybody outside is unimportant." "I suppose it's the budget that's the real trouble." "We've only had one increase in the last 50 years." "Well, I hope this General Short, whoever he is, will try and get us a new deal." "Well, I shouldn't count on that if I were you." "They're more likely to cut down the budget than to increase it." "Economy is one thing and cheeseparing is another." "The negative conditioning doesn't hold out as well as it used to." "It's those cheap tapes wearing out." "You'll just have to tighten up the programming, that's all." "I've already started that by bringing Abel's graduation forward." "Yes, I know." "I saw you on the screen, wasted months of advanced programming." "The control boys nearly went crazy." "It was a snap decision, but it was the right one." "You ought to have checked with me first, Bob." "The dome isn't your private laboratory, you know." "I'm perfectly aware of that, but I happen to be in charge of the psychological side." "I could hardly have wasted an opportunity like Abel's." "All the same, there was no need to go out of your way to tell him that he would never reach planet-fall." "It will only make our job more difficult if we decide to shorten the journey." "Shorten the journey?" "Well, that's impossible." "That would be murder." "Try and be less emotionally involved in the project, Bob." "Good God, man, how can you possibly say that?" "Devoted my entire life to it." "I've even accepted the fact that I've got to stay in there with them until the end." "I'm as much of a prisoner as they are." "Everybody knows that." "It's the whole point of what I'm trying to say." "Your situation isn't normal and it's bound to be an increasing strain on you." "Are you trying to say that I may be going out of my mind?" "Don't exaggerate now." "All I want you to do is to keep saying to yourself," ""They are not going to Alpha Centauri." "They are not going."" "They are here on Earth and if the government decides to close down the project, they could be let out tomorrow." "No government could possibly" "Even the public is beginning to feel that there's something obscene about this human zoo." "What began as a grand adventure, has dwindled into a grisly joke." "It's succeeded." "That's our complete justification." "ln one sense, we've learned too much." "Oh, too much?" "Well, I mean the social stratification that evolved inside the dome." "That came as a bit of a shock." "Peter's on top, aloof, aristocratic." "The Grangers in the middle, devoted, efficient, running the whole show really." "And on the bottom, the Bakers, dimly happy in their drudgery." "It's that sort of unwelcome data that does the project no good." " Oh, look" " Bob, I've got to tell you this and it's top secret at the moment." "General Short has been put in command for one reason and one reason alone, to close the whole place down." "Close it down?" " That's impossible." "That can't be done." " It's going to be done." "It may take years, but they're going to do it." "Our job is to get those people out of there, not to keep them in." "You've turned your coat, haven't you, Chalmers?" "Have you gone over to their side?" "Yes, frankly, yes, I have." "I can see now the project should never have been started at all." "You can't manipulate people the way we've been doing." "It degrades human dignity." "I think the public outcry against the project is healthy." "Bob." "Look." "Out there they are loading in the rations for tomorrow." "And when Baker or his wife dial the pre-selected menu, it will be delivered apparently from the spacehold in the ship." "Damn it, man, there's only one word for the whole thing: fraud!" "Look, the people who volunteered in the first place knew this, and they accepted it and all it involved, generation after generation." "We are committed to it now." "And anyway how does your General Short intend to get them out, eh?" "Open the door and whistle?" "He's not a fool." "He knows as well as you do that half the crew would be mad in five minutes." "He's as much concerned for their welfare as you are." "Oh, don't talk." "It's all wasted now." "We've been sold out by some shoddy politician" "That's not true." "If the project were closed down today it would have more than proved itself." "Not yet!" "It won't prove that until they land." "We must keep this project going." "We owe it to the 13 people inside that dome." "Thirteen?" "There are only 12 going to Alpha Centauri, unless you're including yourself." "Abel, it's high time those fire drill rosters were finished." "Oh, they are finished, Father." "I put them in the distributor." " Father?" " What is it, Abel?" "I've got my schedule to keep." "Why has the station stopped moving?" "I've been trying some experiments and they all point that way." "Moving?" "Captain Peters is in charge of the station, Abel." "You leave things to him." "[whirring]" "If you're looking for Zenna, she's with Dr. Francis." "I know." "Matthew, I wanted to talk to you." "You help your father." "You must know the control routine pretty well by now." "Yes, I can check if the automatic course compensator is working properly and change the warning lamps if they burn out." "What about the flight path?" "Does your father do the plotting and checking and compensating for himself?" "He must do, I suppose." "I expect he does it when he's alone." "What about the automatic pilot?" "Do you keep checking on it?" "Well, there are warning lights and if they go out, we replace them." "And the currents built into the station." "The rotation was designed to eliminate the magnetic poles set up when the station was originally constructed." "How are you compensating for that?" "Well, I'm not sure exactly." "It's surprising we need a crew at all." "Anyway, my father knows all about it." "There's no doubt that the station is working properly." "The disc, the burning disc." "The eye, the eye of the Lord which encompasses the universe, and which looks deep into the secrets of men's hearts, that the chosen may carry out His will." "But suppose..." "Suppose the controls are blind?" "Suppose the captain is not in control himself?" "Abel?" "Oh, Zenna!" "You've spoilt it!" "I was just beginning to understand." "I'm sorry, Abel, but I found myself outside the door." "If Dr. Francis gets his own way, you'll see enough of me for the rest of your life." "Now I've got some calculations to do." "Abel!" "Nobody is under the impression that our task will be an easy one." "What we propose is a phased withdrawal." "A gradual readjustment of the world around the crew, that will bring them down to Earth, as gently as a parachute." "Some of you may have other suggestions." "But however we do it, project Alpha Centauri will be discontinued." "It can't be done." "General Short, I don't know if the authorities realise-- [all talking over each other]" "Gentlemen, I know how you feel." "Believe me, nobody regrets this more than I do." "But the decision having been taken by the Space Department, it is our duty to implement it." "The precise methods we shall adopt, and within limits, the amount of time we shall require have been left to us to decide." "That does put a different complexion on it." "Bearing in mind that the return crew will have to be given every freedom, and that every TV and newspaper network in the world will interview each of them a hundred times." "How long in your opinion, Dr. Kersh?" "That's crazy." "They'll be bound to find out the truth." "Dr. Kersh, from the viewpoint of dietary and biometric control, how long would you need to bring them back," "Oh, General, obviously it's going to be a matter of years." "The conditioning drills will have to be rescored." "As a stopgap measure, we may have to simulate a meteor collision or some such diversion." "At a rough guess I should say, two to five years, possibly longer." "That sounds reasonable enough to me." "Should we say seven years?" "Dr. Francis, what's your estimate to get them back?" "I don't think you can know what you're saying, General." "Bring them back?" "How can you bring back the dead?" "How can you restore the lost 100 years?" "Yes, well, I expected that Dr. Francis would keep our feet on the ground, but 100 years, hmm?" "That's 50 longer than the project's been going." "You've been getting tangled up in some of those wires of yours, Doctor." "You're quite wrong, General." "The task of the original project was to get them to Alpha Centauri, nothing was said about bringing them back." "Now I'm not concerned about the Space Department's problems or the government." "I'm thinking about the crew." "If it takes 50 years to get them there, it should take the same time to bring them back." "I get your point, Doctor." "So whichever way we look at it, it's obviously going to take a long time." "As a matter of interest, gentlemen, the Space Department's own estimate is 15 years." "Hmm, 15 years?" "Well, a lot can happen in 15 years." "Public opinion can change." "The project might be needed again." "I wouldn't count on that." "But if you can show that we really need 50 years to bring them back," "I promise you we'll take them." "It's the people in that dome we're thinking about, not ourselves." "I'm beginning to wonder, General, whether the department has ever considered them, as human beings I mean." "I live with them, and I think" "I know them better than anybody else, but what I don't know, is how each individual is going to react to this reversal." "That is precisely why the Space Department recommends that the project be allowed to continue as before, for the time being." "With such economies as we can make" "Economies, of course." "Stopping the dome revolving was one and nobody inside noticed." "And condition the crew to accept the project for what it is and, so, gradually prepare them for release into the world." "That's not a bad idea and not bad at all." "They could be made to believe that they've made a vital contribution to space research." "When they step out of the spaceship, they will be greeted as heroes and, so, accept the strangeness of the world around them." "Hmm." "It sounds very plausible, and it ought to be the solution, but it will not work." "Well, go on, please." "I want your honest opinion." "That's what we're here for." "Look, General, the people inside that dome have been taught to believe, since they were children, that they are living in a world of their own." ""The Closed Community", Abel calls it." "And that they would never meet anybody else during the whole of their lives." " Horrifying conception." " No, not to them." "To them the, the whole neuronic basis of reality is isolation." "Yes." "So whatever you attempt to do, you will never be able to teach them to invert their entire universe." "Yes." "Yes, I'm inclined to agree." "Believe me, General, the people inside that dome do not want to come out." "If they had the choice, they would prefer to stay where they are." "Yes, that makes sense even to me, Dr. Francis." "But where does it get us?" "We've 15 years, 25, perhaps, at the outside." "There's only one humane way in which it can be done." "Let the project continue, exactly as before, but with one difference." "Stop them marrying and having children." "Within 25 years, only the younger generation will be still alive." "Who would that leave?" "Abel, Zenna," "Matthew, Ruth and the two Baker children." " Six." " What happens then?" "Within another five years they'll all be dead, too." "The lifespan in the dome is hardly more than 45 years." "Abel will be an old man by the time he's 30." "When they start dying off, nobody on the outside will care anymore about bringing them back." "Colonel Chalmers, what do you say to that?" "I think it's the best solution, General." "Humane and in accordance with the department's instructions." "Dr. Kersh?" "The absence of children will be only a slight deviation from the conditioned pathway." "The basic isolation of the group will be strengthened rather than diminished." "Then there'll be very little difference between them and any other out-group on the road to extinction." "And another point, General, which might appeal to higher authority, it would be cheaper." "As the crew died off, we could progressively close down the ship until there was just a deck left and then, perhaps, only a few cabins." "Francis, how does that strike you?" "A very accurate assessment." "I could hardly have put it better myself." "Humane..." "I suppose so, in a way." "So long as they don't find out." "So long as no one in there knows." "It sounds a horrible prospect." "Clinical, inhuman." "But as you say, Francis, it may be the only way." "Abel, why did you change my meal time?" "It's always been twelve o'clock all my life." "Well, it's 12:30 from now on, unless I change it again." "But why?" "Oh, to see if I could, that's all." "To see if the computer would accept it, if Mr. Baker would dial your food and you'd be programmed." "Well, it worked." "I made a decision and nobody did anything to stop me." "Well, that seems rather irresponsible." "I'm glad we're in charge of the station." "So you made a decision, Abel, all on your own?" "Nobody tried to stop me." "Well, of course not." "That's part of the experiment." "Dr. Francis, if I can change Matthew's meal time, then I suppose I could programme other things." "Where your conditioning allows it, yes." "Could I, for instance, change Zenna's conditioning sessions, even programme her out of them all together?" "No, no, Abel." "There are certain things that none of us can do." "We lack the training and the aptitude." "We'd probably make a mess of it." "Our job is to see that the programme continues and nothing interrupts the flight to Alpha Centauri." "I hope I didn't say anything wrong, Dr. Francis." "Of course not." "That's what I expected." "Your mind is beginning to ask questions it's never been able to before." "And questions it asks, the answer it gives, very exciting data." "Then you wouldn't mind helping me with some calculations I've been trying to make." "No." "Go ahead." "And this is what's puzzling me." "Assuming that each member of the crew consumes about three pounds of non-circulated food each day, roughly half a ton a year each, then the total cargo must be about 800 tons." "That's quite a weight." "No, not in absolute terms, Abel." "You see, the station is only a small fraction of the ship." "The main reactors, the fuel tanks, the space-holds together weigh 30,000 tons." "You know, they are providing the gravitational pull that's holding you to the floor." "Oh, hardly, Doctor." "Well, surely the attraction must come from the stellar gravitational fields, or the weight of the ship would have to be about ten to the power of 20, times six tons." "And that you once told me is near enough to the weight of the Earth." "These are very complex problems, Abel." "I don't think you should worry yourself with stellar mechanics." "Captain Peters has that responsibility." "Oh, I'm not trying to usurp his position." "I just want to extend my own knowledge." "And I want to help you, Abel." "Now is there some other angle that interests you more than another?" "Well, yes, there is." "But I'm afraid it would mean departing from the rules a little." "Well, you let me decide that." "I thought it would be interesting to test the results of continued isolation." "We might select a small group, subject them to artificial stimuli, even seal them off from the rest of the crew and condition them to believe they were back on Earth." "I don't know where the devil you get these ideas, Abel." "Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment, though?" "There might be complications." "Too difficult for me, you mean?" "No, no, no, no, not too difficult, but it wouldn't be fair on the chosen subjects, would it?" "I mean, if something went wrong and we couldn't eradicate their Earth memories, we might provide an emotional imbalance that would be with them for the rest of their lives." "Oh, like the burning disc with me." "Uh, precisely." "I'd risk it, though, wouldn't you?" "Oh, I don't know." "Yes, yes, I would." "We've got nothing to lose, and we don't owe anything to anybody outside anymore." "Oh, did we ever?" "Hmm, we did once, Abel." "Then I can try the experiment?" "Yes, you can, as soon as you like." "It might help to cure your main trouble, the burning disc." "Oh, I don't care about that anymore, Dr. Francis." "I want to try the experiment on you." "On me?" "Well, as you said, it wouldn't be fair to the others." "[Francis] No... [rustling]" "What's wrong, Chalmers?" "I wouldn't like to call it trouble yet, sir, but I'm not too happy about what it may lead to." "Francis?" "I'd like you to look in on this, sir." "[over television] Hey, hey steady." "I am flesh and blood, you know." "We really need longer sessions if we're going to get results." "They're quite long enough for me, thank you very much." "And it isn't easy trying to create random sequences." "It's only later that the valuable results will begin to appear." "The whole experiment seems pointless now." "Well, it's probably pointless anyway." "My sense of reality was beginning to fog over." "Maybe I'm not as fit as I used to be." "Yes." "We're in the eternal cleft stick, are we not?" "From the expert and the executive." "I could order him to stop, but I doubt if he'd obey me." "He wouldn't, sir." "ln which case I shall have to refer the matter to Space Command." "They might not uphold me." "After all, he's the greatest expert in his field." "And the retired list is heavy with senior officers who've tangled with experts and got a bloody nose." "So, what are we going to do, sir?" "When in doubt, nothing." "At least that's what I'm going to do." "You, Colonel Chalmers, are going to use all your tact, all your ties of friendship and whatever bluff you think he won't call." "Just keep me in the picture." "Okay." "[chair scrapes along floor] [door opens then closes]" "Bob, are you free to talk?" "Hmm, what about?" "Thought we'd used up our small talk years ago." "I was wondering how your experiment was going, with Abel, I mean?" "Is something wrong with your spy camera?" "Or has General Short been biting your ear again?" "Naturally, we're interested in what you're doing but I can't quite see how it helps in closing down the project." "Oh, it doesn't." "Let's say that I'm doing it in the glorious cause of psychological research or perhaps my own amusement." "Hmm?" "Bob, I hope you know what you're doing." "What did you say?" "I was just wondering if you're quite certain where all this was leading." "That's all." "You asked me if I knew what I was doing." "Colonel, the answer, the simple answer to somebody like you is no!" "But I shall find out in the end." "You have every right to conduct tests and experiments but to encourage Abel or anyone to use you as a human guinea pig, well, it passes the bounds of common sense." "Common sense." "If the pioneers had common sense 50 years ago, there wouldn't be a spaceship going to Alpha Centauri now." "[electronic ringing]" "I have no wish to criticize Francis." "I fully appreciate that when things become routine there may be a great temptation to, how shall I put it..." "To brighten up the proceedings with a somewhat unorthodox experiment." "ln fairness to Francis, there's no doubt that without his dedication the project would have failed." "But now it's become an obsession." "Obsession, I grant you, Chalmers." "And that's what got the idea launched in the first place." "Might he not give us a new angle on a quick rundown of the project without harm to the crew, hmm?" "That'd be a feather in our caps with the SD." "I doubt it, sir." "I think his experiment with Abel is just a way of putting off the evil day, and getting his revenge on us at the same time." "Revenge?" "I'd credit Francis with higher motives than that." "Abel Granger is a freak." "And in this kind of work any departure from the norm is disturbing." "His calculations and deductions are sometimes quite startling, especially when you remember that more than half of his thought processes are still blocked." "I'm not so sure about that." "Today he tried to duck his conditioning session." "He's wearing foam pads under his earphones, missing 90 percent of subsonics." "We only spotted it because one of the engineers saw he had his eyes half open." "He missed a maths instruction sequence, the four figure antilog system." "Just as well, perhaps." "One day he might work out that the dome is travelling in an elliptical orbit 93 million miles from the sun." "One day he might work out the truth." "Has Francis been told of Abel's attempt to evade conditioning?" "Not yet, sir." "When I tried, his monitor was still unplugged." "Well, try him again." "Let me do the talking this time." "[electronic ringing]" "Don't try the subsonic on me, gentlemen." "It will show on the dial and I'll switch off." "Now what can I do for you?" "I just wanted to tell you that Colonel Chalmers has put me in the picture, and I see no reason to disagree with what you're doing, Doctor." "Well, it seems very handsome of you, General." "And now, I suppose you'd like me to come out and have a little chat?" "Well, not until you come up with something definite." "After all, a shortcut back to Earth is worth waiting for." "Well, I can't promise you any shortcuts or indeed any positive result at all." "We accept that, Doctor." "You're the expert." "But with Abel, all my instincts and my training tell me that I might be on the verge of a psychological breakthrough." "It's a risk worth taking." "Carry on." "Oh, Sanger has something he wants to tell you." "Hmm?" "Bob, your subject has been wearing earplugs." "The subsonic voices can't have been getting through to him properly." "Thank you, Mike." "I haven't stopped him yet, because I wanted to feel he's getting the better of me in something." "That seems a rather dangerous way of giving him confidence, Francis." "Suppose he goes on to programme himself out of conditioning altogether." "Thank you, Dr. Kersh." "I'm alert to that one, too." "Even if he did, he couldn't do without his voices for very long." "They're made up from his own mother's vocal tones." "He's been fed on them all his life since before he was born." "No, no, no." "He'd lose orientation and feel completely deserted." "Yes, well, I think that's about it, unless you have anything else." "No, General," "I'm just carrying on as before." "He's overconfident, like a man who thinks he drives better when he's drunk." "He is drunk in his own way." "Drunk with self-confidence and self-pity." "What happens when the doubts creep in?" "We've got to get him out somehow." "There's only one way to do that." "Go in there and get him." "Doctor Francis?" "Hmm?" "I'd like you to tell me something." "Only if I can." "It's to do with the burning disc." "Dr. Francis, what is God?" "You certainly do come up with them, don't you?" "Well, if I knew that" "I'd probably be God myself." "You mean that God could be a man?" "Well, in a way he is." "But in another way he's like" "Like the burning disc?" "Well, theosophy and theology are not my strong points but I suppose there's an element of that in him, too." "Then where is God?" "Well, the orthodox answer to that one is that he's everywhere." "ln me?" "Then the things I do are really done by God." "Yes, a priest might say so, that we're, all of us, instruments of God's will." "The instrument of God's will." "[disorientating voices play]" "Why doesn't he come out?" "It's unhealthy." "He hasn't been outside the dome once in six months." "He's losing all contact with the real world, becoming one of them." "Well, perhaps that's what Francis wants." "He's still running as efficiently as ever." "Francis keeps up to date with all his routine and programming." "There have been some changes though." "Captain Peters is spending less and less time in flight control." "And his son spends more, which is reasonable, in view of the fact that Matthew will one day take over command." "Yes, but Abel spends more time there, too." "And it's strictly against standing orders." "And he's taken over most of his father's administrative duties." "By now, he might know enough to pilot a real ship to Alpha Centauri." "[recording of Abel's voice] This is the voice, of the chosen of the Lord." "The burning disc is the eye of God." "The spaceship is your only world." "This life is your only life." "You will never see Earth again." "You are flying to Alpha Centauri." "That's enough for today, Dr. Francis." "Oh," "I hate those things." "How long were we at it, Abel?" "I feel quite worn out." "Well, naturally." "It was your first eight-hour session." "Eight hours?" "Look here, Abel, I only agreed to four hours." "I mean, it's very tiring." "I'm not used to it." "I had to step it up." "I wasn't getting a satisfactory playback." "Your subconscious is still resisting." "I told you that." "Now are you convinced that I'm not a satisfactory subject?" "On that showing, perhaps." "But I've punched out another tape, taking a different approach." "What?" "I'll try that tomorrow." "All right, Abel, but try to make the session shorter." "It's not just my experiment, Doctor." "It's yours, too." "Yes, I know, but you see, your experiments are going to exhaust me then I may have to call a halt." "I don't want to do that yet, Dr. Francis." "I'll look at those graphs later." "It's nearly my mealtime." "Perhaps something to eat will make me feel better." "What's Abel doing?" "I've hardly seen him for weeks." "I don't know." "He doesn't tell me things now." "It's some experiment of Dr. Francis', about the burning disc." "[electronic buzzing]" "Mr. Baker, there's something wrong." "My..." "My service isn't supplying." "There's nothing wrong, Doctor." "Your mealtime was changed this afternoon." "I've got nothing ready for you." "But..." "But nobody told me that." "I'm..." "I'm hungry." "I'm sorry, Doctor, but you're 15 minutes late." "I can't make a special dip into the hold, just because you didn't look at routine orders, now, can I?" "Look here, Abel, why did you change my mealtime?" "I think you'd better change it back." "I can't do that, it's programmed." "At least you might have warned me." "I've been in that damn conditioning box of yours all day after all." "But, Dr. Francis, you passed three SRO bulletins on your way here." "Yes, I know." "Always look at them at every opportunity, remember." "Last minute changes are liable at any time." "But I've never" "You'll have to wait until 10:30 now." "Recovery crew standing by now, sir." "Well, thank you, Captain Sanger." "Poor devil." "Perhaps he'll see it our way now." "That depends on how far he thinks his professional pride is involved and..." "And what?" "How successful Abel Granger's conditioning has been." "Find out, shall we?" "Bob, are you all right?" "Of course, I'm all right." "Why don't you come and have a meal with us to spend the night and the medical unit can give you a quick check-up at the same time?" "That's what you're up to, is it, Chalmers?" "Get me out of here and you can do what you like with the project." "Nothing like that, I give you my word." "Your word?" "Your word isn't currency." "Too many promises have been broken." "Can't you see that the Space Department won 't reverse their decision?" "They'll tighten up if they think you're being obstructive." "I've nothing to lose." "I'm staying here." "Don't force the authorities to take drastic action, Bob." "You mean, like coming in and dragging me out?" "Nothing could be easier." "We could cut through that rusty old hull with a tin opener." "Ah." "No idle threat, I see." "All right, gentlemen," "I'm going down to C-deck." "Now if you do come in, they'll all know." "Francis, for God's sake, man, we're your friends." "We're trying to help you." "Well, let me stay in here and finish my work." "You know that's impossible." "All right!" "Then the project continues as before but with one difference." "Contact has been lost with Space Command." "Good God, man, you can't go down there and live with them." "You'll never come out." "I don't want to any more than they do." "But you're setting off on a mad dream, on a one way voyage to nowhere." "No, not nowhere, Colonel." "I'm going to Alpha Centauri." "[equipment clattering]" "Stand the crew down, Colonel Chalmers." "Stand them down, Captain." "So that's it?" "It was a bluff and he knew it." "That's the end of the project Alpha Centauri." "Crashed in outer space, no survivors." "Not as bad as that, sir." "Visual data is still coming through." "There've been only minor changes in the programming." "The main difference is that we can't see Francis and he can't see us." "But the project continues as before." "I wonder." "Though the computers are clicking away," "Captain Peters sits checking dummy dials and gazing at empty cabinets." "But who's really in control?" "[scraping]" "[whirring]" "Abel," "I've decided to move down to C-deck." "That will be more convenient." "I shall need your office anyway." "I'm going to step up everybody's conditioning." "Oh, Abel, you mustn't." "Yours too, Doctor." "Come and see me as soon as you can." "Oh, Abel." "Abel, you know?" "Yes, Dr. Francis, I know." "You know that we're not going to Alpha Centauri, that we're not going anywhere?" "Abel, you don't have to stay." "You just climb into my sleeping cylinder and you can be free." "Free?" "What does that mean?" "Neither of us is free." "This is our world and these are our people." "The burning disc is the eye of God and Abel is his servant, the chosen of the Lord." "Is that it, Abel?" "Is that what you want?" "Power... [whirring]" "To command a mocked-up spaceship on a flight to nowhere?" "To control the lives and the thoughts of 12 human beings?" "Twelve, Dr. Francis?" "No." "No." "Thirteen, Abel." "Thirteen to Centaurus." "No, you mustn't, Abel." "It's pointless now." "Abel." "You mustn't." "Eight hours conditioning every day, stepping up to 12 or more." "It should be a very interesting experiment." "What experiment, Abel?" "What is the object?" "To wipe out all your memories of Earth your knowledge of outside." "That there is anything outside," "To make you believe that you're flying to Alpha Centauri, but that you will never live to get there." "And as you know, Dr. Francis you won't." "[sobbing] Abel, you mustn't." "It's degrading, don't you know that yet?" "I'm a human being, Abel." "You mustn't." "[recording of Abel's voice] This is the voice of the chosen of the Lord." "This station is a spaceship." "It is flying from our home planet Earth." "We are the first people to undertake such a journey." "Dr. Francis..." "This life is your only life." "This ship is your only world." "You will never see another." "You are flying to Alpha Centauri." "You can be proud of that, Dr. Francis." "I am proud, Abel." "I am proud."