X Minus One - Nightfall

Countdown for blast off. X minus 5, 4, 3, 2, X minus 1, fire.

From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.

These are stories of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a million could be years on a thousand maybe worlds.

The national broadcasting company in cooperation with street and smith publishers of astounding science fiction presents.

X minus, minus, minus, minus, minus, 1, 1, 1, 1.

Tonight's story. Nightfall by Isaac Asimov.

Ralph Waldo Emerson speculated if the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would man believe and adore and perceive for many generations the remembrance of the city of God?

This was philosophically interesting, but on the edge of the galaxy a planet swings on its orbit in a cluster of six suns. These suns hang in the sky above, never less than two shine down through the entire 23.8 hours of the planet's day.

The yellow light has burned down on the planet continuously, into the past till the mind of man runneth not to the contrary.

Theraman was a reporter for the Saro City Chronicle. He covered them all from the night police beat to politics to the sports pages, and the city editor wanted him to cover the biggest story of the year, perhaps of all time.

It was an interview, a particularly difficult interview, but then since his first days as a cub, Theraman had specialized in difficult interviews.

It cost him bruises, black eyes, and broken bones, but it had gotten him an ample supply of coolness and self-confidence. He didn't expect violence, though, from an astronomer.

You're from that newspaper? You've got a lot of gall coming here.

Now look, Dr. Aiton, it's only a job.

I've read your paper, you've been writing this observatory for two months now. You've attacked me personally. I have nothing to say to you.

This is your chance to get your side into the paper. Look, Dr. Aiton, I'll give it to you straight.

Two months ago, the observatory issued a press statement that the world was coming to an end.

Now that's the same story the cult of the book of revelations had been preaching. Now when a scientist backs that up, it's new.

Our conclusions have nothing to do with the cult. The cult is full of superstition and mysticism. We're scientists.

You've got the people pretty angry. It doesn't matter.

If I can't get the story from you, I'll have to go somewhere else.

Go ahead. The paper can be pretty rough on someone who doesn't cooperate, Dr. Aiton.

Young man, if you're not out of the observatory within five minutes, I shall call the police. Now get out!

The reporter walks down the long hall from the observatory. The light filters through the high clear story windows.

The yellow light of gamma, the brightest of the six suns in the planet sky.

Beta is almost at zenith. Its red light floods the landscape to an unusual orange.

The planet Sun Alpha is at the Antipodes. Now as gamma sinks below the horizon, the red dwarf Sun Beta is alone, grimly alone.

It's a short drive from the observatory to Saro City and the red light glairs from the highway.

The temple of the cult stands un from the solid rock of the Dormite Mountains outside the city.

And in the inner courtyard stands Soar, the priest of the cult.

Woe to the unbelievers. Their souls will rot with the absence of light.

Tell me your reverence. What will happen? What are you waiting for here?

The day. The day of the coming. It is written in the book of revelations. It came to pass the Sun Beta was alone in the sky.

And the world was shrunken and cold. And men did assemble in the public squares and highways.

Their minds were troubled and their speech confused. But the souls of men awaited the coming of the stars.

And the lip of the cave of darkness passed the edge of beta. And loud were the cries of men.

And there was no light on the surface of the world. And in this blackness, they appeared the stars in countless numbers.

And in that moment, the souls of men departed from them. And that abandoned bodies became even as beasts.

From the stars then reached down the heavens flame. And where it touched, the cities of the world flamed to destruction.

So that a man, and all the works of man, not remained. So it is written.

Dr. Sharon, you're the only scientist I could find in the city. Where is everybody? In the hideout.

The hideout. Yes, but the place bored me. I wanted to be out here where things are getting hot.

I want to see the stars, the cultists are talking about. Besides, they don't want me at the hideout. I'm too scorned to survive. What is the hideout?

Well, we professors have managed to convince a few people that our prophecy of doom is valid.

We've got about 3,000 people. They're supposed to hide where the darkness and the stars can't get at them.

We hope they'll survive and leave the records. Survive. Survive what?

Well, how true it is, I can't say. But the cultists say that every two thousand and fifty years all the suns disappear.

And there is a total darkness, and then they say things called stars appear.

Of course, men go mad. They mix all this up with a lot of religious notions. But that's the central idea.

But that's impossible, isn't it? I mean, there are always at least two suns in the sky, most of the time, four or five. They don't know. Only better.

You mean that there is going to be worldwide darkness tomorrow that all mankind will go violently insane?

What's behind that?

Well, for one thing, the history of civilization of the world.

We have located a series of cycles of civilizations comparable to our own, all of which without exception were destroyed by fire at the very height of their culture.

But is there any scientific theory behind us which would explain it?

Well, the University Observatory finished their calculations two months ago.

And tomorrow there will be an eclipse of beta so that the planet will become dark.

That eclipse comes every two thousand and forty-nine years. Darkness.

And maybe those mysterious stars that no man has seen.

And then madness and the end of civilization.

And you expect to live through this at the hideout?

They plan to photograph the eclipse and leave the records.

And then the rest of mankind will know what to expect.

Or what is there in darkness to drive men man?

Have you ever experienced darkness young man?

Well, no, but I know what it is. It's just no light.

Oh. Draw the curtain.

Why would four if we had four or five suns out there?

We might want to cut the light down for comfort, but with only beta.

That's the point.

Just draw the curtain and then come here and sit down.

All right.

I can't see you.

Feel your way.

But I can't see you. I can't see anything.

Do you like it?

Oh, it's awful.

The walls seem...

They seem to be closing in on me. I keep wanting to push them away.

All right, all right. Draw the curtain back again.

Oh, the light. The light.

Do you have a drink right here?

Now that was just a dark room.

Yes, but it wasn't really so bad.

You're afraid?

Just darkness could do that.

This isn't just a metaphysical theory, young man.

It's promulgated from observed data.

Well, come with me.

Where?

The locked wall down the corridor.

Well, you were at the Sarrow City Centennial Exposition two years ago.

I was overseas on assignment.

Well, you remember hearing about the tunnel of mystery that broke all records in the amusement area?

Oh, yes. Wasn't there some fuss about that?

The anti-vice society had it shut down.

Oh, it was shut down, all right.

But the blue noses had nothing to do with it.

That tunnel was nothing but a mile-long passage through darkness.

You rode in a little car and it took 15 minutes to get through.

It was very popular while it lasted.

Popular? Well, there's a...

There's a fascination to be frightened when it's part of a game.

Absence of light is one of the instinctive human fears.

People came out of that 15 minutes of darkness shaking and half dead with fear.

Or weren't there some deaths?

Oh, bad hearts, but that wasn't the big danger.

Now, which key is this?

Where are we going?

You'll see, no, the heart attacks were actually good for business, but there was something else.

Yeah, I'll show you.

I want you to see somebody.

Latima.

Latima.

Go away.

Latima.

I want you to meet somebody.

This is Mr. Thereman.

No. No, go away.

Hello. He's pushing me. Make him stop pushing me. Go away.

I'm not touching him. What's wrong?

Latima is afraid. Aren't you?

The walls. They're falling in on me. The walls.

I've got to get out. I've got to get out. Let me out.

You can't go out, Latima. It's all right.

I've got to get out. Let me out. Let me out.

At sleeping period, we have to give him a shot of morphine.

Otherwise, he'd bat his brains against the wall.

What's wrong with him? Nothing?

Nothing but 15 minutes in the darkness of the tunnel of mystery.

Oh, that's impossible.

One person out of ten came out of the tunnel that way.

That's why we had it shut down.

But why should darkness do that?

It's obvious men can't exist without light.

Long periods of darkness would obviously be fatal.

The scientific theory is that the consciousness of light is necessary for mental activity.

But please, Doctor, let me outside. Let me out. Please, I can't breathe.

They're pushing me. They're always pushing me. I can't stand here.

Well, there you are, Herman. That's what 15 minutes of darkness will do.

Man just wasn't built to operate without light.

There are always at least two suns in the sky, most of the time more.

Just 15 minutes of darkness.

Now, look out of that window.

Imagine darkness everywhere.

No light as far as you can see.

Black.

Everything black.

And stars, whatever they are.

Can you conceive it?

Your mind wasn't built for that conception.

When the real thing comes, you will go mad.

Completely and permanently. There is no question of it.

Tomorrow there won't be a city left standing in the world.

Why should the cities be destroyed?

If you were in darkness, what would you want more than anything else?

What would it be that every instinct would call for?

Light.

And how would you get light?

I don't know.

You'd burn something.

They've got to have light. They've got to burn something.

And every city in the world will go up in flames.

Well, shall we go back to my office, Mr. Thereman, and have another drink?

Through the skies, the red sun beta shines alone.

The wind howls across the city.

It is cold.

Colder than man can remember.

And as the hour approaches, the reporter goes out and speaks to the man in the street.

Excuse me.

Where are you going now?

Home for supper.

You know, how about, well, I mean, what are you going to do tonight?

You mean about this star stuff?

Look, I'll tell you, Mr. I got nothing against religion, see.

But it don't stand a reason that the end of the world is going to come boom like that.

It just don't stand a reason.

Have you read what the scientists say?

No, I don't read stuff like that, only the headlines.

Or how about the coat?

Well, now like I say, I've got nothing against religion.

You don't believe them either.

They've always been shouting about doom and sin.

Listen, when you've been around as long as I have, you get to know the score.

It's all right to preach judgment.

They is coming and all that, but not just the same.

I'm putting money in the bank.

How about darkness?

About what?

How would you feel if there were no light?

Hey, you crazy. How could there be no light?

Well, suppose all the suns went down at once.

Suppose everything was black.

That's crazy.

What's the use of supposing something like that?

It couldn't happen. It's crazy.

That's all. Thank you.

Sure, sure.

The book, Mr. Remember Pallet, with two Ls.

All this talk of scientific explanation.

It's sinful. That's what it is.

You remember of the coat, sir?

Sure I am.

Been a member since he was a boy.

And daddy was a member, too.

I've seen the books. It's all written down in the books.

Don't you believe the scientist's explanation?

I don't need it.

I'm going to save my immortal soul.

I'm going to stay on the mountain top in a white robe.

While the stars came away to glory.

Bless it be the stars.

Amen.

What are the stars?

The glory, the breath of the heavens, the spirit of the ultimate.

That's what they are.

The observatory has announced that it intends to take pictures of the stars.

Bless, family.

I sold my house and gave all my money to the poor.

Won't need it anymore.

I'm going to heaven with the stars.

Glory, glory, glory, going with the stars.

The reporter checks the stock exchange, the stores, business at a standstill.

Doesn't pay to buy anything today, not if the world is going to end tomorrow.

There are predictions of economic collapse in the financial section.

Layoffs at the factories on the edge of the city.

And through the streets, the people will mill and turn, unsure, crying in fear or shouting with bravado.

The story isn't here in the city.

And so as the hour approaches, the reporter goes again to the observatory, high in the hills.

I look, Dr. Aton, if you are right, if the world is going to be destroyed, what is the difference?

If I stay here and observe and take notes.

I'm nothing I suppose.

You will be in the way we have work to do.

If I stay out of the way.

Hello, hello.

This place is like a morgue. It's freezing outside.

The wind is enough to hang icicles on your nose.

Beta doesn't seem to give any heat at all, the distance it is.

Why aren't you on the hideout, Sharon?

Me?

I'm part of the race that isn't worth perpetuating.

Who's got a bottle?

We know alcohol today. Be too easy to get my men drunk. I can't afford to tempt them.

All right, Thurman. You can stay.

At the time, we took our positions.

The observatory dome is up these stairs.

After you.

What is that?

Up in the dome, quick.

What is it?

It's the plates.

The photographic plates are all smashed.

There he is.

The Countess is going for the telescope.

After him.

All right, I've got him.

Let go.

Let go must be destroyed.

It must be destroyed.

It's all right.

He didn't harm anything. Let him up.

Well, that's the high priest I was talking to him yesterday.

All right. What do you want?

Nothing that you would give me of your own free will.

I made a bargain with the cult to give me certain data that you had.

In return, I promised to prove the essential truth of the creed.

There was no need to prove that. It stands proven by the book of revelations.

I offered scientific backing for you, believers.

You made of the darkness in the stars in natural phenomenon,

and removed all its real significance.

That was blasphemy.

The facts exist.

The effector of fraud and delusion.

How do you know?

I know.

I suppose you think in trying to warn the world against the menace of madness.

We are placing souls in jeopardy, huh?

Well, we haven't succeeded.

If that makes you feel better.

Your devilish instruments must be destroyed.

We obey the will of the stars.

Someone call the police in Sarrow City.

There's no time for that.

Let me handle this.

The eclipse is only a few minutes away.

Look, you.

Will you give your word of honor to cause no trouble?

I will not listen.

Just as soon as the eclipse starts,

we're going to take you and put you in a closet with the door closed,

and you will stay there.

Then you won't see the darkness, and you won't see the stars.

And that means the loss of your immortal soul according to the cult.

All right.

Will you give your word of honor?

You have it.

You will all be damned for your deeds of today.

Look, look at beta.

The eclipse is started.

You can see the blackness against beta.

Get busy on those cameras.

Check the exposures very carefully.

You're shaking, Mr. Thereman.

Yes, I don't feel very well.

You're not losing your nerve.

No, no.

I'm just not used to it.

You could probably make the hideout.

I have been assigned to cover a story.

I intend to cover it.

Oh.

Professional honor?

Yes.

Yes.

Alas of fanatred rock.

Alas of fanatred.

What is that?

The cultist.

That's the book of revelations.

I don't understand it.

He is chanting some old cycle language.

The book of revelations was originally written in it.

There are probably two million people in Sarah City who are trying to join the cult.

One gigantic revival.

How do the cultists manage to keep the book of revelations going from cycle to cycle?

If everyone goes mad, who wrote the book?

There are some people who don't see the stars.

The blind, those who drink themselves into a stupor and children,

to whom the world as a whole is too new and too strange for them to be frightened

at stars and darkness.

They would have memories.

And that combined with the confused, incoherent babbling of the mad

formed the basis for the book of revelations.

Oh, the cult will be riding high down there in the city.

I hope they make the most of it.

Dr. Sharon, I just heard from the hideout on the private line.

Oh, they're in trouble.

They are safe, but the city is the shambles.

You have no idea.

Well, it'll get worse.

What are you shaking about, Dr. Ape?

How do you feel?

You don't understand.

The cultists are rousing the people to storm the observatory,

promising them immediate entrance into grace, promising them salvation,

promising them anything.

How long till the total eclipse?

An hour.

Well, it's a gamble.

It will take time to get a mob out here.

If the darkness comes first, we're all right.

Oh, look at beta.

It's gotten half.

Half of it is black.

Yes, it's getting darker.

An interesting phenomenon.

Oh, my collar is suddenly tight.

Are you having any difficulty in breathing?

No, no, why?

Difficulty in breathing is one of the first symptoms.

We have experimented on a cold.

It seems to be getting colder.

Yes, so we'd better keep our minds on something else.

One of the astronomers has a theory about the stars

in their way to see in the light.

He developed a fantasy about a planet revolving around one sun.

It's a mathematical possibility.

Of course, there couldn't be any life.

Part of the planet would always be dark and without light.

Well, it's obvious.

Without light, there can't be any life.

It's time for the artificial light.

We can't read the instruments.

Artificial light.

I have the researchers at the university worked it out.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Yellow light.

After four hours of red.

It's beautiful.

Light.

Light.

The dome is quiet.

The priest in his yellow robes sway slowly as his lips move

in the ancient tongue over and over.

He whispers the invocation to the stars.

The technicians hunch over the instruments,

and the sky gradually turns a horrible, deep purple red,

and the air grows denser.

Dusk, like a puffable entity, enters the room,

and the dancing circle of yellow light about the torches

etches itself into ever sharper distinction

against the ever-gathering grainess beyond.

Outside, beta is a mere smoldering splendor,

taking a last look at the world.

The western horizon, in the direction of the city,

is lost in darkness,

and along the highway to the observatory,

surges a menacing shadowy mass.

Bob from the city, they're coming.

How long till totally glips?

15 minutes.

They'll be here in five.

We'll hold them off.

Come on, Theraman, downstairs.

But there's no light down there.

We have to block the door.

Come on.

I can't.

I can't breathe.

I can't go down there.

Take a torch.

We'll take light with us.

Come on.

Aitan.

Aitan.

I'm here.

Did you bother the door?

They won't get in.

All right, now, everybody.

One minute till totality.

One minute.

Just before totality, I'm changing the plate.

That will leave one of you for each camera.

You know all about times of exposure.

Now, remember, don't try to look for good shots.

And if you feel yourself going,

get away from the camera.

It's getting dark.

Sharon.

Sharon, where are you?

I can't see you, Sharon.

I'm right here.

30 seconds.

Look out, the priest.

I can't see him.

And the wicked shall perish in the souls of the true believers.

Shall be transported in glory to the stars.

You can see him against the torch.

Don't let him get to the telescope.

To the stars, they reach down the heavenly flame.

And where it touched the city of the world,

blame to what it is struck.

Grab him.

You shall not let him.

Grab him.

The world must be destroyed by the stars.

It must be.

Let me go.

I'll take care of his.

I'll have my head star.

I have seconds to totality.

Four, three, two, one.

The sky is black.

And through it shines the stars.

30,000 minute suns shine down in a soul-serving splendor.

It is more frightening and its awful indifference

than the bitter wind that shivers across the horrible cold,

bleak world.

The stars.

The stars.

The stars.

No, no!

It's dark.

Dark.

Dark.

The walls.

The walls are coming in on them.

They're coming in.

Light.

Light.

Light.

Darkness.

Forever.

Light.

Forever.

Light.

And the walls are breaking in.

We did not know.

We did not know.

We did not know.

Light.

Light.

Light.

Light.

On the horizon in the direction of the city,

a crimson glow begins growing.

A thousand fires strengthen in brightness that is not the glow of the sun.

A million fires, as a world mad in the darkness,

screams in terror for the light.

The night has come again.

You have just heard X-1,

presented by the National Broadcasting Company,

in cooperation with Street and Smith,

publishers of astounding science fiction.

Tonight by transcription,

X-1 has brought to you Nightfall by Isaac Asimov,

adapted for radio by Ernest Canoy,

featured in the cast were Wendell Holmes,

John Lockin, Santos Ortega,

Mercer McLeod, Alan Collins,

Bob Hastings, and Roy Fent.

Your narrator was Floyd Mack,

Fred Collins speaking.

X-1 was directed by Daniel Sutter,

and is an NBC radio network production.

It's groomed for your interest,

weekday NBC radio.

It's groomed for your interest,

weekday NBC radio.