 Transcribe the story of a soldier and a war beyond the moon, a GI in the years beyond 2000 plus. 2000 plus. Science fiction adventures from the world of tomorrow, the years beyond 2000 AD. 2000 plus presents, a veteran comes home. 1, 2, 3, rocket ship Nooknok arriving from moon at rocket cradle 4 is sectioned. Mommy, is that it? Is that the one with daddy on it? Billy, I told you before daddy's spaceship arrived here several hours ago. The spaceship from Mars has been here since 11 o'clock. And where is he? Why don't I see my daddy? Because, darling, all the soldiers have to go through quarantine and army regulations and all sorts of things. Why, my daddy's a space soldier. Already at all sorts of adventures. Already at... Attention, Louise. Quiet, Billy. Listen. All relatives of military personnel of rocket ship's militant, flight 82 from Mars. Holding blue cards report to page 5. Oh, Billy, that's us. The soldiers are going to come out in a few minutes. Come on, darling, come on. Will he know me, Mama? Was that know me? Will I know him? Watch where you're walking, Billy. Of course, he'll know you, dear. He'll see me first and then he'll see you. Oh, I ever saw his picture. Stand by that rope, Billy. We can see gate 5 from here. Well, tell me all about the war on Mars. Oh, Billy, it's so good to have him back. Five years. Five long years. Can I see the spaceship later, Mama? Later, maybe? Relatives of military personnel of spaceship's militant, please do not cross the white line. They're starting to come out now. Look, that man there in the white uniform, he's in a town of gunners. My picture book tells all about them. Eleven weeks on the spaceship getting to Mars. Eleven weeks coming back to Earth. And more than four years fighting on Mars. Five years. Billy, stand back. Don't cross the white line. Flight 7, rocket ship's crater from Earth to Moon will blast off in eight minutes from rocket's cradle 9, west section. Clear area. Clear area. Clear area. They're welcoming the soldiers home, Billy. The first soldiers home from the war on Mars. The war soldiers are coming out, Mommy. Oh, Billy, I'm so excited. Do you see the rocket's here with the green uniform? Oh boy, he shoots rocket guns. I don't see him. I don't see him yet. So many, ma'am. So many. Can I have a knock now? I'm going to show my daddy my toy gun. We'll play Space Soldier together. We'll have fun, Billy. Billy, I see him. I see your daddy. Where? Which one is he? Wait for him, Billy. He's looking around to see if we're here. Michael, you've got to meet Joe. I'll say to your daddy. He doesn't have to say anything. Just let me look at him. Oh, you've got forever to do that now, darling. Because you're home. Our soldier has come home. Daddy asleep? He was tired, Billy. He wanted to rest. He didn't talk much when we came home, did he? No, but he will. You and he will have a lot to talk about. Hey, I think I heard him getting up. Well, we'll open the door carefully and peek in. Now be quiet in case he's still asleep. You've slept two hours. I haven't been asleep. I'm just lying here. Is something wrong, Michael? Do you feel all right? Oh, sure, sure. I just can't get used to being home. I'll make a snack for you. Billy, now you can talk to your father. Come here, son. Sit on the bed. Okay, Dad. I'll call you when everything's ready. What do you want to tell me, Billy? I don't know. But your mother said... Will you play with me? Well, I'm a little tired, son, but... I guess it can be arranged. What do you want to play? Soldiers, space soldiers. You're a soldier. Play something else. You don't like me. Just play something else, that's all. All the kids think it's wrong, my dad's a space soldier. Nobody else in my gang has a dad who's gone to Mars. I told him when I dad came home, he told me he had to play real soldier. Stop talking about it! Yes, sir. Don't say yes, sir, to me. I don't ever want to hear you say that. Stop crying. Men aren't supposed to cry. For 200 years the world hasn't had a war. For 200 years the human race finally got peace. Federated world in the years after 2000. Science flourishes, civilization grows. Then we learn how to travel in outer space. First the moon for scientific observations. Then we go on to other planets. The one planet we know is capable of sustaining human life. And all the 200 years of peace gets rotted away. Because the Earth wants to explore Mars and the Martians object. New worlds to conquer with the Columbus's of 2000 plus. When the interplanetary war begins. We have to fight for every canal, every inch on Mars. Well I don't want any son of mine thinking it's so great. I hate it, hate it. I was going to play Space Soldier. Space Soldier, what do they do? Full of the romance of Mars, the mysteries of the unknown. How can you or anybody on this particular world know what it's like in that unhuman place called Mars? Play Space Soldier, play. I remember the patrol. Patrol into the red grass. Blades sharp as swords and covered with that sickening ooze of the Martian vegetation. We went on patrol, 14 of us. I was the patrol leader. All right, let's stop them in it. Oh! You see anything? Just the red grass. Wait, about a mile and a half over there, a sand belt. Give me your glasses. That's right. The sand belt we've got to be careful. Oh, sand spiders. More dangerous than a cobra. One bite and you're dead in half a minute. Men are all wearing shin boots. We better put on our mask and gloves too. Sometimes a spider crawls up the clothing. OK. Masks and gloves, protective gear. Oh no. It's too quiet. I've always got the feeling the Martians are around when it's this quiet. I know what you mean. We'll go on now. Cover the left, use electric rifles. Have Moroni take four men and cover the right, torpedo pistols. Ted and I'll take the other men and move straight on. Ted, we'll use atomic shell clips in our guns. We meet our position and have to blast them. Leo's and Moroni's groups can cover us as we move around the area we've radiated. Better keep our belt geiger counters handy. OK, Captain. Let's move. The slime from the grass sticks to everything. Give us a sharp rock. There certainly aren't any Martians on that sand belt or we'd see them. They're around here at all. They're between us and the sand belt. Hiding in this red grass. Look up, huh? Step away. Don't step on it. Good Lord, I didn't see it. A tooth flower. The flowers are hard as ivory. It's a carnivorous plant. If you walk too close to it, it'll bite your leg in half. Mars. The nightmare planet. You'll keep moving. And keep your eyes peeled for killer vegetation and enemy Martians. Getting hot. It gets like another about this time. Leo's group is moving ahead. Apparently they've found nothing dangerous yet. Hello! They're waving. Everything's OK. Don't be too sure. Look over there. Sandstorm, whipping across the sand belt. They come up in seconds blast by at hundreds of miles an hour. Everybody down, hit the sack. Who's all over us? Those grass blades like an idiot. Take a line down in a bed of knives. Hug the dirt. Here comes the sandstorm. Two men missing. Here comes Leo. Two men, Davis and Martin. What happened? A wind tore a Davis jacket. A sand spider bit him. Wind carried his swarm up into the grass. What about Martin? Don't know what caused it, but he's dead already. Skin is natural, not blue the way it turns when a sand spider kills you. Martin's, Martin's. They got him during the sandstorm. Must be around somewhere. Look at his back where I opened the jacket. Hit by a sonic beam. Right. Super sound wave gadget of theirs. Turns your guts to jelly. The Martians are here all right. Now warn the men. Right on. Give me your pocket Magnus speaker quick. Here you are, sir. Leo, crawl in your belly over to the boys. Keep low. OK? Let me know when you get there. Here's some lingo they won't understand. Yes, Davis. We got company fatigue. You trigger happy. And remember the alimony. Leo there again. Can't see him. Wait. He's coming on the new HF talking. Snap on your earphones. OK, Leo. Word shoot first. That's an electric rifle. Enemy sighted. The jelly got one there. The torpedo pistols. All on his group is made contact. Leo. Whoever reaches 100 yards throw atomic grenades. Right. The Martians haven't returned any fire yet. They're probably waiting the way out closer. And they'll fan the area with that sonic beam of theirs. He's throwing the cookies any second. Check. We've got to be careful. We can't go in to see. We don't have any anti-radiation gear. No sound from the Martians. Leo. Leo, any report from you? Move south a few hundred yards. Then east. Probe their positions. Captain, I'm pretty sure it's all clear. Yeah, you're probably right. I just feel conservative right now. I'll be driving to verify the Martians are cleaned out. This heat, the stinking grass. What a planet. At least the moon is dead. Why weren't we satisfied when we got to the moon? No, we had to go on to this for a second. Listen. The sonic beam, the Martians are attacking. They've had a group to the south. They've got someone. They're shattering up down. Look over there. Don't you think I know that? What a tool for us against the Martian patrol. Try to reach Leo. Leo. Leo, come in Leo. No response. I've got to get over there. But Leo, Leo's my brother. My brother. Here's your snack, darling. I hope you like it. Where's Billy? I thought he was in here with you. He went up to play. I don't know. Oh, he has been so looking forward to having his daddy back. All the kids in the neighborhood are waiting to meet you. We've been boasting about you for months. Ever since we got word that you were coming home. Yeah, I know. So, is something wrong? Did you and Billy have a quarrel? He's... He's a stranger to me, Mary. A stranger? You're wrong, son. He was just a baby when I left. I can't get used to him. Oh, but you will. You can't help loving him. I can't get to know him until he stops this terrible business of reminding me all the time. Reminding me of what I want to forget. But he's proud of you. Of what you've done. I told him what it was really like up there. He ran out of here crying. Michael! What do you want me to do, throw out my chest and brag about being a hero? Pretend that a planet called Mars, that Satan himself with the aid of a few million devils must have created, pretend that Mars is heaven? That fighting a war so far away it takes months to get there as fun for the kitties? I'm sorry, Mary, just... just leave me alone. Michael, this isn't like you. How do you know what I'm like after all these years? I hardly know myself at this moment. Five years away from people. Away even from the one world in the universe that contains human beings. But there were other men with you all the time. Hundreds, thousands of them. What do you mean you were alone? You don't understand. Michael, darling, I'm worried about you. A spaceship, half a mile long. Eleven weeks in flight, confined quarters, the same blank faces of men torn from their planet, catapulted into infinity, a fleck of controlled cosmic dust, being alone. And on Mars, the base dug underground, living in plastic shells with barracks, never being able to move except in patrols. All of us men in a nightmare, and being alone in our souls alone, give me some coffee. All right, Michael. Michael, you're home now, and you're not alone anymore. Good coffee. Tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon and evening, that is. Yes? I'm giving a party for you. At first I was going to have a surprise for you, but I think you should know. I don't want a party. We've our families here, and all your old friends. They want to see you, Michael. Call it off. I don't want to see them. And you understand, I don't want to see them. They're smug hello, they're glad you're back chatter. They're what's it like in another world, and how's Mars, old man, questions. They wouldn't understand the answers if I could somehow force myself to talk about it. But it won't be like that. They love you, they're happy to... For the last time, no. Darling, you can't go on like this. Fighting the Martians in your memories, and fighting the human beings who love you. For your sake, Michael, I am not going to call off the party. Everyone is coming just as I planned, and you've got to meet them and see for yourself, you've got to understand for yourself that you're home again, on earth, and that you have a life to live once more. Do you mean that, Mary? I do, Michael, darling, I do. Because I love you. I'm really a stranger in this house. Not really the head of it. Still alone. A barracks filled with chintzker... Tavana. Have your party. Without the guest of honor. Never heard a bird. The only creatures that ever made a sound up there were the Martian Controllies. Fat, greasy lizards that screamed like tortured souls. Green, red-orange, clean white. Good short, soft carpet like blades. A carpet of green, cool and gentle. Remember when Ted and I got back to command post? The Martian sky was dark. Clouds up there never looked like these clouds. We hadn't spoken to each other for a long while. Now we got away alive from the ambush I'll never know. And now we were coming to the base under Commander. Is that the forward report, Captain? Yes, Commander. That's right, sir. The fourth successful ambush by the Martians in as many days. We're going to have to do something drastic to stop it. Air observation doesn't help. Endless miles of grass and sand. The Martians are small. Hide in this stuff. Take on its coloring like chameleons. But weren't for their sonic beam, those killing sound waves, they could probably handle them. I know, I know. Can't the Earth Science Council work out a defense, sir? As they're trying to. But even if they do, till we get it up here, we'll all be decimated. I'm thinking of an old weapon. Poison gas. That's an outlawed weapon, isn't it, Commander? Outlawed on Earth? Yes. Better not fighting on Earth, Captain. Sometimes I wish they'd never invented spaceships. Well, let's not worry about it now. You may need some rest. Report to the hospital barracks. Take five days there. Yes, sir. Oh, one more thing. Lieutenant, the 12 men in the patrol were lost. One was your brother, am I right? Yes, sir. I'm sorry. Thank you, sir. I'll get to the barracks and get some rest. We've got a lot to do in five days. That's all, gentlemen. Commander is sorry. Now get to the barracks. Don't take it so hard, Ted. No, why shouldn't I? It isn't just because Leo was my brother, but because he was someone special. Up here on this rotten apple called Mars, where all people out of touch with the decent things of our world are located. Every man who lives here, who lives up here, is in his own vacuum. Can't believe what's happened to him. Fying himself in a place where things that are unreal to the human mind are everyday realities. But I had something. I had the one thing that made me a human being up here. I had someone who loved me, and whom I loved, and now he's dead. And I've got no one. I'm like everyone else up here now. I've got no one. You make my mommy cry. I guess I haven't been very nice at the outside of the universe. But a little while ago, I fought back to what another man told me on Mars. And I realized something that I didn't understand at the time from now on, Billy. You and I are going to be real friends, real pals. Can we, can we play soldier? How would you like to play baseball or build model jet planes together? Or go on a hike in the woods? Gee, that'd be swell. I like that. You didn't care what you did with your dad, just so you did something with him, huh? Mm-hmm. And all you could think of was soldier because that's what I did. Just proves how right Ted was to be together and to love someone. That's what makes us human beings. Hello, Mary. Daddy and I are going to play baseball and have a hike and everything. Oh, Michael. Michael. It's all right now, darling. Next week, another exciting and unusual story from the wood-own of tomorrow over in the years beyond 2,000 AD. Be sure to listen. 2,000 Plus is produced by Dreyer and Winolson Productions Incorporated. In today's cast, Bill Griffiths portrayed Mike, Joan Shea was Mary, Alan Shea was Billy, Charles Smith was Ted, and Lon Clark was the commander. The orchestra was conducted by Emerson Buckley, music composed by Elliott Jacoby, sound of Walt Shaver and Adrian Penner. Engineer, Bob Albright. This is Ken Marvin speaking. This program came from New York.