 Countdown for Blastoff. X minus 5, 4, 3, minus 1, fire. Horizons of the unknown come 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 presents... Ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex. Minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-minus-sol... One, it was 2,200 hours when my task force of 135 picked men and the waxed denographer, all fully equipped for any emergency, surrounded the big house. Just as I stepped out of my jeep, the old boy himself came storming out of the house with fire in his eye. While he was still ranting and raving, I gave him a soft salute and waited for him to finish. Go on, Geth! The whole bunch of you! This is private property and you're trespassing. I won't have it you hear now go on get out. I'm Colonel Windemere sir my orders are to establish a security cordon around your laboratories Here you are dr. Horn your copy of the orders. You can take those orders it Say say who puts you up to this? I know over and felt why that rotten over stuff back-stabbing monster of Dr. Horn. Oh, I know one felt I ought to he worked as my associate for years But that doesn't give him the right to turn trade run go running off to the Pentagon with a story about the horn effect Excuse me dr. Horn the general asked me to give you his personal assurance that my men will not in any way interfere with your work here It's just a matter of security security now. Listen here you tenet. I won't It's Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Windemere Colonel general you tenet. What do I care? What fool type you stick on your name the horn effect is my Personal property not yours not van pels not the panic guns not anybody's but mine You and your whole army can go plumb to the devil good day I watched the old man. He must have been all of 85 Go stalking back into the house During the night a wire stringing detail surrounded the whole place with three strand electrified barbed wire with guard towers every 50 yards I inspected the whole establishment before breakfast the next morning and then Satisfied that everything was in order. I ate breakfast in my tent I was interrupted by the appearance of van pelt the fat and chubby scientist who had sent the original report to Washington What did he say? How did he take it Colonel? I mean is he sore sore as a boil doctor? Oh Well, you're here, so I guess he won't try anything By the way, I Didn't get a chance to have breakfast in town and I wonder of course have some bacon and eggs Thank you very much. It looks delicious I watched him gobble up the rest of my breakfast I was beginning to understand why van pelt and horn didn't get along very well Why van pelt finally went running to the Pentagon with his report? Of course, it was my job to keep an open mind But I couldn't help thinking how I'd feel if my exec captain Lefferts went over my head in that way No, I couldn't blame dr. Horn for being angry At 1400 I went to see the doctor again. I brought along corporal McCabe my waxed anographer Well, what are you two want? Good afternoon, dr. Horn. I'm here to get your daily progress report daily You want to report every day? Yes, sir refer to paragraph eight of my orders Corporal McCabe here is an expert stenographer. She'll take down your dictation dictation. Oh, no, I won't do it I absolutely will not do it. You'll have to do it sir. Why why you and you're your stinking little two-bit army? I ought to Progress report you say yes, sir You're going to stick to what you say. I must sir Well, I suppose I must reconcile myself to the situation now exactly What is it that you want lieutenant the reports are and it's Colonel not lieutenant just so just so The report a all about my work. Is that it? You may speak freely doctor corporal McCabe has full security clearance Well, that must make her very happy. Oh, yes the report Just so just so You're listening to the haunted corpse non X minus one have you ever read the one ads Well say one morning you pick up your hometown paper and spot an ad which reads wanted For important position with fast-growing concern native-born American citizen male or female at least 35 years of age Must be able to give proof of 14-year residence in the United States Position of four-year duration with possible renewal room and board furnished yearly salary $100,000 with an additional $40,000 for travel and official entertainment Plus $50,000 for operating expenses Summer residence furnished with paid vacation Qualifications of applicant carefully checked before position assigned Our ad sounds mighty attractive doesn't it but the job that describes isn't a soft one by any means As a matter of fact, it's probably the toughest job in America that of being president of the United States and The first job of each president is to take an oath that he will faithfully execute the office to which he's been named and Will to the best of his ability Preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States Yes, the job of being president is a mighty important one But preserving and protecting the Constitution is even more important because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land The president may veto a bill but if Congress by a two-thirds majority Passes the bill over his veto. It becomes a law under the Constitution unless set aside by judicial judgment Thus the best interests of the people are protected That's how your American Constitution works Back to X minus one man the haunted corpse I wasn't deceived by dr. Horn sudden willingness to cooperate He was probably trying to win my confidence so they could find a way to phone his congressman and make trouble for the whole operation But I am merely nodded to Corporal McCabe who opened her notebook and got ready to take the dictation very well This machine you see here is my polycloid quasi-tron now to understand its operation. Let me explain Oh, sir, excuse me that term. Oh, yes. Yes, dr. Horn. Would you kindly spell Polly? Those two words the corporal just so just so P-O-L-Y-C-L-O-I-D Q-U-A-S-I-T-R-O-N Thank you, sir. Just so well now the various It was rough going for about an hour The doctor had a pause every 50 seconds to spell a word from a cave who was looking more and more ill at ease But there was one virtue to this slow pace I was able to follow it all fairly well and when the doctor finally stopped I was ready to sum it up for him. I Hope your tenant that I made myself clear. Yes, sir. In other words You've perfected a method of electronically killing a man without touching him. What? Electronically killing a man without touching him. Yes, sir Just so you can adjust so Will you tell me one thing what in the sweet name of heaven did I say that gave you that? Particularly stupid notion. Well, sir, that's what you said It is also what my briefing from General Follensby at the Pentagon gave me to understand rubbish. Oh I see what you mean Just so just so I confess I wondered why you're here in the first place The government feels that this is a weapon. Of course, sir. Oh Now we understand each other my machine renders humans into corpses No, there's a chip flint for that matter. Yeah, but never mind that is the aspect which interests you Yeah, very good, but mark this lieutenant my quasi-tron does something no chip flint can do It removes from the human body that thing which possesses only a negative definition the quantity that we will term X which Added to the body produces a man Subtracted leaves a corpse But you don't care about all that do you sir? I don't follow you down, right? You don't We're all corpses. Don't you see corpses inhabited by ghosts and there's only one man in the world who can separate the two Without destroying them and that is me And there's only one way to do it and that's with the quasi-tron the daily turn is Corporal McCabe and I left hurriedly I was ready now to make my situation analysis according to orders But I decided to check one fact. I summoned van Pelt to my tent that night No, no Colonel in the mirror. He's perfectly sane perfectly, but he is also dangerous particularly dangerous to me I Mean of course if I haven't the army's promise of complete protection Colonel That bowl of fruit looks tempting. I wonder if I help yourself dr. Pelt Thank you Tasty a very tasty a dr. Van Pelt. I must have the straight dope on horn. What's this ghost business? My goodness Colonel. That's just the old man's way of putting it Forget the term ghost if it really does pressure you Whatever you want to call this thing in the body life Intelligence or whatnot. This is what his machine works on If he wishes he can replace this quantity or remove it from body to body But you might call the operation our transference Transference of the personality Yes That would describe it No, I got rid of van Pelt fast after that now I had something really exciting to look into this old man had a machine that could take a person out of his body and Put him into another one if he liked next morning I demanded a demonstration and dr. Horn showed me how he could change a hen and a cocker spaniel with the Quasitron it was weird, but impressive and convincing Well, your tenant you believe in my machine now Remarkable But can it work with people indeed it can but these ridiculous laws governing the conduct of institutions Heaven knows I've tried to get permission for an experiment a man dying of cancer For instance to exchange with a feeble minded you why not put the sound mind of the sound body and let the other die But no, no, they won't have it. I see then it actually has never been done. No, but Uh Now you're here new tenant a military man very brave. It's just so just so All I've ever needed was a volunteer now when Pelt refused the coward so was everyone else But now you negative sir negative. I am not a lieutenant doctor. I am a field grade officer But if there is a need for volunteers, I can find them for you sir. You can you really can yes, sir I can think of several likely prospects Give me until tomorrow just so just so you send a major. I mean, uh, no captain then tomorrow do splendidly My immediate job was to get the volunteers I would require to the first was easy a private enable company. I sent for him and he appeared looking apprehensive Sir that the colonel sent for me. I did you're the latrine orderly of able company. Yes, sir. I am sir Now there's a report on you a Well, that means a court-martial. You're aware of the possible consequences. Yes, sir. I am sir There is a possibility that these charges might be dropped It depends upon our finding of volunteer for a special job. Is that all sir? Oh, I volunteer colonel. When do I start sir? That was one the second was a bit more of a problem I thought at once of my executive officer captain leferts a fine officer typical of the best leadership type He had just been married and he had no desire to be transferred to Saudi Arabia Let me get this trade colonel Are you saying that if I volunteer for this assignment? There's a possibility my orders might be changed captain I hold your transfer orders in my hand if you decide to volunteer. I will destroy them Sir, I volunteer So it was done the next morning both men were strapped into horns infernal machine. There was a great crackling and sparking Yeah It's done. Uh, may I speak to my men go right ahead to your talent? The orderly first you name rank and serial number Sir Leferts Robert T captain a us serial number o three three three nine six one five Oh, sir about that transfer to Saudi Arabia. No, that'll do I put heavens And now you colonel sir, I changed my mind If I can't go back to Latrine orderly, I'll take the guard house, sir. It worked And at ease men You really did it doctor horn just so you ten and just so I really did Horn switched the two men back again while I rushed for the telephone Crash priority the Pentagon general pollens be priority and classified ask the general to stand by for scrambler a Weapon this was far more than a weapon. We had the world by the tail I got through to the general and I was excited as I pointed out the implications of the device Suppose a hostile representative visited this country I told him one of our men could switch places with him and no one would ever guess in time We could have our men in the top positions of every government in the world our men reporting to us It was the greatest opportunity any government ever had the general was impressed in spite of himself We arranged an appointment in the Pentagon for the next morning As I hung up I fingered the silver leaf on my shoulder it would soon be a star Curdles what is it old hair sir? I don't know how to put this. I'm afraid dr. Van Pelt has gone psycho, sir No, I sergeant. What's he done? He's raving sir. He says dr. Horn wants to live forever He says all horn was waiting for was to make a test on a human being He says now you've given horn his test horn is going to grab the first human being you can find it Excuse me, sir. This is what he said and steal his body Great Scott. Where's van Pelt now in the laboratory sir with dr. Horn She is everybody around here nuts Dr. Horn had a brilliant mind, but a war not body He was going to make a switch before his own aging machinery broke down. I had to stop him van Pelt was there literally asking for it When I opened the door of the lab, I stumbled over horns body dead He'd already done it next to his body sprawled my whack Corporal McCabe stunned by a blow on the head as she tried to prevent the tragedy and there at the machine was van Pelt What used to be van Pelt striking the complicated machinery with one blow after another Killed him you fool you want Otherable ass wing him. Yes stop him from smashing the machine. Yes, but why did you have to shoot to kill? It seemed the best way You've ruined everything now Horns dead and so is van Pelt The machine is wrecked beyond repair Sorry corporal, but I'm putting you under arrest. Give me that gun. I'm afraid not You're fundamentally a nice guy, so I'm just going to lock you in here long enough to get away lieutenant Lieutenant Horn your dr. Horn just so lieutenant just so Goodbye X-minus one has brought you the haunted corpse a story written by Frederick Paul and adapted for radio by William Welch Featured in our cast were Edgar Staley as dr. Horn Water black as the Colonel and Dean Lyman on twist as van Pelt Others in our cast were Lydia Bruce Alan Collins Bob Hastings and Ralph Camargo This is Fred Collins speaking X-minus one was directed by George Boots us and is an NBC radio network