Interstellar travel -- Fiction; Science fiction; Television programs -- Fiction
Cochrane sputtered. But there was nothing to do but transmit whatever
Bell and Jamison had gotten ready. He swam with nightmarelike difficulty
back to the communicator. He shouted frantically for Babs. She and
Alicia came. Alicia found the film-tape, and Cochrane threaded it into
the transmitter, and bitterly ran the first few feet. Babs smiled at
him, and Alicia looked at him oddly. Evidently, Babs had confided the
consequence of their casting-away. But Cochrane faced an emergency. He
began to check timings with far-distant Earth.
When the ship approached a second planet, Cochrane saw nothing of it. He
was furiously monitoring the broadcast of a show in which he'd had no
hand at all. From his own, professional standpoint it was terrible.
Jamison spouted interminably, so Cochrane considered. Al, the pilot, was
actually interviewed by an offscreen voice! But the pictures from space
were excellent. While the ship floated in orbit, waiting to descend to
pick up Babs and Cochrane, Bell had hooked his camera to an amplifying
telescope and he did have magnificent shots of dramatic terrain on the
planet now twenty light-years behind.
Cochrane watched the show in a mingling of jealousy and relief. It was
not as good as he would have done. But fortunately, Bell and Jamison had
stuck fairly close to straight travelogue-stuff, and close-up shots of
vegetation and animals had been interspersed with the remoter pictures
with moderate competence, if without undue imagination. An audience
which had not seen many shows of the kind would be thrilled. It even
amounted to a valid change of pace. Anybody who watched this would at
least want to see more and different pictures from the stars.
Halfway through, he heard the now-muffled noise of rockets. He knew the
ship was descending through atmosphere by the steady sound, though he
had not the faintest idea what was outside. He ground his teeth as--for
timing--he received the commercial inserted in the film. The U. S.
commercials served the purpose, of course. He could not watch the other
pictures shown to residents of other than North America in the
commercial portions of the show.
He was counting seconds to resume transmission when he felt the slight
but distant impact which meant that the ship had touched ground. A very
short time after, even the lessened, precautionary rocket-roar cut off.
Cochrane ground his teeth. The ship had landed on a planet he had not
seen and in whose choice he had had no hand. He was humiliated. The
other members of the ship's company looked out at scenes no other human
eyes had ever beheld.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account