There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission.
We will control the horizontal.
We will control the vertical.
We can change the focus to a soft blur
or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
For the next hour, sit quietly,
and we will control all that you see and hear.
You are about to participate in a great adventure.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery
which reaches from the inner mind to
Human life strives ceaselessly to perfect itself
to gain ascendancy.
But what of the lower forms of life?
Is it not possible that they, too,
are conducting experiments
and are, at this moment,
on the threshold of deadly success?
What happened?
I'm all right now.
Thank you, Professor Fields.
My name is Regina.
I've come to be your assistant.
I read your ad in the newspaper.
My wife went into town no more than an hour ago
to place that ad in tomorrow's newspaper.
I was there.
I overheard.
I like to steal small advantages.
Must I wait until tomorrow?
Have any experience with my line of work?
Yes.
And with someone as exacting and perfect
as you are.
I understand I'm to live in.
Yes. That was one of the requirements,
but I had a male assistant in mind.
Oh, he'd have to, uh, destroy diseased insects
and clean out hives.
I read your legends of the medieval bee.
Was there truly a monk Sebastian
who grew Nigerian bees 8 feet long?
You'd have to go over to the health center.
They want some blood to make sure
you're not allergic to bee stings.
I'm not.
Well, uh, I'd have to know.
People have died from the sting of one bee.
Ah, Francesca. Come see if I'm right.
You'll think you are whatever my opinion.
Ha ha.
About what, Ben?
About Regina.
She overheard you place your ad
and stole the advantage. I think she might do.
My luggage was lost in transit.
I have no bags to unpack.
There's no need to see my room
until it's time to go to bed.
I can begin at once
by putting your laboratory in order.
A disorderly man is usually guilty of something
far more chaotic than disorder.
I think you've hired her, Ben.
Well, only because the lady
didn't stop me.
You know I'm not an alarmist, Ben,
and I'm not... At least I don't think
I object to having an enchanting child
work beside you.
It's sensible and reassuring
to know something of a person
who works with you and lives in your house.
I'll take it.
Well...
I feel as if I should put on a clean coat
and stand by for fingernail inspection.
You have an orderly, organized mind.
That compensates for your tie...
And your fingernails.
Um, Regina,
come here.
Um...
I'm gonna have to check your references.
I have none.
Oh?
What is it?
The man I worked for last...
I'd rather not tell you his name.
If I tell you anything at all about him,
you'd recognize him instantly.
He was innocent.
His wife had been wanting a divorce.
She had met a younger man and...
She threatened to ruin my reputation
and her husband's.
She had already ruined mine
by the time he submitted and saved his.
My parents suggested that I leave the city,
only until the gossipers found new prey, of course.
He never even answered my letters.
So I stopped writing.
But if you want their address, I'll...
No, no. Ha ha.
Look at this, Regina. Look.
What you're looking at are
the fertilized eggs of a Nigerian queen bee.
There must be a million.
No. There are more than that.
And they're all the result
of a single mating.
Would you like to be the father
of that many children?
What?
No. I'll settle for one...
In a thousand.
And before I'm 25, of course.
I've asked everybody,
but if anybody gave out your ad,
nobody's admitting it.
And you don't recall anyone standing close by
while I dictated it to you?
Not close enough to hear
what you were saying over a telephone.
And certainly not a stranger.
All right. Thank you.
Still want us to run the ad?
Oh, no. No, that won't be...
Well... Yes.
Yes, of course, Mr. Lund.
After all, the girl may not work out.
Ordinary bees are already within
the human range of intelligence, you know.
I know.
The ones I've accelerated are already compiling
a grammar and a dictionary.
This is a language analyzer.
I know.
You've never seen one quite like that before.
It's the only one in existence.
I built it myself.
Would you explain it to me, please?
All right.
It, um, picks up
and transmits the sound of bees.
5 cycles per second
to 60,000.
That's, uh,
3 times the range
of the human ear and vocal cords.
Ben?
He's occupied, Mrs. Fields.
This is an artificial bee.
Would you hand me that memory bank, please?
Thanks.
Mary had a little lamb.
Alpha, beta, gamma, delta.
Testing.
1, 2, 3, 4.
I see.
Well, we're about ready to begin.
The oscilloscope shows the bee sounds
outside our hearing range.
It converts these sounds
into light waves
and transmits them into the computer,
where they're translated
and made audible to our ears.
Now watch.
Danger! Danger!
Stop, combs forward.
Worker bees to battle lines.
Drones, move the queen eggs below.
What is it? What is it?
Invader! Invader!
Friend. Lost way. Wing broken.
Does he offer pollen?
Pollen sack empty. Offers nothing.
Appears like one of us, but is not one of us.
Is not one of us.
The body is not like our body.
The odor is not like our odor.
Destroy, destroy.
Can you be certain
you're translating them correctly?
I, uh...
I watch them do the same things
that humans do...
Rearing of children, searching for food,
mating.
And the sounds they make
I match up with our words.
Of course, their vocabulary
is very simple,
but I can translate,
oh, perhaps 70% of everything they say.
Did they really say all these things, Ben?
I only record
what the analyzer claims they're saying.
And, um...
Professor Fields feels
less exacting and perfect
when he's called Ben.
And more human?
Yes?
Can I see you the moment you're free, Ben?
Yeah. The very moment.
Um, I'll have Francesca take you shopping
and, uh, get you some... A starched uniform.
This is your queen.
I can speak only human.
Listen. The human drone's machinery will translate.
I have passed the threshold,
and I am beautiful.
The human drone has already begun to aspire to me,
and when he dies,
his memory will live on
in our million children.
Was this room originally intended as a nursery?
It must be devastating
to know your husband wants children.
Ben discussed that with you?
Well, we were discussing our mutual tragedies.
I told him mine, and he alluded to his.
Regina, how did you find out about the ad?
I was there when you placed it.
I heard you.
Except that I phoned it in.
The girl who received it
repeated it to me.
Mr. Lund received it.
I did not wish to incriminate him,
Mrs. Fields. Must I?
He was only trying to be helpful.
I see.
Regina, where are you from?
Scotland.
And I'm very tired.
Would you rather have dinner up here alone?
Why?
I was thinking if you're tired,
you might want to get into bed and...
Am I not to live here on equal terms with you?
Dinner will be ready in half an hour.
Mrs. Fields?
My mother was
a vain, envious, and selfish woman.
Her beauty was regal,
and she'd always assumed it was unsurpassable.
Such women should have sons
or homely daughters.
She treated me as if I were an ugly duckling,
because I wasn't.
And as a result,
I expect all elderly women to exclude me
from the simple pleasures of family life.
If I misjudged you...
I'm not as elderly as all that.
Would you like to help me?
How?
Oh, set the table, light the candles.
No, thank you.
And then this sweet young thin type
said that her husband is
one of the new fair-haired physicists
at the university,
and did my husband do anything?
Francesca still attends the faculty wives' teas
in order to maintain
her sole contact with unreality.
Did you tell her that I'm on a sabbatical
that her taxes are helping to pay for?
I told her you were an entomologist
and, uh...
Working on a top secret project.
Did that titillate her?
She hoped you were developing an insecticide
that housewives could believe in.
Her words.
I didn't know housewives
were afraid of insects.
Well, it isn't necessarily fear.
Isn't it?
Oh, I doubt if many women
would even think of using insecticides
if the insects would stay
in their own world outside.
But if they insist on coming in...
Are you afraid of insects,
Mrs. Fields?
Well, I think we all are a little.
We talk more about our fear
of the larger forms of animals.
It doesn't seem so cowardly
to admit fear of crazed panthers
or giant vultures.
But I think we're all a little...
Uneasy about the tiny things
that crawl and fly.
You can't see what they're thinking
you can't look into their eyes.
But you can hear what they're thinking...
If you happen to be married to a certain entomologist.
Well, I wasn't thinking of bees.
Of course, they sting.
But I am inoculated at regular intervals.
Against their sting...
Not their thoughts.
Are their thoughts dangerous?
Only to the drones.
They don't think of it that way.
They fight
for the privilege to die.
They compete for it.
The marriage of the queen bee
and the drone
is one of the most beautiful rituals
ever conceived or observed.
Hmm.
Well, mind getting back to work
while the bees are still among us?
Hey, it's past 12:00.
Well, it's certainly bedtime, huh?
Hey, just a minute.
Civilized people usually say good night.
Good night, Ben.
What is it?
Sh-she...
She disturbs me.
Why?
If our baby had only...
Oh, shh. Francesca.
She would have been Regina's age.
At the dinner table tonight, you...
Treated Regina
as you would have smiled at your daughter.
And I...
I became extremely jealous.
Well, of course you did.
Regina isn't our daughter
regardless of her age
or how I smile at her.
It made me wonder if I might have become
what her mother became.
Have I been glad that we never had another child?
Have you?
I never thought so.
Neither have I.
You'd rather be
just about anything in the world
except a normal, healthy, vibrant,
jealous wife.
Well, I suppose I...
I try to be
a little like your bees, Ben.
All organization
and gears neatly meshed,
efficient,
and no tiresome emotions.
There are some tiresome emotions
that don't tire me at all.
What time shall I come down in the morning?
Would you mind putting those things away,
please?
Ben! Ben!
Benedict! Ben, that girl...
Has she finally gone to sleep?
Mm-hmm.
Did you make this?
I wanted to do something.
I felt so helpless...
So responsible.
Responsible?
I heard the things she screamed...
And it was I in the garden.
Yeah.
What were you doing out there, Regina?
The moonlight drew me.
I was...
I smell the things
that bloom in the night.
Come to think of it,
I did have my nosy nose
poked in a flower.
But you didn't transform yourself
into a mammoth glowing bee.
No.
Yes?
I'll send him right up.
She sounded so well and normal, Ben.
She's going to be all right.
Go to her, Ben.
What is it?
What?
Oh, nothing.
It's gone now.
Hello, darling.
You all right?
Just... just stay close a moment longer.
I just need
a tiny bit more of your strength.
Oh.
Yes?
Oh, I drank the last of it, Ben.
I'll make a fresh pot and bring it right up.
You really are all right, Francesca?
I'm trying to be,
but your solicitude is awfully tempting.
I love to watch you brush your hair.
Instincts warn,
all not well.
Pain!
Did we not make you perfect enough?
Are we at fault?
No.
I do not know what is wrong.
Will you survive?
I must.
I will.
Our struggle to affect your transformation
must not go unrewarded.
You must produce.
You must.
Once we have begun to breed,
once we have the strength and life span of the humans,
millions and millions of us...
Born in the same breath,
swarming over their chaotic world...
We will conquer.
We will rule.
I will wait no longer.
I have been patient,
only because I've learned
that humans...
Good humans believe
they must
experience love.
Instincts tell me
he has begun to...
Oh!
Shh.
Why?
Why all this darkness?
What's wrong?
I must... I mustn't fail.
I mustn't.
Help me, sisters!
Help me!
Shh, shh, shh.
Am I going to die?
No, Regina.
What's wrong with me?
Dr. Warren thinks...
Don't let me die
without knowing love, Ben.
He thinks it's only food poisoning.
It's very painful but not fatal.
Love me, Ben.
Regina.
Regina, I'm very, very much in love with my wife.
I see only that you're married to her.
I'm married to her because I love her.
If you married me,
then would you love me?
No.
If I loved you, then I would marry you.
Then I won't die, Ben.
I will live... For you.
Regina.
Does it make you angry
to be loved, Ben?
If it's
the beautiful, precious thing
you think it is,
it should make you smile.
Is she asleep?
Yes.
The pain is gone?
It's quieted. Yes.
You must let her go, Ben,
in the morning.
Shh.
If she's really asleep,
she can't hear me.
And if she isn't really asleep?
Well, then she's deceiving us.
There's no reason
to spare the feelings
of deceitful people.
It doesn't sound like you, Francesca.
And you don't sound like you.
This will wait until morning.
Ben...
Ben, you get some sleep. I'll sit with her.
All right.
I do not know what is wrong.
Will you survive?
I must.
I will.
Our struggle
to affect your transformation...
Oh, Ben?
She's upstairs. Francesca is sitting with her.
I've already looked in.
How did she seem this morning?
Ben...
Ben, she's a medical anomaly.
I've never seen blood fluid
like hers.
The erythrocytes and leukocytes...
Totally out of balance.
The plasma level is up from 55 to 70%,
and the entire serum is
a floating mass of cholesterol globules.
Ben, she's the closest thing
to a complete mutant
I've ever seen.
Mutant?
You only examined her superficially.
You can't have gathered enough data
to support such a fantas...
Now, Ben, I may not know the difference
between a bee and a buzzard,
but I do know a thing or two
about human beings.
Regina?
I do not like good-byes, Ben.
I'm sorry you found me.
You well enough to leave?
Your wife is ill, Ben.
I seem to have accelerated
her disintegration.
That's not true.
Well, something has.
She's not disintegrating.
That's what's not true.
Oh.
I no longer love you, Ben.
I cannot love a man who deludes himself,
and you do, Ben, because if you didn't,
you'd know that you loved me
and admit it to yourself if not to me.
Good-bye, Ben.
No, Ben, I am not being
a foolish woman.
You asked her to leave, and she left.
I'm glad.
Francesca, is this possible?
Have you so little faith in me?
All my faith is in you, Ben.
You think because I can be touched
by a small and touching thing,
because she moved me to smile at her,
that you think...
I think that you
have done and said and felt nothing wrong.
Then why send away
a homeless, sick child?
You think she was anything more than that?
I don't know what she was.
I do know she was not what she seemed.
I didn't trust her.
I was... I was unable to like...
Why?
Oh, she's gone, Ben.
It should no longer matter.
It does matter.
I was unable to like her.
I did not want her in our home.
She was not a threat to me, Ben.
She was a threat to us.
You should not have felt concern.
I did not intend to leave.
I am merely employing
the devious methods they themselves use.
They must not think
I wish to harm him or the woman.
You see, they live by what they think,
not by what they know.
We beg forgiveness, queen,
for having doubted you.
We did not understand it was a game.
We are at your service.
We will... Warning! Warning!
No!
Yes?
Ben?
I've been calling all afternoon.
Well, I've been here...
Down in my lab...
Straightening things up and...
Listening to some... Tapes.
I, uh...
I didn't hear the phone ring.
You need anything?
No, I don't need anything.
Ben?
Huh?
Have you taken those pills?
Pills?
I gave you some pills
when we were leaving the cemetery.
Oh. Those.
What are they for, Howard?
Tranquilizers.
Huh.
Are you sure they work?
Are they as effective
as the inoculations you gave Francesca?
Ben, I've told you stings did not kill her.
Yeah, that's right.
I keep forgetting that.
What did kill her, Howard?
Get some sleep, Ben.
What did kill her, Howard?
I don't know.
Poison.
They're still working on it, Ben.
We can't identify it.
Maybe I can help you, Howard...
Because I'm an exacting...
Perfect award-winning scientist.
I can identify a lot of strange things.
Take that off! Where did you get it?!
Now, take it off!
Oh, forgive me, dear Ben.
I only wanted to make you laugh.
I found it in my room in the cedar chest.
And when I put it on,
I looked so comical, I laughed.
I thought you would, too.
Oh, I wanted to make you laugh again.
It's called grief, isn't it?
Yes, it's called grief.
Does it pass?
After a long time.
We help each other live through it
or with it.
We share it, you see,
as Francesca and I shared ours.
We have a very nice saying, Regina.
Say it, Ben.
Please say it.
A grief shared is half a grief.
A joy shared is twice a joy.
If I share your grief, Ben,
will you share my joy?
You have a joy?
Oh, yes, Ben.
Can you describe it?
I can show you.
Come.
Come, look.
Look.
Now, what do you see?
A lonely man... With swollen eyes.
Oh, no, Ben.
You see my joy.
You see you, Ben.
You're my joy.
I'm your joy?
Now can we be married?
Right now?
No?
Well, there are
all manner of obstacles, Regina,
streams and streams of red tape,
tons of legalities...
All designed to prevent fervent people
from getting married right now.
I am not opposed to a ritual, Ben.
Oh.
And ours is such a beautiful ritual, Regina.
It happens only once in a person's life...
At least it should... And it usually does.
It happens, and then it's over...
Almost quickly.
And the veil is laid in cedar.
And the memory is laid in your heart.
And no one, nothing,
can uproot that memory...
No sudden, senseless tragedy,
no willful murderer
can rip it out and desecrate it.
When we love and get married,
we share our acts of love with God.
When there are children,
we share them with God,
and when there are none,
we share our grief with God.
That's our ritual, Regina.
It's called life.
And no evil, no inhuman mutation
has ever been able to stop it.
It goes on and on
just as the kind of life
where you come from goes on and on...
The way it was meant to go on and on!
Aah!
When the yearning to gain ascendancy
takes the form of a soulless, loveless struggle,
the conflict must end in unlovely defeat,
for without love,
drones can never be made,
and men can only be drones.
We now return control of your television set to you
until next week at this same time...
When the control voice will take you to...