Is that it? Is it dead?
I am going to bury it. You must not stop me.
It has a bullet
in the base of its skull.
My son didn't put it there.
Great men are forgiven their murderous wives.
Unh!
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...
There is a passion in the human heart
which is called aspiration.
It flares with a noble flame,
and by its light,
man has traveled from the caves of darkness
to the darkness of outer space.
But when this passion becomes lust,
when its flame is fanned by greed and private hunger,
then aspiration becomes ambition,
by which sin the angels fell.
Mrs. Dame?
It holds steady?
Yes, Father.
Mrs. Dame?
It's been a long evening, Richard.
Has it, Father?
Tell your wife I enjoyed my dinner.
She might like hearing it from you.
Your favorite year, Father.
Next time, Judith.
Good night now. Excuse me.
I'll see you to the car, Father.
Yes?
He'd already made his decision
before he came tonight.
Not in your favor?
No. Somebody from the Canadian branch.
Richard.
I'll be there in a moment, Father.
Passes over his own son in favor of a stranger?
He isn't stepping down from the throne, Judith.
He's merely retiring from the presidency
of a company he owns and controls.
Blood has nothing to do with his choice of a successor.
Well, he... He didn't wait.
It's always made him uncomfortable
having to turn me down.
Your laser light didn't impress him, did it, Richard?
It isn't anything original, Judith.
I'd merely supposed I'd found a new use for it.
"The Bellero Corporation
"is no longer interested
in destructive appliances."
His phrase.
Is it destructive, Richard?
Did you know I was interested in your work?
Well, it's recent, isn't it?
It began with this.
I remember something I heard in passing
as a small child.
Someone spoke of the trembling way...
A bridge between earth and heaven.
When I grew up, I found it in a mythology book.
Scandinavians call it the Bifrost.
I thought of this as our Bifrost.
The trembling way to what, for me, would be heaven...
Power, far-flung holdings, undiminishable authority.
And all along, I...
I thought all you wanted from me
was to make some small contribution to mankind.
Not small, Richard.
The things I want for you are not small.
I'm sorry, Judith,
but... Unless my Father changes his mind,
which he won't...
The only thing I'll be able to give you
in large amounts is... Money.
And love.
Will that keep you, Judith?
Will that keep you?
Will you return this, Richard?
We'll open it the next time
your Father comes to dinner.
Will there be a next time?
No.
Bring us two glasses.
Crystal.
Ask Mrs. Dame to Polish them.
We'll drink to...
Our trembling way.
Oh!
Mrs. Dame,
does my wife ever confide in you about me?
Sometimes when she is dreaming,
I am there...
So she dreams aloud.
Has she ever dreamed of leaving me?
For what?
Leaving you for what?
For... Some other pretender
to a more accessible throne.
Mrs. Bellero is loyal.
Yes, but to whom?
Judith, what is it?
I killed it.
It wasn't human.
It wasn't a human that I killed.
It came toward me, and I fired.
Is it still up there in the lab?
I didn't look back.
I crawled out of the room.
I crawled, Richard.
We are told that on this planet,
fear is the spur.
It was fear that made you think first
to destroy me, was it not?
The laser beam didn't destroy you?
Does fire quench fire?
Who are you?
Your weapon could not harm me.
Had I known its charge was of the same stuff as that,
I would not have thrown up this shield.
I feel... I sense, however,
that it would be wiser to remain shielded
until I have acquainted myself
with all your weapons.
Ask him who he is.
A traveler.
From where?
My world hovers just above the ceiling
of your universe.
It is not a planet.
It is an amplification of light,
some of which radiates from your stars.
How?
How did you come here?
I am more urgently concerned
with the question of how I shall survive here.
If I remove my shield...
Please, please. You may. Do.
That shield.
Without it, we could not travel
into such unserene universes as this.
Your meteors and your random radiations...
I shall go.
No! Don't!
I already see another of your weapons...
Distrust.
Perhaps you can explain to him
that we are not all scientists, Richard.
In our world, naivete and mindless courage
are reserved for very small children
and very dedicated scientists.
The rest of us will just have to struggle along
with our distrust of monsters.
Judith.
I'm not afraid now, and I apologize.
You need not.
My husband does not want you to go.
My housekeeper will accept you the moment I do.
Do you?
In my limited fashion, yes.
Will you stay?
How were you able to create
a solid cylinder of amplified light?
The laser?
It is composed of properties
almost identical to those which form
the atmosphere of my world.
How could you have synthesized
compounds whose existence
you could not possibly have known?
Explain please.
The laser is the amplification of light
by stimulated emission of radiation.
It irradiates a synthetic Ruby crystal,
which absorbs energy
on a broad band of frequencies.
It is optical energy,
and it excites the atoms to a higher energy state.
I call it our Bifrost,
our bridge from earth to heaven,
and I was right.
I was right.
Finally... Totally.
Do you know what that monstrous thing is, Mrs. Dame?
Something dead that won't die?
No. It isn't a specter, Mrs. Dame.
It's real, and it's alive...
And it's ours.
Mrs. Bellero does not wish to see you.
She sent me to send you away.
I came to see my son.
Kindly tell him I'm here.
I'll wait.
I was sent to send you away.
My son will see me.
Why don't you go away, Mr. Bellero?
It would be rare wiseness on your part.
How dare you speak to me that way?
No friend and no equal
could speak to you more advisedly.
Call my son!
Go to bed, Mrs. Dame.
I couldn't keep you from marrying my son.
I've done my best to keep him
from regretting it.
It's been a silent war, Judith.
Now I must fire a very loud shot.
The noise will break his heart, Father.
He can have the Bellero Corporation...
All of it forever...
If...
He leaves you.
He doesn't want it.
He spent his entire life
trying to prove to me he's worthy of it.
He wants your love.
I want your empire.
I spend every hour,
every dollar and every dream
developing men and means
who were devoted to the prevention of war.
That says how much I hate war!
And yet, I am not as sickened
or enraged even by war
as I am by a single soul like yours.
Your ambition is singularly
the most active form of violence
I've ever encountered!
No more active than your own,
just younger and more vibrant.
I have no ambition.
My yearnings are aspirations.
Oh, you want glory.
I aspire to it.
You lust,
and lust is what becomes
of an aspiration when it's allowed
to grow up and become an ambition.
You are going to give the Bellero Corporation
to your son...
No!
In return for the glory
he is about to give the Bellero name.
Yes, Father.
Wait and see.
The human you call "wife"...
Oh, Judith?
Friend, I have not much time,
and there is so much more
I would like to be taught.
I'll just be a moment.
Close the door, please.
My hearing is more sensitive than yours.
I see.
What?
How you look when you're genuinely happy.
Evidently, this is the first time
I've ever seen you genuinely happy.
Judith, he cares about everything.
Nothing I can say or explain to him disinterests him.
He'd like it if I could stuff
all the facts of the world into his brain.
That's what you've been doing up here
all this time?
He hasn't much time... Less than an hour.
He has to travel before the parallax between earth...
Richard, you're a fool! You're a generous fool!
You stuff his brain?
Lower your voice, Judith.
And he goes home and astounds everyone,
and you're left with nothing but a fantastic tale
to tell a smirking world.
Who'll believe you?
Shall I put a chain around his neck
and parade him down main street?
Richard, your laser light made it possible
for a form of life to travel
from beyond our universe.
You brought it down. It's yours. You own it!
No. No. No form of life
should ever be owned by another.
Not ownership, then, but proof...
To convince the smirkers,
to stagger the world.
Judith, I didn't set out to accomplish this.
This was... It was an accident!
Richard, such accidents have made men kings.
Richard. Richard.
Hmm...
Don't lose this mad opportunity.
My Father would be believed.
My... Father.
If he tells them, they'll believe him.
Judith, call my Father. Tell him to come here quickly.
He can make it in time. He lives close enough.
Quickly. Call him.
No. You call him. He doesn't hate you.
Hurry. Less than an hour.
What is it?
I better use the phone downstairs.
He might resent being exploited.
He probably doesn't know the meaning of the word.
I do.
I learned it on my Father's knee.
Mrs. Bellero.
Once, this protected me from a human monster...
The one I married.
Take it.
You may need the same protection.
Richard will be back in a minute.
Is there something I can do for you?
How long is a minute?
It passes unnoticed when you're content.
To the needy, it can be a string
of endless lifetimes.
Why do you want me to remain here?
Can you read my mind?
Even through your shield?
No. I cannot read your mind.
I cannot even understand your language.
I analyze your eyes.
In all the universes,
in all the unities beyond the universes,
all who have eyes have eyes that speak,
and all speak the same language.
How can you speak my language?
I learn each word just before I speak it.
Your eyes teach me.
My husband tells me that you must go
in less than an hour.
Must you?
Don't. Please stay.
I want you to stay.
I want you to stay for my husband's sake.
I see.
Then you must also see
that I wouldn't harm you for the world.
You can come out of your shield.
And now you will come out of yours?
You're extremely perceptive.
Yes. We have our shields, too,
but ours protect only our hearts and our souls.
Our flesh is vulnerable to whatever fate
and our other enemies hurl at us.
No.
No?
You lack the prime ingredient
to manufacture a thing like this.
That's unfortunate.
A man who could give his country
a weapon like that...
It is not a weapon.
I suppose in a military frame of reference,
it would be considered an antiweapon.
Antiweapon!
It's the same thing.
If every man, woman, and child had one,
an entire country could be protected
against attack... And counterattack.
Every man, woman, and child would not need his own.
A single one of these
could shield and protect your entire planet.
A single one?
The shield's radius
can be increased or decreased
simply by deepening or lightening the pressure,
but the thing would do your planet no good
unless I or one of my kind were to...
He won't come back.
My Father will never come here again.
Make him!
Beg him to. Go and beg him.
You sent him away, Judith.
Well, I'll go. I'll crawl...
Anything to get him here before it's too late.
No. I can't let you crawl, Judith.
I'll go.
Wait for me. Please.
I did not lie to him.
I did not promise I would wait.
You're not going to wait?
If I miss the moment,
I will never be able to leave here.
Yes. None of us can afford to miss the moment.
We'll have to dig it a grave later.
Your husband.
He rarely comes down for the wine.
I'll remember not to send him.
I'll dig a hole in the woods behind the house.
Tonight, we'll bury it.
Nobody's grave has to be dug in a hurry.
Do a little today, a little tomorrow,
so I won't have to do without you
for a whole day.
It's up in the laboratory, Father.
I shall wait here
in the foyer, Richard.
I do not wish to go deeper into your house.
I've come as far as any man should have to.
There are drafts here.
If you truly have something to show me,
bring it here and show it to me.
Stay.
Thank you, Father, for coming.
Excuse me.
It refused to wait.
He said it was not a question of time,
that the parallax made no difference.
He simply did not want you to profit by him
as he had profited by you.
I see.
Oh, Richard, I begged him to stay.
I told him he'd not begun to learn
all you could have taught him.
I'm so glad I didn't tell Father
what I had up here.
He'd think I'd added imbecility
to my long list of accomplishments.
Judith...
We'll tell Father it was a ruse
to get him here so you could apologize to him.
Judith?
Will you apologize?
Wait, Richard.
I'll talk to him.
You'll apologize?
He will.
Wait here. Your Father and I
will come up together.
Father? He cannot bring it down.
You'll have to go up to the lab.
Father!
Your son has invented a way for mankind
to protect itself from mankind.
He can give it to the world
as a gift from an anonymous donor...
Or he can give it
as the new ruler of the Bellero empire.
Which sounds more glorious to you?
My invention?
She called it yours.
Richard, may I have the honor
of explaining your shield,
the Bellero shield, to your Father?
The Bellero shield?
He wanted to call it the Bifrost
in honor of a childhood tale.
I persuaded him to use his own name...
His and yours.
Fire at me... Point-blank.
Judith!
Please.
Great men require great demonstrations,
don't they?
Point-blank.
Richard,
are you going to let me be tricked?
No trick, Father.
Perhaps a bullet won't convince you.
Richard, give him the laser gun.
Judith, I can't let you...
Mrs. Dame?
We must show these men what great men they are.
What... What is it?
Can she hear me?
Yes. now the laser gun.
The man who invented this could rule the world...
Or save it, if you prefer.
Isn't that the kind of man
you want to succeed you, Father?
I gathered up all my self-doubts,
and I rid myself of them
by projecting them onto you.
I have used you, Richard...
Stop it, Father!
To protect myself,
and I almost destroyed you.
Forgive me, please.
Don't... don't shut me out of your success
as I tried to shut you out of mine.
Please forgive...
Stop it!
He does not forgive easily, Father.
He has your small flaws
as well as your great virtues.
He will forgive me, won't he?
I'll help him to.
But quickly, Judith, please, quickly.
I haven't too much time.
I did not decide to retire.
I am going to be retired...
By a more final and just decision
than I could ever make.
Go to him.
It is customary
for one to comfort a broken enemy...
Before you discard him.
Oh!
Help her.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Heaven, help her.
It is useless, Mr. Bellero.
The monster will not come back,
not that way.
It came once. It will come again.
She'll die in there.
No!
Can she live without air to breathe?
Is there a perpetual supply of oxygen
in that tomb of hers?
He'll come back!
Richard...
Let me go... For help.
I can do something, I'm sure,
but not if I must remain here.
It's hope...
No! Don't you tell me it's hopeless.
That's all you ever had to give me,
words of hopelessness.
Don't you ever run out of them?
Do you have a perpetual supply
of hopeless words in that...
In that tomb of yours?
If... if there was such a creature,
it may be roaming the streets.
It may be killing, and someone should warn...
Sit down, Father, will you?
And be quiet!
I don't want anyone to know
my wife is a thief...
The first to thieve
from a friend from another world.
Well, you must do something
for all of us, as well as for your wife.
What can we do for my wife, Father?
What can we do?
Get help, Richard!
Perhaps she can be reached from the room below.
If the ceiling were to be cut away...
The shield goes all the way down
to the foundations of the house, Father!
Down and down, probably all the way to...
Stay, Father, stay!
I... I'll call, then, for help.
You can listen.
I won't say anything incriminating.
Can't I...
Can't I even call for help...
Just call?
Call! Call! Call whom? The police?
The leading scientists of the world?
The faith healers? The magicians?
Psychiatrists? Munitions experts?
Philosophers? The politicians?
The image makers? Funeral directors?
The million government agencies?
Whom do you call, Father,
when you're trapped alive in your own tomb?
Judith, pick it up.
Try again, please.
Movements and words accomplish nothing
and only deplete the oxygen in the soul.
Once more, please!
Mrs. Dame, tell him it's useless.
No, it isn't.
He has to be still in our atmosphere.
He couldn't have left without the shield.
He'd be incinerated. He knew that, Judith.
Mrs. Dame, tell him to call the police.
Richard...
No!
Why not, Mrs. Dame?
The state can't execute me
without getting me out of here.
And maybe that's the solution.
Tell them I'm a murderer,
and they'll rip me out of this thing
with their bare hands...
To keep me from escaping
their chamber!
Ha ha ha!
He told me so much about it...
All about it, I thought.
A single one could protect our entire planet.
Its radius is increased
by merely deepening the pressure.
An "antiweapon," he called it.
I thought he told me everything.
Now, of course, I realize that...
He never told me how to remove it.
Nothing we know of in this world
will remove it.
Nothing will remove it.
I killed him prematurely.
Mrs. Dame and I put him in the cellar.
I wanted proof that he'd been here.
Your Father would have wanted proof.
Fathers often demand
what strangers don't even expect.
Is that it? Is it dead?
I am going to bury it. You must not stop me.
You have your proof.
The police must not have theirs.
Police? Oh, no, of course not.
No. It's none of their business.
It belongs to the world of the prize-givers,
of the praisers of greatness,
and my son invented the agency
that brought it here.
He'll be splashed across a thousand chapters
of the world's most-honored history.
It has a bullet
in the base of its skull.
My son didn't put it there.
Great men are forgiven their murderous wives.
Unh!
Let me out!
Please, let me out!
I'm sorry.
Oh... Please...
I need to be forgiven.
Make someone forgive me
and let me free.
I can forgive you, Judith, but I can't let you free.
I can.
When she borrowed the thing,
she accidentally broke the vein.
My fluid, like your blood,
the prime ingredient.
Aah!
Aah! No! Aah! Aah!
I expected it to kill me...
But it looked into my eyes,
and I heard myself say,
"can you help?"
And it said, "can I not?"
Judith...
It's gone.
You're free.
Come, Judith.
We'll... we'll have to tell someone
what we've done.
You said it was gone.
It is gone, Judith.
No. No, it's still here.
Nothing will remove it.
It will always be here.
Nothing will ever remove it.
It's here. I know it's here.
I can see it.
I'll always see it.
It will always be here.
Nothing will ever remove it.
Nothing... Nothing will ever remove it.
Nothing will ever remove it.
Nothing.
When this passion called aspiration
becomes lust,
then aspiration degenerates,
becomes vulgar ambition,
by which sin the angels fell.
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...