Vintage Sci-Fi Radio

X Minus One - The Roads Must Roll

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Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 04 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere. So, sign up now at Chumba Casino.com to claim your free welcome bonus at Chumba Casino.com and live the Chumba life. Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary. V.G.W. Group. V.G.W. Rehibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Countdown for blast off. X minus five. Four. Three. Two. X minus one. Fire. [explosion] [music] [music] [music] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed 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 in cooperation with St. Smith, publishers of astounding science fiction presents... [music] Tonight's story, The Roads Must Roll by Robert Heinlein. Hear them hum, watch them run. Oh, our job is never done for our roadways go rolling along. Why you ride, why you glide? We are watching down in sight, so your roadways go rolling along. Oh, it's high, high, D. The road are men, are we? Check off the sectors loud and strong. One, two. Anywhere you go, you are bound to know that your roadways keep rolling along. Keep rolling that your roadways keep rolling along. [music] It was in the middle 1950s that the automotive age began to die. The traffic engineers had long expected it. For years they had watched our vast cities sprawl and spread out, spill over into the countryside, become more and more dependent on motor transportation. And then finally, the inevitable breaking point was reached. The growing flood of cars and buses and trucks began to swamp the streets and arterial highways. The building of roads could no longer keep pace. The super highways clogged, congested, became packed with cars stalled bumper to bumper, and the cities began to die of slow strangulation, where the traffic could no longer roll. And then the engineers took over. They banned the automobiles, tore up the super highways, and in their place they built the rolling roads, mechanized roads that moved like huge conveyor belts, whirling along on their giant rotors at speeds ranging from 5 to 100 miles an hour, carrying the freight, the food, and the people from city to city and coast to coast. And no one worried over the fact that if the road should ever stop, our whole economic life would stop. For the machinery had never failed yet, but people forgot that machinery depends on men, the men who run it. Who makes the roads roll? That's right, the engineers. We're the brains of the road, and where would the public be if we didn't keep the roads rolling, right behind the eight ball, and everybody knows this. All right then. We're the men who hold the power, and it's time we started using it. We've called this meeting of the engineers control committee because that's what we want to do. Control, because I'm tired of taking orders from the transport commission from slick disc jockeys like Jim Gaines, who don't even own a roller bearing from our field tour. Well, let Gaines jam about our duty to the public. That's a lot of eye wash. We've got the power, and we're the men that count. That's time we quit fiddling around and use the little direct action to get what we want. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman recognizes Brother Harvey as a transport mechanics union. Thanks. Thanks. Now, I don't really belong here since I'm no engineer. I'm just here to represent the workers union. But I want to know what's all the shouting for. You engineers have got better working conditions than we have, and we ain't kicking. You say the engineers are powerful. You say you can tie up the roads. Well, so can any screwball with a jar of nitroglycerin. And he wouldn't need no engineer's degree to do it, neither. All right. All right. Harvey, are you speaking for your union now? Are you here as a stew for the transport commission? Listen, Van Tweek, I helped fund my union. I led the strike in '75 for decent working conditions. Where were you engineers then? With the finks? Brother Harvey, Brother Harvey, remember you're only a guest at this meeting. Go on, Van. Listen, man. I'm one of the old engineers on the roads. You all are. I work up the hard way. We didn't go to the fancy technical institutes like those young punk cadet engineers, the commissioners training to take over our jobs unless we do something to stop them. Jim Gaines hasn't been able to fill us full of the old school spirit and that bony about how the roads must roll. So all right then. Why don't we get smart for a change? What would happen if the roads stopped rolling? Maybe the country would begin to realize that they can't do without us. Maybe we'd begin to get the things we want. Who says the roads must roll? Yes? Your wife is calling, Mr. Gaines. Put her on. Jim, I want you to stop off on your way home. I'm sorry, darling. I can't make it. I know, but Washington called in. They're sending Evans, the Australian Minister of Transport, through my sector today. I've got to show them through personally. Can't somebody else? I'm Chief Supervisor. Wouldn't be courteous. Courtesy begins at home. I've planned this dinner for weeks. Honey, the roads must roll. Oh, if you hold that nauseating slogan at me again, I'll divorce you. I can't help it, darling. I'll meet you at Stockton at 9, and we'll take on a show. Kiss Helen goodnight for me. Well, all right. Goodbye. Goodbye. Mr. Evans is here. Show them in. Well, good evening, Mr. Evans. I'm Gaines, Chief Engineer. How'd you do, Mr. Gaines? They told me at the embassy, you'd be the man to see. I, uh, I want to know how the roads work. I think we can handle that. Well, I'm not a technical man, Mr. Gaines. My field is sociology. So, suppose you tell me about the roads as if I were entirely ignorant. Fine. It's, uh, nearly at dinner time. Uh, suppose we run up to Stockton's sector for dinner. There's about an hour on the roads, and you can see them working. Excellent. If you'll excuse me, I'm upset. Hi, Chief. What can I do for you? Uh, Dave, you're on the evening watch, eh? Uh-huh. Where's Van Cleek? You're on to some meeting. I'm going up to Stockton for dinner. Anything to report? No, sir. The roads are rolling. Okay. Keep them rolling. All right, Mr. Evans. Let's go. This is the low speed strip. I've ridden a conveyor before. No. It's quite simple. Remember to place the motion of the strip as you get on. There. Go right across. Each adjoining strip is a few miles an hour faster than the one next to it. Greatest carried on the 50-mile strip, most passenger traffic on the express strip. All right, now watch your step. There we are. The maximum speed. One hundred miles an hour. It doesn't seem possible. This strip makes the round trip San Diego to Reno in 12 hours. Ready to eat? Uh-huh. Is this the restaurant? Jake Steakhouse, fastest meal in the road. Is it really a proper restaurant? One of the best. Shall we go in? Oh, Mr. Gaines, we don't see you much out on the road. There's the only office, Jake. Two? Right this way. What'll it be? Your order. Well, how about a steak? Do you want to just think from a steer that died happy? Fine, fine. Plug me in upon with you. There's one right next to you. Blank toe round. You'll excuse me, Mr. Evans? David's an on watch. This is the chief. I'm a Jake Steakhouse. You can reach me at 1-O-L-6-6. 1-O-L-6-6, that's right. Yeah, now they can get hold of me in an emergency. Oh, what kind of emergency could there be? Two, principally, power failure on the roaders would bring the road to a standstill. That happened during Russia. We'd have to evacuate millions of people from the road. As many as that? Usually. There are 12 million people dependent on this section of road. Gaines, here. Hello, Chief Davidson. Just got the hour in the reports in. Diego Circle, Bakerfield Sector, Stockton Sector, and Reno Circle, all rolling. Oh, you didn't have to bother me with the owlies, Dave. There's a supplementary from Sacramento. Proceed. Good Engineer Gunther, while on watch, was found playing cards with CJ Ross, technician on duty. Any damage? One roader running hot, but still synchronized, was jacked down, replaced. All right, have the Pamass to give Ross his time and turn him over to several authorities. Place Cadet Gunther under arrest and bring him to Rotown Central. Yes, sir. All right, keep him rolling. I was saying there were two possibilities of danger. Can you visualize what would happen if the strip under us would break? Oh, I... I hadn't thought of that. You don't realize you're traveling at 100 miles an hour. Well, it can't. Not now. The strip has a safety factor of over 12 to 1. It'll take a blowout of several miles of rotors and a failure of circuit breakers before the strip could park. But it happened once in the early days on the Philadelphia Jersey City Road. The strip was much more than a conveyor belt, a buckle for miles crushing passengers against the roof. Forward second, front of the brakes, spilling down under into the rotors and rollers. Oh, was it very bad? Over 3,000 people were killed in that break, but the roads had to go on. The entire economic system hangs on the roads. They stopped now, the country would starve. Well, isn't it possible that you become too dependent on these roads? I mean, if your whole economy is geared to the function of one type of machinery... The roads are foolproof now. The machinery is interlocked with an enormous safety factor. Yes, but in the long run, machinery depends on men. What if you had a strike? We heard one back in '75. There's not much danger of that anymore. No? Well, why not? Every cadet that goes to work on the roads today is a graduate of the United States Transport Academy. They're all picked men, screened for emotional stability, and trained to give us the same kind of loyalty that Annapolis and West Point develop in their men. I see. Are you a graduate, Mr. Gaines? No, I'm too old for that. The academy wasn't set up till after the strike in '75. But it won't be long now, maybe five or ten years, before the oldest engineer in the road says a man who's been through the academy. Gaines, sir. Davidson, there's another trouble report from Sacramento sector. Again, what is it this time? What is it? What happens? Emergency stop. Hello. Hello, Davidson. Home's around. Come on. Jay! Jay! What's the matter with the road? Everybody's staying in the restaurant. What's that? Probably somebody stepped on to the next trip. They'll be plenty of casualties. Jack, where'd you get away at? In the pantry. I'm going to help those people. I've got the whole road to think of, don't bother me. Give me a hand, Jack. The hatch is stuck. If you're coming with me, Mr. Evans, you've got to move fast. I haven't got any time to waste. Where are we now? Freeway on top of the inner road ceiling. That's the outer shell over us. Are we going outside? There's space every hundred feet. There, by the green light. No. Just get us down on the northbound road. Careful. It's all right. Now stand away from the door, Evans. Yes. But this road is still rolling. It was only the hundred mile step that stopped. That's what I want to phone, Booth. Look out, excuse me. Look out. Hey, hey. Hey, I'm talking to my wife. What's the idea you're posting in here? Oh, no, no. Yeah, but I-- Emergency priority division office. James. James here, report. Chief, where have you been? I've been calling you. Never mind that report. 709, consolidated tension. Report strip 20 Sacramento sector past emergency level. Interlocks acted and cut the strip out. Cause of failure unknown. Direct communication cut to Sacramento control office. Evacuation of strip 20 commenced. No casualties. There are casualties, I saw them. Put police and hospital routine A into operation. Get me banked click. I want them to take all the furniture I report in. We can't reach them, Chief. Shall I cut out the rest of the road? No. Keep those other strips rolling and we'll have a traffic jam that devil himself couldn't untangle. There are five million passengers on the road now. Notify the Governor that I have assumed emergency authority. I'm all cadets available on the wait orders. Shall I recall technicians on the watch? No. This isn't an engineering failure. That whole sector went out simultaneously. Somebody cut those rotors by hand. I want all available senior class cadets to report the Stockman Subsector Office 10 with pistols and tear gas. Yes, sir. The Governor wants to talk to you. He called in. Referring to someone else. I'm busy. I'll get back there. I'm going down under. Evans. Evans. I don't hear you. There's the noise. What on this helmet? What? Helmet. Helmet. Oh, oh. Yes. You can't hear without an anti-noise filler. Come on. What are we looking for? A recon car. There should be one here. Uh-uh. Are those the rotors? The big ones are rotors. They drive the road. The little ones are rollers. They get continuous support. There's a watch gang now jacking down a rotor. Can they hear us? No, the noise filler works on a four foot radius. I'll flash them. Now you see the light. Can that Wilson reporting, too? I want your recon car emergency. Yes, sir, right over here, sir. Come on, Evans. Yes, sir. Get in. But it's so small. You'll fit all right. You can take off your noise filler now. Hang on, she accelerates like a rocket. Ooh! A nice stomach. Relay station. This is Gaines. Get me Davidson, senior watch officer. Mr. Gaines, the mayor wants to talk to you. I haven't got time. Get me Davidson and leave this circuit hooked into Davidson's board until I tell you to cut it. Yes, sir. Here is the senior watch officer. Davidson. Gaines calling. Have you found out yet what's stopping the road? No, sir. It's still a mystery to me. All right. I'm on my way in a recon car. Hold everything till I get there. Cadet Edmonds reporting, sir. Three platoons of cadet engineers standing by with tumblebug motorcycles. And pistols and tear gasses, officer. Good. Assistant supervisor Van Cleek is calling you on Circuit 9, sir. Van Cleek. It's about time. Cut me in. Yes, sir. Hello, Van. Where are you? Sacramento office. Allison. Sacramento. That's good report. In a fixed eye. What? I'm not your deputy anymore, Gaines. What are you talking about? Listen, don't interrupt and you'll find out. You're through, Gaines. I haven't picked this director of the engineers' control committee. We're taking over. Have you gone off here, rotor? We stopped script 20 just to give you a taste of what we can do. We're running things now. And you don't really think you can get away with this? You can't start script 20 until I'm ready to let you. I can stop the whole road if I have to. Van, click on calling the Army. How will you get him here if the roads aren't rolling? Listen, Gaines, whoever controls the roads controls the country. Right now, that happens to be me. Sign off, Gaines. Gotta call the White House. You'll behave yourself and you won't get hurt. I don't believe it, sir. He's got us, Edmonds. We go in and blast him out of me, wreck the road. Watch your rolling tonnets now. 53% under evening pizza. How about strip 20? Almost evacuated. Listen in on this, Davidson. Standing margin. I'm going down inside with these cadets. We'll work north, overcoming any resistance that we may meet. The watch technicians and maintenance crews are the follow behind us. Each rotor, as they come to it, is to be cut out from under Sacramento's control, then hooked into the Stockton control board. Understand? Got it. Check. If it works right, we can move control of Sacramento's sector right out from under Van's feet. And he can stay in his office that he's hungry enough to be reasonable. Edmonds. Get me a piston. Yes, sir. Mr. Gaines, there's a man here. He's badly hurting. What's the secret? Take care of my, I haven't got time. He's from Sacramento's sector. Huh? Bring him in. All right. Easy. Easy. Mr. Gaines. You're Harvey from the Mechanics Union, aren't you? I tried to warn you. I tried to get away. He shot me three times. Get a doctor. All right. Easy, Harvey. How long has this been building up? It isn't. It's the engineers. I told them they were crazy. Tell them that it's got a roller. When I tried to get away, they... He's bleeding from the mouth, sir. Harvey. Harvey. Can you hear me? He's dead, Mr. Gaines. Come on, Addison. We've got to move. Hey! Hey! All right, you man. You saw Harvey brought in. How many of you want a chance to kill the last that did it? I do! Very well. You meant turning your weapons in return to quarters. We've got a job to do. To make sure the road started rolling again. We haven't got time for infant Tyler Roegs. Anybody who hasn't got his mind on his job will be in the way. Now, here's the order. We move north mounted on tumblebugs. We're going to try to regain control rotor by rotor. Before Sacramento's sector knows we're moving. We've got to capture any watch personnel we run on before they can get word back. Surprise is vital. Use take-as when possible. Shoot only when necessary. But get them before they can reach a phone jack. Any questions? No. And move out. ♪♪ How much is car, Edmonds? Thirty-three prisoners so far and nobody killed. What? Yes, since I rode one of these tumblebugs. You've gotten out of stare. Well, so there's a man ahead. Derek, the road of base. The road of bonejack then. Hurry. He gets word back with sunk. I don't think he sees us. I'll just mount and get him. ♪♪ Quick, he sees us. Here you go. Look out. He's got a gun. I got him. Grab his gun. Yes, sir. You got a phone jacked in, all right? They got through to Sacramento office. It's going to be tough. I don't know, sir. Maybe you didn't get the call through. Wait a minute. Listen. The road. Pick up your nice little. There. The road. The road is stopping. Hold your men. Hold. Hold up there. Hold up. There's a recon car coming up. We may station call for Mr. Gay. Give it to me. Hey, y'all, sir. Gayne's here. Davidson, here, chief. Van Cleek's calling you. Who stopped the road? He did. All right. You thought I was fooling her, Gayne's? What do you think now? All right, Van, the road has stopped. You won this trick. Then why don't you get smart and give up? You can't win. You've got something, Van. You can't lick the whole country. Yeah. Gayne's, I've got a switch button in my hand. If I push it, it'll blow 300 yards straight across the road. And then for good measure, I'll take an axe and wreck the control station before I leave. That's pretty drastic, Van. Yeah, if I blow this charge in the middle of Sacramento sector, it'll get an awful lot of people. There are plenty of shopkeepers still on strip 20, and that row of apartment houses next to the road will go. Look, Van, you don't want to blow the road, neither do I. Suppose I come up to your headquarters and talk this over. Two reasonable men ought to be able to make a settlement. Is this some kind of a trick? I'll come alone and unarmed. My men will stay here. All right. All right, games. But one wrong move. And I blow the road. We've got a hurry, Dave. If I take too long, Van, click, we'll get edgy and set off that charge. Failure report notes. One, strips must be cross-connected with safety interlocks, so that when one dies, the other slow down. Two, the men. I can't understand it. Psych tests are rigid. We've never had a failure in a Humwad's worth Britain method. And then suddenly, a whole sector goes sour. How could Van Cleek get a whole crew of cyclid men to repose? It's easy, Dave. 'Cause my deputy was ex-officio personnel officer for the whole road. He must have been taking psych records for years and transferring maladjusted men into his sector. I've got that personnel record, Mr. Gaines. Man's record. Masked introvert, superiority rating seven. Common. There's quite a potential instability shown on Wadsworth Curve. This officer is especially adept in handling men. Good depth, all right. I haven't got time for any more, Dave. You're not going up to the Sacramento water. I've got to. There'll be armed. He'll kill you. I've got to take that chance. But unarmed. Why don't you call me army? He won't dare blow the road. Yes, he would. Look at that psych record. He's putting up a big, brave front, but he's rotten inside. He wants to be taken seriously. He wants everybody to think he's the most dangerous man in the country. And if I call the army in, he'll try to prove it by blowing the road. How can you stop him, Mr. Gaines? You have a gun. What'll you have? What'll I have? Only a prayer. And what I know about Mr. Van Cleek. All right, Gaines. Director Van Cleek will see you now. Gaines is here, Director Van Cleek. Come in, Gaines. Behaving sensibly at last. You know I've got you where I want you, and there isn't anything you can do about it. I searched him, Director. He's unarmed. I want you to sign this now. It's a declaration of your recognition of the Engineers' Control Committee. You've got one minute to sign at Gaines, or I'll push this button and go up the whole sector. You better sign, Gaines. You know this, Carilla, with a gun van? You lose. We'll handle one on our man alone. All right, Harry. Out. One, two. Out? Yeah. Okay. All right. No sign. - What's your funny? - You are. You start a revolution because you think the Engineers should control the road. Then when you've got control, the only thing you can think of to do is blow it up. Tell me, why are you so scared of it? - I'm not scared. - Yeah? Sitting and ass sweating all over that push button you're holding? Your buddies knew how afraid you were. They'd probably throw you into the rotors. - I'm not afraid. - You're afraid of me right now. You're afraid I'll have you on the carpet. You're afraid the cadets won't salute you. You're afraid they're laughing at you behind your back. - No, no, I'm not. - No, now you keep quiet. I've got a gun. - You're afraid of using the wrong fork at dinner. You're afraid people are looking at you, laughing at you. - I am not you. You dirty, stuck-up snob. Just because you went to a high-hat school, you think you're better than anybody you were on your crummy little dog ride cadets? - Man, you're a pathetic little shrimp. I understand you perfectly. You're a third raider. All your life, you've been afraid that someone would see through you and send you to the foot of the clash. Throw you right out on your ear where you belong. I don't want to look at you anymore. - I'll show you. - I'll put a bullet in you. - I'll put on that popcorn before you hurt yourself. - Don't you come near me. Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - Don't you come near me or I'll shoot. - I thought if I wanted your little ego, you'd forget to push that button and pull a trigger instead. I'm afraid you'll never make a good executive, man. They have to know when to push buttons. - James here. - Chief, are you all right? Are you? - I'm all right. Attack now and mop up. I'll hold the control room. I've got band clique and I think his little revolution is just about over. - Hear them hum, watch them run. Oh, our job is never done for our old ways, the rolling along. Why are you right? Why are you blind? We are watching down in sight. So your old ways keep rolling along. - Mr. Gaines. - Mr. Gaines. - Hi. Hi. I forgot about you. Yes, I've been waiting at the sector office. Is everything under control? Oh, rolling. Those are the watch engineers going on at the Czech Sacramento sector, inch by inch. - Remarkable organization. Remarkable. - Hourly's in chief, San Diego Circle Rolling, Baker Steel, Fresno, Stockton. - Stockton? - Stockton? Oh, no. What's the matter, Chief? - Trouble, Mr. Gaines. - Sure is. I promise to meet my wife at Stockton for a show. She's been waiting there since nine o'clock last night. Dave, see if you can get up on me, try the sector office. - All right, Chief. - And Dave, see if you can calm her down. - I'm sure she's following. - Tell him the roads must roll. - No, no, don't tell her that. I don't think she'd appreciate it. She's heard it too often. - Oh, it's I, I, E. The road will never be. - I better get going. Bye, Dave. Keep on rolling. - Anywhere you go, you are bound to know that your roadways go rolling along. - Keep on rolling. - That your roadways go rolling along. - Keep on rolling. - Keep on rolling. - That your roadways go rolling along. - Keep on rolling. - That your roadways go rolling along. - Keep on rolling. - That your roadways go rolling along. - Keep on rolling. - That your roadways go rolling along. - You have just heard X minus one, presented by the National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of astounding science fiction. Your announcer, Fred Cowen. X minus one was an NBC radio network production. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ High Five Casino ♪ - High Five Casino is a social casino with real prizes and Big Vegas hits at highfivecocino.com. The hottest games right from Vegas and all winnings go straight to your bank account. 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