- [last lines]
- Allan Brenner: Well, I tried.
- Laura James: They're scientists Allan, they know what they're doing.
- Allan Brenner: I hope so. Come on, let's touch Earth and feel sunshine in our faces again.
- Laura James: [Before sending the corpse of fellow astronaut into space] King James Bible "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter in his gates with thanksgiving and into his court with praise. For ye must know that God will redeem they soul from the power of the grave. For he shall receive thee." Amen.
- Commander Anders Brockman: Into the waste of outer space. It's a fitting grave for an astronaut.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: The year, 1990. The problem of travelling to the Moon has been solved for many years. Space stations have been built there and authorized personnel come and go has they wish. But the Moon is a dead world and the great question about space still remains: does life exist on another planet?
- Laura James: It must be some - a message of some kind. And just think, if it is, it will be our first contact with intelligent beings from another planet.
- Paul Grant: What's the latest scuttlebutt there, Tony, baby?
- Allan Brenner: I only know what Mata Hari here tells me - and she get's it straight from the horse's mouth.
- Tony Barrata: You mean Dr. Farraday?
- Laura James: Well, I do hear a remark, now and then. They seem to be making some excellent progress on that new radiation shield.
- Dr. Farraday: The world wants to know what has happened and I shall tell them. But, the real question remains to be answered: what are we going to do about it?
- Dr. Farraday: In the great adventure of space, I have the most important news to announce since our first successful landing on the moon, 20 years ago. As many of you know, for several weeks now we have been receiving organized signals from a far galaxy. This morning, our code experts finally deciphered the message these signals contain. It's the most extraordinary document. It's very long. I'm not going to read it to you, but, I would like you to have a jest of it. It informs us they are dispatching a spaceship to bring their ambassador to our planet Earth.
- Allan Brenner: It's the one bad thing about space trips, no banana spilts. No matter what they say about that exobiologic food, it taste terrible!
- Laura James: It's all relative.
- Allan Brenner: That's all it is.
- Allan Brenner: Hey, you're going to be the most famous girl in America. Now go on, tell 'em who you are and where you came from.
- Laura James: Maybe when we get back to earth you can have that published - and you'll be known as that famous rider astronaut fellow.
- Paul Grant: Well.
- Allan Brenner: Look, I'm sure I'm going to be on the next ship. I'll make a date right now to see you there. In fact, I'll tell you what, I'll taking you dancing on Mars. How about that?
- Allan Brenner: We ought to destroy her right now.
- Commander Anders Brockman: No! No! Allan, she's much too precious for that. Besides, how can we expect her to conform to *our* ideas of proper behavior. She's not necessarily aware that she's done wrong. Wrong from our point of view, that is.
- Commander Anders Brockman: What about their social structure? Moral concepts, as we recognize them, may be nonexistent in their society.
- Commander Anders Brockman: Notice how deep and heavy her breathing is? She's gorged herself of fresh blood. Now she's digesting like a boa constrictor that has swallowed a whole animal. She may remain like this for days. It's fascinating.
- Allan Brenner: She - does something. I don't know what. A kind of hypnosis. Some strange mental power that - that we don't have. I sensed it from the beginning - and it's deadly.