this ISLAND EARTH

What would you do if you ordered condensers from your regular supplier (Continental) and instead received superior condensers from another supplier that you didn’t order from? Meet engineer Cal Meacham from Ryberg Instrument Corp. Cal tested the new parts and they were phenomenal. They came from a company named Electronic Service-Unit 16 with no return address or phone number. Cal told purchasing agent Joe Wilson to order a gross more. When the gross was shipped to Ryberg they were only billed 30 cents apiece! Joe tells Cal that Continental doesn’t know anything about the order. Once again, they came from Electronic Service-Unit 16, but this time the order came with a catalog that listed and showed parts that Cal and Joe never heard of. On top of that, the pages weren’t even paper. “Joe, this stuff isn’t even paper.” Cal’s fingers merely slipped away. “That’s as tough as sheet iron!” The catalog lists catherimine tubes among other strange parts. Joe arched his eyebrows. “Ever hear of a catherimine tube? One with an endiom complex of plus four, which guarantees it to be the best of its kind on the market?” Cal says, “What kind of gibberish is that?” Cal turned the pages until “He came to a inner dividing cover at the centre of the catalogue. For the first time, the center cover announced, Electronic Service-Unit 16 offers a complete line of interocitor components. In the following pages you will find complete descriptions of components which reflect the most modern engineering advances know to interocitor engineers.” What’s a interocitor and who are these people that sent the catalogue? Welcome to the world of Raymond F. Jones, who wrote this 1952 sci-fi classic (later a 1955 movie).

On page eleven Cal finds out that a neighboring plant has also been receiving unknown parts...this time from Electronic Service-unit 8. That plant’s purchasing agent ordered special gears from a different company, but got two perfectly smooth wheels from Unit-8 instead. He said that, “He was about ready to hit the ceiling when he discovered that one wheel rolled against the other would drive it. So I mounted them on shafts and put a motor on one and a pony brake on the other. Believe it or not those things would transfer any horsepower I could use. And I had up to three hundred and fifty. There was perfect transfer without measurable slippage or backlash. The craziest thing you ever saw.” Cal decides to order all the parts necessary to build an interocitor. Almost two weeks go by. Then suddenly fourteen crates arrive. “They stood seven feet tall and were no smaller than four by five feet in cross section.” There are no instructions. Cal needs to use all his past knowledge of engineering and the pictures in the catalog to try to put this together. If he does succeed in putting it together, how does he turn it on? What does it do? Cal is stunned when Joe tells him that the bill for all those crates (4,896 parts) was only twenty-eight hundred dollars. On page twenty-five, after many trials and tribulations, Cal finishes assembling the interocitor. It’s some kind of communicator with a TV- like screen attached to it. He plays around with it and finally gets a fuzzy image on the screen. A masculine voice suddenly says, “Turn up the intensifier knob.” After Cal adjusted the knob, the image came in. Cal said, “Who are you? What have I built? The man (who has a high forehead and white hair) on the screen said, “We’d about given you up, but you’ve passed. And rather well, too.”
 
The strange man says, “You have passed the test!” Cal says, “What do you mean? I have made no application to work with your-your employers.” A faint trace of a smile crossed the man’s face. “No. No one does that. We pick our own applicants and test them, quite without their awareness that they are being tested. You are to be congratulated on your showing.” The man convinces Cal to come to work for them. Cal couldn’t think of any reason not to go. “There were few that he could muster up. None, actually. He was alone, without family or obligations. He had no particular professional ties to prevent him for leaving.” The man says on page twenty-eight, “Our plane will land on your airfield at six p.m. It will remain fifteen minutes. It will take off without you if you are not in it by that time. You will know it by its color. A black ship with a single horizontal orange stripe.” This is where I will stop my review so you can enjoy the meaty part of the story uninhibited. This sci-fi novel could have easily been read in one day. But then I wouldn’t have had this pleasurable feeling that I’ve had for the past three days. You have to savor this novel like a fine wine.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Raymond F. Jones’ sci-fi novel was made into a movie in 1955. It starred Jeff Morrow as Exeter (his name in the novel was Jorgasnovara), Rex Reason as Cal and Faith Domergue as Ruth. The movie finished 74th in gross earnings that year. Oddly enough it opened as a double bill with Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy! Oh, the good old days. I remember when you went to the movies you saw two movies, several cartoons, and the world news all in one sitting. You were armed with popcorn, soda and a candy of some sorts (that’s the only part that’s the same as today). And maybe later...a food fight.

The movie was remade for TV in 1992, but I didn’t find much info on it. It starred Gloria Estefan and Kenny Loggins (two singers).

The 1952 novel and the 1955 movie had many differences, especially the ending.