LT. COL. GREAVES: Maybe they were brought along out of compassion. More probably, they were brought along because the survivors were flesh-eaters. In either case, you can be certain that they were transported from the mother-ship to Earth. As to why no evidence of their existence has ever been found, isn't it reasonable to assume that Planet X paralleled Earth in lower, as well as higher, forms of life?
SEN. KUELL: Only if you're trying to shore up a theory that is about to collapse. But it will do you no good, Colonel Greaves: the text of Genesis confutes your entire contention.
LT. COL. GREAVES: On the contrary, the text of Genesis substantiates my contention. Let me quote one or two passages by way of illustration. '—the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.' This is race memory coming to the fore in the form of an imagery so strong that it survives translation, and with the aid of a little imagination, the passage can be interpreted to mean that all is in readiness for the launching. 'And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth: and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered'. If you will substitute 'distances' for 'waters' and 'over' for 'upon', you will obtain a fairly clear mental picture of a planet fading from sight in the viewscreen of a departing spaceship. And how about the 'stories' referred to in the building specification? '—with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it'? Those weren't 'stories', senator—they were stages. Rocket stages. The number of rocket stages that would be required to launch a ship the size of Spaceship X into space.
SEN. KUELL: I submit, colonel, that your reasoning is defective. I submit furthermore that it is not the sort of reasoning which normal well-adjusted Americans indulge in, and I hereby recommend to this committee that both yours and Commander Perkins' qualifications be reexamined at the earliest possible opportunity and that both of you be relieved from duty until such time as it can satisfactorily be proven that both of you have recovered from your hallucinatory experience.
LT. COL. GREAVES: But the scrolls I brought back aren't hallucinatory, senator. Neither is the fragment of—of—yes, of gopherwood. And certainly the photograph is real enough.
SEN. KUELL: Granted. But I have grave doubts about some of the other items you have called to our attention. I'm afraid you're going to be in for a rather rude awakening, Colonel Greaves, when Dr. Noyes and his staff finish deciphering the scrolls. Gopherwood indeed!
SEN. LARCH: Excuse me, senator. I have just been handed a telegram from Dr. Noyes. It—it would appear that they have deciphered the scrolls already. I will read the telegram aloud: 'Deep Space Scrolls prove Spaceship X to be Noah's Ark beyond vestige of a doubt—Noyes'.
An extended silence.