- [prologue]
- Control Voice: The persistence of Man's curiosity led him into new worlds. Without conquering his own, he invaded the sub-world of the microscope and the outer world of space. It is said turnabout is fair play, but is it?
- Jefferson Rome: You know, we've got a space project. It's called Surveyor, an unmanned capsule, an automated device that will be sent out into space and land, say, on Mars, or Venus, or Jupitar, and once it gets there, it will perform a variety of experiments, like testing the soil, the atmosphere, plant life, animal life - if there is any - testing for chemicals, um, soil conditions, living conditions, free ion belts, cosmic rays, radioactivity.
- Pilot Coberly: A probe? A probe, this?
- Jefferson Rome: But this one isn't ours.
- [epilogue]
- Control Voice: A few days, a week, a month. Will the Earth be visited by a stranger from the universe, a warm compassionate stranger to tell us of wonders beyond imagination, of life beyond comprehension, of secrets from the treasure house of stars?