- Allan Reed: Mrs. Arlyn, for the past five years I've been traveling, investigating every phenomenon from alien astronauts to Atlantis to the Bermuda Triangle, even Bigfoot. I'm a scientist... I'm an astronomer.
- Mrs. Arlyn: Really?
- Allan Reed: Well, an unemployed astronomer.
- Allan Reed: Steve, why do you think some... alien civilization out there would care enough about... us... travel light years away from their planet, just to teach us how to build a machine to prolong our lives? Doesn't really make sense, does it?
- Steve Arlyn: Maybe they're, uh... not like us?
- Allan Reed: You mean there are certain things Man can not understand... doesn't have the intelligence to comprehend?
- Steve Arlyn: Of course we don't understand... we're still trying to keep track of which nations hate each other the most.
- [pause]
- Steve Arlyn: But it's not like that on certain other planets.
- Allan Reed: No? What's it like then?
- Steve Arlyn: [Deep breath] Hard to explain... it's not that Man doesn't have the brain power or the senses to understand... it's a matter of how people have conditioned their minds.
- Allan Reed: We limit our thinking.
- Steve Arlyn: And reasoning, and feeling... we limit the use of all parts of the brain. You've heard that a million times, right?
- Allan Reed: [Nodding] Huh.
- Steve Arlyn: Picture a place... out there... inhabited by beings who look... pretty much like we do. Their planet's about the same age as Earth... they've evolved at the same rate... with one exception...
- Allan Reed: Their mental abilities are much greater than ours?
- Steve Arlyn: You've heard that idea before too!
- Allan Reed: [laughing] In every science fiction movie I've ever seen.
- Steve Arlyn: Well, it's for real.
- Allan Reed: Are you telling me... there actually is another planet like ours, with people who look like us?
- Steve Arlyn: Not just one, millions of 'em that have been discovered so far. You heard signals from one of them.
- Allan Reed: Barnard's star!
- Steve Arlyn: That planet's a lot like Earth, except drier... more deserts... with only a third of its surface covered with water... but it's beautiful really. That's what my dad said.
- Allan Reed: Your father... was visited by people from Barnard's Star... so they told him how to build a machine to prolong life.
- [pause]
- Allan Reed: Why?
- Steve Arlyn: So maybe we could live long enough to use what we'd learned.
- Allan Reed: [narrating] I was alive, but it didn't matter. The memories were more than I could handle. Luke... Susan. Why them, not me? I was alone, just my thoughts. Thoughts about how I might end my loneliness. My mind would not let me rest. Sometimes I'd get angry at myself for feeling self pity. I couldn't find a purpose. There was nothing left for me. It got worse... unbearable, the thought of how they died. Finally, I couldn't hurt any deeper. I was numb, totally exhausted. That's when somehow I suddenly realized what I'd heard. It was a voice, a spoken message of some kind. But what did it mean?
- Steve Arlyn: I never could get into the rejuvenation scene.
- Allan Reed: Oh? Then what scene are you into?
- Steve Arlyn: Oh, you know... hard rock... drugs... sex... the usual stuff.
- [sighing]
- Steve Arlyn: Plus I get my driver's license in a month. Now if I can just con Mom out of enough for a car.
- Allan Reed: I get it. Typical teenager, huh?
- Steve Arlyn: Damn right!
- Allan Reed: [Examining unidentified object] Strange... it's perfectly round. If it came from space, like a meteor, it would have one side flattened wouldn't it?
- Wally: Not if it slowed down before it hit.
- Allan Reed: What?
- Wally: It was Steve's idea.
- [to Steve]
- Wally: Tell him about it why don't ya? Come on! You don't think he's a "Mib", otherwise you wouldn't have invited him here!
- Allan Reed: What's a "Mib"?
- Steve Arlyn: Men in black... my dad called them "Mibs". It's a... code name. They're guys who showed up after U.F.O. sightings asking a lot of questions, with really no reason.
- Allan Reed: Steve, your father was being watched by somebody, wasn't he?
- [pause]
- Allan Reed: Who?
- Steve Arlyn: For years before he died... my dad was being followed by the men in black.
- Allan Reed: What project was he working on?
- Steve Arlyn: Betatron.