What happens
Hugh Holland and his friend Alan Mahoney, cadets on a vast ship, climb deck levels to visit John the Witness, an old keeper of the ship's sacred legend, to hear the word of Jordan as it was passed down. Their questions about what lies beyond the ship provoke the old man, and a violent confrontation follows. Holland and Alan are forced to flee into the upper levels, where they meet a mutant leader named Gregory. Gregory's people, outcasts of the ship's order, offer Holland a glimpse of what the ship really is, and Holland begins to question everything he was taught. The story is an episode of the radio series X Minus One, first broadcast on May 15, 1955.
A vast generation ship drifting through space, its society organized into deck levels, with lower levels ruled by orthodox scientists and upper levels inhabited by mutants.
Characters: Hugh Holland, Alan Mahoney, John the Witness, Gregory, Bobo, Holland's uncle, The captain, The lieutenant
Listen for: Listen for the moment Holland is shown the true view from the ship's control room, and for the lieutenant's reaction to it.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.