- Ebonite Interrogator: Are you ready to talk, Dix?
- [Dix tries to speak, but no words come out]
- Ebonite Interrogator: Perhaps you could speak if there was someone here you really wanted to speak to.
- Dix's Mother: [Appears in a hallucinatory vision] Arthur. Arthur. You can talk to your mom, can't you, baby?
- Pvt. Arthur Dix: Mom?
- Dix's Mother: [Hugging and affectionate] Oh. Oh. You can talk. Tell me what they want to know.
- [Dix shakes head]
- Dix's Mother: Then whisper it to me then, baby. Whisper all about it.
- [Dix whispers in her ear]
- Ebonite Interrogator: Private Dix. You may go.
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: [returning from his interrogation] They said... my blindness... spoiled their fun. They said... would I like to have my eyes back and I said
- [voice breaks]
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: yes yes
- [regains composure]
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: yes. And... they said... would I be willing to look at lieutenant Krug's body, uh, his corpse. And I wanted to see so bad
- [begins to cry]
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: I said I would look at anything, and I said yes!
- [sobs]
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: And I LOOKED!
- Major Jong: Think of it this way, Willomore. Krug would have wanted some member of his race to look upon him in death.
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: He- He had no heart! He had a big hole in his chest! THEY TOOK HIS HEART OUT!
- Ebonite Interrogator: Each of you will be invited to participate in an exploratory interview. I shall conduct it. Private Dix will be the first to accept my invitation.
- Col. Luke Stone: I demand that privilege.
- Ebonite Interrogator: Your demands shall be honored when ours are satisfied. Private Dix! Guard, escort Private Dix to my quarters.
- [Dix is sitting against a wall and panics]
- Col. Luke Stone: Wait a minute, Dix. Listen, Dix. Go with him. He's not going to hurt you. Listen, they're not going to hurt you.
- [to approaching guard]
- Col. Luke Stone: Now, don't hurt him. He's going to go with you.
- [Willimore is standing behind the guard]
- Col. Luke Stone: [Guard leans over Dix, then turns and savagely blasts Willimore at close range in the face with his control wand]
- Lt. James P. Willowmore: Ah! My eyes! Ah! Ah my eyes! I can't see! Ah! My eyes.
- [crying]
- Col. Luke Stone: [Looks at Willimore] Jimmy!
- Commanding General: I'm afraid we'll have to ask you to co-operate, if we're to continue.
- Col. Luke Stone: [Flabbergasted] CONTINUE?
- Commanding General: We must, Colonel. We must! Do you realize that before this war...
- Ebonite Interrogator: We are NOT at war here! The grief and loss we caused your planet was an accident. We promised we would do anything to rectify this unforgivable mistake. But we cannot sanction the continuation of such immoral and inhuman experimentation.
- Commanding General: Inhuman? What do you know of humans, sir?
- Control Voice: [Opening narration] A war between worlds has long been dreaded. Throughout recent history, Man, convinced that life on other planets would be as anxious and belligerent as life on his own, has gravely predicted that some dreadful form of combat would inevitably take place between our world and that of someone else. And Man was right. To the eternal credit of the peoples of this planet Earth, history shall be able to proclaim loudly and justly that in this war between Unified Earth and the planet "Ebon", Ebon struck first. Ebon: Its form of life unknown, its way of life unpredictable. To the fighting troops of Earth, a black question mark at the end of a dark, foreboding journey.
- Control Voice: [Closing narration] The exploration of human behavior under simulated conditions of stress is a commonplace component of the machinery called war. So long as Man anticipates and prepares for combat, be it with neighboring nations or with our neighbors in space, these unreal games must be played, and there are only real men to play them. According to established military procedure, the results of the Ebon maneuvers will be recorded in books and fed into computers for the edification and enlightenment of all the strategists of the future. Perhaps they will learn something.
- [Krug is being taken to his interrogation when he sees a hallucinatory vision of his childhood governess]
- Krug's Governess: Esra! You have been crying.
- [rises and nods contemptuously]
- Krug's Governess: Your displays of congenital weakness convince me more and more that you are not...
- Lt. Esra Krug: NOOOO!
- [Governess hallucination disappears. Krug turns to see Dr. Whorf at the compound entrance]
- Dr. Whorf: Tell 'em and get it over with, soldier. Your buddies will understand. You turned in your grandfather, didn't you.
- [Krug begins to break down. A hallucinatory image of his Jewish grandfather appears in Whorf's place]
- Krug's Grandfather: He forgave you.
- [Image fades. Krug collapses to the ground]