The City on the Edge of Forever

by Harlan Ellison

  Spock is an obvious extraterrestrial.

  This is brought forcibly home to them as they materialize on a crowded New York street. In the midst of a bread-line demonstration. On a soap-box, a man is inciting the crowd to riot, charging that all the foreigners are clogging the soup kitchens, stealing jobs good Americans should have, sending the country further and further into the Depression. Kirk and Spock are momentarily disoriented, having come from a bleak landscape a million light-years away, and hundreds of years in the future, and they find themselves looking about with confusion. Their movement draws the attention of the haranguer, and when he sees Spock, his eyes open wider.

  “There’s one of ’em! There’s one of the foreigners trying to take the bread out of our mouths! Let’s show him how we feel about things!”

  The crowd turns in blind fury, propelled by empty bellies, and begins attacking Spock. Kirk leaps to his aid, and in a moment there is a street corner imbroglio that both realize they cannot win. In a moment that is clear of attackers, Kirk levels the phaser he has brought through with him and trains it on a lamppost. It vanishes at a blast of light, and the crowd falls back in terror.

  Kirk and Spock take this moment as a means of escape. They bolt, with the crowd regrouping behind them.

  They take off, down the street, around the corner, into an alley, over a fence, into a backyard and down another street, till they come to ground in a basement of an apartment building.

  They know they must find the focal point the Guardians spoke about. But to do that, they must be able to move freely in the city. Kirk cautions Spock to stay there, back in the end of that dirty basement, till he can find them lodgings, and clothes of the period. Spock agrees and Kirk goes off, leaving the alien with the phaser.

  But this is the year of the Depression. Work is scarce, money is almost impossible, even clothes are a problem. And Kirk, so much worse off than men familiar with the times, with ties to the period, with knowledge of how to do it and where and how much it costs, finds himself at a loss. He manages to steal some clothes off a clothesline and returns to the apartment house.

  He and Spock change, and they are about to leave, when the custodian of the building discovers them. He assumes they are bindlestiffs, just bums, sleeping in the basement, and though they think he is going to make a fight with them, he seems to be a good man; he asks them if they need work, and they say yes. He tells them they can sleep down in the basement till they find something better. “At least it’s warm near the furnace.”

  In exchange they will carry out the cinders and shovel the coal to keep the furnace stoked, and promise not to steal from any of the tenants.

  They thank him, and he says it’s only for a short time till something happens for them.

  A short time…

  As the waters of Forever RIPPLE and WE FIND OURSELVES back on the changed Enterprise, in the chamber with the doomed men, as the Pirate Captain readies a bank of destructive heatbeams, and trains them on the control room doors. As the doors glow red from the bombardment, and one of the younger officers in the besieged transporter chamber asks Yeoman Rand, “Where are they…what are they doing…are they coming to help us?”

  And as we CLOSE TIGHT on the metal, turning to slag, we contemplate Kirk and Spock, back there…and we FADE OUT.

  ACT THREE:

  Kirk has a menial job. Spock has passed himself off as an Oriental, he’s washing dishes in a beanery. They are existing in the grimy underside of New York life, while seeking the focal point for this time-phase.

  Then, by chance (or as Spock later murmurs, “There are no coincidences in Time.”) the alien locates the “focal point.” On his way home one night from the hash-house where he washes dishes, he passes a street corner revival. He hears the lyrical sound of a woman’s voice, as clear and as vibrant “as truth.” He stops, pauses to listen as SISTER EDITH KEELER speaks to a crowd of disgruntled derelicts, poor men—as all men in these days of pennilessness are poor—about the brotherhood of man. About the need to trust, the need to love…not in the manner of the fanatic, to love merely because it keeps the belly from growling; but to love because it is the only salvation for mankind, the only way to find the path to the stars.

  Spock listens to the beautiful girl say things that the space travelers of his own age have learned. Thoughts that are thousands of years ahead of their time. And then he realizes: she is wearing a blue cape, a cape as blue as the sky of Old Earth. A cape that is fastened across her throat by a huge golden brooch in the shape of a sunburst. And her name is Keeler…

  Blue it will be. Blue as the sky of Old Earth and clear as truth. And the sun will burn on it, and there is the key.

  Spock rushes back to tell Kirk. They follow the girl after her revival meeting, and see the tenement in which she lives. Kirk takes a room in the same building.

  Time is growing short. Beckwith will come through from the future in three days. Kirk meets Edith Keeler, and strangely, wonderfully, they communicate. Kirk, who has all his life been alone on ships in space, who has known casual liaisons with women in port cities and on pleasure planets, finds himself drawn to this girl, who seems to embody a simplicity, and a warmth, that he had only read about secretly in cheap novels.

  For three days they grow to know each other. Kirk is pleasured. Spock grows worried. He cautions Kirk against “going native.”

  But the time for worrying is past as the day of Beckwith’s appearance arrives. They wait at the appointed time in the pop-out place, and when Beckwith materializes, in the center of a crowd, they try to grab him but he once again manages, through dint of desperation, to escape them. They track him through the city, but he loses himself.

  And now, forewarned that they are trying to get him, Beckwith realizes that he cannot be safe, anywhere in time, unless he kills Kirk and Spock.

  So the hunted turns hunter. He stalks Spock first, and almost manages to assassinate him, but at the last moment Spock saves himself. And Beckwith vanishes again. Time is running out.

  ACT FOUR:

  Kirk and Spock take shifts staying with Edith Keeler. Spock takes his turns in hiding, for the girl knows nothing of him. But for Kirk, the hours spent with the young girl are the happiest of his life. And we see, we sense the growing dilemma for him. Kirk has fallen in love. He has come into the past to do a job, a simple job, but because he has found himself inextricably involved with his emotions, the situation has become perilous.

  On one occasion, as they pass down a New York street, Edith hears a jaunty tune of the time, a raggy version of “Please”:

  Please, lend your little ear to my pleas;

  Lend a ray of cheer to my pleas;

  Tell me that you love me, too.

  Please, let me hold you tight in my arms.

  I could find delight in your charms;

  Ev’ry night my whole life through.•

  •Copyright 1932 by Famous Music Corporation.

  It comes from a down-below-the-street music shop, and as she tells Kirk how much she loves music, she pulls him toward the downstairs entrance. She slips, and as she starts to fall, arms flailing, Kirk moves to catch her. We HEAR in ECHO CHAMBER the VOICE of the Guardian OVER: He will seek that which must die, and give it life. Stop him. Stop…stop…stop…

  And Kirk pulls his hand back. Edith falls. But she only sprains her ankle. She looks up at Kirk with confusion, as he rushes down to help her—now that he knows this is not the moment of death the Guardian hinted at. She cannot understand why he did not try to stop her fall, but she says nothing. We see it all through their expressions.

  But Kirk is tormented, twisted by the fate that says he must not interfere with the course of Time.

  Spock and Kirk discuss this. They enter into a heated argument. At least, on Kirk’s part. Spock is cool and analytical about the problem. Kirk has his choice: on one side, this girl and her life; this girl and her love. On the other, the men of the Enterprise who may even have already given their lives; and th
e universe.

  Kirk flees from Spock’s logic.

  We PLAY SCENES of Kirk’s deepening involvement with the girl, so that when Beckwith finally arrives on the scene, still unaware that he is moving inexorably toward this focus-point, this unknown girl who means nothing to him, yet means everything to him—we feel a total empathy for Kirk. The truck that is destined to run her down is lumbering through the street. Kirk sees Edith starting to cross. He sees Beckwith notice the girl and the truck, and start to move to save her. We CLOSE on EACH OF THE PRINCIPALS in SLOW MOTION SHOTS that prolong the agony of the moment. Edith moving into the street. Beckwith starting toward her to save her. Kirk starting toward Beckwith to prevent his act. And Kirk not being able to do it!

  He cannot sacrifice her, even for the safety of the universe. But at that moment Spock, who has been out of sight, but nearby, fearing just such an eventuality, steps forward and freezes Beckwith in midstep. Edith keeps going and we QUICK CUT to Kirk as we HEAR the SOUND of a TRUCK SCREECHING TO A HALT. As Kirk’s face crumbles, we know what has happened. Destiny has resumed its normal course, the past has been set straight. RIPPLE-DISSOLVE to Enterprise in INTERCUT then back.

  Spock helps Kirk back to the location for return to the future. They materialize on the planet and receive the parting words of the Guardians, who tell them the past has been repaired.

  Kirk is almost in a state of shock from the death of Edith Keeler, and as Spock speaks to the Guardians, Beckwith lunges away from him, throws himself once more into the pillar of light. Spock starts toward it, but the Guardians stop him.

  “He went back again!”

  Spock is coldly furious.

  No. The vortex cannot be set for the same time twice. You were told that.

  “But he’s escaped.”

  Not this time. He wanted Forever. The vortex has given him Forever. Like the Möbius strip that has no end, he is locked in Time, he can never escape. His Forever will be in the heart of an exploding sun. He named his own doom.

  HARD CUT to special effect shot of Beckwith materializing out of the pillar of light…

  …and finding himself materializing in the heart of a sun. An execution that goes on forever and ever, for the vortex has warped time so that Beckwith is caught in a time-Möbius. An inter-locked time-phase that puts him into the heart of a blazing inferno just long enough to die, then snaps him out to a moment before he died, then puts him back, then takes him out, over and over and over and over…

  Later, on the Enterprise, alone in his stateroom, Kirk receives a visit from Spock, and between them we see a depth of friendship that explains now how a man of deep feeling could be so close to an alien of cold logic. Kirk is felled by sadness, and Spock seems to understand. For the Captain, there is something irretrievably lost, but Spock makes sense when he says, “No woman was ever loved as much, Jim. Because no woman was ever offered the universe for love.”

  And Kirk understands. FADE OUT on the stars once more. The stars, like Kirk’s love, eternal.

  THE END

  PROLOGUE

  FADE IN:

  1 ESTABLISHING SHOT—ANGLE IN SPACE

  The USS ENTERPRISE hanging in mid-foreground over a strange, silvery planet under a wan and dying red sun. CAMERA MOVES IN on ship and OVER this (and subsequent pantomime shots), we HEAR the VOICE of KIRK:

  KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)

  Ship’s Log: star-date 3134.6. Our chronometers still run backward. We have followed the radiation to its planet-source here at the Rim of the Galaxy, but something else is happening…

  (beat)

  When we left Earth, each of the 450 crewmembers of the Enterprise was checked out stable. But it’s been two years—so much stress on them. We have continuous psych-probes, but we know some have been altered. Even some who may have gone sour: we can’t know till the flaw shows up. And by then, it’s too late…much too late…

  While VOICE OVER carries, CAMERA MOVES IN on Enterprise smoothly till we

  RAPID LAP-DISSOLVE TO:

  2 INT. ENTERPRISE—BECKWITH’S CABIN—XTREME CLOSEUP

  on a small, isometrically-shaped metal container as it is opened by a hand. VOICE OVER is heard (after beat) as we HOLD CLOSE on the lid of the box, opening with tambour doors, so the interior of the box rises and a strange DULL LIGHT FLOODS the FRAME. As the container opens, the black velvet interior slides up to reveal possibly half a dozen glowing jewels. They are faceted solids, but not stone; more like a hardened jelly that burns pulsing with an inner light: gold, blue, crimson. As KIRK’S VOICE OVER ends we hear:

  LEBEQUE’S VOICE O.S.

  (trembling)

  Beckwith, stop it! Give me one!

  CAMERA PULLS BACK to MED. 2-SHOT showing LT/JG LeBEQUE, a French-Canadian with a strong face—a face now beaded with sweat, a face in torment—and another officer, RICHARD BECKWITH, a man whose face shows intelligence and…something else. Cunning, perhaps, or even subdued cruelty. Beckwith holds the pulsing Jewels in their container. He smiles unpleasantly as LeBeque stares transfixed by the Jewels. Beckwith, without moving, taunts him with them.

  BECKWITH

  (conversationally)

  Jewels of Sound. So expensive, so illegal. You want me to give you a dream-narcotic they’ve banned all through the Galaxy? Tsk-tsk, Lieutenant, how far you’ve fallen.

  LEBEQUE

  I won’t beg, Beckwith.

  BECKWITH

  No? How long have you been my man, Lieutenant? How long have you been hooked on the Jewels?

  LeBeque’s face tightens, his fists clench at his sides. He isn’t a weak man, nor a toady. But Beckwith holds his life.

  LEBEQUE

  You gave me my first taste on Karkow, that was a year ago. One taste and I was addicted. I need one…stop playing with me.

  Beckwith extends one, a golden Jewel. But as LeBeque reaches for it, Beckwith closes his fist, and the light is shut off. LeBeque gasps, winces, as though physically hurt. Then with his hand still extended, Beckwith gets down to business.

  BECKWITH

  (directorially)

  I want to know about that planet out there. What the log says about valuable commodities. I’ll want a landfall pass, and I’ll want you to cover for me when I trade with the natives.

  LEBEQUE

  (amazed horror)

  After the slaughter you caused on Harper Five, you’ll do it again? If Kirk finds out—

  BECKWITH

  (chilled steel)

  He won’t find out, will he, Lieutenant? If he does, you’ll never hear these Jewels sing inside you again. I’m your only source, remember that.

  (beat)

  I’m coming back from this a rich man, and I’ll never have to go to space again.

  Nobody’s getting in my way, LeBeque: I want to live an elegant life, but that takes resources.

  LEBEQUE

  (it takes guts)

  So you cheat aliens, get them hooked on illegal narcotics, and steal what they could trade for cultural advances?

  BECKWITH

  Hooked like you, LeBeque. Hooked like you.

  LEBEQUE

  (bitterly)

  Yeah, like me. And I’m already paying.

  BECKWITH

  (with finality)

  But you’ll pay a little more. Do I get what I want?

  LeBeque nods painfully, reluctantly. Beckwith slowly opens his hand and the golden light shines. LeBeque grabs it quickly and swallows it. CAMERA HOLDS past Beckwith smiling knowingly at the Lt/Jg as a look of almost orgasmic pleasure crosses LeBeque’s face.

  3 REVERSE ANGLE—LEBEQUE’S POV—WHAT HE SEES

  as shot THRU HIS EYES as Beckwith’s face begins to shimmer with weird lights, like a Van deGraaf generator, like heat lightning off a rain-slick pavement. We HEAR the incredible MUSIC OF THE JEWELS as they reach through LeBeque’s head: part electronics, part orchestral and something like a scream from a creature dying horribly. Everything goes OUT OF FOCUS as the LIGHTS collide and merge and swirl and dance in
patterns of no-pattern, and for SEVERAL BEATS we SEE THRU the drug-drunken eyes of a man in the grip of an alien narcotic. The MUSIC RISES and the SCREAM BUILDS as Beckwith’s face fades away with that damnable smile and everything blurs as we

  COME BACK INTO FOCUS TO:

  4 INT. BRIDGE—MEDIUM CLOSE ON LeBEQUE

  as everything leaves its fuzziness and we HEAR the VOICE of MR. SPOCK O.S. and we see LeBeque at a huge bank of ship’s controls, knife-switches depressed, and a control bar in his hand, gauges oscillating wildly and all of them in the DANGER RED country. There is a frightening HIGH PIERCING WHINE of machinery stressing to implosion level that is the tail end of the SCREAM we have heard through the drug-vision. The FOCUS COMES SHARPER thru VOICE O.S.

  Spock’s Voice O.S.

  (urgent but Spock-ish)

  Mr. LeBeque! Damp that starboard unit, you’re running in the red. You’ll blow the entire drive! LeBeque!

  And as CAMERA PULLS BACK we see LeBeque being dragged away from the controls by TWO CREWMEN as Spock steps in quickly but calmly to damp the power controls. The WHINE SUBSIDES RAPIDLY.

  Spock turns to LeBeque. He is as coldly furious as an alien without emotion can get. Menace in his voice.

  SPOCK

  You’ve been walking around this bridge like a man under water for two hours. If you’re unwell, Mr. LeBeque, have yourself placed on relief, and leave the bridge.