earth-style distress signal--sos. i've answered it on all frequencies, sir. they don't reply. not a vessel, a ground source. the third planet in this solar system, according to my instruments. hundds of light years from earth, mr. spock. no colonies or vessels out this far. measuring the planet now, captain. it's spheroid-shaped. circumference-- 24,874 miles. mass--6 times 10 to the 21st power tons.

atmosphere... oxygen, nitrogen. earth! not the earth, another earth. another earth? space-- the final frontier. these are the voyages of the starship enterprise. its five-year mission-- to explore strange new worlds... to seek out new life and new civilizations...

captain's log, stardate 2713.5. in the distant reaches of our galaxy, we have made an astonishing discovery-- earth-type radio signals coming from a planet which apparently is an exact duplicate

but there it is. hold us in a fixed orbit, mr. spock. affirmative, captain. still no response, communications? none, captain. we'll beam down. alert security. prepare to transport landing party to surface. we'll land in the vicinity of the distress signals now being received. identical. earth...as it was in the early 1900s. more the, uh, mid-1900s.

but where is everybody? readings indicate that natural deterioration has been taking place on this planet for at least several centuries. you mean there's no one alive? not conclusive, yeoman. the evidence would suggest that the distress signal is automated. now, this is marvelous-- the mo horrible conglomeration of antique architecture i've ever seen. mr. spock.

[wheel squeaks] mine! mine! mine! mine! mine! mine! mine! mine! [sobbing] it's broke. somebody...broke it. fix. somebody...please fix.

of course somebody will fix it. definitely humanoid, in spite of the distortion. but with the mind of a child. [gasping] bones, what is it? a seizure of some type. we want to help you. liar! r...never! never! never! never! never! [laughing] never! it's dead. it's incredible. what?

lf up, almost as if it aged a century in just the past few minutes. [footsteps] come on! g] how old is this thing? about 300 years.

[groan] come out! we mean you no harm. don't hurt me, please. i'm not going to hurt you. no, please, don't. i didn't do anything. i won't hurt you. no, please, do k. no, don't. don't hurt. come on. don't, please. i won't hurt you. don't hurt me. it's all right. come on. we won't hurt you, sweetheart. we're your friends. no, shh! take the guards. have a look outside. radioactive readings, chemical pollution, any further sign of life. right, captain. i wonder what happened to her

[tricorder whines]

burning, yelling, hurting people. we didn't do anything like that. you're not going to hurt? well, of course not. we're here to help. grups don't help. but we will. what happened here? where is everybody? you know. no, i don't. you got a foolie, is that it? you want me to play, but i can't. i don't know the rules. i've got to know the rules. foolie? a game, you know. i can't play a game without rules. even grups ought to know that. what are grups? you are. they will, when onlies get old.

you said something about the...grups doing bad things-- yelling, hurting, burning. that was when they started to get sick in the before time. we hid, then they were gone. am i doing all right? you're doing fine. you said the grups got sick. is that why there aren't any of them around? yes. they died, a plague, captain. that could explain a lot of it. but what about the children, the...onlies? didn't the awful things affect them? of course not. we're here, aren't we? more of you? how many?

what's your name? miri. miri... pretty name... for a pretty young woman.

[bang] guards! cover me. ? nyah yah yah-yah yah ? nyah yah yah-yah yah

? nyah yah yah-yah yah ? nyah yah yah-yah yah ? nyah yah yah-yah yah ? nyah yah yah-yah yah ? nyah yah yah-yah yah children, captain, lots of them. we couldn't begin to get close to them. they just seemed to scurry away... like animals. only children. miri said all the adults died. that creature which attacked us was certainly no child. of the disease the girl's talking about. there must be records somewhere... and answers to some of our questions. miri... do you know any buildings where the doctors used to work? yes, i know that. them and their pills and things. will you take me there? that's a bad place. it's important. please?

do you have a name, too? yes. it's jim. i like that name. good. i like yours, too. i like you. do you really? i wouldn't lie to you. i wouldn't lie to you either, jim. i remember the grups, but you're nice. you're different. why, thank you. it's already starting. i knew it would. just like it did with the grups. it'll spread all over you, and you'll yell. you'll try to hurt everybody. then you'll die.

captain's log, stardate 2713.6. the building miri led us to which se out the gnals that drew us to this planet. we also discovered something else-- that the blue splotches characteristic of the unknown disease had appeared on each of us, with the exception of mr. spock. there was a well-equipped laboratory in the building. dr. mccoy took tissue samples of each of us in an attempt to isolate the organism responsible.

and a portable electronic microscope. if i'm going to be dealing with viruses, i'm going to need better equipment than i have here. yes, doctor. captain kirk. yes, lieutenant? i've got volunteers standing by ready to help you, sir. under no circumstances do i want anyone to beam down from the ship. we can't take any chances with further contamination. but, captain, if you become too ill-- my orders still stand, lieutenant. you can help us best by clearing the computer banks and standing by. kirk out. bones. hmm? why do you think the symptoms haven't appeared in mr. spock? i don't know. probably the little bugs or whatever they are have no appetite for green blood. being a red-blooded human obviously has its disadvantages. there you have a museum piece, doctor.

ock, please. it is enough that it works. it spreads real fast. i know. when you're old, it covers you like anything. "intermediate experimentation report project "prolongation." "progress report-- genetics section, life prolongation project." that's what it was. life prolongation. didn't have much luck, did they?

and a portable electronic microscope have been beamed down from the enterprise. they will be used in conjunction with computer banks on-board ship. tubular with extreme multiplicability. appear to have affinity for nucleic acids... this was 300 years ago, captain. all the adults are dead. only the children are left alive. but children become adults. at least... they have up to now. doctor? there are certain glandular changes which take place upon entering puberty, are there not? of course. it changes the entire body system. you know that.

as they enter puberty, contract the disease? that would explain why there are no adults. glandular... postpubescent. it could be. it's illogical. it does not follow. all the adults on this planet died 300 years ago, but there are children in the streets. who die when they enter adolescence. but...how do they keep the line going? one thing, captain. if she were a wild animal ever since she's been a little girl, how do you explain that she wants to stay with us? loneliness. i don't know. curiosity. i think children have an instinctive need for adults. they want to be told right and wrong. there may be other emotions at work

[mccoy] she likes you, jim. she's becoming a woman. mr. spock. [communicator beeps] ock here. here are those figures you asked for. 12 to the 10th power. metabolic rate--72%. production of nucleic acids reduced to 33% of normal. conventional chronological progression--100 x 3.6. acknowledged, lieutenant.

see if you can find anything outside. hey...clean up that desk for me, will you? all right, jim. according to their life prolongation plan, what they thought they were accomplishing, a person would age only one month for every 100 years of real time. 100 years and only one month? exactly, yeoman. evidently through some miscalculation, this virus annihilated the entire adult population in a very short period, leaving only the children. but that means these children... could very well be immensely old. that would certainly answer the question of what happened to their parents. answers it very well. children who never age... eternal childhood, filled with play... no responsibilities.

n. it might not turn out to be very pretty. a few days ago or a week ago that creature that attacked us could have been just like miri. a child entering puberty on this planet means a death sentence. do you suppose she knows? i don't think so. if they're as old as spock claims, they must have some idea of what's happening. there's no adult interpretation. i think we're dealing with children, immensely old perhaps, but nonetheless children. we've got to do something about the others. difficult. we can't even get a glimpse of them. you couldn't get close to the other kids? impossible. they know the area too well, like mice. i'm going to try.

come here. you want to go someplace with me? sure. that little girl... is at least 300 years older than you are, yeoman.

miri is with them! why? why? what's she going to do, jahn? i don't--i don't know. i know what we've got to do. there are more of them than we see. somewhere... up in the sky... maybe, somewhere. they talk to each other all the time. you know grups. you know what they do-- the hurting, the killing.

that's right, the way it was in the before time. they talk to the other grups with these little boxes. now, if they didn't have those little boxes, they'd be...all alone. huh? but they don't see us. we hide. olly olly oxen free! olly olly oxen free! no! it's not a game. it's real. they're dangerous. they're grups. don't you understand?