The Machine That Saved the World

In 1972, transmissions begin arriving from somewhere humanity has never reached. They shatter every receiver that touches them, leaving only fragments of a message: a deadly bacterial mutation is coming, one that will kill half the human race. The signals seem like a warning from the future, a gift of foreknowledge that could save millions. But Sergeant Bellews, a technician working with classified Mahon-modified machines, begins to wonder whether the future has reasons for reaching back that have nothing to do with salvation. As he and a team of scientists race to decode the broadcasts, they discover that some knowledge arrives with a price tag humanity may not be able to afford. First published in 1957, this is Cold War paranoia rendered in radio waves and binary: a meditation on whether we really want to know what comes next.