02361cam a22003973u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003704000110007804100170008905000070010610000220011324500130013526400510014830000470019933600260024633700260027233800360029849000650033450000310039950801030043052009950053353400720152865300200160065300180162065300240163865300270166265300350168970000280172483000650175285600840181785600430190199900190194478725UtSlPG20260610134827.0mcr n260607r20261955utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aPS1 aO'Hara, Thomas J.10aIncident 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier1 aProduced from Fantastic Universe, May 1955 (Vol. 3, No. 4.).  aRelease date is 2026-05-22  aTom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)  aIncident by Thomas J. O'Hara is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It centers on a deep-space expedition turned disaster when a lethal, mysterious plague ravages the crew, culminating in the lone survivor’s moral decision as he nears a seemingly hospitable world.

The story follows six astronauts on the first great galactic voyage as a fast, terrible illness fells them one by one: the captain dies suddenly, another never wakes, the engineer staggers into the reactor, and one man chooses suicide to avoid infection. Infected himself and approaching a life-bearing planet, the last survivor realizes landing would spread the plague to its inhabitants. He chooses sacrifice, setting the controls that will destroy the ship. The scene then shifts to a peaceful valley where a couple watches a “shooting star,” revealing the world below is Earth and that the hero’s act passes as a quiet, unnoticed incident. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cNew York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1955  aScience fiction  aShort stories  aDiseases -- Fiction  aSpace ships -- Fiction  aInterstellar travel -- Fiction1 aHunter, Mel,d1927-2004 0aProduced from Fantastic Universe, May 1955 (Vol. 3, No. 4.).4 uhttps://archive.org/details/FantasticUniverseV03n04195505ATLPM/page/n3/mode/2up40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78725  c119443d119443