02419cam a22003493u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003704000110007804100170008905000070010610000350011324500140014826400510016230000470021333600260026033700260028633800360031249000540034850000310040250801080043352012950054153400450183665300200188165300240190165300300192583000540195585600430200999900170205250774UtSlPG20260610134152.0mcr n260607r2015||||utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aPS1 aMacLean, Katherine,d1925-201910aContagion 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2015  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier1 aProduced from Galaxy Science Fiction October 1950  aRelease date is 2015-12-27  aProduced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net  a"Contagion" by Katherine MacLean is a science fiction novella originally published in a magazine in the early 1950s. The story is set on the planet Minos, where a group of space explorers confronts the implications of a disease that has historically decimated previous colonies. The novella explores themes of identity, contagion, and the complex responses of human beings to new environments and situations.  The narrative follows a four-member medical team aboard the spaceship "Explorer" as they arrive on Minos, believing it to be a pristine, uninhabited planet. They soon discover that a small human colony already exists, but the inhabitants have been isolated due to a deadly disease referred to as "melting sickness." The protagonists must grapple with the reality that they have been exposed to this affliction, which turns out to be a contagion linked to the genetic changes in the colonists. As events unfold, the medical team learns the disease alters their identities, leading to a crisis as they become indistinguishable from a dominant local population. The story culminates in questioning the essence of selfhood and belonging, leaving readers with thought-provoking reflections on human identity in the face of profound change. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  nOriginal publication data not identified  aScience fiction  aDiseases -- Fiction  aSpace colonies -- Fiction 0aProduced from Galaxy Science Fiction October 195040uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50774  c91612d91612