Project Gutenberg 2015-12-27 Public domain in the USA. 234 MacLean, Katherine 1925 2019 Morris, G. A. MacLean, Katherine Anne Dye, Charles Contagion Produced from Galaxy Science Fiction October 1950 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "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.) Reading ease score: 84.8 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Diseases -- Fiction Space colonies -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 93061 2025-06-20T12:12:56.070693 text/html 70016 2024-10-22T23:39:19 text/html 197962 2025-06-20T12:12:58.607707 application/epub+zip 196806 2025-06-20T12:12:56.664758 application/epub+zip 102937 2025-06-20T12:12:56.269722 application/epub+zip 245421 2025-06-20T12:13:00.250665 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 237883 2025-06-20T12:12:58.366725 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 144354 2022-09-23T05:35:57.330025 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 85529 2023-09-22T06:36:20.082837 text/plain 65848 2024-10-22T23:39:19 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16327 2025-06-20T12:13:00.395701 application/rdf+xml 20997 2025-06-20T12:12:56.346758 image/jpeg 4013 2025-06-20T12:12:56.308680 image/jpeg 180560 2025-06-20T12:12:56.085693 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia