About This Book
The story follows Colonel Hal Gascoigne, the sole operator aboard an orbital weapons station who begins to perceive phantom crew members and receives a cryptic teletype ordering him to bomb the national capital; alarmed, he contacts a civilian intelligence organization that uses a large computer, which recommends a single troubleshooter to be ferried up to resolve the situation. As the relief mission approaches, the narrative traces the escalating uncertainty about whether the orders and apparitions stem from personal breakdown, system failure, or external manipulation, and it examines the psychological strain of solitary command, the risks of centralized destructive technology, and the uneasy interplay between human judgment and automated decision systems.
About the Author
