Transcribers note.This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December 1957. Extensiveresearch did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on thispublication was renewed.
THE MACHINETHAT SAVEDTHE WORLD
By
MURRAYLEINSTER
They were broadcasts from nowhere—sinister emanations flooding in fromspace—smashing any receiver that picked them up. What defense couldEarth devise against science such as this?
Did the broadcasts foretell flesh-rending supersonicblasts?
The first broadcast came in 1972, while Mahon-modified machines werestill strictly classified, and the world had heard only rumors aboutthem. The first broadcast was picked up by a television ham in Osceola,Florida, who fumingly reported artificial interference on the amateur TVbands. He heard and taped it for ten minutes—so he said—before it blewout his receiver. When he replaced the broken element, the broadcast wasgone.
But the Communications Commission looked at and listened to the tape andpractically went through the ceiling. It stationed a monitor truck inOsceola for months, listening feverishly to nothing.
Then for a long while there were rumors of broadcasts which blew outreceiving apparatus, but nothing definite. Weird patterns appeared onscreens high-pitched or deep-bass notes sounded—and the receiver wentout of operation. After the ham operator in Osceola, nobody else gotmore than a second or two of the weird interference before blowing hisset during six very full months of CC agitation.
Then a TV station in Seattle abruptly broadcast interferencesuperimposed on its regular network program. The screens of all setstuned to that program suddenly showed exotic, curiously curved,meaningless patterns on top of a commercial spectacular broadcast. Atthe same time incredible chirping noises came from the speakers,alternating with deep-bass hootings, which spoiled the ju-ju music ofthe most expensive ju-ju band on the air. The interference ended onlywith a minor break-down in the transmitting station. It was the samesort of interference that the Communications Commission had thrown fitsabout in Washington. It threw further fits now.
A month later a vision-phone circuit between Chicago and Los Angeles wasunusable for ten minutes. The same meaningless picture-pattern and thesame preposterous noises came on and monopolized the line. It ceasedwhen a repeater-tube went out and a parallel circuit took over. Again,frantic agitation displayed by high authority.
Then the interference began to appear more frequently, though stillcapriciously. Once a Presidential broadcast was confused by interferenceapparently originating in the White House, and again a three-waytop-secret conference between the commanding officers of three militarydepartments ceased when the unhuman-sounding noises and the scrambledpicture pattern inserted itself into the closed-circuit discussion. Theconference broke up amid consternation. For one reason, militarycircuits were supposed to be interference-proof. For another, itappeared that if interference could be spotted to this circuit or thisreceiver it was likely this circuit or that receiver could be tapped.
For a third reason, the broadcasts were dynamite. As received, theywere badly scrambled, but they could be straightened out. Even the firstone, from Osceola, was cleaned up and understood. Enough so to make topauthority tear its hair and allow only fully-cleared scientificconsultants in on the thing.
The content of the broadcasts was kept considerably more secret than theexistence of Mahon units a