
In a future where the world’s fate hinges on a single, precarious experiment, Max Alben finds himself thrust from a modest civil‑service job into the heart of a massive, humming time‑machine. Chosen for a rare genetic immunity inherited from his great‑grandfather, he’s the only one who can survive a backward jump of more than a century without being lost in temporal blackout. As the massive coils of the device pulse around him, the weight of history presses on his shoulders, and the commanders of an uneasy new order watch with cold expectation.
His mission is stark: land in the exact moment a guided missile is launched in 1976 and, if possible, alter its trajectory before humanity’s darkest calamity unfolds. The stakes are enormous, the technology barely understood, and the political players—black‑market magnates, a UN secretary‑general, and a cadre of stern observers—pressurize him with a mix of hope and pragmatism. As Max steps into the temporal vortex, listeners are invited to imagine the tension of confronting a pivotal point in history, wondering whether one man’s courage can truly reshape the world.
Language
en
Duration
~31 minutes (30K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2016-01-17
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1920–2010
Best known for sharp, funny science fiction that poked at politics, technology, and human behavior, this classic satirist turned big ideas into stories that still feel lively and sly. He wrote relatively little compared with some of his peers, but his short fiction left a lasting mark on the genre.
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