the mutant weapon

The only links between the far-flung colonies throughout the galaxy were the Medical Service spaceships. It was natural therefore that when lonely travelers paid a call, they were given a royal welcome. No wonder Med Serviceman Calhoun got the shock of his life when the landing grid on newly colonized Maris III tried to destroy the ship! And when he managed to make a crash-landing, he was even more shocked by the grisly fact that most of the colonists had starved to death---even there was plenty of food around. Forgetting this horror, Calhoun had to move fast to keep the fate of Maris III from being the beginning of the end for all the colonial planets. Classic science fiction at it's best from one of the finest writers of the genre.