Well, it seems that Ivar Jorgensen has hit on the ultimate engine of destruction: a weapon designed to exploit man's greatest weakness. The blueprint can be found in the next few pages; and as the soldier in the story says, our only hope is to keep a sense of humor!
In the near future, humanity decodes an alien signal using Inverse Multifractal Spectroscopy. They are blueprints for a mysterious machine. Led by astrobiologist Layla Norwood, the scientists assemble the device, which allows them to connect to a galactic network called the Network of Silence, where advanced civilizations exchange knowledge in ethical, non-material ways.
When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane's adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a "manned" flight, one man's dream turns into an international space race.