Star Surgeon

re tubes in the Lancet's incubators, it would begin to grow nicely, and then falter and die, but when guinea pigs were inoculated in the ship's l

es of the galaxy that the doctors felt certain that they could cope with it. Very few, if any, higher life forms existed that did not have some sort of submicroscopic parasite affl

been stopped before, and t

be prepared, the doctors would land to begin treatment. There was a new flicker of hopefulness in the Bruckian's res

e of the antibiotics and antiviral agents in the Lancet's stockroom. No drug seemed to affect

e'd be ahead," Tiger said in perplexity. "We don't have any

ever heard of, the victim's own body starts making antibodies against the invading virus. If

as far as I can see. If they were, at least some of them would be recovering from the disease.

said, "if Fuzzy

up. "How d

ed too, if we hadn't caught it in time-but as it worked o

t see how we can push the whole population of 31 Brucker VI

s while he was infected. Remember, he doesn't have a rigid body structure like we do. He's mo

ere any way we can get some of his body flui

etty fast if he has enough of the right kind of foo

ed to sense what Dal wanted; obligingly he thrust out a little pseudopod which Dal pinched off into the beak

y bit of the pink solution. The effect was almost unbelievable. Within twenty minutes all of the injected animals began to per

ted into our friends down below, we may be able to protect the healthy ones from getti

an hour later the Lancet made an orderly landing on a newly-repaved landin

of the Bruckians was still uninfected, and another three out of the ten were clearly in the late stages of the disease, walking about blankly and blindly, stumbling into things in their paths, falling to the ground and l

der, thinner Bruckian who looked as if he carried the total burden of his people on his shoulders. He greeted them eagerly at the l

mber of inoculations. By the time the ship touched down he had a dozen flasks and several hundred syringes ready. Hundreds of the unafflicted people

ts. Controls were needed, to be certain that the antibody suspension alone was bringing about the changes seen and not something else. At last, orders went out from the spokesman. Two hundred uninfected Bruckians were admitted to a large roped-off area near the ship,

r said. "From the amounts we used on the guinea pigs, it looks as if only tiny amounts a

r signature with Hospital Earth," Jack added eagerly. "It won't be long before

given, while the first symptoms of the disease were appearing in some of the unafflicted ones. Swiftly Tiger and Jac

fected patients died after inoculation was completed. The series took three hours, and by the time the four hundred doses

first batch of the material," Dal told him. "We will have to prepare more-but we will waste time trying to move a whole planet's population here. Get a dozen aircraft

light had been splitting off small segments of pink protoplasm in a circle all around him, as though anticipating further demands on his resources. A quick test-

and syringes to equip themselves and a dozen field workers when Jack sudd

wrong?"

n a mi

en. "I don't hear an

. They were hollering their heads off wh

flipped on the switch. For a moment he just stared. Then he sa

een. "What's the matter?" Tiger sai

k again," Jack said. "

id, "and see what's going on. It looks to

ody flasks and sterile syringes strapped to their backs

they stepped to the ground. Before, the people on the field had crowded in eagerly around the ship; n

dy there were no new dead-but there was no change for the better, either. The sick creatures drifted about aimlessly, milling like animals in a cage, thei

ninfected ones who had received preventative inoculations. A few hours before they had be

ssly in the dust. All were alive, but only half-alive. The intelligence and alertness were gone from their faces; they were like the

hat's happened here?" he asked. "What's become of

m. "Taken them!" he cried. "We have moved none of them! Those are the ones

faltered. "There was nothing that we used that could possibly have give

ue itself! What kind of evil are you doing? You came here to help us, and in

ide they found the same picture. One by one they checked the ones that had previou

ry one," Tiger said finally. "T

vely at the growing mob of angry Bruckians outside the s

boomerang. We knew that the antibody might not work, and the disease

protein got into t

ready. All we've done was inject an antibody against a specific virus. All it could

said. "And the sick ones we

we do now?

ard ship and go over him with a fine-toothed

ld toward the little group where the spokesman and his party stood. The crowd on the

. "We're going to take this one aboard the ship and examine him to see wh

nt to know what you've done to them, what this

has gone wrong. We need to lear

," the spokesman said. "I don't

nk back with dreadful cries, holding up their hands as if to ward off some monstrous evil. Before, in the worst throes of the plague, there had been no sign of this kind of reaction. The people had seemed apathetic and

aised in anger. "We'd better get help, and fast," Jack said as he slammed the entrance lock closed behind them

ir tests were quite different from those they had obtained before. The blood sugar and protein determinations fell into the pattern they had originally expected for a creature of th

aw that broke the camel's back. All of those people must have been on the brink of symptoms

said. "If that's true, we should have b

," he said. "I can't get through to a hospital ship. In fact, I ca

hy?" D

but take a look

crowd. The first reaction of terror now seemed to have given way to blind fury; the people were

e ship lurched, throwing the doctors to the floor. They stagge

he engines going. They're trying to board us, and I

all GPP Ships as a means of protection against physical attack. When activated, an energy screen was virtually impregnable, but it could only be u

rom the last assault, and the noise from below ceased abruptly. But whe

ionless dials. "They're jamming our electric

've got to get out of here. If

k through the sc

sts. But we can't kee

ming signal from the ground below. "It's no good," Tiger said finally. "We're stuck here, and we

t fits in with all the rest." He picked Fuzzy off his perch and set him on his shoulder as if to protect him from some unsu

the mass of notes and records that they had collected on the

ogether, to try to see the picture as a whole. But now there was ample time

re population was threatened with a dreadful disease. They had identified the disease, found and isolated the virus that caused it, and then developed an antibody that effectively destroyed the virus-in the laboratory. But when they had tried to

should have had help here right from the start. I don'

ight diagnosis, this wouldn't have happened. And I still can't see

n is all here. We just aren't reading it right, somehow. Somewhe

ts illness and piece it together into a pattern that made sense. Dal could see that Jack was now bitterly angry with himself, yet at every turn he seemed to strike another obstacle-some fact that didn'

a specific virus should have destroyed the virus or slowed its progress, and there seemed to be no ratio

ms aimlessly. After a while they led him back to a bunk, gave him a medicine for sleep and left him snoring gently. Another hour passed as they pored over their notes, with Tig

or something he could not find. "That first report we got," he said hoarsely. "T

t's in the radio log." Tiger pulled o

s the original Exploration Ship had found on the planet, described by them as totally unintelligent and only observed on a few occasions in the course of the exploration. D

h. "I don't see wha

k I see now what it was. We've had this whole thing exactly 100 per cent b

ck's shoulder at the

ecause of a virus plague that was attacking and killing them. All right, look at it the other way. Just suppose that the intelligent creature that called us for h