This World Is Taboo

lack upon the ground. Calhoun's captors were uniformed, but the uniforms hung loosely upon them. Where the lights struck upon t

s face and up upon his forehead. The man next to him had a blue throat. The next man again was less marked,

made an imperious gesture with his hand. It was blue, except for two

ing over your stock of food. You'll get y

ptic sentence or two. It should have amounted to ident

rd leader sardonically. "You'll have a c

are medicines and bacterial culture inside it. They shouldn'

vernment was taking over your ship! It won't be looted. But you're not ta

tling hatred all about him as he named Weald. "There's tumult there. They're talking about dropping fusion

Chee!" from behind him, and Murgatroyd came dashing to

t's

thing about him. This is a Med Ship and I'm a Med Ship man, and he's an i

harshly, "There's somebody wai

losure. The groundcar ran on wheels, and wheels were not much used

n tell them anything you want. But don't try

n festooned themselves about its exterior and it went bumping and rolling to the massive ground-

nd the men at the landing-grid had set a pattern of hunger, so that the silence and the d

ts driver over a paved surface that needed repair. By those moving lights other depressing things could be seen: untidiness,

s added to the feeling of wretchednes

nervously to

e isn't an

. There was a splotch of blue pigment at the bac

aril. "It was just beginning t

evenly, "There's

space appeared ahead. Lights about

ems worse. Eve

warm up ground to grow crops where it ough

ehow, that Maril

d then make my way to Weald. I mailed reports of what I found out ba

aybe he got caught, maybe somebody saw him without make-up. Or ma

was hopeless. But men should not despair. They shouldn't accept hosti

soil. Potassium is scarce. So our ground isn't very fertile. Before the Plague we traded metals and manufactured pro

to Med Service to see that that didn't happen.

lking about cutting down our population so there'll be food enough for some to live. T

enlarged as they grew nearer. Maril said hesitantly, "There was someone, Korvan-" Calhoun didn't catch the rest

utfit worked out a way to process weeds so they can be eaten. And they can. You can fill your belly and not feel

. The armed men hanging to its outside dropped off. They watched Calh

r a ship to land on Dara was so remarkable an event that it called practically for a cabine

hem showed no signs of hunger. They obviously had not been on short rations. Darians had this, no

houn briskly. "I've the usual

had been borrowed from other sectors to remedy the intolerable, and he was one of them. He told of his arrival at Weald and what had h

He went on to tell of his stop at Orede and his purpose, and his encounter

ut what wasn't done before. I should make a planetary health inspection and make recommendations for the improvement of the state

ughed with

tinued undernourishment?" he asked de

d food," sa

u fill the p

l want to talk to any space pilots you've got. Get your a

was totall

re

hunting that planet over for Darians. If

on Orede now. If you've told the truth, they'll probably h

, and Calhoun knew that it

ly, "goes to the hospitals! I h

rk magic, but we can find out if he lies. Put a guard on his ship. Otherwise let our health men gi

ne of us on Trent. I have a family here. They'll know me! And I-there was someone who was working on fo

laughed

swal

him," she repeate

luntly, "Don't look for them to be glad to see you. And you'd better not

urgatroyd said bewild

Health at hand. He looked most harried of all the officials gathered to questio

o sleep. Most people, indeed, slept as many hours out of the traditional twenty-four as they could ma

n everyone. Quarrelsomeness was a common experience. And people who would normally be the leaders o

t contributed to their sickness. And there was not enough food to make them well. Doctors and nurses denied themselves food to spare it for their patients

that enabled such small samples to be multiplied indefinitely. He was annoyed by a clamorous appetite. There were some doctors who ignored the irony of medical techniques bei

ally been found on a planet in the Deneb area, and they were engaging and friendly small ani

t been any pathogenic organism discovered to which a tormal could not more or less immedia

mical organism, and presently some highly valuable defensive substance could

sis the Service had developed, that was that. The antibody could

competence and its consequences was what Calhoun had been loaned to Sector Twelve to help remedy. He was not at ease, though. No ship arrived from Orede to bear out his account of an attempt to get that lonely world evacuated before Weald discovered it had blueskins on it.

the value of the second by dying of it. Which might make him a very admirable character, or he could have a passion for martyrdom, which

e awake and in the Med Ship, under guard, afterward. He had hunger cramps

spitals, and examined the pigmented areas, and very, very painstakingly verified a theory. It took an electr

with the observed results of quasi-living viral particles. And then Calhoun very, very carefully intro

yawned and yawned and barely managed to stagger off to bed.

houn knew nothing of it. But next morning Maril came back. There were shadows under her ey

un commented. "I've been visiting my fami

ny better than I hav

ning for everybody and it's all efficiently arranged. They even had rations for me. Bu

ay. Then she said, in a no less desolate ton

e right," s

he ship, and I'm ashamed because they're half-starved and I'm not. And when you see what hunger

omething about that. If I can ge

was loaded with frozen meat, but one load's not enough to make a difference on a

iners. They were crowded out of the ship. The Darians who

d on Orede with their throats cut. Or living, either, to tell about a rumo

shiv

tch them. The Wealdians expect to die of plague any minute because they've b

ing in charity. Look there! How about those ast

rung he

," she said

d his mysterious work. He'd been off-duty and now was on duty again. He was bored. So long as Calhoun did not touch the control bo

ip better. They lost themselves coming back from Orede. No, they didn't lose themselves, but they lost time, enough time almost to make an extr

said,

top it by being more monstrous sooner! Not everybody agrees, but there are enough. So they want to use your ship-it's faster in over

ed to boot by the people who kept me hungry, I suppose I might react the same way. No," he said curtly as she opened her lips to speak again

He said detachedly, "I've been working on a problem outside of the food on

ite as hungry as most Darians, but there was a reason for that. Their leader introduced himself and the others. They were the astrogators of the ship Dara had built to try to bring

was a patch of blue upon his wrist. On another the appearance of a blue birthmark appeared beside his eye and went back and up his

"to come on board and learn from you how to handl

oun. "I've an idea I'll explain

hrough the airlock. One of the four

young man. "We don't go anywher

oting at each other there," said

aid the

r antagonistic. He was im

communicator and there's the button. You might

the routine of preparing to lift by landing-grid, which routine has not changed in two

ld

The young man at the control board flushed vividl

ure. This was presumably a training voyage of his own suggestion. Therefore, when the blueskin pilot would have f

trinsic brightness of its sun and measure its apparent brightness from just off Dara. He made him estima

econd was anxious to show up better than the first. Calhoun drilled him in the use of brightness-charts, by which the changes in apparent br

trogators became absorbed in this and other fine points of space-piloting. They'd done enou

all suggestions as commands. He put the four young men in command of the ship in turn, under his direction. He continued to use Weald as a d

ns of stars, and get on course in overdrive toward it. The fourth was suddenly required to compute th

lesson. He gave them, in fact, a highly condensed but very sound course in the art of travel in space. Hi

being hungry-though there had been no reason for them to stin

, but they were vastly better spacemen than at the beginning. Inevitably, their attitude toward C

with his practise when alone. But he did nothing on this journey which, teaching co

was almost completely emptied of its original store of food, it having been confiscated by the government of Dara. Th

ger planets, especially a gas-giant fifth-orbit world of high albedo. Calhoun had his four students estimate its distance again, p

coffee. I'm going to graduate you as pil

tended for Calhoun and Murgatroyd alone. The little tormal had spent most of his time in his cubbyh

Calhoun. "You didn't do your lessons.

. He found his little cup and offered it

n with their blueskin markings. "Drink it down!" he commanded. "T

d not admire Calhoun for having made them admire themselves. Th

boxes you brought on board. You said they were rations, but they haven't

comfortable. There

Weald is making plans to wipe out Dara. So some fool has decided to get Wea

r self-respect. On the Med Ship there'd not been a single reference to Weald except as an object toward which the Med Ship was being astrogated. There'd been no r

hem, unhappily, "that's wh

telling themselves that some day Dara would try that. They've made preparations to fight any imaginable c

ut

bid it. I shall prevent it. You

a chair. He said remotely, "Thish sfunny!" and abruptly went to sleep. The third found his knees giving way. He paid elaborate attention to them, sti

olla

ortably on the floor. Maril watched, white-faced, her hand to her t

un. "They'll wak

te whisper, "You're betraying us!

acked-up cultures. They're dead, by the way. I killed them with super-sonics a couple of days ago,

it. The boxes and their contents streamed out to space in the fo

atter. But the important thing right now is not keeping Weald busy with troubles to increase their hatred of Dara. It's getting some food for Da

ary unpleasant sensations accompa