Pariah Planet

ere uniformed, but the uniforms hung loosely upon them. Where the lights struck upon their faces, their cheeks were hollow. They were emaciated. And there were the splot

g over your stock of food. You'll get your

tic sentence or two. It should have amounted to identif

rd-leader sardonically. "You'll have a c

spoke

d bacterial cultures, inside it. They shouldn't be med

ue hand said as sar

won't be looted. But you're not taking a full cargo o

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

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

t's

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

the blue hand

waiting to ask you

losure. The ground-car 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-l

of tranquility and sleep, but of exhaustion and despair. The highway lamps were few, by comparison with other inhabited worlds, and the ground-car needed lights of its own to guide its driver over a paved surface that

s added to the feeling of wretchednes

nervously to

e isn't an

d in negation, b

il. "It was just beginning then.

ver sai

rationi

space appeared ahead. Lights about

seems-worse. E

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

river

caught, maybe somebody saw him without makeup. Or maybe he

peless. But men should not despair. They shouldn't accept hostility from th

id quick

scarce. So our ground isn't very fertile. Before the Plague we traded heavy metals and manufactures for

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

y're talking about cutting down our population so there'll be food enough for s

hter lights on the far side of the great open space. T

t of the name, Maril said hesitantly; "He was working on

r said ca

way to process weeds so they can be eaten. And they can. You can fill your belly and not feel hungry,

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

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

It was, of course, because the two of them showed no sign

oun briskly. "I've the usual Me

er sectors to remedy the intolerable, and he was one of them. He told of his arrival at Weald and what had happened there, from the excessively cautious insiste

rpose, and his encounter with the men he found the

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

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

ede

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

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

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

laughed

one chooses. If we decide to cut our population, we'll simply give the people to be eliminated all they want to eat of his products. They'll not

swal

him," she repeate

men turned away. A broad-

d you'd better not show yourself in public. Yo

ry. Murgatroyd s

e! C

Health at hand-he looked most harried of all the officials gathered to questi

anage. It was much more pleasant to sleep than to be awake and constantly nagged at by continued hunger. And there was the matter of simple decency. Continuous gnawing hunger had an embittering effect

o many sick children. In every case undernourishment contributed to their sickness. And there was not e

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 bein

rial and viral toxins, and there hadn't yet been any pathogenic organism discovered to which a tormal could not more or less immediately develop antibody-resistance. So that in interstellar medicine tormals were priceless. Let Murgatroyd be infected with however localized, however specialized an inimical organism, and present

rse, after the plague Weald was able to exert pressure which only a criminally incompetent Med Service director would have

ranged for her to leave Dara to be a spy, and had advised her simply to make a new life somewhere else, abandoning a famine-ridden, despised, and outcast world. Calhoun had learned of two achievements the same Korvan had made for his world. Neither was remarkably constructive. He'd offe

e blueskin menace for once and for all. There were parallels to such unreasoning frenzy even in

pigmented skin from dead patients in the hospitals, and examined the pigmented areas, and very, very painstakingly verified a theory. It took an electron microscope to do it, but he found a virus in the blue patches which matched the type discovered on Tralee. The Tralee viruses had e

t immediately afterward he barel

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

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

as nothing to say. Then she s

I was foolish

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

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

id abr

ere crowded out of the ship. The Darians who'd stam

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

shiv

l watch them. The Wealdians expect to die of plague any minute because they

ing in charity. Look here! How about those astr

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 extra

oun

el

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

n said

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. "Don't

ned to the control-room. Maril

the food one. It isn't the time to talk abo

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

observed that he'd b

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

houn. "I've an idea I'll explai

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

d have flung the Med Ship into undirected overdrive, Calhoun grew stern. He insisted on a destination. He suggested Weald. The young men glanced at each other and accepted the suggestion. He made the acting pilot look

f brightness-charts, by which the changes in apparent brightness of stars between overdrive hops could be correlated with angular changes to give a three-dimensional picture of the nearer heavens. It was a highly necessary art which h

ection. He continued to use Weald as a destination, but he set up problems in which the Med Ship came out of overdrive pointing in an unknown direction and with a precessory motion. He made the third of his students identify Weald in the cele

nd course in the art of travel in space. His young students took command in four-hour watches, with at least one breakout from overdrive in each watch. He built up enthu

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

he two interstellar journeys Maril had made with him. She occupied the sleeping-cabin during two of the six watches of each ship-day. She operated the food-readier, which was almost completely e

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

at's the last order I'll give you. You're graduat

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

l-l, sir," said one of them, unhappily

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

ut

"I will not permit you to

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

y'were o

olla

t comfortably on the floor. Maril watched, white-faced, her h

"just drugged. They'

a tense and de

us! You're going t

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

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

tter. 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 Dar

ary unpleasant sensations accompa

arth, is of magnitude r