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14 - Five Stories by Alan Nourse by Alan E. Nourse · Five Stories by Alan Nourse

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  Speaker 1: Contamination Crew of five stories by Alan Norse. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Kirk Zigler. Orders were orders. The creature had
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  Speaker 1: to be killed, but just how does one destroy the indestructible.
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  Speaker 1: The following is taken from the files of the Medical
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  Speaker 1: Disciplinary Board, Hospital Earth. From the preliminary herrings in r E.
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  Speaker 1: Profession versus Samuel B. Jenkins, Physician, First Court of Medical Affairs,
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  Speaker 1: Final action pending com co O d S two two
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  Speaker 1: one v B seventy three Varachaslav Sector fourth Galactic Period
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  Speaker 1: twenty two twenty three forty one General Survey Ship Mercy
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  Speaker 1: to Hospital Earth via fast as possible routing Priority unassigned
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  Speaker 1: two Lucius Darby, Physician Grade one Black, Sir. Director of
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  Speaker 1: the Galactic Periphery Services, Hospital Earth, from Samuel B. Jenkins, Physician,
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  Speaker 1: Grade six Red Service, General Practice Patrol Ship Lancet attached
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  Speaker 1: to GSS Mercy, pro Tem, Sir. The following communication is
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  Speaker 1: directed to your attention in hopes that it may anticipate
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  Speaker 1: various charges which are certain to be placed against me
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  Speaker 1: as a physician of the Red Service upon the return
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  Speaker 1: from the General Survey Ship Mercy to Hospital Earth, expected
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  Speaker 1: arrival four months from above date. These charges will undoubtedly
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  Speaker 1: be preferred by one two Vold Nielsen, Physician Grade two
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  Speaker 1: of the Black Service and commander of the Mercy on
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  Speaker 1: its current survey mission for Ochisilav sector. Exactly what the
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  Speaker 1: charges will be I cannot say, since the Black doctor
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  Speaker 1: in question refuses either audience or communication with me at
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  Speaker 1: the present time. However, it seems likely that treason, in
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  Speaker 1: competence and mutinous insubordination will be among the miler compis
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  Speaker 1: planes registered. It is possible that even malpractice might be added.
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  Speaker 1: So you can readily understand the reasons for this statement.
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  Speaker 1: The following will also clarify my attached request that the
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  Speaker 1: GSS Mercy, upon arrival in orbit round Hospital Earth, be
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  Speaker 1: met immediately by a decontamination ship carrying a bat of
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  Speaker 1: hydrochloric acid concentration three point seven percent measuring no less
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  Speaker 1: than twenty by thirty by fifty feet, and that that
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  Speaker 1: quarantine officials be prepared to place the entire crew of
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  Speaker 1: the Mercy under physical and psychiatric observation for a period
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  Speaker 1: of no less than six weeks upon disembarkation. The facts
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  Speaker 1: in brief are as follows. Three months ago, as the
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  Speaker 1: crew of the General Practice patrol ship Landset, my colleague
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  Speaker 1: Green doctor Wallis Stone, and myself began investigating certain peculiar
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  Speaker 1: conditions existing on the fourth planet of Mauki Varaca's Law
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  Speaker 1: Sector Class one medical service contract. The entire population of
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  Speaker 1: that planet was found to be suffering from a mass
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  Speaker 1: psychotic delusion of rather spectacular proportions, namely that they and
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  Speaker 1: their entire planet were in ineminent danger of being devoured
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  Speaker 1: in Toto by an indestructible, non humanoid creature, which they
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  Speaker 1: called a lorg. The Malkivi were insistent that a lorg
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  Speaker 1: had already totally consumed a non existent outer planet in
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  Speaker 1: their system and was now hard at work on neighboring
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  Speaker 1: Mauki five. It was their morbid fear that Mauki four
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  Speaker 1: was next on the list. No amount of reassurance could
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  Speaker 1: convince them of the foolishness of these fears. Although we
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  Speaker 1: exhausted our energy, our patients, and our food and medical
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  Speaker 1: supplies in the effort, ultimately we referred the matter to
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  Speaker 1: the Gray Service feeling confident that it was a psychiatric
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  Speaker 1: problem rather than medical or surgical, we applied to the G. S. S.
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  Speaker 1: Mercy to take us aboard and to replenish our ship's
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  Speaker 1: supplies and provide us a much needed recovery period. The
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  Speaker 1: Black Doctor in command approved our quest and brought us aboard.
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  Speaker 1: The trouble began two days later. There were three classes
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  Speaker 1: of dirty words in use by the men who traveled
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  Speaker 1: the spaceways back and forth from Hospital Earth. There were
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  Speaker 1: the words you seldom used in public, but they were
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  Speaker 1: colorful and descriptive in private use. Then there were the
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  Speaker 1: words which you seldom used even in private, but which
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  Speaker 1: effectively relieved feelings when directed at Mare's inanimate objects and
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  Speaker 1: people who had just left the room. Finally, there were
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  Speaker 1: the words that you just didn't use period. You knew
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  Speaker 1: they existed, but you'd heard them used at one time
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  Speaker 1: or another. But to hear them spoken out in plain
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  Speaker 1: Earth English was enough to rock the most space hardened
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  Speaker 1: of the galactic pill peddlers back on his well worn heels,
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  Speaker 1: Black Doctor turbul Nielsen. Earth English was spotty at best,
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  Speaker 1: but the word came through without any possibility of misinterpretation.
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  Speaker 1: Read doctor Sam Jenkins stared at the little man and
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  Speaker 1: felt his face turning a scarlet as the lightning of
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  Speaker 1: his uniform cape. But that's ridiculous, he finally stammered, Quite
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  Speaker 1: aside from the language you used to suggest it. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: so the word still has some punch left, eh. At
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  Speaker 1: least you puppies bring something away from your medical training,
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  Speaker 1: even if it's only taboos. The Black doctor scowled across
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  Speaker 1: the desk at Jenkins's lanky figure. But sometimes, my good doctor,
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  Speaker 1: it's better to face a fact than to wait for
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  Speaker 1: the fact to face you. Sometimes we have to crawl
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  Speaker 1: out of our ivory towers for a minute or two,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Jenkins reddened again. He had never had any
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  Speaker 1: great love for the physicians of the Black Service who did,
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  Speaker 1: but he found himself disliking this short, blunt spoken man
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  Speaker 1: even more cordially than most. Why implicate the lancet, he
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  Speaker 1: burst out. You've landed the Mercy on plenty of planets
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  Speaker 1: before we brought the lancet aboard her. But we didn't
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  Speaker 1: have it with us before the lancet came aboard, and
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  Speaker 1: we do have it now. The implication is obvious. You've
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  Speaker 1: brought aboard a containment, he'd set it again. Red Doctor
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins's face darkened. Doctor and I have maintained the Lancet
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  Speaker 1: in perfect conformity with the Sterility Code. We've taken every
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  Speaker 1: precaution on both landing and disembarking procedures. What's more, we've
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  Speaker 1: spent the last six months on a planet with no
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  Speaker 1: mutually compatible flora or fauna. From Hospital Earth viewpoint, Mauki
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  Speaker 1: four is sterile. We made only the briefest check stop
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  Speaker 1: on Mauki five before joining you. It was a barren rock,
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  Speaker 1: but we decontaminated it again after leaving. If you have
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  Speaker 1: a containment on board your ship, sir, it didn't come
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  Speaker 1: from the Lancet, and I won't be held responsible. It
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  Speaker 1: was strong language to use to a black doctor, and
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  Speaker 1: Sam Jenkins knew it. There were doctors of the Green
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  Speaker 1: and Red Services who had spent the professional lives on
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  Speaker 1: some god forsaken planetoid at the age of the galaxy.
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  Speaker 1: For saying less, Red Doctor Sam Jenkins was too near
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  Speaker 1: the end of his internship, too nearly ready for his
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  Speaker 1: first permanent planetary appointment. With the rank honor and responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: It carried too lightly risk, throwing it in to the
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  Speaker 1: wind at this stage. But a red doctor does not
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  Speaker 1: bring a containment aboard a survey ship, he thought, doggedly.
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  Speaker 1: No matter what the Black doctor says. Neilsen looked at
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  Speaker 1: the young man slowly. Then he shrugged. Of course, I'm
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  Speaker 1: merely a pathologist. I realize that we know nothing of medicine,
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  Speaker 1: nor of disease, nor of the manner in which disease
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  Speaker 1: is spread. All this is beyond our scope. But perhaps
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  Speaker 1: you'll permit one simple question from a dull old man,
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  Speaker 1: just to humor him. Jenkins looked at the floor. I'm sorry, sir,
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  Speaker 1: just so, you've had a very successful cruise this year
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  Speaker 1: with a lancet I understand, Jenkins nodded. A most successful cruise.
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  Speaker 1: Four planets elevated from class four to class two. Contracts,
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  Speaker 1: they tell me more out elevated from class five to
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  Speaker 1: class one with certain special writers. A plague panic averted
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  Speaker 1: on setman I, and a very complex virus bacteria symbosis
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  Speaker 1: unraveled on ORB three. An illustrious record you and your
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  Speaker 1: colleagues from the Green servicer hoping for a year's exemption
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  Speaker 1: from training. I imagine the Black doctor looked up sharply.
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  Speaker 1: You searched your holes after leaving the Milky Planets, I presume,
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins blinked. Why no, sir, that is, we can daminate it,
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  Speaker 1: according to I see, you didn't search your holes. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose you didn't notice your food supplies dwindling at an
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  Speaker 1: alarming rate. No, the Red Doctor hesitated, Not really, ah.
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  Speaker 1: The Black Doctor raised his eyes wearily and flipped an
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  Speaker 1: activator switch. The scanner on the far wall buzzed into activity.
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  Speaker 1: It focused on the rear storage hold of the Mercy,
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  Speaker 1: where the little lancet was resting on its landing rack.
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  Speaker 1: Look closely, Doctor. At first, Jenkins saw nothing. Then his
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  Speaker 1: eye caught a long, pink, glistening strand laying across the
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  Speaker 1: floor of the hold. The scanner picked up the strand
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  Speaker 1: followed it to the place where it emerged from a
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  Speaker 1: neat pencil sized hole in the hull of the lancet.
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  Speaker 1: The strand snake completely across the room and disappeared through
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  Speaker 1: another neat hole in the wall next to the storage hold.
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  Speaker 1: Jenkin shook his head as the scanner flipped back to
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  Speaker 1: the hole in the lancet's hall, even as he watched
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  Speaker 1: the hole enlarged and a pink blob began to emerge.
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  Speaker 1: The blob kept coming and coming until arrested soggily on
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  Speaker 1: the edge of the hole. Then it teetered and fell
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  Speaker 1: splat on the floor. Friends of yours, the Black Doctor
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  Speaker 1: asked casually. It was a pink heap of jelly, just
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  Speaker 1: big enough to fill a scrub bucket. It sat on
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  Speaker 1: the floor, quivering noxiously. Then it sent out pseudo pods
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  Speaker 1: in several directions, probing the metal floor. After a few moments,
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  Speaker 1: it began oozing along the strand of hisself that lay
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  Speaker 1: on the floor, and squeezed through the hole into the
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  Speaker 1: next hold. Ah, said Sam Jenkins, feeling suddenly sick. The
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  Speaker 1: hydrophonic tanks are in there, The Black Doctor said, you've
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  Speaker 1: seen one of those before, not in person. Jenkins shook
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  Speaker 1: his head weakly, only pictures. It's a lord. We thought
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  Speaker 1: it was only a Maukiv, the persecution fantasy. This thing
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  Speaker 1: is growing pretty fast for a persecution fantasy. We spotted
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  Speaker 1: it eight hours ago, demolishing what was left of your
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  Speaker 1: food supply is twice as big now as it was then. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we've got to get rid of it, said Jenkins, suddenly
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  Speaker 1: coming to life. Amen, doctor. I'll get the survey crew
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  Speaker 1: alerted right away. We won't waste a minute, and my apologies,
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins was hurrying for the door. I'll get it cleared
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  Speaker 1: out of here fast. I do hope, so said the
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  Speaker 1: Black Doctor. The thing makes me ill just to think about.
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  Speaker 1: I'll give you a clean ship report in twenty four hours,
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  Speaker 1: the Red Doctor said, as confidently as he could, and
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  Speaker 1: beat a hasty retreat down the corridor. He was wishing
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  Speaker 1: fervently that he felt as confident as he sounded. The
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  Speaker 1: Malkivi had described the Lord in excruciating detail. He and
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  Speaker 1: Green Doctor Stone had listened and smiled sadly at each
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  Speaker 1: other day after day, marveling at the fanciful delusion lords
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  Speaker 1: indeed and such creatures to dream up eating, growing, devouring plant,
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  Speaker 1: animal and mineral without discrimination. And the Malkivi had stoutly
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  Speaker 1: maintained that this lorge of theirs was indestructible. Green Doctor
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  Speaker 1: Wally Stone, true to his surgical calling, was a man
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  Speaker 1: of action. You mean there's such a thing, he exploded
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  Speaker 1: when his partner confronted him with the news, for real,
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  Speaker 1: not just somebody's pipe dream. There is, says Jenkins, and
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  Speaker 1: we've got it here on board the Mercy. It's sitting
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  Speaker 1: like Helen Gone and doubling its size every eight hours. Well,
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  Speaker 1: what are you waiting for? Toss it overboard and what
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  Speaker 1: happens to the next party it happens to land on.
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  Speaker 1: We're supposed to be altarists. Remember, we're supposed to worry
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  Speaker 1: about the health of the galaxy. Jenkins shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever we do with it, we have to find out
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  Speaker 1: just what we're tossing before we toss The creature had
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  Speaker 1: made itself at home aboard the Mercy in the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of invited guests since time immemorial. It had established a
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  Speaker 1: toll hold with remarkable asperity, and it was now digging
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  Speaker 1: in for the long winter. Drawn to the hydrophonic tanks
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  Speaker 1: like a flea to a dog, the lorg had settled
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  Speaker 1: its bulbous, pink body down in their murky depths with
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  Speaker 1: a contented gurgle. As it grew large, the tank levels
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  Speaker 1: grew lower, the broth clearer. The fact that the twenty
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  Speaker 1: five crewmen of the Mercy depended on those tanks for
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  Speaker 1: their food supply on the fourth month run back to
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  Speaker 1: Earth Hospital didn't seem to bother the lorg a bit.
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  Speaker 1: It just sank down wetly and began to eat. Under
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins's whip hand and with the Green Doctor Stone's assistance,
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  Speaker 1: the survey crew snapped into action. The survey was the
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  Speaker 1: soul and lifeblood of the medical services supplied by Hospital
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  Speaker 1: Earth to the inhabited planets of the galaxy. Centuries before,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: during the era of exploration, every Earth ship had carried
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  Speaker 1: a rudimentary survey crew, a physiologist, a biochemist, an immunologist,
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  Speaker 1: a physician to determine the safety of landings on unknown planets.
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  Speaker 1: Other races were more advanced into technological and physical sciences
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  Speaker 1: in sales or in merchandising, but in the biological sciences,
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  Speaker 1: Men of Earth stood and excelled in the galaxy. It
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: was not surprising that their casual offerings of medical services
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  Speaker 1: whereof their ships touched had led to a growing demand
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  Speaker 1: for those services. Until the first medical service contract with
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  Speaker 1: deneb Iie had formalized the planetary specialty Earth had become
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  Speaker 1: Hospital Earth. Physician to a galaxy surge in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: worlds midwife to those susceptible to midwifery, and psychiatrists to
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  Speaker 1: those whose inner lives zigged when their outer lives zagged.
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  Speaker 1: In the early days, it had been a haphazard arrangement,
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  Speaker 1: but gradually distinct services appeared to handle problems of medicine, surgery, radiology, psychiatry,
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  Speaker 1: and all the other functions of a well appointed medical service.
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  Speaker 1: Under the direction of the Black Service of Pathology, hospital
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  Speaker 1: ships and survey ships were dispatched to service bases for ms.
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  Speaker 1: The tiny general practice patrol ships that answered the calls
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  Speaker 1: of the planets under contract, but it was the survey
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  Speaker 1: ships that did the basic dirty work on any new
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  Speaker 1: planet taken under contract, outlining the physiological and biochemical aspects
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  Speaker 1: of the races involved, studying their disease patterns, their immunological types,
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  Speaker 1: their susceptibility to medical, surgical, or psychiatric treatment. It was
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  Speaker 1: an exacting service to perform, and the survey did an
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  Speaker 1: exacting job. Now, with their own home base invaded by
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  Speaker 1: a hungry pink jelly blob, the survey crew of the
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  Speaker 1: Mercy dug in with all fours to find a way
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  Speaker 1: to exercise it. The early returns were not encouraging. Bowman,
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  Speaker 1: the anatomist, spent six hours with the creature. He'd go
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  Speaker 1: after the functional and anatomy first, he thought, as he
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: approached the task with gusto special organs vital organ systems.
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  Speaker 1: After all, every Achilles had its heel functional, would spot
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  Speaker 1: it if anything would Six hours left, he rendered a
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  Speaker 1: preliminary report. It consisted of a blank sheet of paper
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  Speaker 1: and an expression of wild frustration. What's this supposed to mean?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Jenkins asked, Just what it says? But it says nothing
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  Speaker 1: that is exactly what it means. Bowman was a thin,
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  Speaker 1: wistful looking man with a hawk nose and a little
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  Speaker 1: brown mustache. He subbed as the ship's cook when things
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: were slow in his specialty. He wasn't a very good cook,
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  Speaker 1: But what could anyone do with the sludge from the
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: harvest shelf of a hydrophonic tank? Now with a lorg incumbent,
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  Speaker 1: there wasn't even any sludge. I drained off a tank
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  Speaker 1: and got a good look at it before it crawled
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  Speaker 1: over to the next one, Bowman said, ugly, bastard, But
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: from a strictly atonomical standpoint, I can't help you a
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: bit green. Doctor Stone glowered over Jenkins's shoulder at the man.
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  Speaker 1: But surely you can give us something, Bowman shrugged. Want
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: it technical any way, you like your lorg is an
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: ideal animal a nothing protoplasm, just protoplasm. Jenkins looked up sharply.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: What about his cellular organization? No cells, said Bowman, unless
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: they're sub microscopic, And I'd need an electron peaker to
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: tell you that. No organ systems, not even an integament.
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  Speaker 1: You saw how slippery he looked. That's why there's nothing
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: holding him in but energy. Now, look, said Stone. He eats,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't he? He must have waste materials of some sort.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Bowman shook his head unhappily. Sorry, no urates, no nitrates,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: no CO two. Anyway, he doesn't eat because he has
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: nothing to eat with. He absorbs, and that includes the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: lining of the tanks, which he seems to like as
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: much as the contents. He doesn't bore those holes he makes,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: he dissolves them. They sent Bowman back to quarters for
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: a hot bath and a shot of happy O and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: looked up Arunta, the biochemist. Arunta was glaring at the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: paper electrophoretic patterns and pulling out chunk of hair around
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: his bald spot. He gave them a snarl and shoved
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the sheaf of papers into their hands. Metabolic survey, Jenkins asked,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Plus said, Ronda, you're not going to like it either.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Why not if it grows, it metabolizes. If it metabolizes,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: we can kill it. Axiom number seventeen, paragraph number four. Oh,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: it metabolizes, all right, But you'd better find yourself another
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: axiom pretty quick. Why because it not only metabolizes, it consumes.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: There's no sign of the usual protein carbohydrate metabolism going
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: on here. This baby has an enzyme system that's straight
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: from hell. It bypasses the usual metabolic activities that produce
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: heat and energy and gets right down to the basic basic.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Jenkins swallowed, what do you mean? It attacks the nuclear
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: structure of whatever matter the creature comes in contact with.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: There's a partial mass energy conversion in its rost form.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: The creature goes after carbon bearing substances first. Then the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: sea seems to break down more easily than anything else,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: hence its preference for plant and animal matter material over
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: non sea stuff. But it can use anything if it
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  Speaker 1: has to. Jenkins stared at the little biochemist, an image
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  Speaker 1: in his mind of the pink creature in the hold
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  Speaker 1: growing larger by the minute as it ate its way
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  Speaker 1: through the hydrophonics through the dry stores. Is there anything
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: it can't use? If there is, I haven't found it,
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  Speaker 1: Arunta said, sadly. In fact, I can't see any reason
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  Speaker 1: why it couldn't consume this ship and everything in it,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: right down to the last rivet. They walked down to
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the hold for another look at their uninvited guest, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: almost wished they hadn't. It had reached the size of
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: a small hippopotamus, although the resemblance ended there. Twenty hours
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: had elapsed since the survey had begun. The Lord had
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: used every minute of it, draining the tanks, engulfing dry stores,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: devouring walls and floors as it spread out in search
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: of food, leaving trails of eroded metal wherever it went.
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  Speaker 1: It was ugly, ugly in its pink shapelessness, ugly in
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: its slimy half sentient movements, in its very purposefulness. But
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: its ugliness went even deeper, stirring primordial feelings of revulsion
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: and loathing in their minds as they watched it oozing
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: implacably across the hole to another dry storage bin. Whilely
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Stone shuddered, it's grown too fast. Bowman charged it as
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: geometric progression. Stone scratched his jaw as a lone pink
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: pseudopod pushed out on the floor toward him. Then he
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: leaped forward and stamped on it, severing the strand from
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the body. The severed member quivered and lay still for
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a moment, then it flowed right back to join the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: body with a wet girdle. Stone looked at his half
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: dissolved shoe egotropism, Jenkins said. Bowman played around with that too.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: A severed piece will rejoin it if it can. If
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: it can't, it just takes up independent residence, and we
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: have two lords. What happens to it outside the ship,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Stone wanted to know. It falls dormant for several hours,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: then it splits up into thousand independent chunks. One of
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the boys spent half of yesterday out there gathering them up.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I tell you this thing is equipped to survive. So
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: are we, said Green doctor Stone grimly. If we can't
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: out with this free flowing gob of obscenity, we deserve
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: anything we get. Let's have a conference. They met in
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the pilot room. The Black doctor was there, so were
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Bowman and Herna Chambers. The physiologist was glumly clasping and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: unclasping his hands in a corner, the geneticist Piccione drew
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: cymbals on a scratch pad and stared blankly at the wall.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Jenkins was saying, of course, these are only preliminary reports,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: but they served to outline the problem. This is not
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: just an annoyance any longer. It's a crisis. We'd all
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: better understand that. The Black Doctor cut him off with
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a wave of his hand and glowered at the papers
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: as he read them through minutely. As he sat hunched
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: at the desk, with the black cowl of his hanging
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: down from his shoulders, he looked like a squat black
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: judge Jenkins thought, a shadow from the Inquisition, a passer
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of spells. But there was no medievalism in the Black
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Doctor Nilssen. In fact, it was for that reason, and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: only that reason, that the Black Service had come to
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: be the leaders and the whips, the executors and directors
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: of all the manifold operations of Hospital Earth. The physicians
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: of the General Practice Patrol were fledglings, newly trained in
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: their specialties, inexperienced in the rigorous discipline of medicine that
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: was required of the directors of permanent planetary dispensaries in
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the heavily populated systems of the galaxy. On outlying worlds
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: where little was known in the ways of medicine, the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: temptation was great to substitute faith for knowledge, kant for investigation,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: nonsense rituals for hard work. But the physicians of the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Black Service were always waiting to jerk wandering neophytes back
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: into the scientific disciplines that made the service of hospital
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Earths so effective. The Black doctors would not tolerate sloppiness.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Show me the tissue, doctor, they would say, Prove to
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: me what you say is sol Prove that what you
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: did was valid medicine. Their laboratories were the morgues and
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: autopsy rooms of a thousand planets, the temples of truth
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: from which no physician since the days of Pasteur and
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Lister could escape for long and retain his position. The
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Black doctors were pragmatists, the gadflies of Hospital Earth. For
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: this reason, it was surprising to hear Black doctor Nielsen saying,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: perhaps we're being too scientific. Just now, when the creature
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: has exhausted our food stores, it will look elsewhere for food.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Perhaps we must cut at the tree and not at
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the root a frontal attack, asked Jenkins. Its enzyme system
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: is its vulnerability. Enzyme systems operate under specific optimum conditions, right,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and every known enzyme system can be inactivated by adverse
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: conditions of one sort or another. A physical approach may
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: tell us how in this case. Meanwhile, we'll be on
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: emergency rations and hope that we don't starve to death
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: in finding out. The Black Doctor paused, looking at the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: men around him. And in case you're thinking of enlisting
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: help from outside, forget it. I've sent plague warnings out
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: for galactic relay. We have this thing isolated, and we're
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: going to keep it that way as long as I
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: command this ship. They went gloomily back to their laboratories
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to plan their frontal attack. That was the night that
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Herenda disappeared. He was gone when they came to wake
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: him from his sleep period. His bunk had been slept in,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't in it. In fact, he wasn't anywhere
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: on the ship, but he just couldn't vanish. The Black
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Doctor burst out when they told him the news. Maybe
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: he's hiding somewhere, Maybe this business was working on his mind. Green.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Doctor Stone took a crew of men to search the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: ship again, even though he considered it a waste of
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: precious time. He had his private convictions about where Heronda
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: had gone, so did every other man on the ship,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: including Jenkins. The lord stopped eating, huge and round, wet
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and ugly, it squatted in the afterhold, quivering gently without
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: any other sign of life, like a fat man after
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a turkey dinner. Jenkins reviewed progress with the others. No
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: stone had been left unturned. They had sliced the log
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and squeezed it. They had boiled it and frozen it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: They had dropped chunks of it in acid vats and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: covered other chunks with dessicans and alkalies. Nothing seemed to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: bother it. A cold environment slowed down its activity, true,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: but it was also stimulated in the process of fission.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Warmed up again, the portion sucked back together again and
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: resumed eating. Heat was a little more effective, but not much.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: It stunned the creature for a brief period, but it
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: would not burn. It hissed frightfully and gave off an
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: overpowering stench, and curled up at the edges. But as
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: soon as the heat was turned off again, it began
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to recover in Horrenda's lap. Chunks of the lorec sat
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: in a dozen vats, on tables, and in sinks. Some
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: contain antibiotics, some concentrated acids, some desiccons In each vat,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a blob of pink protoplasm wiggled happily, showing no sign
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of discomfiture. On another table were the remains of Hurunta's
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: unsuccessful attempt to prepare an anti lord's serum. But no Hurunta.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: He was down there with the thing all day, Bowman said, sadly.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: He felt it was his responsibility. Really, Runta thought biochemistry
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: was the answer to all things, of course, very conscientious man.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: But he was in bed, he claimed. He did his
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: best thinking in bed. Maybe he had a brainstorm and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: went down to try it out. And yes, Jenkins nodded sourly,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and he walked down the row of bats. You'd think
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: that at least concentrated sulfuric would dessicate it a little.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But it's just formed a crust of coagulated protein around
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: itself and sits there. Bowman peered over his shoulder, his
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: mustache twitching. But it does dessicate if you use enough
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: long enough. What about concentrated hydrochloric same thing, maybe a
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: little more effective, but not enough to count. Okay, next
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: we try combinations. There's got to be something the wretched
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: beast can't tolerate. There was, of course. Doctor Stone brought
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: it to Jenkins as he was getting ready to turn
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: in for a sleep period. Jenkins a check to make
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: sure the double guards were posted in the Lord's vicinity
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and jolded them with sleep not to keep them on
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: their toes. All the same, he tied a length of
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: stout cord around his ankle just to make sure he
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: didn't do any sleep walking. He was tying it to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the bunk when Stone came in with a pan in
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: his hand and a peculiar look on his face. Look
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: at this, he said. Jenkins looked at the sickly brown
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: mass in the tray, and then up at Stone. Where
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: did you find it? Down in the hold? Our lorc
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: has broken precedent, It rejected something that at ate. Yeah,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: what is it? I don't know. I'm taking it to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Nielsen for paraffin sections, but I know what it looks
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: like to me, I know, Jenkins felt sick. Stone headed
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: up to the path lap, leaving the red doctor settled
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: in his bunk. Ten minutes later, Jenkins sat bolt upright
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: in the darkness. Frantically, he untied himself and slid into
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: his clothes. Idiot, he growled to himself. Seventh son of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: a seventh son. Five minutes later he was staring at
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the vats in Harunza's laboratory. He found the one he
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: was looking for. A pink blob of lord wiggled slowly
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: round the bottom. Jenkins drew a beaker of distilled water
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and added it to the fluid in the vat. It
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: hissed and sputtered and sent up quantities of acrid steam.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: When the steam had cleared away, Jenkins peered in eagerly.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: The pink thing in the bottom was turning sickly violet.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: It quit wiggling. As Jenkin watched, the violet color changed
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: to gray mud, then to black. He prodded it with
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a stirring rod. There was no response. With a whoop, Jenkins, buzz,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Bowman and Stone, We've got it, he shouted to them.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: When they appeared, look at it. Bowman poked and probed
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and broke into a white grin. The piece of lorg
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: was truly and sincerely dead. It inactivates the enzyme system
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and renders the base protoplasm vulnerable to anything that normally
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: attacks it. What are we waiting for? They began tearing
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the laboratory apart, searching for the right bottles. The supply
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: was discouragingly small, but there was some in stock. The
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: three of them raced down the corridor for the hold
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: where the lorg was. It took them three hours of
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: angry work to exhaust the supply. They whittled chunks off
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the lorg tossed them in pans of the deadly fluid.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: With each slice, they stopped momentarily to watch it turn violet,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: then black as it died. The Lorg, dwindling in size,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: sensed the attack and slapped frantically at their ankles, sending
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: out angry plumes of wet jelly. But they ducked and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: dodged and whittled some more. The Lord quivered and gurgled
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and wept pinkish goo all over the floor, but it
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: grew smaller and weaker with every whack. PARENTA must have
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: spotted it and come down here alone, Jenkins panted between
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: them slices. Maybe he slipped lost his footing, I don't know.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: They continued to work until the supply was exhausted. They
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: had reduced the Lord to a quarter of its previous size.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Check the other labs, see if they have some more,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: said Stone, I already have. Bowman said they don't. This
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: is it, but we haven't got it all killed. They're
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: still He pointed to the thing quailing in the corner.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I know we're licked. That's all. There isn't any more
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of the stuff on the ship. They stopped and looked
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: at each other. Then Jenkins said, oh, yes, there is.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: There was silence. Bowman looked at Stone, and Stone looked
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: at Bowmen. They both looked at Jenkins. Oh no, sorry,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I decline. Stone shook his head slowly. But we have to.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: There's no other way. The enzyme system is inactivated. It's
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: just protoplasm. There's no physiological or biochemical reason. You know
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: what you can do with your physiology and biochemistry, Bowman
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: said succinctly. You can also count me out. He left them,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and the hatchway clanged after him. Wally, Yeah, it'll be
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: months before we get back to hospital Earth. We know
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: we can hold it in check until we get there. Yeah, well,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Green Doctor wallystone Side greater love hath no man, he
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: said wearily. We better go tell Nielsen, I guess black
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: doctor tuvuld. Nielsen answer was a flat, unequivocal no. It's
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: monstrous and preposterous. I won't stand for it. Nobody will
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: stand for it. But you have the proof in your
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: own hands. Jenkins said, you saw the specimen that the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Green Doctor brought you. Nielsen hunched back angrily. I saw
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: it and your impression of it. As a pathologist, I
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: fail to see how my impression applies one way or
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the other. Doctor. Sometimes we have to face facts, Remember
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: all right. Neilsen seemed to curl up into himself still further.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: The specimen was stomach, human stomach, human stomach. But the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: only human on this ship that doesn't have a stomach
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: is Ronta, said Jenkins. So the lore ate him most
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: of him, not quite all. It threw out one part
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: of him. It could neat the part containing a substance
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: that inactivated its enzyme system, dilute hydrochloric acid, to be specific.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: We used the entire ship supply and cut the log
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: down to three quarters size. But we need a continuous
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: supply to keep it whittled down until we get home,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and there's only one good, permanent, reliable source of dilute
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: hydrochloric acid on this ship. The Black Doctor's face was purple.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I said, no, He choked. My answer stands the Red
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Doctor's side, and turned to Green Doctor Stone. All right, Wally,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: he said, from the files of the Medical Disciplinary Board,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Hospital Earth, I am certain that you can see from
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the foregoing that a reasonable effort was made by Green
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Doctor Stone and myself to put the plan in effect
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: peaceably and with full approval of our commander. It was
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: our conviction, however, that the emergency nature of the circumstances
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: required that it be done with or without his approval.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Our subsequent success in containing the Lord to at least
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: reasonable and manageable proportions should bear out the wisdom of
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: our decision. Actually, it has not been as bad as
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: one might think. It has been necessary to confine the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: crew to their quarters and to restrain the Black Doctor forcibly,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: but with liberal use of happio, we can occasionally convince
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: ourself that it is rare beefsteak, and the Green Doctor,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: our protam cook, has concocted several tasty sauces such as
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: mushroom onion, et cetera. We reduce the lord to half
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: its size each day, and if thoroughly heated, the chunks
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: lie still on the plate for quite some time. No
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: physical ill effects have been noted, and the period of
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: quarantine is recommended solely to allow the men an adequate
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: period for physiological recovery. I have only one further recommendation,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: that the work team from the Gray Service be recalled
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: at once from their assignment on Mauki four. The problem
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: is decidedly not psychiatric, and it would be one of
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the tragedies of the ages if our excellent psychiatric service
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: were to succeed in persuading the Malkiew out of their delusion.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: After all, Hospital Earth cannot afford to jeopardize a contract.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Samuel B. Jenkins, Physician, Grade six Red Service GPP Ship
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Lancet Attached GSS Mercy pro Tem, Signed Samuel B. Jenkins.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: End of Contamination Crew recording by Kirk Sigler Ogden Utah
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: voiceovers by Kirk dot Com. End of five stories by
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Alan Norse