The response had been slower than with the mouse blood, but now the bugs3 seemed to be dead. The filaments4 were destroyed, and there were no signs of the big cells. It seemed to be a cure, at least in the culture bottles.
"We'll need volunteers," he decided5. "There should be animals, but we don't have any. At least this stuff isn't toxic6. We need a natural immune and someone infected. Two of each, so one can be treated and the other used for a control. Makes four. Not enough to be sure, but it will have to do."
"Two," Chris corrected. "You're not infected, I am."
"Two others," he agreed. "I'll get them from Jake."
Most of GHQ was out on the street, but Doc found Jake inside the big schoolroom where he enjoyed his early morning bracky and coffee. The chief listened and agreed at once, turning to the others in the room.
"Who's had the jumping headache? Okay, Swanee. Who never had it?" He blinked in surprise as three men nodded out of the eight present. "I guess you go, Tom."[Pg 106]
Chris had everything set up. They matched coins to decide who would be treated. Doc noticed that Chris would get no plasma, while he was scheduled for everything. He watched her prepare the culture and add the accelerator that would speed development and make certain he and Tom were infected, then let her inject it.
That was all, except for the waiting. To keep conditions more closely alike, they were to stay there until the tests were finished, not even eating for fear of upsetting the conditions. Swanee dug out a pack of worn cards and began to deal while Doc dug out some large pills to use as chips.
It was an hour later when the pain began. Doc had just won the pot of fifty pills and opened his mouth for the expected gloating. He yelled as an explosion seemed to go off inside his head. Even closing his mouth was agony.
A moment later, Tom began to sweat. It got worse, spreading to the whole area of the back of the head and neck. Doc lay on the cot, envying Chris and Swanee who had already been infected naturally. He longed desperately8 for bracky, and had to keep reminding himself that no drugs must upset the tests. It was the longest day he had ever spent, and he began to doubt that he could get through it. He watched the little clock move from one minute to nine over to half a minute and hung breathless until it hit the nine. There was no question about whether the infection had taken. Now they could dull the agony.
Chris had the anodyne9 tablets already dissolved in water, and Swanee was passing out three lighted bracky weeds. It took a few minutes for the relief of the[Pg 107] anodyne, and even that couldn't kill all the pain. But it didn't matter by comparison. He sucked the weed, mashed10 it out and began dealing11 the cards again.
They had a plentiful12 supply of the anodyne and used it liberally during the night. The test was a speeded-up simulation of the natural course of the disease, where painkiller13 would take time to get for most people here, but would then be used generously.
Now there was no thought of cards. They waited, trying to talk, but with most of their attention on the clock. Doc had estimated that an hour should be enough to show results, but it was hard to remember that an hour was the guess as to the minimum time.
He winced15 as Chris took a tiny bit of flesh from his neck. She went to the other men, and then submitted to his work on herself. Then she began preparing the slides.
"Feldman," she read the name of the slide as she inserted it into the microscope. Then her breath caught sharply. "Only dead cells!"
It was the same for Swanee and Tom. Each had to look at his own slide and have it explained before the results could be believed. But at last Chris bent16 over her own slide. A minute later she glanced up, nodding. "What it should be. It checks."
Tom whooped17 and went out the door to notify Jake. There was only plasma for some two hundred injections, but that should yield sufficient proof. Once salvation18 was offered, there should be no trouble convincing the people that blood donations from their children were worthwhile.
Later, when the last of the plasma had been used,[Pg 108] they could finally relax. Chris slipped off her smock and dropped onto the cot. A tired smile came onto her lips. "You're forgiven, Dan," she said. A moment later she was obviously asleep. Doc meant to join her, but it was too much effort. He leaned his head forward onto his arms, vaguely19 wondering why she was calling off the feud20.
It was night outside when he awoke, and he was lying on the cot, though he still felt cramped21 and strained. He stirred, groaning22, and finally realized that a hand was on his shoulder shaking him. He looked up to see Jake above him. Chris was busy with the coffee maker23.
That knocked the sleep out of Doc's system. "You what?"
"We took it, lock, stock and barrel. I figured the news of your cure would put guts25 into the men, and it did. But we'd probably have taken it anyhow. There wasn't anything to fight for there after Earth pulled out and the plague really hit. Wilson mistook last-minute panic for fighting spirit. The poor devils didn't have anything to fight about, once the Lobby stopped goading26 them."
Doc tried to assimilate the news. But once the surprise was gone, he found it meant very little. Maybe his revolutionary zeal27 had cooled, once the Lobby men had pulled out. "We'll need a lot more plasma than there is in Southport," he said.
"Not so much, maybe," Jake denied. "Doc, three of the men you injected were shot down as runners. Your plasma's no good."
"It takes time to work, Jake. I told you there might[Pg 109] be a case or two that would be too close to the edge. Three is more than I expected; but it's not impossible."
"There was plenty of time. They blew after we got back from Southport." Jack28 dropped his hand on Doc's shoulder, and his face softened29. "Harkness tested every man you injected. He finished half an hour ago. Five showed dead bugs. The rest of them weren't helped at all."
"Five out of two hundred. That's about average. And what about Tom? He was jumping around after the test last night, telling how you'd cured him, how he'd seen the dead bugs; but he never had the jumping headache, and you never gave him the plasma! He's got dead bugs, though. Harkness tested him."
Doc let his realization31 of his own idiocy32 sink in until he could believe it. Jake was right. Tom had never been treated, yet Chris had reported dead bugs. They'd all been so ready to believe in miracles that no one had been able to think straight after the long wait.
"There was a bump on his neck—a small one," he said slowly. "Jake, he must have caught it, even if he seemed immune. If he was taking anodyne anyway for something—or unconscious—"
"He was up in Northport six years ago for a kidney operation," Jake admitted doubtfully. "We had to chip in to pay for it. But you still didn't treat him, and he's cured. Face it, Doc, that plasma is no good inside the body."
His hand tightened33 on Doc's shoulder again. "We're not blaming you. We don't judge a man here except by what he is. Maybe the stuff helps a little. We'll go on[Pg 110] using it when we get it; tell everybody you were a mite34 optimistic, so they'll figure it's a gamble, but have a little hope left. And you keep trying. Something cured it in Tom. Now you find out what."
"It can't be right," she said shakily. "You and Swanee were cured. Maybe it was the accelerator. It had to be something."
"You didn't have the accelerator," he accused.
"No, and I've still got live bugs. I was never supposed to be cured, so I expected to see just what I saw. How I missed the fact that Tom should have been like me, I don't know. Damn it, oh, damn it!"
He's never seen her cry before, except in fury. But she mastered it almost at once, shaking tears out of her eyes. "All right. Plasma works in a bottle but not in an adult body. Maybe something works in the body but not in a bottle."
"Maybe. And maybe some people are just naturally immune after it reaches a certain stage. Maybe we ran into coincidence."
But he didn't believe that, any more than she did. The answer had to be in the room. He'd taken a massive dose of the disease and been cured in a few hours.
Outside the room, the war went on, drawing toward a close. The supposed partial cure was good propaganda, if nothing else, and Jake was widening his territory steadily36. There was only token resistance against him. He had the Southport shuttles now to cover huge areas in a hurry. But inside the room, the battle was less successful. It wasn't the accelerator. It wasn't the tablets of anodyne. They even tried sweeping37 the floor and using the dust without results.[Pg 111]
Then another test in the room, made with four volunteers Jake selected, yielded complete cures after injections with plain salt water in place of plasma.
The plague speeded up again. About four people out of a hundred now seemed to have caught the disease and cured themselves. They accounted for what faith was left in Doc's plasma and gave some unfounded hope to the others.
Northport fell a week later, putting the whole planet in rebel hands.
Jake returned, wearier than ever. He'd proved to be one of the natural immunes, but the weight of the campaign that could only end in a defeat by the plague left him no room to rejoice in his personal fortune.
This time he looked completely defeated. And a moment later, Doc saw why as Jake flipped38 a flimsy sheet onto the table. It bore the seals of Space and Medical Lobbies.
Jake pointed39 upwards40. "The war rockets are there, all right. We knew they'd come. Now all they want for calling them off is our surrender and your cure. If they don't get both, they'll blow the planet to bits. We have two days."
The rockets could be seen clearly with binoculars41. There were more than enough to destroy all life on the planet. Maybe they'd be used eventually, anyhow, since the Lobbies wanted no more rebellion. But with a cure for the plague, he might have bought them off.
Chris stood beside him, looking as if it were a bitter pill for her, too. She'd risked herself in the hands of the enemy, had cooperated with him in everything she'd been taught to oppose, and had worked like a dog. Now the Lobbies seemed to forget her as a useless tool. They were falling back on a raw power play and for[Pg 112]getting any earlier schemes.
"Maybe they'd hold off for a while if I agreed to go to them and share all my ideas, specimens42 and notes," he said at last. "Do you think your Lobby would settle for that, Chris?"
"I don't know, Dan. I've stopped thinking their way." She seemed almost apologetic for the admission.
He dropped an arm over her shoulder and turned with her back to the laboratory. "Okay, then we've got to find a miracle. We've got two days ahead of us. At least we can try."
But he knew he was lying to himself. There wasn't anything he could think of to try.
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1
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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plasma
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| n.血浆，细胞质，乳清 | |
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bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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4
filaments
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| n.（电灯泡的）灯丝( filament的名词复数 )；丝极；细丝；丝状物 | |
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5
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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toxic
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| adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的 | |
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7
tamping
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| n.填塞物，捣紧v.捣固( tamp的现在分词 )；填充；（用炮泥）封炮眼口；夯实 | |
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8
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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anodyne
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| n.解除痛苦的东西，止痛剂 | |
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mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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painkiller
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| n.止痛药 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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17
whooped
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| 叫喊( whoop的过去式和过去分词 )； 高声说； 唤起 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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21
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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23
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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25
guts
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| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
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26
goading
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| v.刺激( goad的现在分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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27
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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28
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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29
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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30
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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31
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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32
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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33
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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34
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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35
numbly
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| adv.失去知觉，麻木 | |
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36
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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37
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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38
flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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39
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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40
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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41
binoculars
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| n.双筒望远镜 | |
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42
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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