Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Page 47

  When it's time to sleep, you sleep

  .

  The Horror Grows

  Enn Far finished the memorial services for the first council member, Lok Tenn, to die with the plague. She was popular and would be sorely missed. Any of them would be missed. He was as much as forced to conduct the services as he was both the acting chairman of the council and an ex-priest of the Ithians. Several sports figures, war "heroes" (Were there any such things? Enn doubted it.) and actors had already succumbed, bringing home to the populace that this was as bad as advertised. People were more and more isolating themselves and their families from others. It was fast becoming almost impossible to carry on a conversation with a stranger. If one person tried to get within touching distance of the next he might be violently attacked. People were striking out at one another senselessly. There was no more congregating for shows or musical entertainments and sports were as much as dead. There were no mass live audiences anymore – and this was just starting. It would get far worse.

  A few were showing much more compassion than anyone would have believed of the Kroon, too. There was that in Kroon’s favor if there was nothing else. People were truly caring about other people. It wasn't a personal caring so much as a sharing of horror, but it was a start. Enn could only hope they would be around to build on it.

  There would be no gathering after the service. The people were standing as though there were squares and circles like those on the famous board game and they must not step out of their own space. To do so would mean touching and that must be avoided. Even these old friends in the council, the keenest minds from the entire nation, were affected. They had as much fear as anyone, or more. They could see the whole picture that the average man could not.

  Enn walked along the aisle to lay the single white "Spirit of Hope Lily" on the casket, saluted and went directly on out and to his private office chambers. There was no point in staying there. Everyone would leave. They were attending only from a sense of duty. If they could have thought of any lame excuse whatever that would be acceptable to the people they wouldn't be here.

  Enn picked up the com and called Dr. Ponn, who was still doing well. They talked and Ponn said some people had a small natural resistance so the virus affected them more slowly. Lok had been recovering from another infection and was in a weakened condition from that. The virus hadn't been resisted enough by her body's defense system. Any infection from any source would allow this virus to attack more quickly, it being what is known as an "opportunistic" virus and was also a retrovirus, which meant little to Enn Far. Very few of the terms he was supposed to throw around as though he were some kind of expert meant anything to him. It was simply that appearance of knowledge was somehow soothing to the deep fears of the people.

  Who would soothe Enn Far's fears?

  There was nothing very positive to report yet. There was an extract from a plant in Fricke that slowed the effects slightly by coating the nerves and causing the virus some minor trouble in reaching its specialized point of attack. It was both rare and expensive so was of such greatly limited use that only a couple of people in Fricke were working with it. It could barely possibly be synthesized, but that was a process that yet had to be worked out. The advantages were minimal.

  Enn said his fond good fortunes and called the island. He talked awhile with Sop Lett, who was working on the constitution "to keep from losing my sanity." He then talked with Hal Korr, who was doing lab work with Mi Yinn for the same reason. He would appreciate anything that would take his mind off of what was happening in the rest of the world, as they all would.

  He hung up after exchanging a few pleasantries and sat back to think. It was the halfyear since the island began its work. People were beginning to show symptoms all over and he was selected by unanimous vote of the council to remain as chairman until the crisis was past one way or the other. He had no real choice, still and always the reluctant leader. It was the people's way of dumping their blames and fears onto someone else.

  That was not true and not fair. He just wasn't meant to have this responsibility and feared along with all the other fears that he wouldn't prove strong enough to handle it.

  There was a fairly accurate statistical basis for the plague's spread and they knew the number of people with the virus would double every two point four years. Six point eight five million people had it now, worldwide. People were dying at the rate of more than a hundred a day. Almost everyone knew someone who was dead or very close to it. The panic was over for most. An air of hopelessness descended on the race, suicides were more than half of the direct cause of death from the plague as the last forty five or fifty days were intense agony and many would rather end it before that began. If there were any hope of a cure the suicides may stop. People no longer had any moral objections if someone diagnosed as having the virus took the quick and easy way out. If there were any sign of hope that would change. The faces of those who were diagnosed as having the disease were pure agony to Enn. All hope was gone and fear lurked in the expression and shone from the eyes. There wasn't a thing he could say or do. He was truly impotent to even give a word of simple encouragement. He held little hope himself.

  So far no one was found who had been closely exposed to the virus who hadn't tested positive, but Ponn kept saying they were testing for the antibodies and it was possible some would prove immune to the disease. That was shown by the fact the body DID produce those antibodies. The big problem was that those who were immune would probably be carriers and could continue infecting many others. They were, if anything, more dangerous than the ones who died from the virus. Once the host was dead the virus soon died itself.

  The race had no way to fight the thing. They were shooting in the dark – blind, deaf, no senses. They had no idea of where the target may be or, indeed, if there even was a target. It was too possible there would never be a cure, but perhaps they could find a preventative agent. It was all too possible there wasn't a preventative agent, either. That was the great fear. If it were true the Kroon race was dead.

  Still, there was no other way. There was no precedent for this thing. There were no methods. Everyone must take any small idea, no matter how unlikely, and try. Perhaps the preventative was destined to come as one of those accidents. History was full of that sort of thing. If enough people shot at random sooner or later one of them would hit something. Problem was there wasn't going to be a later so it had to be sooner. There also had to be the something to hit.

  What sickened him personally was that there were those who would hold out a false hope to people. They claimed cures simply to make a few stars for themselves. Greed was far from extinct in the Kroon race! It seemed to be its most lasting feature!

  There were those who truly thought they had something, but they always offered it free. What must be stopped is the racket whereby a family with one or more afflicted members was bled of all the stars they had saved or could earn by those charlatans without any morals. Enn was almost willing to sign a decree of dire emergency under which any found doing that were to be publicly executed. There was certainly precedent and there were as yet no constitutional guarantees.

  Would there ever be?

  Trouble there was the ones being conned would be the first and loudest complainers should the racketeers be stopped. They would cling to a hope, even a false one, to the last erg of their strength. There was no place to turn and no place to hide and Enn Far, Council Chairman, must not lose hope. He MUST NOT!

  * * * *

  Hal Korr looked through the electron microscope at the virus. It was in another chamber behind a glass wall for safety so what he saw was a projection by computer on a television screen. It wasn't growing anymore, but they had found hundreds of substances that would stop it on a culture plate. Most of them were worse on the Kroon body than the virus itself – much faster and nastier, at least in the short term.

  He punched the information into the computer and called up the next slide. This one seemed to be g
rowing faster and better so he put a special tag on the data. Those were the things he was looking for. It was his own idea. A difference, any difference, might be important. Everyone was looking for something that would slow the virus so why not look for something that would do the opposite? Maybe he could learn something about it. He knew many weed killers worked by simply giving the plants a growth hormone that made them grow so fast they began leaving a thing out of the new cells here and there. They outgrew their food supply and kept growing. The result was inevitable. If something such could be found to affect the virus may the results not be the same? If there's something the virus needs – and there obviously is or it would attack other than nerve cells – that it can be forced to outgrow the supply of but will continue to grow, it will die. The thing would have to be something the Kroon body could live without for a period. No sense in having the virus absorb all of whatever it was and die if the Kroon would die at the same time.

  The next seven slides were inconclusive, then there were two more that were dead so he input the tag code on their data. He definitely wouldn't overlook anything that killed the thing!

  That was all for today. Maybe he could check some of Mi's cultures for her. He had become expert with the microscope and was meticulous. He had learned that and the reasons for it from her.

  He looked over to her. She was laboring over the centrifuge extracting hundreds of compounds, doing a gas chromatograph and spectroscopic examination of each one. She would then check them again and again. If some small thing were missed it could mean the serum they were searching for was missed. There simply was no point at which they could say, "We have a positive result and can direct the research." It was still a matter of trial and error. There was no path and no direction.

  She gave the computer orders to bring up a certain sequence of cultures and told him to look for one side of the culture medium to have any difference whatever in the virus growths. He was to tag those and to code a recall for her to pull when she had the time. These were the "split result" cultures with built-in double controls one of the assistants had come up with.

  Jak Tall brought four boxes in that had been dropped from a helicopter – the copters weren't allowed to land – and put them on the bench, then left without saying anything. He said long ago he wouldn't do anything to detract from their line of thought and that he was to be ignored. Hal knew Mi appreciated that fact. She was of the psychology that distractions left her confused as to what she was doing for a moment and that may be the one moment when some critical thing must not be lost, some intangible little hint or idea that would eventually lead to success here. That was why he always waited for her to look to him with anything. She treated him in much the same way, though he had photographic recall and that kind of danger wasn't likely with him. He could review things later in his own mind without any confusion whatever.

  He found nine out of the forty eight slides with what she was looking for, but waited until she came to him to say so. She then called those slides up and studied them carefully.

  "I'm using mild radiation to mutate the virus," she explained. "Perhaps we can make a weak strain that will cause antibodies to form that will prevent infection from the mutated plague like a vaccination. Anything that'll do the job will be used. We need new ideas and new lines of research."

  "Doesn't the body form antibodies from the real thing? I thought they were what told us who had the infection."

  "Yes, but the trouble is the body forms antibodies after the infection is contracted and has begun its spread internally. If we can make the body produce the antibodies with an inoculation they'll already be there whenever the body's exposed and prevent its attacking the cells. It's the difference in catching an arsonist as he breaks in to start a fire or in finding him after the building has burned flat to the ground. We're, in a sense, trying to find a way to have the police inside the building laying in wait before the arsonist gets in."

  "Didn't I read somewhere that the, uh, 'case' the virus comes in can be used to stimulate antibody production?"

  "Not on this one. You can't wrap a package in air!"

  "I love your allegories. I always know exactly what you mean."

  She grinned at him tiredly and returned to her centrifuge after she programmed in another sequence. The com buzzed and she picked it up. Had she been doing anything she wouldn't have answered it because she wouldn't have heard it. She could turn it off in her mind. It was a talent that kept her concentration at critical times. She talked for a moment, then handed the set to him. It was Enn Far coming out of the services for some councilwoman who had died of the plague. They talked for a long moment then hung up. Hal went back to the microscope sequence.

  They didn't work specific hours on the island so they soon both finished what they were doing. Hal was surprised to note he had been working for nine and a quarter hours without a break. In ways it seemed much less while in others much more. He was tired, as Mi obviously was, and hungry so they went to the kitchen to fix a meal. Mi complained she smelled ozone so she called maintenance to fix it. Jak Tall kept the place so well there was never any major problem – so far. The last thing they needed was for the kitchen to burn down!

  They strolled out into the night to sit awhile in silence looking over the calm sea in the starlight. Kroon had no large moons to reflect into the night, but it was in a close group of many stars so silhouettes and shadows were made out and sparkles of light glinted and danced on the waves. Mi leaned against him, somewhat to his surprise. He was much attracted to her, but she was tied too deeply in her work to even notice him – or so he thought.

  "Hal, I'm a normal woman with normal needs," she stated without preamble. "I've seen you watching me at times, but you're too much the academic moralist to come to me so I'll come to you.

  "My work here is of ultimate importance. I know that.

  "I can't work constantly. I must also eat and sleep, breathe, drink and excrete. I must also have emotional support, which you give me. I need to feel the security of having someone with me. Close to me. I'm tired of sleeping alone."

  Hal, while not having the breadth of experience many had in intimate matters, still wasn't without any such experience at all and he most certainly wanted Mi. He realized he had wanted her for some time now. From that night in the restaurant, millennia ago. That realization surprised him somewhat.

  He leaned his head atop hers and said, "I was waiting for the right time. I know the work's the important thing, but I'm also normal and I also have my needs, among them an emotional one. I was attracted to you from that first night in the restaurant. We can't spend all our time in the work or we won't be in a condition to recognize progress if we make any. I'll also admit my desires and needs are directed only at you. I care very deeply about you."

  Mi placed her arm around him and drew closer. They didn't say anything more and soon went to his rooms.

  * * *

  Sop Lett reread the passage for the hundredth time. It still wasn't right!

  He sighed and began again: "We, citizens of Kroon, in order to establish.... What the hell is all this crap? I've said that same thing fifty times and fifty times it hasn't worked! Damn it, I've got to get out of this rut!

  "In order to establish a fair and decent government....

  "In order to establish an orderly government....

  "In order to form a.... That's it! In order to form a fair and responsive government.... Yes!

  "In order to form a ... fair ... responsive and ... representative government, we, the people of Kroon, do order and ordain this document. That covers it all! Fair, responsive, representative – we do order and ordain this document of law under which all people are to be considered as being equals under each of those laws herein ordained under the terms of this document.

  "Now I'm back in a muddle. Why must words be so hard to cope with? Why doesn't this come as easily as words usually do for me?

  "What?"

  Jak Tall, who often called,
came in to ask what was happening and Sop told him.

  "I thought you had the preamble already set," Jak said.

  "I have everything very much as I want it," Sop replied. "I know exactly what is to be said I merely am having very serious trouble saying it EFFECTIVELY."

  Jak took a cup of bev from the refrigerator unit and had the recorder print the last entries. He chewed the twig and looked thoughtful for a moment.

  "Hmm-um. In order to form a fair, responsive and representative government, we, the people of Kroon, do order and ordain this document. Fair, in that each person on Kroon will be treated equally under all laws and only laws passed under the authority of this document shall have force. Responsive, in that this document permits, nay demands, that those in government hear and heed what each person makes known to him, for he is to be removed from government should ever he fail to do so. Representative, in that the terms set forth in this document lay a clear guideline whereunder those persons endowed with the power of office will be selected by the people themselves and will remain in that office only so long as the people suffer them that position.

  "This document or the resulting government may be changed or dissolved by the people at anytime fairness, responsiveness or decency is deemed to be abandoned by those who, by its terms, are in those offices. We hold it to be obvious truth that government's powers must be vested in those governed or true fairness cannot exist and further that law must be responsive to the needs of a society or chaos and tyranny reign.

  "We hold that it shall be forever incumbent upon each person to hold constant an unswaying vigilance over the actions of those selected to office, that they not abuse such power.

  "This charge and responsibility we give all citizens of Klarstenland, that their vigilance never sleep."

  Sop stared at his friend in awe. "You never fail to amaze me! That is ... poetic! It is powerful, short and exactly to the point!"