Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Page 51

  Hal was in her room? And he had awakened her? Enn smiled to himself. He would like to see the children from that union of two very different types of genius!

  Hal talked for a minute about Ponn and said he'd be in the lab and would answer to talk to Ponn if he called there – because Mi was a bad liar while he was quite good at it, himself. They said their good fortunes and hung up.

  Enn went to dawnmeal, then to the council, then back to his chambers when the call came through he left orders about. It was on a secure line. A very flat, average voice made a report and asked a question, received an answer and hung up. The good and much-loved Dr. Nil Ponn had sold the serum to all who received it. He later purchased a large piece of land in the country to the south with the funds. He also saved enough of the serum to keep him alive for several years if administered according to the schedule his computers said would be most effective. A team was now moving in to try to trace all who had received the serum and to collect the data Ponn didn't collect. The question was in the form of a personal plea from the voice to be allowed to kill Ponn slowly and very painfully. There was a guarantee no one would ever know anything about that death. Ponn would simply disappear suddenly and without trace.

  "Not at this time," Enn answered. "Perhaps the good doctor will come to feel death would be a blessing. See the data is collected as completely as possible and tell the subjects they'll receive followup doses if it proves effective – and it seems it will be at this point. It'll stop the virus if it won't cure it."

  He hung up after another minute, put his face in his hands and sat motionless for a minute or two.

  The longer you live the more you learn. Every time you think you've found the lowest form of life in the universe someone like Ponn comes along to show you how naive you really are, but why did they always have to appear to be the very best?

  "I hope Hal really lays it on thick," he mumbled to himself. "I want our Dr. Ponn to squirm and twist – then I'll personally squash him like the bug he is!"

  He again called Hal with the new information.

  * * * *

  Hal hung up the set and grinned at Mi. She grinned in return and asked what was so funny. He explained what he planned to do when Ponn called. He said he was to personally receive the call and she could listen, but was to say nothing.

  They went to the lab where they began calling up the data the computers were sorting for them. It would be a long process as individual reports were coming in from station one as they came in from the government agents there.

  Hal went to the scope screen later to study the new slides for new data when the call from Ponn came. He answered.

  "I wish to speak with Dr. Yinn, please," Ponn said.

  "She can't leave her researches now. Perhaps I can be of help? I'm working with her on the new serum if that's your area of inquiry."

  "Well, I'm very interested in anything new. Have you found anything?"

  "We've got the thing beat!" Hal said brightly. "At least it looks that way. It's a combination thing with serum 'A' so we have to study the toxicity. We're just now getting the data. I had to call Enn Far himself to get him to make them report. Their reticence has cost us three days, but we're finally getting some of the data. Maybe a day or two, then we can begin preparing this for testing. You'd think doctors would have better sense. That data is crucial. The whole damned race could die and they'd try to hoard the data that could save us! It doesn't make any sense!

  "I know Mi told me she's going to personally see to each and every dose of the new stuff. She's really hot at somebody. She says there's one person who's going to have to beg her for the serum, but she's going to laugh in his face and watch him die. She says he thinks the old serum will keep him alive, but doesn't know that it deteriorates and activates residual intracellular viral nodes when the P T R twenty two F catalyst breaks down.

  "That's a short-time thing – I guess you got the follow-up sheets on that facet when your data exchange came in. Don't use the old serum 'A' after twelve days. It can be more deadly than the virus alone after seventeen days. It has to be pretty fresh, you know. These hormones can be touchy."

  "I don't know what you're talking about!" Ponn cried. "Do you have a serum or don't you?"

  "I'm saying that the 'A' serum has a short shelf life. We're working around the clock here and I'm not in the mood to listen to you people in your plush offices yelling at me. The new serum works in all the tests and may work on Kroons. It may not. We must have data. That data is three days late now. I will inform Dr. Yinn that you called, Dr. Ponn."

  He hung up to see Mi grinning at him.

  "You ARE a good liar!" she said gaily. "What the hell was that weird catalyst that deteriorates?"

  Hal laughed. "What about the part where you're going to laugh in his face as he dies?"

  She giggled and went back to her work while Hal went back to his screen. They went to their noonmeal and back again to their projects after a very short rest. In midafternoon Enn Far called to tell them what had been learned about Ponn. They suddenly became serious and Mi said she damned well WOULD laugh in his stupid face as he died. It was depressing to think anyone could be so cruelly selfish and even moreso that they were taken in by any such person. It seems the Kroon race could always find a new low to sink to.

  Hal found another combination of hormones that would do what the three they already had would do. "This is wasting time now," he said as they went to their room. "We can't go any further on this angle, but I think the idea has proved worthwhile. I need another idea, Woman! You're my inspiration! What's hiding in that pretty head?"

  "There's nothing in there! I swear it! I can even prove it. I let YOU take advantage of me!"

  They teased and played awhile, but soon were asleep. In the morning Mi finished her computer data and they walked around the mesa top again slowly, trying to find another angle from which to approach this research. A Dr. Hagg had found that certain heavy metals would kill off the virus in the cells, but it also killed the cells.

  "If it attacks only the cells already infected we should be able to stop the virus with serum 'A' and give the metal in safe dosages to people without concentrated infections," Mi suggested. "If it kills nerve cells that aren't infected it means nothing. Maybe that angle of approach will bear some kind of fruit, even a very bitter one."

  They returned to the research labs to find Jak Tall checking over the laser cannon in the maintenance shed.

  "Expecting trouble?" Hal asked.

  "We got a call from Chairman Enn Far that a helicopter was stolen. The one who took it is infected. He'll try to come here for some reason. We're to shoot the copter down before it gets anywhere near the island. There'll be no legal aircraft in this area."

  "I take it you have experience in shooting aircraft?"

  "Can't say I do. Seems a simple enough thing. I've got the tracker on automatic focus. Anything comes within twelve kilometers, it bleeps, I push this switch. Zap! Boom! Then I put the cannon away until we need it again."

  "I can tell you the person on that copter is the one who held up the data."

  "And he also charged the people to give them the serum we sent," Mi added.

  "Chairman Far said as much," Jak said matter-of-factly. "I'll shoot the bastard down. You get to your work. This part is no concern of yours so don't try to make it your headache."

  Hal took Mi's arm and led her inside. A few minutes later they heard the clap of superheated air from the cannon's firing.

  * * *

  What was that?!

  Sop looked out the window to see Jak Tall looking to sea with binoculars, leaning against the laser cannon!

  So it has come to that. We are shooting down the poor infected people who in their panic try to reach the only place on Kroon where there may be help. Gods help us! What must we become?

  "Don't be an ass!" Sop mumbled to himself. "We have sent what serum we have to the mainland. They would be better off there. All they could do here is
prevent further research."

  He stood and went out to ask Jak what was happening.

  "A criminal stole a copter and tried to get here to get his hands on the serum. Sold what we sent before. Had the virus. Far said shoot him down. I shot him down," Jak answered.

  "Who was it?" Sop asked.

  "Some doctor. Chairman Far was pretty upset. Said he thought the bird was the first one he could trust."

  "Doctor Nil Ponn?!"

  "Didn't say. Help me push this thing into the shed. It's heavy. I'll have to do something to make it easier to use."

  They pushed the heavy cannon inside where Jak quickly cleaned the generator and refueled it, though it had used little in one shot. He covered it and they went out. Jak locked the shed, then they walked together to Sop's rooms for a cool bev. Sop took the com to call Enn Far to report and to ask what was going on.

  "Enn?" he asked. "Was that Ponn that Jak just shot down? Dr. Nil Ponn?"

  "Did he get the lousy stinking bastard? I really would have liked to strangle him with my bare hands!" Far told Sop about the whole problem with Ponn, then they discussed the constitution. Far signed the "original" and sent the bound copies to all sectors where the people would have the right to vote on it in thirty days.

  "Thirty days?" Sop asked. "You're kidding!"

  "Sop, this is perfect! The people need some form of distraction from a plague against which they're powerless. They're debating and arguing – everyone wants something to get mad about – and saying you went too far and that you didn't go far enough. It's exactly the vital stimulant we need right now. The preamble is a stroke of genius! It's poetic and powerful and noble. Nobody argues about that! They do argue about every single word and phrase of the rest of it.

  "Tell Jak his signature is causing comment. Already there's an expression about 'feeling Jak Tall' about something. It's a synonym for proud! His name on the cover of the copies has put him squarely in the center of all the history books. From what I hear of him he'll royally hate that!"

  "He is right here." Sop handed Jak the comset. Jak talked a moment, laughed, then handed it back. Sop talked a bit more, then hung up.

  "Well, Jak," he announced. "It would appear the people like our constitution!"

  * * * * *

  Jak Tall left Sop Lett's room in a thoughtful mood.

  Funny, the whole world was still very much at risk, but people had decided to let the scientist handle it. Blind faith – of course, the people didn't know about Ponn.

  Just about as funny, he had faith in them too, and he DID know about Nil Ponn.

  Tu Hupp came to tell him the kitchen disposal unit was making strange noises. He collected his tools and went to the kitchen to find someone had lost a ring, it hit the blades of the disposal – noise and a little damage to the blades, but simple to fix. He replaced the blades and hung the ring on the notice board, packed his tools, then took out the wave detector to check the ovens for leakage. It was all right this time. The seals were holding and there was no frequency wander. Four hours of work time left and Mi and Hal would probably be there in the labs for three or four more. Everyone would.

  Jak strolled to the chasm to carefully check the submerged generators, then went across the swaying cable bridge they had put onto Tekif to work with the farmers on the irrigation system, then went to the top of the nearest hill. Bot Gil, the head of the farm group, came to stand beside him. They talked often about generalities.

  "What d'ya think?" Bot asked.

  They were looking down on a long narrow wooden pier anchored on wooden poles directly onto the reef. The glassine was easy enough to drill with a laser. Posts were put directly into the holes. There were posts only about two thirds of the way out across the reef.

  "The whole outer part can be pulled back if it's needed," Bot said. "The explosives're useless on that lava. It absorbs the force somehow're other. We can't blast a channel through so we made a pier. Same thing. Gets us acrost the reef."

  "I think we cut out make a shallow channel with the big laser cannon," Jak suggested. "Maybe two meters deep by two wide. The small boats can go in and out, but the larger ones can't. Heavy stuff can use the pier. Bad spot here, though. Make it farther around. Not so far."

  "Bad 'un? Why?"

  "Current'll follow it."

  "Damn! You'd think we'd of thought of that! We're sea people!"

  "We'll have to sneak the cannon out. I don't think the others would want us to use it or to move it. It can be damned hard to move so I'll fix something. I don't think it would be worthwhile if they find the cure so maybe it's best we wait awhile before doing anything."

  "Some've us ain't goin' back. We like it here. It's already home."

  Jak nodded. They went back to the farm and found the water level just right, then Jak headed back to Long Island and the labs. He checked the labs where there were no emergencies, went to the shed to put some new equipment together, then sat chewing the glamp twig and thinking. That nagging was back.

  The electric welder smelled strongly of ozone, but that was natural. Oxygen would ionize in the air from the arc.

  His subconscious suddenly broke through. He knew what it had been trying to tell him all this time. It all came together as he had known it must. That was the way his subconscious mind worked.

  He chewed the twig and let his thoughts follow their own paths for a few minutes. He let his hands and body clean up the area and stow the welder. He took a few minutes to make a plan for wheels on the laser cannon, he checked the board and went to the isolation lab where he rewired one circuit for higher current and put the line through the breakers.

  Jak Tall was methodical and was, for the first time in a long while, in a hurry, but no one would have known that to watch him.

  He got a call on his pager and went to the culture section where he had to replace a burned-out element on the retention burners.

  He went back to check the board, which had nothing on it now.

  Then he did what was causing all the hurry – the thing his subconscious had instructed him to do: He headed for the library.

  Other Avenues

  * * * *

  "Mi?" Hal suddenly asked, pulling himself from his thoughts.

  "Yes?"

  "This thing attacks only nerve cells. It lives in the blood and reproduces there. It's in lots of the body's organs. That means that there's something in those cells it must have to survive. It therefore feeds on something found only there in those cells. Have you considered there must be – HAS to be – something that occurs only in nerve cells and in no others that attracts the infection? Can we hope to isolate whatever it is?

  "If we can find exactly what that thing is we can possibly remove it somehow, assuming it won't kill the person. Maybe we could find something that would block it from the virus. Probabilities suggest it’s only a specific spot on the DNA where the virus can insert.

  "Is there something, some poison, we can lock onto? That one special thing that will keep it from the virus? Starve the virus to death and give it serum 'A' at the same time? Would that kill the virus already in the cells?"

  She smiled fondly at him. "That's something we've looked into, Love. What the nerve cells have – remember that the virus reproduces all over the body and in our culture dishes – is a certain set of proteins in the genetic material that allows the virus to insert itself into the chain where it's reproduced with the cell as a part of the gene chain. It quite literally becomes a part of the cell itself and may cause severe damage should we remove it. We may have to find a "lock" that doesn't allow it to reproduce with the body's natural genetic chains. We've still got a long way to go. The reason it takes so long to damage fatally is because the cell can function well for quite awhile, only slowly losing its abilities as the viral material begins to use coding material from the cell to reproduce itself. Nerve cells repair themselves only very slowly if at all and don't reproduce to any extent. What your body forms by adulthood is pretty well what you hav
e for life. That's part of the aging process. The nerve cells fail and aren't replaced."

  He nodded.

  Hal had been working toward a new attack on the virus. The "weedkiller" thing had gone as far as it ever could unless they found some hormone or combination of hormones or an enzyme that would selectively disrupt the virus chains while not harming other genetic structures in the body. That was what he feared and what he really knew somewhere deep inside.

  "Maybe something that'll lock out the virus directly on the chains? Something that won't damage the person? A coating substance?

  "Listen to me! Damage. I'm learning to talk like you people do!"

  "To talk AS YOU PEOPLE TALK, Love," she said and giggled at the dirty look she got.

  Hal went to the shelves where he carefully read each label of the thousands of vials of chemicals. They were labeled with an "H" number, a hyphen, and a code short sequence so everything they knew about it could be called quickly from the computers. H1 through H11 were plant hormones. H12 through H58 were animal hormones. Then came several hundred animal extractions, then thousands of plant extractions. It was well-established that most medicines proved effective against biological agent diseases came from plants, which was why it has always been imperative in importance to never allow ANY plant species to become extinct. One never knew.

  Was it at all possible their cure had already been destroyed by some careless cutting of trees or killing off of some "minor" species of plant or animal life? Forty years ago the cure for the bone deterioration of the jawbones, a progressive disease in the Kroon resulting in the loss of the teeth and the general deterioration in health over a period of several years was found in one of the most noxious and unpleasant weeds on the planet. Farmers had struggled for years to eradicate it. Now a few of them grew it as a cash crop and it greatly reduced or even eliminated the suffering of millions.

  A form of animal in the sea that built reefs was found to be the only thing that would "set" and be accepted by the body as bone to fill and regrow the deteriorated parts. The explorations and drillings for natural gas and oils nearly extincted the one subspecies that would do the job. Even now it was quite rare in nature.