Star Surgeon

by Alan Edward Nourse

  CHAPTER 11

  DAL BREAKS A PROMISE

  For a moment the others just stared at their Garvian crewmate. Then JackAlvarez snorted. "You'd better go back and get some rest," he said."This has been a tougher grind than I thought. You're beginning to showthe strain."

  "No, I mean it," Dal said earnestly. "I think that is exactly what'sbeen happening."

  Tiger looked at him with concern. "Dal, this is no time for double talkand nonsense."

  "It's not nonsense," Dal said. "It's the answer, if you'll only stop andthink."

  "An intelligent _virus_?" Jack said. "Who ever heard of such a thing?There's never been a life-form like that reported since the beginning ofthe galactic exploration."

  "But that doesn't mean there couldn't be one," Dal said. "And how wouldan exploratory crew ever identify it, if it existed? How would they evereven suspect it? They'd miss it completely--unless it happened to getinto trouble itself and try to call for help!" Dal jumped up inexcitement.

  "Look, I've seen a dozen articles showing how such a thing wastheoretically possible ... a virus life-form with billions ofsubmicroscopic parts acting together to form an intelligent colony. Theonly thing a virus-creature would need that other intelligent creaturesdon't need would be some kind of a host, some sort of animal body tolive in so that it could use its intelligence."

  "It's impossible," Jack said scornfully. "Why don't you give it up andget some rest? Here we sit with our feet in the fire, and all you can dois dream up foolishness like this."

  "I'm not so sure it's foolishness," Tiger Martin said slowly. "Jack,maybe he's got something. A couple of things would fit that don't makesense at all."

  "All sorts of things would fit," Dal said. "The viruses we know have tohave a host--some other life-form to live in. Usually they areparasites, damaging or destroying their hosts and giving nothing inreturn, but some set up real partnership housekeeping with their hostsso that both are better off."

  "You mean a symbiotic relationship," Jack said.

  "Of course," Dal said. "Now suppose these virus-creatures wereintelligent, and came from some other place looking for a new host theycould live with. They wouldn't look for an intelligent creature, theywould look for some _unintelligent_ creature with a good strong bodythat would be capable of doing all sorts of things if it only had anintelligence to guide it. Suppose these virus-creatures found asimple-minded, unintelligent race on this planet and tried to set up asymbiotic relationship with it. The virus-creatures would need a host toprovide a home and a food supply. Maybe they in turn could supply theintelligence to raise the host to a civilized level of life andperformance. Wouldn't that be a fair basis for a sound partnership?"

  Jack scratched his head doubtfully. "And you're saying that thesevirus-creatures came here after the exploratory ship had come and gone?"

  "They must have! Maybe they only came a few years ago, maybe only monthsago. But when they tried to invade the unintelligent creatures theexploratory ship found here, they discovered that the new host's bodycouldn't tolerate them. His body reacted as if they were parasiticinvaders, and built up antibodies against them. And those body defenseswere more than the virus could cope with."

  Dal pointed to the piles of notes on the desk. "Don't you see how itadds up? Right from the beginning we've been assuming that thesemonkey-like creatures here on this planet were the dominant, intelligentlife-forms. Anatomically they were ordinary cellular creatures like youand me, and when we examined them we expected to find the same sort ofbiochemical reactions we'd find with any such creatures. And all ourresults came out wrong, because we were dealing with a combination oftwo creatures--the host and a virus. Maybe the creatures on 31 BruckerVII were naturally blank-faced idiots before the virus came, or maybethe virus was forced to damage some vital part just in order to fightback--but it was the _virus_ that was being killed by its own host, notthe other way around."

  Jack studied the idea, no longer scornful. "So you think thevirus-creatures called for help, hoping we could find some way to freethem from the hosts that were killing them. And when Fuzzy developed apowerful antibody against them, and we started using the stuff--" Jackbroke off, shaking his head in horror. "Dal, if you're right, we wereliterally _slaughtering our own patients_ when we gave those injectionsdown there!"

  "Exactly," Dal said. "Is it any wonder they're so scared of us now? Itmust have looked like a deliberate attempt to wipe them out, and nowthey're afraid that we'll go get help and _really_ move in againstthem."

  Tiger nodded. "Which was precisely what we were planning, if you stop tothink about it. Maybe that was why they were so reluctant to tell usanything about themselves. Maybe they've already been mistaken forparasitic invaders before, wherever in the universe they came from."

  "But if this is true, then we're really in a jam," Jack said. "What canwe possibly do for them? We can't even repair the damage that we'vealready done. What sort of treatment can we use?"

  Dal shook his head. "I don't know the answer to that one, but I do knowwe've got to find out if we're right. An intelligent virus-creature hasas much right to life as any other intelligent life-form. If we'veguessed right, then there's a lot that our intelligent friends downthere haven't told us. Maybe there'll be some clue there. We've just gotto face them with it, and see what they say."

  Jack looked at the viewscreen, at the angry mob milling around on theground, held back from the ship by the energy screen. "You mean just goout there and say, 'Look fellows, it was all a mistake, we didn't reallymean to do it?'" He shook his head. "Maybe you want to tell them. Notme!"

  "Dal's right, though," Tiger said. "We've got to contact them somehow.They aren't even responding to radio communication, and they'vescrambled our outside radio and fouled our drive mechanism somehow.We've got to settle this while we still have an energy screen."

  There was a long silence as the three doctors looked at each other. ThenDal stood up and walked over to the swinging platform. He lifted Fuzzydown onto his shoulder. "It'll be all right," he said to Jack andTiger. "I'll go out."

  "They'll tear you to ribbons!" Tiger protested.

  Dal shook his head. "I don't think so," he said quietly. "I don't thinkthey'll touch me. They'll greet me with open arms when I go down there,and they'll be eager to talk to me."

  "Are you crazy?" Jack cried, leaping to his feet. "We can't let you goout there."

  "Don't worry," Dal said. "I know exactly what I'm doing. I'll be able tohandle the situation, believe me."

  He hesitated a moment, and gave Fuzzy a last nervous pat, settling himmore firmly on his shoulder. Then he started down the corridor for theentrance lock.

  * * * * *

  He had promised himself long before ... many years before ... that hewould never do what he planned to do now, but now he knew that there wasno alternative. The only other choice was to wait helplessly until thepower failed and the protective screen vanished and the creatures on theground outside tore the ship to pieces.

  As he stood in the airlock waiting for the pressure to shift to outsidenormal, he lifted Fuzzy down into the crook of his arm and rubbed thelittle creature between the shoe-button eyes. "You've got to back me upnow," he whispered softly. "It's been a long time, I know that, but Ineed help now. It's going to be up to you."

  Dal knew the subtle strength of his people's peculiar talent. From themoment he had stepped down to the ground the second time with Tiger andJack, even with Fuzzy waiting back on the ship, he had felt the powerfulwave of horror and fear and anger rising up from the Bruckians, and hehad glimpsed the awful idiot vacancy of the minds of the creatures inthe enclosure, in whom the intelligent virus was already dead. This hadrequired no effort; it just came naturally into his mind, and he hadknown instantly that something terrible had gone wrong.

  In the years on Hospital Earth, he had carefully forced himself never tothink in terms of his special talent. He had diligently screened off theimpressions and emotions that struck at h
im constantly from hisclassmates and from others that he came in contact with. Above all, hehad fought down the temptation to turn his power the other way, to useit to his own advantage.

  But now, as the lock opened and he started down the ladder, he closedhis mind to everything else. Hugging Fuzzy close to his side, he turnedhis mind into a single tight channel. He drove the thought out at theBruckians with all the power he could muster: _I come in peace. I meanyou no harm. I have good news, joyful news. You must be happy to see me,eager to welcome me...._

  He could feel the wave of anger and fear strike him like a physical blowas soon as he appeared in the entrance lock. The cries rose up in awave, and the crowd surged in toward the ship. With the energy fieldreleased, there was nothing to stop them; they were tripping over eachother to reach the bottom of the ladder first, shouting threats andwaving angry fists, reaching up to grab at Dal's ankles as he camedown....

  And then as if by magic the cries died in the throats of the onesclosest to the ladder. The angry fists unclenched, and extended intooutstretched hands to help him down to the ground. As though anever-widening wave was spreading out around him, the aura of peace andgood will struck the people in the crowd. And as it spread, the angerfaded from the faces; the hard lines gave way to puzzled frowns, then tosmiles. Dal channeled his thoughts more rigidly, and watched the effectspread out from him like ripples in a pond, as anger and suspicion andfear melted away to be replaced by confidence and trust.

  Dal had seen it occur a thousand times before. He could remember histrips on Garvian trading ships with his father, when the traders withtheir fuzzy pink friends on their shoulders faced cold, hostile,suspicious buyers. It had seemed almost miraculous the way thesuspicions melted away and the hostile faces became friendly as thebuyers' minds became receptive to bargaining and trading. He had evenseen it happen on the _Teegar_ with Tiger and Jack, and it was nocoincidence that throughout the galaxy the Garvians--always accompaniedby their fuzzy friends--had assumed the position of power and wealth andleadership that they had.

  And now once again the pattern was being repeated. The Bruckians whosurrounded Dal were smiling and talking eagerly; they made no move totouch him or harm him.

  The spokesman they had talked to before was there at his elbow, and Dalheard himself saying, "We have found the answer to your problem. We knownow the true nature of your race, and the nature of your intelligence.You were afraid that we would find out, but your fears were groundless.We will not turn our knowledge against you. We only want to help you."

  An expression almost like despair had crossed the spokesman's face asDal spoke. Now he said, "It would be good--if we could believe you. Buthow can we? We have been driven for so long and come so far, and now youwould seek to wipe us out as parasites and disease-carriers."

  Dal saw the Bruckian creature's eyes upon him, saw the frail bodytremble and the lips move, but he knew now that the intelligence thatformed the words and the thoughts behind them, the intelligence thatmade the lips speak the words, was the intelligence of a creature fardifferent from the one he was looking at--a creature formed of billionsof submicroscopic units, imbedded in every one of the Bruckian's bodycells, trapped there now and helpless against the antibody reaction thatsought to destroy them. This was the intelligence that had called forhelp in its desperate plight, but had not quite dared to trust itsrescuers with the whole truth.

  But was this strange virus-creature good or evil, hostile or friendly?Dal's hand lay on Fuzzy's tiny body, but he felt no quiver, no vibrationof fear. He looked across the face of the crowd, trying with all hisstrength to open his mind to the feelings and emotions of these people.Often enough, with Fuzzy nearby, he had felt the harsh impact ofhostile, cruel, brutal minds, even when the owners of those minds hadtried to conceal their feelings behind smiles and pleasant words. Buthere there was no sign of the sickening feeling that kind of mindproduced, no hint of hostility or evil.

  He shook his head. "Why should we want to destroy you?" he said. "Youare good, and peaceful. We know that; why should we harm you? All youwant is a place to live, and a host to join with you in a mutuallyvaluable partnership. But you did not tell us everything you could aboutyourselves, and as a result we have destroyed some of you in our clumsyattempts to learn your true nature."

  They talked then, and bit by bit the story came out. The life-form wasindeed a virus, unimaginably ancient, and intelligent throughoutmillions of years of its history. Driven by over-population, a pureculture of the virus-creatures had long ago departed from their originalnative hosts, and traveled like encapsulated spores across space from adistant galaxy. The trip had been long and exhausting; thevirus-creatures had retained only the minimum strength necessary toestablish themselves in a new host, some unintelligent creature livingon an uninhabited planet, a creature that could benefit by the greatintelligence of the virus-creatures, and provide food and shelter forboth. Finally, after thousands of years of searching, they had foundthis planet with its dull-minded, fruit-gathering inhabitants. Thesecreatures had seemed perfect as hosts, and the virus-creatures hadthought their long search for a perfect partner was finally at an end.

  It was not until they had expended the last dregs of their energy inanchoring themselves into the cells and tissues of their new hosts thatthey discovered to their horror that the host-creatures could nottolerate them. Unlike their original hosts, the bodies of thesecreatures began developing deadly antibodies that attacked the virusinvaders. In their desperate attempts to hold on and fight back, thevirus-creatures had destroyed vital centers in the new hosts, and one byone they had begun to die. There was not enough energy left for thevirus-creatures to detach themselves and move on; without some way tostem the onslaught of the antibodies, they were doomed to totaldestruction.

  "We were afraid to tell you doctors the truth," the spokesman said. "Aswe wandered and searched we discovered that creatures like ourselveswere extreme rarities in the universe, that most creatures similar to uswere mindless, unintelligent parasites that struck down their hosts anddestroyed them. Wherever we went, life-forms of your kind regarded us asdisease-bearers, and their doctors taught them ways to destroy us. Wehad hoped that from you we might find a way to save ourselves--then youunleashed on us the one weapon we could not fight."

  "But not maliciously," Dal said. "Only because we did not understand.And now that we do, there may be a way to help. A difficult way, but atleast a way. The antibodies themselves can be neutralized, but it maytake our biochemists and virologists and all their equipment months oreven years to develop and synthesize the proper antidote."

  The spokesman looked at Dal, and turned away with a hopeless gesture."Then it is too late, after all," he said. "We are dying too fast. Eventhose of us who have not been affected so far are beginning to feel theearly symptoms of the antibody attack." He smiled sadly and reached outto stroke the small pink creature on Dal's arm. "Your people too have apartner, I see. We envy you."

  Dal felt a movement on his arm and looked down at Fuzzy. He had alwaystaken his little friend for granted, but now he thought of the feelingof emptiness and loss that had come across him when Fuzzy had beenalmost killed. He had often wondered just what Fuzzy might be like ifhis almost-fluid, infinitely adaptable physical body had only beenendowed with intelligence. He had wondered what kind of a creature Fuzzymight be if he were able to use his remarkable structure with theguidance of an intelligent mind behind it....

  He felt another movement on his arm, and his eyes widened as he stareddown at his little friend.

  A moment before, there had been a single three-inch pink creature on hiselbow. But now there were two, each just one-half the size of theoriginal. As Dal watched, one of the two drew away from the other,creeping in to snuggle closer to Dal's side, and a pair of shoe-buttoneyes appeared and blinked up at him trustingly. But the other creaturewas moving down his arm, straining out toward the Bruckian spokesman....

  Dal realized instantly what was happening. He started to draw back, b
utsomething stopped him. Deep in his mind he could sense a gentle voicereassuring him, saying, _It's all right, there is nothing to fear, noharm will come to me. These creatures need help, and this is the way tohelp them._

  He saw the Bruckian reach out a trembling hand. The tiny pink creaturethat had separated from Fuzzy seemed almost to leap across to theoutstretched hand. And then the spokesman held him close, and the newFuzzy shivered happily.

  The virus-creatures had found a host. Here was the ideal kind of bodyfor their intelligence to work with and mold, a host whereantibody-formation could be perfectly controlled. Dal knew now that theproblem had almost been solved once before, when the virus-creature hadreached Fuzzy on the ship; if they had only waited a little longer theywould have seen Fuzzy recover from his illness a different creatureentirely than before.

  Already the new creature was dividing again, with half going on to thenext of the Bruckians. To a submicroscopic virus, the body of the hostwould not have to be large; soon there would be a sufficient number ofhosts to serve the virus-creatures' needs forever. As he started back upthe ladder to the ship, Dal knew that the problem on 31 Brucker VII hadfound a happy and permanent solution.

  * * * * *

  Back in the control room Dal related what had happened from beginning toend. There was only one detail that he concealed. He could not bringhimself to tell Tiger and Jack of the true nature of his relationshipwith Fuzzy, of the odd power over the emotions of others that Fuzzy'spresence gave him. He could tell by their faces that they realized thathe was leaving something out; they had watched him go down to face ablood-thirsty mob, and had seen that mob become docile as lambs asthough by magic. Clearly they could not understand what had happened,yet they did not ask him.

  "So it was Fuzzy's idea to volunteer as a new host for the creatures,"Jack said.

  Dal nodded. "I knew that he could reproduce, of course," he said. "EveryGarvian has a Fuzzy, and whenever a new Garvian is born, the father'sFuzzy always splits so that half can join the new-born child. It's likethe division of a cell; within hours the Fuzzy that stayed down therewill have divided to provide enough protoplasm for every one of thesurviving intelligent Bruckians."

  "And your diagnosis was the right one," Jack said.

  "We'll see," Dal said. "Tomorrow we'll know better."

  But clearly the problem had been solved. The next day there was anexcited conference between the spokesman and the doctors on the_Lancet_. The Bruckians had elected to maintain the same host body asbefore. They had gotten used to it; with the small pink creaturesserving as a shelter to protect them against the deadly antibodies, theycould live in peace and security. But they were eager, before the_Lancet_ disembarked, to sign a full medical service contract with thedoctors from Hospital Earth. A contract was signed, subject only tofinal acceptance and ratification by the Hospital Earth officials.

  Now that their radio was free again, the three doctors jubilantlyprepared a full account of the problem of 31 Brucker and its solution,and dispatched the news of the new contract to the first relay stationon its way back to Hospital Earth. Then, weary to the point of collapse,they retired for the first good sleep in days, eagerly awaiting anofficial response from Hospital Earth on the completed case and thecontract.

  "It ought to wipe out any black mark Dr. Tanner has against any of us,"Jack said happily. "And especially in Dal's case." He grinned at the RedDoctor. "This one has been yours, all the way. You pulled it out of thefire after I flubbed it completely, and you're going to get the credit,if I have anything to say about it."

  "We should all get credit," Dal said. "A new contract isn't signed everyday of the year. But the way we all fumbled our way into it, HospitalEarth shouldn't pay much attention to it anyway."

  But Dal knew that he was only throwing up his habitual shield to guardagainst disappointment. Traditionally, a new contract meant a Starrating for each of the crew that brought it in. All through medicalschool Dal had read the reports of other patrol ships that had securednew contracts with uncontacted planets, and he had seen the fanfare andhonor that were heaped on the doctors from those ships. And for thefirst time since he had entered medical school years before, Dal nowallowed himself to hope that his goal was in sight.

  He wanted to be a Star Surgeon more than anything else. It was the onething that he had wanted and worked for since the cruel days when theplague had swept his homeland, destroying his mother and leaving hisfather an ailing cripple. And since his assignment aboard the _Lancet_,one thought had filled his mind: to turn in the scarlet collar and cuffin return for the cape and silver star of the full-fledged physician inthe Red Service of Surgery.

  Always before there had been the half-conscious dread that somethingwould happen, that in the end, after all the work, the silver star wouldstill remain just out of reach, that somehow he would never quite getit.

  But now there could be no question. Even Black Doctor Tanner could notdeny a new contract. The crew of the _Lancet_ would be called back toHospital Earth for a full report on the newly contacted race, and theirdays as probationary doctors in the General Practice patrol would beover.

  After they had slept themselves out, the doctors prepared the ship forlaunching, and made their farewells to the Bruckian spokesman.

  "When the contract is ratified," Jack said, "a survey ship will comehere. They will have all of the information that we have gathered, andthey will spend many months gathering more. Tell them everything theywant to know. Don't conceal anything, because once they have completedtheir survey, any General Practice Patrol ship in the galaxy will beable to answer a call for help and have the information they need toserve you."

  They delayed launching hour by hour waiting for a response from HospitalEarth, but the radio was silent. They thought of a dozen reasons why themessage might have been delayed, but the radio silence continued.Finally they strapped down and lifted the ship from the planet, stillwaiting for a response.

  When it finally came, there was no message of congratulations, nor evenany acknowledgment of the new contract. Instead, there was only a tersemessage:

  PROCEED TO REFERENCE POINT 43621 SECTION XIX AND STAND BY FOR INSPECTION PARTY

  Tiger took the message and read it in silence, then handed it to Dal.

  "What do they say?" Jack said.

  "Read it," Dal said. "They don't mention the contract, just aninspection party."

  "Inspection party! Is that the best they can do for us?"

  "They don't sound too enthusiastic," Tiger said. "At least you'd thinkthey could acknowledge receipt of our report."

  "It's probably just part of the routine," Dal said. "Maybe they want toconfirm our reports from our own records before they commit themselves."

  But he knew that he was only whistling in the dark. The moment he sawthe terse message, he knew something had gone wrong with the contract.There would be no notes of congratulation, no returning in triumph andhonor to Hospital Earth.

  Whatever the reason for the inspection party, Dal felt certain who theinspector was going to be.

  It had been exciting to dream, but the scarlet cape and the silver starwere still a long way out of reach.