by Moulton, CD
"I don't know what's going on anymore!" Hal protested. "Have you really found a cure? Is Mi suffering a nervous collapse?"
Suddenly Jak snapped his fingers and laughed. "If I know what Mi's doing in there we've found one together! Neither of the methods is totally effective by itself.
"You and Mi getting married after this?"
He was back to normal. Jak Tall's emotions didn't stay extreme for very long.
Hal thought about it for a few minutes. "I guess so. I considered we're already married in fact. Just lack the legal paperwork. You know how that goes."
"I talked to Enn Far this morning. He's going to place you into nomination for the first constitutional chairman at the constitutional signing ceremony. It won't make any difference if you don't want it, you know."
"Are you serious? Why me? Why not Sop or, better yet, you?"
"Because I’ve refused. Let's say there are some things in my past that would make me a bad selection. Also, I'll refuse where you feel the sense of duty. I've already done more than my duty and know it. We'll just say my past disqualifies me."
"Let's don't. There's nothing in your past that would disqualify you."
Jak grinned and argued, "Oh, I'll wager I could come up with something! I wouldn't accept it and that's that! You'll accept because you feel it's the duty of whoever the people want to serve. I don't. I feel all that kind of duty was used up when I came here. I don't owe the race anything. They owe me if this thing works. I'll bring that to their attention if they force me to. I don't owe any man or any race anything.
"I plan to stay here on these islands and to do things I want to do. I get ideas like this microwave thing and this is the first time I've been in a position to act on the things I think up. I think it's only fair the government leaves a certain part of this equipment here. These people out here have earned it.
"You see? That's the difference between us. You think you owe the Kroon people something even though you've saved them from extinction. I think they owe me.
"I damned well KNOW they owe me!"
Hal nodded. "I've always been a sucker. I was suckered into this right from the first. I guess you're right. If they ask I'll do it. I tend to think of it as a great honor, not so much a.... You don't really think there's any chance they'd elect me, do you?"
"Oh, yes! You'll definitely be elected unless Far is," Jak answered, grinning. "The least either of you will be is vice chairman and Enn damned well intends to see that you're chairman. He's had enough. Then you can see the people on these islands are left alone. We've earned that!"
"The constitution forbids me showing any kind of favoritism." Hal grinned. "I'll have to make the islands a reward the people who stay will own. They can restrict who comes here. It will be a matter of local law, not national.
"I suppose you've thought all I have to do is say the horrible strain of virus that escaped here isn't curable and I can't come to the mainland to serve."
"That would mean the others would be forced to stay here. Fat chance," Jak dismissed the suggestion.
They laughed and went to Mi's lab where Hal studied something in the screens while Jak dozed in a chair. When the com buzzed Hal answered and said they'd be right over. Jak joined him as they went to the isolated lab and in to find that Mi and Su were in the isolation chambers.
"Use the irradiator about medium dosage," Mi called. "Then you can go away again."
Jak saw there were six infected rodents in the chamber, shrugged and set the controls. They waited the three minutes exposure and called that the machine was off.
"How long?" Jak asked.
"Give it an hour until you can check the first slide series," Su answered.
"Hal, Mi says to call Enn and tell him we may need something he won't believe. Don't tell him we may have the cure, but tell him we'll need ten people with the infection to be shipped here.
"Jak, I told her we can move the chamber. Can we put it on Sand Island? Can we get power out there? How fast can we have a building up? It isn't too delicate is it? The chamber? Not really isolation, but a place for ten people to sleep and eat for ten days. Anything where they won't be too uncomfortable."
"I'll get a portable generator out there and make a chamber big enough to hold a person. We can plug the units here right in. It can be up and ready before noonmeal."
"We'll know for certain in ten days," Mi called. "You two can leave us to our work! We're busy! Is all you males ever think of sex?"
Jak and Hal laughed and went out to bide their time. In one sixty-minute century they'd have the answer.
* * *
Sop Lett spent some time with the farmers and fishermen on Tekif and found he had spent his whole life underestimating these people. They were really quite intelligent if not well-educated. They were able to work out very interesting ways to solve their problems, had built piers across the lava reef by the simple expedient of drilling holes into the glassy substance and setting wooden poles deep into them. The fit was tight and the piers were surprisingly steady. The end sections floated on pontoons that could be retracted for defense.
The bridge from Long Island to Tekif was a marvel to him and he at first feared to go onto it, but it was quite strong and safe. He now knew the cables would hold tonnage.
They'd told him many days past they wouldn't want to leave when this plague was cured. He felt they had every right to stay as the place would be self-sufficient. They had well-served their nation and the scientists and technicians on these islands and deserved whatever reward they requested. He had that morning told Enn Far about them and Far agreed that this small group of people were among the most dedicated and caring people on Kroon and they had performed a service that couldn't be estimated in value. He had just delivered title to the islands to these people. They were to hold joint title to all of this as were their heirs in perpetuity. It was to be divided among them as they saw fit after the science people were gone, though any of the scientific crew who wished could remain to be part holders of the title.
"Chairman Far did this now as he would not have that power after the constitution is signed into effect," Sop explained to the group. "The new government will be required to honor all signed agreements, contracts and treaties made by preceding governments. This title is a signed contract. It must be honored by the government. That was a condition in the constitution."
"Ehyep!" the fisherman acting as spokesman said. "Thot mean it's our'n?"
"These titles say it belongs to you and your children and that no one comes here unless you say they can."
"Why'nt jist say so?" the fisherman returned. "We'nt speak no fancy lawyereeze."
Sop laughed and said, "It's your'n fer life!"
Then they all got drunk together and had a party. Sop woke in the morning in a fisherman's house. His head was splitting and he was more nauseous than he had ever felt before. It was almost midday. The sunlight hurt his head. The voices hurt his head. The attempt to think hurt his head.
He staggered to the kitchen and asked where everyone was.
"Had ter git tha breaklight fer scooters," the woman answered. "They's gone after sunup."
"You mean they all went fishing before dawn?" He grabbed his head.
"Ehyep. Allus does. Ut's what we does."
"But ... how can they do it? That alcohol makes you too sick to move!"
"Yep, but only if'n yer tries ter drink all'n it."
"But everyone drank it!" Sop said. He'd have to quit talking or his head would fall off of his shoulders.
"We'ns teks a drink en meks it last. City folks try ter drink all'n it. Here."
She handed him a glass of ugly brownish green liquid. He was sure he was dying anyhow so he drank it down. It tasted as awful as it looked, but he didn't care if he died on the spot. If it helped it would be because it was worse!
He went out and was halfway across the bridge when he realized his head wasn't hurting anymore and even his stomach didn't feel much of anything at all. He
was totally numb to pain or discomfort.
He later found it was a simple anesthetic distilled from the leaves of the glamp plant. It would become addictive if overused, but the fisherpeople had better sense than to overindulge in most things "civilized" society abused.
He found the whole place in a huge uproar about something Jak Tall had done, but he felt so tired and listless he went to bed. It could wait. It would have to wait.
* *
Mi checked the results again and again. It had worked. It had actually worked! The plague was beaten. The plague was cured!
Well, if it worked on the people it was beaten. There was no reason it wouldn't. She stood in the microwaves and felt nothing. It tingled a little and was warm, but that was the extent of it.
Jak had everyone working on Sand Island. They would be ready for the ten volunteers early that afternoon. They decided to give out the story Sand Island was chosen because there were none of the rodents there and it was an easy place to isolate people. Jak, Su, Mi and Hal would be the only ones who would go onto that island while the test subjects were there and would wear their isolation clothing, though it would be hot. The subjects would believe that it was for THEIR protection and no one would dispute that.
The copter soon landed and the subjects were immediately led into the structure where they were quickly injected with M14 and blood samples were taken. This was planned and was as much as routine before they started the process. Mi's normal meticulous attention to detail would be observed. There would be no mistakes made here.
Three hours later the subjects were asked to stand in a little arch for three minutes, then to go to their rooms. Half an hour later they were again injected with M14 and new samples of blood were taken, then one hour later more samples were taken.
They noticed they were nervous and impatient and could become extremely irritated by minor things for the next day and a half, but it wasn't on the order of rage. It was controllable with a little effort. There were test samples taken every day from each of them for six days, then a small bit of nerve tissue was taken from each of them. The obvious great excitement of the researchers was growing day by day. It was infectious and the subjects were all in better and better moods as the time passed.
The eighth day, Jak, Su, Mi and Hal strolled into the house without protective clothing.
"I am proud to say that it now appears you are completely free of the plague!" Hal announced. "We are all free of the plague on these islands.
"We had to test to be sure the method cures all strains of the virus. That was the real purpose, as you probably suspected. We'll have to wait to see if there are any other effects, but your tissues show definite regeneration. You're totally free of the plague! You're cured!"
One man moved to the front and asked if he could speak with Tu Hupp. He insisted it was most important. "She's my daughter, you see. She ran away and came here to find a cure for her brother and for me. Now she has! I must see her!"
"Tu has had a very definite and positive effect on the research," Mi agreed. "Tu injected herself with the original serum to test its safety for use on Kroon's people – without our knowledge – because she felt it was a thing that must be done. We would be hesitant to use the serum until we knew if it would be deadly to people."
"Yep! That sounds like her!" the man agreed. "Impetuous! She was always such an impetuous child!"
"She's all of that!" Su said and went to the com to ask that Tu immediately come to the subject house and to bring a recorder editor machine.
"I won't tell her you're here," she said while they waited. "The reunion will be a surprise to her. She'll think I just want a secretary for some reason."
Mi took Hal's arm and led him out and back to the labs. Jak Tall came along and they discussed how to best get the machines out to all the world. The hormones were being produced everywhere at that time and the machines were easy enough to build as they used the wave generator from a standard microwave oven, only with a modified control stage.
"Sop has a printer that'll handle the schematics and will be able to print us thousands of copies in a day," Jak suggested. "I can use the thing and have enough schematics ready in two days for distribution to the whole damned world.
"I want to announce this breakthrough my way. It's to be ready for release soon? Are the tests complete enough?"
"I'd say we'll have enough to let it out within five days," Mi said.
"I'm going to do it a little early!" Jak decided. "Just a tad early!"
Chapter ten
* *
Mi and Su worked through the night and the people on Sand Island cooperated completely and why not? They were cured of the plague! They could expect a normal lifespan! There was an increased likelihood of nervous system disorders in advanced age, but they were far more likely to reach advanced age. All things considered, this was wonderful beyond the wildest expectations of only two tendays ago!
Tu was staying with the "Sand Islanders" and was carefully monitoring each person's physical status, taking the blood samples and doing small micro-inspections of nerve tissue. There was no recurrence of the virus. It was completely dead. When twelve days passed and none was found Mi was certain it wouldn't recur. They had found a method with which they could now cure the plague. Her problem was that they still didn't know beyond reasonable doubt nerve damage wasn't permanent and possibly progressive. That kind of research would take years, at best.
Hal argued logically that at worst it was fifty thousand times better than what the plague would do.
Su and Tu came in with another set of papers and sat to begin filling out the overall statistics sheet. The paperwork would be a neverending part of all this so they might as well get used to that idea now. The saving thing there was that computers could handle the biggest part of the bureaucratic paper-shuffling. THAT they had learned from the aliens.
Strange, she hadn't thought of the aliens in so long!
Hal looked in and smiled around midnight. She could see the lights in Sop's rooms where he and Jak were working on a big speech or something. Ratification returns were coming in on the small set on the bench where Su and Tu could watch, but she totally ignored the whole ratification process. She could tune it out of her mind and simply refuse to hear any of it. She was aware it had been a gift of the gods the people had the constitution to fill their thoughts, but that would soon end.
The miracle that they had a cure! If there were only some way to know what was going to happen in ten or twenty years!
She heard almost everyone on the islands was excited about the constitution and she was sure Sop and Hal had something to do with it.
Not Hal, Jak. He would have contributed to that. She wasn't in the least surprised their handyman was deeply involved in it. He was involved in everything and he was good at it all. They had asked Hal about a few points and he gave the historical perspective. That was all the extent of involvement he had in the constitution.
When Su turned the set off and announced loudly that Klarstenland was, as of the formal signing tomorrow, a constitutional nation she couldn't help but wonder how people could think of politics when they were in danger of dying, both personally and racially. Maybe it was a good way to distract the populace from a thing they had no least control over. They certainly couldn't do anything about the plague themselves. She should think of those things before condemning them.
She had admitted before it was a gift of the gods they had the constitutional questions at this time. She was getting muddled in her thoughts. It was the thing she had feared all along. She was becoming nervously exhausted. The stimulants were failing her. Two hours before dawn she was finished and could in clear conscience give her permission to Jak to send the schematics to the world. Perhaps the lesions in the nerves would never heal, but they weren't getting any worse. Nerves were slow healers and it would be unconscionable to hold this from people until they were positive. That would probably take years.
How were they going
to handle the plague victims? There simply was no way that so many could be treated quickly. All the schematics in the world couldn't change that simple fact!
Could they?
What about the exposure of those treated to the ones not yet treated? Would they continue to spread the infection, rendering the whole process one of frustration? Would something that would take a tenthyear on paper take the next century to complete?
It would still be cured – eventually – but many more would be infected before it was finally defeated. A plan, a system, even a routine – something was desperately needed. This microwave thing may be a wonderful addition to medicine, particularly in the cases of many known viral infections. There was no reason to suppose it wouldn't be effective against many types of viral mutations and even against the common rhinoviruses and, most hopefully, those persistent types that one contracted in early youth or childhood that were then in the body for life, ready to attack at any time the body became weakened or stressed.
Jak promised he would teach her about the wave generation and frequency controls. She would make her life's work with research with variations of the chamber and chemical purges to keep infections from "hiding" in special cells such as the hemoglobin. If Hal hadn't found those hormone stimulus reactive synergic compounds to purge the blood, then Jak's microwaves would have been useless. If Jak hadn't discovered the microwave longchain dissociator principle Hal's compounds would have been a dead end. If she hadn't thought of the way to combine the two treatments neither would have been of much use. It seemed everyone here had a place and was needed. Funny how these things worked out. I prayed to whatever gods may be to make Hal's idea be right and that prayer was answered, she thought. I still don't believe in gods but, if I'm wrong I thank you.
I'll at last say I could be wrong. From me that's one hell of a concession. When I've come to a firm decision from weighing the evidence it's no easy thing to change my mind. It happens about as often as all seven planets in the system align – once in four hundred sixty two years.
