Bolden's Pets, Page 2

storm. It lasted a dayand a half. Finally the sun was shining. This was two days since he hadfirst fallen ill, four days after leaving the settlement.

  Bolden felt much improved. His hands were nearly normal and his visionwasn't blurred. He looked at the little animal curled in his lap, gazingup at him with solemn yellow eyes. If he gave it encouragement it wouldprobably be crawling all over him. However, he couldn't have it friskingaround while he was flying. "Come, Pet," he said--there wasn't anythingelse to call it--"you're going places."

  Picking it up, half-carrying and half-dragging it, he took it to therear of the compartment, improvising a narrow cage back there. He wassatisfied it would hold. He should have done this in the beginning. Ofcourse he hadn't felt like it then and he hadn't had the time--andanyway the native would have resented such treatment of a gift. Probablyit was best he had waited.

  His pet didn't like confinement. It whined softly for a while. The noisestopped when the motors roared. Bolden headed straight up, until he washigh enough to establish communication over the peaks. He made a briefreport about the natives' agreement and his own illness, then he startedhome.

  He flew at top speed for ten hours. He satisfied his hunger by nibblingconcentrated rations from time to time. The animal whined occasionally,but Bolden had learned to identify the sounds it made. It was neitherhungry nor thirsty. It merely wanted to be near him. And all he wantedwas to reach the base.

  The raw sprawling settlement looked good as he sat the copter down.Mechanics came running from the hangars. They opened the door and hestepped out.

  And fell on his face. There was no feeling in his hands and none in hislegs. He hadn't recovered.

  * * * * *

  Doctor Kessler peered at him through the microscreen. It gave his face anarrow insubstantial appearance. The microscreen was a hemisphericalforce field enclosing his head. It originated in a tubular circlet thatsnapped around his throat at the top of the decontagion suit. The fieldkilled all microlife that passed through it or came in contact with it.The decontagion suit was non-porous and impermeable, covering completelythe rest of his body. The material was thinner over his hands andthicker at the soles.

  Bolden took in the details at a glance. "Is it serious?" he asked, hisvoice cracking with the effort.

  "Merely a precaution," said the doctor hollowly. The microscreendistorted sound as well as sight. "Merely a precaution. We know what itis, but we're not sure of the best way to treat it."

  Bolden grunted to himself. The microscreen and decontagion suit werestrong precautions.

  The doctor wheeled a small machine from the wall and placed Bolden'shand in a narrow trough that held it steady. The eyepiece slid into themicroscreen and, starting at the finger tips, Kessler examined the arm,traveling slowly upward. At last he stopped. "Is this where feelingends?"

  "I think so. Touch it. Yeah. It's dead below there."

  "Good. Then we've got it pegged. It's the Bubble Death."

  Bolden showed concern and the doctor laughed. "Don't worry. It's calledthat because of the way it looks through the X-ray microscope. It's truethat it killed the scouting expedition that discovered the planet, butit won't get you."

  "They had antibiotics. Neobiotics, too."

  "Sure. But they had only a few standard kinds. Their knowledge was morelimited and they lacked the equipment we now have."

  The doctor made it sound comforting. But Bolden wasn't comforted. Notjust yet.

  "Sit up and take a look," said Kessler, bending the eyepiece around soBolden could use it. "The dark filamented lines are nerves. See whatsurrounds them?"

  Bolden watched as the doctor adjusted the focus for him. Each filamentwas covered with countless tiny spheres that isolated and insulated thenerve from contact. That's why he couldn't feel anything. The sphericalmicrobes did look like bubbles. As yet they didn't seem to have attackedthe nerves directly.

  While he watched, the doctor swiveled out another eyepiece for his ownuse and turned a knob on the side of the machine. From the lens next tohis arm an almost invisible needle slid out and entered his flesh.Bolden could see it come into the field of view. It didn't hurt. Slowlyit approached the dark branching filament, never quite touching it.

  The needle was hollow and as Kessler squeezed the knob it sucked in thespheres. The needle extended a snout which crept along the nerve,vacuuming in microbes as it moved. When a section had been cleansed, thesnout was retracted. Bolden could feel the needle then.

  * * * * *

  When the doctor finished, he laid Bolden's hand back at his side andwheeled the machine to the wall, extracting a small capsule which hedropped into a slot that led to the outside. He came back and sat down.

  "Is that what you're going to do?" asked Bolden. "Scrape them off?"

  "Hardly. There are too many nerves. If we had ten machines and enoughpeople to operate them, we might check the advance in one arm. That'sall." The doctor leaned back in the chair. "No. I was collecting a fewmore samples. We're trying to find out what the microbes react to."

  "_More_ samples? Then you must have taken others."

  "Certainly. We put you out for a while to let you rest." The chair camedown on four legs. "You've got a mild case. Either that or you have astrong natural immunity. It's now been three days since you reported thefirst symptoms and it isn't very advanced. It killed the entire scoutingexpedition in less time than that."

  Bolden looked at the ceiling. Eventually they'd find a cure. But wouldhe be alive that long?

  "I suspect what you're thinking," said the doctor. "Don't overlook ourspecial equipment. We already have specimens in the sonic accelerator.We've been able to speed up the life processes of the microbes about tentimes. Before the day is over we'll know which of our anti andneobiotics they like the least. Tough little things so far--unbelievablytough--but you can be sure we'll smack them."

  His mind was active, but outwardly Bolden was quiescent as the doctorcontinued his explanation.

  The disease attacked the superficial nervous system, beginning with theextremities. The bodies of the crew of the scouting expedition had beenin an advanced state of decomposition when the medical rescue teamreached them and the microbes were no longer active. Nevertheless it wasa reasonable supposition that death had come shortly after the invadingbacteria had reached the brain. Until then, though nerves were the routealong which the microbes traveled, no irreparable damage had been done.

  * * * * *

  This much was good news. Either he would recover completely or he woulddie. He would not be crippled permanently. Another factor in his favorwas the sonic accelerator. By finding the natural resonance of theone-celled creature and gradually increasing the tempo of the soundfield, the doctor could grow and test ten generations in the laboratorywhile one generation was breeding in the body. Bolden was the firstpatient actually being observed with the disease, but the time elementwasn't as bad as he had thought.

  "That's where you are," concluded Kessler. "Now, among other things,we've got to find where you've been."

  "The ship has an automatic log," said Bolden. "It indicates every placeI landed."

  "True, but our grid coordinates are not exact. It will be a few yearsbefore we're able to look at a log and locate within ten feet of where aship has been." The doctor spread out a large photomap. There wereseveral marks on it. He fastened a stereoscope viewer over Bolden's eyesand handed him a pencil. "Can you use this?"

  "I think so." His fingers were stiff and he couldn't feel, but he couldmark with the pencil. Kessler moved the map nearer and the terrainsprang up in detail. In some cases, he could see it more clearly thanwhen he had been there, because on the map there was no fog. Bolden madea few corrections and the doctor took the map away and removed theviewer.

  "We'll have to stay away from these places until we get a cure. Did younotice anything peculiar in any of the places you went?"


  "It was all mountainous country."

  "Which probably means that we're safe on the plain. Were there anyanimals?"

  "Nothing that came close. Birds maybe."

  "More likely it was an insect. Well, we'll worry about the host and howit is transmitted. Try not to be upset. You're as safe as you would beon Earth."

  "Yeah," said Bolden. "Where's the pet?"

  The doctor laughed. "You did very well on that one. The biologists havebeen curious about the animal since the day they saw one in a nativecamp."

  "They can _look_ at it as much as they want,"