a para! Not ... a para--" Then he said fiercely. "We've gotto get this thing started! We've got to start curing paras--"
"Who," said Calhoun, "will be ashamed of what they remember. We can'tget co-operation form them! And we can't get co-operation from thegovernment! The men who were the government are paras and they'vegiven their authority to Dr. Lett. You don't think he'll abdicate, doyou? Especially when it's realized that he was the man who developedthe strain of scavengers that secrete this modified butyl mercaptanthat turns men into paras!"
Calhoun grinned almost hysterically.
"Maybe it was an accident. Maybe he found himself the first para andwas completely astonished. But he couldn't be alone in what he knewwas--degradation. He wanted others with him in that ghastly state. Hegot them. Then he didn't want anybody not to be like himself.... Wecan't get help from him!"
Exultantly, he flipped switches to show on vision screens what went onin the world outside the ship. He turned on all the receivers thatcould pick up sounds and broadcasts. Voices came in:
"_There's fighting everywhere! Normals won't accept paras among them!Paras won't leave normals alone.... They touch them; breathe onthem--and laugh! There's fighting--_" The notion that the para statewas contagious was still cherished by paras. It was to be preferred tothe notion that they were possessed by devils. But there were some whogloried in the more dramatic opinion. There were screamings on theair, suddenly, and a man's voice panting: "_Send police here fast! Theparas have gone wild. They're--_"
Calhoun seated himself at the control desk. He threw switches there.He momentarily touched a button. There was a slight shock and thebeginning of a roar outside. It cut off. Calhoun looked at the visionplates showing outside. There was swirling smoke and steam. There weremen running in headlong flight, leaving their ground cars behind them.
"A slight touch of emergency rocket," said Calhoun. "They've run away.Now we end the plague on Tallien Three."
The grid operator was still dazed by the continued absence of anyindication that he might ever become a para. He said unsteadily:
"Sure! Sure! But how?"
"Wood smoke," said Calhoun. "Emergency rockets. Roofs! There's been nowood smoke in the air on this planet because there are no forest firesand people don't burn fuel. They use electricity. So we start thelargest production of wood smoke that we find convenient, and thepopulation of a certain modified butyl mercaptan molecule will bereduced. Down to a normal level. Immediately!"
The emergency rocket bellowed thunderously and the little Med Shiprose.
* * * * *
There have been, of course, emergency measures against contagion allthrough human history. There was a king of France, on Earth, who hadall the lepers in his kingdom killed. There have been ships and housesburned to drive out plague, and quarantines which simply interferedwith human beings were countless. Calhoun's measure on Tallien wassomewhat more dramatic than most, but it had good justification.
He set fire to the planet's capital city. The little Med Ship sweptover the darkened buildings. Her emergency rockets made thin pencilsof flame two hundred feet long. She touched off roofs to the east, andCalhoun rose to see which way the wind blew. He descended and touchedhere and there....
Thick, seemingly suffocating masses of wood smoke flowed over thecity. They were not actually strangling, but they created panic. Therewas fighting in Government Center, but it stopped when the mysteriousstuff--not one man in a hundred had ever seen burning wood or smelledits smoke--the fighting stopped and all men fled when a choking,reeking blanket rolled over the city and lay there.
It wasn't a great fire, considering everything. Less than ten per centof the city burned, but ninety-odd per cent of the paras in it ceasedto be paras. More, they had suddenly regained an invincible aversionto the smell of butyl mercaptan--even a modified butyl mercaptan--andit was promptly discovered that no normal who had smelled wood smokebecame a para. So all the towns and even individual farmhouses wouldhereafter make sure that there was pungent wood smoke to be smelledfrom time to time by everybody.
But Calhoun did not wait for such pleasant news. He could not look forgratitude. He'd burned part of the city. He'd forced paras to stopbeing paras and become ashamed. And those who hadn't become paraswanted desperately to forget the whole matter as soon as possible.They couldn't, but gratitude to Calhoun would remind them. He tookappropriate action.
With the grid operator landed again, and after the grid was operableonce more and had sent the Med Ship a good five planetary diametersinto space--some few hours after the ship was in overdriveagain--Calhoun and Murgatroyd had coffee together. Murgatroydzestfully licked his emptied tiny mug, to get the last least taste ofthe beverage. He said happily, "_Chee!_" He wanted more.
"Coffee," said Calhoun severely, "has become a habit with you,Murgatroyd! If this abnormal appetite develops too far, you mightstart yawning at me, which would imply that your desire for it wasuncontrollable. A yawn caused by what is called a yen has been knownto make a man dislocate his jaw. You might do that. You wouldn't likeit!"
Murgatroyd did not reply.
"You don't believe it, eh?" said Calhoun. Then he said: "Murgatroyd,I'm going to spend odd moments all the rest of my life wondering aboutwhat happens to Dr. Lett! They'll kill him, somehow. But I suspectthey'll be quite gentle with him. There's no way to imagine apunishment that would really fit! Isn't that more interesting thancoffee?"
"_Chee! Chee! Chee!_" said Murgatroyd insistently.
"It wasn't wise to stay and try to make an ordinary public-healthinspection. We'll send somebody else when things are back to normal."
"_Chee!!!_" said Murgatroyd loudly.
"Oh, all right!" said Calhoun. "If you're going to be emotional aboutit, pass you cup!"
He reached out his hand, Murgatroyd put his tiny mug in it. Calhounrefilled it. Murgatroyd sipped zestfully.
The Med Ship _Esclipus Twenty_ went on in overdrive, back towardsector headquarters of the Interstellar Medical Service.
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