Badge of Infamy

by Lester Del Rey

  XIII

  Susceptibility

  Doc could feel the tension in the village where GHQ was temporarilylocated long before they were close enough for details to register. Thepeople were gathered in clusters, staring at the sky where the stationmust be. A few were pacing up and down, gesticulating with tight sweepsof their arms.

  One woman suddenly went into even more violent action. She leaped intothe air and then took off at a rapid trot, then a run. Her hands weretearing at her clothes and her mouth seemed to be working violently. Shewas halfway to the top of the nearest dune before a rifle cracked. Shedropped, to twitch once and lie still.

  Almost with her death, another figure leaped from one of the houses, hisface bare of the necessary aspirator. He took off at a violent run, buthe was falling from lack of air before the bullet ended his struggles.

  The people suddenly began to move apart, as if trying to get away fromeach other. For weeks they had faced the horror with courage; now it wasfinally too much for them.

  Tension mounted as no news came from the cities. Doc noticed that itseemed to aggravate or speed up the disease. He saw three men shot inthe next half-hour.

  He was trying to calm them with word of a possible cure for the plague,but their reactions were as curiously dull as those of Jake had been. Ashe spoke, they faced him with set expressions. At his mention of theneed for the blood of young children, they turned from him, sullenlysilent.

  Jake came over, nodding unhappily. "It's what I was afraid might happen,Doc. George Lynn! Tell Doc what's wrong."

  Lynn was reluctant, but he finally stumbled out his explanation. "Itain't like you, Doc. Comes from that Lobby woman you got. It's her dirtyidea. We've seen the Lobby doctors cutting open our kids, poisoningtheir blood, and bleeding them dry. That ain't gonna happen again, Doc.You tell her it ain't!"

  Doc swore as he realized their ignorance. An unexplained vaccinationlooked like poisoning of the blood. But he couldn't understand thebleeding part until Jake filled him in.

  "Northport infant's wing. Each department has its own blood bank anddonation is compulsory. Southport started it a couple months ago, too."

  The long arm of the Lobby had reached out again. Now if he ever got themto try the treatment, it would be only after long sessions of preparingthem with the facts, and there was hardly enough time for the crucialwork!

  By afternoon, Judge Ben Wilson reached them. His voice shook withfatigue as he climbed up to address the crowd through a power megaphone."Southport's going crazy." He had to pause for breath between eachsentence. "Earth's pulling back all the important people. They'repacking them into the ships. They're leaving only colonials with noEarth rights. Those ships left when they decided the plague was comingfrom here. They won't let anybody back until the plague is licked. Therewon't be an Earth technician on Mars tomorrow."

  "No bombs?" someone called.

  "No bombs. The ships must have started before you rebelled, maybe meanthonestly to save their own kind. But now it's a military action, anddon't think it won't mean trouble. The poor devils in the city bet onthe wrong horse. Now they can't run their food factories or anythingelse for long. Not without technicians. They've got to whip you now. Upto this time, they've been fighting for the Lobbies. Now they'll fightyou for their own bellies to get your supplies. And they've still gotshuttle rockets and fuel for them. Now beat it. I gotta confer withJake."

  Doc started after the judge, but Dr. Harkness caught his arm and drewhim aside. Chris followed.

  "I've found another epidemic," Harkness told them. "Over at Marconi.It's kept me on the run all night, and now half the village is down withit. Starts like a common cold, runs a fair fever, and the skin breaksout all over with bright red dots...."

  He went on describing it. Chris began asking him about what medicalsupplies he had brought with him, pilfered from Northport hospital. Sheseemed to know what it was, but refused to say until she saw the cases.Doc also preferred to wait. Sometimes things weren't as bad as theyseemed, though usually they were worse.

  Marconi was dead to all outward appearances, with nobody on the streets.It had been a village of great hopes a week before, since this was wherethey had decided to experiment with switching the people back toEarth-normal. They'd had the best chance of survival of anyone on Marsuntil this came up.

  Three people lay on the beds in the first house Harkness led them to.The room was darkened, and a man was stumbling around, trying to tendthe others, though the little spots showed on his skin. He grinnedweakly. "Hi, Doc. I guess we're making a lot of trouble, ain't we?"

  Chris gave Doc no chance to answer. "Just as I thought. Measles! Plainold-fashioned measles."

  "Figured so," the sick man said. "Like my brother back on Earth."

  The others looked doubtful, but Doc reassured them. Chris should know;she'd worked in a swanky hospital where the patients were mostlyEarth-normal. Measles was one of the diseases which was foiled by themetabolism switch. Well, at least they wouldn't have to be quarantinedhere.

  Chris finished treating the family with impersonal efficiency,discussing the symptoms loudly with Harkness. "It's a good thing itisn't serious!"

  "No," Harkness answered bitterly. "Not serious. It's only killed fivechildren and three adults so far!"

  "It would, here," Doc agreed unhappily. He led Chris out of the room onthe pretext of washing his hands. "It's serious enough to force us toabandon the whole idea of going back to Earth-normal. Measles today,smallpox, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and everything else tomorrow.These people have lived Mars-normal so long their natural immunity hasbeen destroyed. On Earth where the disease was everywhere, kids used topick up some immunity with constant exposure, even without what might becalled a case of the disease. Here, the blood has no reason to buildantibodies. They can be killed by things people used to laugh at. Howthe disease got here, I don't know. But it's here. So we'll have togive up the idea of switching back to Earth-normal."

  He gathered up one of the kits and started toward the other houses. "AndLord knows how long it will take to get the blood for the othertreatment, even if it works."

  They worked as a team for a while, with Harkness frowning as he watchedChris. Finally the young doctor stopped Chris outside the fifth house."These are my patients, Dr. Ryan. I left the Lobby because I didn'tbelieve colonials were mere livestock. I still feel the same. Iappreciate your help in diagnosis and methods of treatment. But I can'tlet you handle my patients this way."

  "Dan!" She swung around with eyes glazing. "Dan, are you going to standfor that?"

  "I think you'd better wait in the tractor, Chris."

  He was lucky enough to catch the kit she threw at him before itsprecious contents spilled. But it wasn't luck that guided his hand tothe back of her skirt hard enough to leave it stinging.

  Her face froze and she stormed out. A moment later they heard thetractor start off.

  But Doc had no time to think of her. He and Harkness split up and begancovering the streets, house by house, while he passed on the word toabandon the metabolism switch and go back to Mars-normal.

  Jake sent two other doctors to relieve them late in the evening. Thingswere somewhat quieter at GHQ as Doc reported the events at Marconi.

  "Where's Dr. Ryan?" Jake asked at last.

  Doc exchanged glances with Harkness. "She isn't in the lab?"

  "Wasn't there an hour ago."

  Doc cursed himself for letting her go. With the knowledge that the radioin the mike was disabled, she'd obviously grabbed the first chance toreport back. And with her had gone news of the only cure they had found.

  Jake took it as philosophically as he could, though it was a heavy blowto his hopes. They spent half the night looking for her tractor, on thechance that she might have gotten lost or broken down, but there was nosign of it.

  She was waiting in the laboratory when he returned at dawn. Her face wasdirty and her uniform was a mess. But she was smiling. She got up togreet him, holding out two large bottles
.

  "Infant plasma--straight from Southport. And if you think I had it easylying my way in and out of the hospital, you're a fool, Dan Feldman. Ifthe man who took my place there hadn't been a native idiot, I neverwould have gotten away with it."

  The things he had suspected could still be right, he realized. She couldhave reported everything to the Lobby. It was a better explanation thanher vague account of bullying her way in and out. But she'd had a roughdrive, and he wanted the plasma. Curiously, he was glad to have her backwith him. He reached out a hand for the bottles.

  She put the bottle on the table and grabbed up a short-bladed knife."Not so fast," she cried. Her eyes were blazing now. "Dan Feldman, ifyou touch those bottles until you've crawled across the floor on yourface and apologized for the way you treated me the last few days, I'llcut your damned heart out."

  He shook his head, chuckling at the picture she made. There were timeswhen he could almost see why he'd married her.

  "All right, Chris," he gave in. "I'll be darned if I'll crawl, butyou've earned an apology. Okay?"

  She sighed uncertainly. Then she nodded and began changing for work.