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however, to conceal the fact that the bodies were of classification DBDG, an old
male and a girl-child, both Earth-human, and that their deaths had occurred
within the past few months.
Conway thought of the voyage that had lasted nearly seven centuries and of
the last two survivors who had almost made it, and he had to blink again.
Angrily, he moved deeper into the room, pulling himself along the edge of a
treatment table and instrument cabinet. In a far corner his spotlight
illuminated a spacesuited figure holding a squarish object in one hand and
supporting itself against an open cabinet door with the other.
S ... Sutherland?
The figure jerked and in a weak voice replied, Not so bloody loud.
Conway turned down the volume of his speaker and said quickly, I m glad
to see you, Doctor. I m Conway, Sector General. We have to get you back to the
ambulance ship quickly. They re having problems there and..
He broke off because Sutherland was refusing to let go of the cabinet.
Reassuringly, Conway went on: I know why you used yellow grease instead of
paint, and I haven t unsealed my helmet. We know there is pressure in other
parts of the ship. Are there any survivors? And did you find what you were
looking for, Doctor?
Not until they were outside the sick bay with the door closed behind them
did Sutherland speak. He opened his visor, rubbed at the moisture beading the
inside of it. Thank God somebody remembers his history, he said weakly. No,
Doctor, there are no survivors. I searched the other air-filled compartments.
One of them is a sort of cemetery of inedible remains. I think cannibalism was
forced on them at the end, and they had to put their dead somewhere where they
would be, well, available. And no again, I didn t find what I was looking for,
just a means of identifying but not curing the condition. All the indicated
medication spoiled hundreds of years ago He gestured with the book he was
holding. I had to read some fine print in there, so I increased the air
pressure inside my suit so that when I opened my visor for a closer look it
would blow away any airborne infection. In theory it should have worked.
Obviously it had not worked. In spite of the higher pressure inside his
suit blowing air outwards through his visor opening, the Surgeon-Lieutenant had
caught what his fellow officers had. He was sweating profusely, squinting
against the light and his eyes were streaming, but he was not delirious or
unconscious, as the other officers from the Tenelphi had been. Not yet.
We found a quick way out, Conway said. Well, relatively. Do you think
you can climb with my assistance, or should I tie your arms and legs and lower
you ahead of me?
Sutherland was in poor shape, but he most emphatically did not want to be
tied and lowered, no matter how carefully, down a tunnel whose walls were of
twisted and jagged-edged metal. They compromised by strapping themselves
together back to back, with Conway doing the climbing and the other medic
fending them off the obstructions Conway could not see. They made very good
time, so much so that they had begun to catch up to Prilicla before the
Cinrusskin was more than halfway along the tunnel. Every time the sun shone into
the other end, the dark circle that was the empath s spacesuited body seemed
larger.
The continuous hissing of the SOS signal grew louder by the minute, then
suddenly it stopped.
A few minutes later the tiny black circle that was Prilicla became a
shining disk as the empath cleared the mouth of the tunnel and moved into
sunlight. It reported that the Rhabwar and the Tenelphi were in sight, and that
there should be no problem making normal radio contact. They heard it calling
the Rhabwar, and what seemed like ten years later came the hissing and crackling
sound of the ambulance ship s reply. Conway was able to make out some of the
words through the background mush, so he was not completely surprised by
Prilicla s relayed message.
Friend Conway, said the empath, and he could imagine it trying
desperately to find some way of softening the effect of its bad news. That was
Naydrad. All the DBDG Earth-humans on the ship, including Pathologist Murchison,
are displaying symptoms similar to those of the Tenelphi officers, with varying
degrees of incapacity. The Captain and Lieutenant Chen are the least badly
affected so far, but both are in a condition that warrants their being confined
to bed. Naydrad requires our assistance urgently, and the Captain says he ll
leave without us if we don t hurry up. Lieutenant Chen is doubtful about our
leaving at all, even if they weren t having to modify the hyperdrive envelope to
accommodate the Tenelphi. It seems there are additional problems caused by the
proximity of the system s sun that require a trained astrogator to-
That s enough, Conway broke in sharply. Tell them to dump the Tenelphi!
Decouple and undock and jettison any samples Chen took aboard for analysis.
Neither Sector General nor the Monitor Corps will thank us for bringing back
anything that has been in contact with the derelict. They might not be too happy
to see us- He broke off as he heard Naydrad s voice relaying his instructions to
the Captain and the beginning of Fletcher s reply. He went on quickly:
Prilicla, I m receiving the ship direct, so I don t need you as a relay
anymore. Return to the ship as quickly as possible and help Naydrad with the
patients. We should be clear of this tunnel in fifteen minutes. Captain
Fletcher, can you hear me?
A voice which Conway did not recognize as the Captain s said, I can hear
you.
Right, said Conway, and very briefly he explained what had happened to
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