GROUND / CH. 16:CAUTION

GROUND, LITTLE YASFORT

“Mr Mayor, I need to talk to the village pharmacist.” Lana said quietly, “Quite urgently.”

“Kalak is ill?”

“No. My podling just lost a ready cell to a virus.”

“What? But ready cells are... they're virus proof!”

“What makes it even more surprising is that I and my mother before me have worked with unknown viruses before, have analysed them for the university. The ready cells I gave Mick were not of an administrator, although I've done that job recently. If a virus could overcome such a ready cell, I worry.”

“Do you recognise Kov and Jana? At the edge of the crowd?”

“Yes.”

“The woman next to Jana is Uza, Aza's mother and our pharmacist.”

“Thank you.”

“Do... do you know where this virus came from?”

“The friend of Mick, Sathzakara, travelled with us, and stepped out of the spaceship on the plains. It seems a slime creature stuck to her boot, and the boot was not washed and scrubbed and subjected to the treatments that Sathzakara and her grandmother put themselves through. This morning it ate her boot, and some of the cloth that covers her body, and was invading a scratch in her skin when they found it. Some more slime creature organisms had found her eye, and were trying to invade her body that way. Mick found them, and one of those slime-creature organisms had this virus. So perhaps it was in the slime creature, or perhaps it was an alien virus.”

“So, we do not know,” the Mayor said. “Not for sure.”

“But when there are new and deadly viruses around, caution would be advised.”

“Indeed. I am pleased you agree, academician. We.... before I saw you approaching we were wondering how to say that to invite your podling to live in the village, and the thought of constant visits of his alien friends, seemed like too much change, too quickly.”

“I will pass on the message. Oh, Kalak is very happy to stay in his old home, and I have seen what he calls the old servant quarters at the rear. If the village has no objections, then I would happily stay there. They are larger than my flat on the university campus.”

“One of the servant's quarters? You are sure, Academician? It does not seem very fitting....”

“I have no objections, Mr Mayor, none at all. Now, if you'll excuse me...”

“Certainly, academician, you must talk to Uza.”

Lana flew to beside Kov and Jana. They were cuddling their own little mixling, and Uza was cuddling Aza and Jakav's.

“I apologise, but Uza, I must talk to you about a vaccine.”

“A vaccine? Any in particular?”

“A new one is needed. And my podling needs unthat.”

“Unthat? Why would...” Uza broke off, putting the two together. Unthat was a plant extract that helped helped trigger the creation of ready cells, normally it was the parents who needed it, after giving their best to their podlings. “The dispensary is this way,” Uza said, returning Magdalena to Aza. “Your podling contracted a bacteria that nasty and new?”

“I have told the mayor, Mick lost a ready cell to a virus.”

“A virus?”

“Yes. The ready cell I gave Mick recognised the core, but the spikes were different. Before it was overcome, the ready cell told him the virus was deadly, fast-spreading, and unstable.”

“Those are not three terms to give me an easy night. How can it be recognised then?”

“By the root of the spikes, according to the ready cell. There is zing, fire, athlass and bite at the root.”

“Athlass? Your podling is well educated. That's rare in a virus, too.”

“The brain organisms I gave him remembered enough to interpret what the ready-cell said, but Mick didn't know the word.”

“Who ever heard of a male who did!”

“Mick's so recently podded... I wonder if his brain-organisms still act as though he's female.”

“That ought not to be possible.”

“Then perhaps he is even stranger hybrid than we thought, a male alien coupled with organisms that are female. But I don't think so. He said that his ready-cells were curious about mating, anyway, which is a male trait. He was cleansing his future wife of a slime creature infection. An infected slime creature organism was behind her eye.”

“Behind her eye?”

“I would not have thought of it. But their eyes are like a ball in a socket, surrounded by a liquid full of enzymes to destroy bacteria. The muscles that move them do not stop something from getting behind. His skin organisms found one slime creature on the edge of her eye, so he searched around the eye too.”

“She could not expel the slime creature herself?”

“Multicellular organisms... everything is specialised, everything has its special place. Everything is fixed. They cannot ask their skin to part for anything.”

“One wonders how they survive.”

“Quite well. They've got specialist cells for everything. They decide what to eat, put it in their stomachs and forget about it, everything else is automatic until it comes to excretion, well, actually, they need to train their young to pay attention to that, so that is automatic too.

"Even standing or running is automatic for them, once they've learned how to do it deliberately, they push the job to another part of their brain and tell it to just get on with things. As for dealing with infection... there's basically no communication there at all, other than pain.”

They reached the clinic. “I have unthat leaves. Will he be able to make the infusion?”

“They have strange habits. One of their favourite drinks is an infusion of plant leaves. Another drink that Mick likes but Magdalena finds disgusting involves the flesh of a certain lower life-form found in the sea. What temperature should he infuse the unthat in, though? I've only ever had the pre-made infusion. He's going to use boiling water if he treats it like his favourite drink.”

“Constantly boiling? That'd ruin it.”

“According to him, the only way to drink his drink is to boil the water, pour some into another vessel, so it gets hot, throw that water away because it's too cold, put in the leaves, and pour more boiling water on top.”

“Interesting! Tell him to do exactly that, and then throw that away immediately. The first wash is a mild poison. Then he should pour more boiling water on and leave the leaves in until the infusion is a nice body temperature for drinking.”

“And then he should drink it cold?”

“Warmer is better, actually. It doesn't make much difference, but the efficacy reduces with time, unless you add preservatives.”

“But he shouldn't be tempted to drink it hot?”

“He likes hot drinks?”

“He does, yes. He had some of the leaves for this drink of his in his spaceship. He persuaded me to drink some, and was most offended at the thought of waiting until it was cold.”

“Well, really, the active ingredient is in the infusion by the time it's cooled to half-boiling. After that you just get the good taste.”

“You are talking about someone who said 'mmm, tasty' to full-grown herd-beast, and spat out his first bite of predator as if it was poison.”

“Crazy alien! “, Uza said, “But OK, if he likes the taste of herd-beast, he can take out the leaves any time after five minutes.”

“I'll tell him.”

“And you'll submit this virus report, I presume?”

“Would you be willing to test it first? We are not sure the virus is from the aliens, but it probably is.”

“But how do we test it? Your podling's ready cell died.”

“We ask his skin organisms if it matches what they expelled.”

“I've never had much success getting sense out of skin organisms,” Uza said.

“I spoke to Sathzakara — Mick's future wife. He was telling her what his organisms had found, and where.”

“That's unusual.”

“Yes. But he had reason to want to know, reason to learn, and an rational mind when he was podded. I left him yesterday with instructions to learn to listen to his organisms... because yesterday he wasn't listening at all. I guess he's been making up for time. Plus of course, he knew what a slime creature would do to his beloved.”

“Yes. The almost-certain death of your future spouse. That's very powerful motive for not sitting back and doing nothing.” Uza said. “And not thinking about the consequences.”

“You sound like you've experience,” Lana said. “Aza's father was dying?”

“Yes. A predator got his head. I wasn't sure all his brain organisms were dead. You're not the only one who might be accused of wrong-podding.”

“Your daughter may be late-podded, Uza, but I'm sure she's not wrong-podded. She shows none of the signs.”

“Late-podded? I've not heard that term.”

“Late in your husband's life, but not so late it would be wrong.”

“In any case, it was wrong — we were not married. I held him as he died, and called his muscle organisms, his bone organsims, his skin organisms, but I forced myself on him; we were not married.”

“Did his organisms flow to you, or away from you, Uza? I expect the strongest and the best of them flowed to your call very eagerly. Bone, skin and muscle may not understand much, but they know who our brain has chosen as husband or wife. There was no rape there. If your husband had recovered, you would have said vows that evening, I'm sure. If not before.”

“I did say them. I... I think I heard him respond, even. But..”

“Do not hesitate to call him your husband, Uza. The biological imperative of reproduction cannot make muscle organisms talk, but it can encourage dying brain organisms to do so.”

“The back of his skill was gone, his ears with it. He could not hear. How could he respond?”

“You have not heard of two people being attuned to each other's thoughts?”

“During podding, yes. Otherwise, it's a myth.”

“No, it's something we're taught is a myth and so people who can do it at other times keep it an intimate secret, lest they be accused of starting to pod in public. Some of the aliens can hear any surface thought of someone they touch, and Magdalena's future husband John has a gift from God that allows him to hear anyone's thoughts anywhere, and speak to those who can hear. We are all capable of hearing one another's thoughts, Uza, just many do not stay that close. And even if we were not, if God chose, he could have allowed your husband to hear you take your vows to him.”

“You speak kind words, Lana.”

“You cannot blame me if the truth is kind, Uza. Has no one spoken such words before?”

“Not so forcefully, with such conviction.”

“Then it is past time. To make the vaccine will take a long time?”

“Yes. A vaccine to tell the cells to reject based on the root, that will be more complex than normal. If I started now, it would almost be the middle of the night before the first injection could be given.”

“Oh,” Lana didn't hide her disappointment, “Can I help somehow?”

“With making the vaccine? It is... as much an art as a science. I prefer to work methodically, and alone. But can you repeat for me the what the ready cell said? And write it down here?”

“Of course. Zing, fire, athlass and bite at the root. The spikes are unstable.”

“You realise athlass is normally the hidden core of a spike, sometimes exposed at the very tip? It's going to be a real challenge to do that. A trial sample, though.... Perhaps the best way is if I do not rely on chemistry for a trial. How long would it take to walk to your podling? I am not a good flyer and don't like to fly in the dark.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Would you accept a lift from the alien machine? That is the fastest way.”

“You can arrange for that?”

“It was offered.”

“Then I will apply my organisms to the challenge of zing, fire, athlass and bite. It is a terrible combination, you realise? Zing and fire together in one virus?”

“It infected a ready cell. It must be terrible.”

“I'm still surprised, about that. I wonder if there was some other factor that weakened it.”

“I don't know. We'll have to ask Mick more.”

----------------------------------------

OLD YASFORT

“Hello? Mick?” Lana called at the entrance to the house.

“Lana?” Mick's voice came from within. “I'll be right there.”

A glow suddenly appeared from under the door, then a shadow, and then Uza met her second alien.

“Mick, this is Uza, the village pharmacist.”

“The virus is very unusual. I do not know how it would infect a ready cell.”

“By which we mean, Mick, that getting your skin cells to take it to a ready cell was the right thing to do, and we're as shocked as you are.”

“Thank you for saying so. But it's still my fault, isn't it?”

“Mick, it's not just saying. A virus infecting a ready cell is unheard of.”

“Maybe you shouldn't be here, then. If there's a deadly, human-carried ready-cell destroying virus... I don't want to be responsible for wiping out ready-cells as a species.”

“Mick, your organisms can produce ready cells. They're a different class, not a different species of organisms. And Uza has some unthat for you, which will help ready cell production. So, stop being miserable, put some water on to boil, and be prepared to answer lots of questions about what you ate and drank, and anything else that might have possibly made your ready cell more vulnerable to the virus than it ought to have been.”

“Not to mention which ready cell it might have been,” Uza added. “It might make a difference.”

“How do I tell?” Mick asked. “As far as I know all my ready cells went with my skin organisms to check what was attacking Sathie.”

“They moved? All of them? And you asked your ready cells to protect her?” Uza asked.

“Yes.”

“And they went all over her skin with your skin organisms?” Uza asked, amazed at what she was hearing.

“Yes.”

“But now she's back on the space-ship?” Lana asked.

“Yes. Why is that important?”

“Your podling needs some remedial classes, Lana.” Uza said, with a smirk.

“Mick, how do you feel about Sathzakara being gone?”

“Miserable. Like all of me wants her back.”

“All of you does want her back, Mick,” Lana said, “How can you protect your wife unless she's with you?”

“She's not my wife yet.”

“Sending your skin organisms to remove an infection is unusual, but it can count as first aid. Getting your ready cells to deal with what the skin-organisms bring back to your body would be normal. The podlings at the back of the class will be sniggering, however, because thinning your skin like that is stage one of podding. Your ready cells being that mobile means you're still dosed up on my mixing enzymes, I guess. A male asking his ready cells to roam a female, asking his ready cells to protect her? That, my ignorant podling, is a few steps into a mixing. The stage before that would be the female's ready cells entering your body to meet up with your ready cells, give them a few extra doses of mix hormone if they're not mobile and starting to mix genetics with the finest specimins. Then the rest go on patrol because otherwise she's vulnerable. If it was just a podding then the male's ready cells wouldn't be involved much; her ready cells would be calling the best of the male's organisms to implant. But note that it's not male ready cells that implant, remember the story of the many-mother. That's because ready cells, as well as everything else they do, are the ones most ready to subdivide. I expect that your skin ready cells divided at least five times yesterday, the poor things..”

“Which will have left them weak.” Uza said. “And podding leaves them weak, as well, of course, let alone mixing.”

“We weren't podding,” Mick said, deeply embarrassed.

“Your brain might think that, but your organisms almost certainly think differently, Mick. And I don't know what God thinks, but if you dared to ask anyone in the village about sending your ready cells all over Sathzakara when you're not married and they'd say you needed to repent of that sin and take your marriage vows.”

“I'd better make a call then,” Mick said.

“Several, I expect.” Lana said.

“One should be enough.”

He called Sathie's wrist unit.

“Hi Mick, I miss you too. What's up?”

“Sathzakara Shipbuilder, I have just been told that in sending my ready cells to patrol your skin I crossed a line I did not know, and sinned against God and against you, and did what is only right for husband and wife. I do not want to expose you and our race to public shame, that we behave like moabites. Will you take vows with me, my beloved?”

“You're saying that your ready cell was dropping a huge hint and we totally missed it?”

“I guess so.”

“Good job the doc says he doesn't see any sign of a current infection in any of my blood tests, just a past infection, isn't it?”

“So you're not in quarantine?”

“All indicators show nothing active any more. He's convinced you've got them all, my beloved. So, with Maggie's permission, I will come and make vows to you, Mick Shapechanger. And if she will not permit me, then I'll take vows by wireless. I do not want to dishonour God.”

“Thank you Sathie.”

“But I warn you, Mick. I did dose myself on onions and garlic. And raw it is certainly toxic to the slime creatures, and Pete says that he's part way thorough an experiment using his blood. Drip one, before eating any onions was lapped up, drip two ten minutes afterwards, sent the slime creature running to the corner of it's dish, and drip three, which he put straight on top of one blob, seems to have killed it.”

“That's reassuring. So you ought to be entirely free.”

“Well, reassuring in terms of the slime creature, yes. It probably means you don't want to kiss me though. I'd hate to marry you and then poison you.”

“I'll be appropriately cautious,” Mick said.

“Good plan.”

----------------------------------------

SPACE, SPACE-FOLDING LAB.

“You're serious?” Maggie asked.

“It's worse,” Sathzakara said. “We got the doctor to film Mick wrapping my head in filaments of his skin to get rid of the slime creatures that were in my mask. It probably counts as a pornographic film down there.”

“Oh, Sathie!” Maggie exclaimed.

“So, can I please borrow a probe or something to go down and take vows with Mick?”

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Maggie said, “Gran might fall off. Anyway, you'll need to take an alchemy kit if you're going to make a nice pool in that cave.”

“A pool?”

“Are you objecting?”

“No, but...”

“If we can get permission from the locals, who seem to have quite a lax attitude to planning regulations from what I've heard, then I'd like us to have somewhere we can swim and relax, and I wouldn't mind putting up a tower or two.”

“You mean a permanent base?”

“An embassy, yes. Not that I expect them to have a word for that. But we've promised Lana sanctuary if she needs it; to me, that means walls she can run and hide behind, live behind, not just the portable forcefield she's got now.”

“The planetary government might not like that,” Sathie said.

“Oh, I know. But if the local mayor says OK, then I'm not going to try to gainsay him. And then of course there's what Kalak said about him having some kind of rights to the governorship of old Yasfort...”

“Cunning indeed is my soon-to-be sister in law.”

“That's the royal cunning of my grandmother, actually,” Maggie corrected as she got her wrist unit to put through a call. “Grandma?”

“Hello Maggie. My formal dress is looking really really useful at the moment. Have you and James had set a date, by any chance?”

“No date from us still, sorry. Will it take you long to change? Sathie can tell you why.”

“Sathie's in isolation, isn't she?

“The doctor says there's no reason for her to be. In initial tests onion looks like it's highly effective, but Mick got there first. Let me pass you over.”

----------------------------------------

GROUND, OLD YASFORT

“I don't think that's right, either, sorry.” Mick said, to Uza's second try at a vaccine. “At least, my skin cells deny they've ever met or heard of anything like that.”

“And they're the ones that moved the spiky?”

“Yes. Sorry, I was almost sure I'd get it wrong. But they say they remember that one. Deadly, like the ready cell said.”

“Zing, fire, athlass and bite at the root.”

“Yes. Here, let me show you something. I don't know if it helps.” Mick moving flicked on his display.

“Your ready cell sent you a picture?” Lana was surprised.

“This is a standard first year university biology image, sorry. It might not even be the right virus. But my brain organisms just labeled my picture. Here's the core, and here's a spike. Here is the zing, still on the core, here's the fire, then there's athlass somewhere here, and then there's bite. And there's probably more more bite going up here, but who knows? Further up the spike is unstable. Assuming it is this type of virus, every fifty years for the past three or four centuries someone's claimed to have developed a vaccine against all known strains. By the time they've announced it the thing has mutated again. It takes our immune systems a bit under a week to beat it down to manageable levels, and then a couple more days to get rid of it. It'll survive two or so days outside a body. Which is why I felt I should apply some fire to where I was when my skin expelled them.”

“That... that was appropriate, yes,” Lana said.

Uza looked at the image, a while longer before saying, “No wonder what I've been making don't match. I thought they were beside the root, on the core. but to my mind, they are the root.”

“I still don't know how you go deliberately making antibodies, but feel free to try again. You should have time before our guests get here. What did you call this drink?”

“That medicine is called unthat.”

“Is it a common plant?”

“It grows all over the scrubland,” Uza said, “there's loads growing outside of here, but it's hard to get in civilised places. People who are brave enough to harvest it can't really make a living from doing that, but it certainly buys some luxuries. Why?”

“This isn't bad at all, but the bit you made me throw away smelt delicious,” Mick said.

“Told you, Uza,” Lana said.

“Don't drink too much,” Uza said, “it can be dangerous if you do.”

“Dangerous in what way?”

“Ready cells are important, but they use a lot of energy and cause disruption doing what they do,” Uza explained. “Too many ready cells and you'll become weak, because they'll all be checking your other organisms for problems. They are one of the problems for people getting old: as people get older they get more cautious, and their brain-organisms lose flexibility. As they get more cautious and less adventurous, their ready cells don't meet as many challenges and live longer, especially brain ready-cells, and too many brain ready cells means their thoughts get interrupted too often. Which makes them uncertain and more cautious.”

“I don't think I'd heard that bit before. So to keep young and clear-thinking, a bit of risk is important?” Lana asked.

“Or curious. Curiosity is an important motive to trying new things. Trying new things keeps the brain organisms flexible, and you're not as likely to forget to breathe while you're asleep.”

“Can I ask about that? Or rather, about what Kalak said about the prophet stopping breathing?” Mick asked.

“What about it?” Lana asked.

“I'm confused why it's not wrong among you to give up on life like that. For us, it'd be considered a sin — self-murder.”

“But you've said you can't stop your lungs from breathing, not for long,” Lana pointed out.

“True.”

“So it would take doing violence to yourself to do it.”

“OK, I agree,” Mick said.

“But for us there's no violence, there's no self-poisoning or self-mutilation. And you've said that on the cross, Jesus gave up his spirit; in other words he chose to die.”

“Yes.”

“So what makes it OK for Jesus to choose to die? And what about people who put themselves in danger to stand up for what's right?”

“You're saying that it was OK for Jesus to choose to die because in doing so he didn't do any violence to himself?”

“Well? This is your ethical system we're talking about. All I know is that when my mother was starting to feel too old, and her organisms were not functioning together as well as they did when she was first podded — in fact none of her organisms were really healthy enough to divide any more, let alone give to a podling — she told Lak and me she wouldn't bother to keep on breathing very much longer, and she committed her soul to the One and stopped breathing, and her organisms all flowed into the soil at the same time.”

“I didn't realise all of someone's organisms... would get old like that.”

“It's not inevitable,” Lana said, “It's more to do with attitude, expectations. That's to say how willing someone is to let their older organisms die and be replaced by younger ones.”

“Oh, wow. You can decide even that?”

“Yes, just like you needed to decide your skin should be growing.”

“And that my stomach organisms ought to be trying to digest the food that was in my stomach,” Mick added, humbly.

“Why did you tell them not to?” Uza asked.

“I didn't. Well, Lana told me to I needed to tell them to let me know when they couldn't take any more, I didn't know I needed to add 'and digest it'. That bit just goes without saying where I come from.”

“So what happens if you're on a long journey?” Uza asked.

“We'd carry extra food in packs or pockets, not in our stomachs.”

“That sounds inconvenient,” Uza commented.

“Not really. It means you can take spare, in case of emergencies, and if you're in a group it gives the opportunity for people to help each other. But of course, gravity on Earth is three times what it is here.”

“But what happens if your emergency lasts too long?”

“We get hungry, and use up some stored fat. I once heard that a typical human can last up to forty days without eating if there's no food, but by that time most wouldn't be doing much except lying down and absorbing their muscles.”

Uza looked at him in horror.

“Multicellular organisms, remember,” Lana pointed out. “He tells me his body normally discards every skin cell he has every few weeks.”

“That's horrible!”

“They die when they contact air, and our pain sensors go all the way up to that layer.” Mick said, “I had to tell Lana to stop cleaning off my protective outer layer of dead skin cells, because she was triggering my pain receptors.”

“It's part of how they can react so fast,” Lana said, “you've got to be impressed, really; there's a direct connection from the pain nerves to the muscle nerves. They don't need to think 'that's hot', they just automatically pull away from it, and because they're surrounded by dead cells anyway they can stand a far wider temperature range than we can. Plus of course, they never change shape, so they can add extra insulation.”

“But there's got to be limits.”

“Some,” Mick said. “But having a few layers of still air near your body does help a lot.”

“We can grow body fur if we need to,” Uza said, somewhat embarrassed. Growing fur was a last resort; it made you look like an animal.

“Yes, I know,” Mick said, smiling. “Lana tells me it ruins her aerodynamics and she'd rather stay inside.”

“That's a nice rational motive,” Uza complimented Lana. “I just can't imagine going anywhere I'd ever need to get furry. Yuck. Right, let me try this batch,” she said, carefully using the syringe to suck up some fluid from the tip of one fingernail. Mick watched in fascination.

“Is that an ability any other cooperative organism has?”

“What, making vaccines?” Uza asked, bemused.

“I presume not, though it's an amazing ability. I was more thinking of the more basic 'poisoned claws' option.”

“There's one kind that does, in the forests and mountains.” Lana said. “They can be quite territorial.”

“Dangerous?”

“They're not very big.” she indicated with her hands, about the size of a guinea pig or a small rabbit.

“Oh, OK.”

“And most of that is fur. But if one thinks it's trapped, it'll attack and the venom can hurt you, yes.”

“But it'll kill a predator?”

“No, the venom is actually a drug for them. It makes them sleep.”

“Oh! That's a nicer approach to staying safe than killing it.”

“Then they call the other bone-eaters and eat the predator.”

“Alive?”

“Not by the time they're consuming its bones.”

“Did I ever tell you that you live in a scary place?” Mick said as Uza injected the sample. “My skin organisms say: yes, that's what the deadly spiky is like, and are passing it on to all my other organisms.”

“Well finally!” Uza exclaimed, and put the needle cover on that syringe. She picked up another, “Lana, your turn.”

“I've met things like it before, Uza, and I can't do what you've just done. Vaccinate yourself.”

“I'm ethically bound to vaccinate those at risk around me.”

“Exactly. You need to be alive to do that. I am not at risk.”

“How not?”

“I've spent a long time working in frontier biology, Uza.” Lana said grimly. “My mother taught me well; I won't hope that a sick organism will recover unless I know what's causing the sickness.”

“You'd expel your organisms at the first sign of illness?”

“In the right circumstances; like when in the previous month I've hosted another species, or when I've been spending time with aliens. I think that's why my mother was so reluctant to let her organisms pass away from old age. She had spent most of her lifetime close to other life-forms. One of her colleagues early on didn't expel a sick organism. He died from the infection.”

“So you insist on me being vaccinated next?” Uza asked, looking at the syringe, which was now full.

“Absolutely,” Lana agreed.

“I've never been able to inject myself,” Uza admitted.

“Common problem, I hear. Mick, tell Uza about your people's first vaccinations. It'll distract her I think.”

“Urm, OK. A long long time ago, disease was common among us. Some were mild, others killed almost everyone who became infected. People didn't know what caused them, which didn't help, of course. They thought it was bad air, evil spirits, or you had too much blood.”

“Too much blood?” Uza asked, surprised.

“One of their favourite responses to illness was to stick blood-sucking water-creatures on the sick person; as far as I know it didn't help most of the time. This was a few hundred years ago, though. Anyway...” He continued the story of cowpox, and as he reached the climax of the

horrific, compelling story, Lana injected her.

“You timed that deliberately, didn't you?” Uza accused.

“Of course!” Lana agreed.

“And the boy survived?”

“Yes.” Lana said, “And the so-called medic even became famous without being locked up. Now, make sure your organisms know what to do with that vaccination.”