Balance of Power (17 page)

“At first I intended to brazen it out. But I couldn’t get the work done. The dam was virtually stalemated...and then they actually began sabotage. Not only weren’t we making progress, but our work was being destroyed. I knew it was only a matter of time before they got to me, too. I had army protection, but I couldn’t be wholly sure of their loyalty.

“I’d sent letters here warning of the situation, but I got no reply but reassuring noises from Piet. The rumor hadn’t reached Ak’lehr then, and the situation seemed anything but serious to him. I understand things are a little different now, but of course he blames that on me.

“I could see only one thing to do. I had to get out, but getting out wouldn’t be enough. I’d leave behind me a flourishing whispering campaign and the possibility of a rebellion in the province. So I decided that the best thing to do was to bring back some of the herdsmen who’d had the disease and recovered—it kills about half of those who catch it—plus some bodies for post-mortem. Here, I thought, we might be able to learn what the disease is and prepare some kind of anti-serum in order to provide immunization. I brought some of the animals, too, because I thought they might be the ultimate cause of the disease if the herdsmen had known it sporadically since time immemorial.

“Well, it seemed like a good plan, but you can imagine the trouble. I had the corpses packed in ice, but it’s one hell of a long way from the far south to Ak’lehr. It was a long battle trying to keep the bodies from putrefying...I had to jettison the original ones...but then I found that the disease was also traveling north along the road. I got new bodies...and had to abandon them, too. I really began to appreciate the magnitude of the problem when I found yet another replacement. Only one, this time but by this time I was deep into the heartland of the empire. This thing is spreading north, and its spreading quickly. Inevitably, the rumor began to grow around me, and with it the rumor that
I
was carrying it...that it was me, dragging plague-ridden corpses and herders and their filthy animals, that was spreading the disease. It was useless to point out that it had preceded me to the points where I’d picked up fresh corpses. It was useless to point out that it had been rife long before I set out. Thank Y’su, the soldiers I had with me were sensible men...they knew what I was trying to do. They realized the importance of trying to stop this thing. If only Piet realized!

“They wouldn’t let me into the city. Rumor had got here ahead of me, and they were certain that if they let my wagons in the plague would be in Ak’lehr itself. Eventually, after half a dozen people from the college came out to talk to me—including Christian—I was allowed in. The wagons are still outside the walls but the rumor is inside and picking up force with every back alley it goes down. Piet’s blazing mad...but he doesn’t see that if I hadn’t done what I did I’d have been postponing the day rather than preventing it. This epidemic isn’t going to be stopped by ignoring it. We need to take some kind of action...at least to find out what’s causing it. I think I can persuade some of the masters—they don’t like the rumors any more than we do. But the way Piet’s acting he’s likely to add fuel to the fire instead of water. Christian hasn’t told me much about you, except that you’re from Earth, but if you can help....”

I nodded. “I can help,” I said. “I lost a lot of my equipment in a little domestic dispute, but I have the essentials...and the college presumably has its own labs and some kind of facilities. The essential thing is to bring your specimens in and isolate them somewhere. We need help. Are you sure you can get some measure of cooperation from the masters?”

“I can,” said Christian. “I’ve helped out in medical research before. I can get cooperation now. The masters want to stop this plague in the south as much as anyone. They’ll take care of the oafs at the gate.”

“Then move,” I said. “We’d better not waste any time.”

Christian nodded, and went to the door. Charles hesitated, then made a small gesture of thanks in my direction, and followed.

I remained seated for a few moments, looking at Jan, who was staring at me pensively.

“Maybe it was a mistake,” he said.

“Charles bringing the herdsmen and the body back?” I queried.

“No,” he said. “That was criminally stupid. I’m talking about my bringing
you
here.”

I shook my head. “What Charles said about postponing the evil day is right,” I said. “In either case. He was right to do as he did, and so were you. You have to face things. You can’t brush them under the carpet. If you postpone evil days all you gain is a little time—and you lose any chance you ever had of dealing with them when they come.”

“It’s done now,” he said, dismissing the whole issue.

“That’s right,” I replied. “You’d better come with me to get my equipment—you can show me where the lab is and help me carry the stuff down.”

“Do you think you can do anything?” he asked.

“I’m certain.”

“Do you think...if you hadn’t been here...we, or the masters...?”

“Maybe,” I said. “But we’ll never know. I can do it better. If there ever was a problem made just for me, then this is it.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said. He still seemed reluctant to move, as if there were still something on his mind.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he replied.

“Ilah’y’su,” said Mariel, for the first time. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

He looked at her in some surprise. I realized what she meant. Jan was at least half a believer. He’d been brought up in an alien culture with an alien god. He was his father’s son...but he was also an Ak’lehrian. He was prepared to acknowledge us as messengers of god. Not to the Ore’l, but to him.

“Let’s go,” I said. “There’s work to do.”

While we sat in dispirited silence, just about ready to pack it in for the night, Jan came into the lab again. He looked at the dissecting table, which was now bare, and at the benches where we’d examined set after set of slides, which were now in a state of tired disarray.

“Nothing?” he asked.

I answered with the slightest of gestures.

“What’s the one thing you need in order to crack the problem?” he asked.

At first thought it was a hypothetical problem, and I considered that the answer was so obvious that I could treat it as a rhetorical one. Then I realized that if it was rhetorical it probably wasn’t hypothetical.

Charles knew, too. He went white.

“Oh, no...,” he said, sickly.

“One of the soldiers who brought you back,” said Jan. “And he’s been off duty for six hours. Most of the time he was at home, but....”

The plague was in the city.

Immediately, I cursed myself for a fool for not insisting that the whole of Charles’ returning party should be quarantined. But I had forgotten about the military escort. Had I gone to the city gate myself I would have seen them, or seen something that would have triggered the thought in my mind, but I hadn’t.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“Upstairs,” said Jan. “The hospital wing.”

“Can you have the others rounded up?” I asked. “Quarantine them all.”

“I’ll try,” said Jan. “The masters will see the sense in it. But out there....”

Out there, in the city, it only took one event to feed all the rumors with exactly the fuel they’d thrive on.

“Get up there,” I said to Christian. “Take the samples. I’ll clear the decks here. How bad is he?”

The last sentence was addressed to Jan. “Sick,” said Jan. “High fever.”

“Mariel,” I said, “try to bring his temperature down. Just do what you can to treat the symptoms. You can handle that?”

She nodded, and left with Christian. I got busy at the bench.

“How serious is it?” asked Jan.

“I can’t tell,” I said. “It depends how long the disease has been incubating in his blood. If it’s just a delayed reaction and he caught it down south, maybe there’s no danger at all. But if he caught it near here...it all depends on how he caught it. If there’s a vector involved, there’s no immediate danger. If it can be transmitted from person to person...there could be a disaster.”

“Can you prepare a serum to combat it?”

“Probably,” I replied. “But not in any quantity. I haven’t the facilities. And what kind of a serum is possible depends very much on what kind of agent is causing the disease. I suspect some kind of protozoan, but so far I can’t rule out bacteria or viruses...until I can plate out blood samples and get a look at them under the microscope I won’t be able to tell.”

“How long will it take?” asked Charles.

“Maybe a couple of days, maybe a week, maybe....” I ended the statement with a shrug. I set him to prepare more media for plating the blood samples.

“Anything I can get you?” asked Jan.

“Yes,” I told, him. “A map.”

“A map?”

“The best one you have. I want a map of the territory where Charles was working, and of the territory covered by the road connecting it to the nearer reaches of the empire. As much detail as you have.”

He didn’t ask any more questions. Christian returned, without Mariel, carrying four phials each containing a few milliliters of blood.

Work resumed, with even more urgency than we had mustered during the day.

This time, armed afresh, it was easy. The feeling I already had told me exactly what to look for, and now that I had something to look at it didn’t take long. Confirmation, of course, would need a lot more work and some careful handling of the material, but my confidence was high.

Jan had waited, having brought the maps, and it proved not to be too long a wait. As soon as I had it clear in my mind I deserted the microscope for the table. We laid out the maps where earlier in the day the body had lain.

“Show me the migration routes that the herdsmen follow,” I asked of Charles.

“North or south of the hills?” he asked.

“North.”

With his hand he drew a broad circle. “It’s in that area,” he said. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe the herdsmen can tell us, but they won’t understand the map. I’ll have to question them...and they’re sleeping now.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “The southern limit is the forest, here, right? These hills form a long barrier to the south, a kind of base to the whole migratory region...the northern herdsmen don’t cross?”

“No,” said Charles. “Before we took the road through and cleared the forest from this valley here, there were only paths in the forest. There were people in the forest—bandits, according to the nomads. South of the range, of course, there are more herdsmen with different animals, but they’re much more scattered and they don’t move about as much. They wander from place to place, but as far as I know they don’t have settled migration routes.”

“These two areas of grassland were separated for thousands of years,” I said. “Until you took the road through.”

“
Some
people moved across,” objected Charles. “I’ve exaggerated the clearness of the picture. There’s always been contact, however tenuous, across the range.”

“Some
people
moved across,” I said, correcting his emphasis. “But the road opened up a clear gap. You cleared the forest all the way through these valleys, yes?”