"Well--ah--" This time, the silence was strained. "Ah--Lieutenant Hale--ah--do you know anything about the Plague?" "The Plague? I don't understand, sir." "That's what the natives call it. They're deathly afraid of it, although they have no need to be. It killed off great numbers of them at first, but the survivors are descendants of those who were immune. The present population is not susceptible to it; they are carriers. It's a virus of some sort; we haven't been able to do much research on it with our limited facilities here, but we've established that in the body of an immune it just lives in semi-symbiosis, like _Herpes simplex_." "I see, sir." Hale had no idea what _Herpes simplex_ was, but he got the general idea. "It strikes within twenty-four hours after exposure, and kills eighty-five to ninety per cent of a normal population." Pause. "Ah--Lieutenant, how long have you been here?" "Just forty-eight hours, sir. But there's nothing to worry about. I'm immune." He knew he must be. If he hadn't caught it yet, he never would. "Immune? Good heavens, man! How do you know?" "Lagerglocke's serum, sir. Developed seven years ago. Confers universal immunity to any foreign protein substance." Hale hoped it sounded convincing. There was a stunned silence. "But--but what about the allergy reaction?" Hale took a breath. "I'm not sure exactly how it works, sir; I'm not an immunologist. I believe that the suppressor is one of the Gimel-type antitoxins." "Oh." The captain doctor's voice sounded sad and tired and old. "I'm afraid medical technology has passed me by in the last twelve years, Lieutenant. I imagine all of us will have a great deal to learn." "Yes, sir." Hale sat down again in the boat. Standing up in a rocking skiff is tiring, even if one has excellent balance. "May I ask, sir, why you haven't been sending out distress signals?" Wills explained in detail what had happened twelve years before. "So you see," he finished, "we've been holding them off all this time. Yon the Fisher has been trying to get us to repair the _Morris_, but we've refused steadily. In the first place, if we exposed ourselves, we'd be dead before we reached another planet. In the second place, we wouldn't dare give these people interstellar ships; if the Plague ever began to spread through the galaxy, it would mean the end of civilization as we know it. Every planet would be like Cardigan's Green. Mankind would have to start all over again from the lowest barbarian stage." "You mean your sub-radio is wrecked, sir? Completely inoperative?" "Completely," said the captain doctor. "Oh, it's not wrecked, but we lack a diamond tuning crystal." _Well, well, well_, said Hale to himself. _Well, well, well, well, well._ "Of course," said Captain Wills, with more heartiness in his voice, "now that you're here, we can call Health Central and--and get off this--this--" His voice choked.