A Call to Darkness - Michael Jan Friedman [44]
The marshal, too far away to hear, only smiled.
Chapter Ten
AS SOON AS the antibiotic was injected into Fredi’s system, the man showed signs of progress. Before the day was out, Burtin had made the decision to take his patient off the blood purifier. By the following morning-ship’s time, of course-he had expected to be able to take him out of quarantine.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way.
“I don’t understand,” said Fredi. He was lying prone on the biobed-not so much because of his physical turn for the worse, but so the machine could make its analyses. “I thought I was getting better.”
There was just the slightest hint of hysteria in the geologist’s voice. Burtin tried to ignore it as he pondered the figures on the monitor display above the bed.
The poison was evident again-no question about it. And it was slowly increasing its presence. Just as if they’d never found the bacteriological culprit, as if they’d never introduced the antibiotic at all.
“Doctor? You’re not answering me.”
He sighed. “I won’t lie to you. I fully expected that we’d licked this thing.” His words were picked up by the intercom, funneled into the quarantine area. “But it’s nothing to worry about. The recuperation process often has peaks and valleys. This may just be one of the valleys.”
Even from here, he could see the deepening of the worry lines in Fredi’s face. The geologist wasn’t buying what he had to sell-not entirely.
“Unfortunately,” he continued, “I’m going to have to put you back on the purifier. We can’t just let the poison build up again, right?”
Fredi chuckled, but it was a dry, dead sound. There wasn’t any humor in it. “Right,” he echoed.
Burtin tore himself away from the barrier. He wasn’t accomplishing anything by standing here and reassuring the geologist. If he was going to figure out what had gone wrong, it would be in the lab.
As he headed there now, he passed Vanderventer in the hallway. The big nurse was responding to the call Burtin had put in a couple of minutes ago.
“Hi, Doc. Some kind of setback?”
“Looks like it,” said Burtin. “Just hook up that purifier again and try to keep him calm.”
“No problem, sir. Fredi and I are old friends by now.”
Then Vanderventer was past him, eager to be about his duties. Whistling, in fact.
No doubt, Vanderventer would do much to improve Fredi’s frame of mind. Burtin had no worries in that regard.
It was the rest of the geologist he was concerned about.
The lab was on the other side of sickbay, set apart from the patient care areas. When the doctor walked in, there was only one technician on duty-a pretty brunette named Arguellos.
She looked up from her computer terminal. “Need some help, sir?”
Burtin nodded. “Those cultures we made of Fredi’s bacteria. I need to see the latest data.”
“Right,” said Arguellos. She saved the project she’d been working on and filed it, then called up the requested information. “You look grim,” she told Burtin. “What’s the matter?”
“Fredi’s toxin level is up again.”
“Oh, no.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Any idea why?” she asked.
He shrugged. “That’s why I’m here. To find out.”
“Right. Ah-here are the culture analyses.”
He came around to stand behind her. Placing a hand on the back of her chair, Burtin leaned toward the screen to get a better look.
Arguellos pointed. “What’s that?”
Burtin knew the answer immediately. After all, it had been the most likely conclusion all along.
“The bacterium has mutated,” he told her. “This is a new strain-one that’s impervious to our antibiotic.” He shook his head. “Look at that replication rate. No wonder Fredi’s showing a high level of toxin again-the same thing is happening in him.”
Arguellos leaned back. A whistle escaped between her teeth.
“The ironic thing,” said Burtin, “is that the original strain must have been dying off-due to some environmental change-even before we introduced the medicine. Or else the new strain couldn’t have proliferated.”
The technician shook her head. “So it’s back to square one.”
“At least,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
He patted her