Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (73 page)

WHAT was he up
to?

Cling to Hope

*

Enn Far was
worried.

What else could
he have done? Just sit back and hope the riots didn't start? That
wasn't reasonable. They would have. The people were afraid and
frustrated and the explosion point was imminent. Putting the
constitution before them was his only choice. If it could buy a
little time it would have that value.

Time was fast
running out and so were places to turn. This would be worse than
ever if ... but it wouldn't matter. If the cure wasn't found none
of it mattered.

Ten more days
to ratification. Ten days to more worry. Ten days until the last of
the time they could hope to buy.

Damn! We were
safe to that point! Until that vote was taken and the constitution
was declared in effect things wouldn't get out of hand. If the next
step could be made to take even half as much attention they would
have another short postponement of chaos – the last one. There
wouldn't be more.

That went over
and over in Enn Far's mind until he thought he'd go mad!

He picked up
the recorder again.

Population
areas were already selected for the various voting precincts and
the machinery was in place. The commons would be selected one to a
precinct while the elite would be selected by certain combinations
of precincts. In a nation like Klarstenland that was easy as the
population wasn't concentrated in small areas like it was in Frite.
Only Zeneye, the capital, had particularly large concentrations and
it had been declared as non-voting. Those large populations were
mostly transient. The few citizens who were permanent residents
voted in a precinct nearby that had been designed to include
them.

A person must
cast his vote in the precinct of his permanent residence. Computers
had been set up to check the identity of the voter and another to
record the votes on a simple list. One punched numbers into the
machine according to a printed listing he was given, then punched
the record button. The machine would take no more data until the
precinct captain pushed the ready button at his desk, which faced
the door to the booth.

The vote was
absolutely secret. When the polls closed the machines automatically
sent their entire programs to the central master computer. The
whole count was automatic and immediate. Enn liked that. He pressed
the record button and said, "Citizens! We are as of this moment a
constitutional government!

“
Pause
and sign the poll sheets with a flourish for the cameras, wait for
the cheering to die down again. Probably a few minutes, minimum.
Look intently into the camera and hold a hand up for silence. Be
dramatic at a dramatic moment.

"Citizens, we
are as of this moment required by the laws just signed and passed
by you to place ourselves under the protection of this document –
wave the original paper high with a tight fist. Express the
resolution and awesome power of the constitution – and to accept
our herein ascribed responsibilities under it!

"Lay it
reverently on the desk and look for a long moment at it. Don't ham
it up. This is a meaningful moment to all of us.

"We are
required to select a government within one hundred days.

"I wish for
each and every one of you to think of the one person in your voting
area who will most honestly represent you and I want you to go to
your precinct and place that person's name on the list for
commons.

"I want you to
consider carefully the wider area of the elite selection and I want
you to place that person's name on the list for the elite. These
are the people who will later govern you so take the greatest care
in their selection. If you know of a deserving person who is more
honest, caring, intelligent and possessing of sufficient qualities
than anyone else you know of I want you to place that person's name
on the list for chairman.

"The general
election will select the chairman with the second highest number of
votes electing vice chairman.

"Lean toward
the cameras to invite closeness.

"You have the
responsibility for the fate of Klarstenland in your hands! Do not
take any of this lightly! These decisions are for all time. The
very first constitutional government must work or there will be no
second! Consider your responsibilities!

"Lean back,
look around and stand proud. Turn toward the camera as almost for
an afterthought. Pause slightly. Look as though I have studied long
and hard and have at this moment made the decision.

"I place into
nomination the name of Hal Korr for chairman. I am aware he is on
that island and he may not survive to be chairman for his whole
term, but the same can be said for any of us.

"I would
nominate Sop Lett, but he has asked that I do not do so and I will
respect that. The same is true of his close collaborator on the
constitution, Jak Tall. I have been assured he would not wish to
serve in that capacity.

"To be
truthful, Hal Korr would rather not serve, but he has many other
qualifications that would make him, in my opinion, among the very
best possible choices and he will respond to our wishes in this.
The people of the Mekos Islands very certainly deserve every
consideration a grateful nation can offer but, in the case of Hal
Korr I cannot offer the right to remain outside when the nation so
needs him.

"Take a deep
breath, smile and walk off the stage. Look as tired and harassed as
I am!"

He played it
back and nodded. It would do.

That was going
to be a huge shock to most. The elections weren't even being
thought of yet. Not seriously and not by the general public.

He stopped to
pick up the recorder.

"Add that the
nominations will close in fifteen days to allow for the people to
get to know the candidates. The top three names in each of the
precincts in nominations for each office will be voted on and the
winners in the commons will prepare for their office. The elite and
president will be elected from the three names in their categories
receiving most primary votes nation-wide at the election on the
ninety fifth day and all will take office on the hundredth day at
dawn.

"The commons
will be selected ... work out a system where they can be elected
for three or six years.... No. I'll have to get with Sop about how
we work that one out. The first election will be a real mess, but
we'll wade through. It'll take the people's minds off of the
disaster that will come on the one hundred and first day when it is
suddenly back to the fact the race is dying!"

He again put
the recorder down.

I wonder what's happening on the islands
, he thought.
The last time I spoke with Mi and Hal
they seemed terribly excited. Sop hinted that there was a possible
major breakthrough if they could resolve something that was holding
them back.

What did he
mean, a cure, but not the way to stop the virus? That didn't make
any sense, but not much did these days – and what was this about
Jak Tall? Tall was a general handyman, not a scientist! How could
he come up with the definitive cure?

Great gods of
yore, if any of you exist, first a breakthrough by a historian and
next by a handyman? What next? A fisherman?

I wonder if
science has any value at all?

* * * * *

Jak Tall looked
again at the latest results and slammed his fist hard against the
bench. This made no sense!

Okay. He’d
found the longest and the shortest microwaves killed the virus in
the cultures. It killed them immediately, even in small doses. He
had been fairly sure that would be so from the first moment.
Microwaves penetrate and they affect different things at different
intensities and wavelengths. Certain of them passed through a body
without doing any obvious harm. Some would cook that body. Those
waves could be expected to dissociate the virus chains.

He experimented
with the rodents and found, one, that there was a range of
wavelengths that didn't harm the rodents. He fully expected that.
That was known.

Two, the
rodents exposed to certain ranges for certain periods when tissue
samples were taken showed that all the virus in the nerve cells
were dissociated. Dead.

Three, those
cells were able to survive for as long as they tested in nutrient
solutions and were even able to reattach the broken chains where
the virus was killed.

Four and
impossible, the rodents not killed became reinfected within a few
hours! Even when totally isolated the virus was again in the blood
and in the nerve cells within hours.

The slides
before him were reinfected. There was no live virus on them only
minutes ago – or what seemed like minutes. It made no damned
sense!

He again
slammed the bench. Su Neaa, who was his assistant and the only one
working with him, came over to him. She had a way of calming him –
sometimes.

"Su, where does
the infection come from?" he asked. "We killed it! There's not a
single damned strand of that virus alive in one single nerve cell!
It's been three hours and you can see how much is in the blood!
Where does it come from?"

She looked into
the screen.

"Let's take a
blood sample, irradiate the subject and immediately take another
blood sample," Su suggested. "The ovens work by causing the water
to produce heat inside the food. These wavelengths don't heat the
water, but maybe the water protects the subject's infection in the
blood."

"But there's
water in the nerve cells!"

"We'll try it
anyhow. There’s nothing to lose."

That the virus
was killed in the blood, but not in the hemoglobin cells was shown
through the microscope immediately and definitely.

"The iron in
the hemoglobin – or something on that order – is either absorbing
or blocking your microwaves," Su reasoned. "It's as simple as
that."

"And as
complicated. The shorter waves heat the blood and the longer won't
penetrate worth a damn!"

Su grinned at
him. "Back to the library?"

He grinned
back. "I really don't see the point. I've already memorized
everything there is in there as well as everything in the
research.... What about those heavy metal things that killed the
virus in the blood?"

"They also
killed the Kroons after a short time. The backup research ended
that one."

There was a
knock on the outer door and Su opened it to find Mi standing there.
She asked the question with her eyes.

"Come on in,"
Su said. "No progress."

"You still
don't know where the reinfection is coming from?" Mi asked.

"We've learned
that. There's a low range wave absorption pattern in the hemoglobin
nodules themselves that will protect the virus inside the blood
cells and they simply come out after the radiation stops."

"We're back at
a dead end with this crap," Jak complained. "Waves that'll
penetrate the blood cells will also heat the blood beyond physical
tolerance."

Mi went to the
microscope to study the slides that had been called up. The
evidence was right there and wasn't refutable.

"I can see it
in the cells here. I take it this is the sample from after the
irradiation because there's almost none in the blood fluid. Where
are the before ... here it is. Mmmm I see."

She picked up
the com and asked for Hal. When he came online she told him to
bring H1M14C03 and get his cute buns over to Jak's lab. They would
need the stuff yesterday and she would need his buns later. She was
ecstatic.

"You've got an
idea?" Su asked.

"Girl, I've got
millions of ideas I haven't even thought of yet!" Mi replied gaily.
She threw her arms around Jak and kissed him hard, laughed and
danced back and forth around the room humming a popular dance
tune.

"Woman, you've
lost your records!" Su cried. "Let us in on it! You don't have any
right to try to put us in some headfiddler's care!"

"Oh, it's a
little thing. You've found the cure for N S V one through N S V
four! You and Hal!

"You two are a
cute couple. You have the exact same silly expression on your faces
standing there with your mouths hanging open!"

Hal came in
soon and looked quizzically and even nervously at the strange
scene. He couldn't believe that Mi was actually dancing! She was
the serious, proper type.

"Here's the M
fourteen," he mumbled.

.

* * * *

Hal Korr picked
up the com to have Mi ask him to bring M14, one of the hormone
mixtures that was effective for making the virus quickly grow
itself to death. He wouldn't question it, but that line of research
had gone as far as it ever would.

She sounded
strange, like she had been either crying or laughing. He picked up
the mixture and went to the isolated lab to find Mi dancing around
and Su Neaa and Jak Tall staring at her with open mouths. They
looked as though they thought she'd fallen off the bus!

He handed the
serum vials to Su and asked Jak if Mi had been distilling his glamp
twigs for a cheap drunk.

"Ha! That's the
most expensive drunk I know of! You keep paying for three days!

"Love of my
life, if this works the way it simply has to our work is done here!
We have an actual CURE!"

She danced to
the "isolation two" door and called for Su to help her. She was
almost singing the words.

"You two go
away for the next three hours, then come back and we can finish
this!" Mi called.

Hal shook his
head and Jak joined him. They wandered into the kitchen to have a
bev. They both looked as concerned as they felt about Mi. The
unspoken thought was that she had broken under the strain.