Space 1999 #7 - Alien Seed by E.C. Tubb

Author:E.C. Tubb [Tubb, E.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 671805207
Publisher: Pocket Books

Doctor Mathias dropped a slim sheaf of papers to the desk and, leaning against it with the easy casualness of long familiarity, said, ‘We’ll have to make a decision soon, Doctor. Lynne Saffery can’t be kept under constant sedation for much longer.’

‘I know, Bob.’

‘Already she is showing traces of fluid accumulation in both lungs, and her muscle tone shows signs of deterioration.’ He tapped the papers with the tip of a brown finger. ‘I’ve run a series of general physical checks and, unless she get’s up and around soon, we could have complications.’

Too many and too soon. Helena stared at the papers, frowning as she read the data, facts and figures that led to an inescapable conclusion.

She said thoughtfully, ‘This doesn’t make sense, Bob. She hasn’t been bedridden long enough for all this deterioration. Psychosomatic?’

‘A possibility,’ he admitted. ‘But if so, then the circumstances are new to me. A girl, apparently insane, who has created her own deterioration by mental directives. I don’t like it. Doctor.’

‘Neither do I.’ Helena triggered her commlock. ‘John? I’m going to attempt to revive Lynne Saffery. I thought you might be interested. Why?’ She smiled at his question. ‘Well, she did try to eat you, John—or have you forgotten?’

The sore spot on his throat would have reminded him if he had. He touched it as he made his way to Medical Centre, the skin torn by snapping teeth, the wound healing beneath a scrap of transparent plastic. How long ago now? Days? A week? So much had happened since the girl had held him locked in her arms.

He paused as a squad of men moved along the corridor. Technicians on their way to the exterior to be suited and then lowered into nearby fissures, there to check if any threatening damage had been caused by the recent atomic blast.

A precaution and a part of normal maintenance procedure, but to ignore or forget it was to invite disaster. On the Moon eternal vigilance was the price of survival.

‘John!’ Helena smiled as Koenig entered Medical. ‘We’re just about to begin.’

‘Is she cured?’

‘We don’t know.’ She anticipated his next question. ‘We can’t leave her, John. I’m aware that natural sleep is the best healer there is, but we’ve kept her under sedation too long as it is. There are odd and disturbing complications. No girl as young as she is and in such good physical condition should display her symptoms.’

He said, ‘Could they be a by-product of what caused her illness in the first place?’

‘You’re thinking of the possibility of a virus infection?’ She shook her head as he nodded. ‘No, John, we’ve eliminated all possibility of danger from that source. If we had found something, it would have been easy to decide the cause of her breakdown; as it is, we can only guess and hope that she has made a natural recovery.’ She glanced to where Mathias stood beside the bed. ‘Ready, Bob?’

‘When you give the word, Doctor.’

‘Go ahead.’

The encephalogram, Koenig noticed, had been connected and he studied the pattern of wavy lines as Mathias injected the stimulant.

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