‘Well, Ranay,’ said Genarr a little more coldly. ‘Are you?’
‘I see what the girl means,’ said D'Aubisson, frowning. ‘I have not studied a fresh case of advanced Plague in years. And in the days when I did, when the Dome was primitive and had just been established, I had had virtually no appropriate devices with which to study it. Professionally, I would greatly welcome a chance to make a thorough study of a case of the Plague with modern techniques and instrumentation, to find out, perhaps, the true cause, the true cure, the true prevention. It's a reason for excitement, yes. It is a professional excitement that this young woman, unable to read minds, and without experience in such things, interprets as simple joy. It isn't simple.’
‘It may not be simple,’ said Marlene, ‘but it's malevolent. I'm not mistaken in that.’
‘You are mistaken. The brain scan must and will take place.’
‘It will not,’ said Marlene, practically shouting. ‘You'll have to force me or sedate me, and then it won't be valid.’
Insigna said, her voice shaking, ‘I don't want anything done against her will.’
‘This is something that goes beyond what she wills or does not will-’ began D'Aubisson, and then staggered back with her hand to her abdomen.
Genarr said automatically, ‘What's the matter?’
Then, without waiting for an answer, leaving it to Insigna to lead D'Aubisson to the nearest sofa and to persuade her to lie down, he turned to Marlene and said hurriedly, ‘Marlene, agree to the test.’
‘I don't want to. She'll say I have the Plague.’
‘She won't. I guarantee that. Not unless you really do.’
‘I don't.’
‘I'm sure you don't, and the brain scan will prove it. Trust me, Marlene. Please.’
Marlene looked from Genarr to D'Aubisson and back again. ‘And I can go back out on Erythro again?’
‘Of course. As often as you wish. If you're normal - and you're sure you're normal, aren't you?’
‘Sure as anything.’
‘Then the brain scan will prove it.’
‘Yes, but she'll say I can't go out again.’
‘Your mother?’
‘And the doctor.’
‘No, they won't dare stop you. Now, just say you'll allow the brain scan.’
‘All right. She can have it.’
Ranay D'Aubisson struggled to her feet.
69D'Aubisson studied the computerized analysis of the brain scan carefully while Siever Genarr watched.
‘A curious scan,’ muttered D'Aubisson.
‘We knew that to begin with,’ said Genarr. ‘She's a strange young woman. The point is there's no change?’
‘None,’ said D'Aubisson.
‘You sound disappointed.’
‘Don't start that again, Commander. There's a certain professional disappointment. I would like to study the condition.’
‘How do you feel?’
‘I just told you-’
‘I mean, physically. That was a strange collapse you had yesterday.’
‘It wasn't a collapse. It was nervous tension. I'm not often accused of wanting someone to be seriously ill - and of having it apparently believed.’
‘What happened? An attack of indigestion?’
‘Could be. Abdominal pains, in any case. And dizziness.’
‘Does that often happen to you, Ranay?’
‘No, it doesn't,’ she said sharply, ‘Neither am I accused of unprofessional behavior often.’
‘Just an excitable young woman. Why did you take it so seriously?’
‘Do you mind if we change the subject? She does not have any signs of brain scan change. If she was normal before, then she is still normal.’
‘In that case, is it your professional opinion that she may continue to explore Erythro?’
‘Since she has not been affected, apparently, I have no grounds on which to forbid her.’
‘Are you willing to go beyond that and send her out?’
D'Aubisson's attitude grew hostile. ‘You know that I've been to see Commissioner Pitt.’ It did not sound like a question.
‘Yes, I know,’ said Genarr quietly.
‘He has asked me to head a new project designed to study the Erythro Plague, and there will be a generous appropriation toward that study.’
‘I think that is a good idea and that you are a thoroughly good choice to head the study.’
‘Thank you. However, he did not appoint me Commander in your place. Therefore, it is up to you, Commander, to decide whether Marlene Fisher can be allowed to go out on Erythro. I will confine myself to giving her a brain scan if signs of abnormality show up.’
‘I intend to give Marlene permission to explore Erythro freely whenever she wishes. May I have your concurrence in that?’
‘Since you have my medical opinion that she does not have the Plague, I will make no attempt to stop you, but the order to do so will have to be yours alone. If anything must be put into writing, you will have to sign it yourself.’
‘But you won't try to stop me.’
‘I have no reason to.’
70Dinner was over and soft music played in the background. Siever Genarr, who had carefully talked of other things to an uneasy Eugenia Insigna, finally said, ‘The words are the words of Ranay D'Aubisson, but the force behind them is that of Janus Pitt.’
Insigna's look of uneasiness deepened. ‘Do you really think that?’
‘Yes, I do - and you should. You knew Janus better than I do, I think. It's too bad. Ranay is a competent doctor, has a profound mind, and is a good person, but she's ambitious - as we all are, one way or another - and she can therefore be corrupted. She really wants to go down in history as the one who defeated the Erythro Plague.’
‘And she would be willing to risk Marlene to do it?’
‘Not willing in the sense that she wants to, or is eager to, but willing in the sense of - well, if there's no other way.’
‘But there must be other ways. To send Marlene into danger, as an experimental device, is monstrous.’
‘Not from her standpoint, and certainly not from Pitt's. One mind is well lost if it rescues a world and makes it a fit human habitation for millions. It's a hardhearted way of looking at it, but future generations might make a heroine out of Ranay for being hardhearted, and agree with her that one mind was well lost, or a thousand - if that's what it would take.’
‘Yes, if it's not their minds.’
‘Of course. All through history, human beings have been ready to make sacrifices at the expense of other people. Certainly, Pitt would. Or don't you agree?’
‘About Pitt. Yes, I do,’ said Insigna energetically. ‘To think that I worked with him all those years.’
‘Then you know that he would view this in a very moralistic sense. “The greatest good for the greatest number,” he would say. Ranay admits that she talked to him on her recent visit to Rotor, and I'm as positive that that's what he said to her, in one form of words or another, as that I am sitting in this chair.’
‘And what would he say,’ said Insigna bitterly, ‘if Marlene were exposed - and destroyed - and the Plague remained untouched? What would he say if my daughter's life were uselessly reduced to vacuity? And what would Dr D'Aubisson say?’
‘The doctor would feel unhappy. I'm sure of that.’
‘Because she wouldn't gain the credit for the cure?’
‘Of course, but she would also feel unhappy about Marlene - and, I dare say, guilty. She's not a monster. As for Pitt-’
‘He is a monster.’
‘I wouldn't even say that, but he has tunnel vision. He sees only his plan for the future of Rotor. If anything goes wrong, from our standpoint, he will undoubtedly tell himself that Marlene would, in any case, have interfered with his plans, and he will consider all to have happened for the good of Rotor. It will not hang heavily on his conscience.’
Insigna shook her head slightly. ‘I wish we were making a mistake, that Pitt and D'Aubisson were not guilty of such things.’
‘I, too, wish that, but I am willing to trust Marlene and her body language insights. She said that Ranay was happy at the possibility that she would have a chance to study the Plague. I accept Marlene's judgement in this.’