"Yes, yes," agreed Hardy. "Naturally-but what is the basic process?"
"It consists largely in replacing the entire blood tissue in an old person with new, young blood. Old age, so they tell me, is primarily a matter of the progressive accumulation of the waste poisons of metabolism. The blood is supposed to carry them away, but presently the blood gets so clogged with the poisons that the scavenging process doesn't take place properly. Is that right, Doctor Hardy?'
"That's an odd way of putting it, but-"
"I told you I was no biotechnician."
"-essentially correct. It's a matter of diffusion pressure deficit-the d.p.d. on the blood side of a cell wall must be such as to maintain a fairly sharp gradient or there will occur progressive autointoxication of the individual cells. But I must say that I feel somewhat disappointed, Miles Rodney. The basic idea of holding off death by insuring proper scavenging of waste products is not new-I have a bit of chicken heart which has been alive for two and one half centuries through equivalent techniques. As to the use of young blood-yes, that will work. I've kept experimental animals alive by such blood donations to about twice their normal span-" He stopped and looked troubled.
"Yes, Doctor Hardy?"
Hardy chewed his lip. "I gave up that line of research. I found it necessary to have several young donors in order to keep one beneficiary from growing any older. There was a small, but measurable, unfavorable effect on each of the donors. Racially it was self-defeating; there would never be enough donors to go around. Am I to understand, sir that this method is thereby limited to a small, select part of the population?"
"Oh, no! I did not make myself clear, Master Hardy. There are no donors."
"Huh?'
"New blood, enough for everybody, grown outside the body-the Public Health and Longevity Service can provide any amount of it, any type."
Hardy looked startled. "To think we came so close... so that's it." He paused, then went on. "We tried tissue culture of bone marrow in vitro. We should have persisted."
"Don't feel badly about it. Billions of credits and tens of thousands of technicians engaged in this project before there were any significant results. I'm told that the mass of accumulated art in this field represents more effort than even the techniques of atomic engineering." Rodney smiled. "You see, they had to get some results; it was politically necessary-so there was an all-out effort." Rodney turned to Ford. 'When the news about the escape of the Howard Families reached the public, Chief, your precious successor had to be protected from the mobs."
Hardy persisted with questions about subsidiary techniques -tooth budding, growth inhibiting, hormone therapy, many others-until King came to Rodney's rescue by pointing out that the prime purpose of the visit was to arrange details of the return of the Families to Earth.
Rodney nodded. "I think we should get down to business. As I understand it, Captain, a large proportion of your people are now in reduced-temperature somnolence?"
("Why can't he say 'cold-rest'?" Lazarus said to Libby.)
"Yes, that is so."
"Then it would be no hardship on them to remain in that state for a time."
"Eh? Why do you say that, sir?"
Rodney spread his hands. "The administration finds itself in a somewhat embarrassing position. To put it bluntly, there is a housing shortage. Absorbing one hundred and ten thousand displaced persons can't be done overnight."
Again King had to hush them. He then nodded to Zaccur Barstow, who addressed himself to Rodney. "I fail to see the problem, sir. What is the present population of the North American continent?"
"Around seven hundred million."
"And you can't find room to tuck away one-seventieth of one per cent of that number? It sounds preposterous."
"You don't understand, sir," Rodney protested. "Population pressure has become our major problem. Co-incident with it, the right to remain undisturbed in the enjoyment of one's own homestead, or one's apartment, has become the most jealously guarded of all civil rights. Before we can find you adequate living room we must make over some stretch of desert, or make other major arrangements."
"I get it," said Lazarus. "Politics. You don't dare disturb anybody for fear they will squawk."
"That's hardly an adequate statement of the case."
"It's not, eh? could be you've got a general election coming up, maybe?'
"As a matter of fact we have, but that has nothing to do with the case."
Lazarus snorted.
Justin Foote spoke up. "It seems to me that the administration has looked at this problem in the most superficial light. It is not as if we were homeless immigrants. Most of the Members own their own homes. As you doubtless know, the Families were well-to-do; even wealthy, and for obvious reasons we built our homes to endure. I feel sure that most of those structures are still standing."
"No doubt," Rodney conceded, "but you will find them occupied."
Justin Foote shrugged. "What has that to do with us? That is a problem for the government to settle with the persons it has allowed illegally to occupy our homes. As for myself, I shall land as soon as possible, obtain an eviction ørder from the nearest court, and repossess my home."
"It's not that easy. You can make omelet from eggs, but not eggs from omelet. You have been legally dead for many years; the present oácupant of your house holds a good title."
Justin Foote stood up and glared at the Federation's envoy, looking, as Lazarus thought, "like a cornered mouse." "Legally dead! By whose act, sir, by whose act? Mine? I was a respected solicitor, quietly and honorably pursuing my profession, harming no one, when I was arrested without cause and forced to flee for my life. Now I am blandly told that my property is confiscated and my very legal existence as a person and as a citizen has been taken from ,me beckuse of that sequence of events. What manner of justice is this? Does the Covenant still stand?"
"You misunderstand me. I-"
"I misunderstood nothing. If justice is measured out only when it is convenient, then the Covenant is not worth the parchment it is written on. I shall make of myself a test case, sir, a test case for every Member of the Families. Unless my property is returned to me in full and at once I shall bring personal suit against every obstructing official. I will make of it a cause celebre. For many years I have suffered inconvenience and indignity and peril; I shall not be put off with words. I will shout it from the housetops." He paused for breath.
"He's right, Miles," Slayton Ford put in quietly. "The government had better find some adequate way to handle this- and quickly."
Lazarus caught Libby's eye and silently motioned toward the door. The two slipped outside. "Justin'll keep 'em busy for the next hour," he said. "Let's slide down to the Club and grab some calories."
"Do you really think we ought to leave?'
"Relax. If the skipper wants us, he can holler."
Chapter 8
LAZARUS TUCKED AWAY three sandwiches, a double order of ice cream, and some cookies while Libby contented himself with somewhat less. Lazarus would have eaten more but he was forced to respond to a barrage of questions from the other habitués of the Club.
"The commissary department ain't really back on its feet," he complained, as he poured his third cup of coffee. "The Little People made life too easy for them. Andy, do you like chili con carne?"