o hear
them spoken out in plain Earth-English was enough to rock the most
space-hardened of the Galactic Pill Peddlers back on his well-worn
heels.

Black Doctor Turvold Neelsen's Earth-English was spotty at best, but the
word came through without any possibility of misinterpretation. Red
Doctor Sam Jenkins stared at the little man and felt his face turning as
scarlet as the lining of his uniform cape.

"But that's ridiculous!" he finally stammered. "Quite aside from the
language you use to suggest it."

"Ah! So the word still has some punch left, eh? At least you puppies
bring something away from your Medical Training, even if it's only
taboos." The Black Doctor scowled across the desk at Jenkins' lanky
figure. "But sometimes, my good Doctor, it is better to face a fact than
to wait for the fact to face you. Sometimes we have to crawl out of our
ivory towers for a minute or two--you know?"

Jenkins reddened again. He had never had any great love for physicians
of the Black Service--who did?--but he found himself disliking this
short, blunt-spoken man even more cordially than most. "Why implicate
the _Lancet_?" he burst out. "You've landed the _Mercy_ on plenty of
planets before we brought the _Lancet_ aboard her--"

"But we did not have it with us before the _Lancet_ came aboard, and we
do have it now. The implication is obvious. You have brought aboard a
contaminant."

He'd said it again.

Red Doctor Jenkins' face darkened. "The Green Doctor and I have
maintained the _Lancet_ in perfect conformity with the Sterility Code.
We've taken every precaution on both landing and disembarking
procedures. What's more, we've spent the last three months on a planet
with _no_ mutually compatible flora or fauna. From Hospital Earth
viewpoint, Mauki IV is sterile. We made only the briefest check-stop on
Mauki V before joining you. It was a barren rock, but we decontaminated
again after leaving. If you have a--a _contaminant_ on board your ship,
sir, it didn't come from the _Lancet_. And I won't be held responsible."

It was strong language to use to a Black Doctor, and Sam Jenkins knew
it. There were doctors of the Green and Red Services who had spent their
professional lives on some god-forsaken planetoid at the edge of the
Galaxy for saying less. Red Doctor Sam Jenkins was too near the end of
his Internship, too nearly ready for his first Permanent Planetary
Appointment with the rank, honor, and responsibility it carried