to
lightly risk throwing it to the wind at this stage--

But a Red Doctor does not bring a contaminant aboard a survey ship, he
thought doggedly, no matter what the Black Doctor says--

Neelsen looked at the young man slowly. Then he shrugged. "Of course,
I'm merely a pathologist. I realize that we know nothing of medicine,
nor of disease, nor of the manner in which disease is spread. All this
is beyond our scope. But perhaps you'll permit one simple question from
a dull old man, just to humor him."

Jenkins looked at the floor. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Just so. You've had a very successful cruise this year with the
_Lancet_, I understand."

Jenkins nodded.

"A most successful cruise. Four planets elevated from Class IV to Class
II contracts, they tell me. Morua II elevated from Class VI to Class I,
with certain special riders. A plague-panic averted on Setman I, and a
very complex virus-bacteria symbiosis unravelled on Orb III. An
illustrious record. You and your colleague from the Green Service are
hoping for a year's exemption from training, I imagine--" The Black
Doctor looked up sharply. "You searched your holds after leaving the
Mauki planets, I presume?"

Jenkins blinked. "Why--no, sir. That is, we decontaminated according
to--"

"I see. You didn't search your holds. I suppose you didn't notice your
food supplies dwindling at an alarming rate?"

"No--" The Red Doctor hesitated. "Not really."

"Ah." The Black Doctor closed his eyes wearily and flipped an activator
switch. The scanner on the far wall buzzed into activity. It focussed on
the rear storage hold of the _Mercy_ where the little _Lancet_ was
resting on its landing rack. "Look closely, Doctor."

At first Jenkins saw nothing. Then his eye caught a long, pink
glistening strand lying across the floor of the hold. The scanner picked
up the strand, followed it to the place where it emerged from a neat
pencil-sized hole in the hull of the _Lancet_. The strand snaked
completely across the room and disappeared through another neat hole in
the wall into the next storage hold.

Jenkins shook his head as the scanner flipped back to the hole in the
_Lancet's_ hull. Even as he watched, the hole enlarged and a pink blob
began to emerge. The blob kept coming and coming until it rested soggily
on the edge of the hole. Then it teetered and fell _splat_ on the floor.

"Friend of yours?" the Black Doctor asked casually.

It was a pink heap of jelly just big eno