intercourse with someone who has the plague
guarantees you'll get it; other genital contact is high-probability but
not certain."

"But what does it do?" Conley asked.

Cortin grinned at Odeon, who answered. "What it does, Miss Conley, is
increase both sexual desire and capability. That's most noticeable in
men, though it affects women as well. As you can probably imagine,
it's had quite an effect on our society the last three decades."

"What about immunization or a cure?" DeLayne asked.

"Who'd want it?" Odeon asked in reply. "I damnsure wouldn't; I like
what it's done for me. And for our wives and Family head."

DeLayne raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "We'll work on both, then,
if you could provide a blood sample from someone who's infected."

"How big a sample?"

"A few drops should be enough." DeLayne grinned. "Scouts may be
small, but we get state of the art medical equipment, and people to use
it who want a challenge."

Odeon turned to Cortin. "If you don't mind, Colonel, I'll give him his
sample, then come help you."

"Fine. Take as long as you want, maybe get a tour of the ship." She
paused, thinking. "Yes . . . under the circumstances, I think I'd
better change your primary duty." She turned to DeLayne. "Captain
Odeon has been studying your Empire as well as possible from comm
intercepts and what's left of our Founders' records. If you're willing
to loan him books or have some of your people talk to him, I'd like to
make those studies his top priority. He can then brief me on whatever
he considers important."

DeLayne nodded. "Comm intercepts and fragmentary records won't give
you very good information, especially since your Founders obviously
weren't at all fond of the Empire--I'll be glad to help him learn as
much as he wants." He turned to Odeon, grinning. "Come on,
Captain--we'll go by Sickbay for the blood samples, then I'll give you
a ship tour and introduce you to teaching tapes. Can you read Imperial
English?"

Odeon looked up at the ship's name as he followed DeLayne up the
gangplank, then shook his head ruefully. "If that's a sample, no--I
can recognize most of the letters, but they don't make sense."

"Easy enough to remedy." DeLayne saluted the armed guard at the hatch.
"Permission to come aboard, sir? Myself and one of our hosts."

The woman returned his salute. "Granted, sir. Are you permitting him
aboard armed?"

"Yes. And no one's to leave this esta