e
for success. What had Peggy said? None of the anti or neobiotics had a
positive reaction. Unknowingly she had let it slip. The reaction was
negative; the bubble microbes actually grew faster in the medium that
was supposed to stop them. It happened occasionally on strange planets.
It was his bad luck that it was happening to him.

He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and tried to sleep. He did for a
time. When he awakened he thought, at first, it was his arms that had
aroused him. They seemed to be on fire, deep inside. To a limited
extent, he still had control. He could move them though there was no
surface sensation. Interior nerves had not been greatly affected until
now. But outside the infection had crept up. It was no longer just above
the wrists. It had reached his elbows and passed beyond. A few inches
below his shoulder he could feel nothing. The illness was accelerating.
If they had ever thought of amputation, it was too late, now.

* * * * *

He resisted an impulse to cry out. A nurse would come and sit beside
him, but he would be taking her from work that might save his life. The
infection would reach his shoulders and move across his chest and back.
It would travel up his throat and he wouldn't be able to move his lips.
It would paralyze his eyelids so that he couldn't blink. Maybe it would
blind him, too. And then it would find ingress to his brain.

The result would be a metabolic explosion. Swiftly each bodily function
would stop altogether or race wildly as the central nervous system was
invaded, one regulatory center after the other blanking out. His body
would be aflame or it would smolder and flicker out. Death might be
spectacular or it could come very quietly.

That was one reason he didn't call the nurse.

The other was the noise.

It was a low sound, half purr, half a coaxing growl. It was the animal
the native had given him, confined in the next room. Bolden was not sure
why he did what he did next. Instinct or reason may have governed his
actions. But instinct and reason are divisive concepts that cannot apply
to the human mind, which is actually indivisible.

He got out of bed. Unable to stand, he rolled to the floor. He couldn't
crawl very well because his hands wouldn't support his weight so he
crept along on his knees and elbows. It didn't hurt. Nothing hurt except
the fire in his bones. He reached the door and straightened up on his
kne