“There are twelve bays to this station,” Jordan said. “Under our present
setup two are used for breeding and the other ten for maturation. We
rotate the youngsters around the bay--a different bay each year until
they’re age eleven. Then they’re sorted according to type and sent out
for a year of further specialized training after which they go onto the
farms, or to inhouse or export.
“Now here’s the peculiar part. There’s no trouble in Bays One through
Nine, but Bay Ten has had all our losses except two that have occurred
at the training stations.”
“That’s good news,” Kennon said. “Our parasite can’t have had time to
migrate too far. We have him pinpointed unless--say how many training
centers are there?”
“Three,” Jordan said.
“Quarantine them,” Kennon replied. “Right now. Nothing goes in or out
until we’ve checked them and completed prophylaxis.”
Jordan looked at Blalok inquiringly.
“He’s the boss,” Blalok said. “Do as you’re told. This is his problem.”
“Why the quarantine?” Jordan asked.
“I want to get any carriers. We can check them with antigen, and then
give Trematox.”
“All that concentration in Bay Ten,” Jordan said. “Does it mean
something?”
“Blalok said that there was a Santosian in your division.”
“Yeah--Joe Kryla--and come to think of it, he ran Bay Ten!”
“That’s a help--now let’s see what makes that bay different from the
others.”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you--but you may not understand,” Kennon said.
“I’ll take a chance.”
Kennon grinned. “All right, you asked for it. The parasite that’s doing
the damage is a flatworm, a trematode called Hepatodirus hominis. As
I’ve told Blalok, it’s a tricky thing. Like all trematodes it has a
three-stage life cycle, but unlike every other fluke, its life cycle is
not fixed to definite intermediate hosts. Depending upon where it is,
the fluke adapts. It still must pass through its life cycle, but its
intermediate host need not be one species of snail, fish, or copepod.
Any cold-blooded host will do. What you have here is a Kardonian variant
which has adapted to some particular intermediate host on this world.
Until now, its final host was either man or Varl. Now we have a third,
the Lani. And apparently they are the most susceptible of the three.
It never kills Varl. And humans, while they’re more susceptible, only
occasionally succumb, but the Lani appear to be the most susceptible of
all. I’ve never seen an infestation like those Lani had. Their livers
were literally crawling with flukes.” Kennon paused and looked at
Jordan. “You following me?” he asked.
“Slowly and poorly,” Jordan said. “You’re assuming too much knowledge on
my part.”
Kennon chuckled. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Well--I’m really interested in only one thing--how do you break the
parasite up in business?”
“There’s only one sure way--and that’s to break the life cycle. The
technique is thousands of years old, but it’s just as good today as it
was then.”
“Good--then let’s do it.”
“To make a varrit stew,” Kennon said, “one must first catch the varrit.”
“Huh?”
“We have to learn the beastie’s life cycle before we can break it,
and like I said, it adapts. Its intermediate host can be any one of a
hundred cold-blooded animals.”
“Is there no place else where it can be attacked?”
“Sure, in the body of the final host, or on its final encysting place.
But that won’t eliminate the bug.”
“Why not?”
“It’ll still survive in its infective form and enough Lani will get
subacute dosage to propagate it until the time is right for another
epizootic. We have to kill its intermediate host--or hosts if it has
more than one. That will keep it from growing and will ultimately
eradicate it.”
Judson scratched his head. “It sounds complicated.”
“It is. It’s so complicated that once the fluke becomes well established
it’s virtually impossible to eradicate.”
“And you think it can be done here?”
“We can give it the old college try. But it’s going to take some
detective work.”
“Where do we start?”
“With Bay Ten. We look it over real well. Then we check the diet and
habits of the Lani. Then we check each individual Lani. Then we check
the life cycle of the parasite. Somewhere along the line if we’re lucky
we’ll find a weak point that can be attacked.”
“That’s a big order,” Blalok said.
“It can’t be helped. That’s the way it is. Of course, we’re lucky that
we’re on an isolated land mass. That gives us an advantage. We should be
able to clean this up.”
“How long do you think it will take?”
“It depends on how well the fluke is established. Six months at the
minimum--and I wouldn’t care to guess at the maximum. However, I hope
the minimum will be time enough.”
“So do I,” Blalok said.
“Well,” Kennon said, “let’s get on with it.”
“I hope it won’t interrupt our program,” Jordan said.
“Of course it will interrupt it,” Kennon replied. “It can’t help it. Get
the idea in your head that you’re facing something here that can cripple
you--maybe abort your whole operation. You have a choice--interrupt now
or abort later. And half measures won’t work. To eradicate this pest
requires an all-out effort.”
“But I can’t see why we can’t merely bypass Bay Ten--” Jordan said.
“Take my word for it,” Kennon said. “You can’t. There’s no accurate way
of telling how far this spreads until the death losses occur. Our tests
for fluke infestation aren’t that good. We have to work thoroughly and
carefully. We can’t be butting heads over this--either we all co-operate
or this whole operation will blow up in our faces.
“Look at the record. Six months ago you ended a year with no deaths from
disease. Five months ago Old Doc and two Lani were ill. Four months ago
one of the two Lani was dead and Old Doc was too ill to be effective.
Three months ago Old Doc and the other Lani were dead, and before the
end of the month two more followed them. Two months ago six died, last
month eight, and so far this month you’ve lost four and you have over
two weeks to go. Up to now they’ve all been from here, but two this
month were at other stations. In six months if nothing is done, we’ll
be having losses there unless we’re lucky. And the losses will keep
on increasing. Apparently you don’t know what it is to live with
parasites--so let me tell you. It isn’t pleasant!”
Blalok shrugged. “You needn’t get hot about it,” he said. “After all,
you’re the Doc--and we’ll co-operate.”
Jordan nodded. “We will,” he said. “All the way.”