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Norton, Andre, 1912-2005

"Plague Ship"


There was doubling up of duties. Tau could no longer share with Mura the
care of the hydro garden so Van Rycke took over. While Dane found himself
in charge of the galley and, while he did not have Mura's deft hand at
disguising the monotonous concentrates to the point they resembled fresh
food, after a day or two he began to experiment cautiously and produced a
stew which brought some short words of appreciation from Captain Jellico.
They all breathed a sigh of relief when, after three days, no more signs
of the mysterious illness showed on new members of the crew. It became
routine to parade before Tau stripped to the waist each morning for the
inspection of the danger points, and the Medic's vigilance did not
relax.
In the meantime neither Mura nor Kosti appeared to suffer. Once the
initial stages of headaches and blackouts were passed, the patients
lapsed into a semi-conscious state as if they were under sedation of some
type. They would eat, if the food was placed in their mouths, but they
did not seem to know what was going on about them, nor did they answer
when spoken to.


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