Trouble on Titan
Kathleen put her head through a wrenched door-frame. She was a little pale.

“Really, Tony, it’s rather horrible. I hadn’t realized—I never saw a space wreck before.”

“Let’s get on the televisor,” Quade said decisively. “I’d like to check on the postmortems.”

He swung out through the half-fused port, and the others followed him into the Patrol office. A few minutes’ conversation with the authorities was all that was necessary when Von Zorn used his name. Then a gaunt face above a white jacket dawned on the screen. There were introductions.

“Did you find anything out of the ordinary?” Quade asked.

The reflected head shook negatively.

“Well, not what you’d expect, anyhow. The crash certainly killed them all, if that’s what you mean. No question of foul play. But—” He hesitated.

“But what?”

“Antibodies,” said the man reluctantly. “Something new. I can’t get any trace of a virus. Apparently some disease attacked the men. Their systems built up antibodies that I never encountered before. Something funny about the neural tissues, too. The cellular structure’s altered a little.”

Von Zorn thrust his head toward the screen.

“But what was it? That’s what we want to know. Were they conscious when they died?”

“I think not. My theory is that Udell and his crew were attacked by some disease native to Titan. Maybe the same disease that turned the Zonals into idiots.”

“I’ve got to go to Titan myself,” Quade said slowly. “Suppose we work there in spacesuits. Could a virus get through metal or glass?”

“I think you’d be safe. Mind you, that’s just my opinion. There’s such a thing as a filterable virus, you know. But, judging by the antibodies, I’d say there’d be no risk if you wore spacesuits constantly, outside your ship.”

“It won’t be easy,” Quade said, “but it’s better than infection.”

“We’ve taken tests of the wrecked ship,” the man in the screen told them. “No trace of any unusual disease-germ or virus. We’ve tested samples on protoplasmic cultures and got nothing but the ordinary bugs present everywhere. Sorry I can’t tell you more.”

“That’s 
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