Sense of Obligation

you the whole pinnace as well. We'll tell the captain we lost the radio in some trouble with the natives. Isn't that right, Moneybags?' He prodded the purser in the chest with a finger that would have punched a hole in a weaker man.

'I read you loud and clear,' the purser said. 'I'll make out an invoice so stating, back in the ship.' They were both in the pinnace then, and Brion had to move fast to get clear of the take-off blast.

Sense of obligation, the spacemen had felt it too. The realization of this raised Brion's spirits a bit as he searched through the rubble for anything useful. He recognized part of a wall still standing as a corner of the laboratory. Poking through the ruins he unearthed broken instruments and a single, battered case that had barely missed destruction. Inside was the binocular microscope, the right tube bent, its lenses cracked and obscured. The left eyepiece still seemed to be functioning. Brion carefully put it back in the case. He looked at his watch.

It was almost noon. These few pieces of equipment would have to do for the dissection. Watched suspiciously by the onlooking Disans, he started back to the warehouse. It was a long, circuitous walk, since he didn't dare give any clues to his destination. Only when he was positive he had not been observed or followed did he slip through the building's entrance, locking it behind him.

Lea's frightened eyes met his when he went into the office. 'A friendly smile here among the cannibals,' she called. Her strained expression gave the lie to the cheeriness of her words. 'What has happened? Since I woke up, the great stone face over there,' she pointed to Ulv, 'has been telling me exactly nothing.'

'What's the last thing you can remember?' Brion asked carefully. He didn't want to tell her too much, less this bring on the shock again. Ulv had shown great presence of mind in not talking to her.

'If you must know,' Lea said, 'I remember quite a lot, Brion Brandd. I shan't go into details, since this sort of thing is best kept from the natives. For the record then, I can recall going to sleep after you left. And nothing since then. It's weird. I went to sleep in that lumpy hospital bed and woke up on this couch. Feeling simply terrible. With him just simply sitting there and scowling at me. Won't you please tell me what is going on?'

A partial truth was best, saving all of the details that he could for later. 'The magter attacked the Foundation building,' he said. 'They are getting angry at all offworlders now. You were still knocked out by a sleeping drug, so Ulv helped bring you here. It's afternoon now—'

'Of the last day?' She sounded horrified. 'While I'm playing sleeping beauty the world is coming to an end. Was anyone hurt in the attack? Or killed?'

'There were a number of casualties—and plenty of trouble,' Brion said. He had to get her off the subject. Walking over to the corpse he threw back the cover from its face. 'But this is more important right now. It's one of the magter. I have a scalpel and some other things here—will you perform an autopsy?'

Lea huddled back on the couch, her arms around herself, looking chilled in spite of the heat of the day. 'What happened to the people at the building?' she asked in a thin voice. The injection had removed her memories of the tragedy, but echoes of the strain and shock still reverberated in her mind and body. 'I feel so ... exhausted. Please tell me what happened. I have the feeling you're hiding something.'

Brion sat next to her and took her hands in his, not surprised to find them cold. Looking into her eyes he tried to give her some of his strength. 'It wasn't very nice,' he said. 'You were shaken up by it, I imagine that's why you feel the way you do now. But—Lea, you'll have to take my word for this. Don't ask any more questions. There's nothing we can do now about it. But we can still find out about the magter. Will you examine the corpse?'

She tried to ask something, then changed her mind. When she dropped her eyes Brion felt the thin shiver that went through her body. 'There's something terribly wrong,' she said. 'I know that. I guess I'll have to take your word that it's best not to ask questions. Help me up, will you, darling? My legs are absolutely liquid.'

Leaning on him, with his arm around her supporting most of her weight, she went slowly across to the corpse. She looked down and shuddered. 'Not what you would call a natural death,' she said. Ulv watched intently as she took the scalpel out of its holder. 'You don't have to look at this,' she told him in halting Disan. 'Not if you don't want to.'

'I want to,' he told her, not taking his eyes from the body. 'I have never seen a magter dead before, or without covering, like ordinary people.' He continued to stare fixedly.

'Find me some drinking water, will you Brion,' Lea said. 'And spread the tarp under the body. These things are quite messy.'

After drinking the water she seemed stronger, and could stand without holding onto the table with both hands. Placing the tip of the scalpel just below the magter's breast bone, she made the long continuous post- mortem incision down to the pubic symphysis. The great, body-length wound gaped open like a red mouth. Across the table Ulv shuddered but didn't avert his eyes.

One by one she dissected the internal organs and removed them. Once she looked up at Brion, then quickly returned to work. The silence stretched on and on until Brion had to break it.

'Tell me, can't you. Have you found out anything?'

His words snapped the thin strand of her strength, and she staggered back to the couch and collapsed on to it. Her blood-stained hands hung over the side, making a strangely terrible contrast to the whiteness of her skin.

'I'm sorry, Brion,' she said. 'But there's nothing, nothing at all. There are minor differences, organic changes I've never seen before—his liver is tremendous for one thing. But changes like this are certainly consistent within the pattern of Homo sapiens as adopted to a different planet. He's a man. Changed, adopted, modified—but still just as human as you or I.'

'How can you be sure?' Brion broke in. 'You haven't examined him completely, have you?' She shook her head now. 'Then go on. The other organs. His brain. A microscopic examination. Here!' he said, pushing the microscope case towards her with both hands.

She dropped her head onto her forearms and sobbed. 'Leave me alone, can't you! I'm tired and sick and fed up with this awful planet. Let them die. I don't care! Your theory is false, useless. Admit that! And let me wash the filth from my hands—' Sobbing drowned out her words.

Brion stood over her and drew in a shuddering breath. Was he wrong? He didn't dare think about that. He had to go on. Looking down at the thinness of her bent back, with the tiny projections of her spine pushing through the thin cloth, he felt an immense pity—a pity he couldn't surrender to. This thin, helpless, frightened woman was his only resource. She had to work. He had to make her work.

Ihjel had done it. Used projective empathy to impress his emotions upon Brion. Now Brion must do it with Lea. There had been some sessions in the art, but not nearly enough to make him proficient. Nevertheless he had to try.

Strength was what Lea needed. Aloud he said simply 'You can do it. You have the will and the strength to finish.' And silently his mind cried out the order to obey, to share his power now that hers was drained and finished.

Only when she lifted her face and he saw the dried tears did he realize that he had succeeded. 'You will go on?' he asked simply.

Lea merely nodded and rose to her feet. She shuffled like a sleep-walker, jerked along by invisible strings. Her strength wasn't her own and it reminded him unhappily of that last event of the Twenties when he had experienced the same kind of draining activity. Wiping her hands roughly on her clothes she opened the microscope case.

'The slides are all broken,' she said.

'This will do,' Brion told her, crashing his heel through the glass partition. Shards tinkled and crashed to the floor. He took some of the bigger pieces and broke them to rough squares that would fit under the clips on the stage. Lea accepted them without a word. Putting a drop of the magter's blood on the slide she bent over the eyepiece.

Her hands shook when she tried to adjust the focusing. Using low power she examined the specimen, squinting through the angled tube. Once she turned the substage mirror a bit to catch direct the light streaming in the window. Brion stood behind her, fists clenched, forcefully controlling his anxiety. 'What do you see?' he finally