" he
said. "Class I, all precautions, contact with unidentified pestilence.
If you don't like it, argue with the Black Doctor, I've just got a job
to do."

He started shouting orders to his men, and they scattered throughout the
ship, with blowers and disinfectants, driving antiseptic sprays into
every crack and cranny of the ship's interior, scouring the hull outside
in the rigid pattern prescribed for plague ships. They herded the
doctors into the decontamination lock, stripped them of their clothes,
scrubbed them down and tossed them special sterilized fatigues to wear
with masks and gloves.

"This is idiotic," Jack protested. "We aren't carrying any dangerous
organisms!"

The squad leader shrugged indifferently. "Tell it to the Black Doctor,
not me. All I know is that this ship is under quarantine until it's
officially released, and from what I hear, it's not going to be released
for quite some time."

At last the job was done, and the scooter departed back to the
inspection ship. A few moments later they saw it returning, this time
carrying just three men. In addition to the pilot and one technician,
there was a single passenger: a portly figure dressed in a black robe,
horn-rimmed glasses and cowl.

The scooter grappled the _Lancet_'s side, and Black Doctor Hugo Tanner
climbed wheezing into the entrance lock, followed by the technician. He
stopped halfway into the lock to get his breath, and paused again as the
lock swung closed behind him. Dal was shocked at the physical change in
the man in the few short weeks since he had seen him last. The Black
Doctor's face was gray; every effort of movement brought on paroxysms of
coughing. He looked sick, and he looked tired, yet his jaw was still set
in angry determination.

The doctors stood at attention as he stepped into the control room,
hardly able to conceal their surprise at seeing him. "Well?" the Black
Doctor snapped at them. "What's the trouble with you? You act like
you've seen a ghost or something."

"We--we'd heard that you were in the hospital, sir."

"Did you, now!" the Black Doctor snorted. "Hospital! Bah! I had to tell
the press something to get the hounds off me for a while. These young
puppies seem to think that a Black Doctor can just walk away from his
duties any time he chooses to undergo their fancy surgical procedures.
And you know who's been screaming the loudest to get their hands on me.
The Red Service of Surgery, that's who!"

The