Bolden grunted to himself. The microscreen and decontagion suit were
strong precautions.

The doctor wheeled a small machine from the wall and placed Bolden's
hand in a narrow trough that held it steady. The eyepiece slid into the
microscreen and, starting at the finger tips, Kessler examined the arm,
traveling slowly upward. At last he stopped. "Is this where feeling
ends?"

"I think so. Touch it. Yeah. It's dead below there."

"Good. Then we've got it pegged. It's the Bubble Death."

Bolden showed concern and the doctor laughed. "Don't worry. It's called
that because of the way it looks through the X-ray microscope. It's true
that it killed the scouting expedition that discovered the planet, but
it won't get you."

"They had antibiotics. Neobiotics, too."

"Sure. But they had only a few standard kinds. Their knowledge was more
limited and they lacked the equipment we now have."

The doctor made it sound comforting. But Bolden wasn't comforted. Not
just yet.

"Sit up and take a look," said Kessler, bending the eyepiece around so
Bolden could use it. "The dark filamented lines are nerves. See what
surrounds them?"

Bolden watched as the doctor adjusted the focus for him. Each filament
was covered with countless tiny spheres that isolated and insulated the
nerve from contact. That's why he couldn't feel anything. The spherical
microbes did look like bubbles. As yet they didn't seem to have attacked
the nerves directly.

While he watched, the doctor swiveled out another eyepiece for his own
use and turned a knob on the side of the machine. From the lens next to
his arm an almost invisible needle slid out and entered his flesh.
Bolden could see it come into the field of view. It didn't hurt. Slowly
it approached the dark branching filament, never quite touching it.

The needle was hollow and as Kessler squeezed the knob it sucked in the
spheres. The needle extended a snout which crept along the nerve,
vacuuming in microbes as it moved. When a section had been cleansed, the
snout was retracted. Bolden could feel the needle then.

* * * * *

When the doctor finished, he laid Bolden's hand back at his side and
wheeled the machine to the wall, extracting a small capsule which he
dropped into a slot that led to the outside. He came back and sat down.

"Is that what you're going to do?" asked Bolden. "Scrape them off?"

"Hardly. There are too many nerves. If we had ten