United States or Mongolia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


"I'll tell you but you may not understand," Kennon said. "I'll take a chance." Kennon grinned. "All right, you asked for it. The parasite that's doing the damage is a flatworm, a trematode called Hepatodirus hominis. As I've told Blalok, it's a tricky thing.

Kennon stopped at Blalok's house long enough to tell the superintendent what was causing the trouble. Blalok scowled. "We've never had flukes here before," he said. "Why should they appear now?" "They've been introduced," Kennon said. "The thing that bothers me is how Dr. Williamson missed them." "The old man was senile," Blalok said. "He was nearly blind the last six months of his life.

Man's eating habits have only changed from necessity. Those who can pay will still pay well for natural foods." Blalok chuckled. "We've put quite a dent in the algae and synthetics operations in this sector." "It's still a luxury trade," Kennon said. "You've eaten synthetic," Blalok replied. "What do you prefer?" Kennon had to agree that Blalok was right.

In other words, kill the flukes before they enter the Lani." "Old Doc never said anything about this," Blalok said. "Probably he never knew about it. I was looking over the herd books last night, and I saw nothing about trematodes, or anything that looked like a parasite pattern until the last few months." "Why not?" "My guess is that he was one of the first deaths."

The minute stretched to nearly ten before Kennon returned followed by two Lani carrying bags which they loaded into the back of the jeep. "I had to reorganize a little," Kennon apologized, "some things were unfamiliar." "Plan on taking them?" Blalok said, jerking a thumb at the two Lani. "Not this time. I'm having them fit up an ambulance. They should be busy most of the day."

That's the way it is. Of course, we're lucky that we're on an isolated land mass. That gives us an advantage. We should be able to clean this up." "How long do you think it will take?" "It depends on how well the fluke is established. Six months at the minimum and I wouldn't care to guess at the maximum. However, I hope the minimum will be time enough." "So do I," Blalok said.

"It should be," Blalok replied. "It furnishes all of our Lani for replacement and export. It can turn out over a thousand a year at full capacity. Of course we don't run at that rate, or Flora would be overpopulated. But this is a big layout, like you said. It can maintain a population of at least forty thousand. Old Alexander had big ideas." "I wonder what he planned to do with them?"

"Hillside's pretty far out the farthest station since we abandoned Olympus." The air began whistling past the boxlike body of the jeep as Blalok increased the power to the drive and set the machine on automatic. "We'll get a pretty good cross-section of our operations on this trip," he said over the whine of the turbine. "Look down there."

And those are surplus too light or too delicate for farm work." "Where do you find a market for all this produce?" Kennon asked. "There's two hundred million people here, and quite a few billion more in space-train range. We can produce more cheaply than any competitor, and we can undersell any competition, even full automation." Blalok chuckled.

The question hung unanswered in the still air of the cabin as the airboat dropped downward. Douglas hadn't been impressed with Blalok's attempt at a delaying action. Normally he might have been, but his fear of his cousin was greater than his respect for Blalok.