Med Ship

WHO YA GONNA CALL?
MED SERVICE!

Scattered through the galaxy are thousands of worlds colonized by humans. Many have native microbes dangerous to the human immigrants. Others have diseases brought to them accidentally—or on purpose—by visiting ships. When millions of lives are threatened, it's a job for the Interstellar Medical Service, and a Med Ship is sent to solve the problem.

Calhoun is the best the Med Service has, and hard experience has taught him that often the major obstacle to curing the sick is ... the sick. And removing that kind of obstacle may take very strong medicine. To find a cure for a disease, Calhoun has the help of his small animal companion Murgatroyd, a formal—a species with the most powerful immune system in the galaxy. But to find a cure for hysteria, prejudice, crime, and even war is much more complicated, requiring considerable ingenuity. Fortunately, ingenuity is something that Calhoun has in good supply...

Publisher's Note: Med Ship has formerly appeared as four books: The Mutant Weapon, Doctor to the Stars, This World is Taboo, and S.O.S. from Three Worlds. This is the first publication in one book of the complete Med Ship saga.

"Murray Leinster was not only a very good writer, he was a pioneer. He invented the field of parallel-universe stories with his "Sidewise in Time," and his "First Contact" set the pattern for all the stories that followed of—well—of first contact with alien civilizations. The wondrous thing about his work is that those great, trend-setting stories read as fresh and timely today as they did all those years ago." —Frederik Pohl

"The Dean of modern science fiction!" —Time

Cover Art by Bob Eggleton

Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, August 2002

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

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Electronic version by WebWrights
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-3555-0
ISBN-10: 0-7434-3555-9

"Med Ship Man" was first published in Galaxy, October 1963, and was later reissued in Doctor to the Stars (Pyramid 1964). "Plague on Kryder II" was first published in Analog, December 1964, and was later reissued in S.O.S. From Three Worlds (Ace 1967). "The Mutant Weapon" was first published under the title "Med Service" in Astounding, August 1957. It was reissued as a novel under the current title by Ace in 1959. "Ribbon in the Sky" was first published in Astounding, October 1957, and was later reissued as part of S.O.S. From Three Worlds. "Tallien Three" was first published under the title "The Hate Disease" in Analog, August 1963, and was later reissued as part of Doctor to the Stars. "Quarantine World" was first published in Analog, November 1966, and was later reissued as part of S.O.S. From Three Worlds. "The Grandfathers' War" was first published in Astounding, October 1957, and was later reissued as part of Doctor to the Stars. "Pariah Planet" was first published in Amazing, July 1961, and was reissued as a novel by Ace under the title This World is Taboo

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

EMERGENCY SURGERY

The nearest-object indicator showed something moving toward the Med Ship. There was a small object headed toward the planet from empty space. Calhoun put on double acceleration to intercept it.

The spacephone growled: "Med Ship! What do you think you're doing?" 

"Getting in trouble," said Calhoun briefly.

"Med Ship!" the voice rasped. "Keep out of the way of our missile! It's a megaton bomb!" 

Calhoun said irrelevantly: "Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose." He added, "I know what it is."

Calhoun aimed his ship. He knew the capacities of his ship as only a man who'd handled one for a long time could. He knew quite exactly what it could do.

The rocket from remoteness—the megaton-bomb missile—came smoking furiously from the stars. Calhoun seemed to throw his ship into a collision course.

The rocket swerved to avoid him, though guided from many thousands of miles away. There was a trivial time-lag between the time its scanners picked up a picture and transmitted it, and the controlling impulse reached the missile in response. Calhoun counted on that. But he wasn't trying for a collision. He was forcing evasive action.

He secured it. The rocket slanted itself to dart aside. Calhoun threw the Med Ship into a flip-flop and slashed the missile with his own ship's rocket flame. . . .