GESUNDHEIT!

by Richard Kaplan

After his encounters with both the Mindstone and Premminger, Bennu was not about to hang around The Arrowhead. Leaving that site for future exploration, he took the bus back to the one he'd so abruptly abandoned.

The experience had left him not only mentally drained, but in a peculiar mood, and the ride back found him fidgeting in his seat. He was used to dusting his clothes off, but his skin seemed to need it, too. Not just the outside, either - he had a case of the itches. Fortunately, there was a small stream between the bus stop and the site, and he intended to make good use of it! After that, he intended to turn in early. A good night's sleep and a long Suncharge the next morning should fix him up.

After hiking to the stream, he stripped down to his medallion, gave his clothing an especially thorough wash, dried it with his medallion (set on ultra-low frequency - that is, infra-red emissions), and went for a long swim.

After similarly drying himself, he redressed. Better, but still not right. Oh, well. Let's see what the sleep does.

Goodness knows how long he would have slept if it hadn't been for a variety of bodily urges, such as an empty stomach. As it was, it was some 12 hours later when he awoke. YECCH! he felt awful! His nose was running vigorously, his eyes felt like they needed to be removed to clean the sand from behind them, and Premminger could have tracked him by following the thunderous sneezes.

First things first. He satisfied his body - he could use a little Sunpower to preserve sandwiches from staleness and decay, though today, his taste was so obliterated he wouldn't have noticed. Then he Suncharged. Impressive as it may look to observers, it still has to be done correctly, and the proper concentration is surprisingly difficult to achieve when one is trying to suppress violent sneezes. It's even harder when the attempts aren't always successful, but he finally managed to finish. Then, for good measure, he turned his immune system up high. All that got him was even more sneezing.

By now, his eyes were watering so badly that site searching was hopeless. Not knowing what else to do, he headed down the road towards the nearest town. Soon enough, a trucker offered him a lift, which he was only too glad to accept. The trucker took one look at him and shook his head.

Trucker: "Name's Ben, and that's one heck of a summer cold you've got."

Bennu: "Mine's Bennu - WAH-CHOO!"

Ben: "Gesundheit!"

Bennu: "Thangs. Ids nod a code. I never ged codes."

Ben (laughing): "Oh, then you're just allergic to something. There's some antihistamines in the glove compartment. Help yourself."

Bennu thought: "Allergy? What's that?"

Ben answered for him. "With me, it's roses. Boy, do I get kidded. Big, burly trucker can't stand pretty flowers."

Bennu, reading the wrapper on the medicine package and Ben's mind simultaneously, was impressed by the ingenuity of Immature business practices. This man was clearly neither well-educated nor of high intelligence, but he had a reasonable, if simplified, knowledge of derangements of the human immune system, all to make him a better consumer.

Bennu pretended to take a tablet while returning his immune system to its normal level. The symptoms promptly lessened. Some 15 minutes later, he imitated the medicine's effects by turning it down substantially. Sure enough, he felt much better.

Bennu: "Seems to be working. Thanks!"

Ben: "Glad to help. Where are you heading?"

Bennu gave the matter some thought. Now, what on Earth could make his immune system go crazy like that? Hmm. Quite likely, nothing. In that case ... "I have some research to do. Is there a college nearby?"

Ben: "You're lucky. I'm making a delivery to State U."

Bennu: "Very lucky. As I remember it, there's a professor I'd like to speak to who teaches there." He smiled. Usually, things started off well and ended up poorly. Perhaps it also worked the other way. This was an odd planet!

Bennu fell back asleep and only woke up when the trucker announced. "State U. Sorry about the pills, but the package does warn about the side effects ."

Bennu smiled. He wasn't just faking side effects - he really did need the sleep! He finally felt functional - good thing Yago hadn't found him! Off he went to the library. There he did his research, removed the carving from his backpack - it was the only irreplaceable item iin itt - and levitated the pack up to a high, dusty shelf. Then he headed off to the medical labs.

There he borrowed a few items in plentiful supply - a lab coat, several blood sample tubes, and some microscope slides. He locked himself in a bathroom stall and proceeded to use his medallion for a most unusual purpose. He opened a cut, filled the sample tubes, and reclosed both the tubes and cut.

His education on Eldebran had, of course, included the use of standard laboratory equipment , so it was no problem for him to use a centrifuge to spin down the blood and prepare slides of his white blood cells. Microscopes not in current use were as common as centrifuges - or white coats - in the lab, and he was soon peering through one at a slide.

Sure enough, there seemed to be a bunch of overexcited white blood cells, each containing a tiny particle of dust. His mind went back to yesterday's events. When he'd dropped the stone on the Mindstone, a cloud of dust had risen, and he'd inhaled some. Somehow, the cells seemed to stabilize the dust.

He reached under his lab coat, grasped his medallion, and focused on the particles. Now he could sense them in his body. Back in a stall with more sample tubes, he swept the Mindstone dust, white cells included, towards and out of a finger tip. That cured his allergy, of course, and he reset his immune system.

He also spun down the stabilized dust and used the preserving effect of Sunpower on the sample tubes. Now he had something unique in Eldebrani history - actual samples of a Mindstone! - though he'd had to pay a nasty price for them. If he ever got back home, the Scientists would be deeply interested in them. Whether they would be of much use he couldn't know, but at least they were something!

Returning the lab coat, he returned to the library, retrieved his backpack, and put the carving and sample tubes in it. That job done, he went off to meet the professor.

He found his office and took a quick telepathic peek. The man was alone and not engaged in something that shouldn't be interrupted. Bennu knocked on the door and heard a "Come in."

Bennu: "Dr. Spade, I presume?" (He regarded his attempts at humor as part of his learning the language, and a much pleasanter part than increasing his knowledge of cussing!)

Dr. Spade: "Do I know you? Oh, wait a minute. Are you the person my daughter met while doing field work at an Indian site? Bennu, I believe?"

Bennu: "That's me."

Dr. Spade: "I thought so. You don't find too many Nordic blonds studying American Indians. Did Premminger find you?"

Bennu stared, thunderstruck.

Dr. Spade: "You know, that fellow from the Department of Indian Archaeology. Said he agreed with your theories and had a grant for you."

Bennu (thinking very fast): "If you have anything to do with him or the Agency he works for, they think they own both your ideas and you! And I don't think Justin Premminger would believe in aliens if they landed a spaceship in his front yard!"

Dr. Spade: "Oh, dear, I'm sorry. I hope I didn't cause you a lot of trouble, but he seemed like such a nice, sincere young man."

Bennu hadn't learned the term "ivory tower," so he contented himself with demonstrating his knowledge of the raspberry, something he was getting entirely too much practice in! Still, after that rather disastrous start, things went rather well. In fact, their discussion of Indians and aliens went on for a good three hours.

For his part, Bennu got a few lukewarm tips - Dr. Spade was clearly no Premminger! - and Dr. Spade had missed giving two lectures.

Bennu left the university and headed back to the site. He had learned the term "third time's the charm," and maybe he could finally finish his examination of it.

He did, too, but, as usual, found nothing useful.