They demanded that all Wealdian atomic reactors be modified to turn
out fusion-bomb materials while a space fleet was made ready for an
anti-blueskin crusade. They confidently demanded such a rain of fusion
bombs on Dara that no blueskin, no animal, no shred of vegetation, no
fish in the deepest ocean, not even a living virus particle of the
blueskin plague could remain alive on the blueskin world.

One of these vehement orators even asserted that Calhoun agreed that
no other course was possible, speaking for the Interstellar Medical
Service. And Calhoun furiously demanded a chance to deny it by
broadcast, and he made a bitter and indiscreet speech from which a
planet-wide audience inferred that he thought them fools.

He did.

So he was definitely unpopular when his ship lifted from Weald. He'd
curtly given his destination as Orede, from which the death-ship had
come. The landing-grid locked on, raised the small spacecraft until
Weald was a great shining ball below it, and then somehow scornfully
cast him off. The Med Ship was free, in clear space where there was
not enough of a gravitational field to hinder overdrive.

He aimed for his destination, his face very grim. He said savagely,
"Get set, Murgatroyd! Overdrive coming!"

He thumbed down the overdrive button. The universe of stars went out,
while everything living in the ship felt the customary sensations of
dizziness, of nausea, and of a spiraling fall to nothingness. Then
there was silence.