Jack radioed down to the planet's surface that the diagnosis had been
made; as soon as the proper medications could be prepared, the doctors
would land to begin treatment. There was a new flicker of hopefulness in
the Bruckian's response, and an appeal to hurry. With renewed energy the
doctors went back to the lab to start working on the new data.

But trouble continued to dog them. This was no ordinary virus. It proved
resistant to every one of the antibiotics and antiviral agents in the
_Lancet_'s stockroom. No drug seemed to affect it, and its molecular
structure was different from any virus that had ever been recorded
before.

"If one of the drugs would only just slow it up a little, we'd be
ahead," Tiger said in perplexity. "We don't have anything that even
touches it, not even the purified globulins."

"What about antibodies from the infected people?" Jack suggested. "In
every virus disease I've ever heard of, the victim's own body starts
making antibodies against the invading virus. If enough antibodies are
made fast enough, the virus dies and the patient is immune from then
on."

"Well, these people don't seem to be making any antibodies at all,"
Tiger said. "At least not as far as I can see. If they were, at least
some of them would be recovering from the disease. So far not a single
one has recovered once the thing started. They all just go ahead and
die."

"I wonder," Dal said, "if Fuzzy had any defense."