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"I can think of several," the alien relayed through Bob. "It isn't just a matter of police procedure, which is not itself just a matter of following rules. There are dozens or hundreds of situations in which moving the shield would be the obvious thing to do. I was going to do it myself if we had found it on Apu, in an attempt to backtrack to the other ship. Clearly, whoever did it this time was not backtracking.''
"Why not?" asked Je
"Of course not," the alien replied, but backtracking on the comparatively open and smooth lagoon floor would be pointless; from what I've seen, one could go anywhere with equal ease. I was hoping, though not very strongly, that there would be only a few lines of possible travel outside the reef. Anyway, Doctor, I have little doubt that when we do find out why the thing was moved we'll agree it was a good, sound reason, but I don't think I'll be embarrassed for not guessing beforehand what it was. There are just too many good possibilities."
Seever nodded acceptance of the point, and went on talking.
"All right. That leaves us with straight procedure-, problems. We've made the diagnosis; we have to plan the operation. It seems to consist of hanging this, gadget over the side of a boat in all the reasonable places we can think of. These unfortunately include the ocean to the west of the reef, which means we have to keep the machine from getting tangled in bottom coral, and also keep the boat off the reef itself. If you think the crash may have occurred within the reef, I'm completely stumped on what you can do. Bluntly, I very much dislike the idea of taking Je
"Personally, I'd strongly advise getting a better boat-no reflection on yours, Daughter, but I'd be much happier if you had power available. Since I think it would be silly to trail the detector overside blindly, you should wait for the diving gear that Arthur has ordered; and I'd spend the interval finding a powered craft and arranging to borrow it. You'll also have to try tying your work schedule with those of the people helping you; remember, you won't have as much free time as you like. You do start work shortly, I assume?"
"I'd almost forgotten," Bob admitted. "You haven't come up with any excuse, I take it."
"None that would hold up if you're going to be seen, diving several hours a day. Of course, you could take Old Toke into the secret and have him put you to work looking for spaceships."
"We've been through all that. No, thanks."
"Well, we've been through this too, but here it comes again. I think we're going to need more people to get the job done. Your father and I won't be able to help much, on simple time criteria. Your mother may be free a little more of the day, but she has Daphne to take care of at unpredictable times. I can let Je
"She wouldn't be alone. I'll be there."
"And if one of your interesting medical problems rears its head-especially if you're under water?"
"Well-" Bob fell silent.
"Remember, if I do the recruiting no one will doubt your sanity. I'm willing to let them doubt mine."
"You shouldn't be. You're the only doctor on Ell, if they lose confidence in you, you won't be here long."
"I can prove what I say."
"So could I," retorted Bob, "if anyone would pay attention. The trouble is talking to someone who's walking off shaking his head." "Have you ever had that happen?"
"No. I'm going by what I'd do myself. Be honest Doc. When I first told you about the Hunter, what would you have done if you hadn't considered it your medical duty to humor me?" It was Seever's turn to be silent.
"All right," he said at last. "But there are people who would normally humor me."
"Your wife, of course," admitted Bob. "But who else?"
"She'll do to start with. In addition, I'd take a chance on the Teroa girl you've already set wondering about you. She's known to be extremely competent in the water. I'll bet she could cover a good deal of the area you want to search, even before the diving equipment arrives."
The Hunter had already considered this point and added his voice to the argument, but Bob was still under the pressure of over seven years' conditioning, He had not been able to bring himself to veto Seever's request to tell his wife, and had even managed to tell Je
"I still haven't found an argument which will get you entirely off work and yet let you go diving, except the one you reject,' the doctor said slowly. "I may, though, beable to come up with something which will keep you away from heavy muscle work.
"There were enough peculiar results in your blood tests to write a good monograph. There is something odd about your calcium. The Hunter isn't doing a perfect job with your sugar. I don't think you'd clot even a pinprick without him, and you don't seem to have any adrenaline at all. He must be doing something or supplying something that does an equivalent job or you'd be pretty dead, but it isn't adrenaline. I can honestly report that your tests are peculiar, but. .."
Seever let his voice trail off.
"But PFI mightreact by sending me to Tahiti, or even to Japan or the States, for more checkups and treatment."
"Can't you tell them just a little? That the tests seem fu
"That's all I can see our doing for now," Seever agreed. "I'll write it up that way, and you report for work tomorrow and see what happens. We may as well try it this way. I don't see what else we can work on until the diving gear comes, since you won't let Maeta in on the operation."
"I'm not quite sure about that." Je
"You mean we can do something to get the equipment here sooner? Or do you know of some here already?"
"Neither. I think I have an idea about getting something done before the diving stuff arrives at all. I'm not really sure, and I want to think it over. Bob, if you'll come here tomorrow after work-you'll want to anyway, so Dad can see how you're doing-I think maybe I can come up with something that will bypass the diving equipment for a while. All right?"
"You're sure you don't want to tell us now?" asked Bob. "It could save a day, you know."
"I'm sure I don't, because I'm not sure I'm right I don't want to look silly." Bob looked at her father, who shrugged.
"I guess that adjourns the meeting," he said. "Bob, you go home and get as many hours sleep as you possibly can. Hunter, there's nothing I can tell you to do. Je