Title: The Adaptive Ultimate Author: Stanley G. Weinbaum * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0601511h.html Edition: 1 Language: English Character set encoding: HTML--Latin-1(ISO-8859-1)--8 bit Date first posted: June 2006 Date most recently updated: June 2006 This eBook was produced by: Malcolm Farmer Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html To contact Project Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.net.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Adaptive Ultimate by Stanley G. Weinbaum -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Daniel Scott, his dark and brilliant eyes alight with the fire of enthusiasm, paused at last and stared out over the city, or that portion of it visible from the office windows of Herman Bach?the Dr. Herman Bach of Grand Mercy Hospital. There was a moment of silence; the old man smiled a little indulgently, a little wistfully, at the face of the youthful biochemist. "Go on, Dan," he said. "So it occurred to you that getting well of a disease or injury is merely a form of adaptation?then what?" "Then," flashed the other, "I began to look for the most adaptive of living organisms. And what are they? Insects! Insects, of course. Cut off a wing, and it grows back. Cut off a head, stick it to the headless body of another of the same species, and that grows back on. And what's the secret of their great adaptability?" Dr. Bach shrugged. "What is?" Scott was suddenly gloomy. "I'm not sure," he muttered. "It's glandular, of course?a matter of hormones." He brightened again. "But I'm off the track. So then I looked around for the most adaptive insect. And which is that?" "Ants?" suggested Dr. Bach. "Bees? Termites?" "Bah! They're the most highly evolved, not the most adaptable. No; there's one insect that is known to produce a higher percentage of mutants than any other, more freaks, more biological sports. The one Morgan used in his experiments on the effect of hard X-rays on heredity?the fruit fly, the ordinary fruit fly. Remember? They have reddish eyes, but under X-rays they produced white-eyed offspring?and that was a true mutation, because the white eyes bred true! Acquired characteristics can't be inherited, but these were. Therefore?" "I know," interrupted Dr. Bach. Scott caught his breath. "So I used fruit flies," he resumed. "I putrefied their bodies, injected a cow, and got a serum at last, after weeks of clarifying with albumen, evaporating in vacuo, rectifying with? But you're not interested in the technique. I got a serum. I tried it on tubercular guinea pigs, and"?he paused dramatically?"it cured! They adapted themselves to the tubercle bacillus. I tried it on a rabid dog. He adapted. I tried it on a cat with a broken spine. That knit. And now, I'm asking you for the chance to try it on a human being!" Dr. Bach frowned. "You're not ready," he grunted. "You're not ready by two years. Try it on an anthropoid. Then try it on yourself. I can't risk a human life in an experiment that's as raw as this." "Yes, but I haven't got anything that needs curing, and as for an anthropoid, you get the board to allow funds to buy an ape?if you can. I've tried." "Take it up with the Stoneman Foundation, then." "And have Grand Mercy lose the credit? Listen, Dr. Bach, I'm asking for just one chance?a charity case?anything." "Charity cases are human beings." The old man scowled down at his hands. "See here, Dan. I shouldn't even offer this much, because it's against all medical ethics, but if I find a hopeless case?utterly hopeless, you understand?where the patient himself consents, I'll do it. And that's the final word." Scott groaned. "And try to find a case like that. If the patient's conscious, you think there's hope, and if he isn't how can he consent? That settles it!" But it didn't. Less than a week later Scott looked suddenly up at the annunciator in the corner of his tiny laboratory. "Dr. Scott," it rasped. "Dr. Scott. Dr. Scott. To Dr. Bach's office." He finished his titration, noted the figures, and hurried out. The old man was pacing the floor nervously as Scott entered. "I've got your case, Dan," he muttered. "It's against all ethics?yet I'll be damned if I can see how you can do this one any harm. But you'd better hurry. Come on?isolation ward." They hurried. In the tiny cubical room Scott stared appalled. "A girl!" he muttered. She could never have been other than drab and plain, but lying there with the pallor of death already on her cheeks, she had an appearance of somber sweetness. Yet that was all the charm she could ever have possessed; her dark, cropped, oily hair was unkempt and stringy, her features flat and unattractive. She breathed with an almost inaudible rasp, and her eyes were dosed. "Do you," asked Scott, "consider this a test? She's all but dead now." Dr. Bach nodded. "Tuberculosis," he said, "final stage. Her lungs are hemorrhaging?a matter of hours." The girl coughed; flecks of blood appeared on her pallid lips. She opened dull, watery blue eyes. "So!" said Bach, "conscious, eh? This is Dr. Scott. Dan, this is?uh"?he peered at the card at the foot of the bed?"Miss?uh?Kyra Zelas. Dr. Scott has an injection, Miss Zelas. As I warned you, it probably won't help, but I can't see how it can hurt. Are you willing?" She spoke in faint, gurgling tones. "Sure, I'm through anyway. What's the odds?" "All right. Got the hypo, Dan?" Bach took the tube of water-clear serum. "Any particular point of injection? No? Give me the cubital, then." He thrust the needle into the girl's arm. Dan noted that she did not even wince at the bite of the steel point, but lay stoical and passive as thirty cc. of liquid flowed into her veins. She coughed again, then closed her eyes. "Come out of here," ordered Bach gruffly, as they moved into the hall, "I'm damned if I like this. I feel like a dirty dog." He seemed to feel less canine, however, the following day. "That Zelas case is still alive," he reported to Scott. "If I dared trust my eyes, I'd say she's improved a little. A very little. I'd still call it hopeless." But the following day Scott found himself seated in his office with a puzzled expression in his old gray eyes. "Zelas is better," he muttered. "No question of it. But you keep your head, Dan. Such miracles have happened before, and without serums. You wait until we've had her under long observation." By the end of the week it became evident that the observation was not to be long. Kyra Zelas flourished under their gaze like some swift-blooming tropical weed. Queerly, she lost none of her pallor, but flesh softened the angular features, and a trace of light grew in her eyes. "The spots on her lungs are going," muttered Bach. "She's stopped coughing, and there's no sign of bugs in her culture. But the queerest thing, Dan?and I can't figure it out, either?is the way she reacts to abrasions and skin punctures. Yesterday I took a blood specimen for a Wasserman, and?this sounds utterly mad?the puncture closed almost before I had a c.c.! Closed and healed!" And in another week, "Dan, I can't see any reason for keeping Kyra here. She's well. Yet I want her where we can keep her under observation. There's a queer mystery about this serum of yours. And besides, I hate to turn her out to the sort of life that brought her here." "What did she do?" "Sewed. Piece work in some sweatshop, when she could work at all. Drab, ugly, uneducated girl, but there's something appealing about her. She adapts quickly." Scott gave him a strange look. "Yes," he said, "she adapts quickly." "So," resumed Bach, "it occurred to me that she could stay at my place. We could keep her under observation, you see, and she could help the housekeeper. I'm interested?damn' interested. I think I'll offer her the chance." Scott was present when Dr. Bach made his suggestion. The girl Kyra smiled. "Sure," she said. Her pallid, plain face lighted up. "Thanks." Bach gave her the address. "Mrs. Getz will let you in. Don't do anything this afternoon. In fact, it might not hurt you to simply walk in the park for a few hours." Scott watched the girl as she walked down the hall toward the elevator. She had filled out, but she was still spare to the point of emaciation, and her worn black suit hung on her as if it were on a frame of sticks. As she disappeared, he moved thoughtfully about his duties, and a quarter hour later descended to his laboratory. On the first floor, turmoil met him. Two officers were carrying in the body of a nondescript old man, whose head was a bloody ruin. There was a babble of excited voices, and he saw a crowd on the steps outside. "What's up?" he called. "Accident?" "Accident!" snapped an officer. "Murder, you mean. Woman steps up to this old guy, picks a hefty stone from the park border, slugs him, and takes his wallet. Just like that!" Scott peered out of the window. The Black Maria was backing toward a crowd on the park side of the street. A pair of hulking p...
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