Badge of Infamy

rt

up through a fog of pain. Somewhere in his bag, he should have an anodyne tablet that would kil

rge-indicator for the battery. It showed half-charge. Then he saw that someone had attached an

light coming from the little station, and he headed toward that,

ssity here, food and shelter would be expensive, and he had no skills to earn his way. At most

open, and the air was warm inside. He pulle

up as he entered. Feldman gazed

It was the cheapes

viously spotting his Earth origi

ll synthetic. Many of the chemicals in food could exist in either of two forms, or isomers; they were chemically alike, but differe

natural form. Research designed to let the early colonists live off native food here had turned up an enzyme that enabled the body to handle eithe

o Earth would not attack Mars-normal bodies led to the wide use of synthe

cigarette that was smokable. "Any obj

y, but there was normal pressure. He found a bench and slumped onto it, lighting his cigarette. He'd miss the smoke

up until a thin beam of light hit him. Then he sighed and nodded. The shoes, made of some odd fiber,

medical doctor?" The

dman answer

rewman was just lying drunk

they wanted him to move on, they

had ever seen. It was a face that could have belonged to a country storekeeper in New England, with the same hint of dry humor. The man wa

d at him. "Because you might as well come with

by policeman, he was different from the usual kind.

ike a cross between a schoolboy's jalopy and a scaled-down army tank of former times. The treads were

ed at them. "Mark, Lou, meet Doc Feldman. Sit, Doc.

nd began heading away from Southport toward the desert dun

ing about farming,"

heard about you where a spaceman was getting drunk and

a natural growth, as if it had been chopped from some vine. He lighted it, not knowing what to expect. Then he coughed as the bitter, rancid smoke

rt you. Look-see that? Old Martian ruins. Built by som

n better in the stereo shots. It was interesting only because it connected with the legendary Marti

was silent. Finally, he ground out the butt of t

Ever hear of herb doct

to the scarcity of real medical help. There was only one dec

andle it. We can't all mortgage our work to pay for a trip to Northport. Southport's all messed up while the new she-doctor gets her m

told him sickly. "I'm a pariah, J

the Lobby. News reaches Mars. But

m not allowed to practice medicine. The charge w

rd. "Shall I tal

"Time enough. Let him

he had no idea where they were when the tractor finally stopped. There was a village of small huts that seemed to be merely entrances to living quar

en sick-four children and two adults. Their faces brightened a

stled. The same black specks he had seen on the face of Bi

ure died mighty fast. Darn it, I had it figured for that stuff in the book.

e symptoms, staring at the sick kids. He shrugged, finally. "There's a cure for it, but I don't ha

the kids didn't have to be crippled. There was something about

remembering the Lobby's efficient spy service on Earth an

you,

ould. We sure appreciate it.

e, hot compresses, massage. It was coming back to him. He'd have to do it himself, of course, to get

e said doubtfully as

yourself. Mars is tougher than Earth. You should live under Space Lobby and Medical Lobby here a while. Oh, maybe they don't mind a few fools like me being herb doctors, but they'd sure hate t

m for the first time as people. It had been a long ti

pel. These people needed medical help too desperately. Eventually, the news would spread, and the Lobby police wo

You'll have to learn to do what I do," he told the people there. "You'll have to work li

would be before the inevitable would catch up with him. With luck, maybe a few months. But he ha