"Perhaps it's only a temporary arrest in the maturation of the sperm rather than destruction of the spermatogonia themselves. That could be the explanation for the low grade inflammation and the minimal symptoms."
"You mean there might be some interference with an enzyme system?" Pat said.
"Yes. We see it in anemias where the cells don't mature properly because of a lack of some vitamin like B12. The same sort of thing could be happening here, I suppose."
"Then it might be only temporary?"
"I sincerely hope so, especially if Smith finds the same in man as he reports in the ferrets."
"I wish I could share your optimism John," the Director said, "but if this is a weapon it won't have just a temporary effect. There would be no point to that." He yawned. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, as the Good Book says. Let's go to bed."
The alarm jarred me out of deep sleep. As I groped beside the bed for the still vibrating clock, I regretfully abandoned my dreams for the austere grey walls of my temporary room, and the dreary window view of a wet Vancouver dawn. The tide was out and the slimy green-spattered mud and rocks of the estuary looked like a surrealistic painting of a hangover. At the water's edge, a school of fishing boats angled in the mud, their tilted trolling masts reminding me of the broken antennae of some strange crayfish, stranded and dead on a fishmarket floor. And dead they were. No smoke came from their humpbacked little cabins; no fisherman climbed the slanted decks.
I wondered if the epidemic had silenced their motors, or was it just not the season for fishing. Were the lusty trollers and seiners worrying about their lost virility and gone home to test it out? The newspapers had been asked to play down their sterility stories, which had caused so much consternation yesterday, but even so it was common knowledge that those who had had involvement of the sex glands might be sterile.
I turned down the corridor to the kitchen and started the coffee dispenser. Pat was still asleep after a late night coaxing reluctant male and female ferrets into the same cage and to be friends instead of messily murdering each other. Chivalry among ferrets is not highly regarded, even with females in season. We wanted to see if they could produce families, not to see which one was the stronger sex. Tranquillizers are fine for the purpose but it takes a neat balance to eliminate the fight and keep the desire. Hallam was not around. He was an early riser and could probably be found watching the monkeys if I cared to go there. They had shown no symptoms as yet. Probably the incubation period was about the same as in man, and if so there had not been time for the fever to start.