THE BIG HEADACHE
BY JIM HARMON
What's the principal cause of headaches?
Why, having a head, of course!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
I
"Do you think we'll have to use force on Macklin to get him tocooperate in the experiment?" Ferris asked eagerly.
"How are you going to go about forcing him, Doctor?" Mitchell inquired."He outweighs you by fifty pounds and you needn't look to me for helpagainst that repatriated fullback."
Ferris fingered the collar of his starched lab smock. "Guess I gotcarried away for a moment. But Macklin is exactly what we need for aquick, dramatic test. We've had it if he turns us down."
"I know," Mitchell said, exhaling deeply. "Somehow the men with themoney just can't seem to understand basic research. Who would havefinanced a study of cyclic periods of the hedgehog? Yet the informationgained from that study is vital in cancer research."
"When we prove our results that should be of enough practical value foranyone. But those crummy trustees didn't even leave us enough for afield test." Ferris scrubbed his thin hand over the bony ridge of hisforehead. "I've been worrying so much about this I've got the ancestorof all headaches."
Mitchell's blue eyes narrowed and his boyish face took on an expressionof demonic intensity. "Ferris, would you consider—?"
"No!" the smaller man yelled. "You can't expect me to violateprofessional ethics and test my own discovery on myself."
"Our discovery," Mitchell said politely.
"That's what I meant to say. But I'm not sure it would be completelyethical with even a discovery partly mine."
"You're right. Besides who cares if you or I are cured of headaches?Our reputations don't go outside our own fields," Mitchell said. "Butnow Macklin—"
Elliot Macklin had inherited the reputation of the late Albert Einsteinin the popular mind. He was the man people thought of when the word"mathematician" or even "scientist" was mentioned. No one knew whetherhis Theory of Spatium was correct or not because no one had yet beenable to frame an argument with it. Macklin was in his early fifties butlooked in his late thirties, with the build of a football player. Thegovernment took up a lot of his time using him as the symbol of theIdeal Scientist to help recruit Science and Engineering Cadets.
For the past seven years Macklin—who was the Advanced StudiesDepartment of Firestone University—had been involved in devising afaster-than-light drive to help the Army reach Pluto and eventually thenearer stars. Mitchell had overheard two coeds talking and so knewthat the project was nearing completion. If so, it was a case of Adastra per aspirin.
The only thing that could delay the project was Macklin's health.
Despite his impressive body, some years before he had suffered a mildstroke ... or at least a vascular spasm of a cerebral artery. It wasknown that he suffered from the vilest variety of migraine. A cycle ofthe headaches had caused him to be absent from his classes for severalweeks, and there were an unusual number of military uniforms seenaround the campus.
Ferris paced off the tidy measurements of the office outside thelaboratory in the biology building. Mitchell sat slumped in the chairbehind the blond imitation wood desk, watching him disinterestedly