The Unbegotten Read Online Free Page A

position.
    â€˜What I am doing here,’ he went on, ‘is exactly what I’ve done in other affected places: attempting to deal with the situation as if it were unique, and we were starting absolutely from scratch. Only in this way can the various affected areas be compared effectively.’ He broke off, and then, obviously deliberately, looked straight at Maddern, and said, ‘I believe you brought the last baby into this part of the world at about two-thirty last night, Dr. Maddern. You know as well as I do, perhaps better, that there isn’t another on the way. You do not know that this barrenness is occurring in several widely separated parts of the British Isles. A great deal of time has been lost, but it is no use holding an inquest on the delays. Obviously, the barrenness could be a natural phenomenon, in which case we need desperately to find out what is causing it. As obviously it could be due to some human agency, in which case we need to know just as desperately who it is. And—’ He looked round the room slowly until his gaze came to rest again on Maddern, as he added, ‘in either case, I urgently need your help.’
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Chapter Three
THE REQUEST
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    Maddern seemed to be in a world apart.
    The other doctors were looking from him to Palfrey and back. Palfrey was watching him intently. Yet he did not fully understand the significance of what Palfrey had said. Oh, he knew the meaning of the words, he understood them literally, but: natural phenomenon? Or due to some human agency? What was he implying?
    One of the doctors at the back of the room, Kennedy, an amiable youngish man with several children, broke a tense silence.
    â€˜Dr. Palfrey, may I—may I ask—’ He broke off, in obvious confusion.
    â€˜Ask anything you like,’ Palfrey encouraged.
    â€˜Are you implying that some—some people might be inducing this infertility?’
    â€˜Yes, of course,’ Palfrey answered simply.
    Someone out of Maddern’s sight exclaimed, ‘My God!’
    â€˜Alternatively,’ said Simister, ‘it could be an inhuman agency.’
    â€˜I prefer to say “non-human”,’ replied Palfrey.
    â€˜You—ah—you—ah—you couldn’t possibly be implying that this could be a kind of visitation from outer space, could you?’ George Plumley hummed and hah’d. He had round, red cheeks and spoke with a very slight impediment, almost as if he had a plum in his mouth. Now, all heads turned towards him, even Maddern’s. There was a hint of excitement about Plumley, whose cheeks shone and whose eyes were bright, almost eager. He was known to be a science fiction addict, and to hold the opinion that flying saucers came from some planet in outer space.
    â€˜Obviously, it could be,’ Palfrey answered.
    The man who had exclaimed ‘My God’ now called out as if in anguish, ‘My God !’ Another man, whose voice Maddern didn’t recognise, said in tones of protest, ‘Oh, really!’
    â€˜Well, it could be a visitation,’ interjected plump Mary Dexter, the only woman present.
    That remark silenced them all.
    There was growing uneasiness among them; in some, clear signs of distress. And as he studied Dr. Palfrey’s finely drawn face and went back over the meeting so far, Maddern had a feeling that Palfrey had deliberately created this distress. Nothing he said in his low-pitched, pleasing voice was calculated to soothe.
    â€˜The moon ,’ Plumley exclaimed, in a tone of near ecstasy.
    â€˜Oh, no,’ Mary Dexter exclaimed.
    â€˜Ah. Dr. Palfrey. Ah.’ Sir Gerald Daley shifted in his chair. He was an impressive, grey-haired man with a clear complexion, a high-bridged nose and arched lips. ‘You can’t seriously suggest that the moon could possibly have caused this?’
    â€˜Why not?’ demanded Plumley, shrilly.
    â€˜My dear sir. The moon —’ Daley