Hostess (short story)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hostess is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the May 1951 issue of Galaxy and reprinted in the 1969 collection Nightfall and Other Stories .
[edit] Plot summary
Humanity has spread out into the Galaxy and made contact with four other intelligent non-human races. Harg Tholan, a medical doctor and researcher from the planet known as Hawkin's Planet arrives on Earth and visits Rose Smollett, a research biologist and her husband Drake, ostensibly a police officer but in fact an agent of a secret government organisation.
Dr Tholan is researching a disease known as Inhibition Death, unknown on Earth, and reveals his theory that a sixth parasitic non-physical intelligence exists that lives in the minds of the non-humans.
Drake, whose bureau already knows about this disease and the plans of the Hawkinsites, kills Tholan and disappears with the body.
