In Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo civil servants and politicians cynically debate the fate of a child discovered living in a quarantined space station. They are driven more by fear of popular opinion than by any desire to do what is morally right. This common portrait of public servants can be found in numerous works of fiction. Of more topical interest is the disease Neuro-X, which resembles AIDS in the fear that it generates in people. One character, Doctor Blume, even suggests that "Neuro-X destroyed her immune system," a characteristic of AIDS. In the novel, Neuro-X is a virulent disease that is transmitted in mysterious ways.

No safeguard seems effective. Even physicians dressed in airtight suits catch the disease and die within days.

The disease is confined to a space station and a space ship, both of which have been quarantined, and the space station left...