Cryptomedicine

On the planet Vivaldi, two field researchers, the
anthropologist Sinus Ak and the physician Doa Mito travel
through four tribal territories in order to study traditional folk
medicine and newer unconventional therapies. In the Ezerite
territory, they learn much from a natural healer who uses plants
and herbs. He links them to a truck farm where a widow grows
mushrooms and fungi used in many therapies. Here, they meet
an advanced user of magnetic therapy. An inspector from
the Ministry of Health sends an undercover agent to infiltrate
this clinic as an assistant. Sinus and Doa learn how the power
of magnetic tubes can be amplified and focused on ailing
sections of patient bodies. The inspector decides to pose as a
patient, but is identified and dies in a magnetic chamber. The
clinic survives and continues.

In Tilia Territory, Sinus and Doa deal with crystal therapy
augmented by laser light radiation. The light expert, the
physician, and the two making the study undergo arrest but
refuse to turn on each other. No one is prosecuted for the
gemstone therapy.

In Boyanian Territory, traditional acupuncture is advanced
through a new method of skin scraping that is superior to the
use of tiny needles. Holographic microscopy enhances the
therapeutic effects. An attempt by the head of the foremost
hospital to halt, arrest, and prosecute those involved, including
Sinus and Doa, fails and the latter two flee and escape the
Boyanian authorities.