Next he let himself into an empty cabin adjacent to sickbay and started to scan the waiting patients, keeping a light contact with Gravy. His great-grandmother, for whom he was named, had made certain all her descendants understood basic initial medical treatment and its mental signs. Thian had never thought he’d be putting that training to use on such a wholesale basis. when he sensed internal bleeding in one young rating, he directed Gravy away from the next man in line to him, suggesting to Gravy that the boy’s colour was wrong. He `pressed’ on any number of arteries to curtail bleeding and eased as much pain as he could. He also `heard’ many grievances of men and women cooped for an unconscionable time in each other’s company with no respite for months, and none in sight .. – unless the bleeding planet of the bleeding Hive was found and even action would be preferable to sitting in this bucket ploughing who knows how many years away from a decent port.
when he heard the legitimate occupant of the room returning, he `ported back to his cabin. Mur had just finished the bath and Dip was drying its pelt. The cabin had a medicinal smell to it: not too unpleasant. Tired as he was, Thian decanted the bath into the cask, and replaced both in the storeroom.
The next day the second incident occurred when he received a request from Sblipk for him to despatch a personnel carrier from the KLTL with young `Dinis to be returned to the homeworld. They were the result of that latest hibernation of `Dinis on board.
That, in itself, surprised Thian. He knew, from a remark of Gravy’s that strict contraception was practised by the mixed crews of the human ships.
But `Dinis were not human and their procreative drives did not respond to any contraception that he’d ever heard of. He wondered why it hadn’t occurred to anyone that there would inevitably be young on board long-haul `Dini vessels. How they had solved the problem before he didn’t ask. It wasn’t his business. Not only did the `portation of sixteen young `Dinis give him a chance to have a few words with Laria, but it also gave him a very good idea.
D’you get many nursery shipments, Laria? he asked in the process of despatching the carrier.
More than you’d guess, considering how long the various elements of the Search have been going on.
He could see the grin she must be wearing. You’d think they had nothing else to do on board.
Laria! He was surprised by the overtones.