White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

being is abusive and will not allow me to touch it. The circumstances call for a

very close decision, one I am unwilling to make. Will you speak to it?”

The area around the transporter had been cleared of cas­ualties with the sole

exception of this Illensan, who refused to be moved. The reason it gave MacEwan

was that while its injuries were not serious, its pressure envelope had suffered

two small ruptures. One of these it had sealed, after a fashion, by grasping the

fabric of its envelope around the tear in both manipulators and holding it

tightly closed, while the other one it had sealed by lying on it. These

arrangements had forced it to increase the internal pressure of the envelope

temporarily, so that it no longer had any clear idea of the duration of its

chlorine tank and asphyxiation might be imminent. But it did not want to be

moved to the relative safety of the transporter, which was also leaking, because

that would allow the lethal atmosphere of the lounge to enter its envelope.

“I would prefer to die of chlorine starvation,” it ended force­fully, “than have

my breathing passages and lungs instantly corroded by your oxygen. Stay away

from me.”

MacEwan swore under his breath but did not approach the Illensan. Where were the

emergency rescue teams? Surely they should have been there by now. The clock

showed that it had been just over twenty-five Earth minutes since the accident.

He could see that the sightseers had been cleared from the lounge’s inner wall,

to be replaced by a Nidian television crew and some uninformed ground staff who

did not appear to be doing anything at all. Outside there were heavy vehicles

drawn up and Nidians with backpacks and helmets scurrying around,

but his constantly watering eyes and the ever-present plastic hangings kept him

from seeing details.

MacEwan pointed suddenly at the hangings and said to the Hudlars, “Will you tear

down a large piece of that plastic material, please, and drape it over the

Illensan. Pat it down flat around the being’s suit and smooth the folds out

toward the edges so as to exclude our air as much as possible. I’ll be back in a

minute.”

He hurried around the transporter to the first Illensan ca­sualty, whose body

had turned a livid, powdery blue and was beginning to disintegrate, and tried to

look only at the fastenings of the chlorine tank. It took him several minutes to

get the tank free of the body harness, and several times his bare hands touched

the dead Illensan’s flesh, which crumbled like rotting wood. He knew that oxygen

was vicious stuff where chlorine breathers were concerned, but now he could

really sympathize with the other Illensan’s panic at the thought of being moved

in a leaking suit.

When he relumed it was Grawlya-Ki who was smoothing out the plastic around the

Illensan while the two Hudlars were standing clear. One of them said

apologetically, “Our move­ments have become somewhat uncoordinated and the

chlorine breather was worried lest we accidentally fall on it. If there is

something else we can do—”

“Nothing,” MacEwan said firmly.

He turned on the tap of the chlorine tank and slipped it quickly under the

plastic sheet and pushed it close to the Il­lensan. The extra seepage of the gas

would make little differ­ence, he thought, because the whole area around the

transporter was fast becoming uninhabitable for oxygen breathers. He pressed the

tiny mask hard against his face and took a long, careful breath through his

nose, and used it to speak to the Hudlars.

“I have been thoughtless and seemingly ungrateful for the fine work you have

been doing here,” he said. “There is nothing more that you can do. Please go at

once and spray yourselves with the necessary nutrient. You have acted most

unselfishly, and I am, as are we all, most grateful to you.”

The two Hudlars did not move. MacEwan began placing

pieces of debris around the edges of the plastic and the Orligian, who was quick

on the uptake, began doing the same. Soon the edges were held tightly against

the floor, the gas escaping from the tank was beginning to inflate the plastic,