White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

and give physiological clas­sification. If unable to do so because of physical

injury, mental confusion, or ignorance of the classification system, please make

vision contact.”

Conway cleared his throat and said briskly, “Ambulance ship Rhabwar, Senior

Physician Conway. Staff and two pa­tients, all warm-blooded oxygen breathers.

Staff classifications are Earth-human DBDG, Cinrusskin GLNO, and Kelgian DBLF.

One patient is an EGCL, origin unknown, space wreck casualty in condition nine.

The second patient is also staff, a GLNO in condition three. We need—”

“Prilicla?”

“Yes, Prilicla,” Conway said. “We need matching environment OR and postop

intensive care facilities for the EGCL, treatment to begin on arrival, and

adjacent accommodation for the GLNO whose empathic faculty may be required

during the operation. Can do?”

There was silence for a few minutes, then Reception said, ‘Use Entry Lock Nine

into Level One Six Three, Rhabwar.

Your traffic coding is Priority Red One. ETA?”

Fletcher looked across at his astrogator, and Lieutenant Dodds said, “Two hours,

seven minutes, sir.”

“Wait,” Reception said.

There was another silence, much longer this time, before the voice returned.

“Diagnostician Thornnastor wishes to dis­cuss the patient’s condition and

metabolic profile with Pathol­ogist Murchison and yourself as soon as possible.

Senior Physician Edanelt has been assigned to assist Thomnastor dur­ing the

operation. Both require information on the type and extent of the EGCL’s

injuries and want you to transmit surface and deep-scan pictures at once. Until

otherwise instructed you are assigned to the Cinrusskin patient. As soon as

possible Chief Psychologist O’Mara wants to talk to you about Prilicla.”

It promised to be a very busy two hours and seven minutes.

In Rhabwar’s forward viewscreen the hospital grew from a fuzzy smear of light

against the stellar background until it seemed to fill all of space like a

gigantic, cylindrical Christmas tree. Its thousands of viewports blazed with

light in the dazzling variety of color and intensity necessary for the visual

equipment of its patients and staff.

Within a few minutes of Rhabwar docking at Lock Nine, the EGCL and Prilicla had

been moved into Operating Room Three and Ward Seven respectively on Level 163.

Con way was not familiar with this particular level because it had still been in

the process of conversion from the old FROB, FGLI, and ELNT medics’ quarters

when he had been detached for am­bulance ship duty. Now the Tralthans, Hudlars,

and Melfans had more spacious accommodations and their old abode had become the

emergency admission and treatment level for warm­blooded oxygen breathers, with

its own operating theaters, intensive care units, observation and recovery

wards, and a diet kitchen which could reproduce the staples of every known

warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing race.

While Naydrad and Conway were transferring the EGCL casualty from the litter’s

portable life-support and biosensor systems to those of the operating room,

Thornnastor and Eda­nelt arrived.

Senior Physician Edanelt had been the natural if not the inevitable choice for

this case. Not only was it one of the hospital’s top surgeons, the permanent

possessor of four phys­iology tapes and, according to the grapevine, a being

shortly to be elevated to Diagnostician status, the crablike Melfan’s

physiological classification of ELNT was perhaps the closes’

of all the life-forms on the medical staff to that of the EGCL survivor—a

vitally important factor when no physiology tape was available for the patient

being treated. Where Thornnastor, the elephantine Diagnostician-in-Charge of

Pathology, was concerned there were no physical similarities to the patient at

all, other than that they breathed the same air.

In spite of being a Tralthan FGLI and as such one of the more massive

intelligent species in the Federation, Thornnastor was no mean surgeon itself.

But on this case its primary re­sponsibility was the rapid investigation of the

survivor’s phys­iology and metabolism and, using its own vast experience in the

field of e-t pathology together with the facilities available in its department,

the synthesizing of the required medication which would ‘iclude a safe

anesthetic, coagulant, and tissue regenerative.

Edanelt and Conway had already discussed the case in detail on the way in, as

had Murchison and her chief, Thomnastor. He knew that their initial efforts

would be directed toward repairing the grosser structural damage, after which