White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

orbits.

The ambulance ship was a modified Monitor Corps cruiser

and, as such, the largest of the Federation vessels capable of aerodynamic

maneuvering in atmosphere. It sliced through the brown, sand-laden air like a

great white dart, trailing a sonic Shockwave loud enough to wake the dead or, at

the very least, to signal its presence to any survivors capable of receiving

audio stimulus.

Visibility was nil as they approached the grounded ship. The whole area was in

the grip of one of the sandstorms which regularly swept this harsh, near-desert

world, and the picture of the barren, mountainous surface was a sensor

simulation rather than direct vision. It accurately reproduced the succes­sion

of wind-eroded hills and rocky outcroppings and the patches of thorny vegetation

which clung to them. Then suddenly they were above and past the grounded ship.

Fletcher pulled Rhabwar into a steep climb which became a ponderous loop as they

curved back for a slower pass over the landing site. This time, as they flew low

over the other ship at close to stalling speed, there was a brief cessation in

the storm and they were able to record the scene in near-perfect detail.

Rhabwar was climbing into space again when the Captain said, “I can’t put this

ship down anywhere near that area, Doctor. I’m afraid we’ll have to check for

survivors, if there are any, with the planetary lander. There aren’t any obvious

signs of life from the wreck.”

Conway studied the still picture of the crash site on his screen for a moment

before replying. It was arguable whether the ship had made a heavy landing or a

barely controlled crash. Much less massive than Rhabwar, it had been designed to

land on its tail, but one of the three stabilizer fins had collapsed on impact,

tipping the vessel onto its side. In spite of this the hull was relatively

undamaged except for a small section amidships which had been pierced by a low

ridge of rock. There was no visible evidence of damage other than that caused by

the crash.

All around the wreck at distances varying from twenty to forty meters there were

an number of objects—Conway counted twenty-seven of them in all—which the sensor

identified as organic material. The objects had not changed position between the

first and second of Rhabwar’s thunderous fly-bys, so the probability was that

they were either dead or deeply uncon-

scious. Conway stepped up the magnification until the outlines became indistinct

in the heat shimmer, and shook his head in bafflement.

The objects had been, or were, living creatures, and even though they had been

partly covered by windblown sand, he could see a collection of protuberances,

fissures, and angular projections which had to be sensory organs and limbs.

There was a general similarity in shape but a marked difference in size of the

beings, but he thought they were more likely to be representatives of different

subspecies rather than adults and their young at different stages of

development.

“Those life-forms are new to me,” the pathologist said, standing back from the

screen. She looked at Conway and the others in turn. There was no dissent.

Conway thumbed the communicator button. “Captain,”he said briskly, “Murchison

and Naydrad will go down with me. Prilicla will remain on board to receive

casualties.” Normally that would have been the Kelgian Charge Nurse’s job, but

nobody there had to be told that the fragile little empath would last for only a

few minutes on the surface before being blown away and smashed against the rocky

terrain. He went on, “I realize that four people on the lander will be a tight

squeeze, but initially I’d like to take a couple of pressure litters and the

usual portable equipment—”

“One large pressure litter, Doctor,” Fletcher broke in. ‘There will be five

people on board. I am going down as well in case there are technical problems

getting into the wreck. You’re forgetting that if the life-forms are new to the

Federation, then their spaceship technology could be strange as well. Dodds will

fetch anything else you need on the next trip down. Can you be ready at the

lander bay in fifteen minutes?”