White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

“The onset was sudden,” Conway said doubtfully. “They were in the process of

fleeing their ship, according to the Captain. Hibernation usually occurs in a

place of safety, not when the being concerned is in immediate physical danger.”

“I was thinking of an involuntary form of hibernation,” Murchison said, “perhaps

induced by their injuries, which en­ables them to survive until help

arrives—What was thatT

That was a loud, metallic screeching noise which came from the wreck. It lasted

for a few seconds, then there was a mo­ment’s silence before it was repeated.

They could hear heavy breathing in their suit phones so it had to be coming from

Fletcher.

“Captain,” Murchison said, “are you all right?”

“No trouble, ma’am,” Fletcher replied at once. “I’ve found a hatch in what

appears to be a cargo hold. It is, or was, a simple hermetically sealed door

rather than an airlock. When the ship tipped over the door couldn’t open fully

because the outer edge dug into the sand, which I’ve now cleared away. The hatch

opens freely now but the hinges were warped in the crash, as you probably heard.

Two of the occupants were trying to escape, but couldn’t squeeze through the

narrow opening. They are one of the large- and one of the medium-sized types,

both with amputation wounds, neither of them moving. Shall I bring them to you?”

“I’d better look at them first,” Conway said. “Give me a few minutes to finish

with this one.”

As they were placing the last casualty inside its makeshift oxygen tent,

Murchison said, “Have you found any trace of the criminal, Captain?”

“Other than the wounding on these two, no ma’am,” Fletcher replied. “My sensors

pick up no trace of bodily movement inside the ship, nothing but a few quiet,

intermittent sounds suggesting settling debris. I’m pretty sure it is outside

the ship somewhere.”

“In that case,” she said, looking at Conway, “I’ll go with you.”

The wind died and the sand settled as they neared the wreck

so that they could see clearly the black rectangular opening in the hull just at

ground level, and the arm of the Captain waving at them from inside it. There

were so many other openings caused by sprung plating and access hatches that

without Fletch­er’s signal they would not have known which gap was the right

one. From outside it looked as if the ship was ready to fall apart, but when

they crawled through the opening and stood up their helmet lights showed little

evidence of internal damage.

“How did the others get out?” Conway asked. He knelt and began running his

scanner over the larger of the two casualties. There was evidence of a traumatic

amputation of a major limb but the other injuries were superficial.

“There is a large personnel hatch on the upper surface of the hull forward,”

Fletcher replied. “At least it was on the upper side after the ship toppled.

Presumably they had to slide down the curve of the hull and jump to the ground,

or move along the ship to the prow, which isn’t very far from the ground, and

jump from there. These two were unlucky.”

“One of them was very unlucky,” Murchison said. “The DCOJ is dead. Its injuries

were not as severe as the other cases I’ve seen, but there is evidence of lung

damage by a corrosive gas of some kind, according to my analyzer. What about

your DCMH?”

“This one is alive,” Conway said. “Similar general condi­tion, including the

lung damage. Probably it is simply a much tougher life-form than the other two.”

“I wonder about this DCOJ life-form,” Murchison said thoughtfully. “Is it

intelligent at all? The small DCLG and the DCMH almost certainly are: The limb

extremities terminate in specialized manipulators, and the former seems to have

de­veloped six hands and no feet. But the big DCOJ has four feet and two clawed

forward appendages, and is otherwise made up of teeth and a large system of

stomachs.”

“Which is empty,” Conway said. After a moment he added, “All of the cases I’ve

examined so far had empty stomachs.”

“Mine as well,” Murchison said. They stared at each other for a moment, then