White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

attempted to escape.

“Careful, Doctor,” the Captain said.

An idea which had been taking shape at the back of his mind dissolved.

Irritably, Conway said, “What can it do except look at me and twitch its

stumps?”

The casualty hung sideways in its webbing against the lower lip of the cupola, a

great fleshy, elongated pear shape perhaps four times the mass of an adult

human. The narrow end ter­minated in a large, bulbous head mounted on a walrus

neck which was arched downward so that the two big, widely spaced eyes could

regard the rescuers. Conway could count seven of the feebly twitching stumps

projecting through gaps in the webbing, and there were probably others he could

not see.

He braced himself against a control console which had re­mained in place and

took out his scanner, but delayed beginning the examination until Murchison, who

had just arrived, could climb up beside him. Then he said firmly, “We will have

to remain with this casualty overnight, Captain. Please instruct Lieutenant

Haslam to evacuate all the other casualties on the next trip, and to bring down

the litter stripped of nonessential life-support equipment so that it will

accommodate this new casualty. We also need extra air tanks for ourselves and

oxygen for die casualty, heaters, lifting gear, and webbing, and any­thing else

you think we need.”

For a long moment the Captain was silent, then he said, “You heard the Doctor,

Haslam.”

Fletcher did not speak to them while they were examining the new casualty other

than to warn them when a piece of loose wreckage was about to fall. The Captain

did not have to be told that a wide path would have to be cleared between the

big control cupola and the open hatch if the litter was to be guided in and out

again carrying the large alien. It was likely to be a long, difficult job

lasting most of the coming night, made more

SCO I Utt

difficult by ensuring that none of the debris struck Murchison, Conway, or their

patient. But the two medics were much too engrossed in their examination to

worry about the falling debris.

“I won’t attempt to classify this life-form,” Conway said nearly an hour later

when he was summing up their findings for Doctor Prilicla. “There are, or were,

ten limbs distributed laterally, of varying thicknesses judging by the stumps.

The sole exception is the one on the underside which is thicker than any of the

others. The purpose of these missing limbs, the number and type of manipulatory

and ambulatory appendages, is unknown.

“The brain is large and well developed,” he want on, looking aside at Murchison

for corroboration, “with a small, separate lobe with a high mineral content in

the cell structure suggesting one of the V classifications—”

“A wide-range telepath?” Prilicla broke in excitedly.

“I’d say not,” Conway replied. “Telepathy limited to its own species, perhaps,

or possibly simple empathy. This is borne out by the-fact that its ears are well

developed and the mouth, although very small and toothless, has shown itself

capable of modulating sounds. A being who talks and listens cannot be a

wide-range telepath, since the telepathic faculty is supplemented by a spoken

language. But the being did not display agitation on seeing us, which could mean

that it is aware our intentions toward it are good.

“Regarding the airway and lungs,” Conway continued, “you can see that there is

the usual inflammation present but that the lung damage is minor. We are

assuming that since the being was unable to move when the gas permeated the

ship, it was able, with its large lung capacity, to hold its breath until most

of the toxic vapor had dissipated. But the digestive system is baffling us. The

food passage is extremely narrow and seems to have collapsed in several places,

and with few teeth for chewing food it is difficult… to see how—”

Con way’s voice slowed to a stop while his mind raced on. Beside him Murchison

was making self-derogatory remarks because she, too, had not spotted it sooner,

and Prilicla said, ‘Are you thinking what I am thinking, friends?”

There was no need to reply. Conway said, “Captain, where are you?”