White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

while Sector General slowly grew larger in the forward view-screen.

When Conway arrived in the Chief Psychologist’s office, Thornnastor, Skempton,

and O’Mara were already waiting for him. Colonel Skempton, as the ranking

Monitor Corps officer in the hospital, was occupying the only other chair, apart

from O’Mara’s own, which was suitable for the use of Earth-humans; Thornnastor,

like the other members of the Tralthan species, did everything including

sleeping on its six, elephantine feet.

The Chief Psychologist waved a hand at the selection of e-t furniture ranged in

front of his desk and said, “Take a seat

vvm 11

if you can do so without injuring yourself, Doctor, and make your report.”

Conway arranged himself carefully in a Kelgian relaxer frame and began to

describe briefly the events from the time Rhabwar had arrived in response to

Tyrell’s distress beacon. He told of the investigation of the first section of

the fragmented alien vessel which was the product of a race in the early stage

of spaceship technology, possessing sublight drive and gravity furnished by

rotating their ship. Every undamaged section found had contained an e-t in

suspended animation. For this reason additional scoutships had been requested to

help find and re­trieve the remaining survivors as a matter of urgency because

the majority of these widely scattered suspended animation’ compartments would,

in just under twelve weeks’ time, fall into or pass so close to a nearby sun

that the beings inside them would perish.

While Conway was speaking, O’Mara stared at him with eyes which opened into a

mind so perceptive and analytical that it gave the Chief Psychologist what

amounted to a tele­pathic faculty. Thornnastor’s four eyes were focused equally

on Conway and Colonel Skempton, who was staring down at his scratch pad where he

was drawing a circle and going over it repeatedly without lifting his stylus.

Conway found himself watching the pad as well, and abruptly he stopped talking.

Suddenly they were staring at him with all of their eyes, and Skempton said,

“I’m sorry, Doctor, does my doodling distract you?”

“To the contrary, sir,” Conway said, smiling, “you have helped a lot.”

Ignoring the Colonel’s baffled expression, Conway went on, “Our original theory

was that a sublight vessel with the configuration of a rotating wheeltype space

station suffered a catastrophic malfunction or collision which carried away its

hub-mounted propulsion and navigation systems, and jarred the rim structure

apart; the subsequent dispersal of the suspended animation containers was aided

by the centrifugal force which furnished their ship with artificial gravity. But

the number of sections found just before I left the area were more than enough

to form three complete Wheels and, because I have been both­ered by the fact

that no head segments have been found so far,

I have decided to discard the Wheel or multiple Wheel theory in favor of the

more simple configuration suggested by the Colonel’s sketch of a continuous—”

“Doctor,” Thornnastor broke in firmly. As the Diagnosti-cian-in-Charge of

Pathology it had a tendency toward single-mindedness where its specialty was

concerned. “Kindly describe in detail and give me the physiological

classification of this life-form and, of course, your assessment of the number

of casualties we will be required to treat. And are specimens of this life-form

available for study?”

Conway felt his face reddening as he made an admission no Senior Physician on

the staff of Sector General should ever have to make. He said, “We cannot

classify this life-form with complete certainty, sir. But I have brought you two

cadavers in the hope that you may be able to do so. As I have already said, the

survivors are still inside their suspended animation compartments and the

relatively few who did not survive are in a badly damaged condition—in several

pieces, in fact.”

Thornnastor made untranslatable noises which probably sig­nified approval, then

it said, “Had they not been in pieces, I would soon have rendered them so. But

the fact that neither Murchison nor yourself are sure of their classification

surprises and intrigues me, Doctor. Surely you are able to form a few tentative

conclusions?”

Conway was suddenly glad that Prilicla was still on board Rhabwar because his

embarrassment would have given the little empath a bad fit of the shakes. He