White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

by working down the stern-facing wall until all

of it reaches the surface. The gravity and pressure sensors are linked to the

medication reservoirs, Doctor, so you have just reproduced the conditions for

resuscitation following a plane­tary landing.”

Conway nodded. He said, “Prilicla, can you detect any­thing?”

“Not yet, friend Conway.”

They moved closer so as to be able to look into the two opened cylinders,

dividing their attention between the occu­pants who were lying flaccidly with

their dorsal manipulators hanging limply along their sides. Then one of the

enormous, tubular bodies began to quiver, and suddenly they were both moving

ponderously toward each other.

“Move back,” Conway said. “Prilicla?”

“Consciousness is returning, friend Conway,” the empath replied, trembling with

its own as well as everyone else’s ex­citement. “But slowly; the movements are

instinctive, invol­untary.”1

As the forward extremity of one CRLT approached the rear of the other, the

organic film which protected the raw areas on each creature softened, liquefied,

and trickled away. At the center of the forward face a blunt, conical shape

began to form surrounded by systems of muscles which twitched themselves into

mounds and hollows and deep, irregular fissures. The rear face of the other CRLT

had grown its own series of hollows and orifices which exactly corresponded with

the protuberances of the other, as well as four large, triangular flaps which

opened out like the fleshy petals of an alien flower. Then all at once there was

just one double-length creature with a join which was virtually invisible.

And I was worried about joining them together, Conway thought incredulously. The

problem might be to keep them apart!

“Are we observing a physical coupling for the purpose of reproduction?”

Murchison said to nobody in particular.

“Friend Murchison,” Prilicla said, “the emotional radiation of both creatures

suggests that this is not a conscious or in­voluntary sex act. A closer analogy

would be that of an infant seeking the physical reassurance of its parent.

However, both beings are seeking physical and mental reassurance, and have

feelings of confusion and loss, and these feelings are so closely matched that

the only explanation is shared mentation.”

“Tractor beamers,” Conway said urgently. “Pull them apart, gentlyl”

He had been delighted to find that the beings who made up the vast group entity

would link together naturally when the conditions were right, although that

might not be the case if too many intervening segments had been destroyed in the

ac­cident, but he most certainly did not want a premature and permanent link-up

between these two at this stage. They would have to be returned to a state of

hibernation and resume their positions in the coil, otherwise they might find

themselves permanently separated, orphaned, from the group entity.

Even though the tractor beamers were no longer being gentle, the two CRLTs

stubbornly refused to separate. Instead they were becoming more physically

agitated, they were trying to emerge completely from their hibernation

cylinders, and their emotional radiation was seriously inconveniencing Prilicla.

“We must reverse the process—” Conway began.

“The sensors react to gravity and air pressure,” Fletcher broke in quickly. “We

can’t evacuate the hold without killing them, but if we cut the artificial

gravity only it might—”

“The endplate release mechanism was also linked to those sensors,” Conway said,

“and we can’t replace them in their slots without chopping the two beasties

apart, in the wrong place.”

“It might stop the flow of resuscitation medication,” Fletcher went on, “and

restart the hibernation sequence. The needles are still sited in both creatures

and the connecting tubing is flexible and still unbroken, although it won’t be

for long if we don’t stop them from leaving their cylinders. If we put a clamp

on the resuscitation line of each beastie, Doctor, I believe I could bypass the

endplate actuator and restart the hibernation medication.”

“But you will be working inside the cylinders,” Murchison said, “beside two very

massive and angry e-ts.”

“No, ma’am,” the Captain said. “1 am neither foolhardy nor a xenophobe, and I

shall work through an access panel in the outer skin. It should take about

twenty minutes.”

“Too long,” Conway said. “They will have disconnected

themselves from the tubing by then. We can calculate the dos­age needed to put