them back to sleep. Can you drill through the wall of the container, ignoring
the sensors and actuators, and withdraw the required quantity of medication
directly?”
For a moment there was silence while Fletcher’s features fell into an angry,
why-didn’t-I think-of-that? expression, then he said, “Of course, Doctor.”
But even when injections of the CRLTs own hibernation medication were ready
their troubles were far from over. The pressor beam operators who were
responsible for immobilizing the creatures could not hold down the two joined
e-ts without also flattening the medics who were trying to work on them. Their
best compromise was to leave a two-meters clearance on each side of the
operative field wherein the medical team would not be inconvenienced by the
pressors. But this meant that there was no restraint placed on the movements of
the creature along a four-meter length of its body, which wriggled and humped
and lashed out with its dorsal appendages and generally made it plain that it
did not want strange beings climbing all over it and sticking it with needles.
Several times Conway was knocked away from the patient and once, if it had not
been for a warning from Fletcher, he would have lost his helmet and probably the
head inside it. Murchison observed crossly that the big advantage in dealing
with cadavers was that, regardless of their physiological classifications, they
did not assault the pathologist and leave her normally peachlike skin
pigmentation black and blue. But with Naydrad’s long, caterpillarlike body
wrapped around one appendage and both Fletcher and Colonel Okaussie hanging
onto the other limb which threatened the operative field, and with Murchison
steadying the scanner for him while he sat astride the creature like a bareback
horserider, Conway was able to guide his hypo into the correct vein and
discharge its contents before a particularly violent heave pulled the needle
free.
Within a few seconds Prilicla, whose fragile body had no place in this violent
muscular activity announced from its position on the ceiling that the being was
going back to sleep. When they withdrew to turn their attention to its
companion, its movements were already growing weaker.
By the time they had dealt similarly with the other CRLT,
the two creatures had separated. The hollows and protuberances and flaps of
muscle had collapsed and smoothed themselves out, and the raw interface areas
began exuding the clear liquid which congealed into a thin, transparent film.
Gently the tractor and pressor beam men lifted and pushed the two beings back
into their respective hibernation cylinders. Conway signaled for the artificial
gravity to be reduced to zero and, as expected, they were able to replace the
cylinder endplates without trouble. The cargo hold’s air pressure was reduced
gradually so that they could check whether the premature opening of the
hibernation compartments had caused a leak. It had not.
“So far so good,” Conway said. “Return them to their positions in the coil and
bring in the next two.”
The first two had been the occupants of adjoining cylinders and their linking up
had been automatic, a natural process in all respects. But the second two had
been separated by a compartment which had been ruptured by a piece of flying
debris and its occupant killed. The affinity between these two might not be so
strong, Conway thought.
However, they merged as enthusiastically and naturally as had the first two. The
resuscitation process was reversed before they were fully conscious so as to
eliminate the multispecies wrestling match needed to put them into hibernation
again. Prilicla reported a minor variation in the emotional radiation associated
with the initial body contact-^-a feeling, very faint and temporary., of
disappointment. But the two segments of the group entity were compatible and
that particular break in continuity in the coil could be closed up.
Conway felt uneasy. Too much good luck worried him. Something was bothering
Prilicla, too, because he had long since learned to recognize the difference
between the little empath’s reaction to its own feelings and those of the beings
around it.
“Friend Conway,” Prilicia said, while they were awaiting the arrival of the
third set of CRLTs. “The first two beings were relatively immature and taken