food and supportive medication. Progress toward recovery was rapid thereafter.
The Earth-human healer gave advice on diet and medication dosage, and it was
free to examine the patient at any time, but I would not allow further surgical
intervention. I should explain that on Sommaradva, a surgeon will not share or
in any other way avoid personal responsibility for a patient. There was strong
criticism, both personal and professional, of my standpoint, particularly from
the Earth-human healer. I would not allow the patient to be moved to its ship
until eighteen days after the operation, when I was convinced that full
recuperation was assured.”
“She watched over me,” Chiang said, barking softly, “like an old mother hen.”
There was silence for what seemed to Cha Thrat to be a very long time, during
which everyone looked at the Melfan while it regarded the patient. It was
tapping one hard-tipped leg against the floor, but the sound it made was a
thoughtful rather than an impatient one.
Finally it said, “Without immediate surgical attention you would undoubtedly
have died as a result of your injuries, and you were fortunate indeed to receive
thenecessary attention from an entity completely unfamiliar j with your
physiological classification. Fortunate, too, in that the entity concerned was
not only skilled, resource-, ful, and deeply concerned with your aftercare, but
made the proper use of the limited facilities available to it. I can find no
serious fault with the surgical work performed here, and the patient is, indeed,
wasting the hospital’s time.”
Suddenly they were all looking at her, but it was the empath who spoke first.
“From Edanelt,” Prilicla said, “that is praise indeed.”
Chapter 3
THE private office of the Earth-human O’Mara was large, but the floor area was
almost entirely covered by a variety of chairs, benches, recliners and frames
designed for the use of the entities having business with the Chief
Psychologist. Chiang took the indicated Earth-human chair and Cha Thrat chose a
low, convoluted cage that looked as if it might not be too uncomfortable, and
sat down.
She saw at once that O’Mara was an old Earth-human. The short, bristling fur
covering the top and sides of its head, and the two thick crescents above its
eyes, were the gray color of unpainted metal. But the heavy muscle structure
apparent in the shoulders, upper limbs, and hands was not that of the other aged
Earth-humans she had seen. The flexible, fleshy covers of its eyes, which were
similar in color to its hair, did not droop as it studied her in every physical
detail.
“You are a stranger among us, Cha Thrat,” it said abruptly. “1 am here to help
you feel less strange, to answer questions you have been unable or unwilling to
ask of others, and to see how your present abilities can be trained^and extended
so that they may be put to the best possible use by the hospital.”
It turned its attention to Chiang. “My intention was to interview you
separately, but for some reason you wish to be present during my initial talk
with Cha Thrat. Can it be that you have heard, and believed, some of the things
the staff say about me? Do you have delusions of being a gentleman and Cha Thrat
a lady, albeit of a different physiological classification, who if not actually
in distress is a friend in need of moral support? Is that it,Major?”
Chiang barked quietly but did not speak.
“A question,” Cha Thrat said. “Why do Earth-humans make that strange
barking sound?”
O’Mara turned its head to regard her for a long moment, then it exhaled loudly
and said, “I had expected your first question to be more… profound. But very
well. The sound is called laughing, not barking, and in most cases it is a
psychophysical mechanism for the release of minor degrees of tension. An
Earth-human laughs because of a sudden relief from worry or fear, or to express
scorn or disbelief or sarcasm, or in response to words or a situation that is
ridiculous, illogical, or funny, or out of politeness when the situation or
words are nor funny but the person responsible is of high rank. I shall not even