rapidly, they can reproduce themselves. There are dozens of them in the room
with Cha Thrat, and they’re so small that more of them could be hidden in odd
corners all over the ship.
“Until we get a properly equipped and protected decontamination squad in there,”
Fletcher went on, “I have no choice but to seal and place a guard on the
boarding tube. This is something completely new to our experience, and it may
well be that the hospital will advise the complete destruction of the ship, and
its contents.
“If you will all think about it for a moment,” the Captain ended, sounding very
unhappy with itself, “you will realize that we cannot take the slightest risk of
that life-form getting onto this ship, or running loose in Sector General.”
There was silence for several moments while theythought about it, and Cha Thrat
thought about the strange thing that had happened, and was still happening, to
her.
While trying to help Rhone she had experienced a joining, and with it the shock
and disorientation and excitement of having her mind invaded, but not taken
over, by a personality that was completely alien to her. The effect had been
rendered even stranger and more frightening by the fact that the Gogleskan’s
mind had also contained material from a previous joining with a mind whose
memories were even more confusing, those of the Earth-human Conway. But this
sensation was entirely different. The approach and entry was gentle, reassuring,
and even pleasant, giving her the feeling that it was a process perfected after
a lifetime of experience. But like herself, this invader seemed to be badly
confused by the contents of her part-Sommaradvan, part-Gogleskan, and part
Earth-human mind and, because of that confusion, it was having trouble
controlling her body. She was still not sure of its intentions, but quite
certain that she was still herself and that she was learning more and more about
it with every passing second.
Murchison was the first to break the silence. It said, “We have protective suits
and cutting torches. Why don’t we decontaminate that compartment ourselves and
burn them all, including the one on the technician’s neck, and get Cha Thrat
back here for treatment while it still has some of its mind left? The hospital
people can finish the decontamination when we—”
“No,” the Captain said firmly. “If any of you medics go onto that ship, you
won’t be allowed back here.”
Cha Thrat did not want to join in because speaking would involve a minor mental
effort and consequent disruption in an area of her mind that she wished to
remain receptive. Instead, she moved her lower arms inthe Sign of Waiting, then
realizing that it meant nothing to non-Sommaradvans, held up one hand palm
forward in the Earth-human equivalent.
“I am confused,” Prilicla said suddenly. “Friend Cha is not feeling pain or
mental distress. It is wanting something very badly, but the emotional radiation
is characteristic of a source trying very hard to maintain calm and to control
its other feelings…”
“But it isn’t in control,” Murchison broke in. “Look at the way it was moving
its arms about. You’re forgetting that its feelings and emotions aren’t its
own.”
“You, friend Murchison, are not the emotion-sensitive here,” Prilicla said in
the gentlest possible of reproofs. “Friend Cha, try to speak. What do you want
us to do?”
She wanted to tell them to stop talking and leave her alone, but she desperately
needed their help and that reply would have given rise to more questions,
interruptions, and mental dislocations. Her mind was a bubbling stew of
thoughts, impressions, experiences, and memories that concerned not only her own
past on Sommar-adva and Sector General, but those of Healer Khone and
Diagnostician Conway. The new occupant was blundering about like an intruder
lost in a large, richly furnished but imperfectly lit household, examining some
items and shying away from others. This, Cha Thrat knew, was not the time to
leave it alone.
But if she answered a few of their questions, said just enough to keep them
quiet and make them do what she wanted, that might be the best course.
“I am not in danger,” Cha Thrat said carefully, “or in any physical or emotional