distress. I can regain full control of my mind and body any time I wish it, but
choose not to because I don’t want to risk breaking mental contact by talking
for too long. As quickly as possible I wantSenior Physician Prilicla and
Pathologist Murchison to join me. The FGHJs are not important right now. Neither
is the anesthetic or the search for the other survivor because—”
‘Wo.'” Fletcher broke in, sounding as if it was about to be physically nauseous.
“Those things are intelligent. Do you see the insidious way they are trying to
get the technician to reassure us and then entice us over to them? No doubt when
you two are taken over there will be even better reasons for the rest of us to
join you, or you to return here and leave Rhabwar’s crew in the same condition
as the FGHJs. No, there will be no more victims.”
Cha Thrat tried not to listen to the interruption because it set off trains of
thought in her mind that were unsettling the new occupant and kept it from
communicating properly with her. Very carefully she lifted her rear medial arm
and bent it so that the large digit was pointing at the thing clinging to the
back of her neck.
“This is the survivor,” she said, “the only survivor.”
Suddenly the stranger in her mind was feeling a measure of satisfaction and
reassurance, as if it had at last succeeded in making its need understood, and
she found that she could speak without the fear of it going away, fading, and
perhaps dying on her.
“It is very ill,” she went on, “but it was able to regain mobility and
consciousness for a short time when I entered the compartment. That was when it
decided to make a last, desperate try to obtain help for its friends and the
host creatures in their charge. The first, fumbled attempts to make contact were
the reason for my uncoordinated limb movements. Only within the past few minutes
has it realized that it is the only survivor.”
None of them, not even the Captain, was saying aword now. She continued. “That
is why I need Prilicla to monitor its emotional radiation at close range, and
Mur-chison to investigate its dead friends, in the hope of finding out what
killed them and finding a cure before its own condition becomes terminal—”
“No,” the Captain said again. “It sounds like a good story, and especially
intriguing to a bunch of e-t medics, but it could still be a ruse to get mental
control of more of our people. I’m sorry, Technician, we can’t risk it.”
Prilicla said gently, “Friend Fletcher makes a good point. And you yourself know
that the Captain’s arguments are valid because you observed the mindless
condition of the FGHJs after these creatures left them. Friend Cha, I, too, am
sorry.”
It was Cha Thrat’s turn to be silent as she tried to find a solution that would
satisfy them. Somehow she had not expected the gentle little empath to be so
tough.
Finally she said, “Physically the creature is extremely debilitated and I could
quite easily remove it to demonstrate its lack of physical control over me, but
such a course might kill it. However, if I was to demonstrate my normal physical
coordination by leaving this compartment and descending four levels, where we
would be clear of the emotional interference from the FGHJs, and if I were to
urge the creature to remain conscious until then, would the Cinrusskin empathic
faculty be able to detect whether its emotional radiation was that of a highly
intelligent and civilized being, or the kind of mental predator that seems to be
scaring you out of your wits?”
“Four levels down is just one deck above the boarding tube…” began the
Captain, but Prilicla cut it short.
“I could detect the difference, friend Cha,” it said, “ifI was close enough to
the life-form concerned. I’ll meet you there directly.”
There was another howl of oscillation from her translator. When it faded
Prilicla was saying “Friend Fletcher, as the senior medical officer present it
is my responsibility to make sure whether the life-form attached to Cha Thrat is