were of the kind to interest the wizard O’Mara, and that made her even more
fearful for her future at Sector General. While still lying at rest, physically
if not mentally, she used the ceiling projection facility of the communicator to
see what was happening on the entertainment and training channels.
According to the relevant information sheet, ten of the channels continuously
screened some of the Galactic Federation’s most popular entertainment, current
interest, and drama programs with a translator output, if required. But she
discovered that while she could understand the words that the different
physiological types were saying to and about each other, the accompanying
actions were in turn horrifying, mystifying, ridicu-lous, or downright obscene
to Sommaradvan eyes. Sh switched to the training channels.
There she had a choice of watching displays of cur-rently meaningless figures
and tabulations on the temper atures, blood pressures, and pulse rates of about
fif different life-forms, or surgical operations in progress that were visually
disquieting and not calculated to luJ anyone to sleep.
In desperation, Cha Thrat tried the sound-only chan-nels. But the music she
found, even when the volums was reduced to bare audibility, sounded as if it
were coming from a piece of malfunctioning heavy machinery So it was a great
surprise when the room alarm began reminding her, monotonously and with steadily
increas-ing volume, that it was time to awaken if she required breakfast before
her first lecture.
Chapter 4
The lecturer was a Nidian who had been intro- I duced as Senior Physician
Cresk-Sar. While it was speaking, it prowled up and down the line of trainees
like some small, hairy, carnivorous beast, which meant that every few minutes it
passed Cha Thrat so closely that she wanted to either fold her limbs in
defensive mode or run away.
“To minimize verbal confusion during meetings with other-species entities,” it
was saying, “and to avoid in-advertently giving offense, it is assumed that all
members of the medical and support staff who do not belong to your own
particular species are sexless. Whether you are addressing them directly or
discussing them in their absence, you will always think of them as an ‘it’. The
only exception to this rule is when an other-species patient is being treated
for a condition directly related to its sex, in which case the doctor must know
whether it is male or female, or one of the multisexed species, if the proper
treatment is to be carried out.
“I am a male Nidian DBDG,” Cresk-Sar went on, “but do not think of me as ‘he’ or
‘him’. Think of me as’it’.”
As the disgusting, hairy shape moved to within a few paces of her before turning
away again, Cha Thrat thought that she would have no difficulty in thinking of
this Senior Physician as “it.”
With the intention of finding someone less repulsive to look at, she turned her
eyes toward the trainee closest to her—one of the three silver-furred Kelgians
attending the lecture. It was strange, she thought, how the Ni-dian’s fur made
her cringe inwardly while the equally alien covering of the Kelgian relaxed and
calmed her like a work of great art. The fur was in constant motion, with long,
slow ripples moving from the creature’s conical head right down to its tail,
with occasional cross-eddies and wavelets appearing, as if the incredibly fine
pelt was a liquid stirred by an unfelt wind. At first she thought the movements
were random, but a pattern of ripples and eddies seemed to be developing the
more closely shewatched.
“What are you staring at?” the Kelgian said suddenly, its translated words
overlaid by the moaning and hissing sounds of its native speech. “Do I have a
bald patch, or something?”
“I’m sorry, I had not meant to give offense,” Cha Thrat said. “Your fur is
beautiful and I couldn’t help ad-| miring it the way it moves—”
“Pay attention, you two!” the Senior Physician saidj sharply. It moved closer,
looked up at each of them in turn, then went prowling down the line again.
“Cresk-Sar’s fur,” the Kelgian said softly, “is a sight.’] It makes me think
that invisible and no doubt imaginary ; parasites are about to change their