White, James – Sector General 07 – Code Blue Emergency

am disappointed and angry with you. Go away, quickly, and protect your life. I

am beyond help.”

“No!” Cha Thrat said fiercely. The mouth was opening wider, the eyes were

showing a manic gleam once more, and she realized that when the AUGL attacked,

she would be its first victim. Desperately she went on. “It is true that I

cannot help you. Your sickness does not respond to the healer’s herbs or the

surgeon’s knife, because it is a ruler’s disease that requires the spells of a

wizard. A Sommaradvan wizard might cure you but, since you are not yourself a

Sommaradvan, there is no certainty. Here there is the Earth-human, O’Mara, a

wizard with experience of treating rulers of many different life-forms. I would

have approached it about your case at once but, being a trainee and unsure of

the procedure, I was about to request a meeting for another, an unimportant,

reason during which I would have spoken of you in detail…”

The AUGL had closed its mouth but was moving its jaws in a way that could be

indicating anger or impatience. She went on quickly. “In the hospital I have

heard many people speak of O’Mara and his great powers of wizardry—”

“I’m the Chief Psychologist, dammit,” O’Mara broke in, “not a wizard. Let’s try

to be factual about this and not make more promises we can’t possibly keep!”

“You are not a psychologist!” Cha Thrat said. She was so angry with this

Earth-human who would not accept the obvious that for a moment she almost forgot

about the threat from One Sixteen. Not for the first time she wondered what

obscure and undefined ruler’s disease it was that made beings who possessed high

intelligence, and The Power in great measure, behave so stupidly at times. Less

vehemently, she went on. “On Sommaradva a psychologist is a being, neither

servile-healer nor warrior-surgeon, who tries to be a scientist by measuring

brain impulses or bodily changes caused by physical and mental stress, or by

making detailed observations of behavior. A psychologist tries to impose

immutable laws in an area of spells and nightmares and changing realities, and

tries to make a science of what has always been an art, an art practiced only by

wizards.”

They were both watching her, eyes unblinking, motionless. The patient’s

expression had not changed but the Earth-human’s face had gone a much deeper

shade of pink.

“A wizard will use or ignore the instruments and tabulations of the

psychologist,” she continued, “to cast spells that influence the complex,

insubstantial structures of the mind. A wizard uses words, silences, minute

observation, and intuition to compare and graduallychange the sick, internal

reality of the patient to the external reality of the world. That is the

difference between a psychologist and a wizard.”

The Earth-human’s face was still unnaturally dark. In a voice that was both

quiet and harsh it said, “Thank you for reminding me.”

Formally Cha Thrat said, “No thanks are required for that which needs to be

done. Please, may I remain here to watch? Before now I have never had the chance

to see £ wizard at work.”

“What,” the AUGL asked suddenly, “will the wizard do to me?”

It sounded curious and anxious rather than angry, and for the first time since

entering the ward she began to feel safe.

“Nothing,” O’Mara said surprisingly. “I shall do nothing at all…”

Even on Sommaradva the wizards were full of surprises, unpredictable behavior

and words that began by sounding irrelevant, ill chosen, or stupid. What little

of the literature that was available to one of the warrior-surgeon level, she

had read and reread. So she composed herself and, with great anticipation,

watched and listened while the Earth-human wizard did nothing at all.

The spell began very subtly with words, spoken in a manner that was anything but

subtle, describing the arrival of AUGL-One Sixteen at the hospital as the

commanding officer and sole survivor of its ship. The vessels of water-breathing

species, and especially those of the outsize denizens of Chalderescol, were

notoriously unwieldy and unsafe, and it had been exonerated of all blame for the

accident both by the Monitor Corps investigators and the authorities on