Chalderescol—but not by itself. This was realized when the patient’s physical
inju-ries had healed and it continued to complain of severe psychosomatic
discomfort whenever the subject of returning home was discussed.
Many attempts were made to make the patient realize that it was punishing
itself, cutting itself off from its home and friends, for a crime that was very
probably imaginary, but without success—it would not con-, sciously admit that
it had committed a crime, so telling it that it was not guilty had no effect. A
Chalder’s most prized possession was its personal integrity, and as an authority
that integrity was unassailable. AUGL-One Sixteen was a sensitive, intelligent,
and highly qualified being who, outwardly, was a submissive and cooperative
patient. But where its particular delusion was concerned it was as susceptible
to influence as the orbit of a major planet.
And so Sector General had acquired a permanent patient, an AUGL specimen in
perfect health and a continuing and strictly unofficial challenge to its
Department of Psychology, because only in the hospital could it be pain-free and
relatively happy.
Silently Cha Thrat apologized to the Earth-human for thinking that it had been
negligent, and listened in admiration as the speil took positive form.
“And now,” O’Mara went on, “due to a combination of circumstances, a significant
change has occurred. The talks with transient AUGL patients have made you
increasingly homesick. Your anger over your neglect by the medical staff has
been growing because, subconsciously, you yourself were beginning to suspect
that you were not sick and their attention was unnecessary. And then there was
the unwarranted, but for you fortunate, interference by Trainee Cha Thrat, who
confirmed your suspicion that you were not being treated as a patient. “You have
much in common with our outspokentrainee,” it continued. “Both of you have
reasons, real or imaginary, for not wanting to go home. On Sommaradva as on
Chalderescol, personal integrity and public honor are held in high regard. But
the trainee is woefully ignorant of the customs of other species and, when you
took the unprecedented step of saying your name to a non-Chalder, it
disappointed and hurt you grievously by continuing to act toward you as had the
other members of the staff. You were driven to react violently but, because of
the constraints imposed by your personality type, the violence was directed at
inanimate objects.
“But,” the Earth-human went on, “the simple act of giving your name to this
sympathetic and untutored Sommaradvan, whom you had known only a few days, is
the clearest possible indication of how badly you wanted help to get away from
the hospital. You do still want to go home?”
AUGL-One Sixteen replied with another high-pitched, bubbling sound that did not
translate. Its eyes watched only the Earth-human, and the muscles around its
closed jaws were no longer clenched into iron rigidity.
“It was a stupid question,” O’Mara said. “Of course you want to go home. The
trouble is, you are afraid and also want to stay here. A dilemma, obviously. But
let me try to solve it by telling you that you are once again a patient here,
subject to the hospital regimen and my own special and continuing treatment, and
until I pronounce you cured you will not go home…”
On the surface the situation had not changed, Cha Thrat thought admiringly. The
hospital still retained its permanent AUGL patient, but now there was doubt
about the permanency of the arrangement. Now it fully understood its position
and had been given a choice, to stay or leave, and its departure date was
unspecified so as to relieve its natural fears about leaving. But it was
nolonger completely satisfied with its life in the hospital, and already the
Earth-human wizard was altering its internal reality by gently stressing the
rehabilitative aspects of the therapy. Material would be provided by the Monitor
Corps on the changes that had occurred on the home world in its absence, which
would be useful if it decided to leave and informative should it stay, and there
would be regular and frequent visits by O’Mara itself and other persons it would
specify.
Oh, yes, she thought as it talked on, this Earth-human wizard was good.