White, James – Sector General 07 – Code Blue Emergency

a pleasant disposition is to be maintained, and the midday meal is overdue.

Would you like to finish the rest of the patients by yourself, Nurse?”

“Of course,” the Hudlar said as Segroth was turning away.

“Charge Nurse,” Cha Thrat said quickly. “I realize that I’ve only just arrived,

but could I have permission to attend the—”

“The Conway lecture,” Segroth finished for her. “Naturally, you’ll find any

excuse to escape the hard work of the ward. But perhaps I do you an injustice.

Judging by the conversations I have overheard on the sound sensors, you have

displayed good control of your feelings while talking with the patients and,

considering your surgical background, the practical aspects of the lecture

should not worry you. However, if any part ofthe demonstration distresses you,

leave at once and asunobtrusively as possible.

“Permission would normally be refused a newly joined trainee like yourself,” it

ended, “but if you can make it to the dining hall and back inside the hour, you

may attend.”

“Thank you,” Cha Thrat said to the Kelgian’s already departing back. Quickly she

began loosening the nutrient tank harness.

“Before you go, Nurse,” the Hudlar trainee said, “would you mind using some of

that stuff on me? I’mstarving!”

Cha Thrat was among the first to arrive and stood— Hudlars did not use chairs,

so the FROB lecture theater did not provide them—as close as possible to the

operating cradle while she watched the place fill up. There was a scattering of

Melfan ELNTs, Kelgian DBLFs, and Tralthan FGLIs among those present, but the

majority were Hudlars in various stages of training. She was hemmed in by FROBs,

so much so that she did not think that she would be able to leave even if she

should want to, and she assumed—she still could not tell them apart —that the

one standing closest to her was her partner of the morning.

From the conversations going on around her it was obvious that Diagnostician

Conway was regarded as a very important being indeed, a medical near-deity in

whose mind resided, by means of a powerful spell and the instrumentation of

O’Mara, the knowledge, memories, and instincts of many other-species

personalities. Having seen the hapless condition of the FROB ward’s pre-op

patients, she was looking forward with growing anticipation to seeing it

perform.

In appearance Conway was not at all impressive. It was an Earth-human DBDG,

slightly above average inheight, with head fiir that was a darker gray than the

wizard O’Mara’s.

It spoke with the quiet certainty of a great ruler, and began the lecture

without preamble.

“For any of you who may not be completely informed regarding the Hudlar Project,

and who may be concerned with the ethical position, let me assure you that the

patient on which we will be operating today, its fellows in the FROB ward, and

all the other geriatric and pre-geriatric cases waiting in great distress on the

home world, are all candidates for elective surgery.

“The number of cases is so great—a significant proportion of the planetary

population, in fact—that we cannot possibly treat them in Sector General…”

As the Earth-human Diagnostician talked on, Cha Thrat became increasingly

disheartened by the sheer magnitude of the problem. A planet that contained, at

any given time, many millions of beings in the same horrifying condition as the

patients she had been recently attending was an idea that her mind did not want

to face. But it became clear that Conway had faced it and was working toward an

eventual solution—by training large numbers of the medically untutored Hudlars,

assisted by other-species volunteers, to help themselves.

Initially, Sector General would provide basic tuition in FROB physiology, pre-

and postoperative nursing care, and training in just one simple surgical

procedure. The successful candidates, unless they displayed such an unusually

high aptitude that they were offered positions on the staff, would return home

to establish their own training organizations. Within three generations there

would be enough own-species specialist surgeons to make this dreadful and

hitherto unavoidable scourge of the Hudlars a thing of the past.

The sheer scale and what appeared to be the utter,criminal irresponsibility of

the project shocked and sickened Cha Thrat. Conway was not training surgeons, it