it was my first opportunity to have a really close look at the DCNF
physiological classification as a whole, as opposed to one of the limbs. Thank
you, it was interesting and most instructive.
“But now that you are completely recovered,” it went on, with a quick glance
toward O’Mara, “and will require only a course of exercises before you would be
fit for duty, what are we going to do with you?”
She suspected that it was a rhetorical question, but she badly wanted to reply
to it. Anxiously she said, “There have been mistakes, misunderstandings. They
will not occur again. I would like to remain in the hospital and continue my
training.”
“No!” Conway said sharply. In a quieter voice it went on. “You are a fine
surgeon, Cha Thrat—potentially a great one. Losing you would be a shameful waste
of talent. But keeping you on the medical staff, with your peculiar ideas of
what constitutes ethical behavior, is out of the question. There isn’t a ward in
the hospital that would accept you for practical training now. Segroth took you
only because O’Mara and I requested it.
“I like to make my surgery lectures as interesting andexciting as possible for
the trainees,” Conway added, “but there are limits, dammit!”
Before either of them could say the words that would send her from the hospital,
Cha Thrat said quickly, “What if something could be done that would guarantee my
future good behavior? One of my early lectures was on the Educator tape system
of teaching alien physiology and medicine that, in effect, gives the recipient
an other-species viewpoint. If I could be given such a tape, one with a more
acceptable, to you, code of professional behavior, then I would be sure to stay
out of trouble.”
She waited anxiously, but the two Earth-humans were looking at each other in
silence, ignoring her.
Without the Educator or physiology tape system, she had learned, a multispecies
hospital like Sector General could not have existed. No single brain, regardless
of species, could hold the enormous quantity of physiological knowledge required
to successfully treat the variety of patients the hospital received. But
complete physiological data on any patient’s species was available by means of
an Educator tape, which was simply the brain record of some great medical mind
belonging to the same or a similar species as the patient to be treated.
A being taking such a tape had to share its mind with a completely alien
personality. Subjectively, that was exactly how it felt; all of the memories and
experiences and personality traits of the being who had donated the tape were
impressed on the receiving mind, not just selected pieces of medical data. An
Educator tape could not be edited and the degree of confusion, emotional
disorienta-tion, and personality dislocation caused to a recipient could not be
adequately described even by the Senior Physicians and Diagnosticians who
experienced it.
The Diagnosticians were the hospital’s highest medical rulers, beings whose
minds were both adaptable andC.B.E.—-6stable enough to retain permanently up
to ten physiology tapes at one time. To their data-crammed minds was given the
job of original research into xenological medicine and the treatment of new
diseases in newly discovered life-forms.
But Cha Thrat was not interested in subjecting herself voluntarily, as had the
Diagnosticians, to a multiplicity of alien ideas and influences. She had heard
it said among the staff that any person sane enough to’be a Diagnostician had to
be mad, and she could well believe it. Her idea represented a much less drastic
solution to the problem.
“If I had an Earth-human, a Kelgian, even a Nidian personality sharing my mind,”
she persisted, “I would understand why the things I sometimes do are considered
wrong, and would be able to avoid doing them. The other-species material would
be used for interpersonal behavioral guidance only. As a trainee I would not try
to use its medical or surgical knowledge on my patients without permission.”
The Diagnostician was suddenly overcome by an attack of coughing. When it
recovered it said, “Thank you, Cha Thrat. I’m sure the patients would thank you,
too. But it’s impossible to… O’Mara, this is your field. You answer it.”