fact, so you don’t have to gopoking about in this pain-free and disgustingly
heaitny body checking my vital signs.”
“I don’t ask questions like that anymore,” Cha Thrat said, wishing suddenly that
she could laugh like Earth-humans to hide the fact that she did not feel like
laughing. “I’m in Maintenance now, so my instruments are much larger and would
be very much more uncomfortable.”
“O’Mara told me about that,” the Chalder said. “Is the work interesting?”
Neither of them, Cha Thrat felt sure, were saying the things they wanted to say.
“Very interesting,” she replied. “I’m learning a lot about the inner workings of
this place, and the Monitor Corps pays me, not very much, for doing it. When
I’ve saved enough to take some leave on Chalderescol, I’ll go and see how
everything is with you.”
“If you visited me, Cha Thrat,” the AUGL broke in, “you would not be allowed to
spend any of your hard-earned Monitor currency on Chalderescol. As you are a
name-user and off-world member of my family, they would be deeply insulted, and
would probably have you for lunch, if you tried.”
“In that case,” Cha Thrat said happily, “I shall probably visit you quite soon.”
“If you don’t swim clear, Technician,” said an Earth-human in Transfer Team
coveralls who had appeared beside her, “we’ll seal you in the tank now, and you
can damn well travel there with your friend!”
“Muromeshomon,” she said quietly as the seal was closing, “may you fare well.”
When she turned to go back to the unplanted vegetation, Cha Thrat’s mind was
concentrated on her Chalder friend to such an extent that she did not think of
the impropriety of what she, a mere second-grade techni-cian, said to the
Earth-human Monitor Corps Major as she passed it.
“My congratulations, Chief Psychologist,” she said gratefully, “on a most
successful! spell.”
O’Mara responded by opening its mouth, but not even an untranslatable sound came
out.
The three days that followed were spent on the Rhab-war resupply job, bringing
crew consumables and time-expired equipment to the largely Earth-human
maintenance people charged with bringing the ambulance ship to peak operating
efficiency, and occasionally assisting with the installation of some of the
simpler items. On its next trip Rhabwar would be carrying Diagnostician Conway,
a former leader of its medical team, and the present crew did not want it to
find any cause for complaint.
On the fourth day, Timmins asked Cha Thrat to wait while the other assignments
were given out.
“You seem to be very interested in our special ambulance ship,” the Lieutenant
said when they were alone. “I’m told that you’ve been climbing all over and
through it, and mostly when it’s empty and you are supposed to be off-duty. Is
this so?”
“Yes, sir,” Cha Thrat said enthusiastically. “It is a complex and beautifully
functional vessel, judging by what I’ve heard and seen, and it is almost a
miniature version of the hospital itself. The casualty treatment and
other-species environmental arrangements are especially. ..” She broke off, to
add warily, “I would not try to test or use any of this equipment without
permission.”
“I should hope not!” the Lieutenant said. “All right, then. I have another job
for you, on Rhabwar, if you think you can do it. Come with me.”
It was a small compartment that had been convertedfrom a post-op recovery room,
ana it suit reiameu us direct access to the ELNT Operating Theater. The ceiling
had been lowered, which indicated that the occupant-to-be either crawled or did
not stand very tall, and the plumbing and power supply lines, revealed by the
incomplete wall paneling, bore the color codings for a warm-blooded
oxygen-breather with normal gravity and atmospheric pressure requirements.
The wall panels that were in place had been finished to resemble rough planking
with a strangely textured grain which resembled a mineral rather than wood.
There was an untidy heap of decorative vegetation on the floor waiting to be
hung, and beside it a large picture of a landscape that could have been taken in
any forested lakeland on Sommaradva, if it had not been for subtle differences
in the tree formations.
The framework and padding of a small, low-level bed was placed against the wall
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