without emitting a distress call, and you know what would happen then.”
“We do,” Prilicla said, trembling at the thought of the widespread,
self-inflicted property damage to the town and the mental anguish of the
inhabitants that would ensue.
The Lieutenant went on. “Your best bet would be to ignore the base and land as
close as possible to Rhone’s house, in a small clearing between it and the shore
of an inland lake. I’ll circle the area in a flyer and guide you down. Maybe we
can devise something on the spot. You’ll need some special remote handling
devices to move it out, but I can help you with the external dimensions of
Rhone’s house and doorways…”
While Cha Thrat helped the rest of the medical team move equipment into the
lander, Wainright and the empath continued to wrestle with the problem. But it
was obvious that they had no clear answers and were, instead, trying to provide
for all eventualities.
“Cha Thrat,” Prilicla said, breaking off its conversation with the base
commander. “As a nonmember of the crew I cannot give you orders, but we’ll need
as manyextra hands down there as we can assemble. You areparticularly well
equipped with manipulatory appendages, as well as an understanding of the
devices used to move and temporarily accommodate the patient, and I feel in you
a willingness to accompany us.”
“Your feeling is correct,” Cha Thrat said, knowing that the intensity of
excitement and gratitude the other’s words had generated made verbal thanks
unnecessary.
“If we load any more gadgetry into the lander,” Nay-drad said, “there won’t be
enough space for the patient, much less a hulking great Sommaradvan.”
But there was enough space inside the lander to take all of them, especially
when those not wearing gravity compensators, which was everyone but Prilicla,
were further compressed by the lander’s savage deceleration. Lieutenant Dodds,
Rhabwar’s astrogation officer and the lander’s pilot, had been told that speed
had priority over a comfortable ride, and it obeyed that particular order with
enthusiasm. So fast and uncomfortable was the descent that Cha Thrat saw nothing
of Goglesk until she stepped onto its surface.
For a few moments she thought that she was back on Somrnaradva, standing in a
grassy clearing beside the shore of a great inland lake and with the
tree-shrouded outlines of a small, servile township in the middle distance. But
the ground beneath her feet was not that of her home planet, and the grass,
wildflowers, and all the vegetation around her were subtly different in color,
odor, and leaf structure from their counterparts on Som-maradva. Even the
distant trees, although looking incredibly similar to some of the lowland
varieties at home, were the products of a completely different evolutionary
background.
Sector General had seemed strange and shocking toher at first, but it had been a
fabrication of metal, a gigantic artificial house. This was a different world!
“Is your species afflicted with sudden and inexplicable bouts of paralysis?”
Naydrad asked. “Stop wasting time and bring out the litter.”
She was guiding the powered litter down the unloading ramp when Wainright’s
flyer landed and rolled to a stop close beside them. The five Earth-humans who
manned the Goglesk base jumped out. Four of them scattered quickly and began
running toward the town, testing their translation and public address equipment
as they went, while the Lieutenant came toward the lander.
“If you have anything to do that involves two or more of you working closely
together,” it said quickly, “do it now while the flyer is hiding you from view
of the town. And when you move out, remain at least five meters apart. If these
people see you moving closer together than that, or making actual bodily contact
by touching limbs, it won’t precipitate a joining, but it will cause them to
feel deeply shocked and intensely uncomfortable. You must also—”
“Thank you, friend Wainright,” Prilicla said gently. “We cannot be reminded too
often to be careful.”
The Lieutenant’s features deepened in color, and it did not speak again until,
walking i a well-separated line abreast, they were approaching the outskirts of
the town.
“It doesn’t look like much to us,” Wainright said softly, the feelings behind