attention, Cha Thrat! They’re bringing in your ex-patient.”
Two of the silver-furred beings, identified by Danalta as Kelgian operating room
nurses, moved Chiang in on a powered litter, even though the ship ruler was
quite capable of walking and was constantly reminding them of this fact. The
Earth-human’s torso was draped in a green sheet so that only its head was
visible. Chiang’s protests continued while they were transferring it to the
examination table, until one of the nurses, in a manner completely lacking in
the respect due a ruler, reminded it that it was a fully grown, mature entity
who should stop acting like an infant.
Before the nurse had*finished speaking, a six-legged, exoskeletal being with a
high, richly marked carapace entered and approached the examination table.
Silently it held out its pincers and waited while a nurse sprayed them with
something that dried into a thin, transparent film.
“That is Senior Physician Edanelt,” Danalta said. “It is a Melfan, physiological
classification ELNT, whose reputation as a surgeon is—”
“Apologies for my personal ignorance,” Cha Thrat broke in. “Beyond the fact that
I am a DCNF, the Earth-human is a DBDG, and the Melfan is an ELNT, I know
nothing of your classification system.”
“You’ll learn,” the shape-changer said. “But for now, just watch and be ready
for questions.”
But there were no questions. While the examinationproceeded, Edanelt did not
speak and neither did the nurses or the patient. Cha Thrat learned the purpose
of one of the mechanisms, a deep scanner that showed in minute detail the
subdermal blood supply network, musculature, bone structure, and even the
movement of the deepest underlying organs. The images were relayed to the
observation gallery’s screen, together with a mass of physiological data that
was presented graphically but in a form that was completely unintelligible to
her,”That is something else you will learn,” Danalta said. Cha Thrat had been
watching the screen closely, so captivated by Edanelt’s meticulous charting of
her surgical repair work that she had not realized that she had been thinking
aloud. She looked up in time to see the arrival of yet another and even more
incredible being. “That,” Danalta said simply, “is Prilicla.” It was an insect,
an enormous, incredibly fragile, flying insect that was tiny in comparison with
the other beings in the room. From its tubular, exoskeletal body there projected
six pencil-thin legs, four even more delicately formed manipulators, and four
sets of wide, iridescent wings that were beating slowly as it flew toward the
examination table and hovered above it. Suddenly it flipped over, attached its
sucker-tipped legs to the ceiling, and curved its extensible eyes down to regard
the patient.
From somewhere in its body came a series of musical clicks and trills, which her
translator relayed as “Friend Chiang, you look as if you’ve been in a war.”
“We’re not savages!” Cha Thrat protested angrily. “There hasn’t been a war on
Sommaradva for eight generations—”
She stopped abruptly as the long, incredibly thin legs and partly folded wings
of the insect began to shake. It was as if there were a strong wind blowing
through theroom. Everyone on and around the examination table was staring at the
little being, and then they were turning to look up at the observation gallery.
At her.
“Prilicla is a true empath,” Danalta said sharply. “It feels what you are
feeling. Please control your emotions!” •It was very
difficult to control her emotions: not only her anger at the implied insult to
her now unwarlike race but also the feeling of utter disbelief that such control
was necessary. She had often been forced to hide her feelings before superiors
or patients, but trying to control them was a new experience. With a great
effort, which in some obscure fashion seemed to be a negation of effort, she
made herself calm.
“Thank you, new friend,” the empath trilled at her. It was no longer trembling
as it returned its attention to Chiang.
“I’m wasting your valuable time, Doctors,” the Earth-human said. “Honestly, I
feel fine.”
Prilicla dropped from the ceiling to hover above the site of Chiang’s recent
injuries, and touched the scar tissue with a cluster of feather-light digits. It