proceed without immediate surgical intervention?”
“No!” Rhone said vehemently, forgetting to be impersonal. “You must not touch
me!”
“But we’re your…” Prilicla began. It hesitated for an instant, then went on.
“Only friends wishing to help the patient are here. The psychological
difficulties are understood. If necessary the probe can be instructed to
administer sedative medication so that the patient will be unconscious and
unaware of being touched while the operation is in progress.”
“No,” Rhone said again. ‘The patient must be conscious during and for a short
period following the birth. There are things that the parent must do for the
newborn. Can your mechanism be instructed to perform the operation? The patient
would be less frightened by the touch of a machine than that of an off-world
monster.”
Prilicla trembled again with the emotional effort needed to make a negative
reply. It said, “Regrettably not. The remote-controlled manipulators are not
sufficiently accurate or responsive for such a delicate procedure. If an
observation might be made, the patient is in a1severely weakened state and may
shortly become unconscious without the assistance of medication.”
Rhone was silent for a moment, then with a note of desperation in its voice the
Gogleskan said, “It is consciously realized that the off-world healers feel
friendship and deep concern for the patient. But subconsciously, on the darker,
unthinking levels of the mind, the close approach of one of these visually
horrifying creatures would represent an immediate and deadly threat to the life
of the patient, which would inevitably lead to a call for joining.”
“The call would not be heard,” Prilicla said, and explained the purpose of the
sound distorters. But Rhone’s reply set the empath trembling again.
“A call for joining,” it said, “presupposes a condition of extreme mental
distress that is followed by a massive and uncontrolled expenditure of physical
energy. The effect on the patient and fetus could lead to termination.”
Quickly Prilicla said, “Time is short and the clinical condition is
deteriorating rapidly. Risks must be taken. The probe mechanism can be made to
provide two-way vision, and pictures of the off-world friends will be sent. Will
the patient choose from among them the least frightening being, who will then
try to assist it?”
While the litter’s vision pickup swung to cover each of them in turn, Rhone was
saying “The Earth-humans are familiar and trusted, as are the Cinrusskin and
Kelgian seen during the earlier visit to Goglesk, but all of them would arouse
blind, instinctive terror if they approached closely. The other two beings are
unfamiliar, both to the recollection of the patient or in the memories of the
Earth-human Conway. Are they healers?”
There was a note of relief in the empath’s voice as it replied, “Both are recent
arrivals at the hospital and were unknown to Conway at the time of its first
visit.
The small, globular being is Danalta, an entity capable of taking any required
physical form including, if desirable, that of a Gogleskan, or of extruding any
limbs or sensory organs necessary for the repair or alleviation of an organic
malfunction. It will work under the Senior Physician’s direction and is an ideal
choice for—”
“A shape-changer!” Rhone broke it. “Apologies are tendered to this entity, whose
nonphysical qualities are doubtless admirable, but the thought of such a being
is terrifying, and its close approach in the guise of one of my people would be
unbearably repugnant. No!
“The tall creature,” it added, “would be much less disturbing.”
“The tall being,” said Prilicla apologetically, “is a hospital
maintenance-technician.”
‘ “And previously,” Cha Thrat added quietly, “a warrior-surgeon of Sommaradva,
with other-species experience.”
The empath was trembling again, and this time because of the storm of mixed
feelings being generated by the other members of the medical team.
“Apologies are tendered,” Prilicla said hastily. “A short delay is necessary.
This matter requires discussion.”
“For clinical reasons,” Khone replied, “the patient-healer hopes that the delay
will be very short.”
It was Pathologist Murchison who spoke first. It said, “Your other-species
experience is limited to an Earth-human DBDG and a Hudlar FROB, both involving
simple, external surgery to a limb. Neither of them or, for that matter, your