“Good,” said the senior physician, clicking one of its pincers together in a gesture that might have signified approval but that looked threatening. “I would like to have another long talk with you, Patient Hewlitt, this time covering the episode that resulted in your first admission to an Earth hospital when you…”
“But you already have that information,” Hewlitt broke in. “It’s in my case history, in much more detail than I could possibly remember now. There is nothing wrong with me, at least not right now. Instead of wasting time talking to me, surely you could visit patients who are more in need of attention?”
“They received attention,” Leethveeschi joined in, “while you were sleeping. Now it’s your turn. But Patient Hewlitt is right. I have more important things to do than listen to two healthy beings talking to each other. Do you need me here, Doctor?”
“Thank you, no, Charge Nurse,” Medalont replied. It returned its attention to Hewlitt and went on, “I am not wasting my time talking to you, because I am hoping that today, or sometime soon, you will tell me something that is not in your case history, something that will enable me to solve this clinical conundrum … .”
The interrogation resumed at the point where it had ended the previous day, and it seemed to last forever. If Hewlitt could have read the other’s bony exoskeletal features, he felt sure that they would have been registering disappointment. But they were forced to break off when the voice of the charge nurse spoke from his bedside viewer. Until then he had not known that the device included a communicator.
“Doctor,” said Leethveeschi, “the midday meal is due in thirty minutes. Will you be finished with your patient by then?”
“Yes, at least for today,” said Medalont. To Hewlitt it went on, “I try to do something more for our patients than bore them to death with questions. We will need to make a series of tests, which means me taking samples of your blood for path lab investigation. Don’t worry about it; the process is completely painless. Please uncover your upper arm.”
“You-you’re not supposed to give me anything that might…” began Hewlitt.
“I know, I know,” said the doctor, its rapid, clicking speech sounding more impatient than usual. “If you remember, it was I who told you that you are to receive no medication of any kind until we have identified the condition we are treating, which is why I require a fairly large sample. I am withdrawing blood, Patient Hewlitt, not injecting medication. You will feel nothing, but if the sight distresses you then close your eyes.”
He had never been distressed by the sight of his own blood, at least not in the number of small quantities that the doctor seemed to consider a large sample. When it was over, Medalont thanked him and said that it would have to hurry if it was to make a lunch meeting on time.
As the doctor had promised, Hewlitt had not felt a thing, and a small area of nonsensation persisted inside the fold of his elbow where the samples had been withdrawn. He relaxed back into the pillows but decided to stay awake until after lunch by watching and listening to the other patients who were within range of his translator. Compared to his blind near-panic of yesterday, he was surprised by the growing curiosity he was feeling about them.
Hewlitt did not know how much time went by, because it was too much trouble to bother lifting his wrist to look at his watch. He continued to feel fine, comfortable, without pain, and very curious about the thick, grey fog that had drifted into the ward and was keeping him from seeing the other beds. The sounds of the ward, too, were fading, but he was able to see and hear the flashing red light and the strident beeping noises coming from the monitor on his chest, and Charge Nurse Leethveeschi looming over him and shouting into its communicator.
“Bed eighteen, classification DBDG Earth-human. Two-plus minutes into cardiac and respiratory arrest. Resuscitation team, move!”
Something like a column of oily seaweed projected from Leethveeschi’s body and pushed a bulge in the creature’s protective envelope to flop onto Hewlitt’s chest. He felt the steady, regular pressure of a heart massage, and the last thing he saw was the charge nurse leaning closer.
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