reached a similar degree of eminence in the field.
‘There is nothing in the clinical history of our species which even approximates
this condition,” it went on, “and absolutely no precedent for the symptomology.
Regarding the possibility of a nonphysical basis for the condition, I cannot, of
course, be completely objective about this. But I have always been a happy and
well-adjusted person with no mental aberrations in childhood, adolescence, or
adulthood. Friend O’Mara has my psych file and will confirm this. My hope is
that these peculiar symptoms were so sudden in onset that their recession will
be equally rapid.” ‘
“Perhaps Thomnastor could—” Conway began.
“The thought of that—that behemoth approaching me with investigative intent
would cause me to terminate at once. And Thomnastor is busy—Friend Edanelt, be
careful!”
Prilicla had switched its attention suddenly to the view-screen. It went on,
“Pressure, even temporary pressure in that area causes a marked decrease in the
EGCL’s unconscious emoting. I suggest you approach that nerve bundle anteriorly
hrough the opening in the…”
Conway missed the rest of it because O’Mara had gripped his arm and pulled him
carefully out of the low-gravity com-partment.
That was very good advice,” the Chief Psychologist said ner they were some
distance from Prilicla’s ward. “Let’s erase that tape, Doctor, and discuss our
little friend’s problem on the way to my office.”
Conway shook his head firmly. “Not yet. Prilicla said all that could be said
about its case back there. The hard facts are Cinrusskin species is not one of
the Federation’s most robust. The have no stamina, no reserves to resist over a
long effects of any injury or disease, whatever the cause, know—myself, my alter
ego and, I suspect, you your-
self—that unless its condition is treated and relieved very quickly Prilicla
will die within a few hours, perhaps ten hours at most.”
The Major nodded.
“Unless you can come up with a bright idea,” he went on grimly, “and I would
certainly welcome it if you did, I intend to go on thinking with the Cinrusskin
tape. It hasn’t helped much up to now, but I want to think without constraint,
without having to play mental games with myself to avoid emoting too strongly in
the presence of my patient. There is something very odd about this case,
something I’m missing.
“So I’m going for a walk,” he ended suddenly. “I won’t be far away. Just far
enough, I hope, to be outside the range of Prilicla’s empathy.”
O’Mara nodded again and left without speaking.
Conway put on a lightweight suit and traveled upward for three levels into the
section reserved for the spiney, membraneous, chlorine-breathing Illensan
PVSJs. The inhabitants of Illensa were not a sociable species by Earth-human
standards, and Conway was hoping to walk their foggy yellow wards and corridors
without interruption while he wrestled with his problem. But that was not to
be.
Senior Physician Gilvesh, who had worked with Conway some months earlier on a
Dwerlan DBPK operation, was feeling uncharacteristically sociable and wanted to
talk shop with its fellow Senior. They met in a narrow corridor leading from the
level’s pharmacy and there was no way that Conway could avoid talking to it.
Gilvesh was having problems. It was one of those days, the Illensan medic said,
when all the patients were demanding inordinate amounts of attention and
unnecessary quantities of palliative medication, the administration of which
required its personal supervision. The junior medics and nursing staff were
under pressure, therefore, and there was evident an unusual degree of verbal
overreaction and sheer bad temper. Gilvesh said that it was explaining and
apologizing in advance for any seeming discourtesy encountered by such an
important visiting Senior as Conway. There were several of Gilvesh’s cases, it
insisted, which he would find interesting.
In common with the other medics trained for service in a multienvironment
hospital, Conway had a thorough grounding
in the basics of extraterrestrial physiology, metabolism, and the more common
diseases of the Federation’s member species. But for a detailed consultation and
diagnosis of the kind required here he needed an Illensan physiology tape, and
Gilvesh knew that as well as he did. So the Illensan Senior, it seemed, was