distressing to a nonmedical man, Conway thought, and some of these casualties
were in really bad shape. But before he could reply the Captain went on, “I’ve
been moving around the area quickly, counting them and looking to see if any
have been covered by sand or hidden between rocks. There are twenty-seven of
them in all. But the positioning of the bodies is odd, Doctor. It’s as if the
ship was in imminent danger of blowing up or catching fire, and they used the
last of their remaining strength to escape from it.
“The sensors show no such danger,” he added.
Dodds waited for a few seconds to be sure that the Captain had finished
speaking, then said, “Three alive and showing slight movement. One that looks
dead, but you’re the doctor, Doctor.”
‘ “Thank you,” Conway said dryly. “We’ll look at them as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant, help Naydrad load the litter, please.”
He joined Murchison then, and for the next hour they moved among the casualties,
assessing the degree of injury and readying them for transfer to the lander.
The litter was almost full and had space for two of the medium-sized casualties,
which they had tentatively classified as belonging to physiological
type DCMH,. or one of the large DCOJs. The very small DCLGs, which were less
than half the mass of the DCMH Conway had first examined, were left for the time
being because they all showed flickerings of life. As yet neither Murchison nor
Con-way could make sense of them physiologically. She thought the small DCLGs
might be nonintelligent lab animals or possibly ship’s pets, while Conway was
convinced that the large DCOJs were food animals, also nonintelligent. But with
newly discovered e xtra-terrestrial life-forms, one could never be sure of
anything, and all of them would therefore have to be treated as patients.
Then they found one of the small aliens who was quite definitely dead. Murchison
said briskly, “I’ll work on it in the lander. Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll
have something to tell Prilicla about their basal metabolism before the
casualties begin arriving.”
A flurry of wind blew the sand disturbed by her feet ahead of her as she moved
toward the lander, the small cadaver supported by her shoulder and one arm while
the other hand, carrying her med kit, acted as a counterbalance. Conway was
about to suggest that a proper examination on Rhabwar, where the full laboratory
facilities were available, would be better. But Murchis-on would already have
considered doing that and decided agai nst it, for two obvious reasons: If she
returned to the ambulance ship with Dodds and Naydrad, some of the casualties
already loaded would have to be left behind, and she needed to tell Prilicla
only enough for the empath to provide emergency surgery and supportive treatment
until the survivors were taken to Sector General.
“Captain, you overheard?” Conway said. “I’d like Dodds and Naydrad to take off
as soon as Pathologist Murchison is through. It looks as if three trips will be
necessary to lift all of them, and another for ourselves. We’re going to be
pushed for time if th is is to be wrapped up before the sunset storm hits the
area.”
There wa_s no reply from Fletcher, which usually signified assent when Conway
was in command. He went on, “Murchison will stay behind and assemble another
batch of casualties for the next lift. We’ll collect them where there is shelter
from
the sun and sand. The lee side of the wreck would do, or better still, inside it
if there isn’t too much debris.”
“No, Doctor,” the Captain said. “I’m worried about what we might find on that
ship.”
Conway did not reply, but the sigh he gave as he continued his examination of
the casualty he was working on made his impatience clear. Fletcher was one of
the Monitor Corps’ acknowledged experts in the field of alien ship technology.
This was the reason he had been given command of Sector General’s most advanced
ambulance ship—it had long been recognized that a rescue mission’s greatest
danger was to the rescuers, who would be looking for survivors in a distressed
vessel whose technology and operating principles they did not understand.