life.” ,At Prilicla’s direction she heavily dosed the liquid food and water,
then distributed it quickly to the dormitories while the Cinrusskin moved from
deck to deck, with its empathic faculty extended to its maximum range and
sensitivity. With full stomachs and dulled minds— some, of them even went to
sleep—the crew members’ emotional radiation became less obtrusive, but otherwise
the results were negative.
“I still can’t get a fix,” Prilicla said, its body trembling to its own as well
as Cha Thrat’s disappointment. “There is still too much interference from the
conscious survivors. All we can do now is return to Rhabwar and try to assist
friend Murchison. Your charges will not grow hungry again for some time.
Coming?”
“No,” she said, “I would prefer to continue the normal, physical search for your
dying survivor.”
“Friend Cha,” Prilicla said, “must I remind you again that I am not a telepath,
and that your secret, inner thoughts remain your own property. But your feelings
are very clear to me, and they are of low-intensity excitement, pleasure, and
caution, with the excitement predominating and the caution barely detectable.
This worries me. My guess is that you have had an idea or come to a conclusion
of some kind, which will involve personal risk before it can be proved or
disproved. Would you like to tell me about it?”
The simple answer would have been “No,” but shecould not bring herself to hurt
the empath’s hypersensitive feelings with such a verbal discourtesy. Instead she
said carefully, “It may be that the idea came as a result of my ignorance
regarding your empathic faculty, hence my reticence in mentioning it until I was
sure that it had some value and 1 would avoid embarrassment.”
Prilicla continued to hover silently in the center of the compartment, and Cha
Thrat went on. “When we first searched the ship you were able to detect the
presence of the unconscious survivor, but not locate it because of the conscious
emoting of the others. Now that they are pacified into near-unconsciousness, the
situation is the same because our survivor’s condition has worsened, and I fear
that it will remain the same even when the anesthetic becomes available and the
others, too, are deeply unconscious.”
“I share that fear,” the empath said quietly. “But go on.”
“In my ignorance of the finer workings of your empathic faculty,” she continued,
“I assumed that a weak source of emotional radiation positioned nearby would be
more easily detectable than a stronger source at a distance. If there had been
any such variation in strength, I’m sure you would have mentioned it.”
“I would,” Prilicla said, “and you are right in many respects. In others, well,
my emphathic faculty has limitations. It responds to the quality and intensity
of feelings as well as their proximity. But detection is dependent on factors
other than distance. There is the degree of intelligence and emotional
sensitivity, the intensity of the emotions being felt, the physical size and
strength of the emoting brain, and, of course, the level of consciousness.
Normally these limitations can be ignored when I’m searching for just one source
and my friends, usually the medical team, move away or controltheir emotions
while I’m searching. That isn’t the case here. But you must have reached some
conclusions. What are they?”
Choosing her words carefully, Cha Thrat replied, “That, because of its location,
the unconscious survivor’s radiation is and will remain obscured, and that it is
very close to, or surrounded by, the conscious sources. This narrows the volume
to be searched to the dormitory deck and perhaps the levels above and below it,
and I shall concentrate on that volume only. And you said just now that the
physical size of the emoting brain is a factor. Could it be that the survivor is
a very small, and young, FGHJ hiding close to the mindless parent?”
“Possibly,” Prilicla replied. “But regardless of age or size, it is in very bad
shape.”
Controlling her growing excitement, she went on. ‘There must be small storage
cabinets, systems inspection centers, and odd holes and corners where a crew
member or child would not normally go, but where a barely conscious entity whose