for me to do. Then I saw the Earth-human’s injuries and knew that the local
healer would not dare touch it because he was a healer of serviles. Even though
the survivor was not a Sommaradvan warrior, it was plainly a warrior injured in
the course of its duty.
“I am uncertain about your units of time measurement,” she went on. “The crash
occurred just before sunrise, and 1 reached the shore of the lake where Chiang
had been placed shortly before the time of the morning meal. Without proper
medication or knowledge of the body structure, many things had to be considered.
The sensible course would have been to allow the survivor to bleed to death or,
out of kindness, expedite matters by immersing it in the lake…”
She stopped for a moment because O’Mara seemed to have a temporary blockage of
the breathing passages, then she resumed. “After several examinations and
evaluations of the risks, surgery was begun early in the afternoon. At the time
I did not know that Chiang was the ruler of a ship.”
The two Earth-humans exchanged looks, and O’Mara said, “That was five, maybe six
hours later. Do you usually take as long as that to reach a professional
decision? And would it have made any difference if you had known of Chiang’s
importance?”
“There were many risks to consider—I did not want to risk losing a limb,” she
replied sharply, sensing a criticism. “And yes, it should have made a
difference. A warrior-surgeon is in the same position to a ruler as the
servile-healer is in relation to a warrior. I am forbidden to practice beyond my
qualifications. The penalties are most severe, even allowing for the
increasingly lax standards so prevalent these days. But in this instance, well,
it was a unique situation. I felt frightened, and excited, and I would probably
have acted in the same way.”
O’Mara said, “I’m glad you don’t normally practice surgery beyond your level of
competence…”
“It’s a good thing she did,” Chiang said softly.
“… And your tutors will be relieved as well,” O’Mara went on. “But I’m
interested in this stratification of the Sommaradvan medical profession. Can you
tell me aboutthat?”
Puzzled by what seemed to be a nonsense question, she replied, “We are not
forbidden to talk about anything. On Sommaradva there are three levels of
persons —serviles, warriors, and rulers—and three levels of healers to care for
them…”
At the bottom were the serviles, the people whose work was undemanding and
repetitious—important in many respects, but completely without risk. They were a
contented group, protected from gross physical damage, and the healers charged
with their care used very simple procedures and medication such as herbs,
poultices, and other traditional remedies. The second level, less numerous than
the serviles, were the warriors, who occupied positions of responsibility and
often great physicaldanger.
There had been no war on Sommaradva for many generations, but the warrior class
had kept the name. They were the descendants of the people who had fought
toprotect their homelands, hunted for food, raised city defenses, and generally
performed the dangerous, responsible jobs while the serviles saw to their
physical needs. Now they were the engineers, technicians, and scientists who
still performed the high-risk jobs associated with mining, power generation,
large-scale construction, and the protection of rulers. For that reason the
injuries sus- \ tained by warriors were and always had been traumatic in nature,
requiring surgical intervention or repair, and this work was the responsibility
of the warrior-surgeons.
The ruler-healers had even greater responsibilities and, at times, much less
reward or satisfaction in their work.
Protected against all physical accident or injury, the ruler class were the
administrators, academics, researchers, and planners on Sommaradva. They were
the .j people charged with the smooth running of the cities and the continents
and the world, and the ills that affected them were invariably the phantasms of
the mind. Their healers dealt in wizardry, spells, sympathetic magic, and all
the other aspects of nonphysical medicine.
“Even from the earliest times the practice of healing has been so divided,” Cha
Thrat concluded, “into physicians and surgeons and wizards.”
When she finished speaking, O’Mara looked down for a moment at its hands, which