about Gogleskan preg-nancies as Khone itself did, so it might be that the
literal wording of the signal released Conway from the promise. Knowing that its
patient required nothing more than fasl transport to the hospital, the
Diagnostician was no| overly concerned, and it told you not to be concerned,
either, by its absence.
“It may well be,” she ended, “that the recent criticism of Diagnostician
Conway’s seemingly unethical behavior’ was without basis.”
Naydrad turned toward Murchison and made the closest thing to an apology that a
Kelgian could make as it said, “Cha Thrat is probably right, and I am stupid.”
“Undoubtedly right,” Danaita joined in. “I’m sorry, Pathologist. If I was in
Earth-human form right now, my face would be red.”
Murchison did not reply but continued to stare at Cha Thrat. The Pathologist’s
face had returned to its normal coloration, but otherwise displayed no
expression that she could read. Prilicla drifted toward her until she could feel
the slight, regular down-draft from its wings.
“Cha Thrat,” the Cinrusskin said quietly, “I have a strong feeling that you have
made a new friend…”
It broke off as the casualty deck’s speaker came to life with the overamplified
voice of Fletcher.
“Senior Physician, Control here.” it said. “Hyper-space Jump complete and we are
estimating the Goglesk orbiting maneuver in three hours, two minutes. The lander
is powered up and ready to go, so you c transfer your medical gear as soon as
convenient.
“We are in normal-space radio contact with Lieutenant Wainright,” it went on,
“who wants to talk to you about your patient, Khone.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Prilicla replied. “We want to talk about Khone as well.
Please relay friend Wainright’smessage to the casualty deck here and to the
lander bay when we move out. We can work as we talk.”
“Will do,” Fletcher said. “Relay complete. You are through to Senior Physician
Prilicla, Lieutenant. Goahead.”
In spite of the distortion caused by the translation into Sommaradvan, Cha Thrat
could detect the deep anxiety in Wainright’s voice. She listened carefully with
only part of her mind on the job of helping Naydrad load medical equipment onto
the litter.
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” it said, “the original arrangements for the pickup on our
landing area will have to be scrapped. Khone isn’t able to travel, and sending
transport manned by off-planet people to collect it from its town will be
tricky. At a time like this the natives are particularly, well, twitchy, and the
arrival of visually horrifying alien monsters to carry it and its unborn child
away could cause a joining and—”
“Friend Wainright,” Prilicla interrupted gently, “what is the condition of the
patient?”
“I don’t know, Doctor,” the Lieutenant replied. “When we met three days ago
it told me that Junior would arrive very soon and would I please send for the
ambulance ship. It also said that it had to make arrangements to have its
patients cared for, and that it would come to the base shortly before the lander
was due. Then a few hours ago a message was relayed verbally to the base saying
that it could not move from its house, but the bearer of the message could not
tell me whether the cause was illness or injury. Also, it asked if you had
another power pack for the scanner Conway left with it. Khone has been
impressing its patients with that particular marvel of Federation medical
science and the energy cell is flat, which would explain why Khone was unableto
give us any clinical information on its own present j condition.”
“I’m sure you are right, friend Wainright,” Prilicla I said. “However, the
patient’s sudden loss of mobility in- 1 dicates a possibly serious condition
that may be deter- 1 iorating. Can you suggest a method of getting it into the !
lander, quickly and with minimum risk to itself and its j friends?”
“Frankly, no, Doctor,” Wainright said. “This is going to be a maximum-risk job
from the word go. If it was a member of any other species we know of, I could
load it < onto my flyer and bring it to you within a few minutes. But no Gogleskan, not even Healer Khone, could sit that close to an off-planet creature