you are with Khone, make no sudden movements that might frighten it without
first explaining the reason for them. I shall be monitoring friend Rhone’s
emotional radiation from here, and will warn you if any action causes a sudden
increase of fear. But you are well aware of the situation, Cha Thrat. Please
hurry.”
Naydrad had her carrier pack already filled and waiting. She added the
replacement power cell for Rhone’s scanner and began climbing from the top of
the litter on to the hospital roof.
“Good luck,” Murchison said. Naydrad ruffled its fur and the others made
untranslatable noises.
The roof sagged alarmingly under Cha Thrat’s weight, and one of her forefeet
went right through the flimsy structure, but it was a much quicker route than
crawling through a maze of low-ceilinged corridors. She dropped into the
uncovered passageway leading to Rhone’s room, crouched awkwardly onto two knees
and three of her medial limbs, and, with Prilicla warning the patient of her
arrival, moved only her head and shouldersthrough the entrance. For the first
time she was able to study a Gogleskan FOKT at close quarters.
“The intention,” Cha Thrat said carefully, “is not to touch the patient
directly.”
“Gratitude is expressed,” Khone replied in a voice that was barely audible above
the sound of the distorters.
The mass of unruly hair and spikes that covered the erect, ovoid body were less
irregular in color and position than the probe pictures had suggested. The body
hair had mobility, although not to the extent as that possessed by the Kelgians,
and lying motionless amid the multicolored cranial fur were a number of long,
pale tendrils that were used only during a joining to link the member minds of
the group. Four small, vertical orifices, two for breathing and speaking and two
for food ingestion, encircled its waist.
The spikes covering the body were highly flexible, grouped together into digital
clusters, and were capable of fine manipulation, and the lower body was
encircled by a thick apron of muscle, under which the four short legs could be
withdrawn when the being wished to rest.
Now it lay on its side, a position from which even a fully fit and active
Gogleskan would have difficulty in recovering.
Quietly Cha Thrat said, “Instruct the probe to bring the scanner here. When the
power cell has been replaced, return it to within easy reach of the patient,
then move the machine aside.”
To Khone she went on. “Unlike the visiting healers, the patient has been unaware
of its own condition and an immediate self-examination is requested. Since the
patient is also a healer with extensive knowledge of its own life processes, any
comments or suggestions it cares to make would be helped to the off-planet
colleagues.”
Prilicla’s voice came from her earpiece but not the probe’s speaker, which meant
that the empath wanted to talk to her alone. It said, “That was well spoken, Cha
Thrat. No patient, no matter how ill or injured, wants to feel completely
useless and dependent. Otherwise well-intentioned healers sometimes forget
that.”
That was one of the first lessons she had learned at the medical school on
Sommaradva. Another, which had obviously been learned by Prilicla, was that
junior medics facing a new and difficult job benefited from encouragement.”
“The patient,” Khone said suddenly, “is unable toguide the scanner.”
There was nothing in the Cinrusskin’s instrument pack long enough to reach Khone
from Cha Thrat’s present position. Impersonally she asked, “Is it permitted to
use the Gogleskan instruments?” “Of course,” Khone said.
On the side table there was a set of long, expanding tongs, made from highly
polished wood and with hinges of a soft, reddish metal, used for bringing
instruments or dressings to bear on the otherwise untouchable Gogleskan
patients. Lying beside them was a thin, conical object that had been fashioned
crudely from dried clay, with short twigs and straw stuck all over it. She had
mistaken it at first for a piece of decorative or aromatic vegetation. Now that
she knew what it was, Cha Thrat thought that its resemblance to the
aesthetically pleasing Sommaradvan body shape was close only in the eyes of a
very sick Gogleskan.