“There is agreement,” Khone said. “Very well, the stings may be covered. But the
patient must be touched only by the machine.”
Cha Thrat sighed. It had been too much to hope that a few highly personal
revelations would demolish the conditioning of millennia. Without mbving any
closer, she held the scanner in position with the long tongs and used the rear
medial limb to open her pack so that the probe’s manipulators, which were being
guided with great precision by Naydrad, could extract the sting covers.
Those covers had been designed to contain the needle-pointed stings and absorb
their venom. Once in position, they released an adhesive that would ensure that
they remained so until Khone reached Sector General. This property of the covers
had not been mentioned to the patient. But with the distorters making it
impossible for any call for joining to be heard by the other townspeople and its
stings rendered impotent, the Gogleskan would be unable to avoid direct physical
contact with one of the frightful off-worlders.
Considering the rapidly worsening clinical picture, the sooner that happened the
better.
But Khone was not stupid and probably it had already realized what was to
happen, which would explain its growing agitation as two, then three of the four
sting covers were placed in position. Now it was moving itshead weakly from side
to side, deliberately avoiding me last cover. Quickly Cha Thrat tried to give it
something else to think about.
“As can be clearly observed in the scanner and biosensor displays,” she said
impersonally, “the fetus is being presented laterally to the birth canal and is
immobilized in this position. It has exerted pressure on important blood vessels
and nerve connections to the parent’s mid- and lower body, which has resulted in
loss of muscle function and sensation and, unless relieved, will lead to
necrosis in the areas concerned. The umbilical is also being increasingly
compressed as the involuntary mus-, cles continue trying to expel the fetus. The
fetal heartbeat is weak, rapid, and irregular, and the vital signs of the parent
are not good, either. Has the patient-healer any suggestion or comments on this
case?” Khone did not reply.
Only Prilicla would know how much Cha Thrat’s coldly impersonal tone belied her
true feelings toward the incredibly brave little creature who lay like a tumbled
haystack so close to her, but still too far away in the non material distances
of the mind for her to be able to help it. Yet they were alike in so many ways,
she thought. Both had taken risks that no other members of their species were
willing to take—she had treated an off-world life-form she had never seen
before, and Khone had volunteered itself for treatment by off-worlders. But of
the two, Khone was the braver and its risks the greater.
“Is this condition rare or common among gravid females,” she asked quietly, “and
what is the normal procedure in such cases?”
The other’s voice was so weak that the reply was barely audible as it said, “The
condition is not rare. Normal procedure in such cases is to administer
massivedoses of medication that enables the patient and fetus to terminate with
minimum discomfort.”
Cha Thrat could think of nothing to say or do.
In the stillness of Rhone’s room she became increas- I ingly aware of the
external noises: the constant whistling and hissing of the distorters; and
coming to her through the empath’s communicator, the voice of Naydrad
complaining about the difficulty of capping the stings of a patient who would
not cooperate; and more quietly, Murchison, Danalta, and Prilicla itself as they
suggested and quickly discarded a number of wildly differing procedures.
“The medical team’s voices are unclear,” Cha Thrat said anxiously. “Has anything
been decided? What are the immediate instructions?”
Suddenly the voices became loud and very clear indeed, because they were coming
from the probe’s speaker as well as her own earpiece. Naydrad, its attention
concentrated on the probe’s remote-controlled manipulators as it tried to fit
the last sting cover, must have decided that she wanted more volume and reacted
to her statement without thinking.
The conversation was completely unguarded.
Prilicla was speaking, quietly and reassuringly, and clearly unaware that its