words were reaching Khone as well as herself, Cha Thrat realized. The intense
and conflicting emotional radiation emanating from the other team members
grouped so closely around it was keeping the empath from detecting her own
sudden burst of surprise and fear.
“Cha Thrat,” it said, “there has been some argument, which has since been
resolved in your favor, regarding who should perform the operation. Friend
Rhone’s need is urgent, its condition has deteriorated to the stagewhere the
risk of moving it out tor surgery is able, and your only option is to—”
“No!” she said urgently. “Please stop talking?’ “Do not be distressed, Cha
Thrat,” the empath continued, mistaking the reason for the objection. “Your
professional competence is not in doubt, and Pathologist Murchison and myself
have studied Conway’s notes on the FORT life-form, as have you, and we will
guide you at every stage of the procedure and take complete responsibility
throughout.
“Immediate surgical intervention is required to relievethis condition,” it went
on. “As soon as the last sting iscapped, you will use a Number Eight scalpel to
enlarge’ the birth opening with an incision from the pelvis up tothe— What is
happening?”
There was no need to tell it what was happening because in the time taken to ask
the question it already knew the answer. Rhone, faced with the imminent prospect
of a major surgical attack, had reacted instinctively by emitting the call for
joining and was trying to sting to death the only strange, and therefore
threatening, being within reach. With its legs virtually paralyzed, Rhone was
twisting violently from side to side and using its digital clusters to pull
itself toward Cha Thrat.
The remaining uncapped sting, long, yellow, and with tiny drops of venom already
oozing from its point, was swaying and jerking closer. Frantically Cha Thrat
pushed backward with the forefeet and medial limbs, launching herself toward the
Gogieskan and grasping the base of the sting with three of her upper hands.
“Stop it!” she shouted above the noise of the call.
Forgetting to be impersonal, she went on. “Stop movingor you’ll injure yourself
and the young one. I’m a friend,I want to help you. Naydrad, cap it! Cap it
quickly!”
“Hold it still, then,” the Relgian snapped back,C.B.E.—9swinging the probe’s
manipulator arm above Rhone’s jerking head. “Hold it very still.”
But that was not easy to do. Her upper, neck-level arms and digits had been
evolved for more precise and delicate operations and lacked the heavy
musculature of the medial limbs, and using them meant that Rhone’s head and her
own were almost touching. She strained desperately to tighten her ridiculously
weak grip on the sting, sending waves of pain into her neck and upper thorax.
She knew that if those fingers slipped the sting would immediately be plunged
into the top of her head.
The medical team would probably get to her quickly enough to save her life, but
not those of Rhone and the fetus, which was their only reason for being here.
She was wondering how Murchison, the Diagnostician’s life-mate; and Prilicla,
its long-term friend; and Cha Thrat herself would face Con way with the news of
Rhone’s death when Naydrad shouted, “Got it!”
The last sting was covered. She could relax for a moment. But not Rhone, who was
still jerking and writhing on the floor and stabbing ineffectually at her with
all four of its capped stings. Close up, the sound of its distress call was like
a gale whistling and howling through a ruined building.
“At least the distorters are working,” Wainright said, and added warningly, “but
hurry it up, they won’t last much longer.”
She ignored the Earth-human and grasped tufts of the Gogleskan’s hair in her
upper and medial hands, trying vainly to hold it motionless. Pleadingly she
said, “Stop moving. You’re wasting what little strength you’ve got. You’ll die
and the baby will die. Please stop moving. I’m not an enemy, I’m yourfriendl”
The call for joining was still howling out with un-diminished volume, making her
wonder how such asmall creature could make so great a noise, but its physical
movements were becoming noticeably less violent. Was it a symptom of sheer
physical weakness, or was she getting through to the Gogleskan? Then she saw