But there was a growing realization that it was not only Khone’s mind and
memories that she had to contend with. The memory and viewpoint from the top of
the land vehicle was not from the Gogleskan’s mind, nor her own. There were
memories of the ambulance ship and the exploits of its medical team that were
definitely not her own, and some vivid and—to her—fearful and wonderful
recollections of events in Sector General that were totally outside her
experience. Had O’Mara been right? Were factual recollections and insane
fantasies intermingling, and she was no longer sane?But she did not think she
was insane. Madness was supposed to be an escape from a too-painful reality to a
condition that was more bearable. There was too much pain here and the memories
or fantasies were too painfully sharp. And one of them was of
Lieutenant] Wainright standing beside her, its head on a level with! hers, and
calling her “sir.”
With a sudden shiver of fear and wonder she realized what was happening. She was
sharing’ Rhone’s mind,’ and Khone had earlier shared it with someone else.
Conway!
For some time Cha Thrat had been aware of Prilicla’s! voice in her earpiece, but
the words were just sounds” without meaning to her already overloaded mind. Then
she felt its warmth and sympathy and reassurance all around her, and the pain
and confusion receded a little so that the meaning came through.
“Cha Thrat, my friend,” the empath was saying, “please respond. You have been
holding onto the patient’s fur for the past few minutes, not doing anything and
not answering us. I am on the roof directly above you, and your emotional
radiation distresses me. Please, what is wrong? Have you been stung?”
“N-no,” she replied shakily, “there is no physical damage. I feel badly confused
and frightened, and the patient is—”
“I can read your feelings, Cha Thrat,” Prilicla said gently, “but not the reason
for them. There is nothing to be ashamed of, you’ve already done more than could
be reasonably expected of you, and it was unfair of us to let you volunteer for
this operation in the first place. We are in danger of losing the patient.
Please withdraw and let me perform the surgery—”
“No,” Cha Thrat said, feeling Rhone’s body twitch in her hands. The long,
silvery tendrils that were the or-ganic conductors tor metelepathy-by-wire were
still lying across her head, and anything Cha Thrat felt or heard or thought was
immediately available to Khone, who did not like the idea of an alien monster
operating on it, for reasons that were both personal and medical. Cha Thrat
added, “Please give me a moment. I’m beginning to regain control of my mind.”
“You are,” Prilicla said, “but hurry.” Incredibly, it was her mind-partner who
was doing most to aid the process. In common with the rest of its long-suffering
and nightmare-ridden species, it had learned how to control and
compartmentalize its thinking, feelings, and natural urges so that the enforced
loneliness necessary to avoid a joining was not only bearable but, at times,
happy. And now the Conway-memories of Sector General and some of its monstrous
patients were surging into the forefront of her mind.
Be selective, Khone was telling her. Use only what isuseful.
All the memories and experience of a Sommaradvan warrior-surgeon, a Gogleskan
healer, and half an Earth-human lifetime spent in Sector General were hers, and
with that vast quantity of other-species medical and physiological expertise
available she could not believe that, even at this late stage, the Khone case
was hopeless. Then from somewhere in that vast and incredibly varied store of
knowledge, the glimmerings of an idea began to take shape.
“I no longer feel that surgical intervention is the answer,” she said firmly,
“even as a last resort. It is unlikely that the patient would survive.”
“Who the blazes does it think it is?” Murchison said angrily. “Who’s in charge
of this op, anyway? Prilicla,pin its ears back!”
Cha Thrat could have answered both questions, butdid not. She knew that her
words and tone had been wrong for someone in her lowly position—she sounded much
too self-assured and authoritative. But there was no time for either long