“Of course,” Mannen broke in. “Until then my lips are sealed. But what the hell are you intending to do?”
As O’Mara began telling him the other’s mouth opened to interrupt him and remained open without speaking until he had finished. Then Mannen closed his mouth so hard that his teeth came together with an audible click. He shook his head. O’Mara hoped it was in silent puzzlement rather than complete negation.
“Let me be sure I understand you, O’Mara,” he said finally. “Thornnastor is having problems with its first mind transfer, so you want to give it three mind tapes to contend with?”
“Three more,” O’Mara corrected. “It will be four tapes altogether. And if you know the kinds of patients Thornnastor is most likely to have assigned to it in the near future, I’d like your advice on the species concerned so that the process will serve as a brief introduction to its mind partners to be. This is a matter of simple mathematics as well as psychology. With four tapes occupying its mind at once, the effect of their extraneous emotional material will be diluted to a quarter, especially during the op when it will have to concentrate on abstracting only the required medical information. Following the operation the tapes, all of them, will be erased and Thornnastor’s mind will be back to normal with its pride intact and without it having suffered any professional embarrassment. I think it is a simple, direct, elegant solution to the…”
Mannen held up one hand. “The word that comes most readily to my mind,”, he said dryly, “is ‘simpleminded’. Thornnastor has expressed a special interest in performing Melfan, Illensan, and Earth-human surgery. Those are the mind tapes it is most likely to need in the future, if it has a future here. Dammit, you could totally wreck Thornnastor’s sanity.”
“In my opinion no, sir,” said O’Mara. “The Tralthan’s mind is strong, well balanced, and highly adaptable. Besides, the other-species mind partners, unlike Marrasarah, will not be long-term-visitors. There won’t be enough time for it to be seriously influenced by them.”
Mannen was silent for a long moment, then said, “Right. I’m becoming suspicious about my own sanity, but you’ve talked me into it. There is one condition.”
“Sir.”
“You must be present during the operation,” Mannen said firmly, “in case Thornnastor becomes mentally unstable and we need your help in pacifying it, because OR isn’t the best place for an outsized and overmuscled surgeon to run amok. Agreed?”
O’Mara hesitated. “I’ve no medical training.”
“We’ll be hip deep in medics down there,” Mannen said. “What we’ll need is someone to treat – a disturbed doctor, not the patient. If Thornnastor does go unstable on us, what will you do?”
“Talk to it first and try verbal pacification,” O’Mara replied. “If that fails I’ll shoot it with an anesthetic dart gun previously concealed in the OR. Can you make sure that the dart is sharp and the anesthetic is strong enough? Tralthans have tough skins and a lot of body mass so we will need, I mean we might need, something that works fast.”
“Another one of your simple, direct solutions,” Mannen said. “Right, I’ll see to it.”
“I’d like to thank you, sir,” said O’Mara gratefully, “for cooperating in this unusual form of therapy.”
“You can do that by giving me back a fully sane and functioning Thornnastor,” said Mannen. “I’m almost afraid to ask, Lieutenant, but is there anything else you need from me?”
“Yes, sir,” said O’Mara, smiling. “I believe one of the other-species trainees is giving you some cause for concern. You can pick a likely candidate. Its condition is fictional, of course, but an element of hypochondria and the ability to talk about itself for long periods would be an advantage. It would have to be interviewed in its quarters, or in an empty lecture hall or anywhere but the Psychology Department during the hour preceding Thornnastor’s op. I will be impressing the three extra mind tapes then and can’t afford to have the major walking in and asking awkward questions.”
Mannen put his forehead into his hands and spoke to the top of his desk.
“Right,” he said. “But please go now before you destroy all my illusions, and confirm my worst fears, about what goes on in the Psychology Department.”