life-form like this one before, or seen references to anything like it in the literature.â
âSounds interesting,â said Murchison, its matter-of-fact tone belying the mounting curiosity it was feeling. âWhen can we see it? Shall I send Naydrad with a litter toââ
âNo,â Prilicla broke in. He could feel the otherâs surprise because normally he would never have spoken so sharply to a subordinate. In a gentler voice he went on. âI have the feeling that you have the clinical situation under control over there. Continue as you are doing, but do nothing else until I tell you otherwise.â
âSir,â it said, emoting intense puzzlement. The feeling was being shared and reinforced by Naydrad, Danalta, and the officers on Rhabwar who were monitoring the images and conversations coming from Terragar. But Prilicla needed answers himself before he could try to give them to others, and he had to pause for a moment to steady his shaking limbs before he could return to the scanner examination.
Since he was the only empath present, there was of course nobody to know of or feel his fear. The minds of the medical team were engaged exclusively with their own clinical concerns, but the people on the ambulance ship had little more to do than to monitor and observe his actions, and those observations would have included the minor and continuing tremor in his limbs. Very soon friend Fletcher would deduce the reason for his terror, if it and the others hadnât done so already.
They knew as well as he did that the crew of Terragar had sought desperately to avoid all contact with their fellow officers and would-be rescuers, and that it was a virtual certainty that the entity he was trying to examine was the reason. It came as no surprise when the long period of silence was broken hesitantly by the captain.
âDoctor,â it said. âPossibly this is none of my clinical business, and Iâll understand if you tell me to shut up in your usual polite fashion, but your examination of the alien casualty puzzles me. Iâve been watching you for the past half an hour and have observed that while you began by closely approaching but not touching the creature, for reasons that I think we both understand, you are now making continuous contact with it. In what way has the situation changed? Is the creature no longer a threat to you, and, if so, why is your body language suggesting otherwise? And why are you examining every square inch of the body surface, including its hands and individual digits which, in my laypersonâs opinion, are not usually the site of life-threatening injuries?â
Prilicla was silent for a moment while he tried to organize the results of his examination in a form that would not embarrass him when the recording was played back, as it would be many times, by the cultural-contact people.
âI began by assuming that the air inside its suit was one of the oxygen-and-inert combinations used by warm-blooded oxygen-breathers, and identified the species tentatively as physiological classification CHLI. Subsurface scanner investigation of the suit, and a deeper, detailed examination of its content, revealed the presence of unique technology of a level of complexity that I am not qualified to assess. The subsequent forensic investigation suggests that the position and sharply defined area of heat damage to the suitâthe head section, forward pair of limbs, and particularly the attached digits which are literally fused togetherâwas sustained before, rather than after, the subject was taken on board Terragar. The later atmospheric heating effects suffered by the ship had no effect on the occupant. No doubt, friend Fletcher, you will wish me to help you to make a more thorough investigation at a more convenient time.
âTo summarize,â he ended, âlifeâas we understand the termâis no longer present. I very much doubt that it ever
âSounds interesting,â said Murchison, its matter-of-fact tone belying the mounting curiosity it was feeling. âWhen can we see it? Shall I send Naydrad with a litter toââ
âNo,â Prilicla broke in. He could feel the otherâs surprise because normally he would never have spoken so sharply to a subordinate. In a gentler voice he went on. âI have the feeling that you have the clinical situation under control over there. Continue as you are doing, but do nothing else until I tell you otherwise.â
âSir,â it said, emoting intense puzzlement. The feeling was being shared and reinforced by Naydrad, Danalta, and the officers on Rhabwar who were monitoring the images and conversations coming from Terragar. But Prilicla needed answers himself before he could try to give them to others, and he had to pause for a moment to steady his shaking limbs before he could return to the scanner examination.
Since he was the only empath present, there was of course nobody to know of or feel his fear. The minds of the medical team were engaged exclusively with their own clinical concerns, but the people on the ambulance ship had little more to do than to monitor and observe his actions, and those observations would have included the minor and continuing tremor in his limbs. Very soon friend Fletcher would deduce the reason for his terror, if it and the others hadnât done so already.
They knew as well as he did that the crew of Terragar had sought desperately to avoid all contact with their fellow officers and would-be rescuers, and that it was a virtual certainty that the entity he was trying to examine was the reason. It came as no surprise when the long period of silence was broken hesitantly by the captain.
âDoctor,â it said. âPossibly this is none of my clinical business, and Iâll understand if you tell me to shut up in your usual polite fashion, but your examination of the alien casualty puzzles me. Iâve been watching you for the past half an hour and have observed that while you began by closely approaching but not touching the creature, for reasons that I think we both understand, you are now making continuous contact with it. In what way has the situation changed? Is the creature no longer a threat to you, and, if so, why is your body language suggesting otherwise? And why are you examining every square inch of the body surface, including its hands and individual digits which, in my laypersonâs opinion, are not usually the site of life-threatening injuries?â
Prilicla was silent for a moment while he tried to organize the results of his examination in a form that would not embarrass him when the recording was played back, as it would be many times, by the cultural-contact people.
âI began by assuming that the air inside its suit was one of the oxygen-and-inert combinations used by warm-blooded oxygen-breathers, and identified the species tentatively as physiological classification CHLI. Subsurface scanner investigation of the suit, and a deeper, detailed examination of its content, revealed the presence of unique technology of a level of complexity that I am not qualified to assess. The subsequent forensic investigation suggests that the position and sharply defined area of heat damage to the suitâthe head section, forward pair of limbs, and particularly the attached digits which are literally fused togetherâwas sustained before, rather than after, the subject was taken on board Terragar. The later atmospheric heating effects suffered by the ship had no effect on the occupant. No doubt, friend Fletcher, you will wish me to help you to make a more thorough investigation at a more convenient time.
âTo summarize,â he ended, âlifeâas we understand the termâis no longer present. I very much doubt that it ever
Similar Books
