"James White - SG 10 - The Final Diagnosis" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

however complicated its problem may turn out to be, we will do our best to solve
it.”

Turragh-Mar gave a short bark that came through its translator only as a short
bark. It added, "I wish you luck.”

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"Patient Hewlitt," said the nurse as the Orligian disappeared into the boarding
tube, "please climb onto the litter and make yourself comfortable. I am taking you
to Ward Seven on the twenty-ninth level, where you will— "I am not climbing
into anything!" said Hewlitt, anger and uncertainty and an instinctive dislike of
this monstrous creature making his voice louder than he had intended. "There is
nothing wrong with me right now, especially with my legs. I shall walk.”

"Please believe me, sir," said the nurse, "you will feel much more comfortable in
the litter.”

"I would be much more comfortable," he replied, "if you would not talk about me
as if I was a, a thing. On the way here that hairy Orligian apology for a doctor did
it when speaking to other ship's officers, and within seconds of my arrival you
were doing it, too. I am a human being, a 'he' or a 'him,' not an 'it.' You will kindly
remember that in the future, Nurse.”

For a long moment the other neither moved nor spoke. Then it said, "I know that
you are human, just as all members of intelligent species think of themselves as
being human. From my lectures on other-species anatomy I recognize you as an
adult male of the DBDG Earth-human classification, but I must continue to refer
to you as an 'it' unless some future clinical condition involving the reproductive
organs or associated endocrinology requires me to be specific regarding your
gender

"Unfortunately," the nurse went on, "the identification of an entity's sex is not
always as easy as it is in your case, especially among beings like myself, who are
able to change sex several times within a life span, or with species who require
more than two sexes for procreation. But it is a sensitive area, Patient Hewlitt, and
often a wrong identification can be irritating or even, among some species, grossly
insulting to the being wrongly identified. I believe that it will feel more
comfortable and natural for you to think of me and any other being who is not of
your own species as an 'it,' just as we do with you. Now will you please board the
litter.”


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"Is your species hard of hearing, Nurse?" he said very loudly. "I said that I would