"White, James - Sector General 03 - Major Operation.PDB" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

Mannon looked at the being who was covering the Kelgian like an enormous, blood-red blister. No longer transparent, the blood of the injured nurse could actually be seen entering and being diffused throughout the Drambon's great, slug-like body which now seemed filled to bursting point.
"You could have fooled me," said Mannon, and pulled away. With one hand he gripped one of the Chalder's enormous teeth, swung around until he was staring it in an eye nearly the size of a football and with his other hand made jabbing, sideways motions. Looking confused the Chalder drifted away, and a few seconds later they were in the lock leading to the air-filled section.
The water drained out and the seal opened to show two green-clad Corpsmen standing in the lock antechamber, weapons at the ready. One of them cradled an enormous gun with multiple magazines capable of instantly anesthetizing any one of a dozen or more life-forms who came within the category of warm-blooded oxygen breathers, while the other held a tiny and much less ferocious-looking weapon which could blast the life from a bull elephant or any e-t equivalent.
"Hold it!" said Conway, slipping and skidding across the still-wet floor to stand in front of the Drambon. "This is a VIP visitor. Give us a few minutes. Everything will be all right, believe me.
They did not lower their weapons, neither did they look as though they believed him.
"You'd better explain," said the team leader quietly, but with the anger showing in his face.
"Yes," said Conway. "I, ah, hope you weren't hurt when I kicked you back there."
"Only my dignity, but I still-"
"O'Mara here," roared a voice from the communicator on the wall opposite. "I want vision contact. What's happening down there?"
Edwards was closest. He trained and focused the vision pickup as directed and said, "The situation is rather complicated, Major-"
"Naturally, if Conway has anything to do with it," said O'Mara caustically. "What is he doing there, praying for deliverance?"
Conway was on his knees beside the injured Kelgian, checking on its condition. From what he could see the Drambon had attacked itself so tightly that very little water had entered the pressure litter or the damaged protective suit-it was breathing normally with no indications of water in its lungs. The Drambon's color had lightened again. No longer deep red, it had returned to its normal translucent iridescent coloring tinged only faintly with pink. As Conway watched, it detached itself from the Kelgian and rolled like a great, water-filled balloon to come to rest against the wall.
Edwards was saying ..... A full report on this life-form three days ago. I realize three days is not a long time for the results to be disseminated throughout an establishment of this size, but none of this would have happened if the Drambon had not been exposed to a seriously injured being who-"
"With respect, Major," said O'Mara in a voice oozing with everything else but, "a hospital is a place where anyone at any time can expect to see serious illness or injury. Stop making excuses and tell me what happened!"
"The Drambon over there," put in the team leader, "attacked the injured Kelgian."
"And?" said O'Mara.
"Cured it instantly," said Edwards smugly.
It was not often that O'Mara was lost for words. Conway moved to one side to allow the Kelgian, who was no longer a casualty, to climb to its multitudinous feet. He said, "The Drambon SRJH is the closest thing to a doctor that we have found on that planet. It is a leech-like form of life which practices its profession by withdrawing the blood of its patients and purifying it of any infection or toxic substances before returning it to the patient's body, and it repairs simple physical damage as well. Its reaction in the presence of severe illness or injury is instinctive. When the injured Kelgian appeared suddenly it wanted to help. The casualty was suffering from poisoning due to toxic material from the Hudlar theater environment infecting the wound. So far as the Drambon was concerned it was a very simple case.
"Not all the blood withdrawn is returned, however," Conway went on, 'and we have not been able to establish whether it is physiologically impossible for the being to return all of it or whether it retains a few ounces as payment for services rendered."
The Kelgian gave a low-pitched hoot like the sound of a modulated foghorn. The noise translated as "It's very welcome, I'm sure."
The DBLF moved away then followed by the two armed corpsmen. With a baffled look at the Drambon the team leader waved his men back to their stations and the silence began to drag.
Finally O'Mara said, "When you've taken care of your visitors and if there are no physiological reasons against it, I suggest we meet to discuss this. My office in three hours."
His tone was ominously mild. It might be a good idea if Conway roped in some moral as well as medical support for the meeting with the Chief Psychologist.


Conway asked his empath friend Prilicla to attend the meeting as well as the Monitor officers Colonel Skempton and Major Edwards, Doctor Mannon, the two Drambons, Thornnastor, the Diagnostician-in-Charge of Pathology, and two medics from Hudlar and Melf who were currently taking courses at the hospital. It took several minutes for them all to enter O'Mara's enormous outer office-a room normally occupied only by the Major's aide and more than a score of pieces of furniture suited to the e-ts with whom O'Mara had professional contact. On this occasion it was the Chief Psychologist who occupied his assistant's desk and waited with visibly controlled impatience for everyone to sit, lie, or otherwise insinuate themselves into the furniture.
When they had done so O'Mara said quietly, "Since the period of high drama accompanying your arrival, I have caught up with the latest Meatball reports, and to know all is to forgive all-except, of course, your presence here, Conway. You were not due back for another three-"
"Drambo, sir," said Conway. "We use the native word sound for it now.
"We prefer that," Surreshun's translated voice joined in. "Meatball is not an accurate name for a world covered with a relatively thin layer of animal life, or for what we consider to be the most beautiful planet in the galaxy-even though we have not as yet had an opportunity to visit any of the others. Besides, your translator tells me that Meatball as a name lacks accuracy, reverence and respect. The continued use of your name for our glorious planet will not anger me-I have too great an understanding of the often shallow thinking engaged in by your species, too much sympathy for these mental shortcomings to feel anger or even irritation-"
"You're too kind," said O'Mara.
"That as well," agreed Surreshun.
"The reason I returned," Conway said hastily, "was simply to get help. I wasn't making any progress with the Drambo problem and it was worrying me."
"Worry," said O'Mara, "is a particularly useless activity-unless, of course, you do it out loud and in company. Ah, now I see why you brought half the hospital along."
Conway nodded and went on, "Drambo is badly in need of medical assistance, but the problem is unlike any other that we have already met on Earth-human or e-t planets and colonies. On those occasions it was simply a matter of investigating and isolating the diseases, bringing in or suggesting where the specifics could be distributed most effectively and then allowing the people affected to administer their own medicine through local doctors and facilities. Drambo is not like that. Instead of trying to diagnose and treat a large number of individuals, the patients are relatively few but very, very large indeed.
"The reason for this is that within the past few years Surreshun's race has learned how to liberate atomic energy," Conway went on, then added, "Explosively, of course, and with vast quantities of radiational dirt. They are very.. ." he hesitated, trying to find a diplomatic word for careless, or criminally stupid or suicidal, and failing, ..... proud of their new-found ability to kill large areas of the strata creatures and render the shallows around these living coastlines safe for their expanding population.
"But living in or under and perhaps controlling these strata creatures is yet another intelligent race whose land is quite literally in danger of dying all around them," Conway continued. "These people made the tool which came aboard Descartes, and judging by that gadget they are highly advanced indeed. But we still know nothing at all about them.
"When it became clear that Surreshun's people were not the tool makers," Conway went on, "we asked ourselves where they would be most likely to be found, and the answer was in those areas where their living country was under attack. It was in this situation that I expected to find their medical people as well, and I did in fact find our transparent friend here. It saved my life, in its rather disconcerting fashion, and I'm convinced that it is the Drambon equivalent of a doctor. Unfortunately it does not seem to be able to communicate in any fashion that I can understand and, bearing in mind the fact that anyone can directly observe its innards without the necessity for X rays, there doesn't seem to be a localized gathering of nerve ganglia or indeed anything at all resembling a brain.
"We badly need the help of its people," Conway added seriously, "which is the reason for bringing it here so that a specialist in e-t communications can succeed, perhaps, where the ship's contact experts and myself failed."
He looked pointedly at O'Mara, who was looking thoughtfully at the leech-like Drambon. It, in turn, had put one of its eyes into a pseudopod and had extended it toward the ceiling so that it could look at the fragile, insect-like figure of the empath Prilicla. Prilicla had enough eyes to look everywhere at once.
"Isn't it odd," said Colonel Skempton suddenly, "that one of your Drambons is heartless and the other appears to be brainless?"
"Brainless doctors I am used to," said O'Mara dryly. "I communicate with them, on the whole successfully, every day. But this isn't your only problem?"
Conway shook his head. "I've already said that we have to treat a small number of very large patients. Even with the assistance of all the Drambon medical people I would still need help in charting-and I do mean charting by photoreconnaissance-the extent of the trouble as accurately as possible and probing subsurface areas. X rays on this scale are impossible. A full-scale drilling operation to withdraw deep tissue samples would be of little use either, since the drill would be a short and impossibly fine needle. So we will need to investigate the diseased or damaged areas in person, using armored ground cars and, where possible, our hands and feet inside heavy-duty spacesuits. Entrance to the affected areas will be through natural body openings, and the exercise will go much faster if we have the help of people with medical training who do not need the protection of armored vehicles and suits. I'm thinking of species like the Chalders and Hudlars and Melfans who are armored already.
"From Pathology," he went on, looking toward Thornnastor, "I would like suggestions for providing a cure by surgery rather than medication. Present indications are that the trouble will be largely the result of radiation poisoning, and while I realize that we can cure even advanced cases these days, the treatment may well be impossible to apply to patients this size, not to mention the fact that the regenerative medication required for only one of them could represent the total output of that drug from a dozen planets for many years. Hence the necessity for a surgical solution."
Skempton cleared his throat and said, "I begin to see the scope of your problem, Doctor. My part will be in organizing transport and supplies for your medical people. I'd also suggest a full battalion of engineers to set up and maintain the special equipment...
"To begin with," said Conway.
"Naturally," said the Colonel a trifle coldly, "we shall continue to assist you in whatever-"
"You misunderstood me, sir," said Conway. "I can't be sure just how much help we will need at the present time, but I had been thinking in terms of a full sector sub fleet armed with long-range lasers, surface penetrating torpedoes, tactical atomic weapons-clean, of course-and whatever other forms of frightfulness you can suggest that are both concentrated and capable of being directed accurately.
"You see, Colonel," Conway concluded, "surgery on this scale will mean that the operation will be military rather than surgical." To O'Mara he added, "Those are a few of the reasons for my unscheduled return. The others are less urgent and..
"Can damn well wait until this lot are sorted out," said O'Mara firmly.
The meeting broke up shortly after that because neither Surreshun nor Conway could give any information on Drambo which was not already available in the Corps reports. O'Mara retreated into his inner office with the Drambon doctor, Thornnastor and Skempton returned to their quarters and Edwards, Mannon, Prilicla, and Conway, having first seen to the comfort of Surreshun in the AUGL tank, headed for the cafeteria reserved for warm-blooded oxygen breathers to refuel. The Hudlar and Melfan doctors went along to find out more about Drambo and to watch the others eat. As very recent additions to the hospital staff in the first flush of enthusiasm, they were spending every available minute observing and talking to e-ts.