[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
She should start learning now. Was the hunger real, she wondered, rather than
imaginary? She had not been able to eat to repletion during the earlier visit
to the dining hall because her mind had been on matters other than food. She
began to plan the route there, and to the location of her first lecture in the
morning, from her present position. But she did not feel like another trip
along the hospital's weirdly populated corridors just yet. She was very tired,
and the room had a limited-menu food dispenser for trainees who did not wish
to interrupt their studies by going to the dining hall. She referred to the
list of foods suited to her metabolism and tapped for medium-to-large
portions. When she was feeling comfortably distended, she tried to sleep.
The room and the corridor outside were full of quiet, unidentifiable sounds,
and she did not know enough to be able to ignore them. Sleep would not come
and she was beginning to feel afraid again, and to wonder if her thoughts and
feelings were of the kind to interest the wizard O'Mara, and that made her
even more fearful for her future at Sector General. While still lying at rest,
physically if not mentally, she used the ceiling projection facility of the
communicator to see what was happening on the entertainment and training
channels.
According to the relevant information sheet, ten of the channels continuously
screened some of the Galactic Federation's most popular entertainment, current
interest, and drama programs with a translator output, if required. But she
discovered that while she could understand the words that the different
physiological types were saying to and about each other, the accompanying
actions were in turn horrifying, mystifying, ridicu-lous, or downright obscene
to Sommaradvan eyes. Sh switched to the training channels.
There she had a choice of watching displays of cur-rently meaningless figures
Page 36
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and tabulations on the temper atures, blood pressures, and pulse rates of
about fif different life-forms, or surgical operations in progress that were
visually disquieting and not calculated to luJ anyone to sleep.
In desperation, Cha Thrat tried the sound-only chan-nels. But the music she
found, even when the volums was reduced to bare audibility, sounded as if it
were coming from a piece of malfunctioning heavy machinery So it was a great
surprise when the room alarm began reminding her, monotonously and with
steadily increas-ing volume, that it was time to awaken if she required
breakfast before her first lecture.
Chapter 4
The lecturer was a Nidian who had been intro- I duced as Senior Physician
Cresk-Sar. While it was speaking, it prowled up and down the line of trainees
like some small, hairy, carnivorous beast, which meant that every few minutes
it passed Cha Thrat so closely that she wanted to either fold her limbs in
defensive mode or run away.
"To minimize verbal confusion during meetings with other-species entities," it
was saying, "and to avoid in-advertently giving offense, it is assumed that
all members of the medical and support staff who do not belong to your own
particular species are sexless. Whether you are addressing them directly or
discussing them in their absence, you will always think of them as an 'it'.
The only exception to this rule is when an other-species patient is being
treated for a condition directly related to its sex, in which case the doctor
must know whether it is male or female, or one of the multisexed species, if
the proper treatment is to be carried out.
"I am a male Nidian DBDG," Cresk-Sar went on, "but do not think of me as 'he'
or
'him'. Think of me as'it'.
As the disgusting, hairy shape moved to within a few paces of her before
turning away again, Cha Thrat thought that she would have no difficulty in
thinking of this Senior Physician as "it.
With the intention of finding someone less repulsive to look at, she turned
her eyes toward the trainee closest to her one of the three silver-furred
Kelgians attending the lecture. It was strange, she thought, how the Ni-dian's
fur made
file:///F|/rah/James%20White/White,%20James%...neral%2007%20-%20Code%20Blue%20
Emergency.txt (33 of 131) [5/21/03 10:29:06 PM]
file:///F|/rah/James%20White/White,%20James%20-%20Sector%20General%2007%20-%20
Code%20Blue%20Emergency.txt her cringe inwardly while the equally alien
covering of the Kelgian relaxed and calmed her like a work of great art. The
fur was in constant motion, with long, slow ripples moving from the creature's
conical head right down to its tail, with occasional cross-eddies and wavelets
appearing, as if the incredibly fine pelt was a liquid stirred by an unfelt
wind. At first she thought the movements were random, but a pattern of ripples
and eddies seemed to be developing the more closely shewatched.
"What are you staring at?" the Kelgian said suddenly, its translated words
overlaid by the moaning and hissing sounds of its native speech. "Do I have a
bald patch, or something?
"I'm sorry, I had not meant to give offense," Cha Thrat said. "Your fur is
beautiful and I couldn't help ad-| miring it the way it moves
"Pay attention, you two!" the Senior Physician saidj sharply. It moved closer,
looked up at each of them in turn, then went prowling down the line again.
"Cresk-Sar's fur," the Kelgian said softly, "is a sight.'] It makes me think
that invisible and no doubt imaginary ; parasites are about to change their
abode. It gives me a terrible psychosomatic itch.
This time Cresk-Sar gave them another long look, made an irritated, snuffling
sound that did aot translate, and continued with what it was saying.
"... There is a great deal of illogical behavior associated with sexual
differences," it went on, "and I must emphasize once again, unless the sex of
Page 37
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
a particular entity has a direct bearing on its course of treatment, the
subject must be ignored if not deliberately avoided. Some of you may consider
that such knowledge of another species would be helpful, conversationally
useful during off-duty meetings or, as often happens in this place, when a
particularly interesting piece of gossip is circulating. But believe me, in
this area, ignorance is a virtue.
"Surely," said a Melfan trainee halfway down the line, "there are interspecies
social occasions, shared meals or lectures, when it would be a gross act of
bad manners to ignore another intelligent and socially aware person's gender.
I
think that
"And / think," Cresk-Sar said with a bark, or laugh, "that you are what our
Earth-human friends call a gentleman. You haven't been listening. Ignore the
difference. Consider everyone who is not of your own species as neuter. In any
case, you would have to observe some of our other-species people very closely
to tell the differ-ence, and that in itself could cause serious embarrassment.
In the case of Hudlar life-mates, who alternate between male and female mode,
the behavior patterns are quite complex.
"What would happen," the Keigian beside her said, "if they should go,
completely or partly, out of synchronization?
From the line of trainees there were a number of different sounds, none of
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]