a few questions.
“Try not to use the viewscreen tonight,” it said. “Charge Nurse Leethveeschi tells me that you’ve had enough excitement for one day. Playing scremman makes the time pass quickly and I’m glad that you are making other- species’ friends. But now you must sleep.”
“I’ll try, Nurse,” he said. “But there is something worrying me.
“Is there pain?” it said, moving quickly to the bedside. “Your monitor is registering optimum life-sign levels for a healthy DBDG. Please describe the symptoms. Be as specific as you can.
“Sorry, Nurse, I misled you,” he said. “It has nothing to do with my physical condition. During the day I offended another patient, the Kelgian, Morredeth, but I don’t know what it was that I said or did that was offensive. We were playing scremman and the other two seemed to be trying to tell me nonverbally to stop whatever it was I was doing or saying. I would like to know what it was I was doing wrong so that I will know not to do it again and, if it was serious, to apologize.”
Even though it had no features that he could identify, the nurse appeared to relax. It said, “I don’t think this is anything to worry about, Patient Hewlitt. During a game of scremman that lasted for many hours, as I have been told yours did, the exchange of insulting and critical words is a common occurrence…
“I noticed,” he said.
and such words are forgotten by the next deal,” it went on. “Just forget the incident, as the others will have done by now, and go to sleep.”
“But it didn’t happen like that,” he said. “At the time we were between games and the words were spoken while we were eating lunch.”
The Hudlar was silent for a moment while it looked along the beds on both sides of the ward. Everyone but Hewlitt and itself seemed to be asleep, so that there was nothing more urgent to claim its professional attention. He felt pleased, and a little ashamed, of his newfound ability to maneuver this medical monstrosity to his will.
“Very well, Patient Hewlitt,” it said, “what was the subject of conversation, and can you recall the remark that caused Patient Morredeth to take offense?”
“I already told you I couldn’t,” said Hewlitt. “I was simply describing and talking about a small, furry animal, a household pet… Do Hudlars keep pets?… I had played with as a child. Morredeth did not object to anything I was saying until it suddenly accused me of talking dirty, and Bowab agreed with it. At the time I thought they were joking, but now I’m not so sure.
“In its present condition,” said the nurse, the speaking membrane vibrating in the Hudlar equivalent of a near whisper, “Patient Morredeth is unusually sensitive about its fur. But you were not to know that. Tell me what was said, exactly?”
Was it possible, Hewlitt wondered suddenly, that the nurse was using him instead of the other way around? Was it pleased and eager to use any excuse to ease the boredom of night duty by giving nonmedical support to a worried patient, and would that be its clinically acceptable excuse to Leethveeschi for what might turn out to be a prolonged midnight chat? He took his time and repeated everything that had been said leading up to and during the description and behavior of his cat while it was being petted. He did not think that a being whose skin was like flexible steel could have erotic fantasies about fur, but in this place one could never be sure of anything.
When he finished speaking, the nurse said, “Now I understand. Before I try to explain what happened, tell me how much you already know about the Kelgian life-form.”
“Only the information given in the introductory paragraphs from the nonmedical library listing of member races of the Federation,” he said, “most of which was historical material. The Kelgians are physiological classification DBLF, warm-blooded, multipedal, and possessing a cylindrical body covered overall with mobile, silvery fur which is continually in motion while the being is conscious and, to a lesser extent, when it is dreaming.
“Because of inadequacies in the Kelgian speech organ,” he went on, “their spoken language lacks modulation, inflection, or any other form of emotional expression. But they are compensated for this by their fur, which acts, so far as another Kelgian is concerned, as a perfect and uncontrollable mirror of the speaker’s emotional state. As a result, the concepts of lying or being diplomatic, tactful or even polite are completely alien to them. A Kelgian says exactly what it means or feels because the fur is revealing its feelings from moment to moment, and to do otherwise is considered a stupid waste of time. Am I right so far?”
“Yes,” said the Hudlar. “But in this situation the medical library data would have been of more use to you. Did Morredeth discuss its condition with you?”
“No,” he replied. “When I asked, it said that it didn’t want to talk about it. I was curious but decided that its ailment might be embarrassing and was none of my business anyway, and dropped the subject.”
“Sometimes Patient Morredeth will not talk about its troubles,” said the nurse, “and at other times it will. If you ask tomorrow or the next day it will probably tell you about its accident and the long-term results, which are very serious but not lifethreatening, in great detail. I am telling you this because nearly everyone in the ward knows of Morredeth’s problem, so I am not breaking patient confidentiality by discussing the physiological and emotional aspects of the case with you.”
“I understand,” he said.
“You do not understand,” said the Hudlar, moving closer to his bed and lowering its voice in inverse proportion to the distance, “but soon you will. If any of the anatomical terms I use are unclear, which is unlikely considering your medical history and prior experience of hospital treatments, please stop me and ask for a layperson’s explanation. Shall I begin?”
Hewlitt stared at the nurse’s massive body balanced on its six, curling tentacles and wondered if there was any intelligent species, regardless of its size, shape, or number of limbs, whose members did not enjoy a good gossip.
Remembering the trouble that a few unthinking words had caused with Morredeth, Hewlitt decided not to ask the question aloud.
“Anatomically,” the Hudlar went on in exactly the same tone as that used by Senior Physician Medalont to its trainees, “the most important fact that you should know about Kelgians is that, apart from the thin-walled, cranial casing that protects the brain, the DBLF classification has no bony structure. Their bodies are composed of an outer cylinder of musculature which, in addition to assisting with locomotion, serves as protection for the vital organs within it. To the minds of beings like ourselves, whose bodies are more generously reinforced with bone structure, this protection seems far from adequate. Another severe disadvantage in the event of injury is the complex and extremely vulnerable circulatory system. The blood supply, which has to feed the large bands of muscle encircling the body, lies just beneath the skin, as does the nerve network that controls the mobile fur. Some protection is given by the thickness of the fur, but not against deep, lacerated wounding of more than one- tenth of the body area sustained as the result of Patient Morredeth being thrown against an uneven metal obstruction during a space collision…”
An injury which in many other species would be considered superficial, the nurse explained, could result in a Kelgian bleeding to death within a few minutes.
The emergency coagulant administered at the time of the accident had checked the bleeding and saved Morredeth’s life, but at a price. On the ambulance ship and later in hospital the damaged major blood vessels had been repaired, but even Sector General’s DBLF microsurgery team had been unable to save the capilliary and nerve networks that had served the lost or damaged fur. As a result the beautiful Kelgian fur, which played such an important tactile as well as an aesthetic visual role between them during the preliminaries to courtship and mating, would never grow properly in those areas. Or if it did grow, the fur would be stiff, yellow, lifeless, and visually repulsive to another Kelgian of either gender.
It was possible to have the damaged area covered with artificial fur, but the synthetic material lacked the mobility and the deep, rich luster of living fur and would be immediately recognized for what it was. Kelgians in Morredeth’s situation were usually too proud to be seen wearing such a patch and elected instead to live and work in solitude or with minimum social contact.
“The other Kelgians on the medical staff,” the Hudlar went on, “tell me that Morredeth is, or was, a particularly handsome young female who has no longer any hope of mating or living a normal life. At present its problem is emotional rather than medical.”
“And I,” said Hewlitt, feeling hot with embarrassment, “had to talk to it about my cat’s beautiful fur. I’m surprised it didn’t hit me with something. Is there nothing more that can be done for it? And should I apologize, or
