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everyone so that they can be washed before the first meal is served. We have
three other ambulatory patients here, and you may prefer not to share the
washroom facilities with them on your first morning in the ward, so it might
be more comfortable for you if you get in there and finish first.
"Yes, indeed," said Hewlitt without hesitation. "But tired, Nurse. Can I wash
later?
"Bearing in mind your uneasiness in the close proximity, of other species,"
said the nurse, "I will not accompany you Instead I will remain close by the
washroom in case your personal monitor, which you must not remove while
cleansing yourself, should signal an emergency condition or you request help
because of unfamiliarity with the equipment
"If a very high level of mental and physical fatigue is present," it went on,
"you have the option of taking a blanket bath. This operation would be carried
out by our three junior trainees, a Melfan and two Kelgians, who would be
pleased at the chance to gain more experience in handling and bathing a
nontraumatized Earth-
human like yourself. I-know that they are particularly anxious to master the
technique of scraping away the fur bristles that grow overnight on DBDG faces,
and they would be pleased to perform this service for you.
Before it had finished speaking, Hewlitt had thrown back the covers and swung
his feet onto the floor, where a pair of soft ward shoes were waiting for
them.
Then he stood up quickly and said, "I like your first suggestion better,
Nurse." The
Hudlar moved aside to allow him to leave
About twenty minutes later he was climbing back into bed, feeling clean and
fresh and less tired, when the ceiling lights brightened to full strength and
the day staff came bustling along the ward. A Kelgian pushing a small trolley
loaded with basins and towels poked its furry head and shoulders between the
screens and said, file:///F|/rah/James%20White/Final%20Diagnosis.htm (33 of
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Final Diagnosis.htm
"Good morning, Patient Hewlitt. You look clean. Are you?
"Yes," he said, and it disappeared
A few minutes later he heard two patients approaching and then passing his bed
on their way to the washroom. One seemed to be seemed to be large and heavy
and walking on more than four feet, while the other one moved with an
irregular, tapping sound, * He knew they were patients because one was
com-plaining about being wakened when it had only just suc-eeded in getting to
sleep, and the other was insisting that Leethveeschi was conducting illegal
sleep-deprivation research and it was being brainwashed as well as waiting to
have the croamsteti on its kuld duct replaced. His translator reproduced the
original word sounds, so presumably there was no equivalent part of an
Earth-human body. He sympathized with them, whatever they were, over their
missed sleep
He had just settled back in the bed and closed his eyes, and the sounds of the
ward were beginning to fade, when the Kelgian nurse reappeared, this time
carrying his breakfast on a tray. Or maybe it was another Kelgian. As yet he
could not tell the difference between one outsize, furry caterpillar and
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
another, and doubted if he ever would
"Sit up and eat at the bedside table, Patient Hewlitt," it said. "Your
particular species is subject to digestive upsets with accompanying
regurgitation, I have learned, if gravity is not allowed to aid the movement
of food to the stomach
Enjoy." , "I don't want to eat, Nurse," he said, trying hard to control his
irritation, "I want to sleep. Please go away.
"Eat it, then sleep," said the nurse. "Or try to eat some of it, or Charge
Nurse
Leethveeschi will eat me.
"It would?" said Hewlitt, the return of his earlier fears bringing him fully
awake.
In this place it might not be joking
"Of course not," said the nurse. "But only because it is a chlorine-breather
and my file:///F|/rah/James%20White/Final%20Diagnosis.htm (34 of 266) [7/1/03
1:38:07 AM]
Final Diagnosis.htm body meat would poison it.
"All right, I'll try," he said, knowing that way out here in Sector General,
as it had been on the ship, the food would be synthesized. But when he raised
the tray cover to look inside and the odor wafted up, he realized how long it
had been since he had eaten, and added, "It looks and smells very good,
Nurse.
"It is a visually disgusting and nauseating mess," said the nurse, backing
hurriedly through the screens, "and it smells even worse.
"You don't have much tact, do you, Nurse?" said Hewlitt but its multiple
footfalls were already receding up the ward; Then another voice called out to
him from the bed opposite belonging, he recalled, to a Kelgian patient called
Henredth
"What is tact?" it said
Hewlitt ignored the question and tried to close his ears to the other
questions that followed it until he had finished his breakfast, after which
his eyes closed by themselves
He wakened to the sound of quiet, alien voices and the sight of the screen
that was still around his bed, which made him realize where he was. But
somehow the realization was not as terrifying as it had been yesterday and,
after a few minutes listening through his translator, he pressed the button
that raised his bed screens
Hewlitt saw at once that the Ian who had been in the bed beside his, Patient
Makolli, had been moved while he had been asleep, because there was an
Orligian lying there now. He recognized the species at once because it was the
same as that of the medical officer on Treevendar, but this specimen seemed
much older. The parts of it that were not hidden by the blankets its head,
arms, and upper chest were covered by reddish brown fur that was streaked with
grey. It was wearing a personal monitor like his own as well as a translator,
but it took no notice of him. He was not sure whether it was asleep,
anesthetized, or being antisocial
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AM]
Final Diagnosis.htm
In the bed opposite, Patient Kletilt had moved its viewscreen to what, for a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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