General Practice A Sector General Omnibus

CHAPTER 1 The ruler of the ship sat beside Cha Thrat at the recreation deck's viewscreen while the fuzzy blob of light that was the space hospital grew into a gigantic, complex structure ablaze with every color and intensity of light that her eyes could detect. She had strong feelings of awe, wonder, excitement, and great embarrassment. Ruler Chiang, she had learned, carried the rank of major in the Monitor Corps Extraterrestrial Communications and Cultural Contact division. But the ruler seriously confused her at times by behaving like a warrior. Now it was sitting beside her because it felt some strange, Earth-human obligation to do so. It had wanted to pay her the compliment of allowing her to watch the approach to the hospital from its control deck, but as she was physiologically unable to enter that small and already crowded compartment, it had felt obliged to desert its post and sit with her here. The compliment was a completely unnecessary piece of time-wasting nonsense, considering wide disparity in the social and professional leves of the people involved, but Chiang seemed to derive some pleasure from the foolishness and it had, after all, been a patient of hers. The muted conversation in Control was being relayed with the image on the repeater screen and, while Cha Thrat's translator gave her the equivalent of every word, the particular technical jargon that the ship's warriors were using made the total meaning of what they were saying unclear. But suddenly there was a new, amplified voice whose words were simple and unambiguous, accompanied by a picture of the disgustingly hairy being who was speaking them. "Sector General Reception," it said briskly. "Identify yourself, please. Patient, visitor, or staff; degree of urgency; and physiological classification, if known. If uncertain, please make full visual contact and we will classify." "Monitor Corps courier vesselThromasaggar," a voice from Control responded. "Short-stay docking facilities to unload patient and staff member. Crew and patient classification Earth-human DBDG. Patient is ambulatory, convalescent, treatment nonurgent. Staff member is classification DCNF and is also a warm-blooded oxygen-breather with no special temperature, gravity, or pressure requirements." "Wait," the obnoxious creature said, and once again the image of the hospital filled the screen. A definite improvement, she thought. "What is that thing?" she asked the ruler. "It looks like a...ascrogila. You know, one of our rodents." "I've seen pictures of them," the ruler said, and made the unpleasant barking sound that denoted amusement with these people. "It is a Nidian DBDG, about half the body mass of an Earth-human with a very similar metabolism. Its species is highly advanced technologically and culturally, so it only looks like an outsize rodent. You'll learn to work with much less beautiful beings in that place" It broke off as the image of the Nidian returned. "Follow the blue-yellow-blue direction beacons," the receptionist said. "Debark patient and staff member at Lock One Zero Four, then proceed to Dock Eighteen via the blue-blue-white beacons. Major Chiang and the Sommaradvan healer are expected and will be met." By what? she wondered. The ruler had given her a great deal of helpful advice and information about Sector Twelve General Hospital, most of which she did not believe. And when they entered the lock antechamber a short time later, she could not believe that the smooth, waist-high hemisphere of green jelly occupying the deck between the two waiting Earth-humans was a person. Ruler Chiang saWhite, James is the author of 'General Practice A Sector General Omnibus', published 2003 under ISBN 9780765306630 and ISBN 0765306638.