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trio of exoskeletal crustaceans who were vacating it.
She wondered if she would ever be able to adapt to the ways of these
chronically disorganized and untidy beings. At least on Sommaradva the people
knew their place.
"The mechanism for food selection and delivery is similar to that on the
ship,"
Braithwaite said as she lowered herself carefully into the dreadfully
uncomfortable chair and her weight made the menu display light up. "You tap in
your physiological classification and it will list the food available. Until
the catering computer hasbeen programmed with details of the combinations,
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file:///F|/rah/James%20White/White,%20James%20-%20Sector%20General%2007%20-%20
Code%20Blue%20Emergency.txt consistencies, and platter displays you favor, it
is likely to come in unsightly but nutritious lumps. You'll soon get used to
the system, but in the meantime
I'll order for you.
"Thank you," she said.
When it arrived the biggest lump looked like an uneven block of tasam. But it
smelled like roasted cretsi, had the consistency of roasted cretsi, and, she
found after trying a small corner, it tasted like roasted cretsi. She realized
suddenly that she was hungry.
"It sometimes happens," Braithwaite continued, "that the meals of your fellow
diners, or even the diners themselves, are visually distressing to the point
where it is affecting your appetite. You may keep one eye on your platter and
close all the others; we won't be offended.
She did as it suggested, but kept one eye slightly open so that she could see
Braithwaite, who was still watching her intently while pretending, for some
odd, Earth-human reason, not to do so. While she ate, her mind went back to
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the incident with the ship ruler on Som-maradva, the voyage, and her reception
here, and she realized that she was becoming suspicious, and irritated.
"On the subject of your stronger feelings," Danalta said, seemingly intent
upon resuming the lecture it had broken off at the entrance, "do you have any
strong feelings against discussing personal or professional matters in the
presence of strangers?
The ship ruler, Chiang; paused with what looked like a piece of what had once
been a liying creature halfway to its eating orifice. It said, "On Sommaradva
they prefer to hear directly what other people think of them. And conversely,
the presence of interested witnesses during a discussion of their affairs is
often considered beneficial.
Braithwaite, she saw, was concentrating too much attention on its disgusting
meal. She turned as many eyes as would bear on the shape-changer, ignoring the
many things she did not want to see in the background.
"Very well," Danalta said, turning its alien mimic's eyes on her. "You must
already have realized, Cha Thrat, that your situation is unlike that of the
other staff members who join the hospital for a probationary period.
Appointments to Sector General are much sought after, and candidates must pass
rigorous professional examinations and deep psychological investigation on
their home worlds to ensure that they will have a fair chance of adapting to a
multispecies hospital environment so that they will profit from our training.
"You were not screened in this manner," her alien twin went on. "There were no
professional examinations, no birth-to-maturity psych profiles, no objective
measure of your worth as a healer. We know only that you come with a very high
recommendation, from the Cultural Contact department of the Monitor Corps and,
presumably, your professional colleagues on Sommaradva, a world and society
about which we know little.
"You appreciate our difficulty, Cha Thrat?" it continued. "An untrained,
unprepared, single-species-oriented being could cause untold harm to itself
and to the hospital staff and patients. We have to know what exactly it is
that we're getting, and quickly.
The others had stopped eating and so did she, even though there was a mouth
free for speaking. She said, "As a stranger arriving and expecting to take up
an appointment here, I thought that my treatment showed a lack of sensitivity,
but
I decided that alien behavior patterns, of which I have very limited
experience, were to blame. Then I began to suspect that the harsh and
insen-sitive treatment was deliberate, and I was being tested in some fashion.
You have confirmed this suspicion, but I am seriously displeased that I was
not informed of the test.
Secret tests, to my mind, can often show a failure in the examiner.
There was a long silence. She looked at Danalta and away again. The
shape-changer's body and features and expression were the mirror of her own,
and told her nothing. She turned her attention to Braithwaite, who had been
taking such a continuous and covert interest in her, and waited for a
reaction.
For a moment the Earth-human's two recessed eyes looked calmly into her four,
and she began to feel very sure that the being was, in fact, a ruler and not a
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Code%20Blue%20Emergency.txt warrior as it said, "A secret test is sometimes
given to avoid the unpleasantness of telling a candidate that it has failed.
By pretending that no test took place, another and more acceptable reason, one
that does not imply any lack of professional competence or psychological or
emotional weakness, can be given for refusing the candidate an appointment.
I'm sorry that you are displeased by the covert nature of the test, but in the
circumstances we decided that it was better to... to...
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It broke off and began to bark quietly, as if there was something humorous in
the situation, then went on. "We Earth-humans have an expression that covers
your position very well. We threw you in at the deep end of the pool.
"And what," Cha Thrat said, deliberately omitting the gesture of politeness
due a ruler, "did you discover from this secret test?
"We discovered," Braithwaite said, and this time it did not bark, "that you
are a very good swimmer.
Chapter 2
BRAITHWAITE left before the others had finished eating, saying that O'Mara
would have its intestines for hosiery supports if it was late back from lunch
two days in a row. Cha Thrat knew nothing of the entity other than that it was
a greatly respected and feared ruler of some kind, but the punishment for
tardiness sounded a bit extreme. Danalta said that she should not worry about
it, that
Earth-humans frequently made such ridiculously exaggerated statements, that
there was no factual basis to the remark, and that it was some kind of
linguistic code they used among themselves which had a tenuous connection with
the mental associative process they called humor.
"I understand," Cha Thrat said.
"I don't," Danalta said.
Ship ruler Chiang barked quietly but did not speak.
As a result, the shape-changer was their only guide on an even longer and more
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