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trying to flee from it. The limbs are, after all, fighting against the
restraints, and the muscular effort needed is comparable.
We will be attacking it, he concluded, with a major cesarean procedure
through the carapace rather than in the abdominal area, without benefit of
anesthesia, and I expect that there will be enough pain and confusion in its
mind to make it forget that its body is not in motion, at least for the
relatively short time it will take to complete the operation.
Murchison was staring at him, her face expressionless but as pale as her white
uniform. The full meaning of what he had just been saying dawned on
Conway, and he felt sick and ashamed. The words were in direct contradiction
to everything he had been taught as a healer and a bringer of comfort. You
must be cruel to be kind, someone had told him once, but surely they had not
meant this cruel.
The Earth-human DBDG component of my mind, Thornnastor said slowly, is
feeling shock and disgust at such unheard-of behavior.
This DBDG, Conway said, tapping himself angrily on the chest, feels the
same way. But your taped DBDG never had to deliver a Protector.
Neither, Thornnastor said, has anyone else.
Murchison was about to speak when there was a double interruption.
The birth opening is beginning to widen, the Kelgian charge nurse reported,
and there is a small change in the position of the fetus.
The emotional radiation from both entities is reaching a peak,
Prilicla said on the communicator. You will not have long to wait, friend
Conway. Please do not distress yourself. Your clinical thinking is usually
trustworthy.
The Cinrusskin invariably said the right thing, Conway thought gratefully as
Thornnastor followed him to the operating frame.
They checked the underside first, moving as close as they could while still
avoiding the Protector s wildly thrashing legs and the Hudlar who was jabbing
at them with a metal bar to reproduce the attacks of the small, sharp-
toothed predators of its home world. The musculature associated with the limbs
was in constant, writhing motion, and in the medial area the birth opening was
slowly lengthening and widening.
For the recorders, Conway said, Junior will not be coming out this way.
Normally, a cesarean procedure calls for a long, abdominal incision through
which the fetus is removed. That course is contraindicated in this case for
two reasons. It would involve cutting through several of the leg muscles, and
because this being is incapable of resting a damaged limb while healing takes
place, the clinical injury would never heal and the limbs concerned would be
permanently affected. Secondly, we would be going in very close to the two
glands which, we are virtually certain, contain the secretions which reverse
the prebirth paralysis and obliterate the mind. Both, as you can see in the
scanner, are connected to the umbilical and are compressed, and their contents
discharged into the fetus, during the later stages of the birth process. In
this physiological classification, a traditional cesarean entry would almost
certainly compress these glands prematurely, and the purpose of the operation,
the delivery of an intelligent Unborn, would be defeated. So we ll have to do
it the hard way, by going through the carapace at an angle which will cause
minimum disturbance to the underlying vital organs.
While the charge nurse had been positioning the Protector for the operation,
the movements of the Unborn had been imperceptible, but now the scanner showed
a slow, steady motion toward the birth canal. He forced himself to walk around
to the other side of the operating frame, when his instinct was to break into
an undignified gallop; then he checked that Thornnastor and
Murchison were in position and said quietly, Immobilize the patient.
The four dorsal tentacles were at full extension, motionless except for the
barest tremor caused by their efforts to overcome the restraints. He tried not
to think of the devastation even one of those limbs would cause among the OR
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staff if it succeeded in pulling free, or that he was closest and would be the
first casualty.
It is desirable-in fact it may be vitally necessary-that we establish
telepathic contact with the Unborn before the operation is completed, Conway
said above the buzzing of his surgical saw. The first time such contact took
place, there was only one physiological classification present, the
Earth-human
DBDGs Pathologist Murchison, Captain Fletcher of Rhabwar, and I. A
multiplicity of physiological types and thought patterns may be making it
difficult to make contact, or it may be that DBDGs are fractionally easier to
communicate with telepathically. For this reason.
Do you wish me to leave? Thornnastor asked.
No, Conway said very firmly. I need your assistance, as both a surgeon and
an endocrinologist. But it would be helpful if you tried to bring forward the
DBDG component of your mind and concentrated on its thought processes.
I understand, the Tralthan said.
Working quickly, Thornnastor and Conway excised a large, triangular section of
carapace, then paused to control some minor bleeding from the underlying
vessels. Murchison was not assisting directly, but was concentrating all of
her attention on the scanner so that she could warn them if the trauma of the
operation was giving indications of triggering premature delivery. They went
deeper, cutting through the thick, almost transparent membrane which enclosed
the lungs, clamping it back.
Prilicla? Conway asked.
The patient is feeling anger, fear, and pain in steadily increasing
intensity. It does not seem to be aware of anything other than that it is
being savagely attacked and is defending itself. Apparently it has not
realized that it isn t moving, and there are no emotional indications of
endocrine misfunction...
The effect of this attack on the Unborn, the empath went on, is of markedly
heightened sensation and mentation levels. There is greater awareness and
intense effort. It is trying very hard to contact you, friend Conway.
It s mutual, he replied. But he knew that too much of his mind was being
devoted to the surgical aspect just then and not enough to communication for
there to be any hope of success.
In the FSOJ the heart was not situated between the lungs, but there were
several major blood vessels traversing the area, and these with their
associated digestive organs had to be moved out of the way without
cutting-surgery had to be kept to the irreducible minimum when the patient
would be mobile minutes after the operation was completed. As he pressed them
carefully apart and locked the dilators in position, he knew that the
circulation in several of those vessels was being seriously impaired, and that
he was constricting one of the lungs and rendering it little more than sixty
percent effective.
It will be for a short time only, he said defensively in answer to
Thornnastor s unspoken comment, and the patient is on pure oxygen, which
should make up the deficiency..
He broke off as his exploring fingers moved deeper and encountered a long,
flat bone which had no business being there. He looked quickly at the position
of his hand in the scanner and saw that he was, in fact, touching not a bone
but one of the muscles of a dorsal tentacle. The muscle had locked in spasm as
the patient tried to pull the limb free of the restraints. Or perhaps it was
simply reacting-as did the members of other species who locked mandibles or
clenched fists-to unbearable pain.
Suddenly his hands were trembling as all of his medically trained and caring
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