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speakers carried by the four Earth-humans who had precededthem.
"Please do not be afraid," it was saying. "Despite the strange and frightening
appearance of the beings you are seeing, they will not harm you. We are here
to collect Healer Khone, at its own request, for treatment in our hospital.
While we are transferring Khone to our vehicle we may have to come very close
to the healer, and this may accidentally cause a call for joining to go out. A
joining
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urgeeveryone to move away from your homes, deep into th forest or far from the
shore, so that a distress signal will not reach you. As an additional
safeguard, we will place! around the healer's home devices that will make a
loud, and continuous sound. This sound will be as unpleasant to you as it is
to us, but it will merge with and change the sound of any nearby distress
signal so that it will no longer be a call for joining.
Wainright looked toward Prilicla and when the empath signaled its approval, it
changed to the personal suit frequency and went on. "Record and rerun that,
please, until I either amend the message or tell you to stop.
"Will they believe all that?" Naydrad called suddenly from its position along
the line. "Do they really trust us off-planet monsters?
The Lieutenant moved several paces down the hill before replying. "They trust
the Monitor Corps because we have been able to help them in various ways.
Khone trusts Conway for obvious reasons and as their trusted healer, it has
been able to convince the townspeople that Conway's horrifying friends are
also worthy of trust. The trouble is, Gogleskans are a race of loners who
don't always do as they're told.
"Some of them," it went on, "could have good reasons for not wanting to leave
their homes. Illness or infirmity, young children to be cared for, or for
reasons that seem good only to a Gogleskan. That's why we have to use the
sound distorters.
Naydrad seemed satisfied but Cha Thrat was not. Out of consideration for
Prilicla, who would suffer everyone else's feelings of anxiety as well as her
own, she remained silent.
Like everyone else in Maintenance, she knew about those distorters. Suggested
and designed by Ees-Tawn, the department's head of Unique Technology, in
re-sponse to one of Conway's long-term Gogleskan requirements, the devices
were still in the prototype stage. If successful they would go into mass
production until they were in every Gogleskan home, factory, and seagoing
vessel. It was not expected that the devices would eliminate joinings
entirely, but with sensitive audio detectors coupled to automatic actuators,
it was hoped that the link-ups that did occur would be limited to a few
persons. That would mean that a joining's destructive potential would be
negligible, shorter in duration, and psychologically less damaging to the
beings concerned.
Under laboratory conditions the distorters were effective against several FOKT
distress call recordings pro-* vided by Conway, but the device had yet to be
tested onGoglesk itself.
The stink of fish worsened, and the sound of the monitors broadcasting the
Lieutenant's message grew louder as they neared the hospital. Apart from a few
glimpses she had of the Earth-humans moving between the houses at the edge of
the clearing, there were no signs of life inthe town.
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"Stop sending now," Wainright briskly said. "Anyone who hasn't acted on the
message by now doesn't intend to. Harmon, take up the flyer and give me an
aerial view of this area. The rest of you place the distorters around the
hospital, then stand by. Cha Thrat, Naydrad, ready with the litter?
Quickly, Cha Thrat positioned the vehicle close to the entrance of Khone's
dwelling, ran out the rear ramp, and opened the canopy in readiness to receive
the patient. They could not risk touching Khone within sight of other
Gogleskans and were hoping that the little healer would come out and board the
vehicle itself. In case it did not, Naydrad would send in its
remote-controlled probe to find out why.
Because they would make conversation difficult and so far nothing had
happened that could cause any Gogleskan to emit a distress call the distorters
remained silent.
"Friend Khone," Prilicla said, and the waves of sympathy, reassurance, and
friendship emanating from it were almost palpable. "We have come to help you.
Please come out.
They waited for what seemed like a very long time, but there was neither sight
nor sound of Khone.
"Naydrad..." Wainright began.
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"I'm doing it," the Kelgian snapped.
The tiny vehicle, bristling with sound, vision, and biosensors as well as a
comprehensive array of handling devices, rolled across the uneven surface and
into Rhone's front entrance, pushing aside the curtain of woven vegetable
fibers that hung there. The view all around it was projected onto the litter's
repeater screen.
Cha Thrat thought that the probe itself, to someone who did not know its
purpose, was a frightening object. Then she reminded herself that
Diagnostician
Conway, and through it Khone, knew all about such mechanisms.
The probe revealed nothing but a deserted house.
"Perhaps friend Khone required special medication from the hospital and went
to get it," Prilicla said worriedly. "But I cannot feel its emotional
radiation, which means that it is either far from here or unconscious. If the
latter, then it may require urgent attention, so we cannot afford to waste
time by searching every room and passageway in the hospital with the probe. It
will be quicker if
I search for it myself.
Its. iridescent wings were beating slowly, already moving it forward when it
went on. "Move well back, please, so that your conscious feelings will not
obscure the fainter, unconscious radiation of the patient.
"Wait!" the Lieutenant said urgently. "If you nna u, and it awakens suddenly
to see you hovering aboveit...
"You are correct, friend Wainright," Prilicla said. "Itmight be frightened
into sending out a distress call. Use your distorters.
Cha Thrat quickly moved back with the medical team beyond the range of maximum
sensitivity for the Cinrusskin's empathic faculty, and they adjusted their
headsets to deaden external sounds while enabling them to communicate with
each other. As a screaming, moaning, whistling cacophony erupted from the
distorter posi-, tions around the hospital, Cha Thrat wondered about the depth
of unconsciousness of their patient. The noise was enough to wake the dead.
It was more than enough to rouse Khone.
Chapter 13
"I feel it!" Prilicla called, excitement causing its hovering flight to become
wildly unstable. "Friend Naydrad, send in the probe. The patient is directly
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