Star Surgeon | Page 9

Pathology. Black Doctor
Thorvold Arnquist sat to Dal's left; he smiled faintly as the young
Garvian stepped forward, then busied himself among the papers on the
desk before him. To Dal's right sat another Black Doctor who was not
smiling.
Dal had seen him before--the chief co-ordinator of medical education
on Hospital Earth, the "Black Plague" of the medical school jokes.
Black Doctor Hugo Tanner was large and florid of face, blinking
owlishly at Dal over his heavy horn-rimmed glasses. The glasses were
purely decorative; with modern eye-cultures and transplant techniques,
no Earthman had really needed glasses to correct his vision for the past
two hundred years, but on Hugo Tanner's angry face they added a look
of gravity and solemnity that the Black Doctor could not achieve
without them. Still glaring at Dal, Doctor Tanner leaned over to speak
to the Blue Doctor on his right, and they nodded and laughed
unpleasantly at some private joke.
There was no place for him to sit, so Dal stood before the table, as
straight as his five-foot height would allow him. He had placed Fuzzy
almost defiantly on his shoulder, and from time to time he could feel
the little creature quiver and huddle against his neck as though to hide
from sight under his collar.
The White Doctor opened the proceedings, and at first the questions
were entirely medical. "We are meeting to consider this student's
application for assignment to a General Practice Patrol ship, as a
probationary physician in the Red Service of Surgery. I believe you are
all acquainted with his educational qualifications?"
There was an impatient murmur around the table. The White Doctor
looked up at Dal. "Your name, please?"
"Dal Timgar, sir."

"Your full name," Black Doctor Tanner rumbled from the right-hand
end of the table.
Dal took a deep breath and began to give his full Garvian name. It was
untranslatable and unpronounceable to Earthmen, who could not
reproduce the sequence of pops and whistles that made up the Garvian
tongue. The doctors listened, blinking, as the complex family structure
and ancestry which entered into every Garvian's full name continued to
roll from Dal's lips. He was entering into the third generation removed
of his father's lineage when Doctor Tanner held up his hand.
"All right, all right! We will accept the abbreviated name you have
used on Hospital Earth. Let it be clear on the record that the applicant is
a native of the second planet of the Garv system." The Black Doctor
settled back in his chair and began whispering again to the Blue Doctor
next to him.
A Green Doctor cleared his throat. "Doctor Timgar, what do you
consider to be the basic principle that underlies the work and services
of physicians of Hospital Earth?"
It was an old question, a favorite on freshman medical school
examinations. "The principle that environments and life forms in the
universe may be dissimilar, but that biochemical reactions are universal
throughout creation," Dal said slowly.
"Well memorized," Black Doctor Tanner said sourly. "What does it
mean?"
"It means that the principles of chemistry, physiology, pathology and
the other life sciences, once understood, can be applied to any living
creature in the universe, and will be found valid," Dal said. "As
different as the various life forms may be, the basic life processes in
one life form are the same, under different conditions, as the life
processes in any other life form, just as hydrogen and oxygen will
combine to form water anywhere in the universe where the proper
physical conditions prevail."

"Very good, very good," the Green Doctor said. "But tell me this: what
in your opinion is the place of surgery in a Galactic practice of
medicine?"
A more difficult question, but one that Dal's training had prepared him
well to answer. He answered it, and faced another question, and another.
One by one, the doctors interrogated him, Black Doctor Arnquist
among them. The questions came faster and faster; some were
exceedingly difficult. Once or twice Dal was stopped cold, and forced
to admit that he did not know the answer. Other questions which he
knew would stop other students happened to fall in fields he understood
better than most, and his answers were full and succinct.
But finally the questioning tapered off, and the White Doctor shuffled
his papers impatiently. "If there are no further medical questions, we
can move on to another aspect of this student's application. Certain
questions of policy have been raised. Black Doctor Tanner had some
things to say, I believe, as co-ordinator of medical education."
The Black Doctor rose ponderously to his feet. "I have some things to
say, you can be sure of that," he said, "but they have nothing to do with
this Dal Timgar's educational qualifications for assignment