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for its treatment. And if someone like Prilicla were to treat such an Earth-human patient. . . A large part of O'Mara's job was to detect and eradicate such trouble among the medical staff while other members of his department saw to it that the problem did not arise where the patients were concerned. According to O'Mara himself, however, the true reason for the high degree of mental stability among the variegated and often touchy medical staff was that they were all too frightened of him to risk going mad.
       Caustically, he said, "Doctor Conway, I freely admit that this patient is unusual even by our standards, but you must have discovered a few simple facts about it and its condition. Is it alive? Is it diseased or injured? Does it possess intelligence? Are you wasting your time on an outsize, space-frozen turkey?"
       Conway ignored the rhetoric and tried to answer the questions. He said, "The patient is alive, just barely, and the indications are that it is both diseased—the exact nature of the disease is not yet known—and suffering from gross physical injury, specifically a punctured wound made by a large, high-velocity projectile or a tightly focused heat beam which passed through the base of the neck and the upper chest area. The wound entrance and exit is sealed by the black covering or growth—we still don't know which—encasing the body. Regarding the possibility of intelligence, the cranial capacity is large enough not to rule this out, but again, the head is not disproportionately large for the mass of the being, which is too deeply unconscious to radiate detectable emotion. The manipulatory appendages, whose degree of specialization or other- wise can give a strong indication of the presence or absence of intelligence, have been removed.
       "Not by us," Conway added.
       O'Mara was silent for a moment then he said, "I see. Another one of your deceptively simple cases. No doubt you will have deceptively simple special requirements. Accommodation? Physiology tapes? Information on planet of origin?"
       Conway shook his head. "I don't believe that you have a physiology tape that will cover this patient's type—all the winged species we know are light-gravity beings, and this one has muscles for about four Gs. The present accommodation is fine, although we'll have to be careful in case of contamination of or from the chlorine level above us—the seals to storage compartments like this are not designed for constant traffic, unlike the ward airlocks—"
       "I didn't know that, of course."
       "Sorry, sir," said Conway. "I was thinking aloud, and partly for the benefit of Surgeon-Lieutenant Brenner, who is visiting this madhouse for the first time. Regarding information on its planet of origin, I would like you to approach Colonel Skempton to ask him if it would be possible for Torrance to return to that area to investigate the two nearer star systems, to look for beings with a similar physiological classification."
       "In other words," said O'Mara dryly, "you have a difficult medical problem and think that the best solution is to find the patient's own doctor."
       Conway smiled and said, "We don't need full cultural contact—just a quick look, atmosphere samples and specimens of local plant and animal life, if Torrance wouldn't mind soft-landing a probe—"
       O'Mara broke the connection at that point with a sound which was untranslatable and Conway, now that they had gone as far as they could with the patient without the path reports, suddenly realized how hungry he was.
       Three To reach the dining hall reserved for warm-bodied oxygen breathers they had to travel through two levels, none Of which required protective suits, and a network of corridors crowded with entities which flapped, crawled, undulated and occasionally walked past them. They were met at the entrance by Prilicla who was carrying a folder of green path reports.
       As they entered, the last Earth-human table