"Tell First-of-Surgery to come with as many skilled surgeons as the Weave can spare. Tell him there's work for them here."
The Human's gaze narrowed. "At the moment we're being hard pressed by the rest of your friends. As you undoubtedly know, the local population is worse than useless in the face of armed invasion. That leaves it up to us temporary immigrants to try and save their world for them. Right now that's all that concerns me. This is no place for a medical convocation. Yet you expect me to requisition the use of deep-space relay time on behalf of some half-Ashregan freak, because he wants to see a doctor?"
Ranji looked up tiredly. "If you don't, I can guarantee that the remainder of your military career will be spent tending sanitation facilities on the airless moon of Earth."
The Massood leaned forward and whispered in broken Human. "Consider: Though armed they have committed no violence. After successfully breaching our defenses without raising any alarm they surrendered peacefully when they could have caused a great deal of damage. While I also view the creature's words with the greatest suspicion, it cannot be denied that there may be more to this than self-delusion."
Silently the Human officer pondered the tall armored enigma that called itself Ranji-aar. "How'd you get inside the dome, anyway?"
"I'll explain everything ... as soon as you get in touch with your superiors and verify what I've told you."
Another pause, whereupon the man reluctantly turned and shouted something in guttural Human. There was movement in the corridor outside. The Massood leaned forward politely, whiskers twitching, lower lip curled slightly downward to expose sharp teeth.
"We are complying with your suggestions. You must understand that it will take some time to make contact and receive a response. Until then you and your troops will be held under guard and appropriately treated."
Ranji nodded tiredly, free at last to employ whatever Human gestures he wished. "Thank you. I have one additional request. I ask that you isolate me from my companions."
The Massood officer said nothing, but the fine erectile fur on his muzzle stiffened slightly.
20
It was strange to sit by himself in the room they had given him and wish for the defeat of Birachii and other old friends. If they overran the distribution complex and "rescued" Ranji and the other captives, even Saguio's determination to support his brother might falter. Certainly there would be no reunion with First-of-Surgery, no revealing, liberating operations for his companions. He would be shipped off-world at first opportunity, an object of anger and pity for the curious Amplitur to prod and probe.
But deprived of its Commander's strategic skills, the attack faltered. Birachii and Cossinza's squads failed to dislodge the installation's defenders. Even as they lamented the loss of the brave assault team led by their friend and Unifer, they fell back to the protection of the foothills and requested instructions from Regional Command.
Two weeks later a column of heavily armed and armored attack sleds arrived at the distribution complex, having fought off sporadic enemy attacks all the way from Usilayy, Ulaluable's capital city. The Massood and Human officers in charge of defending the installation were surprised to learn that the convoy had made the dangerous run not to bring reinforcements but solely to escort the tiny clutch of prisoners back to the capital.
The pressure of coordinating the center's defense didn't allow much time for casual conversation. Now it was too late. But the Human officer who'd confronted Ranji on that rainy, confusing night many days earlier did manage to be present when he and his companions were being loaded aboard the armed sleds.
"Look, I don't know who or what you are or how much of your story is true," he told his former prisoner, "but if you are Human under all that extraneous calcification, how did you come to look like this?"
Ranji glanced back at him. "I told you. The Amplitur."
The man nodded sagely. "Wouldn't put anything past the squids. But this ..." His voice trailed off. "Will you do me a favor? We don't know each other and you certainly don't owe me anything, but when you get to wherever it is you're going, and your situation is finally resolved, will you let me know what the results are? As one curious primate to another?"
"I'll try." They parted with a handshake. The wholly Human gesture at last felt easy and natural to Ranji. The unconvinced among Ranji's fellow soldiers did not hesitate to curse the exchange.
In contrast to its arrival, the convoy's run back to Usilayy was uneventful. Having decided to concentrate their firepower on specific targets, the invading Crigolit and Ashregan had few personnel to spare for disruptive sorties of dubious military value. Had they known that Ranji and his companions were traveling with the convoy, its progress would have been considerably reduced. But as far as Ashregan command was concerned, they'd perished bravely while trying to infiltrate an enemy installation. Notification of that conclusion was already on its way to friends and relations.
Never having had the opportunity to examine Humans at close range, Ranji's companions were forced to admit the extraordinary similarities between themselves and their guards, while the Humans in the convoy regarded their prisoners with equal dubiety and puzzlement. Anyone who continued to insist that captors and captives were not somehow related was asking a lot of the principle of convergent evolution.
Everyone knew, however, that physical appearance was not what mattered when evaluating potential enemies o allies. What was important was what individuals believe and how they thought, and in that respect the gulf between was still wide. With the possible exception of their enigmatic leader, the clutch of captives remained wholly Ashregan in attitude and outlook.
Usilayy betrayed no sign of the war that raged around distant strategic centers and military targets. The city simmered beneath a serene autumnal sun, genial and bustling ablaze with late-season flowers and trees that dripped coppery-colored leaves into neatly domesticated streams and dancing fountains. Within its protected and manicured confines the notion of war seemed a far-off, abstract obscenity.
Wais officials left disposition of the special prisoners to grim-faced Massood and Humans, studiously avoiding allies and enemies alike.
Despite the knowledge that he'd done remarkably well in safely delivering twenty-five of his companions to the Weave, Ranji couldn't help but lament the absence of good friends like Soratii and Cossinza. Their deliverance would have to await additional progress. With luck the invasion would fail and they would be captured before they could be evacuated.
If not, at least Tourmast and Weenn and the rest could be shown the truth. Afterward they could somehow be returned home or to their units, there to further spread the knowledge of what the Amplitur had done to them. They'd have no other choice, any more than had Ranji.
It would all have to be done with the greatest stealth and care lest the Amplitur learn what was happening. Ranji would not put it past the Teachers to sorrowfully and with great regret put an end to an unsuccessful experiment by having the several thousand participants still under their control quietly terminated.
It was proposed that the captives observe the operation via special monitors set up for that purpose, but despite the fact that no actual cutting was involved, Tourmast and the others would have none of that. Unanimously, they insisted on being present in person. Otherwise they would believe nothing.
In appropriate garb they crowded into the operating theater. It was spacious, spotless, and elegant, as befitted a Wais-built facility. Visible instruments mirrored in design the multitude of flowers that carpeted the grounds outside. In aspect it was far more reassuring than intimidating.
Ranji was with his brother in Preop. Their respective situations notwithstanding, it was Saguio who did most of the comforting.
"Relax, Ranj. If what you've been saying is true, then I've nothing to worry about."
"It's still a complex operation." Ranji gazed down at his brother. "Even if they are just severing neurons and not excising the nodule itself."
"Hey, you went through it, and look at you: no crazier than usual." Saguio grinned tightly. "Not that I'm not ready to get it over with."
"I'll be there every minute. So will the whole squad."
"Yeah, great." Fear momentarily shadowed the younger man's face. He forced it aside. "Don't let 'em cut anything I might want to use later."
An O'o'yan arrived to administer a glass of water containing an oral anesthetic. Five minutes later two of the short, reptilian meditechs were guiding the cushioned operating pallet and its comatose cargo into the Surgery.
Conversation died among the onlookers as Saguio's pallet arrived and was locked in position. The O'o'yan immobilized his head with air clamps, then stepped back. Several Massood guarded the doorways.
A pair of Hivistahm assumed operators' positions at the surgical station. They were accompanied by a Human surgical programmer, the most competent on Ulaluable. After scrutinizing them dubiously, Ranji walked over and put a hand on the top of the console.
"Wait a minute. Where's First-of-Surgery? "
The nearer of the two Hivistahm blinked up at him. "I Second-of-Surgery am, chief physician on Ulaluable. The First-of-Surgery to whom you refer unable to come is. Distance and time prohibitive are."
An anxious Ranji looked over at his recumbent, anesthetized brother. Lying there motionless he looked even younger than he was. "None of you have ever been involved in an operation like this. I expected someone experienced. "
The other Hivistahm replied stiffly. "I assure you that there is no need our competency to question. The appropriate programming instructions were transmitted and thrice checked before into the computer being entered. Remember that it in control of the actual procedure is. We are present only to check and monitor."
Still Ranji hesitated. "That programming was designed for my skull, my brain. Not Saguio's."
"The instrumentation is designed variations into account to take. Truly calm yourself. If uncertainty arises, we are here to adjudicate."
Tourmast's voice sounded from nearby. "Something wrong, Unifer?"
He could insist they wait until First-of-Surgery came in person from Omaphill. That risked unnerving his fellow Cossuutians even more than they already were. He wavered, staring at the helpless form of his brother.
"Call it off," he said finally, walking around the console. "I don't care how carefully you recorded the necessary instructions, I'm not going to allow ..." Something stung him in the middle of the back and he whirled. One of the Massood guards was standing there, pointing a narrow metal tube in his direction. Two long fingers were tensed on the complex triggering mechanism.
It seemed as if the Surgery was being pumped full of fog. He stumbled against the console, dimly felt it bang into his back. Through the thickening mist he heard the rising, uncertain murmuring of his fellow soldiers, and the voice of the Hivistahm in charge.
"Better it is that the patient not remain long under anesthesia. There no danger is. Your leader understandably concerned for his sibling is. He merely tranquilized has been. This way is for him and his brother both better. Everything under control is. By the Circle I, as a physician, swear it."
As the shot's effects spread like a deep massage throughout his body Ranji lost control of his lower limbs. Two Massood caught him under the arms and at the ankles. He felt himself being carried from the room. Fighting to shout, to call for help, he discovered that his larynx had been rendered as dysfunctional as his legs.
A face appeared before his eyes, its outlines swimming. Weenn gazed down at Ranji as he was carried past. The fluid expression on his friend's face was unreadable.
When he awoke he sat up in the bed so sharply that the O'o'yan attendant who happened to be checking his waste-recovery system fainted, with the result that instead of shouting imprecations and demands, Ranji found himself bending over the unconscious creature trying to stop the slight bleeding at the back of its head.
His return to consciousness, not to mention his abrupt physical reaction, had alerted monitoring hospital instrumentation. Hivistahm and other O'o'yan came running. Those first on the scene were greeted by the disconcerting sight of the Human warrior bending over the bleeding attendant. The tension level rose quickly until Ranji was able to explain. Thus reassured, they hurried to assist both O'o'yan and patient.
Ranji apologized, and the attendant absolved him of any blame. It was his fault, the O'o'yan explained. Though an experienced rneditech, he'd never worked with Humans before. It was his responsibility to be appropriately prepared, and he ought to have anticipated potential shocks.
"Your concern is appreciated," the attendant concluded.
"Never mind that." An impatient Ranji evaluated shoulder insignia until he located the highest-ranking Hivistahm present. "How is my brother? Where is he?"
"He's fine." A young man stood grinning in the doorway. "Resting comfortably." As he entered Ranji saw above his heart the symbol of the Human combat meditech corps ... the traditional caduceus with its entwined snakes spitting caustic venom. "Matter of fact, he's in the next room."
Ranji started forward, stumbled, and allowed the tech to steady him. Though concerned, none of the Hivistahm or O'o'yan stepped forward to offer physical assistance. They were still subject to certain inherent antipathies only a few of their kind had been able to overcome. They examined the nude primate with professional detachment.
"Take deep breaths," the tech advised Ranji. "Your clothes are in the side closet."
Ranji nodded and did as he was instructed. When he felt halfway steady on his feet he dressed. Still fumbling with the seals on his undersuit he hurried to the next room down the hall. Two Massood were posted there, two Humans within. At a nod from the tech they let him pass.
Saguio was sitting up in bed, an entertainment projection dancing in the air before him. As his brother entered he waved and touched an unseen button. The projection vanished.
"Hi, Ranj." He smiled easily, looking relaxed and comfortable. "You look worse than I do."
Ranji put out a hand to steady himself against the wall. "I suppose I must. How are you feeling?"
"Well. I heard what happened to you. That was a nice gesture, but apparently unnecessary. I've been up all morning. You haven't." He looked past his brother to the tech and the guards. "Could we have some privacy, please?"
The tech hesitated, then nodded. Turning, he spoke to the guards, smiled briefly back into the room before following them out into the corridor.
Ranji scanned the room. "Probably isn't any privacy. I'm sure they've had sensors on both of us ever since we got here."
"I'd be surprised if it was any other way. If the situation were reversed, we'd be doing the same. The rest of the squad was in earlier. They watched the operation. It must've been pretty convincing because they all believe you now. So do I, even though I didn't get to see anything. Tourmast said that organ showed up on the visual probe exactly as you described it. The meditechs even let them manipulate the visuals themselves." He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't feel any different."
"No," Ranji told him slowly, "you won't."
"They ran some tests on me right afterward. Stuck me in a machine they said came as close to duplicating a Teacher ... an Amplitur mind-touch as could be done with circuits and programming. This time I was conscious of what was happening inside my head. I could feel the pushing. Never felt that before." He shifted in the bed, gazed earnestly at his brother. "Is that really what it's like? The Teachers really have been making us do what they want without us even realizing it?"
Ranji nodded slowly, luxuriating in the increasingly familiar Human gesture. "They've always referred to their pushes as 'suggestions.' I suppose that's all they are, except that nobody has the ability to turn one down. Except Humans. The operation doesn't give us back the Human neurodefense mechanism, but it does make us immune to Amplitur suggestion. Those of us who have the surgery will never have to suffer that again."
"And the rest of it, about us bei
ng abducted Human children and all, that's true then, too?" Ranji nodded solemnly.
Saguio looked pensive for a while. "It's a lot to handle all at once, Ranj. A lot."
"Sorry. It's not the kind of thing that can be ladled out in small doses."
"How long have you known? Since your disappearance on Eirrosad, right?" Without waiting for his brother to reply he leaned back against the curving mattress. "I've been Ashregan all my life, and now a few scalpel passes later I'm Human. I wish I did feel differently. It might make it easier to accept." He touched his head. "The damned thing's still in there, isn't it?"
"They told me that it's too deeply embedded in the cerebrum to risk removing," Ranji explained. He touched his own skull. "I have one, too, remember. So do all our friends." He found a chair and pulled it over next to the bed. Though designed to support the backside of a Hivistahm tech, it would hold him if he watched his balance.
"There are things that have been bothering me ever since we landed on this world. I wanted to be able to share them with someone, but I had to wait. Now I can share them with you."
Saguio blinked ingenuously. "Share away."
Ranji hesitated. "What time are they supposed to feed you?"
His brother gave him a strange look but replied readily. "I last ate about an hour ago. I don't imagine I'm due for another feeding until evening."
"Call an attendant. You have the means to do that, don't you?"
"Sure." Saguio thumbed the requisite switch. Moments later a single O'o'yan entered. Ranji addressed it without turning, keeping his eyes on his brother.
"We'd like something to eat, please."
"It is not yet scheduled."
Ranji concentrated on his request. "We really would like something to eat. Now."
The O'o'yan blinked. "Certainly. Do you have a particular meal request?"
"No." Ranji was satisfied with the response. "Whatever you can bring will be fine."
"Very well." The slim little reptilian attendant left to comply.