"James White - SG 03 - Major Operation" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

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and the patient itself was anesthetized and scarcely radiating at all. Mannon and his staff had
been concentrating on their duties with only a small part of their minds free to think or emote
about anything else. And then Senior Physician Mannon had his... accident. In actual fact it was
five separate and distinct accidents.
Prilicla's body began to quiver violently and Conway said, "I... I'm sorry.
"I know you are," said the empath, and resumed its report.
The patient had been partially decompressed so that the operative field could be worked
more effectively. There was some danger in this considering the Hudlar pulse rate and blood
pressure, but Mannon himself had evolved this procedure and so was best able to weigh the risks.
Since the patient was decompressed he had had to work quickly, and at first everything seemed to
be going well. He had opened a flap of the flexible armor-plating which the Hudlars used for skin
and had controlled the subcutaneous bleeding when the first mistake occurred, followed in quick
succession by two more. Prilicla could not tell by observation that they were mistakes, even
though there was considerable bleeding-it was Mannon's emotional reactions, some of the most
violent the empath had ever experienced, which told it that the surgeon had committed a serious
and stupid blunder.
There were longer intervals between the two others which followed- Mannon's work had
slowed drastically, his technique resembling the first fumblings of a student rather than that of
one of the most skillful surgeons in the hospital. He had become so slow that curative surgery was
impossible, and he had barely time to withdraw and restore pressure before the patient's condition
deteriorated beyond the point of no return.
It was very distressing," Prilicla said, still trembling violently. "He wanted to work
quickly, but the earlier mistakes had wrecked his self confidence. He was thinking twice about
doing even the simplest things, things which a surgeon of his experience would do automatically,
without thinking."
Conway was silent for a moment, thinking about the horrible situation Mannon had been in.
Then he said, "Was there anything else unusual about his feelings? Or those of the theater staff?"
Prilicla hesitated, then said, "It is difficult to isolate subtle nuances of emotion when
the source is emoting so. . . so violently. But I received the impression of. . . the effect is
hard to describe . . . of something like a faint emotional echo of irregular duration..."
"Probably the Hudlar tape," said Conway. "It's not the first time a physiology tape gave
me mental double vision."
"That might possibly be the case," said Prilicla. Which, in a being who was invariably and
enthusiastically in agreement with whatever was said to it, was as close as the empath could come
to a negative reply. Conway began to feel that he might be getting onto something important.
"How about the others?"
"Two of them," said Prilicla, "were radiating the shock-worry-fear combination indicative
of a mildly traumatic experience in the recent past. I was in the gallery when both incidents
occurred, and one of them gave me quite a jolt..
One of the nurses had almost had an accident while lifting a tray of instruments. One of
them, a long, heavy, Hudlar Type Six scalpel used for opening the incredibly tough skin of that
species, had slipped off the tray for some reason. Even a small punctured or incised wound was a
very serious matter for a Kelgian, so that the Kelgian nurse had a bad fright when it saw that
vicious blade dropping toward its unprotected side. But somehow it had struck in such a way-it was
difficult to know how, considering its shape and lack of balance-that it had not penetrated the
skin or even damaged the fur. The Kelgian had been relieved and thankful for its good fortune, but
still a little disturbed.
"I can imagine," said Conway. "Probably the Charge Nurse read the riot act. Minor errors