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

become major crimes where theater staff are concerned . .
Prilicla's legs began to tremble again, a sign that it was nerving itself for the effort
of being slightly disagreeable. It said, "The entity in question was the Charge Nurse. That was
why, when the other nurse goofed on an instrument count-there was one too many or too few-the
ticking off was relatively mild. And during both incidents I detected the echo effect radiated by
Mannon, although in these cases the echo was from the respective nurses.
"We may have something there!" said Conway excitedly. "Did the nurses have any physical
contact with Mannon?"
"They were assisting him," said Prilicla, "and they were all wearing protective suits. I
don't see how any form of parasitic life or bacteria could have passed between them, if that is
the idea which is making you feel so excited and hopeful just now. I am very sorry, friend Conway,
but this echo effect, while peculiar, does not seem to me to be important."
"It's something they had in common," said Conway.


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"Yes," Prilicla said, "but the something did not have self identity, it was not an
individual. Just a very faint emotional echo of the feelings of the people concerned."
"Even so," said Conway.
Three people had made mistakes or had had accidents in this theater two days ago, all of
whom had radiated an odd emotional echo which Prilicla did not consider important. The presence of
an accident-prone Conway ruled out because O'Mara's screening methods were too efficient in that
respect. But suppose Prilicla was wrong and something had got in the theater or into the hospital,
some form of life which was difficult to detect and outside their present experience. It was well
known that when odd things happened in Sector General the reasons very often were found outside
the hospital. At the moment, however, he hadn't enough evidence to form even a vague theory and
the first job should be to gather some-even though he might not recognize it if he tripped over it
with both feet.
"I'm hungry and it's high time we talked to the man himself," said Conway suddenly. "Let's
find him and invite him to lunch."


The dining hall for the oxygen-breathing Medical and Maintenance staff occupied one complete
level, and at one time it had been sectioned off into physiological types with low dividing ropes.
But this had not worked out too well because the diners very often wanted to talk shop with other
species colleagues or they found that there were no vacant places in their own enclosure and space
going to waste in that of another life-form. So it was no surprise when they arrived to find that
they had the choice of sitting at an enormous Tralthan table with benches which were a shade too
far from the table's edge and one in the Melfan section which was cozier but whose chairs
resembled surrealistic wastepaper baskets. They insinuated themselves into three of the latter and
began the usual preliminaries to ordering.
"I'm just myself today," said Prilicla in answer to Conway's question. "The usual, if you
please."
Conway dialed for the usual, which was a triple helping of Earth type spaghetti, then
looked at Mannon.
"I've an FROB and an MSVK beastie riding me," the other Senior said gruffly. "Hudlars
aren't persnickity about food, but those blasted MSVKs are offended by anything which doesn't look
like birdseed! Just get me something nutritious, but don't tell me what it is and put it in about