"White, James - Sector General 02 - Star Surgeon.PDB" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

sexual contact with its life-mate, a gravid Hudlar female changes
gradu-ally into male mode and, concurrently, its life-mate slowly
becomes female. A Hudlar year after partuition the changes to both
are com-plete.The Hudlar FROBs are acknowledged to be, physically,
stron-gest life-forms of the Galactic Federation and to have the
least-pervious body tegument. Contact with chlorine is instantly
lethal to them. Hudlar blood is yellow and circulates under great
pres-sure and pulse rate. Hudlars consider their names to be their
most private and personal possession, and do not give or use their
names in the presence of anyone who is not a member of the family or
a close friend.

Classification:FSOJ
Planet:Unknown
Species:Protectors of the Unborn
No Individual Names Known
The Protector of the Unborn is a large, immensely strong life-form
that resembles aTralthan, but is less massive with stubbier legs
pro-jecting from a hemispherical carapace flared out slightly around
the lower edges. The deployment of the legs and tentacles is
simi-lar to the Hudlar FROB life-form, but the carapace is a thicker
ELNT Melfan shell without markings, and the FSOJ is plainly not
herbivorous. From openings high on the carapace sprout four
ten-tacles. Two different types of tentacles have been observed on
dif-ferent beings: long and particularly thin tentacles which
terminate in flat, spear-like tips with serrated boney edges, and
thick tentacles terminating in a cluster ofsharp, bony projections
which make them resemble spiked clubs. The four stubby legs also
have osseous pro-jections which enable them to be used as weapons as
well. Midway between two of the tentacle openings there is a larger
gap in the carapace from which protrudes a head, all mouth and
teeth. The large upper and lower mandibles are capable of deforming
all but the strongest metal alloys. A little space is reserved for
two well-protected eyes at the bottom of deep, boney craters. A
serrated tail also protrudes from the heavily slitted carapace.
While the under-side is not armored, as is the carapace, this area
is rarely open to attack, and it is covered by a thick tegument
which apparently gives sufficient protection. In the center of this
area is a thin, longitudi-nal fissure which opens into the birth
canal. It will not open, how-ever, until a few minutes before giving
birth. The FSOJ brain is not in its skull, but deep inside the torso
with the rest of the other vital organs. It is positioned just under
the womb and surrounding the beginning of the birth canal. As a
result, the brain is compressed as the embryo grows. If it is a
difficult birth, the parent's brain is destroyed and junior comes
out fighting, with a convenient food supply available until it can
kill something for itself Senior Physi-cians Conway's first
impression was that the entity was little more than an organic
killing machine. Considering the fact that it is warm-blooded and
oxygen-breathing, and its appendages show no evidence of the ability