Star Surgeon

ready gone when Dal Timgar arrived at the loading platform, even though he

e clerk at the dispatcher's desk told him unsym

He pulled out the flight schedule and held it under the clerk's nose. "Look

, so it left," he said. "Graduation time, you know. Everybody has to

rvation on this o

reservations this time of year-" He broke off to stare at Dal Ti

had never really fit Dal very well; his legs were too long and spindly, and his hips too narrow to hold the pants up properly. The tailor in the Philadelphia shop had tried three times to make a jacket fit across Dal's narrow shoulders,

reservation, all right, but there won't be another shuttle to Hospital Seat

. Only physicians in the Black Service of Pathology and a few Four-star Surgeons had the

better be ready when they start loading. Y

n at the small pink fuzz-ball sitting in the crook of his arm. "Looks like we're out of luck, pal," he said gloomily. "If w

red happily and clung closer to Dal's side as he started up the long ramp to the observation platform. Automatic doors swung open as he reached the top, and Dal shivered in the

ents before, one of Earth's great hospital ships had landed, returning from a cruise deep into the heart of the galaxy, bringing in the gravely ill from a dozen star systems for care in one of Earth's hospitals. Dal watched as the long line of stretchers poured from the ship's hold with white-clad orderlies in nervous attendance. Some of

ly the commander of the ship-was talking with the welcoming dignitaries of Hospital Earth. Half a dozen doctors in the Blue Service of Diagnosis were checking new lab supplies ready to be loaded aboard. Three young Star Surgeons swung by just below Da

go; the dream had faded slowly, but now the last vestige of hope was almost gone. He thought of the long years of intensive training he had just completed in the medical school of Hospital Philade

shook his head and felt a little ashamed of the thought. It wasn't quite true, and he knew it. He had known that it was a gamble from the very first. Black Doctor Arnquist had warned him the day he received his notice of admission to the medical school. "I can

e had not received the final, irrevocable word that he had been expelled from the medical service of Hospital Ear

their day packs from their shoulders and chattering among themselves. Several of them saw him, standing by himself against the guard rail. One or two nodded coolly

behind him said. "You look as t

g at his side, and smiled ruefully. "Hello, Tiger! As a m

stubborn jaw only served to emphasize his bigness. Like the other recent graduates on the platform, he was wearing the colored cuff and collar of the probationary physician, in the bright green of t

ny cuff and col

" Tiger stared at him. "Or are

e said bitterly. "There's not going to be any assig

ow loo

n booted, and that's

right through!" Tiger protested. "You know

aper envelope. "I should have expected it from the fi

octor Tanner," he grunted. "The Bl

it," D

der that your application for assignment to a General Practice Patrol ship may be reviewed. Insignia will not be worn. Signed, Hugo Tanner, Physician, Black Se

never wanted me. They only let me go through school because Black Doctor Arnquist made an issue of it

e ship, and the supply cars broke from their positions in center of the field and fled like beetles for the security of the garages. A loudspeaker blared, announcing the incomin

s some sort of mistake that the training council will straighten out. I'm sure of it. Lots of guy

others in this class

ashing you out, why would the council be rev

Tanner is on the c

the council. It's going

e started for the loading line, then turned

d yet. I'm taking a leave. Bu

Dal turned away and headed across toward the line for the shuttle plane. Ten minutes later, he was alo

Billings. In spite of the help of the pneumatic seats and a sleep-cap, Dal could not even doze. It was one of the perfect clear nights that often occurred in midsummer now that weather control could modify Earth's air c

a thousand distant star systems. Here, he knew, was the ivory tower of galactic medicine, the hub from which the medical care of the confederation arose. From the huge hospitals, research centers, and medical schools here, the physicians of Hospital Earth went out to all corners of the galaxy. In the per

a hot yellow star which Earthmen called "Garv" because they couldn't pronounce its full name in the Garvian tongue. Unthinkably distant, yet only days away with the power of the star-drive motors that its people had developed thousands of years before, Garv II was a warm pl

o come here, Dal knew; there was no one else to blame. His people were not physicians. Their instincts and interests lay in trading and politics, not in the life sciences

landing in his home city to fight the plague that was killing his people by the thousands, he had known that this was what he wa

his body was small and spindly, weighing a bare ninety pounds, and the coating of fine gray fur that covered all but his face and palms annoyingly grew longer and thicker as soon as he came to the comparatively cold climate of Hospital Earth to live. The bone structure of his face gave his cheeks and

cal size among them, yet made no sign of distinction. Dal's alienness went deeper. His classmates had been civil enough, yet with one or two exceptions, they had a

come, an intruder in their midst, the first member of an alien race

n the Black Service of Pathology had befriended him. If it had not been for the friendship and support of

meeting left no doubt in his mind. He had failed. There would be lots of talk, some perfunctory debate for the sake of the record, and the medical counci

ching from the Cascade Mountains to the sea and beyond, north to Alaska and south toward the great California metropolitan centers. Somewhere down there was a council room where a d

own for its landing. It would be nice, he thought wryly, if his reservations for sleeping qua

e-human face, and then read his passage permit carefully before brushing him on through. Then he joined the crowd of travelers hea

please report to the

al information. "You wer

said, his voice surprisingly respectfu

ow telephone message sheet, and Dal was

REGARDLESS OF HOUR STOP URGENT

hologist. Dal read it again, shifted his pack, and started once more for the subway ramp. He thrust the me

his right to study medicine on Hospital Earth, now w

days, Dal Timgar felt