Star Surgeon

e call board was still blinking; Tiger turned it off with a snap. "Here's the message that just cam

ord, teletyped in the cent

ETI

all?" J

hey repeated it half a doz

asked. "Where are the i

designated 31 Brucker from the direction and intens

that's certain. Even the location could be wrong if the signal came in on an odd frequency or f

d turned the signal beam to coincide wit

an you hear me? Who are

was lost. Then a voice came whispering through the s

es in order to tell," Ti

hen: "If you are far away it will be too l

cing them together through several repetitions. "Check these out fast," he told Jack. "This sounds like real trouble." He tossed Da

me back, "No, we have no contract. We are all dy

coming. Keep your frequency open. We w

dly at Dal. "Did you hear that? A planet calli

said. "We'd better go ther

rt digging up information on them, everything you can find. We need all of the dope we ca

of the planet. He could hardly control his fingers as the tapes with possible references began plopping down into the slots. Tiger was right; this was almost too good to be true. When a planet without a medical service contract calle

ir star-drive was discovered, had no inkling of the existence of a Galactic Confederation of worlds. There might be no information whatever about the special anatomical and ph

indeed. Among the billions of notes on file in the Lancet's data bank,

nd?" Tiger said, staring

a description and classification of the star, and it doesn

nd cold, with three-possibly four-planets inside the outer envelope of the star itself, and only one outsi

it's an Earth-type planet, and not much else. Gives reference to the full repor

er said. "If the place has been explored, there

l description of a tiny outer planet of the star, with a thin oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere,

en a medical service c

en say there are any people there. No

re, somebody must be sending them. But if a Confederation ship explored

an get strapped

e Confederation headquarters on Garv II and re

cords? We can't do that, they'd skin us alive. Those records a

al about it, give them my Confederation serial number. Garv II i

o ear. "Didn't even have to pull rank," he said. "When they started to argue, I just told them it was an emergency, and if they didn't let us see any re

drive for hours before it reconverted, and even Dal was beginning to feel the first pangs of drive-sickness before t

d at it in the viewscreen, yet among the family of stars it was a cold, dying giant with only a few moments of life left on the astronomical time scale. From the Lancet's position, no planets at all were visible to the naked eye, but wit

the Galactic Confederation headquarters on Garv II; the other was a good clear sig

eport came clacking off the teletyp

"There must be intelligent creatures do

atory ship that came here eight hundred years ago. You can't tell me that any

have seven planets, all but one lying within the tenuous outer gas envelope of the star itself. The seventh planet has an atm

nd masses and major water bodies. Physically, the planet was a desert, hot and dry, and barren of vegetation excepting in two or three areas of jungle along the equator. "The planet is inhabited by numerous small unintelligent animal species which seem w

is that?"

scale. I guess the explorers weren't much impressed; they did

then. Idiots can't build interstellar radios.

e common tongue of the Galactic Confederation. "How soon can you come?" the voice wa

Tiger asked. "What'

t if you have other work that is more pr

g. "I don't get this," he sa

help, but we need information about you. You have our pos

e came back wearily. "It will b

somewhere. If the people down there can send a ship out with a spokesman to tell us about their

id. "And where were they when t

ut I'll bet you both that we

said. "What

said darkly. "I don't know about you, but I thin

design, surface-launching interplanetary craft, with separated segments on either side suggesting

hey had taken pains to describe the interior atmosphere of the patrol ship and warn the spokesman to keep himself in a sealed pressure suit. On the intercom vi

no more than four feet high. More than anything else, he looked like a very intelligent monkey with a diminutive space suit fitting his fragile body. When

There is no record of your people in our Confed

hear the Confederation broadcasts and have learned to understand the common tongue." The space-suited stranger looked

u gave us no informat

ws. Thousands of us are dying, tens of thousands. Even I am infected and soon will be dead. Unless you can f

ss that answers our question, all right. It looks as if we h