ommand of the situation. He gave Dal an icy
stare, then turned to the Moruan operating surgeon, whom he seemed to
know very well. After a short barrage of questions and answers, he
scrubbed and gowned, and stalked past Dal to the crude Moruan
micro-surgical control table.

It took him exactly fifteen seconds to scan the entire operating field
through the viewer, discussing the anatomy as the Moruan surgeon watched
on a connecting screen. Then, without hesitation, he began manipulating
the micro-instruments. Once or twice he murmured something to Tiger at
the anaesthesia controls, and occasionally he nodded reassurance to the
Moruan surgeon. He did not even invite Dal to observe.

Ten minutes later he rose from the control table and threw the switch to
stop the heart-lung machine. The patient took a gasping breath on his
own, then another and another. The Four-star Surgeon stripped off his
gown and gloves with a flourish. "It will be all right," he said to the
Moruan physician. "An excellent job, Doctor, excellent!" he said. "Your
technique was flawless, except for the tiny matter you have just
observed."

It was not until they were outside the operating room and beyond earshot
of the Moruan doctors that the Four-star surgeon turned furiously to
Dal. "Didn't you even bother to examine the operating field, Doctor?
Where did you study surgery? Couldn't you tell that the fools had
practically finished the job themselves? All that was needed was a
simple great-vessel graft, which an untrained idiot could have done
blindfolded. And for this you call me clear from Hospital Earth!"

The surgeon threw down his mask in disgust and stalked away, leaving Dal
and Tiger staring at each other in dismay.

CHAPTER 6

TIGER MAKES A PROMISE

"I think," Black Doctor Hugo Tanner said ominously, "that an explanation
is in order. I would now like to hear it. And believe me, gentlemen, it
had better be a very sensible explanation, too."

The pathologist was sitting in the control room of the _Lancet_, his
glasses slightly askew on his florid face. He had climbed through the
entrance lock ten minutes before, shaking snow off his cloak and
wheezing like a boiler about to explode; now he faced the patrol ship's
crew like a small but ominous black thundercloud. Across the room, Jack
Alvarez was staring through the viewscreen at the blizzard howling
across the landing field below, a small satisfied smile on his face,
while Tiger s