you had for the work."

Dal shook his head. "I--I did some work in the field, yes, but not on
critical cases under field conditions."

"You mean that this case required some different kind of technique than
the cases you've worked on before?"

"No, not really, but--"

"But you just couldn't quite shoulder the responsibility the job
involved when you got into a pinch without any help around," the Black
Doctor growled.

"I just thought it would be safer to wait," Dal said helplessly.

"A good conservative approach," Dr. Tanner sneered. "Of course, you
realized that prolonged anaesthesia in itself could threaten that
patient's life?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you saw the patient's condition steadily deteriorating while you
waited, did you not?"

"It was too late to change my mind then," Dal said desperately. "We'd
sent for you. We knew that it would be only a matter of hours before you
arrived."

"Indeed," the Black Doctor said. "Unfortunately, it takes only seconds
for a patient to cross the line between life and death, not hours. And I
suppose you would have stood there quietly and allowed him to expire if
we had not arrived at the time we did?"

Dal shook his head miserably. There was nothing he could answer to that,
and he realized it. What could he say? That the situation seemed quite
different now than it had under pressure in the Moruan operating room?
That he would have been blamed just as much if he had gone ahead, and
then lost the case? His fingers stole down to Fuzzy's soft warm body for
comfort, and he felt the little creature cling closer to his side.

The Black Doctor looked up at the others. "Well? What do the rest of you
have to say?"

Jack Alvarez shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not a surgeon," he said, "but
even I could see that _something_ should be done without delay."

"And what does the Green Doctor think?"

Tiger shrugged. "We misjudged the situation, that's all. It came out
fortunately for the patient, why make all this fuss about it?"

"Because there are other things at stake than just medical
considerations," the Black Doctor shot back. "This planet has a grade I
contract with Hospital Earth. We guarantee them full medical coverage of
all situations and promise them immediate response to any call for
medical help that they may send us. It is the most favorable kind of
contract we have; when Morua VIII calls for help they expect their call
to be answered by expert medical attention, no