ult
problems that arose in their travels. They were the first to answer the
medical calls from any planet with a medical service contract with
Hospital Earth.

It was an enormous responsibility for doctors-in-training to assume, but
over the years it had proven the best way to train and weed out new
doctors for the greater responsibilities of hospital ship and Hospital
Earth assignments. There was no set period of duty on the patrol ships;
how long a young doctor remained in the General Practice Patrol depended
to a large extent upon how well he handled the problems and
responsibilities that faced him; and since the first years of Hospital
Earth, the fledgling doctors in the General Practice Patrol--the
self-styled "Galactic Pill Peddlers"--had lived up to their
responsibilities. The reputation of Hospital Earth rested on their
shoulders, and they never forgot it.

As he worked on his inventories, Dal Timgar thought of Doctor Arnquist's
words to him after the council had handed down its decision. "Remember
that judgment and skill are two different things," he had said. "Without
skill in the basic principles of diagnosis and treatment, medical
judgment isn't much help, but skill without the judgment to know how and
when to use it can be downright dangerous. You'll be judged both on the
judgment you use in deciding the right thing to do, and on the skill you
use in doing it." He had given Dal the box with the coveted collar and
cuff. "The colors are pretty, but never forget what they stand for.
Until you can convince the council that you have both the skill and the
judgment of a good physician, you will never get your Star. And you will
be watched closely; Black Doctor Tanner and certain others will be
waiting for the slightest excuse to recall you from the _Lancet_. If you
give them the opportunity, nothing I can do will stop it."

And now, as they worked to prepare the ship for service, Dal was
determined that the opportunity would not arise. When he was not working
in the storerooms, he was in the computer room, reviewing the thousands
of tapes that carried the basic information about the contract planets
where they would be visiting, and the races that inhabited them. If
errors and fumbles and mistakes were made by the crew of the _Lancet_,
he thought grimly, it would not be Dal Timgar who made them.

The first night they met in the control room to divide the many
extracurricular jobs involved in maintaining a pat