do. I think we should get him
to a hospital ship."

"Is it more than you can handle?" Tiger said.

"I could probably do it all right--but I could lose him, too."

A frown creased Tiger's face. "Dal, it would take six hours for a
hospital ship to get here."

"I know that. But on the other hand...." Dal spread his hands. He felt
Fuzzy crouching in a tight frightened lump in his pocket. He thought
again of the delicate, painstaking microscopic work that remained to be
done to bring the new section of lung into position to function, and he
shook his head. "Look, these creatures hibernate," he said. "If we could
get him cooled down enough, we could lighten the anaesthesia and
maintain him as is, indefinitely."

"This is up to you," Tiger said. "I don't know anything about surgery.
If you think we should just hold tight, that's what we'll do."

"All right. I think we'd better. Have them notify Jack to signal for a
hospital ship. We'll just try to stick it out."

Tiger left to pass the word, and Dal went back into the operating room.
Suddenly he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his
shoulders. There would be Three-star Surgeons on a Hospital Ship to
handle this; it seemed an enormous relief to have the task out of his
hands. Yet something was wriggling uncomfortably in the back of his
mind, a quiet little voice saying _this isn't right, you should be doing
this yourself right now instead of wasting precious time...._

He thrust the thought away angrily and ordered the Moruan physicians to
bring in ice packs to cool the patient's huge hulk down to hibernation
temperatures. "We're going to send for help," Dal told the Moruan
surgeon who had met them at the ship. "This man needs specialized care,
and we'd be taking too much chance to try to do it this way."

"You mean you're sending for a hospital ship?"

"That's right," Dal said.

This news seemed to upset the Moruans enormously. They began growling
among themselves, moving back from the operating table.

"Then you can't save him?" the operating surgeon said.

"I think he can be saved, certainly!"

"But we thought you could just step in--"

"I could, but that would be taking chances that we don't need to take.
We can maintain him until the hospital ship arrives."

The Moruans continued to growl ominously, but Dal brushed past them,
checking the vital signs of the patient as his body temperature slowly
dropped. Tiger had taken over the anaesthesia