r!--I'm a fool."

"You'll get used to the idea," Mullins said. "They aren't human, and
except for a few, they aren't as intelligent as a Santosian Varl. I know
that they look like us except for those tails, but that's as far as it
goes. I've spent two hundred years with them and I know what I'm talking
about."

"That's what Alexander says."

"He should know. He's lived with them all his life."

"Well--perhaps. But I'm not convinced."

"Neither was Old Doc--not until the day he died."

"Did he change then?"

"I don't know. I wasn't there. But Old Doc was a stubborn cuss."

Kennon stood up. "I've given instructions for treatment to your
corpsman," he said. "Now I think I'd better be getting back. I have some
reports to finish."

Mullins smiled grimly. "You know," he said, "I get the feeling that you
don't approve of this operation."

"Frankly, I don't," Kennon said, "but I signed a contract." He turned
toward the door and gestured to the two Lani who waited outside with his
bags. "I can find my way to the roof," he said.

"Well--good luck," Mullins said. "We'll call you again if we need you."

"Do that," Kennon replied. He wanted to leave, to get away from this
place and back to the main island. He wanted to see Copper. He'd be
damned if anyone was going to butcher her. If he had to stay here until
she died of old age, he'd do it. But nobody was going to hurt her.

CHAPTER XII

Kennon wondered if his colleagues in human medicine felt toward their
patients as he did toward the Lani, or if they ultimately lost their
individuality and became mere hosts for diseases, parasites,
and tumors--vehicles for the practice of surgical and medical
skills--economic units whose well-being meant a certain amount of
credits. Probably not, he decided. They were human and their very
humanity made them persons rather than things.

But the possession of individuality was not an asset in the practice of
animal medicine where economics was the main factor and the satisfaction
of the owner the principal personality problem. The normal farm animals,
the shrakes, cattle, sheep, morks, and swine were no problem. They were
merely a job. But the Lani were different. They weren't human, but they
were intelligent and they did have personality even though they didn't
possess that indefinable quality that separated man from the beasts. It
was hard to treat them with dispassionate objectivity. In fact, it was
impossible.

And this