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generated even though you know that I have neither the wish nor the ability to
endanger you. With your agreement the external door of this compartment should
be closed lest members of your species within audible range think that you are
being threatened and come to join with you.
 There is understanding, Khone said without hesitation,  and agreement.
On the big screen the Lieutenant was playing back the tape which showed the
dense mass of fossilized remains revealed by his deep probes, rotating the
viewpoint and overlaying a scale grid so that a true idea of the shapes and
sizes could be shown. Khone paid little attention to the display because,
Conway realized, a species with such a primitive level of technology would not
immediately comprehend the solid reality represented by a few thin lines on a
dark screen. It was much more interested in the three-dimensional reality of
the
Doctor and it was approaching him again.
Conway, however, was intensely interested in the images on the screen.
He kept his eyes on it while two of Khone s manipulators gently parted the
hair on his scalp. To the Lieutenant, he said,  Those incomplete fossils look
as if they have been torn apart, and I wouldn t mind betting that if you ask
that computer to reconstruct one of them using the data available from the
Khone physiological material, you will have a recognizable presapient FOKT.
But what is that.. . that overgrown vegetable hanging in the middle of them?
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Wainright laughed.  I was hoping you would tell me, Doctor. It looks like a
deformed, stemless rose, with spikes or teeth growing from the edges of some
of the petals, and it s big.
 The shape doesn t make sense, Conway said quietly as the Gogleskan shifted
its attention to one of his hands.  As a mobile sea-dweller it should have
fins rather than limbs, but there is no sign of streamlining along its
direction of motion, or even a basic symmetry about its center of..
He broke off to answer a question from Khone regarding the hair on his wrist,
and he took the opportunity of weakening the other s conditioning a little
more by suggesting that it perform a simple surgical procedure on him. It
would involve removing a small area of hair, and using a fine needle in
conjunction with the scanner to withdraw a small quantity of blood from a
minor vein at the back of Conway s hand. He assured Khone that the procedure
would be painless and no harm would be done even if the needle were not
positioned with complete accuracy.
He explained that it was the kind of test which was done countless times every
day at Sector General on a wide variety of patients, and later analysis of the
sample taken revealed a great deal about the condition of these patients, and
in many cases, the data obtained was instrumental in curing them.
There would be very little direct physical contact involved in taking the
sample, because Khone would be using the scanner, swab, scissors, and a
hypodermic, he added encouragingly. Just as there would be minimal body
contact if or when Conway performed similar tests on the Gogleskan.
For a moment Conway thought that he had rushed things too much, because
Khone had backed away until it was pressing against the inside of the closed
external door. It remained there, its hair twitching while it fought another
battle with its conditioning, then it slowly returned to the litter. While he
waited for it to speak, Conway took a quick look at the amazingly lifelike
picture which was taking form on Wainright s screen.
The Lieutenant had incorporated in the display all of the FOKT data as well as
information he had gleaned earlier on the subsea vegetation of prehistoric
times. The fossil remains, which the computer had reconstructed as slightly
smaller versions of present-day Gogleskans, lay singly and in small, linked
groups among the gently waving marine vegetation, lit by bright, greenish
yellow sunlight which filtered down from the wave-wrinkled surface above. Only
in the enormous, roselike object which lay in the center of the picture was
there a lack of detail. An idea about it began to take shape at the back of
Conway s mind, but Khone spoke suddenly before it could form.
The Gogleskan was still not taking any interest in the screen.
 If this test were to cause pain, Khone asked,  what would be the procedure
then? And would it be preferable, in the present circumstances, for the blood
sample to be taken by and from oneself?
A helpful but cautious entity, this Khone, Conway thought, trying not to
laugh. He said,  If a procedure is expected to cause discomfort, a quantity of
the material contained in one of the phials colored in yellow and black
diagonal bands is withdrawn and injected into the site. The quantity required
is dependent on the period and degree of discomfort which one is expecting to
cause.
 The material concerned is a painkiller for my species, he went on,  as well
as a muscle relaxant. But it is not required in this instance . .
While he continued to give the directions for withdrawing the blood sample, he
told Khone that it was much easier to perform such work on a subject other
than oneself. He did not, at that time, make any mention of the fact that if
he was to obtain a specimen of FOKT blood from Khone, the first thing he
would have wanted to discover was if the yellow and black marked medication,
or one of the other similar preparations in his supply, was suited to the
Gogleskan metabolism. If one of them was suitable and there was an opportunity
of injecting it, Khone would be left in such a painfree, relaxed, and
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massively tranquilized state that subsequent and more revealing tests would
have been no problem at all.
A muscle relaxed, he thought, his eyes going back to Wainright s display, as
opposed to a muscle in spasm!...
The large object centering the screen lacked the symmetry and structural
repetition of a vegetable-it looked like a sheet of paper which had been
crushed and twisted into a loose ball. But if that idea was correct, the
predator must have pulled itself into that shape. Conway shivered in spite of
himself.
That Gogleskan venom was potent stuff.
To Wainright, he said quickly,  How does this sound? The FOKT fossils were
those beings who did not survive the initial attack of the creature, and some
of them are linked, indicating that they were part of a larger group. This
FOKT
group-entity attacked or defended itself against the predator with its stings,
all of them. The quantity of venom injected must have sent the beastie into
multiple muscular spasm, and it must have literally tied itself into a knot as
it died. Can you get your computer to unravel that knot?
Wainright nodded, and soon the twisted, convoluted shape at the center of the
screen was surrounded by a fainter image of itself which was slowly unfolding.
This had to be the answer for that weird shape, Conway thought, because
nothing else made sense. Occasionally he asked for expanded views of the
enormous fossil s skeletal structure, and each one supported his theory. But
the
Lieutenant was forced to reduce the size several times as the ghostly,
unfolding image overran the edges of the screen.
 It s beginning to look like a bird, Wainright said.  Parts of the wing are
very fragile. In fact, it seems to be all wing.
 That s because the fossil remains are of the skeleton and skin only,
Conway replied.  There must have been almost total wastage of muscle and soft
tissue which was attached to that bone structure. In the areas where you are [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]