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SRTT was not too young and immature not to know how to work the intersection locks...
Half angrily, Conway pushed these useless anxieties to the back of his mind and began explaining to
Prilicla about the patients in the ward they were going to visit next, and the protective measures and
examinative procedures necessary when handling them.
This ward contained twenty-eight infants of the FROB classification low, squat, immensely strong
beings with a horny covering that was like flexible armour plate. Adults of the species with their increased
mass tended to be slow and ponderous, but the infants could move surprisingly fast despite the condition
of four times Earth-normal gravity and pressure in which they lived. Heavy-duty suits were called for in
these conditions and the floor level of the ward was never used by visiting physicians or nursing staff
except in cases of the gravest emergency. Patients for examination were raised from the floor by a grab
and lifting apparatus to the cupola set in the ceiling for this purpose, where they were anesthetized before
the grab was released. This was done with a long, extremely strong needle which was inserted at the
point where the inner side of the foreleg joined the trunk one of the very few soft spots on the FROB's
body.
"I expect you to break a lot of needles before you get the hang of it," Conway added, "but don't
worry about that, or think that you are hurting them. These little darlings are so tough that if a bomb went
off beside them they would hardly blink."
Conway was silent for a few seconds while they walked briskly toward the FROB ward-Prilicla's six,
multi-jointed and pencil-thin legs seeming to spread out all over the place, but somehow never actually
getting underfoot. He no longer felt that he was walking on eggs when he was near the GLNO, or that
the other would crumple up and blow away if he so much as brushed against it. Prilicla had demonstrated
its ability to avoid all contacts likely to be physically harmful to it in a way which, now that Conway was
becoming accustomed to it, was both dexterous and strangely graceful.
A man, he thought, could get used to working with anything.
"But to get back to our thick-skinned little friends," Conway resumed, "physical toughness in that
species especially in the younger age groups is not accompanied by resistance to germ or virus
infections. Later they develop the necessary antibodies and as adults are disgustingly healthy, but in the
infant stage& "
"They catch everything," Prilicla put in. "And as soon as a new disease is discovered they get that,
too."
Conway laughed. "I was forgetting that most e-t hospitals have their quota of FROBs and that you
may already have had experience with them. You will know also that these diseases are rarely fatal to the
infants, but that their cure is long, complicated, and not very rewarding, because they straightaway catch
something else. None of our twenty-eight cases here are serious, and the reason that they are here rather
than at a local hospital is that we are trying to produce a sort of shotgun serum which will artificially
induce in them the immunity to infection which will eventually be theirs in later life and so& Stop!"
The word was sharp, low and urgent, a shouted whisper. Prilicla froze, its sucker-tipped legs gripping
the corridor floor, and stared along with Conway at the being who had just appeared at the intersection
ahead of them.
At first glance it looked like an Illensan. The shapeless, spiny body with the dry, rustling membrane
joining upper and lower appendages belonged unmistakably to the PVSJ chlorine-breathers. But there
were two eating tentacles which seemed to have been transplanted from an FGLI, a furry breast pad
which was pure DBLF and it was breathing, as they were, an atmosphere rich in oxygen.
It could only be the runaway.
All the laws of physiology to the contrary Conway felt his heart battering at the back of his throat
somewhere as, remembering O'Mara's strict orders not to frighten the being, he tried to think of
something friendly and reassuring to say. But the SRTT took off immediately it caught sign of them, and
all Conway could find to say was, "Quick, after it!"
At a dead run they reached the intersection and turned into the corridor taken by the fleeing SRTT,
Prilicla scuttling along the ceiling again to keep out of the way of Conway's pounding feet. But the sight in
front of them caused Conway to forget all about being gentle and reassuring, and he yelled, "Stop, you
fool! Don't go in there...!"
The runaway was at the entrance to the FROB ward.
They reached the entry lock just too late and watched helplessly through the port as the SRTT
opened the inner seal and, gripped by the four times normal gravity pull of the ward, was flung down out
of sight. The inner door closed automatically then, allowing Prilicla and Conway to enter the lock and
prepare for the environment within the ward.
Conway struggled frantically into the heavy duty suit which he kept in the lock chamber and quickly
set the repulsion of its anti-gravity belt to compensate for the conditions inside. Prilicla, meanwhile, was
doing similar things to its own equipment. While checking the seals and fastenings of the suit, and
swearing at this very necessary waste of time, Conway could see through the inner inspection window a
sight which made him shudder.
The pseudo-Illensan shape of the SRTT lay plastered against the floor. It was twitching slightly, and
already one of the larger FROB infants was coming pounding up to investigate this odd-looking object.
One of the great, spatulate feet must have trod on the recumbent SRTT, because it jerked away and
began rapidly and incredibly to change. The weak, membranous appendages of the PVSJ seemed to
dissolve into the main body which became the bony, lizard-like form with the wicked, horn-tipped
tentacles which they had seen first at Lock Six. This was obviously the SRTT's most frightening
manifestation.
But the infant FROB possessed nearly five times the other's mass and so could hardly be expected to
be frightened. It put down its massive head and butted, sending the SRTT crashing against the wall
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