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watch. "Digen? Whatimeisit? Where we're not on duty "
"I'm at the Sime Center. It's happened, Joel, what we ve talked so much
about. Now wake up, a lot depends on you!"
More crisply, Hogan said, "What? What's happened?"
"You've heard of Rindaleo Hayashi?"
"Who hasn't?" He was attentive now, completely awake. "He's going to die
unless you get over here with a full field-surgery kit and about five units of
plasma and, just in case, bring the thoracic-instrument package too."But I
hope I won't have to try that!
Hogan made disbelieving sounds, but Digen cut him off, "I give him about
fifteen minutes. If I don't get something into him by then, he's not going to
make it."
"I've got my pants on; I'm on my way. Hang tight."
"Don't forget the venipuncture and IV set. We have nothing of that sort
here." Then Digen gave him directions to the door where Mora would meet and
escort him upstairs. "You can trust her as you trust me."
With Ilyana punching phone combinations, Digen organized the materials he
would require to turn the room into an impromptu surgery. With Mickland out of
town for the holiday, Digen was senior in the district, so all his requests
went unchallenged.
By the time Mora brought Hogan into the room, the wet-bench had been turned
into a fair imitation of a surgical table. "Set up over there," Digen said to
Hogan; then he described the injury and what he planned to do.
Hogan never paused in his work as he said, "Why not bring him over to the OR?
Thornton would let you do him."
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"Not without retainers. That artery is inside a basket-weave of
selyn-transport nerves. Try this blind, and none of us would live through it."
Hogan did stop then, absorbing the implications. "That's right, Joel, you're
assisting." Hogan half turned his head as if in negation, looking at Hayashi.
"Digen, you know I can't tolerate selyn movement& "
"You won't have to. Ilyana here will handle the fields. But I can't do this
alone, Joel."
Hogan stared at Hayashi, summoning every shred of courage he owned. "He's the
one with the miracle Donor-training machines, right? I .suppose it's poetic
justice, somehow. All right, what's the plan?"
"That plasma heated yet? Sime body temp, remember?"
"Almost."
"Let's get this IV set up, then." While Hogan screwed the pole together and
ripped open the field tray, Digen had Mora help him move Hayashi onto the
makeshift operating table. Hogan approached with the tourniquet in hand,
looking at Digen. "Where& ?"
"At the ankle. You'll have to do the cutdown, but there's no problem as long
as you just expose the vein, going no deeper than that."
Joel went to work, Mora Dyen standing back, struggling to keep herself
unaffected. But the moment Hogan's scalpel bit into flesh, Mora's gorge rose
and she dashed from the room, mumbling an apology. Digen said, "Let her go.
Ilyana's holding his orientation well enough."
The commotion jolted Hayashi back to consciousness just as the first of the
plasma worked its way into his veins. Digen leaned over him, saying, "Hajene?
Hajene Hayashi?"
The channel's eyes blinked open, squinting against the lights Digen had
rigged. "Where's Skip? Is he all right?"
Digen said, "He's disappeared. Mora put out an alert to have him picked up.
Lankh has a concussion he's in the doublescan room for the thirds to watch."
Hayashi, his immediate anxiety relieved, "began to take note of his
situation. "Digen?" he said, focusing on his right arm where Digen held the
wound. Then he became aware of the needle taped to his ankle, the hanging
bottle of plasma, selyn-dead as it dripped into his veins. "Digen!"
"It's gruesome, I know," said Digen, deliberately in English. "But it will
save your life. Can you understand me?" Hayashi's assent was a weak nod. Digen
went on describing the nature of the problem and what Hayashi had to do to
help them. Working with Digen, he could control much of the bleeding, the
pain, and the tension in his muscles.
When Digen told him, Hogan said, "You mean you're not going to use
anesthetic?"
"It would kill him," said Digen. "Those instruments ready yet? At least the
small clamps?"
"Right here," said Hogan.
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Hayashi caught at Digen's hand. "No! There's no way you can get selyn across
that severed lateral. I'm dying I won't let you risk your life for a lost
cause."
Their fields were so entwined that Digen felt the bleak resignation that
gripped the channel. He bent over, saying, "I'm going to repair that gash, and
then I'm going to get selyn into you. I have a plan. I can do it. I'll have to
put you into suspension& "
But Digen's words weren't quite registering. Hayashi was in a deep inner
struggle. "I I'm dying. Accept accept my pledge, to Zeor and to the Sectuib
in Zeor. I can't you can't let me die alone like this."
Digen was shaken by the plea. "I can't do that. You know I can't do that."
"If I'm going to die under your hands, it's going to be under the hands of my
own Sectuib." His voice was reedy, but Digen heard every word. "Accept my
pledge or or I'll take myself out right now the easy way."
"We've no time to argue now. We'll take it up after," said Digen, knowing
that it would be altogether too easy for Hayashi to let himself die at this
point. "There's a chance, a good chance, that you won't die if you'll let me
do this."
"I won't let you violate a controller's injunction. Not for a nonmember. Your
father would never forgive me.
Take my pledge, Sectuib, and you can do anything you want to me."
It would change the legal picture drastically. The Tec-ton recognized the
peculiar personal loyalties between members of a Blouse. But never, to Digen's
knowledge, had that recognition extended as far as a violation of a direct
controller's injunction. Still, it was a temptation, one more factor in his
favor.But no ! "Hajene Hayashi," said Digen stiffly, "I loved my father. I was
pledged to him and to Zeor. I can't go against his wishes. No matter how much
I'm tempted. You should know that."
Digen was bearing the weight of both his own and Hayashi's emotions, joined
as they were for Hayashi's life. His heart grew almost too heavy to beat,
thickened by almost two decades of Hayashi's unrelenting pain. "Sectuib it
would not be against Orim's wishes. He never meant it to be this way. Believe
that. You've got to believe that. I have kept the standards, remained loyal.
Don't make me die outside of Zeor. Don't& "
Hayashi truly believed, Digen saw, that he had done nothing to incur a
banning. But the testimony had been clear. Several people had heard Orim issue
an order which Hayashi had deliberately disobeyed. Im'ran had said it: "Would [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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