straight as his five-foot height would allow him. He had placed Fuzzy
almost defiantly on his shoulder, and from time to time he could feel
the little creature quiver and huddle against his neck as though to hide
from sight under his collar.

The White Doctor opened the proceedings, and at first the questions were
entirely medical. "We are meeting to consider this student's application
for assignment to a General Practice Patrol ship, as a probationary
physician in the Red Service of Surgery. I believe you are all
acquainted with his educational qualifications?"

There was an impatient murmur around the table. The White Doctor looked
up at Dal. "Your name, please?"

"Dal Timgar, sir."

"Your _full_ name," Black Doctor Tanner rumbled from the right-hand end
of the table.

Dal took a deep breath and began to give his full Garvian name. It was
untranslatable and unpronounceable to Earthmen, who could not reproduce
the sequence of pops and whistles that made up the Garvian tongue. The
doctors listened, blinking, as the complex family structure and
ancestry which entered into every Garvian's full name continued to roll
from Dal's lips. He was entering into the third generation removed of
his father's lineage when Doctor Tanner held up his hand.

"All right, all right! We will accept the abbreviated name you have used
on Hospital Earth. Let it be clear on the record that the applicant is a
native of the second planet of the Garv system." The Black Doctor