It was better than no information, but not much better. Fuzzy huddled on
Dal's shoulder as if he could sense his master's excitement. Very few
races under contract with Hospital Earth ever attempted their own major
surgery. If a Moruan surgeon had walked into a tight spot in the
operating room, it could be a real test of skill to get him--and his
patient--out of it, even on a relatively simple procedure. But
organ-transplantation, with the delicate vascular surgery and
micro-surgery that it entailed, was never simple. In incompetent hands,
it could turn into a nightmare.

Dal took a deep breath and began running the anatomical atlas tapes
through the reader, checking the critical points of Moruan anatomy.
Oxygen-transfer system, circulatory system, renal filtration system--at
first glance, there was little resemblance to any of the "typical"
oxygen-breathing mammals Dal had studied in medical school. But then
something struck a familiar note, and he remembered studying the
peculiar Moruan renal system, in which the creature's chemical waste
products were filtered from the bloodstream in a series of tubules
passing across the peritoneum, and re-absorbed into the intestine for
excretion. Bit by bit other points of the anatomy came clear, and in
half an hour of intense study Dal began to see how the inhabitants of
Morua VIII were put together.

Satisfied for the moment, he then pulled the tapes that described the
Moruans' own medical advancement. What were they doing attempting
organ-transplantation, anyway? That was the kind of surgery that even
experienced Star Surgeons preferred to take aboard the hospital ships,
or back to Hospital Earth, where the finest equipment and the most
skilled assistants were available.