until the hospital ship crew arrived.

But the ship that was landing was not a hospital ship. Someone turned on
a TV scanner and picked up the image of a small ship hardly larger than
a patrol ship, with just two passengers stepping down the ladder to the
ground. Then the camera went close-up. Dal saw the faces of the two men,
and his heart sank.

One was a Four-star Surgeon, resplendent in flowing red cape and
glistening silver insignia. Dal did not recognize the man, but the four
stars meant that he was a top-ranking physician in the Red Service of
Surgery.

The other passenger, gathering his black cloak and hood around him as he
faced the blistering wind on the landing field, was Black Doctor Hugo
Tanner.

* * * * *

Moments after the Four-star Surgeon arrived at the hospital, he was
fully and unmistakably in command of the situation. He gave Dal an icy
stare, then turned to the Moruan operating surgeon, whom he seemed to
know very well. After a short barrage of questions and answers, he
scrubbed and gowned, and stalked past Dal to the crude Moruan
micro-surgical control table.

It took him exactly fifteen seconds to scan the entire operating field
through the viewer, discussing the anatomy as the Moruan surgeon watched
on a connecting screen. Then, without hesitation, he began manipulating
the micro-instruments. Once or twice he murmured something to Tiger at