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wasn't having too much luck. It was more like looking at a machine than a
living crea-ture, and an alien machine at that. With neither metal nor plastic
in its body.
It was left to the physicians, communicating with him through the good offices
of the talker, to enlighten him. The third gestured with a delicate tentacle.
"Here is the organ you expressed an interest in seeing."
Evan leaned over the opened body. The physician was indicating a cylindrical
silicate shape full of fine striations and subtle inclusions. It was light
yellow and mildly trans-lucent. Evan could see where the striations connected
up with filaments that ran through the rest of the body.
Despite the absence of blood and flesh, he had to steady himself while the
physician, at his request, removed the organ in question. It was handed to
Evan, who tried to examine it with the scientific detachment he tried to
con-vince himself he possessed. Bundles of filaments pro-truded from both
ends. It was not very heavy.
When he asked the physicians what the organ was called, he was not surprised
when the mind picture they gave him was translated as heart.
"I've watched you replacing legs and eyes. Why can't you simply enlarge these
organs? Is this beyond your skills?"
"We are not ignorant," the second physician replied. "The same line of
thinking has occurred to us also. But no matter how much we increase the size
of the heart, it does not seem capable of generating additional energy."
So much for that bright idea, Evan thought disconso-lately. He studied the
organ closely. It was dry to the touch. Evidently it could not store solar
power for very long. A few hours of darkness depleted its reserves.
If it could be supercooled it might provide enough power to last someone like
Azure through the long night. He was dreaming. Encasing the organ in a bath of
liquid nitro-gen would likely have other, less efficacious effects on the rest
of the body. Gently he placed the organ back in the warrior's body and stepped
clear.
It had been a worthwhile idea, though, even if it hadn't panned out. It seemed
that Azure and his kin were des-tined to remain at the mercy of
night‑roaming organo-silicates.
From what the libraries had told him the Vwacontes were likely to return,
perhaps more heavily armed this time and prepared to deal even with alien
interlopers.
"It's not fair," he said again, without thinking that it would be picked up by
the talker and relayed to those around him.
"Who ever said life was?" quipped the fourth physi-cian. "There is nothing to
be done for it. When the sun goes down, we go down with it."
"Your bodies are so well designed, so efficiently put together. This is all
that's holding you back. Maybe one day you'll have access to my people's
advanced tech-nology. You're such natural biosilicate engineers now, I can see
you someday producing something as advanced as this without the need for
machines." He showed them the emergency beacon that pulsed in his wrist.
"This is the device that produces the signal that we're going to try to trace.
It's a small transmitter, homing unit, and identity generator all in one,
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powered by a tiny lithium battery."
One of the libraries perked up. "Battery? That sounds like heart."
"No, they're not the same." He found himself frowning as he thought furiously.
What a crazy idea! "They're not the same at all."
One of the physicians crawled nearer. Multiple lenses focused on the softly
pulsing beacon. "Might I see that a little more closely?"
"Well‑be careful with it."
"We are careful with everything," came the slightly insulted reply.
They had trusted him. Could he do less, even with his last link to a possible
survivor of the station catastrophe? Surely they would handle it with great
care. He used thumb and forefinger to remove it from its aseptic recep-tacle
in his wrist and handed it to the curious alien. Phy-sicians crowded around
the strange artifact. Peculiar limbs and structures felt of it constantly.
"Interesting flavor," the first physician murmured.
"Miorian, yancoth, seririgia," the fourth added. "What of the internal
structure?"
Evan winced as the cap on the back of the unit was pried open, but he held his
peace.
"Fascinating. See here?" the third said. "Different but not complex."
"The purpose is clearly divined via the structure," the first commented.
Eventually they handed it back to Evan.
"I believe," the first physician said solemnly, "that we can duplicate this
and apply it to our own bodies."
Evan snapped it back into his wrist, smiled gently. "I don't mean to denigrate
your abilities, but I don't think you can. The beacon is the product of a
fully equipped modern factory. You don't just grow one like a flower."
"Not the entire organ. We are interested only in its heart."
"Even that. There's lithium involved. You can't toss that stuff around in a
free state. It's too volatile."
"What is he talking about?" the second physician mut-tered.
"I think he refers to bequanel," the third said.
"Oh. Is that all?"
The four physicians conferred. A discussion involving the libraries followed.
Two of the physicians disappeared, to return moments later with a pair of
processors in tow. The meeting place became a hive of activity. For the
moment, Evan's presence was forgotten.
"What are they doing?"
"Trying, I think, to build a little heart like the one in your wrist," Azure
informed him.
"I was afraid of that. I didn't mean to raise false hopes. I was hoping your
own hearts could be modified to store more energy. You can't just add another
organ to your bodies, even if it could be duplicated without the use of
sophisticated microprocessor‑controlled machine tools."
Azure looked up at him innocently. "Why not?"
"Well‑because."
"I am no physician or library, but that does not strike me as a reasonable
explanation. You must not underes-timate the skill of the physicians. They can
rebuild almost any part of a body. Except the mind, of course. You cannot
rebuild memories."
"I don't think you can handle lithium in a free state either, but it looks
like they're going to have to find that out for themselves." When final
discouragement set in, he decided, he didn't want to be around to witness it.
He rose. The others ignored him. "I'd like to see the rest of the Associative
at work. I've still got a lot to learn about it."
"Truly," agreed Azure ambiguously.
He spent most of the remainder of the day watching the inhabitants of the
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community go about their daily tasks, marveling at the skill of the gatherers,
exchanging stares with the big‑eyed scanners, chatting with other
scouts. It was late afternoon when he and Azure returned to the meeting place.
He sat down and hardly took notice when the talker outside plugged itself in.
"You see," he said as gently as possible, "there are some substances that just
can't be manipulated by hand. Or any other kind of limb."
The first physician sounded apologetic. "Actually, we have already placed the
newly grown organs within our-selves and the libraries. We will be working on
the war-riors next."
Evan frowned. "New organs?"
"Similar to the storage organ you showed us. Very ingeniously constructed. We
had to make certain modifications‑ we are not keen on metal, for
example. It makes us itch."
"Look, you can't grow batteries the way you raise wheat. They have to
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