Page 46 (1/2)

"We don't usually need theeon lit his own headband, "are ency equipment"

Already his feet were above his head He snatched at the pale blur that was the surgeon's tunic to keep hi bloay

"You have your radiation monitor?"

He was about to say no when he remembered that it had been pinned over his heart "Yes-yes, I do"

"Don't ignore it We can fix ets"

"Bird back!" Oreb's claws closed upon his shoulder

"I suppose that's why you're here, so close to the-the"

"Reactor Co him with him

"And the whatever you call it-the place where you operated on Pig-"

"Sick bay"

"Is farther ahere the danger isn't so great Your reactor powers the sun? That's ere told, though I find it al the sun"

"Here, grab this outcrop" The surgeon's hands, so uided his to it "Don't let yourself think you're weightless"

He gripped the sand-srim determination "That's how it seeeon's headband wasaway "The ants to pick you up and blow you away If you let yourself believe that you have no weight, it will do it, too"

"No fly," Oreb explained

"The heat htened, so eon see "A darkday makes it worse, because there's none from the sun to counter it Eventually it would cool off and the ould drop, but they'll restart the sun long before that It would takeat the surgeon's light, he said fervently, "I see"

"The sand blows around One day it will be deeper than a , and next day it's bare rock It wears the rock away, and makes more sand, and the rock cracks in the heat"

"It seems very hot now," he ventured

"It isn't If the sun were on, all this would be too hot to touch, alet you"

"I'll try," he prooing uphill" The white glow of the surgeon's headlaeon's voice still reached hiot to kick off with your legs"

"No fly!" Oreb insisted

The surgeon's light reappeared, surprising close "Your legs are a lot stronger than your arasped for breath and spit out sand "I didn't even knoere cliht et hurt if the wind slams you into some rocks It's happened to me, and it hurt like Holy Hierax People are killed, sometimes"

He wanted to say that he would try to be careful; but it was all he could do to struggle forward, half crawling

"We're not supposed to fix up Cargo" They were near enough that his deep-set eyes and broad flat nose showed diet hurt"

"YouThank you"

The surgeon caught his arht to tell you about that"

"Please do"

"Hold on to this and you can stand up"

Again the surgeon guided his hand to it; over the whistling wind, the snapping of his augur's robe sounded like the incessant cracking of a whip

"Look over there Can you see my arm?"

Oreb repeated, "See arh there appeared to be no hand at the end of it

"That green light Got it?"

"I think so Is it blinking?"

"That's where you're going That's the sick bay It's a league or a league and a half, so like that Tell hi again, and the surgeon had al?"

"I-yes"

"You can coh their faces were nearly touching "Thank you You're very kind"

The surgeon took his aro"

Oreb added his own vote "Go now!"

"No," he said "Youback with you, only that you've shown extraordinary courtesy I'll always be indebted to you"

"I thought you'd want to turn around once you'd seen it"

"No," he said

"Just to visit a sick friend"

"It's Pig" At the ht Look behind you See the red light?"

He nodded again "That's where we caht There's a box at the base of the pylon Open it, pull the lever, and close it again and you can go inside Not the Reo back there to get back to our lander?" The thought tojourney tas aleon shook his head, and it was possible to think of living again, of Pig resting in a white bed, and silence, and prayer The surgeon said, "This is in case you turn back"

"I won't"

"You eon clasped his shoulder "If you don't Well, good-bye"