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doubled back to the rim, seesawed between zenith and nadir, and even made a jump
across intergalactic space to link up with the Ian worlds-although in that
instance it had been the Ians who had done the initial traveling. When the lines
connected the worlds of the Galactic Federation, the planets known to contain
intelligent and, in their own sometimes peculiar fashions, technically and
philosophically advanced life, the result was an untidy yellow scribble
resembling a cross between a DNA molecule and a bramble bush.
..... Only a tiny fraction of the Galaxy has been explored by us or by any
of the other races within the Federation, O Mara continued, and we are in the
position of a man who has friends in far countries but has no idea of who is
living in the next street. The reason for this is that travelers tend to meet
more often than people who stay at home, especially when the travelers exchange
addresses and visits regularly
Providing there were no major distorting influences en route and the exact
co-ordinates of the destination were known, it was virtually as easy to travel
through subspace to a neighboring solar system as to one at the other end of the
Galaxy. But one had first to find an inhabited solar system before its
coordinates could be logged, and that was proving to be no easy task.
Very, very slowly, a few of the smaller blank areas in the star charts
were being mapped and surveyed, but with little success. When the survey
scoutships turned up a star with planets, it was a rare find-even rarer when the
planets included one harboring life. And if one of the native life-forms was
intelligent, jubilation, not unmixed with concern over what might be a possible
threat to the Pax Galactica, swept the worlds of the Federation. Then the
Cultural Contact specialists of the Monitor Corps were sent to perform the
tricky, time-consuming and often dangerous job of establishing contact in depth.
The Cultural Contact people were the elite of the Monitor Corps, a small
group of specialists in e-t communications, philosophy and psychology. Although
small, the group was not, regrettably, ove~orked...
During the past twenty years, O Mara went on, they have initiated First
Contact procedure on three occasions, all of which resulted in the species
concerned joining the Federation. I will not bore you with details of the number
of survey operations mounted and the ships, personnel and materiel involved, or
shock you with the cost of it all. I mention the Cultural Contact group s three
successes simply to make the point that within the same time period this
hospital became fully operational and also initiated First Contacts, which
resulted in seven new species joining the Federation. This was accomplished not
by a slow, patient buildup and widening of communications until the exchange of
complex philosophical and sociological concepts became possible, but by giving
medical assistance to a sick alien.
The Chief Psychologist stared at each of them in turn, and it was obvious
that he did not need Prilicla to tell him that he had their undivided attention.
I m oversimplifying, of course. You had the medical and/or surgical problem of
treating a hitherto unknown life-form. You had the hospital s translation
computer, the second largest in the Galaxy, and Monitor Corps communications
specialists to assist where necessary. Indeed, the Corps was responsible for
rescuing many of the extraterrestrial casualties. But the fact remains that all
of us, by giving medical assistance, demonstrated the Federation s good will
towards e-ts much more simply and directly than could have been done by any
long-winded exchange of concepts. As a result, there has recently been a marked
change of emphasis in First Contact policy. .
Just as there was only one known way of traveling in hyperspace, there was
only one method of sending a distress signal if an accident or malfunction
occurred and a vessel was stranded in normal space between the stars. Tight-beam
subspace radio was not a dependable method of interstellar communication,
subject as it was to interference and distortion caused by intervening stellar
bodies, as well as requiring inordinate amounts of a vessel s power-power which
a distressed ship was unlikely to have available. But a distress beacon did not
have to carry intelligence. It was simply a nuclear-powered device which
broadcast a location signal, a subspace scream for help, which ran up and down
the usable frequencies until, in a matter of minutes or hours, it died.
Because all Federation ships were required to file course and passenger
details before departure, the position of the distress signal was usually a good
indication of the physiological type of species that had run into trouble, and
an ambulance ship with a matching crew and life-support equipment was sent from
Sector General or from the ship s home planet.
But there were instances, far more than were generally realized, when the
disasters involved beings unknown to the Federation in urgent need of help, help
which the would-be rescuers were powerless to give.
Only when the rescue ship concerned had the capability of extending its
hyperdrive envelope to include the distressed vessel, or when the beings could
be extricated safely and a suitable environment prepared for them within the
Federation ship, were they transported to Sector General. The result was that
many hitherto unknown life-forms, being of high intelligence and advanced
technology, were lost except as interesting specimens for dissection and study.
But an answer to this problem had been sought and, perhaps, found.
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