Dal's eyes glittered at the
new sets of surgical instruments, designed to the most rigid Hospital
Earth specifications, which appeared almost without his asking to see
them. There were clothes and games, precious stones and exotic rings,
watches set with Arcturian dream-stones, and boots inlaid with silver.
They made their way through the corridors, reluctant to leave one
display for the next. Whenever something caught their eyes, the
commander snapped his fingers excitedly, and the item was unobtrusively
noted down by one of the underlings. Finally, exhausted and glutted just
from looking, they turned back toward the reception room.
"The things are beautiful," Tiger said wistfully, "but impossible.
Still, you were very kind to take your time--"
"Time? I have nothing but time." The commander smiled again at Dal. "And
there is an old Garvian proverb that to the wise man 'impossible' has no
meaning. Wait, you will see!"
They came out into the lounge, and the doctors stopped short in
amazement. Spread out before them were all of the items that had
captured their interest earlier.
"But this is ridiculous," Jack said staring at the dress uniform. "We
couldn't possibly buy these things, it would take our salaries for
twenty years to pay for them."
"Have we mentioned price even once?" the commander protested.
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