etails aren't important. He was badly mangled and
tossed into a tank of cold lighting fluid by automatic machinery. It
was some time before he was discovered.

"There was a spark of life left and we managed to save him. We had to
amputate his arms and ribs practically to his spinal column. The
problem of regeneration wasn't as easy as it usually is. We were able
to build up a new rib case; that's as much as we could do. Under such
conditions, prosthetic arms are merely ornaments. They can be fastened
to him and they look all right, but he can't use them. He has no back
or shoulder muscles to anchor them to.

"And add to that the adaptation his body made while he was in the
tank. The basic cold lighting fluid, as you know, is semi-organic. It
permeated every tissue in his body. By the time we got him, it was
actually a necessary part of his metabolism. A corollary, I suppose,
of the fundamental biocompensation theory."

The medicouncilor paused and shook his head. "I'm afraid your idea is
out, Dr. Cameron. I don't doubt that he would be successful on the
program you mention. But there is more to life on the outside than
success. Can you picture the dead silence when he walks into a room of
normal people?"

"I see," said Cameron, though he didn't, at least not eye to eye. The
medicouncilor was convinced and there was nothing Cameron could do to
alter that conviction. "The other one I had in mind was Nona," he
added.

"I thought so." Thorton glanced at the solar chronometer. "I haven't
much time, but I'd better explain. You're new to the post and I don't
think you've learned yet to evaluate the patients and their problems
properly. In a sense, Nona is more impossible than Docchi. He was once
a normal person. She never was. Her appearance is satisfactory;
perhaps she's quite pretty, though you must remember that you're
seeing her under circumstances that may make her seem more attractive
than she really is.

"She can't talk or hear. She never will. She doesn't have a larynx,
and it wouldn't help if we gave her one. She simply doesn't have the
nervous system necessary for speech or hearing. Her brain is
definitely not structurally normal. As far as we're concerned, that
abnormality is not in the nature of a mutation. It's more like an
anomaly. Once cleft palates were frequent--prenatal nutritional
deficiencies or traumas. Occasionally we still run into cases like
that, but our surgical techniques are always adequate.