Dale glanced at the double row of empty Tosok chairs, then turned back to face the judge’s bench. “The defense calls Dr. Carla Hernandez,” he said.
The woman was sworn in and took her place in the witness box.
“Dr. Hernandez,” said Dale, “what’s your job title?”
“I’m chief of surgery at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center.”
“And in that capacity, did you have an opportunity to assist in surgery on a Tosok patient?”
“I did.”
“Please describe the circumstances of that.”
“The defendant Hask was shot on May eighteenth. He required immediate surgery to remove a bullet still lodged in his chest. Another Tosok named Stant performed the surgery, and it was my privilege to provide assistance to Stant while this was being done.”
“When surgery is performed on a human, is the human normally fully clothed?”
Hernandez smiled. “No.”
“In fact, the area in which the surgery is being performed is usually naked, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Were Hask’s clothes removed before the surgery was performed on him?”
“I removed his tunic, yes, then covered most of the torso with sterile sheets so that only the entrance wound was exposed.”
“Did you do this before or after Stant entered the operating theater?”
“Before. Stant was receiving hurried instruction on using our operating instruments in the adjacent, identical theater.”
“So only you saw Hask’s naked torso in its entirety that day.”
“No, three nurses also saw it.”
“But Stant never actually saw it?”
“That’s correct. Stant had me close the wound once the bullet was removed. Stant had left the operating theater by the time the sheets were taken off Hask’s body.”
“When you saw Hask’s naked torso, did you notice anything unusual?”
“Well, everything about Tosok anatomy is unusual. As a doctor, I was fascinated by every aspect of it.”
“Of course, of course,” said Dale. “What I meant was this: was the bullet entrance wound the only sign of recent injury to Hask’s torso?”
“No.”
“What other signs were there?”
“I saw three raised, dark-purple lines on his torso.”
“Did these lines remind you of anything you’d seen before?”
“Yes.”
“And what would that be?”
“Well, except for the color, they looked like recent scars.”
“What kind of scars?”
“Well, normally I’d say they were untreated injury scars, but—”
“What do you mean by ‘normally’?”
“Well, a surgical scar will usually be flanked left and right by small dots of scar tissue, caused by the sutures used to seal the wound.”
“So these weren’t surgical scars?”
“On the contrary, I think they were indeed. Stant told me that his people don’t use suture—at least not anymore—to close wounds. But a wound has to be closed somehow; otherwise, it simply gapes open. These were very neat, very precise lines—the kind one gets with a scalpel. And they clearly had been closed somehow.”
Dale reached into a bag on his desk and pulled out a Tosok doll; Mattel had rushed them to market shortly after the aliens had arrived on Earth. “Dr. Hernandez, using this doll, would you indicate where you recollect the scars being?”
“Certainly.” She started to leave the box, but Dale motioned for her to stay there. He walked through the well and handed her the doll and a purple Magic Marker.
“The first one was here,” she said, drawing a line vertically between the front arm and the left leg near the bottom of the torso.
“The second was here,” she said, drawing a horizontal line well below the left-front breathing orifice.
“And the third was here,” she said, making a diagonal line behind and just to the left of the front arm. “There could have been other scars, as well; I never saw Hask’s back.”
“Now, Dr. Hernandez,” said Dale, “you are the only human ever to assist in a surgical procedure on a Tosok, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And have you followed the revelations that have been made during this trial and elsewhere about Tosok anatomy?”
“Yes. As you know, the Tosoks are not at all forthcoming about such matters, but there’s an Internet newsgroup devoted to what we’ve been able to glean about Tosok physiology; I’ve been on that from the day it started.”
“If these scars were left behind from surgical incisions, what areas of Tosok anatomy would the surgery likely have concentrated on?”
“One of the four Tosok hearts, one of the four Tosok lungs, and one of the four organs that we’ve gathered serves a combined function similar to what our separate kidneys and spleen perform.”
“Thank you, Dr. Hernandez. Your witness, counselor.”
Ziegler rose warily. She clearly had no idea what Dale was getting at. Still, her natural instinct was to discredit anything the defense tried to enter into evidence. “Dr. Hernandez, have you examined Hask since you closed the bullet entrance wound on him?”
“No.”
“Does he still have the stitches you put in him?”
“No.”
“What happened to them?”
“Stant removed them, I’m told.”
Ziegler paused for breath, presumably expecting a “Hearsay!” objection from Dale, but it didn’t come. She pressed on. “But you put in the stitches yourself.”
“Well, putting stitches in requires a certain skill. Taking them out is easy—you just snip the suture with scissors, then pull the threads out. Stant had asked me how it was done, and I told him; he said he was sure he could manage it himself.”
“So you’ve never actually seen Tosok scar tissue, correct?”
“I believe I have, yes, in the three places I indicated on the doll.”
“But you’ve never seen what you were sure was Tosok scar tissue.”
“Not a hundred percent sure, no, but in my best expert medical judgment, that’s what it was.”
“But, Dr. Hernandez, we all know that Tosoks shed their skin—we even saw it happen in this courtroom. Surely any old scars are discarded with the old skin.”
“Human beings replace all their skin cells over a seven-year period, Ms. Ziegler. And yet I’ve got scars I’ve had since childhood. My judgment from having seen the bullet wound on Hask is that the Tosok body covering is multilayered, and that the so-called new skin revealed when old skin is shed is already many years old, but simply never has been exposed at the surface before. Indeed, it would have to be thus if we’re to believe that shedding of the old skin can be induced at any time. If you carved right through all the layers of skin, into the organ cavity, I’m sure you would leave scars that would survive the shedding of the outer skin.”
“But what about the Tosok recuperative powers? We heard earlier in testimony from Captain Kelkad that Tosoks can regenerate damaged organs. Surely beings that can do that would not have scars that persisted for long?”
“One has nothing to do with the other,” said Hernandez. “Scar tissue isn’t a replacement for the skin that’s normally there—it’s a supplement, a natural attempt to help close the injury site and protect it from being damaged again. No one knows for sure, of course, but it’s my expert opinion that the scars on Hask’s body are of relatively recent origin, but predate his most recent skin shedding.”
During the lunch break, Frank and Dale went for a walk. First, of course, they had to push through the crowd of reporters and onlookers, but once that was done, they made their way onto Broadway. It was a bright day, and as they left the courtroom Dale put on his sunglasses. Frank, meanwhile, took a pair of clip-ons out of his jacket pocket and affixed them to his normal glasses.