《Ambulance Ship》作者： - James White【EPUB】

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MBULANCE SHIP begins with "The Secret History of Sector General" - White's introduction discussing the series to date - then proceeds to the 3 linked short stories of this volume, introducing Sector General's special ambulance ship Rhabwar (named for a famous figure in Tralthan medicine, being Tralthan-built).


Some misconceptions might arise for new readers (or even fans of the series who haven't previously encountered this book). Rhabwar isn't special just because it's an ambulance ship; those are actually common in White's universe already. What's special is that somebody in the Galactic Federation government has applied some lessons learned from Sector General's previous adventures. (Points to the author for giving an interstellar civilization credit for some common sense.) Someone has noticed that over the last 20 years, the Monitor Corps has found 3 new civilizations while Sector General has found 7 - since distress calls are much easier to find than any other communication signal. Once contact has been made, the hospital's track record for establishing friendly relations is also much more impressive than the Corps' - since saving lives makes a MUCH stronger impression than ordinary diplomacy.