This one also I'll keep posted as currently-reading for some time, because the first story is a mediate prequel to the series, while the other stories are from quite a bit later on. Ok, got caught up. Here's the rest.
This is one book where the dedication is very important. It reads "Dedicated to the Friends of Kilgore Trout, who treated the impossible with the contempt it deserves'. I too rarely follow up on hints like that. I should seek out Kilgore Trout, if I can. Maybe when I catch up on my backlog (nb--my wits were woolgathering: Kilgore Trout was a fictional character--a fictional alter ego of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr)
Contents:
I ACCIDENT--The general consensus is that the 'war heroes' (heroes because they'd ended it, centuries before,) have either become senile or paranoid in their fears of the danger of war in the Federation they've time-jumped into by means of their period of suspended animation. At any rate, they're considered too militant in their opposition to war.
MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki are also frustrated, because they can't bring people to understand that the Federation is inherently unstable as long as the various species stand at arms' length (or tentacle length) from each other, and maintain a painstaking politeness when they DO meet.
It could be argued that it was fortuitous that MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki found themselves mixed up in a very public accident at Retlin Complex on Nidia. But it's not that implausible, given the habit of reckless driving common among members of the smaller species (compensation, anyone?). The main difference is that the accident is in the Alien Departure Lounge, that there were press on hand, that the accident began to look like it would involve a choice between the lives of chlorine breathers and of various species of oxygen breathers, and that people who were poorly trained at first aid, but well trained in complex problem-solving, happened to be on hand.
The resolution is not surprising, since it's in the eponymous Sector General Book: but the details are worthwhile. I personally think that the Nidians should at least have consulted with the heroic rescuers over points of disaster preparation. For example, why were all the respirators Nidian-sized in the OTHER-SPECIES Departure Lounge? Why was it necessary to improvise a chlorine tent, when there should have been Illensan stretchers available?
But anyway, it's nice to see old friends get a heroic curtain call--and here's hoping they at least visited each other now and again in retirement.
II SURVIVOR--This story parallels one in Mind Changer. The survivor in this case is a shipwreck survivor. The one in Mind Changer was in an ordinary ground transport accident. Other details vary, but both stories are about generally the same capacities, and their impacts on members of other species. The main problem in this story is the impact on Prilicla, who suffers what is essentially an overload--and a potentially fatal one, for a Cinrusskin (they're not very robust, as readers of the series may have gathered). Note that although the book is titled 'Sector General', much of the action is on the Rhabwar.
III INVESTIGATION--This episode is more about how people's minds jump to reasonless suspicions than about the actual emergency experienced by the unknown spaceship crew which has made a 'good landing' ('a good landing is one you walk away from') on the planet Trugdil (this name is a serious insult in Kelgian). Note, however, that there are sound reasons to send Cultural Contact missions to Trugdil, since the 'mobile thorn-bushes' are evidently fairly intelligent, and if communication can be established, mutually beneficial commerce might be established: or at least a nonaggression treaty.
IV COMBINED OPERATION--At the end of Major Operation, Conway, fresh off treating the strata beasts of Drambo, is presented with a patient resembling the Midgard Serpent. His comment 'Small, isn't it?' is, of course a matter of relative sizes.
This story is a more complete version of that sort of thing. The colonists are capable of independent operation, but they function best when formed into trains of individuals, oldest first. These creatures are born female, and with age they grow more male. The trains consist of a variable number of individuals, with the 'head' being an elder male, and the 'tail' an immature female.
Murchison seems prone to take umbrage at the idea that the 'older, wiser' components are the males. I don't have a problem with that, since the wisdom is clearly associated with greater age. The males are not more intelligent--they're simply more experienced. And where experience grants wisdom, this would mean that the wisest are (now) male.
But it's not as simple as that. Since what's experienced by one is shared by all, it's quite likely that some of the middle elements (trending toward, but not fully, male) would be the more ingenious and imaginative, and might come up with better solutions than the more hidebound elders. And even the as yet immature females may be able to overcome their relative lack of experience, and come up with even more ingenious ideas. 'Out of the mouths of babes and striplings', and all that.
A more disturbing consideration is that the reproductively active females are (pretty much by definition) juveniles, while the reproductively active males are quite a bit older. One wonders what sort of taboos there would have to be to prevent premature fertilization of subadult 'tail' segments.
In this case, the colonists are refugees from a planet that has become uninhabitable. To create a successful colony, a superlong train was created, which contains members of many (dozens?) of smaller trains. This plan amounted to a sort of hybrid generation/hibernation ship--the best solution the colonists could come up with, given limited time to prepare and no hyperdrive capability.
And it might have worked without help, too...except for the accident. There's evidence that there had to be some surgical alteration before launch: but because there are now gaps in the chain due to the accident, the Federation has to supplement the surgery to insure compatibility. And the Federation ships have to replace the missing drive core segments. Which will only take a few hundred small ships, and about three capital ships...and a whole lot of finicky cooperation. Nothing catastrophic about that, surely?
Next in sequence, I conclude, comes Star Healer.