YA SciFi medical cadet in rocket ship with furry alien symbiote

[Quadko]

I remember reading a book from the YA SciFi/Fantasy section of the local library in the mid 80s, around the time I was discovering Asimov, Heinlein, McCaffrey, McKillip, Norton. Our young teenaged male hero "just graduated" or otherwise is joining a rocket ship, either as a medical officer or as the junior officer on a medical ship. Everyone on the ship is human, but the Captain is mad at him because "the Fleet(?)/Patrol(?) doesn't allow pets" yet our hero has a fuzzy little creature that lives on his shoulder - an alien emotional symbiote or some such rather than a pet. The rocket ship traverses alien planets, exploring or going to the assistance of a number of places or adventures, and our hero is always at the center of the story, learning and growing up and becoming part of the crew. The one subplot planet I particularly remember is the aliens who ask for help because a disease is rendering these "low tech" intelligent aliens back to a non-intelligent animal state. The medical crew finds an unusual bacteria in the aliens and starts killing it to try to cure the disease, but that speeds up the problem. Turns out the bacteria is the intelligence, and the "aliens" are just the host - killing the bacteria was killing the ones asking for help. The solution, as I recall, was to have the hero's symbiote replicate and be the host for the bacteria. Thanks for any leads!

 

[Metryq]

Sounds vaguely like some of the stories in Murray Leinster's Med Ship/Doctor to the Stars anthology, only the doctor traveled "alone" with a furry "pet." There were no other humans on the ship.

 

[clovis-man]

Sounds vaguely like some of the stories in Murray Leinster's Med Ship/Doctor to the Stars anthology, only the doctor traveled "alone" with a furry "pet." There were no other humans on the ship.

And I don't remember any of the Med Service stories featuring our hero Calhoun as a teenager.

 

[Quadko]

Thanks, I've added that to my "pick up soon" list. The one I remember was definitely "our hero's first journey". The solo nature of Med Ship had led me to discount it during previous research, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it even if it isn't the one. Most of the ones I read around this time and then searched for later turned out to be Heinlein juveniles; I was very surprised when this didn't number among them. Thank you! Any more ideas?

 

[clovis-man]

Thanks, I've added that to my "pick up soon" list. The one I remember was definitely "our hero's first journey". The solo nature of Med Ship had led me to discount it during previous research, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it even if it isn't the one. Most of the ones I read around this time and then searched for later turned out to be Heinlein juveniles; I was very surprised when this didn't number among them. Thank you! Any more ideas?

Easy enough to get a copy:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743435559/?tag=brite-21

 

[Quadko]

Is on the wishlist!

 

[Quadko]

Just wanted to say I just finally found it! Alan E. Nourse's Star Surgeon from 1959; now even available on kindle! Found in part because Med Ship eventually got me to James White's Sector General series, recently purchased as a possibility, wherin the introductory forward mentions the conflict between the two novels of the same Star Surgeon name by the different authors White and Nourse, and voila! Along with the Med Ship Saga, it's all very fun medical science fiction, thanks for the recommendation that got me started on the right path!

I also read Nourse's Blade Runner as a kid, and was totally confused when the movie came out. Glad to hear they didn't just steal the title from him but apparently bought it off him. Not sure if getting your title bought by Hollywood is quite the same as getting your story bought.

Nourse's YA Star Surgeon:
Our hero the young Dal Timgar is the first alien to graduate from Hospital Earth's medical program and join the General Practice Patrol, as Earth is a young world petitioning to join the Galactic community with the one surprisingly useful skill of advanced medical knowledge. There are those who say aliens shouldn't be allowed the knowledge so useful to Earth's future, and everyone is leery of the symbiotic relationship with his tribble-like Fuzzy and the potential mind powers it gives him...

 

[mellotronman]

I was about to solve your mystery for you, when I realised you'd solved it yourself! An excellent Nourse and an absolute favourite of mine is 'The Mercy Men', also featuring a medical theme (I think most of his did) - worth reading if you encounter it.