Read "Address: Centauri" by Floyd L. Wallace online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Vague shapes were stirring. They walked if they could, crawled if they couldn't -- fantastic and near-fantastic creatures were coming to the assembly. Large or tiny, on their own legs or borrowed ones they arrived, with or without arms, faces. The news had spread fast, by voice or written message, sign language, lip reading, all the conceivable ways that humans communicate, not the least of which was the vague intuition that something was going on that the person should know about. The people on Handicap Haven sensed the emergency.
"Remember it will be hours or perhaps days before we're safe," said Docchi. His voice was hoarse but he hadn't noticed it yet. "It's up to us to see that Nona has all the time she needs."