The Andromeda Strain Page #5

a postmortem on it anyway.

Housekeeping to level 5.

Clean sweep schedule "B" now in effect.

Germfree animal technicians,

please consult schedule "A".

So, okay.

Isolate and identify.

Right. You and I'll scan

the capsule, Ruth.

Charlie, you work on these in autopsy.

Open the S.L., Ruth.

Adjust S. Y. System

for aseptricity as follows.

Points 2-A at 5.

Points 9 through 12 at plus 1.

Plus 3, plus 6 at minus.

Run an initial vector study, Charlie.

Find out how the disease

enters the body.

Charlie?

Yes.

Yes, the vector study first,

then autopsy. Incredible.

Dutton, be careful.

Let our distinguished surgeon

handle the knife.

Fine, but not for a while.

First, I'm a pediatrician

and a geriatrist.

Take it easy.

Charlie will have a technician.

What's been done for them?

Just plasma for the old man,

dextrose for the baby.

Your therapy?

No. Medcom's.

Do I call you Miss Medcom?

If you like, Dr. Hall.

My name's Karen Anson.

Good. I couldn't cope with two machines.

How does this work?

You're lucky.

Medcom's got one of the best minds here.

It's a medical data analyzer

that can diagnose as well as prescribe.

It's hooked up to the

main computer on level 1.

Every console and

instrument in Wildfire

is plugged into the main computer

on a time-sharing basis.

All our key lab studies

are done on automated machines.

I prefer the personal touch.

It's hard to come

by in those suits.

Have you worked in them?

Not for real.

But I've been drilling for three months.

Thank God for an expert.

This sort of thing's new to me.

It's new to all of us.

Until now, Wildfire's been like a game.

We've even had simulation

biowar games here

with live subjects... volunteers.

I mean, I'm scared.

I never believed

this could really happen.

Well, it has happened.

I'll need some lab tests.

Use this to check off

what you want.

Just touch the pen to the screen.

You draw the bloods,

I'll do the physicals.

Use the bar.

The tunnel seals off

automatically behind you.

The only way you might possibly

break your suit is with a scalpel,

and a surgeon isn't likely to do that.

Bio-safety to S.L.

An animal in airlock 0-9-5.

Reconfirm red R.D.P.

Status before transfer.

Second scan completed.

Score, nothing to nothing.

Go to 100 power.

No, Ruth.

Use only one microscanner.

You being paid by the hour?

We could cover the capsule

in one half the time.

There's less chance of missing something

when we both concentrate on one screen.

Let's go directly to the inside.

We can assume they put

the Scoop on the thing

to scoop something into it.

They sure got what

they were looking for.

We're not here to make accusations.

We have a job to do

purely as scientists.

Maybe not so pure.

Continue the scan, Ruth, on the outside.

No, don't do that.

We'll use the hands.

Nothing can happen, sir.

I'm faster than the hands.

I want you out of the hot room.

B.Z. Doris to I.Z. Alice.

S.D.T. Energy output

is 1.8 to 3.0 joules

with rate two to three milliradians.

And we still need those blankets.

No sweat, sir.

Those cages are airtight.

I wish you would sweat

a little more, Toby.

Sweat is a safeguard against some

kinds of bacteria and carelessness.

Use the hands.

Wow!

Transmitted by air, as we thought.

Now we've got to determine its size.

Could be a gas or some kind of a virus.

We'll use a hundred

angstrom filter to begin.

About the size of a small virus.

All systems go, sir.

Whatever it is,

it's larger than a virus.

We'll try a one micron filter.

Hang in there, baby.

He must be pretty big.

I'm gonna get me a fly swatter.

Do that.

Here goes with two microns.

Uh-huh.

Nasty.

At least we'll be able

to get a good look at it.

Dutton to Stone.

We've just found out its size:

About two microns in diameter.

Big enough to be a complete cell.

Interesting.

There's a good chance it's alive.

Airborne transmission?

Yes. What have you found?

So far nothing.

Our Nobel laureate here

won't scan on the inside

because he says...

All right, Ruth.

Thanks, Charlie. Keep at it.

It's pointless to go on scanning outside.

If it's two microns in diameter,

it would've showed up at 440.

True, but we didn't know

that before, did we?

We'll start with five power on the inside.

Stick to established procedure.

Establishment gonna

fall down and go boom.

Switch to manual, Ruth.

The interior's too irregular

to probe on automatic.

More light, huh?

Here's his blood value now.

Half normal. Severely anemic.

Wake up, sir.

Can you hear me?

What's your name?

Jackson.

What?

Jackson.

Stay awake, Mr. Jackson.

Stay awake!

Tongue blade.

Sixty-eight

degrees on 1-4-0-7.

Sixty-one

on 1-2-0-3.

Loss rate is minus 0-0-12.

Please copy and confirm

all receiving locks.

You can tell you're a bachelor.

What was that?

I didn't say anything.

We're doing an isotope scan.

How the bugs get into the body.

Thought you should watch it.

I assume it was inhaled.

Not likely it's absorbed

through the skin.

That's what we'll find out now:

The mechanism of death.

We'll look at a

replay of that at speed 6.

That tells us

what we want to know, Hall.

The organism is inhaled.

The clotting begins in the lungs

and spreads outward.

I didn't think it possible.

I didn't think the total volume

of blood could solidify that fast.

I hoped maybe one crucial clot

might form in the brain,

which was what made them go insane,

and then the rest of the

blood clot more slowly.

We'd have a chance to cure that.

Cure what?

We don't know what it is.

Stone and Leavitt haven't been

able to isolate the hellish thing.

Of course they will in time.

Of course.

Hold it.

At the edge of that

shadow, I think...

Me too.

It's an indentation.

Yes, about the

size of a pencil point.

Go to 40.

Go to 60.

Jeremy,

do you think maybe...

Maybe it's

just a grain of sand.

Go to 80.

What about the bits of green?

Paint.

For God's sake!

Pistachio ice cream!

There's no basis to

assume it's anything yet.

You're too good a scientist not to

be thinking the same thing I am.

If this is

really something new,

some brand-new form of life...

The best hope of cracking it

is to be grindingly thorough

with the help of computer number one.

Okay? Now let's get on with it.

Hold it.

More pistachio?

I count four patches.

Keep going.

I'll computerize the coordinates.

Let's take a look

at the rock at 100.

I doubt that's what

knocked the capsule off trajectory.

Unless the rock was going

at tremendous speed,

or unless it's terribly heavy.

For Pete's sake, Ruth,

it can't be that heavy.

Hall and I could lift the capsule.

However, it's possible the

rock is different in space:

Out there it might do anything.

Maybe it has elastic properties

we don't even know yet.

Let's have a look

at the green patches.

They must've come off the rock,

if it is rock.

You know something?

They do look like spatters of paint.

Let's go back to the rock

and see it at 440.

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