The Andromeda Strain Page #6

If that's a meteor,

it's a damn peculiar one.

This left border over here,

it's smooth, almost like

an artificial surface.

Painted, maybe.

Luminous paint.

If I keep watching it,

I might think so.

Wet paint sign and all.

Jeremy?

What?

Nothing.

You okay?

It's just my eyes are tired.

We've been at it five hours straight.

We'll take a caffeine

break in a minute.

First I'd like to see one of the

separate patches of green at 1,000.

Did you see that?

I saw it.

You didn't change the lighting?

I didn't touch it.

Looks alive.

Yes.

It's bigger than two microns.

Which means the infection is spread

by a mere fraction of the green.

I'm bringing down cameras.

Let's have the other microscanner.

Stone to Level Control.

I need a Mic-T.

Roger. Will send.

Jump it up to 1500.

Microscan doesn't go any higher.

We can get 1500 light

magnification in microchemistry.

I'll send the rock through.

Attention

C.L.T. S on levels 4 and 5.

Main computer shows capacity

versus access time

at ten to the twelfth bits.

For any change in memory configuration,

C.L.T. S must check their unicom op.

Beautiful, sir.

I'm the Mic-T.

You're real sharp on the hands.

Thanks. Nice to know one

hasn't lost one's touch.

The next step is to find out

what makes it grow.

We'll need samples from the scoop

to send through maxcult

for culture and isolation.

Roger, sir. In work.

Good God!

It's growing.

Not so good.

Naturally he has acidosis.

His blood pH was nine points off normal.

But why? Stupid machine!

What makes his blood too acid?

Ask the patient.

Bio-safety to S.L., sectors 3 and 6.

Give us a code 3 when you get it.

Mr. Jackson?

Now, don't be scared.

I'm a doctor.

Bull.

Where am I?

A special laboratory in Nevada.

We brought you here from Piedmont.

You're sick.

It's this damn stomach of mine.

Bleeding?

Hell, yes, bleeding!

Bleeding in your stomach?

You have an ulcer?

Damn tooting. Two years.

But you must have pain.

What do you do for it?

Aspirin...

and squeeze.

Squeeze? What's that?

Ain't gonna tell you.

So you're a Sterno drinker, huh?

Works good.

Give him squeeze.

What's the baby's name, Mr. Jackson?

You the nurse?

Uh-huh.

Shoot!

Can't see your legs.

Do you know the baby's name?

Give us a butt first.

Smoking isn't allowed here.

Then go fish.

Yeah.

When you're finished,

we'll transfuse Jackson

and start ice water lavage.

He has a two-year history

of bleeding ulcers.

You seem delighted.

It may be the reason he survived.

If only our young gourmet

weren't so normal.

Well, let's hope

nothing changes that.

We might have to

before this is over.

They should've dropped the bomb.

They should've dropped it

two days ago, General.

This Phantom crashed a good 60 miles

beyond the cordoned area.

Men on the ground can't

cordon off airspace, sir.

I just don't understand

why the Wildfire

hasn't beefed about

the delay in 7-12.

It's been almost 24 hours,

and not a word from them.

I don't think Piedmont had anything

to do with this crash, Manchek.

It was a fluke.

That plane was only over the W.F. Area

for two minutes at 23,000 feet.

It's a routine training

mission accident, I bet you.

Pilot error.

Let's go.

Check with Wildfire

Message Center, Delta Five.

Make sure everything there is nominal.

Send me word on scrambler

at Big Head crash base.

Okay.

Checklim program completed.

All circuit banks nominal.

Same thing on the M.C.N. Console, Captain.

Just a

minute, Dr. Robertson.

You're saying Stone's

$90 million facility,

which you recommended,

was knocked out

by a sliver of paper?

You tell that

to the taxpayers!

These were highly-trained

electronics men, Senator,

looking for an electronic fault.

The trouble was purely mechanical

of the simplest kind.

But for them, it was like trying to see

an elephant through a microscope.

The sliver had peeled from the roll

and wedged between the bell and striker,

preventing the bell from ringing.

I'm convinced we're

being held in communicado.

Very flattering.

We don't know much more

than when we got here.

We know about Scoop now.

It's possible what Scoop

found was no accident.

I suspect they were looking for

the ultimate biological weapon.

Sounds like you're getting

a little paranoid in this fun house.

What does Stone think

about the ultimate weapon, I mean?

We've isolated the organism.

It's in microchemistry.

We'll show you.

Watchdog

to electrical support...

All right, Lieutenant.

Albuquerque

Center, this is Air Force 561.

Go ahead 561.

My air hose is coming apart...

like it's dissolving!

Everything made of rubber

is coming apart!

I feel funny.

It's a fluke, a vibration effect maybe.

Let's get up there.

Has Wildfire been informed?

You mean the germ people?

It went out to them on

the scrambler an hour ago.

This they can't ignore.

I. B. Control

to cafeteria level 3.

Number 4 Charlie hatch

shows condition blue.

Alter responsivity characteristics

until you get condition green.

Ready.

Nothing so unusual

about our rock after all.

Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen,

sulfur, silicon, et cetera.

Except the black rock

isn't rock at all.

It's some kind of material

similar to plastic.

How about that?

The green is even simpler.

Hydrogen, carbon,

nitrogen and oxygen.

The four basic elements

of life on Earth, nothing else.

That's a relief.

I'd have been happier

if it'd turned out not to be alive.

Green stuff,

you really had us going for a while.

A. A. Analysis results

are ready, Dr. Dutton.

Something's wrong.

It's not registering.

Yes it is, sir.

It's just registering

double-zero, double-zero.

We'll switch to computerized analysis.

No amino acids!

No proteins, no

enzymes, no nucleic acid.

Impossible! No organism

can maintain life without them!

You mean, no Earth organism.

It must have evolved in

a totally different way.

You got it.

It doesn't come from here.

Without chemical reactions

there can't be life,

yet it grows, reproduces...

Wait!

The infection at Piedmont

has been stopped by the bomb.

We're secure at Wildfire.

We have everything we need

to achieve a breakthrough.

All we have to do is attack this

problem like any other in science.

You could spend years

working on a thing like that

without solving its structure.

But when you do, there'll be

some red faces around.

It could change everything.

Great.

Ruth, since Kirke isn't here,

you take over the growth

program in microbiology.

We're halfway home if we find out

what will keep that from growing.

Charlie, you work with

me on the E.M. Hall...

All right.

Let me get back to my patients.

I'm sure they were

protected by the same thing:

Some simple mechanism

I just don't recognize yet.

There's got to be something

that the old man and

baby have in common.

Oh, Hall?

Five minutes.

You told me before.

Yes, we wouldn't want you to get

too far from the substation now.

Men, keep a

sharp eye open for pieces of rubber.

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