The Andromeda Strain Part 13

Karp, with his careful, slow techniques, was determined to end the arguments once and for all. He announced that he had taken great pains to avoid contamination: each meteorite he examined had been washed in twelve solutions, including peroxide, iodine, hypertonic saline and dilute acids. It was then exposed to intense ultraviolet light for a period of two days. Finally, it was submerged in a germicidal solution and placed in a germ-free, sterile isolation chamber; further work was done within the chamber.

Karp, upon breaking open his meteorites, was able to isolate bacteria. He found that they were ring-shaped organisms, rather like a tiny undulating inner tube, and he found they could grow and multiply. He claimed that, while they were essentially similar to earthly bacteria in structure, being based upon proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids, they had no cell nucleus and therefore their manner of propagation was a mystery.

Karp presented his information in his usual quiet, unsensational manner, and hoped for a good reception. He did not receive one; instead, he was laughed down by the Seventh Conference of Astrophysics and Geophysics, meeting in London in 1961. He became discouraged and set his work with meteorites aside; the organisms were later destroyed in an accidental laboratory explosion on the night of June 27, 1963.

Karp's experience was almost identical to that of Nagy and the others. Scientists in the 1960's were not willing to entertain notions of life existing in meteorites; all evidence presented was discounted, dismissed, and ignored.

A handful of people in a dozen countries remained intrigued, however. One of them was Jeremy Stone; another was Peter Leavitt. It was Leavitt who, some years before, had formulated the Rule of 48. The Rule of 48 was intended as a humorous reminder to scientists, and referred to the ma.s.sive literature collected in the late 1940's and the 1950's concerning the human chromosome number.

For years it was stated that men had forty-eight chromosomes in their cells; there were pictures to prove it, and any number of careful studies. In 1953, a group of American researchers announced to the world that the human chromosome number was forty-six. Once more, there were pictures to prove it, and studies to confirm it. But these researchers also went back to reexamine the old pictures, and the old studies-- and found only forty-six chromosomes, not forty-eight.

Leavitt's Rule of 48 said simply, "All Scientists Are Blind." And Leavitt had invoked his rule when he saw the reception Karp and others received. Leavitt went over the reports and the papers and found no reason to reject the meteorite studies out of hand; many of the experiments were careful, well-reasoned, and compelling.

He remembered this when he and the other Wildfire planners drew up the study known as the Vector Three. Along with the Toxic Five, it formed one of the firm theoretical bases for Wildfire.

The Vector Three was a report that considered a crucial question: If a bacterium invaded the earth, causing a new disease, where would that bacterium come from?

After consultation with astronomers and evolutionary theories, the Wildfire group concluded that bacteria could come from three sources.

The first was the most obvious-- an organism, from another planet or galaxy, which had the protection to survive the extremes of temperature and vacuum that existed in s.p.a.ce. There was no doubt that organisms could survive-- there was, for instance, a cla.s.s of bacteria known as thermophilic that thrived on extreme heat, multiplying enthusiastically in temperatures as high as 70deg C. Further, it was known that bacteria had been recovered from Egyptian tombs, where they had been sealed for thousands of years. These bacteria were still viable.

The secret lay in the bacteria's ability to form spores, molding a hard calcific sh.e.l.l around themselves. This sh.e.l.l enabled the organism to survive freezing or boiling, and, if necessary, thousands of years without food. It combined all the advantages of a s.p.a.ce suit with those of suspended animation.

There was no doubt that a spore could travel through s.p.a.ce. But was another planet or galaxy the most likely source of contamination for the earth?

Here, the answer was no. The most likely source was the closest source-- the earth itself.

The report suggested that bacteria could have left the surface of the earth eons ago, when life was just beginning to emerge from the oceans and the hot, baked continents. Such bacteria would depart before the fishes, before the primitive mammals, long before the first ape-man. The bacteria would head up into the air, and slowly ascend until they were literally in s.p.a.ce. Once there, they might evolve into unusual forms, perhaps even learning to derive energy for life directly from the sun, instead of requiring food as an energy source. These organisms might also be capable of direct conversion of energy to matter.

Leavitt himself suggested the a.n.a.logy of the upper atmosphere and the depths of the sea as equally inhospitable environments, but equally viable. In the deepest, blackest regions of the oceans, where oxygenation was poor, and where light never reached, life forms were known to exist in abundance. Why not also in the far reaches of the atmosphere? True, oxygen was scarce. True, food hardly existed. But if creatures could live miles beneath the surface, why could they not also live five miles above it?

And if there were organisms out there, and if they had departed from the baking crust of the earth long before the first men appeared, then they would be foreign to man. No immunity, no adaptation, no antibodies would have been developed. They would be primitive aliens to modern man, in the same way that the shark, a primitive fish unchanged for a hundred million years, was alien and dangerous to modern man, invading the oceans for the first time.

The third source of contamination, the third of the vectors, was at the same time the most likely and the most troublesome. This was contemporary earth organisms, taken into s.p.a.ce by inadequately sterilized s.p.a.cecraft. Once in s.p.a.ce, the organisms would be exposed to harsh radiation, weightlessness, and other environmental forces that might exert a mutagenic effect, altering the organisms.

So that when they came down, they would be different.

Take up a harmless bacteria-- such as the organism that causes pimples, or sore throats-- and bring it back in a new form, virulent and unexpected. It might do anything. It might show a preference for the aqueous humor of the inner eye, and invade the eyeball. It might thrive on the acid secretions of the stomach. It might multiply on the small currents of electricity afforded by the human brain itself, drive men mad.

This whole idea of mutated bacteria seemed farfetched and unlikely to the Wildfire people. It is ironic that this should be the case, particularly in view of what happened to the Andromeda Strain. But the Wildfire team staunchly ignored both the evidence of their own experience-- that bacteria mutate rapidly and radically-- and the evidence of the Biosatellite tests, in which a series of earth forms were sent into s.p.a.ce and later recovered.

Biosatellite II contained, among other things, several species of bacteria. It was later reported that the bacteria had reproduced at a rate twenty to thirty times normal. The reasons were still unclear, but the results unequivocal: s.p.a.ce could affect reproduction and growth.

And yet no one in Wildfire paid attention to this fact, until it was too late.

Stone reviewed the information quickly, then handed each of them a cardboard file. "These files," he said, "contain a transcript of autoclock records of the entire flight of Scoop VII. Our purpose in reviewing the transcript is to determine, if possible, what happened to the satellite while it was in orbit."

Hall said, "Something happened to it?"

Leavitt explained. "The satellite was scheduled for a six-day orbit, since the probability of collecting organisms is proportional to time in orbit. After launch, it was in stable orbit. Then, on the second day, it went out of orbit.

Hall nodded.

"Start," Stone said, "with the first page."

Hall opened his file.

AUTOCLOCK TRANSCRIPT.

PROJECT: SCOOP VII.

LAUNCHDATE:.

ABRIDGED VERSION. FULL TRANSCRIPT.

STORED VAULTS 179-99,.

VDBG COMPLEX EPSILON.

HOURS MIN SEC PROCEDURE.

T MINUS TIME.

0002 01 05 Vandenberg Launch pad Block 9, Scoop Mission Control, reports systems check on schedule.

0001 39 52 Scoop MC holds for fuel check reported from Ground Control.

STOP CLOCK STOP CLOCK. REALTIME LOSS 12 MINUTES.

0001 39 52 Count resumed. Clock corrected.

0000 41 12 Scoop MC holds 20 seconds for Launch pad Block 9 check. Clock not stopped for built-in hold.

000030 00 Gantry removed.

000024 00 Final craft systems check.

000019 00 Final capsule systems check.

000013 00 Final systems checks read as negative.

000007 12 Cable decoupling.

000001 07 Stat-link decoupling.

000000 05 Ignition.

000000 04 Launch pad Block 9 clears all systems.

000000 00 Core clamps released. Launch.

T PLUS TIME.

000000 06 Stable. Speed 6 fps. Smooth EV approach.

000000 09 Tracking reported.

000000 11 Tracking confirmed.

000000 27 Capsule monitors at g 1.9. Equipment check clear.

0000 01 00 Launch pad Block 9 clears rocket and capsule systems for orbit.

"No point in dwelling on this," Stone said. "It is the record of a perfect launch. There is nothing here, in fact, nothing for the next ninety-six hours of flight, to indicate any difficulty on board the s.p.a.cecraft. Now turn to page 10."

They all turned.

TRACK TRANSCRIPT CONT'D.

SCOOP VII.

LAUNCHDATE:.

ABRIDGED VERSION.

HOURS MIN SEC PROCEDURE.

10 12 Orbital check stable as reported by Grand Bahama Station.

009634 19 Orbital check stable as reported by Sydney.

009647 34 Orbital check stable as reported by Vdbg.

0097 04 12 Orbital check stable but system malfunction reported by Kennedy Station.

0097 05 18 Malfunction confirmed.

0097 07 22 Malfunction confirmed by Grand Bahama. Computer reports...o...b..tal instability.

0097 34 54 Sydney reports...o...b..tal instability.

0097 39 02 Vandenberg computations indicate orbital decay.

0098 27 14 Vandenberg Scoop Mission Control orders radio reentry.

009912 56 Reentry code transmitted.

0099 13 13 Houston reports initiation of reentry. Stabilized flight path.

"What about voice communication during the critical period?"

"There were linkups between Sydney, Kennedy, and Grand Bahama, all routed through Houston. Houston had the big computer as well. But in this instance, Houston was just helping out; all decisions came from Scoop Mission Control in Vandenberg. We have the voice communication at the back of the file. It's quite revealing."

TRANSCRIPT OF VOICE COMMUNICATIONS SCOOP MISSION CONTROL VANDENBERG AFB HOURS 0096:59 TO 0097:39.

THIS IS A CLa.s.sIFIED TRANSCRIPT.

IT HAS NOT BEEN ABRIDGED OR EDITED.

HOURS MIN SEC COMMUNICATION.

0096 59 00 h.e.l.lO KENNEDY THIS IS SCOOP MISSION CONTROL. AT THE END OF 96 HOURS OF FLIGHT TIME WE HAVE STABLE ORBITS FROM ALL STATIONS. DO YOU CONFIRM.

0097 00 00 1 think we do, Scoop. Our check is going through now. Hold this line open for a few minutes, fellows.

0097 03 31 h.e.l.lo, Scoop MC. This is Kennedy. We have a stable orbit confirmation for you on the last pa.s.sby. Sorry about the delay but there is an instrument snag somewhere here.

0097 03 34 KENNEDY PLEASE CLARIFY. IS YOUR SNAG ON THE GROUND OR ALOFT.

0097 03 39 I am sorry we have no tracer yet. We think it is on the ground.

0097 04 12 h.e.l.lo, Scoop MC. This is Kennedy. We have a preliminary report of system malfunction aboard your s.p.a.cecraft. Repeat we have a preliminary report of malfunction in the air. Awaiting confirmation.

0097 04 15 KENNEDY PLEASE CLARIFY SYSTEM INVOLVED.

0097 04 18 I'm sorry they haven't given me that. I a.s.sume they are waiting for final confirmation of the malfunction.

0097 04 21 DOES YOUR ORBITAL CHECK AS STABLE STILL-HOLD.

0097 04 22 Vandenberg, we have confirmed your orbital check as stable. Repeat the orbit is stable.

0097 05 18 Ah, Vandenberg, I am afraid we also confirm readings consistent with system malfunction on board your s.p.a.cecraft. These include the stationary rotor elements and spanner units going to mark twelve. I repeat mark twelve.

0097 05 30 HAVE YOU RUN CONSISTENCY CHECK ON YOUR COMPUTERS.

0097 05 35 Sorry fellows but our computers check out. We read it as a real malfunction.

0097 05 45 h.e.l.lO, HOUSTON. OPEN THE LINE TO SYDNEY, WILL YOU. WE WANT CONFIRMATION OF DATA.

0097 05 51 Scoop Mission Control, This is Sydney Station. We confirm our last reading. There was nothing wrong with the s.p.a.cecraft on its last pa.s.sby here.

0097 06 12 OUR COMPUTER CHECK INDICATES NO SYSTEMS MALFUNCTION AND GOOD ORBITAL STABILITY ON SUMMATED DATA. WE QUESTION KENNEDY GROUND INSTRUMENT FAILURE.

0097 06 18 This is Kennedy, Scoop MC. We have run repeat checkouts at this end. Our reading of system malfunction remains. Have you got something from Bahama.