The Andromeda Strain Part 15

HALL OPENED THE DOOR MARKED MISCELLANEOUS, thinking to himself that his job was indeed miscellaneous-- keeping alive an old man and a tiny infant. Both of them vital to the project, and both of them, no doubt, difficult to manage.

He found himself in another small room similar to the control room he had just left. This one also had a gla.s.s window, looking inward to a central room. In the room were two beds, and on the beds, Peter Jackson and the infant. But the incredible thing was the suits: standing upright in the room were four clear plastic inflated suits in the shape of men. From each suit, a tunnel ran back to the wall.

Obviously, one would have to crawl down the tunnel and then stand up inside the suit. Then one could work with the patients inside the room.

The girl who was to be his a.s.sistant was working in the room, bent over the computer console. She introduced herself as Karen Anson, and explained the working of the computer.

"This is just one substation of the Wildfire computer on the first level," she said. "There are thirty substations throughout the laboratory, all plugging into the computer. Thirty different people can work at once."

Hall nodded. Time-sharing was a concept he understood. He knew that as many as two hundred people had been able to use the same computer at once; the principle was that computers operated very swiftly-- in fractions of a second while people operated slowly, in seconds or minutes. One person using a computer was inefficient, because it took several minutes to punch in instructions, while the computer sat around idle, waiting. Once instructions were fed in, the computer answered almost instantaneously. This meant that a computer was rarely "working," and by permitting a number of people to ask questions of the computer simultaneously, you could keep the machine more continuously in operation.

"If the computer is really backed up, " the technician said, "there may be a delay of one or two seconds before you get your answer. But usually it's immediate. What we are using here is the MEDCOM program. Do you know it?"

Hall shook his head.

"It's a medical-data a.n.a.lyzer," she said. "You feed in information and it will diagnose the patient and tell you what to do next for therapy, or to confirm the diagnosis."

"Sounds very convenient."

"It's fast," she said. "All our lab studies are done by automated machines. So we can have complex diagnoses in a matter of minutes."

Hall looked through the gla.s.s at the two patients. "What's been done on them so far?"

"Nothing. At Level I, they were started on intravenous infusions. Plasma for Peter Jackson, dextrose and water for the baby. They both seem well hydrated now, and in no distress. Jackson is still unconscious. He has no pupillary signs but is unresponsive and looks anemic."

Hall nodded. "The labs here can do everything?"

"Everything. Even a.s.says for adrenal hormones and things like partial thromboplastin times. Every known medical test is possible."

"All right. We'd better get started."

She turned on the computer. "This is how you order laboratory tests," she said. "Use this light pen here, and check off the tests you want. Just touch the pen to the screen."

She handed him a small penlight, and pushed the START b.u.t.ton.

The screen glowed.

MEDCOM PROGRAM.

LAB/a.n.a.lYS.

CK/JGG/1223098.

BLOOD:.

COUNTS RBC.

RETIC.

PLATES.

WBC.

DIFF.

HEMATOCRIT.

HEMOGLOBIN.

INDICES MCV.

MCHC:.

PROTIME.

PTT.

SED RATE.

CHEMISTRY:.

BRO.

CA.

CL.

MG.

PO4.

K.

NA.

CO2.

ENZYMES:.

AMYLASE.

CHOLINESTERASE.

LIPASE.

PHOSPHATASE,ACID.

ALKALINE.

LDH.

SGOT.

SGPT.

PROTEIN:.

ALB.

GLOB.

FIBRIN.

TOTAL FRACTION.

DIAGNOSTICS:.

CHOLEST.

CREAT.

GLUCOSE.

PBI.

BEI.

I.

IBC.

NPN.

BUN.

BILIRU, DIFF.

CEPH/FLOC.

THYMOL/TURB.

BSP.

PULMONARY:.

TVC.

TV.

IC.

IRV.

ERV.

MBC.

STERIOD:.

ALDO.

L7-OH.

17-KS.

ACTH.

VITS.

A.

ALL.

B.

C.

E.

K.

URINE:.

SP.

GR.

PH.

PROT.

GLUC.