door.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day,” he grunted. “An
understandable reason for wanting some. . . er. . . irregular
action, you would agree?”
Hunt agreed.
A passage, followed by a short flight of stairs and another
passage, brought them to a set of double doors bearing the large
red sign STERILE AREA. In the anteroom behind, they put on surgical
masks, caps, gowns, gloves, and overshoes before passing out
through another door at the opposite end.
In the first section they came to, samples of skin and other
tissues were being examined. By reintroducing the substances
believed to have escaped over the centuries, specimens had been
restored to what were hoped to be close approximations to their
original conditions. In general, the findings merely confirmed that
Charlie was as human chemically as he was structurally. Some
unfamiliar enzymes had, however, been discovered. Dynamic computer
simulation suggested that these were designed to assist in the
breakdown of proteins unlike anything found in the diet of modern
man. Danchekker was inclined to dismiss this peculiarity with the
rather vague assertion that “Times change,” a remark which Hunt
appeared to find disturbing.
The next laboratory was devoted to an investigation of the
spacesuit and the various other gadgets and implements found on
and around the body. The helmet was the first exhibit to be
presented for inspection. Its back and crown were made of metal,
coated dull black and extending forward to the forehead to leave a
transparent visor extending from ear to ear. Danchekker held it up
for them to see and pushed his hand up through the opening at the
neck. They could see clearly the fingers of his rubber glove
through the facepiece.
“Observe,” he said, picking up a powerful xenon flash lamp from the
bench. He directed the beam through the facepiece, and a circle of
the material immediately turned dark. They could see through the
area around the circle that the level of illumination inside the
helmet had not changed appreciably. He moved the lamp around and
the dark circle followed it across the visor.
“Built-in antiglare,” Gray observed.
“The visor is fabricated from a self-polarizing crystal,”
Danchekker informed them. “It responds directly to incident light
in a fashion that is linear up to high intensities. The visor is
also effective with gamma radiation.”
Hunt took the helmet to examine it more closely. The blend of
curves that made up the outside contained little of interest, but
on turning it over he found that a section of the inner surface of
the crown had been removed to reveal a cavity, empty except for
some tiny wires and a set of fixing brackets.
“That recess contained a complete miniature communications
station,” Danchekker supplied, noting his interest. “Those grilles
at the sides concealed the speakers, and a microphone is built into
the top, just above the forehead.” He reached inside and drew down
a small retractable binocular periscope from inside the top section
of the helmet, which clicked into position immediately in front of
where the eyes of the wearer would be. “Built-in video, too,” he
explained. “Controlled from a panel on the chest. The small hole in
the front of the crown contained a camera assembly.” Hunt continued
to turn the trophy over in his hands, studying it from all angles
in absorbed silence. Two weeks ago he had been sitting at his desk
in Metadyne doing a routine job. Never in his wildest fantasies had
he imagined that he would one day come to be holding in his hands
something that might well turn out to be one of the most exciting
discoveries of the century, if not in the whole of history. Even
his agile mind was having difficulty taking it all in.
“Can we see some of the electronics that were in here?” he asked
after a while.
“Not today,” Caidwell replied. “The electronics are being studied
at another location-that goes for most of what was in the backpack,
too. Let’s just say for now that when it came to molecular
circuits, these guys knew their business.”
“The backpack is a masterpiece of precision engineering in
miniature,” Danchekker continued, leading them to another part of