“I don’t know what we know,” she said crossly, “but / know a little more and
feel more than a little confused by the knowledge. For instance…”
The thick pencil of nerve ganglia with its localized bunch-ings and swellings
which ran through the center of the cylindrical body was, almost certainly, the
CRLT’s equivalent of a brain, and the idea of a missing head or tail was
beginning to seem unlikely—especially since the transparent material which
covered the raw areas fore and aft was, despite its appearance, equally as tough
as the being’s leathery body tegument.
She had been successful in tracing the nerve connections between the core
swellings and the eyes, mouths, and manipulatory appendages, and from both ends
of the axial nerve bundle to the puzzling system of muscles which underlay the
raw areas on the forward and rear faces of the creature.
The specimen appeared to be male—at least, the female genitalia at the other end
were shrunken and seemed to be in a condition of early atrophy—and she had
identified the male
sperm generator and the method of transfer to a female.
“… There is evidence of unnatural organ displacement,” she went on, “which can
only be caused by weightlessness. Gravity, real or artificial, is a
physiological necessity for this life-form. During hibernation the absence of
weight would not be fatal, but weightlessness while conscious would cause severe
nausea, sensory impairment, and, I feel sure, intense mental and physical
distress.”
Which meant that the being would have to be in position on the rim of its
rotating vessel or affected by natural gravity, that of its target world, when
it was revived. It isn’t a doctor this patient needed, Con way thought wryly,
it’s a miracle worker!
“With the Captain’s help,” Murchison continued, “we have established that the
medication which produces and or extends the hibernation anesthesia occupies the
larger volume of a dispenser mechanism which also contains a smaller quantity
of the complex organic secretion which can only be the reviver. Fletcher also
traced the input to the automatic sensor and actuator which switches the
mechanism from the hibernation to the resuscitation mode and found that it
reacted to the combined presence of gravity and external pressure. The same
actuator mechanism is also responsible for ejecting the endplates of its
hibernation compartment which would enable the CRLT to disembark.
“Sooner or later we’re going to have to revive one of these things,” she ended
worriedly, “and we’ll have to be very sure that we know what we are doing.”
Conway was already out of his spacesuit and climbing into his surgical
coveralls. He said, “Anything in particular you’d like me to do?”
They worked on the cadaver while the hours flickered past on the time display to
become days, then weeks. From time to time a terse, subspace message from
Thornnastor would arrive confirming their findings or suggesting new avenues of
investigation, but even so it seemed that their rate of progress was slow to
nonexistent.
Occasionally they would look up at the Control Room repeater, but with
decreasing frequency. Fletcher, a Hudlar space
construction specialist, and variously qualified Monitor Corps officers were
usually showing each other pieces of twisted metal via their vision channels,
comparing identification symbols and talking endlessly about them. No doubt it
was all vitally important stuff, but it made boring listening. Besides, they
had their own organic jigsaw puzzle to worry about.
A pleasant break in the routine would occur when they had to go outside to look
at one of the other cadavers which had been brought in and attached to the outer
hull, there being room for only one CRLT at a time inside Rhabwar. On these
occasions the investigations were conducted in airless conditions and only the
organic material which was of special interest to them was excised for later
study. As a result they found a bewildering variety of age and sex combinations
which seemed to indicate that the older CRLTs were well-developed males whose
raw areas at each extremity had a brownish coloration, while the younger beings
were clearly female and the areas concerned were a livid pink under the
transparent covering.
Once there was a break in the investigative routine which was not pleasant.’ For