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freed from the table without touching the armor."
"Good. All hands: I'm unsealing and going to Seichi's quarters. I'll report en
route to the mausoleum and again when I get back to my own room. Everyone
stand by for memorial to another friend. Lieutenant
Skokie, you seem the right one to collect and judge for relevance personal
data for the eulogy.
"Status, keep checking my armor for infection, starting now to furnish control
data, not waiting until I
get to the captain. Cheru, complete the analyses on the wing sample he
started, initiate the same kind when a suit sample is obtained, and answer
Sergeant Belvew's question about heavy metals as quickly as precise work will
permit. Everyone else, carry on."
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The first answer came from Akagawa even before the commander's arrival at
Seichi's door.
"The
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Crius samples average between forty and forty-one thousand atoms of gold ner
cubic millimeter, lust a little less than a tenth as many of iridium, and
about three thousand of platinum. This is roughly a tenth of a percent of what
is found in Earth's oceans. More precision will require much more time, and
ideally should have many more samples. Does this help your inspiration, Gene?"
"I don't see how."
"Maybe the rest of us can. Forget GO6 for the moment and tell us your idea."
Maria did not quite make this sound like an order, but the sergeant needed
little encouragement. He spoke less rapidly than usual, however; he seemed to
be choosing his words with more than ordinary care.
"I've picked up quite a bit of biochem in the last few days. A lot of it has
to do with the effects of metals on organics. For example, the iron in our
blood and cells is framed in a porphyrin group" he didn't pause to explain
what a porphyrin group was; people who cared but didn't know already could
consult
Status for themselves "and the magnesium in chlorophyll and the cobalt in
vitamin
B12
are similarly framed. All do very different jobs in our bodies, though. I
still think " He broke off suddenly. Then, "Cheru, how do those figures jibe
with uncontaminated lake samples?" Belvew suddenly sounded even more excited
again.
Ginger practically sneered. "If you mean uncontaminated by the collectors and
lab reactors, how do we find out? Analyze uncollected samples?" She didn't
sound exactly delighted, but she was not the only one glad to catch Gene
asking a silly question. None of the others betrayed themselves, however: _the
sergeant riposted too promptly.
"Check something that was collected by scraper for gold, and something
collected by tube for iridium, of course. The platinum is all inside the labs;
test for it at different points along the procedure chain for different
samples. Status will have records of every step if we don't wait too long.
It'll be on the running log.
"Now we know why they used different metals in the labs, I guess. Remember we
were wondering why just iridium wasn't enough? I'll bet somebody showed some
foresight after all in planning this. We certainly can cross-check, Major. We
used up lots of labs on my little hill, some on our late commander's, and I'm
sure the collection routines must have varied here and there between solid and
liquid sampling."
Status probably caught and even interpreted annoyed sounds in that part of its
attention centered on crew welfare, but rightly judged them irrelevant. "All
such information is on record. It will take some minutes to check and
cross-check. You are right about the varying routines."
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Most of the survivors spent the minutes ignoring current duties and trying to
imagine what Belvew had in mind; but even the answer, which came well within
the promised time, failed to help them.
"About ninety-one percent of all three metals appear to come from
contamination from collectors and
Colonel Goodall's remains. As was pointed out, many more sources should be
sampled to make these figures really reliable."
"Don't waste the time here," replied the sergeant. "Commander, I suggest we
report this to Earth, and advise they start checking for really heavy metal
coenzymes everywhere.
Remember, we've been using such metals in increasing quantities for two or
three centuries now at home.
"Do it in tissue samples dating from now as far back as possible before the
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general collapse if the data are still around. I suggest , that increasing
heavy-metal distribution has made new enzymes possible."
"You think " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]