DS02 Night of the Dragonstar by Thomas F. Monteleone, David Bischoff Read Free Book Online Page B

unpredictable, that’s all. I suppose I’ll be called in for the hearing on the matter. I’ve made a lot of OTV trips with no fatal outcome. Hell, so did Hagermann. There was simply no way we could have known, and that’s what I’m going to tell them.”
    “Thanks, Lieutenant,” Mikaela said. “I appreciate your support. In the meantime, I think we’d better get down to making some scientific sense of what happened. It could be far more serious than just the death of Hagermann, as tragic and terrible as that was.”
    Penovich nodded and looked down at the photos again. “Yes. I have studied these creatures all my life, and now every time I look at one I will think of yesterday’s horrible ...”
    His voice broke, and he looked away.
    “Well, we’ll just have to be more careful in the future, won’t we, Doctor? Hagermann was like me — he knew there were all kinds of risks involved in being in the IASA.” Lorkner left, making sure the lab door was closed behind him.
    The two paleontologists worked in the lab of the paleontological survey camp, located within the Mesozoic preserve, near the original hatchway of Artifact One. The room, previously used for medical purposes, had been restocked with microscopes, beakers, and refrigerators. Specimens of flora and fauna hung preserved in formaldehyde, either already analyzed and dissected or awaiting analysis and dissection. Pictures and charts of fossils hung on the walls; upon these had been tacked photos of the actual creatures they might have represented.
    The chemical lab smell was curiously comforting to the paleontologists. Here was where the stuff of scientific study could be performed — safely, in controlled conditions, without their having to worry about being attacked and consumed by the objects of study.
    Mikaela began to make ready the instruments she needed to analyze the specimen procured by Lorkner, switching on the electron microscope and washing and drying a slide.
    “From the pictures,” Dr. Penovich said, “I would judge by the creature’s shape that either it was malformed or it grew from hatchling state at an extremely accelerated rate for a creature of its size. I’m anxious to see what you find at the cellular level.”
    “Signs of radiation poisoning of some kind, perhaps,” Mikaela said, shutting out her grief and fear with cold duty and scientific curiosity. “I wonder if there’s a leak somewhere. There’s been no report of one so far.”
    “With such a large vessel and so few men and equipment, it’s no wonder,” Penovich said. “Something to do with the Illuminator, do you think?”
    “Perhaps,” Mikaela said, taking out the bag that Lorkner had brought in. “Though if it were the Illuminator, I think we’d have picked up on it a lot sooner.”
    She took the hunk of flesh — a terrible mess, but suitable enough — and cut off a sliver with a scalpel, then returned the rest to the freezer. Although the specimen had already been scanned at the entryway for possible harmful viruses, she used plastic gloves and a filter mask. She placed the small sliver of flesh on the slide in a clear solution, then taped on a cover slide and carried it over to the softly humming microscope.
    Just as she put the slide in place and was about to focus the microscope the lab phone rang.
    “Damn,” she said. The phone was closest to her, so she picked it up.
    “Paleo lab,” she said.
    The voice on the other end seemed very distant. “Hello. Mikaela, is that you?” Despite the amount of static, the voice was recognizably that of Colonel Phineas Kemp, beamed via satellite, with a small delay.
    “Yes, Phineas, it’s me. I suppose you’ve heard the bad news.”
    She had to wait some seconds before the voice responded. “Well, thank God you’re okay. I had to hear about it from the President of the United States, and it didn’t help my headache much. We’re not exactly broadcasting Hagermann’s death, but there have been leaks