"Run some of them against a rat?"

Stone nodded. "Make sure it's still virulent. Still the same."

Leavitt agreed. They had to be careful the organism didn't mutate, didn't change to something radically different in its effects.

As they were about to start, the Level V monitor clicked on and said, "Dr. Leavitt. Dr. Leavitt."

Leavitt answered. On the computer screen was a pleasant young man in a white lab coat.

"Yes?"

"Dr. Leavitt, we have gotten our electroencephalograms back from the computer center. I'm sure it's all a mistake, but . . ."

His voice trailed off.

"Yes?" Leavitt said. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, sir, yours were read as grade four, atypical, probably benign. But we would like to run another set."

Stone said, "It must be a mistake."

"Yes," Leavitt said. "It must be."

"Undoubtedly, sir," the man said. "But we would like another set of waves to be certain."

"I'm rather busy now," Leavitt said.

Stone broke in, talking directly to the technician. "Dr. Leavitt will get a repeat EEG when he has the chance."

"Very good, sir," the technician said.

When the screen was blank, Stone said, "There are times when this damned routine gets on anybody's nerves."

Leavitt said, "Yes."

They were about to begin biologic testing of the various culture media when the computer flashed that preliminary reports from X-ray crystallography were prepared. Stone and Leavitt left the room to check the results, delaying the biologic tests of media. This was a most unfortunate decision, for had they examined the media, they would have seen that their thinking had already gone astray, and that they were on the wrong track.

25. Willis

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY ANALYSIS showed that the Andromeda organism was not composed of component parts, as a normal cell was composed of nucleus, mitochondria, and ribosomes. Andromeda had no subunits, no smaller particules. Instead, a single substance seemed to form the walls and interior. This substance produced a characteristic precession photograph, or scatter pattern of X rays.

Looking at the results, Stone said, "A series of six-sided rings."

"And nothing else," Leavitt said. "How the hell does it operate?"

The two men were at a loss to explain how so simple an organism could utilize energy for growth.

"A rather common ring structure," Leavitt said. "A phenolic group, nothing more. It should be reasonably inert."

"Yet it can convert energy to matter."

Leavitt scratched his head. He thought back to the city analogy, and the brain-cell analogy. The molecule was simple in its building blocks. It possessed no remarkable powers, taken as single units. Yet collectively, it had great powers.

"Perhaps there is a critical level," he suggested. "A structural complexity that makes possible what is not possible in a similar but simple structure."

"The old chimp-brain argument," Stone said.

Leavitt nodded. As nearly as anyone could determine, the chimp brain was as complex as the human brain. There were minor differences in structure, but the major difference was size—the human brain was larger, with more cells, more interconnections.