"Obviously, this is more in the nature of an exploratory dissection than a true autopsy," Phan continued, his voice weary. "We have already conducted a thorough examination of the Guest through external means, including X ray, ultrasound exploratory, and NMR imaging. We have located several shapes which might be organs, a few small cavities, some fluid-filled and some apparently empty, within the Guest, and using these printouts as maps"—he pointed a scalpel at several sheets of paper hung on the outside of the viewing windows—"I will investigate the Guest's interior more directly.

'The Guest's thoracic skeletal structure differs substantially from our own. It appears to be made of a series of spines—in the porcupine sense of the word—connected by collagenous flexible joints, all wrapped around the internal cavity. There are no hollow lungs. In fact, there are few hollows of any kind." Phan drew the scalpel along a pronounced ridge running the length of the "breast" and revealed a clean gray-green surface with the sheen of bathroom tile. The sliced edges of skin were coppery blue-green in color.

"Here is the central breast 'bone' or 'process' we first saw in our X rays." He peeled back the skin, cutting delicately at adhering tissue, until one side of the thorax was exposed. "These joined processes provide a flexible but efficient cage around the thoracic organs. As you can see, the cage is fairly rigid in one direction"—he pushed with his finger toward the Guest's head, producing no movement—"but flexible in another." He pressed down and the cage sank slightly. "There is an obvious similarity between the Guest and ourselves at this point, with a protective cage around the thorax, but the similarity ends there."

Phan took a small electric circular saw and cut through the processes on the Guest's left side, facing the window. Working the saw twenty centimeters across the top, then down on two sides another twenty centimeters, then across the bottom, he was able to lift free a glutinous section of the thoracic cage. Below lay a pearly membrane.

Arthur sat rooted in his chair, fully focused on the opening to the Guest's thorax. Phan maneuvered past Feinman and the assistants around the table, pausing for a moment to glance at the printouts. He then reached for a syringe and inserted it into the pearly membrane, withdrawing a sample of fluids. Harry pushed a slender biopsy core sampler through the membrane a little lower and removed a long, slender tube of tissue.

This he passed to an assistant, who sealed it in a glass phial and passed it with the other samples to the outside through a stainless-steel drawer.