Connor looked up sharply. “What?”
Beth laughed more loudly as she turned to the house.
* * *
“Leviathan sleeps until we cement the corridors leading out of the Containment Chamber,” Frank said, signing a clipboard. “Just make sure that the nitrogen level in the Containment Chamber remains at one hundred percent!”
Because the nervous instruction wasn't given to anyone in particular, everyone stared.
Frank felt the concentration, just as he had felt it so often of late. It was a gathering of frightful, accusing glares. “Just making sure that everyone knows,” he smiled casually, feeling the force of the focus.
No one moved.
Frank lifted a hand. “Look, I want everybody to relax. You all know that it's not going to wake up until we give it oxygen. And even then, we're only going to give it just enough to move around. It will barely be able to walk, so there's nothing to worry about.”
After a moment, everyone turned to their work.
Shaking his head, Frank turned away, focusing on Dr. Hoffman. The old man appeared to be suffering a grave loss of energy. He held a cold pipe in a stiff hand. But he seemed to feel Frank's attention, looking up from a computer monitor.
“You are certain that the creature must have a high oxygen atmosphere to ignite the carpasioxyllelene, Peter?”
“Yeah, Dr. Hoffman, I'm certain. It'll sleep until we give it a little air. It's not going to be attacking the cell.” Hoffman's eyes were vacuous behind his glasses. He turned back to stare at the monitor.
At the far end of the cavern a dark, solidly coiled mass lay unmoving, thick armor plates overlapping so tightly that not even air could pass between the seals. Even in sleep, it appeared deadly. There were no vital areas of the body exposed, and there was no breathing, no movement. Vaguely, Frank could see ominous, fog like vapors created by its superheated body temperature rising from the stone floor, hovering like a death shroud.
“We should not continue,” Hoffman said flatly.
Clearly, he had determined that the experiment had run its course and that they had reached the point where both sanity and professional responsibility required them to terminate it. Frank didn't reply. He knew that Adler would continue the experiment with or without them. And danger levels were too high to risk Adler flying in new scientists—pompous yes-heads with no idea of the creature's true potential—to run the program.
Hoffman continued, “Perhaps we will not be able to perform the tests, anyway. Perhaps the explosion this morning injured the creature. Perhaps it is even dying.”
“I don't think so, Doctor.”
Hoffman looked up. “But how can you be certain, Peter? That was a tremendous explosion! How can we be certain that the beast is not injured, or even dying, from the trauma?”
Frank placed a hand on the older man's shoulder. Then he slowly lifted a jet-black wireless headset from the countertop, placing it over his head as lab workers scurried past, moving in new equipment.
“GEO, identify my voice,” he spoke softly into the headset.
He paused before continuing. “Yes, it's Dr. Frank. I want you to switch to the intercom system for reply.”
A split second later the computer's eerily soft, impersonal voice came over the speaker, a screened black circle built into the wall. Wired directly into the next generation neural net dual-multiprocessor, the speakers were located throughout the entire cavern for alarms, paging, or for Frank's vocal communication with GEO.
“Affirmative. Communicating through intercom system.”
Frank met Hoffman’s gaze. The old doctor's lip trembled slightly as Frank spoke. “GEO, give me the current physiological stats on Leviathan.”
“Leviathan maintains heart rate of five beats per minute. Respiration remains at zero. Internal temperature remains constant at 400 degrees and mitosis is locked in bio feed loop on outer armor epidermis.”
Hoffman looked down, a slight shudder going through his chest. Frank continued, speaking into the headset. “GEO, what is your evaluation of Leviathan's condition?''
“Leviathan has initiated Hibernation Sequence.”
“Why?”
“Leviathan has determined that cavern atmosphere contains high probability death factor. Leviathan will continue Hibernation Sequence until atmosphere is no longer poisonous.”
“And what will be Leviathan's actions on termination of the Hibernation Sequence?”
“Leviathan will begin altering physiological demands for oxygen and will begin kinetic energy release process. It will also begin contracting muscular areas of mouth and throat to prime expulsion of flammable gel. Leviathan will increase epinephrine level and begin contraction of muscle ligatures to enhance physical strength by 25 percent. Then Leviathan will initiate thermal sensors according to neural program parameters.”