Doctor Dutton says he would have been happier if “it turned out not to be alive.”
“Oh, green stuff,” says Leavitt, “you really had us going for a while.”
“AA analysis results are ready, Doctor Dutton,” says the MIC-T. They all look at a paper pen graph. The twin lines are straight up the center of the graph paper.
“Something’s wrong,” says Dutton. “It’s not registering.”
“Yes, it is, sir,” says the MIC-T. “It’s just registering double zero, double zero.”
“We’ll switch to computerized analysis,” says Stone, punching a button on his workstation. The monitor fills up with green text, says all amino acids are listed as “00 00.”
“No amino acids!” says Leavitt.
“No proteins? No enzymes?” says Dutton. “No nucleic acids? Impossible! No organism can maintain life without them!”
“You mean, no Earth organism,” says Hall. “It must have evolved in a totally different way.”
“You got it,” says Leavitt. “It doesn’t come from here.”
“Without chemical reactions, there can’t be life,” says Dutton. “Yet, it grows, reproduces… “
“Wait,” says Stone. “Infection at Piedmont has been stopped by the bomb. We’re secure at Wildfire. We have everything we need to achieve a breakthrough.”