“No, but I’ll pass along the recommendation,” says Grimes. He laughs. “The boss’ll be pleased to know he made the right decision on Seven Twelve in the first place!”
“Congratulate him on his scientific insight,” says Leavitt, sarcastically. Grimes loses his smile.
“Oh, and Robbie,” says Stone, “You’d better get the atomic self-destruct disarmed in here, as soon as possible.”
“Right,” says Robertson. “I’ll start on the clearances now. It’ll be done by morning.”
Hall removes his key from inside his jumpsuit.
“No, no, no,” explains Dutton. “That won’t work until the damn thing’s going.”
Andromeda continues to grow on the monitor.
Later, in X-Ray Crystallography, the team looks at Andromeda’s molecular structure.
A monitor shows a representation of the Andromeda molecule. The caption on screen says:
X-RAY CRYSTALLOG DATA OUTPUT
ANDROMEDA
MOLECULES
A caption at the bottom of the screen says “113,050 X”
TITLE: “3:50 A.M.”
Dutton, Leavitt, and Stone look at the screen.
“All the molecules appear to be the same,” says Dutton, puzzled.
“Yes,” says Leavitt. “Andromeda isn’t composed of different substances, like a normal cell.”