Iterations and other stories (collection)

Tina jockeyed for position so that she, too, could see the display. “What?” she said. “What is it?”

“Well, the blood cells are much more elaborate than human blood cells. Our red cells don’t even have nuclei, but these ones clearly do—see the dark, peanut-shaped spot there? But they also have cilia—see those hair-like extensions?”

“And that means?” asked Tina.

“It means the blood cells are self-propelled,” said Cardinal. “They swim in the blood vessels, instead of being carried along by the current; that’s why the creature has no heart. And look at all the different shapes and sizes—there’s much more variety here than what’s found in our blood.”

“Can you analyze the chemical makeup of the blood?” asked Raji.

Cardinal pushed some buttons on the side of her scanner. The LCD changed to an alphanumeric readout.

“Well,” said Cardinal, “just like our blood, the major constituent of the alien’s plasma is water. It’s a lot saltier than our plasma, though.”

“Human blood plasma is a very close match for the chemical composition of Earth’s oceans,” said Raji to Tina. “Our component cells are still basically aquatic lifeforms—it’s just that we carry a miniature ocean around inside us. The alien must come from a world with more salt in its seas.”

“There are lots of protein molecules,” said Cardinal, “although they’re using some amino acids that we don’t. And-—my goodness, that’s a complex molecule.”

“What?”

“That one there,” she said, pointing to a chemical formula being displayed on her scanner’s screen. “It looks like—incredible.”

“What?” asked Tina, sounding rather frustrated at being the only one with no medical or biological training.

“It’s a neurotransmitter,” said Raji. “At least, I think it is, judging by its structure. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that transmit nerve impulses.”

“There’s lots of it in the blood,” said Cardinal, pointing at a figure.

“Can you show me some blood while it’s still in the body?” asked Raji.

Cardinal nodded. She pulled a very fine fibre optic out of the side of her scanner, and inserted it into the same distended blood vessel Bancroft had extracted the sample from earlier.

On the scanner’s screen, blood cells could be seen moving along in unison.

“They’re all going the same way,” said Raji. “Even without a heart to pump them along, they’re all traveling in the same direction.”

“Maybe that’s why there are neurotransmitters in the bloodstream,” said Bancroft. “The blood cells communicate using them, so that they can move in unison.”

“What about the head injury?” asked Tina. “If it’s got all that blood, why isn’t it bleeding?”

Cardinal moved the scanner up to the alien’s small, spherical head. The eyes were still closed. On the LCD screen, the skull was visible beneath the skin, and, beneath the skull, the scanner oudined the organ that was presumably the brain within.

“It’s so tiny,” said Raji.

Bancroft indicated the spaceship around them. “Well, despite that, it’s obviously very advanced intellectually.”

“Let’s have a look at the wound,” said Raji.

Cardinal repositioned the scanner.

“There seem to be valves in the broken blood vessels that have closed off,” she said.

Raji turned to Tina. “We’ve got valves in our veins, to keep blood from flowing backwards. It looks like this creature has valves in both its veins and its arteries.” He paused, then turned to Cardinal. “I still don’t know if we can or should move the alien.”

“Well, the oxygen bottle is almost empty,” said Bancroft. “Who knows if it was doing it any good, anyway, but—”

“Oh, God,” said Tina. She’d still been holding her hand near one of the respiratory orifices. “It’s stopped breathing!”

“We could try artificial respiration,” said Bancroft.

“You mean blowing into its hands?” said Tina incredulously.

“Sure,” said Bancroft. “It might work.” He lifted one of the arms, but, as he did so, orange liquid began to spill from the breathing hole.

“Yuck!” said Tina.

Raji pulled back, too. The head wound had started to bleed as well.

“It’s bleeding from the mouths, too,” said Cardinal, looking at the medial limbs.

“We can’t let it die,” said Raji. “Do something!”

Bancroft reached into the medical kit and brought out a roll of gauze. He began packing it into the mouth located in the palm of the right medial hand. Cardinal grabbed a larger roll of gauze and tried to stanch the flow from the head.

But it was no good. Orange liquid was seeping out of previously unnoticed orifices in the torso, too, as well as from the soles of the feet.

“It’s dying!” said Tina.

Blood was pooling on the spaceship’s floor, which was canted at a bit of an angle.

“Maybe one of our viruses has the same effect on it that Ebola has on us,” said Bancroft.

But Raji shook his head. “Viruses evolve in tandem with their hosts. I find it hard to believe any of our viruses or germs would have any effect on something from another ecosystem.”

“Well, then, what’s happening to it?” asked Bancroft. And then his eyes went wide. Raji followed Bancroft’s gaze.