"Herbert, Frank - The Eyes of Heisenberg" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

Svengaard touched the NADH feeder key. He couldn't see what Potter saw, but the surgeon's forehead lens reproduced a slightly off-parallax view of the scope field. That plus Potter's instructions told of the slow spread of change in the cell.
'Krebs cycle fifty-eight,' the computer nurse said.
Second cut,' Potter said.
'Armed,' Svengaard said.
Potter searched out the myxedema-latent isovalthine, found it. 'Give me a tape on structure,' he said. 'S-(iso-propylcarboxy-methyl) cystein.'
Computer tape hissed through the reels, stopped, resumed at a slow, steady pace. The isovalthine comparison image appeared in the upper right quadrant of Potter's scope field.
He compared the structures, point for point, said. Tape off.' The comparison image vanished.
'Krebs cycle forty-seven,' the computer nurse said.
Potter took a deep, trembling breath. Another twenty-seven points and they'd be in the death range. The Durant embryo would succumb.
He swallowed, aimed off the meson burst.
Isovalthine tumbled apart.
'Ready with cycloserine,' Svengaard said.
Ahhh, good old Sven, Potter thought. You don't have to tell him every step of the way what to do.
'Comparison on D-4-aminoisoxazolidon-3,' Potter said.
The computer nurse readied the tape, said, 'Comparison ready.'
The comparison image appeared in Potter's view field. 'Check,' he said. The image vanished. 'One point eight minims.' He watched the interaction of the enzymic functional groups as Svengaard administered the cycloserine. The amino group showed a nice, open field of affinity. Transfer-RNA fitted readily into its niches.
'Krebs cycle thirty-eight point six,' the computer nurse said.
'We'll have to chance it. Potter thought. This embryo won't take more adjustment.
'Reduce vat stasis to half,' he said. 'Increase ATP. Give me micro-feed on ten minims of pyruvic acid.'
'Reducing stasis,' Svengaard said. And he thought. This will be close. He keyed the ATP and pyruvic acid feeders.
'Give me the Krebs cycle on the half point,' Potter said.
Thirty-five,' the nurse said. 'Thirty-four point five. Thirty-four. Thirty-three point five.' Her voice picked up speed with a shocked breathlessness: Thirty-three... thirty-two... thirty-one... thirty... twenty-nine...'
'Release all stasis,' Potter said. 'Present the full amino spectrum with activated histidine. Start pyridoxin - four point two minims.'
Svengaard's hands sped over the keys.
'Back-feed the protein tape,' Potter ordered. 'Give it the full DNA record on computer automatic.'
Tapes hissed through the reels.
'It's slowing,' Svengaard said.
'Twenty-two,' the computer nurse said. 'Twenty-one nine... twenty-two... twenty-one nine... twenty-two one... twenty-two two... twenty-two one... twenty-two two... twenty-two three... twenty-two four... twenty-two three... twenty-two four... twenty-two five... twenty-two six... twenty-two five...'
Potter felt the see-saw battle through every nerve. The morula was down at the edge of the death range. It could live or it could die in the next few minutes. Or it could come out of this crippled. Such things happened. When the flaw was too gross, the vat was turned off, flushed out. But Potter felt an identification with this embryo now. He felt he couldn't afford to lose it.
'Mutagen desensitizer,' he said.
Svengaard hesitated. The Krebs cycle was following a slow sine curve that dipped perilously into the death cycle now. He knew why Potter had made his decision, but the carcinogenic peril of it had to be weighed. He wondered if he should argue the step. The embryo hung less than four points from a deadly plunge into dissolution. Chemical mutagens administered at this point could shock it into a spun of growth or destroy it. Even if the mutagen treatment worked, it could leave the embryo susceptible to cancer.
'Mutagen desensitizer!' Potter repeated.
'Dosage?' Svengaard asked.
'Half minim on fractional-minim feed. I'll control it from here.'
Svengaard shifted the feeder keys, his eyes on the Krebs-cycle repeater. He'd never heard of applying such drastic treatment this close to the borderline. Mutagens usually were reserved for the partly-flawed Sterrie embryo, a move that sometimes produced dramatic results. It was like shaking a bucket of sand to level the grains. Sometimes the germ plasm presented with a mutagen sought a better level on its own. They'd even produced an occasional viable this way... but never an Optiman.
Potter reduced amplification, studied the flow of movement in the embryo. Gently, he depressed the feeder key, searched for Optiman signs. The cellular action remained unsteady, partly blurred.
'Krebs cycle twenty-two eight,' the computer nurse said.
Climbing a bit. Potter thought.
'Very slow,' Svengaard said.
Potter maintained his vigil within the morula. It was growing, expanding in fits and starts, fighting with all the enormous power contracted in its tiny domain.
'Krebs cycle thirty point four,' Svengaard said.
'I am withdrawing mutagens,' Potter said. He backed off the microscope to a peripheral cell, desensitized the nucleo-proteins, searched for the flawed configurations.
The cell was clean.
Potter traced down into the coiled-coil helices of the DNA chains with a dawning wonder.
'Krebs cycle thirty-six eight and climbing,' Svengaard said. 'Shall I start the choline and aneurin?'.
Potter spoke automatically, his attention fixed on the cell's gene structure. 'Yes, start them.' He completed the scope tracing, shifted to another peripheral cell.
Identical.
Another cell - the same.
The altered gene pattern held true, but it was a pattern, Potter realized, which hadn't been seen in humankind since the second century of gene shaping. He thought of calling for a comparison to be sure. The computer would have it, of course. No record was ever lost or thrown away. But he dared not... there was too much at stake in this. He knew he didn't need the comparison, though. This was a classic form, a classroom norm which he had stared at almost daily all through his medical education.
The super-genius pattern that had caused Sven to call in a Central specialist was there, firmed up by the cutting-room adjustments. It was close-coupled, though, with a fully stable fertility pattern. The longevity basics lay locked in the configurations of the gene structure.