<br /><br />Dawn Biozyme: Part 6 – Cnidocyte Containment

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Thursday, November 5

Dawn Biozyme: Part 6 – Cnidocyte Containment

Hammer slipped past two steel doors. The prominent magnetic card reader and the “airlock” between the exterior and interior chambers demonstrated the scientists’ desire to secure the interior chamber. However, both doors stood wide open.

Inside, stainless steel plates lined the large room. Six-foot tall metal and glass containment vessels lined the walls, while at least twice as many three-foot tall vessels marched in long rows down the center. The vessels all resembled incubators for premature newborns, except for their varying size.

Flashing lights lined the bases of many of the vessels, apparently displaying interior temperature, humidity, and more obscure data. The glass fronts of many vessels were fogged by humidity, but despite the translucency, it seemed that some of the largest containers may contain people. About half of the vessels, both large and small, were smashed open, dark, and empty. The floor near these vessels was slick with clear, gelatin-like smears.

Hammer tapped on the glass of one of the nearest small vessel. It jerked suddenly from the struggles of a tertiary cnidocyte trying to get out. Tentacles probed the glass looking for a way to get at Hammer.

Besides the incubator vessels, a small countertop in the room’s center held several sealed liquid nitrogen vats. Each vat was labeled “PRIMARY SOURCE.”

Hammer rolled the vat to the doorway. Jim-Bean nearly tripped over it.

"What's that?"

"Liquid nitrogen," said Hammer. "Thought we could use it."

Jim-Bean stuck a few blocks of C-4 to it. "Maybe to stop those tentacle things."

"The tertiary cnidocytes?"

Jim-Bean shook his head. "Bigger. And angrier."

"That'd be the secondary cnidocytes." Hammer gazed ruefully on the larger smashed containers. "What about the security team?"

More explosions echoed from further down the hallway. "What security team?" asked Jim-Bean with a straight face. more