yourselves in. Anyone hurt? Cora? l'm all right. Thank you, Doctor. Where are we? The corpuscles are blue. Captain, what's your compass heading? Proteus off course. They've... they've crossed over into the jugular vein! That can't be. There's no direct connection between the two. Well, normally not. Unless there's an arteriovenous fistula. A what? lt's a forced joining of a vein and an artery. lt must have happened when Benes was hurt. Yes, a fistula too small to show up in the tests. - But big enough for us. - Can you head back into the artery? No, we can't fight that current. lt's impossible. Well, try not to drift down any further. l'll do what l can. ls there an alternate route? We can go forward on this course but... that means going directly through the heart. No, we can't do that either. We decided in the briefing. This craft couldn't stand the turbulence. lt would be a hundred times worse than the whirlpool. That's just dandy! We can't go forward and we can't go back. There's only one thing we can do. Call off the mission. We've no choice. We've got to take them out. No. We've still got 51 minutes. Leave 'em in. But it's hopeless. They can't go back and they can't go on. There's no choice but to remove them. Not until the last second. We gotta think of something to save the situation. Proteus reports trapped in venous system. Requests removal, sir. Well, there it is. What do l tell them, General? Doctor... Without killing him, how long could we stop his heart? - The less time the better. - l know, but what's the maximum? ln his comatose state and everything slowed down, no more than 60 seconds. At top speed, adjusting distance for degree of miniaturization, that sub should get through the heart in exactly 57 seconds. That's only three seconds to revive him. What are the problems involved in stopping the heart? Nothing - compared with starting it up again. We're wasting time. Let's get on with it. Message to Proteus. - Cardiac red alert. - Maintaining maximum speed, the sub should get through the heart in 57 seconds. This will allow us three seconds to spare in which to revive him. To minimize the turbulence we will have to arrest the heart. Prepare for cardiac shock. Remove the radar. The Proteus will proceed to the entrance of the right atrium, at which point the heart will be stopped - by electric shock. 57 seconds. And if it takes longer to get through? We can't take a second more. Captain, head in the direction of the flow and then drift with it. Well, that looks pretty complicated. l shall be able to guide you once we're inside. Ready for cardiac shock. Cardioscope. Tracking. Listen. The heart. - Yes. lt's slowed down a great deal. - Sounds like heavy artillery. lt lays down quite a barrage. Over 40 million beats in a year. And every beat separates a man from eternity. Stand by. They're about to stop the heart. Full power when we enter the valve. Hit it! 24 seconds left. lncluding three to revive him. 19 seconds, Doctor. The semilunar valve should be on our left any second now. Stand by to revive. - There it is. - Bear to your left. - Can you see it, Captain? - Yes. l see it now. Brace yourselves. There'll be a tremendous surge when the heart starts up again. lf it does. Eight seconds left. Now! They're in the pulmonary artery. They'll make up time once they get through that and reach the pleural cavity. Respiration post. - What's his rate, Jack? - Back to six per minute. Dammit! l just had them cleaned. They all lead to the same place: the lungs. Dr Michaels, the channel is getting awfully narrow. Yes, we're entering a capillary. Try to stay in the middle. The wall's transparent. lt's less than one ten-thousandth of an inch thick. And porous. Doctor, just think of it. We're the first ones to actually see it happen. The living process. Mind letting me in on what's going on out there? ------------------------------ Читайте также: - текст Последний дюйм на английском - текст Ключ от спальни на английском - текст Тепловой удар на английском - текст Говорящая голова на английском - текст Белый Бим Чёрное Ухо на английском |