"No cells," said Bowman. "Unless they're sub-microscopic, and I'd need
an electron-peeker to tell you that."
"No organ systems?"
"Not even an integument. You saw how slippery he looked? That's why.
There's nothing holding him in but energy."
"Now, look," said Stone. "He eats, doesn't he? He must have waste
materials of some sort."
Bowman shook his head unhappily. "Sorry. No urates. No nitrates. No
CO{2}. Anyway, he doesn't eat because he has nothing to eat with. He
absorbs. And that includes the lining of the tanks, which he seems to
like as much as the contents. He doesn't _bore_ those holes he makes--he
_dissolves_ them."
They sent Bowman back to quarters for a hot bath and a shot of Happy-O
and looked up Hrunta, the biochemist.
Hrunta was glaring at paper electrophoretic patterns and pulling out
chunks of hair around his bald spot. He gave them a snarl and shoved a
sheaf of papers into their hands.
"Metabolic survey?" Jenkins asked.
"Plus," said Hrunta. "You're not going to like it, either."
"Why not? If it grows, it metabolizes. If it metabolizes, we can kill
it. Axiom number seventeen, paragraph number four."
"Oh, it metabolizes, all right, but you'd better find yourself another
axiom, pretty quick."
"Why?"
"Because it not only metabolizes, it _consumes_. There's no sign of the
usual protein-carbohydrate-fat metabolism going on here. This baby has
an enzyme system that's straight from hell. It bypasses the usual
metabolic activities that produce heat and energy and gets right down to
basic-basic."