He saw a number of oval white objects resting on tiered trays, for all the world like eggs in an incubator. Then Gerard realized that was exactly what these instruments were. Incubators! But they were Kralon eggs, not chicken eggs. Furthermore, it was obvious that the elaborate instruments which adjoined the incubators had a far more involved function than merely maintaining the eggs at incubation temperature.
Doctor Gerard's grizzled eyebrows lifted in interest as he turned back to examine the dials. Both the design of the controls and the hieroglyphics engraved upon them were entirely incomprehensible to him.
He shrugged his shoulders, then began to turn every triangular control on the panel to its extreme limit.
Nothing untoward happened during the alteration of the first two settings, but when Gerard threw over the third, all hell broke loose in that dim crypt!
Violet light danced between the poles of circuit breakers and ate away the metal like butter. Great gongs dinned a cacophony of sound through the lurking dusk of the room, then were suddenly silent as brilliant lights flashed on.
Meanwhile, Gordon Malherne had also engineered something for which his text books had provided no solution.
After leaving his four companions, he had started down the corridor furthest to the right.
"Always go right," he told himself whimsically as he crept noiselessly down the dim hallway. "And you'll never go wrong."
However, this must have been the exception which proved the rule, for Malherne hadn't gone a dozen yards when things started to happen.