Beside her right hand, lying in the bottom of the tank, was a hypodermic syringe, bright and shining despite the green fluid which covered it.
Gary's breath caught in his throat.
She looked alive and yet she couldn't be alive. Still there was a flush of youth and beauty in her cheeks, as if she merely slept.
Laid out as if for death and still with the lie to death in her very look.
Her face was calm, serene… and something else. Expectancy, perhaps. As if she only waited for a thing she hoped to happen.
Caroline Martin was the name on the diploma out in the laboratory. Could this be Caroline Martin? Could this be the girl who had graduated from the college of science at Alkatoon ten centuries ago?
Gary shook his head uneasily.
He stepped back from the tank and as he did he saw the copper plate affixed to its metal side. He stooped to read.
Another simple message, etched in copper… a message from the girl who lay inside the tank.
I am not dead. I am in suspended animation. Drain the tank by opening the valve. Use the syringe you find in the medicine cabinet.