Ironically, it now worked to her advantage that the moans coming from the cooling room next door were almost drowned out completely by the din of the equipment.Ironically, it now worked to her advantage that the moans coming from the cooling room next door were almost drowned out completely by the din of the equipment. Nobody was going to be around to ask questions. Vivienne doubled the VU sampling rate, which caused the projector to fail completely. [The additional power drain interfered with amplification of the primary signal. This would explain the 2 minute, 28.15 second gap in the transcript at this point.] She increased the output level by seventy percent. Vivienne felt that she was leaving plenty of headroom to account for the subject's weakened condition. [The amplifier itself was operating far below capacity. She could have trebled it and been well within maximum design capacity.] The annoying delay counter popped up on the screen, reading 3:02:17 until the power increase was complete. Dr. Carter had insisted on this as a fail- safe, in case any unanticipated side effects warranted shut down. He was being a fool; there could be no side effects. Dr. Vivienne Moriat left the room smiling, just three hours away from her greatest achievement. It was time to get some sleep. Soon there would be a cornucopia of data to be analyzed. Day 3, 0522: Nurse Weber sat bolt upright, awakened by the constant sound of screaming. She had dozed off while reading an Anne Rice novel. It had to be the old man. She ran down the hall and burst into his room screaming at him, "What's wrong???!!! What's wrong???? Please stop screaming, Mr. Cross!!!" Joanne _hated_ this job. She was alone at five in the morning with a hysterical patient and the doctors would not arrive until 8 a.m. [Economies -AW] Her heart stopped when she looked at her patient. His eyes were open, but he hadn't moved from the position he maintained most of the time. Wilbur's mouth twitched. It was clear that he wasn't screaming but why did she hear screaming and why wouldn't it stop in her head and she wanted togetawaybecauseit wouldn't stopandshewasgoingcrazy. |