Space & Time

Chapter 32 - A Discovery is Made

On the lowest level of the compound was the laboratory of Doctor Yurchenko. The

doctor had many experiments and test already well underway. The KGB scientist had put the

small broken pieces of Petorium into separate categories for experimentation, keeping some as

solid, melting some into liquid and vaporizing some to verify the properties Max told him about,

as well as a small amount to continue further secret studies. He was immediately pleased with

the results from his first test.

Once he vaporized a small amount of liquid and supplied it to the comatose Anatoly

through a tube into the plastic bag he was sealed in, the results were spontaneous. The vital 

signs of the boy steadied and he froze in the state he was in with no more deterioration from his

injuries. Yurchenko was so pleased with his findings that he kept the tube attached to the boy to

keep his health fit for further experimentation. Yurchenko could feel the healing properties of

the solid crystal as he held it in his hand, much the same way that Gregor Popov did the first 

time he held it. Passing it back and forth between his two hands his mind was working on how 

best to put the elemental healing properties of the Petorium to work.

He dwelled on the subject for a while and then an idea came to him, not sure, if the boy

would die from the test he hesitated thinking it through any further. Max would be upset if the

boy dies, but if he lived, oh if he lived, Maximillian would be pleased, quite pleased indeed. In

the doctors mind it was worth the risk. He set about a series of tubes and burners and began

slowly to liquefy the crystals, what he was going to do with the liquid would be the risk.

The crystals started to melt and then transform into liquid. The doctor regulated the

temperature closely to keep the liquid from overheating and vaporizing. Once the liquid was at

the optimal viscosity, there was small hole at the bottom of the heating dish that allowed it to

drip through and pass next through a long tube to a beaker at the other end. Once the liquid

made the journey, it cooled to a manageable temperature. As Yurchenko watched the liquid

accumulate in the beaker, he opened a small metal box. The box was not much larger than a

lunch box.

He used long metal tongs to grab out a steel rod. The rod was the size of a school pencil.

Yurchenko examined the rod. It had a slight green glow to it. Radioactive isotopes clung to the

rod. The next thing he did was place the radioactive rod into the Petorium liquid in the beaker.

Once the metal rod touched the liquid, a small amount of bubbling occurred from the nuclear

fusion reaction-taking place and then he removed the rod and all of the radiation was gone from

it, remaining in the liquid. The Petorium molecules had now been irreversibly altered and

radioactively charged.

This was what Yurchenko wanted to test. There was enough of the glowing radioactive