twists of evolution, they found that it was populated by beings not far different from themselves? Would they simply invade and colonize it anyway? Or might they instead decide to observe it and let it evolve naturally?'
'Professor,' Decker interrupted again, 'what has all this got to do with the Shroud of Turin?'
'Think about it, Decker. Somewhere in the galaxy there may be a civilization of beings, billions of years advanced to us, who are responsible for planting life throughout the galaxy, including earth. I believe that the man whose regeneration caused the image on the Shroud of Turin was a member of that parent race, sent here as an observer: a man from a race of human-like beings, so far advanced to us that they are capable of regeneration, possibly even immortality. Not true gods – at least not in the way that term is normally used – but not too far from it.'
'Haven't you heard what I've been saying?' Decker interrupted. 'The Shroud of Turin is just not old enough to be the burial cloth of Christ!' Decker closed his eyes and took a long breath to gather his composure. 'Professor, look,' he said slowly. 'This whole theory is ludicrous. And I think if you'll just stop for a second you'll realize how crazy it is. You're a scientist, and you're a good one. You know a reasonable hypothesis from a… '
'I am not crazy!' Goodman shot back. 'So just cut the patronizing and hear me out!'
Decker stood up, ready to leave. 'I'm sorry, Professor. You don't want me. You want someone from the National Enquirer.'
Goodman stood and placed himself between Decker and the door. 'I'm not nuts. I fully expected your reaction but I'm telling you I can test and prove both of these hypotheses. Damn it, I know how crazy it all sounds, but when you see what I've found on the Shroud you'll understand.'
Finally, here was something solid Decker's curiosity could relate to. He no longer hoped to find the news story of the millennium, but he might at least find out what had made Goodman's conservative scientific mind turn to mush. He agreed to go to the laboratory. On the way there Decker turned to humor for relief. I'll bet he found a mustard stain, he thought, trying not to laugh at the whole ridiculous situation. Elizabeth is never going to believe this.
In the lab Goodman opened a locked cabinet and pulled out a clear plastic case with several dozen slides in it. Decker recognized it as the case of tape samples taken from the Shroud of Turin. 'As I told you earlier,' Goodman began, 'I borrowed the slides in order to examine further the dirt particles that were found in the left heel area of the image. I hadn't even thought about the Shroud for the last few years but when it was announced that they were going to do the carbon 14 dating, it reminded me of something. I wondered if it might be possible to determine the specific chemical makeup of the particles of dirt found on the Shroud and perhaps see if any unusual characteristics could rule in or rule out given points of origin. In other words, was there anything about the dirt that would indicate that it had originated in the Middle East, or, conversely, was there anything that would instead indicate that the dirt was from either France or Italy or perhaps even somewhere else?
'If it was from the Middle East, or even from Jerusalem itself, it would not necessarily prove anything about the Shroud, of course. A forger who went to all the trouble of placing dirt on the Shroud in such minute amounts that it would take a twentieth century macroscope to see it, might just as well have thought to import the dirt from Jerusalem. It makes about as much sense, which is to say: none at all. I just wanted to get another look at it.'
Goodman sat down in front of a microscope, turned on its lamp and placed a slide on the scope's stage. 'In the car I told you that Dr. Heller had avoided using too much magnification because of what it was he was looking for.' Goodman paused, looked through the eyepiece lens, and adjusted the scope's objectives and focus. 'In my case,' he continued as he looked up at Decker, 'I used between a 600x and a 1000AT.' Goodman stood up and motioned for Decker to look through the scope. 'This first slide is the sample taken from directly over the left heel.'
Decker moved the slide around on the stage, refocusing as necessary. 'There's not much there,' he said, still scanning the slide.
'Exactly,' Goodman said. 'At first I was rather disappointed. I checked the grid but the only other samples from the feet, were from the nail wounds in the right foot.' Goodman took the slide from the microscope and carefully placed it back in its designated slot.
'You remember that the right foot actually had two exit wounds, indicating that the feet had been nailed left over right. The right foot was nailed down first, with the nail exiting through the arch of the foot. The left foot was then nailed on top of the right with the nail passing through both feet, leaving an exit wound in the arch of the left foot and the heel of the right. Neither of these samples seemed very promising though, because any dirt that had been in the wound areas would likely have been bonded to the cloth by the blood.'
Goodman took a second slide from the plastic case. 'This particular sample is from the blood stain of the right heel. I really didn't expect to find any dirt there, but I looked anyway.' Goodman paused.
'That's when I found it.'
Goodman reached around Decker and shut off the microscope's lamp and handed him the slide. Decker took the slide and placed it on the microscope's stage. He adjusted the mirror to compensate for the loss of light from the lamp and focused the lens. Goodman rotated the objective to [??]SOftY. On the slide before him, Decker could see a group of several strangely familiar disk-shaped objects surrounded by and imbedded into crusty blackish- brown material that he assumed to be blood.
After a moment, he looked up at Goodman. His eyes had grown wide and his mind raced in disbelief and confusion. 'Is that possible?' he asked finally.
Goodman opened a large medical text book to a well marked page and pointed to an illustration in the upper left corner. What Decker saw there was an artist's representation of something very similar to what he had just seen through Goodman's microscope. The caption below the picture read, 'human dermal skin cells.'
Decker looked back through the microscope to be sure. Inexplicably, despite hundreds or even thousands of years, they appeared to be perfectly preserved. He felt Goodman reach around him again, this time to turn the lamp back on. The brighter light made the small disks appear transparent and Decker could clearly see the nucleus of each cell. Within a few seconds the lamp began to gently warm the slide. Decker looked away to rub his eyes and then looked back.
In the warmth of the artificial light, the nuclei began to move.
Chapter 4
Mother of God
Decker's chest felt heavy and his head light. He struggled to catch his breath. Silently he watched the nuclei of the cells as they continued to undulate. His mind seemed to float in the sea of warm cytoplasm before him, void of points of reference except for the cells. A thousand questions rose and fell, fighting for his attention, but he was incapable of enough focus on anything outside of what he saw to even realize his confusion. It was only when he ceased his attempt to understand the full impact of what he was seeing, that his senses began to reemerge from the ooze. Decker's ears slowly became aware of Goodman's voice.
'Decker.'
'Decker.' Goodman touched him on the shoulder and finally he looked up. 'Are you hungry?'
Decker hadn't eaten since breakfast, but right now he thought Goodman's question was insane.
'Believe me,' said Goodman, 'I know just how you feel. The same thing happened to me. I went looking for dirt and found live dermal skin cells. I nearly got religion! That's when I made the connection to Professor Crick's theory.' Goodman took the slide from the microscope and carefully placed it back in the plastic case.
'What is it?' Decker asked finally.
'I showed you,' said Goodman. 'They're dermal cells – cells from just below the skin's surface. Oh, and as you've obviously noticed, they're alive.' Goodman hid the excitement he felt in finally being able to share his discovery, and his calm, understated response simply served to accentuate Decker's confusion.
'But what?… How?' Decker pleaded.
'The cells were picked up on the Mylar tape along with some small flecks of blood. Apparently when the Shroud was laid over the crucified man, some of the exposed flesh of the wound was bonded to the cloth by the
