Editing The Andromeda Strain (section)

==Plot==
A team from an [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] base is deployed to recover a [[military satellite]] that has returned to Earth, but contact is lost abruptly. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is dead. The [[duty officer]] of the base tasked with retrieving the satellite suspects it returned with an [[extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] [[contaminant]] and recommends activating "Wildfire", a protocol for a government-sponsored team of scientists intended to contain threats of this nature.

The Wildfire team, led by Dr. Jeremy Stone, believes that the satellite—intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere [[microorganism]]s for [[biological agent|bio-weapon]] exploitation—returned with a deadly microorganism that kills through nearly instantaneous [[disseminated intravascular coagulation|blood clotting]]. Upon investigating Piedmont, the team discovers the townspeople either died in mid-stride or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre [[suicide]]s. Two survivors—the sick, [[Sterno]]-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson and the constantly bawling infant Manuel Rios—are biological opposites who somehow survived the organism.

Jackson, Rios, and the satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against microorganisms escaping into the environment. Wildfire is hidden in a remote area near Flatrock, [[Nevada]], {{convert|60|mi|km|-1|spell=in}} from [[Las Vegas]], concealed in the sub-basements of a legitimate [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]] research station. Dr. Mark Hall is the only scientist authorized to disarm the automatic self-destruct mechanism; he is an unmarried, childless male and thus presumed to make the most dispassionate decisions during a crisis.

Further investigation determined that the deaths were caused by an extraterrestrial microbe transported by a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The microbe contains chemical elements required for terrestrial life ([[CHNOPS]]) and appears to have a [[crystalline structure]], but lacks the [[DNA]], [[RNA]], [[protein]]s, and [[amino acid]]s present in terrestrial life, and directly transforms energy to matter with no discernible byproducts. The microbe, code-named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biological properties.

The scientists learned that the current form of Andromeda grows only in a narrow [[pH]] range; in a too-acidic or too [[alkali]]ne growth medium, the organism will not divide. Andromeda's ideal pH range is 7.39–7.43, within the range found in normal human blood. Jackson and Rios survived because both had abnormal blood pH (Jackson [[acidosis|acidotic]] from consumption of Sterno and [[aspirin]], Rios [[alkalosis|alkalotic]] from [[hyperventilation]]). However, by the time the scientists realize this, Andromeda has mutated into a form that degrades the lab's plastic seals and escapes [[biocontainment|containment]]. Trapped in a contaminated lab, Dr. Charles Burton demands that Stone inject him with a "universal [[antibiotic]]"; Stone refuses, arguing that it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria. Burton survives because the mutated Andromeda is no longer [[pathogen]]ic.

The mutated Andromeda [[Plastic degradation by marine bacteria|attacks the plastic door and hatch seals]] within the Wildfire facility, rapidly migrating toward the upper levels and the surface. The self-destruct nuclear weapon is automatically armed when it detects the containment breach, triggering its detonation countdown to prevent the spread of the infection. As the bomb arms, the scientists realize that given Andromeda's ability to generate matter directly from energy, the organism would be able to consume the released energy and ultimately benefit from a nuclear explosion, mutating in thousands of ways, potentially "each killing in a different way".

To halt the detonation, Hall must insert a special key he carries into an emergency substation, one of which should be accessible from any location in Wildfire. Unfortunately, he is trapped in a section that, due to an oversight, has no substation. He must navigate Wildfire's obstacle course of automatic defenses to reach a working substation on an upper level. He barely disarms the bomb before all the air is evacuated from the deepest level of the Wildfire complex, which contains the remainder of the team and their assistants. Andromeda is suspected to have eventually mutated into a benign form and migrated to the upper atmosphere, [[anaerobic bacteria|where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting its growth]].

The novel's epilogue reveals that a crewed spacecraft, ''Andros V'', was incinerated during atmospheric re-entry, presumably because Andromeda had eaten its tungsten/plastic laminate heat shield and caused it to burn up.