The three of them sat round, looking at the object that the crawler had brought in from outside. It was a metal disc, slightly domed, with a covering of soft, white, fibrous material on the convex side. Peniakov placed a printout on the table next to it and declared, "Definitely of organic origin. Completely different DNA to ours, of course, but it appears to be animal fur. From the texture and the sheen, I would guess some aquatic or amphibious warm-blooded creature, probably in a larval stage. There is some trace of preservative, so we can't tell how old it is; but I think it proves that this hell-hole was once inhabited."
"It's not so bad when you get used to it, Sergei", interjected McFee. "At times the ambience of the terrain has a nihilist beauty that quite takes my breath away."
"Not as badly as the atmosphere would!" snapped the ecologist. "Hell hole I said, and hell hole I meant. Nothing lives here now, and nothing has lived here for a long time."
"Then, Sergei," put in the captain softly, "Who took the fur out of the formalin? Smog clouds?"
"This is a component of something", McFee added. "The rim on the inner edge has marks on it that suggest it was a clip fit over something. A protective cover, perhaps, on a delicate piece of machinery. If they have a low level of technology, maybe they need organic material to get an adequate seal."
"If they have a low level of technology, how did they snatch Diane?" mused Sorensen. "I think they may have a higher level than we imagine. And what you haven't explained are these marks on the inside. 'MAX'. What do you think it could mean?"