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"There it is, gentlehed with relief "Noe have to soak the strands in a verysolution to remove stains and corrosion This process will then be followed by a chemical preservation procedure in our lab"

"How long before you can return it to Yaeger for study?" asked Sandecker

Straight shrugged "Six months, maybe a year"

"You've got two hours," said Sandecker without batting an eye

"I as they did because they were sealed in a box that was alht Now that they're fully exposed to air they'll quickly begin to disintegrate"

"Certainly not the ones spun froold," said Pitt

"No, gold is practically indestructible, but we don't know the exact mineral content of the other tinted coils The copper, for instance, may have an alloy that crumbles froht decay, causing the colors to fade to the point of beco unreadable"

"Deter the quipu, " Gunn added

The er seeazed at Straight

"Giveequipment to measure the distances between the knots and fully record the configuration, and you can keep the thing in your lab until you're old and gray"

"That's all the time you'll need?" Sandecker asked incredulously

"My coes, enhanced to reveal the strands as vividly as they hen created four hundred years ago"

"Ah, but it soothes the savage beast," Giordino waxed poetically, "to live in a modern world"

Yaeger's scan of the Drake quipu took closer to an hour and a half, but when he was finished the graphics made it look better than when it was brand new Four hours later he e "Incredible how so at the vividly colored sie monitor

"Sort of like an abacus," said Giordino, straddling a chair in Yaeger's co over the backrest Only he and Pitt had reht had returned to his lab with the quipu while Sandecker and Gunn went off to a Senate co project