Methalon
Methalon, also known as methalon hyper-freeze,[1b] is a liquid that can be kept at near absolute zero temperatures. It's often used by the Imperium as method to store organic matter in a form of cryo-stasis or to keep an individual in a form of suspended animation for extended periods of time.[1a] It can also be used in a way to flash-freeze organic matter into a long-term means of preservation and storage.[2a]
Containers utilising methalon will billow super-chilled white gas when opened. These heavy vapours continuously stream down from exhaust vents or other openings. Chilled rooms or other areas designated for hyper-freeze storage often have a thick methalon fog swirling across their floors.[1a]
Contents
Gene-Seed
Space Marine gene-seed is often stored using methalon. The containers are sometimes referred to as Genovaults[1b] or genecasques when carrying this valuable resource.[2b]
Cryo-Stasis
Methalon hyper-freeze can be used on humanoids to preserve them in a state of suspended animation for hundreds of years at a time. This is how Archmagos Belisarius Cawl kept his Primaris Space Marines in stasis whilst creating them en masse aboard the Zar-Quaesitor over several millennia.[1a]
The suspension chamber of such devices are usually a rigid container of some sort, often able to see the occupant behind pressurised glassite. The subject is immersed within liquids near absolute zero and hooked up to various cables and tubes used for life-monitoring and fluid transfusions. Other makeshift containers can be also utilized to contain the occupant, such as a resistant plastek sack, as long as it is tightly sealed.[1c]
The subject's blood is replaced with fluids that contain cryoprotectants. These cryoprotectants prevent ice crystals from forming and destroying the subject's cellular walls. When a hibernating subject is awoken, their temperature is raised rapidly. When the cryoprotectants become sufficiently fluid, they are pumped out, and warm blood pumped in. Once vitae replacement is complete cardiovascular restart begins. Jolts of power are sent through the subject until heartbeat, breathing, and lastly, brain activity returns.[1c]
See also
Sources
- 1: Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work (Novel):
- 2: Genefather (Novel)
- 3: Wolfsbane (Novel), Chapter 23
