Outward Borne (33 page)

The Voyager used genetically
engineered bacteria-like organisms to make bulk quantities of the
needed Kalekto proteins. They fed the bacteria a mix of the
appropriate nutrients, including the required amino acids, and the
organisms converted them to edible proteins. The ObLaDas took
advantage of the fact that their alien life forms had many of the
same amino acids in common, and used a pool of the common amino
acids for all production so that they only needed to spike in the
unique amino acids required for each alien species. Somehow, while
CamBi was running trial batches of Kalekto proteins, the tank of
common amino acids had become infected with Replicide. This was bad
practice, no question, but it should have been the end of the
story. What harm could a few protein molecules do? The common amino
acid pool did not even contain all of the different amino acids
needed for Replicide to copy itself.

Replicide could replicate itself,
but its ability to select the correct amino acid to put in each
position on its long chain was not particularly good. As a
consequence, a Replicide molecule would frequently make versions
that were a bit different from the original, one with a variant
amino acid here and there. Just what it needed! In a living animal,
Replicide reproduction was a slow process because free amino acids
were not always present in a useful concentration, but in the tank
full of common amino acids, Replicide was swimming in a nutritious
soup and could work at a prodigious rate. It was able to produce
innumerable imperfect versions of itself by inserting available
amino acids in place of those that were missing. Most of these new
Replicide variants did not work, or did not work very well, but
applying evolutionary terms to the molecular scale, many Replicide
generations were produced per minute and with a particularly high
mutation rate. Whenever a slightly more efficient variant was
produced, its more rapid replication rate quickly made it the
dominant population in the media and the springboard to even more
effective forms, forms that needed only common amino acids. The
amino acids that were present in every species alive on the Outward
Voyager. It did not take long for the Replicide that was growing in
the common amino acid mix to show up in all the food that was
produced in the Farside anti-mod.

CamBi went over to the central
communication station to report her findings - the Huc Replicide
was present in the common amino acid pool. She was overcome by a
strange calm and just sat at the console for a while. There was no
hurry in her anymore. Replicide might be spreading its way
throughout the Outward Voyager and there was be nothing that she
could do about it. She could be walking around in a ghost ship, if
she were walking at all. Numbed by this realization she continued
as if in a dream, barely conscious of her actions.

It was all her
fault of course.
She had tested the common
amino acid mix. Replicide was there. The vat was full of it.
Somehow, Replicide had adapted to life in that unnatural
soup.
The Son-of-Replicide was in the food
she had sent to the Hucs and LabislassLees. Every species on the
ship had their food made from a common mix of amino acids, even the
ObLaDas. So far, the Farside lab had only made food for the three
species that were living on that side of the ship. Was that so? She
should make sure that none of the Farside common mix had been
shipped the other way. They had rules to keep things isolated so
that had probably not happened yet. Nothing seemed to make much
difference as she sat there with her thoughts.

The Farside ObLaDas and the People
who were working there got their food from the Filim wing antimod,
but this did not make her feel any safer. There was no way to keep
those food production facilities completely isolated for something
as illusive as a single molecule. Some droplets or dust particles
could have gotten into her system, or anyone’s over the past weeks,
or maybe they were blown through the air circulation system. No
filter would stop every molecule, and it would only take one. CamBi
trudged through the data. She knew about the isolation. There was
no hurry to tell YuLon. She sat dejected, trying to think of what
to do, what to say. She had wanted this mission to succeed, but now
it might be over.

MaxNi9 had been monitoring CamBi's
findings and the developments in the Farside habitats ever since
YuLon told him about the Hucs’ symptoms. Once CamBi identified the
Replicide variant, he called in Buth CaMa for his opinion on the
problem, not that there was any doubt about the ultimate fate of
the Farside peoples.

“
The entire Farside food chain has
been infected,” Buth said without looking at MaxNi9. He was already
calling up the ship’s material transfer records to double-check if
anything at all had been moved out of that arm. So far only airflow
has occurred, according to the records at least. Water pipes had
been installed, but were not yet operational. Foodstuffs and other
materials were still being transported, but all of these were in
containers that were shipped into, not out of the Farside. “The
rest of the ship should be safe, but it is such a serious threat I
think we should isolate the Farside arm right now. I would not want
to waste any time here.”

MaxNi9 was already thinking
through a plan to do just that. There were six human work crews
available, but the job would not require that many. “Have four
teams report to the Filim hub,” Buth advised, “we do not need to go
into an explanation, no sense setting off a lot of
speculation.”

Chapter 19 Containment

MuiMi smiled at Eric when she saw Tomat
stagger a bit on his way through the doorway of the Portal Cafe.
MuiMi waved at Verna to set out another plate. “Have a late night,
Tot?” she teased, knowing full well that he had not.

“
How did you know?” he answered,
meaning he hadn’t gotten to bed at lights-down as he would have
liked. “You, of course, restricted yourself to a single party and
actually partook of sleep.” He said looking sidewise at her
grinning, rather pretty face.

MuiMi was still in a state of high
excitement following her recent addition to the work crew. Her
father was the famous Aubry Umballa, the most senior and respected
exo-craft crew leader, and she reveled in the respect she gained by
being chosen to join a construction team. “I went dancing with the
girls, Tot. If you wish, we will bring you along
tonight.”

In good spirits, they picked up
their lunch, gave Verna a farewell kiss, and run to catch the
trans-arm shuttle. The crew was scheduled to work in the Farside
module to repair some construction damage in an unoccupied habitat.
Some wall units were not linked together as they ought to be. The
OLDies had decided that they would rather have a work crew fix the
problem than have the robots replace the units, but it was not to
be. The crew no sooner arrived at the construction site than they
were called back to the Farside hub where they were equipped to
find and fix some unspecified leak in the LabislassLee habitat.
These things happened.

“
What do you know about the leak
so far,” Eric asked his All-1. “Is there an air pressure leak or a
vent?” He stood still flexing his fingers nervously, expecting a
response, but nothing came. Apparently, they did not know much, but
for some reason the ObLaDas, or maybe the LabislassLees, thought
there might be one and an important one at that. None of the crew
liked the sound of silence. All of this emergency running around
and the pile of probes that they were given, all different kinds,
implied that something hazardous was flying around. Perhaps it was
too dangerous to talk about.

“
Well, let’s get started,” Eric
grumbled, “they may be a little more forthcoming by the time we get
there.” None of the crew was worried about any leaking hazards, for
they were all self-contained. “Can you send over some transport
climbabouts?” He winked at MuiMi. “We might as well take advantage
of this so-called emergency to save some work. This might take all
day.”

Aubry Umballa, MuiMi’s father, had
been working in a construction crew for thirty-five of his fifty
years. He was proud of his current team, Dunsten, Childeric and
Henrik, and their skill at working outside of the ship. It was an
art, he felt, to work in the harsh weightless environment and the
cumbersome space suits. He had not lost a team member in almost ten
years while working under conditions where a mistimed jump, or an
unnoticed sharp edge, could cause a fast, painful death.

Aubry and Dunsten, a young, short,
wiry version of the tall, muscular Aubry, were sitting down for a
dinner of wheat bread (or so it was called) and fried sausage chips
(or so it was, of a sort). It was the beginning of their off day
when the work call sounded. “What’s that about? Can’t likely be for
us, can it?”

Dunsten shrugged, “You stay put
and I'll go see to it.” He said as he walked through the deep green
hallway to the upper level assembly room. Two of Radnar’s
long-eared red racers ran past, one on each side. Dunsten turned to
wait for Radnar to catch up. Rad worked in the communications room
and usually knew what was happening. “How goes it, any word on this
one?”

“
Not a whisper, my friend. Didn’t
hear of anything broken that can’t be fixed. MuiMi was in
yesterday. She said that there is a bit of commotion in the Farside
arm after a couple of aliens had kicked off. Maybe that’s it. She
called in this morning and said they had been pulled off a repair
project to check for leaks in one of the habitats. Maybe they need
more help, think so?”

“
That little girl is doing all
right. It seemed only yesterday that she was riding around on Big
Muff’s back,” said Dunsten.

Dunsten and Radnar stood in the
back of the Communications Center watching the video wall as their
ObLaDa controller, Buth CaMa, detailed the new work orders. Dunsten
was surprised to hear that his team had been assigned work on an
inside job; four crews were being called up for this project. It
must be a big job or something urgent to start so late in the
day.

Aubry's crew was told to report to
the Farside bulkhead and the main services conduit where their
equipment and instructions would be waiting. After a brief shuttle
delay, they made it to the bulkhead in good time, where they were
instructed to isolate the Farside bulkhead by physically breaking
the utility connections inside the two-meter wide main services
tube.

“
I don't like the feel of all
this,” Aubry said. “Henrik, can you contact some of the other crews
and see what they are doing, but don't suggest there is a problem.
Pick up some fresh air tanks, this job will take a while.” He did
not need to mention that his concern for MuiMi was growing rapidly.
They were all thinking the same thing. If the Farside arm was going
to be closed off, they would have to get her and her crew out of
there first.

Henrik pushed his way out of the
crowded service tube and went toward the freight entry doors where
another crew was at work. They were checking the seals on the huge
main passage door and preparing to disable its locking mechanism.
They had come with two other crews, each of which was closing off
some part of the bulkhead. Henrik spotted two flybots on his way
back to the main conduit. It was unusual to see them on the bridge,
because they had trouble maneuvering in that weightless area and
its thin air. He walked past the entry and waited for them to pass
out of sight. Henrik quickly knocked on the panel and waited for
Childeric to open up. “They are permanently sealing the area, no
doubt about that. It will be shut off and air tight by tomorrow
night, no doubt about that either. The OLDies are keeping an eye
out.”

Aubry put down his tube cutter and sat back
against the curved wall. It was late already; they might not have
much time left. He pulled out his All-1 and called Radnar. “Rad,
has MuiMi called in? Are they back yet?”

“
She did, she called an hour ago.
It seems they were told to stay in the Farside overnight, some kind
of emergency.”

“
Is that final, overnight? Did
they say where they are working, where they are
stationed?”

“
Eric said they had checked for
leaks in the LabislassLee habitat all day, but MuiMi said they were
in the hub, close to the shuttle interchange when she called an
hour ago. I don't know where they will spend the night exactly. Is
there a problem, Aubry? She did not say.”

“
No, not at all. I just wanted to
know if she was coming back for dinner. Merwyn said it was
planned,” he answered, fully aware that the ObLaDas would be
monitoring the call.

“
We may have caught a break,”
Aubry said to Henrik, “If they are staying at the pivot point. We
may be able to contact them and get them out before it is too
late.”

“
Without the OLDies knowing about
it,” Childeric added, as he moved closer to the bulkhead. He
reached out to touch the small door that was set into that
protective wall when a sudden noise rang out. Loud, close by. “What
the heck.” Childeric mumbled as he jerked his hand away. He looked
toward Aubry, and they both turned to see Dunsten banging on the
vent pipe.

“
Hey, what!” they both said at the
same time, but Dunsten was intently rapping away. TAP tap, TAP TAP,
tap. He kept repeating the same pattern, stopping every few moments
to listen, but there was no response. He kept this up for several
minutes.