He voiced the question.
Lewis shrugged. "I'm still trying to find out."
Oakes put a hand over his own mouth. The ship? Yes, the damned ship was interfering!
He did not dare speak openly of that suspicion. The ship had eyes and ears everywhere. There were other fears, too. A Nerve Runner boil had to be met by fire. He envisioned the Redoubt a mass of cinders inside.
"You say the Redoubt's all right?"
"Clean. Sterilized, and we have a bonus." Lewis took another long swallow of wine and grinned at Oakes, savoring the suspense he read in the Ceepee's face. The Ceepee was so easy to read.
"How?" Oakes did not try to hide his impatience.
"Chlorine and heavily chlorinated water."
"Chlorine? You mean that kills Nerve Runners?"
"I saw it with my own eyes."
"That simple? It's that simple?" Oakes thought of all the years they had lived in terror of these tiniest demons. "Chlorinated water?"
"Heavily chlorinated, undrinkable. But it dissolves the Runners. As a liquid or a gas, it penetrates all the fine places to get every one. The Redoubt stinks, but it's clean."
"You're sure?"
"I'm here." Lewis tapped his chest, took another swallow of wine. Oakes was reacting strangely. It was unsettling. Lewis put down the bottle of wine and thought about the report he had read on the shuttle coming shipside. Legato to the Scream Room! Were there no limits to what the old bastard might do? Lewis hoped not. That was how to control Oakes - through his excesses.
"You are, indeed, here," Oakes agreed. "How did you ge.... I mean, how did you discove.... ?"
"Those of us in the Facilities Room had all of the controls in front of us. We started dumping whatever we could find t...."
"But chlorine; how did you get chlorine?"
"We were trying salt brine. There was an electrical short, a wide-scale electrolytic reaction in the brine and we had chlorine. I was on the sensors at the time and saw the chlorine kill some Runners."
"You're sure?"
"I saw it with my own eyes. They just shriveled up and died."
Oakes began to see the picture. Colony had never put chlorine and Nerve Runners together. Most shipside caustics had little effect groundside anyway. Potable water was produced with filters and flash heat from laser ovens. That was the cheapest way. Fire worked on Nerve Runners. Colony had always used fire. Another thought occurred to him.
"The survivor.... ho....?"
"Only those locked into a sealed area before the infection spread were saved. We flushed everything else with chlorine gas and heavily chlorinated water."
Oakes imagined the gas killing people and Runners, the caustic water burning fles.... He shook his head to drive out such thoughts.
"You're absolutely sure the Redoubt is safe?"
Lewis stared up at him. The precious Redoubt! Nothing was more important.
"I'm going back dayside."
Belatedly, Oakes realized he should show more human concern. "But my dear fellow, you're wounded!"
"Nothing serious. But one of us will have to be at the Redoubt all of the time from now on."
"Why?"
"The clean-up was pretty bloody and that's causing trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"The surviving clones, even some of our peopl.... well, you can imagine how I had to clean up the place. There were necessary losses. Some of the surviving clones and a few of the more irrational among our people hav...." He shrugged. "Have what? Explain yourself."
"We've had to handle several petitions from clones and there were even a few of our people who sympathized. I have Murdoch down there standing in for me while I came up to report."
"Clones? Petitions? How are you handling them?"
"The same way I handled the food problem."
Oakes scowled. "An.... the sympathizers?"
Again, Lewis shrugged. "When we sterilized the area around the Redoubt, the other demons returned. They're a fast and efficient way to solve our problem."
Oakes touched the scar of the pellet at his neck. "But whe.... that is, why didn't you send someone up t.... ?"
"We stayed until we were sure we were clean."
"Ye.... yes, of course. I see. Brave fellows."
"And can you imagine what would happen if word of this leaks out?"
"You're quite right." Oakes thought about what Lewis had said. As usual, Lewis made the right decisions. Astringent but efficient.
"Now, what's this I hear about Legata?" Lewis asked.
Oakes was outraged. "You have no right to question m...."
"Oh, simmer down. You're going to send her to the Scream Room. I just want to know if we prepare to replace her."
"Replac.... Legata? I think not."
"Let me know in plenty of time if you need a replacement."
Oakes was still angry. "It strikes me, Lewis, that you've been very wasteful of lives."
"You know some other way I could've handled this?"
Oakes shook his head. "I meant no offense."
"I know. But this is why I don't report such things unless you ask or unless I have no choice."
Oakes did not like the tone Lewis took there, but another thought struck him. "One of us has to stay at the Redoubt all the time? What abou.... I mean, Colony?"
"You're going to have to wind things up here and come groundside to manage Colony. It's our only answer. You can use Legata for shipside liaison, provided she's still useful after the Scream Room."
Oakes thought about this. Go groundside among all of those vicious demons? The periodic demonstration-of-power trips were bad enoug.... but live there full time?
"That's why I asked about Legata," Lewis said.
Mollified, Oakes ventured a more important question: "Ho.... ar.... conditions at Colony?"
"Safe enough as long as you stay inside or travel only in a servo or shuttle."
Oakes closed his eyes for a long blink, opened them. Once more, Lewis demonstrated impeccable reasoning. Who else could they trust as they trusted each other?
"Yes. I understand."
Oakes glanced around his cubby. No visible sensors, but this had never reassured him. The damned ship always knew what was happening shipside.
I will have to go groundside.
The reasons were compelling. Lewis would take Lab One to the Redoubt, of course. But there were too many other delicate matters in balance at Colony.
Groundside.
He had always known he would have to quit the ship one day. It did not help that circumstances had made the decision for him. The move was being forced and he felt vulnerable. This incident with the Nerve Runners did nothing to reassure him.
What a dilemma!
As he gathered more power and exercised it, shipside became increasingly untrustworthy. But Pandora remained equally dangerous and unknown.
It occurred to Oakes then that he had been hoping for a tranquilized and sterilized planet, a place made ready for him by Lewis, before going groundside.
Sterile. Yes.
Oakes stared at Lewis. Why did the man appear so smug? It was more than survival against odds. Lewis was holding something back.
"What else do you have to report?"
"The new E-clones. They were in an isolated chamber and all survived. They're clean, completely unprogrammed and beautiful. Just beautiful."
Oakes was distrustful. The statistical incidence of deviation among clones was a known factor. The body, after all, was transparent to cosmic bombardments which altered the genetic messages in human cells. Rebuilding the DNA structure was Lewis' specialty, yes, but stil.... "No kinks?"
"I used 'lectrokelp cells and went back to recombinant DNA as a foundation for the changes." He rubbed the side of his nose with a forefinger. "We've succeeded."