Ride The Rising Tide (The Maxwell Saga) by Peter Grant Page A

boss.
    Wollaston stiffened to attention to acknowledge his gesture of respect. “Thank you, Spacer. As you were.” He held out his hand. “I wanted to thank you personally for your attention to detail this morning. If you’d just cleaned up that lifeboat, no one would have thought twice about it; but those mold spores have already spread throughout the ship through our environmental systems. We’d have passed them to every ship and space station with whom we had contact, until someone realized what was going on. Your thoroughness has spared this Sector an enormous headache, and averted a potentially very serious risk to our health. We’ve all breathed in that stuff by now, but Senior Lieutenant Cellini says we’ve caught it early enough to stop it developing into a major problem.”
    “Thank you, Sir.” Steve wasn’t quite sure how to respond to such unexpected praise, but he shook the proffered hand firmly.
    “ You saved us no end of trouble, Spacer,” the doctor informed him. “As soon as I saw the analysis results, I contacted the Operations Center to check whether any of our small craft were out, or whether any others were heading for us. One of our cutters had just left for the Cargo Terminal, and a shuttle was on its way to us from the dockyard. Thanks to you, we were able to get them both turned around before any of our small craft or personnel had contact with any others. The ship’s in quarantine until we figure out what to do about this mess.”
    “ Sounds like that mold is really nasty, Ma’am.”
    “ It certainly looks that way. You test positive for it already, of course, but you were exposed to a much higher concentration than the rest of us when you stuck your head inside that duct, and scraped off that sample. We’ll all test positive within a couple of days. Fortunately, nanotechnology lets us tailor medications to specific conditions. I’ve already transmitted an analysis of the spores to the Sector Hospital. They’ll make up a nano–enhanced treatment in their labs and float it across to us from a cutter — we can’t have anyone come into direct contact with us, of course. We’ll administer it to everyone on board.”
    “ But won’t we be reinfected with every breath we take, Ma’am?”
    “ Yes, we will, but the medication will keep it under control until higher authority decides what to do next. They’ll have to find a way to to get us off this ship and into an uncontaminated environment. Once we’re no longer being reinfected with new mold spores, the medication will deal with what’s already in our bodies. The biggest problem will be decontaminating Hebe . Our environmental systems have already spread the spores to every compartment. How do you clean a virulent mold out of every nook and cranny of a half–million–ton spaceship? I don’t know if it’s even possible.”
    Lieutenant–Commander Wollaston shrugged. “That’s why we place so much emphasis on our environmental systems — to stop that sort of problem before it starts. This time, unfortunately, it beat us to the punch. The Sector Admiral will have to decide what to do next.”
    Cellini added, “There’s no point in keeping you in isolation, Spacer, because we’ve all been exposed already. You can return to your duty station.”
    “ Aye aye, Ma’am. Thank you.”
    ~ ~ ~
    Petty Officer Garza was waiting for him when he entered the docking bay. He pulled him to one side.
    “ Thanks for not telling them about me being an asshole,” the NCO said, after looking around to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “I should have listened to you about that crud. It’s only because you took a sample that we found out what it was. They’d have had my guts for garters if they learned I’d told you to piss off, instead of helping you.”
    Steve shifted uncomfortably. “Aw, hell, PO! Any of us might have made the same mistake. We all get overworked sometimes, and tired, and ratty, and fed up. When someone comes