A magical affinity between object and likeness, between being and symbol, underlies all symbol systems. It is the assumed foundation of language. The word for thing or object in most languages is related to the word for say or speak and these, in turn, have their roots in magic.
- Kerro Panille, I Sing to the Avata
OAKES STOOD in stunned silence, staring at Jesus Lewis standing just inside the Ceepee cubby's hatch. Somewhere, there was a background buzz. Oakes realized he had left the holofocus projecting Agrarium D-9. Ye.... it was full day side out there. He slapped the cut-off.
Lewis moved another step into the cubby. He was breathing heavily. His thin, straw-colored hair was disarrayed. His dark eyes moved left, right - probing the room. It was an eye movement which Oakes identified as characteristic of groundsiders. There was a patch of pseudoflesh over an injury on Lewis' narrow, cleft chin, another over the bridge of his sharp nose. His thin mouth was twisted into a wry smile.
"What happened to you?"
"Clone...." Deep breath. "...revolt."
"The Redoubt?" A sharp twinge of fear shot through Oakes.
"It's all right."
Limping, Lewis crossed the room, sank into a divan. "Is there any of your special joy juice around? Every last drop was lost at the Redoubt."
Oakes hurried to a concealed locker, removed a bottle of raw Pandoran wine, opened it and handed the whole bottle to Lewis.
Lewis upended the wine and took four long swallows without a breath while he stared around the bottle at Oakes. The poor old Ceepee looked to be in bad shape. There were dark circles under his eyes. Tough.
For Oakes, the moment was welcome as a time to recover his wits. He did not mind serving Lewis and the sense of personal concern this conveyed would have a desired effect. Obviously, something very bad had happened at the Redoubt. Oakes waited until Lewis put down the bottle, then: "They revolted?"
"The discards from the Scream Room, the injured and the others we just can't support. Food's getting very short. I put all of them outside."
Oakes nodded. Clones thrown out of the Redoubt were, of course, condemned to death. Quick and efficient disposal by Pandora's demon.... unless they had the misfortune to encounter Nerve Runners or a Spinneret. Messy business.
Lewis took another deep swallow of the wine, then: "We didn't realize that the area had become infested with Nerve Runners."
Oakes shuddered. To him, Nerve Runners were the ultimate Pandoran horror. He could imagine the darting, threadlike creatures clinging to his flesh, savaging his nerves, invading his eyes, worming their ravenous way through to his brain. The long agony of such an attack was well known groundside and the stories had made the rounds shipside. Everything Pandoran feared the Runners except, perhaps, the kelp. They seemed immune.
When he could control his voice, Oakes asked: "What happened?"
"The clones raised the usual fuss when we put them outside. They know what it's like out there, of course. I suppose we didn't pay as close attention as we should. Suddenly, they were screaming, 'Nerve Runners!'"
"Your people buttoned down, of course."
"Everything shut up tight while we tried to spot the boil."
"So?"
Lewis stared at the bottle in his hands, took a deep breath.
Oakes waited. Nerve Runners were horrible, yes; it took three or four minutes for them to do what other demons did in a few eyeblinks. Same result, though.
Lewis sighed, took another swallow of the wine. He appeared calmer, as though Oakes' presence told him that he really was safe at last.
"They attacked the Redoubt," Lewis said.
"Nerve Runners?"
"The clones."
"Attacked? But what weapon.... ?"
"Stones, their own bodies. Some of them smashed the sewage baffle before we could stop them. Two clones got inside that way. They were infected by then."
"Nerve Runners in the Redoubt?"
Oakes stared at Lewis in horror. "What did you do?"
"There was a wild scramble. Our mop-up crew, mostly E-clones, locked themselves in the Aquaculture Lab but Runners were in the water lines by then. The lab's a shambles. No survivors there. I sealed myself in a Command room with fifteen aides. We were clean."
"How many did we lose?"
"Most of our effectives."
"Clones?"
"Almost all gone."
Oakes grimaced. "Why didn't you report, ask for help?" He tapped the pellet at his neck.
Lewis shook his head. "I tried. I got static or silence, then someone else trying to talk to me, trying to put pictures in my head."
Pictures in his head!
That was a good description of what Oakes had experienced. Their safe little secret communications channel had been penetrated! Who?
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."