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

and walked down a narrow trunk. It was secured over a flange surrounding the lifeboat’s outer door. A flexible expanding seal rendered the trunk airtight against the vacuum of space surrounding the lifeboat in its docking clamps.
    Steve entered the standard access code into the lock on the lifeboat’s door. It slid open to reveal a small airlock. He repeated the process on the inner door, then went back through the trunk to load his arms with concentrate and cleaning gear, carrying it into the main compartment of the lifeboat. Lights came on automatically as the boat’s systems sensed his presence.
    He stopped just inside the entrance and sniffed, frowning. There was a strange musty smell in the air. That shouldn’t be here, he thought to himself. They connected the lifeboat’s environmental systems to the ship when they installed it yesterday. The fresh supply of air should have removed any smell by now — not that there should be a smell in the first place!
    He stacked the containers and cleaning gear on a fold–out table next to the inner door, then looked around. There was no obvious source for the smell, no stain or… no, there it was. Around and on the screen over the intake vent for air recirculation, there was a faint brown discoloration. He walked over to it, squatted, and examined it carefully. He wiped the screen with his finger, noting that the discoloration came off easily. Could it be some sort of dust?
    Frowning, he reached for the multitool suspended from his belt, knelt, and removed the fasteners holding the screen over the vent. He pulled it away, then stopped, staring. A brown, dry, powdery–looking substance covered the sides of the vent in a thin layer. He took a flashlight from his belt, lay down, stuck his head and hand inside the vent, and looked up. The substance covered its internal surfaces as far as he could see.
    “ Looks like mold of some kind,” he muttered aloud to himself. “How the hell did that get into a sealed lifeboat? It’s had plenty of time to be sucked into the ship’s environmental systems by now. That could mean trouble.”
    He got to his feet, leaving the cover off the vent, and walked back through the trunk to the intercom station. Picking up the handset, he placed a call.
    “Garza, Engineering. What is it?” His boss’s voice was curt, clipped.
    “ Maxwell here, PO. There’s some kind of crud in Number Four lifeboat — ”
    “ Don’t bother me with your cleaning problems, dammit! I’ve got more than enough on my plate right now, and no time for minor hassles! Deal with the crud yourself!” The comm unit clicked as Garza cut the circuit.
    Steve blinked in surprise. He debated whether to call back, but decided against it. Garza would get even more annoyed, and he’d get nowhere.
    What the hell do I do now? , he pondered. I could just go ahead and clean it all up. I can get some cleaning nanobots from Stores, let ’em loose in that duct, and have them eat up every trace of that stuff… but what is it? How did it get there in the first place?
    He recalled the words of PO1 Robinson, his Platoon Instructor at Boot Camp. “Strive to do more than the minimum. Seek to excel in everything!” He could simply obey Garza’s order and clean up this crud, but that might prove dangerously inadequate. It wouldn’t help to plead that he’d obeyed orders if this mold, or whatever it was, turned out to be a health or environmental hazard. He daren’t take a chance on something so important. He’d just have to risk Garza’s wrath, and take it to the next level without consulting him.
    He walked a hundred meters up the main passage to the sick bay. A PO2 Clinical Assistant sat behind a desk in the reception area, poring over what looked like a holographic representation of an X–ray image.
    She looked up. “What can I do for you, Spacer?”
    “ Hi, PO. I’m working on Lifeboat Four, and I’ve found something that looks like it might be mold. Can you analyze it