“What is it?” she said as she straightened.
“An organism of some sort,” Jann said. “A bacteria or a fungus. We don’t have an exact counterpart for it on our world. From the samples I’ve taken and cultured, it appears to be a relatively slow breeder for a prokaryote. The population doubling time is in hours, not minutes.”
Dredda pointed at the microscope. “That’s what’s causing the rash?”
“Yes, I’m almost sure of it.”
“Almost?”
“It’s the simplest solution I can come up with. But at this stage I can’t rule out the possibility that the rash is caused by something internal, and the organism on the skin is simply attracted to the irritation for feeding purposes. We may have brought these organisms with us from our Earth.”
“You just said they weren’t like anything found there.”
“Because of its rapid breeding cycle, this kind of organism is prone to mutational changes. The differences that are apparent may have something to do with the Level Four procedure.”
“How so?”
“Genes could have jumped from the engineered virus to these organisms by accident.”
“Couldn’t the mutation have been produced by the nukecaust in this reality?”
“That’s a possibility, too.”
“Is this dangerous?” Dredda asked.
“At this point, it doesn’t seem so. Though it’s spreading rapidly, it appears to be a superficial topical infection. I’m going to treat everyone who is infected with an antifungal ointment and see what happens. That’s all I can do without more specific information. I’ll need to check the male troopers to see if it’s showing up on them, as well. And it wouldn’t hurt to look at the Deathlanders, too.”
“How quickly can you test all the possibilities?” Dredda asked. “Are the battlesuits involved? Could they be infested with these things? Can our armor be sterilized? Jann, this matter is a top priority. Our security may be at stake. I want it settled as quickly as possible.”
“That could present a major problem, I’m afraid. There’s only one of me. I could use some help in this.”
“You can call on as many of the sisters as you need.”
“I need trained help.” Jann paused, then said, “I understand you sent Dr. Huth to the mines?”
“So?”
“You could bring him back. Let him work with me.”
“I’m not sure what use he might be.”
“I’m just a medical doctor,” Jann said. “A diagnostician. A surgeon. Dr. Huth is a genius at research. He can help me nail down the organism’s life cycle in short order. And once that’s done, it’s possible that the only solution to the problem will be biochemical. That’s way outside my field of expertise. I’m concerned that if the organism continues to spread on our bodies, it could become life threatening. We can’t afford to wait and find out. By then it might be too late to do anything about it for any of us. If Huth is no use, we can always send him back to Ground Zero.”
“You can have Huth,” Dredda said, “but I do not want to be forced to order the sisters out of their battlesuits for any length of time. That is completely unacceptable. Do you understand?”
“Of course.”
After Jann had applied ointment to her shoulder and back, Dredda pulled on her T-shirt. “What is the status of the egg-fertilization program?” she asked. “I want to get our embryos started as soon as possible.”
“We are ready to begin anytime,” Jann said. “Once we have the male factor, we should be able to start implantation of host mothers within a week to ten days. I take it Shadow Man hasn’t changed his mind about being a sperm donor?”
“I haven’t given him a chance to yet.”
“It’s important that he isn’t left out at Ground Zero too long,” Jann said. “There could be irreparable damage to his reproductive cells, which would make them worthless to us.”
“I have no intention of ever bringing Shadow Man back here,” Dredda told her. “He’s nothing but trouble. He’s going to die at Ground Zero.”
“But the sperm for our in vitro procedures—”
“Shadow Man doesn’t have to cooperate for us to get what we want from him.”
Chapter Fifteen