Very amateur work, he thought, recalling the training which his Voidship crew had undergone in detecting and defusing dangerous devices. Ship did much better than this even before it was Ship. That had been good training and necessary. There had been no telling how a rogue Voidship might attack its umbilicus crew.

Did we create a rogue Voidship of more subtle powers?

The evidence of sabotage which he had seen thus far did not feel like Ship. It reeked of Oakes . . . or Lewis.

“What’s that package?” Waela asked.

“My guess is it’s a poison vapor set to start fuming when we tried to undog the hatch,” Thomas said.

Handling it with caution in the bobbing gondola, Thomas set the package aside and returned his attention to the hatch controls. The system appeared to be free of other tampering. Slowly, gingerly, he undogged the hatch, folded down the screw handle and began turning it. The hatch lifted to expose the rim of gaskets and a sky unfiltered by the enclosing plaz.

When he had the hatch fully open, Thomas took the green package in one hand, climbed part way up the ladder and threw the package downwind. When it touched the water, lime-yellow smoke erupted from it, was caught by the wind and blown across the kelp-covered waves. The surface leaves writhed away from the smoke, curling and withering as he watched.

Waela clutched a stanchion for support and put one hand across her mouth.

“Who?”

“Oakes,” Thomas said.

“Why?” Panille asked. He found himself more fascinated than fearful at these developments. Ship could save them if it came to that.

“He may want no more than one Ceepee alive in Colony.”

“You’re a Ceepee?” Panille was surprised.

“Didn’t Waela tell you?” Thomas came back down the ladder.

“I . . .” She blushed a deep purple. “It slipped my mind.”

“Perhaps The Boss has his own plans for the kelp,” Panille said.

Thomas pounced on this. “What do you mean?”

Panille repeated what Hali Ekel had told him about the threat to exterminate the kelp.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Waela demanded.

“I thought Hali might be mistaken and . . . the opportunity to tell you did not arise.”

“Everybody stay put,” Thomas said, “while I see if there are any more little surprises in here.”

He bent to his examination.

“You seem to know what you’re looking for,” Waela said.

“I’ve had some training in this.”

She found this a disturbing idea: Thomas trained to locate sabotage?