I find decontamination procedures very unpleasant. Especially "deep clean" ones with nanites, first of our suits and afterwards we got them off, also of our bodies. For biohazards this is followed by a quarantine period to test if any remnant entity grows, to a size it can be detected. If that's the case, the decontamination step starts again.
Meanwhile, one has to wait. I made good use of this time to get a first quick view on the biodroid's data. This reveals that the Takmahl used large ocean farms to grow biomass in the form of plankton which would be turned into all sorts of product, from food to cloning to petrochemicals. Barney the biodroid was an enforcer on one of these ocean farms, overseeing slaves working there.
These farms were truly immense. As they grew, they needed more slaves. Which in turn required more biomass from which to produce new clone slaves, which required larger farms, which... you see where this is headed. It becomes a silly self-sustaining spiral which ultimately grows completely out of control.
One wonders, why was this growth not capped, or reversed, by Takmahl Imperial decree? I've found some proof in the data that minor holders shared ownership of such gigantic farms via a sort of shareholder system, and they demanded ever more return on their investment. So, growth was purely for the sake of growth. Growth of the ocean farm industry was deemed good, capping the growth was never given any thought, it was economic anathema. Such a system is inherently unstable: when somewhere disaster strikes, the whole edifice collapses. I conjecture that this contributed to the downfall of the Takmahl.
There's a lesson for the modern day to be learned from this, as we are on the cusp of growing our own clone slave cohorts to man new Upwell industry structures. Which extract resources from which we can grow more clone slaves. Which... well, you get my point.
