Infinite Reef (6 page)

Alex noticed Stubbs watching them. He had apparently heard Mary, because he stalked over to the lounge. “I thought you wanted to be involved!” he growled in irritation. “Is it so hard to just sit here and drink beer?” His eyes were squarely on Alex.

Alex stood up. “I wasn’t doing the talking, Commander. Mary was. But I agree. We’re as useful to you in our bubble at home. We can take the long way home. Once there we’ll do our own intelligence work, and we won’t be in anyone’s way.”

“Why should you be exempt from the rules?” Stubbs now seemed more detached than antagonistic, but it aroused Alex’s ire nevertheless. This time he knew that arguing would be useless with the Commander.

Mary raised a graceful finger. “Well, for one, Commander, it wouldn’t hurt to reduce personnel in here. All we can do is sit around reducing consumables, drinking geebrew and coffee. The essential staff needs those consumables. We have our own at home.”

Alex chose the moment to assist Mary’s argument. “Let us go, Commander, we’ll stay out of sight and be just as useful at home.”

Stubbs smiled. “I could say just stop drinking the coffee. But you have a valid point. And we may need the couch space.”

Stubbs signaled to an armed officer wearing a black cap. The man trotted briskly over to them and came to full attention.

Stubbs instructed him to allow Alex and Mary out the door. But as Mary rose to leave, the Commander took her arm. “Don’t go near it. I don’t want any of my valuable crew hurt. At least not at the moment.” He hugged Mary in a fatherly way.

“Then we should take action,” said Alex. “Here’s an idea. Take a shuttle down to the sonde to see what’s going on? We know what’s happening here, but we’re blind to what’s going on below.”

Everyone nearby looked at Alex wide-eyed. The Commander didn’t seemed surprised at Alex’s suggestion, but neither did he reply. After a moment of thought, Stubbs pointed at the screen. “I want an opinion. Is it me, our cameras, or has the surface of that orb changed?”

Mary eyed the object on the screen critically. “I don’t see a change. But I’d have to see the thing first hand to be sure.”

“Different in what way, Commander?” asked Alex.

“Surface texture, I suppose,” replied Stubbs.

“You can find that out easily enough by playing back the data, can’t you?” offered Mary.

Stubbs looked at Mary skeptically. “Yes, of course we can. Mary,” he almost whispered. “And, in answer to your first question, you two can indeed return to your quarters.”

“What about my suggestion?” asked Alex.

Mary responded with an angry tug on Alex’s sleeve. The Commander noticed her reaction and smiled. “The shuttles are grounded at the moment,” he said. “But thanks for volunteering, Alex. We may take you up on your offer.”

Mary turned in a huff and walked stiffly through the back door. Both guards watched her pass and looked to the

Commander with raised eyebrows. Stubbs smiled and shook his head. “She’s tired. Let her go.”

Alex had to run to match Mary’s athletic strides. When he caught up to her he took her arm. “Mary, stop. We have to watch where we’re going.”

“Why did you volunteer to go back?” she asked. She pulled her arm angrily away from Alex. “If you want to volunteer, fine, but that volunteers ME, too!”

He was glad at least that she was venting her rage in a whisper. “Mary,” said Alex, interrupting her with a finger to her lips. “Now’s not the time. We need to get home.”

Mary stiffened. “We’re behind the building. IT can’t see us.” She looked around and shrugged. “You know, Alex, I wasn’t going to ... but what the hell.” With that she sprinted around the building. Alex knew where she was going, and no one was around to prevent her reaching the sphere.

“Dingers,” Alex groaned. This time he couldn’t match her speed. The more he ran the more he realized it was fruitless to interfere with whatever it was she was doing. Still, there was the matter of what Stubbs would do if he saw her ignoring his orders. Soon, he knew, the remote cameras near the pit would see her.

As he rounded the building he saw Mary trotting down a path, stripping off her flight suit as she ran. She managed to jump out of each boot and unzip her garments with movements so sure they looked practiced. He wanted to bellow in rage but was mindful that the sphere, lurking not far away, might be listening. Alex moved forward until he saw the edge of the crater and stopped. He’d lost any chance to stop her now. Her beautiful, and now naked, body was already far down the path.

With no idea of her plan, he did the only thing he could do. He sat down on the grass and watched.

She was running in long strides. Just when she was nearly out of sight, she cut to the left and vanished into a group of trees. Alex was about to panic when he caught sight of her again, sprinting at the same speed, but now returning on a different path toward him. When she got close enough he cupped his hands and shouted. “Mary! What are you doing?”

“Pick up my clothes ... and take them home ... the long way!” she shouted. Then she turned and made a beeline along the path that lead directly to the crater. He blushed as he watched her nearly nude body run into the distance, wondering what the command staff was thinking. He consoled himself with the fact that she was not entirely naked. She still wore flesh colored briefs.

As Mary approached the crater, Alex expected her to stop, but she kept to the middle of the path and ran at a steady speed past the crater, then on toward Lake Geneva and home. Soon she turned on to the path that led to their house.

There was nothing for him to do but follow Mary’s orders to collect her clothes and take the long way back to the house.

But he’d already waited too long. The first of the troopers had already burst out of the doors of the control building. The men ran past him as though he wasn’t there. When they reached the edge of the building they paused and crouched defensively, speaking in staccato whispers to each other and to their wrists.

Alex stood up boldly, shook his head in disbelief, and walked off to collect Mary’s things. “Sorry, gents,” he said, “but the lady needs her pants.” None of the guards responded. Perhaps they were too busy searching for his Lady Godiva.

“She’s long gone, lads,” said Alex as he ran down the path toward Mary’s coveralls.

Along the way he also found her sneakers, one of which was about to be stolen by a squirrel. When he’d gathered everything up he headed for home, avoiding the guards and the command center. His path took him far enough from the impact that the curvature of the cylinder allowed him to see the crater and the black sphere nested inside it. For a moment he leaned against a tree trunk and watched. As far as he could see nothing about it had changed.

He surveyed the area, seeing no movement anywhere. It was strange to see the great cylinder virtually devoid of population. The thought of it gave him the creeps. Alex shrugged off the notion and headed home, wondering what the aliens had made of Mary’s naked sprint. After a while he began to laugh.

6
Mary was dressed when Alex got home, and Johnny’s face was already on the screen when he walked into their com room and found Mary relaxing on the sofa, staring confidently at the Commander. She was gripping a squeezer of water, her hair wet and wrapped in a pink turban. Everything about her was graceful and relaxed, except her tone of voice.

“... so I thought it was best if I took another look at it.” Mary looked up at Alex and smiled. She patted the seat beside her.

Alex walked to the refreshment panel and got himself a geebrew. “Your clothes were gonna be in a squirrel’s nest,” he commented.

When he looked again at the screen, the Professor was wearing a wry grin. “Glad you made it, Alex,” he said.

With foamy brew in hand, Alex walked to the sofa and sat next to Mary. “Don’t let me stop your confab with the lady, Johnny,” he said. “Did Mary impress our visitor?” He hoisted his beer toward the viewscreen. The Professor’s face was inset into a larger background image of the crater. As far as Alex could see nothing had changed about it.

“Mary was about to explain that spectacular sprint she performed.” The Professor’s eyes shifted as he looked at Alex and Mary on his own monitor.

“I’ve already explained,” she said quietly. “No harm was done.”

“That’s true,” admitted Baltadonis. “She did explain, Alex, and I have to say that her idea was ... interesting.” He chuckled. “And, as she said, no harm done. As far as I know.”

Alex sat back and looked at the screen. “What idea?”

“I wanted to see the thing again,” said Mary. “I guess it was impulsive. And I’m sorry about not following orders, Professor. I took a jog past it so I could see it up close. I got to see all I needed to. I figured I’d just confuse it and I’d get to see it. Everyone that’s been near the thing has been wearing protective suits.”

“Why naked?” Alex wasn’t smiling.

“I wasn’t naked,” Mary slapped Alex’s leg, but smiled cheerfully at the screen. “I mean, it’s never seen anything like me before. Right, Johnny?”

Alex chuckled. “That’s for sure.”

“Indeed.” Johnny looked bemused more than angry. “And did you see any change in the sphere? Did getting near close to it let you feel anything?” He looked around cautiously. “Please give me something here that will enlighten Stubbs, Mary.

He wasn’t pleased by your ... stunt, I think he called it.”

Mary nodded. “I had the impression that it had shrunk a bit,” she said. “If I had to guess I’d say it’s reduced in size maybe five or six percent. But the surface looked the same.”

“Five or six percent?” repeated Johnny. “That’s quite a lot.”

“Haven’t your instruments told you that, Professor?” asked Alex.

“I’ll have to check. I’ll get back to you.” Johnny’s image disappeared from the screen.

Alex put an arm around Mary and felt her instantly relax. “Maybe I’m a lunatic,” she said.

He kissed her and stroked her white hair. “Love it,” he said. “Love you.”

She looked up into his eyes. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

Alex blinked. “Sure. Or I wouldn’t have said it.”

Mary smiled. “You’re not angry?”

“Well, don’t make a habit of it. People will talk.” Alex kept a straight face as he stared into her eyes. “That was a joke.”

Mary pulled away from him slightly and regarded him skeptically. “You’re the lunatic,” she said. “Really. Didn’t it bother you?”

“A bit,” he admitted. “I don’t want to share you with anyone. Even the dolphins.”

Mary cocked her head. “You talked to the dolphins?” She frowned. “There’s a problem. What is it?”

Alex was used to Mary picking his mind. He smiled encouragingly. “They suggested you get a checkup. I don’t think they thought it was serious.”

Mary looked at the viewscreen. “I’m fine, Alex.”

“You threw up this morning, didn’t you?”

“So?”

“When have you ever thrown up in the morning?”

“Yesterday, but ...”

“Dingers, Mary. Just have the doctors take a look.”

“I don’t like doctors.”

Alex pulled Mary closer to him. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He looked back at the screen.

“That sphere is the problem,” Mary said, sternly. “It would be good if we could get a handle on it.”

“A handle would help us haul it out of the cylinder, I suppose,” Alex said almost whimsically. “Isn’t it surprising that no one’s out there investigating it?”

“You can investigate me,” suggested Mary, grinning.

“I’m all sweaty, Mary.”

“Mmm, a salty snack,” she replied. “What a splendid idea.”

“Computer,” Alex said. “Are you monitoring our conversation?”

“
Now I am, Alex Rose
,” said the voice of the computer.

“Can you interpret the current speculation as to the origin of the black sphere, computer?” Alex smiled hopefully. “We said we were going to do research, Mary,” he whispered.

“
Yes
,” said the computer’s ghostly metallic voice.

He winked at Mary. “Computer, can you switch the com systems to our bedroom dome, and can you give us privacy from ... intruding eyes?”

“And ears,” added Mary.

“Yes.”

Five minutes later Alex and Mary were naked in their closed white dome. The screen that covered them ran a visual program surrounding them with the starry skies of Ganymede. “This is better, isn’t it, Mary?” Alex asked.

Mary rubbed her bare nipple against his shoulder. “Oh, yes,” she cooed. “Much better.”

“
Incoming message
,” said the computer, as the same words also flashed across the apex of the dome.

They both covered themselves with a sheet and sat up, bolstering their backs with pillows before Alex answered the computer. “Okay, computer, admit the message.

“
Is two way video permitted?
”

“I guess so. Sure,” answered Alex, looking at Mary doubtfully.

Stubbs and Johnny appeared side by side in a window above them. “You two look ... comfy,” Stubbs observed with a wry smile. “Sorry for the intrusion, but I wanted to hear for myself what that erotic, I mean, erratic behavior near the sphere has achieved, Mary. I’ll remind you, before you answer, that you broke an order with that brief but spectacular exhibition.”

“I’m aware of that, sir,” explained Mary politely. “Sorry I broke an order, but I saw no other way to be alone with the thing without causing a psychic stir. You wanted to know if it had changed.”

“You said psychic?” Stubbs raised an eyebrow.

“It may be an alien probe,” continued Mary. “Perhaps this probe is an answer to the one we left on the egg. Who knows how they communicate?” She was almost pleading. Under the sheet Alex squeezed her hand. It was cold and damp.

Stubbs seemed to soften as he listened. “What did you feel when you passed near it? Did anything make you feel it was sentient?”

“Nothing.” Mary lowered her head. “Only blackness. And cold.”

“Cold means absorbing energy,” remarked Stubbs. “That’s why our sensors are getting nothing. Indeed, it has shrunk, as you mentioned to the Professor. And what else?” He looked at Johnny, next to him.

Johnny gave Stubbs a confirming nod. “It’s something like glass, or ice. If it’s reducing in mass, it might be dessicating.