Jupiter's Reef (21 page)

Alex laughed and invited Captain Wysor to sit in his chair. He eagerly accepted.

Rod, the
Cornwall
’s first mate, arrived and was welcomed aboard by Mary, who stood by the food panel fixing more Geebrew. She held out one and he took it gladly. The man was tall like his Captain and very light skinned, almost anemic looking. And though he wore his uniform informally (unbuttoned and unbrushed), Mary found him interesting and wished she could understand half of what he said.

Before long, the rest of the Ganny crew arrived full of song, laughter and beer. Soon
Diver
’s cabin was crowded and stuffy as any bar, but the Gannys seemed perfectly at home.

Alex reflected that they were probably comfortable that way. Each entered eagerly and took up a position as near the food panel as he could manage; some upside down, clingboots fixed to the cabin ceiling.

“Without zero-gee we couldn’t all fit in here,” Alex told Mary as he assisted her in filling squeezers with beer. Her kitten was clinging to her shoulder watching all the people with wide eyes.

Mary looked around at the crowd and laughed. Just behind her two Gannys hung from the ceiling, like bats in a cave, talking to two others standing on the floor. The conversation was animated, jovial and utterly unintelligible. “We’re going to run out of air if any more of them come here,” she whispered to Alex.

“I don’t think there are any more,” he replied.

Alex worked his way through the crowd toward the com. On the way he passed a service panel and paused to disconnect the drive in case anyone decided to play with
Diver
’s controls. Then he continued toward the com, arriving in time to see Johnny invite Captain Wysor to see his VR station in action. The man eagerly climbed into the chair and Johnny lowered the hood.

As the Captain’s head disappeared under the hood, Johnny told Alex that he’d preset the controls to display ultraviolet and magnetic wavelengths.

“Dingers!” said the captain, his voice somewhat muffled. “When’uz the sun gone blue? An’ look at Ol’ Biggy. Joe’s gone furry!”

Johnny laughed. “You’re seeing Jupiter’s magnetic field. I can tune it any way you want; ultraviolet, infrared, any or all of ’em.”

Rod, the first mate, was next in line to try Johnny’s VR chair. The Captain accepted a helping hand from Alex as he extricated himself from the seat. “This ’s th’ same as the ones ’board
Co’nwall
?”

Johnny heard the question despite the noise in the room. “Not exactly. This is the latest generation – just developed on Earth. The two you have are from Io’s labs.”

Rod reacted as soon as he got under the hood. “Krikes, mates, don’t that box yer bollocks,” he shouted. “Look at them streamers! What’s doin’ w’ Ol’ Joe?”

When Rod emerged from the chair Johnny explained the images as best he could. But to his surprise the mate not only understood but had a few suggestions. Rod suggested that during the mission Johnny could tune the machine to see the water layer on Jupiter. The din in the cabin combined with Rod’s thick dialect made it hard for Professor Baltadonis to hear, but after several tries, Rod made himself understood.

“I plan to do just that, Rod,” said Johnny. “That’s pretty astute of you. Have you worked with these VR seats before?”

“Not this Ganny,” answered the first mate. “I’m geared fer the VRs on th’
Corn’all
, tho.”

Matt was doing this best to stay out of everyone’s way. He had tucked himself into a corner of the cabin ceiling above the com. When he heard Johnny struggling with the dialect, he couldn’t help laughing.

Rod and Johnny looked up, surprised to see Matt hovering over them.

“Wazzat, mate,” said the Ganny. “Learnin’ a second language, up ‘’er, are ya?”

“Tryin’,” said Matt. “Sorry,” he added. “No offense meant. Too many geebrews tonight, I guess.”

Rod laughed. “Hearin’ ya, mate. Been ’er, done ’at, more’n you’ll e’er know.”

4
Before the Gannys left
Diver
, Captain Wysor asked for everyone’s attention. And to Alex’s surprise, everyone complied, despite the number of brews they’d ingested.

When the room quieted, Captain Wysor said a few words of official welcome to Alex and his crew and pledged full cooperation to the mission. He then asked Alex if he would like to say anything.

Though he was a bit under the influence, Alex realized he might not get another opportunity to personally discuss the mission with everyone involved. He cleared his throat.

“Well,” he said, “I didn’t expect to be givin’ a speech. First, I want to thank Captain Wysor and his excellent crew for their help on this mission. I know that to some of you it will be just another job and maybe a boring one at that; orbiting the planet, monitoring the mission. Maybe I should talk about it, you know, while we’re all in one room.”

Alex hated public speaking but he forged ahead. “This is my second trip into the Great Red Spot to explore the life zone we call the reef. Some of you have already read something about it or been briefed by your people, but I’d feel better if you heard about it from me.

“It’s strange, I guess, that a gas miner from the sulphur moon would be the discoverer of such a thing but it’s easy to explain. I was just a kid working my way through an engineering school on Earth when I heard Professor Stubbs -- the guy who’s overseeing this mission – talking about the discovery of life on Europa. He was describing the Jupiter system and happened to mention that the Great Red Spot was like a hurricane, only three times bigger than Earth. He said it was a vortex that had been there millions of years.

“I lived near a river where there was a permanent whirlpool and on my way home I stopped there, you know, just thinking about what Stubbs had said and watching the whirlpool and all the stuff that was collecting there. The idea of the whirlpool as a collecting place stuck in my mind.

“Well, you know the rest. I became obsessed by the notion that if there was life on Europa then some of it might get caught in the spot and never leave. I ran into Stubbs later and asked him about my idea. He said that Jupiter’s poles would be a better place to look because they are a heat sink. He said my idea was impossible. Well, that did it. I had to prove him wrong.”

A titter of laughter went through the room and Alex smiled. “I’m no scientist, so I wasn’t able to do more than read about Jupiter and think about my ideas. After graduation I needed money. They were paying big wages for Io duty, so I joined up. The rest is history.”

Captain Wysor asked Alex how he managed to get IoCorp to give him a ship to go on a suicide mission.

“That’s a long story,” said Alex. “All I can say is it wasn’t easy.”

Mary giggled.

Alex looked at her and smiled. “Mary has been with me all the way. Without her abilities we would have never gotten there.”

“You disco’red yer Reef,” said the Captain. “Ye did yer part. Why go back? Whyn’t leave that’n to the sciffies?”

“Sciffies?” said Mary.

“Scientists,” said Alex, pleased that he didn’t have to make the Captain explain himself. “They need samples. We got log records, but no proof. Stubbs wanted me to go back because
Diver
is specially outfitted for the mission. Also, we know the territory.”

“I’d really like ta hear ’bout how ya got Corpies to ’and you th’ ship,” said Rod. “They’n’t give dingers to any’n who ain’t snoot.”

“I’m going to need a glossary to work here,” said Matt. “What’s snoot?”

“Snobs, rich, connected,” said Alex. “Like I said, it wasn’t easy.”

“Can you talk a bit about what’s down there?” asked Connie Tsu.

“Well, you saw the log, right?” answered Alex. “Seeing is telling.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, sounding slightly annoyed. “I’m interested in your impressions of the life that’s down there. Why, for example, didn’t anyone detect it before?”

“They weren’t looking for it,” said Matt.

Alex nodded. “That’s part of it. But people have scanned Jupiter before and not seen anything. I think that’s because most of the reef is the same mass as the surrounding material. So it wouldn’t be easy to see on radar.”

“Also the reef is huge; big as the spot itself,” said Professor Baltadonis. “Even if it did show up it might be considered part of the spot. As a matter of fact, a couple of research vessels have already scanned the spot and found nothing.”

“Nothing?” said Alex. “We had our radar map it.”

“You were there. Right on top of it. Plus, your radar tuned to it automatically, measuring minor tolerances. From space it’s a different story. It’s almost sixty kilometers under the clouds and the material is very light, as you said, and spread out over the entire spot. It’s understandable that it didn’t show.”

Connie nodded. “What about the life? What do you make of those clicker men?”

Alex glanced at Mary and she lowered her eyes. He was about to say that she was more familiar with them than himself but he caught himself.

“Well, as you know,” continued Alex, “they were with us all the way. Just about everywhere we went except when we got flushed out of the reef.

“I always assumed they were the reef folk, the top of the food chain, if there is a food chain.”

“Whatever they were, they exhibited curiosity about us,” offered Mary. “None of the other creatures did. Only them. We could hear their clicking all the time. They scared me.”

“You heard them through the hull of the ship?” asked Tony.

“On the radio,” said Mary. “Jupiter’s so electrically active I thought it was a new kind of static until I actually saw them and heard their clicking get louder and softer when they were flying around us.”

Jeanne shivered. “Now I’m really glad I’m not going down there. That would scare the Hell out of me.”

Alex noticed that the Gannys listened with interest but weren’t joining the questioning. “Don’t any of you folks have questions?’ he asked.

“Jes’ listenin’,” said Rod.

“Anybod’ hear’n ’bout ’er solly flares?” asked a Ganny near the hatchway. “Are we gett’n ar butts toast’d here?”

Johnny took that question for Alex.

“I’ve been monitoring the solar flares, if that’s your concern. It’s peaking now. But the planet’s magnetic field is plowing it aside. Still, outside rads are twice normal levels.”

“Will’t be a bother?” asked Captain Wysor.

“I wouldn’t go takin’ spacewalks,” said Johnny. “Inside, we’re fine.”

“When’r ya off t’ th’ spot, then?” asked Rod, pulling another squeezer of Geebrew from the service module.

“In a day or so,” answered Alex. “As soon as we fill our stores with the liquid you Gannys put away.”

The Captain laughed. “We’ll tank you up,” he said. “It’s on the Corpies ticket, anyway. Ye can have the raw sauce, or some Gannybrew Special Con-serve, from th’ ice canyons to yer gullet.” The Captain’s eyes drifted lazily from Alex to Mary, standing near the opened airlock.

“From the land of coal black water,” added Rod with a laugh.

Noticing Captain Wysor’s eyes on her, Mary smiled. She read his mind. Typical male thoughts. But she felt desire without possessiveness. This was a reaction to her engineered charms she’d never encountered before and she found it interesting.

She liked the Gannys. Though they appeared to be rough, hardy folk, their nature was to cooperate. They seemed relaxed, confident, and willful. It was almost as though negativity had been bred out of them.

Alex looked around the room and noticed that the rest of the Ganny crew, while seeming alert, were keeping silent.

“I’d really like to hear from your crew, too, Captain,” he said. “They’re a sharp bunch. I wonder if there are any thoughts they’d like to share.”

“Ol’ Biggy is the second toaster,” said a tall Ganny crewman next to Mary. “Ya can feel ’er warmin’. Even from out’ere.”

“We’re icers, mate. No illusions.” said Wysor, putting an arm on Alex’s shoulder. He laughed. “Gannys never say what ya want ‘em to, eh? We’re miners like yerse’f. Minin’ the black water gives yer little time fer eyein’ Jupiter.”

Alex looked at the crewman. “Yer name?” asked Alex.

“Truman Scotty-Wallace, eighth, sir,” said the boy, removing his green tweed cap and slicking back his curly blond hair. “Scotty, if ye please,” he laughingly added. “I don’t fashion Tru.”

“What’s yer chore, Scotty?” asked Alex.

“’puters, electro, n’ stuff.”

“Okay, well, I just want to say that I ... we all appreciate what you’re doing. Paid or not, our lives might be in your hands.”

A couple of the Gannys chuckled.

Tony Sciarra, sitting in his cubby, laughed even louder. “Alex, that’s like the Captain of
Houston
sayin’ as much to L-5. What are they gonna do if we lose it down there?”

“We won’t lose it down there,” said Alex. “But if we do, I don’t expect them to drop a cable or anything,” said Alex. “We need them to provide a link with the rest of humanity. If only to tell everyone what happened to us.”

“And to relay the science data,” said Connie Tsu.

“To be sure,” said Tony.

The impromptu meeting ended with the Captain of the
Cornwall
dismissing his crew and calling for a briefing after everyone ‘took a zee ta sleep it off”.

He was the last to leave, after his first mate, and as he bent his tall frame to pass through the airlock, he looked back at Mary and nodded. “I know who you are, miss. Give us Gannys a chance. We’re not like the Corpies, or the Mars boys ’either. No’ne knows us ’cause no’ne comes to our Ganny towns. Most thinks us full of fight, I guess. Or wonder’n who’d wanta live in the ice canyons? Eh? Crazy people, Gannys. That’s what they say, check?”

“Icers,” said Alex. “Farmin’ the glaciers for the stuff o’ life is how I hear it.”

“We’re mor’n that. You should come down’n see when this is all over. Eh?” Though he ducked, the Ganny Captain still bumped his head as he left.

5
The crew of
Diver
slept while the two ships, joined by airlocks and guided by the
Cornwall
’s computers, moved out of orbit around Ganymede and set a course for Jupiter, or Ol’ Biggy as the Gannys called it.