Jupiter's Reef (22 page)

Matt and his associates, Connie and Jeanne, had joined the crew of
Cornwall
and seemed happy to do so when they said good night. As Tsu entered the Ganny ship and was about to grab the conveyor cable, she looked back through the airlock at Alex.

“I expected a lot of surprises on this trip,” she said, “but the Gannys weren’t among them.”

“I’ve heard it said that if you treat a Ganny square he’ll watch your back for life,” said Alex.

“Just don’t have too good a time up here,” said Mary.

“Mary’s right,” added Johnny. “We need you awake.”

Tsu laughed and waved goodbye. A moment later Alex closed the
Diver
’s hatch and sealed it. Then he and Mary set the com to alert status, dimmed the cabin lights, and flattened their chairs to the customary sleep position.

Mary looked around. “Where’s my Babies?” she said. A soft ‘meow’ was heard as the kitten catapulted itself from the ceiling to Mary’s lap. It landed perfectly in a seated position and purring. Then it crawled onto Mary’s chest and gazed into her eyes. It seemed to be studying her, examining her perfect features. First the kitten’s eyes closed, then so did Mary’s.

When she next opened her eyes, Alex was sitting up looking ahead. Before them, filling the entire viewscreen, was the marbled face of Jupiter.

“You looked so content, with your cat, I didn’t want to disturb you,” said Alex. “But Wysor say the word is given, my love. We’re shoving off in a tick.”

Mary stretched and the kitten floated into the air, still soundly asleep. Mary went to the head, leaving her kitten floating above Alex’s lap.

“Dingers, Mary,” Alex protested. “I’m about to do some actual work here!” Alex pushed the kitten gently upward, out of his field of view. The cat was unflapped. It turned end over end in weightlessness, opened its eyes and made a perfect four point landing on the ceiling, still purring. From there it watched Alex and mewed.

Alex glanced upward. “There’s a good cat,” he said. “Just stay there a while.”

Over the speakers the voice of Captain Wysor warned them that they were uncoupling the air locks. A few seconds later a siren aboard the Ganny vessel could be heard through the closed hatch.

Alex touched the com and the viewscreen divided into six views afforded by
Diver
’s external cameras. The top three camera views covered the front and the bottom three views covered the rear.

“I can tell what’s on top,” observed Tony. “But why’s the bottom row dark? Are the cams wonky? Shit, I thought those things were tested. I don’t want to start out this trip with an EVA.”

“Relax, Sciarra,” said Alex, “That’s just the Ganny ship, up close and personal.”

Johnny was in his chair, with his head in the dome. “I can’t take my eyes off that spot,” he remarked. “Jupiter is amazing. Beautiful. I’ve been watching it for days. It’s always the same, but it’s always changing. Damned fascinating. And the spot ...”

“Now you understand why we spent so much time under the clear dome on Ra Patera,” said Alex.

“When it wasn’t covered with blue snow,” said Mary, returning fresh from the shower. Her white hair was still damp and she was wearing a tight fitting silver jumpsuit. Alex recognized it as one of the new flight suits provided by EarthCorp for the mission .

Tony looked at Mary. “I guess we all should wear those things. Polyceramic webbing. Looks good on her, but not on a geek like me. I’ll take regular knits, thanks.”

“Those clothes may be comfy,” said Alex. “But they won’t look good if we lose pressure. The webbing buys time to get to the hoods. I’m just not a fan of explosive decompression, myself. Maybe, for my first official act as a bully captain, I should order you to change.”

“UNCOUPLING FROM CORNWALL IN FIVE MINUTES,” said the computer.

Tony looked up at the ceiling speaker and sighed.

“I see your point,” he said. “Save your orders, Captain Rose, I’m on it.” He unbuckled his seat belt and sprang toward the clothes locker.

Mary giggled as she buckled into her co-pilot’s chair next to Alex. She glanced up and spotted her kitten on the cabin ceiling looking down at her. It made a soft sound when it saw Mary look up, but stayed where it was.

“Do I have time to feed the kitty?” asked Mary.

“You can take care of that after we launch,” replied Alex. “But for you there’s a squeezer of hot coffee and a warm brekky-roll in that locker in your seat, under your left arm. Keepin’ ’er warm for you,” he added with a wink.

“Sounding a little Ganny, Alex,” said Mary, smiling back at him.

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Talking like a spacer again? Old habits I guess.”

Tony reentered the cabin just as the computer gave them a final warning. Like everyone else, he’d abandoned walking using his grip-soles. Instead, he launched himself across toward his seat, still tugging at his tight-fitting outfit. He snapped into his seat as
Diver
detached from the Ganny ship. The cabin shook and Tony’s squeezer of coffee flew into the air. He grabbed it deftly and pulled it into his lap.

“Made it, Captain,” he said.

“Off you go,” said the voice of Captain Wysor.

Under computer guidance, the two ships separated, slowly at first, then – when the two had reached a safe distance from one another – both ships powered up and headed in different directions. Everyone aboard
Diver
watched the
Cornwall
get smaller on the view screen. In only a minute, the Ganny ship was just a bright point of light, among the stars.

Jupiter still loomed on the top screens as the edge of the Great Red Spot, nestled between two broad cream colored bands of atmosphere, came into view.

“Right on time,” said Johnny. “The Gannys’ timing was perfect.”

Alex glanced up at Babies, still clinging to the cabin ceiling. “I’m afraid your cat’ll soon get a taste of real gravity, Mary,” he said. “In fact we’re all due for a shock.”

Johnny looked out from under his hood. “None of you probably remember what Stubbs said about drinking lots of water. Liquids, at least,” he said. “The Corpies have a lot of new tricks and some of them are in the water.”

“I remember him talking about bone loss,” said Tony, “but we all know about chemical replenishment and augmentation. That’s basic space medicine.”

“They’ve added a drug that’ll reduce the shock of gravity. The med boys have a computer doling it out in the water when we get to the surface. As soon as the balloons deploy, I guess.”

“Is there some reason you’re telling us this?” asked Alex.

“You’ll feel a little perky ... driven. Like you’re energized. It’s a mild drug but it should help reduce the effects of sudden change to gravity.”

“What about the kitty?” said Mary, her voice tinged with alarm. “The drugs will hurt her. What will she drink?”

Johnny looked out of his bubble at Alex.

“She’s got a point, Alex,” he said, biting his lip. “Sorry, it never entered my mind. The stuff is a stimulant. Its effects on our systems are very mild. One size fits all. But for a kitty? ’fraid not.”

Tony shook his head. “But I read that it depends on our intake of water; assuming we take in water based on size or body weight.”

Mary smiled. “I read that. He’s right.”

“But a kitten’s system is different from a human’s, Mary,” said Johnny. “I’m sorry I didn’t think of this before.”

Mary unsnapped from her chair and reached up for her kitten. “Oh Babies,” she said mournfully. “What will we do?”

“Tap some water from Jupiter. The gas crackers still work.”

“The genius speaks,” said Alex.

“Academic, Alex,” said Doctor Sciarra. “Crackers still on board, first ’cause they’re yours and, second, because they’re handy gadgets if you’re poking around a gas giant in need of a drink. Of course the EarthCorp engineers were worried about the weight.”

“JUPITER INSERTION,” said the computer.

“Going down,” said Alex as he touched the flight control stick. He pushed it forward slightly until the computer took control again.

“TOUCH CONFIRMATION COMMAND ON MARK,” it said. “THRUSTERS IN TEN SECONDS.”

The whole operation was automatic. Alex knew he would be little more than a passenger until they entered the clouds. His touch of the drive stick told the computer that it had his permission to proceed.

With controlled burns of
Diver
’s plasma thrusters, they moved toward their objective.

Alex could have flown it in himself, maybe. He’d done it once already. But the planet, despite its size, takes less than ten hours to complete one of its days. And, considering that its mass is greater than all the other planets combined, Alex knew that if their angle and speed were off, even a little bit, they would be a cinder, polyceramic shielding or not. And now with others on board, he didn’t want to take any chances.

But sitting there with little to do, Alex had time to think and he grew increasingly nervous.

He was flying a ship that had been “improved” with someone else’s handiwork, and the idea that the work was done by corporate hands bothered him even more. But the fact was that Tony had supervised the construction and EarthCorp wanted everything to go smoothly.

It seemed a long time since he’d lifted off from Earth. Was that yesterday? The day before? He thought back to the jump the
Houston
had made while
Diver
sat in its hold. A trip from Earth to Jupiter in only a few minutes. Alex tried to remember what his mind was doing when they jumped across a half-billion miles of space. What was it Johnny had said? That they would lose six months of their life-span? Alex rejected the idea. He knew life is too unpredictable for that kind of bean counting. But now he was in the hands of bean counters who had calculated their angle of attack, thruster power and duration of the burn. Watching the numbers whiz by on the panel before him, he felt barely in control.

6
With the first tremors of reentry, Babies leapt from the cabin ceiling into Mary’s lap. Mary spread her legs and let the cat slip between her thighs where it sat, facing forward, purring loudly and staring at the viewscreen like the rest of the crew.

Johnny pushed his bubble up to its secure position above his chair. It locked into place with a click.

“Next stop, Jupiter,” he said.

Angling its polyceramic belly 8 1/2 degrees to Jupiter’s horizon,
Diver
hit the first wisps of upper atmosphere. A hissing sound, barely audible at first, began to grow louder and louder. The cat opened its eyes and looked around, but Mary stroked its head and it closed its eyes again.

“That’s not a snake,” said Mary. “Don’t worry. It’s just a big old planet’s atmosphere.” The kitten looked up at her as though it understood and purred even louder.

As the hiss turned into a roar and the roar to a deep rumble, static began to obscure the image on the viewscreen. Still, the Great Red Spot was unmistakable. At this angle it looked like one of Jupiter’s broad belts.

“When we get down I’m lowering the viewscreen. We’ll use the windows,” said Alex. “But we need the shields,” he added, staring at the static.

“I think we all know that, Alex,” said Johnny.

The rumbling intensified. Mary was holding a squeezer of coffee. She noticed the liquid forming suds inside the bottle. “I don’t remember it being this rough before, Alex,” she said. “Do you?”

“It might be the balloon package,” said Professor Baltadonis. “The covering is large. I’m guessing that it’s affecting our dynamics.”

“I thought you looked at that back on Earth.” said Alex.

“With computer models,” offered Tony. “That’s all we had to go on.”

“Great,” said Alex.

From that moment Alex began to grind his molars as he wondered what kind of evasive maneuver might save them if they lost it on reentry. He kept coming up with the same answer: there was no evasive maneuver. Everything depended on the dynamics of the ship as it plowed through hypersonic gases at speeds above seven kilometers per second.

Alex looked at the clock readouts. He had to wait another six minutes before he could get any visuals at all. They were now effectively blind.

Alex turned his head slightly to the side. Mary had her eyes closed and she was petting the kitten with regular, rhythmic strokes. Her lips were moving slightly. He wondered if she was talking to Mother Mary, the first of the sensor series.

If so
, Alex thought,
I hope the old girl would make a little time for me, too
.

Mother Mary
, he thought,
almost sounds spiritual
.

Alex closed his eyes briefly when the roar outside
Diver
’s skin became deafening.

A man was standing in front of him. Behind him a city at twilight. Lights coming on. A large orange moon rising behind towering buildings.

He opened his eyes and saw only the com and the snow filled viewscreen.

Alex shut his eyes again. The man was still there looking pale as before, dressed in a long brown coat. He was smiling. He carried a telescope and its tripod in a bundle hung over his shoulder. He was saying something.

Alex decided his mind was playing tricks. Maybe it was the drugs in the water Johnny had been talking about. Whatever it was, it was a respite from the din inside
Diver
’s cabin. So he let the scene play out.

The city had darkened and the sky was now clear. The city lights joined the stars and the heavens vaulted overhead. Above him, the bright yellow star.

“That’s Jupiter,” said his dad. “Tonight we can see its moons.”

“Are there cities there, too?” asked Alex, squinting up into the night.

“Well, there are men up there now trying to find that out.”

“I mean on Jupiter,” said Alex.

“Oh no, Alex. It’s a big ball of gas, Alex. Without land or water, where would they live?”

Alex didn’t know where the memory had come from, but it was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. It was one special night, long ago. His twelfth birthday party. One that he’d forgotten. Until now. It shamed him to think that he’d nearly forgotten the night his dad introduced him to the Universe.

Part 6