Jupiter's Reef (42 page)

Alex unbuckled his seat belt.

“This is about me,” he said. “Isn’t it?” He stood up and walked to the window.

“It always was, Alex,” said Mary. “You brought us here.”

Alex looked at Mary. “Suppose that’s so,” he said. “I didn’t bargain on this?”

“You dreamed it,” she said. “You told me.”

“Dreams are crap,” said Tony. “Brain dumping. Random downloads of useless junk the brain wants to get rid of.”

Alex faced the clicker man. “But, Mary’s right, Tony. I did dream them. I had no idea they were real. And if that’s not strange enough, I dreamed of this place, too.”

“That’s true,” said Mary. “You told me about it on Mars.”

“I tend to agree with Tony. It could be just coincidence,” said Professor Baltadonis. “Something you saw on your first trip cued you. Who can say? Dreams get under your skin because they’re an alternate reality. It’s been happening to people for thousand of years. You shouldn’t let it drive you to do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do.”

“Like discovering life on Jupiter?” replied Alex. “Stubbs thought I was stupid, an amateur, obsessive, even. Said that life couldn’t exist on Jupiter and if it did would be near the poles. I knew there was some reason that the Great Red Spot always stayed the same size. I told him that. But, here we are.”

The giant white clicker man was still hovering before the ship as its companions arranged themselves again around the spiked object inside the glowing sphere. The cabin radio started vibrating when they began their song.

It was a strange sound that seemed almost familiar. Three notes. Tones that the clicker men hummed into their starlike mechanism. The same three tones repeated over and over. The clicker man that hovered continued his vigil as though it was waiting for something it was sure was going to happen.

“It wants me out there,” said Alex. “Fine. That’s what this is about. And if I fall, well, there’s the tether in the airlock.”

Mary stared at Alex with wide sparkling eyes. “Go out there?”

“Wanna come?”

“Come with you outside?”

“Tell me you don’t want to meet them. Tell me I don’t.” At the airlock, he faced Johnny and froze, as though waiting for Johnny to say his line.

Johnny dipped his head out of his hood and raised an eyebrow. “We have a deck – those inflated skirts. There’s even a railing. There’s tethers in the air lock. We know what can happen.” He paused a moment and took a deep breath. “We did expect to be going out, you know,” he added.

Johnny’s eyes went to Mary and he continued, this time addressing her. “I can’t believe it hasn’t happened by now, to tell you the truth. I would think you two would
have
to touch this place ... to be out in it, with those creatures.”

“What’s the relative pressure?” asked Alex. “Outside. What’s the temps?”

Johnny ducked back under his chair’s shiny black hood. A moment later his muffled voice told them that the air pressure was high, but still only a few tenths of a point over Earth at sea level. “The temperature is about 32 cels. No breezes. No oxygen.”

Alex opened a cabinet and pulled out a metallic space suit with his name on it. The thing was similar to the one worn by Sciarra, equipped with a miniature gas cracker capable of extracting life-sustaining gasses from otherwise poisonous atmospheres.

Alex wasted no time climbing into the suit. As he struggled into it he looked at Mary, but said nothing.

Mary got up and joined him near the airlock.

“Why not?” she said. “Something to tell the grandkids?”

“Exactly,” said Alex, smiling.

4
The computer was holding
Diver
in place as the Professor told Alex and Mary he was reading their suits’ transmissions, loud and clear. There was nothing left but to open the ship’s outer airlock door and step outside.

This time Alex and Mary were well tethered to the interior of the airlock and they stood to either side of the door as it opened.

There was only a mild hiss as the door swung out and slid to one side.

Alex peered around the wall and swung his body into the open hatch. His silhouette obscured the view outside for Mary, directly behind Alex with her hand gripping straps on the back of his suit.

“First a left foot, Mary, and then a right. On three!,” he said to her via their suit’s radios.

“Okay, on three,” she replied. Mary could hear Alex in her mind and Alex knew it. Their radio chatter was for Johnny and Tony’s benefit.

“It’s brighter outside than I expected.
Diver
’s glass darkens things a lot,” shouted Alex.

“Don’t shout, Alex.” said Johnny. “I ... we can hear you fine.”

Alex watched his feet as he stepped out of the ship onto the soft deck of the warmed helium filled bladders that surrounded the ship. He looked up and saw the balloon package. It relieved him to see them solidly deployed, but the view beyond them made him catch his breath. A wall of clicker men surrounded them, about a hundred meters away, like a black velvet tent. The black arms of some of the clicker men were entwined while others flapped their wings, perhaps holding the group in position. Alex had the impression of an audience as he pondered the white stalk-like bodies looking at him from all sides.

“Dingers,” said Alex. “We’re damn sure surrounded. Maybe we should circle the wagons.”

“How does the deck feel?” asked Johnny over the radio. “Do you have the canister for samples?”

“I’m carrying it over my shoulder,” said Mary. “But I’m not seeing any debris out here.”

“She’s not kidding. We’re clean as a clinic out here,” said Alex.

Alex switched on his suit’s external microphones. He could hear the flapping of the clicker men’s arms coming from all around.

Holding each other’s tethers, he and Mary stood side-by-side and turned to face the front.

The light came from that direction, from inside the great glowing sphere that loomed behind the clicker men and framed them like a halo.

The white clicker man’s arms picked up the light as they waved about, holding the creature in position. As soon as Alex looked at it, the clicker man moved. It came toward them.

“God, Alex, it’s coming toward us,” said Mary.

“We can always hop inside if he decides to get fresh with you,” said Alex, squeezing her hand.

The circle of black clicker men began to chatter like birds. Then they were quiet again.

Alex and Mary looked at each other. “They heard us,” said Mary. “They answered.”

There was another wave of chattering, and then silence.

Alex looked around. “And what did they say?”

Another wave of chatter.

“No clue,” said Mary.

After the last, brief, tittering echo from the clicker men, Alex and Mary fell silent. Inside
Diver
, Johnny was about to use the radio to speak to them, but when Alex and Mary fell silent he decided to do the same. When Tony broke radio silence, Johnny turned away from the monitor that showed Mary and Alex standing on the deck and said: “Let’s let Alex handle this one, Tony. Hold off on the chatter.”

To Johnny’s embarrassment, his statement brought an echo of clicker men chatter. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “My radio must be on. Sorry Alex.”

But the radio wasn’t broadcasting. Alex and Mary never heard the Professor. But they heard the collective murmur of the clicker men.

“That was no echo,” he said.

Then the echo came again.

Johnny pushed the broadcast button. “I said something off the air and they echoed anyway, Alex. They heard me say something to Tony.”

“Anything important?”

“I was telling Tony to stay off the radio,” said Johnny.

There was another echo and Alex fell silent again. The great white clicker man with the yellow head had moved to within a few meters of Alex and Mary. This close to it, Alex could see it subtly vibrating. Ripples played over its smooth translucent skin.

As they faced the clicker man, Alex saw that the creature could easily reach out and touch them. “One hand gripping my shoulder strap, Mary, my love,” he whispered. “The other on the tether, okay?” Mary looked at Alex and nodded.

Slowly the white one spread its arms until most of its blanket-like petals radiated outward in a circle from its body, its wing tips curved forward toward Mary and Alex. Alex immediately recognized the configuration as a parabolic shape, like a dish antenna.

It was examining them closely and Alex knew it.

As soon as Mary read this in Alex’s mind she took a step sideways, away from Alex, and then raised her arms. She looked like a ballerina in helmet and coveralls, poised, about to begin her dance. She bowed graciously.

“I hope you will forgive our intrusion into your land, Your Majesty,” she said.

The clicker man chorus echoed reliably.

Mary stood up straight and continued her speech. “We bring you greetings from Earth, and we are sorry we damaged your reef here and there.”

Alex said nothing. He simply watched the clicker man with great interest.

The clicker man changed position slightly and moved its wing tips. But nothing more. Its skin still rippled strangely.

Alex thought about adding something to Mary’s message, but he felt the need to remain silent. He couldn’t resist the flood of memories filling his mind: his father; a snake he’d kept as a pet; stealing the ship from Ra Patera base; making love with Mary; the playing otters at the Mary compound. EarthCorp. Memories of events that had brought him to this point.

Suddenly he was surrounded by darkness. Then he saw Earth as it appeared from deep in space. It flashed into his mind for a just a moment, then it was gone. It was a picture of the planet and its moon; two lonely, yet lovely worlds sitting in a sea of blackness. He saw Earth’s cities; its forests and oceans; plumes of industrial smoke streaked the blue skies. He saw the sunken coastal cities.

He was in space with Mary. They were embracing. Blackness surrounded them as they pressed together. Alex looked for stars but couldn’t find any.

“Where are we?” said Mary.

Alex couldn’t see her, nor any part of himself for that matter.

“Alex, Mary? Can’t see you.” The voice of Johnny called to them on the radio. Alex tried to move but had only moderate success. And he had difficulty lifting his arms from around Mary’s shoulders. There was something else; a tingling; a pulse of electricity, like a mind shock, going through his body. It made his mind go blank every time it hit him.

“We’re being electrocuted,” said Mary. Her voice sounded far away but she was still in his arms. There was something strange about her voice. It sounded hollow.

“We’re on
Diver
’s deck,” said Alex. “I can feel ...”

Alex heard clicker men echoing his phrases with waves of chatter. The echo was very close and it came from all around.

There was a sudden movement and the light returned to Alex’s eyes. He and Mary were indeed on
Diver
’s deck, side by side on their hands and knees. Alex looked up, confused. The light was getting brighter around them. Alex realized that as the clicker men were leaving, so were their shadows.

He and Mary helped each other to their feet. The white clicker man had rejoined its brothers in the great glowing sphere.

“Johnny,” said Alex. “What did you see? What exactly happened?”

“Blackout. Electronic, I think.” came the reply. “We’ll have to play it back. What did ... Hey, where’s the white one?”

Alex looked around and shook his head. He and Mary were still on
Diver
’s deck, both of them gripping the rope railing that ran along the perimeter of the inflated decking.

He scanned the spheres that filled the cavern and noticed, not far away, a pink sphere made of the material Tony had said might be so important. It glimmered in the warm yellow light; wet, shiny. He looked back toward the cabin. “I think I can get you a sample while I’m out here,” he said.

“How so?” asked Johnny over the intercom.

“I can chip off some of that pinkish sphere over there.” Alex pointed to it. “If I can just get the ship over there.”

“You’re the pilot,” said Johnny. “How do you ...?

“I can use the computer,” said Alex.

Alex immediately began an organized command to the computer. He told it, in effect, to bring the ship near the sphere. The hardest part was to get the computer to recognize the object they were targeting. But Johnny helped by programming the computer from inside his bubble. Once located, the computer moved the ship smoothly to the sphere.

“Hold position,” ordered Alex. He and Mary had moved along the deck to the tip of the ship, directly in front of the cabin windows. Johnny got an excellent view as Alex opened a thick flap on his suit and produced a micro cutter and a chisel. The tools unfolded easily in Alex’s gloved hand.

In front of him was a bubble of glassy material the size of a house. This close to it he noticed that the material contained a pale network of veins, resembling bone structure.

Carefully Alex raised a gloved hand and touched the sphere. It was hard and yet there seemed to be some give to it, like a heavy mat or web. Alex could tell that he could punch his fist right through the thing but he hesitated.

Mary reached out and touched it too. She pushed at it gently, feeling its weight. The whole structure moved visibly.

“Jeeps,” she said. “I’m Supergirl.”

Alex never totally ignored the din of the white clicker men,. but all that came from the great central sphere was a golden light. He could see the clicker men clinging to the star shaped center of the place. If there was a place to get samples it was certainly there, but as he reconsidered the act and realized how selfish and intrusive was the thought, he shrugged it off and turned his attention back on the sphere before him.

He tapped at it gently with his silver chisel and, to his shock, a piece exploded off and landed on the yellow rubber deck. Mary carefully picked it up. It was powdery and dry, almost fluffy, and she had trouble keeping it in one piece as she placed it in the samples canister she’d been carrying. She managed it quickly and then stood up and screwed on the lid. “I’ve never felt anything so light, before. It’s lighter than feathers.”