Jupiter's Reef (45 page)

Alex smiled at Mary, then at the dash.

“I see that the engines are smooth and hot,” he said. “Power cells still at 90%. All but two are optimum.” Alex looked at another monitor. “The balloon package: no further damage and we are beginning our departure from the reef.”

“This completes our first and only log entry,” said Tony, squinting at the Professor. But Johnny never looked out of his bubble.

Alex didn’t care if Johnny was being cynical. He smiled at Mary and pushed the drive stick forward.

Part 12

1
Although Alex had gotten his way, he knew that they were by no means on their way home. He had doubled their speed and asked Johnny for an accurate fix on their position so that they were sure to be heading toward the outer rim of the Great Red Spot where updraft channels were more plentiful. Moving at 100 kilometers per hour, the ship was cutting a swath through the now visible layer of floating biota. The radar imagery showed the trail of diaphanous debris behind the ship. Down this deep nothing moved as quickly as
Diver
. so none of the creatures in its path were able to avoid being hit.

Johnny complained about the destruction they were causing and adjusted the radar to scan the path ahead more carefully. He resisted telling Alex to slow the ship, but demanded that Alex steer around any swarms of creatures they encountered.

Alex was more than happy to comply. Since their arrival the damage they’d done to the reef had concerned him. Still, there was little he could do now to change that. The swarms of biota were huge and avoiding them was nearly impossible, and Alex found that the radar was little help in displaying the pockets of biota soon enough for him to be able to steer around them. Avoiding any of it was a real test of his skills and he soon became frustrated.

Mary tried to use her keen vision to help Alex spot any animals that lay in their path, but even with her help it was nearly impossible. The creatures were just too hard to see.

“Dingers,” shouted Alex as they smashed through a huge tubular beast that was crossing their path. They could hear its torn body move along the hull. It sounded like windblown sand.

Alex put the ship into a dive to get below the layer of biota.

“You’re diving, Alex,” said Tony. “We can’t get too much deeper, you know. The hull might not take the pressure.”

“I know,” protested Alex. “I just want to get under this layer so we won’t kill any more creatures.”

“Commendable, Alex,” said the Professor. “But we’re well over a hundred kilometers beneath the clouds. Tony’s right. We don’t know how much pressure the ship can take. Don’t forget it was designed to contain pressure not keep it out.”

Alex bit his lip and nodded. But they were still hitting things. While he couldn’t see them actually hit
Diver
’s window he could see their traces on the radar, so he continued the dive.

At first there was no evidence that the cloud of biota was thinning out but after they’d reduced their altitude by five kilometers they finally entered a zone that seemed free of life. Alex accelerated the ship. “We need to cover territory and we can’t do it at the speed we were going,” said Alex. “I hope we don’t run into any pockets of life.”

They rode in silence for over an hour and only covered a few hundred kilometers. Alex did some calculating and then sat back in his seat and let out a sigh. “This isn’t going to work,” he said. “It’s going to take us another week at this speed to get anywhere.”

“I’ve been watching the radar, Alex,” said the Professor. “Even if there was a channel above us, I doubt if we’d see it. We’re too far from the bottom of the reef and I can’t tell the reef from that layer of biota we were traveling through.”

“Sheesh,” said Alex. “So what do we do?”

“We could try and punch through,” said Tony. “Rev up the null gee, gun the motors, and cut a hole through the reef.”

“I thought we decided that wouldn’t work,” said Mary.

“If we get stuck we’ve had it,” said Alex.

Johnny left his seat and went to the food panel. “Anyone for coffee?” he asked cordially.

“Yeah,” said Alex. “I’ll take a cuppa’ joe.” Alex watched Johnny walk to the rear of the cabin expecting a response to Mary’s question. But the Professor remained silent.

“Computer,” said Alex. “Hold course and speed.” Then he, too, got up and stretched his legs.

At the rear of the cabin, Mary’s kitten was acting playful, batting a used squeezer around the floor and stalking it like prey. Alex and Mary watched it with amusement, but Johnny never seemed to notice it. He was obviously lost in thought. Even when the kitten swatted the bottle and it flew across the cabin hitting Johnny’s foot, the Professor ignored it.

“I assume you’re pondering Tony’s suggestion?” asked Alex.

“Yes,” said Professor Baltadonis. Alex’s question snapped Johnny from his thoughts. He finally noticed the cat and smiled. It cowered next to its litter box, afraid to pursue the plastic bottle while it was next to Johnny’s foot. The Professor bent over and gave the bottle a push toward the kitten. The kitten responded with a savage lunge that punctured the bottle. It made a wet squishing sound.

“Quite a savage little tyke you have there, Mary,” said Johnny with a wink. He made a whistling sound and held out his hand to the kitten. But Babies got all bristly and ran behind the box.

For a long pleasant moment everyone, including Tony, watched the kitten and laughed. But their enjoyment didn’t last.

“COLLISION ALERT!” said the artificial voice of the computer.

“Dingers,” said Alex as he rushed to his seat. “What next?”

2
“I see them,” said Johnny. “There’s a whole herd.”

Alex squinted at the holographic traces on the radar image. “They remind me of something, but ...”

“Of course they do,” said Mary happily. “Those are my air whales.”

Alex slowed the ship. He didn’t dare go deeper. Nor did he want to climb back into the thick layer of biota.

“COLLISION ALERT,” repeated the computer in its dry emotionless voice.

“Your air whales?” said Johnny. “Did I miss something?

“On our maiden trip,” explained Alex, still squinting at the holographic traces. “When we were under the reef and Mary was piloting the ship. She ran into a lot of them.”

As they neared the herd the radar traces improved considerably. Alex could see the outlines of the creatures. Johnny commented that their flat segmented bodies reminded him of fluke worms.

The herd consisted of a dozen or more creatures, each perhaps ten meters long and half as wide. Their bodies undulated in a rolling motion as they flew in a tight group.

Alex gripped the stick hard as he brought
Diver
into their midst. “Beep, beep,” he said. “Come on guys, let us through.”

The air whales nearest them came into the illumination of the floodlights.

“Wow,” said Mary. “These are bigger than the ones I saw last time and there are more of them.”

“That must be why the computer saw them as a threat,” said Alex. He steered the ship carefully, avoiding the whales, one by one, as
Diver
passed through the herd.

“I’m seeing a more detailed image than you,” said Johnny. “Your beasties seem to have a skeleton of some kind, Mary. And from the traces I’m getting I’d say they have a silica frame.”

“Meaning they’re denser than the creatures we were smashing on our windshield?” said Alex.

“Only their skeletons,” said Johnny. “The rest of them is lighter than the surrounding air. I’m guessing they contain a lot of hydrogen.”

“They don’t look like whales to me,” said Tony. “Liver flukes is more like it.”

Mary made a face.

“I’ll stick to the whale analogy,” she said. “Besides, I saw them first and I named them.” She got up and went to the window to watch them. “I think they’re beautiful.”

As
Diver
’s lights illuminated more of the herd their color became more prominent. Their translucent segmented bodies were shades of blue violet edged with deep magenta. Each one looked like a flattened cornucopia with a large gaping mouth in front. Their body segments got smaller as they got farther from the mouth, tapering to a point that sported two fins. The lead segment had what appeared to be two short sprouts, one on each side, that may have been eyes or antenna of some kind.

The ship moved close to a particularly large one, prompting Johnny to ask Alex to hold their position so he could examine it more closely. “Look at the mouth of this one,” he said excitedly. “It’s eating the floating biota, the stuff you can only see on doppler radar.”

Indeed, as Alex watched the creature, its mouth opened and shut as though it was eating. But in
Diver
’s lights there seemed to be nothing there except an occasional hard-to-see bubble.

They accompanied the air whale herd for some time while Johnny busied himself taking measurements and recording the details of the creatures using
Diver
’s cameras and high definition radar. It was a while before Alex noticed that the herd was climbing toward the reef. As soon as he did he reported it to Johnny.

“Interesting,” said the Professor. “That’s where the food is. I wonder why they were down so deep?”

“Maybe deep dives are beneficial to them,” said Tony. “We know that Earth’s whales dive deep to rid themselves of some pesky parasites. Maybe these puppies do the same.”

“That’s as good a reason as any I can come up with,” said Johnny.

Tony and the Professor speculated about the air whales for a while. Finally Alex let out a sigh. “We’re getting nowhere poking along with these animals,” he said. “I thought we were trying to leave this place.”

“We’re on route,” said Johnny. “Why not sight-see while were doing it?”

“Because it’s slowing us down!” shouted Alex. “Aren’t you smart enough to figure that out?”

“Yo, Alex,” said Tony. “What’s the problem?”

“I’ll tell you what the problem is,” said Alex through clenched teeth. “Your mission is done. This ship is now, according to our agreement, mine!”

“It’s yours when I get off it,” said Johnny, “with my data, of course.”

Alex stared out at the herd. His mind raged with anger and boredom.

“Dingers,” he said. “I wish I’d never come here in the first place.”

Mary looked at him and smiled. “No you don’t,” she said.

Alex looked at her darkly but didn’t reply. He knew she was right. But he knew also that it was more than boredom that was urging him to leave the reef. They had been lucky so far. The ship had performed well beyond specifications and they still had power to spare. But all that could change and, as far as he knew, they were still weeks from getting out of the reef.

Alex took a deep breath to calm down, then explained his viewpoint. Everyone aboard listened without interrupting. When he was done there was a moment of silence, then Professor Baltadonis answered.

“Maybe you’re right, Alex,” he said. “I confess that I don’t really want to leave. I’ve been cooped up with the terraformers on Mars most of my life. This is the greatest fun I’ve ever had, and I hope it never ends.”

Johnny stepped out of his chair and went to the window where Mary stood watching the herd.

“This is probably the most important mission of my life,” continued Johnny. “It’s an opportunity that will never come again. I feel sure of that.”

“You’re now the only scientific expert on the reef,” said Tony. “You’ll be back on the next trip.”

“Life doesn’t work that way,” said Johnny. “I have to return to Mars. It was only a stroke of luck that brought me here.”

“Anyone can grow the plants they need for Mars,” said Tony. “The way I see it, you’ve lucked out big but your life has changed. Now there’s a new chapter and you’re the one they’re going to ask to evaluate future data on the reef.”

“But I doubt if I’ll be back. I didn’t tell you this ... but I had to fight with Stubbs to get on this mission. It was pure politics. He thought I was much too old for it. I got him to agree to it before we even left Mars. I threatened to stop Alex from giving the data to him.”

Alex looked at Johnny and smiled. “That’d be the day,” he said.

“Stubbs didn’t know that,” said Johnny quietly.

While they talked the ship rose steadily with the herd toward the reef. Now they were only a few kilometers from it and the great stalactites of hanging reef material showed clearly on the radar. Again, they were plowing through the layer of biota that rained down from above.

Johnny went back to his seat.

“I think you’re right, Alex,” he said as he climbed back under his bubble. “You’re being sensible and I’m not. There’s no use pressing our luck further. We’re outa here.”

Alex thought of detaching the balloon package and shotgunning the ship up into the reef, but he knew that might be suicide. Instead he put the ship into a dive.

“We’re not outa here yet, Johnny,” he said.

A while later as they cruised below the layer of biota at 150km per hour, the radar showed a huge hole in the reef, but Johnny’s instruments showed that it was another downdraft channel.

“That’s probably where the herd was going,” said Mary.

Alex ignored her comment and took a deep breath.

“We’re getting nowhere!” he said. “At this rate we’ll never find a way out. We’ve got to speed up.”

As long as engines have existed there has been a trade off between volatility of fuel and the mass of the engine. The 198 of the original 200 microfusion power cells that lined
Diver
’s lower hull were no exception.

Humanity’s mastery of cold fusion techniques had led to their development and they became the key to the stars, powering everything from the Mars Terraformation to the capitalization of the solar system’s vast material resources. Ultimately the tiny microfusion power cells, or MPCs, helped solve the Earth’s staggering human population problems, allowing colonization of moons and orbiting space stations like L-3 colony where
Diver
was manufactured and commissioned as Dover.

Alex knew the MPCs were reputed to be as stable a system as could be made but he also knew their potential. Each one produced the energy of a tiny microscopic sun and any one of them could go nova. Like any other machine, they could break down if pushed too far.