Jupiter's Reef (47 page)

“It used to be five or six, didn’t it,” asked Mary.

“Only a half hour ago,” said Johnny. “And the corridor is flattening out, becoming wider but height is reducing.”

As the ship moved forward the computer engaged the motors to stabilize the ship. And while the crew bickered over details of the tunnel the computer was already working on a decision about what lay ahead.

6
“The tunnel splits?” asked Tony. “Is that what you said?”

The Professor cleared his throat. “You should be able to see it on the cabin display. A half kilometer ahead; the radar is showing a division.”

Johnny looked over at Alex. “The computer is solving our dilemma for us. It seems to be choosing the left fork. Should we override it?”

Alex closed his eyes.

“You’re asking me?” he said. Then he looked around his chair mockingly. “I seem to have lost my street maps. All out of good advice, I guess. How about a scientific flip of the coin?”

Mary caught Alex’s eye with a knowing stare.

“What?” he asked.

“Turn on the radio,” said Mary. “You know the frequency.”

Alex knew Mary referred to the clicker men. It echoed in her voice.

He switched on the cabin speakers. The frequency was already set so the sound of many clicker men soon filled the cabin. There were lots of them and they sounded excited.

At the confluence of rivers,” said Tony. “I almost expected it.”

“What was that?” asked Alex.

“Civilizations crop up at the confluence of rivers. You lived in America, Alex, so you of all should know that. The native Americans camped there; the camps became cities.” Alex noticed that Tony grew more talkative and more agitated when the clicker men were around.

Soon the radar revealed that, as Tony had described, within the body of the reef that divided the tunnel was a large and complex structure of tubes full of the moving bodies of clicker men.

“If we flip a coin the cat will just get it,” said Alex. Then Alex’s expression changed as he got an idea. “Computer,” he said. “Can you compute optimum path to surface of reef?” Alex smiled, thinking he’d worded his question well.

“Define optimum path.” answered the computer without hesitation.

“Um, best possible path; easiest and safest path ...” Alex looked at Mary. She was staring at him without expression.

What?” asked Alex.

“You’re doing fine,” said Mary.

“NO PREFERENCES DETERMINABLE ...” said the computer. “RANDOM CHOICE ACCEPTABLE.”

“Dingers,” said Alex.

As
Diver
neared the division in the river of warm air the sheer size of the clicker men city was astonishing. Here, the reef was a network of tubes that looked like transparent living tissue with arteries and bones. The city spread out to encompass the entire visible reef.

“Looks like we found the big apple,” said Tony.

“Dingers,” said Alex. “We can’t just slip up to the surface and beat it, can we? Noooo, we have to tour a friggin’ city.”

Alex decided not to touch the controls and let the ship make the choice for them. As it turned out the ship was so perfectly centered in the tunnel that it was just random motion of the air that ultimately chose their path.

The computer adjusted the ship’s position so that it would stay centered in the tunnel while the crew of
Diver
tightened the straps on their seat belts.

“I hope they don’t flush us again,” said Johnny.

The ship floated silently into the center of the left channel as everyone remained in the prone position watching the city pass on the hologram over their heads.

“I’m sure they feel we’re watching them,” said Mary. “Our radar.”

“If so, they must see with it, too,” said the Professor. “But that also means that we’re communicating to them somehow.”

“And since we don’t know what we’re saying, that could also be a bad thing,” said Tony.

“What if we shut off the radar,” said Mary.

“Another bad thing. Our computer would be blind,” said Tony.

“What if we use acoustics?”

There was a moment’s silence, then Johnny answered the question. “That would work. I’m impressed, Mary.”

“Wait a minute,” said Alex. “There’s sound here, lots of it. Remember the hummer and its humming to excite animals that it feeds on?”

“You are full of surprises tonight,” said the Professor. “Go on.”

Alex took a deep breath. “Well, if we suddenly change modes, from radio waves to sound, what will they, the clickers, think? It’s like signaling to them isn’t it? Better just to float by and not change a thing about the way we act.” Alex looked at Mary for support but she was watching the reef.

“Radio or sound – either way we’re intruding,” said Mary.

“We have to use something,” said Tony. “This is ridiculous. Just cut the broadcast power of the radar.”

Johnny agreed with Tony, so Alex instructed the computer to reduce the scanning power of the radar by fifty percent.

The effect was immediate; a change in the sound of the clicker men. They sounded less agitated. But to Alex that only verified the fact that they were being scrutinized by the clicker men as they passed through. As he thought, stealthy or not,
Diver
stood out like a black eye.

“Rig for silent running,” said Mary, giving Alex a weak smile.

Tony laughed as Alex looked at her blankly.

“At the hotel on Earth ... while you guys were planning this ... I saw an old movie about submarines,” said Mary. “Underwater ships that sank boats. They said that, you know when the enemy was nearby. It meant ...”

“This is getting really old,” interrupted Alex. “I’m sick of sneakin’ around.”

“Easy, Alex, we’re still rising,” offered Johnny.

Alex nodded and took another deep breath.

As they talked, the crew of
Diver
didn’t notice the motion on the walls of the tunnel. It was far away and almost invisible to the weakened radar. In spite of that, Mary’s keen eye somehow saw the movement. She squinted into the darkness.

They lined the tunnel everywhere she looked.

7
When Mary reported it, Johnny immediately trained the ship’s telescopic eyes on the tunnel walls. Magnified and in the infrared, they stood out clearly against the tunnel walls. Looking similar to butterflies they had dark headless bodies with a tripod of legs that gripped the wall. Their large wings were oval shaped and made of translucent reddish material. They had only two wings and no other prominent features. The wings vibrated rapidly up and down; too fast for the eye to follow.

“There are thousands of them,” said Mary. “What are they doing?”

“Fanning the air, it seems,” said Johnny. “Maybe to speed us along. Cooling the hive.”

“You mean they’re helping?” asked Alex, moving his chair to the upright position.

Cued by Alex’s action, everyone righted their seats as well. Johnny hesitated as he looked at the instruments inside his bubble.

“Seems to be so,” he said. “I don’t know if what they’re doing has anything to do with us, but our speed is definitely increasing.”

Watching the strange butterflies, Alex was tempted to turn on the floodlights. He knew, however, that the walls of the tunnel were out of the range of
Diver
’s lights. And they were trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible. A sudden light show in a place where light is at a premium might easily be the wrong thing to do.

Alex sucked on the greebrew Johnny had handed him. It tasted flat but Alex knew that the minerals and drugs it added to his system did him a world of good. The chemistry countered the debilitating effects of weightlessness and nullified vertigo by controlling the sensitivity of the inner ear. But Alex thought it approximated beer and that was all that mattered.

Alex examined the transparent squeezer, noting the lack of carbonation. He swallowed the last of the liquid and made a face.

“Try not to drop the foamies next time, Johnny,” he said. “Without the suds, greebrew’s a real bust.”

Now Alex could see their movement in the hologram that filled the cabin. The dampened radar still revealed the structure of the reef around them so he could easily see the many clicker men sliding along miniature tubeways inside the reef. He wondered if they would be visible if they could see the reef.

The tunnel widened as the ship passed through the clicker men’s city. The river of warm air now slid along a large grooved ceiling.

Tony was first to notice their outlines on the radar image. “Look. Heat exchangers,” he said, pointing. “But, maybe they just channel the air,” he added. “Who knows?”

Alex studied the radar traces that Tony described. He had to admit that the huge grooved ceiling did have the look of a municipal project, like a dam or power station. But there were no obvious intakes or other hints of such technology. They were just simple grooved sections of the reef.

Alex could have argued Tony’s assessment, but Sciarra’s observations were as valid as anyone’s.

“I wonder if we’ll ever understand what we’re seeing,” said Johnny.

“My words, exactly,” said Alex, smiling.

“It’s fun to speculate,” said Mary Seventeen. “And why not? We’re the only experts on the reef. Right?”

Johnny laughed loudly. “Very good point, my dear.”

As the ship moved smoothly past the huge city of clicker men the radar revealed complex networks of tubeways filled with moving objects that Alex guessed were the bodies of clicker men. He could see other structures inside the reef as well; strangely shaped caves that were often connected like groups of buildings. Alex pointed them out to Johnny.

“I couldn’t see them for all the fluttering out there,” said Johnny.

“This
is
a city,” said Tony “The structure goes on and on.”

Everyone aboard was so entranced by the details revealed by the radar that they failed to notice the hole in the ceiling only a few hundred meters ahead. The ship was headed right for it with ever increasing speed.

The ship’s hull gave a groan as the wind picked up. Then Mary’s keen vision detected the hole. She pointed to it, saying: “Where’s that go?”

Amid the complex structure of the reef the hole was difficult to see.

“Where’s what go?” asked Alex.

“The hole. Don’t any of you see it?”

No one answered. It was still some distance away so only Mary could see its details, but, as they neared it the hole looked quite large. “It’s right above us. Straight ahead. I think the wind is taking us into it.”

“All I see is reef structure,” said Tony.

“Me too,” said Johnny. “Wait a minute ... yes .... my God, I see it ... it’s big.”

The ship continued to accelerate like a boat headed toward a waterfall. And as they did so they moved nearer the ceiling of the tunnel.

When Alex felt the acceleration he debated whether he should take over the controls or let the computer continue to fly the ship. He decided to do nothing for the moment.

“Alex,” said Mary. “Aren’t you going to take over?”

“What makes you think I’d do any better than the computer?” he asked.

Mary knew Alex was debating what to do. If Tony and the Professor weren’t there she might have questioned him further. His words surprised her because she knew he didn’t trust machines. Mary trusted the autopilot but she was more comfortable with Alex at the helm. Her eyes stayed on him as she tried to think of a way to express her confidence in him; one that wouldn’t embarrass or irritate him. Nothing came to mind and Alex’s eyes were focused on the hole that loomed above them. She decided anything she could say at that moment would be an unnecessary distraction.

Mary looked around for her kitten. It wasn’t hanging above them, nor was it at her feet. Finally she saw it in Tony’s lap. He was fiddling with his instruments with one hand and petting the kitten with the other.

“Speed’s picking up,” said Alex, looking wide-eyed at the hole that loomed before them. “Strap in, everybody! Dingers, where does that go?”

“Straight up,” said Johnny. “A couple of kilometers. The radar doesn’t penetrate farther than that. Not with all this structure around.”

It happened faster than they anticipated. A whirlwind grabbed
Diver
and spun it like a top. Mary’s kitten screamed as it flew from Tony’s lap.

“Lord God!” shouted Johnny. “Alex, can .... can you ...?”

“Computer, priority Alpha one, stabilize the ship!” said Alex. His hand was poised to grab the drive stick.

“AIRFLOW UNSTABLE,” said the flat voice of the computer. “CANNOT COMPLY.”

The ship bobbed and weaved as the balloons bashed the hull over their heads. And everyone held on to their seats. Mary’s kitten managed to withdraw to the safety of its Zero-gee box.

Despite the violence of their ride, the instruments showed they were moving quickly toward the top of the reef.

The tunnel was like a vertical pipe that cut straight through the reef. And once the ship moved along it for a while the turbulent air began to calm and the computer was able to stabilize the nauseating rocking of the ship.

In only a minute the ship had risen a kilometer.

“This is their doing,” shouted Alex. “Don’t you think?”

Nobody responded.

Alex took the stick in his hand and the ship relinquished control instantly. Alex moved the stick and the ship oriented itself so that it was facing straight up. Alex told the computer to put the null gee generators on maximum. Then he pushed the stick forward.

The tunnel was perhaps a hundred meters wide and was, like the rest of the reef, covered with a leafy layer that might have been grasslands. Here and there, hidden among the fronds, something would leap away at the ship’s approach. And occasionally they saw small clusters of red or blue or even green globules that looked like berries.

But the tunnel also cut cleanly through areas that bore the unmistakable stamp of the clicker men. Alex was reminded of farmlands, suburbs and cities. But none of those things really resembled what they passed through. He had put on the ship’s outside lights – all of them.

“No more fooling around, guys,” said Alex. His voice trembled slightly with suppressed emotion. “I’m taking us out of here.”