Jupiter's Reef (50 page)

Diver
seemed spurred on by the monstrous superbolt of electricity. It continued to accelerate, moving through the tunnel faster than three hundred kilometers per hour.

Alex trusted Mary’s agility, but he was happy nevertheless when she landed safely in her seat. Besides, he was eager to try to issue a command to the computer.

Alex explained he’d had a brainstorm and wanted to try something.

“Computer,” he said in a loud voice, “Estimate the time to ... um ... our departure from the reef ... uh ... I mean, the surrounding material.”

The computer wasn’t confused by Alex’s stammering. The answer came almost instantly. “FOUR MINUTES.”

Alex couldn’t believe it. Then he looked more closely at the hologram and noticed a wrinkle in the artificial fabric of the reef that surrounded the ship. Now that he knew it was there, he could see it more clearly as
Diver
got closer. A way out.

Part 14

1
Diver
exited a broad, wide labyrinthine tunnel, many kilometers wide, that was tucked under an arm of reef that hung out over them like a mountainous ledge. Alex saw on the radar that they were actually in a fissure that might have been an analog to Earth’s Grand Canyon. In this case, though, the top of the canyon loomed over them like a thunderhead.

Here the reef was glowing brightly. Above the ship, in what appeared to be a clear dark sky with a background of clouds, lightning struck the upper edge of the canyon overhang, while below, where
Diver
cruised at slower speeds, Alex sensed a bower, a garden, hidden in the reef. He closed his eyes and pulled back on the stick.

“What are you slowing the ship for?” asked Johnny.

“I don’t know,” said Alex.

“Turn on the radio,” said Mary. She had put her tabs on, preparing for transmission to the outside world.

The music was unmistakable. It was a classical refrain that Alex recognized but couldn’t name.

“What is that?” said Mary. “It’s from the reef.”

“Copeland?” asked Johnny. “Or ... is it Sibelius?”

Lightning hit the upper edges of the great ledge that loomed over them. Alex squinted out the window. “I think it’s them,” he said.

“Who?” asked Johnny.

Alex expected to see a host of white and black clicker men floating out there in the darkness, waving good bye to them. But he saw nothing.

“Who’s Copeland?” asked Alex.

Johnny listened to the strange musical sound on the cabin speakers.

“No,” he said, cocking an ear toward the cabin speakers. “That’s not Copeland.”

To Alex it sounded like an orchestra. Many tones were blending into a single refrain, but the closer he listened to the strange musical radio chatter, the more alien it sounded.

There was no meter to it, no sense of harmony. Alex thought it sounded like imitation music produced by someone who didn’t understand it. Tones grated against one another in out-of-tune discord. But the refrain was still recognizable.

Then, after only a few seconds, the sound changed to the usual radio chatter.

“It was Beethoven ... Ode to Joy,” said Johnny. “I swear that’s what it was.”

Alex looked at the panel in front of him.
Diver
had been riding the nines for a while, and now that they lacked the lift of the balloons, the ship had to work harder to stay aloft. Alex knew that he still had to consume a lot of energy leaving the planet. Even though the instruments said they had plenty of power, he didn’t want to take chances.

And no one, not even the curious Professor, protested when Alex took the stick in his hand and pushed it forward.

As the ship passed the upper tier of the reef and accelerated into the clouds Alex looked over at Mary.

“No one wanted to know where the music came from,” he said.

“We’ll never know,” said Mary. “I’m not sure anyone ever will.” She was smiling enigmatically, touching the com tab on the side of her head. “I’m hailing Ganymede.”

Alex wondered if Mary still heard the music as he had heard back in the reef.

As their eyes met, she nodded.

2
The solar storm had quieted when
Diver
re-entered space. There was no radio static except that which came from Jupiter.

Mary’s calls, augmented by the ship’s radio system, had been received loud and clear by the Gannys. Their answering transmission contained coordinates for a rendezvous with the
Cornwall
.

Lifting off Jupiter’s surface, the Great Red Spot was never really visible to them. It was veiled by white cloud as though Jupiter had shut its great eye. Alex recognized the massive feature in the clouds only because he knew the spot rotated between two atmospheric bands that belted the planet. He could see the bands, one white, the other pinkish in hue, but the spot itself was just a ghost of its former self.

“Look at the spot,” said Alex. “Can’t even see it. That’s why people thought that the Red Spot is changing constantly.” He turned his chair to share his thoughts with Johnny but the man’s face was hidden inside his technological bubble.

It felt good to be in control of the ship and out of Jupiter’s crushing gravity well. All through the voyage, Alex knew what the real gravity would be if the null-gee systems failed.

If men were going to return to the reef they would always have to contend with the gravity. But humans, traveling in metal ships, no matter how light they might build them, would always be hard bodied crushing invaders among the creatures of the reef.

During the trip Alex had tried to envision what mankind’s next step would be. The reef was something unprecedented, and Alex, as its discoverer, felt responsible for what happened to it. He had discovered an island; a lost continent, where no one dreamed life could exist. But now they had proof; two canisters of alien biota. Now the science would come marching in. Was he a Judas? Would he cause the reef to die?

Alex’s stomach heaved slightly as weightlessness overcame him, but the sickness soon passed. Mary had blacked out during take-off. The acceleration was beyond even a sensor’s abilities to resist. Fortunately the chair sensed her body relax and flattened relative to the force of gravity. As he watched, Mary opened her eyes and smiled at him.

“Music,” whispered Mary Seventeen. “The reef.” Her kitten floated free of Mary’s arms, headed for the ceiling.

“Hear it?” whispered Alex. “You do, don’t you?”

“You too?” said Mary. Her face said she thought Alex still heard the reef, but she knew he was just wondering.

“Actually, I hear a Ganny with a drunk on,” said Mary. “But I still ... it’s like I can ...”

The Professor and Tony were asleep as the ship rose into sunlight. The gee forces had knocked them out too. Now that everyone was floating free in natural weightlessness, their bodies cried out for sleep. Tony began to snore, and the Professor’s breathing boded to follow suit.

Suddenly
Diver
adjusted course and the sun hit Alex full in the face. It seemed unimaginably bright, but it was welcome to his senses. The same sun that had threatened them with lethal radiation now shone over the peach colored crescent of Jupiter and bathed Alex in a harsh but soothing light.

Sensing harmful radiation, the ship automatically adjusted the opacity of the windows to filter the harmful rays. A bright glow filled the cabin as Mary squinted at Alex.

“The
Cornwall
,” she said. “Captain Wysor for you.”

With the acquisition of a radio link,
Diver
and the Ganny ship made an electronic pact to dock. The procedure made the operation automatic and thus free of human error, but it also brought its share of ship-to-ship sexual innuendo.

“Ooooo baby, oh baby,” roared the Ganny Captain.

Alex laughed. “Now that we’re dating, Captain, when do we kiss?”

“Wenee see’ya big boy!” said Wysor.

A few moments later the computer that it had initiated a failsafe decontamination cycle and emptied the air in the airlock.

“Right on time. As expected,” announced Alex. “Spacing the airlock.”

“Ya?” replied Wysor. “Ya gotcherse’f som’that cargo ya’be lookin fer, did ja? Na bad!””

A few seconds later a red glow filled the small airlock window.

“Burn cycle,” said Alex. “Never saw the ship do it before.” He looked around to be sure Tony and the Professor were still asleep and then leaned over and said almost inaudibly to Mary. “Oooops. I think the canisters are open.” Alex used the sleeve of his coverall to erase his fingerprints from two red toggle switches.

“The sample canisters?” asked Mary, wide-eyed.

“Let me see.” Alex squinted at the monitors in front of him. “Yes,” he said straight-faced. “The sample containers have opened ... by now ... melted.” Then without further comment he pressed a button and spoke over the radio in a loud voice. “Captain Wysor, My airlock’s burnin’ for ya’.”

“Kiss, kiss,” said Wysor. “We’ do a nuzzle, then?”

Mary had her mouth covered with her hand, trying not to wake the sleepers nearby. She was staring wide-eyed at Alex.

“Airlock’s gotta cool,” said Alex. “Can’t dock for an hour.”

Alex looked back at Johnny, then over at Mary. “Guess he won’t take too well to the idea his cargo’s dumped, will he?”

Alex didn’t wait for a response from Mary. He raised his chin but not his voice as he spoke. “Tell me, Capt’n Wysor. What’s the solar status? The storm?”

“O’glory’s coolin’ a bit,” said the voice of the Ganny. “Radbelts ‘round old Joe’re hot tho’ mate ... no swimmin’ ‘n the nude, if’n y’ minds?”

Alex did something odd then. He asked the Captain for a private channel and then he put on a head set that was stowed beside his seat. Alex paused a moment adjusting his phone then looked up and said, “Are ya’ secure?”

“A little heart to’ wi’ a hero? A bash, mista’ Rose. If you wan’ we’off the rec’d.”

Static suddenly jammed Mary’s internal receptors, making it impossible for her to hear the conversation between the Ganny Captain and Alex. It surprised her and boded to hurt her feelings until she realized that other ears were the ones meant to be shut out, not her own. Besides, Alex had no secrets from her. At least, not at this range.

Alex was mumbling with his hand over his mouth. Through all this Mary’s disposition might have been described as composed disbelief. Foremost was the fact that their precious samples, gathered with sweat, tears and nearly their dearest blood, had been incinerated in 3000° heat, then flushed into space over Jupiter as a small cloud of dust.

Not only that, but Alex was shutting her out. After a moment’s mumbling she was about to object, when Alex took off the phones and continued speaking normally.

“Alex,” whispered Mary Seventeen. “What’s going on?”

“You know,” said Alex, smiling. He shrugged and raised his graying eyebrows. His eyes sparkled. “Are you angry?” he asked.

All she could do was shrug back at him. Mary had no personal stake in bringing samples of the reef to the hands of science. But what she thought was not at issue. Her thoughts immediately moved to the reactions of the Professor and Tony when they discovered that their precious loot had been vaporized. Mary shuddered and resolved ignorance of the entire incident. Her kitten, dancing gaily in zero-gee, distracted her. It was amusing itself in a three dimensional game of cat and mouse with a squeezer cap that was bouncing around the cabin.

3
Tony and the Professor slept on for almost two hours. In weightlessness it was the equivalent of a longer period of rest so when they both awoke they were very rested.

“We’re locked on the
Cornwall
,” said Alex, handing Johnny a coffee. “They launched soon after they picked up our hail. The sun’s quiet, thank god.”

“Alex talked to the Ganny Captain. Wysor,” added Mary, cheerfully. “They’re docking with us as soon as the airlock cools.”

“Cools?” asked Johnny, climbing out of his bubble.

Tony was rubbing a sore spot in his neck. He floated up from his seat, looking a bit green. Eschewed the squeezed of tea Mary offered him as he floated by her on the way to the head.

“Maybe later,” said Sciarra, swallowing hard.

Mary’s kitten sat on a small moulding that ringed Johnny’s bubble. It swiped at Tony as he moved past them. “Bad Babies!” Mary yelled. But the kitten ignored her.

Johnny winced at Mary’s shouting and rubbed his forehead. He paused to take a deep breath, then rose to his feet. He plucked the kitten from his bubble and offered it to Mary, “Too many sensitive switches in there, my friend,” he said, stroking its little head with a finger. “Go to mother and be good!”

“To Mars?” said Mary, looking at Johnny with a sparkling smile. “That’s where mother is,”

“He didn’t mean that,” said Alex, without taking his eyes off the dash. The seals around the airlock door turned blue, indicating they had cooled sufficiently to allow safe passage. Alex told Johnny their status as the Professor stretched sore muscles and grimaced. “You haven’t said when the Gannys will be here,” said Professor Baltadonis. His voice was distorted by grunts, coughs and even a rude moment of flatulence.

“We’ll have to decide who gets the samples. We can’t just open them in the mess hall.” He laughed.

“There’s time for everything,” said Alex. “Meanwhile, the people greeting us out there are calling us heroes. Maybe some of them are female.”

Johnny shot Alex a quizzical look, then he smiled. “Okay,” he said quietly.

When Tony returned from the head, his color had returned. He took the squeezer of tea from its holding tray near his seat and sipped it eagerly.

“My turn,” said the Professor as he moved to the bathroom.

Mary stroked her kitten and watched the Professor hop across the cabin.

Tony was looking the airlock over. Alex froze. “Hold it Tony,” he said. “I need to check the inner seals. I was just about to do it.”

“The seals ...” said Tony, bending over to examine the edges of the airlock door. He reached out to touch the metal.

“Back away, Tony. Let me.”

Mary’s secret sense told her that Alex had forgotten something. But she could think of nothing to draw Tony away from the door. He was like a bloodhound on a trail.