Authors: Karl Kofoed
Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #Science Fiction, #space
Farthest Reef (10 page)
Everyone jumped and looked at the Professor’s virtual bubble, but all that followed was mumbling. Finally Tsu spoke for them all. “Any problem, Professor?”
“
Goddard’s
reporting a solar storm,” said Johnny. “And Earthcorp is putting pressure on Stubbs to postpone the mission.”
“Business as usual.” Alex rolled his eyes. “Are we proceeding?”
“Of course,” replied Johnny.
3
For all the barking
Goddard
command had done to hasten the mission, Professor Baltadonis seemed unflapped. Alex figured it was because their mission was, at least for the moment, on schedule. They had only been above the reef for an hour and already they were zeroing in on a clicker man settlement. The radar tracings of a vast tunnel system began to clarify as
Diver
moved closer to the reef. It looked like a softly glowing orange spiderweb stretching out in all directions.
“Gettin’ close,” said Alex. “We should be seein’ clicks by now.”
“They don’t know we’re here yet,” Mary said offhandedly from the rear of the cabin. She was introducing the cat to his low-gee litter box. For Mary it was a simple matter of shutting him inside. A chemical stimulant and a suction system did the rest.
But for Inky the experience was not so easy. Hating any kind of confinement, the poor cat scratched at the lid and howled piteously.
“Jeeps! Stop howling and do your stuff, Inky,” pleaded Mary. “You’ve got to do this.”
Tsu faced the screen, biting her lip, as they all listened to the Inky’s wails. “How long is this gonna take?” she hissed.
Johnny spoke up. “I know the cat is important to you, Mary, but I was hoping you could fill us in on what you’re hearing out there.”
Mary sighed in frustration and went back to her station, leaving the cat to fend for himself in the strange contraption. “Sorry, everybody,” she said. “I know Inky’s a pain, but I just couldn’t leave him on Ganymede. He’ll settle down, I’m sure, once he gets used to …” Mary cut herself off, sensing that her apology wasn’t helping. “Actually, Professor, I do hear clicks. Most are inside the reef, though. There’s not much chatter from the immediate area, as far as I can tell. All of it sounds muffled.”
“Okay,” said Johnny. “I’ve tuned to the clicks’ frequency …” They could hear Johnny fiddling with his console. “… and we’ll listen to it …” There was more fiddling, followed by grunts. “… on the cabin speakers.”
Even the cat fell silent when the new sound filled
Diver’s
cabin, a soft chattering that seemed, at first, no more than static. But after listening in silence for a minute Alex had no doubt. He could easily make out the incessant clicking sound that had tortured Mary’s senses on the first two missions. As he listened to the cacophony he wondered if it might be worse than ever for her. But a quick glance at her, to his surprise, revealed no sign of stress on her perfect features. “So far so good, I guess,” he thought to himself. “Except for the cat.” Mary caught his eye and smiled, giving him a thumbs up. She glanced back toward the cat box and shrugged.
Alex was about to comment when the Professor spoke: “If they’re not going to come out and greet us, we’ll need to enter the reef as planned.”
“I’m hearing a lot of them,” offered Mary, a finger beside her temple. “Some of the patterns seem similar to what’s on your tapes. At least, according to my internal logs. To be honest, I haven’t heard anything that’s made any sense. But I’ll tell you when I do.”
“Thanks,” said the Professor.
Mary looked around the cabin. “I have to attend to, um, Inky.” She shrugged, embarrassed. “I can’t leave him in there. Does anyone need anything while I’m up?”
“Make mine coffee,” said Alex. “By the way, are those clicks hammerin’ your head again, love? I mean, you’re more sensitive than before, right?” He knew he could easily have thought his words to Mary and she would have heard him. He spoke for the benefit of the others, and for the record. Since the entire mission was recorded for posterity, he resolved that if Mary’s forced implants were going to harm her, everyone would know about it.
Mary smiled. “The sonic limiters are working, Alex. It never gets too loud.”
Alex directed a private thought to Mary. “Good. I was really worried!”
She smiled sweetly. “I know you were, love,” she said aloud. “No need to worry.”
Tsu looked at Alex and Mary skeptically. “What is it between you two … some kind of code?”
“I’ll have a geebrew, Mary,” interrupted Tony, paying no attention to the conversation. “In fact, make it two. Give one to the cat.” He chuckled contentedly as he stared at his screen.
“Keep our heading the same, Alex,” Johnny said, sounding excited. “I’m seeing a hole. Our doppler radar’s showing one of those rivers of air, maybe two klicks ahead. At least five of the clicks’ tunnels lead right to it. Let’s just cruise at drift speed. No sense stirring up the reef.”
Alex nodded. “I’m on it, Professor.”
A small moan from the back of the cabin caught Mary’s attention. She left her seat and when she returned, Inky’s presence and her satisfied grin suggested that the cat had come to grips with its toilet training.
Half an hour later, after producing a satisfactory first meal using the food processor, they all felt refreshed. While eating his wedge of peppizza, Alex kept the ship moving steadily but slowly toward their destination, a dark area of the billowing reef some distance ahead.
“Time for a systems check, Alex,” said Johnny, “and a log entry, before we go in.”
Alex and Tsu reported no system problems. The Professor dutifully acknowledged them and stated, for the sake of the mission log, that they were preparing to enter the reef. Mary, following protocol, relayed the information to the
Goddard
. Seconds later she got a ‘roger’ from Commander Stubbs.
“That’s our confirmation, then,” said the Professor. “We’re proceeding on schedule.”
On the first two missions Mary had worn tabs, small disks that augmented her internal wiring that stuck to both temples by molecular adhesion and were easily popped off when not needed. She kept two sets, one augmenting radio signals and one that shut out the signals if they became unbearable. The latter, developed by Johnny to help make the second trip to the reef more tolerable for her, had proven to be a boon. She had loved the dampers and wore them whenever the clicker men were nearby. Now, with her new internal augmentation, she was free of any supplemental gear. Everything was controlled by will alone.
“Are we ready, Professor?” asked Alex.
Ahead of them was a dark yawning abyss – a cleft in the body of the reef. From it poured a massive rush of warm air laced with dust and debris, made visible by
Diver’s
sensitive imagers.
“Take her in,” said Johnny quietly, almost reverently.
Chapter 5
1
Even with their augmented vision they couldn’t detect the other side of the chasm they had entered. The engine pitch rose as they began to push against the warm wind that gushed up through the reef. Now, as on every other dive, Alex felt as if his ship were just a mote penetrating the microscopic scum on a giant primordial puddle.
At least this time they had the benefit of two missions worth of data and experience to guide them. They knew that the reef material was composed of black web-like material that analysis revealed to be long filaments of carbon molecules serving as anchors for more complex chains. The most widely accepted theory of the reef’s formation was that the material had collected over millions of years until it became a floating continent and a safe haven for any critter that could manage to survive.
The only clue to the reef’s existence was the fact that the overall structure of the Great Red Spot never changes. This fact had piqued Alex’s interest enough to finally deduce that the spot had greater mass than the surrounding atmosphere. Given the fact that whirlpools collect things, the idea that had obsessed him had been born. Now every schoolboy and girl knew how the reef worked. If any part of it got too heavy to be supported on the vast upwelling of warm air, it would simply collapse and fall away into Jupiter’s depths. The lighter stuff would stay afloat and ultimately recombine with the main body of the reef.
Johnny had once told Alex that he and the venerable Professor Stubbs had argued more than once about the evolution of the reef and agreed only that the debate would last for years. Stubbs thought it was ludicrous to ascribe intelligence to the clicker men, yet he was adamant that they had to have clicks aboard
Goddard
for the Lalande mission.
As they entered the yawning abyss cleaved by a river of air, Alex shook his head, still perplexed that Stubbs wanted to capture a click, especially when he was so desperate to begin the mission. And it was doubly perplexing that Stubbs was willing to risk his primary exploration vehicle,
Diver
, and its crew on such a frivolous venture.
Watching the reef edge move overhead like a mountainous black curtain, Alex recalled witnessing cave-ins several times during their previous visits. They had emerged unharmed, but he had learned to pay close attention to the material overhead. He had also learned that
Diver’s
anti-gravity field and the exhaust from her engines could also cause parts of the reef to collapse. With that in mind, he steered the ship well away from the walls.
The channel they had entered ran downward at a 15 degree angle and, like most of the great rivers of gas that divided and helped suspend the ragged pinwheel structure of the reef, this one was far wider than it was high. Tony reported that it was at least ten kilometers wide and perhaps 1000 meters tall at its mouth.
Every so often
Diver’s
cabin lights would illuminate small flecks of what looked like black down drifting by the windows. Seen from a distance, the walls seemed to be covered with seaweed, but when magnified by the ship’s cameras, what posed as leaves of giant kelp looked more like feathers. The illusion of the deep sea continued as they watched these living feathers sweep bits of biota from the warm wind like coral on an Earthly reef.
Alex kept the ship headed into the wind while everyone watched in fascination as the reef moved slowly by. Every creature they saw brought to mind an Earthly counterpart, but a closer inspection would reveal something far different from what they expected. Tony spotted glowing ‘spider crabs’ hiding in crevices among the feathery coral, emerging from their lairs only to grab something. Then they skittered through the leaves and disappeared.
“Like bugs,” argued Tsu.
“Spider crabs,” said Tony. “Bet they even taste good.”
Tsu pointed to movement barely visible in the ceiling that loomed overhead. “I see a snake!”
But when Johnny provided a closeup, Tsu’s ‘snake’ reached out with an oddly shaped appendage that exploded into a puff of yellow particles that dissipated in the warm current of air. As more of the critter emerged from hiding, Alex laughed. “It might be like a snake, but it’s made of spaghetti.”
“That’s no damned snake,” Connie gulped as the camera zoomed closer. “That’s obscene.”
“Time to move on, Johnny,” said Alex, trying not to look too closely at the writhing skin of the thing.
“Yes,” agreed Mary. “Something … prettier.”
Alex wasn’t interested in the flora and fauna at the moment. The strange pulsating static and the distant sounds of clicker men was a steady reminder of their goal. Again, Mary read his thoughts and spoke up. “I think we’re on the right trail, Professor,” she said. “The clicker men are nearer.”
“Can’t we speed it up?” inquired Tony. “I thought we were in a hurry.”
“You know the plan,” said the Professor. “We’re exactly on schedule.”
“How deep are we be going?” asked Tsu. She had gotten up to stretch her legs, but the motion of the ship made her keep a hand on the back of her seat.
The Professor’s bubble lifted to the ceiling. “Perhaps only a few more kilometers,” he said, squinting as he surveyed the cabin. “But that’s only if we go to them,” he continued. “I’m wondering if we can draw them closer to us.” He stood up and walked carefully to the head. As he passed the cat box he paused and examined it dubiously, then entered the toilet and slid the door shut behind him.
“Does that mean we should speed up?” Tsu asked Alex.
“I’m not sure what it means.”
“He wants me to call to the clicker men,” said Mary. “It was the plan all along.”
“Can you do that?” asked Sciarra, looking surprised. “I thought you were just the … interpreter. You know. The language tapes.”
Mary nodded. “Why, Tony,” she said, laughing. “Don’t you know we Sensors can do anything?”
Tony smiled and shrugged. “Guess I forgot.”
When the Professor returned to his chair, everyone was looking at him expectantly. “What?” he asked.
“Orders,” said Alex. “Did you want us to speed up? Or do you want Mary to call the clicker men?”
“Both, I suppose.”
Alex pushed the stick slightly forward and
Diver
responded with smooth acceleration. “If we’re haulin’, I think we can use some elbow room,” he quipped, steering the ship away from the reef wall. The ship slowed as they moved deeper into the current. Alex responded with a nudge to the stick and
Diver
swayed slightly as it bucked forward. “Running lights, Professor?” he asked.
“Just headlights, I guess,” said Johnny. “Bright enough to see what’s just ahead. We don’t want to appear too foreboding. We’re still uncertain how bright lights affect the creatures here.”
“With so many of them producing it, it’s a safe bet they see us,” Alex said. “But what I’m wondering at the moment is If the clicks’ll remember us.”
“I’ve got a hunch they might,” offered Mary.
“And they won’t be expecting a trap, Professor,” Alex added, adjusting the fader on the forward lights. “They looked us over real good last time … and the time before that.”
“I had the feeling they were trying to figure out how we got inside.” Mary smiled as she remembered the incident.
“Or how they could get inside?” remarked Tony with a grimace.
“Maybe.” Mary shrugged her shoulders.
“But Alex is right,” said the Professor. “We never intentionally harmed them on previous missions. Even if they do remember us, they shouldn’t suspect why we’re here.”
“Of course, all this is assuming the clicker men have some way of communicating,” mumbled Connie.
“Of course they communicate,” said Mary. “What do you suppose we’re listening to? Why did our lingo people make that glossary for me?”
“Yes. Well … still, It might not be a language at all, as we understand it, Mary. It could be just echolocation or something we don’t …”
“Or maybe they just have gas,” laughed Sciarra.
The Professor shook his head. “My point is that we just don’t have these answers. It’s not good science to go exploring with a bias.”
Mary bit her lip and put on her headphones. “I’ll figure out what to transmit. The language tapes aren’t too helpful, so far. Your linguists seem to have identified only alarm calls. And the decrypters haven’t contributed much, either.” She sighed. “So far I haven’t a clue as to what our message should be. Any suggestions, Professor?”
“Something positive,” Johnny said dejectedly.
That seemed to end the impromptu conference. Johnny lowered his bubble and Alex’s attention returned to the foggy world ahead of them.
Johnny was right, of course, especially about not expecting anything. They were in an alien world unlike anything ever seen on Earth. Even though it looked as if an ocean of water surrounded them, Alex knew the analogy had to end. Such comparisons were fruitless and even dangerous.
Alex glanced at Mary. Inky was asleep in her lap. She looked at him and blew him a kiss, and her simple gesture made him feel at ease.
2
Johnny’s augmented view of the reef was a more comforting sight than the one through the windows. At the moment, with only a steamy greenish gloom to look at, Alex couldn’t imagine a more dismal world, but he knew that Jupiter’s reef was a continent full of wondrous vistas.
He remembered the clicker men’s nest, somewhere deep in the reef. It was like a palace, lit by strange golden light and occupied by white clicker men. How many kinds of clicks were there, he wondered. He’d seen black ones by the score but only a few of the whites. Was there a hierarchy in their society? And, if so, was it more like an insect colony, as Johnny had once suggested. Floating termites?
During an EVA, deep inside a nest of clicker men, one of the white ones had touched both himself and Mary. It had happened while they were on
Diver’s
inflatable deck, a bladder that inflated to form a flat topped ramp. Filled with heated helium, it even lightened the ship. They had been outside
Diver’s
cabin collecting samples when they were buzzed by a white clicker man. It happened in an instant, but Alex could still remember seeing its petal soft wings obliterate the scene for a moment. He was wearing an EV suit, of course, so he felt no more than a nudge. Johnny had viewed the incident as a foolish venture that proved their good luck. “I wouldn’t get too excited about being sniffed by a click,” he’d said. “Especially since they didn’t leave any residue on your suits. That might have made your risk worthwhile.”
But it was Johnny, after all, who had ordered the samples to be taken, and it was Johnny’s cavalier attitude about the reef that made Alex decide to destroy the samples. Alex said it was an accident and asserted that by sending them outside Johnny had put himself and Mary at risk.
That wasn’t the only bone of contention Alex had with the Professor. There was also the matter of the Professor’s failed attempt to take credit for having discovered the reef, something that Johnny later excused as professional zeal. He had given Johnny the benefit of the doubt, but only in return for ‘official’ help in establishing Alex’s legal ownership of
Diver
and letting Alex have the pilot position on the second mission, the first real exploration of the reef. Now, here he was again, not only in the reef for the third time, but also on the cusp of joining in the first exploration of another star system.
Lightning struck close to
Diver’s
location and the reef flickered in blood red light, but only for a moment. Alex looked at Tsu, then back at Johnny’s bubble, but as always his eyes came to rest on Mary Seventeen, his only true partner in crime. Whatever his sins, Mary’s eyes always forgave him. Only Mary understood how Jupiter had called him.
Alex sighed. “Anyone for music?” he asked. “Or is the clicker men’s chorus everyone’s cuppajoe?”
“Hawkwind,” said Tony.
“Blues Magoos,” requested Tsu. Everyone looked at her for a moment in silence. “Well, if you don’t have it, got any Kevorkian Twins … third album?”
“Beethoven,” suggested Mary. “
Ode to Joy
, perhaps. The reef played it to us. Why not play it to the reef while I decide what to say in click?”
“Brilliant,” roared the Professor. “We’ll lull ’em and land ’em.”
“Tell them they’ve won real estate in Florida,” Tony muttered with a grin. “Can you say ‘at no cost to you’ in clicker man lingo?”
“A trip to Disney Dino Island!” said Tsu. “And a night with Ciao deAtlantica.”
“Is the air mix going bad in here?” asked Johnny in mock disgust. “A little too much oxygen, perhaps?”
Alex raised his hand like a schoolboy. “Professor … I’ve decided that I should nab the click.”
“The click?” Johnny stuck his head out of his bubble. “That’s a lousy name for those things.”
Alex was stunned that no one reacted to his pronouncement. He was sure someone would ask him why he’d made the decision, but Johnny seemed suddenly stuck on their name, one Mary had coined because they made a clicking sound that could be heard only in the radio spectrum.
“What should they be called?” asked Johnny, looking around at the crew. “Should we get a consensus?”
“Clicks is good,” said Tony, shaking his head impatiently. “Go on, Alex, for godssake. Explain this sudden decision of yours.”
“Clicks it is, I suppose,” mused the Professor. “I always hated that name.” He finally looked at Alex. “Anyway, Alex, you said you want to entrap the click? I believe the plan calls for that to be handled from my bubble, but if you insist I can let you use it. May I ask why the decision?”
“I think it should be me, is all.” Alex had planned a statement about his betrayal of the reef, but he reconsidered, judging everyone’s mood to be numb to his soul searching. Who cared, other than Mary, what he thought of the mission?
The computer had found
Ode to Joy
in its library of recordings, and Alex noticed the selection title flickering on the dash monitor. “
Ode to Joy
, up and running,” he said, pushing a button. He flipped another switch and the sound was routed to transducer plates on the ship’s hull.